“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity”

Lloyd A. Williams-Pendergraft

Oct 02, 2024

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An AI bank of electronic equipment. (See the article for photo credits.)

LLAW’s NUCLEAR VIEWS, ISSUES & COMMENTS, Wednesday, (10/02/2024)

The following article is just about a year old, discovered while considering another current AI article from Scientific American (that I may post here tomorrow), but it is an important discussion in current news concerning the relatively new relationship between the incredibly spooky AI (Artificial Intelligence) world and the coming demand for nuclear energy by AI servers and their developers and operational users. The Microsoft plan to seek the recommission of the Three Mile Island undamaged unit (TMI 1) that has been shut down since 1979 is a hint of what might be a clue to the electrical power required to manage the future of of AI.

Most of us know very little about AI today, and this article recognizes that issue, and relates the the then future problem to a right-around-the-corner from a year ago to a huge issue that should be alarming us right about now relative to the entire issue of AI, including how it affects our planet Earth’s man-made environmental issues, which are immense. ~llaw

October 13, 2023

The AI Boom Could Use a Shocking Amount of Electricity

Powering artificial intelligence models takes a lot of energy. A new analysis demonstrates just how big the problem could become

By Lauren Leffer

Energy

Every online interaction relies on a scaffolding of information stored in remote servers—and those machines, stacked together in data centers worldwide, require a lot of energy. Around the globe, data centers currently account for about 1 to 1.5 percent of global electricity use, according to the International Energy Agency. And the world’s still-exploding boom in artificial intelligence could drive that number up a lot—and fast.

Researchers have been raising general alarms about AI’s hefty energy requirements over the past few months. But a peer-reviewed analysis published this week in Joule is one of the first to quantify the demand that is quickly materializing. A continuation of the current trends in AI capacity and adoption are set to lead to NVIDIA shipping 1.5 million AI server units per year by 2027. These 1.5 million servers, running at full capacity, would consume at least 85.4 terawatt-hours of electricity annually—more than what many small countries use in a year, according to the new assessment.

The analysis was conducted by Alex de Vries, a data scientist at the central bank of the Netherlands and a Ph.D. candidate at Vrije University Amsterdam, where he studies the energy costs of emerging technologies. Earlier de Vries gained prominence for sounding the alarm on the enormous energy costs of cryptocurrency mining and transactions. Now he has turned his attention to the latest tech fad. Scientific American spoke with him about AI’s shocking appetite for electricity.

[An edited and condensed transcript of the interview follows.]

Why do you think it’s important to examine the energy consumption of artificial intelligence?

Because AI is energy-intensive. I put one example of this in my research article: I highlighted that if you were to fully turn Google’s search engine into something like ChatGPT, and everyone used it that way—so you would have nine billion chatbot interactions instead of nine billion regular searches per day—then the energy use of Google would spike. Google would need as much power as Ireland just to run its search engine.

Now, it’s not going to happen like that because Google would also have to invest $100 billion in hardware to make that possible. And even if [the company] had the money to invest, the supply chain couldn’t deliver all those servers right away. But I still think it’s useful to illustrate that if you’re going to be using generative AI in applications [such as a search engine], that has the potential to make every online interaction much more resource-heavy.

I think it’s healthy to at least include sustainability when we talk about the risk of AI. When we talk about the potential risk of errors, the unknowns of the black box, or AI discrimination bias, we should be including sustainability as a risk factor as well. I hope that my article will at least encourage the thought process in that direction. If we’re going to be using AI, is it going to help? Can we do it in a responsible way? Do we really need to be using this technology in the first place? What is it that an end user wants and needs, and how do we best help them? If AI is part of that solution, okay, go ahead. But if it’s not, then don’t put it in.

What parts of AI’s processes are using all that energy?

You generally have two big phases when it comes to AI. One is a training phase, which is where you’re setting up and getting the model to teach itself how to behave. And then you have an inference phase, where you just put the model into a live operation and start feeding it prompts so it can produce original responses. Both phases are very energy-intensive, and we don’t really know what the energy ratio there is. Historically, with Google, the balance was 60 percent inference, 40 percent training. But then with ChatGPT that kind of broke down—because training ChatGPT took comparatively very little energy consumption, compared with applying the model.

It’s dependent on a lot of factors, such as how much data are included in these models. I mean, these large language models that ChatGPT is powered by are notorious for using huge data sets and having billions of parameters. And of course, making these models larger is a factor that contributes to them just needing more power—but it is also how companies make their models more robust.

What are some of the other variables to consider when thinking about AI energy usage?

Cooling is not included in my article, but if there were any data to go on, it would have been. A big unknown is where those servers are going to end up. That matters a whole lot, because if they’re at Google, then the additional cooling energy use is going to be somewhere in the range of a 10 percent increase. But global data centers, on average, will add 50 percent to the energy cost just to keep the machines cool. There are data centers that perform even worse than that.

What type of hardware you’re using also matters. The latest servers are more efficient than older ones. What you’re going to be using the AI technology for matters, too. The more complicated a request, and the longer the servers are working to fulfill it, the more power is consumed.

In your assessment, you outline a few different energy-use scenarios from worst- to best-case. Which is the most likely?

In the worst-case scenario, if we decide we’re going to do everything on AI, then every data center is going to experience effectively a 10-fold increase in energy consumption. That would be a massive explosion in global electricity consumption because data centers, not including cryptocurrency mining, are already responsible for consuming about 1 percent of global electricity. Now, again, that’s not going to happen—that’s not realistic at all. It’s a useful example to illustrate that AI is very energy-intensive.

On the opposite end, you have this idea of no growth—zero. You have people saying that the growth in demand will be completely offset by improving efficiency, but that’s a very optimistic take that doesn’t include what we understand about demand and efficiency. Every time a major new technology makes a process more efficient, it actually leads to more people demanding whatever is being produced. Efficiency boosts demand, so boosting efficiency is not really saving energy in the end.

What do I think is the most likely path going forward? I think the answer is that there’s going to be a growth in AI-related electricity consumption. At least initially, it’s going to be somewhat slow. But there’s the possibility that it accelerates in a couple of years as server production increases. Knowing this gives us some time to think about what we’re doing.

What additional research or other steps might be needed?

We need a higher quality of data. We need to know where these servers are going. We need to know the source of the energy itself. Carbon emissions are the real numbers that we care about when it comes to environmental impact. Energy demand is one thing, but is it coming from renewables? Is it coming from fossil fuels?

Maybe regulators should start requiring energy use disclosures from AI developers because there’s just very little information to go on. It was really hard to do this analysis—anyone who is trying to work on AI at the moment is facing the same challenges, where information is limited. I think it would help if there was more transparency. And if that transparency doesn’t come naturally, which it hasn’t so far, then we should think about giving it a little bit of a push.

Lauren Leffer is a contributing writer and former tech reporting fellow at Scientific American. She covers many subjects, including artificial intelligence, climate and weird biology, because she’s curious to a fault. Follow her on X @lauren_leffer and on Bluesky @laurenleffer.bsky.social

Curated by Our Editors

• A Computer Scientist Breaks Down Generative AI’s Hefty Carbon FootprintKate Saenko & The Conversation US
• Cryptocurrencies and NFTs Are a Buyer Beware MarketThe Editors
• Policy Makers Can Harness Digital Innovations to Reduce Carbon EmissionsVarun Sivaram & Madison Freeman
• Elon Musk Owes His Success to Coming in Second PlaceDaniel Vergano

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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:

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

TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS, Wednesday, (10/02/2024)

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

The Handy Quantum Physics Answer Book | CUNY Graduate Center

CUNY Graduate Center

… nuclear power, heck, even solar power,” said Liu, winner of … Charles Liu is the host of The LIUniverse podcast, a podcast covering all things …

A Roundtable Discussion on Logistics and Transportation – Greenville Business Magazine

Greenville Business Magazine

It’s all about continuous improvement, and I fight it every day. … If it’s beyond a reasonable settlement for restitution, then that is nuclear, and …

From the city to the suburbs, swing state voters in Wisconsin share election opinions – KSUT

KSUT

… All Things Considered, NPR’s award-winning afternoon newsmagazine, since 2015. During his first two years on the program, listenership to All Things …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

Power-Thirsty AI Turns to Mothballed Nuclear Plants. Is That Safe? | Scientific American

Scientific American

As Microsoft strikes a deal to restart a reactor at Three Mile Island to power AI, nuclear specialists weigh in on the unprecedented process.

New Nuclear’s Pivotal Moment | Breakthrough Energy

Breakthrough Energy

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has a long history of licensing safe nuclear reactors. They are the gold standard of the world’s nuclear …

First nuclear plant recommissioned in US history as part of $2.8bn funding – Yahoo Finance

Yahoo Finance

US Secretary of Energy Jennifer M Granholm commented: “Nuclear power is America’s largest source of carbon-free of electricity, supporting hundreds of …

Nuclear War

NEWS

The West is Sleepwalking into Nuclear War – The European Conservative

The European Conservative

The West is Sleepwalking into Nuclear War. SERGEY ILYIN / POOL / AFP. Moscow’s tradition of acting on its threats should inspire caution in Western …

Is Putin Bluffing? Russia Keeps Making Nuclear War Threat over Ukraine

The National Interest

As the war in Ukraine nears its 1000th day, Russian officials have escalated nuclear threats against the U.S., Ukraine, and the West.

How will Israel retaliate against Iran’s missile attack? – NBC News

NBC News

… war? Could Israel seek to target Iran’s oil facilities and even … The nuclear issue has gained increasing salience in recent years. Iran …

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

How seriously should we take Putin’s threats of nuclear escalation? – The Hill

The Hill

How seriously should we take Putin’s threats of nuclear escalation? by … nuclear capability at the most precarious moment of the Yom Kippur War.

Iran Is Inching Toward a Nuclear Weapons Breakout: What Does This Mean for the United States?

The Heritage Foundation

… threat of nuclear war to drive the United States out of Asia.60 … North Korea’s seemingly endless series of nuclear threats against the United …

Is Putin Bluffing? Russia Keeps Making Nuclear War Threat over Ukraine

The National Interest

… nuclear threats against the U.S., Ukraine, and the West … And this isn’t the first time Putin or the Kremlin has threatened nuclear war against the 

Yellowstone Caldera

NEWS

Mag. 2.8 quake – South Pacific Ocean, 29 km east of Hicks Bay, Gisborne, New Zealand, on …

Volcano Discovery

Yellowstone quakes · Yellowstone quakes · Latest earthquakes under Yellowstone volcano … caldera, and Ijen in East Java. Past Quakes · Past Quakes.

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity”

Lloyd A. Williams-Pendergraft

Oct 01, 2024

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Three Mile Island nuclear power plant on March 28, 1979, the day of its partial meltdown (See article for photo credits)

LLAW’s NUCLEAR VIEWS, ISSUES & COMMENTS, Tuesday, (10/01/2024)

I posted this refreshing down-to-earth article as our daily review story, most of which are negative of course, because of its honesty and straightforward approach to the ‘new nuclear’ problem at hand: that of refurbishing and restarting nuclear power plants that have been shut down in the past for old age, nuclear accidents, and various other reasons. My opinion, naturally, is that such projects are no doubt the most terrible idea there is, next to building more of them. (Which should be outlawed).

As for the straightforwardness and honesty of the story, “Nature” and the author, Michael Greshko, are careful enough to use use the right language, unbiased and intelligent, For instance they refer to nuclear power plant emissions as “low carbon”, rather than “clean” or “carbon free”, which to me is a breath of fresh air.

There are other points that are gently inferred that will no doubt become a huge factor in the near future: for instance the availability and cost of U3O8 or “yellow cake” refined to uranium 235, and its varied plant requirements for the nuclear fuel used in nuclear reactors, Uranium production is a complicated version of ‘fossil fuels’; it is mined, milled, and refined much like like most other depletable (non-renewable) fuels and is, without doubt, questionable about its ultimate cost and from where it will come from on an international basis. Russia has a corner on both the nuclear plant-construction and fuel markets, for instance, and Russia is not a friend of the United States. No one seems to understand the dynamics of the uranium/nuclear economics as the very, very, complicated enterprise it actually is.

Continuing on along this ‘nuclear-paved’ path ahead will not be easy, and will, for sure, be extremely dangerous to most all life on planet Earth, including you and me. ~llaw

Nuclear power for AI: what it will take to reopen Three Mile Island safely

As Microsoft strikes a deal to restart a reactor at the notorious power station, Nature talks to nuclear specialists about the unprecedented process.

• By
• Michael Greshko

Microsoft announced on 20 September that it had struck a 20-year deal to purchase energy from a dormant nuclear power plant that will be brought back online. And not just any plant: Three Mile Island, the facility in Londonderry Township, Pennsylvania, that was the site of the worst-ever nuclear accident on US soil when a partial meltdown of one of its reactors occurred in 1979.

Nuclear energy, ten years after Fukushima

The move, which symbolizes technology giants’ need to power their growing artificial-intelligence (AI) efforts, raises questions over how shuttered nuclear plants can be restarted safely — not least because Three Mile Island isn’t the only plant being brought out of retirement.

Palisades Nuclear Plant, an 805-megawatt facility in Covert, Michigan, was shut down in May 2022. But the energy company that owns it, Holtec International, based in Jupiter, Florida, plans to reopen it. This reversal in the facility’s fortunes has been bolstered by a US$1.5-billion conditional loan commitment from the US Department of Energy (DoE), which sees nuclear plants — a source of low-carbon electricity — as a way of helping the country to meet its ambitious climate goals. The Palisades plant is on track to reopen in late 2025.

“It’s the first time something like this has been attempted, that we’re aware of, worldwide,” says Jason Kozal, director of the reactor safety division at a regional office of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in Naperville, Illinois, and the co-chair of a regulatory panel overseeing the restart of Palisades.

Here, Nature talks to nuclear specialists about what it will take to restart these plants and whether more are on the way as the world’s demand for AI grows.

A change in fortunes

Since 2012, more than a dozen nuclear plants have been shut down in the United States, in some cases as a result of unfavourable economics. Less cost-effective plants — such as those with only a single working reactor — struggled to remain profitable in states with deregulated electricity markets and widely varying prices. Three Mile Island, owned by the utility company Constellation Energy in Baltimore, Maryland, is a prime example. Today, 54 US plants remain in operation, running a total of 94 reactors.

Nuclear energy, which accounts for about 9% of the world’s electricity, has seen some resurgence internationally, but is also competing with other energy sources, including renewables. After the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi disaster, Japan suspended operations at all of its 48 remaining nuclear plants, but these are gradually being brought back online, in part to cut dependence on gas imports. By contrast, Germany announced a phase-out of its nuclear plants in 2011, and shut down its last three in 2023.

In the United States, nuclear energy’s fortunes might be turning as technology companies race to build enormous, energy-gobbling data centres to support their AI systems and other applications while somehow fulfilling their climate pledges. Microsoft, for instance, has committed to being carbon negative by 2030.

“It’s further confirmation of the value of nuclear, and, if the deal is right — if the price is right — then it makes business sense, as well,” says Jacopo Buongiorno, the director of the Center for Advanced Nuclear Energy Systems at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.

A new start

This isn’t the first time that the United States has brought a powered-down reactor back online. In 1985, for example, the Tennessee Valley Authority, a federally owned electric utility company, took the reactors at its Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant in Athens, Alabama, offline. After years of refurbishment, they were brought back online, with the final reactor restarted in 2007.

The cases of Palisades and Three Mile Island are different, however. When those plants closed, their then-owners made legal statements that the facilities would be shut down, even though their operating licenses were still active. Three Mile Island, which will be renamed the Crane Clean Energy Center under the proposed restart, shut down its single remaining functional reactor in 2019.

Is Fukushima wastewater release safe? What the science says

Because the plants were slated for shutdown and safety checks were therefore stopped, regulators and companies must now navigate a complex licensing, oversight and environmental-assessment process to reverse the plants’ decommissioning.

Safety checks will be needed to ensure, among other things, that the plants can operate securely once uranium fuel rods have been replaced in their reactors. When these plants were decommissioned, their radioactive fuel was removed and stored, so the facilities no longer needed to adhere to many exacting technical specifications, says Jamie Pelton, also a co-chair of the Palisades restart panel, and a deputy director at the NRC’s Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation in Rockville, Maryland.

It will be no small feat to reinstate those safety regulations: to meet the standards, infrastructure will need to be inspected carefully. According to Buongiorno, any metallic components in the plants that have corroded since the shutdowns, including wires and cables used in instrumentation and controls, will need to be replaced.

The plants’ turbine generators, which make electricity from the steam produced as the plants’ fuel rods heat up water, will also get a close look. After sitting dormant for years, a turbine could develop defects within its shaft or corrosion along its blades that would require refurbishment. In the case of Palisades, the NRC announced on 18 September that the plant’s steam generators would need further testing and repair, following inspections conducted by Holtec.

Nuclear’s prospects

As the plants near their restart dates, their operators will also have to contend with a challenge faced by even fully operational plants: the need to source fresh nuclear fuel. US nuclear utility companies have long counted on the international market to buy much of the necessary raw yellowcake uranium and the services that separate and enrich uranium-235, the isotope used in nuclear reactors’ fuel rods. Russia has been a major international supplier of these services, even after the country’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, because US and European sanctions have not targeted nuclear fuel. But to minimize its reliance on Russia, the United States is building up its own supply chain, with the DoE offering $3.4 billion to buy domestically enriched uranium.

Ukraine nuclear power plant attack: scientists assess the risks

There probably won’t be too many other restarts of mothballed nuclear plants in the United States, however, even as demand for low-carbon electricity grows. Not every US plant that has been shut down is necessarily in good enough condition to be easily refurbished — and the idea of reopening some of those would meet with too much resistance. As an example, Buongiorno points to New York’s Indian Point Energy Center, which was closed in 2021. The plant’s proximity to New York City had long provoked criticism from nuclear-safety advocates.

But that doesn’t mean that all of these sites will remain unused. One option is to build advanced reactors — including large reactors with upgraded safety features and small modular reactors with innovative designs — on sites where old nuclear plants once stood, to take advantage of existing transmission lines and infrastructure. “We might see interest in the US in building more of these large reactors, whether that’s fuelled by data centres or some other applications,” Buongiorno adds. “Utilities and customers are exploring this at the moment.”

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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:

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

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

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

TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS, Tuesday, (10/01/2024)

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

Nuclear power for AI: what it will take to reopen Three Mile Island safely – Nature

Nature

As Microsoft strikes a deal to restart a reactor at the notorious power station, Nature talks to nuclear specialists about the unprecedented …

Aligning economic and regulatory frameworks for today’s nuclear reactor technology

MIT News

In Florida, Hines says, environmental awareness is pretty high because everyday citizens are being directly impacted by climate change. After all, …

DirecTV, Dish to Merge, Potential Port Strike | Bloomberg Intelligence – YouTube

YouTube

Jigar Shah on the Three Big Things Driving the Nuclear Energy Revival | Odd Lots … All Things Rolls-Royce: Bespoke Creations, New NYC Office | …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

Data center owners turn to nuclear as potential electricity source

U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)

Although historically costly to build, nuclear power plants typically generate power at relatively low operating costs, with a single reactor …

The US could bring a shuttered nuclear power plant back to life next year – The Verge

The Verge

The Department of Energy announced a $1.5 billion loan to help a shuttered nuclear power plant reopen as the US tries to meet climate goals and …

US closes $1.52B loan to resurrect Michigan’s Palisades nuclear plant

freep.com

The U.S. closed a $1.52 billion loan to resurrect Holtec’s Palisades nuclear plant, and an official said it could take two years to reopen the …

“US Closes $1.52 Billion Loan To Resurrect Michigan Nuclear Plant” | SEJ – Society of Environmental Journalists

Full Coverage

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEWS

Team South Carolina Supporting Recovery Efforts

South Carolina Emergency Management

Utility crews are working around the clock to bring electricity back to affected areas, while emergency management teams are coordinating food, water, …

russia attacks a substation to disrupt power supply to occupied Zaporizhzhia NPP

Кабінет Міністрів України

Another act of nuclear terrorism: russia attacks a substation to disrupt power supply to occupied Zaporizhzhia NPP … Emergency Energy security. 0.

Emergency may arise in Ukrainian energy sector, people will leave – Borrell

Цензор.НЕТ

In addition, Russian missile attacks on power substations could lead to the shutdown of nuclear power plants, which could lead to a nuclear disaster.

Nuclear War

NEWS

New Nato chief says nuclear threat from Russia not imminent – BBC

BBC

Mark Rutte, the new secretary general of Nato, said he does not see any imminent threat of nuclear weapons being used by Russia despite “reckless …

Limited Nuclear War and Israel’s National Strategy

Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies

Israel will need to find the best way of communicating a credible threat of limited nuclear war such that Iran and its proxies are deterred from …

Russia says it won’t discuss new nuclear treaty with US in current form | Reuters

Reuters

Russia will not discuss signing a new treaty with the United States to replace an agreement limiting each side’s strategic nuclear weapons that …

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

No imminent nuclear threat from Russia, says new Nato chief – BBC

BBC

Mark Rutte slammed the Kremlin’s “reckless and irresponsible” rhetoric but downplayed Russia’s nuclear threats.

Limited Nuclear War and Israel’s National Strategy

Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies

The threats posed by the Shiite militias in Lebanon and Syria are greater than those issuing from Sunni Hamas in Judea/Samaria and Gaza. Though non- …

NATO’s new Secretary General responds to Putin’s nuclear threats, claims they should not …

pravda.com.ua

… nuclear weapons and advised them not to pay attention to Russias nuclear threats … The fact that there is no threat of nuclear war at this moment 

Yellowstone Caldera

NEWS

Roaring Mountain’s quiet ‘might not last forever’ – Buckrail

Buckrail

Norris Geyser Basin is known as one of the hottest and most acidic of YNP’s hydrothermal areas. According to Yellowstone Volcano Observatory’s (YVO) …

Mag. 2.2 quake – Davao Oriental, 28 km east of Monkayo, Davao de Oro, Davao, Philippines …

Volcano Discovery

More on VolcanoDiscovery … List and interactive map of current and past earthquakes near Yellowstone volcano. … Santorini is one of the most beautiful …

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends”

Lloyd A. Williams-Pendergraft

Sep 30, 2024

Share

Kris Kristofferson, photographed in 2002 in Los Angeles.

LLAW’s NUCLEAR VIEWS, ISSUES & COMMENTS, Monday, (09/30/2024)

So it is that there is so much incredibly wrong propaganda and erroneously politicized BS about how ‘clean’ and ‘safe’ and ‘live-saving’ regarding the future of nuclear generated energy that I am unusually depressed today. Also adding to my down mood, there is the death of Kris Kristofferson, who was just a few years older than I am and who will be missed by a whole world of fans and friends that I have decided to feature his life story as told by NPR on LLAW’s All Things Nuclear today.

You might wonder why there is a story from NPR about the sad death of Kris Kristofferson in the “All Things Nuclear” category in the “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA” this evening. But his passing does not exclude the fact that he was anti-unclear and protested nuclear arms testing in Nevada, making him a man after my own heart. ~llaw

Kris Kristofferson, musical rebel and movie star, has died at age 88

September 29, 20246:51 PM ET

By 

Melissa Block

Kris Kristofferson, photographed in 2002 in Los Angeles.

Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

Kris Kristofferson, who wrote indelible songs about lovers, loners, boozers and a footloose pair of hitchhikers — and who later became a screen star, appearing in dozens of films — has died at age 88.

According to his representative, the singer, songwriter and actor died peacefully in his home in Maui, Hawaii, on Saturday, Sept. 28, surrounded by family. No cause of death was shared.

Kristofferson made his name as a songwriter in Nashville starting in the late 1960s, penning songs including “Me and Bobby McGee,” “Sunday Morning Coming Down” and “Help Me Make It Through the Night,” which other singers (Janis Joplin, Johnny Cash and Sammi Smith, respectively) took to the top of the charts.

His fame and sex symbol status grew through his movie roles, most notably when he co-starred with Barbra Streisand in the 1976 remake of A Star is Born.

“I imagined myself into a pretty full life,” Kristofferson told NPR’s Fresh Air in 1999. “I was certainly not equipped, by God, to be a football player, but I got to be one. And I got to be a Ranger, and a paratrooper, and a helicopter pilot, you know, and a boxer, and a lot of things that I don’t think I was built to do. I just imagined ’em.”

Kristofferson won three Grammy awards, two of them for duets with his then-wife Rita Coolidge, to whom he was married from 1973-80. His performance in A Star Is Born earned him a Golden Globe in 1976.

In 2004, Kristofferson was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, and in 2014, he was honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Early on, he found his calling as a writer

Kristofferson was born in Brownsville, Texas to a military family; his father was a major general in the U.S. Air Force. It was there, at age 11, that he wrote his first song, titled “I Hate Your Ugly Face.” (He included that number as a bonus track on one of his last albums, Closer to the Bone, in 2009.)

At Pomona College in southern California, Kristofferson majored in creative literature. His many diverse talents drew the attention of Sports Illustrated, which highlighted him as one of its “Faces in the Crowd” in 1954. “This dashing young man,” the magazine trumpeted, not only played rugby and varsity football and was a Golden Gloves boxer; he was also sports editor of the college paper, a folk singer, an award-winning writer and an “outstanding” ROTC cadet.

From Pomona, Kristofferson won a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University, where he dove into the works of Shakespeare and William Blake.

In a 1999 interview with NPR’s Morning Edition, he explained that Blake “was a wonderful example for somebody who wanted to be an artist, because he believed if you were cut out to be one, it was your moral responsibility to be one, or you’d be haunted throughout your life and after death — ’til eternity!”

Perhaps inspired by Blake’s admonition, Kristofferson harbored dreams of writing the Great American Novel. Instead, after Oxford he followed his father into the military, joining the U.S. Army, where he became a helicopter pilot and attained the rank of Captain. Assigned to teach literature at West Point, Kristofferson decided to ditch the Army, and he moved to Nashville to pursue his dream of songwriting.

For that choice, he was disowned by his parents. “They thought that somewhere between Oxford and the Army I had gone crazy,” Kristofferson told Pomona College Magazine in 2004. “My mother said nobody over 14 listens to that kind of stuff anyway…. But I was more and more determined to go that way. And being virtually disowned was kind of liberating for me, because I had nothing left to lose.”

From janitor to hit songwriter

Arriving in Nashville in 1965, Kristofferson got a job as a janitor at Columbia Studios, sweeping floors and emptying ashtrays, while writing songs on the side.

He often compared the creative ferment of Nashville in the ’60s to that of Paris in the ’20s. “When I got there,” he said in the 1999 Fresh Air interview, “it was so different from any life that I’d been in before; just hanging out with these people who stayed up for three or four days at a time, and nights, and were writing songs all the time.”

“I think I wrote four songs during the first week I was there,” he continued. “And it was just so exciting to me. It was like a lifeboat, you know? It was like my salvation.”

The story goes that Kristofferson was so desperate to get his songs into the hands of Johnny Cash that he landed a helicopter on Cash’s lawn. In the version Cash used to tell, Kristofferson emerged with a tape in one hand and a beer in the other.

“It’s a great story, and a story that good needs to be believed, even if it’s not true,” quips musician Rodney Crowell, who became Cash’s son-in-law when he married Rosanne Cash. “But, you know, according to John, that literally happened.”

Johnny Cash would turn out to be instrumental in launching Kristofferson’s career, introducing him at the 1969 Newport Folk Festival and inviting him to perform on his television variety show.

His songs were like short stories

Rodney Crowell was one of many young songwriters who were drawn to Nashville by the beacon of Kristofferson’s success. “Because of Kris Kristofferson, a lot of songwriters came into Nashville, came in droves. And I was part of that wave,” he tells NPR.

What set Kristofferson’s music apart, Crowell says, was the way he wove a story and sustained a narrative through his songs. Take “Sunday Morning Coming Down,” for example — a vivid portrait of bleak, hungover loneliness. Crowell calls the song “a beautifully-written short story.”

“Well I woke up Sunday morning with no way to hold my head that didn’t hurt
And the beer I had for breakfast wasn’t bad, so I had one more for dessert
Then I fumbled through my closet for my clothes and found my cleanest dirty shirt
And I shaved my face and combed my hair and stumbled down the stairs to meet the day”

In the world of Nashville songwriters, lyrics like this were a revelation. “Along comes Kris, a Rhodes Scholar with a high IQ and a very poetic sensibility,” Crowell says. “Kris brought it. He brought it in a big way.”

Musician Steve Earle recalls that when he first heard “Sunday Morning Coming Down” as a teenager in Texas, it made such an impact that he rushed out to buy Kristofferson’s first two records.

“The imagery and the use of language is just being cranked up to a level higher than really anything that came before in country music, for sure,” Earle says.

Kristofferson, he says, “raised the bar single-handedly in country music lyrically to a place that writers are still aspiring to, and I still aspire to, to this day.“

He was a master of seduction, in song and on screen

For Nashville, Kristofferson’s 1970 song of naked, unapologetic desire, “Help Me Make It Through the Night,” was nothing short of revolutionary. “It was earth-shaking, and a paradigm shift,” Crowell says. “It is literally a form of seduction. It’s silver-tongue seduction.”

“Take the ribbon from your hair
Shake it loose and let it fall
Layin’ soft upon my skin
Like the shadows on the wall
Come and lay down by my side
‘Til the early morning light
All I’m takin’ is your time
Help me make it through the night”

“There’s a description of intimacy in it that probably had never existed before,” Earle says. “And of course, when other people, lesser songwriters, tried to do it, it became smut.”

In person and on the screen, Kristofferson was magnetic: movie-star gorgeous, with a roguish grin and electric blue eyes.

“Women loved him, you know? I mean, absolutely fell over,” Crowell says. “He was a sex symbol and a rock star.”

For a young, eager musician like Crowell, Kristofferson offered an intoxicating role model.

“It was like, ‘Hmm, I want to be like that,'” Crowell says. “I was like, ‘How do you do that? How do you have that kind of swagger?'”

Kristofferson brought that same sensual swagger to his movie roles over his decades-long career. He starred in films including Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, A Star Is Born, Semi-Tough, Heaven’s Gate and Lone Star, working with directors Sam Peckinpah, Martin Scorsese, Alan Rudolph and John Sayles, among others.

For a stretch in the 1980s and ’90s, Kristofferson was part of an occasional country outlaw supergroup, joining with Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson to form the Highwaymen. Recalling that time in an interview with the British magazine Classic Rock years later, he said, “I just wish I was more aware of how lucky I was to share a stage with those people. I had no idea that two of them [Cash and Jennings] would be done so soon. Hell, I was up there and I had all my heroes with me – these are guys whose ashtrays I used to clean. I’m kinda amazed I wasn’t more amazed.”

In the ’80s and ’90s, Kristofferson also embraced a number of leftist political causes. He protested nuclear testing in Nevada, and vocally opposed U.S. policy in Central America, making several trips to Nicaragua in support of the Sandinista government, and excoriating the U.S. backing of El Salvador’s military-led junta in that country’s brutal civil war. “I’m a songwriter,” he said in a 1988 Fresh Air interview, “but I’m also concerned with my fellow human beings. And I’m real concerned with the soul of my country.” His 1990 album, Third World Warrior, is filled with songs expressing his political views:

“Broken rules and dirty warriors spreading lies and secret funds
Can’t defeat the Campesino with their money and their guns
Cause he’s fighting for his future and his freedom and his sons
In the third world war”

Music connected him to memory

In his later years, Kristofferson suffered from profound memory loss, but he kept performing up until 2020. Among those he shared the stage with was Margo Price. “Without a doubt,” she says, “he still had all the same charisma and all the sex appeal, every time.”

On stage, Price says, Kristofferson could connect with his musical memories and “feel like he was himself…. There’s been times where I’ve got off stage with Kris and I’m like, ‘Great show, Kris!’ He’s like, ‘Oh, thanks. You know, I wish I could have been there!’ I mean, that was the powerful thing about seeing him perform his songs, was that he could remember songs he’d written so long ago, but yet not remember something from five minutes ago.”

In an interview with NPR in 2013, Kristofferson reflected on his life and career. At 76, he had just released an album titled Feeling Mortal.

“To my surprise,” he told Rachel Martin, “I feel nothing but gratitude for being this old, and still above ground, living with the people I love. I’ve had a life of all kinds of experiences, most of ’em good. I got eight kids and a wife that puts up with everything I do, and keeps me out of trouble.”

Kristofferson lived for many years on the island of Maui, in a home built high on the slope of the Haleakala volcano, with a panoramic view of the Pacific Ocean. He told an interviewer in 2015, “I’ve had so much blessing, so much reward for my life that I want to stay right where I am, which is on an island with no neighbors and 180 degrees of empty horizon. It’s a beautiful view.”

• Kris Kristofferson

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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:

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

TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS, Monday, (09/30/2024)

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

Printed PCB not working right with an arduino project. | All About Circuits

All About Circuits Forum

But that is where the problem started. When I tested the PCB using the external 12v battery, everything worked as it should. However, wiring it up to …

Kris Kristofferson, musical rebel and movie star, has died at age 88 – NPR

NPR

All Things Considered · Fresh Air · Up First. Featured. The NPR Politics … He protested nuclear testing in Nevada, and vocally opposed U.S. …

How Three Mile Island Could Launch a Nuclear Power Revival – Bloomberg News

Bloomberg News

The Three Big Things Driving the Nuclear Energy Revival. Why they’re … Help©2024 Bloomberg L.P. All Rights Reserved.

Nuclear Power

NEWS

Biden-Harris Administration Bringing Back Clean Nuclear Energy, Creating Clean Energy … – USDA

USDA

WASHINGTON, September 30, 2024 – As part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, the Biden-Harris Administration, through the U.S. …

5 Ways the U.S. Nuclear Energy Industry Is Evolving in 2024

Department of Energy

The nuclear energy landscape in the United States is changing rapidly as demand for clean firm power rises and the nation strives to meet its …

East Tennessee plant that processes radioactive nuclear fuel ‘safe’ after Helene floods

Knoxville News Sentinel

Nuclear Fuel Services, which processes highly enriched uranium for the Navy in Unicoi County, said its plant posed no risk after flooding.

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEWS

Emergency alarms go off around Ohio nuclear plant; here’s what happened – MSN

MSN

The emergency alarms started blaring around the Perry Nuclear Power Plant.

Team South Carolina Continues Response Efforts

South Carolina Emergency Management

Nuclear Power Plants · Hazardous Materials · Terrorism · Drought · Extreme Heat … Power and gas restoration, road clearing, emergency alerting, and …

The situation in the power grid is stable, due to shelling and bad weather, power outages in 8 regions

unn.ua

Emergencies. Dnipropetrovs’k region: a vehicle of a repair team was hit by a … zaporizhzhya-nuclear–power-plant Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

Nuclear War

NEWS

US and Ally Double Up Against North Korea Nuclear Submarine Threat – Newsweek

Newsweek

… warfare as the alliance strengthened their capabilities against North Korea’s nuclear attack submarine. Commander, Submarine Group 7 (CSG-7), a …

WW3 fears explode as Russia issues chilling nuke warning to the West – Daily Express

Daily Express

World War 3 fears have exploded once again after the Kremlin furiously blamed Western governments for its decision to amend its nuclear weapons …

Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant says Ukraine again attacks substation – Reuters

Reuters

The management of the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station said on Sunday that Ukrainian forces had launched a new attack on a nearby …

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

Putin Is ‘Afraid’ To Use Nuclear Weapons: Zelensky – Newsweek

Newsweek

Since the start of the full-scale Russia-Ukraine war, the Kremlin has repeatedly invoked the threat of nuclear warfare. … threats, calling them …

U.S. Hesitates: No Green Light for Ukraine’s Long-Range Strikes on Russia

The National Interest

Moscow once more raised hell, waving its nuclear threat stick. This time Russian threats had more success, and it took precious months before the West …

Russia changes nuclear doctrine: What happens now? – Anadolu Ajansı

Anadolu Ajansı

He pointed to the “rapidly changing military-political landscape” and the “emergence of new military threats and risks” as primary reasons for the …

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends

Lloyd A. Williams-Pendergraft

Sep 29, 2024

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Sergei Lavrov addresses the 79th United Nations general assembly in New York on Saturday. Photograph: Eduardo Muñoz/Reuters

LLAW’s NUCLEAR VIEWS, ISSUES & COMMENTS, Sunday, (09/29/2024)

There seems to be only one major “LLAW’s All Things Nuclear” story today and that is Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s speech at the United Nations. Here is the text from The Guardian via the Associated Press . Make of it what your will . . . llaw

Top Russia diplomat warns west not to fight ‘nuclear power’ in UN speech

Sergei Lavrov accuses west of using Ukraine ‘to defeat’ Russia days after Putin shifts Moscow’s nuclear posture

Associated Press

Sat 28 Sep 2024 14.57 EDT

Russia’s top diplomat warned on Saturday against “trying to fight to victory with a nuclear power”, delivering a UN general assembly speech packed with condemnations of what Russia sees as western machinations in Ukraine and elsewhere – including inside the United Nations itself.

Three days after Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, aired a shift in his country’s nuclear doctrine, his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, accused the west of using Ukraine – which Russia invaded in February 2022 – as a tool to try “to defeat” Moscow strategically, and “preparing Europe for it to also throw itself into this suicidal escapade”.

“I’m not going to talk here about the senselessness and the danger of the very idea of trying to fight to victory with a nuclear power, which is what Russia is,” he said.

The specter of nuclear threats and confrontation has hung over the war in Ukraine since its start. Shortly before the invasion, Putin reminded the world that his country was “one of the most powerful nuclear states”, and he put its nuclear forces on high alert shortly thereafter. His nuclear rhetoric has ramped up and toned down at various points since.

On Wednesday, Putin said that if attacked by any country supported by a nuclear-armed nation, Russia will consider that a joint attack.

He didn’t specify whether that would bring a nuclear response, but he stressed that Russia could use nuclear weapons in response to a conventional assault that posed a “critical threat to our sovereignty”.

The United States and the European Union called his statements “irresponsible”.

The new posture was seen as a message to the US and other western countries as Ukraine seeks their go-ahead to strike Russia with longer-range weapons. The Biden administration this week announced an additional $2.7bn in military aid for Ukraine, but it doesn’t include the type of long-range arms that Zelenskyy is seeking, nor a green light to use such weapons to strike deep into Russia.

There was no immediate response to Lavrov’s address from the US, which had a junior diplomat taking notes in its assembly seat as he spoke.

More than two-and-a-half years into the fighting, Russia is making slow but continuing gains in Ukraine’s east. Ukraine has repeatedly struck Russian territory with missiles and drones and embarrassed Moscow with an audacious incursion by troops in a border region last month.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has pushed what he calls a peace formula to end the war. Provisions include expelling all Russian forces from Ukraine, ensuring accountability for war crimes, freeing prisoners of war and deportees, and more.

Lavrov dismissed Zelenskyy’s formula as a “doomed ultimatum”.

Meanwhile, Brazil and China have been floating a peace plan that entails holding a peace conference with both Ukraine and Russia and not expanding the battlefield or otherwise escalating fighting. Chinese and Brazilian diplomats have been promoting the plan during the assembly and attracted a dozen other nations, mostly in Africa or Latin America, to join a group of “friends for peace” in Ukraine.

Lavrov said at a news conference on Saturday that Russia was ready to provide assistance and advice to the group, adding: “It’s important for their proposals to be underpinned by the realities and not just be taken from some abstract conversations.”

He said resolving the conflict hinges on fixing its “root causes” – what Moscow contends is the Kyiv government’s repression of Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine, and Nato’s expansion in eastern Europe over the years, which Russia sees as a threat to its security.

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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:

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

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

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

TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS, Sunday, (09/29/2024)

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

Top Russia diplomat warns west not to fight ‘nuclear power’ in UN speech – The Guardian

The Guardian

… Things have gotten really overwhelming’ · Remembering Maggie Smith: ‘Every day she and Judi would swim in their Victorian swimsuits and every day we …

Russia invokes its nuclear capacity in a UN speech that’s full of bile toward the West

Midland Reporter-Telegram

Lavrov accused the United States of seeking “to preserve their hegemony and to govern everything.” He pointed to NATO’s deepening relations with four …

Analyzing the Risk of Nuclear Conflict in Europe | OilPrice.com

Oil Price

… all-out nuclear war, “the living will envy the dead.” UNIDIR’s Podvig is cautious about revealing his own calculations. “I just try not to think about …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

Putin Aide’s Full UNGA Speech: Lavrov’s Nuclear Power Hint, Shames USA On Israel, Ukraine

YouTube

In his speech at the United Nations General Assembly, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov hinted at the importance of nuclear power in global …

Top Russia diplomat warns west not to fight ‘nuclear power‘ in UN speech – The Guardian

The Guardian

Sergei Lavrov accuses west of using Ukraine ‘to defeat’ Russia days after Putin shifts Moscow’s nuclear posture.

Russia’s Lavrov warns West against ‘fight to victory with a nuclear power‘

Yahoo News Canada

… fight to victory with a nuclear power.” Addressing the U.N. General Assembly, Lavrov took aim at backers of Ukraine who support Kyiv’s peace proposal.

Nuclear War

NEWS

Not Putin, This Europe Leader Threatens Nuclear Attack On NATO If… | Russia – YouTube

YouTube

said that nuclear weapons would be used as soon as NATO attacked his country. Lukashenko also made remarks on World War Three. Watch this video …

Russia to formalise revised nuclear doctrine in warning to the West – France 24

France 24

… attack backed by a nuclear power to be an attack by that nuclear power. Issued on: 29/09/2024 – 14:10. 1 min.

Analyzing the Risk of Nuclear Conflict in Europe | OilPrice.com

Oil Price

This article explores the potential consequences of a nuclear war in Europe, highlighting the vulnerability of the continent, the limitations of …

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

Chilling map shows areas in US most likely to be targeted by nuclear attack – Irish Star

Irish Star

The threat of nuclear war looms over parts of America as Russia’s … Despite threats, Vladimir Putin reassures that Russia won’t strike NATO …

Top Russia diplomat warns west not to fight ‘nuclear power’ in UN speech – The Guardian

The Guardian

The specter of nuclear threats and confrontation has hung over the war in Ukraine since its start. … nuclear-armed nation, Russia will consider that a …

Russia to formalise revised nuclear doctrine in warning to the West – France 24

France 24

… attack backed by a nuclear power to be an attack by that nuclear power. … Ukraine. Related content. Red lines. Putin’s nuclear threats: empty rhetoric ..

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity”

Lloyd A. Williams-Pendergraft

Sep 28, 2024

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Nighttime view of Three Mile Island nuclear power plant . . . shut down by partial meltdown in 1979 (See image credits in the Newsweek article below)

LLAW’s NUCLEAR VIEWS, ISSUES & COMMENTS, Saturday, (09/28/2024)

How on planet Earth can we continue to claim that nuclear energy is clean energy? It is without question the most filthy form of energy there is, and those who ignore that fact are intentionally leading the lemming-like human population astray. Those who are in responsible positions are creating a thumb-sucking pacifier for an unaware public everywhere all around the planet.

We are already in deep, deep, trouble with the disposal of nuclear waste that seems to have nowhere to go in the business of waste disposal so it goes nowhere, but it is the most dangerous waste product by far of all waste that should be dealt with as the highest of priorities rather than adding to and ignoring the already earth-threatening substances, including waste products like greenhouse gasses that we release into the air all day everyday. Nuclear energy will not save us from global warming/ climate change. It only increases our environmental threats. Meanwhile we store nuclear waste substances like plutonium and other radioactive waste that can remain life threatening dangerous for thousands of years. Yet they are stored, often in plain sight, at or near many existing and operating nuclear power plants and rather than protect ourselves from nuclear waste we want to create even more.

And as for rehabbing old nuclear power plants, they were shut down in their old age for a reason. The reason is that they no longer are deemed able to safely control radiation from escaping the confines of their reactors. But somehow, some way, our demand for more power for all kinds of industry including AI of all things, is out of control due to corporate greed and public consumption of never-ending new comfort products. The path we are on ends at a vertical cliff we are heading headlong over, into a bottomless pit that has no way out. ~llaw

U.S. Energy Secretary Highlights Nuclear Option for Climate Action

Published Sep 27, 2024 at 3:07 PM EDT

00:20

AI: Climate Hero or Villain? A Newsweek Horizons Event

By Jeff Young

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Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told Newsweek that her department is helping big tech and electric utility companies bring more nuclear power to the nation’s grid to meet the rapidly increasing energy demand for data centers.

“That is absolutely one of the pieces of the clean power solution that data centers should look at,” Granholm said in an interview Thursday during Climate Week NYC.

The boom in AI has triggered a massive expansion of bigger and more powerful data centers that consume enormous amounts of electricity. That growth challenges both big tech and power suppliers who want to meet new demand while reducing greenhouse gas emissions from their data operations and power generation facilities.

Despite ambitious climate objectives at many big tech companies, emissions from Google and Microsoft are rising due to AI’s growth.

Granholm cited a recent projection from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation showing a 15 percent increase in demand on the nation’s electric grid just from data centers. However, Granholm said the power demand from the tech sector also provides a chance to spur the development of more low-carbon energy sources, including nuclear.

“We don’t really view the rise of AI and data centers as a challenge or an anomaly, but really more of an opportunity,” she said. “It really is a chance to revitalize communities with data centers.”

Granholm said the Inflation Reduction Act includes incentives for the reuse of sites that were once used for fossil fuel generation, such as coal-fired power plants or coal mines that closed. Data center developers find those old heavy industry facilities attractive because they have the needed electric transmission infrastructure in place.

Similarly, she said, some nuclear power facilities that had closed for economic reasons are getting a fresh look.

“The existing nuclear sites—60 gigawatts worth of power, potentially—we think it’s a real opportunity for communities and it’s an opportunity for improved grid management,” Granholm said.

Read more Climate Change

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• Sam Altman-Backed Nuclear Startup Gets Greenlight for First Microreactor
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Renewable energy sources are growing dramatically but the intermittent supply of wind and solar power does not always match times when electricity is in high demand, a challenge for grid managers. Nuclear power’s advantage is that it provides a reliable baseload of energy, she said.

Granholm said the DOE is developing new nuclear technology while reviving older facilities as well. Nuclear plants in Michigan and Pennsylvania that closed years ago could be coming back online in the coming years, due in part to the way data center demand is changing the economics of electricity. Granholm said the DOE is working to get those idled reactors running again.

“We have a golden nuclear regulatory regime in this country, and we know we can do it safely,” Granholm said.

Climate Week Panel on AI and Energy

The twin issues of AI and nuclear power were recurring themes this week at gatherings and announcements during Climate Week NYC, including an event Newsweek hosted Wednesday evening.

The panel discussion event, sponsored by Kia, “AI: Climate Hero or Climate Villain?”, featured experts from big tech, the power industry, philanthropy and academia exploring both AI’s promise to help solve energy problems and the challenge of powering data centers.

Microsoft VP for Energy Bobby Hollis told the audience about his company’s announcement last week to purchase more than 800 megawatts of nuclear power from the energy company Constellation. The agreement could allow Constellation to restart a closed reactor at what is probably the country’s best-known nuclear facility, Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania.

“We’re hoping there will be a nuclear resurgence,” Hollis told the audience at Newsweek‘s New York headquarters.

“AI has accelerated and increased the need for carbon-free energy, so that requires us to look outside the box,” Hollis said.

In 1979, Three Mile Island was the scene of the most serious accident in U.S. nuclear power history when the facility’s Unit 2 reactor partially melted down. The facility’s other reactor was unaffected and stayed in operation until it closed in 2019.

Duke Energy Managing Director of ESG & Sustainability Heather Quinley said her company, which serves 8.4 million electricity customers in the southeast and Midwest, is looking to new nuclear power as part of its path to cleaner electricity.

She said power demand is growing rapidly in the region Duke serves.

“We’re seeing significant load growth from data centers and advanced manufacturing,” Quinley told the audience, adding that data centers will account for 25 percent of new projects Duke will power.

Duke entered an “Accelerating Clean Energy” memorandum of understanding this year with Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Nucor, a steelmaking company, to develop nuclear and renewable clean energy, on-site generation for those large-scale energy consumers.

Shifting Attitudes on Nuclear Power

Granholm said the Microsoft agreement to restart a reactor at Three Mile Island is an example of shifting attitudes on nuclear power. The accident in 1979 elevated public anxiety about health and safety risks and opposition to nuclear power became a central tenet of environmental activism.

The climate crisis, however, has forced a reconsideration of nuclear power’s role to decarbonize our energy supply and reduce the greenhouse gases warming the planet.

“If you look at public opinion polls, there seems to be a greater acceptance of nuclear today than there has been in the past, and I’m very encouraged by that,” Granholm said.

A coming generation of new, smaller nuclear reactors will offer more flexibility for how and where those units are put to use, she said, and the DOE national laboratories are leading research on a completely different type of nuclear power, nuclear fusion.

Unlike fission—the splitting of uranium or plutonium atoms to release power—fusion occurs when two atoms slam together to form a heavier one. Fusion reactions hold the promise of enormous clean energy production but require high pressure and temperature to join the nuclei together.

DOE scientists achieved breakthroughs with fusion in the laboratory in 2021 and 2022 and Granholm said fusion energy could become reality sooner than many had expected. She said that President Joe Biden has set a “decadal vision” for the first commercial fusion plant.

“There’s a couple of companies that are really leaning in with a lot of investment support from the private sector,” she added. “So, it might even be sooner than that.”

Granholm said that with the advances in nuclear power and the rapid growth of renewable energy sources she is optimistic about the country’s ability to produce power while also meeting climate targets.

“This year we will add 60 gigawatts of clean power onto the grid,” Granholm said. “So, we will be able to meet that demand.”

---

Subscribed

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:

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

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

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

TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS, Saturday, (09/28/2024)

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

Chappell Roan drops out of All Things Go music festival: ‘Things have gotten overwhelming’

Laredo Morning Times

Russian President Vladimir Putin threatens nuclear retaliation as the U.S. sends $8… Laredo proclaims October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month and …

Chappell Roan cancels US festival appearance: ‘Things have gotten really overwhelming’

The Guardian

Rising star pulls out of All Things Go festival in DC and New York City this weekend citing need to prioritise her health.

Japan’s new PM promises to bring continuity and changes to dealings with U.S. – KSMU

KSMU

All Things Considered. Next Up: 7:00 PM Classical 24. 0:00. 0:00. All … nuclear crisis and the Fukushima earthquake and nuclear disaster. See …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

How Difficult Is it to Expand Nuclear Power in the World? | Column | Renewable Energy Institute

自然エネルギー財団

While discussing the next Strategic Energy Plan, the Japanese Government actively promotes the idea to maximize the use of nuclear power for …

NBC News – The planned restart of Three Mile Island is a… | Facebook – Facebook

Full Coverage

Major U.S. power companies shut units in wake of storm – Reuters

Reuters

Southern Company also reduced output from another nuclear reactor at its Edwin I. Hatch Nuclear Power Plant in Georgia after the storm damaged the …

U.S. Energy Secretary Highlights Nuclear Option for Climate Action – Newsweek

Newsweek

In a Newsweek interview, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said reviving old nuclear reactors and developing new ones is vital for a clean energy …

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEWS

DisasterCon Highlights Past Emergencies & Lessons Learned for Future Planning

Redheaded Blackbelt

For more information on local emergencies and resources how to prepare for an emergency … Humboldt’s Energy Agency May Accept Nuclear Power at Its …

The presence of IAEA inspectors at key substations for nuclear power plants may deter RF …

112

Russia may be deterred from attacking nuclear facilities due to the decision to extend IAEA monitoring missions to main substations that affect …

Hurricane Helene: At least 30 dead as US president approves emergency support

More Radio

It generated a massive storm surge and knocked out power to millions of customers in Florida and neighbouring states. Emergency crews are racing …

Nuclear War

NEWS

Putin revises his nuclear doctrine, but have his red lines shifted? – CNN

CNN

… nuclear state as a “joint attack against the Russian Federation.” … Moscow has been making not-so-veiled nuclear threats throughout its war in Ukraine …

Putin’s nuclear threats: empty rhetoric or a shift in battlefield strategy? – France 24

France 24

President Vladimir Putin made a chilling declaration this week when he proposed changes to Russia’s nuclear war policies.

Nuclear attack warning as Putin sidekick issues dire threat to West: ‘Here’s our red line’

Daily Express

Alexander Lukashenko said any attack using conventional weapons on his country or Russia will trigger a devastating response.

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

Putin’s nuclear threats: empty rhetoric or a shift in battlefield strategy? – France 24

France 24

President Vladimir Putin made a chilling declaration this week when he proposed changes to Russia’s nuclear war policies … Putin’s nuclear threats: …

Putin’s nuclear threats display his weakness and failure as Russian leader | World in 10

YouTube

… nuclear weapons.” Putin’s shallow threats of nuclear war display a “grave weakness and a failure” on behalf of the Russian leader, says The .

Commentary: Putin’s nuclear doctrine isn’t his worst threat – CNA

CNA

Russia’s nuclear threats have been tested as the US and its European … Russia Vladimir Putin Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy nuclear war 

Yellowstone Caldera

NEWS

Safety first when building roads and bridges in Yellowstone National Park

Bozeman Daily Chronicle

Michael Loya & Ken Sims Yellowstone Caldera Chronicles; Sep 27, 2024; 21 … YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK — As you drive through Yellowstone …

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity”

Lloyd A. Williams-Pendergraft

Sep 27, 2024

1

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Former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, arrives to speak about the tax code and manufacturing at the Johnny Mercer Theatre Civic Center on Tuesday in Savannah, Georgia. Evan Vucci/AP

LLAW’s NUCLEAR VIEWS, ISSUES & COMMENTS, Friday, (09/27/2024)

This article plainly points out that we humans have a made a huge mess of managing energy over the years, and that the situation is only going to get worse — especially if Trump, who operates solely on the a thoughtless ‘spur of the moment’ dimly lit path with no thought about the repercussions of taking the wrong way at every junction or even ignoring a critical emergency ‘detour’ sign.

The energy policy he will demand to use at his disposal is apparent and likely illegal. It will be based on a wartime-level exercise of presidential authority, which will only increase the surging difficulty and world-wide confusion of energy production, source, and use, which has recently become the most controversial and difficult issue for cooperative existence on planet Earth. Nuclear everything, including war and power generation, has become the vital issue, and those very serious related problems are not going to be resolved anytime soon. ~llaw

Because the 2024 election is only a few extremely nervous days away, I highly recommend this article sponsored by Politico . . .

What would a Trump 2.0 ‘energy emergency’ look like? History offers clues.

By Peter Behr | 09/27/2024 07:23 AM EDT

An expansive reading of Trump’s recent statements on energy implies a wartime-level exercise of presidential authority.

Former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, arrives to speak about the tax code and manufacturing at the Johnny Mercer Theatre Civic Center on Tuesday in Savannah, Georgia. Evan Vucci/AP

Officials under then-President Donald Trump had an idea for how to stop America’s aging coal and nuclear plants from closing: Call the closures a threat to national security.

Under the 2018 plan, the Department of Energy would declare an “emergency” and use existing authority to order utilities to buy two years’ worth of power from coal and nuclear generators most at risk of shutting down.

Marked “Privileged & Confidential,” the memo dated May 29 set up a planned meeting a few days later inside the National Security Council.

The White House confirmed that Trump wanted the policy. But when the memo leaked, it hit like a ton of bricks. Free market Republicans saw the rescue plan for dozens of older, smaller, money-losing coal plants as just the kind of heavy-handed federal intrusion they stood against. Trump’s policy would put White House executive authority behind coal-burners in competition with cheaper power from natural gas and cleaner sources such as solar and wind energy.

The policy met with objections from staff inside the White House and Trump finally abandoned it, sources said at the time.

Six years later, Trump the candidate — vowing to reverse parts of President Joe Biden’s largest-ever federal investment in clean energy — is again reviving the idea of declaring an “energy emergency” and using a second Trump presidency to expand fossil fuel power generation. This time, it’s to keep up with the competition.

“We will build new power plants,” he said during a stop in Savannah, Georgia, this week. “China is already building plants, electric plants, and we have a problem because we have things called environmental impact statements and various things that you have to go through. I will get them approved so fast.”

In various forms under negotiation on Capitol Hill, speedier permits for energy projects already have bipartisan support. But the prospect that Trump would take an approach similar to his plan in 2018 to intervene directly in the workings of the nation’s complex system of electricity markets is raising new questions.

Starting early this summer, the Trump campaign locked onto rising electricity prices as a problem to pin on Biden’s economic policy. He promised to cut energy costs in half inside of a year from taking office. And he’s promising to do so as Silicon Valley’s cloud computing giants and U.S. industrial growth demand more power from the grid.

In New York City this month, Trump applied the national emergency idea to oil and gas production. It is time to “drill, baby, drill” to exploit the “liquid gold” of the nation’s hydrocarbon deposits, Trump declared, as he mocked Democrats’ warnings about the planet-warming carbon emissions from coal, oil and natural gas.

Under Biden, money and policies have tilted markets toward making plans for a more dramatic shift to clean energy. Coal accounts for just about 16 percent of U.S. generation today. Natural gas is now the dominant source of electricity, and solar power and battery storage are growing rapidly.

For oil’s part, the United States is producing record volumes, even as auto companies pump billions of dollars into electric vehicle technology that would make Americans less dependent on the fuel.

‘We will build new power plants’

No U.S. president has said that “we will build new power plants” in the way Trump did since Franklin Roosevelt pushed the Tennessee Valley Authority Act through Congress in 1933 to bring economic development and flood control to blighted counties in southern Appalachia during the Great Depression.

Trump’s campaign staff did not reply to requests for details about the former president’s plans, beginning with whether “we” means Republicans in Washington, the power industry, the American people, or Trump himself.

Coupled with his pledges to open the taps further on U.S. gas and oil production and create new tax subsidies for manufacturers to build on public land (potentially powered with new streams of natural gas), an expansive reading of Trump’s brief statement implies .

Could Trump do it with a win Nov. 5 and the backing of new majorities in the House and Senate that he led to victory?

In theory, he would have to get GOP leaders to suspend the filibuster rule, create new laws to build power plants on public lands and subsidize gas-fired generation, and gut clean air rules and other environmental protections.

The electricity from Trump’s new power plants would most likely require thousands of miles of new high-voltage lines across state lines that now are watchfully guarded by governors.

“It would be the most aggressive building program [on] energy since TVA,” said Mike McKenna, a veteran Washington energy lobbyist who was a deputy assistant to the president for legislative affairs in the Trump White House.

Trump would have to activate an aggressive use of federal eminent domain to override state objections to building new power lines and gas pipelines, rewrite the Federal Power Act and challenge nearly a century of complex regulatory rulings tested by judges all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“I’m not sure of the details, but it fits right in with his approach to economic development — lower taxes, less regulation, more and less expensive energy,” McKenna said. “Given the data center demand, we are going to need more power plants and pipelines.”

Nearly half of the states, mostly run by Democratic governors, support federal action to dramatically shrink power plant greenhouse gas emissions in the next two decades. Some of the goals are written into statutes. Trump’s vision would surely doom effective federal action against extreme weather catastrophes from a hotter planet, according to scientific consensus.

Today, nearly all of the largest utilities in the Edison Electric Institute have long-term climate action goals.

TVA never lived up to the hopes of Roosevelt and progressives for public power that would create a “yardstick” for fair and competitive electricity prices in response to the power of huge U.S. utility holding companies, historians agree. But it was an enormous act of governmental authority that was furiously opposed by conservative Republicans and the power industry, led by utility executive Wendell Willkie, who became FDR’s 1940 presidential opponent.

The full exercise of presidential power over the electric power, gas, coal and oil sectors did not come into Roosevelt’s control until Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, launching the U.S. into World War II.

Short of war, however, the law still gives the president executive authority to intervene in the energy economy under other scenarios.

Action on ‘Day 1’

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, is no stranger to the politics of presidential emergency declarations.

Climate hawks in Congress and environmental groups that helped elect Biden and Harris in 2020 have pushed for a “climate emergency” declaration. Nothing like it has ever been tried. But in theory it would open up powers to slash oil exports, or boost factory orders for clean energy technology or direct more zero-carbon energy production.

“I have continuously preached the need for a climate emergency; I tried to get Biden to do it on Day 1; I‘d love for Kamala to do it on Day 1,” Oregon Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley said. “But I don’t think that’s what she’s focused on right now.”

Biden and Harris have made no suggestion they think an emergency declaration to address climate change is on the table.

The only public clues to where Trump stands on the question of emergency authority go back to his presidency.

Trump took office in 2017 promising to help out “my coal miners” as thanks to voters in Pennsylvania and parts of the Midwest and mountain states. After meeting with a coal and a utility executive shortly after his inauguration, Trump reportedly gave orders that a senior White House official should “do whatever these two want,” according to the late Robert Murray, who was chief executive of Murray Energy Corp.

“The Trump administration’s efforts to bail out aging and uncompetitive baseload plants, particularly those powered by coal, began almost immediately,” noted Ari Peskoe, director of the Electricity Law Initiative at Harvard Law School, and Sharon Jacobs, a Berkeley School of Law professor, in a 2019 paper.

The first attempt was a request from former Energy Secretary Rick Perry to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to tilt power markets toward coal. When the commission with appointees from both parties unanimously opposed the secretary’s idea, Perry’s policy staff looked to executive authority.

The 2018 memo to Trump and his national security team said emergency powers could be invoked under section 202(c) of the 1935 Federal Power Act. Congress strengthened the authority in 2015.

The section grants broad powers to order the production or delivery of power “to serve the public interest” if electricity shortages are deemed an emergency by the secretary of Energy. Under those conditions, power plants can run at maximum capacity and out of compliance with pollution limits.

The first use of the authority came in 1941, when the government ordered Florida Power & Light to keep power plants running as a massive military and industrial buildup began six months before the Pearl Harbor attack, according to an analysis by Harvard Law School graduate Benjamin Rolsma, scheduled for publication in the Connecticut Law Review.

The authority has been used sparingly since the end of the war. During Biden’s presidency, DOE authorized grid operators to max out generation as heat ravaged California and as extreme weather conditions shut down power plants in the eastern U.S. and in Texas.

‘Keeps me up at night’

A Trump victory in November could write a new chapter for the authority.

“Section 202(c) explicitly mentions wartime emergencies, but its limits are unclear,” said Travis Fisher, an economist at the Cato Institute and a former DOE official who helped develop Trump administration policies on electricity.

The Trump administration’s DOE policy memo from 2018 argued that DOE authority was designed “not merely to react to actual disasters, but to act in a preventative manner.”

“The statute provides that the DOE could, upon its own motion, with or without notice, determine an emergency exists based on energy shortages or other causes,” Fisher told POLITICO’s E&E News. “The idea that the DOE could invoke 202(c) and create a new national energy policy out of an alleged emergency keeps me up at night.”

Fisher said struggling nuclear plants might be best positioned to lobby Congress or the administration for more support.

“A blanket 202(c) order — premised on either a climate or national security emergency — could keep every existing nuclear reactor operating. I strongly disagree with using 202(c) in that fashion, but I could imagine either party doing it,” Fisher said.

Rolsma described a different scenario: “Section 202(c)’s role is set to expand,” Rolsma wrote. “Climate change and the ongoing energy transition, by disrupting the way the electrical grid has historically operated, will ratchet up the pressure” for its use.

Because the electric grid will rely on coal and gas for years to come, the emergency authority could also get a new life if Harris wins. Biden’s EPA has adopted the Federal Power Act section as a safety valve that could keep some fossil plants open to assure grid reliability while others are forced to capture and dispose of their carbon emissions or shut down.

Along with its repeated warning about a shrinking electric power reserve supply, the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC), the interstate grid’s security monitor, has urged that the 202(c) authority be used to keep particular fossil plants running when essential to keep the lights on.

“The big question is, are you going to use this tool surgically or try to pursue it more broadly?” said Devin Hartman, director of energy and environmental policy at the libertarian R Street Institute.

“The more this strays from the underlying identification of reliability needs, the more suspect it will be legally,” he said, “and the worst type of policy it will be. So you really have to contain and use these things sparingly.”

---

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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:

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

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

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

TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS, Friday, (09/27/2024)

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

Conversation with the NATO Secretary General at the Council on Foreign Relations, 26-Sep.

NATO

And NATO Allies and the United States and also all the nuclear powers, France and the United Kingdom have delivered weapons to Ukraine before the full …

Fear, hope among mixed reactions as Three Mile Island plans to restart | 90.5 WESA

90.5 WESA

Care about the environment? Sign up for our newsletter and we’ll send you Pittsburgh’s top news, every weekday morning. · ‘Nuclear is not the answer’.

Nuclear Power

NEWS

Plans For Nuclear Power Expansion | Sept. 26, 2024 | News 19 at 5 p.m. – YouTube

YouTube

A bill moving through Congress could lead to a new future for the Bellefonte Nuclear Plant Site in Jackson County. News 19 is North Alabama’s News …

America’s coal communities could help the U.S. triple nuclear power – CNBC

CNBC

Power plant restarts like Three Mile Island represent only a fraction of the nuclear energy the U.S. needs in the coming decades, …

Chinese officials cover up sinking of country’s newest nuclear–powered submarine tied to a pier

Fox News

A senior U.S. Defense official said it was no surprise China covered up that its first nuclear–powered Zhou-class submarine sank while attached to …

Chinese nuclear–powered submarine sank this year, US official says | Reuters – Reuters

Full Coverage

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEWS

What would a Trump 2.0 ‘energy emergency‘ look like? History offers clues. – E&E News

E&E News

Officials under then-President Donald Trump had an idea for how to stop America’s aging coal and nuclear plants from closing: Call the closures a …

Is NuScale Power a Millionaire Maker? – The Globe and Mail

The Globe and Mail

Small modular reactors are an exciting technological advancement in nuclear power generation that could change how we use nuclear energy. SMRs can …

Nuclear War

NEWS

Putin draws a nuclear red line for the West | Reuters

Reuters

President Vladimir Putin has drawn a “red line” for the United States and its allies by signalling that Moscow will consider responding with …

Putin draws a nuclear red line for the West – USA Today

USA Today

… nuclear war,'” said Nikolai Sokov, a former Soviet and Russian diplomat. Bahram Ghiassee, a London-based nuclear analyst at the Henry Jackson …

More Empty Threats? Putin Amends Nuclear Doctrine | UACRISIS.ORG

uacrisis.org

Matt Wickham UCMC Analyst Putin has called for amendments to Russia’s nuclear doctrine, again stoking fear in the West of an all out nuclear war, …

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

Putin Has Redrawn His Nuclear Red Line. How Will NATO Respond? – Newsweek

Newsweek

During a televised meeting of Russia’s Security Council, Putin said an attack that poses a critical threat to the sovereignty of Russia could be …

Putin revises his nuclear doctrine, but have his red lines shifted? – CNN

CNN

Moscow has been making not-so-veiled nuclear threats throughout its war in Ukraine. Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images. The bottom line for changes to …

Putin will keep escalating his nuclear blackmail until it stops working – Atlantic Council

Atlantic Council

Report launch | Russia’s war on Ukraine: Moscow’s pressure points and US strategic opportunities · Crisis Management Defense Policy Disinformation 

Yellowstone Caldera

NEWS

Here’s how officials put safety first when building roads and bridges in Yellowstone National Park

Idaho Capital Sun

Yellowstone Caldera Chronicles is a weekly column written by scientists and collaborators of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. SUPPORT NEWS …

Search continues for a missing Minnesota native in Yellowstone National Park | State News

KXRA

Tags. Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem · Yellowstone Caldera · Yellowstone National Park · Yellowstone Falls · Outline Of Yellowstone National Park …

Lack of food — not money — drives poaching in East African national parks, study finds

ScienceDaily

Yellowstone Caldera. Story Source: Materials provided by Penn State. Original written by Aaron Wagner. Note: Content may be edited for style and …

IAEA Weekly News

27 September 2024

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

27 September 2024

IAEA Director General at UN Summit of the Future and General Assembly

IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi attended the UN Summit of the Future with world leaders in New York this week and addressed its Plenary meeting. The Summit adopted a “Pact for the Future” designed to improve the present and build a better future. Read more →

26 September 2024

IAEA Assistance Helps Liberia Avert Radiological Emergency

Liberia has moved to fast track its accession to nuclear safety treaties, after IAEA experts helped prevent a radiological incident from shutting down the country’s main hospital. Read more →

24 September 2024

IAEA, Honduras and Japan join forces to strengthen Cancer Care Access through Rays of Hope

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Government of Honduras and the Government of Japan have joined forces to expand radiotherapy services and improve cancer care in the Republic of Honduras under the IAEA’s flagship Rays of Hope initiative. Read more →

24 September 2024

IAEA Profile: Fuelling Success – Gloria Kwong’s Path to Decommissioning and Environmental Remediation

“I want to contribute to narrowing the energy equity gap to ensure more people can access affordable, sustainable and clean energy,” says Gloria Kwong reflecting on her work at the IAEA. Read more →

23 September 2024

IAEA Board of Governors Elects New Chairperson for 2024-2025

The IAEA Board of Governors elected Ambassador Philbert Abaka Johnson as the Chairperson of the IAEA’s Board of Governors for 2024–2025. Read more →

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity”

Lloyd A. Williams-Pendergraft

Sep 26, 2024

1

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TerraPower begins SMR nuclear plant construction south of Kemmerer, Wyoming

LLAW’s NUCLEAR VIEWS, ISSUES & COMMENTS, Thursday, (09/26/2024)

The following story is not in this edition of TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS, but I am posting it here this evening because it caught my attention because I began my career in the nuclear/uranium industry in the fall of 1969 as an accountant at the largest uranium mine in the state. I have many questions about the reality of all of the glamour and hope being poured into the state with the speculation involving Bill Gate’s experimental SMR (Small Nuclear Reactor)Terra Power near Kemmerer along with the much hoped for rebirth of profitable uranium mining in Wyoming (or anywhere else for that matter). Cheap, high-grade, uranium ore has been used up long ago and the lower the ore grade, the more expensive it is to mine, mill, and refine. So not only is the end-product extremely dangerous it is extremely expensive, and the costs will continue to grow so long as the nuclear power industry exists.

Then too, the entire nuclear industry seems to have forgotten or ignored the fact that uranium is not a renewable fuel, but rather a rare mineral element mined and milled (and enriched) product that is very expensive to produce and fuel nuclear reactors. It is more rare as a an energy producing product than coal, oil, natural gas, or any other of the usual fuels used for producing power —therefore extremely expensive to produce and therefore more expensive to the end user such as your local power company. It is also a non-renewable product like other fossil fuels of course, and herein lies the crux of the problem. Uranium will never resolve the global warming/climate change problem.

So at least some of the newly-designed future SMR plants, e.g. TerraPower, eventually hope to use fuel produced from what has always been considered as an ore far too low-grade rare earth element called thorium in order to have a sufficient quantity of fuel to operate for the foreseeable future. But at what price? Uranium has bounced between $100 and $70 a pound recently. and low-grade uranium and/or thorium will drive the price per pound well into the hundreds and even thousands of dollars per pound range. When I began my career in 1969 uranium yellowcake (or U3O8) was $8 per pound, and thorium was never considered economic to mine and, and probably, if the industry had any sense of practical economics, never will be.

So the most important question, other than the deadly danger of human and other life’s man-caused 6th Extinction from all nuclear fuel products like nuclear bombs and nuclear reactors, will be what happens if we blindly continue on this path? Given the unlikely event of an accident-free, or war-free, or terrorism-free lifetimes of use all around the world is this one — is there enough economic uranium to go around as the industry experiences it’s much sought-after rebirth, and if so, for how long? The answer is a resounding, “No!” ~llaw

Texas-Based Uranium Energy Buys Wyoming Processing Plant For $175 Million

Texas-based Uranium Energy Corp. is making yet another acquisition in Wyoming, snapping up the state’s only conventional uranium mill for $175 million. The move sets it up to be the largest domestic producer of uranium.

Renée Jean

September 24, 20245 min read

Texas-based Uranium Energy was already North America’s largest uranium-focused company with several Wyoming assets in play, but it’s about to get an even bigger Wyoming footprint with the $175 million acquisition of the Cowboy State’s only conventional uranium processing mill and its assets.

The mill, which is about 40 miles northwest of Rawlins, belonged to British-Australian company Rio Tinto, a global mining and metallurgy giant. The mill operated from 1981 to 1983, and has a licensed capacity of 4.1 million pounds of yellowcake refined uranium per year, or 3,000 tons per day.

The purchase includes around 175 million pounds of existing uranium resources, ready and waiting to be captured.

Taken in concert with Uranium Energy’s 20 or so other sites in Wyoming, this is a move that further solidifies the state’s groundbreaking position as ground zero for an innovative nuclear energy renaissance.

Not only are resources set to be mined here, but used here as well. Bill Gates-backed TerraPower has already started constructing its proposed Natrium nuclear plant in Kemmerer, while Wyoming awarded a two-year contract to nuclear submarine power plant maker BWXT to examine the feasibility of deploying 50 MW micro-reactors.

“These are exciting times for the Wyoming uranium industry, and we’re on the edge of another boom,” Wyoming Mining Association Executive Director Travis Deti told Cowboy State Daily. “What we’re seeing today is a growing interest in reliability. Fossil fuels and nuclear power fueled by Wyoming uranium are going to be critical to meet the projected increased electricity demand to power the growth in artificial intelligence and data centers in the very near future.

“And when you’re talking about emissions, nuclear is really your best option to provide emission free power with necessary reliability. This is something wind and solar simply cannot do.”

When It Comes To Uranium, Wyoming Is King

Wyoming has the largest uranium reserves in the United States but, initially at least, TerraPower had told Cowboy State Daily it would likely have to source its uranium from Ohio or New Mexico.

Not long after that, however, Uranium Energy announced that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with the TerraPower nuclear plant that Bill Gates is building in Kemmerer to supply the 345 MW sodium-cooled fast reactor with uranium from Wyoming after all.

Some further processing of that yellowcake will be required, and that is still likely to take place outside of Wyoming — at least for now.

“There’s a converter in Illinois which is in the U.S., and there’s one in Canada and another one in France,” UEC’s Senior Vice President of U.S. Operations Brent Berg said. “So there, the product will go through the next stage of processing, and then it goes to an enrichment plant, where they enrich the Uranium 235 content.”

After that, it will be formed into pellets that could then return to Wyoming for use by the TerraPower nuclear plant.

Whether all of those additional processing steps could eventually happen in Wyoming wasn’t something Berg could comment about Tuesday.

“It would be great to have all of those things right in the state,” he acknowledged.

For now, the company is focused on a rapid restart of uranium production in Wyoming.

“This acquisition really provides some synergies with shared infrastructure as well as project personnel expertise that made a lot of sense for the company,” Berg said. “We recently restarted production at Christensen Ranch and Irigaray operations. This is just another tool in the toolbox that will be not only beneficial for UEC, but for Wyoming.”

Bolt-On Acquisitions Not Rocket Science

Given that these new acres from Rio Tinto are adjacent to areas UEC is already exploring, it wasn’t rocket science to pick up the property.

In addition to the bolt-on resources and the licensed uranium mill, the acquisition includes a database of more than 6 million feet of drilling for new projects.

“This allows us to really look at those properties in greater detail than we could have in the past,” Berg said.

While UEC has started some preliminary uranium production, the company is not yet ready to report production volumes yet. That’s something Berg said it anticipates doing closer to the end of the year.

But he does expect the company will have the greatest amount of uranium resource in the U.S., as well as the most licensed production capacity, positioning it to become the “leading uranium developer, not only in Wyoming, but in the United States.”

Given what Berg has seen lately — with even the mothballed 3 Mile Island coming back to life — he’s optimistic about what the future holds for both UEC and Wyoming, which has one of the world’s richest uranium deposits.

“I think more and more people are seeing nuclear power as clean base-load energy,” he said. “And I think it just makes a lot of sense for the United States.”

On Tuesday, uranium was trading for just over $79 per pound, down from a peak of more than $105 earlier this year.

---

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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:

1. All Things Nuclear
2. Nuclear Power
3. Nuclear Power Emergencies
4. Nuclear War
5. Nuclear War Threats
6. Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There is oneYellowstone Caldera bonus story available in this evening’s Post.)
7. IAEA Weekly News (Friday’s only)

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

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

TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS, Thursday, (09/26/2024)

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

AI Weekly: Microsoft goes nuclear, Meta gets glitzy | REUTERS – YouTube

YouTube

AI Weekly: Microsoft goes nuclear, Meta gets glitzy | REUTERS. 672 … All Things Secured•299K views · 6:35 · Go to channel · Why the U.S. Navy …

Local reaction has varied over the plan to reopen Three Mile Island nuclear plant – KUNC

KUNC

But now power demand is up all across the country, and that’s in part because of more demand from data centers used for things like artificial …

Local reaction has varied over the plan to reopen Three Mile Island nuclear plant | KSJD

KSJD

The retired Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania … All Things Considered. Next Up: 6:00 PM Stardust & Sagebrush. 0:00. 0:00.

Nuclear Power

NEWS

Nuclear energy: Not a lot of reaction – GIS Reports

GIS Reports

Nuclear power offers several undeniable advantages over renewable energy, particularly regarding the scale and reliability of electricity generation.

Nuclear Energy’s Resurgence Continues with Advanced Nuclear, Nuclear Plant Restart News

American Public Power Association

At the end of 2023, Holtec International said that it had started a program to build two small modular reactor units at the Palisades Nuclear Power …

Zelensky: Russia planning to attack nuclear plants – BBC

BBC

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has told the United Nations that Russia is planning deeper attacks on his country’s nuclear power plants, …

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEWS

Emergency drill held at Cook Tuesday | News/Talk/Sports 94.9 WSJM

WSJM

Staff at the Cook nuclear power plant took part in an emergency drill on Tuesday, simulating a hostile attack on the facility. Plant spokesperson …

Cook plant holds quarterly emergency drill | Moody on the Market

Moody on the Market

Staff at the Cook nuclear power plant took part in an emergency drill on Tuesday, simulating a hostile attack on the facility.

Alert: Russia’s Putin says that a nuclear power supporting another country’s attack on …

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

McCaw Hall, home of the Seattle Opera. Local News · Hearst Foundations award Emergency Food Network with grant · The …

Nuclear War

NEWS

Putin issues nuclear warning to the West over strikes on Russia from Ukraine – CNN

CNN

Russia’s current published nuclear doctrine, set out in a 2020 decree by Putin, says Russia may use nuclear weapons in case of a nuclear attack by an …

Putin issues nuclear warning to the West over strikes from Ukraine | Reuters

Reuters

Says conventional attack could lead to nuclear response. MOSCOW, Sept … War superpowers came closest to intentional nuclear war. Ukrainian …

Ukraine recap: Putin’s nuclear sabre-rattling becomes more ominous – The Conversation

The Conversation

In recent months, Vladimir Putin and his proxies have been foreshadowing a change in Russia’s nuclear doctrine. This is the set of rules that …

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

Putin issues nuclear warning to the West over strikes on Russia from Ukraine | Reuters

Reuters

… threats and risks for Russia. The 71-year-old Kremlin chief, the … War superpowers came to intentional nuclear war. Ukrainian President …

Putin expands Russia’s nuclear policy – The Washington Post

Washington Post

At a meeting with the Russian Security Council, Putin said that in light of an “emergence of new sources of military threats and risks for Russia and …

The world isn’t taking Putin’s nuclear threats seriously – the history of propaganda suggests it should

The Conversation

During the cold war, official propaganda placed great emphasis upon threat and preparedness for nuclear attack. … nuclear attack threats ought .

Yellowstone Caldera

NEWS

Hidden Treasures: How “Mysterious Magma” From Extinct Volcanoes Could Fuel the Tech of …

SciTechDaily

Related Articles. Kilauea’s Halema’uma’u Lava Lake At Highest Level · Predicting Future Explosions at the Yellowstone Caldera · Volcanic Eruption at …

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity”

Lloyd A. Williams-Pendergraft

Sep 25, 2024

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Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at U.N. Headquarters on 09/23/24 (Credits in Story)

LLAW’s NUCLEAR VIEWS, ISSUES & COMMENTS, Wednesday, (09/25/2024)

The following article from Newsweek contains no new detailed information, except for Zelenskyy’s appearance in the U.S. to update the United Nations and the United States on a first-hand, perhaps pleading, basis accenting the seriousness of the potential Russian attack on the Ukraine attack on their three nuclear power plants. I am wondering if the U.S. and NATO can come together with a plan to prevent a war-scale attack on the three plants in time to prevent Russia’s ultimate intent, whatever it is.

What is obvious to me is that both Russia and Ukraine know the terrible danger to a huge area of Ukraine and Europe should use these plants as all-out weapons of a genocide style nuclear war as has been implied several times before on prior destructive attacks, including destroying a dam for cooling-water provisions for the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, that has been attacked numerous times by the Russian military. (And by the way, the Zelenskyy name has two ‘y’s at the end.) ~llaw

By Brendan Cole

Senior News Reporter

Russia is seeking to target three Ukrainian nuclear power plants, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has told the United Nations.

In addressing the U.N. General Assembly, Zelensky warned that, if Vladimir Putin was prepared to resort to such a move, “it means nothing you value matters to Moscow.” Newsweek has contacted the Kremlin by email for comment on the claims.

The Ukrainian president did not specify which plants were under threat, but there are three operating nuclear power plants on Ukrainian-held territory. These are located in Rivne and Khmelnytskyi in the west and Pivdennoukrainsk in the south of the country.

The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe’s largest, has been under Russian control since March 2022 and is disconnected from Ukraine’s power grid, but its location in the middle of hostilities has sparked global concern.

Since the start of Putin’s full-scale invasion, the threat that the war in Ukraine could have a nuclear dimension has been expressed variously through threats by Kremlin propagandists and Moscow’s statements of its weapons capabilities.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on September 21 that possible targets for Russian forces included open distribution devices and transmission substations, which are crucial for the safe operation of nuclear infrastructure.

Separately, Zelensky had told ABC News that Russia was using Chinese satellites to photograph Ukraine’s nuclear sites, and added that “there is a threat of strikes against the nuclear objects.”

During his address to the U.N., Zelensky said that “this kind of Russian cynicism will keep striking if it’s given any room in the world,” adding that the U.N. Charter “leaves no room for that and that’s why the Peace Formula leaves no room either.”

Zelensky called on U.N. countries to support a second peace summit “to end the war” following the first event in June in which Russia did not attend.

Read more Russia-Ukraine War

• Forcing Russia Into Peace Is ‘Fatal Mistake’: Putin Ally
• Putin’s Military Spending Shows He Has No Plans To End War
• Volodymyr Zelensky’s Victory Plan for Ukraine: 3 Key Takeaways
• Putin Realizing That Nuclear Threats ‘Don’t Frighten Anyone’: Report

Zelensky is in the U.S. to tout his “victory plan,” which he has not clarified publicly but will present to President Joe Biden, U.S. Congress, and presidential contenders Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.

Anatol Lieven is director of the Eurasia Program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft think tank based in Washington, D.C. He told Newsweek that, for Zelensky, victory is defined as the withdrawal of Moscow’s forces from all the Ukrainian territory they now occupy.

“There is nothing in the existing, or feasible, balance of forces and resources between Ukraine and Russia to suggest that this is possible, even should greatly increased Western aid be forthcoming,” Lieven said.

However, Kyiv’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region showed that Ukraine was capable of counterattacks, and the territory it has captured was “a potential bargaining chip in future negotiations, not a harbinger of Ukrainian victory.”

Subscribed

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:

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

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

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

TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS, Wednesday, (09/25/2024)

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

The threat of nuclear war is higher than ever—why has it vanished from political campaigns?

WGLT

… nuclear war is as high as it’s ever been. Our new podcast … All Things Considered. Next Up: 5:00 PM WGLT’s Sound Ideas. 0:00. 0:00. All …

A push for compensation for U.S. nuclear testing fallout resumes on Capitol Hill

WCMU Public Radio

… nuclear testing programs … All Things Considered. Next Up: 6:00 PM American Routes. 0:00. 0:00. All …

A push for compensation for U.S. nuclear testing fallout resumes on Capitol Hill

Little Rock Public Radio

… nuclear testing programs … All Things Considered. Next Up: 6:00 PM Talk Business & Politics. 0:00. 0 …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

The AI Boom Is Raising Hopes of a Nuclear Comeback – WIRED

WIRED

Microsoft’s deal to bring back a Three Mile Island nuclear reactor is just one part of Big Tech’s quid pro quo with nuclear power.

Analysis-US nuclear plants won’t power up Big Tech’s AI ambitions right away – WHBL

WHBL

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Constellation Energy and Microsoft plan to restart the Three Mile Island nuclear plant, hoping they have scored a …

Nuclear Power Gains Momentum as Major Banks Back Its Role in Meeting Rising Energy Demands.

YouTube

Big banks are backing nuclear power as a vital energy source alongside renewables, driven by rising public support and growing energy demands.

Nuclear Power Gains Momentum as Major Banks Back Its Role in Meeting Rising Energy Demands. – CNBC

Full Coverage

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEWS

Sirens to be tested at Brunswick Nuclear Plant | Port City Daily

Port City Daily

… Emergency Alert System (EAS). However, if there were a legitimate emergency at the plant, local radio and television stations would broadcast …

SCEMD Tracking Tropical Storm Helene – South Carolina Emergency Management Division

South Carolina Emergency Management

Nuclear Power Plants · Hazardous Materials · Terrorism · Drought · Extreme Heat … page for information on preparing, responding, and recovering during …

U.S. government approves major BPES order – energynews

energynews

Hybrid Power Solutions receives a test order from a US organization for its Batt Pack Energy portable battery systems, a key solution for emergency …

Nuclear War

NEWS

Putin to Chair Meeting on Nuclear Deterrence, Kremlin Says – USNews.com

USNews.com

… War superpowers came closest to intentional nuclear war. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described Wednesday’s meeting as an important event …

The threat of nuclear war is higher than ever—why has it vanished from political campaigns?

WGLT

In the Sept. 10 presidential debate between candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, nuclear weapons were mentioned just once.

Putin says a nuclear nation supporting an attack on Russia can be considered an aggressor

ABC News – The Walt Disney Company

Russian President Vladimir Putin says that a nuclear power supporting another country’s attack on Russia will be considered a participant in …

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

North Korea Threatens US As Nuclear Submarine Surfaces in South – Newsweek

Newsweek

North Korea’s “nuclear war deterrent” would be “bolstered up both … nuclear threat and blackmail,” Kim Yo Jong claimed. She also stressed …

N. Korean leader’s sister vows to ‘limitlessly’ bolster nuclear war deterrent over U.S. submarine arrival

MSN

… nuclear war deterrent against what it called U.S. threats, denouncing the arrival of a U.S. nuclear-powered submarine in South Korea. The remark …

Zelensky Sounds Nuclear Alarm at UN – Newsweek

Newsweek

Newsweek has contacted the Kremlin by email for comment on the claims. The Ukrainian president did not specify which plants were under threat, but …

End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity”

Lloyd A. Williams-Pendergraft

Sep 24, 2024

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LLAW’s NUCLEAR VIEWS, ISSUES & COMMENTS, Tuesday, (09/24/2024)

So, this discussion spreads some light for the average non-military or political citizen’s knowledge on the remarkably indefinite finer points that quietly go far beyond the agreed upon weapons systems of the Ukraine, U.S, internal skirmish over what, when, why, and where Ukraine can expect help from the U.S., the United Kingdom, and NATO. All that along with the question of who should be our next U.S. president . . .

The depth of the issue is ultimately far greater than this discussion indicates, but I posted it this evening because the elements of it have serious implications concerning who our next president is. Kamala Harris, of course, will push to continue to support Ukraine’s democratic republic, while Trump is obviously against supporting not only our own or Ukraine’s form of government but also obviously on Russia’s side both militarily and politically.

In my book, that means that Trump, as many of us already clearly know, is a traitor to America and our form of government. Remember when he said that Putin was a ‘genius’ for invading Ukraine’ not so long ago? This goes far deeper than the words, and Trump’s actions should he be elected could well be the downfall of our government we like to refer to as, “by and for the People”, not to mention a nuclear WWIII. ~llaw

Weapons systems continue to be a sticking point between the U.S. and Ukraine

September 22, 20245:36 PM ET

Heard on All Things Considered

By 

Scott Detrow

, 

Tom Bowman

SCOTT DETROW, HOST:

Earlier today, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited an ammunition plant in Scranton, Pa. The plant produces some of the most vital pieces of equipment for Ukraine’s defense against Russia. Since the war began, the U.S. and its NATO allies have been slowly and incrementally providing military assistance to Ukraine. And in each step, the Biden administration has been cautious about both the weaponry and the training it supplied, hoping to prevent escalating the war that Russia started.

This has frustrated Ukrainian officials and its most ardent supporters in the U.S. The latest debate amid all of this? For months, the Ukrainians have been pressing for American long-range missiles with the ability to strike deep into Russia, a move that some officials fear could place the U.S. and its allies in direct conflict with Russia. NPR’s Tom Bowman joins me now to talk about this. Hey, Tom.

TOM BOWMAN, BYLINE: Hey, Scott.

DETROW: So I want to get to all the context in a moment. But first, let’s directly start with this latest question. Throughout the conflict, the Biden administration has been cautious in approving American-made missiles hitting targets deeper into Russia. Do we think that request is ultimately going to be approved?

BOWMAN: You know, it’s really hard to say at this point, Scott. We keep hearing it’s under discussion. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met almost two weeks ago with his British counterpart, Foreign Secretary David Lammy. And Blinken seemed to indicate it would happen.

ANTONY BLINKEN: We have adjusted and adapted as needs have changed, as the battlefield has changed, and I have no doubt that we’ll continue to do that.

BOWMAN: So, again, it sounds like they’re moving in that direction. And, of course, President Biden later had a meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and talked about allowing long-range weapons to be used. But it appears, again, there’s still deliberations and no final decision. Now, Britain seems to be leaning forward on this issue because they see the recent move by Iran to provide hundreds of missiles to Russia – it really changed the debate. The Brits have long-range missiles, too. It’s called the Storm Shadow. And the French, by the way, have their own, the SCALP. But here’s the thing, Scott – they both have American-made components, and therefore would require U.S. approval.

DETROW: And even as, over the last few years, we have seen some of the initial hard-line warnings from Russia not play out – right? – if you do X, that we will consider it a grave threat; if you do Y, we’ll consider it a grave threat – it’s hard not to see this particular one as having some merit. We are talking about missiles partially American-made striking deep into Russia. And Putin has said that would be a move that would effectively mean Russia is now fighting NATO.

BOWMAN: No. That’s absolutely right. And again, from the start, the U.S. has been slowly ramping up military support to Ukraine while always weighing how Russia would respond. Putin has hinted at using tactical nuclear weapons, which gets everyone’s attention. These are real concerns. But Putin, again, has made similar threats after the U.S. allowed, you know, Patriot missiles, F-16s. So a lot of this people say is bluster. Now, the current issue is allowing what’s called ATACMS, an acronym that – you know, military loves acronyms. It stands for Army Tactical Missile System. Get this – it can travel 190 miles.

Right now, the U.S. is allowing Ukraine only to use them in Crimea to strike Russian military targets, and they’ve been quite successful. Now, again, getting back to the British and the French long-range missiles, they can travel about 155 miles. So you can imagine the Ukrainians are pressing for that American weapon to use deep inside Russia, which can go, you know, farther.

DETROW: Yeah. Now, when you and I have had versions of this conversation with different points of – will the U.S. allow this weapon system or that weapon system to go to Ukraine? – you have at times pointed out that sometimes it was more of a symbolic conversation than something that was really central to the war. So I’m wondering with these missiles, how necessary are these long-range weapons for Ukraine and are there sufficient targets that they’d like to hit?

BOWMAN: You know, it kind of depends who you talk with. The Institute for the Study of War says there are some 250 targets. They could be attacked with these long-range U.S. weapons, everything from airfields to oil and weapons depots, armored vehicles. And these attacks could also hurt Russia’s ability to launch glide bombs into Ukrainian cities. We’ve been seeing a lot of that. But some of the Pentagon will tell you that the Russians have moved a lot of this, even beyond the range of those longer-range U.S. missiles. And defense officials also say that Ukrainians have also used most of their long-range missiles hitting those Russian sites in Crimea. They don’t have many left.

But then the question is, of course, why can’t you just send them more? The U.S. has thousands of these missiles and want to hold them in case, let’s say, the U.S. is faced with an adversary, you know, military action in the Pacific, Middle East or Europe. So, you know, and again, that’s a question that’s out there. Can you provide more? And we still don’t have an answer to that.

DETROW: Let’s say these get approved. Would it change the course of the war? Would it have a – make a big difference?

BOWMAN: Well, no. No one is saying that, but it clearly will continue to hurt Russia, its war machine. Some officials are saying to Ukraine, listen, you’re doing a good job with your drones in attacks deep inside Russia. Scott, just last week, a swarm of Ukrainian drones hit a massive weapons depot 300 miles inside Russia, just west of Moscow, so talk about deep inside Russia. And this weapons depot had also – get this – had missiles supplied by North Korea. There’s little doubt the U.S. intelligence helped in that targeting. And American officials are telling Ukraine these relatively inexpensive drones are doing a great job, so don’t just look to our missiles. Also, officials want Ukraine to focus more on defensive measures in the eastern part of their country, where right now Russia continues to make inroads.

Of course, as we know, Ukraine pushed deep into the Kursk region of Russia. But what did that really achieve? U.S. officials are asking now. They’re saying this privately. But finally, the U.S. has been pressing Ukraine to do a better job at recruiting younger Ukrainians for its military. Right now – get this- they’re not recruiting any soldiers under the age of 25. But the U.S. military, about 87% of their new recruits are between 18 and 24 years old.

DETROW: Right. So Tom, let’s back up here for a moment. We’re coming up on the third anniversary of the war, at least the expansion of the war. Russia had already effectively invaded Crimea years before that. What is the path forward? – because in many ways, it’s a stalemate, and there are big questions about what U.S. support looks like depending on who’s elected president.

BOWMAN: Well, the big thing is, how do you define winning? Or as General David Petraeus famously said during the Iraq War, tell me how this ends. It’s kind of the same thing here. U.S. military officials have said neither side can win. Russia can’t take over all of Ukraine, and Ukraine, they don’t have the power to push all Russian forces out of their country. So what’s the way ahead? No one really answers that question. And neither side, Ukraine or Russia, at this point seems intent on negotiations. And here at home, you know, Trump, of course, has been skeptical of spending more on Ukraine. And Kamala Harris has said the U.S. must keep supporting Ukraine. So I think next year, the third anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, you’ll see more pressure for some type of negotiation or at least talks, regardless of who’s in the White House.

DETROW: That’s NPR’s Tom Bowman. Thanks for coming in, Tom.

BOWMAN: You’re welcome.

---

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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:

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

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

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

TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS, Tuesday, (09/24/2024)

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

Push for compensation for U.S. nuclear testing fallout resumes on Capitol Hill – Nevada Public Radio

Nevada Public Radio

They are facing resistance from some House Republicans who have raised concerns about the program’s cost. “That’s really difficult for us is that when …

X-rays from a nuclear explosion could redirect an asteroid – Space.com

Space.com

He covers all things human origins and astronomy as well as physics, animals and general science topics. Charles has a Master of Arts degree from …

Weapons systems continue to be a sticking point between the U.S. and Ukraine – NPR

NPR

NPR’s Tom Bowman joins me now to talk about this. Hey, Tom. TOM BOWMAN, BYLINE: Hey, Scott. DETROW: So I want to get to all the context in a …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

Westinghouse and Bechtel Welcome Investment in Poland’s First Nuclear Power Plant

Westinghouse Nuclear

Westinghouse Electric and Bechtel welcome the intention of the Polish government to allocate 60 billion zloty to fund the country’s first nuclear …

US nuclear plants won’t power up Big Tech’s AI ambitions right away | Reuters

Reuters

Constellation Energy and Microsoft plan to restart the Three Mile Island nuclear plant, hoping they have scored a quick source of enough …

International banks express support for nuclear expansion

World Nuclear News

A group of 14 global financial institutions have expressed their support for the call to action to triple nuclear energy capacity by 2050.

Nuclear War

NEWS

Russia says ‘nyet’ to nuclear testing – with a condition – Reuters

Reuters

NUCLEAR TEST? The 2-1/2-year-old Ukraine war has caused the worst confrontation between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis …

Images show Russia’s new Sarmat missile suffered major test failure, researchers say | CNN

CNN

… nuclear arsenal, according to arms experts who have analyzed satellite … nuclear war. Repeated setbacks. The 35-meter-long (115 feet) RS-28 …

North Korea vows response to US submarine’s visit to South Korea – ABC News

ABC News – The Walt Disney Company

The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has vowed to boost the country’s nuclear war capability and take other steps to protest the …

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

Russia’s Nuclear Doctrine: Understanding the rules behind Putin’s threat of using atomic weapons

Milwaukee Independent

On Day 1 of the war, Putin said “whoever tries to impede us, let alone create threats for our country and its people, must know that the Russian …

North Korea leader’s sister says US is increasing threats with nuclear submarine | Reuters

Reuters

Kim called it a proof of U.S. ambition to “bring out its nuclear strategic assets, show off its strength and increase threats“, according to KCNA. The …

North Korea vows response to US submarine’s visit to South Korea – ABC News

ABC News – The Walt Disney Company

The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has vowed to boost the country’s nuclear war … nuclear threats. Pyongyang often responds

Yellowstone Caldera

NEWS

Uncover These Hidden Secrets at the Gates of Yellowstone National Park – The Delta News

The Delta News

Hot Springs State Park is far enough from the Yellowstone Caldera that it doesn’t experience geyser eruptions, extreme heat, or highly acidic water.

Weak Mag. 2.3 Earthquake – Culberson County, Texas, 56 mi South of Carlsbad, Eddy …

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“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity”

Lloyd A. Williams-Pendergraft

Sep 23, 2024

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The huge towers of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Londonderry Township, Pennsylvania ~ (See credits in article)

LLAW’s NUCLEAR VIEWS, ISSUES & COMMENTS, Monday, (09/23/2024)

I have been avoiding, with gritted teeth, posting this story—that has been out and growing with more details for several days. Let me just say this is the most thoughtless, unbelievable, and dangerous national proposal I have ever encountered in my nearly 83 years (coming November 23rd) of life on planet Earth, much of it in the nuclear industry, and Three Mile Island was my personal reason for ending a career that had spanned parts of three decades. My reason was and still is the very same reason that nuclear plant TMI-2 (the one that is shut down forever because of a partial meltdown on March 28, 1979) and will remain under clean-up and final demolition until 2052, at least. That is a clean-up span of 73 years. Just that single accident tells us how dangerous nuclear power plants are to sustained life on planet Earth. And we want to re-open old ones and build hundreds of new ones around the world?

From the article: “The symbolism is enormous,” said Joseph Dominguez, CEO of Constellation. “This was the site of the industry’s greatest failure, and now it can be a place of rebirth.” Obviously, a major new capital infusion from a group of big banks that together control trillions of dollars in potential funding can only help jump-start a new expansion of nuclear power.

A symbolic place of rebirth? Apparently we have no common sense of values, and will spend trillions upon trillions of dollars (including bigger and stronger nuclear bombs) in order to ensure our own and other unnecessary demise of life on planet Earth for reasons that make no common sense at all. ~llaw

A Rising Mass Of Support Could Lead To A U.S. Nuclear Renaissance

David Blackmon

Senior Contributor

David Blackmon is a Texas-based public policy analyst/consultant.

Sep 23, 2024,07:19am EDT

A group of the world’s biggest banks said Monday they will increase support for the expansion of nuclear power, according to the Financial Times. The banks, including Barclay’s, Bank of America, Citi, Morgan Stanley, BNP Paribas, and Goldman Sachs will make the formal announcement later Monday at an event with White House climate policy advisor John Podesta.

The stepped-up commitment from the banks is in support of goals set out at last year’s COP 28 conference to triple nuclear generation globally by 2050. It comes as expansion of wind generation – and, to a lesser extent, solar – is meeting with rising opposition from communities and struggling with profitability even while benefitting from a suite of government subsidies and tax incentives. It also comes as power grid managers struggle with increasing reliability issues as they are forced to integrate more and more intermittent wind and solar into their regional power structures.

Developers of AI and other cutting-edge technologies that require power-hungry data centers have become increasingly concerned that their needs can’t be met by intermittent generation, even with backup provided by current battery technology. U.S. companies are increasingly seeking to execute power supply agreements with traditional forms of 24/7 baseload generation to fill their needs. Nuclear generation, as a zero-emissions power source, helps such companies meet both their power needs and emissions reductions goals.

On Friday, Microsoft announced it had reached a deal with Constellation Energy to restart Unit 1 of its Three Mile Island nuclear facility in Pennsylvania to provide power to fill its own regional data center needs. Unit 2 of the Three Mile Island facility suffered a partial meltdown in 1979, an incident that released radioactive gases and iodine into the atmosphere, and which still ranks at the most severe nuclear incident in U.S. history. The U.S. nuclear power industry, which had undergone a rapid expansion during the 1970s, has struggled to restore public and policymaker confidence in the safety of its operations across the 45 years since that event.

Three Mile Island’s Unit 1 was not impacted by that incident and continued in service until it was retired by Constellation in 2019 due to economic reasons. Constellation said it plans to invest $1.6 billion to refurbish Unit 1, with a target for restarting the reactor by 2028. Its deal with Microsoft is for a 20-year power provision commitment.

“The symbolism is enormous,” said Joseph Dominguez, CEO of Constellation. “This was the site of the industry’s greatest failure, and now it can be a place of rebirth.” Obviously, a major new capital infusion from a group of big banks that together control trillions of dollars in potential funding can only help jump-start a new expansion of nuclear power.

But much will depend on regulators who oversee the permitting process for restarting existing units and building new ones. Reuters reports that Constellation has yet to file a formal application for the restart of the Three Mile Island unit. It quotes Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) spokesperson Scott Burnell as saying “It’s up to Constellation to lay out its rationale for justifying restart, so we’re prepared to engage with the company on next steps.”

The Bottom Line

Historically, the steps in America’s regulatory permitting processes have been painstakingly slow to evolve. Recent attempts by West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin and other pro-energy members of congress to streamline those processes via legislation have met with opposition from Democrats and Republicans alike.

Whether strong new commitments from major banks along with pressure from tech developers and nuclear generation companies can combine to speed things along remains to be seen. It also remains to be seen if activist groups who favor wind and solar but have historically opposed nuclear expansion – largely by exploiting the fright scenarios from the Three Mile Island incident over the last 45 years – will now work in opposition to these rapidly evolving plans for a nuclear renaissance.

Nothing related to energy and energy policy in the United States is ever simple. The only element of absolute certainty about this new pro-nuclear initiative is that it will be no exception to that rule.

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website. 

David Blackmon

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David Blackmon is an energy-related public policy analyst/consultant based in Mansfield, TX.

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

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

TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS, Monday, (09/23/2024)

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

Oceans and their role in climate change are at the center of the new book ‘Category Five’

WBUR

It is entropy, tearing everything down as quickly as it appears. I smelled seaweed and saw miles of sand crushed by the waves, wind, rocks, and …

Would long-range missiles for Ukraine pull the U.S. into a war with Russia? – NPR

NPR

And that, of course, raises concerns about nuclear weapons. CONSIDER THIS – the … All Things Considered team. You can sign up at np.org …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

World’s largest banks to throw weight behind nuclear energy – Miningmx

Miningmx

… electricity needs in Gulnar district of Mersin, Turkiye on June 14, 2023. Work at the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) continues as planned.

A Rising Mass Of Support Could Lead To A U.S. Nuclear Renaissance – Forbes

Forbes

A group of the word’s biggest banks said Monday they will increase support for the expansion of nuclear power, according to the Financial Times.

Major global banks to show support for nuclear power – report | Seeking Alpha

Seeking Alpha

Fourteen of the top financial institutions will pledge more support for nuclear energy to unlock financing for the industry. Read more.

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEWS

Kenya should rethink its decision to build nuclear power plant – The Standard

The Standard

… emergencies on the scale that nuclear energy demands. The inherent risks of a nuclear reactor in a country with inconsistent infrastructure and a …

Nuclear War

NEWS

Putin Ally Warns of Nuclear War Over Growing Western Support for Ukraine | ET Now

YouTube

Tensions between Russia and the West have sharply intensified, with Vyacheslav Volodin, a top Putin ally, issuing a nuclear threat in response to …

A nuclear war in Ukraine is a distinct possibility | THE AFRICAN

The African

A Ukrainian rescuer works at the site of a missile attack in Kyiv on March 25, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The war hasn’t gone at …

Putin Realizing That Nuclear Threats ‘Don’t Frighten Anyone’: Report – Newsweek

Newsweek

… nuclear weapons in the war that Putin started. In its latest update, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said on Sunday that threats of …

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

Putin Realizing That Nuclear Threats ‘Don’t Frighten Anyone’: Report – Newsweek

Newsweek

Vladimir Putin is looking at a different response to Western approval of long-range strikes into Russia after realizing that nuclear threats …

America inching toward World War III? Nonsense. – The Hill

The Hill

Since a global war risks becoming a nuclear war, deterrence will work. … Despite Putin’s threats, Russia does not have the ability to launch a .