nuclear-news

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

AUKwardUS: Peter Dutton’s Albo nuclear wedge may cost us hundreds of billions

by Rex Patrick | Mar 18, 2024, https://michaelwest.com.au/duttons-aukus-albanese-wedge/

Rex Patrick reports on a nasty political wedge.

Sign Up to The Idea

On 15 September 2021, then Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese was given a private briefing by the Morrison Government on Scott Morrison’s plans to announce, the following day, a joint program with the United States and United Kingdom to acquire nuclear powered submarines.

Albanese, eager to be Australia’s 31st Prime Minister and running a small target political strategy, agreed to give Morrison’s program his unequivocal support. It may have been politically astute but it is clearly now an irresponsible thing to have agreed to –  albeit as many would say understandable, as he was only given 24 hours to consider the matter.



There was no analysis of costs, no Defence capability mix analysis, no risk analysis, and apart from rushed conversations with Richard Marles and Penny Wong, no consultation with his colleagues. Labor’s parliamentary caucus was kept in the dark.  But Albanese’s decision was not about what was good for Australia, it was about what was good for votes. It was all about politics and he wasn’t going to have any debate or dissent. Disagreement would have put a big “weak on national security’ target on his back. He didn’t need that. Politics first and nothing else.

Sign up to the Deal

Things got worse after Antony Albanese became Prime Minister. Just over a year ago he stood alongside US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at what Paul Keating referred to as the San Diego Kabuki show.

Defence had spent $139.2 million in taxpayers’ dollars over the proceeding 18 months studying the AUKUS concept. On 14 March 2023 Albanese signed up to a deal that has committed $368B of public money, undermined strategic independence and sovereignty, cancelled other much needed Defence capability, given an initial $10B investment commitment to the UK and US submarine industrial base without a guaranteed return, and effectively postponed a submarine build in Australia for the next decade and a half.

In the last few months, we’ve seen a bill introduced into the Parliament by the Labor Government that legalises the acceptance of nuclear waste from the UK and US, and provides the Government with the power to nominate any place in Australia as a nuclear waste site, with no requirement to consult with local communities or other interested groups.

It is stupid – all driven by Albanese’s initial politically fearful calculation and his ongoing belief that he must remained politically tied to the AUKUS periscope.  

Radioactive politics

One of the consequences of Albanese’s embarkation on the AUKUS submarine pathway is that it’s snookered him against criticising Peter Dutton as he proposes a Liberal Party’s nuclear power climate change solution.

Costs

Building a number of power reactors will be very costly. But so too is the tab for 8 naval reactors.

It makes sense from a cost amortisation perspective – a single training pipeline, a common workforce pool, common nuclear stewardship, common social licence, shared emergency response capabilities, shared waste facilities, economies of scale … the list goes on. 

Dutton could rightly argue that its simply not cost effective to do one and not the other. He can also point out the contrast between AUKUS, where all costs are borne by the taxpayer, and civil nuclear which, he hopes, would be public-private partnership.


Imposing nuclear on communities

Albanese has already tried to goad Dutton into nominating communities upon which he intends to ‘impose’ a power reactor.

But Albanese already made his own decisions to ‘impose’ nuclear reactors on a number of Australian cities. 

First there’s Perth. HMAS Stirling is going to be the base for British and American nuclear submarines deployed as a “Rotational Force West” and then as the home to Australia’s first Virginia-class nuclear submarines. 


If you live in Kwinana, Albanese has already decided to impose naval reactors on your neighbourhood.  


Then there’s Adelaide. Albanese plans for UK designed AUKUS nuclear submarines to be built at Osborne Naval Shipyards. If you live in the suburb of North Haven, Albanese has already decided to impose naval reactors right next door.

Then there’s the question of where Australia’s planned east coast nuclear submarine base will be located.  The government’s pretty coy about that, putting off a decision for at least a decade because it’s too politically hot.

But there are really just three options, Sydney Harbour (where the Navy’s fleet base is located), Wollongong/Port Kembla or Newcastle.  

One way or another, however, Albanese has a naval nuclear reactor earmarked for New South Wales.  

And what’s the difference between a naval reactor sitting alongside a wharf at Woolloomooloo, imposed upon the locals by Albanese, and a power reactor located at Victoria Barracks at Paddington, imposed upon them by Dutton? 


Naval *and* power reactors Imposed on communities?

The answer is, very little.

(Of course, Dutton wouldn’t actually put a nuclear reactor there, however tempting he might find it to impose one in a Teal electorate, but an industrial site at Botany or Kurnell wouldn’t be out of the question).


Waste

Albanese needs to nominate a place to put both low level and highly enriched radioactive waste that will be generated by the AUKUS program. With that problem solved for naval reactors, how could he not accept a proposition from Dutton suggesting it would be complementary to co-locate power reactor waste at the one site.

Not needed?

Both naval reactors and power reactors are not needed.

Australia could achieve a better Defence outcome with 20 off-the-shelf air independent propulsion conventional submarines (for a reasonable $30B). Imagine what Defence could do with the $368B?


And by the time the first electron has flowed from a nuclear power station into the electricity grid, sometime well beyond Dutton’s ridiculously optimistic prediction of within a decade, renewable energy baseload will have been sorted out.

Dumb and Dumber

Neither naval or power reactors are needed by Australia. They are both foolish and damaging public policy choices, driven by reasons of political expediency.  

So at the next election we’ll see two dunderklumpens facing off on two dumb, radioactive ideas: Albanese arguing Dutton’s idea is dumb while glossing over his own dump idea, Dutton arguing Albanese is dumb for not embracing his own dumb idea.

When it comes to choosing between the two, voters may look elsewhere on the ballot paper.


Rex Patrick

Rex Patrick is a former Senator for South Australia and earlier a submariner in the armed forces. Best known as an anti-corruption and transparency crusader – www.transparencywarrior.com.au.

March 18, 2024 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Reversing Europe’s and Australia’s slide into irrelevance & insecurity – National Press Club of Australia speech- Yanis Varoufakis

First, Australia must restore a reputation tainted by blindly following America into lethal adventures in Iraq, Afghanistan and, today, via its active and crucial complicity in Israel’s deliberate war crimes in Gaza, East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Children are not starving in Gaza today. No, they are being deliberately starved. Without hesitation or remorse. The famine in Gaza is no collateral damage. It is an intentional policy of starving to death thousands until the rest agree to leave their ancestral homeland.

Second, Australia has a duty to de-escalate the New Cold War. To understand that this can only be done if Australia ends its servility to a United States’ actively creating the threats that they then make us pay through the nose to protect us from.

Imagine an Australia that helps bring a just Peace in Ukraine, as opposed to a mindless forever war. A non-aligned Australia that is never neutral in the face of injustice but, also, not automatically aligned with every warmongering adventure decided in Washington.

Imagine an Australia which, having re-established its credentials as a country that thinks and acts for itself, engages with China in the spirit of peaceful cooperation – a far better way of addressing Beijing’s increasing authoritarianism toward its own peoples than buying useless, hyper-expensive submarines that only succeed in forcing China’s political class to close ranks around a more authoritarian core.

Imagine a truly patriotic Australian Prime Minister who tells the American President to cease and desist from the slow murder of Julian Assange for the crime of journalism – for exposing American war crimes perpetrated behind the back of US citizens in their name.

To conclude, if Europe and Australia are to escape gross irrelevance, we need separate but well-coordinated European and Australian Green New Deals.

DiEM25, our paneuropean movement, is working toward this goal.

Yanis Varoufakis – 14/03/2024 

Europe and Australia are facing a common existential threat: a creeping irrelevance caused, on the one hand, by our failure properly to invest and, on the other hand, by our ill-considered slide from a strategic dependence on the United States to a non-strategic, self-defeating servility to Washington’s policy agenda.”

Yanis Varoufakis’s address at the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday 13 March, 2024

…………………………………. The three post-war phases that shaped Australia’s and Europe’s habitat

Our present moment in Europe and in Australia has been shaped by three distinct postwar phases.

The first was the Bretton Woods system. America exited the war as the only surplus, creditor country. Bretton Woods, a remarkable recycling mechanism, was, in effect, a dollar zone built on fixed exchange rates, sustained by capital controls, and erected on the back of America’s trade surplus. With quasi-free trade as part of the deal, Washington dollarised Europe, Japan and Australia to generate aggregate demand for the products of its factories – whose productivity had skyrocketed during the war. Subsequently, the US trade surplus sucked the exported dollars back into America.  The result was twenty years of high growth, low unemployment, blissfully boring banking and dwindling inequality. Alas, once the United States lost its trade surplus, Bretton Woods was dead in the water.

The second phase was marked by the violent reversal of this recycling mechanism. The United States became the first hegemon to enhance its hegemony by boosting its trade deficit. Operating like a powerful vacuum cleaner, the burgeoning US trade deficit hoovered up the world’s net exports. And how did America pay for them? With dollars which it also hoovered up from the rest of the world as German, Japanese and later Chinese capitalists sent to Wall Street 70% of dollar profits made from their net exports to the US. There, in Wall Street, these foreign capitalists recycled their dollar profits into Treasuries, real estate, shares and derivatives.

This audacious inverted recycling system, built on US deficits, required ever increasing American deficits to remain stable. In the process, it gave rise to even higher growth than the Bretton Woods era, but also to macroeconomic and financial imbalances as well as mind-numbing levels of inequality. The new era came complete with an ideology (neoliberalism), a policy of letting finance rip (financialisation), and a false sense of dynamic equilibrium – the infamous Great Moderation built on hugely immoderate imbalances.

Almost inevitably, on the back of the perpetual tsunami of capital rushing in from the rest-of-the-world to Wall Street, financiers fashioned gigantic pyramids of complex wagers – Warren Buffet’s infamous Weapons of Mass Financial Destruction. When these crashed, to deliver the Global Financial Crisis, two things saved Wall Street and Western capitalism:

  • The G7 central banks, that printed a total of $35 trillion on behalf of the financiers from 2009 to last year – a peculiar socialism for bankers. And,
  • China, which directed half its national income to investment, thus replacing much of the lost aggregate demand not only domestically but also in Germany, Australia and, of course, in the United States.

The third period is more recent. The era of technofeudalism, as I call it, which took root in the mid-2000s but grew strongly after the GFC in conjunction with the rapid technological change that caused capital to mutate into, what I call, cloud capital – the automated means of behavioural modification living inside our phones, apps, tablets and laptops. Consider the six things this cloud capital (which one encounters in Amazon or Alibaba) does all at once:

  1. It grabs our attention.
  2. It manufactures our desires.
  3. It sells to us, directly, outside any actual markets, that which will satiate the desires it made us have.
  4. It drives and monitors waged labour inside the workplaces.
  5. It elicits massive free labour from us, its cloud-serfs.
  6. It provides the potential of blending seamlessly all that with free, digital payments.

Is it any wonder that the owners of this cloud capital – I call them cloudalists – have a hitherto undreamt of power to extract? They are, already, a new ruling class: today, the capitalisation of just seven US cloudalist firms is approximately the same as the capitalisation of all listed corporations in the UK, France, Japan, Canada and China taken together!

Continue reading →

March 17, 2024 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, EUROPE, politics international | Leave a comment

UN report finds Israel deliberately targeted journalists – Reuters

 https://www.rt.com/news/594254-israel-attack-journalists-lebanon/ 14 Mar 24

The news agency has obtained a copy of an investigation into the killing of one of its staff in Lebanon last October

An Israeli tank fired two shells at a group of international journalists clearly marked as such, in violation of international law, a UN investigation has reportedly found. The deadly incident happened in Lebanon in mid-October.

The conclusions, published by Reuters on Wednesday, are part of a seven-page report dated February 27, obtained by the news agency. They coincided with what it had found on its own while looking into the death of its employee Issam Abdallah and the injuries of six other journalists, including those working for Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Al Jazeera.

The report was produced by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), the peacekeeper mission deployed on the border between Israel and Lebanon in 2006 as part of a deal that ended the Israeli occupation of the southern part of its neighbor. Tracking and investigating presumed violations of the truce is part of its job.

The attack happened on October 13, in the early days of Israel’s siege of Gaza in retaliation for a large-scale incursion by the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Tensions ramped up at the Lebanese border as well, with sporadic attacks launched by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Hezbollah militants.

Abdallah, a Reuters photographer, was part of a group of journalists covering the situation from a hill in Lebanon. An IDF Merkava tank fired two shots at them, the UNIFIL report confirmed. It called the attack a violation of the truce it is mandated to uphold and of international law.

”It is assessed that there was no exchange of fire across the Blue Line at the time of the incident,” the report noted, referring to the de facto border. “The reason for the strikes on the journalists is not known.”

An IDF spokesperson told Reuters that Israeli forces do not target civilians on purpose, including journalists, when asked about the UN investigation. He added that the incident is being examined by the General Staff’s Fact Finding and Assessment Mechanism – a body responsible for reviewing exceptional events.

Reuters released its findings in early December, based on eyewitness accounts, forensic analysis of evidence found at the scene and interviews with officials.

The UNIFIL report was sent to the UN on February 28 and shared with the Israeli and Lebanese governments, Reuters said citing a source. The mission’s investigations are normally not made public.

March 17, 2024 Posted by | Israel, media | Leave a comment

French president Emmanuel Macron tells Putin ‘WE are a nuclear power and WE are ready’ in latest WW3 rhetoric.

  • A stern Macron chastised Putin for threatening the use of nuclear devices
  • It comes after Putin told state TV ‘weapons exist to be used’ earlier this week

Having nuclear weapons ‘imposes on us the responsibility never to escalate,’ Macron said, in a dig at the constant reminders issued by top Russian officials and media personalities of their nuclear arsenal.

His statements come amid a hardening of Paris’ stance towards Moscow after Macron abandoned his longstanding efforts to maintain a closer bond with Putin.

Britain and France are Europe’s only nuclear powers, but even their collective power is a fraction of that employed by Russia, which has the world’s largest and most varied collection of nuclear weapons by some margin – even larger than that in Washington’s vast stockpiles.

Speaking with French and Ukrainian media, Macron chastised Putin for threatening the use of nuclear devices and reminded him France also has an advanced weapons programme……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

For Tatiana Kastoueva-Jean, Russia specialist at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI), the change in Macron’s stance towards Putin triggered this reaction from Russia.

‘There is incomprehension (in Russia) over how someone who wants to discuss with Russia, to be the mediator, turns into someone who takes the lead of the toughest camp opposing it,’ she said.  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13201319/French-president-Emmanuel-Macron-declares-nuclear-power-ready-response-Putins-threats-using-nukes-Kremlin-says-France-signalled-deeper-involvement-Ukraine.html

March 17, 2024 Posted by | France, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Nuclear power and Artificial Intelligence – a dystopian vision of the future.

Susan O’Donnell Fredericton, 15 Mar 24

Re “Nuclear power and artificial intelligence: the perfect marriage” (Report on Business, March 12): I read with genuine horror the detailing of artificial intelligence’s voracious appetite for energy.

This is presented as a positive development, and it is suggested that more Canadian uranium could be mined to fuel small nuclear reactors and provide power for gluttonous AIs. This dystopian vision of the future looks devoid of humanity.

Environmentalists and everyone concerned with a sustainable future are thinking about how we will power a livable world, so that more than eight billion people will have a decent standard of living as the fossil fuel era comes to an end. I am sickened to contemplate that AI might gobble up much of the available energy that will be desperately needed for basic humanitarian needs.

Susan O’Donnell Fredericton

March 17, 2024 Posted by | ENERGY | Leave a comment

HSBC leads Sizewell C investment push as time ticks on final investment decision

https://www.cityam.com/hsbc-leads-sizewell-c-investment-push-as-time-ticks-on-final-investment-decision/ 14 Mar 24

Britain’s largest bank by market capitalisation is trying to rally an effort to push a final investment decision over the line for the delayed Sizewell C nuclear super project.

According to a Bloomberg report today, HSBC is discussing the possibility with investment funds to provide a debt facility that would be guaranteed by the UK’s export finance agency.

The report said that people familiar with the matter said the move would help the project, Sizewell C, which in January received government approval to begin the process of building the site, due to take nine years to complete.

But delays have come thick and fast due to inflationary cost rises and the logistical challenges involved with building a massive nuclear power station, so much so that the project is now scoped for a bill with the potential to reach £40bn.

The UK government is working in tandem with Barclays to find equity investors for the project in the hope of reaching a final investment decision this year, with gas giant Centrica having declared an interest.

Sizewell C was proposed by a consortium of EDF Energy and China General Nuclear Power Group, which own 80 per cent and 20 per cent of the project respectively.

The site, along with the also-delayed multi-billion pound Hinkley Point C and another planned major reactor that was unveiled in the nuclear strategy back in January, will form the backbone of the UK’s nuclear energy drive.

Complimenting the large projects, which are estimated to be able to provide power for around six million people each, are small module reactor programmes to be taken up by private investors.

In recent months, the UK government has reportedly been wooing the United Arab Emirates to step in to help fund Sizewell C in place of China.

However the National Security & Investment Act 2021 and the National Security Act 2023 could prove barriers to any foreign state gaining influence through investment in critical infrastructure.

In Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s Spring Budget last week, he announced a £160m deal with Japanese technology giant Hitachi to buy back two sites on which the latter had committed to build power stations.

March 17, 2024 Posted by | business and costs, UK | Leave a comment

UK Steps Up Sizewell Nuclear Push With State-Backed Loans

Mar 14, 2024, William Mathis and Priscila Azevedo Rocha, Bloomberg News, https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/uk-steps-up-sizewell-nuclear-push-with-state-backed-loans-1.2046821

HSBC Holdings Plc is in talks with investment funds about loans to help to finance the construction of the UK’s Sizewell C nuclear plant, as the government steps up efforts to get a key energy project off the drawing board this year. 

The bank is in discussions with funds to provide the debt that would be guaranteed by the country’s export finance agency, according to people familiar with the matter. That would help Sizewell offset risks of financing a long-term project, while securing cheaper capital, the people said, asking not to be identified as the negotiations are private.

HSBC, Sizewell and UK Export Finance all declined to comment. A spokesperson for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said the development of the project’s commercial structure is subject to sensitive discussions

Securing state-guaranteed funding would be an important milestone for a project that could cost more than £40 billion ($51 billion). The UK government has vowed to get as much as 25% of the country’s power from nuclear plants in coming years as part of a push to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Declining output from Britain’s fleet of aging reactors means new plants will be needed by the end of the decade. 

So far, the only one under construction is Electricite de France SA’s Hinkley Point C. That plant has been repeatedly delayed, while the projected budget has ballooned to as high as £47.9 billion. 

The UK government is working with Barclays Plc to drum up equity investors for the Sizewell project, with bids due later this year. Centrica Plc is seen as a potential anchor investor, with Chief Executive Officer Chris O’Shea saying the company has been in talks with the government.

HSBC is working for Sizewell C Ltd., the operating company set up by EDF to build the copy of Hinkley. The second project should cost less than its forerunner, according to EDF.

The UK has gradually increased its own exposure to Sizewell C, boosting investment in the project to more than £2 billion earlier this year to become the majority shareholder. The government is taking on more construction risk than it did for Hinkley, as it trials a different approach to financing to try to get new projects over the line.

The huge costs involved make it tricky. In 2019, the government offered to take a third of the equity in a £20 billion project in Wales, and provide all the debt during construction plus guaranteed power prices. That wasn’t enough to convince the developer Hitachi Ltd. to proceed.

With assistance from Jessica Shankleman and Francois de Beaupuy.

March 17, 2024 Posted by | business and costs, politics, UK | Leave a comment

Decision time Democrats: Oppose Biden’s genocide in Gaza or tacitly support it

Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL 15 Mar 24

Decision time Democrats: Oppose Biden’s genocide in Gaza or tacitly support it

The verdict of history will condemn President Biden to eternity for enabling Benjamin Netanyahu’s genocidal ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza. Over half (56%) of his 81 million voters in 2020 recognize this ghoulish truth and are abandoning him with their respect and possibly their vote November 5.

But that leaves roughly 37 million Biden voters who have turned away from Biden’s genocidal policies to continue total support in this election season. They have scrubbed any references to Gaza, Palestinians or genocide from their support. They go further and criticize any Democrat who does, even hurling scurrilous insults that critics are in sync with Trump and aiding Trump’s reelection.

While destroying life for 2,300,000 Palestinians in Gaza, Biden has destroyed his soul and legacy with the worst murderous policy any leader could engage in. At 81 and in declining mental and physical health, it may be too late to expect a Biden epiphany to abandon genocidal aid to Netanyahu’s Likud Party.

But it’s not too late for genocidal Biden’s unthinking supporters to pivot to peace. If so, they would not only join the Democratic voting majority and most of the civilized world in solidarity with the Palestinian cause, they would be reclaiming their moral legacy as well.

March 17, 2024 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

TODAY. A morally bankrupt organisation – the International Atomic Energy Agency.

I do not know how this guy can sleep at night – his main job is propaganda- telling the world to trust in the “safety of the nuclear industry” – the latest effort is conning the Japanese.

The International Atomic Energy (IAEA) was set up in 1957 for the purpose of promoting the “peaceful” nuclear industry.

Already that was morally dubious, as the real reason was to distract attention from the guilt of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atrocities, and from the industry’s true purpose – making nuclear weapons.

Over the decades, the IAEA has successfully pitched itself as the watchdog for nuclear safety. And to a certain extent, that is true. The IAEA’s inspection system does monitor nuclear facilities for safety, and compliance with commitments, under the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Obviously, given the nuclear industry’s potential for catastrophic accidents, and for spreading nuclear weapons and the danger of catastrophic wars, – it needed some sort of safety body to be able to continue to exist.

But when the crunch comes – what do we find?

We find the IAEA pushing for “safe” new nuclear power while the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station, the biggest nuclear power station in Europe , is in the middle of a war.

We find the IAEA pretending that it is environmentally OK to permanently pour nuclear irradiated water into the oceans, from the wrecked Fukushima power plant, – thereby legitimising the ocean dumping of radioactive wastes

And now – the latest, (but I’m sure not the last), straw – the IAEA is pushing for the restart and regrowth of the nuclear industry in Japan.

Should Japan ever have set up a nuclear industry?

“An earthquake-and-tsunami zone crowded with 127 million people is an unwise place for 54 reactors”– Amory Lovins

So why did they do it?

To assuage USA’s guilt over the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. To turn a bad thing into a “good thing”: “Many Americans are now aware…that the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan was not necessary. How better to make a contribution to amends than by offering Japan…atomic energy” – Washington Post, 23 September 1954, p. 18, “A Reactor for Japan”

But now – the 2011 and never-ending Fukushima nuclear disaster is still there.. No worries – the nuclear lobby is all for restarting Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, the world’s biggest nuclear power station, with its 7 reactors, just about 200 km away for Tokyo, with its population of 37 million.

But the bit that gets me is: Rafael Gross is not only pledging IAEA technical assistance for the restart of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa., he is “sending a team of experts to assist Tepco’s effort to gain public trust.” The IAEA’s job clearly is to mislead the public on the dangers of nuclear energy

March 16, 2024 Posted by | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

Japan Ramps Up Drive to Restart World’s Biggest Nuclear Plant

Stephen Stapczynski and Aya Wagatsuma, Bloomberg News, 15 Mar 24  

Japan’s government is ramping up an effort to secure local approval to resume operations at the world’s biggest nuclear power plant, according to a report, amid a wider push by the nation to restart its idled fleet of reactors.

Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Ken Saito will next week request Niigata Governor Hideyo Hanazumi to endorse the restart of Tokyo Electric Power Co’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power station, according to the Niigata Nippo newspaper. METI didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The governor’s approval is one of the last hurdles before the nuclear plant can resume…………………………….

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency this week said that the organization would provide technical assistance for the plant, and send a team of experts to assist Tepco’s effort to gain public trust.

Kashiwazaki Kariwa, which has seven reactors totaling 8.2 gigawatts in capacity, is located about 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Tokyo. The nation’s regulator said in 2017 that reactor units 6 and 7 met post-Fukushima safety protocols.

–With assistance from Winnie Hsu and Shoko Oda.  https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/japan-ramps-up-drive-to-restart-world-s-biggest-nuclear-plant-1.2047179—

March 16, 2024 Posted by | Japan, politics | Leave a comment

The U.S. Is Betting Big on Small Nuclear Reactors (done up with green paint)

Oil Price, By Felicity Bradstock – Mar 14, 2024,

  • After decades of decline, the U.S. is significantly increasing its investment in nuclear energy to address climate change and strengthen energy security.
  • The recently passed Atomic Energy Advancement Act simplifies approval processes for novel reactor designs, aiming to expedite the development of new nuclear power plants.

………. The U.S. is set to accelerate the rollout of new nuclear power plants and reactors following the passing of new legislation this month. This follows a movement away from nuclear power for several decades due to the poor political and public perception of nuclear power due to several notable nuclear disasters………………..

This month, the House approved legislation aimed at developing U.S. nuclear power capacity in the coming years, with a vote of 365 to 36. The Atomic Energy Advancement Act was widely approved by both the Democrat and Republican parties ………

……………………………..The law will see that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) streamlines its processes for the approval of new reactor designs, and will increase hiring at the commission, reduce fees for applicants, establish financial prizes for novel types of reactors, and encourage the development of nuclear power at the sites of retiring coal plants. The legislation is expected to support the greatest development of U.S. nuclear power of this generation. ……………………………..

The Biden administration has repeatedly demonstrated its support for nuclear power by passing laws and approving funding to keep existing nuclear projects afloat. Two policies, passed in 2021 and 2022, provided the funding needed to save 22 reactors, with further investment being rolled out this year. This financing is expected to keep the existing U.S. nuclear reactor fleet online until at least 2032, by which time the government hopes greater investment will be being made into new nuclear projects. The policies also provide funding for research and development into the next generation of modular, more flexible nuclear plants

The passing of the Atomic Energy Advancement Act is expected to speed up the deployment of new nuclear energy technology, supported by previous Biden administration policies that provide greater investment to the sector. While strict safety regulations must be upheld, the government is putting pressure on the NRC to modernize and approve innovative reactor designs to allow for new nuclear energy capacity to be rolled out ….  https://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Nuclear-Power/The-US-Is-Betting-Big-on-Small-Nuclear-Reactors.html

March 16, 2024 Posted by | politics, Small Modular Nuclear Reactors, USA | 1 Comment

Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant reports shelling by Ukraine army

Reuters, March 14, 2024,  https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-controlled-zaporizhzhia-nuclear-plant-says-was-shelled-by-ukraine-2024-03-14/

MOSCOW, March 14 (Reuters) – The Russian-controlled management of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, said on Thursday that the Ukrainian army had shelled a critical infrastructure facility at the plant.

An explosive device was dropped near a fence where diesel fuel tanks are located, the plant reported.

“Such attacks are unacceptable,” it said.

It was not immediately clear when the attack had taken place. Reuters was unable to immediately verify battlefield reports from either side.

International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi has repeatedly warned of the danger of attacks on the plant.

Russia and Ukraine, at war for more than two years, have blamed each other for past shelling that has downed power lines and endangered generators.

March 16, 2024 Posted by | incidents, Ukraine | Leave a comment

Northwestern Ontario First Nations Chiefs Unite Against Nuclear Waste Proposal

By NNL Digital News Update, March 14, 2024

Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug – Environment – Leaders from five First Nations communities in Northwestern Ontario have voiced a resolute opposition to the prospect of nuclear waste storage within their territories.

In a concerted message to the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO), these chiefs have articulated a clear rejection of any plans to introduce nuclear waste facilities into the region.

A Firm Stand on Environmental Protection

The stance against nuclear waste storage is captured in a letter addressed to Laurie Swami, President and CEO of the NWMO, an industry-funded body tasked with managing Canada’s nuclear waste. The letter outlines grave concerns about the potential for spills or leaks that could irreversibly harm the environment, disrupt the natural way of life, and have lasting impacts on future generations.

Letter to Nuclear Waste Management Organization

Signed by chiefs from Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug, Asubpeeschoseewagong (Grassy Narrows), Wapekeka, Neskantaga, and Onigaming, the letter embodies the collective apprehension of these communities.

These leaders, forming part of the First Nations Land Defence Alliance, are standing firm in their resolve to protect their lands and waters from the risks posed by nuclear waste.

Concerns Over Potential Environmental Impact Chief Donny Morris of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug highlighted the risks associated with disturbing the Canadian Shield rock to construct an underground storage facility.

Morris emphasized the importance of environmental preservation over financial compensation and stressed the right of all regional First Nations to be involved in the consultation process.

Calls for Consideration of Alternative Sites In a pointed critique of the proposed locations for the nuclear waste repository, Steven Chapman, Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug’s lands and environment director, suggested that such facilities should first be considered in areas closer to Canada’s political centers, such as Toronto or Ottawa.

This suggestion underscores a broader call for equity and responsibility in the siting of facilities that pose environmental risks.

The NWMO has narrowed its search to two potential sites, one near Ignace and another in Southern Ontario, with a final decision expected later this year. The chiefs’ letter firmly states their lack of consultation and consent, urging the NWMO to respect their collective decision against the proposed site near Ignace.

Chiefs in the Ottawa region have also rejected the plans to store nuclear waste in their traditional territories.

As these communities stand united in their opposition, the debate over nuclear waste management in Canada continues to raise important questions about environmental stewardship, indigenous rights, and the principles of equitable decision-making in the context of national infrastructure projects.

Text of the Letter Written by Chiefs………………………………… https://www.netnewsledger.com/2024/03/14/northwestern-ontario-first-nations-chiefs-unite-against-nuclear-waste-proposal/

March 16, 2024 Posted by | Canada, indigenous issues | Leave a comment

The ideology of war in Ukraine and Israel

by Thierry Meyssan,  https://www.voltairenet.org/article220527.html 14 Mar 24

The wars in Ukraine and Gaza are more similar than you might think, at least if you know their histories. The Ukrainian war didn’t start with the Russian military operation, but with the massacres in the Donbass, while the Gaza war didn’t start with the Al-Aqsa deluge, but 75 years earlier with the Nakhba. In the long term, those responsible for both wars share the same ideology.

Generally speaking, every war defines who “we” are and who “they” are. “We” are Good, while “they” are Evil.

Western leaders, while declaring that war itself is bad, claim that it is indispensable today in the face of aggression from Russia and Hamas. According to them, Russia, or rather its president Vladimir Putin, dreams of seizing our property and destroying our political system. After invading Ukraine, he will invade Moldavia and the Baltic states, then continue westwards. Hamas, on the other hand, is a hate-filled sect that begins by raping and beheading Jews out of anti-Semitism, and will continue by invading the West in the name of its religion.

It’s worth noting that both Israel and the USA were founded by their armies, the Haganah and the Continental Army. Today, the vast majority of their political leaders have spent their careers in the armed forces or secret services. But they’re not the only ones, since Xi Jinping is a military man and Vladimir Putin is a former member of the Soviet secret service (KGB).

One wonders what feeds the phantasms of the political West and how they prevent us from grasping reality. Russia didn’t invade Ukraine any more than France invaded Rwanda. Moscow and Paris stopped the massacre of Ukrainians in the Donbass and Rwandan Tutsis. Both were driven by their “responsibility to protect” and implemented Security Council resolutions. Palestinians don’t rape and behead anyone for pleasure, even if some of them belong to a secret society that does. They don’t fight the Jews out of anti-Semitism, except for the historic branch of Hamas, but against the apartheid system of which they are victims.

Perhaps the first function of collective blindness is to erase our previous crimes: it was the “democracies” of the United States and members of the European Union who organized the overthrow of Ukraine’s elected president, Viktor Yanukovych, in 2014. It was Germany and France that signed the Minsk Accords to guarantee peace for Ukrainians in Donbass (2015), but never intended to implement them and, according to the confessions of Chancellor Angela Merkel and President François Hollande, used them to arm Ukraine against Russia. This violation of our word and signature constitutes, according to the Nuremberg Tribunal, the gravest of all crimes, that “against peace”.

Similarly, it is the “greatest democracy in the Middle East”, Israel, which has stolen, metre by metre, by occupation and nibbling, most of the Palestinian Territories established by Security Council resolution 181 (1947).

These conflicts are not about resources, but territories. Since 1917, Dmytro Dontsov’s Ukrainian integral nationalists have consistently claimed sovereignty over Nestor Makhno’s anarchist Novorossia and the Bolshevik Donbass and Crimea. Of course, these territories were merged into Soviet Ukraine by Ukrainian Nikita Khrushchev, but Kiev cannot invoke recent history to claim them as its own. Similarly, since 1920, Vladimir Ze’ev Jabotinsky’s revisionist Zionists have claimed sovereignty over the whole of Palestine, and eventually over the Egyptian Sinai, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria – in short, all the territories from the “Nile to the Euphrates”. Of course, the ancient kingdom of Jerusalem consisted of the city and its suburbs, but that doesn’t allow them to evoke history for all these conquests.

It is often said that the age pyramid determines the aggressiveness of states. States with a majority of young people between the ages of 15 and 30 would by nature be inclined to war. But this is neither the case in Ukraine, nor in Israel. What’s more, it’s Palestine, not Israel that the age pyramid could push towards war.

The ideological question is probably the most important. Dmytro Dontsov and his henchman Stepan Bandera glorified the Ukrainian fighters, heirs to the Swedish Vikings, the Varegues, who had to slaughter the “Muscovites” to be able to feast in Valhalla. Today, it’s the “White Führer”, Andriy Biletsky, who has commanded the troops of the Azov Division in Mariupol, the 3rd Assault Brigade in Bakhmut/Artiomovsk and most recently in Avdeyevka/Avdiyevka. Similarly, Benjamin Netanyahu, son of Vladimir Jabotinsky’s private secretary, has not hesitated to compare the Palestinians to the ancient Amalekites. The implication is that they must all be exterminated as Yahweh commands, or else their race will re-emerge against the Hebrews. In the same way, the IDF has systematically destroyed all the universities and schools in the Gaza Strip and massacred 30,000 civilians under the pretext of fighting Hamas.

Dmytro Dontsov formed an alliance with Adolf Hitler as early as 1923, i.e. before he came to power, and became one of the administrators of the Reinhard Heydrich Institute, responsible for carrying out the Final Solution of the Jewish and Gypsy question. Vladimir Jabotinsky, who had formed an alliance with Dontsov in 1922, founded the Betar cadre school in Civitavecchi (Italy) with the help of Duce Benito Mussolini in 1935. He was unable to play a major role in the Second World War, dying in August 1940. There can be no doubt about the adherence of Ukrainian integral nationalists to Nazism and revisionist Zionists to fascism.

Incidentally, we find the territorial logic of fascist and Nazi regimes in the current discourse of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. At the same time, the Russian and Palestinian presidents, Vladimir Putin and Mahmoud Abbas, constantly claim to be defending their peoples.


 To find out more about Dmytro Dontsov’s integral nationalism, read:
“Who are the Ukrainian integral nationalists?“, by Thierry Meyssan, Réseau Voltaire, November 15, 2022.
 For more on Volodymyr Jabotinsky’s revisionist Zionists read:
“The veil is being torn: the hidden truths of Jabotinsky and Netanyahu“, by Thierry Meyssan, Voltaire Network, January 23, 2024.
and “In Jerusalem, the ’Conference for the Victory of Israel’ threatens London and Washington“, by Thierry Meyssan, Voltaire Network, February 13, 2024.

March 16, 2024 Posted by | culture and arts, history, Israel, Ukraine | Leave a comment

Ralph Nader: Open Letter to President Biden 3.12.24

The United States is aiding and abetting mass starvation and war crimes in Gaza.

By Ralph Nader / Nader.org 14 Mar 24, https://scheerpost.com/2024/03/14/ralph-nader-open-letter-to-president-biden-3-12-24/

President Joe Biden
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20500

Re: United States aiding and abetting mass starvation and war crimes in Gaza

Dear Mr. President:

Willful avoidance does not exculpate your responsibility. There is no exception for the Palestinians in Gaza.

Israel is bound by the Geneva Conventions to provide for the health and safety of 2.3 million Palestinians in Israeli-occupied Gaza. Geneva Convention IV, Article 55, specifically stipulates: “To the fullest extent of the means available to it, the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring the food and medical supplies of the population; it should, in particular, bring in the necessary foodstuffs, medical stores and other articles if the resources of the occupied territory are inadequate.” A violation of Article 55 is a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

In open and notorious violation of Article 55, Israel is thwarting rather than assisting desperately needed humanitarian aid to Palestinian infants, women, and men. Starvation levels are likely to reach 500,000 within a few short months. Israelis are blocking humanitarian aid trucks from border crossings with little or no interference by the IDF. Let the abbreviated life of Sahar al-Zebda speak for the voiceless and defenseless. As reported in The Washington Post (“In Gaza, young lives cut short—by hunger,” March 8, 2024), Sahar was born in a hospital without electricity and died 47 days later. Malnutrition was a material cause. Her parents had been displaced five times over five months since October 7.

Sahar was born on January 11, delivered by Caesarean section under battery-powered lights. She was underweight, suffering from a chest infection. There was no room for her to remain in the hospital.

Food was dwindling while prices were soaring. Sahar’s father secured three cartons of formula during the seven weeks she lived. The mother was able to breastfeed fitfully and then not at all.

Sahar’s weight plunged. Her facial features became distorted. Her lips became blue. Her eyes bulged. Her immune system was badly compromised. Her chest infection worsened. Doctors recommended prayer. Sahar died a few days later.

Sahar is but the tip of the genocide. Her death is not a statistic. It is a moral and legal reproach of the United States.

You and your administration have aided and abetted the starvation of Sahar and her likes by unconditionally supplying Israel, the occupying power in Gaza, with military, financial, and diplomatic assistance in its misnamed war against Hamas. The Washington Post reported on March 8, 2024 (“Israel’s war zone awash in U.S. arms”), that your administration has “approved and delivered more than 100 separate foreign military sales to Israel since the Gaza war began Oct. 7, amounting to thousands of precision-guided munitions, small-diameter bombs, bunker busters, small arms, and other lethal aid.”

October 7 was viewed as a pretext for Israel to seek to exterminate Palestinians not only in Gaza but the West Bank. The evidence is in plain view. Ministers or Knesset members of the government histrionically and regularly sally forth with statements that Palestinians are subhuman and that Israel should annex the twin Palestinian territories.

Your public exhortations to Israel to comply with international law, to endorse a two-state solution, to lift punishing restrictions on humanitarian aid to Gaza, and to renounce Israeli sovereignty in the territory have been notoriously repudiated by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with impunity. Your unconditional military weapons shipments, (in violation of five federal laws: https://truthout.org/articles/us-is-breaking-at-least-6-laws-with-assistance-to-israel-veterans-group-says/), and financial, and diplomatic assistance to Israel remains undiminished. Your words are contradicted by your daily deeds.

If you want to be remembered as the President who orchestrated the starvation deaths of Sahar and thousands of other newborns in collaboration with Israel, continue to do what you are doing. If you wish for a superior memory, however, qualified by your decisions to date, you need to stand by your words and immediately force Israel to operate in compliance with international law, including the Geneva Conventions.

For every hour little lives are expiring!

Sincerely,

Ralph Nader, Esq.
Bruce Fein, Esq.

March 16, 2024 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

« Previous Entries     Next Entries »