The Nuclear Industry’s Watergate – massive corruption case in Ohio
Nucleargate in Ohio Huge criminal racketeering conspiracy orchestrated reactor bailouts, more https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2020/07/24/nucleargate-in-ohio/ By Linda Pentz Gunter, 24 Jul 20
It’s been a bit of a Watergate week for nuclear power, with individuals in two states arrested for criminally defrauding the public to keep nuclear power alive. In Ohio, it was public officials, backed by nuclear company money, who illegally orchestrated a massive subsidy. In South Carolina, it was the arrest of an energy company official who has pled guilty to a $9 billion nuclear fraud. This week, we feature the Ohio story. Next week, it will be South Carolina’s turn. Continue reading
Nuclear energy and the industry surrounding it ‘is a complete scam’
Nuclear energy and the industry surrounding it ‘is a complete scam’ https://www.energylivenews.com/2020/07/24/nuclear-energy-and-the-industry-surrounding-it-is-a-complete-scam/
That’s the bold claim from Jonathon Porritt, Co-Founder of Forum for the Future, who told Energy Live News that the UK ‘has been one of the most incompetent countries in developing nuclear infrastructure’, Jonny Bairstow, 4 July 20,
Nuclear energy and the industry surrounding it is a complete scam.
That’s the bold claim from Jonathon Porritt, Co-Founder of Forum for the Future, who told Energy Live News’ Editor Sumit Bose that both traditional nuclear infrastructure and emerging technologies such as small modular reactors (SMRs) were “unbelievably expensive” and said it was “preposterous” that the industry “still lays claim to such political attention”.
The renowned environmentalist said nuclear power plants can only be built with “massive” government subsidies at the cost of other energy sources which he suggested are much cheaper, safer and less environmentally damaging.
He stressed the only reason the nuclear civil industry still exists in the UK is to build the skills needed to maintain the nation’s military nuclear expertise and alleged that historically, the UK has been one of the most incompetent countries in developing nuclear energy.
He said: “I’m amazed that this industry still thinks it has a case to make, I mean it’s been talking about next-generation nuclear reactors for as long as I can remember, fusion power has always been precisely 40 years away, it was when I joined the green party in 1974 and you’ll be surprised to know Sumit, It’s now 30 years away – in 30 year’s time we’re not going to be worrying about these things at all.”
Mr. Porritt added that suggestions from opponents of renewable energy that clean technologies such as solar panels never achieve payback in terms of their climate impacts are “utter rubbish” and noted carbon payback is usually delivered around 18 months after a solar panel has been installed.
Millions displaced, hundreds killed in South Asia floods
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Humanitarian crisis warning as South Asia floods displace millions and kill 550, The Canary 23 Jul 20, More than 9.6 million people across South Asia have been affected by severe floods, with hundreds of thousands struggling to get food and medicine, officials and aid organisations said.About 550 people have died in India, Bangladesh and Nepal, while millions have been displaced from their homes since the flooding began last month, said the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
The organisation warned of a humanitarian crisis, saying that close to one third of Bangladesh has already been flooded, with more flooding expected in the coming weeks. It said 2.8 million people have been affected, and that more than one million are isolated In India, more than 6.8 million people have been affected by the flooding, mainly in the northern states of Assam, West Bengal, Bihar and Meghalaya bordering Bangladesh, the IFRC said, citing official figures. In India’s north-eastern state of Assam alone, some 2.5 million people were affected and at least 113 have died, authorities said. MS Manivannan, head of Assam’s Disaster Management Authority, said many rivers were still flowing above the danger level……. Jagan Chapagain, secretary general of the IFRC, said South Asia could face a humanitarian crisis. “People in Bangladesh, India and Nepal are sandwiched in a triple disaster of flooding, the coronavirus and an associated socioeconomic crisis of loss of livelihoods and jobs,” he said. “Flooding of farmlands and destruction of crops can push millions of people, already badly impacted by Covid-19, further into poverty.” https://www.thecanary.co/discovery/news-discovery/2020/07/22/humanitarian-crisis-warning-as-south-asia-floods-displace-millions-and-kill-550/?fbclid=IwAR3qePVk0IamgIn4kqDOarIgD-NX7iNROR87_3Ui0OO_vdSNG9_iuNKUx6M |
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Virtual tours planned at atomic bomb museums – Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Kawasaki Akira, a member from the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, or ICAN, unveiled the plan online on Monday.
The exhibits at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum will be shown live on Instagram. Volunteers and researchers from universities will explain the displays in English.
The Hiroshima museum will hold the virtual tour on Wednesday for about 30 minutes after closing time, between 6:30 p.m. and 7p.m. Japan time.
The Nagasaki museum will hold it on Friday for about 30 minutes before opening time, between 8:00 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. Japan time.
Kawasaki said his group and the museums want to do everything possible online as various activities have been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
He said he wants to offer young people abroad an opportunity to find out about the damage and aftereffects of the atomic bombings of the two cities.
More than 200 prominent Australians issue urgent call to act on climate — RenewEconomy
Leading Australians – former politicians, public servants, artists and academics – issue an urgent plea for action on climate change, saying Covid-19 is a ‘dress-rehearsal’. The post More than 200 prominent Australians issue urgent call to act on climate appeared first on RenewEconomy.
More than 200 prominent Australians issue urgent call to act on climate — RenewEconomy
Taylor appoints his former advisor and a prominent RET critic to ARENA board — RenewEconomy
ARENA overhaul sees a former advisor to Angus Taylor appointed to the board, along with one of the most prominent critics of the renewable energy target. The post Taylor appoints his former advisor and a prominent RET critic to ARENA board appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Taylor appoints his former advisor and a prominent RET critic to ARENA board — RenewEconomy
Population — GarryRogers Nature Conservation
population’s daughter product, climate change, might continue destroying life long after Humans are gone.
Population — GarryRogers Nature Conservation
July 24 Energy News — geoharvey
Opinion: ¶ “European Renewables Just Crushed Fossil Fuels. Here’s How It Happened” • The EU has seen rosy results for green energy of late. There was a 7% drop in demand due to Covid-19, and plenty of sunny and windy weather. But more lastingly, Austria, Spain, and Sweden closed their last coal-fired power plants, while […]
July 24 Energy News — geoharvey
All Australia’s coal generators could close by 2040 and it won’t be as big a deal as you’d think — RenewEconomy
Panel of energy experts suggest coal closures may not be as big a deal, and may happen faster than predicted, provided the transition is properly managed. The post All Australia’s coal generators could close by 2040 and it won’t be as big a deal as you’d think appeared first on RenewEconomy.
All Australia’s coal generators could close by 2040 and it won’t be as big a deal as you’d think — RenewEconomy
Australia should join regional nations in signing and ratifying the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW)
Push to join nuclear weapons banm https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/letters-push-to-join-nuclear-weapons-ban-20200719-p55dhy Daryl Le Cornu, Member of the board of ICAN Australia 22 July 20, It was good to read William Stoltz’s ‘‘How Australia can help the world avoid nuclear war’’ (July 17) about the diplomatic initiative to push for a treaty of no-first-use based on the Chinese model.
His argument that Australia may be the only country that could lobby the US to agree to the principle of no-first-use has merit.
Furthermore, Stoltz argues that it is only through the ‘‘strength of principled examples and ambitious diplomacy that responsible nations can hope to make the legacy of Trinity and the nuclear threat to civilisation a thing of the past’’.
However, there is another potentially more effective ‘‘ambitious diplomacy’’ that Australia could pursue. This would be to join with the majority of the nations in the world and a majority of the people in the world in signing and ratifying the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) that was created at the United Nations on July 7, 2017.
New Zealand has already done so, as have most of our regional neighbours. The Labor Party at its December 2018 national conference committed a future Labor government to such a diplomatic initiative. Furthermore, the organisation whose 10-year global campaign led to the creation of the TPNW – the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) – was born in Australia in 2007 and launched by former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Fraser, who became ICAN’s first patron. With only 10 more ratifications for the TPNW to come intoforce in international law, it is surprising that Stoltz did not devote some time in his article reflecting on the 75th anniversary of the Trinity test to this citizen-initiated global campaign.
Hasty new nuclear dump agency will have some overseas staff, – and law for waste dump is not yet passed!
Nuclear dump to be managed from SA, https://www.cessnockadvertiser.com.au/story/6842627/nuclear-dump-to-be-managed-from-sa/?cs=7, Tim Dornin, 22 July 20
Staff from around Australia and possibly overseas will be recruited for a new government agency to manage a nuclear waste dump in South Australia.
Legislation to establish the dump has already passed federal parliament’s lower house and is before a Senate committee after the location was selected earlier this year.
Resources Minister Keith Pitt said the establishment of the new agency was another step forward in what had been a very long-running process to develop a vitally important facility.
“Two in every three Australians will use nuclear medicine and that means two of every three Australians will produce some low-level radioactive waste that needs to be stored and managed,” he said.
“This is a national piece of infrastructure that is critical for all of those individuals.”
Mr Pitt said ARWA would operate as an independent agency with staff to be drawn from around Australia and possibly around the world to secure those with the right skill set.
But the Australian Conservation Foundation said the government had jumped the gun, establishing the new agency when legislation for the dump was still before the parliament.
“It is absurd to establish a new federal agency for a proposal that is still under active Senate review and has no current legislative basis,” campaigner Dave Sweeney said.
“This initiative has all the hallmarks of a tailor-made political fix for a federal plan that has no broad social licence.”
When the Napandee site was chosen, owner Jeff Baldock welcomed the plan and urged the government to move forward.
He said it was a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to secure Kimba’s future” and the waste facility would potentially provide jobs and much-needed revenue for the region.
“It’s very rare that a small country community gets the chance to guarantee that it’s still going to be here in 300 years’ time,” he said.
Plutonium poisoning a bigger danger than previously estimated,in Fukushima
Plutonium Particles Scattered 200km From Fukushima Nuclear Disaster Site, Scientists Say https://theswaddle.com/plutonium-particles-scattered-200km-from-fukushima-nuclear-disaster-site-scientists-say/, By Aditi Murti, Jul 22, 2020 Plutonium fragments may have spread more than 200km via caesium microparticle compounds released during the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster in Japan. These findings are according to research done on the region’s soil samples, published in Science of The Total Environment, by an international group of scientists.Nuclear corruption, the latest example is in Ohio
Ohio corruption case throws focus on US nuclear plant troubles Ft.com, Gregory Meyer in New York, 23 July 
20https://www.ft.com/content/451324c6-9f9d-48a1-b2d9-76d731e99db6
The alleged conspiracy used the money to help more than 20 state candidates who supported the bailout propping up the two power plants, including Mr Householder, in the 2018 election. More than $1m was spent on advertisements attacking opponents of the measure, according to the US attorney for the southern district of Ohio.
https://www.ft.com/content/451324c6-9f9d-48a1-b2d9-76d731e99db6
After legislators passed the bailout last July, the funds were used to derail a public ballot initiative meant to repeal the law by bribing people who were collecting signatures endorsing the effort, the complaint said. Besides the nuclear subsidies, the law also eliminated energy efficiency requirements, pared back mandates for wind and solar power and authorised a fee on customers to support ailing coal-fired power plants.
CEC says renewable jobs at stake in upcoming Queensland election — RenewEconomy
Clean Energy Council calls on parties to back renewables and end coal funding, ahead of a looming Queensland state election. The post CEC says renewable jobs at stake in upcoming Queensland election appeared first on RenewEconomy.
CEC says renewable jobs at stake in upcoming Queensland election — RenewEconomy
Angus Taylor works to undo Finkel, as key institutions struggle with change — RenewEconomy
A government with Keith Pitt as resources minister, Angus Taylor in charge of energy, and a rump of hardline Queensland MPs, will give short shrift to the experts. The post Angus Taylor works to undo Finkel, as key institutions struggle with change appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Angus Taylor works to undo Finkel, as key institutions struggle with change — RenewEconomy
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 