Incident at France’s Civaux nuclear reactor adds to EDFs problems of stress corrosion crackingin nuclear plants
Stress corrosion cracking: Assessing and remedying cracking problem in
nuclear plants. The full extent of stress corrosion cracking at EDF’s
reactors in France has still to be determined. Nonetheless, lower
production as plants are re-examined has come at the worst possible time
for the company.
Electricite de France SA is investigating an incident
during a test at a halted nuclear reactor last week, just as a series of
repairs jeopardize the country’s power-supply security for the coming
winter. The utility had to stop a high-pressure hydraulic test of the
primary circuit of its Civaux 1 reactor on Nov. 2 when steam was released
in a room of the reactor building. The reactor wasn’t loaded with nuclear
fuel, no one was hurt nor contaminated, and no radioactivity has been
detected outside the building, according to EDF.
The impact of the incident, which is unrelated to so-called stress-corrosion cracks that have
undermined the French nuclear giant’s reactor availability, still needs to
be assessed, Regis Clement, EDF’s deputy-head for nuclear production, said
at a news conference in Paris Tuesday.
The corrosion cracks hobbling EDF
reactors this year have put a hole in its finances and made France —
typically an exporter of power to its neighbors — a net importer. That,
combined with Russia’s dwindling gas deliveries, has contributed to a spike
in energy prices across Europe and stoked concerns of shortages in case of
a windless cold snap this winter.
Bloomberg 8th Nov 2022
EDF nuclear problems increase risk of winter energy shortages
EDF nuclear problems increase risk of winter energy shortages. French
energy prices surge as EDF scales back electricity output predictions
again. The risk of energy shortages in Britain and across the Channel this
winter is growing as French state energy giant EDF faces fresh problems
with its nuclear power stations.
French power prices for January have
surged above €1,000 (£870) per megawatt hour after EDF scaled back
predictions for its nuclear electricity output for the fourth time this
year. Markets were also rattled further on Tuesday as the company warned it
was “too early to say” whether the Civaux 1 reactor would return to
service on schedule following a radiation leak.
Experts said the
developments risked further squeezing the amount of power available in
January and February, the coldest months of the year when demand is usually
highest. That could spell trouble for France and Britain, which hope to
rely on each other for electricity supplies this winter.
Telegraph 8th Nov 2022
What Could Nuclear War Mean For Wyoming? Pretty Much The Worst Parts Of The Bible
Cowboy State Daily November 9, 2022 By Kevin Killough, State Energy Reporter
Kevin@CowboyStateDaily.com
The last time Americans gave any serious consideration to the prospect of nuclear war, Rocky Balboa was fighting in the fourth installment of the Rocky movie franchise, beating the steroid-injecting Russian heavyweight Ivan Drago.
If the situation in Ukraine escalates, there’s a real concern the world could face a nuclear war. If that terrible situation were to arise, what would happen to Wyoming?
According to modeling by NUKEMAP, a direct hit to Cheyenne — the Cowboy State’s most likely target in a nuclear exchange — would result in more than 30,000 instant deaths.
…………………………………………………. According to NUKEMAP, 31,260 people die instantly. Another 26,390 are hurt, most of which would be severe, including third-degree burns.
A crater 1,000 feet wide and 230 feet deep would open up beneath the blast on land that once held the Capitol. The fireball would be about 2,400 feet wide, which would engulf most of downtown Cheyenne. An area 1.5 miles wide would be hit with radiation doses that would be lethal within a month for anyone in the zone.
That zone would go nearly as far as Dell Range Boulevard. About 15% of those who survive in the zone would likely die of cancer eventually.
The zone that would produce third-degree burns would go about 3 miles in all directions. The fallout corridor, in which people would get severe radiation exposure — potentially lethal over time — would go nearly as far as Casper.
The mushroom cloud would rise 10 miles over Cheyenne and be more than 12 miles wide.
By most estimates, the Red Desert would be the safest area from the impacts of nuclear blasts and the subsequent fallout.
………………. besides eliminating Americans, bombing population centers destroys the nation’s infrastructure. That means no electricity, no internet and no basic services, such as clean drinking water and medical care.
Wyoming would have a lot of coal mines and farms, and if it did get passed over by the bombs, survivors may have a safe zone from which America would rebuild.
Lt. Col. Daniel Davis, a senior fellow for Defense Priorities, a military think tank, told Reason that Biden’s stated policy to help Ukraine no matter what until Russia withdraws to its former borders risks dragging the United States into a very high nuclear risk. …………
EDF Nuclear Reactor Has Test Incident, Deepening Supply Concerns
EDF Nuclear Reactor Has Test Incident, Deepening Supply Concerns, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-08/edf-nuclear-reactor-has-test-incident-deepening-supply-concerns#xj4y7vzkg By Francois De Beaupuy, November 9, 2022,
Electricite de France SA is investigating an incident during a test at a halted nuclear reactor last week, just as a series of repairs jeopardize the country’s power-supply security for the coming winter.
The utility had to stop a high-pressure hydraulic test of the primary circuit of its Civaux 1 reactor on Nov. 2 when steam was released in a room of the reactor building. The reactor wasn’t loaded with nuclear fuel, no one was hurt nor contaminated, and no radioactivity has been detected outside the building, according to EDF.
The impact of the incident, which is unrelated to so-called stress-corrosion cracks that have undermined the French nuclear giant’s reactor availability, still needs to be assessed, Regis Clement, EDF’s deputy-head for nuclear production, said at a news conference in Paris Tuesday.
The corrosion cracks hobbling EDF reactors this year have put a hole in its finances and made France — typically an exporter of power to its neighbors — a net importer. That, combined with Russia’s dwindling gas deliveries, has contributed to a spike in energy prices across Europe and stoked concerns of shortages in case of a windless cold snap this winter.
The French nuclear giant so far is keeping the Jan. 8 restart date for Civaux 1 unchanged. It aims to have about 42 of its 56 reactors online in December as repairs at a dozen sites affected by cracks progress, up from 30 on Tuesday morning, Clement said. That number is due to rise to 46 in January.
At Civaux, where heavy repairs of corrosion cracks have been completed, an inner insulation tube of a pipe used to introduce sensors in the reactor vessel was ejected in a room beneath the reactor during the pressure test, Clement said. That’s because equipment installed specifically for the test phase broke, he said.
EDF will send a robot in coming days to put the long radioactive tube in a container, he said. Employees will then be able to access the room, close a valve, and assess damage caused by water that’s still flowing into the room and into a special drain, Clement added.
“It’s way too early to say” how that will affect the restart of the reactor, he said.
How likely is progress on climate at Cop27?
Meeting the target of limiting heating to 1.5C: At Cop26 in Glasgow, countries agreed to limit global
heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. The pledges on emissions cuts
they came forward with were not enough to meet this goal, however, so they
agreed to return this year with strengthened commitments.
Few have done so
– only 24 submitted new national plans on emissions to the UN in advance of
Cop27. Fulfilling promise of $100bn a year on climate finance: Since 2009,
poor countries have been promised $100bn (£87bn) a year from 2020 to help
them cut greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of extreme
weather. This target has not been met, and will not be met before next
year.
Guardian 9th Nov 2022
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/nov/09/how-likely-is-progress-on-climate-at-cop27
MASSIVE ANTI-RUSSIAN ‘BOT ARMY’ EXPOSED BY AUSTRALIAN RESEARCHERS
Reports on the new research have appeared in a few independent media sites, and in Russia’s RT, but not much else, so revealing the burial of stories that don’t fit the desired pro-Western narrative.
The Adelaide University researchers tried their best to be noncommittal in describing the activities of the fake Twitter accounts, although they had found the vast majority – over 90 percent – were anti-Russian messages.
many of the bot accounts behind the 5-million tweets studied are likely to be still up and running.
Over 3.5-million tweets, or 67 percent, were in the English language, with fewer that 2 percent in Russian and Ukrainian.
In May 2022, National Security Agency (NSA) Director and US Cyber Command chief, General Paul Nakasone, revealed that the Cyber Command had been conducting offensive Information Operations in support of Ukraine.
An Australian university has unearthed millions of Tweets by fake ‘bot’ accounts pushing disinformation on the Ukraine war.
https://declassifiedaus.org/2022/11/03/strongmassive-anti-russian-bot-army-exposed-by-australian-researchers-strong/ by Peter Cronau | 3 Nov, 2022 |
A team of researchers at the University of Adelaide have found that as many as 80 percent of tweets about the 2022 Russia-Ukraine invasion in its early weeks were part of a covert propaganda campaign originating from automated fake ‘bot’ accounts.
An anti-Russia propaganda campaign originating from a ‘bot army’ of fake automated Twitter accounts flooded the internet at the start of the war. The research shows of the more than 5-million tweets studied, 90.2 percent of all tweets (both bot and non-bot) came from accounts that were pro-Ukraine, with fewer than 7 percent of the accounts being classed as pro-Russian.
The university researchers also found these automated tweets had been purposely used to drive up fear amongst people targeted by them, boosting a high level of statistically measurable ‘angst’ in the online discourse.
The research team analysed a massively unprecedented 5,203,746 tweets, sent with key hashtags, in the first two weeks of the Russian invasion of Ukraine from 24 February this year. The researchers considered predominately English-language accounts, with a calculated 1.8-million unique Twitter accounts in the dataset posting at least one English-language tweet.
Reports on the new research have appeared in a few independent media sites, and in Russia’s RT, but not much else, so revealing the burial of stories that don’t fit the desired pro-Western narrative.
This ground-breaking study, exposing a massive anti-Russia social media disinformation campaign, has been effectively ignored by the mainstream Western establishment media. It’s become almost routine during the Russia-Ukraine war.
The disinformation blitz krieg
The Adelaide University researchers unearthed a massive organised pro-Ukraine influence operation underway from the early stages of the conflict. Overall the study found automated ‘bot’ accounts to be the source of between 60 to 80 percent of all tweets in the dataset.
The published data shows that in the first week of the Ukraine-Russia war there was a huge mass of pro-Ukrainian hashtag bot activity. Approximately 3.5 million tweets using the hashtag #IStandWithUkraine were sent by bots in that first week
In fact, it was like someone had flicked a switch, when at the start of the war on 24 February, pro-Ukraine bot activity suddenly burst into life. In that first day of the war the #IStandWithUkraine hashtag was used in as many as 38,000 tweets each hour, rising to 50,000 tweets an hour by day three of the war.
By comparison, the data shows that in the first week there was an almost total absence of pro-Russian bot activity using the key hashtags. During that first week of the invasion, pro-Russian bots were sending off tweets using the #IStandWithPutin or #IStandWithRussia hashtags at a rate of only several hundred per hour.
Read more: MASSIVE ANTI-RUSSIAN ‘BOT ARMY’ EXPOSED BY AUSTRALIAN RESEARCHERSGiven the apparent long-range planning for the invasion of Ukraine, cyber experts expressed surprise that Russian cyber and internet responses were so laggard. A researcher at the Centre for Security Studies in Switzerland, said: ‘The [pro-Russian] cyber operations we have seen do not show long preparation, and instead look rather haphazard.’
After being apparently left flatfooted, the #IStandWithPutin hashtag mainly from automated bots, eventually fired up a week after the start of the war. That hashtag commenced appearing in higher numbers on 2 March, day 7 of the war. It reached 10,000 tweets per hour just twice over the next two days, still way behind the pro-Ukraine tweeting activity.
The #IStandWithRussia hashtag use was even smaller, reaching only 4,000 tweets per hour. After just two days of operation, the pro-Russian hashtag activity had dropped away almost completely. The study’s researchers noted the automated bot accounts ‘likely used by Russian authorities’, were ‘removed likely by pro-Ukrainian authorities’.
The reaction against these pro-Russian accounts had been swift. On March 5, after the #IStandWithPutin hashtag had trended on Twitter, the company announced it had banned over 100 accounts using the hashtag for violating its ‘platform manipulation and spam policy’ and participating in ‘coordinated inauthentic behaviour’.
Later that month, the Ukraine Security Service (SBU) reportedly raided five ‘bot farms’ operating inside the country. The Russia-linked bot operators were reportedly operating through 100,000 fake social media accounts spreading disinformation that was ‘intended to inspire panic among Ukrainian masses’.
Unfiltered and independent research
The landmark Adelaide University research differs from these earlier revelations in another most unique and spectacular way.
While the Stanford-Graphika and Meta research was produced by researchers who have long-term deep ties to the US national security state, the Adelaide University researchers are remarkably independent. The academic team is from the university’s School of Mathematical Science. Using mathematical calculations, they set out to predict and model people’s psychological traits based on their digital footprint.
Unlike the datasets selected and provided for the Stanford/Graphika and the Meta research, the data the Adelaide University team accessed didn’t come from accounts after they’ve been detected for breaching guidelines and shut down by Meta or Twitter.
Joshua Watt is one of the lead researchers on the university team, and is a MPhil candidate in Applied Mathematics and Statistics from the university’s School of Mathematical Sciences.
He told Declassified Australia that the dataset of 5-million tweets was accessed directly by the team from Twitter accounts on the internet using an academic license giving access to the Twitter API. The ‘Application Programming Interface’ is a data communication software tool that allows researchers to directly retrieve and analyse Twitter data.
The fake tweets and automated bot accounts had not been detected and removed by Twitter before being analysed by the researchers, although some were possibly removed in the March sweep by Twitter. Watt told Declassified Australia that in fact many of the bot accounts behind the 5-million tweets studied are likely to be still up and running.
Declassified Australia contacted Twitter to ask what action they may have taken to remove the fake bot accounts identified in the University of Adelaide research. They had not responded by the time of going to press.
Critical tool in information warfare
This new research paper confirms mounting fears that social media has covertly become what the researchers call ‘a critical tool in information warfare playing a large role in the Russian invasion of Ukraine’.
The Adelaide University researchers tried their best to be noncommittal in describing the activities of the fake Twitter accounts, although they had found the vast majority – over 90 percent – were anti-Russian messages. They stated: ‘Both sides in the Ukrainian conflict use the online information environment to influence geopolitical dynamics and sway public opinion.’
They found the two main participating sides in the propaganda war have their own particular goals and style. ‘Russian social media pushes narratives around their motivation, and Ukrainian social media aims to foster and maintain external support from Western countries, as well as promote their military efforts while undermining the perception of the Russian military.’
While the research findings concentrated on automated Twitter bots, there were also findings on the use of hashtags by non-bot tweeters. They found significant information flows from non-bot pro-Russian accounts, but no significant flows from non-bot pro-Ukraine accounts.
As well as being far more active, the pro-Ukraine side was found to be far more advanced in its use of automated bots. The pro-Ukrainian side used more ‘astroturf bots’ than the pro-Russians. Astroturf bots are hyper-active political bots that continuously follow many other accounts to increase follower count of that account.
Social media role in boosting fear
Crucially, the University of Adelaide researchers also investigated the psychological influence the fake automated bot accounts had on the online conversation during those early weeks of the war.
These conversations in a target audience may develop over time into support or opposition towards governments and policies – but they may also have more instant effects influencing the target audiences’ immediate decisions.
The study found that it was the tweets from the fake ‘bot’ accounts that most drove ‘an increase in conversations surrounding angst’ amongst people targeted by them. They found these automated bot accounts increased ‘the use of words in the angst category which contains words related to fear and worry, such as “shame”, “terrorist”, “threat”, “panic”.’
By combining the ‘angst’ messaging with messages about ‘motion’ and geographical locations, the researchers found ‘the bot accounts are influencing more discussion surrounding moving/fleeing/going or staying’. The researchers believe this effect may well have been to influence Ukrainians even away from the conflict zones to flee from their homes.
The research shows that fake automated social media ‘bot’ accounts do manipulate public opinion by shaping the discourse, sometimes in very specific ways. The results provide a chilling indication of the very real malign effects that mass social media disinformation campaigns can have on an innocent civilian population.
Origins of the Twitter bot accounts
The researchers report that the overwhelming level of Twitter disinformation that was anti-Russian was from bots ‘likely [organised] by pro-Ukrainian authorities’.
The researchers asserted no further findings about the origin of the 5-million tweets, but did find that some bots ‘are pushing campaigns specific to certain countries [unnamed], and hence sharing content aligned with those timezones’. The data does show that the peak time for a selection of pro-Ukrainian bot activity corresponded with being between 6pm and 9pm across US timezones.
Some indication of the origin and the target of the messages, could be deduced from the specific languages used in the 5-million tweets. Over 3.5-million tweets, or 67 percent, were in the English language, with fewer that 2 percent in Russian and Ukrainian.
In May 2022, National Security Agency (NSA) Director and US Cyber Command chief, General Paul Nakasone, revealed that the Cyber Command had been conducting offensive Information Operations in support of Ukraine.
‘We’ve conducted a series of operations across the full spectrum: offensive, defensive, [and] information operations,” Nakasone said.
Nakasone said the US has been conducting operations aimed at dismantling Russian propaganda. He said the operations were lawful, conducted through policy determined by the US Defense Department and with civilian oversight. Nakasone said the US seeks to tell the truth when conducting an Information Operation, unlike Russia.
US Cyber Command had deployed to Ukraine a ‘hunt forward’ cyber team in December to help shore up Ukraine’s cyber defences and networks against active threats in anticipation of the invasion. A newly formed European Union cyber rapid response team consisting of 12 experts joined the Cyber Command team to look for active cyber threats inside Ukrainian networks and to strengthen the country’s cyber defences.
The US has invested $40 million since 2017 in helping Ukraine buttress its information technology sector. According to US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, the investments have helped Ukrainians ‘keep their internet on and information flowing, even in the midst of a brutal Russian invasion’.
Wars and lies in our pockets
With the rise of the internet, war and armed conflict will never be the same again. Others have noted that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has ushered in ‘a new digital era of military, political and economic conflict’ being manipulated by ‘laptop generals and bot armies’.
‘In all dimensions of this conflict, digital technology plays a key role – as a tool for cyberattacks and digital protest, and as an accelerator for flows of information and disinformation,’ wrote one.
‘Propaganda has been a part of war since the beginning of history, but never before could it be so widely spread beyond an actual conflict area and targeted to so many different audiences.’
Joshua Watt, one of the lead researchers on the University of Adelaide team that conducted the landmark study, summed it up. ‘In the past, wars have been primarily fought physically, with armies, air force and navy operations being the primary forms of combat. However, social media has created a new environment where public opinion can be manipulated at a very large scale.’
‘CNN brought once-distant wars into our living rooms,’ another stated, ‘but TikTok and YouTube and Twitter have put them in our pockets.’
We are all carrying around with us a powerful source of information and news media – and also, most certainly, disinformation that’s coming relentlessly at us from influence operations run by ‘bad actors’ whose aim is to deceive.
The world is now deep into the climate crisis
The past eight years were the eight hottest ever recorded, a new UN report
has found, indicating the world is now deep into the climate crisis. The
internationally agreed 1.5C limit for global heating is now “barely
within reach”, it said.
The report, by the UN’s World Meteorological
Organization (WMO), sets out how record high greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere are driving sea level and ice melting to new highs and
supercharging extreme weather from Pakistan to Puerto Rico.
The stark assessment was published on the opening day of the UN’s Cop27 climate
summit in Egypt and as the UN secretary-general warned that “our planet
is on course to reach tipping points that will make climate chaos
irreversible”. The WMO estimates that the global average temperature in
2022 will be about 1.15C above the pre-industrial average (1850-1900),
meaning every year since 2016 has been one of the warmest on record.
Guardian 6th Nov 2022
Tale Of Two Broken Accords: Oslo And Minsk
Ukraine’s President Zelensky was elected on a platform promising to implement Minsk and end the death toll. Then the neo-Nazis enabled by the U.S. and NATO got to him. I suspect he was threatened with assasination unless he signed on to his country serving as the killing grounds for proxy war to weaken Russia.
https://went2thebridge.org/2022/11/07/tale-of-two-broken-accords-oslo-and-minsk/—
Many people understand that war is hell. That’s why they clamor for negotiated settlements that move belligerents back from the battlefield and set them on a path to reconciliation.
The Oslo Accords established a two-state solution to Israel’s violent occupation of Palestinian homelands and at the time was hailed as a major achievement.
Then came facts on the ground for the last several decades.
It would by now be virtually impossible to create a State of Palestine that was not hopelessly Balkanized into tiny, unconnected territories. At the time of Oslo, many expressed doubt and believed that only a truly democratic one-state solution could work. (Full disclosure: I’m in that camp.)
The insanely belligerent and corrupt Israeli PM Netanyahu has won the recent elections and stands poised to bring even more violence and suffering to the long-occupied Palestinians. And Israel is a nuclear weapons nation. With lots of nuclear threats and innuendoes being thrown around these days, it’s important to keep that in mind.
So we can expect to see a continuation of Israel’s attacks on Palestinians in blockaded Gaza
The Minsk II agreement established a game plan for resolving civil war in Ukraine.
Tens of thousands of civilians and combatants had been killed by missile strikes and more hands-on violence from militias operating freely in the Donbas border region with Russia following a 2014 CIA-sponsored coup in Kyiv. Years later, Ukraine’s President Zelensky was elected on a platform promising to implement Minsk and end the death toll. Then the neo-Nazis enabled by the U.S. and NATO got to him. I suspect he was threatened with assasination unless he signed on to his country serving as the killing grounds for proxy war to weaken Russia.
One wonders why nations sign on to accords and then immediately show no intention of fulfilling them?
It could be a stalling tactic to temporarily reduce international pressure to de-escalate.
Or it could be a case where those who signed on are ousted either by coup or elections, and succeeded by those with a lust for war.
Or maybe diplomatic efforts like accords are doomed in the face of the profit motive provided by modern industrialized killing?
Workers hold the key to stopping wars no matter what the motives of those waging them.
An international general strike would make wars literally impossible.
I pray we are seeing signs of this developing, especially in Europe where the economic impact of the war on Russia via Ukraine has been most intense. Certainly we are seeing signs of alarm from rulers enacting laws that actually criminalize gathering
Scientists now see the climate crisis as frightening
Why scientists are using the word scary over the climate crisis. The
former BBC environment analyst Roger Harrabin has spent his career talking
to scientists. Now they’re telling him they’re scared of what they’re
seeing.
Back in the 1980s, when climate research began to really take off,
scientists were desperate to retain their credibility as they unravelled
the potentially dire consequences of the “new” phenomenon of global
warming. Most journalists tiptoed round this topic because no one wanted to
lose their reputation by scaremongering. But as the science steadily became
overwhelming researchers pushed their conclusions in the face of
policymakers.
More and more scientists are now admitting publicly that they
are scared by the recent climate extremes, such as the floods in Pakistan
and west Africa, the droughts and heatwaves in Europe and east Africa, and
the rampant ice melt at the poles.
Guardian 7th Nov 2022
Campaigners seek early end to Chinese involvement at Bradwell nuclear project
https://www.nuclearpolicy.info/news/campaigners-seek-early-end-to-chinese-involvement-at-bradwell/ 7 Nov 22 Three campaign groups have written to influential parliamentarians asking them to seek an early end to plans by Chinese-state owned CGN to develop a new nuclear power plant at Bradwell in Essex.
In their letter to Conservative MPs, Alicia Kearns and Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the Nuclear Free Local Authorities, the Blackwater Against New Nuclear Group (BANNG), and the Bradwell B Action Network (BAN) have urged them ‘to make urgent representations to government to terminate CGN’s involvement at the Bradwell B site as soon as possible’.
Ms Kearns and Sir Iain are both prominent members of the China Research Group, whose stated position is that ‘Chinese involvement in our nuclear industry is now seen as an unacceptable national security risk’. The three campaign groups are opposed to any new nuclear projects at Bradwell as they believe the site does not meet any of the required national criteria to be suitable for the location of a power plant, however they have especial concerns about a Chinese-led project.
T
n their letter, they state that ‘the construction of a nuclear power plant by a Chinese-state owned entity, using Chinese-designed reactors that are not yet operational anywhere in the world, at a location relatively close to large urban populations, military installations, and other strategic assets and infrastructure, must represent a potentially substantial safety and security risk to the UK’.
Recent pronouncements by the Bradwell project team have contained mixed messages. In a circular to residents, they stated that boreholes dug on site to take soil samples would be filled in; that the site compound would soon be dismantled; and that a second phase of testing would be delayed beyond 2023. However, in a response to the media after the NFLA described this as ‘beating a retreat’, CGN insisted they are going to proceed with further feasibility studies.
This optimism seems ill-judged given the many statements by government ministers that they are hostile to Chinese investment in major British infrastructure projects, including at Sizewell C and Bradwell B. The government has enacted the National Security and Investment Act to allows ministers to restrict or prevent foreign investment in infrastructure projects that could compromise national security. Given the political backdrop, the three campaign groups cannot see how the British government could give the CGN-led Bradwell B development its endorsement
Professor Andrew Blowers OBE, Chair of BANNG, said: ‘For the past fourteen years, we have opposed any nuclear development on the grounds that the site is not in any way ‘potentially suitable’ for a new nuclear power station. We believe the Chinese project will be withdrawn owing to sustained local opposition and security concerns. We are asking politicians to confirm that this is the case.’
Councillor David Blackburn, Chair of the NFLA, added: ‘The Bradwell situation appears to be one in which life imitates art. The Bradwell B team are insisting, like the shopkeeper in the famous Monty Python parrot sketch, that their nuclear power project is ‘not dead, it’s merely resting’, whereas it is highly unlikely that it will ever go forward at a time when parliament believes the Chinese Government is not to be trusted. The NFLA believes it would be best if the government made plain that this is going nowhere to end the uncertainty for staff and the people in the communities surrounding the Bradwell B site.’
Revealed: US and UK fall billions short of ‘fair share’ of climate funding for developing countries.
The US, UK, Canada and Australia have fallen billions of dollars short of
their “fair share” of climate funding for developing countries,
analysis shows. The assessment, by Carbon Brief, compares the share of
international climate finance provided by rich countries with their share
of carbon emissions to date, a measure of their responsibility for the
climate crisis.
Rich countries pledged to provide US$100bn a year by 2020,
although this target has been missed. The US share of this, based on its
past emissions, would be $40bn yet it provided only $7.6bn in 2020, the
latest year for which data is available.
Australia and Canada gave only about a third of the funding indicated by the analysis, while the UK
supplied three-quarters but still fell $1.4bn short.
The issue of climate finance will be critical to progress at the Cop27 summit, which began on
Sunday in Egypt. Developing countries did little to cause the climate
emergency, making funding from rich countries vital to create the trust
needed for combined global action.
The rich countries accept vulnerable
countries face a “life or death situation” and need far more than
$100bn but delivery of the money has been contentious and slow. The $100bn
was intended to support the cutting of carbon emissions and work to adapt
communities to the increasingly extreme weather being driven by global
heating. However, a series of reports last week have laid bare how close
the planet is to climate catastrophe, with “no credible pathway [of
carbon cuts] to 1.5C in place”, the internationally agreed temperature
limit to avoid the worst of the climate crisis.
Guardian 7th Nov 2022
France’s Nuclear Power Problems Are Mounting
Oil Price, By ZeroHedge – Nov 07, 2022,
France’s nuclear troubles are mounting due primarily to routine maintenance of the country’s 56 aging reactors. A new update from French electric utility company Electricite de France SA, commonly known as EDF, said an outlook for nuclear power generation was slashed ahead of winter, causing chaos in energy markets.
EDF is the world’s largest owner of nuclear plants. It reported Friday that its fleet of nuclear reactors is expected to produce between 275 and 285 terawatt-hours of energy this year, down from the range of 280 and 300 terawatt-hours.
The reduced outlook comes amid a series of strikes at nuclear plants across the country that delayed planned maintenance work. Nuclear power generation has been sliding all year due to technical issues, and about half of the country’s 56 reactors are shuttered.
“The situation changed drastically this year, when France swung from being one of Europe’s largest exporters of electricity to a net importer because of issues with its reactors. The outages worried officials that France and the broader region might run short of electricity in the winter, when power demand in Europe peaks,” Bloomberg said. …………………………………………………………………………………https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Frances-Nuclear-Power-Problems-Are-Mounting.html
France’s Macron and UK’s Sunak agree on nuclear energy cooperation
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/frances-macron-uks-sunak-agree-nuclear-energy-cooperation-2022-11-07/ PARIS, Nov 7 (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron and Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Monday pledged “ambitious cooperation” in the field of nuclear energy to cope with the impact on energy supplies of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Reporting by Michel Rose; Writing by Benoit Van Overstraeten; Editing by Andrew Heavens
The two leaders met on the sidelines of climate talks in Egypt, their first meeting since Sunak became prime minister.
The French presidential palace also said Macron and Sunak wanted better coordination on migration.
Finland denies plans to deploy nuclear weapons in the country once it joins NATO
Daniel Stewart, 8 Nov 22. Finland’s President Sauli Niinisto has assured on Monday that Helsinki has no plans to allow the deployment of nuclear weapons on its territory once it joins NATO’s ranks, amid tensions over the war in Ukraine…………………..
he has applauded the efforts of French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to maintain a dialogue with Moscow. “This is solely aimed at stopping the killing. I think it is a worthwhile goal,” he concluded. https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/other/finland-denies-plans-to-deploy-nuclear-weapons-in-the-country-once-it-joins-nato/ar-AA13PjsO
As France’s aging nuclear reactors fail, France may block electricity exports to UK
France may block energy exports to UK as Macron’s ‘ancient’ nuclear
plants rust up. Power giant EDF will slash output following delays in vital
repairs to its fleet of nuclear reactors. The French may block electricity
exports to the UK this winter as a result, causing a fresh energy supply
crunch on these shores. It’s a frightening prospect as winter looms.
Express 5th Nov 2022
1 This Month
Shut down the radiation-damaged Heysham nuclear reactors now
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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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