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UK launches ‘national endeavour’ to reinforce nuclear deterrent

Government and industry will invest £760mn towards critical skills and infrastructure.

Ft.com Sylvia Pfeifer in London, 24 Mar 24

The UK government will launch a “national endeavour” to reinforce the country’s nuclear deterrent, including a promise to invest more than £760mn with industry over the next six years into critical skills and infrastructure.

Rishi Sunak, the prime minister, will on Monday also announce a separate £200mn investment into a “transformation fund” for Barrow-in-Furness, the Cumbrian town where Britain’s nuclear submarines are built by BAE Systems for the Royal Navy. Barrow has suffered from health inequalities, poor housing and some of the most deprived neighbourhoods in the country despite multiple attempts at lasting regeneration. 

The investments come as the government prepares to set out how it plans to sustain and modernise the UK’s nuclear deterrent in a new Defence Command Paper. It follows concerns that ageing infrastructure and a lack of investment were undermining the effectiveness of the deterrent, a cornerstone of Britain’s defence posture.

Ministers were forced last month to declare that the deterrent remained “safe, secure and effective” after a nuclear missile test failed when the Trident weapon crashed into the sea near the submarine that fired it. Adding to the embarrassment, defence secretary Grant Shapps was on board HMS Vanguard to witness the test launch which took place in January.

The Defence Command Paper will detail the government’s plans to bring new Dreadnought-class submarines into service in the early 2030s. The Dreadnoughts are due to replace the current Vanguard-class vessels which were commissioned into service in the mid-1990s.

“Safeguarding the future of our nuclear deterrent and nuclear energy industry is a critical national endeavour,” Sunak will say on a visit to Barrow on Monday.  “In a more dangerous and contested world, the UK’s continuous at-sea nuclear deterrent is more vital than ever.

And nuclear delivers cheaper, cleaner homegrown energy for consumers.” Investments into Britain’s nuclear capabilities and skills — both defence and civil — are seen as vital if the government is to build a new fleet of atomic power stations to bolster its energy security, as well as deliver on the new Dreadnought programme.

The government is also committed to building a new generation of attack submarines under the trilateral Aukus pact with the US and Australia……………………… more https://www.ft.com/content/a276c351-7e48-4662-a9fe-27363ac24a2b

March 25, 2024 Posted by | politics, UK, weapons and war | Leave a comment

PATRICK LAWRENCE: Authorized Atrocities

the true rupture lies with those in the West who are sucked into Israel’s utter immorality


Israel’s lawlessness has a history that those in the West share with the apartheid state. 

By Patrick Lawrence, Consortium News , 20 Mar 24

It is remarked often enough, including in this space, that Israel’s savagery in its determination to exterminate the Palestinians of Gaza — and we had better brace for what is next on the West Bank of the Jordan — marks a turn for all of humanity.

In its descent into depravity the Zionist state drags the West altogether down with it. 

This is true, certainly, but we must put Israel’s criminal conduct, which warrants another Nuremberg trial at this point, in its proper context.

When we do, we find that Israel’s lawlessness has a history, an etymology, and if there is a road to Western salvation it must start with a recognition of a past that those in the West share with the apartheid state.  

We can say Israel’s crimes against Gaza’s 2.3 million children, women, and men are unspeakable, in other words, but this would not be right. They are altogether speakable, and it behooves us now to speak of them if we are to grasp where responsibility for this stain upon the human story truly lies.   

Pankaj Mishra has just published a thorough and thoroughly remarkable piece on these matters in the London Review of Books. 

The Indian author, essayist, and columnist takes up many things in “The Shoah After Gaza,” chiefly the extent to which Zionists have exhausted “the culture of conspicuous Holocaust consumption” — excellent phrase — in defense of a nation that, to quote Primo Levi, “was a mistake in historical terms.” 

Here is a passage in Mishra’s piece that is to our present point: 

“Israel today is dynamiting the edifice of global norms built after 1945, which has been tottering since the catastrophic and still unpunished war on terror and Vladimir Putin’s revanchist war in Ukraine. The profound rupture we feel today between the past and the present is a rupture in the moral history of the world since the ground zero of 1945 — the history in which the Shoah has been for many years the central event and universal reference.”……………………………………………………………………………….

 I confine myself to the postwar decades to allow us to take a good, clear look at that “edifice of global norms” of which Mishra writes. 

When we do, we find the West has licensed the Israelis. They bear a pre-authorization by way of many precedents. There is one for more or less every shameful act the Israelis perpetrate against the Palestinian population — this in the West Bank as well as Gaza.  

And so we discover — or remind ourselves, depending on how attentive we have been to events — that the post–1945 edifice has looked from the start roughly as it looks now. Israel is at bottom an outcome, not the prime cause of anything.  

Insidious Mythology

Certainly the grotesque spectacle of mass murder and wholesale destruction we witness daily has marked a rupture, to stay with Mishra’s term. But to assert that this rupture lies in Israel’s conduct is to sustain an insidious mythology of innocence for the West.

No, the true rupture lies with those in the West who are sucked into Israel’s utter immorality and now come face-to-face with their amoral indifference or, for the best of them, discover the extent of their powerlessness despite their authentic efforts. 

As to Israel, I am with Primo Levi as Mishra quotes him. “The Jewish state” had already proven a mistake when he made his much-disputed remark in 1985.

The truth of it has since been demonstrated a hundred times over. Israel has proven a failed experiment, incapable of conducting itself as a legitimate nation-state. 

But whose mistake is Israel? It was the West, Britain in the lead, that created Israel by caving to the Zionists at the expense of indigenous Palestinians. This is the reality of power that should weigh most heavily on our shoulders. Israel ‘R’ us. 

Britain’s abandonment of the 1920 Mandate brings us to one of the deeper characteristics of our time, our postwar edifice. This is the ever more complete disregard of those in power for the principles, standards and broadly accepted ethics that give form and coherence to a stable civilization and keep its public space clean and well lit. 

In our crumbling edifice, everything is done according to its value as an expedient to a desired outcome. This, too, is a kind of depravity. And it is this depravity that produces the depravity we watch as we watch Israel’s effort to destroy an entire people.  https://consortiumnews.com/2024/03/20/patrick-lawrence-authorized-atrocities/

March 25, 2024 Posted by | Atrocities, history, Israel | Leave a comment

A special (nuclear) relationship

 Recent US policies have pursued “usable” nukes, for deployment in an increasing range of scenarios, with a bottomless pit of funding available for nuclear modernisation. The time has come to really vigorously oppose this Agreement.


It’s just not possible for the UK to have an independent foreign policy, or defence and security policies, if it remains attached at the hip to the US nuclear programme.

By Kate Hudson   https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2024/03/24/a-special-nuclear-relationship/

A little known US-UK nuclear weapons agreement is up for renewal. It needs to end instead.

The “special relationship” is a longstanding refrain in British politics, used to justify so much that’s bad in UK foreign policy choices.

I recall in 2002 when Tony Blair agreed Britain had to pay a “blood price” to secure its special relationship with the US. We all know how that ended up. 

But it wasn’t Blair who paid the blood price – it was 179 British service personnel, killed in an illegal war, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, and countless more injured, displaced and traumatised.

Much that feeds war can be notched up to the US/UK special relationship, but it goes far beyond providing diplomatic and military cover and assistance to US enterprises. 

That relationship is also responsible for the development of the UK’s nuclear arsenal and its continued possession of these weapons of mass destruction. 

The special nuclear relationship is facilitated by the US-UK Mutual Defence Agreement (MDA) – the world’s most extensive nuclear sharing agreement. 

Even though it comes up for renewal in parliament every ten years, few seem to know of its existence.  

Neither do many know the extent to which it makes us dependent on the US – or indeed that it underpins the wider relationship between the US and UK.

Nuclear weapons

Its full name is the “Agreement between the UK and the USA for cooperation in the Uses of Atomic Energy for Mutual Defence Purposes”.

The agreement initially enabled both countries to exchange classified information to develop their respective nuclear weapon systems.

But at the start, the MDA prohibited the transfer of nuclear weapons. However, an amendment in 1959 allowed for the transfer of nuclear materials and equipment between both countries up to a certain deadline.

This amendment is extended through a renewal of the treaty every ten years, most recently in 2014 without any parliamentary debate or vote.

The British public and parliamentarians initially found out about that extension and ratification when President Obama informed the US Congress. The next renewal is due in parliament later this year, and we are determined that this time it will not go unchallenged.

Renewing such agreements on the nod, without transparency or accountability is never a good thing. When it ties us so tightly to nuclear cooperation with the White House, at a time of increasing nuclear risk, this is an even greater cause for concern.

Usable nukes

Recent US policies have pursued “usable” nukes, for deployment in an increasing range of scenarios, with a bottomless pit of funding available for nuclear modernisation. The time has come to really vigorously oppose this Agreement.

It also puts us at odds with our commitments under the international Non-Proliferation Treaty, which seeks to stem the spread of nuclear technology.

The relationship and activities which are enshrined by the MDA confirms an indefinite commitment by the US and UK to collaborate on nuclear weapons technology and violates both countries’ obligations as signatories to the NPT.

The NPT states that countries should undertake “to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to… nuclear disarmament”. Rather than working together to get rid of their nuclear weapons, the UK and US are collaborating to further advance their respective nuclear arsenals.

Indeed, a 2004 legal advice paper by Rabinder Singh QC and Professor Christine Chinkin concluded that it is “strongly arguable that the renewal of the Mutual Defence Agreement is in breach of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty”.

This was so since it implies “continuation and indeed enhancement of the nuclear programme, not progress towards its discontinuation”.

Independent foreign policy

It’s just not possible for the UK to have an independent foreign policy, or defence and security policies, if it remains attached at the hip to the US nuclear programme.

The UK government’s claim that its submarine-based Trident nuclear weapons system is independent is false. It is technically and politically dependent on the US, largely due to the MDA.

Due to the MDA, the UK relies on the US for many aspects of Trident. The UK’s nuclear warhead is a copy of the US one, with some components directly bought from the US.

With the UK’s warheads expected to be non-operational by the late 2030s, a decision on their replacement will be intrinsically linked to the work taking place as part of the MDA.

The UK leases from the US the Trident II D5 missiles it uses and British submarines must regularly visit the US base in Kings Bay, Georgia, for the maintenance and replacement of these missiles.

By having such direct involvement in Britain’s nuclear weapons technology, the US exercises significant leverage over the UK’s foreign and defence policy.

Even the most establishment characters must now be able to see that unquestioning allegiance to the US is out of the question.

So with the MDA coming up for renewal again, now is the time to start asking the questions, raising the protest, and making the case for independence.

It’s time for the special nuclear relationship to end. CND will be ensuring that the issue is raised vigorously within parliament, and calling on all our supporters to lobby their elected representatives to that effect.

Kate Hudson is General Secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in the UK

March 25, 2024 Posted by | politics international, weapons and war | Leave a comment

‘Everyone in the World Needs to See This’: Footage Shows IDF Drone Killing Gazans

“There is no way they could have been considered combatants,” said one writer and analyst. “This is unreal.”

JESSICA CORBETT, Mar 21, 2024,  https://www.commondreams.org/news/palestinians-killed-by-israel

Adding to the mountain of evidence that Israel is engaged in a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, Al Jazeera on Thursday aired footage of what the news outlet reported was an Israeli drone targeting four Palestinians in Khan Younis last month.

Those killed by the unmanned aerial vehicle in the rubble of the southern Gaza city appear to be unarmed teenagers or young men. According to a translation of the coverage, they were not identified in the reporting.

While Al Jazeera deemed footage “too graphic” to be included on its daily live blog covering the war, a clip of it quickly spread on social media, where critics of the Israel Defense Forces operation expressed outrage.

“OUTRAGEOUS even after months of outrages,” declared Palestinian American political analyst Yousef Munayyer. “This video shows an Israeli military drone literally stalking four unarmed civilians posing no threat and eliminating them one after the other!!!”

Tariq Kenney-Shawa, Al-Shabaka’s U.S. policy fellow, said: “This is among the worst footage I’ve seen. Not only were these boys clearly unarmed and present no threat whatsoever, but they were struck multiple times even after stumbling/crawling away. There is no way they could have been considered combatants. This is unreal.”

Note: The following video contains graphic images. [on original]

Assal Rad, an author with a Ph.D. in Middle East history, said: “Have we ever seen so many war crimes take place right before our eyes? Any country still providing weapons and aid to Israel is complicit in these crimes.”

Exiled American whistleblower Edward Snowden asserted that “everyone in the world needs to see this. Note that this footage permits no room for ‘it was a mistake,’ showing repeated, specifically targeted strikes on the unarmed and even wounded.”

“The sort of behavior the ICJ explicitly forbid in the genocide ruling against Israel,” added Snowden, referencing the International Court of Justice’s preliminary order in January for an ongoing case led by South Africa.

Since the ruling, rights groups around the world have accused Israel of ignoring the ICJ order by continuing to bomb and starve people across Gaza. The mounting casualties—at least 31,988 killed and 74,188 wounded—have elevated demands for the U.S. government to end arms transfers to Israel.

The United States gives its Middle East ally $3.8 billion in annual military aid and since the Israeli assault was launched in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack on October 7, the Biden administration has sought $14.3 billion more while bypassing Congress to send more weapons. U.S. President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin face a genocide complicity case in federal court.

While the Biden administration has repeatedly vetoed and opposed cease-fire resolutions at the United Nations Security Council and General Assembly, Nate Evans, a spokesperson for Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., confirmed Thursday that the United States plans to unveil a new one on Friday.

The resolution will “unequivocally support ongoing diplomatic efforts aimed at securing an immediate cease-fire in Gaza as part of a hostage deal, which would get hostages released and help enable a surge in humanitarian aid,” Evans told Al Jazeera. “This resolution is an opportunity for the council to speak with one voice to support the diplomacy happening on the ground and pressure Hamas to accept the deal on the table.”

Blinken said Thursday that “there’s a clear consensus around a number of shared priorities. First, the need for an immediate, sustained cease-fire, with the release of hostages. That would create space to surge more humanitarian assistance, to relieve the suffering of many people, and to build something more enduring.”

March 25, 2024 Posted by | Atrocities, Israel | Leave a comment

A Barely-Disguised Genocide

CAITLIN JOHNSTONE, MAR 24, 2024, https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/a-barely-disguised-genocide?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=142907577&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

I just read a New York Times piece about the bodies that are trapped beneath the rubble in Gaza which said the Gaza Health Ministry estimates that there are 7,000 people listed as missing, but adds that that figure “has not been updated since November.” 

November. There is no chance that any of the numbers we’re getting out of Gaza are up to date, including the death counts. Their infrastructure is shot and the scene there is just too chaotic. Nobody can keep track of anything anymore.

ISIS keeps attacking the enemies of the US and Israel for some strange and mysterious reason while funding for the main humanitarian group in Gaza gets cut due to completely unevidenced claims of Hamas affiliation. Re-fund UNRWA; de-fund ISIS.

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It’s funny to see the US proposing a fake UN “ceasefire” resolution which doesn’t actually demand a ceasefire when it’s public knowledge that the US could single-handedly create a ceasefire by telling Israel it will stop receiving US weapons if it doesn’t negotiate one right now.

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Ben Shapiro just cancel cultured Candace Owens out of a job for saying Palestinians are human beings and Alex Jones has condemned Israel’s genocidal atrocities before most Democrats on Capitol Hill have. American right wing punditry is a trip, man.

It sure is a crazy coincidence how all this stuff about difficulty with food distribution, collateral damage, human shields, the need to eliminate Hamas etc just happens to combine to create a situation that looks exactly the same as committing a genocide against an undesirable population.

They’re just doing a horrible thing they’ve wanted to do for ages and then using narrative to cover it up. Oh noes, it turns out it’s really hard to get food and medical supplies to this undesirable population! Oh noes, it turns out the bad guys are hiding in the hospitals and the civilian infrastructure! Oh noes, it turns out the bad guys are hiding behind large numbers of women and children! Oh noes, it turns out we’re going to need you all to move off of the land we’ve been coveting for generations!

It’s a sick joke that not even a child would fall for, but you see western government officials and major news outlets treating it seriously every goddamn day. It’s a barely-disguised genocide happening right out in the open, and the people responsible for telling the public what’s going on in the world are pretending it’s actually a very unfortunate series of highly convenient coincidences. There’s an elephant in the room wearing a cardboard crown as a disguise, and they’re all calling it Your Highness and telling everyone the king has come to visit.

Israel routinely massacres civilians who are waiting for food, attacks hospitals, picks off civilians with drones and snipers, and is deliberately starving the frailest and most defenseless people in Gaza to death, but the western political-media class keep calling this a “war”.

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People who wish to conflate Zionism with Jewishness often argue that most Jews are Zionists, but so what if they are? Most westerners are propaganda-addled imperialists, but if I didn’t believe westerners can and do snap out of that worldview I wouldn’t be doing what I do here.

In any system where people are being indoctrinated at mass scale by the powerful you’re going to see the majority of that population buying into the indoctrination, but conflating the people with the political ideology they’re indoctrinated with serves only to confuse and distort. If people had conflated “Nazism” with “Germany” that logic could have been used to justify exterminating every German after WWII, but because that distortion wasn’t made it opened up the possibility of de-indoctrinating the nation from that pernicious worldview.

Betting on the possibility of a better future means drawing a distinction between the people and the unhealthy worldviews they’ve been indoctrinated with, whether that’s Zionism, western imperialism, or anything else. We can only have a healthy world when the people snap out of their propaganda-induced coma and shake off the power-serving worldviews of this diseased civilization.

March 25, 2024 Posted by | Israel, spinbuster | Leave a comment

Canadian Nazi Yaroslav Hunka given a military award by Ukrainian provincial government

The announcement didn’t specify if Hunka’s contribution was his recent political fiasco in Ottawa or his work with the Nazi SS during the 1940s.

By Ezra Levant, March 23, 2024 https://www.rebelnews.com/breaking_canadian_nazi_yaroslav_hunka_given_a_military_award_by_ukrainian_provincial_government

Yaroslav Hunka, the former Nazi SS officer whose invitation to Canada’s Parliament by Justin Trudeau sparked an international scandal six months ago, has been awarded a state honour by the regional council of Ternopil, a province in Western Ukraine.

The award, named after Ukrainian Nazi collaborator Yaroslav Stetsko, was given to Hunka last week for “significant personal contribution to providing assistance to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, active charitable and public activities”, according to the Ukrainian news service Suspilne. The announcement didn’t specify if Hunka’s contribution was his recent political fiasco in Ottawa or his work with the Nazi SS during the 1940s. Ternopil had a significant Jewish population until 1943 when the Nazis and their collaborators murdered thousands of Jews, and sent thousands more to death camps in Poland.

While Hunka himself did not attend the awards ceremony in person, Ternopil politician Oleg Syrotyuk presented the award to Hunka’s grand-niece Olga Vitkovksa, suggesting that the family still takes pride in their Nazi past.

Russian president Vladimir Putin has said that one of his reasons for invading Ukraine was to root out Nazis, a claim disputed by Ukraine.

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March 25, 2024 Posted by | Canada, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

Israel announces latest major land grab in West Bank

24 Mar 2024,  https://www.sott.net/article/490068-Israel-announces-latest-major-land-grab-in-West-Bank

A senior minister has vowed to continue backing the settlement movement, which is illegal under international law

The Israeli government has designated nearly 2,000 acres in the West Bank as state-owned land, in a move described by rights groups as the biggest land grab on occupied Palestinian territories in decades.

The expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank is illegal under international law. In 2016, the UN Security Council described them as “a major obstacle to the vision of two States living side-by-side in peace and security.”

Nevertheless, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich argued that the declaration of state-owned land in the Jordan Valley on Friday was “an important and strategic issue.”

While there are those in Israel and the world who seek to undermine our right to Judea and Samaria and the country in general, we promote the settlement movement with hard work and in a strategic manner across the country,” Smotrich said in a statement, as quoted by the Times of Israel.

According to local media, the designation of plots of land as Israeli paves a way for the construction of settler houses, as well as for commercial development.

Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now described the declaration as the largest since the 1993 Oslo Accords, adding that “the year 2024 marks a peak in the extent of declarations of state land.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government gave the green light to the construction of more than 3,400 new settler homes this month, drawing more criticism from the UN and the Palestinian Authority.

“The West Bank is already in crisis. Yet, settler violence and settlement-related violations have reached shocking new levels, and risk eliminating any practical possibility of establishing a viable Palestinian State,” UN human rights chief Volker Turk said in his report to the Security Council on March 8.

Smotrich said in February that the expansion of settlements was a legitimate response to Palestinian terrorist attacks. “Our enemies know that any harm to us will lead to more construction and more development and more of our hold all over the country,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter)

Comment. It’s not like Israel hasn’t made its goal plain for years.
Gaza is also being carved up

March 25, 2024 Posted by | Israel, politics international | Leave a comment

The questionable promises behind new nuclear power

Experts around the world are working on new nuclear reactors. They should be more economical and safer than previous systems. However, researchers have now come to a
completely different conclusion in a comprehensive study.

 Der Spiegel 21st March 2024

https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/technik/naechste-generation-kernkraftwerke-die-fragwuerdigen-versprechen-hinter-der-neuen-atomkraft-a-e9301125-5f4c-4dee-896c-5cf2474500ea

March 25, 2024 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Dozens of countries pledge support for nuclear power, despite lingering concerns.

By Justine Calma, a senior science reporter covering climate change, clean energy, and environmental justice with more than a decade of experience. She is also the host of Hell or High Water: When Disaster Hits Home, a podcast from Vox Media and Audible Originals.  https://www.theverge.com/2024/3/22/24108679/nuclear-energy-summit-pledge-30-countries

More than 30 countries have pledged to pursue nuclear energy as one way to meet global climate goals. Even so, nuclear energy is still a controversial energy source that’s bogged down by concerns about radioactive waste, safety, and high costs.

At a nuclear energy summit in Brussels yesterday, the countries pledged “to work to fully unlock the potential of nuclear energy by taking measures such as enabling conditions to support and competitively finance the lifetime extension of existing nuclear reactors, the construction of new nuclear power plants and the early deployment of advanced reactors,” The Associated Press reports. The US, China, Japan, France, Britain, and Saudi Arabia were among the 34 countries to sign the pledge.

It’s a bold statement to support a source of energy over which many governments and environmental groups are deeply divided. Nuclear energy doesn’t generate the greenhouse gas emissions heating up the planet, but the environmental footprint of its supply chain and waste creates other problems. And after decades of missteps, the technology still has to prove whether it can be an affordable, safe alternative to the fossil fuels causing climate change.

Nearly every nation on Earth has committed to fighting climate change as part of the Paris agreement. That requires a transition from fossil fuels to clean energy over the next few decades. Fortunately, renewables like solar and wind energy are already cheaper than coal and gas and are forecast to make up a majority of new electricity sources deployed in coming years. The challenge is in finding backup energy sources for times when winds die down and the sun sets.

Proponents of nuclear energy say it’s the perfect complement to renewables since nuclear reactors are able to generate electricity around the clock. “Nuclear energy is indispensable along with renewable energy …  We must devise strategy to attract further investment which is necessary to enhance the use of nuclear energy,” Japan’s Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Komura Masahiro said during the Nuclear Energy Summit held yesterday by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

It’s a remarkable turnaround from fears stoked more than a decade ago when an earthquake and tsunami triggered a catastrophic meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in Japan. In December, Japan was one of more than 20 countries that agreed to triple renewable energy capacity globally by 2050. The country still plans to prioritize renewable energy, Masahiro said, and “at the same time, Japan will continuously reflect upon the lessons from the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station and ensure that the use of nuclear power places safety as its top priority.”

There’s still skepticism over whether a nuclear renaissance is a good idea. Existing reactors and the radioactive waste they produce still pose risks. IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi has tried to broker agreements between Russia and Ukraine to prevent a meltdown at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant amid the ongoing war. In the US, tribes and environmental advocates have fought to stop a resurgence of uranium mining that has a legacy of polluting water sources in the past.

At the summit, John Podesta, US senior adviser to the president for clean energy innovation and implementation, touted the construction of the country’s first completely new power plant in decades. The Vogtle Unit 3 reactor in Georgia finally started operating last year, no less than $17 billion over budget after seven years of delays.

Next-generation nuclear reactors are supposed to be easier and cheaper to build. But they haven’t overcome the radioactive waste problem. They’ll require more highly enriched uranium, of which Russia has been the largest supplier. And a key demonstration project using advanced small modular reactors in Utah was canceled in November after costs soared.

Protesters with the environmental group Greenpeace attempted to block roads leading to the Nuclear Energy Summit yesterday, claiming they were able to delay the arrival of some delegates.

“All the evidence shows that nuclear power is too slow to build, too expensive, and it remains highly polluting and dangerous,” Greenpeace EU senior campaigner Lorelei Limousin said. “We are in a climate emergency, so time is precious, and the governments here today are wasting it with nuclear energy fairy tales.”

March 24, 2024 Posted by | politics international | 1 Comment

Greenpeace disrupts international nuclear summit in Brussels

By Paul Messad | Euractiv France, 22 Mar 24,  https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy-environment/news/greenpeace-disrupts-international-nuclear-summit-in-brussels/

Greenpeace activists disrupted the one-day Nuclear Energy Summit in Brussels on Thursday (21 March), attended by some 40 delegations from across the world to explore the possibilities of collaborations in nuclear power.

On Thursday, Brussels hosted the international summit on nuclear energy (NES), which was organised by the Belgian EU Council presidency and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Greenpeace, known for its anti-nuclear activism and attention-grabbing actions, had one of its activists – who was suspended in mid-air – hold up a sign reading “Nuclear, fairytale” over the press area where leaders and representatives of some 40 delegations were expected to arrive.

However, although no delegation representatives or leaders were in the area at the time of the activists’ protest, French President Emmanuel Macron was expected with the press area subsequently evacuated for “security reasons”, including journalists.

Greenpeace denounces a “fairy tale”

When asked about the reasons for his action, the activist didn’t answer.

“Europe must not give in to the lobbies of the nuclear industry and the French government, which are seeking funds to finance ‘new nuclear’, Greenpeace denounces the lack of credibility of the nuclear revival, the costs, and the deadlines of this phantasmagorical project,” said the NGO in response to Euractiv’s coverage on X.

In a later press release, Greenpeace presented a more detailed explanation saying the NGO denounces “a meeting divorced from reality that perpetuates the old myth of an all-powerful energy that could save the climate.

“‘New nuclear’, whether large reactors or small modular reactors (SMRs),

is the worst possible choice for our decarbonised future.”

In a report published on Tuesday (19 March), the NGO aimed to discredit nuclear power claiming France’s new program as too expensive and too slow, saying it could cost up to €100 billion – much more than the €50-70 billion currently estimated.

French energy giant EDF’s CEO, Luc Rémont, has refuted all these estimates currently published, instead, the state-owned company is currently working on its own calculations, since some studies are still to be carried out.

[Edited by Rajnish Singh]

March 24, 2024 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Hundreds of groups for climate action reject nuclear power at Brussels Summit

 Today, more than 600 civil society groups across the globe working on
climate action, including 130 from Canada launched a declaration in
Brussels, Belgium, stating that nuclear power expansion is not a solution
to the climate crisis. The groups declare: “We are living in a climate
emergency.

Time is precious, and too many governments are wasting it with
nuclear energy fairy tales. What we demand is a just transition towards a
safe, renewable and affordable energy system that secures jobs and protects
life on our planet.” The groups made their declaration public today at
the pro-nuclear Summit in Brussels where countries are meeting to bolster
the industry’s claim that investing in new nuclear plants must be a
priority to save the climate.

The International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA), whose principle mandate is to promote nuclear expansion, is
co-hosting the event, along with Belgium, which ironically passed a law in
2003 –still on the books –to phase out nuclear power completely.

 Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility 21st March 2024

Click to access CCNR-CANE_media_release_2024.pdf

March 24, 2024 Posted by | Canada, climate change, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

The extraordinary financial costs of ‘small’ nuclear power stations

By Alan Finkel, Cosmos, 21 Mar 24

Partial extract from an article to be posted in 360info.org

They’re being touted as the solution to kickstarting a nuclear power industry in Australia.

According to the Opposition’s Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Ted O’Brien, small modular reactors (SMR) could be built within ten-year period if it wins the next election. 

However, it would likely take 20 years to commence commercial operation of any nuclear reactors in Australia from the time in-principle approval was reached.  To reach that starting point and enable detailed consideration of the challenges and costs of nuclear power, the existing legislative ban on nuclear power in Australia will need to be removed.

There are other obstacles.

While there’s plenty of excitement about SMRs, the problem is there just isn’t enough data about them, mainly because there are none operating in any OECD country.

And it’s unknown when any might be. As Allison Macfarlane, former chair of the US Nuclear Regulatory commission, argues in her article,The end of Oppenheimer’s energy dream, the proposal for small modular reactors to help us in the clean energy transition is fanciful. 

The SMR furthest along the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approval process, from the US company NuScale, cancelled its first planned installation in Utah last November when the initial cost blew out to USD$9 billion, corresponding to USD$20 billion per GW.

The only countries with working SMRs are China and Russia.

Micro and large reactors

Micro reactors are intended to generate electrical power up to 10 MW per unit.  Although companies such as Rolls Royce are developing these, there do not appear to be any commercial micro modular reactors that have completed their design.

That leaves full-scale reactors, which have also been mentioned as part of a possible Australian nuclear power play.

Korean company KEPCO builds most of the nuclear reactors in Korea and has now built one at Barakah in the United Arab Emirates. This 5.6 GW plant, scheduled to open this year, has taken 16 years to complete and cost  USD$24 billion (AUD$36 billion).  At 5.6 GW, that is AUD$6.4 billion per GW.  Given salaries and skills shortages in Australia, inflation, interest rates and our regulatory requirements, it would cost more and take longer in Australia.

The Hinkley C plant in the UK was supposed to be finished in 2017 but has been delayed again until 2031 – 23 years after approval.  The estimated construction cost ballooned to AUD$89 billion.  At 3.2 GW electrical power, that is AUD$28 billion per GW.


In the US, the most recent nuclear reactors to be built are the Vogtle 3 and 4built at the existing facility that is home to the Vogtle 1 and 2 reactors.  Both were  anticipated to be in service in 2016.  Vogtle 3 began commercial operation in July 2023.  Vogtle 4 is projected to commence operation in the second quarter of 2024 – 15 years after the construction contract was awarded.

Construction  cost USD$34 billion (AUD$52 billion) for the combined 2.2 GW output of the two reactors, or AUD$24 billion per GW.

Construction of nuclear plants in the United States has declined dramatically over the years.  Approximately 130 were built from the mid 1950s to the mid 1990s.  Only four commenced operation in the 30 years from the mid 1990s to now, and at the time of writing there are no nuclear reactors under construction in the United States. 

In France, only one nuclear power plant is under construction.  The 1.65 GW Flamanville EPR reactor is hoped to be completed and begin to supply electricity later this year, 17 years after construction began.  The most recent cost estimate was AUD$22 billion or AUD$13 billion per GW.  No other nuclear power plants are planned in France.

These high costs and long delivery durations for full-scale reactors are the reasons SMRs are proposed as a way forward in Australia.  However, SMRs are a new technology.  There are none in operation or construction in any OECD countries, thus it is not possible to estimate the costs or delivery schedules.  NuScale’s investment to date suggests that the capital cost for the first units to be delivered will be very high. ………… https://cosmosmagazine.com/technology/energy/the-extraordinary-financial-costs-of-nuclear-power/

March 24, 2024 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, business and costs, China, Small Modular Nuclear Reactors | 1 Comment

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) Opened 25 Years Ago; It Was Supposed to Close Next Week

https://nuclearactive.org/ March 21st, 2024 

Did you know that on Friday, March 26, 1999, the first shipment of plutonium-contaminated nuclear weapons waste from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) reached the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)?

Earlier that week, on Monday, March 22, 1999, Federal Judge John Garrett Penn lifted a seven-year injunction allowing the shipment of purely radioactive waste to WIPP.  The shipment did not contain any hazardous waste.  In fact it wasn’t even Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear weapons waste.  It was NASA waste from the production of the plutonium batteries for the Cassini space vehicle.

On Tuesday, March 23rd, LANL loaded waste drums into the three TRUPACT shipping containers.

On Wednesday, March 24th, final testing was done and the truck and trailer with three TRUPACTS was ready.

Peaceful protesters with signs had gathered at the intersection of Airport Road and 599 on the south side of Santa Fe.  National Guard, police and other security personnel dressed in combat gear lined the intersection for about a block in each direction.  Black Hawk helicopters flew over the area.  A little snow fell.  Nevertheless, tensions were high.

LANL checked the weather conditions and it was determined that the shipment could not leave LANL.  To ship, a five-hour clear weather window was required.  A dense fog had developed around Santa Rosa, New Mexico and the shipment did not depart from LANL.

LANL tried again, successfully, on Thursday, March 25th.  Again peaceful protesters and security personnel were at the intersection.

Early on the morning of Friday, March 26th, the shipment arrived at WIPP to cheers from those waiting to see the truck and trailer.  https://www.energy.gov/em/articles/fight-wipp-history-nations-deep-geologic-nuclear-waste-repository

Prior to the arrival of the first shipment at WIPP, DOE had promised the People of New Mexico that it would clean up all the transuranic, or plutonium-contaminated, waste across the nuclear weapons complex,

including LANL, and dispose of it in the underground salt bed at WIPP in 25 years and begin a 10-year closure of the facility.   For example:  http://nuclearactive.org/elected-officials-question-doe-plans-to-keep-wipp-operating-forever/ (Aug. 11, 2022); http://nuclearactive.org/doe-breaks-its-promises-to-new-mexico-part-i/ (Jan. 12, 2021); and http://nuclearactive.org/doe-breaks-its-promises-to-new-mexico-part-2/ (Jan. 19, 2021).

Next Tuesday, March 26, 2024, is the 25-year deadline.  But DOE and WIPP will not make its deadline.  In fact, DOE plans to keep WIPP open until 2083, basically forever, for LANL waste from fabricating new and provocative nuclear weapons. …………………………………………………more https://nuclearactive.org/

March 24, 2024 Posted by | USA, wastes | Leave a comment

The Lying Piper of Nukeland:The IAEA’s nuclear fairy tales are leading nations — and all of us — into climate catastrophe

On March 21, more than 40 groups, mainly from Europe, protested the false promises and nuclear fairy tales being spun at the March 21 International Atomic Energy Agency’s Nuclear Energy Summit in Brussels. Prior to our fairy tale-themed rally close to the venue we issued a declaration signed by 621 organizations from across the world and issued a press release.

Our fairy tale handout parodied the story of nuclear power — see the text below. Beyond Nuclear also published a pamphlet exposing the hypocrisies and conflicts of interest of the IAEA. Feel free to download both and to distribute freely.

  The IAEA’s nuclear fairy tales are leading nations — and all of us — into climate catastrophe

  by By Linda Pentz Gunter  beyondnuclearinternational, https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2024/03/22/the-lying-piper-of-nukeland

At the end of the one-day summit, the IAEA and 34 countries issued a pledge “to work to fully unlock the potential of nuclear energy“, code for taking taxpayer money and going with a begging bowl to the World Bank.

Once upon a time… long ago, a Piper arrived in Carbonville. The people of Carbonville welcomed him warmly because they had heard that when he played his flute he had magical powers.

“Oh Piper!” they cried. “Here in Carbonville it is always dark and cold. It is smokey and polluted. Can you help us find a better way to create warmth and light?”

The Piper was happy to oblige. “I know just the answer,” he told them. “It’s called nuclear power! It’s safe, cheap and reliable. Very soon you will have warmth and light that is too cheap to meter!”

The people of Carbonville were so excited to get shiny new nuclear power plants that they took a vote and changed the name of their town to Nukeland.

The Piper began to play and very soon beautiful drawings of nuclear power plants started to appear for the people of Nukeland to admire. But several years passed and nothing else happened.

“What use are these drawings?” the people said. “We need warmth and light!”

“Be patient,” said the Piper. “I will bring you 15 nuclear power plants and you will have all the heat and light you need. I just need five gold coins to get them started.”

The people of Nukeland were very poor but they did without and saved up until they had five gold coins. They gave them to the Piper and once again he began to play.

The people of Nukeland watched as their fields were plowed under and their trees cut down and the land paved with concrete in readiness for the nuclear power plants. But still none appeared.

“I need more gold!” cried the Piper. “Just five more gold coins and your nuclear plants will be here”.

“You said it would only cost us five gold coins,” cried the people. “Now you’re charging us double!”

But all the same, the people paid the Piper another five gold coins. Many more years passed while the people of Nukeland froze in the dark, and then one day three nuclear power plants were finally done.

The people of Nukeland were shocked. Three nuclear power plants weren’t nearly enough to bring heat and light to everyone. “Why are there only three?” they asked the Piper. “You promised us 15. We paid for 15.”

The Piper just shrugged. “Now you will have the heat and light you wanted!” he exclaimed. “Those of you who can pay for it.”

So only the richest people who could afford the nuclear energy got light and heat even though everyone in the land had paid for the nuclear power plants.

And when the nuclear power plants opened, the Piper brought in all his friends and relatives to run them. “What about all the jobs you promised us?” demanded the people of Nukeland.

“You people are imbeciles,” snapped the Piper. “We need experts.” And even though the Piper’s friends and relatives knew as little as he did about nuclear power plants, they all got jobs at the plants, leaving the people of Nukeland to starve.

The Piper went to the newspapers to brag about his achievement. “Nuclear power is the answer to all your problems,” he cried. “Yes it is!” the editors agreed and wrote it in their newspapers.

But one reporter, the youngest of them all, wasn’t so sure. “Surely,” she said, “it would be easier, quicker and cheaper to harness the power of the sun when it is shining and capture the power of the wind when it is blowing?” she asked. “What if we turned that into heat and light?”

“Nonsense!” cried the Piper. “Nonsense!” agreed the editors, who never asked any questions. And they wrote it in their newspapers.

Soon, the Youngest Reporter began to notice that, along with the electricity for the rich people who could pay for it, the nuclear power plants also produced an evil, toxic waste. And no one knew what to do with it.

“What about all the waste?” she asked the Piper. “Not my problem,” said the Piper. “Someone else will come along later and deal with it.”

Then the Youngest Reporter discovered that the people working at the nuclear power plant and the people living nearby and especially the children, were falling sick with strange diseases never before seen in Nukeland.

”It’s the nuclear power plant that’s making you sick,” the Youngest Reporter told the people of Nukeland.

“Scaremonger!” cried the Piper. “Ignore her,” he told the people of Nukeland. “She’s too emotional. She doesn’t understand science.”

So the people ignored the Youngest Reporter even though most of them could not afford to buy the power from the nuclear plants and were still living in the cold and dark.

And then, one day, one of the nuclear power plants blew up and a great poison rained down on the land and many many more people got sick and many of them died.

And the Youngest Reporter who no one had listened to wept. “There was another way,” she said, “and it was right there in front of us all the time. The sun and the wind are free and safe and fast and cheap.”

And the people of Nukeland finally agreed. “We should never have listened to the Lying Piper,” they said. “He took our money and wasted our time. He made us sick and led us down a dead end. We made a terrible mistake.”

And they didn’t live happily ever after.

Linda Pentz Gunter is the international specialist at Beyond Nuclear and writes for and edits Beyond Nuclear International.

March 24, 2024 Posted by | resources - print, spinbuster | Leave a comment

World Water Day Prompts Submission to Parliamentary Committee on Risks of NWMO’s Nuclear Waste Project to Water

Thunder Bay – A Northern Ontario alliance concerned about a risky project to transport and bury nuclear fuel waste has chosen World Water Day to submit their brief to a parliamentary committee studying freshwater.

We the Nuclear Free North submitted the ten-page brief to the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development today, outlining the set of risks the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) project poses to the lakes, rivers and groundwater of Northern Ontario. The Committee is carrying out a comprehensive study of the role of the federal government in protecting and managing Canada’s freshwater resources in Canada.

The opposition group points to the risks during transportation, processing and burial of the highly radioactive nuclear fuel waste, including from operations at the site of the proposed deep geological repository.

“The NWMO plan is still largely theoretical, but according to their own limited descriptions of the operating period, it is evident that freshwater in the area of the site will be impacted”, explained Wendy O’Connor, one of the report authors.


“Water used for washing down the nuclear waste transportation packages will become contaminated with radionuclides. According to the NWMO’s published details, that water will be sent to a settling pond and then released to natural water bodies in the vicinity of the site, as will the contaminated water that will be pumped from the underground repository”, said O’Connor.

“Despite assurances from the nuclear industry, it remains entirely possible that the nuclear waste itself, deposited underground, will contaminate the deep groundwater in the near or long term – contamination that will eventually reach surface water in the vast watershed”.

The NWMO’s candidate site in Northwestern Ontario is located half-way between Ignace and Dryden. Because it is at the height of land for the Wabigoon and the Turtle River systems, there are concerns about releases to the downstream communities, including Rainy River and Lake of the Woods. The group notes that if and when the radioactive releases occur from the deep geological repository there will be no means to reverse the impacts.


World Water Day, held on 22 March every year since 1993, is an annual United Nations Observance focusing on the importance of freshwater.

“It’s ironic that the UN theme for World Water Day in 2024 is “Water for Peace”, given the level of division and conflict that the NWMO’s proposal has brought to our region”, commented Kathleen Skead, a member of Anishinaabe of Wauzhushk Onigum Nation, one of several downstream Treaty 3 communities.

“Hopefully people will pause today and recognize that water is life and the NWMO’s promise of money is not worth the risk. Water is vital for all forms of life.”

The brief is posted HERE.

We the Nuclear Free North is an alliance of people and groups opposing a Deep Geological Repository for nuclear waste in Northern Ontario. We oppose the transport, burial and abandonment of this radioactive waste in our northern watersheds.

Our alliance is honoured to have received the name Tataganobin: looking far ahead into the future. Learn more about who we are, and the origin and meaning of this name.

March 24, 2024 Posted by | Canada, opposition to nuclear, wastes | Leave a comment

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