nuclear-news

The News That Matters about the Nuclear Industry Fukushima Chernobyl Mayak Three Mile Island Atomic Testing Radiation Isotope

WSJ’s Chief Foreign Correspondent Declares It’s Over For Ukraine In Kursk

by Tyler Durden, Thursday, Mar 13, 2025,  https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/ukraine-losing-its-trump-card-key-kursk-town-liberated-russian-troops

 It’s a major turning point in the conflict when the Chief Foreign-Affairs Correspondent for The Wall Street Journal declares that Ukrainian forces are now in a full-on withdrawal from Russia’s Kursk amid rapid Russian gains…

Reuters too is reporting that Ukrainian forces are losing in Kursk:

Ukrainian troops appeared on the point of losing their hard-won foothold inside Russia’s Kursk region on Wednesday as Moscow claimed further advances there and military bloggers on both sides said Kyiv’s forces were withdrawing.

Ukraine sprang one of the biggest shocks of the war on August 6 last year by storming across the border and grabbing a chunk of land inside Russia, boosting citizens’ morale and gaining a potential bargaining chip.

There are no more cards to play, as Trump put it last month while hosting Zelensky at the White House, and now this assessment proves truer than ever.

Ukraine is losing the little bit of leverage it might have had left amid discussions toward preparing negotiations with Moscow. Russia’s Kursk is now fast being retaken, and Ukrainian forces are folding, as on Wednesday Russian troops raised their flags over the key town of Sudzha .

The central square of the town in the southwestern Kursk region was scene of where Russia’s Airborne Troops published a short aerial video showing soldiers unfurling a Russian flag as well as military unit banners. Other state media outlets subsequently featured the footage. Newsweek has underscored that Ukraine is fast “losing its trump card.”

Moscow has been focusing its forces on to regaining control around Sudzha in recent days, having retaken 12 settlements in the border region earlier this week.

Fighting is said to still be ongoing, but Moscow forces have asserted control over the center. Ukrainian media also acknowledges the following:

Russian troops have launched an offensive on the Ukrainian-controlled town of Sudzha in Russia’s Kursk Oblast, entering the settlement, the DeepState monitoring group, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), and the Russian state news agency TASS claimed on March 12. Fighting in the town is reportedly ongoing.

…According to DeepState, Russian forces have entered the eastern part of Sudzha and are entrenching their positions. TASS published purported drone footage claiming that Russian troops had entered the town center and raised a Russian flag.

War bloggers have been closely monitoring the fight for control of Sudzha, with Ruslan Leviev of the war monitor Conflict Intelligence Team describing that Ukrainian troops have been in steady retreat from the entire region.

“We’ve seen that all the areas coming under Russian control have been taken with little to no resistance. The same goes for Sudzha,” Leviev said. “Today, we’re seeing them on the opposite side [of the town]. And again, there are no images of any fighting.”

“At this point, it’s fair to say that the entire city of Sudzha is now under Russian control,” he described of the ground situation. 

While months ago Ukrainian forces occupied several hundred square kilometers of Russian territory in Kursk region, as of Wednesday that control has shrunk to less than 200 square kilometers (77 square miles), according to the Ukraine-military linked DeepState war tracker.

Video said to be from on the ground in Russia’s Sudzha, including interviews with elderly Russians that stayed the whole time:

Recall that in the late last month famous Oval Office blow-up involving Trump, Zelensky, and J.D. Vance – Trump told the Ukrainian leader: “You don’t have the cards right now.”

That now appears truer than ever, at a moment the Russians are studying the new US-Ukraine proposal for a 30-day truce in order to jump-start direct negotiations to end the war.

March 14, 2025 Posted by | Russia, Ukraine, weapons and war | Leave a comment

How the IEA is grossly biased against renewables – the IEA should be scrapped

David Toke, Mar 11, 2025

The International Energy Agency (the IEA) is hopelessly biased against renewable energy both in terms of the projections of future energy development it has made and also in the way it frames the statistics about energy supply. The statistical methods used by the IEA favour fossil fuels and nuclear power. The IEA does not give sufficient attention to energy efficiency. These things can be illustrated by reference to analysis of its past energy projections and also by analysing the way it counts energy statistics. The question that must be posed, is what is the point of the IEA if it gets things so badly wrong…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Conclusion

The way that the IEA compiles its statistics is grossly biased against renewable energy and in favour of fossil fuels and nuclear power. Its future energy projections have been abysmal, and this failure illustrates its appalling bias. The IEA’s approach also obscures the impact of energy transition which will involve increasing dominance by electric-battery and heat pump technologies. The IEA fails to give priority to energy efficiency. Rather it tends to talk more about absolute increases in energy consumption, such as in data centres (for example see HERE).

Yet such notions of accelerated absolute increases in energy consumption have already proved to be overblown. This is demonstrated by China’s DeepSeek AI project which is being powered by a small fraction of the energy consumption of earlier AI projects (See HERE). The IEA is also keen on pushing nuclear power fantasies, including small modular reactors (see HERE).

In general the IEA tends to talk about energy security rather than energy transition, as can be seem in the executive summary of its 2024 World Energy Energy Outlook (see HERE). Yet energy transition will implicitly give us energy security. It will do through the replacement of of insecure and volatile fossil fuel supplies with renewable energy and electrically based energy efficient technologies.

The key to understand this is that the IEA is not independent in focus or finance. The IEA is financed by a collection of mostly western governments. We should remember that the IEA was formed to, in effect, help western countries cope with the fact that the western based oil companies lost control of oil markets after 1973. The Secretariat is based in nuclear-dominated France. The information it gives is seriously flawed.

The conditions which led to the IEA’s formation have fundamentally changed. Our biggest challenge now is energy transition and the climate struggle to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The IEA’s projections are wholly unreliable and its statistics give a false impression of what is happening.

The main energy trade groups already have their own trade associations – eg IRENA for renewables, the WNA for nuclear, and we know that the oil and gas companies look after themselves. The IEA serves no useful purpose. It needs to be scrapped. A new intergovernmental organisation could be created, to which the IEA staff could be redeployed, with a mission of promoting energy efficiency technologies. https://davidtoke.substack.com/p/how-the-iea-is-grossly-biased-against

March 14, 2025 Posted by | ENERGY | Leave a comment

We’re #1 in Selling Weapons!

American Exceptionalism Defined

Bill Astore, Mar 12, 2025

We’re #1 (once again) in selling weapons! Amazingly, the USA now accounts for 43% of the world’s trade in deadly weaponry. No country beats more plowshares into swords and pruning hooks into spears than America, which is also, obviously, the most Christian nation in the world.

Let’s take a look at a useful chart from Stephen Semler (be sure to check out his blog on Substack):

Finding #1: The US is the world’s largest arms dealer

The US accounts for 43% of global arms exports, more than the next seven largest arms-exporting countries combined. All the countries outside the top eight account for less than 17% of the worldwide total. – [Graph on original]

Way back in 2012, I wrote a column for TomDispatch: “Weapons ‘r’ us,” in which I examined America’s dominance of the weapons trade. Here’s what I wrote back then:

Yes, we’re the world’s foremost “merchants of death,” the title of a best-selling exposé of the international arms trade published to acclaim in the U.S. in 1934. Back then, most Americans saw themselves as war-avoiders rather than as war-profiteers. The evil war-profiteers were mainly European arms makers like Germany’s Krupp, France’s Schneider, or Britain’s Vickers.

Not that America didn’t have its own arms merchants. As the authors of Merchants of Death noted, early on our country demonstrated a “Yankee propensity for extracting novel death-dealing knickknacks from [our] peddler’s pack.” Amazingly, the Nye Committee in the U.S. Senate devoted 93 hearings from 1934 to 1936 to exposing America’s own “greedy munitions interests.” Even in those desperate depression days, a desire for profit and jobs was balanced by a strong sense of unease at this deadly trade, an unease reinforced by the horrors of and hecatombs of dead from the First World War.

We are uneasy no more. Today we take great pride (or at least have no shame) in being by far the world’s number one arms-exporting nation. A few statistics bear this out. From 2006 to 2010, the U.S. accounted for nearly one-third of the world’s arms exports, easily surpassing a resurgent Russia in the “Lords of War” race. Despite a decline in global arms sales in 2010 due to recessionary pressures, the U.S. increased its market share, accounting for a whopping 53% of the trade that year. Last year saw the U.S. on pace to deliver more than $46 billion in foreign arms sales. Who says America isn’t number one anymore?

Who, indeed? And we remain, of course, our own best customers, as this year’s Pentagon budget soars to $900 billion, even as the Trump administration argues for “peace through strength,” or, put bluntly, peace through superior firepower.

Only in America is Jesus heavily armed and packing heat. Truly exceptional!

March 14, 2025 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

‘Global weirding’: climate whiplash hitting world’s biggest cities, study reveals

 Climate whiplash is already hitting major cities around the world,
bringing deadly swings between extreme wet and dry weather as the climate
crisis intensifies, a report has revealed. Dozens more cities, including
Lucknow, Madrid and Riyadh have suffered a climate “flip” in the last
20 years, switching from dry to wet extremes, or vice versa.

The report analysed the 100 most populous cities, plus 12 selected ones, and found
that 95% of them showed a distinct trend towards wetter or drier weather.
The changing climate of cities can hit citizens with worsened floods and
droughts, destroy access to clean water, sanitation and food, displace
communities and spread disease. Cities where the water infrastructure is
already poor, such as Karachi and Khartoum, suffer the most.

 Guardian 12th March 2025 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/mar/12/global-weirding-climate-whiplash-hitting-worlds-biggest-cities-study-reveals

March 14, 2025 Posted by | climate change | Leave a comment

EDF’s salt marsh plans pause met with ‘great relief’ on either side of the Severn

By Carmelo Garcia – Local Democracy Reporter,  Gloucester News Centre 11th March 2025

Villagers on both sides of the Severn are relieved EDF has shelved their controversial plans to create salt marshes which were linked to the construction of nuclear power plant Hinkley Point C.

EDF had drawn up the environmental schemes as an alternative to their plan to install an acoustic fish deterrent system at Hinkley Point C in Somerset to scare fish away from the site as the Bristol Channel is home to numerous species such as eels, herring, salmon and sprats.

However, the plans to create salt marshes were met with strong opposition at Arlingham, Rodley near Westbury-on-Severn in Gloucestershire and at Littleton-upon-Severn in South Gloucestershire and Kingston Seymour in Somerset.

And now the energy firm says he plan to install an acoustic fish deterrent system is back on thanks to new innovative technology.

This has been met with relief in communities on both side of the Severn. Councillor Richard Maisey (L, Severn), who represents Arlingham on Stroud District Council said the residents are happy with the outcome.

He attended the public meeting held in the village regarding the proposals last year and said the news has been met with “great reliel”.

“The general feeling is happiness that it doesn’t appear to be going ahead,” he said.

“They haven’t totally written it off but they have indicated it is not their intention to proceed.”………………………………………………………. https://gloucesternewscentre.co.uk/edfs-salt-marsh-plans-pause-met-with-great-relief-on-either-side-of-the-severn/

March 14, 2025 Posted by | environment, UK | Leave a comment

Fukushima Remembered At URENCO’s Uranium Enrichment Plant Today in Cheshire

Campaigners gathered today at the UK’s uranium enrichment plant to
remember Fukushima and hand over a letter of concern about uranium
enrichment. Today marks the 14th anniversary of the Fukushima catastrophe.
On March 11, 2011, a record 9.0-magnitude quake struck off the coast of
Japan’s Tohoku region, triggering a tsunami with waves that reached a
maximum height of 40.5 meters and causing a triple nuclear meltdown at the
Fukushima No.1 nuclear plant.

 Radiation Free Lakeland 11th March 2025, https://mariannewildart.wordpress.com/2025/03/11/fukushima-remembered-at-urencos-uranium-enrichment-plant-today-in-cheshire/

March 14, 2025 Posted by | UK, Uranium | Leave a comment

‘Nervous and rushed’: Massive Fukushima plant cleanup work involves high radiation and stress

Experts say the hard work and huge challenges of decommissioning the plant are just beginning. There are estimations that the work could take more than a century. The government and TEPCO have an initial completion target of 2051, but the retrieval of melted fuel debris is already three years behind, and many big issues remain undecided.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS, 12 March 2025

OKUMA, Japan (AP) – The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant’s radiation levels have significantly dropped since the cataclysmic meltdown in Japan 14 years ago. Workers walk around in many areas wearing only surgical masks and regular clothes.

It’s a different story for those who enter the reactor buildings, including the three damaged in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. They must use maximum protection – full facemasks with filters, multi-layered gloves and socks, shoe covers, hooded hazmat coveralls and a waterproof jacket, and a helmet.

As workers remove melted fuel debris from the reactors in a monumental nuclear cleanup effort that could take more than a century, they are facing both huge amounts of psychological stress and dangerous levels of radiation.

The Associated Press, which recently visited the plant for a tour and interviews, takes a closer look.

A remote-controlled extendable robot with a tong had several mishaps including equipment failures before returning in November with a tiny piece of melted fuel from inside the damaged No. 2 reactor.

That first successful test run is a crucial step in what will be a daunting, decades-long decommissioning that must deal with at least 880 tons of melted nuclear fuel that has mixed with broken parts of internal structures and other debris inside the three ruined reactors…………………………………………………

Radiation levels are still dangerously high inside the No. 2 reactor building, where the melted fuel debris is behind a thick concrete containment wall. Earlier decontamination work reduced those radiation levels to a fraction of what they used to be.

In late August, small groups took turns doing their work helping the robot in 15- to 30-minute shifts to minimize radiation exposure. They have a remotely controlled robot, but it has to be manually pushed in and out.

“Working under high levels of radiation (during a short) time limit made us feel nervous and rushed,” said Yasunobu Yokokawa, a team leader for the mission. “It was a difficult assignment.”

Full-face masks reduced visibility and made breathing difficult, an extra waterproof jacket made it sweaty and hard to move, and triple-layered gloves made their fingers clumsy, Yokokawa said.

To eliminate unnecessary exposure, they taped around gloves and socks and carried a personal dosimeter to measure radiation. Workers also rehearsed the tasks they’d perform to minimize exposure…………………………………………………..

 a growing number of workers are concerned about safety and radiation at the plant, said Ono, the decommissioning chief, citing an annual survey of about 5,5,00 workers……

Yokokawa and a plant colleague, Hiroshi Ide, helped in the 2011 emergency and are team leaders today. They say they want to make the job safer as workers face high radiation in parts of the plant.

On the top floor of the No. 2 reactor, workers are setting up equipment to remove spent fuel units from the cooling pool. That’s set to begin within two to three years.

At the No. 1 reactor, workers are putting up a giant roof to contain radioactive dust from decontamination work on the top floor ahead of the removal of spent fuel.

To minimize exposure and increase efficiency, workers use a remote-controlled crane to attach pre-assembled parts, according to TEPCO. The No. 1 reactor and its surroundings are among the most contaminated parts of the plant.

Workers are also removing treated radioactive wastewater. They recently started dismantling the emptied water tanks to make room to build facilities needed for the research and storage of melted fuel debris.

After a series of small missions by robots to gather samples, experts will determine a larger-scale method for removing melted fuel, first at the No. 3 reactor.

Experts say the hard work and huge challenges of decommissioning the plant are just beginning. There are estimations that the work could take more than a century. The government and TEPCO have an initial completion target of 2051, but the retrieval of melted fuel debris is already three years behind, and many big issues remain undecided.

Ide, whose home in Namie town, northwest of the plant, is in a no-go zone because of nuclear contamination, still has to put on a hazmat suit, even for brief visits home…….
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-14484347/Nervous-rushed-Massive-Fukushima-plant-cleanup-exposes-workers-high-radiation-stress.html

March 13, 2025 Posted by | Fukushima continuing, safety | Leave a comment

Rainbow Warrior arrives in Marshall Islands to call for nuclear and climate justice on 40th anniversary of Rongelap evacuation

Greenpeace flagship the Rainbow Warrior

Greenpeace International, 11 March 2025 ,
https://www.greenpeace.org/international/press-release/73392/rainbow-warrior-arrives-in-marshall-islands-to-call-for-nuclear-and-climate-justice-on-40th-anniversary-of-rongelap-evacuation/

Majuro, Republic of the Marshall Islands – Greenpeace flagship vessel the Rainbow Warrior was welcomed back to the Marshall Islands today, marking the start of a six-week mission around the Pacific nation to elevate calls for nuclear and climate justice; and support independent scientific research into the impacts of decades-long nuclear weapons testing by the US government.[1] 

Escorted by traditional canoes, and welcomed by Marshallese singing and dancing, the arrival of the Rainbow Warrior marks a significant moment in the shared history of Greenpeace and the Marshall Islands — 40 years since Greenpeace crew evacuated over 300 people from the Rongelap atoll to Mejatto island, after toxic nuclear fallout from the Castle Bravo test rendered their ancestral lands uninhabitable.[2] The ship was given a blessing by the Council of Iroij, the traditional chiefs of the Islands; with speeches from Senator Hilton Kendall (Rongelap atoll); Honorable Boaz Lamdik on behalf of the Mayor of Majuro; Farrend Zackious, Vice Chairman Council of Iroij; and keynote address from Minister Bremity Lakjohn, Minister Assistant to the President.

Shiva Gounden, Head of Pacific at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said:

“We’re extremely grateful and humbled to be welcomed back by the Marshallese government and community with such kindness and generosity of spirit. Over the coming weeks, we’ll travel around this beautiful country, bearing witness to the impacts of nuclear weapons testing and the climate crisis, and listening to the lived experiences of Marshallese communities fighting for justice.

“For decades, Marshallese communities have been sacrificing their lands, health, and cultures for the greed of those seeking profits and power. But at the same time, the Marshallese people have been some of the loudest voices calling for justice, accountability, and ambitious solutions to some of the greatest issues facing the world. Greenpeace is proud to stand alongside the Marshallese people in their demands for nuclear justice and reparations, and the fight against colonial exploitation which continues to this day. Justice – Jimwe im Maron“

Over the six-week mission, the Rainbow Warrior will travel to Mejatto, Enewetak, Bikini, Rongelap, and Wotje, undertaking much-needed independent radiation research, and reaffirming its solidarity with the Marshallese people — now facing further harm and displacement from the climate crisis, and the emerging threat of deep sea mining in the Pacific.

Jobod Silk, a climate activist from Jo-Jikum, a youth organisation responding to climate change, said:

“Marshallese culture has endured many hardships over the generations. Colonial powers have each left their mark on our livelihoods – introducing foreign diseases, influencing our language with unfamiliar syllables, and inducing mass displacement “for the good of mankind”. Yet, our people continue to show resilience. Liok tut bok: as the roots of the Pandanus bury deep into the soil, so must we be firm in our love for our culture.  

“Today’s generation now battles a new threat. Once our provider, the ocean now knocks at our doors, and once again, displacement is imminent. Our crusade for nuclear justice intertwines with our fight against the tides. We were forced to be refugees, and we refuse to be labeled as such again.  As the sea rises, so do the youth. The return of the Rainbow Warrior instills hope for the youth in their quest to secure a safe future.”

Dr Rianne Teule, Senior Radiation Protection Advisor at Greenpeace International, said:

“It is an honour and a privilege to be able to support the Marshallese government and people in conducting independent scientific research to investigate, measure, and document the long term effects of US nuclear testing across the country.

“As a result of the US government’s actions, the Marshallese people have suffered the direct and ongoing effects of nuclear fallout, including on their health, cultures, and lands. We hope that our research will support legal proceedings currently underway and the Marshall Islands government’s ongoing calls for reparations.” 

The Rainbow Warrior’s arrival to the Marshall Islands on March 11 also marks the 14th anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster. Whilst some residents have returned, there are many areas that remain too contaminated for people to safely live.[3]

March 13, 2025 Posted by | opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

At Haverigg Today – the Nuclear LIE of a “Safe” and “Secure” Sub-Sea Nuclear Dump.

At Haverigg Today – the Nuclear LIE of a “Safe” and “Secure” Sub-Sea Nuclear Dump.

The sub-sea area involved would be 26 to 50 km square. The “smaller” area proposed would be the size of Tuvalu at 26 km square. There are hundreds (if not thousands) of ongoing research projects into, for example, the release of radioactive gases, how the heat generated would impact the geology, the steel containments and the bentonite backfill.

These ongoing research projects throw up more questions regarding the safety of long term containment. Nuclear Waste Services are asking locals who are now in reciept of nuclear dump community funds, to express support for an experiment. An experiment which will impact their health and the environment for generations to come.   Those who are not “local” who would also be impacted are deliberately excluded from “having a say.” 

March 13, 2025 Posted by | UK, wastes | Leave a comment

Chris Hedges: Trump’s Christian Fascists and the War on Palestine

the usual absurdity that the Hebrew Bible, written 4,000 years ago, can be used to draw contemporary national borders.

March 11, 2025, By Chris Hedges / ScheerPost

Christian Nationalists who form the bedrock of support for Donald Trump — 80 percent voted for Trump in the last election according to a voter survey by the Associated Press — have mounted a concerted campaign calling on the White House to back Israel’s annexation of the West Bank and Gaza.

This campaign includes visits to Israel by prominent leaders, including Ralph Reed, Tony Perkins and Mario Bramnick, petitioning the White House, lobbying Congress and calls for annexation at Christian conferences, including a resolution of support for Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank adopted at the most recent Conservative Political Action Conference. The National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) Convention in Dallas, in March, gathered over 200 signatures from pastors and right-wing religious leaders from across the United States calling for the annexation of “Judea and Samaria” — the purported biblical name for the West Bank —and declaring the two state solution “a failed experiment.”

American Christian Leaders for Israel, which says it represents a network of “over 3,000 organizational leaders from across the nation, including the National Religious Broadcasters,” endorsed the NRB resolution and sent it to Trump. Congresswoman Claudia Tenney and five other members of the congressional “Friends of Judea and Samaria Caucus,” sent a letter to Trump asking to “recognize the right of Israel” to declare sovereignty over the occupied Palestinian territories, arguing that it will advance “the Judeo-Christian heritage on which our nation was founded.”

Trump, who rescinded a Biden administration executive order that sanctioned Jewish colonists in the West Bank for human rights violations, promised, on Feb. 4, to make an announcement in the “next four weeks,” about possible annexation of the West Bank. This follows Trump’s call for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza and death threats to the Palestinians unless they release Israeli hostages. “You’re talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing,” Trump said of Gaza while speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One.

The agenda of Zionist extremists and Christian fascists, who hold senior positions throughout the Trump administration, have long converged. The language, iconography and symbolism used by the Christian and Jewish fascists is biblical. But the bonds are political, not religious.

I detail the history and ideology of our homegrown fascism and its kinship with Jewish fascism in my book, “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America.”

Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas and a Baptist minister, has been nominated by Trump to be the U.S. ambassador to Israel. Huckabee has said there is “no such thing as a Palestinian” and asserted that Palestinian identity is “a political tool to try and force land away from Israel.” He proposes that any Palestinian state should be created outside of Israel in neighboring countries such as Egypt, Syria or Jordan. He dismisses the two-state solution as “irrational and unworkable.”

“I believe the scripture. Genesis 12: Those who bless Israel will be blessed; those who curse Israel will be cursed. I want to be on the blessing side, not the curse side,” Huckabee says.

John Ratcliffe, appointed by Trump to run the Central Intelligence Agency, advocates assisting Israel in what he described as its “foot-on-their-throat” approach against Iran.

Trump’s Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — who argues that “Zionism and Americanism are the front-lines of Western civilization and freedom in our world today” — pedals the usual absurdity that the Hebrew Bible, written 4,000 years ago, can be used to draw contemporary national borders…………………………………………………………………………………….

Jewish supremacy, like the supremacy of the Christian fascists, is, these fanatics claim, sanctified by God. The slaughter of the Palestinians, who Benjamin Netanyahu compared to the biblical Amalekites, are the incarnate of evil and deserve to be massacred. Euro-Americans in the American colonies used the same biblical passage to justify the genocide of Native Americans. Violence and the threat of violence are the only forms of communication those inside the magical circle of Jewish nationalism or Christian nationalism speak…………………………………………………………………………….. more https://scheerpost.com/2025/03/11/chris-hedges-trumps-christian-fascists-and-the-war-on-palestine/

March 13, 2025 Posted by | Religion and ethics, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Human error leads to water spill at Finnish EPR

 About 100 cubic metres of slightly radioactive water flowed into rooms
within the containment of Olkiluoto unit 3 after a hatch in the reactor
pool was not properly closed before the filling of the pool began.

 World Nuclear News 10th March 2025, https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/articles/human-error-leads-to-water-spill-at-finnish-epr

March 13, 2025 Posted by | incidents | Leave a comment

Let’s hear it for the ‘blockers’ – support common sense, not nonsense!

BANNG.info 10 March 2025 Andrew Blowers discusses this in the March 2025 edition of Regional Life,  https://www.banng.info/news/regional-life/blockers/

With the headline ‘Government rips up rules to fire-up nuclear power’, the Prime Minister launched an intemperate assault on the ‘blockers who have strangled our chances of cheaper energy, growth and jobs for far too long.’

If blocking means using common sense to protect the public and environments from dangerous, destructive developments like new nuclear, then BANNG along with many other groups is proud to be a ‘blocker’.

The PM’s outrageous attack on environmentalists, conservation groups, councils and even regulators was a stream of assertions, misjudgements, half-truths and nonsense.

Let’s look at some of the claims made and our responses:

1) ‘Blockers create delay and obstruction’: Big infrastructure projects must be properly scrutinised to ensure safety and environmental protection.
2) ‘Investors are held back’: On the contrary, it is investors who hold back, pulling out of major projects at Sellafield, Wylfa and Bradwell and still no sign of investors chomping at the bit to get Sizewell C off the ground.
3) ‘Projects are suffocated by regulations’: Regulation focuses on public safety and environmental protection. Cutting rules or corners is a charter for unconstrained development and can lead to disasters like Grenfell Tower. More regulation not less is needed to achieve net zero.
4) ‘Growth is blocked by trivial objections’: The PM scoffs at the campaign by ‘blockers’ to ensure acoustic deterrents are installed to prevent millions of fish being killed at Hinkley Point C through entrapment in the cooling pipes. He is offended when Sizewell C campaigners take EDF to court for destroying a precious native woodland or for failing to secure adequate water supply for the gigantic power station before the go-ahead has been given. Efforts to protect species, heritage and environments from destruction should be supported, not denigrated by uninformed politicians.
5) ‘Rip up planning rules to prioritise growth’: For years nuclear development was ‘restricted’ to eight “potentially suitable” sites [including Bradwell] as part of archaic planning rules that haven’t been looked at since 2011. In fact, apart from Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C, it was developers who shied away from the eight sites, not planners who blocked development.
6) ‘Build nuclear stations in the places that need them’: In effect, the Government has now conceded by scrapping the set list of eight sites and introducing an alternative siting strategy – effectively a developer-led free-for-all so firms can start building nuclear stations ‘in the places that need them.’ Even so, some of the eight sites are already earmarked for clusters of Small Modular reactors (SMRs) – the (not so) mini nuclear power stations that have yet to be developed, let alone deployed. Finding locations where they are supposedly needed is not the same as finding sites where they are wanted. The old problems of safety, radioactive waste and cooling water will arise and provoke resistance from local ‘blockers’.

Paradoxically, Bradwell is likely to be by-passed in the surge for new sites. It is, at long last, delisted and its remote location and vulnerable coastal conditions make it absolutely unsuitable.

So, let’s hear it for the ‘blockers like BANNG and the 10,000 signatories from around the Blackwater of our face-to-face Petition, who put common sense before nonsense to protect local environments and communities.

March 13, 2025 Posted by | spinbuster | Leave a comment

EDF unveils fresh details on new fish deterrent technology to be used at Hinkley Point C

 An alternative acoustic fish deterrent (AFD) system is being proposed for
the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station near Burnham-On-Sea to end a
bitter row over some of the site’s environmental measures.

The move sees EDF, which owns the nuclear power site, drop the controversial idea to
create new salt marshes along the Severn Estuary rather than fit AFDs to
the station’s water intake turbines. The company had been applying to the
Environment Agency for permission to not fit AFDs due to the high cost and
the danger for divers involved in fitting them in the fast-flowing tides
and poor visibility of the Bristol Channel.

Now, Hinkley C stakeholder relations head Andrew Cockcroft has said an innovative new form of AFD could be used. Mr Cockcroft said it was EDF’s preferred solution to the
issue of deterring fish from swimming too close to the Hinkley intakes and
being sucked in. He told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “The technology, pioneered
in the South West, is proven and deployed internationally.” “We are now
working with experts to provide the scientific data to underpin the case
for using it at Hinkley Point C.”

“We have received positive feedback
from environmental groups and this option is now our preferred solution
rather pursuing salt marsh creation.” Andrew Cockcroft adds that all salt
marsh design and development would be paused while work continues in 2025
to prove the effectiveness of the new AFD system. The new AFDs are already
used in fishing fleets around the world, with the technology using
electronic transducers to target specific fish species with high-frequency
sound.

 Burnham-on-Sea.com 9th March 2025, https://www.burnham-on-sea.com/news/edf-unveils-fresh-details-on-new-fish-deterrent-technology-to-be-used-at-hinkley-point-c/

March 13, 2025 Posted by | environment, UK | Leave a comment

Councillors oppose nuclear dump site near Louth

‘Six more communities are now facing this devastation

By Peter Craig, Reporter, 10 Mar 25

 Councillors have voted to oppose a nuclear dump site near Louth. East
Lindsey District Council want to persuade Lincolnshire County Council to do
the same and say NO to the proposed 1,000 acre site at Great Carlton.

 Grimsby Telegraph 11th March 2025, https://www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/news/grimsby-news/councillors-oppose-nuclear-dump-site-10001353

March 13, 2025 Posted by | opposition to nuclear, UK, wastes | Leave a comment

A lot of nuclear and related news this past week

Some bits of good news –  27 New UK Tree Cities of the World.   How Stockholm Is Sprouting Healthy Trees From Concrete. Degraded Lands Transformed into Productive Farms: With Science, We Can Create Wonders. Once feared extinct, Australia’s most endangered marsupial has had a comeback

TOP STORIES .

 “Difficult-to-Return” zones. 

Jeffrey Sachs: Negotiating a Lasting Peace in Ukraine. Zelensky’s hostility to peace triggered White House meltdown. 

British journalists are celebrating the lack of opposition to war in parliament.

 Failure After Failure: Let’s Ditch Small Modular Reactors. 

We’ve failed to stop climate change — this is what we need to do next ALSO AT https://nuclear-news.net/2025/03/09/1-a-weve-failed-to-stop-climate-change-this-is-what-we-need-to-do-next/

Climate. Earth’s strongest ocean current could slow down by 20% by 2050 in a high emissions future. Global Ocean Treaty two years on: Australia’s chance for international cooperation. 

Half of world’s CO2 emissions come from 36 fossil fuel firms, study shows. UK’s richest can boost climate action but need to cut outsized emissions – study. 

First Trump threatened to nuke hurricanes. Now he’s waging war on weather forecasters.

Noel’s notes. Does the Deep State really exist? And if so, is it being dismantled?

AUSTRALIA. Surface tension: could the promised Aukus nuclear submarines simply never be handed over to Australia?
   How US Military Bases in Australia Threaten Our Future & How to Remove Them., More Australian nuclear news at https://antinuclear.net/2025/03/05/australian-nuclear-news-headlines-week-to-11-march/

NUCLEAR ITEMS.

CLIMATE. Nuclear Power Is the Cuckoo in the Climate Policy Nest.Turbine, cooling: these unforeseen events that keep the Flamanville EPR at a standstill.
ECONOMICS. East Lindsey District Council wants to claim costs for nuclear waste site work.

EDUCATION. University of Suffolk co-opted by the nuclear industry..
EMPLOYMENT. EDF considers plans to revive ‘fish disco’ at Hinkley Point plant ALSO AT https://nuclear-news.net/2025/03/06/3-b1-edf-considers-plans-to-revive-fish-disco-at-hinkley-point-plant/
ENERGY. Most Contaminated U.S. Nuclear Site Is Set to Be the Largest Solar Farm.
ENVIRONMENT. Air Force picks remote Pacific atoll as site for cargo rocket trials. Radioactive pollution is increasing at Britain’s nuclear bases. Fish disco plan revived to protect salmon from Hinkley Point C ALSO AT https://nuclear-news.net/?s=%E2%80%98Fish+disco%E2%80%99+plan+revived Has common sense finally prevailed at Hinkley Point C?
EVENTS. Uranium’s Poison Power in Leafy Cheshire –Remembering Fukushima.
INDIGENOUS ISSUES. Mi’kmaw Chiefs send stinging rebuke to Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston.
LEGAL. Fukushima victims angered, saddened by TEPCO acquittals. 9-year lawsuit fails to stop Ikata nuclear plant operationsSupreme Court steps into debate over where to store nuclear waste.Nuclear waste at Chalk River: opponents defeated in court – ALSO AT https://nuclear-news.net/2025/03/08/1-b1-nuclear-waste-at-chalk-river-opponents-defeated-in-court/
OPPOSITION to NUCLEAR . Campaigners attend East Lindsey District Council meeting to call on Lincolnshire County Council to withdraw from Geological Disposal Facility process.
PERSONAL STORIES. Nuclear fallout: why Karina Lester is calling on Australia to sign the treaty banning atomic weapons.

POLITICS

POLITICS INTERNATIONAL and DIPLOMACY.

SAFETY.Ripping up the rules on nuclear power heightens the risk to us all.Cybersecurity in the Nuclear Industry: US and UK Regulation and the Sellafield Case .Is giving old reactors new life the future of nuclear energy?Continued Incidents Raise Concerns Over Nuclear Security, Says UN More than 145 Reports Added to IAEA Incident and Trafficking Database in 2024.
SECRETS and LIES. Israeli technician accused of offering country’s nuclear secrets to Iranian regime.
TECHNOLOGY. The SMR Gamble: Betting on Nuclear to Fuel the Data Center Boom.
URANIUM. Fearing toxic waste, Greenland ended uranium mining. Now, they could be forced to restart – or pay $11bn.
WASTES. American companies profit from Canada’s radioactive waste.Supreme Court wrestles with nation’s frustrating search for nuclear waste storage.East Lindsey overwhelmingly backs GDF withdrawal call to Lincolnshire County Council. Bank Head Estate residents attend public meeting over nuke dump blight. ‘Vote out!’: Protestors win motion at ELDC full council to urge county council to withdraw from  nuclear dump  talks.
WAR and CONFLICT. UN summit ‘delivers strongest condemnation yet’ of nuclear deterrence.

WEAPONS and WEAPONS SALES.

March 12, 2025 Posted by | Weekly Newsletter | Leave a comment

« Previous Entries     Next Entries »