nuclear-news

1 March -Remembering All Nuclear Victims.

The commemoration started as a way to remember the victims of the Castle Bravo test of March 1, 1954 which exposed much of the Marshall Islands to radioactive fallout. This was the largest nuclear weapon that the U.S. ever tested, with over twice the designed yield, and the wind blew the fallout over populated areas.

Now we also commemorate other nuclear victims – from Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, nuclear testing, nuclear waste cleanup, human radiation experiments, depleted uranium weapons and uranium mining and processing.

The VFP Golden Rule Project is co-sponsoring this webinar of the VFP Nuclear Abolition Working Group:

Arming for Armageddon: How US Militarism could lead to Nuclear War

Dangerous and deadly developments in Ukraine, Palestine, the Koreas, and China

featuring…

K. J. NOH is a Korean journalist, political analyst, and educator specializing in the geopolitics and political economy of the Asia-Pacific region. He is a member of Veterans for Peace, a co-founder of Pivot to Peace. and co-host of The China Report on the Breakthrough News Network.

ANN WRIGHT, author and international peace activist, will moderate. Ann is a former U.S. Army colonel and State Dept. official who resigned in protest of the U.S. war on Iraq.

NORMAN SOLOMON is a journalist, media critic, activist with Roots Action and Institute for Public Accuracy, and friend of Daniel Ellsberg

Thursday, March 6, 2025

7 pm Eastern, 6 pm Central, 4 pm Pacific

REGISTER HERE FOR ZOOM WEBINAR

February 27, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Events | Leave a comment

Third Meeting of States Parties  to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons 

The Third Meeting of States Parties will take place on 3 to 7 March 2025 at United Nations Headquarters in New York, with H.E. Ambassador Akan Rakhmetullin (Kazakhstan) serving as President. A draft agenda for the meeting is under consideration by States Parties. This page will provide updates about the meeting itself and practical information for civil society organisations that wish to participate. Information is also available on the UN website.

Key dates:

• 20 December 2024 – Deadline for organisational accreditation
• 3 January 2025 – Deadline for NGO side event applications to ICAN 
• 3 January 2025 – Deadline for government side event & exhibition applications by Member States
• 4 January 2025 – UNODA will confirm whether your organisation has been approved or denied
• 17 February 2025 – Deadline for the submission of Working Papers to ICAN
• 24 February 2025 – Final date to submit your full delegation list to ODA and to register on Indico
• 2 March 2025 – ICAN Campaigner Forum
• 3-7 March 2025 – third Meeting of States Parties

more………………………………………………………… https://www.icanw.org/tpnw_third_meeting_of_states_parties?fbclid=IwY2xjawIeAAlleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHTXXryuB-SuwWTYOJO87uOU8J9YHwXtEnzijT4ZaFqZ3ccR7_4Kit5RHtg_aem_VpSB80BKJCpThsbOqIulaA

February 17, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Events | Leave a comment

21 February WEBINAR – What Scientists Are Telling Us About Radiation that Nuclear Boosters Won’t

Feb 21, 2025 03:00 AM in Etc/GMT-10  https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_I6Urz_iGSR2Zvb43N08_GQ#/registration

Contacts: Stephen Kent, skent@kentcom.com, 914-589-5988 Mary Olson, olson.mary@gmail.com, 828-242–5621

A webinar sponsored by the NGO Gender + Radiation Impact Project, with leading experts on the impacts of radiation, to answer your questions about new research concerning harmful impacts of the nuclear energy and weapons industries. Join us! Presenters are Cindy Folkers of Beyond Nuclear, author of the book ‘The Scientists Who Alerted Us to the Dangers of Radiation,’ and Dr. Amanda Nichols, lead author of ‘Gender and Radiation: Towards a New Research Agenda, Addressing Disproportionate Harm,’ a new report by the UN Institute on Disarmament Research (UNIDIR). The event will be moderated by Mary Olson, Founder of the Gender and Radiation Impact Project.

A growing body of evidence reveals ionizing radiation disproportionately impacts women and young children. Those arguing for expanding nuclear power and weapons production pointedly ignore and contradict evidence of their harms — part of a pattern of suppression that goes back to the dawn of the nuclear age a century ago. Scientists who first revealed radiation’s harmful impacts were pilloried and had their funding and data seized. The pattern of suppression still holds today, but with the rush toward nuclear-powered AI centers and a new nuclear arms race looming, it has kicked into high gear. False claims and preposterous talk points from the nuclear industry are increasingly and uncritically repeated without challenge. For a quick, sourced primer on these issues, see the recent OpEd “They won’t tell you these truths about nuclear energy” in The Hill. https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/5118792-nuclear-power-industry-radiation-debunk/

February 13, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Events | Leave a comment

15 – 29 March 2025 Virtual Film Festival: The Untold Stories of Nuclear Weapons

15 – 29 March, World Beyond War,

Join World BEYOND War for our 5th annual virtual film festival!

Join World BEYOND War for our annual virtual film festival throughout the month of March to explore the untold stories of nuclear weapons, in commemoration of Nuclear Remembrance Day (March 1).

Nuclear weapons pose an existential threat to humanity. 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the impacts of which are still felt to this day. The tentacles of the nuclear weapons industry are far-reaching, from the uranium mining, to the testing, to the waste disposal. World BEYOND War’s 2025 film festival shares the untold stories of nuclear weapons – from the Marshall Islands to St. Louis, Missouri, to the Saharan desert – in light of the escalating conflicts of our time, to expose the historic and current impacts of nuclear weapons and serve as a clarion call that it is time once and for all to ban the bomb.

Scroll down to learn more about each film and our special guests, and to purchase tickets!……………………………………………………………………………………………………. more https://worldbeyondwar.org/filmfest2025/?link_id=6&can_id=438b89ea63c299137ec80f405e1a4d53&source=email-wbw-news-action-the-futility-of-war&email_referrer=email_2604296&email_subject=wbw-news-action-country-is-humanity

February 4, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Events | Leave a comment

Hinkley Point C: Petition to protect fish in Severn Estuary

29th January, By Seth Dellow, Digital Reporter, 29 Jan 25
https://www.bridgwatermercury.co.uk/news/24893585.hinkley-point-c-petition-protect-fish-severn-estuary/

ENVIRONMENTAL groups have launched a petition to protect the Severn Estuary and ensure the new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point C is compliant with regulations.

17 groups including the West Country Rivers Trust and CPRE have joined forces to call on the Energy Secretary to ensure that an acoustic fish deterrent is installed at Hinkley Point C, with ‘comprehensive mitigation and compensation’ for all species.

It follows comments made by the Prime Minister, Sir Kier Starmer, in an article for Mail Online, which lambasted efforts to block major infrastructure projects, singling out opposition to the acoustic fish deterrent which EDF had originally proposed for Hinkley Point C.

Mark Lloyd, CEO of The Rivers Trust, said: “It is very disappointing that the Prime Minister was so disparaging and dismissive about the need for acoustic fish deterrents on the water intakes for the new nuclear power station being built at Hinkley by EDF.”

You can find out more about the petition here: https://bit.ly/40QeM24

EDF recently confirmed that the “only option currently likely to be accepted as a mitigation” is the creation of a salt marsh. It would act as an environmental mitigation for the harm the project would bring to 44 tonnes of fish.

A formal consultation on the salt marsh location was delayed earlier in January. Some residents along the Severn, including landowners and farmers, previously expressed their opposition to the plans.

Four possible locations have been proposed for a salt marsh along the River Severn, including Kingston Seymour, Arlingham, Littleton, and Rodley.

Plans were dropped for Pawlett Hams following opposition from residents and branded a “disaster” by Bridgwater’s MP, Sir Ashley Fox.

EDF has confirmed that its process for Hinkley Point C and the project “is working with local communities and stakeholders to find solutions that work for both communities and the environment.”

February 1, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Events | Leave a comment

Save Severn Estuary’s Fish: Demand Action from Hinkley — Sign the petition.

 The Rivers Trust 24th Jan 2025

Hinkley Nuclear Power Station must not remove protection for millions of fish in the Severn Estuary. Help us hold EDF accountable and ensure the Severn Estuary’s ecosystems are protected.

he new nuclear power station at Hinkley (HPC) will draw the equivalent of 3 Olympic swimming pools of cooling water per minute from the Severn Estuary, one of the UK’s most highly designated nature conservation sites.

The huge intake pipes, equivalent to the cross-section of 6 double decker buses, are required to have an Acoustic Fish Deterrent (AFD) fitted to prevent millions of fish being sucked into the system and killed.

10 years into construction and EDF are still putting off fitting this important fish protection.

The Bristol Avon Rivers Trust (BART) is not against the power station providing vital power for the UK, BUT, is just demanding that the fish protection measures be installed as originally consented and that damage to the Severn Estuary ecosystem is properly addressed.

Sign the petition now……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. https://theriverstrust.org/about-us/news/hinkley-nuclear-power-station-must-not-remove-protection-for-millions-of-fish-in-the-severn-estuary

January 30, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Events | Leave a comment

Global Day of Action to #CloseBases

February 23, 2025 — at a military base near you!

The thousands of military bases, both foreign and domestic, around the world are a critical piece of the war machine that must be dismantled. Closing bases is a necessary step to shift the global security paradigm towards a demilitarized approach that centers common security — no one is safe until all are safe.

We call on individuals and organizations around the world to join the Global Day of Action to #CloseBases on February 23 by organizing protests at military base sites near you.

1. Bases often perpetuate colonialism, removing Indigenous people from their lands. From Panama to Guam to Puerto Rico to Okinawa to dozens of other locations across the world, militaries have taken valuable land from local populations, often pushing out Indigenous people in the process, without their consent and without reparations. For example, the entire population of the Chagos Islands was forcibly removed from the island of Diego Garcia by the UK so that it could be leased to the U.S. for an airbase.
2. Bases cost an exorbitant amount of $$. The cost of U.S. foreign military bases alone is estimated at $80 billion a year, money that could be better spent on healthcare, education, renewable energy, and so much more.
3. Bases exacerbate environmental damage and the climate crisis. Military emissions are exempted from climate agreements, like the Kyoto Protocol. The construction of bases has caused irreparable ecological damage, such as the destruction of coral reefs and the environment for endangered species in Henoko, Okinawa. Furthermore, it is well documented at hundreds of sites around the world that military bases leach toxic so-called “forever chemicals” (PFAS/PFOS) into local water supplies, which has had devastating health consequences for nearby communities.
4. 
   Bases can have violent and harmful impacts on local communities.
   Militaries have a notorious legacy of sexual violence, including kidnapping, rape, and murders of women and girls in nearby communities. Yet troops stationed at foreign bases are often afforded impunity for their crimes due to Status of Forces Agreements (SOFAs) with the so-called “host” country. Bases can also bring a rise in property taxes and inflation in areas surrounding them which has been known to push locals out.
5. Bases heighten tensions and provoke war-making. The presence of hundreds of thousands of troops, massive arsenals, and thousands of aircraft, tanks, and ships in every corner of the globe facilitates war-making and promotes an arms race. Additionally, bases make locations into targets for attack. And foreign bases implicate countries in the crimes of foreign militaries.

………………………….More actions coming soon!

Contact us at greta@worldbeyondwar.org for action planning assistance.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. more https://worldbeyondwar.org/closebases/

January 29, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Events | Leave a comment

9 February -UNITAR Hosts Forum on Nuclear Abolition: 80 Years On

 
Mirage, 23 Jan 2025

• UNITAR partners with the Japan Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (JANA) to host a public event on nuclear disarmament at the University of the Sacred Heart, Tokyo, on 9 February 2025
• The public session invites international experts on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, including Mr. Tariq Rauf, former Head of Verification and Security Policy, IAEA
• The discussion will touch on topics such as multilateral security challenges and diplomacy, prospects for the 2026 NPT review and the latest trends and efforts of the Secretary-General and UN Member States to try to advance nuclear disarmament
• After the public session, a virtual reality (VR) experience to convey the realities of the atomic bombing will be held in collaboration with Fujita Corporation and Tabimachi-gate Hiroshima Co., Ltd. for in person participants
• In person attendance of the public forum requires prior registration and ticket purchase. Livestreaming is available for Part I, free of charge

……………………………………………………………………………………………. more https://www.miragenews.com/unitar-hosts-forum-on-nuclear-abolition-80-1395104/

January 24, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Events | Leave a comment

26 January – WEBINAR Autonomous Armageddon: Nuclear Weapons and AI

Join us for a critical webinar on Sunday, January 26, at 2:00 PM GMT “Autonomous Armageddon: Nuclear Weapons and AI“, to explore the alarming dangers posed by the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into nuclear weapons systems. Hosted by three Nobel Peace Prize-winning organizations dedicated to eliminating nuclear weapons, this event will feature expert speakers, including:

Moderator: Professor Karen Hallberg, Secretary General of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, 1995 Nobel Peace Prize.

Representative of Nihon Hidankyo, 2024 Nobel Peace Prize;

Professor Geoffrey Hinton, 2024 Nobel Prize Winner in Physics;

Connor Leahy, CEO of Conjecture (AI safety research);

Dr. Ruth Mitchell, neurosurgeon and Chair of IPPNW, 1985 Nobel Peace Prize;

Melissa Parke, Executive Director of ICAN, 2017 Nobel Peace Prize; and

Together, they will discuss the general and specific risks AI presents to nuclear command and control systems, the catastrophic humanitarian and environmental consequences of nuclear war, and ongoing initiatives to mitigate these threats. We invite you to participate in this vital discussion to address the intersection of AI and nuclear weapons.

Register here or below. A recording will be made available following the session.

January 23, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Events | Leave a comment

WEBINAR: 17 January : Exposed – New book sheds light on radiation science

Jan 17, 2025 03:00 AM in Etc/GMT-10

January 9, 2025

The Scientists Who Alerted Us to the Dangers of Radiation, a new book by Ian Fairlie and Beyond Nuclear’s Cindy Folkers, will have its Canadian book launch and webinar, hosted by Canadian advocacy groups on Thursday, January 16 noon – 1 ET.

Both authors will be present for discussion and questions. This book reveals that the harmful effects of radiation exposure are more pervasive and worse than thought; and that these impacts have been known or suspected for decades but suppressed by nuclear technology proponents. It explains radiation in easy-to-grasp language that clarifies its dangers and risks. Anyone who ever wondered about radiation should read the book and attend this webinar, especially with the current push for more nuclear power in the face of the climate crisis.

The webinar co-hosted by: Ontario Clean Air Alliance, Nuclear Waste Watch, Coalition for Responsible Energy Development in New Brunswick (CRED-NB) and the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility.

Register.

January 13, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Events | Leave a comment

PETITION : Scrutinise Sizewell C

Petition to David Goldstone, Independent Chair of the Treasury’s new ‘Office of Value for Money’  https://action.stopsizewellc.org/valueformoney

We, the undersigned, urge you, as the new Office of Value for Money’s independent Chair*, to call in the Sizewell C project for urgent scrutiny, as it is currently proceeding by stealth.  Over £5 billion of public money has already been allocated to the project, and there is the potential for billions more to be spent without any guarantee of a Final Investment Decision being made:

• Sizewell C received £2.5 billion from the previous government. In the Autumn Budget 2024, a further £2.7 billion was allocated prior to a Final Investment Decision (half the value of a £5.5 billion subsidy scheme created in August 2024).
• Therefore £5.2 billion of public money has already been allocated to progress work on site – and up to £8 bn is at risk – without any guarantees that private investors will take a stake in the project, or indeed that a Final Investment Decision will be made.
• There is no transparency at all about the overall cost of the project.
• In addition to the drain on taxpayers’ funds, there are serious implications for consumers; the intended use of the Regulated Asset Base (RAB) funding model means households will pay a Sizewell tax on their electricity bills throughout construction, for many years before any electricity is generated.
• There is still uncertainty regarding major issues that affect Sizewell C’s viability and costs. For example Sizewell C still hasn’t secured a guaranteed sustainable potable water supply for its planned 60 years of operation, nor is there a final design of the sea defences needed to keep the site safe for its full 150 year lifetime. 

 The Labour government announced soon after the election that an ‘Office of Value for Money’ would be created within His Majesty’s Treasury, to scrutinise areas of public spending. Initial feedback from the Treasury indicated that Sizewell C would definitely be examined, but more recent correspondence with officials has rowed back from such a firm position. David Goldstone was announced as the independent Chair of the Office of Value for Money by Chancellor Rachel Reeves during her Budget on 30 October 2024.

January 2, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Events | Leave a comment