I have never watched this movie (see the Vox story below), but I see from the nuclear media news that it’s running on Amazon Prime. So, I thought I might try to find time to watch it over the weekend. How about you? It could be a break from reality, or it could add to the dank reality of dystopia lurking in our everyday lives. Either way, it should provide us with the desire to find out more about “All Things Nuclear” in our daily lives. You can learn a lot from a this nightly Post that includes 5 categories of nuclear media (see below), plus a bonus category for the ‘Yellowstone Caldera’ coverage every day of the week with occasional highlights, opinions, and comments from this Blog, posted every evening for your personal ‘all things nuclear’ education. ~llaw
And while Fallout is a fictional depiction of nuclear war that’s heavy on the sci-fi, nuclear warfare itself is not off the table in reality. There …
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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.
First of all, we just don’t have that many nuclear weapons, which is a good thing. Second of all, much of the world is just not a likely target in any …
Green Dream: For the Greens, a party founded in opposition to all things nuclear, it was an article of faith that the plants needed to be killed off, …
This idle talk about Putin placing them [nuclear weapons in Belarus], and Lukashenko not using them if a war starts against Belarus, is nonsense. You …
Russia and Poland trade threats of wider war that could turn nuclear … “It is worth remembering this, not to increase the sense of threat in Russians …
The major news for today is about Russia vetoing the UN resolution to prevent use of nuclear arms in outer space. My response is, have we not already caused enough damage to our worldly environment that nuclear weapons in outer space is beyond the concept of intelligent humanity, and perhaps the meaning of the word “humanity” itself? Of course ‘all things nuclear’ should be considered ‘inhumane’.
But, hence my Post cover image this evening, my personal favorite from today’s news is more on the satirical or light side about the creatures that might live alongside us if a few of us were to somehow survive a nuclear war . . .
Next, anyone who cares should be advised that I am moving my bi-weekly chapter post of my in progress of drafting my new novel “El Nuclear Diablo” to Sunday evenings rather than the current schedule of Thursday. As I pointed out last night, one of the reasons is that Sundays nuclear news is generally less reading and evaluating for me, which makes Posting of this blog somewhat less time-consuming for me personally, and possibly for you, the reader who may also be in a more relaxed mood to read a bit of fiction on a Sunday rather than my story being posted in between two workdays.
So you can expect to see the next chapter of the draft version of “El Nuclear Diablo” this coming Sunday evening. The Post will remain on a bi-weekly basis. My hope is that the ‘story’ will help you understand and gain more beneficial knowledge about what ‘could happen, and how it happened’ in an actual post-nuclear world than what everyday nuclear news stories have to offer. ~llaw
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There are 6 categories, including a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives, as do ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links in each category about the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
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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.
Not only that, it may not be a cockroach thing as much as an all-insects thing. Before we dive too far in, though, let’s pedant-proof this article at …
The nuclear threats that loom over Iran and Israel … nuclear edge to the regional fallout from the war in Gaza. … Any attack on nuclear facilities in …
First, I will be moving the online creation of my in-progress novel “El Nuclear Diablo” from Thursdays to Sundays, primarily because there is less nuclear media coverage on Sundays, which allows me to spend more of the day on that project rather than reading the news and deciding what issues and commentary to feature. I will explain in more detail, and as a reminder, about the posting change, including my hope that the novel will develop more readership on a leisurely Sunday evening than on a busy Thursday facing the end of a work-week the following day. ~llaw
Second, the following post is in fairness to an understanding that at least some elements of the nuclear industry who are aware that they need to achieve what they profess to believe they can do. I can unequivocally state, though, that, in my opinion, based on my knowledge of the industry, they are hoping against hope and like the other non-renewable power and the dreaded CO2 producing industries at the fossil fuel level, they will never come close to achieving the standards and goals they have set, and in fact will never uphold those standards because they already know they are unachievable. ~llaw
World Nuclear News (as seen through the eyes of the nuclear industry) . . .
Industry needs to translate nuclear ambitions into reality, panel says
24 April 2024
The industry must seize the opportunities arising from a global change in the perception of nuclear energy, a panel session agreed during a side event at the World Energy Congress 2024. However, wide-scale collaboration is needed to ensure the industry can meet the expected growth in demand for nuclear power technology.
The sessions – Alliance for nuclear: Accelerating to reach net-zero by 2050 – was organised by EDF and World Energy Council France on the sidelines of the World Energy Congress, being held in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
“We are seeing a very important sea-change in the way nuclear energy is being perceived at a global level,” said World Nuclear Association Director General Sama Bilbao y León. “Countries that perhaps a few years ago were not considering nuclear energy, they definitely are taking a second look at it. Why? Well, firstly, because many of these countries actually got their calculators out and realised that there’s just simply no other way to meet their Paris Agreement goals in a way that is cost-effective and, very importantly, equitable. So that’s put nuclear energy back on the map and, of course, issues such as energy security and energy independence are also very important.”
She added that “in many countries, the average person has become very pragmatic” and recognises “nuclear as an opportunity to have abundant, affordable, 24/7 energy. So, we’ve seen this in many countries in Europe, in North America, Southeast Asia, Africa, that they are looking at nuclear as a real option now”.
Wei Huang, Director of the Division of Energy Planning, Information and Knowledge Management at the International Atomic Energy Agency, said there was “very good momentum” created by pledges made during COP28, which not only talked about tripling renewables and doubling energy efficiency by 2030, but also tripling nuclear capacity.
“I think that the message is very clear … there has been a sea-change in the global prospective of nuclear, so that is very good message to the world,” he said. “However, each stakeholder needs to do their part to transfer their expectation and ambition into reality.”
Bilbao y León said the nuclear industry was working with governments “to actually deliver on all these very big ambitions … we have a number of countries that are putting together energy policies that recognise the very important role of nuclear. Now the next step is to translate those energy policies into industrial policies”.
“Europe has this common problem to solve, the trilemma,” said Stefano Monti, European Nuclear Society president. “We want stable energy prices. We want to have a large amount of clean energy. We want decarbonisation. We want to have security of energy supply. But still we don’t have a common solution … there are 12 countries who signed the nuclear alliance. There are other countries that are observers. And there are others that think they can make this energy transition also relying only on renewables.”
Domenico Rossetti di Valdalbero, for the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, noted that the nuclear alliance, which comprises almost half of the EU member states, is calling for greater European support for nuclear. “This nuclear alliance is making a lot of efforts and moving the lines, the traditional lines in Brussels over, for example, the next Multiannual Financial Framework, and what the role of the European Investment Bank is in funding and financing nuclear. I’m sure that this will be a part of the results for the next election in June.”
In response to being asked what should be done in Europe to enable an expansion of nuclear energy, EDF CEO Luc Remont said: “We certainly have challenges to be back at the level of construction that we need for the future, but we can rely on very serious competences that have been built over the decades to serve the number of countries who are already operating in nuclear … where we have been likely behind over the last two decades is that we have not built new reactors at the right pace. And that’s what makes a difference, for example, between Europe and China.
“So, we need to scale this. We will be back at scale if we are going steadily into a pace where we need to serve the countries that will decide to go into new build. We will need to sustain that for many, many years and not go through cycles of heavy construction, then nothing, which is what is destroying potentially our supply chain. And I’m sure this applies to all the regions of the world.”
Monti called for more European investment in nuclear R&D. “We have to restart thinking that in order to have the right system at the right moment, we have to invest in R&D. Fast reactors mean advanced fuels need to be developed, tested, qualified and licensed. It means new innovative materials to be used in the fast reactor. You have to test and qualify the material under a fast spectrum. In all the Western countries, we don’t have a material test reactor with a fast spectrum.” That’s something that is needed “and very soon if we really want to compete with the rest of the world”.
He said another priority was the workforce. “If we have good people, we can do everything. And that for Europe … means really creating a European energy market and European cooperation in nuclear. We really need to join our efforts and our capabilities if we want to deliver and be competitive in the international market.”
Remont ended the session by saying “having dynamism and innovation and the number of start-ups in the nuclear industry is great news. Yes, nuclear has been considered for some time as a dinosaur … but having so much diversity of ideas that are touching the process, the way you build it, the scale, the business model, that’s great news for our industry. And I hope that many of these projects will find their way because I think this is the best way for us, as an industry, to be moving faster than expected.”
Researched and written by World Nuclear News
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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.
Nearly all commercial nuclear reactor fuel … Here are 7 things The Simpsons missed about nuclear energy. … Fission is currently used in every nuclear …
All Things Considered · BBC World Service · Fresh … All Programs A-Z … Many experts say North Korea already possesses nuclear missiles that can reach …
… energy grid · Kremlin accuses … plant in southeastern Ukraine, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant. … Ukraine’s energy grid has received emergency …
A major attack would have the potential to cause a serious nuclear accident. Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency Rafael Mariano …
Sitting here this afternoon, reading today’s World Nuclear News (below), wondering what country would be the first to launch the 1st nuclear armed ICBM on what country, and when. Someone should start a lottery. They could rake in the $billions and never have to pay the winner, keeping all that suddenly useless cash for themselves.
What would they do with all that cash? There would be no way to pay the winner(s) and also no place to spend it. Money would immediately become worthless in an all-out nuclear WWIII. The only things of value would be a few of the items we individually already possessed and they would be only of temporary value for those of us, if any, who might survive long enough to care . . .
But, if I were a betting man, ignorant enough to buy such a lottery ticket, I would have to make up my mind among these four countries: Russia, North Korea, China, and the United States of America, doubtful that any other nuclear nations would even consider it. My choice might surprise you, but, all things considered, I would have to choose the USA. Our ICBM target would be Moscow, Russia, and it would be only a single missile, because two would be one too many to stop retaliation, not only from Russia itself, but from all other nuclear armed countries as well.
It is not that the USA is more treacherous or evil than say, Russia or North Korea, but my decision has to do with who we Americans are, how we think, and what we believe we have to lose, plus the rationality that that the first attack might be the last — especially if it comes from the USA. If any other country, like, say, Russia or North Korea, attacks the USA first, we would not hesitate to retaliate, and a 2nd ICBM would bring on all the others from every nuclear nation. ~llaw
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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.
One thing that really struck me is the unbelievable speed at which nuclear war is waged. Gen. Robert Kehler, the former commander of STRATCOM, said to …
All Things Considered · Serendipity · John … Many experts say North Korea already possesses nuclear missiles that can reach all … All Rights Reserved …
All Things Considered. KUAR. All Things Considered. Next Up: 6:30 … Many experts say North Korea already possesses nuclear missiles that can reach all …
“Exercise, exercise, exercise”, read an emergency text message which alerted people on the island of Crete of a mock earthquake measuring 7.2 off the …
USGS · The 1964 Tsunami in Valdez, Alaska · Top 5 Updates of 2023 — Yellowstone Volcano Update for January 2024 · Volcanoes in Kansas? · Ship Wrecked in …
What we do here on Earth today influences what happens here on Earth tomorrow . . . We have appointed ourselves as the stewards; we need to do a much better job of it. ~llaw
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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.
… nuclear power plant, as Bulgaria moves away from past reliance on Russian supplies … nuclear power plant, as Bulgaria moves away from past reliance …
… Nuclear and Radiation Safety Department of the Belarusian Emergencies … nuclear power plant, in other words, during the first nuclear energy program.
A crowd carrying a model of Iran’s first-ever hypersonic missile, Fattah, past a mosque during a gathering to celebrate the IRGC UAV and missile attack against Israel, in Tehran, Iran, on April 15, 2024 Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images
The feeling of a smoldering WWIII bursting into flames around the world seems immanent, and, of course, the one and only approach toward finding international peace in this insane human world of hatred can only be achieved by the concept of war. We seem to comprehend no other way, no matter what the ultimate price may be . . . ~llaw
Read either “The Intercept” article or the “Vox” article, or both — the links are posted directly below) — and you will get the idea. The Intercept leadline says this: Like countless other hostilities, the stealthy Israeli missile and drone strike on Iran doesn’t risk war. It is war.
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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.
As the media and the world awaits full-scale war between Iran and Israel and even frets about nuclear escalation, a huge reality of modern warfare is …
After days of dialectic warfare and threats of all kinds between Israel and Iran, the anecdote speaks for itself. … nuclear program, it soared by 4.5% …
Demonstrators wave a huge Iranian flag in an anti-Israeli gathering in front of an anti-Israeli banner on the wall of a building at the Felestin (Palestine) Sq. in Tehran, Iran, on Monday, April 15, 2024. (AP)
On Friday, Israel launched a limited military strike on Iran over the city of Isfahan, where several important nuclear facilities are located. The region has been anticipating a retaliatory strike from Israel after Iran’s own retaliatory assault on Israel last weekend.
So now the The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog has another nuclear power plant involved in warfare. (See above link). This tells me that nuclear war is inevitable, and it’s just a matter of time until the simmering WWIII begins.
In that vein it also tells me that we (Americans) are out of our minds to believe that we should be re-opening old nuclear power plants and financing billions for new ones while bartering with other nuclear nations to guarantee future uranium fuel to operate nuclear reactors. It is like we are drunkenly stoking the campfire in a tinder-dry forest to stay warm and comfortable, blindly failing to realize we are about to burn down the world. ~llaw
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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.
The We, The Voters series continues next week with stories about the economy on All Things Considered. Weekend picks. Jean Grey and Cyclops in the new …
… nuclear program. And by the way, the International Atomic Energy Agency says there is no damage to Iran’s nuclear sites today. … All Things Considered.
These steps include support to keep existing nuclear plants from shutting down, funding demonstrations for advanced reactor designs, streamlining the …
Strategic, diplomatic and journalistic guests bring the latest after a week of war between Iran and Israel … Iran threatens to go nuclear in the next …
The link above is to allow the IAEA’s Director-General Grossi to tell us why neither Russia nor Ukraine is responsible for the repeated dangerous attacks on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. His ‘no blame’ response makes no sense to me, and I will read the article later.
But Russia is the aggressor in this war on Ukraine, so it seems to me that Russia is to blame even if Russian employees have the operational control of the plant. Regardless, this situation is endangering the population of Ukraine as well as other European countries, so the attacks must stop. Hundreds of thousands, or more, of innocent human lives are at stake. ~llaw
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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.
There was no damage to Iran’s nuclear sites, including those in Isfahan, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Friday morning. · Iran’s attack on …
It remained unclear if the country was under attack. However, tensions remain high after Iran’s unprecedented missile-and-drone attack on Israel. One …
The Yellowstone Caldera, also called the Yellowstone Supervolcano, is a colossal volcanic feature in Yellowstone National Park. Most of the park is in …
Business Upturn
Overshadowing all other dormant volcanoes in size is the massive Yellowstone caldera spanning a 30×45 mile area in northwestern Wyoming. This …
Following is a guest essay from the New York Times by Stephanie Cooke supporting my own belief that the nuclear energy revival is little more than typical phony propaganda promulgated by both political interests and the nuclear industry itself. The prediction that humanity can and will increase the world’s nuclear power by a third by 2050 is absurd on so many false faces. Her reasons are similar to my own, but also she expands on why politics and hot air with no delivery always plays such a common failure in these kinds of totally illogical (and impossible) solutions to our never-ending nuclear energy and war crises. ~llaw
GUEST ESSAY
The Fantasy of Reviving Nuclear Energy
April 18, 2024
Credit…Alec Soth/Magnum Photos
By Stephanie Cooke
Ms. Cooke isa former editor of Nuclear Intelligence Weekly and the author of “In Mortal Hands: A Cautionary History of the Nuclear Age.”
World leaders are not unaware of the nuclear industry’s long history of failing to deliver on its promises, or of its weakening vital signs. Yet many continue to act as if a “nuclear renaissance” could be around the corner even though nuclear energy’s share of global electricity generation has fallen by almost half from its high of roughly 17 percent in 1996.
In search of that revival, representatives from more than 30 countries gathered in Brussels in March at a nuclear summit hosted by the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Belgian government. Thirty-four nations, including the United States and China, agreed “to work to fully unlock the potential of nuclear energy,” including extending the lifetime of existing reactors, building new nuclear power plants and deploying advanced reactors.
Yet even as they did so, there was an acknowledgment of the difficulty of their undertaking. “Nuclear technology can play an important role in the clean energy transition,” Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, told summit attendees. But she added that “the reality today, in most markets, is a reality of a slow but steady decline in market share” for nuclear power.
The numbers underscore that downturn. Solar and wind power together began outperforming nuclear power globally in 2021, and that trend continues as nuclear staggers along. Solar alone added more than 400 gigawatts of capacity worldwide last year, two-thirds more than the previous year. That’s more than the roughly 375 gigawatts of combined capacity of the world’s 415 nuclear reactors, which remained relatively unchanged last year. At the same time, investment in energy storage technology is rapidly accelerating. In 2023, BloombergNEF reported that investors for the first time put more money into stationary energy storage than they did into nuclear.
Still, the drumbeat for nuclear power has become pronounced. At the United Nations climate conference in Dubai in December, the Biden administration persuaded two dozen countries to pledge to triple their nuclear energy capacity by 2050. Those countries included allies of the United States with troubled nuclear programs, most notably France, Britain, Japan and South Korea, whose nuclear bureaucracies will be propped up by the declaration as well as the domestic nuclear industries they are trying to save.
“We are not making the argument to anybody that this is absolutely going to be a sweeping alternative to every other energy source,” John Kerry, the Biden administration climate envoy at the time, said. “But we know because the science and the reality of facts and evidence tell us that you can’t get to net zero 2050 without some nuclear.”
A changing climate, a changing world
Climate change around the world: In “Postcards From a World on Fire,” 193 stories from individual countries show how climate change is reshaping reality everywhere, from dying coral reefs in Fiji to disappearing oases in Morocco and far, far beyond.
The role of our leaders: Writing at the end of 2020, Al Gore, the 45th vice president of the United States, found reasons for optimism in the Biden presidency, a feeling perhaps borne out by the passing of major climate legislation. That doesn’t mean there haven’t been criticisms. For example, Charles Harvey and Kurt House argue that subsidies for climate capture technology will ultimately be a waste.
The worst climate risks, mapped: In this feature, select a country, and we’ll break down the climate hazards it faces. In the case of America, our maps, developed with experts, show where extreme heat is causing the most deaths.
That view has gained traction with energy planners in Eastern Europe who see nuclear as a means of replacing coal, and several countries — including Canada, Sweden, Britain and France — are pushing to extend the operating lifetimes of existing nuclear plants or build new ones. Some see smaller or more “advanced” reactors as a means of providing electricity in remote areas or as a means of decarbonizing sectors such as heat, industry or transportation.
So far most of this remains in early stages, with only three nuclear reactors under construction in Western Europe, two in Britain and one in France, each more than a decade behind schedule. Of the approximately 54 other reactors under construction worldwide as of March, 23 are in China, seven are in India, and three are in Russia, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. The total is less than a quarter of the 234 reactors under construction in the peak year of 1979, although 48 of those were later suspended or abandoned.
Even if you agree with Mr. Kerry’s argument, and many energy experts do not, pledging to triple nuclear capacity by 2050 is a little like promising to win the lottery. For the United States, it would mean adding an additional 200 gigawatts of nuclear operating capacity (almost double what the country has ever built) to the 100 gigawatts or so that now exists, generated by more than 90 commercial reactors that have been running an average of 42 years. Globally it would mean tripling the existing capacity built over the past 70 years in less than half that time in addition to replacing reactors that will shut down before 2050.
The Energy Department estimates the total cost of such an effort in the United States at roughly $700 billion. But David Schlissel, a director at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, has calculated that the two new reactors at the Vogtle plant in Georgia — the only new reactors built in the United States in a generation — on average, cost $21.2 million per megawatt in today’s dollars — which translates to $21.2 billion per gigawatt. Using that figure as a yardstick, the cost of building 200 gigawatts of new capacity would be far higher: at least $4 trillion, or $6 trillion if you count the additional cost of replacing existing reactors as they age out.
For much less money and in less time, the world can reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the use of renewables like solar, wind, hydropower and geothermal power, and by transmitting, storing and using electricity more efficiently. A recent analysis by the German Environment Agency examined multiple global climate scenarios in which Paris Climate Agreement targets are met, and it found that renewable energy “is the crucial and primary driver.”
The logic of this approach was attested to at the climate meeting in Dubai, where more than 120 countries signed a more realistic commitment to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030.
There’s a certain inevitability about the U.S. Energy Department’s latest push for more nuclear energy. The agency’s predecessor, the Atomic Energy Commission, brought us Atoms for Peace under Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s in a bid to develop the “peaceful” side of the atom, hoping it would gain public acceptance of an expanding arsenal of nuclear weapons while supplying electricity “too cheap to meter.”
Fast forward 70 years and you hear a variation on the same theme. Most notably, Ernest Moniz, the energy secretary under President Barack Obama, argues that a vibrant commercial nuclear sector is necessary to sustain U.S. influence in nuclear weapons nonproliferation efforts and global strategic stability. As a policy driver, this argument might explain in part why the government continues to push nuclear power as a climate solution, despite its enormous cost and lengthy delivery time.
China and Russia are conspicuously absent from the list of signatories to the Dubai pledge to triple nuclear power, although China signed the declaration in Brussels. China’s nuclear program is growing faster than that of any other country, and Russia dominates the global export market for reactors with projects in countries new to commercial nuclear energy, such as Turkey, Egypt and Bangladesh, as well as Iran.
Pledges and declarations on a global stage allow world leaders a platform to be seen to be doing something to address climate change even if, as is the case with nuclear, they lack the financing and infrastructure to succeed. But their support most likely means that substantial sums of money — much of it from taxpayers and ratepayers — will be wasted on perpetuating the fantasy that nuclear energy will make a difference in a meaningful time frame to slow global warming.
The U.S. government is already poised to spend billions of dollars building new small modular and “advanced” reactors and keeping aging large ones running. But two such small reactor projects based on conventional technologies have already failed. Which raises the question: Will future projects based on far more complex technologies be more viable? Money for such projects — provided mainly under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act — could be redirected in ways that do more for the climate and do it faster, particularly if planned new nuclear projects fail to materialize.
There is already enough potential generation capacity in the United States seeking access to the grid to come close to achieving President Biden’s 2035 goal of a zero-carbon electricity sector, and 95 percent of it is solar, battery storage and wind. But these projects face a hugely constrained transmission system, regulatory and financial roadblocks and entrenched utility interests, enough to prevent many of them from ever providing electricity, according to a report released last year by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Even so, existing transmission capacity can be doubled by retrofitting transmission lines with advanced conductors, which would offer at least a partial way out of the gridlock for renewables, in addition to storage, localized distribution and improved management of supply and demand.
What’s missing are leaders willing to buck their own powerful nuclear bureaucracies and choose paths that are far cheaper, less dangerous and quicker to deploy. Without them we are doomed to more promises and wasteful spending by nuclear proponents who have repeatedly shown that they can talk but can’t deliver.
ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:
There are 6 categories, including a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives, as do ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links in each category about the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
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Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power Emergencies
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Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There are no Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in tonight’s Post.)
Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
On numerous occasions, Russian President Vladimir Putin has raised the possibility of using nuclear weapons if the United States and NATO intervene to …
The following is an abbreviated updated article from “Army Technology” concerning the status of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, echoing concerns that a nuclear ‘accident’ might be immanent. But, whatever occurs, as I mentioned yesterday, it is impossible to justify referring to this attack as an accident. Accidents are simply not caused intentionally. ~llaw
Russia holds Zaporizhzhia’s power plant ‘hostage’ – is a nuclear accident imminent?
The IAEA warns that recent attacks on Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the world’s third largest, pose a “major nuclear threat”.
Russia and Ukraine have exchanged blame over a spate of recent attacks on the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), sparking concerns over mass radiological contamination should drones breach the reactors at Europe’s largest nuclear site.
“Reckless attacks” on Russia-occupied Zaporizhzhia in eastern Ukraine “significantly increase the risk of a major nuclear accident”, Rafael Mariano Grossi, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told the UN Security Council on Monday (15 April).
The IAEA sounded the alarm after a series of drone strikes on the ZNPP since 7 April, the first since November 2022. There was one reported casualty.
Spread over several days, the attacks damaged the roof of ZNPP’s Reactor 6, adjacent to the main reactor buildings.
All six reactors were promptly moved into a state of cold shutdown – but there is still a risk of reactor meltdown should shells or drones breach the concrete walls encasing each.
Whodunnit?
Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of carrying out the attacks on Zaporizhzhia.
Moscow accused Kyiv of “very dangerous” attacks on ZNPP, while Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia would undertake a “terrorist attack” at the plant, which it has taken “hostage”.
ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:
There are 6 categories, including a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives, as do ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links in each category about the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War
Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There are no Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in tonight’s Post.)
Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
“But as we look forward into … the increasing U.S. national interest in engaging China in all things nuclear, we’re going to have to cross the Rubicon …
It notes: “Nuclear energy will play a key role in achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. Canada is a Tier-1 nuclear nation with over 70 years of …
Director-general Rafael Mariano Grossi (right) tells the IAEA’s emergency meeting that the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant attacks have “significant …
