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The defense revolving-door, Silicon Valley edition

he Trump administration has installed a revolving door between defense-tech companies and the Pentagon.

An eye-opening glimpse at the links between two congressional committees and more than 100 defense contractors, consultants, and lobbyists.

By John Mecklin, August 17, 2026, https://thebulletin.org/2026/08/the-defense-revolving-door-silicon-valley-edition/?utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=The%20defense%20revolving-door%2C%20Silicon%20Valley%20edition&utm_campaign=20260817%20Monday%20Newsletter%20%28Copy%29

ince President Eisenhower more-or-less invented the term military-industrial complex, US defense spending has grown, dramatically in some eras, leveling off a bit in others, but overall heading ever-upward. Annual US defense expenditures now approach $1 trillion—and, if the Trump administration gets its way, will head toward $1.5 trillion in the coming fiscal year. A variety of factors has driven this rise in defense outlays, but one has become persistent: the revolving door that some national service officials walk through to take well-compensated positions at private-sector military contractors and the firms that lobby the government on their behalf.

The phenomenon and its corruptive possibilities have been much-studied and widely criticized. US Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the noted progressive, commissioned a report on the issue in 2023 with the withering title “Pentagon Alchemy: How Defense Officials Pass rough the Revolving Door and Peddle Brass for Gold.” The libertarian-to-conservative Cato Institute writes less compelling headlines (“Dealing with the Defense Industry’s Revolving Door in the 2027 NDAA”) but doesn’t like the revolving door, either. And in its 2023 report, “March of the Four–Stars: The Role of Retired Generals and Admirals in the Arms Industry,” the heterodox Quincy Institute basically supports Warren’s attempt to at least slow the revolving door via the “Department of Defense Ethics and Anti-Corruption Act.” Warren initially introduced the bill in 2019 and reintroduced it in 2021 and 2023, to no avail.

The interactive display below [on original] illustrates one piece of the defense revolving door as it has evolved over the last decade. During that time, former congressional officials have strolled through the door and wound up working not just at the largest defense contractors (often called “primes”) but also for a new class of high-technology firms—often involved in artificial intelligence and headquartered in Silicon Valley—that has aggressively expanded its Pentagon contracting efforts. And to be clear, the door leads in both directions; private sector bigwigs sometimes move into influential government positions that could affect the fortunes of their companies.

As UC Berkeley investigative reporter Bernice Yeung recently wrote for the Bulletin:

[T]he Trump administration has installed a revolving door between defense-tech companies and the Pentagon. The deputy secretary of defense, Steve Feinberg, is the cofounder and former CEO of a private equity firm that invests heavily in companies with Pentagon contracts. The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology co-chair David Sacks is a venture capitalist who invests in defense tech. The country’s science and technology advisor, Michael Kratsios, was previously an executive at top AI defense firm, Scale AI. The armed services are also stacked with senior leaders with ties to the tech industry, such as Under Secretary of the Army Michael Obadal, an Anduril alum.

The interactive is anything but comprehensive. It looks only at members of Congress who served and top staffers who worked on the House and Senate armed services committees during the 2015-2025 decade. The graphic does not deal with defense-related political contributions, or with the many employees of the Pentagon, military services, State Department, and Energy Department who also rode the revolving door connecting government service to high-paying positions with defense contractors and the K Street firms that lobby for them. The interactive simply shows some of the ways in which the two congressional committees that deal with the country’s armed services are connected with private-sector defense contractors, consultants, and lobbyists. Even within this limited scope, the connections are eye-opening.

August 24, 2026 Posted by | USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Nuclear material found in Syria will remain in the country, minister says

By Reuters, August 19, 2026

 Nuclear material found at an undisclosed site in Syria was ​not dangerous and would remain ‌in Syrian custody, subject to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s guarantees, Syria’s foreign minister ​said on Tuesday.

Asaad al-Shibani added ​in a joint press conference with ⁠IAEA chief Rafael Grossi in ​Damascus that Syria had the right to ​use the material for civil and peaceful purposes.

Since the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad ​in late 2024, Syria’s new authorities ​have committed to working with the United Nations’ ‌nuclear ⁠watchdog to address the legacy of nuclear activities during decades of Assad family rule.

Grossi said the agency was ​able to ​access ⁠the site after the Syrian government notified it.

Syria is ​not known to hold operational ​stockpiles ⁠of nuclear material for a weapons programme, but Israel bombed a suspected ⁠Syrian ​nuclear reactor in 2007 ​in the country’s eastern province of Deir al-Zor.

Reporting ​by Nayera Abdallah; Editing by Alex Richardson

August 24, 2026 Posted by | politics, Syria | Leave a comment

Private investors are not rushing into nuclear. The Netherlands has chosen another path

The Dutch government has therefore opted for a wholly state-owned company.

the Dutch government is also responding to recommendations from the International Atomic Energy Agency

Martin Voříšek, 19 August 2026, https://oenergetice.cz/en/nuclear-power/private-investors-are-not-rushing-into-nuclear-the-netherlands-has-chosen-another-path

The Dutch government is gradually preparing a financing model for two new nuclear power plants in the country. After assessing investor interest, it concluded that private investors are unwilling to bear a substantial share of the construction risks. The state has therefore taken the leading role through the wholly state-owned company NEO NL. The state will also bear the costs of at least the initial phase of construction of the new units, in order to accelerate their delivery as much as possible.

The Netherlands is one of the less visible European countries pursuing the construction of new nuclear units. This is only because its preparations are still at an early stage. Its preparations follow a broader European trend in which new large-scale nuclear projects increasingly resemble anything but ordinary private investments. The state therefore acts in the project not only as regulator and provider of support, but directly as investor, lender and future owner of the project.

The Netherlands’ current advantage is that its project is only at the beginning of preparations. It can therefore still be adapted relatively painlessly to the current realities of the European market in order to ensure the earliest and least costly possible completion.

Private investors are not “rushing” to build

One of the key questions in the preparations was whether the project could be developed and delivered by private investors. However, as government documents show, private companies are prepared to participate only if the state assumes virtually all risks associated with preparing and building the power plants.Construction of Hinkley Point C Construction of Hinkley Point C. Source: EDF

The current risks associated with building nuclear power plants are well known: in particular, long construction periods, uncertainty over costs, the duration of permitting processes, interest rate developments and future revenues in the electricity market. The combination of these factors has long constrained the ability of major nuclear projects to secure commercial financing without extensive public support.

A promising investment can thus very easily become an investor’s nightmare, entirely beyond the investor’s control.

NEO NL: State company responsible for building new units

The Dutch government has therefore opted for a wholly state-owned company, Nucleaire Energie Organisatie Nederland, abbreviated as NEO NL. Its task will be to prepare, build and operate the new nuclear power plants, with the state as its sole shareholder.

NEO NL was established on 16 February 2026 and is set to assume the role of future owner and operator of the units. In doing so, the Dutch government is also responding to recommendations from the International Atomic Energy Agency, according to which the future operator should become involved in project preparations as early as the design and construction phase.

The state expects this arrangement to provide greater control over the project, particularly over the choice of technology, risk allocation and the long-term operation of the plants.

State control over technology selection was, after all, also one of the priorities of the Czech government. It first excluded suppliers from China and Russia from the tender to supply units at Dukovany, while the final choice was also the result of agreement between ČEZ and the state.

The state will take over project financing, at least during the first construction phase

As early as October 2025, the Dutch government stated that, according to its analysis, fully state-backed financing was the least costly option in terms of the project’s total costs. The state can generally obtain funding on better terms than a private company. While a higher share of private financing could reduce the impact on the budget, it would make the entire project more expensive.

Once the power plants are completed, the interest rate is to be set at the yield on Dutch government bonds plus one percentage point. In its documents, the Dutch government specifically refers to the Dukovany project, whose public-support model for one unit inspired it.

In June this year, the cabinet confirmed that the state would bear all financing costs for the two new large power plants, at least during the first phase of their construction. Private financing remains theoretically open for later refinancing or a potential equity contribution by the supplier, but not as the main source of funding in the early phase of the project.

Two locations under consideration, two main suppliers

Alongside the financing model, the question of the unit supplier is also gradually becoming clearer. The Netherlands initially assessed options from France’s EDF, US-based Westinghouse and South Korea’s KHNP. However, KHNP withdrew from the technology selection process in March 2025. Two Western technologies therefore remain in contention.

The project currently covers two large units, but the government is considering including an option for two additional reactors in the contract. Here, too, the Czech approach is an evident inspiration: the current contract with KHNP represents an order for two reactors at the Dukovany site and an option for two further reactors at Temelín. Such an approach could shorten preparations for the third and fourth units while improving the negotiating position in agreeing the price and delivery terms.

The site selection has not yet been fully finalised. Although the government excluded several initially considered options in June this year, it is still deciding between Eemshaven in the province of Groningen and a site near Terneuzen in Zeeland.


From the perspective of the transmission system, Eemshaven is the most favourable option. TenneT states that 3.2 GW of new capacity can be connected there without additional investment beyond the network expansion already planned. Terneuzen, by contrast, requires significant measures. According to TenneT, connecting 3.2 GW of new nuclear capacity would require further extensive grid upgrades, or potentially redispatching at costs of up to hundreds of millions of euros annually.

The cabinet wants to decide on its preferred site by the end of 2026. A proposal for a formal siting decision is to follow in the first half of 2027.

The Netherlands follows the Czech construction model

For Czechia, the Dutch development is important above all as further confirmation that the private financing model for large nuclear units in Europe is receding into the background. In both countries, the state is taking on the role of principal investor and establishing a structure intended to reduce financing costs while enabling long-term management of the project.

The Netherlands is directly drawing inspiration from the Czech approach to an interest-free loan during construction. However, the Czech model for Dukovany is more developed and entails a broader transfer of construction and financial risks to the public sector.

The difference lies primarily in the institutional arrangement. The Netherlands is creating a separate company, NEO NL, which is to prepare, own and operate the project, whereas the Czech project is being implemented through EDU II, with the state still holding a dominant stake and with a possible increase in the state’s share to as much as 100% through the nationalisation of parent company ČEZ.

August 23, 2026 Posted by | business and costs, EUROPE, politics | 2 Comments

Anglers win Hinkley information battle

Hinkley generation company must now respond to requests for information

Tuesday 18th August 2026,
https://www.wsfp.co.uk/news/environment-news/angling-fishing-environment-hinkley-point-938586

An anglers’ pressure group has won a landmark legal ruling confirming that the company building Hinkley Point C cannot refuse to answer environmental information requests simply because it is privately owned.

A London tribunal ruled this week that NNB Generation Company, the EDF subsidiary responsible for Hinkley Point C, must now respond to requests for information about the power station’s cooling water intake, environmental protection measures and possible environmental compensation.

A spokesperson for the pressure group Fish Legal, which uses environmental law to protect rivers, lakes and coastal fisheries on behalf of anglers, said: “The company must now either provide the information or identify specific legal grounds under environmental law for withholding it”

“The judgment confirms that when a private company is entrusted with major public functions and granted exceptional statutory powers, private ownership does not necessarily place its decisions beyond public scrutiny.

“The ruling may influence future cases involving other private companies exercising comparable functions and powers.”

Zoe Wedderburn-Day, head of policy and strategy at Fish Legal, said: “The new government wants essential infrastructure built more quickly. Much of that programme will depend on private companies using powers granted to them by the state.

Those companies cannot be given exceptional public powers and then close the door when people ask how the powers are being used. Public confidence depends on meaningful transparency and accountability.”

Ms Wedcderburn-Day added: “This judgment does not decide which environmental protection technology should be used at Hinkley Point C. It confirms that NNB cannot avoid answering environmental information requests simply by saying that it is a private company.

“The immediate issue is whether the company will now provide the information or explain clearly why it believes any part of it should remain withheld.”

NNB may seek permission to take the case to the Court of Appeal.

August 23, 2026 Posted by | legal, UK | Leave a comment

Today In Dystopia: Burning Books For Israel, Burning Books For AI

Caitlin Johnstone, Aug 20, 2026

I’ve been putting out more and more of these “today in dystopia” write-ups because our society is plunging into iron-fisted authoritarianism and AI-induced idiocracy so rapidly that it’s hard to keep up with how it’s unfolding day by day without shoveling multiple stories into a single essay.

Today in dystopia they’re really going after books. A library in Sydney has removed the book “How to Sell a Genocide” by Adam Johnson from its shelves after Zionists complained about its criticisms of Israeli mass atrocities in Gaza.

The Guardian reports:

“A Sydney library has removed a book critical of Israel called How to Sell a Genocide, following a complaint reportedly from a survivor of the Bondi beach terror attack.

“Waverley library at Bondi Junction is in the same council area as Bondi beach.

“A Waverley council spokesperson said: “The book has been removed from library shelves for review, and council will further consider processes to ensure closer oversight of book selection.”

“They seem to be objecting largely based on the title using the word ‘genocide’,” Johnson commented. “But ‘genocide’ is not my word, or my finding. The fact of genocide in Gaza is the overwhelming consensus of the human rights world, and it is a wholly mainstream opinion among those tasked with studying and determining such matters.”

So in Australia they’re now banning books for Israel. I guess it was only a matter of time.

Also today in dystopia, Amazon is buying and destroying rare books in a secret facility to train AI.

404 Media has been doing some great reporting on how companies like Google and Anthropic have been buying up rare and out-of-print books to train their LLM models before destroying them, and now 404 has a new article out describing how its reporters placed a tracking device on a shipment of books and followed it to an Amazon warehouse where the books are being scanned and shredded.

Here’s an excerpt:

“That final destination was an Amazon warehouse in Las Vegas, Nevada. Amazon employees who work at this location say all they do is receive massive shipments of printed books which they then cut the bindings off in order to scan the books more quickly. The printed book is destroyed in the process. The logo of the Amazon team that works at this warehouse, called VGT3, is a dinosaur, brandishing its teeth and with a book in its hands.”

That’s right: the logo for Amazon’s book-destroying location is an angry tyrannosaurus preparing to rip apart a book…………………………………

Today in dystopia, the Israeli government is working harder and harder to manipulate the information AI chatbots feed their users about Israel and its myriad military projects in the middle east.

Politico reports:

“Israel has launched a new campaign to influence how large-language models like ChatGPT are answering questions about Gaza and the Israel Defense Forces amid declining public support for the country across the U.S. political spectrum.

“French PR firm Havas Media, which runs the lion’s share of Israel’s FARA-registered foreign influence work in the U.S., appears to have stood up an ‘institute’ aimed at feeding LLMs positive information about Israel via one of its subcontractors, boutique ad agency Piro, Inc.”

This builds on previous reporting from Drop Site News about FARA revelations showing that former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale secured a lucrative deal with Israel to set up dummy pro-Israel websites designed to be read not by humans, but by the web crawlers that LLMs get their information from. Drop Site found that Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, and Perplexity were the AI companies most vulnerable to Parscale’s manipulations.

Today in dystopia it’s becoming more and more common for online commenters to accuse me of using AI to write my essays, which I have never done and will never do.

I hate that this is a thing now. I’ve been writing essays every day for a decade, and nobody who’s been reading me for a long time believes I use AI. But now that so many people are using these creepy chatbots to do everything for them, people believe it’s impossible for a human brain to produce a few paragraphs of text.

I don’t mind the accusations, I just hate what it says about where we’re heading as a species. These things have only existed for a few years, but some people are already forgetting what it was like to be able to use your own mind to complete simple cognitive tasks. I find it deeply disturbing.https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/today-in-dystopia-burning-books-for?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=211937785&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

August 23, 2026 Posted by | Israel, secrets,lies and civil liberties | 1 Comment

Jared Kushner: US will back Israeli resumption of war if Hamas fails to honor disarmament commitments

Kushner said Hamas could surrender weapons and tunnels within 60 to 90 days, calling demilitarization a potential major security gain for Israel.

Jerusalem Post, ByJAMES GENN, AUGUST 18, 2026 

Hamas must honor its commitments to disarm or face an IDF operation to “finish the job,” US special envoy Jared Kushner told FOX News’s Trey Yingst on Monday.

Kushner’s comments came after meetings with Hamas and the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) in Cairo on Sunday, and respective meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog in Jerusalem on Monday.

“If they [Hamas] don’t follow through now on their commitment, everyone will see that they’re not genuine about peace, and then Israel will have a lot more support from the US and others to go and finish the job in the appropriate way,” Kushner stated………………………………

“For Israel, we think this is a win-win situation because if Hamas actually gives over the weapons and the tunnels willingly over the next 60 to 90 days, that obviously would be the elimination of a huge security threat for Israel, almost an unthinkable achievement,” he stated.

Trump admin. will not allow Gaza to be rebuilt until Hamas demilitarizes, Kushner says

The Trump administration will “not allow Gaza to be rebuilt until demilitarization occurs,” Kushner stated……………….. https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-905880

August 23, 2026 Posted by | Israel, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Tepco begins removal of radioactive spent fuel from Fukushima No. 2 reactor


Japan Times 18th Aug 2026,
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/08/18/japan/tepco-fuel-removal/


Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings said Monday it has started removing spent nuclear fuel emitting high-level radiation from the pool of the No. 2 reactor at its disaster-stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

Last month, the company removed 28 unused nuclear fuel assemblies, which have a relatively lower risk, from the same reactor. Tepco hopes to complete the removal of spent fuel by the end of fiscal 2028.

Tepco has already finished removing seven of the 587 spent fuel assemblies from the No. 2 reactor. Removed fuel assemblies are transferred to a safer common storage pool at the nuclear plant in Fukushima Prefecture.

The fuel removal will be suspended from October due to checks on the facility and to secure space in the common pool.

Work related to the transfer of spent fuel started in June. Spent fuel assemblies are put into a container called a cask inside the reactor pool using a remote-controlled crane. Once a cask is filled, it is lifted up from the pool and then down to a trailer outside the reactor building, and the assemblies are moved to the common pool.

Tepco has completed fuel removal from the No. 3 and No. 4 reactors at the nuclear power station, which was heavily damaged in the March 2011 powerful earthquake and tsunami.

Fuel removal is slated to start in fiscal 2027 or fiscal 2028 at the No. 1 reactor, where work to remove debris is still being carried out.

August 23, 2026 Posted by | Fukushima continuing, wastes | 1 Comment

Saudi Arabia in no hurry to bow to Trump’s demands on nuclear deal

For decades, Arab states held fast to the belief that the road to America
goes through Israel. Establishing ties with their Jewish neighbour, so the
theory went, was the surest way to gain the White House’s favour.

The Saudi-American agreement on nuclear co-operation announced last month tests that theory. A day after the deal was signed, President Trump, stung by
Israeli criticism, added a new condition. There would be no civil nuclear
plant for Saudi Arabia unless the kingdom joined his Abraham Accords, the
agreements under which the Gulf states would make peace with Israel.


The belated demand has thrown the future of the agreement into doubt. Officials
and analysts say the slow process to have the deal ratified by the US
Congress is under way, but the White House has tied itself into knots by
announcing a new condition that was not in the original agreement.

Times 20th Aug 2026,
https://www.thetimes.com/world/middle-east/article/saudi-us-nuclear-deal-trump-israel-demand-ppplvcts0

August 23, 2026 Posted by | politics international, Saudi Arabia | Leave a comment

China Sounds Nuclear Alarm Over Japan’s 44-Tonne Plutonium Stockpile.

WION 20 Aug 26

August 23, 2026 Posted by | Japan, weapons and war | Leave a comment

USA government handing out $billions to X-energy and TerraPower for advanced nuclear reactors

X-energy, TerraPower share updates on advanced reactor projects

Mon, Aug 17, 2026, https://www.ans.org/news/2026-08-17/article-8297/xenergy-terrapower-share-updates-on-advanced-reactor-projects/

The two main players of the Department of Energy’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program, X-energy and TerraPower, have both announced significant developments in their projects to deploy advanced commercial-scale reactors.

X-energy to get another $1 billion: During its second-quarter earnings call on Thursday, CEO Clay Sell said the DOE notified X-energy that it would receive an additional $1 billion in cost-shared funding for its Long Mott project. The company wants to build four Xe-100 reactors at Dow’s UCC Seadrift Operations, a chemical production facility in Seadrift, Texas. It would be the first advanced reactor deployment of its kind at an industrial site in North America.

Combined with the $1 billion X-energy has already received from DOE, the company will have received roughly $2.15 billion for the Seadrift project, Sell said. X-energy will be required to follow the same cost-share requirements as in the earlier allocation…….

Highlighted other key second-quarter moments and developments for the company during the call, including the following:

  • Entering into long-term agreements for high-assay low-enriched uranium enrichment services with Centrus Energy Corp. and General Matter.
  • Entering into an agreement with SGL Carbon to expand manufacturing capacity for nuclear-grade graphite.
  • Receiving an $11 million economic development grant from Tennessee to support its TRISO-X fuel fabrication campus in Oak Ridge.
  • Acquiring roughly 70 acres adjacent to its Oak Ridge campus to expand its TRISO-X footprint.

With regard to Long Mott, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is expected to complete its construction permit review later this year, with a permit issuance decision likely in the first half of 2027, according to Sell. X-energy is also expected to submit its construction permit application to the NRC in the first half of next year for the Cascade Advanced Energy Facility project in Washington state with Amazon and Energy Northwest.

Lastly, an announcement of a 1-GW project with an unnamed utility is coming “in the near future,” Sell said.

TerraPower, South Korean companies reach deals: TerraPower is looking to strengthen its ties with South Korea and has reached agreements with Hyundai Engineering & Construction (HDEC) and SK Innovation to develop and commercialize the Natrium reactor in the United States, Korea, and select international markets. This comes after TerraPower officials—including founder and chair Bill Gates and president and CEO Chris Levesque—traveled to South Korea to meet with Prime Minister Seong-sook Han and leaders from the Export-Import Bank of Korea, HD Hyundai, HDEC, and SK Innovation.


Under the agreement reached with HDEC, the Korean company will be TerraPower’s engineering, procurement, and construction contractor and will build up to eight of its Natrium reactors with completion, price, and performance guarantees. TerraPower is currently constructing its first Natrium reactor—a 345-MWe sodium-cooled fast reactor with molten salt heat storage to temporarily boost power output to 500 MWe—in Kemmerer, Wyo.

TerraPower’s term-sheet agreement with SK Innovation clears a pathway for Korea’s first Natrium plant, along with plans to expand internationally. The two companies will explore opportunities to collaborate on engineering and digital innovation solutions, including digital twin technology and artificial intelligence, the news release said.

“Today marks a pivotal moment for TerraPower as we embark on a new chapter of international collaboration with Korea’s leading organizations,” Levesque said. “Combining TerraPower’s innovative advanced nuclear technology with Korea’s nuclear construction and operational expertise will strengthen our global cooperation and accelerate the deployment of a Natrium fleet that will transform the world’s energy landscape.”

August 22, 2026 Posted by | business and costs, USA | Leave a comment

The shocking story of the Flamanville 3 lid 

Monday, July 6, 2026by Bernard   Laponche , Michel Labrousse, https://global-chance.org/L-effarante-histoire-du-couvercle-de-Flamanville-3

EDF has just announced the arrival on site of the new reactor vessel head for the Flamanville EPR (press release of June 16, 2026  [ 1 ] ). This new head is to be installed during the first comprehensive outage (VC1), scheduled to begin in September 2026 and last 350 days.


Why change the reactor vessel head, the reactor’s key component, two years after the EPR’s first criticality (September 3, 2024), and only five months after commercial operation and the completion of the EPR’s start-up tests?


The failure and rupture of the reactor vessel of an EPR-type nuclear reactor, including its head and bottom, are not assumed in the safety demonstration, in accordance with the “exclusion of rupture” principle; no measures are taken to mitigate the consequences of these events, which are assumed not to occur. Consequently, the quality of the steel and the manufacturing process must be impeccable.


As early as 2005, the French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) alerted EDF (Électricité de France) that the Creusot Forge plant was experiencing serious quality problems. A major beneficiary of the nuclearization of French electricity production, decided in 1974, Creusot Forge saw its activity decline dangerously in the early 2000s, and the rigor of its manufacturing quality was called into question. The instability of the company’s shareholding between 2003 and 2006 only exacerbated the situation. Despite this, Creusot Forge secured the contract for the reactor vessel head and lid for the Flamanville EPR. The ASN’s warnings went unheeded, and breaches of manufacturing procedures and falsification of quality control documents occurred without the ASN’s knowledge.

However, an anomaly in the composition of the steel used in the EPR reactor vessel, particularly the bottom and the lid, was identified as early as 2006 by AREVA. But this did not prevent the manufacture and installation of the vessel. The decision not to postpone the commissioning of the EPR constitutes a scandal covered up by the promulgation of the so-called “ESPN” decree (order of December 30, 2015), which allowed AREVA and EDF to circumvent regulations.


It was only in April 2014 that the French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) made public the non-compliance of the two components crucial to the safety of the EPR, and it was only through an economic compromise in 2018 that the ASN authorized the commissioning and use of the EPR reactor vessel. The ASN’s decision authorizing the commissioning and use of the defective vessel and lid, stipulating that it be replaced before December 31, 2024 (i.e., after six years of service, since the reactor’s commissioning was then planned for 2018… it will only be effective in 2024) had been preceded by a public consultation.


To demonstrate that the ASN’s decision was unjustified and that the public consultation should be cancelled, Global Chance published a note on September 12, 2018, written by Bernard Laponche, entitled:
COMMENTARY ON THE DRAFT DECISION OF THE NUCLEAR SAFETY AUTHORIZING THE COMMISSIONING AND USE OF THE EPR REACTOR TANK AT THE FLAMANVILLE NUCLEAR POWER PLANT (INB No. 167).
We are republishing Global Chance’s note of September 12, 2018, which remains entirely relevant.


Despite this warning, the ASN’s decision was published on October 9, 2018  [ 2 ] .

When the EPR was officially commissioned on May 7, 2024, by the French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN), some voices called for a postponement until the new reactor vessel head was available and installed. The aim was to delay commissioning by only a few months, a move EDF, driven by political considerations, refused.

The original reactor vessel head is now a significant source of nuclear waste (approximately one hundred tons) whose storage and treatment conditions are uncertain, as neither EDF nor ORANO has provided any reliable information.

August 22, 2026 Posted by | France | Leave a comment

Senior Israeli official calls for killing of “30 to 40” people in Gaza every night: “They’re not even people”

By Frank Andrews, August 17, 2026 , CBS News

Israel’s far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, in a podcast published over the weekend, called for “30 to 40” people to be killed per night in targeted assassinations in the Gaza Strip. 

Discussing Israel’s response to the Hamas-led terrorist attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza, and Israel’s recent move to reduce the number of strikes being carried out in the decimated Palestinian territory, Ben-Gvir said: “It’s no secret, I disagree with the prime minister … I think targeted assassinations should be carried out in Gaza, taking down 30 to 40 every night.” 

“Not just those who pose an immediate threat,” added the Israeli cabinet member. “There are people there who are not worthy of life. They shouldn’t live. They’re not even people.”

The security chief made the comment to Rom Braslavski, who was previously held as a hostage in Gaza, on his Sunday podcast.

Israel once had a block of 21 settlements — known as Gush Katif — in the Gaza Strip, but the settlers and Israeli forces pulled out of the enclave two decades ago. 

“I see all of Gaza as ours,” Ben-Gvir said in the taped interview. “Settlements not just in Gush Katif but throughout Gaza, encouraging as much emigration as possible, sending them to their countries. And for the terrorists, no emigration, nothing, just to kill them one by one.”

Legal experts and the Secretary-General of the United Nations have warned that any move to force Palestinians to leave Gaza could amount to ethnic cleansing. 

Israel’s vast network of settlements in the occupied West Bank — the other, much larger Palestinian territory — are considered illegal by the United Nations, the International Court of Justice and many other entities and nations. Israel’s current government has encouraged new construction in the West Bank, however, and it disputes the illegality of most of the settlements in the territory.

“Inciting violence”

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi posted about Ben-Gvir’s comments on X Monday. “These confessions must be recorded and preserved for the day of reckoning and trial of these criminals,” he wrote.

Similar statements by Ben-Gvir and other senior Israeli officials have been presented to the U.N. as evidence of an alleged genocidal intent by Israel’s government in Gaza. 

The national security minister is no stranger to controversy…………………………..

Ben-Gvir is a follower of Kahanism, a movement named after a long-dead rabbi who espoused violent ethnonationalism and advocated for the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank.

The security chief’s first moment in the spotlight came in 1995, when he stole the Cadillac emblem off then-Israeli leader Yitzhak Rabin’s car. Rabin was hated among the Israeli far-right for signing the Oslo Peace Accords with the Palestinians. Ben-Gvir held up the badge to a TV camera and said: “Just as we got to his car, we will get to him.” 

Rabin was assassinated weeks later by a Jewish far-right nationalist. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/israel-ben-gvir-gaza-netanyahu-kill-every-night/

August 22, 2026 Posted by | Atrocities, Israel | Leave a comment

A Canadian lab ran real spent nuclear fuel through one chemical process and stripped 89% of its long-lived danger in 24 hours.

COMMENT – by Gordon Edwards

“This pro-plutonium article is misleading. Separating plutonium from spent nuclear fuel is the surest path to proliferation of nuclear weapons, and in no way does it solve the long-term problem of high-level nuclear waste. For further information see ccnr.org/Moltex_Refuted_2021.pdf . By the way, Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (although lavishly funded by Canadian taxpayers) is owned and run by a consortium of American multinational corporations.”

By Kevin Montien, August 7, 2026,https://www.vozpopuli.com/indux/en/a-canadian-lab-ran-real-spent-nuclear-fuel-through-one-chemical-process-and-stripped-89-of-its-long-lived-danger-in-24-hours/8154/

A Canadian laboratory has carried out a chemical test with real spent fuel from a commercial CANDU reactor and extracted 89.4% of its plutonium into molten salt in 24 hours. After 60 hours, the figure rose to 94.3%, while almost all the uranium remained outside the salt. That is a serious technical result, not a computer model.

But no electricity has been generated from the recovered material. The test validated the first stage of Moltex Energy’s Waste to Stable Salt process, known as WATSS, while the company’s planned 300-megawatt electric reactor remains in development and must still pass a much deeper regulatory process. The chemistry worked, but the power plant does not yet exist.

How WATSS separates the material

Spent nuclear fuel contains uranium, fission products and transuranic elements such as plutonium and americium. WATSS uses a high-temperature chloride salt and a carefully chosen reducing metal to convert transuranic oxides into forms that dissolve in the salt, while most of the uranium oxide stays solid.

This is a group-separation process, not a method for producing pure plutonium. In the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories tests, niobium was used as the reducing metal, and uranium carry-over into the salt was only 0.05% after 24 hours and 0.02% after 60 hours. The process moved the target material without dragging the bulk uranium along with it.

The location of the work matters too. Canadian Nuclear Laboratories carried out the experiments in shielded hot cells at Chalk River, using irradiated fuel rather than a laboratory substitute. That moves WATSS beyond the familiar stage where a promising idea works only with simulated waste.

Why this matters for nuclear waste

That percentage matters because Transuranic elements are heavier than uranium and include isotopes that remain radioactive for thousands of years, helping drive the need for deep isolation over geological timescales. Removing and later fissioning much of that inventory could reduce the long-lived burden, although it cannot make every waste stream disappear.

Canada has now selected the Revell Batholith in northwestern Ontario for its proposed deep geological repository, after Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation and the Township of Ignace agreed to advance the project. The regulatory process began in January 2026, so the country has a chosen location but not an operating repository.

Meanwhile, the inventory keeps growing. Canada had about 3.4 million used fuel bundles as of 2025 and generates roughly 90,000 more each year, according to the Nuclear Waste Management Organization. A new recycling route could change what eventually goes underground, but it would not remove the need for a final disposal system.

A reactor designed to consume the recovered salt

Moltex plans to turn the concentrated transuranic salt into fuel for its Stable Salt Reactor Wasteburner, or SSR-W. The design is a fast-spectrum molten salt reactor rated at about 300 megawatts electric, with molten chloride fuel held inside fuel tubes and grouped into assemblies rather than circulated through a conventional solid-fuel core.

Fast neutrons are central to the idea. They can fission heavy isotopes that today’s thermal reactors use poorly, producing electricity while converting part of the long-lived inventory into fission products that are, for the most part, shorter-lived. Those products still require management, but the most persistent part of the waste can, to a large extent, become fuel instead of remaining untouched in storage.

Moltex estimates that about 260,000 used CANDU bundles expected at Point Lepreau by the end of the plant’s life could fuel one SSR-W for 60 years. The company also says the combined system could cut the repository footprint needed for that material by as much as 80%. Those are engineering projections tied to a facility that has not been built, not operating results.

The waste is already at Point Lepreau

Point Lepreau has operated on the Bay of Fundy since 1983, and its used fuel remains on site. NB Power says each bundle spends seven to ten years under water in a pool about the size of an Olympic swimming pool before moving into above-ground concrete dry-storage containers.

The amount looks surprisingly compact. NB Power says all the fuel used at the station since 1983 could fit within roughly one-third of an NHL hockey rink if stacked like firewood from the ice to the top of the boards. But a small footprint does not mean a small obligation, because the bundles must still be secured, monitored and eventually placed into a long-term management system.

The hardest part comes after the lab

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission completed a Phase 1 vendor design review of the SSR-W in 2021. Regulators found that Moltex generally understood the high-level intent of Canadian requirements, but they also identified additional work, and the review did not approve construction or issue a reactor license.

WATSS entered a separate pre-licensing consultation with the regulator in 2025. In its latest update, Moltex said the hot-cell work had “significantly advanced our understanding of the WATSS process,” while also stating that it intends to continue the remaining development stages and re-engage with regulators, utilities and governments as work resumes.

That leaves major questions around full-scale processing, fuel production, reactor performance, secondary waste, safeguards, cost and financing. The 24-hour extraction is a milestone, but it is not yet a power plant.

The latest statement was published on Moltex Energy.

Kevin Montien

Social communicator and journalist with extensive experience in creating and editing digital content for high-impact media outlets. He stands out for his ability to write news articles, cover international events and his multicultural vision, reinforced by his English language training (B2 level) obtained in Australia.

August 22, 2026 Posted by | Canada, wastes | Leave a comment

British Foreign Policy on Autopilot: Escalating in Ukraine Without Strategy, Consent or Hard Power

In conversation with Mary Dejevsky

Ian Proud, Aug 19, 2026

I spoke with veteran journalist and commentator Mary Dejevsky about the mounting sense of drift in British foreign policy. Our discussion ranged widely—from her recent travels to Greenland and an upcoming trip to Mongolia—to the sharpening tensions with Russia and the quieter but consequential contest unfolding in the Arctic. What emerged most clearly was a picture of a United Kingdom continuing to deepen its military commitment to Ukraine while lacking a coherent strategy, public consent, or the hard power to underwrite the risks it is taking.

Mary described a Whitehall that appears to be on autopilot. Neither the new Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, nor the Prime Minister rushed to Kyiv as an opening gesture, yet both have doubled down on the previous government’s maxim that “Ukraine’s defence is our defence.”

In recent days this has extended to reports of British-made drones striking deep inside Russia. The Russian embassy in London responded with warnings of consequences; British officials expressed indignation.

Mary found both the escalation and the surprise at Russia’s reaction astonishing.

There has been no meaningful parliamentary debate, no clear statement of heightened risk to the United Kingdom itself, and no recognition that such support may actually prolong a proxy war that is already catastrophic for Ukraine’s demographics and future viability as a state.

This policy sits uneasily alongside Britain’s diminished military capacity. Submarines are in repair, stocks of munitions have been drawn down, and the army is a fraction of its former size.

Russia, by contrast, fields a far larger force and a shipbuilding programme that eclipses our own. Any retaliation is more likely to occur in the legal grey zone of the high seas—seizing vessels—than through direct attack on British soil.

Yet the absence of a defence attaché in Moscow for over a year, and the collapse of earlier post-Cold War naval cooperation, leaves little room for de-escalation.

As Mary observed, Europe has forfeited any plausible role as mediator in the Ukraine war and now appears content to keep the conflict alive long after American enthusiasm has cooled.

Threaded through our conversation was the Arctic dimension, where commercial rather than purely military competition is gathering pace.

Mary’s recent voyage along Greenland’s west coast revealed a sparsely populated, logistically forbidding territory still heavily dependent on Danish subsidies.

Chinese attempts to secure mineral footholds failed on commercial grounds.

Yet Beijing has now announced a regular “Silk Ice Road”—a summer trade route hugging Russia’s Arctic coast and destined, in practical terms, for European ports such as Felixstowe.

This is not primarily a challenge to American maritime primacy in the Pacific; it is a bid to tighten commercial ties with Europe and reduce transit times.

Therefore, Washington’s renewed interest in Greenland—bases, the Northwest Passage, and the so-called Golden Dome—can be read partly as a bid to lock in European allegiance in the face of a growing reality of Eurasian interconnectedness, driven by China.

Russia, already possessed of the world’s longest Arctic coastline and its own Northern Sea Route, has little incentive to seek additional territory but does, ultimately, see itself as a key Eurasian power broker.

Taken together, these strands expose a deeper problem.

Britain continues to trade on past martial glories while its strategic reviews dissolve into unfunded pick-and-mix lists and domestic voices—concerned with jobs, infrastructure and everyday security—remain largely unheard.

The result is policy that heightens risk in the absence of strategy.

Conversations such as this one with Mary Dejevsky are a small counterweight: an insistence that peace, not perpetual escalation, remains the more responsible national interest for Britain and Britons alike.

You can watch the full conversation here:

August 22, 2026 Posted by | politics, UK | Leave a comment

Russia Pushes Ahead With Uzbekistan Nuclear Plans Despite Money Troubles

By Eurasianet -Oil Price 18th Aug 2026

  • Rosatom is developing specialized programs to train Uzbek personnel to operate a planned nuclear plant combining large VVER-1000 reactors with smaller RITM-200N units.
  • A training center in Uzbekistan is planned to eventually accommodate hundreds of nuclear-industry specialists.
  • The initiative comes as Rosatom cuts costs and postpones or abandons some investments in response to a difficult economic environment.

Despite apparent financing difficulties hovering over the construction of nuclear reactors in Uzbekistan, the Russian nuclear agency Rosatom has announced it is developing a training program for Uzbek technicians who will eventually operate the plant.

Rosatom specialists need to develop new, specific training modules for what is envisioned as an “integrated nuclear plant” featuring the operation of both large-scale and small modular reactors. “This requires developing training materials tailored to the specifics of small reactors, integrating knowledge from related fields, and strengthening the practical training component,” according to a statement published by Uzbekistan’s nuclear energy agency…………………..

Questions about financing have dogged Rosatom in 2026, prompting concerns about delays in the Uzbek reactor project. Observers widely believe that the Kremlin’s continuing meat-grinder campaign in Ukraine and accompanying Western sanctions are severely limiting Rosatom’s operations. In July, Rosatom chief Alexei Likhachev announced cutbacks due to “poor economic conditions.” Without providing specifics, he indicated that several projects would have to be abandoned or postponed, adding that priority for continuing projects would be given to those offering the greatest chance of profitability by 2030.

Rosatom officials have not indicated where the Uzbek integrated plant stands in the company’s financial calculus. The news that a training center is in the works, however, suggests that the Kremlin considers the Uzbek project to be, at the very least, geopolitically significant. https://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Nuclear-Power/Russia-Pushes-Ahead-With-Uzbekistan-Nuclear-Plans-Despite-Money-Troubles.html

August 22, 2026 Posted by | politics international, Russia | Leave a comment

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