Tory peer helped secure meeting with minister for Canadian nuclear firm he advises
Ian Duncan ‘facilitated an introduction’ for Terrestrial Energy, which was seeking government funding
Rob Evans and Henry Dyer, Guardian 10th April 2025,
A Conservative peer helped to secure a meeting with a minister for a
Canadian company he was advising while it was seeking government funding
worth millions of pounds. Ian Duncan was on an advisory board of
Terrestrial Energy, a nuclear technology company, when he “facilitated an
introduction” between its chief executive and a new energy minister while
the company was applying for a government grant. The revelation raises
questions for Duncan about whether his actions broke House of Lords rules.
The meeting with Andrew Bowie, the nuclear minister at the time, enabled
the chief executive of Terrestrial Energy to lobby for easier access to UK
government funding. Lord Duncan of Springbank has been an adviser to the
company since 2020, after he was recruited by another peer, Lady
Bloomfield. He took the position months after a stint as a junior climate
minister. He does not receive a salary for the role, but was given share
options at the outset of his appointment.
These give him the right to buy shares in the company at a preferential rate if they become profitable. In March, the company announced a deal that would result in its shares being listed on a US stock market at the end of the year, with the company valued at about $1bn. The move could allow Duncan to make a significant profit……………………………………………………………………
Peers are banned under House of Lords rules from seeking to “profit from membership of the house”. They are barred from making use of their position to “help others to lobby” members of either house, ministers or officials, “by whatever means”.
Dr Jonathan Rose, a political integrity expert at De Montfort University, said Duncan’s conduct appeared to be “extremely problematic”. “I think there needs to be an investigation specifically into Lord Duncan to understand whether he actually did break the rules. It seems to me that he is providing parliamentary advice and services, which he’s not allowed to do.”
Details of Duncan’s conduct are being published by the Guardian as part of the Lords debate, a series examining the role of the House of Lords and the conduct of its members, at a time when the government is proposing to reform the upper chamber.
Guardian 10th April 2025, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/apr/10/tory-peer-helped-canadian-firm-advising-secure-meeting-minister
Labour leader to improve investment for Sizewell nuclear plant
However, campaign groups opposed to Sizewell C, including Together Against Sizewell C (TASC), have accused the prime minister of ignoring cost and time overruns and the environment impact of the project.
“the prime minister is prepared to pre-empt the spending review – and potentially flout the national pre-election period – by soon announcing that the government will commit billions more in taxpayers’ money to Sizewell C, in a flawed attempt to bolster his growth agenda.”
By Dominic Bareham, 11 April
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is set to give the final go ahead for the Sizewell C nuclear power station at the government’s spending review in the summer.
Reports in the national media suggested the Labour leader would approve investment for the nuclear plant – as well as unveiling plans for small modular reactors (SMR) around the country – before a government spending review in June.
A spokesperson for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) confirmed a decision on whether to proceed would be taken in the spending review and the new plant would play an “important role” in helping the UK achieve energy security.
In July 2022, Kwasi Kwarteng, the then Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, gave the go ahead for the Suffolk coastal plant, which is expected to cost in the region of £20 billion and provide power for six million homes.
Since then, the government has approved various tranches of funding for the project, including £2.7 billion in the autumn budget, in addition to £1.2 billion made available to the project since July last year.
However, campaign groups opposed to Sizewell C, including Together Against Sizewell C (TASC), have accused the prime minister of ignoring cost and time overruns and the environment impact of the project.
………….. a TASC spokesperson said the funding for Sizewell C would have been better spent on renewables.
He said: “It is staggering that Starmer is willing to sacrifice one of the UK’s most biodiverse areas and the precious Suffolk Heritage Coast for an ideological pursuit of growth in the form of new nuclear.
“Few can disagree that nuclear power is costly, potentially dangerous, slow to deploy, capital (not labour) intensive and is not ‘clean,’ condemning future generations to deal with the toxic legacy of thousands of tonnes of spent nuclear fuel.”
Campaigners launch legal challenge against Sizewell C planning decision
Alison Downes, from fellow campaigners Stop Sizewell C, said: “Despite huge pressures on public funding, news reports suggest the prime minister is prepared to pre-empt the spending review – and potentially flout the national pre-election period – by soon announcing that the government will commit billions more in taxpayers’ money to Sizewell C, in a flawed attempt to bolster his growth agenda.
“The reality is that Sizewell C will cost at least £40 billion for less than a thousand long term Suffolk jobs at the station.
“Yet very unpopular cuts are being made to other areas of spending, and even in the energy field that money could be put to better use.
“It could, for example, be used to bolster the Warm Homes Plan, which would lower household bills, reduce energy consumption and create many thousands of sustainable jobs nationwide, improving Labour’s chances of winning the next election.”
The Journey Beyond Nukes Begins with an Apology
Robert C. Koehler 7 April 25 https://abombtribunal.campaignus.me/34/?q=YToxOntzOjEyOiJrZXl3b3JkX3R5cGUiO3M6MzoiYWxsIjt9&bmode=view&idx=158534555&t=board
When the powerful speak, mushroom clouds emerge – oh so easily. Power is about conquest; winning the war, getting what you want no matter the cost.
For instance, Israel should nuke Gaza. “Do whatever you have to do.” Thus declared Sen. Lindsey Graham last year in a Meet the Press interview, comparing the current genocide in Palestine to the U.S. decision to end World War II by A-bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki. “That was the right decision,” he said, spewing out the historical abstraction that still rules the world.
Nothing is more sacred than self-defense! And nothing is more necessary for that than nuclear weapons, at least for the countries that possess them. To think beyond this abstraction – to cry out against the pain of the victims and declare their use is potential human suicide – violates the political norm of the powerful and is easily categorized by the media, often sarcastically, as naïve.
And thus we’re stuck in a MAD world, apparently: a world under unending threat of mutually assured destruction. If you have a problem with that, you’re probably a weakling singing “Kumbaya.”
Or so the global war machine wants us to believe, reducing humanity’s anti-nuke – antiwar – sanity to a hollow hope.
It is in this context that I heard Sim Jintae and Han Jeong-Soon speak at a small event the other day in suburban Chicago, sponsored by an organization called – brace yourself – The International People’s Tribunal to hold the U.S. accountable for dropping A-bombs. The two speakers (via translator) are Korean victims of the bombs the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima neaarly eight decades ago. Sim Jintae is a first-generation survivor: He was 2-years-old when the bomb was dropped. Han Jeong-Soon is a second-generation survivor – the child of survivors of the inferno, who has suffered throughout her life from the after-effects of the bombing. Their message: Nuclear war lasts forever!
Well, that’s part of their message. Note: The movement they represent is Korean. A little known fact about the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is that thousands of Koreans were what you might call doubly victimized by the horror, This was during an era when Japan had colonial control over Korea, and some 100,000 Koreans had been forcibly moved to Japan to do wartime labor. Many of them, including Sim Jintae’s parents, had been working in a munitions factory in Hiroshima.
About 40,000 Koreans died in the bombings. Those who survived suffered the after-effects in silence . . . until they reclaimed one another and found a collective voice. This is the voice I heard last week at the event I attended, and it resonated as loud as – perhaps louder than – the pro-nuke media and their supplicants. Their collective voice emerges from reality, not abstraction. My God, I hope it’s louder than that Lindsey Graham, and so many other politicians.
Here is the voice of Han Jeong-Soon. Born in Korea fourteen years after the destruction of Hiroshima – her parents had also been forced laborers there, living a few kilometers from the epicenter of the bomb blast – she suffered all her life from birth defects: heart problems, chest pain, lung issues. She had multiple surgeries. She suffered on her own . . . until she saw a film about the bombing in 2004. Then:
“I realized my pain was not only my pain but other people’s pain,” she told us. She began organizing other second-generation survivors, and began telling the world: “My war has not ended. No war should be allowed or tolerated. No to all war.”
Is this the voice that will drown out the military-industrial complex? The People’s Tribunal is demanding, as the starting point of the human journey beyond war, for the United States to apologize for dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This was an action that instantly expanded the scope of hell the human race could inflict on itself.
When I heard that word, “apologize,” in the context of first- and second-generation Korean A-bomb victims – victims who were denied necessary health care, by both Japan and the United States – what I heard was a soul scream: a demand that the perpetrator grasp and acknowledge the full extent of the harm it caused, and in so grasping, vow never to use such a monstrous weapon again . . . and, indeed, vow to transcend war itself.
The International People’s Tribunal put it this way:
“The A-Bomb Tribunal aims to establish the illegality of the U.S. atomic bombings in 1945 to secure the basis for condemning all nuclear threats and use as illegal today. The fact that the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were illegal under the international laws in 1945 means that the use and threat of nuclear weapons today are also illegal.
“The A-Bomb Tribunal aims to overcome the nuclear deterrence theory that justifies the use and threat of nuclear weapons by nuclear-weapon states, and contribute to the realization of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and a nuclear-free world.”
Let us listen to those who have suffered the most. Let us hear the cry of their throbbing souls and begin to understand that the time has come for us to create a world beyond dominance and war. Indeed, let us begin listening to one another and, in so doing, learn that we all matter. This is the true nature of power.
Russia holds all the cards.
| Walt Zlotow, Apr 11, 2025. Published in Chicago Tribune |
Tribune foreign affairs columnist Daniel DePetris (“Vladimir Putin obstructs President Donald Trump’s best-laid plans for Ukraine,” April 8) nibbles around the edges of reality concerning the Russia-Ukraine war. His current take on the war suggests that Russian President Vladimir Putin is sabotaging President Donald Trump’s best efforts to end the war quickly through negotiations in order to capture more Ukrainian territory.
But the reverse is true. The U.S., NATO and Ukraine are preventing the negotiations from achieving peace. Why? Because all of them refuse to accept the war will not end till they recognize and address Russia’s core interests: no NATO for Ukraine, neutrality for Ukraine going forward and an end to attacks on Russian-leaning Ukrainians in Donbas.
Putin is not feigning peace to stay on Trump’s good side merely to gobble up more Ukrainian territory. He’s simply not going to negotiate with adversaries who refuse to recognize Russia’s core interests. No peace agreement will occur in Trump’s first 100 days, nor even in his first 1,000 days, unless he accepts this reality of what it will take to end the war.
DePetris claims a frustrated Trump has but two options: ramping up the war with another multibillion-dollar weapons package to achieve victory or just walking away to saddle Europe with prosecuting it. Wrong. Trump has but one urgent task: Accept reality that Russia holds all the negotiating cards and will never cease hostilities till its core interests are addressed.
DePetris surely knows this. However, his career as a Defense Priorities fellow and a Tribune columnist is contingent upon never admitting or criticizing America’s role in provoking, if not starting, senseless wars and refusing to quickly, sensibly end them.
That is unfortunate for his readership. It is infinitely more unfortunate for the war-weary people of Ukraine.
Trump declares he would ‘absolutely’ bomb Iran if it refuses to give up its bid for nuclear weapons
The Iran nuclear deal, which Trump scuttled after it was put in place under Barack Obama, was negotiated through multi-party talks.
On Tuesday Trump ridiculed fears of climate change, then pivoted to the Iran threat, which he called much more grave
Says Israel would be ‘very much involved’
By GEOFF EARLE, DEPUTY U.S. POLITICAL EDITOR, 10 April 25 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14589765/donald-trump-bomb-iran-nuclear-weapons.html
President Donald Trump openly discussed military action against Iran just days before talks are set to begin on its nuclear program.
He upped his threats a day after he used colorful language to warn against ‘nuclear heat’ while saying Iran must relinquish nuclear ambitions.
A reporter asked Trump to specify his comment Tuesday that it would be ‘very dangerous’ for Iran if nuclear talks are unsuccessful.
Well they can’t have a nuclear weapon,’ Trump said. Pressed on if he meant military action, Trump responded: ‘Oh if necessary? Absolutely, yeah.’
Asked if he had a deadline with Iran, Trump responded, ‘Yeah, I do,’ but declined to say what it was.
But he said this weekend – with talks set to commence in Oman Saturday – was not the deadline. ‘We have a little time, but we don’t have much time,’ the president said.
‘Because we’re not going to let them have a nuclear weapon, can’t let them have a nuclear – and we’re gonna let them thrive. I want them to thrive. I want Iran to be great. The only thing they can’t have is a nuclear weapon.
‘I’m not asking for much. I just … they can’t have a nuclear weapon,’ Trump said.
‘But with Iran, yeah, if we, if it requires military, we’re gonna have military. Israel will obviously be very much involved in that. He’ll be the leader of that. But nobody leads us. We do what we want to do.
In his final cryptic comment, he added: ‘When you start talks, you know they’re going along well or not. And I would say the conclusion would be when I think they’re not going along well. So that’s just a feeling.’
Trump has pledged it is ‘not after a nuclear bomb’ and even expressed interest to direct U.S. investment.
Trump’s comments came on a day he did a sudden U-turn and imposed a 90-day pause on his ‘reciprocal’ tariffs, while maintaining a 10 percent across the board tariff and hiking the tariff on China to 125 percent.
The episode revealed both Trump’s willingness to throw the global system into turmoil to achieve his goals, and his willingness to backtrack amid fears of a recession and trillions worth of market losses. He also signed orders directing the Justice Department to investigate Miles Taylor, who wrote a critical book under the pen name ‘Anonymous’ during his first term, and former cyber security official Chris Krebs, who vouched for the security of the 2020 elections during the COVID pandemic.
Satellite images have revealed the deployment of six nuclear-capable B-2 bombers on Diego Garcia, a British-owned naval base that has been critical during U.S. military campaigns.
Trump on Monday said the U.S. would hold top level ‘direct’ talks with Iran – while brandishing new threats and repeating demands that Iran could not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon.
‘We’re having direct talks with Iran. And they’ve started,’ Trump told reporters while seated in the Oval Office next to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, himself a top Iran hawk.
The talks are set to take place in Oman, but Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, said the talks would be ‘indirect,’ amid longstanding tensions between the two nations.
The U.S. has avoided such direct talks for years. The Iran nuclear deal, which Trump scuttled after it was put in place under Barack Obama, was negotiated through multi-party talks.
‘I think everybody agrees that doing a deal would be preferable to doing the obvious. And the obvious is not something that I want to be involved with, or frankly, that Israel wants to be involved with, if they can avoid it,’ he added. ‘So we are going to see if we can avoid it, but it’s getting to be very dangerous territory, and hopefully those talks will be successful.’
‘And I think it would be in Iran’s best interests if they are successful.’
On Tuesday Trump ridiculed fears of climate change, then pivoted to the Iran threat, which he called much more grave
‘We were going to be gone, we’re all going to be gone – the environment. No, what they have to worry about is the nuclear – nuclear heat. They don’t have to worry about environmental heat. They have to worry about nuclear heat,’ Trump said on an event where he called for deregulating the coal industry.
‘And if we’re smart, we’re working on that right now with others, having to do with Iran and some other countries,’ Trump said.
‘But that’s the that’s the heat you’re gonna have to worry about. You don’t have to worry about the air is getting warmer. The ocean will rise … within the next 500 to 600 years, giving you a little bit more waterfront property. They say this is going to these guys can handle that. The nuclear we have a bigger problem with, right?’ Trump said.
Iran claims its nuclear program is peaceful, but U.S. intelligence has long warned it was close to being capable of producing nuclear weapons.
How Israel hunts and executes Palestinian medics
The recent case of 15 uniformed first responders killed on their way to work is but the latest in a long, long line of similar crimes
The Israeli army has executed 15 Palestinian medics in Gaza, buried them and lied about them being “terrorists.” For those paying attention, this barbarism is not new, only the latest war crime committed by Israel in a litany of war crimes over the decades.
The combination of the medics being tied up, executed and buried in a mass grave was so horrific that even usually indifferent global media reported on it, albeit without the outrage that would have accompanied such reports were the perpetrator an enemy of the West. (Warning: disturbing video.)
On March 31, Jonathan Whittall, the Head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OCHA) posted on X, “First responders should never be a target. Yet today @UNOCHA supported @PalestineRCS and Civil Defense to retrieve colleagues from a mass grave in #Rafah #Gaza that was marked with the emergency light from one of their crushed ambulances.”
His thread went on to detail how a week prior, on March 23, contact was lost with ten Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) and six Civil Defense first responders, in five ambulances and one fire truck, who’d been dispatched to collect injured people, noting, “For days, OCHA coordinated to reach the site but our access was only granted 5 days later.”
When they finally accessed the site, they “recovered the buried bodies of 8 PRCS, 6 Civil Defense and 1 UN staff,” he wrote, noting, “They were killed in their uniforms. Driving their clearly marked vehicles. Wearing their gloves. On their way to save lives. This should never have happened.”
According to the PRCS, a ninth EMT is missing and is believed to have been detained.
The UN, The Red Cross, and OCHA have all issued statements of outrage and condemnation of these murders. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Secretary General Jagan Chapagain said: “They wore emblems that should have protected them; their ambulances were clearly marked. They should have returned to their families; they did not. These rules of International Humanitarian Law could not be clearer – civilians must be protected; humanitarians must be protected. Health services must be protected.”
According to Chapagain, 30 PRCS volunteers and staff have been killed since October 2023 alone.
OCHA called the murders “a huge blow to us” and said, “these abhorrent acts require accountability.” According to the UN, “408 aid workers including more than 280 UNRWA staff have been killed in Gaza since the war began on 7 October 2023.”
Tom Fletcher, the UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, wrote, “They were killed by Israeli forces while trying to save lives. We demand answers & justice.”
The Guardian cites PRCS’ Dr. Bashar Murad, who spoke to one of the paramedics in the convoy:
“He informed us that he was injured and requested assistance, and that another person was also injured. A few minutes later, during the call, we heard the sound of Israeli soldiers arriving at the location, speaking in Hebrew. ‘Gather them at the wall and bring some restraints to tie them.’ This indicated that a large number of the medical staff were still alive.”
The Israeli army media spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, predictably denied Israeli army wrong-doing and blamed Hamas, claiming the ambulances were “advancing suspiciously” toward Israeli forces. He declared the execution of the medics be an elimination of “a Hamas military operative, along with 8 other terrorists from Hamas and the Islamic Jihad.”
Observers on X rebuffed Shoshani, including pointing out the Israeli army has been attacking ambulances for a very long time.
Gaza medics under Israeli attack since 2009
I can speak from personal experience. During the January 2009 Israeli war on Gaza, I was among a handful of international volunteers riding in PRCS ambulances, to document their work and the victims they rescued……………………………………………………………………………………….
The abduction and torture of Palestinian doctors is another aspect of Israel’s all-out attack on Gaza’s health system. It is part of Israel’s attacks on Palestinians themselves, depriving them of life-saving care, part of the decades-long policy of killing Palestinians by every means possible, including by preventing the entry of medical equipment and food, starving Palestinians who escaped bombs and sniping.
I will post the same rhetorical question I’ve posed ad nauseam: What would the international reaction be like if it were Russia point-blank assassinating uniformed, unarmed medics? It would be non-stop 24/7 howling in corporate media, victims faces and stories spoken of, demands for more sanctions…
But Israel does this again and again over the decades and all Palestinians get are muted words of concern and calls for investigation, allowing Israel to continue slaughtering medics and emergency workers unabated. No justice. https://www.rt.com/news/615480-palestine-israel-medics-hunt/
Keir Starmer set to approve nuclear plant in bid to power up economic growth.
The prime minister is pinning his hopes of economic growth on a major nuclear plant and a series of mini nuclear sites
Archie Mitchell, Political correspondent, Independent 10th April 2025
Sir Keir Starmer is expected to approve a major nuclear power plant alongside a slew of mini reactors in a bid to boost Britain’s stagnant economy.
The prime minister will approve investment for the construction of the Sizewell C nuclear plant in Suffolk before the June spending review, The Times reported, as well as unveiling plans for a fleet of small modular reactors (SMRs) across the UK.
Sizewell C is expected to be up and running in 2035 and will provide 7 per cent of Britain’s energy demand at a cost of £20 billion……………………
Sizewell C is yet to be signed off by the government.
A decision on whether to give Sizewell C the green light has formed part of the government’s upcoming spending review, but Sir Keir has been bringing announcements forward in response to Donald Trump’s tariffs.
The PM has been desperately trying to spur on growth amid fears the US president’s trade war will cause Britain’s economy to stagnate and force further cuts in the autumn Budget.
EDF, the French energy giant that owns and runs Britain’s nuclear fleet, and the government, which has committed £6 billion so far, were the first backers of the project.
But they have been trying to raise billions more from prospective investors, including British Gas owner Centrica.
The government in January was forced to deny reports the expected costs of Sizewell C had spiralled to £40bn due to inflation and the knock-on effects of delays at Hinkley Point C.
Whitehall sources told The Independent the government is hugely supportive of Sizewell C, but that an announcement on its approval and funding would not come before June.
Sources told The Times Sir Keir wants to make a “nuclear moment” by combining the approval of Sizewell C with an announcement on a generation of SMRs.
The government has been running a competition to develop the reactors, which are potentially cheaper, much faster to build and easier to deploy, with Rolls-Royce and GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy the frontrunners. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/starmer-nuclear-growth-trump-tariffs-b2730868.html
TEPCO’s rehabilitation plan delays expose limits to nuke power reliance.
It was unreasonable in the first place for the power company to draw up a rehabilitation scenario relying on atomic power despite having caused a serious nuclear plant accident.
April 9, 2025 (Mainichi Japan), https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20250409/p2a/00m/0op/029000c
Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) Holdings Inc. has postponed the revision of its business rehabilitation plan, which it had scheduled to carry out by the end of fiscal 2024. The company attributed the postponement to a lack of prospects for restarting the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture, which it had seen a trump card in improving its earnings.
Will the utility be able to fulfill its responsibility in the recovery from the Fukushima disaster and the stable power supply amid such a state of affairs?
TEPCO has borrowed money from the national government to deal with the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear meltdowns. This includes funds needed for compensation payments to affected residents and the decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. It has also taken out bank loans to fund its electric power business. The rehabilitation plan was supposed to form the premise for this financial aid.
The plan was first formulated in 2012, the year after the onset of the Fukushima disaster, and has since been updated almost every three years. The cost for handling the nuclear catastrophe was initially estimated at 6 trillion yen (approx. $41.27 billion), but that figure swelled to 21.5 trillion yen (148 billion) under the current plan outlined in 2021. The cost further rose to 23.4 trillion yen (approx. $161 billion) when taking into account compensation for fishery operators due to the release of treated water from the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant, among other expenses.
The cap on borrowing from the national government was subsequently raised to 15.4 trillion yen (approx. $106 billion). Based on these developments, calls grew to update TEPCO’s rehabilitation plan.
While TEPCO is scheduled to repay 500 billion yen (approx. $3.45 billion) annually to the national government, the actual repayment amount has hovered around 400 billion yen (around $2.76 billion) on average in recent years due to the firm’s poor performance.
The primary factor behind TEPCO’s sluggish earnings is that the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant has yet to be restarted. TEPCO had initially expected to resume the plant’s operations in fiscal 2019, eyeing a balance improvement of 100 billion yen (approx. $688 million) per reactor brought back online. But following a series of scandals including inadequate antiterror measures at the plant, the prospect of gaining local consent for its restart has waned.
TEPCO’s injection of more than 1 trillion yen (approx. $6.88 billion) into safety measures has also taken a heavy toll on its management, weighing down its cash flow. There are concerns that the utility may not even be able to afford capital investment essential for a stable power supply.
It was unreasonable in the first place for the power company to draw up a rehabilitation scenario relying on atomic power despite having caused a serious nuclear plant accident. In the amendments to be made to the rehabilitation plan by the end of fiscal 2025, the utility should completely overhaul its strategy.
TEPCO must accelerate its business realignment to improve its earning capacity. Its thermal power generation sector was integrated into Chubu Electric Power Co. in 2019, yet TEPCO needs to expand collaboration with other firms in renewable energy and other sectors with high growth potential. It urgently needs to streamline operations to stave off deterioration of its finances.
The company is urged to carry out a rehabilitation plan that is not reliant on nuclear power generation.
The 2025 Nuclear-Free Future Awards
Rainbow serpent magic filled the air at the Great Hall at Cooper Union, writes Linda Pentz Gunter
The Rainbow Serpent has been the symbol of the Nuclear-Free Future Awards (NFFA) since the event first began in 1998. In Indigenous cultures, the serpent offers an ominous warning to be left undisturbed in the ground rather than unleash its vengeful powers. This has been taken to mean, in particular, uranium. But the NFFA’s friendlier serpent also seems to release a certain magic into the air, enveloping those who breathe it in joy and optimism when they attend an NFFA ceremony as it travels to different cities around the world.
In 2025, the Awards were held in the Great Hall at Cooper Union, in New York City, a historic and atmospheric venue where a certain candidate for US president, Abraham Lincoln, made what would remain not only his longest speech but arguably his most important and one that would send him on his way to winning the White House……………………………………………………………
Courage is the first word that comes to mind when describing the 2025 recipient in the category of Resistance. For standing up to the Indian authorities in opposition to the construction of the massive Russian nuclear power plant at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu, S.P. Udayakumar and thousands of other villagers, farmers and fisherfolk, the majority of them women, have been hounded, persecuted, arrested and prosecuted.
Udayakumar could not travel to the US to receive his award, but his sons Surya and Satya, both of whom live in Maryland, were able to come to New York to honor their father. The video recorded by Uday, as everyone knows him, moved the audience to prolonged applause and even tears, given all he and his family have endured, including two years in hiding when he could not see his sons at all.
The exuberant promoters of the International Uranium Film Festival, Márcia Gomes and Norbert Suchanek, based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, won the Award for Education. Born as a small idea that grew into a remarkable international film festival, the pair realized that dense reports and statistics were not going to galvanize people to oppose all things nuclear in quite in the same way that pictures could, and especially moving pictures, whether documentaries, dramas or animation.
The success of the festival, which began with enormous struggles to find funding and venues, is a testament to perseverance and canny marketing skills that have brought people together to collectively advance the festival around the world.
Solutions to the problems of nuclear power and nuclear weapons are not always obvious. Beyond technical fixes like renewable energy and energy efficiency, as well as campaigning for peace and nuclear disarmament, sometimes the answer lies in changing the conversation. To get away from the macho-dynamic of nuclear weapons especially, the voices of women — all too few — were clearly needed. Furthermore, the voices of women from the Global South were even more essential, in the view of Zimbabwean campaigner, Edwick Madzimure.
This “solution” became a key to the success of of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which tackled the issue from the perspective of human rights impacts, where women are invariably disproportionately impacted in a negative way……………………………………………
The evening ended with a tribute to living legend, Joanna Macy, a Buddhist teacher, author and peacemaker and a matriarch of the anti-nuclear cause. Macy, now in her nineties, could not make the trip from California but offered her thanks in a written statement read by her longtime friend, Kathleen Sullivan of the Nuclear Truth Project and Hibakusha Stories.
Macy has been a mentor to many, both within the anti-nuclear movement and well beyond it, and is best known for popularizing the concept, The Great Turning, in which humanity makes an essential shift from an industrial growth society to a life-sustaining civilization, emphasizing a transition to a more sustainable and just world. ………………… https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2025/04/07/the-2025-nuclear-free-future-awards/
To Secure U.S. Energy Dominance, the Department of Defense Selects Eligible Companies for the Advanced Nuclear Power for Installations Program
Defense Innovation Unit 10th April 2025 Mountain View, CA
– To ensure U.S. energy dominance, the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), with the Department of the Army and the Department of the Air Force, launched the Advanced Nuclear Power for Installations (ANPI) program. First announced in summer 2024, the program will allow for the design and build of fixed on-site microreactor nuclear power systems on select military installations to support global operations across land, air, sea, space, and cyberspace. The Department of Defense team selected eight companies to be eligible to demonstrate the ability to deliver compliant, safe, secure, and reliable nuclear power.
The companies are now eligible to receive Other Transaction (OT) awards to provide commercially available dual use microreactor technology at various DOD installations. Selected companies for the ANPI program include:
- Antares Nuclear, Inc
- BWXT Advanced Technologies LLC
- General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems
- Kairos Power, LLC
- Oklo Inc.
- Radiant Industries Incorporated
- Westinghouse Government Services
- X-Energy, LLC
“Projecting power abroad demands ensuring power at home and this program aims to deliver that, ensuring that our defense leaders can remain focused on lethality,” said Dr. Andrew Higier, Energy Portfolio Director at DIU. “Microreactors on installations are a critical first step in delivering energy dominance to the Force. Tapping into the commercial sector’s rapid advancements in this area is critical due to the significant private investment in this space over the last few years. The U.S. and the DoD must maintain the advantage and leverage the best of breed nuclear technology for our national security.”
The ANPI project directly supports Executive Order (E.O.) 14156 – Declaring a National Energy Emergency and E.O. 14154 – Unleashing American Energy
……………………………………… In addition to DIU, Army, Air Force, ANPI receives support from the Department of Energy; the NRC; Idaho National Laboratory with Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Los Alamos National Laboratory; Argonne National Laboratory; Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; Sandia National Laboratory; and the Office of Nuclear Energy. https://www.diu.mil/latest/DOD-selects-eligible-companies-for-the-Advanced-Nuclear-Power-for-Installations-Program
Nuclear Energy Expansion Faces Water Resource Challenges
Oil Price, By Haley Zaremba – Apr 10, 2025.
- The global nuclear energy sector is experiencing a renaissance with increased interest and expansion plans, but faces the challenge of high water consumption for reactor cooling.
- Debates surround the actual water needs of nuclear power, with some arguing it uses more water than coal and renewables, while others claim water use can be managed with existing licenses and recycling.
- Advancements in nuclear technology, including small modular reactors and future designs using gas or air cooling, offer potential solutions to reduce water dependency, but concerns about increased nuclear waste persist.
A global nuclear energy renaissance is unfolding. Around the world, the public and private sectors are warming to the idea of nuclear energy expansion to meet ballooning energy demand driven by data centers without throwing decarbonization accords out the window. ………….
However, next-generation nuclear does have some key drawbacks as well. For one, studies have shown that SMRs will create more nuclear waste than traditional models. This presents a tricky and expensive problem, as the highly radioactive waste material remains hazardous for thousands of years in the best of scenarios. For another, nuclear energy is an extremely thirsty form of power production, requiring huge quantities of water to cool down the reactors for optimal particle speed for fission, as well as to generate steam to create electricity.
According to Dave Sweeney, a nuclear policy analyst at the Australian Conservation Foundation, nuclear power uses more water than coal, and “massively more than renewables” on a per-kilowatt basis. Sweeney was speaking with the Guardian in reference to a recent conflict between political parties in Australia over planned nuclear expansion and water scarcity. A report commissioned by the organization Liberals Against Nuclear found that a whopping 90% of the nuclear generation capacity proposed by the opposing Coalition party lacks sufficient access to water for safe operations. “Half of the proposed nuclear capacity was already unfeasible given insufficient water, while a further 40% of the capacity would need to be curtailed during dry seasons,” the Guardian reported this week based on the findings. ……………………….
https://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Nuclear-Power/Nuclear-Energy-Expansion-Faces-Water-Resource-Challenges.html
‘An incredibly powerful tool’: Can AI solve its own energy problem?
Amber Rolt, 10 April 2025
New IEA study explores how AI is set to drive huge electricity demand while
at the same time offering potential to unlock ‘significant opportunities’
in energy improvements and emissions reductions.
When BusinessGreen asked
‘how bad is AI for the environment?’, ChatGPT had plenty to say. The
Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool patiently responded that training large
language models such as itself are “extremely energy intensive”, explaining
that they use millions of kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity, consume more
than 700,000 litres of water for cooling methods, and that each query has a
carbon footprint of up to 10 grams of CO2. “Because these tools are used
millions of times a day, it adds up,” ChatGPT added.
So there you have it,
straight from the horse’s mouth: AI’s impact on the environment and energy
systems is immense. And, according to a special new report from the
International Energy Agency (IEA) dedicated to the subject today, that
impact is set for rapid growth in the coming years. So much so, in fact,
that it warns AI holds potential to “transform the energy sector” over the
next decade.
Still, precisely what that transformation will look like is up
for debate. On the positive side, the report suggests AI can help energy
companies improve efficiency, develop technologies, and could contribute to
emissions reductions. But will these promised efficiencies and
technological improvements be enough to offset the huge surge in energy
demand needed to feed the rapidly growing numbers of data centres that AI
relies on?
Business Green 10th April 2025
https://www.businessgreen.com/news/4412130/incredibly-powerful-tool-ai-solve-energy
The top Republicans in the Arizona Legislature want the federal government to cut back regulations on the nuclear energy industry.
Arizona’s top GOP lawmakers are suing a federal commission to deregulate nuclear energy
KJZZ | By Camryn Sanchez, April 9, 2025, https://www.kjzz.org/politics/2025-04-09/arizonas-top-gop-lawmakers-are-suing-a-federal-commission-to-deregulate-nuclear-energy
The top Republicans in the Arizona Legislature want the federal government to cut back regulations on the nuclear energy industry.
Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen (R-Gilbert) and House Speaker Steve Montenegro (R-Goodyear) are proponents of small modular reactors, or SMRs, which are currently subject to the same standards as much larger nuclear reactors.
Specifically, the federal rule – created by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission – requires construction and operating licenses for all reactors in the U.S.
Petersen claims that federal rule is unlawful.
He and Montenegro are now parties to a lawsuit against the NRC, along with Florida, Texas, Louisiana, Utah and a handful of other states and some energy companies.
“This is a textbook case of Washington bureaucrats getting in the way of American progress,” Montenegro said in a statement. “America is behind the modern world when it comes to nuclear advancement. We have had this technology for decades, yet the NRC has not let us advance, stifling innovation. Arizona House Republicans are pushing back. We’re standing up for American innovation, lower energy costs, and true energy independence.”
Petersen said if the government cuts down on regulations over nuclear energy, it will open the door for Arizona utilities to get into the market and ultimately provide affordable energy to residents.
“Arizona’s utility companies want to pursue SMRs, but their hands are tied with red tape, as it could take decades and an unreasonable amount of money to establish plants under the current rule,” Petersen said in a statement.
“I’m hopeful that through this litigation, we will be able to eliminate unnecessary and outdated regulations to unleash greater American energy production, as President Trump has promised is a top priority for his administration. This lawsuit is a first step on a pathway to energy independence,” he added.
Walt Zlotow: Trump, Hegseth off by nearly 1 trillion on national security budget
Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL 11 Apr 25 https://theaimn.net/trump-hegseth-off-by-nearly-1-trillion-on-national-security-budget/
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is applauding Trump’s boast to push through America’s first trillion dollar defense budget.
“Thank you Mr. President! COMING SOON: the first TRILLION dollar [Defense Department] budget.” Hegseth was echoing boss Trump who chortled “Nobody’s seen anything like it. We have to build out military, and we’re very cost-conscious, but the military is something we have to build, and we have to be strong,”
Trump’s defense policy and these quotes epitomize America’s decline as a peaceful, caring nation. Spending that trillion on militarism and warfare worldwide while Trump’s oligarchs are slashing a trillion from the social safety net is putting America into a death spiral from which it may never recover.
But they should really be high-fiving a national security budget that will be approaching $2 trillion based on Trump’s defense agenda.
That’s because the current defense budget under the National Defense Authorization Act of $900 billion just funds the Pentagon. When factoring in the Department of Veterans Affairs, special operations, Homeland Security and the national security share of US debt interest, the total for Fiscal ‘25 national security approaches $1.8 trillion. Regarding special ops, Trump’s failed month long Yemen bombing to stop their resistance to US enabled Israeli genocide in Gaza has already passed a billion bucks.
Current wars US supports in Ukraine, Gaza, Yemen, Somalia, Syria, Iraq and possible upcoming wars in Iran and China, don’t come cheap. Add in cost of over 750 bases in 80 countries hosting over 150,000 military personnel puts the approaching $2 trillion dollar cost in perspective.
Spending all that treasure on national offense (nope, not defense), becomes problematical when Trump is pushing thru trillion dollar tax cuts for his oligarch buddies.
What to do? Of Course, send in oligarch clown Musk to cut a trillion or more from everything that makes life livable for Joe Sixpack.
It is no surprise Trump plans to ravage the social safety net to spend $2 trillion on worldwide military adventurism while giving $4.5 trillion in tax cuts over 10 years mainly to those who don’t need them.
But do Trump and Hegseth have to brag about it?
Arctic sea ice hit a record low as global powers eye shipping routes
Arctic sea ice hit a record low for the end of the region’s winter last
month, in a stark sign of how climate change is opening up the North Pole
to a geopolitical race for military and energy exploration. March was the
fourth consecutive month in which sea ice reached a record low for that
calendar period, based on a 47-year satellite record, EU earth observation
agency Copernicus reported on Tuesday.
FT 10th April 2025 https://www.ft.com/content/f8083632-e6bc-45f5-8032-0ee60e263cf6
1 This Month
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com/
29 Jan. Thursday 7-8 p.m. Webinar – World’s Largest Nuclear Station in Port Hope, ON?
31st January – Challenging the War Machine – a DECLASSIFIED UK SUMMIT
Website of the Week
Now until to February 10, 2026 Radioactive waste storage in France: the debate is finally open! How to participate?
-
Archives
- January 2026 (259)
- December 2025 (358)
- November 2025 (359)
- October 2025 (376)
- 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 