Sizewell C taking the axe to two century-old trees
Two century-old oak trees will be felled to make way for a new road
network which will eventually serve a new nuclear power plant in Suffolk.
Managers for Sizewell C will chop down the trees along the B1125 Leiston
Road in Middleton so a new junction can be built. Sizewell C had permission
to cut down seven trees, although residents feared as many as ten could be
chopped down. Steve Mannings, Sizewell C’s head of ecology, said only the
two oak trees nearest the new junction needed to be felled.
BBC 25th Sept 2025, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y4dqw8vqqo
First of four containers of tritium waste at LANL has been vented
By Alaina Mencinger amencinger@sfnewmexican.com
Sep 16, 2025
The first of four flanged tritium waste containers awaiting removal from Los Alamos National Laboratory has been vented, the New Mexico Environment Department announced Tuesday afternoon.
The container can now be moved for treatment at LANL and then, eventually, to an off-site disposal area.
No internal pressure was found in the first container, according to the National Nuclear Security Administration, suggesting the inner containers in the flanged tritium waste container hadn’t leaked. Air monitoring did not show an increase of tritium beyond background levels, the federal agency wrote…………………………………
This weekend, several groups, including Communities for Clean Water, urged state and federal officials to stay the venting and requested additional guidance on precautionary measures. The New Mexico Environmental Law Center drafted a letter to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Friday asking the state leader to halt the process.
“This project is the direct result of decades of mismanagement,” Joni Arends of Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety stated in a news release ahead of scheduled weekend venting. “Instead of investing in real solutions like filtration or long-term storage until decay, DOE is forcing our communities to accept dangerous shortcuts.” https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/first-of-four-containers-of-tritium-waste-at-lanl-has-been-vented/article_4b5cf404-0458-4880-ba3f-7a1c754a500e.html
Key oceans treaty crosses threshold to come into force
A global agreement designed to protect the world’s oceans and reverse
damage to marine life is set to become international law. The High Seas
Treaty received its 60th ratification by Morocco on Friday, meaning that it
will now take effect from January. The deal, which has been two decades in
the making, will pave the way for international waters to be placed into
marine protected areas. Environmentalists heralded the milestone as a
“monumental achievement” and evidence that countries can work together for
environmental protection.
BBC 20th Sept 2025, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq5j87114deo
‘Sizewell C oak tree felling would be devastating’
Campaigners say chopping down century-old oak trees as part of the
Sizewell C nuclear power station build would be “the straw that broke the
horse’s back”. Sizewell C has notified residents in Middleton, Suffolk,
that vegetation on the B1125 at Leiston Road could be cleared between the 6
and 10 October – after permission was granted. But locals fear it will mean
the loss of 10 oaks – each more than 100 years old – to improve the sight
line of the 60mph stretch, which could become part of the Sizewell C Link
Road system. It remains unclear at this stage if all or any of the trees
will be cut down, as project bosses say they will “only ever remove trees
when we absolutely have to”.
BBC 9th Sept 2025, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgknxezy2vno
Is fishmeal from Fukushima-affected fish the source of Indonesian shrimp’s radioactive contamination?
J. P. Unger, 8 Sept 25
It just hit me earlier, while thinking about the recently exposed case of radioactive shrimp being recalled in the US, and in particular why one Indonesian shrimp farming business’s harvests would be contaminated with radioactive Cesium and not those from other Indonesian shrimp farms: it’s probably the feed they used!
Cheap, radioactive fishmeal, perhaps made from fish impacted by contamination from Fukushima, I suspect could well be the source. This is why:
Shrimp farming has traditionally used fishmeal as a high-protein source to feed the shrimp -with fishmeal normally consisting of smaller fish, fishing “by-catch” and fish-processing byproducts, all shredded and ground to a texture like coarse sand or pellets to feed farm animals and aquaculture operations.
As ocean fish populations become increasingly strained and global demand for fish keeps increasing, fishmeal has become increasingly expensive and in shorter supply
Therefore, it’s quite likely that fishmeal from contaminated fisheries -for example, with high levels of radioactive pollution- would be offered at a comparatively low price. That would be quite attractive for a business that’s more concerned with profit margins than with what happens to consumers down the line.
If this was the case, and given that many businesses around the world likely prioritize profit margins over long-term effects in far-removed consumers (or might not even be aware of the contamination of the feed), this case could be the tip of a very worrisome iceberg and open up a big can of worms….
It certainly demands a careful inspection of food imports AND of food “precursors”, in particular imported fishmeal and food from animals raised on it. Also, international cooperation and vigilance, to know who might be selling contaminated fishmeal and where, who has been buying and using it, and what land- or water-farmed meat production it might be affecting.
Unless I hear concerns or suggestions to the contrary, I’ll prepare and send a slightly different articulation of these thoughts to a handful of government officials and media here and in the US who might be interested in investigating, as precautions should probably be ramped up for a variety of food products…
This would not be the first time radioactively contaminated foodstuff circulates at bargain prices… When I was starting as a science and environment journalist in Peru in the 1980’s I wrote about the post-Chernobyl arrival of radioactive powdered milk from Europe (a “generous” 12,000 ton donation from the European Community…), and radioactive meat from Germany (sold at a bargain price!). I received brush-offs, threats and warnings from corrupt government officials profiting from it, as well as ignorance and disinterest among other journalists and the general population, all with other “more immediate concerns” at the time, as the country faced five-digit inflation and the expansion of a brutally violent Maoist insurgency -nobody wanted to hear about yet more dangers then, and everywhere I was met by a frustrating fatalistic denial or avoidance mantra along the lines of “one has to die from something anyway.” Anyways… JPU
Jellyfish cause partial shutdown at French nuclear plant
EDF considered installing a so-called “fish disco” at Hinkley Point C,
the reactor under construction in Somerset, south-west England, to ward off sea life from the site, after protesters criticised the project’s fish protection measures. EDF is now exploring whether it can use new fish deterrent technology involving devices that make very high frequency sounds, having decided against its earlier plan to install underwater loudspeakers.
FT 4th Sept 2025, https://www.ft.com/content/dadaa032-55a3-4c09-9fc5-3bcaf2b90fe4
Why are saltmarshes such effective carbon sinks?
The invisible yet lethal threat of radioactive pollution is an ever-present risk to the Blackwater. Even a small leakage of nuclear material from the decommissioned Bradwell reactor cores or radioactive waste stores could negatively affect the role that the estuary’s marshlands play in trapping carbon, known as carbon sequestration. In short, radioactive leakage may erode the amount of carbon that can be sequestered in future. This risk alone should be enough to deter any further development of new nuclear power at the Bradwell site.
2 September 2025
David Humphreys explains the role of saltmarshes in the struggle against our heating climate in the August 2025 column for Regional Life
The saltmarshes and mudflats of the Blackwater Estuary are an important yet fragile environment rich in birds, flora, invertebrates, fish and oysters. But saltmarshes are also highly effective in storing carbon, thereby acting as carbon sinks with a vital role to play in tackling increases to the global temperature.
Like all forms of plant life, the vegetation that thrives in marshlands absorbs carbon from the atmosphere through photosynthesis to create food for the plants.
Carbon sinks may release their carbon back into the atmosphere in two ways. First, combustion generates carbon dioxide emissions, for example during forest fires. Second, carbon dioxide is realised when living organisms respire. Respiration is how life forms, including plants, obtain energy. If plants are in an oxygen-rich (aerobic) environment they create more carbon dioxide when breathing than if their environment is lacking in oxygen (anaerobic).
Why are saltmarshes such effective carbon sinks?
2 September 2025
David Humphreys explains the role of saltmarshes in the struggle against our heating climate in the August 2025 column for Regional Life
The saltmarshes and mudflats of the Blackwater Estuary are an important yet fragile environment rich in birds, flora, invertebrates, fish and oysters. But saltmarshes are also highly effective in storing carbon, thereby acting as carbon sinks with a vital role to play in tackling increases to the global temperature.
Like all forms of plant life, the vegetation that thrives in marshlands absorbs carbon from the atmosphere through photosynthesis to create food for the plants.
Carbon sinks may release their carbon back into the atmosphere in two ways. First, combustion generates carbon dioxide emissions, for example during forest fires. Second, carbon dioxide is realised when living organisms respire. Respiration is how life forms, including plants, obtain energy. If plants are in an oxygen-rich (aerobic) environment they create more carbon dioxide when breathing than if their environment is lacking in oxygen (anaerobic).
And here’s why saltmarshes are such effective sinks: they are anaerobic, so plants breathe without oxygen. Anaerobic respiration generates less energy than aerobic respiration and produces less carbon dioxide. This enables carbon stocks to build up. Coastal marshlands also receive a constant influx of tide-borne sediment, which buries organic matter in sediment layers, a further factor that enables carbon to accumulate. The result is that coastal marshlands are more effective at carbon storage per hectare than any other ecosystem, including tropical forests.
The Blackwater Estuary forms part of a broader category of carbon sink known as ‘blue carbon’. This is carbon that has been captured and stored by living coastal ecosystems such as saltmarshes, mangrove forests and seagrass beds. Blue carbon ecosystems also provide other environmental services such as protection against sea-level rise and storm surges. Given the global sea-level increases projected for this century, the importance of blue carbon ecosystems cannot be overstated, both for coastal protection and trapping carbon.
The saltmarshes of Essex, then, are a vital asset in the fight against global heating. At the same time, they are threatened by the impacts of climate change, in particular coastal retreat from sea-level rise.
Marshland ecosystems are also at the mercy of pollution, which can reduce their carbon storage capacity. The invisible yet lethal threat of radioactive pollution is an ever-present risk to the Blackwater. Even a small leakage of nuclear material from the decommissioned Bradwell reactor cores or radioactive waste stores could negatively affect the role that the estuary’s marshlands play in trapping carbon, known as carbon sequestration. In short, radioactive leakage may erode the amount of carbon that can be sequestered in future. This risk alone should be enough to deter any further development of new nuclear power at the Bradwell site.
This is a further reason to ‘BANNG the drum’ against new nuclear at Bradwell and to resist further nuclear power construction in the United Kingdom.
David Humphreys is Emeritus Professor of Environmental Policy at the Open University.
Widened recall of radioactively contaminate shrimp
The FDA continues to widened a recall of shrimp packages contaminated with radioactive cesium 137. Various theories abound regarding the exact source of the contamination. As of September 2, the recall encompasses grocery stores, distributors, and wholesalers across many states.
Such a recall comes as no shock to many organizations — including Beyond Nuclear — who, in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima meltdowns, have warned about radioactive contamination of food for over a decade. These groups petitioned FDA (2013), and two appeals are currently being made to lawmakers, to reduce the amount of radioisotopes allowed in U.S. food. The U.S. has one of the highest allowable limits worldwide for radiocesium. https://nislappdc.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/FFAN-FINAL-release-on-shrimp-recall-1-4-1.pdf
‘It doesn’t make sense’: Marine biologist on Kenya’s proposed nuclear power plant.
Elodie Toto, Mongabay, 29 Aug 2025
- Kenya is considering building a nuclear power plant in Uyombo, a coastal town in Kilifi county. It would be near Mida Creek mangroves, Arabuko Sokoke Forest Reserve and Watamu National Marine Park and Reserve, all recognized for their high biodiversity, including endemic species and coral reefs.
- The plant’s cooling system could raise water temperatures in the area. This could harm marine life, potentially causing further coral bleaching and disrupting plankton and other critical species, which would, in the long run, affect the entire food chain.
- Residents and environmentalists, including marine biologist Peter Musila, have criticized the project and the government for poor communication, lack of public consultation and insufficient information on nuclear waste management.
- Musila argues Kenya does not need nuclear energy given the country’s renewable energy potential, and such a project raises concerns about potential accidents and long-term impacts on ecosystems and local livelihoods.
Kenya is in the process of building its very first nuclear power station. According to forecasts by the Kenya Nuclear Power and Energy Agency (NuPEA), construction is due to start by 2027 and will produce 1,000 MW of power. The town of Uyombo, in Kilifi county on the Kenyan coast, is one of three sites where NuPEA considers building the plant. Very quickly, a cry united the population: “Sitaki Nuclear,” no to nuclear power in Swahili. Demonstrations broke out, followed by a lawsuit filed by citizens, which was later dismissed, and a petition was also circulated online. But the project still seems to be going ahead, much to the dismay of residents and some environmentalists.
Uyombo is located on the edge of the Mida Creek mangrove swamps, a few kilometers from the Arabuko Sokoke Forest Reserve, the largest remaining coastal forest in East Africa, recognized as a biodiversity hotspot due to the concentration of many endemic species and habitat loss. It lies in close proximity to Watamu National Marine Park and Reserve, recognized as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve because of its coral reefs and the richness of its marine life, including whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) and manta rays (Manta alfredi).
What impact could this project have on this biodiversity? Peter Musila is a marine biologist and program coordinator with the NGO A Rocha Kenya. For the NGO, he monitors the state of the region’s corals and is involved in their restoration. As a coral specialist, he is livid about this nuclear power station project.
Mongabay met him in the town of Watamu.
Mongabay: When you heard that a nuclear power station could be built in Uyombo, what was your first reaction?
Peter Musila: I first heard of this nuclear power plant in 2022. For me, it doesn’t make sense because the area they are trying to put it in is a very pristine area for wildlife, with all sorts of wildlife, even terrestrial wildlife, including birds. Mida Creek is one of the most important areas for birds. It hosts a lot of migratory birds that come here to breed. There’s so much wildlife here.
It’s also an important marine mammal area [like dolphins and whales], and the sharks and rays are here. They use this space for breeding, for nesting. We don’t want a nuclear power plant in our area.
Mongabay: As you said, this is an important marine area. As well as mammals, there are also corals. What state are they in?
Peter Musila: Before the 1990s, the reef was very good. It was very pristine. I did not see it back then, but I wish I did. There were over 200 genera of corals. The major problem that has affected this area, coral-wise, is bleaching. The first time it happened was in 1997. After that, the coral cover declined quite substantially. It was 60% [preserved before 1997] and then it declined to 10% [in 1998]. That was really bad. And then it has been trying to recover. But bleaching is now occurring more often because there was another one in 2005 and then 2007, 2013, 2016 and 2020………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. Even if it were to be built up to standard, with no corruption, it can still go wrong. That is why other big countries are going against nuclear energy because it’s not the most sustainable energy source. I don’t know why we as Kenyans are even putting that on the table, considering there are all these other technologies that can produce energy more sustainably, more cheaply. I don’t get it.https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/it-doesnt-make-sense-marine-biologist-on-kenyas-proposed-nuclear-power-plant/
The jellyfish are the symptom
by beyondnuclearinternational, https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2025/08/24/the-jellyfish-are-the-symptom/
The cure is ending the use of nuclear power, which takes an immense toll on wildlife and the environment, writes Linda Pentz Gunter
A swarm of jellyfish that recently brought four of the six reactors at the Gravelines nuclear power plant in France to a halt, made widespread headlines but, as some reports have noted, this isn’t exactly a new phenomenon. The remaining two reactors were already offline for maintenance.
As the Guardian reported, “The Torness nuclear plant in Scotland, which is also owned by EDF, was forced to shut for a week in 2021 after jellyfish clogged the seaweed filters on its water intake pipes, a decade after jellyfish shut the plant for a week in 2011.”
But Paul Gunter and I first noted the phenomenon back in 2001 when we released our investigative report, Licensed to Kill: How the nuclear power industry destroys endangered marine wildlife and ocean habitat to save money.
We learned then that jellyfish were a hazard at nuclear plants that use the once-through cooling water system — the kind that don’t use cooling towers — as they can impede the rapid flow of intake water, which then reduces the efficiency of the plant. That, in turn, reduces profits.
Swarms of jellyfish, responding to warmer waters caused by climate change, are likely to become an ever greater and more frequent hazard as waters continue to warm due to our inadequate efforts to tackle the climate crisis effectively or in time.
But why are jellyfish a problem for nuclear power plants in the first place?
The once-through cooling system draws cooling water into the plant, usually through an intake pipe and at considerable velocity, in order to first convey heat from the reactor core to the steam turbines and then to remove and dump the surplus heat from the steam circuit.
In drawing in such a high volume of cooling water and at high speed, a considerable amount of sea life is sucked in as well, a process known as entrainment. Jellyfish are by no means the only affected species.
The amount of water drawn in can be immense — as much as a million gallons a minute. Although sea creatures like jellyfish might clog up the intake system, smaller ones such as fish, fingerlings and spawn pass through the system, entrained along with the water. They are then pulverized and discharged, effectively as sediment, usually into the same body of water from which the cooling water was drawn.
The process also warms up the water source into which these hotter waters are discharged, changing the marine ecology. This is what we found at Diablo Cove during our research of marine damage caused by the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant on the California coast. Black abalone were suffering withering syndrome due to the warmer waters and the indigenous fish species had been replaced by others who preferred the warmer water temperatures.
Along with raising the water temperature, the discharge process, which, like the water intake, happens at speed, can cloud the surrounding water by scouring the sea bed and stirring up further sediment, blocking out sunlight. The bull kelp in Diablo Cove, for example, had effectively been clear-cut due to lack of access to sunlight in order to photosynthesize, and had consequently died off. Bull kelp are an essential contributor to the health and balance of marine ecosystems.
This toll on sea life is why there is such a hue and cry about the two immense 1,630 megawatt EPR reactors being built on the English coast at Hinkley Point C. The potential fish kills there will be enormous — possibly as high as half a million fish killed or harmed per day at the plant. The two reactors will draw in at least 2.7 billion gallons of water a day, the equivalent of three Olympic size swimming pools of water per minute.
But of course EDF, the French government utility building the plant, doesn’t want to spend the extra money putting in a fish deterrent system to minimize the damage. This makes the nuclear power plant a significant predator on already threatened and struggling fish stocks, effectively trawl fishing without a license.
At the St. Lucie nuclear power plant on Florida’s east coast, the barrier nets installed to prevent larger animals such as sea turtles, seals and manatees from being entrained further along the intake canals into the plant, have to be lowered to be cleaned whenever an algae load or influx of jellyfish render them ineffective. When this happens, sea turtles pass over them anyway and drown (or, more accurately, suffocate) in the intake wells and the underwater intrusion detection system.
The sea turtle captures at the St Lucie site can be enormous. In 1995, the plant captured 933 sea turtles, not all of them alive or uninjured. In 2003 that number rose to 944. Capture numbers also exceeded 900 in 2004 and 2005. Most arrive alive, some are dead, and some are injured, most often with damage to the carapace. In our research, we found that any injuries to sea turtles captured at St. Lucie were almost always ascribed to other causes such as earlier boat strikes or shark attacks.
However, what we learned to our amazement when preparing the 2001 report was that in 1989 a human being had also been sucked into the St. Lucie intake pipe while spearfishing. When he popped up in the cooling canal, his wetsuit was shredded and his scuba tanks gored from bouncing off the barnacle-encrusted walls of the pipe. He had been terrified, naturally, and told us there was no way all the animals entrained there could survive the journey.
Nevertheless, St. Lucie is just one example where no meaningful steps have been taken to exclude turtles from entrainment, or even humans, as a second scuba diver was entrained at the plant 17 years after the first.
While the nuclear plant owners are given an annual sea turtle take allowance — the amount of turtles they are permitted to capture dead or alive — by the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, these agencies invariably adjust the numbers upwards to accommodate the plant’s higher takes, rather than assessing the overall status of the species or demanding mitigation.
Even if an attempt is made to limit the damage, it is half-hearted at best. Once again, the St. Lucie plant exemplifies this failure. At the start of a 2006 consultation with NMFS, the idea of installing a Turtle Excluder Device (TED) was first raised. The process dragged on for 10 years and in 2016, NMFS finally issued a TED requirement. By 2019, 13 years after the idea was first mooted, plant owners Florida Power & Light had failed to deliver a functioning TED. After that, the NRC took no further action.
The recent jellyfish stories are a symptom of our ever worsening climate crisis. But they also remind us that nuclear power plants take a toll on their aquatic environments, one that is usually out of sight and out of mind, but is also contributing to the decline of important marine species. These activities should not be left unregulated and unmitigated.
Linda Pentz Gunter is the international specialist at Beyond Nuclear and writes for and edits Beyond Nuclear International. Any opinions are her own.
How did cs137, a fission product get into the Indonesian shipping container?
Dennis LENEVEU, 22 Aug 25,
Re: [Nuclear Waste Watch] US FDA guidance on health impacts of cesium exposure.
Indonesia has only research reactors. If the cs137 contamination came from these small reactors what about all the large reactors such as CANDUs that have continual measured stack releases of beta gamma particulate that would contain cs137 that is volatile?
CANDUs emit large amounts of carbon 14 that has been measured at elevated levels in tree rings around Pickering. Cs137 would also be expected to be in tree rings wood. Wood is used as shipping containers and many other uses such as furniture and interior housing lumber and wood.
Both carbon 14 and cs147 are known to off gass. C14 is particularly a problem being a beta emitter that would never be measured. Cs137 is a gamma emitter that is easily measured with a Geiger counter. Carbon 14 off gassing has been documented in the Bruce low and intermediate level waste facility but is not routinely measured.
Huge amounts of carbon 14 has been deposited around reactors for years. Carbon14 accumulates in the biosphere. With a half life of 5730 years it’s all still around gradually building up in the environment. The stack releases allowed for reactors are based on airborne exposure only. The carbon 14 is greatly dispersed in the air but settles out and deposits in the environment. Gradual bioaccumulation is ignored in regulations for emission standards.
LANL Silences Public and Tribal Voices While Pushing Radioactive Tritium Venting
This week’s so-called public meeting about the proposed venting of radioactive tritium into the air from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) showed once again how LANL silences communities while fast-tracking nuclear weapons projects.
In-person attendees were allowed three minutes to speak. Over 100 online participants—including many land-based community members who were not able to travel to the meeting in Los Alamos for health, distance or work reasons—were blindsided to find they were barred from giving verbal comments and limited to submitting just one emailed question. LANL gave no prior notice of this change.
Marissa Naranjo, with Honor Our Pueblo Existence, said, “This is not meaningful participation. It is deliberate exclusion.” https://shuffle.do/projects/honor-our-pueblo-existance-h-o-p-e
The stakes could not be higher. Tritium —used in nuclear weapons development — is a radioactive gas that travels quickly through air, water, soil, and food. It can cause cancer, genetic damage, and health impacts across generations. LANL insists venting is the only safe path forward—but their own “independent” technical review – one of four requirements ordered by the New Mexico Environment Department before it would review LANL’s request – exposed that claim as problematic.
Data centers consume massive amounts of water – companies rarely tell the public exactly how much.
August 19, 2025 , Peyton McCauley and Melissa Scanlan
As demand for artificial intelligence technology boosts construction and proposed construction of data centers around the world, those computers require not just electricity and land, but also a significant amount of water. Data centers use water directly, with cooling water pumped through pipes in and around the computer equipment. They also use water indirectly, through the water required to produce the electricity to power the facility. The amount of water used to produce electricity increases dramatically when the source is fossil fuels compared with solar or wind………………………….
The Great Lakes are an important, binational resource that more than 40 million people depend on for their drinking water and supports a US$6 trillion regional economy. Data centers compete with these existing uses and may deplete local groundwater aquifers.
Our analysis of public records, government documents and sustainability reports compiled by top data center companies has found that technology companies don’t always reveal how much water their data centers use. In a forthcoming Rutgers Computer and Technology Law Journal article, we walk through our methods and findings using these resources to uncover the water demands of data centers.
In general, corporate sustainability reports offered the most access and detail – including that in 2024, one data center in Iowa consumed 1 billion (3.8 billion liters) gallons of water – enough to supply all of Iowa’s residential water for five days.
How do data centers use water?
The servers and routers in data centers work hard and generate a lot of heat. To cool them down, data centers use large amounts of water – in some cases over 25% of local community water supplies. In 2023, Google reported consuming over 6 billion gallons of water (nearly 23 billion liters) to cool all its data centers.
In some data centers, the water is used up in the cooling process. In an evaporative cooling system, pumps push cold water through pipes in the data center. The cold water absorbs the heat produced by the data center servers, turning into steam that is vented out of the facility. This system requires a constant supply of cold water………………………………………………………………………….
Sustainability reports offer a valuable glimpse into data center water use. But because the reports are voluntary, different companies report different statistics in ways that make them hard to combine or compare. Importantly, these disclosures do not consistently include the indirect water consumption from their electricity use, which the Lawrence Berkeley Lab estimated was 12 times greater than the direct use for cooling in 2023. Our estimates highlighting specific water consumption reports are all related to cooling.
Amazon releases annual sustainability reports, but those documents do not disclose how much water the company uses. Microsoft provides data on its water demands for its overall operations, but does not break down water use for its data centers. Meta does that breakdown, but only in a companywide aggregate figure. Google provides individual figures for each data center.
In general, the five companies we analyzed that do disclose water usage show a general trend of increasing direct water use each year. Researchers attribute this trend to data centers.
A closer look at Google and Meta
To take a deeper look, we focused on Google and Meta, as they provide some of the most detailed reports of data center water use.
Data centers make up significant proportions of both companies’ water use. In 2023, Meta consumed 813 million gallons of water globally (3.1 billion liters) – 95% of which, 776 million gallons (2.9 billion liters), was used by data centers…………………………………………………………………………………
Given society’s growing interest in AI, the data center industry will likely continue its rapid expansion. But without a consistent and transparent way to track water consumption over time, the public and government officials will be making decisions about locations, regulations and sustainability without complete information on how these massive companies’ hot and thirsty buildings will affect their communities and their environments.
Walmart recalls possibly radioactive shrimp after public warned not to eat.
BBC 20th Aug 2025
Walmart has recalled some of its shrimp products in the US after radioactive material was detected in a shipment of seafood.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned the public not to eat frozen shrimp sold under Walmart’s Great Value label, as it could have been exposed to a dangerous isotope in shipping containers.
One sample of breaded shrimp tested positive for the substance, the FDA said, but this positive sample “did not enter US commerce”.
Consumers in 13 US states where the shrimp products are sold have been advised to throw any recently bought products among three batches……………………………………
The recalled shrimp was sold at Walmart locations in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas and West Virginia, and shoppers in those states were advised to be cautious.
It came from an Indonesian supplier that has since had a number of shipping containers denied entry to the US, the FDA said.
One shipment tested positive for Caesium-137, the radioactive form of the periodic element Caesium.
The amount contained in the tested shipment held by the FDA was not enough to pose acute harm to consumers, exposure over time could pose an elevated risk of cancer by damaging living cells in the body, said officials from the agency.
Caesium-137 is made through nuclear reactions and is present in trace amounts in soil, food and air worldwide. It is one of the principal sources of radiation around Chernobyl in Ukraine and Fukushima in Japan.
The FDA said no Caesium-137 had been detected in the other products it tested, but cautioned this did not rule out contamination. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5ypg4rgnrno
Rachel Reeves to cut ‘bats and newts’ in boost to developers
Developers would also no longer have to prove that projects would have no impact on protected natural sites, under plans that would abolish the “precautionary principle” enshrined in
European rules.
Chancellor considers making it harder for concerns about nature to stand in
the way of infrastructure projects, in an effort to boost the economy.
Rachel Reeves is preparing to strip back environmental protections in an
effort to boost the economy by speeding up infrastructure projects. The
chancellor is considering reforms that would make it far harder for
concerns about nature to stop development, which she insists is crucial to
restoring growth and improving living standards.
The Treasury has begun
preparing for another planning reform bill and is thinking about tearing up
key parts of European environmental rules that developers say are making it
harder to build key projects. Labour ministers have repeatedly insisted
that their current planning overhaul will not come at the expense of
nature, promising a “win-win” system where developers will pay to
offset environmental damage.
But Reeves is understood to believe that the
government must go significantly further, after expressing frustration that
the interests of “bats and newts” are being allowed to stymie critical
infrastructure. She has tasked officials with looking at much more
contentious reforms, which are likely to provoke a furious backlash from
environmentalists and cause unease for some Labour MPs.
A smaller, UK-only
list of protected species is being planned, which would place less weight
on wildlife — including types of newt — that is rare elsewhere in
Europe but more common in Britain. Developers would also no longer have to
prove that projects would have no impact on protected natural sites, under
plans that would abolish the “precautionary principle” enshrined in
European rules. Instead, a new test would look at risks and benefits of
potential projects. Further curbs to judicial review are also being
considered by Reeves to stop key projects being delayed by legal challenges
from environmentalists.
Times 17th Aug 2025, https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/rachel-reeves-strip-back-environmental-protections-planning-projects-xjxn02crs
1 This Month
5 January -Webinar-What is Trump’s Golden Dome?
REGISTER AT Massachusetts Peace Action Education
New book – https://www.amazon.com/dp/1923372157?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Now until to February 10, 2026 Radioactive waste storage in France: the debate is finally open! How to participate?
-
Archives
- January 2026 (52)
- December 2025 (358)
- November 2025 (359)
- October 2025 (377)
- September 2025 (258)
- August 2025 (319)
- July 2025 (230)
- June 2025 (348)
- May 2025 (261)
- April 2025 (305)
- March 2025 (319)
- February 2025 (234)
-
Categories
- 1
- 1 NUCLEAR ISSUES
- business and costs
- climate change
- culture and arts
- ENERGY
- environment
- health
- history
- indigenous issues
- Legal
- marketing of nuclear
- media
- opposition to nuclear
- PERSONAL STORIES
- politics
- politics international
- Religion and ethics
- safety
- secrets,lies and civil liberties
- spinbuster
- technology
- Uranium
- wastes
- weapons and war
- Women
- 2 WORLD
- ACTION
- AFRICA
- Atrocities
- AUSTRALIA
- Christina's notes
- Christina's themes
- culture and arts
- Events
- Fuk 2022
- Fuk 2023
- Fukushima 2017
- Fukushima 2018
- fukushima 2019
- Fukushima 2020
- Fukushima 2021
- general
- global warming
- Humour (God we need it)
- Nuclear
- RARE EARTHS
- Reference
- resources – print
- Resources -audiovicual
- Weekly Newsletter
- World
- World Nuclear
- YouTube
-
RSS
Entries RSS
Comments RSS
nuclear-news 