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Nebraska team launches study of Congress and nuclear weapons policy

Carnegie Corporation-funded study apparently first comprehensive analysis in three decades

news wise, 11-Dec-2023, by University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Newswise — Nebraska researchers are launching a two-year study of Congress’s involvement in nuclear weapons policy. The study is believed to be the first comprehensive look at the topic in more than 30 years.

Carnegie Corporation of New York recently awarded a $428,000 grant to University of Nebraska–Lincoln political scientists Rupal Mehta, Geoff Lorenz and Ingrid Haas for a multi-method study of Congress and nuclear weapons policy dating back to 1973.

“We believe that this is an important, but missing, piece of the puzzle when it comes to better understanding global nuclear and international security,’” the researchers wrote in their study proposal.

Historically, the president and other executive branch officials have been at the forefront of U.S. nuclear weapons policy, with lawmakers serving a subsidiary role based upon treaty ratification and defense budget allocations. Leaders like U.S. Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., an Air Force veteran who serves on the House of Representatives’ Armed Services Committee and U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., who serves on the Senate’s Armed Forces Committee, often play influential roles in policy decisions based upon personal expertise and constituents’ interest.

“Congress historically has been much more deferential to the president on nuclear policy than on defense policy generally,” said Lorenz, who studies federal lawmaking. “That appears to be changing and so we want to examine the specific factors at play in Congress’s involvement in nuclear arms policymaking.”

Mehta’s work focuses on international security and conflict with a specialization in nuclear nonproliferation and related issues. Haas, a resident faculty member with the university’s Center for Brain, Biology and Behavior, uses theory and methods from political psychology and cognitive neuroscience to better understand American politics and international security.

Events in Washington, D.C., and around the world — such as the partisan battle over government funding and the ouster of Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., as speaker of the House, and the wars in the Ukraine and Gaza — demonstrate the importance of understanding how Congress responds to nuclear policy questions, the researchers say………………………………………………………………………………………..

“There may be no more important time for these insights than now,” the researchers said in their proposal. “The proliferation of nuclear weapons, and nuclear security more broadly, pose a substantial threat to the security and stability of the international system.” https://www.newswise.com/articles/nebraska-team-launches-study-of-congress-and-nuclear-weapons-policy

December 13, 2023 Posted by | politics, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Australia’s Opposition – Liberal Coalition’s strategy – support fossil fuels by delaying renewables and pushing for nuclear energy

they’ve come up with the perfect strategy to ensure no climate action is taken – advocate the bypassing of renewables in favour of small nuclear modular reactors.

It’s the old strategy of “why put off until tomorrow what you can put off forever”?

Or, as Malcolm Turnbull put it at the COP28 meeting: “Nuclear’s only utility is as … a means of supporting fossil fuels by delaying and distracting the rollout of renewables”.

Energy transition needs gas not nuclear,  https://www.afr.com/policy/energy-and-climate/energy-transition-needs-gas-not-nuclear-20231203-p5eola 11 Dec 23, Craig Emerson, Former Labor minister and economist

A rational decarbonising energy policy offers a middle path between the absolutists and the denialists.

A civilisation is in decline when logical thinking and evidence-based policy are angrily dismissed in favour of tribal dogma. Western civilisation is lurching in this dangerous direction. Bravery is needed from those who remain capable of rational thought.

A prime contemporary example is the energy transition. Arguing about the energy transition are the absolutists and the denialists.

The absolutists demand that Australia open no new coal mines or gas fields. They require the governments of poor countries to shut their coal-fired power stations forthwith, despite no affordable alternative source of electricity being available.

In these countries, solar and wind power can play a role in electricity generation, but not totally and immediately. Renewable generation requires firming capacity in the nights and evenings, which can be provided by gas generators.

In fact, gas peaking and standby can hasten the closure of coal-fired power stations, which is desirable for the planet. But the neocolonial absolutists demand gas be excluded from the energy mix in poor countries.

The absolutists also oppose carbon capture and storage as a matter of dogma. The same goes for carbon offsets, regardless of their integrity.

Gas is also used to produce synthetic fibres; the kind Absolutists like to wear in preference to thirsty cotton and the wool of methane-emitting sheep.

Coking coal is used to produce steel. Absolutists oppose new coking coal mines. People in poor countries are not to have access to steel products, the type that rich-country absolutists use every day.

Denialists, on the other hand, such as former prime minister Tony Abbott, speak of the global warming hoax and describe believers in climate change as members of a cult. Denialists believe that not just absolutists are involved in this conspiracy against the western way of life, but so too are the United Nations, the NASA space agency and the world’s bureaus of meteorology.

Denialists have learned not to speak so loudly of these alleged hoaxes, cults and conspiracies, operating on the assumption that most voters under the age of 40 have been brainwashed into believing climate change is real and will cast their votes accordingly.

To address this electoral quandary, they’ve come up with the perfect strategy to ensure no climate action is taken – advocate the bypassing of renewables in favour of small nuclear modular reactors.

With cost blowouts precipitating the recent collapse of a flagship US project working on a small modular reactor, the prospects of this technology supplying electricity at competitive prices are highly questionable.

In any event, former NSW treasurer Matt Kean, though favourably disposed to small nuclear modular reactors, has pointed out that none would be ready for commercial deployment before 2040.

By that time, Australia’s fleet of ageing coal-fired power stations will be clapped out.

The Peter Dutton-led opposition voted against the Albanese government’s safeguard mechanism, the latest attempt to put a price on carbon for major emitters, despite the Business Council of Australia calling it “a very good policy”.

In an effort to continue the debilitating climate wars that have been raging for more than a decade, Dutton labelled the safeguard mechanism a “carbon tax 2.0”.

With no emissions-reduction strategy, plenty of hostility towards renewables and a promise of small modular reactors from 2040 at the earliest, the denialists have only one remaining option – to use taxpayers’ money to fund the construction of new coal-fired power stations. The private sector certainly won’t risk it.

It’s the old strategy of “why put off until tomorrow what you can put off forever”?

Or, as Malcolm Turnbull put it at the COP28 meeting: “Nuclear’s only utility is as … a means of supporting fossil fuels by delaying and distracting the rollout of renewables”.

There is a middle path between the absolutists and the denialists.

A rational decarbonising energy policy would include the legislated safeguard mechanism, solar and wind energy, and – for firming capacity – the use of gas, big batteries and, where economically viable, pumped hydro.

Where gas producers can make carbon capture and storage feasible, they should be encouraged to do so. Trading in high-integrity carbon offsets should be part of the solution, especially for countries that lack viable renewable energy resources.

In various combinations, these features of a rational climate policy have been adopted by the Rudd, Gillard, Turnbull and Albanese governments. They were opposed by the Abbott government and, largely, by the Dutton-led Coalition.

Between them, absolutists and denialists would oppose most – if not all – of these sensible features.

Finding a demilitarised zone between these warring tribes is as elusive as it was when the Senate voted down a carbon price 14 years ago. Yet, it seems that most of the voting public feels the policy approach now being taken by federal and state governments lies along that narrow path.

The lesson from this story is to let warring tribes slug it out and get on with sound policy in the national interest.

December 12, 2023 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, politics | Leave a comment

Poland’s nuclear plans in question after negative assessment by security agency

Notes from Poland, DEC 9, 2023 

Part of Poland’s plans to develop nuclear power has been thrown into doubt after the Internal Security Agency (ABW) issued a negative opinion on planned investment in small modular reactors (SMRs) by a state-linked firm.

Orlen Synthos Green Energy (OSGE) – a joint venture between state energy giant Orlen and Sythos, a chemical company owned by one of Poland’s wealthiest men, Michał Sołowow – has been developing plans to build over 70 SMRs around Poland in partnership with a group of US and Canadian corporations.

However, earlier this week, the Polityka weekly reported that the ABW – Poland’s domestic counterintelligence and security agency – had issued a negative opinion on the plans. The climate ministry is required to obtain the ABW’s opinion as part of its assessment of the nuclear project.

The ABW’s opinion is not binding, but a negative assessment makes it unlikely the climate ministry would approve the SMR plans, reports industry news service Energetyka24………………………………………………

“Before issuing an opinion, the agency carries out a multi-element opinion procedure to assess the impact of the indicated investment on the internal security of the state,” Kamiński wrote in a statement.

According to Kamiński, OSCE’s investment “inappropriately secures the interests of the [state] treasury”. But he added that detailed information on this cannot be made public…………… https://notesfrompoland.com/2023/12/09/part-of-polands-nuclear-plans-in-question-after-negative-assessment-by-security-agency/

December 12, 2023 Posted by | politics, safety | Leave a comment

‘Moral Insanity’: Biden Admin Bypasses Congress to Rush Tank Shells to Israel

“Rushing deadly weapons to the far-right and openly genocidal Israeli government without congressional review robs American voters of their voice in Congress,” said one critic.

By Julia Conley / Common Dreams  https://scheerpost.com/2023/12/10/moral-insanity-biden-admin-bypasses-congress-to-rush-tank-shells-to-israel/

Hours after United States Ambassador Robert Wood on Friday acted alone to veto a United Nations Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, the Biden administration again illustrated its growing isolation in continuing to back Israel’s onslaught as it bypassed Congress to send more weapons to the country’s extreme right-wing government. 

The U.S. Defense Department posted a notice online Saturday saying U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken had informed Congress that a government sale of 13,000 rounds of tank ammunition was moving forward, even though Congress had not completed an informal review of the transaction. 

The State Department invoked an emergency provision of the Arms Control Export Act to bypass the review process generally required for weapons sales to foreign nations. The sale, which Congress has no power to stop now that the provision has been invoked, was valued at more than $106 million. 

“Rushing deadly weapons to the far-right and openly genocidal Israeli government without congressional review robs American voters of their voice in Congress, emboldens Netanyahu to kill more Palestinian civilians, and furthers stains our nation’s standing in the world,” saidEdward Ahmed Mitchell, national deputy director of the Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR).

Mitchell noted that the sale was finalized as media outlets confirmed Israeli tanks have “deliberately targeted and slaughtered journalists in Lebanon.” 

“The Biden administration’s decision is an affront to democracy and an act of moral insanity,” he said. 

The State Department notified congressional committees of the sale around 11:00 pm EST Friday, hours after a new Pew Research poll showedthat only 35% of Americans support the Biden administration’s backing of Israel’s attacks on Gaza. The Israel Defense Forces have now killed more than 17,700 Palestinians in Gaza in just over two months, while claiming they are targeting Hamas. 

Thirteen members of the U.N. Security Council on Friday voted in favor of a humanitarian cease-fire, while the U.K. abstained from voting. The U.S. vetoed the resolution in a move CAIR condemned as “unconscionable.”

“It is not clear what level of suffering by the Palestinian people would prompt our nation’s leaders to act in their defense,” said CAIR national executive director Nihad Awad. 

Also on Saturday, the global charity Save the Children warned that at least 7,685 children under age five in Gaza are now so malnourished—a result of Israel’s total blockade of the enclave that began in October and the delivery of just a small fraction of the aid that is needed—that they require “urgent medical treatment to avoid death.”

“The repeated failure of the international community to act signifies a death knell to children,” said Jason Lee, country director for Save the Children. “I’ve seen children and families roaming the streets of what hasn’t been flattened in Gaza, with no food, nowhere to go, and nothing to survive on. Even the internationally-funded humanitarian aid response—Gaza’s last lifeline—has been choked by Israeli-imposed restrictions.”

“Gaza’s children are being condemned to further bombardment, starvation, and disease,” said Lee. “We must heed the lessons from the past and must immediately prevent ‘atrocity crimes’ from unfolding.”

The intensifying opposition to Israel’s U.S.- and U.K.-backed bombardment of Gaza was made apparent by an estimated 15,000-20,000 people who marched through London on Saturday to demand a cease-fire. 

December 11, 2023 Posted by | politics, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Fund for Nuclear Waste Exposure Victims in Limbo as Congress Balks at Cost

Bipartisan efforts to extend and expand a program granting compensation to victims of government-caused nuclear contamination are faltering. It is set to expire in June.

NYT, By Catie Edmondson, Reporting from the Capitol, Dec. 8, 2023

More than two decades ago, Congress declared that victims of government-caused nuclear contamination who developed cancer and other serious illnesses — including uranium miners and those exposed to radiation from Manhattan Project-era atomic tests — should receive federal compensation.

“The health of the individuals who were unwitting participants in these tests was put at risk to serve the national security interests of the United States,” read the law enacted in 1990. “The United States should recognize and assume responsibility for the harm done to these individuals.”

Now that statute, known as the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, is in peril, set to expire in June without a clear path for renewal. And an effort to broaden it substantially beyond Cold War-era victims, to others who have been harmed by the aftereffects in the decades since, has run into a brick wall on Capitol Hill.

The Senate voted overwhelmingly in July to attach legislation renewing and expanding the program to the annual defense policy bill. But in the final version negotiated behind doors by congressional leaders, that measure, sponsored by Senators Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, and Ben Ray Luján, Democrat of New Mexico, was dropped.

Republicans objected to its hefty price tag, which congressional scorekeepers estimated could top $100 billion.

In an angry floor speech on Thursday, Mr. Hawley said the move amounted to Congress “rescinding” the apology it had made to victims decades ago.

“That allows this program to expire,” he said. “That turns its back on the tens of thousands of good Americans who have sacrificed for their country, who have dutifully given their health and in many cases their lives to this country, and gotten nothing.”……………………………………………………………..

“It is true that the Manhattan Project is in the past and the Cold War-era nuclear testing is in the past,” Mr. Hawley said in an interview. “But people are still dealing with the consequences of that.”…………………………….   https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/08/us/politics/nuclear-exposure-compensation.html

December 11, 2023 Posted by | health, politics, weapons and war | Leave a comment

As the US Vetoes UN Ceasefire Resolution, the People Take the Streets for Palestine

Crowds of thousands take to the streets across the country, disrupting centers of power, responding to a call to “Shut It Down for Palestine”

SCHEERPOST, By Peoples Dispatch, December 10, 2023

From Alaska to Florida, people in the US once again took to the streets en masse to demand a permanent ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza and an end US aid to Israel. The Shut It Down for Palestine Coalition, composed of several organizations including the International Peoples’ Assembly, the Palestinian Youth Movement, the ANSWER Coalition, and National Students for Justice in Palestine, called for a day of action on December 8, to continue putting pressure on Israel and the US one week after Israel resumed its genocidal violence against Gaza. This coalition of organizations is bringing together the Palestine solidarity movement to disrupt major centers of power across the country.

Many of the December 8 actions happened simultaneously to the United States vetoing a UN Security Council draft resolution that would have demanded an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. 

Early in the morning, the demonstration was brought directly outside of Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s home in McLean, Virginia. Demonstrators chanted, “Blinken Blinken rise and shine, you’re committing genocide!” Last week, Blinken met with Israel’s war cabinet in occupied Jerusalem, after which he urged Israel to limit civilian casualties. Many suspect that he gave the greenlight for Israel to end its temporary pause in aggression and resume full-scale attacks. The death toll of Palestinians killed by Israel in Gaza has crossed 17,700……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. https://scheerpost.com/2023/12/10/as-the-us-vetoes-un-ceasefire-resolution-the-people-take-the-streets-for-palestine/

December 11, 2023 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

New Mexico’s delegation outraged at removal of expand nuclear radiation compensation from proposal

New Mexico’s congressional delegation has expressed outrage with the U.S. House leadership’s move to block compensation for people sickened by exposure to radiation during nuclear weapons testing and the mining of uranium during the Cold War

By The Associated Press, December 9, 2023  https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/new-mexicos-delegation-outraged-removal-expand-nuclear-radiation-105510381

SANTA FE, N.M. — All members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation expressed outrage with the U.S. House leadership’s move to block compensation for people sickened by exposure to radiation during nuclear weapons testing and the mining of uranium during the Cold War.

Originally, the bill expanded eligibility for compensation under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, offering up tens of thousands of dollars in compensation to residents of New Mexico, Colorado, Montana, Guam and Missouri — as well as those in some parts of Arizona, Nevada and Utah — who suffered the effects of nuclear testing or uranium mines and who are not covered under the current program.

The Santa Fe New Mexican reported that the compensation was included in a massive defense spending bill that won Senate approval in July. But the GOP-controlled House removed those provisions from the act Wednesday, rendering New Mexicans — including those stricken with ailments from the radioactive fallout of the first atomic bomb — still ineligible for federal help unless it is reattached to the final bill.

“Generations of New Mexicans and their families have gotten sick and died from the radiation exposure and the lasting impacts of the Trinity Test,” said Sen. Ben Ray Luján, referring to the first-ever atomic bomb test in the New Mexico desert in 1945. “For New Mexico to have been ground zero for the first nuclear weapon — and left out of the original RECA program — is an injustice.”

Luján, a Democrat, has introduced radiation exposure compensation bills in every Congress since he was first elected to the U.S. House in 2008.

The hit summer film “Oppenheimer” about the top-secret Manhattan Project and the dawn of the nuclear age during World War II has brought new attention to decades-long efforts to extend compensation for families who were exposed to fallout and still grapple with related illness.

Advocates also have been trying for years to bring awareness to the lingering effects of radiation exposure on the Navajo Nation, where millions of tons of uranium ore were extracted over decades to support U.S. nuclear activities.

December 10, 2023 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

COP28: Global nuclear pledge casts further doubt on UK’s capabilities

CITY AM, RHODRI MORGAN 8 Dec 23

The COP28 conference in Dubai has put the UK’s faltering nuclear sector into the limelight once more.

Microsoft founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates today used the conference as a platform to announce that his nuclear reactor company TerraPower will examine the UAE’s potential for new reactors.

Yesterday, 22 countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Canada, Hungary, and the Netherlands signed a pledge to triple nuclear deployment by 2050.

TerraPower and the UK have stalled on discussions around UK projects, but nuclear on the whole is another energy front on which the UK is currently losing ground.

The target of 24 GW by 2050 was first conceived in the Energy Security Strategy of 2021 but precious little progress has been made since.

Even with the reactor plans it has been able to conceive, the sector remains repeatedly hamstrung by bureaucratic process and the absence of a long-awaited nuclear road map that is likely delayed once more to 2024.

A significant factor halting development is that nuclear investment is still not labelled green, despite being promised by the Chancellor back in March.

Examining the UK’s current stock showcases the problem even further. British nuclear capacity stands at 5.9 GW, 4.7 GW of which retires in less than five years.

Through completing Hinkley Point C, Sizewell C and securing a life extension to Sizewell B, the UK could reach 7.7 GW; less than one third of the 24 GW target.

In the 12 years since the UK restarted nuclear development, only one project has proceeded to a Final Investment Decision (HPC in 2016).

To get to 24 GW of capacity by 2050, the UK nuclear needs to build and start operations on another six Hinkley Point C-size projects and move the stymied Sizewell C project into production.

………………………………….those within the sector believe the government is still avoiding making short-term capital investments to shore up the long-term energy security set out in 2021.

One official involved in the UK nuclear industry told City A.M: “They’re slow and hesitant, we know what happens when you have government money tied up in multi-billion pound projects and a sniff of a cost increase comes along, they opt to slow down and rethink”.

Others believe that despite union backing for large job creators like Hinkley Point, a Labour government isn’t in a position to speed up the nuclear timeline.

“If their policy is a carbon-free grid by 2030, there isn’t a single nuclear that can come on by then – even Hinkley Point C would just replace units that will go offline,” they told City A.M……………………………………………………………………….  https://www.cityam.com/cop28-global-nuclear-pledge-casts-further-doubt-on-uks-capabilities/

December 10, 2023 Posted by | politics, UK | Leave a comment

A Scotland without nuclear power would be safer for people and planet.

 https://greens.scot/news/a-nuclear-power-free-scotland-would-be-safer-for-people-and-planet 6 Dec 23

Nuclear power is costly, dangerous and leaves a toxic legacy.

A Scotland without nuclear power would be safer for people and planet, says the Scottish Greens climate spokesperson, Mark Ruskell MSP.

Mr Ruskell’s warnings come as the UK government has committed to trebling nuclear capacity by 2050 as part of a COP declaration, and with reports that the Sellafield nuclear site has been targeted by groups linked to China and Russia.

Mr Ruskell said: “The allegations of hacking at Sellafield should alarm all of us. Nuclear energy is costly, dangerous and unsafe for people and planet. It will leave a legacy of toxic waste and higher bills for generations to come. It has no place in Scotland.

“The Tory’s epic failure to deliver Hinkley Point to time and budget shows just how unreliable and costly new nuclear is. That time and money could have been far better spent on expanding our homegrown renewable energy, which is the real solution to ending our reliance on climate-wrecking fossil fuels.

“With Scottish Greens in government here in Scotland are getting on with the job, and building our new wind and solar capabilities at pace. That is how we will ensure a safer and greener future.”

December 8, 2023 Posted by | politics, UK | Leave a comment

Scotland’s Energy Secretary Neil Gray points to safety risks as he rejects nuclear power attempts

Herald Scotland, 6th December, By David Bol, @mrdavidbol, Political Correspondent

The SNP’s Energy Secretary has turned down the latest plea for nuclear power stations to be constructed north of the Border – insisting the technology “is not safe, it is expensive and it is not wanted”.

The Scottish Government has a long-held opposition to nuclear power and is not part of its plans for the nation to meet net zero.

Instead, the Scottish Government believes it can meet energy demands by drastically ramping up the capacity for offshore wind and other renewables………………

Power and energy is largely reserved to the UK Government, but Scottish ministers can effectively veto proposals for Scotland through devolved planning regulations.

Torness power station in East Lothian is the only remaining operational nuclear power station in Scotland.

SNP Energy Secretary Neil Gray was asked by Conservative MSP Edward Mountain if the Scottish Government will change its mind and embrace nuclear power.

Speaking in Holyrood, Mr Gray said: “We are doing that because it is not safe, it is expensive and it is not wanted in Scotland. In addition, it is not needed in Scotland.

“We have abundant natural energy resources and capital that can contribute and are contributing to our energy mix.”

He added: “As we are all seeing from experiences elsewhere in the United Kingdom, new nuclear power takes years—if not decades—to become operational, and it will push up household and business energy bills even more.

“Under the contract awarded by the UK Government to Hinkley Point C, the electricity that will be generated will be priced at £92.50 per megawatt hour.

“We know that the Tories care little these days about achieving a pathway to net zero, but the Scottish National Party Government still does. We believe that significant growth in renewables, storage, hydrogen and carbon capture provides the best pathway to net zero for Scotland.”

………………………Mr Gray pointed to “evidence of the alleged hacking of Sellafield this week and what we have seen from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine” as “worries around safety”.

He added: “We in Scotland are not the only ones who have such concerns: many colleagues in the European Union are either moving away from or continue to oppose new nuclear power.”https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/23970270.neil-gray-points-safety-risks-rejects-nuclear-power-attempts/

December 8, 2023 Posted by | politics, UK | Leave a comment

UK minister demands answers for security failings at Sellafield

Claire Coutinho says cybersecurity issues at UK’s most hazardous nuclear site must be urgently addressed

Anna Isaac and Alex Lawson, Guardian Wed 6 Dec 2023

Cybersecurity vulnerabilities at the UK’s most hazardous nuclear site must be urgently addressed and explanations given for any shortcomings, a cabinet minister has demanded.

Claire Coutinho, secretary of state for energy security and net zero, wrote to the chief executive of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), David Peattie, saying allegations by the Guardian about failings in cybersecurity at Sellafield in Cumbria needed “urgent attention”.

The intervention follows the revelation that the vast nuclear waste and decommissioning dump has been hacked by groups linked to China and Russia, and its potential effects covered up by senior staff. It emerged as part of Nuclear Leaks, a year-long Guardian investigation into problems spanning cyber hacking, radioactive contamination, and toxic workplace culture at Sellafield.

Coutinho said: “The allegations are a worrying reminder of the longstanding nature of some of these issues, specifically cybersecurity at Sellafield, which I understand has been under enhanced regulatory scrutiny since 2014.”…………………………………………………………………………….

The government has also formally requested an update on a range of activities at the site, including work on cleaning up leaking silos of radioactive sludge and liquid after a report by the Guardian on growing safety concerns……………………………………………………………………….

Carla Denyer, co-leader of the Green party, which opposes nuclear power, said: “This toxic legacy of nuclear weapons and nuclear power poses a serious risk to life and public health as well as poisoning relations with other countries, especially Norway, that would be devastated by a radioactive plume if ever there was a major incident at Sellafield.

“This is Europe’s most hazardous nuclear site, so the government must put in place the investment needed to make it as safe as possible.”………………. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/dec/05/uk-minister-demands-answers-for-security-failings-at-sellafield

December 7, 2023 Posted by | politics, safety, UK | Leave a comment

Energy-rich Scotland does not require any nuclear power stations.

Andrew Bowie, undersecretary for nuclear, is pushing expensive and
dangerous nuclear power onto energy-rich Scotland. That’s insane. Nuclear
power has consistently failed to deliver energy on time or on budget.

The much-touted Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) don’t yet exist, are heavily
dependent on government subsidies to come on stream and will generate more
toxic nuclear waste for which there is no safe disposal.

Unlike renewables, where costs are falling, nuclear costs keep climbing. The UK Government has flung billions at Hinkley Point C, guaranteeing £92.50 per MW hour over the
next 35 years, twice as much as is guaranteed for wind. When finished,
Hinkley Point C will be one of the most expensive power stations in the
world. And Scottish households will pay £80 a year for nuclear on top of
already exorbitant energy bills.

The National 30th Nov 2023

https://www.thenational.scot/politics/23960602.energy-rich-scotland-not-require-nuclear-power-stations/

December 2, 2023 Posted by | politics, UK | Leave a comment

Renewable or nuclear? What your energy preference says about you – public opinion

 The main low-carbon energy sources available in the UK in the battle
against climate change are solar, wind, biomass and nuclear energy, but
what sorts of people prefer these different options? That’s the topic of
a new study in the December issue of the journal Energy authored at the
Energy Policy Research Group at Cambridge Judge Business School, which
finds that people’s preferred energy source is related to respondents’
views on the anticipated impact of climate change.

Specifically: people who
believe that climate change will be catastrophic tend to prefer renewable
energy sources such as solar and wind, while those less concerned about
climate change are more favourable towards nuclear power. The study also
finds that people prefer energy sources about which they are more
knowledgeable or familiar.

 Cambridge University 28th Nov 2023

https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/2023/renewable-or-nuclear-what-your-energy-preference-says-about-you/

December 1, 2023 Posted by | public opinion | Leave a comment

Hydro- Quebec decides against restarting Gentilly 2 nuclear station

Hydro-Québec has decided not to go ahead with recommissioning Gentilly 2 but nuclear remains an option it is considering to increase its production capacity beyond 2035, and it will keep studying nuclear energy, CEO Michael Sabia has said. Earlier this year the government-owned corporation launched a feasibility study on the possible restart of the 675 MWe unit which closed in 2012.

AtkinsRéalis “did a 50,000-foot analysis of the viability of Gentilly”, Sabia said. “For now, given the social acceptability issues, we have decided not to proceed with this. But there are a lot of evolutions in technologies”, SMRs “could be very well structured for some places in Quebec”, he added, according to the Montreal Gazette.

Source: World Nuclear News, 1 December 2023

December 1, 2023 Posted by | Canada, politics | Leave a comment

Ralph Nader: An Open Letter to Members of the United States Congress

By Ralph Nader / Nader.org November 29, 2023

RE: Hamas-Israel-Gaza-Genocide

We are writing to exercise our First Amendment to petition Congress for redress of grievances.  We are urging Congress to end the United States’ unconditional, close, and continual military and intelligence support of Israel in its ongoing physical destruction of 2.3 million Palestinians residing in Gaza. The United States is responsible for genocide under any plain reading of the Genocide Convention.

Congress commands plenary power over the foreign policy of the United States. It employed the power of the purse to end United States combat in Indochina on August 16, 1973. It prohibited the CIA from intermeddling in Angola with the Clark Amendment in 1975. And by statute, Congress has insisted that Israel receive weapons that ensure a Qualitative Military Edge over its neighbors.

Words only diminish our revulsion at the congressional dereliction in enabling President Joe Biden to transfer weapons and share real-time intelligence with Israel to destroy Palestinian civilians in Gaza in violation of multiple laws: the Genocide Convention, the federal prohibition of genocide,18 U.S.C. 1091, the Leahy Amendments, the Declare War Clause of the Constitution, and the statutory restriction on the use of American arms for defensive purposes only.

Why has Congress neglected public hearings to expose and redress these offenses to the rule of law?

Congress should enact a Joint Resolution endorsing a two-state solution featuring a Palestinian state initially administered by a United Nations caretaker mission to organize free and fair elections.

The United States’ current unlawful foreign policy is indistinguishable from “the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must” voiced by Thucydides in History of the Peloponnesian War.

Section 2 of the Genocide Convention defines the crime as including “intentionally creating conditions of life calculated to physically destroy a racial, religious, ethnic, or national group in whole or in part.” Evidence in the public domain authoritatively establishes that Israel is intentionally creating conditions of life in Gaza intended to physically destroy the 2.3 million Palestinian occupants. Israeli officials, without dissent, announced a siege of Gaza including the genocidal refrain, “no food, no water, no power, no electricity, no medicine, no shelter, no anything.” See e.g., “‘Erase Gaza’: Conflict Unleashes Inflammatory Rhetoric From Israeli Leaders,” New York Times, A7, November 16, 2023. Palestinians are even prohibited from collecting or storing rainwater which is considered the property of the Israeli government.

The siege of Gaza’s population has been fortified by a land invasion and bombings of hospitals, clinics, ambulances, bread bakeries, water mains, schools, apartment buildings, marketplaces, fleeing refugee families to nowhere, journalists, mosques, churches, and clearly marked United Nations schools and relief sites. Death certificates are prepared before the ink on birth certificates dries. Fires cannot be extinguished. Diseases are spreading. Deaths are at least 20,000 and probably twice or three times that number increasing by the hour, from lack of water, food, and urgent medical treatment, for those homeless battered families being driven south under Israeli bombardment and communications blackouts. There are no safe sanctuaries whether in North or South Gaza – even in hospitals they blockaded. Gaza is a free fire zone for the IDF.


Israel has turned its brutal war machine on the entire Palestinian population in Gaza. Israel’s President declaimed, “It is an entire nation out there that is responsible. It’s not true about civilians not aware, not involved. It’s absolutely not true.” An Israeli Knesset member echoed, “The Children of Gaza brought it upon themselves.” The Defense Minister insisted, “We are fighting human animals and will treat them accordingly.”

Prime Minister Netanyahu added that the Gaza conflict is between 21st century progress and “the barbaric fanaticism of the Middle Ages” and a “struggle between the children of light and the children of darkness.” He reminded Israeli Jews of the Lord’s ordering the destruction of Amalek in the Book of Samuel, “This is what the Lord Almighty says,” the prophet Samuel tells Saul. “I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’”

The Nazis in World War II attempted to conceal the Holocaust fearing legal accountability.  Israel’s genocide is unfolding in plain view confidant of impunity, including unconditional callous congressional support and gross misdirection of taxpayer dollars for violence, in lieu of satisfying the critical needs of the American people.

Congress is poised, without even public hearings and witnesses, to spend an additional $14.3 billion of taxpayer dollars to compensate for a staggering blunder of Israeli intelligence. Why?

Israel has taken an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth standard of justice of Leviticus to a criminal, genocidal level: 10,000 eyes for an eye, 10,000 teeth for a tooth. It is turning Gaza into a vast sick and dying huddle of civilian families exposed to American bombs and missiles. As the Washington Post reported, “hunger, thirst and disease are quickly spreading.” Babies are dying alone having lost their parents.

Had the touted Israeli defenses and intelligence not been colossally AWOL, the October 7th attack could never have occurred. As one elderly Holocaust survivor told The New York Times, “It should never have happened…”

President Biden has made the United States a belligerent and co-belligerent with Israel against Hamas without a constitutionally required declaration of war by Congress. Systematically providing the IDF with massive weapons made us a co-belligerent and sharing real-time battlefield intelligence made us a belligerent.

Such presidential wars are impeachable high crimes and misdemeanors as Mr. Biden himself vigorously underscored in his presidential campaign for the 2008 Democratic nomination in an interview with Chris Matthews on Hardball on December 4, 2007.

Listen further to the fundamental, historical provocation of the war as elaborated by David Ben-Gurion, founder and first Prime Minister of Israel:

“If I were an Arab leader, I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is normal; we have taken their country. It is true, God promised it to us, but how could that interest them? Our God is not theirs. There has been anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They see but one thing: we have come and we have stolen their country. Why would they accept that?” Printed in “The Jewish Paradox,” (p. 121) by Nahum Goldmann.

Ben Gurion’s recognition was echoed by Israel’s acclaimed war hero Moshe Dayan. Standing close to the Gaza border in 1956 eulogizing a 21-year-old Israeli security officer who had been slain by Palestinian and Egyptian assailants, Dayan reflected, “Let us not today cast blame on his murderers. What can we say against their terrible hatred of us? For eight years now, they have sat in refugee camps of Gaza and watched how, before their very eyes, we have turned their land and villages, where they and their forefathers previously dwelled, into our home.”

Also often forgotten by most Members of Congress is P.M Netanyahu’s widely quoted strategy of supporting and funding Hamas over the years to thwart a two-state solution with the Palestinian Authority. Roger Cohen of the New York Timeswrote on October 22, 2023, “All means were good to undo the notion of Palestinian statehood. In 2019, Mr. Netanyahu told a meeting of his center-right Likud party: ‘Those who want to thwart the possibility of a Palestinian state should support the strengthening of Hamas and the transfer of money to Hamas. This is part of our strategy.’”

The “From the river to the sea” expression originated with Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud party pressing for a “Greater Israel” in all of Palestine, not with Hamas. Further, the idea is also consistent with peaceful coexistence between Palestinians and Jews, by people advocating a one-state solution.

Dante observed, “The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.” The Congressional positions against Palestinian civilians, three-quarters of whom are children and women, are far beyond neutrality. Read the front-page article of the New York Times (November 26, 2023) headlined: “Israel Has Killed More Women and Children Than Have Been Killed in Ukraine.”

Congress should follow the example of President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956 who interceded in the Suez crisis to stop the attacks by Israel, France, and the United Kingdom, on Egypt. He also initiated the United Nations peacekeeping force in the Sinai.

Congress should conduct public hearings in the House and Senate featuring prominent and longtime Israeli peace advocates, holding past high-level government positions, along with Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups. Their voices have been excluded from Capitol Hill since 1948. You know why? Shame!

Congress cannot escape the judgment of history which will endure for the ages over its defining role in the annihilation of innocent Palestinian families – mostly children and women – inside Gaza – long described as Israel’s illegally blockaded open-air prison.

We look forward to a congressional response, from U.S. Senators and U.S. Representatives respectful of citizen petitions.

Sincerely,

Bruce Fein, Esq., Ralph Nader, Esq.

November 30, 2023 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

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