LLAW’s ‘All Things Nuclear’ #449 (11/13/2023)

ACCESS TO “LLAW’s ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:

A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated inks is listed below by nuclear Category. There are three Yellowstone Caldera stories available in this Post. The latest Sky News coverage of the Russia/Ukraine war is available at the end of the other categorized Posts.(Just a reminder: When linked, the access to the media story will be underlined. If there is no link to a media story of interest you can still copy and paste the headline and lead line into your browser to find the article you are seeking. Hopefully this will never happen.)

And today’s nuclear world’s News:

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

Illinois to lift moratorium on nuclear construction

World Nuclear News

The new bill, among other things, instructs the Illinois Emergency … nuclear technology and all of the benefits that it offers.” Researched …

China and the United States Hold their First Nuclear Security Talks in Years – UN Dispatch

UN Dispatch

I just don’t think, given everything else going on in the world, that the time is now. But my hope is that as time goes on, there will be more …

In new documentary, Ibram X. Kendi asks ‘What is wrong with Black people?’ | Boise State …

Boise State Public Radio

All Things Considered · We Are Idaho · Community Conversations · Morning … Idaho small nuclear reactor project canceled. November 10, 2023. Meet the …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

How to interpret a bad day for nuclear power – Axios

Axios

NuScale Power Corp. share price … It’s easy to over-interpret the death of small modular reactor firm NuScale’s Idaho project, but it nonetheless has …

Lockheed Martin tapped to build nuclearpowered deep-space probe – New Atlas

New Atlas

Under a US$33.7-million Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) contract, Lockheed Martin is developing a next-generation nuclearreactor-powered …

U.S. Re-Enters the Nuclear Fuel Game – IEEE Spectrum

IEEE Spectrum

Centrus Energy delivers first batch of uranium that’s critical for advanced reactors.

Nuclear War

NEWS

The Collapse of Global Arms Control – Time

Time

The Collapse of Global Arms Control. Demonstration against ongoing war in Ukraine and nuclear weapons in Japan People attend the protest against the …

US and South Korea sharpen deterrence plans over North Korean nuclear threat – AP News

AP News

… nuclear ones, to defend the South in the event of a North Korean nuclear attack. He also said the document will provide a template for the allies …

US, South Korea revise deterrence strategy, boost drills over North Korea threat – Reuters

Reuters

… nuclear and missile threats, and vowed to maintain … nuclear planning discussions to better coordinate an allied nuclear response during a war.

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEWS

Liquid Dataport and Intelsat Keep Businesses Connected During Emergencies

MyJoyOnline

Load-shedding distributes demand for electrical power across multiple power sources and is used to relieve stress on an energy source when demand for …

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

US and South Korea sharpen deterrence plans over North Korean nuclear threat – AP News

AP News

… nuclear attack. He also said the document will provide a template for the … threats of nuclear conflict. Arriving in South Korea over the weekend …

US, South Korea revise deterrence strategy over North Korea threat – Reuters

Reuters

… nuclear and missile threats, South Korea’s defence ministry said. The Tailored Deterrence Strategy (TDS) is aimed at countering North Korea’s nuclear …

55th Security Consultative Meeting Joint Communique – Department of Defense

Department of Defense

He noted that any nuclear attack by the DPRK against the United States or … nuclear and other WMD use and conventional threats. The two leaders …

Yellowstone Caldera

NEWS

World’s First National Park, world record in Wyoming

World Record Academy

The caldera is considered a dormant volcano. It has erupted with tremendous force several times in the last two million years. Well over half of the …

Plant health as a new effective monitoring system for volcanic activity – Phys.org

Phys.org

… Yellowstone Caldera, Wyoming, U.S., to determine their reaction to hydrothermal activity (circulating fluids in the vicinity of a magma source …

Reykjanes Volcano Update: Eruption in Coming Days Likely | VolcanoDiscovery

Volcano Discovery

… caldera, and Ijen. Yellowstone quakes · Yellowstone quakes · Latest earthquakes under Yellowstone volcano. List and interactive map of current and …

The latest Sky News coverage of the Russia/Ukraine war:

We’re pausing our live coverage

We’re pausing our live coverage of the war in Ukraine for now – but here are the key developments you may have missed over the weekend. 

Russian forces intensified attacks on positions in eastern Ukraine.

In Bakhmut, Moscow is attempting to regain lost territory, the head of Ukraine’s ground forces wrote on social media at the weekend.

“Toward Bakhmut, the Russians have become more active and are trying to recapture previously lost positions. Enemy attacks are being repelled,” Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi said.

Ukraine also reported Russian troops are attempting to surround Avdiivka, south of Bakhmut, which is considered to be a stronghold.

Elsewhere, Russia has shelled Kherson, in the southwest of Ukraine, officials claimed, 62 times across the weekend, injuring four civilians.

On Sunday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Ukrainians to prepare for new waves of Russian attacks on infrastructure over winter.

“Russia is preparing for Ukraine. And here, in Ukraine, all attention should be focused on defence, on responding to terrorists on everything that Ukraine can do to get through the winter and improve our soldiers’ capabilities,” he said in his nightly address.

The warning came after Ukraine claimed Russia fired its first missile strike on Ukraine in almost two weeks.

There have also been reports over the weekend, from The Washington Post, claiming a Ukrainian officer coordinated the attack on the Nord Stream pipeline – which carries gas into Europe from Russia – though the officer in question denied any involvement.

LAW’s ‘All Things Nuclear’ #444 (11/08/2023)

ALL THINGS NUCLEAR

LAW’s ‘All Things Nuclear’ #444 (11/08/2023)

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity”

LLOYD A. WILLIAMS-PENDERGRAFT

NOV 8, 2023


LLAW’s COMMENTARY:

One more evening and new (although most of the old are new too) especially to new readers who never saw or read those that were only available to Facebook faithful. So, as I’ve mentioned before, I will occasionally pick an older Post to points that have been made over the last year-plus that are important to the future of all life on planet Earth. But I have added my feelings about a Forbes article today . . .

This Post was short and intense – letting the images do the inferred “talking”. I well know those long roads to the uranium mines in Wyoming and other western states. I began my career in the uranium and nuclear industry at a mine called the Lucky Mc Mine in central Wyoming in the 1960s as an accountant for the San Francisco based company. I remained in the company’s uranium and other enterprises into the early 1980s. The 3-Mile Island nuclear accident prompted me to ‘escape’ from the nuclear business, realizing that the ‘stuff’ we were selling all over the world was immanently dangerous.

Over the years I have learned just how lethal “All Things Nuclear” are, and yet I see ridiculous stories in tonight’s media news from Forbes, with propaganda direct from the industry that headlines with How Policy Saved America’s Nuclear Power Plants, and leads on with this line. “Federal and state policy kept America’s nuclear power plants online to preserve clean energy supplies and prevent emissions increases and . . . I have to admit I laughed derisively at the opening to this article (and of course I will not read it because it is pure industry propaganda from the industry. Nuclear power plants do not produced ‘clean’ energy, and they are proud owners of the dirtiest and most toxic waste on the planet that they know what to do with except to dump it in the ocean. Oh, yes, it is ‘treated’, but what will happen when the ‘treatment’ wears off? And we haven’t even mentioned the words “meltdown” or “nuclear war” yet. ~llaw

Shared with the Public on June 8th, 2023 . . .

Uranium and its products of nuclear weapons and nuclear power is the road to Nowhere – a desolate world that looks something like this lonely road to the first step and the last step to desolation and annihilation.

Stop nuclear insanity before nuclear insanity stops humanity! ~llaw

All reactions:

14 You, Michelle UluOla, Deborah Hart Yemm and 11 others

TONIGHT’S CATEGORIZED NUCLEAR NEWS

ACCESS TO “LLAW’s ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:

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 inks is listed below by nuclear Category. There are no Yellowstone Caldera stories available in this Post. The latest Sky News coverage of the Russia/Ukraine war is available at the end of the other categorized Posts.

(Just a reminder: When linked, the access to the media story will be underlined. If there is no link to a media story of interest you can still copy and paste the headline and lead line into your browser to find the article you are seeking. Hopefully this will never happen.)

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

Science is Everywhere camps at the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History – YouTube

YouTube

13 Things from the 1970s, Kids Today Will Never Understand! … all of us’ I See the full speech. MSNBC New 1M views · 6:10 · Go to channel · A Recipe …

Feds come to Kemmerer to explain the permitting process for proposed nuclear plant

Wyoming Public Media

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is an independent federal agency that oversees all things nuclear, like the TerraPower project near Kemmerer.

Holtec plans to build new nuclear reactors at its energy plants — but not at Pilgrim, for now

WCAI

All Things Considered · Podcasts …more programs · The Point · News Roundup … Holtec and other supporters contend that nuclear energy can be safe and …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

How Policy Saved America’s Nuclear Power Plants – Forbes

Forbes

Federal and state policy kept America’s nuclear power plants online to preserve clean energy supplies and prevent emissions increases as …

Should Texas Build More Nuclear Power Plants?

Texas Monthly

Even if nuclear takes off, it will be years before it catches up to the contributions of natural gas, or even wind power, to the state’s energy mix. “ …

Ukraine war live updates: Russia claims Kyiv attacked 3 nuclear power plants – CNBC

CNBC

Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev claimed Wednesday that Ukraine tried to attack three nuclear power plants.

Nuclear War

NEWS

Kremlin says nuclear arms dialogue with US is necessary but not ready to be lectured

Reuters

After fears of a nuclear war were triggered by the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, the United States and the Soviet Union sought to slow the arms race with …

Ukraine war live updates: Russia claims Kyiv attacked 3 nuclear power plants – CNBC

CNBC

Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev claimed Wednesday that Ukraine tried to attack three nuclear power plants.

Why a Russian nuclear expert thinks the Doomsday Clock should move away from midnight

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 brought the nuclear risk to an entirely new level. From the very first day of the war, Russia …

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEWS

Indian Point nuclear plant to conduct emergency siren test – News 12 – Westchester

News 12 – Westchester

The Indian Point nuclear power plant will be conducting a test of its emergency siren system this evening. All 172 sirens are scheduled to emit at …

My experience of the nuclear industry so far – IMechE

IMechE

… energy mix, particularly considering the current climate emergency. I strongly believe that nuclear power will be needed to power tomorrow, along …

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

ARTHUR CYR: The Continuing Threat of Nuclear Weapons | Opinion | jacksonprogress-argus.com

Jackson Progress-Argus

Military threats are not only external. In early 1961, President Eisenhower closed his Farewell Address by warning of the dangers of our massive arms …

Why a Russian nuclear expert thinks the Doomsday Clock should move away from midnight

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

… nuclear threats that has been reaffirmed this year, a Russia nuclear expert argues … nuclear war cannot be won therefore must not be fought. But …

Preventing AI Nuclear Armageddon by Melissa Parke – Project Syndicate

Project Syndicate

… nuclear threats. And UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak did not mention the acute threat posed by nuclear-weapons-related AI applications at all, even …

The latest Sky News coverage of the Russia/Ukraine war”:

Key points

LAW’s ‘All Things Nuclear’ #442 (11/06/2023)

LAW’s ‘All Things Nuclear’ #442 (11/06/2023)

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity”

ALL THINGS NUCLEAR

LAW’s ‘All Things Nuclear’ #442 (11/06/2023)

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity”

Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant near Avila Beach, California owned by PG&E

LLAW’s COMMENTARY:

The above image of the Diablo Canyon Power Plant may remain as my masthead for quite sometime because it is very much like the proverbial “Canary in the Coal Mine”. I have been following PG&E’s merciless “accidental” terrorism on California’s human population throughout the State (living next door in Nevada) for several years, and this aging nuclear power plant may very well be PG&E’s last and most devastating accident of all. A nuclear accident at that! With PG&E running the ‘show’, what could possibly go wrong

The Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant is old, dating back to the ‘1970s, and has leaked radiation recently because of cracked containment walls. The plant is scheduled for decommissioning, shutdown, and to be mothballed in 2025, but the State of California and the Federal Government has decided to extend the old plant’s life by providing several billion dollars to ‘ensure’ it’s safety and continued operation. To me, knowing the ownership’s history, this is obviously a huge mistake on the part of both the state and the federal government.

In later Posts I will have more to say about this particular power plant and selected others around the planet. They all need to be shut down, destroyed, and part by part and piece by piece put back in the same ground where their nuclear fuel (uranium) came from.

Considering their history of ‘accidents’, neglect, and incompetence, the future possibilities could be disastrous beyond belief. What has PG&E done wrong in the past to make such a prediction? Let me count just a few of the ways of many disasters caused by PG&E. ~llaw

(Summarized, edited, and abbreviated from cited reports,)

PG&E Disasters:

1. Groundwater contamination in Hinkley, California

From 1952 to 1966, PG&E dumped “roughly 370 million gallons” of chromium 6-tainted wastewater into unlined wastewater spreading ponds around the town of Hinkley, California. PG&E used chromium “one of the cheapest and most efficient commercially available corrosion inhibitors” at their compressor station plants in their cooling towers along the natural gas transmission pipelines.

PG&E did not inform the local water board of the contamination until December 7, 1987, stalling action on a response to the contamination. The residents of Hinkley filed a successful lawsuit against PG&E in which the company paid $333 million— the largest settlement ever paid in a direct-action lawsuit in U.S. history. The legal case, dramatized in the 2000 film Erin Brockovich, became an international cause célèbre. By 2013, PG&E had cleaned up 54 acres, but it is estimated the remediation process will take another 40 years.

2. Metcalf sniper attack

(Included here for evidence of PG&E’s extended reputation of illegalites)

On April 16, 2013, a team of gunmen opened fire on the Metcalf transmission substation in Coyote, California. The attack damaged 17 high-voltage transformers, causing more than $15 million in damage. The team also cut a fiber-optic telecommunications cable owned by AT&T. PG&E and AT&T offered a $250,000 reward for anyone who had information leading to the arrest of the culprits, however, they were never found. The Federal Bureau of Investigation found that it was not domestic terrorism and The Department of Homeland Security claimed they had evidence that it may have been an ‘inside job’.

3. Wildfires

PG&E equipment has often been the cause of wildfires in California. PG&E has been found guilty of criminal negligence in many cases involving fires. These include the 1994 Trauner Fire a substation fire in San Francisco in 1996, the 1999 Pendola Fire, a San Francisco substation fire in 2003, the Sims Fire and Fred’s Fire in 2004 an explosion and electrical fire in San Francisco in 2005, the 2008 Rancho Cordova Gas Explosion,[ the 2010 San Bruno pipeline explosion, 2014 Carmel Gas Explosion,[ 2015 Butte Fire, 2018 Camp Fire, among others.[

Approximately 40 of the 315 wildfires in PG&E’s service area in 2017 and 2018 were allegedly caused by PG&E equipment.

PG&E was on probation after being found criminally liable in the 2010 San Bruno fire. Following that fire, a federally appointed monitor initially focused on gas operations, but his scope expanded to include electricity distribution equipment following the fires in October 2017. A separate case involved allegations the utility falsified gas pipeline records between 2012 and 2017, and as of January 2019 was still being considered.

4. Wildfire Liability

State law follows a principle of “inverse condemnation” for wildfire liability, which means that utilities are held responsible for damages resulting from any fire caused by their equipment, even if their maintenance on equipment and surrounding vegetation was done to standards. This policy resulted in $30B of liability for PG&E from the 2017 & 2018 fires and drove it to bankruptcy proceedings. In July 2019, a new $21 billion wildfire trust fund was created to pay for damages from future wildfires, started with a 50-50 balance of utility and customer monies and also reduced the liability threshold for utilities to where customers must prove negligence before companies are held liable.

5. Sierra blaze

On June 19, 1997, a Nevada County jury in Nevada City found PG&E guilty of “a pattern of tree-trimming violations that sparked a devastating 1994 wildfire in the Sierra”. “PG&E was convicted of 739 counts of criminal negligence for failing to trim trees near its power lines—the biggest criminal conviction ever against the state’s largest utility.

6. San Bruno, California explosion

View of the San Bruno fire on September 9, 2010 at 11:31 pm PDT

On the evening of September 9, 2010, a suburb of San Francisco, San Bruno, California, was damaged when one of PG&E’s natural-gas pipelines that was “at least 54 years old, 30 inches (76.2 centimeters) in diameter and located under a street intersection in a residential area “…exploded sending a “28-foot section of pipe weighing 3,000 pounds flying through the air, fueled by blowing natural gas”.[235] The blast created a crater at the epicenter and “killed eight people and injured nearly five dozen more while destroying about 100 homes” The USGS reported that the shock wave was similar to a 1.1 magnitude earthquake. Following the event, the company was heavily criticized for ignoring the warnings of a state inspector in 2009 and for failing to provide adequate safety procedures. The incident then came under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). On August 30, 2011, the NTSB released its findings, which placed fault for the blast on PG&E. The report stated that the pipeline that exploded, installed in 1956, did not even meet standards of that time. Even in the years following the disaster, PG&E failed to implement legally mandated safety procedures aimed at preventing similar disasters.

7. Butte Fire

In September 2015, the deadly and destructive Butte Fire ignited in Amador and Calaveras counties. It killed two people and destroyed hundreds of structures. An investigation found PG&E responsible for the fire after a gray pine tree came in contact with one of their powerlines.

8. October 2017 Northern California wildfires

In October 2017, PG&E was responsible for their own lines and poles starting 13 separate fires of the 250 that devastated Northern California. These fires were caused by “electric power and distribution lines, conductors and the failure of power poles”. Pending further investigation, the following fires have been confirmed by CAL FIRE investigators to have been started by PG&E equipment:

8. Ghost Ship fire

On December 2, 2016, in Fruitvale, Oakland, California a fire broke out in a former warehouse that had been illegally converted into an artist collective with living spaces known as Ghost Ship. 80-100 people were at an event in the space and 36 were killed. The plaintiffs claim that the fire was caused by an electrical malfunction. A civil case was put forward against PG&E, alleging blame.

In August 2020, PG&E settled a civil lawsuit for 32 of the victims, out of the 36 who perished in the fire.] The amount of the settlement was undisclosed, but it was limited to the amount available under PG&E’s insurance coverage for the year 2016.

9. Tubbs Fire

The Tubbs Fire was a wildfire in Northern California during October 2017. At the time, the Tubbs Fire was the most destructive wildfire in California history, burning parts of NapaSonoma, and Lake counties, inflicting its greatest losses in the city of Santa Rosa. Suspicion for the cause of the fire fell on PG&E, but the company seemed to be cleared of responsibility in this incident after Cal Fire released the results of its investigation on January 24, 2019, upon which news the company’s stock price jumped dramatically. On August 16, 2019, the judge ruled that the trial can proceed “on a parallel track” because “it advances the goals of this bankruptcy.” After the judge’s ruling, the company’s stock price sank by 25%.

10. Camp Fire (The worst of them all)

In November 2018, PG&E and its parent company were sued in the San Francisco County Superior Court by multiple victims of the Camp Fire – the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history. The Camp Fire destroyed more than 18,000 buildings, including 14,000 homes, being particularly devastating to poorer residents. Approximately 90% of the population of the town of Paradise, California as of June 2020 remains dispersed in other parts of the state and the country. The lawsuit accused PG&E of failure to properly maintain its infrastructure and equipment.

The cause of the fire, as indicated by PG&E’s “electric incident report” submitted to the California Public Utilities Commission, was a power failure on a transmission line on November 8, just 15 minutes before the fire was first reported near the same location. Later investigation revealed that a “broken hook may have allowed a piece of electrically charged equipment to swing free and come close enough to the tower to arc, providing the spark that ignited the blaze.

. . . and the heat goes on . . .

11. Dixie Fire

On January 4, 2022, CalFire determined that “the Dixie Fire was caused by a tree contacting electrical distribution lines owned and operated by Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) located west of Cresta Dam.” CalFire forwarded the investigative report to the Butte County District Attorney’s office, the same federal office that prosecuted PG&E in 2018 following the Camp Fire.

ACCESS TO “LLAW’s ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:

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 inks is listed below by nuclear Category. There is one bonus Yellowstone Caldera story available in this Post. The latest Sky News coverage of the Russia/Ukraine war is available at the end of the other categorized Posts.

(Just a reminder: When linked, the access to the media story will be underlined. If there is no link to a media story of interest you can still copy and paste the headline and lead line into your browser to find the article you are seeking. Hopefully this will never happen.)

TONIGHT’S CATEGORIZED NUCLEAR NEWS:

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

Jacobs Wins New Contract to Support UK’s Nuclear Power Plants – PR Newswire

PR Newswire

“I am proud of the teamwork across the fleet over the last eight years and look forward to the continued success and learning across all our program …

Opinion: Can America afford a new nuclear weapons buildup? | Chattanooga Times Free Press

Chattanooga Times Free Press

… things, provide military aid to Ukraine and Israel, a new congressional commission report has suggested spending even more … All rights reserved.

In Japan, overtourism is raising concerns about the environment at Mt. Fuji – WHQR

WHQR

All Things Considered. Next Up: 6:00 PM Marketplace. 0:00. 0:00. All Things … nuclear crisis and the Fukushima earthquake and nuclear disaster. See …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

Staff levels at Zaporizhzhia in spotlight : Regulation & Safety – World Nuclear News

World Nuclear News

The International Atomic Energy Agency says it is continuing to monitor the status, training and condition of staff at the nuclear power plant …

space nuclear power | Military Aerospace

Military Aerospace

Lockheed Martin, Westinghouse to develop on-orbit high-power electricity generation in future space missions. Nov. 6, 2023. Nuclear power may provide …

Climate and Russia – Does the world need nuclear power? – DW – 11/06/2023

DW

It’s crucial to make electricity production carbon neutral as quickly as possible. Is nuclear power the new game changer for achieving this ambitious …

Nuclear War

NEWS

Russia says it test-fired ICBM from nuclear submarine – Axios

Axios

… nuclear risks and raise tensions as it pursues its illegal war against Ukraine.” Details: The Russian defense ministry said it launched the Bulava …

Russia Rubs Salt Into U.S.’ Wounds; Putin’s Forces Fire Nuclear Missile From Submarine | Watch

YouTube

Comments678 · Russia’s star-wars weapon can hunt anything that flies | S-550 for India? · The Fall | The Russians Destroyed The Officers Of The 128th …

Ukraine war live updates: Russia launches nuclear-capable ballistic missile from submarine …

CNBC

Russia’s Ministry of Defense released a video Sunday appearing to show a nuclear-capable ballistic missile being test-fired from a new nuclear …

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEWS

Is nuclear energy safer now? – EnergyPortal.eu –

EnergyPortal.eu –

These include enhanced reactor designs, improved emergency response plans, and stricter regulatory oversight. Modern reactors are equipped with …

The 23 Highest Paying Jobs Without a Degree – Newsweek

Newsweek

Job Requirements: Nuclear Power Reactor Operators need a reactor operator (RO) license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Some employers …

SA’s rural clinics to get emergency generators from China – IOL

IOL

Cape Town: Unit 1 of the country’s only nuclear power station, Koeberg, is still down and contributing to the current load shedding. Photograph: …

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

Russia says it test-fired ICBM from nuclear submarine – Axios

Axios

The big picture: Putin has made several veiled nuclear threats since his … Go deeper: A reality check on Putin’s threat of nuclear war. Share on …

‘Unacceptable’: Germany slams Israel’s minister’s nuclear threats on Gaza – Anadolu Ajansı

Anadolu Ajansı

Germany on Monday condemned statements by an Israeli minister who threatened to consider using nuclear bombs in the Gaza war. The remarks by …

Venezuela Condemns Nuclear Threat Against Gaza | News – teleSUR English

teleSUR English

Citizens of Gaza respond to Israeli nuclear threats “This is not a war … Tags. Israel War crimes Palestine Gaza Genocide Nuclear Threat. People.

The 23 Highest Paying Jobs Without a Degree – Newsweek

Newsweek

Job Requirements: Nuclear Power Reactor Operators need a reactor operator (RO) license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Some employers …

SA’s rural clinics to get emergency generators from China – IOL

IOL

Cape Town: Unit 1 of the country’s only nuclear power station, Koeberg, is still down and contributing to the current load shedding. Photograph: …

Yellowstone Caldera

NEWS

New Insights: The Potential Devastation of a Yellowstone Supervolcano Eruption

TickerTV News

Yes, Yellowstone National Park in the United States harbors a supervolcano beneath its surface. It has remained dormant for over 600,000 years, but …

The latest Sky News coverage of the Russia/Ukraine war”:

Key points

LLAW’s All Things Nuclear #438 (11/02/2023)

☄️LLAW’s “ALL THINGS NUCLEAR”☄️ #438 (11/02/2023)

“End nuclear insanity before nuclear insanity ends humanity”

LLAW’s COMMENTARY: Republished from October 13, 2023 . . .

The Doomsday Clock remains set at its most critical level in history by the “Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists” . . .

“The clock hands are set by the “Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists”, a group formed by Manhattan Project scientists at the University of Chicago who helped build the atomic bomb but protested using it against people. The time of the clock is currently 90 seconds to midnight”. Midnight represents “Doomsday.

You can follow the world news concerning “ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” at my daily Posts on both my website at LLAW’s WORLDS @albertlloydwilliams.com and/or at Substack to keep abreast of the world-wide nuclear situation, trends, threats, issues, and what could be done to prevent nuclear radiation from creating a dystopian world – or worse yet, a man-made 6th Extinction on planet Earth. Time is of the Essence. ~llaw

ACCESS TO MEDIA: Whenever there is a 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 inks is listed below by nuclear Category. There are two bonus Yellowstone Caldera stories available in this Post. The latest Sky News coverage of the Russia/Ukraine war is available at the end of the other categorized Posts.

(Just a reminder: When linked the access to the media story will be underlined. If there is no link to a media story of interest you can still copy and paste the headline and lead line into your browser to find the article you are seeking. Hopefully this will rarely happen.)

Yellowstone Caldera (Bonus non-nuclear coverage)
NEWS
Two supervolcanoes, a world apart, have the attention of scientists – NBC News NBC News … Caldera, a volcano in eastern California that sits adjacent to Mammoth Mountain. … And one of the most famous calderas in the world, at Yellowstone … Facebook Twitter Flag as irrelevant
peeling back the layers (Yellowstone Volcano Update – November 2023) – YouTube YouTube … Caldera Chronicles: https://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes/yellowstone/caldera-chronicles?utm_source=2023-nov-1&utm_medium=youtube&utm_campaign=nh … Facebook Twitter Flag as irrelevant
The complicated history of Ferdinand Hayden and the founding of Yellowstone | Opinion MSN Yellowstone Caldera Chronicles is a weekly column written by scientists and collaborators of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. DONATE · Idaho … Facebook Twitter Flag as irrelevant
See more results | Edit this alert
Nuclear Power
NEWS
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant starts 3rd release of treated radioactive wastewater into the sea AP News 1 of 4 |. FILE – This aerial view shows the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima, northern Japan, on Aug. Facebook Twitter Flag as irrelevant
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant starts 3rd release of treated radioactive wastewater into the … – NY1 NY1 TOKYO (AP) — The tsunami-damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant began its third release of treated and diluted radioactive wastewater into … Facebook Twitter Flag as irrelevant
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The daily Sky News coverage of the Russia/Ukraine war is posted below . . .

https://news.sky.com/story/ukraine-war-latest-moscow-to-discuss-lifting-ban-on-nuclear-tests-after-putin-threat-12541713?fbclid=IwAR3jG-pZQTXT_E2mcEUYcciiuv9ZeJ7f2-oVo8ouBd8lZWU4BeSe5ajW80k

Languages, Thoughts, and Survival in a Dystopian World War Between Mother Nature and Humankind

If, in a future dystopian world, there arises an unavoidable crisis between Gaia’s nature (Earth) and human’s (World) technology, which in my view is inevitable, nature will prevail in every conceivable way where mankind’s present unnatural materialistic way of life, including our ‘cleverly’ self-imposed evolving technocratic languages, thoughts and ill-conceived deeds are concerned. Language is the root, the very beginning of our underdog fight for survival. ~llaw

To clearly understand what this is all about, be sure to read the entire article below as well as those related articles of interest, also below:

Calliope, the Olympian Muse of epic writing and poetry

20 inspiring nature words you didn’t know you needed

Hundreds more are documented in Robert Macfarlane’s Landmarks.

A crashing wave
Photo: Ahmed Saeed / Unsplash
  • In Landmarks, Robert Macfarlane revives hundreds of nearly-forgotten words to remind us of our relationship with nature.
  • New dictionaries are deleting nature words while adding technology terms, which Macfarlane states further separates us from the environment.
  • The words we speak shape the reality we understand, making it essential to aptly describe what is happening on the planet.

A’ Ghnùig (Gaelic)

The steep slope of the scowling expression.

Human nature is part of nature too.

Adnasjur (Shetland)

Large wave or waves, coming after a succession of lesser ones.

Surfers know the danger of being caught in one of these cycles.

Blinter (Northern Scots)

A cold dazzle.

Bobbles (North Sea Coast)

Choppy, short waves roused by wind.

Caitein (Gaelic)

First slight ruffling of the water after a calm.

Dringey (Lincolnshire)

Light rain that still manages to get you soaking wet.

The perfect word to yell out when you leave your umbrella at home.

Èit (Gaelic)

Practice of placing quartz stones in moorland streams so that they would sparkle in moonlight and thereby attract salmon to them in the late summer and autumn.

While this holds little practical utility for most of us today, it’s an example of the complex relationship between humans and nature and our attempt at condensing seemingly disparate realms—vision; nighttime; hunting; seasons—into one word. Also, pay attention to Macfarlane’s “user-value framework” explained below. To have a language that describes a world that doesn’t include us in its workings is essential.

Feetings (Suffolk)

Footprints of creatures as they appear in the snow.

Flinchin (Scots)

Deceitful promise of better weather.

Weathermen have gotten better, but not that good…

Glassel (Britain)

A seaside pebble which was shiny and interesting when wet, and which is now a lump of rock.

Hot-spong (East Anglia)

Sudden power of heat felt when the sun comes from under a wind-shifted cloud.

Nothing like that feeling.

Kimmeridge (Britain)

The light breeze that blows through your armpit hair when you are stretched out sunbathing.

Lunkie (Scots)

Hole deliberately left in a wall for an animal to pass through.

Skiddle (Galloway)

To throw flat stones so that they skim on the surface of water.

I wrote an entire song to describe the feeling I had when doing this as a kid. Little did I know it was already named!

Slogger (invented by Gerard Manley Hopkins)

Sucking sound made by waves against a ship’s side.

Squatted (Kent)

Splashed with mud by a passing vehicle.

Stravaig (Scots)

To wander aimlessly, unguided by outcome or destination.

Is this even practiced in a world with GPS?

Summer Geese (North Yorkshire)

Steam that rises from the moor when rain is followed by hot sunshine.

Terra nullius (Latin)

“Nothing-place,” uninhabitable land.

Ungive (Northamptonshire)

To thaw.

To create what he termed a “psychedelic society,” the ethnobotanist Terence McKenna declared that we must completely remake “our fundamental ontological conceptions of reality.” In order to accomplish this, he suggested a new language to address the new reality we are embarking upon. “A new reality will generate a new language,” he wrote in his essay, “Psychedelic Society.” “A new language will make a new reality legitimate and a part of this reality.”

Humans structure reality by how we name things. A language is not only a means for transferring ideas and directives to others; it serves as a guiding philosophy for how you understand reality. McKenna was imagining a new future, yet he also knew that the archaic techniques of ecstasy provided by shamanism was a means for looking back to reconstruct our present reality. In some ways he was suggesting the resurrection of an old language for new purposes.

Likewise, British writer Robert Macfarlane (recently featured on the Think Again podcast) has devoted his career to understanding and, at times, translating the natural world (for us novices, at least). His book, Landmarks, is an attempt to create a dictionary of forgotten languages that describe the world in ways that help us to understand reality differently and, perhaps, more perceptively.

“We inhabit a post-pastoral terrain, full of modification and compromise,” he writes, noting that we now have difficulty imagining reality outside of a “user-value framework.” Indeed, environmental decimation would be impossible if we had a better way of discussing what is actually happening to the planet. The problem is the language of technology has displaced discussion of nature. A recent edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary added words such as broadband, chatroom, and voice-mail while deleting actor, dandelion, and heron—words the gatekeepers decided were no longer relevant to the experience of childhood.

Yet, as Macfarlane writes, “language does not just register experience, it produces it.” We educate children by the words we teach them. Australian environmental philosopher, Glenn Albrecht, coined the term solastalgia to describe “the pain or distress caused by the loss or lack of solace and the sense of desolation connected to the present state of one’s home and territory.” That’s a word millions of his countrymen are feeling at this very moment.

When I asked Albrecht about Landmarks—Macfarlane offered an overwhelmingly positive blurb on Albrecht’s book, Earth Emotions—he replied,

“One of the major things is the recovery of language, which is being lost in a world which is transforming so rapidly that the old words for the way that humans have culturally and bio-physically evolved are being lost. He’s reviving them and putting them back into the language.”

We can only see what we name. A culture deficient in terminology is incapable of registering what is being destroyed in terms of environmental as well as personal awareness. The above 20 words from Landmarks remind us of what is possible to imagine—and experience—when we have names for it.

Landmarks (Landscapes)
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Stay in touch with Derek on Twitter and Facebook. His next book is Hero’s Dose: The Case For Psychedelics in Ritual and Therapy.

 

 

What is Happening to the Oceans’ Plankton, and what the Hell is Ecocide?

Two recently recognized and extremely important global related issues with seriously concerning elements and rapidly encroaching ecologic disasters are embedded as links in this post. First, If plankton provides nearly 70% of the oxygen that humans breathe and if all the fish in the sea depend on it as a food source, this first story seems more like the beginning of a dystopian novel than a scientific article. We need to keep a close eye on this dangerous development, and hope that a cause is quickly found and that it can be promptly corrected.

Or will we simply go on treating our environmental crises with a yawn and a shrug? Our ecological and environmental world is rapidly coming apart at the seams, including human apathy and neglect, mostly resulting from economic or financial greed, or  “Ecocide” as described in this second important article, but also in a large part from a general attitude of denial and knowledge. ~llaw (12/23/18)

 

First Women in HIstory Admitted to Acclaimed Deep Springs College

Deep Springs College 2018 freshman class includes first women in school history. 10 women and 5 men are admitted to first co-ed class.

For the first time in its 101 year history, Deep Springs college, a highly regarded, but remote and isolated junior college in eastern California, about 40 miles southeast of Bishop near the Nevada border,  has enrolled its first female students. Ten women and five men make up the new class of 2018. The  two-year school’s normal total enrollment is between 25 and 30 students. The large  number of incoming women was to provide at least a 1/3 voice in the student body, who have a significant role in the administration of the college, including student activities and discipline.

This is a great step for gender equality at a school that has spent the past seven years in litigation over whether or not women should be admitted, not to mention pressure from institutions and individuals close to the college for several years before that, including the Telluride Association, which granted (with low interest) the school $1.8 million in 1988 to remodel the main campus building, but with the covenant that it would have to repay the gift as a loan if women were not admitted by 2019. The school managed to beat the deadline by a year. Deep Springs College has had its fair share of problems over its long history, despite its shining reputation as one of the best collegiate prep colleges in the nation, as attested by its remarkable placement of graduates in the most acclaimed Ivy league schools such as Harvard, Yale and Brown, as well as Oxford, Stanford, Cal Tech, MIT, the University of Chicago, and many others, even though it is, by design, a school that is a cattle and hay ranch, and a dairy farm that provides a free education for its students for their hard labor in the pastures, fields and dairy barn.

In a 2006 article, the New Yorker had this to say, in addition to  apparent homosexuality problems, that “Every major change at Deep Springs has been opposed by the students,” said Christopher Breiseth, former college president. Deep Springs’ s all-male self-enclosure allows its students to feel wildly, hedonically free. The shock of returning to the world of social norms can be profound. In 1994, the college voted against coeducation, but the controversial subject has created a fissure in the school’s relationship with the Telluride Association, where women have been members for 45 years.”

Perhaps the reticent and grudgingly awaited arrival of women students at Deep Springs this summer will provide a new cooperative attitude between the school’s board and the student body and instructors, raising the already sterling reputation of the school to the stratosphere of highly regarded and most reputable of America’s institutions  of higher education.  ~llaw

The Most Vital Aspects of Sustaining Human Life

A friend asked me a while back if there was anything more important than politics, money, corporations, religion, and philosophy concerning the fate of our future on the planet. This was my response: “There are three things–respect for science and the feminine way, and hope like hell for help from above.”

There are many apolitical and economically frugal things we can do to improve all of our lives, both individually and collectively, but the most important issue right now and on into the foreseeable future is to reverse our environmental relationship with Mother Earth before it is too late for politics, religion, money, or anything else to matter.

The summer months in the northern hemisphere over he last five years (2014–2018) comprise the five warmest June through August global temperatures recorded in scientific history, and the entire 2018 year was globally the fourth warmest ever, only cooler than the three previous years. We know that the cause is because of human activity despite what climate change deniers and conspiracy theorists (like our president, his administration and sycophants) would like you to believe.

We are fouling our own nests here on earth, not to mention the natural sanctuaries andrefuges of our innocent victimized fauna and flora. We are on the verge of making our planet uninhabitable. Why and how are we doing this? The answer is simple. We have lost touch with our once natural affinityto respect and love our Mother Earth, long forsaken in exchange for insatiable greed and unsustainable personal comfort. We have given virtually nothing back to her, failing to recognize her for all that she has given us to prosper and thrive. But our constant abuse of her for the sake of  human consumption, coupled with our growing lack of thought, appreciation, or consideration for the critical balance between humanity and nature, has resulted in her rebellion, not because she is vengeful or unwilling to help, but because she is ill, infected by viral hordes of human parasites, so she has no choice but to fight back against us in order to survive.  Yet the wealthy tycoons, the arroghant politicians, the behemoth corporations and their minions pay no attention except to ignore, refute, hide, or destroy the scientific warnings, evidence, and data..

As global warming continues to heat up, mainly from carbon emissions, we are faced with growing pollution of air, water, and soil (even the ocean has become a contaminated waste dump), rapidly rising sea levels, wild atmospheric conditions including more severe droughts, tornadoes, hurricanes, forest fires, freakishly intense any-season storms, and unbreatheable air. And all this is happening at a rate almost exponential from climate change models of just a decade or two ago. No longer can we  afford to ignore or deny climate change or global warming r, yet the Trump administration is feverishly rolling back environmental regulations, deleting EPA, NOAA, and NASA historical records, and purging scientific data from government records, libraries and websites.

If we are to survive as a species here on earth–and not take down millions of other species right along with us–our most important mission, bar none, is to reclaim that old natural affinity of respect and love for Mother Earth and hold her in the highest esteem because she is the only one who ultimately provides us with a home that allows us to continue to exist and even thrive on her soil. But if we continue rebukng, procrastinating and ignnoring her modest expectations, we–according to  our most recent scientific evidence–face extinction in the imminent future. We are already feeling the effects, and science is telling us that global warming may be irreversible in less than a decade. Keep in mind that this planet is the only home we have and we cannot survive Mother Nature’s wrath if we continue to despoil her–unless we are  somehow awakened, blessed with a highly unlikely epiphany of some kind– or maybe even a tough-love intervention by a wiser life form from somewhere else in the universe. What are the odds? ~llaw (updated 05/10/2019)