UK anti nuclear campaigner awarded prestigious American Geographical Society Medal
to New York to receive the Alexander and Ilse Melamid Medal by the American
Geographical Society. The award recognised his “outstanding work” in
the nuclear research field. He is chairman of Blackwater Against New
Nuclear Group – Banng – which opposes plans for a new Chinese-built power
plant on the River Blackwater in Bradwell.https://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/17283588.prof-praised-for-outstanding-contribution-to-nuclear-research/
A reminder that nuclear power has no part as a solution to climate change
Beyond Nuclear 2nd Dec 2018 , Linda Walker: Back
in the UK, the Labour Party needs to listen. How many times have you heard
people say ‘I would much rather not have nuclear power but we need it to
combat climate change’? This claim has been made so many times by the
nuclear industry and its supporters that many people now just accept it as
the lesser of two evils.
But the development of new nuclear power plants is
actually no part of the solution to tackling climate change, and is in fact
a big part of the problem.
Nuclear power is not carbon-free; is
prohibitively expensive; all projects overrun wildly on both time and budget; is a source of harmful waste which no one yet knows what to dowith; provides a terrorist target; produces routine emissions which are
harmful to health; power plants are vulnerable to the flooding which will
come as sea levels rise, and have to close down in times of drought;
Chernobyl and Fukushima have shown the widespread and long-term health and
environmental impact of accidents; and even nuclear advocates have recently
admitted the close links to nuclear weapons. https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2018/12/02/why-the-uk-labour-party-and-everyone-should-reject-nuclear-power/
South Africa Energy Minister Fires Nuclear Corporation’s Board
Daily Maverick, 7 December 2018, South African Energy Minister Jeff Radebe has dissolved the board of the Nuclear Energy Corporation, suspended the chief executive officer and appointed Rob Adam as chairman and Don Robertson as interim CEO, his department said……https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2018-12-07-south-africa-energy-minister-fires-nuclear-corporations-board/
Implications of Brexit: are nuclear energy problems being ignored?
public sphere, some detailed aspects of the implications of Brexit get
overlooked. For example, today Rachel Reeves MP, Chair of the Business,
Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee has written to energy minister
Richard Harrington, to call for clarity on a series of issues relating to
the UK’s ongoing relationship with the EU and Euratom and the
Government’s plans for civil nuclear in the event of a ‘no deal’
scenario.
http://drdavidlowry.blogspot.com/2018/12/nuclear-fallout-over-brexit-continues.html
S.C. ratepayers still vulnerable to next billion-dollar nuclear disaster
S.C. ratepayers still vulnerable to next billion-dollar disaster, Post and Courier, 9 Dec 18
South Carolina’s next multibillion-dollar disaster could be just around the corner.
That’s especially concerning given that the state is still reeling from the $9 billion fallout from abandoning two nuclear reactors that were under construction at the V.C. Summer site. SCE&G and Santee Cooper customers could end up paying for that debacle for decades…….https://www.postandcourier.com/opinion/editorials/s-c-ratepayers-still-vulnerable-to-next-billion-dollar-disaster/article_d82b92b0-f4e8-11e8-82e9-bb4472ba962c.html
Energy efficiency the starting point for effective climate policies
Colin Hines, Guardian 6th Dec 2018 : a massive increase in economic activity arising from
environmental policies that are clearly seen to improve prospects for the
majority through an emphasis on green jobs in every community.
The obvious starting point is to make every home, commercial and industrial building
energy efficient worldwide. In the US this is one of the central demands of
the youngest of the new members of Congress, Alexandria Ocasio–Cortez,
with her call for a select committee for a green new deal, an initiative
supported by Bernie Sanders and other elected progressives.
Also key will be the rapid transition to renewables and low-carbon local transport
systems. To reduce political opposition to such a shift will require cash
to help communities initially threatened by such measures, from scrappage
schemes for polluting cars, subsidies for a rapid growth in electric public
and private transport, through to job conversion schemes for Polish coal
miners threatened by the latest climate talks.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/06/compared-to-the-threat-of-climate-change-brexit-is-a-distraction
The column I didn’t want to write about Julian Assange
Does anyone really think such a system could produce a fair trial?
SMH, By Elizabeth Farrelly, 8 December 2018 This is a piece I had no desire to write. Julian Assange, still holed up after six years in his self-imposed Knightsbridge prison, his fine view of Harrods’ Christmas lights filtered through an encircling fence of bobbies, has so thoroughly fallen from favour that even smart and kind-hearted people (and here I include self) find themselves somewhere between bored and hostile. Yet two questions remain: is this view manufactured? And, either way, should Assange be dumped into the lightless sewers of America’s imperial security system?
Put it together. An old arrest warrant for skipping bail on a charge that was always feeble and has since been dropped, a refusal to deny extradition intentions, secret charges emerging from a secret court over an act that may not even be illegal and for which the principal culprit has already been pardoned. Does anyone really think such a system could produce a fair trial?
All arms controls treaties threatened as USA prepares to abandon one
As One Arms Treaty Falls Apart, Others Look Shakier, U.S-Russia sparring over Cold War accord on nuclear missiles raises broader concerns on traditional framework for arms control, WSJ, By Michael R. Gordon, Dec. 7, 2018
The impending collapse of a Cold War-era treaty banning U.S. and Russian intermediate-range missiles is spurring broader concerns about the very future of arms control.
Responding to appeals from its European allies, the Trump administration has given Moscow 60 days to resolve the U.S. allegations that it has punched a hole in the accord by deploying ground-launched cruise missiles.
A central question in the dispute is whether anything can be done to patch up the 1987 accord and, if not, whether a separate treaty limiting long-range nuclear arms, which will lapse in early 2021 unless extended, will be the next domino to fall.……… https://www.wsj.com/articles/looming-demise-of-a-nuclear-treaty-threatens-to-upend-others-1544187603
The other big Trump-Putin story: Nuclear weapons treaty hangs in the balance as Russia-US tensions rise
- Last month, Trump announced his decision to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces, or INF, Treaty, an agreement that eliminated an entire class of nuclear weapons from U.S. and Russian arsenals.
- The 1987 treaty, signed by Russia and the U.S., prohibits the production or testing of ground-launched cruise missiles with a range of approximately 300 to 3,400 miles.
- The treaty has kept nuclear-tipped missiles off the European continent for the last 30 years.
UK’s so-called “nuclear renaissance” is in crisis again
News Lens 22nd Nov 2018 ,The UK’s so-called ‘nuclear renaissance’ is once again in crisis. In
November, it was announced that Toshiba were pulling out of investing in the new Moorside nuclear power station after years of expensive planning, for which British citizens will be paying for years to come.
Meanwhile in Scotland (nuclear power is not being pursued and emissions are falling faster than elsewhere in the UK), 98 percent of final electricity demand was met by wind power alone in October.
Just as the ‘atomic dream’ is rendered ever more clearly obsolete by renewables, UK Government nuclear
enthusiasm intensifies. The UK has one of the most ambitious nuclear new build agendas in the world. The program was justified on the basis that it would produce power “significantly before 2025.” It was claimed “keeping the lights on” with nuclear, would be cheaper than renewables and require no subsidy. The first new nuclear station, Hinkley C, would be operating by Christmas 2017.
https://international.thenewslens.com/article/108612
UK’s environmental campaigners “Extinction Rebellion” block roads around London’s Parliament Square
Guardian 24th Nov 2018 Dozens of campaigners blocked the roads around Parliament Square to
highlight concerns about the environment on Saturday. About 50 activists
from Extinction Rebellion, a direct action group that has been coordinating
a campaign of civil disobedience which has brought areas of the capital to
a standstill in recent weeks, risked arrest by standing defiantly in roads
in front of queueing traffic. An estimated 1,000 more demonstrators, many
clad in black clothing, massed on the green in Parliament Square for what
organisers labelled a “memorial service” to mourn the loss of life on the
planet.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/24/environmental-protesters-block-access-to-parliament-square-extinction-rebellion
Calls for permanent shutdown of Hunterston nuclear reactor 3, with its 350 cracks
The National 22nd Nov 2018 NUCLEAR experts have warned of a Chernobyl-like “catastrophic accident”after more than 350 cracks were discovered in the power reactor at the
Hunterston plant in North Ayrshire. This breaches the Government’s agreed
safety limit and has prompted calls for a permanent shutdown. Hunterston’s
operator, EDF Energy, insist the reactor is safe.
electricity in 1976, and is the oldest in the UK. It was closed in March
this year to allow inspectors to probe for cracks.
postponed as more cracks have been found. EDF is now hoping for permission
from the UK government’s Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) to fire up the
reactor on 18 December. It follows a long-running investigation by the
Ferret website. In April they revealed that new cracks had been discovered
in the reactor, but at the time neither EDF nor the ONR would say how many.
In May, EDF said that 39 cracks had been found and they were “happening at
a slightly higher rate than modelled”. But yesterday, the website reported
that more than 350 cracks had been discovered.
https://www.thenational.scot/news/17239354.nuclear-expert-warns-of-chernobyl-like-disaster-at-scottish-plant/
The world heads for Armageddon, as nuclear weapons control is wound back
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Unwrapping Armageddon: The Erosion of Nuclear Arms Control https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-11-13/unwrapping-armageddon-erosion-nuclear-arms-control Terminating the INF treaty – which bans land-based cruise and ballistic missiles with a range of between 300 and 3400 miles – is not, in and of itself, a fatal blow to the network of treaties and agreements dating back to the 1963 treaty that ended atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons. But coupled with other actions – George W. Bush’s decision to withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM) in 2002 and the Obama administration’s program to upgrade the nuclear weapons infrastructure – the tapestry of agreements that has, at least in part, limited these terrifying creations, is looking increasingly frayed. “Leaving the INF,” says Sergey Rogov of the Institute of U.S. and Canadian Studies, “could bring the whole structure of arms control crashing down.”
Lynn Rusten, the former senior director for arms control in the National Security Agency Council warns, “This is opening the door to an all-out arms race.” Washington’s rationale for exiting the INF Treaty is that the Russians deployed the 9M729 cruise missile that the US claims violates the agreement, although Moscow denies it and the evidence has not been made public. Russia countercharges that the US ABM system—Aegis Ashore—deployed in Romania and planned for Poland could be used to launch similar medium range missiles. If this were a disagreement over weapon capability, inspections would settle the matter. But the White House—in particular National Security Advisor John Bolton—is less concerned with inspections than extracting the US from agreements that in any way restrain the use of American power, be it military or economic. Thus, Trump dumped the Iran nuclear agreement, not because Iran is building nuclear weapons or violating the agreement, but because the administration wants to use economic sanctions to pursue regime change in Teheran. In some ways, the INF agreement is low hanging fruit. The 1987 treaty banned only land-based medium range missiles, not those launched by sea or air —where the Americans hold a strong edge—and it only covered the U.S. and Russia. Other nuclear-armed countries, particularly China, India, North Korea, Israel and Pakistan have deployed a number of medium range nuclear-armed missiles. One of the arguments Bolton makes for exiting the INF is that it would allow the US to counter China’s medium range missiles. But if the concern was controlling intermediate range missiles, the obvious path would be to expand the treaty to other nations and include air and sea launched weapons. Not that that would be easy. China has lots of intermediate range missiles, because most its potential antagonists, like Japan or US bases in Asia, are within the range of such missiles. The same goes for Pakistan, India, and Israel. Intermediate range weapons—sometimes called “theater” missiles—do not threaten the US mainland the way that similar US missiles threaten China and Russia. Beijing and Moscow can be destroyed by long-range intercontinental missiles, but also by theater missiles launched from ships or aircraft. One of the reasons that Europeans are so opposed to withdrawing from the INF is that, in the advent of nuclear war, medium-range missiles on their soil will make them a target.
START caps the number of US and Russian deployed nuclear weapons at 1550, no small number. The Bush administration’s withdrawal from the 1972 ABM treaty in 2002 was the first major blow to the treaty framework. Anti-ballistic missiles are inherently destabilizing, because the easiest way to defeat such systems is to overwhelm them by expanding the number of launchers and warheads. Bolton—a longtime foe of the ABM agreement—recently bragged that dumping the treaty had no effect on arms control. But the treaty’s demise has shelved START talks, and it was the ABM’s deployment in Eastern Europe—along with NATO’s expansion up to the Russian borders—that led to Moscow deploying the cruise missile now in dispute. While Bolton and Trump are more aggressive about terminating agreements, it was the Obama administration’s decision to spend $1.6 trillion to upgrade and modernize US nuclear weapons that now endangers one of the central pillars of the nuclear treaty framework, the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). That agreement ended the testing of nuclear weapons, slowing the development of new weapons, particularly miniaturization and warheads with minimal yields. The former would allow more warheads on each missile, the latter could increase the possibility of using nuclear weapons without setting off a full-scale nuclear exchange. Nukes are tricky to design, so you don’t want to deploy one without testing it. The Americans have bypassed some of the obstacles created by the CTBT by using computers like the National Ignition Facility. The B-61 Mod 11 warhead, soon-to-be-deployed in Europe, was originally a city killer, but labs at Livermore, CA and Los Alamos and Sandia, NM turned it into a bunker buster, capable of taking out command and control centers buried deep in the ground. Nevertheless, the military and the nuclear establishment—ranging from companies such as Lockheed Martin and Honeywell International to university research centers—have long felt hindered by the CTBT. Add the Trump administration’s hostility to anything that constrains US power and the CTBT may be next on the list. Restarting nuclear testing will end any controls on weapons of mass destruction. And since Article VI of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) requires nuclear-armed powers to eventually disarm their weapons of mass destruction, that agreement may go as well. In a very short time countries like South Korea, Japan and Saudi Arabia will join the nuclear club, with South Africa and Brazil in the wings. The latter two countries researched producing nuclear weapons in the 1980s, and South Africa actually tested one. The demise of the INF agreement will edge the world closer to nuclear war. Since medium range missiles shorten the warning time for a nuclear attack from 30 minutes to 10 minutes or less, countries will keep their weapons on a hair trigger. “Use them or lose them” is the philosophy that impels the tactics of nuclear war. In the past year, Russia and NATO held very large military exercises on one another’s borders. Russian, US and Chinese fighter planes routinely play games of chicken. What happens when one of those “games” goes wrong? The US and the Soviet Union came within minutes of an accidental war on at least two occasions, and, with so many actors and so many weapons, it will be only a matter of time before some country interprets a radar image incorrectly and goes to DEFCON 1—imminent nuclear war. The INF Treaty came about because of strong opposition and huge demonstrations in Europe and the United States. That kind of pressure, coupled with a pledge by countries not to deploy such weapons, will be required again, lest the entire tapestry of agreements that kept the horror of nuclear war at bay vanish. |
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The Engineer invites you to vote on nuclear power for UK
Poll results as at late 21st November This week’s poll: has UK nuclear new build hit the rails? The Engineer, UK
250 safety mishaps in lat 4 years involving UK’s nuclear submarines
The Ferret 18th Nov 2018
The Ferret 18th Nov 2018 The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has recorded more than 500 safety mishaps
with nuclear submarines on the Clyde since 2006 – half of them in the
last four years. UK defence minister, Stuart Andrew MP, has disclosed that
there have been 259 “nuclear site event reports” for Trident submarines
based at Faslane over the last 12 years. Over the same period there have
been 246 safety events on nuclear-powered but conventionally-armed
“hunter-killer” submarines berthed or docked at the naval base. Overall
23 incidents were categorised as having a “high potential” for leaking
radioactivity into the environment or within a submarine or building. Some
148 incidents were said to have a “moderate potential for future release
or exposure”.
https://theferret.scot/faslane-500-nuclear-safety-incidents/
1 This Month.
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Now until to February 10, 2026 Radioactive waste storage in France: the debate is finally open! How to participate?
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