Scotland ‘could fund England’s nuclear plants after independence’ under “regulated asset base” (RAB) model
the RAB model was favoured by the Tory government because “the fact is the market has fled nuclear”.
“The market has fled nuclear because of the risk and liability. The only way of getting nuclear through is with vast public subsidy, and this is a way of disguising that public subsidy.
the RAB model had been tried before in the US – under the name Early Cost Recovery – “and failed miserably”.
And that public money would come at the very start of construction. They would be paying right from the word go, so this is essentially free money. Even with that there really doesn’t seem to be much interest from the market.”
SCOTTISH bill payers could still be funding nuclear projects south of the Border through additional fees on their energy bills even after independence, one expert has said.
It comes as the UK Government looks to award the first contracts for new nuclear stations in England, which will be funded through the “regulated asset base” (RAB) model.
This RAB model will see electricity suppliers pay a levy to “relevant licensee nuclear companies”, with the costs passed on to consumers in the form of additional fees on top of their energy bills. Under conservative UK Government estimates, this could mean Scottish households’ energy bills rising by around £100 a year.
Dr Paul Dorfman, the chair of the non-profit Nuclear Consulting Group and associate fellow at the University of Sussex’s Science Policy Research Unit, told The National that the RAB model was favoured by the Tory government because “the fact is the market has fled nuclear”.
“RAB is absolutely, unequivocally all about trying to incentivise the market,” he said, “and it is doing it with public money.”
Dorfman went on: “And that public money would come at the very start of construction. They would be paying right from the word go, so this is essentially free money. Even with that there really doesn’t seem to be much interest from the market.”
The nuclear expert, who will give evidence on the topic to a Westminster committee next week, said the RAB model had been tried before in the US – under the name Early Cost Recovery – “and failed miserably”.
He said: “It can work for projects which you know will come in on time, but nuclear has huge liabilities and huge over-runs, and that’s precisely why it doesn’t work. RAB doesn’t work for projects with high liability and high risk.
“The market has fled nuclear because of the risk and liability. The only way of getting nuclear through is with vast public subsidy, and this is a way of disguising that public subsidy.
Dorfman warned that once the UK Government started sinking billions of pounds into efforts to begin construction of eight new nuclear stations by 2030, it would “become a fait accompli”.
He said that even after 17 years – the amount of time he estimates it will take from a contract being awarded to a nuclear plant being finished – “the UK public, and the Scots public, who may no longer be part of the UK, will still be liable for that”.
Dorfman said the first RAB nuclear contracts looked set to be awarded in 2023, estimating that would mean a completion date of the first nuclear plants around 2040.
“That’s too late for our climate,” he said. “It’s far too late for the current energy crisis. The point is of course, why do this when last year solar and wind made up three-quarters of all total new electricity generation capacity installed worldwide?”
“
The Nuclear Consulting Group chair further cautioned that no one knows for certain what the RAB funding arrangements will be.
Craig Dalzell, the head of policy and research at Common Weal, a think tank which has recently produced a report on the RAB funding model, said the “ongoing liability” for new nuclear projects in England should “not be outsourced to Scotland post-independence”.
Dalzell told The National: “The idea that Scottish energy users could be paying for the UK’s nuclear RAB schemes even after independence will surely be something that should be resisted. The Scottish Government should do everything it can to extract guarantees from the UK Government that this will not be the case and that the ongoing liability for these plants will not be outsourced to Scotland post-independence.
“At the very least, any payments for these plants should be taken into account when the time comes for independence negotiations and I would expect these charges to be offset against other debts or added to an equivalent payment from the remaining UK to Scotland to compensate for their mismanagement of energy policy.”
The UK Government’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy declined to comment, saying only that its policy has not changed despite a new Secretary of State, Grant Shapps, taking control.
You can read Dr Dorfman’s written evidence on nuclear power to the House of Commons’ Science and Technology Committee here.
Together Against Sizewell and other groups to fight on, despite legal setback
Campaigners have pledged to fight on after the High Court rejected their
appeal against the Government’s decision to approve the new Sizewell C
nuclear power station. Together Against Sizewell C (TASC) and other
campaign groups are seeking an oral hearing through the judicial review
process after an initial assessment by the legal authority deemed the
appeal should be rejected.
The review of the approval had been sought on
the grounds that the decision was unlawful amid concerns about the
maintenance of a water supply to the new £20bn station and the resilience
of the coastline. The provision of fresh water to the site was one of the
key issues raised by the Planning Inspectorate when considering the plans.
TASC chair Pete Wilkinson described the rejection verdict as ‘predictable
and wholly unreasonable,’ adding there appeared to be a ‘presumption’
that judicial reviews should be dismissed rather than used as a forum for
democracy.
East Anglian Daily Times 28th Oct 2022
https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/23082932.high-court-rejects-sizewell-legal-challenge/
George Monbiot leads the “left” into being cheer- leaders for USA’s endless wars
HOW THE LEFT BECAME CHEERLEADERS FOR US IMPERIALISM
Mint Press, Jonathon Cook 27 Oct 22
One of the biggest problems for the left, as it confronts what seems like humanity’s ever-more precarious relationship with the planet – from the climate emergency to a potential nuclear exchange – is that siren voices keep luring it towards the rocks of political confusion and self-harm.
And one of the loudest sirens on the British left is the environmental activist George Monbiot.
Monbiot has carved out for himself a figurehead role on the mainstream British left because he is the only big-picture thinker allowed a regular platform in the establishment media: in his case, the liberal Guardian newspaper………………………………
In the case of the Ukraine war, Monbiot has insisted on adherence to the NATO narrative, decrying any dissent as “Westplaining”. Throughout this shift ever more firmly into the imperial NATO camp, Monbiot has besmirched prominent anti-war leftists, from the famed linguist Noam Chomsky to the journalist John Pilger, as “genocide deniers and belittlers”…………………………….
Monbiot lashes out at anyone who dissents, calling them apologists for dictators, or war crimes. And he brings many on the left with him, helping to divide and weaken the anti-war movement.
…………………… He is a zealot for the West’s wars when they can be presented either as humanitarian or as battling Russian imperialism. (For examples, see here, here, and here.)
………………………… It might – just might – be that Russia is both sinner in Ukraine and sinned against. Or that Ukrainian civilians are victims both of Russian militarism and of more covert U.S. and NATO intrigues. Or that in a country like Ukraine, where a civil war has been raging for at least eight years between far-right (some of them exterminationist) Ukrainian ultra-nationalists and ethnic Russian communities, we would be better jettisoning our narrative premises of a single “Ukraine” or a single Ukrainian will. This kind of simple-mindedness may be obscuring far more than it illuminates.
………………. In such circumstances, Monbiot’s dictum that we must “side against the oppressor, and with the oppressed” starts to sound like nothing more than unhelpful sloganeering. It makes a complex situation that needs complex thinking and sophisticated problem-solving harder to understand and all but impossible to resolve.
Throw nuclear weapons into the mix, and Monbiot the environmentalist is playing games not only with the lives of Ukrainians, but the destruction of conditions for most life on Earth……………………..
Historically, the lands that today we call Ukraine have been the gateway through which invading armies have attacked Russia. Long efforts by Washington, through NATO, to recruit Ukraine into its military fold were never likely to be viewed dispassionately in Moscow.
…………………….. there was the problem of the Crimean Peninsula, hosting Moscow’s only warm-water naval port and viewed as critically important to Russia’s defenses. It had been Russian territory until the 1950s when the then-Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev gifted it to Ukraine, at a time when national borders had been made largely redundant within the Soviet empire. The gift was supposed to symbolize the unbreakable bond between Russia and Ukraine. Khrushchev presumably never imagined that Ukraine might one day seek to become a forward base for a NATO openly hostile to Russia…………………
So where does all this leave Monbiot’s rule: “Whatever the situation around the world is, you side against the oppressor, and with the oppressed”?
Not only does his axiom fail to acknowledge the complex nature of global conflicts, especially between great powers, in which defining who is the oppressor and who is the oppressed may be no simple matter, but, worse, it disfigures our understanding of international power politics.
Russia and China may be great powers, but they are not – at least, not yet – close to being equal to the US super-power.
Neither can match the many hundreds of U.S. military bases around the world – more than 800 of them. The U.S. outspends both of its rivals many times over on its annual military budget. That means Washington can project lethal power around the globe on a scale unmatched by either Russia or China. The only deterrence either has against the military might of the U.S. is a last-resort nuclear arsenal.
Overwhelming U.S. military supremacy ……………………….
Both militarily and economically, the United States molds the world we live in……………………….
……a power-politics analysis of the playground. And yet it passes for neutral reporting and informed commentary in all establishment Western media. Catastrophically, Monbiot has played a crucial part in seeding these destructive ideas – ones that can only lead to intensified conflict and undermine peacemaking – into the anti-war movement. https://www.mintpressnews.com/how-george-monbiot-left-became-cheerleaders-imperialism/282308/
USA upgrades its B61-12 nuclear bombs in Europe
US Accelerates Upgraded Nuke Delivery To Jittery European Allies: Cable, Zero Hedge BY TYLER DURDEN, 28 Oct 22,
On the same day that Russia hailed completion of its ‘successful’ annual nuclear drills, Politico published a bombshell report describing that the US has accelerated plans to maintain upgraded nuclear weapons in Europe.
Specifically, US defense officials informed NATO allies earlier this month that Europe will host a B61-12 air-dropped gravity bomb, to be transferred by December. Politico reported Wednesday that a classified cable it has seen confirmed this.
The upgraded bomb was expected to arrive in Europe next spring, but the timeline was accelerated amid Russia’s growing nuclear rhetoric surrounding the war in Ukraine. President Biden recently raised eyebrows in saying nuclear “armageddon” is a real possibility for the first time since the close of the Cold War.
On an official level the Pentagon is disputing that its planned nuclear upgrade for NATO’s Europe arsenal is in any way connected to events in Ukraine, however, Politico cites the following sources:
Two people familiar with the issue of the upcoming shipment to Europe confirmed the accelerated timeframe reported in the diplomatic cable. They asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.
The cable, which has not previously been made public and was written to be distributed throughout the Pentagon and State Department to give policymakers a rundown of what was discussed among defense ministers at the NATO meeting, clearly indicates that allies are jittery.
The document says that during the meetings, 15 NATO allies raised concerns that the alliance “must not give in to Putin’s nuclear blackmail.”
The cable is further quoted by Politico as follows: “Given the rising volume and scale of Russia’s nuclear rhetoric, a subset of allies requested continued consultations at NATO to ensure continued readiness and consistent messaging.”……………..
The upgraded B61-12 is designed to allow the bomb to be carried by a fuller array of US and allied bombers and fighter jets, while older versions had more limited delivery options. The upgraded version is also said to be more accurate. https://www.zerohedge.com/military/us-accelerates-upgraded-nuke-delivery-jittery-european-allies-cable
“The voices in this world which have the most power belong to those who are destroying it”, writes Greta Thunberg
“The voices in this world which have the most power belong to those who
are destroying it”, writes Greta Thunberg in the outro of her spectacular
new book. It is a sentence which encapsulates the skill with which she can
speak the blatant truths our society can scarcely acknowledge, but it is
also a damning conclusion and part of a revolutionary call to arms.
Her zero-tolerance level for bulls*** is the beacon which has not only won her
acclaim, but also lights the way through this collection of essays, evidence and potential solutions written by an astonishing list of experts,
scientists, activists and authors.
Independent 27th Oct 2022
‘No need’ for nuclear strikes on Ukraine, Putin says
9 News, By Associated Press Oct 28, 22
Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied having any intentions of using nuclear weapons in Ukraine but described the conflict there as part of alleged efforts by the West to secure its global domination, which he insisted were doomed to fail.
Speaking at a conference of international foreign policy experts, Putin said it’s pointless for Russia to strike Ukraine with nuclear weapons.
“We see no need for that,” Putin said.
“There is no point in that, neither political, nor military.”
Putin said an earlier warning of his readiness to use “all means available to protect Russia” didn’t amount to nuclear sabre-rattling but was merely a response to Western statements about their possible use of nuclear weapons.
He particularly mentioned Liz Truss saying in August that she would be ready to use nuclear weapons if she became Britain’s prime minister, a remark which he said worried the Kremlin.
“What were we supposed to think?” Putin said.
“We saw that as a coordinated position, an attempt to blackmail us.”……………………………………………….
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters today that the US has still not seen anything to indicate that Putin has decided to use a dirty bomb……………………………………………………. more https://www.9news.com.au/world/russia-ukraine-vladimir-putin-says-kremlin-not-intending-to-use-nuclear-weapons/7ab0234c-cadb-41f9-b8c2-05305c1eb464
Biden to scrap Trump missile project but critics attack US ‘nuclear overkill’
Arms control advocates say changes from Trump era outlined in Nuclear Posture Review do not go far enough
Guardian, Julian Borger , 28 Oct 22,
The Biden administration has confirmed it will cancel a submarine-launched nuclear cruise missile programme begun by Donald Trump, as part of its review of nuclear policy.
The administration will also retire a gravity bomb, the B83-1, from its arsenal as part of its Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), but arms control advocates argued the changes from the Trump era did not go far enough.
The administration is retaining another weapon variant introduced by Trump, a low-yield warhead called the W76-2, intended to deter an adversary like Russia using a low-yield weapon. The Democratic party manifesto in 2020 had called the W76-2 “unnecessary, wasteful, and indefensible”……………………..
Jon Wolfsthal, who was special assistant to Barack Obama on arms control and nonproliferation issues, expressed disappointment in the Biden NPR.
“The world is a dangerous place and our allies and we still rely on nuclear deterrence but this document ignores the role the US can play to make nukes less usable, less likely,” Wolfsthal said on Twitter……………………………………
In response to the NPR, Jessica Sleight, partner for policy at Global Zero, a disarmament advocacy group, said: “Contrary to President Biden’s stated intentions to reduce the role of nuclear weapons, this Nuclear Posture Review continues decades of nuclear overkill, doubles down on needless weapons programs, and fails to advance overdue reforms to policy and posture that would make the United States, its allies, and the world safer.” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/27/biden-trump-missile-nuclear-posture-review
Cracks found in all four Olkiluoto Nuclear 3 feedwater pumps
WNN, 28 October 2022, Cracks of a few centimetres have been identified in all four of the feedwater pumps of the Olkiluoto 3 EPR in Finland. Operator Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) said it does not yet know the impact this will have on the schedule for the plant’s commissioning.
On 18 October, TVO announced that damage had been discovered in the internals of the feedwater pumps located in the plant’s turbine island during maintenance and inspection work.
The feedwater pumps are Olkiluoto 3’s largest pumps and are used to pump water from the feedwater tank into the steam generators. TVO said the cracks detected in the pumps have no impact on nuclear safety.
The company noted the structure of the feedwater pumps located in Olkiluoto 3’s turbine island is commonly used in power plants. However, the pumps at OL3 have been designed for the plant unit’s operations and are larger in size.
“The investigation is currently ongoing in several laboratories,” TVO has now said. “The root cause of the cracks found in the pump impellers is still unknown.”……………………………. more https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Cracks-found-in-all-four-OL3-feedwater-pumps
Ukraine’s Biggest Nuclear Plant Needs a Safety Zone
Atomic energy experts are calling for protections for the Zaporizhzhya plant, which has become a pawn in the war, thanks to power outages and nearby shelling.
Wired, Ramin Skibba, 28 Oct 22,
EUROPE’S LARGEST NUCLEAR power plant lies in the middle of a war zone, posing an ever-present risk of radiation leaks as the conflict following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drags on. The most immediate dangers include the possibility of an errant missile or shell blowing up waste containers, or a protracted power outage that would prevent workers from keeping spent fuel rods cool, a situation that could eventually lead to a radioactive release……………………………….
To reduce tensions and safety risks at Zaporizhzhya, Grossi and the IAEA are calling for a “nuclear safety and security protection zone” around the plant, including its reactors, nuclear waste, spent fuel pools, and energy and cooling systems. Establishing this zone would mandate an end to shelling near the plant, and to military activities that can affect power supply systems. It also calls for the removal of military vehicles from areas where they could affect safety and security systems, and reestablishing an appropriate work environment for operating staff, with clear lines of responsibilities, so that the workers continue reporting to Ukrainian government officials, not Russian ones.
Earlier this month, Grossi met with Putin in St. Petersburg, and with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv, to make the case. “It is imperative to agree to this as soon as possible,” he said, according to an IAEA statement on October 18. Both leaders have signaled some interest in the plan: Zelensky has said he would back such a zone if it were aimed at demilitarizing the plant, while Putin told the state Tass news agency that Russia is open to dialog about all issues involving the plant’s operations.
Yet Ukraine’s push for a “demilitarized” zone would go further than the IAEA’s proposal by requiring Russia to completely withdraw its forces and effectively abandon the plant to Ukraine, which Russia is unlikely to do, says George Moore, a nuclear scientist at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California.
Negotiating a ceasefire within a well-defined perimeter would be more politically achievable, he thinks. That would mean taking care to avoid firing mortars, missiles, or drone weapons anywhere in the area. “Hopefully good sense would prevail, but it hasn’t seemed to,” Moore says.
Until Ukraine and Russia reach an agreement, the plant remains in danger. “There’s no question: There should not be any military operations at the plant or in the vicinity of the plant,” says Ed Lyman, senior global security scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists and coauthor of the book Fukushima: The Story of a Nuclear Disaster. But, he continues, while neither military’s soldiers have deliberately fired on the plant, anything can happen in the fog of war. A misfired weapon or a missile shot down in the wrong place could exacerbate an already dangerous situation. ………………………………………. more https://www.wired.com/story/zaporizhzhya-ukraines-biggest-nuclear-plant-needs-a-safety-zone/
About 100 Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant employees, including senior managers, agree to collaborate with Russian occupiers
Ukrainska Pravda ANASTASIIA ZHARYKOVA – FRIDAY, 28 OCTOBER 2022,
Out of the 6,700 Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) employees who continue working at the plant since its occupation by Russian forces, about 100 workers have signed contracts with Rosatom [Russia’s state nuclear energy corporation] under pressure from the Russians. Several senior managers are among those who had agreed to work for Russia, too…………………. more https://news.yahoo.com/100-zaporizhzhia-nuclear-power-plant-145214038.html
Global heating levels threaten to destroy economies
Levels of warming threaten to ‘destroy economies’, says UN. The world
is already seeing increasing floods, storms, heatwaves and wildfires as a
result of climate change. The planet is heading for “climate
catastrophe”, with countries significantly behind in cutting global
warming pollution, the UN has warned. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres
said countries are bracing for “economy-destroying levels of global
heating”.
Express 27th Oct 2022
https://www.express.co.uk/news/nature/1688646/climate-change-warming-environment-un-UNEP-CAP26
Rising Sea Levels Spell Disaster For America’s Coastal Nuclear Plants
By Haley Zaremba – Oct 25, 2022,
- The Biden administration is pushing for a revitalization of America’s nuclear industry.
- Seven of the country’s coastal nuclear plants are at risk as sea levels rise.
- Mitigation measures are needed to protect America’s aging nuclear infrastructure.
……………………………….. The Turkey Point nuclear power plant, located between the Florida Everglades and Biscayne National Park, has been active for fifty years. While mathematical modeling shows that the aging plant is still safe to operate, many local residents live in fear of what will happen when the next hurricane pummels the southern coast of Florida – and the one after that, and the one after that. After seeing what a natural disaster did to Japan’s Fukushima power plant in 2011, anxiety about storm surges crashing into nuclear plants – and very old ones, at that – are justified.
……………. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) projects that the area where Turkey Point is located will experience a full foot of sea level rise by 2050 and three feet of annual flooding. This would mean that the plant’s cooling systems and access roads would flood as well. What’s more, according to a 2020 study by scientists from Johns Hopkins University, Turkey Point is just one of seven coastal nuclear facilities that are vulnerable to sea level rise.
Serious and swift mitigation plans are clearly needed to make sure that aging nuclear infrastructure can safely stand up to storm surges and extreme weather events, which are a matter of “when,” not “if.”……………………. https://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Nuclear-Power/Rising-Sea-Levels-Spell-Disaster-For-Americas-Coastal-Nuclear-Plants.html
Progressives retract Ukraine letter to Biden after uproar
By FARNOUSH AMIRI and SEUNG MIN KIM, 26 Oct 22
WASHINGTON (AP) — A group of progressive Democrats in Congress said Tuesday it had retracted a letter to the White House urging President Joe Biden to engage in direct diplomatic talks with Russia after it triggered an uproar among Democrats and raised questions about the strength of the party’s support for Ukraine.
In a statement, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, the chair of the Progressive Caucus, said the caucus was withdrawing the letter it sent less than 24 hours prior. It was signed by 30 members of the party’s liberal flank.
“The letter was drafted several months ago, but unfortunately was released by staff without vetting,” the Washington Democrat wrote in a statement. As chair of the caucus, Jayapal said she took responsibility for this.
The unusual retraction capped a tense 24-hour period for Democrats. Many reacted angrily to the appearance of flagging support for the president’s Ukraine strategy, coming just weeks before a midterm election where their majorities in Congress are at risk.
The back-and-forth spotlighted the fragile nature of Biden’s relationship with the progressive wing of his party, raising stark questions about their ability to work together not only on Ukraine funding — which seems secure, for now — but on more pressing issues that are top priorities for liberals.
The letter had called for Biden to pair the unprecedented economic and military support for Ukraine with a “proactive diplomatic push, redoubling efforts to seek a realistic framework for a cease fire.”
“The alternative to diplomacy is protracted war, with both its attendant certainties and catastrophic and unknowable risks,” the letter read.
Jayapal said the letter was unfairly conflated with recent comments from Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who warned that Republicans will not write a “blank check” for Ukraine if they win back the House majority in November.
Progressives retract Ukraine letter to Biden after uproar
By FARNOUSH AMIRI and SEUNG MIN KIMyesterday
FILE – Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., chair of the House Progressive Caucus, attends an event at the Capitol in Washington, July 28, 2022. A group of progressive Democrats in Congress said Tuesday it had retracted a letter to the White House urging President Joe Biden to engage in direct diplomatic talks with Russia after it triggered an uproar among Democrats and raised questions about the strength of the party’s support for Ukraine. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — A group of progressive Democrats in Congress said Tuesday it had retracted a letter to the White House urging President Joe Biden to engage in direct diplomatic talks with Russia after it triggered an uproar among Democrats and raised questions about the strength of the party’s support for Ukraine.
In a statement, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, the chair of the Progressive Caucus, said the caucus was withdrawing the letter it sent less than 24 hours prior. It was signed by 30 members of the party’s liberal flank.
“The letter was drafted several months ago, but unfortunately was released by staff without vetting,” the Washington Democrat wrote in a statement. As chair of the caucus, Jayapal said she took responsibility for this.
The unusual retraction capped a tense 24-hour period for Democrats. Many reacted angrily to the appearance of flagging support for the president’s Ukraine strategy, coming just weeks before a midterm election where their majorities in Congress are at risk.
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The back-and-forth spotlighted the fragile nature of Biden’s relationship with the progressive wing of his party, raising stark questions about their ability to work together not only on Ukraine funding — which seems secure, for now — but on more pressing issues that are top priorities for liberals.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR
UN steps up satellite tracking of damage to Ukraine cultureRussia, NATO hold nuclear drills as Ukraine villages poundedLive Updates | Russia-Ukraine-WarPutin monitors practice launches by Russia’s nuclear forces
The letter had called for Biden to pair the unprecedented economic and military support for Ukraine with a “proactive diplomatic push, redoubling efforts to seek a realistic framework for a cease fire.”
“The alternative to diplomacy is protracted war, with both its attendant certainties and catastrophic and unknowable risks,” the letter read.
Jayapal said the letter was unfairly conflated with recent comments from Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who warned that Republicans will not write a “blank check” for Ukraine if they win back the House majority in November.
“The proximity of these statements created the unfortunate appearance that Democrats, who have strongly and unanimously supported and voted for every package of military, strategic, and economic assistance to the Ukrainian people, are somehow aligned with Republicans who seek to pull the plug on American support” for Ukraine, Jayapal said.
Yet Jayapal did not disavow the substance of the letter or the push for Biden to engage in diplomacy. Members of the caucus have been calling for a diplomatic solution since Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.
The text of the letter had been circulating since at least June, but only a handful of lawmakers signed on at the time, according to two Democrats familiar with the matter who were granted anonymity to discuss internal party deliberations.
Some Democrats who signed the letter months ago said they no longer support it………………………
Despite the retraction and messy behind-the-scenes process, some Democratic lawmakers said they still backed the sentiments behind the letter, arguing that it is the prerogative of Congress to debate the issue as it continues to approve billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine…………………….
Since the war began, Congress has approved tens of billions in emergency security and humanitarian assistance for Ukraine, while the Biden administration has shipped billions worth of weapons and equipment from military inventories.
Last month, lawmakers approved about $12.3 billion in Ukraine-related aid as part of a bill that finances the federal government through Dec. 16. The money included aid for the Ukrainian military as well as money to help the country’s government provide basic services to its citizens.
That comes on top of more than $50 billion provided in two previous bills………………………………….. more https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-biden-europe-congress-government-and-politics-e474bfd7439a57e7923aa1d1b43c8682—
FRANCE DISCOVERS OMINOUS CRACKS IN DOZENS OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
AND THE TIMING COULDN’T BE WORSE.
https://futurism.com/the-byte/france-cracks-dozens-reactors by MAGGIE HARRISON, 27 Oct 22,
Bad Reaction
Europe’s energy crisis may have just gotten worse.
The Wall Street Journal reports that dozens of France’s nuclear reactors — which, amid Russia’s devastating stranglehold on the continent’s natural gas supply, are essential to the nation’s energy security — remain offline following a series of troubling outages believed to be caused by stress-induced pipe corrosion. Fixes are reportedly taking longer than anticipated, but for a struggling continent on the brink of winter, those fixes can’t come quickly enough.
“It’s important that this work restarts as soon as possible,” Emmanuelle Wargon, head of France’s energy regulator, told the WSJ. “If not, the risk of not having electricity rises.”
High Pressure
The nuclear fleet in question, owned by the energy provider EDF, is comprised of 56 reactors, of which 26 are currently out for the count.
According to the WSJ, the pipe problems trace back to late last year, when a crack was discovered in a high-pressure pipe close to the reactor’s core at the nation’s youngest nuclear plant. Other plants, which then launched their own investigations, discovered their own stress corrosion issues shortly thereafter.
“It is only possible to identify [stress corrosion’s] presence once cracking has begun,” read a note from France’s Institute for Radioprotection and Nuclear Safety, the WSJ reports. “Regular inspections of the pipes can only identify the phenomenon once a fault is present.”
Importantly, these aren’t simple fixes. Because the majority of the cracks are so close to the reactor core, radioactivity is a very real threat for technicians, whose exposure has to be limited.
And given how complicated the repairs are, French power experts are reportedly quite pessimistic about the EDF’s ability to get their reactors back online for the winter, especially given that, per the WSJ’s sources, the timelines for several reactor fixes have already been pushed back by at least six weeks.
Beyond the Border
These outages are clearly terrible for France, but they’re just as bad for the rest of Europe, too.
Natural gas prices have skyrocketed as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which sparred a barrage of Western sanctions and Russia’s subsequent retaliation by way of natural gas restriction. Nations are asking a lot of their citizens, and the continent needs any ounce of energy that it can scavenge to at least somewhat comfortably — let alone safely — get through the winter.
READ MORE: France’s Nuclear Reactors Malfunction as Energy Crisis Bites [The Wall Street Journal]
More on Europe’s energy crisis: Europe’s Energy Crisis Is so Bad It May Have to Idle Cern’s Large Hadron Collider
24 – 30 October UN Disarmament Week – don’t let the world powers normalise “tactical” nuclear weapons – demand abolition of nuclear weapons now!
This Disarmament Week, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom Demands Nuclear Abolition Now!
The United Nations is marking its annual Disarmament Week from 24 to 30 October 2022. As the week is used to promote awareness of disarmament issues and initiatives, this year WILPF is focusing on amplifying demands for the abolition of nuclear weapons and urging everyone to get involved to prevent any more harm from these weapons of mass destruction.
WILPF International Secretariat 24 October 2022
…………………… current events have elevated the attention being paid to the risks of nuclear weapons and nuclear power, nuclear dangers have persisted in the shadows for decades. Every day, we all live with the possibility of massive nuclear violence, whether by intention, accident, or miscalculation.
The governments of nuclear-armed states, and many of their mainstream media outlets, do not want people to worry. Spreading misinformation about the allegedly “limited” impacts of “tactical” nuclear weapons, they are trying to normalise the threat and risk of nuclear war in order to prevent mass mobilisation against the bomb, as was seen around the world during the 1980s at the height of the Cold War.
But there is no such thing as a small nuclear weapon, and no such thing as a limited nuclear war. If nuclear weapons are used, the humanitarian and environmental consequences will be devastating. And the risks of escalation could mean a nuclear war that leads to climate catastrophe, global famine, and the end of life on Earth as we know it.
We do not have to accept this. People everywhere in the world have a voice and there are actions we can take. Instead of normalising nuclear war, we must stigmatise nuclear weapons.
Most governments have already rejected nuclear weapons, recognising that they are immoral weapons of insecurity and catastrophic harm. These governments negotiated the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which has inspired many local, national, and international activities for nuclear disarmament, ranging from economic divestment to public protest.
What can you do?
This Disarmament Week, when we once again can clearly see the risks posed by nuclear weapons every single day, is a good time to get engaged in the work to abolish nuclear weapons, wherever you are.
You can start by signing this Open Letter From Nobel Peace Prize Laureates and Citizens of the World Against War and Nuclear Weapons, which WILPF’s Disarmament programme Reaching Critical Will, together with the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), presented to the UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs earlier this year.
You can also join the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) and its many initiatives working with cities, parliamentarians, schools, and financial institutions to end the reign of terror of nuclear weapons.
Also check out WILPF’s resource page on nuclear weapons and current nuclear threats and risks, which includes key messages for talking with media or friends and family; an FAQ for details; links to resources that you can share to spread the word about the dangers of nuclear weapons; and ideas for how you can get engaged in the work to abolish nuclear weapons and prevent nuclear catastrophes.
This Disarmament Week, and beyond, join WILPF and the global antinuclear movement in demanding Nuclear Abolition Now!
1 This Month
Read the Public Inquiry Report, the Commissioners’ report, Surrendering Australia: The AUKUS Deception is available to download for free at aukuspublicinquiry.com. Or just watch the replay of the National Press Club Luncheon.
19 November – Webinar – The Reality of Reprocessing
Time: 11:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada) / 2:00 PM Eastern / 7:00 PM UK / 8:00 PM CET
Register for the Zoom Event Here
Shut down the radiation-damaged Heysham nuclear reactors now
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
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