nuclear-news

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

Britain’s Energy Secretary Follows Tech Giants In Pursuit Of New Nuclear Power Stations

the government is “determined to drive forward” with nuclear power through both public and private investment, despite this being a period of “immense challenge for the public finances.”

Miliband was speaking in London on Thursday at the Nuclear Industry Association’s Nuclear 2024 conference, where he told the audience that their industry has an essential role to play in the U.K.’s pursuit of achieving a [ ?] clean power system by 2030.

Robert Olsen,  Forbes 7th Dec 2024

British Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has been watching U.S. tech companies striking deals with operators and developers of nuclear power plants, and now he’s eager to pursue similar projects in the U.K.

“My message is clear: if you want to build a nuclear project in Britain, my door is open,” Miliband said. “My department is listening. We want all your ideas for projects that can work and provide value for money.”

Miliband was speaking in London on Thursday at the Nuclear Industry Association’s Nuclear 2024 conference, where he told the audience that their industry has an essential role to play in the U.K.’s pursuit of achieving a [ ?] clean power system by 2030.

He said the government is “determined to drive forward” with nuclear power through both public and private investment, despite this being a period of “immense challenge for the public finances.”

Great British Nuclear (GBN), the government body tasked with spearheading the development of small modular reactors (SMRs), has started contract negotiations with four companies shortlisted for the U.K.’s small modular reactor program, and final decisions will be made next year.

Britain’s Rolls-Royce is competing with U.S.-based rivals GE Hitachi, Holtec and Westinghouse Electric for contracts to develop SMRs in the U.K. The competition was launched last year, as part of the government’s plan to replenish the country’s dwindling nuclear industry………………………………..https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertolsen-1/2024/12/07/britains-energy-secretary-follows-tech-giants-in-pursuit-of-new-nuclear-power-stations/

December 9, 2024 Posted by | politics international, technology, UK | Leave a comment

Trump’s Pro-Israel Dream Team: Patel Nomination Caps Hawkish Cabinet

 December 8, 2024, By Kit Klarenberg / MintPressNews

On November 30, Donald Trump nominated Kash Patel to serve as FBI director. A staunch MAGA activist and loyalist with significant standing in Trump’s orbit, Patel aligns closely with the president-elect on both domestic and foreign policy matters. Indeed, he appears to struggle to pinpoint areas of disagreement with Trump’s agenda.

Patel has consistently advocated for a hardline approach to China and is an unabashed supporter of Israeli interests, often prioritizing them over U.S. considerations. On October 7, marking the first anniversary of the Hamas attack, Patel delivered a fiery interview on Fox News. During the segment, he vowed that the incoming Trump administration would intensify its crackdown on anti-Israeli elements.

We should be side by side [with Israel]…When we are back in power with President Trump…we will shut off the machinery that feeds money into Iran…We need America to wake up and prioritize Israel, and that is not what Kamala Harris is about, we need to bring home Americans and end this war, bring home Israelis, and stand by our number one ally in Israel, and people need to wake up on November 5.”

A relative political outsider who has never occupied high office, the media has been awash with profiles of Patel and fevered speculation about what his management of the Bureau could mean in practice ever since. In the process, he has been subject to a level of mainstream scrutiny and criticism that was entirely lacking over recent weeks, as Trump filled his cabinet with a rogue’s gallery of dedicated hawks, hardcore pro-Israeli elements, and characters both unknown and notorious with potential extremist ties and views.

For some, the composition of Trump’s cabinet is a crushing disappointment. On November 9, Trump caused shockwaves when he announced neither Nikki Haley nor Mike Pompeo would be invited to join his administration in any capacity. The news, coupled with comments he made in a late October appearance on Joe Rogan’s popular podcast, perked optimism in some quarters that the President-elect’s longstanding anti-war posturing could produce real-world results in Ukraine, if not elsewhere.

In his discussion with Rogan, Trump professed that “the biggest mistake” of his first term was he “picked a few people that I shouldn’t have picked” – “neocons or bad people or disloyal people,” among them John Bolton. Haley was the U.S. ambassador to the UN under Trump and perhaps the most ardent, outspoken Zionist ever to fill the role. She, Bolton and Pompeo – who personally orchestrated Iranian General Qasem Soleimani’s assassination, among other hostile deeds – were widely regarded as the administration’s leading hawks.

Yet, any slight hope that the pair’s absence from Trump’s new White House might herald an influx of some doves and, in turn, a more peaceful shift from the U.S. government was comprehensively dashed when the President’s transition team nominations began rolling in. Now the cabinet is fully stocked, countless millions around the world have urgent and grave concerns about what the future could hold for them, their families, countries, regions, and more.

In particular, Trump’s prospective government can already claim the mantle of the most fervently pro-Israel in U.S. history. This is despite replacing an administration that has done more than any before to accelerate, encourage, and facilitate Israel’s war on Gaza. The prospect that Tel Aviv’s deadly assaults on Gaza and Lebanon will escalate somehow further is now not only very real but seemingly inevitable. However, as we shall see, there are minor rays of hope among the mass doom and gloom.

‘Promised Land’

New Secretary of State Marco Rubio hardly needs any introduction as one of the most pro-war members of the modern U.S. political class. Since his career kicked off in 2000, he has been consistently among the loudest voices on how America’s officially designated enemy states should be dealt with, be that China, Iran, Venezuela, or otherwise. Threats of sanctions, coups, and military intervention are almost a daily staple of his political oratory.

A close friend of Benjamin Netanyahu, in 2019, Rubio cosponsored a Senate resolution condemning UN Security Council resolutions designating Jewish settlement expansion in occupied Palestine as a violation of international law. He has referred to Israel’s mass murder in Gaza since October 7, 2023, as legitimate self-defense, claimed Hamas is “100% to blame” for any civilian casualties inflicted by the horrific onslaught, and ominously declared Palestinian resistance must be “eradicated,” as Tel Aviv cannot coexist “with these savages.”……………………………………………………………………………………….

The pro-Israel credentials of Senator Marco Rubio and Representative Michael Waltz are unquestionable. Yet their fervor for supporting Israel’s controversial policies pales in comparison to some of President-elect Donald Trump’s other nominees. Take Mike Huckabee, the ultraconservative former Arkansas governor and twice-failed presidential candidate, now tapped to serve as U.S. ambassador to Israel. Huckabee, an ordained Southern Baptist pastor, wasted no time declaring his intentions. He vowed to publicly refer to Israel in biblical terms, calling it the “Promised Land,” and proclaimed that Jews hold a “rightful deed” to Palestinian territory………………………

Hegseth, a contender for Defense Secretary, has made his allegiances to Israel unmistakably clear. He has described Israel’s settler population as “God’s chosen people.” He has openly advocated for transforming Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque into a Jewish-only recreation of the historic Temple Mount, framing such an act as a “miracle.” At a 2018 National Council of Young Israel gala in New York City, Hegseth left no room for ambiguity:

 Zionism and Americanism are the front lines of Western civilization and freedom in our world today.”………………………………………………………………………………………. more https://www.mintpressnews.com/trumps-pro-israel-dream-team-patel-nomination-caps-hawkish-cabinet/288783/

December 9, 2024 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

We used to laugh at North Korean nuclear submarine boasts. Not any more

In January 2021, North Korean strongman Kim Jong Un stood before thousands of
members of the Worker’s Party of Korea in Pyongyang and announced that
North Korean industry was in the late stages of developing a
nuclear-powered submarine – the first such sub for the North Korean navy.
At the time, it may have been wise to be sceptical: nuclear submarines are
among the costliest and most complex weapon systems in the world. North
Korean industry isn’t exactly known for its wealth and sophistication.
Nearly four years later, there’s much less reason to doubt Kim’s claim.
Because now North Korea has Russia’s help. And for all its woes, Russian
industry still builds a lot of world-class nuke boats.

 Telegraph 6th Dec 2024, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/12/06/putin-russia-nuclear-submarine-north-korea-axis-evil/

December 9, 2024 Posted by | North Korea, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Hinkley update: mixed reaction as first reactor drops into place

Mr Vince said: “I’m really pleased to be a patron of the Stop Hinkley campaign which is working to stop the government wasting billions of taxpayers’ money on a technology which is hugely expensive and slow to develop.”

By Simon Hacker , Punchline Gloucester 6th Dec 2024

It may be delayed to the extent that existing nuclear reactors are now planning to remain operational for an extra three years, but Hinkley Point C has come a step closer to activation with an overnight operation to drop a crucial 500-tonne reactor for the process into place.

When switched on, Somerset’s Hinkley Point C, near Bridgwater, is estimated to be capable of providing 7% of the UK’s power needs – calculated to keep six million homes supplied.

The 13m-long reactor is the first of two to be put in place by French project owner EDF and each will contain the nuclear chain reaction that will generate power from a planned operational date of 2030. the 12-hour operation to manoeuvre the unit into place was the first such job in 30 years in the UK.

But the road to this landmark has been far from smooth. With the installation some five years later than was originally planned, Covid, supply chain issues and political negotiations have ensured an uphill slog on the technology’s re-introduction, while – in keeping with the original advent of nuclear power – costs have spiralled: back in 2017, the taxpayer was told that the cost of this project would be £18bn. It now stands at £46bn.

Gloucestershire businessman and energy entrepreneur Dale Vince, who owns Ecotricity and campaigns for Britain’s energy production to be brought back into the hands of British business, has argued against nuclear installations on the Severn Estuary since 1983 and became a patron of the Stop Hinkley campaign this summer.

Speaking about the decision, Mr Vince said: “I’m really pleased to be a patron of the Stop Hinkley campaign which is working to stop the government wasting billions of taxpayers’ money on a technology which is hugely expensive and slow to develop.”

Alongside Mr Vince, the Somerset campaign is urging the government to adopt a 100% renewable energy strategy which it argues is “perfectly feasible” and which, compared to the UK Government’s current strategy, would save more than £100bn on the route plan to reach net zero by 2050.

Roy Pumfrey, Stop Hinkley spokesperson, said nuclear power is “rapidly losing ground to the astonishing growth in renewables” and the campaign has wanred that there is “no scientific solutuon to safeguarding nuclear waste” and contends that while no electricity production is zero carbon, nuclear is calculated to produce between 8 and 11 times more carbon emissions than renewable sources.

EDF has also waded into controversy here in Gloucestershire this week after the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust claimed the supplier’s mitigation scheme for fish killed in the planned nuclear site was “shambolic” and threatens to create the perfect conditions for an ecological disaster in the Severn Estuary.

Hinkley Point C is  financed by the state-owned French energy giant EDF Energy and China General Nuclear Power Group, which is also state-owned. https://www.punchline-gloucester.com/articles/aanews/hinkley-update-mixed-reaction-as-first-reactor-drops-into-place

December 9, 2024 Posted by | technology, UK | Leave a comment

Iran’s uranium enrichment ‘worrisome’ – nuclear watchdog

 The head of the UN nuclear watchdog has told the BBC Iran’s decision to
begin producing significantly more highly enriched uranium was “very
worrisome”. Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA), said Iran was increasing its stockpile of uranium
enriched to 60%, just below the level of purity needed for a nuclear
weapon.

This will be seen by many in the region as Tehran’s response to its
military and diplomatic setbacks in Syria, Lebanon and Gaza in recent
months. Mr Grossi said it was “no secret” some politicians in Iran were
calling for the development of a nuclear weapon – but after holding talks
in Tehran in recent weeks, he said that “doesn’t seem to be the path of
choice” by the current leadership.

 BBC 6th Dec 2024,
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c20ee6qylwgo

December 9, 2024 Posted by | Iran, politics international | Leave a comment

Explosives speed Sizewell A turbine hall decommissioning

WNN, Friday, 6 December 2024

More than 1200 holes were drilled and 700 kilogrammes of explosive used for the demolition of large concrete plinths in the turbine hall of Sizewell A nuclear power plant in the UK.

Nuclear Restoration Services said it was the largest use of explosives on a nuclear site for conventional demolition purposes in decades.

After the holes were drilled into the plinths, the charges were set and covered for the detonation, which was all planned and carried out with Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) oversight.

A series of test blasts had to take place and special detonator timings designed to meet nuclear site regulations for air overpressure and ground vibration, with Offive for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) having placed a hold point on the work until they were sure any risks from the novel operation had been minimised.

The ONR said that following the blasts, the huge turbine supporting concrete bases can be removed using heavy machinery within two weeks, rather than “deploying older and slower methods of drilling the structure apart which would have taken several months”.

Sizewell A’s twin reactors shut down in 2006 after 40 years of operation. Planning consent was given to demolish the turbine hall and electrical annexe in August and more than 35 miles of cabling and 8000 scaffolding boards, clips and pipes have been taken out………………………….. https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/articles/explosives-used-in-sizewell-a-turbine-hall-decommissioning

December 9, 2024 Posted by | decommission reactor, UK | Leave a comment

Gender and radiation: New report shows girls most at-risk group

December 4, 2024,
 https://beyondnuclear.org/gender-and-radiation-new-report-shows-girls-most-at-risk-group/

A new United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) report by Amanda M. Nichols — Postdoctoral Researcher, University of California, Santa Barbara and Mary Olson — Founder, Gender and Radiation Impact Project entitled Gender and Ionizing Radiation: Towards a New Research Agenda Addressing Disproportionate Harm examines recent research correlating harm from exposure to ionizing radiation and biological sex. The following is the executive summary:

“The detonation of a nuclear weapon in a populated area would cause devastating harm: it can kill thousands of people instantly, whether through the explosion itself, or through the intense heat and high levels of radiation. The mid- and long-term consequences from radiation exposure are less well understood, in part because they manifest differently for male and female survivors.

Robust evidence of differentiated health impacts emerged in 2006, when the US National Academy of Sciences published Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation VII which reported 60 years of data from the Life Span Study of atomic bomb survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Nearly 20 years after the publication of that report, this report speaks to the extent to which new evidence has been published regarding the correlation between harm from exposure to ionizing radiation and biological sex.

This report concludes the following:

The post-2006 radiation research reviewed in this report provides clear evidence that radiation causes more cancer, heart disease, and stroke in women compared to men.

Several studies present evidence that supports the hypothesis that a higher percentage of reproductive tissue in the female body could be one contributing factor to the greater rate of harm from radiation exposure in females compared to males.

In addition to biological sex, some studies suggest that age at time of exposure may be an important factor in assessing radiation outcomes.

Girls (ages 0–5 years) are the most at risk post-birth lifecycle stage for developing cancer and non-cancer related health consequences over the course of the lifetime from exposure to ionizing radiation.

These findings are important for discussions about nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, given that sex-specific and gendered impacts of nuclear weapons are a prominent topic during the meetings of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

More research is needed, however, that takes seriously the ways that age and intergenerational impacts inform discussions about radiological harm. This report concludes with an outline of a future research agenda and suggests research questions applicable across a number of disciplines and lines of inquiry.

December 8, 2024 Posted by | women, Women | Leave a comment

Green Group Sounds Alarm Over Meta’s Nuclear Power Plans

“In the blind sprint to win on AI, Meta and the other tech giants have lost their way,” said a leader at Environment America.

Jessica Corbett, 5 Dec 24, https://www.commondreams.org/news/meta-nuclear-power?xrs=RebelMouse_fb&ts=1733449433&fbclid=IwY2xjawHAsKZleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHdKFUyPBOBTG7NW2ZlQDOh0gqS_OC0L73I44ICQNjlWw12xPlcO9omTXJQ_aem_Od_q57mbvDma_to2jfZafA

Environmental advocates this week responded with concern to Meta looking for nuclear power developers to help the tech giant add 1-4 gigawatts of generation capacity in the United States starting in the early 2030s.

Meta—the parent company of Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and more—released a request for proposals to identify developers, citing its artificial intelligence (AI) innovation and sustainability objectives. It is “seeking developers with strong community engagement, development, …permitting, and execution expertise that have development opportunities for new nuclear energy resources—either small modular reactors (SMR) or larger nuclear reactors.”

The company isn’t alone. As TechCrunchreported: “Microsoft is hoping to restart a reactor at Three Mile Island by 2028. Google is betting that SMR technology can help it deliver on its AI and sustainability goals, signing a deal with startup Kairos Power for 500 megawatts of electricity. Amazon has thrown its weight behind SMR startup X-Energy, investing in the company and inking two development agreements for around 300 megawatts of generating capacity.”

In response to Meta’s announcement, Johanna Neumann, Environment America Research & Policy Center’s senior director of the Campaign for 100% Renewable Energy, said: “The long history of overhyped nuclear promises reveals that nuclear energy is expensive and slow to build all while still being inherently dangerous. America already has 90,000 metric tons of nuclear waste that we don’t have a storage solution for.”

Do we really want to create more radioactive waste to power the often dubious and questionable uses of AI?” Neumann asked. “In the blind sprint to win on AI, Meta and the other tech giants have lost their way. Big Tech should recommit to solutions that not only work but pose less risk to our environment and health.”

“Data centers should be as energy and water efficient as possible and powered solely with new renewable energy,” she added. “Without those guardrails, the tech industry’s insatiable thirst for energy risks derailing America’s efforts to get off polluting forms of power, including nuclear.”

In a May study, the Electric Power Research Institute found that “data centers could consume up to 9% of U.S. electricity generation by 2030—more than double the amount currently used.” The group noted that “AI queries require approximately 10 times the electricity of traditional internet searches and the generation of original music, photos, and videos requires much more.”

Meta is aiming to get the process started quickly: The intake form is due by January 3 and initial proposals are due February 7. It comes after a rare bee species thwarted Meta’s plans to build a data center powered by an existing nuclear plant.

Following the nuclear announcement, Meta and renewable energy firm Invenergy on Thursday announced a deal for 760 megawatts of solar power capacity. Operations for that four-state project are expected to begin no later than 2027.

December 8, 2024 Posted by | technology | Leave a comment

‘The process is broken’: Major oil producing countries kill UN plastics treaty over cap on production

Bulletin, By Joseph Winters | December 5, 2024

What was supposed to be the final round of United Nations negotiations for a global plastics treaty ended without an agreement on Sunday, as delegates failed to reconcile opposing views on whether to impose a cap on plastic production.

Another negotiating session — dubbed INC-5.2 after this week’s INC-5 — will be held in 2025, but it’s unclear how countries will make further progress without a change in the treaty’s consensus-based decision-making process. As it stands, any delegation can essentially veto a proposal they don’t like, even if they’re opposed by most of the rest of the world.

“If it wasn’t for Saudi and Russia we would have reached an agreement here,” one European negotiator told the Financial Times. Those two countries, along with other oil producers like Iran and Kuwait, want the plastics treaty to leave production untouched and focus only on downstream measures: boosting the plastics recycling rate, for example, and cleaning up existing plastic pollution.

Kuwait’s delegation said on Sunday that “we are not here to end plastic itself … but plastic pollution.” That’s the position the plastic industry is taking, as well: Chris Jahn, council secretary for a petrochemical industry consortium called the International Council of Chemical Associations, said it’s “crucial” for the treaty to focus on plastic pollution alone. “With 2.7 billion people globally lacking access to waste collection systems, solutions must prioritize addressing this gap,” he said in a statement.

Dozens of countries — supported by scientists and environmental groups — say that approach is futile while the plastics industry plans to dramatically increase plastic production. “You can talk about waste management all you want, but this is not the silver bullet,” one of the European Union’s delegates said last week. “Mopping the floor when the tap is open is useless.”

Christina Dixon, oceans campaign leader for the nonprofit Environmental Investigation Agency, attended INC-5 and told Grist the conference made it clear that “consensus isn’t working.” She said countries seem to be recognizing this too, in light of INC-5’s shortcomings and the low probability of finding unanimity on the treaty’s most critical issues.

Last week, one French minister accused a coalition of oil-exporting countries of “continuing obstruction.” Fiji’s negotiator said a “very minority group” was “blocking the process,” and at a press conference over the weekend told delegations holding back the treaty to “please get out.”

Technically, the treaty could move forward without Saudi Arabia, Russia, and their allies, either continuing under the U.N. framework or — a more radical scenario — in a new forum led by a breakaway alliance of countries. ……………………………………………… ……………………………….. more https://thebulletin.org/2024/12/the-process-is-broken-major-oil-producing-countries-kill-un-plastics-treaty-over-cap-on-production/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=ThursdayNewsletter12052024&utm_content=ClimateChange_UNPlasticsTreaty_12052024

December 8, 2024 Posted by | environment | Leave a comment

Licensing of Finnish repository further delayed

WNN, Thursday, 5 December 2024


Finland’s Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority has been given another one-year extension to complete its review of Posiva Oy’s operating licence application for the world’s first used nuclear fuel repository.

Radioactive waste management company Posiva submitted its application, together with related information, to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment on 30 December 2021 for an operating licence for the used fuel encapsulation plant and final disposal facility currently under construction at Olkiluoto. The repository is expected to begin operations in the mid-2020s. Posiva is applying for an operating licence for a period from March 2024 to the end of 2070.

The government will make the final decision on Posiva’s application, but a positive opinion by the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK) is required beforehand. The regulator began its review in May 2022 after concluding Posiva had provided sufficient material. The ministry had requested STUK’s opinion on the application by the end of 2023. However, in January this year, STUK requested the deadline for its opinion be extended until the end of 2024. 

STUK has now said Posiva “has not completed the materials necessary” for it to conduct a safety assessment concerning the plant’s operating licence. At STUK’s request, the ministry has agreed to extend the deadline for the regulator’s opinion to 31 December 2025.

……………………………………………………………… The government granted Posiva a construction licence for the project in November 2015 and construction work on the repository started in December 2016. Once it receives the operating licence, Posiva can start the final disposal of the used fuel generated from the operation of TVO’s Olkiluoto and Fortum’s Loviisa nuclear power plants. The operation will last for about 100 years before the repository is closed. Posiva announced in late August the start of a trial run – expected to take sev more https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/articles/licensing-of-finnish-repository-further-delayederal months – of the operation of the final disposal facility, albeit still without the used fuel.

December 8, 2024 Posted by | Finland, wastes | Leave a comment

Relationship Between Urinary Uranium and Cardiac Geometry and Left Ventricular Function: The Strong Heart Study

 Uranium is a potentially cardiotoxic, nonessential element commonly found
in drinking water throughout the United States. The purpose of this study
was to evaluate if urinary uranium concentrations were associated with
measures of cardiac geometry and function among American Indian young
adults from the Strong Heart Family Study.

Urinary uranium levels were
adversely associated with measures of cardiac geometry and LV function
among American Indian adults, including increases in pulse pressure and LV
hypertrophy.

These findings support the need to determine the potential
long-term subclinical and clinical cardiovascular effects of chronic
uranium exposure, and the need for future strategies to reduce exposure.

 JACC Journals 3rd Dec 2024 https://www.jacc.org/doi/10.1016/j.jacadv.2024.101408

December 8, 2024 Posted by | health, Reference, Uranium | Leave a comment

Drugs found in control room at Dungeness Nuclear Power Station

Millie Bowles
https://www.kentonline.co.uk/romney-marsh/news/drugs-found-in-nuclear-power-station-control-room-316864/

mbowles@thekmgroup.co.uk. 05 December 2024

Staff were drug tested and sniffer dogs were deployed after a bag of suspected drugs was found at a nuclear power station.

The package, believed to have contained powdered drugs thought to be cocaine, was discovered by a worker at Dungeness B Power Station last month.

December 8, 2024 Posted by | safety, UK | Leave a comment

TODAY. Misplaced jubilation as UK’s old brittle nuclear reactors allowed to crack on

Joy and delight expressed by one corporate media outlet after another, as they report the announcement from (debt-laden) French nuclear company EDF that four UK nuclear power stations will be allowed to crack on, way past their use-by date.

“Crack” is the operative word here. Take for example, the Torness nuclear reactor in East Lothian – with 46 cracks in the nuclear core reported last July. It was scheduled to close in 2023.

Hunterston B, in North Ayshire is at long last to be decommissioned. In 2020  one of its reactors had an estimated 377 cracks, while the other had 209.  The reactors were beginning to crumble, with cracks causing at least 58 fragments and pieces of debris to break off.

The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR has said that cracking could cause debris to inhibit vital cooling of highly radioactive reactor fuel. This can lead to a reactor meltdown, which can result in the escape of radioactivity to the environment.

Nobody in the prevailing establishment – corporate media, politicians, industry executives – nobody is facing up to the huge problem and huge cost of dismantling dangerous old nuclear reactors – so much better to pretend that it’s the charitable thing to just keep them going, Then it’s “jobs jobs jobs” and “community benefit” and “clean cheap energy” and “improved safety” “isn’t it wonderful” So say EDF 4th Dec 2024, the BBC, and Business Green 4th Dec 2024, and  New Civil Engineer 4th Dec 2024, and Independent 3rd Dec 2024, The Herald,  Lancs Live 4th Dec 2024.

Nary a word about the costs and dangers of the transport of radioactive materials, the ever-growing piles on nuclear wastes, the risks of terrorist attacks – and the completely unethical postponing of problems – just leave them for future generations to cope with.

Not nearly as much fuss was made about  the world’s largest liquid air energy facility to be built at Hunterston – to store renewable energy, and provide 1000 jobs in the construction phase and 650 jobs in the local supply chain by its completion in 2030.

I try to be polite – but I empathise with Sir Jonathon Espie Porritt, 2nd Baronet, CBE  who has just got so fed up with the cheerful glowing stories about prolonging the lives of decrepit nuclear reactors – “the whole deep nuclear state working away behind the scenes – as well as the UK’s astonishingly gullible media which just goes along with all this nuclear crap, year after year after year.“

December 7, 2024 Posted by | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

Safety warnings as cracks rise at Torness nuclear plant

Rob Edwards, The Ferret, 22 July 24,

The number of cracks in the core of an ageing nuclear reactor at Torness in East Lothian has risen to 46, prompting warnings that prolonging its operation would be “gambling with public safety”.

The UK Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) told The Ferret that the cracks were detected in April 2024 and were “at the upper end of expectations”. The first three cracks were discovered at Torness in February 2022. July 21, 2024

ONR has previously said that spreading cracks could result in debris inhibiting the cooling of hot radioactive fuel. This can lead to a reactor meltdown, which can result in the escape of radioactivity to the environment.

In 2021 the plant’s operator, EDF Energy, said that Torness would be closed in 2028 – two years earlier than expected – because of expected cracking. The station was originally scheduled to close in 2023, and in 2016 its expected life was extended to 2030.

But in January 2024 EDF changed its mind, and announced it would review whether the plant’s life could again be extended beyond 2028 “subject to plant inspections and regulatory approvals”.

Campaigners are now worried that EDF could be putting nuclear safety at risk. They are calling for Torness to be shut down “sooner rather than later”.

EDF, however, insisted that the cracks did not affect normal operations or the ability to shut down Torness in an emergency. The plant’s life would be reviewed “by the end of 2024” with the “ambition” of generating electricity after 2028.

ONR pointed out that EDF would have to demonstrate Torness would be safe to operate beyond 2028. “We will not allow any plant to operate unless we are satisfied that it is safe to do so,” it said.

The cracks have opened up in the ring-shaped graphite bricks packed around the reactor’s highly radioactive uranium fuel. They were detected in one of the two reactors at Torness during EDF’s latest inspection on 18 April 2024.

“EDF’s sampling of fuel channels showed 46 bricks with a single full height axial crack (a crack all the way through), which was at the upper end of expectations,” said ONR in response to freedom of information requests from The Ferret…………………………………………………………………………….

Scotland’s other nuclear power station at Hunterston in North Ayrshire was closed down in January 2022, more than a year earlier than planned. This followed the discovery of an estimated 586 cracks in its two reactors.

Torness ‘well past’ its design life

Pete Roche, a veteran nuclear critic, pointed out that it was EDF that decided to close Torness in 2028 because of cracking. “Given that the number of cracks are increasing, they would be gambling with public safety to now go back to a 2030 closure date,” he said.

“It’s difficult to avoid the conclusion that EDF is prepared to gamble because the plant it is building in England at Hinkley Point C is so late.”

The Guardian reported in February 2024 that delays and cost overruns at Hinkley in Somerset had cost EDF £11 billion. The plant was originally due to be built for £18bn in 2017, but is now expected to cost £46bn and be completed by 2031.

According to environmental campaigner, Dr Richard Dixon, Torness was “well past” its 30 year design life. “Now the cracks are meeting the worst predictions but suddenly EDF thinks it is a good idea to run the reactors for longer,” he said.

The Scottish Greens warned of the “devastating destruction” that could be caused by poorly maintained nuclear plants. “These reports are very worrying and should concern us all,” said the party’s co-leader and Lothian MSP, Lorna Slater.

“When it comes to something as dangerous as nuclear energy, there can be no room for error or regret. It underlines why Torness needs to be shut down sooner rather than later.”……………………………………………………………………………………………. more https://theferret.scot/torness-safety-warnings-as-cracks-rise/

December 7, 2024 Posted by | safety, UK | Leave a comment

Amnesty International investigation concludes Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza 

By Amnesty International 5 Dec 24

Amnesty International’s research has found sufficient basis to conclude that Israel has committed and is continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip, the organization said in a landmark new report published today.  

The report, ‘You Feel Like You Are Subhuman’: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza, documents how, during its military offensive launched in the wake of the deadly Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel on 7 October 2023, Israel has unleashed hell and destruction on Palestinians in Gaza brazenly, continuously and with total impunity.

“Amnesty International’s report demonstrates that Israel has carried out acts prohibited under the Genocide Convention, with the specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza. These acts include killings, causing serious bodily or mental harm and deliberately inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction. Month after month, Israel has treated Palestinians in Gaza as a subhuman group unworthy of human rights and dignity, demonstrating its intent to physically destroy them,” said Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International.  

“Our damning findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international community: this is genocide. It must stop now. 

“States that continue to transfer arms to Israel at this time must know they are violating their obligation to prevent genocide and are at risk of becoming complicit in genocide. All states with influence over Israel, particularly key arms suppliers like the USA and Germany, but also other EU member states, the UK and others, must act now to bring Israel’s atrocities against Palestinians in Gaza to an immediate end.” 

Over the past two months the crisis has grown particularly acute in the North Gaza governorate, where a besieged population is facing starvation, displacement and annihilation amid relentless bombardment and suffocating restrictions on life-saving humanitarian aid.  

“Our research reveals that, for months, Israel has persisted in committing genocidal acts, fully aware of the irreparable harm it was inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza. It continued to do so in defiance of countless warnings about the catastrophic humanitarian situation and of legally binding decisions from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordering Israel to take immediate measures to enable the provision of humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza,” said Agnès Callamard.  

“Israel has repeatedly argued that its actions in Gaza are lawful and can be justified by its military goal to eradicate Hamas. But genocidal intent can co-exist alongside military goals and does not need to be Israel’s sole intent.” 

WHY IS THIS A GENOCIDE?

………………………………………………………………………… Amnesty International’s report examines in detail Israel’s violations in Gaza over nine months between 7 October 2023 and early July 2024. The organization interviewed 212 people, including Palestinian victims and witnesses, local authorities in Gaza, healthcare workers, conducted fieldwork and analysed an extensive range of visual and digital evidence, including satellite imagery. It also analysed statements by senior Israeli government and military officials, and official Israeli bodies. On multiple occasions, the organization shared its findings with the Israeli authorities but had received no substantive response at the time of publication.  

Unprecedented scale and magnitude 

Israel’s actions following Hamas’s deadly attacks on 7 October 2023 have brought Gaza’s population to the brink of collapse. Its brutal military offensive had killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, including over 13,300 children, and injured over 97,000 more, by 7 October 2024, many of them in direct or deliberately indiscriminate attacks, often wiping out entire multigenerational families. It has caused unprecedented destruction, which experts say occurred at a level and speed not seen in any other conflict in the 21st century, levelling entire cities and destroying critical infrastructure, agricultural land and cultural and religious sites. It thereby rendered large swathes of Gaza uninhabitable.  

Mohammed, who fled with his family from Gaza City to Rafah in March 2024 and was displaced again in May 2024, described their struggle to survive in horrifying conditions:  

“Here in Deir al-Balah, it’s like an apocalypse… You have to protect your children from insects, from the heat, and there is no clean water, no toilets, all while the bombing never stops. You feel like you are subhuman here.”  

Israel imposed conditions of life in Gaza that created a deadly mixture of malnutrition, hunger and diseases, and exposed Palestinians to a slow, calculated death. Israel also subjected hundreds of Palestinians from Gaza to incommunicado detention, torture and other ill-treatment.  

Viewed in isolation, some of the acts investigated by Amnesty International constitute serious violations of international humanitarian law or international human rights law. But in looking at the broader picture of Israel’s military campaign and the cumulative impact of its policies and acts, genocidal intent is the only reasonable conclusion.  

Intent to destroy 

To establish Israel’s specific intent to physically destroy Palestinians in Gaza, as such, Amnesty International analysed the overall pattern of Israel’s conduct in Gaza, reviewed dehumanizing and genocidal statements by Israeli government and military officials, particularly those at the highest levels, and considered the context of Israel’s system of apartheid, its inhumane blockade of Gaza and the unlawful 57-year-old military occupation of the Palestinian territory.  

Before reaching its conclusion, Amnesty International examined Israel’s claims that its military lawfully targeted Hamas and other armed groups throughout Gaza, and that the resulting unprecedented destruction and denial of aid were the outcome of unlawful conduct by Hamas and other armed groups, such as locating fighters among the civilian population or the diversion of aid. The organization concluded these claims are not credible.  The presence of Hamas fighters near or within a densely populated area does not absolve Israel from its obligations to take all feasible precautions to spare civilians and avoid indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks. Its research found Israel repeatedly failed to do so, committing multiple crimes under international law for which there can be no justification based on Hamas’s actions. Amnesty International also found no evidence that the diversion of aid could explain Israel’s extreme and deliberate restrictions on life-saving humanitarian aid.  

In its analysis, the organization also considered alternative arguments such as ones that Israel was acting recklessly or that it simply wanted to destroy Hamas and did not care if it needed to destroy Palestinians in the process, demonstrating a callous disregard for their lives rather than genocidal intent.  

However, regardless of whether Israel sees the destruction of Palestinians as instrumental to destroying Hamas or as an acceptable by-product of this goal, this view of Palestinians as disposable and not worthy of consideration is in itself evidence of genocidal intent.  

Many of the unlawful acts documented by Amnesty International were preceded by officials urging their implementation. The organization reviewed 102 statements that were issued by Israeli government and military officials and others between 7 October 2023 and 30 June 2024 and dehumanized Palestinians, called for or justified genocidal acts or other crimes against them. 

Of these, Amnesty International identified 22 statements made by senior officials in charge of managing the offensive that appeared to call for, or justify, genocidal acts, providing direct evidence of genocidal intent. This language was frequently replicated, including by Israeli soldiers on the ground, as evidenced by audiovisual content verified by Amnesty International showing soldiers making calls to “erase” Gaza or to make it uninhabitable, and celebrating the destruction of Palestinian homes, mosques, schools and universities. 

Killing and causing serious bodily or mental harm 

Amnesty International documented the genocidal acts of killing and causing serious mental and bodily harm to Palestinians in Gaza by reviewing the results of investigations it conducted into 15 air strikes between 7 October 2023 and 20 April 2024 that killed at least 334 civilians, including 141 children, and wounded hundreds of others. Amnesty International found no evidence that any of these strikes were directed at a military objective. 

In one illustrative case, on 20 April 2024, an Israeli air strike destroyed the Abdelal family house in the Al-Jneinah neighbourhood in eastern Rafah, killing three generations of Palestinians, including 16 children, while they were sleeping.  

While these represent just a fraction of Israel’s aerial attacks, they are indicative of a broader pattern of repeated direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects or deliberately indiscriminate attacks. The attacks were also conducted in ways designed to cause a very high number of fatalities and injuries among the civilian population.  

Inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about physical destruction 

The report documents how Israel deliberately inflicted conditions of life on Palestinians in Gaza intended to lead, over time, to their destruction. These conditions were imposed through three simultaneous patterns that repeatedly compounded the effect of each other’s devastating impacts: damage to and destruction of life-sustaining infrastructure and other objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population; the repeated use of sweeping, arbitrary and confusing mass “evacuation” orders to forcibly displace almost all of Gaza’s population; and the denial and obstruction of the delivery of essential services, humanitarian assistance and other life-saving supplies into and within Gaza. 

After 7 October 2023, Israel imposed a total siege on Gaza cutting off electricity, water and fuel. In the nine months reviewed for this report, Israel maintained a suffocating, unlawful blockade, tightly controlled access to energy sources, failed to facilitate meaningful humanitarian access within Gaza,  and obstructed the import and delivery of life-saving goods and humanitarian aid, particularly to areas north of Wadi Gaza. They thereby exacerbated an already existing humanitarian crisis. This, combined with the extensive damage to Gaza’s homes, hospitals, water and sanitation facilities and agricultural land, and mass forced displacement, caused catastrophic levels of hunger and led to the spread of diseases at alarming rates. The impact was especially harsh on young children and pregnant or breastfeeding women, with anticipated long-term consequences for their health.  

The international community’s seismic, shameful failure for over a year to press Israel to end its atrocities in Gaza, by first delaying calls for a ceasefire and then continuing arms transfers, is and will remain a stain on our collective conscience.Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International

Time and again, Israel had the chance to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, yet for over a year it has repeatedly refused to take steps blatantly within its power to do so, such as opening sufficient access points to Gaza or lifting tight restrictions on what could enter the Strip  or their obstruction of aid deliveries within Gaza while the situation has grown progressively worse. 

Through its repeated “evacuation” orders Israel displaced nearly 1.9 million Palestinians – 90% of Gaza’s population – into ever-shrinking, unsafe pockets of land under inhumane conditions, some of them up to 10 times. These multiple waves of forced displacement left many jobless and deeply traumatized, especially since some 70% of Gaza’s residents are refugees or descendants of refugees whose towns and villages were ethnically cleansed by Israel during the 1948 Nakba. 

Despite conditions quickly becoming unfit for human life, Israeli authorities refused to consider measures that would have protected displaced civilians and ensured their basic needs were met, showing that their actions were deliberate.  

They refused to allow those displaced to return to their homes in northern Gaza or relocate temporarily to other parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territory or Israel, continuing to deny many Palestinians their right to return under international law to areas they were displaced from in 1948. They did so knowing that there was nowhere safe for Palestinians in Gaza to flee to.  

Accountability for genocide 

“The international community’s seismic, shameful failure for over a year to press Israel to end its atrocities in Gaza, by first delaying calls for a ceasefire and then continuing arms transfers, is and will remain a stain on our collective conscience,” said Agnès Callamard.  

“Governments must stop pretending they are powerless to end this genocide, which was enabled by decades of impunity for Israel’s violations of international law. States need to move beyond mere expressions of regret or dismay and take strong and sustained international action, however uncomfortable a finding of genocide may be for some of Israel’s allies.  

“The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity issued last month offer real hope of long-overdue justice for victims. States must demonstrate their respect for the court’s decision and for universal international law principles by arresting and handing over those wanted by the ICC.  

“We are calling on the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to urgently consider adding genocide to the list of crimes it is investigating and for all states to use every legal avenue to bring perpetrators to justice. No one should be allowed to commit genocide and remain unpunished.” 

Amnesty International is also calling for all civilian hostages to be released unconditionally and for Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups responsible for the crimes committed on 7 October to be held to account.  

The organization is also calling for the UN Security Council to impose targeted sanctions against Israeli and Hamas officials most implicated in crimes under international law. 

Background  

On 7 October 2023 Hamas and other armed groups indiscriminately fired rockets into southern Israel and carried out deliberate mass killings and hostage-taking there, killing 1,200 people, including over 800 civilians, and abducted 223 civilians and captured 27 soldiers. The crimes perpetrated by Hamas and other armed groups during this attack will be the focus of a forthcoming Amnesty International report.  

Since October 2023, Amnesty International has conducted in-depth investigations into the multiple violations and crimes under international law committed by Israeli forces, including direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects and deliberately indiscriminate attacks killing hundreds of civilians, as well as other unlawful attacks on and collective punishment of the civilian population. The organization has called on the Office of the ICC Prosecutor to expedite its investigation into the situation in the State of Palestine and is campaigning for an immediate ceasefire.

For the Hebrew translation of this press release, click here.  https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/12/amnesty-international-concludes-israel-is-committing-genocide-against-palestinians-in-gaza/

December 7, 2024 Posted by | Atrocities, Israel | Leave a comment

« Previous Entries     Next Entries »