Nuclear news – Australian and international

A bit of good news –  this  week Vienna, Austria, is hosting the First Meeting of States Parties, UN member states that have agreed to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). Over 100 governments will participate. The great majority of the world’s representatives — 122 countries — voted their approval of the TPNW in 2017, and 62 have since ratified it. The treaty has entered into force, and only the tiny minority of nuclear-armed governments and their military allies continue to reject it. In the midst of all the doom and gloom news, we need to remember that thousands of people in many nations are working for a better world.

Otherwise – the week has been a perfect storm of awful news. The coronavirus pandemic has not gone away – far from it!  Global heating is striking – the poles are melting at a fast rate, floods in India and Bangladesh, extreme heat in Europe, wildfires in Germany, Greece, Spain and New Jersey. USA.   USA and UK determined to punish Julian Assange forever –   let that be a warning to any journalist who exposes USA military atrocities !

AUSTRALIA.

Can Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese save Julian Assange? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJ_9WoWVm-g&t=12s If Albanese asks for Assange’s freedom, Biden has every reason to agree: Bob Carr. Julian Assange and family suffer as unjust detention continues. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs0cKFeRko0&t=12s Federal government lobbying behind the scenes for Assange’s freedom.

Australia yet to sign up to treaty banning nuclear weapons but will attend UN meeting as observer. ICAN Australia welcomes government decision to attend the first Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons as an observer.

Why nuclear energy won’t work in Australia. D’oh! David Littleproud’s nuclear comments insult our intelligence.

No decision yet on choosing USA or UK nuclear submarines, but a USA Bill to train Australian submariners! – writer.   Australia’s Opposition Leader Dutton Says US Can Provide Two Nuclear Subs by 2030.

Albanese locks in Australia’s higher 2030 emissions reduction target . “Australia is under new management”: Bowen tells clean energy investors.

BP takes 40% stake in vast $30bn Australian renewables project. “The problem is not renewables:” Bowen puts Uhlmann back in his coal box. More than 1GW of battery storage to replace coal in world’s biggest isolated grid.

INTERNATIONAL

Assange Is Doing His Most Important Work Yet. The UK’s Decision to Extradite Assange Shows Why The US/UK’s Freedom Lectures Are a Farce.

The deteriorating nuclear order. The Nuclear Weapons Treaty Ban in the Footsteps of 1982’s Million-Person March.

Nuclear-armed nations spent $82.4bn on weapons in 2021. From all continents: mercenaries from 55 nations serving in Ukrainian army.

Pope Francis again says that the West provoked or failed to prevent Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Rosatom Exemption: How Russia’s State-Run Nuclear Giant Has Escaped Sanctions.

Bank group accused of exploiting loopholes and ‘greenwashing’ in climate pledge.

UKRAINE. The US-led bloc is unwilling to fight Russia directly and treats Ukraine as a proxy, Dutch PM admits. Ukraine vows to reclaim Crimea with US weapons. Ukraine killing civilians in ‘unprecedented’ shelling on Donetsk ignored by Western media and politicians. Profit in a time of war? The madness of more reactors (from Westinghouse) in Ukraine.

EUROPE. Anger that European Parliament may consider ”greenwashing” nuclear and gas. Two European Parliamentary committees oppose inclusion of nuclear power and gas as environmentally sustainable.

HUNGARY. Hungarian Greens: nuclear energy ‘severely pollutes the environment.

FRANCE. France’s nuclear output lowers, as climate change affects cooling water systems of reactors. A storm of unexpected problems swirls around France’s beleaguered nuclear fleet.

ANTARCTICA. Antarctic “doomsday glacier” melting at faster rate than in past 5,500 years.

UK. 

• Predictable monstrosity: UK approves Assange extradition. 
• An imminent radiological threat – UK’s planned Hinkley and Sizewell nuclear reactors – same design as flawed EPR reactor in China. 
• Fear the fallout of UK government’s unwise Regulated Asset Base funding for new nuclear reactors. Stop Sizewell C group questions UK government’s reasons for designating the project under the Regulated Asset Base model – and its secrecy about the plan. UK government’s outrageous secrecy on the costs to consumers of the Regulated Asset Base model for funding new nuclear reactors – Stop Sizewell C Group. UK government’s new financing plan for %20 tax-payer funded Sizewell C nuclear project will increase costs and delays, – is aimed to cut China out. 
• The nuclear industry ramps up its lobbying of Scottish Members of Parliament. 
• Hinkley Point C nuclear supply engineers go on strike. 
• Concern over cracks in EPR nuclear reactors in France- questions on similar reactors in Finland, UK,China.
• Many of UK’s coastal buildings may soon need to be abandoned due to sea level rise, – and what about the nuclear reactors?. 
• Sellafield, Britain’s most dangerous building, in the decades-long process of getting its nuclear waste cleaned up. 
• The Guardian’s direct collusion with media censorship by secret services exposed.

JAPAN. Japan gov’t to skip 1st U.N. nuclear ban meeting next week. 

Court rules Japanese government not responsible for Fukushima nuclear disaster damage.  Plaintiffs slam Supreme Court ruling.    Commentary] Class Action Lawsuit over Nuclear Power Plant Accident: One Dissenting Opinion What are the Key Points of the Supreme Court Decision?   

 Evacuated Fukushima villagers return home, but not without worries.    Radioactivity in fish and shellfish samples from the west coast of Canada after Fukushima (2011-18).    

Apprehension in Japan, about the idea of getting nuclear-powered submarines.

KAZAKHSTAN. Treaty on Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons as New Instrument in Nuclear Disarmament Process. Kazakhstan FM calls for elimination of all nuclear weapons by 2045.

USA. 

• What I Know About Human Life as a Nuclear Downwinder. 
• When the secretaries of Defense and State said publicly the U.S. wants Ukraine to win and weaken Russia, Biden said tone it down. 
• US squanders $80,000 every minute on nuclear weapons. ‘Revolting’: Senate Panel Adds Another $45 Billion to Biden’s Military Budget. 
• In the Middle East Biden walks in Trump’s footsteps and will repeat his failure. New Mexico, work for peace and well-being, not nuclear weapons. 
• Could the Orca Autonomous Submarine Forever Change Nuclear War? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7F67dQkgbo&t=192s 
• Biden Proposes Changes to Help Rescue California Nuclear Plant. Georgia Vogtle cooperatives move to freeze nuclear costs at $8.1B. 

CANADA.The world’s nuclear powers need to come to the table to try and change the course of history.