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‘Environmental violence’: inside the fight to save indigenous land from becoming a nuclear dumping ground

Andrew Lawrence, Tue 25 Aug 2026, https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/aug/25/to-use-a-mountain-documentary-interview

Nuclear energy was supposed to be our salvation, humanity’s chance to retool technology first conceived as a weapon of mass destruction into an engine of limitless prosperity. But even as the industry touted nuclear fission as an economic game-changer (never mind the astronomical startup costs), a safety paragon (never mind the spills at Chornobyl, Three Mile Island and Fukushima) and harmless fodder for an American comedy institution (never mind that glowing rod on Homer’s back or the three-eyed fish), there was no getting around the matter of what to do with all the toxic waste (never mind nuclear’s claimed green credentials).

The stagnant state of that dirty business brought Casey Carter, the director of the new avant-garde documentary called To Use a Mountain, back to his interview with a Washington state farmer who was part of a class-action lawsuit against the government over the release of radioactive material from the Hanford nuclear reservation – site of the world’s first full-scale plutonium production reactor. The farmer’s words still echo, despite ultimately being cut to fit the film’s 90-minute runtime. “He joked that nuclear power is the only faith-based energy because everyone always asks, ‘Do you believe in it?’” Carter says. “He was like, ‘You don’t have to believe in solar. It’s just a pretty good idea.’”

To Use a Mountain could exist as a coda to Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, showing how the Manhattan Project physicist’s fears about nuclear technology’s vast potential for devastation proved more justified than even he could have imagined. In particular, the film trains its lens on the passage of the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act – which, among other things, placed six rural communities across the US in a derby of sorts to become the permanent site for more than 90,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste.

The plan was for the waste to remain isolated for 10,000 years, and that humans would still be around to celebrate the Reagan-era edict as a triumph. But the affected communities are more inclined to believe there may be no one left to parcel out due credit once the waste leaches into groundwater, pollutes the air and contaminates the food chain. Ultimately, Nevada’s Yucca Mountain, about a two-hour drive from Las Vegas, was selected as the nuclear burial site, but after decades of scheming and development, legal challenges and obstruction from activists and prominent politicians such as Senate majority leader Harry Reid, the Yucca Mountain project was halted – leaving the US with no permanent repository for its nuclear waste. (In the meantime, the federal government pays utility companies tens of billions of dollars to hold on to their spent fuel until a place for it opens up.)

Carter’s documentary unspools like an art installation, steeped in mood and texture, as it urges viewers to reckon with the anxious state of play. Gone are the voice-of-God narrator, the talking-head experts and even basic chyrons; the subjects who appear on camera aren’t named until the film’s end credits. Instead, To Use a Mountain papier-maches reams of Department of Energy (DoE) surveys, analyses and internal memos on to contemporary footage of decaying storage sites and interviews with community members who speak to the personal and environmental damage those false starts have wrought. A sound bath that samples from salmon-rich rivers and one-room church worship only serves to further underscore the stakes.

It’s a prevailing sense of doom established in shaky handheld shots that search the sky for danger, then paid off in archival footage of Oppenheimer’s bomb going off beneath desolate US landscapes before giving way to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. “I didn’t want to have a traditional journalistic conversation,” says Casey, stressing the importance of humanizing the communities and concerns that the energy department documents treat with clinical distance. “These people were written about, mapped and diagrammed in excruciating detail. The Department of Energy was looking at them through this purely utilitarian lens, just kinda scanning the American landscape and trying to figure out which place was disposable enough.”

Not surprisingly, the Department of Energy disposal list quickly homed in on sparsely populated rural communities that mining and farming industries had left behind. In some cases, those communities were largely made up of marginalized Black and brown people whose claims to the land date back generations. Advocates against the Yucca Mountain site argue that its designation as a DoE nuclear disposal ground disregards a US government treaty obligation to the Western Shoshone tribe. (“The treaty is the supreme law of the land under Article 6, Section 2 of the US Constitution,” Zabarte said in a follow-up email to the Guardian. “The Constitution is not a suggestion. It is law.”) The area’s history of seismic activity is another reason to be wary of Yucca’s structural integrity over the ensuing millennia.

With impressionistic flourish, the film traces the arc of the resistance. Among others, it follows Ian Zabarte – a Shoshone principal who has lost family members to radiation-related diseases connected to the government’s nuclear testing on tribal lands. As he goes from testifying on Capitol Hill as a young man to hiking the desolate area decades later, Zabarte never wavers in his belief that Yucca belongs to the Shoshone, arguing effectively that eminent domain is just racism by another name. “It’s heavy, it’s tragic and unfortunately it’s an all-too-familiar state of affairs,” Carter says. “The amazing thing was having these conversations and really gaining a deeper understanding of the duration, persistence and willpower within these communities.”

In one scene drawn from archival footage from Hanford, which was fully decommissioned in the 1980s and has since been described as “the most contaminated place in the western hemisphere”, the film lowers viewers into a disused storage tank that has been leaking contaminants into the groundwater system and threatening the Columbia River – a lifeline to Portland, Oregon; Boise, Idaho; and scores of communities in between.

“In traveling to these places, you realize each one of them has dealt with issues of environmental violence or racism even prior to being nominated as a potential nuclear waste storage facility,” Carter says. “It’s gut-wrenching to think about people encountering this level of treatment from their government. It really shows how much of this anger exists in many parts of rural America, not just Maga rural America. This film is just a tour of example after example.”

Carter’s stylistic confidence suggests he’s been at this auteur thing for a while. But the truth is, To Use a Mountain is his first attempt at an ambitious, feature-length people’s history. A double major in physics and photography, Carter went to grad school for architecture in hopes of “unifying my left and right brain”, he says. That thirst for scientifically driven aesthetics, combined with formative years spent in the shadow of Oak Ridge national laboratory in east Tennessee, which also figured prominently in the Manhattan Project, compelled Carter to devote six years to retracing the US government’s slog-footed effort to bury its nuclear shame. In hindsight, there’s no missing those signatures in the CAD images Carter uses to depict Yucca Mountain and other disposal-site candidates.

Doubtless, some audiences may be tempted to return the concerns raised in To Use a Mountain to the back burner – to file it under “not my problem” because the energy department hasn’t sized up their community or their local power plant hasn’t been designated a Superfund site yet. Never mind that just last month, Idaho, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Utah were named as finalists for “nuclear lifecycle innovation campuses” – federal sites that would handle spent fuel and waste management. The DoE plans to pick three host states by the end of this year. Oppenheimer’s existential dread is roaring back to the fore.

If anything, Carter’s film is a reminder of how our unsolved nuclear problem connects to all the other existential threats that keep us doomscrolling through the night and calling on a higher power – God? The government? – to restore our faith that humanity can outlive the toxic waste it leaves behind. “When I started this film in the summer of 2018, Covid hadn’t happened,” Carter says. “War in Ukraine, Gaza and Iran hadn’t happened. Artificial intelligence hadn’t been invented yet. The big tech companies are advocating for microreactors to power datacenters. Even by taking this methodological approach to making the film, it’s still opened up to this kaleidoscope of impacts that touches on military history, the environmental impacts and human psychology and fear. There’s just a sprawling network of consequences associated with this material.”

To Use a Mountain is out in the US now with UK and Australia release dates to follow

September 1, 2026 Posted by | indigenous issues, media | Leave a comment

125 countries legally bound to arrest Netanyahu as ICC warrant looms over Israeli PM: Report

Wednesday, 26 August 2026, https://www.presstv.co.uk/Detail/2026/08/26/775092/125-countries-bound-to-arrest-Netanyahu-as-ICC-warrant-shadows-Israeli-PM–Hebrew-media

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces a sweeping international travel restriction, with 125 countries legally bound by their membership in the International Criminal Court (ICC) to arrest him if he enters their territory, according to a report.

Netanyahu “cannot visit today in 125 countries,” including major Western states that are among Israel’s closest allies and trading partners, the Hebrew edition of the Times of Israel, Zman Yisrael, reported on Monday.

The Israeli outlet said that the countries include France, Britain, Germany and Canada.

The restriction stems from an arrest warrant issued by the ICC in November 2024 against Netanyahu over war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza which has killed at least 73,000 Palestinians, and wounded more than 17,000 others since it was waged in October 2023.

The Hague-based court holds Netanyahu responsible for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare, as well as the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution and other inhumane acts.

The practical impact has already been visible in Netanyahu’s foreign travel, with his aircraft taking alternative routes to avoid the airspace of ICC member states.

Netanyahu has avoided events in countries where the warrant could be enforced, including the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, because Switzerland is an ICC member state, the report noted.

Since the warrant took effect, Netanyahu has visited only one ICC member state where the warrant applies, Hungary in April 2025.

The report said that the restriction is not merely a diplomatic inconvenience, writing that “if Netanyahu cannot visit most countries in the world, including most Western powers, it is impossible to see this as ‘a superior international standing’ — but rather international isolation.”

Netanyahu can technically travel to around 70 countries that are not members of the ICC, but the majority have no diplomatic relations with Israel or have strained ties with the regime.

Meanwhile, Washington has stepped up its pressure campaign against the ICC since the court issued the warrant, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying the administration of US President Donald Trump was working to “dismantle” the tribunal.

The US has imposed sanctions on ICC officials involved in the Israel investigation and pressed the court’s member states to withdraw from the institution.

September 1, 2026 Posted by | Israel, Legal | Leave a comment

The West Bank’s Ultra-Apartheid (and the Collusive International Silence)

These statements no longer reflect a “lunatic fringe,” as often portrayed by the media in the West. They reflect the brutal repression of Palestinians that’s now the new normal.

31 August 2026 AIMN Editorial, By Dr Dan Steinbock

Gaza showed the genocidal face of Israel’s expulsive strategy. In the West Bank, the same objective is realized with incremental escalation. The ultimate goal is the same – the final expulsion of the Palestinians.

Today, the West Bank is a nightmare of vicious settlement expansion, land seizure, economic strangulation, settler violence and forced displacement.

With the collusion of the Israeli military and police, the Israeli-occupied territories are effectively ruled by the Messianic far-right settlers who see their mob-like racist pogroms of Palestinians as a divine step to Final Redemption.

The ongoing year has accelerated the process from settlement expansion toward territorial consolidation and displacement. The scale is stark.

Displacement becomes systematic

By August 10, the UN reported 76 Palestinians killed in the West Bank, including 18 children; about 3,800 Palestinians had been displaced during 2026 through settler violence, demolitions and evictions, nearly half children.

More than 1,430 settler incidents had been recorded, affecting roughly 260 Palestinian communities.

The crucial point is not simply Jewish settler violence but its geographical and economic function. Settler attacks increasingly target homes, agricultural land, livestock, water and electricity infrastructure.

In a recent podcast, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a far-right extremist who believes in Jewish racial supremacy, urged Israelis to kill “30 to 40” Palestinians in Gaza every night. He also supports aggressive, lethal actions against Palestinians in the West Bank, applying a similarly hardline approach through legislative, judicial, and security policies.

These statements no longer reflect a “lunatic fringe,” as often portrayed by the media in the West. They reflect the brutal repression of Palestinians that’s now the new normal. OCHA reports that displacement caused by demolitions, settler violence and access restrictions has averaged 17 Palestinians a day in 2026; twice the average of the preceding three years.

Since 2023, 127 communities have experienced full or partial displacement; 47 have been completely emptied.

The economic damage compounds the demographic pressure. UNCTAD estimates that West Bank GDP contracted 17% in 2024, while cumulative unrealized Palestinian GDP from occupation-related restrictions between 2000–24 reached $170.8 billion – about 17 times 2024 West Bank GDP.

The settlement economy in Area C and East Jerusalem, by contrast, generated an estimated $53 billion in 2024.

Great conjuncture

Right before Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, I warned about an impending war, as the status quo was approaching a boiling point in Gaza. After all, it was the 50-year anniversary of the Yom Kippur War.

In The Fall of Israel (2024), I used the term great conjuncture to refer to structural forces that account for a series of cumulative disasters in the Middle East, starting with the waves of Palestinian expulsions since the 1940s.

Second, it refers to the aggressive expansion of the Jewish settlements in the occupied territories. The rise of the Messianic far-right has fostered settler militarization accelerating anti-Arab pogroms in the West Bank, which is being annexed into Israel.

Third, the great conjuncture is fueled by a half century of failed American diplomacy in the Middle East. The Fall of Israel showed how the US-Israeli ties moved from hedging and choosing sides to partnership and eventually a symbiosis. These are not ties that bind, but ties that blind. They account for 50 years of military destabilization in the region and U.S. complicity to genocidal atrocities, even ecocide – both in Gaza and Lebanon.

Finally, instead of fostering peace in the region, America’s massive military aid to Israel has amplified Israel’s parallel securitization degrading its economy, politics and military. Washington has provided at least $22 billion in direct military aid to Israel, alongside up to $12 billion spent on related U.S. military operations in the region, since October 7, 2023. From Gaza and beyond, Israeli authorities and security forces have deliberately targeted Palestinians and Palestinian children.

These four structural forces feed on each other forming a vicious cycle, thereby intensifying and broadening regional escalation. When I extended the argument into a book, these views were still seen largely as marginal. Today, things have dramatically changed. Even the bipartisan consensus over the U.S.-Israel ties has collapsed.

But this erosion came only after Gaza has been obliterated and ethnic cleansing escalates in the West Bank with the tacit blessing of the international community.

Ethnic cleansing from Gaza to the West Bank

In the Israeli occupied territories, ethnic expulsion has not been an accidental by-product but a recurring political mechanism. From Labor’s post-1967 Allon Plan through the Likud era and the Messianic far right, its logic has been cumulative as it has sought to

  • acquire territory;
  • fragment Palestinian space;
  • make Palestinian economic and social life increasingly unviable;
  • if massacres don’t suffice, use genocidal atrocities;
  • expand Jewish civilian presence;
  • and eventually convert temporary occupation into permanent sovereignty.

The objective is not simply “security,” nor even the exploitation of Palestinian labor, but the Judaization of territory and prevention of a sovereign Palestine.

The Palestinian expulsions are intimately linked to both ideology and political economy. Land, subsidized settlements, real estate and state resources create constituencies that benefit materially from Palestinian dispossession.

Gaza became the extreme version: bombardment, destruction of housing and infrastructure, displacement and proposals for population “transfer” created conditions in which Palestinians were physically removed and territory becomes available for redevelopment or settlement.

In the West Bank, the mechanism used to be more incremental: settlement outposts, land seizures, demolition orders, restrictions on building and movement, settler violence and pressure on herding communities.

In the absence of international penalties, sanctions and blockades, settlers have been dramatically emboldened. They avoid one spectacular expulsion but seek to make the remaining Palestinian communities progressively untenable.

Their goal is the “Judaization” of Palestine – death by a thousands cuts………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. https://theaimn.net/the-west-banks-ultra-apartheid-and-the-collusive-international-silence/

September 1, 2026 Posted by | Atrocities, Israel | Leave a comment

AI robots and drones to assist in Fukushima nuclear plant cleanup

Three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant contain 880 tons of debris. (Photo by Akitoshi Sugiura)

Japan government, TEPCO to launch consortium as decommissioning progresses

MASATOSHI IDA, August 30, 2026 

 AI robots and drones to assist in Fukushima nuclear plant cleanup. Japan
government, TEPCO to launch consortium as decommissioning progresses……..(Subscribers only)

 Nikkei Asian Review 30th Aug 2026, https://asia.nikkei.com/business/technology/artificial-intelligence/ai-robots-and-drones-to-assist-in-fukushima-nuclear-plant-cleanup

September 1, 2026 Posted by | Fukushima continuing | Leave a comment

Britain ‘must brace for more Iranian cyber attacks’

Former US security chief expects UK infrastructure to be targeted again, following unprecedented breach of power plant

Rozina Sabur, National Security Editor, Telegraph, 29 August 2026

nfrastructure could face further attacks from Iran, a former US cyber chief has warned.

The Telegraph revealed last week that hackers affiliated with Tehran shut down a British power plant for four days in an unprecedented cyber attack.

And Britain, the US and other Western allies should “expect attacks like this to continue” as Tehran ramps up its cyber warfare, according to Jen Easterly, the former director of the US cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency (CISA).

In an interview with The Telegraph, Ms Easterly said companies that failed to heed alerts from the Five Eyes intelligence network in particular would be seen as “low-hanging fruit”. Five Eyes is an alliance between Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the US……………………

With Tehran under growing diplomatic and economic pressure amid its confrontation with the US and Israel, the regime has dramatically stepped up its cyber attacks on the West.

Intelligence officials describe Iran as a capable adversary in the online domain, with its cyber apparatus working in concert with its wartime aims.

In the incident revealed by The Telegraph last week, hackers affiliated with the Iranian regime succeeded in closing down an energy facility in the UK…………

The shutdown is understood to have occurred at the same time as a series of attacks on US water infrastructure last month, which affected multiple states……………………………………. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/08/29/britain-must-brace-for-more-iranian-cyber-attacks/

September 1, 2026 Posted by | safety, UK | Leave a comment

Three years on, Fukushima’s fishers still deal with impact of treated water release

Japan Times, By Phoebe Amoroso, Aug 24, 2026

March 11 is a date of indescribable weight in Japan — one that conjures images of the devastating earthquake and resulting tsunami that killed nearly 20,000, displaced hundreds of thousands and caused catastrophic damage to the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

But Aug. 24 has also become a date of significance for the Tohoku region and the rest of East Asia. On this day three years ago, power plant officials began releasing treated water into the Pacific Ocean — a move that, while necessary, is continuing to have an economic impact on the region’s seafood.

“There’s no single perfect method that will ensure understanding among the public (when it comes to the safety of Fukushima’s seafood),” says Tadaaki Sawada.

Sawada is deputy manager of the guidance section for the Fukushima Prefectural Federation of Fisheries Cooperative Associations (FS Gyoren). Even three years on, he laments the difficulty of eliminating the stigma attached to the northeastern coastal prefecture of Fukushima and its produce.

On the day Sawada spoke with The Japan Times, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. (Tepco) completed its 21st discharge of treated water currently held in storage tanks at the No. 1 nuclear plant. Three years into this process expected to take three decades in total, fears of reputational damage have not explicitly emerged within the domestic market, but other consequences have been profound: geopolitical tensions and an exposure of the vulnerabilities that underlie Japan’s fishing industry as a whole.

Difficult choices

Though the primary disasters of March 2011 are in the past, the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant is far from decommissioned.

Nuclear debris remains inside the damaged reactors and still produces heat, so water has to be circulated through the damaged reactors to keep them cool and eventually discarded. A method known as Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS) can remove up to 62 radioactive compounds from this water to very low concentrations, but it can’t remove tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen. After ALPS and dilution with seawater, the concentration of tritium in the water reaches 1/40 of the maximum threshold mandated by government regulations.

With on-site water tanks nearing capacity, Tepco — backed by the Japanese government and the International Atomic Energy Agency — announced in 2021 that it would conduct periodic, controlled ocean discharges while monitoring the resulting tritium levels.

The decision provoked strong reactions, not least within Fukushima’s fishing industry. The government had promised fishermen that it wouldn’t release the water without the understanding of local communities, and the move was perceived by many as reneging on that commitment, provoking strong fears over further reputational damage.

But three years on, a strong consumer backlash within Japan has not materialized.

Takeshi Hamada, a professor of fisheries science at Sapporo’s Hokkai-Gakuen University, has studied the economic impact on Japan’s fishing industry. He argues that one key difference between domestic reaction in 2011 compared to the years that followed is related to media coverage.

“Following the Great East Japan Earthquake, most media outlets — including major ones — viewed government information with skepticism,” Hamada says via email. “However, during the ocean release of ALPS-treated water, there was relatively little coverage questioning its safety.”

Instead, criticism mostly emanated from somewhere far away from Japan’s northeastern coast: China.

On the day the first batch of ALPS-treated water was released, Beijing banned the import of all Japanese aquatic products (the ban was partially lifted in June 2025 before being reinstated that November after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comments on Japan’s role in a hypothetical Chinese naval blockade of Taiwan).

The impact of the import ban on Japan’s fishing industry has been hard to quantify, but experts believe it has been significant. Compared to the year prior, Hamada calculates that Japanese seafood exports fell by about ¥75.8 billion (about $476 million) between September 2023 and August 2024. Analysis of the next 12 months found that exports had improved in some areas, but total seafood exports were still below the prerelease level.

For Fukushima, the exact costs cannot be isolated. Although it exported almost no seafood to China, export-bound Japanese seafood was redirected into the domestic market, weighing on prices. Based on shirasu (whitebait) prices, which were driven down by bumper catches elsewhere, Hamada estimates that average prices decreased by 8.2%.

The lack of clarity has a direct knock-on effect on compensation promised from Tepco as a condition of the water release. Fishers must demonstrate lower catch volume, catch value and sales value compared to pre-2011 to receive funds for the shortfall. Seafood processors, wholesalers and other retailers can also claim compensation by demonstrating reduced sales due to consumers or buyers avoiding their seafood products.

However, many of the costs remain hidden. In a November 2025 symposium held by the Tokyo Fisheries Promotion Foundation, Soichiro Kato, a lawyer representing affected businesses, said fishers were better placed to seek compensation because fishery federations could negotiate collectively, while many seafood processors without the same collective organizations in place had to deal with Tepco individually. He also criticized Tepco’s criteria as being too rigid and not capturing losses from reverse flow effects.

Fishing for solutions……………………………………………………………………..

Coastal landings are still subject to official radiation monitoring by Fukushima Prefecture, while FS Gyoren also conducts voluntary screening at fish markets to reassure buyers. After more than 100,000 inspections, the federation relaxed its system in April this year to cover fewer species and reduce screening from each landing or sales day to at least once a week. It hopes that this will speed up distribution and make the overall system more efficient, paving the way for expanded sales.

But each step back toward normalcy for Fukushima’s fisheries is a double-edged sword.

“When it comes to how wholesalers and distributors have reacted (to relaxed regulations), naturally, to be honest, no one directly criticizes us,” Sawada says. “But I think some people do have concerns internally. That may naturally result in transactions disappearing or decreasing. It does not appear openly, and it is difficult for us on the fisher and producer side to see.”…………………………………………………………………………….

Although Tepco has made progress toward reducing newly generated water, the discharges are set to continue for decades to come. However, FS Gyoren’s call for more support for Fukushima’s fishing industry is unchanged.

“We want to continue fishing in Fukushima Prefecture as a livelihood, not only in our generation but into our children’s and grandchildren’s generations,” says Sawada. “We want the government and Tepco to provide firm support for that.”
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/08/24/japan/fukushima-seafood-treated-water-three-years-impact/

September 1, 2026 Posted by | business and costs, environment, Fukushima continuing | Leave a comment

This is how we can regulate data centres in Scotland

There’s an increasingly loud uprising happening in Scotland around AI data
centres. Possibly the biggest I’ve seen since the 2016 uproar over shale
gas fracking. Data centre companies are actively lobbying the Scottish
Government as we speak and are basically asking for John Swinney to open
the gates to them to flood Scotland with as many data centres as he’s
willing to make us all swallow.

It’s easy to see what the companies get out
of it. Scotland has plenty of space, a good amount of water and while
electricity prices are high they can often negotiate preferential rates
that we could only dream of. What does Scotland get out of it? Higher
energy prices, higher demand on increasingly scarce water, about
three-and-a-half jobs, and the Scottish Government gets to claim that the
“inwards investment” line goes up? Perhaps I can see why Swinney would
take that deal.

The National 27th Aug 2026,
https://www.thenational.scot/news/26498669.can-regulate-data-centres-scotland/

September 1, 2026 Posted by | technology, UK | Leave a comment

Cost Of New Nuclear Power Plant in Switzerland Could Be Up To €45 Billion, Says Report

By David Dalton,

The cost of building a new nuclear power plant in
Switzerland could be between CHF14bn and CHF43bn (€14.9bn and €45.8bn;
$17.4bn and $53.5bn) – a range that reflects varying assumptions about
reactor size, construction conditions and financing costs, according to a
report by the Swiss Academy of Sciences.

Nucnet 26th Aug 2026, https://www.nucnet.org/news/cost-of-new-nuclear-power-plant-in-switzerland-could-be-up-to-eur45-billion-says-report-8-3-2026

August 31, 2026 Posted by | business and costs, Switzerland | Leave a comment

Fears Putin will use ‘tactical nuclear weapons

By PATRICK HARRINGTON, UK NEWS REPORTER, 27 August 2026, https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-16082617/Fears-Putin-tactical-nuclear-weapons-Ukraine-peace-talks.html

Fears that Putin will deploy ‘tactical nuclear weapons‘ against Ukraine are growing as Russia becomes increasingly frustrated and diplomatic hopes crumble.

Voices in Moscow calling for nuclear warheads are becoming louder, and the President is surveying his options for escalation, according to sources.

Ukraine and Russia have ramped up attacks against each other in recent months, with Kyiv landing significant strikes deep inside Russian territory against its oil infrastructure.

Meanwhile, negotiations have all but collapsed, with little hope on either side of a peace deal being found.

The Kremlin is adamant it will not end the war under pressure from sanctions or Ukrainian attacks on its refineries.

It is also increasingly indignant at Nato allies supplying Ukraine with weapons and intelligence – leading to threats against the UK that Prime Minister Andy Burnham this week branded ‘outrageous’.

Putin’s conclusion is that he need to intensify his attacks on Ukraine, three Kremlin sources told Bloomberg.

At the weekend, he told a reporter that Ukraine had ‘opened this Pandora’s box’, and warned Kyiv: ‘Be ready to get a blowback on your most sensitive sectors of the economy.’ 

For now, it is considering how it can ramp up its conventional ballistic assaults, including missile attacks on the centre of the capital, Kyiv.

But a growing number of Russian officials have concluded that Putin could eventually abandon the rules of modern warfare and hit the nuclear button, the sources said.

Tactical nuclear weapons, which are less powerful and have a shorter range, would be more likely than strategic missiles.

They would be used to gain the upper hand in a specific battlefield, rather than to decimate entire cities, like the bombs dropped by America on Japan in 1945.

Throughout the conflict, he has repeatedly flaunted the threat of nukes against Ukraine and its Western allies – even publishing maps showing strikes zones.

And if he made the call, there would be nobody to stand in his way.

Fiona Hill, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who served as a national security advisor to three US presidents including Trump in his first term, said: ‘For Putin there is no sign of collective will anywhere to resist him and so many ways in which he can grind people down.

‘This is why a concerted collective and consistent effort to resist his actions, and to engage in diplomacy, is essential. 

‘He has a single-minded focus and we are all over the place.

It was reported this week that the Putin might be abouyt to test a nuclear-powered cruise missile – dubbed the Flying Chernobyl – that can fly for days, according to analysts.

An influx of aircraft and shipping has converged in the Arctic in a telltale sign that a new experimental firing is expected of a weapon powered by its own atomic reactor, say analysts.

The ‘invincible’ Burevestnik missile – with a nickname inspired by the nuclear catastrophe that could be inflicted, much like the Chernobyl power plant explosion in 1986 – carries a nuclear warhead with an ‘unlimited range’ and is designed to fly for days at a time before striking the West, according to the Russians. 

While the chance of nuclear weapons still looks remote, the only way to rule them out completely would be a swift diplomatic end to the war – something that now seems out of reach.

The US is preoccupied with the conflict in Iran, and Putin has abandoned its hope of an understanding between Donald Trump and himself that was fostered during at their summit in Alaska last August.

Russia has indicate there may be a path to peace if Ukraine hands over its ‘fortress belt’ of cities in the Donbas that have held firm since the start of armed hostilities in 2014 – but Kyiv has made clear that is not on the table.

A recent indication of the US’s feeling toward Russia came from Secretary of State Marco Rubio in June, when he said: ‘If there had been an agreement, we would have had an end to the war.’

CIA Director John Ratcliffe made a rare visit to Moscow on Tuesday for a diplomatic meeting, though it’s unclear what the focus was. 

August 31, 2026 Posted by | Russia, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Germany in talks to help fund Trident

Berlin could bolster Britain’s nuclear programme under plans to end Europe’s reliance on America for defence

Joe Barnes Diplomatic Editor. James Rothwell Berlin Correspondent. James Crisp Europe Editor,  26 August 2026

Germany is in talks to invest in Britain’s nuclear deterrent, The
Telegraph understands. Berlin is considering offering financial support for
Trident as it spearheads efforts to reinforce Europe’s nuclear umbrella.
One well-placed source said Germany wanted to better integrate itself into
the existing British and French nuclear deterrents rather than pursue its
own bomb because of the nation’s wartime guilt.

“We have a very strong
interest that the existing nuclear powers in Europe extend their
capabilities,” the source said. The discussions between Paris, Berlin and
London have accelerated in recent months amid fears the Trump
administration will withdraw its military from Europe.

Telegraph 26th Aug 2026, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/08/26/germany-talks-help-fund-britains-trident-nuclear-deterrent/

August 31, 2026 Posted by | Germany, UK, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Nuclear Hotseat  #774: Nuke Tax Costs You HOW MUCH ?! Nuclear Weapons Tax Calculator.

9 May 2026

WHO WE ARE: Nuclear Hotseat is the weekly international news magazine keeping you up to date on all things nuclear… from a different perspective. We’re a show for people who know nothing about nuclear who want to know something, and people who know something about nuclear who would like to know just a little bit more. Since June 14, 2011, only three months after the Fukushima nuclear disaster began, producer/host Libbe HaLevy — a survivor of the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island — has presented nuclear news, expert interviews, activist actions, and ways for citizens concerned about nuclear to take action.

WHAT IS COVERED IN THIS EPISODE:
How much are nukes really costing us? The answer is astounding – and every year, Physicians for Social Responsibility provides an updated answer, created by long-term veteran member and board member Dr. Robert Dodge. Bob’s latest numbers for 2026 were released on April 15 – tax day – as is appropriate for tracking the outrageous financial nuclear tax burden place on every woman, man, child, and even infant in this country. Where does that $137 BILLION dollars go? Sit back and fasten your seatbelt and you find out.

And Physicist Lynda Williams is great at breaking down complex nuclear issues and giving us the bare bones to be able to understand the truth behind all that nuclear industry gobbledygook. Here, she explains the need for comments on three new rule changes the NUclear Regulatory Commission – the NRC – is proposing and the tiny window of opportunity we have to comment on them… and why we must. We spoke on April 26, 2026.

August 31, 2026 Posted by | USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Army reaches agreement with private industry for nuclear micro-reactors

By U.S. Army Communication and Outreach OfficeAugust 26, 2026, https://www.army.mil/article/294891/army_reaches_agreement_with_private_industry_for_nuclear_micro_reactors

WASHINGTON — The Department of the Army is announcing today that the Janus Program has selected five nuclear energy vendors, and five initial locations.

In partnership with the Department of War Innovation Unit (DIU), the Army is awarding up to a combined $2.2 billion to own, construct, and operate nuclear microreactors on military installations.  These vendors will deliver safe, secure, and reliable nuclear power, strengthening the Army’s ability to project power globally, while supporting the revitalization of American industrial capacity and technological leadership. With the private sector funding expected along with these government dollars, the Army expects more than 20 total nuclear microreactors will be built and operated across Department of War installations.

The five selected vendors and installations are as follows:

  • Antares Nuclear, Inc. – Fort Bragg, North Carolina
  • BWXT Advanced Technologies, LLC – Fort Campbell, Kentucky
  • General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems – Fort Hood, Texas
  • Radiant Industries, Inc. – Fort Benning, Georgia
  • Westinghouse Government Services – Fort Drum, New York

“Since launching the Janus Program, our mandate from President Trump and Secretary Hegseth has been clear: secure the power our warfighters need to train, deploy and win,” said Dan Driscoll, Secretary of the Army. “Awarding these contracts accelerates our ability to deliver safe, reliable baseload power directly to our installations. We are building the energy resilience necessary to project combat power globally, without relying on potentially vulnerable external grids.”

“The Janus Program is grabbing the baton from Project Pele and the [Department of Energy’s] Reactor Pilot Program,” said Dr. Jeff Waksman, principal deputy assistant secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment. “We are seeking not just reactors capable of turning on for a brief demonstration, but rather systems able to deliver power with high-capacity factors for years of operation. The Janus Program will be a complete success when and only when we have assisted multiple nuclear companies in developing truly reliable and affordable nuclear microreactors which they can sell to other buyers beyond just the military

After gathering technical and operational information from industry via an Area of Interest released by DIU, the Army down-selected potential industry awardees for negotiation of Other Transactions Authority-based agreements. A decision board and panel of top nuclear and technical experts from the Department of Energy, national laboratories and representatives across the services provided deeply rigorous input on the technical risks, financial situation, and management capabilities of the solutions. The close collaboration with technical experts and service representatives ensured selected vendors would provide solutions to enhance energy resilience for specific operational needs at military installations.

“When DOE created an authorization pathway for the demonstration of advanced reactor designs, we quickly began to realize how valuable these technologies could be for fortifying our national defense infrastructure,” said Assistant Secretary of Nuclear Energy Ted Garrish. “We are honored to work in lockstep with the Army to leverage nuclear energy innovation in support of our country’s military operations at home and abroad.”

The alignment of these vendors with Army installations represents the culmination of a year-long effort to evaluate and prioritize installations based on a multitude of factors from energy needs to seismic and hydrological considerations, all with a primary focus on safety. As the Janus Program moves forward, it is intended that these vendors will also site nuclear technologies on other service installations for continued energy resilience across the entire DOW. Additional Army and other Service sites will be announced at a later date. The Army continues to drive towards the September 2028 target outlined in President Trump’s Executive Order 14299 for operation of a first reactor, regulated by the Army, on a military installation.

“The Army is leading the nation in its return to nuclear preeminence via the Janus Program,” said Jason Craft, Janus Program manager. “Our selected industry awardees represent the most viable technologies to achieve this capability, setting conditions for both installation energy resilience and operational energy solutions.”

Using a milestone-based payment model, vendors will receive government funding only after successfully hitting specific technical goals. This investment model brings together approximately $2.2 billion across FY2027-2031 along with significant capital investment from each vendor. This technology development model will speed up the delivery of next-generation energy solutions to the warfighter and promote innovation while ensuring accountability. The prototype reactors will be contractor-owned and operated.

“We need more power. We need it delivered faster and cheaper, and we need it to be more reliable,” said Owen West, director, DIU. “With Janus, DIU is assisting the Army’s micro reactor build — speeding military energy production to protect the nation.”

Collaboration with utility providers is essential to the success of Army’s nuclear power strategy and the Janus Program. The Army will work closely with serving utilities and privatized utility providers on the Janus Program to ensure the best possible outcomes. The Army also invites continued collaboration with utilities both now and in the future on utility-scale, grid-facing power generation opportunities sited on Army installations.

“The Army’s Janus Program has my full support, said Emil Michael, the War Department’s Chief Technology Officer. “The War Department is acting swiftly to implement President Trump’s Executive Order, Deploying Advanced Nuclear Reactor Technologies for National Security, to deploy a nuclear reactor on a military installation by September 2028. We are unleashing America’s domestic nuclear industrial base to ensure a more resilient and secure energy supply for the joint force.”

Reliable energy underpins national defense. The down-selection to these five vendors represents a critical step forward in securing the operational readiness of our forces. The Army is committed to fortifying the defense and strength of the nation now and for future generations.

August 31, 2026 Posted by | Small Modular Nuclear Reactors | Leave a comment

Poland rules out hosting nuclear weapons.

August 27, 2026 , By Victor Jack, https://www.politico.eu/article/poland-rules-out-hosting-nuclear-weapons-despite-russian-threat/

BRUSSELS — Poland “does not want” allied nuclear weapons stationed on its territory, the country’s Deputy Defense Minister Paweł Zalewski said Thursday, despite growing worries of a Russian incursion into NATO territory.

“I would like to say very clearly and openly: Poland does not want to have nuclear warheads on its territory,” he told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels. “We want to participate in NATO nuclear deterrence, [which] does not mean to have a nuclear warhead on our territory.”

Zalewski’s statement is Warsaw’s most categorical statement on the topic. While it has previously expressed skepticism toward hosting nuclear weapons, Poland has also said it was in early-stage talks with the U.S. around a potential expansion of Washington’s nuclear deterrent in Europe, and had in parallel joined a French initiative aimed at extending Paris’ own deterrent in Europe.

Separately, Polish President Karol Nawrocki has left the door open to Warsaw eventually building its own nuclear weapons program.

Western officials have warned Russia could attack NATO territory by the end of the decade, while recent U.S. intelligence suggests an attack could come even sooner.

August 31, 2026 Posted by | EUROPE, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Newcleo-Led Consortium Chosen For French Project On Floating Nuclear Power Plants

By David Dalton, 27 August 2026, https://www.nucnet.org/news/newcleo-led-consortium-chosen-for-french-project-on-floating-nuclear-power-plants-8-4-2026

Maritime sector a ‘largely unexplored opportunity’ for reactor industry

A consortium led by France-based advanced reactor and nuclear fuel company Newcleo has been selected to take part in a project supporting the decarbonisation of the French maritime sector.

The project, managed by France-based investment bank Bpifrance and named “n-Floating”, aims to demonstrate the relevance and technical feasibility of an innovative floating nuclear power solution, consisting of a non-self-propelled floating unit housing multiple Newcleo-developed LFR-AS-200 reactors, each offering an electrical output of 200 MW.

The consortium brings together Newcleo, Bureau Veritas Marine & Offshore, a leading classification society, and ABMI Groupe, a French engineering company with expertise both in maritime and nuclear sectors.

The project has been awarded almost €1m ($1.1m) in funding under the programme.

Work has already begun and is expected to run for approximately 18 months.

“Maritime deployment of advanced reactors opens a broader and still largely unexplored market for nuclear energy” said Newcleo chief executive officer Stefano Buono.

“Floating nuclear offers an opportunity to bring reliable, low-carbon power to applications at sea and in coastal locations.”

Newcleo said the project aims to develop a standardised, deployable and competitive solution for low-carbon energy generation at sea and in coastal locations.

The initial phase of the n-Floating project will focus on conceptual studies for a nuclear barge, assessing its potential to deliver reliable, low-carbon and competitive energy across a range of applications. These include supplying isolated regions, ports and associated industrial hubs, and coastal areas, as well as supporting energy-intensive applications such as desalination and the production of low-carbon fuels.

The project will also define the subsequent development programme and roadmap towards potential industrial deployment by 2036, with the ambition to design and build the solution in France.

August 31, 2026 Posted by | France, Small Modular Nuclear Reactors | Leave a comment

Claim about Scottish support for nuclear power doesn’t add up

Ni Holmes, St Andrews, 27 Aug 26

I WAS not surprised to find, when I got to the foot of a letter challenging Paul Kavanagh’s assertion that “Scotland does not need nuclear energy and most in Scotland don’t want it” as being “wrong on both counts” (Aug 26), that it was written by Lincoln Hill, the Nuclear Industry Association’s director of policy and external affairs.

Mr Hill appears not to be too good at maths. He cites a YouGov poll showing that fewer than a third of people in Scotland consider nuclear power as the most important energy source and that a similar number identified it as their preferred source of energy. To my understanding, the remaining two-thirds of Scots who do not support nuclear power are indeed most of the people in Scotland.

Mr Hill goes on to assert that Scotland needs “more than one source of electricity”. This suggests that lack of basic counting skills is the foundation of his weakness in maths. We already have multiple sources of electricity: we have had hydro-electric power for decades, we have wave generators, we have onshore and offshore wind turbines, and new technology is making solar power viable even in our climate. By my count those five already add up to the “more than one” that Mr Hill claims we need. We will still have more than one source after the last nuclear power station in our country is finally decommissioned.

It seems to me that it is Mr Hill that is wrong and Mr Kavanagh was entirely correct on both counts. We neither need nor want nuclear power in Scotland, the Nuclear Industry Association, or for that matter the Westminster Labour Party’s small-scale reactors and Starmer’s “GB Energy”. What we do need is our independence so that we can make our own choices in the interest of Scotland and the all of its people, rather than English energy requirements or the wealthy seek to profit from energy production.

August 31, 2026 Posted by | spinbuster, UK | Leave a comment

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