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‘The Day After’ Director Returns to Sound the Alarm with ‘How to Stop a Nuclear War’

Military.com  | By Blake Stilwell 11 Oct 23

It might come as a surprise to some, but for most of the Cold War, Hollywood never really depicted what might actually happen to Americans if the Soviet Union suddenly nuked the United States. Sure, they did emergency drills in schools and likely saw photos of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, but it was a 1983 made-for-television movie starring Steve Guttenberg and John Lithgow that changed how many Americans felt about the looming prospect of a nuclear war.

“The Day After” aired on Nov. 20, 1983, and bluntly showed everyday Americans going about their lives before getting vaporized to the bone by a Soviet intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, as they ran in vain for the nearest fallout shelter. More than 100 million people watched Kansas and Missouri get suddenly and violently obliterated — and they didn’t handle it well.

Nearly 40 years later, director Nicholas Meyer (who is also responsible for all the good “Star Trek” movies featuring the original cast) is back to warn us again about the danger posed by nuclear weapons and how the world is currently teetering on the edge of destruction. This time, he’s doing it through a new documentary, “How to Stop a Nuclear War” based on the book “Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner” by famed Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg………………………………………………………….

Whether Jay and Meyer’s upcoming documentary “How to Stop a Nuclear War” will have an effect on whoever occupies the White House after its release is anyone’s guess. But if it’s anything like “The Day After,” it will likely have an effect on the rest of us.

— Blake Stilwell can be reached at blake.stilwell@military.com. He can also be found on Facebook, X or on LinkedIn. more https://www.military.com/off-duty/movies/2023/10/11/day-after-director-returns-sound-alarm-how-stop-nuclear-war.html #nuclear #antinuclear #NuclearFree #NoNukes #NuclearPlants

October 12, 2023 Posted by | media, Resources -audiovicual | Leave a comment

Zelensky fears Israel will distract from Western aid to Kiev

Rt.com 11 Oct 23

The Ukrainian president has visited NATO headquarters, concerned that the flow of Western help could be imperiled

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has voiced concerns that the security crisis in the Middle East could draw international attention away from his country. He blamed Russia for the Hamas incursion into southern Israel last week.

“If international attention shifts away from Ukraine, one way or another, it will have consequences,” the Ukrainian leader warned in an interview with France 2 on Tuesday.

“The fate of Ukraine depends on the unity of the rest of the world,” he added, expressing hope that Washington would ensure continued assistance…………………………….

On Wednesday, Zelensky made an unannounced visit to NATO headquarters in Brussels, where he reportedly sought reassurances that the Hamas raid and Israel’s retaliation would not distract from attention to Ukraine…………..

Last month, the US Congress declined to allocate money for Ukraine aid in a 45-day stopgap spending bill. The White House reportedly wants to include it in a package meant for Israel to overcome resistance from some lawmakers………

The Pentagon announced its latest $200 million package of assistance to Ukraine on Wednesday.

The Zelensky government has rejected the idea of peace talks with Russia and seeks a military victory with Western help instead. Moscow has argued that the US and its allies are using Ukrainians as “cannon fodder” in a proxy war against Russia.  https://www.rt.com/russia/584640-zelensky-aid-israel-nato/

October 12, 2023 Posted by | Ukraine, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Was the massacre in a Ukrainian village in fact a false-flag provocation by the Kiev regime?

More proof of a false-flag massacre at village funeral by Kiev regime

Strategic Culture Foundation, Tue, 10 Oct 2023  https://www.sott.net/article/485035-More-proof-of-a-false-flag-massacre-at-village-funeral-by-Kiev-regime

A massacre in a Ukrainian village last week that was roundly blamed on the Russian military in Western media reports has taken a new twist that further shows the incident was actually a false-flag provocation by the Kiev regime.

Western media last week reported that 52 people were killed when a cafe was allegedly hit by a Russian precision missile on Thursday, October 5. All Western media reports cited Ukrainian officials as their source for attributing blame on the Russian military firing an Iskander missile.

The cafe was crowded with families who had attended a funeral for a Ukrainian soldier.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, who was on the same day attending a summit in Granada, Spain, with European leaders, denounced the atrocity as “genocidal aggression” by Russia.

After widely reporting the slaughter in the village of Hroza in eastern Ukraine amid a torrent of condemnations of Russia, as usual, Western media have quickly shifted their focus onto other world events, primarily the eruption in violence between Israelis and Palestinians over the weekend.

However, a follow-up report by AP on the horror at Hroza inadvertently sheds more light on who actually fired the missile. There is good reason to suspect that the Kiev regime orchestrated the air strike as a false-flag propaganda stunt. In other words, the regime deliberately killed civilians in its own territory in a cynical effort to smear Russia.

The new twist is that the families of the victims are reportedly at a loss as to how Russian forces knew of the gathering of people for the dead soldier’s funeral. The village has no military bases or tactical value. It is situated nearly 30 kilometers from the frontline between Ukrainian and Russian troops in eastern Ukraine.

The follow-up AP report claims that local people suspect that an informer in the village might have given the coordinates of the funeral to the Russian military. But rather than making that deduction, a more plausible explanation for the deadly attack can be found in the acutely felt political needs of the Kiev regime.

The timing of the massacre on the same day that Zelensky was making a big pitch for more military aid from European NATO members strongly suggests that Kiev regime forces carried out the strike on Hroza village to give its president more emotive power in his set-piece appeal to European leaders.

There is precedent for such a vile act. As noted earlier, when U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Kiev last month on September 6 to deliver $1 billion in American weaponry, on the same day a missile strike killed 17 people in the town of Konstantinovka in eastern Ukraine.The town is under the control of the Ukrainian military. That atrocity was immediately blamed on Russia which Zelensky and Blinken vociferously condemned at the time. It turned out later, though, that the Armed Forces of Ukraine carried out the air strike in a seeming error, according to the New York Times.

It is argued by this author that the strike on Konstantinovka was not an error, but rather a deliberate act of killing Ukrainian civilians to smear Russia and to garner support for more American military aid.

The same modus operandi is believed to explain the massacre at the village of Hroza last week.

Bear in mind that the summit in Granada addressed by Zelensky where he cited the carnage at Hroza and suitably accused Russia of depraved terrorism was held at a crucial political moment concerning American and European financial support for the Kiev regime. The U.S. Congress has temporarily suspended billions of dollars for Ukraine and the pressure is on Europe to maintain the flow of money.

The highly emotive appeal by Zelensky in Granada appeared to bolster European military support with reports that same day of Spain pledging to supply more air-defense systems to Ukraine.

Returning to the latest AP report, it was said:

“Locals say it [Hroza village] is strictly a civilian area. There has never been any military base, whether Russian or Ukrainian. They said only civilians or family came to the funeral and wake, and residents were the only people who would have known where and when it was taking place.

“Dmytro Chubenko, spokesman for the regional prosecutor, said investigators are looking into whether someone from the area transmitted the cafe’s coordinates to the Russians — a betrayal to everyone now grieving in Hroza… Many share that suspicion, describing a strike timed to kill the maximum number of people. The date of the funeral was set a few weeks ago, and the time was shared throughout the village late last week.”

This version of events stretches credulity. Would a local village inhabitant go out of their way to tell the Russian military about a family funeral gathering? Would the Russian military go to the trouble of firing an Iskander precision missile at a civilian gathering 30 kms from its front line and also knowing that Western media would predictably vilify Russia for “barbarity”?

That explanation of an alleged informer and Russian depravity does not add up.

What does add up, rather, is the Kiev regime authorities knew that a funeral for one of their own soldiers was taking place on the same day that their president was making a big appeal for more weapons at a summit in Spain.

Zelensky needed a propaganda punch for his appeal and Western media obliged as usual to paint Russia as evil barbarians. #Ukraine

October 12, 2023 Posted by | secrets,lies and civil liberties, Ukraine | Leave a comment

How “Dumb Money” Nukes Boil & Bankrupt The Earth

So today’s real reactor battle is not over new ones, which essentially don’t exist.

It’s about the risks posed by the old ones, all of which lack comprehensive liability insurance.

Harvey Wasserman 10 Oct 23  https://www.downwithtyranny.com/post/how-dumb-money-nukes-boil-bankrupt-the-earth

No new U.S. reactors, big or small, fission or fusion will be built here within at least the next five years…more like ten. Those that try will do nothing but divert resources away from the Solartopian technologies needed to save the Earth.

They’ll also lose big money for their billionaire backers and the taxpayers who’ll be forced to bail them out.

There are now 93 large uninsured light-water reactors licensed for operation in the US. One more– Georgia’s Vogtle #4– may open within the next year or so.

All of them emit radioactive Carbon-14. They release additional greenhouse gasses through the process of mining, milling and enriching uranium-based fuel, as well as attempting to store it once it’s become radioactive waste.

All commercial reactors burn at ~570 degrees Fahrenheit, warming the planet on their own.

Meanwhile, there are zero such commercial nukes in the pipeline. None are under construction.

No credible observer– pro-nuke or no nuke– contends that any large new reactor could be ordered, built, licensed, insured and brought on line in the United States within the next decade or two… well beyond whatever window we might have to solve our worsening climate crisis.

The whole industry, which is inseparable from the nuclear weapons complex, was sold to the public on the premise that its electricity would come “too cheap to meter.”

But consider the last eight major reactor projects in the US and Europe:

Finland’s Olkiluoto3 opened last year, billions of Euros over budget and more than a decade behind its original 2009 promise date. Though brand new, it’s already been forced to scale back operations at least once due to a massive influx of far cheaper solar/wind/hydro-generated electricity.

France’s Flamanville remains under construction, also years late and billions over budget.

Two reactors at England’s Hinckley, again years late, have soared beyond E35 billion. Odds on them ever opening are up for grabs. Odds on them ever cost competing with wind or solar are less than zero.

Two huge reactors at VC Summer are stillborn. Their $9 billion in construction costs have stuck South Carolina with a dusty mausoleum that will never generate power.

After fifteen years, Georgia’s Vogtle #3 has finally gone critical. Unit #4 may open next year. Projected in 2008 at $14 billion, the pair together may yet exceed $40 billion. They’ll certainly be the last big light water reactors built in the U.S.

Together Summer and Vogtle bankrupted Westinghouse. The European projects have bankrupted Electricite de France.

Thus Wall Street’s unwillingness to fund big new nukes is likely to deepen.

So now we hear instead about “Small Modular Reactors.” With backing from the likes of Bill Gates and Oliver Stone, the idea of mass producing small, simple nukes claims major media fandom. The critiques of SMRs are widespread and varied.

But there’s no more hilarious proviso than one coming from the industry itself, in the form of a sort of disclaimer from NuScale in a recent announcement. The list of “warnings” resembles one we hear on the air for various prescription drugs, but stretches in length to resemble a documentary film, practically matching this article in length. Take a look by scrolling down to the section that begins “Forward Looking Statements.” You may want to settle in with a cup of coffee.

At this point, there are currently no proven SMR prototypes. Cost projections again recall that 1950s “too cheap to meter” lie told by Atomic Energy Commission Chair Lewis Strauss (the villain in the film Oppenheimer).

NuScale’s promised delivery date has already slipped from 2026 to 2029. Independent assessments put that well into the 2030s. The billions squandered on such projects divert capital that should otherwise fund renewables.

Likewise much-hyped thorium reactors, which remain untested, unproven, and of uncertain costs.

As for fusion, its operations would concentrate temperatures of 100 million degrees Fahrenheit on an increasingly fragile planet. And that despite decades of intense research, and gargantuan expenditures, its future availability, ecological impacts and financial costs remain naggingly uncertain.

Thus, in the vital window from now until decade’s end, no new nukes, large or small, fission or fusion, will be ready to tangibly replace the burning of fossil fuels. The once-beloved nuclear genie can’t cure global boiling. There’s simply no there there.

Which makes our current fleet of atomic elders even more dangerous. Thoroughly decayed reactors like California’s Diablo Canyon and Michigan’s Palisades soak up billions in public funds to keep operating. But they’ve yet to secure comprehensive liability insurance. At a current average age of more than forty (Diablo opened in 1985) they cost far more to operate than proven, readily available wind, solar, battery and efficiency technologies.

Diablo in particular is plagued by deadly flaws such as embrittlement, cracked pipes, seismic vulnerability, an aging workforce and much more.

So today’s real reactor battle is not over new ones, which essentially don’t exist.

It’s about the risks posed by the old ones, all of which lack comprehensive liability insurance.

And about how quickly we can bury at last the immensely powerful fossil fuel industry that threatens us all.

For that, the only clear solution comes with a fast-as-possible shift to safer, cleaner, cheaper truly green Solartopian renewables that actually do exist. That are constantly evolving.

They may not be too cheap to meter (except in rare cases, like nighttime wind power in west Texas).

But they comprise today’s last, best hope to cool our boiling Earth…while creating jobs and profit for those wise enough to see it now. #nuclear #antinuclear #NuclearFree #NoNukes

October 11, 2023 Posted by | climate change | 2 Comments

Scott Ritter: Are Hamas fighters using American weapons meant for Ukraine?

When it comes to arms supplies, the US is its friends’ worst enemy.

Rt.com 9 Oct 23 #Ukraine

Throughout recent history, the perceived weapon of choice for a terrorist (or freedom fighter, depending on one’s perspective) has been an AK-47 assault rifle. Today, in the aftermath of the so-called post-9/11 “global war on terror,” it’s not uncommon to see such fighters with a Glock 9mm pistol, or a Colt M4 carbine.

These are weapons paid-for by the US taxpayer and ostensibly provided to forces joined in the cause of defeating terrorists and/or freedom fighters (again, depending on the political beliefs of the observer), but that end up in the hands of the latter instead. Obviously, that is never the outcome Washington intends. And yet, somehow, these weapons end up arming the very forces the US and its allies are trying to defeat.

The most recent example of this phenomenon appears to involve Hamas and the attacks perpetrated by militants affiliated with that organization on military and civilian targets in southern Israel. A video, the authenticity of which has yet to be verified, purports to show a Hamas fighter thanking Ukraine for the provision of small arms, ammunition, and hand grenades. More videos, taken during the actual assaults, show the Hamas fighters armed with a plethora of US-made weapons.

These videos have alarmed some US lawmakers, such as Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia’s 14th District, who, in the immediate aftermath of the Hamas attack, Tweeted/Xeeted “We need to work with Israel to track serial numbers on any US weapons used by Hamas against Israel. Did they come from Afghanistan?” the Congresswoman asks. “Did they come from Ukraine? Highly likely the answer is both.”

Any attempt to answer Marjorie Taylor Greene’s questions will more than likely turn up information that should make the US government very uncomfortable. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been saying since June of this year that US-made anti-tank weapons intended for Ukraine were turning up on the Israeli border. Left unsaid by Netanyahu was how this had come to be – corruption is rampant inside Ukraine, and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh has reported on hundreds of millions of dollars of aid being diverted into the hands of parties it was not originally intended for. By my calculations based on conversations with numerous informed sources, the amount diverted could be as high as six out of every ten dollars of assistance sent to Ukraine. It’s one thing if this involves money; it’s another thing altogether if this involves weapons.

The wide availability of US-made weapons on the global black market used by terrorists/freedom fighters to arm themselves is reflective of the lax approach the US takes when it comes to providing military assistance to parties involved in active combat. The US appears to be more interested in reinforcing the political messaging attached to such deliveries–that the US is actively supporting friends in need. The actual security-related aspects of this effort, however, seem to escape most senior US policy makers.

This became evident in May 2022, when Rand Paul, a Republican Senator from Kentucky, tried to have an inspector general put in place to monitor and account for some $40 billion in military assistance to Ukraine requested by President Joe Biden. Senator Paul’s motion was overwhelmingly defeated by a Congress which appeared to be happy to assume a “hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil” posture when it came to the issue of Ukraine and corruption.

The issue of US weapons falling into the hands of persons not only for whom the weapons were not intended, but –more critically– into the hands of people the weapons were intended to fight against, who then use them against American allies, is not a new one………………………………………….

The reality is that the US has become one of the major sources of weapons for terrorists/freedom fighters around the world. While Marjorie Taylor Greene is correct to demand answers when it comes to the issue of the security of Israel, a long-time American ally, the same questions can be asked about virtually every security assistance program instituted by the US in the post-9/11 era. It appears that America’s approach to fighting the global war on terror has ended up making those whom it calls terrorists more capable of carrying out the acts of violence US policy portends to be trying to stop. The sad truth is that America, in its rush to arm the world, in many ways ends up being its friends’ worst enemy.  https://www.rt.com/news/584413-hamas-fighters-us-weapons/

October 11, 2023 Posted by | weapons and war | Leave a comment

Sunken Nuclear Submarine May Be Leaking Radiation Into The Ocean

The wreckage has been resting on the seabed for over 30 years, but is it now contaminating the surrounding water?

IFL Science, DR. RUSSELL MOUL 10 Oct 23

In April 7, 1989, a Russian nuclear submarine sank off the coast of Norway after a fire broke out on board as a result of a short circuit. At the time, the sub was carrying two nuclear torpedoes which it took with it to the cold depths of the Arctic Ocean. To this day, neither the vessel nor its weapons have been recovered and, unfortunately, it seems these artifacts from the Cold War have been leaking radioactive materials ever since.

A terrible accident

The Russian K-278 Komsomolets, as the submarine was called, was a nuclear-powered attack submarine that belonged to the Soviet navy. It was commissioned in 1983 and was one of the first submarines to have a titanium hull, which allowed it to dive to much greater depths than any of her competitors – the vessel could reach depths below 914 meters (3,000 feet). The K-278 was the only one of its kind to enter into service…………………………………………………………………………

What is the legacy?

For more than 30 years, K-278 and her nuclear torpedoes have rested at the bottom of the ocean in one of the richest fishing areas in the world. In that time, the seawater has slowly corroded the vessel’s hull and the casings surrounding its nuclear warheads, which have been leaking radioactive material into the surrounding ocean.

In 2019, researchers from Norway reported that some samples taken from the water at the K-278 wreckage site had about 800,000 times higher levels of radiation than what is normal for the Norwegian Sea. The samples of radioactive cesium (cesium-137) were collected from a ventilation shaft on the sunken vessel by a Norwegian remotely

…………………….. Whether the contamination is coming from the nuclear reactor or the torpedoes remains unknown. …………………………………………………………….  https://www.iflscience.com/sunken-nuclear-submarine-may-be-leaking-radiation-into-the-ocean-71037 #nuclear #antinuclear #NuclearFree #NoNukes

October 11, 2023 Posted by | oceans, Russia | Leave a comment

Regulators reject request to shutter nuclear reactor

The Journal Record, By: Associated Press//October 9, 2023

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Federal regulators have rejected a request from two environmental groups to immediately shut down one of two reactors at California’s last nuclear power plant.

Friends of the Earth and Mothers for Peace said in a petition filed last month with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that long-postponed tests needed to be conducted on critical machinery at the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, located midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. They argued the equipment could fail and cause a catastrophe.

In an order dated Tuesday, the NRC took no action on the request to immediately shut down the Unit 1 reactor and instead asked agency staff to review it.

……………. According to the groups, the last inspections on the vessel took place between 2003 and 2005. The utility postponed further testing in favor of using results from similar reactors to justify continued operations, they said.

The commission found there was no justification for a hearing.

The groups said in a statement that the decision showed “a complete lack of concern for the safety and security of the people living near” the plant, which started operating in the mid-1980s……………..

The petition marked the latest development in a long fight over the operation and safety of the seaside plant, which sits on a bluff above the Pacific Ocean. In August, a state judge rejected a lawsuit filed by Friends of the Earth that sought to block PG&E from seeking to extend the operating life of the plant.

PG&E agreed in 2016 to shutter the plant by 2025, but at the direction of the state changed course and now intends to seek a longer operating run for the twin reactors. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who once was a leading voice to close the plant, said last year that Diablo Canyon’s power is needed beyond 2025 to ward off possible blackouts as California transitions to solar and other renewable energy sources.  https://journalrecord.com/2023/10/09/regulators-reject-request-to-shutter-nuclear-reactor/

October 11, 2023 Posted by | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Past Time to End the Persecution of Julian Assange

SCHEERPOST, By Eve Ottenberg / CounterPunch 9 Oct 23

It’s long past time for the U.S. and U.K. to free Julian Assange. His flagrantly unjust incarceration is a global scandal, and the world is quite upset about it. Indeed, on September 19 at the United Nations, heads of state denounced this phony prosecution for the fraud and subterfuge it is – an assault on a free press, and an attack on Assange personally, for practicing journalism. For over four years, this publisher has been left to rot in a dungeon in Britain’s notorious maximum-security prison, Belmarsh. The reason? Well, they might not admit it, but U.S. sachems want him crushed for embarrassing them, by revealing the murderous criminality of the American military in Iraq and elsewhere.

Periodically, some world leader lets loose a geschrei of protest. “It is essential to preserve freedom of the press. A journalist like Julian Assange cannot be punished for informing society in a transparent and legitimate way,” railed Brazilian president Luis Inacio Lula da Silva to the assembled UN diplomats. Honduran president Xiomara Castro also denounced the official abuse of Assange. And on September 20, a delegation of Australian politicians brought a letter to Washington officials, demanding the U.S. drop its grotesque prosecution of Assange.

This is not the first time heads of state or other political bigwigs have urged American President Joe Biden to end Assange’s ordeal.  Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has twice written Biden, imploring him to release Assange and rightly fulminating over the damage done to a free press by his incarceration. In late 2022, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan leaders called for the publisher’s freedom. Colombian president Gustavo Petro vowed on social media to “ask President Biden…not to charge a journalist just for telling the truth.” Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese also petitioned the U.S. on his Canberra constituent, Assange’s behalf. So far Biden appears unmoved…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

The Espionage Act is an embarrassment and a disgrace to a free people. So are the charges against Julian Assange. Both the Act and the prosecution should be scrapped.

 https://scheerpost.com/2023/10/09/past-time-to-end-the-persecution-of-julian-assange/—

October 11, 2023 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Slovenian nuclear plant to stay closed until leak fixed.

Reuters, Tue, October 10, 2023 

SARAJEVO, – Expert teams at Slovenia’s only nuclear power plant Krsko (NEK), jointly owned by Slovenia and Croatia, have narrowed down the location of the leak which led to the plant’s shut down last week, the NEK said on Monday.

The leak occurred on the connection system of the primary circuit, NEK said on its web page, adding it will analyse the cause and draw up a plan to fix it.

“All this will require more time, probably several weeks; however, it is currently too early to assess the forecast for the power plant’s return to operation,” the company said.

Since Friday, the plant had been first placed under safe state of so-called hot-standby and then under so-called cold shutdown, which allowed the teams to determine the precise location of the leak that had been found in the primary system within the containment building, the company said…………………

NEK was built in cooperation with U.S. company Westinghouse Electric Corporation and started operating in 1982. In 2016 Slovenia and Croatia agreed to prolong its lifespan by 20 years until 2043. (Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Louise Heavens) https://finance.yahoo.com/news/slovenian-nuclear-plant-stay-closed-130321224.html #nuclear #antinuclear #NuclearFree #NoNukes

October 11, 2023 Posted by | EUROPE, safety | Leave a comment

Labour should follow Welsh government and commit to nuclear weapon prohibition, fringe meeting hears

Labour Party Conference 2023

Morning Star 9 Oct 23

LABOUR should follow the example of its government in Wales and commit to signing the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, Beth Winter told a packed CND fringe meeting today.

The Cynon Valley MP joined her colleague Bell Ribeiro-Addy in slamming the government’s warped priorities in committing to spend hundreds of billions on nuclear warheads at a time of soaring poverty.

The Senedd voted last year to back the UN treaty, with First Minister Mark Drakeford saying the world needed to get serious about disarmament…………… more https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/labour-should-follow-welsh-government-and-commit-to-nuclear-weapon-prohibition-fringe-meeting-hears #nuclear #antinuclear #NuclearFree #NoNukes

October 11, 2023 Posted by | politics, UK | Leave a comment

Judicial review will hear appeal against UK govt’s consent for Sizewell C nuclear

Together Against Sizewell C is delighted to announce that we now have the
date for our judicial review in the Court of Appeal, a two-day hearing has
been set for Wednesday 1st and Thursday 2nd November 2023.

This will give our legal team the opportunity to present TASC’s appeal against Justice
Holgate’s refusal in the High Court of our judicial review of then
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng’s decision to give development consent
to Sizewell C.

The unusually early date for the hearing is a result of
pressure from the government requesting the case be treated as a priority.
TASC continues to have the support of Suffolk Coastal Friends of the Earth
and Stop Sizewell C in this vitally important battle for the soul of the
Heritage Coast, however because of the short timeframe that has been forced
on us we have little time to raise the £25,000 needed to cover the costs
of our legal team for this appeal stage of the proceedings.

 Crowd Justice 8th Oct 2023 #nuclear #antinuclear #Nuclearfree #NoNukes

https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/save-suffolks-heritage-coast-w/

October 11, 2023 Posted by | legal, UK | Leave a comment

Motor fault, legal problems, future delays …. giant costly Vogtle nuclear project struggles on

Vogtle 4 start-up moved to 2024

World Nuclear News, 09 October 2023 #nuclear #anti-nuclear #nucler-free #NoNukes

The in-service date for the second AP1000 plant at the site near Waynesboro, Georgia, has been revised after a motor fault was discovered in a reactor coolant pump. Meanwhile, Georgia Power has agreed to pay the plant’s co-owner Oglethorpe Power Corporation USD308 million in settlement of an ongoing dispute.

The motor fault in one of the unit’s four reactor coolant pumps – or RCPs – was discovered during start-up and pre-operational testing, Georgia Power said in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)……………………………

Southern Nuclear believes that the motor fault on the RCP at Vogtle 4 is an isolated event, the companies said. The projected schedule for Vogtle 4 “primarily depends on the continued progression of pre-operational testing and start-up”, it added: “As testing continues, new challenges also may continue to be identified, which may result in required engineering changes or remediation related to plant systems, structures, or components (some of which are based on new technology that only within the last few years began initial operation in the global nuclear industry at this scale). These challenges may result in further schedule delays and/or cost increases.”

Dispute settled


In the same SEC filing, Georgia Power and its parent, Southern Company, announced the agreement with Oglethorpe Power to resolve a dispute regarding cost-sharing and tender provisions of the joint ownership agreements relating to Vogtle units 3 and 4. Georgia Power has agreed to make a payment of USD308 million to Oglethorpe for a portion of Oglethorpe’s previously incurred construction costs, as well as paying a portion of Oglethorpe’s further construction costs for the units – around USD105 million – based on the current capital cost forecast. It will also pay 66% of Oglethorpe’s costs of construction with respect to any amounts above the current project capital cost forecast. The parties have agreed to dismiss pending litigation on this issue, including counterclaims by Georgia Power.

Georgia Power resolved a similar dispute with another of the plant’s co-owners, the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia (MEAG Power) in September 2022. Similar litigation with the other co-owner, Dalton Utilities, is still pending.

Construction of the two Westinghouse AP1000s began in 2013. Unit 3 ………………… Plant Vogtle is jointly owned by Georgia Power (45.7%), Oglethorpe (30%), MEAG Power (22.7%) and Dalton Utilities (1.6%).

October 10, 2023 Posted by | business and costs, politics, USA | Leave a comment

Endless electricity and water use: the Artificial-Intelligence-Blockchain-Data Centre -Nuclear-NuScale nightmare to come

Blockchain biz goes nuclear: Standard Power wants to use NuScale reactors for DCs

Please, no crypto boom, thank you

The Register, Tobias Mann, Sun 8 Oct 2023 #nuclear #anti-nuclear #nucler-free #NoNukes

Colocation outfit Standard Power hopes to power two new datacenters in Ohio and Pennsylvania entirely by miniaturized nuclear reactors from NuScale.

Standard Power makes no secret it focuses on providing datacenter services to not just those into AI workloads and other kinds of high-performance computing but also those performing proof-of-work blockchain mining, the kind needed to craft digital tokens like Bitcoin. The significant energy requirements of this type of blockchain work spurred an investigation by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy last year, and calls by lawmakers to implement reporting and/or sustainability requirements for such operations.

Generally speaking, a datacenter packed with proof-of-work miners is going to demand a chunky amount of power. Concerned it may not get adequate electricity supplies for its new facilities, which by the sounds of it will support blockchain mining as well as other workloads, Standard Power said it hopes to take the nuclear option.

“We see a lot of legacy baseload grid capacity going offline with a lack of new sustainable baseload generation options on the market especially as power demand for artificial intelligence-computing and datacenters is growing,” Standard Power CEO Maxim Serezhin said in a statement.

And the colo outfit’s Ohio and Pennsylvania datacenters may need or get a lot of power. The company expects to deploy 24 of NuScale’s small modular reactors between the two sites. These reactors are reportedly capable of generating 77 megawatts apiece — putting the total deployed capacity at 1,848 megawatts.

Despite the announcement, it may be a few years before Standard Power can realize its nuclear dreams. As we learned in January, Idaho National Labs will be among the first to demonstrate NuScale’s reactors, and the first of these modules isn’t expected to come online until 2029. We asked Standard Power when it expects its facilities will be operational; we’ll let you know if we hear anything back…………………………………..

Standard Power is hardly the first datacenter operator to get excited about nuclear power, either. Cumulus Data opened a datacenter next to a nuclear plant — the full-size kind — in January and last month we learned that Microsoft is now hiring someone to potentially deploy SMR systems to power its growing cloud enterprise.  https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/08/standard_power_nuclear_datacenter/

October 10, 2023 Posted by | ENERGY, technology, USA | 1 Comment

14 October 12-2pm ET Join Us WARHEADS TO WINDMILLS – ONLINE FORUM

 https://www.nuclearban.us/join-us-warheads-to-windmills-online-forum-october-14th-12-2pm-et/

Abolishing Nuclear Weapons and Fossil Fuels: What will it take? #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclear-free #NoNukes

Following a webinar on May 7th which brought together leading organizations and activists working on the two crucially important issues of climate change and nuclear war, this forum will allow for more in depth discussion on how the climate and nuclear weapons movements can work together to save the planet from these existential threats before it is too late. Merging these into an inclusive mass movement in the transition to a greener economy is essential!

An online forum with speakers on climate solutions, nuclear solutions, and a panel on how we can help each other build a strong and inclusive movement. Followed by breakout rooms to share ideas on action.

Speakers and Schedule: all times listed in ET…………………………………………………………………

October 10, 2023 Posted by | opposition to nuclear | 1 Comment

All This Death Is The Fault Of The Western Press

The western press are largely to blame for all this. If they’d just told the truth instead of running “Palestinian child walks into bullet” headlines this whole time and telling everyone that boycotting Israel is genocide, political pressure could’ve long ago been brought about to force a peaceful and just resolution to this mess.

Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

CAITLIN JOHNSTONE, OCT 9, 2023

Israel is reportedly preparing a ground invasion of Gaza very soon in response to Saturday’s Hamas attack. We can expect things to get much, much bloodier from there.

Meanwhile the US has deployed an aircraft carrier strike group to the eastern Mediterranean in support of the coming Israeli military operations, on top of the additional military aid Biden has already pledged to Netanyahu. At the same time, The Wall Street Journal claims that the Hamas operation was coordinated with both Iran and Hezbollah. 

This war has the potential to expand in some very ugly directions in the coming weeks.

Whenever something like this happens warmongers always seize on the emotional frenzy of the moment to shove through insane acts of warmongering and scream vitriol at anyone who questions them. Then later when all the facts are in people slowly start to realize that something went very wrong, and that they were deceived.

After 9/11 anyone who didn’t support multiple full-scale ground invasions of sovereign nations was a terrorist sympathizer and a Saddam apologist. We were told Al Qaeda were evil, irrational actors who attacked because “they hate us for our freedom”, and we need to support a war on terror against any nation deemed threatening because all such monsters understand is violence. Now both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are regarded as colossal mistakes by anyone who’s honest.

When Russia invaded Ukraine anyone who wanted peace talks instead of a rapidly escalating proxy war between nuclear-armed nations was a Putin lover and a Kremlin shill. We were told Putin invaded solely because he is evil and hates freedom, and we need to support a war against him because all such monsters understand is violence. Now the counteroffensive failed, the US is having trouble getting proxy war funding through congress, and even the head of NATO acknowledges that this war was provoked by NATO expansion.

And now we’re facing another instance of intense emotional frenzy, and we’re being told that Hamas attacked Israel completely unprovoked for no other reason than because they are evil monsters who love killing Jews. We will be told to support any act of war deemed necessary, because all such monsters understand is violence.

Someday we’re going to have to stop falling for this tired old song and dance.

The western press are largely to blame for all this. If they’d just told the truth instead of running “Palestinian child walks into bullet” headlines this whole time and telling everyone that boycotting Israel is genocide, political pressure could’ve long ago been brought about to force a peaceful and just resolution to this mess.

If they’d just done their jobs and reported the facts to the public, there never would’ve been enough public consent for the US empire to back a brutal apartheid regime which cannot exist without nonstop violence, and peaceful resolutions would’ve become unavoidable.

Instead they hid all those abuses from the public for generations, creating an environment where peaceful resolutions are impossible and giving rise to Palestinian factions which understandably see violent force as the only viable answer.

This is their fault. They created this mess with a mountain of lies and obfuscation, and now those lies are being paid for with rivers of blood. The western press are war criminals. They’ve committed crimes against humanity…………………………………………………

It’s getting harder and harder to argue that the US-led world order brings more peace and stability to the world than the war and instability it causes. As more and more force is brought to bear against nations and groups who refuse to submit to Washington’s dictates, we’re seeing more and more conflict and chaos. Russia’s refusal to lie down before Washington resulted in the Ukraine war and all the nuclear brinkmanship that comes with it. Hamas, Hezbollah, Ansarallah, Syria and Iran refusing to prostrate themselves to the US power alliance results in constant violence in the middle east. As the imperial crosshairs move to Beijing we’re now faced with the terrifying prospect of a hot war with China.

At a certain point you have to ask, if the US-led world order requires more and more violence and nuclear brinkmanship to maintain, what specifically is the argument for maintaining it in the first place? Does it not at some point begin to cease looking like “order” at all, and instead like a tyrannical empire trying to rule the world no matter how much death and destruction is necessary to subjugate it?  https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/all-this-death-is-the-fault-of-the?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=137788966&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&utm_medium=email

October 10, 2023 Posted by | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

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