This week’s nuclear, climate,pandemic, news – Australia and beyond

It’s hard to know what are the most important news items of the week, or the day.  The Pandemic Really Has Changed The World Forever.  Here’s what we know so far about the long-term symptoms of COVID-19.  Nurses and other healthcare workers open up about ‘terror’ of catching coronavirus.  We underestimate the long term effects of the pandemic.

Climate emergency is ‘a danger to peace’.  In 100 days, the climate emergency may be even more serious.  Latest climate study predicts disaster for oceans, coastlines and life as we know it.

The global sweep of coronavirus and climate news makes nuclear issues seem minor, or at least fade into the background a bit. But nuclear threats are always there.  This week the corruption that is rife in the global nuclear industry has been highlighted in the legal case in Ohio – a huge criminal racketeering conspiracy that orchestrated the bailout of nuclear power stations. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBx56QyrUjY&t=3s

 Some bits of good news –     The economy usually recovers quickly once pandemics end.  House Democrats just put out the most detailed climate plan in US political history.

AUSTRALIA

Coronavirus cases aren’t coming down despite Victoria’s lockdowns. Experts seek to explain why.

NUCLEAR.

Despite Minerals Council lobbying, Australia’s Environmental Law prohibits nuclear and limits uranium mining.

Radioactive Waste Management Bill Amendment. South Australian government (ignoring its own nuclear prohibition laws) joins Federal govt’s haste for nuclear waste dump.  Hasty new nuclear dump agency with some overseas staff, – and law for waste dump is not yet passed! New Federal radioactive waste agency flawed from day one  Spinbusting the extraordinarily inept nuclear waste media release from 3 Australian MPs.  South Australian Government must oppose the Federal government’s nuclear waste dump.

Australia should join regional nations in signing and ratifying the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).

CLIMATE. More than 200 prominent Australians issue urgent call to act on climate.  Parts of Victoria’s Bellarine Peninsula, Melbourne suburbs, at risk from sea level rise.  All Australia’s coal generators could close by 2040 and it won’t be as big a deal as you’d think.  Central banks, including RBA, urge rapid coal phase-out to meet Paris climate goals.  Regulator rules it is misleading to claim gas is ‘cleaner and greener’.

Federal environment law review calls for independent cop, but Morrison Government rules it out. Indigenous Australians have been failed by the nation’s environmental protection laws, a review has found..

Australian govt trying to keep its $1.3bn arms purchase a secret, a dangerous precedent.

Rare earths. NT $1.1b rare earths mine could help break China stranglehold $1.1 billion Nolans mine planned for the Territory near Alice Springs .

RENEWABLE ENERGY. Lots of news, but I am short of time today. Check  https://reneweconomy.com.au/

INTERNATIONAL

Coronavirus update: US, Brazil and India lead world tally of 16 million COVID-19 cases .  Global surge in Covid-19 infections, over 600.000 deaths.

World must act now to protect wildlife in order to stop future virus crises.  With loss of biodiversity will come new pandemics.

Global heating will mean that many areas become too hot for human activities.    New research: global temperature increase will surpass 2.6 degrees Celsius: the role of clouds.  How Facebook fosters climate denial.  Crucial need to fix air-conditioning: it causes billions of tons of greenhouse gases.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Brtog4AABBg

Clear evidence of excess cancer risk from low dose ionizing radiation.  New CT scan method lowers radiation exposure . The global scam: nuclear energy and the industry surrounding it.

In the event of a nuclear bombing, electromagnetic pulse would be the least of our worries.  Space archaeology, space junk and weapons, and long-lasting radioactivity.

Humans are blanketing the Earth with plastic.

Earth’s Human Population Is Not Sustainable.

 

ARCTIC.  Arctic heatwave:  temperature reach  possible all time high.  Arctic fires and sea ice melt, show need for urgent climate action.     Alaska’s permafrost degrading as summer rainfall increases.

ASIA. Global heating means more rain for Asian monsoon regions.  South Asia floods displace millions and kill 550. Millions of children affected by devastating flooding in South Asia, with many more at risk as COVID-19 brings further challenges.  A critical situation’: Bangladesh in crisis as monsoon floods follow super-cyclone.  Flooding in Assam and Nepal kills hundreds and displaces millions .

MIDDLE EAST  Nuclear power in the Gulf.

GREECE.  Greece wildfires rage out of control .

USA.  US tops 1000 coronavirus deaths four days in a row, as experts urge the country to shut down.  Pacific Islanders in US hospitalised with Covid-19 at up to 10 times the rate of other groups.

Update on wildfires in northeast California.    Number of wildfires has soared in Maine in 2020 .   America’s choice – environmental and climate catastrophe under Trump, or some hope under Democratic rule.

• Ohio’s tainted House Bill 6 likely to be repealed.    Ohio House Republicans introduce legislation to repeal controversial bailout of nuclear power plants.   Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder arrested in $60 million bribery case. As FBI investigates nuclear bribery, environmentalists call for review of controversial Ohio nuclear bailout bill.  What now for the nuclear power plants? USA’s nuclear woes highlighted by Ohio corruption case.
• Guilty plea by former SCANA executive – who will be a valuable witness to prosecutors in South Carolina nuclear scandal.  Settlement for ratepayers over failed VC Summer nuclear project.    UK will fund its nuclear power with the same schemes used by bankrupt US nuclear financing practices!   Nuclear power: Still a rip-off after all these years
• USA wants nuclear power stations on the moon and on Mars.
• Funding for nuclear weapons tests is blocked in U.S. Congress.   Union of Concerned Scientists, nuclear watchdogs and environmentalists push for elimination of funding for nuclear testing. Opposition to nuclear testing is led by Utah’s present and former Congressmen.
• Trump administration plans vast expansion of military budget. Trump uses fear of China to drum up hostilities, and diminish arms control.
• September 3 and 4 – new sentencing dates for Kings Bay PLowshares 7 anti-nuclear-bomb activists.
• 770-ton nuclear reactor pressure vessel completes trip to Utah.

UK. 

• Tory MPs angry about China’s involvement in British nuclear power plant. EDF denies that China has increasingly big role in UK’s Hinkley Point nuclear project. China takes a bigger role at Hinkley as nuclear reactor pressure rises.
• Bradwell B new nuclear project probably doomed, -on fragile shore subject to flooding.  UK public has been misled over plans for nuclear reactors in Essex.
• A series of accidents and near misses between surface vessels and submarines in the waters round Scotland.  Plan for Scotland to be free of nuclear weapons.

JAPAN. Robot to use brush to retrieve melted fuel at Fukushima plant. Plutonium Particles Scattered 200km From Fukushima Nuclear Disaster Site, Scientists Say. The Fukushima Daiichi Accident Chain, Part 6.

Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki 75 years ago are still claiming lives and causing suffering.  Virtual tours planned at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum.  Arms Control Today interviews Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui .

FRANCE. France’s Flamanville new generation nuclear reactor “is a mess” – Energy Minister Barbara Pompili.        Takeover of UraMin – a scam linked to incompetence of leaders in the nuclear industry.

NETHERLANDS. Why the nuclear whistleblower exposing AQ Khan was ignored.

CHINA. Floods.  Will China change its policy on dams? China’s government-run nuclear institutions are experiencing a brain drain.

CANADA. Problems in planned nuclear waste dump at Chalk River.

IRAN.  Does Iran Really Want to Build Nuclear Weapons at Any Cost? Maybe Not. Cause of blast at Iran nuclear site – still shrouded in mystery.

RUSSIA.  Wildfires in Siberia have burned down an area larger than Greece .   Russian navy to get hypersonic nuclear weapons: Putin.

SAUDI ARABIA.  Saudi Arabia could become a pawn in a proxy nuclear war.

NORTH KOREA.  North Korea declares emergency over suspected Covid-19 case.  North Korea continues policy -no denuclearization talks until the US withdraws its “hostile policy”.