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Civilian casualties in Gaza don’t matter – top US senator

Lindsey Graham insists no amount of Palestinian deaths should make the Washington put the brakes on Israel

 https://www.rt.com/news/586356-senator-graham-no-limit-civilian-casualties-gaza/ 1 Nov 23

The US should stand by Israel in its campaign against Hamas no matter how heavy a toll it takes on the civilian population in Gaza, Senator Lindsey Graham has argued. He likened Israel’s military operation against the militants to the allies’ struggle against Nazi Germany and Japan during World War II.

In an interview with CNN on Tuesday, Graham was asked if there was a “threshold” for him, after which he would start questioning Israel’s tactics. The Republican replied in the negative, saying there is no limit as to “what Israel should do to the people who are trying to slaughter the Jews.”

“This idea that Israel has to apologize for attacking Hamas, who’s embedded with their own population, needs to stop,” the senator insisted, adding that it is Hamas that is “creating these casualties – not Israel.”

Graham noted that Israel does need to “be smart” by trying to “limit civilian casualties.” The lawmaker also called for the delivery of humanitarian aid to “areas that protect the innocent.”

During his visit to Israel last month, US President Joe Biden assured Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that “as long as the United States stands, and we will stand forever, we will not let you ever be alone.”

Soon after Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel last month, Washington scrambled to provide its long-standing ally with additional defense aid worth billions of dollars.

The US has also deployed two aircraft carrier groups and other naval assets, a squadron of F-16 fighter jets, air-defense systems, and 900 troops to the Middle East, saying this increased military presence should serve as a deterrent to other states tempted to join the conflict.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the director of the UN’s human rights office (OHCHR) in New York, Craig Mokhiber, described Israel’s actions in Gaza as a “text-book case of genocide” and the “wholesale slaughter of the Palestinian people, rooted in an ethno-nationalist settler colonial ideology.”

The official handed in his resignation, arguing that the UN had failed in its duty to prevent the killing of Palestinian civilians. He claimed that the international organization had “surrendered to the power of the US” and given in to the “Israeli lobby.”
Mokhiber also accused European nations of being “complicit in the horrific assault” on Gaza and “giving political and diplomatic cover for Israel’s atrocities.”

Echoing Mokhiber’s assessment on Tuesday in Geneva, a spokesman for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), James Elder, claimed that “Gaza has become a graveyard for thousands of children,” and a “living hell for everyone else.” He called for a humanitarian ceasefire in the Palestinian enclave.

The conflict has so far left more than 1,400 Israelis and over 8,000 Palestinians dead, with thousands more injured. #Israel #Palestine

November 3, 2023 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

Deb Katz: There’s no end in sight to the crisis in nuclear waste

Clean water, clean air, clean land, and a safe place to live are our right. We must fight for the cleanup of all communities and stop the targeting of Black, brown and white communities alike to nuclear contamination.

November 1, 2023, by Deb Katz, executive director of the Citizen Awareness Network, based in Shelburne, Mass.   https://vtdigger.org/2023/11/01/deb-katz-theres-no-end-in-sight-to-the-crisis-in-nuclear-waste/

What remains at the site of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant? Millions of curies of high-level waste on the banks of the Connecticut River with no destination, no solution. 

The NorthStar plan? To ship its problem 2,000 miles away to Andrews County in Texas for “temporary storage.” The 5th Circuit shot down NorthStar’s plans to shuffle its toxic waste problem off on a working poor Hispanic community. This waste will be dangerous for a million years. 

This is the colossal failure of nuclear power. There is no present solution to deal with the legacy of Vermont Yankee or any other reactor. This is the abject failure of the nuclear industry and the federal government.

The nuclear industry promised a solution by the time reactors shuttered. Sixty years later, there is no solution and no permanent solution forthcoming. There is waste with nowhere to go.

The industry routinely engages in environmental racism to deal with its waste problems. It is reprehensible. The industry targets working poor, people of color, and Indigenous tribes for its nuclear fuel chain. It pits reactor and targeted communities against each other over who will suffer nuclear power’s final solution.

Citizens Awareness Network opposes these false solutions. Without a permanent repository, any establishment of centralized interim storage is merely a way to make the industry’s waste problem disappear. Potentially it will de facto become the industry’s “permanent” solution.

We can’t accept that another community will suffer to clean our community up. We accept that the waste must remain onsite until the government does its job. This isn’t easy. 

Dangers remain, whether from acts of malice or climate disruption. Vermont Yankee’s canisters sit in the open on a pad on the banks of the river. 

The National Governors’ Council stated that the high-level nuclear waste at reactor sites were pre-deployed weapons of mass destruction. It urged Congress to take action to protect these sites. Congress has yet to act. 

Then there is climate change. The National Academy of Science in February began a study to address what it calls “probability of maximum precipitation” events. The study focuses on infrastructure, dams and energy generation including nuclear sites. It addresses their vulnerability to PMP events. Included in the study are representatives from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Both acknowledged that there is no guidance in place to direct their actions to address these events and the vulnerability of these sites. 

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the U.S. Geological Survey acknowledged that they were 20 years behind the curve in addressing these issues. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission acknowledged that the agency concerns were raised in response to the Fukushima accident. 

For all its claims, nuclear power is neither clean nor green. It is a dirty, toxic technology. It relies on its invisibility to keep its lies going.

Clean water, clean air, clean land, and a safe place to live are our right. We must fight for the cleanup of all communities and stop the targeting of Black, brown and white communities alike to nuclear contamination.

November 3, 2023 Posted by | USA, wastes | Leave a comment

Small modular nuclear reactor merger plan falls through

X-energy, Ares drop merger plan, 31 October 2023

Small modular reactor (SMR) and advanced fuel technology developer X-Energy Reactor Company – known as X-energy – and Ares Acquisition Corporation (AAC) have “mutually agreed to terminate their previously announced business combination agreement, effective immediately”.

In December last year, X-energy and AAC – a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company affiliated with global alternative investment manager Ares Management Corporation – entered into a definitive business combination agreement. The combination was set to establish X-energy as a publicly traded company, a move that was expected to accelerate the company’s growth strategy.

………………………………….., given challenging market conditions, peer-company trading performance and a balancing of the benefits and drawbacks of becoming a publicly traded company under current circumstances, X-energy and AAC jointly determined that it was the best course of action at this time not to proceed with their previously announced transaction.”

……………………….”In view of the termination of the Business Combination Agreement, AAC determined that it will not be able to consummate an initial business combination within the time period required by its amended and restated memorandum and articles of association,” the statement said. “As such, AAC intends to dissolve and liquidate in accordance with the provisions of the articles.”

X-energy is the developer of the Xe-100 pebble bed high-temperature gas reactor……………………  https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/X-energy,-Ares-drop-merger-plan #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes

November 3, 2023 Posted by | business and costs, USA | Leave a comment

U.S. QUIETLY EXPANDS SECRET MILITARY BASE IN ISRAEL

Government documents pointing to construction at a classified U.S. base offer rare hints about a little noted U.S. military presence near Gaza

The Intercept, Ken Klippenstein, Daniel Boguslaw, October 27 2023,

TWO MONTHS BEFORE Hamas attacked Israel, the Pentagon awarded a multimillion-dollar contract to build U.S. troop facilities for a secret base it maintains deep within Israel’s Negev desert, just 20 miles from Gaza. Code-named “Site 512,” the longstanding U.S. base is a radar facility that monitors the skies for missile attacks on Israel. #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes

On October 7, however, when thousands of Hamas rockets were launched, Site 512 saw nothing — because it is focused on Iran, more than 700 miles away.

The U.S. Army is quietly moving ahead with construction at Site 512, a classified base perched atop Mt. Har Qeren in the Negev, to include what government records describe as a “life support facility”: military speak for barracks-like structures for personnel.

Though President Joe Biden and the White House insist that there are no plans to send U.S. troops to Israel amid its war on Hamas, a secret U.S. military presence in Israel already exists. And the government contracts and budget documents show it is evidently growing. 

The $35.8 million U.S. troop facility, not publicly announced or previously reported, was obliquely referenced in an August 2 contract announcement by the Pentagon. Though the Defense Department has taken pains to obscure the site’s true nature — describing it in other records merely as a “classified worldwide” project — budget documents reviewed by The Intercept reveal that it is part of Site 512. (The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)…………………….

Rare acknowledgment of the U.S. military presence in Israel came in 2017, when the two countries inaugurated a military site that the U.S. government-funded Voice of America deemed “the first American military base on Israeli soil.” Israeli Air Force’s Brig. Gen. Tzvika Haimovitch called it “historic.” He said, “We established an American base in the State of Israel, in the Israel Defense Forces, for the first time.” 

A day later, the U.S. military denied that it was an American base, insisting that it was merely a “living facility” for U.S. service members working at an Israeli base

The U.S. military employs similar euphemistic language to characterize the new facility in Israel, which its procurement records describe as a “life support area.” Such obfuscation is typical of U.S. military sites the Pentagon wants to conceal. Site 512 has previously been referred to as a “cooperative security location”: a designation that is intended to confer a low-cost, light footprint presence but has been applied to bases that, as The Intercept has previously reported, can house as many as 1,000 troops.

Site 512, however, wasn’t established to contend with a threat to Israel from Palestinian militants but the danger posed by Iranian mid-range missiles.

The overwhelming focus on Iran continues to play out in the U.S. government’s response to the Hamas attack. In an attempt to counter Iran — which aids both Hamas and Israel’s rival to the north, Hezbollah, a Lebanese political group with a robust military wing, both of which are considered terror groups by the U.S. — the Pentagon has vastly expanded its presence in the Middle East. Following the attack, the U.S. doubled the number of fighter jets in the region and deployed two aircraft carriers off the coast of Israel…………………………………………………. more https://theintercept.com/2023/10/27/secret-military-base-israel-gaza-site-512/

November 2, 2023 Posted by | Israel, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

US announces deadly new nuclear weapon days after China announced warhead expansion

msn.com by Sarah Hooper  , 1 Nov 23

The United States has proposed plans for a new nuclear weapon 24 times stronger than the ones dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The proposed B61-13 nuclear gravity bomb will cost £569 million to produce and could kill a city of one million almost instantly with a 3.5 mile blast radius.

With a range of 6,000 miles and a 360 kiloton blast, the radioactive fallout would be significantly more devastating than that in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The bombs dropped in Japan had a yield of only 15 kilotons, and still killed nearly 200,000 people.

The new weapon has yet to be signed by Congress but is expected to have backing from the Republican party.

The Pentagon said: ‘The B61-13 will strengthen deterrence of adversaries and assurance of allies and partners by providing the President with additional options against certain harder and large-area military targets.’

America’s new nuclear bomb would be delivered by the high tech B-21 Raider stealth bomber and could destroy underground targets with higher accuracy.

The announcement came only days after China announced it would double its nuclear arsenal to nearly 1,000 warheads.

Washington currently has about 1,400 nuclear warheads, while Russia has around 1,500 – but China said it plans to double its current stockpile of 500 warheads within a decade.

China also announced it is developing a new intercontinental ballistic missile system that could allow it to strike the continental US……………………………………..

The announcement from both China and the US comes just a few weeks before Chinese leader Xi Jinping and President Joe Biden are set to meet face-to-face at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in mid-November.  https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/other/us-announces-deadly-new-nuclear-weapon-days-after-china-announced-warhead-expansion/ar-AA1j8RQI #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes

November 2, 2023 Posted by | USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Newbie US Speaker Johnson kisses war party’s ring

Walt Zlotow, , West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL  1 Nov 23

That didn’t take long. Within a week of his surprise election as GOP House Speaker, Mike Johnson bent down before the US war party and exclaimed, ‘I’m here to help.’

$61 billion for Ukraine’s continued destruction from the war party’s refusal to negotiate that war’s end? Check

14 billion for Israel to complete the ethnic cleansing of 2.3 million Gazans into the Saini Desert? Check

Billions more for US involvement with China over Taiwan that may go nuclear. Check

But the checks dancing around in Johnson’s mind are the avalanche of ‘Do-Re-Mi’ checks from the weapons industry sure to come his way.

Johnson’s supported his obeisance to perpetual war by channeling George W. Bush’s Axis of Evil. He simply replaced North Korea and Iraq with Russia and China. Iran not so lucky…remains on America’s ‘Most Regime Change Worthy’ list

Johnson’s warning about his new Axis of Evil would be hilarious if it didn’t risk nuclear war.

“Big priorities in this moment right now. We have Israel being attacked, we have unrest, we have the Ukraine situation we’ve got to deal with, we have China being aggressive, we have Iran with all the meddling, and China, Russia, and Iran working together. This is a dangerous time.”

It’s a dangerous time all right. US meddling in the Far East, Europe and now Middle East, all risk wider warfare, possibly even nuclear. Meanwhile, millions are dying, injured, suffering debilitated health, starving or being ethnically cleansed, all enabled by US involvement.

If there’s an Axis of Evil in foreign affairs, It’s President Biden, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and newbie House Speaker Johnson. All 3 are putting the Homelands’ needs aside to spend well over trillion next year on America’s perpetual warfare state. #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes

November 2, 2023 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

Reports Expose US Billionaires and Corporate Profiteers Enabling Israel’s War on Gaza

“As the Biden administration attempts to deny the death toll of Israel’s campaign of mass murder in Gaza and sell genocide as a stimulus for the U.S. economy, these are the death merchants profiting from the war machine.”

By Jessica Corbett / Common Dreams, October 29, 2023

With more than 7,300 Palestinians killed so far in Israel’s three-week bombardment of Gaza, a series of reports this week have exposed how U.S. weapon-makers and billionaire donors are enabling what legal scholars say could amount to genocide.

After Israel declared war in response to Hamas killing over 1,400 Israelis and taking around 200 hostages, the stocks of major American and European war profiteers soared. A Thursday report from Eyes on the Ties—the news site of LittleSis and Public Accountability Initiative—targets five U.S. firms with a record of providing weaponry to Israel.

The outlet stressed that while announcing a supplemental funding request that includes $14.3 billion for Israel, U.S. President Joe Biden last week “invoked ‘patriotic American workers’ who are ‘building the arsenal of democracy and serving the cause of freedom,’ but it’s the defense company CEOs who rake in tens of millions a year, and Wall Street shareholders, who are the real beneficiaries of warmongering.”

The five targeted industry giants collectively recorded $196.5 billion in military-related revenue last year, Eyes on the Tiesreported. They are Boeing ($30.8 billion), General Dynamics ($30.4 billion), Lockheed Martin ($63.3 billion), Northrop Grumman ($32.4 billion), and RTX, formerlyRaytheon ($39.6 billion).

“The top shareholders in these five defense companies largely consist of big asset managers, or big banks with asset management wings, that include BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street, Fidelity, Capital Group, Wellington, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Newport Trust Company, Longview Asset Management, Massachusetts Financial Services Company, Geode Capital, and Bank of America,” the news outlet noted.

Eyes on the Ties also highlighted how chief executives are handsomely compensated—and the CEOs’ ties to Big Pharma, the fossil fuel industry, Wall Street, and foreign policy think tanks such as the Council on Foreign Relations and Center for Strategic and International Studies.

According to the report:

  • Boeing CEO David Calhoun took in over $64 million in total compensation from 2020-22 and as of February held 193,247 shares;
  • General Dynamics CEO Phebe N. Novakovic took in over $64 millionin total compensation from 202-22 and as of March held 1,616,279shares;
  • Lockheed Martin CEO Jim Taiclet took in over $66 million in total compensation from 2020-22 and as of February held 56,054 shares;
  • Northrop Grumman CEO Kathy J. Warden took in over $61 million in total compensation from 2020-22 and as of March held 161,231shares; and
  • RTX CEO Gregory J. Hayes took in over $63 million in total compensation from 2020-22 and as of February held 801,339 shares.

Other reporting this week has taken aim at those CEOs for their suggestions that Israel’s assault on Gaza is good for business.

During Lockheed Martin’s latest earnings call, Taiclet correctly predicted Biden’s request last week, saying that “there continues to be the option… for supplemental requests related to support Ukraine, Israel, and potentially Taiwan.”

In addition to the request for Israel—which already gets nearly $4 billion in annual U.S. military aid—Biden asked for $4 billion to counter Chinese influence in the Indo-Pacific region and $61.4 billion more for Ukraine, which is battling a Russian invasion. …………………………………………………

It’s not just defense executives enabling Israel’s mass slaughter of civilians in Gaza. As Eyes on the Ties reported, “Lobbying groups including the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and Democratic Majority for Israel have been active in Washington, calling on lawmakers to send money and weapons to Israel.”

The report names some billionaire donors to the lobbying groups, including New England Patriots and the Kraft Group CEO Robert Kraft, private equity investor Marc Rowan, venture capitalist Gary Lauder, hedge fund managers Daniel Loeb and Paul Singer, and Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus, who is also the founding president of the Israel Democracy Institute.

U.S. Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) said Wednesday that Americans “know that funneling billions more dollars into arms dealers’ pockets won’t keep our children safe from weapons of war at home or across the world. It won’t keep our loved ones safe from toxins in our air and drinking water. They know that lining the pockets of weapons manufacturers won’t help families struggling to afford housing, medicine, or grocery costs. They know defense contractors won’t safeguard Medicare and Social Security or shield our communities against the climate crisis.”

Unlike the CEOs of firms like Lockheed Martin and RTX, “moms who can’t afford childcare, young folks who can’t pay off their debt, veterans who can’t keep up with housing costs, and children who go to school hungry don’t have million-dollar lobbying budgets,” added Lee, one of the few members of Congress pushing for a cease-fire in Gaza. “So it’s up to us to stand up for their needs.”   https://scheerpost.com/2023/10/29/reports-expose-us-billionaires-and-corporate-profiteers-enabling-israels-war-on-gaza/ #Israel #Palestine

November 1, 2023 Posted by | business and costs, USA | 1 Comment

America’s strategic nuclear posture review is miles off the mark

has the report exaggerated the threats of China and Russia? While America is obsessed with the prospect of a Chinese World War II-like amphibious invasion of Taiwan, China does not now and for the foreseeable future have that capability.

And there is no reason why Russia would attack NATO

BY HARLAN K. ULLMAN, – 10/30/23,  https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/4282404-americas-strategic-nuclear-posture-more-deterrence-and-more-weapons/

Most Americans are unaware of the congressional commission that just released its report on America’s strategic posture, or of the complicated business of nuclear deterrence. After identifying what it calls the unique threats posed by two peer adversaries, China and Russia, the report lays out a comprehensive, all-of-government approach for the nation’s future security, with a clear emphasis on strategic nuclear issues.  

What does this mean in simple English?

During the Cold War, U.S. nuclear deterrence was predicated on maintaining enough weaponry to destroy the Soviet Union after surviving a USSR first strike. To understand the power of these weapons, one kiloton is the explosive equivalent of 1,000 tons of TNT. A megaton is equal to 1 million tons of TNT.

In the late 1960s, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara arbitrarily set the requirement for deterrence as being able to strike the USSR with 400 megatons of explosives. By comparison, the Hiroshima nuclear weapon was rated at less than 20 kilotons — or 1/20,000 of the McNamara standard. To ensure the survival of its strategic deterrent, the U.S. maintained the triad divided among sea-based nuclear ballistic submarines, land-based intercontinental missiles and manned bombers.

Until China began to expand its nuclear deterrent force, deterrence was a bilateral U.S.-Soviet/Russian relationship. Because of arms control agreements of the New START Treaty, the U.S. and Russia are now limited to 1,550 nuclear and thermonuclear warheads each. Now, with China, the strategic balance is becoming “triterrence” and not deterrence.

The report states that the U.S. strategy must plan to deter and defeat “simultaneous Russian and Chinese aggression in Europe and Asia using conventional forces.” If the U.S. and its allies’ conventional forces aren’t enough, “U.S. strategy would need to be altered to increase reliance on nuclear weapons to deter or counter opportunistic or collaborative aggression.”

Its major recommendations are based on the urgent need to expand and modernize our conventional and nuclear forces as well as capabilities across all of government including the defense industrial base. This will cost a great deal of money. Unfortunately, the report does not provide any cost analysis of what the nation must spend in this process. And, unfortunately, there are other unanswered questions the report did not address.

The first is to define deterrence in specific terms and what is needed to discourage China and Russia from taking what actions. China has not been deterred from threatening Taiwan or aggressively expanding its presence in the various Chinese seas to expand its influence and control. Russia has not been deterred from invading Georgia and Ukraine and threatening the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine. 

Second, why was a strategic framework for a triterrence and not a deterrence-based world to incorporate China not considered as well as other force-level options such as a dyad that emphasizes submarines and bombers over nuclear missiles?  

Third, has the report exaggerated the threats of China and Russia? While America is obsessed with the prospect of a Chinese World War II-like amphibious invasion of Taiwan, China does not now and for the foreseeable future have that capability. Other options such as a blockade or seizure of Taiwan’s offshore island are more effective and likely.

According to United Kingdom Chief of Defense Admiral Tony Radakin, Russia has lost about half of its military capability in Ukraine. Currently, NATO maintains a large conventional military advantage over Russia. The accession of Finland surely complicates Kremlin thinking. And there is no reason why Russia would attack NATO.

Costs are a critical factor. In fiscal 2024, the U.S. could spend nearly $900 billion on defense. And the force still continues to shrink. This is the contradiction of uncontrolled real annual cost growth of about 5 percent to 7 percent plus inflation of 3 percent to 7 percent. About 8 percent to 14 percent increases a year in defense are needed just to stay even. The irony is that the more America spends, the more the force contracts, quantitatively and qualitatively. 

To meet the recommendations for increasing conventional forces and modernizing the triad’s forces with strategic bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles, an annual increase of one-fifth to a quarter in defense spending ($1.08 trillion to $1.12 trillion a year) is needed. Given the debt and deficits and nearly $700 billion for annual interest payments, will Congress approve that short of war?

Before this report becomes policy, perhaps answering these questions is a good idea. #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes

November 1, 2023 Posted by | USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

NewsReal: Israel and US Implementing ‘Final Solutions’ to End Palestine and Multipolar World

Sott.net, Sun, 29 Oct 2023  https://www.sott.net/article/485509-NewsReal-Israel-and-US-Implementing-Final-Solutions-to-End-Palestine-and-Multipolar-World#

Last week the American ‘president’, Joe Biden, gave a TV address in which he declared that he was sending half of America’s sea power to ‘protect Israel’, part of Washington’s plan to usher in a “new, new world order.” While it’s scarily obvious what Israel’s attempting to do – ethnically cleanse Gaza and the West Bank of Palestinians – it’s not so obvious what the USA is trying to do.

This week on NewsReal, Joe & Niall sketch how ‘Armageddon’ might play out in the coming months, with the US-led West apparently seeking to start a ‘controlled burn’ in the Middle East with a ‘limited war’ that would disrupt global energy supplies just enough to hinder its rivals and thus maintain American global hegemony. You know what they say about wishful thinking… #Israel #nuclear #antinuclear #NoNukes

October 31, 2023 Posted by | Israel, politics international, USA | Leave a comment

Nuclear power would be “clean”! but not renewable under Michigan legislation

Michigan Live, By Sheri McWhirter | smcwhirter@mlive.com, 26 Oct 23

LANSING, MI – Legal definitions of renewable energy vs. clean energy were among the issues tackled by Michigan state senators this week.

Under three energy-related bills, nuclear energy would not be considered renewable but would instead be legally defined as clean energy – generated without emitting greenhouse gases, which drive the accelerating climate crisis. If approved and signed into law, renewable energy resources would be defined as solar, wind, geothermal, or hydropower…………………………………………  https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2023/10/nuclear-power-would-be-clean-but-not-renewable-under-michigan-legislation.html #nuclear #antinuclear #NoNukes #radiation

October 30, 2023 Posted by | spinbuster, USA | Leave a comment

Ohio House bill would declare nuclear power as ‘green energy

Cleveland.com By Jake Zuckerman, jzuckerman@cleveland.com 27 Oct 23

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A lengthy, bipartisan list of Ohio House lawmakers introduced legislation Tuesday that would expand the legal definition of “green energy” to include nuclear power.

The bill is a way of saying that Ohio should increase its nuclear generation, and that the state is open for business to the industry, according to state Rep. Sean Brennan, a Parma Democrat who sponsored it………..

Last year, state lawmakers added a provision to state law that created a new legal definition for the term “green energy” that explicitly includes energy generated via natural gas.

The new law also includes any energy resource that either releases “reduced” air pollutants or is more sustainable “relative to some fossil fuels” – an expansive definition for a term usually reserved for renewable resources like wind or solar power……………………………….

The bill has not yet been assigned to a committee, where it would undergo hearings before any future votes.  https://www.cleveland.com/open/2023/10/ohio-house-bill-would-declare-nuclear-power-as-green-energy.html #nuclear #antinuclear #NoNukes

October 29, 2023 Posted by | climate change, USA | Leave a comment

Lawyers circle nuclear startup NuScale over claims a 24-reactor deal will fail

Short seller brands blockchain firm Standard Power a “fake customer”

October 27, 2023 By Peter Judge  https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/lawyers-circle-nuclear-startup-nuscale-over-claims-a-24-reactor-deal-will-fail/

Nuclear power startup NuScale is facing investigation by lawyers after a short-seller’s report alleged that it has sold 24 reactors to a “fake customer.”

NuScale announced a deal earlier this month to supply blockchain firm Standard Power with 1,848MW of power provided by 24 of NuScale’s small modular reactors (SMRs), to power two US data center sites.

Last week its share price dropped around 10 percent after a scathing report from short seller Iceberg Research claimed that the deal, estimated at $37 billion, had “zero chance of being executed.” The shares bounced back around six percent earlier this week, when NuScale responded, saying the Iceberg claims were “riddled with speculative statements with no basis in fact.”

NuScale has contracted to provide Standard Power with 1,848MW of power, but Iceberg predicts Standard Power will be unable to support the contract. Among other things, Iceberg points out that Standard Power’s CEO Maxim Serezhin has an outstanding $54k tax warrant in New York, rendering his assets vulnerable to seizure, adding that a former Standard Power leader, Adam Swickle, was found guilty of securities fraud in 2003.

The Standard Power deal is massively bigger than NuScale’s only other contract, with the government-backed Carbon Free Power Project (“CFPP”) to provide Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (“UAMPS”) with 462MW, and is also bigger than Standard Power’s other major deal, a 200MW contract for nuclear power at Shippingport Pennsylvania.

Iceberg says NuScale has “around 15 months before its cash runs out,” and says the UAMPS contract is reaching a crucial stage, claiming: “NuScale has been given till around January 2024 to raise project commitments to 80 percent or 370 MWe.”

Iceberg also cast doubt on NuScale’s commercial partner Entra1, saying it was set up in 2021 to finance NuScale reactors, has only one employee, and was “very unlikely to be able to finance even a portion of this contract.”

NuScale said it “will not engage in a point-by-point rebuttal of every falsehood,” but issued statements on several points, saying that NuScale has a “solid balance sheet,” and that US Department of Energy (DOE) support for the CFPP “has advanced our SMR technology to the point of commercialization.”

DOE support has been a key factor in NuScale’s development, helping it bring nuclear power down to a commercial price point, however, the price of nuclear electricity from its projected plans has been creeping up, from an initial estimate of $55 per MWh to around $90 per MWh, making it less competitive.

NuScale said it “will not engage in a point-by-point rebuttal of every falsehood,” but issued statements on several points, saying that NuScale has a “solid balance sheet,” and that US Department of Energy (DOE) support for the CFPP “has advanced our SMR technology to the point of commercialization.”

Iceberg suggests that it may not be able to fully deliver without further support from the US government, which it says will “dilute” shareholder value. NuScale went public with a SPAC in May 2022.

Lawyers investigated NuScale on behalf of investors over “possible violations of federal securities laws,” include Howard G. Smith, which issued a press release this week, and Rosen Law Firm, which is planning a class action lawsuit. These releases are classed as “attorney advertising.”

Overall shares in NuScale have fallen around 75 percent since their peak in late 2022, from around $14 to around $3.5.

October 29, 2023 Posted by | legal, Small Modular Nuclear Reactors, USA | Leave a comment

War Against Renewables Takes Terrifying Turn in Newsom’s Nuke-Powered California

Embrittlement transforms a metallic reactor pressure vessel (RPV) as heat, pressure and radiation rob it of resilience. An embrittled reactor pressure vessel can shatter when coolant water is poured in during an emergency, causing massive steam, hydrogen and fission explosions.

HARVEY WASSERMAN, TRUTHOUT

PG&E now says it won’t test its reactor in Diablo Canyon for deadly embrittlement this year as planned.

The nuclear industry’s war against renewable energy has taken center stage in California under Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, with a terrifying new development now threatening the state and nation with increased risk of intense radioactive fallout.

This week on October 24 — despite earlier assurances — Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) revealed that it will not test its 38-year-old atomic reactor in California’s Diablo Canyon for embrittlement during the current refueling outage, but instead plans to wait until the next outage in 2025 before conducting the crucial safety tests.

Embrittlement transforms a metallic reactor pressure vessel (RPV) as heat, pressure and radiation rob it of resilience. An embrittled reactor pressure vessel can shatter when coolant water is poured in during an emergency, causing massive steam, hydrogen and fission explosions.

The reactor in Diablo Canyon showed dangerous embrittlement during the last inspections of it, which took place between 2003 and 2005, and it has not been tested since. PG&E now wants the 38-year-old atomic reactor, which is known as Unit One, to operate years longer without examining this core safety feature, arguing that it is not able to remove a component needed for testing until 2025.

This terrifying decision epitomizes the all-out war occurring between nuclear power and renewable energy in California.

On the grid, against rooftop solar panels, in batteries in basements, at the marketplace and regulatory agencies, in the banks and the legislatures – the zero-sum confrontation between green power and the “Peaceful Atom” stands to define the human future.

It begins on the wires.

Since 1985, the two big light-water reactors at the state’s last remaining nuclear power plant, Diablo Canyon, have regularly poured more than a thousand megawatts each of “baseload energy” into the grid.

But the value of that energy has been upended by a spectacular influx of renewable green power. With nearly 1.8 million rooftop installations, California now gets far more juice from solar panels — more than a quarter of the state’s electricity — than from Diablo.

Since 1985, the two big light-water reactors at the state’s last remaining nuclear power plant, Diablo Canyon, have regularly poured more than a thousand megawatts each of “baseload energy” into the grid.

But the value of that energy has been upended by a spectacular influx of renewable green power. With nearly 1.8 million rooftop installations, California now gets far more juice from solar panels — more than a quarter of the state’s electricity — than from Diablo………………………….

Overall, batteries have now become such a dependable, fast-growing piece of the energy supply that a Vermont utility is proposing to install them in their customers’ basements rather than extending new power lines. In a state whose single atomic reactor has recently shut, the battery-based system will be cheaper and more reliable than depending on power wired in from distant generators.

Likewise, Diablo’s inflexible feed has become an unsustainable dinosaur. Atomic reactors are neither cheap nor easy to manipulate. They function primarily in a straight-line paradigm (except when refueling or being repaired) with the same high-priced power flowing into the grid in a steady stream.

By contrast, decentralized renewables like solar and wind are quick to ramp up or down. With batteries now in millions of basements, inflexible baseboard power becomes a burden, clogging up the grid when cheaper, quicker-to-deploy renewables could flow to meet peak demands while scaling back at times of lower usage. In essence, Diablo’s power has become the electric equivalent of a debilitating blood clot.

Ironically, earlier this year a forced slowdown hit Finland’s new Olkiluoto reactor. Opened in May, after long delays and huge cost overruns, Olkiluoto had to slow down production within weeks to clear the grid for a massive influx of far cheaper wind and hydro power.

Partly due to this extremely expensive market disconnect, Pacific Gas and Electric in 2016 agreed to phase out the two Diablo reactors in 2024 and 2025, when their Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) operating licenses would expire as they reached 39 and 40 years old respectively. Facing a wide range of additional repairs and regulatory mandates, PG&E joined with then-Gov. Jerry Brown to chart orderly shutdowns in sync with the transition toward a renewable-based grid.

After months of tense high-level negotiations, the agreement was also signed by then-Lieutenant Gov. Gavin Newsom, the state legislature and key regulatory agencies, local governments, major labor unions, environmental groups, and others. The landmark agreement included union-endorsed compensation and retraining for the plant’s labor force, environmental concessions, tax subsidies for local governments, and more. As a whole, it created a crucial template for phasing out old atomic reactors amidst the global tsunami of new renewables………………………………………

But in 2022, Newsom suddenly trashed the shutdown deal he’d signed six years before. Warning of potential shortfalls during very narrow theoretical windows of potential peak demand, he strong-armed the legislature and the Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) into a bailout plan with more than $1.4 billion in state funds for PG&E to keep Diablo running, along with another $1.1 billion from the federal government.

The move has shocked and infuriated the state’s anti-nuclear and renewable energy movement. Its extremely complicated ramifications are now being challenged throughout the regulatory and court systems.

The Mothers for Peace has taken the NRC to federal court, arguing that PG&E’s relicensing plans fall short of the agency’s own long-standing requirements.

In league with Friends of the Earth, Mothers for Peace has also filed a petition with the NRC to warn that the elderly Unit One of the Diablo plant is deeply — possibly fatally — embrittled.

Embrittlement occurs as a reactor pressure vessel is subjected to extreme heat, pressure and radiation over decades of operation. In response, the RPV’s metals lose their resiliency. In an emergency situation, with a rapid influx of cold water, the RPV could shatter, leading to steam, hydrogen and radiation explosions involving massive releases of apocalyptic fallout.

Among much more, NRC tests conducted in 2003-2005 showed that Unit One was already dangerously embrittled. Unique amalgams used in its formative welds have since been abandoned for safety reasons.

Embrittlement tests are required by NRC regulations to be done every 10 years. Failure to check for embrittlement at Massachusetts’s Yankee Rowe reactor in 1992 resulted in an NRC-ordered permanent shutdown.

But allegedly no such tests have been comprehensively conducted at Diablo One for 20 years. The reactor is currently offline for a refueling expected to last about 50 days. A wide range of experts is calling for detailed inspections of the plant’s internals to be conducted immediately. Thus far there’s been no response from the NRC, but, as explained above, PG&E now says it won’t inspect Unit One for embrittlement at least until 2025, with results not likely to come until 18 months later. Yet the utility expects to operate the plant until then without having inspected this crucial safety feature.

While gliding toward a permanent shutdown since 2016, PG&E also let slide a series of routine maintenance requirements that have alarmed technical observers. Expert observers worry that if the plant’s allowed back online without a thorough public inspection, California’s downwind safety could be deeply compromised. Seeing as Diablo is located on the central California coast, fallout from an explosion there could carry all the way across the continental United States.

he deepening doubts surrounding Diablo Canyon — especially in the wake of the 2016 decision to shut it — have aroused serous grassroots anger against Newsom.

But it doesn’t stop with just nuclear power……………………………………….

n 2021, Newsom’s handpicked CPUC launched a devastating anti-solar attack. ……………………………

……………as atomic energy falls deeper into an economic pit, the push to sustain it with massive subsidies could only be coming from the nuclear weapons industry, whose infrastructure, fuel supply and core of trained personnel may be essential to the continued supply of atomic bombs.

………………………….. Whatever the case, these coming months of California’s energy war — tested safe versus dangerously embrittled, green versus nuclear, flexible versus baseload, old reactors versus new panels, wind turbines and batteries — will go a long way toward defining the nature of our nation’s future power supply.  https://truthout.org/articles/war-against-renewables-takes-terrifying-turn-in-newsoms-nuke-powered-california/?utm_source=Truthout&utm_campaign=19c5e52962-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_3_20_2023_13_41_COPY_05&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_bbb541a1db-19c5e52962-649984717&mc_cid=19c5e52962&mc_eid=082a9d17c9 #nuclear #antinuclear #NoNukes

October 29, 2023 Posted by | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Hanford’s pre-treated nuclear waste might not meet vital plant criteria

Hanford’s underground tanks contain some 56 million gallons of liquid radioactive waste left over from decades of plutonium production for nuclear weapons.

Exchange Monitor, By Wayne Barber,

A storage tank spoiled a batch of liquid radioactive waste at the Hanford Site that
was thought to be clean enough for disposal, according to a contractor memo
seen by the Exchange Monitor.

The waste from Hanford’s tank farm, part of
a less-radioactive tranche that is supposed to be solidified starting in
2025 by the Bechtel National-built Waste Treatment and Immobilization
Plant, had been scrubbed by the Tank Side Cesium Removal (TSCR) outside the
plant and piped into a nearby tank, designated AP-106, for storage.

But recent sampling of TSCR-treated waste stored in AP-106 revealed higher
levels of radioactive contamination than is allowed in the Waste Treatment
and Immobilization Plant during its Direct Feed Low Activity Waste phase,
according to an Oct. 3 memo from the site’s liquid-waste prime
contractor, the Amentum-led Washington River Protection Solutions.

Hanford’s underground tanks contain some 56 million gallons of liquid radioactive waste left over from decades of plutonium production for nuclear weapons. Production began during the Manhattan Project and ran through much of the Cold War.

The Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant as constructed can only solidify a portion of Hanford’s less-radioactive waste, called low-activity waste. DOE has yet to approve a means of solidifying high-level waste or settle on a means of solidifying the low-activity waste that cannot be treated in the existing plant. One option for the later tranche of waste is mixing it with concrete-like grout.

 Exchange Monitor 19th Oct 2023

https://www.exchangemonitor.com/hanfords-pre-treated-waste-might-not-meet-vit-plant-criteria/ #nuclear #antinuclear #NoNukes #radiation

October 28, 2023 Posted by | USA, wastes | Leave a comment

Faulty coolant pump delays commissioning of Vogtle 4 nuclear reactor: project cost now over $30Billion

US Georgia Power has reported the discovery of a malfunctioning coolant
pump at unit 4 of its Vogtle NPP, resulting in a delay in commissioning of
the unit. The problem in one of the reactor’s four pumps was found during
pre-operational testing and startup of the unit, which had been expected
begin operation later this year. Instead, the reactor now is forecast to
begin operations in the first quarter of 2024.

Fuel loading at Vogtle 4 began in August. Unit 3 began commercial operation at the end of
July. Vogtle 3&4 are both 1,117 MWe Westinghouse AP1000 pressurised water
reactors (PWRs). The two units were originally expected to cost about $14bn
and to enter service in 2016 and 2017 but suffered a series of delays,
including Westinghouse’s bankruptcy in 2017.

The total cost of the project
to build Vogtle 3&4 is now put at more than $30bn. Georgia Power owns 45.7%
of the project; Oglethorpe Power Corp owns 30%; the Municipal Electric
Authority of Georgia (MEAG) owns 22.7%; and the city of Dalton owns 1.6%.
The units will be operated by Southern Nuclear.

Nuclear Engineering International 11th Oct 2023

https://www.neimagazine.com/news/newsfaulty-coolant-pump-delays-commissioning-of-vogtle-4-11210696 #nuclear #antinuclear #NoNukes #NuclearCosts

October 28, 2023 Posted by | business and costs, USA | Leave a comment

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