Who’s next? Nuclear proliferation is not fast, but it is frightening
Experts worry about East Asia and the Middle East,
In march 1963 President John Kennedy lamented his failure to negotiate a ban on nuclear tests. “Personally,” he warned, “I am haunted by the feeling that by 1970, unless we are successful, there may be ten nuclear powers instead of four—and by 1975, 15 or 20.”
Kennedy was wrong. While many countries explored the idea of nuclear weapons from the 1950s to the 1990s, comparatively few took the next step of actually trying to develop the ability to build them (see chart). Of those few some stopped because the country itself dissolved (Yugoslavia), some because of changes to domestic politics (Brazil), some because of pressure from allies (South Korea) and some through force of arms (Iraq)….. (subscribers only)https://www.economist.com/briefing/2021/01/30/nuclear-proliferation-is-not-fast-but-it-is-frightening
Peace, justice groups stand out against nuclear weapons GreenfieldRecorder, By MARY BYRNE, Staff Writer1/24/2021
GREENFIELD — Braving below-freezing temperatures Saturday morning, members of local peace and justice groups met on the common to join others worldwide in a “standout” for nuclear disarmament.
“We all know if there’s ever a nuclear war, we would pretty much be decimated,” said Emily Greene, a member of Racial Justice Rising.
Daily Mail 22nd Jan 2021, The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons took effect Friday — but the milestone is marred by the lack of signatures from the world’s major
nuclear powers. Despite the missing participants, the occasion was marked
by praise from the United Nations and even Pope Francis.
Greenpeace 22nd Jan 2021, Nuclear arms are the most destructive, indiscriminate and monstrous weapons ever produced – but today, we can all celebrate a major milestone in the
long march towards peace: the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
(TPNW) is now part of international law!
David Lowry’s Blog 10th Jan 2021, A paranoid president and 7,000 plutonium warheads. Of all the issues raised by the Trump boycott of the inauguration of Joe Biden as President on 20 January, the issue of how the codes that control the launch of US nuclear weapons is the most pressing and terrifying. Here are several articles addressing this problem: Here’s what happens to the ‘nuclear football’ if Trump skips Biden’s inauguration.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah chief says nuclear button with “crazy fool” Trump, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-lebanon-crisis-hezbollah/lebanons-hezbollah-chief-says-nuclear-button-with-crazy-fool-trump-idUSKBN29D2OQ BEIRUT (Reuters) 8 Jan 21, – Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Friday recent events in the U.S. would have global repercussions and prayed that God protect the world until Jan. 20 when President elect Joe Biden is inaugurated.“The nuclear button is in the hands of a crazy fool called Trump,” Nasrallah said in a televised address.
Nuclear in France: why bother? Les Echos, The energy produced from the atom is much less competitive than that from wind turbines and solar panels, assures Julien Tchernia, ekWateur president. So let’s stop supporting a sector that no longer keeps its economic promises, he writes.
By Julien Tchernia (president and co-founder of ekWateur) Jan 7, 2021 An article or post published on renewable energy always gives rise to a series of derogatory comments from nuclear advocates. Even if the content does not mention or refer to nuclear, its aficionados take to the pen to denigrate renewable modes of production and make the article of their favorite mode of production.
Rex Newman, 6 Jan 21, Trump did not just leave a hawkish nuke weapons problem. The evil, dumb son of a bitch was going to start testing nuclear weapons again. Tactical nukes. All treaties abrogated. Exploding nuclear bombs to stop hurricanes. He was aiming to use tactical nukes. Space wars. He has made a nuclear accident, a hundred times more likely. He has done it by deregulatings nuke reactors supervision so stupidly and capriciously post Fukushima. By not setting up programs to make reactors infratrucure more safe, since fukushima.
Especially in the face of increased earhquake and hurricane activity. San louis obisbo. S carolina for earthquakes. 23 coastal reactors for hurricanes.
The nuclear reactor corruption in ohio, three reactors with holes in their heads ready to blow kept open w ratepayers subaidizing them. Came from the disgusting repuklikans and trump.
The second plutonium pit factory. One man nuclear obliteration of the world. 3 more nuke catastrophes inl woolsey brunswick. Hawkish is a terrible euphemistic understatement for trumps nuke policies though i have heard it before. Probly one or more of the 94 shitty old nuclear complexes will blow w nuclear waste fuel fires. 20 pounds of hi level nuke waste from a nuclear reactor, w cs137 plutonium st90 co60 in it will kill a person in 20 minutes who is 15 ft from it. The reactors make tons of that shit every year. 100 billions of a gram of any of that shit especially polonium and cesium will murder a person. A diver i knew was exposed to an open box of iridium used to check ship hulls. 100 grams of the shit destroyed half the divers body and killed his diver mate, 50 feet under water.
Dont expect so much better from biden as he reappoints victoria nuland ,who put the neonazis in power in ukraine. There will be onw or two nuke catastrophes in the usa and ukraine the media cant hide like inl brunswig and woolsey. The economy will continue to go to shit. There will be an uprising against biden. Hopefully a bunch of trump nazis will be wiped out.
Nuclear waste to be dumped in landfills nothing done about hanford or los alamos or san onofre at san diego tens of thousands of tons of the worst hilevel nuke waste possible store above ground in flimsy cannisters in new mexico texas az idaho, wash, san onofre that will exlode catch fire and poison the usa. Americium241 as poisonous as plutonium cheap smoke detectors full of that shit poisoning ladfills across the usa. Depleted uranium everywhere. Dozens of nuclear meltdowns. The artic is full of millions of tons of nuclear waste from old american russian french and uk nuke subs. From reactors dumped into the sea.
90 thousand acres of nuclear waste and nuc reactor garbage and nuke fallout from two meltdowns burned into the air at the idaho national lab fire. 70 years with 60 reactors and thousands of tons of the worst radioactive crap possible burned.into the air, in 2018 under trumps watch.
Greentech Media , 5 Jan 20, “………..Despite the encouraging noises emerging from government agencies, it is still far from clear how SMRs will overcome many of the challenges that are causing mainstream nuclear to suffer in markets such as the U.S. and the U.K.
“No new nuclear power plant is viable in the U.S. now,” said Edward Kee, CEO and principal consultant at the Nuclear Economics Consulting Group, in an email.
“Existing merchant nuclear power plants are closing early because they cannot cover cash-generating costs with sales into the electricity markets. [It’s] hard to see how a new nuclear power plant of any design could recover investment in this market.”
As it stands today, the only country in the world that can claim to have a viable SMR industry is Russia. The country’s first SMR, deployed as a floating power station aboard the Akademik Lomonosov barge, was commissioned in 2020.
In November the World Nuclear Association reported that Russian state corporation Rosatom is planning to build another SMR in Yakutia, in the far eastern part of the country.
Spurning the advanced designs favored by Western developers such as NuScale and Rolls-Royce, Rosatom is building its SMRs with reactors that it has been using in nuclear icebreakers for years, the association said.
Asahi Shimbun 30th Dec 2020, Exceedingly high radiation levels found inside crippled reactor buildings
at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant were labeled by nuclear regulators as an “extremely serious” challenge to the shutdown process and overall decommissioning of the site.
The Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) said a huge amount of radioactive materials apparently had attached to shield
plugs of the containment vessels in the No. 2 and No. 3 reactors. Radiation levels were estimated at 10 sieverts per hour, a lethal dose for anyone who spends even an hour in the vicinity, according to experts.
The finding would make it exceptionally difficult for workers to move the shield plugs, raising the prospect that the plan to decommission the reactors will have to be reassessed.
East Anglian Daily Times 31st Dec 2020,’I will never see the stars again’ – Sizewell sisters ask PM to stop
construction of power station. Two young girls have written to the Prime
Minister with their concerns about the creation of a new nuclear power
station in Suffolk. Eleven-year-old Evelyn Fairhurst and her nine-year-old
sister Merran wrote letters to Boris Johnson about the proposed £20billion
project. The sisters live in Sizewell hamlet and are concerned about the
impact that Sizewell C could have on their surroundings, including RSPB
Minsmere, where their mum Katie works. The girls were asked by local
campaigners if they would like to voice their concerns by writing a letter
to Mr Johnson. “The kids were really keen to do it,” said Mrs Fairhurst.
With respect to the achievement of net zero emissions for Canada, while nuclear energy may be able to make some claim of being low carbon relative to conventional fossil fuels, it cannot be considered “non-emitting or “clean.”
The nuclear fuel cycle is associated with severe environmental impacts and risks. Uranium mining in Canada, for example, generates hundreds of thousands of tonnes of mine tailings each year that are radioactive, acidic and hold the unique distinction among mining wastes of having been found to be “toxic” as defined by the Canadian Environmental Protection Act.
At the other end of the process, despite more than 40 years of effort, the question of what to do with the 90,000 highly radioactive waste fuel bundles generated each year by Canadian nuclear reactors remains unresolved.
Canada has cheaper, safer and more reliable options for a low-carbon energy transition. Those alternatives, including energy efficiency and renewable and distributed energy resources, need to be the focus of its attention.
Philo Farnsworth wasn’t working on “cold fusion.” He was working on nuclear fusion (hot plasma). Work on his “Fusor” reactor design continues with the Polywell reactor, but remains 20-plus years in the future.
It is irresponsible for Don to bring up nuclear fission without mentioning the seriousness of its radioactive byproducts, some of which have a half-life of 200,000 years. Radioactive reactor garbage is an environmental catastrophe that has no solution. Chernobyl accidents will always happen.
Don’s prejudices against batteries are not based on scientific fact. The 100MW South Australian Hornsdale Power Reserve is just one of many successful utility battery storage installations. Cheap battery recycling is a strategic part of Tesla’s corporate plan.
Our leaders let the rooftop solar industry become stillborn by allowing the demise of net metering. There are no wind turbines in our canyons.
Urban pollution has decreased 20-30% during the pandemic, proving consumer choices do matter. We can switch to LED lighting and on-demand water heaters. Electric vehicles are quiet and don’t pollute when stuck in traffic. Don, I bought solar panels and a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle. How are you helping?
The Madness of Nuclear Deterrence, The dangers have only become more acute in the decades since I tried to convince Thatcher. WSJ, Mikhail Gorbachev, April 29, 2019
‘Deterrence cannot protect the world from a nuclear blunder or nuclear terrorism,” George Shultz, William Perry and Sam Nunn recently wrote. “Both become more likely when there is no sustained, meaningful dialogue between Washington and Moscow.” I agree with them about the urgent need for strategic engagement between the U.S. and Russia. I am also convinced that nuclear deterrence, instead of protecting the world, is keeping it in constant jeopardy.
I recall my heated discussions of this issue with Margaret Thatcher. We argued about many things and often found common ground, but on this question she fought to the last. Nuclear weapons, she insisted, prevented World War III.
I asked her: “Are you really comfortable sitting on a nuclear powder keg?” I showed her a diagram representing the world’s nuclear arsenals, grouped into hundreds of squares. Each square, I told her, is enough to eliminate human civilization as we know it. I was unable to persuade Margaret Thatcher. We hear the same arguments today, including in the U.S. and Russia.
Yet nuclear weapons are like a rifle hanging on the wall in a play written and staged by a person unknown. We do not know the playwright’s intent. Nuclear weapons could go off because of a technical failure, human error or computer error. The last alarms me the most. Computer systems are now used everywhere. And how many times have computers and electronics failed—in aviation, in industry, in various control systems?
Nuclear weapons might also be launched in response to a false alarm. If the flight time of the missiles is reduced, leaving less time to detect a false alarm, the probability of a mistaken retaliatory launch is bound to rise……. (subscribers only) https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-madness-of-nuclear-deterrence-11556577762
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