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 THINGS NUCLEAR” 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:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War
Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There are three Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available on this weekend’s Post.)
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.
Thanks to pressure from the environmental group Riverkeeper and the ambitions of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a deal was struck in 2017 requiring Indian Point ..
The war has rolled into another year and it is unclear whether Putin will continue to reiterate his nuclear threats which remain ambiguous, especially …
Those events are labeled “caldera forming,” because the molten rock vacating the underground reservoirs leaves an empty space, which leads to the land …
LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS TODAY with THE RISKS & CONSEQUENCES OF TOMORROW
The following excellent Post from the “Bulletin of Atomic Scientists” — long ago originated by Albert Einstein and other Manhattan Project scientists in December of 1945 following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. — contains this lead article as well as 5 other very important links to stories that every concerned (or curios) human being on planet Earth should read, contemplate, and assimilate.
We have had 79 years now to recognize and correct the nuclear errors of our ways, but we’ve failed miserably. Instead, we have made “all things nuclear” nearly ultimately or even infinitely worse. Let’s hope this year — number 80, during all of which I have lived, plus a few more — is the year that saves us and other innocent life from thoughtless “nuclear genocide”.
I realize none of us can knowingly and/or accurately predict the future of mankind and other life on planet Earth, but awareness and assimilation of the threatening dangers, including the possibility of our Earth’s 6th Extinction, ought to be forefront in our collective minds, especially the ultimate question of “What can we do to prevent it?”.
But, should this incredible travesty happen, humanity will be solely responsible for the loss of our own lives as well as for most other living presences on our Mother Earth. During the previous 5 extinctions, we simply hadn’t arrived here yet . . . Think seriously about that! ~llaw
(See Image Explanation and Illustration Credits in the “Bulletin” Article)
The nuclear year in review: Welcome to the antechamber of the next nuclear crisis
The biggest change this year in international security is, arguably, the instability now at the doors of nuclear powers, and the looming possibility of a nuclear crisis. (Illustration by François Diaz-Maurin; original photos by Korea Central News Agency/KCNA via KNS, depositphotos.com)
This past year, there has not been a single week without a reminder of the danger posed by nuclear weapons. Nuclear noise and signaling were evident; officials made implicit or explicit references to nuclear weapons and their possible use—seeming, for some observers, to call almost everything a nuclear threat. But the biggest change this year in international security is, arguably, the instability now at the doors of nuclear powers, and the looming possibility of a nuclear crisis.
The country with the world’s largest nuclear arsenal—Russia—is still ferociously waging its war against Ukraine and has now brought in North Korean troops to support its effort. Russia also updated its nuclear doctrine, expanding the conditions under which it might use nuclear weapons.
In another major development, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France authorized Ukraine to use their missile systems to strike targets inside Russia. A few days later, Russia responded by using a new intermediate-range missile against Ukraine. This new missile can reach European capitals in less than 15 minutes and can be loaded with one of several nuclear warheads, significantly increasing the risk of a potentially catastrophic misunderstanding.
In the Middle East, Iran launched large barrages of ballistic missiles against Israel—an undeclared nuclear-weapon state—on two occasions. The faceoff prompted fears that Israel might attack Iran’s nuclear sites in retaliation—a move that could have ripple effects on nuclear proliferation in the region. Several weeks ago, the United States reportedly also discussed plans to strike Iran’s nuclear sites should Tehran rush to build a nuclear weapon before the presidential inauguration on January 20.
Most recently, South Korean president made an out-of-the-blue decision to impose martial law without notifying the United States. This could have created a crisis had North Korea seized this moment of political chaos to take action against its neighbor. A longstanding mutual defense treaty binds South Korea and the United States. This year, North Korea and Russia signed their own mutual defense treaty, opening another front for a potential conflict between the two great powers.
I want to make special mention of a nuclear story from 2024 that met, in extraordinary fashion, the Bulletin’s mission by providing expertly crafted, timely information and, thereby, contributing to the reduction of nuclear risk in a crisis.
Israel’s April 19 strike on the Eighth Shekari Air Base in Iran reportedly damaged a S-300 missile defense system (shown here during a test in 2017) deployed to protect the nearby nuclear sites. (Credit: Still shot from Rasane TV)
Iran vs. Israel redux: The enormous difficulties and ramifications if Israel attacks Iran’s nuclear sites By Darya Dolzikova, Matthew Savill This article was originally published in April, after an Iranian attack on Israel and Israel’s military response. It was republished in October because of its relevance to Iran’s second massive missile attack against Israel and the near-certainty of some sort of Israeli retaliation at the time. In this article, Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) experts Darya Dolzikova and Matthew Savill explain how an Israel attack against Iran’s nuclear sites would not only be enormously difficult but could be counterproductive, pushing the Iranian regime even closer to the actual weaponization of its nuclear program.
Here are five other Bulletin nuclear stories that stood out in 2024—and that you should read.
Trump has a strategic plan for the country: Gearing up for nuclear war By Joe Cirincione For this piece, nuclear policy analyst and author Joe Cirincione went through the 900-page book “Mandate for Leadership” of Project 2025, which is widely seen as the template for the incoming Trump administration. The document reveals how President Trump might put nuclear weapons programs on steroids, trash what remains of the global arms control regime, and trigger new nuclear weapons programs in more other nations than we have seen at any time since the early 1960s.
The new red line: Why a prolonged conflict in Ukraine makes a nuclear attack more likely By Phillips P. O’Brien There should have been a nuclear war by now—at least if the wargames and academic models of state behavior are to be believed. For the last two-and-a-half years, Ukraine has repeatedly and in an escalatory fashion continued to flout the warnings of nuclear-armed Russia. Assumptions on reaching the threshold of nuclear weapons were overwrought, but those assumptions have made a nuclear conflict far more likely, professor and historian Phillips P. O’Brien argues.
Why a substantive and verifiable no-first-use treaty for nuclear weapons is possible By Li Bin Successive US administrations have failed to formally adopt a “sole-purpose” nuclear policy, nor have they responded positively to China’s no-first-use proposals. Chinese professor and expert Li Bin explains the many benefits of a no-first-use policy and why the next US administration should respond positively to China’s invitation to negotiate a no-first-use treaty on nuclear weapons.
The fallout never ended By Robert Alvarez Decades of nuclear weapons tests and other radioactive experiments injured or killed scientists, soldiers, and innocent bystanders. Many of them, and their relatives, have never been compensated, but new efforts may change that. In this special report, former Senate staffer and expert on the US nuclear program Robert Alvarez looks back at its harmful effects, and how the government addressed them—or didn’t.
AI goes nuclear By Dawn Stover Big tech is turning to old reactors (and planning new ones) to power the energy-hungry data centers that artificial intelligence systems need. In this feature article, Bulletin’s contributing editor Dawn Stover explains how the downsides of nuclear power—including the potential for nuclear weapons proliferation—have been minimized or simply ignored.
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ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO LLAW’a ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:“
(Please note that the Sunday and Saturday NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS are also added below by category, following Monday’s news posts in order to maintain continuity of nuclear news as well as for research for the overall information provided in “LLAW;s All Things Nuclear”.)
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:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War
Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There are three Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in today’s Post.)
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.
“So as long as we are investing in something that is pollution intensive, innocent people suffer every time. And those people pay taxes too,” Cywinski ..
Some 1,152 went to the second stage “to evaluate possible threats” and six of these went to the third and final state of threat assessment. After the …
The Yellowstone Caldera is a large crater located in the western-central portion of Yellowstone National Park in northwestern Wyoming. The park …
IAEA Weekly News
3 January 2025
Kick off the new year with a roundup of this week’s highlights! Read the top news and stories published on IAEA.org and stay updated on the latest developments shaping the year ahead.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is assessing observations and information collected from its recent missions to Ukraine’s electrical substations, conducted in the aftermath of attacks on the nation’s energy infrastructure, as part of the Agency’s ongoing commitment to monitoring nuclear safety and security, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said today. Read more →
The IAEA and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations support countries in using nuclear techniques to ensure coffee quality and authenticity. Read more →
LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS TODAY with THE RISKS & CONSEQUENCES OF TOMORROW
The human error destroyed Chernobyl Power Plant in Ukraine that is still being cleaned up to this day. Nuclear Power is obviously neither safe nor provides reliable power production. ~llaw
Finally, a media news outlet, “POWER”, has figured out that nuclear power and their facilities and plants along with their nuclear waste are in reality potential partners in nuclear war. This story needs to be told by the media every day, and in every possible way.
Although I strongly disagree with the article relative to its high opinion that nuclear power is an important and reliable energy source and provider for any country’s needs, including the looming information technology (IT), especially that industry’s proposed AI and cloud computing needs, I do take my hat off to POWER’s executive editorAaron Larson is r. for this well-written article and his serious warnings, a subject I have been harping about for months . . . ~llaw
War and Nuclear Energy: Risks Are Enormous for Power Industry and World
Nuclear power can be a highly important component of a country’s energy security strategy. This is true for several reasons.
Nuclear plants provide consistent baseload power that is not dependent on weather conditions or a constant fuel delivery system. Unlike solar or wind energy, nuclear power can generate electricity 24/7 with very high capacity factors, often 90% or more, which ensures a steady and predictable energy supply.
Nuclear power reduces dependence on foreign energy imports, particularly coal, oil, and natural gas. Countries with nuclear power plants can generate substantial electricity domestically, enhancing their energy independence and reducing geopolitical vulnerabilities associated with energy supply chains.
Meanwhile, nuclear fuel (uranium) is relatively abundant and concentrated, meaning a small volume of fuel can generate massive amounts of electricity. This characteristic leads to more stable and predictable energy pricing compared to fossil fuels, which are subject to significant market volatility. Uranium reserves are widely distributed globally, and modern reactor designs can use fuel very efficiently. Some advanced reactor concepts even propose recycling nuclear fuel, potentially extending fuel availability for decades or centuries.
By incorporating nuclear power into their energy mix, countries can diversify their electricity sources, reducing risks associated with over-reliance on any single energy technology or fuel type. This diversification enhances overall energy system resilience.
The Risks in War Zones
However, nuclear power plants present significant vulnerabilities during wartime, which can pose catastrophic risks to both military personnel and civilian populations. For example, a direct military strike or significant damage to a nuclear power plant could cause a massive radiological release, creating an environmental catastrophe far beyond the immediate conflict zone. The Chernobyl and Fukushima incidents have demonstrated how nuclear facility damage can create long-lasting contamination spanning hundreds of square miles.
Nuclear power plants are high-value strategic targets. An attacking force might intentionally target these facilities to create widespread environmental disruption, cause massive civilian displacement, generate long-term economic and environmental damage, or potentially contaminate critical infrastructure and agricultural lands. Unlike conventional military targets, damage to nuclear facilities can create radioactive exclusion zones, render surrounding areas uninhabitable for decades, contaminate water sources, cause long-term health risks through radiation exposure, and disrupt agricultural and economic activities in vast regions.
Protecting nuclear facilities during conflict is extremely challenging. Reactors require continuous cooling systems, robust infrastructure maintenance, specialized personnel to prevent potential meltdown scenarios, and extreme security measures that become exponentially more difficult during active combat. Meanwhile, the mere threat of nuclear facility damage can create significant psychological pressure, potentially forcing strategic withdrawals or negotiations due to the potential for catastrophic consequences.
Representatives of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), including Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi, visited the plant in late August 2022 to assess the threat of a nuclear accident. Grossi addressed the United Nations Security Council via video link on Sept. 6, 2022, saying the establishment of a “Nuclear Safety and Security Protection Zone” was urgently needed at the Zaporizhzhia site to ensure that the physical integrity of the plant was not compromised.
While no agreement was ever reached to formally implement a protection zone at Zaporizhzhia, the IAEA has continued to closely monitor and assess the situation at the site on a daily basis. It has prioritized nuclear safety and security implications, alongside ongoing verification activities.
At the American Nuclear Society’s Winter Conference and Expo in Orlando, Florida, on Nov. 18, 2024, Grossi spoke about the work the IAEA has done in Ukraine during the war. He specifically highlighted an attack that had taken place just days before the Orlando event. “A tremendous, ferocious attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure reminded us once again that nuclear has sometimes unexpected challenges,” he said. Grossi noted that monitoring activities at a nuclear plant on the front lines of a war is “an amazing challenge.” Still, he said it was incredibly important for the IAEA to be there.
“This is why today I have teams of dedicated staff, not only in Zaporizhzhia, but also in Rivne, in Khmelnitski, in South Ukraine, in Chernobyl,” he said, referring to all the nuclear facilities in Ukraine, which total 15 operable reactors and four permanently shut down reactors. “Every three weeks crossing the front lines. I’ve done it myself five times. They do it all the time. And sometimes we’ve done it under fire. The proud flag of the IAEA, which represents us all, is there to remind those who are in conflict that nuclear energy is for peace.”
The nuclear industry has a safety maxim that posits “an accident anywhere is an accident everywhere.” In the case of war and nuclear power, the stakes are high for everyone and an accident must be avoided at all costs.
—Aaron Larson is POWER’s executive editor.
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ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO LLAW’a ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:“
(Please note that the Sunday and Saturday NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS are also added below by category, following Monday’s news posts in order to maintain continuity of nuclear news as well as for research for the overall information provided in “LLAW;s All Things Nuclear”.)
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:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War
Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There are three Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in today’s Post.)
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.
If we as an industry don’t get ready to invest in ourselves, whether it is the supply chain or workforce or everything else, then when will we do this …
Threats and braggadocio yield diminishing returns. Us,President,Donald,Trump,Arrives,For,His,Final,. Doug Bandow. Jan 2, 2025 12:03 AM. President Joe …
LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS TODAY with THE RISKS & CONSEQUENCES OF TOMORROW
This article is from Saturday’s weekend “LLAW’a ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA“ posts, primarily because today’s nuclear media posts were mostly stories that had little or nothing to add to earlier articles. This article with video from CNBC at least offers some original information about the massive drive for nuclear power produced electricity that could dwarf the entire demand from a major city. I can’t help but wonder: WHY?
For what, you may also ask? Well it is apparently to create a “world” of Artificial Intelligence (AI to guide humanity, etc. into our already questionable future (I think) and add something called Cloud Computing”, both of which seem too futuristic to me to be anything other than downright nightmarish for the minds of human understanding and consumption — or so it seems from my own long-considered points of view. To me, it’s a feeling of ignoring and even violating our long dependence on our own basic intelligence levels and also increasingly violating our dwindling relationship with Mother Nature and the Earth itself. ~llaw
Why tech giants such as Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Meta are betting big on nuclear power
Data centers powering artificial intelligence and cloud computing are pushing energy demand and production to new limits. Global electricity use could rise as much as 75% by 2050, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, with the tech industry’s AI ambitions driving much of the surge.
As leaders in the AI race push for further technological advancements and deployment, many are finding their energy needs increasingly at odds with their sustainability goals.
“A new data center that needs the same amount of electricity as say, Chicago, cannot just build its way out of the problem unless they understand their power needs,” said Mark Nelson, managing director of Radiant Energy Group. “Those power needs. Steady, straight through, 100% power, 24 hours a day, 365,” he added.
After years of focusing on renewables, major tech companies are now turning to nuclear power for its ability to provide massive energy in a more efficient and sustainable fashion.
Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta are among the most recognizable names exploring or investing in nuclear power projects. Driven by the energy demands of their data centers and AI models, their announcements mark the beginning of an industrywide trend.
“What we’re seeing is nuclear power has a lot of benefits,” said Michael Terrell, senior director of energy and climate at Google. “It’s a carbon-free source of electricity. It’s a source of electricity that can be always on and run all the time. And it provides tremendous economic impact.”
Watch the video above to learn why Big Tech is investing in nuclear power, the opposition they face and when their nuclear ambitions could actually become a reality.
Subscribed
ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO LLAW’a ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:“
(Please note that the Sunday and Saturday NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS are also added below by category, following Monday’s news posts in order to maintain continuity of nuclear news as well as for research for the overall information provided in “LLAW;s All Things Nuclear”.)
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:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War
Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There are three Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in today’s Post.)
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.
The two sides exchange such lists on the first day of January every year. In a statement on Wednesday, Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the …
1:07:42. Go to channel · How Putin’s nuclear threats failed to stop Storm Shadow strikes in Russia | Frontline. Times Radio•255K views · 16:59. Go to …
LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS TODAY with THE RISKS & CONSEQUENCES OF TOMORROW
I will finish the 2024 year with a bit of the lighter side of “All Things Nuclear”, but the point mood, moral, and deep meaning (with a “Catch 22”) of the following very short article, inspired from a 1980’s episode of the reborn Twilight Zone” , by “The Atlantic” guest Author Adam Kirsch, is especially relevant in today’s comparative nuclear world.
May the New Year bring you all a much needed sense of a world of a new kind of peace, comfort, and unity, wherever you are on planet Earth. ~llaw
In 1985, when I was 9 years old, I watched the first episode of the new Twilight Zone, a reboot of the classic early-1960s TV series. People rarely talk about the ’80s version, which ran for just three seasons. But there must be other viewers around my age who have never forgotten “A Little Peace and Quiet,” the second story in that debut episode. It’s about a woman who discovers a magic pendant in the shape of a sundial that gives her the power to stop time. Whenever she says “Shut up,” everyone and everything in the world except her comes to a halt, resuming only when she says, “Start talking.”
At first she uses the device to give herself a break from her irritating husband and chattering children. But at the end of the episode, she hears an announcement that the Soviets have launched a nuclear attack on the United States, and she deploys the magic phrase to arrest time. In the last scene, she walks out of her house and looks up to see ICBMs frozen in midair, leaving her with an impossible choice: to unfreeze time and be destroyed along with all of humanity, or to spend eternity as the sole living person in the world.
I remember that TV image better than most of the things I saw in real life as a child. It was the perfect symbol of an understanding of history that Generation X couldn’t help but absorb—if not from The Twilight Zone, then from movies such as The Day After and WarGames. The nuclear-arms race meant that humanity’s destruction was imminent, even though no one actually wanted it, because we were collectively too stupid and frivolous to prevent it. We were terrified of the future, like the woman in the TV show—yet we also secretly longed for the arrival of the catastrophe because only it could release us from the anxiety of waiting.
OUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’a ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:
(Please note that the Sunday and Saturday NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS are also added below by category, following Monday’s news posts in order to maintain continuity of nuclear news as well as for research for the overall information provided in “LLAW;s All Things Nuclear”.)
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:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War
Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There is one Yellowstone Caldera bonus story available in today’s Post.)
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.
The Chalk River accident. In the early 1950s, before entering politics, Carter was a nuclear reactor expert. In this role, he was directly involved in …
Follow-up testing after siren maintenance may be required after 11 a.m.. Testing is performed in cooperation with emergency officials in Brunswick and …
From the volatility of the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East to rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula and potential clashes around Taiwan and the …
The infamous Three Mile Island nuclear power plant that prompted me to leave the industry
LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS TODAY AND THE RISKS & CONSEQUENCES OF TOMORROW
How we can continue to represent that nuclear power fuel (uranium) produces clean power for human consumption boggles the mind of anyone who knows anything about “all things nuclear”. The stuff is, without doubt, the dirtiest and most dangerous power-producing fuel of any kind on planet Earth, and nuclear power plants themselves are also likely targets in any global conflict that will have the unique ability to eliminate human and other species of life from existence. All one has to do is understand this duplicitous contradiction is to follow the Russia/Ukraine war . . .
We are deathly afraid of nuclear weapons of mass destruction (nuclear bombs), but we are in love with the world-wide concept of nuclear power plants — that are nothing less than stationary nuclear bombs — and their mission to help create the very scary idea of a new kind of a robotic controlled human world with something called “Artificial Intelligence” (AI). ~llaw
Here’s what our nuclear/AI world is projected to be all about from “Business Insider”:
Big Tech’s AI bets are driving a nuclear renaissance. Not everyone is buying the hype.
Big Tech is investing in nuclear power to meet AI data-center energy demands.
Nuclear is seen as a clean-energy source, but investors are skeptical about scalability and returns.
While VC interest in nuclear investment is growing, startups face key bottlenecks.
The generative AI boom has made nuclear power a major new obsession for Big Tech.Some industry watchers aren’t fully convinced that it should be — or that nuclear startups will be able to capitalize on the hype.
This year, companies at the forefront of AI development have been in a frenzy over nuclear power as they’ve searched for clean sources of electricity to run the energy-hungry data centers being built to serve their prized AI models.
Microsoft made a stunning move in September when it struck a 20-year power-purchase agreement with Constellation Energy to awaken one of two dormant nuclear plants on Three Mile Island — the site of one of the most high-profile nuclear accidents in US history.
In October, Amazon took a stake in X-energy, a developer of small modular reactors, or SMRs, which promise greater efficiency than large nuclear reactors. That same month, Google announced a clean-energy agreement with Kairos Power, a company developing SMRs.
These deals have emerged at speed for a simple reason: An arms race in the tech sector between companies vying for control of the most powerful AI models is set to drive data-center power demand through the roof, with Goldman Sachs estimating a 160% jump by 2030.
However, while Big Tech’s ambitions to build the world’s most potent AI models have invigorated their interest in nuclear power, investors, energy experts, and analysts are feeling split about whether it will help startups scale at pace and deliver fruitful returns.
Why nuclear might not be a quick-fix solution
Skeptics say nuclear reactors won’t come online quickly enough or at the scale needed to meet the demands of energy-hungry data centers.
Jill McArdle, a campaigner at the European nonprofit Beyond Fossil Fuels, told Business Insider that nuclear power is “completely off topic” as a current solution for powering data centers, particularly if tech companies are serious about the looming deadlines they’ve set to meet emissions targets.
Google aims to achieve net-zero emissions across all of its operations by 2030. Microsoft, meanwhile, has committed to being carbon-negative by 2030. “What we are talking about, especially now, is the next five years of how are we going to power this massive boom in data centers,” McArdle said.
She added that the more compact SMRs favored by Big Tech remain largely untested. Google’s corporate agreement with Kairos Power, for instance, is expected to see the startup’s first SMR come online by 2030, with others added through to 2035.
One concern around large nuclear solutions is expense, with the likes of Microsoft’s Three Mile Island deal unlikely to be replicated elsewhere. As McArdle put it: “Traditional nuclear just isn’t going to be coming online at the scale and in the budget that we need to get it done.”
Microsoft has signed a deal to revive the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. Wally McNamee/Corbis via Getty Images
Venture capitalists have echoed this concern.
“The length of the investment is not compatible with private-equity funds — maybe it’s one for evergreen funds,” said Guillaume Sarlat, a partner at the France-headquartered VC firm Axeleo Capital, which has deliberately excluded nuclear from its investment policy. “The other problem is, what are the economic conditions going to be when nuclear startups are ready to sell their product? What is going to be the cost of the electricity that they’re going to produce in 20 years?”
He speculated that funds backing nuclear could aim for an internal rate of return of 15%, but the two main parameters to determine that would be productivity gains and the competitiveness of the nuclear solution. He said these factors could be affected by the price of gas and photovoltaic materials, making it a risky bet.
Startups face key bottlenecks
On the technical side, nuclear startups will have to work hard to differentiate themselves from existing fission technologies and “persuade investors that that marginal improvement is worth waiting another 10 years,” Matthew Blain, a principal at the climate tech fund Voyager Ventures, said.
While Blain has seen “excitement” for nuclear-fusion technology, he said these startups would first need to demonstrate a believable pathway down the cost curve. “Your first dollars per megawatt of your first fusion plant will be astronomically expensive, and that will be competing on a 20- to 30-year timeframe with the cost of energy and battery storage,” he told BI.
It’s part of the reason investment in nuclear-energy startups has fluctuated over the past five years. The industry had a banner year in 2021, with startups raking in $3.57 billion in VC funding, per PitchBook data. Figures subsequently dipped in 2022 and 2023, with VCs pouring $2.67 billion and $1.17 billion into startups, respectively.
“Nuclear energy requires a centralized infrastructure that is harder to scale incrementally,” Nicolas Heuzé, the cofounder and CEO of the osmotic-energy startup Sweetch Energy, said. “And investors and governments often favor proven solutions, even though they are not perfect, over novel ones associated with emerging technology.”
The case for being bullish on nuclear
Despite the concerns, certain quarters of the tech sector remain convinced that nuclear is the way forward to support the AI data-center boom.
A16z, the venture-capital firm led by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, named “the resurgence of nuclear” as one of the big ideas driving its “American dynamism” investment theme in 2025.
“A perfect storm of regulatory reform, public enthusiasm, capital infusions, and insatiable energy needs — particularly from AI data centers — will accelerate orders for new reactors for the first time in decades,” is how David Ulevitch, a general partner at A16z, put it.
X Energy’s XE-100 nuclear reactor plants. X Energy
A few things still need to be figured out. Blain said that VCs will need to see if there’s profit to be made on a technology that may offer “more of an infrastructure return” typically made through debt investments than the kind of outsize return a VC typically seeks from a bet on a software business. Nuclear startups may also opt to “take the trajectory of companies like SpaceX by staying private for a long period of time,” he said.
That said, it’s clear that money is flowing into the industry again, as VCs have deployed $2.62 billion into nuclear startups this year. Notable raises included X Energy’s $500 million round and the $151 million raised by Paris-headquartered Newcleo, which is building SMRs using repurposed radioactive waste.
Newcleo’s COO, Elisabeth Rizzotti, told BI that a Big Tech-fueled boom in demand for clean energy had made it an “attractive” option for investors. She added that the startup was potentially eyeing an IPO once it met two key milestones: building its first prototype in 2026 and getting pre-authorization to build its first reactor in France by early 2027.
Companies trying to sell the world on nuclear power will have to accept a hard reality, however: The clock’s ticking on their opportunity to prove their solutions can meet the extraordinary energy demands of the AI industry. The data centers will keep on coming.
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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:
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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.
There’s more government, industry, and civilian support for nuclear energy than there has been in decades. There aren’t enough retired nuclear plants …
Big Tech is investing in nuclear power to meet AI data center energy demands. · Nuclear is seen as a clean energy source, but investors are skeptical …
Alongside the relentless bombing of Gaza, Israel expanded operations into Lebanon to target Hamas ally Hezbollah, whose militants have fired hundreds …
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 THINGS NUCLEAR” 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:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War
Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There are no Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available on this weekend’s Post.)
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.
Iranian leaders’ main concern may be that Trump could empower Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to attack Iran’s nuclear sites, while further …
Zelensky criticises Slovak PM threats to cut Ukraine’s electricity supply. Ukrainian president Voldoymyr Zelensky has accused Slovakian prime minister …
… nuclear weapons, in return for the relaxation of U.S. and U.N. economic sanctions … about 18% in all since Trump was elected in November. (Reporting …
In case of emergency, it is stipulated that the United States communicates with Japan about its nuclear use … nuclear use. … power, including nuclear …
… nuclear safety, radiation protection, emergency preparedness, waste management, and nuclear security. Ad. After a thorough review and assessment of …
Yellowstone quakes · Yellowstone quakes · Latest earthquakes under Yellowstone volcano. List and interactive map of current and past earthquakes near …
LAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS TODAY AND THE RISKS & CONSEQUENCES OF TOMORROW
This human interest story from the “New Yorker” is very much worth reading, enjoying, and assimilating the entire article for its worthwhile sharing of values for all of us — friend or foe. I already know that one of my faithful readers who will soon be relocating to New Mexico, will take a great interest in what this article has to tell us all not only about New Mexico, but our entire country and the world . . .
Donald Trump’s shortcomings and associated nuclear-linked braggadocio attitude toward the United States’ nuclear war power is well-documented in this article. Just this one paragraph concerning the nuclear dangers of Trump as President should alarm you — even if you have been aware of his arrogant attitude toward the rest of the world when it comes to nuclear weapons of mass destruction. The story also quotes his now famous quote about the nuclear muscle of the United States. Here is a short copy of what the story says about that:
Donald Trump’s stance on nuclear weapons has been one of obsessive and reckless bombast. During his first term, Trump reportedly said, “If nuclear war happens, we won’t be second in line pressing the button.” He used social media to brag about the size of the U.S. arsenal and taunted Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea.
America and the entire world’s countries needs desperately to awaken and unite against the nuclear powers (even if we are living in one of them) and take action against this power-crazed man as well the similar leaders of other nuclear-armed nations. But it was Donald J. Trump who defined the word “woke” as “bullshit” just a few days ago . . . ~ llaw
New Mexico’s Nuclear-Weapons Boom
Los Alamos is growing at a pace not seen since J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project.
Tourists in the Alamogordo Desert, in 1992.Photograph by Rene Burri / Magnum
On a recent Wednesday, ten students filed into a classroom at Northern New Mexico College, in the town of Española, to learn about the dangers of nuclear radiation. The students ranged in age from nineteen to forty-four. Most of them were in a program designed to train radiation-control technicians to work at Los Alamos National Laboratory, the birthplace of the atomic bomb, which is once again rapidly expanding to supply the nation with nuclear weapons.
Los Alamos was built in secret during the Second World War—J. Robert Oppenheimer directed the lab there as part of the Manhattan Project. The town hovers high above the Española valley, on a handsome mesa called the Pajarito Plateau. Originally, the only way to access the enclave was through two gates. Today, it accepts visitors but remains a company town, housing many of the lab’s scientists and high-level staffers. The community has a population of about thirteen thousand, and boasts one of the nation’s densest concentrations of millionaires. In New Mexico, such wealth is rare. Española, which sits on the Rio Grande and is a twenty-five-minute drive away, has a median household income of fifty thousand dollars, a poverty rate approaching twenty per cent, and an entrenched fentanyl crisis.
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Northern’s small campus, where cottonwood trees front adobe-colored buildings, is usually quiet, since many of its students commute or study online. The school offers both a trades program and what it calls the most affordable bachelor’s degree in the Southwest. Many students are studying for a career in social work, to combat the ravages of drugs, or hoping to secure a job at the lab. An Air Force veteran named Scott Braley teaches all of the school’s radiation-safety courses. He often wears a T-shirt that reads “Radiate Positivity.”
When I visited, Braley and his students were midway through an introductory safety course. The lecture focussed not on Chernobyl or Fukushima but on less catastrophic accidents, including an incident at an Iranian oil refinery in which a janitor accidentally picked up radioactive equipment, and a medical-exposure case involving breast-cancer patients. “This is the scale of event I worry about,” Braley said. If a wildfire overtook the lab, or Russia launched an attack on New Mexico, which represents the nexus of America’s nuclear-weapons complex, there would not be much for a lab technician to do. Braley wanted students to consider quotidian risks that they could prevent themselves. “We’ve had fatalities at Los Alamos,” he told them. News articles highlighting lapses at the lab were pinned on a bulletin board outside his office. Next to one story, about a Los Alamos worker who took a radioactive swipe home, he had scrawled, “Don’t do that!”
In recent years, Los Alamos has been essential to a sweeping 1.7-trillion-dollar update of the country’s nuclear arsenal, which comes as China expands its atomic-weapons program and Russia assumes a newly confrontational stance. The U.S. government has nearly five thousand nuclear warheads, close to two thousand of which are deployed inside submarines, bombs, and intercontinental ballistic missiles. It also has thousands of plutonium pits—the fissionable cores of those warheads—in storage. But the plutonium in the stockpile is aging. Despite statements from groups such as the Union of Concerned Scientists, which argue that the arsenal remains sufficiently deadly to serve as deterrence, the government insists that it needs new warheads.
The nuclear-weapons overhaul involves facilities spread out across the United States. Its projects include fabricating new missiles, installing thousands of miles of fibre-optic transmission lines, building new computer centers at Air Force bases, and refurbishing the underground chambers where missileers control weapons. But Los Alamos is the only lab that is capable of actually producing the plutonium pits. (A second facility, in South Carolina, hopes to begin producing pits by 2032, but it is still under construction.) In the past two years, the lab has hired two thousand and seven hundred new employees. Traffic often clogs the road winding from Española, past the Pueblo de San Ildefonso and up the Pajarito Plateau. The private contractors who run the lab—Triad, which develops warheads, and N3B, which cleans up old waste from the Manhattan Project—have urgently recruited radiation technicians, electricians, welders, and even writers for its communications team. (Its staff includes former journalists from Outside magazine, which moved from Santa Fe to Boulder a few years ago.)
To support the boom, Los Alamos has invested millions of dollars in vocational pipeline programs at local colleges. Some of these programs teach transferrable skills—welding, electrical work. Others, like the radiation-tech program at Northern, are more likely to keep graduates tethered to Los Alamos. Radiation technicians at the lab use Geiger counters to make sure that scientists’ radiation levels are within a healthy range. They also monitor the rooms where workers move radioactive materials into secure containers. Salaries range from sixty-six thousand dollars to nearly twice that amount. On Española’s outskirts, near signs warning about fentanyl, billboards advertise the pipeline program with patriotic verve: “Support our community, serve our nation.”
New Mexico’s state budget is just above ten billion dollars. The federal government spends about as much money on just two laboratories: Sandia, in Albuquerque, which designs weapon components such as detonators, and Los Alamos. Kirtland Air Force Base, which stores nuclear weapons, has a budget of nearly two billion dollars. An underground nuclear-waste repository in New Mexico’s southern desert also receives federal funding; after a fire and an unrelated radiological release at the facility, ten years ago, the Department of Energy spent nearly five hundred million dollars on an update to its safety infrastructure. “It’s gone from being a company town to being a company state,” Zia Mian, the co-director of a program on science and global security at Princeton, said.
The interns in Braley’s class were already training with Triad and N3B. “They recruit us, send us to school, and pay for our school,” a student named Stevannah Marquez, who had grown up in the nearby village of Chimayó, said. Marquez, who is twenty-five, wore a Care Bears T-shirt and a necklace adorned with a cross. She had a job as a dialysis technician, but it paid less than what she expected to earn at Los Alamos. “An opportunity is given by God,” she said.
America’s rearmament is rooted in a deal that Barack Obama struck with Congress in 2010. Obama was strongly aligned with the philosophy of nuclear non-proliferation, which had driven a steady reduction in the U.S. stockpile since the end of the Cold War. His soaring rhetoric about a world free of nuclear weapons had helped win him the Nobel Peace Prize, and his views had bipartisan support. But, in many states, weapons production meant jobs. When Obama was working to secure congressional support for a nuclear-coöperation agreement with Moscow, Republican senators asked, in return, that he sign off on modernizing the country’s arsenal. He agreed.
At that point, nuclear-weapons development in Los Alamos was only one part of the lab’s remit. Its scientists had also carried out advanced research into nuclear energy, hydraulic fracturing, hydrogen storage, fuel-cell development, and carbon capture and sequestration. But, in 2015, Congress instructed the National Nuclear Security Administration to prepare to build new warheads, and Los Alamos refocussed its mission. A scientist there told me, “The center of mass has shifted from ‘We are a multipurpose lab’ to ‘We are an honest-to-goodness weapons laboratory, and that’s what’s going to dominate.’ ” He likened it to a factory.
The lab is supposed to be building the capacity to produce thirty war-ready plutonium pits per year. So far, it has created just one, even as the budget has tripled. Mounting international tensions have only increased the pressure. According to the Defense Department, China has developed more than six hundred operational nuclear warheads, and it could have twice as many by 2030. The treaty that Obama signed with Russia in 2010 expires next year, and it is not expected to be renewed. Last June, in an address recorded for the annual meeting of the Arms Control Association, António Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, warned of the creeping threat of nuclear war. “Humanity is on a knife’s edge,” he said. In 2023, Russia de-ratified a landmark nuclear-testing-ban treaty, and in November, following Ukraine’s use of long-range American missiles, Vladimir Putin lowered his country’s threshold for the use of nuclear weapons.
Donald Trump’s stance on nuclear weapons has been one of obsessive and reckless bombast. During his first term, Trump reportedly said, “If nuclear war happens, we won’t be second in line pressing the button.” He used social media to brag about the size of the U.S. arsenal and taunted Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea. His Administration also signalled interest in reviving America’s defunct underground weapons-testing program. In preparation for his second term, he has adopted Ronald Reagan’s old motto—“Peace through strength.” But his military aims have been difficult to pin down, and the views of his presumptive cabinet are scattershot. Sharon Weiner, a professor of foreign policy and global security at American University, said that Trump’s nominees appear “willing to violate norms and rules that have been in place for a long time.”
Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., as fears about China reach a fever pitch, a sense of alarm is seeping into discussions about nuclear policy. During a recent panel, Robert Peters, a fellow at the Heritage Foundation who once worked as a lead strategist for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, discussed the slow progress at Los Alamos with frustration. “Let’s waive the environmental regulations, blow up the mountain, pave it over, build a highway that you need to get there, fire everyone who’s not building warheads,” Peters said. Increasingly, politicians have advocated boosting the number of nuclear weapons—not just updating the existing ones. “The U.S. is embarking on a pair of arms races,” Jeffrey Lewis, a non-proliferation expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, said. “You hear from both Democrats and Republicans that expansion is inevitable.”
In Los Alamos, it is widely acknowledged that, during the Manhattan Project, environmental concerns were not a priority. Nuclear waste was simply dumped in the ground. This past August, a retired chemistry professor from Northern Arizona University named Michael Ketterer, who has studied nuclear sites around the West, announced that he had found what he called “the most extreme plutonium-contamination scenario” he has seen in an area close to Los Alamos. (The Department of Energy and the laboratory maintain that the radiation levels at the site are safe.) Worker-safety issues have also been a problem. In 2013, weapons development at the lab’s plutonium facility temporarily ceased after a series of incidents, including one in which staff members arranged plutonium rods together, for a photo opportunity, in a scenario that could have sparked an enormous nuclear reaction.
The contractors in charge of the lab maintain that they have learned from past errors. But the recent pressure to produce appears to align with a culture of haste. One of the oversight agencies that inspects the lab has published reports that reveal a concerning number of safety breaches. Last summer, plutonium was found on the hands of a worker who had handled radiological material without gloves. (“A key corrective action planned from this event is additional reinforcement of glove usage requirements,” the inspector wrote.) The following week, the same inspector reported that a glove box containing radioactive material had cracked, prompting an evacuation of personnel. A year earlier, a newly hired radiation-control technician was found to have been working for weeks without a dosimeter, the device with which workers monitor their exposure to radioactive materials. Suggested corrective actions included “ensuring that newly qualified RCTs receive their dosimeters prior to starting work.”
Like many of the people I spoke to in Española, Braley had complex feelings about the lab at Los Alamos. During the lecture I attended, he told students that, with incidents of radiation exposure, there was often no one to blame—accidents were more likely to be an unfortunate confluence of events in the presence of unforgiving materials. But he also reserved the right to skepticism. “I don’t feel like the workforce has really adopted a safety mentality,” he told me, of Los Alamos. “I think what they’ve got is a production mentality: ‘We have to meet certain milestones, and we don’t want to let a little bit of contamination slow us down.’ ”
More than twenty-five years ago, Congress, recognizing that Los Alamos’s economic dominance had been unhealthy for northern New Mexico, passed a law creating a foundation that would attempt to address inequities. The Los Alamos National Laboratory Foundation now funds workplace-training programs and provides scholarships for nearby students, regardless of whether they go on to work at the lab. When I asked Alvin Warren, a member of the Santa Clara Pueblo and the foundation’s vice-president of policy and impact, what he hoped the region would look like in thirty years, he said, “That my grandchildren can hunt elk in our canyon and not worry about whether it’s safe to eat; that they can go to school where they want and pursue whatever career they think is appropriate for them; that, if they believe strongly that the lab is not a good place to work, they don’t feel compelled to work there.”
The contractors who run Los Alamos maintain that they, too, are trying to improve economic outcomes in the area. “We are trying to build a workforce for the entire region,” Rebecca Estrada, who oversees Los Alamos’s recruitment efforts, told me. The lab provides funding for the training of math and science teachers, and backs an apprenticeship program for early-education workers. It partners with a union representing welders, plumbers, and electricians that recruits kids out of high school. But the lab’s ubiquity also creates a narrow set of options. “It limits other types of economic growth and productivity,” Frank Loera, who directs the career-and-technical-education program at Northern New Mexico College, said.
Stevannah Marquez, Braley’s student from Chimayó, told me that she’d grown up with an embedded understanding of the risks of working at Los Alamos. As a child, she heard about numerous people and relatives who became ill after working at the lab. One friend, she said, was paralyzed from his exposures. “Older generations didn’t have the justice,” she told me. But, she added, optimistically, “We know now what to do.”
Marquez’s ties to northern New Mexico are deep. Her home town, which is situated in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, east of Española, is the terminus of a revered annual pilgrimage. In the week before Easter, New Mexico’s highways fill with people walking to the Santuario de Chimayó, a Catholic church. Every year, Marquez leaves water for the pilgrims outside her house. “I will never leave Chimayó,” she said. But her allegiance to her home has also curtailed her options. Chimayó has suffered from the opioid epidemic, and local jobs are limited. Marquez said that leaving her job in medicine was bittersweet. “I love taking care of people,” she told me. After her years with sick patients, she liked the idea of keeping workers at the lab safe. She hoped that one day she might be able to find a job cleaning up the environment—perhaps removing waste from the Manhattan Project that sits atop the canyons that funnel the summer monsoons into the Rio Grande. “Furthering your knowledge and understanding of anything is always a good opportunity,” Marquez said, “even if it may seem like it’s the only one.” ♦
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(Please note that the Sunday and Saturday NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS are also added below by category, following Monday’s news posts in order to maintain continuity of nuclear news as well as for research for the overall information provided in “LLAW;s All Things Nuclear”.)
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:
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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 weapons, the specter of an Israeli military strike grows ever more likely. Israel has long considered Iran’s nuclear ambitions a direct threat
IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi visited Paraguay as part of ongoing support for the country’s use of nuclear science to advance its development in the areas of food security, cancer care and clean energy. Read more →
The IAEA’s ‘Nuclear Explained’ series takes scientific and technical subjects related to nuclear topics and makes them easier to understand. Here are our top five explainers from 2024. Read more →
LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS TODAY AND THE RISKS & CONSEQUENCES OF TOMORROW
These following statements are the final two paragraphs in this “Al Jazeera” article, and may help explain this attack on Ukraine on Christmas Day:
“Both sides are racing to secure an advantage before the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump, who has promised a swift end to the conflict.
This has led to concerns that Washington might push Kyiv into accepting a settlement favourable to Moscow.”
Someone said, ”All’s fair in love and war”, and a Christmas Day attack could be a signal from Russia that Ukraine will not be allowed to continue their independence and young democracy by remaining a US/NATO supported county. Trump’s role is questionable, but his concept to end the war will most likely be to offer in Russia’s favor, which, if Kiev agrees, n doubt under distress, will give the Kremlin back to Putin — the same place it was before Putin was at the end of Trump’s first term as president, but without Trump’s U.S. authority, the renewed military attacks by Russia on Ukraine was reignited in early February of 2022, no longer blessed with Trump’s then out-of -office apolitical support to Moscow. ~llaw
Biden condemns Russia’s ‘outrageous’ Christmas attack on Ukraine
Biden promises surge in weapons deliveries to Ukraine after drone and missile barrage hits its power grid.
A rescuer from the State Emergency Service works to put out a fire in a private house after a drone attack in Kharkiv, on December 25, 2024 [Sergey Bobok/AFP]
Published On 26 Dec 202426 Dec 2024
United States President Joe Biden has labelled as “outrageous” a Russian Christmas day attack on Ukraine’s power grid, promising a “surge of weapons deliveries to Ukraine”.
Moscow launched more than 170 missiles and drones on Ukraine on Wednesday, targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. The strikes, which killed an energy worker, hit a thermal power plant and prompted Ukrainians to take shelter in metro stations on Christmas morning.
“The United States will continue to work tirelessly to strengthen Ukraine’s position in its defence against Russian forces,” the outgoing president said in a statement.
“The purpose of this outrageous attack was to cut off the Ukrainian people’s access to heat and electricity during winter and to jeopardise the safety of its grid,” Biden added.
The strikes on Ukrainian fuel and energy sources included 78 air, ground and sea-launched missiles as well as 106 Shaheds and other types of drones, Ukraine’s air force said. It claimed to have intercepted 59 missiles and 54 drones, with 52 more drones being jammed.
“Putin deliberately chose Christmas to attack. What could be more inhumane?” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X. “The target is our energy infrastructure.”
This was the 13th large-scale strike on Ukraine’s energy system this year, the latest in Russia’s campaign targeting the power grid during winter.
Ukrainian plots foiled
Meanwhile, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) announced on Thursday that it had thwarted a plan by Ukrainian intelligence to kill senior Russian officers and their families in Moscow, according to the state-run TASS news agency.
Earlier this month, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, chief of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops, was killed by Ukraine’s SBU intelligence service in Moscow when a bomb attached to an electric scooter exploded.
Russia on Thursday said five people had died in Ukrainian attacks and from a falling drone in the border region of Kursk and North Ossetia in the Caucasus on Wednesday.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Thursday cautioned that Russia would respond to Ukraine’s attacks, carried out with Western missiles and drones.
Russia targets only military facilities and infrastructure and “it’s not in our rules to strike civilian targets,” Lavrov said.
Ukrainians in traditional clothes take part in a Christmas procession at Sofiivska Square in Kyiv, on December 25, 2024 [Anatolii Stepanov/AFP]
Celebrating Christmas amid attacks
Ukraine officially celebrated Christmas on December 25 for the second time, after the government last year changed the date from January 7, when most Orthodox believers celebrate, as a snub to Russia.
Nearly 200 people paraded through the centre of Kyiv, singing Christmas carols.
The Christmas day attack also targeted Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, located near the Russian border. At least seven strikes sparked fires across the city, regional head Oleh Syniehubov wrote on Telegram. At least three people were injured, local authorities said.
Attacks continued overnight, with the Ukrainian military announcing on Thursday it shot down 20 drones out of 31 launched by Russia.
Outnumbered Ukrainian forces are now on the back foot across the front line in the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions further south, ceding ground to better-equipped Russian troops.
Both sides are racing to secure an advantage before the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump, who has promised a swift end to the conflict.
This has led to concerns that Washington might push Kyiv into accepting a settlement favourable to Moscow.
ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’a ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:
(Please note that the Sunday and Saturday NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS are also added below by category, following Monday’s news posts in order to maintain continuity of nuclear news as well as for research for the overall information provided in “LLAW;s All Things Nuclear”.)
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:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War
Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There are three Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in today’s Post.)
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.
Accidents and Emergencies · Czech company secretly supplied critical … power transmission lines connecting the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to the ..
The threat of nuclear violence should be used with extreme caution due to its serious, existential nature. Only when all other tools and threats have …
… threat of all-out nuclear war has become even more prominent. China ‘s … threats and displaying shows of strength regarding their nuclear capabilities
‘And it would cause problems with water, agriculture and electrical grids.’ Although the Yellowstone caldera’s initial blast would kill thousands in a …
LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS TODAY AND THE RISKS & CONSEQUENCES OF TOMORROW
Happy Holidays to all! And may all your days be merry and bright as well as safe!
This short article about Japan expanding their nuclear power services is surprising to me, and I can’t imagine after the Fukushima nuclear disaster and their remembering of the U.S. nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with a Pulitzer prize winning effort this year by their remembrances and admonishing of that terrible incident that ended World War II that Japan would ever allow ‘nuclear anything’ to return to their country for any reason . . .
Once again, for the third day in a row, I am baffled by the fact that responsible intelligent human beings would fail to realize that nuclear power plants, like nuclear bombs, are weapons of mass destruction as dangerous and catastrophic as nuclear bombs to human and other life in the event of nuclear war. Japan should know and understand this (as should the U.S.) better than all other countries on planet Earth. ~llaw
Japan to maximize nuclear power in clean-energy push as electricity demand grows
The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, damaged by a massive March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami, is seen from the nearby Ukedo fishing port in Namie town, northeastern Japan, Thursday, Aug. 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)
By MARI YAMAGUCHI
Updated 8:21 AM PST, December 25, 2024
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TOKYO (AP) — A government-commissioned panel of experts on Wednesday largely supported Japan’s new energy policy for the next few years that calls for bolstering renewables up to half of electricity needs by 2040 while maximizing the use of nuclear power as the country seeks to accommodate the growing power demand in the era of AI while meeting decarbonization targets.
The Industry Ministry presented the draft plan for final review by the panel of 16 mostly pro-nuclear members from business, academia and civil groups. It calls for maximizing the use of nuclear energy, reversing a phaseout policy adopted after the meltdown crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in 2011 that led to extensive displacement of residents and lingering anti-nuclear sentiment.
The plan is due to receive Cabinet approval by March after a period of consultation and will then replace the current energy policy, which dates from 2021. The new proposal says nuclear energy should account for 20% of Japan’s energy supply in 2040, up from just 8.5% last year, while expanding renewables to 40-50% from 22.9% and reducing coal-fired power to 30-40% from nearly 70% last year.
The current plan set a 20-22% target for nuclear energy, 36-38% for renewables and 41% for fossil fuel, for 2030.
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(Please note that the Sunday and Saturday NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS are also added below by category, following Monday’s news posts in order to maintain continuity of nuclear news as well as for research for the overall information provided in “LLAW;s All Things Nuclear”.)
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:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War
Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There are three Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in today’s Post.)
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.
… (nuclear, biochemical) air filtration system. “We’ve definitely seen a spike in customers. After the invasion of Ukraine, my phone rang about every …
The new proposal says nuclear energy should account for 20% of Japan’s energy supply in 2040, up from just 8.5% last year, while expanding renewables …
Throughout the Russia-Ukraine war, Moscow has warned the West against escalating tensions, using its nuclear stockpile to remind other countries what …
Each trip is accompanied by a volcanologist from our team. Examples include: Kilauea (Hawai’i), Colima (Mexico), Krakatau and many others. Yellowstone …
![Ukrainians wearing traditional clothes take part in a Christmas procession at the Sofiivska Square in Kyiv, on December 25, 2024. [Anatolii STEPANOV / AFP]](https://i0.wp.com/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto%2Cq_auto%3Agood%2Cfl_progressive%3Asteep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff94f77b7-1932-4176-acc5-874a85a59c26_770x514.jpeg?ssl=1 "Ukrainians wearing traditional clothes take part in a Christmas procession at the Sofiivska Square in Kyiv, on December 25, 2024. [Anatolii STEPANOV / AFP]")
