Nuclear news – week to 10 May

Growing number of Asian countries ravaged by fresh coronavirus waves.   World Health Organisation updates its coronavirus advice, acknowledging aerosol transmission as the major source of infection.  Covid-19: hopes for ‘Herd Immunity’ fade as virus hurtles toward becoming endemic.   Biden’s proposal to waive patent rights for vaccine production has raised quite a storm.

Climate change:  how bad could the future be, if we do nothing?

And now – to nuclear issues.  There have been a number of important articles this week, on nuclear weapons in space – the militarisation of space.  It’s ironic that a big news discussion has also gone on, about an ”out-of-control” Chinese rocket, that could have hit land and caused havoc.  Ever ready to put a comforting Western spin on the news, this incident was used by the media to show how very safe U.S. rockets are, in comparison with those reckless Chinese efforts.
Many space rockets planned, thousands of satellites, thousands of space debris –what could possibly go wrong?

AUSTRALIA.

Australia risks bringing on a nuclear war with China : Urgent need to change foreign policy. Nobel prize winner Beatrice Fihn urges Australia to join the Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty, as public support for it grows. Boris Johnson tells Morrison – ”Ditch coal and go nuclear”.  Gun totin’ gay-marriage opposing, sports-rorting Senator Bridget McKenzie leads the National Party’s push on behalf of the nuclear lobby. 

 Minister Keith Pitt – desperate times, desperate measures – to get Kimba nuclear waste dump.  Angus Taylor, Energy Minister – incompetent and ignorant – SO – VOTE HIM OUT.

INTERNATIONAL

Nuclear weapons have triggered a new geological era. The Fateful Choice: Nuclear Arms Race or Nuclear Weapons-Free World . Amidst Pandemic and Economic Sufferings, 2020’S Global Military Spending Reached Highest Level in Decades.      Amid Widespread Disease, Death, and Poverty, the Major Powers Increased Their Military Spending in 2020.

Faster glacier melting raises hunger threat.

Hypocrisy, climate bullshit, and the push for hydrogen+fossil fuels.

Bitcoin’s dirty little secret – its danger to the environment and the climate.

JAPAN. The toll on marine life of radioactive water poured into the Pacific Ocean. Radioactive water release – Fukushima nuclear disaster continues to haunt the world. Anti-Olympics campaign gains traction online in Japan. A number of cases of unauthorized access have occurred at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant since January 2018.

FRANCE. France’s nuclear output slumped in April – they had to import power. France’s nuclear emergency plans are inadequate. France, the most nuclearised country in the world, is poorly prepared for nuclear emergencies.

CHINA. China sets out to control the world nuclear industry, – Pakistan, UK, and beyond. 20 tonne space rocket out of control, but luckily landed in the Indian Ocean, rather than on land.    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4hGxvcKPhY

TAIWAN. Nuclear plants a big security risk.

UK. Britain is now undermining the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT). UK energy policy is still weighed down by the nuclear dream. Serious concerns about China’s role in Hinkley Point nuclear power station. Millions of fish to be destroyed by UK’s new nuclear stations, but Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) is in the pay of nuclear firm EDF.

CANADA. Small Modular Nuclear Reactors Are Mostly Bad Policy . Bribing a declining rural community – into taking in nuclear waste.

EUROPE. Nuclear anxiety in Luxembourg – expanding their emergency evacuation plan. How Chernobyl’s radioactive dust blanketed Europe in 1986.

ISRAEL. Israel’s ‘shadow war’ and plans to scupper Iran’s nuclear deal.

USA.  

• 
  Standing up to the USA’s militarisation of space. The Squad and Their Allies Should Unite to Block Biden’s Massive Military Budget,. Now is the opportunity for progressives in US Congress to force Biden to defund new nuclear weapons. U.S. Nuclear Weapons Upgrade Sees Delay on Leaky Silos, Old Tech. Climatic and Humanitarian Impacts of Nuclear War. Alan Robock to talk for Friends of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. 
•  The dramatic economic faillure of America’s nuclear industry. The Biden administration wants to go all-in on nuclear energy: Not all Democrats are on-board.   Biden backs subsidies to keep nuclear plants alive, says Jennifer Granholm, energy chief. NRC extends lifespans of nuclear reactors (it’s cheaper than closing them down). Biden administration to subsidise nuclearv reactors on the pretext of stopping climate change?
•   Small nuclear reactors- a very problematic ”solution” to climate change. Scientists refute Exelon’s claim about costs of replacing nuclear with renewable energy.   
• Steady growth of USA’s nuclear radioactive trash ( they prefer to call it ”spent fuel inventory”) Hanford challenge demands action on leaking nuclear waste tank.    Texas Bill prevented – one that would have ”opened the floodgates for uncontrolled amounts of radioactive waste”.
•  The New Climate Denial Is Delay at the Breakthrough Institute, – Norhaus and Shellenger. The manipulative propaganda tactics of Michael Shellenger,Mark Lynas and Rachel Pritzker of the Breakthrough Institute. Breakthrough Institute comes apart – Michael Shellenger started new nuclear front propaganda group – Environmental Progress.

ISRAEL. Israel’s ‘shadow war’ and plans to scupper Iran’s nuclear deal.

RUSSIA. Investigative journalism – Anti-nuclear resistance in Russia: problems protests, reprisals. Russia’s Rosatom launches the nuclear lobby’s propaganda push for ”climate change credibility” – ”Atoms For Humanity’. Russia to test powerful new nuclear weapon.

UKRAINE. Restless radioactive remains are still stirring in Chernobyl’s nuclear tomb.

IRAN. Iran nuclear talks in Vienna make headway, as USA shows plans for removing sanctions. Talks ‘intensify’ on bringing US back to Iran nuclear deal. Fire breaks out in port city near Iranian nuclear plant.

SWEDEN. Sweden’s nuclear waste problem may mean closure of 5 reactors by 2028.

FINLAND. Further delay, more costs, for Finland’s nuclear power station, Fennovoima.

INDIA. France desperate to sell its flawed nuclear technology to India, Time for India to cancel Jaitapur nuclear power project. Pakistan expresses deep concern over the seizure of nuclear explosive material in India.