Depleted Ukrainium: What Comes After Failure?

public support for the war—and here and here official support—ever more visibly wobbles and wanes……… And those running the war in Ukraine are slowly but surely losing on this side of the conflict. 

October 5, 2023, By Patrick Lawrence / Original to ScheerPost #Ukraine

ou cannot name the last time you read anything about a parliamentary election in Slovakia, so I won’t bother asking. But you are reading about one this week, assuming you still follow mainstream media—if only to understand what you are supposed to think about one or another event, as against what has actually occurred. 

In results announced in Bratislava Sunday, a leftist party whose primary platform plank is opposition to the war in Ukraine won 23 percent of the vote. On Monday the Slovakian president, Zuzana Čaputová, formally asked Robert Fico, who leads the SMER party, to form a government. It looks like he will do so in a coalition with either Voice, a social-democratic party that took 15 percent of the vote, or with Progressive Slovakia, a liberal-centrist party that finished with 18 percent of the vote. 

Fico is an interesting figure. He has served as prime minister twice over the course of a decade, during which time he proved sufficiently European to bring Slovakia into the euro. To one or another extent, his likely coalition partners favor keeping Slovakia as a card-carrying member of the Western coalition supporting Ukraine. But they did not win the election: Fico did.

And Fico is all business in his opposition to Slovakia’s support for the U.S. proxy war tearing Ukraine and its people to pieces. 

SMER’s platform assigns the West and Ukraine equal responsibility for the war—a purposeful rip into the “unprovoked” charade—and promises an immediate end to all Slovakian arms shipments to the war effort. Speaking after the election results were announced, Fico pointedly pledged to press Kiev and its backers to begin peace talks with Moscow. “More killing is not going to help anyone,” he declared.

There are two things to say about Robert Fico’s return to the top of Slovakian politics. One, we find once again that the U.S. is a victim of its old, Manichean habit of dividing the whole of humanity into good guys and bad guys. The headline on CNN’s report on the elections reads, “Pro–Russian politician wins Slovakia’s parliamentary election.” The New York Times head is, “Unease in the West as Slovakia Appears Set to Join the Putin Sympathizers.” 

Tell me, which of these is more pathetic? “Pro–Russian?” “Putin sympathizers?” This is infantile—apart from being false, I mean. Fico simply articulates an independent, perfectly sound position on the war. CNN and The Times are infantilizing their viewers and readers as they reduce this position to the simplistic binary of a Saturday-morning cartoon. The insidious thing here, and let us be ever vigilant on this point, is that these media are inserting into our brains the thought that any deviation from the Russophobic orthodoxy amounts to support for the Kremlin’s demonized occupant. 

Two, “unease” is too mild a word for the reigning sentiment among the war-mongering elites in Washington and the European capitals. An incipient panic is closer to the reality as public support for the war—and here and here official support—ever more visibly wobbles and wanes. The first front in any war is the home front, where it is imperative the battle is won. And those running the war in Ukraine are slowly but surely losing on this side of the conflict. 

They are losing it on the ground in Ukraine, too, it is now more or less obvious. Our question becomes: Where will the powers that instigated this war and invested heavily in it turn next? As I argued soon after the Russian intervention began in February 2022, this conflict was probably conceived as the Washington neoconservatives’ shoot-the-moon moment, its all-out play to take down the Russian Federation. What happens now, as the neocons lose this round of Hearts and the game as they have played it is over?

To my great relief, the blue-and-yellow flags that disfigured the American landscape in the early months of the war are now mostly gone. More than half of Americans polled agree with Robert Fico: No more military aid and weapons to Ukraine. This percentage is headed in only one direction from here on out. 

Volodymyr Zelensky’s swing through North America beginning with his attendance at this year’s General Assembly last month, went pretty badly. At the GA, he did not make any headway persuading the global majority opposed to the war to come over to his side. His reception in Washington was… what is the best word?… muted? House Republicans, many of whom oppose more military aid, refused to meet him. When, over the weekend, Speaker Kevin McCarthy finally pushed through a bill to keep the government funded, he had to strip out a provision authorizing another tranche of weapons funding. 

The mood elsewhere appears to be no brighter. That astonishing debacle in the Canadian Parliament—presenting an old SS man as a hero because he fought the Soviets?—cannot have done Zelensky’s constituency in Canada any good. Across the pond there are signs of impatience as roughly eight million Ukrainian refugees settle in Europe, displaying little interest—and who can blame them?—in going home when the war is over. War or no, solidarity or no, the Poles have blocked imports of cheap Ukrainian wheat. There are signs of buyer’s remorse among the Finns a matter of months after their impulsive decision to join NATO. And now the Slovakians and their new leader’s alarming display of political and intellectual independence. 

However these matters may stand as you read this commentary, the trends here outlined are destined to accelerate in coming months. The Ukrainians’ long-touted counteroffensive, a major prop in the campaign to maintain public support for the war, is touted no more. It is well on the way to taking its place next to the 2007 “surge” in Iraq. Remember that? Of course you don’t. And you won’t remember the counteroffensive any more distinctly in, I would say, a year’s time.

Not even The New York Times pretends any longer that the front line in eastern Ukraine has budged more than a matter of meters the whole of this year. And this is before the harsh winter weather begins. At that point, stasis will be the best the Ukrainians can hope for. All this autumn and all winter, the Russians are likely to continue their rolling volleys of rockets, missiles, and artillery shells to the point most of Ukraine east of Kiev resembles Ypres or the Somme in 1918. 

Let us look ahead to next spring, then. The Ukrainian front will have sustained another winter’s deterioration, and popular discontent among Europeans is likely to have sharpened. It will be considerably harder to pretend that the Kiev regime can win the war or, indeed, that it makes any sense to continue it. And Joe Biden will be looking at an election in seven or so months. 

At that point, what? ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. more https://scheerpost.com/2023/10/05/patrick-lawrence-depleted-ukrainium/

October 8, 2023 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

5 animal species that became radioactive after being exposed to nuclear fallout zones

Scientists believe that the long-term effects of radiation in the macaque population may have contributed to smaller heads, smaller brains, delayed growth, and anemia. 

Business Insider Elias Chavez , Oct 7, 2023, #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclear-free #NoNukes

• The impact of nuclear disasters throughout history can still be seen in the environment today. 
• Animals in areas near nuclear disasters are being found with radiation still in their bodies. 
• Nuclear fallout spreads and impacts communities and environments near and far. 

Long after the events of Chernobyl and Fukushima, their impacts are still being felt. 

The animals near major nuclear events and nuclear testing sites, like Enewetak Atoll, were discovered to have radioactive elements in their bodies immediately after. But even decades later, animals near and far are still being found to have radioactive elements in their body due to the contamination of food sources.

Enewetak Atoll was the site of intense nuclear testing by the US military.

Between 1948 and 1958, the US conducted 43 nuclear tests at Enewetak Atoll, including the first test of the hydrogen bomb. Because of the nuclear testing, the lagoon surrounding the chain of islands became irradiated, as well as the sand and soil on the islands. 

In 1972, the US spent $100 million in an effort to clean up the area. Clean-up crews mixed 80,000 cubic meters of contaminated soil and debris with cement that they poured into a blast crater that was 30 feet deep and 360 feet wide.

Afterward, the clean-up team constructed a dome made of 358 concrete panels to cover the radioactive material.

Sea turtles in the area by Enewetak Atoll have been found to have traces of radiation in their shells.

After the cleanup at Enewetak Atoll, turtles were found with radiation in the layers of their shells. The leading theory is that the clean-up efforts disrupted radioactive sediment in the lagoon near Enewetak Atoll and the turtles swallowed the sediment.

Chernobyl was a nuclear meltdown event in 1986, and its impacts are still being felt today.

On April 26, 1986, one of the reactors at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant went out of control during a test at low power. The result was an explosion and a fire that released over 100 radioactive elements into the atmosphere.

Additionally, the uranium fuel melted through protective barriers and the absence of a protective concrete dome led to the release of radioactive elements like plutonium, iodine, strontium, and cesium……………………

Wild boars in Bavaria, Germany, are still being found with radioactive elements in their bodies.

Boars forage for mushrooms and truffles which feed off nutrients in the soil.

When nuclear tests are done, nuclear elements swell into the sky, get carried by the wind, and settle onto the ground. As mushrooms grow, they absorb radiation from that nuclear fallout from the ground. 

Wild boars in Bavaria have been found to have 15,000 becquerels of radiation for every kilogram of meat. The European safety limit is 600 becquerels per kilogram.

The packs of wild dogs surrounding Chernobyl have also been impacted by the meltdown.

Over 700 dogs living near Chernobyl are believed to be descendants of the dogs left behind by people who evacuated the area after the meltdown.

Researchers have been studying mutations in the dog’s genomes and DNA as well as measuring the radiation in their bones. The dogs in Chernobyl live much shorter lives than the average dog with a lifespan of three to four years, compared to the average 10 to 12.

Reindeer as far away as Norway have also been impacted by the meltdown at Chernobyl.

Nuclear sediment from Chernobyl was carried by the wind up to Norway where it fell into the soil in rain droplets. The radiated elements were absorbed from the soil by moss and fungus. 

Reindeer in the area would feed on the moss and fungus. Immediately after the fallout, they could be found with levels of more than 100,000 becquerels per kilogram.

Current radiation levels in reindeer are now below safety standards, but every now and then spikes are seen in reindeer meat that exceed 2,000 becquerels.

The 2011 Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster resulted in the evacuation of thousands and is the second-worst nuclear disaster in history……………………………………..

The Japanese macaques, also known as snow monkeys, were found to have increased levels of radiation after the Fukushima disaster.

Immediately after the Fukushima disaster, macaques were found with levels of concentrated cesium up to 13,500 becquerels per kilogram. 

Because of their diet of mushrooms, tree bark, and bamboo — all food sources that absorb radioactive cesium from the ground — the macaques were more likely to be found with radioactive elements in them. 

Scientists believe that the long-term effects of radiation in the macaque population may have contributed to smaller heads, smaller brains, delayed growth, and anemia. 

October 8, 2023 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Ukraine ‘very cheap way’ to fight Russia, NATO state claims

“It is very much in our interest to support Ukraine, because they are fighting this war, we are not fighting it,” 

 https://www.rt.com/news/584053-dutch-nato-ukraine-cheap/ 6 Oct 23

The Dutch defense minister made a case for funding Kiev at a conference in Poland

Arming Kiev is a cost-effective way of preventing Moscow from threatening NATO, Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren said on Wednesday at the Warsaw Security Forum.

Ollongren was asked whether the US and its allies can continue supporting Ukraine “for as long as it takes,” given the political in-fighting in Washington. 

“We cannot pretend that we’ll just wait and see how the American elections are going,” she said. “Because they have the same interest, in a way. Of course, supporting Ukraine is a very cheap way to make sure that Russia with this regime is not a threat to the NATO alliance. And it’s vital to continue that support.”

“It is very much in our interest to support Ukraine, because they are fighting this war, we are not fighting it,” Ollongren noted, while admitting that NATO has “skin in the game.”

Ollongren explained that she had recently visited the US and that political developments there are cause for concern, but that Western Europeans need to talk with their American colleagues and persuade them to stay the course.

“I think that we are capable of a lot, and we have proven that in the past year and a half, and the only thing we have to do is keep it up,” the minister said, adding that the scale of military assistance to Kiev has surprised Ukraine, Russia, and even NATO itself.

The US and its allies have channeled a large amount of money, weapons, ammunition, and supplies to Ukraine since the conflict with Russia escalated in February 2022.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell revealed earlier this week that the bloc has sent Ukraine €85 billion ($89.8 billion) so far, of which more than €25 billion was military aid.

The most recent estimates of US spending were from the end of July, and amounted to $46.6 billion in military aid, $3.9 billion in humanitarian aid, and $26.4 billion in loans and cash payments to keep the government in Kiev going.

Moscow has repeatedly warned that the deliveries of heavy weapons and other aid are tantamount to direct involvement in the hostilities. Washington and Brussels, however, insist they are not actually a party to the conflict. Russia has said that foreign weapons will not change the course of the fighting and will not deter Moscow from achieving its goals in Ukraine. 

Russian officials have cited NATO’s expansion eastward as one of the root causes of its conflict with Ukraine and the standoff with the West. 

October 8, 2023 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Define ‘Nazi’: Western media muddies history to cover up Canada’s SS scandal

 https://www.rt.com/news/584101-western-media-nazi-canada/ 6 Oct 23 #Ukraine

“Fighting against the USSR didn’t necessarily make you a Nazi,” Politico says. Maybe. But Yaroslav Hunka definitely was one

Rachel Marsden is a columnist, political strategist, and host of independently produced talk-shows in French and English.

Historical revisionists are now trying to argue that actual Nazi soldiers were just anti-Soviet resisters. 

We knew that it was coming. It was only a matter of time. And now attempts to whitewash the actions of actual Nazis from WWII have begun – all because a bunch of ignoramuses in the Canadian parliament cheered one alongside Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, and it all just makes Ukraine and its Western supporters look bad.

It also makes Western lawmakers look like they have no clue when it comes to Nazism in Ukraine – either past or present. So instead of asking questions about their judgment, it’s time to ask whether you’ve just misunderstood Nazis. 

The newly-resigned Canadian House Speaker introduced Ukrainian one-time Waffen-SS soldier Yaroslav Hunka as a Ukrainian (and naturalized Canadian) who fought Russians back in the day, yet apparently no one bothered to do the math. The Soviet Union was allied with the West against Nazi Germany. Nazi Germany was who fought against the Russians. Okay, it wasn’t the only one – there were others, like the Polish Home Army, which fought against both the Soviets and the Germans. So maybe Hunka was part of that? That’s the theoretical explanation the German Foreign Office offered when it emerged that the German ambassador to Canada was also present at the standing ovation in parliament. Yeah, that must have been it. A Ukrainian going to war to protect Ukraine from the Soviet Union by joining the Polish Home Army. Sounds plausible.

Oh, no, wait, he was actually in the Waffen SS, namely the First Galician Division – a unit that mostly consisted of Ukrainians and killed Poles and Jews. He joined it voluntarily and later described his decision in an essay published by an American online magazine. And now Poland wants him extradited for alleged war crimes. 

Leaving aside convoluted historical revisionism, those who don’t acknowledge the nuance in this Nazi’s service are just feeding Russian propaganda, according to some Western commentators. “This history is complicated,” one wrote recently in POLITICO. “Because fighting against the USSR at the time didn’t necessarily make you a Nazi, just someone who had an excruciating choice over which of these two terror regimes to resist.”

It’s pretty safe to say that someone who volunteered for the combat branch of the Nazi Party’s paramilitary Schutzstaffel (SS) organization is an actual Nazi – unlike Canadian Freedom Convoy truckers and their supporters who were treated like Nazis by this same Canadian government, which went as far as to even block some of their bank accounts. Have Hunka and the actual Nazis who were welcomed to Canada in the wake of the war ever had their bank accounts blocked? Or is that just for people who honk too loudly in protest? Who’s more embarrassing to Canada: naturalized Nazis, truckers, or the parliament? 

So apparently, we’re supposed to now believe that Waffen SS soldiers aren’t really Nazis, just anti-Soviet resistors. Are we supposed to also look deep into the heart and intentions of each individual who served voluntarily in the Nazi uniform to determine how they really felt about it? Who knows – perhaps Hunka didn’t really mean it when pledging loyalty to the Führer. Maybe he’s like an employee at Home Depot who can’t be held responsible for store policies – even though, in the case of Nazis, that didn’t fly either, as the Nuremberg Trials proved. 

It takes some Olympic-grade mental gymnastics to suggest that neither Zelensky, who’s Ukrainian himself, nor Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, who holds degrees in Russian and Slavic studies from Oxford and Harvard and whose grandfather edited a Ukrainian Nazi newspaper during WWII, couldn’t have known that this guy just might be a Nazi… but they whooped it up for him anyway. But now, their actions are on the verge of being reframed. 

It’s all such a backside-covering move to compensate for a total lack of due diligence – the same kind that was demonstrated when it emerged that Canada had knowingly trained and equipped Azov Battalion neo-Nazis for Ukraine’s current conflict with Russia while seemingly being bothered far more by the notion that the press risked finding out about it than by the idea of training guys with Nazi tattoos. 

To accept historic reality, instead of trying hard to weasel Justin Trudeau and the Canadian establishment out of this embarrassment, is to let “Russian propaganda” win. Seriously. That’s the argument. “Canada’s enemies have thus latched on to these simple narratives, alongside concerned citizens in Canada itself, with the misstep over Hunka being used by Russia and its backers to attack Ukraine, Canada and each country’s association with the other,” wrote the POLITICO commentator. Know who else has “latched on” to the “I can’t believe they could be that dumb” narrative around this Canadian Nazipalooza? Honest people and patriots who are, in fact, less interested in peddling narratives that serve a handful of establishment elites and more interested in defending historical realities that serve all of humanity rather than reframing or perverting them to suit an ideological cause – anti-Russian or otherwise.

Trudeau said in the same breath as his apology for the Hunka incident that “it’s going to be really important that all of us push back against Russian propaganda, Russian disinformation, and continue our steadfast and unequivocal support for Ukraine.” It seems that some have already jumped on the opportunity to redefine defense of well-established historical record as “Russian propaganda” and to impose the whims of Western leaders as the new dystopian reality.

October 7, 2023 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Military space groups in New Mexico expand recruitment and STEM education for children

STEM Education

AFRL’s STEM Academy provides curriculum and hands-on activities for students in kindergarten through high school including rocket launch competitions and simulated Mars missions.

Space News, Debra Werner, October 3, 2023 #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclear-free #NoNukes

“……….. Air Force Research Laboratory’s Space Vehicles Directorate along with other military space organizations at Kirtland, including the Space Systems Command Innovation and Prototyping Directorate and the Space Rapid Capabilities Office, are funding science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education, expanding internship programs and bolstering local and long-distance recruitment efforts.  

Since 2019 when Congress established the U.S. Space Force, demand for military, civilian and contractor space professionals across the country has grown. Demand is particularly acute in New Mexico, a state with about 2.1 million employees……………

Internships and Fellowships

AFRL brings high school, college and postgraduate researchers to Kirtland for summer internships. The goal is to “expose people to some of the things we do, because some of the things we do here are pretty cool,” Erwin said. “They can be offsets for things like not being able to pay people as much money” as private industry.

Science and engineering staff members at AFRL publish research topics online. Students can apply to work on specific topics.

“Those topics run all the way from things that are appropriate for a freshman in high school to advanced research, where we’re writing papers for journals and conferences for a PhD candidate,” Erwin said.

STEM Education

AFRL’s STEM Academy provides curriculum and hands-on activities for students in kindergarten through high school including rocket launch competitions and simulated Mars missions.

To meet growing demand, military space organizations seek to attract workers living in New Mexico and encourage other people to move there. 

…….The Space Force, meanwhile, is working with state and local governments and nonprofits like the Space Valley Coalition and NewSpace Nexus on STEM programs that encourage New Mexico students to consider space careers and stay in-state.

The Innovation and Prototyping Acquisition Delta also is strengthening ties with universities.

“We are developing partnerships with universities within New Mexico and regional universities, like the University of Texas, El Paso, to leverage those recruitment pipelines for technical as well as programmatic talent,” Straight said……….  https://spacenews.com/military-space-groups-in-new-mexico-expand-recruitment-and-stem/

October 7, 2023 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Star Wars? Learned professor speaks of threat to peace in space

 https://www.nuclearpolicy.info/news/star-wars-learned-professor-speaks-of-threat-to-peace-in-space/ 6 Oct 23 #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclear-free #NoNukes

Space-based weapons and nuclear-powered space vehicles might seem the stuff of Science Fiction but many of the leading militaries in the world now have ‘Space Commands’, an armed service dedicated ‘dominance’ in the world of space. Representatives from the UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities heard today about the threat to peace now being posed by the increasing militarisation of space.

Professor Emeritus Dave Webb was the guest speaker at the October meeting of the NFLA Steering Committee. Dave is the former Chair of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and is now the Convenor of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space. Established in 1992, the network is an international body of academics and activists opposed to the militarisation and the use of nuclear power in space.

In 1999, the United Nations General Assembly declared that October 4-10 every year would be designated as ‘World Space Week’ to ‘celebrate the contributions of space science and technology to the betterment of the human condition’; in response the Global Network designates 7-14 October as ‘Keep Space for Peace Week’.

Despite being signatories to the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 which prohibits nuclear weapons in space; limits the use of the Moon and all other celestial bodies to peaceful purposes; establishes that space shall be freely explored and used by all nations; and precludes any country from claiming sovereignty over outer space or any celestial body, many of the world’s leading powers have established new military commands to establish a presence in space.

With communications, navigation, command-and-control, surveillance, espionage, and the detection of threats being reliant on signals beamed from space, each of the world’s major powers wants to be able to ensure that its satellites remain safe from electronic interference, sabotage, or destruction, whilst over time being able to develop the capability to destroy those of their adversaries in time of war.

As militarisation continues, tensions between the powers engaged in this space race will increase and so war will become more likely. This year’s theme for ‘Keep Space for Peace Week’ reflects one such source of tension – the increasingly crowded skies above our Earth.

Professor Webb explains: “This year we are highlighting the danger posed to peace by our crowded Low Earth Orbit.

“In 1985 – 1988, there were about 5,000 – 6,000 objects in orbit, there are now about 27,000 and this figure is increasing rapidly. Elon Musk’s Space X has launched about 12,000 satellites and various other companies are now planning 71,000 more.

“The United States being especially aggressive in working to secure as many of the remaining slots as possible, seeking to freeze out its rivals generating resentment. The Global Network is currently engaged in legal action in the US to pressure the Federal Communications Commission to follow the law and conduct environmental impacts assessments before approving any further launches,

6th October 2023

Star Wars? Learned professor speaks of threat to peace in space

Space-based weapons and nuclear-powered space vehicles might seem the stuff of Science Fiction but many of the leading militaries in the world now have ‘Space Commands’, an armed service dedicated ‘dominance’ in the world of space. Representatives from the UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities heard today about the threat to peace now being posed by the increasing militarisation of space.

Professor Emeritus Dave Webb was the guest speaker at the October meeting of the NFLA Steering Committee. Dave is the former Chair of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and is now the Convenor of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space. Established in 1992, the network is an international body of academics and activists opposed to the militarisation and the use of nuclear power in space.

In 1999, the United Nations General Assembly declared that October 4-10 every year would be designated as ‘World Space Week’ to ‘celebrate the contributions of space science and technology to the betterment of the human condition’; in response the Global Network designates 7-14 October as ‘Keep Space for Peace Week’.

Despite being signatories to the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 which prohibits nuclear weapons in space; limits the use of the Moon and all other celestial bodies to peaceful purposes; establishes that space shall be freely explored and used by all nations; and precludes any country from claiming sovereignty over outer space or any celestial body, many of the world’s leading powers have established new military commands to establish a presence in space.

With communications, navigation, command-and-control, surveillance, espionage, and the detection of threats being reliant on signals beamed from space, each of the world’s major powers wants to be able to ensure that its satellites remain safe from electronic interference, sabotage, or destruction, whilst over time being able to develop the capability to destroy those of their adversaries in time of war.

As militarisation continues, tensions between the powers engaged in this space race will increase and so war will become more likely. This year’s theme for ‘Keep Space for Peace Week’ reflects one such source of tension – the increasingly crowded skies above our Earth.

Professor Webb explains: “This year we are highlighting the danger posed to peace by our crowded Low Earth Orbit.

“In 1985 – 1988, there were about 5,000 – 6,000 objects in orbit, there are now about 27,000 and this figure is increasing rapidly. Elon Musk’s Space X has launched about 12,000 satellites and various other companies are now planning 71,000 more.

“The United States being especially aggressive in working to secure as many of the remaining slots as possible, seeking to freeze out its rivals generating resentment. The Global Network is currently engaged in legal action in the US to pressure the Federal Communications Commission to follow the law and conduct environmental impacts assessments before approving any further launches,

“NASA scientists have warned that growing space debris could lead to likely-cascading collisions in orbit, however accidental. This ‘Kessler Syndrome’ could lead to military tensions as collisions would often involve space vehicles of competing nations, and retaliation and further escalation might result.”

In readiness for possible future warfighting in space, the UK Government has also established a Space Command as the fourth branch of the armed forces, with a mission to ‘protect and defend UK and allied interests in, from, and to space’.

UK government funding is also backing research at the Universities of Bangor and Southampton to develop nuclear propulsion systems for the next generation of rockets and Rolls Royce has received a grant to develop a nuclear power plant for deployment at a future crewed moon-base. In addition, seven space ports are in development in the UK, five in Scotland, one in Snowdonia, and one at Newquay.

The NFLAs have real worries about the use of the space ports for military purposes and the deployment of nuclear power in space.

NFLA Steering Committee Chair, Councillor Lawrence O’Neill explained: “With new space ports, UK Space Command will be looking to deploy more military spy satellites to further its mission, but over time a new generation of military space vehicles may be developed with the capacity to carry conventional or non-conventional weapons. Although this might seem fanciful, this pattern has been followed with drones.

“At first these unmanned aerial vehicles were used for surveillance, but they have since been developed into formidable weapons platforms bristling with missiles, with strikes guided by anonymous remote operators located thousands of miles from the battlefield; coupled with AI, they would be more formidable still as a robot never tires nor has second thoughts. Who is to say that space vehicles will not be developed in a same pattern, if left unchecked?”

The NFLAs are also concerned that a British manned moon base might be usurped for military, rather than altruistic scientific, purposes, and that any use of nuclear power there will lead to the contamination of space and the lunar surface, and pose a real of radioactive contamination if an explosion took place on Earth.

Cllr O’Neill concluded: “Any failed launch or re-entry of a nuclear-powered space vehicle could, if an explosion occurred, lead to the dispersal of radioactive contamination into our atmosphere. This fear was one of the reasons cited by the advisory body CORWM, the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management, for not recommending to government any plan to blast radioactive waste into space.

“These are the many reasons why it is so important that we Keep Space for Peace.”

October 7, 2023 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Australian towns battle fire and flood back-to-back

Hours after they were threatened by fire, several Australian towns are
preparing for floods. Bushfires have been burning in Victoria’s Gippsland
region and New South Wales’ South Coast this week – both areas were hit
hard by Australia’s Black Summer bushfires four years ago. Rain is now
offering some reprieve, but it has also triggered flood warnings. The
country has reeled from disaster to disaster in recent years, as it feels
the effects of climate change.

BBC 4th Oct 2023

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-66946013

October 5, 2023 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Tragic Nuclear Submarine Accident in China Sparks Global Concern

The incident raises serious concerns about the safety of submarine missions and the readiness of governments to seek international assistance in times of such crises. It also raises questions about the effectiveness of defense systems and their potential to backfire

By Ravichandran Devendran, 5 Oct 23,  https://bnn.network/breaking-news/accidents/tragic-submarine-accident-in-china-sparks-global-concern/ #nuclear #anti-nuclear #nuclear-free #NoNukes

Details of the Submarine Disaster

55 Chinese sailors are feared dead in a tragic incident involving a nuclear submarine in the Yellow Sea. According to a confidential UK report, the submarine became entangled in a trap set up for Western sub-surface vessels, leading to a catastrophic system failure and the poisoning of the crew. Despite the severity of the situation, the Chinese government has officially denied the incident’s occurrence, and it appears that international assistance for the stranded submarine was declined.

The fatal accident occurred on August 21st, during a mission in the Yellow Sea. The submarine collided with a chain and anchor obstacle, resulting in system failures that took six hours to repair and bring the vessel to the surface. As a result of these system failures, the onboard oxygen system malfunctioned catastrophically, leading to the poisoning of the crew and the subsequent loss of life.

The Echoes of Past Submarine Catastrophes

This incident brings to mind the Kursk catastrophe, where over 100 Russian sailors died in an explosion aboard their nuclear submarine in August 2000. Initially, the Kremlin denied reports of the incident and declined assistance from Britain and Norway until it was too late to save those trapped inside the vessel. The Kursk disaster remains the biggest in submarine history with 118 lives lost.

Similarly, the Chinese government has refuted speculations about the incident as completely false, and Taiwan has also denied internet reports. The UK report on the incident is highly classified and based on defense intelligence. Despite official denials, it is believed that the incident did occur and that China declined international support.

Implications of the Submarine Disaster

The incident raises serious concerns about the safety of submarine missions and the readiness of governments to seek international assistance in times of such crises. It also raises questions about the effectiveness of defense systems and their potential to backfire, as in this case where the Chinese submarine was ensnared by its own trap intended for foreign vessels. The incident also highlights the importance of transparency in reporting such catastrophic events, as the refusal to acknowledge the incident only fuels speculation and mistrust.

The Human Cost of the Tragedy

Among the deceased are the captain of the Chinese PLA Navy Submarine 093-417 and 21 other officers. The loss of such a large number of naval personnel in a single incident is a devastating blow to the Chinese Navy and a stark reminder of the dangers that submarine crews face. As investigations continue, the world waits for definitive confirmation of the incident and its implications for international submarine operations.

October 5, 2023 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

A Chinese nuclear-powered submarine has sunk with the loss of 55 sailors

The nuclear submarine sank after it was caught in a trap intended for American and British vessels, leaked intelligence reports disclose. China has six Type 093 attack
submarines, which have a displacement of 6,096 tonnes and are armed with
553mm torpedoes. The nuclear-powered submarines, designed to be quieter
than previous models, entered service in the past 15 years.

Times 4th Sept 2023

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/chinese-navy-sinks-its-own-submarine-with-trap-set-for-us-and-british-vessels-75wdfkc2p

October 5, 2023 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

As Japan releases more Fukushima water, what about the rest of the plant?

A second batch of treated water is being released into the Pacific, but the entire decommissioning process will be far more complex.

all that will need to take place in an environment where the level of radiation is so high, it is nearly impossible for workers to get inside.

Japan has not yet worked out where all the waste will go

Aljazeera, By Hanako Montgomery, 5 Oct 2023 #nuclear #anti-nuclear #nuclear-free #NoNukes

“…………………………………………………………………………………………Japan has promised to decommission the power station as part of its recovery plan for Namie town and the rest of Fukushima prefecture. The plant’s six reactors suffered catastrophic damage, after the tsunami smashed into the complex, crippling the plant’s cooling systems. As radioactive material leaked from the site, 470,000 people were forced to evacuate.

But while the plant had been rendered useless, progress towards its decommissioning has been slow.

Complex challenge

According to Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the plant operator, that is partly because of the accumulation of 1.3 billion tonnes of treated radioactive wastewater that was used to cool the three reactors that were in operation at the time of the disaster.

The 1,000 or so blue and white tanks to store the water have taken up space needed for decommissioning, according to TEPCO, which has had to contend with strong criticism from local fishing communities and neighbouring countries like China, which have continued to protest against Japan’s plan to discharge the water into the ocean.

………………………………………………………………… According to TEPCO, the entire decommissioning process will take between 30 and 40 years. That is at least six times longer than it typically takes to decommission a plant under normal circumstances, Brent Heuser, a nuclear engineering professor from the University of Illinois in the United States, told Al Jazeera.

“Decommissioning involves removing fuel stored in structured arrangements. Japan, however, is facing unique challenges such as widely dispersed fuel, requiring both human and robotic efforts for detection,” he told Al Jazeera.

Japan has not yet worked out where all the waste will go.

TEPCO is planning to reduce some of it through incineration or recycling onsite, but that does not include the waste that will be produced from the dismantling of reactor buildings, and there is no estimate for how much radioactive waste there will be as the process moves forward.

To decommission the Daiichi plant, TEPCO must first remove the spent fuel and the fuel debris that is stuck inside the damaged units. Experts will then place the collected debris in storage containers before they can transport it to a new facility that will be built onsite.

The reactor buildings must also be dismantled.

Later this year, TEPCO will carry out a trial removal of melted debris from Unit 2. The retrieval will be expanded in stages if successful.

By 2027, plant operators hope to be able to turn their attention to Unit 1, the most seriously damaged of the reactors, which they plan to enclose with a large cover.

By 2031, they will focus on removing the melted debris.

But all that will need to take place in an environment where the level of radiation is so high, it is nearly impossible for workers to get inside.

“The doses they would receive would go way beyond any allowable limit, so that certainly is playing a role in the extended timeline for the decommission process,” Heuser said, suggesting more staff may be needed given the short period of time they will be able to remain on site.

“They’re spreading the worker dose exposure over a much larger body of people.”

Help from robots

The level of radiation means Japan is also yet to understand the full extent of the damage inside the corroded reactors.

TEPCO has used robotic probes to try and get a sense of the destruction. Equipped with 3D scanners, sensors, and cameras, robots have mapped the terrain, measured radiation levels, and searched for the elusive missing fuel.

Although some headway has been made in assessing the condition of the reactors, the data is far from reassuring.

Since 2022, TEPCO has dispatched a robotic probe into Unit 1.

The probe’s findings revealed the core had largely melted and settled at the bottom of the containment chamber – which serves as a vital safeguard against the release of radioactive material – and possibly Unit 1’s concrete basement. Furthermore, it suggested significant damage to the pedestal, the primary support structure directly beneath Unit 1’s core.

Financial considerations also loom large in Japan’s struggle with decommissioning

Ordinarily, the decommissioning of a standard nuclear plant would cost between $300m to $400m, according to the US nuclear regulator.

But given the extensive damage, compensation paid to local residents and the specialised equipment required for managing one of the world’s worst nuclear disasters, the Japanese government predicts the final bill could come to about 21.5 trillion yen ($141bn).

Akira Ono, who leads TEPCO’s decommissioning unit, has admitted the work is “challenging”. Earlier this year, a remotely-operated vehicle managed to collect only a tiny sample from Unit 1’s reactor, which is thought to contain some 880 tonnes of melted fuel debris -10 times the amount removed during the cleanup of Three Mile Island in the northeastern United States in 1979………………………………………………………………………….. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/5/as-japan-releases-fukushima-water-into-the-sea-what-about-everything-else

October 5, 2023 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

AI Goes to War

But you can count on one thing: the new approach is likely to be a gold mine for weapons contractors, even if the resulting weaponry doesn’t faintly perform as advertised.

When such advanced weapons systems can be made to work, at enormous cost in time and money, they almost invariably prove of limited value, even against relatively poorly armed adversaries 

Will the Pentagon’s Techno-Fantasies Pave the Way for War with China?

By William D. Hartung / TomDispatch, 4 Oct 23 #ArtificialIntelligence

On August 28th, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks chose the occasion of a three-day conference organized by the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA), the arms industry’s biggest trade group, to announce the “Replicator Initiative.” Among other things, it would involve producing “swarms of drones” that could hit thousands of targets in China on short notice. Call it the full-scale launching of techno-war.

Her speech to the assembled arms makers was yet another sign that the military-industrial complex (MIC) President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us about more than 60 years ago is still alive, all too well, and taking a new turn. Call it the MIC for the digital age.

Hicks described the goal of the Replicator Initiative this way:

“To stay ahead [of China], we’re going to create a new state of the art… leveraging attritable, autonomous systems in all domains which are less expensive, put fewer people at risk, and can be changed, upgraded, or improved with substantially shorter lead times… We’ll counter the PLA’s [People’s Liberation Army’s] with mass of our own, but ours will be harder to plan for, harder to hit, and harder to beat.”

Think of it as artificial intelligence (AI) goes to war — and oh, that word “attritable,” a term that doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue or mean much of anything to the average taxpayer, is pure Pentagonese for the ready and rapid replaceability of systems lost in combat. Let’s explore later whether the Pentagon and the arms industry are even capable of producing the kinds of cheap, effective, easily replicable techno-war systems Hicks touted in her speech. First, though, let me focus on the goal of such an effort: confronting China.

Target: China

However one gauges China’s appetite for military conflict — as opposed to relying more heavily on its increasingly powerful political and economic tools of influence — the Pentagon is clearly proposing a military-industrial fix for the challenge posed by Beijing. As Hicks’s speech to those arms makers suggests, that new strategy is going to be grounded in a crucial premise: that any future technological arms race will rely heavily on the dream of building ever cheaper, ever more capable weapons systems based on the rapid development of near-instant communications, artificial intelligence, and the ability to deploy such systems on short notice.

The vision Hicks put forward to the NDIA is, you might already have noticed, untethered from the slightest urge to respond diplomatically or politically to the challenge of Beijing as a rising great power. It matters little that those would undoubtedly be the most effective ways to head off a future conflict with China.

Such a non-military approach would be grounded in a clearly articulated return to this country’s longstanding “One China” policy. Under it, the U.S. would forgo any hint of the formal political recognition of the island of Taiwan as a separate state, while Beijing would commit itself to limiting to peaceful means its efforts to absorb that island.

There are numerous other issues where collaboration between the two nations could move the U.S. and China from a policy of confrontation to one of cooperation, as noted in a new paper by my colleague Jake Werner of the Quincy Institute: “1) development in the Global South; 2) addressing climate change; 3) renegotiating global trade and economic rules; and 4) reforming international institutions to create a more open and inclusive world order.” Achieving such goals on this planet now might seem like a tall order, but the alternative — bellicose rhetoric and aggressive forms of competition that increase the risk of war — should be considered both dangerous and unacceptable.

On the other side of the equation, proponents of increasing Pentagon spending to address the purported dangers of the rise of China are masters of threat inflation. They find it easy and satisfying to exaggerate both Beijing’s military capabilities and its global intentions in order to justify keeping the military-industrial complex amply funded into the distant future……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

The notion that advanced military technology could be the magic solution to complex security challenges runs directly against the actual record of the Pentagon and the arms industry over the past five decades. In those years, supposedly “revolutionary” new systems like the F-35 combat aircraft, the Army’s Future Combat System (FCS), and the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship have been notoriously plagued by cost overruns, schedule delays, performance problems, and maintenance challenges that have, at best, severely limited their combat capabilities. In fact, the Navy is already planning to retire a number of those Littoral Combat Ships early, while the whole FCS program was canceled outright.

In short, the Pentagon is now betting on a complete transformation of how it and the industry do business in the age of AI — a long shot, to put it mildly.

But you can count on one thing: the new approach is likely to be a gold mine for weapons contractors, even if the resulting weaponry doesn’t faintly perform as advertised. This quest will not be without political challenges, most notably finding the many billions of dollars needed to pursue the goals of the Replicator Initiative, while staving off lobbying by producers of existing big-ticket items like aircraft carriers, bombers, and fighter jets…………………………………………………………………….

The Pentagon has long built its strategy around supposed technological marvels like the “electronic battlefield” in the Vietnam era; the “revolution in military affairs,” first touted in the early 1990s; and the precision-guided munitions praised since at least the 1991 Persian Gulf war. It matters little that such wonder weapons have never performed as advertised. For example, a detailed Government Accountability Office report on the bombing campaign in the Gulf War found that “the claim by DOD [Department of Defense] and contractors of a one-target, one-bomb capability for laser-guided munitions was not demonstrated in the air campaign where, on average, 11 tons of guided and 44 tons of unguided munitions were delivered on each successfully destroyed target.”

When such advanced weapons systems can be made to work, at enormous cost in time and money, they almost invariably prove of limited value, even against relatively poorly armed adversaries .  (as in Iraq and Afghanistan in this century). China, a great power rival with a modern industrial base and a growing arsenal of sophisticated weaponry, is another matter. The quest for decisive military superiority over Beijing and the ability to win a war against a nuclear-armed power should be (but isn’t) considered a fool’s errand, more likely to spur a war than deter it, with potentially disastrous consequences for all concerned.

Perhaps most dangerous of all, a drive for the full-scale production of AI-based weaponry will only increase the likelihood that future wars could be fought all too disastrously without human intervention. As Michael Klare pointed out in a report for the Arms Control Association, relying on such systems will also magnify the chances of technical failures, as well as misguided AI-driven targeting decisions that could spur unintended slaughter and decision-making without human intervention. The potentially disastrous malfunctioning of such autonomous systems might, in turn, only increase the possibility of nuclear conflict.

It would still be possible to rein in the Pentagon’s techno-enthusiasm by slowing the development of the kinds of systems highlighted in Hicks’s speech, while creating international rules of the road regarding their future development and deployment. But the time to start pushing back against yet another misguided “techno-revolution” is now, before automated warfare increases the risk of a global catastrophe. Emphasizing new weaponry over creative diplomacy and smart political decisions is a recipe for disaster in the decades to come. There has to be a better way.  https://scheerpost.com/2023/10/04/ai-goes-to-war/

October 5, 2023 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized | Leave a comment