nuclear-news

Nuclear news to 16 July

You’ve seen the TV series, now understand that  the Chernobyl catastrophe is far from over.

It’s difficult for me to stick just to nuclear news, as the enormity of the climate crisis becomes more apparent. While extreme events might not be caused by global heating, climate change is exacerbating them and increasing their frequency. Millions of people displaced by floods – India, Nepal and Bangladesh. Tropical Storm Barry spares New Orleans but fuels fears of floods and tornadoes.  New research – climate change is worsening wildfires.

Of course, there is a nuclear connection, too. Both floods and fires are potentially disastrous to nuclear power plants. You don’t hear much about this, but the nuclear industry is very worried about floods.

“Climate distress,” “climate grief,” “climate anxiety” – psychological effects on people.

U.S., Russia to discuss nuclear arms limits in Geneva.

Heat waves, rising seas, – climate change threatens France’s and UK’s nuclear plants.  Even the nuclear industry itself is pretty pessimistic about its future.  Recycling nuclear waste still itself produces nuclear waste.

HISTORY. Cuban Missile Crisis 1962 – how close we came to World War 3

JAPAN. Fukushima – a nuclear catastrophe that continues.  Fukushima Prefecture Council election: both candidates campaign on anti-nuclear platforms.  A Fukushima Ghost Town Seeks Rebirth Through Renewable Energy.

IRAN. Iran still committed to the nuclear accord, but will decrease its commitment if other signatories cannot help.

USA.

• Space is “new domain of military operations” – nuclear weapons enthusiast Gen Mark Milley , Trump’s choice to head Joint Chiefs of Staff.  General Mark Milley wants low-yield nuclear missile warheads, doctrine of a “winnable” nuclear war. War with “small” nuclear weapons – No Such Thing As a ‘Small’ Nuclear War. U.S. Congress setting a more reasonable course for nuclear weapons policy.
• Investigative journalism – The first victims of the first atomic explosion might have been American children.
• Unrepentant, Catholic anti-nuclear activists face gaol for breaking into a nuclear base. Intruders jump fence at U.S. nuclear reactor that uses bomb-grade fuel .
• Kim and Kourtney Kardashian join the fight to clean up Santa Susanna nuclear site. Nuclear clean-up agreements broken for the Santa Susanna Field Laboratory (SSFL) site.
• Maine Bill for grants to local governments to offset costs of STRANDED nuclear wastes.  Dangerously unacceptable nuclear waste dump plans for Texas.   Wyoming lawmakers quietly see $billions in storing   spent nuclear fuel.  For 6 years, Potentially Dangerous Nuclear Waste Was Shipped to Nevada as Low Level Wastes.    Earthquakes and the danger of Southern Nevada as a nuclear waste dump site.
• Army Corps to test groundwater at nuclear waste dump.
•  Ohio Senate not keen to subsidise FirstEnergy Solutions nuclear power stations.  USA nuclear industry in the doldrums – desperate efforts to revive it.  Bill Gates now glum about the prospects for his nuclear power company TerraPower.
• As cost of climate crisis grows, climate movement escalates.  Investigative journalism –Private Notes Show How Big Oil Spread Climate Science Denial.

UK.  Future of the nuclear industry in Britain is far from clear.  UK’s energy industry plans, especially nuclear, stalled while waiting for new Prime Minister.  UK’s new nuclear funding model would leave taxpayers liable for rising costs or delays. Safety breaches at Sellafield nuclear waste plant.   UK’s Sizewell C nuclear project not likely to provide many local jobs. Sizewell B nuclear plant ammonia leak closes part of beach.   Huge carbon footprint of Hinkley nuclear project, and itself threatened by climate change.   Prioritise growth, or prioritise life. We can’t do both.

MARSHALL ISLANDS. Alarmingly high radiation in soil, ocean sediments and fruits from Marshall Islands.

TAHITI. Tahitians remember atomic bomb tests and withdraw from France’s propaganda memorial project.

RUSSIA. Planetary catastrophe – was not likely from the Russian nuclear submarine accident.    Tax-payer funding absolutely critical to Russia’s nuclear industry.  The Russian Orthodox Church just might cease its blessing of nuclear weapons.   Russia’s new Nuclear-Powered Aircraft Carrier? Just all talk?

ARMENIA. Illegal transport of thorium at Georgia’s border with Armenia.

UKRAINE.  The dangers of Chernobyl nuclear site being turned into a tourism mecca.

INDIA. India’s tigers and other endangered species now threatened by uranium mining in Amrabad Tiger Reserve.

CANADA.  A generation of children was given*radiation treatment without warning of cancer risks  .

ARCTIC.  Nuclear Waste In The Arctic.

TAIWAN.  Taiwan about to close second nuclear reactor.

*this Canadian link now corrected, thanks to MiningAwareness

July 16, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | 1 Comment

This week’s nuclear news

Christina Macpherson’s websites & blogs

The TV mini-series “Chernobyl” has reminded the world of something that the insurance industry fully understands: even if the probability of a nuclear accident is very small, the consequences of a nuclear accident are very big.

Two current events highlight the risks of nuclear disaster:

14 sailors died in a heroic effort to avert a planetary catastrophe, in a fire accident on a Russian nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea.

 Earthquakes in Southern California raise anxieties about the safety of Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Station. The Quake That Could Make Los Angeles a Radioactive Dead Zone. What are the risks at closed San Onofre during a big earthquake?

Far from stopping climate change – nuclear reactors are being stopped by climate change.

Special UN meeting to discuss Iran: Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany try to keep nuclear deal.

United Nations warns that climate crisis disasters are happening at the rate of one a week and work is urgently needed to prepare developing countries for the profound impacts. Rich countries are not immune.

Renewable energy racing ahead, close to beating nuclear power.

RUSSIA. Russia’s nuclear submarine fire: what is known so far . Local fishermen saw the Russian nuclear submarine accident.   14 Russian Sailors Killed in Fire on Nuclear Sub.   Russian commentators criticise secrecy on details of nuclear submarine accident.    Trip to check radiation after 1989 sinking of Russian sub.  Russia’s President Putin officially halts participation in nuclear treaty .

IRAN. Iran to breach nuclear deal limits:  still far from producing a nuclear weapon. Fiery Imam suggests missile attack on Israel’s Dimona nuclear power plant.  Iran’s Revolutionary Guards chief says -The world knows Iran is not pursuing nuclear weapon.

USA.

• Spent Nuclear Fuel Pools During Earthquakes in California and Elsewhere? NRC’s Devil May Care Attitude. California governor declares state of emergency after earthquakes.
• Israel lobby in US pushing for war against Iran: Analyst.
•  City councillors call for New York City to divest from companies involved in the production of nuclear weapons.  Nuclear Weapons and the 2020 USA Presidential Candidates.  Back from the Brink platform, a Green New Deal for the nuclear threat.
• The nuclear industry cries poor, wants bailouts, BUT LOOK WHAT THEY PAY THEIR EXECUTIVES!  Ohio Lawmakers Miss Deadline to Save Two Nuclear Plants, Vow to Keep Trying.  Investigative journalism – Dark money and the planned nuclear power bailout in Ohio.
• Oyster Creek Generating Station is now in the hands of Holtec.  Holtec’s dodgy nuclear waste canisters. Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez move to declare climate crisis official emergency.

UK.  Britain’s nuclear power projects not economically viable, and adding to global warming.   £1.68bn pre-tax loss for Horizon Nuclear Power, builder for suspended Wylfa Newydd project.  Expert opinion: small nuclear reactors a very bad deal for Scotland.  Together Against Sizewell C: the battle to save UK’s Suffolk coast from nuclear development. Nuclear power – unsustainable – half Scotland’s reactors offline – but renewables supplying the load.

UKRAINE. The Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe is not over. Chernobyl radiation proves harmful to vital forest mammal . Chernobyl’s $1.7B nuclear confinement shelter finally revealed.

IRAQ. Dramatic rise in cancer rates in Basra, where depleted uranium weapons were used.

FRANCE. French government wants an independent audit of EDF’s Flamanville nuclear plant.

AUSTRALIA.   Australia would be wise not to mindlessly follow USA into war against Iran.

TURKEY. Arrests in Turkey for theft of nuclear weapons material.

JAPAN. Should Fukushima exclusion zone be widened?

SINGAPORE. Singapore plans huge 50MW floating solar project.

BELGIUM. Belgium’s green party demands review of nuclear waste storage project.

July 9, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | 4 Comments

The past week in nuclear/climate news

It’s hard to stay focussed on nuclear news, as the climate news really can’t be ignored. As always, non European, non anglophone, and poor countries are copping it most – Climate Change is Devastating India With Heat Waves and Water Shortages. But right now, much media focus is on the Northern hemisphere – new heat records being set across Europe, wildfires, heat records in Alaska.

Climate change problems, and effective remedies, are often ignored. Air-conditioning is both a partial remedy, but also a big cause of global warming. Energy efficiency is the single best answer to climate change, but often a neglected one.

On the nuclear theatre- well, it seems to be all theatre – with Donald Trump basking in the spotlight entering North Korea – no actual  negotiation achievement – but then the spotlight itself was the goal. More of a worry is the escaling tension and confusion over Iran, as it builds up enriched uranium, and Europe struggles to keep Iran in the nuclear agreement.

Urgent need for international diplomacy: the world facing a renewed nuclear arms race.

Bonn climate talks: Key outcomes from the June 2019 conference. Despite Donald Trump, the G20 nations (except USA) are sticking to the Paris climate agreement.

EUROPE. European Parliament excludes nuclear energy from EU’s green investment fund.

FRANCE. Nuclear reactors in France face temporary shutdown due to extreme heat.

USA.

• USA Security Adviser John Bolton denies report of ‘nuclear freeze’ agreement with North Korea. Report that Trump administration is considering accepting North Korea as a nuclear power. ‘Wonderful chemistry’ between Trump and Kim, as nuclear negotiations remain stalled.
• Trump says Iran ‘playing with fire’ after exceeding nuclear deal limit.  U.S. presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard spells out the danger of nuclear war.  Ranking Member of US Senate Armed Services Committee Reed: Trump should be Restricted from going to War with Iran.  US Senate Vote Prohibiting Funding for Military Action Against Iran without Prior Congressional Approval Fails with Needed 10 Senators AWOL.
• U.S. senators agonise over nuclear waste debacle, (but with no thought of stopping producing radioactive trash)- Radioactive materials found in Huntington 14 miles from the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant. Proposed nuclear storage consent bill excludes Yucca Mountain.  Washington State officials not happy about re-classification of nuclear waste. What really went wrong at Waste Isolation Pilot Project?
• In pro nuclear drive, U.S. Energy Dept pours money into universities.
• Renewables beat coal in the US for the first time ever.  Nuclear power, fossil fuels finished? Los Angeles launches world’s cheapest solar + battery-storage project.
• FirstEnergy Solutions banking on a nuclear bailout in Ohio.  Ohio nuclear bailout Bill: utilities and other big-ticket political players want favors. Ohio Lawmakers plan to prop up nuclear power, cut support to wind and solar projects.   Strong opinions at forum about producing nuclear weapon cores at the Savannah River Site.

IRAN. How Close Is Iran to a Nuclear Bomb, Really? No solution found to the nuclear issue, after European talks with Iran end.  Iran doesn’t want to leave the nuclear agreement, calls on Europe for trade help. HBO TV series ” Chernobyl” causing great interest in Iran.

UK.

• Radioactive contamination triggers evacuation at shuttered Dounreay nuclear site in Scotland.
• UK’s Nuclear Free Local Authorities (NFLA) alarmed at likely promotion of nuclear power in govt’s White Paper,
• UK’s Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) has concerns about the security of Sellafield’s plutonium. Gaps revealed in Scotland’s nuclear convoy crash preparations.  UK’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy reports solely on England’s responses [not Scotland’s, Wales’] re nuclear waste issues.
• Scottish renewable electricity hits record levels.

UKRAINE. Chernobyl military survivor reveals secrets.  Chernobyl survivors confirm the accuracy of the TV series, about nuclear radiation.

RUSSIA. Putin talks of Russia, USA , resuming negotiations on nuclear arms reduction treaty. Russia threatens military response to any NATO action over nuclear-ready missile. NATO says it will act unless Russia destroys nuclear-ready missile.  Russia’s nuclear power station for the Arctic– a floating Chernobyl? Doubts on the “usability” of Russia’s Submarines Armed with Nuclear Drone-Torpedoes.

INDIA. India’s nuclear power programme unlikely to progress. Ocean energy is a better way.  Anxiety over Belarus nuclear reactor starting up: Lithuania buys iodine tablets.

BELARUS. Belarus nuclear physicist warns on the unsafety of new nuclear plant.

TURKEY. Turkey’s President Erdoğan admits that Sinop nuclear power plant has been halted (too costly).

JAPAN. New research identifies Fukushima reactor material in the environment.  TEPCO ordered to compensate ex-plant worker.  Voices of Fukushima power plant disaster victims strengthens call to ban nuclear energy.

July 4, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | 1 Comment

Nuclear news this week

Teetering about on the edge of nuclear war –  that seems to be Donald Trump’s favoured position for the world. Or is it just that he is determined to be the dramatic centre of attention at all times? Trump has just threatened Iran with ‘obliteration’, (hardly something designed to give the Iranians confidence about peaceful negotiation). Meanwhile Trump  received a “beautiful” letter from North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, who in turn received an “excellent” letter from Trump, although actual negotiations between USA and North Korea are at a standstill.  It would be funny, if it were not so serious.

A bit of good news:  ‘Projects For Good’ – This Ingenious Website Makes it Easier to Change the World

June 25, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | 7 Comments

The week in nuclear news – to 18 June

Christina Macpherson’s websites & blogs

Nations with nuclear reactors are slowly waking up to the fact that mounting nuclear waste is a global emergency.   At the G20 meeting in Japan,  Japan proposed setting up an international framework for cooperative research into how to dispose of high-level radioactive waste from nuclear power plants. The first meeting on the framework is planned for October in France.

A bit of good news: First UK Supermarket Chain to Eliminate Plastic From Produce Will Save 1,300 Tons of Plastic From Landfill

Nuclear power is far from “emissions free”.

Escalating collapse of global insect populations.

Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, Journalism on trial, Scahill, Hedges, Pilger and more: the charges, the defense, what you can do.

USA.

• Catholic priests, some in gaol, some facing gaol – for dramatic opposition to nuclear weapons.  Shelby Surdyk, Alaska’s nuclear disarmament youth campaigner.
• In US House, Democrats stop Republicans’ push for low-yield nuclear weapons. Danger in Trump’s decision to keep nuclear weapons data classified.  U.S. military intelligence agency increases accusations against Russia about nuclear testing. Importance of ratifying Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT).
• Trump is more interested in helping nuclear companies to sell to Saudi Arabia, than in the well-being of Americans.  Former US NRC Commissioner Merrifield Registered as Foreign Agent (FARA) for Saudi Nuclear .  Rick Perry, USA’s Secretary on Behalf of the Nuclear Industry.     NUCLEAR ENERGY LEADERSHIP ACT Some USA politicians push legislation for USA to be global chieftan in new nuclear reactors.
• Sad to see U.S. progessive politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sucked in by the nuclear lobby?
•  U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard from Hawaii wants the U.S, government to provide unclassified report on Runit nuclear waste dome.
• Multibillion dollar plutonium pit factory – jobs, jobs – yeah – but is it safe, or even necessary? Yet more potential defects at nuclear power stations.
• The continuing and ever-increasing costs of America’s nuclear wastes.  Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak restates opposition to Yucca Mountain restart plan.  Oyster Creek Nuclear Station’s nuclear waste, and opposition to the Holtec plan.  U.S. Department of Energy moves to redefine ‘high-level’ nuclear waste. More waste coming to WIPP?
• Extreme heatwaves predicted for USA cities.

FRANCE. Electricite de France (EDF) has financial woes, hopes to save itself by switching from nuclear to renewables?

JAPAN. Japan’s restarted nuclear reactors could be forced to shut down for safety measures to be implemented.

NORTH KOREA. Living with a nuclear North Korea: how to move beyond the impasse.

RUSSIA. Investigative journalism. How Russia’s nuclear industry co-opted religion.

KAZAKHSTAN. HBO’s Chernobyl Stokes Anti-Nuclear Mood in Kazakhstan .

UK. UK Labour’s energy policy means that nuclear energy could be prioritised over renewables.  Climate change denier makes big donations to Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt.

INDIA. VCK Chief Thol. Thirumavalavan opposes Nuclear fuel storage facility in Kudankulam plant.

UKRAINE. “Chernobyl” TV series – was drawn from the testimony of those who were there.  Chernobyl meltdown: the melted metal, with uranium and zirconium, formed radioactive lava.  Chernobyl ‘suicide divers‘ saved Europe from nuclear devastation.  Birth defects in the Chernobyl region.    “Chernobyl” TV series gets high rating, highly viewed in Russia and Ukraine. The clean-up of the Chernobyl nuclear wreck– the costs and international effort.  Holtec and Ukraine developing Small Modular Nuclear Reactors (dodgy underground devices)

IRAN. Iran to further scale back compliance with nuclear deal.  Japanese PM Shinzo Abe says Iran has ‘no intentions’ to make or use nuclear weapons.

LITHUANIA. Lithuanian Energy Institute scientists seriously working on nuclear decommissioning system.

June 17, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | 2 Comments

The week to 13 June, in Nuclear News

Christina Macpherson’s websites & blogs

Although climate change is still the monumental threat to all life on earth, I’ve decided to return, above all, to the original focus of this newsletter – nuclear news.

The nuclear issue is the perfect subject for examining how  prevailing journalism and shonky history distort genuine historiography.  And, this week, there’are fine examples of this in articles about the HBO TV min-series “Chernobyl”. There are articles claiming that the series is “inaccurate”, “exaggerated”, and quoting minimal health effects, and the area as a wildlife paradise.

In fact, series writer Craig Mazin extensively researched the subject, to faithfully retell the events of the April 1986 nuclear disaster. Historian Kate Brown thoroughly examined copious records of the huge health toll in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia and reported on this, and on its implications for the future.   Daniel Taylor discusses the accuracy of the series, and reflects on the secrecy, bureaucratic mismanagement, and the war on truth which prevails concerning the nuclear industry, both in the Soviet era, and in today’s world, whether East or West.

Investigative journalism : Detailed history of violence of nuclear power – from start, to finish in the very very long future.

These Are the Banks and Financial Institutions Investing $748 Billion in Nuclear Weapon Producers.

Mars and travel to Mars – will kill astronauts with ionising radiation.

Global extinctions of plant species – going at a frightening rate.

A ‘P5+4’ summit could break the nuclear weapons deadlock.

AFRICA. Extreme heat and humidity a killer combination now affecting one third of the African urban population.  Solar panels all over the Sahara desert?

JAPAN. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pretending that all is well at Fukushima, using this lie to promote Olympics.  Japan’s government plans more nuclear energy, and of course increased pile of plutonium wastes. According to Japan govt’s official statistics on pediatric cancer, children cancers doubled since Fukushima. Japanese parish priests shared stories of suffering from victims of the Fukushima nuclear disaster.  Not a single watt of electricity, but still 1 trillion yen in basic revenue.

UKRAINE. Mini series Chernobyl unfolds the horror of radiation sickness – a warning for the future. Chernobyl miniseries could not be made in the real Chernobyl wasteland – radiation would have damaged the film kit.  Holtec’s involvement in  Ukraine’s Chernobyl’s dry store facility

USA.

• A rogue regulator worth reading.
• Top National Security Democrats Call on Trump to Extend New START Nuclear Treaty with Russia.   Contentious discussion expected as USA House debates annual Defense Bill.  A mistake for USA to deploy the low-yield Trident nuclear warhead. Trump Admin Approved Seven Transfers of Nuclear Tech to Saudi; Two After Jamal Khashoggi Murder . US Senators Announce 22 Joint Resolutions to Block Weapons Sales to Saudi Arabia and UAE without Congressional Approval.
•  The high costs of bailing out FirstEnergy Solutions’ two Ohio nuclear plants . A Cool $20 million Bailout to Ohio’s Seven Utility Scammers.
• 30 years ago, voters forced shutdown of Rancho Seco nuclear plant in Sacramento County.
• Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s “Reference Man” gives a distorted, inaccurate picture of radiation impacts.
• NO to high-level nuclear waste– governor of New Mexico.  Governor of New Mexico: Holtec Nuclear Waste Storage Bad for the Economy and Environment; Unacceptable Risk to Agriculture and Oil  and Gas Industry. America’s largest radioactive clean-up operation – at Hanford – has stalled.  USA in a real mess over nuclear wastes: stalemate in storage options.  US House “Oversight” Hearing on Nuclear Waste Appears Designed to Create Gridlock; Ignore Critical Problems and Needed Solutions.  USA aims to save money and time by classifying some “high level” radioactive wastes as “low level”.  The arguments for and against reclassifying nuclear wastes. Holtec nuclear waste canisters – a pot of gold for the company – a load of trouble for the future?  Plymouth nuclear station permanently shut down – into the arms of Holtec.  Town of Pilgrim now faces long lasting problem of dangerous nuclear wastes. Texas Governor vetoes a Bill (on domestic violence) because a pro nuclear amendment was tacked onto it at the last minute.
• America came close to having its own Chernobyl-level nuclear catastrophe.
• Increasing danger of cyberattacks on nuclear power plants.
• USA court deliberates on whether or not global warming violates children’s rights.  Mike Pompeo thinks that climate change is not really a serious problem, could be good for trade.
• New Documentary Explores Chelsea Manning’s Fight To Live Her Truth.

UK.

• In UK civilian nuclear power’s real purpose is to subsidise nuclear weapons, nuclear submarines.
• Chernobyl disaster: how radiation affected the UK, and which parts of Britain are most radioactive today. 12 year old children from irradiated areas in Ukraine helped by a Scottish charity. Concern in Suffolk, UK, over the environmental threat of Sizewell nuclear project.
• Energy experts doubt the viability of Small Modular Nuclear Reactors (SMRs).
•  Uranium Enrichment in the UK – in Leafy Cheshire!  Chernobyl 2.0? Cracks found in UK nuclear reactor could lead to evacuation of millions.
• Theresa May will ignore cost warnings and bring in net zero emissions goal.  UK Labour party has accused the government of “actively dismantling” the UK’s solar power industry.

CANADA. Dispute over Ottawa River nuclear waste dump: more transparency needed.

RUSSIA.  Leading Russian Journalist Detained On Apparently Trumped Up Narcotics Charges.  30 years later, a Soviet general still suffers from effects of radiation at Chernobyl nuclear disaster.  Putin warns that New START nuclear arms treaty is at risk.

KAZAKHSTAN.  Top Uranium Producer Gloomy About the Prospects for Nuclear Power.

SWEDEN. Scandinavian farmers still impacted by radioactive fallout from Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

IRAN. Germany’s foreign minister has arrived in Tehran in hopes of saving nuclear agreement.

ARGENTINA. China wants to sell nuclear technology to Argentina – but big problems plague the industry.

MARSHALL ISLANDS.  Marshall Islands giant clams – a delicacy – except for the plutonium.

GERMANY.  Germany’s energy plant operators as well as government are clear that nuclear station lifetimes will not be extended.

AUSTRALIA. Australia heads for authoritarian rule, as Federal Police under government control, threaten press freedom. Australia’s police raids on the media will silence whistleblowers.

June 12, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | 2 Comments

To 5 June – Nuclear and some Climate News

Christina Macpherson’s websites & blogs

It is clear that the climate crisis is the greatest threat to humans and other species. This week, Dahr Jamail and others have spelled out the intensity of the effects of ever accelerating global warming. One report gives a harrowing scenario analysis of how human civilization might collapse due to climate change.

Nevertheless, at this stage, I’ve decided to focus on the original purpose of this weekly summary – nuclear news.

Why?  Two reasons:

1, I can’t keep up with the variety of climate change impacts happening, and with the overall understanding of communicators such as Dahr Jamail,   climate researcher Paul Beckwith , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9NvCwVDmFI and Radio Ecoshock.

2. The global nuclear lobby is peddling the untruth that nuclear power is essential to save the climate.  And – journalists, politicians, and other influential people are buying into this fiction, without troubling to look into the full picture. The information on the climate chaos is out there, and its effects are visible (e.g. the melting ice).   The lies about “new nuclear”, about “harmless , even benign” ionising radiation are being allowed to prevail in the media.

Nuclear industry and governments colluded to obscure the health effects of the Chernobyl nuclear accident.  “Energy for Humanity”, “Nuclear Pride” – the greenwashing of Fukushima, Chernobyl, and the global nuclear industry.  Nuclear Pride Coalition and Michael Shellenberger: Greenwash and Propaganda 2019.  Panicky nuclear lobby produces a propaganda book, desperate to win public support

Nuclear power, useless against climate change, is itself threatened by climate change‘s weather extremes.

Nuclear weapons even more risky in this age of Artificial Intelligence, Cyberattacks.

Ionising radiation in space will kill astronauts headed for Mars.

Record viewing of HBO miniseries “Chernobyl”.  Breathtaking series on Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe.   Accuracy of HBO’s “Chernobyl” mini series. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Wk9JRbTTqc

Problems in nuclear fusion, radiation risks – some active wastes, intermittency.

Continuing glum lookout for the uranium market.

Edward Snowden warns of greatest social control scheme in history .

Volcanoes not the major cause of global warming.  A new way to remove CO2 from the air – (perhaps – or too good to be true?)

JAPAN.    Hiroshima and Nagasaki protest U.S. subcritical nuclear test.   The Olympics, Fukushima and Chernobyl and The Art of the Cover-up.  Japan’s Olympic torch relay to start in Fukushima – even children are invited to carry it. Tokyo 2020 Olympic Torch Relay set to visit Fukushima nuclear complex.

USA.

• NUCLEAR. Espionage charges will not now be laid against Julian Assange.  Ron Paul asks: are the US and UK trying to kill jailed Julian Assange?
• Where 2020 Democrats stand on  Climate change and on Nuclear Power” interactive page, Washington Post.   Donald Trump, guided by John Bolton, could wreck the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).  Nuclear Experts Beg Congress to Push Back on Trump Administration’s ‘Dangerous Impulses’. USA National Security Adviser John Bolton Accuses Iran of Seeking Nuclear Weapons.  USA’s “Doomsday plane” – the pilots might survive, anyway.
• Defying all laws of competitive economics, climate change, and technological progress, Ohio House votes in nuclear and coal subsidy. Ohio’s subsidy Bill unnecessarily bails out nuclear, coal owner FirstEnergy Solutions.  Michael Cohen and an Alabama Nuclear Plant Show Everything About This Administration* Is for Sale.  USA Dept of Energy funding bankrupted French company AREVA – now resuscitated as Framatome.
• Duke plans to decommission nuclear plant ahead of schedule .  San Onofre Task Force Questions Edison About Nuclear Waste Canisters. New Map Shows Expanse Of U.S. Nuclear Waste Sites .  Church opposes nuclear waste in Utah .  Doubts on Holtec’s clean-up of Pilgrim nuclear power station.  New Hampshire citizens’ group to monitor radiation emanating from the Seabrook Power plant.
• $125 million to NASA to develop nuclear rockets.

CLIMATE. Study in National Academy of Sciences proceedings shows that seas are rising faster than expected.   Trump administration to create a “climate review panel” led by climate denialist William Happer. To the Trump administration, fossil fuels are “Molecules Of U.S. Freedom“.   As USA lawsuit approaches, young climate activists ready for a day of action.

UK.  3 Royal Navy sailors serving on nuclear missile ship were caught taking cocaine.      West Dunbartonshire Council supports the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.  Proposals to transport nuclear waste through Bridgwater, Somerset.  The long-lasting impact on North Wales agriculture, from Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

UK Labour’s plan for a ‘”Green Jobs” tour.Scotland the first country to set legally binding annual emission reduction targets.

EUROPE. Young voters supported Europe’s Greens – big winners in European elections.

NORTH KOREA.  North Korea’s nuclear envoys apparently not executed or sent to labour re-education camp, as previously reported.  South Korean Report Says That North Korea Executed and Purged Top Nuclear Negotiators. Nuclear envoys from Japan, U.S., South Korea discuss North Korea during trilateral meeting in Singapore.

FRANCE. France’s many nuclear waste locations revealed in an interactive map.

CHINA. World’s second EPR nuclear reactor starts work in China.

IRAN. IAEA Nuclear inspectors reported Iran continued adhering to its 2015 accord with world powers.

GERMANY. Merkel urges world to do all ‘humanly possible’ on climate change.

CANADA. Canada’s plans for nuclear waste disposal.

SWEDEN. Sweden’s Uppsala District Court rules against extraditing Assange to Sweden.

RUSSIA.  Investigation by IAEA finds no evidence that Russia is violating nuclear test ban.   Reading between World Nuclear News lines, did Russia’s Leningrad nuclear power plant have some safety issues?

MARSHALL ISLANDS. Radioactive shellfish – giant clams in Marshall Islands near USA nuclear dump.

UKRAINE. Chernobyl’s “liquidators” suffered acute, and long-term health effects.

June 5, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | 2 Comments

This week’s nuclear and climate news

Christina Macpherson’s websites & blogs

Media freedom now under grave threat, as USA aims to gaol Julian Assange for life.  Gross injustice! Ecuador to hand over Assange’s entire legal defense to the United States .

Journalism should awaken the world to the looming climate catastrophe.  Link between global warming and war.  Despite misogyny, women continue to fight the reckless spending on nuclear weapons.  Carbon dioxide soars to record-breaking levels not seen in 800,000 years.  Climate crisis – the Impact of Ocean Acidification?      A fight for the future as climate change school strikes grow for fourth month running. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCVQdr9QFwY

AUSTRALIA.  US charges Julian Assange with 17 counts under Espionage Act. (He’s an Australian citizen. Does the government or anyone care?)  Torres Strait lodges case at UN against Australia on human rights as climate change issue.  Australia can be a global leader on combating climate change, and rejecting nuclear.

CANADA. Vancouver’s international ‘Clean Energy Summit’ – Clean Energy Ministerial in the grip of the nuclear lobby.

MARSHALL ISLANDS. USA’s radioactive dump in the Marshall Islands is leaking.

FRANCE. France forced Polynesians to accept nuclear tests – they finally admit this!

USA.

• Wide swathe of USA affected by major tornadoes -to the alarm of climate scientists.
• Trump violates US and International Law by threats to attack Iran. Trump may use ’emergency’ powers to bypass Congress, to sell missiles to Saudi Arabia. Washington now a great place for warmongers.  Donald Trumpisn’t fit to have control of the nation’s nuclear codes or state secrets.  Nothing to stop angry, entitled Donald Trump, from making a nuclear attack.  USA’s planned nuclear weapons spending at a cost of $1.2 trillion.  USA held a nuclear explosion test in February
• Corporate welfare, as Ohio House Republicans turn ‘clean energy’ Bill into a nuclear bailout.   Ohio House committee’s Bill to damage renewable energy industries, prop up nuclear and coal.
• Funding for Yucca nuclear waste dump rejected in U.S. Congress House committee.  Continuing USA debate on nuclear waste- Yucca Mt is central to the issue.  Yucca Mountain nuclear waste plan, and the flawed science of the ‘Total System Performance Assessment’. A ‘doomsday button’ for Native Americans if Yucca Mountain were to be poisoned by nuclear trash.  Companies like Holtec planning to make $billions by a quick fix for nuclear wastes.
• ‘New Nuclear Is off the Table” as far as action on climate change is concerned.  USA govt pouring money into dodgy new nuclear projects.
• New research into plutonium workers’ internal radiation exposure.  Radiation in UW building: 200 employees being moved, cleanup could take at least six more weeks. Feds say   Pike County residents protest nuclear facilityafter Uranium detected at school.
• San Onofre nuclear fuel transfers can resume.
• Fukushima radiation present in Bering Sea, researchers say — but no cause for concern (at present).

NORTH KOREA. North Korea warns that nuclear talks “will never be resumed” if USA continues ‘hostile acts’

UK.  Academics advise Labour that there’s no viable place for nuclear in renewable energy plans.   In UK Councillors to get briefing from nuclear panel – anyone can offer their land for nuclear waste dump!  EDF planning to restarttroubled Hunterston and Dungeness B nuclear reactors/

PAKISTAN. Pakistan Tests Nuclear-Capable Ballistic Missile .

IRAN. President Rouhani says that Iran might hold a referendum on its nuclear programme.

SWITZERLAND. Swiss authorities intervene to halt exports of nuclear weapons material.  Court orders Swiss authorities to publish arms export data.  A nuclear accident in one of Switzerland’s old reactors would be devastating to the health of other European countries.

ISRAEL. Wildfires rage in Israel during heatwave.

RUSSIA. Russia Launched New Nuclear Power Icebreaker While Other Countries Pay To Clean up Russian Nuclear Waste Ship.  A high risk operation removing spent nuclear fuel from Russian ship “Lepse”.  Design problems delay development of Russia’s High-Tech Nuclear Submarine.

UKRAINE. Misleading and dangerous – the downplaying of Chernobyl’s radiation risks. Another Chernobyl could happen, by accident, or by sabotage.  Comparing the radioactive pollution from Fukushima and Chernobyl nuclear accidents.  Chernobyl’s spent nuclear fuel to be stored (Holtec’s in on this one, too).

KENYA. In Kenya, 87% of the electricity is from renewal sources.

SOUTH AFRICA. The tiny plant that helped save a desert from uranium mining.  Nuclear power seen as obsoletein South Africa, but they must ramp up renewables, get out of coal.

JAPAN.    Danger in foreign workers at Fukushima nuclear clean-up – Tepco abandons plans for them. At June G20 meeting, Japan to push for international conference on nuclear waste disposal (but no talk on stopping making radioactive trash).  240 shrines within 20 K of Fukushima reactor 1, so a move to build a new shrine.

JORDAN. Renewable energy, replacing nuclear plans with solar, is the obvious way forward for Jordan.

SOUTH KOREA. Risky incident at South Korean nuclear reactor.

May 29, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | 3 Comments

Nuclear and climate news to 22 May

With bewildering rapidity, opinions on climate change action are shifting.   Corporate America is calling on Congress to pass big climate policy , while President Trump outright dismisses climate change as a serious issue.  Climate change action is a top priority for UK’s moderate Conservatives.  France is setting up a Citizens’ Convention
for the Climate. Despite record hot summer, in  Australia, Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s remorseless focus on costs outweighed climate concerns, and his climate-sceptic government was re-elected.

The media is, as usual, awash with articles about the “need” for nuclear power – to solve climate change. It’s like a religious belief for journalists to mention “zero carbon” or “clean” nuclear in otherwise well-researched articles.

International politics’ nuclear news can be scary.    Chilling similarity between out-dated nuclear weapons policies and world of Game of Thrones.    The escalating danger and unpredictability of nuclear weapons.   Border tensions continue between India and Pakistan.  Trump and Kim “in love”, but have few options now that discussions have collapsed. Donald Trump making belligerent statements on Iran. Danger of war – Israel vs Russia – could lead to nuclear war.

Ionising radiation as a cause of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

Women poorly represented in, and disparaged by, the nuclear security “priesthood”.

AUSTRALIA. Morrison’s reelection is a disaster for the future of the country — and the world.

PACIFIC ISLANDS. Distress in Pacific Island governments, over climate change, and Australia’s inaction on this.

NORTH KOREA. “Denuclearization” has different meanings for North Korea and USA.

IRAN. Iran officially ends some of its nuclear deal commitments.  Iran’s top diplomat presses efforts to save nuclear deal,

USA .

• Investigative journalism – How the USA military co-opts nature conservation, and promotes the extinction of species. 
•   Illness and death legacy of employment in America’s nuclear weapons business.
• Former Nuclear Regulatory Commission chairman now sees nuclear power as harmful.
• U.S. national security adviser, John Bolton and his quest for war against Iran. With belligerent John Bolton as National Security, Trump could take USA to the brink of war with Iran.   Eight in Ten Support Nuclear Arms Control with Russia, Disagree with Trump Decision to Withdraw from Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.
• Proposed nuclear bailout for Ohio.  Delay in vote on bailing out Ohio’s nuclear reactors.  Ohio’s Nuclear Plant Subsidy Proposal, Should Be Rejected – 5 Reasons Why.  “Dark money” bankrolling advertising campaign to keep Ohio nuclear plants open.  Legal challenge to stop New Jersey bailout for nuclear power.
• Iowa Residents Overwhelmingly Want Presidential Candidates to Share Views on Nuclear Weapons.
• $Billions spent on attempt to clean up USA’s most dangerously toxic nuclear sites, but it’s no getting very far.     US Congress ‘s continued search for nuclear trash dump – but they still let ’em keep making it!  USA government gives Piketon community no chance to resist hosting a radioactive waste dump. Opposition to nuclear waste in Nevada, but some impoverished communities see $$.
• Chelsea Manning will not testify against Julian Assange, so it’s back to jail for her.

UK. UK’s Committee on Climate Change makes an urgent call for action.  Scotland increasing its commitment to act on Climate Emergency.    Outages extended at EDF’s Hunterston nuclear plant.    Sweden Requests Detention of Assange as WikiLeaks Accuses U.S. of Illegally Seizing His Property .  UK Labour Party’s plan for a Green Industrial Revolution.  UK Labour’s bold energy policy on nationalising the grid.

JAPAN. Rice planting resumes in Fukushima town.  TEPCO conducts test to halt water injection into crippled reactor. Tokyo 2020 – The Radioactive Olympics.

OCEANIA. USA’s nuclear waste dome ‘leaking’ radioactive sludge into the Pacific.

FRANCE. Flamanville nuclear reactor – EDF must repair welds or reinforce new reactor – ASN.

UKRAINE. Ukraine’s present nuclear reactors – “time bombs” – at risk of another Chernobyl.

SWEDEN. Vattenfall determined to close 2 aging nuclear reactors.

MIDDLE EAST. Preparations for Middle East peace plan for June conference.

MALAYSIA, In Malaysia renewables are replacing nuclear energy.

CHINA. Chinese public’s trust in government means that nuclear power better able to go ahead in China.

May 22, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | 2 Comments

Climate and Nuclear News – week to 15 May

Climate change –   climate crisis might be the more accurate phrase. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in New Zealand, said the political will to fight climate change has faded at the same time as it is getting worse for those feeling its effects.

Some videos of this week’s news on the effects of global warming -Arctic Ocean Coastal Temperatures Surge to 84.2 F  11 May https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk4sTnfsVcQ    -Global Sea Ice Plunges to New Record Lows https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ukc7-OVMx_Q . A tiny bit of good news: Rooftop Panels of Tiny Plants Can Cleanse Polluted Air at 100 Times the Rate of a Single Tree.

Nuclear news – the focus this week has been on international politics. While nuclear competition between India and Pakistan is accelerating, Stimson’s South Asia Program offers ways to reduce tensions.  Trump administration’s maximum pressure campaign: paving the way for war against Iran?  Donald Trump likes strutting on the global ‘nuclear summit’ stage, but is not interested in genuine arms control.

Radioactive fallout could be released from melting glaciers.  Deep ocean animals are eating radioactive carbon from nuclear bomb tests.

Deep divisions between nations as preparations made for next year’s review of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Global paralysis in weapons control agreements as a new arms race begins.

The problematic arrival of Artificial Intelligence for Nuclear Weapons.

The vulnerability of nuclear weapons systems to cyber threats.

Nuclear power is subject to human error. — and that makes it a poor solution to climate change.

The World Blows Over $5 Trillion A Year On Oil And Gas Subsidies: Report

GREENLAND. Greenland Melt off to a Rather Early Start .

PACIFIC ISLANDS. UN chief Antonio Guterres to Pacific islands, warning rich nations about climate impacts.

UKRAINE. Drones find new radiation hotspots near site of Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Investigative journalism –  Chernobyl nuclear accident: how it happened, and the aftermath. The International Atomic Energy Agency itself predicted 4,000 cancer deaths from the Chernobyl nuclear accident.

USA. 

• CLIMATE CHANGE.  Brace yourself: Wildfires are coming. Mike Pompeo enthuses over the ‘benefits ‘ of climate change. Nuclear industry not really prepared for climate change’s impacts on nuclear reactors.   Presidential candidate Joe Biden is only lukewarm about action on climate change.
• POLITICS  Unnecessary to bail out Ohio’s nuclear and coal plants, but a bonanza for FirstEnergy Solutions. As Reactors Shut in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, Nuke War Rages in Ohio and New York.  U.S. Democrats trying to stop funding for US nuclear transfers to Saudi Arabia.  Funds being cut from US Air Force nuclear, space programs. Donald Trump and John Bolton conniving to avoid any effective nuclear arms deal? Trump announces new sanctions on Iran. Iran warns it will step away from nuclear deal.  Donald Trump’s gamble with nuclear negotiations with North Korea – the risk of war if it falls apart.  Nuclear power isn’t needed for Green New Deal.
• WEAPONS and WAR If America launched a nuclear war -335 million people killed within the first seventy-two hours.  The monstrous destructive power of America’s Ohio-class submarine with up to 192 nuclear warheads. A key annual defense bill is poised to serve as a battleground over President Trump’s nuclear weapons policy.
• NUCLEAR WASTES. US Dept of Energy plans changes to definition of “High Level” nuclear wastes: Rick Perry keen, environmentalists not.   USA preparing Hanford vitrification plant to deal with 56 million gallons of radioactive waste. U.S. federal board rejects objections to proposed New Mexico nuclear dump. Environmentalists astounded that panel rules in favour of Holtec’s nuclear waste storage plan for New Mexico.  USA’s federal government is not likely ever to secure local consent for disposal of spent fuel from commercial nuclear reactors.  Long delay before Savannah River Plutonium Disposal can start.  America’s accumulating nuclear trash: new Bill threatens Nevada.
• Three Mile Island nuclear station has licence for 15 more years, but now to close.
• Education as anti-Russian nuclear strategy: USA’s Department of Energy co-opts another educational institution.
• Chelsea Manning released from gaol, – but this could be only temporary.
• Patients not always aware of the risks in medical radiation treatment.

MEXICO.  108 wildfires are burning in 17 states, most in central and southern regions

NORTH KOREA. North Korea is unlikely to ever give up all its nuclear weapons.  Increased tension as U.S. has seized a North Korean ship for sanctions violations,

JAPAN. Fukushima’s mothers became radiation experts to protect their children after nuclear meltdown.  Highly radioactive chimney at Fukushima No 1 plant to be taken apart. New Discovery At Fukushima Unit 3 Provides Clues To Meltdown Severity, Environmental Releases.  Fukushima’s ghost towns. .“Worst Criminality against Humankind” Report from Fukushima by Kazuhiko Kobayashi.   South Korea plans to continue to ban all seafood imports from Fukushima Prefecture and seven other prefectures near Fukushima to protect public health and food safety.

IRAN.  European Union countries face deadline to save nuclear deal with Iran.  Iran Supports Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.  The difficulty in knowing if Iran did start making a nuclear bomb.  Increase in Iran Snap Nuclear Inspections as Tensions With U.S. Rise. Why Iran decided to partially withdraw from the nuclear weapons treaty.

UK.

• UK to become the first major economy to embrace a legally-binding net zero emissions goal.  Majority of UK voters want to slash greenhouse gases to nearly zero by 2050.  UK’s Committee on Climate Change sinks nuclear power in the UK in favour of renewables.  AS Wylfa nuclear project suspended, MPs have called on the UK and Welsh governments to consider a range of low-carbon energy projects.  UK’s Committee on Climate Change urged to consider a carbon tax.  UK’s Conservative govt increases tax on domestic solar, despite its goal to fight climate change.
• The false hope of “Small Modular Nuclear Reactors” being pushed in Wales.  Another nail in the coffin of the ‘integral fast nuclear reactors’ championed by nuclear lobby shills.
• Unease at China’s grip on Britain’s nuclear future.
• Professor Kazuhiko Kobayashi at Sellafield, warns on nuclear radiation and danger to children.

UKRAINE. Drones find new radiation hotspots near site of Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Investigative journalism –  Chernobyl nuclear accident: how it happened, and the aftermath. The International Atomic Energy Agency itself predicted 4,000 cancer deaths from the Chernobyl nuclear accident.

FRANCE. Fraud and falsification regarding nuclear safety in France’s EDF reactors?

RUSSIA. Russia’s upgraded nuclear-powered missile cruisers to get advanced torpedo defense systems.  Rosatom keenly pursuing international nuclear sales, especially nuclear-weapons related.

MIDDLE EAST. Nuclear power completely unnecessary in sunblest Middle East.

ISRAEL. President Kennedy strongly warned Israel against getting nuclear weapons.

SLOVAKIA. Safety concerns by Austria mean delay in Slovakia’s nuclear station expansion.

AUSTRALIA  Federal election on 18 May. If the climate-denying, nuclear-loving Liberal Coalition gets back in, I reckon that there’ll be wholesale emigration to New Zealand, where they have decent and compassionate policies, and a Prime Minister with integrity!  Australia’s role in the species extinction crisis.

May 15, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

The week that was, in climate and nuclear news

Christina Macpherson’s websites & blogs

Arguably the biggest news –  the world’s species are disappearing (and hey! – we’re vulnerable, too).

Both issues – climate change, and nuclear wastes have been in the political  headlines in anglophone countries. A pity that these seem to be rarely reported in English language in other countries, and probably not reported at all in totalitarian countries.  Good News:  In Britain, climate activists, – Extinction Rebellion, and school children’s strikes have had their political impact, as UK declares a Climate Emergency.  In Australia climate ‘paralysis’ looms over its coming election.

In USA, the battle over where to put nuclear wastes heats up with renewed political turmoil over plan for Yucca Mountain, Nevada, as nuclear waste dump. Radioactive wastes continue to trouble Europe  and UK, though not a peep out of Russia, China about theirs.

Nuclear weapons companies doing very profitably out of governments. ICAN and PAX list the companies that make nuclear weapons.

Can the Non Proliferation Treaty and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons co-exist?  Hibakusha continue their mission to eliminate nuclear weapons.

High blood pressure risk from prolonged exposure to low-dose ionising radiation. Low level radiation exposure and increased risks of hypertension, cardiovascular disease and cerebrovascular disease.

Why cockroaches might be able to survive a nuclear attack.

INDIA. India Cyclone Kills at Least 33, Hundreds of Thousands Homeless.

JAPAN. The Olympics Clean-up: Fukushima, Okinawa, homelessness.

USA.

• Donald Trump still predicting nuclear deal with Kim Jong Un. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says that a nuclear deal with North Korea is still possible.  Discussion on nuclear weapons, between Trump and Putin.  Trump’s hypocrisy – talks of nuclear disarmament while spending $megabillions on new nuclear weapons.  Senator Chris Van Hollen on Gorging at the Nuclear Buffet Table. No evidence for this, but a Republican lawmaker says Russia has nuclear weapons in Venezuela.
• USA renews waivers of Iran sanctions for civilian nuclear work. 
• A national political conflict over USA’s nuclear waste dump plan for Yucca Mt, Nevada.  Cheaper and permanent, not temporary, disposal of nuclear waste.
• Southern Company says – no more nuclear projects after the costly Vogtle project in Georgia.
• USA Defense Dept knew that radiation causes birth defects. Now nuclear test veterans worry.
• 13 exposed to radiation at hazmat incident in Seattle .
• For how long can we tolerate dolts as leaders? Mike Pompeo rejoices in climate change and Arctic thawing.

ISRAEL. Report: Islamic Jihad threatens to strike nuclear reactor, airport.

CHINA. China says it won’t take part in trilateral nuclear arms talks.

UK. Highland Green MSP John Finnie points out the danger of transporting nuclear material across the Atlantic. Prince William booed and heckled at service to mark 50 years of Royal Navy’s nuclear submarines.

PACIFIC ISLANDS. The Blue Pacific and the legacies of nuclear testing .

UKRAINE. Rivetting new documentary series on the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwcNCrPRe_8&t=6s

SAUDI ARABIA.  Distrust of Saudi Arabia’s motives in building a nuclear reactor.

May 7, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | 1 Comment

Climate and nuclear news – week to May 1st

On climate change – where to start? Dahr Jamail– covers the world-wide impacts that are already happening. It seems that only the very young, Greta Thunberg, and the very old, David Attenborough, are able to get the message across. So many different impacts – the latest big one is another cyclone, followed by flooding, in Mozambique.

On nuclear issues, also, where to start?   With the stalemate in nuclear weapons negotiations, in several countries, and India and Pakistan on the tightrope? Or with the nuclear financial messes in USA and UK?

Perhaps it’s best to find a note of optimism. Izumi Nakamitsu, the UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, spoke convincingly, in Tokyo, about improving prospects for progress in nuclear disarmament.

$70 trillion cost predicted, as Arctic permafrost thaws.

Across the world, Extinction Rebellion climate activists stage “die-in“.  Secretive Fossil Fuel Lobby Group, “Global Climate Coalition”, Manipulated UN Climate Programs.

UN assesses world environment in new report – it’s a grim story.

Reviewing the state of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. New report warns that world is dangerously close to increased use of nuclear weapons.  Use of Artificial Intelligence in Nuclear Weapons Command and Control.

UKRAINE. 33rd anniversary of Chernobyl, the biggest nuclear plant disaster in history.

JAPAN. Exploitation of foreign workers in Japan’s Fukushima nuclear clean-up. As Tokyo Olympics approach, Japan’s futile push to repopulate cleaned-up parts of radioactive areas of Fukushima.  Despite World Trade Association ruling, Japan still asks S. Korea to lift ban on Fukushima seafood.  All Japan’s nuclear reactors may shutdown, as regulator is firm on safety measures. Japan’s nuclear regulators not impressed by nuclear facilities’ flimsy excuses about safety.

UK.

• Political leaders in Britain are not strong enough to tackle the climate change crisis- Lord Stern. UK Labour aims to declare a national climate emergency. “Climate Emergency Independents” emerge from Extinction Rebellion to stand for UK Parliament.  London’s Extinction Rebellion climate protestors made an impact, and they’re keeping on.
• Anglican church angry about ‘Thanksgiving’ service for nuclear weapons at Westminster Abbey. Rocketing costs of Britain’s nuclear weapons projects.
• Britain’s costly nuclear submarines – dead but not buried.
• Europe’s oldest nuclear reactors: safety problem at Hunterston B. Wastes from other nuclear stations could be dumped at Hinkley Point A.
• British govt about to give nuclear power a massive state-funded financial boost.

USA.

• Climate change poses huge flooding risk to USA’s nuclear stations, but this is ignored by Trump  administration.
• Lawmakers and media are being conned, as nuclear industry manipulates climate change rules.
• In USA most men support nuclear power, but most women do not.
• The cost of pretending that nuclear power is “clean”.  Subsidies to nuclear industry – legislation “anti-competitive” and “anti-consumer.” Opposition to nuclear subsidies in Pennsylvania.
• How a nuclear apocalypse could be launched: how a president’s power to do this could be restrained.   The Truth-Teller: From the Pentagon Papers to the Doomsday Machine.
• USA’s Dept of Energy fails to provide adequate funding for Hanford nuclear clean-up.
• More evidence that US may seek to prosecute Julian Asssange under the Espionage Act . Chelsea Manning is denied bail, by U.S. appeals court.

RUSSIA. Russia Wants Serious Talks on New Nuclear Deals With US. Russia wants to know details of Trump’s nuclear arms-control initiative. Russia’s President Putin supports North Korea, seeks multilateral talks on decnuclearising the Korean Peninsula.

NORTH KOREA. Kim Jong Un’s round of summits: the latest with Vladimir Putin.

NORWAY. Final closure of nuclear research reactors in Norway.

INDIA. Constant military posturing from both Pakistan and India. Narendra Modi using threat of nuclear bombing Pakistan, as an election campaign tactic.  Report on Modi’s remark on nuclear weapons sent to EC, says election official in Barmer.

PAKISTAN. Pakistan warns India against mentioning its nuclear power lightly.

TAIWAN. No to nuclear power: Taiwan’s president reaffirms anti-nuclear stance.

TURKEY. Turkish nuclear power project looks like being shelved.

IRAN. End of nuclear cooperation waivers could quietly kill Iran deal.

AUSTRALIA. Maralinga nuclear bomb test survivor reveals truth of what happened in the SA desert.

April 30, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

Climate news, nuclear news this week

In London yesterday, police arrested 963 people who were part of the Extinction Rebellion climate protest. This movement is continuing, and spreading to other countries. They will also set up a political taskforce to take forward public negotiations with the Government. Climate awareness is gathering momentum.  Still, climate scientists seem unwilling and perhaps unable to talk to the general public, to explain the basic facts on climate change, and the complicating factors, such as the effects on oceans warning, on sea ice loss, on air current changes, on low pressure areas, the polar vortex.  There are two climate scientists who do make this effort. Paul Beckwith has made over 200 YouTube videos, and he does tackle the complicated science in an understandable way. Katherine Hayhoe almost deceptively makes climate science seem simple, and is well known for her entertaining video series Global Weirding.

This newsletter was always intended to inform on the nuclear threat. It’s just that the climate situation is now a global emergency.

Earth’s surface temperature steadily rose from 2003. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cRCbgTA_78  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Tpzwqlj-d4   Extinction Rebellion can act as a catalyst for political debate and change .  Climate action: Invest in low-carbon but not in nuclear . Nuclear power plants in no way designed, or ready for, climate change extremes. “There is no such thing as a zero or near-zero-emission nuclear power plant”.

Climate Change Could Unleash Long-Frozen Radiation.

Debunking All The Smears Against Julian Assange.

EUROPE. More disappointments for Europe’s new nuclear stations– no nuclear future for Europe?

UKRAINE.  Life as a liquidator after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.  Chernobyl: How bad was it? .

UK.

• ‘We will never stop fighting’: Greta Thunberg joins London climate protest. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv9EkxudXmw      Climate change rallies block London roads . Extinction Rebellion: The activists risking prison to save the planet.   Britain’s slow path to zero carbon emissions.
• Britain’s Nuclear Free Local Authorities (NFLA) notes that over 70 Welsh councils formally reject hosting nuclear waste dump.  UK’s EPA concerned over proposals for Sizewell new nuclear power station in Suffolk. Nuclear Transparency Watch warns on the unwisdom of UK government subsidising Small Modular Nuclear Reactors (SMRs).

JAPAN. Japan Atomic Power looks to a big business in cleaning up dead nuclear plants. Japan’s plutonium surplus, its history, and its danger. Japan’s massive task to clean up nuclear fuel pools of Fukushima stricken reactors.  Hazardous removal of spent fuel rods is just one step in the long Fukushima nuclear clean-up.  Japan has a new kind of visa to lure foreign blue collar workers for Fukushima clean-up.

USA. 

• An emerging hopeful trend for US nuclear weapons policy.  U.S. Ignored Russia’s Nuclear War Prevention Pact – Reports.  Trump’s administration speeds up the revolving door between Pentagon and nuclear weapons companies. Trump administration stops govt practice of disclosing numbers of nuclear weapons.  Pentagon’s strange and dangerous plan for small nuclear reactors at the battle scene.
• On climate change impacts, nuclear lobby has captured the regulators.  A conservative backlash against Trump, as he appoints fossil fuel insiders to federal agencies?
• Frida Berrigan’s personal story about nuclear weapons.
• Holtec’s nuclear decommissioning and wastes empire to grab Indian Point.
• U.S. Department of Energy seeks new certification for its Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. North Dakota prohibits nuclear waste dumping in the state.
• State subsidies for nuclear power in USA are simply not necessary. America’s nuclear lobby spending up big to get $millions in State subsidies.  AARP Ohio, on behalf of its 1.5 million members and families, strongly opposes Ohio nuclear subsidies. U.S.nuclear bailouts – Exelon and the death of competitive energy markets.  U.S. Supreme Court rejects challenge to nuclear subsidy.
•  Lawsuit against Santee Cooper, claims that investors were deceived over nuclear project risks.
• The long-lasting unsolved problem of Three Mile Island’s radioactive trash.  Three Mile Island, and the nuclear industry’s legacy of cancer.
• USA Congressmen concerned at slow clean-up of dangerous San Onofre nuclear site.
• Conflicts of interest in the Trump group’s push to sell nuclear reactors to Saudi Arabia.
• USA is preparing more charges against Julian Assange.

FRANCE. Some consternation in France, as EDF plans to split off its nuclear section.  Electricite de France (EDF) €33 billion debt, and more problems – its nuclear section to be nationalised.  EDF’s Belleville nuclear power plant to continue to have increased monitoring by France’s nuclear regulator.

CHINA.  China gambles on untested “Hualong One” nuclear reactor, and plans for international sales.

RUSSIA. Putin’s new super-dooper longest submarine packed with nuclear torpedoes.  More countries headed to go into nuclear debt to Russia.

INDIA. Dangerous electioneering: India’s Modi ramps up the nuclear weapons rhetoric.

CANADA. Canada’s Came co Corp slow to clean up groundwater contaminated with uranium at Saskatchewan mill.

BANGLADESH. China keen to sell nuclear reactor to Bangladesh – an inflated and costly project.

FINLAND. Finland to start constructing nuclear plant with Russian reactor in 2021 .

ISRAEL. History of Israel getting nuclear weapons.

April 24, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

The past week in nuclear and climate news

This week, I’m briefly aberrating, to draw attention to the situation of Julian Assange. No, this is not directly relevant to nuclear or climate issues. But, knowing the corruption and lying ingrained in the nuclear and fossil fuel industries, it’s important to be mindful of the role of whistleblowers. The Australian government, which generously supports Australian convicted murderers and drug dealers in foreign lands, has done nothing to help Australian citizen, Julian Assange.  Assange is in dire danger of extradition to USA, of being locked up, “disappeared” forever, because in 2010 he exposed US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.   The branding of this truth teller as “criminal” should be a warning to the world.    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8j42o04AZA

On nuclear issues – India and Pakistan came close to the brink.

And the media is awash with propaganda about nuclear energy being essential to combat climate change. Especially propaganda about “new nukes” – small nuclear reactors (SMRs) . The reality is that it’s desperate hubris about a nonexistent technology without a future. Despite heavy promotion, SMRs are too expensive and there are no buyers.

CLIMATE – Climate change threatens millions of Bangladeshi children, warns UNICEF.     Some good news. Dozens of Countries Have Been Working to Plant ‘Great Green Wall’ – and It’s Holding Back Poverty.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIj764m7bys

Before we enter “a new nuclear age” – learn from the newly declassified Chernobyl health records.

Risk of nuclear weapons use is now at a record high.- Nuclear weapons accidents and losses 1950s – 2000s.

Book – “Deadly Dust – Made in the USA: Depleted Uranium Weapons Contaminating the World”

Challenges in Nuclear Verification– IAEA .

Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning, and the campaign to criminalise whistleblowing.

Reflective roofs can reduce overheating in cities and save lives during heatwaves.

EUROPE. European Parliament votes to exclude nuclear power from receiving a green stamp of approval on financial markets.

JAPAN. Japan Business Federation, Keidanren, wants maximum service life of nuclear power plants extended to over 60 years.  Few evacuees are likely to return next week to parts of Okuma, host of Fukushima nuclear plant.  New legal action compensation claim by 25 Fukushim evacuees.  Japanese panel says that people under 40 should have iodine tablets ready, in advance of nuclear emergencies.

USA.

• Absolute stalemate in nuclear negotiations, but Trump says that his relationship with Kim Jong-un is“very good.” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hopes that North Korea will just hand over its nuclear weapons to USA.
• U.S. Congress members angry at Trump govt’s approval of licences for exporting U.S. nuclear know-how to Saudi Arabia.  Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard slams decision to sell Saudi Arabia nuclear weapons tech.
• Green New Deal must not include nuclear power, which is not a viable solution to climate change- Friends of the Earth.
• Hanford nuclear mess; the clean-up is delayed by the Trump administration.
• Trump govt allowing nuclear power stations to Regulate Their Own Safety. Nuclear Regulatory Commission fails to recognise the real danger of dirty bombs. Nuclear Device Assembly Facility In Nevada Desert at risk of earthquakes.
• Another new nuclear gimmick going way over budget – the “Virtual Test Reactor”.
• Rewarding failure: Taxpayers on hook for $12 billion Vogtle nuclear boondoggle.  Nuclear industry is aggressively milking USA States for subsidies, despite Exelon profits.  New Ohio Bill to promote nuclear energy, excludes wind and solar.
• USA Nuclear Workers Compensation deliberately dragging out process?
•  60 years and $1.2 billion to dismantle Three Mile Island nuclear reactor.  Hanford contractor responsible for radiation spread avoids penalty.  USA’s Secretary For Promoting Nuclear Energy, Rick Perry, wants Yucca waste dump site, not a bit worried about earthquake danger.
• Climate change is getting REALLY serious – could produce Financial Crisis.

SAUDI ARABIA. Saudi Arabia moves forward on developing a nuclear industry.  Tensions in volatile Middle East region, as Saudi nuclear program accelerates.  Saudi Arabia resists IAEA’s inspection regime, as it completes its first nuclear reactor. IAEA head UN nuclear inspector asks Saudi Arabia to agree to safeguards on nuclear material.

CHINA. China will fall short of its nuclear power generation capacity target for 2020. China to Resume Approving Nuclear Power Plants.

SWEDEN. Doubts on safety of Sweden’s copper canisters for radioactive wastes.

UKRAINE. Ukraine’s President Poroshenko issues nuclear decree, demands new reactors be built.

FRANCE.  It’s likely that Flamanville nuclear reactor will be delayed yet again, with discussion on how to fix faulty welds.  France’s Orano (formerly bankrupt Areva) to send MOX fuel to Japan.  France’s ‘public consultation’ on old nuclear reactors – full of bureaucratic jargon – no debate took place.

KAZAKHSTAN. Research on gene mutations caused by nuclear radiation – Kazakhstan .  Russia keen to market nuclear reactors to Kazakhstan.

SOUTH AFRICA. Concerns about radioactive waste incidents – Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute (SAFCEI)

UK. 

•   Britain’s Ministry of Defence’s failure to dispose of retired nuclear submarines.  Scottish National Party demands public inquiry into the decommissioning of nuclear-powered submarines. Britain’s nuclear submarines, intended to harm foreign lands, now pose grave danger at home!  Massive costs of managing UK’s dead nuclear submarines.
• Westminster Abbey urged to cancel nuclear weapons ‘thanksgiving’ service .
• UK: No talks, no sites identified” regarding nuclear waste burial.    Local Councils in England, Northern Ireland and Wales reject any involvement in nuclear waste dumping.
• UK and EU agree to continue nuclear fusion project in Britain, despite Brexit. Safety rules relaxed for some UK radioactive wastes, due to fears of supply disruption after Brexit.
• Doctors want UK to be at the forefront of international nuclear disarmament.
• 4 Sound reasons why Blackwater Against New Nuclear Group (BANNG) opposes Sizewell nuclear project.
• Explosion at Vulcan nuclear submarine site at Dounreay.

BRAZIL. Former Brazilian President Michel Temer indicted on corruption charges Involving nuclear plant bribes.

SPAIN. Spain to Shut Down Nuclear Plants And Push Forward Clean Energy Plan.

GERMANY.  Renewables provide over half of German net power in March .

CANADA.  Canada replaces largest North American coal plant with solar.

NEPAL.  Nepal assures South Asian doctors that UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weaponswill be ratified soon.

April 9, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | Leave a comment