Climate news, nuclear news, this week

This newsletter is intended to be about matters nuclear. It IS, BUT, again this week, climate change is the overwhelmingly big issue. I cannot do justice to it at all. Thank goodness, we have Covering Climate Now, and other great media, taking up the cause.

A bit of good news – What Was Once One of the Most Polluted Landscapes on Earth Now Has Some of the Cleanest Air in the Region.

AUSTRALIA 

CLIMATE.

• Temperatures 10C above average forecast as 130 bushfires continue to burn.
• Climate crisis confronts Prime Minister Morrison. Coalition returns to climate denial roots as Morrison dodges UN summit.    Fear of drought, flood and fires leads farmers to plea for urgent action on climate change .  Climate change pushing Queensland’s bushfire and cyclone seasons on a collision course. Australians fear extinction and drought, food, water problems from climate change.
• Extreme heat a killer for Australians.
•  Energy Minister Angus Taylor wants coal generators to stay on line and “run at full tilt”. Why pay thermal generators to stay online? It’s totally nuts.

Australians concerned about climate change: few support nuclear power. Climate change deniers favour nuclear power!

NUCLEAR.

• Labor Party highlights Liberal Coalition’s recommended sites for nuclear reactors.
• Medical isotopes without a nuclear reactor: it’s time Australia modernised nuclear medicine.
• The politics of ANSTO’s nuclear isotopes – mainly for export, not for home use.
• Is Australia to be guinea pig for NuScale’s non existent, untested, super-expensive not-so-small nuclear reactors?
•   Minerals Council of Australia again pushing pro nuclear propaganda.    Push for nuclear power is a dangerous distraction from real action on climate change.
• An Australian’s memories of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. 

Submissions to Federal Inquiry into the prerequisites for nuclear energy in Australia were  received up until 16 September. Summaries of 58 so far published submissions are available.  Up until 7 September, submissions to Federal Nuclear Inquiry were 50/50 pro and con.

Some examples:   Arnaud Coquillard’s submission to Federal Nuclear Inquiry rejects nuclear power, calls for care for the planet.  Eric Gribble’s submission to the Federal Nuclear Inquiry in favour of nuclear power.  Barrie Hill explains how Australia’s tax-payers must fund nuclear power development. John Quiggin sets out a very unlikely course for nuclear power in Australia.

Kimba or the Flinders Ranges – nuclear sacrifice zone?  Potential impact of radioactive wastes on water activities in the Spencer Gulf.

RENEWABLE ENERGY.  Fact Check: Malcolm Turnbull says renewables plus storage are cheaper than coal and nuclear for new power generation. Is he correct?   Network giant says renewables transition will deliver lower prices and cut emissions. Wind overtaking brown coal is only a matter of time. New investment fund targets small solar and wind farms in Australia. AEMO slashes output of five big solar farms by half due to voltage issues.

INTERNATIONAL

The poles in climate crisis, and that includes “third pole” the Mingyong glacier. Forest fires destroying vital buffer against climate change. UN warns that climate crisis is the greatest ever threat to human rights.

Frightening new simulation of a US-Russia war triggered by one ‘tactical’ nuclear weapon.

The danger of government secrecy and cover-ups: Kate Brown’s “Manual for Survival: A Chernobyl Guide to the Future” illuminates the truth about radioactive legacy of nuclear industry.

How to warn distant future generations about nuclear waste?

UN Move the Nuclear Weapons Money campaign calls for divestment.

The ‘advanced’ nuclear power sector is fuelling climate change, and Weapons of Mass Destruction. Much touted “advanced” nuclear reactors nonexistent and just not practical. The costs and the risks are too great. Small nuclear reactors safe? Not so.

UK. “The Guardian” co-opted by UK security services? Julian Assange to remain behind bars. Unacceptable risk to consumers: “regulated asset base” system to fund UK’s new nuclear reactors.  Forest to be chopped down for Sizewell C nuclear project, though project approval not yet complete.  UK continues to pour tax-payers’ money into (non-existent) Small Modular Nuclear Reactors.

RUSSIA. Russia’s Floating Nuclear Power Plant Arrives At Far East Base Pevek.  Why Russia’s first atomic submarines were a nuclear nightmare. Russia’s nuclear torpedoes at the bottom of the sea.

UKRAINE. An emigrant’s memory of Chernobyl.

JAPAN. Japan’s New Environmental Minister Calls for Closing Down All Nuclear Reactors to Prevent Another Disaster Like Fukushima. Japan says TEPCO will dump more than 1 million tons of radioactive water from Fukushima nuclear plant into Pacific Ocean.  Plan to Release Radioactive Fukushima Wastewater Into Pacific Ocean Panned by Critics.

USA.

• Sen. Elizabeth Warren pledges not to invest in nuclear energy and focus on renewables instead.  Trump administration still trying to prop up the nuclear industry.   Rick Perry to Discuss Nuclear Sharing Agreement With Saudi Arabia.   Decoding the US “secret authorizations” to sell nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia.  U.S. government continues to give tax-payers’ money to “New Nuclear”.
•   Amazingly, Trump told the truth about nuclear weapons and Libya.
• Protestors Speak Out at NRC Public Meeting (Re Transfer of Pilgrim Nuclear License to Holtec.
•  Ohio’s petitioners against nuclear power bailout are being followed by paid workers for pro nuclear group “Generation Now”.
• Strong drumbeat of opposition to Yucca Mountain nuclear dump continues.
• Ex-Southern California Chief Justice Toal Takes Over Nuclear Debacle Cases.
• Investigative journalism  -Environmental, health, threats of USA’s zombie uranium mines.

FRANCE. Fears of nuclear closures in France, as welding faults found in more nuclear reactors. France’s loyalty to the nuclear industry is now fading.

CHINA. China’s plans for a nuclear-powered icebreaker ship. China might come to regret its gamble on a nuclear future.

IRAN. UN urges Iran to co-operate with UN regulatory agency.

NORTH KOREA. North Korea willing to resume negotiations, wants USA to take a fresh approach.

SAUDI ARABIA. Saudi Arabia Plans To Enrich Uranium.