LLAW’s All Nuclear Daily Digest, #911, Monday, (04/07/2025)

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity” ~llaw

Lloyd A. Williams-Pendergraft

Apr 07, 2025

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The outside of an industrial building.

High-profile disasters shook our faith in atomic power. But many climate activists now believe that we’re afraid of the wrong things.Photograph by Mitch Epstein

LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS TODAY and the GLOBAL RISKS & CONSEQUENCES TOMORROW

In My Opinion:

This is a fairly long article from “The New Yorker” by Pulitzer Prize author Elizabeth Kolbert, the well-known and knowledgeable author of ongoing deadly environmental issues around the world, including her books — which I urge all of you to read if you haven’t already — “The Sixth Extinction”, “Under a White Sky”, and “Filed Notes from a Catastrophe,” all of which I have read and taken notes, and there are a few more that I haven’t got to yet, too. She is a brilliant writer and has travelled the world in her very interesting research, also making her a keen scientific observer of climactic and other catastrophic issues facing humanity and most all other life on planet Earth.

To understand the article I’ve posted below, you have to read the entire article and understand as you are reading the questionable opinions of others about positive views regarding nuclear power that she is being perhaps a bit doubtful about their views, and you begin to understand the positive praise coming from those who in one way or another praise the concepts of nuclear energy, and who also discard and write-off the tragic history, and attempt to pronounce nuclear power as safe and the savior of Earth’s climate and ourselves . . . ~llaw

Environmentalists Are Rethinking Nuclear. Should They?

Fourteen years after the Fukushima disaster, nuclear power is being rebranded as a climate savior, and fission is in fashion.

By Elizabeth Kolbert

April 7, 2025

The outside of an industrial building.

High-profile disasters shook our faith in atomic power. But many climate activists now believe that we’re afraid of the wrong things. Photograph by Mitch Epstein

The disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant began on the afternoon of March 11, 2011, when the Tōhoku earthquake, also known as the Great East Japan Earthquake and the Great Sendai Earthquake, struck the island of Honshu. The shock, which registered 9.1 on the Richter scale, was so powerful that it knocked the island eight feet closer to Hawaii and generated a tsunami that sloshed all the way to Antarctica.

That afternoon, three of Fukushima’s six reactors were up and running; the other three were down for maintenance. The quake tripped the plant’s emergency-response system, and control rods were automatically inserted into the fuel assemblies in the units numbered one, two, and three. Even so, the reactors continued to give off heat. When the tsunami hit, about forty-five minutes later, it flooded the plant’s backup generators, along with the batteries that were supposed to back up the backups. As a result, Fukushima’s cooling pumps failed. Within hours, the temperature inside Unit 1 rose to five thousand degrees, and the fuel assembly started to melt down. Everyone living within a mile and a half of the plant was ordered to evacuate.

Setback followed setback, in what one report would refer to as a “chain reaction” of crises. On March 12th, exploding hydrogen destroyed much of Unit 1 and exposed the pool that housed spent fuel rods to the air. The evacuation zone was extended to six miles, then, later that day, to twelve miles. Workers at the plant tried frantically to contain the damage, by, for example, spraying seawater from fire hoses and rigging up car batteries to supply power. On March 13th, the fuel assembly in Unit 3 melted. On March 14th, that unit suffered an explosion. On March 15th, there was another explosion, this time in Unit 4, where highly radioactive waste was being stored. (The reactors’ containment domes remained intact.)

Electric Power Company, considered pulling its workers from the plant. The Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, met with aides to assess the consequences of such a move. They concluded that without workers the situation would spin further out of control and that eventually all of Tokyo, which is a hundred and fifty miles south of Fukushima, might have to be emptied. Kan grew so alarmed that, reportedly, he stormed into TEPCO’s offices to demand that the workers stay at their posts. “What the hell is going on?” he asked, according to press accounts.

In the immediate aftermath, the lesson of Fukushima seemed clear. On March 15th, Germany’s Chancellor, Angela Merkel, announced a shutdown of the seven oldest of the country’s seventeen working reactors.

“The absolutely improbable became reality,” Merkel, who had previously been staunchly pro-nuclear, said. “That changes the situation.” A few weeks later, her government decided to decommission all of Germany’s nuclear facilities. In short order, Switzerland, Belgium, and Japan announced phaseout plans. In earthquake-prone Italy, which had already shuttered its reactors, voters overwhelmingly rejected a government proposal to allow new ones to be constructed. “I am really happy,” one Roman voter told Reuters. “We do not want nuclear plants.”

But, with time, the accident’s significance has faded. When, in 2023, Germany fulfilled Merkel’s promise and shut the last of its reactors, her successor as head of the Christian Democratic Union, Friedrich Merz, mourned the event, calling it a “black day.”

“It raises the question of who here is driving in the wrong direction,” Merz said. By now, Switzerland, Belgium, and Japan have all backed away from their phaseout goals. Many countries, including Canada, France, and the United States, have signed on to a pledge to triple global nuclear capacity by 2050. Google has teamed up with a nuclear startup called Kairos Power. Amazon is investing in another nuclear startup, X-energy. Microsoft wants to reopen a shuttered reactor at Three Mile Island, in central Pennsylvania. Fourteen years after Fukushima, fission, for better or worse, is back in fashion.

Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow, a freelance journalist, was brought up in the nineteen-nineties on whole-wheat sandwiches packed in reused paper bags. Her environmentalist parents opposed nuclear power and might well have marched at anti-nuclear protests had the U.S. not mostly given up building reactors by then. Influenced by what she calls “years of indoctrination,” she became worried about environmental problems, particularly climate change. As an adult in Southern California, she helped organize her neighbors to install solar panels. She still viewed nuclear skeptically—until she learned that some prominent climate scientists were calling it the world’s best hope for limiting warming.

“Could it really be true that something that had once threatened to doom us was now needed to save us?” she wondered. She set out to learn more, and chronicles her journey of discovery in “Atomic Dreams: The New Nuclear Evangelists and the Fight for the Future of Energy” (Algonquin).

The Wright brothers flying an early airplane.
“For reasons I don’t understand, I could absolutely annihilate a tomato juice right now.”

Cartoon by Tommy Siegel

Prominent among the book’s “evangelists” are Heather Hoff and Kristin Zaitz, who founded a group called Mothers for Nuclear. (The organization’s logo shows a mother cradling a baby, encircled by rings of electrons.) Hoff and Zaitz both work at the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant, in central California. They are athletic and adventurous, and Tuhus-Dubrow clearly admires them.

“The two women seemed like more outdoorsy and capable versions of me, the kind of person I sort of wished I were,” she writes. But, recognizing that they are being paid by the nuclear industry, she also tries to maintain her reportorial distance: “I knew to be cautious about accepting their claims at face value.”

As it happens, Hoff was in the control room at Diablo Canyon the day of the Great East Japan Earthquake. According to Tuhus-Dubrow, Hoff’s initial reaction to the meltdowns was much like everyone else’s: “her confidence in nuclear power was shaken.” Gradually, though, Hoff recovered her faith. Yes, every nuclear operator’s nightmare had come true at Fukushima. But what had been the actual consequences? No one living close to the plant, or anyone working inside it, had died from acute radiation syndrome. As the years passed, there was no discernible rise in cancer deaths in the area around Fukushima. Meanwhile, a great many people—it’s been estimated at more than two thousand—had died prematurely as result of the disruptions caused by the evacuations. (Most of these victims were sick or elderly or both.) On the Mothers for Nuclear website, Hoff eventually summarized her view as follows: “Our fears were largely misdirected.”

In her travels with nuclear evangelists, Tuhus-Dubrow hears versions of this argument over and over. The problem is not that nuclear plants are prone to catastrophic meltdowns; it’s that people are prone to catastrophic thinking. “You see time and time again that fear of radiation, fear of nuclear, has been more dangerous than nuclear itself,” Eric Meyer, a former opera singer who heads a group called Generation Atomic, tells her.

Much of “Atomic Dreams” is devoted to the plant that employs Hoff and Zaitz. This is partly a function of Diablo Canyon’s location—it’s the only working nuclear station in Tuhus-Dubrow’s home state—and partly a function of its history. No nuclear facility in the U.S., and perhaps none in the world, has been the subject of more wrangling.

The fight began all the way back in 1961, when Pacific Gas & Electric proposed siting a nuclear reactor in Bodega Bay, a fishing village north of San Francisco which Alfred Hitchcock once described as “picturesque.” (He shot “The Birds” there.) At that point, the Sierra Club had yet to take a position on nuclear power, but it opposed P.G. & E.’s plan out of concerns that cooling towers would mar the scenery. P.G. & E. then proposed moving the plant three hundred miles south, to the Nipomo Dunes. This was where Cecil B. DeMille had filmed “The Ten Commandments,” and the Sierra Club objected again, for similar reasons. The Diablo Canyon site—a bluff on the Pacific roughly halfway between San Francisco and L.A.—was also spectacular. This time around, the Sierra Club was willing to compromise. In 1966, its executive board declared the bluff a “satisfactory alternative.” Ground was broken on Unit 1 two years later.

In 1969, geologists discovered the Hosgri Fault just offshore from Diablo Canyon. Mothers for Peace, a San Luis Obispo group originally formed to protest the Vietnam War, swivelled to take on P.G. & E. (“Mothers for Peace are fighting another war” is how the local newspaper put it. ) The organization filed motion after motion aimed at halting construction. This slowed but did not stop the work. Then, in 1979, Three Mile Island’s Unit 2 suffered a partial meltdown. The ranks of Diablo Canyon’s opponents swelled. In 1981, protesters blocked the only paved access road to the plant. Within two weeks, more than nineteen hundred people were arrested.

Diablo Canyon Unit 1 finally went online in May, 1985. Unit 2 followed in March, 1986. A month later, the No. 4 reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, in northern Ukraine, melted down and caught fire. (The accident, which resulted in more than a hundred cases of acute radiation syndrome and several thousand cases of thyroid cancer, is still considered the world’s worst nuclear disaster.) Mothers for Peace members took to wearing badges that said “Remember Chernobyl: It can happen here.”

For the next couple of decades, the mothers kept fighting and Diablo Canyon kept operating, more or less uneventfully. This was the case even though several additional earthquake faults were discovered nearby. All the while, though, the glow was coming off the atom. Nuclear power had been promoted as affordable—according to one famous prediction, it would be “too cheap to meter”—but was instead proving too expensive to sustain. By contrast, other forms of energy, such as solar and wind, were falling steeply in price. In 2016, P.G. & E. announced that it would close Diablo Canyon when the reactors’ operating licenses expired, in 2025. The utility promised to replace the power with other forms of carbon-free energy. Gavin Newsom, then the state’s lieutenant governor, called the arrangement one “we can all be proud of.”

It was around the time of this announcement that Hoff and Zaitz founded Mothers for Nuclear. The duo thought shuttering the plant was a terrible idea, and not just, they insisted, because it would cost them their jobs. (“The only way we can have a utopia is if we do nuclear!” Hoff tells Tuhus-Dubrow.) Conceived as a foil to Mothers for Peace, Mothers for Nuclear adopted many of the older group’s tactics: protesting, testifying at hearings, offering up catchy slogans—in this case, ones like “Split, Don’t Emit.” And, as with Mothers for Peace, they were—initially, at least—frustrated.

But then came yet another turn of the turbine. In the summer of 2020, California experienced a brutal heat wave. The demand for air-conditioning strained the state’s power grid, and the grid’s operator, which goes by the acronym CAISO, instituted rolling blackouts. (The situation, Tuhus-Dubrow observes, “highlighted how energy use and climate change feed on each other in a vicious cycle.”) Diablo Canyon was then providing almost ten per cent of the state’s electricity, and, despite the terms P.G. & E. had agreed to, it seemed likely that, if the plant shut down, at least some of the power it generated would be replaced by burning fossil fuels. In February, 2022, more than seventy-five energy and climate experts sent a letter to Newsom, who by then had become the governor, urging him to “delay the closure of the plant.” (In the letter, the group called comparisons between Diablo Canyon and Fukushima “alarmist.”) A few months later, Newsom, in effect, ripped up the deal to decommission the plant.

“Some would say it’s the righteous and right climate decision,” he told the Los Angeles Times. What struck Tuhus-Dubrow most about the reaction to the Governor’s reversal was that there wasn’t much of one. Mothers for Peace, which was still actively opposing Diablo Canyon, was “furious, of course,” she reports. But “the general public sentiment seemed to be a shrug.” Late last year, after “Atomic Dreams” went to press, California’s public-utilities board approved a rate hike that is expected to increase the total price of electricity in the state by more than seven hundred million dollars. The hike was explicitly designed to cover the cost of Diablo Canyon’s continuing operation.

Marco Visscher is a Dutch journalist whose backstory resembles Tuhus-Dubrow’s. For much of his life, he regarded nuclear power with hostility. Writing in a monthly magazine called Ode, he once declared that the technology had “nothing good to bring to people or nature” and that “now is the time to bring the nuclear industry down.” But he kept hearing about environmentalists and climate scientists who were staunchly pro-nuclear. He decided to look into the matter and, in the process, experienced a full-blown conversion. In “The Power of Nuclear” (Bloomsbury Sigma), he declares, “Just about everything we think we know about nuclear power turns out to be wrong.”

Our first and most important mistake, according to Visscher, is thinking that nuclear power represents a special threat. Every form of energy production poses risks. Coal-fired power plants belch out pollutants that cause, among many other health problems, lung disease, heart disease, and cancer. A study published in The Lancet estimated that coal, on a per-kilowatt basis, was nearly five hundred times deadlier than nuclear. Though gas-fired plants burn cleaner, they, too, emit dangerous particulates. Renewables, meanwhile, pose hazards of their own. Hydroelectric dams collapse; small planes fly into wind turbines. “Nuclear power is the safest of all energy sources,” Visscher asserts.

So how did it get such a bad rep? In Visscher’s telling, the problem, paradoxically, stems from the industry’s tireless pursuit of safety. In the U.S., reactors operate under the requirement that radiation doses, for workers and the public, be kept “as low as is reasonably achievable”—for short, ALARA. The nuclear industry accepted this requirement in the nineteen-seventies “in an attempt to reassure the public,” Visscher writes. “But it didn’t work.” ALARA reinforced the idea that any exposure was too much: “If the industry itself treated very low doses of radiation with the utmost care, it must be very dangerous, right?”

Another big mistake is the fear of nuclear waste. When spent fuel rods are first removed from a reactor, they are extremely hot, in terms of both temperature and radioactivity. Although in the first sense they will cool down in a matter of years, in the second they will remain hazardous for centuries. In the U.S., the Department of Energy has been trying for nearly five decades to draft a plan for the long-term storage of nuclear waste, but has yet to come up with one that can win congressional approval. As a result, a hundred thousand tons’ worth of spent fuel has piled up at reactors around the country. Two thousand additional tons are added each year. Disposal has been called the nuclear industry’s Achilles’ heel.

Here, again, Visscher waves away concerns. Solutions exist, he says—they just have to be implemented. Finland is currently building a “deep geological repository” for its waste; the repository, on the country’s southwestern coast, will eventually consist of thirty miles of tunnels bored into the granite bedrock. Spent fuel can also be recycled or, to use the term of art, reprocessed. This is done in, among other countries, France. Finally, in what are known as fast reactors, waste can be converted into fuel. “The highly radioactive waste from nuclear plants is special, indeed, but in a good way,” Visscher writes.

Among climate scientists, the most outspoken proponent of nuclear power is probably James Hansen, a former director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, who is sometimes called the father of global warming. Hansen recently co-wrote an op-ed in the Albany Times Union that praised New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul, for embracing “advanced nuclear” as a way to cut the state’s greenhouse-gas emissions. (“Advanced nuclear” is a catchall term that’s used for a variety of proposed plants, none of which have yet received operating licenses from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.) “If the state hopes to achieve its climate goals, it will need more nuclear power,” the article concluded.

Visscher presents climate change as the ultimate pro-nuclear argument. Industrialized economies need reliable electricity, and the sun and the wind provide power only intermittently. Those who disagree with him are, he suggests, either hypocrites or dupes. This group includes the Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, who says that nuclear plants take too long to build, and the former European commissioner for climate action Frans Timmermans, who says that they’re too expensive. Delays and cost overruns aren’t reasons to oppose nuclear power, Visscher counters; they are products of the opposition to nuclear power, which can add years and billions of dollars to construction. Nuclear foes “have turned out to be the useful idiots” of the fossil-fuel industry, he writes.

Work on the Shoreham nuclear power plant, on the North Shore of Long Island, began in early 1973. The plant was intended to help meet the area’s surging electricity demand, but, from early on, it was plagued by problems. To start with, Shoreham’s owner, the Long Island Lighting Company, made the containment dome too small. A New York State official who visited the site during construction compared the equipment-stuffed dome to a shoebox crammed with junk. Another said that entering it was like walking into “the middle of a bowl of spaghetti.”

LILCO had originally projected that Shoreham would take five years to build and cost five hundred million dollars. The plant was nowhere near finished when, in 1979, the Three Mile Island accident took place, and opposition exploded. On June 3, 1979, an estimated fifteen thousand people gathered on a Long Island beach to protest. Some friends and I were among them.

We were in high school then and lived across the Long Island Sound, in Westchester County. I can’t remember if it was already raining when we set out, in a borrowed station wagon, but by the time we got near Shoreham it was pouring. After an hour or so of shivering in the wet, I suggested that we had registered our opinions and should head home. My friends, I recall with some bitterness, disagreed.

Three Mile Island was the kind of accident that the nuclear industry had insisted couldn’t happen. When it did happen, it changed the way plants were regulated. Operators now had to develop evacuation plans in concert with local officials. Those who tried—in good faith or not—to come up with such a plan for Shoreham had to contend with Long Island’s awkward geography. In the event of an accident, the only practical way to get away from the plant would be to drive west, toward New York City. (The other, impractical option would be to take a boat across Long Island Sound.) People living east of the reactor would thus have to head into danger in order to escape it. In 1983, the Suffolk County Legislature declared there was no evacuation plan that would “protect the health, welfare, and safety” of the public.

Cookie Monster is arrested in his apartment. A room with skeletons and bloody walls is cordoned off by the police.
“I guess we were so distracted by the whole cookie thing we forgot he was a monster.”

Cartoon by Joe Dator

Years of wrangling ensued. In 1985, a hurricane knocked out power for many LILCO customers; the company struggled to get the lights back on, raising fresh questions about its competence. In 1988, LILCO was convicted of misleading state regulators to win rate increases. It nearly went bankrupt. Finally, in 1989, it announced that it would abandon Shoreham. In return, the state agreed to allow the company to recoup from ratepayers the cost of the plant, which had ballooned to almost six billion dollars (roughly fifteen billion dollars in today’s money). The reactor was shut down before it could deliver a single kilowatt-hour of electricity. Shoreham has been called “every utility’s nightmare,” a monument to human folly, and “a world-class fiasco.”

The abandonment of the reactor made Long Island that much more reliant on coal and natural gas. It’s been estimated that Shoreham’s closure resulted in the emission of an additional three million tons of CO2 a year, or more than a hundred million tons over the past three and a half decades.

Were those who opposed the plant wrong to do so? As Marco Visscher points out, all forms of energy production entail risk. And, as James Hansen points out, the risk—or, really, the certainty—of continuing to burn fossil fuels is global catastrophe: major cities under water, grain belts too hot to produce grain, forests in flames, entire ecosystems unravelling.

Clearly, the new nuclear evangelists have a point. Just as clearly, they’re also missing something. Say what you will, Fukushima was a world-class disaster. Hundreds of tons of highly radioactive fuel are still sitting at the bottom of Units 1, 2, and 3 because no one knows what to do with them, or even how to get at them. Cleaning up the site could take a century, if it happens at all. And the really chilling part is that a much bigger accident was averted only by accident.

Because Unit 4 was undergoing maintenance when the tsunami hit, workers had filled its reactor well with water. Owing to a leak that shouldn’t have existed, some of this water seeped into the unit’s spent-fuel pool. It’s likely that without this leak the hot fuel rods in the pool would have caught fire. In that case, radionuclides would have been spewed over a wide area, possibly including Tokyo. A high-ranking Japanese official called this possibility the “Devil’s scenario.”

Nuclear power—and this includes burying or reprocessing the resulting waste—has always been safe on paper. The trouble is that we don’t live on paper. We live in a world where earthquake faults are belatedly discovered, contractors cut corners, utilities mislead regulators, and people panic—a world, in short, of errors, terrors, and corruption. As the world warms, global instability will only increase. In this sense, climate change represents a pretty good argument against going nuclear.

In the end, the most convincing case for learning to love fission may be the grimmest—not so much green as dark green. Few nuclearists embrace it, but it did have one influential advocate: James Lovelock, the British scientist best known for developing the Gaia hypothesis. Lovelock, writing in 2001, observed that the bubonic plague presented a great threat to medieval Europeans but was “of no consequence for the Earth itself.” Much the same could be said of nuclear accidents: they are traumatic for the human beings involved but have little appreciable effect on the biosphere.

“The land around the failed Chernobyl power station was evacuated because its high radiation intensity made it unsafe for people,” Lovelock, who died in 2022, on his hundred-and-third birthday, wrote. “But this radioactive land is now rich in wildlife, much more so than neighboring populated areas. We call the ash from nuclear power nuclear waste and worry about its safe disposal. I wonder if instead we should use it as an incorruptible guardian of the beautiful places of the Earth. Who would dare cut down a forest in which was the storage place of nuclear ash?” ♦

Published in the print edition of the April 14, 2025, issue, with the headline “Going Nuclear”


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ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’s ALL NUCLEAR DAILY DIGEST” RELATED MEDIA

There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is 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. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning 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 Threats
  5. Nuclear War
  6. Yellowstone Caldera & Other Volcanoes (Note: There are no Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in today’s Post.)
  7. IAEA Weekly News (Friday’s only)

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 DIGEST, Monday, (04/07/2025)

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

Kremlin says Russia is ready to do all it can to help resolve US-Iran nuclear tensions

Yahoo

And, of course, Russia is ready to make every effort, to do everything possible to contribute to this problem’s resolution by political and diplomatic …

U.S. Allies and Adversaries Are Attempting Nuclear Deterrence without Weapons — Will It Work?

War on the Rocks

… nuclear weapons without going all the way to a bomb. Countries can then … about nuclear options. Allies’ movement towards nuclear weapons …

Environmentalists Are Rethinking Nuclear. Should They? | The New Yorker

The New Yorker

… all of Germany’s nuclear facilities. … In “The Power of Nuclear” (Bloomsbury Sigma), he declares, “Just about everything we think we know about …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

Energy by the Numbers – Nuclear Energy (2024) – YouTube

YouTube

Nuclear energy was the third largest annual generator of electricity in 2024. Go inside the numbers of the largest sources of reliable and …

Environmentalists Are Rethinking Nuclear. Should They? | The New Yorker

The New Yorker

Elizabeth Kolbert reviews “Atomic Dreams: The New Nuclear Evangelists and the Fight for the Future of Energy,” by Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow, …

Hartlepool nuclear plant under extra regulatory scrutiny – BBC

BBC

nuclear power plant has been told to improve its on-site safety by the industry regulator. The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) said …

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEWS

Declassified MoD document reveals US Visiting Forces across Britain are exempt from … – CND

CND

… emergency situations involving radioactive materials and nuclear weapons. … Power · Anti-war · For Peace and Planet · Future Warfare · Nuclear Ban …

The Conversation | Seth Blumsack | U.S. energy market may not be ‘national emergency

cnhinews.com

… energy-related emergencies, such as meltdowns at nuclear power plants around the world, shortages of electricity, and natural gas and massive …

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

U.S. Allies and Adversaries Are Attempting Nuclear Deterrence without Weapons — Will It Work?

War on the Rocks

A short timeline makes threats to build, and potentially use, nuclear weapons more credible. If the timeline is too long, the target of the threat …

Iran To Strike US? Iran Warns Neighbours Not to Support Trump Amid Nuclear Threats

YouTube

… war? Stay tuned for live updates on this ongoing crisis. #iran # … Iran Warns Neighbours Not to Support Trump Amid Nuclear Threats | WION.

Will the US cut a nuclear deal with Iran or go to war? – The New Arab

The New Arab

Analysis: The US has threatened to bomb Iran if it does not accept its demands to reach a new nuclear deal.

Nuclear War

NEWS

Kremlin says Russia is ready to do all it can to help resolve US-Iran nuclear tensions

Reuters

Iran says it needs nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and denies it is seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. … war. Europecategory · Ukraine’s Kryvyi …

U.S. Allies and Adversaries Are Attempting Nuclear Deterrence without Weapons — Will It Work?

War on the Rocks

Here, a country threatens to possess nuclear weapons, not necessarily to use them in an attack. Assuming the target of the threat — in this case the …

Bill Ackman urges Trump to pause ‘economic nuclear war on every country’ – The Guardian

The Guardian

Bill Ackman urges Trump to pause ‘economic nuclear war on every country’. Billionaire fund manager tries to persuade US president over tariffs …

LLAW’s All Nuclear Daily Digest WEEKEND NEWS, Sunday, (04/06/2025)

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity” ~llaw

Lloyd A. Williams-Pendergraft

Apr 06, 2025

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The PG&E Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant at Avila Beach in California

In order to keep abreast of the weekend nuclear news, I will post Saturday and Sunday’s news, but without editorial comment. If a weekend story warrants a critical review, it will show up on Monday’s posts . . .

If you are not familiar with the daily blog posts, this is how the nuclear news post works . . . llaw

ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’s All Nuclear Daily Digest” RELATED MEDIA”:

There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is 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. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning 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 on this weekend’s Saturday Post.)
  7. IAEA Weekly News (Friday’s only)

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,(04/06/2025)

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

Tensions are rising in the Middle East again, and the U.S. is deeply involved – WBAA

WBAA

All Things Considered. Next Up: 6:30 PM Marketplace. 0:00. 0:00. All Things … MICHAEL KNIGHTS: We have a two-headed crisis – one part where President …

Tensions are rising in the Middle East again, and the U.S. is deeply involved | WKMS

WKMS

All Things Considered. Next Up: 5:30 PM Marketplace. 0:00. 0:00. All Things … MICHAEL KNIGHTS: We have a two-headed crisis – one part where President …

‘We’re facing £80k pension shortfalls because government misled us’ – Yahoo

Yahoo

… everything from electric car batteries to decontaminating nuclear waste … Mr Turner said: “All the communications that we had about the …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

‘They’re everywhere’: workers warn of rat infestation at Somerset nuclear plant

The Guardian

Workers building the troubled Hinkley Point C nuclear reactor in Somerset have raised concerns that the construction site is overrun by rats.

New wave of smaller, cheaper nuclear reactors sends states racing to attract the industry

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

HARRISBURG — With the promise of newer, cheaper nuclear power on the horizon, U.S. states are vying to position themselves to build and supply the …

PG&E taking action steps for safety at Diablo Canyon power plant – YouTube

YouTube

Mothers For Peace, a non-profit organization that is against nuclear energy and waste, has voiced concerns since the 1970s.

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEWS

Belarus to ship 20 tonnes of humanitarian aid to quake-hit Myanmar – Belarusian news

Belarusian news

NUCLEAR POWER IN BELARUS AND WORLDWIDE · President of the Republic of … BelTA learned the details from the Emergencies Ministry. Upon …

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

Iran sends chilling strike threat to neighbouring countries as Ayatollah refuses Trump’s …

The US Sun

Iran sends chilling strike threat to neighbouring countries as Ayatollah refuses Trump’s demand for direct nuke talks … Russia warns war with …

Russian spy sensors found tracking Britain’s nuclear submarines in UK waters: report

New York Post

“Our role is to both defeat any threats to the UK as well as take it out of the greyzone,” Captain Simon Pressdee said. Officials believe the …

Russian spy devices found tracking UK nuclear submarines: Report – The Times of India

Times of India

Despite the discovery being flagged as major national security threat by military officials, it remained hidden from the public. “There should be no …

Nuclear War

NEWS

Iran wants indirect talks with US, warns regional countries over strikes against it | Reuters

Reuters

Israel and Hamas at War · Japan … April 6 (Reuters) – Iran is pushing back against U.S. demands that it directly negotiate over its nuclear …

Unsafe for Russia to restart Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Energoatom says – The Guardian

The Guardian

The future of the Zaporizhzhia plant, Europe’s largest nuclear reactor, is a significant aspect of any negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.

Iran rejects ‘meaningless’ direct talks with US | Nuclear Weapons News – Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera

As war of words over nuclear weapons deal escalates, FM Araghchi says he wants talks on ‘equal footing’.

Yellowstone Caldera

NEWS

Inside the Yellowstone supervolcano eruption that would ‘instantly’ kill 90000 people

Daily Express

Geologists recently discovered signs of rhyolitic volcanism in the northeast-shifting Yellowstone caldera.

LLAW’s All Nuclear Daily Digest WEEKEND NEWS, Saturday, (04/05/2025)

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity” ~llaw

Lloyd A. Williams-Pendergraft

Apr 05, 2025

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The PG&E Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant at Avila Beach in California


In order to keep abreast of the weekend nuclear news, I will post Saturday and Sunday’s news, but without editorial comment. If a weekend story warrants a critical review, it will show up on Monday’s posts . . .

If you are not familiar with the daily blog posts, this is how the nuclear news post works . . . llaw

ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’s All Nuclear Daily Digest” RELATED MEDIA”:

There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is 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. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning 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 on this weekend’s Saturday Post.)
  7. IAEA Weekly News (Friday’s only)

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,(04/05/2025)

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

Israel, US must strike down Iran’s nuclear threat, new JINSA head tells ‘Post’

The Jerusalem Post

Unfortunately, you might have to, if they keep trying to rebuild [the nuclear program]. You are not going to be able to get everything [in one strike] …

Bunker Talk: Let’s Talk About All The Things We Did And Didn’t Cover This Week

The War Zone

377th Test and Evaluation Group missile operators conduct mission operations at Vandenberg Space Force Base, Staff Sgt. Michael Richmond. The TWZ …

Reducing Nuclear War Risks: How America can Address an Urgent, Under-Emphasized Problem

Jurist.org

[17] See Clausewitz oft-cited comment in On War: “Everything is very simple in war, but even the simplest thing is very difficult.” [18] In principle, …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

The West has big plans for nuclear power: Will geopolitics play ball? | Euronews

Euronews.com

As artificial intelligence ramps up energy needs, experts say we’ve reached a ‘nuclear revival’. Pledges are in place — but can supply chains …

MD House Committee Passes Bill Declaring Nuclear Is “Clean Energy

Food & Water Watch

Bill remakes renewable energy program and allows nuclear energy to count towards “clean energy” goals. Published Apr 4, 2025. Categories.

Important news for nuclear power and wind power – Lexology

Lexology

Lindahl’s energy and environmental teams briefly describe a selection of them here. More efficient permit assessments for nuclear power. In order to …

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEWS

Despite national energy emergency, environmental protection laws still apply

The Daily Reporter

In response to President Donald Trump s declaration of a national energy emergency, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently listed hundreds of …

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

The New Nuclear Age: At the Precipice of Armageddon

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Nuclear weapons are returning to the fore of international statecraft in ways unseen since the Cold War. With major powers like Russia issuing threats …

Reducing Nuclear War Risks: How America can Address an Urgent, Under-Emphasized Problem

Jurist.org

Taken together as cumulative categories of existential threat, the risks of an unintentional nuclear war could best be described as “inadvertent.” On …

War, Weaponization or a Deal? President Trump’s High-Stakes Approach Toward Iran” Panel Recap

NIAC Action

… threats of war. Mills broke down the dueling camps within the Trump administration, including more diplomacy-minded figures and other …

Nuclear War

NEWS

Reducing Nuclear War Risks: How America can Address an Urgent, Under-Emphasized Problem

Jurist.org

nuclear war could closely resemble any other incurable disease. The only realistic therapeutic hopes would lie in prevention. Among other things, …

Reducing Nuclear War Risks: What to do When the Most Urgent American Survival Problem …

Jurist.org

As scholars and policy-makers, we cannot predict the likelihood of nuclear warfare. Both scholars and policy makers must calculate law-based …

The New Nuclear Age: At the Precipice of Armageddon

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Nuclear weapons are returning to the fore of international statecraft in ways unseen since the Cold War. With major powers like Russia issuing threats …

LLAW’s All Nuclear Daily Digest, #910, Friday, (04/04/2025)

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity” ~llaw

Lloyd A. Williams-Pendergraft

Apr 04, 2025

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A top U.S. general testified before Congress that Greenland is hugely important to U.S. national security because it is a key landmass for tracking Russian nuclear submarines.

(See the “TWZ” article for image description and photo credits. ~llaw)

LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS TODAY and the GLOBAL RISKS & CONSEQUENCES TOMORROW

In My Opinion:

Trump makes a huge mess of everything he tries to do, and this is just another serious blunder that decreases the entire world’s former trust, appreciation, reliance, etc.

I’ve jotted down a few abbreviated phrases and comments from the article(s) that tell us that Trump is rapidly destroying America’s global leadership and reputation over his insane self-aggrandizing ambitious desire to become a Putin-style dictator over a huge part of the globe: A recent visit to Greenland by Vice President J.D. Vance created an uproar, and on Wednesday, Danish and Greenlandic officials met on the island in a show of unity against Trump’s repeated calls for U.S. annexation.

Asked about the frigid island, Cavoli made it clear he was talking about the military value of it and not the Trump administration’s policy of trying to assume Greenland from Denmark. Another interjection from the article(s): “Notice that this is really all about him, and his fantasies about himself. Every American should cringe deeply . . .” ~llaw

The War Zone Logo

Greenland “Absolutely Critical” For Hunting Russian Submarines: Top U.S. General In Europe

Gen. Christopher G. Cavoli, the top U.S. general in Europe, testified that Greenland is vital to U.S. national security.

Howard Altman

Published Apr 3, 2025 7:36 PM EDT

300

A top U.S. general testified before Congress that Greenland is hugely important to U.S. national security because it is a key landmass for tracking Russian nuclear submarines.
Russian Navy

As U.S. President Donald Trump continues to seek control of Greenland, the top U.S. military commander in Europe said the massive island is vital to America’s national security. The main issue, he said, is that Greenland’s geographic location makes it a key landmass from which to track Russian submarines before they have a chance to disappear into the Atlantic Ocean and potentially endanger the East Coast. You can read more about the strategic importance of Greenland in our deep dive here.

“Access to the airspace and water space found in Greenland is absolutely critical for the United States,” said U.S. Army Gen. Christopher G. Cavoli, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) and head of U.S. European Command. Cavoli addressed the security value of Greenland during testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday. Asked about the frigid island, Cavoli made it clear he was talking about the military value of it and not the Trump administration’s policy of trying to assume Greenland from Denmark.

“The key there is it forms the western border of the Greenland, Iceland, UK (GIUK) gap, which is that body of water through which Russian submarines from the Northern Fleet in Murmansk come up and then down through that gap,” Cavoli stated. Murmansk is home to some of Russia’s most capable submarines, like the Yasen-M class nuclear-powered cruise missile carrying Kazan.

Russian nuclear submarine Kazan arrives in Cuba.
The Russian nuclear-powered submarine Kazan, part of the Russian naval detachment visiting Cuba, arrives at Havana’s harbor, June 12, 2024. Y(AMIL LAGE/AFP via Getty Images) (Photo by YAMIL LAGE/AFP via Getty Images)

The threat of Russian submarines in the Atlantic has been so great that in 2021 the U.S. Navy established a dedicated anti-sub task group of Arleigh Burke-class destroyers that was officially named Task Group Greyhound, which you can read more about here. The increasing Russian submarine activity sparked a warning five years ago from a top U.S. Navy officer that the East Coast was no longer a safe haven for the sea service’s ships and submarines.

The value of the GIUK Gap is not lost on Russia, either. In 2019, it launched its largest drill since the Cold War, sending at least 10 submarines from Murmansk through that region.

“The goal for some of the submarines is to get as far out into the Atlantic as possible without being discovered,” Norwegian news outlet NRK reported at the time.

The entire voyage from their Northern Fleet bases in the Murmansk region was submerged.

“Russia’s goal is to show that they are able to threaten the U.S. East Coast,” the publication noted. “Russia wants to say that ‘this is our sea,’ we can do this. We are able to reach the United States… They want to test the West’s ability to detect and handle this…”

Beyond offensive maneuvers, Russian submarines could also flood into the GIUK Gap and the waters off Norway in a defensive posture to keep U.S. submarines and surface combatants from pushing northward during a crisis. This would protect strategic Russian naval ports on the Barents Sea, Russia’s ballistic missile boats patrolling the northernmost latitudes and hiding under the polar icecap, and its increasingly strategic territorial holdings in the Arctic. It could also isolate NATO allies in Northern Europe from naval assistance during a crisis.

You can read more about the importance of this swath of ocean here.

Dating from the Cold War but still relevant today, a map of the GIUK Gap. CIA.gov

With all these considerations in play, Cavoli told senators that not having a strong U.S. presence in Greenland is a dangerous prospect. It makes up part of the northern section of the GIUK gap , which is bisected by the far smaller island of Iceland. With just 200 miles between the southeastern coast of Greenland and Iceland, this an important choke point. This area of the GIUK gap is located about 1,000 miles southeast of the Pituffik Space Force Base, the only U.S. military facility on the island. Formerly named Thule Air Base, it hosts an array of early warning radars and carries out regular flying operations.

Once Russian submarines “get past that gap, they break out into the Atlantic,” Cavoli pointed out. “It becomes very tough to track them. It’s a vast expanse. There’s some acoustic things about the underwater geography that make it pretty tough.”

“From those positions that they can achieve, they can hold the U.S. homeland at risk several important targets with land attack cruise missiles,” the general added.

The Russian submarine Kilo class submarine Lipetsk docked at Russia’s Nothern Fleet base in the town of Severomorsk not far from the city of Murmansk. (ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP via Getty Images) A Russian submarine Project 877 submarine stands at Russia’s Nothern Fleet base in the town of Severomorsk not far from the city of Murmansk, 19 April 2007. (ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP via Getty Images)

Still, there are several places on Greenland where the U.S. and NATO allies can increase their anti-submarine capabilities without taking over the entire island. That begs the question of why expend the enormous diplomatic and potentially financial capital to acquire it? Iceland also has a regular detachment of anti-submarine warfare aircraft from the U.S. that covers the GIUK gap, making access for these operations in Greenland seem like more of a convenience than a necessity.

200302-N-AZ907-0115 KEFLAVIK, Iceland (March 2, 2020) -- Personnel, assigned to Patrol Squadron 4 (VP-4), use a munitions handling unit to transport a torpedo to a P-8 Poseidon, during an explosive ordnance exercise (EXPORD 20-1) led by Navy Expeditionary Combat Force Europe-Africa/Task Force (CTF) 68, March 2, 2020. CTF 68 provides explosive ordnance disposal operations, naval construction, expeditionary security, and theater security efforts in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of responsibility. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Peter Lewis/Released)
Personnel, assigned to Patrol Squadron 4 (VP-4), use a munitions handling unit to transport a torpedo to a P-8 Poseidon, during an explosive ordnance exercise led by Navy Expeditionary Combat Force Europe-Africa/Task Force (CTF) 68, March 2, 2020. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Peter Lewis/Released) Petty Officer 1st Class Peter Lewis

Tracking submarines may be seen as a major part of Greenland’s strategic value, but its location addresses several other important military needs. The radar arrays at Pituffik provide critical early warning of Russian ballistic missile attacks, giving the president and military more time to react. And should an adversary like Russia or China take it over, or even establish a major presence there, it could enable the placement of stand-off weapons just 1,300 miles from the United States.

Cavoli’s comments come amid a roiling international controversy, pitting two close NATO allies against each other. Greenland is governed by Denmark and Trump recently repeated his stance that military action is not off the table to take the island. The president’s interest in Greenland dates back to his first term when he announced he was considering purchasing it.

A recent visit there by Vice President J.D. Vance created an uproar, and on Wednesday, Danish and Greenlandic officials met on the island in a show of unity against Trump’s repeated calls for U.S. annexation.

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen in an effort to calm the relations. During that meeting, Rubio reaffirmed the “strong relationship” between the U.S. and Denmark, the State Department stated.

While the politics of the situation is fraught and the future murky, it is crystal clear that Greenland has significant military value.

Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com

Howard Altman Avatar

Howard Altman

Senior Staff Writer


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ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’s ALL NUCLEAR DAILY DIGEST” RELATED MEDIA

There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is 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. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning 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 Threats
  5. Nuclear War
  6. Yellowstone Caldera & Other Volcanoes (Note: There are three Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in today’s Post.)
  7. IAEA Weekly News (Friday’s only)

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 DIGEST, Friday, (04/04/2025)

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

Greenland “Absolutely Critical” For Hunting Russian Submarines: Top U.S. General In Europe

The War Zone

Notice that this is really all about him, and his fantasies about himself. Every American should cringe deeply that a former President is saying …

Lynchburg company vows to build small nuclear reactor for mass production: Critics voice doubts.

WVTF

“With every data center, with every advanced manufacturing plant that is built, with every indoor farm, with every step to electrify our economy, the …

What is the strategy behind the U.S. bombing campaign in Yemen? | Maine Public

Maine Public

… All Things Considered. Next Up: 6:30 PM Marketplace. 0:00. 0:00. All Things … And remember, Trump pulled out of a nuclear deal during his first term, …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

Meet the Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant – YouTube

YouTube

Browns Ferry is one of the largest power plants in the United States. The plant is located in Northwest Alabama and powers more than 2 million …

German poll: majority for return to nuclear energy – DW

DW

The issue of nuclear energy has vexed German politics for some time, and it has been a sticking point in current ongoing coalition negotiations …

Gov. Polis signs bill to consider nuclear energy a clean energy source in CO – YouTube

YouTube

On Monday, Governor Jared Polis signed a bill declaring nuclear energy a clean energy source in Colorado.

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEWS

Update 284 – IAEA Director General Statement on Situation in Ukraine – ReliefWeb

ReliefWeb

The ambulance was handed over to the Emergency Technical Center of the national nuclear energy … At the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) …

TPU physicists have proven the effectiveness of using chromium for shells of tolerant nuclear fuel

AK&M

This is a special type of nuclear fuel that is resistant to emergencies at nuclear power plants. Its special feature is the ability to maintain …

Activist sues Dauphin County officials over Three Mile Island restart funds

WPMT FOX43

… nuclear power facility, also names the county’s Public Safety Department and the department’s emergency management specialist as defendants. The …

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

Iran and U.S. Threat of War: Seven Signs To Watch – Newsweek

Newsweek

Diplomatic Threats. Iran’s Foreign Minister warned this week that his country would “respond swiftly to any attack” after Trump threatened to “bomb” …

Russia calls Trump threats to bomb Iran ‘illegal and unacceptable’ – Fox News

Fox News

Threats from outside to bomb Iran’s nuclear infrastructure facilities will inevitably lead to an irreversible global catastrophe. These threats …

New Heritage Documentary Exposes Stunning Threats of China’s Growing Nuclear Advantage

The Heritage Foundation

New Heritage Documentary Exposes Stunning Threats of China’s Growing Nuclear Advantage … We can no longer afford to rely on Cold War-era …

Nuclear War

NEWS

Russia urges restraint on all sides over Iran’s nuclear programme – Reuters

Reuters

Russia has deepened ties with Tehran since the start of the war in Ukraine and signed a strategic partnership agreement with the Islamic Republic in …

Europe is preparing for possible war with Russia, without the US – ABC News

ABC News

But, one area where that may prove difficult is nuclear capabilities. NATO countries have been assured that they would be protected by America’s …

Willamette alum uses global perspective to influence U.S. nuclear policy | News

Willamette University News

Studying the Cold War in her history classes sparked her interest in nuclear weapons. … “The famous phrase coined by Reagan and Gorbachev during the …

Yellowstone Caldera

NEWS

Yellowstone volcano: USGS finds seven huge magma chambers below supervolcano

Daily Express

The Yellowstone Caldera, a volcanic caldera and supervolcano located in Yellowstone National Park in the western United States, is often referred to …

Hoodoo Hodunit?! (Yellowstone Monthly Update – April 2025) – YouTube

YouTube

… Yellowstone Volcano remains at normal, background levels of activity. Watch the full video to learn more! Read Caldera Chronicles https …

USGS explains history behind Sheepeater Cliff formation in Yellowstone – Buckrail

Buckrail

In a past edition of Caldera Chronicles by the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory (YVO), U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Geophysicist Michael Poland …

IAEA Weekly News

4 April 2025

Read the top news and updates published on IAEA.org this week.

https://www.iaea.org/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail_165x110/public/thumbnail_decom.jpg?itok=HjJTMeZq

4 April 2025

Decommissioning – Restoring Former Nuclear Sites

Find out how decommissioning activities are carried out effectively and safely in the French town of La Hague, where a former fuel processing plant is being decommissioned. Read more →

https://www.iaea.org/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail_165x110/public/iaeaflag11140x640.jpg?itok=L8JFAU_6

3 April 2025

Update 284 – IAEA Director General Statement on Situation in Ukraine

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has delivered a new ambulance and other medical equipment to help Ukraine provide adequate health care for the personnel operating its nuclear power plants (NPPs) in challenging conditions during the military conflict, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said today. Read more →

https://www.iaea.org/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail_165x110/public/renner-1140x640.png?itok=C2RxgB6f

2 April 2025

Behind the Scenes of a Cancer Control ImPACT Review Mission

The IAEA, together with its partners the World Health Organization and the International Agency for Research on Cancer, carried out an imPACT Review in Mozambique last year, supporting the country in efforts to improve comprehensive cancer control. Read more →

https://www.iaea.org/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail_165x110/public/iaea_successful_field_trial.png?itok=xo2mSCVe

1 April 2025

The IAEA’s Successful Field Trial: A Promising Breakthrough in Combating Fusarium Wilt in Bananas

The Joint FAO/IAEA Centre of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture is developing a sustainable solution to the Fusarium wilt threat to help protect banana cultivation across the globe. Read more →

LLAW’s All Nuclear Daily Digest, #909, Thursday, (04/03/2025)

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity” ~llaw

Lloyd A. Williams-Pendergraft

Apr 03, 2025

1

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Iran Russia China

(See “Newsweek” article below for image description and photo credits ~llaw”

LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS TODAY and the GLOBAL RISKS & CONSEQUENCES TOMORROW

In My Opinion:

From today’s article concerning the U.S. conflict over Iran’s nuclear program and facilities and Russia’s dire warnings to Trump to leave Iran alone . . .

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Remarks at FinCEN on Wednesday: “Our objective is to thwart Iran’s ability to lead and sponsor terrorism, deny Iran’s attempts to grow its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles programs, and punish Iran for its heinous human rights abuses.”

This statement by the U.S. Treasury Secretary and former “hedge fund manager” seems so odd to me. What does he and his job have to do with controlling Iran’s “terrorism” and “growing its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles”? Such an announcement, one would think, might more likely come from the Secretary of Defense or the President himself.

Is this oddity because Trump’s Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, is in deep trouble with the Pentagon over his premature and amateurish, as well as insecure, handling of Top Secret military objectives in Yemen?

In other words, Trump and his White House are creating more trouble than they can handle or defend, and when we’re talking about “war”, be its beginning conventional or nuclear, with Iran — which has Russia and China’s military support — we are looking at nuclear war directly in its doomsday face.

Let’s face it: Trump and his entire so-called “Cabinet” are obviously dreadfully unqualified to lead our once great nation . . . and something must be done about it! ~llaw

Logos - Image Gallery - Newsweek

Russia Warns Against Attacking Iran: “Illegal and Unacceptable”

Published Apr 03, 2025 at 11:23 AM EDT

00:30

Russia, China Vessels Arrive In Iran For Naval Drill

By Amira El-Fekki‎

Middle East Reporter

Trust Project Icon

Newsweek Is A Trust Project Member

news article

Russia warned on Thursday against any attack on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure as tensions grow with the United States over its nuclear program and after President Donald Trump threatened to bomb Iran if it doesn’t reach a deal.

Newsweek has reached out to the U.S. State Department for comment.

Why It Matters

Russia has grown closer to Iran and in January the two countries signed a comprehensive strategic partnership. That risks any conflict over Iran’s nuclear program taking on a global dimension.

Iran has rejected direct negotiations under pressure after Trump reinstated his “maximum pressure” campaign, reimposing strict sanctions aimed at weakening Iran’s economy and halting its nuclear advancements. Trump has also threatened to bomb Iran if there is no deal.

While Iran has indicated that indirect talks could be possible, rising tensions between Iran and the U.S. have reignited fears of a potential war.

What To Know

“The use of military force by Iran’s adversaries in the context of political resolution is illegal and unacceptable,” Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told a news conference, according to a ministry translation. “External threats to bomb Iran’s nuclear energy infrastructure would inevitably lead to far-reaching and irreversible consequences.”

Zacharova’s comments highlight Russia’s opposition to U.S. threats against Iran, with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov earlier this week condemning what he described as “inappropriate” methods.

Iran Russia China
In this photo released by the Iranian army on Monday, March 10, 2025, a Russian navy vessel enters Iranian waters for a joint naval exercise with Iran and China. Mohammad Mehdi Dara, Iranian Army/AP

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has warned that if the U.S. or any other nation acts against Iran, they will “receive a severe blow.

Read more Russia

Earlier this month, President Trump said he had sent a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader, urging Tehran to negotiate over its nuclear program and warning of potential military action if it refused. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called the letter “more of a threat” but acknowledged it also presented opportunities.

What People Are Saying

Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova: “The use of military force by Iran’s adversaries in the context of political resolution is illegal and unacceptable… External threats to bomb Iran’s nuclear energy infrastructure would inevitably lead to far-reaching and irreversible consequences.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Remarks at FinCEN on Wednesday: “Our objective is to thwart Iran’s ability to lead and sponsor terrorism, deny Iran’s attempts to grow its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles programs, and punish Iran for its heinous human rights abuses.”

What Happens Next

The Russian comments come as the United States and Iran are intensifying both rhetoric and military preparations, signaling the risk that a direct confrontation could evolve into a broader conflict.Subscribed

ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’s ALL NUCLEAR DAILY DIGEST” RELATED MEDIA

There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is 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. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning 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 Threats
  5. Nuclear War
  6. Yellowstone Caldera & Other Volcanoes (Note: There are three Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in today’s Post.)
  7. IAEA Weekly News (Friday’s only)

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 DIGEST,Thursday, (04/03/2025)

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

The Really Big Show: Tariffs, foreign interference and tax avoidance – YouTube

YouTube

thumbnail-image. Add a comment… 1:10:22 · Go to channel · The Really Big Show: Should Canada build nuclear weapons? NowMedia Group New 192 views · 1 …

TVA’s Clinch River Nuclear Power Project: Where Things Stand Today

POWER Magazine

© 2025 Access Intelligence, LLC – All Rights Reserved. POWER Plant ID · POWER Events · Nuclear · Gas · Solar · Wind · T&D · O&M · Technology …

Nuclear-powered rocket concept could cut journey time to Mars in half | CNN

CNN

“They are element cookers — cooking hydrogen into helium — and then as they die, they create the heavy elements that make up everything. Ultimately …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

Nuclearpowered rocket concept could cut journey time to Mars in half | CNN

CNN

Nuclear fusion is different from nuclear fission, which is what powers current nuclear power plants. Fission works by splitting heavy, radioactive …

Next-gen nuclear reactors poised for surge in U.S. power grid – Washington Times

Washington Times

A manufacturing plant in Texas is planning to power its production with an advanced nuclear reactor instead of natural gas, advancing the Trump …

U.S. Nuclear Power Recommissioning and Decommissioning Trends – The National Law Review

The National Law Review

Explore recommissioning challenges for shuttered nuclear plants, including Palisades and TMI Unit 1, alongside strategies for navigating …

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEWS

Nuclear Energy In-State Retreats, Technical Assistance, and Action Planning

National Governors Association

The National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, with support from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy, …

Darrin Monks of US Mechanical Company, a Leading Expert in HVAC Emergency … – Yahoo Finance

Yahoo Finance

… power in an emergency. During extreme weather conditions, he … India’s NTPC seeks global partners to build 15 GW nuclear reactors. NTPC …

Passenger illness prompts emergency landing of UK-India flight in Türkiye

Türkiye Today

… emergency landing in southeastern Türkiye Wednesday after a passenger experienced a medical emergency onboard. … Nuclear Power Plant · Business …

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

Russia says US threats of military strikes against Iran are unacceptable | Reuters

Reuters

Israel and Hamas at War · Japan · Middle East · Ukraine and Russia at War … Asked about Iran’s nuclear programme and the dangers in the current …

Russia Warns Against Attacking Iran: “Illegal and Unacceptable” – Newsweek

Newsweek

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called the letter “more of a threat” but acknowledged it also presented opportunities. What People Are Saying.

Russia warns war with Iran will trigger ‘irreversible catastrophe’ if US bombs nuke sites as …

The US Sun

… nuke sites as Trump & Israel plot strikes. Increasingly drastic threats of war are flying between the West and Iran and its allies. Patrick …

Nuclear War

NEWS

Can Europe Build Its Own Nuclear Umbrella? | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Paris considers that its nuclear weapons are meant to deter an attack on the country’s most vital interests, which it considers to include a “European …

Russia says US threats of military strikes against Iran are unacceptable | Reuters

Reuters

Israel and Hamas at War · Japan · Middle East · Ukraine and Russia at … nuclear programme which respected Tehran’s rights to peaceful nuclear energy.

Why Does the United States Need a More Flexible Nuclear Force? – CSIS

CSIS

In the years following the Cold War, the U.S. nuclear enterprise atrophied due to a lack of funding and attention. Now, in response to the evolving …

Yellowstone Caldera

NEWS

Explainer: Yellowstone’s abundance of waterfalls – Buckrail

Buckrail

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK — In the most recent Caldera Chronicles by the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory (YVO), U.S. Geological Survey Research …

Yellowstone’s hidden gems: 350 waterfalls are higher than 15 feet – Billings Gazette

Billings Gazette

Yellowstone Caldera Chronicles is a weekly column written by scientists and collaborators of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. This week’s …

How A Yellowstone Supervolcano Eruption Could Affect The Entire World – TheTravel

TheTravel

Yellowstone’s current caldera, the national park volcano, and the peaceful depression spanning 34 by 50 miles that draws millions of visitors yearly …

LLAW’s All Nuclear Daily Digest, #908, Wednesday, (04/02/2025)

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity” ~llaw

Lloyd A. Williams-Pendergraft

Apr 02, 2025

1

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(See credits to 2025 Doomsday Clock, courtesy of NPR via“The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists”)

The Doomsday Clock is a symbolic timepiece, created by scientists to show how close humanity is to catastrophe – represented by “midnight”. In January 2025, it was set to 89 seconds, the closest it has ever been to that point of global disaster. Among the various threats that could lead to such an event, nuclear terrorism is considered one of the dangerous modern challenges. ~ IARI

LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS TODAY and the GLOBAL RISKS & CONSEQUENCES TOMORROW

In My Opinion:

I have often mentioned the increasing threat of nuclear terrorism, but as nuclear proliferation expands, both for war and nuclear power, dramatically increasing around the globe, the threat grows more and more likely to become an international concern — perhaps even comparable to the threat from any or all of the nine nations combined that already have an armageddon-worth of nuclear weapons of mass destruction at their disposal.

There are also serious concerns about both Nuclear Power Plants and Nuclear Waste Storage beyond the scope of this article that are subject to terrorism attacks that are ready-made for the kind of nuclear warfare discussed here. Some of it is already available simply by occupation and control— that being the projected increase in nuclear power plants, especially from the predicted proliferation of Small Nuclear Power Reactors (SMRs) and the plethora of unprotected canisters and barrels of nuclear waste that resides in open areas adjacent to existing nuclear power plants in the United States, Canada, and other nations who have never developed underground disposal facilities for nuclear waste during years of basically unsecured open-air pools of massive collections of massive nuclear waste. This is a problem that will only increase as new nuclear power plant facilities, large and small, come online to satisfy our human need for electrical energy.

We have, through pure greed and ignorance, most likely created our own demise, taking along most all other life with us, and the longer we continue along this road to oblivion, the less likely we are to ever unite in a one-lane global detour of unity to rid ourselves of “All Things Nuclear” — a task that is already reaching the limits of our capability to recover from . . . ~llaw

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89 seconds to midnight: could nuclear terrorism be the CBRN event that triggers humanity’s breaking point?

by Daria Alexe

2 Aprile 20252 Aprile 2025

18 mins read

Image source: https://www.npr.org/2025/01/29/nx-s1-5279204/doomsday-clock-2025-history

The Doomsday Clock is a symbolic timepiece, created by scientists to show how close humanity is to catastrophe – represented by “midnight”. In January 2025, it was set to 89 seconds, the closest it has ever been to that point of global disaster. Among the various threats that could lead to such an event, nuclear terrorism is considered one of the dangerous modern challenges.

The Doomsday Clock was created in 1947 and measures the likelihood of a human-made global disaster. As the Clock moves closer to midnight, the threat of nuclear terrorism looms as one of the most catastrophic risks facing global security. Among all Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) threats, nuclear terrorism stands out for its potential to cause mass casualties, long-term environmental devastation, and unprecedented geopolitical destabilization. Despite international efforts to secure nuclear materials and dismantle illicit networks, non-state actors continue to seek access to fissile material and the expertise needed to create a crude nuclear device or deploy a radiological dispersal weapon.

The viability of nuclear terrorism

The concept of nuclear terrorism is not merely theoretical: intelligence agencies and security experts have repeatedly warned about its feasibility. The potential for terrorist organizations or rogue actors to exploit vulnerabilities in nuclear security has been a persistent concern for decades. The risk is exacerbated by the ongoing proliferation of nuclear knowledge, the expansion of illicit nuclear markets, and the failure of some States to maintain rigorous oversight of their nuclear stockpiles. While constructing a full-scale nuclear weapon remains an insurmountable challenge for most non-state actors due to the complexities of uranium enrichment and plutonium processing, the acquisition of stolen or illicitly traded fissile material is a real concern. The black market for nuclear materials continues to thrive in some parts of the world, where corruption and weak regulatory oversight enable traffickers to move radioactive substances across borders undetected.

The collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s raised alarms about the security of nuclear stockpiles, as economic instability and political fragmentation led to lapses in nuclear safeguards. The Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program was designed to address these vulnerabilities by securing and dismantling former Soviet nuclear arsenals, yet concerns persist over unaccounted-for materials. Reports of nuclear smuggling incidents, some involving highly enriched uranium and plutonium, continue to surface, and this underscores the difficulty of completely eliminating the risk of nuclear theft. While many documented cases of illicit nuclear trade have been thwarted, it remains unclear how many transactions go undetected, raising the possibility that nuclear materials may already be in the hands of actors with malicious intent.

Radiological dispersal devices (RDDs), or “dirty bombs,” present a more accessible and plausible nuclear terrorism threat. These devices use conventional explosives to scatter radioactive material, causing widespread panic, economic disruption, and long-term health consequences. Unlike nuclear weapons, RDDs do not require weapons-grade material, making them an attractive option for terrorist organizations aiming to instill fear and cripple infrastructure without requiring state-level nuclear capabilities. Hospitals, industrial sites, and research facilities often store radiological materials such as Cesium-137 and Cobalt-60, which, if improperly secured, could be exploited for use in an RDD. The effects of a dirty bomb attack would likely be more psychological than physical, as the radiation levels dispersed may not cause immediate mass casualties, but the fear and uncertainty generated by such an event could be enough to cause social and economic paralysis.

The potential for cyber-enabled nuclear terrorism also introduces a new dimension to the threat landscape. Hackers targeting nuclear facilities or material storage sites could compromise security systems, disable safeguards, or even facilitate unauthorized access to radiological substances. As nuclear infrastructure becomes increasingly reliant on digital systems, the risk of cyberattacks disrupting nuclear security measures grows. The combination of traditional threats, such as physical theft or smuggling, and emerging risks like cyber-enabled breaches, makes the challenge of preventing nuclear terrorism more complex than ever before.

The expanding threat landscape: terrorist groups and illicit networks

While there has been no successful large-scale nuclear terrorist attack, intelligence has consistently pointed to active attempts by extremist organizations to acquire nuclear materials. Al-Qaeda’s leadership, including Osama bin Laden, openly sought nuclear weapons during the 1990s and early 2000s, attempting to procure uranium through intermediaries in Sudan and other regions. The proliferation network run by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khanexposed vulnerabilities in nuclear security, demonstrating how sensitive technology and materials could be sold illicitly.

ISIS also explored nuclear options, with European intelligence agencies uncovering surveillance operations targeting nuclear facilities in Belgium in 2016. Documents seized from ISIS hideouts in Syria indicated ambitions to construct a radiological dispersal device, using radioactive materials available in hospitals or industrial sites. The potential for terrorist groups to exploit unprotected radiological sources remains a significant concern, as seen in previous incidents of radioactive material theft in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

The Russian black market for nuclear material has long been a focal point for counterproliferation efforts. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, multiple cases of nuclear smuggling have been uncovered, with intercepted shipments of uranium and plutonium often traced back to poorly secured Soviet-era stockpiles. Moldovan authorities disrupted a smuggling ring in 2011 that sought to sell weapons-grade uranium to a suspected terrorist organization, while similar operations in Georgia and Kazakhstan highlight persistent gaps in nuclear security.

Regional case studies: the most vulnerable hotspots

Certain regions are particularly vulnerable to nuclear terrorism due to a combination of weak governance, active extremist groups, and the presence of nuclear materials or infrastructure. South Asia remains one of the most critical flashpoints. Pakistan, with its expanding nuclear arsenal and history of internal instability, faces persistent concerns over the security of its nuclear sites. The country has long battled terrorist organizations such as Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and al-Qaeda, which have carried out high-profile attacks against military installations. The potential for insider threats within Pakistan’s security apparatus has raised alarms among global intelligence agencies, as individuals sympathetic to extremist causes could facilitate access to sensitive nuclear materials.

In the Middle East, Iran’s nuclear ambitions and its network of proxy groups add another dimension to the nuclear terrorism threat. While Iran has officially agreed to non-proliferation commitments, concerns remain about the potential diversion of nuclear materials to allied militant groups, such as Hezbollah. The risk is not necessarily a direct transfer of a nuclear weapon, but rather the possibility that radiological substances from civilian nuclear programs could be repurposed for a dirty bomb attack by Iran-backed factions.

Sub-Saharan Africa, although not traditionally considered a nuclear hotspot, has been linked to nuclear proliferation networks in the past. The Democratic Republic of the Congo has uranium deposits that were historically exploited for nuclear programs, and weak governance structures could make these materials susceptible to exploitation. Additionally, terrorist organizations operating in the Sahel, such as Boko Haram and ISIS-affiliated groups, have shown increasing sophistication in their operations, raising concerns about their ability to engage in nuclear smuggling networks.

The consequences of a nuclear terrorism event

The detonation of a nuclear device or dirty bomb in a major metropolitan area would trigger an unparalleled security crisis. A nuclear explosion, even a crude one, would result in mass casualties, large-scale infrastructure destruction, and environmental contamination that could render entire cities uninhabitable. The economic consequences would be catastrophic, with financial markets collapsing due to uncertainty and fear. Governments would be forced to implement emergency measures, likely including martial law, while civil liberties could be severely curtailed under the pretext of national security.

Beyond the immediate devastation, the geopolitical ramifications of nuclear terrorism could lead to full-scale conflicts. If the attack were linked to a State sponsor, retaliatory military actions could escalate, triggering wars that redraw global alliances. Even in cases where attribution remains unclear, nations may act preemptively based on intelligence, leading to diplomatic crises and increased global instability. The psychological impact of a nuclear terrorism event would be profound, creating a climate of fear that could reshape urban security policies, increase surveillance measures, and further erode trust in institutions meant to protect civilian populations.

The environmental consequences of a nuclear terrorism event would extend far beyond the initial impact site. A nuclear detonation or even a dirty bomb attack would contaminate air, soil, and water sources, potentially making large areas uninhabitable for generations. The radiation exposure could lead to long-term health effects, including increased cancer rates, genetic mutations, and other chronic illnesses among the affected populations. Clean-up efforts would require extensive financial resources and advanced technological solutions, placing immense pressure on both national governments and international organizations.

A nuclear terrorism event would also have far-reaching socio-political effects. The global economy would face severe disruptions as trade routes are affected, investment confidence plummets, and governments redirect resources toward crisis management and defense. The imposition of travel restrictions, emergency laws, and heightened border security measures could reshape international relations, leading to increased suspicion between States. Societies might experience a rise in xenophobia and discrimination, as fear-driven policies target specific ethnic or religious groups under the guise of national security.

The humanitarian impact would be equally devastating. Mass evacuations from affected areas would create a large-scale refugee crisis, overwhelming neighboring regions and straining humanitarian aid resources. Public health systems would struggle to cope with the influx of radiation-related illnesses, while psychological trauma among survivors would require long-term mental health interventions. The combination of physical, economic, and psychological destruction could set back global development for decades, highlighting the unprecedented challenge of recovering from such an attack.

Best-case scenario: preventing the unthinkable

In the most optimistic outlook, the combined efforts of intelligence agencies, counterproliferation initiatives, and technological advancements in nuclear security would prevent nuclear terrorism from becoming a reality. Governments would maintain strict control over fissile materials, ensuring that all nuclear sources – both civilian and military – are accounted for and protected against theft or diversion. International organizations such as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism (GICNT) would continue strengthening cooperative frameworks, ensuring that states remain committed to non-proliferation and counterterrorism strategies. Advanced detection technologies, including artificial intelligence-driven monitoring systems and enhanced border security, would make it increasingly difficult for illicit nuclear materials to be trafficked undetected. Cybersecurity measures protecting nuclear facilities would also be reinforced, preventing hacking attempts that could compromise reactor safety or allow unauthorized access to sensitive materials. The role of diplomatic engagement in reducing nuclear risks would be paramount, with major powers working collectively to prevent State-sponsored proliferation and reduce regional nuclear tensions.

Worst-case scenario: the breaking point

In the most catastrophic scenario, a terrorist organization succeeds in detonating a nuclear device in a densely populated city. Whether through an improvised nuclear weapon or a radiological dispersal device, the attack would result in thousands, if not millions, of deaths, with entire urban centers rendered uninhabitable due to radiation exposure. The global economy would enter a state of shock, with investors withdrawing from markets, trade routes shutting down, and international financial institutions struggling to manage the fallout.

The immediate political response would likely involve military retaliation, with States launching strikes based on intelligence, accurate or not, against perceived sponsors of the attack. This could ignite new wars, particularly in regions already plagued by instability. Nuclear-armed States might escalate their postures, increasing the risk of further nuclear exchanges. The erosion of civil liberties would accelerate, with governments enacting emergency laws that could alter democratic institutions. Surveillance States would expand, justifying mass data collection and aggressive counterterrorism operations in response to the attack. In addition, the event would likely embolden other terrorist groups, proving that nuclear terrorism is not just a hypothetical scenario but a reality that can be replicated. Rogue states and transnational criminal networks would be more incentivized to participate in nuclear smuggling, while black-market networks could flourish in conflict zones. International organizations would struggle to maintain control, as the loss of public trust in security institutions could drive nations toward isolationist policies, reducing cooperation in global counterterrorism efforts.

A realistic projection: persistent but manageable threats

A more plausible scenario falls between these two extremes. While intelligence and counterterrorism operations have so far prevented nuclear terrorism from materializing, the persistent threat demands continuous vigilance. The world is unlikely to see a full-scale nuclear detonation by a terrorist group in the near future, but the risk of an RDD attack or an attempted smuggling operation remains high. As geopolitical tensions continue to evolve, the potential for State actors to indirectly facilitate nuclear proliferation cannot be ruled out.

To mitigate these risks, nations must strengthen their nuclear security strategies, investing in modern detection systems, expanding international intelligence-sharing initiatives, and closing the regulatory gaps that allow illicit nuclear trade to persist. The continued existence of unsecured radiological materials, the rise of cyber threats to nuclear infrastructure, and the shifting alliances in global politics require a renewed commitment to counterproliferation measures that adapt to emerging challenges.

Conclusion

Nuclear terrorism remains one of the most dangerous and least predictable threats in modern global security. The combination of non-state actors, potential State complicity, and vulnerabilities in nuclear material security creates a volatile mix that cannot be ignored. While efforts to counter nuclear terrorism have made significant strides, the risk persists, necessitating continued international cooperation, technological innovation, and intelligence sharing. As the world stands 89 seconds to midnight, the question is not whether nuclear terrorism is possible, but whether the global community is prepared to prevent it before it’s too late.

  • Daria Alexe
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ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’s ALL NUCLEAR DAILY DIGEST” RELATED MEDIA

There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is 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. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning 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 Threats
  5. Nuclear War
  6. Yellowstone Caldera & Other Volcanoes (Note: There are two Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in today’s Post.)
  7. IAEA Weekly News (Friday’s only)

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 DIGEST, Wednesday, (04/02/2025)

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

A New Age for Nuclear Energy, with Daniel Poneman – Resources Magazine

Resources Magazine

We all know about electric vehicles and industrial processes. Companies have been looking to find non-carbon-emitting ways to make steel, like Nucor …

The Really Big Show: Should Canada build nuclear weapons? – YouTube

YouTube

The Really Big Show: Should Canada build nuclear weapons? 53 views … Brit Reacts to 25 Myths About America People Believe Are True! L3WG …

Republicans Plan To Go ‘Nuclear‘ On Passing Trillion Dollar Tax Cuts – Yahoo News

Yahoo News

But the Alaska Republican seemed skeptical about how this would all work, saying her party’s strategy is “not fully jelled” just yet. More in …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

Nuclear power is officially a clean energy source in Colorado. Not everyone is pleased.

The Colorado Sun

Nuclear power — an innovative source of fossil-free power potential, or a radioactive risk that threatens public health and the environment, …

Restarting the Palisades Nuclear Plant Is the Best Path Forward – The Breakthrough Institute

The Breakthrough Institute

The NRC should pursue the externalities of such alternatives with the same rigor it undertakes when evaluating nuclear power plants. The NRC’s …

Is a nuclear renaissance coming? – High Country News

High Country News

Colorado lawmakers seek to classify nuclear power as “clean energy” to expedite replacing retired coal plants with reactors. • Mining firms hope to …

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEWS

Cressbrook Team Engages Early With Local Emergency Services – Mirage News

Mirage News

… emergency services as plans continue for construction on the $270 million project. … Rethinking Nuclear Power: Evolution & Future of Nuclear Energy …

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

Trump seriously considering Iran’s offer of indirect nuclear talks

Axios

… threat Sunday to bomb Iran if a deal isn’t reached. On Monday, Khamenei fired back and said that while he doesn’t believe the U.S. would attack …

Trump is about to bomb Iran: Top Israeli sources reveal planned attack on nuclear sites … – Daily Mail

Daily Mail

Threats of military action against Iran’s nuclear weapons programme have been made before. But there’s now clear evidence that, this time, both …

89 seconds to midnight: could nuclear terrorism be the CBRN event that triggers humanity’s … – IARI

IARI

As the Clock moves closer to midnight, the threat of nuclear terrorism looms as one of the most catastrophic risks facing global security. Among all …

Nuclear War

NEWS

Trump seriously considering Iran’s offer of indirect nuclear talks

Axios

On Monday, Khamenei fired back and said that while he doesn’t believe the U.S. would attack Iran “they will certainly receive a heavy blow in return” …

Six B-2 bombers deployed at Diego Garcia I Iran Warns for Nuclear War? | WION – YouTube

YouTube

The United States has deployed six B-2 bombers to Diego Garcia, a strategic island in the Indian Ocean, amid rising tensions with Iran.

Russia Threatens ‘Catastrophic Consequences’ Over US Strikes On Iran – YouTube

YouTube

US-Iran War: Tehran To Fire First Shot? Pre-emptive Attack Anytime … ‘Attack Iran, Face Nuclear…’: Khamenei’s Fiery Warning To Trump After …

Yellowstone Caldera

NEWS

The activity of the Great Yellowstone Volcano is shifting Northeast. – Yourweather.co.uk

Yourweather.co.uk

The Yellowstone Caldera is a volcanic caldera and supervolcano in Yellowstone National Park, located in the western United States; it has sometimes …

Tourists flee as volcanic eruption shuts down Iceland’s Blue Lagoon – MSN

MSN

Scientists Detect Magma Movement Below Yellowstone Caldera. Weather-Fox. Scientists Detect Magma Movement Below Yellowstone Caldera. 2. Grand Cany

LLAW’s All Nuclear Daily Digest, #907, Tuesday, (04/01/2025)

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity” ~llaw

Lloyd A. Williams-Pendergraft

Apr 01, 2025

1

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Russia China Iran

(See the “Newsweek” article below for a description and image credits ~llaw)

LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS TODAY and the GLOBAL RISKS & CONSEQUENCES TOMORROW

In My Opinion:

Because this is such a serious issue, I am repeating my thoughts concerning the likely multiplying conflicts that this potential USA (Trump) crisis with Iran from yesterday’s Post.

I will add that such a malignant threat by Trump is not simply between him and Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei because it affects the entire world including, as pointed out by the Newsweek article below, Iran’s support from Russia and China, too; and that also means, the free states of Europe (NATO) and by implication all other nations around the world. Trump, obviously, with his bullying-style (with no sign of any “Art of a Deal” nor diplomacy), has exponentially expanded the ominous threat of a nuclear World War III. ~llaw

From yesterday:

Donald Trump to Iran: “It will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before.”

Is Trump trying to start a war, not only in the Iran and the Middle East, but an attack on the United States? This is not leadership from America, nor does it have anything to do with diplomacy nor “the art of the deal”, which, by the way, his book of the same name was actually written in 1987 by a ghost writer named Tony Schwartz.

If you want to hear what Mr. Schwartz has to say about Trump and “The Art of the Deal”, you can easily Google his name . . .

Trump is little more than a grown-up grade-school playground bully, and a wannabe “tough-guy” dictator style world leader. He likes to talk down to those nations he feels are inferior to his view of America and rub elbows with leaders like Putin, but he is rapidly turning the USA into a country worse than any 3rd world nation on the planet, and he is clearly dangerous to all nations everywhere, including, most importantly, our own. He can start WWIII, better named “armageddon”, all by himself with his own stubby finger on the nuclear football button unless that “freedom” is taken away from him by Congress with some help. It should have been the best last act of President Joe Biden! ~llaw

File:Newsweek Logo.svg - Wikimedia Commons

Russia Warns Against U.S. Strike on Iran Nuclear Sites: “Catastrophic”

Published Apr 01, 2025 at 9:37 AM EDTUpdated Apr 01, 2025 at 9:38 AM EDT

01:07

Trump Lays Down Nuclear Deadline For Iran

By Amira El-Fekki‎

Middle East Reporter

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Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov warned there would be “catastrophic” consequences if the United States attacks Iran’s nuclear infrastructure after a threat by President Donald Trump.

Newsweek has reached out to the U.S. State Department and Iran’s foreign ministry for comment.

Why It Matters

Rising tensions between Iran and the U.S. have reignited concerns of the potential for military conflict. U.S. President Donald Trump and Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have escalated the tone of their remarks, intensifying the standoff over Iran’s nuclear program.

Trump has reinstated his “maximum pressure” campaign, which has led to the reimposition of strict sanctions in order to weaken Iran’s economy and stop its nuclear program. Iran has refused direct negotiations under pressure but said indirect negotiations were possible.

Russia China Iran
This handout photo made available by the Iranian Army Office on March 12, 2025 shows navy personnel saluting aboard a Chinese military ship during a joint Iranian-Russian-Chinese drill in the Gulf of Oman. Iranian Army Office/AFP/Getty Images

What To Know

In an interview with the Russian International Affairs magazine, Ryabkov said Russia opposed military strikes on Iran if Tehran refuses to agree to a nuclear deal, warning of “catastrophic” consequences, “especially if the nuclear infrastructure is hit.”

Trump threatened to bomb Iran if it does not agree to a new nuclear deal. Tehran has rejected a U.S. proposal to engage in direct negotiations under “maximum pressure” policies.

“Threats are really heard, and ultimatums are also heard. We consider such methods inappropriate, we condemn them,” Ryabkov added.

Iran said it “will have no choice” but to seek nuclear weapons if attacked, a senior adviser to Khamenei Iranian Supreme Khamenei said. The U.S. has significantly increased its military presence in both the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean, in a move signaling heightened U.S. preparations for potential conflict.Subscribed

ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’s ALL NUCLEAR DAILY DIGEST” RELATED MEDIA

There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is 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. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning 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 Threats
  5. Nuclear War
  6. Yellowstone Caldera & Other Volcanoes (Note: There are three Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in today’s Post.)
  7. IAEA Weekly News (Friday’s only)

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 DIGEST, Tuesday, (04/01/2025)

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

Trump’s Big Warning To Iran, Threatens To Bomb Unless It Signs Nuclear Deal – YouTube

YouTube

… all Research Reports here: https … If A Woman TELLS You These 5 Things, WALK AWAY FROM HER! Jordan …

Trump says ‘there will be bombing’ if Iran does not make nuclear deal | The Excerpt

YouTube

Trump Warns Iran to Negotiate or Things Will Go Bad | CBN NewsWatch – March 31, 2025 … US Army Panics As Iran Loads All Missile Launchers In Secret …

The US is not ready for a nuclear showdown with China, key conservatives warn Trump

Yahoo

It’s all about to come out in her bombshell new book with Jonathan Allen. The Hill. US. White House to remove magnolia tree dating to Andrew Jackson.

Nuclear Power

NEWS

What Was Learned from Building New Nuclear Reactors? – POWER Magazine

POWER Magazine

Georgia Power’s Plant Vogtle 3 and 4 are the only new reactors that have been built in the U.S. in over 30 years. At the start, Georgia Power …

Nuclear waste returns to Germany amid protests – DW – 04/01/2025

DW

The nuclear waste was what remained after the reprocessing of fuel elements from decommissioned German nuclear power plants. The first of the …

Duke Energy’s largest nuclear plant receives approval to extend operations

Duke Energy | News Center

On March 31, 2025, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) renewed the operating licenses for Duke Energy’s Oconee Nuclear Station for an …

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEWS

Dresden Nuclear station plans emergency response exercise – Shaw Local

Shaw Local

The Dresden Nuclear Power Station will undergo an emergency response exercise Tuesday, April 8 for emergency response personnel.

Samoa declares state of emergency after collapse of main power network – energynews

energynews

The French government has appointed Bernard Fontana to lead EDF, relying on his experience in nuclear energy and energy-intensive industries, amid …

Gov’t prepares to accept nuke plant application – Daily Tribune

Daily Tribune

The Department of Energy has made significant progress in nuclear energy preparations, completing key regulatory, legal and emergency preparedness …

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

Trump’s bombing threat over Iran nuclear programme prompts backlash – The Guardian

The Guardian

Some inside the Trump administration believe an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities will produce regime change. … threats to judges in Marine Le Pen …

Russia warns against U.S. strike on Iran nuclear sites: “Catastrophic” – Newsweek

Newsweek

Deadlock increases risks of direct confrontation if Washington intensifies its threats, amid the growing danger of a broader regional conflict if …

Russia condemns ‘ultimatums’ after Trump threatens to bomb Iran – Reuters

Reuters

… threatened to bomb Iran unless it came to an agreement with Washington over its nuclear program. “Threats are indeed being heard, ultimatums are …

Nuclear War

NEWS

Russia condemns ‘ultimatums’ after Trump threatens to bomb Iran | Reuters

Reuters

Russia has warned that strikes against Iran’s nuclear infrastructure would have “catastrophic” consequences, after U.S. President Donald Trump …

Donald Trump live: Iran warns of forceful response after ‘bombing’ threat – Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera

Tehran responds to Trump’s nuclear deal threats as Europe braces for April 2 reciprocal tariffs announcement … attack should war break out. “The …

Biden Let Putin Keep Crimea To Avoid Nuclear War? Shocking Revelation As Trump …

YouTube

A British tabloid has revealed that the Russia-Ukraine war almost took a nuclear turn in 2022. As per ‘The Sun’, Russia was once cornered enough …

Yellowstone Caldera

NEWS

Discover These Little-Known Castles In America, Across The World – MSN

MSN

Scientists Detect Magma Movement Below Yellowstone Caldera. Weather-Fox. Scientists Detect Magma Movement Below Yellowstone Caldera. 2. The Most …

Norway is restoring its Cold War bunkers amid fears of Russian attack – MSN

MSN

Scientists Detect Magma Movement Below Yellowstone Caldera. Weather-Fox. Scientists Detect Magma Movement Below Yellowstone Caldera. The Most …

LLAW’s All Nuclear Daily Digest, #906, Monday, (03/31/2025)

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity” ~llaw

Lloyd A. Williams-Pendergraft

Mar 31, 2025

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Illustration shows 3D-printed miniature model of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, and U.S. and Iran flags

See Reuters article for description and photo credits ~llaw

LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS TODAY and the GLOBAL RISKS & CONSEQUENCES TOMORROW

In My Opinion:

Donald Trump to Iran: “It will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before.”

Is Trump trying to start a war, not only in the Iran and the Middle East, but an attack on the United States? This is not leadership from America, nor does it have anything to do with diplomacy nor “the art of the deal”, which, by the way, his book of the same name was actually written in 1987 by a ghost writer named Tony Schwartz.

If you want to hear what Mr. Schwartz has to say about Trump and “The Art of the Deal”, you can easily Google his name . . .

Trump is little more than a grown-up grade-school playground bully, and a wannabe “tough-guy” dictator style world leader. He likes to talk down to those nations he feels are inferior to his view of America and rub elbows with leaders like Putin, but he is rapidly turning the USA into a country worse than any 3rd world nation on the planet, and he is clearly dangerous to all nations everywhere, including, most importantly, our own. He can start WWIII, better named “armageddon”, all by himself with his own stubby finger on the nuclear football button unless that “freedom” is taken away from him by Congress with some help. It should have been the best last act of President Joe Biden! ~llaw

File:Reuters Logo.svg - Wikipedia

Trump threatens bombing if Iran does not make nuclear deal

By Doina Chiacu and David Ljunggren

March 30, 20256:52 PM PDT

Trump threatens Iran with bombing, tariffs, if no nuclear deal reached

  • Summary
  • Trump threatens Iran with bombs, tariffs if no nuclear deal
  • Iran has rejected direct negotiations with U.S.
  • Trump says he will wait “a couple of weeks” before deciding on tariffs

WASHINGTON, March 30 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump threatened Iran on Sunday with bombing and secondary tariffs if Tehran did not come to an agreement with Washington over its nuclear program.

In Trump’s first remarks since Iran rejected direct negotiations with Washington last week, he told NBC News that U.S. and Iranian officials were talking, but did not elaborate.

The Reuters Tariff Watch newsletter is your daily guide to the latest global trade and tariff news. Sign up here.

“If they don’t make a deal, there will be bombing,” Trump said in a telephone interview. “It will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before.”

“There’s a chance that if they don’t make a deal, that I will do secondary tariffs on them like I did four years ago,” he added.

Iran sent a response through Oman to a letter from Trump urging Tehran to reach a new nuclear deal, saying its policy was to not engage in direct negotiations with the United States while under its maximum pressure campaign and military threats, Tehran’s foreign minister was quoted as saying on Thursday.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian reiterated the policy on Sunday. “Direct negotiations (with the U.S.) have been rejected, but Iran has always been involved in indirect negotiations, and now too, the Supreme Leader has emphasized that indirect negotiations can still continue,” he said, referring to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

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In the NBC interview, Trump also threatened so-called secondary tariffs, which affect buyers of a country’s goods, on both Russia and Iran. He signed an executive order last week authorizing such tariffs on buyers of Venezuelan oil.

Illustration shows 3D-printed miniature model of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, and U.S. and Iran flags
A 3D-printed miniature model of Donald Trump and the U.S. and Iran flags are seen in this illustration taken January 15, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

Speaking to reporters later on Sunday on Air Force One, Trump said he is going to make a decision on the secondary tariffs based on whether Tehran makes a deal.

“We’ll probably give it a couple of weeks and if we don’t see any progress, we’re going to put them on. We’re not putting them on right now. But if you remember, I did that six years ago, and it worked very well,” he said.

In his first 2017-21 term, Trump withdrew the U.S. from a 2015 deal between Iran and world powers that placed strict limits on Tehran’s disputed nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.

Trump also reimposed sweeping U.S. sanctions. Since then, the Islamic Republic has far surpassed the agreed limits in its escalating program of uranium enrichment.

Tehran has so far rebuffed Trump’s warning to make a deal or face military consequences.

Western powers accuse Iran of having a clandestine agenda to develop nuclear weapons capability by enriching uranium to a high level of fissile purity, above what they say is justifiable for a civilian atomic energy program.

Tehran says its nuclear program is wholly for civilian energy purposes.

Reporting by Doina Chiacu and David Ljunggren in Washington; Elwely Elwelly and Parisa Hafezi in Dubai; Andrea Shalal aboard Air Force One; Editing by Humeyra Pamuk and Stephen Coates

David Ljunggren

Thomson Reuters

Covers Canadian political, economic and general news as well as breaking news across North America, previously based in London and Moscow


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ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’s ALL NUCLEAR DAILY DIGEST” RELATED MEDIA

There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is 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. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning 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 Threats
  5. Nuclear War
  6. Yellowstone Caldera & Other Volcanoes (Note: There is one Yellowstone Caldera bonus story available in today’s Post.)
  7. IAEA Weekly News (Friday’s only)

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 DIGEST, Monday, (03/31/2025)

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

Trump Threatens Iran With Bombing, Tariffs if No New Nuclear Deal Is Reached – YouTube

YouTube

… all digital platforms. It includes a publishing platform, viz. www … ‘Pretty Bad Things‘ | New Threat. Times Of India•79 watching · 4:20 · Go to …

Trump’s Ultimatum To Iran: ‘Bombing Like Never Before’ Or ‘New Nuclear Deal’ – YouTube

YouTube

… all platforms: TV, Internet and Mobile. Stay tuned for all the breaking … LIVE. Go to channel · LIVE | Trump Orders U.S. Military Strikes On Iranian …

Europe’s Nuclear Trilemma | Foreign Affairs

Foreign Affairs

Published by The Council on Foreign Relations, Inc. © 2025. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy Terms of Use. AboutAbout Us · Events · Work at …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

Mini nuclear reactor rush has a short half-life | Reuters

Reuters

The rush to produce mini nuclear reactors on the cheap might have a short half-life. In search of vast quantities of power for the data centers …

New wave of smaller, cheaper nuclear reactors sends US states racing to attract the industry

Power Engineering

Advanced reactor designs are filling up the federal government’s regulatory pipeline as the industry touts them as a clean, reliable way to meet …

S ‘nuclear renaissance’ faces high capex costs, uncertain federal policy support: ICF

Utility Dive

Bringing new nuclear “down the cost curve” requires design standardization and continued support from federal clean energy tax credits, …

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEWS

Climate Crisis and the War in Ukraine – Jacobin

Jacobin

The drop in electricity generation at hydroelectric power plants and emergencies at nuclear power plants due to heat waves are not only occurring …

Kwon Young-se, chairman of the People’s Power Emergency Response Committee, said on …

mk.co.kr

Kwon Young-se, chairman of the People’s Power Emergency … The nuclear power industry confirmed on the 31st that Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co.

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

Trump threatens bombing if Iran does not make nuclear deal – Reuters

Reuters

… threats, Tehran’s foreign minister was quoted as saying on Thursday. … After Duterte’s arrest, Philippine drug war victims face abuse and …

Donald Trump live: Iran warns of forceful response after ‘bombing’ threat – Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera

Tehran responds to Trump’s nuclear deal threats as Europe braces for April 2 reciprocal tariffs announcement … attack should war break out.

Nuclear war threat: why Africa’s pushing for a complete ban – The Conversation

The Conversation

African leaders need to proactively address and confront an impending threat of nuclear war … nuclear ban states’ perception of nuclear threats.

Nuclear War

NEWS

Trump threatens bombing if Iran does not make nuclear deal | Reuters

Reuters

Israel and Hamas at War · Japan · Middle East · Ukraine and Russia at War … nuclear program. In Trump’s first remarks since Iran rejected direct …

Eurodeterrent: A Vision for an Anglo-French Nuclear Force – War on the Rocks

War on the Rocks

The deterrent credibility of this commitment requires U.S. willingness to risk and ultimately wage nuclear war on behalf of allies located thousands …

Iran will deliver ‘strong blow’ against US if it attacks, Khamenei says | Reuters

Reuters

… nuclear deal with Washington … war in Ukraine. Europecategory · Kremlin says it’s working on Ukraine peace after Trump says …

Yellowstone Caldera

NEWS

A new vent found in Yellowstone | Coeur d’Alene Press

Coeur d’Alene Press

The Yellowstone Caldera, also known as the Yellowstone Supervolcano, is located primarily in northwestern Wyoming and measures a rather big 34 by …

LLAW’s All Nuclear Daily Digest WEEKEND NEWS, Sunday, (03/30/2025)

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity” ~llaw

Lloyd A. Williams-Pendergraft

Mar 30, 2025

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1

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In order to keep abreast of the weekend nuclear news, I will post Saturday and Sunday’s news, but without editorial comment. If a weekend story warrants a critical review, it will show up on Monday’s posts . . .

If you are not familiar with the weekday daily blog post, this is how the nuclear news post works . . . llaw

ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’s All Nuclear Daily Digest” RELATED MEDIA”:

There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is 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. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning 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 on this weekend’s Saturday Post.)
  7. IAEA Weekly News (Friday’s only)

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,(03/30/2025)

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

Iran has rejected direct negotiations with the US in response to Trump’s letter | KGOU

KGOU

Iran’s president said the Islamic Republic rejected direct negotiations with the United States over its rapidly advancing nuclear program, …

Radioactive water to be drained from areas of Pilgrim nuclear plant – WCAI

WCAI

All Things Considered · Podcasts …more programs · The Point · News Roundup … Email. Listen • 0:47. The Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station is pictured on …

Iran Rejects Direct Negotiations With US Over New Nuclear Deal – Newsweek

Newsweek

The president told reporters on Friday that “very bad things … National security adviser Mike Waltz said earlier this month that “all options are on …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

New wave of smaller, cheaper nuclear reactors sends US states racing to attract the industry

WZZM 13

Michigan lawmakers are considering millions of dollars in incentives to develop and use the reactors, as well as train a nuclear industry …

These nuclear companies are leading the race to build advanced small reactors in the U.S.

CNBC

“Doing these new builds with that older, high pressure technology is just unaffordable,” Chris Levesque, CEO of TerraPower, an advanced reactor …

Panelists Warn of ‘Choke Points’ in America’s Nuclear Energy Future – Broadband Breakfast

Broadband Breakfast

“The [Nuclear Regulatory Commission] gave us a 30–42 month review timeline,” Lane said. “That’s just for the fuel facility — not actually the reactor …

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

Iran warns US against strikes, slams Israel’s strikes on Beirut – The Jerusalem Post

The Jerusalem Post

Iran signals readiness for ‘threats and diplomacy’ as nuclear talks continue … Qalibaf spoke of US threats as being a potential “prelude to war.” …

Iran threatens to attack UK naval base if attacked by US – Telegraph

iranintl.com

A British government spokesman on Saturday condemned Iran’s threats in the strongest terms. … nuclear talks beyond the framework of the 2015 nuclear …

Tehran’s threat to US security greater than Washington realizes – opinion

The Jerusalem Post

Once the Islamic Republic is dismantled, the displays of power through terrorism, aggressive cyber operations, and threats of war will cease.

Nuclear War

NEWS

Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin’s forces launch over 150 deadly glide bombs in huge air attack

The Independent

It comes as Kyiv accused Putin of a war crime after it claimed a military hospital was hit by a drone in Kharkiv.

Iran has rejected direct negotiations with the US in response to Trump’s letter – CNN

CNN

Iran’s president said Sunday that the Islamic Republic rejected direct negotiations with the United States over its rapidly advancing nuclear …

Nuclear risk from military AI prompts calls for US, China and others to seek agreement

South China Morning Post

“The annihilation of the human race in a nuclear war is much more likely than annihilation of the human race by robots.” Many countries are …

Yellowstone Caldera

NEWS

Best Hikes in Yellowstone and Beyond – MSN

MSN

In fact, the enormous Yellowstone Caldera powers nearly half of the world’s active geysers and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River. Yellowstone …

LLAW’s All Nuclear Daily Digest WEEKEND NEWS, Saturday, (03/29/2025)

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity” ~llaw

Lloyd A. Williams-Pendergraft

Mar 29, 2025

1

Share

In order to keep abreast of the weekend nuclear news, I will post Saturday and Sunday’s news, but without editorial comment. If a weekend story warrants a critical review, it will show up on Monday’s posts . . .

If you are not familiar with the weekday daily blog post, this is how the nuclear news post works . . . llaw

ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’s All Nuclear Daily Digest” RELATED MEDIA”:

There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is 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. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning 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 on this weekend’s Saturday Post.)
  7. IAEA Weekly News (Friday’s only)

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,(03/29/2025)

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

Speech: Trump Breathes Fire, Threatens Iran with Ruin, ‘Very Bad Things Will Happen!’

YouTube

28, stating that “very bad things will happen” if Tehran fails to reach a nuclear … all the News for the Global Indian under one umbrella. We …

New wave of smaller, cheaper nuclear reactors sends US states racing to attract the industry

Newsday

… all things business across Long Island. Sign up. By clicking Sign up, you agree to our privacy policy. Smaller, more flexible nuclear reactors.

Bunker Talk: Let’s Talk About All The Things We Did And Didn’t Cover This Week

The War Zone

Russia is firing nuclear capable missiles with conventional warheads all day long. Now they fired an IRBM they do not have a conventional warhead for.

Nuclear Power

NEWS

New wave of smaller, cheaper nuclear reactors sends US states racing to attract the industry

AP News

Last year, 25 states passed legislation to support advanced nuclear energy and this year lawmakers have introduced over 200 bills supportive of …

New wave of nuclear reactors sends US states racing to attract the industry – ABC News

ABC News – The Walt Disney Company

— With the promise of newer, cheaper nuclear power on the horizon, U.S. states are vying to position themselves to build and supply the industry’s …

These Floating Nuclear Reactors—Powered by Salt—Could Supercharge America’s Electrical Grid

Popular Mechanics

These small nuclear power plants will use molten salt in their fuel, making them safer and more versatile and portable than traditional nuclear …

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEWS

On anniversary of Three Mile Island accident, groups protest planned restart – WGAL

WGAL

The incident prompted major changes in emergency response planning, operator training, radiation protection, and other areas of nuclear power plant …

Belarus sends emergency assistance to Myanmar

BelTA – News from Belarus

… Emergencies Ministry is preparing for deployment to Myanmar to … NUCLEAR POWER IN BELARUS AND WORLDWIDE · President of the Republic of …

Chernobyl reactor shield hit by Russian drone, Ukraine says – MSN

MSN

A Russian drone attack has hit the radiation shelter over the damaged reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Ukrainian President Volodymyr …

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

World War III on the horizon? Why European nations are preparing for war—And what it …

The Economic Times

“Monday’s surprise attack risks a full return to fighting in a 17-month … Intelligence reports suggest that Russia may be sharing nuclear technology ..

The US has the power to switch off the UK’s nuclear subs, posing a security issue – Phys.org

Phys.org

Nuclear weapons have not been used in warfare for 80 years. … ‘Doomsday Clock’ moves closer to midnight amid threats of climate change, nuclear war, …

Is Britain braced for the Russian threat from the north? | The Spectator

The Spectator

… threats. This means the defence of the Home Islands must take priority … nuclear weapons are its protection against nuclear attack). But …

Nuclear War

NEWS

Iran Threatens U.S. Allies and Bases: “Powder Kegs” – Newsweek

Newsweek

… nuclear program that have fueled fears of a broader conflict. U.S. President … Israel at War Vladimir Putin Russia-Ukraine War Donald Trump.

Without ICBMs: A Prescription for Nuclear War – RealClearDefense

RealClearDefense

The cost of modernization of our nuclear deterrent is not $1.7 trillion but actually $400 billion over the next three decades.

Minute with the Commander: Training for a nuclear attack – YouTube

YouTube

Minute with the Commander: Training for a nuclear attack Subscribe to the WAVY YouTube Channel: https://bit.ly/3AL4Dnp ————- Get updates …