The week in nuclear news – Australia and more

It’s a critical time for the world, as Russia and USA face off over Ukraine – the mainstream media showing an extraordinary ignorance on the background for all this. In Australia we get only the USA government’s point of view – I don’t know about other countries.
The UK government is poised to legislate for electricity consumers to pay for nuclear reactors long before they are built, and to cop the costs of delays, things going wrong, or the wonderful new reactors not actually operating anyway.. Meanwhile Europ continues to contort itself with the conundrum of deciding that nuclear is ”green” and worthy of tax-payer funding. 
Coronavirus news– it’s all too much for me. We’re all in limbo – and a kind of mental paralysis sets in !

Climate Change.  No, it hasn’t gone away. The last seven years were the hottest on record.
Some bits of good news . To cheer myself up, I’ve been reading a lot about butterflies. AND, the nearly endangered Monarch Butterflies are back  – in their many thousands,  Developing food crops that can thrive in dry and hot conditions. 

AUSTRALIA.

The Australian government is complicit with USA and UK imperilling the health of Julian Assange, may well cause his death. The Australian media colludes with USA, UK and Australian governments’ persecution ofJulian Assange -”Crikey journal” typifies this .https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-OEJks1ldA .   

  Australia’s ambitious weapons plan -Joint Air Battle Management System (JABMS) AIR-6500.

Climate wars to die down in federal election as major parties dodge risks

   Would the Murray-Darling Basin survive another Millennium drought?

New record caps stunning year of Australian solar milestones, sets tone for 2022.

INTERNATIONAL.

Extraditing Julian Assange Threatens Journalists Worldwide.

 Treaties, Constitutions, and Laws Against War — limitless life What if deterrence doesn’t work?

Ukraine crisis.  US-Russia Talks May Be the Last Chance .     What War With Russia Would Look Like. NATO chieftain to Russia: Georgia, Ukraine belong to us, take it or leave it. On eve of Biden-Putin, NATO-Russia talks, Blinken blasts Russia as threat to European continent.

Emissions from the five major economies set to cause a doubling of extremely hot years in many nations. “Don’t Look Up:” Hollywood tackles the myths that fuel climate denial — RenewEconomy

Nuclear energy backers say it’s vital for the fight against global warming. Don’t be so sure. Nuclear is not a practicable means to combat climate change.

Six reasons to say ‘no’ — Beyond Nuclear International

To preserve the planet, we must reduce our consumption of resources..

UN chief welcomes P5 statement on nuclear war prevention . Five world powers vow to prevent spread of nuclear weapons.

Changing patterns for spreading misinformation on pandemics and climate change.

Going nuclear: Should nations unilaterally decide?

Hundreds of thousands of satellites brightening the night sky with negative effects on the ecosphere.

ANTARCTICA. Enormous Antarctic glacier becoming unstable. Maori workers exposed to radiation in cleaning up USA’s failed nuclear reactor in Antarctica.

UK. 

•   Why is support for nuclear power noisiest just as its failures become most clear?  Parliament to debate Nuclear Energy (Financing) Bill on 10 January – may transfer billions of new nuclear costs to consumers. Nuclear Energy Financing Bill – a poisoned chalice for the UK public. To bankroll the failing nuclear industry, the UK government will push thousands into fuel poverty, with its Nuclear Energy Bill.
• Coronavirus cases doubled in a few days at Sellafield nuclear site.
•  Climate Noise Has Obscured Nuclear Dump Cronyism and Nuclear Impacts of Coal Mine – Why Bother With Traffic Light System for Induced Earthquakes?
•   Government failure behind energy crisis. Government Wants YOU to Pay for New Nuclear. Safety concerns:  
• Hunterston nuclear power workers need a just transition to sustainable work. No more subsidies to the nuclear industry.  . Hunterston nuclear station shut down – then comes the long cleanup. BBC Report on Closure of Hunterston B Fails to Mention that All the Nuclear Crapola will Come to Cumbria. UK’s Heysham nuclear plant to shut down two years
•  Falkland Islands in a nuclear-free zone, yet Britain deployed 31 nuclear weapons there earlier than planned
• Scotland very nearly reached goal of 100% renewable energy over 2020. 
•  Blackburn and Darwen Council approving and old nuclear dump site for commercial development ?

ARGENTINA.
Argentina pressures UK over deployment of nuclear weapons in Malvinas conflict .

USA. 

• Weapons and war,  Will Biden stay the course toward nuclear disarmament? President Biden should pledge never to use nuclear weapons first. Nuclear weapons states like USA must end the hypocrisy. Blinken on CNN: Unrelenting bellicosity, full-court offensive for control of former Soviet territory.
•  What ratepayers should know about the Plant Vogtle expansion.
• NRC was right to deny OKLO’s plan for small nuclear reactors.
•  What’s going on at Michigan’s nuclear power plants? A troublesome past, and present. 
• Wastes.  Xcel in Minnesota wants to use different nuclear waste casks from the approved TN-40 type. Concerns in New Mexico, about taking in out-of-state nuclear waste, as Waste Isolation Pilot Plant has limited space. Very quietly, NRC plans mass shipments of high level radioactive waste. Texas residents affected by New Mexico nuclear tests – radioactive fallout ignores state lines.     Progress in nuclear waste cleanup at Idaho nuclear site   
•  Six men stood directly under a nuclear explosion test – all got cancer.

EUROPE. New generation European nuclear power will need investment of 500 billion euros by 2030. Existing plants will require 50 billion. European citizens divided over nuclear energy . European Commission’s divisive plan to label nuclear power ”green”, revealed on the sly? Anger as European Union is poised to subsidise the corrupt and rapacious nuclear industry. Including nuclear power as ”sustainable” completely undermines the European taxonomy’s original aim of the Green Deal.

AUSTRIA. Austria ready to take legal action against inclusion of nuclear power in Europe’s ”green taxonomy”.

RUSSIA. Russia’s nuclear submarine construction reaches a post-Soviet high. Russia’s secret nuclear waste city – Ozersk, City 40.

FRANCE. France – a serious anomaly detected in several EDF nuclear reactors. Fault found in France’s Chooz 2 nuclear reactor – its outage shutdown now extended.

GERMANY. German government struggles to unite on EU energy proposal.

NETHERLANDS. Facebook’s gigantic data farm planned for Netherlands causing a severe energy problem.

IRELAND. Ireland’s EU commissioner Mairead McGuinness insists that nuclear power is ”green”, amidst backlash over the EU ”taxonomy”.

GIBRALTAR. Nuclear submarine visiting Gibraltar puts people and the environment in danger.

NORTH KOREA. What we know about North Korea’s nuclear weapons and their military power.

SOUTH AFRICA. Nuclear power station life-extension project running late — even before it starts.