Germany may take another 50 years to find final repository for waste from shuttered nuclear power
Sören Amelang, Aug 9, 2024, https://reneweconomy.com.au/germany-may-take-another-50-years-to-find-final-repository-for-waste-from-shuttered-nuclear-power/
Germany’s ongoing hunt for a final repository for highly radioactive nuclear waste could last until the 2070s, a report has warned.
The report by the Institute for Applied Ecology (Öko-Institut), which was commissioned by the country’s Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management (BASE), said a decision on a location can be expected in 2074 at the earliest under ideal conditions, reports Zeit Online.
This would be more than 40 years later than the original 2031 target, which the government already gave up almost two years ago. The environment ministry said the report did not take into consideration significant progress in efforts to shorten the search, for example by saving time on long exploration periods.
The ministry declared in November 2022 that the search won’t be completed in 2031, following a paper by the Federal Company for Radioactive Waste Disposal (BGE) that estimated the search could take until 2046 or, in another scenario, until 2068.
The next step will be for the BGE to propose shortlisted siting regions at the end of 2027, the ministry said. “This is the right time to discuss and regulate further acceleration in a transparent manner. A great deal of time can be saved, particularly in the surface and underground exploration,” it added.
But Journalist Bernward Janzing wrote in a commentary it was questionable how much the “scientifically well designed” process can be accelerated without compromising high safety standards.
Germany completed its nuclear phase-out last year and will now have to store 1,900 large containers, or around 28,100 cubic metres (m3), of high-level radioactive waste by 2080, when all its nuclear power stations and many research facilities will have been finally decommissioned and the fuel elements treated at other facilities.
Highly radioactive, heat-generating waste accounts for only five percent of Germany’s radioactive refuse, but is responsible for 99 percent of the radiation. It is currently held at temporary storage facilities near decommissioned nuclear power stations and in central interim repositories.
Construction of a repository following a location decision is scheduled to take about 20 years, according to current plans. The process of transporting and storing thousands of casks in the final repository will then take decades more.
Experts from a parliamentary storage commission said that loading and sealing the repository could be expected to last “well into the next century”.
Australia being turned into ’51st US state’ – former Prime Minister
https://www.sott.net/article/493814-Australia-being-turned-into-51st-US-state-ex-PM 10 Aug 24
Canberra is losing its strategic autonomy due to its security pact with the US and UK, former Prime Minister Paul Keating has said.
The US is surrounding Australia with military bases under the AUKUS pact, which undermines the country’s sovereignty and makes it a legitimate target for China.
In an interview with ABC on Thursday, Keating, who served as prime minister between 1991 and 1996, voiced strong skepticism about whether his country benefits from being a member of AUKUS – a landmark security partnership between Australia, UK, and the US, which was announced in 2021. The pact, which has been condemned by China, focuses on helping Australia acquire nuclear-powered submarines.
Keating argued that by allowing the US to “displace our military” and surround the country with bases, Canberra is essentially giving up its right to determine its foreign and defense policy. Australia will “completely lose” its strategic autonomy as a result, he claimed.
“So AUKUS is really about, in American terms, the military control of Australia. The government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is “likely to turn Australia into the 51st state of the United States.”
The former prime minister added that the expanded military presence makes the country a target from China’s point of view.
“We’re now defending the fact that we’re in AUKUS… If we did not have an aggressive ally, like the United States, aggressive to others in the region, there would be nobody attacking Australia. We are better left alone.”
The US, he argued, is trying to “superintend” China, with tensions between the two being fueled by a power struggle over the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which Beijing views as part of its sovereign territory.
However, Keating argued that the Taiwan situation “is not a vital Australian interest” while China “has no strategic design” on Australia. The US attitude to Taiwan is comparable to China deciding that Tasmania needed help breaking away from Australia, he said.
The former prime minister’s remarks come after Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles and Foreign Minister Penny Wong traveled to Washington for talks about the AUKUS pact, and to discuss a new agreement on the transfer of nuclear material to Canberra as part of its push to acquire domestic-built atomic submarines from the 2030s.
China has warned that the AUKUS agreement raises nuclear proliferation risks, adding that it was conceived in the “Cold War mentality which will only motivate an arms race.” Russia has also sounded the alarm about the security situation in the Asia-Pacific, insisting that it “has no place for closed military and political alliances.”
UK’s most dangerous nuclear site pleads guilty after endangering national security
More than 11,000 people work at the nuclear site in Cumbria, Sellafield, which holds the world’s largest store of plutonium and was called UK’s ‘most dangerous’
By WILLIAM MORGAN, Fri, Aug 9, 2024 https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1933985/UK-dangerous-nuclear-site-guilty-endangering-national-security
Europe’s largest nuclear site and the world’s largest plutonium storage facility has admitted putting Britain’s national security at risk, after a series of cybersecurity failings at the vast former nuclear power plant in Cumbria, Sellafield.
The company running the site, Sellafield Ltd, has apologised after pleading guilty to charges relating to information technology security from 2019 to 2023. Westminster Magistrates Court heard that, during this period, three quarters of the nuclear site’s servers were vulnerable to attack.
A Guardian investigation into nuclear industry practices also found that contractors could get unsupervised access to Sellafield computers and could plug external drives into the Sellafield systems. The company’s own report into the issue found that any “reasonably skilled hacker or malicious insider” could take advantage of these weaknesses.
The court heard from the nuclear watchdog that information which could pose a threat to national secrity lay vulnerable for years, with many of the critical security checks that Sellafield Ltd said they were completing, were simply not being done. The site has an otherwise poor reputation, often called “the most dangerous” site in the UK, employing 11,000 people to process nuclear waste and decommission equipment.
Tests of the vulnerable IT systems found that someone could access Sellafield’s servers and install phishing softward “without raising any alarms”. Raising further fears of information vulnerabiliy in key UK infrastructure to threats from hostile actors.
During their prosecution for failing to secure their systems, it emerged that 13 files marked “official/sensitive” had mistakenly been sent to outside contractors, alongside 4000 other files. Somehow, this did not trigger any elerts in their computer system, which was blamed in part for using “obsolete” software – including Windows 7 and Windows 2008.
At a court hearing on Thursday, a statement was read out from Sellafield Ltd’s CEO, Euan Hutton, who was present but did not speak.
The statement read: “I again apologise on behalf of the company for matters which led to these proceedings … I genuinely believe that the issues which led to this prosecution are in the past.”
The company is not due to be sentenced until September. The Office for Nuclear Regulation said after the August 8 hearing: “Sellafield Ltd had previously pleaded guilty to those offences in June, and while a hearing did take place today, Chief Magistrate Senior District Judge Paul Goldspring did not pass sentence.
“We expect Sellafield Ltd to be sentenced in September, when further details will be provided on our website and social media channels.”
How French nuclear output has declined faster in France than Germany
French decline may be caused by having to ‘load follow’ renewables
David Toke, Aug 09, 2024, https://davidtoke.substack.com/p/how-french-nuclear-output-has-declined
Whatever one thinks of the German decision to phase-out nuclear power, a really strange thing is that the French are coordinating an unintentional phase-out of nuclear energy. At the same time as Germany has been running down its nuclear production. Much attention has focussed on criticising German policy, but much less on criticising what is a continuing failure of French energy policy.
For sure French non-fossil energy production is still much higher than most countries, but this lead is seriously declining. The proportion of non-fossil electricity production is now little higher than a country such as non-nuclear Denmark which has built up its renewables from virtually nothing in recent times. Talk of building half a dozen more French nuclear plant is – just talk.
Plans for new nuclear plant have been bullish for decades- the term ‘nuclear renaissance’ has been doled out for 20 years. However, in practice, little gets built. On the other hand France is failing to develop its renewable energy industry at anything like a good enough speed to make up for the decline in nuclear production. You can see the comparison of nuclear decline in France and Germany in the graph below [on original], which takes its data from the Energy Institute ‘s Statistical Review of World Energy, see HERE
As can be seen in the graph, from 2011 French nuclear production declined by 104 TWh, whilst in Germany it declined by 101 TWh. Yet it has been the decline in German nuclear production (following the decision to phase out nuclear in 2011) that has been much more of a long-term talking point.
Certainly, the dominant message in the press in the UK, spread by politicians from Labour and Conservatives, is that the failure to stop the decline in nuclear production which has also occurred in the UK is because of political failure. But this story ought to be wearing thin, after so many years of so-called nuclear renaissance and its promotion. Might it just have something to do with the failing nature of the technology itself? This seems obvious to independent observers, but it does not detract from our leaders’ desire to throw immense sums after technology that takes almost forever to deliver.
I discuss these issues in my recently published book Energy Revolutions, Profiteering versus Democracy’ (Pluto Press) (see HERE). But a few salient points can be made here to attempt to explain the decline in nuclear power in France. One can hypothesise a couple of reasons why French nuclear production may be declining. One factor may well simply be that the French nuclear industry did a bad job and built a lot of sub-standard power plant.
There is another possibility which may be adding to the problems caused by the first suggested reason. The French nuclear power stations may be accelerating their own demise because of the technical damage caused by the balancing role they are being forced to play in the French power market. Nuclear power plant in France have been forced to ‘load-follow’ ie, often reduce their output, because of variations in solar and wind power that is generated across the continental electricity system. #
The continental electricity interconnectors use AC transmission equipment which means that France cannot just disconnect when there is too much electricity coming into the French system. French power plant have to power down, and since nuclear forms such a dominant part of French generation, the nuclear power power plant has to regularly ramp up and down.
There are relatively few publicly available discussions of the possibilities for reactor damage in such load-following activities. Such discussions as they are, seem to be side-shows to ascertaining whether load following by nuclear reactors is possible, rather than the long-term damage involved. But there are some pointers in the discussions that are available.
One academic thesis commented, on a simulation based on a Swedish reactor, that: ‘The mechanisms for the damages are for example erosion-corrosion, fatigue, vibrations and wear. In the reactor core, there are also limitations for the rate of how quickly the power decrease and increase can be performed and how low the power can be reduced before problems with xenon poisoning and PCI occur……………….An increased usage of the pumps and valves was shown, which will give an added risk of wear and tear’ (Bjurenfolk, 220, 9 see HERE) . A study published by the Nuclear Energy Agency for the OECD commented: ‘Load cycling leads to variation in the coolant temperature, and thus in the temperatures of different components (see Figure 3.3 and Figure 3.4). These periodic temperature variations lead to cyclic changes in the mechanical load in some parts of the equipment, and could induce localised structural damage (fatigue) of these elements if the temperature gradients are large.’ OECD/NEA 2011, 41, see HERE
Of course in the UK no such problems of damage due to load-following will ever occur for the simple reason that in the UK nuclear power has a privileged position. Despite increasing international interconnection, the interconnection is through DC transmission systems which offer much greater control over imports. Nuclear power plants are allowed to generate as much as they can, and it is renewable energy that has to power down in cases where there are grid constraints or an excess of supply compared to demand.
In the case of Hinkley C, when it eventually comes online, the contracts given to EDF encourage it to carry on generating, not load follow. In the UK it is windfarms that bear political blame for compensation paid to them for lost production when they have to switch off (very often to protect nuclear production). This has been documented by 100percentrenewableuk in the case of Scotland, see HERE.
However, turning back to France, the French Government’s recent press releases on building future nuclear power obscure the fact that it has taken around two decades to build one plant. Meanwhile, the amount of solar and wind power production added in France since 2011 is rather less than the decline in nuclear production. To cap it all EDF has called for subsidies for solar pv to be reviewed (see HERE).
Yes, solar pv may be inconvenient for nuclear power, but it does seem that unless France develops renewables, including solar pv, much more quickly than has been done since 2011, the French electricity system will (at recent rates of nuclear decline) gradually collapse.
Certainly, the dominant message in the press in the UK, spread by politicians from Labour and Conservatives, is that the failure to stop the decline in nuclear production which has also occurred in the UK is because of political failure. But this story ought to be wearing thin, after so many years of so-called nuclear renaissance and its promotion. Might it just have something to do with the failing nature of the technology itself? This seems obvious to independent observers, but it does not detract from our leaders’ desire to throw immense sums after technology that takes almost forever to deliver.
I discuss these issues in my recently published book Energy Revolutions, Profiteering versus Democracy’ (Pluto Press) (see HERE). But a few salient points can be made here to attempt to explain the decline in nuclear power in France. One can hypothesise a couple of reasons why French nuclear production may be declining. One factor may well simply be that the French nuclear industry did a bad job and built a lot of sub-standard power plant.
There is another possibility which may be adding to the problems caused by the first suggested reason. The French nuclear power stations may be accelerating their own demise because of the technical damage caused by the balancing role they are being forced to play in the French power market. Nuclear power plant in France have been forced to ‘load-follow’ ie, often reduce their output, because of variations in solar and wind power that is generated across the continental electricity system. #
The continental electricity interconnectors use AC transmission equipment which means that France cannot just disconnect when there is too much electricity coming into the French system. French power plant have to power down, and since nuclear forms such a dominant part of French generation, the nuclear power power plant has to regularly ramp up and down.
There are relatively few publicly available discussions of the possibilities for reactor damage in such load-following activities. Such discussions as they are, seem to be side-shows to ascertaining whether load following by nuclear reactors is possible, rather than the long-term damage involved. But there are some pointers in the discussions that are available.
One academic thesis commented, on a simulation based on a Swedish reactor, that: ‘The mechanisms for the damages are for example erosion-corrosion, fatigue, vibrations and wear. In the reactor core, there are also limitations for the rate of how quickly the power decrease and increase can be performed and how low the power can be reduced before problems with xenon poisoning and PCI occur……………….An increased usage of the pumps and valves was shown, which will give an added risk of wear and tear’ (Bjurenfolk, 220, 9 see HERE) . A study published by the Nuclear Energy Agency for the OECD commented: ‘Load cycling leads to variation in the coolant temperature, and thus in the temperatures of different components (see Figure 3.3 and Figure 3.4). These periodic temperature variations lead to cyclic changes in the mechanical load in some parts of the equipment, and could induce localised structural damage (fatigue) of these elements if the temperature gradients are large.’ OECD/NEA 2011, 41, see HERE
Of course in the UK no such problems of damage due to load-following will ever occur for the simple reason that in the UK nuclear power has a privileged position. Despite increasing international interconnection, the interconnection is through DC transmission systems which offer much greater control over imports. Nuclear power plants are allowed to generate as much as they can, and it is renewable energy that has to power down in cases where there are grid constraints or an excess of supply compared to demand
As can be seen in the graph, from 2011 French nuclear production declined by 104 TWh, whilst in Germany it declined by 101 TWh. Yet it has been the decline in German nuclear production (following the decision to phase out nuclear in 2011) that has been much more of a long-term talking point.
Certainly, the dominant message in the press in the UK, spread by politicians from Labour and Conservatives, is that the failure to stop the decline in nuclear production which has also occurred in the UK is because of political failure. But this story ought to be wearing thin, after so many years of so-called nuclear renaissance and its promotion. Might it just have something to do with the failing nature of the technology itself? This seems obvious to independent observers, but it does not detract from our leaders’ desire to throw immense sums after technology that takes almost forever to deliver.
I discuss these issues in my recently published book Energy Revolutions, Profiteering versus Democracy’ (Pluto Press) (see HERE). But a few salient points can be made here to attempt to explain the decline in nuclear power in France. One can hypothesise a couple of reasons why French nuclear production may be declining. One factor may well simply be that the French nuclear industry did a bad job and built a lot of sub-standard power plant.
There is another possibility which may be adding to the problems caused by the first suggested reason. The French nuclear power stations may be accelerating their own demise because of the technical damage caused by the balancing role they are being forced to play in the French power market. Nuclear power plant in France have been forced to ‘load-follow’ ie, often reduce their output, because of variations in solar and wind power that is generated across the continental electricity system. #
The continental electricity interconnectors use AC transmission equipment which means that France cannot just disconnect when there is too much electricity coming into the French system. French power plant have to power down, and since nuclear forms such a dominant part of French generation, the nuclear power power plant has to regularly ramp up and down.
There are relatively few publicly available discussions of the possibilities for reactor damage in such load-following activities. Such discussions as they are, seem to be side-shows to ascertaining whether load following by nuclear reactors is possible, rather than the long-term damage involved. But there are some pointers in the discussions that are available.
One academic thesis commented, on a simulation based on a Swedish reactor, that: ‘The mechanisms for the damages are for example erosion-corrosion, fatigue, vibrations and wear. In the reactor core, there are also limitations for the rate of how quickly the power decrease and increase can be performed and how low the power can be reduced before problems with xenon poisoning and PCI occur……………….An increased usage of the pumps and valves was shown, which will give an added risk of wear and tear’ (Bjurenfolk, 220, 9 see HERE) . A study published by the Nuclear Energy Agency for the OECD commented: ‘Load cycling leads to variation in the coolant temperature, and thus in the temperatures of different components (see Figure 3.3 and Figure 3.4). These periodic temperature variations lead to cyclic changes in the mechanical load in some parts of the equipment, and could induce localised structural damage (fatigue) of these elements if the temperature gradients are large.’ OECD/NEA 2011, 41, see HERE
Of course in the UK no such problems of damage due to load-following will ever occur for the simple reason that in the UK nuclear power has a privileged position. Despite increasing international interconnection, the interconnection is through DC transmission systems which offer much greater control over imports. Nuclear power plants are allowed to generate as much as they can, and it is renewable energy that has to power down in cases where there are grid constraints or an excess of supply compared to demand.
In the case of Hinkley C, when it eventually comes online, the contracts given to EDF encourage it to carry on generating, not load follow. In the UK it is windfarms that bear political blame for compensation paid to them for lost production when they have to switch off (very often to protect nuclear production). This has been documented by 100percentrenewableuk in the case of Scotland, see HERE.
However, turning back to France, the French Government’s recent press releases on building future nuclear power obscure the fact that it has taken around two decades to build one plant. Meanwhile, the amount of solar and wind power production added in France since 2011 is rather less than the decline in nuclear production. To cap it all EDF has called for subsidies for solar pv to be reviewed (see HERE).
Yes, solar pv may be inconvenient for nuclear power, but it does seem that unless France develops renewables, including solar pv, much more quickly than has been done since 2011, the French electricity system will (at recent rates of nuclear decline) gradually collapse.
We Must Oppose Israel’s Dangerous Gamble Before It’s Too Late
Failure to stop Israel’s genocide of Palestinians gambles with the fate of humanity as a whole.
CODEPINK Alert, By: Kathy Kelly, Aug 09, 2024, https://codepink.substack.com/p/we-must-oppose-israels-dangerous?r=cqey&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email&triedRedirect=true
Following World War II, Albert Camus posed a “formidable gamble” to those who had survived a tragedy of immense proportions. “We’re in history up to our necks,” he observed, yet we must wager that “words are more powerful than munitions.”
“Leave or die” are the horrid words threatening largely unprotected Palestinian civilians in Gaza as dismayed populations around the world demand moral decency, or at least some indication of sanity, from their non-responsive governments.
The stakes couldn’t be higher. For decades, Israel has flouted international norms by refusing to acknowledge its nuclear weapons arsenal. Nor has it signed relevant treaties governing the biological weapons it possesses. For years, Israel has flagrantly violated the Geneva Conventions and basic principles of customary international law through its forcible acquisition of territories in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and through its transfer of Israeli settlers into the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Now, Israel’s genocidal attacks against Palestinians living in Gaza have cost the lives of at least 39,677 people. Tens of thousands more are believed to be buried beneath the rubble, with at least 90,000 wounded and the overwhelming majority of its displaced 1.9 million population facing starvation.
Israel’s failure to comply with international treaties and humanitarian law signal an acute need for other countries to organize weapons embargoes, cease trade deals, and provide support for civilian peacekeepers to bring about a permanent ceasefire.
Instead of unwavering adherence to international law, the United States continues to arm and protect Israel’s genocidal campaign against Palestinians, which now includes using starvation as a weapon of war.
We must try to absorb what it means to live as a refugee in an open-air concentration camp—already one of the most densely populated areas on Earth, even before 70 percent of its housing was destroyed. More than 341 mosques and three churches have been destroyed. 2,000-pound bombs have been dropped on tents in places deemed safe areas.
Innocent civilians are being killed by snipers. Thirty-one out of thirty-six hospitals have been damaged or destroyed. Escape routes are cut off. Persistent restrictions on the flow of humanitarian aid into and around Gaza are driving a desperate shortage of food, fuel, and medicine. As access to humanitarian relief is deliberately choked off, children are being collectively punished while Israeli leaders denounce them as animals. The world watches in horror as surgeons are forced to amputate the limbs of wounded children with no available anesthetics.
A new polio epidemic emerges while Israel vaccinates its soldiers but leaves the Palestinian civilian population vulnerable. Newly released prisoners have said they were subjected to torture, including being waterboarded and raped.
Rather than bring suspects before international courts, Israel has resorted to assassinations of the very negotiators with which it purports to be seeking peace, and in a manner clearly intended to expand the conflict into a global war involving multiple nuclear-armed nations.
In its July 19, 2024, authoritative Advisory Opinion on Israel’s Settlement Policy and Practices, the World Court clearly declared the Israeli settlement project in the Occupied Territories to be illegal. The Court outlined the obligation of all parties to the Geneva Convention and the Genocide Convention to discontinue any economic or trade dealings with Israel which might help perpetuate Israel’s occupation and unlawful presence in the territory. Countries that signed or ratified these agreements are obligated to immediately stop arms exports to Israel and to use political, military, and economic influence to stop Israel’s flagrant, escalating violations of international humanitarian law.
The World Court has provided strong, clear words denouncing Israel’s genocide against Palestinians. As during the Vietnam War, ordinary citizens can no longer abide with the lawless barbarism of continuing assaults against Palestinians.
“Rolling the bones” is a slang expression for gambling. With a regional war perhaps now unavoidable in the Middle East, the genocidal derangement of the United States and Europe over Israel’s actions may well lead to a nuclear war that ends the human species. Failing to use our words at this most crucial juncture for humanity would be, as Camus said, a formidable gamble indeed.
Red Cross Hospital in Japan continuing to treat nuclear bomb victims – the hibakusha
The waiting room of the Red Cross hospital in downtown Hiroshima is always
crowded. Nearly every available seat is occupied, often by elderly people
waiting for their names to be called. Many of these men and women don’t
have typical medical histories, however. They are the surviving victims of
the American atomic bomb attack 79 years ago.
Not many Americans have Aug. 6 circled on their calendars, but it’s a day that the Japanese can’t forget. Even now, the hospital continues to treat, on average, 180
survivors — known as hibakusha — of the blasts each day.
When the United States dropped an atomic weapon on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, the
entire citizenries of both countries were working feverishly to win World
War II. For most Americans, the bomb represented a path to victory after
nearly four relentless years of battle and a technological advance that
would cement the nation as a geopolitical superpower for generations. Our
textbooks talk about the world’s first use of a nuclear weapon.
Many today in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where the United States detonated a bomb
just three days later, talk about how those horrible events must be the
last uses of nuclear weapons.
New York Times 6th Aug 2024
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/08/06/opinion/hiroshima-nagasaki-atomic-bombing.html
EDF extends heat-related warning cuts at 3 nuclear plants
(Montel) French utility EDF has extended by two days a warning of power output curbs at three nuclear power plants – totalling 10 GW – along the river Rhone in southeastern France from tomorrow until Friday next week due to high temperatures.
Reporting by: Muriel Boselli, 08 Aug 2024, https://montelnews.com/news/f1e0a4b4-61b8-4d45-8027-d549192b910e/edf-warns-of-heat-related-cuts-at-3-nuclear-plants-10-gw
EDF could curb output at 3.6 GW Tricastin, 3.6 GW Bugey and 2.6 GW St Alban, the state-owned utility said on Thursday.
Weather service Meteo France has forecast temperatures to intensify in southeast France over the next few days, with peaks reaching 35C.
At some power plants, EDF uses river water to cool reactors. However, it could reduce output if river water temperatures or levels are too warm or too low.
Separately, EDF has extended a capacity cut warning at its 2.6 GW Golfech nuclear power plant in southwest France by three days to 17 August, due to warm temperatures.
Will Ukraine’s attack on Russian territory lead to the seizure of the Kursk Nuclear Plant?
Bellona, BY Dmitry Gorchakov, 9 Aug 24
As the Ukrainian army’s cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region rages into its fourth day, the objectives of the surprise attack have been grist for media speculation. Some have suggested the Ukrainians might target the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant as payback for Russia’s long-running seizure of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.
It’s difficult to say how likely such a scenario is, but should it come to pass, it makes sense to briefly analyze the problems, risks, and dilemmas that would come of such an attack.
The specifics of the Kursk NPP
The Kursk Nuclear Power Plant is the closest Russian nuclear power plant to the Ukrainian border—just 60 km away. The idea that it could be at risk of attacks during a full-scale war became evident in the early months of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The Russia seizure of the Zaporizhzhia plant and territory of Chernobyl, followed by vigorous Ukrainian counterattacks, made clear that this would be a full-scale and potentially prolonged war with consequences for Russian territories.
As the war has dragged on, we have seen the Kursk NPP and its satellite city, Kurchatov, fall under attack by Ukrainian drones. No other Russian nuclear plants, which are much farther from the border and the front line, have been subjected to such attacks.
Currently, only two units are operating at the Kursk NPP, Units 3 and 4, each with a capacity of 1,000 MW. The first two units were shut down in 2021 and early 2024, respectively, after 45 years of operation. Fuel has been unloaded from Unit 1. All of the Kursk NPP’s units are RBMK-1000 reactors, similar to those used at Chernobyl. It’s worth noting that RBMK reactors — unlike the VVER-1000 reactors installed at the Zaporizhzhia NPP — are less protected against external threats. Much of our risk analysis for the Zaporizhzhia NPP during its seizure, presented in our 2023 report “The Radiation Risks of Seizing the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant,” was based on a comparison of the characteristics of these reactor types.
Let’s examine some of the technical points and key vulnerabilities of the RBMK design. First, the lack of concrete containment structures (domes) over the reactor compartments makes RBMK reactors more vulnerable to damage from accidental or deliberate attacks by missiles, bombs, and artillery. Small arms or even light drones pose less danger.
Second, RBMK’s are single-circuit, boiling water reactors. This means that the same water and steam that pass through the reactor core go directly to the turbine, without intermediate circuits and heat exchangers. Therefore, depressurization and damage to the machine hall could lead to a radiation release………………………………
The seizure of nuclear facilities during war
Any armed seizure of a nuclear facility is unacceptable and extremely dangerous. Formally, this can be considered nuclear terrorism according to the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism. Unfortunately, the reality of recent years in Europe has shown that many of the formulas embedded in international agreements, as well as many international organizations in general, are incapable of addressing, much less preventing, the modern challenges we are facing………………………………………………. https://bellona.org/news/nuclear-issues/2024-08-will-ukraine-attacks-on-russian-territory-lead-to-the-seizure-of-the-kursk-nuclear-plant
Modernizing Nuclear War
SCHEERPOST, 9 August 24
Seventy-nine years ago, the Truman administration dropped atom bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, instantly killing approximately 100,000 innocent civilians. Host Robert Scheer calls these horrific incidents among the major instances of terror ever committed in human history.
Bill Hartung of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft joins Scheer Intelligence to discuss the history and legacy of nuclear weapons in relation to the military industrial complex, as a $2 trillion effort from the Pentagon to build “a new generation of nuclear-armed missiles, bombers, and submarines” takes place.
The central question underlying the conversation is asked by Scheer; “How could they, in good conscience, be talking about modernizing the devil’s weapon?”
Hartung claims that the Pentagon and arms manufacturers are doing so under the guise of deterrence, but also because of false stories of controllable nuclear war and even the “evil” consideration that it may be necessary to use nuclear weapons on certain populations.
“I think some of the folks promoting this stuff would like to believe that they’re not putting the future of humanity at risk. So they kind of tell themselves these stories, which they then tell to the public and hope they can persuade them.”
In the past, the horror of nuclear war was widely acknowledged to some extent by the public and the political class alike, as even Reagan said a nuclear war could never be won and should never be fought. Hartung claims that the belief that nuclear war could be winnable was previously “pushed off the agenda,” but it “seems to be back.”
Despite movies like Oppenheimer, which to some extent injected the issue of nuclear war into public discussion, citizens and the media remain largely uninterested and unaware of the dangers of nuclear war, especially with regard to the war in Ukraine.
This is reflected in the opinions of the American political class. Hartung points out that “if you go to Washington, there’s this sort of atmosphere that, if you’re for reducing these things, you know, you’re the one who’s unrealistic. The logic is flipped on its head …”
Transcript………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. more https://scheerpost.com/2024/08/09/modernizing-nuclear-war/
Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki – Nuke weapons for Japan?
August 7, 2024, https://beyondnuclear.org/remembering-hiroshima-and-nagasaki/
During the Hiroshima and Nagasaki commemoration events this week, Japan’s prime minister Fumio Kishida reiterated that despite the widening nuclear threats in the world, “we must continue moving forward” on the path to nuclear disarmament. The remarks come amidst on-going concerns that Japan could quickly develop nuclear weapons given its plutonium stockpile accumulated from its civil nuclear power program and commonly described as Japan’s “bomb in the basement”.
Last year, former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger said that Japan was “heading towards becoming a nuclear power in five years”. Kishida insisted in his remarks this week that Japan will work “towards the realization of a world without nuclear weapons.” Nevertheless, Japan has not signed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
Meanwhile, far from disarming, the world’s nuclear powers appear to be ramping up their arsenals. “As we mourn the loss of all those killed at Hiroshima and Nagasaki by US atomic bombs, in August 1945, we cannot avoid the fact that we are closer than ever to nuclear war,” writes CND general secretary, Kate Hudson, on Beyond Nuclear International this week. ” This is a bad time for humanity — and for all forms of life on Earth. It’s time for us to stand up and say No: we refuse to be taken into nuclear Armageddon.”
Each year in the greater Washington, DC area, a commemoration is held by the Hiroshima/Nagasaki Peace Committee of the National Capitol Region. In addition to a vigil downtown, an online event was also held this year, featuring speakers Gwen DuBois of Chesapeake Physicians for Social Responsibility; Linda Pentz Gunter of Beyond Nuclear; and Fan Yang of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and hosted by John Steinbach. A highlight of the event — available to watch on YouTube — were remarks made by Hiroshima survivor, Hideko Tamara. Contributions were also made by Melvin Hardy, Dennis Nelson, Ellen Thomas and James Wagner. Hardy described how children from All Souls Church Unitarian sent art supplies to Hiroshima children who then sent some of their pictures back to All Souls. (One is pictured in the headline image.) Many decades later, a trip was made to Hiroshima with the drawings and paintings for a meeting with some of the original artists. A film, Pictures from a Hiroshima Schoolyard, tells this moving story.
In Toronto, Canada, an exhibition was held of 100 photos commemorating the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, including five taken by the only Japanese photographer present on the day in Hiroshima. All of the photos can be viewed on line. Read the article about the exhibition on Beyond Nuclear International.
While Cumbrian MPs Blindly Agitate for More Uranium Mining to Feed More Nuclear New Build, Indigenous Australians are celebrating Halt to Poisoning of their Lands
On By mariannewildart, https://mariannewildart.wordpress.com/2024/08/07/while-cumbrian-mps-blindly-agitate-for-more-uranium-mining-to-feed-more-nuclear-new-build-indigenous-australians-are-celebrating-halt-to-poisoning-of-their-lands/
Here in Cumbria MPs, most especially the new MP for Sellafield (apologies, MP for Whitehaven and Workington, Josh MacAlister) are agitating for new nuclear build on the floodplain of the River Ehen next to the bursting at the seams Sellafield nuclear waste site. New nuclear, even the so called “Small Modular Reactors” (actually near the size of the original Calder Hall reactors) would require new uranium – this is not a “home grown” or “clean” industry as its cheerleaders claim, the profligate amounts of uranium, high tensile steel, copper and a whole smorgasbord of toxic chemicals are shipped in and they outstrip any other industry in quantities and toxicity.
The start of the toxic uranium fuel cycle begins on the lands of indigenous peoples worldwide. In Australia a battle has been raging to stop ever more uranium mining, this time at Jabiluka. Now that battle has been won but the MP for Whitehaven and Workington wants indigenous peoples worldwide to carry on paying the price of polluted waters, poisoned lands and damaged health in order to continue with nuclear business as usual despite the fact that nuclear power’s most long lasting legacy is not “free electricity” far from it, energy bills will go up because successive governments’ have had an obsession with funding the nuclear industry at any price even asking consumers now to pay the price before they recieve any electricity and for generations after to try and ‘keep the wastes safe’.
“The announcement has been made that the mining lease will not be extended and the process to get Jabiluka into world heritage and Kakadu National Park can begin. A big shout out to the Traditional Owners, the @Mirarr for standing strong for this for generations, and thousands of people around the country standing with them.”
Meanwhile here in Cumbria this is what the local press fizzingly tell us “Cumbrian leaders put pressure on NDA over land at Moorside for SMRs. A letter signed by more than 100 political, business and union leaders is calling for urgent action to resolve land issues at Moorside so that new nuclear power stations can be built. Whitehaven and Workington MP Josh MacAlister wrote the letter, which has been signed by fellow Cumbrian MPs Julie Minns and Markus Campbell-Savours, local members of the House of Lords, Cumberland Council leader Mark Fryer, trade union leaders in the nuclear industry and dozens of local business leaders. Mr MacAlister says that unless urgent action is taken to resolve issues about land use at Moorside, west Cumbria will lose out in a competitive process that is now underway. Mr MacAlister says GBN will only select sites that have enough land available and the NDA (who own Sellafield) want to use much of the Moorside site for other decommissioning purposes. This has resulted in an impasse that, if left unresolved, will leave Cumbria behind in the race for new nuclear. The NDA says it is working with the government to consider how the land at Moorside may be used to enable new nuclear energy facilities, while taking into account how it might need to utilise the land in order to successfully deliver its mission. Mr MacAlister said: “In my first few weeks as an MP I’ve met with ministers, the NDA, GBN and leading industry figures. It’s become clear that there’s been a conspiracy of silence for years over plans for new nuclear in our area.In Cumbria 7th Aug 2024 https://www.in-cumbria.com/news/24501223.cumbrian-leaders-put-pressure-nda-land-moorside-smrs/“
No doubt Josh MacAlister MP for Whitehaven and Workington will be absolutely delighted to hear that as is the way of all ruthless corporations, yesterday “Mining company Energy Resources Australia (ERA) has launched legal action against the Commonwealth and Northern Territory governments over a decision not to renew its lease over the Jabiluka uranium mine. Surrounded by Kakadu National Park, the site at Jabiluka is one of the world’s largest and richest uranium deposits.”
Josh Macalister MP is the smiling assassin agitating to rip uranium out of the earth to fuel new nuclear on land next to Sellafield (on the flood plain of the river Ehen). Nice!
TODAY. World “experts” are kicking the nuclear waste can down the road – to our great grandchildren
From https://theaimn.com/world-experts-are-kicking-the-nuclear-waste-can-down-the-road-to-our-great-grandchildren/ 10 Aug 24
The latest news from Germany really shows up this problem. IF conditions are ideal – a decision on a site for Germany’s underground nuclear waste repository could be made by 2074.
- That’s – 50 years to find a site.
- Then 20 years to build the underground dump.
- Then many decades for transporting and storing thousands of casks .
That’s just for Germany, which took the courageous decision to just shut down this filthy industry. Germany is not creating any more radioactive trash!
This is a comforting situation for today’s “nuclear experts”
Why is it comforting? Well, because they don’t need to worry about producing ever more of this toxic trash. They’ll be dead and gone long before it all has to get fixed. They can flummox around bleating about the marvels of deep disposal, enjoying their fat salaries, and leave it all for future generations to face.
II have previously written about the concept of “rolling stewardship”, advocated by Dr Gordon Edwards. This is a system whereby high level nuclear waste is kept above ground, in very strong containers. The containers are sited away from waterways, and are regularly monitored and repaired. This system, combined with the closing down of all nuclear reactors, would be a practical and honourable way to address the global radioactive waste threat. Expensive? Yes. But no more expensive than the current grandiose “expert” plans for deep disposal.
Sellafield apologises after guilty plea over string of cybersecurity failings
Nuclear site awaits sentencing over breaches that it admitted could have threatened national security
Anna Isaac and Alex Lawson, Fri 9 Aug 2024 https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/aug/08/sellafield-apologises-guilty-plea-security-failings-nuclear–
Sellafield has apologised after pleading guilty to criminal charges relating to a string of cybersecurity failings at Britain’s most hazardous nuclear site, which it admitted could have threatened national security.
Among the failings at the vast nuclear waste dump in Cumbria was the discovery that 75% of its computer servers were vulnerable to cyber-attacks, Westminster magistrates court in London heard.
Information that could threaten national security was left exposed for four years, the nuclear watchdog revealed, and Sellafield said it had been performing critical IT health checks that were not, in fact, being carried out.
Late last year, the Guardian’s Nuclear Leaks investigation revealed a string of IT failings at the state-owned company dating back several years, as well as radioactive contamination and toxic workplace culture.
Sellafield is a sprawling rubbish dump for nuclear waste from weapons programmes and decades of atomic power generation. It has a workforce of about 11,000 people and is part of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, a taxpayer-owned and -funded quango.
The Guardian’s investigation also revealed concerns about external contractors being able to plug memory sticks into Sellafield’s system while unsupervised and that its computer servers were deemed so insecure that the problem was nicknamed Voldemort after the Harry Potter villain because it was so sensitive and dangerous.
Sellafield pleaded guilty to charges brought by the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) in June, which relate to information technology security offences spanning a four-year period from 2019 to 2023.
The firm is now awaiting final sentencing, whichthe chief magistrate, Paul Goldspring, said would happen within weeks. The ONR has said it expects sentencing to take place in September.
At a sentencing hearing on Thursday, the court heard that a test had found that it was possible to download and execute malicious files on to Sellafield’s IT networks via a phishing attack “without raising any alarms”, according to Nigel Lawrence KC, representing the ONR.
The site, the world’s largest store of plutonium, was left vulnerable to internal and external cyber-attacks and 75% of its servers were insecure, Lawrence said, citing a report by Atos, a subcontractor at the site.
Sellafield’s own report, from the external IT company Commissum, found that any “reasonably skilled hacker or malicious insider” could access sensitive data and insert malware – computer code – that could then be used to steal information.
Euan Hutton, chief executive of Sellafield, apologised for failures spanning years in a written witness statement referred to by Paul Greaney KC, representing the company. Hutton said: “I again apologise on behalf of the company for matters which led to these proceedings … I genuinely believe that the issues which led to this prosecution are in the past.”
Hutton was in court but did not speak at the hearing.
Greaney said the company had tried to address its cybersecurity failings by changing IT management at the site and creating a new secure datacentre.
The barrister said some problems identified in recent years had been “turbo-charged” by the prosecution. Greaney said the failings were not a result of cost-cutting. “There was no penny-pinching,” he added.
The court also heard that a subcontractor was sent 4,000 files by mistake, 13 of which were classed as “official/sensitive”, without any alarm being triggered.
Sensitive nuclear information (SNI), the industry’s special classification system, was left vulnerable in part because of the use of “obsolete” technology including Windows 7 and Windows 2008, Lawrence said.
SNI is a mode of categorising information that may have national security implications, and has a special status in law, like other classified materials handled by the British security services or the civil service. Details are given SNI status if they are “deemed to be of value to an adversary planning a hostile act”, according to the ONR.
While all parties said the failings were very serious, the judge said he would need to balance the cost to the taxpayer with the need to deter others in the sector from committing similar offences.
The sentencing would be “new territory for all of us”, Goldspring said, given that no nuclear site had been prosecuted in this way before.
The National Audit Office, Britain’s public spending watchdog, launched an investigation this year into costs and risks at Sellafield.
The Guardian reported last year that the site systems had been hacked by groups linked to Russia and China in December last year, embedding sleeper malware that could lurk and be used to spy or attack systems.
At the time, Sellafield said it did not have evidence of a successful cyber-attack. Greaney told the court that there was no evidence found for an “effective” cyber-attack on Sellafield. The court heard that Sellafield’s operations centre was found to be “unable to adequately alarm and respond to tested attacks”.
A spokesperson for the company said: “We take cybersecurity extremely seriously at Sellafield, as reflected in our guilty pleas. The charges relate to historic offences and there is no suggestion that public safety was compromised.
“Sellafield has not been subjected to a successful cyber-attack or suffered any loss of sensitive nuclear information. We’ve already made significant improvements to our systems, network, and structures to ensure we are better protected and more resilient.”
The ONR declined to comment. Sellafield has agreed to pay £53,000 in legal costs
Analysis of Canadian Nuclear Association (CNA) recommendations for Budget 2025
The lack of new nuclear projects in Canada reflects investor decisions, not excess regulation. No nuclear project has been assessed since the Act came into force nearly five years ago.
Ole Hendrickson , 10 August 24
The House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance announced its annual pre-budget consultations process on June 24, 2024. It invited the submission of written briefs no later than August 2, 2024. The committee will table a report on these consultations in the House of Commons, with recommendations to be considered by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance in their development of Budget 2025. On July 30, 2024, the Canadian Nuclear Association (CNA) submitted its recommendations.
Part 1 – “Clean Economy” Investment Tax Credit (ITC) Programs
The CNA brief refers to four “Clean Economy” investment tax creditprograms from Budget 2024. Three were passed into law in June 2024.
Nuclear projects should not be eligible for investment tax credits. Nuclear power is not clean. It produces vast amounts of pollutants and waste, ranging from toxic mine tailings to irradiated fuel rods. Providing tax credits for nuclear power represents poor economic and environmental policy.
The only apparent reason for providing investment tax credits for nuclear power is that the Minister of Natural Resources Canada, whose department provides “engineering and scientific guidance” for the ITC programs, has a mandate to promote nuclear power under the Nuclear Energy Act.
1. Clean Technology ITC
Small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) are the only nuclear power projects eligible for the 15% refundable tax credit under this program. The accepted definition of an SMR is a reactor that has a power capacity of up to 300 megawatts electrical per unit, or roughly 900 megawatts thermal.
The CNA wants to expand the definition of an SMR to include reactors up to 1400 megawatts thermal, or roughly 470 megawatts electrical.
There is considerable evidence that SMRs would produce far more expensive electricity than other generating facilities, including larger nuclear reactors. Does the CNA anticipate that the 300-megawatt BWRX-300 reactors that Ontario Power Generation plans to build at the Darlington nuclear site will not be cost-competitive without additional subsidies?
2. Clean Hydrogen ITC
This ITC program provides refundable tax credits ranging from 15-40% depending on the carbon intensity of the hydrogen produced. Widespread use of hydrogen as an energy source would require expensive new infrastructure investments. Using expensive nuclear power to produce hydrogen would further increase costs. The CNA wants hydrogen produced by using nuclear power to hydrolyze water to be considered as a qualified clean hydrogen project. The Government of Canada has not provided details on eligible projects under this ITC program.
3. Clean Technology Manufacturing ITC
This ITC program provides refundable tax credits for “clean technology manufacturing and processing.” The CNA wants to see explicit mention of the extraction and processing of uranium as a “critical mineral”, of the manufacturing of nuclear energy equipment and nuclear fuels, and of the manufacturing of “equipment for lifecycle handling of uranium fuel,” as being eligible for tax credits.
All the activities in the nuclear fuel “lifecycle” generate waste that is hazardous to human health and difficult to manage. The use of robotic equipment to handle the highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel waste is one of the most expensive parts of this “lifecycle”. A “clean economy” program should not subsidize waste management for a particular industry, particularly when that industry has delayed its decommissioning and waste management activities for decades.
4. Clean Electricity ITC
Under this ITC program, which has not yet passed into law, the CNA wants to “include all components enabling clean electricity assets to continue operating in refurbishment expenditures.”
Ontario Power Generation and Bruce Power have active reactor refurbishment programs. The Ontario provincial government already provides a $7.3 billion taxpayer subsidy to hold down electricity rates and shield industrial and household ratepayers from reactor refurbishment costs. A new federal subsidy for refurbishment of Ontario’s reactors would further hide nuclear costs, and would provide no apparent benefit to Canadian taxpayers in other provinces.
Part 2 – Policies that “enhance the regulatory framework to expedite project approvals”
The CNA is seeking to restrict the public’s ability to participate in assessments of nuclear projects. This builds on proposals from a Ministerial Working Group on Regulatory Efficiency for Clean Growth Projects, and a review of the Physical Activities Regulations (the “Project List”) by the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada. Policy matters that go beyond the Committee’s request for views on 2025 Budget priorities should be debated by appropriate Parliamentary committees.
1. Exempting nuclear projects from impact assessment
Based on a plan (Building Canada’s Clean Future) created by a Ministerial Working Group on Regulatory Efficiency for Clean Growth Projects, the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada wishes to reduce the possibility that future nuclear projects will be assessed under the Impact Assessment Act. On July 30, 2024, the Agency released a Discussion paper on the review of the Physical Activities Regulations – the so-called “Project List” – with comments due September 27, 2024.
Proposals in the Agency’s discussion paper mirror those in the CNA’s submission to the Finance Committee, suggesting that the two may have been working together. The CNA wants to exempt nuclear reactors of any size that are built on “brownfield” sites (e.g., sites where coal- or gas-fired generating stations have been shut down), or on licensed nuclear sites, from assessment. At present, only reactors of up to 200 megawatts thermal on brownfield sites, or 900 megawatts thermal on licensed sites, are exempt. The CNA proposal would also limit technical assessments to “First of a Kind” reactors, with only site considerations for future reactors of a similar design.
The CNA also wants to exempt construction, expansion and decommissioning of uranium mines with an ore production capacity of up to 5,000 tons per day. This would double the current 2,500 tons/day exemption. And it wants to allow provincial assessments to replace federal assessments.
These are not constructive proposals. They would increase the likelihood that nuclear projects will generate conflicts and fail to gain social license. The Act improves the chances that a project will proceed by encouraging public participation in project planning stages, The ability of independent experts to examine technical details brings rigor to the assessment process.
The lack of new nuclear projects in Canada reflects investor decisions, not excess regulation. No nuclear project has been assessed since the Act came into force nearly five years ago.
2. Putting the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) in charge of impact assessment
If a nuclear project is captured by the Physical Activities Regulations under the Impact Assessment Act, under Section 44 of the Act the Minister of the Environment must create a review panel, set the panel’s terms of reference, appoint the chairperson and at least two other members of the panel, and ensure that they are unbiased and free from any conflict of interest relative to the project.
The Minister also has the power to designate a project for assessment, even if it is not captured by the Project List. The CNA wants to remove the Minister’s powers and give them to the CNSC.
An expert panel report, Building Common Ground: A New Vision for Impact Assessment in Canada, noted the long-standing perception of a lack of independence and neutrality of the CNSC because of its close relationship with the industry it regulates, and its promotion of projects it is tasked with regulating. The panel found that the CNSC has eroded confidence in the assessment process, leading to widespread use of the term “regulatory capture” to describe this body.
Taking away the Ministers’ powers and reassigning them to the CNSC would be a regressive step, leading to further loss of social license for nuclear projects, as has been the case with the proposed Near Surface Disposal Facility at the federally owned Chalk River Laboratories.
3. Amending the Species at Risk Act
Under section 79 of the Species at Risk Act, the proponent of a project must “notify the competent minister or ministers in writing of the project if it is likely to affect a listed wildlife species or its critical habitat.”
The CNA recommends that section 79 be modified “to align with the Supreme Court of Canada opinion, focusing on federal jurisdiction.” The Court, in its reference decision on the Impact Assessment Act, considered the Species at Risk Act and found that the protection of migratory birds, fish, fish habitat, and aquatic species should be included in the definition of adverse federal effect in the Impact Assessment Act. The Court did not discuss amending the Species at Risk Act.
The Species at Risk Act applies to all wild species found in Canada and has provisions to promote cooperation with other governments and jurisdictions. The CNA recommendation to amend the Act in the context of Budget 2025 would represent an inappropriate use of budget legislation.
The Nagasaki Peace Declaration 9 August 2024
we call for the Japanese government to sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons as soon as possible.
Everyone in the world, we are “global citizens” who live in the
huge community of Earth.
we call for the Japanese government to sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons as soon as possible.
Shiro Suzuki,
Mayor of Nagasaki / First Vice President of Mayors for Peace 9 August 24
People making atomic bombs!
Rest from your work for a while and close your eyes.
It was on August 9, 1945!
An atomic bomb that you had made
Brought houses and assets to naught in a flash,
Completely devastating loving families.
Survivors had to
Recover from scratch
To follow a tough, long road to bloody lives
With deep concern that an “atomic bomb disease” would end
their lives any day and
Infinite grievance over the loss of their families and relatives
Haunting them forever.
This is a quote from a poem by Ms. Fukuda Sumako, a poet from
Nagasaki who was exposed to the atomic bombing at 23 and
devoted the rest of her life to making people aware of the misery
brought by the atomic bomb while combatting atomic bomb
disease.
Since that day, hibakusha, or atomic bomb survivors, have lived
with deep sorrow over the loss of their family members and
friends, scars left on their body, the serious effect of radiation
spoiling cells and causing various symptoms even after many
years, and the hardships of discrimination and life due to being
hibakusha.
Their immense pain and suffering caused by the atomic bombing
were not just of an immediate kind. Instead, hibakusha have
experienced them throughout their lifetime.
Nevertheless, hibakusha have continued to share their
experience of surviving severe hardships with strong
determination to ensure that no one in the world will again have
the same experience as theirs.
Since that day, hibakusha, or atomic bomb survivors, have lived
with deep sorrow over the loss of their family members and
friends, scars left on their body, the serious effect of radiation
spoiling cells and causing various symptoms even after many
years, and the hardships of discrimination and life due to being
hibakusha.
Their immense pain and suffering caused by the atomic bombing
were not just of an immediate kind. Instead, hibakusha have
experienced them throughout their lifetime.
Nevertheless, hibakusha have continued to share their
experience of surviving severe hardships with strong
determination to ensure that no one in the world will again have
the same experience as theirs.
Since that day, hibakusha, or atomic bomb survivors, have lived
with deep sorrow over the loss of their family members and
friends, scars left on their body, the serious effect of radiation
spoiling cells and causing various symptoms even after many
years, and the hardships of discrimination and life due to being
hibakusha.
Their immense pain and suffering caused by the atomic bombing
were not just of an immediate kind. Instead, hibakusha have
experienced them throughout their lifetime.
Nevertheless, hibakusha have continued to share their
experience of surviving severe hardships with strong
determination to ensure that no one in the world will again have
the same experience as theirs.
To achieve this, please visit the atomic-bombed cities and listen
carefully and conscientiously, as an individual, to hibakusha
sharing their pain and thoughts.
We also call for your dialogue and diplomatic efforts to explore a
path toward peaceful solutions, no matter how difficult the path is,
instead of choosing a path toward arms expansion or threats of
force.
The government of Japan, the only state attacked by atomic
bombs in war, must express a serious attitude of pursuing a world
without nuclear weapons.
As a step toward this, we call for the Japanese government to
sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
as soon as possible.
We also call for the Japanese government to firmly uphold the
principle of peace embodied in the Constitution of Japan and to
demonstrate its leadership in international efforts to ease the
heightened tension in Northeast Asia and advance disarmament
in the region, such as the Northeast Asia Nuclear-Weapon-Free
Zone initiative.
Moreover, we strongly request that further enhanced aid be given
to hibakusha, whose average age exceeds 85, and that relief
measures be adopted as soon as possible for those who were
exposed to the atomic bombings but have not yet been officially
recognized as hibakusha.
Everyone in the world, we are “global citizens” who live in the
huge community of Earth.
Imagine what would happen if a conflict like those found in the
current world escalated to bring about a nuclear war. It would
have a devastating impact not only on the lives of people but also
on the global environment, imposing a grave threat to the
existence of humankind.
That is why the abolition of nuclear weapons is an absolute
requirement for the survival of humankind, which can be viewed
as a prerequisite for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
striven for by the international community.
Nagasaki has recently seen increasing vigour of long-term efforts
to achieve a world without nuclear weapons, mainly among
younger generations. In May of this year, a peace-focused forum
supported by One Young World, a global community for young
leaders that is dubbed as the “junior Davos,” was held in
Nagasaki for the first time.
Circles of younger generations around the world working together
as leaders have expanded to various regions. They are the light
of our hope of building a sustainable and peaceful future.
People making peace!
Even if each of you has only a little power, you are never
powerless.
If we as global citizens speak up and work together, we will surely
overcome the current difficult situation. If we share our wisdom
with each other and partner with each other irrespective of any
difference in nationality, religion, race, gender, or generation, we
will surely fulfil our future vision.
Nagasaki firmly believes so.
I would like to express my deepest condolences for the lives
claimed by the atomic bombings.
Nagasaki will disseminate throughout the world a culture of
peace, that is, a culture of respecting others, fostering mutual
trust, and striving for solutions through dialogue in collaboration
with global citizens who hope to contribute to peace making.
I hereby declare that Nagasaki will continue its tireless efforts to
abolish nuclear weapons and realize permanent world peace so
that Nagasaki remains the last place to suffer an atomic bombing.
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