Author: Lloyd Albert Williams-Pendergraft

Writer/Author from Reno, Nevada. Grew up in Wyoming. Older than the hills.
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LLAW’s All Things Nuclear #672, Tuesday, (06/25/2024)

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity”

LLOYD A. WILLIAMS-PENDERGRAFT

JUN 26, 2024

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Image courtesy of the Washington Post

LLAW’s NUCLEAR ISSUES & COMMENTS, Tuesday, (06/25/2024)

Responding to the opening sentence/paragraph in this Washington Post opinion article: “Lawmakers took historic action on clean energy last week, and hardly anyone seems to have noticed.” Well, I, sure as hell, noticed! And in my own instantly-considered opinion, it may well be the biggest mistake ever made in American History.”

There are more reasons than I can count, but here are just a few:

  1. Nuclear Energy is not clean energy. It is the most dirty and dangerous kind of energy ever produced by mankind. And we have no idea what to do with the radioactive waste.
  2. Nuclear energy revival will take too long to solve our problem with greenhouse gasses that cause global warming/climate change. We’ve been lying to ourselves about that issue for many years, doing nothing when it could have been controlled by limiting commercial power production from corporate use of fossil fuels, and investing more in renewable energy sources.
  3. Nuclear power plants can more than double the damage from a single nuclear bomb in a war situation, simply by the enemies blowing up the others’ nuclear power plant reactors with a nuclear bomb. (Keep track of the very serious nuclear threats and radiation fears concerning the Russian controlled Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in southern Ukraine to get an idea about the potential danger of existing nuclear power in war zones.) There is also the existential threat of terrorism that we are ignoring.
  4. Accidental meltdowns pursuant to operational, mechanical, engineering, and earthquake, flood or other ‘acts of god’ damage similar to or worse than those that we have seen in the past, especially if nuclear power plant standards or reduced in an effort to meet the useless 2050 deadline.

Of course there are many, many, more serious problems, even doomsday type problems, with ‘all things nuclear’. When someone mentions the words “clean” or “safe” or even “financial” next to anything nuclear, I wince and my heart rate jumps to critical for a few seconds. llolloll! The fact is ‘we know not what we are doing’ and there is absolutely no room for the slightest mistake of dealing with ‘all things nuclear’ because we are incapable of using anything nuclear safely. Yet we fail to rid ourselves of the very radioactive refined uranium fuel, and the products that use the fuel, that can and will kill us all right along with most all other life if we continue to use and ignore what nuclear power, nuclear war, or all other things nuclear that are beyond humanity’s knowledge, understanding, and control. ~llaw

The Washington Post Logo PNG Transparent & SVG Vector ...

Opinion

The stage is being set for an American nuclear power revolution

There’s no telling how much clean energy the United States might produce.

By Robert Gebelhoff

Assistant editor and Opinions contributor

June 25, 2024 at 6:45 a.m. EDT

Lawmakers took historic action on clean energy last week, and hardly anyone seems to have noticed.

Congress passed a bill to help reinvigorate the anemic U.S. nuclear industry, with the support of President Biden and 88 senators. Not a single Republican voted against it.

Sign up for Democracy, Refreshed, a newsletter series on how to renovate the republic.

The bill, known as the Advance Act, is precisely the kind of move the government should be taking to fight climate change. It shows that large bipartisan majorities can help protect the planet without giving in to the endless politicking that has killed so many energy reforms in the past.

The act’s purpose is to liberate the nuclear industry from its decades-long malaise. Though the United States produces more nuclear energy than any other country, it has lately been shedding reactors like crazy.

This is because most U.S. nuclear plants are near or past their retirement age. Today, the average commercial reactor in the United States is 42 years old, which is concerning given that their licenses typically last just 40 years (though they can be extended).

Meanwhile, efforts to build new reactors have floundered. Earlier this year, developers fired up a new reactor at Plant Vogtle near Augusta, Ga., but it was the first one built from scratch in more than three decades. And it suffered years of delays and ever-increasing costs, an all-too-common affliction in the industry.

Given such slow progress toward replacing aging infrastructure, the Energy Department has warned that the nuclear industry will keep shrinking. By 2040, the country is projected to produce 20 percent less energy from nuclear power than it does today.

This is alarming because nuclear is our largest source of non-carbon-based energy. Renewable energy sources such as wind and solar are rapidly expanding, but they are intended to replace fossil fuels. They can’t also be expected to shore up the nuclear industry. And don’t forget, in the next few decades, demand for electricity will only grow.

Meanwhile, the United States is falling behind internationally on nuclear power development. Now that the Vogtle reactor is finished, the number of other projects under construction in the United States is, well, zero. See how this compares with other countries:

The Biden White House has long recognized the problem, and has been trying to inject some adrenaline into the U.S. nuclear industry. The Inflation Reduction Act dedicates billions of dollars to developing new plants and keeping existing ones running. The administration has also dangled hundreds of millions of dollars for any companies that develop advanced nuclear technology, which promises to be cheaper and safer — and to produce less radioactive waste. Critically, the Energy Department has been working to supercharge the production of the enriched uranium needed to fuel advanced reactors.

Now, the Advance Act addresses a key hurdle to nuclear projects: the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s arduous permitting process.

The soon-to-be law will enlarge the NRC’s chronically inadequate workforce. It also endeavors to simplify the agency’s permitting process. For example, it will lower the burdensome fees that companies must pay in the review process, helping relatively small, innovative companies enter the market.

It will also direct the NRC to more quickly license nuclear plants at retired fossil fuel sites. This is just common sense: Retrofitting a former coal-fired power plant, which is already hooked up to the electrical grid, could save on construction costs and avoid lengthy siting reviews. It could also return jobs to communities that have lost them. A 2022 Energy Department study identified more than 300 retired or operating fossil fuel sites that could be converted to nuclear.

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ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:

There are 6 categories, including a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives, as do ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links in each category about the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:

  1. All Things Nuclear
  2. Nuclear Power
  3. Nuclear Power Emergencies
  4. Nuclear War
  5. Nuclear War Threats
  6. Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There are no Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in this evening’s Post.)

Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.

A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.

TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS, Tuesday, (06/25/2024)

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

June 24, 2024: How the U.S. is updating its ‘geriatric’ nuclear arsenal | Colorado Public Radio

Colorado Public Radio

All Things Considered · View News Schedule. CPR Classical. Concerto in c. Alessandro Marcello. Performed by: Scottish Ensemble / Jonathan Morton.Nuclear war looms closer amid confrontation – China Military

China Military

To make things worse, except two UN treaties, all other bilateral nuclear … nuclear arms race is all but on. As the Russia-Ukraine conflict drags on …

US and allies clash with Tehran and Moscow over Iranian nuclear program at UN Security Council

FOX 8 News

Wood said the U.S. is prepared to use all means to prevent a nuclear … about its capacity to assemble a nuclear weapon.” Iran’s U.N. Ambassador …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

Opinion | Biden is preparing for an American nuclear power revolution – Washington Post

Washington Post

Though the United States produces more nuclear energy than any other country, it has lately been shedding reactors like crazy. Story continues below …

Increased nuclear energy production legislation sent to Biden to help lower Americans’ energy bills

New York Post

ANR is an acronym for advanced nuclear reactor. Advertisement. “Increasing domestic production of affordable, clean energy will lower your energy …

Congress Just Passed Legislation to Greenlight Nuclear Energy

Independent Women’s Forum

The ADVANCE Act is more than a year in coming and constitutes a compromise between different factions concerned with the future of nuclear power …

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEWS

Officials to conduct simulated emergency exercise at Prairie Island nuclear plant

Republican Eagle

Officials will participate in a simulated emergency exercise at the Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant on Tuesday, June 25.

Duke Energy Supports First Responders With $500000 in Grants for Emergency …

CSRwire

Duke Energy’s Emergency Preparedness and Storm Resiliency Grant Program was … power generation technologies such as hydrogen and advanced nuclear.

Former emergency committee chairman Han Dong-hoon and lawmaker Na Kyung-won, who …

mk.co.kr

“North Korea is virtually recognized as a nuclear power, and if former President Trump returns to power, the U.S. will also change its attitude,” he …

Nuclear War

NEWS

US and allies clash with Tehran and Moscow over Iranian nuclear program at UN Security Council

AP News

Israel-Hamas war · Stanley Cup · Midwest flooding · World News. US and allies … Iravani reiterated Iran’s rejection of nuclear weapons, and insisted …

Nuclear war looms closer amid confrontation – China Military

China Military

Russia announced on May 21 the beginning of its phase-one non-strategic live-fire nuclear exercises, getting ready for the use of non-strategic …

The 2024 Presidential Race and the Nuclear Weapons Threat | Arms Control Association

Arms Control Association

But the records and policies of the leading contenders, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, offer some clues. The Goal: Avoiding …

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

The 2024 Presidential Race and the Nuclear Weapons Threat | Arms Control Association

Arms Control Association

… threats of nuclear use, Biden also faced the specter of nuclear conflict. Since Russia’s invasion, Biden has not issued nuclear counterthreats …

Iran’s New Nuclear Threat | Foreign Affairs

Foreign Affairs

… nuclear doctrine had not changed, but added a caveat. Following an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, the mission threatened, Iran might …

World should take threat of WWIII seriously: FM Fidan | Daily Sabah

Daily Sabah

Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan warned about the risk of World War III, amid the escalation of regional crises and the threat of nuclear war, as he.

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LLAW’s All Things Nuclear #671, Monday, (06/24/2024)

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity”

LLOYD A. WILLIAMS-PENDERGRAFT

JUN 25, 2024

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FILE PHOTO: View shows Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant

FILE PHOTO: View shows Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant

LLAW’s NUCLEAR ISSUES & COMMENTS, Monday, (06/24/2024)

What is happening at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station in Ukraine during the Russian invasion is simply increasingly the suspense of waiting for a horrible nuclear “accident” that could threaten the lives of much of Ukraine and large areas of Europe. That is one issue that has been ongoing for more than two years and continues to grow more carelessly dangerous as time goes by until now it is at the critical issue point of no return. It is like Nero fiddling while Rome burns, but much, much, worse.

But the Russia/Ukraine war, with the USA and now NATO apparently supporting Ukraine, increasing the threats from Russia’s Putin and others, makes Ukraine a hotbed for the beginning of WWIII, and, if that happens, Armageddon happens. The leaders of nuclear armed nations all know this, but does their seemingly lack of apparent care mean if they cannot have it all, they will take the rest of humanity and other life with them to their final destinations?

This lying world, reeking of the stench of humanity’s hatred for one-another, filling every day to the putrid hilt of wishful but hopeless ‘deterrence’ of nuclear threats that they and we know cannot continue forever, so the answer to my question has two current answers only: 1) unite and remove ‘all things nuclear’ from the Earth’s environment forever, or 2) remain divided and use nuclear weapons, including nuclear power plants, to quickly create the 6th Extinction. ~llaw

Reuters

IAEA urges halt to attacks on town near Ukrainian nuclear plant

Reuters

Sun 23 June 2024 at 3:47 pm GMT-7·2-min read

IAEA Board holds emergency meeting on Zaporizhzhia attacks

IAEA urges halt to attacks on town near Ukrainian nuclear plant

(Reuters) – The U.N.’s nuclear watchdog called on Sunday for a halt to attacks on Enerhodar, a town near the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station after drone strikes this week hit two electricity substations serving the area.

The plant’s Russian-installed officials accused Ukraine of staging two drone strikes that destroyed one substation, damaged another and cut power to residents for a time.

Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, made no reference to Ukraine and said the incidents had no affect on the Zaporizhzhia plant’s operations.

But he said the attacks had to stop.

“Whoever is behind this, it must stop. Drone usage against the plant and its vicinity is becoming increasingly more frequent,” Grossi said in a statement on the IAEA website.

“This is completely unacceptable and it runs counter to the safety pillars and concrete principles which have been accepted unanimously.”

Power had been cut to Enerhodar, a few kilometres from the plant, for 16 hours, he said. But neither of the attacks, which occurred on Wednesday and Friday, had any impact on the power lines that the nuclear plant uses to keep operating.

The Zaporizhzhia plant’s Russia-installed management said some “infrastructure facilities” including the transport department and print shop experienced disruptions, but that nuclear safety measures remained fully operational.

Ukrainian officials have made no comment on the incidents and Reuters could not independently confirm the reports.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the attacks exposed Ukraine’s disregard for nuclear safety.

Russian troops seized the Zaporizhzhia plant in the early days of the February 2022 invasion, and Moscow and Kyiv have since regularly accused each other of endangering safety around the facility. It produces no electricity at the moment.

The IAEA maintains inspectors at the station.

Russia launched mass attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure in the first winter of the conflict and resumed a long series of attacks in March. Kyiv says the renewed attacks have knocked out half of its energy-generating capacity.

(Reporting by Ron Popeski; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

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ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:

There are 6 categories, including a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives, as do ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links in each category about the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:

  1. All Things Nuclear
  2. Nuclear Power
  3. Nuclear Power Emergencies
  4. Nuclear War
  5. Nuclear War Threats
  6. Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There one Yellowstone Caldera bonus story available in this evening’s Post.)

Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.

A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.

TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS, Monday, (06/24/2024)

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

The Coalition says its nuclear plants will run for 100 years. What does the … – The Guardian

The Guardian

The average age of an active nuclear reactor worldwide is about 32 … all over the place at the same time, or you get a very serious safety or …

Australia politics live: Chris Bowen calls Dutton’s nuclear policy ‘a scam’ – The Guardian

The Guardian

Both were also asked about nuclear energy. Lambie … Now the criticisms of the CSIRO report were that it was not running the nuclear all the time.

The Coalition talks so much about its nuclear energy plan but provides so little evidence

The Guardian

The problem for people and the planet is that electricity from coal and gas is still growing at all. Nuclear might seem ideal on paper to replace …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

Big Tech wants nuclear power but doesn’t want to foot the bill | The Seattle Times

The Seattle Times

Big technology companies including Microsoft and Google are eager to see more nuclear energy feeding their power-hungry data centers but are far …

Committee to evaluate nuclear power option for Norway

World Nuclear News

There is therefore a need to obtain an updated and solid knowledge base on nuclear power as a possible energy source in the Norwegian power system.

Peter Dutton’s nuclear plan surrounded by false claims – but people are listening

The Sydney Morning Herald

Australians are still paying a price for the energy policy disputes of the past. The nuclear proposal is unlikely to end the argument.

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEWS

IAEA urges halt to attacks on town near Ukrainian nuclear plant – Yahoo News UK

Yahoo News UK

IAEA Board holds emergency meeting on Zaporizhzhia attacks. 1 / 2. IAEA … But neither of the attacks, which occurred on Wednesday and Friday, had any …

‘We’re in a climate emergency‘: Labor MP says country does ‘not’ have time for nuclear

YouTube

Assistant Defence Minister Matt Thistlethwaite says Australia does “not” have time to adopt nuclear energy because the world is “in a climate …

‘The devastation is severe’: Parts of Iowa underwater amid flood emergency | WKRG.com

WKRG

… nuclear–powered aircraft carrier · Supreme Court will take up Hungary’s bid to end lawsuit … The Supreme Court is seen on Thursday, June 13, 2024 …

Nuclear War

NEWS

NATO’s Endgame Is Nuclear War – Compact Magazine

Compact Magazine

The world is at its most dangerous moment since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Back then, the fear of total destruction consumed the public; …

Why it’s too late to stop World War 3 – Yahoo

Yahoo

Imagine, for a moment, that the Iranian government announces it has developed a nuclear bomb and threatens to use it on Israel.

Russia is revising its nuclear doctrine, Kremlin says – Reuters

Reuters

The war in Ukraine has triggered the biggest confrontation between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. Get the latest news and …

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

Nuclear doomsday threat is ‘great and growing,’ scientists urgently warn – MSN

MSN

But recently, these threats are becoming much more concrete. Nuclear doomsday threat is ‘great and growing, …

Putin is revising Russia’s nuclear doctrine due to ‘current realities’ – NBC News

NBC News

… nuclear weapons if it believes that threats are increasing. President … The war in Ukraine has triggered the biggest confrontation between Russia …

Russia Can Reduce Decision-Making Time For Using Nuclear Weapons If Threats Increase …

Times Now

Russia Can Reduce Decision-Making Time For Using Nuclear Weapons If Threats Increase, Lawmaker Says ; Moscow: Russia ; The war in Ukraine has triggered …

Yellowstone Caldera

NEWS

Mount St. Helens Acting Up But Unlikely To Trigger Yellowstone Supervolcano

Cowboy State Daily

There are 560 miles between Yellowstone National Park and Mount St. Helens. That’s a sizeable distance between the two volcanoes, but Yellowstone is …

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LLAW’s All Things Nuclear #670, Sunday, (06/23/2024)

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity”

LLOYD A. WILLIAMS-PENDERGRAFT

JUN 24, 2024

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Peter Zelei Images via Getty Images

LLAW’s NUCLEAR ISSUES & COMMENTS, Sunday, (06/23/2024)

A must read far beyond fantasy! I am just finishing up my 2nd full reading (with mindful notes) of Annie Jacobsen’s, perhaps prophetic, book “Nuclear War: A Scenario” of a well-put-together extremely logical nuclear war from years of interviews and working within governmental documents and knowledgeable individuals who have or had a reason to know what they are or were (some have passed away) talking about when it comes to the next war. It will be WWIII and it will be nuclear, and it won’t take very long.

Her book demonstrates and proves without doubt that we humans absolutely fail to understand the earth-shaking news (or the reality) of a nuclear war ending virtually all life on planet Earth within a very short period of time if some leader in some country pushes the 1st nuclear war button. As an informed species we humans are entirely in the dark, unaware of the immanent danger of both nuclear arms and nuclear power plants, and most articles we read from the mass-media editors and writers have no idea that nuclear war today will be like no other war in the history of the world — potentially as dangerous and far more explicitly sudden, asteroid collision over 65 million years ago, as the last (5th) Earth Extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs and other life on Earth before mankind showed up and eventually discovered uranium. We, mankind, are about to cause the 6th Extinction if just one nuclear armed country fires on another with an ICBM carrying a single multi-kiloton nuclear bomb.

We read ridiculously childish uninformed articles every day from the media about how we have reduced the number of nuclear weapons since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, for instance, implying that the world is a safer place now than then, but the article editor or author has no idea that the ‘number’ of nuclear weapons has nothing at all to do with the ‘power’ of nuclear weapons between then and now. And that story, among daily dozens of others with long outdated knowledge and perceptions, is like listening to a ‘goodnight, sweet dreams’ story from a parent when we were small children compared to the reality of it all in our day-to-day nuclear-based waking hours now. Armageddon is a forgone conclusion unless we do an immediate about face and get rid of ‘all things nuclear’ forever with no exceptions, or even more doubtfully, some unknown but intelligent ‘life-force’ comes along and does it for us. ~llaw (Read on . . .)

File:Vox (website) logo.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

What nuclear annihilation could look like

“The survivors would envy the dead.”

by Sean Illing

Jun 23, 2024, 4:00 AM PDT

GettyImages-1393775179

Peter Zelei Images via Getty Images

How often do you think about all the ways the world could end?

As the host of The Gray Area, I find myself engaged in this macabre exercise more than most. We’ve done episodes on runaway AI and climate change and extinction panics. One of the few topics we haven’t covered, however, is nuclear war. Which is surprising because this scenario is near the top of basically every list of existential threats — and now feels newly salient with recent news involving North Korea, Iran, and China.

Annie Jacobsen is a reporter and the author of a new book called Nuclear War: A Scenario. I read a lot of books for the show and this one stuck with me longer than any I can recall. It’s a book that clearly wants to startle the reader, and it succeeds.

Jacobsen walks you through all the ways a nuclear catastrophe might unfold, and she gives a play-by-play breakdown of the terrifying choreography that would ensue in the minutes immediately after a nuclear missile launch.

So I invited Jacobsen on The Gray Area to talk about what a nuclear exchange would really look like and how perilously close we are to that reality. As always, there’s much more in the full podcast, so listen and follow The Gray Area on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, or wherever you find podcasts. New episodes drop every Monday.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Sean Illing

I suspect the image most of us still have of nuclear bombs is the image of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but that was a long time ago. How much more powerful are the thermonuclear weapons we’re talking about today?

Annie Jacobsen

To give you an idea of a thermonuclear weapon, I went to one of the ultimate sources, a 93-year-old nuclear weapons engineer named Richard Garwin, probably the most famous nuclear weapons engineer, physicist, presidential adviser, still alive. Garwin drew the plans for the very first thermonuclear weapon. Its code name was Ivy Mike; it’s on the cover of my book. It was 10.4 megatons. 

AD

So consider that the Hiroshima bomb that you referenced was 15 kilotons and then think about 10.4 megatons. It’s about 1,000 Hiroshima-sized bombs detonating at the same time from the same center point. Garwin explained it to me in the simplest of terms when he asked me to visualize this fact: A thermonuclear weapon uses an atomic bomb as its fuse inside of the weapon. That’s how powerful it is.

Sean Illing

Paint the picture for me, as you do in the opening pages of the book, where you imagine a nuke is dropped on Washington, DC. What happens next?

Annie Jacobsen

So with a 1-megaton bomb on Washington, DC, what happens in the very first millisecond is that this thermonuclear flash expands into a ball of fire that is one mile of pure fire. It’s 19 football fields of fire. 

Then the fireball’s edges compress into what is called a steeply fronted blast wave — as dense wall of air pushing out, mowing down everything in its path three miles out, in every direction, because it is accompanied by several-hundred-mile-an-hour winds. 

It’s like Washington, DC, just got hit by an asteroid and the accompanying wave. When you think about this initial 9-mile diameter ring, imagine every single engineered structure — buildings, bridges, etc. — collapsing.

There’s also a thermonuclear flash that sets everything on fire and melts lead, steel, and titanium. Streets nine miles out transform into molten asphalt lava. The details are so horrific; it’s important to keep in mind these are not from my imagination. These are sourced from Defense Department documents because the Atomic Energy Commission and the Defense Department have been keeping track of what nuclear bombs do to people and to things ever since the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings of 1945.

Sean Illing

When all that happens, we’re in what you call “Day Zero,” and then the nuclear winter begins. What does that look like?

Annie Jacobsen

One of the big premises of the book was to take readers from nuclear launch to nuclear winter and the nuclear launch up to Day Zero takes place over this horrifying 72-minute period. As STRATCOM Commander General [C. Robert] Kehler said to me in an interview when we were talking about a nuclear exchange between Russia and the United States: “Yes, Annie, the world could end in the next couple of hours.” 

AD

So nuclear winter begins in essence after the bombs stop falling and there is a process of mega-fires. The area around every nuclear detonation is going to ultimately result in what is known now as a mega-fire. You’re talking about 100 to 300 square miles of fire per bomb where everything in that area is burning until it doesn’t exist anymore. This is because, of course, there are no first responders anymore. There are no fire trucks, there’s no way to put anything out. 

With all of these explosions, 330 billion pounds of soot gets lofted into the troposphere. That is enough soot to block out 70 percent of the sun, creating a dramatic temperature plunge up to 40 degrees Fahrenheit, certainly in the mid-latitudes. 

Those areas, for example, from Iowa to Ukraine, that whole band of the mid-latitudes, the bodies of water in those areas become frozen over in sheets of ice. With that temperature drop, you have the death of agriculture and that is why nuclear winter after nuclear war will result in what is now estimated to be 5 billion dead.

Sean Illing

And if I remember correctly, those models also estimated that in places like Iowa and Ukraine temperatures basically wouldn’t go above freezing for something like six years at least. Is that right?

Annie Jacobsen

That’s right. 

I was reading Carl Sagan, who was one of the original five authors of the nuclear winter theory, who wrote about how after these bodies of water that get frozen over for years, after they thaw out and expose all the dead people, you then have to deal with the pathogens and the plague. Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet premier during the Kennedy administration, once said to Kennedy when the two of them talked about this, that “after a nuclear war, the survivors would envy the dead.”

Sean Illing

After all the reporting you did, are you confident that there are enough checks and guardrails in place to ensure that we’ll avoid a nuclear exchange if it’s at all possible?

Annie Jacobsen

Let me answer that question with a quote from the current secretary-general of the United Nations, António Guterres, who said, “The world is one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away, from nuclear annihilation.”

Sean Illing

What does that really mean?

Annie Jacobsen

What it means is exactly what he said: that we could just have a mishap. We could have a mishap caused by a misinterpretation. A miscalculation would be one nuclear-armed nation thinking another nuclear-armed nation was doing something that maybe it wasn’t doing. 

AD

This gets us into some of the crazy policies that exist on the books, things like “launch on warning” whereby once the United States learns that it is being attacked by an ICBM or a sub-launched ballistic missile, the president then has six minutes to decide how he should respond, with nuclear weapons. That’s what Guterres is talking about when he talks about a miscalculation. 

Sean Illing

How much room is there for human agency in these command and control protocols? You always hear people say in presidential elections, “Do we really trust that guy with the nukes?” But is that the right way to think about this? 

Annie Jacobsen

You’re raising an existential question that everyone should be raising. 

We’ve been living in what some call a 79-year experiment. Yes, you could say, “Deterrence has held all these years.” Never mind the fact that there used to be two nuclear-armed nations, and there are now nine; never mind the fact that you have new technology factors coming into the mix. 

Never mind the fact that nuclear saber-rattling has suddenly become acceptable among world leaders. This is astonishing. If you look at history, this was never part of the rhetoric, particularly out of the mouth of a US president, as happened with the former President Trump.

When I began reporting this book, the fundamental question that I was trying to answer was not, “Is deterrence great?” but rather what if deterrence fails? The Defense Department predicates its nuclear arsenal on this idea that deterrence will hold. That is the fundamental assumption. It’s written everywhere. “Deterrence will hold.” 

Well, I also found a discussion with the deputy general of STRATCOM talking to his colleagues, not in a classified setting but in a somewhat rarified setting. What he said was this: “If deterrence fails, it all unravels.” 

Sean Illing

I think it was former CIA Director Michael Hayden who told you explicitly that this process is designed for speed and decisiveness. It is not designed to debate the decision. On some level, I get that. But the automaticity of the whole process, given the stakes, is more than a little terrifying.

Annie Jacobsen

You better believe it is. And Hayden actually told that to members of Congress. And by the way, I believe that with the rhetoric from the former president, Donald Trump, all that talk about “fire and fury” with North Korea, it worried Congress to such a degree that they issued a number of reports that drilled down on a couple concepts that the public was not clear on. 

AD

One of them had to do with what’s called sole presidential authority. So when Trump was saying, “I have a bigger button,” and that kind of rhetoric, Congress released a couple reports making clear that the president of the United States does have sole presidential authority. That means he needs to ask permission of no one to launch a nuclear war — not the secretary of defense, not the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and not Congress.

Sean Illing

You write something near the end of the book imagining that the secretary of defense, who’s the acting president in this hypothetical situation, what if this person has a crisis of conscience and wonders, “Is there really any point in firing these bombs and wiping out the other half of humanity?” 

And it’s pretty clear that there really isn’t any room for that because the whole logic of deterrence is predicated on the absolute promise that the process is fixed and automatic. That’s what makes it a deterrent. But then again, it imprisons the actors in this process so that they don’t really have any control over it.

Annie Jacobsen

Let me add something because Dr. Glen McDuff of the Los Alamos Laboratory, who is both a nuclear weapons engineer who worked on the Star Wars program during the Reagan administration and has served as the historian at the classified library at the lab. I asked him, “Do you think anyone would defy orders?” And he said, “Annie, you have a better chance at winning Powerball.”

Sean Illing

Is there some near-future where in order to further reinforce the automaticity of this process, we just have AI controlling the whole thing from start to finish? 

Annie Jacobsen

I can’t imagine a worse nightmare scenario than bringing AI, or more machine-learning technology, into the mix. There’s an incredible amount of machine learning that is built into the system. For example, the satellite detects the launch and then that data is processed in space. About one-tenth of the way to the moon is where a geosync satellite sits and that data is processed and streamed down to the nuclear command and control bunkers in the United States. This is happening in seconds. But to the idea of putting an “AI” into the mix on the human decision-making level or identifying level, that seems like a recipe for disaster and is a reason why so many of the systems within the triad are still analog, not digital. In other words, they continue to be similar systems to when they were invented decades ago so that they can’t be hacked.

Listen to the rest of the conversation and be sure to follow The Gray Area on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, or wherever you listen to podcasts. 

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ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:

There are 6 categories, including a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives, as do ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links in each category about the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:

  1. All Things Nuclear
  2. Nuclear Power
  3. Nuclear Power Emergencies
  4. Nuclear War
  5. Nuclear War Threats
  6. Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There no Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in this evening’s Post.)

Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.

A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.

TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS, Sunday, (06/23/2024)

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

What nuclear annihilation could look like – Vox

Vox

How often do you think about all the ways the world could end? As the host of The Gray Area, I find myself engaged in this macabre exercise more …

PhD historian breaks down how anti-nuclear movement drastically impacted global energy sector

The Cool Down

… all for nuclear energy and had ideas about why some people are against it. One commenter said: “Nuclear energy is the most misunderstood thing ever.

Nuclear confusion: the Coalition’s power plan is becoming less and less clear

The Guardian

After comparing all the scenarios, the same report says there is “no role for nuclear energy unless costs are constrained and renewable energy growth …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

Coalition won’t say how much nuclear power its plan will generate until after an election

ABC

The Coalition is unable to say how much nuclear energy it plans to generate, its energy spokesperson says. The amount of power is one of many details …

Dutton defends nuclear power plan, takes aim at Albanese – ABC News – ABC

Full Coverage

Coalition reveals plan for independent authority to rule on nuclear power plant output

The Guardian

Ted O’Brien says Labor must respect mandate for nuclear if opposition wins election, but will not say if Coalition will drop policy if Labor …

Coalition’s nuclear gamble | Insiders | ABC News – YouTube

YouTube

00:00 Welcome to Insiders. 00:39 We now know where the Coalition wants to build reactors. We don’t know the cost, the impact on power prices.

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEWS

Room for improvement at US nuclear plants-task force | Reuters

Reuters

… emergency planning for nuclear plants in this country,” Charles Miller, head of the NRC task force, said at a public briefing for the agency’s …

More than 1,000 without power in Bridgeport – WBOY.com

WBOY.com

The estimated restoration time is 6:30 p.m.. If you are at risk due to high temperatures and without power, contact your county or local emergency …

China’s first industrial nuclear–powered steam generation project goes online | The Star

The Star

… energy supply, China is already a global leader in nuclear power generation. … Hong Kong holds mass drill to prepare for crowds, emergencies at Kai …

Nuclear War

NEWS

What nuclear annihilation could look like – Vox

Vox

With that temperature drop, you have the death of agriculture and that is why nuclear winter after nuclear war will result in what is now estimated to …

Russia could reduce decision time for use of nuclear weapons, lawmaker says | Reuters

Reuters

Moscow and Washington have cut the number of their weapons as the Soviet Union crumbled, but the Cold War arms control architecture has crumbled …

Russia could reduce decision time for use of nuclear weapons, lawmaker says – Swissinfo

Swissinfo

The war in Ukraine has triggered the biggest confrontation between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, with President Vladimir …

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

Russia could reduce decision time for use of nuclear weapons, lawmaker says | Reuters

Reuters

… nuclear weapons if Moscow believes that threats are increasing, parliament’s defence committee chairman said. The war in Ukraine has triggered the …

Nuclear drills, threats to Western capitals…. and then a desperate peace offering – Daily Mail

Daily Mail

Vladimir Putin has stepped up the rhetoric over nuclear warfare and doubled down on threats to the West in recent months – at the same time as Russian …

What nuclear annihilation could look like – Vox

Vox

… nuclear war. Which is surprising because this scenario is near the top of basically every list of existential threats — and now feels newly …

Posted on

LLAW’s All Things Nuclear #669, Saturday, (06/22/2024)

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity”

LLOYD A. WILLIAMS-PENDERGRAFT

JUN 23, 2024

1

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Bernie Sanders and Ed Markey

U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.), hold a news conference outside the U.S. Capitol on September 20, 2023 in Washington, D.C.

(Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

LLAW’s NUCLEAR ISSUES & COMMENTS, Saturday, (06/22/2024)

As civilians who have slim to no access to valuable information needed to conduct our lives, including our elected bureaucrats and ‘experts’ on nuclear war who are constantly making recommendations or even lawful decisions based on little more than hot air, e.g. approving an increase in financial support of nuclear power plants (new ones, those in use, and even those shut down and rising from the dead), and arbitrarily loosening NRC safety rules and regulations for allowing new on-line plants in the future, all for meeting the impossible-to-achieve 2050 deadline to reach ‘net zero’ carbon when a majority of politicians don’t even understand what the meaning of ‘net zero CO2’ is.

Only two bureaucrats, thank you both, voted against the nuclear plan — so how do we have any idea from the constant official ‘yes’/’no’ responses we see daily in the media, both concerning nuclear power and nuclear war, are worth considering? Following are examples of articles (one relating to nuclear power; the other relating to nuclear war) that can easily be described as meaningless (for totally different reasons) because we don’t know and won’t admit that we don’t know what we think we know, so we blindly move forward for no logical reason, or we simply say, “but on the other hand”, when we can’t have it both ways. . . ~llaw

Common Dreams | LinkedIn

88-2: Only Markey, Sanders Oppose ‘Expensive, Risky’ Nuclear Power Expansion

Calling the vote “disappointing,” one campaigner warned: “Nuclear is, at best, a waste of resources. At worst, it’s a meltdown.”

JESSICA CORBETT

Jun 19, 2024

Just U.S. Sens. Ed Markey and Bernie Sanders on Tuesday voted against legislation that one scientist warned this week “will only increase the danger to people already living downwind” of nuclear power facilities.

The Fire Grants and Safety Act—which now includes provisions from the Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy (ADVANCE) Act—passed 88-2, with six Republicans, three Democrats, and one Independent not voting.

Speaking on the upper chamber’s floor Tuesday, Markey (D-Mass.)—who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate, and Nuclear Safety—stressed his support for the United States Fire Administration and firefighter assistance grant programs, and those working to keep U.S. communities safe.

“Unfortunately, the vote today is not just for the lifesaving programs that I am staunchly on record as supporting,” he explained. “On the coattails of this noncontroversial bill to protect our heroes, our colleagues in the House tacked on a dangerous additional 90-page package of provisions that merged the Senate’s ADVANCE Act and the House’s Atomic Energy Advancement Act.”

The legislation—now on its way to President Joe Biden’s desk—puts “corporate profits over community cleanup,” the senator said. “Notably, the provisions from the Senate bill that would have provided a much-needed $225 million for communities affected by nuclear closures and $100 million to clean up contaminated tribal communities are not in the legislation anymore, as it came back from the House of Representatives—but the provisions to prop up the nuclear industry, they remain.”

Highlighting that the bill would, among other things, require the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to rewrite its mission statement to say that its regulation and oversight should “not unnecessarily limit… civilian use of radioactive materials and deployment of nuclear energy,” Markey declared that the NRC “shouldn’t be the Nuclear Retail Commission.”

“We have a duty to set the strongest possible standards for domestic and international nuclear activities, as an example to the rest of the world,” he said of the United States. “We also have to clean up our existing messes, particularly in tribal and environmental justice communities, before investing in anything that might make those messes worse. As a result, despite my strong and continued support for the fire safety grants and my respect for my colleagues working on this issue, I must vote no.”

“It’s disappointing that the Senate chose to promote nuclear power when America is flush with energy options that are better for people and the planet.”

Praising Markey and Sanders (I-Vt.), Beyond Nuclear on Wednesday urged the bill’s critics to call their offices “to thank them for their courageous, wise, and good NO votes, despite it all,” adding that “they spoke truth to power, and have kept some glimmer of hope alive, despite this very dark moment in the cause of anti-nuclear, environmental, and environmental justice activism.”

The Senate’s approval of the legislation was celebrated by the nuclear industry and its advocates. Environment America noted that in addition to the NRC mission statement rewrite, the bill “promotes nuclear power, including small modular reactors (SMRs) and highly concentrated nuclear fuel, and the export of nuclear materials and technology.”

Johanna Neumann, senior director of the group’s Campaign for 100% Renewable Energy, said after the vote, “It’s disappointing that the Senate chose to promote nuclear power when America is flush with energy options that are better for people and the planet.”

“Nuclear is, at best, a waste of resources. At worst, it’s a meltdown,” she continued. “Why are we choosing to split atoms when it’s cheaper, faster, and better for the environment to cut energy waste and power our lives with wind and solar?”

“Government officials should embrace energy efficiency and renewables as the best solutions to America’s challenges,” she added.

Isaac Bowers, federal legislative director of Public Interest Research Group, similarly said that “American consumers have better energy options than nuclear power. It makes no sense to perpetuate this expensive, risky industry when America has an abundance of cleaner, safer, and more affordable renewable energy sources.”

Alex Brill Quoted in 'The National Interest' Article on ...

June 22, 2024 Topic: Security Region: Europe Blog Brand: The Buzz Tags: RussiaUkraineWar In UkrainePutinNuclear WeaponsMilitaryDefense

World War III Coming Soon? Putin Makes A New Nuclear War Threat over Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent nuclear threats against Ukraine and NATO have raised concerns. Despite these threats, a nuclear strike seems unlikely as the war currently favors Russia, with its forces on the rise and Ukraine’s recent counteroffensive faltering.

by Stavros Atlamazoglou

Summary and Key Points: Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent nuclear threats against Ukraine and NATO have raised concerns. Despite these threats, a nuclear strike seems unlikely as the war currently favors Russia, with its forces on the rise and Ukraine’s recent counteroffensive faltering.

-However, Putin’s unpredictability and the Kremlin’s historical willingness to take drastic measures make future actions uncertain.

-Should the situation deteriorate for Russia, the risk of nuclear escalation could increase, leaving global leaders wary of Putin’s next move.

Putin’s Nuclear Threats: Is Russia’s Advantage in Ukraine Keeping Them at Bay?

Are you certain Russian President Vladimir Putin won’t use nuclear weapons against Ukraine?

If you ask this question in Washington, D.C., and around the European capitals, you will get contradictory answers.

Putin and Kremlin officials have been making regular nuclear threats against not only Ukraine but also NATO.

The latest such threat came yesterday during a joint press conference with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un in North Korea.

Nuclear Threats from Putin…Again

Putin implied in recent press statements that he could authorize the Russian military to launch a nuclear strike—most likely tactical—against Ukraine if the war goes against him.

“Putin implicitly threatened to use nuclear weapons if the West enables Ukraine to decisively defeat Russia in order to undermine the international community’s cohering strategic vision of support for Ukraine,” the Institute for the Study of War assessed in a recent update on the war in Ukraine.

Putin’s coded nuclear remarks likely came in response to recent statements by NATO officials about the need for increased nuclear readiness with an eye toward Russia.

The West has braced for a Russian nuclear strike before, and at some point, the CIA was working on contingency plans on how to prevent such an attack. As of now, however, it seems highly unlikely that Putin will order a nuclear strike for a simple reason: his forces are on the rise.

Currently, the war is going in Moscow’s favor. The last large-scale Ukrainian counteroffensive last summer failed to achieve the intended operational breakthrough, despite Kyiv throwing into combat its most elite units equipped with Western weapon systems, such as Leopard 2, Challenger 2, and M1 Abrams main battle tanks and M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles.

Not only did the Ukrainian military fail to achieve an operational breakthrough, but the Russian forces also went on the counteroffensive and are now pressuring the Ukrainians along the contact line.

Russia Wins in Ukraine – but at a Massive Cost 

To be sure, the Russian forces are taking devasting casualties. In May alone, Moscow lost close to 40,000 men, or more than 1,000 a day, killed, wounded, or captured. Overall, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense assesses—and is largely corroborated by Western intelligence services—that Moscow has lost more than 530,000 men in the fighting so far. Casualties in heavy weapon systems are also high, with the Russian military losing every day more than 100 main battle tanks, artillery pieces, infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers, and unmanned aerial systems.

However, Russia has shown a remarkable force generation capability. Despite losing more than twice the initial invasion force, the Russian military has as many as 500,000 men in Ukraine. Their quality isn’t the best, but they make do for the Kremlin’s purposes.

So, right now, the Kremlin doesn’t have a reason to launch a nuclear weapon against Ukraine. However, if the situation on the ground changes, then that is another issue, and no one can accurately predict what a dictator like Putin can do.

About the Author: Biography and Military Expertise 

Stavros Atlamazoglou is a seasoned defense journalist specializing in special operations and a Hellenic Army veteran (national service with the 575th Marine Battalion and Army HQ). He holds a BA from the Johns Hopkins University and an MA from the Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). His work has been featured in Business Insider, Sandboxx, and SOFREP.

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ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:

There are 6 categories, including a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives, as do ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links in each category about the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:

  1. All Things Nuclear
  2. Nuclear Power
  3. Nuclear Power Emergencies
  4. Nuclear War
  5. Nuclear War Threats
  6. Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There no Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in this evening’s Post.)

Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.

A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.

TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS, Saturday, (06/22/2024)

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

Senate sends major nuclear reforms bill to White House – ExchangeMonitor

ExchangeMonitor

If signed, the bill would among other things: Require that the … Mandate that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission assess every three years …

Powering down: New York’s Indian Point debacle; nuclear energy is part of the green future

New York Daily News

We’re not talking about solar or wind or geothermal power, all of which are welcome, but nuclear, like Indian Point — which, especially with new …

Turner Doubles Down on Russian Nuclear ASAT Threat – SpacePolicyOnline.com

SpacePolicyOnline.com

… about Russia’s plans to place a nuclear weapon in orbit. … all known information concerning the status of Russia’s nuclear antisatellite weapons …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

Vietnam and Russia discuss nuclear energy collaboration

World Nuclear News

A memorandum has been signed relating to the construction project for a Centre for Nuclear Science and Technology in Vietnam – with discussions …

Congress passes bill to jumpstart new nuclear power tech | Ars Technica

Ars Technica

The bill’s language focuses on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and its role in licensing nuclear reactor technology. The NRC is directed to …

U.S. Senate passes bill aimed at speeding up advanced nuclear deployments

Power Engineering

The ”Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy Act of 2024,” or ADVANCE Act, aims to speed up permitting and create new …

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEWS

Have a Go Bag ready in case of an emergency during hurricane season | CW39 Houston

CW39 Houston

… emergency or when you need to act fast, we can sometimes forget things … The Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71), a nuclear–powered aircraft carrier, is …

A needless holiday – Newspaper – DAWN.COM

Dawn

THE government declared holiday on May 28 to commemorate Youm-i-Takbeer. I am proud of my country being a nuclear power, but people of the country …

JAL flight makes emergency landing in northern Japan – XM

XM

… emergency landing on Saturday, a company … Ukrainian drones knock out two substations near Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, Russia-installed…

Nuclear War

NEWS

Putin Issues Nuclear Warning to West – Newsweek

Newsweek

Earlier this month, Vladimir Putin warned that his country’s nuclear doctrine is “a living instrument” that can be changed.

World War III Coming Soon? Putin Makes A New Nuclear War Threat over Ukraine

The National Interest

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent nuclear threats against Ukraine and NATO have raised concerns. Despite these threats, a nuclear strike …

Putin Gives Ominous Nuclear Triad Warning – Newsweek

Newsweek

Vladimir Putin used his speech before Russian military graduates to announce an upgrade to the country’s nuclear arsenal.

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

World War III Coming Soon? Putin Makes A New Nuclear War Threat over Ukraine

The National Interest

Putin and Kremlin officials have been making regular nuclear threats against not only Ukraine but also NATO. The latest such threat came yesterday …

There won’t be a debate on nuclear issues this election cycle. But if there were…

Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation

… threats of nuclear war, how would you protect America from such action? Speaking of Russia, the last treaty limiting nuclear weapons, the New …

Putin Gives Ominous Nuclear Triad Warning – Newsweek

Newsweek

Putin Issues New Ominous Nuclear Threat. By Hugh Cameron. Live News … Israel at War Vladimir Putin Russia-Ukraine War Donald Trump. Subscriptions …

Posted on

LLAW’s All Things Nuclear #668, Friday, (06/21/2024)

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Human

LLOYD A. WILLIAMS-PENDERGRAFT

JUN 22, 2024

1

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Harvard Expert Makes Urgent Nuclear War Warning

From the left, clockwise, Joe Biden, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Kim Jong Un, the leaders of the U.S., Russia, China and North Korea, respectively. A Harvard expert has suggested that we are closer to… More PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY NEWSWEEK/GETTY IMAGES

LLAW’s NUCLEAR ISSUES & COMMENTS, Friday, (06/21/2024)

For the complete text of Harvard Professor Bunn’s click on the link to the journal “Science” in the third paragraph of the Newsweek article.

My problem with these kinds of stories is that they almost always bring up the issue of elapsing treaties and half-way civilized leaders of the 9 countries that have nuclear weapons of mass destruction. Neither issue is the case so far as relying on avoiding nuclear war is concerned. Pretending that humans are humanitarian and will do the right thing has disappeared forever (if, in fact, it ever existed, which I doubt). We are now faced with nuclear weapons capable of destroying all life on planet Earth hundreds if not thousands of times over with nothing more than the presently existing nuclear weapons. The reduction in quantity since 1962 is meaningless, having been replaced by incredibly more powerful bombs. An entire city and its surrounds, such as Washington, D.C. can be totally destroyed with just one of several thousand nuclear bombs presently in existence and ready to launch.

The only effective avoidance of nuclear war thus far, especially in recent years, has been a thing called ‘deterrence’, which consists of world leaders’ lying, threatening one another with “I am tougher than you” face-to-face threats like grade-school kids on a recess playground confrontation. But ‘deterrence’ cannot continue to be the spoiler of nuclear war because continuing to build more and more bigger, stronger, far more powerful nuclear weapons in order to threaten supposedly weaker nations becomes an impossible defense because such threats are already meaningless fabrications and have grown beyond belief as well as patently unaffordable to continue on in defense of an awaiting nuclear holocaust. As Annie Jacobsen writes in her book “Nuclear War: A Scenario”, “deterrence has failed.” In other words the ‘lying games’ are all over with, and nuclear war is inevitable. ~llaw

Newsweek logo

Published Jun 20, 2024 at 2:00 PM EDTUpdated Jun 21, 2024 at 7:03 AM EDT

01:03

Putin Warning: World ‘Close To Point Of No Return’

By Jess Thomson

Science Reporter

FOLLOW

A Harvard professor has warned the world is dangerously close to nuclear war at a time when leading experts key to preventing such conflicts are “aging out,” pleading with leaders to urgently seek help from a new generation of scientists and engineers.

Matthew Bunn, a professor of energy, national security and foreign policy, said “the risk of nuclear war has not been so high since the Cuban Missile Crisis” in 1962.

“Dark clouds loom on the nuclear horizon, with threats from all directions,” he wrote in an editorial for the scientific journal Science, released Thursday. “The world could soon face an unrestrained arms competition for the first time in over five decades—and a more complex one involving more countries and more technologies.”

In his editorial, Bunn warned the 2010 New START Treaty is the last remaining agreement limiting U.S. and Russian nuclear forces, but it expires in 2026, with Russia blocking required inspections and no new talks underway.

He pointed to a global landscape that is marked by heightened nuclear tensions, including: Russia’s nuclear threats in the Ukraine conflict; China’s construction of numerous missile silos; North Korea’s missile testing; ongoing nuclear rivalry between India and Pakistan; and Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

In response to these events, U.S. policymakers are contemplating a potential nuclear arms buildup. Additionally, advancements in technologies like hypersonic missiles and artificial intelligence are further destabilizing military balances.

As of 2024, there are more than 12,000 nuclear warheads around the world. According to the Federation of American Scientists, Russia has around 5,580 warheads, the U.S. has about 5,100, China has 500, and France and the U.K. have 290 and 225, respectively. India and Pakistan each have about 170, Israel has 90 and North Korea 50.

Historically, non-governmental dialogues among scientists and engineers have facilitated arms control agreements, Bunn said.

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ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:

There are 6 categories, including a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives, as do ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links in each category about the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:

  1. All Things Nuclear
  2. Nuclear Power
  3. Nuclear Power Emergencies
  4. Nuclear War
  5. Nuclear War Threats
  6. Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There are three Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in this evening’s Post.)

Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.

A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.

TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS, Friday, (06/21/2024)

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

Opinion: The great powers are itching for another nuclear arms race. Who will stop them?

Los Angeles Times

More deployed nuclear weapons are an existential danger to us all. Don’t leave it to generals, bureaucrats and politicians to decide your fate.

Donald Trump’s horrifying thoughts on pressing nuclear button revealed in upcoming book …

The Economic Times

Former Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello has made startling revelations about the horrifying thoughts of Donald Trump in his upcoming book …

Peter Dutton’s nuclear fiction ignores too many legal obstacles – Crikey

Crikey

I felt conflicted about treating Peter Dutton’s nuclear “policy” as serious enough to warrant any response at all. But then I read an ABC headline …

Nuclear Power

NEW

Coalition’s nuclear power plant proposal draws mixed opinions from Port Augusta community – ABC

ABC

… nuclear power plants it has pledged to build if elected. Mayor Linley Shine says a number of energy and infrastructure proposals have been …

Peter Dutton’s nuclear plan is an economic disaster that would leave Australians paying …

The Guardian

Almost all nuclear power plants in Europe and North America were constructed in the 1970s and 1980s.

A bipartisan energy bill boosting nuclear power heading to President Biden’s desk

The Mercury News

Democrats and Republicans just passed legislation aimed at promoting the growth of future nuclear power plants, and President Joe Biden is …

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEWS

Army’s Nuclear teams trained with Rangers and Green Berets – Task & Purpose

Task & Purpose

A unique team of Army soldiers who train to defuse nuclear emergencies … NDTs train for doomsday-style scenarios like sabotaged nuclear power plants …

Nuclear War

NEWS

U.S. and China hold first informal nuclear talks in five years | Reuters

Reuters

Beijing’s representatives told U.S. counterparts that they would not resort to atomic threats over Taiwan.

Harvard Expert Issues Urgent Nuclear War Warning: ‘Dark Clouds Loom’ – Newsweek

Newsweek

The world could soon face “unrestrained arms competition…involving more countries and more technologies,” Harvard nuclear tension expert Matthew …

Joe Biden must publicise Russian nuclear threat to avoid ‘day zero’: US lawmaker

South China Morning Post

Ominous words from chairman of House Intelligence committee uttered amid reports Moscow is developing an anti-satellite nuclear weapon.

Nuclear War Threats

NEW

Harvard Expert Issues Urgent Nuclear War Warning: ‘Dark Clouds Loom’ – Newsweek

Newsweek

… nuclear war has not been so high since the Cuban Missile Crisis” in 1962. “Dark clouds loom on the nuclear horizon, with threats from all …

Putin’s threat of nuclear war is ‘not a joke’ – YouTube

YouTube

Putin’s threat of nuclear war is ‘not a joke’. 3K views · 5 hours ago … Biden’s FTC Chair SHAKING After Jim Jordan Details Her Threats Against Witness.

Putin Issues Nuclear Warning to West – Newsweek

Newsweek

Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened on Thursday to change Russia’s nuclear doctrine over claims that the West is “lowering the threshold …

Yellowstone Caldera

NEWS

Unveiling The Threat: How Yellowstone Volcano Could Affect Texas – KLAQ

KLAQ

Even though Yellowstone is miles away in Wyoming, the Yellowstone Caldera is still considered one of the BIGGEST supervolcanoes in the world. Now …

A Big Volcano near Idaho Could be ready for a New Eruption

News Radio 1310 KLIX

It may also be nothing, but seismic activity beneath Yellowstone has calmed. We’re told that it’s pretty close due to an eruption. It goes up roughly …

Models Show What Could Happen in Montana if Mount St. Helens Erupts Again

Newstalk KGVO

Living in Montana and our proximity to the Yellowstone caldera, we’re aware that volcanic features regularly produce small earthquakes. While the …

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LLAW’s All Things Nuclear #667, Thursday, (06/20/2024)

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity”

LLOYD A. WILLIAMS-PENDERGRAFT

JUN 20, 2024

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Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump . . . Would you trust Trump to avoid nuclear war?

LLAW’s NUCLEAR ISSUES & COMMENTS, Thursday, (06/20/2024)

Just one question in response to the “The Hill” article below: Would you trust Trump to be in charge of the the nuclear button, or ‘football’, as it is called these days? ~llaw

Bo

ok recalls Trump’s quip on pressing nuclear button: US ‘won’t be second’

BY BRETT SAMUELS – 06/20/24 7:30 AM ET

Former President Trump said many controversial things in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in 2017, but it was something he told then-Puerto Rican Gov. Ricardo Rosselló about nuclear war while touring storm damage that stunned Rosselló.

In a memoir due out Tuesday, Rosselló recounts Trump’s visit to the island to tour damage from the Category 5 storm that killed thousands of people and devastated the island’s infrastructure.

In an excerpt obtained exclusively by The Hill, Rosselló details a conversation with Trump during a helicopter tour.

“‘Nature has a way of coming back,’ Trump said. ‘Well, it does until it does not. Who knows with nuclear warfare what will happen…,’” Rosselló writes in “The Reformer’s Dilemma.”

“And then, he said the one thing that made me more concerned than anything else in the entire visit. ‘But I tell you what…’ He paused for effect. ‘If nuclear war happens, we won’t be second in line pressing the button.’ This statement floored me. I could not believe what I was hearing. It was surreal. Was he really talking about total annihilation as we flew over the ravaged sights of the island?” Rosselló wrote.

During Trump’s presidency, lawmakers and activists frequently raised concerns about the prospect that he might trigger a nuclear war. Those concerns were particularly heightened over his rhetoric toward North Korea, such as when he posted in 2018 that he had a “much bigger & more powerful” nuclear launch button than North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Trump has in recent years warned of the dangers of a nuclear war, citing the conflict in Europe after Russia invaded Ukraine and suggesting it could bring about the start of World War III.

The Trump campaign in a statement defended his foreign policy record and said the former president and presumptive GOP presidential nominee for November “abhors the idea of nuclear war.”

“Under President Trump’s leadership, the world was safer and more peaceful than any time in decades. President Trump abhors the idea of nuclear war,” campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement to The Hill. “That’s why his historic diplomacy with North Korea stopped the regime’s nuclear tests and long range missile launches, which resumed after Biden took office.

“President Trump negotiated historic UN Security Council sanctions on Iran that left the regime weak and broke—until Biden enriched them,” he continued. “And it’s Joe Biden who is leading the world to the precipice of World War 3. President Trump’s top priority will be the safety and security of the American People. He is determined to return the world to peace.” ​​​​

Hurricane Maria was one of the early flash points of Trump’s term, as he visited the island to tour damage but also disparaged some local officials and cast doubt on an official death toll, while his administration was slow to deliver aid.

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ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:

There are 6 categories, including a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives, as do ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links in each category about the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:

  1. All Things Nuclear
  2. Nuclear Power
  3. Nuclear Power Emergencies
  4. Nuclear War
  5. Nuclear War Threats
  6. Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There are two Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in this evening’s Post.)

Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.

A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.

TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS, Thursday, (06/20/2024)

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

Tova podcast on All things nuclear: War, fallout and NZ’s nuke-free stance | Stuff

Stuff

Tova podcast explores how a nuclear war could play out, how catastrophic it would be, how likely and where NZ fits into it all.

Nuclear isn’t just talk anymore in Kemmerer, Wyoming. It’s now a new lease on life | KUER

KUER

All Things Considered. Next Up: 7:00 PM Marketplace. 0:00. 0:00. All Things … “I don’t know too much about the nuclear stuff. I just don’t. I’m just …

Book recalls Trump’s quip on pressing nuclear button: US ‘won’t be second’ – The Hill

The Hill

Ricardo Rosselló about nuclear war while touring storm damage that stunned Rosselló … All rights reserved. This material may not be published …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

The Senate just passed a critical clean energy bill to pave the way for more nuclear | CNN

CNN

Democrats and Republicans in a bitterly divided Congress can agree on one thing: the US needs more nuclear to power America’s rapidly growing …

Dutton’s nuclear power plan relies on convincing the states and managing waste, but first … – ABC

ABC

A nuclear cooling plant with a bird flying in front of it. Peter Dutton has finally unveiled his nuclear energy plan but getting the states and …

Nuclear reactor safety constantly improving: expert – ABC listen – ABC

Full Coverage

‘No credible reason’ to expect cheaper power bills under Peter Dutton’s nuclear energy plan …

The Guardian

… power bills under Peter Dutton’s nuclear energy plan, experts say. Tony Wood of the Grattan Institute rejects Coalition’s claim electricity prices …

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEWS

New England Power Grid Declares Emergency as Temperatures Soar – Bloomberg

Bloomberg

… Nuclear PowerThe UK’s Muddy Fields Are Latest Climate Threat to Food Security. Level 1 grid emergencies indicate that more power supplies are …

New England Power Grid Declares Emergency as Temperatures Soar – Energy Connects

Energy Connects

(Bloomberg) — New England’s power grid operator declared a level 1 emergency alert in a bid to shore up supplies, as a powerful heat wave gripped the …

Focus on reliability for coolant pumps – Nuclear Engineering International

Nuclear Engineering International

Recent improvements in reactor core isolation cooling (RCIC) emergency cooling pump technology are designed to ensure that nuclear power stations …

Nuclear War

NEWS

Book recalls Trump’s quip on pressing nuclear button: US ‘won’t be second’ – The Hill

The Hill

President Trump abhors the idea of nuclear war,” campaign spokesperson Steven Chueng said in a statement to The Hill. “That’s why his historic …

Putin says Russia is considering changing its nuclear doctrine | Reuters

Reuters

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia was thinking about possible changes to its doctrine on the use of nuclear weapons.

Nuclear Terrorism ‘Risks Are High,’ Researchers Warn – Newsweek

Newsweek

“We had a war on terror after 9/11, but that didn’t succeed in eliminating the terrorism threat,” Flynn said. “Terrorism continues to morph.” Read …

Nuclear War Threats

NEW

Asian Fears Come True as North Korea’s Russia Pact Amplifies Threat

The New York Times

… threat that North Korea and its nuclear arsenal poses to its neighbors. But the stunning revival of a Cold War-era mutual defense agreement during …

Putin: Russia is considering changing its nuclear doctrine – Al Arabiya

Al Arabiya

… war Middle East; 3 Cyprus not part of Mideast war, its president says after Hezbollah threats 3 Cyprus not part of Mideast war, its president says …

China can exploit the US fear of nuclear escalation & create trouble at borders – ThePrint

ThePrint

… attack and Israel’s subsequent horrible war in Gaza, and the continuing threat of China’s attack in the South China Sea and Taiwan. The sense of …

Yellowstone Caldera

NEWS

There were 806 fewer earthquakes in the Yellowstone region in 2023 than prior year, report says

Idaho Capital Sun

Every year since 2017, the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory has summarized yearly geological activity — earthquakes, ground deformation, geyser …

There were 806 fewer earthquakes in the Yellowstone region in 2023 than prior year, report says

News From The States

Every year since 2017, the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory has summarized yearly geological activity — earthquakes, ground deformation, …

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LLAW’s All Things Nuclear #666, Wednesday, (06/19/2024)

End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity”

LLOYD A. WILLIAMS-PENDERGRAFT

JUN 19, 2024

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What would our planet Earth look like after a nuclear WWIII and an eternal nuclear winter?

LLAW’s NUCLEAR ISSUES & COMMENTS, Wednesday, (06/19/2024)

This article from the European Leadership Network caught my eye today as I was glancing through the headlines, wondering why two of my categories had no articles at all in the ‘Nuclear Power Emergencies’ and the ‘Nuclear War Threats’ sections. (Yet there was a relatively rare Yellowstone story) Go figure . . .

This presentation from the “ELN” is depressing, of course, as are all presentations of every kind about nuclear war and particularly a WWIII, but this one underestimates the initial blow to humanity from the very beginning and points out the after-affects of humanity attempting to recover from something similar, but much gentler, than most depictions of what a nuclear WWIII would be like — more like just one nuclear bomb dropped on one or two major cities in one or two major countries — with no further retaliation (which would not be the case) allowing that country or two along with the rest of the human world a chance at recovery struggling to survive, which in and of itself should not be underestimated difficulties associated with ongoing life, but none of which which fits into most WWIII scenarios.

But the story is worth reading, considering, pondering over, and acknowledging that even then, we might never succeed in restoring humanity and our ‘old’ comfortable ways of life, nor would we deserve to . . . I wonder if our beautiful Mother Earth would survive. Given enough time, I believe She would recover and support a more deserving kind of life. ~llaw

European Leadership Network (ELN)

The European Leadership Network (ELN)

How would humans react to nuclear catastrophe?

Image of Adam Thomson

Adam Thomson |Director

Image of Paul Ingram

Paul Ingram |Research affiliate at the University of Cambridge Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER)

Most people prefer not to think about the worst that can happen. Even those who talk of World War Three experience a mental block about imagining the aftermath.

But decisions taken over nuclear posture and potentially the use of nuclear weapons must fully account for the consequences. Ignorance weakens deterrence and exacerbates risk. We don’t plan national resilience so well. We reduce the chances of national survival, or at least human civilisation’s survival. We make recovery from catastrophe that much harder.

Scientists have been analysing what the physical consequences of an all-out nuclear war would be. Would soot in the atmosphere trigger a nuclear winter? What effects would a nuclear electro-magnetic pulse have on IT systems? Could nuclear survivors grow enough food to live? They have even tried to estimate the number of fatalities arising from different scales of nuclear war, concluding that fatalities from famine and climatic effects would likely be far greater than those from direct effects.

But if the concern is around deterrence, resilience, the survival of civilisation, and recovery, something is missing from their analysis. The cascading damage to human relations – social, economic, and political – could be just as destructive as the physical consequences. These social, economic, and political factors have barely begun to feature in the research, and (with some exceptions) there is little planning within governments for the aftermath of a nuclear exchange.

We can guess that in the face of extreme hardship, there would be heroism, compassion, inventiveness, and efforts at recovery. We can hope that there might be statesmanship and collaboration. But there would also be anarchy and chaos, driven by fear, misinformation, and tribalism.

Our complex world is now more vulnerable than it was when nuclear weapons were used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The trains were running into Hiroshima within three days of the blast because nuclear radiation was not understood. Today, the fear of radiation is universal. It is easy to imagine that tens of millions would flee. It is harder to imagine borders being opened to them unless those borders were overwhelmed. Is Africa ready for the European migrant flood? Or Mexico for the American one?

Moreover, in 1945 only two cities were hit – with bombs relatively small by today’s standards. Each of the 40 or so UK nuclear warheads aboard a Trident submarine is more powerful by a factor of about six. There are thousands of weapons available to Russia and the US and hundreds to the other seven nuclear-armed states. The main nodes of civilisation in warring states – transport, shipping, energy, communications – might be hit multiple times.

Our highly interdependent modern systems of organisation, finance, and international trade mean that there are many more single points of failure. This risks triggering cascading disruptions through the value chains of the world’s economies.

At least 70% of global trade is in or with the North. Some 60% of the world’s servers are in the USA. The Euro-Atlantic and China account for over 50% of the world’s GDP. If all this were eliminated or massively disrupted, southern hemisphere societies might also implode.

Nuclear war would occur in the northern hemisphere. At least 70% of global trade is in or with the North. Some 60% of the world’s servers are in the USA. The Euro-Atlantic and China account for over 50% of the world’s GDP. If all this were eliminated or massively disrupted, southern hemisphere societies might also implode.

Even the leaderships within countries not immediately affected would experience severe challenges to governance – potentially without TV, radio, internet, social media, finances or even functioning economies.  Evidence is mixed on how humans react when in mortal crisis. But it seems likely that those local communities that still retained some resources and capabilities would prioritise their own survival in possibly self-defeating protectionism.

The nature, scale, and longevity of climatic, radiation and electromagnetic pulse effects from a nuclear Armageddon would be harder to forecast than a pandemic or rising sea levels.  And compared to climate change or a bio disaster its effects could be quite sudden and simultaneous, leaving little or no time for most of the international community to brace for the shock, let alone to adapt. Those areas unaffected directly by blast and radiation would need rapidly to anticipate reduced sunlight and cascading socio-economic impacts and take emergency action.

In summary, no communities, no corner of the planet would be immune. The second and third-order human effects could be massive. This includes vast population displacements, sudden disruptions to ordinary ways of life in countries far removed from the conflict, extreme dislocations of economies, acute tensions between affected nations, and significant loss of leadership and coordination capacity. Human civilisation might continue. But it could be a pale shadow, constrained, localised, and diminished.

So, what to do?

Avoiding nuclear catastrophe in the first place is the best answer. However, better understanding the full consequences of failure would enable us to factor the risk into our strategies going forward. ~Adam Thomson and Paul Ingram

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ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:

There are 6 categories, including a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives, as do ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links in each category about the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:

  1. All Things Nuclear
  2. Nuclear Power
  3. Nuclear Power Emergencies (no stories today)
  4. Nuclear War
  5. Nuclear War Threats (no stories today)
  6. Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There is one Yellowstone Caldera bonus story available in this evening’s Post.)

Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.

A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.

TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS, Wednesday, (06/19/2024)

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

What to expect out of Putin’s visit to North Korea – WJCT News

WJCT News

It’s also concerned about North Korea’s nuclear program. … Michael Levitt is a news assistant for All Things Considered who is based in Atlanta, …

The Coalition’s nuclear power plan offers the worst of all energy worlds – The Guardian

The Guardian

We are blessed in Australia with ideal resources of sunshine, wind and land for renewable generation. That is our big comparative advantage. But what …

What to expect out of Putin’s visit to North Korea – NPR

NPR

Welcome back to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. ANGELA STENT: Great to be on … It’s also concerned about North Korea’s nuclear program. It’s not quite …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

Senate sends package bolstering nuclear power sector to Biden’s desk – The Hill

The Hill

The vote was 88-2. Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) opposed the measure.

U.S. Senate passes bill to support advanced nuclear energy deployment – Reuters

Reuters

… nuclear reactor technologies. Expanding nuclear power has broad bipartisan support, with Democrats seeing it as critical to decarbonizing the power …

Peter Dutton names seven potential nuclear power station sites but avoids questions on cost

The Guardian

Peter Dutton has announced the Coalition proposes to build seven nuclear power plants and two proposed small modular reactors, but dodged questions …

Nuclear War

NEWS

Is a nuclear conflict possible? – Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera

Nuclear warhead stockpiles have reduced since the peak of the Cold War. But soaring new expenditures beg the questions of why these countries are …

Is a nuclear conflict possible? | Inside Story – YouTube

YouTube

spent by the world’s nine nuclear-armed nations in a single year. Nuclear warhead stockpiles have reduced since the peak of the Cold War. But new …

How would humans react to nuclear catastrophe? – European Leadership Network

European Leadership Network

Most analyses of the effects of nuclear war focus on the impacts in terms of casualties and climate shocks. But there would be many second-order …

Yellowstone Caldera

NEWS

The YVO 2023 Annual Report Has Hit The Streets! – National Parks Traveler

National Parks Traveler

Editor’s note: Yellowstone Caldera Chronicles is a weekly column written by scientists and collaborators of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory.

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LLAW’s All Things Nuclear #665, Tuesday, (06/18/2024)

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity”

LLOYD A. WILLIAMS-PENDERGRAFT

JUN 18, 2024

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Placeholder image for web content (temporary)

Image source: Photo courtesy of National Nuclear Security Administration / Nevada Site Office, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

LLAW’s NUCLEAR ISSUES & COMMENTS, Tuesday, (06/18/2024)

Sovaida Ma’ani Ewing, the writer of this article, is an author and a humanitarian after my own heart. Her words, warnings, and their meanings fit my own views of present day-to-day human life perfectly well. Her recognition of our long-lost curiosity and attention to the maniacal world around us in favor of inattention and ignorance — sleepwalking, as she calls it — a society unaware or concerned about critical human issues, such as ‘all things nuclear’ that has the nuclear power to destroy human and most all other life on planet Earth in a matter of days.

What I doubt about her correctional conclusion of hope, though, that I am certain will never happen. Her book, “Building a World Federation: The Key to Solving Our Global Crises” was written nearly a decade ago, and, as might have been expected — even by her — the ‘global crises’ have only grown considerably greater. Although she pointed out that human nuclear agreements have never worked before, meaning that a world-wide agreement of world leaders to subjectively, humanitarianly, socially, and judicially save us from exterminating ourselves will never happen without an uprising and unification by the masses of us around the world demanding our world leaders step down along with their greed and egotistical world-dominating agendas, or an unlikely other-worldly unknown intervention from above and beyond our normal human mindset(s). What are the odds of that happening? ~llaw

Citizens for Global Solutions

Are We Sleepwalking Our Way Into a Nuclear War?

Disarmament

Written by Sovaida Ma’ani Ewing

Jun 18, 2024

The threat of nuclear war is at the highest level it has been since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. However, there is a crucial difference: in 1962, most of us were alert to the threat and its existential nature. Today, by contrast, many of us are oblivious to our history or have simply forgotten it, which poses a huge danger: that of sleepwalking our way into a nuclear war with catastrophic consequences for our country and all of humanity.

This danger is exacerbated by three factors.

The first is the proliferation of nuclear arms and the renewed interest on the part of non-nuclear weapons states to acquire nuclear weapons. The war in Gaza has stirred fears that Iran will race for the bomb and join the nuclear weapons’ club. There are good reasons for such a fear: Recent reports quote the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as saying that Iran is now enriching uranium up to 60 percent, considerably more than the 3.67% permitted under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The IAEA also believes Iran already possesses enough fissile material to make three nuclear weapons. Moreover, the breakout time (the time required to produce enough fissile material at the 90 percent concentration needed for nuclear weapons, not taking into account the time needed to build a deliverable nuclear warhead) is now zero. The fact that the Iran has prevented the IAEA, the world’s nuclear watchdog, from properly monitoring its nuclear activities since early 2021 only exacerbates these concerns. Added to all this are Iran’s own threats that she will reconsider her nuclear stance if her nuclear facilities are threatened.

These fears have a potentially cascading effect: they are likely to spur other countries in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE, to seek nuclear capabilities of their own starting with civilian capabilities. Indeed, Saudi Prince Mohammad has already stated that were Iran to build nuclear weapons, Saudi would follow suit. Alas, the more nuclear weapons the world has, the greater the chance they will be used intentionally or accidentally.

A similar scenario is playing out further afield in Asia where China’s assertion of territorial claims to disputed islands in the South China Seas like the Paracels and Spratlys and their adjacent waters rich in reserves of natural resources and its claims to the islands of Senkaku/Diaoyu in the East China Sea, coupled with China’s stated desire to absorb Taiwan, are making other countries in the region fearful of China’s power. Japan and South Korea are particularly nervous, especially given the nuclear threat from North Korea. Their fears have been exacerbated by America’s uneven support of Ukraine in the face of Russian territorial aggression. Even though the United States is bound by a trilateral cooperation agreement to defend Japan and the Republic of Korea under its nuclear umbrella they are worried that the support they have been promised may not be forthcoming. These factors taken together are leading both countries to float the idea of acquiring their own nuclear weapons.

The second factor exacerbating the threat of nuclear war is that the guardrails in the form of a treaty regime so painstakingly crafted by the international community designed to reduce the number of nuclear weapons have been crumbling. The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty collapsed in 2019. The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty is defunct; and while the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START Treaty) — the last Treaty governing nuclear weapons between the U.S. and Russia– is theoretically in effect until 2026, Russia has suspended its participation in the Treaty and has allegedly not complied with her obligations under it since 2023.

The third factor enhancing the threat of nuclear war is the escalating rhetoric of countries like Russia. In early May of this year, Russia sent a clear warning that its arsenal of nuclear weapons was always in a state of combat readiness and announced that it would be holding military drills with troops based near Ukraine to prepare for the possible use of tactical nuclear weapons. This was Russia’s most explicit threat to date that it might use such weapons in Ukraine.

The combination of these three factors should serve to wake us up to the reality facing us before it’s too late. We can no longer afford to be complacent about the dangers of nuclear war, especially as we know, from past experience, that conflicts can escalate rapidly, spin beyond our control and lead to unintended consequences. It’s time we stopped and considered the price humanity would have to pay if we had even a “limited” nuclear war – limited geographically or in time. Experts suggest that using even one percent of our nuclear weapons would have a severe impact on the world’s climate, leading to a nuclear winter and a global famine in which 2 billion people―a quarter of the world’s population―would be at risk of starvation. These are unacceptable costs. Are we really willing to pay them?

As we stand on the precipice of unprecedented horror and untold suffering, we have a choice to make: we can continue our self-destructive dive into the abyss or work assiduously as a community of nations to build a global system of collective security that will ensure global peace and security. Such a system should be grounded in collectively agreed-upon international rules which are enforced even-handedly against any nation that threatens the peace using an international standing force that acts at the behest of, and in service to, the international community.

About Sovaida Ma’ani Ewing

Sovaida Ma’ani Ewing is the founder and director of The Center for Peace and Global Governance (cpgg.org), a virtual think tank and online forum that pools and proposes principled solutions to pressing global problems through publications, podcasts, lectures, workshops and targeted consulting. Sovaida Ma’ani Ewing is an international lawyer turned independent scholar who writes and lectures in the area of collective security and global governance. She is the author of five books including “Collective Security Within Reach” (2008) with a foreword written by an Under-Secretary General of the United Nations. It offers concrete recommendations for action by world leaders, national and international, to solve some of the pressing global problems of our time including the proliferation of nuclear weapons, the equitable distribution of energy resources, terrorism and the international use of force. In 2015 her book “Building a World Federation: The Key to Solving Our Global Crises” was published.

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ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:

There are 6 categories, including a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives, as do ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links in each category about the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:

  1. All Things Nuclear
  2. Nuclear Power
  3. Nuclear Power Emergencies
  4. Nuclear War
  5. Nuclear War Threats
  6. Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There are no Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in this evening’s Post.)

Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.

A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.

TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS, Tuesday, (06/18/2024)

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

Nuclear powers are deepening their reliance on their nukes, a watchdog group says – TPR

The Public’s Radio

Russia and the United States have together almost 90% of all nuclear weapons, SIPRI said. … All Things Considered. Listen Live | 89.3. Listen Live | …

Nuclear powers are deepening their reliance on their nukes, a watchdog group says

KUOW

Russia and the United States have together almost 90% of all nuclear weapons, SIPRI said. … All Things Considered. 3:00 PM PDT. Today, Explained. 6:00 …

US Department of Energy says spent nuclear fuel could remain in Vernon until 2046

Vermont Public

All Things Gardening · Brave Little State · Homegoings · But Why · The … Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel Federal Nuclear Waste Policy …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

Senate poised to send bill boosting nuclear power to Biden’s desk – The Hill

The Hill

“America can and should be a leader when it comes to deploying nuclear energy technologies, and this bipartisan legislation puts us on a path to …

DOE Announces $900 Million to Accelerate the Deployment of Next-Generation Light-Water …

Department of Energy

Anticipated Funding Aims to Promote Advanced Reactor Orderbook and Prepare Domestic Nuclear Industry for Deployments.

DOE floats $900M to build advanced reactors – E&E News by POLITICO

E&E News

Money from the Biden administration comes as Congress prepares to bolster the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEWS

Coalition orders snap party room meeting, sparking speculation Peter Dutton could … – ABC

ABC

… nuclear power policy. Coalition members were alerted to the meeting on … Australia’s newest warship breaks down, undergoing emergency mechanical …

Labor, Green, and Health Groups Demand FEMA Recognize Climate Emergency

Common Dreams

nuclear power · white storks in nest · ‘Momentous Day for Nature’: EU Adopts First-of-Its-Kind Habitat Restoration Law. One campaigner called the …

Nuclear War

NEWS

Nuclear powers are deepening their reliance on their nukes, a watchdog group says – NPR

NPR

“We have not seen nuclear weapons playing such a prominent role in international relations since the Cold War,” said Wilfred Wan, director of the …

Countries Spent $91 Billion on Nukes. Here’s why | Vantage with Palki Sharma – YouTube

YouTube

Countries Spent $91 Billion on Nukes. Here’s why | Vantage with Palki Sharma Is the world on the brink of a nuclear war again?

Ukraine war latest: Huge explosion reported in Russian city – as Putin ‘sacks four defence ministers’

Sky News

A total of 78 nations call for the “territorial integrity” of Ukraine to be the basis for any peace agreement to end Russia’s two-year war.

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

Nuclear Threats on the Rise as Geopolitical Relations Deteriorate – IDN-InDepthNews

IDN-InDepthNews

In the ongoing war in Ukraine, the on-again, off-again nuclear threats have come from Russia and in the conflict in Gaza, the threats have come both …

NATO escalates nuclear tensions with Russia – ICAN

International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons

… nuclear threats, the NATO Secretary General is flaunting a nuclear response. … Daily Mail: Putin warns West of nuclear war risk · AboutBanning Nuclear …

Are We Sleepwalking Our Way Into a Nuclear War? | Citizens for Global Solutions

Citizens for Global Solutions

Added to all this are Iran’s own threats that she will reconsider her nuclear stance if her nuclear facilities are threatened. These fears have a …

Posted on

LLAW’s All Things Nuclear #664, Monday, (06/17/2024)

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity”

LLOYD A. WILLIAMS-PENDERGRAFT

JUN 18, 2024

1

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In this photo released by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Friday, Feb. 2, 2024, Russian troops load an Iskander missile onto a mobile launcher during drills at an undisclosed location in Russia.

In this photo released by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Friday, Feb. 2, 2024, Russian troops load an Iskander missile onto a mobile launcher during drills at an undisclosed location in Russia.

LLAW’s NUCLEAR ISSUES & COMMENTS, Monday, (06/17/2024)

“The group said that figures show a $10.7 billion increase in global spending on nuclear weapons in 2023 compared with 2022, with the United States accounting for 80% of that increase. The U.S. share of total spending, $51.5 billion, is more than all the other nuclear-armed countries put together.” (excerpt from the article)

This is astonishing but not surprising to me. Mainly it is irresponsible and borders on irresponsible insanity. The U.S. always spends more on military budgets on military party, but any increase on nuclear war power is useless, because just about any single nuclear endowed country (5 of the 9 are no doubt capable) with these weapons of mass destruction can create “Armageddon”, and if one does, others will retaliate and WWIII will wipe out substantially all life on planet Earth.

We are addicted to something called ‘deterrence’, a thought-to-be way of preventing nuclear war by domination and fear threats in place of such things as human agreements, pacts, treaties, and common sense that have all essentially been tossed out as an honest, cooperative way to prevent global conflicts of war — especially nuclear war. As I have said before, ‘deterrence’ cannot sustain its purpose, partly because of economic reasons as well as the capitalistic power-mongering egos of our world leaders. All I can say tonight is that we have chosen the wrong kind of leadership to guide ourselves since the caveman days, and now look what we’re up against for our admiration of powerful, wealthy, and ruthless leadership all around the world.

The following article ought to help us all understand that nuclear “doomsday” is seething right around the corner, most likely inevitable . . . ~llaw

NPR logo

Nuclear powers are deepening their reliance on their nukes, a watchdog group says

JUNE 17, 20244:29 AM ET

By 

The Associated Press

Russian Defense Ministry Press Service/AP

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — The world’s nine nuclear-armed states continue to modernize their nuclear weapons as the countries deepened their reliance on such deterrence in 2023, a Swedish think tank said Monday.

“We have not seen nuclear weapons playing such a prominent role in international relations since the Cold War,” said Wilfred Wan, director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s weapons of mass destruction program.

Earlier this month, Russia and its ally Belarus launched a second stage of drills intended to train their troops in tactical nuclear weapons, part of the Kremlin’s efforts to discourage the West from ramping up support for Ukraine.

In a separate report, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, ICAN, said the nine nuclear-armed states spent a combined total of $91.4 billion on their arsenals in 2023 – equivalent to $2,898 per second. The Geneva-based coalition of disarmament activists won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017.

'Doomsday Clock' signals existential threats of nuclear war, climate disasters and AI

WORLD

‘Doomsday Clock’ signals existential threats of nuclear war, climate disasters and AI

The group said that figures show a $10.7 billion increase in global spending on nuclear weapons in 2023 compared to 2022, with the United States accounting for 80% of that increase. The U.S. share of total spending, $51.5 billion, is more than all the other nuclear-armed countries put together.

“There has been a notable upward trend in the amount of money devoted to developing these most inhumane and destructive of weapons over the past five years,” said Alicia Sanders-Zakre, Policy and Research Coordinator with ICAN.

The next biggest spender was China at $11.8 billion, she said, with Russia spending the third largest amount at $8.3 billion.

“All this money is not improving global security, in fact it’s threatening people wherever they live,” Sanders-Zakre said.

SIPRI estimated that some 2,100 of the deployed warheads were kept in a state of high operational alert on ballistic missiles, and nearly all belong to Russia or the U.S. However, it said that China is also believed to have some warheads on high operational alert for the first time.

“Regrettably we continue to see year-on-year increases in the number of operational nuclear warheads,” said Dan Smith, SIPRI’s director. He added that the trend will likely accelerate in the coming years “and is extremely concerning.”

WORLD

New Pentagon report claims China now has over 500 operational nuclear warheads

Russia and the United States have together almost 90% of all nuclear weapons, SIPRI said. The sizes of their military stockpiles seem to have remained relatively stable in 2023, although Russia is estimated to have deployed around 36 more warheads with operational forces than in January 2023, the watchdog added.

In its SIPRI Yearbook 2024, the institute said that transparency regarding nuclear forces has declined in both countries in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and debates around nuclear-sharing arrangements have increased in importance.

Washington suspended its bilateral strategic stability dialogue with Russia, and last year Moscow announced that it was suspending its participation in the New START nuclear treaty.

Of the total global inventory of an estimated 12,121 warheads in January, about 9,585 were in military stockpiles for potential use. An estimated 3,904 of those warheads were deployed with missiles and aircraft — which is 60 more than in January 2023 — and the rest were in central storage.

In Asia, India, Pakistan and North Korea are all pursuing the capability to deploy multiple warheads on ballistic missiles, the institute said. The United States, Russia, France, UK and China already have that capacity, enabling a rapid potential increase in deployed warheads, as well as the possibility for nuclear-armed countries to threaten the destruction of significantly more targets.

SIPRI stressed that all estimates were approximate, and the institute revises its world nuclear forces data each year based on new information and updates to earlier assessments.

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ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:

There are 6 categories, including a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives, as do ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links in each category about the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:

  1. All Things Nuclear
  2. Nuclear Power
  3. Nuclear Power Emergencies
  4. Nuclear War
  5. Nuclear War Threats
  6. Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There are no Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in this evening’s Post.)

Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.

A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.

TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS, Monday, (06/17/2024)

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

Nuclear powers are deepening their reliance on their nukes, a watchdog group says

Little Rock Public Radio

All Things Considered. Next Up: 6:30 PM Marketplace. 0:00. 0:00. All Things … Russia and the United States have together almost 90% of all nuclear …

Nuclear powers are deepening their reliance on their nukes, a watchdog group says

Nevada Public Radio

All Things · Culture · Food and Drink · The Guide · Desert Air · All Things … Russia and the United States have together almost 90% of all nuclear …

Nuclear powers are deepening their reliance on their nukes, a watchdog group says – NHPR

NHPR

Weekend All Things Considered. Next Up: 6:00 PM Live from the Word Barn … Russia and the United States have together almost 90% of all nuclear weapons …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

Bill Gates says “support for nuclear power is very impressive in both parties” amid new plant …

CBS News

Gates and his energy company TerraPower are spearheading a major project that broke ground in Kemmerer, Wyoming last week — a nuclear power plant that …

US as many as 15 years behind China on nuclear power, report says | Reuters

Reuters

But after two large plants in Georgia came online in 2023 and 2024 billions of dollars over budget and delayed by years, no U.S. nuclear reactors are …

Bill Gates Says He’s Ready to Put Billions Into Nuclear Power – Bloomberg

Bloomberg

Bill Gates said he’s prepared to plow billions of dollars into a next-generation nuclear power plant project in Wyoming to meet growing US …

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEWS

Russia-Ukraine war live: emergency blackouts to intensify, warns Ukrainian energy official

The Guardian

Global spending on nuclear weapons is estimated to have increased by 13% to a record $91.4bn during 2023, according to calculations from the …

Nuclear War

NEWS

Kremlin calls NATO chief’s nuclear weapons remark an ‘escalation of tension’ – Reuters

Reuters

President Vladimir Putin has said Russia is technically ready for nuclear war, and that Moscow could use nuclear weapons to defend itself in extreme …

Nuclear-armed nations are deepening their reliance on their nuclear weapons – NBC News

NBC News

“We have not seen nuclear weapons playing such a prominent role in international relations since the Cold War,” said Wilfred Wan, director of the …

Watchdog warns reliance on nuclear weapons rising amid global tension – Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera

SIPRI notes the effects of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza in reducing international security.

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

Telegraph: NATO in talks to put more nuclear weapons on standby, Stoltenberg says

The Kyiv Independent

The threats have failed to materialize, and Russia continues to wage its all-out war without its nuclear arsenal. Stoltenberg also urged NATO members …

Nuclear powers are deepening their reliance on their nukes, a watchdog group says – NPR

NPR

The Geneva-based coalition of disarmament activists won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017. ‘Doomsday Clock’ signals existential threats of nuclear war, …

Ok, Doomer! The NEVER podcast – Biological threats: Going viral

European Leadership Network

Responding to new technological threats without nuclear weapons · Nuclear … In this episode, we explore nuclear war, the first man-made existential …

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LLAW’s All Things Nuclear #663, Sunday, (06/16/2024)

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity”

LLOYD A. WILLIAMS-PENDERGRAFT

JUN 17, 2024

1

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Bill Gates' TerraPower to build its first nuclear reactor in ...

An image shows the TerraPower and GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy Natrium technology, which features a sodium fast reactor combined with a molten salt energy storage system. (TerraPower)

LLAW’s NUCLEAR ISSUES & COMMENTS, Sunday, (06/16/2024)

File:CNN International logo.svg - Wikipedia

CNN. in this story refers, to Bill Gates as a philanthropist. He may been at one point in his professional life, but philanthropy includes this qualification in its definition: A philanthropist “helps create a better world”.

Anyone who promotes anything nuclear, including an alternative kind of nuclear power plant is definitely not, in my opinion, a philanthropist. But for the edification of others I have posted a short 4 minute interview this evening about Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates’ view of the coming nuclear power world along with questions about known problems with all nuclear power plants as well as the unique uranium fuel this plant intends to use. The answers offered by Bill Gates are, at best, highly optimistic. ~llaw

gates.jpg

Bill Gates explains his vision for nuclear power

Fareed Zakaria, GPS

Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates talks to CNN’s Fareed Zakaria about building a nuclear power plant in Wyoming and the future of nuclear energy.

03:45 – Source: CNN

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ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:

There are 6 categories, including a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives, as do ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links in each category about the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:

  1. All Things Nuclear
  2. Nuclear Power
  3. Nuclear Power Emergencies
  4. Nuclear War
  5. Nuclear War Threats
  6. Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There is one Yellowstone Caldera bonus story available in this evening’s Post.)

Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.

A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.

TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS, Sunday, (06/16/2024)

All Things Nuclear

NEW

Lots of ‘misinformation’ surrounding nuclear energy: James Morrow – YouTube

YouTube

… about the different ways in which CSIRO … appear to have gotten it wrong on things like the longevity of nuclear … “The End of Everything,” with …

Video: Bill Gates explains his vision for nuclear power | CNN Business

CNN

… about building a nuclear power plant in Wyoming and the future of nuclear energy … Things · Chasing … All times are ET. Factset: FactSet Research …

– YouTube

– YouTube

… Things newsletter, and we’ll give you the 5 … All is Not Well Between Macron and Meloni. … Russian Nuclear Submarine Docks in Cuba: Putin’s Warning to …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

Video: Bill Gates explains his vision for nuclear power | CNN Business

CNN

Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates talks to CNN’s Fareed Zakaria about building a nuclear power plant in Wyoming and the future of …

U.S. Pushes to Triple Nuclear Energy Production by 2050 | OilPrice.com

Oil Price

This Monday Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer announced that she intends to reopen a nuclear power plant to meet the state’s decarbonization goals.

Here’s Why AI Companies Are Looking To The Nuclear Option – YouTube

YouTube

/2024/06/10/desperate-for-power-ai-companies-look-to-the-nuclear … TerraPower CEO Chris Levesque on next-generation nuclear power. CNBC …

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEWS

Russian nuclear submarine spotted off UK coast sparks emergency meeting amid defence fears

The Mirror

The nuclear–powered attack submarine Kazan was detected by the RAF as it sailed just off the UK’s west coast amid fears it was probing for …

Nuclear War

NEW

Russian Military Expert Suggests Kremlin Plans Nuclear Strikes on US Ships – Newsweek

Newsweek

Russian military expert Igor Korotchenko recently suggested on state-owned TV that the Kremlin plans to attack U.S. ships with nuclear weapons.

US attack sub, Canada navy patrol ship arrive in Cuba on heels of Russian warships

Reuters

The Admiral Gorshkov frigate and the nuclear-powered submarine Kazan, half submerged with its crew on deck, sailed into Havana harbor on Wednesday …

Nuclear Fears In Focus At Ukraine Peace Summit | Barron’s

Barron’s

… nuclear disaster and returning deported children from Russia as countries outlined building blocks towards ending the war.

Nuclear War Threats

NEW

No One Has Right To Threaten The World With Nuclear War: Zelensky| Dawn News English

YouTube

… , urging world leaders to stand against nuclear threats. “No one has the right to threaten the world with nuclear war,” he emphasizes …

Ukraine Peace Summit Declaration Urges Full POW Exchange and Condemns Nuclear Threats

Kyiv Post

“The ongoing war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine continues to cause large-scale human suffering and destruction, and to create risks and …

Putin’s nuclear arsenal is crumbling. Ukraine can take it out for good – MSN

MSN

It’s high time that the West’s more timid leaders understood that the nuclear threats coming out of Moscow are all “bluff and bluster”, …

Yellowstone Caldera

NEWS

Yellowstone to Katmai: 7 National parks with active volcanoes in USA – Asianet Newsable

Asianet Newsable

While the caldera is dormant, the park’s volcanic history is evident. Image credits: Pixabay. Find Next One · Opening/webstories/entertainment …