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The “Great Era of Nuclear Decommissioning” begins – well, sort of, even in Australia.

 https://theaimn.net/the-great-era-of-nuclear-decommissioning-begins-well-sort-of-even-in-australia/ 20 Mar 25

Nuclear is big news for Australia. For the coming election, the federal Opposition party – the Liberal-National Coalition, has as its major, indeed, pretty much its only, policy – to establish the nuclear power industry at 7 sites across the continent. At the same time, a Liberal group has sprung up – Liberals Against Nuclear, vowing to ditch that policy.

Meanwhile the AUKUS plan, (beloved of both major parties) to buy super-expensive nuclear submarines, has run into problems, and is at risk of being ditched.

Also now, on March 4th the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) announces that it is embarking on a major decommissioning project , getting into the wonderful new Era of Nuclear Decommissioning. This Era was predicted by The Ecologist, back in 2019, but only now is it reported to be getting underway.

Japan, one of the top nuclear nations, has just announced the first dismantling of a commercial nuclear reactor –  ‘signifying that the so-called “great era of decommissioning” has begun in earnest in Japan.’ They have another 59 to go (10 cleared for operation, 23 described as “operable” , and 26 shut-down ones).

So what indeed is the “great era of decommissioning”? What does “decommissioning” actually mean?

According to the European Union – “ It involves all activities starting from the shutdown of the facility and the removal of all nuclear material right down to the environmental restoration of the site. The whole process is complex and typically takes 20 to 30 years to complete.“

So, in Japan, they really mean business –  “dismantling of the reactor, which began on March 17, is considered the main part of the decommissioning work“

In Australia -not so much. It means that ANSTO, a few weeks ago, got a licence from the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA), to begin Phase A, Stage 1, and is now beginning to remove peripheral equipment from the the 67 year old Hifar nuclear reactor, now 18 years out of action. More Phases and Stages to go.

Both the Japanese and Australian news items give short shrift to that final problem – nowhere to put the radioactive remains. ANSTO’s at pains to stress how small an amount it is “be managed and stored safely onsite at Lucas Heights” . The Japanese article concludes “While Japan has entered an era of decommissioning, decommissioning plans continue to be postponed due to the lack of a finalized waste disposal site.”

The World Nuclear Association goes into much detail on the decommissioning of 700 nuclear reactors, but only a few of these have been completely dismantled, and still no way of permanently disposing of their radioactive remains.

Meanwhile the International Atomic Energy Agency, and the governments of the most powerful nations are all complacently touting the need for new nuclear reactors. Australian authorities, keen to stress Australia’s nuclear know-how are joining in this happy disregard of the importance of dangerous radioactive trash.

That famous old Australian character “blind Freddy” would immediately know that this is an unreasonable and immoral attitude.

The “era of nuclear decommissioning” is not really underway at all. If it were happening, there’d be no more hype about new nuclear. I fear that the sad reality is that the men in charge realise that nuclear decommissioning is just too expensive, too fraught with problems “best to just leave it alone, until we are comfortably superannuated out, or dead. “

March 20, 2025 Posted by | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

Does the Deep State really exist, and if so, is it being dismantled?

March 9, 2025, https://theaimn.net/does-the-deep-state-really-exist-and-if-so-is-it-being-dismantled/ .

What is the Deep State? Does it really exist?

These questions are hard to answer. I had heard the term Deep State over many years, and I connected it with all sorts of conspiracies – not just about U.S. politics and intelligence systems, but with wild ideas about satanism, reptilian shapeshifters, the antichrist, child-trafficking, blood harvesting – and all connected with extreme right-wing and pro- Trump propaganda. So I just dismissed and ignored them – there was no such thing as the Deep State !

It is not that simple.

Indeed, it is very complex.

If you start delving, the term Deep State takes you back to Turkey, over 100 years ago, where the concept of a “shadow government” a “secret state within the state” was a real thing. In more modern times the Deep State is defined as:

“The deep state conspiracy theory in the United States is an American political conspiracy theory that posits the existence of the deep state, a clandestine network of members of the federal government (especially within the FBI and CIA). The theory argues that there exist networks of collaborators within the leadership of the high-level financial and industrial entities, which exercise power alongside or within the elected United States government” – Wikipedia

So, OK it’s still just a theory – a conspiracy theory pushed by Donald Trump’s supporters in order to discredit USA’s Biden Democrat administration? And various extreme religious and other wacky groups tacked the more sinister stuff onto it.

The trouble is, as with many problems, there is some truth in it. Over the decades since World War 2, successive U.S. Presidents have turned to secret discussions with unelected officials from the CIA in particular, but also from other agencies and business circles, relying on their advice to make decisions. The decisions were then pretty much rubber-stamped by a complacent and oblivious Congress.

The following (annoying advertisement-afflicted) video from early 2024, is unmistakably a propaganda piece for the Trump campaign. But it does contain some telling information. Even from its first example, we see that J.F. Kennedy, in the Cuban missile crisis, went not to his advisors, but to a social group of very secret members of the CIA to decide what to do. The development of the very powerful, very secretive CIA, in partnership with military leaders, rocket scientists from Germany, media and business leaders, produced an information network on which Presidents relied for decision-making. The CIA’s spying powers that were appropriate in war against the enemy are now directed also against the American public, even in peacetime. Huge well-funded resources went to secret activities that included misinformation and disinformation against civil rights and peace activists. Congress accepts these secret programmes in the name of security.

That video – however pro-Trump it might be, does not mention satanism, etc. If you separate that wacky stuff from the Deep State story – it is all remarkably convincing. To an American public, fed up with the secrecy, the endless expensive pointless wars – Vietnam, Iraq Afghanistan …, Donald Trump’s promise of change, and of dismantling the Deep State sounded attractive.

And hey – presto ! Trump is doing it! He’s sacking those unelected officials, thousands and thousands of them. He’s purging law enforcement and intelligence agencies, and plans to cut 70 percent of staff from various government agencies — freezing of billions of dollars in funding,

Ain’t that great!

Actually, no.

We might welcome the disruption of a Deep State system based on militarism, with the USA forever fomenting trouble overseas, and spending unknown $squillions on military gimmickry. A phrase springs to mind – “Throwing the baby out with the bath-water” . That’s a very corny metaphor. But what is really happening is this:

Trump’s aim is nothing to do with the “Deep State” . Trump’s goal and methodology was set out, detailed in Project 2025, the Center for Renewing America and the America First Policy Institute. The goal is the destruction of democracy – removing or rendering useless the laws, regulations, protocols and rules that prevent autocratic power. No more compromise, limited power, checks and balances and accountability. He made a good start in getting control over the Supreme Court

And I don’t know if everybody noticed two salient points in Trump’s “defeat of the Deep State”

  1. the power and unaccountable funding of the Pentagon will continue.
  2. Trump’s getting rid of “unelected officials” – but apparently taking orders from unelected Elon Musk.

The end goal is the dictatorship of Donald Trump. It would be funny if it were not so deadly serious. The first step – the “Trump’s Birthday and Flag Day Holiday Establishment Act” gives a clue as to what will follow.

The President Trump phenomenon will end eventually, for sure in chaos. Western World leadership is in the hands of a powerful, but unhinged , dictator, who is taking the advice of another powerful unelected unhinged billionaire, Elon Musk.

The whole process is far too much to pay for the destruction of the Deep State. Yes, it is welcome that the secretive decision-making by unelected officials and business leaders – taking the USA into endless wars – has been stopped. But its replacement is a terrifying fascism.

And at the end of it all, after the chaos, what will emerge? If we’re lucky enough to avoid catastrophes of global heating, and war, will we again get a government of men that are happy to have decisions made by macho men in bureaucracy and industry, who are itching for war – another Deep State in the name of “security”?

March 9, 2025 Posted by | Christina's notes, politics, USA | Leave a comment

Ukraine to soon jump back out of the fire and into the frying-pan?

 https://theaimn.net/ukraine-to-soon-jump-back-out-of-the-fire-and-into-the-frying-pan/ 1 Mar 25

Volodymyr Zelensky met Donald Trump and J.D. Vance to work out a peace agreement.  “What started as nervous diplomacy ended as a  Three Stooges pie-fight,”- but as Trump put it “It made great television“.

Was anyone really expecting Zelensky to cave in to the planned deal, when he continued to insist on NATO membership for Ukraine, all territories returned, and American military support? As Trump unkindly put it, the Ukrainians “don’t have any cards” in this negotiation.

The military situation? It looks as if Russia is winning, and there is no doubt that Ukraine cannot prevail unless the USA continues its military backing:

“Russia’s military for months has been reporting a slow but steady advance westward across Donetsk region, capturing village after village……….The troops have been closing in for several seeks on the key logistics centre of Pokrovsk….. Moscow’s troops have focused on capturing Donbas — made up of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.”

The humanitarian situation:

“The conflict in Ukraine has displaced over 3.5 million people within the country and forced over 6.8 million to leave the country as of January 2025……….. an estimated 12.7 million requiring humanitarian aid and protection, according to the U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR).The war has sparked economic shocks and disruption with global ramifications, impacting people in poverty and contributing to an escalating global hunger crisis”

“Millions of people are living in damaged buildings without basic necessities like electricity, water, or heat.”…………………………………According to the United Nations (U.N.), 12.7 million people will need humanitarian aid and protection in 2025

The war in Ukraine has had a devastating impact on children, with over 2,400 killed or injured since the conflict escalated in February 2022, an average of 16 child casualties every week, according to UNICEF.

So where do negotiations stand now?

Zelensky doesn’t seem to understand that in a real negotiation, both sides have to get something out of it. However much Zelensky and the West hate the Russian President, Vladimir is in a powerful position, and it is simple logic that he would need some concessions from Ukraine. That’s something that Donald Trump well understands, (along with the opportunities for American business in this negotiation.)

What happens next is very much up to the Ukrainian Parliament, and also to Trump, who has already shown willingness to make some concessions on his demands for financial repayments to USA . We could see a dramatic fall from grace by Volodymyr Zelensky, and his departure into irrelevance.

Politics in Ukraine.

The Western media have fawned over Zelensky, and ignored some unsavoury aspects of his government. His rule has become dictatorial. “The president has reduced the national legislature to a tool for rubber-stamping his decisions, a major outlet reports” The national parliament – the Verkhovna Rada has long been tightly controlled by the presidential administration. Before 2022 Zelensky cracked down on opposition politicians and critical media. He has admired, and restored the reputation of, Ukraine’s past Nazi group leaders, Stepan Bandera, Evgeny Konovalets, Yaroslav Hunka. He banned Ukraine’s largest Christian orthodox, church, banned the use of the Russian language in official and public documents, banned performance of all Russian language books, music, and films, in public. He has supported one of the most notorious neo-Nazis in modern Ukrainian history: Azov Battalion founder Andriy Biletsky.

Business and Corruption in Ukraine. One can hardly blame Zelensky for this – corruption has been consistent in Ukraine, following paths similar to organised crime and political parties in the post-Soviet Union .  Transparency International ranks Ukraine low on the “clean” list. In the annual ranking it still ranks 104th among 180 countries.   92% of Ukrainians identify corruption as a severe national issue in 2024, second only to the war.

The USA role in corruption in Ukraine. Well, it’s hard to find information on this. The U.S. Republicans tried hard to pin this on President Biden’s son Hunter, without much success. However he did not come up squeaky clean. Hunter Biden did have business dealings in Ukraine, which included high paid consultancies and gifts, In December 2024, Biden’s father pardoned him for all federal offenses committed between 2014 and 2024, including any potential offenses not yet discovered.

But let’s wait and see what kind of corruption might emerge in Ukraine, once Trump has achieved this contentious peace deal. His record from his previous presidency:

“As president, Donald Trump has flouted all kinds of norms, starting with his decision not to divest from his business interests while in office. That set the stage for an administration marked by self-interest, profiteering at the highest levels and more than 3,700 conflicts of interest.”

All of which leads me to conclude that things are not going to be easy for Ukraine, whatever the outcome of this crisis about a peace deal. It is generally accepted that Ukraine simply cannot fight on without the military backing of the USA. It’s difficult, and confusing, to predict what kind of backing can Ukraine expect from European nations and the UK.

The most likely outcome – the Ukrainian parliament does decide to agree to a deal with Russia, which will entail considerable USA business presence , and commercial gain from resources, both in Ukraine and in Russia. Hardly a surprise – as that’s what Donald Trump is all about- American business interests in control.

It doesn’t sound like a great outcome for Ukraine. But from the humanitarian point of view, it sounds better than the carnage of war.

March 1, 2025 Posted by | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

A dramatic development in the Ukraine situation.

18 February 2025 https://theaimn.net/a-dramatic-development-in-the-ukraine-situation/

The shut-down Chernobyl nuclear reactor was hit by a drone on 14th February, and its outer covering was breached. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was quick to gloss over the impact from the latest incident involving the wrecked Chernobyl nuclear reactor – ” Radiation levels inside and outside the so-called New Safe Confinement building “remain normal and stable,”….. and there are no reports of any casualties or radiation leak.”

To be fair, the IAEA did not attribute blame to Russia. Le Monde stated that the cause was a Russian Shahed drone, armed with a high-explosive warhead. So, it actually does look as if the offending drone came from Russia. But that is not certain. However, as far as the Western media goes – the issue is being covered as a deliberate attack by Russia. Youtube after Youtube video, article after article, blames Russia, and repeats Zelensky’s claims –“This is a terrorist attack for the entire world.” Zelensky spoke at the Munich Security Conference accusing Russia of a deliberate attack. Even if it was a Russian drone, there remains the possibility that this was a mistake, rater than intentional. What would Russia have to gain by this? Cui bono?

This event is significant in two ways – First – it could throw a spanner in the works of the current discussions on ending the war in Ukraine . These peace discussion are a whole nother story. Donald Trump is no doubt looking for a way for USA business interests to grab Ukraine resources as one large part of a peace deal in which Russia keeps its invaded territory. Zelensky’s presidency sort of ended on 20 May 2024 – he stays in power because it is war-time – which may well be part of his desire to keep the ear going, no matter what the cost. Zelensky seems to have cast some sort of mesmerising spell over Europe – depicting the Russian bear salivating to gobble up Europe. Good loyal Westerners seem pretty much obligated to oppose Donald Trump on all matters. However a plan to allow some concessions to Russia is a militarily reasonable way to end this war.

Secondly, it could really demonstrate the hypocrisy of the IAEA and its Director Rafael Grossi about nuclear safety

Does anyone really think that this Chernobyl incident is over? All sorted?

“Flames are still raging inside the Chernobyl nuclear station after multiple fires yesterday.” – Luke Alsford and Gergana Krasteva, Metro UK, February 16, 2025 

Alsford and Krasteva set out in chilling (perhaps that’s not the right word) detail, the efforts going on, in extreme weather conditions, to prevent a disaster at the power plant, firefighters battling the blaze around the clock. The reactor’s containment shell. now has a 314 square foot gash. With the hermetic seal broken, the ventilation system is affected, and the radiation level will increase.

Those courageous workers at the wrecked Chernobyl nuclear power plant will probably get those fires out before it all gets much, much worse. And mend the hole in the containment shell. And the IAEA and everyone else will breathe sighs of relief. Until the next nuclear near-miss.

Flames are still raging inside the Chernobyl nuclear station after multiple fires yesterday.

Three smoldering fires were detected earlier this morning, forcing teams to jump into action to prevent a disaster at the power plant.

Ukraine’s state agency on exclusion zone management confirmed that no release of radioactive material has been reported yet.

The plant was hit on Friday by a drone carrying a high-explosive warhead, according to Ukraine, 38 years after the nuclear explosion at the site…..

Firefighters continue to battle the blaze round the clock in challenging weather conditions, admitted the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The plant’s fourth reactor now has a 314 square foot gash after the drone strike.

Although no rise in radiation has been reported yet, an expert issued a frightening warning about how Russia’s attack will soon affect nearby radioactivity

Dr Olga Kosharna, founder of the Anti-Crisis Expert Nuclear Centre of Ukraine, said: ‘The hermetic seal has been broken.

‘It is clear that the ventilation systems will [work] differently and the radiation level will increase.

‘But I think that it will not go beyond the industrial site and the exclusion zone.

Chernobyl’s reactors are covered by an outer dome to prevent radioactive leakage after the 1986 disaster – the world’s worst civilian nuclear accident – which sent pollution spewing across Europe.

Video footage shows how the explosion blew a hole in the dome at 1.50am on Friday, before a fire then broke out.

An open fire on the roof structure – officially called the New Safe Confinement (NSC) – was swiftly put out by first responders.

However smouldering fires remain inside the 20ft diameter hole.

The International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] said: ‘The ongoing efforts to put out and prevent the spread of any remaining fires – apparently fuelled by inflammable material in the roof cladding – have delayed work to start repairing the damage.’

The organisation’s director Rafael Mariano Grossi added: ‘This was clearly a very serious incident, with a drone hitting and damaging a large protective structure at a major nuclear site.

‘As I have stated repeatedly during this devastating war, attacking a nuclear facility is an absolute no-go, it should never happen.’

Grossi also warned of an ‘increase in military activity in the area around the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

‘The IAEA remains committed to doing everything we can to help prevent a nuclear accident. Judging by recent events, nuclear safety remains very much under threat.’…………………………….

Zelensky spoke at the Munich Security Conference yesterday, accusing Russia of flaming the conflict with the alleged drone attack……………………………… https://metro.co.uk/2025/02/16/nuclear-expert-issues-chernobyl-update-emerges-fires-still-burning-22567966/

February 18, 2025 Posted by | Christina's notes, incidents | Leave a comment

Jobs Jobs Jobs ! -screams the nuclear lobby

And the media faithfully regurgitates the message.

It’s not new, but it is now being spouted with a new exuberance (- or desperation?) in Britain:

“Hinkley C construction set to create 3,000 new jobs in next 18 months”. –  Construction Enquirer 11th Feb 2025, West Somerset Free Press 10th Feb 2025,  Burnham-on-sea.com 10th Feb 2025, BBC 10th Feb, 2025 ,  Somerset Live 10th Feb 2025,  “creating thousands of highly skilled jobs” – Adam Smith Institute 10th Feb 2025 ,  Irvine Times 10th Feb 2025

As a child, I always wondered why people got so excited at the idea of more jobs. I used to think that they didn’t really want the jobs. They just wanted the money that you get paid for the job. And really, that still applies.

I now know that jobs can also bring personal satisfaction, a pleasure in doing something well, in knowing that your work is valuable. But I’d have to question that in some jobs – for example, in the 1960s if you worked for the Dow Chemical Company, making napalm to burn Vietnamese children. And I question it about the nuclear weapons-nuclear power industry.

Today, we know about ionising radiation causing illness and deaths, about the environmental damage of the nuclear fuel chain, the waste problem, about the intrinsic connection between the “civil” and military nuclear industries. We also know of the increasing evidence that the nuclear industry is not a healthy workplace.

So, why is the nuclear lobby spruiking “jobs” as the reason for the nuclear industry? The UK has an official unemployment rate of 4.4%, not wonderful, but not a crisis – not a statistically very high rate for a G20 country I would have thought that the biggest arguments for a new nuclear industry would be that it’s supposed to fix climate change, to be a clean industry, to be an economically successful industry.

The trouble is – there is ample evidence that nuclear power cannot fix climate change, is not clean, and most critical for Britain, it is not economically viable. That’s why the industry can’t get investors. The UK government has to supply direct funding through grants and investments to support the development of new nuclear power plants, particularly for projects like Sizewell.

And there’s a constant stream of corporate media articles, about the nuclear resurgence and the great future and employment in the (non-existent) small nuclear reactors. Professor Ramana of the University of British Columbia has questioned this resurgence, and examined what is actually happening :  “I would first dispute the idea that there is an actual resurgence in nuclear power. What we are seeing is a resurgence in talk about nuclear power”. 

The media, when it republishes handouts from the nuclear lobby, is not doing journalism. It’s just repeating propaganda . 

It is hard to find proper journalistic scrutiny on the jobs situation in UK’s nuclear industry. But there is such scrutiny:

  • Only 20 % of Great British Nuclear staff employed permanently.
  • The Wylfa project –  will deny local people of Ynys Môn the opportunity to take up green jobs in the interim……… For the reality, as established at the two existing gigawatt projects, at Hinkley Point C in Somerset and increasingly at Sizewell C in Suffolk, is that, for these large construction projects, large national and multinational civil engineering contractors are engaged, with experience in delivering mega projects at this scale, and they bring with them specialist subcontractors with their own transient workforces.
  • Hinkley Point C ‘using cheap foreign labour‘ , say striking workers.
  • Nuclear power is nothing if not hugely capital, not labour, intensive.

When touting for nuclear power as a great jobs-provider, surely it would be reasonable to compare this with alternative energy sources, but this, of course, is never mentioned in nuclear industry handouts to media.But  –  Renewables create more jobs/$ than fossils and nuclear.  

I can only conclude that Sr Keir Starmer’s Labour government is all too well aware of the money pit into which they are plunging Britain, with these grandiose nuclear projects of Hinkley Point C, and Sizewell C. They must be hoping to get the British public, and investors, enthused about the nuclear job market, especially at a time when the government is about to make brutal cuts in welfare benefits. The rather dodgy assumption might be that human beings – disabled or too ill to work, family carers, suddenly losing income, will be able to work in the supposedly expanding nuclear industry.

February 13, 2025 Posted by | Christina's notes, employment | 2 Comments

‘Build baby build’, says PM as he sets out nuclear plan

 BBC 6th Feb 2025, Hafsa Khalil. BBC News, Becky Morton, Political reporter,  
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c805mjxe2y9o

Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to “build baby build”, as he announced plans to make it easier to construct mini nuclear power stations in England and Wales.

The prime minister told the BBC the government was going to “take on the blockers” and change planning rules so new reactors could be built in more parts of the country.

Sir Keir said he wanted the country to return to being “one of the world leaders on nuclear”, helping to create thousands of highly skilled jobs and boosting economic growth.

Unions and business groups welcomed the move, but some environmentalists criticised the government, saying it had “swallowed nuclear industry spin whole”.

Currently, progress building nuclear power stations in the UK can be slow – to get from planning to “power on” can take nearly 20 years.

Speaking on a visit to the UK National Nuclear Laboratory in Lancashire, Sir Keir said the process was too long and that changes announced by the government would speed it up.

Asked by the BBC’s Chris Mason if “build baby build” was his mantra like US President Donald Trump’s “drill baby drill”, Sir Keir said: “I say build baby build. I say we’re going to take on the blockers so that we can build.”

He said the government had already changed the rules to allow onshore wind farms and was now acting to ensure “we can fast forward on nuclear”.

Pressed over whether people who live near nuclear infrastructure could get money off their electricity bills, the prime minister said while this was not part of the announcement the government had already backed the idea of benefits for local communities hosting energy infrastructure.

In the 1990s, nuclear power generated about 25% of the UK’s electricity but that figure has fallen to around 15%, with no new power stations built since then and many of the country’s ageing reactors due to be decommissioned over the next decade.

Mini nuclear power stations – or small modular reactors (SMRs) – are smaller and cheaper than traditional nuclear power plants, and produce much less power.

However, while there are some 80 different designs under development globally, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the concept has yet to be proven commercially.

The plans announced on Thursday mark the first time SMRs will be included in planning rules. A list of the only places a nuclear reactor could be built – made up of just eight sites – will also be scrapped.

Sir Keir said the plans would improve the country’s energy security by increasing the supply of clean, homegrown power.

He added that Britain had been “held hostage” by Russian President Vladimir Putin for “too long”, which has resulted in energy prices “skyrocketing at his whims”.

The process of choosing to loosen rules on where nuclear reactors could be built began under Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government with a consultation in January 2024.

Ministers said Britain is considered one of the world’s most expensive countries in which to build nuclear power, and a new Nuclear Regulatory Taskforce will be established to speed up the approval of new reactor designs and stream line how developers engage with regulators.

Conservative shadow energy secretary Andrew Bowie said it was “about time” Labour followed his party’s lead in recognising the benefits “of stable, reliable, baseload nuclear power”.

But Doug Parr, policy director of Greenpeace UK, claimed the government had not applied “so much as a pinch of critical scrutiny or asking for a sprinkling of evidence”.

“The Labour government has swallowed [the] nuclear industry spin whole,” he said, adding: “They present as fact things which are merely optimistic conjecture on small nuclear reactor cost, speed of delivery and safety.”

While the overall cost of nuclear power is comparable with other forms of energy, nuclear plants are extremely expensive to build.

The head of the Nuclear Industry Association, Tom Greatrex, said the changes would give investors certainty and enable them to get on with building new plants.

Gary Smith, GMB’s general secretary, said the union has repeatedly said “there can be no net zero without new nuclear”.

The previous Conservative government gave the go-ahead for a new nuclear reactor on the Suffolk coast – Sizewell C – in 2022.

The new Labour government committed a further £2.7bn to the project in October but a final decision on its future is not due to come until the spending review later this year.

Two new nuclear reactors are also being built at Hinkley Point C in Somerset, which are due to open in 2030.

February 11, 2025 Posted by | Christina's notes, politics, UK | Leave a comment

Swallow the nuclear spin, baby, swallow the spin!

February 8, 2025, https://theaimn.net/swallow-the-nuclear-spin-baby-swallow-the-spin/

The world gasps at the Americans swallowing lie after lie from the superb dissimulator Donald Trump, but it might not notice Britain’s worthy, virtuous, man of the working people, Keir Starmer, also proclaiming a set of lies. Starmer has got into a super-confident sort of Trumpian mode as he pronounces ‘Build baby build’.

Yes, Sir Keir is “taking on the blockers” to bring the UK back to a leadership position on building nuclear power. The “blockers” are safety and environmental regulators. A new Nuclear Regulatory Taskforce will be established to speed up and streamline the approval of new reactors. This will report directly to the PM. 

For the first time, mini-nuclear power stations will be included in planning rules. Nuclear sites could now be built anywhere across England and Wales, as a list restricting the sites for new reactors will be scrapped. The expiry date on planning rules will be scrapped. A specialist taskforce will lead on making sure nuclear regulation incentivises investment, to deliver new projects more quickly. It will all apply to both the civil and the military nuclear industry.

This has been greeted with joy by X-Energy, EDF, Microsoft, Great British NUclear, the Nuclear Industry Association, Prospect, the Institute of Directors, Laing O’Rourke, Nuclear EMEA at AtkinsRéali, GCHQ, tech UK, newcleo – indeed, all the people who hope to make a financial killing from the UK tax-payer.

Others are less enthused.

“The Labour government has swallowed [the] nuclear industry spin whole,”……….  “They present as fact things which are merely optimistic conjecture on small nuclear reactor cost, speed of delivery and safety.” – Doug Parr, policy director of Greenpeace UK

We must keep in mind, that with all this enthusiasm, these new small nuclear reactors do not actually exist. They are only designs on the computers of a multitude of companies vying for the contracts to build their prototype, and with the history of failures so far, -USA’s NuScale and France’s Nuward small nuclear reactors.

The other side of the hoped-for resuscitation of the nuclear industry is the maintenance and life-extension of Britain’s aging nuclear fleet of big  Advanced Gas-cooled Reactors (AGRs) and one  big Pressurised Water Reactor. With a mean age of 37.1 years they are all due to be decommissioned before long. With exposure to radiation, high temperatures, their components become more brittle, susceptible to cracking, less able to cope with temperature extremes.

It’s as if Sir Keir Starmer had waved his magic wand over the realities of the situation – as Doug Parr pointed out – over the cost, and time of delivery for small nuclear reactors.

Other spin matters happily regurgitated by Starmer are the idea of new nuclear power not only as “cheap” but as providing thousands of “clean” healthy and safe jobs. The fact that the UK is already in a horrible mess with its unsolved problem of plutonium waste, – is just ignored, – yet the new small nuclear designs would produce even more toxic plutonium wastes.

Recent research has backed up many previous studies that prove that workers in the nuclear industry are at higher risk of radiation-induced illness, especially cancer. So – theyr’e not “clean” jobs, and it’s clear now that the new smrs+AI are intimately connected with military applications – not jobs where one could feel safe and proud of doing really beneficial work.

Starmer blames all the opposition, delay on building nuclear power on Vladimir Putin, “holding Britain hostage”. Now it seems, the nuclear history of environmental damage, cancer, accidents, intractable waste problems, and stupendous costs, all mean nothing. Those who oppose new nuclear power in the UK are just tools of pro-Russian propaganda.

Indeed, it is Spin Baby, Nuclear Spin!

February 8, 2025 Posted by | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

More nuclear news in the time of Trump

I quote Hannah Arendt because her message is so timely right now. The Anglophone world, led by Donald Trump, is about to descend into a morass of lies, deceptions, omissions. Already, climate scientists in America wonder whether or not to speak out. Here in Australia, we rightly condemn anti-semitism, but no-one dares to speak out against Israel’s genocide of Palestinians.  Similarly, no mention of Ukraine gives the full picture. Who dares speak of the positive achievements of China?  It is de rigueur to condemn everything about China. I fear that journalists of integrity are losing their jobs in the USA, and are threatened in other countries, too.

I still realise that in nuclear dangers, the big one, nuclear war, is looming in the context of the Middle East, of Ukraine, and of the visceral hatred of Russia and China.  But I do feel relief in now deciding rather than wading through those morasses, – to concentrate on more strictly nuclear issues.

TOP STORIES.

 AI’s Energy Demands Threaten a Nuclear Waste Nightmare. 

Drones, Nukes, and the Myth of Reactor Safety. 

China AI startup rattles US new nukes plan. 

Open source vs. closed doors: How China’s DeepSeek beat U.S. AI monopolies.

An “American Iron Dome”: Perhaps the Most Ridiculous Trump Idea Yet.

Climate. Climate change made LA fires worse, scientists say.   The surface of our oceans is now warming four times faster than it was in the late 1980s.   Leaders in the Pacific raise alarm over ‘direct impact’ of Trump’s climate retreat and aid freeze.

Noel’s notes. Dangerous climate radical, Lloyd’s of London, threatens the world economy.

AUSTRALIA. “Nuclear for Australia” – a CHARITY ? Whaa-at ! 

Nuclear waste. AUKUS agency’s reckless indifference. Dutton’s nuclear plan requires ‘huge’ new bureaucracy– ALSO AT https://antinuclear.net/2025/02/02/duttons-nuclear-plan-requires-huge-new-bureaucracy/  Dutton defends nuclear costings as opponents warn of power bill hit .        More Australian nuclear news at https://antinuclear.net/2025/02/03/australian-nuclear-news-27-january-to-3-february/

NUCLEAR ITEMS.

ART and CULTURE. Pentagon Warns China Developing Love, The Greatest Weapon Of All.

ECONOMICS. NuScale Power Corporation (SMR) Stock Plunges 25% Amid DeepSeek AI Concerns and Reevaluation of AI-Driven Energy Demand. Vistra, Constellation lead S&P losers as DeepSeek market rout takes down nuclear plays.

ENERGY. Power stocks plunge as energy needs called into question because of new China AI lab. Renewables to dominate future EU energy supply despite nuclear buzz – German engineers.

ENVIRONMENT. Hinkley Point C owner warns fish protection row may further delay nuclear plant.
EVENTS. Anti-Nuclear War Activists Roll Out Counter Version of Doomsday Clock: The Peace Clock. 
Save Severn Estuary’s Fish: Demand Action from Hinkley — Sign the petition.
 23 February GLOBAL DAY OF ACTION TO CLOSE BASES. – https://worldbeyondwar.org/closebases/ 
April 19-26: SHUT DOWN DRONE WARFARE, Spring Action Week, NM, 2025. 
Make your State a Nuclear Free Zone.
HEALTH. Social effects– Towns near Fukushima plant struggle to attract families with children. Radiation. 40% of workers cite radiation concerns at Fukushima plant.
MEDIA. Media coverage of Dutton’s nuclear ‘plan‘: Scrutiny, stenography or propaganda https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzZO66-3HfU
PLUTONIUM Hot Plutonium Pit Bomb Redux. Radioactive Plutonium In Sahara Dust Came From An Unexpected Source
SPACE. EXPLORATION, WEAPONS. Nuke Mars, Elon? Not with your Outer Space Treaty.
TECHNOLOGY. The Evolution of the Militarized Data Broker. 
How a Chinese nerd destroyed the US AI biosphere. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzrpMohWkmY DeepSeek: how a small Chinese AI company is shaking up US tech heavyweights.
 Do AI and Nukes Mix? Hint: Keep ‘Human Decision in the Loop’.
URANIUM. Concerns about Agnew Lake Uranium Mine Unheard at Nuclear Commission Meeting.
WASTES. Sweden building world’s second nuclear waste storage site amid safety concerns. Potential UK nuclear waste sites identified
WAR and CONFLICT. Russia claims nuclear plant targeted during massive Ukrainian drone attack. Closer than ever: It is now 89 seconds to midnight.
WEAPONS and WEAPONS SALES. 
Israel sends missiles to Ukraine – Axios. 
The Guardian view on Star Wars II: US plans for missile shield risk nuclear instability. 
Trump orders ‘Iron Dome for America’ in sweeping missile defense push.
General in Charge of Nuclear Weapons Says Heck, Let’s Add Some AI.
Government announces dangerous new plan for more plutonium at Livermore Lab. 
Sole control -No US president should be allowed to unilaterally authorize a first strike of nuclear weapons.

February 3, 2025 Posted by | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

Nuclear news – week to 27 January.

Some bits of good news– 

More than 2,400 aid trucks enter Gaza under truce, UN says no big looting issues.  The fastest energy change in history continues.  Protection for half a million hectares of Amazonian forests

TOP STORIES. Operation Stargate, the project to make AI an “essential infrastructure”.

America’s ‘zombie’ nuclear reactors to be revived to power Trump golden age.

Nuclear- not good vibrations in France. Nuclear power: Engie CEO criticises Arizona ambitions to extend Doel and Tihange lifespan. 

When Russian Radar Mistook a Norwegian Scientific Rocket for a U.S. Missile, the World Narrowly Avoided Nuclear War.

From the archives. St Louis radioactively contaminated sites visited by Dr Helen Caldicott

Noel’s notes. Nuclear waste springs eternal in the human folly.   For Australia, the nuclear lobby brings out the big massage!

AUSTRALIA. Miss America and nuclear engineer Grace Stanke will be travelling around Australia with a host of other nuclear experts as a part of the National Nuclear Tour. 

Is the world going nuclear? The hope and hype of nuclear as a climate solution. We know why nuclear build costs are soaring — and Australia faces the biggest increases.   Military Spending vs Social Services: Australia’s Paradox.  

NUCLEAR ITEMS

ECONOMICS.


 ENERGY California debunks a big myth about renewable energy.Europe posts record negative power prices for 2024 as renewables rise.

Green energy in abundance.Wind, not nuclear, is the best way to meet Sweden’s climate goals, leading think tank says. Nine Swedish energy researchers find that new nuclear power is not needed.
ENVIRONMENT. Vegetation being removed to enable upgrade of Sizewell line.Hinkley Point C: EDF says fish issue could delay new plant operation
EVENTS. 9 February -UNITAR Hosts Forum on Nuclear Abolition: 80 Years On
HEALTH. Radiation. The Scientists Who Alerted us to the Dangers of Radiation – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyUjtpysc2Y&t=4s
INDIGENOUS ISSUES. Indigenous group vows to stop nuclear waste shipments unless new deal struck.
LEGAL. Allied Groups Reach Historic Settlement on New Nuclear Bomb Part Production – ALSO AT https://nuclear-news.net/2025/01/21/2-b1-allied-groups-reach-historic-settlement-on-new-nuclear-bomb-part-production/
MEDIA. ‘Acres of Clams’- New documentary tells story of the Clamshell Alliance – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPuE9oKh6-I
PERSONAL STORIES. Pete Wilkinson was well known for Sizewell C campaign work.

POLITICS.

POLITICS INTERNATIONAL and DIPLOMACY. Hiroshima, Nagasaki request Trump visit to teach ‘reality’.
SAFETY. Lakenheath: Ministers urged to clarify nuclear deployment. Memo to Trump: Address the new threat of drone-vulnerable nuclear reactors.
SECRETS and LIES. North Korea beats sanctions to acquire key tool for nuclear weapons -ALSO AT https://nuclear-news.net/2025/01/24/2-b1-north-korea-beats-sanctions-to-acquire-key-tool-for-nuclear-weapons/ The Atlas Network talking about itself
TECHNOLOGY. Nuclear fusion: it’s time for a reality check. Bill Gates’ nuclear energy startup inks new data center deal.

WASTES.

WEAPONS and WEAPONS SALES. Memo to Trump: Cancel US Air Force’s Sentinel ICBM program. Memo to Trump: Cancel the sea-launched nuclear cruise missile. Nuclear Proliferation and the “Nth Country Experiment”

January 27, 2025 Posted by | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

Nuclear waste springs eternal in the human folly

25 Jan 25,  https://theaimn.net/nuclear-waste-springs-eternal-in-the-human-folly/

“Hope springs eternal in the human breast;
Man never Is, but always To be blest.” – Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man, 1733

Pope goes on to say – “The soul, uneasy, and confin’d from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.” I’m not sure what he means, but “never is, but always to be blest” really does suggest that the blessed solution actually never comes.

All that is fine, in the religious context. Because that way, it will all come good when we get to Heaven, in the next life.

In the nuclear waste context, the powers that be are as confident as the religious leaders, that all problems will be solved – later on, so we can go on hell-for-leather, making the poisonous trash.

‘High likelihood’ of radioactive waste in smoldering landfill, Missouri officials say

I was prompted to these thoughts by January 22nd news from Missouri – High likelihood of radioactive waste in smoldering landfill, Missouri officials say. I’ve been following this particular radioactive trash problem for at least 12 years  https://nuclear-news.net/2013/05/16/radioactive-trash-in-st-louis-related-to-underground-landfill-fire/. And that fire’s still going! And that radiation is still causing cancers in the local community.

Dr Helen Caldicott, founding president of Physicians for Social Responsibility, visiting St Louis in 2016, said – the radioactive contamination in north St. Louis County is “worse than most places” she’s investigated, and called the situation “obscene.” Records reveal 75 years of government downplaying, ignoring risks of St. Louis radioactive waste.

So, the cleanup of St Louis’ County radioactive sites, contaminated by wastes from nuclear-weapons -making, goes on, with ever hopes to complete it, – while the nuclear-weapons-making goes on, creating even more radioactive trash

St Louis County is symbolic of the whole obscene nuclear waste situation across the planet.

Energy expert Kurt Cobb, writing in Oil Price, examines Sweden’s options for disposing of nuclear waste. He argues that climate change, political instability, and technological limitations could all pose threats to the long-term safety of nuclear waste storage. The Swedish plan is to fill the storage site—”60 km of tunnels buried 500 metres down in 1.9 billion year old bedrock”—sometime by 2080 at which time it will be closed.

Cobb points out that civilization, that is, human settlement in cities, has only been around about 10,000 years, but the wastes must be safe and secure for 100,00 years. The containers, copper capsules, are likely to corrode, and leak radioactive elements into groundwater, in a much shorter time.

He questions our faith in technological progress, which is supposed to absolutely solve the nuclear waste problem. It’s very like the Christian view on Alexander Pope’s statement – we’re not going to be blest in this world, so just look to life in the hereafter.

Kurt Cobb also discusses nuclear reprocessing, which brings its own problems, and still creates more waste, and he mentions other suggestions – shooting such waste into space or into the Sun.

Now here’s where I’m shocked at Mr Cobb. In all my years of reading worthy treatises on nuclear waste disposal, this is the first time I’ve found an energy expert to come up with a heretical thought like stopping making radioactive trash:

“I wonder if we were wise to create something in the first place that requires 100,000 years of care, given how heedless we as a species are to hazards of our own making that may destroy our current civilization much, much sooner than a thousand centuries from now.“

Really, Mr Cobb, wash your mouth out with soap! You don’t say things like that, if you want to be taken seriously by the world’s reputable nuclear experts.

January 25, 2025 Posted by | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

For Australia, the nuclear lobby brings out the big massage!

 https://theaimn.net/for-australia-the-nuclear-lobby-brings-out-the-big-massage/ 24 Jan 25

In December 2022, 16 year-old Will Shackel started a “charity” – Nuclear For Australia, funded by entrepreneur Dick Smith. It’s a “fact-filled” “grassroots” movement, devoted to champion the cause of “clean reliable” nuclear energy for Australia. It’s not a lobby group for the nuclear industry – Oh no! – even if its leaders are Dr ADi Paterson, with his career in the industry, and Tony Irwin, Technical Director of SMR Nuclear Technology Pty Ltd. It’s not political, oh no! even if its goal happens to identical with the policy campaign goal of the Liberal Coalition Party for the coming Federal Election.

But, just by coincidence, in this election year, Nuclear for Australia is touting not just young Will Shackel, but also 24 year old American Grace Stanke. And these are the nuclear propaganda big guns for 2025.

Why do I call them the “big guns?

After all, Australia has some very experienced nuclear experts, happy to tell us how great nuclear power is. There are not only Dr Paterson, and Mr Irwin. There are Ziggy Switkowski, Michael Angwin, the expert staff of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, and the Australian Uranium Association. Well, the thing is they are the old-style big guns, who will spout their expert facts at length, and in detail..

In the new Trumpian era, it’s not enough to know the facts, and perhaps, not even necessary.

What is now important is the person who is touting nuclear power. Is he, and preferably she, young, attractive, warm, enthusiastic, and easy to understand?

Actually, the Australian nuclear lobby has recognised this for a while. They previously promoted the rather wacky young nuclear spruikers Zion Lights and Isodope (Yes – those really are their names)

Zion and Isodope did their best. But what Australia needs, seems to be young people who are bright and attractive, and with appeal not just to the young, but across the generations – knowledgeable, likeable, but not rebellious.

Polls always show that in Australia, women are less supportive of nuclear power, than men are. With compulsory voting, it’s always important for the parties campaigning to pay attention to the opinions of women. So it’s especially important for the nuclear lobby to appeal to women.

Young Will Shackel was a good propagandist over 2023-34, articulate, enthusiastic, and good-looking. But in this election year, what is needed is a female propagandist, an appealing model for young women, and also attractive to men, and acceptable to older generations.

Enter Grace Stanke.

Grace Stanke is an attractive, articulate, accomplshed young woman – a classical violinist, a water-skier, Miss America 2023 – and a nuclear engineer. She graduated in 2023, and went to work full time as Nuclear Engineer and Nuclear Energy advocate at Constellation Energy

I can’t help admiring Grace Stanke for her achievements, and for her apparently very sincere motivation. She is grateful to nuclear medicine, for helping her father who had cancer, and she believes that climate change must be addressed, by replacing fossil fuels. And she’s obviously very bright, and knows her stuff about nuclear technology.

Still, for thoughtful people there’s a problem with Grace as a nuclear proponent. This is the fact that it doesn’t seem to matter that she knows her nuclear stuff. I have watched several video interviews with her, some remarkably long, and she was not called upon to answer the hard questions. The interviewers seem focussed on her career in beauty pageants, and her year as Miss America. The interviews have a happy positive tone, rejoicing in her success as a young woman and a mentor for girls. No need to get down and dirty about toxic wastes, the effects of the industry on the health of uranium miners and other workers and communities.

And this what we’re up against in the new age of Trumpic spin – short, bright messages – purveyed by attractive young people. Marshall McCluhan predicted it decades ago – The Medium is the Massage. It’s usually written as “Message”, but I think that his original wording was more accurate.

Grace Stanke has been travelling around the world, promoting the nuclear industry, including to the Climate Summit Cop 29, and even before graduating, was named the “New Face of Nuclear Energy” by the Wall Street Journal.

I feel that it is incorrect to call people like Grace Stanke and Will Shackel the “big guns”. That suggests a sort of aggressive, forceful propaganda. And that’s not their style. They’re so sincere, and squeaky clean and nice. It will be interesting, but unlikely, if Grace Stanke has to worry about any tough questioning . After all, that wouldn’t be courteous to a visiting Miss America.

January 24, 2025 Posted by | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

Nuclear news as the Trump chaos world begins

Now we enter the chaos of Trump World. It means lies, manipulations, news that you can’t trust. I cannot keep up with the Israel, Ukraine, monster China etc stuff – though it’s all on the brink of nuclear disaster.

So, from now on, I’m confining this newsletter more narrowly to NUCLEAR news. And with an emphasis on Australia, as it now faces a nuclear industry takeover, and becoming the USA’s proxy for nuclear war against China.

TOP STORIES  

California wildfires: a warning to Nuclear Regulatory Commission on climate change.

 Chris Hedges: The Ceasefire Charade. Report: Israel and Hamas Agree ‘in Principle’ to Ceasefire and Hostage Deal .

Becoming a responsible ancestor – about America’s nuclear wastes. 

The EPR nuclear sector: new dynamics show persistent risks -La cour des comptes . 

Former nuclear energy executives face federal charges in massive Ohio bribery scheme

Noel’s notes.   2025 – Australia’s dangerous nuclear dance with Dutton?      The world’s blind eye to the nightmare problem of nuclear waste disposal.

AUSTRALIA. Dutton’s new nuclear nightmare: construction costs continue to explode. Virginia, we have a problem. More Australian nuclear news at https://antinuclear.net/2025/01/20/australian-nuclear-news-13-20-january-2025/

CLIMATE. Trump’s got a radioactive time bomb under Greenland’s ice. Wildfire risks high at nuclear plants.Weatherwatch: Could small nuclear reactors help curb extreme weather? There’s a credibility gap.
ECONOMICS. French energy giant EDF launches search for Hinkley Point finance after damning audit report – ALSO AT https://nuclear-news.net/2025/01/19/2-b1-french-energy-giant-edf-launches-search-for-hinkley-point-finance-after-damning-audit-report/. 
French auditor recommends EDF delays UK Sizewell investment decision ALSO AT https://nuclear-news.net/2025/01/17/2-b1-french-auditor-recommends-edf-delays-uk-sizewell-investment-decision/Sizewell C’s future in doubt as EDF told to prioritise French nuclear power. 
Cost of Sizewell C nuclear project expected to reach close to £40bn. EDF Energy Juggles Maintenance Amid UK’s Nuclear Energy Challenges.

Ukraine’s parliament has given the go-ahead for the purchase of two old Russian nuclear reactors.
ENERGY. Renewable energy sets global record…but it’s not enough.
EVENTS. Petition/email: Save Billions, Cancel Sizewell C
HEALTH. Nukes kill kids.
HUMAN RIGHTS. Amazon Is Censoring My Most Recent Magazine Issue.
LEGAL. Last Energy, Texas, Utah allege NRC overstepping in SMR regulation

MEDIA. CBS’ 60 Minutes Exposes the Biden Administration’s Complicity in Gaza Genocid. 

Interviews the Whistleblowers. ‘National scandal’: The BBC’s Gaza cover-up.

Told you so: Financial Times follows Nuclear Free Local Authorities’s lead on Sizewell C cost estimate.

How Canada supplied uranium for the Manhattan Project- documentary “Atomic Reaction“

PERSONAL STORIES. Patrick Lawrence: The Nihilism of Antony Blinken.
POLITICS. Over time, over budget… will our new nuclear plants ever be built? – ALSO AT https://nuclear-news.net/2025/01/20/1-a-over-time-over-budget-will-our-new-nuclear-plants-ever-be-built/
POLITICS INTERNATIONAL and DIPLOMACY. The UK military’s secret visits to Israel.
URANIUM. Saudi Arabia plans to enrich and sell uranium as Iran commences nuclear talks with E3.
WASTES. Ask the locals: NFLA Chair says it is ‘prudent and proper’ for Nuclear Waste Services to consult residents over South Copeland flooding risk. Dunfermline MP Graeme Downie calls for MoD commitment to dismantle dead nuclear submarines.
WEAPONS and WEAPONS SALES. Are AI defense firms about to eat the Pentagon? Outgoing CIA director says ‘no sign’ Iran developing nuclear weapons. Submarine nuclear core project faces ‘challenges’.

January 21, 2025 Posted by | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

TODAY 2025 – Australia’s dangerous nuclear dance with Dutton?

20 January 2025 https://theaimn.net/2025-australias-dangerous-nuclear-dance-with-dutton/

Why I must now focus on Australia’s nuclear question.

For the past 18 years, I have been running two websites dedicated to the nuclear-free cause. I started these when John Howard was proposing nuclear power for Australia. The hazards then were obvious, environmental and health damage, further oppression of Aboriginal people, threats to civil liberties, proliferation of nuclear weapons, and more.

Over the last few years, the threat of nuclear war has increased. It’s become clear that men in power have come to believe that a nuclear war can be won, despite what the scientists tell us. The idea of nuclear disarmament has gone out the window, as ever new, cleverer, bigger nuclear weapons are devised by our fine “defenders”.

While danger has increased, knowledge and understanding of history has decreased. So we have a Western world that pays no attention to the background to the war in Ukraine, and confidently believes that it is all about one “evil” man – Putin, and nothing to do with the complex story of the Donbass region of Ukraine, and its quest for autonomy.

Meanwhile the horror of the Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza continues, and the Netanyahu government’s ruthless oppression there is backed by Western weapons, and moral support, – because we “don’t want to be anti-semitic, do we?” And again, the history of the region is ignored.

These two situations could so easily tip the world over the brink – to nuclear war.

But as if that were not enough – there’s more on-the-brink background. We must now hate not only Russia, but also China, and Iran, and be ready to nuclear bomb them. We must build up more nuclear weapons, – to the gratification of those lovely armaments companies and their happy shareholders.

And if that all is not enough to have us now teetering on that brink, we have the most powerful nation in the world run by a deranged President Trump, who is supported, perhaps himself controlled, by a small group of obscenely rich men of brilliant minds but lopsided morals, including the ketamine-dependent Elon Musk.

So, to get back to the point. In this crazy new world, the new USA government will destroy or control political, judicial, educational and social institutions, with the aid of Murdoch media and social media. Misinformation and lies will be rife, and it will be a struggle to find media sources that can be trusted. But decent people, with the will for co-operation and for collective action continue – we just have to find them.

I have tried, through my websites to cover those international political issues that bring nuclear war ever closer. But now, it is just too hard.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, here in Australia, we have the unique situation of an entire continent being taken over, militarily, by the USA. Liberal and Labor governments have let it happen. Labor Prime Ministers, terrified by what happened to the one Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, who dared to stand up to the USA, continue to kowtow to America.

If the “tech bros” and the shadowy Atlas Foundation can play a role in bringing the chaotic Donald Trump to power in the USA, they could well do the same thing here, helping to bring Dutton’s nuclear madness to Australia. However, I must give Dutton some credit, too. He now looks likely to offer all sorts of other enticements to Australian voters, and perhaps just soft pedal on the nuclear propaganda, and hope we forget about it..

It is up to those of us who are aware, and perhaps have the time, to explore the scenario of what the nuclear industry would mean for this country.

Australia is somewhat scarred by the nuclear industry already, with the abomination of the British nuclear bombing of aboriginal land in the 1950s, and with the environmental and health destruction of uranium mining. But Australia now has this unique opportunity – to be the world leader in renewable energy, and energy conservation.

Australia does not have to be “USA’s beachfront against China” as one American politician said recently. Australia does not have to be the Southern Hemisphere base for USA’s nuclear-armed bombers, and nuclear submarines.

So, anyway, I reckon that the job for aware Australians is to keep the focus on Dutton’s nuclear nuttiness, exposing its lies. For my own part, I’m narrowing the scope of my websites and newsletter, taking them back to their original theme – for a nuclear-free world.

“

January 20, 2025 Posted by | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

TODAY. The world’s blind eye to the nightmare problem of nuclear waste disposal.

18 Jan 2025 https://theaimn.net/the-worlds-blind-eye-to-the-nightmare-problem-of-nuclear-waste-disposal/

Now if you were to ask an old-fashioned housewife, to prepare a complicated dinner with strong-smelling crayfish, seafoods and vegetables, , she would probably first make sure that there was a suitable garbage bin at hand.

But that’s not the way that the magnificent men in their nuclear machines thought, about the garbage from their concoctions. The American (pro-nuclear) historian Spencer Weart explains how, in the 1950s:

“the press and the public gave the matter only passing attention, preferring to leave nuclear sanitary engineering to officials. Officials left it to nuclear experts, and most nuclear experts left it alone.” 

So, they left it alone for a long time.

The authority on matters nuclear – the Atomic Energy Commission – mentioned atomic wastes as a “cumbersome” problem, – going along with the view that it was not a major issue, and technolological development would solve it in the future. The British Ministry of Supply, in 1949, concluded that  nuclear waste dumped into sea was “only slightly radioactive and the amount too small ‘to have any harmful effect on fish or on human life.’

Still, even in 1950, one report in the New York Times – “Atomic ‘Cemetery’ Needed for Waste,” a argued that “some kind of national burying place will be needed for the lethal substances;”  and warned of the dangers of dumping atomic wastes into the oceans.-  “[i]f fish ate the material, scientists fear it might find its way into food used by humans.”

“Expert” thinking about nuclear waste moved on , in the 1950s, to the idea that it could be beneficial. It could be used to generate electricity. It could have a military use -it could be used to create “a lethal radioactive ‘ line’ along a frontier. behind a river, across a peninsula, that would deny an area to the enemy.” In 1956, Lewis L. “Strauss, the head of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission  said the term ‘atomic waste’ is a misnomer”.

So developed one of the nuclear lobby’s favourite themes over the decades – “Not a Waste, but a Resource”.

However, from 1957 onwards, there was a growing public realisation especially in Europe, that nuclear wastes are dangerous, especially to health, and opposition increased to the dumping of wastes at sea..

It was not until 1993 that nuclear waste dumping at sea was banned, by international treaties – and it’s still not enforced everywhere. So, it has taken the nuclear experts and the various authorities, world-wide, a very long time to take action against the nuclear industry’s most egregious crime against nature

So, where are we today?

Writing in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, “Becoming a responsible ancestor“– Daniel Metlay gives the most comprehensive account of the USA’s policies, and the authorities’ continuing struggles to tackle the Gordian knot of nuclear wastes. And that’s just from the peaceful nuclear power industry.

On the nuclear weapons industry, also in the Bulletin, Cameron Tracy writes on the- Risks of geologic disposal of weapons plutonium.

Apart from the American experience, the media tells us, generally in glowing, optimistic terms, of the progress of super-costly deep underground facilities in Finland, and soon to come, in Sweden and France.

As if the American or “Western” history of nuclear waste were the whole story, we learn little or nothing about nuclear waste management in Russia, China, India, North Korea, South Korea, Japan (except for Fukushima). On the rare occasions when the Western media has mentioned Russia’s nuclear waste history, it is to gloat over what a mess Russia has made of it.

However, the US National Academy of Science and its Russian counterpart met in 1992 , leading to a U.S-Russia  pledge in 2000 to reciprocally dispose of 34 metric tons of excess weapons plutonium. It was a complicated co-operative effort which fell apart completely by 2016.

The nuclear waste industry bumbles on, with prospects of profits for waste management companies like Holtec, and of “jobs , jobs’, Jobs”. Is the nuclear behometh just too big to be stopped?

There are two questions about nuclear wastes that are never asked by the “experts”, let alone answered by them:

  1. Why not stop making more nuclear trash?
  2. Why do the nuclear-power countries not work together, co-operate, in getting rid of the existing global problem of nuclear trash?

January 18, 2025 Posted by | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

Nuclear and related news -week to 14 January

Some bits of good news.   World’s largest free meal program, aimed at children and pregnant women.   Thai tiger numbers swell as prey populations stabilize in western forests. ‘Extinct’ trees found in Tanzania spark hope for ecosystem recovery.

TOP STORIES. Genocide: The New Normal.
Drone Warfare Has Exploded the Myth of Nuclear Reactor Safety.
 Radioactive nightmare: A community’s fight for survival amid soaring cancer rates.

While Los Angeles burns, AI fans the flames.

From the archives. 40 Years Ago: US President Jimmy Carter Pushed For Renewable Energy Funding After Three Mile Island Nuclear Disaster — 

Climate. State of the Cryosphere Report 2024.

 LA wildfire damages set to cost record $135bn. 

Climate crisis ‘wreaking havoc’ on Earth’s water cycle, report finds, Energy efficiency, the forgotten tool for dealing with climate change.

Noel’s notes. The California wildfires and the unmentioned threat of nuclear radiation. The polar playground for a suicidal species?

AUSTRALIA. 

NUCLEAR ITEMS

CLIMATE. World’s climate fight needs fundamental reform, UN expert says: ‘Some states are not acting in good faith’. Energy efficiency, the forgotten tool for dealing with climate change.
ECONOMICS. Lepreau nuclear plant’s costs will continue to balloon: critic -ALSO AT https://nuclear-news.net/2025/01/09/1-b1-lepreau-nuclear-plants-costs-will-continue-to-balloon-critic/Together Against Sizewell C letter to National Audit Office SZC Value for Money concerns 06.01.25.
EMPLOYMENT. No more buckets and spades – would nuke dump end West Cumbrian tourism?
ENERGY. Germany deploys 16.2 GW of solar in 2024 .Trump’s war on wind power: Plans to stop windmill construction nationwide.Schneider Electric warns of future where datacenters eat the grid.Is the Haverigg wind project once more under a nuclear threat?
ENVIRONMENT. CANDU reactors release WASTE HEAT as well as RADIOACTIVITY.EDF’s UK nuclear plan – salt marsh consultation delay reaction.
ETHICS and RELIGION. Are Blinken and Biden’s Gaza genocide denials any different than Nazi WWII genocide denials?
EVENTS. WEBINAR: 17 January : Exposed – New book sheds light on radiation science
HEALTH. Ohio Community Faces Cancer Crisis from Radioactive Contamination
HISTORY. When Carter met Kim – and stopped a nuclear war.
INDIGENOUS ISSUES. First Nations chiefs shouldn’t be duped by ‘nuclear-is-green’ deception.

LEGAL.

MEDIA. Raffi Berg: BBC Middle East Editor Exposed as CIA, Mossad Collaborator.
OPPOSITION to NUCLEAR .   Campaigners accuse UK government of ‘lack of transparency’ over SizewellC value. – ALSO AT https://nuclear-news.net/2025/01/11/1-b1-campaigners-accuse-government-of-lack-of-transparency-over-sizewellc-value/
PERSONAL STORIES. ‘He was prescient’: Jimmy Carter, the environment and the road not taken.
POLITICS. Genocidal President, Genocidal Politics. A new year – but old policies.EDF delays salt marsh consultation for Hinkley Point C.

POLITICS INTERNATIONAL and DIPLOMACY.

SAFETY. Faslane Peace Camp warns of growing nuclear risks amid rising tensions.
Incidents. ‘Alarming’ environmental breaches at nuclear sites spark calls for tougher action. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) staff reported hearing loud blasts near Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (NPP)
SECRETS and LIES. How Fukushima’s radioactive fallout in Tokyo was concealed from the public. The Atlas Network has eugenicist roots.
TECHNOLOGY. Could AI soon make dozens of billion-dollar nuclear stealth attack submarines more expensive and obsolete?Deep Fission to supply Endeavour data centers with 2GW of nuclear energy from “mile-deep” SMR.
Nuclear energy groups race to develop ‘microreactors’. UK will explore nuclear power for new AI data centre plan
URANIUM. US to study proliferation risk of HALEU nuclear fuel, after warning by scientists.
WASTES. U.S. nuclear spent fuel liability jumps to $44.5 billion.S. Korea’s nuclear agency launches investigation into abnormal discharge of radioactive waste.
WAR and CONFLICT. Lancet Study: Gaza Health Ministry Undercounted Death Toll By 41%.How the UK and Nato are preparing for spectre of nuclear war in space.
WEAPONS and WEAPONS SALES. Iran has absolutely no intention to build nuclear weapons, president says.There is no such thing as good nuclear proliferation.Trident nuclear submarines leave UK reliant on the US, in lockstep with the US.How to dismantle the deadly arms trade.

January 13, 2025 Posted by | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

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