Nuclear and associated news -week to 8th July
Some bits of good news. Conservation and economic development go hand in hand, more often than expected. Peru has protected 6,449 hectares of an endemic fog oasis that hosts hundreds of rare and threatened species.
TOP STORIES
Trump has a strategic plan for the country: Gearing up for nuclear war.
How do you convince someone to live next to a nuclear waste site?
Nuclear power would put our energy security into Russian hands– ALSO AT https://nuclear-news.net/2024/07/05/1-a-nuclear-power-would-put-our-energy-security-into-russian-hands/
Climate. Climate hazards impact more than four-fifths of cities worldwide, study finds. How record-breaking Hurricane Beryl is a sign of a warming world.
Noel’s notes. Australia further in the grip of the USA, with the Amazon data spy hub – paid for by Aussie tax-payers. The world must stop creating nuclear garbage.
AUSTRALIA. Australians being kept in the dark about Pine Gap expansion. Australia to build ‘top-secret’ cloud for intelligence agencies in $2bn deal with Amazon. Political Mastermind: a toxic waste of everyone’s time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4HGJ42c2Kg With its nuclear energy policy, Peter Dutton seems to have forgotten the Liberal Party’s core beliefs. See more Australian news at Australian nuclear news headlines this week.
NUCLEAR ISSUES
| ATROCITIES. Israel Has Forcibly Displaced 1.9 Million Palestinians in Gaza. | CLIMATE. Can the climate survive the insatiable energy demands of the AI arms race? | ECONOMICS. French nuclear giant scraps SMR plans due to soaring costs, will start over. EDF’s Nuward U-turn shows risk of betting on Small Nuclear Reactors – analysts. Labour must act fast to fire up Rolls-Royce nuclear reactor deals.Too uncertain, too slow: funds rule out financing Australia’s Dutton nuclear plan. |
| EMPLOYMENT. Talent Shortage Threatens Europe’s Nuclear Renaissance. | EVENTS. 10 July Rally to oppose nuclear mega-dump and support Kebaowek First Nation – at noon in Ottawa https://www.stopnuclearwaste.com/ | LEGAL. Why Julian Assange couldn’t outrun the Espionage Act. | MEDIA. Book. Nuclear is Not the Solution. The Folly of Atomic Power in the Age of Climate Change. |
POLITICS.
- Now Keir Starmer Has to Decide If He’d Use Nukes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQO6rJsVNkw . Tory accused of exaggerating chances of new nuclear plant. SCOTTISH GREENS WILL OPPOSE ALL PLANS FOR NEW NUCLEAR ENERGY. Work to show UK nuclear ‘environmentally sustainable’ incomplete, 16 months after government announcement. ‘Letters of last resort’: deciding response to a nuclear attack among first of Starmer’s tasks.
- Trump Advisers Call for U.S. Nuclear Weapons Testing if He Is Elected. . Congressional group on nuclear arms sets July hearing for embattled missile program.
- Starmer’s role in Assange’s prosecution.
- Masoud Pezeshkian: Iranian reformer who wants to end Tehran’s nuclear stand-off.
- Public Vote on Nuclear Power Plant Sparks Debate in Kazakhstan.
| POLITICS INTERNATIONAL and DIPLOMACY.Europe is Quietly Debating a Nuclear Future Without the US.Trusting the ‘Five Eyes’ OnlyUkraine to be warned it’s ‘too corrupt’ for NATO .What does Iran’s Nuclear Policy look like with the new president? | SAFETY. Russia might restart the Zaporizhzhia Ukrainian nuclear plant it seized. | SECRETS and LIES. Former New Brunswick energy minister joins nuclear industry after resigning in June. Australian Opposition leader Dutton’s claim about G20 nuclear energy use doesn’t add up. |
| SPINBUSTER. The nuclear and renewable myths that mainstream media can’t be bothered challenging. The overblown hype of the nuclear “bros”. | TECHNOLOGY.The commissioning of the Flamanville EPR, nuclear reactor is proving difficult.Unable to effectively operate its lone existing nuclear reactor, New Brunswick is betting on advanced options ALSO AT https://nuclear-news.net/2024/07/04/1-b1-unable-to-effectively-operate-its-lone-existing-nuclear-reactor-new-brunswick-is-betting-on-advanced-options/World’s Largest Nuclear Fusion Reactor Delayed . ITER nuclear fusion reactor hit by massive decade-long delay and €5bn price hike. Fusion power could transform how we get our energy — and worsen problems it’s intended to solve.Constellation Energy plans restart of Three Mile Island nuclear plant. |
| WAR and CONFLICT. Ukrainian drones injure Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant workers, say Russian-backed officials.Tensions with Iran spotlight Israel’s hidden nuclear arsenal.The obsolescence of war. | WEAPONS and WEAPONS SALES.You Don’t Want to Live in America’s ‘Nuclear Sponge’ .NATO Members Agree To Give Ukraine $43 Billion in Military Aid for 2025. US announces more than $2 billion package for Ukraine.US nuclear missile program costs soar to around $160 billion, sources say. Trump allies are peddling a catastrophic idea for U.S. nuclear weapon policy.Philippines Says US Will Pull Out Controversial Mid-Range Missile System. |
Australia to build ‘top-secret’ cloud for intelligence agencies in $2bn deal with Amazon
Richard Marles unveils cloud plan including three new datacentres to house the most secretive and valuable information
Sarah Basford Canales, Thu 4 Jul 2024 https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/jul/04/australia-amazon-top-secret-cloud-deal-richard-marles
A “top-secret” cloud service will be built for Australia’s intelligence agencies to share information with one another by the decade’s end as part of a $2bn announcement with US technology giant Amazon.
The deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, said the investment would generate about 2,000 jobs and ensure Australia “maintains” pace with the world’s leading defence force while it increased its interoperability with US agencies.
“It will ensure that we have a far more resilient, capable, lethal, prominent and potent defence force for the future,” Marles said on Thursday.
The Australian Signals Directorate’s director general, Rachel Noble, said partnering with a private company meant intelligence agencies would have access to “the best staff the private sector has to offer in terms of technology capabilities, services, and tools”.
This included the newest developments in artificial technology, she said, branding its use to help collect and sift through massive amounts of data as “gamechanging”.
The security of the service would also be complemented by measures to prevent massive data leaks in the post-WikiLeaks era, she said.
“Access to top-secret data is really carefully managed at an individual level and we have very strong controls over what individuals are looking at within that top-secret environment,” she said.
“What they’re accessing, whether that’s related to the role that they have within the organisation and what they print, for example – those same controls will be in place when we launch.”
People involved with the building and operation of the project would be required to meet Australian security clearance requirements.
The technology was needed to address the complex strategic circumstances facing the nation, Marles said.
“Modern defence forces and indeed modern conflict is more reliant upon information technology, upon computing infrastructure, than ever before.
“In turn, what that means is that increasingly modern conflict is occurring at a top-secret level.
“So this capability in terms of computing infrastructure will ensure that Australia may maintain at pace with the leading defence forces in the world.”
What data would be uploaded to the cloud was still to be determined.
Amazon Web Services would not comment on what similar technologies it contracts to other countries and whether any adversarial countries had access to the same intel or infrastructure.
Control of the top-secret datacentres built in Australia “will remain exclusively the purview of the commonwealth”, Noble said.
The Atlas Network’s transnational revolution
By Lucy HamiltonJul 8, 2024 https://johnmenadue.com/the-atlas-networks-transnational-revolution/
Twice in a fortnight, the president of the Heritage Foundation has declared that America is experiencing its second revolution. The revolution would remain bloodless (because their side is “winning”) “if the left allows it to be.” The two bodies whose acts provoked the announcements are leading Atlas Network partners. They are also spending millions of dollars in Europe to roll back rights for women and LGBTQIA people.
Both president Kevin Roberts’ announcements were made on Steve Bannon’s War Room broadcast, central to the Trumpist movement and its efforts to remake America from every school board and electoral precinct upwards.
The first announcement of revolution was made on the 22nd June. It functioned as an advertisement for the MAGA(Make America Great Again) audience to take part. Becoming a revolutionary involves undertaking Project 2025’s recruitment and training of loyalists to staff the incoming Trump administration, but also at state and local government levels. Roberts declared they were building not just for 2025, but for the next century in the United States.
Project 2025 is the most recent iteration of Heritage’s Mandate for Leadership. The first was written for Ronald Reagan, spelling out his massive reforms. He implemented two thirds in his first term. The last iteration for Donald Trump’s first term was similarly “business Republican” in tone, and Trump too implemented two thirds in his first year. The newest iteration is, as Roberts describes, revolutionary. It dictates the process for the dismantling most of the federal government as well as setting America on track to eliminate reproductive and Queer rights.
It also sets out the intention to dismantle the vital energy transition work underway as a result of the Inflation Reduction Act, with plans to boost fossil fuel production instead. This is fitting as much of Heritage’s funding comes from fossil fuel sources.
Project 2025 is a joint Atlas Network and Council for National Policy project.
The second announcement of revolution was made after the Supreme Court’s dramatic week of judgements. In particular, the one that granted the President of the United States immunity for the vaguely worded field of “official acts.” Naturally the partisan court will make the determination which acts are “official.”
The week also compounded the Trumpist Supreme Court’s norm-violating series of decisions that have rolled back reproductive healthcare access for women across Republican states, further damaged voters’ representation, and frozen programs that aim to address entrenched disadvantage.
In one week, the Court placed itself above the experts in government agencies who define, for example, how much mercury is unsafe to consume. While the relevant judge confused nitrous oxide and nitrogen oxide, he dared to claim that judges were better placed than government experts to determine the minutiae of America’s functioning. This attack on the administrative state’s ability to protect the public from corporate recklessness and malfeasance was a triumph for capital. The court also damaged the SEC’s ability to deal with White Collar crime.
Such gifts to the wealthy were balanced with another judgement that decided a gratuity given after a favour was received would not be determined an illegal bribe. For a court riddled with scandal over oligarch largesse, this was a particularly cynical decision.
As a footnote, the same week revealed a decision that said regions could make it illegal to be homeless. This can provide numbers for private prison operator profits. There prisoners are hired out to businesses for near slave-labour wages.
All these decisions have resulted from the years of work by the Federalist Society which handed Trump his literal list from which to choose judges. Republicans had stalled appointments to federal benches over the Obama era, granting Trump the gift of hundreds of appointments; some appointees were considered scandalous.
The years of surreptitious work by the Federalist Society and its leader Leonard Leo have been documented by Pro Publica. The body made headlines when it was gifted $1.6 billion by a single donor.
Both Heritage and the Federalist Society are Atlas Network partners. They are also Council for National Policy (CNP) members: that’s the interlinked body that has been driving the Christian Nationalist takeover of America.
Dr Jeremy Walker explained the process by which the Atlas Network architecture of influence operates in the lead-up to the Voice referendum in 2023.
Investigative journalist Jane Mayer revealed its American operations in Dark Money, using the label “Kochtopus” after Charles and David Koch, preeminent funders of the network. Historian Nancy MacLean documented its longer history in Democracy in Chains.
With around 500 partner organisations in roughly 100 countries its global operations remain less obvious because the system is intentionally covert.
The central “think” tanks foster the replication of more such bodies, providing seed funding if necessary and training in fundraising and public relations strategies to help the local offshoots become independent. They network. The primary function is to sell the donors’ messages by advertising them constantly: in 1985, Heritage founder Ed Feulner told Australian operatives to treat campaigns as if they were for a toothpaste brand that needed constant reinforcing. The messages: low tax, minimal regulation, small government, dismantling of social safety nets. Together the junktanks, as journalist George Monbiot has labelled them, create a chorus of voices from university centres and civil society bodies reinforcing the wishlist.
While the focus has primarily been on these “business Republican goals,” junktanks have their own remit. Conservative social messaging about the family has been partly used to conceal the lack of ethics in the libertarian mission. It has partly functioned to encourage family and church networks to mitigate the damage done to communities and individuals by the slashing of safety nets. There has also remained a more socially conservative and religious array of junktanks within the network.
The more toxic “family values” groups tend to be interconnected with Atlas rather than Atlas partners themselves. Trump appointee Betsy DeVos, for example, links the two. She has been chair and on the board of two Atlas partners: the American Federation for Children that aims to replace the public school system with privatised charter schools and the Acton Institute for the study of Religion and Liberty which educates business leaders and academics in “the connection that can exist between virtue and economic thinking.” Both Prince and DeVos families are substantial donors to the anti-LGBTQIA group Focus on Family. Focus is part of the CNP, a Christian Nationalist network that includes the Charles Koch and the Prince and DeVos families as donors, not to mention Mike Pence and Steve Bannon as key figures.
Both the extremist Christians and the libertarians are close to achieving their goals in America. Apart from the impact the implosion of the United States government and civil rights framework will have on the rest of the world, this is relevant because the very global nature of Atlas means that its outposts are trying to replicate its work outside the American homeland.
The European Parliament conducted a study affirming reporting that $280 million dollars have been funnelled into the EU over the last decade by Atlas and CNP partners as well as by Evangelical mission programs. Heritage and Federalist stand alongside the Cato Institute, the Leadership Institute and Acton as having donated roughly $20 million towards European groups fighting to repeal reproductive healthcare rights and LGBTQIA rights. Another American body, the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) has also been training European groups in strategy in cooperation with Bruce Eberle a “visiting professor” at the Leadership Institute. The Koch, DeVos and Prince families are named as major sources of the money.
(These donations are overshadowed in scale by those from European and Russian sources.)
Australia’s Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) mostly leaves the culture war battles on gender and religious virtues to the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) and their media ally, News Corp. This year’s CIS Consilium event where the Atlas pipeliners intermingle with local and international talking heads is running adjacent to the inaugural conference of the Australian Chapter of the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship. The London original was a religio-ethnonationalist event. The consecutive timing is convenient for international guests to attend both.
The rest of us must remain focused on the fact that these networks operate transnationally. They share talking points, strategies, individuals and sometimes money. The revolution that Kevin Roberts has declared they are winning in the US is to be reenacted, piecemeal, for all of us.
Without a massive grid upgrade, the Coalition’s nuclear plan faces a high-voltage hurdle
The Conversation, Asma Aziz, Senior Lecturer in Power Engineering, Edith Cowan University, 8 July 24
Keeping the lights on in Australia is a complex task. Enough capacity must be ensured everywhere in the country, at every moment. Surplus in one location won’t solve shortages in another, unless we have the transmission infrastructure to transmit electricity between them.
The transmission network largely consists of high-voltage lines and towers, as well as transformers which transfer electrical energy from one circuit to another.
Australia’s transmission network is one of the oldest and longest in the world. As coal stations close and more renewable energy is built, the task of upgrading the system becomes even more pressing. So formidable is the challenge, it’s one of the biggest roadblocks Australia faces in reaching its crucial goal of net-zero emissions by 2050.
The Coalition’s plan for seven nuclear energy plants in Australia further complicates the task. A clear policy direction for Australia’s electricity system is urgently needed………………………………………………………………………………………………………
So far this decade, 490 kilometres of new transmission lines have reportedly been added to the National Electricity Market, which serves the east coast and South Australia. A further 2,090 km of transmission lines are progressing from the planning phase to the construction phase.
There’s still a lot of work to do: around 10,000 km of new transmission lines is needed by 2050. Western Australia’s main electricity network also needs more than 4,000 km of new high-capacity transmission lines.
Transmission congestion in Australia is a looming problem. For example, South Australian transmission company ElectraNet forecasts rising congestion on that state’s network due to planned expansions of electricity generators, peaking in the late 2020s and 2030s.
What’s more, planning studies have identified ageing assets in Queensland’s transmission network, requiring new routes to manage constraints and ensure reliable supply.
Where does nuclear fit in?
All this has implications for the Coalition’s nuclear plan, if it comes to fruition.
The CSIRO and others say a nuclear power plant of any size would not be operational in Australia until after 2040.
If transmission lines are congested at that future point, nuclear power plants may not be able to send all their electricity to the grid.
Nuclear plants are expensive to build and run. But they typically generate electricity continuously, helping to offset these costs. If the plants can’t feed into the grid, or can’t sell their electricity at competitive prices, they may lose revenue and struggle to cover their costs, affecting their long-term viability.
The continuous high output of nuclear plants also helps them run efficiently. Frequently adjusting energy output leads to more wear, lower efficiency and reduced energy production over time.
Constraining nuclear output can have broader repercussions, too. In France, for instance, nuclear output is at a 30-year low, forcing the country to import electricity and prepare for potential blackouts. The reactors are offline for maintenance, not due to transmission issues. But the example highlights the consequences when nuclear energy is taken out of the mix for any reason. https://theconversation.com/without-a-massive-grid-upgrade-the-coalitions-nuclear-plan-faces-a-high-voltage-hurdle-233458?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=bylinetwitterbutton
Dutton’s claim about G20 nuclear energy use doesn’t add up
William Summers , July 5, 2024, https://www.aap.com.au/factcheck/duttons-claim-about-g20-nuclear-energy-use-doesnt-add-up/
WHAT WAS CLAIMED
Australia is the only G20 nation that doesn’t use nuclear power.
OUR VERDICT
Misleading. Five other G20 nations don’t generate nuclear power, and two of those don’t use it.
AAP FACTCHECK – Federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton claims Australia is the only country not to use nuclear energy out of the world’s 20 largest economies.
This is misleading. Five other nations in the top 20 – Germany, Italy, Turkiye, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia – do not generate nuclear energy.
Germany, Italy and Turkiye import very small amounts of electricity generated from nuclear sources, but Indonesia and Saudi Arabia don’t consume any nuclear power.
Australia is the only top 20 economy that doesn’t generate, import or have a plan to do so.
Mr Dutton has made the claim at least four times in interviews about the coalition’s plan to build seven nuclear power stations in Australia without clarifying that he’s counting countries planning to use nuclear power among those that are actually using it.
Mr Dutton said nuclear power was “used by 19 of the 20 biggest economies in the world” at a June 18 press conference in NSW.
He again claimed that of the top 20 economies in the world, “Australia is the only one that doesn’t have nuclear” in a June 20 interview on Sky News.
That same day, the opposition leader spoke out about how Australia could benefit from nuclear power “as 19 of the world’s top 20 economies have done” in an ABC News Breakfast interview.
Mr Dutton again said Australia was the only one of the 20 biggest economies that “doesn’t operate” nuclear at a press conference on July 5.
When asked to clarify his claims, the opposition leader’s spokeswoman told AAP FactCheck that he’s counting countries that have nuclear power and those “taking steps towards embracing nuclear”.
Mr Dutton accurately stated 19 of the world’s 20 biggest economies used nuclear power or “have signed up to it” in another press conference on June 19, and a Today Show interview on June 21.
He also said Australia was the only G20 member that didn’t use or plan to use nuclear power in an ABC TV interview on April 21.
The G20 is a global forum for countries with large economies. Despite its name, the G20 includes only 19 nations, plus the African Union and the European Union. Spain is invited to the G20 as a permanent guest.
It’s unclear if Mr Dutton is referring to the G20 countries plus Spain, or the 20 largest nations by gross domestic product, as he’s used both interchangeably.
However, AAP FactCheck has analysed the former because the nations that don’t generate nuclear power and the nations that only import small amounts of it are exactly the same for both groupings, as per World Bank 2023 GDP data.
Fourteen G20 countries operate nuclear power plants: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, France, India, Japan, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, the UK and the US.
Three G20 nations that don’t generate nuclear power but import small amounts are Germany, Italy and Turkiye.
Germany shut down its final three reactors in April 2023. That year, about 0.5 per cent of the electricity consumed there was imported from France, which generates about two-thirds of its electricity from nuclear sources.
Italy closed its last reactors in 1990. About six per cent of its electricity consumption is imported nuclear power.
The country effectively banned nuclear power in 2011, but the current government wants to restart it.
Turkiye is building a plant that could start generating electricity from 2025. The country is also planning to build two other nuclear plants.
In 2022, the country imported a tiny amount of the electricity it consumed, including 0.8 per cent from Bulgaria, which generates about 35 per cent of its electricity from nuclear sources.
Therefore, a fraction of Turkiye’s electricity consumption could be produced from nuclear – likely less than half a per cent.
Saudi Arabia doesn’t use any nuclear energy either but it’s taking steps towards doing so in future.
Indonesia doesn’t have any nuclear reactors but has tentative plans to build some in the coming decades.
Dr Yogi Sugiawan, a policy analyst at the Indonesian government agency responsible for developing nuclear energy policies and plans, told AAP FactCheck that his country doesn’t generate or import nuclear energy.
However, Dr Sugiawan says Indonesia’s government is considering nuclear power, with an initial plant “expected to be commissioned before 2040”.
THE VERDICT
The claim that Australia is the only G20 nation that doesn’t use nuclear power is misleading.
Evidence and experts say six G20 countries do not generate any nuclear energy, and three of those don’t consume it either.
Misleading – The claim is accurate in parts but information has also been presented incorrectly, out of context or omitted.
AAP FactCheck is an accredited member of the International Fact-Checking Network. To keep up with our latest fact checks, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Australians being kept in the dark about Pine Gap expansion
Mark Robinson, June 18, 2024, https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/australians-being-kept-dark-about-pine-gap-expansion—
A massive expansion program at the United States base at Pine Gap has been hidden from the public according to a new investigation in the June 15 Saturday Paper.
Peter Cronau revealed that over the last few years the secretive base has been expanded to now include 10 new satellite, or antennae, dishes.
The work involved clearing 14 hectares of land to accommodate three new radomes. None of the work was announced, or required any normal approval process.
“The lack of transparency surrounding this work is unacceptable,” said Dr Alison Broinowski, spokesperson for Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR).
“Cronau’s investigation makes clear that the community was not informed, nor consulted in any way, about the expanded footprint at Pine Gap.”
According to Cronau: “No announcement was made to the Australian population, no permission sought from parliament, no development application to the regional council for the works.”
“Australians expect sensitive decisions such as these to be made in an open and accountable way, including a discussion in parliament but this report shows the parliament has been side-lined again,” said Broinowski.
“Instead, we discover what is happening via the media who had to access satellite imagery in order to keep the public informed.”
Reports in recent months suggest that Pine Gap is playing a role in the military onslaught in Gaza, which millions of Australians would disagree with.
Cronau’s investigation highlights Pine Gape’s role in the US nuclear weapons program, and how the base would be used in the event of a war between big powers.
“The community and the parliament have never been asked if we want to be involved in this process yet these facilities are being expanded without due process. This should concern everyone,” Broinowski said.
“Without full transparency about Pine Gap and other military bases Australia could easily be dragged into another foreign war before we know it. In fact, we may already be involved in existing conflicts via these bases and because of increasing military interoperability with the US.”
She said Cronau’s investigation “highlights the urgent need for war powers reform”.
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 