2025 October 21 « nuclear-news

Moscow puts money on the table to raise nuclear subs from Arctic seabed

Both the K-27 and the K-159 represent ticking radioactive time-bombs for the Arctic marine environment.

The Government’s draft budget for 2026, and the planned budget for 2027-2028, include funding to lift the K-27 and K-159, two wrecked submarines that are resting on the seabed in the Barents Sea and Kara Sea.

Thomas Nilsen, 20 October 2025 –https://www.thebarentsobserver.com/news/moscow-puts-money-on-the-table-to-raise-nuclear-subs-from-arctic-seabed/439056

It is the state nuclear corporation Rosatom that told news outlet RBK about the plans to finally do something about the ticking radioactive time-bombs.

“The draft federal budget for 2026 and the 2027-2028 planning period includes funding for the rehabilitation of Arctic seas from sunken and dumped radiation-hazardous objects, beginning in 2027. Preparations for the planned work will begin in 2026,” the press service of Rosatom said.

An explanatory note to Rosatom’s budget post for disposal of nuclear and radiation-hazardous nuclear legacy sites details how 30 billion rubles for the three-year period are earmarked for planning and lifting of the Cold War era submarines left on the Arctic seabed.

The K-27 and the K-159 are the most urgent to raise and bring to shore for safe scrapping.

While the K-27 was dumped on purpose in 1982 in the Stepovoy Bay on the Kara Sea side of Novaya Zemlya, the sinking of the K-159 in the Barents Sea was an accident.

Lifting a nuclear submarine from the seabed is nothing new. It is difficult, but doable.

In 2002, the Dutch salvage company Mammoet managed to raise the ill-fated Kursk submarine from the Barents Sea. A special barge was built with wires attached underneath. The wreck of the Kursk was safely brought in and placed in a floating dock where the decommissioning took place.

Aleksandr Nikitin, a nuclear safety expert with the Bellona Foundation in Oslo, said to the Barents Observer that it is too early to conclude that the lifting actually will happen, or whether this is a preliminary plan that needs to be developed before concluding.

“As far as I understand, there’s no concrete plan,” Nikitin said.

Before Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, Aleksandr Nikitin was member of Rosatom’s Public Chamber, a body that worked with non-governmental organisations to foster transparency and civic engagement on nuclear safety related issues in Russia.

Nikitin believes there still is infrastructure on the Kola Peninsula to deal with the two submarines if they are lifted from the seabed.

“Rosatom is currently trying not to destroy what the French built in Gremikha, hoping to dismantle the K-27 there if it’s raised. This is a special facility where this nuclear submarine with a liquid metal coolant reactor can be dismantled,” he explained.

“As for the K-159, it could be dismantled, for example, at Nerpa.”

Nerpa is a shipyard north of Murmansk that decommissioned several Cold War submarines at the time when Russia maintained cooperation with European partners, including Norway.

Ticking radioactive time-bombs

Both the K-27 and the K-159 represent ticking radioactive time-bombs for the Arctic marine environment.

The K-159 is a November-class submarine that sank in late August 2003 while being towed in bad weather from the closed naval base of Gremikha on the eastern shores of the Kola Peninsula towards the Nerpa shipyard north of Murmansk.

Researchers have since then monitored the wreck, fearing leakages of radioactivity from the two old nuclear reactors onboard could contaminate the important fishing grounds in the Barents Sea. A joint Norwegian-Russian expedition examined the site in 2014 and concluded that no leakage has so far occurred from the reactors to the surrounding marine environment.

However, the bad shape of the hull could eventually lead to radionuclides leaking out.

The two onboard reactors contain about 800 kilograms of spent nuclear fuel, with an estimated 5,3 GBq of radionuclides.

A modelling study by the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research said that a pulse discharge of the entire Cesium-137 inventory from the two reactors could increase concentrations in cod in the eastern part of the Barents Sea up to 100 times current levels for a two-year period after the discharge. While a Cs-137 increase of 100 times in cod sounds dramatic, the levels would still be below international guidelines. But that increase could still make it difficult to market the affected fish.

The K-27, the other submarine that it is urgent to lift, was on purpose dumped in the Kara Sea in 1982. In September 2021, divers from the Centre for Underwater Research of the Russian Geographical Society conducted a survey of the submarine’s hull. Metal pieces were cut free, the thickness of the hull was measured, along with other inspections of the submarine that has been corroding on the seabed for more than 40 years.

In aditionl to the K-27 and K-159, there are also the other dumped reactors in the Kara Sea, including from the K-11, K-19 and K-140, as well as spent nuclear fuel from an older reactor serving the icebreaker Lenin.

In Soviet times, thousands of containers with solid radioactive waste from both the civilian icebreaker fleet and the military Navy were dumped at different locations in the Kara Sea.

October 21, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Russia, wastes | Leave a comment

Straight from the horses’ mouths: Nuclear is a dead end.

By Ben Kritz, October 2, 2025, https://www.manilatimes.net/2025/10/02/opinion/columns/straight-fromthe-horses-mouths-nuclear-is-a-dead-end/2193114

ONE of the most authoritative and anticipated reports about the nuclear energy sector is the annual World Nuclear Industry Status Report (WNISR), which for close to 20 years has tracked the progress, or lack thereof, of the nuclear industry. It is, at least in my opinion, a better source for detailed information on the nuclear sector than the annual reports of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), because while the IAEA does provide completely reliable and detailed information, it provides a bit less than does the WNISR, and has an obvious positive bias toward nuclear energy.

The WNISR by contrast is completely neutral; even the bit of commentary that prefaces this year’s 589 pages of data and status updates confines itself to simply acknowledging the current reality of nuclear policy and activity, and leaves it to the audience to draw their own conclusions.

There are a few pieces of good news for nuclear enthusiasts in the 2025 WNISR. Nuclear power generation rose to 2,677 terawatt-hours in 2024, and generation capacity reached 369.4 gigawatts (GW). Those are both record highs, but on the other hand, they are both less than 1 percent higher than the previous records, and so are really not overwhelming evidence of a growing sector. One indication of that is that nuclear’s share of generating capacity declined slightly (by less than 1 percent) year on year, and is now at 9.0 percent. That is only about half its historic peak of 17.5 percent in 1996.

Other factoids that might encourage nuclear proponents are that there are three countries building their first nuclear plants — Bangladesh, Egypt and Turkey — all of which are being constructed and largely financed by Russia’s Rosatom. The number of reactor startups was higher than the number of shutdowns in 2024. Seven plants were brought online — three in China, and one each in France, the United Arab Emirates, the United States and India, while four were closed, two in Canada, and one each in Russia and Taiwan. At the end of 2024, there were 409 reactors operating worldwide (that number has since gone down by one this year), which were the same number as at the end of 2023. The number of operating reactors peaked in 2002 with 438, operated in 32 countries; since then, the sector has slowly declined. There are only 31 countries as of now, and the number of reactor closures across the past 20-odd years has been slightly higher than the number of startups.

For example, the WNISR notes that from 2005 to 2024, there were 104 startups and 101 closures, which might seem like a modest gain. But any nuclear expansion is solely attributable to China; in that time period, there were 51 startups and no closures in China. In the rest of the world, there was a net decline of 48 in the number of operating reactors, with a corresponding decline in generating capacity of 27 GW.

China has big numbers in everything because China is very big; in its broader energy mix, nuclear power is at best an afterthought, and is declining even there. Nuclear’s share in the total energy mix in China fell for the third straight year in 2024, down to 4.5 percent. While nuclear capacity did increase by 3.5 GW from a year earlier, it was overwhelmed by the growth in solar capacity, which increased by 278 GW. In China, since 2010, the output of nuclear has increased by a factor of six. But on the other hand, the output of solar increased by a factor of more than 800, and wind by a factor of 20. Renewables’ share of the energy mix increased from 18.7 percent in 2010 to 33.7 percent in 2024, or in other words, outpaced nuclear by 7.5 times.

Prospects for growth

The simple answer is that there aren’t any; some incremental gains here and there may be possible, but the idea that nuclear is the go-to solution for decarbonization is not at all supported by real-world trends. The first problem is that existing nuclear power is quickly reaching the end of its useful life. The WNISR notes that the average age of the presently operating power reactors has been increasing since 1984 and stands at 32.4 years as of mid-2025. The average age at closure of the 28 reactors permanently shut down between 2020 and 2024 was 43.2 years. The nuclear industry is going to have to expend increasing effort and resources in senior care for its aging plants just to maintain the status quo of stagnation and gradual slow decline.

Investment figures bear that out. Over the past decade, the WNISR notes that nuclear investment has been essentially stagnant, although not nonexistent; in the same time period, investment in renewables has increased by 21 times.

Apart from the three newcomers (Egypt, Bangladesh and Turkey) that are actually building reactors, the WNISR identifies 12 others with prospects for nuclear power sometime in the future, four of which are in Africa. It may come as a discouraging surprise to our own Department of Energy and nuclear cheerleaders here that the Philippines is not even mentioned.

In fact, the name “Philippines” appears exactly once in the 589 pages of the report, on a chart listing countries that have abandoned or suspended reactor constructions since 1970. But to be fair, the recent passage of the Philippine Nuclear Safety Act and its subsequent creation of an actual regulating body are recent developments, so the 2026 WNISR will probably include it.

None of the other countries noted are even close to beginning construction, or even seriously considering it. In fact, the World Nuclear Association, which is definitely an optimistic source of information, in a Sept. 19 report concluded that only one additional country besides those already building reactors — Poland — is likely to join the nuclear energy community within the next 15 years.

The WNISR’s overall conclusion kind of says it all: “2024 has seen an unprecedented boost in solar and battery capacity expansion driven by continuous significant cost decline. As energy markets are rapidly evolving, there are no signs of vigorous nuclear construction and the slow decline of nuclear power’s role in electricity generation continues.”

The Philippines’ nuclear aspirations, and likely those of any other country anywhere else, are clearly swimming against the tide. That does not make nuclear development impossible, but it almost certainly means that any development that is achieved will have much less impact than anticipated. And, nuclear being what it is, that impact will cost more and take longer to achieve than expected.

The broad picture painted by the WNISR brings us back to the conclusion of the Cato Institute assessment I discussed in the first part of this column on Tuesday, and bear in mind this is coming from a deeply conservative source: “The problem is not so much that money will be wasted on large numbers of uneconomic facilities. Rather, it is the opportunity costs of the time and human resources that are consumed by nuclear power and not available to other, quicker, more cost-effective and less financially risky options. We appear now to be facing serious risks from climate change, and there will not be a second chance if we fail to tackle it because too many resources are being consumed by an option — new nuclear — that will not work.”

October 21, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | technology | Leave a comment

Trump-Zelensky meeting was ‘bad’ – Axios.

18 Oct, 2025 , https://www.rt.com/news/626650-trump-zelensky-meeting-bad/

The Ukrainian leader left Washington without promises on Tomahawk missiles, the outlet’s sources say

Friday’s White House meeting between US President Donald Trump and Vladimir Zelensky was “tense,” with the Ukrainian leader failing to secure deliveries of long-range Tomahawk missiles, Axios has reported, citing sources.

Trump told Zelensky he does not plan to provide Tomahawks “at least for now,” according to two people briefed on the meeting. The talks lasted around two and a half hours and were described by one source as “not easy,” and by another as “bad.” At times, the discussion “got a bit emotional,” the outlet said.

”Nobody shouted, but Trump was tough,” one source told Axios. The session ended abruptly when Trump reportedly said, “I think we’re done. Let’s see what happens next week,” possibly referring to upcoming Russia-US talks.

Speaking to reporters afterwards, Zelensky declined to answer questions about Tomahawk deliveries, only saying the US “does not want escalation.”

Trump said “it’s not easy” for Washington to provide the missiles because it needs to maintain its own supplies for the nation’s own defense. He also acknowledged that allowing Kiev to conduct strikes deep into Russia could lead to an escalation.

Moscow has warned against supplying the missiles to Ukraine, arguing they would “not change the situation on the battlefield” but would “severely undermine the prospects of a peaceful settlement” and harm Russia-US relations.

Zelensky has sought Tomahawks – which have a maximum range of 2,500km (1,550 miles) – for weeks, insisting that Ukraine would only use them against military targets to increase pressure on Russia and move toward a peace deal. However, the Ukrainian leader has threatened Russia with blackouts in border regions and Moscow. Russian officials also suggested that Kiev is plotting to use the missiles for “terrorist attacks.”

The Trump-Zelensky meeting followed a phone call between Trump and Putin, after which both sides signaled plans for a summit in Budapest, Hungary, in the near future.

October 21, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics international, Ukraine, USA | Leave a comment

Trump: “Thank you so much, Bibi. Excellent work.”

Manlio Dinucci, Voltairenet.org, Sat, 18 Oct 2025, https://www.sott.net/article/502465-Trump-Thank-you-so-much-Bibi-Excellent-work

President Donald Trump,like all his predecessors, has continued the US policy of military support for Israel. But he has broken with the revisionist Zionists. Thus, he lavishly congratulated Benjamin Netanyahu, but forced him to accept his peace plan.

President Trump said in his speech to the Israeli parliament:

“I want to express my gratitude to a man of exceptional courage and patriotism. There is only one, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Bibi, please stand. You are a very popular man. You know why? Because you know how to win. Thank you so much, Bibi. Great job. I think, as you said, Bibi, peace is achieved through strength.

“And that’s really the point. The United States has the largest and most powerful military that the history of the world has ever seen. I can tell you, we have weapons that no one could have ever imagined. We produce the best weapons in the world, and we have an awful lot of them. And, frankly, we supplied many of them to Israel. Bibi kept calling me, ‘Can you get me this weapon? This one, and this one?'” Some I’d never heard of, Bibi, and yet I was the one producing them. But we would have gotten them for you. And they’re the best. You used them well. You need someone who knows how to use them, and you obviously used them very well. So well that Israel became strong and powerful, which in the end led to peace.”

Official data confirms that the United States has provided Israel with at least $21.7 billion in military aid since the start of the Gaza war on October 7, 2023. In addition, both the Biden and Trump administrations have agreements to sell Israel weapons and military services worth tens of billions of dollars more in the coming years. Between October 2023 and May 2025, Israel received 940 ships and cargo planes loaded with weapons from the United States, the Israeli Defense Minister said on May 27, 2025.

The Trump administration has accelerated the supply of weapons to Israel, including 2,000-pound bombs (about one ton) that Israel has used to destroy buildings, hospitals, water infrastructure, and other civilian targets in Gaza. In February 2025, the Trump administration’s State Department notified Congress of three arms sales to Israel: 35,529 Mk-84 and BLU 117 2,000-pound bombs and 4,000 I-2000 penetrator warheads for $2 billion; 5,000 1,000-pound bombs and JDAM guidance kits for $675 million; and Caterpillar D9 bulldozers for $295 million.

In March, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that since Trump took office on January 20, 2025, his administration has approved nearly $12 billion in major arms sales to Israel. Now, the Trump administration is planning new arms sales to Israel worth $6 billion. These include 30 AH-64 Apache helicopters worth $3.8 billion, nearly doubling Israel’s current fleet of military helicopters, and 3,250 assault vehicles costing $1.9 billion.

In addition, the United States has supplied significant arms to Israel, Germany, and Italy. Germany has provided frigates and catfish, ammunition, and military services. Italy has supplied helicopters and cannons for Israeli warships. Italy, moreover, produces components for the US F-35 fighter jet in Cameri (Piedmont), including for other countries that possess this fighter, including Israel, which also used it to bomb Gaza. Added to this is the fact that the Trapani-Birgi air base in Sicily will soon become the first international training center for US F-35 fighter pilots outside the United States. The new center will train pilots not only from Italy, but also from allied countries that use the F-35 fighter jet, including Israeli ones.

October 21, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Israel, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Israeli soldiers reveal thousands of tons of aid ‘buried, burned’ in Gaza as famine took over strip

Rights groups say Israel has been carrying out a ‘deliberate campaign of starvation’ in Gaza

News Desk, OCT 17, 2025, https://thecradle.co/articles-id/33742

Over the past two months, the Israeli army has buried or burned more than a thousand truckloads worth of humanitarian aid in Gaza, including food, medical supplies, and bottled water, amid the ongoing starvation of Palestinians in the strip, Israeli broadcaster Kan reported on 17 October.

“We buried everything in the ground, and we even burned some of the things,” said an army source. “Even today, there are thousands of packages waiting in the sun, and if they are not transferred to the Gaza Strip, we will be forced to destroy them too.”

The humanitarian aid, which had spoiled while standing for many weeks on the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing, was allegedly not distributed because the mechanism to do so is not functioning.

“It simply doesn’t work,” the military source claimed to the Israeli broadcaster.

“The trucks are getting stuck, there’s a mechanism that doesn’t work, there’s a problem with the quality of the axles, and the coordination isn’t working either,” the source added.

“We have the largest grain warehouse in existence here. If the goods that are there today aren’t collected, we’ll evacuate and bury the equipment.”

The source also questioned the ability to drop aid into Gaza by air.

“There has already been such an attempt, and it was a complete failure, just like the port they built,” he said.

Throughout the two-year genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, Israel has armed and funded Palestinian gangs to loot humanitarian aid convoys, while blaming Hamas.

On Friday, the UN reported that an average of 560 tons of food has entered Gaza daily since a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect last week, but deliveries have struggled to reach the north of the strip, including Gaza City, due to road closures and damage from past Israeli bombing.

The difficulty in delivering aid is raising concerns that famine conditions will persist in Gaza despite the current halt in the Israeli bombing.

“We’re still below what we need, but we’re getting there … The ceasefire has opened a narrow window of opportunity, and WFP is moving very quickly and swiftly to scale up food assistance,” stated UN World Food Programme(WFP) spokesperson Abeer Etefa while speaking with reporters in Geneva.

In August, Amnesty International warned that “Israel is carrying out a deliberate campaign of starvation in the occupied Gaza Strip, systematically destroying the health, well-being and social fabric of Palestinian life.”

“It is the intended outcome of plans and policies that Israel has designed and implemented, over the past 22 months, to deliberately inflict on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction – which is part and parcel of Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza,” the rights group added.

October 21, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Atrocities, Israel | Leave a comment

Livret A: Will part of French savings soon be used to finance nuclear power?

Traditionally, the money in the Livret A savings account is intended to support social housing and local public infrastructure.

This announcement comes as the government seeks to diversify funding sources for a nuclear program estimated at colossal sums

Le Monde De L’Energie 13th Oct 2025

This is a historic turning point for French public savings. The Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC) has confirmed that a portion of the funds from the Livret A savings account could be used to finance the construction of new EPR nuclear reactors. This unprecedented move symbolizes the rapprochement between public finance, industrial strategy, and national energy sovereignty.

An unprecedented agreement between the State, EDF and the Caisse des Dépôts

Traditionally, the money in the Livret A savings account is intended to support social housing and local public infrastructure. But on Thursday, October 10, CDC CEO Olivier Sichel announced a major development: “We have reached an agreement with Bercy and EDF on using the Savings Fund.” This statement, made to the Association of Economic and Financial Journalists, marks the first official confirmation of the Livret A’s involvement in financing the French nuclear program.

This shift, both energy-related and financial, is part of the government’s desire to revive civil nuclear power. The state plans to build six new EPR reactors by 2038, at a total cost estimated at less than €100 billion, according to estimates by former Energy Minister Marc Ferracci.

A crucial step: the Brussels agreement

Before the transaction can become a reality, one key step remains: European approval. “The French government will present its proposal to Brussels to obtain approval for the overall financial model,” Olivier Sichel explained. The stakes are as much legal as they are political: the European Commission will have to verify that this financing scheme does not violate competition or state aid rules.

The Brussels agreement will make it possible to secure access to part of the Savings Fund, funded by French savings, while guaranteeing that investments remain safe and profitable for depositors.

A treasure of 400 billion euros at the nation’s disposal

The Caisse des Dépôts currently manages approximately €400 billion in regulated savings, collected in particular through the Livret A (Livret A), the Livret de développement durable et solidaire (LDDS) (Sustainable and Solidarity Savings Account), and the Livret d’épargne populaire (LEP) (People’s Savings Account). Just over half of these funds are already allocated to long-term loans to finance social housing or regional policies.

The remainder, invested in financial assets, could now contribute to financing the country’s energy infrastructure, including new nuclear reactors. “Nuclear power is obviously part of our energy sovereignty,” explained Olivier Sichel, adding that this direction aims to strengthen France’s capacity to produce stable, carbon-free electricity.

This announcement comes as the government seeks to diversify funding sources for a nuclear program estimated at colossal sums, in a context of constrained budgets and strong tension on the energy markets…………………………………..

this development is already raising questions. Some social housing stakeholders fear that this shift will reduce the funds available for their projects. ………….

Asked about financial risks, Olivier Sichel also warned of the tensions threatening global markets, particularly in the technology sector. “The colossal investments in artificial intelligence are drawing parallels with the internet bubble of the late 1990s,” he warned, urging caution.

A major turning point for public investment policy

By linking popular savings to the country’s energy strategy, the government and the Caisse des Dépôts are redefining the role of the Livret A savings account in the French economy. This investment, held by more than 55 million French people, is becoming not only a social financing tool, but also a pillar of industrial and energy recovery.

If Brussels gives the green light, France will usher in a new era: one in which every euro placed in a Livret A savings account could, indirectly, contribute to fueling the nation’s future nuclear reactors. …… https://www.lemondedelenergie.com/livret-une-partie-de-lepargne-des-francais-bientot-mobilisee-pour-financer-le-nucleaire/2025/10/13/

October 21, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, France | Leave a comment

Foreign hackers breached a US nuclear weapons plant via SharePoint flaws

CSO News Analysis, Oct 20, 2025

A foreign actor infiltrated the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Kansas City National Security Campus through vulnerabilities in Microsoft’s SharePoint browser-based app, raising questions about the need to solidify further federal IT/OT security protections.

A foreign threat actor infiltrated the Kansas City National Security Campus (KCNSC), a key manufacturing site within the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), exploiting unpatched Microsoft SharePoint vulnerabilities, according to a source involved in an August incident response at the facility.

The breach targeted a plant that produces the vast majority of critical non-nuclear components for US nuclear weapons under the NNSA, a semi-autonomous agency within the Department of Energy (DOE) that oversees the design, production, and maintenance of the nation’s nuclear weapons. Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies (FM&T) manages the Kansas City campus under contract to the NNSA.

The Kansas City campus, Honeywell FM&T, and the Department of Energy did not respond to repeated requests for comment throughout September, well before the current government shutdown. NSA public affairs officer Eddie Bennett did respond, saying, “We have nothing to contribute,” and referred CSO back to the DOE.

Although it is unclear whether the attackers were a Chinese nation-state actor or Russian cybercriminals — the two most likely culprits — experts say the incident drives home the importance of securing systems that protect operational technology from exploits that primarily affect IT systems.

How the breach unfolded

The attackers exploited two recently disclosed Microsoft SharePoint vulnerabilities — CVE-2025-53770, a spoofing flaw, and CVE-2025-49704, a remote code execution (RCE) bug — both affecting on-premises servers. Microsoft issued fixes for the vulnerabilities on July 19.

On July 22, the NNSA confirmed it was one of the organizations hit by attacks enabled by the SharePoint flaws. “On Friday, July 18th, the exploitation of a Microsoft SharePoint zero-day vulnerability began affecting the Department of Energy,” a DOE spokesperson said……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

China or Russia? Conflicting attribution

Microsoft attributed the broader wave of SharePoint exploitations to three Chinese-linked groups: Linen Typhoon, Violet Typhoon, and a third actor it tracks as Storm-2603. The company said the attackers were preparing to deploy Warlock ransomware across affected systems.

However, the source familiar with the Kansas City incident tells CSO that a Russian threat actor, not a Chinese one, was responsible for the intrusion. Cybersecurity company Resecurity, which was monitoring the SharePoint exploitations, tells CSO that its own data pointed primarily to Chinese nation-state groups, but it does not rule out Russian involvement………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Could the attack have reached operational systems?

The breach targeted the IT side of the Kansas City campus, but the intrusion raises the question of whether attackers could have moved laterally into the facility’s operational technology (OT) systems, the manufacturing and process control environments that directly support weapons component production.

OT cybersecurity specialists interviewed by CSO say that KCNSC’s production systems are likely air-gapped or otherwise isolated from corporate IT networks, significantly reducing the risk of direct crossover. Nevertheless, they caution against assuming such isolation guarantees safety………………………………………………………………………………………………………

IT/OT convergence and the zero-trust gap

The Kansas City incident highlights a systemic problem across the federal enterprise: the disconnect between IT and OT security practices. While the federal government has advanced its zero-trust roadmap for traditional IT networks, similar frameworks for operational environments have lagged, although recent developments point to progress on that front………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Even non-classified data theft holds strategic value

If the source’s claim of Russian involvement is accurate, the attackers may have been financially motivated ransomware operators rather than state intelligence services. But even in that scenario, the data they accessed could still carry strategic value……………………………………………………………….. https://www.csoonline.com/article/4074962/foreign-hackers-breached-a-us-nuclear-weapons-plant-via-sharepoint-flaws.html

October 21, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | incidents | Leave a comment

The Bloc Québécois is calling for an immediate halt to the transfer of radioactive waste to Chalk River, on the shores of the drinking water source for millions of Quebecers

Anne Caroline Desplanques, Journal de Montréal, October 20, 2025, https://www.journaldemontreal.com/auteur/anne-caroline-desplanques

The request sent to the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Tim Hodgson, follows a series of reports by our Investigative Bureau, which had rare access to the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) site where the waste is stored.

In the past year, the laboratories received 62.8 tonnes of irradiated uranium fuel from the Gentilly-1 nuclear generating station in Bécancour. This high-risk material is stored in a dozen gigantic reinforced concrete silos in the middle of the forest, along the Ottawa River.

The least contaminated materials are stored nearby, in containers stacked on top of each other.

More silos and containers need to be added as CNL also wants to dismantle two other federal nuclear power plants, in Ontario and Manitoba, and bring the waste back to Chalk River, they told us.

Risk of environmental disaster

“This is probably one of the worst possible and worst imaginable places to decide to store nuclear waste,” says the Bloc Québécois, which fears “an ecological and environmental disaster.”

CNL says the storage is only temporary: the high-level radioactive waste is ultimately to be placed in a geological repository more than 650 metres deep, supposed to open by 2050 in northwestern Ontario.

But for Lance Haymond, chief of the Kebaowek First Nation, whose traditional territory includes CNL, the opening of the geological repository remains hypothetical, as construction has not even begun yet.

The repository project is expected to cost $26 billion. Chief Haymond is concerned that the federal government will not be able to afford such a bill in these times of budget restraint and therefore may abandon the silos in Chalk River.

Long legal battle ahead

As for less contaminated waste accumulated in other containers, CNL wants to bury it directly on site one kilometre from the river. But the Kebaoweks has blocked the project in court.

They won the battle in the first instance, but the war continues since Ottawa has taken the case to the Court of Appeal. The hearings began in early October. Lance Haymond, supported by the Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador and the Assembly of First Nations of Canada, promises to go all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary.

The conflict is therefore likely to drag on for years. In the meantime, and whatever the courts ultimately decide, the accumulation of garbage in Chalk River must stop, argues the Bloc Québécois.

October 21, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Canada, wastes | 1 Comment

Desperately seeking submariners: why keeping nuclear-powered boats afloat will be Australia’s biggest Aukus challenge.

Ben Doherty, Guardian, 21 Oct 25

A vast and highly trained workforce is needed to command, crew, supply and maintain nuclear submarines. Some say that’s impossible for Australia.

“Vice-Admiral Mead, you’re free to go home … good to see you cracking a smile.”

The head of the Australian Submarine Agency had spent a withering three hours before Senate estimates, parrying a barrage of questions about Australia’s ambitious Aukus nuclear submarine plan: interrogatives on consultants, on hundreds of millions of dollars sent to US and UK shipyards, on sclerotic boat-building on both sides of the Atlantic.

But while so much focus has been on Australia’s nuclear submarines’ arrival, their price tag and their “sovereign” status, the greatest challenge to the Aukus project, Mead told the Senate, would be finding the people to keep them afloat and at sea.

“Ensuring Australia has the workforce to deliver this program remains our biggest challenge,” he said.

If Australia’s nuclear submarines arrive on these shores – and that remains a contested question, with expert opinion ranging from an absolute yes to a certain no – will Australia be able to crew, supply and maintain them?

“It is a challenge we are continuing to meet,” Mead told senators. “Australian industry and navy personnel continue to build critical experience through targeted international placements.”

Others are less sanguine.

“The Aukus optimal pathway is a road to a quagmire,” says a former admiral and submarine commander, Peter Briggs, arguing that Australia’s small submarine arm can’t be upscaled quickly enough. “It’s not going anywhere. It will not work.”

Onshore trades, too, are perilously short. Without an additional 70,000 welders by 2030, that trade’s peak body says: “The Aukus submarine program is at serious risk of collapse.”

Mead was asked directly by senators: “Are you still confident of meeting the government’s agenda and timings?”

“Yes,” he replied, “I am.”

‘An eye-wateringly long process’

Briggs, a past president of the Submarine Institute of Australia, says the Aukus plan reads like one “designed by a political aide in a coffee shop”.

The navy’s submarine arm is approximately 850 sailors and officers (the defence department declined to give exact figures). The former chief of navy previously told parliament it needed to grow to 2,300 by the 2040s.

But Briggs estimates that to crew and support Australia’s Virginia-class, and later, Aukus-class submarines, the navy will need to more than treble its existing complement to about 2,700.

Virginias are massive submarines – nearly 8,000 tons – and carry a crew of 134, more than twice the existing Collins-class crew of 56. The Aukus submarines to be built in Adelaide will be bigger again. More tonnage, more people.

“That’s a huge increase in what is already in very scarce supply,” Briggs argues…………………………………………………………

The new generation of submariners is needed for between three and five Virginia-class submarines, then up to eight Australian-built Aukus boats.

“To get to be chief engineer of a nuclear submarine takes 16 to 18 years,” Briggs says. “It’s an eye-wateringly long process and of course you lose people along the way.

“That’s why you need a broad base, a critical mass, and Australia simply doesn’t have that right now. There is no way a navy the size of ours can manage this mix.”

Briggs does not believe the US will withdraw from Aukus: the presence of nuclear submarine bases on Australian soil is too great a prize for a superpower wanting to project power into the Pacific. But Australia’s unreadiness could lead to nuclear submarines under domestic command being delayed.

“We’ve got no warranty clause, no guarantee of anything. The cop-out could come in 2031, the US might say, ‘Look, you’re not quite ready yet, let’s push everything back three years, check in again in 2034.’ And it’s Australia that’s left exposed.”

‘Beyond frustrating, it’s dangerous’

Beyond the complexity of commanding and crewing a nuclear submarine, the vessels need a vast and highly trained workforce to keep them supplied, afloat and at sea………………………………………………………………………

“This is not just a workforce challenge,” its chief executive, Geoff Crittenden, said in a statement. “It’s a full-blown capability crisis … If we don’t address this issue now, Aukus will fail.”

Aukus represented a “perfect storm”, he said, and failure to address worker shortages was “beyond frustrating, it’s dangerous”.

“A once-in-a-generation opportunity like Aukus demands a long-term, strategic response, not just investment in ships and steel, but in people. We estimate that Australia will be at least 70,000 welders short by 2030. Without immediate action, the project is doomed to delays, cost blowouts, or worse.”…………………………………………………………………………

The first cohort won’t be Australian. “In the short term there will have to be an influx of international talent, as we train and upskill our own people.”

Tier two is a nuclearised workforce of skilled professionals – scientists, electrical and mechanical engineers, technical managers, reactor operators and health physicists – with advanced training and between seven and 10 years’ experience. The majority of a submarine crew would sit in this tier. Obbard estimates that about 5,000 tier-two workers will be needed.

Tier three is a further cohort of “nuclear-aware” workers – between 5,000 and 6,000 again – tradespeople including machinists, fitters and welders, who will require some nuclear training.

“The Aukus plan cannot work without building this workforce and the wider engineering community this workforce is drawn from.”

Does it make sense?’

Jack Dillich is uniquely placed to observe Australia’s transformation to a nuclear submarine power. A former submarine officer, he holds an advanced degree in nuclear engineering and served on the executive of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, where he was responsible for the country’s sole nuclear reactor, and as head of the regulatory branch at the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency. He now teaches a nuclear course at the Australian Defence Force Academy………………………………….

[Dillich says] Australia needs to be asking, ‘Does it make sense to try to build a tiny fleet here?’ Maybe 25 years from now, Australia could have eight nuclear-propelled submarines: they would be very, very expensive.”……………………………..https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/oct/20/aukus-submarine-workforce-nuclear-powered-boats-australia

October 21, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA, employment | Leave a comment

Slouching Towards Peace

“Zelensky has been given a Russian ultimatum via Trump. Accept Russia terms or face total destruction.” —SiriusReport on “X”

James Howard Kunstler, Oct 20, 2025, https://www.kunstler.com/p/slouching-towards-peace

Well, “No Kings” came and went. Inflatable animal costumes did a brisk business for one week. The old Boomers got a social space to act out their nostalgic re-visit to the Age of Aquarius. They resisted. . . something. (Mainly authority of any kind, a retarded adolescent fantasy.) And now it’s back to Rachel Maddow for further instructions. The Republic slogs on, albeit with a shut-down government.

Did you forget about Ukraine? Yes, a war is still going on there and it’s a weeping lesion on Western Civ, possibly leading to fatal sepsis. US neocons set the stage in 2014 with the Maidan color revolution as a wedge to wreck and then loot Russia. Then, for eight years, Ukraine harassed the Donbas with US-supplied missiles and artillery. Russia had enough of that in 2022 and ventured in to stop it. For “Joe Biden,” the war was a nice smokescreen to cover his long-running grift operations in Ukraine. The Euro club stupidly came along for the ride.

It was all a tragic and feckless waste. Mr. Trump wants to stop it, but Western Civ as a whole is in such a state of florid strategic disorder that he’s had to pretend the US supports Ukraine. Mr. Zelensky could not possibly carry on this mischief without US weapons and loads of US taxpayer cash. Still, the Russians advance implacably on-the-ground. They are going to “win” this war eventually — meaning, the US and Europe will lose — and everybody knows it.

It would be nice if France, Germany, and the UK were still stable, thriving, rational nations, but they are not. They have entered an arc of collapse, largely due to their own stupendously bad choices, and their leadership is insane. Macron, Merz, Starmer. . . these are the Three Stooges of our time, and Europe’s collapse has degenerated to morbid, masochistic slapstick as their factories shutter and the Jihadis go about raping their wives and daughters. Do you think that’s not happening?

Mr. Trump surely realizes he has to cut the US loose from this evil clown-show. That they are our NATO allies complicates things, yet, really, the Euro gang is impotent and NATO has become an irrelevant anachronism. They have no effective military mojo. Their economies are imploding. They have surrendered their culture to a savage cult. Their populations are demoralized, emasculated, in thrall to the menopausal viragos in their councils and ministries. They know full-well that Ukraine lies in Russia’s sphere-of-influence — a centuries-long reality — and that it is none of their business. Yet, Macron, Merz, and Starmer keep pushing the fantasy that Russia seeks to invade them, and so they must strike at Russia before that happens . . . all pure delusion.

You can suppose that Mr. Putin wants a negotiated peace rather than continuing the long grind on-the-ground, with all its casualties and expenditures. Such a negotiated peace really amounts to the US ceasing to support Zelensky’s war effort. Of course, such is the insanity of US political life, that many in our government pretend that we have a stake in Ukraine, and must retain some control of it.

Mr. Trump must know this is insane and is against the interests of the USA. He knows that Ukraine is historically in Russia’s sphere of influence — as Venezuela is in ours — and that the best outcome of this mess would be for Ukraine to return to its prior status as a harmless frontier between Russia and western Europe — as it had been since 1945 — looking to its humble business of growing wheat for export. We do not need Ukraine to be anybody’s problem, despite the insane yearnings of the neocons, the weapons manufacturers, and the reckless globalists of the EU, to make it everyone’s problem.

Hence, Mr. Trump’s dilemma: how to dissociate from this losing proposition and come out looking like a winner, saving Europe from becoming a smoldering ashtray, stanching the flow of US taxpayers’ money and US-made weapons into this black hole, and forging friendly relations with a Russia that is decades beyond being our ideological enemy? America and Russia’s interests are geopolitically aligned, though no one in the arena is willing to admit it. Russia has much more to worry about with China right at Siberia’s doorstep than with the USA, just as the USA has much more to worry about with China as it weaponizes A-I, moves into outer space, and casts a covetous eye on the resources of the USA, Australia, Africa, and its next-door-neighbor, Russia.

These are the matters that Presidents Trump and Putin must be touching on in those long, two-and-a-half-hour phone confabs they hold. Meanwhile, Mr. Trump must put on a vaudeville show for his US adversaries about maybe giving tomahawk missiles to Ukraine. . . no, maybe not doing that. . . and the rest of the song and dance to make it appear that we are kinda-sorta still on Ukraine’s side when the truth is we are not so much at all.

And so, the two presidents head for Budapest where — if the intel spooks of Euroland don’t try to bump them off there — they might come to the necessary agreement that the war will end because the US no longer supports it, not even the pretense of supporting it. President Viktor Orban of Hungary, who Mr. Trump respects, will be on hand for moral support. Expect some tough-talking mummery from DJT, just to throw the MSNBC lunatics off-balance. Rogue idiots such as Senators Blumenthal and Schiff will fume that “Trump lost Ukraine,” but the 50-plus percent of Americans who are not-insane will understand what actually happened.

October 21, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Ukraine, weapons and war | Leave a comment

The madness of Trump’s vision for America

The Trump administration has banned or cautioned against using at least 350 words or phrases, including “climate change” (with and without a hyphen), “evidence-based,” “chest-feed + person” (don’t ask), “wind power” and yes, even “women.”

17 October 2025, https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/madness-trumps-vision-america

From terrifying the children of immigrants to pepper-spraying frogs, the US under Trump is rapidly descending into mayhem, writes Linda Pentz Gunter

N INFLATABLE frog has been pepper-sprayed, spawning (sorry) an army of affinity frogs and other creatures real and fictional, protesting at the often violent arrests of immigrants. A clarinettist in a brass band has been assaulted and arrested, abbreviations have been outlawed and naked bicycle riders are swarming our streets.

If it looks like the United States has gone mad, that’s because it probably has.

All of this happened in just one US city — Portland, Oregon — the hotbed of antifa, according to the Trump administration, which is trying to proscribe the “group” even though these days “antifa,” an abbreviation of “anti-fascist,” pretty much defines anyone who opposes Trump, and was never an actual organisation.

Also this week, the US Secretary of Defence, who, in the interests of achieving peace says he has renamed his purview the Department of War although no-one actually calls it that, announced this week that the United States had given the Qataris their own air force base in Idaho.

DoD Secretary Pete Hegseth’s bizarre declaration was quickly retracted after President Trump’s own “America First” base reacted with shock that a foreign power was being gifted its own military base on American soil. What Hegseth apparently meant, or what he now says he meant it to mean, is that the US will be hosting the Qatari military on a US base for training purposes, a not uncommon practice.

In another ominous move by the DoD, this time to shut down free speech, the department has ordered media outlets that cover the Pentagon to sign onto a new press policy that forbids defence reporters from soliciting, obtaining or using any information not already authorised by the DoD. All but one have refused to do so.

Meanwhile, as the Gaza ceasefire agreement was finally announced, Jared Kushner, the reprehensible son-in-law of the even more repulsive US president, floating in some parallel universe and with visions of beachfront real estate still dancing in his head, publicly pronounced Israel “exceptional” for refusing to replicate “the barbarism of the enemy.”

Kushner seems not only to have missed the two-year genocide in Gaza but also Israel’s cruel and inhumane treatment of Palestinians for the many decades prior.

He is not alone, of course. The US mainstream media has been awash in happy reunion stories of the returned Israeli hostages, which would be entirely understandable if they did not at the same time largely ignore the grimmer realties surrounding the simultaneous release of the Palestinian hostages (for such they are, not “prisoners,” since most have never committed a crime).

Some of the Palestinians just released were never reunited with their families at all but were instead immediately deported to Egypt. Others were left in the West Bank where the hostile and violent takeover of Palestinian lands and homes by illegal Israeli “settlers” continues.

Even those who could joyously reunite with their loved ones, in some cases after decades of separation, were not allowed to savour that moment without the spectre of the Israeli menace still literally hanging over their heads.

Instead of bombs falling from the skies, the Israelis rained down threats in the form of paper messages warning Palestinians that “We are watching you everywhere. If you show any support for a terrorist group, you will expose yourself to arrest and punishment.”

No-one should believe that this ceasefire signals any intent whatsoever by Israel to relinquish its control over the lives of Palestinians.

The obvious response to all this? Give Trump the Nobel Peace Prize! The past weeks have seen a non-stop sycophantic advocacy campaign by legions of leaders and political commentators who advocated for Trump with almost unprecedented zeal. That was before last Friday’s announcement of the decidedly problematic choice of Venezuelan opposition leader and “iron lady” Maria Corina Machado instead.

That is the paradigm we are now in: the belief that the Nobel Peace Prize should be awarded to those who enabled, funded, armed and participated in a genocide, once they themselves decided to halt their own war crimes.

Trump could have ended Israel’s genocide in Gaza on day one of his presidency with a single phone call to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He chose not to. Like us, he watched the killings, bombings, and forced starvation along with the targeted assassinations of 1,700 doctors and more than 200 journalists, live-streamed on our screens for two years. We’ve been horrified. He did nothing. Worse still, at times he egged on Netanyahu to “finish the job.”

Back home, Trump continues with his quiet coup. Denied for now the possibility of sending troops into major US cities, he will continue testing this, with an eye to deploying them during the 2026 midterm elections that could see both the US House and Senate swing to the Democrats.

Federal agencies are being purged of dissenters and stacked with “yes men.” The Elon Chainsaw Massacre may be over now that billionaire Elon Musk, who ordered the early rounds of dismissals through the entity he invented — the Department of Government Efficiency — has fled the scene. But the maiming continues, as critical workers are fired, public institutions defunded and non-profits viewed as progressive or “woke” are blacklisted.

The barbarity of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activities has prompted citizen protests and sometimes even interventions in cities across the US. Portland has become the epicentre of street theatre protest.

The resistance began, as it often does, with a single individual, a man in an inflatable frog costume who goes by the name of Apollo Toad, staring down ICE (Immigration & Customs Enforcement) agents. Pretty soon, others rallied to his side, dressed as a variety of animals and cartoon characters, at once mocking the proceedings, but at the same time driving home the absurdity of Trump’s attempt to label them terrorists.

The Portland clarinettist, Oriana Korol, had been playing music with the Unpresidented Brass Band before she was knocked down according to eyewitnesses, then grabbed and taken to a jail in the neighbouring state of Washington to face charges of assaulting a federal agent, accusations her bandmates say are trump(et)ed up.

In Florida, far-right Governor and Trump acolyte Ron DeSantis is trying to get a Bill passed in his state’s legislature, HB 119, also known as the “No Sharia Act,” a fear-mongering attempt to “stigmatise Muslims by pretending that US courts could be ‘overruled’ by foreign or religious law,” the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a grassroots civil rights and advocacy group, said in a statement.

“In reality, American courts are already bound by the US Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, making HB 119 completely unnecessary and clearly unconstitutional,” the group said.

Black Hawk helicopters have descended on Chicago, frightening children out of their beds in the middle of the night, dragged naked and handcuffed with their families Gestapo-style out onto the street before being driven away in unmarked cars.

Ironically, one of the most banned books in America right now is A Clockwork Orange that features a dystopian, violence-filled future. It’s a black comedy, but the censors miss that. In the meantime, there were 44,000 gun deaths in the US in 2024, equivalent to wiping out an entire British town the size of Salisbury or Ashton-under-Lyne.

On the international front, Trump is bombing boats out of Venezuelan waters without a care as to who might be on them, leading to concerns of a war against Venezuela. He has announced he may send long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine, a clear provocation to Russia.

At home, renewable energy projects have been all but killed off. Trump has threatened 100 per cent tariffs against China. The price of eggs has become the least of our problems.

There are still 190 active lawsuits challenging Trump administration actions, down from more than 300 since Trump took office in January which already seems like a lifetime ago.

We are still clinging to the hope that our legal system will save us from autocracy and a descent into fascism, even though the US Supreme Court is stacked in Trump’s favour. Three of the nine justices were placed there by him alongside three other arch-conservatives. It was that court that declared last year that the president has widespread immunity from prosecution while in office.

The government is still shut down. Trump says he won’t go to heaven (in case anyone cares), for achieving the Gaza ceasefire. But he is determined to plunge the country he is supposed to be leading into a living hell.

October 21, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | culture and arts, USA | Leave a comment

Pay attention to the nuclear threat on our doorsteps

THOSE who fear for the future of our planet understandably focus on global
heating, biodiversity loss, autonomous weapons and an unsustainable and
unequal economic system. But there remains far too little attention to the
nuclear threat on our doorsteps.

That threat of nuclear conflagration has
edged a little closer this past week, highlighting both the dangerous
fiction of “deterrence” as a guarantor of security and how preparing
for war to protect peace can head rapidly in the wrong direction.

There has been little in the mainstream media over the past few days on the nuclear strike training taking place over European skies – which still includes Scotland, despite our lack of a seat around any of the tables that
influence or decide these things.

The National 18th Oct 2025,
https://www.thenational.scot/politics/25552853.pay-attention-nuclear-threat-doorsteps/

October 21, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | UK, weapons and war | Leave a comment