MP calls for vote on Holderness nuclear site which local petition brands ‘hazardous waste dumping ground’
Graham Stuart has called for a public vote on whether a nuclear waste site
should be built in Holderness amid opposition from some living in the area.
‘Beverley and Holderness ‘ MP said Nuclear Waste Services, the Government
Agency which unveiled the waste site proposals last week, should be forced
to make their case directly to the public. Joanne Turner, whose Change.org
petition calls for the site to be rejected, said the beautiful south
Holderness area should not be turned into a dumping ground for hazardous
waste.
Hull Daily Mail 31st Jan 2024
2
Military-Intelligence Corruption Information Center.
WANT TO KNOW INFO, 31 Jan 24
Over the last 20+ years, WantToKnow.info has summarized over a thousand news articles on deep corruption within our military and intelligence systems. Going deeper, we have gathered a comprehensive collection of verifiable resources, videos, books, and declassified government documents. In this information center, we’ll present a sobering investigation into the US war machine: what it is, who benefits, and who pays the price. The true impacts of US military-intelligence activities in countries all over the world are examined, from World War II to our present moment in time.
Conflict, war, and perceived national security threats provide a common focus for military and CIA partnership. Military activity is heavily informed by CIA intelligence, and public support for this activity is secured by pro-war narratives and voices flooding our media system. What is really going on behind closed doors and on the battlefields is rarely covered in the news, if only for a brief glimpse.
The mainstream press often downplays how ineffective, harmful, and wasteful our current national security strategy is. Over the past century, the CIA’s covert actions have led to countless deaths, human rights abuses, and the undemocratic toppling of numerous foreign governments. While entrenched bureaucracy may be responsible for some of these government agency failings, deeper covert actions within our government have led to chaos and suffering in America and all over the world. Major cover-ups and horrific crimes within the military-intelligence complex continue to remain largely hidden from public awareness.
What is presented in this information center will likely be challenging, sad, and shocking for those who want to know. Yet real information can be empowering. It helps us understand the root causes of human and environmental suffering: the money, players, and belief systems that drive the machine. It invites us to question authority in healthy ways, across political differences. Yet most importantly, challenging information can paradoxically remind us of the greater good. It is the courage of the people and the love for the common good that bring these injustices to light—fueling open dialogue and constructive action.
Unaccountable Military Spending
The military keeps a lot of little things secret. Most people know the phrase “follow the money.” Unfortunately, following the money is impossible when it comes to keeping track of the flow of US taxpayer dollars at the Pentagon. The US military has consistently failed to keep track of the money it spends. As the defense budget speeds towards $1 trillion, the Pentagon failed an independent audit of its accounting systems for the sixth consecutive year in 2023.
In 2022, the Pentagon couldn’t properly account for 61% of its $3.5 trillion in assets. That figure increased in 2023, with the department insufficiently documenting 63% of its now $3.8 trillion in assets. We’ve covered the shocking extent of military waste and trillions missing from US DoD accounts since 2003, as documented here.
In 2021, President Joe Biden declared that the United States was “not at war” for the first time in 20 years. However, this is far from the case. Even members of Congress are uninformed about the presence of US military forces in countries all over the world. This is partly due to the post-9/11 Authorization for Use of Military Force enacted in 2001, which allows for secret operations primarily conducted by the CIA. Investigations have indicated that the United States has pumped millions into fighting more than a dozen “secret wars” over the last two decades. Since 2008, the US has supported at least nine coups in African countries, with a vast network of military bases scattered across the continent.
Going deeper, military black budgets are even more challenging to calculate. Military black budgets fund classified government programs, psychological operations, special forces operations, occult shoulder patches created for top secret programs, and other clandestine military activities. Former intelligence contractor and NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed a vast network of over a dozen spy agencies that make up the U.S. intelligence community, funded by a $52.6 billion “black budget” for fiscal 2013. When the US Space Force was created in 2019, an investigation by Forbes revealed how much of the US Air Force budget was shrouded in secrecy, where “literally hundreds of line items in the proposed budget” were classified.
Arms Industry Corruption
Once weapons were manufactured to fight wars. Now wars are manufactured to sell weapons.
— Arundhati Roy
The US dominates the global arms sales industry. Data released in 2023 indicates that the U.S. sold weapons to nearly 60 percent of the world’s authoritarian nations in 2022. Year after year, half of the Pentagon budget doesn’t go to those fighting on the battlegrounds. It goes to corporate weapons contractors who profit lavishly from war. As one defense executive flat-out told Reuters at Europe’s biggest arms fair, “war is good for business.”
From the Middle East, Ukraine, China, Saudi Arabia, and to Nigeria, US arms sales have done little to promote stability and democracy in geopolitically impacted regions. Read an incredibly comprehensive report by The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, which illustrates how US arms sales have only fueled unnecessary conflict and war.
Powerful banks like JP Morgan Chase and asset management firms like Blackrock and Vanguard have emerged as major players in the business of war. Some of the world’s biggest banks fund the deadly cluster bomb trade, even as more than 100 countries have banned the unethical use of cluster bombs.
These powerful financial entities are top shareholders of weapons manufacturers like Lockheed Martin and Boeing. Together, the arms industry and the elite financial sector receive more federal money than most federal agencies. In 2022, Lockheed Martin received $106 from the average taxpayer, which is four times more than what taxpayers spent on primary and secondary education. Few Americans would support these war profiteers if they knew where their tax money was going.
Roughly two-thirds of current conflicts — 34 out of 46 — involve one or more parties armed by the United States. In some cases U.S. arms sales to combatants in these wars are modest, while in others they play a major role in fueling and sustaining the conflict. Of the U.S.-supplied nations at war, 15 received $50 million or more worth of U.S. arms between 2017 and 2021. This contradicts the longstanding argument that U.S. arms routinely promote stability and deter conflict. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………..more https://www.wanttoknow.info/military-intelligence-corruption-information
UK’s Nuclear “money pit” tops $59 billion.
What a turkey! by beyondnuclearinternational, https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2024/01/31/what-a-turkey/
Hinkley Point C costs hit a new high but nuclear plant still isn’t roasting Christmas turkeys
By Linda Pentz Gunter
The Great Mosque of Mecca is considered the most expensive building in the world at $115.2 billion. Right behind it comes….a nuclear power plant! The two-reactor 3,260MW Hinkley Point C nuclear site still under construction in the UK will now cost at least £46 billion ($59 billion) according to the latest figures released by its developer, the French energy giant, EDF.
As such, Hinkley Point C has now earned the dubious honor of becoming the second most expensive building in the world. And it’s not even finished. The price could soar still higher.
EDF originally bragged that Britons would be baking their Christmas turkeys powered by Hinkley Point C by 2017. The completion date has now been pushed to “after 2029”.
The nuclear power industry is very good at tripling things. Perhaps not global nuclear installations by 2050 as it bragged would happen during an announcement at the COP28 climate summit last December. But the price tag for a new reactor? Timelines for new reactor construction? Straight A grades all around!
That’s almost what’s happening at Hinkley Point C where the new price is more than double the original estimated cost of £18 billion ($23 billion). Getting to triple the cost still seems eminently achievable given the new completion date.
This not-so-shocking news, given nuclear power’s track record, comes after the recent, overblown announcement by Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government that Britain would launch its “biggest expansion of nuclear power for 70 years to create jobs, reduce bills and strengthen Britain’s energy security.” The plan will of course achieve none of these things.
Far from reducing electricity bills for British consumers, the Hinkley nuclear project will in fact increase them “far above the market electricity price,” predicted Dr Norbert Allnoch, CEO of the International Economic Forum for Renewable Energies (IWR), based in Münster, Germany.
According to estimates by IWR, the cost of the electricity generated by Hinkley Point C will be “significantly higher than the 15 cents/kWh mark” and will continue to rise. This is because the UK government agreed a “state-guaranteed price for nuclear power being paid to EDF, which is linked to the inflation rate,” says IWR.
All of this came after the recent announcement that UK authorities had granted a Development Consent Order (DCO) to EDF’s identical twin EPR reactor project on the Suffolk Coast at Sizewell, while committing £1.3 billion ($1.6 billion) in funding for the project. The French company has already been tearing up pristine countryside there, destroying habitat and disturbing wildlife at the adjacent Minsmere Nature Reserve.
Meanwhile, France is pushing the UK to pay for the cost-overruns at Hinkley and the expected ballooning bills at Sizewell once work begins. France reportedly blames Britain for prompting the Chinese firm CGN to withdraw its 33.5% share from the Hinkley plant after Britain booted China out of the Sizewell C nuclear project.
Chinese investment in UK nuclear projects has been a hot political potato for some time, and came to be viewed as “an unacceptable national security risk.” A proposed new reactor project at Bradwell in Essex, a joint project between China and France, looks unlikely to go forward, at least in part due to security concerns about Chinese involvement.
These challenges prompted the UK government to seek alternative sources of funding, inevitably settling on ratepayers using something called a Regulated Asset Base (RAB). RAB effectively funds future nuclear projects by charging ratepayers up front in their electricity bills for the anticipated costs of nuclear plant design, construction, commissioning, and operation.
“Hinkley Point C has been a shambolic money pit,” said a spokesperson from Together Against Sizewell C on X (formerly Twitter). “It’s been hit by delay after delay and the costs are escalating at an alarming rate. Nobody can say with any confidence when it will go live or how much money will have been wasted on it.”
The story of Hinkley C illustrates that the nuclear sector is “out of control economically,” said Paul Gunter, director of the Reactor Oversight Project at Beyond Nuclear. The cost of EDF’s EPR reactor being built in France at Flamanville and still incomplete, has more than quadrupled to close to $15 billion. Another EPR, at Olkiluoto in Finland, went from $3.2 billion to more than $12 billion and launched 12 years late.
On U.S. soil, two AP1000 reactors at the Vogtle nuclear power plant site in Georgia, will likely come in at a total price tag of at least $35 billion, $20 billion more than originally estimated, with the second of the two reactors still not on line.
Man suffered most painful death imaginable after horror accident made him ‘cry blood’ and ‘skin melted’
Joshua Nair 30 Jan 24, https://www.ladbible.com/news/world-news/tokaimura-nuclear-disaster-japan-366945-20240130
A man died in excruciating pain, ‘crying blood’ as his ‘skin melted’, reportedly begging doctors to stop treating him.
Hisashi Ouchi was a technician at the Tokaimura Nuclear Power Plant, about 90 miles northwest of Tokyo.
Disaster struck in 1999 when three workers attempted to pour uranium into a huge metal vat.
Ouchi was helping a colleague with the dangerous task, but due to a miscalculation, the harmful liquid reached ‘critical point’, releasing dangerous neutron radiation and gamma rays into the building.
Unfortunately, none of the men involved in the delicate process were trained to carry it out, as it was later discovered that it involved 16kg of uranium, 13.6kg over the limit.
Reports state that, due to the fact that workers were manually carrying out the procedure, there was no way of measuring how much was being transferred.
Ouchi got exposed to more radiation than the other workers, suffering burns, becoming dizzy, and violently vomiting.
The 35-year-old’s nightmare was only getting started though.
It was discovered that Ouchi had absorbed 17 Sieverts (sv) of radiation, which is still the highest amount of radiation taken on by a single living person, around twice the amount that should kill someone.
For comparison, emergency responders at Chernobyl were exposed to just 0.25 sv.
After he was rushed to the University of Tokyo Hospital, the area surrounding the plant was put into lockdown.
Doctors discovered that there were no white blood cells in Ouchi’s body, and that he was in desperate need of extensive skin grafts and multiple blood transfusions.
Exposure to the dangerous substance reportedly left him ‘crying blood’, bleeding from his eyeballs.
Doctors desperately tried to keep him alive, but Ouchi begged them to stop just a week into treatment.
Ouchi reportedly yelled: “I can’t take it any more! I am not a guinea pig!”
However, at the request of his family, doctors were able to get it started again.
But on 21 December that year, Ouchi’s body eventually gave out and he died as a result of multiple organ failure.
The technicians’ supervisor, Yutaka Yokokawa, also received treatment, but was released after three months with minor radiation sickness, before going on to face charges of negligence in October 2000.
Nuclear fuel company JCO later paid $121 million to settle 6,875 compensation claims from people and businesses who had suffered from or been exposed to radiation from the accident.
UK govt awards Hitachi £33.6 m to design small nuclear reactors
GE Hitachi awarded nuclear design funding, 30 January 2024
GE Vernova’s nuclear business, GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, was on 25
January awarded a £33.6 m Future Nuclear Enabling Fund grant from the
UK’s Department for Energy Security & Net Zero. The UK government has
ambitions for 24 GW of nuclear generation by 2050 to help in providing
energy security for the UK and for meeting net zero. The grant will help GE
Hitachi develop its small nuclear reactor design.
Modern Power Systems 30th Jan 2024
https://www.modernpowersystems.com/news/newsge-hitachi-awarded-nuclear-design-funding-11474778
UK govt designates British Nuclear Fuels Ltd as Great British Nuclear (…..whatever this means)
Section 317 of the Energy Act 2023 provides that the Secretary of State
may by notice designate a company as Great British Nuclear. In exercise of
the powers in that section the Secretary of State hereby gives notice
designating British Nuclear Fuels Limited (Company Number: 05027024) as
Great British Nuclear. This notice of designation was given on 29 January
2024 and has effect from 00:01 on 31 January 2024. It has been published
above in accordance with section 317(3) of the Energy Act 2023.
DESNZ 31st Jan 2024
Several killed in new Ukrainian shelling of Donetsk – mayor
https://www.rt.com/russia/591468-ukraine-shelling-donetsk-mayor/ 31 Jan 24
Kiev’s forces have attacked the Kalininsky District of the capital of Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic, Aleksey Kulemzin has said
At least three people have been killed and one other wounded in a Ukrainian strike on the Russian city of Donetsk, Aleksey Kulemzin, the mayor of the capital of the Donetsk People’s Republic, has said.
The Kalininsky District in the eastern part of the city was targeted on Monday, Kulemzin wrote on Telegram.
Footage allegedly shot at the scene captured several bodies on the ground and the burning debris of a car that had been destroyed in the attack.
According to the republic’s Joint Center for Control and Coordination, eight missiles from a multiple rocket launch system were fired at Kalininsky District at around 3pm local time.
Donetsk, which is located close to Russia’s front line, has frequently been a target of Ukrainian strikes amid the conflict between Moscow and Kiev. But, earlier this month, the city of some 600,000 came under one of the worst attacks when 25 civilians were killed and 20 others wounded during a weekend bombardment of a busy market.
Moscow described the strike as “a barbaric terrorist act” carried out by Ukraine with support from the West, as it relied on weapons supplied by the US and its allies. Kiev’s actions have once again proven that the goal of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine must be achieved, the Russian Foreign Ministry has said.
How France left the British taxpayer on the hook as Hinkley costs go nuclear
the Government will have to
put more taxpayer cash in and guarantee the debt.
Sizewell C was also likely to be put on ice unless British ministers came up with a big extra dollop of taxpayers’ money.
A series of cost overruns and delays are undermining the UK’s nuclear power revival
Jonathan Leake, 28 January 2024
For the future of Britain’s energy security it was a crucial decision,
and one that lay in the hands of France’s biggest power supplier.
However, not a single minister or civil servant was present when the
directors of EDF decided the fate of the UK’s two biggest nuclear
projects in their Paris boardroom on Tuesday. The finances of Hinkley Point
C and Sizewell C, the nuclear power stations which might one day supply
14pc of Britain’s electricity were top of the agenda. Shortly after the
meeting ended, Luc Remont, EDF’s managing director, and his colleagues
summoned their media managers to organise a briefing for analysts and
journalists.
Hinkley Point C, they were told, stood no chance of firing up
in 2027, as once promised. Its first reactor would come online around 2031
while the second has no date promised at all. Costs have surged again to
£46bn, a far cry from the £9bn EDF suggested when pushing the idea to
politicians around 2007 or the £24bn proposed when contracts were signed
in 2016.
Sizewell C was also likely to be put on ice unless British
ministers came up with a big extra dollop of taxpayers’ money.
Meanwhile, as EDF’s directors and French civil servants decided Britain’s nuclear
future in Paris, Andrew Bowie, the minister responsible for new nuclear
projects, was on his feet in parliament, talking up the UK’s prospects.
For Claire Coutinho, the Energy Secretary, the news was infuriating. Not
only had a decision vital to the UK been taken in Paris but it came just
days after she unveiled the Government’s long-awaited Nuclear Roadmap. A
statement rushed out that evening made clear that Coutinho blamed the
French for Hinkley’s extra costs and delays. “Hinkley Point C is not a
government project and so any additional costs or schedule overruns are the
responsibility of EDF and its partners and will in no way fall on
taxpayers,” a spokesman for her department said.
The comments irritated the French enough to hold a second round of media briefings, this time involving EDF’s owners, the French government. The UK, it was made clear,
would have to offer up billions of pounds more in taxpayers’ money if
Sizewell C was ever to be built. Coutinho subsequently pledged an extra
£1.8bn of taxpayers’ money for the project.
Meanwhile, EDF has refused
to up its stake from 20pc and Bowie has admitted he now needs to raise
£20bn of private finance, most likely meaning the Government will have to
put more taxpayer cash in and guarantee the debt.
Simon Taylor, professor of finance at Cambridge University, who specialises in the economics of nuclear energy, believes EDF’s reactor designs have some fundamental
flaws. “The EPR or European Pressurised Reactor were designed to be
incredibly safe, and to reassure people, after the Chernobyl disaster of
1986 but have turned out to be just much more difficult to build than
anyone had expected,” he says.
Amid a blame game between France and the
UK, the biggest loser remains the British taxpayer. They now face several
more years of reduced energy security and the prospect of power bills hikes
to raise the £20bn-plus bill for Sizewell C.
Telegraph 28th Jan 2024
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/01/28/edf-hinkley-point-c-costs-go-nuclear-uk-taxpayer/
Ontario to announce refurbishment of four reactors at Pickering Plant
MATTHEW MCCLEARN, JEFF GRAY, QUEEN’S PARK REPORTER, TORONTO, 30 Jan 24, https://www-theglobeandmail-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.theglobeandmail.com/amp/canada/article-ontario-pickering-nuclear-reactor/
Ontario is proceeding with a massive, multibillion-dollar refurbishment of four aging nuclear reactors at its Pickering power plant east of Toronto, according to two provincial government sources.
The decision will be formally unveiled by Ontario Energy Minister Todd Smith at the facility in Pickering on Tuesday, a senior government source said. This would mark the government’s latest major move to preserve and expand the province’s reactor fleet.
Another government official said the province has approved a $2-billion budget for Ontario Power Generation, the plant’s owner, to complete the necessary engineering and design work and order crucial components, which can require years to manufacture. The Globe and Mail is not naming the sources, because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the decision.
No full cost estimate for the project has been revealed. Refurbishments under way at OPG’s Darlington nuclear plant in Clarington, and at Bruce Power’s station in Tiverton, have cost between $2-billion and more than $3-billion a reactor.
Mr. Smith’s announcement had been expected. In 2022, the province asked OPG to study the feasibility of refurbishing the four Pickering “B” units, which entered service in the mid-1980s and had previously been passed over for refurbishment 15 years ago. Mr. Smith received OPG’s report last summer, but his ministry rebuffed a request from this newspaper to release it underthe province’s freedom of information legislation.
The Pickering station, situated on the shore of Lake Ontario about 30 kilometres from downtown Toronto, generates about 15 per cent of Ontario’s power. It also includes the four 1970s-era Pickering “A” reactors, which are not currently being considered for refurbishment. Two have been dormant for decades after an aborted refurbishment, and the remaining two are scheduled to shut down permanently this year.
OPG’s current licence for Pickering B allows its reactors to operate only to the end of this year. OPG has applied to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, which regulates the industry, for permission to operate them until late 2026. CNSC approval would also be required for a refurbishment.
Refurbishment involves replacing major components to extend reactors’ operating lives by 30 years, although the list of required upgrades varies from station to station. Subo Sinnathamby, OPG’s chief projects officer, told The Globe earlier this month that, if the project were approved, OPG would begin Pickering’s refurbishment in 2028, with the goal of returning its reactors to service by the mid-2030s. Previous refurbishments have unfolded over longer periods.
“It is a compressed timeline,” she acknowledged. But she added that this time OPG will benefit from the experience it and its contractors and suppliers gained during previous refurbishments.
RAF Lakenheath: Plans progress to bring US nuclear weapons to Suffolk – a risky target?
Matt Precey – BBC News, Suffolk, Tue, 30 January 2024
Matt Precey – BBC News, Suffolk
Tue, 30 January 2024 at 1:33 am AEDT·3-min read
Plans to deploy American nuclear weapons to an airbase in Suffolk have progressed, according to a US Department of Defence (DoD) notice.
A contract to build shelters to protect troops that would defend storage facilities at RAF Lakenheath has been awarded.
The document states the work was in preparation for the base’s “upcoming nuclear mission”.
The US Air Force (USAF) has yet to respond to a request for comment.
Matt Precey – BBC News, Suffolk
Tue, 30 January 2024 at 1:33 am AEDT·3-min read
Plans to deploy American nuclear weapons to an airbase in Suffolk have progressed, according to a US Department of Defence (DoD) notice.
A contract to build shelters to protect troops that would defend storage facilities at RAF Lakenheath has been awarded.
The document states the work was in preparation for the base’s “upcoming nuclear mission”.
The US Air Force (USAF) has yet to respond to a request for comment.
The Ministry of Defence said there was a longstanding agreement among NATO partners not to comment on the location of nuclear weapons.
In March 2023, a document from the US Office of the Under Secretary of Defense disclosed how $50m (£39m) had been earmarked to build a facility known as a “Surety Dormitory” at RAF Lakenheath.
This phrase is understood to refer to nuclear weapons storage……………………………………………………….
Thermonuclear bomb
This would be the first time in more than 15 years nuclear weapons have been deployed on British soil.
In 2008, the BBC reported the bombs had been removed from RAF Lakenheath, which houses 4,000 service personnel and more than 1,500 British and US civilians.
The base is currently home to the USAF’s 48th Fighter Wing, the only unit in Europe which operates both the F-15E Eagle and the F-35A Lighting II fighter aircraft.
Reports from the US indicate the newer F-35A had been flight tested to use the latest variant of the B61-12 thermonuclear bomb, which paved the way for the aircraft to begin carrying such weapons.
According to the defence publication Janes, B61-12 was capable of an explosive power (known as a yield) of up to 340 kilotons, or more than twenty times the power of the Hiroshima bomb.
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament’s general secretary, Kate Hudson, said: “These documents highlight plainly that an ‘upcoming nuclear mission’ will be stationed at RAF Lakenheath – confirming what we have strongly suspected since November 2022 – that US nuclear weapons are returning to Britain.”
“It’s shameful that both the US and UK governments continue to take the public for fools on this serious matter – refusing to give us crucial information about our security,” she added.
Ms Hudson claimed it escalated the dangers and had “made us a nuclear target.”
Documents unambiguously state ‘incoming nuclear mission’ to Britain
30 Jan 24 https://cnduk.org/documents-unambiguously-state-incoming-nuclear-mission-to-britain/
Recently reported documents add further evidence that the US is planning to deploy nuclear weapons to Britain, with CND forwarding its concerns to Suffolk Council.
The files describes “Stationary and Mobile Guard Shacks” which will be constructed at RAF Lakenheath for ballistic protection for the 48th Security Forces Squadron – who are attached to the 48th Fighter Wing based at Lakenheath. It notes that the shacks are needed for the “upcoming nuclear mission” of the 48th SFS.
The document dates from 29 September 2023, a month after it was reported that the US Air Force plans to build a 144-bed “surety dormitory” at Lakenheath. “Surety” is the term used by the US government and military to refer to the handling of nuclear weapons.
In November 2023, CND’s lawyers wrote to West Suffolk Council insisting that the planning rights used to build the dormitory are incorrect and that it needs to be subject to an environmental impact assessment. In light of the recent files we have again written to the Council, to draw attention to the fact that it “suggests unambiguously that nuclear weapons will be stationed at RAF Lakenheath.”
CND General Secretary Kate Hudson said:
“These documents highlight plainly that an ‘upcoming nuclear mission’ will be stationed at RAF Lakenheath – confirming what we have strongly suspected since April 2022 – that US nuclear weapons are returning to Britain. It’s shameful that both the US and UK governments continue to take the public for fools on this serious matter – refusing to give us crucial information about our security. This deployment has been in the works for some time, prior to Russia’s deployment of its own nuclear weapons to Belarus. So far from making us safer, this deployment has escalated the dangers, brought Russian nukes to Europe, and made us a nuclear target.”
Advanced nuclear power is costly and tech is still developing. Is a Pueblo plant realistic?
James Bartolo, Pueblo Chieftain, 29 Jan 24
While a committee of 11 local leaders championed advanced nuclear as the best replacement for the Comanche 3 coal plant earlier this month, others question the feasibility of nuclear in Pueblo…………….
Is advanced nuclear too expensive? Can it be built on time?
Xcel Energy is the primary owner of Comanche 3 through its subsidiary, Public Service Company of Colorado. On July 20, 2023, Xcel Energy leadership team members presented a hypothetical timeline to PIESAC for replacement of Comanche 3 with advanced nuclear.
Regulatory processes, licensing processes, construction and development of small modular nuclear reactor technology could push the start date of an advanced nuclear plant to 2037 or later, according to the timeline.
“Right now what is known of the solutions that we have, if you stack it up, we are much closer to 2040 before a solution like this would be serving our customers,” said Kathryn Valdez, carbon-free technology policy director at Xcel Energy, on July 20.
Matthew Gerhart, senior attorney of the Sierra Club Environmental Law Program, told the Chieftain that the lengthy timeline associated with advanced nuclear should rule it out as a potential replacement for Comanche 3.
Gerhart said advanced nuclear is ultimately a “distraction” from considering more feasible and cost-effective energy replacements.
“Not only have a handful of people settled on option, which is not even feasible to be built by 2031, but they’ve settled on the most expensive option by far.”
A draft study by the Colorado Energy Office models scenarios for reaching zero greenhouse gas emissions in the state’s electric power sector before 2040. A “cost-optimized” scenario for reaching zero emissions in the study did not select nuclear “due to high costs,” according to the study.
The scenario in the Colorado Energy Office’s draft study did, however, select several other fuel sources including batteries, biomass, clean hydrogen, demand response, geothermal, solar and wind.
“What they found was that you could reduce emissions and get really close to zero emissions in the utility sector without nuclear,” Gerhart said………………………………………………………………………………. https://www.chieftain.com/story/news/2024/01/29/is-advanced-nuclear-a-realistic-replacement-for-comanche-3-in-pueblo/72339785007/
German energy companies reject nuclear energy proposals – citing high risks and toxic waste problem
Will nuclear energy make a comeback in Germany? Germany phased out nuclear
energy nearly a year ago. But even with the multi-billion euro problem of
how to store radioactive waste, some policians are calling for new nuclear
plants to be built.
The CDU and CSU have changed their position on nuclear
power again. Now many in the party are calling for new reactors to be
built. CDU leader Friedrich Merz has said that shutting down the last
reactors was a “black day for Germany.” The parties also say that old
reactors should be reconnected to the grid. Merz says that the country
should restart the last three power plants that were shut down — citing
climate protection, as well as rising oil and gas prices.
Those proposals have not found much enthusiasm among German energy companies. EnvironmentMinister Steffi Lemke is not surprised. “The energy companies made
adjustments a long time ago, and they still reject nuclear power in Germany
today. Nuclear power is a high-risk technology whose radioactive waste will
continue to be toxic for thousands of years, and will be an issue for many
generations.”
Deutsche Welle 28th Jan 2024
https://www.dw.com/en/will-nuclear-energy-make-a-comeback-in-germany/a-68098059
US reportedly planning to station nuclear weapons in Britain for first time in 15 years
THE UNITED STATES is reportedly planning to station nuclear warheads in Britain that are three times as powerful as 1945’s Hiroshima bomb.
Pentagon documents seen by the Telegraph indicate that the weapons could be stationed at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk, where the US previously stored nuclear missiles until 2008.
The papers show procurement contracts for a new facility at the air base.
A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: “It remains a longstanding UK and Nato policy to neither confirm nor deny the presence of nuclear weapons at a given location.”
The documents have surfaced amid concerns of an escalation between Nato countries and Russia as Vladimir Putin continues his war on Ukraine.
Last week, Nato announced its biggest drills since the cold war, involving deployment of 90,000 military personnel to central and eastern Europe.
EDF, France’s state-owned nuclear company now in a fatal trap, as Hinkley Point C costs soar
Hinkley Point: endless setbacks at nuclear plant highlight political choice to destroy EDF
On January 22nd, state-owned French utilities group
EDF announced new delays in the construction of two EPR nuclear reactors at
the British plant of Hinkley Point. Originally planned to enter service in
2024, the first of the two reactors is now expected to be, at best,
operational in 2029, or possibly “2030 or 2031”.
Seven years after the project was launched, all the warnings against EDF’s involvement in it
made by the group’s staff have proved be right, writes Mediapart
economics correspondent Martine Orange in this op-ed article.
The state-owned group now finds itself in a fatal trap created by Emmanuel
Macron. Following the epic delays with the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant in
Finland, those of Flamanville in France, and those of Taishan in China, the
under-construction plant of Hinkley Point C in south-west England has now
joined the long story of an industrial catastrophe which is the third
generation EPR (pressurised water reactor) first designed by Areva, once
France’s nuclear energy giant.
Mediapart 28th Jan 2024
1 This Month
of the week- – THE ONENESS of HUMANITY
We the Nuclear Free North
1st July – Webinar Waste of Space: The Environmental Harm of Military and Civil Space Activity st July, 7 pm
Report Launch Online: We are seeing an increasing exploitation of space for military and commercial purposes. This must change.
Protect Sazan Island from the Trump family! https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/protect_sazan_island_from_the_trump_family_loc/?bqFCVab&v=174511&cl=22707147157&_checksum=5e9dde668860e8231c33699735e16a1fbf22ab2cb01da50c999fe8732b9775ef&utm_source=email&utm_medium=blast_email&utm_campaign=174511
Cuba Is Not a Failed State – It Is a Besieged State
PETITION: “Global Appeal to Endorse Palestinian Right of Return of Refugees”
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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