Discussion on nuclear weapons, between Trump and Putin
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Trump, Putin discuss nuclear weapons and Venezuela in phone call, Aljazeera, 3 May 19,
 US President Donald Trump tweets he ‘had a long and very good’ phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke for more than an hour on Friday, discussing the possibility of a new nuclear accord, North Korean denuclearisation, Ukraine and the political situation in Venezuela, the White House said. “Had a long and very good conversation with President Putin of Russia,” Trump said in a post on Twitter, noting they had discussed trade, Venezuela, Ukraine, North Korea, nuclear arms and Special Counsel Robert Mueller‘s investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential campaign. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters that the call was an “overall positive conversation”……. Putin told Trump that any external interference in Venezuela’s internal business undermines the prospects of a political end to the crisis, the Kremlin said. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo by phone on Wednesday that further “aggressive steps” in Venezuela would be fraught with the gravest consequences, the Russian ministry said……. New START treatySanders told reporters Trump and Putin talked about the possibility of a new multilateral nuclear accord between the US, Russia and China, or an extension of the current US-Russia strategic nuclear treaty. She did not say which arms control agreement Trump and Putin discussed, but the Russian state news agency Tass reported that they talked about the New START treaty, the last major arms-control treaty remaining between the US and Russia. The 2011 New START treaty expires in February 2021 but can be extended for five years if both sides agree. Without the agreement, it could be harder to gauge each other’s intentions, arms control advocates say. The New START treaty required the US and Russia to cut their deployed strategic nuclear warheads to no more than 1,550, the lowest level in decades, and limit delivery systems – land- and submarine-based missiles and nuclear-capable bombers. It also includes extensive transparency measures requiring each side to allow the other to carry out 10 inspections of strategic nuclear bases each year; give 48 hours notice before new missiles covered by the treaty leave their factories; and provide notifications before ballistic missile launches. Trump has called the New START treaty a “bad deal” and “one-sided”. “They discussed a nuclear agreement, both new and extended, and the possibility of having conversations with China on that as well,” Sanders said. The Kremlin said the two sides confirmed they intended to “activate dialogue in various spheres, including strategic security”. Trump earlier pulled the plug on a decades-old nuclear arms treaty with Russia. Trump accused Moscow of violating the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) with “impunity” by deploying missiles banned by the pact. Moscow denies violating it and has accused Washington of being in non-compliance…… North KoreaTrump also raised with Putin the issue of getting North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes. Trump has met twice with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un but Kim has yet to agree to a disarmament deal. Sanders said Trump mentioned several times “the need and importance of Russia stepping up and continuing to put pressure on North Korea to denuclearize.” The Kremlin said both leaders highlighted the need to pursue denuclearisation of the region. During an April summit with Kim in Vladivostok, Putin expressed Russian support for a gradual process of trading disarmament for sanctions relief. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/05/trump-putin-discuss-nuclear-weapons-venezuela-phone-call-190503181032495.html |
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USA Defense Dept knew that radiation causes birth defects. Now nuclear test veterans worry
 Atomic veteran wonders at radiation’s effects, PostStar, Will Doolittle will@poststar.comMay 2, 2019, GLENS FALLS — Bill Jones went to paradise for 13 months in the mid-1950s, and it wasn’t until many years later, when he and others were finally released from their vows of secrecy, that he found out what a hell it really had been…….
But he doesn’t know for sure, and the government isn’t telling, which is what really bothers him. He has scars on his scalp from having growths removed, but at 84 considers himself fortunate. Benefits are available for atomic veterans, and Jones called the Department of Justice about qualifying for them.
He was told, “As soon as I get a terminal illness, call back.” “There’s not an awful lot of these atomic veterans left. There’s a lot that don’t know about the program, so they waste away, shall we say,” he said. Fred Schafer, an officer with the National Association of Atomic and Nuclear Veterans, says the soldiers were guinea pigs. “They wanted to see what happened,” he said, referring to the U.S. military establishment, which was monitoring the soldiers’ reactions to nuclear radiation. “They wanted to see how fast they could get in after using these bombs.”
Jones wasn’t allowed to tell Charlotte what he was doing on Enewetak. He couldn’t take photos, he could make only one phone call every two or three months, and his letters were reviewed. Anything he sent home, like a sea shell scooped up from the sand, had to be checked with a Geiger counter first. |
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Trump administration re-ignites the political issue of nuclear waste and Nevada’s Yucca Mountain
In Nevada, Trump administration revives a radioactive campaign issue, CBS News, BY ALEXANDER TIN, MAY 2, 2019 /Last year, the Trump administration faced a dilemma: where could the Department of Energy stow a metric ton of surplus, weapons grade plutonium?
Efforts to recycle thousands of pounds in unwanted radioactive material had been crippled by cost overruns. Now the government faced a court ordered deadline to remove the plutonium from South Carolina, where it had been stockpiled.
For the plutonium’s new home, the administration turned to Nevada. Over the state’s objections, authorities planned to ship some of the radioactive material to a site adjacent to Yucca Mountain, where the federal government has long sought to store dangerous nuclear waste. ……
The state fought for months in court to block the new plutonium delivery, until a bombshell revelation in early 2019 that the administration had already quietly trucked in much of the plutonium, with details kept secret for “operational security.”
The response from Nevada’s government was swift.
“They lied to the state of Nevada, misled a federal court, and jeopardized the safety of Nevada’s families and environment,” Gov. Steve Sisolak said in a statement. Nevada Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen slammed the move as “deceitful” and “unethical.”
Energy Secretary Rick Perry then struck a deal with Nevada Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez-Masto, and department has since promised to pull out the plutonium. But the shipment has added fuel to a political firestorm in Nevada over recent efforts to resurrect Yucca Mountain, sowing mistrust over a key issue for the state, which is home an early and important presidential primary contest.
On Wednesday, the administration’s push to reopen Yucca Mountain that drew a forceful condemnation from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
“The proposal by President Trump and Republicans in Congress to send our nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain would be a geological, environmental, and social disaster,” the presidential candidate said in a statement.
Sanders joins a long list of fellow White House hopefuls in questioning the project’s future, including former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, California Sen. Kamala Harris, and former Obama HUD secretary Julián Castro.
Opponents have long cited the risks of seismic activity under the site, and its proximity to an aquifer and a military test range. They have rejected arguments that Yucca Mountain would hasten the transfer to a more environmentally friendly economy, warning of the risks for communities through which waste would pass through……
Testifying before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Rosen — Heller’s successor — joined Cortez-Masto in calling on Congress to help Nevada block Yucca Mountain. Their bill would require consent from state and local authorities before storing nuclear waste in their respective jurisdictions.
Only six other senators have so far cosponsored the proposal: Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Kirsten Gillibrand. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/in-nevada-trump-administration-revives-a-radioactive-campaign-issue/
Trump’s hypocrisy – talks of nuclear disarmament while spending $megabillions on new nuclear weapons
Trump to begin nuclear bomb-reduction talks with Russia, maybe China, ‘very shortly’ Washington Examiner, by Steven Nelson, May 03, 2019 President Trump said Friday that he expects to begin brokering a nuclear disarmament deal with Russia “very shortly,” with a possible addition of China later.
USA renews waivers of Iran sanctions for civilian nuclear work
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Official: US renews Iran sanctions waivers for civilian nuclear work, The Times of Israel,
May 2019
Move allows Russia and European nations to continue work at nuclear sites without incurring US penalties; 2 waivers relating to heavy water and uranium enrichment not extended. The waivers, which were due to expire Saturday, are being extended for between 45 days and 90 days, shorter periods than had been granted in the past. But they will permit work at several Iranian nuclear sites to continue without US penalties. Under the terms of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, Russia and several European nations help to maintain the facilities and are engaged in converting equipment there for exclusively civilian use. Facilities included in the waiver extensions include the Bushehr nuclear power plant, the foenrichment facility, the Arak nuclear complex and the Tehran Research Reactor, the official said. The official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the other two waivers — one that allowed Iran to store heavy water in Oman and the other that allowed Russia to process Iranian uranium — are not being renewed…..https://www.timesofisrael.com/official-us-renews-iran-sanctions-waivers-for-civilian-nuclear-work/ |
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Nevada presidential candidates have legislation planned to block nuclear waste dump for Yucca Mt
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Presidential candidates join Nevada’s nuclear waste fight, SF Gate, Michelle L. Price,
Associated Press , May 3, 2019 LAS VEGAS (AP) — Nevada’s long crusade to block the creation of a national nuclear-waste dump at Yucca Mountain has pitted the state against a bipartisan group of lawmakers across the country, but a band of presidential hopefuls is joining the early voting state’s cause.
Nevada’s senior senator, Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto, has legislation that would bar the federal government from moving nuclear waste into a state without first receiving permission from the governor and local officials. Last year, Nevada’s two senators were the only sponsors of the measure. This year, they’ve got company in Democratic Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Kamala Harris of California, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. The six senators’ move to establish opposition to the mothballed Yucca Mountain project is an appeal long-made by presidential candidates hoping to win favor in Nevada, which holds a pivotal role as a swing state and the third state to vote in the Democratic presidential contest. Any candidate hoping to win the support of Nevadans must be against Yucca Mountain,” Cortez Masto said in a statement Friday in response to a question about the new co-sponsors. ……
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On Thursday, as Cortez Masto and Nevada Sen. Jacky Rosen testified in opposition to restarting the licensing project, Sanders issued a statement calling the Yucca Mountain plan “a geological, environmental, and social disaster” that must be abandoned. …….. https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Presidential-candidates-join-Nevada-s-nuclear-13817561.php
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Senator Chris Van Hollen on Gorging at the Nuclear Buffet Table
REMARKS: Gorging at the Nuclear Buffet Table Arms Control Association, May 2019By Sen. Chris Van Hollen “…….we gather here at another urgent moment. It has been important work all along, but we are in an urgent moment now. Because with the Trump administration, all signs indicate that we’re jettisoning, we’re abandoning what has been a bipartisan tradition of recognizing that we need to modernize our nuclear forces, we need to modernize our triad, we need to make sure its survivable and resilient, but that we should do it within the framework of an arms control architecture that leads to predictability, stability, and transparency. That has been an important formula even as relations between the United States and the Soviet Union, now Russia, have gone up and down. We have still maintained that conversation, we have still maintained that structure, and that structure has helped keep the peace.
No evidence for this, but a Republican lawmaker says Russia has nuclear weapons in Venezuela
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GOP Rep. says Russia has nuclear weapons in Venezuela but offers no evidence, Roll Call, Griffin Connolly, 1 May 19,
Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart made the comments in a Fox News segment with host Tucker Carlson. Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart asserted Tuesday that Russia might already have nuclear missiles stationed in Venezuela as that country’s political turmoil continues to churn in the wake of a disputed presidential election. Díaz-Balart, a longtime Florida Republican, provided no evidence to support his claim…… “Are you saying the Russians will put nuclear missiles in Venezuela?” Carlson asked in a follow-up question. “What I am suggesting is that they are already there,” Diaz-Balart said. The Florida congressman did not provide any evidence to support that suggestion. The Russian military flew and landed a nuclear-capable bomber in Venezuela in 2018, but there have been no reports or claims that they have outfitted such aircraft with nuclear bombs or transported nuclear missiles to the country…… “Are you saying the Russians will put nuclear missiles in Venezuela?” Carlson asked in a follow-up question……. https://www.rollcall.com/news/russia-already-has-nuclear-bombs-in-venezuela-gop-rep-suggests-sans-evidence |
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Southern Company says – no more nuclear projects after the costly Vogtle project in Georgia
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Georgia Power’s parent: After Vogtle, no new nuclear until maybe 2040, AJC, 3 May 19, Georgia Power’s parent company is the only utility constructing nuclear power reactors in the United States, and it doesn’t plan to do it again anytime soon.
It probably will be in the 2030s or 2040s before Atlanta-based Southern Company attempts another nuclear construction project, Southern CEO Tom Fanning told analysts Wednesday. ……. on Wednesday, Fanning told analysts that his administration won’t embark on more nuclear. …..
Liz Coyle, the executive director of Georgia Watch, a consumer advocacy group that has long warned about the Vogtle’s ballooning costs, questions whether ratepayers should fund another nuclear project incorporating new reactor designs. “What we don’t want to see is Georgia once again being made the guinea pig … for unproven technologies that end up taking much longer to build and at a significantly higher cost than other forms of generation,” she said……… https://www.ajc.com/business/georgia-power-parent-after-vogtle-new-nuclear-until-maybe-2040/ADjetBmiCnISHQIOP10uvJ/
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Exelon welcomes Pennsylvania Governor joining nuclear front group the “US Climate Alliance”
Pennsylvania joins US Climate Alliance, WNN, 1 May 19, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf has joined the US Climate Alliance, a bipartisan coalition of governors committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Exelon, which owns the Limerick, Peach Bottom and Three Mile Island nuclear power plants in the state, welcomed the move…..
Extradition of Julian Assange Threatens Us All
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Private Companies Pitch New Ways To Store USA’s piling up nuclear wastes
As Nuclear Waste Piles Up, Private Companies 
Pitch New Ways To Store It, NPR, JEFF BRADY 1 May 19, Congress is once again debating how to dispose of the country’s growing inventory of nuclear waste. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., is proposing legislation that would jump-start licensing hearings for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage site in Nevada. The Trump administration also is asking Congress for money to resume work on that decades old project.But that may not end local opposition or a longstanding political stalemate. And in the meantime, nuclear plants are running out of room to store spent fuel.
Running out of room
The Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station in south-central Pennsylvania illustrates the problem. It’s one of 80 sites, across dozens of states, where nearly 80,000 metric tons of waste from power plants is stored where it was generated, at taxpayer expense.
Spent fuel removed from the Peach Bottom reactor is first stored in racks in a big pool. It’s surrounded by a bright yellow plastic barrier and signs that read “Caution: Radiation Area.”
“They are under about 22 feet of water,” says reactor engineering manager Mark Parrish. “They are continuously being cooled, as they still have some amount of decay heat even after they’ve operated in the reactor.”
The spent fuel stays here for seven to 10 years while it cools.
Once it’s safe to remove the spent fuel from the pool, it’s stored outside in white metal casks that look like big hot water heaters. They are lined up on a concrete base behind razor wire and against a hillside near the power plant.
Currently there are 89 casks at Peach Bottom with room for three more, says Pat Navin, site vice president for Exelon, the company that partially owns and operates the power plant.
“That is 40 years worth of spent fuel stored over there currently and it’s less than the size of a football field,” says Navin. “Probably half a football field.”…….
without a permanent disposal site, Navin says they’re going to run out of room. So they’re expanding the temporary storage to hold all the waste generated through the 60 years the plant is licensed to operate…..
Private companies propose their own storage plans
As the waste piles up, private companies are stepping in with their own solutions for the nation’s radioactive spent fuel. One is proposing a temporary storage site in New Mexico, and another is seeking a license for a site in Texas.
But most experts agree that what’s needed is a permanent site, like Yucca Mountain, that doesn’t require humans to manage it.
“Institutions go away,” says Edwin Lyman, acting director of the Nuclear Safety Project at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “There’s no guarantee the owner will still be around for the duration of time when that waste remains dangerous, which is tens or hundreds of thousands of years.”
A California company says it has a viable plan for permanent storage. Deep Isolation wants to store spent fuel in holes drilled at least 1,000 feet underground in stable rock formations. The company says the waste would be separate from groundwater and in a place where it can’t hurt people.,,,,,,
Regulators require retrieval, because new technology could develop to better deal with the spent fuel. And the public is less likely to accept disposal programs that can’t be reversed, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Proving the waste can be retrieved may be the easy part. The bigger challenge is federal law, which doesn’t allow private companies to permanently store nuclear waste from power plants.
Current law also says all the waste should end up at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. By contrast, Deep Isolation’s technology would store waste at sites around the country, likely near existing nuclear power plants.
“I just don’t see how there would be political support from every other state, other than Nevada, for changing the law, so that spent nuclear fuel could stay in your state forever,” says Lyman.
Despite the law, all that waste in dozens of states is staying put for now. https://www.npr.org/2019/04/30/716837443/as-nuclear-waste-piles-up-private-companies-pitch-new-ways-to-store-it
Even USA’s conservative groups are objecting to subsidising Ohio’s nuclear power stations
 Conservative Groups Voice Objections, Concerns With Nuclear Subsidies Bill https://www.statenews.org/post/conservative-groups-voice-objections-concerns-nuclear-subsidies-bill, By ANDY CHOW 2 May 19 The energy bill that would bail out nuclear plants while repealing the state’s green energy standards on utilities is collecting a variety of opponents that don’t usually take the same side,
Conservative groups have joined environmental groups in voicing their objections to the energy bill, HB6, albeit for different reasons. Micah Derry with Americans for Prosperity Ohio says the bill, which could dole out more than $150 million to Ohio’s two nuclear plants, is an unfair bailout. Derry goes on to say this bills like this one gives capitalism a bad name. Policies that have led to hundreds of thousands of students on university campuses across the United States to believe that capitalism is a fraud, a fake, and a failure. It is because they’ve been told, and observed that such cronyism and corporate welfare is actually capitalism,” Derry says. The conservative Buckeye Institute and the Ohio Chamber of Commerce also have concerns with the nuclear subsidies but do support a repeal of the alternative energy standards. |
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NuScale’s 12 Small Modular Nuclear Power units will cost $3 billion.
NuScale Gains Potential Financial Backing for Worldwide SMR Deployment, Power , 05/01/2019 | Sonal Patel NuScale Power, the front-runner in the race to commercialize small modular reactors (SMRs), has bagged another major backer that could broaden its nuclear supply chain base and expand its financial standing.
On April 29, NuScale signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction (DHIC), a South Korean–based engineering, procurement, and construction contractor with a wide global network, that supports deployment of NuScale’s Power Module worldwide. “The relationship includes DHIC, a member of the Doosan Group, and potential Korean financial investors, which, commensurate to final due diligence, plan to make a cash equity investment in NuScale,” NuScale said on Monday. …..
That project, which is to be built at a 890-square-mile site at the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Idaho National Laboratory near Idaho Falls, will feature a plant comprising a dozen 60-MWe modules. NuScale anticipates the first module could be operational by 2026 and full plant would be operational by 2027.
However, NuScale’s design certification application, which it submitted to the the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in December 2016 covers 50-MWe modules. The company increased the module’s capacity to 60-MWe in June 2018, citing optimization through advanced testing and modeling tools. The breakthrough would boost the power capacity of the 12-module UAMPs facility from 600 MWe to 720 MWe, it said. ….
According to NuScale, the first 12-module facility, even at 684 MWe (net), could cost up to $3 billion to build. ……https://www.powermag.com/nuscale-gains-potential-financial-backing-for-worldwide-smr-deployment/
U.S. Dept of Energy pledges to remove plutonium from Nevada
Energy Department says it will remove plutonium from Nevada, abc,By SCOTT SONNER, ASSOCIATED PRESS, U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry is pledging to expedite the removal of weapons-grade plutonium secretly hauled to Nevada last year as the state and Trump administration remain locked in a court battle about whether the shipment was legal.
1 This Month
26 September – International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons
PLEASE OPPOSE HR 8255 AND S.3639 – bills would accelerate satellite deployment, with no environmental review or safeguards – https://ncstd5li.quorum.us/campaign/169331/
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