Miles too long again this week – sorry. I put the most interesting bits in bold.
Nuclear. The interesting thing right now is France’s struggle to get Europe to agree that nuclear power is ”clean” and ”green”. The background to this is that France’s nuclear industry is in a pretty bad state. Debts, scandals and safety problems. Most reactors getting near their use-by date. Strangely, the prestigious and independent Court of Audits has reported that nuclear power has a dubious future, but President Macron is ignoring that report, and promising a global nuclear revival, led by France.
Coronavirus – it’s all still happening.Climate: COP 26 is over – but global heating is all still happening, too.
Some bits of good news: The EU drafted legislation to tackle deforestation. The UK’s largest urban rewilding project was approved. Refugees in Cameroon Have Turned aTreeless Desert Camp Into a Thriving Forest.
AUSTRALIA.
New files expose Australian govt’s betrayal of Julian Assange and detail his prison torment. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I185pwCWNo8
- Australian TV blatantly advertises weapons sales, in absurd claims about China invading Australia. Morrison’s tactless belligerence towards China, while USA moves to mend relationship to China. Australian Parliament should urgently review the potentially dangerous AUKUS deal.
- The endless civil war among conservatives over nuclear power. Renewable technology is highly suitable for Australia – compared to the severe wastes problem of nuclear power.
- Australia needs independent Inquiry on nuclear production and wastes. Kimba nuclear dump plan is not supported by facts. Kimba, South Australia, as a nuclear ”sacrifice zone”. Kimba Consultative Committee draft Minutes reveal what a mess the Federal Radioactive Waste dump project is in.
INTERNATIONAL
The consumerism that destroys life is also the cause of the environmental emergency.
The 2015 Paris climate agreement – a weak ‘treaty’, but it is working up to a point. Nuclear energy: a distraction on the road to climate solutions.
Global agreements against the dumping of nuclear waste into the world’s oceans.
America’s relentless pursuit of Australian Julian Assange is a threat to any journalist who might expose a USA massacre of civilians.
Gorbachev: claims that nuclear weapons guarantee peace are a delusion. The elimination of nuclear weapons a moral imperative – Vatican. New film: The ‘Mothers of the Revolution’ Who Stared Down Nuclear Weapons. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWirc-uWGgQ Voices for a World Free of Nuclear Weapons Takes a New Approach With Informative Videos for Children and Young Adults.
Low dose radiation has its medical benefits, but has harmful effects on the immune system.
Use Less Stuff Day-Thursday November 18th
ANTARCTIC. Antarctic ice sheet changed alarmingly quickly in past – and may be happening again now.
FRANCE.
- France’s Court of Audit wants a debate on nuclear power decisions – in view of delays and costs in this sector.
- The fairy tale of cheap French nuclear power. The real cost of France’s reliance on nuclear energy?
- Hidden incidents at France’s Tricastin nuclear site. The degraded state of France’s nuclear fleet, and concealment of series of accidents. Non government organisations anxious about Tricastin nuclear station, and about historic law to protect whitleblowers.
- French unions complicit with EDF in harrassments and other scandals.France has multiple nuclear problems – costs, wastes, safety and more ….. No greenwashing in Europe to save the nuclear industry!
GERMANY. Germany’s Chancellor Merkel maintains stand against nuclear power being classified as sustainable. German banks sceptical about nuclear and gas inclusion in green taxonomy.l
EUROPE. Over 100 European non government organisations urge the European Commission to block nuclear power from being accepted as a clean green investment . EU Council stresses the need to fully implement and universalise the NPT treaty.
AUSTRIA. Austria prepared to sue European Union if it includes nuclear in green finance taxonomy.
SWEDEN. The growing unsolved problem of nuclear waste – becoming desperate in Sweden.
FINLAND. Finland’s nuclear power project collapsing – unprofitable and unnecessary.
BELARUS. Belarus’ new nuclear power station has further problems, shut down at present . Belarus leader says he wants Russian nuclear-capable missile systems.
RUSSIA. Russian diplomat calls for coordinated global efforts to enact Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. ‘The graveyard of the Earth’: inside City 40, Russia’s deadly nuclear secret.
CANADA. Disastrous floods intensified by climate change.
UK.
- The British public wants NATO to renounce the first use of nuclear weapons. Targeting Trident: how divestment is impacting the nuclear weapons industry.
- UK’s planned Sizewell nuclear reactor at risk – same design as Taishan reactor which has been shut down since July for safety reasons.
- Regulated Asset Base model may save Hitachi’s Wylfa Newydd nuclear project. Bradwell nuclear project is likely to be scrapped, despite the Planning Inspectorate having supported the project. “Rather than contributing to net zero, Bradwell B nuclear plant would be ‘ideally placed’ to become the casualty of climate change.”
- Hinkley Point C could ‘wipe out’ 11 billion fish, Bristol Channel campaigners say.
- Rolls Royce asks to govt begin 5 year process to get regulatory approval for its small modular nuclear reactor. Rolls Royce dilutes its stake in consortium for mini reactors, as Qatar makes small investment . UK’s small nuclear reactor consortium indicates that it will be relying on tax-payer funding if it is to go ahead. Despite the frantic nuclear lobbying at COP26, Rolls Royce’s small nuclear reactors will be of zero use against greenhouse emissions – Jonathon Porritt.
- Industrial action could ‘cripple’ Clyde nuclear base.
- Plan for solar power to UK via cable from Morocco, as nuclear power closes.
- Scottish earthquake was nuclear waste ‘wake-up call‘.
JAPAN. Japan’s PM Kishida resolved to achieve nuclear-free world . Japanese municipalities are finding resistance to hosting nuclear waste dump, despite substantial government bribes.
Temperature of Fukushima Daiichi’s “frozen earth wall” rises again. Japan’s nuclear regulator inspecting seismic risks at Shika nuclear power station..
U. N. nuclear agency team to review plans for release of Fukushima water.
USA.
- Heritage Foundation – murky think tank funded by the nuclear weapons industry, wants weapons-makers to be exempt from climate and pandemic regulations.
- USA’s $1.2tn bipartisan infrastructure bill provides $6bn to prop up ailing, aging, unprofitable nuclear power plants.
- Nuclear power company First Energy prosecuted for corruption, but still finds it worthwhile to bribe politicians.
- U.S. govt brings early Christmas to Bill Gatesand the nuclear industry – tax-payer funding! Scientists Warn Experimental Nuclear Plant Backed by Bill Gates Is ‘Outright Dangerous’. X-energy, NuScale, Terra Power overselling their small nuclear reactors, which face big challenges.
- Report: Nuclear Plant Failed to Prevent Flooding During Ida. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission found violations of federal regulations at Vogtle nuclear site.
- G and E’s Humboldt Nuclear Power Plant is officially all cleaned up. Environmental groups are not so sure. Humboldt nuclear reactor is dead and gone, but its highly radioactive wastes live on.
- Kamala Harris became the first woman to have control over US nuclear weapons, but only briefly.
- NASA seeks ideas for a nuclear reactor on the moon – submissions due by February 19 2022. ”Billionaires who fly into space to produce nothing of scientific value” -on hearing that, Jeff Bezos hires lobbyist!
MARSHALL ISLANDS. “Blown to Hell: America’s Deadly Betrayal of the Marshall Islanders”
NORTH KOREA. North Korea replaces, punishes 14 cadres and technicians working on nuclear-powered submarine program. The Central Committee criticized the technicians for failing to follow party policy to “localize” production . No North Korea nuclear, ICBM tests for the time being.
KENYA. Kenya’s $5billion nuclear power dream is delayed by 10 years.
EGYPT. COP 27: Growing concern that civil society groups will have restricted access.
NEW ZEALAND. The global nuclear weapons race is back on: New Zealand needs to continue its stance for disarmament.
Nuclear Australia 
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