nuclear-news

Climate and nuclear news to 13 February

The discussion on climate change is subtly switching from warnings, and debates on, climate change impacts, to adaptation, preparation for those impacts.  What prevents us from thinking ‘meaningfully‘ about climate change.

While all seems quiet on the nuclear front, the nuclear arms race is now grimmer than ever.  Meanwhile angst over nuclear waste continues on both sides of the Atlantic. And I really wish that there were news from secretive Russia and China, about their waste problems.

Global warming temperatures to rise by 1.5 Celsius in 5 years – India to get knocked out. Climate change increasingly ranks as the world’s most pressing security threat – Pew Poll. Climate chaos ahead, as Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets melt?

Increasing danger of the radioactive by-products from the nuclear industry.

Growing cancer rates: the focus must be on prevention, on researching environmental causes.

CENTRAL AMERICA. Central American immigration driven by climate change, but this fact is being ignored.

JAPAN. TEPCO firmly at fault for balking at payouts to disaster victims.  The State of Medical Nuclear Emergency Declared after the Fukushima Meltdown is Still On Today!  Japan’s Reconstruction Agency to air ad for Fukushima products on TV, online and at cinemas. Fire extinguisher system at nuclear plant freezes.

UK.

• British school children in their thousands will strike for climate action.
• Suddenly no public access to Scotland’s nuclear history.
• Likely areas of Wales to be targeted for nuclear waste dumping. UK radioactive trash for Northern Ireland? Newry is being considered. Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein warns about UK considering nuclear waste dumping in Northern Ireland. ‘Plutonium-fuelled ‘madness” – the idea of Britain’s nuclear waste transported for burial in Northern Ireland.
•  Scotland represented at Global Peace Forum, calling for Scotland as nuclear-free zone. Scottish Energy Minister pressed to back closure of Hunterston B nuclear power plant in favour of renewable energy.
• Calls to make Calder Hall the first nuclear reactor in the UK to be decommissioned.

BRAZIL. Brazil prosecutor calls for emergency safety measures at tailings dam at former Poços de Caldas uranium mine. Brazil moving towards nuclear-powered submarine.

BELGIUM. Google refuses to blur its satellite images of nuclear facilities. Belgium heading for a nuclear-free future.

RUSSIA. Russia is open to considering new proposals for a broader nuclear weapons treaty.  Russia’s very threatening new 100-megaton underwater nuclear doomsday device.

NETHERLANDS.  Red Cross urges Netherlands to sign UN nuclear weapons ban treaty.

USA.

• What is USA willing to offer to North Korea at Vietnam Summit?
• Investors in Northrop, Boeing, etc rejoice! USA to spend $500 billion on nuclear weapons.
• U.S. Congress needs to look hard at this – Are Washington’s ‘Advanced’ Reactors a Nuclear Waste?. Call for taxpayers not to fund Bill Gates’ small modular nuclear reactor folly.     Clinch River Breeder Reactor Project an example of the folly of nuclear reprocessing.
•  Potentially criminal activity in Trump campaign – a nuclear connection.
• Reclassifying nuclear wastes: Mayor of Richland, and Tri-City Development Council argue in favour of this.
• Economist doubts the need for New Jersey to subsidise nuclear power stations.
• U.S. Dept of Justice suing Hanford contractor for fraud.  Cost of USA’s cold war nuclear weapons waste clean-up now estimated at $377 Billion.  California disapproves of Federal Dept of Energy’s plan for cleaning up radioactive Santa Susana Field Lab.
•  California’s Dangerous Diablo Nuke Hangs in Gov. Newsom’s Hands.  Denver Federal Center nuclear reactor violations lead to fine, short shutdown.
•  Radioactive dust from nuclear work found in workers’ homes and beyond.
• Nuclear commission overrules judge, upholds license for company to mine uranium in southwest South Dakota.
• The Green New Deal goes to Washington. Controversy over nuclear power, as Green New Deal is unveiled.  Yes, the Green New Deal is expensive,but nothing to compare with the nuclear boondoggle.

NORTH KOREA. North Korea’s moves to hide its nuclear missiles from US strikes.

FRANCE. France to build hypersonic nuclear weapons.

ARCTIC. Secret USA nuclear base in Greenland revealed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5a328G8sxoQ

AFRICA. Is nuclear power REALLY a clean-power fix for Africa – as Russia and China push it.

UGANDA. Despite the severe disadvantages to Uganda, of nuclear power, Uganda’s govt succumbs

February 13, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

The week to 5 February, in climate and nuclear news

This week has seen extreme weather in both North and South hemispheres. Yes, there have always been cold snaps and heat waves – “one in a hundred years” events, but climate change is making them more frequent and more extreme.

The world seems to be taking it all too calmly, – that USA and Russia are both about to withdraw from the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty , opening the way to a renewed arms race, and, with Putin and Trump in charge, increasing the risk of nuclear Armageddon.

2 billion people at risk, as Himalaya’s glaciers melt.  Paradoxically, extreme cold weather indicates that global warming is accelerating. Atlantic ocean circulation is being altered, by climate change.

China urges dialogue, as Russia and USA ramp up nuclear weaponry, pull out of weapons treaty.– Why so little public anxiety about risk of nuclear war? With Putin and Trump in charge!!

How the utilities financial system is rigged to give the nuclear industry the advantage.

Storage of nuclear waste a ‘global crisis’ as stockpile reaches 250,000 tons, Greenpeace warns.

Sending dummies into space, to test effects of radiation on women.

ITALY. Radioactive poisoning by the world’s military – the scandalous case of Sardinia. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6-6AYQYJm8&t=6s

JAPAN.

• Propaganda for 2020 Olympics, and for the nuclear industry is behind lifting evacuation order for irradiated town of Namie.  IAEA urges Japan to slow the Fukushima wastes clean-up – delay release to Pacific till after Olympic Games.  Radioactive cesium above legal limit detected in fish caught off Fukushima.  Governor of Fukushima Prefecture promotes Fukushima foods in Hong Kong.
• Radiation leaks at Japan’s Tokai plutonium lab; ‘no workers exposed’.
• Reflection on PM Abe’s sales pitch for nuclear at Davos.

USA. 

• There’s money in climate denialism, as 150 U.S. Congressional Republicans have found!  Extreme cold shuts down N.J. Nuclear Reactor, due to an unusual ice phenomenon.
• IAEA criticises USA’s efforts to sabotage Iran nuclear deal. Donald Trump confirms U.S. withdrawal from INF nuclear treaty.  Sen. Elizabeth Warren introduces Bill to outlaw first strike use of nuclear weapons.
• New radiation panel leader appointed by EPA in the interests of nuclear corporations, not of the public.   FirstEnergy nuclear bailout would be crony capitalism at its worst .
• USA’s $43 billion nuclear waste fund – but no nuclear waste has been buried. Nevada State Officials Are Outraged that the Trump Administration Secretly Shipped Plutonium in from South Carolina. Cleanup estimate for Hanford nuclear site increases by $82B.   North Dakota Community Alliance urges public to watch progress of Bill on high-level radioactive waste.     Clean-up of molten salt nuclear reactor continuing (shut in 1969)M – new plan to reduce the costs.
• Is Vogtle nuclear station expansion now further behind schedule? Report is delayed? Low-flying choppers monitoring radiation in Atlanta (fears of nuclear terrorism?)
•  Judge refuses to unseal criminal charges against Julian Assange.

UK. UK’s ageing nuclear power stations are likely to close early. UK’s Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit’s under-reported analysis – renewables cheaper than new nuclear.

INDIA. India’s Kudankulam nuclear power station means big debt to Russia.

HUNGARY. Countries going into deep nuclear debt to Russia; Hungary the latest victim of this political blackmail.

CANADA. SNC-Lavalin, with its record of corruption should be barred from federal contracts. Grim outlook for uranium industry -financial analyst Jayant Bhandari.

SWITZERLAND. Employee faked radiation test data at Swiss nuclear plant.

FRANCE. Pump malfunction causes shutdown at Flamanville nuclear reactor.

BANGLADESH. Nuclear power: Surviving on secrecy and misinformation.

TAIWAN. Taiwan to abolish nuclear power in 2025.

RUSSIA. Russia also to withdraw from Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, weakening weapons control. Russia’s Plan to Solve the North Korea Nuclear Crisis?

CZECH REPUBLIC. Czech industry minister: nuclear reactor tender not realistic in 2019 .

February 5, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | 7 Comments

The week that was, in climate and nuclear news

It must be harder for residents of the Northern hemisphere to get their heads around the idea of global warming causing extreme cold weather, but – climate scientists tell us that this is the case. Easier for residents of the Southern Hemisphere , especially Australia and New Zealand to accept the idea of global warming.

A great pity that government secrecy and the language barrier combine to prevent us learning anything about nuclear matters in China and Russia. Are they finding nuclear power cheap?  Do they have no problems with nuclear waste?  I doubt that.

Meanwhile the British government flounders about, pretending that its nuclear industry has a future, when informed opinion, and the stopping of new programmes indicate that it does not. In the USA, there’s a concerted push by nuclear companies, and some politicians, for “new nukes”, specifically for tax-payer funded Small Modular Nuclear Reactors – the push is led by Bill Gates.

A bit of good news – Radioactive Cesium-137 diminishing in 2 Fukushima rivers, after close to 8 years.

Rapid Arctic Warming Linked To Mid-Latitude Weather Extremes. How global warming can lead to extreme cold weather, too.

Climate change reshaping how heat moves around globe. Our global home”is on fire” – Greta Thunberg at the World Economic Forum 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7dVF9xylaw

Doomsday Clock at 2 minutes to midnight – “The New Abnormal”       Nuclear disarmament, non proliferation, “peaceful use” on the agenda as France, Russia, Britain and the United States meet in China. Storage of nuclear waste a ‘global crisis’: report

USA.

• Extreme cold to hit 55 million people in the US as polar vortex brings life-threatening temperatures. This Is Why Global Warming Is Responsible For Freezing Temperatures Across The U.S.
• A rosy time coming for investors, (such as Donald Trump) in nuclear weapons!  USA’s nuclear weapons modernisation plan to cost $494 billion over the next decade. America may be overspending on unnecessary nuclear weapons – the nuclear triad now obsolete?
• USA hoping to profit from nuclear power, by exporting waste clean-up technology.  Activists vow to stop Holtec’s nuclear waste plan for New Mexico.  Holtec defends plans for nuclear waste storage facility in New Mexico.
• Nuclear Regulatory Commission votes 3-2 to weaken nuclear power safety rules.  US Senator Markey Blasts Dangerous New Trump NRC Post-Fukushima Nuclear Safety Rule . Scrutiny on Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s decision to award funding to an advanced nuclear enrichment facility.   It makes sense to exclude Nuclear, Fossils With Carbon Capture,and Biofuels from the Green New Deal.
•  Bill Gates urging U.S. Congress to spend $billions of tax-payer money for developing new nuclear reactors.
• Tiny mobile nuclear reactors for U.S. military – a plan fraught with dangers.
•  Nuclear Regulatory Commission agrees to delay relicensing New Hampshire’s Seabrook nuclear power plant.

JAPAN. Greenpeace slams Japan’s plan to dump radioactive Fukushima water into the ocean.  TEPCO failed to spot leak of contaminated water.  Japan’s plans to sell nuclear plants overseas derailed.

EUROPE. NATO chief says ‘no real progress’ on nuclear treaty.

FRANCE.  France’s government snidely changes law to avoid paying compensation to Polynesian victims of atomic bomb testing. French nuclear company EDF considering retreating from operations in UK.

UK.

• Genetic effects of radiation, and other pollutants, in children of Gulf War veterans.
• Aldermaston – Britain’s bomb factory – it’s a slow motion train crash.
• UK’s new nuclear projects are a financial dead end.  A financial necessity – UK’s nuclear industry to fall into China’s hands. Nationalise the UK nuclear industry– the only way to save it – says Hitachi chairman.
• Tax-payer funding for yet another nuclear folly? Rolls Royce’s Small Modular Reactors.
•  In Britain’s new energy era of wind and solar, nuclear power just does not add up. As a nuclear power project collapses, leading utility chief calls on UK government to increase targets for offshore wind energy.

NORTH KOREA. North Korea’s Nukes and the ‘Forgotten War’.

SOUTH KOREA. South Korea looks for nuclear dismantling pledge by Kim at second summit with Trump.

GERMANY. Germany phasing out coal, but will not import nuclear power as replacement.

SAUDI ARABIA. Saudi Arabia could be planning for nuclear weapons. 5 countries scramble to sell nuclear reactors to Saudi Arabia.

CZECH REPUBLIC. Shares slump for Europe’s biggest publicly traded power company, due to Czech Republic’s PM’s nuclear power dream.

HUNGARY. Hungary’s problems in financing new nuclear power plant.

January 31, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

To 22 January – Nuclear and Climate News

I promised to find good news. It’s not that easy. But  – Sir David Attenborough says ’Human activity has created a new era, yet climate change can be stopped.    And, again, I am struggling with the reality that it is nearly, perhaps already is, too late, to stop the progress of global warming. Which makes climate change a more urgent problem than the nuclear threat.

Even if climate change is now irreversible, it’s no time to give up: the effort now must be to slow its progress, and to plan and adapt to its impacts.

Latest nuclear news indicates that Britain’s nuclear dream is collapsing. Japan’s plans for selling nuclear reactors overseas are collapsing. USA is embroiled in nuclear waste problems. Not so in totalitarian Russia and China, where the State runs the nuclear industry, education, and the media, and maintains secrecy about nuclear costs, unsafety, and waste problems.

GREENLAND. Greenland ice melt is happening at an unexpectedly fast rate.

ASIA. The threat to millions of people, as glaciers in Central Asia melt.

AUSTRALIA.   Australia leads the world in global warming – with the 15 hottest sites.  Australia bakes as record temperatures nudge 50C.   Australia faces ‘new normal’ of year-round bushfires . Heat in New South Wales – bushfires, health impact, and roads melting.

USA. 

• Increasing rate of melting in North American glaciers.
•  USA to begin pullout from Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, rejecting Russian offer.
• How US and China’s African nuclear mission could provide model for disarming North KoreaSC.      Trump plans North Korea nuclear summit with Kim Jong Un for February . The Trump administration’s dangerous strategy of provocation – led by John Bolton.
• The nuclear lobby has “zero chance” of nuclear getting into a Green New Deal in USA.
• The ‘fatally flawed’ nuclear waste storage facilities at the decomposing San Onofre nuclear site.  Federal Plan Could Reclassify Hanford Nuclear Waste — And Leave it in the Ground.
• Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board says that Los Alamos National Laboratory still has long-standing safety problems. T
• rump signs new bill to weaken nuclear energy regulation.  USA’s Nuclear Regulatory Commission extending license for Seabrook nuclear power BEFORE THE HEARING ON ITS SAFETY PROBLEMS.

NORTH KOREA. Kim Jong Un continuing to play to the vanity of Donald Trump?

UK.

• Britain’s severe nuclear financial headache.   UK government’s proposed ‘Regulated Asset Base’ (RAB) financing – a cover-up for a nuclear bailout.  Costly saga of Hitachi nuclear power project in North Wales comes to an end.  UK Secretary for Energy reveals the staggering amounts of tax-payer money offered to Hitachi to build nuclear reactors in Wales. Why the UK government is losing its enthusiasm for nuclear power.
• Dungeness B nuclear station – safety problems, reactors still shut down.
• Wind energy ready to supply UK electricity: time to remove the ban on onshore subsidies.  Renewable energy can replace UK’s Moorside, Wylfa and Sizewell C nuclear power at a much cheaper cost. Offshore wind leads, as UK’s renewable energy is on course to overtake fossil fuels.   UK govt’s plan to let down solar householders has not gone down well.
• UK government waits for nuclear test veterans to die, prevents research on genetic effects.

TAIWAN. The pitfalls of Direct Democracy- Taiwan’s referendum and the vote on nuclear power.

ISRAEL. Super Weapon: Israel Could Arm Stealth F-35s with Nuclear Weapons.  Secret Handwritten Memos Reveal How Israel’s Nuclear Program Came to Be.

JAPAN. High radiation levels in Fukushima area, but the Japanese government is pushing people back there.   Time to retire Japan’s aging nuclear reactor at Genkai.   Nagasaki: Life after Nuclear War – the past and the future.

RUSSIA. Russia’s plans for nuclear-powered unmanned underwater weapons.

CHINA.  Pentagon report on China’s nuclear weapons program, still “significantly below” the U.S.  Concerns about safety of China’s planned 46 nuclear reactors within a radius of about 100 km from Hong Kong and Macau. Chinese residents concerned over imports of rice produced near Fukushima disaster area.

GERMANY. Germany urges Russia to destroy missile to save nuclear treaty.

FINLAND. Wild mushrooms in Finland still containing high radioactive cesium from Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986.

January 22, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | 8 Comments

To 15 June – climate and nuclear news

I scratch around for good news on climate. Alex Smith, of Radio Ecoshock, notes that ‘several long-time climate bloggers and Facebook activists are “retiring” to their private lives.’ He quotes one: “I’m no longer interested in awakening the masses. The masses made it clear that they are not interested.”

The grand old man of coastal science Dr. Orrin Pilkey warns: start withdrawing from the coast-line now, or wait for the coming panic. As Australia’s government promotes coal mining and coal power, and avoids any action on climate change, every State and Territory in Australia is being  hit with record heat.  Decentralising the energy supply system – renewables are creating a new world order.

On the nuclear scene, the New Nuclear Arms Race remains the biggest threat in 2019. Meanwhile, as the nuclear industry fails economically, the mainstream media continues to pour out articles about “new nukes” – Small and Medium Nuclear Reactors (SMRs),  Molten salt reactors. – articles that read like straight handouts from the nuclear lobby.onal Park to get $216 million boost.

Space travel? The human body is not compatible with ionising radiation.

Japan, the U.S. and France failing in their efforts to sell nuclear reactors overseas, (or at home).

UK. UK to use Regulatory Asset Base (RAB) funding for Wylfa nuclear plant, exposing consumers to financial risk?  UK’s nuclear energy renaissance derailed, as Japanese companies step back from nuclear investment? Hitachi to post $2 billion special loss, will suspend UK nuclear power operations. Hitachi looks certain to cancel its plans for a £16bn nuclear power station in Wales. Increasing major cracks in Hunterston nuclear reactors: call to close them permanently.

USA.   State of Washington opposes federal plan to reclassify Hanford nuclear waste. State of Oregon not happy with federal govt plan to declassify some high level nuclear wastes.  Iowa Utilities Board OK’s Alliant ending nuclear power purchase: Duane Arnold nuclear plant to shut down. “Nuclear modernization” a euphemism that ushers in a new and dangerous global nuclear arms race. USA Dept of Energy again confirms its plans to use SRS plutonium for nuclear weapons.

JAPAN. Funding deadlock looks set to sink Japan’s last overseas nuclear project.  Japan abandoning ambition to sell nuclear power reactors to Turkey.   Major financial group in Japan bans lending to those developing, making or possessing nuclear weapons.  Radiation doses underestimated in study of city in Fukushima. Japan Atomic Power Co. (JAPC) denies granting local prior consent for Tokai reactor restart

OCEANIA. Nuclear weapons tests in the Enewetak Atol: rising sea levels add to the toxic legacy.

RUSSIA. Russian blogger reveals photo of venting cloud of radioactive dust from 1987 nuclear test gone wrong.  Russia might revive its fearful automatic nuclear weapons launch system.

January 15, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | 4 Comments

To January 7 – Nuclear and Climate News

I’ve made my New Year’s vows –  to keep this newsletter shorter, and to include good news – good things happening. I am mindful of Greta Thunberg’s dictum – “Look for action – then the hope will come”   Climate change: six positive news stories you probably missed in 2018

All the same, climate change’s drastic and rapid impacts must not be ignored. Paul Beckwith keeps us up to date on developments, especially in the all-important Arctic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIbVpgejDo4&t=303s

I wish that I knew the Russian language, and had access to Russian information, because climate change in the very Northern region is profoundly affecting Russia – its business, agriculture, and especially its operations in the Arctic. It is a chilling thought (no pun intended) that Putin has now put the nuclear industry in charge of shipping safety in the Arctic.

Russia certainly has toxic nuclear sites. This, along with Putin’s fervour for nuclear imperialism, means that, without media coverage, the world is ignorant of Russia’s nuclear health, environmental, and safety toll.

Then there’s the reality of escalating nuclear weapons tensions. While there is hope, in The U.N. Nuclear Ban Treaty, the Doomsday Clock  (monitoring the risk of nuclear war) is at a record 2 minutes to 12.

Weather – perhaps our best hope of bringing home the urgent message of climate change.

Between USA’s John Bolton, and Russia’s nuclear hawks – the fragmentation of nuclear arms control spells global danger.

The nuclear power industry is moribund.

Brave environmental journalists face increasing threats and dangers.

Climate change brings a boom in jellyfish, and a threat to nuclear reactors.

ARCTIC. Tons of methane being released into atmosphere by melting ice sheets.

UK. Academic whitewash of leukaemia incidence near Sellafield nuclear site. The nuclear lobby will be delighted with this knighthood, earned for obscuring the cause of leukaemia.  UK govt offers up to £2.5million to prospective “nuclear dustbin” communities, but not to communities endangered on nuclear transport routes. UK govt now prevents any one local council from pulling out of plans for a vast underground nuclear waste dump in Cumbria.

USA.

• USA’s new Speaker in Congress, Nancy Pelosi states climate change as ‘The existential threat of our time’.
• Longtime NBC News reporter slams Pro-War Posture of Corporate Media.
• Donald Trump should negotiate with Kim Jong-un, who may be willing to limit nuclear production capability.
•  New Mexico could get more nuclear waste, and perhaps high level nuclear waste.
•  High-Paying Jobs in Nuclear Power Aren’t Looking So Safe Anymore.
• Trump’s done one good thing – stopped the Bill Gates- China “new nuclear power” push.
• Arrests at the Pentagon, of 4 peaceful Catholic protesters against nuclear weapons.

JAPAN. Fukushima prosecutors demand TEPCO execs get 5 years for negligence that led to nuclear meltdown.   Japan losing hope for having a nuclear export industry. Japan abandoning ambition to sell nuclear power reactors to Turkey. Costs for scrapping 79 nuclear facilities estimated at 1.9 tril. Yen. Farmers struggle to keep cows left behind near Fukushima plant.

RUSSIA. President Vladimir Putin’s new secret weapon –NUCLEAR drone which sends 1,640ft high WAVES.

NORTH KOREA. Earthquakes still being set off due to North Korea’s September 2017 nuclear test.

INDIA. Uranium mining brings disease, deaths, deformities to Jharkhand, India.

GERMANY. Renewables beating coal energy in Germany.

CHINA. Chinese state media boasts nuclear weapons escalation, in response to Trump.

AUSTRALIA. Dave Sweeney reflects on the achievements of Australia’s nuclear-free movement in 2018.  The global nuclear lobby co-opts academia– now they’ve got University of Tasmania.

January 8, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | 3 Comments

To 19 December – the week in climate and nuclear news

Climate has to dominate this week’s news. It seems that it takes a 15 year-old schoolgirl, Greta Thunberg to best spread the message, the reality of the planet’s situation. . Radio Ecoshock introduced some hard questions that have been ignored:

What social disruptions are being caused by global heating –  increased levels of malnutrition, starvation, disease, civil conflict and war – and not ecluding affluent nations?

Should we tell young people what we’ve done to the climate? (Too late: they are telling us.)

Far from perfect, but still, nearly 200 nations reached an agreement on climate action rules.

Some good news in the climate battle – over 1000 institutions to divest from fossil fuels. Makoma Lekalakala: ‘There should be no nuclear in climate financing’. Nuclear power is no answer to global heating – even if only because nuclear power is unaffordable. Global nuclear industry aggressively lobbying climate negotiators.

The drying of soils due to climate change is shrinking the world’s water supply.

Numerous nuclear accidents at sea (doesn’t inspire confidence for nuclear-powered space travel). No restraints on nuclear weapons use, if USA abandons Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

ARCTIC. Degrading permafrost puts Arctic infrastructure at risk by mid-century.

JAPAN. Japan’s nuclear export industry about to get the fatal blow.  High Iodine distribution, low intake among children after Fukushima nuclear accident.

UK. 

• Britain’s nuclear nightmare -the Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant. UK’s Sellafield nuclear reprocessing – a financial black hole for the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.    Just the bare 60 years later, they will start to dismantle UK’s Dounreay nuclear reactor.
• Hitachi having trouble financing new nuclear reactors in Wales – may pull the plug on Wylfa project. Hitachi calling on Britain to further subsidise new nuclear reactors for Wales.  Cost of Chinese-designed and largely Chinese-owned nuclear reactor for Bradwell UK will probably blow out hugely.  Concern that Hinkley Point C will have ‘devastating’ impact on sea fish numbers in Burnham.
• UK’s Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) to prosecute Sellafield over worker’s exposure to radiation.

USA.

• Amazon planning to run a “global brain” for the Pentagon.
• USA Congress Democrats and Republicans want strict controls on any nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia.  USA govt will appease murderous Saudi Arabia regime – or maybe not?. Saudi Arabia, the Khashoggi murder case: the nuclear connections with Terra Power, Bill Gates, Breakthrough etc.
• Radioactive fallout killed up to 690,000 Americans from 1951 to 1973.
• Trump wants to reclassify radioactive waste from nuclear weapons to ‘Low Level’ so disposal is cheaper. Environmentalists fear that reclassifying some nuclear wastes means abandoning clean-ups. Maine watchdogs keep close eye on Trump’s bid to change nuclear waste storage rules.
• What to do with used nuclear fuel, from Illinois to California.  The mad plan to store nuclear waste on the beach.  Transport of nuclear wastes to USA’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is stalled while maintenance work is on.
•  Washington helping nuclear workers to get compensation: State will defend its law.
• Magnitude 4.4 earthquake strikes Tennessee near nuclear power plant .

AUSTRALIA. Australian government’s hypocritical performance at UN Climate Summit.

FRANCE. How France multiplies hazardous nuclear waste. Replacing nuclear with renewables would save France $44.5 billion.

RUSSIA. Russia claims US ignoring outreach on nuclear treaty dispute. Russia woos China to join nuclear framework with US.  Russia marketing nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia.– White House fury as Russian nuclear planes visit Venezuela .

TAIWAN. Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CFTPP) held over Taiwan , because of its referendum rejecting food from Fukushima.

GERMANY.   Explosion and fire at German Advanced Nuclear Fuels plant.     Residential batteries ready to compete with fossil fuels and nuclear in Germany.

FINLAND. Radioactive reindeer in Finland and Norway.

IRAN. Iranian hackers take aim at foreign nuclear experts and US official.

INDIA. India has 140 Nuclear Warheads – And More Are Coming.

BULGARIA. Bulgaria’s planned nuclear power station unlikely to ever be built.

BELGIUM. Call for Belgium’s unsafe Tihange nuclear reactor to be shut down.

CHINA. Chinese military is building a test facility to simulate thermonuclear explosions.

December 19, 2018 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | 1 Comment

Climate and nuclear news – to 12 December

William Perry,  formerly of the Pentagon, and former U.S. Secretary for Defense, is renowned for his work aimed at limiting nuclear weapons, and warning the world of the great threat of nuclear war.

But now, even Perry is recognising that, in some ways, climate change is an even greater existential threat to the world. He points out that nuclear catastrophe can happen quickly, but that it’s possible to prevent it. But climate change is happening slowly, inexorably, and could be irreversible.

He’s convinced me, and I had always thought that nuclear disaster was the most important danger.

With that new realisation in mind, I’m seeing the events in Poland this week – the COP24 UN Conference on Climate Change, with a more acute interest.  This international meeting comes right after the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report.

Fabricated media attacks on Julian Assange. The article that a Fairfax journalist didn’t want to write, about Julian Assange. Rallies will demand that Australia insists on Julian Assange’s safe departure from UK.

Do corporations have a legal right to destroy the planet’s ecosystem?

The worst performing countries for climate action- USA and Saudi Arabia.  Saudi Arabia, the US, Kuwait and Russia tried to erase meaning of UN’s report on the impacts of 1.5C warming. Coal lobby is prominent at COP24 U.N climate change conference.  Climate denialist group held fringe meeting in Poland, banning access by environmental reporter.

New nuclear power plants, prolong existing ones – to solve global warming?

A wave of change is coming to our planet’s water resources.

Energy efficiency the starting point for effective climate policies.

Assessing the effects of planetary electromagnetic pollution.

USA.

• U.S. preparing to wreck the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START)?  If USA dumps the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) – Putin threatens arms race.
• Michael Flynn’s involvement in shady nuclear deals with Saudi Arabia.
• USA’s intractable nuclear waste problem: a new approach is needed. No answer to clean up Washington’s Hanford nuclear site. Idaho closure of nuclear-waste treatment plant to affect Hanford.
• Public health and safety endangered by weakening The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB).
• USA Energy Dept extends period for public comment on classification of High Level nuclear waste.
•  S.C. ratepayers still vulnerable to next billion-dollar disaster.

JAPAN. Former mayor expresses anger at Tepco in trial over Fukushima crisis. Results of the first-round thyroid examination of the Fukushima Health Management Survey. Thyroid cancer impact on children and teens following Fukushima nuclear accident.  Fukushima evacuees forced back into unacceptably high radiation zones.

TAIWAN. Taiwan Votes to Maintain Import Ban on Fukushima Food Imports.

FRANCE. Despite President Macron, France’s government report calls new nuclear power uneconomical.

UK.

• With Brexit, thorny nuclear problems about the ownership of EU nuclear materials stored in Britain.  UK must explain its plans for civil nuclear power security under ‘no deal’ Brexit scenario. UK tax-payers, not the nuclear industry, will pay for the new safeguards regime, post Brexit !
• As UK’s planned Wylfa nuclear power station might be axed, UK’s whole nuclear project is in doubt.  UK govt allowing Chinese nuclear technology for Bradwell reactor? China’s push to take over the abandoned Moorside nuclear project.  New nuclear station next to Minsmere wildlife reserve? Sizewell action group to hold EDF to account.
• Scotland’s wind power output over 100%.

NORTH KOREA. If USA does not lift sanctions, North Korea could revive nuclear weapons development.

INDIA. Nuclear Expansion in Kaiga: Is India Ready for the Risk?

SOUTH AFRICA. South Africa Energy Minister Fires Nuclear Corporation’s Board .

RUSSIA. Russia sends 2 nuclear-capable bombers to Venezuela.

GERMANY. Germany a leading solar power producer, despite its low hours of sunshine.

IRAQ. Depleted uranium – the cancer-causing weapon still taking its toll in Iraq.

BELARUS. TOR-M2 air defense missile systems to protect Belarus nuclear power plant.

December 11, 2018 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

This week in climate and nuclear news

The world is at the crossroads as U.N. Climate Change Conference takes place in Poland. Many experts think that we have passed the point of no return. UN Climate Conference faces the daunting need for the world to quit coal. World Bank funding for action on climate change, and for adaptation to climate change.  David Attenborough urges world leaders to LEAD .

Nuclear power, touted as the solution to climate change, is on fact, only a hindrance to action on climate change.

World Meteorological Organization warns: world running out of time to combat climate change. World’s Worst Public Health Crisis  – Climate Change. The over-looked solution to climate change – equality for women. Flawed arguments in nuclear industry’s push to be seen as climate change solution.

The other big Trump-Putin story: Nuclear weapons treaty hangs in the balance as Russia-US tensions rise.

Molten salt nuclear reactors not commercially viable, but useful for military.

NORTH KOREA. A mistake to expect Kim Jong Un to give a full renunciation of nuclear weapons in advance.

FRANCE. Why France must shut down many nuclear reactors. Report shows how unprepared France is, in the event of a nuclear accident. Appeal lodged to stop commissioning of Flamanville EPR nuclear reactor vessel. France abandons plans for the Astrid (Advanced Sodium Technological Reactor for Industrial Demonstration).

TAIWAN. Taiwan Votes to Maintain Import Ban on Fukushima Food Imports. Taiwan doesn’t know what to do with radioactive trash, so decommissioning of 1st nuclear power plant is delayed.

UK.

• Will 1000s of Small Nuclear Reactors, built super-fast, save the world from climate change?
• “Marking your own homework” – Britain’s plan for inspecting its own nuclear safeguards – Brexatom !
• UK’s Defence Safety Authority (DSA) suppresses reports on safety of nuclear weapons. UK’s Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE)‘s failure to deal with its high level nuclear waste – now sending it to Sellafield.
• EDF plans to restart Hunterston nuclear reactors because – hey! some of the 350 cracks are only small!
• UK’s so-called “nuclear renaissance” is in crisis again.
• Radiation Free Lakeland investigates radioactive beach, while Cumbrian media doesn’t bother to.
• False claims against Julian Assange pave the way for USA to imprison him (DOES AUSTRALIA NOT CARE?)

USA.

•  Exposing The Pentagon’s Massive Accounting Fraud. The danger of nuclear war through irrational decision-making by Donald Trump. Trump may need Congress approval to withdraw from Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.  U.S. Congress could stop the endless wars.
• Massive problem of USA’s high level nuclear waste – scientists struggling for a solution. U.S. Energy Dept plans to reclassify Hanford nuclear sludge – from “high level”to “low level”. Holtec nuclear waste casks at San Onofre are too thin-walled and must be replaced.  San Onofre plant aims to resume transfers of nuclear waste in January.
• Delay in compensation for NUCLEAR LAB EMPLOYEES WITH RADIATION-LINKED CANCERS.
• Dark money, so-called “independent” Nuclear Matters, Georgia’s Public Service Commission and regulatory capture. Deal to purchase Bellefonte Nuclear Power Plant is off.

JAPAN.  Japan to scrap Turkey nuclear project.     Thyroid cancer impact on children and teens following Fukushima nuclear accident. 2020 Olympics being used to put a nice gloss on nuclear industry, and Fukushima nuclear catastrophe. Fukushima evacuees forced back into unacceptably high radiation zones.

CANADA.  Saskatchewan sues federal government over cost to clean up abandoned uranium mine.

SOUTH AFRICA. South Africa’s Portfolio Committee on Energy (PCE) praises Nuclear power, glosses over cost, waste, problems.  Nuclear Energy Corporation of South Africa (Necsa) embroiled in dodgy deals, conflicts of interest.

AUSTRALIA. Australian schoolchildren on strike for action on climate change.

INDIA. Political connections in Holtec’s plans for boosting nuclear power in India.

BELGIUM. Belgium re-authorised nuclear power without having an environmental assessment – EU Magistrate criticises.

December 4, 2018 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

This week in climate and nuclear news

Anti-science got a boost this week, as the “leader of the free world” Donald Trump, visiting the catastrophic California wildfire sites, reaffirmed his rejection of climate science.    The Trump administration went on to deny its own government’s dire new report on climate change. It is disturbing and sad, to see so many people accepting the doctrine, which was named by Carl Sagan decades ago, – climate denial. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gjuk2RcZ8uA. Even as the evidence mounts – of rising global average temperatures, arctic melting, sea level rise, and increasing extreme weather events,- politicians and much of the media promote the fossil fuel line of denial.

The world heads for Armageddon, as nuclear weapons control is wound back.

IAEA Director General Amano says Iran is abiding by nuclear deal, says North Korea should re-admit inspectors.

Study shows that women care more than men do, about climate change.(surprise, surprise)    Sir David Attenborough to speak for the people at UN climate summit.

Julian Assange at risk, as changes occur in Ecuadorian Embassy.

BANGLADESH. Climate change, rising sea levels, salty drinking water and increased miscarriages.

JAPAN.

• Powerful earthquake hits Fukushima, nuclear disaster city.
•  Olympics propaganda revs up to make Fukushima and nuclear power look good.
• Effects of suspected radiation exposure seen in Fukushima wild monkeys: researchers.
• Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority concerned about risks of radioactive leaks from facility near Tokyo.
•  Japan’s nuclear watchdog weighs giving children priority in distribution of iodine tablets.
•  Ken Watanabe to Star in Film About Fukushima Nuclear Disaster.
• Residents of nuclear crisis hit Namie to sue TEPCO, gov’t after settlement talks fail.

RUSSIA. Russia to give up its policy of ‘no first use’ of nuclear weapons.

USA. 

• Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman – wanting a nuclear bomb?  Donald Trump in convenient denial over Crown Prince Bin Salman’s role in the murder of Khashoggi.   USA’s endless cycle of weapons spending is set to get more extreme.
•  U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo orders South Korea to slow down on being friendly with North Korea.
• U.S. politicians want transparency about the radiation risks of the fire-afflicted Santa Susana nuclear site.
•  $2 billion settlement for electricity customers who were charged for failed nuclear project.
• Tourists and U.S. citizens unaware of the contamination and illness history of Hanford nuclear site.
• U.S.senator joins call from 75 organisations to scrutinise plan to reclassify some High Level Nuclear Wastes.
• Donald Trump’s climate denialism – in the face of California’s climate tragedies. California Wildfire Likely Spread Nuclear Contamination From Toxic Site.

UK. Frightening projections by UK’s Met Office on impacts of climate change, rising seas. UK’s environmental campaigners “Extinction Rebellion” block roads around London’s Parliament Square.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLHN1eBbhOs

Sellafield – a nuclear misuse of public funds – and Hinkley Point C will be the next. UK customers to pay in advance for Hinkley nuclear power, AND cop the financial risk?  Architects awarded contest prize for nuclear project that is now cancelled.  Calls for permanent shutdown of Hunterston nuclear reactor 3, with its 350 cracks.    Uncertainty and delay, as UK struggles with plans for dealing with radioactive trash.

VIETNAM. Vietnam government abandons costly nuclear power plans.  Taiwan to host Asian anti-nuclear forum in 2019 .

TAIWAN. Taiwan still on track to become nuclear-free, despite pro-nuclear referendum.

BULGARIA. Bulgaria’s Belene Nuclear Power Plant project unlikely to ever be built, now needs EU approval.

CZECH REPUBLIC. Czechs consider nuclear power options: would require tax-payer funding.

SOUTH AFRICA. Doubts on future of South Africa’s nuclear research reactors, with glut of medical isotopes, and with particle accelerator production.

FRANCE. France could shut down up to six nuclear reactors by 2028.

November 27, 2018 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | 1 Comment

The week in climate and nuclear news

A reflection on the media, especially “social media”: some news media covered the radioactive danger of wildfire at the closed Santa Susana nuclear site, and the need for that site to be properly cleaned up. I covered it, too, on my websites – might have reached one or two thousand people, on a good day.  BUT – celebrity Kim Kardashian’s call for the clean-up would have reached 58 million people!

Public awareness of climate change just might be growing, as its impacts multipy.  Habitable areas of our planet are shrinking – as climate change exacerbates extreme weather. “Predatory delay” – how the fossil fuel industries created and maintained climate change denialism.  Nuclear power is touted as the solution to climate change. But, as well as the many other drawbacks to this ‘solution’, is the fact that nuclear is not ‘low carbon’ as claimed.

Edward Snowden Condemns US Justice Department for Targeting Assange  (Why is Australian govt not helping Julian Assange?)

USA.

•  Independent testing of radiation levels in air- Woolsey Fire and Santa Susana Field Lab Site.   There were 3 radiation fallout releases at Santa Susana, not just one.
• The danger of San Onofre’s nuclear wastes – buried over a major fault line — and in a tsunami zone.
• USA’s next chairman of the House Armed Services Committee aims to scrap Trump’s nuclear weapons policy. Mike Pence: North Korea sanctions to remain until denuclearization.
• USA’s navy shipyards already threatened by climate change: storms, rising seas, and worse to come.
• USA. Watchdog and Advocacy Coalition Report Warns of Systemic Attacks on Science .
• “New Nuclear” lobbyists, Nuclear Alternative Project and USA’s CINTAC, target Puerto Rico.
•  Call to Texans to oppose nuclear waste transport and dumping.
•  Rocky Flats still radioactively polluted.
• Contrary to U.S. Energy Department’s report, there WAS nuclear waste near New Mexico nuclear site rockfall.
•  USA’s nuclear safety agreement with Ukraine is a nuclear marketing exercise.
• Two Hanford whistleblowers take legal action. Court order. USA Veterans Affairs must reveal numbers of troops exposed to radiation after 1966 Spanish nuclear disaster.  SCE and G electric utility aims to discredit the testimony of two former employees.
• Attorneys Implore Judge to Keep Sailors’ Fukushima Case in U.S.
• How the USA gave up on protecting its citizens against nuclear attack, and settled for just elite shelters.
• The Christian Vacation Camp Where Kids Are Taught by Notorious Climate Science Deniers.

UK.

• Moorside project collapses, but UK’s Conservative government is Socialist when it comes to nuclear power projects. UK’s Moorside nuclear project will not go ahead unless the taxpayer pays for it.
• UK’s nuclear industry will suffer, in withdrawing from the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom).  Nuclear material stored in UK, but owned by EU – poses a Brexit problem,  Because of Brexit, the clean-up of UKs radioactive Dalgety Bay is stalled.
• UK’s THORP nuclear reprocessing plant at Sellafield was a dud – never met its operational targets.
• Reactor 3 at Hunterston B remains offline, due to cracks in the graphite core.
• The East Yorkshire village almost wiped out by a nuclear bomb.
• Britain’s nuclear bomb test legacy of early deaths and deformed children.

JAPAN. IAEA urges Japan to reach decision soon on handling of radioactive water at crippled Fukushima nuke plant.  Abe, IOC chief to visit Fukushima venue for 2020 Olympics. High court rejects bid to shut down Shikoku Electric reactor.

NORTH KOREA. North Korea tests new ‘ultramodern tactical weapon’ amid stalled nuclear diplomacy.

RUSSIA. Vladimir Putin considers his response to US exit from nuclear pact. Russia boasting of a spaceship to Mars ‘in very near future’.

TURKEY. Turkish environmentalists go to the Supreme Court to stop construction of nuclear power station.

SPAIN. Spain will close the last of its nuclear reactors and coal power plants before 2030.

IRAN. Iran hopeful that Europe can salvage nuclear deal – foreign ministry .

SOUTH AFRICA. South Africa’s Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan’s evidence at the State Capture Commission.

FRANCE. France’s Environment Minister questions viability of EPR nuclear. France to cut back on nuclear power.

POLYNESIA. President of French Polynesia admits that leaders lied, over 3 decades, about dangerous radioactivity from French nuclear tests.

November 20, 2018 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

The week that has been in climate and nuclear news

Again, there’s a collision between the twin threats of nuclear power and of climate change, as California’s wildfires ravage the once-secret Santa Susana Field Lab (Rocketdyne), site of a partial nuclear meltdown in 1959, and still radioactively polluted.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVhtygifsuE.   Physicians for Social Responsibility refute media claims that wildfire ash poses no radiation health problem. ( No monitoring , no assessment: the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.)

California Fires Could Be The ‘New Abnormal’ If Climate Change Continues. Scientists have identified 10 ways in which climate change makes wildfires worse.

Investigative journalism. Again, journalists cover the situation of America’s sick and dying nuclear workers. This is a 2018 story, which was covered magnificently by McClatchy News in 2015.

Nuclear reactors “are a bad bet for a climate strategy” – former NRC chairman.

The digital danger to nuclear weapons.

Tell Ft.com that solar air-conditioning is the answer to air-conditioning’s greenhouse gas problem.

Within 50 years, ozone layer hole is predicted to be completely healed.

IRAN. Iran is keeping to the conditions of nuclear deal: latest U.N. report.

NORTH KOREA. North Korea: its nuclear weapons “complete”, but not planning to get rid of them (why should they?)

JAPAN. Tepco to temporarily stop injecting water at Fukushima reactor . Local opposition to restart of Tokai nuclear station, but it is cleared to start by Japan’s nuclear watchdog.

USA.

• Woolsey Fire Burns Nuclear Meltdown Site that State Toxics Agency Failed to Clean Up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVhtygifsuE&t=418s  Nuclear meltdown at Santa Susana Lab and the government cover-up.  High fire warning continues including area of Santa Susana (Rocketdyne) nuclear irradiated area.
• USA non proliferation experts, both Democrat and Republican Urge Trump to save nuclear treaty with Russia.  With Democrat majority in U.S. Congress, Trump’s plans for nuclear arsenal, space weapons, will meet with opposition. New Bill in U.S. Congress would block a nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia. In USA 100 women elected to Congress– could they challenge the nuclear status quo?
• Beyond Nuclear questions Union of Concerned Scientists’ support for bailouts for “top ranked” nuclear plants.
• U.S. sailors in nuclear reactor part of USS Ronald Reagan allegedly used drug LSD.
•  Explanation of near-miss at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS).
• Holtec nuclear waste dry storage system (Hi-STORM UMAX) is a lemon and must be recalled. Radioactive groundwater found at Westingouse SC nuclear fuel factory.
• For USA the cost of not funding a nuclear waste solution is becoming greater than the cost of funding it.

UK. 

• The collapse of Britain’s Moorside project shows that nuclear power has no real future.   Doomed Moorside nuclear project might have provided 2% of UK energy needs, NOT 7%.   Consultant WYG takes £3m loss on business it bought for Moorside nuclear development.
• For Britain’s next nuclear boondoggle – Wylfa project, households might have to pay upfront for the construction.   Britain’s Wyfa nuclear power project will be one hell of a cost to the taxpayer.
• Britain’s Bradwell nuclear project under scrutiny- risks of flooding, water overuse, environmental degradation.   
• Cumbria Trust questions the independence of the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM).
•  Frazer Nash nuclear helps nuclear lobby to infiltrate academia.

RUSSIA.  Putin claims that Russia is developing an “invincible” nuclear weapon.  Russia now offering to help Norway to deal with the inappropriate storage of  radioactive waste.

TAIWAN. Hundreds of Taiwanese academics urge public to vote for nuclear power shut-down.

SOUTH AFRICA. South Africa: leaked report shows Zuma government’s secret plans for nuclear power.

CANADA.  Small Modular Reactors not commercially viable, but nuclear companies want the government handouts.   NuScale and Ontario Power Generation (OPG) trying to make Small Nuclear Reactors happen in Canada. Canada’s nuclear regulator wants Small Nuclear Reactors exempted from full Environmental Assessment.

SAUDI ARABIA. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launches nuclear project in Saudi Arabia.

November 13, 2018 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

Nuclear and climate news – week to 6 November

Some good news this week. A case of positive international co-operation!  – the healing of the ozone layer. The rest of the climate news – not so good. Climate scientists have underestimated the rapid warming of the oceans.  Climate change disruption of the jet stream is causing more extreme weather.     A warning not to forget the message of UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)  –  Climate Change: The Real World War.

International nuclear politics muddles along, – closer to the brink? North Korea warns it might return to developing nuclear weapons, if USA does not end sanctions.  Donald Trump ready to reimpose all nuclear sanctions on Iran.  A world on nuclear hair-trigger, if USA withdraws from the  Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with Russia?

Looking for expert information on nuclear matters? Go to the Nuclear Consulting Group.

The global nuclear industry sneaks into international governments’ “clean” energy movement.

Far from fixing climate change – the nuclear power industry is being stalled by climate change.

Pro nuclear expert urges the nuclear industry to drop its “climate change” argument !

Electromagnetic radiation from cell-phones is a cancer causer to rats.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report DOES show that there is scope for positive progress.

IRAN. Iran is not likely to restart its nuclear weapons programme any time soon.

EUROPE.  Europe has set up a mechanism to sidestep U.S. sanctions against Iran.

NORTH KOREA. Preparation for nuclear international inspections – North Korea.

JAPAN. 2020 Olympics as PR for the global nuclear industry? Fukushima to start the events.  Fukushima’s fishing industry threatened by plans to dump radioactive water. Eastern Japan cities sign nuclear accident evacuation accord.  Shikoku Electric restarts Ikata nuclear reactor following failed court challenges.

CANADA.  Canada’s glaciers are retreating – and fast!    “Clean Energy Ministerial”: despite Canada’s Liberal claims, nuclear power will not save the environment. Non nuclear production of medical isotopes .

HUNGARY. Did Hungarian nuclear authorities fudge the measurement of water heating at Paks nuclear plant ?

UK.  NuGen nuclear power project in Moorside, Cumbria, UK, soon to bite the dust?  UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) reprimanded for nuclear safety breaches.    Fylde Fracking Near Nuclear Fuel Site – “No Problem” says Government.   Spiralling costs of Britain’s Sellafield nuclear site.    One veteran’s story of radiation effects of participating in nuclear bomb testing.   UK could be running solely on zero carbon renewables in summer months 2050.

SWEDEN. Swedish Environmental Court has concerns about speed of corrosion of copper nuclear waste canisters.

USA.

• End nuclear energy talks with Saudi Arabia – 5 Republican senators tell Trump.
• U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to resume nuclear talks with North Korea this week.
• Trump’s Energy Secretary Rick Perry accidentally told the truth about Yucca Mt, contradicting Trump.
• DOE plans reclassifying nuclear wastes as “Low Level”.  Trump administration heads for the dodgy science of the radiation sceptics.
• Former SCANA accountant tells how nuclear financial document was “doctored”.
• U.S. Supreme Court upholds right of 21 young people to sue federal government about climate change inaction.

UKRAINE. Radioactivity induced mutations in the animals of Chernobyl.

INDIA. Prime Minister Modi’s doublespeak on India’s first nuclear submarine.

SOUTH KOREA. South Korean firm KEPCO keen to get $20 billion by selling nuclear reactors to Saudi Arabia.

FRANCE. Hackers accessed confidential documents about nuclear. Nuclear company AREVA rebranded itself (Orano, Framatome) – but legal troubles linger.

November 6, 2018 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | 3 Comments

The week in climate and nuclear news – to 31 October

Climate change –Big Trouble on a Small Planet     The world is pumping out more oil and other petroleum liquids than ever before.   Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere broke another record in 2018.

Climate change is already affecting human society in some terrible ways. Persistent drought is one main cause of the migration of Central Americans towards the USA –   where they will be confronted by 5,000 soldiers!

In matters nuclear, the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Arabia embassy in Turkey has brought world attention to Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, who almost certainly ordered this killing. Saudi Arabia’s poor human rights record, abuses in Yemen, and international condemnation of the murder make its bid to become a nuclear nation a big worry to the rest of the world. But Trump is still keen to sell weapons and nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia.

World peace teetering again, as President Trump, egged on by his belligerent National Security Advisor John Bolton, prepares to abandon the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia.

Investigative journalism –HALF-LIFE   Chad Walde believed in his work at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Then he got a rare brain cancer linked to radiation, and the government denied it had any responsibility.

New global approaches needed to tackle climate change. Climate change bringing more droughts, more extreme rainfalls, more often.

America’s decision to abandon arms control treaty would be a ‘dire threat to world peace’ – Gorbachev.

Study of 120,000 hibakusha atomic bomb survivors shows raised risk of breast cancer.

Countries are safer to not have nuclear facilities? IAEA training to prepare for cyberattacks on them.

Medical staff need to be more aware of cancer risks in nuclear medicine.

BRAZIL. Brazil’s new President – a danger to environment and to action against climate change.

SAUDI ARABIA. America shouldn’t trust Saudi Arabia with nuclear technology.  Nuclear power lobbyists for Saudi Arabia finding it (a bit) tough following Jamal Khashoggi ‘s murder.

INDIA. Uranium mining in India – just another kind of nuclear disaster.

EUROPE. New research on impacts of climate change in the Mediterranean.  NATO – Europeans urge USA not to quit nuclear treaty.

UK.   Toshiba to dissolve its British nuclear unit NuGeneration? Future of Bradwell nuclear project in doubt – Chinese company might withdraw.    USA issues stark warning against UK partnering with China on nuclear power stations.  Nuclear facilities in UK – perfect targets for terrorism.   Serious concern in nuclear industry over no-deal Brexit.  UK Law was changed so nuclear waste dumps can be forced on local communities.

USA. 

• The world is in danger, as Donald Trump and John Bolton just don’t ‘get it’about nuclear treaties.
• Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Donald Trump saying different things about Yucca nuclear waste dump plan.
• USA’s subsidy to coal and nuclear power stalled, but still a possibility.
• USA’s EPA removes regulation that would protect groundwater from uranium mining pollution.
• Utah state regulators reject EnergySolutions’ request for burying depleted uranium.
• Sea level rise -the threat to nuclear power plants -Pilgrim to move nuclear waste to higher ground.     
• Incident at Hanford nuclear plant – employees told to ‘take cover’.
•  Nuclear waste drums ruptured due to a heat reaction.
• Yet another nuclear front group pretending that nuclear is “clean”– Ohio Clean Energy Jobs Alliance.
• University of California being used by the nuclear weapons industry.
•  California Governor Jerry Brown joins Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in campaign against threats of nuclear war and climate change.
•  “Clean Energy D.C. Act” – would lead Washington DC to 100% renewable energy by 2032.

RUSSIA. Russia preparing to discuss Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with USA. Putin warns European nations on hosting US nuclear weapons – risk to them of counter-strike.

JAPAN.  Despite health dangers, Japan is sending residents back to irradiated Fukushima areas.  Stop the return of women and child evacuees to radioactive parts of Fukushima – UN’s call to Japan.  Japan’s government refuses UN call to stop returning evacuees to irradiated areas of Fukushima.   Japan’s Onagawa nuclear reactor No 1 to be scrapped. 5.0 magnitude earthquake off the east coast of Japan, close to Fukushima.

TAIWAN. Taiwan’s phaseout of nuclear power.

FRANCE. France’s people turning away from nuclear power. Prolonged drought leads EDF to curb Fessenheim 2 nuclear reactor output.  French government to decide whether or not to build new EPR nuclear reactors.

EGYPT. Egypt’s renewable energy project – going for the green economy.

AUSTRALIA. Australia’s latest 60 Minutes – on Fukushima – a nuclear infomercial.

October 30, 2018 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

To October 25 – Nuclear and Climate News

International nuclear politics came to the fore this week. Trump says US will withdraw from nuclear arms treaty with Russia.  Trump threatens to build up U.S. nuclear arsenal against China, Russia.    Russia threatens to develop intermediate-range nuclear weapons in response to USA’s nuclear move.

Climate events are getting ever more complicated.  Polar jet circulation changes bring Sahara dust to Arctic, increasing temperatures, melting ice.   Arctic blast is set to sweep across Britain this week bringing sub-freezing temperatures of just 26F and wintery showers after an unseasonably warm autumn.

PEACE BOAT AND GREENPEACE STILL CAMPAIGNING FOR FUKUSHIMA.

Gender and radiation impact project.  A false reference: “acceptable” radiation risks set as they affect adult men, not women, not children.

Nuclear weapons join the other cruel killing methods now pitched as games – entertainment.

AUSTRALIA. One commercial TV channel now sold its soul to the nuclear lobby? (Channel 9 used to be a fine reporter about Fukushima nuclear disaster.) 

USA 

•  Trump threatens to build up U.S. nuclear arsenal against China, Russia.  Gorbachev, experts baffled by U.S. withdrawal from nuclear weapons deal.   New “low yield” nuclear weapon increases the likelihood of war.
• Why radiation experts are concerned over EPA proposal. Trump’s financial benefit from Saudi Arabia – shaping USA’s foreign policy.
• U.S. EPA removes a uranium safety regulation, in interests of mining profits.
•  USA ditches the plan to prop up the coal and nuclear industries.
• Concerns about aging nuclear plants in USA Democratic areas.
• USA’s failed Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Plant costs taxpayers over $1 million daily.  Court rules that U.S. Dept of Energy can stop construction of the $17 billion plutonium and uranium fuel factory.
•  Dominion company wants license to run Virginia nuclear reactors for 80 years!
• Hanford given more time to empty leak-prone radioactive waste tank.  U.S. govt wants more information on Holtec’s proposed nuclear waste storage project.
• Public-private partnerships for new nukes – USA’s Nuclear Energy Innovation Capabilities Act (NEICA).

RUSSIA.  Russia threatens to develop intermediate-range nuclear weapons in response to USA’s nuclear move.

SAUDI ARABIA. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to reveal evidence of Khashoggi murder “in all its nakedness.”

FRANCE   France’s nuclear regulator fears that the Flamanville nuclear reactor has other problems as well as defective welds.   A nifty way to transition from gas-powered vehicles to solar-powered.

JAPAN. Four Japan firms used foreign trainees to clean up at Fukushima plant after nuclear meltdowns: final report.  Japan will flush unsafe water from Fukushima nuclear plant into sea.   Local Fury and Health Concerns as Japan Plans to Dump a Million Tons of Radioactive Fukushima Water Into Ocean.  Added ‘development’ in the Medical Data Obtained from Minami-soma Municipal General Hospital in Fukushima.

UK. Nuclear Security UK – bolstering defences against a terror attack. Auditors question government handling of H Hinkley Point C nuclear power station from its Major Projects Portfolio.

CANADA. The dangerous radioactive trash – 60,000 tons on the shores of the Great Lakes. Majority of Ottawa candidates oppose Chalk River nuclear dump.  SNC-Lavalin shares fall to lowest since 2016 on news foreign bribery case will go to court.

October 24, 2018 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | Leave a comment