Antinuclear

Australian news, and some related international items

It Takes Years To Refuel A Nuclear Submarine – Here’s Why

By Chris Smith , BGR 10th March 2026

You probably charge your phone daily, while your car needs gas or a battery top-up every few days. But you don’t have to take the device or vehicle apart when you connect it to power or fill up the tank. Refueling a nuclear submarine, on the other hand, is a complicated process that takes years, just like refueling a nuclear aircraft carrier………………………

The ERO process is slow because it’s designed that way for safety reasons. The nuclear submarine has to be brought into a facility that’s capable of handling nuclear material throughout the replacement process, to ensure the safety of everyone involved in the repairs and the sailors who will crew the ship once the refueling process is done. The nuclear core remains radioactive during refueling, so radiation must be contained and the nuclear waste must be stored securely.

The submarine is brought to a dry dock for the ERO process, where engineers go through a rigorous procedure to defuel the ship and refuel it. The reactors are shut down and cooled before removing the old reactor core and installing its replacement. The actual removal of the spent core involves cutting through the submarine’s hull with hand tools, as the reactors aren’t easily accessible. These operations are performed under strict ventilation and filtration protocols to prevent radiation contamination. The old core is transported off-site for secure storage, as the nuclear material remains active. The new core is installed, and then the reactor is reassembled and the submarine is resealed. These procedures require precision and numerous inspections, as there’s no room for error. The structural integrity of the hull is key for allowing the submarine to operate at depth.

……………………………………… How much does refueling a submarine cost?

Like nuclear aircraft carriers, nuclear-powered surface ships undergo extensive RCOH processes — and they’re not cheap or quick. For example, it cost $2.8 billion to refuel and retrofit the USS George Washington aircraft carrier, and the process took even longer than anticipated. In May 2023, the U.S. Navy announced that the George Washington completed its RCOH process after 69 months

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https://www.bgr.com/2117046/why-nuclear-submarine-takes-years-to-refuel/

April 6, 2026 Posted by | weapons and war | Leave a comment

Groomed, captured, deployed. How the Israel lobby runs New South Wales Premier Chris Minns

by Andrew Brown | Mar 27, 2026, https://michaelwest.com.au/groomed-captured-deployed-how-the-israel-lobby-runs-chris-minns/

Police brutality, intimidation, harassment, free speech attacked. NSW Premier Chris Minns was groomed for Israel, writes Andrew Brown.

Chris Minns did not arrive at this moment by accident. He was built for it.

In 2003, before he held any significant office, Minns was selected for the AIJAC Rambam Israel Fellowship – an all-expenses-paid program with one purpose: take promising Australian political figures to Israel, immerse them, and bind them.

“Not bribe them. Bind them.“

Build the kind of loyalty that doesn’t need instructions because it has already become instinct.

It worked.

By the time Minns reached the premiership, leading pro-Israel organisations were publicly hailing him as a “strong friend.” Not a sympathiser. Not a useful contact. A reliable asset – a politician whose instincts they had watched develop over two decades and had learned to trust completely.

A great investment

Israeli President Isaac Herzog praised him by name for his leadership and support – a foreign head of state openly thanking an Australian Premier for services rendered. Millions in public money flowed to the Sydney Jewish Museum. Appearances at Yom Ha’atzmaut celebrations.

The relationship was not hidden. It was celebrated. Because when the investment matures completely, there is nothing to hide.

When October 7 arrived, the lobby didn’t need to call him. He already knew what to do.

“The Israeli flag went up on the Opera House.”

Protesters who objected were told by the Premier they would not be allowed to “commandeer Sydney streets” – the language of seizure applied to citizens walking through a public space to express a political opinion.


NSW Police launched Operation Shelter within days, framed as community safety and deployed in practice almost exclusively against Palestine solidarity demonstrations.

Riot squads flooded the Town Hall protests. The Harbour Bridge march attempted to be killed through legal challenge.

When Israeli President Herzog visited in early 2026, the government declared a major event to unlock expanded police powers, and officers pre-planned to disperse the crowd if numbers grew too large.

Not if violence erupted. If enough people showed up.

“Presence itself had become the threat.”

Control the words


Minns also backed moves to criminalise phrases including “globalise the intifada” — despite overwhelming legal opposition and a parliamentary inquiry whose submissions were dominated by objections. The inquiry’s purpose was not to inform policy. It was to provide procedural cover for a decision already made.

“Control the words. Control the space. Control the protest.“

Then he built the machine to make it permanent.


In February 2026, Operation Shelter was converted into a fixture of New South Wales policing. The Armed Response Command – 250 officers, long-arm rifles, modified rapid-response vehicles, a 24/7 intelligence-led operations centre – was stood up as a standing capability.

Minister Yasmin Catley said it would rove suburbs around the clock, targeting protests and large gatherings. To design it, Minns sent a NSW Police delegation to the United Kingdom to study what his government called “best practice in anti-hate policing.”

The UK model he chose to import: approximately 30 arrests every day for online comments. Sixty thousand hours annually of home visits for “non-crime hate incidents” – conduct that is not illegal but which police have decided warrants monitoring.

Intimidation tactics


Fewer than 10 per cent of hate-related arrests lead to convictions. A system built not to prosecute crime but to make dissent feel dangerous enough that people stop.

In parliament, Libertarian MP John Ruddick warned the new unit would soon be door-knocking citizens over social media posts. He advised New South Welshmen to be polite but exercise their right to silence. The government told him he was alarmist.

That was weeks ago.

Harassing for a foreign power


This week, eight masked officers in full tactical gear arrived at a young woman’s home at 5 am. She had attended Palestine solidarity protests.

She had allegedly thrown a water bottle at an officer during a demonstration. She had allegedly told an officer she would hit him back if he hit her.

They did not knock. They kicked the door in.

She was dragged out half-naked. Taken to a police station. Arrested.

Her phone seized and searched against her explicit refusal. Legal advocate Nick Hanna, who advised her in custody and documented the aftermath on video, posted the destroyed doorframe – the splintered timber, the violence of the entry written into the architecture of her home – with a single caption:

“This is Australia in 2026.”

Captured

This is what a captured politician looks like at full maturity. Not a man receiving instructions. A man whose grooming was so complete, whose alignment so total, that the apparatus of the state now moves on instinct – his instinct, shaped over two decades by the lobby that identified him, cultivated him, and placed him precisely where he would be most useful.

“There is no 250-officer task force for domestic violence,”

which kills two Australian women every week. There is no intelligence-led rapid response unit for organised crime in Western Sydney. There is one for this.

John Ruddick told parliament they would come to the door. The government called him alarmist.

A young woman’s splintered doorframe tells you who was right.

April 6, 2026 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Zomi Frankcom killing. Press Club takes on Israel’s ambassador

by Joshua Barnett | Mar 31, 2026, https://michaelwest.com.au/zomi-frankcom-killing-press-club-takes-on-israels-ambassador/

Israel’s ambassador, Hillel Newman, spoke at the National Press Club today, and walked into something he might not have expected: journalists doing their job on Israel. Joshua Barnett reports.

Hillel Newman was a controversial – but not surprising – choice as Israel’s new ambassador in Australia. He is a vocal supporter of Israel’s war against humanity and has openly discredited the legitimacy of the UN.

Given our mainstream media’s tacit support for Israel, Newman may have expected typical softball questions, but instead, he faced a breadth of important questions that Australians would like answered, including the subject of Australian Aid worker Zomi Frankcom, who was killed in an Israeli drone strike in 2024.

The most pointed exchange came from Anna Henderson of SBS World News, who used her question to join the deaths of journalists and aid workers in one blunt challenge. Henderson began,

“I want to take this opportunity as well to pay tribute to the journalists and aid workers who have been killed doing their job internationally,”

before turning directly to the killing of Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom. She told Newman,


“Israel defense sources have told us that the investigation into the Israeli drone strike that killed Zomi Frankcom in Gaza has been shelved, and that there will be no prosecutions after two years.

 “What is the status of the military Advocate General investigation into the death of Zomi Frankcom, will the Israeli Defense Force release the audio of the drone strike so the evidence is transparent, will anyone be prosecuted, or was this one of those tragic mistakes in your view?”

Newman did not answer those questions cleanly. His first response was, “I’ve never heard that it’s been shelved,” followed by, “It could be that I’m not updated, I’ll check.”

Pressed on the missing drone audio, he claimed that the Australian special Adviser Mark Binskin had been given “full access to what was available,” but when Henderson and others pointed out Binskin, in his own words, did not get the audio, Newman ultimately conceded, “I would have to check that.”

The air was tense as Sky News host Tom Connell pressed Newman even further, stating that Binskin himself admitted that the IDF would not give him the audio.


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Israel’s ambassador, Hillel Newman, spoke at the National Press Club today, and walked into something he might not have expected: journalists doing their job on Israel. Joshua Barnett reports.

Hillel Newman was a controversial – but not surprising – choice as Israel’s new ambassador in Australia. He is a vocal supporter of Israel’s war against humanity and has openly discredited the legitimacy of the UN.

Given our mainstream media’s tacit support for Israel, Newman may have expected typical softball questions, but instead, he faced a breadth of important questions that Australians would like answered, including the subject of Australian Aid worker Zomi Frankcom, who was killed in an Israeli drone strike in 2024.

The most pointed exchange came from Anna Henderson of SBS World News, who used her question to join the deaths of journalists and aid workers in one blunt challenge. Henderson began,

“I want to take this opportunity as well to pay tribute to the journalists and aid workers who have been killed doing their job internationally,”

before turning directly to the killing of Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom. She told Newman,

“Israel defense sources have told us that the investigation into the Israeli drone strike that killed Zomi Frankcom in Gaza has been shelved, and that there will be no prosecutions after two years.

 “What is the status of the military Advocate General investigation into the death of Zomi Frankcom, will the Israeli Defense Force release the audio of the drone strike so the evidence is transparent, will anyone be prosecuted, or was this one of those tragic mistakes in your view?”

Newman did not answer those questions cleanly. His first response was, “I’ve never heard that it’s been shelved,” followed by, “It could be that I’m not updated, I’ll check.”

Pressed on the missing drone audio, he claimed that the Australian special Adviser Mark Binskin had been given “full access to what was available,” but when Henderson and others pointed out Binskin, in his own words, did not get the audio, Newman ultimately conceded, “I would have to check that.”

The air was tense as Sky News host Tom Connell pressed Newman even further, stating that Binskin himself admitted that the IDF would not give him the audio.

Zomi Frankcom killing

The public record is already clear on some basics. Zomi Frankcom was killed on 1 April 2024 in Gaza alongside six other World Central Kitchen workers.

The Australian special adviser’s report said the IDF’s initial investigation found the strike “should not have occurred”, that the workers were not deliberately or knowingly targeted, and that the Military Advocate General (MAG) was considering possible follow-up action. The report also recommended Australia seek regular updates on the MAG process.

Yet nearly two years on, the audio still has not been handed over publicly, and in September 2024, Penny Wong said Israel had not responded to Australia’s request for it.

Then came the simplest question of the day, from Andrew Probyn from Nine: “Will Israel apologise to the family of Zomi Frankcom?” Newman would not do it. “Sympathy with the families” was as far as he went. On reparations, he said that would depend on the final outcome.

Who wins from that? Governments buying time. Military systems avoiding scrutiny. Diplomats preserving the script.

And who pays? Dead journalists. Dead aid workers. Their families. And the public,

“asked yet again to accept sympathy in place of transparency.”

The questions now are very simple. Has the Zomi Frankcom investigation been shelved or not? If not, what is its status? Why has the drone audio still not been released? Why was Binskin denied that audio? And if Israel says it can distinguish between journalists and militants, what is its actual verified number?

That was the surprise at the Press Club. The journalists did their job. The Ambassador mostly did what diplomats do best: deny, deflect and disregard the questions.

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April 6, 2026 Posted by | secrets and lies | Leave a comment