‘People’s Plan for Nature’ – a response to UK government’s attack on environmental protection laws
Three of the UK’s biggest conservation charities have joined with
celebrities to launch a new People’s Plan for Nature, in response to the
Government’s “open season” on policy protection for nature, which
could seed hundreds of environmental laws eased.
The National Trust, the RSPB, and WWF have joined forces with celebrity champions Maisie Williams
and Cel Spellman to launch the People’s Plan for Nature, a national
rallying cry for the public to have its say on how to respond to the
ecological crisis. The plan calls on Prime Minister Liz Truss and new
Environment Secretary Ranil Jayawardena to take rapid action on what the
charities describe as “open season” on existing environmental
legislation, with the recent mini-budget and rumours that Defra will U-turn
on its manifesto sparking concerns amongst green groups.
Edie 30th Sept 2022
Labour’s ‘Great British Energy’ Company likely to be a nuclear turkey
My ears perked up in eager anticipation when Keir Starmer, in his address to Labour’s Conference, started talking about setting up a state-backed renewable energy development company. But I sighed with
despair when it became clearer that this would be an investment conduit for what would be failing, black hole-type, nuclear projects.
Unless it is ring-fenced for renewable energy, and nuclear kept out, this will sink like a stone. If it is to be a vehicle for investing in new nuclear power plant, small or large, it will be like attaching a ship anchor to a rowing boat. It will sink. Quite fast in fact. The whole thing now sounds like an impractical soundbite meant to satisfy a committee on which sits Labour’s prime pro-nuclear donor, the GMB.
It’s actually a great pity that this is being spoiled by the nuclear-damned notion of this ‘Great British
Energy’ Company. I’m sorry Keir, I’d really like to be impressed by this, but it is a loser, certainly in the way it is being spun. When will politicians get it into their heads that new nuclear investment won’t and
can’t make money? Or maybe it’s just the soundbite that counts and they just don’t care that it doesn’t make sense?
100% Renewable UK 27th Sept 2022
HISTORIC CONTEXT OF THE REFERENDA IN UKRAINE.
Popular Resistance, By Moon of Alabama., September 24, 2022, Educate!
Voting for membership in the Russian Federation has started in four oblast of Ukraine:
………………….. The Ukrainian regime has resorted to pure terrorism to prevent the votes from happening:
” Ukrainian partisans, sometimes working with special operations forces, have blown up warehouses holding ballots and buildings where Russian proxy officials preparing for the vote held meetings. Ukrainian officials have acknowledged that they are engaged in a campaign to assassinate key Russian administration officials; more than a dozen have been blown up, shot and poisoned, according to Ukrainian and Russian officials.“
Such behavior by the Zelenski regime against its still Ukrainian compatriots will only encourage the people in the four oblast to vote for an alignment with Russia.
The propaganda in the ‘west’ will declare that the vote is irregular and that the results, likely to be pro-Russian, will be fake.
But a view on historic election outcomes since Ukrainian independence in 1991 show clear geographic preferences in east and south Ukraine for pro-Russian policies:
[ The original here shows a graphic chart illustrating voting patterns over the years]
The graphic above is from research published by the Eurasian Research Institute of the International Hoca Ahmet Yesevi Turkish-Kazakh University. Its author writes:
“As we can see, the have always been a clear-cut geographical split in the way the regions of Ukraine vote for particular candidates. The East and West division or also referred as Southeast and Northwest division was always present throughout the electoral history of the independent Ukraine. It is conventionally believed that the eastern part of Ukraine is more influenced by Russia politically, economically and culturally. Therefore, the presidential candidates proposing more pro-Russian agenda usually gain much more political support in eastern regions than in other parts of Ukraine.
On the other hand, the western part of the country has traditionally been more pro-European with strong reference to traditional core Ukrainian ethnic traditions and values. Consequently, presidential candidates with pro-European political agenda and traditional Ukrainian appeal usually had strong support in western regions of the country. It is interesting to note that preferences of the electorate were not related to the geographical origin or background of the presidential candidates and any candidate could easily become popular in the east as well as in the west. Moreover, the same candidate could be both pro-eastern and pro-western in different periods of time as did Leonid Kuchma in 1994 and 1999, who is the only Ukrainian president to serve two consecutive terms from 1994 to 2005.“
The division is consistent with ethnic and linguistic differences between those parts of Ukraine.
In 2014, after the violent fascist coup in Kiev, one of the first laws implemented by the new government removed the Russian language from official use. Instead of overcoming the differences between its people it only sealed the predominant split in Ukraine.
The election promise of the current Ukrainian president Vladimir Zelenski to make peace with the Russia aligned rebellious Donbas region by adhering to the Minsk 2 agreements was rewarded with a large share of southeastern votes for his presidency. However, after having been threatened with death by fascists, Zelenski has made a 180 degree turn and has since posed as Ukrainian nationalist. In consequence he has lost all support in southeastern Ukraine.
The southeastern parts of today’s Ukraine have for centuries been part of the central Russian empire. They were only attached to the Soviet Republic of Ukraine under Lenin’s rule in 1922 and, in the case of Crimea, in 1954 under Nikita Khrushchev who himself had grown up in the Donbas region.
A likely high turnout and majority vote for membership in the Russian Federation will only correct the historic misalignment created by those illogical transfers.
https://popularresistance.org/historic-context-of-the-referenda-in-ukraine/
UK government to change the rules – so that billions of pounds of pension funds can go to dodgy new nuclear projects
Pension fund reforms will help to unleash wave of investment in nuclear energy, according to senior industry sources. The Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, announced a plan on Friday to unlock billions of pounds of cash that could be poured into major infrastructure programmes and innovative businesses. The Government is scrambling to get energy projects off the ground following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
French state energy giant DF is developing Sizewell C and has received UK Government backing. But
the project still needs to drum up billions of pounds in private investment. Kwarteng’s plan will relax rules in order to allow fund managers to invest in assets that will potentially take a long time to make a return.
Details of the changes are likely to be closely monitored by regulators and pension campaigners. Tom Greatrex, chief executive of the Nuclear Industry Association, said pension money ‘will be a boost to the
prospect of getting new nuclear plants built to fix our energy security crisis’, adding: ‘The first big infrastructure project where this will have an effect could well be Sizewell C.’ He said it was a ‘very important step’ alongside two other major changes that are shaking up the industry.
The first is a new financing model, called the ‘regulated asset base’, which allows investors to receive returns during the construction phase of big projects.
The second is a planned rebranding – expected later this year – of nuclear as green energy, which it is hoped will attract backers that are currently barred from putting money into the sector. Kwarteng’s plan
could also help spur funding for a fleet of mini nuclear reactors being developed by engine maker Rolls-Royce. A spokesman for Rolls-Royce said: ‘This broadens the pool for vital UK infrastructure funding. SMRs are perfectly sized for pension investment owing to the lower project costs of around £2billion.
Mail on Sunday 24th Sept 2022
Continuing campaign to stop the dumping of Hinkley nuclear power station mud off Cardiff coast
Campaigners attempting to stop mud from the construction of Hinkley Point
Nuclear Power Station, Somerset, being dumped into Welsh waters, have
announced they are working with leading environmental lawyers Leigh Day to
block the proposals. In February EDF Energy applied to National Resources
Wales for a licence to dump 800,0000 tonnes of mud dredged as part of
building work for the new plant that is being built on the site of the
disused Hinkley Point A facility.
Two years ago, EDF were given permission
to dump 300,000 tonnes of mud from the site off the Cardiff coast, despite
protests and following a Senedd debate. A petition against the latest
proposals received over 10,000 signatures and has triggered a debate in the
Senedd tomorrow. Earlier this month EDF Energy confirmed it will carry out
an Environmental Impact Assessment as part of its licence application. This
agreement reverses NRW and Welsh Government’s previous position that an
EIA was not needed for the dumping they permitted in 2018 just 2.1 miles
off the South Wales coast and 2.5 miles from Cardiff. Leigh Day has now
written to Natural Resources Wales (NRW) requesting full disclosure of
documents on the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)-screening
application from EDF and the agreement with NRW that “environmental
impact assessment is required”.
EDF are also facing a public inquiry over
a controversial fish management system that is being installed at the site
of the new facility. The Environment Agency granted a licence to EDF in
2013 that permitted sea water to be used for the nuclear power station’s
cooling system but required the deployment of a fish deterrent system on
the site to protect marine life in the estuary. Initially the operator
proposed the use of an acoustic deterrent system to reduce the number of
fish being killed by the cooling system but in 2017 abandoned the plans
without suggesting any alternative.
Currently the plant’s proposed Fish
Recovery and Return System will consist of a 5mm mesh barrier set up in the
water intake tunnel to stop large fish from being sucked in while another
channel will divert fish, dead or alive, back out to sea. Last year the
Sunday Times reported that marine and conservation groups estimated that
this system will kill 250,000 fish a day and called for it to be altered or
scrapped. EDF said the FRR will kills an estimated 650,00 fish a year.
Source: Nation Cymru 20th Oct 2020
https://nation.cymru/news/senedd-roundup-leading-environmental-lawyers-join-battle-to-block-mud-dump/
Belgium shuts down one reactor, in line with its “40 years life” rule for nuclear reactors
One of Belgium’s seven nuclear reactors
was disconnected from the grid on Friday evening. This follows legislation
passed in 2003 requiring reactors to be shut down after 40 years of
operation.
Belgium has two nuclear power plants: Doel near Antwerp and
Tihange near the town of Huy in Wallonia. The two plants consist of seven
reactors (four at Doel and three at Tihange) covering around 50 percent of
the country’s electricity needs, according to the news website Euractiv.
On Friday, the Doel 3 reactor was disconnected from the power grid in
accordance with the 2003 Nuclear Abandonment Act. The law was passed at the
insistence of the “green” parties that were part of the government at
that time. The legislation stipulates that reactors are to be shut down 40
years after being put into operation. A spokeswoman for the energy company
Engie, which operates Belgium’s nuclear power plants, Nele Scheerlinck,
stated that “the decision was made years ago” and “it is simply not
possible to change plans at such short notice”.
TVP World 24th Sept 2022
https://tvpworld.com/62949498/belgium-turns-off-nuclear-reactor-despite-energy-crisis
Sizewell C: Planning shake-up – getting rid of environmental assessment ‘runs roughshod over objectors’.
A government shake-up of planning which could bring forward the building of Sizewell C is “deeply dismaying”, campaigners said.
BBC News 24 Sept 22,
New legislation aims to cut planning rules and get rid of environmental assessments to speed up construction.
The nuclear power station in Suffolk is among projects to be “accelerated as fast as possible”, the Treasury said.
Stop Sizewell C said the plan “rode roughshod over the ability to fight damaging projects”.
The scheme, currently estimated to cost £20bn, was given government approval in July, against the advice of the Planning Inspectorate.
The new plant would be built by French-owned EDF next to the existing Sizewell B, which is still generating electricity, and Sizewell A, which has been decommissioned.
Fellow campaigners Together Against Sizewell C (TASC) has instigated a judicial review process over the planning approval, claiming it was illegal.
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Kwasi Kwarteng, who gave Sizewell the go-ahead when he was business secretary, made the latest announcement as part of his Autumn statement.
New legislation would be brought forward to “address barriers by reducing unnecessary burdens to speed-up the delivery of much-needed infrastructure”, the Treasury said………………………….. more https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-suffolk-6301233.
Is UK government’s nuclear power policy scientifically feasible? – asks House of Commons Science and Technology Committee .
The deadline to submit to the Commons Science and Technology Committee’s
inquiry on the Government’s approach to developing new nuclear power is
fast approaching. The Committee of MPs is accepting written evidence
submissions until Friday 30 September.
The Committee’s inquiry is looking
for evidence from experts on what is required for the Government to achieve
its aim to approve up to eight new nuclear fission reactors by 2030, as
committed in its energy security strategy, and for nuclear to supply 25% of
electricity by 2050.
More than half of the UK’s 11 nuclear reactors are due
to be retired by 2025 with no immediate replacements, an approach which was
criticised in a recent Public Accounts Committee report. The Science and
Technology Committee’s inquiry is examining how the gap in nuclear
generating capacity, which currently accounts for around 15% of the UK’s
electricity, will be filled and energy supply protected.
Other issues in
scope of the Committee’s inquiry are: the funding and regulation of nuclear
power, including provisions in the Energy Security Bill introduced into
Parliament this year; the status of the different nuclear power
technologies, including fusion, and their role in achieving the net zero by
2050 target; the technical challenges facing the next generation of nuclear
power plants; what further research and development is required to build
capacity and how the management of nuclear waste can be improved.
The House of Commons Science and Technology Committee scrutinises the Government and
exists to ensure that policies and decision-making are based on solid
scientific evidence and advice.
HoC Science & Technology Committee 22nd Sept 2022
https://committees.parliament.uk/work/6864/delivering-nuclear-power/
Italy’s far-right leader Giorgia Meloni favours return to nuclear power and increased gas production.
The front-runner to become Italy’s next prime minister in elections on
Sunday plans to focus on natural gas and nuclear energy, along with other
temporary market interventions to mitigate the country’s energy crisis.
The most recent opinion polls favour Giorgia Meloni, leader of the far-right
Fratelli d’Italia party, to win over her main rival Enrico Letta, leader of
the centre-left Democratic party. Much of the political campaign to replace
outgoing premier Mario Draghi has focused on the current tight energy
supplies, exacerbated by the Russian war in Ukraine, and skyrocketing
bills, which continue to pile pressure on Italian businesses and
households.
Gas, nuclear and EU green policies have emerged as contention
points. Meloni, who has teamed up with centre-right allies Matteo Salvini
and former premier Silvio Berlusconi, supports the reactivation of the
country’s long-shuttered nuclear power plants and an increase in domestic
gas production.
Montel 22nd Sept 2022
https://www.montelnews.com/news/1352753/front-runner-in-italian-election-focuses-on-gas-nuclear
Australian Capital Territory consumers reap rewards of 100 pct renewables as wind and solar farms hand back windfall profits.
The ACT is the only region of Australia’s main grid spared from sharp
increases in electricity bills, and its consumers can thank the shift to
100 per cent renewables and the structure of their deals with wind and
solar farms.
The ACT government has written contracts with 11 wind and
solar farms to provide the equivalent amount of electricity consumed by
homes and businesses in the ACT each year. The nature of these deals –
called contracts for difference (CfDs) – means that if the wholesale market
trades below the agreed strike price, the government (and consumers), top
up the difference to the wind and solar farms.
But if the wholesale prices are above the strike price – as they have been by a big distance over the
last six months – then the wind and solar farms must return these windfall
gains to ACT consumers. And in the last quarter, as wholesale prices soared
to record highs – and an average of more than $300/MWh in NSW – the wind
and solar farms paid back a total of $58 million to electricity consumers
in the ACT, shielding them from any significant bill hikes.
Renew Economy 22nd Sept 2022
Germany’s Environment Minister reaffirms the phaseout of nuclear power.
Speech by Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke on the draft of a
nineteenth law amending the Atomic Energy Act.
The phasing out of nuclear power, decided by a broad consensus in 2011, is coming.
Be proud, dear colleagues from the CDU / CSU , that you decided this with the FDP at the
time . That was responsible politics! Together we have settled a
decades-long social conflict. That is why this is not about Mr Trittin’s
life’s work, but about the fact that Mrs Merkel, as the responsible Federal
Chancellor at the time, implemented this nuclear phase-out in our country
with our support.
And you cannot hide the fact that you are now concerned
with reversing this decision with your draft law. With your draft law, you
not only want to enable an extension of the term until 2024, but beyond.
They want to turn back the wheel of nuclear history and that’s not going to
happen. It is irresponsible to treat this high-risk technology as if it
were a coffee maker that you turn on and off every once in a while, refill
with water, put in a new filter, and then turn it on again.
The valve leakage at the Isar 2 nuclear power plant is not a safety problem, but a
technical problem. Now we have to decide how to deal with it. In addition,
it is a mechanical problem that has been foreseeable for a long time, but
which means that the nuclear power plant will now have to be taken off the
grid in autumn, when we already have a problematic electricity situation
due to the lack of nuclear power plants in France.
The fact that this
information was not communicated to us in good time by the Bavarian nuclear
supervisory authority is something I will leave here without comment. We
will provide the necessary answers to the current energy situation. We are
driving the energy transition forward by massively expanding renewable
energies, focusing on energy efficiency and savings, and by using old
energy supply sources again this winter, thereby also enabling reserve
operation for two of the three nuclear power plants that are still in
operation if it becomes necessary.
German Environment Ministry 22nd Sept 2022
Nuclear Free Local Authorities (NFLA) want government assurances about new rules on compensation liability for nuclear accidents
New rules increasing the financial compensation payable by the nuclear
industry in the event of an accident have been welcomed by the Nuclear Free
Local Authorities, and a letter sent to a government energy minister
seeking assurance that the British public will be property protected.
Under amendments to the Paris Convention so far approved by most signatory
states, including Britain, the liability of nuclear plant operators to pay
compensation has increased to €700 million, with this figure increasing
by a further €100 million in each of the next five years.
Smaller amounts are payable by companies involved with the transportation of nuclear
materials. In the UK, the impact will be felt to the bottom line of EDF
Energy, which operates Britain’s nuclear power plants, and the Nuclear
Decommissioning Authority, with responsibility for transporting nuclear
materials.
Now Councillor David Blackburn, Chair of the NFLA Steering
Committee, has written to Lord Callanan, Minister of State with
responsibility for corporate governance and regulation in the nuclear
industry, to seek reassurance that nuclear operators will be required to
take out suitable insurance with private sector providers or make some
other financial provision to pay compensation in respect of an accident. He
is particularly concerned that ministers may attempt to subsidise the
industry by underwriting insurance provision or by downgrading their
operations to ‘low risk’ to reduce their liability.
NFLA 22nd Sept 2022
Liz Truss could break fracking election pledge to bypass local opposition
Liz Truss is considering designating fracking sites as nationally important
infrastructure, potentially cutting out local communities and breaking a
leadership election promise, the Guardian can reveal.
During her campaign
to be the Conservative party leader, Truss said new sites would only go
ahead with local consent. However, those familiar with discussions in the
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), led by
Jacob Rees-Mogg, say there have been discussions about pushing through
sites without local approval by designating them as nationally significant
infrastructure projects (NSIPs).
This means they would bypass normal local
planning requirements. The designations usually apply to infrastructure
such as roads, airports and energy sites.
Guardian 22nd Sept 2022
Nevada files motion regarding Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Project, launches dedicated website with educational resources.
Nevada’s staunch bi-partisan opposition to the project
Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak, CARSON CITY, NV – September 20, 2022
Today, Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak and the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects announced the filing of a new legal motion to bring an end to failed federal plans to construct a repository for the nation’s highly radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain, 65 miles northwest of Clark County’s populated areas.
The motion is being filed before the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission. It asks the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to resume the adjudicatory portion of the licensing procedures so that Nevada may take specific additional steps aimed at stopping the project.
As a companion to the legal motion, today, the State launched a new webpage with resources recapping the failed policies that led to the designation of the Yucca Mountain Project and the geographic flaws in the site.
“It is time to take the lessons learned from the Yucca Mountain experiment and chalk them up to experience,” Governor Sisolak said. “This is a fight that Nevada has battled since 1987. The past three Presidential Administrations have agreed that Yucca Mountain is unworkable. It is time for this Administration and the Department of Energy to follow through and support the case made by Nevada’s leaders, legislators, experts and legal team.”
“I’ve opposed every attempt to revive the failed Yucca Mountain project, and it’s time we take this unsuitable site off the table once and for all,” said Senator Catherine Cortez Masto. “I support Nevada’s efforts to end the licensing process for Yucca Mountain, and I will continue to work with all stakeholders at the federal, state, local, and Tribal levels to find a safe, workable, and consent-based alternative.”
“For years, I have been fighting alongside our delegation to prevent Nevada from ever becoming the nation’s dumping ground for nuclear waste because it threatens our state’s security, economy, and public health,” said Senator Jacky Rosen. “That’s why I’m strongly supporting Nevada’s actions to finally put an end to Yucca Mountain, taking steps that would block future misguided efforts to try to revive this ill-conceived project against our state’s consent.”……………………………………………………………..
“Year after year, we’ve had to fight to ensure that Nevada does not become our nation’s dumping ground for nuclear waste,” said Rep. Susie Lee (NV-03). “I’m proud to sit on the Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Energy and Water, where I’ve successfully blocked any funding going toward reviving Yucca Mountain, and I have worked with the Department of Energy to secure a commitment to finding consent-based alternatives to the proposed nuclear repository at Yucca Mountain. Now, it’s time to put an end to this failed project once and for all. That’s why I support the state of Nevada’s efforts to end the licensing for Yucca Mountain and to open the door to a productive consent-based solutions for nuclear waste storage.”
Videos and podcasts on the new webpage feature Nevada technical experts and document the project’s flaws, ill-conceived efforts to address site weaknesses with engineered barriers, and the need for nuclear waste and spent fuel solutions that are grounded in a robust consent-based siting process.
Nevada’s staunch bi-partisan opposition to the project and the history behind it is also featured on the webpage in an interview with former Nevada Rep. Jim Bilbray before his death last year about the so-called “Screw Nevada Bill,” that singled out Yucca Mountain as the nation’s sole repository site.
After more than three decades, continuing to pursue a license for the Yucca Mountain Project would expend additional time, millions more taxpayer dollars on a project that Nevada has demonstrated time and again will fail to securely and safely house the nation’s nuclear waste. The motion filed by the State today is the first step towards putting an end to thirty years of failed policy and acting on the need for a more fair, consent-based process to address the nuclear waste disposal needs of the United States. https://gov.nv.gov/News/Press/2022/2022-09-20_Yucca_Mountain_Nuclear_Waste/
Nukes Are Our Corporate Death Wish…the Sun is the People’s Cure
replacing nuke power and fossil fuels with solar, wind, batteries and LED/efficiency means a parallel apocalypse in the world of corporate power—-an end to the centralized multi-national control our global energy supply.
The Diablo deal clearly puts the global fossil-nuclear utility industry on the path to extinction. If these two immense reactors can be smoothly overtaken by cheaper, cleaner, safer renewable energy…what about the rest of the dying fossil/nuke fleet? What does that say about the future of centralized corporate power?
| Christina Macpherson <christinamacpherson@gmail.com> | 7:56 AM (0 minutes ago) |  | |
| to me |
https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/09/21/nukes-are-our-corporate-death-wishthe-sun-is-the-peoples-cure/ BY HARVEY WASSERMAN, 21 Sept22,
Humankind’s ultimate extinction is now flowing through an atomic death spiral.
A single errant shell at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia…a single seismic shock at California’s Diablo Canyon…can bury us all in apocalyptic radiation.
The eruptions already stretch from Kyshtym, Iron Mike, Castle Bravo, Windscale, SL-1, Chalk River, Santa Susanna, Fermi I, Perry, Davis-Besse, North Anna, Tokaimura, Three Mile Island, Church Rock, Surry, Chernobyl, Vandellòs, Sosnovy Bor, WIPP, Fukushima, Fort Calhoun to South Texas and too many more.
It’s been clear since 1945 that A-Bombs can extinct the human race. Commercial reactors supply them with fissionable material and a work force.
Burning alongside thousands of nuclear warheads there are 400+ commercial reactors worldwide…decrepit, decayed, expensive, under-maintained, unstable and uninsured (except by token taxpayer funds). Six in Ukraine currently tremble in a war zone.
The average age of the 92 nukes in the US is nearly 40. The 1000+-square-mile dead zone around Chernobyl could be easily duplicated by any nuke. Just superimpose a similar lethal wound anywhere on a US map and calculate the damage.
But it’s a double-sided apocalypse.
Bombs & reactors can obliterate the human species with both explosive bangs and the agonized whimpers of radioactive murder.
But replacing nuke power and fossil fuels with solar, wind, batteries and LED/efficiency means a parallel apocalypse in the world of corporate power—-an end to the centralized multi-national control our global energy supply.
Cheaper, cleaner, safer, more reliable, more job-producing democratized green energy stands to obliterate the monetary and political death grip King CONG (Coal, Oil, Nukes, Gas) has on our species’ throat.
The decentralized, community-controlled green vision is as terrifying to global energy barons as is biological extinction to the rest of us. And thus the atomic hucksters somehow try to convince us their apocalyptic reactors are “clean, green, carbon-free,” you name it.
The scam’s cutting edge is now in California, where would-be president Gavin Newson is pushing nuclear power while conspiring to kill renewables.
At the End Time vortex is Diablo Canyon.
For more than a half-century, plus grassroots citizens have fought two atomic power reactors on the central California coast, eight miles west of San Luis Obispo.
Unit One’s first components arrived on site in pre-digital 1967. By 1984-5, when the hardware was already obsolete, more than 10,000 citizens (including me) were arrested there.
As Jerry Brown’s greening Golden State has welcomed more than 17,000 wind turbines, 1.4+ million rooftop solar installations and massive advances in battery and LED/efficiency technologies now dwarf the output from the state’s one remaining nuke plant.
Some 1500 Californians now work at Diablo; over 70,000 work in renewables, batteries and efficiency. Shutting Diablo and replacing it with real green power would add thousands of jobs to the state’s energy mix.
Early on Pacific Gas & Electric vehemently denied that there were any active earthquake faults threatening Diablo. They refused to allow experts who said otherwise to testify in official hearings. They also refused to build in the safeguards required to withstand certain levels of seismic shaking.
But then in 1973 the company admitted that they knew about an active earthquake fault—-the Hosgri—-sitting just three miles from the reactor cores. Just 45 miles from the San Andreas, a dozen more fault lines intertwine near the core. Dr. Michael Peck, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s site inspector for five years, warned in 2014 a likely quake could shake Diablo to rubble.
But the NRC has refused to force PG&E to physically upgrade the facility. Instead a series of “waivers” let Diablo run where any number of fault lines could rattle it—-and millions of us downwind—-to outright oblivion.
The NRC has long since admitted that Unit One is seriously embrittled. It’s well-known throughout the industry that the steel cylinder containing its super-hot core reaction will shatter in a melt-down. Explosive radioactive death clouds will then pour into Los Angeles, the Central Valley and/or Bay Area….and into the jet-stream and around the globe, doing terminal damage to the human species.
Diablo has not recently—-if ever—-been independently inspected. It has no private insurance. There are no public evacuation plans for California’s major population centers.
In 2016-8, then-Governor Brown and now-Governor Newsom helped plan Diablo’s closure. Local citizens, elected officials, unions, regulators, environmental groups and more mapped out an orderly shut-down.
As a result, workers are being compensated, with some retiring, some staying for decommissioning, the younger ones being retrained to work in the booming renewable industry.
As a reward for not meeting legal safety and ecological requirements, PG&E has ducked a wide range of upgrades and maintenance The plant has been set to operate through the expiration of Unit One’s NRC license in 2024, then Unit Two’s in 2025. Its owner has been allowed to ignore routine upkeep, becoming more dangerous by the day.
Hot radioactive water still pours into ocean, killing billions of marine creatures. There remains just barely enough on-site space to accommodate the ensuing spent fuel through 2024-5. Managing more is an epic unknown, requiring at very least exceedingly dangerous manipulations of what’s already in the fuel pools, along with untenable expansions of the dry casks and concrete pads on the site.
The venerable Mothers for Peace—and thousands more—-want Diablo to immediately shut.
The nukes’ 2400 megawatts are already fading below a well-planned, cleanly executed symphony of solar panels, wind farms, batteries and LED/efficiency. Massive off-shore wind turbines will soon send mega-juice pouring into Diablo’s switching stations.
By public consensus the 2016 phase-out plan embodies as rational and well-calculated a transition as the human species could concoct…a model for winding down the other 90+ American reactors, and maybe even the 400+ worldwide. It offers a sustainable green escape from the obscene financial and ecological failures of atomic power to the proven reliability of a Solartopian future.
Which has pitched King CONG (Coal, Oil, Nukes, Gas) into a Luddite state of terminal atomic panic.
The Diablo deal clearly puts the global fossil-nuclear utility industry on the path to extinction. If these two immense reactors can be smoothly overtaken by cheaper, cleaner, safer renewable energy…what about the rest of the dying fossil/nuke fleet? What does that say about the future of centralized corporate power?
With this giant hole poked into the obsolete energy Luddites’ Maginot line, what will happen to the trillions of dollars still sunk in the old ways of scorching the Earth? What will trillions of kilowatts of Solartopian electricity pouring into the grid do to the future of fossil/nuclear fuels?
The industry does not want to know—-and it does not want YOU to know.
Wind, solar, batteries and efficiency already sustain much of California’s and the nation’s grid, now commonly providing the flexible, reliable, low-cost, zero-aaron essential power needed to avoid blackouts, unsustainable rate hikes and lethal climate chaos.
First and foremost, King CONG’s anti-green blitzkrieg disrupts supply chains and assaults rooftop solar with taxes and regulations designed to kill it. Endless genuflections to the dead bird each big turbine kills per year accompany the assault. So do rightful worries over mining of lithium and cobalt, major polluters in regions with bad labor practices.
But these are solvable, non-plutonium-based problems in comparison with mining, milling and enriching uranium while failing to manage its wastes.
No windmill ever killed a fish, but nukes kill billions of marine creatures every day.
Every reactor burns at roughly 570 degrees Fahrenheit, spewing radiation, carbon 14 and lethal pollutants into the eco-sphere. Massive quantities of carbon pour from mining, milling, enrichment and disposal. All reactors and fuel pools can explode at any time.
The Trumpian Big Lie is that these ancient, uninsured instruments of mass extinction are somehow “emission and carbon free.”
So Newsom has strong-armed California’s legislature to trash Diablo’s shut-down deal and hand PG&E $1.4 billion to operate til the next quake blows the place apart.
With utility and fossil/nuke money in his presidential war chest, Newsom is poised to pursue the White House against a hard-right Ron DeSantis who actually vetoed solar taxes like the ones Newsom is pushing.
Polls in both Florida and California show 80% support for renewables. Fierce campaigns now rage against Diablo’s extension and Newsom’s attempt to kill rooftop solar.
The Governor now has the radioactive winds to his back.
But as fossil/nukes scorch the planet, and as their apocalyptic clouds pour over our biggest cities, and as their over-the-top inefficiencies bankrupt our economy, what will be left for his corrupt, cynical ilk to govern?
Harvey Wasserman wrote SOLARTOPIA! Our Green-Powered Earth. His Green Power & Wellness Show is at www.prn.fm.
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PLEASE OPPOSE HR 8255 AND S.3639 – bills would accelerate satellite deployment, with no environmental review or safeguards – https://ncstd5li.quorum.us/campaign/169331/
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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