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The News That Matters about the Nuclear Industry Fukushima Chernobyl Mayak Three Mile Island Atomic Testing Radiation Isotope

The non-corporate nuclear news – week to 8 September

Some bits of good news – Solar is taking off across Africa in a big way. Green energy approvals smash records in the UK. Golden eagle chick ‘a symbol of hope’ in Scotland.

TOP STORIES. 

The World Has Failed to Stop Israel: Our Only Choices Now: Leave or Die. Is Israel quietly expanding its nuclear arsenal? Satellite images raise suspicion. 

The world moves on without Trump. 

Attacks on nuclear plants are being normalised – and the consequences could be disastrous. 

Why NuScale Power Stock Slid 31% Last Month. 

Nuclear power is failing, and AI can’t rescue it.

Climate. These countries are sinking into the sea: What happens when they disappear forever? World’s largest iceberg is finally about to disappear 40 years after breaking away from Antarctica.

AUSTRALIA. SSN AUKUS – Heading for a quagmire (Part II).

 Secret antisemitism research: Envoy Jillian Segal hides evidence? 

Nuclear likely to remain part of Coalition’s energy policy as Dan Tehan warns Australia risks being left ‘stranded’.

NUCLEAR ITEMS.

ECONOMICS.

EDUCATION. Extra funding revealed to fuel nuclear fusion energy training and research.
ENERGY. Nuclear outpaced fourteen to one by wind and solar in Europe. Japan shocks the world — Solar panels as strong as 20 nuclear reactors unveiled..
ENVIRONMENT. Why are saltmarshes such effective carbon sinks?
Widened recall of radioactively contaminate shrimp. 
Is fishmeal from Fukushima-affected fish the source of Indonesian shrimp’s radioactive contamination?
Jellyfish cause partial shutdown at French nuclear plant.
EVENTS, 26 September – Nuclear Abolition Day – International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons
HEALTH. Will Cancer Prove to be Another Weapon in Israel’s War in Gaza?Nuclear-armed states should come clean after 80 years of nuclear testing harm.
OPPOSITION to NUCLEAR . “We gave for France… now that’s enough”: La Hague residents reject Orano’s nuclear pools project. A Folly Too Far?
POLITICS.U.S. Government Is Taking Historic Steps To Restart Nuclear Plants. South Carolina’s dormant nuclear volcanoes. Trump supports nuclear power as it is ‘more American’ than wind, solar, US official says.Trump Is Renaming the Defense Department the Department of War. Nuclear roadblocks – ALSO AT https://nuclear-news.net/2025/09/07/2-b1-nuclear-roadblocks/ Donald Trump orders ‘take down’ of 44-year-old peace vigil opposite White House.UKRAINIAN NEOFASCISM – War Time Developments: Part 1 ‘Azov’ and Part 2 ‘Right Sector’.Fukushima and the Politics of Nuclear Disaster Recovery.
POLITICS INTERNATIONAL and DIPLOMACY.
One by one, leaders learn that grovelling to Trump leads to disaster: When will it dawn on Starmer?
China’s SCO Summit Highlights West’s Growing Ideological Isolation, + Zelensky’s Desperate Gambit. 
Coalition of the unwilling gets stuck in Groundhog Day. 
NATO. has outlived its purpose – Jeffrey Sachs.
 Russia is ready to discuss nuclear fuel at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia with US – RIA.

The NEW, new world order.
The U.S. visa cancellations for Palestinians marks another step towards West Bank annexation.
Nuclear crisis looms as Iran faces sanctions snapback, expert warns. Iran FM Araghchi warns Europe against ‘reckless’ approach to nuclear deal
PLUTONIUM. £154m plan hatched to move UK’s 140-tonne cache of powdered plutonium from nuclear reactor waste at Sellafield.
SAFETY. Incidents. Ukraine drones hit training centre at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Russian management says.
It’s past time to start protecting U.S. nuclear power reactors from drones.
EDF’s Heysham 1 and Hartlepool nuclear plants to operate for further 12 months. Jellyfish Force another French Nuclear Reactor to Shut Down.
SPACE. EXPLORATION, WEAPONS. A new arms race in space must be stopped in its tracks .Golden Dome is already a turning point for American space policy.
SPINBUSTER. Pentagon Document: U.S. Wants to “Suppress Dissenting Arguments” Using AI Propaganda.

WASTES. Government ‘replanning’ £53.3bn geological disposal facility project. Nuclear industry says waste site is key. Memorial unveiled at former RAF airbase threatened by nuke waste dump. The Nuclear Waste Problem Haunting UK Energy Expansion.

Decommissioning. Sizewell C | Public on the hook for decommissioning costs of up to £12bn. Sizewell C Funded Decommissioning Programme: Contingent Liability. Anglesey planners to consider relocation of Wylfa building,

Project 2025 agenda revives Nevada’s Yucca Mountain fears.

WAR and CONFLICT. Israel beginning mass mobilization to take Gaza City – Jerusalem Post.NFLAs join nuclear test appeal to French and Algerian Governments.
Renaming Defense Dept. War Dept. wrong but accurately describes deranged US perpetual war policy.
WEAPONS and WEAPONS SALES. European military-industrial output for Ukraine outpaces the US. War spending is ever greater.Satellite images show construction at site linked to Israel’s suspected nuclear weapons programme.
These fools plan to win a nuclear war: Flight tests begin on US Air Force’s new ‘doomsday plane’

September 9, 2025 Posted by | Weekly Newsletter | Leave a comment

One by one, leaders learn that grovelling to Trump leads to disaster. When will it dawn on Starmer?

Simon Tisdall 7 Sept 25, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/sep/07/donald-trump-keir-starmer-world-leaders-state-visit-uk

As the US president’s state visit looms, he’s leaving a trail of broken promises across the globe. Britain can’t afford to look like a lackey state.

Sucking up to Donald Trump never works for long. Narendra Modi is the latest world leader to learn this lesson the hard way. Wooing his “true friend” in the White House, India’s authoritarian prime minister thought he’d conquered Trump’s inconstant heart. The two men hit peak pals in 2019, holding hands at a “Howdy Modi” rally in Texas. But it’s all gone pear-shaped thanks to Trump’s tariffs and dalliance with Pakistan. Like a jilted lover on the rebound, Modi shamelessly threw himself at Vladimir Putin in China last week. Don and Narendra! It’s over! Although, to be honest, it always felt a little shallow.

Other suitors for Trump’s slippery hand have suffered similar heartbreak. France’s Emmanuel Macron turned on the charm, feting him at the grand reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral. But Trump cruelly dumped him after they argued over Gaza, calling him a publicity-seeker who “always gets it wrong”. The EU’s Ursula von der Leyen, desperate for a tete-a-tete, flew to Trump’s Scottish golf course to pay court. Result: perhaps the most humiliating, lopsided trade deal since imperial Britain’s 19th-century “unequal treaties” with Peking’s dragon throne.

The list of broken pledges and dashed hopes is lengthy. Relationships between states normally pivot on power, policy and strategic interests. But with faithless, fickle Trump, it’s always personal – and impermanent. Disconcertingly, he told Mexico’s impressive president, Claudia Sheinbaum, that he “likes her very much” – then threatened to invade her country, ostensibly in pursuit of drug cartels. Leaders from Canada, Germany, Japan, South Korea and South Africa have all attempted to ingratiate themselves, to varying degrees. They still haven’t fared well.

All this should set red lights flashing for Britain’s Keir Starmer ahead of Trump’s state visit in 10 days’ time. The prime minister’s unedifying Trump-whisperer act has produced little benefit to date, at high reputational cost. Starmer apparently believes his handling of the US relationship is a highlight of his first year in office. Yet Trump ignores his Gaza ceasefire pleas and opposes UK recognition of a Palestinian state. He hugely boosted Putin, Britain’s nemesis, with his half-baked Alaska summit. US security guarantees for postwar Ukraine are more mirage than reality. His steel tariffs and protectionist policies continue to hurt UK workers.

His second state visit is an appalling prospect. The honour is utterly undeserved. It’s obvious what Trump will gain: a royal endorsement, a chance to play at being King Donald, a privileged platform from which to deliver his corrosive, divisive populist-nationalist diatribes at a moment of considerable social fragility in the US and UK. Polls suggest many Britons strongly oppose the visit; and most don’t trust the US. So what Starmer thinks he will gain is a mystery. The fleeting goodwill of a would-be dictator who is dismantling US democracy and wrecking the global laws-based order championed by the UK is a poor return.

As he demands homage from abject subjects, this spectacle will confirm the UK in the eyes of the world as a lackey state, afraid to stand up for its values. Starmer’s government is now so morally confused that it refuses to acknowledge that Israel, fully backed by Trump, is committing genocide in Gaza, while at the same time making the wearing of a pro-Palestine T-shirt a terrorist act. The Trump travesty will be an embarrassment, signalling a further descent into colonial subservience. As next year’s 250th anniversary of US independence approaches, the chronically unhealthy “special relationship” has finally come full circle.

Not everyone is genuflecting to Trump – and evidence mounts that resistance, not grovelling, is by far the best way to handle this schoolyard bully. Modi’s geopolitical fling in China showed he’s learned that when dealing with Trump, firm resolve, supported by alternative options, is the better policy. Last week’s defiant speech by China’s leader, Xi Jinping, reflected a similar realisation. Both he and Putin have discovered that when they dig their heels in, whether the issue is Ukraine, trade or sanctions, Trump backs off. Xi has adopted an uncompromising stance from the start. Putin uses flattery, skilfully manipulating Trump’s frail ego. The result is the same. Like cowards the world over, Trump respects strength because he’s weak. So he caves.

The bigger the wolf, the more sheepishly Trump responds. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, like Putin, an indicted war criminal, has shown that by sticking to his guns (literally, in his case), he can face down Trump. More than that, Trump can be co-opted. After Netanyahu attacked Iran in June, against initial US advice, he induced the White House to join in – although, contemptibly, Trump only did so once he was certain who was winning. Then, typically, he claimed credit for a bogus world-changing victory. North Korea’s dictator, Kim Jong-un, similarly bamboozled Trump during his first term. Having learned nothing, and nursing his implausible Nobel peace prize ambitions, Trump is again raising the prospect of unconditional engagement with Kim.

Brazil’s president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has the right idea. The more Trump tries to bully him with 50% tariffs and a barrage of criticism, the more he resists. Trump is particularly exercised over the fate of Jair Bolsonaro, Lula’s hard-right predecessor, who, like Trump, mounted a failed electoral coup. But Lula is not having any of it. “If the United States doesn’t want to buy [from us], we will find new partners,” he said. “The world is big, and it’s eager to do business with Brazil.”

That’s the spirit! And guess what? Lula’s poll ratings are soaring. Wake up, Keir Starmer – and dump Trump.

September 9, 2025 Posted by | politics international | Leave a comment

Europe has discombobulated Trump’s Ukraine war peace plan.

they’re still floating Ukraine NATO membership, the promise of which triggered the February 2022 invasion.

Big problem. Russia is gobbling up more Ukrainian territory every day NATO keeps the war going.

Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL , 8 Sept 25.


President Trump’s pledge to end the war in one day has been extended now for 230 days. A big reason is America’s European NATO partners are determined to keep degrading their economies to further destroy Ukraine by keeping the war going in perpetuity.

They agree with Ukraine President Zelensky that Ukraine must never concede lost territory gone forever. Indeed, they’re still floating Ukraine NATO membership, the promise of which triggered the February 2022 invasion.

Alas, NATO is still ingesting stupid pills, declaring a ‘coalition of the willing’ at a meeting with Zelensky hosted by French President Macron. He announced 26 coalition members are willing to send troops to Ukraine as a “reassurance force” after a peace deal is reached to prevent any further Russian aggression.

Big problem. Russia is gobbling up more Ukrainian territory every day NATO keeps the war going. It says there will be no peace deal that does not include Russian input into security both for what remains of Ukraine, and Russia from renewed NATO encroachment. Such a coalition without Russian involvement is simply NATO membership for Ukraine by other means. It’s DOA.

Trump has 1,230 days left in his term. If he can’t turn Europe away from their crazed lust to win a lost war, it will still be raging when Trump packs up again for Mar a Lago in January 2029. He’s not dealing with a coalition of the willing. It’s a coalition of the delusional.

September 9, 2025 Posted by | EUROPE, politics international | Leave a comment

South Carolina’s dormant nuclear volcanoes

    by beyondnuclearinternational, https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2025/09/07/south-carolinas-dormant-nuclear-volcanos/

Resuming construction of the abandoned V.C. Summer reactors is rife with challenges, says a new report from Savannah River Site Watch

The proposal to restart the failed nuclear reactor construction project in South Carolina faces a host of unexamined challenges, according to a just-released report. The report, prepared by the nuclear policy expert who led the intervention against the project since its inception in 2008 through its collapse and termination in the face of ratepayer outrage 2017, outlines major stumbling blocks to the revival of the nation’s most shocking failure of a nuclear reactor construction project in the United States in the 21stcentury.

The V.C. Summer project involved the botched attempt by now-defunct South Carolina Electric & Gas (SCE&G) to construct two large Westinghouse AP1000 nuclear reactors 2 – units 2 & 3 – 25 miles north of Columbia, South Carolina. Over $10 billion was wasted on the construction of project. 

Its abrupt termination was one of the most impactful and costly nuclear construction-project collapses in U.S. history, which was the death knell for the so-called “nuclear renaissance” in the U.S. Customers were hit hard and are still left holding the bag with nothing in return for a reported $2 billion payment so far, for financing costs, an amount that grows daily. Though far-fetched, project restart is now being discussed.

The report – presenting 14 unanalyzed challenges to the restart idea and prepared by the Columbia-based public-interest, non-profit group Savannah River Site Watch – is titled Economic, Technical and Regulatory Challenges Confound Restart of the Terminated V.C. Summer Nuclear Reactor Construction Project in South Carolina.

The 24-page report was written by Tom Clements, director of SRS Watch, who led interventions before the PSC by the environmental group Friends of The Earth beginning in 2008 and running through the bankruptcy of SCE&G and its takeover by Dominion Energy South Carolina in January 2019.

“As the public was so abused during the V.C Summer construction project, they now deserve a voice in raising concerns about proposals concerning rebirth of the project in which they still have financial ownership and that’s for whom this report speaks” said Clements. “We reveal in the report that Dominion ratepayers are right now paying 5.22% of the bill for the terminated project and are paying, since 2019, an additional $2.8 billion over 20 years.  The restart effort could once again saddle customers with additional massive costs if VCSummer 2.0 proceeds.”

The 5.22% monthly rate hidden in the Dominion monthly bill was revealed in a Freedom of Information Act document provided by the S.C. Office of Regulatory Staff to SRS Watch on August 7, 2025. In January 2019, the S.C. Public Service Commission ordered Dominion customers to pay an additional $2.8 billion over the next 20 years for the cost of the bungled project. That monthly fee should be eliminated and consumer investment rebated, especially if restart is pursued, according to SRS Watch.

Themes covered in the “restart challenges” report include:


  • Nuclear Advisory Council restart report not a reliable guidepost;
  • Nuclear Regulatory Commission license terminated in 2019, hard to regain a new license;
  • Reestablishing NRC certification for equipment will be difficult;
  • Environmental permits must be secured anew or renewed;
  • Unclear how much equipment remains and if it’s to be resold for reuse or just scrap;
  • Dominion and Santee Cooper not interested in involvement in restart;
  • Westinghouse plans for new AP1000s unclear, rhetoric might not be accurate;
  • Cost and schedule of new Westinghouse AP1000s unclear; Last-of-a-Kind (LOAK) reactor?
  • Ratepayers in South Carolina could be put on the hook again;
  • S.C. Public Service Commission and Dominion ratepayers will be involved, can’t be sidelined;
  • Federal rhetoric supporting nuclear power won’t carry the day or overcome big obstacles;
  • Reactor restart fails to secure funds or protection from South Carolina legislature;
  • Highly radioactive spent fuel at new units a challenge;
  • When will the community near V.C. Summer be consulted?
Continue reading →

September 9, 2025 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

Project 2025 agenda revives Nevada’s Yucca Mountain fears

By Judy Treichel, Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025, https://lasvegassun.com/news/2025/aug/21/project-2025-agenda-revives-nevadas-yucca-mountain/ Judy Treichel is the executive director of the Nevada Nuclear Waste Task Force.

A meeting was held in Las Vegas last month, paid for by a Department of Energy grant and hosted by Mothers for Nuclear and Native Nuclear .

The host groups tried to put a friendlier slant on the DOE message, but it was clear that the government and commercial nuclear industry have never gotten out of the rut they have been in from the start: advertise the glory of nuclear power and never get very far into the problem of what to do with the waste.

The purpose of the invitation-only event was to “elicit public feedback on consent-based siting and management of spent nuclear fuel…”

But my takeaway was that they hoped to get the audience to love new nuclear power more than we hate its waste.

The presenters sang the praises of nuclear power and shared frustration with many audience members about how the public was frightened of or opposed to nuclear power after watching “The Simpsons” on TV! There was a brief mention of the disastrous events at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima, but the impression left was that those were now over and that current public fears arose from “The Simpsons”!


Thirty years ago, the DOE was a huge presence in Nevada, studying Yucca Mountain 80 miles northwest of downtown Las Vegas, as the site for underground disposal of the nation’s high-level nuclear waste. Public meetings at that time brought out many longtime residents who related stories about the damage older family members or friends had suffered from widespread exposure to radiation from nuclear weapons testing at the Nevada Test Site. They described how they had been lied to about safety and how there was a lack of accountability for human and property damage. They wanted no part of any future nuclear experiments, be it nuclear power plants or a disposal site for the nation’s high-level nuclear waste.

The Yucca Mountain nuclear waste disposal program was determined to be “unworkable” by the Energy secretary in 2010. It has remained unfunded by Congress since then, but it has not been terminated by law.

When the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 became public, my colleagues and I were dismayed when we saw the recommendation to resume licensing the “unworkable” Yucca Mountain project. It was as if a switch could be flipped and the site’s safety flaws and the long-enduring opposition of Nevadans could be ignored.

Independent scientists determined that Yucca Mountain could not isolate the dangerous radiation for the long time period necessary. Those findings are reflected in the more than 200 contentions filed by Nevada that would have to be adjudicated during any future licensing proceeding.

Project 2025 would give us two unwanted nuclear-related gifts: a nuclear waste repository and a restart to nuclear weapons testing, side by side! The assurances we heard from the DOE at those long-ago meetings were that it had learned lessons during weapons testing. The DOE claimed that safety comes first now. But I’m not so sure.

Were Project 2025’s nuclear goals to be realized, there would be an operating repository at Yucca Mountain. It would have above-ground facilities and a decadeslong national nuclear waste transportation campaign flowing into Nevada on a currently nonexistent 200-plus-milelong rail access corridor to the repository site. Next door would be ground-blasting nuclear weapons testing. and flying over both of those operations would be the training and testing of military planes and drones from Creech Air Force Base. This would surely be a dangerous and untenable combination.

Project 2025 was not friendly to Southern Nevada. In addition to its calls for increased use of nuclear power, it also calls for — and President Donald Trump has largely followed through on — removing federal government support and incentives for solar power. This is shortsighted, as rooftop solar shades the underlying buildings while generating power and drastically reduces the power bills of consumers. Perhaps most importantly, solar power generation does not leave a legacy of lethal waste.

The Department of Energy was right 16 years ago when it announced that a national high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain was unworkable. It still is. Convention attendees and visitors come to our great hotels and meeting venues. Nuclear waste shipments on the railroad tracks behind the hotels and through our downtown area may make some of that business choose other locations. If there was any sort of accident or incident on the tracks within Clark County, the national news services would blast out the images far and wide, and economic damage would occur whether there was radiation released or not.

Las Vegas has a fragile economy, and it is highly dependent on fun and enjoyment. We are becoming a major sports destination, continuing to be home to important conventions and putting on the best shows in the world. We must find ways to make our precious resources available for the worthwhile activities we have, with no backdrop of dreaded nuclear contamination and waste. We need to apply a compatibility test that honors our past and preserves our future.

September 9, 2025 Posted by | USA, wastes | Leave a comment

Iran FM Araghchi warns Europe against ‘reckless’ approach to nuclear deal

Abbas Araghchi says despite ‘snapback’ sanctions process, Iran is open to a ‘realistic and lasting bargain’.

By Al Jazeera Staff, 7 Sep 20257 Sep 2025

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has accused Britain, France and Germany of pursuing a “reckless” strategy on his country’s nuclear programme, warning that their alignment with Washington will only diminish Europe’s global standing.

Writing in The Guardian on Sunday, Araghchi said the decision by the so-called E3 to trigger a process that could reinstate United Nations sanctions “lacks any legal standing” and is bound to fail.

“The truth is that they are intently pursuing a reckless course of action … This is a grave miscalculation that is bound to backfire,” Araghchi wrote.

In August, Germany, France and the United Kingdom – Europe’s largest economies – triggered a 30-day process to activate “snapback” sanctions over what they called “significant” violations of a 2015 agreement to limit Iran’s nuclear programme.

The United States, which bombed three nuclear facilities in June as part of an Israeli assault on Iran, has welcomed the European countries’ move.

Araghchi accused the three powers of ignoring the fact that it was the US, not Iran, that withdrew from the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). While Tehran took what he described as “lawful remedial measures” under the accord, the E3 failed to uphold their own obligations.

Araghchi noted that European leaders once pledged to protect trade with Iran after US President Donald Trump reimposed sanctions in 2018. “None of it materialised,” he wrote, adding that Europe’s promises of “strategic autonomy” collapsed under US pressure………………………..https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/9/7/iran-fm-araghchi-warns-europe-against-reckless-approach-to-nuclear-deal

September 9, 2025 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Is fishmeal from Fukushima-affected fish the source of Indonesian shrimp’s radioactive contamination?

J. P. Unger, 8 Sept 25

It just hit me earlier, while thinking about the recently exposed case of radioactive shrimp being recalled in the US, and in particular why one Indonesian shrimp farming business’s harvests would be contaminated with radioactive Cesium and not those from other Indonesian shrimp farms: it’s probably the feed they used!

Cheap, radioactive fishmeal, perhaps made from fish impacted by contamination from Fukushima, I suspect could well be the source. This is why:

Shrimp farming has traditionally used fishmeal as a high-protein source to feed the shrimp -with fishmeal normally consisting of smaller fish, fishing “by-catch” and fish-processing byproducts, all shredded and ground to a texture like coarse sand or pellets to feed farm animals and aquaculture operations. 

As ocean fish populations become increasingly strained and global demand for fish keeps increasing, fishmeal has become increasingly expensive and in shorter supply

Therefore, it’s quite likely that fishmeal from contaminated fisheries -for example, with high levels of radioactive pollution- would be offered at a comparatively low price. That would be quite attractive for a business that’s more concerned with profit margins than with what happens to consumers down the line.

If this was the case, and given that many businesses around the world likely prioritize profit margins over long-term effects in far-removed consumers (or might not even be aware of the contamination of the feed), this case could be the tip of a very worrisome iceberg and open up a big can of worms…. 

It certainly demands a careful inspection of food imports AND of food “precursors”, in particular imported fishmeal and food from animals raised on it. Also, international cooperation and vigilance, to know who might be selling contaminated fishmeal and where, who has been buying and using it, and what land- or water-farmed meat production it might be affecting.

Unless I hear concerns or suggestions to the contrary, I’ll prepare and send a slightly different articulation of these thoughts to a handful of government officials and media here and in the US who might be interested in investigating, as precautions should probably be ramped up for a variety of food products…

 This would not be the first time radioactively contaminated foodstuff circulates at bargain prices… When I was starting as a science and environment journalist in Peru in the 1980’s I wrote about the post-Chernobyl arrival of radioactive powdered milk from Europe (a “generous” 12,000 ton donation from the European Community…), and radioactive meat from Germany (sold at a bargain price!). I received brush-offs, threats and warnings from corrupt government officials profiting from it, as well as ignorance and disinterest among other journalists and the general population, all with other “more immediate concerns” at the time, as the country faced five-digit inflation and the expansion of a brutally violent Maoist insurgency -nobody wanted to hear about yet more dangers then, and everywhere I was met by a frustrating fatalistic denial or avoidance mantra along the lines of “one has to die from something anyway.” Anyways… JPU

September 9, 2025 Posted by | environment, Indonesia | Leave a comment

The Nuclear Waste Problem Haunting UK Energy Expansion

Oil Price, By Felicity Bradstock – Sep 07, 2025


  • Effective nuclear waste management is a critical global challenge, particularly for countries like the UK looking to expand their nuclear power sectors.
  • The UK has a substantial amount of existing radioactive waste and is struggling to implement a long-term disposal solution, with the proposed underground geological disposal facility facing significant hurdles and cost concerns.
  • Public and local community pushback against potential nuclear waste sites further complicates the development of new disposal facilities, making finding a solution an ongoing and difficult process.

One of the biggest hurdles to expanding the global nuclear power sector is the concern over how best to manage nuclear waste. While some believe they have found sustainable solutions to dispose of nuclear waste, there is still widespread debate around how safe these methods are and the potential long-term impact of waste disposal and storage. In the United Kingdom, the government has put nuclear power back on the agenda, after decades with no new nuclear developments; however, managing nuclear waste continues to be a major barrier to development. 

There are three types of nuclear waste: low-, intermediate-, and high-level radioactive waste. Most of the waste produced at nuclear facilities is lightly contaminated, including items such as tools and work clothing, with a level of around 1 percent radioactivity. Meanwhile, spent fuel is an example of high-level waste, which contributes around 3 percent of the total volume of waste from nuclear energy production. However, this contains around 95 percent of the radioactivity, making adequate waste management of these products extremely important. 

In the U.K., the government continues to battle with how best to dispose of its nuclear waste,……………………………………………..

the U.K. Treasury believes the government’s plan for the waste dump is “unachievable”, rating the project as “red”, or not possible, in a recent assessment. ……………………………….. https://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Nuclear-Power/The-Nuclear-Waste-Problem-Haunting-UK-Energy-Expansion.html

September 9, 2025 Posted by | UK, wastes | Leave a comment

Pentagon Document: U.S. Wants to “Suppress Dissenting Arguments” Using AI Propaganda.

August 25, 2025, The Intercept
https://theintercept.com/2025/08/25/pentagon-military-ai-propaganda-influence/

The United States hopes to use machine learning to create and distribute propaganda overseas in a bid to “influence foreign target audiences” and “suppress dissenting arguments,” according to a U.S. Special Operations Command document.

SOCOM is looking for a contractor that can “Provide a capability leveraging agentic Al or multi LLM agent systems with specialized roles to increase the scale of influence operations.” So-called “agentic” systems … can be used in conjunction with large language models, or LLMs, like ChatGPT, which generate text based on user prompts.

While much marketing hype orbits around these agentic systems and LLMs for their potential to execute mundane tasks like online shopping and booking tickets, SOCOM believes the techniques could be well suited for running an autonomous propaganda outfit. Whether AI-generated propaganda works remains an open question, but the practice has already been amply documented in the wild.

In May 2024, OpenAI issued a report revealing efforts by Iranian, Chinese, and Russian actors to use the company’s tools to engage in covert influence campaigns, but found none had been particularly successful. The military has a history of manipulating civilian populations for political or ideological purposes. A troubling example was uncovered in 2024, when Reuters reported the Defense Department had operated a clandestine anti-vax social media campaign.

September 9, 2025 Posted by | spinbuster, USA | Leave a comment

IAEA chief notes progress in Iran talks over nuclear site inspections

Head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, says he hopes for a ‘successful conclusion’ in the coming days.

Aljazeera, 8 Sept 25

Talks on resuming International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspections of Iran’s nuclear sites have made progress, but its chief warned that there was “not much” time remaining.

On Monday, the director general of the United Nations nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, told the 35-nation IAEA Board of Governors in Vienna, Austria, that “Progress has been made”…….

He did not elaborate on what the timeframe meant exactly.

While Tehran allowed inspectors from the IAEA into Iran at the end of August, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said no agreement had been reached on the resumption of full cooperation with the watchdog…….. ………………………….. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/9/8/iaea-chief-notes-progress-in-iran-talks-over-nuclear-site-inspections

September 9, 2025 Posted by | Iran, politics international | Leave a comment