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

Jeffrey Sachs: U.S. Attacks Venezuela & Kidnaps President Maduro

January 3, 2026 Posted by | USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Nuclear news at the start of 2026

Best wishes for 2026. I know that I should start with something positive. And there are positive things happening, and millions of people working on them. As Anne Frank said so long ago “I believe that people are really good at heart”

Nevertheless, I feel like sounding a note of warning.The mainstream news is barely to be trusted. Journalists are self-censoring so as to hang on to their jobs. “Social media” is all too often anti-social, and is not fact-checked.

Now, going back to my original purpose – the nuclear-free movement,I now feel impelled to start 2026 with this advice:Be especially sceptical of any information derived from the nuclear industry. At best, even where it’s factual, still take it with a big grain of salt.
Some bits of good news – The renewables juggernaut thundered on. Scientists treated the ‘untreatable’. 

Uganda rapidly got on top of an Ebola outbreak – all stories from – https://www.positive.news/society/what-went-right-in-2025-the-good-news-that-mattered/

TOP STORIES. Exposing the World Nuclear Association’s Bullshit.What Lies Ahead for Ukraine’s Contested Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant?
Palestine Before Nationalism: What Was Lost – and Why It Matters Now.                                                                                       UN Security Council Abandoned Palestinians- Humanity Must Refuse to Follow Suit.                                                                Israel Bans Dozens of Aid Groups from Operating in Gaza, Including Doctors Without Borders.                        Israel’s Ceasefire Violations in Gaza Continue to Pile Up –

AUSTRALIA.

Israel Bans Aid Groups and Puts Targets on Australian Backs | The West Report –https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9mjGsCU6QU                                               How Zionists are weaponising the courts to silence critics | The West Report – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_175A8ws4ak                                                 In Australia it is taboo to speak up for Palestinians, Australia being the only Western country that has no free speech, no Bill of Rights.                                                                   The Embedded Alliance – Australia, The Retreat from Sovereignty, and the Machinery of External Control. A Statement of Omission.

NUCLEAR-RELATED ITEMS

ATROCITIES. As Israel bans aid orgs in Gaza, notorious mercenary firm seeks “Targeter”.
ECONOMICS. Mini nuclear reactors are already losing their glow. Investors Beware: 2 Nuclear Energy Stocks That May Be Radioactive to Your Portfolio
EMPLOYMENT. Fears raised that specialist Vulcan MoD work could shift to Sellafield
ENERGY. AI Did Not Demand Centralised Power: Vested Interests Did.
ETHICS and RELIGION. Israel And Its Supporters Deliberately Foment Hate And Division In Our Society.                                                                                              The Pro-Israel Propaganda Complex. Catholic diocese urges prayer, public witness against proposed nuclear plant in northern Philippines.
HISTORY. When the USSR and China saved humanity: How they won the World Anti-Fascist War. Chris Hedges: Decline and Fall.
LEGAL. Pike County mom sues revived nuclear plant, alleging radiation led to daughter’s death.
POLITICS. U.S. Plans Largest Nuclear Power Program Since the 1970s .                        Donald Trump’s first step to becoming a would-be autocrat –hijacking a party. Secretary of State Rubio Believes U.S. Recovered Alien Tech And Gave It To Private Military Contractors.
Palestinian factions have come together to thwart Israeli plans in Gaza, for now. Energy bills to rise on New Year’s Day ‘to fund nuclear in England’.                            
Dungeness power station tipped for nuclear return as government ‘aware’ of interest.
POLITICS INTERNATIONAL and DIPLOMACY.
 Russia-US nuclear pact set to end in 2026 and we won’t see another. 
Poor, beleaguered Venezuela, with new pals China and Russia, may be demolishing two century old US Monroe Doctrine.

 Trump reaffirms his support for another strike on Iran after meeting with Netanyahu. 
Trump’s team no longer trusts Netanyahu – Axios. 
Netanyahu to Press for  ‘Another Round of War With Iran’ in Meeting With Trump This Week. 
Netanyahu Is Visiting Trump For The FIFTH Time This Year, And Other Notes. 

‘Pay price for wrongdoing’: China Sanctions 20 US defence firms after Trump approves Taiwan arms sale. 
Trump, Zelenskyy make ‘95% progress’, but ‘thorny issues’ remain – 5 key points. 
The West is spending big on nuclear plants again – and taking taxpayers along for the ride– ALSO AT https://nuclear-news.net/2025/12/31/1-b1-the-west-is-spending-big-on-nuclear-plants-again-and-taking-taxpayers-along-for-the-ride/ 

Patrick Lawrence: New Year’s Notes on Purported Leaders.
PLUTONIUM. Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety (CCNS) Nuclear Literacy Program to Educate Nuevomexicano Communities on the LANL Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for Plutonium Pit Production.
SAFETY. Safety fears as Japan prepares to restart nuclear plant ‘built on tofu’. Trump regulators ripped
TECHNOLOGY. The AI Arms Race Is Cracking Open the Nuclear Fuel Cycle. Electric Vehicles and Nuclear Power Are Fighting Over One Obscure Mineral.
WASTES. How are geological repository projects progressing (pronuke bias)
WAR and CONFLICT. Russia Hands US Evidence That It Says Confirms Ukraine Targeted Putin’s Residence in Drone Attack.
Trump Praises Putin, Promises Peace—Kyiv Still Under Fire.
CIA, with Trump’s blessing, is using Ukrainians to sabotage Russia’s energy infrastructure and oil tankers – NYT.
WAS RUSSIA’S SPECIAL MILITARY OPERATION “UNPROVOKED”?
WEAPONS and WEAPONS SALES.
 Russia claims to have moved nuclear-capable missile system into Belarus. 
Russia ‘Confidently Advancing’ In Ukraine, Over 30 Settlements Captured In December.
 Ukraine Takes Part in NATO War Games, Further Integrating Into Collective Defense Architecture.
Pentagon In Panic: China Just Delivered The Final Blow– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEa9E9vhQ0U.The Trillion Dollar War Machine (w/ William D. Hartung) T
he Chris Hedges Report. 
Why talk of a Japanese nuclear option is resurfacing – and why it alarms critics

January 3, 2026 Posted by | Weekly Newsletter | Leave a comment

Palestine Before Nationalism: What Was Lost – and Why It Matters Now

Zionism transformed Jewish identity from a plural, diasporic, and ethical tradition into a political nationality defined by territory, demography, and security doctrine. Dissent increasingly became framed as disloyalty. Equality became a threat.

2 January 2026 Lachlan McKenzie , https://theaimn.net/pa

Before Palestine became a battlefield of competing nationalisms, it was something far less dramatic and far more instructive: a plural society. Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived across the country under the governance of the Ottoman Empire – not as equals in the modern democratic sense, but as communities governed by a legal order that prioritised coexistence over domination.

That historical reality matters today, because it challenges a central myth: that Zionism arrived to redeem a land defined by religious hostility or demographic absence. Neither was true.

A plural society, not a vacuum

In the late nineteenth century, Palestine was overwhelmingly Arab in language and culture, religiously mixed, and socially interconnected. Jewish communities – often called the Old Yishuv – were long-established, Arabic-speaking, and locally embedded. Christian Palestinians maintained churches, schools, and civic institutions dating back centuries. Identity was local and communal, not nationalist.

This was not an idyllic society. Ottoman Palestine was hierarchical and imperfect. But it was not organised around ethnic replacement, nor did it pursue a political project of removing one people to secure the sovereignty of another.

Were Ottoman laws fair?

By contemporary standards, Ottoman governance was not democratic or fully equal. Yet by the standards of its time, it was comparatively tolerant and functional.

Under the Ottoman millet system, non-Muslims were recognised as protected communities (dhimmi), permitted to practise their religion, manage communal affairs, and hold property. Jews expelled from Christian Europe repeatedly sought refuge in Ottoman lands, including Palestine.¹

In the nineteenth century, the empire initiated the Tanzimat Reforms, which aimed – however unevenly – to equalise subjects before the law regardless of religion.² These reforms reduced religious hierarchy rather than intensifying it.

Crucially, Ottoman law did not pursue demographic engineering. It governed diversity; it did not attempt to erase it.

Zionism as rupture, not return

Political Zionism emerged not from Palestinian Jewish life but from nineteenth-century Europe, shaped by ethnic nationalism and colonial settlement logic. Its leaders were explicit about the central obstacle they faced: Palestine was already inhabited.

Rather than abandoning the project, early Zionists debated how to overcome that reality. Theodor Herzl wrote privately of removing the indigenous population through economic exclusion.³ Zionist institutions adopted policies of land acquisition coupled with tenant removal, “Hebrew labour only”, and the construction of a separate economy.⁴

Demographic dominance was understood as a prerequisite for sovereignty. Mass immigration would create irreversible “facts on the ground,” after which political recognition could follow.

“Transfer” and force

By the 1930s, leading Zionists discussed population removal – often termed “transfer” – as necessary. David Ben-Gurion acknowledged that a Jewish state could not be realised without displacement, writing that compulsory transfer could provide “something which we never had.”⁵

Ze’ev Jabotinsky was even more candid. In his 1923 essay The Iron Wall, he argued that indigenous peoples never consent to colonisation, and that Jewish sovereignty would require overwhelming force until resistance was broken.⁶ This was not a religious argument; it was a settler-colonial one.

Palestinian Jewish opposition – erased from memory

These developments were not universally welcomed by Jews in Palestine. Many Palestinian Jews opposed Zionism, fearing it would shatter coexistence, recast Jews as settlers, and provoke conflict with Muslim and Christian neighbours. Their objections were pragmatic and prescient. They understood that they – not European ideologues – would live with the consequences.

Zionism’s eventual dominance owed less to universal Jewish consent than to imperial sponsorship, particularly British support following the 1917 Balfour Declaration, and to the catastrophic narrowing of perceived alternatives after the Holocaust.

What was lost

Zionism transformed Jewish identity from a plural, diasporic, and ethical tradition into a political nationality defined by territory, demography, and security doctrine. Dissent increasingly became framed as disloyalty. Equality became a threat.

The tragedy is not that Ottoman Palestine was perfect. It is that a plural society governed by law – however flawed – was dismantled and replaced by a project that required dominance to succeed.

That is the historical rupture. And it is why the conflict is modern, political, and structural – not ancient or inevitable.

A society that already contained Jews, Christians, and Muslims was remade into a battlefield by a European nationalist project that could not tolerate equality.

Understanding that history does not deny Jewish suffering. It honours it – by insisting that persecution should never be answered with its reproduction.

Footnotes and Primary Sources……………..

January 3, 2026 Posted by | history, MIDDLE EAST | Leave a comment

UN Security Council Abandoned Palestinians. Humanity Must Refuse to Follow Suit.

As the new year approaches, Palestinians face new forms of colonization and new challenges to our rights and survival.

By Michel Moushabeck , Truthout January 1, 2026

Today we have a so-called ceasefire that is killing Palestinians on a daily basis. When it comes to Israel, the word “ceasefire” simply means that Palestinians are not allowed to retaliate against Israeli airstrikes, shelling, artillery, bombs, house demolitions, or suicide drones. In reality, Israel can fire all it wants and has been doing so since the minute the agreement took effect. According to President Donald Trump, “nothing is going to jeopardize” the ceasefire in Gaza.

The ceasefire, hailed as a success by the U.S. and the Western world, has done little to end the siege of Gaza and the deepening starvation and malnutrition of Palestinians, especially the children. And it is unlikely to usher in a pathway to freedom, equality, or self-determination for the Palestinian people in the foreseeable future.

The “ceasefire” is nothing but a cover for Israel’s genocidal practices, supported by the U.S. and Western nations, and disguised by mainstream media. It is a deceptive appearance and a ploy that deflects criticism, allows the continued supply of U.S. weapons to Israel, shields the Israeli regime from accountability,

disappears the Gaza genocide from the news, and enables Israel to continue the extermination and displacement of Palestinians.

Can We Stop Pretending There Is a Functioning “Ceasefire” in Gaza?

Since October 10, 2025, the day the ceasefire agreement between Hamas and the Israeli government went into effect, the Israeli military has killed nearly 400 Palestinians and injured over 1,000, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Under the ceasefire agreement, Israel is required to allow 600 trucks of aid and other goods into Gaza every day, but UN data show that Israel continues to block food aid, medical supplies, and tents in violation of the agreement.

Agnès Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International, said in a statement on November 27: “The ceasefire risks creating a dangerous illusion that life in Gaza is returning to normal … the world must not be fooled. Israel’s genocide is not over.”

According to the Gaza Health Ministry, the total death toll of Palestinians since October 7, 2023, is now 70,100, with 171,151 injured and many more buried under the rubble. The Israeli bombardment resulted in an estimated 50 million tons of rubble.

What the statistics don’t reflect are the number of people in Gaza that were killed by Israel not through bombs and airstrikes, but through indirect means: Palestinians killed because of lack of shelter after Israel destroyed their homes; because of the destruction of their water supplies and desalination plants, electricity supplies, and sanitation systems; because of the flattening of clinics and hospitals; and because of starvation and diseases.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said shelter materials for 1.3 million people and about 5,000 trucks of emergency supplies remain stalled outside Gaza as Israel continues to block all UNRWA-associated goods from entering.

The Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem, who have endured 77 years of brutal Israeli military occupation and a system of apartheid that denies them their rights, are left with no choice other than to continue their struggle for liberation and against erasure and ethnic cleansing — including their right to armed resistance as recognized under international law.

UN Security Council Loses Sight of Its Mission and Betrays the Palestinians

On November 17, 2025, in an unexpected and disgraceful vote of 13-0 that is counter to the UN’s raison d’être — with two abstentions from Russia and China — the UN Security Council (UNSC) adopted Resolution 2803, which embraces Trump’s — or is it Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s? — “20-point peace plan,” effectively normalizing genocide, rewarding U.S. complicity, and establishing new colonial rule over the lives of 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza. It grants full control over Gaza to a U.S.-led “Board of Peace,” headed by Trump himself, that will oversee the administration and reconstruction of the Strip and establishes an “International Stabilization Force” in charge of security and disarming the resistance — not a UN peacekeeping force that will protect Palestinians.

Palestinians who have endured two years of genocide — and the total destruction of their homes and livelihoods — were not part of the negotiations and had no say in this matter. The plan — hatched by the Trump-Netanyahu team and legitimized by the UNSC — includes no mention of the genocide and does not call for accountability for the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed over the last two years. This plan, which whitewashes the genocide, will never be forgotten or forgiven by any Palestinian. It denies Palestinians their humanity, their right to self-determination, and does nothing to address their grievances or root causes of their struggle. It will simply prolong the illegal occupation and will not advance peace or stability in the region in any meaningful way.

Israel views the inclusion of language in the resolution about a “pathway to Palestinian statehood” as nonbinding. In fact, the day after the UNSC vote, Netanyahu publicly stated his strong opposition to a Palestinian state. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….https://truthout.org/articles/un-security-council-abandoned-palestinians-humanity-must-refuse-to-follow-suit/?utm_source=Truthout&utm_campaign=db602f5be8-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2026_01_01_06_24&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_bbb541a1db-db602f5be8-650192793

January 3, 2026 Posted by | MIDDLE EAST, politics international | Leave a comment

Catholic diocese urges prayer, public witness against proposed nuclear plant in northern Philippines.

A northern Philippine diocese has urged Catholics to gather for prayer and public witness as it reiterates its opposition to a proposed nuclear power plant in Labrador town, Pangasinan province.

Jan 02, 2026, By Mark Saludes, Herald Malaysia Online,
In a video message circulated ahead of the gathering, Fr. Ed Inacay of the Diocese of Alaminos called on residents to take part in a Holy Mass on Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, at 8 a.m. at St. Isidore Parish, to be presided over by Bishop Napoleon Sipalay Jr.

The priest said the Mass is linked to the Church’s discernment on the proposed nuclear facility and reflects the diocese’s opposition to the project.

“It is good that we reflect on this and pray over this plan, and I encourage you to join our bishops, especially here in our diocese, our beloved bishop, where the Diocese of Alaminos does not agree with the construction of a nuclear power plant here in our town of Labrador,” he said. 

Caritas Philippines expressed support for the Diocese of Alaminos and urged the public to “demand an energy policy that prioritizes human safety, ecological integrity, and the constitutional right to a balanced and healthy environment.”

In a video message released on Jan. 2, Caritas Philippines president Bishop Gerardo Alminaza of San Carlos, warned that nuclear energy “remains a perilous energy source that poses long-term risks to our communities and our ‘common home.’”…………………..

In December 2025, Catholic dioceses across the country expressed collective opposition to the proposed construction of a nuclear power plant in Western Pangasinan, citing moral responsibility, environmental risk, and the protection of life as central concerns. 

In a pastoral letter, the bishops, particularly those of the Metropolitan See of Lingayen-Dagupan, said the proposal came as communities were still recovering from Typhoon Uwan, which left the province under a state of calamity and affected more than 233,000 people.

The bishops said the Philippines’ vulnerability to earthquakes and typhoons, its location along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” and the lack of a secure, long-term solution for radioactive waste make nuclear facilities an “unacceptable risk,” especially in disaster-prone areas. 

They warned that nuclear energy carries “irreversible, long-term risks” that outweigh projected benefits and said radioactive waste, which remains deadly for thousands of years, would impose a burden on future generations.

Drawing from the experiences of bishops in Japan after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the prelates said nuclear power generation is fundamentally incompatible with a vision of society that respects all life.

Echoing Pope Francis, the bishops stressed prudence, human safety, and environmental protection over immediate economic gains, urging government officials and the public to pursue renewable energy paths that safeguard communities, ecosystems, and the common good.—licas.news https://www.heraldmalaysia.com/news/catholic-diocese-urges-prayer-public-witness-against-proposed-nuclear-plant-in-northern-philippines/86844/2

January 3, 2026 Posted by | Philippines, Religion and ethics | Leave a comment

Trump reaffirms his support for another strike on Iran after meeting with Netanyahu

On Monday, Donald Trump reaffirmed his support for another strike on Iran after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But analysts say Netanyahu’s designs go far beyond Iran.

Mondoweiss, By Michael Arria  December 30, 2025

In comments to reporters after his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Donald Trump reiterated his support for another strike on Iran.

“I hope they’re not trying to build up again, because if they are, we’re going to have no choice but very quickly, to eradicate that build up,” said Trump, referring to the alleged expansion of Iran’s ballistic missile program.

“We’ll knock them down,” he added. “We’ll knock the hell out of them.”

Netanyahu has consistently pushed for a wider war on Iran, and was expected to make the case for further attacks during his Mar-a-Lago visit.

Trump’s comments prompted an immediate response from Iranian officials.

In an article in The Guardian, Iranian foreign minister Seyed Araghchi called on the Trump administration to defy Israel on the issue.

“The US administration now faces a dilemma: it can continue writing blank cheques for Israel with American taxpayer dollars and credibility, or be part of a tectonic change for the better,” he wrote. “For decades, Western policy towards our region has been mostly shaped by myths originating from Israel.”

“The response of the Islamic Republic of Iran to any oppressive aggression will be harsh and regrettable,” tweeted Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

In a post on the meeting, Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft Vice President Trita Parsi wrote that an attack on Iran could easily lead to retaliatory strikes.

“Tehran has gone to great lengths to avoid a military confrontation with Washington, but just because it has shown restraint in the past does not mean that it can afford to do so in this scenario,” wrote Parsi. “Indeed, given that Iran will be totally exposed without its missiles, it will likely reckon that it has no choice but to strike directly at U.S. targets.”

“Even if Trump opts to ‘only’ support Israel defensively in yet another Israeli choice of war — which is the position Biden took — it nevertheless incentivizes Israel to restart war, as the U.S. is lessening the cost for Israel to do so,” he continued……………………………………………………. https://mondoweiss.net/2025/12/trump-reaffirms-his-support-for-another-strike-on-iran-after-meeting-with-netanyahu/

January 3, 2026 Posted by | Iran, Israel, politics international, USA | Leave a comment

Poor, beleaguered Venezuela, with new pals China and Russia, may be demolishing two century old US Monroe Doctrine.

Walt Zlotow  West Suburban Peace Coalition  Glen Ellyn IL, 31 December 2, https://theaimn.net/beleaguered-venezuela/

Over the past several months the US has committed mass murder of unknown souls on small boats off Venezuela, seized a Venezuelan oil tanker, and massed a huge force of 10,000 troops, aircraft and world’s largest aircraft carrier nearby Venezuela. All this designed to dislodge hated Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro to allow America’s takeover of Venezuelan oil resources.

And they are vast, among the world’s largest at over 300 billion barrels. They also pose a major threat to US world energy and political dominance. Venezuela supplies over 80% of China’s energy needs, all of which is paid for in Yuan, not US dollars. China has made major investments in the Venezuelan economy to further their energy interdependence.

Russia too has become a significant military, economic and political partner of Venezuela to counter 2 decades of US intimidation, now turned violent, to oust the socialist governments of first Hugo Chavez and now successor Maduro.

Neither China nor Russia will sit back as Trump seeks his illegal, immoral and criminal takeover of Venezuela and its vast resources. Both are pouring in military and intelligence resources to keep US boat bombings and tanker seizers from devolving into outright invasion.

President Trump keeps ratcheting up the military pressure but so far avoided outright invasion. What is Trump waiting for when his intimidation force squanders over $8 million per day and Maduro has clearly signaled he’s going nowhere but to the Venezuelan war room? Due to Chinese and Russian help, Venezuela will be no pushover. While the US brings vast military firepower to any intervention, US cannon fodder may end up arriving at Arlington by the planeload. Even the Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier might be joining those small fishing boats down to Davy Jones Locker. With just 15% of Americans supporting invasion, domestic opposition to Trump’s folly will be ferocious.

The rest of Latin America, indeed the world, watches as the US has boxed itself into an untenable corner. Engage in all out war and it’s likely to end disastrously even in victory. Turning around the Trump armada will signal to Latin America that the Monroe Doctrine is dead, allowing more countries to pivot from US military and economic intimidation to countries like China, Russia and others who treat them as decent political, economic partners. 

Time for the US to retire the Monroe Doctrine, end senseless economic sanctions that simply turn the world against America, and become an honest, reliable partner in world affairs. Alas, Trump and his neoconservative war council appear oblivious how they are accelerating America’s world dominance decline.

January 3, 2026 Posted by | politics international, SOUTH AMERICA, USA | Leave a comment

Electric Vehicles and Nuclear Power Are Fighting Over One Obscure Mineral

Oil Price, By Michael Kern – Dec 31, 2025,

  • The market for ultra-high-purity (UHP) graphite, essential for EV anodes and nuclear reactors, is projected to hit $1.43 billion by 2030, masking structural friction in the global energy transition.
  • The vast majority (86% in 2024) of UHP graphite is synthetic, requiring a massive industrial footprint of fossil fuel feedstock and staggering  amounts of electricity for high-heat graphitization furnaces.
  • Two massive, well-funded industries—transportation and power generation (SMRs/nuclear)—are competing for the same narrow, geopolitically sensitive supply of high-purity carbon, which is primarily controlled by Asia Pacific’s refining capacity.

The energy transition is often sold as a story of ethereal “green” progress, but if you look at the balance sheets of the companies actually building it, the story is written in soot and high-voltage electricity. While the financial press spends its time obsessing over the price of lithium or the latest solid-state battery breakthrough, a much more grounded, and expensive, reality is setting in.

We are entering the era of the engineered anode.

New data suggests the market for ultra-high-purity (UHP) graphite is on a trajectory to hit $1.43 billion by 2030. On the surface, a 10.5% compound annual growth rate looks like a healthy, if predictable, industrial expansion. But for those of us who track the friction between a digital climate pledge and the physical hardware required to meet it, that number masks a massive structural shift in how we power the world… and who holds the keys…………………………………………………………………………………………

The Nuclear Renaissance’s Dirty Secret

There is a quieter, more desperate buyer entering the UHP market: the nuclear sector.

As we move toward Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) and high-temperature gas-cooled reactors, the demand for “nuclear-grade” pyrolytic graphite is set to lead the market in growth. This material is produced via chemical vapor deposition (CVD)—an even more complex and expensive process than standard synthetic graphitization.

In a nuclear core, graphite is a structural necessity that must survive extreme radiation and heat without absorbing neutrons.

The report highlights that this “unrivaled ability” makes it indispensable. But here is the friction point: the standards for nuclear-grade purity are even higher than battery-grade.

We are effectively seeing two massive, well-funded industries—Transportation and Power Generation—fighting over the same narrow pipe of high-purity carbon…

It is a zero-sum game played with atoms………………………………………………………………………………….. https://oilprice.com/Metals/Commodities/Electric-Vehicles-and-Nuclear-Power-Are-Fighting-Over-One-Obscure-Mineral.html

January 3, 2026 Posted by | technology | Leave a comment

Energy bills to rise on New Year’s Day ‘to fund nuclear in England’

31st December 2025, By Xander Elliards, Content editor

ENERGY bills are set for a slight rise on New Year’s Day as the price cap
increase comes into effect. The 0.2% uplift to Ofgem’s energy price cap
will see an average overall bill of £1758 a year for the average household in England, Wales and Scotland remaining on a standard variable tariff, up
from the current £1755.

While only a small increase, it is £190 higher
than the £1568 average bill in place in July 2024 – when Labour came to
power pledging to cut costs by £300 a year. Regulator Ofgem said
Thursday’s increase in the cap, which was announced in November, was
being driven by the funding of nuclear power projects and discounts to some
households’ winter bills. This included funding the Government’s
Sizewell C nuclear power plant in Suffolk – with an average of £1 added
to each household’s energy bills per month for the duration of the £38
billion construction.

 The National 31st Dec 2025,
https://www.thenational.scot/news/25732168.energy-bills-rise-new-years-day-to-fund-nuclear-england/

January 3, 2026 Posted by | ENERGY, politics, UK | Leave a comment

Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety (CCNS) Nuclear Literacy Program to Educate Nuevomexicano Communities on the LANL Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for Plutonium Pit Production

For over eighty years, the People of New Mexico have borne the burden of the 1943 establishment of Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Through the Congressional continuing resolution process, LANL may receive an additional $1 billion dollars to support expansion of the number of plutonium triggers, or plutonium pits, fabricated for nuclear weapons. The people of northern New Mexico are unaware of the effects that this potentially may have on nearby communities. The effects of eight decades of nuclear weapons development has had a cumulative impact on New Mexico, especially in Rio Arriba County, which borders Los Alamos County to the north and west.

During the Bush II and Obama Administrations, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) proposed three new weapons systems: the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (RNEP), the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW), and the Interoperable Warhead (IW). Grassroots organizations networked, educated each other, spoke at public meetings, wrote informed public comments, and worked with technical experts, elected officials and the media to understand how increased weapons development would impact frontline communities, which are mostly comprised of Indigenous and Hispanic people. With leadership from New Mexico and colleagues and NGOs throughout the world and through active organizing and public engagement in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process, those proposed weapons systems were defeated and eventually canceled. 

January 3, 2026 Posted by | - plutonium | Leave a comment