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Scientists Warn Experimental Nuclear Plant Backed by Bill Gates Is ‘Outright Dangerous’

“fast breeder reactor” types “are proliferation nightmares.“

Continuing to support nuclear energy at the expense of faster and cheaper alternatives for cutting greenhouse gas emissions is a losing strategy.“

Scientists Warn Experimental Nuclear Plant Backed by Bill Gates Is ‘Outright Dangerous’ “Gates has continually downplayed the role of proven, safe renewable energy technology in decarbonizing our economy.” Common Dreams ANDREA GERMANOS, November 17, 2021  Officials announced Tuesday that the small city of Kemmerer, Wyoming would be the site of a new Bill Gates-backed nuclear power project—an initiative whose proponents say would provide climate-friendly and affordable energy but which some scientists warn is a dangerous diversion from true energy solutions.

The experimental Natrium nuclear power plant will be at the site of the coal-fired Naughton Power Plant, slated for retirement in 2025, though siting issues are not yet finalized. The company behind the project is TerraPower. Gates, who helped found TerraPower, is chairman of the board.

Mr. Gates,” nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen wrote in an open letter in August, Natrium “is following in the footsteps of a 70-year-long record of sodium-cooled nuclear technological failures. Your plan to recycle those failures and resurrect liquid sodium again will siphon valuable public funds and research from inexpensive and proven renewable energy alternatives.”………….

A feature of the future plant, TerraPower says, is “a molten salt-based energy storage system”—technology it claims represents “a significant advance over the light water reactor plants in use today.”

At a June press conference, Gates said Natrium was poised to “be a game-changer for the energy industry.” In a Tuesday tweet, Republican Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming gave a similar message, saying “the Natrium reactor is the future of nuclear energy in America.”

While the company asserts the safety of Natrium’s sodium-cooled fast reactor, a report released in March by the Union of Concerned Scientists, entitled “Advanced” Isn’t Always Better, casts doubt on those claims.

UCS’s Elliott Negin highlighted the analysis in a June blog post, writing:

In fact, according to the UCS report, sodium-cooled fast reactors would likely be less uranium-efficient and would not reduce the amount of waste that requires long-term isolation. They also could experience safety problems that are not an issue for light-water reactors. Sodium coolant, for example, can burn when exposed to air or water, and the Natrium’s design could experience uncontrollable power increases that result in rapid core melting.

“When it comes to safety and security, sodium-cooled fast reactors and molten salt–fueled reactors are significantly worse than conventional light-water reactors,” says [report author Edwin] Lyman. “High-temperature gas-cooled reactors may have the potential to be safer, but that remains unproven, and problems have come up during recent fuel safety tests.”

Fast reactors have another major drawback. “Historically,” the report points out, “fast reactors have required plutonium or [highly enriched uranium]-based fuels, both of which could be readily used in nuclear weapons and therefore entail unacceptable risks of nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism.” Some fast reactors, including the Natrium, will initially use a lower-enriched uranium fuel, called high-assay low-enriched uranium, which poses a lower proliferation risk than highly enriched uranium, but it is more attractive to terrorists seeking nuclear weapons than the much lower-enriched fuel that current light-water reactors use.

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November 20, 2021 Posted by | safety, Small Modular Nuclear Reactors, USA | Leave a comment

Safety risks of Bill Gates’ Natrium nuclear reactor

The use of liquid sodium has many problems. It’s a very volatile material that can catch fire if it’s exposed to air or water,” Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety with the Union of Concerned Scientists science advocacy nonprofit, told Fortune on Tuesday.

“Honestly I don’t understand the motivation… There are some people who are just strong advocates for it and they’ve sort of won the day here by convincing Bill Gates that this is a good technology to pursue.”

 Independent 17th Nov 2021

https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/bill-gates-nuclear-reactor-wyoming-b1959777.html

November 20, 2021 Posted by | safety, USA | Leave a comment

USA’s $1.2tn bipartisan infrastructure bill provides $6bn to prop up ailing, aging, unprofitable nuclear power plants.

Ailing nuclear power plants propped up by US infrastructure law. A 2018 report from the Union of Concerned Scientists found that more than a third of American nuclear power plants were unprofitable.

The $1.2tn bipartisan infrastructure bill that Biden signed into law on Monday provides $6bn in
grants for struggling reactors.

The president’s “Build Back Better” spending bill under debate in Congress would also establish a nuclear power production tax credit worth billions of dollars. The federal funding follows bailouts in several US states for nuclear generators on the brink of closure.

 FT 17th Nov 2021

https://www.ft.com/content/faba7e8a-1983-4b47-9b70-ec903351a373

November 20, 2021 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

Climate change intensifies disastrous floods in Canada

A state of emergency has been declared in the Canadian western province of
British Columbia after a major storm cut road and rail links in the region.
The Canadian Armed Forces have been deployed to help thousands of stranded
residents who have been trapped since the storm hit overnight on Sunday.
Local officials warned on Thursday that the price tag to rebuild could
exceed C$1bn ($790m, £590m). One woman was killed in a landslide, and two
people are missing. Officials expect more fatalities to be confirmed in the
coming days. One man caught up in the storm told the BBC the scenes
afterwards were like “Armageddon”.

 BBC 18th Nov 2021

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-59324764

 Canada floods: 18,000 people still stranded in ‘terrible, terrible
disaster’. Alarm grows about climate change in British Columbia after
summer wildfires wiped out vegetation that could have slowed flooding.

 Guardian 19th Nov 2021

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/18/residents-brace-for-torrential-rains-in-already-flooded-western-canada

November 20, 2021 Posted by | Canada, climate change | Leave a comment

NASA seeks ideas for a nuclear reactor on the moon – submissions due by February 19 2022


NASA seeks ideas for a nuclear reactor on the moon abc news, 20 Nov 21

If anyone has a good idea on how to put a nuclear fission power plant on the moon, the U.S. government wants to hear about itBy KEITH RIDLER Associated Press  BOISE, Idaho — If anyone has a good idea on how to put a nuclear fission power plant on the moon, the U.S. government wants to hear about it.

NASA and the nation’s top federal nuclear research lab on Friday put out a request for proposals for a fission surface power system.

NASA is collaborating with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory to establish a sun-independent power source for missions to the moon by the end of the decade…….

The reactor would be built on Earth and then sent to the moon…….

The proposal requests are for an initial system design and must be submitted by Feb. 19.  https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/nasa-seeks-ideas-nuclear-reactor-moon-81282960

November 20, 2021 Posted by | space travel, technology, USA | Leave a comment

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission found violations of federal regulations at Vogtle nuclear site.

U.S. regulator to raise oversight at Georgia Vogtle nuclear power reactor  https://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-regulator-raise-oversight-georgia-190308554.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYmluZy5jb20v&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAFLUuKMz6yKJdBOQz3f8MPdcejq875Aj93HjGgabK-76iDLroU7mahePG2UUtceKXHdb4cvQJDADLfjHUAdSK7rs4T9iB9Q1qhV5_ncjUA7ziTqk0iBJCIU8oMPpX7xIkkm7oOJH6GBmgz  Nov 18 (Reuters) Reporting by Brijesh Patel in Bengaluru Editing by Marguerita Choy – The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on Thursday said it will increase oversight at one of the Southern Co (SO.N) operated Vogtle nuclear power plants under construction in Waynesboro, Georgia.

The decision to increase oversight comes after finalizing two inspection findings involving the safety-related electrical raceway system at Unit 3, the NRC said.

The NRC said it had launched a special inspection in June 2021 and found two violations of federal regulations at the site.

NRC inspectors found that Southern Nuclear did not properly implement its corrective action program, resulting in construction quality issues, extensive rework, and a report to the NRC for a significant quality assurance breakdown.”

“They also found that the company did not follow design specifications while installing safety-related cables for reactor coolant pumps and equipment designed to shut down the reactor safely.”

The NRC said these findings fall under a low-to-moderate safety significance and will schedule a supplemental inspection to verify Southern Nuclear understands the root cause and has taken appropriate corrective actions.

November 20, 2021 Posted by | incidents, USA | Leave a comment

Kamala Harris became the first woman to have control over US nuclear weapons, but only briefly

Kamala Harris became the first woman to have control over US nuclear weapons, but only briefly, Business Insider, Ryan Pickrell, Nov. 19, 2021,  

President Joe Biden briefly transferred presidential authority to Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday.That included the ability to use nuclear weapons, making Harris the first woman in US history to hold that authority.Presidential power was returned to Biden following the completion of a medical procedure.

President Joe Biden temporarily transferred his presidential authority to Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday as he underwent a routine colonoscopy, which briefly made her the first woman in US history to have power as commander-in-chief and the first woman to have control of the US nuclear arsenal and nuclear strike authority………………… https://www.businessinsider.com.au/vp-harris-will-become-first-woman-to-control-us-nukes-2021-11?r=US&IR=T

November 20, 2021 Posted by | politics, USA, Women | Leave a comment

G and E’s Humboldt Nuclear Power Plant is officially all cleaned up. Environmental groups are not so sure.

PG&E Reactor Officially Decommissioned, Nuclear Waste Not   https://www.northcoastjournal.com/NewsBlog/archives/2021/11/18/pgande-reactor-officially-decommissioned-nuclear-waste-not J.A. SAVAGE ON THU, NOV 18, 2021 G&E’s Humboldt Nuclear Power Plant reactor site was deemed fully cleaned up by the Nucle ar Regulatory Commission today. While the federal government no longer has oversight over that part of the site — “none at all,” said commission spokesperson David McIntyre — the spent fuel and other radioactive waste, however, remains under federal jurisdiction.

The former reactor site has no requirement to be monitored for radiation. “There’s no need for it. There’s no accident scenario” in which a radiation release to the environment from that part of PG&E’s plant could occur, according to McIntyre. It could, according to regulators, even be used for farming.

PG&E is required to maintain the area above Buhne Point where spent fuel is stored, “until fuel is removed,” McIntyre said. That means the utility is responsible for “physical security, mostly fences and guards,” he added.

Environmental security is another story, however. When asked about responsibility to keep the site secure from the threat of a radioactive release due to a tsunami, sea level rise or some other environmental event, McIntyre said he would check and then got back to the Journal with an update.

“PG&E, the licensee, is responsible for maintaining its safety and security until the fuel is removed from the site,” he said. “I am advised that the storage casks are below grade, as an additional protection against earthquakes, and they are located on high ground above the town, so sea level rise and tsunamis are not considered a threat to the safety of the facility.”

Environmental groups, however, remain concerned sea level rise will very much be an issue at the site. Read more about the nuclear plant’s history and legacy, which some fear could stretch thousands of years into the future, in previous Journal coverage here.

November 20, 2021 Posted by | environment, USA | Leave a comment

U.S. govt brings early Christmas to Bill Gates and the nuclear industry – tax-payer funding!

The U.S. Government and Bill Gates Get Behind Nuclear Power, Barrons,  By Avi Salzman, Nov. 17, 2021 Nuclear power got a boost from the infrastructure bill signed into law this week by President Biden that could at the very least forestall the industry’s decline. With government support and the endorsement of major investors like Bill Gates, nuclear power looks as if it has a place in a carbon-free future. [ed. only nuclear is not carbon-free]

The legislation sets aside $6 billion to help fund nuclear plants in danger of closing. Several plants have needed help from the states where they are located in recent years because running nuclear plants has not always been profitable as other sources of electricity have become cheaper. A 2018 report from the Union of Concerned Scientists found that “more than one-third of U.S. nuclear plants are unprofitable or scheduled to close.” Having a federal financing program would ease the pressure on states and make it more likely plants could stay open……..

The new law has other goodies for the industry too, including funding for the Energy Department’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program.

One project that will receive funding from the bill is a new advanced reactor in Wyoming being built by TerraPower, which was founded by Bill Gates. The TerraPower reactor is expected to be smaller than most traditional nuclear plants, but to have more highly enriched uranium. Theoretically, these kinds of projects could bring power to more remote areas. The TerraPower plant is expected to open by 2028 and replace a coal plant.

Several utility companies could benefit from support for nuclear plants, including Exelon (ticker: EXC) and NextEra Energy (NEE).

Nuclear power could get an even bigger boost from the Build Back Better bill now being debated, including from special tax credits.

Those credits could be worth as much as $15 billion to the industry. Additional credits for low-carbon hydrogen production could also benefit the nuclear industry.   https://www.barrons.com/articles/the-u-s-government-and-bill-gates-get-behind-nuclear-power-51637177613

November 18, 2021 Posted by | business and costs, politics, USA | Leave a comment

America’s relentless pursuit of Australian Julian Assange is a threat to any journalist who might expose a USA massacre of civilians

Julian Assange currently sits in Belmarsh Prison waiting to find out if British judges will overturn a lower court’s ruling against his extradition to the United States to be prosecuted under the Espionage Act for journalistic activity which exposed U.S. war crimes. War crimes not unlike those that were just exposed by The New York Times in its reporting on the Baghuz massacre. 

The precedent the U.S. government is trying to set with its persecution of Assange will, if successful, cast a chilling effect over journalism which scrutinizes the U.S. war machine, not just in the United States but around the world.

Syria Massacre Coverup Shows Danger of Assange Precedent, https://consortiumnews.com/2021/11/15/syria-massacre-coverup-shows-danger-of-assange-precedent/ November 15, 2021  The precedent the U.S. government is trying to set with its persecution of Assange will, if successful, cast a chilling effect over journalism which scrutinizes the U.S. war machine, writes Caity Johnstone. By Caitlin Johnstone

CaitlinJohnstone.com The New York Times has published a very solid investigative report on a U.S. military coverup of a 2019 massacre in Baghuz, Syria which killed scores of civilians. This would be the second investigative report on civilian-slaughtering U.S. airstrikes by The New York Times in a matter of weeks, and if I were a more conspiracy-minded person I’d say the paper of record appears to have been infiltrated by journalists.

The report contains many significant revelations, including that the U.S. military has been grossly undercounting the numbers of civilians killed in its airstrikes and lying about it to Congress, that special ops forces in Syria have been consistently ordering airstrikes which kill noncombatants with no accountability by exploiting loopholes to get around rules meant to protect civilians, that units which call in such airstrikes are allowed to do their own assessments grading whether the strikes were justified, that the U.S. war machine attempted to obstruct scrutiny of the massacre “at nearly every step” of the way, and that the Air Force’s Office of Special Investigations only investigates such incidents when there is “potential for high media attention, concern with outcry from local community/government, concern sensitive images may get out.”

“But at nearly every step, the military made moves that concealed the catastrophic strike,” The New York Times reports. “The death toll was downplayed. Reports were delayed, sanitized and classified. United States-led coalition forces bulldozed the blast site. And top leaders were not notified.”

Journalist Aaron Maté has called the incident “one of the U.S. military’s worst massacres and cover-up scandals since My Lai in Vietnam.”

Asked by the Times for a statement, Central Command gave the laughable justification that maybe those dozens of women and children killed in repeated bomb blasts were actually armed enemy combatants:

“This week, after The New York Times sent its findings to U.S. Central Command, which oversaw the air war in Syria, the command acknowledged the strikes for the first time, saying 80 people were killed but the airstrikes were justified. It said the bombs killed 16 fighters and four civilians. As for the other 60 people killed, the statement said it was not clear that they were civilians, in part because women and children in the Islamic State sometimes took up arms.“

I mean, how do you even address a defense like that? How do you get around the “Maybe those babies were ISIS fighters” defense?

Reading the report it becomes apparent how much inertia was thrown on attempts to bring the massacre to light and how easy it would have been for those attempts to succumb to the pressure and just give up, which naturally leads one to wonder how many other such incidents never see the light of day because attempts to expose them are successfully ground to a halt.

The Times says the Baghuz massacre “would rank third on the military’s worst civilian casualty events in Syria if 64 civilian deaths were acknowledged,” but it’s clear that that “acknowledged” bit is doing a lot of heavy lifting there.

And it really makes you appreciate how much work goes into getting information like this in front of the public eye, and how important it is to do so, and how tenuous the ability to do so currently is.

Julian Assange currently sits in Belmarsh Prison waiting to find out if British judges will overturn a lower court’s ruling against his extradition to the United States to be prosecuted under the Espionage Act for journalistic activity which exposed U.S. war crimes. War crimes not unlike those that were just exposed by The New York Times in its reporting on the Baghuz massacre. 

The precedent the U.S. government is trying to set with its persecution of Assange will, if successful, cast a chilling effect over journalism which scrutinizes the U.S. war machine, not just in the United States but around the world.

If it can succeed in legally establishing that it can extradite an Australian journalist for publishing information in the public interest about U.S. war crimes, it will have succeeded in legally establishing that it can do that to any journalist anywhere. And you can kiss investigative reporting like this goodbye.

This is what’s at stake in the Assange case. Our right to know what the most deadly elements of the most powerful government on our planet are doing. The fact that the drivers of empire think it is legitimate to deprive us of such information by threatening to imprison anyone who tries to show it to us makes them an enemy of all humanity.

November 16, 2021 Posted by | media, secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

Nuclear power company First Energy prosecuted for corruption, but still finds it worthwhile to bribe politicians


It is the largest fine ever imposed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio.

But it is a pittance when compared to the earnings it brought in last year: $1.1 billion. For that reason, the company’s stock has a 52-week range of between $26 and its current high of $39 a share. 

Paying Bribes Got FirstEnergy In Trouble, But It Is Still Making Political Donations , Forbes, 15 Nov 21,

Has FirstEnergy Corp. learned anything from its nuclear energy scandal and criminal probe? Prosecutors say that if the company fully cooperates then it will drop the charges against it in three years. But the utility is still giving millions to lobby lawmakers — a bit cringeworthy, given the events. 

It’s legal. But the company’s chief executive since March, Steven Strah, has said that FirstEnergy FE +1.2% will play a more subtle political role. The protocol now is strict oversight of its lobbying activities — the kind of thing that would avoid, for example, bribing public officials to keep open struggling nuclear plants. For sure, FirstEnergy’s campaign spending is already at $1.5 million this year. That is in line with the contributions it has been making for the last decade. 

FirstEnergy is sticking to “the way they did business 50 years ago,“ said Ashley Brown, a former Ohio public utilities commissioner, who now leads the Harvard Electricity Policy Group. “That’s part of why they’re just a lobbying firm with a utility sideline.” 

Brown’s comments appeared in a story by Eye on Ohio, which joined with Energy News Network in the endeavor. Eye on Ohio is a division of the Ohio Center for Journalism. 

In a deferred prosecution agreement reached over the summer between FirstEnergy and federal prosecutors, the utility admitted that it conspired with and subsequently bribed public officials: $60 million, which was used to secure a $1.3 billion bailout package for its nuclear units and to also help defeat a voter initiative that would have thrown out that law. 

The company was penalized $230 million — money to be split equally between the federal and state government. In Ohio, it will be used to help low-income citizens pay their utility bills. It is the largest fine ever imposed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio. But it is a pittance when compared to the earnings it brought in last year: $1.1 billion. For that reason, the company’s stock has a 52-week range of between $26 and its current high of $39 a share. 

Prosecutors said that they wanted the penalty to “sting” but they did not want to disrupt the company’s business. They filed one charge: conspiracy to commit honest services and wire fraud, which will be dismissed if FirstEnergy continues to cooperate. 

“Our activity in this space will be much more limited than it has been in the past, with closer alignment to our strategic goals and with additional oversight and significantly more robust disclosure,” says CEO Strah, before investors. “These efforts, together with enhanced policies and procedures, will help to bring additional clarity around appropriate behaviors at FirstEnergy.” 

The bargain between prosecutors and the utility examines how FirstEnergy took monies from its regulated units and then paid off public officials. Former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder has already been charged. Former Ohio Public Utilities Commission Chairman Sam Randazzo has resigned his position. The power company used a dark money group called Generation Now to hide its efforts. A lobbyist has pleaded guilty along with a staffer for Householder, who set up the shady organization to receive the dirty money.

A New Track

Subsequent to this criminal settlement, Ohio’s Attorney General Dave Yost added FirstEnergy’s former CEO Charles Jones to a list of defendants his office is suing. (Prosecutors would not comment on whether Jones is also in criminal trouble.) The civil complaint also includes ex-FirstEnergy senior vice president Michael Dowling and Sam Randazzo. 

The “corruption was more cancerous than previously thought––necessitating adding additional defendants and giving rise to additional claims,” the lawsuit says. Ohio’s legislature, meantime, has revoked the $1.3 billion bailout. ……  https://www.forbes.com/sites/kensilverstein/2021/11/15/paying-bribes-got-firstenergy-in-trouble-but-it-is-still-making-political-donations—and-amends/?sh=1e29ece1150a

November 16, 2021 Posted by | Legal, secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

Report: Nuclear Plant Failed to Prevent Flooding During Ida

Report: Nuclear Plant Failed to Prevent Flooding During Ida, Claims Journal, By Dave Collins | November 15, 2021  Operators of the Millstone nuclear power complex in Connecticut were too late in activating storm protection protocols when the remnants of Hurricane Ida hit the East Coast in September, resulting in minor flooding at the plant, federal regulators said Friday.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission report said Dominion Energy, which runs the Millstone plant in Waterford along Long Island Sound, violated federal requirements, but deemed the violations of “very low safety significance” and did not issue penalties. The flooding did not affect any nuclear or safety equipment, the report said.

The commission, however, said Dominion’s “performance deficiency was more than minor” and that “required steps to protect risk significant structures, systems, and components from external flooding were not taken until after the consequential rainfall event was in progress.”…………………

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission report said the plant’s operators should have activated flood prevention measures before the storm hit, including closing flood gates, based on forecasts made earlier in the day. But they did not do so until after 8 p.m., when heavy rains already were falling. Two flood gates were not closed at all during the storm, resulting in minor flooding in an area near the Unit 2 reactor, the report said.

The commission said Dominion “did not take timely actions to place the plant in a safe condition prior to the arrival of a major storm.”………….   https://www.claimsjournal.com/news/east/2021/11/15/307069.htm

November 16, 2021 Posted by | incidents, USA | Leave a comment

Anniversary of the mysterious death of Karen Silkwood

 Massimo Greco https://www.facebook.com/groups/361888987167863/ 13 Nov 21, Museum of the Gulf Coast
This Day In History.…..On November 13, 1974, 28-year-old Karen Silkwood, who is from Nederland, is killed in a car accident near Crescent, Oklahoma, north of Oklahoma City. Silkwood worked as a technician at a plutonium plant operated by the Kerr-McGee Corporation, and she had been critical of the plant’s health and safety procedures.

Silkwood had an appointment with a union staff representative and a New York Times investigative reporter. At this meeting, she was to provide documentation to the reporter, showing charges that Kerr-McGee had been negligent in quality control and had falsified records were justified.

Police were summoned to the scene of an accident along Oklahoma’s State Highway 74: Silkwood had somehow crashed into a concrete culvert. She was dead by the time help arrived. An autopsy revealed that she had taken a large dose of Quaaludes before she died, which would likely have made her doze off at the wheel; however, an accident investigator found skid marks and a suspicious dent in the Honda’s rear bumper, indicating that a second car had forced Silkwood off the road.

The documents she was to have turned over to the reporter were never found.Silkwood’s father sued Kerr-McGee, and the company eventually settled for $1.3 million, minus legal fees. Kerr-McGee closed its Crescent plant in 1979.

November 15, 2021 Posted by | secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

Flooding and nuclear wastes eat away at a tribe’s ancestral home

For decades, chronic flooding and nuclear waste have encroached on the
ancestral lands in southeastern Minnesota that the Prairie Island Indian
Community calls home, whittling them to about a third of their original
size.

Two years after the tribe received federal recognition in 1936, the
Army Corps of Engineers installed a lock-and-dam system just to the south
along the Mississippi River. It repeatedly flooded the tribe’s land,
including burial mounds, leaving members with only 300 livable acres.


Decades later, a stockpile of nuclear waste from a power plant next to the
reservation, which the federal government reneged on a promise to remove in
the 1990s, has tripled in size. It comes within 600 yards of some
residents’ homes. With no room to develop more housing on the
reservation, more than 150 tribal members who are eager to live in their
ancestral home are on a waiting list.

 New York Times 13th Nov 2021

November 15, 2021 Posted by | indigenous issues, USA | Leave a comment

President Biden is marginalised by the Pentagon

The nuclear bureaucracy is adamant about not upsetting the programs and
polices forged during the Cold War. “There’s no points of debate” in
the internal discussions, a former Pentagon official said recently. Rather
than working to implement President Joe Biden’s long-held views on
restraining the massive destructive power of the nuclear arsenal, the
Pentagon has rigged the system to marginalize the president.

 Responsible Statecraft 9th Nov 2021

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2021/11/09/how-the-nuclear-game-is-rigged-to-maintain-the-status-quo/

November 15, 2021 Posted by | politics, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

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