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Vonnegut on Nagasaki: “The most racist, nastiest act by this country, after human slavery”

““The rights and wrongs of Hiroshima are debatable,” Telford Taylor, the chief prosecutor at Nuremberg, once said, “but I have never heard a plausible justification of Nagasaki” — which he labeled a war crime.”

Author: John LaForge,  August 7, 2014, https://www.peacevoice.info/2014/08/06/vonnegut-on-nagasaki-the-most-racist-nastiest-act-by-this-country-after-human-slavery/

For the full article:
Vonnegut on Nagasaki: “The most racist, nastiest act by this country, after human slavery”
877 Words

“The rights and wrongs of Hiroshima are debatable,” Telford Taylor, the chief prosecutor at Nuremberg, once said, “but I have never heard a plausible justification of Nagasaki” — which he labeled a war crime.

In his 2011 book Atomic Cover-Up, Greg Mitchell says, “If Hiroshima suggests how cheap life had become in the atomic age, Nagasaki shows that it could be judged to have no value whatsoever.” Mitchell notes that the US writer Dwight MacDonald cited in 1945 America’s “decline to barbarism” for dropping “half-understood poisons” on a civilian population. The New York Herald Tribune editorialized there was “no satisfaction in the thought that an American air crew had produced what must without doubt be the greatest simultaneous slaughter in the whole history of mankind.”

Mitchell reports that the novelist Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. — who experienced the firebombing of Dresden first hand and described it in Slaughterhouse Five — said, “The most racist, nastiest act by this country, after human slavery, was the bombing of Nagasaki.”

On Aug. 17, 1945, David Lawrence, the conservative columnist and editor of US News, put it this way: “Last week we destroyed hundreds of thousands of civilians in Japanese cities with the new atomic bomb. …we shall not soon purge ourselves of the feeling of guilt. …we…did not hesitate to employ the most destructive weapon of all times indiscriminately against men, women and children. … Surely we cannot be proud of what we have done. If we state our inner thoughts honestly, we are ashamed of it.”

If shame is the natural response to Hiroshima, how is one to respond to Nagasaki, especially in view of all the declassified government papers on the subject? According to Dr. Joseph Gerson’s With Hiroshima Eye, some 74,000 were killed instantly at Nagasaki, another 75,000 were injured and 120,000 were poisoned.

If Hiroshima was unnecessary, how to justify Nagasaki?

The saving of thousands of US lives is held up as the official justification for the two atomic bombings. Leaving aside the ethical and legal question of slaughtering civilians to protect soldiers, what can be made of the Nagasaki bomb if Hiroshima’s incineration was not necessary?

The most amazingly under-reported statement in this context is that of Truman’s Secretary of State James Byrnes, quoted on the front page of the August 29, 1945 New York Times with the headline, “Japan Beaten Before Atom Bomb, Byrnes Says, Citing Peace Bids.” Byrnes cited what he called “proof that the Japanese knew that they were beaten before the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.”

On Sept. 20, 1945, Gen. Curtis LeMay, the famous bombing commander, told a press conference, “The war would have been over in two weeks without the Russians entering and without the atomic bomb. The atomic bomb had nothing to do with the end of the war at all.”

According to Robert Lifton’s and Greg Mitchel’s Hiroshima in America: 50 Years of Denial (1995), only weeks after August 6 and 9, President Truman himself publicly declared that the bomb “did not win the war.”

The US Strategic Bombing Survey, conducted by Paul Nitze less than a year after the atom bombings, concluded that “certainly prior to 31 December 1945, and in all probability prior to 1 November 1945, Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war, and ever if no invasion had been planned or contemplated.”

Likewise, the Intelligence Group of the US War Department’s Military Intelligence Division conducted a study from January to April 1946 and declared that the bombs had not been needed to end the war, according to reports Gar Alperovitz in his massive The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb. The IG said it is “almost a certainty that the Japanese would have capitulated upon the entry of Russia into the war.”

Russia did so, Aug. 8, 1945, and as Ward Wilson reports in his Five Myths about Nuclear Weapons, six hours after news of Russia’s invasion of Sakhalin Island reached Tokyo — and before Nagasaki was bombed — the Supreme Council met to discuss unconditional surrender.

Experiments with hell fire?

Nagasaki was attacked with a bomb made of plutonium, named after Pluto, god of the underworld earlier known as Hades, in what some believe to have been a ghastly trial. The most toxic substance known to science, developed for mass destruction, plutonium is so lethal it contaminates everything nearby forever, every isotope a little bit of hell fire.

According to Atomic Cover-Up, Hitoshi Motoshima, mayor of Nagasaki from 1979 to 1995, said, “The reason for Nagasaki was to experiment with the plutonium bomb.” Mitchell notes that “hard evidence to support this ‘experiment’ as the major reason for the bombing remains sketchy.” But according to a wire service report in Newsweek, Aug. 20, 1945, by a journalist traveling with the president aboard the USS Augusta, Truman reportedly announced to his shipmates, “The experiment has been an overwhelming success.”

US investigators visiting Hiroshima Sept. 8, 1945 met with Japan’s leading radiation expert, Professor Masao Tsuzuki. One was given a 1926 paper on Tsuzuki’s famous radiation experiments on rabbits. “Ah, but the Americans, they are wonderful,” Tsuzuki told the group. “It has remained for them to conduct the human experiment!”
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John LaForge is a Co-director of Nukewatch, a nuclear watchdog and environmental justice group in Wisconsin, edits its quarterly newsletter, and writes for PeaceVoice.

August 16, 2025 Posted by | history, Japan, Religion and ethics, USA | Leave a comment

Reckon you can put a nuclear reactor on the Moon?

You have until Thursday August 21 to respond if you do

The Register, Richard Speed, Fri 15 Aug 2025 

NASA’s plans to put a nuclear reactor on the Moon have moved on – the agency has now put out a Request For Information (RFI) to gauge industry interest in the project.

An RFI is not an invitation to bid for the work. Interested parties need to register their interest by 21 August, and only later, there’s a chance that they could be used to “finalize a potential opportunity later this year.” It comes after a directive from NASA Acting Administrator Sean Duffy that called for the US to be the first to put a nuclear reactor on the Moon.

Things will need to move fast if the agency is to meet the goal of being ready to launch by the first quarter of fiscal year 2030.

Dubbed the Fission Surface Power System, the reactor must have a mass of less than 15 metric tons, have a minimum power output of 100 kWe, and utilize a closed Brayton cycle power conversion system.

NASA is no stranger to nuclear power. It had rovers and spacecraft powered by the technology and has looked into Brayton cycle power conversion for nuclear electric propulsion on Mars missions [PDF].

The Apollo missions used Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs) to power experiments to be left on the lunar surface. These contained plutonium-238, and one returned to Earth on Apollo 13, remaining on the lunar module. The container for the plutonium is now at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, and no release of radiation has been detected.

One hundred kilowatts of power is, however, an order of magnitude greater than the nuclear power sources launched by NASA to date. It would be enough to power the International Space Station (ISS), which currently charges its batteries using electricity generated by solar arrays attached to the outpost………………………https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/15/nuclear_moon/

August 16, 2025 Posted by | space travel, USA | Leave a comment

Does Trump have the guts to end America’s lost proxy war against Russia?

Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL, 12 Aug 25.


For seven months Trump has reneged on his promise to end in one day America’s proxy war against Russia destroying Ukraine. Ukraine loses more soldiers and more territory every day with no chance of prevailing.

Tho a one day settlement was impossible, Trump came close to following thru by publicly berating Ukraine President Zelensky for continuing the war and threatening to cease all US weapons which keep Ukraine fighting. Then he pivoted back to war, demanding Russia’s Putin implement immediate ceasefire or face draconian sanctions. Putin responded to that nonsense with increased military attacks. Now with the upcoming summit this Friday, Trump has the opportunity to achieve peace in Ukraine.

Russia has already signaled concessions to achieve ceasefire. According to the Wall Street Journal, Russia told US envoy Steve Witkoff Russia would implement a full ceasefire if Ukraine would withdraw its remaining troops in the Donbas almost entirely controlled by Russia. In return Russia would freeze the lines in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, the other 2 Ukraine oblasts Russia demanded full control over, rather than push on for full annexation. Russia would require Ukraine to remain neutral between East and West, giving up all intentions to join NATO.

Implementing that ceasefire would be a good start to permanently ending hostilities. But neither Ukraine President Zelensky nor European NATO leaders have bought into this sensible solution.

Zelensky maintains his delusional refusal to give up a single square mile of territory that will never return to Ukraine control. He could have kept every square mile of territory had he completed the peace deal with Russia in April 2022 that the US and UK sabotaged. Seventy percent of Ukrainians want the war to end forthwith. But the fool Zelensky keeps demanding ‘push on.’

European NATO leaders, especially UK’s Starmer, France’s Macron and Germany’s Merz are still committed to this failed war to maintain NATO dominance and isolation of Russia. They fear the loss of the US gravy train that pumps up their economies. They are as delusional as Zelensky.

Trump’s third obstacle to peace is the US national security state which abhors the US losing a senseless war of choice. War fanatics like Senator Lindsey Graham and retired generals paid off by the weapons makers, dominate mainstream news condemning inevitable US surrender. No voice for ending this proxy war madness is allowed to pitch peace on the airwaves or op ed columns. They will pound on Trump relentlessly should he chalk up another US war loss, albeit one bringing peace to Ukraine.

The only ceasefire and permanent war settlement possible will go down as a US/NATO defeat. Wonderful. NATO needs to disband as it has gone on trying to weaken, isolate Russia 34 years after becoming obsolete upon dissolution of the USSR in 1991.

Does Trump have the guts to force a settlement that overcomes the resistance of Zelensky, NATO leaders and the US war party? We may soon find out.

August 13, 2025 Posted by | politics international, Ukraine, USA | Leave a comment

Trump’s Suicidal Nuclear Brinksmanship

In recent weeks, Trump has ordered the deployment of additional American nuclear weapons to Europe for the first time since Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and the Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush administrations concluded treaties leading to massive cuts in Soviet and American strategic, intermediate, short-range, and tactical nuclear weapons in Europe. In other words, he has negated the results of years of arms control efforts and decades of nuclear arms comity with Moscow.

 the Trump administration has deployed some 100-150 B61-12 tactical nuclear gravity bombs to six bases in five NATO countries: RAF Lakenheath (United Kingdom); Kleine Brogel Air Base (Belgium); Büchel Air Base (Germany); Aviano and Ghedi Air Bases (Italy); Volkel Air Base (Netherlands), and Incirlik Air Base (Turkey)

by Gordonhahn, August 5, 2025, https://gordonhahn.com/2025/08/05/trumps-suicidal-nuclear-brinksmanship/

I noted at the advent of his first term that Mr. Trump would be good for US domestic politics, especially the economy but bad for foreign policy and that is bearing out again in this second term. It is one thing for a political leader to loosely play with language that circles around making a nuclear threat, as Russian Security Council Deputy Head and former Russian President Dmitrii Medvedev has done again recently in a public social net spat with US President Donald Trump. But it is quite another to play global chess with the repositioning of nuclear forces to actually threaten another country, especially another nuclear power of equal if not superior nuclear weapons strength. No matter, that is precisely what President Trump has been doing of late. Not even the clueless, corrupt, and strategically incompetent Biden and Obama administrations made such a foolish move.

Trump responded to Medvedev’s verbal assault by making a material nuclear threat against Russia. He announced he had redeployed to US nuclear submarines closer to Russia – an act of open nuclear threat and intimidation. 

But that is not even the whole story. Trump’s nuclear sabre-rattling relates to much more than ‘merely‘ forward deploying two nuclear submarines a spart of a self-declared threatening of Moscow. 

In recent weeks, Trump has ordered the deployment of additional American nuclear weapons to Europe for the first time since Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and the Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush administrations concluded treaties leading to massive cuts in Soviet and American strategic, intermediate, short-range, and tactical nuclear weapons in Europe. In other words, he has negated the results of years of arms control efforts and decades of nuclear arms comity with Moscow. As Larry Johnson has noted, the Trump administration has deployed some 100-150 B61-12 tactical nuclear gravity bombs to six bases in five NATO countries: RAF Lakenheath (United Kingdom); Kleine Brogel Air Base (Belgium); Büchel Air Base (Germany); Aviano and Ghedi Air Bases (Italy); Volkel Air Base (Netherlands), and Incirlik Air Base (Turkey) (https://open.substack.com/pub/larrycjohnson/p/trump-escalates-nuclear-threat-to?r=1qt5jg&utm_medium=ios).

All this comes on the background of a NATO(US)-Russia Ukrainian War and an imminent Russian-American nuclear arms race, given the expiration of the New START nuclear arms treaty coming in seven months, not to mention Trump’s apparent last ditch attempt to revive Russian-Ukrainian negotiations and transition to normal US-Russian relations with his roaming negotiator Steven Witkoff’s visit to Moscow this week. Perhaps, this is Mr. Perhaps this is Trump’s provocative way of opening up discussions on renewing or replacing the expiring New START (https://gordonhahn.com/2025/05/23/a-new-new-start-putin-sees-trump-administration-as-a-window-of-opportunity-for-strategic-arms-control/).

Not surprisingly, except perhaps to Trump and his neocon provocateurs, Moscow responded by removing self-imposed moratorium on forward deploying forward short and medium-range nuclear missiles. This might be a bit of a ruse for now, since in June 2023 Russia deployed nuclear missiles to Belarus, as NATO persisted in conducting the Ukrainian War it clearly provoked and in April 2022 blocked prevention of. Mr. Trump’s deployment of tactical nukes to Europe could be seen as a response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s earlier nuclear deployments to Belarus (https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/belarus-has-started-taking-delivery-russian-tactical-nuclear-weapons-president-2023-06-14/). But the nuclear submarine redeployment cannot be so viewed, and the redeployment of tactical nukes to Europe comes too long after the Russian deployment to Belarus to be convincing as such.

The Western imperative of escalation in and around Ukraine after provoking the war by way of battlefield and geostrategic escalations in Ukraine is clear and undeniable. From blocking the April 2022 Istanbul peace agreement to providing offensive rather than just defensive weapons, from first providing Ukraine with tanks and armoured personnel carriers, then artillery systems, then fighter jets, mid-range missiles, and soon perhaps longer-range ones, the West has taken every opportunity to escalate the war rather than negotiate an end to it. 

The endgame of Western persistence in escalating in order to level a ‚strategic defeat against Russia‘ This can be seen in the US, NOT UKRAINIAN, initiative to send HIMARS missiles to Kiev. For it was not Ukraine that requested the supply of HIMARS to Kiev, but rather it was American generals who did. As the New York Times reported: “Generals Cavoli and Donahue soon proposed a far bigger leap — providing High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, known as HIMARS.” “When the generals requested HIMARS, one official recalled, the moment felt like ‘standing on that line, wondering, if you take a step forward, is World War III going to break out?’” (https://archive.is/Fdwq3). This also can be seen in the proposal by some Biden-era US officials, according to the New York Times, to ‚return‘ nuclear weapons to Ukraine (www.nytimes.com/2024/11/21/us/politics/trump-russia-ukraine-war.html). This would end either in a pre-emptive Russian nuclear strike or massive conventional one, using the likes of Oreshkin missiles, that would finish off the process of Ukraine‘s Second Great Ruin. This is suicidal brinksmanship and over what? NATO’s expansion to Ukraine.

Mr. Trump is returning to this stupid, futile, and dangerous Biden-era escalation policy, even as he ostensibly pursues a Ukrainian peace process. But Trump’s innovation is to escalate at the nuclear level, threatening a security-vigilant Moscow with a nuclear first strike in eastern Ukraine or the homeland proper. Continuing this petulant foolishness, as I have noted repeatedly in the course of the decade-long Ukrainian crisis, cannot end well.   

August 12, 2025 Posted by | politics international, USA | 1 Comment

Nuclear developers turn to Special Purpose Acquisition Companies.

Three nuclear energy developers are seeking to raise more than $500mn
through mergers with special purpose acquisition companies as investors
rush to tap into an atomic energy boom.

Terra Innovatum, Terrestrial Energy
and Eagle Energy Metals said the transactions, which they expected to be
completed by the end of the year, would accelerate the development of small
modular reactors.

Several other companies developing nuclear technologies
are considering listings via initial public offerings, including Holtec
International and Quantum Leap Energy, a division of ASP Isotopes.
“Investors now realise that nuclear energy is here to stay because it is
needed to power the artificial intelligence revolution and this is
turbocharging interest, particularly in the US,” said Nick Lawson, the
chief executive of Ocean Wall, an investment group advising ASP Isotopes on
the QLE spin off.

Shares in nuclear energy companies surged near record
highs last week as optimism about a nuclear renaissance gathered pace owing
to AI power demand and political support from the Trump administration.
Last month Westinghouse outlined plans to build 10 large nuclear reactors
in the US at a meeting in Pittsburgh attended by President Donald Trump,
who has set a target of quadrupling American nuclear power capacity in the
next 25 years.

FT 11th Aug 2025, https://www.ft.com/content/087f3fac-52ca-4ca7-8827-734125af4a2b

August 12, 2025 Posted by | business and costs, Small Modular Nuclear Reactors, USA | 1 Comment

Pete Hegseth Doesn’t Want to Talk About Golden Dome

National missile defense is still impossible—and expensive.

By Tom Nichols. The Atlantic, 8 Aug 25

Donald Trump wants to spend billions of dollars on a successor to President Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, and he’s calling it “Golden Dome,” inspired by both Israel’s Iron Dome defense and Reagan’s early-1980s concept of a “peace shield” over North America. It’s a hugely ambitious project, but Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth apparently would prefer that no one talk about it.

This week, military and civilian experts are in Huntsville, Alabama, for the 2025 Space and Missile Defense Symposium, a gathering of more than 7,000 top experts, military officers, and defense-industry representatives from around the world. One might think that such a jamboree is the obvious place to cheerlead for a new American missile-defense plan. But one would be wrong: The Pentagon has barred anyone from speaking about Golden Dome in public. Instead, according to Politico, representatives of the Missile Defense Agency joined a closed meeting that was not part of, or sponsored by, the symposium.

This shyness about discussing Golden Dome is probably part of Hegeseth’s clampdown on Pentagon officials going to meetings at think tanks and attending other public symposia. Still, the choice to go silent at this meeting is strange: Golden Dome is projected to cost gobs of money, and SMDS is exactly the kind of place where the government can tell its story and get science, industry, and the military on the same page…………………..(Subscribers only)…. https://www.theatlantic.com/national-security/archive/2025/08/trump-reagan-golden-dome-missile-defense/683799/?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us

August 12, 2025 Posted by | USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

A Second CANDU Reactor for Point Lepreau? Let’s Ponder.

A new CANDU reactor does not exist. The current reactor at Point Lepreau is a CANDU 6, the same model as the one Hydro-Québec shut down permanently in 2012 and is now in the process of decommissioning. There are no plans to design a new CANDU 6.

August 6, 2025, Susan O’Donnell and Frank Greening, https://www.theenergymix.com/a-second-candu-reactor-for-point-lepreau-lets-ponder/

Over the summer, New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt mused to journalists about building a second CANDU reactor at the Point Lepreau nuclear site on the Bay of Fundy.

“A second CANDU is not far-fetched,” she told the Telegraph Journal. On the weekend, Holt enthused about the idea in a CBC story about the Eastern Energy Partnership pitch to Prime Minister Mark Carney.

A new CANDU reactor for New Brunswick? It’s a puzzling thought, worth pondering.

Let’s put aside for a moment that the current CANDU reactor at the Point Lepreau site is an economic nightmare, its poor performance the main reason NB Power loses money almost every year. Overspends on the original reactor and the rebuild together represent almost two-thirds of NB Power’s nearly $6-billion debt.

Let’s forget that more than 25 years ago in Ontario, the provincial utility Ontario Hydro was similarly effectively bankrupt before it was split up, leaving a $20-billion stranded debt, largely left over from its CANDU nuclear construction program. Ontario taxpayers and ratepayers were left holding the bag for that $20 billion, paying it back on their electricity bills. A recent investigation found that: “In 2050 Ontario will still be paying the debt of the nuclear program of the 1970s and 80s.”

Let’s also try to forget that the New Brunswick government gets its nuclear advice from NB Power (the utility that loses money almost every year), the same utility that in 2018 recommended the province invite two start-up companies from the United Kingdom and the United States that had never built a nuclear reactor to come to New Brunswick and, with their experimental reactor designs, start a new nuclear export industry.

It was a breathtakingly risky recommendation that can most kindly be described as “wishful thinking.” In the seven years since, despite more than $95 million to the companies from provincial and federal taxpayers, their two “advanced” designs for small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) have failed to attract enough private sector financing and almost certainly will never be built in New Brunswick.

Finally, are we willing to ignore the fact that the Peskotomuhkati Nation never consented to the current CANDU reactor on its homeland at Point Lepreau, has made numerous interventions against plans to put the two SMRs on the site, and is highly unlikely to consent to a second CANDU?

For this ponder, let’s park all those troubling facts and focus on what we know about a potential second CANDU reactor for Point Lepreau.

A new CANDU reactor does not exist. The current reactor at Point Lepreau is a CANDU 6, the same model as the one Hydro-Québec shut down permanently in 2012 and is now in the process of decommissioning. There are no plans to design a new CANDU 6.

AtkinsRéalis (formerly SNC-Lavalin) owns the exclusive rights to design a new CANDU. The engineering firm announced in late 2023 that its new CANDU design is called Monark. So far, the CANDU Monark is a computer model, currently registered with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission as in a “familiarization and planning” stage with the start date for regulatory reviews “to be determined”.

Although AtkinsRéalis has released almost no technical details about its proposed design, the company did predict the CANDU Monark’s capacity factor, an important parameter for evaluating a nuclear reactor design. The capacity factor is a measure of efficiency, how often a nuclear reactor (or any other kind of power plant) operates at maximum power output over a specific period.

Predicted capacity factors require years of reactor operation to prove reliability. In 2023, the global average nuclear power plant capacity factor was 81.5%. Predicting a higher average capacity factor would mean AtkinsRéalis believes the CANDU Monark design can produce power more consistently and at a greater percentage of its potential than the average reactor.

This “new” CANDU Monark design has similar features (cooled and moderated with heavy water, similar core channels and heat transport system) to the design of the reactor at the Darlington nuclear site in Ontario, the last CANDU ordered in Canada more than 30 years ago. The lifetime average capacity factor for Darlington’s four CANDU units is 83%, in line with the global average.

Yet a paper sponsored by AtkinsRéalis at the June 2024 conference of the Canadian Nuclear Society claims the annual capacity of the CANDU Monark design is more than 95%, much higher than the global average or the actual number at Darlington.

How does AtkinsRéalis plan to boost this CANDU’s average capacity factor from 83% to 95%? The answer: more wishful thinking!

Now, back to the existing CANDU 6 reactor at Point Lepreau—which is currently, again, closed for repairs, this time for five months. After refurbishment, from the start of 2013 to the end of 2024, its capacity factor was 78%, below the global average. Last year, with a multi-month, unplanned shutdown for a generator repair, the reactor operated at 32% capacity. An investigation by CBC predicts that 2024  may be its worst operational year ever.

Earlier this year, the NB Power CEO said the root of the reactor’s problems can be traced to when the reactor was refurbished from 2008 to 2012. To save money, the plant’s supporting infrastructure was not upgraded, and now that infrastructure is breaking down.

Lack of money is a core constraint for New Brunswick’s nuclear plans. In 2024, another CBC investigation revealed a consultant report that linked the poor performance of NB Power’s nuclear reactor to the fact that since the refurbishment, the utility has not spent nearly enough to maintain it.

The basic problem is that New Brunswick lacks the capacity to operate a nuclear reactor. In addition to a financially stretched utility with a small grid, the province lacks nuclear management expertise.

When the plant reopened in 2012 after refurbishment, NB Power contracted a management team from Ontario Power Generation (OPG). Later, the utility hired a manager living outside the country. He billed the utility for travel expenses from his home to his work in New Brunswick in addition to his salary, a total that reached $1.3 million but delivered no improvement in the reactor’s performance. In 2023, NB Power said goodbye to the American and contracted OPG management again.

Across the globe [pdf], it is hard to find an electrical grid as small as NB Power’s with a nuclear reactor. The International Atomic Energy Agency recommends that: “A single power plant should represent no more than 10% of the total installed grid capacity.” NB Power’s Point Lepreau plant exceeds 15% of its grid capacity, including the energy available under power purchase agreements.

For decades, the utility has had oversized nuclear ambitions. As far back as 1972, a federal Department of Finance official warned [pdf] against subsidizing a power reactor for “a small, high-cost utility with barely enough cash flow to finance its present debt,” calling New Brunswick’s nuclear plans “the equivalent of a Volkswagen family acquiring a Cadillac as a second car.”


The nuclear industry depends on wishful thinking, plus its hubris and supreme confidence that have bamboozled generations of energy ministers and premiers into believing its overblown hype.

So, a second CANDU at Point Lepreau? The Premier would be wise to ignore the promotion and sales puff from NB Power and its nuclear industry friends and review the facts. Follow the money, or in this case, the billions the province has lost so far. A decision to build a second CANDU at Point Lepreau would be not only puzzling, but economically reckless.

Dr. Susan O’Donnell is a social scientist specializing in technology adoption and an Adjunct Research Professor and lead investigator of the CEDAR project at St. Thomas University. Dr. Frank Greening is nuclear research scientist with a PhD in Chemistry, retired from Ontario Power Generation (OPG). This story was first published by NB Media Co-op, and is republished by permission.

August 11, 2025 Posted by | Canada, technology | Leave a comment

From boots to orbits: Army develops space skills amid growing battlefield reliance on satellites

The service is launching “40 Delta” military occupational specialty to build expertise in space domain operations

by Sandra Erwin, August 6, 2025, https://spacenews.com/from-boots-to-orbits-army-develops-space-skills-amid-growing-battlefield-reliance-on-satellites/?utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Top stories%3A NASA s commercial space station pivot%2C China tests crewed lunar lander&utm_campaign=SNTW 8%2F8%2F2025

The U.S. Army will begin recruiting soldiers for its first dedicated enlisted specialty in space operations. This is part of a broader push by the service to build organic expertise as satellites become increasingly critical to modern ground warfare….

…The initiative comes as military leaders increasingly view space capabilities as essential to ground operations, driven in part by lessons from the conflict in Ukraine, where electronic jamming, cyber threats and satellite-denied environments have become routine challenges for forces.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The U.S. Army will begin recruiting soldiers for its first dedicated enlisted specialty in space operations. This is part of a broader push by the service to build organic expertise as satellites become increasingly critical to modern ground warfare.

Army officials at the Space & Missile Defense Symposium this week said the 40 Delta (40D) Space Operations Specialist military occupational specialty is moving from planning to implementation, with full operations expected by October 2026. 

Lt. Gen. Sean Gainey, head of the Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command, said the service is just weeks away from the official launch of the new specialty. The goal is to “build long-term, institutional knowledge and to retain noncommissioned officers (NCOs) with space expertise,” Gainey said.

The 40D program was approved in December and will begin accepting applications early next year, with selection boards starting in May, according to Command Sergeant Major John Foley, the Army’s senior enlisted leader for space operations. Selected soldiers will receive specialized training in Colorado Springs to become space operations specialists.

The initiative comes as military leaders increasingly view space capabilities as essential to ground operations, driven in part by lessons from the conflict in Ukraine, where electronic jamming, cyber threats and satellite-denied environments have become routine challenges for forces.

Organizational structure

Beyond the new enlisted specialty, the Army is developing what it calls a “space branch” – a professional category similar to existing branches like Infantry, Armor and Artillery. Foley said the space branch would initially encompass about 1,000 enlisted soldiers and officers and would allow space professionals to advocate for programs and resources. The branch is not officially in place yet but should be coming soon, he added.

These organizational changes build on the evolution of the 1st Space Brigade and expansion of “multidomain” task forces, which Gainey identified as significant developments in Army space capabilities. These units have integrated space operations with ground maneuver formations through exercises and collaboration with special operations and cyber elements, giving soldiers hands-on experience in spectrum awareness and techniques to deceive and disrupt adversaries’ satellite use.

The Army’s own labs also have produced weapons like BADGR, a portable system that combines surveillance sensors and jamming devices for electronic attack missions. Brig. Gen. Don Brooks, deputy commander for operations at the Army Space and Missile Defense Command, said five BADGR prototypes have been delivered to Army units based on feedback from ground forces requesting specialized equipment for “electronic attack.”

A joint endeavor, not a turf war

The Army’s push to develop internal space expertise has drawn criticism from some observers who view it as creating a “mini Space Force” that could duplicate the newer service’s mission. Army leaders have pushed back against such characterizations, emphasizing their goal is to cultivate organic space competencies rather than compete with the Space Force.

Army officials argue that having soldiers on the ground who understand space-based assets and can immediately translate satellite data, communication support and threat warnings into real-time action is essential for modern warfare. They contend that waiting for external support, even from an expert service like the Space Force, is often impractical when ground units need instant solutions integrated into their tactical operations.

The Army continues to rely on the Space Force for satellite launches, advanced systems and global networks, but maintains that a land component with skilled space professionals can make the entire joint force more capable and resilient.

Gen. Stephen Whiting, head of U.S. Space Command, offered support for the Army’s approach during remarks at the symposium. “I’m gratified to see that all of our military services are understanding the criticality of space,” Whiting said. “The Army recognizes that for maneuver elements to be successful, that there needs to be soldiers who understand space.”

Whiting emphasized that the Space Force maintains its “global space mission to provide space capabilities to the entire force and also to protect and defend capabilities in the domain,” while acknowledging that “all of our services have real institutional strengths.” Rather than viewing the Army’s efforts as competitive, Whiting said, “I don’t see it as being an overlapping and competitive set of responsibilities … but I do see them being complimentary.”

August 11, 2025 Posted by | space travel, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

“Memories that do not heal”: the legacy of uranium mining at Laguna Pueblo.

Following passage of the Radiation and Exposure and Compensation Act expansion, which includes post-1971 miners for the first time, Searchlight spoke with three tribal members whose lives were changed forever by a toxic industry.

SEARCHLIGHT NEW MEXICO, by Aviva Nathan, August 8, 2025

On July 25, I drove to the Pueblo of Laguna to speak with Loretta Anderson, Millie Chino and Vincent Rodriguez, steering members of an advocacy group called the Southwest Uranium Miners Coalition Post-71. Anderson co-founded the organization in 2014 to fight for the expansion of paid benefits — to uranium workers who entered the industry after 1971 — under the Radiation Exposure and Compensation Act (RECA), the 1990 law created to provide financial support to people exposed to radiation from atomic weapons testing as well as the milling, mining and transporting of uranium.

At Laguna, the mines deformed the hills into tiered sites of extraction that are still gray from the uranium. Infrastructure that was built for the mining still remains, now in a state of disrepair. In the wake of mining, what was once a hill collapsed into a contaminated green pond that smells like methane. (The mine in question, called Jackpile Mine, was the largest open-pit uranium mine in the world and operated both underground and open-pit areas.) Anderson’s late husband, Roy Cheresposy, was a miner. Chino lost her husband, James, another miner, in 2023. Vincent Rodriguez was also a miner. 

Our conversation took place while we drove around various sites on pueblo land that were affected by mining that happened here between 1953 and 1982. It followed the recent RECA expansion that’s part of President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, passed on July 4. This legislation, for the first time, will compensate post-1971 uranium workers, offering a one-time payment of $100,000 to New Mexico workers who meet certain criteria related to exposure and health consequences. Compensation will be overseen by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ); the agency has yet to release the new RECA application forms.

The urgent desire of downwinders and uranium workers to be compensated after decades of waiting has been seized upon by lawyers, home health care companies and other third parties that hope to get a slice of the pie for themselves. Already, there has been a cacophony of misinformation and rumors of unlawful solicitation. (For details on how the application process should work, see our sidebar about frequently asked questions.) Right now, it’s difficult to estimate how much will be paid in expanded compensation. Since Reca was first passed, more than $2.7 billion has been awarded.

While potential applicants are in limbo, the physical source of harm remains unattended. The Jackpile Mine, which was declared a Superfund site in 2013, is vacant, but it’s still exposed and quietly lethal. Meanwhile, members of the steering committee have expressed concern that uranium mining could begin again shortly, given the Trump administration’s eagerness to expand uranium mining, which includes efforts to fast-track the opening of mines in New Mexico. Susan Gordon, a coordinator with the Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment, adds that further steps are required of companies before they can start mining again in this state. 

Land and memory converged as Anderson, Chino and Rodriguez spoke about the history and intimate impact of uranium mining in Laguna Pueblo. The following transcript is edited for clarity and length. 

As I drove onto Laguna land, which sits around 50 miles west of Albuquerque, Anderson drove ahead of me and contextualized the landscape over the phone. I’ve added Chino’s comments from a trip on the same roads a few hours later.

Millie Chino: They used to have sheep camps along these hills, years ago before the mining started. But once it started, they couldn’t herd anymore, because of the blasting and all the production going on. Many of our people were farmers and sheepherders and cattle workers. 

Lorretta Anderson: There was no acknowledgement of the harm being done by the mines. That’s the terrible part. If you look up at those hills, you can see where the gray clay is. That gray color is uranium.

That was where the mines were. Part of it, anyway. They did do a reclamation at one time, but they only put on a thin layer of dirt. They didn’t clean it up. That dirt all has to have blown away already. The people who did the reclamation are sick. They didn’t have any protective gear.

Chino: On your left, you’ll see the housing area where the supervisors of the mines and their children and families lived. We’ve been told they’re all deceased. Even their children, they died of cancers. My mom worked there as a housekeeper for one of the big shots. Both my parents passed away from radiation diseases.

Anderson: On the right, you can see the arroyo. Now it’s highly contaminated. It’s seeping down the Rio San Jose. Uranium contaminated our Mesita Dam. And there’s a little lake here that’s highly contaminated. That is a hot spot. They don’t know what to do with it. If you stop here, you will see that the horses, cattle and all the animals drink off that area where it’s highly contaminated. 

Now we’re entering the village of Paguate. People here are very sick. They’re suffering and dying. The majority of our people were working at the mines. From January 1, 1972, the uranium mining industry just expanded so much, and everybody was employed there at that point. I was living in Seama Village. I live about 11 miles from the mines, down in the valley. I’m in the farthest village, actually. We have six villages in Laguna Pueblo. 

We arrived at Chino’s house. In her living room, she read from a poster she’d made.

Chino: These are recollections of my childhood memories, and I’ve titled it, “Memories That Do Not Heal.” The recollections of childhood memories living in Paguate village are of pain, heartbreak and anger. Anger. Uranium mining operations began near our village in the 1950s. A frightening sound became an everyday event. A dynamite blasting happened at least twice per day. When the blasting occurred, everything vibrated. The village shook. The houses built with rock and mud were affected by the vibrations. The pictures that hung on the walls fell.

As children, we were so curious and excited by the loud explosive booms coming from the uranium mine. We figured out the blasting schedule. We gathered at the edge of the village to observe the huge billowing of dust clouds after the blast. The clouds of dust drifted over the village and settled on everything. Women dried fruit and meat outside their homes. Families ate the contaminated food, not knowing the eventual consequences. Years passed. The continued blasting caused cracks in the walls of homes. The outdoor oven walls cracked. The women could not bake bread, roast corn or cook. Today, there are no ovens to be used as they once were. They are in disrepair. As mining operations continued, miners and community members were exposed to the toxic environment.

The Jackpile Mine closed in 1982. Since then, we’ve lived with the knowledge that many community members are sick and dying from cancers. Kidney and respiratory diseases. My beloved spouse, a Vietnam veteran, parents and other relatives passed away from the uranium diseases. These are memories of my childhood growing up in the village so near to the uranium mine.

Anderson: Once you disrupt uranium — and the government knew this — you can’t do anything to stop it from contaminating people. You just open up a porthole of illnesses and diseases. And that’s what our people are suffering from right now. They don’t know how to stop the contamination. There’s nothing they can do. It’s awful. It’s headed down the Rio San Jose, which is going toward Albuquerque and Las Lunas and Belen. And they can’t stop it.

They only have given us until 2027 to file RECA claims. That’s not enough time. Right now, I’m working with over 500 living miners, trying to get them going. We have all these attorneys and home health care groups that are causing so much havoc throughout the community. I told people: Don’t answer them. Do not give out your information. The city of Grants right now is just craziness.

We had a meeting recently and went through everything — and we told everybody to hold off. Our people are calling me asking how to apply, and to get tested, but right now the Radiation Exposure Screening and Education Program at the University of New Mexico is just swamped, because so many people are trying to get tested. I’m telling everyone to get a disc and a radiology report from their doctor, and then we can have the pulmonologist from RESEP read it, so he can do a B-read, in which a diagnosis is made from looking at an X-ray, to determine if miners qualify for compensation………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… https://searchlightnm.org/radiation-exposure-compensation-act-expansion-trump-one-big-beautiful-bill-act-new-mexico-laguna-pueblo-uranium-miners-jackpile/?utm_source=Searchlight+New+Mexico&utm_campaign=5a9ee266ce-8%2F8%2F2025+%E2%80%93+%E2%80%9CMemories+that+do+not+heal%E2%80%9D&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8e05fb0467-5a9ee266ce-395610620&mc_cid=5a9ee266ce&mc_eid=a70296a261

August 11, 2025 Posted by | health, USA | Leave a comment

How industry is positioning itself for the giant Golden Dome budget.

…What emerges from these individual fundraising rounds, tests and production increases…is companies who see a generational windfall… 

. 

PART 3  |  AUGUST 6, 2025

Welcome to the third part of our four-part newsletter series on the funding, technology and mission of the Golden Dome missile defense initiative, where we break down the highly ambitious space-based military program, from its history to its planned architecture to its budget and to the role of AI. We’ll keep you up to date on what stands to become one of the most expansive military defense systems in United States history.

Today, we’ll talk more about industry’s visions for Golden Dome, and how some companies are already positioning themselves to win Pentagon contracts.

Almost immediately after President Donald Trump announced the idea that came to be known as Golden Dome, space and defense companies started making their case for how their technology could be a fit for the program. 

As a result, industry officials have several visions for what Golden Dome might include and how it might work. While Gen. Michael Guetlein, recently appointed program manager for Golden Dome of America, only recently kicked off a 60-daysprint to deliver an architecture, some of the pitches and procurements already out there may offer ideas on the range of possibilities and the technologies involved.
Many of the defense industry’s largest players have started touting a vision for Golden Dome. 
Among them:
L3Harris is touting its history and pedigree to develop part of the system. The company has built a missile-tracking satellite that successfully demonstrated the ability to track a hypersonic missile from space, the Missile Defense Agency confirmed April 25. L3Harris has also recently expanded its manufacturing capabilities, ramping up its ability to produce infrared sensing payloads — a central technology for the Golden Dome missile-defense shield that relies heavily on space-based capabilities. In addition, the company announced plans to leverage its AI partnerships with Palantir and Shield AI in the interest of securing Golden Dome contracts. And in July, L3Harris named Rob Mitrevski, who recently oversaw the company’s expansion of infrared sensor payload production capacity, as president of Golden Dome strategy and integration — signalling the company’s intent to steer its growing portfolio of work on Golden Dome.

Northrop Grumman, too, is discussing its experience as a lead contractor for the Space Development Agency’s Tracking Layer. In a recent interview with SpaceNews, Raymond Sharp, vice president of Northrop Grumman’s missile defense solutions business unit, said the company is “all in” on Golden Dome, and hopes to cement a systems-integrator role that goes beyond supplying components. The company would incorporate modular networking technologies that it’s already developed for other military contracts into Golden Dome concepts to demonstrate “plug-and-play” integration — a key requirement for a system expected to absorb a range of sensors, weapons and decision-support software from across the industrial base.

Northrop also intends to offer components — in a second-quarter earnings call, CEO Kathy Warden said the company is significantly ramping up solid rocket motor production and plans to offer a space-based interceptor concept soon, saying that ground-based tests are already happening. During an Aug. 5 meeting with reporters, Northrop Grumman executives said the company’s billion-dollar investment in solid rocket motor production facilities put the company in a strong position to capitalize on the demand likely to be generated by Golden Dome.

Similarly, Lockheed Martin announced it hopes to conduct orbital tests of space-based interceptors, which is thought to be a key part of Golden Dome, in 2028. However, the company has not clarified whether those interceptors will rely on kinetic or directed energy weaponry and probably won’t announce those details until an architecture is released.

Booz Allen Hamilton unveiled a concept for a megaconstellation of 2,000 smallsats operating as an artificial intelligence-powered network that the company is calling “Brilliant Swarms.” The company said the satellites would serve as both detection systems and as “kill vehicles” that would de-orbit targets by physically slamming into them — no space-based missiles required.
The project is also expected to attract disruptors to the Pentagon’s business. Reutersreported in April that executives from SpaceX, Anduril and Palantir met with the Trump administration to pitch a Golden Dome architecture that involves a constellation of 400 to 1,000 missile detecting and tracking satellites and another constellation of 200 attack satellites that would target and disable missiles with lasers or with missiles of their own. The trio is reportedly being considered a frontrunner for Golden Dome, though SpaceX CEO Elon Musk disputed Reuters’ claims and those reports came prior to the public dissolution of Trump and Musk’s relationship. More recently, Reuters reported that the administration is looking to expand the companies involved in Golden Dome to reduce reliance on SpaceX. Officials have reached out to companies like Amazon, Rocket Lab and Stoke Space about participating in the effort in an attempt to reduce the role SpaceX would play.

At the same time, more traditional space companies are also now seeing a potential lane for defense work. For example, Voyager is working to paint a clear line between the technology it’s already been building and the presumed needs for an advanced missile defense system. Voyager plans to offer up its propulsion technology — the company has developed  a solid propulsion roll control system designed to stabilize a missile’s flight trajectory — to Golden Dome. Voyager has also pitched edge computing systems it’s developing in partnership with Palantir. 

Redwire, which includes spacecraft, sensors and digital engineering systems, is also offering up many of its core technology for Golden Dome.

Top-down visions

Some aspects of what will become Golden Dome are likely already underway; last week we mentioned that BAE Systems had won a $1.2 billion Space Force contractfor 10 medium Earth orbit missile (MEO) tracking satellites. The satellites will become part of the Resilient Missile Warning Tracking Epoch 2, which marks the second phase of the Space Force’s program to develop a missile-tracking network in MEO. The constellation is intended to help defend against evolving missile threats, particularly hypersonic weapons that have become a key focus for U.S. defense planners, and as a result will be integrated into the overall Golden Dome project.

Several other space industry firms are presenting themselves as capable of handling the work necessary for building the Golden Dome.
Take Rocket Lab, which in recent months took several steps to expand into the military sector and pursue coveted status as a prime contractor for the Pentagon and a worthwhile partner for high-value contracts. Those steps include a $275 million acquisition of Geost, which produces electro-optical and infrared (EO/IR) sensor payloads that are already used in U.S. military satellites, with plans for more acquisitions down the road.
Other companies have been busy raising funds or ramping up their own capabilities, such as Sophia Space, which raised $3.5 million in pre-seed funding to develop orbiting data centers, which it hopes to demonstrate as useful for Golden Dome through a memorandum of understanding with Axiom Space.

Apex recently raised money in a $200 million Series C, which it will use to increase satellite bus production — similarly arguing that they would be useful for missile defense. And Quantum Space raised $40 million to develop its national security-focused Ranger spacecraft, also hiring to its executive team former Defense Department official Richard Matlock, who previously worked in missile defense.

What emerges from these individual fundraising rounds, tests and production increases — whether it’s Virgin Galactic’s work on suborbital spaceplanes or Ursa Major’s contract to test a hypersonic-capable engine — is companies who see a generational windfall.  

Uncertainty about the scope of Golden Dome translates to uncertainty about which firms and which technologies will make their way into the program. It also means it’s way too early to guess who the winners will be. But with the size of Golden Dome’s $25 budget, many space companies will look to show off their capabilities. 

 follow all our coverage at SpaceNews.com,

August 11, 2025 Posted by | business and costs, USA | Leave a comment

$10 billion, 10 year US Army contract elevates Palantir to defense contracting royalty.

Crashes the multibillion-dollar DoD party alongside Boeing, Lockheed, and Raytheon.

Brandon Vigliarolo. Fri 1 Aug 2025 , https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/01/palantir_us_army_contract/

There are no official criteria for what constitutes membership in the upper echelon of the US military industrial complex, but a $10 billion deal that consolidates dozens of contracts under a single blanket purchase agreement sure makes it seem like Palantir has earned entry.

The US Army announced on Thursday that, rather than continue to buy Palantir products on one of 75 different contracts the branch has with the data analytics software company, it’s awarding a ten-year Enterprise Agreement (EA) with the aforementioned cap of $10 billion. Like a standard blanket purchase agreement, the deal allows the Army to buy what it needs from Palantir over the course of a decade. 

It doesn’t appear that the Army is awarding Palantir any new contracts based on the press release or a procurement notice published about the contract in May. According to that document, the Army had figured out that it’s doing so much business with Palantir over so many separate procurement actions that it’s wasting a lot of time and money.

“Consolidating these efforts under an EA will streamline future modifications and task orders under a single set of ordering instructions and terms and conditions,” the May publication pointed out. “Instead of managing dozens of contracts with varying terms, the government will empower a single team to manage the contract.” 

With 75 active contracts between the Army and Palantir, it’s nearly impossible to track down what exactly the Army is using from Palantir, though we do have some ideas.

Palantir won its first major defense contract from the Army in 2019 when it scored $800 million to work on new battlefield intelligence software for the branch. It also scored contracts to build things like mobile battlefield intelligence trucks, and the Pentagon tapped it to develop the Maven Smart System after Google backed out of the deal following employee protests. 

More broadly, Palantir offers various data analytics tools and suites, any number of which may be in use. 

Beyond the US Army and the DoD, Palantir has also worked with US Immigration officials to develop deportation software, at the IRS to help it with new software initiatives, and even at US-backed mortgage broker Fannie Mae, where the company’s code has been put to use detecting fraud.

Palantir has found itself in US President Donald Trump’s good graces thanks to CEO Alex Karp’s previous comments about his opposition to “woke” ideology, support for DOGE, and comments about “powering the West to innate superiority.” This latest contract will likely do little to assuage conspiracy-minded fears that Palantir is gobbling up and monetizing government data for the benefit of Trump and a coterie of right-wing billionaires. 

By scoring an EA, Palantir finds itself in the company of defense contractors like Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and Lockheed Martin – an elite club, to be sure.

Palantir declined to comment on this story beyond pointing to the Army press release, while the US Army didn’t immediately respond to questions.

August 11, 2025 Posted by | USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Expands Nuclear Bomb Production, Rejects Cleanup, Still Plans to Release Tritium.

Lab officials have released plans to “defer” cleanup of one of the older radioactive dumps
Overarching above all is LANL’s vast expansionof its nuclear weapons programs

August 3, 2025,   https://nukewatch.org/lanl-expands-bomb-production-while-planning-tritium-releases-and-rejecting-cleanup/

Santa Fe, NM – Eighty years after the first radioactive waste was buried at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Lab officials have released plans to “defer” cleanup of one of the older radioactive dumps. Material Disposal Area C (“Area C”) is an 11.8-acre site that was active from 1948 to 1974. It contains metals, hazardous constituents, and radioactively and chemically contaminated materials in six unlined disposal pits and 108 shafts. The total waste and fill in the pits and shafts are estimated at 198,104 cubic meters. Area C also has a serious gas plume of industrial solvents. Given the amount of long-lived plutonium wastes that are likely to be in Area C, leaving it buried 25 feet deep in a landfill rated for only 1,000 years is not acceptable. 

On June 18, 2025, the Department of Energy (DOE) sent the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) a letter outlining its plans to “defer corrective action” (i.e. cleanup) at Area C. It stated that the dump “is associated with active Facility operations and will be deferred from further corrective action under [NMED’s] Consent Order [governing cleanup] until MDA C is no longer associated with active Facility operations.” 

DOE’s letter does not state why it wants the change or what “active Facility operations” are. However, that is not difficult to guess as Area C is within a few hundred yards of PF-4, LANL’s main plutonium facility that is gearing up for the expanded production of plutonium pit bomb cores. As co-plaintiff, Nuclear Watch New Mexico legally forced the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to undertake a nationwide programmatic environmental impact statement for pit production, which the agency chose to give a fifty year time horizon. In combination this means that DOE and LANL are seeking to indefinitely postpone cleanup while expanding nuclear weapons production on into the future.

Fortunately, NMED has responded that it “will utilize to the fullest extent all statutory and legal authority necessary to enforce the requirements of the 2016 CO [Consent Order] in order to ensure that New Mexicans receive effective cleanup of legacy contamination at LANL in a timely manner.”

The Environment Department went on to say: 

“DOE continues to respond to the regulatory direction provided by NMED in ways that do not reflect any good faith efforts to be accountable for cleanup of the legacy waste at Los Alamos National Laboratory and, in fact, are directly contradictory to the assertations previously made by DOE. As you may recall, during the substantial negotiation process in 2023-24 for revision of the Consent Order, DOE repeatedly reiterated its desire to work collaboratively and effectively with NMED. This recent example of an improper, unilateral deferral contrary to the terms of the Consent Order, along with the bad-faith withdrawal of the CME [Corrective Measures Evaluation to initiate cleanup] Report, contradict such assertions and reassurances from DOE.”

At the same time DOE and LANL are still seeking to intentionally release up to 30,000 curies of tritium, which has been highly controversial. Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen that can be easily absorbed by the body as tritiated water. Instead of complying with a NMED order to organize an independent expert panel and a public meeting on the subject, they have invoked a dispute resolution process under the Consent Order. This is the kind of forum in which taxpayer supported lawyers from DOE and LANL can try to run circles around NMED’s limited staff and resources. 

Overarching above all is LANL’s vast expansion of its nuclear weapons programs. A full billion dollars is being added in FY 2026 (which begins this October 1), making 84% of LANL’s $6 billion dollar annual budget directly tied to nuclear weapons. This increase is primarily for:

1) New-design nuclear weapons that can’t be tested because of the international testing moratorium; or, conversely, could prompt the U.S. to resume testing, with serious global proliferation consequences; and 

2) Expanded plutonium pit bomb core production for these new-design nuclear weapons. This is ill-conceived because no future production is to maintain the existing stockpile. Independent experts have found that pits last at least a century and at least 15,000 existing pits are already in storage. 

In contrast, cleanup and nonproliferation programs are being cut by 5%, non-weapons science by 50%, and renewables energies research completely eliminated. 

Scott Kovac, Research Director of Nuclear Watch New Mexico commented, “LANL and DOE once again treat New Mexico as their nuclear colony with their radioactive releases, obstruction of cleanup and expansion of nuclear weapons programs. The day will come when this is no longer tolerated in the Land of Enchantment.”

Sources:

June 2016, State of New Mexico Environment Department, Compliance Order on Consent U.S. Department of Energy – Los Alamos National Laboratory (Modified September 2024)

June 18, 2025 Letter from DOE to NMED, Deferment of Corrective Action Activities for Solid Waste Management Unit 50-009 at Material Disposal Area C under the 2016 Compliance Order on Consent 

July 2, 2025 Letter from NMED to DOE, Response, Deferment of Corrective Action Activities for Solid Waste Management Unit 50-009 at Material Disposal Area C 

July 9, 2025, LANL and NNSA to NMED, Response to June 9, 2025 Letter, Temporary Authorization Los Alamos National Laboratory Hazardous Waste Facility Permit

Department of Energy FY 2026 Congressional Budget Request, Laboratory Table

August 7, 2025 Posted by | USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

A NASA Nuclear Reactor On The Moon? Bold Proposal Is Unfeasible By 2030– Here’s Why.

There are already many complications in this proposal,
which has not been officially released yet. The Trump administration
proposed a budget that would devastate NASA’s multiple science programs,
and while it asked for more funding for human spaceflight in the short
term, it would cancel the Space Launch System and Orion Spacecraft, making
NASA exclusively reliant on private companies to get to the Moon. As yet,
we don’t have one of those that won’t stop exploding.

 IFL Science 5th Aug 2025, https://www.iflscience.com/a-nasa-nuclear-reactor-on-the-moon-bold-proposal-is-unfeasible-by-2030-heres-why-80289

August 7, 2025 Posted by | space travel, USA | Leave a comment

When the Press Becomes the Enemy: The Erosion of Media Independence in Trump’s America

6 August 2025 Michael Taylor, https://theaimn.net/when-the-press-becomes-the-enemy-the-erosion-of-media-independence-in-trumps-america/ 

A free and independent press is one of democracy’s last lines of defense. It’s where power is questioned, facts are verified, and the public gains its understanding of the world. But under President Trump’s leadership – particularly in his second term – the media has been steadily undermined, attacked, and manipulated into submission.

From the earliest days of his political rise, Trump branded the press “the enemy of the people.” At the time, it sounded like theatre – one of his many outrageous slogans designed to rile up the crowd. But over time, it became policy. Journalists were banned from briefings. Reporters were publicly harassed at rallies. Entire news organisations were delegitimised as “fake news” unless they offered praise. What started as rhetoric turned into a campaign of disinformation and intimidation.

This erosion of media independence has happened in two key ways: by silencing critical voices, and by co-opting sympathetic ones.

Independent journalists now work under constant threat. Legal pressure, license challenges, defamation suits, and even surveillance have become tools to muzzle dissent. Whistleblowers are prosecuted, not protected. Major networks once known for tough questions now pull their punches – or are simply locked out.

At the same time, pro-Trump media outlets have risen in influence, often indistinguishable from state-run propaganda. Whether it’s Fox News personalities given cabinet positions, or social media influencers granted White House access in exchange for loyalty, the lines between journalism and political theatre have blurred.

These outlets don’t challenge power – they amplify it. They repeat Trump’s talking points uncritically, flood the zone with outrage and distraction, and vilify any journalist who dares to question the narrative. The result is an information landscape where truth becomes tribal, and lies travel faster than facts.

Why does this matter? Because a democracy without a free press cannot stay democratic for long. When citizens no longer trust what they see or hear – when news becomes just another weapon of the powerful – then accountability dies, and corruption thrives.

Some journalists continue to fight. They fact-check, investigate, and shine light where it’s needed most. But their space is shrinking, and their safety increasingly uncertain. In many ways, the press has not just been pushed to the sidelines – it’s been made part of the battlefield.

History teaches us that authoritarian regimes always start by silencing the press. What’s unfolding in America is no exception. We may still have newspapers, networks, and headlines – but when truth itself is up for debate, freedom is already slipping through our fingers.

August 7, 2025 Posted by | media, USA | Leave a comment

Trump and Zelensky, two cornered rats with no way out of Ukraine catastrophe

Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL, 5 Aug 25

Ukraine’s military is being systematically obliterated on the battlefield. US President Trump knows this. Ukraine President Zelensky does as well.

Yet, both are pretending the war can be won on terms favorable to the US and Ukraine. Trump is threatening secondary sanctions on nations buying Russian oil if Russia doesn’t end the war by August 8. Zelensky applauds this threat. Trump is also selling additional weapons to NATO allies to give to Ukraine’s lost cause.

Neither of Trump’s actions will have any effect on Ukraine’s impending battlefield defeat. Trump gets the ‘rat’ designation because he broke his campaign pledge to end the war by withdrawing US support and forcing Ukraine to negotiate the war’s end. But since that signals defeat of the US proxy war to weaken Russia, he clearly has decided it’s better to keep the war going rather than suffer a humiliating defeat. That merely ensures Ukraine’s near complete destruction as a functioning state.

Zelensky earned his ‘rat’ designation when he bailed out of ending the war in April 2022. He was on the cusp of a negotiated settlement with Russia that would have ended Ukraine’s effort to join NATO and guaranteed regional independence for Russian cultured Ukrainians in Donbas. For Ukraine it would have mean no lost territory and no massive casualties or infrastructure destruction. That is classic diplomacy achieving win-win.

But the rat Zelensky caved to US/UK pressure to dump that deal because Zelensky believed US/UK lies he could win simply with continued Western weapons. That, along with Trump’s refusal to end the war after promising to end it, has put Ukraine into a death spiral.

So with no way to win on the battlefield, our cornered rats are risking nuclear war every day this catastrophe continues. Zelensky keeps begging for long range NATO missies to attack deep into Russia. While that has no strategic value, it has value in provoking a Russian nuclear response, something to which Zelensky remains oblivious.

The nuclear risk Trump has embarked upon is even more reckless. He responded to a harmless Russian social media comment about a potential US/Russia nuclear confrontation, by sending two Ohio Class nuclear submarines toward Russian waters. Just as provocative and reckless, Trump’s sent B61-12 nuclear gravity bombs to the UK. These are offensive weapons having nothing do with will standard NATO defensive weaponry. They are the first delivery of these offensive weapons to the UK since removing them in 2008.

To Trump, reckless action is an appropriate response to relatively harmless words. Particularly since Trump is he world champ at using social media to threaten, browbeat friends and foes alike.

It’s not just the beleaguered people of Ukraine whose lives are threatened by the two cornered rats with no sane, safe way out of the lost war in Ukraine. It is all of us.

August 6, 2025 Posted by | Ukraine, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

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