The Invisible Slaughter of Palestinian Children
CHARLES HIRSCHKIND11/03/2023 https://www.juancole.com/2023/11/invisible-slaughter-palestinian.html
Berkeley, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – According to our most reliable news sources, the children of Gaza are being slaughtered at a horrific rate. No, you will not find the terms “slaughter” or “horrific” in Western media accounts of Israel’s current assault on the Palestinians residents of Gaza (these terms are reserved for Israeli deaths), but nonetheless, there is little disagreement among media professionals that nearly half of the deaths resulting from Israel’s current assault on Gaza are children, as I write, close to 4000 of them. And the killing of 4000 children by aerial bombardment in the short span of 3 or 4 weeks is nothing if not a horrific and terrible slaughter.
Statements made by politicians or military personnel to mitigate the significance of this number—that Israel is making every possible effort to spare civilian lives, that collateral damage is sadly unavoidable in war, that Hamas is to blame for forcing Israel to defend itself, or, most perversely, Biden’s baseless caution about the numerical accuracy of the data—all of these qualifications seem morally obscene when weighed against the fact that close to 4000 children have been blown to shreds in a few short weeks.
According to the charity, Save the Children, “More children have been killed in the Gaza Strip over the last three weeks than in every other armed conflict annually since 2019.” Whatever viewpoint one may hold in regard to Israel’s military actions in Gaza, in one very real and empirical sense, this has been a war carried out -— to a stunning and unprecedented degree -— on the bodies of children. This, I would argue, is a salient moral fact of the conflict, one that any attempt to come to terms with Israel’s assault necessarily confronts.
Or perhaps not. For when our major news media update us on the results of Israel’s relentless bombing campaign, we hear, not that 100 Palestinian children were crushed in the day’s rubble, a now daily occurrence, but rather, that Israel successfully destroyed more of the “terrorist infrastructure,” that “terror tunnels” were eliminated, that 15 Hamas terrorists were killed by the Israeli Army and Air Force, and so on.
We are presented, in other words, with a narrative that conceals the very slaughter that we know from the available casualty statistics is occurring. The massive carnage in children’s lives -— again, an inescapable moral fact of the conflict, whatever one’s point of view—is replaced by the so-called “war on Hamas,” and presented in a language ever more obedient to Israeli military speak, where protocol seems to demand that every third word in a sentence be “terror” or one of its derivative terms.
From the standpoint of Western media, Palestinian lives are relevant precisely in proportion to their ability to resist Israel’s crushing grip upon them. Insomuch as Hamas is the primary institution of organized resistance in Gaza, it is they -— not dead children -— who are the only significant Palestinian casualties in this war. It is this perceptual regime that lays behind comments such as the following, made by a US government official, just a few days ago: “We believe that a ceasefire right now benefits Hamas, and Hamas is the only one that would gain from that right now.” The thought that thousands of Palestinian children might also derive some benefit from a ceasefire, namely by not being blown to pieces, is not even to be entertained.
The erasure of enemy deaths is an established practice within war, and the deaths of children are no exception. Thousands of children were killed by the US in the “War on Terror.” These deaths never achieved significant visibility within American public discourse, never weighed heavily on the American political conscience.
Our mainstream media present us today with two events that cannot be squared, the war on Palestinian children and the war on Hamas, and then proceed to coach us in how not to see one of them. This is the task in perception management that today sets their agenda. #Israel #Palestine
Rights group: Israel dropped equivalent to 2 nuclear bombs on Gaza
November 3, 2023 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20231103-rights-group-israel-dropped-equivalent-to-2-nuclear-bombs-on-gaza/
Israel has dropped more than 25,000 tonnes of explosives on the besieged Gaza Strip since the start of its large-scale bombardment on 7 October, equivalent to two nuclear bombs, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said in a press release issued Thursday.
The rights group said the Israeli army has admitted to bombing over 12,000 targets in the Gaza Strip; pounding the enclave with roughly 10 kilogrammes of explosives per resident.
Euro-Med Monitor highlighted that the weight of the nuclear bombs dropped by the United States on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan at the end of World War II in August 1945 was estimated at about 15,000 tonnes, adding that due to technological developments affecting the potency of bombs, the explosives dropped on Gaza may be twice as powerful as a nuclear bomb.
“This means that the destructive power of the explosives dropped on Gaza exceeds that of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima,” Euro-Med Monitor said.
According to the statement, Israel uses bombs with huge destructive power, some of which range from 150 to 1,000 kilogrammes, and cited a recent statement by Israeli War Minister Yoav Gallant that declared that more than 10,000 bombs have been dropped on Gaza City alone.
The Geneva-based rights group has also documented Israel’s use of internationally banned weapons in its attacks on the Gaza Strip, especially the use of cluster and phosphorus bombs, which can cause severe fatal burns. #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes #Israel #Palestine
US Congress Passes $14.3 Billion in Military Aid for Israel
The White House has threatened to veto the GOP version since it cuts from the IRS to pay for Israel’s war.
SCHEERPOST, By Dave DeCamp / Antiwar.com, 3 Nov 23
The House on Thursday passed a bill to provide Israel with $14.3 billion in military aid, a strong show of support for the Israeli onslaught on Gaza, which has killed over 9,000 people so far.
The Republican-authored bill would cut funds from the Internal Revenue Service to pay for Israel’s aid, drawing opposition from Democrats. The bill passed in a vote of 226-196, with only 12 Democrats voting in favor. Two Republicans voted against the bill: Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).
Due to the IRS cuts, the White House has threatened to veto the bill, and the Democrat-controlled Senate is working on its own version. Democrats expressed frustration at the GOP bill, saying it will only delay getting more weapons to Israel, which already receives $3.8 billion in military aid from the US each year…………………………..
New House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-FL), who vowed to prioritize backing Israel when elected, said the GOP version of the bill helps Israel in its bombardment of Gaza “while we also work to ensure responsible spending and reduce the size of the federal government.”
Explaining his opposition to the bill, Rep. Massie said the US couldn’t afford it. “Soaring inflation and high interest rates are due to overspending. We can’t afford more foreign aid. I voted against the billions for Ukraine, and I am voting against $14+ billion of foreign aid for Israel tonight,” he wrote on X. https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/03/house-passes-14-3-billion-in-military-aid-for-israel/— #Israel #Palestine
Bad guys and bombs: The nuclear risks of small modular reactors
National Observer, By John Woodside November 3rd 2023
Nuclear proliferation experts are warning that 50 years of policy designed to limit the spread of nuclear weapons is unravelling as governments invest in certain small modular reactors that could be misused to build bombs.
The concerns are aimed at Moltex, a Saint John, N.B., nuclear startup building small modular reactors (SMRs) that will be powered with spent fuel from CANDU reactors. To make the fuel, Moltex plans to separate plutonium from uranium in CANDU waste and use the extracted plutonium to power new SMRs.
It is this separation process that led a dozen nuclear scientists to write to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in September, warning him that Moltex is a nuclear weapon proliferation risk and calling for a formal risk assessment of emerging nuclear technologies.
Edwin Lyman, Union of Concerned Scientists nuclear power safety director, was one of the signatories of the letter. Lyman — who has testified multiple times before the U.S. Congress and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on the topics of nuclear power safety, security and proliferation — said that by separating and concentrating plutonium, Moltex is completing one of the most difficult steps on the path to making a bomb.
“The very process of extracting plutonium from the spent nuclear fuel and concentrating it is itself a very serious proliferation and security threat because you’re simply doing the work of the bad guys for them by concentrating and extracting plutonium,” he said.
Extracting plutonium from nuclear waste, converting it into a fuel and then transporting the fuel to a reactor increase the nuclear weapon proliferation threat “immensely,” Lyman said. The alternative is leaving the plutonium in the waste, where it is more difficult to extract, he said.
Currently, nuclear waste created by existing reactors is stored in facilities designed for interim storage. But because the waste stays radioactive for thousands of years, long-term storage solutions are a pressing concern. Canada is exploring plans to deal with the waste by burying it deep underground. Moltex, which has received at least $50.5 million worth of federal government subsidies, $10 million from New Brunswick, and $1 million from Ontario Power Generation (and is eyeing roughly $200 million more), said its SMRs, which will use plutonium extracted from the waste and use it as new energy to power a reactor, is another viable solution because the waste becomes less radioactive in the process.
Both recycling and burying spent nuclear fuel come with risks. Burying the waste deep underground could hypothetically mean the site could be exploited as a plutonium mine for future nuclear weapon production while reprocessing it could open the door for clandestine repurposing.
The reactor technology is still being developed, but in the view of nuclear weapon proliferation experts interviewed by Canada’s National Observer, the Moltex design is similar enough to previously studied nuclear technologies that are called “proliferation-prone” rather than “proliferation-resistant.” For that reason, the company should be stopped in its tracks, they say…………………………………………….
Kuperman said it’s “misleading” to say the proliferation risk is only for a short period of time because Moltex not only would need to reprocess spent fuel at the start of its process to obtain the plutonium it needs but would also reprocess the fuel over the life of the reactor to “remove undesired products of reactor operation.” In other words, the proliferation risks last the life of each reactor, which is estimated at 60 years.
He said safeguards are also difficult, if not impossible, to implement when the risk is that plutonium could be diverted from the reactor to make bombs because discovering misuse after the fact is too late. A 2009 study from six U.S. national laboratories analyzing various types of nuclear-reprocessing technologies, some of which Kuperman described as similar to Moltex’s design, emphasized this risk.
“While an attempt by the state to separate pure plutonium in facilities using these technologies might be readily detected, once the state has withdrawn or broken out from its non-proliferation obligations, estimates of the time to convert the facility to separate pure plutonium ranges from a few days to a few weeks,” the study found.
That 2009 study is “objective and authoritative,” Kuperman said. “By contrast, the Moltex CEO is a businessman trying to make money by downplaying the nuclear weapons proliferation risks of his technology.”
In Kuperman’s view, the big picture is that there is a documented history of nuclear energy with peaceful purposes in mind having been misused to create bombs — and there is no reason to risk it again………………………………. more https://www.nationalobserver.com/2023/11/03/news/bad-guys-bombs-nuclear-risks-small-modular-reactors #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes
Russia Says Intends to Continue Nuclear Test Moratorium
Moscow Times, 3 Nov 23
Russia intends to stick to a nuclear test ban moratorium despite withdrawing its ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the Foreign Ministry said Friday.
“We intend to keep the moratorium that was introduced more than 30 years ago in place,” said a ministry statement.
But any nuclear tests by the United States would “force us to do the same,” it added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed off on a law revoking Russia’s ratification of the treaty.
The 1996 treaty outlaws all nuclear explosions, including live tests of nuclear weapons, though it never came into force because some key countries — including the United States and China — never ratified it……………………………………………………………
The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) has urged Russia to continue its commitment to the treaty, including the use of monitoring stations capable of detecting the slightest explosion in real-time. https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/11/03/russia-says-intends-to-continue-nuclear-test-moratorium-a82998
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‘Nobody Believes in Our Victory Like I Do.’ Inside Volodymyr Zelensky’s Struggle to Keep Ukraine in the Fight
Public support for aid to #Ukraine has been in decline for months in the U.S., and Zelensky’s visit did nothing to revive it.
Despite the recent setbacks on the battlefield, he does not intend to give up fighting or to sue for any kind of peace. On the contrary, his belief in Ukraine’s ultimate victory over Russia has hardened into a form that worries some of his advisers. It is immovable, verging on the messianic. “He deludes himself,” one of his closest aides tells me in frustration. “We’re out of options. We’re not winning. But try telling him that.
The cold will also make military advances more difficult, locking down the front lines at least until the spring. But Zelensky has refused to accept that.
with the outbreak of war in Israel. The focus of Ukraine’s allies in the U.S. and Europe, and of the global media, quickly shifted to the Gaza Strip………………. on its own, Ukraine aid no longer stands much of a chance in Washington.
At the start of the Russian invasion, Zelensky’s mission was to maintain the sympathy of humankind. Now his task is more complicated. In his foreign trips and presidential phone calls, he needs to convince world leaders that helping Ukraine is in their own national interests, that it will, as Biden put it, “pay dividends.” Achieving that gets harder as global crises multiply.
BY SIMON SHUSTER/KYIV, NOVEMBER 1, 2023 , ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: OCTOBER 30, 2023 https://time.com/6329188/ukraine-volodymyr-zelensky-interview/
Volodymyr Zelensky was running late.
The invitation to his speech at the National Archives in Washington had gone out to several hundred guests, including congressional leaders and top officials from the Biden Administration. Billed as the main event of his visit in late September, it would give him a chance to inspire U.S. support against Russia with the kind of oratory the world has come to expect from Ukraine’s wartime President. It did not go as planned.
That afternoon, Zelensky’s meetings at the White House and the Pentagon delayed him by more than an hour, and when he finally arrived to begin his speech at 6:41 p.m., he looked distant and agitated. He relied on his wife, First Lady Olena Zelenska, to carry his message of resilience on the stage beside him, while his own delivery felt stilted, as though he wanted to get it over with. At one point, while handing out medals after the speech, he urged the organizer to hurry things along.
The reason, he later said, was the exhaustion he felt that night, not only from the demands of leadership during the war but also the persistent need to convince his allies that, with their help, Ukraine can win. “Nobody believes in our victory like I do. Nobody,” Zelensky told TIME in an interview after his trip. Instilling that belief in his allies, he said, “takes all your power, your energy. You understand? It takes so much of everything.”
It is only getting harder. Twenty months into the war, about a fifth of Ukraine’s territory remains under Russian occupation. Tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians have been killed, and Zelensky can feel during his travels that global interest in the war has slackened. So has the level of international support.
Continue reading“Enhanced regulation” as Aurora – new £2.5bn plutonium facility – is added to UK”s AWE Aldermaston
Project Aurora, a new plutonium manufacturing facility at AWE Aldermaston
was added to the government’s 2023 list of major projects, and is
currently estimated to cost between £2bn and £2.5bn. The facility, which
was originally planned as part of the Nuclear Warhead Capability
Sustainment Programme (NWCSP) at AWE, will likely replace the current A90
facility at Aldermaston, which was built in the 1990s.
Nuclear Information Service 31st Oct 2023
The Chief Nuclear Inspector’s 2023 annual report has revealed that AWE
Aldermaston and the Devonport Royal Dockyard (DRDL) are to remain under
enhanced regulatory attention. Aldermaston has been under enhanced
attention since 2013 and Devonport since 2014. Of the three categories of
regulatory attention used by the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR),
enhanced is the second highest. The highest category is used only for the
four most hazardous facilities at Sellafield. ONR said that for both sites
the decision for them to remain in this category was due to “longstanding
issues”.
Nuclear Information Service 31st Oct 2023 #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes #plutonium
Magnox rebrands to Nuclear Restoration Services as its decommissioning portfolio expands
Magnox has become Nuclear Restoration Services (NRS) ahead of taking
ownership of closing EDF nuclear sites. NRS, part of the UK’s Nuclear
Decommissioning Authority (NDA) group, is responsible for safely
decommissioning first generation nuclear reactor and research sites across
the UK and restoring them for future use.
As Magnox, the company was
responsible for safe and secure cleanup of 12 nuclear sites. In April, it
additionally took on the decommissioning of the Dounreay nuclear site in
Scotland when it merged with Dounreay Site Restoration (DSR).
The site is owned by NDA, but DSR was contracted to deliver its decommissioning
programme. Two years ago, it was agreed that NDA would become responsible
for decommissioning EDF’s seven advanced gas-cooled reactors (AGRs), once
power generation had ended and defueling had been completed. Hunterston B
was the first AGR to come offline in January last year, followed by Hinkley
Point B in August 2022. EDF expects all the sites will stop operating by
2028. Ownership of Hunterston B is expected to transfer in 2026, with the
others to follow on a rolling basis over the next decade.
The Chemical Engineer 2nd Nov 2023
https://www.thechemicalengineer.com/news/magnox-rebrands-to-nuclear-restoration-services-as-its-decommissioning-portfolio-expands/ #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNuke
Taiwan Cabinet officials clarify that nuclear power is not “green”
BY GIORGIO LEALI, OCTOBER 31, 2023 https://en.rti.org.tw/news/view/id/2010213
A Cabinet spokesperson on Wednesday said that nuclear power does not qualify as “green energy”, despite recent comments made by Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁). Cabinet Spokesperson Lin Tze-luen (林子倫) was responding to Chen’s comments in the legislature the previous day.
During questions from legislators on Tuesday, Chen said that nuclear energy is green energy, but that the issue of nuclear waste disposal must also be taken into account. Lin says that several people including Chen himself and Economic Minister Wang Mei-hua (王美花) have all made clarifying comments. Wang in her comments said that although nuclear power generates very few emissions, that does not necessarily define it as “green”. She says that is why international environmental organizations such as RE100 do not list nuclear energy as green.
Lin says that some media reports did not faithfully report the full context of the premier’s comments, which could be misleading. He adds a nuclear-free Taiwan remains the national consensus and that the government’s position has not changed. He says the government continues to move ahead with its four goals of reducing coal, increasing gas, developing green energy, and denuclearizing. He adds that the government will also continue working toward the goal of net-zero carbon emissions by the year 2050. #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes
Civilian casualties in Gaza don’t matter – top US senator
Lindsey Graham insists no amount of Palestinian deaths should make the Washington put the brakes on Israel
https://www.rt.com/news/586356-senator-graham-no-limit-civilian-casualties-gaza/ 1 Nov 23
The US should stand by Israel in its campaign against Hamas no matter how heavy a toll it takes on the civilian population in Gaza, Senator Lindsey Graham has argued. He likened Israel’s military operation against the militants to the allies’ struggle against Nazi Germany and Japan during World War II.
In an interview with CNN on Tuesday, Graham was asked if there was a “threshold” for him, after which he would start questioning Israel’s tactics. The Republican replied in the negative, saying there is no limit as to “what Israel should do to the people who are trying to slaughter the Jews.”
“This idea that Israel has to apologize for attacking Hamas, who’s embedded with their own population, needs to stop,” the senator insisted, adding that it is Hamas that is “creating these casualties – not Israel.”
Graham noted that Israel does need to “be smart” by trying to “limit civilian casualties.” The lawmaker also called for the delivery of humanitarian aid to “areas that protect the innocent.”
During his visit to Israel last month, US President Joe Biden assured Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that “as long as the United States stands, and we will stand forever, we will not let you ever be alone.”
Soon after Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel last month, Washington scrambled to provide its long-standing ally with additional defense aid worth billions of dollars.
The US has also deployed two aircraft carrier groups and other naval assets, a squadron of F-16 fighter jets, air-defense systems, and 900 troops to the Middle East, saying this increased military presence should serve as a deterrent to other states tempted to join the conflict.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the director of the UN’s human rights office (OHCHR) in New York, Craig Mokhiber, described Israel’s actions in Gaza as a “text-book case of genocide” and the “wholesale slaughter of the Palestinian people, rooted in an ethno-nationalist settler colonial ideology.”
The official handed in his resignation, arguing that the UN had failed in its duty to prevent the killing of Palestinian civilians. He claimed that the international organization had “surrendered to the power of the US” and given in to the “Israeli lobby.”
Mokhiber also accused European nations of being “complicit in the horrific assault” on Gaza and “giving political and diplomatic cover for Israel’s atrocities.”
Echoing Mokhiber’s assessment on Tuesday in Geneva, a spokesman for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), James Elder, claimed that “Gaza has become a graveyard for thousands of children,” and a “living hell for everyone else.” He called for a humanitarian ceasefire in the Palestinian enclave.
The conflict has so far left more than 1,400 Israelis and over 8,000 Palestinians dead, with thousands more injured. #Israel #Palestine
Netanyahu Rejects Calls for Ceasefire as Gaza Death Toll Surpasses 8,300
By Chris Walker , TRUTHOUT, October 31, 2023 https://truthout.org/articles/netanyahu-rejects-calls-for-ceasefire-as-gaza-death-toll-surpasses-8300/?utm_source=Truthout&utm_campaign=cd5af912ac-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_3_20_2023_13_41_COPY_06&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_bbb541a1db-cd5af912ac-650192793&mc_cid=cd5af912ac&mc_eid=73e1cd43d0
Hundreds of thousands of protesters worldwide have demanded an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the occupation.By Chris Walker , TRUTHOUTPublishedOctober 31, 2023
sraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected international calls for an Israeli ceasefire in Gaza during a press conference on Monday.
Since the Hamas-led infiltration attack on October 7 that killed around 1,400 people, Israeli forces have waged a genocidal bombing campaign against Palestinians, killing more than 8,300 people in Gaza — more than a third of whom are children, according to the latest figures from the Gaza Health Ministry. Thousands more Gazans are estimated to be trapped under the rubble.
Israeli airstrikes have displaced millions of Gazans from their homes, many of whom are now struggling to survive — and resorting to drinking contaminated sea water — as Israel blocks food, water, electricity and medicine from entering Gaza.
“Just as the United States would not agree to a cease-fire after Pearl Harbor or after the terrorist attack of 9/11, Israel will not agree to a cessation of hostilities with Hamas after the horrific attacks of October 7,” Netanyahu told reporters on Monday.
Netanyahu’s comments come as hundreds of thousands of protesters worldwide have demanded an immediate ceasefire and for Israel to allow desperately needed aid into Gaza, as well as for an end to Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land. Although Netanyahu has claimed that aid has been reaching those in need, observers on the ground have disputed these claims.
“Very few trucks, slow processes, strict inspections, supplies that do not match the requirements of UNRWA and the other aid organizations, and mostly the ongoing ban on fuel, are all a recipe for a failed system,” read a report from Thomas White, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency’s top official for Gaza.
Hundreds of thousands of people protested against the Israeli military’s siege of Gaza in cities across the globe over the weekend, including in Melbourne, Australia; London, United Kingdom; Toronto, Canada; New York, United States; Rome, Italy; Amman, Jordan; Berlin, Germany; Pretoria, South Africa; and more.
Netanyahu, who faces calls to resign from his role as prime minister for failing to prevent the October 7 attack from Hamas, didn’t appear to be moved by the calls for a ceasefire and an end to the occupation. “This is a time for war,” he said instead.
Meanwhile, residents of Israel appear to be changing their views on the attacks in Gaza. Polling from last week, taken prior to the Israeli military launching a ground campaign, indicates that close to one in two Israeli residents (49 percent) wanted the Israel Defense Forces to pause consideration of such moves, with only 29 percent stating they wanted the military to immediately launch a ground campaign, a decrease from a poll asking the same question a week before.
Other polling taken earlier this month found that the vast majority of Israeli residents agree that Netanyahu was largely responsible for failing to prepare for an attack from Hamas, with 80 percent in that poll saying so.
Evidence suggests that Netanyahu did in fact have advance warning about the Hamas attack on October 7. Egyptian officials say they repeatedly warned the prime minister days ahead of the attack that the action from Hamas was imminent. Netanyahu’s office has denied that they received any information from Egypt, although the chairman of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee, Texas Republican Rep. Michael McCaul, has said that he and other members have seen evidence of the warnings. #srael #Palestine
Deb Katz: There’s no end in sight to the crisis in nuclear waste
Clean water, clean air, clean land, and a safe place to live are our right. We must fight for the cleanup of all communities and stop the targeting of Black, brown and white communities alike to nuclear contamination.
November 1, 2023, by Deb Katz, executive director of the Citizen Awareness Network, based in Shelburne, Mass. https://vtdigger.org/2023/11/01/deb-katz-theres-no-end-in-sight-to-the-crisis-in-nuclear-waste/
What remains at the site of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant? Millions of curies of high-level waste on the banks of the Connecticut River with no destination, no solution.
The NorthStar plan? To ship its problem 2,000 miles away to Andrews County in Texas for “temporary storage.” The 5th Circuit shot down NorthStar’s plans to shuffle its toxic waste problem off on a working poor Hispanic community. This waste will be dangerous for a million years.
This is the colossal failure of nuclear power. There is no present solution to deal with the legacy of Vermont Yankee or any other reactor. This is the abject failure of the nuclear industry and the federal government.
The nuclear industry promised a solution by the time reactors shuttered. Sixty years later, there is no solution and no permanent solution forthcoming. There is waste with nowhere to go.
The industry routinely engages in environmental racism to deal with its waste problems. It is reprehensible. The industry targets working poor, people of color, and Indigenous tribes for its nuclear fuel chain. It pits reactor and targeted communities against each other over who will suffer nuclear power’s final solution.
Citizens Awareness Network opposes these false solutions. Without a permanent repository, any establishment of centralized interim storage is merely a way to make the industry’s waste problem disappear. Potentially it will de facto become the industry’s “permanent” solution.
We can’t accept that another community will suffer to clean our community up. We accept that the waste must remain onsite until the government does its job. This isn’t easy.
Dangers remain, whether from acts of malice or climate disruption. Vermont Yankee’s canisters sit in the open on a pad on the banks of the river.
The National Governors’ Council stated that the high-level nuclear waste at reactor sites were pre-deployed weapons of mass destruction. It urged Congress to take action to protect these sites. Congress has yet to act.
Then there is climate change. The National Academy of Science in February began a study to address what it calls “probability of maximum precipitation” events. The study focuses on infrastructure, dams and energy generation including nuclear sites. It addresses their vulnerability to PMP events. Included in the study are representatives from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Both acknowledged that there is no guidance in place to direct their actions to address these events and the vulnerability of these sites.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the U.S. Geological Survey acknowledged that they were 20 years behind the curve in addressing these issues. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission acknowledged that the agency concerns were raised in response to the Fukushima accident.
For all its claims, nuclear power is neither clean nor green. It is a dirty, toxic technology. It relies on its invisibility to keep its lies going.
Clean water, clean air, clean land, and a safe place to live are our right. We must fight for the cleanup of all communities and stop the targeting of Black, brown and white communities alike to nuclear contamination.
How well protected are Ukraine’s nuclear power plants?
“This incident again underlines the extremely precarious nuclear safety situation in Ukraine, which will continue as long as this tragic war goes on,” Grossi said. “The fact that numerous windows at the site were destroyed shows just how close it was. Next time, we may not be so fortunate.”
DW, Lilia Rzheutska, 1 Nov 23
Ukrainian air defense systems recently downed Russian attack drones near the Khmelnitsky nuclear power plant. But falling debris still damaged the site. Are power plants in danger?
On the night of October 25, Ukrainian authorities reported downing Russian Shahed kamikaze drones near the Khmelnitsky nuclear power plant, in the country’s west. Falling debris and a wave of detonations caused significant damage to the town of Netishyn, where power plant employees live. The nearby town of Slavuta was also affected. Some buildings belonging to the nuclear facility itself were also damaged. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the drones were likely sent to attack the power plant.
Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) who are at the nuclear plant confirmed two loud explosions had occurred near the plant. They were later informed that two drones had been shot down at a distance of five and 20 kilometers, respectively.
AEA director General Rafael Grossi later stated on the organization’s website that powerful explosions near the power plant that night had temporarily cut off power to two radiation monitoring stations. According to Grossi, the detonations did not, however, disrupt the plant’s operations, nor did they affect the power grid. The explosion did, meanwhile, shatter several windows at the plant. “This incident again underlines the extremely precarious nuclear safety situation in Ukraine, which will continue as long as this tragic war goes on,” Grossi said. “The fact that numerous windows at the site were destroyed shows just how close it was. Next time, we may not be so fortunate.”
……………………………… A nuclear power plant is more than just a reactor, says Dmytro Humenyuk, who heads the safety and analysis unit of Ukraine’s scientific and technical center on nuclear and radiation safety. It is a complex facility that consists of safety systems that provides electricity for the plant itself, and transports power generated by the plant. Falling debris or shelling powerlines and substations could lead to a power outage at the nuclear power plant and trigger a dangerous situation, Humenjuk says.
High-voltage substations, through which electricity produced at the nuclear power plant is fed into the power grid and without which the facility cannot function safely, must be well protected from missile and drone attacks well as falling debris. “When substations come under fire, the nuclear power plant’s emergency protection is activated,” says nuclear energy expert Olha Kozharna. “Such an emergency stop is very dangerous for the power plants.”…………………………………………………………… https://www.dw.com/en/how-well-protected-are-ukraines-nuclear-power-plants/a-67271615 #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes
2
Small modular nuclear reactor merger plan falls through
X-energy, Ares drop merger plan, 31 October 2023
Small modular reactor (SMR) and advanced fuel technology developer X-Energy Reactor Company – known as X-energy – and Ares Acquisition Corporation (AAC) have “mutually agreed to terminate their previously announced business combination agreement, effective immediately”.
In December last year, X-energy and AAC – a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company affiliated with global alternative investment manager Ares Management Corporation – entered into a definitive business combination agreement. The combination was set to establish X-energy as a publicly traded company, a move that was expected to accelerate the company’s growth strategy.
………………………………….., given challenging market conditions, peer-company trading performance and a balancing of the benefits and drawbacks of becoming a publicly traded company under current circumstances, X-energy and AAC jointly determined that it was the best course of action at this time not to proceed with their previously announced transaction.”
……………………….”In view of the termination of the Business Combination Agreement, AAC determined that it will not be able to consummate an initial business combination within the time period required by its amended and restated memorandum and articles of association,” the statement said. “As such, AAC intends to dissolve and liquidate in accordance with the provisions of the articles.”
X-energy is the developer of the Xe-100 pebble bed high-temperature gas reactor…………………… https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/X-energy,-Ares-drop-merger-plan #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes
Two more Japanese nuclear reactors granted 20-year extensions
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20231101_21/
Japan’s nuclear watchdog has approved extending the operation of two aging nuclear reactors in southwestern Japan for another 20 years.
The operational lifespan of Japanese reactors has been limited to 40 years in principle since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant accident in 2011. But it can be extended by up to 20 years if the reactors pass screening by the Nuclear Regulation Authority.
At a meeting on Wednesday, the NRA granted extension approval to the No.1 and 2 reactors at the Sendai nuclear power plant in Kagoshima Prefecture, which is operated by the Kyushu Electric Power Company.
The No.1 reactor will turn 40 next July and the No.2 will reach that age in November 2025.
Discussed at the meeting were the results of special inspections of the reactors conducted by Kyushu Electric and an assessment that showed the reactors can be used for another 20 years.
The members of the meeting unanimously approved the extensions.
This decision brings the number of Japanese reactors whose operations have been extended beyond 40 years to six. The other four are the No.1 and No.2 reactors at the Takahama nuclear power plant and the No.3 reactor at the Mihama plant — all in Fukui Prefecture — as well as the Tokai No.2 plant’s reactor in Ibaraki Prefecture. #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes
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23-25 October – on Zoom – World BEYOND War’s annual global conferenc
Shut down the radiation-damaged Heysham nuclear reactors now
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Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
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