Nuclear waste at Chalk River: opponents defeated in court.
By Nelly Albérola, Radio-Canada, ICI Ottawa-Gatineau, March 6, 2025
https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2145786/rejet-decision-nucleaire-chalk-river-dechet [en français]
The Federal Court has dismissed an application for judicial review by citizens’ groups and scientists opposed to the Chalk River radioactive waste disposal site in Deep River, Ontario.
The ruling has gone almost unnoticed. In the wake of the Kebaowek First Nation’s victory over Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL), the Federal Court has handed down another decision concerning the proposed Chalk River nuclear waste disposal site.
Please note: This victory will require the CCNS to have meaningful consultations with the Algonquins on whose traditional lands the radioactive waste dump is intended to be built. Neither the Algonquins nor the citizens of Ontario or Quebec were ever consulted about the choice of site for the dump, located one kilometre from the Ottawa River which borders Quebec and flows into the St. Lawrence River at Montreal. – G. Edwards
On February 20, the federal judge dismissed the application for judicial review brought before the court by three citizens’ groups: Concerned Citizens of Renfrew County and Area, the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility, and the Ralliement contre la pollution radioactive.
A justified decision, according to the court
These groups include a number of retired scientists. They consider the decision of the
Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) to be unreasonable. authorize, in January 2024, the construction of a near-surface disposal facility (NSDF) for about one million tons of “low-level” radioactive waste.
“When read as a whole and taking into account the experience and technical expertise of the Commission, the decision is justified, intelligible and transparent. Consequently, the present application will be rejected,” reads the Federal Court’s decision.
“We’re certainly disappointed,” says Ginette Charbonneau, spokesperson for the Ralliement contre la pollution radioactive. “We’ve been working for six years and more to tighten up this project, to make it better.”
“Our chances of success were virtually nil,” admits another spokesman for the Ralliement, Gilles Provost. “The judge couldn’t change the Commission’s decision, but had to judge whether the decision was unreasonable: that’s an extremely heavy burden of proof.”
A view shared by the three groups’ lawyer, Nicholas Pope. “In the end, the court did not say that the decision was correct, only that it did not meet the high standard of unreasonableness,” he points out in a written response.
Murky administrative law, say opponents
Beyond their disappointment, the groups deplore the fact that the court took into account only the CNSC’s opinion, without considering the observations of other professionals who are nevertheless recognized in the nuclear industry.
“We rely heavily on scientific experts such as James R. Walker. Unfortunately, both the CNSC and the judge rejected his arguments,” laments Ole Hendrickson, a researcher and member of the Concerned Citizens group. “I was surprised that the judge said that the Commission can choose whatever it wants, rather than paying attention to all the arguments.”
For the president of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility, Gordon Edwards, the legal system is simply not well equipped to deal with these situations.
“Administrative law is murky: magistrates are in a difficult position when they have to judge these cases,” says the former nuclear consultant for governmental and non-governmental agencies. “The law gives the CNSC the power to make decisions on nuclear matters. The judge therefore does not feel empowered to overturn the decision of the agency that has been given the authority to make that decision.”
An unprecedented project
The physicist reminds us that the permanent installation of a nuclear waste disposal site is unprecedented in Canadian history.
“We’ll never take it away again. This is where it will go and stay forever,” he insists.
“That’s why it’s so important to do it right, to make sure that all the safety measures have been taken and that they can be sustained over time,” he adds.
“The waste is going to stay in the landfill until it’s disintegrated. And that can take anywhere from a few years to millions of years, so you see the problem,” worries physicist by training Ginette Charbonneau. “You can [wear] a mask and say that legally, everything’s okay, but when you’re talking about radioactive waste, that’s not good enough.”
Mi’kmaw Chiefs send stinging rebuke to N.S. Premier Tim Houston
Background, by Gordon Edwards
Canada currently has 220 million tons of radioactive sand-like uranium mill tailings.
These radioactive wastes from past mining have an effective half-life of 76,000 years.
Uranium Mining has been banned in Nova Scotia since 1981. Initially it was a government moratorium. The moratorium was enshrined into law in 2009 as “
The Uranium Mining and Exploration Prohibition Act”. (
The provinces of British Columbia and Quebec have also imposed moratoria on uranium mining.)
The Mi’kmaq are an Indigenous group of people who are native to the Atlantic Provinces of Canada.
They are the founding people of Nova Scotia and the predominant Aboriginal group in the province
by Joan Baxter, March 4, 2025
The Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs have sent a stinging rebuke to Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston over recent legislation that would remove the longstanding bans on fracking and uranium mining and exploration in Mi’kma’ki, the unceded land of the Mi’kmaq.
The chiefs say it is “unacceptable that this government is fast-tracking the extraction of natural resources that will permanently devalue and damage our unceded lands and adversely impact the exercise of our section 35 rights.”
The strongly worded reprimand came in a two-page letter dated March 4, 2025, signed by the three co-leads on environment, energy, and mining for the Kwilmu’kw Maw-klusuaqn (KMK): Chief Carol Potter, Chief Cory Julian, and Chief Tamara Young. KMK works on behalf of the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq Chiefs on the best ways to implement Aboriginal and treaty rights.
The letter is addressed to Houston, with copies to Minister of L’nu Affairs Leah Martin and Minister of Natural Resources Tory Rushton. It refers to omnibus Bill 6, An Act Respecting Agriculture, Energy and Natural Resources, which Houston’s Progressive Conservative government tabled on Feb. 18, 2025.
Omissions are ‘highly erosive’
The chiefs noted that the new legislation is not in keeping with Section 35 of Canada’s 1982 Constitution Act that protects the Aboriginal and treaty rights of the Mi’kmaq people of Nova Scotia, and includes hunting, fishing, and gathering for a moderate livelihood. They wrote:
Last week’s sweeping legislative proposal is another example of the provincial government choosing not to engage or consult with the Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia prior to introducing significant changes in the mining sector that will directly impact the Mi’kmaq’s section 35 rights.
The province also sits at several tables with KMK and the Assembly where these changes should have been discussed but were never raised or flagged for us. From a relationship perspective, these types of repetitive omissions are highly erosive.
The chiefs reminded Houston that in October last year, they wrote to him about the “province’s lack of engagement with Kwilmu’kw Maw-klusuaqn (KMK) and the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs” in the lead-up to Bill 471 on offshore wind.
They also pointed out that the Mi’kmaq played a large role in getting uranium mining and fracking banned in the province………………………………………………………………….. https://tinyurl.com/4p9y2cr3.
Macron’s Offer: France and the Delusions of Nuclear Deterrence
March 7, 2025 Dr Binoy Kampmark ,https://theaimn.net/macrons-offer-france-and-the-delusions-of-nuclear-deterrence/
The singular antics of US President Donald Trump, notably towards supposed allies, has stirred the pot regarding national security in various capitals. From Canberra to Brussels, there is concern that such assumed, if unverifiable notions as extended nuclear deterrence from Washington are valid anymore. America First interests certainly bring that into question, as well it should. If the imperium is in self-introspective retreat, this is to the good. But the internationalists beg to differ, wishing to see the United States as imperial guarantor.
In Europe, the fear at the retreat of Washington’s nuclear umbrella, and the inflation of the Russian threat, has caused flutters of panic. On February 20, 2025, Friedrich Merz, chairman of the Christian Democratic Union and the incoming German chancellor, floated the idea that other states consider shouldering Europe’s security burden. “We need to have discussions with both the British and the French – the two European nuclear powers – about whether nuclear sharing, or at least nuclear security from the UK and France, would apply to us.”
Merz has also explicitly urged European states to accept the proposition that “Donald Trump will no longer unconditionally honour NATO’s mutual defence commitment,” making it incumbent on them to “make every effort to at least be able to defend the European continent on its own.”
On March 1, French President Emmanuel Macron showed signs of interest. In an interview with Portuguese TV RTP, he expressed willingness to “to open this discussion … if it allows to build a European force.” There had “always been a European dimension to France’s vital interests within its nuclear doctrine.”
On March 5, in an address to the nation, Macron openly identified Russia as a “threat to France and Europe.” Accordingly, he had decided “to open the strategic debate on the protection of our allies on the European continent by our (nuclear) deterrent.” The future of Europe did not “have to be decided in Washington or Moscow.”
The matter of France’s European dimension has certainly been confirmed by remarks made by previous presidents, including Charles de Gaulle, who, in 1964, stated that an attack on a country such as Germany by the then Soviet Union would be seen as a threat to France.
Domestically, Macron’s offer did not go down well in certain quarters. It certainly did not impress Marie Le Pen of the far–right National Rally. “The French nuclear deterrent must remain a French nuclear deterrent,” she declared in comments made on a visit to the Farm Show in Paris. “It must not be shared, let alone delegated.” This was a misunderstanding, came the response from Defence Minister Sébastien Lecornu. The deterrent “is French and will remain French – from its conception to its production to its operation, under a decision of the president.”
A number of countries meeting at the European Union emergency security summit in Brussels showed interest in Macron’s offer, with some caution. Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk suggested that “we must seriously consider this proposal.” Lithuania’s President Gitanas Nausėda thought the idea “very interesting” as “a nuclear umbrella would serve as really very serious deterrence towards Russia.” Latvian Prime Minister Evika Siliņa was not inclined to commit to a stationing of French nuclear weapons on Latvian territory: it was “too soon” to raise the issue.
Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, on the other hand, found the debate “premature”, as “our security is guaranteed by close cooperation with the United States.” He certainly has a point, given that the United States still, at present, maintains an extensive nuclear arsenal on European soil.
The trouble with deterrence chatter is that it remains hostage to delusion. Strategists talk in extravagant terms about the genuine prospect that nuclear weapons can make any one state safer, leading to some calculus of tolerable use. Thus we find the following comment from Benoît Grémare of the Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3: “[T]he fact remains that without US support, the balance of power appears largely unfavourable to France, which has a total of 290 nuclear warheads compared to at least 1,600 deployed warheads and nearly 2,800 stockpiled warheads on the Russian side.”
While Grémare acknowledges that France’s thermonuclear arsenal, along with the M51 strategic sea-to-land ballistic missile, would be able to eliminate major Russian cities, Russia would only need a mere “200 seconds too atomise Paris” if its Satan II thermonuclear weapons were used. “This potential for reciprocity must be kept in mind amid the mutual bet of nuclear deterrence.”
Logic here gives way to the presumption that such weapons, rather than suggesting impotence, promise formidable utility. This theoretical, and absurd proposition, renders the unthinkable possible: that Russia just might use nuclear weapons against European countries. Any such contention must fail for the fundamental point that nuclear weapons should, quite simply, never be used. Instead, they should be disbanded and banned altogether, in line with the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Unfortunately, the French offer of replacing the US nuclear umbrella in Europe perpetrates similar deadly sins about deterrence.
Campaigners attend East Lindsey District Council meeting to call on Lincolnshire County Council to withdraw from Geological Disposal Facility process
By James Turner, Local Democracy Reporter, Lincs Online 6th March 2025, https://www.lincsonline.co.uk/louth/weve-had-enough-now-the-threat-of-this-nuclear-waste-dump-9407343/
Dozens of protesters have called on Lincolnshire County Council to withdraw from the process that could lead to the construction of a nuclear waste site in the county.
Campaigners from across the district gathered outside East Lindsey District Council’s offices in Horncastle ahead of a full council meeting on Wednesday to support a motion from Coun Travis Hesketh (Independent) urging the leader to actively oppose the establishment of a Geological Disposal Facility (GDF) – and calling on the county council to withdraw from the community partnership in the hopes of stopping the plans altogether.
Nuclear Waste Services (NWS) identified three ‘areas of focus’ for its facility in January. These include sites in Mid Copeland and South Copeland in Cumbria, as well as land between Gayton le Marsh and Great Carlton, near Louth.
East Lindsey District Council has pledged to leave the working group it joined with the organisation formerly known as Radioactive Waste Management in 2021, due to the new location being prime agricultural land and completely different from the former gas terminal site in Theddlethorpe, which it had been considering previously.
“I am the district councillor for Withern and Theddlethorpe, I represent the area where the nuclear dump was originally going to be placed, but now it’s moved,” Coun Hesketh told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
“We’re here today because East Lindsey has said they are going to pull out, which is a terrific thing, but they need to go further. They need to say we oppose this and we want Lincolnshire County Council to do the same.
“We’ve had five years since Lincolnshire County Council met with Radioactive Waste Management – this thing has been going on for so long they’ve changed the name of the company. We’ve had enough now. They have ruined two communities, house values have been decimated – nobody can sell their house in the Carlton or Gayton area, they’re stuck. It’s time to make a decision.”
As councillors began arriving for the meeting, campaigners sang chants such as “We say, we say, no GDF, no GDF,” to the beat of Queen’s We Will Rock You and other lines such as “We are gentle, angry people and we’re singing for our lives.”
Nigel, 64, from Theddlethorpe, was just one of many campaigners and said he had been fighting the plans since ‘day one’.
“Now the area of focus has shifted, I feel I need to support the people affected in that area as well. We’re just trying to force the council’s hand now.”
Cybersecurity in the Nuclear Industry: US and UK Regulation and the Sellafield Case
Key Points:
With both the U.S. and U.K. strengthening their regulatory frameworks and increasing enforcement powers, nuclear facilities should take steps now to review and upgrade cybersecurity measures. This includes not just updating technical controls, but also ensuring compliance with security plans, auditing systems, and maintaining proper documentation.
Real-world examples from both the U.S. and U.K. demonstrate that nuclear facilities are being targeted by sophisticated cyber attackers, including state actors. This isn’t just a theoretical risk—it’s happening now, and facilities must take it seriously.
The successful prosecution of Sellafield with significant fines (£332,500) shows that regulators are now willing to take strong enforcement action, even when no actual breach has occurred. Nuclear facilities cannot afford wait for an incident before improving their cybersecurity—they must be proactive……………………………………………..
JD Supra 6th March 2025,
https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/cybersecurity-in-the-nuclear-industry-2447724/
EU ‘rearmament’ plan has no funding – Euractiv
Defense spending will be given an “escape clause” from EU budget rules, allowing governments to shift funds “rather than coming up with fresh money,” according to Euractiv.
The proposal to increase defense spending by $840 billion is based largely on debt, according to the news outlet
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s attempt to increase military spending across the EU is not backed by cash and shifts the financial burden to member states, Euractiv has reported, citing senior EU officials.
The so-called ‘ReArm Europe Plan,’ backed mostly by debt and fiscal adjustments, asks EU nations to spend $840 billion, twice the EU’s 2024 defense budget, to counter “grave security threats.”
The plan “includes close to no fresh money,” leaving member states to secure “the real cash” themselves, Euractiv reported on Wednesday.
The total figure is based more on “hopes and guesses” than concrete reforms addressing the bloc’s production shortages, the report argued.
Von der Leyen has also proposed raising $158 billion through capital markets and offering it to members as loans on condition they buy weapons made in the bloc or its regional allies.
The requirement could involve at least three EU countries or two EU countries plus Ukraine. However, loan approval criteria and the prioritization of EU-made equipment remain undecided, the report pointed out.
Defense spending will be given an “escape clause” from EU budget rules, allowing governments to shift funds “rather than coming up with fresh money,” according to Euractiv.
While increased deficits could generate nearly $700 billion, it’s uncertain if the measure applies to all countries or only those meeting NATO’s 2% GDP target.
Another senior EU official told Euractiv that over time, governments must offset spending by raising taxes or cutting costs.
Von der Leyen’s push for increased defense spending comes amid growing pressure from Washington. US President Donald Trump has distanced himself from supporting Ukraine while urging the EU to take greater responsibility for its defense.
The shift intensified this week, with news agencies’ reports on Monday suggesting that Trump had ordered a pause in military aid to Kiev. The US president has repeatedly accused Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky of refusing to negotiate peace with Russia and exploiting US support for his own gain.
EU leaders will discuss von der Leyen’s proposals at a special summit on Thursday. According to a senior EU official, the measures should work “very fast and very efficiently” and require only a majority vote for adoption.
Some experts, however, warn that increasing military spending could strain national budgets already under pressure.
Supreme Court steps into debate over where to store nuclear waste
CBS, By Melissa Quin, March 5, 2025
Washington — The Supreme Court on Wednesday jumped into the decades-long dispute over what to do with thousands of metric tons of nuclear waste, as it considered a plan to store it above one of the world’s most productive oil fields, the Permian Basin in Texas.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the company Interim Storage Partners are facing off against the state of Texas and Fasken Land and Minerals Ltd., which owns land in the Permian Basin, in the fight over what to do with the spent fuel generated at nuclear reactor sites. The waste can remain radioactive and pose health risks for thousands of years, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
How to address the problem of nuclear waste has been complicated by politics since the advent of nuclear power last century. In 1982, Congress enacted a federal law that required the government to establish a permanent facility to house spent fuel, later determined to be Yucca Mountain in Nevada. But the site has yet to be established amid pushback from the state, and funding from Congress dried up years ago. The project was halted during the Obama administration.
The issue of where to store the growing amount of spent fuel remains. Roughly 91,000 metric tons of nuclear waste from commercial power plants are currently in private storage, both at or away from nuclear reactor sites, according to the U.S. government. And with nearly 20% of the nation’s electricity supplied by nuclear energy, plants are generating an additional 2,000 metric tons of spent fuel each year, the Energy Department estimates.
The Supreme Court agreed to take up the case in October and is considering two issues. The first is whether Texas and the landowners could challenge the commission’s decision to issue the license to Interim Storage Partners. The second is whether federal law allows the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to license private companies to temporarily house spent fuel away from nuclear-reactor sites.
Oral arguments
During arguments at the court on Wednesday, three liberal justices appeared the most skeptical of the argument from Texas that it could seek review of the commission’s licensing decision in a federal appeals court……………………………
The legal fight
The legal battle before the justices Wednesday involves a license the Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued in September 2021 to a company called Interim Storage Partners allowing it to house 5,000 metric tons — and up to 40,000 metric tons — of spent fuel in dry-cask, above-ground storage for up to 40 years. ………………………………………………………………………………………….
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/supreme-court-nuclear-waste-disposal-yucca-mountain/
Delays in Trident renewal put our deterrent in peril
In 2016 the House of Commons voted overwhelmingly in favour of renewing
the UK’s nuclear deterrent. Then hardly a second thought was given to
undertaking the upgrade programme without the full involvement of the US
military.
Ever since the British government first opted to introduce the
Continuous at Sea Deterrent (CASD) model to deliver our nuclear weapons
capability – replacing the Royal Air Force’s airborne Vulcan system –
it has been an article of faith that the project should be a joint US-UK
undertaking.
The tumult caused by US President Donald Trump’s return to
the White House has inevitably raised concerns both about the wisdom of
relying so heavily on US support for our own nuclear deterrent, especially
in the wake of Trump’s less-than-friendly treatment of Ukrainian
president Volodymyr Zelensky when he visited the White House last week. If
the leader of the free world can treat someone like Zelensky, who is
supposed to be one of Washington’s key allies, with such studied
contempt, then why not other allies, such as the UK?
Telegraph 5th March 2025
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/03/05/delays-in-trident-renewal-put-our-deterrent-in-peril/
Continued Incidents Raise Concerns Over Nuclear Security, Says UN
By David Dalton, 5 March 2025, https://www.nucnet.org/news/continued-incidents-raise-concerns-over-nuclear-security-says-un-3-3-2025
Transportation of radioactive materials remains one of most vulnerable areas.
There were almost 150 incidents of illegal or unauthorised activity involving nuclear and other radioactive material reported last year, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) monitoring database.
New data reveals that while the overall number remains consistent with previous years, the continued incidents of trafficking and radioactive contamination cases raises concerns over nuclear security, the United Nations said on its website.
Three of the reported cases were directly linked to trafficking or malicious intent, while in 21 incidents, authorities could not determine whether criminal activity was involved.
Most incidents did not involve organised crime, but experts warn that even a single case of nuclear material falling into the wrong hands could pose serious global risks.
A troubling trend in 2024 was the rise in contaminated industrial materials, such as used pipes and metal parts that unknowingly entered supply chains.
“This indicates the challenge for some countries to prevent the unauthorised disposal of radioactive sources, and at the same time, it confirms the efficiency of the detection infrastructure,” said Elena Buglova, director of the IAEA’s division of nuclear security.
The transportation of radioactive materials remains one of the most vulnerable areas of nuclear security. Over the past decade, 65% of all reported thefts have occurred while materials were in transit.
Nuclear and radioactive substances are regularly transported for use in medicine, industry and scientific research, making them a potential target for theft. With so many different handlers involved during shipping, security gaps persist.
Experts emphasise the need for stronger safety measures while goods are on the move to prevent radioactive material from being lost or stolen.
Enhanced international cooperation is also essential to ensure proper security along supply chains.
‘Vote out!’: Protestors win motion at ELDC full council to urge county council to withdraw from nuclear dump talks
East Lindsey District Council
is to urge Lincolnshire County Council to follow the authority’s lead and
withdraw from the process exploring proposals for a nuclear dump site in
the district.
This follows a debate lasting more than one hour on a motion
presented to full council by Coun Travis Hesketh – a district councillor
representing communities that would be affected. Ahead of the meeting,
‘Vote Out’ protestors gathered outside the offices in Horncastle to
show their opposition to the dump and support the councillors fighting for
them.
Coun Hesketh’s motion urged the Executive and Leader of East
Lindsey District Council “to issue a statement opposing the Geological
Disposal Facility for nuclear waste in Lincolnshire and urge Lincolnshire
County Council to withdraw from the project.
Lincolnshire World 5th March 2025, https://www.lincolnshireworld.com/news/people/vote-out-protestors-win-motion-at-eldc-full-council-to-urge-county-council-to-withdraw-from-nuclear-dump-talks-5019541
Bank Head Estate residents attend public meeting over nuke dump blight
The UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities wish to congratulate our
friends in Millom and District Against the GDF for organising a successful
meeting last month at which the residents of the Bank Head Estate, Millom
met with local Councillors to raise their concerns that in the future a
nuclear waste dump might become their unwanted neighbour.
Although for
several years, Nuclear Waste Services has been working, first with a local
Working Group and then through a Community Partnership, on plans to bring a
Geological Disposal Facility, or GDF, to the South Copeland Search Area it
was at the end of January that NWS revealed the Area of Focus in which more
detailed investigations will be conducted to determine its potential as the
eventual site for a waste receiving centre. Nuclear Waste Services have
previously revealed that the surface site will approximately one kilometre
square; once built the facility would from the 2050s, receive regular
shipments of radioactive waste which would be transported underground and
through access tunnels out under the seabed.
NFLA 5th March 2025 https://www.nuclearpolicy.info/news/bank-head-estate-residents-attend-public-meeting-over-nuke-dump-blight/
Has common sense finally prevailed at Hinkley Point C?
NFLA 5th March 2025 https://www.nuclearpolicy.info/news/has-common-sense-finally-prevailed-at-hinkley-point-c/
In what appears to be a welcome change of heart, EDF Energy has just announced that at Hinkley Point C it will pause its unpopular saltmarsh plan and will instead pursue the possibility of installing a new version of an Acoustic Fish Deterrent.
The Nuclear Free Local Authorities have been consistent in its support for the demand made by our friends at Stop Hinkley that the French company honour the obligation placed upon it to install such a device to prevent millions of fish being sucked to their death into the huge intake pipes, each the size of six double decker buses.
The new station will suck in the equivalent of three Olympic swimming pools of cooling water per minute from the Severn Estuary, and with it the fish. The estuary is one of the UK’s most highly designated nature conservation sites.
A Public Inquiry and the Secretary of State upheld the importance of the AFD, and scientists and experts in the field are convinced that it remains necessary and practical.
Without the AFD, EDF have estimated that almost 3 million fish will die annually, while other studies put the number of fish lost at up to 182 million per year.
EDF Energy has previously been wholly resistant to installing an AFD citing the supposed threat by its operation to divers, but, in its announcement, the company has described its recent discovery of ‘a new type of acoustic fish deterrent system’. This provides an ‘innovative solution’ and can installed in a way that is ‘safe and effective’.
EDF Energy also says that ‘we are pausing all design and development work on saltmarsh creation’, which will come as a considerable relief to local people, including Lily Hewlett who wrote recently to the company with a plea to refrain from taking, and flooding, 340 acres of the farming family’s grazing land.
Ten-year-old Lily made plain what she thought of the proposed action: ‘You would not just be taking over our land, but you will be hurting nature, and you can’t just use other people’s land for the mistake that you have done. You need to stop it; it is cruel and just because you have lots of money does not mean you can do what you like.’
Who knows maybe this letter touched a heartstring amongst one of the big-wigs in the Hinkley Point C senior management team, but, whatever the catalyst, if this is indeed a genuine attempt by EDF Energy at seeking to establish a new Entente Cordiale with campaigners and the local community then the Nuclear Free Local Authorities welcome it.
For our part we shall suspect disbelief and keep a watching brief. Let’s see what happens.
Most Contaminated U.S. Nuclear Site Is Set to Be the Largest Solar Farm.
Plans to transform Hanford, which was integral to the nation’s nuclear arsenal after World War II, had just begun inching forward when President Trump started his second term.
New York Times, By Keith Schneider, Reporting from Richland, Wash, March 5, 2025,
In the weeks since President Trump has taken office, he has pushed to unleash oil and gas production and has signed executive orders halting the country’s transition to renewable energy.
But in Washington State, a government-led effort has just started to build what is expected to be the country’s largest solar generating station. The project is finally inching forward, after decades of cleaning up radioactive and chemical waste in fits and starts, at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, a sweep of desert that was pivotal to the nation’s weapons arsenal from 1943 until it was shut down in 1989. A developer, Hecate, was brought on last year to turn big stretches of the site into solar farms.
Hecate will have access to 10,300 acres that the government has determined sufficiently safe to redevelop. The company has already started site evaluation on 8,000 acres, an area nearly 10 times the size of Central Park in New York and enough space for 3.45 million photovoltaic panels. (Hanford’s site is nearly 400,000 acres.)
If all goes according to plan, the Hecate project, which is expected to be completed in 2030, will be by far the largest site the government has cleaned up and converted from land that had been used for nuclear research, weapons and waste storage. It is expected to generate up to 2,000 megawatts of electricity — enough roughly to supply all the homes in Seattle, San Francisco, and Denver — and store 2,000 more in a large battery installation at a total cost of $4 billion. The photovoltaic panels and batteries will provide twice as much energy as a conventional nuclear power plant. The nation’s current biggest solar plant, the Copper Mountain Solar Facility in Nevada, can generate up to 802 megawatts of energy.
The big unknown still hanging over the plan is whether the Trump administration will thwart efforts that the Biden administration put in place to develop more clean electricity generation………………………………………….
While a clean energy project may clash with Mr. Trump’s policies, there’s a reason the administration may allow Hecate’s solar development to move forward: the revenue the government will get for the land lease. Hecate and the Energy Department declined to discuss the land’s market value, but private solar developers in the region said such easements typically paid landowners $300 an acre annually.
Two officials at the Energy Department, who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation, said that neither the president nor the leaders of the administration’s effort to reshape federal agencies had yet to intervene in the solar project, but that the future of the initiative was uncertain. One of the officials said the new energy secretary, Chris Wright, a former oil executive, had not yet reviewed the project as of late February.
Alex Pugh, Hecate’s director of development, said the company was moving ahead despite shifting political winds. “The fundamentals of the project are strong regardless of policy direction,” he said. “The region needs the project. There is a huge demand for electricity here.”
…………………….Hecate identified the large expanse of open ground alongside high-voltage transmission lines at Hanford as a potential site for its plant several years ago, Mr. Pugh said — long before the Energy Department solicited proposals. The potential benefits, he said, were plainly apparent.
………………….What they also have, however, is risk. The site where Hecate plans to build its photovoltaic panels is near an area where groundwater and soil were decontaminated and alongside an experimental 400-megawatt nuclear reactor complex that was decommissioned in 2001. It’s also about 20 miles south of B Reactor, the world’s first full-scale nuclear reactor, which produced the plutonium for the atomic
Zelensky reverses hardline position on peace talks
5 Mar 25, https://www.rt.com/news/613687-trump-zelensky-peace-talks/
The about-face comes one day after reports of Donald Trump freezing military aid to Kiev.
Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has said that Kiev is ready to engage in peace negotiations with Russia, to be brokered by US President Donald Trump. The statement comes after the White House reportedly stopped all military aid to Kiev following a disastrous meeting in the Oval Office between the two leaders, for which US officials have demanded Zelensky apologize.
Zelensky made a concession-filled post on X on Tuesday, saying his public feud with Trump in the Oval Office was “regrettable.”
“We are ready to work fast to end the war,” Zelensky wrote. He has frequently said in the past that Ukraine would fight as long as necessary and that peace talks could only happen on Ukraine’s terms.
He proposed the release of prisoners and establishing “truces” on both the air and sea fronts, echoing suggestions by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron in a meeting with him in London on Sunday. The French-UK plan envisages a temporary, month-long “truce in the air, on the seas, and on energy infrastructure.” Moscow has repeatedly ruled out a temporary ceasefire with Kiev, insisting on a permanent, legally binding peace deal that addresses the root causes of the conflict.
On Monday, Trump reportedly ordered a temporary halt to all US military aid to Ukraine, aiming to pressure Zelensky into negotiations to end the conflict with Russia. An unnamed senior administration official told Fox News that military assistance would stay suspended until the Ukrainian leadership demonstrates a genuine commitment to peace talks.
“Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer,” Zelensky continued on X, offering his appreciation for Washington’s support. “My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts,” he added.
“’Ready’ is good, it is positive,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reacted to the statement.
During the Friday meeting, Trump accused Zelensky of ingratitude and “gambling with World War III” by refusing to work towards a halt to hostilities.
On Sunday, Zelensky told reporters that “an agreement to end the war is still very, very far away, and no one has started all these steps yet.” Trump condemned his statement on social media, promising that “America will not put up with it for much longer.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has indicated Moscow’s readiness to resolve the Ukraine conflict through peaceful means. He emphasized Russia’s aim of establishing an international system that ensures a balanced and mutual consideration of interests, creating a long-term, indivisible European and global security framework.
First Trump threatened to nuke hurricanes. Now he’s waging war on weather forecasters
Some politicians go whichever way the wind blows. Not, however, the US’s
esteemed leader, Donald Trump. He is such a force of nature that he can
dictate the direction of the wind. During his first term, he suggested
“nuking hurricanes” to stop them from hitting the country. A few weeks
after that, Trump seemed to think he could alter the course of Hurricane
Dorian with a black marker, scribbling over an official map to change its
anticipated trajectory in an incident now known as Sharpiegate. Weirdly,
Dorian did not end up following Trump’s orders. Hurricanes can be
uncooperative like that. Six weeks into Trump’s second term, the
president hasn’t bombed any hurricanes, but he has nuked the US’s
weather-forecasting capabilities. Last week, hundreds of workers at the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), the US’s
pre-eminent climate research agency, were abruptly fired.
Guardian 4th March 2025, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/04/trump-waging-war-weather-forecasters-nuke-hurricanes
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