nuclear-news

TODAY. Time to rise above the tit-for-tat mentality – “Turning Point: the Bomb and the Cold War” (and this is not an ad)

This is a Netflix series. And I’m sorry to be looking as if I am advertising. But the thing is – life is too serious, too important – to worry about this.

To me, the important thing about this series is that it rises above political and national loyalties. Produced by  Luminant Media and director Brian Knappenberger, this really is the definitive documentary on the Cold War and the Atomic Bomb.

I didn’t know that Americans were capable of creating an unbiased factual history of nuclear weapons – that didn’t justify all American actions, and demonise all Russian’s. But this is it.

I find this lengthy detailed comprehensive study quite gripping, and also believable – authentic. I’m actually now only halfway through it, but I feel so reassured – that there exists such a visual media – that sees all sides as made up of human beings, that respects our common humanity, – while it still sets out the stupidities and atrocities done , and makes no excuses for them.

In this era of short, snappy, unreliable media of all types, there is a desperate need for longer, thoughtful, thorough, properly researched studies on our troubled world situation. We need to be getting past those lofty myths of “honour” “patriotism” “loyalty” – to try to see clearly what is actually happening now, and how we got to the crises of today.

May 7, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

This week’s news about the military-industrial-nuclear-communications ecosystem

Some bits of good news – The positive impact of conservation action.  The ‘Green Nobel Prize’ announced its winners.   Solar Balconies Are Booming in Germany and You Can Plug in and Install Them Yourself

TOP STORIES. 

72 Minutes Until the End of the World? Is There Life Beyond Nuclear Armageddon? 

Five Things the “Nuclear Bros” Don’t Want You to Know About Small Modular Reactors. 

University Investments: Divesting from the Military-Industrial Complex. 

Bill before Australian Parliament would allow UK and USA to dump decades of high-level nuclear waste in Australia.

Climate. ‘Inside an oven’: sweltering heat ravages crops and takes lives in south-east Asia. Brutal 48C heatwave takes its toll on east Asia. – ALSO AT https://nuclear-news.net/2024/05/06/1-b1-inside-an-oven-sweltering-heat-ravages-crops-and-takes-lives-in-south-east-asia/

Noel’s notes. The global nuclear industry – rotten to the core. Small modular reactors – yes -the nuclear lobby will keep hyping them – no matter what!

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NUCLEAR ISSUES

May 6, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

Nuclear and associated news this week

Some bits of good news –  High Seas Treaty: EU votes to ratify landmark international law to protect oceans.  ‘I want to tackle it in a big way’: Meet the Nigerian women spearheading solar projects

TOP STORIES.

Gen Z Just Might Save The World – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXs9LMrwDpA   

Bankers upgrade Lockheed stock after Iran strikes at Israel. 

New civil nuclear programmes crossing over into military nuclear programmes. 

Nuclear-waste dams threaten Central Asia heartland– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExuDrRYHmDE 

How much will the UK’s new nuclear submarines really cost? -ALSO AT more https://nuclear-news.net/2024/04/28/2-a-how-much-will-the-uks-new-nuclear-submarines-really-cost/

Climate. Tens of thousands evacuated from massive China floods. Europe baked in ‘extreme heat stress’ pushing temperatures to record highs. Heatwave in India: TV host faints during live broadcast as swaths of country reel from sweltering temperatures.

Noel’s notes.   Japan – the return of the “Nuclear Village“?   Ukraine war – the changing face of weaponry.        The failed social species – Homo-not-sapiens-at-all.  Oh it’s a great time to be an American – with shares in “Defense” companies!  

NUCLEAR ISSUES

EVENTS. National Not-the-Nuclear-Lobby Returns to Parliament Hill, Ottawa. www.uraniumfilmfestival.org / https://uraniumfilmfestival.org/en/usacanada-2024-program / https://uraniumfilmfestival.org/…/2024_las_vegas…

PLUTONIUM. NNSA Delays Urgent Research on Plutonium “Pit” Aging But Spends Billions on Nuclear Weapons Bomb Core

POLITICS. Biden signs $95bn aid bill to be sent ‘right away’ – for wars in Ukraine, Israel, and provocations in Taiwan.

Now is the Time for All Good Men and Women to Come to the Aid of Our Country USA. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTP-W9VoFKA

War Parties, the Peace Candidate, and the November Election. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxDYqMTjA9U

Iran says nuclear weapons have no place in its nuclear doctrine.

Where are France’s nuclear reactors and what is planned for more?

Scottish National Party and UK Government in row over cost of nuclear dumping grounds. Popular UK holiday park to close, as Sizewell C nuclear project takes over

Japan city assembly OKs request for nuclear waste site survey.

Saudi Arabia is set to witness major developments in nuclear sector: IAEA chief Rafael Grossi.

Dutton’s plan to save Australia with nuclear comes undone when you look between the brushstrokes. US bases including Pine Gap saw Australia put on nuclear alert, but no-one told Prime Minister Gough Whitlam.

April 29, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | 1 Comment

TODAY. Japan – the return of the “Nuclear Village”?

A first in Japan – The municipal assembly of Genkai in southwestern Japan will request a survey to see if their area is suitable for an underground disposal site for highly radioactive waste. When the Mayor approves this survey,  the Saga Prefecture town, will receive up to 2 billion yen ($12.9 million) in state subsidies for allowing the survey.

Local business associations had submitted separate requests for the survey to the assembly, hoping the subsidies and survey activity will prop up the local economy. The associations called on the town, as already a host of a nuclear power plant, to proactively cooperate with the central government.

That would be just the start. The nuclear lobby everywhere is well experienced in arranging “community benefits”. And in nowhere better than Japan.

It starts with the catch-cry of “Jobs Jobs” – first in the construction industry, then in the operations of the nuclear facility, local contractors, and then onward – to the promise of enlivening the local economy. But this wonderful goal is also to be achieved by all sorts of grants and subsidies –  “incentives for acceptance” -in Japan Japan: “siting promotion subsidy” – community funds for local development.

For Japan, this could be back to the bad old days.

in the late 1990s, Iida Tetsunari3 coined the term ‘nuclear village’ to describe the ‘syndicate’ of actors pushing Japan’s nuclear power program – institutional and individual pro-nuclear advocates in the utilities, the nuclear industry, the bureaucracy, the Diet (Japan’s parliament), business federations, the media, and academia. 

The influence of the nuclear industry over government and the judiciary was powerful and involved ‘regulatory capture’ – industry influence over safety regulation. In safety-related class-action lawsuits, the courts tended to decide in line with government interests to further develop Japan’s nuclear power program

Beyond just “normalisation” of areas hosting nuclear facilities, the “nuclear village” became a celebration of the wonderful, positive role of the nuclear industry in Japanese life, lauded in politics, business, and. education.

That worked out well for Japan, (and for the USA) – in Japan’s great industrial leap forward, and in overcoming and atoning for that old nuclear disaster – the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan’s success became a pointer towards other nuclear villages.

But then came the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe in 2011, – and it all ground nearly to a halt. Public opposition to nuclear power has held the industry back over the years since.

But the small global phalanx of nuclear promoters continues to work assiduously to control public opinion. It preys on people’s fear of global heating, and on fears of economic downturn, and promotes nuclear facilities as ‘the answer”. It looks as if that message might now be being heard by at least one municipality in Japan.

Could this be the start of Japan’s nuclear village all over again?

April 27, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

TODAY. Saint Rafael Grossi on the road to Damascus.

On the road to Damascus is where you get an epiphany. Well, Saint Paul did, anyway. He was on his way to Damascus to do punishing stuff to Christians, when he had a divine revelation and was transformed into an apostle, all aglow with Christian love.

Well, I don’t know that Rafael Grossi had any such revelation, in going to Damascus. But it seems clear that he decided that the proliferation of nuclear weapons is really nothing to worry about, certainly not when compared with the mission of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is to promote the nuclear industry.

We always knew that countries that get nuclear weapons first get a “civil” nuclear industry. Except for the USA, which started the whole thing off the other way around, with the atrocity of the bombs for Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They then launched enthusiastically into the hypocrisy of the “peaceful nuke.

Britain’s leader Rishi Sunak, and France’s Emmanuel Macron have both publicly made it clear that “commercial” nuclear power is essential for their nuclear weapons industry. (So it doesn’t matter if commercial nuclear is a financial catastrophe.) The USA and Russia don’t seem to care, as long as they can sell all kinds of nuclear technology to anybody, really.

The new “advanced” small nuclear reactors make the problem worse, as they use enriched uranium, and reprocessing technologies that provide a great cover for making weapons grade fuel .

Rafael Grossi is well known for his earnest and pious statements about nuclear safety. Indeed, didn’t we all think that this is his job, to ensure the safety and non-weapons-proliferation of the world’s reactors?

But when did Rafael’s epiphany happen? When did he realise that safety and non-weapons proliferation did not matter now?

Rafael doesn’t seem to understand that all nuclear facilities become a target for terrorism, and a target in war-time. He has said a few cautionary words about the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station in Ukraine, but he’s quite OK with Ukraine setting up new nuclear power stations.

Rafael has expressed worthy worries about Saudi Arabia and nuclear weapons, but nevertheless “expressed his delight and admiration for Saudi Arabia’s nuclear capabilities” – and promoted them .

Syria is a place, and with a leader, prone to military disruptions, and , like Saudi Arabia, to human rights abuses, but that doesn’t seem to worry Grossi, over there to arrange for a Syrian nuclear industry.

An epiphany? Or did Rafael know all the time that his job is to be a nuclear salesman ?

Blatant hypocrisy

April 25, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

TODAY. The failed social species – Homo-not-sapiens-at-all

‘We’re supposed to be “social animals”, but I wonder about that.

Especially the “advanced” world, the predominantly white people, and particularly the anglophone world are directing their attention, their energy, and above all their MONEY. into ways to kill each other. More importantly perhaps, to kill “less white” people – Arabs and Chinese.

In Pakistan, melting of glaciers and extreme rain is causing heavy loss of life.

Today I read that millions of people in China are threatened by record-breaking floods – tens of thousands evacuated.

European villages are suffering unprecedented extreme heat stress, with rising numbers of heat deaths, as well as having experiencing months of drought and wildfires

One might think that the most important task for a social species would be to help these victims of global heating, and indeed to put a stop to, or at least slow down global heating.

But perhaps, the not-very-bright leaders of the advanced countries do not understand that we are all in fact one species, that for example, Palestinians are not a separate species of untermenschen. That even Russians and Chinese are people, too.

And that we’re all in the same perilous boat -and the job is to deal with climate change – not to enrich weapons manufacturers.

April 23, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

Nuclear news – week to 22 April

Some bits of good news – ‘The Largest Environmental Restoration in History’ Continues to Restart the Heart of the Everglades
Adopting the Aquaculture of the Future in Thailand A sustainable, integrated approach to fish farming has caught on in China and elsewhere. Thailand could be next.

TOP STORIES. 

Iran Israel: An audible sigh of relief in the Middle East. The ‘Accepted Insanity’ of World War III 

From the archives. How long can Israel defy the world?

Climate. Coral bleaching: Fourth global mass stress episode underway – US scientists. Swiss ruling could pave way for more climate activist cases. Pakistan issues flood alert and warns of heavy loss of life due to glacial melting.

Noel’s notes. Israel v Iran – religious fanaticism or common sense in the atomic age. Ukraine’s going the full Ukraine – no more bilingual nonsense, thank you very much.

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NUCLEAR ISSUES 

EDUCATION.  Universities for AUKUS: The Social License Confidence Trick. 

WASTES. Decommissioning. EDF wants public views on plans for Hinkley Point B decommissioning.

April 22, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

TODAY. Israel v Iran – religious fanaticism or common sense in the atomic age.

Decision to use nuclear bombs could be made for religious reasons, not military strategy.

Trying to understand the culture of other nations, looking from the outside, is a tricky task.

But – as I attempt this, about Israel and Iran, I find some remarkable similarities

Israel is supposed to be a democracy. But the fact that they call it “The Jewish State” immediately sheds doubt on that claim. It is a technocratically advanced state – but with a prevailing religious culture which is quite counter to the ideas of modern secular states. With the current war on Gaza , Israel now functions as a brutal fascism.

Iran makes no pretense of being a democracy. Under the veneer of genuine Islam, the clerics and mullahs run an oppressive, vengeful, misogynist dictatorship.

Yet in both cases, the rulers have twisted religion to suit their cruel aims.

 ZIONISM. Jewish tradition abhors violence and reinterprets war episodes, plentiful in the Hebrew Bible, in a pacifist mode. Tradition clearly privileges compromise and accommodation. Albert Einstein was among the Jewish humanists who denounced Beitar, the paramilitary Zionist youth movement, today affiliated with the ruling Likud. He deemed it to be“ as much of a danger to our youth as Hitlerism is to German youth”.

The first Zionist congress in 1897 had to be moved from Germany to Switzerland because German Jewish organizations objected to holding a Zionist event in their country. The Zionist argument that the homeland of the Jews is not the country, where they have lived for centuries and for which many have spilled their blood in wars, but in a land in Western Asia. For many Jews, this message bears disconcerting resemblance to that of the antisemites who resent their social integration.

 ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALISM IN IRAN.

From Prophet Muhammad: “Kindness is a mark of faith, and whoever is not kind has no faith.” “Do good to others, and goodness will come back to you.” “He who does not show mercy to others will not be shown mercy.” 

The Quran places great emphasis on the dignity of human beings regardless of their gender or race or even status. The dignity also means that human beings have a right to life, right to freedom of religion, right to freedom of lifestyle, right to labor, right to security and right to family 

In Iran,  The crux of the fundamentalist conflict is not between Islam and Christianity. Nor is it between Islam and the West, and nor between the Shia and the Sunni. The conflict is over freedom versus subjugation and dictatorship, between equality on the one hand and oppression and misogyny on the other.

When it comes to the nuclear bomb – these forms of religious extremism become a critical danger to the world. The idea of martyrdom becomes important – sacrificing oneself, and one’s people become a value, a virtue even. It has been prominent in many wars – a notable example – Japan’s Kamikaze airmen in World War 2.

Martyrdom has been a value for some extremist Islamists. I don’t think it would be so for the mullahs of Iran.

But – when it comes to Israel – there’s a definite strand of martyrdom in Israeli military thinking.

Ultimately, all the nuclear powers have no intention of firing first, as this would undoubtedly lead to their destruction. The exception is Israel, which seems to have adopted the “Samson doctrine” (“Let me die with the Philistines”). It would thus be the only power to imagine the ultimate sacrifice, the “Twilight of the Gods”, dear to the Nazis.

The military atom was never envisaged as a classic form of deterrence, but as an assurance that Israel would not hesitate to commit suicide to kill its enemies rather than be defeated. This is the Masada complex [3]. This way of thinking is in line with the “Hannibal Directive”, according to which the IDF must kill its own soldiers rather than let them become prisoners of the enemy [4].

April 20, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

Nuclear – the not so wonderful news this week

Some bits of good news. The Beautiful Place that Stopped Big Bottled Water.    A Tidal Wetland Restoration of Epic Proportions. 

TOP STORIES. 

Annie Jacobsen: ‘What if we had a nuclear war?’

What are the risks at Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant after drone attack? –ALSO AT … https://nuclear-news.net/2024/04/10/3-a-what-are-the-risks-at-zaporizhzhia-nuclear-power-plant-after-drone-attack/    

What’s Inside the President’s Nuclear Football?

Climate. Heatwaves now last much longer than they did in the 1980s. What if global emissions went down instead of up?- ALSO AT …… https://nuclear-news.net/2024/04/12/2-b1-what-if-global-emissions-went-down-instead-of-up/         Swiss women win landmark climate victory at European Court of Human Rights.

Nuclear. I’m quite fascinated that the UK is using Fujitsu’s software in its nuclear lab –    after the total scandal and shemozzle of Fujitsu’s software in the UK Post  Offices –  more about that next week.

Noel’s notes. Australia is EVER so grateful to the global nuclear lobby!   The nuclear lobby’s new “prime wheeze” – Community Interest Companies.

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AUSTRALIA. 

• Coalition nuclear plan flips back to SMRs after latest meeting with lobbyists. Dutton’s decaying nuclear energy plans have the briefest half-life. Dutton proposes higher nuclear energy bills. Nuclear lobby manipulates ABC’s 7.30 Report. Coalition nuclear plan would force consumers to wait 20 years longer for 30% higher electricity bills. Cook by-election candidate Simon Kennedy says locals are ‘comfortable’ living near nuclear reactors. 
• Former PM Paul Keating on a craven acceptance of US strategic hegemony in Asia. 
• The cost of needless secrecy on nuclear. What’s the scam? 
• No decisions on site for nuclear waste dump as spin doctor sought – ALSO AT…https://antinuclear.net/2024/04/15/1-a-no-decisions-on-site-for-nuclear-waste-dump-as-spin-doctor-sought/ 
• Secret Agreements: The Australian-Israel Defence Memorandum of Understanding.

NUCLEAR ISSUES

ECONOMICS.

• Banks Unwilling To Finance $5 Trillion Global Nuclear Development.
• Fresh blow for UK nuclear as the City snubs Sizewell C. Sizewell C Fiasco Part 4: Much more expensive than renewables- Unknown cost or period for Investors – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4ICw23iYY0
• Rolls Royce misses out on government funding for their small nuclear reactors.
• Hinkley Point C Nuclear joins Community Interest Company “Passion for Somerset”. Why you probably shouldn’t become a Community Interest Company.

April 15, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

TODAY.”Lavender” Where’s Daddy” -Sweet euphemisms for a dehumanized, grotesquely technologized future in “the Cloud”

It’s not really new. It has always been part of the playful little-boy mentality of the clever men who design weapons. Think of “Little Boy” – the atomic bomb that devastated Hiroshima, and the less fun-named “Fat Man” plutonium bomb dropped on Nagasaki.

Perhaps, for the servicemen actually dropping those bombs, the fun names might have helped to ease them in any anxiety about killing many thousands of civilians – children, women and men.

Well, no need for servicemen to worry like that nowadays. With Artificial Intelligence making the kill decisions, no human need feel any guilt.

So – why do they bother with the cute sweet names?

Well, apart from the little-boy mentality of the weapons designers, there is the very much more important reason – to deceive the public, to obfuscate, cover-up, veil, the horror of the new AI weaponry. And where better to hide things these days, than in the cloud?

I’ve written before about the cloud. It’s such a light, pretty, concept. Just wafting away into the never-never – nothing to worry about, nothing for mere mortals to try to understand. Leave it to the grown-up little boys to work out what to do with the cloud, and the new cute war toys too.

The cloud is, of course, an ever-increasing set of dirty great data “farms” (another cutesy word) around the world – large areas on land, not in the sky, with huge steel containers, with servers and computers guzzling electricity and water.

There is nothing vague about these things, except for the language used.

“Lavender” – an accurate name would be “Finder for Kill Victims “

“Where’s Daddy” – an accurate name would be “Tracker for Killing Location”

George Orwell would be delighted with this 21st Century obfuscating language. He warned us about vague and meaningless language intended to hide the truth rather than express it. 

And – it’s not as if these automatic killing systems are just being perfected so that the evil Hamas can be defeated. There’s another purpose for using them in Gaza . They’re a practise run for trying out this merchandise – a lucrative industry for Israel for the future: –

“intelligent” weapons proven effective in Gaza were major attractions when Israel marketed them last month at the Singapore Airshow, East Asia’s biggest arms bazaar”.  

April 11, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

This week – the less positive news about nuclear

Some bits of good news.
Global Life Expectancy Rises by 6.2 Years After Drop in Deaths from Stroke, Diarrhea, and Respiratory Infections     Saving Migratory Fish, One Culvert at a Time.

TOP STORIES. Aukusing for War: The Real Target Is China .
The $97 billion mess – spent nuclear fuel reprocessing in Japan.
Xi Jinping’s Thoughts on China’s Nuclear Weapons.
America’s Nuclear War Plan in the 1960s Was Utter Madness. It Still Is.

Inside Sellafield behind the razor wire gun- toting guards and blast barriers at the toxic nuclear site – also at 

 Nuclear regulators should weigh climate change risk to power plants, report says. 

Spent nuclear fuel mismanagement poses a major threat to the United States. Here’s how..

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Climate. Climate change requires kind of collective effort that British people made during Second World War . ‘Simply mind-boggling’: world record temperature jump in Antarctic raises fears of catastrophe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXwmCLqQESQ

Nuclear.  I find it overwhelming – the enthusiasm of the world’s leaders  for ever more deadly nuclear weaponry – in view of  The day of nuclear Armageddon.

Noel’s notes. NATO – dancing macabrely to World War 3?  Why I am really a CONSERVATIVE, and you should be, too.  Ethics, intelligence, literature, and nuclear reprocessing.

NUCLEAR ISSUES.

ENVIRONMENT. Ecocide a ‘Critical Dimension of Israel’s Genocidal Campaign’ in Gaza: Probe. 3 B 1 Say no to small modular reactors: Stop normalizing the exploitation of nature. Radiation. Russia declares ‘state of emergency’ after radiation detected in eastern city of Khabarovsk
ETHICS and RELIGION. Holy See: ‘Nuclear deterrence is an illusion’.

EVENTS. 11 April WEBINAR Nuclear exploitation: how uranium mining harms communities.    https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_iThP7xYKRVy6XxQ46hOwpA#/registration

April 8, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | Leave a comment