Failure to deal with Trident concerns ‘puts Scots lives at risk’
FAILING to address acute concerns about the state of Trident nuclear
submarines is putting Scottish lives “at risk” and shows Westminster’s
“blatant disregard for Scotland”, an MP has said.
Martin Docherty-Hughes issued the warning ahead of a debate in Parliament today,
in which he will attempt to get answers from the UK Government over serious
concerns raised by a top insider about Britain’s nuclear weapons. The SNP
defence spokesperson will lead an adjournment debate on Wednesday evening
to highlight bombshell comments from former top government adviser Dominic
Cummings.
Cummings sparked concerns about Trident when he claimed to have
sought assurances from Prime Minister Rishi Sunak that he would deal with
the “scandal” of nuclear weapons infrastructure which he described as a
“dangerous disaster and a budget nightmare of hard-to-believe and highly
classified proportions”.
The National 24th Jan 2024
https://www.thenational.scot/news/24070255.failure-deal-trident-concerns-puts-scots-lives-risk/
Hinkley Point is glowing on my doorstep, but that won’t help us get a bus into town
In west Somerset broadband is patchy and childcare is scarce, but there’s always £10bn to spare for a badly run mega-project
In west Somerset broadband is patchy and childcare is scarce,
but there’s always £10bn to spare for a badly run mega-project.
Some 10,000 people work on site there (with another 12,000 associated jobs elsewhere).
Lifting the 245-tonne steel roof onto the first reactor, a few weeks ago,
utilised the world’s largest land-based crane. Hinkley Point C (next to the
original facilities A and B) will power some six million homes and what I
lie in bed at night wondering about is how the hell they feed the 10,000.
The Chinese state-owned CGN has a one-third stake in Hinkley and the French
state-controlled energy company EDF controls the rest.
It’s due to start generating power in 2030 and is the world’s most expensive power station.
Then this week EDF announced that, whoops, they need another £10 billion.
Prices have increased since 2015, design changes require more steel and
concrete and, I imagine, given the French contingent at the facility,
increases in the price of butter have skyrocketed the projected costs of
croissants. The final costs could be around £46 billion with the project
looking at a four-year delay.
All of which is great if you’ve got a job
there, be it in security, catering or nuclear fission, but otherwise this
futurist megalith rather clashes with the neighbouring muddy fields of
Exmoor. There are three key stumbling blocks here: childcare is scarce,
broadband is patchy and there are no buses. Which leaves people feeling
that these infrastructure projects – Hinkley Point, HS2 – are like the huge
sewage pipes that run through the slums of Mumbai. They carve up and
disrupt the landscape and lives of those who exist around it, but it’s only
the comfortable middle classes who benefit.
Telegraph 27th Jan 2024
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2024/01/27/william-sitwell-hinkley-point/
Dutch gov’t asks its legal dept: “What can we say so that it appears as if Israel is not committing war crimes.”
Outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte denies that his Ministry interfered at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to hide or change unwelcome information about Israel. “That simply did not happen,” the outgoing government leader said in a letter to parliament on Thursday. On Friday, the International Court of Justice in The Hague will make an interim ruling on the genocide case South Africa filed against Israel over its incessant bombings of the Gaza Strip in the war against Hamas.
Last week, NRC reported that Rutte’s Ministry of General Affairs asked the Legal Affairs Directorate at Foreign Affairs: “What can we say so that it appears as if Israel is not committing war crimes.” According to Rutte, there is a lot of discussion between Ministries about advice on how to weigh in. “That is normal.”
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs previously denied that General Affairs had tried to sweep matters under the rug. The criticism to that effect came from a letter written by about 20 anonymous civil servants. The piece was used in an appeal by three civil society organizations against the Dutch State to stop the delivery of F-35 parts to Israel.
The officials also said that Rutte had interfered at the last minute to prevent the Netherlands from voting in favor of a UN resolution in December that called for “creating the conditions for a long-term cessation of hostilities” in the Gaza Strip.
The Prime Minister did not say who ultimately decided on the vote. That would affect the unity of Cabinet policy, according to Rutte. According to the anonymous officials, Minister Hanke Bruins Slot (Foreign Affairs) actually wanted to support the resolution. “I don’t even have the position to overrule anyone,” Rutte said.
He added that the anonymous civil servants shouldn’t be judged too harshly. The Prime Minister thinks the practice is a shame, but “let’s be a little more relaxed about it.” According to him, there is “no problem” at Foreign Affairs with officials leaking information, and there is room in the department to have a different opinion.
Comment: If that was true, why did they feel compelled to leak the statement? Why was the government asking solely for reasons to support their argument, rather than for the legal view, or the range of views, present in that department?
The war in Gaza is causing a lot of discussion within, among others, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A few hundred civil servants also signed a letter last year stating that they believe the government is siding too much with Israelin the conflict. Officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have already demonstrated six times against the Cabinet’s attitude.
Genocide ruling
The International Court of Justice in The Hague will rule on emergency measures against the war in Gaza on Friday in the genocide case South Africa filed against Israel. Whether the court considers Israel’s actions genocide will likely only become clear in years to come. But it could order a stop to the fighting on Friday.
At the end of last year, South Africa filed a case with the International Court of Justice for violations of the Genocide Convention. If the court finds Israel guilty of this, it would be a particularly severe conviction. That ruling won’t be made today. Such cases typically take years. Today’s ruling only concerns “provisional measures.”
The court could order Israel to stop the fighting. Such a ruling cannot be appealed against and is legally binding. But as the court cannot enforce the ruling, it would likely remain without consequences. Israel has already said that it intends to keep its war going.
Comment: Indeed, Israel has killed over 100 Gazans a day since the verdict.
Since October 7th, Israel has killed over 25,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including over 10,000 children. The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced that the death toll reached 25,105 on Sunday, Al Jazeera reported.
The International Court of Justice is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. All 193 countries that are members of the UN can file a case there. In addition to the court’s 15 judges, two judges from the two countries involved will also join: Dikgang Moseneke from South Africa and Aharon Barak from Israel.
The court’s seat is in the Peace Palace in The Hague. Demonstrations are planned there on Friday, both by supporters and opponents of the Israeli war. There were also demonstrations and counter-demonstrations at the hearings two weeks ago.
US will station nukes in Britain for the first time in 15 years, as West escalates conflicts on multiple fronts
- Pentagon documents reveal the US is intending to place warheads three times the strength of the Hiroshima bomb on UK soil
https://www.sott.net/article/488290-US-will-station-nukes-in-Britain-for-the-first-time-in-15-years-as-West-escalates-conflicts-on-multiple-frontsBy PIRIYANGA THIRUNIMALAN and MARK NICOL 27 January 2024 |
The United States is planning to station nuclear weapons in Britain for the first time in 15 years to counter threats from Russia, it emerged last night.
Pentagon documents reveal the US is intending to place warheads three times the strength of the Hiroshima bomb on UK soil. Moscow said it would view the move as an ‘escalation’ that would be met with ‘counter-measures’.
Procurement contracts for a new facility at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk show the US plans to house B61-12 gravity bombs ‘imminently’ at the site.
US warheads were last stationed in Britain in 2008, when it was judged that the Cold War threat from Russia had decreased.
The plans come as part of a Nato-wide programme aimed at developing and upgrading nuclear sites in response to rising tensions with the Kremlin.
The unredacted documents from the US Department of Defence’s procurement database show the Pentagon has ordered equipment, including ballistic shields, for Lakenheath, and state that construction of a housing facility for US soldiers at the base will start in June.
Nuclear weapons were stationed at RAF Lakenheath during the Cold War. Activists held protests outside the site in 2022 when it was reported that US warheads could be stationed there.
Russian foreign ministry spokesman Maria Zakharova said: ‘In the context of the transition of the United States and Nato to an openly confrontational course of inflicting a ‘strategic defeat’ on Russia, this practice and its development force us to take compensating countermeasures to reliably protect the security interests of our country and its allies.’
Comment: ‘An openly confrontational course’; because, whilst the West’s aggression against Russia has been brazen, the intention behind this move is undeniable.
Notably, back in August 2023: Poland’s President says Russia’s moving tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus ‘shifting regional security’
The Pentagon insisted the documents ‘are not predictive of, nor are they intended to disclose any specific posture or basing details’.
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: ‘It remains a longstanding UK and NATO policy to neither confirm nor deny the presence of nuclear weapons at a given location.’
Comment: This comes amidst the escalation of the US-UK-Israel genocide in Gaza; repeated air strikes against Yemen; and NATO’s largest military exercise (also since the cold war) at Russia’s borders; all the while on its Ukraine front it faces looming defeat:
- NATO set to mobilize 90,000 soldiers for biggest drill since Cold War, rehearsing rapid US deployment near Russia’s borders
- Poland & Lithuania to hold joint military exercises on borders near Russia’s Kaliningrad enclave in the Suwałki Gap
- Houthi missile sets British oil tanker ablaze, ship was abandoned by US & France warships, cargo was fuel for Israeli jet fighters
Hinkley Point C nuclear could go £28bn over budget, and tax-payer takes larger stake in Sizewell C nuclear.
The Chemical Engineer, by Adam Duckett, 28 Jan 24
EDF SAYS its Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant could be delayed to as late as 2031, with costs rising to £46bn (US$58bn).
The project, which includes building two 1,630 MW nuclear reactors in Somerset, was estimated to cost £18bn when it was first agreed in 2016 and had been scheduled to begin operations in 2025. The project has since struggled with a series of delays and cost hikes. The firm has now outlined three scenarios that push operations back until the end of the decade at the earliest.
The first reactor could begin operations in 2029, or, under a base case scenario that assumes delays in the electromechanical work and testing start-up, could fall back to 2030. Under a third scenario, there could be a further delay to 2031.
In a letter to staff, Stuart Crooks, managing director of Hinkley Point C, said: “Like other infrastructure projects we have found civil construction slower than we hoped and faced inflation, labour and material shortages on top of Covid and Brexit disruption.”
He added that EDF has been required to substantially adapt its reactor design to satisfy British regulations, requiring 7,000 changes that have added 35% more steel and 25% more concrete.
EDF says the delays and extra work will hike costs to between £31-35bn in 2015 values meaning under the worst case scenario the price could reach £46bn.
Hinkley Point C is key to the government’s target to almost quadruple nuclear power output from 6.5 GW today to 24 GW by 2050. To meet this goal, it published a plan earlier this month that includes building at least one other plant the size of Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C that EDF is planning in Suffolk, along with suites of smaller modular and advanced nuclear reactors…………….
News of the delay prompted further criticism from nuclear opponents who argue that governments should invest in renewables instead. There are also concerns that with the Chinese junior partner in Hinkley Point C refusing to contribute any more money to the project that the UK government will be called up on to help meet the climbing costs. A government spokesperson told the Financial Times that any additional costs “will in no way fall on taxpayers”.
Government takes larger stake in Sizewell C
Earlier this week, the UK government announced it would make an extra £1.3bn available to support EDF’s construction of Sizewell C so that construction work can continue ahead of a final investment decision being made later this year. Sizewell will use the same design as Hinkley Point C.
The government’s investment further consolidates its position as the majority shareholder in the project. Last year, it bought out the project’s Chinese state-owned partner China General Nuclear as part of efforts to limit Beijing’s involvement in critical infrastructure.
The government has now invested £2.5bn in Sizewell C and the project is being funded by a so-called regulated asset base model under which surcharges on consumer energy bills help fund the project while it’s being constructed. Last year, the government opened up a bidding process to attract external investors in a bid to raise an estimated £20bn to construct the plant. https://www.thechemicalengineer.com/news/hinkley-point-c-could-go-28bn-over-budget-as-edf-predicts-further-delays/
UK government pours good money after bad, into failing Hinkley Point C nuclear boondoggle
The Stop Hinkley Campaign has reacted to the news that the cost of Hinkley
Point C has ballooned to £46bn and that the first reactor may not now be
open until 2031. Stop Hinkley Spokesperson Roy Pumfrey said: “The
Government will have known for days if not weeks that this announcement was
coming – we certainly heard rumours. You would have thought it would have
provoked them into at least re-examining their nuclear roadmap.
Instead, on Monday they decided to waste another £1.3bn of taxpayers’ money on a
carbon copy of Hinkley Point C on the Suffolk Coast. Any sensible
Government would be urgently looking at the overwhelming case to provide
our power from 100% renewables.” “And it’s not just HPC’s costs
that are ballooning, the whole project is swirling around making a horrid
noise like a punctured balloon. And trying to cram 15,000 workers toe to
toe on the site to play catch up will mean H&S rules go out the window.”
Stop Hinkley 24th Jan 2024
http://stophinkley.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Press-Release-240124.pdf
Campaigners call on Science Minister to back citizen science with funding
Nuclear Free Local Authorities, 25 Jan 24
The UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities have been joined by campaigners from six local groups opposed to nuclear power in calling on the Science Minister to provide funding for citizen science projects to test levels of radioactivity near to civil nuclear power plants.
The partners have used the birthday of American ornithologist Wells Cooke (25 January), considered to be the founder of modern citizen science, to make their appeal to Michelle Donelan, who is the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology.
From 1881, Cooke engaged amateur birding enthusiasts in collecting information about bird migration. His program evolved into the government-run North American Bird Phenology Program supported by volunteers across the nation. More recently, even BBC television programmes, like Nature / Springwatch, have enrolled citizens in observing and reporting on wildlife in their gardens and communities.
Although citizen science has the virtue of engaging laypeople in research, making science more relevant and ‘immediate’ to the general population, for campaigners in West Cumbria sampling for radioactivity has not been a mere academic exercise for it highlighted radioactive ‘hotspots’ where exposure could be prejudicial to human health.
For almost ten years, volunteers at Radiation Free Lakeland have been taking soil and sand samples at various sites along the coast of West Cumbria from Whitehaven to Barrow-in-Furness, including beaches frequented by many tourists, and sending these to the United States for testing at a professional institute.
Due to a lack of available funding, the group could only afford to commission the institute to test for two isotopes – americium and caesium [1]. In 2018, undergraduate nuclear science students from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts compiled the results into an initial report:
‘Of the 36 samples tested 10 (28%) were found to be over the safety limit for cesium-137 and 14 (39%) were found to be over the safety limit for americium-241.’
Some of these adverse findings were from coastal sites near to St Bees and Ravenglass, which attract many seasonal tourists.
Americum-241 is highly radioactive and chemically toxic if absorbed, with deposits accumulating in the liver and bones, remaining there for twenty and fifty years respectively, or in the sexual organs, where its residence is permanent. In all these organs, americium promotes the formation of cancer cells through its radioactivity.
Caesium-137 is soluble in water and if ingested is soon uniformly distributed within the body and remains there for up to 70 days. Based on the findings of animal experiments and autopsies performed on children exposed to radiation in the Chernobyl accident, absorption can lead to the development of pancreatic cancer.
Former US nuclear industry regulator Arnie Gunderson, touring West Cumbria at the invitation of Radiation Free Lakeland, said that some of the samples were as radioactive as those found at Fukushima, where a major nuclear accident occurred in 2011.
Gunderson was in no doubt that it was only the dedication, rigour and persistence of citizen scientists that brought these findings to light:……………………………………………………….. more https://www.nuclearpolicy.info/news/campaigners-call-on-science-minister-to-back-citizen-science-with-funding/
MP wants public vote on nuclear waste disposal
Richard Madden, BBC News, 26 January 2024 more https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crg7nlwnz59o
People in part of East Yorkshire should be given a referendum on a proposal to bury nuclear waste, the area’s MP has said.
Nuclear Waste Services (NWS), a government agency, has identified South Holderness as having potential for a Geological Disposal Facility (GDF).
Beverley and Holderness MP Graham Stuart said any development would need public consent.
Officials behind the scheme said on Thursday that if the community did not express support the disposal facility would not be built.
‘Toughest test’
Mr Stuart said: “Everyone is right to be concerned about the possibility of a nuclear waste facility in our area.
“They are required to get local consent and I want that to be the toughest available test, a referendum of residents in the affected area”, he said.
A working group has been formed to look at the proposal and a series of public meetings will take place.
Drop-in sessions
- 1 February – Patrington Village Hall
- 2 February – Withernsea, The Shores Centre
- 8 February – Aldbrough Village Hall
- 9 February – Easington Community Hall
- 12 February – Burstwick Village Hall
All sessions run from 11:30 – 18:00 GMT.
Officials from NWS said the project could create thousands of jobs and investment in local infrastructure in South Holderness.
But campaigners in other areas have raised concerns about the impact on tourism, house prices and the environment, leading to protests.
The GDF would see waste stored under up to 3,280ft (1000m) underground until its radioactivity had naturally decayed.
Other proposals have been put forward in Cumbria and at Theddlethorpe on the Lincolnshire coast.
UK’s Ministry of Defence has continued to allow critical parts of the nuclear weapons infrastructure to rot
Dominic Cummings said amongst other things the MoD has: continued to allow
critical parts of the nuclear weapons infrastructure to rot creating
further massive secret budget nightmares as well as extremely serious
physical dangers (cf. the recent near disaster with a submarine),
UK Parliament 24th Jan 2024
Ukraine uncovers another $40 Million in weapons fraud
SOTT, Melanie Sun, The Epoch Times, Sat, 27 Jan 2024
he war-torn nation has announced a clean-out of its weapons procurement process amid ongoing corruption.
Ukraine’s National Police and Security Service on Ukraine (SBU), alongside the country’s Ministry of Defense, announced on Saturday they have uncovered an insider network that has been charged with embezzling almost $40 million in funds marked for weapons purchases.
Five individuals who formed a suspected criminal organization have been served “notices of suspicion” — the first stage in Ukrainian legal proceedings — for “appropriation, embezzlement of property, or possession of it by abuse of official position,” the SBU said.
Four of the suspects are current or former employees of the Ministry of Defense, including the head of the Department of Military and Technical Policy, Development of Weapons and Military Equipment of the Ministry of Defense, and the head and commercial director of the Lviv Arsenal company.
Another suspect is an ex-official from the ministry, who has been detained while trying to leave the country at a border crossing point.
A businessman representing a foreign company, presumed to be the arms supplier, has also been charged………………………………………………………………………………
To date, the United States has provided more than $44 billion in military aid to Ukraine since February 2022. But the Pentagon has run out of funds to replenish its stocks, so most military aid to Ukraine, for the time being, has halted.
Congress is currently debating a $105 billion supplemental spending package, proposed by the Biden administration in October 2023, that packages together defense funding for Israel, Ukraine, and the U.S. southern border.
Analysts previously told The Epoch Times that Ukraine doesn’t have a viable pathway for victory without foreign arms shipments and monetary support amid the waning U.S. support, as the Pentagon spreads its resources over increasing threats to the international rules-based order in the South China Sea as well as the Middle East.
Without international arms shipments, Ukraine would most likely be forced into a brutal stalemate with Russia and, at some point, would need to cede some of its territory to its aggressor, analysts say.
Comment: It brings to mind the old saying: “A fish rots from the head down”. So perhaps they should take a closer look up to uncover their “problems”. When a country’s leadership is completely corrupt, we can’t be shocked when more corruption is found lower down the ranks.
See also:
- WaPo: US changing strategy on Ukraine
- Hunter and the hunted: How Joe Biden is being linked to corruption, terror attacks, and political assassinations in Ukraine
- IG report finds Pentagon failed to account for more than $1B in weapons sent to Ukraine
- EU’s Ukraine weapons goal ‘unattainable’ – Germany
- Ukraine’s cyber security chief fired over corruption scandal
- Leaked US strategy on Ukraine sees corruption as the real threat https://www.sott.net/article/488310-Ukraine-uncovers-another-40-Million-in-weapons-fraud
Growing mountain of wasted money is a radioactive prospect
Alistair Osborne: Growing mountain of wasted money is a radioactive
prospect. Rishi Sunak’s apparent determination to press ahead with
mammoth investment in new nuclear reactors, whatever the cost, might not
prove to be the best solution.
It’s only a week since he set off — again — with his uncosted “nuclear road map”: a plan to have 24 gigawatts of new reactors by 2050, or seven more Hinkley Point Cs. On
Monday, the government sank another £1.3 billion into Sizewell C, so it
could “steam ahead” with that project, too, as Andrew Bowie, the
minister for nukes, put it.
Listen to him and investors are queueing up. So
what better news to encourage them than this jaw-dropper from EDF, the
state-backed French outfit behind both schemes? Hinkley Point’s costs
have shot up by as much as £10 billion to a top-end £35 billion, in 2015
prices.
And, instead of firing up in 2027, the first of the Somerset
nuke’s twin reactors could in an “unfavourable scenario” (the likely
outcome) be delayed until 2031. This is what comes with Hinkley’s
European pressurised reactor tech, as EDF has also proved at France’s
Flamanville, Finland’s Olkiluoto and China’s Taishan.
Indeed, two years after the Chinese nuke became operational, one unit had to be taken offline for a year’s repairs. So why is the government hellbent on a re-run with
Sizewell in Suffolk? Alison Downes from the Stop Sizewell C campaign is no
neutral voice. But she’s right to say the project “epitomises the
definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting a
different result”. With Sizewell, though, things would be far pricier.
Under the contracts-for-difference regime, EDF is on the hook for
Hinkley’s costs. Repeat the trick at Sizewell and, under the new
regulated asset base model, consumers would find £10 billion added to
their bills — before the nuke’s even operational.
Times 25th Jan 2024
Don’t be surprised if the UK tax-payer, not France, ends up paying the astronomic costs of Hinkley C nuclear power station .
Should we be bothered that Hinkley C nuclear power station has run even further over
budget (the latest estimate is £35 billion, nearly twice that quoted when
the project was given the go-ahead in 2016) and that its completion date
has been put back yet further, to 2031?
After all, the whole point of offering French energy giant EDF a guaranteed ‘strike price’ at the then juicy rate of £92.50 per megawatt-hour (at 2013 prices, rising with
inflation) was supposed to be to transfer financial risk to EDF and its
financial backers. ‘It is important to say that British consumers won’t
pay a penny, with the increased costs met entirely by shareholders,’ EDF’s
managing director of the Hinkley project state this morning.
I wouldn’t be so confident. Yet more delays to Hinkley C punch a huge hole in the
government’s net zero plans, which include the full decarbonisation of the
national grid by 2035 (Labour says it will do it by 2030). By 2028, all but
one of the UK’s existing five nuclear power stations are due to close – and
the other one, Sizewell B, is due to be gone by 2035. From generating
nearly a third of the UK’s power at its peak in 1998 the nuclear industry
could be down to virtually nothing by the time Hinkley C eventually opens.
No-one should be surprised if, before we get to 2031, EDF goes cap in hand
to the government, and the government offers it some kind of deal which
transfers risk back onto the taxpayer.
Spectator 24th Jan 2024
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/hinkley-c-and-the-rising-cost-of-net-zero/
The War On Journalism In Belmarsh, The War On Journalism In Gaza
CAITLIN JOHNSTONE, JAN 26, 2024, https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-war-on-journalism-in-belmarsh?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=141058691&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&utm_medium=email—
I haven’t written much about Julian Assange lately because I’ve been so fixated on what’s been happening in Gaza, but we should all be acutely aware that the 20th and 21st of February may be the WikiLeaks founder’s final chance to avoid extradition to the United States to face persecution for the crime of good journalism.
Assange and his legal team will face two High Court judges during the two-day hearing in London, who will then determine whether or not the UK will allow the Australian journalist to be dragged to the US in chains for a crooked show trial and cast into one of the world’s most draconian prison systems for exposing the war crimes of the world’s most powerful government.
Some US lawmakers are attempting to block the extradition from the other end with House Resolution 934, which asserts that “regular journalistic activities are protected under the First Amendment, and that the United States ought to drop all charges against and attempts to extradite Julian Assange.” If charges were dropped it would not only prevent the extradition but allow for Assange to be freed from the Belmarsh maximum security prison, where he has been jailed by the British government since 2019.
The fight to free Assange is a fight to protect press freedoms around the world, since the US is using the case in an attempt to set a legal precedent for extraditing and imprisoning any journalist or publisher anywhere in the world who shares information with the public that the US doesn’t want shared.
And it’s worth mentioning that this fight is not actually separate from the fight against Israel’s efforts to keep journalism out of Gaza by assassinating reporters and blocking the press from entering the enclave. It’s also not separate from humanity’s overall struggle to build a truth-based civilization, nor ultimately from our greater struggle to become a conscious species.
All throughout humanity there are pushes toward truth and seeing and pushes toward secrecy and darkness. In the press we see both: the authentic journalists like Assange who want all that is hidden to be made transparent, and the propagandists of the mainstream media who work to obfuscate and distort the truth. Those who seek the emergence of a harmonious and truth-based society want as much visibility into what’s really happening as possible, while tyrannical power structures like the US empire and Israel are constantly working to dim the lights.
Wherever you see domination and abuse, you see efforts to limit perception and keep human minds from seeing and understanding what’s going on. It’s true of empires, it’s true of governments, it’s true of cult leaders, it’s true of abusive spouses, and it’s true of the unpleasant dynamics within our own psyches that we would rather not look at. The less seeing there is, the more abusiveness is possible; the more seen things become, the closer we get to freedom.
I’m no prophet, but I strongly suspect that our future as a species will be determined by the outcome of this struggle. If the impulse toward truth and seeing wins out, we are probably headed toward a world of health and harmony. If the impulse to keep everything confused and hidden and unconscious wins, we are probably headed for dystopia and extinction.
In any case, all we can do is fight to make things more visible so that health and harmony become possible. Fight to make things conscious within ourselves. Fight to keep journalism legal in the shadow of the empire. Fight to spotlight Israel’s atrocities in Gaza. Fight to make the unseen seen. Fight to bring humanity into the light of consciousness.
More time needed for safety statement on Finland’s planned used fuel repository: no safety case has been made
COMMENT: The story below, from a pro-nuclear source, puts the best possible spin they can muster on the delays in the review of the Finnish nuclear waste burial proponent’s application for a deep geololgical repository for nuclear fuel waste. Here’s the straight story: the review period is being extended for another year (for now) because the regulator is waiting for missing information from the proponent, Posiva. No safety case has been made.
In comparison, the application by the Swedish proponent SKB was submitted in 2011, there have been repeated delays and extensions while the regulator waited for additional information, and while the Swedish government issued a political approval last year the Land and Environment Court has not issued the necessary approval.
23 January 2024, https://www.neimagazine.com/news/newsmore-time-needed-for-safety-statement-on-finlands-planned-used-fuel-repository-11456534
Finland’s Radiation & Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK – Säteilyturvakeskus) in its monitoring report from the last third of 2023 indicates that Posiva Oy, which is responsible for the final disposal of used nuclear fuel, is progressing without major problems, but at a slightly slower pace than was previously anticipated. Posiva is constructing the world’s first final used nuclear fuel disposal facility in Olkiluoto in Eurajoki. However, before it can start the operation of the facility it needs a permit from the Government. The permit decision requires a statement from STUK.
The Ministry of Labour & Business (TEM Työ- ja elinkeinoministeriö) had requested STUK’s opinion by the end of 2023 but, as the processing of the licence application data is still ongoing at STUK has requested additional time from TEM for issuing the statement until the end of 2024.
STUK says in its third-year report that the material to be inspected for the safety assessment for the operating licence is very large. Furthermore, STUK has not always been able to make its assessments based on the materials first submitted by Posiva and has required updates. Therefore, the processing of the material has taken longer than expected.
Posiva, owned by Teollisuuden Voima Oyj’s Olkiluoto NPP and Fortum Power & Heat Oy’s Loviisa NPP, applied for a construction licence application to TEM in December 2013. Posiva investigated the rock at Olkiluoto and based its licence application on results from the Onkalo underground laboratory, which will be expanded to form the basis of the repository. The government granted a construction licence in November 2015 and work began in December 2016. The site for the repository was selected in 2000 and parliament approved the decision-in-principle for the project in 2001.
Posiva has been preparing for the disposal of used nuclear fuel for more than 40 years. Its encapsulation plant is located above ground, and the fuel repository of the underground disposal facility is located in the bedrock at a depth of approximately 400-430 metres. Once it receives the operating licence, Posiva can start the final disposal of used fuel generated by the two NPPs, which were hoping to use the facility between 2024 and 2070. The facility will operate for about 100 years.
By the end of 2023, STUK had not only prepared a safety assessment, but also continued to supervise Posiva and its work. The matters to be monitored include the installation of equipment in the encapsulation plant, test runs and test run plans, as well as the ongoing rock construction work in the underground final disposal locations. It is also monitoring and inspecting the security arrangements of Posiva’s final disposal facility, the safety culture of the organisation and Posiva’s readiness to start final disposal operations.
Brexit blamed for delays to nuclear power project
EDF’s former CEO had pledged christmas turkeys would be cooked by the plant by 20172
i By Ben Gartside, 24 Jan 24
The UK’s premier nuclear power project could be delayed by another four years as costs continue to balloon, with Brexit cited as a major factor………………According to EDF, the French firm in charge of developing the site, issues on the project had been caused by Brexit, the Pandemic and inflation…………………………………………………….
How has Brexit affected construction costs?
Developers have been hit hard by both the Covid pandemic and soaring energy prices. Tim Heatley, co-founder of Manchester-based Capital&Centricm, said Brexit had also been a “major factor”.
He previously told i: “On the surface there doesn’t seem as much jeopardy in construction as car manufacturing – you can’t outsource building new homes to Asia.
“But, I’d argue, we’re facing even bigger economic consequences if we don’t get things under control.”
“Both construction material and labour costs have rocketed here way more than EU countries, so Brexit must be a major factor.”
A report published in 2023 found that between 2015 and 2022 the cost of construction materials including cement, timber and steel increased by 60 per cent in the UK compared to 35 per cent in the EU…………………….. https://inews.co.uk/news/brexit-blamed-delays-nuclear-power-lower-energy-bills-2871548—
1 This Month
26 April – Chernobyl: Inside the Meltdown airs on National Geographic on Sunday 26th April from 4pm
29 April – Nuclear Expert Webinar #1 – Radiation Impacts on Families with Mary Olson and Cindy Folkers
- 12:15 PM MT – 1:45 PM MT
- Location: Virtual – REGISTER TODAY
4 May -West Suburban Peace Coalition to discuss Iran war at May Educational Forum
Monday, May 4, 7:00 – 8:00 PM Central Standard Time
Title: : How Trump’s Narrative Tries to Shape the Reality of the War on Iran.
Contact Walt Zlotow, zlotow@hotmail.com 630 442 3045 for further information
14 May – online event From Bombs to Data Centres: the Face of Nuclear Colonialism
Pine Ridge Uranium is the real threat, not Tehran- Tell Burgum: Stop the Extraction.
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes – A good documentary on Chernobyl on SBS available On Demand for the next 3 weeks– https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/chernobyl-the-lost-tapes/2352741955560
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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