The secret audit that crucifies most French nuclear start-ups.
Classified as a top secret, the results of the audit conducted in the spring by the High Commissioner for Atomic Energy and submitted to the Élysée Palace reveal that many subsidized nuclear start-ups will not keep their promises.
By Géraldine Woessner Le Point 22nd Nov 2024
This is what could be called a vast smokescreen operation. On November 19, the start-up Naarea, founded in 2020 to develop fourth-generation modular reactors, with molten salts and fast neutrons, published a triumphant press release on its LinkedIn account: “It is a great honor to have been able to discuss with the High Commissioner for Atomic Energy the conclusions of his report,” the company trumpeted, proudly announcing to potential investors that the audit conducted by the experts had “not identified any unavoidable blocking point” concerning the deployment of its program……… (Subscribers only) https://www.lepoint.fr/economie/exclusif-l-audit-secret-qui-crucifie-la-plupart-des-start-up-francaises-du-nucleaire-22-11-2024-2575980_28.php
The entanglement of fusion energy research and bombs
By Arjun Makhijani | November 12, 2024
The recent achievement of fusion ignition—meaning more
energy came out of a self-sustaining fusion reaction than was put in—at
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility (NIF)
has brought to the fore long-simmering questions about whether certain
experiments violate the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty on nuclear
explosions.
Fusion research for peaceful use and military use are highly
intertwined, despite attempts to cloak nuclear weapons with the aura of the
so-called “peaceful atom.” Ignition has been achieved, but there is
still a remarkable silence around whether pure fusion weapons—weapons
that could kill large numbers of humans with neutron radiation but have
blast effects much smaller than current thermonuclear weapons—are an
objective of the overall program.
Even if not an explicit objective, would they be built if fusion technology makes them feasible? Research and experiments into weapons-related nuclear fusion and commercial energy fusion are highly entangled, and have been notably so since the 1950s,
after the Soviets conducted their “layer cake” nuclear test with a
fusion component in 1953, and the US did its 15-megaton Bravo test in
1954—a test of a thermonuclear weapon.
To improve the terrible public
relations image that those tests cast over the world, the Eisenhower
administration came up with a carefully orchestrated propaganda campaign
for nuclear power, with the tag line “atoms for peace.” That is
happening again after the recent achievement of ignition at the National
Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, with the
difference that the world does not even know whether pure fusion weapons
are on the agenda.
Bulletin of Atomic Scientists 11th Nov 2024,
https://thebulletin.org/premium/2024-11/the-entanglement-of-fusion-energy-research-and-bombs/
UK Government urged to end secrecy over ‘worrying’ drone sightings near nuclear-linked air bases
THE government was urged today to end its “wall of secrecy” over drone sightings at three air bases in East Anglia amid escalating tensions with Russia.
The US Air Force has confirmed “unmanned aerial devices” were spotted over RAF Lakenheath, which is set to house US nuclear weapons, RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk and RAF Feltwell in Norfolk between November 20 and 22.
Unconfirmed reports claim F-15E Strike Eagles were scrambled to chase the drones, which affected the flight operations at the bases.
The USAF, which has fighter jets on standby at the bases, declined to comment on those claims but said it retains “the right to protect” installations.
On Thursday, Russian leader Vladimir Putin said military facilities in Britain and the US could become valid targets for the Kremlin’s forces as a direct response to Ukraine’s firing of US and British missiles at targets on Russian territory.
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) general secretary Sophie Bolt said that it appeared the drones were a co-ordinated launch within Britain.
She said: “The fact they happened in three bases means it was co-ordinated. Other than that we just don’t have any more information.
“People will be understandably very worried, therefore there needs to be responsibility around what information is shared.
“There’s a complete lack of transparency within the British government, who still completely refuse to acknowledge they have given permission for Storm Shadow missiles to be used by Ukraine.
“It’s invariably the case in terms of the military and specially around military bases and around defence generally to have a wall of secrecy.
“This is completely unacceptable because people have a right to know what’s going on
“They have definitely been launched in the local area … and I think we just have to be very careful about what’s going on, because there’s a particularly escalatory climate.
“More broadly, armed drones need to be banned.
“The US, the UK and Israel are well known for using these terrible weapons.”
A Nobel in the nick of time
Japan’s Hibakusha are aging and diminishing, but they were finally awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, writes Elizabeth Chappell
The 2024 Nobel peace prize has been awarded to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese grassroots organisation created by survivors of the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Nihon Hidankyo has provided thousands of witness accounts and public appeals by survivors, who are known as hibakusha, and has sent annual delegations to the UN.
Their work was commended by the Nobel committee, who decided to award the prize to Nihon Hidankyo “for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating that nuclear weapons must never be used again”.
Nihon Hidankyo’s co-chair, Toshiyuki Mimaki, said: “I never expected we would win the Nobel peace prize. Now we want to go further and appeal to the world to achieve lasting peace. We are old, but we never give up.”
There are an estimated 106,000 hibakusha still living in Japan, with many more alive around the world. There are also survivors – and their descendants – of the more than 2,000 nuclear tests that have taken place worldwide since 1945. Some of these people use the term hibakusha to describe themselves.
This was not the first time the prize had been awarded to a nominee for their efforts towards nuclear disarmament. And it probably won’t be the last.
In 1985, the prize was awarded to an organisation called the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. And then, in 1995, the prize was won by Joseph Rotblat, the only scientist to have left the Manhattan Project – the US government’s research project to produce the first atomic bomb – on moral grounds. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
The logic of nuclear deterrence
We are currently at a time where the threat of nuclear weapons is growing. This was reflected by the committee who, when awarding Nihon Hidankyo with the prize, noted that the “taboo” against their use was “under pressure”.
Nuclear deterrence relies on the logic of the threat to inflict “unacceptable damage” on the enemy. But nuclear deterrence is not foolproof. What is unacceptable to one adversary may be acceptable to another, depending on the circumstances.
It’s worth remembering that the 1945 atomic bombings were not, as is commonly believed, the only reason the Japanese surrendered the following week and brought the war to an end. Various factions in the war council had been attempting to find ways to surrender for over a year, and the bombs offered Japan’s Emperor Hirohito a way to save face.
As M.G. Sheftall, the author of the 2024 book, Hiroshima: The Last Witnesses, has noted:
The bombs didn’t force the Japanese to surrender, they gave Hirohito the opportunity to surrender … News of the Nagasaki bomb came as they were having a meeting of the imperial war council about what to do about the Soviets coming into the war. It should be known that there was never any special imperial war council meeting after the Hiroshima bomb. That wasn’t considered weighty enough to make everyone drop what they were doing and head to the Imperial Palace.
The effects of radiation on the human body were little known in 1945, due to censorship both by the Japanese military and the US occupation that followed. As I was told in an interview with a hibakusha called Keiko Ogura, who was eight when the first bomb was dropped: “No one understood why people were still dying days, weeks, months and years after the attacks – they thought the atomic bomb was poison gas.”
We now know much more about the devastating consequences of radiation for humans, animals and the environment across generations. However, research is still not widely publicised, with ICAN taking the lead as an international forum for important new findings to be shared and known.
Let’s hope this year’s award will help inform the world once and for all of the nature of these weapons. As former US president, John F. Kennedy, said in a speech to the UN in 1961: “A nuclear disaster, spread by wind and water and fear, could well engulf the great and the small, the rich and the poor, the committed and the uncommitted alike.”
Next year will mark the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings. This prize should help ban what Kennedy described as the “sword of Damocles” that still threatens life on earth.
Read the Nihon Hidankyo statement on receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, here.
Elizabeth Chappell is a researched in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at The Open University. https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2024/11/24/a-nobel-in-the-nick-of-time/
European states vow to arrest Israeli PM
Rt.com 24 Nov 24
The ICC issued warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant earlier this week.
Several Western states have pledged to execute an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The Hague-based court on Thursday issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu along with former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas commander Ibrahim al-Masri. West Jerusalem claims that al-Masri is already dead. The warrants are for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity linked to the Gaza conflict.
The decision has elicited mixed reactions in the West. Several nations emphasized their respect for the independence of the court, while others voiced support for Israel.
The Netherlands, Switzerland, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Belgium, and Norway all claimed they would meet their commitments and obligations under the Rome Statute and international law. However, Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto stressed that the ICC was “wrong” to put Netanyahu and Gallant on the same level as Hamas. Austria also said that it would obey the decision, but its foreign minister, Alexander Schallenberg, added that the warrant was “utterly incomprehensible.”
Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp assured the country’s parliament that the authorities would act on the warrants and avoid non-essential contacts with those named………………………………….. https://www.rt.com/news/608045-european-states-vow-arrest-netanyahu/
East Suffolk Council offering grants to convert homes to accommodate nuclear workers.
By Dominic Bareham, East Anglian Daily Times 23rd Nov 2024
Homeowners in east Suffolk are being offered the chance to access grants of up to £7,000 to provide accommodation for workers at the new Sizewell C nuclear power station.
Two new grant schemes, administered by East Suffolk Council, are set to open soon – with the first, the Renovation Grant, supporting the conversion of homes, spare rooms, annexes or non-residential buildings into safe and suitable accommodation for Sizewell C workers.
Under this scheme, up to £7,000 is available per bed space to cover structural works, electrical wiring, heating installation, windows and doors, plumbing, installing kitchen and bathroom facilities and additional parking………………………………………………….
https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/24745238.east-suffolk-council-offering-grants-convert-homes/
Report: US and European Officials Discussed Giving Ukraine Nuclear Weapons
Western officials are less concerned that Russian President Vladimir Putin will escalate the conflict before Donald Trump takes office
by Kyle Anzalone November 22, 2024, https://news.antiwar.com/2024/11/22/report-us-and-european-officials-discussed-giving-ukraine-nuclear-weapons/
According to the New York Times, US and European officials have discussed a range of options they believe will deter Russia from taking more Ukrainian territory, including providing Kiev with nuclear weapons. The outlet reports that Western officials believe the Kremlin will not significantly escalate the war before Donald Trump is sworn in as President in January.
Following the election of Trump earlier this month, the US and its NATO allies began taking steps to rush weapons to Ukraine and give Kiev the ability to strike targets inside Russian territory with long-range weapons.
American officials who were briefed on the intelligence community’s assessments told the Times that weapons will not alter the challenging situation that Kiev is currently facing. “US spy agencies have assessed that speeding up the provisions of weapons, ammunition and matériel for Ukraine will do little to change the course of the war in the short term,” the Times reports.
Desperate to bolster Ukraine’s standing in the war before the transition of power on January 20, the Biden administration is looking at a range of serious escalations. “US and European officials are discussing deterrence as a possible security guarantee for Ukraine, such as stockpiling a conventional arsenal sufficient to strike a punishing blow if Russia violates a cease-fire.” The article continues, “Several officials even suggested that Mr. Biden could return nuclear weapons to Ukraine that were taken from it after the fall of the Soviet Union.”
According to some officials who spoke with the Times, the administration believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin won’t significantly escalate the war until Trump returns to the Oval Office.
“But the escalation risk of allowing Ukraine to strike Russia with US-supplied weaponry has diminished with the election of Mr. Trump,” adding,” Biden administration officials believe, calculating that Putin of Russia knows he has to wait only two months for the new administration.”
That assessment is based on the belief that Trump and his incoming Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, will take a more favorable stance on Russia. However, Trump proved to be a Russia-hawk during his first administration by ramping up sanctions on Moscow, providing lethal arms to Ukraine, and expelling a large number of Russian diplomats from the US.
In September, Putin said he preferred Vice President Kamala Harris to win the White House. “Trump has imposed as many sanctions on Russia as any president has ever imposed before, and if Harris is doing well, perhaps she will refrain from such actions,” he explained.
Much of the American political class has cast Trump and Gabbard as agents of Russia. However, extensive investigations into Trump’s ties to the Kremlin have come up empty. Additionally, the Times reported last week that there was no evidence Gabbard was in any way an asset of Putin.
Kyle Anzalone is the opinion editor of Antiwar.com, news editor of the Libertarian Institute, and co-host of Conflicts of Interest.
Japan / Blow For Nuclear Programme As Regulator Blocks Tsuruga-2 Restart
Nucnet By David Dalton, 14 November 2024
NRA cites presence of possible active fault lines underneath facility
Japan’s nuclear watchdog has formally prevented the Tsuruga-2 nuclear power plant in the country’s north-central region from restarting, the first rejection under safety standards that were revised after the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
The Nuclear Regulation Authority said the unit, in Fukui Prefecture, is “unfit” for operation because owner and operator Japan Atomic Power Company (JAPC) failed to address safety risks stemming from the presence of possible active fault lines, which can potentially cause earthquakes, underneath it.
Tsuruga-2, a 1,108-MW pressurised water reactor unit that initially began commercial operation in 1987, is the first reactor to be prevented from restart under safety standards adopted in 2013 based on lessons from the 2011 Fukushima-Daiichi meltdowns following a massive earthquake and tsunami.
Those standards prohibit reactor buildings and other important facilities being located above any active fault…………………………………
Recent press reports in Japan said the NRA had decided Tsuruga-2 could not be restarted because it could not rule out the possibility that a fault line running under the reactor building is connected to adjacent active fault lines.
“We reached our conclusion based on a very strict examination,” NRA chairperson Shinsuke Yamanaka told reporters.
‘Data Coverups And Mistakes’ By Operator
The verdict comes after more than eight years of safety reviews that were repeatedly disrupted by data coverups and mistakes by the operator, Yamanaka said. He called the case “abnormal” and urged the utility to take the result seriously.
An older unit at Tsuruga, the 340-MW Tsuruga-1 boiling water reactor, began commercial operation in 1970 and was permanently shut down in 2015……………………………. https://www.nucnet.org/news/blow-for-nuclear-programme-as-regulator-blocks-tsuruga-2-restart-11-4-2024
Consultation, full disclosure, and an environmental audit: Nuclear Free Local Authorities’ triple demand of Australian government over nuke sub waste dump down under
the NFLAs have raised our fundamental objections to any siting of nuclear powered, and possibly nuclear armed, submarines at Garden Island as a violation of Australia’s legal commitments as a signatory to the Treaty of Rarotonga, which established a South Pacific nuclear free zone. The proposal will increase military tensions with China and make Rockingham a target for a counterstrike should war break out.
a White House paper states that Australia ‘has committed to managing all radioactive waste generated through its nuclear-powered submarine program, including spent nuclear fuel, in Australia’.
NFLA 22nd Nov 2024
With an international outlook and solidarity in mind, in response to a consultation by the Australian Federal Government, the UK / Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities have posted their objections to plans to station nuclear-powered subs and establish a waste dump in Western Australia.
As part of the AUKUS military pact established between Australia, the United Kingdom and United States, Australia intends to acquire a fleet of nuclear powered submarines, powered by reactors built by Rolls-Royce in Derby, as well as permitting Royal Navy and United States Navy nuclear submarines to operate from Australian naval bases.
In March 2023,the AUKUS Nuclear-Powered Submarine Pathway was announced by the three partners centred on the HMAS Stirling Naval Base on Garden Island in Western Australia’s Cockburn Sound. The Australian Government has allocated AUS $8 billion for base improvements.
Under the AUKUS ‘Force Posture Agreement’, from 2027, US Virginia Class submarines are to be stationed here, with British Astute submarines joining them on rotation in the 2030’s. Around this time, the base will also become the home port of Australia’s first nuclear powered submarines, with three and up to five Virginia Class submarines being purchased from the US (subject to Congressional approval).
The Federal Government has passed new legislation to allow for the domestic storage of nuclear waste from all these submarines, and in July after a limited consultation the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) issued a licence to the Australian Submarine Agency to prepare a nuclear waste storage site at the base. Without it, visiting United States and British nuclear-powered submarines could not undertake maintenance in Australia, so the nuclear dump is seen as essential to the pact.
The extent and nature of the waste to be stored, and for how long it would be stored, remains unclear. The Conservation Council of Western Australia (CCWA) complained to the regulatory authorities that: ‘The consultation documents provided no details about the volume of waste or how long it would be stored at the island. They also made confused and misleading claims about the types of low-level waste that would be accepted’.
Whilst regulators insist that it would be low-level waste, this claim has been refuted by critic Australian Green Senator David Shoebridge who said the Federal legislators were told in a Senate Estimates Hearing by the Australian Submarine Agency that it would include intermediate waste. It is also contradicted by a White House paper which states that Australia ‘has committed to managing all radioactive waste generated through its nuclear-powered submarine program, including spent nuclear fuel, in Australia’.
This waste would include US Virginia-class submarine reactors, which each weigh over 100 tonnes and contain over 200 kilograms of highly enriched uranium. Ian Lowe, an expert on radiation health and safety, told The Conversation in March 2023 that when the first three AUKUS submarines are at the end of their lives — 30 years from when they are commissioned — Australia will have 600 kilograms of ‘spent fuel’ and ‘potentially tonnes of irradiated material from the reactors and their protective walls’. The fuel being weapons-grade will require ‘military-scale security’.
Australian campaigners have also complained bitterly that the submarine base and the storage site are located in the wrong place.
Mia Pepper, Campaign Director at the CCWA, said that ‘Garden Island in one of the most pristine and diverse environments in the Perth region’ and that ‘This plan for both nuclear submarines and nuclear waste storage will inevitably impact access to parts of Cockburn Sound and Garden Island’.
And when responding to ARPANSA, the CCWA stated that the facility is ‘within an area of dense population’ and in the vicinity of ‘important and diverse heavy industrial facilities, including a major shipping port’. The CCWA also raised the ‘unaddressed community concerns regarding an accident’ on the site and complained about the ‘lack of transparency and rigour’ throughout the regulatory process.
Nor is there any long-term solution to storage. Garden Island would be seen as a temporary store, but it is unclear for how long. A Federal Government proposal to establish a nuclear waste dump at Kimba was resisted by local Indigenous people who launched a successful legal challenge to defeat the plan.
In its response to the consultation being conducted by the Australian Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, the NFLAs have raised our fundamental objections to any siting of nuclear powered, and possibly nuclear armed, submarines at Garden Island as a violation of Australia’s legal commitments as a signatory to the Treaty of Rarotonga, which established a South Pacific nuclear free zone. The proposal will increase military tensions with China and make Rockingham a target for a counterstrike should war break out.
We also called on the Federal Government to conduct a proper consultation and make a full disclosure of the facts, and requested that officials conduct a full environmental audit of the likely impact of the waste storage site…………………………………………. https://www.nuclearpolicy.info/news/consultation-full-disclosure-and-an-environmental-audit-nflas-triple-demand-of-australian-government-over-nuke-sub-waste-dump-down-under/
Will New Brunswick choose a “small, modular” nuclear reactor – that’s not small at all (among other problems)?
There is nothing modular about this reactor. The idea that such an elaborate structure can just be trucked in, off-loaded, and ready to go, is a fantasy cultivated by the nuclear industry as a public relations gimmick.
by Gordon Edwards, November 23, 2024, https://nbmediacoop.org/2024/11/23/will-new-brunswick-choose-a-small-modular-nuclear-reactor-thats-not-small-at-all-among-other-problems/
NB Power seems determined to build at least two experimental reactors at the Point Lepreau nuclear site, but their chosen designs are running into big problems.
One possible alternative is the reactor design Ontario Power Generation (OPG) hopes to build at the Darlington nuclear site on Lake Ontario. OPG is promoting it as a “small, modular” nuclear reactor.
Consider a building that soars 35 metres upwards and extends 38 metres below ground. That’s 10 stories up, 11 stories down. At 73 metres, that’s almost as tall as Brunswick Square in Saint John, or Assumption Place in Moncton, the tallest buildings in New Brunswick. Would you call such a structure small?
That’s the size of the new reactor design, the first so-called “Small Modular Nuclear Reactor” (SMNR) to be built in Canada, if the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission gives OPG the go-ahead in January. It’s an American design by GE Hitachi that requires enriched uranium fuel – something Canada does not produce. If the reactor works, it will be the first time Canada will have to buy its uranium fuel from non-Canadian sources.
The new project, called the BWRX-300, is a “Boiling Water Reactor” (BWR), completely different from any reactor that has successfully operated in Canada before. Quebec tried a boiling water CANDU reactor several decades ago, but it flopped, running for only 180 days before it was shut down in 1986.
The Darlington BWR design is not yet complete. Its immediate predecessor was a BWR four times more powerful and ten times larger in volume, called the ESBWR. It was licensed for construction in the U.S. in 2011, the same year as the triple meltdown at Fukushima in Japan. The ESBWR design was withdrawn by the vendor and never built.
The BWRX-300 is a stripped-down version of ESBWR, which in turn was a simplified version of the first reactor that melted down in Japan in 2011. To shrink the size and cut the cost, the BWRX-300 eliminates several safety systems that were considered essential in its predecessors.
For example, BWRX-300 has no overpressure relief valves, no emergency core cooling system, no “core catcher” to prevent a molten core from melting through the floor of the building. Instead, it depends on a closed-loop “isolation condenser” system (ICS) to substitute for those missing features.
But is the ICS up to the job? During a 1970 nuclear accident, the ICS failed in a BWR at Humboldt Bay in California. At Fukushima, the ICS system failed after a few hours of on-and-off functioning.
Because CNSC, the Canadian nuclear regulator, has no experience with Boiling Water Reactors, it has partnered with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). They both met with the vendor GE-Hitachi several times.
The regulatory approach of the two countries has been very different: in February 2024, the U.S. NRC staff told GE-Hitachi that a complete design is needed before safety can be certified or any licence can be considered. But In Canada, the lack of a complete design seems no obstacle.
CNSC public hearings in November 2024 and January 2025 are aimed at giving OPG a “licence to construct” the BWRX-300 – before the design is even complete, and before the detailed questions from U.S. NRC staff have been addressed.
Building the BWRX-300 will require a work force of 1,000 or more. The entire reactor core, containing the reactor fuel and control mechanisms, will be in a subterranean cylindrical building immersed in water, not far from the shore of Lake Ontario.
There is nothing modular about this reactor. The idea that such an elaborate structure can just be trucked in, off-loaded, and ready to go, is a fantasy cultivated by the nuclear industry as a public relations gimmick.
The BWRX-300 will not be small. It will not be modular. And so far, its design is incomplete. An initial analysis of the design has identified unanswered safety questions.
If CNSC is prudent, it will not grant OPG a licence to construct the reactor next year. There are too many unanswered safety-related questions.
And if OPG is prudent, It will count on a doubling or tripling of the estimated cost. Already we have seen SMR projects in Idaho and Chalk River in Ontario run into crippling financial roadblocks.
The financial problems of the current SMNR designs in New Brunswick are the latest examples of private capital shunning nuclear investments. If New Brunswick is prudent, it will think very hard before diving into another nuclear boondoggle. The potential fallout will not be small at all.
Dr. Gordon Edwards is the president of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility based in Montreal.
Nuclear is not really back
Think the Cop29 climate summit doesn’t matter? Here are five things you should know,
Adam Morton in Baku, Guardian, Sat 23 Nov 2024
…………………………………………………..Some media outlets went to great lengths this week to claim that nuclear energy was at the centre of Cop29 talks, and Bowen had been embarrassed by Australia not signing up to a UK-US civil nuclear deal.
Take it from a reporter on the ground: this has no basis in fact.
The UK made a mistake by listing on a press release Australia and another nine countries that it said it expected would sign up to a Generation IV International Forum on nuclear. That sentence were quickly removed once it was pointed out that no one had checked and it wasn’t true. Instead, Australia will continue as an observer, as it was in the forum’s previous iteration.
The slip-up had no obvious impact on the relationship between the countries – Bowen and his UK counterpart, Ed Miliband, held an event to sign a renewable energy agreement shortly after the story broke. And nuclear has been barely visible as an issue at the talks.
Thirty-one countries have signed up to a side pledge to triple nuclear power capacity by 2050, with six new countries joining at Cop29. But the global focus is renewable energy. Cop28 agreed global investment in renewables needs to be tripled by 2030, and the bulk of the non-fossil energy investment is going that way.
Only one country that signed the pledge to triple nuclear, Slovakia, has started work on planning a new plant in the past year. And those plants take about 20 years to build…………………………………………………………. fact.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/nov/22/think-the-cop29-climate-summit-doesnt-matter-heres-five-things-you-should-know
COP29: Baku breakthrough disappoints, but should still trigger a fresh wave of climate finance.
Green groups have condemned the COP29 finance package as a betrayal of
developing nations, but it has the potential to provide a big chunk of the
trillions of dollars of climate investment the world needs. Is new climate
accord delivered in Baku ‘bad deal’? Would no deal have been better? Did
the new finance package agreed at COP29 amount to a ‘global Ponzi scheme’?
As ever, it’s complicated.
Business Green 24th Nov 2024 https://www.businessgreen.com/news/4382153/cop29-baku-breakthrough-disappoints-trigger-fresh-wave-climate-finance
Iran warns West: abandon pressure or face more uranium enrichment
Iran International 23rd Nov 2024
he West still has an opportunity to pursue engagement and abandon pressure, but Tehran is ready to confront any challenges, spokesperson and deputy head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, announced on Saturday.
Addressing Western nations, Behrouz Kamalvandi wrote in a Tehran newspaper, “There is still time for engagement and for setting aside pressure and threats. While Iran has prepared itself to counter threats, it prefers dialogue over confrontation.”
Iranian officials have condemned a censure resolution adopted during the November 21 quarterly meeting of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors. While they claim Iran is ready to negotiate over its nuclear commitments, their calls for dialogue come against the backdrop of years of failed diplomatic efforts by the IAEA and Western powers to address concerns over Tehran’s reduced cooperation with the UN watchdog.
The IAEA Board of Governors approved a resolution proposed by four Western powers condemning the expansion of Iran’s nuclear activities and Tehran’s lack of necessary cooperation with the agency. The resolution passed with a majority vote.
This marked the second resolution adopted against the Islamic Republic by the Board of Governors in the past six months.
On Friday, Kamalvandi responded to the IAEA resolution by announcing a “significant increase” in uranium enrichment levels.
Speaking to state media, he said this step was part of Iran’s “compensatory measures in response to the new Board of Governors resolution” and noted that the process had “already begun immediately.”…………………………………………
https://www.iranintl.com/en/202411239657
Fleet of drones is spotted over major US airbase in Britain where they are building facilities to house nuclear weapons
Daily Mail , By LES ROOPANARINE, 24 Nov 24
The largest American airbase on British soil was buzzed by drones this week, the US Air Force has confirmed, amid unconfirmed reports that fighter planes were dispatched to intercept the encroaching aircraft.
The incident occurred on Wednesday above RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk, which has been earmarked as a storage facility for US nuclear warheads three times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb.
While US Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) played down the incursion, it will do little to dampen the prevailing mood of unease following warnings from Vladimir Putin that Ukraine’s use of British and American long-range weaponry could see military facilities in those countries targeted.
…………….USAFE declined to comment on either claims that flight operations were affected or the reported deployment of F-15E Strike Eagles.
‘To protect operational security, we do not discuss our specific force protection measures, but retain the right to protect the installation,’ the spokesperson added.
RAF Lakenheath, which appears poised to house US nuclear weapons for the first time in 15 years, is home to the 48th Fighter Wing and a site of major strategic significance as the US moves to bolster its European presence in the face of Russian expansionism.
Earlier this year, unredacted documents from the US Department of Defence’s procurement database showed that the Pentagon has ordered equipment, including ballistic shields, for the airbase.
The construction of facilities to house US soldiers at Lakenheath, where the drone incursion follows similar activity above the US Army’s Picatinny Arsenal in northern New Jersey two days earlier.
The American army has revealed that it is developing special ammunition to shoot down spy drones, with helicopters and tanks to be equipped with medium-calibre rounds capable of hitting small, high-speed targets.
‘There’s not enough air defence assets out there,’ Major General John T Reim, the Picatinny Arsenal’s commanding general, told military website Task and Purpose last month…………………
The developments follow warnings from Russian officials that British support for Ukraine, which this week fired UK-supplied Storm shadow missiles into Russian territory for the first time, could ‘lead to a collision between nuclear powers’……
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14117587/drones-spotted-airbase-Britain-RAF-Lakenheath-nuclear-weapons.html
Immoral Senate votes down resolutions to end US weapons fueling Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL, 24 Nov 24
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) tried but failed to pass his 3 Joint Resolutions of Disapproval (JRD) aimed ending billions in US weapons used by Israel to obliterate habitable life for 2,300,000 Palestinians in Gaza.
Sanders and fellow Independent Angus King of Maine were joined by 17 Democrats hoping to persuade President Biden to stop violating the Leahy Law which forbids sending US weapons to states or groups committing war crimes, human rights violations and ghoulishly, genocide. The vote was engineered by a small contingent of moral Democrats to send a message to Biden they’re growing weary of shoveling over $20 billion in weaponry to assist Israel committing the worst genocide this century. They also heeded the 77% of pre-election Democratic voters who want an end to all US weapons to Israel.
Republican senators wanted no part of following the Leahy Law to extinguish the flames of genocide devouring Gaza. They all voted the resolutions down.
Kudos to my Illinois Senator Dick Durbin who voted for all 3 resolutions. Raspberries to my Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth who voted to keep the weapons train rolling into Israel in spite of opposition from virtually the entire civilized world save for Israel and America.
Biden worked feverishly to defeat the resolutions. He’s determined to end his presidency an unabashed, morally degraded enabler of genocide. Trump may be even more ravenous in supplying weaponry to Israel come January 20. But at the rate Biden is going, all the Palestinians in Gaza may be dead and gone by then.
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