How Fast Will Nuke Power Collapse? Atomic experts Jim Green, Paul Gunter and Kevin Kamps explain how a dying reactor industry is clamping on to bought state legislatures for gargantuan handouts
Narendra Modi using threat of nuclear bombing Pakistan, as an election campaign tactic
Dear Mr. Modi, A Nuclear Bomb Is Not A Campaign Prop, https://www.newsclick.in/narendra-modi-nuclear-bomb-diwali-pakistan In a campaign speech in Rajasthan on April 22, prime minister Narendra Modi casually threatened Pakistan with the use of nuclear bombs, saying India’s nuclear arsenal has not been saved for Diwali. Newsclick Team, 24 Apr 2019
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India’s irresponsible behaviour in its pursuit of nuclear weapons supremacy
Indian Irresponsible Behavior as Nuclear Power, Modern Diplomacy, 23 Apr 19, South Asia is termed as one of the volatile regions of the world, where nuclear brinkmanship is probable because of the longstanding historical animosity between India and Pakistan. The onus of instability and volatility in the region rests with India’s inspiration for regional hegemon, which seeks domination through coercion and use of power. Its ambitions to join global cartels such as Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) without meeting the criteria is self-explanatory of its coercive yet illegitimate policies.
In Ratnagiri’s Jaitapur, Fishermen Vehemently Oppose Nuclear Plant.
In Ratnagiri’s Jaitapur, Fishermen Vehemently Oppose Nuclear Plant. The Wire, 22 Apr 19
In Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri, the Sadak se Sansad team finds out why farmers are opposing the world’s largest nuclear power plant. In this special story from the Ratnagiri Lok Sabha constituency in Maharashtra, we speak to fishermen who have been protesting against the Jaitapur nuclear power project for over a decade. They say that the project will adversely affect their ecology and threaten their livelihoods. If completed, the plant will be the largest nuclear power generating station in the world. https://thewire.in/video/watch-in-ratnagiris-jaitapur-fishermen-vehemently-oppose-nuclear-plant
PM Narendra Mo di , at election rallies, repeatedly boasts of India’s nuclear weapons
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At Indian General Election Rallies, Modi Beats the Nuclear Drums
The Indian prime minister touts New Delhi’s nuclear capabilities. The Diplomat |
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Problems and many outages at India’s Kudankulam nuclear power plant
Frequent outages at Kudankulam plant unusual, trying to fix it: Dept of Atomic Energy
This is the first acknowledgement from a government authority and comes months after the issue of frequent power outages was flagged by Poovulagin Nanbargal. The NEWS Minute, TNM Staff
Dangerous electioneering: India’s Modi ramps up the nuclear weapons rhetoric
Express Tribune 19th April 2019 During an election rally on April 14, Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed
that he had called Pakistan’s nuclear “bluff” by carrying out air
strikes within Pakistan. In his exact words, Modi boasted, “Pakistan has
threatened us with nuclear, nuclear, nuclear” and then he asked
rhetorically, “Did we deflate their nuclear threat or not?”
Of course, Modi’s supporters raised chants in an expression of their approval.
Perhaps this was merely a case of aggressive electioneering in which Modi
has focused on national security as the main theme. But such claims have
also been made by several Indian policymakers and defence analysts after
the recent Pulwama crisis which demonstrates that there is a wider
acceptance for such views. In reality this is a dangerous delusion.
https://tribune.com.pk/story/1953964/6-indias-dangerous-delusions/
India’s Prime MinisterModi boasts of India’s nuclear arsenal
India’s nuclear weapons not for Diwali — Modi, PM accuses Congress party of losing the upper hand after the 1971 war with Pakistan
The risk of nuclear war between India and Pakistan: it’s been a close call
South Asia’s nuclear-armed neighbors pull back from the abyss…barely
India and Pakistan have created the most perilous place on Earth. Salon DILIP HIRO, APRIL 7, 2019 This piece originally appeared on TomDispatch.
It’s still the most dangerous border on Earth. Yet compared to the recent tweets of President Donald Trump, it remains a marginal news story. That doesn’t for a moment diminish the chance that the globe’s first (and possibly ultimate) nuclear conflagration could break out along that 480-mile border known as the Line of Control (and, given the history that surrounds it, that phrase should indeed be capitalized). The casus belli would undoubtedly be the more than seven-decades-old clash between India and Pakistan over the contested territory of Kashmir. Like a volcano, this unresolved dispute rumbles periodically — as it did only weeks ago — threatening to spew its white-hot lava to devastating effect not just in the region but potentially globally as well.
The trigger for renewed rumbling is always a sensational terrorist attack by a Pakistani militant group on an Indian target. That propels the India’s leadership to a moral high ground. From there, bitter condemnations of Pakistan are coupled with the promise of airstrikes on the training camps of the culprit terrorist organizations operating from the Pakistan-controlled part of Kashmir. As a result, the already simmering relations between the two nuclear-armed neighbors are quickly raised to a boiling point. This, in turn, prompts the United States to intervene and pressure Pakistan to shut down those violent jihadist groups. To placate Washington, the Pakistani government goes through the ritual of issuing banning orders on those groups, but in practice, any change is minimal.
And in the background always lurks the possibility that a war between the two neighbors could lead to a devastating nuclear exchange. Which means that it’s time to examine how and why, by arraying hundreds of thousands of troops along that Line of Control, India and Pakistan have created the most perilous place on Earth.
How It All Began Continue reading
India and Pakistan may have just narrowly avoided a nuclear confrontation
South Asia’s Overlooked Nuclear Crisis, While few were watching, India and Pakistan may have just narrowly avoided a nuclear confrontation. The Nation, By Dilip Hiro 5 Apr 19, It’s still the most dangerous border on Earth. Yet compared to the recent tweets of President Donald Trump, it remains a marginal news story. That doesn’t for a moment diminish the chance that the globe’s first (and possibly ultimate) nuclear conflagration could break out along that 480-mile border known as the Line of Control (and, given the history that surrounds it, that phrase should indeed be capitalized). The casus belli would undoubtedly be the more than seven-decades-old clash between India and Pakistan over the contested territory of Kashmir. Like a volcano, this unresolved dispute rumbles periodically—as it did only weeks ago—threatening to spew its white-hot lava to devastating effect not just in the region but potentially globally as well.
India is waking up from nuclear energy dream, as renewables become safer, cheaper
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Around the world, nuclear energy has taken a back seat because of the risks that reactors bring with them. The report that the US will help build six nuclear power plants in India should be taken with the proverbial pinch of salt. When it comes to the US, inter-governmental declarations are not how business gets done. It requires working through a labyrinth of terms and conditions with companies and financial institutions. And, the nuclear-reactor business is not too healthy in the US.The six reactors to be set up in Kovvada, Andhra Pradesh are Westinghouse-designed AP1000 Pressurised Water Reactors (PWR). Westinghouse has just emerged from a Chapter 11 bankruptcy settlement on account of the construction of four AP1000 reactors in Georgia and South Carolina. The announcement, which came during foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale’s visit to the US, seems aimed at pleasing Washington at a time when bilateral trade ties appear to have hit turbulence. It is also a token genuflection towards the Indo-US nuclear deal of 2008 that was justified by the US desire to promote civil nuclear cooperation. This deal, with its commitment to promote US nuclear reactor sales to India, came unstuck after India passed a stringent liability law that made the manufacturers, rather than the operator, primarily liable for damage in the event of an accident. India has 22 functioning reactors, most of them pressurised heavy water reactors (PWHRs), which provide three per cent of the country’s electricity. Seven units, one of them a prototype fast breeder reactor, are under construction. India’s nuclear power sector was coddled by the government because it served the dual purpose of providing the capacity to produce nuclear weapons and also the promise of limitless sources of energy. This was premised on Homi Bhabha’s three-stage plan that involves making fast breeder reactors (FBR) to use plutonium reprocessed from the spent fuel from the first stage PWHR plants. Stage 2 FBRs will use a mixed oxide fuel to produce more plutonium than they consume. In Stage 3, thorium would be used to blanket the reactor to yield Uranium 233 for the third-stage reactor, which can be refuelled by abundant natural thorium after its initial fuel charge. Nuclear energy received the bulk of the government’s research and development (R&D) funding during the 1950-1970 period. It got some 15 per cent in the 1990s, at a time when Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) got 20 per cent and renewables got less than one per cent. While ISRO achieved world-class launch and satellite capability, despite embargoes, the department of atomic energy found it hard to even scale up the 220 MWe Canadian reactor it had got in the 1960s to 700 MWe. We have just about managed to get one going in Andhra Pradesh’s Kakrapar in 2018. The world norm for power reactors is 1,000-1,500 MWe. The country was promised a 10,000 MWe capacity by the year 2000, but even now it has only touched 7,000 MWe. After the nuclear deal there was talk of boosting nuclear energy to 63,000 MWe by 2032. But in 2011, following the blow-back from the nuclear liability legislation, this was scaled down to 14,600 MWe by 2020 and 27,500 by 2032. We will be lucky if we meet the 2000 target in 2020. In contrast to nuclear power, India has usually exceeded its targets, at far lesser investment, in the area of renewable energy. The country’s installed wind-power capacity is 34,000 MW, hydropower 44,000 MW and solar power 25,000 MW, with a target of 100,000 MW by 2022. Wind and solar power have not been provided the kind of investment that has been made in nuclear energy. Around the world, nuclear energy has taken a back seat because of the risks that reactors bring with them. Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima have dampened the ardour of the developed world. The US, which has over 100,000 MWe capacity, stopped issuing licences for nuclear plants between 1979 and 2012. Even now, just two are under construction, while 34 have been shut down. It is not safety alone that is a concern. The economics of nuclear power is another issue. Huge sums of money go into setting up of power plants. Most face delays and cost over-runs. Operating costs per unit of electricity tends to be higher than alternative energy sources. There are a range of experimental reactors that promise greater safety and economy but they are yet to reach maturity. China is investing big in new reactor technologies. The stakes are huge. Nuclear technology has always had two faces—the promise of incredible bounty and its enormously destructive capacity. As of now, India remains fixated on its three-stage plan. We will reach Stage 3 only by 2050 or so; we’re still mainly in Stage 1. Caution is needed, especially since the record of our nuclear R&D and industry is not great. We need to hedge our risks by working on alternatives, not just in the field of nuclear energy, but also renewables, where our performance has been much better. |
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Indian military confirms deployment of nuclear subs amid rising tensions with Pakistan
AMN By News Desk2019-03-17 Tensions between the two nuclear-armed Asian powers escalated last month, after an incursion into Pakistani territory in Kashmir by Indian Air Force warplanes to strike at Jihadist militants led to skirmishes in the air and small arms and artillery fire along the shaky Line of Control border.
Proposed nuclear power station at Indian village – a serious threat to living beings
Nuclear power serious threat to living beings Hans News Service https://www.thehansindia.com/andhra-pradesh/nuclear-power-serious-threat-to-living-beings-512866 18 March 2019
HIGHLIGHTS The proposed Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) at Kovvada village in Ranastalam mandal is a serious threat to all living beings in the surrounding 250 kilometers radius of north coastal AP districts and south Odisha state, said Anti-Nuclear Committee national member Dr Vivek Mantory.
Srikakulam: The proposed Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) at Kovvada village in Ranastalam mandal is a serious threat to all living beings in the surrounding 250 kilometers radius of north coastal AP districts and south Odisha state, said Anti-Nuclear Committee national member Dr Vivek Mantory. Addressing a seminar on ‘Nuclear power plant at Ranastalam’ on Sunday, held under the aegis of CITU, he came down heavily on both the Central and State governments’ for neglecting the interest of people living in the area and for violation of environmental laws.
Stating that the establishment of nuclear power was a costly affair than any other power like wind, hydro, coal-based thermal power and solar power, he said all the developed and advanced countries like the USA, Russia, Japan and other nations were backed away from the nuclear power. He wondered as to why India is showing much interest without thinking safety measures and preventive technology. CITU State vice-president D Govinda Rao, district president K Srinivas and members of other unions also participated. Residents of NPP affected villages also present in the seminar.
A nuclear nightmare is brewing between India and Pakistan
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Japan Times BY JAMES STAVRIDIS, BLOOMBERG, MAR 11, 2019 NEW YORK – While India and Pakistan seem to have stopped bombing one another, the causes behind the cross-border tensions aren’t going away any time soon. The two nations are nuclear-armed; have large conventional armed forces; have had four serious wars since they became independent in 1947; and have enormous cultural and religious antipathy. This is a prescription for a disaster, and yet the confrontation is flying below the international radar — well below North Korea, Brexit, China-U.S. trade confrontations, Iran and even the “yellow vests” of France. A full-blown war in Kashmir is a very real possibility………. The most recent crisis was set off in mid-February when a Pakistani terrorist group, Jaish-e-Mohammad, detonated a suicide bomb in Indian-controlled Kashmir, killing 40 Indian soldiers. ……… The fragile cease-fire in place for two decades is fraying. Partly this is the result of domestic politics in India:…….. Most worrisome, of course, are the significant nuclear arsenals of the combatants. Each has roughly 150 missiles, although only India has a submarine-based ballistic missile capability and thus a true nuclear triad (land, air and sea). Pakistan is developing sea-launched cruise missiles to counter that Indian threat. India has adopted a “no first use” doctrine, although Pakistan — which has smaller conventional forces and thus potentially the need for a more ambiguous doctrine — has not made an equivalent pledge. ………. With Pakistan’s economic plight and the upcoming elections in India, South Asia is in a situation in which a military miscalculation, perhaps even a nuclear one, is real possibility. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2019/03/11/commentary/world-commentary/nuclear-nightmare-brewing-india-pakistan/#.XIbKfskzbGg |
People of Kashmir – stuck in a dangerous, potentially nuclear, conflict
In Kashmir, we’re stuck in the middle of a potentially nuclear conflict but the world looks away, ABC News, By Umar Lateef Misgar 9 Mar 19, When Adil Dar rammed a car stuffed with explosives into a paramilitary convoy in Indian-administered Kashmir last month, I didn’t make much of the news.
I was travelling across northern India at the time. Having been born and brought up amid a conflict that has defined the life of every young Kashmiri for the past three decades it just seemed more of the same: military cordons, gunfights, curfews, blown-up houses, maiming and the death of our friends and acquaintances.
But the magnitude of this attack by Dar, a 22-year-old Kashmiri, crept up on me through numbers and images. It was the worst attack against Indian forces since the armed insurgency erupted in Kashmir in the late 1980s.
At least 40 Indian paramilitary personnel had been killed, setting off a chain of events that almost brought South Asia to the brink of an all-out nuclear war.
I felt heartbroken by the loss of life that had occurred.
The Indian media instantly began to whip up a frenzy against the Kashmiris, doubling down on efforts to demonise an entire people.
The Indian population’s anger was focused against Kashmiri civilians, students and migrant businessmen, who were attacked by mobs. As many as 2000 of them were forced to flee from different Indian cities…….
I have lived in India as a student and travelled across the country throughout my life, but I have never felt as threatened as during this recent visit.
Constantly dehumanised in the Indian media as well as politics, Kashmiris have been undermined and permanently relegated as dispensable other in the Indian consciousness. Even the India’s parliamentary opposition, led by the Indian National Congress party that finds its roots in the anti-colonial struggles of the subcontinent, didn’t even dare to speak a word against this wave of anti-Kashmiri hate-crimes………
Amid rising tensions, both the countries mobilised their armed forces, leading to the worst tension in 20 years. Diplomats succeeded in persuading the two nuclear-armed nations to back-off. For now.
It is local Kashmiris whose lives were disrupted by this military posturing and brinkmanship. Civilians across the de-facto border that divides Indian and Pakistani-administered Kashmir, suffered the stress of warplanes hovering above and the impending threat of war………
Deadliest decade
The confrontation between India and Pakistan has slowly de-escalated but people continue to be killed, and while last year was the deadliest in a decade the coming year looks catastrophically bleak.
In the past week 15 people including eight Kashmiri civilians died in shelling and gunfights on the border.
As world attention shifts elsewhere the plight of Kashmiri people remains constant. Our land, our air and our bodies will remain the sites of violent confrontation and electoral bargaining.
Will anyone bat an eye before the next nuclear showdown? https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-09/kashmir-is-stuck-in-the-middle-of-nuclear-tension/10878950
Nuclear threat still hangs over India and Pakistan
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Crisis may be easing, but nuclear threat still hangs over India and Pakistan, Analysis by Brad Lendon, CNN, March 4, 2019 Hong Kong Tensions on the border between India and Pakistan last week pushed the two nuclear-powered South Asian adversaries closer to conflict than at any point in the past two decades.
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1.This Month
After Assange arrest, IMF gives $4.2B to Ecuador
Solartopia Green Power and Wellness Hour
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Can the UK rely on nuclear power?
State of the Climate: Not a Pretty Picture
Earth Focus Episode 55 – Nuclear Insurance: America Goes Naked
EVENTS
22 April – Monday – Earth Day
PETITION
Defend the Grand Canyon From New Uranium Mines http://grandcanyontrust.nonprofitsoapbox.com/canyonuraniumban
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