The week in nuclear news – Australia and overseas

  PANDEMIC.  WHO Reaches Draft Consensus on Future Pandemic Treaty   More omicron cases pop up as world rushes to learn more.
CLIMATE CHANGE –  it hasn’t gone away. Keep up to date with Radio Ecoshock, and – Rebel Against the Crash.  Also Paul Beckwith – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IubZzo97p-A

NUCLEAR.  Again,France is in the news, as President Macron, (formerly opposed to nuclear) pushes for the industry. Meanwhile safety issues continue, and also concern over radioactive releases from La Hague into the seaMeanwhile the global nuclear industry watches with concern, as Britain struggles to organise the funding ( Regulated Asset Base) for its new nuclear plans.

AUSTRALIA. Kimba nuclear waste dump plan. Minister Keith Pitt confirms that the federal government has bought the land at Kimba for the national nuclear waste dump.  To set up nuclear waste dump , the Australian government will have to override South Australian State government laws     Kimba nuclear dump: Premier Marshall must enforce South Australia’s legislation. The Kimba nuclear dump is a long way from a done deal: needs formal environmental and regulatory assessment and approval.  Traditional owners expected to challenge nuclear waste facility in South Australia.  Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) asks people to comment on public health and radioactive waste dump.
Submarines.     French nuclear submarines a better choice for Australia . Australian Conservation Foundation comments to Parliamentary Committee on nuclear submarine agreement..

Fight for native title mining millions heads to Supreme Court | The Advertiser 

 Climate.  More Black Summers ahead as climate change increases risk of megafires: CSIRO CSIRO study proves climate change driving Australia’s 800% boom in bushfires.  Morrison Government failing young people on climate yet again       Climate change is driving a drier Australia. So why are we having such a wet year? – La Nina.   Australia could be the long-term winner worldwide with its solar energy.

INTERNATIONAL

Nuclear power being hyped in the media, but its prospects are grim.

Nuclear power for MINDLESS, ENDLESS, ENERGY use – data”farms” and Bitcoin.

Small modular reactors not the solution . Are small nuclear reactors actually small, safe, economic ?

Nuclear Fusion Recedes Into Far Future For The 57th Time.

Climate 129 reputable European and international organisations have signed up to letter opposing inclusion of nuclear and gas as being ”sustainable” and ”green”.

Latest COP 26 pledges will lead to 16% increase in carbon emissions, NOT the necessary 45% decrease.

Climate and biodiversity: mapping the irrecoverable carbon in Earth’s ecosystems. IEA: Rate of energy efficiency improvements needs to double to put world on track for net-zero.

Economic Cost Of Peak Population: Japan, China, The World.

ARCTIC. Arctic Ocean started getting warmer decades earlier than we thought – Study Melting Arctic sea ice linked to ”worsening fire hazards” in Weatern USA  .

 EUROPE. Europe to pay half for raising Russia’s dangerous sunken submarines, – while Russia builds new ones!

NEW ZEALAND. This world of pandemic and climate change can no longer afford the luxury of nuclear weapons proliferation.

UK

• Environmental Social and Governance investors have upset polluting and tobacco industries – now they’re coming for nuclear. 26 UK investment funds pouring money into nuclear weapons companies: some have links to UK government.
• British military moving closer and closer to, nuclear bombers 12 miles from Russian border: envoy. 
• Nuclear financing.   The UK’s nuclear plan is a financial, environmental and political risk.    UK government tries to save its nuclear skin by turning to dubious Regulated Asset Base funding. UK Parliament debates Nuclear Energy (Financing) Bill, with anxiety over the Government’s big nuclear plans. UK govt’s budget – £1.7 billion direct government funding to enable Regulated Asset Base funding for new nuclear. Energy consumers are likely to spend over £1000 each to complete Sizewell C Nuclear …..and then pay a high price for the electricity it produces. 
•  Despite the USA’s V.C. Summer nuclear fiasco, a consortium plans to build the same type of reactor, with same funding model, at Wylfa.
•   Question hangs over Bradwell nuclear project – Bradwell B (BRB) a partnership 66.5% China’s CGN and 35% France’s EDF. Boris Johnson quizzed over future of Bradwell, (Essex) nuclear plant. 
•   Labour has called for clarity on how the government plans to remove China’s state-owned energy company from nuclear power projects in the UK. Boris Johnson avoids detail on how China will be removed from Sizewell C deal.
•   New nuclear for Scotland– would be a tragic mistake? Nicola Sturgeon reaffirms the Scottish Government’s opposition to nuclear power. Newly released Government documents reveal safety, terrorist, dangers of Scotland’s nuclear power stations . 
• Two British nuclear power stations closing years ahead of their expected time. 
•  Hurdles ahead for Rolls Royce small nuclear reactor development. What might trip up the Rolls Royce plan for small nuclear reactors?
•   Nuclear fusion for UK – to save the dying nuclear industry, and UK as a nuclear weapons state? 
•   Powerful greenhouse gases emitted from Hunterston A nuclear station . 
• UK’s Ministry of Defence makes unprecedented attempt to dismantle dead nuclear submarines. 
• Protest against plan for nuclear waste dump in West Cumbria, close to National Park . 
• Gordon Frederick Coggon – a Nuclear Test Veteran’s Experience.

CHINA. China calls on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to make Southeast Asia a nuclear-weapons-free zone.

JAPAN. Tepco to repair Fukushima nuclear station’s partially melted protective ice wall. Robots to probe Fukushima No.1 reactor from Jan.

FRANCE.

  France quietly benefiting from the neglect of international commitments to protect the seas from radioactive discharges. Radiation control organisation calls for significant reduction in toxic releases from La Hague nuclear facility.

 As presidential candidate, Emmanuel Macron opposed nuclear power, now he’s all for it. France’s Court of Auditors warns on the ”uncertainties” surrounding the future of nuclear power. France’s government in some confusion about when construction of new nuclear reactors will begin. 

Risk of lack of electricity: is EDF’s nuclear fleet properly managed?

  Costs of electricity from Flamanville nuclear power station will be three times higher than from the most competitive renewable sources.

  Tricastin nuclear power plant: cascading cover-ups. Manager at Tricastin NPP files complaint about safety issues and harrassment .

ITALY. Residents in the Basilicata region again gear up to fight against hosting a nuclear waste dump.

CANADA. Bipartisan USA lawmakers Press Biden to stop Canadian plan to store nuclear waste near Lake Huron. . Financial hypocrisy – the pretence that nuclear power is green and cheap .

USA. 

• Christmas bonanza from USA tax-payers to the nuclear industry. 
•   Exelon Generation Co changing its name to the more appropriate (Nuclear) Spin Co. 
•  The US Faces Pressure To Do More To Address Its Nuclear Legacy In The Marshall Islands. USA rehearsing launching nuclear attack on Russia. 
•  Another step in the effort to clean up Hanford’s massive nuclear waste problem. Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) gets 13,000th nuclear waste shipment, and plans for much more. Pilgrim nuclear plant may release 1M gallons of radioactive water into bay. 
•  US rehearsed dropping nuclear weapons 20km from Russian border – Moscow.

KAZAKHSTAN. Crypto currency mining is rampant, so Kazakhstan looks to nuclear energy, despite its dreadful history there..

INDIA. A silent killer is choking Delhi. For millions, there’s no choice but to breathe it in

ISRAEL. US warns Israel its attacks on Iran nuclear program are counterproductive . The U.S. Is Bracing for Blows With Israel as Iran Nuclear Talks Near.

GERMANY. Will Germany’s Next Government Ditch U.S. Nuclear Bombs? Incoming German government commits to NATO nuclear deterrent. New German government aims for coal exit, and 80 pct renewables, by 2030, German nuclear power shutdown will not lead to power shortage: report.

HUNGARY. Nuclear power in Hungary: Green, cheap and independent?

IRAN. UN nuclear watchdog fails to reach access deal with Iran.

BULGARIA. Belene nuclear plant: Bulgarian far-right leader threatens to send opponents to a labour camp.

MALTA. Prisoners and families exposed to undocumented, possibly risky radiation levels.  —