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Work begins in UK for arming new nuclear submarines at £7.75bn each

Work begins on Coulport building for Dreadnought submarines, 19th October, By Donald Erskine

WORK has started on a building which will arm the Royal Navy’s new multi-billion-pound nuclear submarines.

Naval Base Commander Clyde Commodore Andy Bray recently broke ground on a new facility at Royal Naval Armament Depot (RNAD) Coulport to support future classes of submarines.

Building 300 at the site will house the Vertical Embarkation System, or VES, a new facility used to load tactical weapons onto future Dreadnought-class deterrent submarines.

The House of Commons approved replacing the current submarines in 2016, despite opposition from anti-nuclear groups and campaigners concerned about the cost.

Built at a cost of £7.75bn per unit, four Dreadnought submarines will replace the current Vanguard ships, which constantly patrol the seas carrying ballistic missiles equipped with thermonuclear warheads.

The Trident system is designed to act as a deterrent to other nations with nuclear capability, as a first strike on the UK would not eliminate the ability to strike back, given some of the country’s weapons are continuously at sea.

The building is designed to receive, store, assemble, and maintain Spearfish torpedoes, the Royal Navy’s primary underwater weapon for both anti-submarine warfare and anti-surface warfare. The VES will also be used to train personnel to handle the weapons…………………………………………………
https://www.helensburghadvertiser.co.uk/news/26648451.work-begins-coulport-building-dreadnought-submarines/

October 25, 2026 Posted by | UK, weapons and war | Leave a comment

The Normality of Evil: Reflections on the “NAZA” Documentary

Yakov M. Rabkin 10/19/2026, https://www.juancole.com/2026/10/normality-reflections-documentary.html

Montréal Informed Comment, – Hannah Arendt’s characterization of Eichmann as representing “The Banality of Evil,” the subtitle of her book Eichmann in Jerusalem, shocked many people. It was later criticized in the wake of the discovery of her protagonist’s antisemitic pronouncements, unknown during his trial.

The new film NAZA, documenting the inner mechanisms of the Gaza genocide brings the concept of the banality of evil front stage again. Except that this time we have the testimonies of two dozen perpetrators who, unlike Eichmann, do not face a tribunal but share their experience mostly in a casual and relaxed manner, some with pride in their accomplishment, others with remorse. They sound like normal middle-class men and women conscientiously doing their challenging hi-tech job. These Israelis embody something different from the Nazis who tried to hide their crimes from their own people, whom they feared would not support them. The new film is about the normality of evil in a society that has largely accepted the genocide taking place less than forty miles south of Tel Aviv.

The twenty-four perpetrators interviewed in the film belong to elite intelligence units that harness the power of AI and total surveillance to destroy Gaza. They are not “Arab haters,” remarks one of the interviewees. Yet he believes he killed more women and children than the fiercest Arab hater. However abhorrent the ongoing West Bank pogroms against Palestinians by Zionist squatter-settler vigilantes taking place under the sympathetic gaze and occasional assistance of the IDF—the magnitude of mass murder of civilians in Gaza is incomparably greater.

The perpetrators come from privileged classes of upscale, glittering Tel Aviv, the visual background of the entire film. Among the leitmotifs of the testimonies are the readiness to obey orders and the delight of overcoming difficult technical challenges (technodélice, as the late Jean-Jacques Salomon defined it). “It was fun (kef),” admitted one of the perpetrators.

NAZA is a Hebrew acronym for collateral damage. The association with “Nazi” is not fortuitous; one of the perpetrators compares his experience with that of Nazis engaged in industrialized, albeit less sophisticated, mass murder in the early 1940s. When, like many young Israelis (and Jews from elsewhere), he was taken to visit Nazi extermination camps, he wondered how these Nazis could switch to normal life after killing thousands of people a day. Now, he admits, he knows. He would meet friends after a day of killing mostly women and children and enjoy his night out.

Initially, neither the Nazis nor the Zionists intended to commit genocide. In their exclusivist nationalist fantasies, German National Socialists wanted to expel the undesirables, to make the “purified,” expanded Germany great again and, in the case of the socialist Zionists in power in 1948 and 1967, when massive expulsions took place, to turn Palestine into a “Jewish state.” Both had land lust: the Nazis wanted fertile land in Eastern Europe ‘cleansed’ of most Slavs and all the Jews—while critics and political figures alike have described Israel’s territorial strategy as a pursuit of ‘a maximum of territory with a minimum of Arabs.’

From the turn of the 20th century, Zionist pioneers laid strong emphasis on breeding the intrepid and valiant New Hebrew Man who had broken with the victimhood of the past. In his eulogy for Theodor Herzl in 1904, Vladimir Jabotinsky, who established and shaped the now dominant stream of Zionism, defined the new creature thus:

Our starting point is to take the typical Yid of today and to imagine his diametrical opposite … because the Yid is ugly, sickly, and lacks decorum, we shall endow the ideal image of the Hebrew with masculine beauty. The Yid is trodden upon and easily frightened and, therefore, the Hebrew ought to be proud and independent.

It was only later, faced with resistance kindled by the settler movement, that Israelis assumed the role of innocent victims, forced to defend themselves. Visits to the Nazi extermination camps are essential components of the didactic tools used to forge hard-nosed fighters. No wonder most of them called the attack on southern Israel in October 2023 “the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.” Totally lost was the difference between powerless Jewish civilians targeted by the Nazis and the powerful Jewish state that had expelled and confined Palestinians in an open-air concentration camp in Gaza. Referring to the violence they unleash, the Israelis often use the expression ein brera (“there is no choice”), which preserves their self-image and justifies excesses. This is how the genocide has metastasized from Europe to West Asia.

The film’s protagonists explain how they use sophisticated technology to survey every telephone communication of the Palestinians. One of the phrases AI extracts from millions of conversations is “When does daddy come home?” This is how the decision is made to destroy the suspect’s home along with his wife and children. Behind their computer screens, those who determine such targets can later hear the cries of those wounded children who were waiting for their fathers a few minutes earlier.

Israel, many of whose politicians overtly advocate and pursue fascist policies, is justly proud of being a world leader in technological innovation, a “Start-up Nation.” Its qualitative edge over its neighbours, guaranteed in American law, involves close cooperation with the U.S. military-industrial-digital complex. Forthcoming legislation will formally embed the Israeli military in it. Unlike Ukraine, which serves mostly as a testing ground for Palantir and other Western facilitators of hi-tech warfare, Israeli scientists and engineers actively contribute to the development of new systems such as Lavender, which are widely used against the Palestinians. All this happens within the larger ecosystem of U.S. financial, material, and strategic support. Not only Washington, Berlin, and London but even Belgrade maintain the lifeline, or rather the deathline, of munitions, materiel, and cloud services to Israel. These enable it not only to oppress and kill Palestinians but also to attack other countries, doing, as Chancellor Merz of Germany candidly admitted, “the dirty work for all of us.” There is little doubt that Merz and his Western counterparts were aware all along of the methods that the new film exposes to the public.

Moreover, Israeli expertise in surveillance and population control is in demand around the world. This portends dangers to privacy and democracy elsewhere. Tools of total surveillance may tempt rulers concerned about potential social turmoil and even revolutions against the growing—and unprecedented—economic polarization. Sprouts of fascism have been noticed in a good part of the Political West. ICE activities to target undocumented immigrants in the United States may be just the beginning. The ruling classes’ need to protect their privilege foments connivance with Israel and thereby contributes to the country’s impunity.

Similarly, the penetration of Hezbollah with booby-trapped pagers, which led to the murder and mutilation of thousands of people in Lebanon and Syria in 2024, shows how vulnerable anyone may become by using deceptively inoffensive civilian gadgets. (NAZA does not mention this gruesome episode, which is the subject of another recent documentary.) Israeli officials have bragged that for them the stage is the entire world, and they are the main players on it. Ominously and proudly, Prime Minister Netanyahu said that everyone in the world carries a piece of Israel in his pocket.

The Nazi genocide of Jews, Slavs, and many others shocked Europeans mainly because the victims were fellow Europeans. Their genocides in Africa and the Americas had provoked no comparable revulsion. Another important cause of the shock is the rational organization of the Nazi genocide. Israelis in Gaza used hi-tech, including AI, to raise the level of organization to unprecedented levels. IDF specialists and snipers admit feeling like gods capable of killing people practically at will. Israeli media reported cases of depression when soldiers returned to civilian life. For some, the cause was the loss of the sense of omnipotence. They felt they were no longer gods but just nobodies lost in the crowd. Other IDF veterans experience depression in the face of world opprobrium, which they, convinced of their innocent victimhood, cannot comprehend and attribute to antisemitism.One of the Israelis interviewed in the film was assigned to the political wing, which had to use electronic media to besmirch, discredit, and undermine critics of Israel. (After NAZA was released in cinemas, Israelis promptly produced a fake misleadingly named “Naza: The Real Story. Full Film” in an effort to divert viewers from the original, which, unlike the fake, is so far not available online.) This operation contributes to repressive measures even against political, let alone material, support for the Palestinians in several European nations and in the United States. Criticism of Israel is criminalized as antisemitism. Israeli agents in these countries provide target data — most probably collected by the Israeli intelligence—to police, employers, and universities, which promptly move to intimidate, arrest, deport, sack, and expel the critics. While Israel undermines fundamental freedoms of speech and assembly in most Western countries, it nonetheless is losing the battle for public opinion.

Facing growing public disaffection in Europe and in the United States, Netanyahu promises to turn Israel into a “super-Sparta”—a heavily militarized, self-sufficient society capable of standing alone amid growing international isolation. Israeli politicians and military experts have long concluded that the official definition of Israel as a “Jewish and democratic state” is rent with tension between the two. Liberal democratic values —ostensibly cherished by Western democracies—have to yield to Jewish supremacy. Consequently, peace is no more than a temporary policy option for Israel. To paraphrase von Clausewitz, politics is the continuation of war by other means.

States are inanimate but are operated by individuals. While the psychological and political range among the Israelis is broad, the film NAZA illustrates the striking success of breeding the New Hebrew Man liberated from the moral constraints of Jewish tradition and humanity tout court.

One of Francisco Goya’s famous works is titled “El sueño de la razón produce monstruos.” It is usually understood as “when reason falls asleep, monsters appear.” But the Spanish sueño also means “dream” or “fantasy.” The Zionist state embodies the phrase “Wenn ihr wollt, ist es kein Märchen” (“When you will it, it is no fairy tale”), written by Herzl, the founder of political Zionism, over a century ago. (It bears a striking resemblance to the title of the Nazi cinematographic masterpiece Triumph des Willens, or The Triumph of the Will.) The project that appeared like a fantasy and a fairy tale came true by rational use of political, financial, and human resources. Israel’s actions show that instrumental rationality—a characteristic trait of modernity—can also produce monsters. Moreover, such monsters are convinced that they are normal, and so are most Israelis around them. This makes Israel a serious danger to the region, to the world and, of course, to itself.

Yakov M. Rabkin is Professor Emeritus of History at the Université of Montréal. His publications include over 300 articles and a few books: Israel in Palestine, Zionism Decoded in 101 Quotes Science between Superpowers, A Threat from Within: a Century of Jewish Opposition to Zionism, What is Modern Israel?, Demodernization: A Future in the Past and Judaïsme, islam et modernité. He did consulting work for, inter alia, OECD, NATO, UNESCO and the World Bank. E-mail: yakov.rabkin@umontreal.ca. Website: www.yakovrabkin.ca

October 25, 2026 Posted by | Israel, media, Religion and ethics | Leave a comment

Why trade is vital to understanding how Ukraine needs western capital to stay afloat and how Russia can pay for its war effort without new debt

Four graphs [on original]that tell a bigger story

Ian Proud, The Peacemonger, Oct 20, 2026

I have wanted to write an article for sometime about the differing fates of Russia and Ukraine since the onset of the conflict in 2014. The headline is that Ukraine has never made up the difference in increased trade with Europe having cut its trade with Russia to the bone since 2014. This has inadvertently meant that Europe has had to inject significant sums of capital into Ukraine just to prevent its currency from collapsing as the war has gone on. Russia has diversified its trade away from Europe such that its export model is as strong today as it was in 2014, giving it the liquidity it needs to underwrite the war effort.

Key finding:


  • Ukraine exported 24% less and imported 46% more in 2025 than in 2014. The war has driven up imports while exports never recovered from the signing of the DCFTA and have been hampered by the war effort.
  • The yawning trade deficit Ukraine has built since the war started has placed greater strain on European sponsors to provide the capital Ukraine needs to prevent its currency collapsing, in addition to providing funding to meet its fiscal requirements.
  • This funding challenge for Europe will persist after the war ends until Ukraine can become self-sufficient in boosting exports and/or attracting sufficient foreign investment to offset its trade deficits.
  • Russia’s export strength and consistent surpluses have been unaffected by war. After the Ukraine crisis started, Russia started to diversify its major energy exports away from Europe, allowing it to weather the progressive reduction of exports to Europe. Indeed, Russia gained a huge windfall in 2022 from surging energy prices. There is no evidence that sanctions have impacted Russia’s export model in a significant way.
  • Russia has already started to reaccumulate FX reserves after the oil price collapse of late 2014, until before the war started. Following the immobilisation of $300bn in Russian FX reserves, Russia started to accumulate reserves in monetary gold, to sanction-proof future earnings. Russia now has liquid reserves of over $420bn meaning the immobilisation of its foreign currency reserves is no longer an economically limiting factor.

Detailed analysis

Russia’s export model in which it runs consistently large trade surpluses has ensured it can generate the reserves of foreign currency and gold which have undoubtedly helped to bankroll the war in Ukraine. Ukraine’s trade deficit has yawned since the war started, requiring continual injections of European capital to prevent its currency from collapsing.

This helps to explain by Russia can sustain the war for longer; it doesn’t need to take on significant new debt, its debt remaining low at 20%. Ukraine can only fund the war and keep its national accounts in balance with European money that cannot be guaranteed long-term and which, in any case, has increased Ukrainian debt by an average of 20% of GDP each year since the war started. This is not sustainable.

The Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement of 2014 has disadvantaged Ukraine because it forced a choice away from trading with Russia.………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

by encouraging Ukraine to trade with Europe and not with Russia, Europe has imposed a deadweight economic loss on Ukraine which took a sovereign decision to forgo a previously profitable trade relationship, to pursue a political goal of EU integration……………………………………………………………………………..

Dragged into a persistent and growth trade deficit by war, Ukraine needs continued injections of foreign funds to prevent its currency collapsing.…………………………………………………………………………………………………..

………………………………………………… While Russia would undoubtedly like to see the return of its immobilised assets after the war ends (big question mark) it has nevertheless built up a significant financial buffer to the tune of over $420bn in reserve assets in addition to those assets that remain frozen.

This deep well of reserves undoubtedly helps to underwrite Russia’s war effort without the need for significant borrowing. Russia’s debt today sits at around 20% of GDP.

In 2021 Ukraine’s debt sat at around 49% of GDP. Today it sits at around 110% of GDP……………………………………………… https://thepeacemonger.substack.com/p/why-trade-is-vital-to-understanding?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=3221990&post_id=221204744&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

October 25, 2026 Posted by | business and costs, Russia, Ukraine | Leave a comment

Ukraine’s Black Sea escalation threatens global trade, with risks of spiralling

Ukraine’s expanding Black Sea attacks are disrupting shipping, raising insurance costs, and threatening global food and energy trade. As “wild-card” Zelensky raises the stakes (angering the US), the risk of a wider confrontation grows.

Friday, October 16, 2026, https://infobrics.org/en/post/103298

Uriel Araujo, Anthropology PhD, is a social scientist specializing in ethnic and religious conflicts, with extensive research on geopolitical dynamics and cultural interactions.

Black Sea shipping is in crisis, adding pressure to a global economy already absorbing Red Sea and Strait of Hormuz disruptions. Commercial vessels face rising risks, insurance costs have climbed, and tanker freight rates have surged.

Ukraine has stepped up attacks on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, ports, oil facilities, and vessels associated with Russian trade, expanding the conflict’s geographical scope. Grain, oil, fertilizers, and other commodities move through these waters, including shipments for non-belligerent countries.

S&P Global reported on October 9 that tanker freight rates rose sharply amid attacks, sanctions, and security concerns disrupting Russian energy exports. According to maritime security consultancy Ambrey, Kyiv expanded its campaign beyond naval assets and oil infrastructure to merchant ships trading with Russian ports.

In November 2025, attacks had already expanded to commercial vessels, particularly oil tankers, in the open sea. In May 2026, Ambrey attributed strikes on three Russia-linked tankers inside Turkey’s exclusive economic zone to Ukrainian naval drones.

By July, targeting expanded to dry-bulk carriers, general cargo, container ships, and roll-on/roll-off vessels. In September, insurers widened the high-risk zone. Ambrey data shows 45 merchant vessels struck outside the previous war-risk area in 12 months, 31 after July 1, 2026.

Ambrey’s finding is that Ukraine-attributed strikes (on Russia-linked shipping far offshore) helped drive insurers’ growing risk perception across the Black Sea.

Russia has responded by also conducting strikes in the Black Sea. As Modern Diplomacy puts it, Moscow has made any Black Sea truce conditional on Kyiv ceasing attacks on Russian energy infrastructure.

This is, after all, a proxy war of attrition, marked as it is by considerable military asymmetry. Russia possesses a larger population, defense-industrial base, strategic arsenal, air force, and navy, as well as greater resources for prolonged warfare.

Ukraine, despite developing formidable drone capabilities and long-range strike capacity, remains heavily dependent on Western assistance.

Global Firepower’s 2026 ranking places Russia second and Ukraine twentieth. The military asymmetry is therefore considerable.

The hard truth is that, notwithstanding any legitimate criticism one may have of Moscow’s campaign, Russia has refrained from employing its full destructive capabilities.

Such restraint, particularly in the war’s early stages, may have reflected not only humanitarian and military calculations but also (on Moscow’s end) awareness of historical and cultural ties between the two countries – which may have a psychological effect on decision-makers.

Kyiv, in contrast, since the 2014 ultra-nationalist revolution, has launched an anti-Russian campaign to distance the nation from Moscow. Even so, 42.6% of Ukrainians still regularly spoke Russian in December 2022, despite the war and media censorship restrictions.

Former US diplomat Chas Freeman and retired US Army Colonel Douglas Macgregor have both argued that Moscow exercised restraint.

Poland’s Centre for Eastern Studies likewise noted in June 2022 that Russia had refrained from systematically destroying key infrastructure – while the US Congressional Research Service observed that the initial bombardment was more limited than expected.

For comparison, Bono Vox performed in Kyiv on May 8, 2022, less than three months after Moscow launched its campaign. One could hardly imagine Bono performing in Baghdad shortly after the US invasion! Or in 2011 Libya, for that matter.

The broader point here is that the Russian Federation retains substantial military advantages, despite Ukrainian advances, but Western support has enabled Kyiv to sustain a prolonged war of attrition – increasingly targeting Russian energy.

In August, Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian and Iranian-linked vessels in the Caspian Sea risked expanding the conflict into a vital Russia-Iran logistics corridor.

The attacks risked further “proxifying” the conflict by aligning Kyiv with US and Israeli interests against Tehran, potentially merging the European and Middle Eastern theaters – a scenario that never materialized.

In any case, Ukrainian attacks on Russian energy infrastructure continue amid mounting political pressure, with Trump even saying it is “time for Ukraine to get new President.” I’ve commented before on Zelensky’s resilience, despite several reported plots against him.

The Ukrainian leader has shown a habit of acting unpredictably, sometimes behind his Western patrons’ backs. In 2023, leaked documents revealed wild Ukrainian plans that risked widening the conflict. More recently, attacks on Russian refineries drew attention amid rising diesel prices and reports of moves angering Washington.

This “wild-card” tendency risks triggering a dangerous spiral, with potentially disastrous consequences for Ukraine – and the global economy. Repercussions for food, energy, and fertilizer trade are already visible, while the danger of crossing red lines has arguably never been greater.

October 25, 2026 Posted by | Ukraine, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Rosyth councillor raises concerns over submarine dismantling

By Jamie Szmitz, Dunfermline Press 19th Oct 2026
https://www.dunfermlinepress.com/news/26648971.rosyth-councillor-raises-concerns-submarine-dismantling/

FRESH concerns have been raised about nuclear submarine dismantling plans at Rosyth Dockyard.

Councillor Brian Goodall has voiced renewed opposition to the long-term storage of radioactive material in the town, following recent discussions at the SNP annual conference in Aberdeen.

At the political party gathering he quizzed Gareth Hedicker, Babcock International’s Marine Chief Operations Officer, on the plans for radioactive waste that’s being removed from the first of seven old nuclear subs that are laid up at the West Fife yard.

Cllr Goodall said: “I’ve still not had any response from Babcock on how long, and where, they intend to store the highly radioactive reactor pressure vessel that they intend to cut out of the decommissioned nuclear submarine, Swiftsure, over the next few weeks, as part of the ongoing Submarine Dismantling Demonstrator Project.”

In a social media post he also stated: “I challenged the chief operations officer about the poor communication with the local community in relation to the activities at the nuclear regulated site at Rosyth Dockyard.”

He raised concerns about the outdated mailing list used for stakeholder meetings and criticised the lack of clarity around plans for storing the highly radioactive reactor pressure vessel from the decommissioned submarine HMS Swiftsure.

Cllr Goodall said he intends to accept an invitation to meet Mr Hedicker as soon as possible.

Rosyth Dockyard is at the centre of the UK Government’s Submarine Dismantling Programme, which aims to safely dismantle and recycle decommissioned Royal Navy nuclear submarines.

HMS Swiftsure is the first vessel to undergo dismantling under the programme.

Cllr Goodall has consistently opposed proposals to expand the programme at Rosyth, warning that bringing additional submarines to be cut up at the site would be “totally outrageous” and would go against assurances previously given by the Ministry of Defence.

He believes that long-term storage of radioactive materials at Rosyth is inappropriate given the dockyard’s proximity to homes, businesses, and the new Caledonia High School development.

The debate comes as a wider conversation continues about the future of the submarine dismantling programme and Rosyth’s role within it.

October 25, 2026 Posted by | decommission reactor, UK | Leave a comment

Concerns over scrutiny of nuclear factory plans

Questions have been raised over whether West Berkshire Council has the
expertise and resources needed to scrutinise plans for a major
redevelopment at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) in Aldermaston. The
nuclear weapons site is expected to submit plans for its Future Materials
Campus, part of a wider £15bn investment in the UK’s warhead programme.


During a meeting on Thursday, Conservative councillor Dominic Boeck said
residents had concerns about the impact of the project and asked how the
authority would independently assess an application of such scale and
complexity. Liberal Democrat deputy council leader Denise Gaines said any
proposal would be examined by qualified professionals and specialist
consultants to ensure all technical and environmental issues were properly
considered.

BBC 19th Oct 2026, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm369jg6d2wno

October 25, 2026 Posted by | safety, UK | Leave a comment

Massive Ukrainian drone attack on St. Petersburg escalates US-NATO war against Russia.

Under these conditions, there is a growing admission within the US and international media that NATO and Russia are entering a “world war.” In one of the foremost examples, the Financial Times published Saturday a column titled, “Are we sleepwalking into World War III?”

The old imperialist powers retain a military superiority they no longer possess economically.

Andre Damon,18 October 2026, https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2026/10/19/yudl-o19.html

Ukraine attacked Russia with more than 1,000 drones overnight Saturday, in the largest bombardment of St. Petersburg since the Second World War. The attack, in which Russia’s Defense Ministry counted 1,015 drones across 15 regions, Crimea and the Black Sea, was one of the heaviest bombardments of Russian territory since the war began.

These strikes are directly funded by the NATO powers, which have provided Ukraine with over $100 billion in weapons, and are carried out on the basis of targeting data provided directly by their militaries.

The latest attack is a response by the NATO powers to the warning Russia gave European governments on September 30, that threats to Russia’s territorial integrity would be met with “the entire arsenal of forces and capabilities at its disposal, including nuclear weapons.”

Faced with this blunt warning that their actions risk triggering a nuclear war, the NATO powers are escalating. On October 12, General Alexus Grynkewich, NATO’s top commander in Europe, threatened to “break” the enemy’s “warfighting system,” including “anything and everything that supports, sustains, or controls that force.”

Under these conditions, there is a growing admission within the US and international media that NATO and Russia are entering a “world war.” In one of the foremost examples, the Financial Times published Saturday a column titled, “Are we sleepwalking into World War III?” by its chief foreign affairs commentator, Gideon Rachman. The title of his essay is taken from a 2012 book by Australian historian Christopher Clark, The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914, which provided an apologetic explanation for the policies of German and European imperialism.

According to Clark, the war was the unforeseen outcome of mistaken judgments. The governments of the time and their leaders were not guilty of planning and starting war to achieve geopolitical and economic objectives. This benign interpretation of the war was especially welcomed by the German government and media, which praised Clark’s work and turned him into an intellectual celebrity.


Building upon Clark’s metaphor, Rachman depicts the imperialist powers as similarly clueless about the consequences of their actions. He writes, “Regions and countries that have for decades taken peace for granted—western Europe, east Asia, the Gulf states—now have to wrestle with the prospect, or the reality, of war.” It has become “commonplace,” he notes, “for world leaders to speculate publicly about the outbreak of a third world war.”

Read more: Massive Ukrainian drone attack on St. Petersburg escalates US-NATO war against Russia.

Rachman, citing a quote attributed to Leon Trotsky, declares, “You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.”

But the US and European leaders are not political somnambulists who are “sleepwalking” into World War III. They have been marching toward it with eyes open since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The first President Bush proclaimed a “new world order” on the eve of the 1991 Gulf War. That war was followed by the intervention in Somalia, the bombing of Bosnia and the 1999 war against Serbia, the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, the destruction of Libya, the proxy war in Syria and the US-backed Saudi war in Yemen.

Since 2022, these wars have merged into a single global conflagration. It includes the US-NATO war against Russia in Ukraine; the Israeli genocide in Gaza, armed and defended by Washington; the bombing of Iran in June 2025; and the war against Iran launched on February 28 of this year.

The objective is the redivision of the world among the old imperialist powers. This violent and ongoing project includes the breakup of the existing Russian state, which will open up the vast Eurasian landmass to unfettered capitalist exploitation. For the oligarchs of finance capital, the loss of a few hundred million lives would be a small price to pay for this rich prize.

In Rachman’s telling, however, the danger of world war proceeds entirely from the actions of Russia and China. In this narrative, the threat of “world war” began with the decision Putin made in February 2022, with no antecedent history. Rachman asserts that an inflection point was reached when “Putin launched his ‘special military operation.’ In that time, the global political atmosphere has been transformed.”

The Russian invasion of Ukraine did not come out of nowhere. It was a reactionary and desperate response by the Russian capitalist oligarchy to years of provocations by NATO. NATO’s own leadership has said as much. In an interview published by the Washington Post in May 2023, then-NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg declared that the war “didn’t start in 2022. The war started in 2014.”

Stoltenberg continued, “And since then, NATO has implemented the biggest reinforcement of our collective defense since the end of the Cold War … Until 2014, NATO allies were reducing defense budgets. Since 2014, all allies across Europe and Canada have significantly increased their defense spending … this is a huge transformation of NATO that started in 2014.”

The Russian invasion of Ukraine did not come out of nowhere. It was a reactionary and desperate response by the Russian capitalist oligarchy to years of provocations by NATO. NATO’s own leadership has said as much. In an interview published by the Washington Post in May 2023, then-NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg declared that the war “didn’t start in 2022. The war started in 2014.”

Stoltenberg continued, “And since then, NATO has implemented the biggest reinforcement of our collective defense since the end of the Cold War … Until 2014, NATO allies were reducing defense budgets. Since 2014, all allies across Europe and Canada have significantly increased their defense spending … this is a huge transformation of NATO that started in 2014.”

But the Maidan coup was itself an outcome of decades of imperialist policy that had pushed the boundaries of the NATO alliance to Russia’s doorstep.

Rachman correctly centers the driving force of the eruption of global war in “a shift in the global balance of power.” He notes that, “In 1989, the year of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the G7 nations—the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Canada and Japan—accounted for around two-thirds of global economic output … By 2022, the G7 represented about 43 percent of global GDP.”

This shift, according to Rachman, is “encouraging revisionist powers to challenge the global dominance of the US and its allies.” China’s share of world output rose from under 2 percent in 1989 to about 17 percent in 2024, according to World Bank figures.

However, by 2022, Rachman notes, the G7 still accounted for “about half of global military spending.” The old imperialist powers retain a military superiority they no longer possess economically. It is they, not China, that have spent the past 35 years at war, seeking to reverse by force what they are losing in the world economy.

The most bizarre element of Rachman’s column is his effort to blame the reemergence of global war on the public’s opposition to it. He writes that “the growth of anti-war sentiment in the US” has “created an opening for revisionist powers,” that US President Donald Trump “is clearly attracted to the idea that the US should retreat from its security commitments to its allies” and that “the greatest risk of a third world war may lie in that very uncertainty.”

Beset by an all-pervasive capitalist crisis and the growth of working class opposition, the imperialist powers seek through war a way out of their problems. The global eruption of imperialist war is only intensifying the class struggle and the capitalist crisis. It is driving workers and youth into struggle around the world, from the United States to France—where students and workers filled the streets this week against a government that has billions for rearmament and nothing for social needs.

The working class and youth must reject and oppose the insane imperialist militarism that is inciting global conflict and threatening humanity with a nuclear conflagration.

October 25, 2026 Posted by | Russia, Ukraine, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Walt Zlotow – War criminal Hegseth to hide Iran school slaughter report till after election

Hegseth did order a Pentagon investigation, which, ‘wink, wink’ was sure to reveal the truth.

20 October 2026AIMN Editorial, Walt Zlotow, https://theaimn.net/war-criminal-hegseth-to-hide-iran-school-slaughter-report-till-after-election/

Two hundred thirty-three days ago Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth committed a monstrous
war crime. He conspired with his fellow war criminal President Trump to attack Iran posing no threat to America whatsoever.

On day one Hegseth directed his ‘war fighters’ to bomb the Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School in Minab, Iran. The dastardly attack killed 120 students, 26 female teachers, the unborn child of a pregnant teacher, seven parents, a school bus driver, and a technician at a nearby clinic. Aboard Air Force One Hegseth demurred to his war criminal boss Trump who claimed Iran, not the US, must have been responsible for bombing their own folks because… ’They’re terrible shots.’

But Hegseth did order a Pentagon investigation, which, ‘wink, wink’ was sure to reveal the truth.

We’ve learned from a Bloomberg investigation that Pentagon officials, and of course Hegseth, were aware within hours the US was responsible due to flawed intelligence, outdated imagery, and an overreliance on AI. But with an election coming up, Hegeth, mindful how the slaughter of 120 little kids nd 36 parents and teachers might affect even MAGA diehards, has directed the Pentagon to wait until after the November 3 election before releasing the Pentagon report.

We shouldn’t be surprised if war criminal Hegseth tries to explain away the damning report of the grotesque war crime he unleased on those little Iranian students and their teachers last February 28 with the preface… ’I guess that Super Intelligence we used to mistakenly bomb the Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School in Minab, Iran wasn’t so Super after all.’

October 25, 2026 Posted by | secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

Trump Is Building the Machinery to Make Defeat Impossible

Joshua Scheer, SCHEERPOST, October 20, 2026

When Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose presidential term ended in May 2024, informed Trump that elections would not be held in Ukraine because of the war, Trump responded: “So you’re saying during the war you can’t have elections? So let me just say, three and a half years from now … So you mean if we happen to be in a war with somebody, no more elections? Oh, that’s good.”

An election can be stolen long before the ballots are counted. This searing address from Chris Hedges warns that the Trump administration is assembling the machinery to discredit unfavorable results, intimidate voters and turn claims of election fraud into a justification for federal intervention. The danger, the speech argues, is a government preparing to make its hold on power permanent.

But the indictment reaches beyond Trump. Decades of corporate domination, bipartisan betrayal of working people and the hollowing out of democratic institutions have prepared the ground for authoritarian rule. If the elections are subverted, the speaker argues, defending democracy will require mass organizing, nationwide strikes and sustained public resistance from people whose own future is at stake.

Full Edited Transcript……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… https://scheerpost.com/2026/10/20/trump-is-building-the-machinery-to-make-defeat-impossible/

October 24, 2026 Posted by | politics, USA | 1 Comment

Zelensky still the most dangerous man in the world.


Walt Zlotow  West Suburban Peace Coalition  Glen Ellyn IL, 20 October, 26

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has been pushing all out war between the West and Russia since the Russian invasion of February 2022. And ‘all out’ only has one inevitable outcome…nuclear war.

That’s a long time to be put under threat of nuclear annihilation by a former comedian. Zelensky used his celebrity to win the Ukraine presidency in 2019, promising to make peace with the Russian leaning Ukrainians in Donbas on Russia’s border being brutalized by the ultra nationalist Kyiv government for years preceding Zelensky.

The Kyiv deep state quickly disabused Zelensky of reproachment with Donbas Ukrainians and Russia. With the US and NATO cheering Zelensky on, this made the Russian invasion nearly 3 years later.

Zelensky went along, foolishly believing Western aid would defeat an overwhelmingly more powerful Russia that Ukraine had no chance of defeating single handedly.

But right at the start, President Biden, most responsible for provoking the war, declared no US troops or long range weapons for Zelensky because ‘that would lead to nuclear war.’ That essentially sealed Ukraine’s fate, a truth Zelensky could not comprehend.

How right Biden was then and how wrong Zelensky was and is today, demanding endless long range NATO weapons that are reaching deep into Russia.

October 24, 2026 Posted by | PERSONAL STORIES, Ukraine | Leave a comment

Microsoft pulls out of AI datacentre project in Essex over power supply concerns

Driven by hopes of an economic transformation, many are taking on increasingly risky debt, including companies vital to the AI boom

Development by UK firm Nscale heralded by ministers as largest of its kind in country loses anchor tenant

Gwyn Topham and Aisha Down, Mon 19 Oct 2026 ,
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/oct/18/microsoft-drops-huge-ai-datacentre-project-in-essex-over-power-supply-concerns

The development of a huge AI datacentre hailed by the UK government has received a fresh setback after Microsoft pulled out of the project over concerns about power supplies.

The development by the British company Nscale, heralded by ministers as the country’s largest AI datacentre when it was announced in 2025, was planned to open at Loughton in Essex next year.

Doubts had already emerged about the scheme after the Guardian revealed in March that the location was still an operational scaffolding yard.

Now there are further concerns after Microsoft, one of its largest planned customers and expected to have been the anchor tenant, informed the company that it was pulling the plug on its agreement.

It comes a month after it emerged that power supply problems meant the project would face a lengthy wait before coming online.

Keir Starmer’s government had highlighted the Loughton project when announcing the UK’s AI strategy in 2025, describing it as the “largest UK sovereign AI datacentre”. Datacentres are the central nervous system of AI technology such as chatbots.

The end of the deal with Microsoft, first reported in the Telegraph, means Nscale has lost its only publicly announced customer for the Essex datacentre. It is understood that Microsoft remains on board for another project the company has in Norway.

Doubts had already emerged about the scheme after the Guardian revealed in March that the location was still an operational scaffolding yard.

Now there are further concerns after Microsoft, one of its largest planned customers and expected to have been the anchor tenant, informed the company that it was pulling the plug on its agreement.

It comes a month after it emerged that power supply problems meant the project would face a lengthy wait before coming online.

Keir Starmer’s government had highlighted the Loughton project when announcing the UK’s AI strategy in 2025, describing it as the “largest UK sovereign AI datacentre”. Datacentres are the central nervous system of AI technology such as chatbots.

The end of the deal with Microsoft, first reported in the Telegraph, means Nscale has lost its only publicly

Nscale, which is backed by tech companies including Nvidia, has positioned itself as Britain’s “sovereign” datacentre provider but the loss of an anchor tenant for its Loughton project could undermine its ambition to float on Wall Street this year with a potential valuation of $35bn (£26bn).

Targeting the rapid growth of AI to boost the economy, the UK government’s proposals to harness the technology have focused on two Nvidia-backed companies: the London-based Nscale and the US company CoreWeave.

Official figures show investments in AI are among the factors helping Britain’s economy to beat expectations of a weaker growth performance this year as the war in the Middle East rattles global business activity.

Nscale is a “neocloud”, one of a number of companies with deep ties to Nvidia that are building the key infrastructure for the AI boom. It is this relationship with Nvidia that meant it and CoreWeave were chosen as key players in the UK’s sovereign AI push, which happened under Starmer.

There is, however, a growing chorus of voices which suggest that neoclouds may be a vulnerability in the broader AI economy, especially as delays pile up across partners.

Driven by hopes of an economic transformation, many are taking on increasingly risky debt, including companies vital to the AI boom. If Nscale pushes back its initial public offering in New York, these vulnerabilities may come into sharper focus.

The former UK deputy prime minister Nick Clegg and the former Meta chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg are board members at the company. Clegg holds a 0.25% stake that could be worth $88m if the company floats at a $35bn valuation.

It emerged earlier this month that UK Power Networks (UKPN), which owns and maintains the electricity grid across London and the south-east of England, had informed Nscale that it would not be able to supply enough power to the company’s Loughton datacentre until the early to mid-2030s.

Nscale said it was “committed to the project” but the failure to find a quick fix to the power supply issue underlines how much energy has become a hindrance to datacentre development.

The scaffolding yard site has been cleared by Nscale, and the company is investigating whether it can generate power onsite and whether it can speed up the connection process.

An Nscale spokesperson said: “We remain committed to both the Loughton project and the UK, and we are exploring alternative power sources for the site, in addition to other expansion sites in the UK.

“Our relationship with Microsoft remains strong and long-term, and this unfortunate London-wide grid issue has no impact on our other contracts.”

October 24, 2026 Posted by | ENERGY, technology, UK | Leave a comment

Deep concerns regarding the Rolls-Royce development at the Wylfa site



Open Letter to Miatta Fahnbulleh MP, Secretary of State for Energy Security
and Net Zero.

Dear Secretary of State, I am contacting you with a letter
written to the former holder of the post, Ed Milliband, expressing my deep
concerns regarding the Rolls-Royce development at the Wylfa site on Ynys
Mon.

Since writing to Ed Miliband, there have been developments that make
the prospects of a nuclear site on the island even more concerning:


1)Increasing threats of war mean that we will be targets for attack. Russia
and Iran have both threatened us, due to our interventions in Ukraine and
the use of British bases for the bombing of Iran. Whatever the rights and
wrongs of these interventions, it is clear that nuclear power stations are
now regular targets for attack. How are we to be protected? How are we to
get off the island in the event of an attack ( or nuclear accident)? There
are two bridges connecting us to the mainland, and even if there were
three, there would be no safe evacuation possible, without the danger of
accidents.

RAF Valley is also on the island, making us a further target.
The waste produced by the possible new nuclear reactors will also serve as
an ongoing target and risk, as it would remain onsite for at least 100
years, being too hot to remove. Our future generations will be responsible
for this; not a legacy we want to bequeath.

2) Increasing droughts and
wildfires have threatened the safety of nuclear plants all over the world,
including at Sizewell B this year. Should the electricity supply be cut to
a nuclear power station, if backup diesel power is then cut off or damaged,
through flooding, as in the case of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, then
there is also disaster, as the reactors cannot be cooled if there is no
electrical power to the station. So, for a nuclear station to be safe,
there needs to be adequate power in the first place. This can no longer be
relied on.

3) A December 2025 Harvard T.H Chan study found a statistical
link between those living close to nuclear power plants and higher cancer
rates in Massachusetts. The strongest link was seen within 20 to 30
kilometers of a nuclear station, and the risk increased as people got
older. There is also a risk to workers.

4) Whereas the Rolls-Royce site has
advertised that the electricity generated at Wylfa would go to homes, it is
now published that energy could go to AI centres being developed on the
island and nearby. How are we to know the end use of the electricity to be
generated by these nuclear reactors?

The World Nuclear Industry Status
Report ( WNISR) 2026 shows that between March 2025 and June 2026, both
solar and wind power have independently surpassed generating electricity
from nuclear reactors. I understand that you want to mitigate the effects
of climate change in the most efficient and safe ways possible. Nuclear
power is neither efficient or safe, particularly under conditions of
conflict, climate change, or indeed pandemic, where routine maintenance is
reduced, as happened during the Covid pandemic.

We implore you to
reconsider pouring more money into these nuclear reactors, yet to receive
the Generic Development Consent order, and instead concentrate our
resources to upgrading the grid, as you propose, and using our excellent
renewable energy sources.


People Against Wylfa B 19th Oct 2026,
https://www.stop-wylfa.org/

October 24, 2026 Posted by | safety, Small Modular Nuclear Reactors, UK | Leave a comment

Under pressure from AI data companies, USA government facilitating the upgrade of tired old nuclear reactors

The Nuclear Power Shortcut That Could Add Gigawatts to the U.S. Grid

the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) announced it would conditionally loan the energy company Vistra $4.2 billion to uprate three nuclear plants in Pennsylvania and Ohio, adding another 430 MW of capacity. Amazon also completed an agreement to uprate Constellation’s Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant in Maryland, while Google announced plans to increase power production from four reactors in Georgia.

By Felicity Bradstock – Oct 18, 2026, https://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Nuclear-Power/The-Nuclear-Power-Shortcut-That-Could-Add-Gigawatts-to-the-US-Grid.html

  • U.S. nuclear operators could add gigawatts of power by upgrading existing reactors instead of building new facilities.
  • Google, Amazon, and other tech companies are supporting major nuclear uprate projects to meet growing AI electricity demand.
  • Nuclear uprates could deliver additional reliable electricity years before new reactors can be constructed.

The process of increasing the maximum power level at which a commercial nuclear power plant may operate is called a power uprate. Several nuclear plants are now considering applying for permission to uprate operations to produce more power in the mid-term to bridge the gap while more nuclear capacity is being developed.

The United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) regulates the maximum power level at which a commercial nuclear power plant may operate. The permitted power level is stated in the license and technical specifications for the plant and cannot be altered unless approved by the NRC. U.S. nuclear plants can request permission from the NRC to increase their power output, or “uprate”.

The NRC will determine whether to grant a plant uprate permission depending on whether it can be achieved safely. To increase power output, nuclear operators must modify the nuclear reactor’s instrumentation, controls, and power-generation systems. Over the past two decades, the NRC has approved uprates that have provided an extra 6 GW of power to the U.S. electricity grid, which is equivalent to six large reactors. The agency is considering uprate requests from various operators that massively boost the country’s nuclear power capacity.

To safely uprate operations, plant operators must upgrade components such as controls, turbines, and pumps within their nuclear facilities to generate more electricity. While these upgrades can cost billions of dollars to implement, they can allow operators to produce more power much more quickly than it takes to build a new facility. Many upgrades can be completed in five years or less. Analysts estimated that increasing electricity output from existing nuclear plants could add a massive 6-8 GW of clean power to the grid.

In October, the largest nuclear power plant operator in the United States, Constellation Energy, announced plans to invest over $4.3 billion to refurbish 11 reactors at six plants in Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, enabling them to produce more power. The investment is expected to help Constellation add 890 MW of power to the grid, enough to supply 700,000 homes. Google has agreed to buy electricity from those plants at an undisclosed price.

This is just one of several projects that are expected to support the massive increase in U.S. power demand driven by the rapid rollout of new artificial intelligence (AI) data centres. Also this month, the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) announced it would conditionally loan the energy company Vistra $4.2 billion to uprate three nuclear plants in Pennsylvania and Ohio, adding another 430 MW of capacity. Amazon also completed an agreement to uprate Constellation’s Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant in Maryland, while Google announced plans to increase power production from four reactors in Georgia.

The Trump administration, which has announced plans to quadruple the U.S. nuclear power capacity by 2050, is highly supportive of these new projects. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a statement, “By getting more power out of the nuclear plants we already have, we can deliver more affordable, reliable, around-the-clock energy.”

Several nuclear plant operators have struggled to secure the funds to upgrade their plants as U.S. power demand plateaued in the 2000s and public perception of nuclear power was poor. However, the rising demand for power driven by data centres and the improved public perception of nuclear power has encouraged tech companies to invest heavily in a wide range of energy projects, from nuclear power to gas plants and renewable sources. Several tech companies are now willing to pump vast amounts of capital into uprating projects to rapidly increase their access to the clean power needed to run massive data centres.

The NRC expects a total of 31 power uprate applications totalling 7.3 GW thermal and 2.4 GW electric between 2026 and 2032. The organisation is expected to approve several of these projects, as many of the operators requesting uprate permissions have decades of experience in nuclear power development in the United States, making them well-versed in managing safety concerns

Some operators are wary of conducting uprate work because the necessary upgrades would require them to stop producing power for several months. However, as tech companies demonstrate their willingness to invest heavily in nuclear energy projects, more companies may be convinced in the coming years.

Uprating operations is unlikely to detract from plans to develop new nuclear plants in the United States, given the projected rise in power demand over the coming decades. However, it could provide an alternative way to rapidly expand the country’s nuclear power capacity to fill the gap while new facilities are being designed, licensed, and constructed.

October 24, 2026 Posted by | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Several tons of jellyfish packed the seawater filters at a nuclear plant on France’s northern coast, and three reactors shut down automatically

By Hugo RojasOCT 17, 2026,
https://www.ecoportal.net/en/france-s-northern-several-tons-jellyfish/43014/

The alarm at the coastal plant came from the water, not the core.

Pumps that normally pull in a steady, boring flow of seawater began choking instead.

Inside the filter drums, something soft and pale was piling up by the ton.

It was not sand, not seaweed, not debris from a storm.

It was jellyfish, drifting in on an ordinary summer tide.

By the time the night was over, three reactors had shut themselves down and a fourth was running at half power.

Why a jellyfish can stop a nuclear reactor cold

A nuclear reactor does not cool itself. It depends on a constant river of seawater pulled through intake pipes to carry heat away from the turbine side, and that water passes through grids and rotating screens first. The filter drums and grids exist to stop seaweed, driftwood and fish, not a soft bodied animal with almost no skeleton.

That is exactly why jellyfish are so effective at jamming them. A weak swimming creature that drifts with the current cannot escape the pull of an intake. Its gelatinous body does not bounce off the mesh the way debris does; it packs flat against it and blinds the filter.

Enough soft tissue in one place and the pressure loss across the drums becomes severe, cooling water flow falls, and the plant’s protection systems order an automatic shutdown to preserve the reactor’s ability to cool itself. All of that happens on the seawater side, in the non nuclear part of the site, well away from anything radioactive.

A swarm that grew from pounds to tons in a matter of days

The plant is Gravelines, sitting between Dunkirk and Calais and drawing its cooling water from a canal connected to the North Sea. A reinforced watch kept by local fishermen and volunteer sea rescuers had spotted only a few dozen kilograms of jellyfish near the site in the days before, on the order of a hundred pounds.

The operator says the swarm then multiplied far faster than anticipated, until several tons of jellyfish pushed into the pumping stations and saturated the filter drums. Units 2, 3 and 4 dropped offline, another unit was cut to half power, and a single reactor kept running at full strength while the last one sat idle for scheduled maintenance.

None of it touched the reactor cores. “This situation has no impact on the safety of the facilities, the safety of personnel, or the environment,” the operator said in a statement. The jellyfish never got near radioactive material, they simply jammed the plumbing.

This has happened before, at Gravelines and far beyond it

What makes the story stranger is that this was not a one time fluke. The same plant had lost four reactors to a near identical swarm almost exactly a year earlier, in August 2025, which shut the whole site down while two units were already in maintenance.

Gelatinous animals have stalled coastal plants elsewhere too. Sweden’s Oskarshamn lost a unit to a sudden jellyfish influx in 2005 and again in 2013, when tons of moon jellyfish clogged the cooling intake of its largest reactor. Scotland’s Torness shut down in 2011, and California’s Diablo Canyon took a unit offline in 2012 after salps, jellyfish like relatives, packed its intake pipes.

Experts quoted on the French shutdowns point to warming coastal water, overfishing and pollution as conditions that let jellyfish thrive longer. That chain is plausible rather than proven, since marine biologists cautioned it is hard to show jellyfish are genuinely increasing because long run historical data barely exists.

The fix is mechanical, not nuclear, and it is still catching up

Engineers have not redesigned the reactors to cope with jellyfish. The countermeasures sit entirely on the seawater side. After the first episode, the operator installed supervision cameras on equipment including the filter drums and the intake canal so the swarm can be watched continuously from the control room.

A partnership with a fishermen’s association and sea rescuers now runs daily visual checks and targeted fishing when a bloom builds. When the water turned thick again, three fishing boats worked around the clock to move jellyfish offshore, and crews netted tens of tons of them out of the water in little more than a day.

It is a strangely low tech answer to a high tech problem. Other energy infrastructure faces its own version of this puzzle, whether it is a dam managing its intake flow or a turbine blade tested against years of wear before it ever meets open water.

What it means for a warming coastline

None of this makes nuclear power newly unsafe. The affected units were reconnected to the grid over the following days and weeks once the drums were cleared, with one unit staying offline longer than the rest.

The story is really about plumbing meeting biology at an inconvenient hour. Even so, the frequency is worth watching, since the same plant has now been halted by the same animal two summers running.

If coastal seas keep favoring jellyfish, plants built decades ago around a certain tonnage of debris may need sturdier intake screens designed for a softer, larger problem than their builders expected. For now it remains a curiosity more than a crisis, proof that a sophisticated machine on the coastline can be stopped by an animal with no brain, no bones and barely any muscle, simply because it floats where the water goes.

October 24, 2026 Posted by | business and costs, France | Leave a comment

New nuclear technology is predicted to transform North Wales.

A major programme delivering Small Modular Reactor (SMR) technology is set
to transform Anglesey and wider North Wales in the coming years. Wylfa on
Anglesey has been selected as the site of the UK’s first SMR nuclear power
station. The move recognises the strong nuclear heritage and expertise of
the area.

Earlier this month, a group of public and private bodies across
industry, local government and the Welsh Government, and led by Bentley
Systems met at a roundtable to discuss benefits for the region. Gary
Pritchard, leader of Isle of Anglesey County Council and Llinos Medi AS/MP
for Anglesey were in attendance. Institution of Civil Engineers Wales Cymru
Fellows provided impartial advice and expertise on building the programme
in its first steps.

The programme will pioneer skills in the region,
develop new vocational and academic training programmes, and create jobs in
Anglesey. ICE Wales Cymru Regional Director Keith Jones said: “ICE Wales
Cymru supports the Welsh and UK governments in the development of Small
Modular Reactors (SMR). Wales is ideally placed to play a very significant
role in clean energy generation and become an energy hub for the UK.
Nuclear power has a key part to play in the transition to net zero”.

Insider Media 19th Oct 2026, https://www.insidermedia.com/news/wales/new-nuclear-technology-set-to-transform-north-wales

October 24, 2026 Posted by | Small Modular Nuclear Reactors, UK | Leave a comment

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