Nuclear news (and news on Julian Assange)

It’s not exactly ”nuclear” news. In fact, not at all. I heard that Julian Assange supports nuclear power, but that’s not the point. But what’s happening to Julian Assange is a frightening precedent for anyone who dares to publicise American military atrocities . Actually, it’s not all that new.  Now forgotten – Wilfred Burchett, the Australian journalist, was the first to visit, photograph, and report on the sufferings of the Hiroshima atomic bomb victims. Burchett was censored, persecuted, and his character smeared by the USA  government and its faithful vassal, the Australian government.

Meanwhile – back at the subject –   the West beats the drums of war, over Ukraine.

Coronavirus; Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19): Weekly Epidemiological Update.Climate change:  EXTREME: We Just Left the Old Climate Behind. 

Some bits of good news –  Largest Farm to Grow Crops Under Solar Panels Proves to Be a Bumper Crop for Agrivoltaic Land Use.
   Hundreds of Solar Farms Built Atop Closed Landfills Are Turning Brownfields into Green Fields      Once Biologically Dead, London’s River Thames Rebounds – With Seahorses and Seals

AUSTRALIA. 

• Assange facing extradition to US: where is the outrage? PM under pressure to end Assange ‘lunacy’. Australian government urged to push UK and US to free Julian Assange. Independent MP Andrew Wilkie implores the Prime Minister to pick up the phone to the US president and UK prime minister to end the prosecution of Julian Assange. 
• Traditional owners apply for judicial review to stop South Australia nuclear waste dump. 
• Nuclear Power’s Economic Crisis and its Implications for Australia. 
• Union leaders demand super funds dump nuclear-linked companies. Australian superannuation funds still have considerable investments in nuclear weapons companies: some are not disclosing this. 
• For Australia, AUKUS and the planned nuclear submarines create more problems than solutions.  How the military-industrial complex has captured Australia’s top strategic advisory body. To suck up to the American government, Australia’s government leaders agreed to buy nuclear submarines, with no Parliamentary discussion.  Protesters say ‘No’ to AUKUS, nuclear submarines and war with China. 
•  The Institute of Public Affairs is seeking to destroy the ABC’s reputation.  Senate inquiry calls for royal commission-like probe into Australia’s media diversity.

INTERNATIONAL

Even when he is silenced, immobilized, locked up and hidden from public view, Julian Assange continues to shine a light on the abusive mechanisms of power. The latest court case for Australian Julian Assange – and the death of democracy. Appeal to UK’s Supreme Court will just lengthen Julian Assange’s legal torment.

FIRES OF WAR Biden is pushing us to brink of NUCLEAR WAR over Ukraine in chilling echo of Cuban missile crisis, Russia claims.

What happened at COP26? Six compelling arguments why nuclear energy is spectacularly unfit to power a just transition. Nuclear can’t deliver on climate .    Buyer beware: greenwashing is becoming more sophisticated 

Japan’s upcoming nuclear waste dump.

UKRAINE. Who’s Telling the ‘Big Lie’ on Ukraine? Russia Angered by Senator Roger Wicker’s Nuclear Strike Remarks on Ukraine. Ukraine Is a Problem Only as Long as the West Makes It One.

EUROPE. U.S. European Command, NATO Supreme Headquarters Allied Command Europe leaders meet to “improve warfighting readiness”. European Union passes sustainable taxonomy law, but postpones decision about nuclear power. President of the European Commission to have the final say on whether Europe considers nuclear power to be ”clean” and ”green”?

CHINA. Inside information from China could sink the French nuclear flagship EPR. Taishan Problems. An investigation is still under way into leaks at nuclear power plant. China Wants to Join Southeast Asia’s Nuclear-Free Zone.

JAPAN. Japan PM to push for progress at NPT meet to scrap nuclear weapons. A lonely evening at home for Fukushima man retracing past.

MIDDLE EAST. Nuclear reactors in the Middle East are vulnerable to missile strikes.  Push for a nuclear-weapons-free zone in the Middle East, BUT Israel is the elephant in the room.

IRAN. Iran nuclear talks pulled back from the brink as Tehran shifts stance. Iran slams Europeans over nuclear deal stance. Tough talks ahead for Iran nuclear deal.

USA. 

•   USA considers deploying nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
•  Nuclear weapons proliferation: the great danger in the USA exporting advanced fast nuclear reactors. Nuns against nuclear weapons. Options for the future of the US intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) programme -the Carnegie Endowment fo International Peace. Saudi Arabia Arms Sale Is One of Biden’s Many Militaristic Actions in First Year,  
• ‘The Catalog of Nuclear Death’: The U.S.’s Hair Raising Plan to Obliterate Russia. 
• Nuclear Command and Control Satellites Should Be Off Limits – here’s why. 
• Proposal would expand aid to more victims of nuclear weapons tests.
•  Editorial: No, California shouldn’t extend the life of its last nuclear plant. There are better ways to fight climate change . 
• Opposition to small nuclear reactor project for Oyster Creek.
• U.S. government struggles with the ever-accumulating nuclear waste problem. 
• 100% renewables possible for USA – study demonstrates ,

UK. 

• UK High Court orders Assange extradited: A pseudo-legal travesty.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUJ6ntoieMs&t=67s 
•  Inherent design flaw in EPRs (European Pressurised or Evolutionary Power Reactors) casts doubt on future of UK’s Hinkley and Sizewell nuclear projects.
•  Radionuclides found from Hinkley nuclear mud Bristol Channel Citizens Radiation Survey. 
• UK’s Hinkley B nuclear power station to shut down permanently next summer.   Hunterston and Continuous Decommissioning. 
• British pensioners funding France’s ”nuclear renaissance” with white elephant nuclear projects? UK’s Nuclear Energy Finance Bill Committee hears problems about funding of new nuclear projects, that will be too late to affect climate change. UK government will ”prove the potential”of advanced nuclear reactors with its Advanced Modular Reactor Research, Development and Demonstration Programme. 
•  ‘Spend money on the National Health Service – not nuclear submarines’  
• Industrial action set to ”cripple” the effective running of UK’s nuclear submarine base. 
• Nuclear fusion – not as clean as they say: it produces considerable amounts of radioactive trash.
• UK’s failure to reduce energy demand – the most important measure to address climate change.

FRANCE. “Nuclear power has no future inFrance“.

GERMANY. The shutdown of Germany’s last nuclear power plant could enable the North to cover 160% of its electricity needs with renewables. Nuclear exit to unleash wind power in Northern Germany,

TURKEY. Turkey’s nuclear plans threaten Eastern Mediterranean ecosystems.