Kimba District Council, keen to host nuclear waste dump, but now plans marketing push to get a “brand” different from the nuclear one.
SA town searches for a new brand beyond nuclear waste. InDaily, Thomas Kelsall, 2 5 Jan 23
The Eyre Peninsula town of Kimba is searching for a new marketing strategy to persuade Australians to “see beyond a radioactive waste facility” when they think of the town.
In a tender released on Tuesday, the District Council of Kimba invited quotes for a new brand strategy that will “empower Council, business and residents to tell its own story and unite people”.
The procurement document makes specific reference to the federal government’s controversial plan to build a national radioactive waste management facility 24km west of Kimba in Napandee.
The six-year debate about whether to store low and medium-level radioactive waste in Kimba has brought national and international media attention to the small Eyre Peninsula farming town, which has a population of just over 1000 people.
“[Kimba] is a beautiful rural community of residents who have chosen to live, work, raise families and retire in a safe environment,” the council tender states.
“The region is attracting significant national and international attention as the plans for hosting the National Radioactive Waste Management Facilities go ahead.
“Kimba is seeking to create a brand that will ensure that when the eyes of Australia turn to Kimba, they see beyond a radioactive waste facility and see Kimba in the way the community want it to be recognised.”
The tender outlines that the successful contractor must hold public forums and stakeholder meetings to “[determine] how the community wants to be understood in the market”.
Kimba Mayor Dean Johnson told InDaily he would prefer Kimba – the winner of the 2021 Agricultural Town of the Year award – to be recognised first as a “really friendly and welcoming town”.
“The media has been concentrated on the search for a national radioactive waste management facility,” he said.
“But we recognise our town and our community as much bigger than that.
“We’ve got an enormous amount of tourist attractions in our community, and we’ve worked really hard on things like our free camping areas and just other things to support tourists that come to our community.”
Asked if the nuclear waste facility was a branding issue for the town, Johnson said: “No, I don’t believe it is, but we want to do all we can to address the possible connotations that people may have preconceived ideas.”
“We really want to educate people and help show that the community is much wider than any single issue and just showcase our district as a wonderful place to come and visit.”
Johnson has previously expressed his support for the waste facility, arguing it would help diversify Kimba’s predominately agricultural economy and “[guarantee] the future for nuclear medicine that benefits every single Australian”.
Preliminary investigative works on the 211-hectare agricultural site earmarked for the waste dump began late last year, despite the project being subject to a legal challenge from the Barngarla Determination Aboriginal Corporation (BDAC), which holds native title in the site’s surrounding areas.
Fears about the facility’s potential impact on local tourism and agriculture have been raised before.
In May 2022, Conservation Council SA, the state’s peak environmental body, called for a parliamentary inquiry to examine a range of concerns about the waste dump, including “potential adverse impacts on reputation-sensitive economic sectors including agriculture and tourism”………………………….
Federal Resources Minister Madeleine King supports the waste facility progressing, although Premier Peter Malinauskas has said the Barngarla people should have a right to veto the project………. https://indaily.com.au/news/2023/01/25/sa-town-searches-for-a-new-brand-beyond-nuclear-waste/
Bill Gates in Australia- mainly to soft sell his small nuclear reactor business
This one written with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence
Bill Gates has invested in an Australian climate technology start-up, Rumin8, that plans to reduce the methane emissions of cow burps[1][2][3][4]. He has also expressed his support for nuclear power in Australia[5], and has made other investments in climate tech ventures[2].
Bill Gates’ interest in promoting nuclear power to Australia is simply because he wants to get his small nuclear business Terra Power, happening, with its dodgy and super-expensive “Natrium” model
Small nuclear reactors are not viable due to their high cost and the fact that they require a large amount of uranium. This means that the cost of producing electricity from these reactors would be much higher than other sources such as solar or wind power. Additionally, there are safety concerns associated with these reactors due to their potential for radiation leaks and other accidents.
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-64382400
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/bill-gates-latest-investment-startup-204703907.html
https://www.afr.com/technology/australia-s-ban-on-nuclear-is-political-gates-20230122-p5celd
“Chinese Aggression” Sure Looks An Awful Lot Like US Aggression
The US empire has been increasingly positioning its war machinery around China since the Obama administration’s “Pivot to Asia” in ways that would have led to an immediate third world war if the roles were reversed, and its aggressions have escalated with each subsequent administration.
Caitlin Johnstone Jan 25 2023 https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/chinese-aggression-sure-looks-an
Punchbowl News reports that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is planning a trip to Taiwan, which will be yet another incendiary provocation against Beijing if it occurs. The previous House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, sparked a significant escalation in hostilities with her visit last year, the consequences of which are still reverberating today.
Antiwar’s Dave DeCamp explains:
“Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan was viewed in Beijing as a major provocation, and it sparked the largest-ever Chinese military drills around the island. The exercises included China firing missiles over Taiwan and simulating a blockade of the island, both unprecedented actions.”
China has kept up the military pressure on Taiwan since Pelosi’s visit, and its warplanes regularly now cross the median line, an informal barrier that divides the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. Before Pelosi’s trip, China barely crossed the line. Now, it’s an almost-daily occurrence.
Beijing views the US House speaker visiting Taiwan as an affront to the one-China policy and the understanding the US and China reached in 1979, when Washington severed formal relations with Taipei.”
US-led provocations and escalations against China are becoming a regular occurrence, both from the US itself and from its imperial assets like Australia and Taiwan. Yet according to the western political/media class, the urgent threat of our day is “Chinese aggression”.
After the House of Representatives voted to approve the new Select Committee on China — a Republican initiative designed to increase internal pressure in the US government to ramp up the new cold war — the committee’s chairman Mike Gallagher put out a statement saying that it is “time to push back against the Chinese Communist Party’s aggression in bipartisan fashion.”
Gallagher is a particularly noxious warmonger who says urgent efforts must be made to stop China from “destroying the capitalist system led by the United States in order to make way for the triumph of world socialism with Chinese characteristics.” He advocates the “selective decoupling” from specific sectors of the Chinese economy and says the US is in “the early stages of a new cold war” against China. He advocates pouring weapons into Taiwan in much the same way the US did in the lead-up to its proxy war in Ukraine, and asserts that the US needs to be preparing for a direct hot war with China in the near future.
Gallagher’s hawkishness on China is quickly becoming the mainstream consensus position in the western political/media class as the US-centralized empire ramps up aggressions while continually complaining about Chinese aggression.
The US empire has been increasingly positioning its war machinery around China since the Obama administration’s “Pivot to Asia” in ways that would have led to an immediate third world war if the roles were reversed, and its aggressions have escalated with each subsequent administration. Just in the last couple of months we’ve had news that the US is planning on returning to its Subic Bay base in the Philippines as part of its encirclement campaign against China, and also intends to station missile-armed marines along Japan’s Okinawa islands. The US is also reportedly working on building a network of missile systems on a chain of islands near the Chinese mainland, explicitly for the goal of countering China. The US and its allies have dramatically increased their naval presence in disputed waters near China, viewed as acts of aggression by Beijing.
None of this would be tolerated by the United States if China were openly moving its war machinery into adjacent areas with the stated goal of “countering the US”. If China were doing this, it would be a near-unanimous consensus throughout the western world that China was engaged in hostile provocations and was clearly the aggressor. Nobody would listen to China if it claimed it was militarily encircling the US for defensive purposes.
But that’s exactly what happens with US aggressions against China. It’s just taken as matter of fact when the US says it’s moving more and more war machinery into the waters around China as a defensive precaution to deter Chinese aggression. Because the narrative is coming from the most effective propaganda machine ever devised, we hear “No bro, the US is militarily encircling its number one geopolitical rival on the other side of the planet defensively. Because like what if China tries to do something aggressive?”
In a surprisingly decent Foreign Affairs article titled “The Problem With Primacy,” Van Jackson argues that the US is behaving in such a transparently aggressive manner toward China that it can’t possibly claim to be acting in the interests of preserving peace and stability in the region.
“This is not the rationale of a country that is simply balancing Chinese power or trying to stop Beijing from creating a sphere of influence,” writes Jackson of the recent US semiconductor export ban against China. “It is not the strategy of a state trying to decouple from the Chinese economy. It is containment in all but name.“
“The Pentagon has promised that 2023 will be ‘the most transformative year in US force posture in the region in a generation,’ a line likely meant to be reassuring but that comes off as ominous,” Jackson writes. “The Department of Defense is making good on this promise by modernizing its large traditional presence in Northeast Asia while increasing its footprint in the Pacific Islands and Australia—areas that the Chinese military cannot seriously contest.”
Jackson argues that Washington’s efforts to halt China’s rise will likely achieve nothing besides provoking China into militarizing against it, saying, “There is no reason to believe that spending over a trillion dollars modernizing the U.S. nuclear arsenal or selling submarines to Australia will cause China to do anything but continue arming itself as quickly as possible.”
This aligns with the warnings of an anonymous US official cited in a November article by Bloomberg, who said that “the hawkish tone in DC has contributed to a cycle where the US makes the first move, interprets Chinese reactions as a provocation, and then escalates further.”
It’s the US making the first move every time.
Taiwan is an odd case because empire apologists will openly tell you that Beijing must never control the island as it’s a geostrategically crucial location with essential semiconductor manufacturing, and then turn around and still try to tell you that Washington’s interest in Taiwan is because it wants to protect freedom and democracy. It’s even more transparent than when they were pretending to yearn for the liberation of nations that just so happened to sit on a lot of oil.
I don’t know if Beijing will ever launch an attack on Taiwan or some other future flashpoint, but if it does it seems a safe bet that it will be because the US empire kept ramping up aggressions and provocations until it got to the point that China felt it was losing more from inaction than it would from action. And then empire apologists will spend all day shrieking at anyone who tries to talk about those provocations.
Because that’s the rule now, if you weren’t aware. As of February 2022 we’re all meant to pretend that the concept of provocation is not a commonplace idea that everyone understands and learns about as children, but that “provocation” is rather a nonsensical propaganda word that was invented by Vladimir Putin last year. It is now no longer permissible for you to talk about the aggressions that led up to a nation going to war; we must all pretend that history began the day their troops crossed the border.
History is being re-written with Ukraine, and if war erupts over Taiwan it will probably be re-written there as well. But note to the future: the road to war was paved by mountains of US aggression.
Military offensives increase nuclear accident odds in Ukraine, warns atomic safety chief
Earlier this month, Petro Kotin, president of Ukraine’s state-run Energoatom nuclear operator, said a U.N. security buffer was not “realistic” and instead called for Ukraine’s forces to take the facility back by force.
But Grossi warned that any attack “puts the installation at great risk.”
Rafael Mariano Grossi wants ‘every’ EU country to push for a security buffer around the occupied Zaporizhzhia plant.
POLITICO, BY VICTOR JACK, JANUARY 25, 2023
The risk of an accident at Ukraine’s Russia-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant will “undoubtedly” increase as both Kyiv and Moscow prepare for military offensives in the coming months, warned the chief of the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog.
“There is a lot of talk about bigger, larger maneuvers and action in the early spring or late winter,” Rafael Mariano Grossi, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director general, told POLITICO, “which makes me think that any increase in bombing and shelling will undoubtedly increase the possibility of a nuclear accident.”
Russia is likely to launch a fresh push to take Ukrainian territory this spring, a top NATO official said last week, while Ukraine also says it is readying a major counter-offensive……………………………………….
Earlier this month, Petro Kotin, president of Ukraine’s state-run Energoatom nuclear operator, said a U.N. security buffer was not “realistic” and instead called for Ukraine’s forces to take the facility back by force.
But Grossi warned that any attack “puts the installation at great risk.”
He’s pressing for EU foreign ministers to get involved and use their “own channels of communication” with Ukraine and Russia to “pass the message … that avoiding a nuclear accident is a must” and a security zone is needed.
Grossi also addressed the increasingly frequent calls from Russian propagandists and some politicians that Moscow should respond to its battlefield setbacks by unleashing its nuclear weapons.
“I don’t see how a conventional war — no matter how dramatic it is — between a non-nuclear weapon state and a nuclear weapon state could … justify the use of nuclear weapons,” he said. https://www.politico.eu/article/ukraine-war-military-nuclear-accident-atomic-safety-chief-rafael-mariano-grossi/
German foreign minister: “We are fighting a war against Russia”
Germany ‘at war’ with Russia – FM Rt.com 25 Jan 23
Annalena Baerbock made the admission in a debate with EU colleagues, pushing for the delivery of tanks to Kiev
Arguing in favor of sending tanks to Kiev, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said EU countries were fighting a war against Russia. US and EU officials have previously gone out of their way to claim they were not a party to the conflict in Ukraine.
Baerbock, during a debate at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on Tuesday said:
“And therefore I’ve said already in the last days – yes, we have to do more to defend Ukraine. Yes, we have to do more also on tanks. But the most important and the crucial part is that we do it together and that we do not do the blame game in Europe, because we are fighting a war against Russia and not against each other.”
While Chancellor Olaf Scholz has insisted that Germany ought to support Ukraine but avoid direct confrontation with Russia, his coalition partner Baerbock has taken a more hawkish position. According to German media, her Greens Party has been in favor of sending Leopard 2 tanks to Kiev, and eventually managed to pressure Scholz into agreeing. Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht, who was reluctant to send tanks to Ukraine, was pushed to resign.……………………………………………. https://www.rt.com/news/570469-germany-war-russia-baerbock/
The Nightmare of NATO Equipment Being Sent to Ukraine
By Scott Ritter, Consortium News 24 Jan 23“…………………………………………………………………………… What the West is Giving
Operational training, no matter how competently delivered and absorbed, does not paint an accurate picture of the true combat capability being turned over to Ukraine by the West. The reality is most of this equipment won’t last a month under combat conditions; even if the Russians don’t destroy them, maintenance issues will.
Take, for instance, the 59 M-2 Bradley vehicles being supplied by the United States. According to anecdotal information obtained from Reddit, the Bradley is, to quote, “a maintenance NIGHTMARE.”
“I can’t even begin to commiserate how f***ing awful maintenance on a Bradley is,” the author, a self-described U.S. Army veteran who served in a Bradley unit in Iraq, declared.
“Two experienced crews MIGHT be able to change one Brad’s track in 3 or 4 hours, if nothing goes wrong (something always goes wrong). Then you got the track adjuster arms, the shock arms, the roadwheels, the sprocket itself, that all need maintained and replaced as needed. I haven’t even started talking about the engine/transmission pack yet. When you do services on that, it’s not like you just raise the engine deck lid. You got to take the armor OFF the Bradley so an M88 Wrecker vehicle can use its crane to LIFT the engine/tranny out of the hull.”
The Stryker isn’t any better. According to a recent article in Responsible Statecraft, U.S. soldiers who used the vehicle in both Iraq and Afghanistan called the Stryker “a very good combat vehicle, so long as it traveled on roads, it wasn’t raining — and didn’t have to fight.”
The Stryker is also a difficult system to maintain properly. One of the critical features of the Stryker is the “height management system,” or HMS. In short, it is what keeps the hull from riding on the tires. A failure to constantly maintain and monitor the HMS system will result in the hull rubbing up against the tires, causing tire failure and a non-operable vehicle.
The HMS is complex, and a failure to maintain or operate one component will result in the failure of the entire system. The likelihood of the future Ukrainian operators of the Stryker properly maintaining the HMS under combat conditions is near-zero — they will lack the training as well as the “logistical support” necessary (such as spare parts).
The German Marder IFV appears to represent a similar maintenance headache for the Ukrainians: according to a 2021 article in The National Interest, “The vehicle was considered unreliable from the outset: Tracks rapidly wore out, transmissions often failed, and soldiers could not easily remove the vehicle’s engine for field maintenance.”
While Germany is preparing to invest a significant amount of money to upgrade the Marder, this hasn’t yet been done. Ukraine is inheriting an old weapons system that brings with it a considerable maintenance problem Ukraine is not prepared to properly handle.
The German Marder IFV appears to represent a similar maintenance headache for the Ukrainians: according to a 2021 article in The National Interest, “The vehicle was considered unreliable from the outset: Tracks rapidly wore out, transmissions often failed, and soldiers could not easily remove the vehicle’s engine for field maintenance.”
While Germany is preparing to invest a significant amount of money to upgrade the Marder, this hasn’t yet been done. Ukraine is inheriting an old weapons system that brings with it a considerable maintenance problem Ukraine is not prepared to properly handle.
The Swedish CV 90 saw some limited combat in Afghanistan when deployed with the Norwegian Army. While there is not enough publicly available data about the maintainability of this system, one only needs to note that even if the SV 90 proves easy to maintain, it represents a completely different maintenance problem from that of the Bradly, Stryker, or Marder.
In short, to properly operate the five battalion-equivalents of infantry fighting vehicles being supplied their NATO partners, Ukraine will need to train its maintenance troops on four completely different systems, each with its own unique set of problems and separate logistical/spare part support requirements.
It is, literally, a logistical nightmare that will ultimately prove to be the Achilles heel of the Ramstein tranche of heavy equipment.
But even here, neither NATO nor Ukraine seems able to see the forest for the trees. Rather than acknowledging that the material being provided is inadequate to the task of empowering Ukraine to carry out large-scale offensive operations against Russia, the two sides began haranguing each other over the issue of tanks, namely the failure of Germany to step up to the plate in Ramstein and clear the way for the provision to Ukraine of hundreds of modern Leopard 2 main battle tanks.
German History & Optics
The Ramstein meeting was hampered by concern within the German Parliament over the optics associated with Germany providing tanks which would be used to fight Russians in Ukraine……………………………………………………………………….
The Consequences for Ukraine
The reality is, however, that the consequences of the Ramstein Contact Group’s work will be far more detrimental to Ukraine than Russia.
The reality is, however, that the consequences of the Ramstein Contact Group’s work will be far more detrimental to Ukraine than Russia.
Under pressure from the West to carry out a major offensive designed to expel Russian forces from the territories captured last year, General Zaluzhnyi will be compelled to sacrifice whatever reserves he would be able to assemble in the aftermath of Ramstein for the purpose of engaging in fruitless attacks against a Russian opponent that is far different from the one Ukraine faced in September and October of last year……………….
Today, Russia’s military presence in Ukraine is a far cry from what it was in the autumn of 2022. In the aftermath of Putin’s September 2022 decision to mobilize 300,000 reservists, Russia has not only consolidated the frontline in eastern Ukraine, assuming a more defensible posture, but also reinforced its forces with some 80,000 mobilized troops, allowing for Russia to sustain offensive operations in the Donetsk regions while solidifying its defenses in Kherson and Lugansk.
……….. Moving forward, Russia will be waging war by the book. Defensive positions will be laid in a manner designed to defeat concerted NATO attack, both in terms of troop density along the frontline, but also in depth………………………………………………..
While the modern-day soldiers of the 8th Guards Army may not be mounting a new generation of tanks on display in the Berlin Tiergarten, rest assured they know fully well their historical legacy and what is expected of them.
This, more than anything else, is the true expression of the Ramstein effect, a cause-effect relationship that the West does not seem either able or willing to discern before it is too late for the tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers whose lives are about to be sacrificed on an altar of national hubris and ignorance.
Scott Ritter is a former U.S. Marine Corps intelligence officer who served in the former Soviet Union implementing arms control treaties, in the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm and in Iraq overseeing the disarmament of WMD. His most recent book is Disarmament in the Time of Perestroika, published by Clarity Press. https://consortiumnews.com/2023/01/24/scott-ritter-the-nightmare-of-nato-equipment-being-sent-to-ukraine/
Doomsday Clock set to 90 seconds to midnight, here’s the plan – ICAN
Doomsday Clock set to 90 seconds to midnight, here’s the plan. ICAN has
a roadmap for ridding the world of nuclear weapons in four steps:
prohibition, stigmatisation, negotiation, elimination.
ICAN 24th Jan 2023
https://www.icanw.org/doomsday_clock_no_more_excuses_the_plan
Geopolitics’ New Frontier in Space
1969 : “Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon July 1969, A.D. We came in peace for all mankind.”
Now : any future competition between the US and China to return humans to the moon’s surface should be treated not as an act of simple exploration, but rather of conquest.
Energy Intelligence, Jan 23, 2023 Scott Ritter, Washington
A recent statement by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) head Bill Nelson that the US was in a space race with China, when combined with recent moves by both the US and China to militarize space, could send the US on a policy trajectory that transforms established policy regarding space-based activities as being exclusively exploration-driven in nature, to one where conquest and domination become the dominating factors.
Such a move would be a sharp departure from past practice and inconsistent with existing treaty obligations banning such conduct. However, the current level of anti-Chinese rhetoric in the US and an historical willingness to walk away from treaty vehicles that fall foul of US interests, could combine and result in Bill Nelson’s self-declared “space race,” becoming the foundation of future US declaratory policy — especially once billions of dollars are allocated by the US Congress premised on such a notion.
‘Space, the Final Frontier’
Most individuals, when hearing this phrase, will conjure up visions of Capt. James Kirk and the voyages of the Starship Enterprise, both having become household names thanks to the television show Star Trek and a series of movie spin-offs. The purpose of Kirk’s five-year mission was to “explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations — to boldly go where no man has gone before”.
Such is the world of fiction. Enter reality: According to statements made during an interview with Politico, published on Jan. 1, 2023, NASA’s Nelson, a former congressman and senator from Florida, declared that the US was in a “space race” with China that could see the Chinese make territorial claims to parts of the moon. “It is a fact,” said Nelson, who in 1986, while serving in Congress, flew onboard the space shuttle Columbia. “We’re in a space race. And it is true that we better watch out that they don’t get to a place on the moon under the guise of scientific research. And it is not beyond the realm of possibility that they say, ‘Keep out, we’re here, this is our territory.’”
So much for exploration — the idyllic mission of the Starship Enterprise and its crew appears to have been replaced by a competition that increasingly sounds more like a race for territorial acquisition. And while Nelson’s assessment has not been echoed by anyone in the Biden administration, it does come on the heels of recent moves by both the US and China to militarize space, which when seen in that light, could reflect a changing mindset within the US government that any future competition between the US and China to return humans to the moon’s surface should be treated not as an act of simple exploration, but rather of conquest.
……………………………… when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to set foot on the moon, on Jul. 20, 1969, they deployed a plaque containing the following statement: “Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon July 1969, A.D. We came in peace for all mankind.”
There was no mention of a US-Soviet space race, or even of the US. The statement “We came in peace for all mankind” was in fact derived from the 1958 National Aeronautics and Space Act’s declaration of policy and purpose “that activities in space should be devoted to peaceful purposes for the benefit of all mankind.”
Militarization of Space
NASA is currently engaged an active program to return US astronauts to the moon, perhaps as early as 2024. The area of interest on the moon is the lunar south pole, where concentrations of valuable minerals, water and geographical features conducive to sustaining 24-hour solar power generation combine to create the ideal conditions for the creation of a moon colony.
But NASA isn’t the only party interested in putting a man back on the moon. China has been conducting exploratory missions to the moon, with the intent to establish a robotic research station on the lunar surface prior to setting up its own full-time base in the vicinity of the lunar south pole, something US intelligence assesses could occur as early as 2026……………………………………………
Given that both the US and China have recently declared space to be a “military domain,” it is possible, if not probable, that any future commercial exploration and exploitation interest by either party on the lunar surface would be treated as a national security priority, and therefore subject to military protection — especially after both parties have invested so much of their respective treasury and prestige into putting their citizens on the moon. The interests “of all mankind,” it seems, is no longer the driving factor behind lunar exploration, instead replaced by the kind of national chauvinism space exploration was supposed to supersede. https://www.energyintel.com/00000185-de20-dba7-a19f-fe6340480001
January 26 Energy News — geoharvey
Opinion: ¶ “With Concrete, Less Is More” • In its recent urbanization, China used more concrete between 2011 and 2013 than the US did in the entire 20th century. Concrete is responsible for 8% of global carbon emissions. The concrete industry must reduce emissions by 16% by 2030 and 100% by 2050 to stay within […]
January 26 Energy News — geoharvey
This week in nuclear news
Some bits of good news. Eight things that went right this week, including big energy and health wins. Once Biologically Dead, the River Mersey in England is “Best Environmental Story in Europe”.
Pandemic. The world needs a COP-like process for pandemic preparedness
Climate. A few pieces of good news on climate change (and a reality check)
Nuclear. Am I the only one who thinks that it’s a bit bizarre to see the World Nuclear News bragging about new nuclear reactors going ahead in Ukraine – just as the IAEA staff are tearing their hair out about the dangers of nuclear reactors in Ukraine?
AUSTRALIA. Greens Senator Barbara Pocock ‘s reminder that the Kimba nuclear waste storage has no longterm plan for removal of that waste to permanent disposal. Media keeps mum about earthquake near planned nuclear waste dump.
Nuclear submarines deal an exercise in futility and should be sunk. Nuclear submarines are not going to have ‘any effect’ at all. Australia to become major hub for US submarines, [and target?]. Push in US Congress to exempt Australia from International Traffic in Arms Regulations, so that it can import nuclear submarines. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons is a good step towards a nuclear-free world.
Christina notes: Nuclear toys for the boys. What fun! To ramp up militarism, (and the USA weapons corporations) the US Congress might decide to dump Regulations on Traffic in Nuclear Weapons.
CLIMATE. The first breach of 1.5°C will be a temporary but devastating failure. Absurd that we listen to those causing the climate crisis’ in Davos, says Greta Thunberg. The ‘all-of-the-above’ story used to sneak nuclear power in as a climate-action technology along with renewables . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU6vQXif5Xo Suffolk: Sizewell C nuclear ‘should not get licence’ due to coastal erosion.
CIVIL LIBERTIES. UK police powers increased, to shut down climate protests. UK govt to tighten anti-protest restrictions, despite criticism from human rights groups .
ECONOMICS. As the war rages on and military spending booms, the US arms industry is a big winner in Ukraine. Marketing: South Korea keen to market nuclear technology to United Arab Emirates, and missile technology, too. Poland’s energy company agrees to buy France’s NOT YET DESIGNED so-called “small” Nuward nuclear reactor!
The British government’s Regulated Asset Base – the test case for reviving its nuclear power dream. “Great British Nuclear “- it’s high time that they came clean on what this will cost. David Schlissel: Small modular reactor project likely to end badly for Utah utilities.
EMPLOYMENT. The French nuclear sector up against the wall in terms of recruitment.
ENERGY. Germany aims for faster expansion of wind energy, not nuclear. Prolonged outages of France’s nuclear reactors. Renewable energy is the only credible path forward -António Guterres. Four separate reports show that the UK could save over €120 bn by 2050 by switching to a renewable energy strategy.
HEALTH. Investigation underway after nine nuclear missileers develop non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
LEGAL. Fukushima: court upholds acquittals of three Tepco executives over disaster. UK High Court to hear challenge against plans for Sizewell C nuclear station
NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY. The Nuclear Fallacy: Why Small Modular Reactors Can’t Compete With Renewable Energy. U.S. approves design for NuScale small modular nuclear reactor, but significant problems remain.
OPPOSITION to NUCLEAR. Demonstrators gather in Hamburg against threat of nuclear confrontation in Ukraine.
POLITICS.
- Ukraine steps up preparations for new nuclear reactors (NO this is not a joke!).
- Mini nuclear reactor firm snubs Britain for the French: Newcleo blames political chaos for decision to build prototype across Channel.
- Jeremy in nuclear wonderland. 2022 saw the slow demise of the Bradwell B nuclear plan.
- France’s new law on nuclear energy will be a gift to the nuclear lobby. French government moves to fully nationalise the nuclear industry.
- Nuclear Regulatory Commission certifies NuScale’s design for small nuclear reactor, despite predictions on uneconomic costs.
POLITICS INTERNATIONAL and DIPLOMACY. The Problem With Primacy – America’s Dangerous Quest to Dominate the Pacific. Diplomatic Cables Show Russia Saw NATO Expansion as a Red Line. Pacific islands urge Japan to delay release of nuclear plant waste water.
SAFETY.
- The IAEA expands mission in Ukraine to prevent nuclear accident. IAEA sends staff to all Ukraine nuclear plants to reduce risk of accidents. Ukraine says situation deteriorating at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. Accident at Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant ‘still cannot be excluded’: IAEA . Ukraine storing weapons at nuclear plants.
- French nuclear safety needs review ahead of reactor lifespan extensions, newbuilds.
- 40 safety incidents with UK nuclear weapons convoys over past 3 years. Call to end practice of transporting nuclear warheads through Cumbria.
- Slovenia Extends Nuclear Plant Operation Until 2043. Slovenia’s nuclear power plant gets permit for a 20 year operating extension.
SECRETS and LIES. Man arrested on suspicion of terror offences after uranium found at Heathrow.
SPACE. EXPLORATION, WEAPONS. NATO activating space war center in France. New NASA Nuclear Rocket Plan Aims to Get to Mars in Just 45 Days
SPINBUSTER. A bit of panic in the UK small nuclear reactor lobby?
TECHNOLOGY. Canadian MP Charlie Angus Questions the Claims of SMRs (Small Modular Reactors) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7nR4P39ALo
WASTES.
- China urges Japan to safely dispose of nuclear-contaminated water.
- France’s nuclear waste agency applies to create a long-term underground storage in Eastern France. France issues a 10,000-page dossier to convince people of the safety of the Cigeo nuclear waste site.
- Diluted plutonium disposed of at Carlsbad nuclear waste site as program draws controversy. Many years for removal and disposal of radioactive waste from historic subterranean vaults at Berkeley nuclear power station.
WAR and CONFLICT. US may assist Ukrainian strikes on Crimea – NYT. Ukraine: Is the Hammer About to Fall?.
WEAPONS and WEAPONS SALES. CNN: Ukraine Has Become a ‘Weapons Lab’ for Western Arms . Ukraine Narrative Fraying, But Weapons Will Continue To Flow. Ukraine war boon/boondoggle for U.S. arms makers, Pentagon’s warfighting capabilities. Germany Says US Must Lead Way On Tanks For Ukraine, As Republican Party Also Piles On Pressure Nuclear Notebook: United States nuclear weapons, 2023.
Plutonium Pit Bomb Plans Excoriated by General Accounting Office. Pentagon can’t account for $220 billion in govt property, fails fifth audit. US Installs New Nukes in Europe: As Destructive as 83 Hiroshima Bombs.
The US has a new nuclear proliferation problem: South Korea. The Disastrous Downsides of South Korea Building Nuclear Weapons. It comes down to weapons.
Australia’s top 10 best performing solar farms in 2022 include some originals — RenewEconomy
Australia’s best performing solar farms in 2022 include some of the very first assets built up to a decade ago. The post Australia’s top 10 best performing solar farms in 2022 include some originals appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Australia’s top 10 best performing solar farms in 2022 include some originals — RenewEconomy
“Greener and cheaper:” Deakin Uni extract silicon from solar panels to make batteries — RenewEconomy
Landmark discovery to extract silicon from solar panels for use in building better batteries helps to solve two long-term challenges in the clean energy transition. The post “Greener and cheaper:” Deakin Uni extract silicon from solar panels to make batteries appeared first on RenewEconomy.
“Greener and cheaper:” Deakin Uni extract silicon from solar panels to make batteries — RenewEconomy
Accident at Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant ‘still cannot be excluded’: IAEA
EuroNews, By Méabh Mc Mahon 23/01/2023
The threat of a nuclear accident in Ukraine is still very high, the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told Euronews on Monday.
Rafael Mariano Grossi, who met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelesnsky last week during a visit to the war-torn country, described the situation around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant as very precarious and said that reaching a deal on the establishment of a safe zone is tricky as the military are involved in the talks.
“We did have situations where this facility was shelled, attacked directly. There is still a lot of military activity around. So it cannot be excluded that this happens again,” Grossi told Euronews.
“So before it does, we can take an interim practical measure, which would be to exclude this huge facility from a military action attack,” he added.
Grossi spoke from Brussels where he briefed European Union foreign affairs ministers on the situation on the ground. He will also provide an update to the European Parliament on Tuesday.
The IAEA has a team on the ground monitoring the nuclear plant, which is not producing energy at the moment and is under the control of Russian forces. Similar IAEA missions are also stationed at the other Ukrainian nuclear power plants in Rivne, Khmelnytskyi and Chornobyl.
Grossi is to visit Moscow in early or mid-February for a face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. ……………………. more https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2023/01/23/accident-at-russian-controlled-zaporizhzhia-nuclear-power-plant-still-cannot-be-excluded-i
Ukraine steps up preparations for new nuclear reactors (NO this is not a joke!)
WNN 23 January 2023
The Cabinet of Ministers in Ukraine has given the go-ahead to begin work on project documentation for the construction of two Westinghouse AP1000 reactors at the Khmelnitsky nuclear power plant.
Ukraine’s Minister of Energy, Herman Halushchenko, said the decision was a key moment for the country.
He said: “The Cabinet of Ministers decided that we are starting to develop technical documentation for a new type of reactors that have never been built in Ukraine. In other words, we have ended the era of the creation of nuclear energy based on Soviet technology.”
According to the country’s energy’s ministry, the target date to complete construction and start-up of the two power units at Khmelnitsky is 2030-2032, subject to the impact of the current war. It estimates the cost of each unit at about USD5 billion. Then cabinet decision means that a technical and economic feasibility study and other project documentation can be taken forward……………………………………….
In June last year, Energoatom agreed to increase from five to nine the number of Westinghouse AP1000 reactors to be built in the country, which will include unit 5 and unit 6 at Khmelnitsky, plus a switch to supply all of the country’s nuclear fuel………………………….more https://world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Ukraine-begins-preparations-for-first-AP1000-react
Investigation underway after nine nuclear missileers develop non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
ABC News 23 Jan 23
Nine military officers — who had worked decades ago at a nuclear missile base in Montana — have been diagnosed with a blood cancer, and there are “indications” the disease may be linked to their service, according to military briefing slides obtained by The Associated Press. One of the officers has died.
Key points:
- One of the nine officers diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma has since died
- Top officials say military medical professionals are investigating the new cases
- Previously, 14 cancer cases were investigated at the base, which was deemed safe
All of the officers — known as missileers — were assigned as many as 25 years ago to Malmstrom Air Force Base, home to a vast field of 150 Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile silos.
The nine officers were diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, according to a January briefing by US Space Force Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Sebeck.
Missileers ride caged elevators deep underground into a small operations bunker encased in a thick wall of concrete and steel.
They remain there sometimes for days, ready to turn the launch keys if ordered to by the country’s president.
“There are indications of a possible association between [this] cancer and missile combat crew service at Malmstrom AFB,” Lieutenant Colonel Sebeck said in slides presented to his Space Force unit this month.
The “disproportionate number of missileers presenting with cancer, specifically lymphoma” was concerning, he said…………………………..
Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma — which, according to the American Cancer Society, affects an estimated 19 out of every 100,000 people in the US annually — is a blood cancer that uses the body’s infection-fighting lymph system to spread………………..
The median age for adult non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is 67, according to the National Institutes of Health.
However, the former missileers affected are far younger.
Officers are often in their 20s when they are assigned duty watch.
The officer who died, who was not identified, was a Space Force officer assigned to Schreiver Space Force Base in Colorado, with the rank of major, a rank typically achieved in a service member’s 30s.
Two of the others are in the same Space Force unit with the rank of lieutenant colonel, which is typically reached in a service member’s early 40s…………………………………………………
Last year, President Joe Biden signed the PACT Act, which greatly expanded the the types of illnesses and toxic exposures that would be considered presumptive — meaning a service member or veterans would not face an uphill battle to convince the government that the injury was tied to their military service — in order to received covered care. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-23/nuclear-missileers-develop-non-hodgkins-lymphoma/101883726
1 This month.
PETITION – To: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Australian Labor Government
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes – A good documentary on Chernobyl on SBS available On Demand for the next 3 weeks– https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/chernobyl-the-lost-tapes/235274195556
19 May – Webinar- Webinar: No Nuclear Weapons in Australia
Start: 2026-05-19 18:00:00 UTC Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney (GMT+10:00)
End: 2026-05-19 19:30:00 UTC Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney (GMT+10:00)
20 May – Webinar – The dangerous world of AUKUS, US, military occupation and suppression of dissent
National Webinar, 20th May, 2026, 6.30pm AEST. Confronting laws restricting/suppressing protest speech and action
Speakers: Former Sen. Rex Patrick, Lawyer Nick Hanna ,Arthur Rorris ,Jorgen Doyle, Sen David Shoebbridge,
Facilitator Kelley Tranter.
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity
Antinuclear 