Renewable not radioactive – Joint organizational statement prior to the COP26 Climate Summit
Urgent global energy shift must not include nuclear power
Renewable not radioactive — Beyond Nuclear International Our shared energy future should serve human needs
Joint organizational statement released prior to the COP26 Climate Summit
The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report highlights the growing climate crisis and the energy challenges we face. We need an urgent global shift to clean and renewable energy and national governments need to actively facilitate and manage the transition from reliance on fossil fuels and nuclear to renewable energy.
This global transition to clean, safe, nature-friendly renewable energy is already underway and is generating employment and opportunity. Growing this based on principles of environmental and social justice, equity, diversity, resilience and the rights and interests of communities and our environment will provide skilled and sustainable jobs, economic activity and reliable electricity access around the world. Every dollar invested in nuclear power makes the climate crisis worse by diverting investment from renewable energy technology. Nuclear is increasingly unsafe and unreliable in a warming world with more frequent shutdowns and an inability to operate safely under changed climate conditions. From nuclear weapons tests to radioactive waste facilities the nuclear industry has a history of displacing, disrupting and damaging the health and rights of workers and communities. Indigenous peoples face a disproportionate burden and risk from the nuclear industry as mining and waste storage primarily affects their lands and they are often not consulted, compensated or respected.
Nuclear is slow, expensive and dangerous. It is not carbon neutral and poses unique security and waste management risks. We do not have the time to wait for the industry to recover from its own economic failures, overcome construction delays or to fulfil the false promise of new technology.
The legacy of contaminated mining zones, nuclear weapons fallout and the unresolved issue of nuclear waste demonstrate the profound risks of nuclear power. These risks are amplified by the changing climate and are in fundamental conflict with the foundation principles of sustainability and intergenerational equity.
Renewables give us the ability to make a just transition for energy sector workers, their families and communities and to provide secure global access to sustainable low carbon electricity. Renewable energy is real, affordable, low risk and clean. Nuclear simply cannot meet our future energy needs.
Globally, we have multiple renewable energy options which, unlike nuclear, enjoy broad social license. Our organisations, representing a broad cross section of the global community, maintain that nuclear power is not a credible or effective climate response.
We support a renewable energy future and view nuclear power as a dangerous distraction from the real movement on the climate policies and actions that we urgently need.
Our organisations maintain that nuclear power is:
Dirty & Dangerous: …………
Unsustainable:………
Unjust: …….
Expensive:……
A Security Risk:…….
Aging or Unproven: Existing nuclear reactors are highly centralised and inflexible. They lack the capacity to respond to changes in demand and usage, are slow to deploy and are poorly suited to modern energy grids and markets. Many existing reactors are old and due for decommissioning and any move to extend their life would raise serious safety concerns. Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) and other ‘new generation’ nuclear projects are not in commercial production or use and remain unproven and uncertain. Neither the failed current reactors nor the non-existent promised reactors are a credible basis for a national energy system.
Not Carbon Neutral: …… https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2021/10/24/renewable-not-radioactive/
See more at www.dont-nuke-the-climate.org
The very great risk that sea level rise poses to UK’s nuclear reactors
The UK nuclear military complex is on the front-line of climate breakdown – and not in a good way. As if we already didn’t know, climate change is here, now. Widespread wild-fire and flooding has focused minds on the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) report which, perhaps unsurprisingly, confirms that as the world heats, ice stored at thepoles and in glaciers melt and sea levels rise.
In short, sea-level rise is significantly faster than previously thought. Meanwhile, predicted changes to storm patterns affecting ‘storm surge’ and river flow will drive ‘combined hazards’, making flood mitigation efforts increasingly
obsolete. Because all UK nuclear military installations began operationwell before global heating was considered in design or construction, near-term climate change risk to nuclear is very great.
Ecologist 22nd Oct 2021
https://theecologist.org/2021/oct/22/things-fall-apart
Impact of the pandemic – women, and people of colour now losing their jobs in the area of Nuclear Policy
Tested by Crisis: The Impact of COVID-19 on the Nuclear Policy Community
Has the pandemic jeopardized growth in the nuclear policy community? The short answer: it has. The National Interest, by Alexandra B. Hall, 24 Oct 21, The COVID-19 pandemic has clearly had drastic effects on the workforce and, in particular, on women and people who identify as Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC) in the workforce. For the past year and a half, studies have shown that many of these effects are not going to be simple to reverse and will in fact have generational effects on many communities……….
The report’s findings show stark differences across gender identities in how the pandemic has impacted the lives—both personal and professional—of those working in nuclear policy. One of the core findings Brosnan points to is that “among women who had their work hours reduced due to the pandemic, eighty-six percent of reductions were attributed to an increased burden of care work, and that was true for zero percent of men.”
The burden upon caregivers only increased during the pandemic as childcare or eldercare facilities shut down. They found this burden impacted caregivers across all age groups, including ‘late career’ women executives.
Not only were women in the field finding themselves faced with a choice of staying in their job or finding something with more flexible work hours, but many were also simply pushed out of the field. One respondent noted that in an organization where layoffs occurred “everyone up to this month who left was a woman or person of color.” Survey respondents who identified as BIPOC reported they were “almost twenty percent more likely to have experienced financial hardship due to the pandemic than their non BIPOC peers,” Cater adds………… https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/tested-crisis-impact-covid-19-nuclear-policy-community-195480
Rolls Royce being urged to do nuclear testing in UK, not in Italy
Rolls-Royce being urged to carry out nuclear testing in UK after it emerged company was considering using site in northern Italy, This Is Money,
By ALEX LAWSON, FINANCIAL MAIL ON SUNDAY 24 October 2021 Rolls-Royce is being urged to carry out nuclear testing in the UK after it emerged that the company was considering using a site in northern Italy.
The engineering giant has shortlisted the SIET institute in Piacenza for testing work as part of its plan to build small nuclear reactors.
Domestic options for the tests include a proposed site on Anglesey, north Wales.
MPs and unions have spoken out since The Mail on Sunday revealed last week that some of the work could take place in Piacenza. Mike Clancy, general secretary of the Prospect trade union, said: ‘To justify taking these jobs offshore there should be a high bar and proof that there is not sufficient capacity or time to do the work indigenously.
‘You would hope that it is not just about cost. In the current climate any major UK corporate should be asking questions about what would look like offshoring.’
The Conservative MP for Anglesey, Virginia Crosbie – a nuclear advocate known as the ‘Atomic Kitten’ – hopes to persuade the Government to fund a thermal hydraulic testing facility on the island.
She said: ‘We should absolutely see this work done here. It is clearly in our national interest.’
A Rolls-Royce spokesman said: ‘We have committed to source 80 per cent of this project by value in the UK and the priority for this business is to maximise UK content.’ … https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-10123765/Rolls-Royce-urged-carry-nuclear-testing-UK.html
Jellyfish causing a Scottish nuclear power station to close down its reactors
Jellyfish causing a Scottish nuclear power station to close down its reactors? It’s no flight of fancy https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/19669564.jellyfish-causing-scottish-nuclear-power-station-close-reactors-no-flight-fancy/
By Ron McKay You think that those darned jellyfish are just a holiday problem in the Med? It turns out they’ve been getting in and clogging up the water-cooling intake pipes at Scotland’s sole active nuclear power station at Torness, outside Dunbar, resulting in the reactor having to shut down in an emergency procedure.
A commercial drone company called RUAS has asked the Civil Aviation Authority for what’s called a Temporary Danger Area to be applied around the site so that its pilots can fly spotter drones out to sea to log the
invaders and sea kelp in an early warning system, so that the station’s water intake can by reduced and expensive total closure averted.
If this is granted it will apply from December until the end of February, and lots of drones will be buzzing about like hornets.
The application says:
“The issue is on a regular basis they are affected by either jellyfish blooms or marine ingress including microalgae, that are blocking the intake of the Nuclear Power Plant.
“As a result, the reactor overheats due to the lack of water intake which cools the reactor, creating the need for the reactor to be shut down entirely as an emergency procedure. This has implications when they need to reactivate the reactor which is costly and time consuming.”
This doesn’t sound at all healthy to me. The company also wants permission to fly the drones, or BVLOS, the acronym for beyond visual line of site, meaning that the pilots on the ground will be playing with their joysticks and watching they don’t hit seagulls or boats on a video screen.
Just the kind of task you could do from the pub.
Swedish authorities delay permission for nuclear waste dump operation, due to concerns over corrosion of copper in containers
The Environmental Organizations’ Nuclear Waste Review (MKG), which has the
Friends of the Earth and the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation as
members, welcomes the fact that the Nuclear Waste Council has concluded
that there is a need for more copper corrosion research before a nuclear
fuel repository can be put into operation.
In a statement to the Government
on 21 October, the Council proposes that more research on copper corrosion
in a repository environment be conducted after the Government has given
permission to build the repository, and that a separate government decision
be made before the repository is taken into use. MKG believes that it is
already prepared for research within the LOT trial that can yield important
results before the government makes an admissibility decision on the
nuclear fuel repository. Waiting with research until after construction
starts means problems.
MKG 22nd Oct 2021
Close security on village where France’s nuclear waste inquiry commission works
The nuclear product burial project at Bure (Meuse) has been under study
for twenty years. Highly sensitive, this site is subject to several
controversies. The material will remain radioactive for several hundred
years.
The village of Soudron (Haute-Marne) is placed under close
surveillance. The small town of 40 inhabitants has almost as many
gendarmes, who came to ensure the safety of the public inquiry commission,
which collects the opinion of the inhabitants on the project of burying
radioactive waste 500 meters underground. A laboratory was built for the
occasion in a layer of clay, at great depth.
France TV 21st Oct 2021
ICLEI launches its 100% Renewables Cities and Regions Energy Compact
On 24 September 2021, ICLEI’s 100% Renewables Cities and Regions Energy Compact was officially launched at the United Nations High-Level Dialogue on Energy, which calls for local governments to make ambitious voluntary
commitments to catapult themselves towards 100% renewable energy usage at the latest by 2050.
ICLEI’s Energy Compact complements its existing work in the renewable energy space, including the 100% Renewables Cities and Regions Roadmap project, and the 100% Renewables Cities and Regions Network.
On their way to 100% renewable status, cities and regions that join ICLEI’s Energy Compact are encouraged to achieve several milestone targets by 2030 at the latest, such as achieving 100% renewable energy use
in local government operations, and achieving SDG7, among others.
ICLEI 5th Oct 2021
https://iclei.org/en/media/iclei-launches-its-100-renewables-cities-and-regions-energy-compact
Recently restarted – Fukui nuclear unit halted for a year on safety issues.
Fukui nuclear unit halted after missing deadline on antiterror steps https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2021/10/e69ddb77abbd-fukui-nuclear-unit-halted-after-missing-deadline-on-antiterror-steps.html
KYODO NEWS – Oct 23, 2021 – A nuclear reactor in central Japan’s Fukui Prefecture was halted on Saturday, just four months after its restart as it could not meet a deadline set by regulators to implement antiterrorism measures.
The suspension of Kansai Electric Power Co.’s Mihama No. 3 unit came ahead of the deadline on Monday for such measures to be completed. After undergoing safety checks, the utility aims to make the necessary changes to its facilities around September next year and restart operations in mid-October.
In June, the No. 3 unit went online for the first time in about 10 years and became the first nuclear unit to operate beyond the government-mandated 40-year service period introduced under new rules set after the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
The reactor had stopped operations after the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi plant triggered by a massive earthquake and tsunami. Regulators gave the green light to the aging No. 3 unit after screening the utility’s safety measures.
The Nos. 1 and 2 units of the Mihama plant were terminated in April 2015 in line with the 40-year limit.
France: public inquiry into disposal of nuclear waste
Cigeo project: the public inquiry into the burial of radioactive waste
ends. More than 3,000 contributions were collected, mainly on the digital
register, for this stage prior to a possible declaration of public utility.
The commission of inquiry is expected to report in December 2021.
Ouest France 23rd Oct 2021
Growing movement to stop the dumping of radioactive wastes into the Severn Estuary
Save the Severn Estuary is a non-partisan coalition of scientists,
experts, individuals and organisations calling on the Marine Management
Organisation (MMO) to revoke the license granted to EDF (Électricité de
France) which allows for the dumping of sediment contaminated by the
Hinkley nuclear power stations in the Severn Estuary near Portishead.
This is a consequence of building a water intake for the new power station which
in itself will kill millions of fish when operational. Please also make a
donation towards the costs of legal action we are taking. We have set up a
company for this purpose in order to make the fundraising easier. We are
represented by Leigh Day, and the legal case seeks the quashing of EDF’s
license. In order to proceed with a judicial review against the MMO, we are
aiming to raise £60,000 to cover all of the costs associated with the
legal action. We need your support: please contribute and share this page
now!
Crowd Justice (accessed) 22nd Oct 2021
https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/save-the-severn-estuary/
Countering the nuclear lobby’s deceptive spin about ionising radiation
The video below is several years old. Children in Ukraine and Belarus are still suffering with cancers and other serious health effects of the nuclear disaster. The ABC ‘s ”Foreign Correspondent” recently covered their plight, which is still terrible, but the video of that seems to be unavailable.
Extract from The nuclear industry’s updated songsheet remains outdated, Pearls and Irritations, By Mark Diesendorf, 22 Oct 21
”…………. Another misleading pro-nuclear statement revived following the Fukushima Daiichi disaster in 2011 is that no excess cancer incidence has been observed around Fukushima, implying that no cancers will be induced. The logical error is to assume that the absence of evidence implies no impact.
For a start, it is still too early for most types of cancer, which have latent periods of 20–60 years, to appear around Fukushima. The only cancers likely to appear within a decade after exposure are thyroid cancer and leukemia. A large increase in thyroid cancers has been observed in the region, but their cause is debated by some on the grounds that the increase could be the result of better screening. Leukemia is an uncommon disease and so even a large percentage increase would be impossible to verify statistically with high confidence. (See UNSCEAR 2020b)
Fortunately for the citizens of Tokyo, the wind was mostly blowing offshore during the meltdowns of three Fukushima reactors, sending about 80 per cent of the emitted radioactive material out over the Pacific. Soon after the disaster an exclusion zone was established around the power station and more than 100,000 people evacuated. For these reasons, Fukushima tells us very little about radiation-induced cancers.
Most of the evidence that low-level radiation is carcinogenic comes from detailed studies of the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, medical professionals who worked with radiation, uranium miners, children living near nuclear power stations, and children who were exposed in utero in the bad old days when pregnant women were routinely x-rayed. This is the basis of the linear-no-threshold model, the scientific understanding that the number of cancers induced by ionising radiation is proportional to the dose received and that there’s no threshold. Therefore, even natural background radiation, to which we are all exposed, and medical x-rays contribute very small fractions of cancer prevalence…………https://johnmenadue.com/the-nuclear-industrys-updated-songsheet-remains-outdated/
France may have hidden agenda in promoting small nuclear reactors
“Countries that are clinging on to nuclear power are often nuclear weapon states — such as the UK, the US and France,” he explained, and pointed to a speech by Macron in December 2020.
“Without civil nuclear power, no military nuclear power; and without military nuclear power, no civil nuclear power,” the president had said
Do France’s plans for small nuclear reactors have hidden agenda? DW, 22 Oct 21,
Although France plans to invest in small modular nuclear reactors, experts doubt that this is ecologically and economically sensible. Yet it may be more about geopolitical strategy than energy.”…… A French law says the country will have to reduce its share of nuclear energy from currently roughly 70% — the highest in the world — to 50% in 2035, a goal President Emmanuel Macron has in the past called unrealistic.
But in pursuing small modular reactors (SMRs), some experts believe France may have a hidden agenda.
€1 billion planned investment
Recently, the president announced plans to invest in so-called small modular reactors (SMRs) “to lead the sector with groundbreaking innovations.” The new reactors are ostensibly to help France reduce its CO2 emissions.
The announcement came when Macron unveiled his France 2030 investment strategy of €30 billion ($35 billion) at the Elysee Palace.
“We have a decisive competitive advantage — our historical model, the existing nuclear power plants,” the president said during the ceremony.
The strategy allocates €8 billion to the development of hydrogen power and only €1 billion to SMRs, yet Macron declared the plans to develop the small plants “goal No. 1.”
The country’s SMRs will have a capacity of 50 megawatts to 500 MW each – considerably less than France’s current reactors with their capacity of up to 1,450 MW. SMRs are to be built in clusters to increase sites’ total capacity.
But nuclear champion France is not the frontrunner in the SMR race — the US is……
France’s first demonstration plant is only scheduled to be completed in 2030.
And yet, Nicolas Mazzucchi, of the Paris-based Foundation for Strategic Research, thinks the country could take the lead in the sector………
A discussion based on ‘hot air’
But Mycle Schneider thinks nuclear energy is inefficient in the fight against the climate emergency — “too expensive, too slow,” he says. He’s the editor of the annual World Nuclear Industry Status Report (WNISR), which assesses trends in the global nuclear power industry.
“Last year, more than 250 GW of renewable energy capacity has been added to the grid and only 0.4 GW of net nuclear capacity — nuclear power has become irrelevant,” he asserted.
Schneider says nuclear power plants only appear to be more reliable than renewables: “France’s nuclear reactors, on average, had to be switched off during one-third of the time in 2020, mostly due to maintenance, also as they now have been running for a long time, on average more than 35 years.”
“The discussion around SMRs is orchestrated hot air and has become hugely hyped,” he explained to DW.
He added that renewables had to be seen as a bouquet of different energies. Through demand response management, one type of energy could offset the temporary unavailability of the other. Environmentalists also often point out that construction of nuclear power plants has a significant carbon footprint.
“It takes ages to build new nuclear power plants,” Schneider added. French utility EDF and Siemens started to develop EPRs, a third-generation pressurised water reactor design, after the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe in 1986, he explained. “And 35 years on, there’s still no EPR in Europe up and running.”
EDF is building a 1.6 GW EPR in Flamanville in northern France. But constructing the plant will exceed €11 billion, instead of the initially planned €3.3 billion, and the EPR is only scheduled to be completed next year — 10 years later than initially intended.
Nevertheless, President Macron could soon announce plans to build six additional EPRs in France.
Nuclear very capital-intensive
Such delays have Kenneth Gillingham, a professor of environmental and energy economics at Yale University in the US, wondering if investing in nuclear makes economic sense.
“The safety requirement for new nuclear plants are that strict, that constructing them becomes very costly and capital-intensive,” he told DW.
“I don’t really see why you would spend money on SMRs, especially as you don’t know if they will work in the end,” he said.
Philip Johnstone, a research fellow at the University of Sussex School of Business in southern England, thinks that SMRs turn the logic of economies of scale on its head.
Ulterior motives behind investment in SMRs
“We were told all along that building bigger nuclear plants would help us save money through the scale effect, and now it’s supposed to suddenly work the other way around?” Johnstone told DW.
He believes that France has other reasons for continuing to invest in nuclear energy.
“Countries that are clinging on to nuclear power are often nuclear weapon states — such as the UK, the US and France,” he explained, and pointed to a speech by Macron in December 2020.
“Without civil nuclear power, no military nuclear power; and without military nuclear power, no civil nuclear power,” the president had said, praising a sector that employs 220,000 people in France.
“The investment in SMRs seems first and foremost a strategic decision, even though it means wasting a lot of time and money,” Johnstone said.
Time and money that could instead be more effectively invested in climate protection.
According to the United Nations, global CO2 emissions will need to be reduced by more than 7% percent each year until 2030 — based on the year 2019 — to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit). https://www.dw.com/en/do-frances-plans-for-small-nuclear-reactors-have-hidden-agenda/a-59585614
Simulated space radiation causes ill effects on central nervous system of male mice
Male mice exposed to simulated deep space radiation experienced impaired spatial learning, Phys Org by Bob Yirka , 22 Oct 21, A team of researchers working at multiple facilities in the San Francisco area has found that male mice exposed to radiation similar to that encountered by humans on long space missions experienced problems with spatial learning several months later……..
If humans are to colonize the moon or travel to Mars, scientists are going to have to find a way to protect them from galactic cosmic radiation (GCR). Some research has shown that it can have a negative impact on the central nervous system……… https://phys.org/news/2021-10-male-mice-exposed-simulated-deep.html
by Bob Yirka , Phys.org
Stop Sizewell C anti nuclear campaigners taking their fight to London, and the UK government
Campaigners fighting to stop a new nuclear power station being built on
the Suffolk coast have taken their battle to Number 10 Downing Street.
Ahead of the Chancellor’s spending review and Budget, the Stop Sizewell C
group visited key locations in the capital with its message and campaign
video on a digital Advan.
East Anglian Daily Times 20th Oct 2021
https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/stop-sizewell-c-campaign-visits-downing-street-8428226
1 This Month
Read the Public Inquiry Report, the Commissioners’ report, Surrendering Australia: The AUKUS Deception is available to download for free at aukuspublicinquiry.com. Or just watch the replay of the National Press Club Luncheon.
19 November – Webinar – The Reality of Reprocessing
Time: 11:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada) / 2:00 PM Eastern / 7:00 PM UK / 8:00 PM CET
Register for the Zoom Event Here
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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