This article, posted below, may be the most ridiculous article and governmental advice about how to survive a “nuclear strike” that I have ever seen anywhere, ever. Perhaps it is a satirical cynical joke?
If not, I guess the British government has no idea what a nuclear ‘strike’ would do to you and your home or your surroundings. And stocking up for three days? How absurd! And a cell phone charger? Flooding roads? Why would you even need a cell phone at all? Wind-up radio? It goes on as though a nuclear ‘strike’ would be no more serious than, say, a Covid-like pandemic or a cyber-attack. Perhaps required reading for the British government should be Annie Jacobsen’s new book, “Nuclear War: A Scenario”. (I didn’t bother to click on the Brit Government’s new website, prepare.campaign.gov.uk,) ~llaw
Brits given chilling government warning on exact items they need at home to survive nuclear strike
A new website has been launched by the Government setting out guidance for the public to prepare for emergencies like another pandemic, a mass cyberattack or nuclear war.
Households have been told what they need to stock up on to survive a nuclear attack
Households should stock up on tinned food, bottled water and a battery-powered or wind radio to prepare for a national emergency.
The Government on Wednesday launched a new website, prepare.campaign.gov.uk, which sets out guidance for the public to prepare for crises. Flooding is warned to be the most common risk for the public, with other emergencies to prepare for including anything from another pandemic to a mass cyberattack that cuts off the internet. Extreme cases could include a nuclear attack in Europe or a volcanic eruption in another country sweeping clouds of highly toxic sulphur dioxide to the UK.
The website provides a document that members of the public can download and fill out to help them prepare a plan for situations where they have no electricity, phone, or internet connection. It recommends having three days worth of supplies. Among items the website says people should stock up on, it lists spare batteries for torches and radios, or a portable power bank for charging your mobile phone. It also suggests keeping a first aid kit, wet wipes, hand sanitiser and baby supplies like nappies and formula in the cupboard.
The list also includes non-perishable food that does not need cooking, such as tinned meat, fruit or vegetables, as well as a tin opener. It adds: “Don’t forget food for pets.” The advise says a minimum of 2.5-3 litres of drinking water per person per day is recommended by the World Health Organisation for survival, adding that 10 litres per person per day will make you “more comfortable” by also providing for basic cooking and hygiene needs.
Ministers want people to prepare for emergencies like flooding.
If an emergency is outside the home, the guidance recommends you stay in, close all windows and doors if necessary, and tune into any national and local news and other trusted sources, such as your local emergency services social media accounts. If the emergency is inside the home then the advice is: Get out, stay out and ring 999.
Among other recommendations to prepare for emergencies, the Government urges people to set a reminder in your phone or make a note on your calendar to check your smoke alarms at least once a month. The guidance also suggests writing down important phone numbers on paper such as the number to report a power cut (105) and the numbers of anyone you might want to contact in an emergency.
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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.
An example would be that an agent can read all of chemistry, learn something about it, have a bunch of hypotheses about the chemistry, run some tests …
… emergencies like another pandemic, a mass cyberattack or nuclear war. … powered or wind radio to prepare for a national emergency. … power bank for …
Russia begins exercises for battlefield nuclear weapons, pointing to Western ‘threats … Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly threatened the …
This article insinuates that the threat of actual nuclear war is more clear than ever, considering that the idea of ‘deterrence’ is a shallow or even hollow threat. It is likely that at this point no nuclear armed country, especially North Korea, would honor the specific deterrent of the ‘non-first-use’ policy, which North Korea abandoned in 2022. And actual ‘first use’ would no doubt be the beginning of the end.
Words, promises, and agreements or doctrines mean nothing to all nuclear armed governments, yet ‘deterrence’ (the idea of fear of each other) is the only flimsy hope we have that a nuclear bomb or two will not be directed at one of the other nuclear armed countries, instantly beginning the holocaust of World War III, from which there will be no victor. WWIII would be the beginning of the 6th Extinction . . . ~llaw
North Korea Reacts to ‘Nuclear Threat’ From US
Published May 20, 2024 at 2:27 PM EDTUpdated May 21, 2024 at 4:14 AM EDT
01:10
China Harbors Russian North Korea Arms Ship, Images Show
North Korea has accused the United States of a “dangerous act” and of hypocrisy following a recent subcritical nuclear test.
“The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea will not allow a strategic imbalance and security vacuum to be created on the Korean peninsula,” North Korea’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Monday, using the country’s official name.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced last week it had successfully carried out the subcritical experiment, which did not trigger a fissile chain reaction, at the Nevada National Security Site.
The agency said it plans to increase the frequency of these tests to gather more data on nuclear weapons materials, without needing to return to explosive testing. The U.S.’s last known nuclear explosion test was in 1992, and the country has since adhered to a moratorium.
The U.S., as the country that has carried out the most nuclear tests, “has no right to comment on anyone’s threat of nuclear war,” the North Korean statement said.
The ministry also pointed out the U.S. had deployed nuclear-capable submarines to South Korea last year, for the first time in decades, and is planning “an actual nuclear operation exercise” with Seoul in August.
North Korea previously warned of a “catastrophic aftermath” if the planned joint military exercises, designed to simulate a response to Pyongyang’s potential use of a nuclear weapon, proceed.
Newsweek reached out to the North Korean embassy in Beijing, China, outside of office hours with a written request for comment.
A U.S. Navy Ohio-class submarine approaches the Mubarak Peace Bridge while transiting the Suez Canal on November 5, 2023. Ballistic missile submarines are part of the U.S.’s “nuclear triad” along with strategic bombers and intercontinental… More MASS COMMUNICATION SPECIALIST 1ST CLASS JONATHAN WORD/U.S. NAVY
North Korea, which has conducted six nuclear tests between 2006 and 2017, has threatened a seventh and in 2022 updated its nuclear doctrine to abandon its non-first-use policy.
The country has also upped the frequency of its ballistic missile tests in recent months, including those it says can be equipped with nuclear warheads.
The international community remains concerned about North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. South Korea, Japan, and the U.S. have repeatedly called for stronger international measures and enforcement of United Nations Security Council sanctions meant to curb Pyongyang’s missile and nuclear programs.
Analysts have suggested North Korean leader Kim Jong Un views his nuclear arsenal as essential to deterring foreign intervention and strengthening his bargaining power.
Tokyo, Seoul, and Washington have agreed to enhance their trilateral cooperation to counter North Korea’s threats.
In his memoir, released Saturday, former South Korean President Moon Jae-in recounted how Kim had “sincerely explained his commitment to denuclearization” during their first summit in 2018.
Hong Min, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute of National Unification, told NK News that Kim’s statements were likely aimed at manipulation while continuing to advance his nuclear capabilities
Update 5/21/24, 4:00 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional context.
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A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
… things at the atomic level. … “Today, many people that are fearful about climate change look at nuclear … All rights reserved (About Us). The material …
The recommended evacuation zone for the Cook power plant in the event of nuclear emergency. (Cook power plant). A nuclear emergency has never occurred …
Six municipalities in Massachusetts would be affected if there were to be an emergency situation at the nuclear power plant in Seabrook, NH. The plant …
… Emergencies Ministry (Gosatomnadzor) led by its head Olga Lugovskaya is taking part in the international conference on nuclear … nuclear power plant.
… nuclear weapons” in the Southern Military … Israel and Hamas at War · Japan · Middle East … nuclear weapons” in the Southern Military District, the …
This well-written and researched article accentuates and corroborates my constant drumming about why such technologies as AI and others that can negatively affect ‘all things nuclear, which’ needs to be shut down and removed from human existence. ~llaw
Emerging Technologies Accentuate the Already Very Serious Threat of Nuclear Weapons
While very serious life-threatening conditions have existed at the planetary level for several decades due to the accumulation of nuclear weapons, a number of emerging technologies are aggravating this danger in several serious and complex ways. The Arms Control Association and author Michael T. Clare have made a very important contribution to the understanding of this grave danger in the form of their very timely report titled ‘ Assessing the Dangers—Emerging Military Technologies and Nuclear (In) Stability’.
This report says, “Increasingly in recent years, the major powers have sought to exploit advanced technologies— artificial intelligence (AI), autonomy, cyber, and hypersonic, among others—for military purposes, with potentially far-ranging, dangerous consequences. Similar to what occurred when chemical and nuclear technologies were first applied to warfare, many analysts believe that the military utilization of AI and other such “emerging technologies” will revolutionize warfare, making obsolete the weapons and the strategies of the past. In accordance with this outlook, the U.S. Department of Defence is allocating ever increasing sums to research on these technologies and their application to military use, as are the militaries of the other major powers. But even as the U.S. military and those of other countries accelerate the exploitation of new technologies for military use, many analysts have cautioned against proceeding with such haste until more is known about the inadvertent and hazardous consequences of doing so. Analysts worry, for example, that AI-enabled systems may fail in unpredictable ways, causing unintended human slaughter or uncontrolled escalation.”
More specifically this report warns, “Of particular concern to arms control analysts is the potential impact of emerging technologies on “strategic stability,” or a condition in which nuclear armed states eschew the first use of nuclear weapons in a crisis. The introduction of weapons employing AI and other emerging technologies could endanger strategic stability by blurring the distinction between conventional and nuclear attack, leading to the premature use of nuclear weapons.”
On the positive side, this report informs us that arms control advocates and citizen activists in many countries have sought to slow the weaponization of AI and other emerging technologies or to impose limits of various sorts on their battlefield employment. To give an example, state parties to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) have considered proposals to ban the development and the deployment of lethal autonomous weapons systems—or “killer robots,” as they are termed by critics.
Providing more details of these trends, tis report tells us that among the most prominent applications of emerging technologies to military use is the widespread introduction of autonomous weapons systems— devices that combine AI software with combat platforms of various sorts (ships, tanks, planes, and so on) to identify, track, and attack enemy targets on their own.
At present, each branch of the U.S. military, and the forces of the other major powers, are developing— and in some cases fielding—several families of autonomous combat systems, including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), unmanned surface vessels (USVs), and unmanned undersea vessels (UUVs). Russian and Chinese forces are also developing and deploying unmanned systems with similar characteristics.
Coming to the problems created by this, the report says,” The development and the deployment of lethal autonomous weapons systems like these raise significant moral and legal challenges. To begin with, such devices are being empowered to employ lethal force against enemy targets, including human beings, without significant human oversight—moves that run counter to the widely-shared moral and religious principle that only humans can take the life of another human. Critics also contend that the weapons will never be able to abide by the laws of war and international humanitarian law, as spelled out in the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 and the Geneva Convention and 1949. These statutes require that warring parties distinguish between combatants and non-combatants when conducting military operations and employ only as much force as required to achieve a specific military objective.”
In recognition of these dangers, a concerted effort has been undertaken under the aegis of the CCW to adopt an additional protocol prohibiting the deployment of lethal autonomous weapons systems.
Regarding hypersonic weapons this report tells us that hypersonic weapons are usually defined as missiles than can travel at more than five times the speed of sound (Mach 5) and fly at lower altitudes than intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), which also fly at hypersonic speeds. At present, the United States, China, Russia, and several other countries are engaged in the development and fielding of two types of hypersonic weapons (both of which may carry either nuclear or conventional warheads): hypersonic glide vehicles (HGVs), unpowered projectiles that “glide” along the Earth’s outer atmosphere after being released from a booster rocket; and hypersonic cruise missiles (HCMs), which are powered by high-speed air-breathing engines, called “scramjets. All three major powers have explored similar types of hypersonic missiles.
Regarding the dangers related to this, the report tells us,” Analysts worry, for example, that the use of hypersonic weapons early in a conventional engagement to subdue an adversary’s critical assets could be interpreted as the prelude to a nuclear first-strike, and so prompt the target state to launch its own nuclear munitions if unsure of its attacker’s intentions.”
Coming to cyber-attack related threats this report tells us these range from cyber-espionage, or the theft of military secrets and technological data, to offensive actions intended to disable an enemy’s command, control, and communications (C3) systems, thereby degrading its ability to wage war successfully. Such operations might also be aimed at an adversary’s nuclear C3 (NC3) systems; in such a scenario, one side or the other—fearing that a nuclear exchange is imminent—could attempt to minimize its exposure to attack by disabling its adversary’s NC3 systems.
Analysts warn, this report says, that any cyber-attack on an adversary’s NC3 systems in the midst of a major crisis or conventional conflict could prove highly destabilizing. “Upon detecting interference in its critical command systems, the target state might well conclude that an adversary had launched a pre-emptive nuclear strike against it, and so might launch its own nuclear weapons rather than risk their loss to the other side.” The widespread integration of conventional with nuclear C3 compounds these dangers.
The major powers also plan, this report tells us, to rely increasingly on AIenabled battlefield decision-making systems to aid human commanders in processing vast amounts of data on enemy movements and identifying possible combat responses. The increased automation of battlefield decision making, especially given the likely integration of nuclear and conventional C3 systems, gives rise to numerous concerns. Many of these technologies are still in their infancy and prone to often unanticipated malfunctions.
This import report concludes, “The drive to exploit emerging technologies for military use has accelerated at a much faster pace than efforts to assess the dangers they pose and to establish limits on their use. It is essential, then, to slow the pace of weaponizing these technologies, to carefully weigh the risks in doing so, and to adopt meaningful restraints on their military use.”
The following proposed action steps, derived from the toolbox developed by arms control advocates over many years of practice and experimentation, are suggested in this report to reduce risks..
• Awareness-Building: Efforts to educate policymakers and the general public about the risks posed by the unregulated military use of emerging technologies.
• Track 2 and Track 1.5 Diplomacy: Discussions among scientists, engineers, and arms control experts from the major powers to identify the risks posed by emerging technologies and possible strategies for their control. “Track 2 diplomacy” of this sort can be expanded at some point to include governmental experts (“Track 1.5 diplomacy”).
• Unilateral and Joint Initiatives: Steps taken by the major powers on their own or among groups of like-minded states to reduce the risks associated with emerging technologies in the absence of formal arms control agreements to this end.
• Strategic Stability Talks: Discussions among senior officials of China, Russia, and the United States on the risks to strategic stability posed by the weaponization of certain emerging technologies and on joint measures to diminish these risks. These can be accompanied by confidence-building measures (CBMs), intended to build trust in implementing and verifying formal agreements in this area.
• Bilateral and Multilateral Arrangements: Once the leaders of the major powers come to appreciate the escalatory risks posed by the weaponization of emerging technologies, it may be possible for them to reach accord on bilateral and multilateral arrangements intended to minimize these risks.
One hopes that the warnings and recommendations presented in this report get wide attention of peace activists as well as policy makers.
Bharat Dogra is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Planet in Peril, Protecting Earth for Children, Earth without Borders and A Day in 2071.
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A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
Israel and Hamas at War · Japan · Middle East … Kremlin says military will hold nuclear exercises in appropriate timeframe … MOSCOW, May 20 (Reuters) …
… nuclear threat, denouncing Washington for its recent subcritical nuclear test. … nuclear war threats from others. North Korea “will not tolerate the …
Repeating and clarifying my comments from last night, I am hoping that folks will begin to wake up to the fact that all of us are living in an irresponsible world of powerful self-aggrandizing maniacs with nuclear weapons and other nuclear toys that threatens virtually all life on planet Earth. The only way to stop it is to massively vocalize our objection all of it to the leaders of our own governments. They will pay no attention to small groups of dissenters, and, in fact may not pay any attention to the masses either. But we must try; otherwise our inability to survive something like a nuclear WWIII is a forgone conclusion.
From last night’s blog Post #634 (edited): “These same futile economic and safety issues, along with years of delay to engineer, construct, and receive governmental regulatory approval of any nuclear power facility anywhere on the planet apply globally. Many other serious concerns are, of course, never going to go away until the use of ‘all things nuclear’ is discontinued and all products, reactors, buildings and facilities are forever barred and buried deep in irretrievable vaults around the planet.
The issue of electricity cost for the middle classes around the world absolutely makes the cost of generating electricity for our day-to-day use absolutely prohibitive. So, even if you don’t care or worry about all those life-threatening issues about ‘all things nuclear’ that I write about every day trying to get your much-needed attention, at least you should be concerned about how you and your children’s futures can possibly afford to pay the cost of more and more proposed nuclear power plants coming online over the next three decades. The six times more expensive than now issue of your power bills, by the way, is, in my opinion, far understated, especially because of the coming availability of producing and providing nuclear fuel to such an impractical, useless, and probably impossible idea of what those who know the industry facetiously call the misleading formula “net zero”, intended to end increases in global warming and climate change caused by CO2 and the primary six other greenhouse gasses (GHG).
We must put a stop to this ridiculous propaganda that is being shoved down our throats clouding our minds with pretended optimism that just does not exist by the nuclear industry, along with the support of global governments. They know the mission is impossible, and it is only right that we should know, too, and demand that the right thing is done — meaning to destroy all nuclear products (bombs, first) and realize that earthlings will have to make do with naturally created electricity that is not only affordable, but breathable. Otherwise, we soon will not need any power plants of any kind at all, and we will take most other life on planet Earth with us to Her 6th Extinction. ~llaw
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There are 6 categories, including a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives, as do ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links in each category about the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
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Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
To show it shares Saudi concerns about Iran’s nuclear … 3 days ago. Rising / 3 days ago. See all Hill.TV See all Video … things to know about Biden’s …
The country’s first nuclear power plant is being constructed at Rooppur in Pabna with the financial and technical support of Russia. The Atomic Energy …
Although this article was commissioned for Australia, the same economic, safety, and years of delay times to engineer, construct, and governmentally approve any nuclear power facility anywhere on the planet. Many other serious concerns are, of course, never going to go away until the use of ‘all things nuclear’ is discontinued and all products, buildings and facilities are forever barred and buried deep in irretrievable vaults on the planet.
But the issue of electricity cost for the middle classes around the world absolutely makes the cost of generating electricity for our day-to-day use absolutely prohibitive. So, even if you don’t care or worry about all those life-threatening issues about ‘all things nuclear that I write about every day trying to get your much-needed attention, at least you should be concerned about how you and your children’s futures can possibly afford to pay the cost of more and more nuclear power plants coming online over the next three decades. The six times more expensive than now issue of your power bills, by the way, is, in my opinion, well understated, especially because of the coming availability of producing and providing nuclear fuel to such an impractical, useless, and probably impossible idea of what we who know the industry intentionally call the misleading formula “net zero” for ending increases in global warming and climate change caused by CO2 and primary six other greenhouse gasses (GHG).
We must put a stop to this ridiculous propaganda that is being shoved down our throats clouding our minds with mindless optimism that just does not exist by the nuclear industry with the support of global governments. They know the mission is impossible, and it is only right that we should know, too, and demand the right things are done — meaning destroy all nuclear products (bombs, first) and find that earthlings will have to make do with naturally created electricity that is not only affordable, but breathable. Otherwise, we soon will not need any power plants of any kind at all, and we will take most other life on planet Earth with us to Her 6th Extinction. ~llaw
An independent report commissioned by the Clean Energy Council and conducted by Egis, a leading global consulting, construction and engineering firm, has confirmed that nuclear is the most expensive form of new energy in Australia.
The review analysed the CSIRO and Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO)’s GenCost report against the Lazard Review and the Mineral Council of Australia (MCA)’s research into Small Modular Nuclear Reactors.
The report has these key findings:
The research confirmed that nuclear energy is up to six times more expensive than renewable energy and even on the most favourable reading for nuclear, renewables remain the cheapest form of new-build electricity.
The safe operation of nuclear power requires strong nuclear safety regulations and enforcement agencies, none of which exist in Australia. Establishing these frameworks and new bodies would take a long time and require significant government funding which would ultimately be borne by taxpayers.
Nuclear may be even higher cost than currently forecast as waste management and decommissioning of nuclear plants have been omitted by cost calculations in the relevant research available.
The economic viability of nuclear energy will further diminish as more wind, solar and battery storage enters the grid, in line with legislated targets. Put simply, nuclear plants are too heavy and too slow to compete with renewables and can’t survive on their own in Australian energy markets.
Clean Energy Council Chief Executive, Kane Thornton, said the Egis Review proved that households would need to pay a hefty price to subsidise a sub-optimal future powered by nuclear reactors.
“This report confirms the CSIRO’s findings that nuclear energy is six times the cost of renewable energy and that replacing renewables would cause power prices to explode,” Thornton said.
“Taxpayers also need to understand the costs that will be borne if they are forced to foot the bill for building a nuclear industry from scratch over a period of decades.
“Nuclear power is also a poor fit with our increasingly renewable power system. Nuclear power stations are expensive and have to run constantly in order to break even. But that doesn’t work in a world with an abundance of cheap renewables. Nuclear power stations aren’t designed to ramp up and down to match free energy from renewables – for that we need more energy storage.
“At the Clean Energy Council, we support a clear-eyed view of the costs and time required to decarbonise Australia and right now, nuclear simply doesn’t stack up.”
The Egis report also found the MCA’s research on Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) in the Australian context is already out of date and flawed, as it did not anticipate the current long delay in SMR projects around the world. The MCA research is also based on uncertain cost estimates for projects that have not yet begun construction, or academic research that has not been tested in the field.
The MCA’s research on the issue also considered the NuScale Power project, which has since been cancelled due to large cost overruns.
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There are 6 categories, including a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives, as do ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links in each category about the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
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Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
It should be noted that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has approved the discharge of water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant into …
New Star Wars Plan: Pentagon Rushes to Counter Threats in Orbit … nuclear missile strikes. “We must protect our … war fighter doctrine describes this …
By forward deploying theatre level nuclear weapons to the region on U.S. warships would counter-China’s missile force threat and threaten its homeland …
Why do we continue on with the concept of building new nuclear power plants and rehabilitating old ones when we are at the same time faced with the possibility of a nuclear war in which nuclear power plants will inevitably be included as war weapons of mass destruction. The concept is happening already in the Russia/Ukraine war at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Are we really that ignorant and foolish that we would, “cut off our noses to spite our faces?” — to quote an old saying. There are much safer, quicker, easier, cheaper, and better ways to meet our electricity needs.
The following short article is remarkably understated (as might be expected by a go-between agency), but still the extreme danger is recognized. There have been dozens of critically dangerous attacks by Russian military for many months, some of them putting other European nations at risk of radiation poisoning. ~llaw
Read on . . .
IAEA staff observe emergency drill at Zaporizhzhia
17 May 2024
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The International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Rafael Mariano Grossi says that regular drills and exercises at Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant “are especially important in view of the extraordinary risks it is currently facing”.
In his latest update on the situation at the six-unit plant, which has been under Russian military control since early March 2022, IAEA Director General Grossi said: “The IAEA will remain present at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) for as long as it is needed. The nuclear safety and security situation at the plant remains extremely precarious and challenging. Thanks to our experts at the site, we can inform the world about developments there. We will continue to do everything in our power to keep this major nuclear facility safe and secure.”
Each team of IAEA staff spend roughly a month at a time there. The latest changeover – the 19th since the first team arrived in September 2022 – took place on Thursday, with the journey for those arriving and leaving involving crossing the frontline of Russian and Ukrainian forces.
Grossi said that over recent days the members of the team performed walks within the perimeter of the plant and other buildings to monitor adherence to the UN-backed principles that nuclear power plants should not be fired at, or from, or be used as a base for heavy military weaponry and equipment.
The update said: “They did not observe any heavy weapons or indications that drones could have been launched from the ZNPP. However, the IAEA experts are still not permitted to access all areas of the ZNPP.”
On Wednesday, the IAEA experts at the plant observed an emergency drill take place, based on the scenario of damage to a pipe connected to one of the sprinkler ponds providing cooling water to cool unit 1 and its safety systems. The exercise involved plant staff pumping water into the sprinkler pond and repairing the damaged pipe while also ensuring safety systems and back up generators remained operational. “The IAEA team’s opinion was that the exercise was well organised and that the personnel responded effectively,” the update said.
Grossi added: “It is essential for all nuclear facilities to have effective emergency preparedness and response arrangements. For this purpose, regular drills and exercises are necessary. Clearly, for the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, they are especially important in view of the extraordinary risks it is currently facing.”
IAEA teams at the other nuclear power plants in Ukraine reported nuclear safety and security being maintained, although the team at Rivne NPP reported that attacks on the energy infrastructure elsewhere in Ukraine “had resulted in instability in the back-up power lines connected to the plant”.
Researched and written by World Nuclear News
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This is one of the best and easiest to understand definitions of our ridiculous reliance on something called ‘deterrence’ to permanently avoid nuclear war through the thin veil of ‘threats’ that, if acted upon, would without doubt lead to a nuclear WWIII. Given human nature we have long known that words (including written and signed legal agreements among nations) mean nothing to countries when potential war is involved. And ‘ nuclear deterrence’ means even less. Consider this description (borrowed rom the commentary below) of ‘deterrence’ between you and your neighbor: ~llaw
The problem is that threats with nuclear weapons are extreme, by their nature, promising massive and devastating harm. It is very difficult to use nuclear weapons without killing civilians and turning large areas into rubble. This triggers something in human nature. Such catastrophic threats cross a line; they create wariness, mistrust, and avoidance in the person being threatened. If your neighbour threatens to kill you and shoot your children and then burn down your house and strangle your dog, you will find it difficult to coexist with, trust, or work cooperatively with that person forever after. Extreme actions and extreme threats make normal relations problematic going forward. ~from the European Leadership Network
Commentary| 16 May 2024
The extreme nature of nuclear deterrence
Ward Wilson |Executive Director of RealistRevolt, former senior fellow at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies and BASIC
Paul Ingram |Research affiliate at the University of Cambridge Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER)
The wars in Ukraine, the Middle East, and Africa are raging in the context of rising great power competition on the one hand and, on the other, urgent issues that demand global cooperation, such as climate change and the crises in liberal democracies. Attitudes in Europe appear to have hardened significantly since the disastrous Russian invasion of Ukraine. Fearful of an aggressive Russia and believing that there is a need for a stronger European nuclear deterrent, Poland has been testing the waters to see whether it could host US nuclear weapons, and even recently, non-aligned Finland has also been considering nuclear deployments. Responding to the possibility of a new Trump Presidency and doubt over US commitments to Europe, debate has opened up in Germany over building a nuclear force of its own — a move that would irrevocably blow a hole in the global nonproliferation regime.
Looming over all is the shadow of nuclear conflict and talk of a possible Third World War. Confidence in the stability of nuclear deterrence is hitting a new low, yet states appear to be doubling down on their bets. Many states’ leadership profess a shared faith in nuclear deterrence as a contribution to stability (at least when they or their allies control it), but this is probably because they have no idea of any alternative.
There is no question that nuclear threats are so frightening that they can work in dissuading states from aggression (or joining a war). It is said that Russia has been deterred from attacking NATO members or supply lines into Ukraine, and NATO has been deterred from joining the war with boots on the ground or no-fly zones. But the risk is fearsome, and the deterrent effects can wane over time.
It is an obvious but inconvenient truth that nuclear deterrence demands the signalling and credible readiness to fight a nuclear war. The risk of nuclear war is, therefore, baked into nuclear deterrence. As a result, suggestions to reduce nuclear risk, for example, by issuing no-first-use declarations, consistently run up against objections that they’re not practical or undermine the credible threat at the heart of deterrence. Questions about whether or how often nuclear deterrence may fail catastrophically only serve to strengthen deterrence in the minds of advocates.
One additional core problem is often overlooked. Even when nuclear deterrence works, it leaves a residue of poison behind in international relationships, just as a detonated nuclear weapon leaves a trail of invisible radioactive fallout downwind.
The problem is that threats with nuclear weapons are extreme, by their nature, promising massive and devastating harm. It is very difficult to use nuclear weapons without killing civilians and turning large areas into rubble. This triggers something in human nature. Such catastrophic threats cross a line; they create wariness, mistrust, and avoidance in the person being threatened. If your neighbour threatens to kill you and shoot your children and then burn down your house and strangle your dog, you will find it difficult to coexist with, trust, or work cooperatively with that person forever after. Extreme actions and extreme threats make normal relations problematic going forward.
The consequences arising from the use of nuclear weapons are so extreme that the very threat dehumanises those on the receiving end and brutalises those making the threats. President Putin’s reminders of Russia’s nuclear capabilities in early 2022 were a shock, and appear to be the root cause of resentment many in Europe feel towards him, even in the face of his actual destruction in Ukraine. This is despite the fact that analysts find it challenging to articulate what it was about his exact words that departed from past implied nuclear threats supporting aggressive military action (such as UK Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon against non-nuclear Iraq in March 2002).
Nuclear deterrence harms cohesion within the international community. Yet the need for cooperation among the nations of the international community has never been more urgent. Rising hostility and confrontation are all but destroying the international community’s capacity to tackle the tremendous common challenges of our time: the weakening fabric of our societies and the rise of populism; responding to climate change; reversing the destruction of our planet’s ecosystems; and managing weapons of mass destruction and the terrifying destructive possibilities arising from disruptive technologies such as AI. Greater collaboration between governments across many activities is essential for our collective survival. Efforts by many states in the international community to isolate Russia have disrupted negotiations in international fora. One example was the 2022 NPT Review Conference, when there was an attempt to get a consensus agreement that all nuclear power facilities in Ukraine should be under the control of Ukrainians (a demand that Russia would clearly veto).
Although the practice of nuclear deterrence is generally thought of within nuclear-armed states as relatively benign – it carries with it often unnoticed adverse effects, diluting the soft power of those states that practice it. Ward Wilson and Paul Ingram
Although the practice of nuclear deterrence is generally thought of within nuclear-armed states as relatively benign – like an invisible shield that protects nations from harm – it carries with it often unnoticed adverse effects, diluting the soft power of those states that practice it. Nuclear-armed states threaten global security and drive arms-racing behaviour and are perenially criticised by other states at every nuclear nonproliferation conference. Evidence that the use of nuclear deterrence may be wearing thin within the majority world is the emergence of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons — which now has more than 80 signatories and has entered into force. States parties to the Treaty are engaged in a host of serious activities aimed at re-evaluating and replacing nuclear deterrence as a defining feature of global politics. The very nature of nuclear deterrence – the credible threat to annihilate the other – exacerbates the current high levels of tension and angry antagonism between the three largest nuclear powers: Russia, the United States, and China.
When nuclear weapons first arrived on the scene, they were hailed by those responsible for US nuclear doctrine as tools that could do virtually anything, but over time, a certain amount of reality has sunk in. Some believe a “nuclear taboo” has developed, but perhaps the more plausible explanation for their non-use since 1945 is that they are simply too big and too destructive for fighting wars. Our militaries keep hold of them in the belief that within their integrated deterrence strategies (in which nuclear-armed states propose a broad toolbox of capabilities to uphold deterrence), nuclear weapons have an irreplaceable role. But in a world where there are many ways to deliver strategic deterrence across a wide range of effects, ways that are likely to be more credible than the threat of a nuclear attack, it is time to reverse the slide into a new nuclear arms race and instead let go of the dangerous and doubtful belief that nuclear weapons are essential.
Of course, if other tools for effective strategic deterrence are more effective and credible, states could adopt them unilaterally. But this transformation is more likely if they come around to recognising these realities in tandem together. The N5 (formally misnamed P5) Process meeting of nuclear weapon states has continued to meet at the working level and has been discussing nuclear postures. In August, the Chair will be taken on by the Chinese, who rejuvenated the process when they last chaired five years ago. They are set to invite their fellow Nuclear Weapon States to consider the no-first-use doctrine. Still, perhaps they could also kick off a shared process that questions their received wisdom and explores the fundamental utility of nuclear deterrence itself.
The opinions articulated above represent the views of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of the European Leadership Network or any of its members. The ELN’s aim is to encourage debates that will help develop Europe’s capacity to address the pressing foreign, defence, and security policy challenges of our time.
Image: Shutterstock
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Furthermore, the VVER-1200 type being built as part of the Paks II nuclear power plant project (in central Hungary) can generate electricity for up to …
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What are we going to do about nuclear waste? Governments everywhere are finally beginning to realize that “folks we have a problem.” The recent story (see “LLAW’s All Things Nuclear #621 (05/05/2024)” that I posted about the iron-clad underground inner sanctum that Finland is constructing should be required of every country with nuclear waste of every kind from every source. That would be a beginning and a positive move to take all nuclear waste seriously. The following comprehensive recent article from “The Bulletin” tells us how serious this issue is and why it must be done . . . ~llaw
Spent nuclear fuel mismanagement poses a major threat to the United States and around the world. I have refrained from posting this article earlier, because it is frightening to read. (and, by the way, for our California and surrounding states, PG&E is mentioned in the story.):
Power transmission lines near Dixon, California on August 12, 2012. A widespread collapse of the US power grid system could threaten nuclear facilities, including overloaded spent fuel pools. (Credit: Photo by Wendell/intherough, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 via Flickr)
Irradiated fuel assemblies—essentially bundles of fuel rods with zirconium alloy cladding sheathing uranium dioxide fuel pellets—that have been removed from a nuclear reactor (spent fuel) generate a great deal of heat from the radioactive decay of the nuclear fuel’s unstable fission products. This heat source is termed decay heat. Spent fuel is so thermally hot and radioactive that it must be submerged in circulating water and cooled in a storage pool (spent fuel pool) for several years before it can be moved to dry storage.
The dangers of reactor meltdowns are well known. But spent fuel can also overheat and burn in a storage pool if its coolant water is lost, thereby potentially releasing large amounts of radioactive material into the air. This type of accident is known as a spent fuel pool fire or zirconium fire, named after the fuel cladding. All commercial nuclear power plants in the United States—and nearly all in the world—have at least one spent fuel pool on site. A fire at an overloaded pool (which exist at many US nuclear power plants) could release radiation that dwarfs what the Chernobyl nuclear accident emitted.
Many analysts see very rare, severe earthquakes as the greatest threat to spent fuel pools; however, another far more likely event could threaten US nuclear sites: a widespread collapse of the power grid system. Such a collapse could be triggered by a variety of events, including solar storms, physical attacks, and cyberattacks—all of which are known, documented possibilities. Safety experts have warned for decades about the dangers of overloading spent fuel pools, but the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Congress have refused to act.
The threat of overloaded spent fuel pools. Spent fuel pools at US nuclear plants are almost as densely packed with nuclear fuel as operating reactors—a hazard that has existed for decades and vastly increases the odds of having a major accident.
Spent fuel assemblies could ignite—starting a zirconium fire—if an overloaded pool were to lose a sizable portion or all of its coolant water. In a scenario in which coolant water boils off, uncovered zirconium cladding of fuel assemblies may overheat and chemically react with steam, generating explosive hydrogen gas. A substantial amount of hydrogen would almost certainly detonate, destroying the building that houses the spent fuel pool. (Only a small quantity of energy is required to ignite hydrogen gas, including electric sparks from equipment. It is speculated a ringing telephone initiated a hydrogen explosion that occurred during the Three Mile Island accident in 1979.)
A zirconium fire in an exposed spent fuel pool would have the potential to emit far more radioactive cesium 137 than the Chernobyl accident released. (The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has conducted analyses that found a zirconium fire at a densely packed pool could release as much as 24 megacuries of cesium 137; the Chernobyl accident is estimated to have released 2.3 megacuries of cesium 137.) Such a disaster could contaminate thousands of square miles of land in urban and rural areas, potentially exposing millions of people to large doses of ionizing radiation, many of whom could die from early or latent cancer.
In contrast, if a thinly packed pool were deprived of coolant water, its spent fuel assemblies would likely release about 1 percent of the radioactive material predicted to be released by a zirconium fire at a densely packed pool. A thinly packed pool has a much smaller inventory of radioactive material than a densely packed pool; it also contains much less zirconium. If such a limited amount of zirconium were to react with steam, most likely too little hydrogen would be generated to threaten the integrity of the spent fuel pool building.
After being cooled under water for a minimum of three years, spent fuel assemblies can be transferred from pools to giant, hermetically sealed canisters of reinforced steel and concrete that shield plant workers and the public from ionizing radiation. This liquid-free method of storage, which cools the spent fuel assemblies by passive air convection, is called “dry cask storage.”
A typical US storage pool for a 1,000-megawatt-electric reactor contains from 400 to 500 metric tons of spent fuel assemblies. (Dry casks can store 10 to 15 tons of spent fuel assemblies, so each cask contains a far lower amount of radioactive material than a storage pool.) Reducing the total inventories of spent fuel assemblies stored in US spent fuel pools by roughly 70 to 80 percent reduces their amount of radioactive cesium by about 50 percent. And the heat load in each pool drops by about 25 to 30 percent. With low-density storage, a pool’s spent fuel assemblies are separated from each other to an extent that greatly improves their ability to be cooled by air convection in the event that the pool loses its coolant water. Moreover, a dry cask storage area, which has passive cooling, is less vulnerable to either accidents or sabotage than a spent fuel pool.
In the aftermath of the March 2011 Fukushima Daiichi accident in Japan, in which there was a risk of spent fuel assemblies igniting, the NRC considered forcing US utilities to expedite the transfer of all sufficiently-cooled spent fuel assemblies stored in overloaded pools to dry cask storage. The NRC decided against implementing such a safety measure.
To help justify its decision, the NRC chose to analyze only one scenario that might lead to a zirconium fire: a severe earthquake. In 2014, the NRC claimed that a severe earthquake with a magnitude “expected to occur once in 60,000 years” is the prototypical initiating event that would lead to a zirconium fire in a boiling water reactor’s spent fuel pool.
The NRC’s 2014 study concluded that the type of earthquake it selected for its analyses would cause a zirconium fire and a large radiological release to occur at a densely packed spent fuel pool once every nine million years (or even less frequently). Restricting its analyses to a severe earthquake scenario allowed the NRC to help allay public fears over the dangers of spent fuel pool accidents. (At the time of the Fukushima Daiichi accident, the New York Times and other news outlets warned that a zirconium fire could break out in the plant’s Unit 4 spent fuel pool, causing global public concern.)
There is good reason to question whether severe earthquakes pose the greatest threat to spent fuel pools. A widespread collapse of the US power grid system that would last for a period of months to years—estimated to occur once in a century—may be far more likely to lead to a zirconium fire than a severe earthquake. The prospect that a widespread, long-term blackout will occur within the next 100 years should prompt US utilities to expedite the transfer of spent fuel from pools to dry cask storage. Utilities in other nations, including in Japan, that have overloaded pools should follow suit.
Solar storms, physical attacks, and cyberattacks have the potential to cause a nightmare scenario in which the US power grid collapses, along with other vital infrastructures—leading to reactor meltdowns and spent fuel pool fires, whose radioactive emissions would aggravate the disaster.
Vulnerability to solar storms. In 2012, the NRC issued a Federal Register notice stating that an extreme solar storm (with its accompanying geomagnetic storm at the Earth) could cause the failure of hundreds of extra-high voltage transformers—with a maximum voltage rating of at least 345 kilovolts—precipitating widespread, long-term blackouts. The NRC posited that such a solar storm might occur once in 153 years to once in 500 years and initiate “a series of events potentially leading to [reactor] core damage at multiple nuclear sites.”
The NRC’s Federal Register notice announced the agency had determined that the threat of prolonged power outages leading to at least one spent fuel pool fire must be addressed in its rulemaking process. The NRC decided to consider enacting regulations that Thomas Popik of the Foundation for Resilient Societies, a non-profit organization focusing on infrastructure reliability, requested in a petition for rulemaking. Popik asked the NRC to require plant owners to ensure spent fuel pools would have long-term cooling and a replenished supply of coolant water in the event that an extreme solar storm collapsed large portions of the US power grid for a period of months to years. Among other things, Popik was concerned that emergency diesel generators would not be able to supply the onsite electricity needed to cool the spent fuel pool for more than a few days.
Over the past 160 years, the Earth has been hit by two solar superstorms—the 1859 Carrington Event and the 1921 New York Railroad Superstorm—that would be powerful enough to disable large portions of today’s global power grids. Scientists estimate that such extreme solar storms may hit the Earth once in a century, so the odds are that the Earth will be hit by a solar superstorm at some point during this century. In July 2012, a solar superstorm, estimated to have been more intense than the Carrington Event, crossed the Earth’s orbit, missing the Earth by about 1.8 million miles, or by one week’s time.
Solar superstorms are caused by coronal mass ejections: Eruptions of billions of tons of electrically-charged particles spat from the Sun’s corona, which travel at velocities as fast as several million miles per hour and can reach the Earth within 24 hours. Most coronal mass ejections, however, miss the Earth because it is a relatively small point within the solar system.
When a solar superstorm’s electrically-charged particles envelop the Earth, they cause extreme geomagnetic storms—mostly affecting high northern and southern latitudes. In a geomagnetic storm, the Earth’s geomagnetic field varies in magnitude, creating electric fields in the ground that induce electric currents in the power grid. Extreme geomagnetic storms may induce electric currents strong enough to melt the copper windings of extra-high voltage transformers, which may become damaged beyond repair and need to be replaced.
Extra-high voltage transformers are mostly manufactured overseas and difficult to transport. (Such transformers weigh between 100 and 400 tons.) In the United States, only a small number of facilities build extra-high voltage transformers. They cost several million dollars to manufacture and install; each is custom made to fit the specifications of its substation. Different designs are not typically interchangeable with one another, and few spares are manufactured. Manufacturing and installing even one such massive transformer can take over one year.
Solar storms that were far less intense than the New York Railroad Superstorm have collapsed modern power grids. In the early hours of March 13, 1989, on a freezing night, a geomagnetic storm caused Canada’s Hydro-Québec grid to collapse within 90 seconds, leaving six million people without electric power for about 9 hours. (The magnitude of geomagnetic storms can be measured in nanoteslas per minute, where the tesla is a unit of magnetic flux density.) The New York Railroad Superstorm is estimated to have reached a magnitude of approximately 5,000 nanoteslas per minute, and the March 1989 Storm was one-tenth as intense, reaching approximately 480 nanoteslas per minute. In late October 2003, geomagnetic storms less intense than the March 1989 Storm caused a blackout in southern Sweden and permanently damaged 15 extra-high voltage transformers in South Africa by overheating them.
Solar storms can cause large geomagnetic field variations to suddenly materialize over vast geographic areas, precipitating multiple, near-simultaneous failures at different locations of the electric power grid system. Over the past half century, the United States and other nations have dramatically expanded their power grids—adding more long-distance transmission lines and high-voltage infrastructure—thereby increasing their vulnerability to geomagnetic storms. Moreover, the aging of vital power-grid infrastructures also increases the grid’s vulnerability.
Vulnerability to physical attacks. On April 16, 2013, gunmen attacked the Metcalf Transmission Substation in San Jose, California, rendering it out of service. The gunmen shot 120 rounds from semiautomatic rifles, hitting 17 extra-high voltage transformers. The transformers leaked more than 50,000 gallons of cooling oil. They overheated, without exploding, and shut down. According to Jon Wellinghoff, a former Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Metcalf attack nearly caused a blackout in Silicon Valley; one that may have persisted for a period of several weeks.
In response to the assault on Metcalf, its owner—Pacific Gas and Electric—decided to spend $100 million over the course of three years to help fortify its substations. That did not prevent thieves, in August 2014, from cutting through a fence at Metcalf and pilfering construction equipment that was intended to bolster security. It took utility workers more than four hours to realize the substation had been burgled.
In January 2022, the Department of Homeland Security warned that domestic terrorists have been devising credible strategies for sabotaging the US power grid over the past few years. Protecting all 55,000 substations that make up the US grid, however, is a difficult task. In December 2022, at least one malefactor shot at and severely damaged two substations—owned by Duke Energy—in North Carolina’s Moore County, located about 90 miles east of Charlotte. Around 45,000 homes and businesses lost electricity as a result, and tens of thousands of customers got their power restored only after several days. Commenting on the Moore County attacks, Wellinghoff observed that “most [substations] don’t seem to be very well protected. Many of them still have chain link fences, like the one in North Carolina.”
In 2014, The Wall Street Journalreported that a US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission analysis had concluded that if saboteurs synchronized physical attacks and disabled as few as nine critical power substations, especially on a hot summer day, the entire US mainland could lose electric power for several months. Unfortunately, determining or simply procuring information about the locations of the most critical substations in the continental US is a relatively easy task.
Malefactors can also physically attack substations remotely. For instance, drones armed with improvised explosive devices could target US substations in synchronized swarms, potentially collapsing the power grid. In September 2022, Russia attacked civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, including the Ukrainian power grid, with waves of Iranian Shahed-136, “kamikaze” drones. These drones can carry up to 110 pounds (50 kilograms) of explosives over hundreds of miles. Kamikaze drones explode on impact. In October 2022, Russian kamikaze drones partly disrupted the delivery of electricity in the three major Ukrainian cities of Kharkiv, Kyiv, and Lviv.
Vulnerability to cyberattacks. In December 2015, Russian hackers caused power outages in Ukraine by remotely opening circuit breakers, thereby cutting off the flow of electricity, at dozens of substations. It is the first confirmed instance, worldwide, that a cyberattack caused a blackout. Within minutes, the hackers targeted three energy utilities, causing outages that lasted six hours and affected nearly a quarter-million people. Fortunately, the Ukrainian power grid has the odd benefit of being partly antiquated. It is not completely dependent on computer control systems; that is, industrial control systems and supervisory control and data acquisition (also known as “SCADA”) systems, which monitor and command an electric grid’s physical equipment. Ukrainian grid operators were able to turn the power back on by bypassing their compromised control systems and manually closing circuit breakers at affected substations. One year later, in December 2016, another Russian cyberattack would cause a second blackout in Ukraine.
The 2016 cyberattack was more sophisticated than that of 2015. Power was restored after one hour; however, the hackers shut down a large Kyiv substation that handled a greater electric load (200 megawatts) than the total load handled by the dozens of substations that had been successfully targeted the previous year. The hackers deployed malware—later named “CrashOverride”—that analysts have characterized as “an automated, grid-killing weapon.”
CrashOverride was designed to communicate with the Ukrainian power grid’s particular computer control systems, enabling it to manipulate the behavior of physical equipment at substations. At a preset time, CrashOverride opened circuit breakers at targeted substations to precipitate the blackout, without requiring oversight from hackers.
Malware programs like CrashOverride can also be tailored to attack European and North American power grids. Some analysts have posited that Ukraine is “Russia’s test lab for cyberwar,” noting that “in the cyber world, what happens in Kiev almost never stays in Kiev.” The US power grid is more computerized and automated than Ukraine’s grid, providing many openings for cyber infiltration. The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has warned that the interconnectivity of SCADA systems exposes the US power grid to cyberattacks.
Given enough time, hackers could penetrate US transmission networks and plant CrashOverride or another tailored malware at any number of desired locations. CrashOverride can automatically execute the task of scanning transmission networks and selecting multiple targets, including those that control automated on-off switches for circuit breakers. Once entrenched, CrashOverride is set “like a ticking bomb,” ready to sow chaos in power grid systems at any specified time.
Analysts at Dragos and Eset, two cyber-security companies for critical infrastructure, have pointed out that CrashOverride contains some code indicating it has the capacity to disable protective relays, which protect transmission lines and transformers against electric surges by opening circuit breakers. If hackers rendered protective relays inoperable while increasing local electric loads, they could cause transmission lines to melt and transformers to burn. Wide portions of the US grid could become disabled for months to years if hackers managed to destroy many extra-high voltage transformers.
In 2016, Idaho National Laboratory analysts came to similar conclusions as those at Dragos and Eset, warning that a major cyberattack on the US grid could seriously damage critical equipment, including extra-high voltage transformers, and lead to cascading blackouts. Some substations have networks that are incapable of detecting hackers’ intrusions and planted malware. INL analysts have cautioned that hackers could exploit such vulnerabilities to launch a coordinated cyberattack against multiple substations. Five years later, in June 2021, US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm acknowledged that hackers have the capability to shut down the US power grid.
Insufficient public safety. After the Fukushima Daiichi accident, the US nuclear industry established the Diverse and Flexible Mitigation Capability (FLEX) strategy, which is intended to help workers at nuclear plants manage a severe accident. The FLEX strategy stipulates that plant sites store portable equipment, such as backup generators and battery packs that can provide emergency power and pumps that can inject coolant water into the reactor or spent fuel pool. Such equipment is also stored at two national response centers, located in Memphis, Tennessee and Phoenix, Arizona. The response centers must be capable of dispatching required equipment to any nuclear plant located in the United States within 24 hours. However, each center only houses five complete sets of FLEX equipment, not nearly enough equipment to simultaneously service the entire US nuclear reactor fleet.
In a long-term, nationwide blackout, US nuclear power plants would lose their supply of offsite electricity. Emergency diesel generators, which provide onsite electricity, are back-up systems designed to power cooling pumps and other safety equipment only for a relatively short period of time. Such generators would likely fail to operate continuously for a period of months to years. The longest loss-of-offsite power events in the United States all lasted less than a week.
Most US nuclear plants are required to have at least a seven-day onsite supply of fuel for emergency diesel generators, and many have arrangements to receive prompt deliveries of fuel. Yet amid the logistical challenges and social disruptions of a nationwide, long-term blackout, it appears unlikely that a steady fuel supply could be transported to and maintained at every nuclear plant in the US fleet.
Overloading spent fuel pools should be outlawed. Safety analysts have warned about the dangers of overloading spent fuel pools since the 1970s. For decades, experts and organizations have argued that in order to improve safety, sufficiently cooled spent fuel assemblies should be removed from high-density spent fuel pools and transferred to passively cooled dry cask storage. Sadly, the NRC has not heeded their advice.
In the face of the NRC’s inaction, Sen. Edward Markey of Massachusetts introduced The Dry Cask Storage Act in 2014, calling for the thinning out of spent fuel pools. The act, which Senator Markey has reintroduced in subsequent congressional sessions, has not passed into law.
The relatively high probability of a nationwide grid collapse, which would lead to multiple nuclear disasters, emphasizes the need to expedite the transfer of spent fuel to dry cask storage. According to Frank von Hippel, a professor of public and international affairs emeritus at Princeton University, the impact of a single accident at an overstocked spent fuel pool has the potential to be two orders of magnitude more devastating in terms of radiological releases than the three Fukushima Daiichi meltdowns combined. If the US grid collapses for a lengthy period of time, society would likely descend into chaos, as uncooled nuclear fuel burned at multiple sites and spewed radioactive plumes into the environment.
The value of preventing the destruction of US society and untold human suffering is incalculable. So, on the issue of protecting people and the environment from spent fuel pool fires, it is surprising when one learns that promptly transferring the nationwide inventories of spent fuel assemblies that have been cooled for at least five years from US pools to dry cask storage would be “relatively inexpensive”—less than (in 2012 dollars) a total of $4 billion ($5.4 billion in today’s dollars). That is far, far less than the monetary toll of losing vast tracts of urban and rural land for generations to come because of radioactive contamination.
One should also consider that plant owners are required, as part of the decommissioning process, to transfer spent fuel assemblies from storage pools to dry cask storage after nuclear plants are permanently shut down. So, in accordance with industry protocols, all spent fuel assemblies at plant sites are intended to eventually be placed in dry cask storage (before ultimately being transported to a long-term surface storage site or a permanent geologic repository).
If the NRC continues to allow the industry’s mismanagement of spent fuel to pose an existential threat to the United States, Congress must be compelled to pass legislation requiring utilities to swiftly thin out spent fuel pools.
Editor’s note: The author thanks David Lochbaum, Frank von Hippel, and M.V. Ramana for their review ofandcomments on an earlier version of this article.
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Now that President Joe Biden has made it illegal to buy nuclear uranium fuel from Russia, which controls the market with about 83% of global control (about a quarter of even our nuclear fuel comes from Russia today), I can’t help but wonder why we would begin a tainted rabid hunger to keep the dangerous current nuclear power plants operating, build new dangerous nuclear power plants and activate dangerous old nuclear power plants based on a blind international ambition proposed by the U.S. to triple nuclear power by 2050. Even I know that automobiles don’t run without their own special kinds of fuel. In my view we are wasting our time and money as well as putting the population of human and other life on planet Earth at risk at the same time. It is the story of the “Emperor’s New Clothes” all over yet again.
Obviously, the nuclear corporate industry uranium miners and nuclear plant operators have assured our ignorant federal government that they will have plenty of nuclear fuel by the time new nuclear plants are ready to produce electricity. If I was in government I wouldn’t believe that for a New York minute. I am surprised that the nuclear governmental watchdogs such as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) or the Department of Energy (DOE) and others have not warned the U.S. against passing this law. There is that old saying, never put the cart before the horse, and this is a perfect example. But for me, personally I would rather see all nuclear power plants become ‘white elephants’, never to be functional, that to see them fire up. ~llaw
Following is a story from Reuters about the new law against buying Russian formula nuclear fuel, which is already not available, because Russia says it isn’t, for at least one of the new SMR plants for at least a year (and probably never), so that a new SMR under construction nuclear plant in Wyoming cannot even be demonstrated . . .
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Biden signs into law ban on Russian nuclear reactor fuel imports
WASHINGTON, May 13 (Reuters) – President Joe Biden signed into law a ban on Russian enriched uranium on Monday, the White House said, in the latest effort by Washington to disrupt President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
The ban on imports of the fuel for nuclear power plants begins in about 90 days, although it allows the Department of Energy to issue waivers in case of supply concerns.
Russia is the world’s top supplier of enriched uranium, and about 24% of the enriched uranium used by U.S. nuclear power plants come from the country.
The law also unlocks about $2.7 billion in funding in previous legislation to build out the U.S. uranium fuel industry.
“Today, President Biden signed into law a historic series of actions that will strengthen our nation’s energy and economic security by reducing, and ultimately eliminating, our reliance on Russia for civilian nuclear power,” Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, said in a statement.
Sullivan said the law “delivers on multilateral goals we have set with our allies and partners,” including a pledge last December with Canada, France, Japan and the United Kingdom to collectively invest $4.2 billion to expand enrichment and conversion capacity of uranium.
The waivers, if implemented by the Energy Department, allow all the Russian uranium imports the U.S. normally imports through 2027.
Anatoly Antonov, Russia’s ambassador to the United States, said that Washington’s decision is leading to shocks in global economic relations, but will not bring the desired results.
“The delicate balance between exporters and importers of uranium products is being disrupted,” the Russian embassy in Washington cited Antonov as saying in a post on its Telegram messaging channel.
“Life has confirmed that the Russian economy is ready for any challenges and quickly responds to emerging difficulties, even extracting dividends from the situation. It will be so this time too.”
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Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Additional reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Leslie Adler and Jacqueline Wong
Timothy reports on energy and environment policy and is based in Washington, D.C. His coverage ranges from the latest in nuclear power, to environment regulations, to U.S. sanctions and geopolitics. He has been a member of three teams in the past two years that have won Reuters best journalism of the year awards. As a cyclist he is happiest outside.
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Well, is there any other news that means anything at all today? U.S senator Lindsey Graham urged Israel to drop a nuclear bomb on Gaza to end the war there. This man should be removed from office immediately. He is demonstrating his long known ignorance and utter stupidity . . .
I simply cannot play this You Tube video myself, but I know what it says and am posting it here for its hoped-for reaction relative to how dangerous ‘all things nuclear’ are. It is not so much nuclear itself as it is the incompetence and derangement of certain leaders in certain places.
But also, human beings at all levels of responsibility are not intelligent nor humanitarian, nor even mature enough to be trusted with anything nuclear. All things nuclear must be destroyed forever in underground vaults that can never be recovered in the future. This is proof positive. ~llaw
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There are 6 categories, including a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives, as do ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links in each category about the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
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