Is nuclear power attractive or risky? In Minnesota, it’s both.
Christian Science Monitor, By Colette Davidson Special correspondent @kolet_ink May 1, 2023|MONTICELLO, MINN.
At a clearing in the brush, a clunky wooden dock is still pulled onshore for the season amid piles of dirty snow. Usually, this boat landing at the Montissippi Regional Park is a popular spot for amateurs to fish bass and walleye from the Mississippi River.
But after the Xcel Energy nuclear plant – just half a mile away – announced in March that radioactive material had leaked twice from a faulty pipe since November, some locals say they’re worried about what’s in the water. ……………………….
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and Minnesota Department of Health say the risks to the public from the leaks of water contaminated with tritium – totaling a little more than 400,000 gallons – are minimal and have not affected public drinking water. Xcel Energy powered down its Monticello plant in mid-March for maintenance, once the second leak had been discovered.
That has done little to assuage the fears of local residents, however, who say the utility company should have notified the public earlier about the leak.
…………………………….. a renewed push for nuclear energy, even among former skeptics. Yet building public trust remains a key challenge, in Minnesota and across the nation – particularly in the wake of incidents like the one in Monticello.
………………………………………………..
Reliance, but also restrictions
The U.S. gets approximately 19% of its electricity from nuclear power, according to the Energy Information Administration. While states need to go through the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for licensing approval, much of the challenge of building nuclear energy plants or considering new nuclear technologies is getting past state legislation.
Minnesota – which gets 24% of its electricity from two nuclear power plants – is one of 12 states that currently have a moratorium on the construction of new nuclear power facilities. That has led proponents here to focus their efforts instead on the latest technologies, like small modular reactors………..
…………… in the past five years, more Minnesota Democrats have come around to the idea of nuclear energy – an issue that once split along party lines.
This mirrors a wider national trend. In 2023 alone, there have been close to 100 bills across 20 states to repeal moratoriums or study nuclear energy, according to the Nuclear Innovation Alliance, based in Washington, D.C. The U.S. Department of Energy recently invested nearly $2 billion in TerraPower’s construction of a nuclear reactor in Kemmerer, Wyoming, to replace a retiring coal plant. And John Kerry, the special presidential envoy for climate, has openly supported nuclear energy….
Evolving concerns on safety
That’s not to say there aren’t concerns about nuclear from within the climate advocacy community. With the exception of the Vogtle plant in Burke County, Georgia – which boasts next-generation technology – the U.S. reactor fleet is of the same or similar generation as the one involved in Japan’s Fukushima disaster in 2011.
“Whether they’re identical in design or not, they all have the same level of vulnerability,” says Edwin Lyman, a physicist and the director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a national watchdog. …………………………..
Dr. Lyman says the Biden administration, in its enthusiasm to tackle carbon emissions and roll out new nuclear plants, must be careful not to forgo needed safety rules. That becomes even more essential as climate change brings higher winds and flooding, the biggest risks for a reactor short-circuit. Nuclear operators have also struggled with how to store waste long term. New waste is stored in pools before being transferred to dry casks, which can take up land space indefinitely.
Mixed feelings by the Mississippi
The public seems to be on board with putting more time and research into nuclear energy. According to an April Gallup poll, 55% of Americans support nuclear energy, the highest level in a decade.
But for those living near nuclear plants, there are still concerns about safety and security – from the quality of groundwater to the threat of domestic terrorism. Out on the trail at Montissippi Regional Park in Monticello, locals joke that their tomatoes are extra large thanks to their proximity to the Xcel plant. Others say they’ve been drinking bottled water since the leak.
“When those Chinese surveillance balloons flew overhead [in February], I did wonder, would the nuclear plant be a target?” says Betty, out for a walk with her husband Jack. Betty used to work for the city of Monticello and did not want to identify herself by her full name.
While the immediate risks may be small, she says she and her husband “live in the shadow of the nuclear plant,” which is a half mile from their house. Every year, Xcel Energy distributes a free calendar, which includes evacuation information in the event of disaster. …………………………… https://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2023/0501/Is-nuclear-power-attractive-or-risky-In-Minnesota-it-s-both
Kim Jong Un’s influential sister says North Korea determined to develop nuclear arsenal following US-South Korea summit
ABC News 1 May 23
The powerful sister of North Korea’s leader says her country will stage more provocative displays of its military might in response to a new US-South Korean agreement to intensify nuclear deterrence on the Korean Peninsula.
Key points:
- Kim Yo Jong, sister of Kim Jong Un, is a top foreign policy official for the regime
- She says the new US-South Korea agreement only strengthens the North’s resolve to develop nuclear arsenal
- North Korea’s nuclear deterrence doctrine emphasise pre-emptive strike capabilities
According to Kim Yo Jong, the new agreement between Washington and Seoul to counter North Korea’s nuclear threat shows their “extreme” hostility toward Pyongyang………………………………………………………………………..
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is widely expected to up the ante in coming weeks or months as he continues to accelerate a campaign aimed at cementing the North’s status as a nuclear power and eventually negotiating US economic and security concessions from a position of strength. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-01/north-korea-rebukes-us-south-korea-summit-/102285574
Libya lost, then found, 2.5 tonnes of uranium – a red flag for nuclear safety
The Conversation Olamide Samuel.Track II Diplomat and Expert in Nuclear Politics, University of Leicester 1 May 23
Earlier this year the International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi reported that about 2.5 tonnes of uranium ore concentrate had gone missing from a site in Libya. This was arguably one of the largest quantity of uranium ore concentrate that had ever been misplaced.
Barely a day after the IAEA’s announcement, General Khaled Mahjoub of the self-styled Libyan National Army said the uranium ore had been found about 5km from the warehouse where it had been stored. A week later, the IAEA, which had been monitoring the stockpile occasionally, confirmed that most of the uranium ore concentrate had been found.
Uranium ore concentrate, popularly known as ‘yellowcake’, is a type of uranium concentrate powder obtained after uranium ore has been milled and chemically processed. Yellowcake has very low radioactivity, equivalent to the radioactivity of uranium ore found in nature, and it is produced by all countries where uranium ore is mined.
Yellow cake is further processed to become enriched uranium, which is used to manufacture the fuel for nuclear reactors. However, enriched uranium can also be used to manufacture nuclear weapons. If the technology were available, the 2.5 tons of missing yellowcake would have been half the amount required for a nuclear bomb.
Nuclear material experts had said the Libyan uranium ore concentrate in case posed “no significant security risk” as it required prohibitively sophisticated processing capabilities before it can be suitable for civil or weapons use.
Nevertheless, the news of missing Libyan uranium ore concentrate did highlight serious problems with the national and global governance structures for managing uranium.
Based on my experience in nuclear non-proliferation and politics, I believe that the missing Libyan uranium debacle illustrates two things.
Firstly, it illustrates the dangers of a IAEA that doesn’t have enough resources to monitor uranium ore stockpiles, especially in countries with unstable regimes. And faced with more pressing issues such as the safety and security of nuclear power plants in Ukraine, the IAEA won’t prioritise yellowcake storage.
Secondly, many African countries still struggle to implement nuclear safety and security governance provisions.
A regional destabiliser
Libya has been unstable since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in 2011. This plunged the country into a civil war that has destabilised the North African and the Sahel regions, as Libya lost control of the largest and most diverse military arsenals in the region.
Much of this arsenal eventually fell into the hands of various non-state actors. Among them were Boko-Haram which mounted a reign of terror in northern Nigeria, and Ansar Al-Sharia in Tunisia.
Gaddafi had amassed stockpiles of nuclear material and technology as he sought to develop nuclear weapons. He had help from Abdul Qadeer Khan, who had been identified as a key facilitator for the global smuggling of nuclear material and technology.
Gaddafi eventually abandoned the weapons program in 2003, after months of secret disarmament negotiations with the US and British.
Following this deal, the US airlifted about 25 metric tonnes of Libya’s nuclear weapon programme components and documents. The last of Libya’s enriched uranium was removed in 2009. But there remained in Sabha, the southern Libyan city, about 6400 barrels of uranium ore concentrate. It’s this material that was under the control of an army battalion.
Olli Heinonen, a former Deputy Director of the IAEA, has since explained that it would have been very costly to airlift the remaining concentrate. He also said there were incentives for Libyans to holding onto the concentrate until the spot price of uranium was high enough for profitable export.
More questions than answers
Though the missing 2.5 tonnes of uranium have been recovered, questions remain: Why did 2.5 tonnes go missing in the first place? Who would have wanted to acquire it?
…………………………….. more https://theconversation.com/libya-lost-then-found-2-5-tonnes-of-uranium-a-red-flag-for-nuclear-safety-203775
ACTION ALERT: False NYT Spy Claim on Iran Nukes Needs Correction
JIM NAURECKAS, https://fair.org/home/action-alert-false-nyt-spy-claim-on-iran-nukes-needs-correction/ 1 May 23
The New York Times (5/1/23), reporting on Iran’s execution of British spy Alireza Akbari, reported:
The spy had provided valuable information — and would continue to do so for years — intelligence that would prove critical in eliminating any doubt in Western capitals that Iran was pursuing nuclear weapons.
This is not correct; as FAIR has often pointed out (FAIR.org, 10/17/17, 9/9/15, 9/24/13; 1/31/13; Extra!, 3–4/08), the position of US intelligence is that it has no proof Iran has decided to build a nuclear weapon. As the US State Department reiterated in April 2022:
The United States continues to assess that Iran is not currently undertaking the key nuclear weapons–development activities it judge necessary to produce a nuclear device.
This is a serious error that deserves prompt correction.
ACTION:
Please tell the New York Times to correct its false claim that there is no doubt that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons.
CONTACT:
Letters: letters@nytimes.com
REGAN Vest: Inside Denmark’s secret nuclear bunker
BBC 1 May 23,
A top-secret atomic bunker has opened to the public in Denmark. Built to withstand a nuclear attack, it’s now an astonishing subterranean museum that sheds light on Cold War paranoia.
Hidden in northern Jutland’s Rold Forest, some 400km north-west of Copenhagen, is the sprawling bunker complex of Koldrigsmuseet REGAN Vest (The Cold War Museum REGAN West). Secretly built in the 1960s at the height of Cold War tensions, this is where the Danish government and even the queen would have been evacuated if nuclear war broke out.
The plan was to run the country from inside this shelter, 60m below ground, and its very existence was kept hushed for decades until it was finally revealed in 2012. After years of preparations, it opened to the public for the first time in February 2023 as a museum. Only 50,000 visitors are permitted annually, and access has been limited to small groups of 10 on 90-minute guided tours that explore 2km of the labyrinthine bunker system. It’s an eye-opening journey into the heart of a Cold War-era time capsule…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
The resulting nuclear-proof bunker was a staggering 5,500sq m behemoth, shaped like two large, connected rings, each with an upper and lower floor, and more than 230 rooms that would house around 350 personnel. Mostly these would be ministers and civil servants, part of a slimmed down administration tasked with running the nation’s affairs during the darkest of times, plus a few medical staff, several journalists and a priest……………………………………………. more https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20230501-regan-vest-inside-denmarks-secret-nuclear-bunker
May 1 Energy News — geoharvey
Opinion: ¶ “BYD Seagull And The Promise Of The EV Revolution” • Up until now, almost all electric cars were either luxury models or minuscule. The BYD Seagull is a 4-passenger hatchback that is slightly larger than a Fiat 500 and a little shorter than a MINI Cooper. But the most astonishing news is that […]
May 1 Energy News — geoharvey
UK underlines commitment to NATO nuclear capability and a £3 billion funding uplift for the nuclear enterprise
UKDJ, By Tom Dunlop 1 May 23
Defence Minister Baroness Goldie recently hosted members of the North Atlantic Council and NATO Military Committee at His Majesty’s Naval Base (HMNB) Clyde, emphasising the UK’s commitment to NATO’s nuclear deterrence.
This comes as the UK government announced a £3 billion funding uplift for the nuclear enterprise in the Spring Budget.
………………………….. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace commented, “We have declared our nuclear deterrent to the defence of NATO for over 60 years, and our commitment to the security of the NATO Alliance is absolute. The UK’s round-the-clock nuclear deterrent is more crucial than ever, as the ultimate guarantee of our collective security.” https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/uk-underlines-commitment-to-nato-nuclear-capability/
Ukraine signs new contracts with Turkish drone manufacturer for “new-generation weapons” — Anti-bellum
AzertagApril 30, 2023 Ukraine signed new contracts with “Baykar” company New cooperation agreements have been signed between Ukraine and Turkey’s famous “Baykar” drone company “Baykar”. [T]he Minister of Strategic Industries of Ukraine, Alexander Kamishin, announced this on his Telegram page. “I had many meetings at the international aviation equipment exhibition TEKNOFEST 2023 in Turkey. These […]
Ukraine signs new contracts with Turkish drone manufacturer for “new-generation weapons” — Anti-bellum
G-7 Expected to Focus on Nuclear Dangers in Hiroshima
Arms Control Association, May 2023, By Daryl G. Kimball
The leaders of the Group of Seven (G-7) industrialized nations, who will convene this month in Hiroshima, the city destroyed in 1945 by the world’s first nuclear attack, are expected to emphasize measures to address rising nuclear dangers.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who will preside over the summit, chose Hiroshima as the venue “to deepen discussions so that we can release a strong message toward realizing a world free of nuclear weapons.” In response to concerns that Russia might use nuclear weapons in its war in Ukraine, Kishida also said on Jan. 9 that the G-7 needs to “demonstrate a firm commitment to absolutely reject the threat or use of nuclear weapons.”
………………………. According to The Japan Times, the Japanese government is arranging for a meeting between the G-7 leaders and some of the remaining hibakusha, the survivors of the atomic bomb attacks, during a visit to the peace museum on May 19.
………………… Kishida also met representatives from the “Civil 7” group of nongovernmental organizations from 72 countries on April 13 to hear their recommendations on how the G-7 leaders could advance progress on nuclear risk reduction and nuclear disarmament. Among other measures, the civil society group recommended that G-7 leaders meet atomic bombing survivors, unequivocally condemn threats to use nuclear weapons, and endorse urgent negotiations to achieve the complete elimination of nuclear weapons before 2045……………….
https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2023-05/news/g-7-expected-focus-nuclear-dangers-hiroshima
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Another nuclear war-mongering week in the news
A bit of good news. The Golden Rule, the first boat to protest nuclear weapons is back to inspire a new generation.
Events. 17 May Online Seminar – Beyond Nuclear “Tritium and the U.S. Nuclear Power Sector”. 18 – 28 May .12TH INTERNATIONAL URANIUM FILM FESTIVAL RIO DE JANEIRO .
Climate. The most at-risk regions in the world for high-impact heatwaves.
Nuclear. What can I say? The longest section below “Weapons and Weapons Sales” says it all. It’s the war-mongering economy, stupid.
Christina notes. Australia’s Defence Minister Richard Marles – a puppet of the American war industry – leading us on to WW3.
CLIMATE. Despite the dangers of climate change, UK nuclear power stations still sited on the coastline!
ECONOMICS. Preparing for War: The Global Military Budget. Nuclear vs Solar: The Race For Renewable Dominance. Marketing. UK courts Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates for investments to salvage the nuclear dream
ENERGY. EDF Q1 revenues rise but nuclear output declines.
ENVIRONMENT. Remembering Chornobyl — Beyond Nuclear. Why did Russians dig trenches in radioactive Chernobyl woods? Marine deaths prompt calls for investigation and halt into any new nuclear dump tests. Hinkley fish deterrent farce makes mockery of Environment Agency and Minister.
HEALTH. Russian troops ‘went FISHING in the nuclear reactor cooling channel at Chernobyl’ and are now suffering from radiation sickness. ‘New Zealand should say sorry’ – sailors posted to watch nuclear tests.
HISTORY. REGAN Vest: Inside Denmark’s secret nuclear bunker.
MEDIA. BBC launches 7 part series on Fukushima nuclear disaster. Fukushima nuclear disaster – new Netflix series https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtB8P59xWjw Survivors of Britain’s Cold War radiation experiments to have their stories recorded.
NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY. The age of small modular nuclear? Amid maintenance delays and strikes in nuclear industry, France restarts one reactor.
OPPOSITION to NUCLEAR. MPs and activists push back as Ottawa pitches expansion of nuclear energy -“a dirty dangerous distraction”. Citizen opposition blocks discharge of radioactive water from Indian Point nuke into Hudson River, for now. Anti nuclear campaign groups in Wales (Dwyfor and Meirionnydd) urge government to invest in energy conservation, NOT dirty nuclear power.
PERSONAL STORIES. The mind of Oppenheimer, inventor of nuclear bomb who turned pacifist. Chernobyl: Survivors reflect on nuclear accident, Russian occupation.
POLITICS.
- . New Defence Review Further Enslaves Australia To US War Agendas. Australia pays former US defence chiefs $7000 a day for advice. Australia being seduced into war again by the US, this time over Taiwan.
- Biden’s team fears the aftermath of a failed Ukrainian counteroffensive. Scott Ritter: ‘Ukraine Victory Resolution’ Act – a Delusional Suicide Pact.
- US Senators and Congress Members introduce Bill to stop A1 from power to launch a nuclear weapon. Lawmakers propose banning AI from singlehandedly launching nuclear weapons.
- Canada’s push for small nuclear reactors will be costly, ineffective, some MPs warn. New nuclear tech not the answer to Canada’s climate woes, MPs say.
POLITICS INTERNATIONAL and DIPLOMACY.
- Biden and South Korea’s Yoon sign new agreement on nuclear weapons.
- France to participate in Russian Rosatom’s Hungary nuclear power plant project. Will The EU Sanction Russia’s Nuclear Industry? (I don’t think France will agree to this)
- Pentagon-EU-NATO merger proceeds apace. New pact mandates EU honor NATO’s Article 5 collective war clause .
- Statement by the G7 Parliamentarian Forum for the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons. G-7 Expected to Focus on Nuclear Dangers in Hiroshima.
PROTESTS.“We won’t be scapegoats!” — French opposition to nuclear waste dumping.
PUBLIC OPINION. Is nuclear power attractive or risky? In Minnesota, it’s both.
SAFETY Remembering Chernobyl as nuclear danger grows with attacks in the Zaporizhzhia region. Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant: a Catastrophe Waiting to Happen, Ukraine’s nuclear power plants are still a source of nightmares years after the Chornobyl disaster. Chernobyl anniversary offers a bleak look at what may await other Ukrainian nuclear plants. Russia fixing power line from Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant to land it controls, IAEA says.
Japanese authorities doubtful of removal process of Fukushima radioactive sandbags. Libya lost, then found, 2.5 tonnes of uranium – a red flag for nuclear safety. No change to nuclear transport rules following accident down under, says regulator.
SECRETS and LIES.
- Foiled Escape: UC Global, the CIA and Julian Assange.
- ‘Crazy’ that Russia and Ukraine still trade – Seymour Hersh.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_2kfZKtSRg
- Once Shocking, U.S. Spying on Its Allies Draws a Global Shrug.
- How The FBI Helps Ukrainian Intelligence Hunt ‘Disinformation’ On Social Media.
- Sensitive files on nuclear submarine found in English pub restroom.
- ACTION ALERT: False NYT Spy Claim on Iran Nukes Needs Correction.
- Australia Pays “retired U.S. military figure” Clapper to advance USA’s Military Aims
SPACE. EXPLORATION, WEAPONS. India needs ‘space-based’ weapons – top generals. Stop SpaceX from crashing rockets in the Pacific. The wrong stuff – Musk and the 4/20 rocket drill .
SPINBUSTER. Caitlin Johnstone – The Single Dumbest Thing The Empire Asks Us To Believe.
WASTES. Nuclear waste from small modular reactors – Simon Daigle comments on recent article. A means to dispose of nuclear waste remains elusive and Canada continues to store the most per capita. The long and dirty legacy of nuclear power. Plans to release nuclear wastewater into Hudson River delayed following outcry.
WAR and CONFLICT.
- Daniel Ellsberg Warns Risk of Nuclear War Is Rising as Tension Mounts over Ukraine & Taiwan. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RAxEnqZt3w
- US deployed Nuclear Disablement Teams to S. Korea in March.
- Russia is preparing to defend Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
- NATO drills fifth-generation warplanes for all-domain “immediate response under Article 5”.
- Germany trains Ukrainian special forces, tank crews for attacks on Russian forces.
- Estonia: NATO absorbs national forces on Russia’s northwest border .
- Sardinia: NATO strike force practices war with Russia .
- Mombasa Appeal for peace and prevention of Nuclear War – International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War.
WEAPONS and WEAPONS SALES.
- UK replacing its Nuclear Warhead Programme – at what cost? UK underlines commitment to NATO nuclear capability and a £3 billion funding uplift for the nuclear enterprise. UK Gave Ukraine Thousands of Shells, Including Depleted Uranium Rounds.
- Will the West turn Ukraine into a nuclear battlefield?
- US nuclear weapons modernization plan spurs cost questions. Dealing with a debacle: A better plan for US plutonium pit production.
- US to send nuclear-armed submarines to South Korea. Kim Jong Un’s influential sister says North Korea determined to develop nuclear arsenal following US-South Korea summit.
- Pentagon: Poland leader among NATO nations, “wonderful host” to U.S. combat forces .
- Largest short-range missile acquisition in NATO: UK to deliver more missile batteries to Poland .
- NATO conference pushes arms procurements for Ukraine, future wars .
- NATO allies, partners provide Ukraine with 1,550 armored vehicles, 230 tanks .
- Ukraine signs new contracts with Turkish drone manufacturer for “new-generation weapons” .
- France: NATO’s rehearsal for war with Russia includes cyber, space, electromagnetic components .
- Nuclear weapons: a big threat to Africa, too — IPPNW peace and health blog.
India needs ‘space-based’ weapons – top generals
The space arms race is already ongoing, according to the chiefs of the Air Force and the Defense Staff.’
https://www.rt.com/news/575556-india-space-based-weapons/ 30 Apr 23
India must boost its defensive and offensive capabilities in the space domain, as the “future lies in having space-based platforms,” Air Chief Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhari told a national security and geopolitics forum on Saturday.
“
In the future, instead of having purely land-based offensive systems, we should also have space-based offensive systems,” Chaudhari said, according to The Economic Times.
The competition and rivalry between the global powers in space “will have its effects across all other domains of warfare,” he said, predicting that his Air Force will soon turn into an Air Space Force, and “will be called upon to take part in space situational awareness, space denial exercises or space control exercises.”
“The race to weaponize space has already started and the day is not far when our next war would spread across all domains of land, sea, air, cyber and space,” the air force chief warned back in March. On Saturday he stated that the race has actually been ongoing ever since Nazi Germany first launched its V-2 rocket almost 80 years ago.
India’s Chief of Defense Staff, General Anil Chauhan, also recently stated that the “military applications of space is the dominant discourse from which we cannot remain divorced.”
“The aim for all of us should be developing dual-use platforms with special focus on incorporating cutting-edge technology,” he told the Indian DefSpace Symposium on April 11.
It remains unclear what kind of futuristic space weapons the military seeks to obtain, but Chaudhari said India should capitalize on the success of its 2019 anti-satellite missile test. The so-called Mission Shakti destroyed a satellite some 300km away in low-Earth orbit and was hailed at the time as an “unprecedented achievement” by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
ndia has become the fourth “space superpower” after the US, Russia, and China, to openly demonstrate its ASAT missile capability. The space club members have regularly accused each other of weaponizing space, voicing suspicions over secretive military launches and dual-purpose tests, but have never admitted to possessing any orbital weapons systems.
The long and dirty legacy of nuclear power
The trouble is that nuclear-power adherents are now seriously contemplating for future generations a ghastly rerun of the decommissioning nightmare. Small-to-medium-sized reactors, such as envisaged for Trawsfynydd and Wylfa, are the smart way forward, they chorus. Once more, the probably insoluble decommissioning and nuclear waste-management problem is being blanked out.
https://www.cambrian-news.co.uk/opinion/the-long-and-dirty-legacy-of-nuclear-power-610039By Patrick O’Brien Sunday 30th April 2023
In the normal course of events, you’d know when you were financing a dodgy venture. It’s hard to imagine your money being ploughed into an enterprise doomed from the start and being ignorant of the fact.
So how many of us knew we’re bankrolling an outfit with a boat in the Irish Sea embarked on a mission guaranteed to be a very bad idea all round?
The craft in question operates with a simple instruction: to blast off underwater seismic guns – to the certain detriment of dolphins and porpoises – as part of a madcap exercise to find a subterranean cemetery for large amounts of lethal radioactive waste from Cumbria’s Sellafield nuclear site.
I refer to pollutants that, for the last 70 years, have contaminated seas off vast coastal areas of Wales and Ireland, and parts of England, with radioactive substances that take, literally, tens of thousands of years to decay.
Let me introduce Nuclear Waste Services, an entirely taxpayer-funded public body under the wing of the UK government, which is engaging marine geological surveyors to comb the seabed for an out-of-sight-out-of-mind repository for the terrifying remnants of a dangerous and long discredited system of energy-generation.
Yes, the UK is looking for a storage site for the world’s biggest stockpile of untreated nuclear waste, including 100 tonnes of plutonium.
Currently the search centres on the seabed off Cumbria. The nearby notorious Sellafield nuclear complex having, since 1952, openly discharged substantial quantities of liquid and solid radioactive waste into the Irish Sea, a disreputable industry’s servants are now embarked on a final fling, dressed up, naturally, as a service to the UK population.
Thus Chris Eldred, a Nuclear Waste Services senior manager, expounding on the benefit of the gorgeously clinically named geological disposal facilities (GDFs) his company has set its heart on.
GDFs, he vouchsafes, “will protect future generations from the risks of keeping hazardous radioactive waste in surface stores for thousands of years.” Thank goodness, therefore, that we have the sea at our unfettered disposal, there to hide away nuclear power’s abiding torment – what to do with the reverberating remnants of a spent technology that will never in thousands of years be stilled.
To help us with this vital work”, Mr Eldred says, “we will undertake surveys to provide a better understanding of the deep geology beyond the coast, while doing everything we can to minimise any environmental impact.”
In his apparent innocence, you wonder whether he has in mind earplugs for dolphins and porpoises, which are observed to be disorientated, distraught and damaged by the monstrous decibels of seismic guns. These theoretically protected animals, let it be remembered, are in all probability some of those we marvel at off the Ceredigion coast.
Not that the UK government or Nuclear Waste Services or anyone else has checked with us, the funders of this desperate exploration.
Not that they have seen fit, either, to mention that sea-borne radioactive waste, pumped for seven decades into the sea at Sellafield, has been detected off coasts of Wales, as well as hundreds of miles further south and west of the Cumbria nuclear site.
We’re talking here about insoluble radionuclides, such as highly dangerous plutonium-239, which has a half life of, truly, 24,110 years and can attach to particles in the sea, there to be transported over long distances and timescales and ultimately deposited into fine sediments. such as estuarine and coastal mudflats and salt-marshes. Since the early 1950s, this stuff has floated unhindered down from Sellafield off Wales’s west coast, ending up as far away as the Bristol Channel and the southern North Sea.
Sellafield’s tentacles have even reached inland Wales. In the late 1980s, the then Dyfed County Council commissioned a study of radioactivity in the county which found Caesium-137 – proved to have come from Sellafield sea discharges – in pasture grass seven miles inland from the Cardigan Bay coast. Radiocaesium, which has a 30-year half-life, can increase the risk for cancer.
The size of the current nuclear power-station decommissioning conundrum is mind-boggling. Even the UK government admits the seabed dump site it seeks for the world’s largest stockpile of untreated nuclear waste would need to keep its terrible debris “safe and secure over the hundreds of thousands of years it will take for the radioactivity to naturally decay”.
Meanwhile, councils signed up to the Nuclear Free Local Authorities grouping, including Ceredigion’s and Gwynedd’s, believe the pretty well obvious: no matter how effective the marine storage barriers, some radioactivity would eventually leak to the surface of the sea. They prefer the idea of a “near surface, near site storage of waste” to allow for monitoring and management.
Trying to show willing, they’re seizing on a least-worst option, which is nevertheless woefully inadequate.
The trouble is that nuclear-power adherents are now seriously contemplating for future generations a ghastly rerun of the decommissioning nightmare. Small-to-medium-sized reactors, such as envisaged for Trawsfynydd and Wylfa, are the smart way forward, they chorus. Once more, the probably insoluble decommissioning and nuclear waste-management problem is being blanked out.
All that’s left is for the realists among us to resolve, very firmly, that we will never allow a return to the insanity of a 1950s future.
Why did Russians dig trenches in radioactive Chernobyl woods?
Even Ukrainians who stayed after the nuclear disaster tried to warn their
enemies. On February 24, 2022, the first day of the invasion of Ukraine,
the Russians crossed into the area from Belarus. They stayed for five
weeks, camping out for part of that time in some of the most contaminated
land around the site of the worst nuclear accident in history.
They dug defensive positions in the Red Forest, within a six-mile radius of reactor
No 4, where they lived, ate and slept for a fortnight. Nobody can
understand why.
“Don’t try to find logic,” said Oksana Pyshna, 30, a
tour guide turned employee of the state ministry responsible for the
exclusion zone, who showed us around. “It’s stupid.” The place is
called the Red Forest because that’s the colour the trees went after the
disaster as the cloud of poison spread through Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, on
to the Baltics and Scandinavia.
In 1986 and the years after, teams of men
dug up the topsoil and buried it: under the surface it is far more
poisonous. Carving trenches there was a terrible idea, said Pyshna.
“It’s the most dangerous territory in the special zone, because under
the ground we have nuclear waste.”
Perhaps the Russians felt safer there
because they knew the Ukrainians wouldn’t shell the area around the
nuclear plant. Perhaps the beauty of the woods blinded them to the danger.
Catfish throng the reactor’s cooling channel, deer shy through the silver
birches when visitors pass. There are, apparently, bears in the forests;
wolves too, wild ponies. In the autumn, the trees hang heavy with the most
perfect apples, green and pink.
But their pips can hold radioactive
isotopes: caesium-137 or strontium-90. Some Russian soldiers stationed in
the forest got radiation sickness, diplomats have confirmed. Kicking up the
dust or walking on the moss can contaminate you. Digging is much worse. The
few dozen locals – average age, 86 – who remained here after the
disaster have become unspeakably blasé about the risks of nuclear
radiation. Even they were shocked.
Times 29th April 2023
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ukraine-chernobyl-nuclear-putin-russia-invasion-rgjzskfvq
“We won’t be scapegoats!” — French opposition to nuclear waste dumping
“This land is our land.” French goats bleat against nuclear fuel pool threat
“We won’t be scapegoats!” — Beyond Nuclear International
Contrary to popular propaganda, nuclear reprocessing is not recycling. This has never been more evident than in the current crisis at La Hague, where the irradiated fuel pools are now full to capacity. Part of the reason is the country’s insistence on producing mixed-oxide reactor fuel from the plutonium and uranium separated at La Hague. So much of it has proven defective, that is has been returned to La Hague, filling up the fuel pools.
opposing French plans to extend the licenses of current reactors and to build new ones with, as they point out, absolutely no consideration of what will happen to the radioactive waste.
A new tongue-in-cheek rebellion has risen in France, but the cause is deadly serious
By Linda Pentz Gunter, https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2023/04/30/we-wont-be-scapegoats/
In France, civil disobedience and defiance of authority — and authoritarianism — is in the national DNA. We have seen it most recently in the demonstrations against the raising of the retirement age, and against proposed agricultural reservoirs known as mega-basins. Before that it was the “yellow vests”, angered at a rise in fuel prices. Further back came the Resistance during World War II, and even further back, of course, the Revolution of 1789.
The French anti-nuclear movement is no exception and has engaged in protests that deliver considerable numbers and abundant creativity — and sometimes a lot of useful tractors as well.
It’s no surprise then to learn that such continued defiance has now spread: to goats.
Before continuing, it’s necessary to explain what a ZAD is. In French, it stands for Zone À Défendre (zone to defend.) ZADs are usually occupations or blocades created by citizens protecting something they deem precious from development or destruction. There are scores of ZADs across France, deemed illegal by French authorities. ZADs have sometimes won, most notably at Notre-Dame-des-Landes, where an unpopular airport project was stopped.
But raids on ZADs can sometimes turn violent, and authorities can over-react as they did in February 2018 at Bure, when 500 gendarmes went in to remove just 15 anti-nuclear activists occupying and attempting to protect the forested site targeted to become the country’s high-level radioactive waste dump.
Dressed in riot gear, the gendarmes used bulldozers, trucks, helicopters, drones and chainsaws to confront the occupiers, self-described “owls” who had been living in tree houses and lookout towers for the past 18 months.
Now, activists around the La Hague nuclear reprocessing site on the northern Cherbourg peninsula, have redefined the ZAD acronym to stand for Zone À Déchets (Waste Zone), and specifically radioactive waste.
Contrary to popular propaganda, nuclear reprocessing is not recycling. This has never been more evident than in the current crisis at La Hague, where the irradiated fuel pools are now full to capacity. Part of the reason is the country’s insistence on producing mixed-oxide reactor fuel from the plutonium and uranium separated at La Hague. So much of it has proven defective, that is has been returned to La Hague, filling up the fuel pools.
A slowdown in reprocessing due to technical failures has also hastened the overcrowding of La Hague’s four spent fuel pools with excess irradiated fuel rods. These pools risk saturation by 2030 and the French safety authority has criticized La Hague owner, Orano’s suggestion that it could pack the pools more densely as this raises safety risks.
The owner of the French nuclear fleet, EDF, is responsible for managing the waste fuel their reactors produce. Its solution to the overcrowding at La Hague is to build a new fuel pool at the site, at a cost of $1.37 billion.
And that has locals up in arms — and hooves.
Normandy, the province in which La Hague is located, is strongly agricultural. Cows — and dairy products — abound. As do goats. While those still domesticated produce cheese, there is also a significant and famous wild goat population, known as les chèvres des fossés, that ranges freely on the coastal cliffs.
Accordingly, a new La Hague opposition group, Piscine Nucléaire Stop (Stop the Nuclear Fuel Pool), found a way to communicate the threat a new fuel would pose to agriculture and the environment by recruiting some goats to their cause.
In an amusing action that was posted on Facebook and was covered in the press, the activists placed an array of artistic — and realistic — cut-out goats at an intersection in the town of Jobourg, one of the communities that would be affected by the health and environmental risks of a new nuclear fuel pool. The town gives its name to the famous wild Jobourg goats and has erected a statue in their honor.
Then the goats put out their own statement. It read:
“We nanny and billy goats of Jobourg, claim our right to decide the fate of our land, and affirm today our opposition to the EDF spent fuel storage pool project.
Continue readingJapanese authorities doubtful of removal process of Fukushima radioactive sandbags
Japanese authorities have expressed doubt over the removal of radioactive sandbags at the Fukushima nuclear plant as the plant operator aims to start the recycling procedure this fiscal year, NHK reported on Monday.
Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority said the recycling approach needs to be fully verified, adding that it was unclear whether the procedure can be carried out as expected.
The zeolite-packed sandbags were put on the basement floors of the factory building as an emergency measure to lower radiation levels of contaminated water after the 2011 nuclear disaster.
Although their radiation levels have weakened with time, the sandbags can still emit radiation levels of up to 4.4 sieverts per hour, which could kill people exposed to the high reading for two hours.
The plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) plans to use robots to collect the sandbags and store them in other receptacles. The company is expecting the plan to be approved in September.
The regulator said tests need to be carried out this summer to verify the plan’s safety.
1 This Month
Read the Public Inquiry Report, the Commissioners’ report, Surrendering Australia: The AUKUS Deception is available to download for free at aukuspublicinquiry.com. Or just watch the replay of the National Press Club Luncheon.
19 November – Webinar – The Reality of Reprocessing
Time: 11:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada) / 2:00 PM Eastern / 7:00 PM UK / 8:00 PM CET
Register for the Zoom Event Here
Shut down the radiation-damaged Heysham nuclear reactors now
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
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