Albanese’s nuclear submarine plans in disarray as he visits USA in the midst of a Republican Congressmen’s brawl
Congressional brawl threatens to overshadow Anthony Albanese’s US trip
The Age David Crowe. October 20, 2023
A political brawl in the United States is hurting Australian plans to persuade legislators to support the AUKUS pact on nuclear-powered submarines by casting doubt over whether Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will be able to meet senior Congressional leaders next week.
Albanese is due to fly to Washington DC on Sunday to hold talks with US President Joe Biden on the alliance and broader security issues as well as attending a state dinner at the White House on Wednesday night, the first for an Australian leader in four years.
The agenda for the state visit includes stronger cooperation on climate change, critical mineral supplies as well as the sharing of nuclear secrets for the AUKUS plan, which needs Congress to approve changes to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, or ITAR, to allow the export of US knowledge and technology.
But the upheaval in the US capital, with the Republicans in disarray over whether Jim Jordan of Ohio should become Speaker of the House of Representatives, means there is no authority to approve an address to Congress and limited time for Albanese to meet top leaders…………..
Albanese is seeking meetings with Congressional leaders and the Australian ambassador to the US, Kevin Rudd, is planning a formal opening of the new embassy on Scott Circle, with guests including political and corporate leaders, and a business delegation from Australia.
While former prime minister John Howard addressed a joint sitting of Congress in 2005 and Julia Gillard did the same in 2011, a similar event appears unlikely for Albanese given the challenges with the Republican leadership…………………………………………………………………………..
Albanese is also due to meet Biden in the Oval Office and join the president in a meeting with cabinet secretaries at the White House, as well as meeting Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the State Department. https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/congressional-brawl-threatens-to-overshadow-anthony-albanese-s-us-trip-20231020-p5eds1.html
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Antipodean Nuclear Free Zones: Testing Times for Antarctica and the South Pacific
October 19, 2023 https://nonproliferation.org/antipodean-nuclear-free-zones-testing-times-for-antarctica-and-the-south-pacific/
Australia and New Zealand have historically promoted strong anti-nuclear policies at both a global, regional, and sub-regional level. They joined with the United States and the other original parties to the 1959 Antarctic Treaty to make Antarctica nuclear free.
Both countries also took France to the International Court of Justice in 1973 in order to bring about a halt to France’s nuclear testing program in the South Pacific, and actively promoted the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone in the 1985 Treaty of Rarotonga.
However, in 2021 Australia along with the UK and US announced the AUKUS initiative, which in March 2023 was finalized in San Diego. Australia will eventually acquire AUKUS nuclear-powered submarines during the 2030s.
This has placed a spotlight on Australia’s anti-nuclear credentials and its international law commitments and has attracted criticism from within the Asia Pacific, including from New Zealand, Pacific island states, and China. This seminar considers these issues through the lens of international law.
VIDEO – on original
Chapters:
00:00:00 Moderator: Avner Cohen, Professor, Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies, Middlebury Institute of International Studies
00:01:44 Speaker: Donald R. Rothwell, Professor of International Law, ANU College of Law, Australian National University
00:57:07 Q&A
Australia needs ‘drastic’ renewables boost as nuclear not an option for decades, says centre-right thinktank
Blueprint Institute says nuclear ban should be lifted, but disagrees with Coalition opposition to green energy rollout
Guardian Adam Morton, 20 oct 23
A centre-right thinktank is calling for “drastically accelerated deployment” of renewable energy, batteries and electricity transmission infrastructure and acknowledged there is no prospect of nuclear energy playing a role in Australia before 2040.
The report by the Blueprint Institute, not yet released but seen in draft form by Guardian Australia, says the ban on nuclear energy should be repealed and argues small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) could play a “small but vital role” in minimising costs in reaching net zero emissions in the power grid by 2050.
The report, due to be published soon, is set to land during a polarised debate about the future of energy and the pace of decarbonisation.
The Coalition and parts of the media have attacked the Albanese government’s renewable energy policy and have called for the rollout to be slowed, a position at odds with scientific warnings that emissions cuts need to accelerate. The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has suggested SMRs could be built on the site of old coal plants.
The Blueprint Institute report says reaching the government’s target of 82% renewable energy by 2030 will be a major challenge, but does not provide support for those challenging the goal. It says the country has “no choice, at least in the short-term”, but to “double down on renewable energy” and proven “firming” technology to avoid “calamitous blackouts” as old coal plants close.
“This means a drastically accelerated deployment of batteries, solar, onshore wind, pumped hydro, and gas, along with a corresponding build out of transmission infrastructure,” the report says.
The report says the potential role of nuclear energy in Australia is “strictly limited to a decade or more from now – specifically, from 2040”……………………………….
Bruce Mountain, director of the Victoria Energy Policy Centre, said the report’s findings had “no great policy weight” because it was impossible to accurately predict the cost of cutting emissions from the grid in the long-term given technological change was happening so rapidly…………………..
He said nuclear energy was not well suited to playing a minor role in a grid already overwhelmingly running on renewable energy, and its introduction would be “likely to require the abandonment of a good deal of already existing renewable generation”………………….. more https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/oct/19/australia-needs-drastic-renewables-boost-as-nuclear-not-an-option-for-decades-says-centre-right-thinktank
NTI Releases New Paper on Global Effects of Nuclear Conflict: Implications for Nuclear Policymaking, Then and Now
Forty years ago, findings on the global climatic effects of nuclear war first introduced the prospect of “nuclear winter.” In the decades since, the consequences of nuclear use have remained only incidental to considerations of nuclear policy. A new paper from NTI, “Global Effects of Nuclear Conflict: Implications for Nuclear Policymaking, Then and Now,” highlights the need for renewed attention to the catastrophic effects of nuclear conflict as a crucial step toward reducing the risk of nuclear use.
The paper provides historical context and describes how the scientific revelation of “nuclear winter” was first received by the U.S. defense community in the 1980s. It sheds light on the debate that emerged over how U.S. nuclear policy should account for the implications of the global effects of nuclear use, as many of the questions posed then are even more important to consider in the context of today’s interconnected and economically interdependent world. The complexity of modern global systems creates new vulnerabilities and introduces risks of cascading societal, economic, industrial, and political failures that countries are dangerously unprepared to address.
Both a reflective analysis and a forward-looking call for renewed investigation into and consideration of the global effects of nuclear conflict, the paper outlines several critical questions for experts and policymakers to confront, including:
- How does the recognition of global nuclear effects change the role and perceived utility of nuclear weapons in national security strategies?
- How should the cascading effects of nuclear war shape nuclear planning?
- Why has research into cascading nuclear effects been neglected in nuclear policy discussions?
Without answers to these important questions, nuclear weapons policy will continue to be premised on an incomplete understanding of the consequences of nuclear use, risking catastrophic miscalculations and endangering national and global security.
Biden to America: “Give me $100 billion for perpetual wars in Ukraine and Gaza”
Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL 20 Oct 23
Last night President Biden doubled, tripled, quadrupled down on squandering US treasure on US provoked, enabled and perpetuated warfare. A piece of that cool hundred billion goes to Taiwan in furtherance of America’s potential nuclear confrontation with China in an area having not the slightest connection to American security interests. Combined with potential nuclear war with Russia that could erupt any day, Biden reminds me of a Samsonite strongman struggling to pull down the pillars of human existence.
But that hundred billion is D.O.A. as long as House Republicans continue their circular firing squad preventing any significant action in Congress on funding those perpetual wars Biden relishes with every second of his dwindling time in power. Keep fighting amongst yourselves Republicans, you’re gumming up the perpetual war works.
In his 51st year promoting US exceptionalism worldwide which is collapsing before our eyes, Biden remains blind to the horrific death toll his policies have promoted and enabled. Apparently, there will be no Biden epiphany inspiring him to pivot toward peace. Instead of going out in a blaze of glory, Biden risks us all going out in a blaze of mushroom clouds.
Only thing more frightening? There is no one remotely in contention for president likely to change Biden’s self-destructive war policies. #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
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