Russia linked hackers hit UK Ministry of Defence as security secrets leaked
Russian hackers suspected to have leaked sensitive UK military and defence
material on the dark web including information about nuclear submarine base
and chemical weapons lab. Sensitive military and defence material has been
stolen by suspected Russian hackers and leaked on to the internet.
Thousands of pages of data about the HMNB Clyde nuclear submarine base,
Porton Down chemical weapons lab and a GCHQ listening post are understood
to have been posted on to the dark web after the hack. Information about a
specialist cyber defence site and some of Britain’s high-security prisons
was also stolen in the raid on Zaun, a provider of fences for maximum
security sites.
Daily Mail 4th Sept 2023
Russia linked hackers hit UK Ministry of Defence as security secrets
leaked. Hackers targeted the database of a firm which handles the security
for some of Britain’s most secretive sites – including a nuclear submarine
base and a chemical weapon lab.
Mirror 2nd Sept 2023
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/russia-linked-hackers-hit-uk-30850139
Hinkley Point C Nuclear Station will need daily 4,200 Olympic swimming pools’ amount of cooling water.
Hinkley Point C nuclear power station will keep itself cool by drawing in
and flushing out enough water to fill 4,200 Olympic swimming pools – every
day. To do this, it needs 5.5 miles (8.8 kilometers) of tunnels located
nearly 100 feet (30 meters) underneath the Bristol Channel, which has the
second highest tidal range in the world. …………..These are the first nuclear qualified tunnels to be designed in the U.K.,” says Jacobs’ HPC Marine Works Project Manager Steve Marshall.
“They will have the capacity to transfer 2.7 billion U.S. gallons (10.4 million cubic meters) of coolingwater a day. “There is a blueprint for building reactors but marine works
to deliver the cooling water can never be exactly the same because we’re
always dealing with different geology and tidal ranges,” he explains.
“Added to this we have the nuclear safety aspect and the need to build
structures that are capable of doing their jobs for an 85-year design life
with very little maintenance. They also have to be capable of withstanding
a 1-in-10,000 year earthquake and extreme waves in the stormiest sea
conditions.”
Market Screener 1st Sept 2023
A bottomless pit of public money for the UK government’s nuclear vanity project
In response to Nuclear Minister, Andrew Bowie’s announcement of an
additional £341m government support for the Sizewell C project, TASC
deputy Chair, Pete Wilkinson, said “There seems to be a bottomless pit of
public money when it comes to funding Sizewell C, so besotted is the
government with this already redundant nuclear vanity project.
Not so for cash-strapped public sector workers though. The £341m recently announced,
taking taxpayer funding over an eye-watering £1.2bn, is apparently
designed to speed up preparations for construction of a plant which has yet
to receive dozens of licences and permits – not the least of which is the
Office for Nuclear Regulation’s permission to build on a site threatened by
climate change impacts – and is still subject to determination of an
outstanding legal challenge.
Put another way, it is public money to be
spent on the destruction of a coast which is designated as an area of
outstanding natural beauty for a project which may still not happen. It
also claims that it will ‘help to drive Putin further out of global
energy markets’, apparently missing the point that uranium supplies –
essential for the mythical nuclear renaissance and already at peak supply –
come largely from Russian-influenced countries, so out of the oil and gas
fire into the uranium frying pan.
As for the ‘rapid expansion of UK
nuclear energy’, the fantasy of 24GW from nuclear, should it ever be
attempted, will be cripplingly expensive and generate a mountain of waste
for which there is no universally acceptable disposal route, in short, a
recipe for future financial and environmental disaster rather than energy
security”
TASC 30th Aug 2023
Anger over claims RAF Lakenheath could host US nuclear weapons
By Stuart Bailey, BBC News 31 Aug 23 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-suffolk-66657765
Campaigners have urged the government to refuse the US any permission to base nuclear weapons in the UK again.
A US Air Force report showed plans to build a “surety dormitory” at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk, which experts said implied a return of nuclear arms.
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) said it would be “beyond irresponsible” and put the UK at risk.
The Ministry of Defence and the Pentagon said they would not comment on the location of weapons.
US Air Force budget documents included a justification for a 144-bed dormitory “to house the increase in enlisted personnel as the result of the potential Surety Mission.”
The word “surety” is often used by the US government to refer to the concept of ensuring American nuclear weapons are kept safe and secure.
The Federation of American Scientists (FAS), which first reported the plans, said they “strongly imply” the intention to re-establish nuclear arms at Lakenheath, which hosted them until 2008.
CND general secretary, Kate Hudson, said: “It’s increasingly clear that Lakenheath is once again a vital cog in Washington’s overseas nuclear machine.
“The deployment of the new B61-12 (gravity bombs) to Europe undermines any prospects for global peace and ensures Britain will be a target in a nuclear conflict between the US/NATO and Russia.
“It’s beyond irresponsible that the UK government is allowing this deployment.”
Construction of the $50m (£39.5m) building is due to begin in June 2024 and end in February 2026, the budget report said.
The Ministry of Defence, which owns the site, said it was unable to comment on US spending decisions and capabilities.
Deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh said: “It is US policy to neither confirm nor deny the presence or absence of nuclear weapons at any general or specific location.”
RAF Lakenheath is home to USAF’s 48th Fighter Wing, which consists of more than 4,000 military members and 1,500 civilians. Control of the base transferred from the RAF to USAF in 1948.
Last year more than 200 people protested outside the base after the US added the UK to a list of nuclear weapons storage site locations in Europe.
Money thrown at Sizewell C to win hearts and minds.
The government has allocated a further £341m to get the Sizewell C
nuclear power station project shovel-ready. The extra money will help
prepare the Sizewell C site in Suffolk for construction, procuring key
components from the project’s supply chain, and expanding its workforce.
It would see activity ramp up at the Suffolk site, supporting continued
preparation works, such as constructing onsite training facilities for
1,500 apprenticeships and further development of the plant’s engineering
design.
The public relations campaign will also be stepped up in a bid to
wins hearts and minds in the Southwold-Aldeburgh area, where opposition to
the project is strong. The government plans “direct investments in the
local community ahead of work starting” to show that having a £35bn
construction project on your doorstep is not necessarily all bad news.
latest £341m tranche follows a £170m allocation last month and builds on
the government’s existing £870m stake in the project to help secure a
final investment decision before the next general election.
The Construction Index 30th Aug 2023
https://www.theconstructionindex.co.uk/news/view/money-thrown-at-sizewell-c-to-win-hearts-and-minds
US fighter jets capable of nuclear bombing to be based in UK.
US fighter jets capable of nuclear bombing to be based in UK. Two
squadrons of hi-tech F-35 As set to arrive at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk
imminently.
Telegraph 30th Aug 2023
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/30/f35-fighter-jets-nuclear-weapons-raf-lakenheath-suffolk/
Over 100 security incidents at UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) nuclear weapons body
An arm of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) which oversees the UK’s nuclear
weapons programme has refused to release details of over 100 security
incidents it logged over the last five years, prompting accusations of a
“cover up”.
According to new figures – released to The Ferret after a
freedom of information (FoI) request – the Defence Nuclear Organisation
(DNO) has recorded 113 ‘security concerns’ since 2017-18. The DNO said
these incidents may have ranged from minor breaches of security policies to
the outright loss of information.
But despite claiming that many of the
reported incidents would not have “significant ramifications”, the
organisation refused to provide descriptions of any. It cited national
security concerns and fears about damaging the UK’s reputation
internationally.
The Ferret 30th Aug 2023 https://theferret.scot/over-100-incidents-body-oversees-nuclear-weapons/
‘Unrealistic and irrational’: Government announces Sizewell C nuclear station £341m speed-up despite local backlash in Suffolk
Tom Daly, the cabinet member for energy and climate change at East Suffolk
Council, believes the project is “unrealistic and irrational”, and the
announcement nothing but a publicity stunt. He said: “I think it is part
of the government’s efforts to keep the subject in the news and make sure
it is in the public’s minds.
“The money that is being highlighted has
already been allocated — this is a way to create a sense of confidence
and try to dispel doubts.” In early 2020, the Together Against Sizewell C
(TASC) local action group sought a judicial review of the previous
administration at East Suffolk Council’s 2019 decision to grant planning
permission for preparations to begin on the site. However, in October 2020,
the High Court ruled the impacts would be “minor” and “not
significant”.
Pete Wilkinson, the deputy chair at TASC, said: “There
seems to be a bottomless pit of public money when it comes to funding
Sizewell C, so besotted is the government with this already redundant
nuclear vanity project.” Several concerns have been raised by the new
council including nuclear waste, water supply, sea defence, impacts on the
coastal economy, species diversity, habitat destruction, and size. Cllr
Daly added: “The government’s newfound enthusiasm for nuclear is not
based on reality. It’s far too expensive and far too damaging.
Suffolk News 30th Aug 2023
The UK Government’s seventh Energy Secretary in the space of four years has “a huge amount of catching up to do” to kickstart a renewables revolution.
The UK Government’s seventh Energy Secretary in the space of four years
has been warned she has “a huge amount of catching up to do” to
kickstart a renewables revolution.
Herald 31st Aug 2023
UK Government’s investment in Sizewell C nuclear plant passes £1bn
UK Government’s investment in Sizewell C nuclear plant passes £1bn. The
UK Government has confirmed that it will funnel an additional £341m into
the Sizewell C nuclear power plant, on top of £870m already announced to
date.
Edie 29th Aug 2023
https://www.edie.net/uk-governments-investment-in-sizewell-c-nuclear-plant-passes-1bn/
Sizewell C project descends into farce
The Sizewell C development has offered observers an opportunity to monitor in great detail how a modern project costing at least Euros 30bn can and often does fall foul of environmental, financial, operational and political collapse.
By Essex Mag. August 26, 2023 https://www.essexmagazine.co.uk/2023/08/sizewell-c-project-descends-into-farce/
While the German government announces its flagship climate and transformation fund of Euros 212bn to accelerate its green transition programme of building renovation and decarbonising its energy sector between 2024 and 2027, the UK is reduced to scrabbling around the City vainly seeking investors in the increasingly farcical soap opera that is Sizewell C.
The ‘grand project’ – French nuclear incursion into a beleaguered and wilting UK energy sector – has mesmerised government officials and MPs of both major parties for the best part of a decade yet it is no closer today to realisation than it was in 2012.
With announcements on further delays to Hinkley Point C and an embarrassing silence in response to invitations to invest in Sizewell C, the hopes that nuclear power will lead the UK on its ‘world beating’ programme towards net zero carbon by 2050 look more unlikely than ever: even an optimistic start date of 2035 for Sizewell C would only afford the plant a marginal – and hugely expensive – contribution to reducing carbon emissions and only for a few years, barely time to off-set the carbon debt created by its construction.
Compared to the visionary German programme, the UK’s response to the existential climate crisis is weak, lacking in leadership and entirely inconsequential in the face of accelerating climate change impacts which are already leaving some parts of the world uninhabitable.
The Sizewell C development has offered observers an opportunity to monitor in great detail how a modern project costing at least Euros 30bn can and often does fall foul of environmental, financial, operational and political collapse.
Government has been beguiled by nuclear power to the exclusion of all else, removing subsidies for green sources of electricity generation while finding hundreds of millions of pounds to incentivise nuclear power. The regulators, constrained by the antiquated and redundant regulators’ code of practice, have turned blind eyes to the obvious – eroding coastlines, storm surges, floods and the future inaccessibility of lethal nuclear waste for transporting to a (currently mythical) geological disposal facility, the huge loss of life sea-water-cooled plants have on the marine environment and fish stocks and the idiocy and irresponsibility of discharging huge amounts of radioactivity to the environment when their health costs are unknown – in their attempts show their eagerness to do the government’s bidding on shoe-string budgets.
Pete Wilkinson, TASC’s Deputy Chairperson and co-founder of Greenpeace UK and Friends of the Earth, said today, ‘HMG is besotted by a Boris Johnson-inspired nuclear fantasy, the regulators are ignoring their obligations, EDF is out of control, respecting nothing but their own agenda, bullying local people, ignoring the absence of a Sizewell C contracted water supply, threatening the imposition of a desalination plant to cover their own inadequacies, and local authorities have been desperate to show their central government overlords that they are shoring up a broken and discredited policy. The Labour Party are no better as it cowers before trades union demands for Labour to secure a small number of well-paid jobs at over £30millon a pop and support an unworkable, dangerous and hugely costly distraction to the climate change crisis which threatens to engulf us.’
Why Scotland must get real on climate crisis: The time has passed for protecting the public from reality.
The story that still dominates now – even as temperatures (and fires) roar
out of control in the Atlantic, in Canada, in Hawaii, in Rhodes – is one
that government, citizens, and even scientists have created together: a
story where there’s always “just enough time” to fix things.
We’ve been on a “last warning” to avert climate disaster for 20 years – but in
reality, time is up. Anonymous polls show that climate scientists
overwhelmingly now privately expect warming to exceed 1.5C, our
scientifically and politically agreed “safe” limit.
The question now is
not whether – but how much – chaos will be left to future generations. We
should not be so naive as to think that climate isn’t an urgent problem for
us, here – that we in the UK might somehow be exempt by way of geography.
Certainly the global South will experience worse impacts: but, just as
“developed” societies like Britain and the USA proved surprisingly
fragile in the face of Covid-19, so it may prove with climate. Societies
like ours that heavily depend on long supply chains can expect to feel
heavily the coming disruptions in world food production, for example.
Nor can there be any assumption that Scotland, by virtue of being further
north, is safer than the rest of Britain. Populations in cooler latitudes
might get off more lightly; but equally they may not. Huge levels of
ice-melt in the Arctic are causing unprecedented amounts of cold fresh
water to pour into the north Atlantic, threatening the Gulf Stream, and the
lesser-known, but even more important ‘Atlantic Meridian Overturning
Circulation’.
It is quite possible that the effects will be felt soon –
well within a generation – making Britain’s climate colder (and drier). If
this occurs – and if I were a betting man, I’d bet on it – then it will be
very bad indeed for agriculture. And especially bad for Scotland.
The time has passed for protecting the public from reality. Indeed, millions already
know that things are worse than governments admit: from 40C heatwaves to
droughts and flooded high streets, every year the weather brings the
vicious reality of climate breakdown home in a new way. In workplaces,
communities and wherever people have power they are taking climate action
into their own hands – from towns working towards net zero, to figures in
law, business and finance, lobbying for ambitious climate policy. It is
vital to acknowledge and encourage this process. Scotland as a nation has
already grasped this need and must urgently spread the word among its
cities, towns and villages. We must all now recognise ourselves as the
climate majority: the citizen energy that will demand unprecedented action
to protect our world.
Scotsman 26th Aug 2023
Hinkley Point C: Millions of fish under threat after permit change
Campaigners say tonnes of fish could be sucked into Hinkley Point C’s
cooling system if an acoustic fish deterrent is not installed. The
Environment Agency (EA) has removed a requirement for EDF to install the
deterrent, which the company said could be dangerous to maintain.
Environmental groups say millions of fish could be killed per year. The EA
said it was confined to looking at water discharge activity, which did not
deal with the entrapment of fish. A final decision on whether EDF will have
to install an acoustic fish deterrent (AFD) will made by the Secretary of
State for Environment later this year.
The reactor cooling system tunnels
will take in 132,000 litres of water per second from the Severn Estuary to
cool the plant’s two nuclear reactors. An AFD would use underwater sound to
cause hearing species of fish to swim away.
BBC 26th Aug 2023
For the sake of Suffolk, Nuclear Free Local Authorities urge Centrica to ‘Say Non to Sizewell C’
Sizewell C is also a site presenting unique challenges. It is located on the Suffolk Heritage Coast, facing the increasing threat of storm surges……………
The Chairs of the Nuclear Free Local Authorities (NFLA) Steering Committee and the NFLA English Forum have written to the Chief Executive of Centrica, which owns British Gas, urging him ‘for the sake of our planet, the people, fauna and flora of Suffolk, the wallets of your hard-pressed electricity customers, and your own company bottom-line’ to say NON to Sizewell C.
The Times reported in July that Chief Executive Chris O’Shea was considering taking a stake in the project and Councillors O’Neill and Blackburn in their letter point out the pitfalls of investment ‘which would bring with it clear financial, ESG and reputational risks for Centrica’.
EDF Energy, now wholly owned by the French state, is currently building a similar plant at Hinkley Point C in Somerset – its history has not been a happy one with the project hugely behind schedule and massively over budget. In addition, Sizewell C will utilise the same EPR reactor as Hinkley Point C, a reactor design with a chequered safety and reliability record. A reactor in China was involved in an accident and is currently again shutdown (Taishan-1) and in Finland a second one only came online after the operator was forced to carry out repairs after a succession of equipment failures (Olkiluoto-3).
Sizewell C is also a site presenting unique challenges. It is located on the Suffolk Heritage Coast, facing the increasing threat of storm surges and coastal erosion, and with climate change modelling suggesting it would become inundated and isolated; there are several sites of scientific interest nearby; and the county is under increasing water stress with fears that there will be insufficient fresh water to meet the needs of the plant as well as local people.
The Councillors point out that several prospective investors who manage large pension funds have clearly indicated that ‘they will not be dipping their financial toe into the radioactive water’ of Sizewell C. Pension managers at The People’s Pension; Nest; BT; BBC; Tesco; and Pearson have all, in correspondence seen by campaigners at Stop Sizewell C, indicated they will not be backing Sizewell C, whilst the Daily Mail reported that Nat West and BT told the paper they would also not be investing and Legal and General’s Nigel Wilson told the BBC’s Today programme: “We are not big fans of HS2 and Sizewell C”.
Councillor O’Neill believes this to be sage advice:
“At a current projected cost of £32.7 billion, Hinkley Point C’s budget is fast approaching twice its first estimate at the time of financial close, and there is no reason to believe that Sizewell C will be delivered any more quickly or any more cheaply as the construction of large nuclear power plants in the UK is a litany of projects being delivered late and vastly over budget.”
Councillor David Blackburn, Chair of the NFLAs English Forum, is a co-signatory to the letter. He is urging opponents of the project to also contact Centrica to ask them not to invest:
“It would be far wiser for Centrica to direct every available penny into the proven renewable technologies that we already have now – these would generate power and heat far more quickly and more cheaply, and generate for them a more immediate financial return, than any further investment in this monstrous nuclear boondoggle.
“The NFLAs are pleased to back the campaign launched by Stop Sizewell C asking supporters to send an email directly to Mr O’Shea asking him not to invest in Sizewell C.
“You can take this direct action in just a few clicks by going to the site at https://action.stopsizewellc.org/centrica
The role of nuclear in the UK’s energy mix.
In 2022, nuclear power provided 13.9% of total electricity supplied in the UK. However, as the table below [on original] illustrates, its contribution has fallen significantly since
the 1990s, when it provided around a quarter of the UK’s total
electricity supply.
Since 1995 there have been eight nuclear plant
closures, with no new plants coming online, reducing installed nuclear
capacity reducing by more than a quarter.
Declining nuclear capacity has
been (more than) compensated for by the rise of renewable energy, whose
share of electricity generation rose from 3% in 2000 to 42% in 2022.
The chief scientist of Greenpeace UK, Dr Doug Parr, said that the nuclear
industry was making “speculative claims” regarding the proposed
benefits of SMRs relative to conventional nuclear power. He said that
“SMRs have no track record, but initial indications are that the familiar
problems of cost overruns and delays will be repeated”.
In addition to these concerns, Steve Thomas, an emeritus professor of energy policy at the
University of Greenwich, suggests that the focus on SMRs will divert time
and resources away from energy efficiency and renewables which he believes
are the “answers” to net zero electricity generation.
Professor Thomas’s position is in line with that of the Green Party, the Liberal
Democrats, and the Scottish National Party. The co-leader of the Green
Party Adrian Ramsey has described nuclear as an “expensive
distraction”, arguing that renewable energy technologies and energy
efficiency are “cleaner and cheaper solutions that can be delivered far
quicker than nuclear ever can”.
Wera Hobhouse, the Liberal Democrat
energy and climate change spokesperson, has also criticised the expense of
nuclear power relative to renewables. Referring to the Nuclear Energy
(Financing) Act 2022, she argued it was “madness” that the government
had “recently passed a new law that will allow them to add levies to
energy bills to fund new nuclear plants”.
Scotland’s last remaining
nuclear power plant in Torness is due to close in 2028 and SNP energy
spokesperson Alan Brown has said that the UK government should be focussing
its efforts on Scotland’s “renewable energy potential” rather than
attempting to build more nuclear power stations.
House of Lords Library 23rd Aug 2023
1 This Month
of the week– Nuclear Reactor Information Task Force
14 May – online event From Bombs to Data Centres: the Face of Nuclear Colonialism
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