An important week in nuclear news
An eventful week coming up. And from the point of view of nuclear issues, a good week!
On 22nd January the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons will come into force. Yes, nuclear weapons will still be there, but no longer respectable, acceptable, and no longer an attractive investment option. The humanitarian cause for ending nuclear weaponry is made clear and legal.
This week is good news, too, for the immediately more pressing problems, coronavirus and climate. The inauguration of President Joe Biden on 20th January means that the American government will suddenly take the pandemic seriously and take action. Equally important, it will take action on climate change, and will rejoin the world in the Paris climate treaty.
The new administration under Biden will not play nuclear war brinkmanship, as Donald Trump did – (remember ”fire and fury”). There is hope for some rational negotiations internationally on arms control.
However, as Obama was, Biden will be firmly in the grip of the nuclear lobby. You don’t get to be President of the United States unless you have the backing of the nuclear industry.
Some other bits of good news – Stories of change from children in the Asia-Pacific .
AUSTRALIA.
How will Entry Into Force of the Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty impact non weapons states parties, including Australia?
Why did ANSTO shut down National Medical Cyclotron, that made medical isotopes without nuclear waste? ANSTO gets a blank cheque for its nuclear waste production at Lucas Heights? Because ANSTO shut down cyclotron, Australia has the problem of importing a short-lived medical isotope.
Australia’s environmental scientists intimidated, silenced by threats of job loss.
INTERNATIONAL
Catholics welcome Treaty on Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons coming into force.
Global nuclear policy is stuck in colonialist thinking. The weapons ban treaty offers a way out.
Scientists must tell the truth on our consumerist, ecology-killing Ponzi culture.
Nuclear power, too inflexible, is in conflict with sustainable development goals.
Investigative journalism – ‘Mini-Nukes, Big Bucks: The Interests Behind the SMR Push.
Hydrogen from wind and solar systems could be the ultimate solution to the planet’s pollution problem..
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1.This month
For international nuclear news go to https://nuclear-news.net
26 Feb – 24 April The Image is not Nothing (Concrete Archives) is a group exhibition that explores the ways in which acts of nuclear trauma, Indigenous genocide and cultural erasure have been memorialised by artists and others. It comes as the result of research by curators Lisa Radford and Yhonnie Scarce whose fieldwork has encompassed sites of significance including Auschwitz, Chernobyl, Fukushima, Hiroshima, Maralinga, New York, Wounded Knee and former Yugoslavia.
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Submissions to the Senate Committee Inquiry into National Radioactive Management Amendment Bill. 2020. Go to our summaries of significant submissions, conveniently listed in alphabetical order at Kimba waste dump submissions or see all submissions listed at Read the Submissions
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