All I can say is that this is a really bad, expensive, and dangerous idea, especially in the face of an unhinged nuclear armed world that has already figured out that nuclear powers plants are also easily turned into powerful weapons of mass destruction, yet we are talking about somewhere around 200 gigawatts or 200 or more added nuclear reactors of both large and small new nuclear power plants including rehabilitation of old plants that have been shut down for years due to their their age and their questionable nuclear safety.
I have to wonder, when all is said and done, what on Earth the reasoning was for such a dangerous and financially expensive venture — especially when renewable power plants like wind, solar, geothermal and hydro are so much cheaper to build, operate, and provide power as needed to meet future demand without the fear of running out of uranium for nuclear fuel. Nobody seems to realize that uranium, like coal, oil and gas, is essentially a fossil fuel that is subject to depletion, which could make nuclear power plants something useless like white elephants, or creating costs to produce at multiple-thousands of dollars per pound that nobody or nothing, even the AI producing tech corporations, could never afford. ~llaw
The Three Mile Island nuclear power generating station shown here Monday, March 28, 2011 in Middletown, Pa. continues to generate electric power with the Unit 1 reactor. (AP Photo/Bradley C Bower)
The Biden administration on Tuesday released a roadmap for plans to triple U.S. nuclear capacity by the middle of the century, prompting the following short article from “The Hill” and other news providers.
The plan sets a goal of 200 gigawatts of new capacity by 2050, more than three times the 2020 capacity. This will require the development of multiple new power sources, including large and small modular plants, as well as upgrades to existing reactors and restarting retired ones. This includes adding 35 gigawatts of new capacity by 2035 and a goal of 15 gigawatts per year by 2040.
“Ramping sustained production to about 15 [gigawatts] annually by 2040 will be important to serve both our domestic 2050 deployment goals and project deployments around the globe, making more U.S. nuclear products and services available for export,” the administration’s road map states.
“This will add hundreds of thousands of good-paying construction and operation jobs across the United States that would be sustained for decades. Achieving this production rate will require an expanded workforce, robust supply chains for fuel and components, and long-term solutions for managing spent fuel.”
The strategy outlined is part of a concerted push by the Biden administration to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, a goal the incoming Trump administration is likely to abandon. However, increased deployment of nuclear power has bipartisan congressional support and President-elect Trump has signaled support as well, calling for the construction of new nuclear reactors during his 2024 campaign.
The framework relies on existing federal authorities but would require new funding, leaving nuclear power’s bipartisan supporters in Congress to fill the gap by allocating that money.
It comes months after the announcement that Pennsylvania will restart one of the reactors at Three Mile Island, the site of a near meltdown in the 1970s, to power Microsoft data centers. Both hard-line conservative Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), who represents the area, and his 2024 Democratic opponent, Janelle Stelson, backed the restart.
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(Please note that the Saturday and Sunday NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS — unedited —are added to Monday posts in order to maintain continuity of nuclear news as well as for research for the overall information provided in “All Things Nuclear”.)
There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War
Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There is one Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in this evening’s Post.)
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Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
… things to know about Trump’s selection for EPA chief. by Zack Budryk. 2 hours ago. Energy & Environment / 2 hours ago. See All. Video/Hill.TV. See all …
This will require the development of multiple new power sources, including large and small-modular plants as well as upgrades to existing reactors and …
President Biden confirmed that same month there was a “direct threat” of Russia deploying nuclear weapons “if … things continue down the path they are …
… threats … Despite these efforts, ICBMs remained a dangerous element of Cold War strategy, symbolizing deterrence and the catastrophic risks of nuclear …
As well as the risks involved with the addition to an erratic and unstable leader for the foreseeable future, the concept of ‘nuclear deterrence’, which is the only actual preventative we have from a nuclear war, is pricing the U.S. and other nuclear armed countries out of our ability to prevent a nuclear war. (Many Posts on this blog have dealt with this issue, and none of them are of a positive or comforting nature, but in fact just the opposite.
The concept of ‘deterrence’ is to increase a country’s nuclear power arsenal to prevent the other nuclear armed countries from launching their weapons because theirs may be superior and more devastating than ours, for instance. So billions and trillions of dollars are spent in a ‘keeping up with the Jones’s’ kind of way. This article points out that America may no longer be able to be the ruler of the ‘deterrence’ method of peace.
And with Trump at our nation’s helm, how can we possibly avoid nuclear war? I have my own opinion, but for today I will bow to this timely and much needed and important article from “Forbes” and author William Hartung, that were we still students at all levels of higher education would be mandatory reading. ~llaw
I am a defense analyst, and cover the economics of Pentagon spending.
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Nov 11, 2024,11:57am EST
Updated Nov 11, 2024, 02:53pm EST
398198 01: A prototype interceptor is launched from the Kwajalein Missile Range December 3, 2001 in … [+]Getty Images
The return to power of Donald Trump raises serious questions about the future of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. His statements on nuclear weapons have been all over the map, but a 2017 review by Anthony Zurcher of The Guardian of Trump’s statements since the 980s concluded that “his thoughts on atomic weaponry reflect a certain strain of Cold War arms-race enthusiasm and diplomatic brinkmanship.” And in 2016, after he was challenged when he said ‘possibly, possibly” nuclear weapons could be used, Trump went on to say that if they weren’t to be used, “Then why are we making them?” On the flip side, he has also called nuclear war “the ultimate catastrophe.”
As for his actions in office, Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which by all objective accounts had been working to stop Tehran’s pursuit of a nuclear weapon. And in 2019, the Trump administration withdrew from the Intermediate Nuclear Forces in Europe treaty (INF), which had banned ground-based ballistic missiles and cruise missiles in the range of between 500 and 5,500 kilometers.
On the other hand, Trump was roundly (and unfairly) criticized for his short-lived effort at nuclear negotiations with North Korea. The talks ultimately failed, but critics who slammed Trump for “rewarding” North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un seemed to be ignoring the fact that in the final analysis talking with adversaries is a precondition for any sort of agreement. Criticism of Trump for being ill-prepared or inconsistent was fair game, but slamming him for talking to the North Korean leader at all didn’t make a lot of sense.
The real test of Trump’s stance on all-things nuclear will be his approach to the Pentagon’s multi-year effort to build a new generation of nuclear-armed missiles, bombers, and submarines, plus new warheads to go with them, a plan that some experts suggest could cost up to $2 trillion in the next three decades.
The nuclear plan has already been plagued by major cost overruns, including an 81% increase in the projected cost of the new intercontinental ballistic missile, dubbed the Sentinel, and developed and produced by Northrop Grumman. The cost overrun prompted a government review of the program, but the assessment ended up pronouncing that the program was too important to cancel.
The review of the Sentinel was a missed opportunity. Former secretary of defense William Perry has called ICBMs “some of the most dangerous weapons we have,” because the president would have only a matter of minutes to decide whether to launch them on warning of attack, increasing the risk of a nuclear confrontation sparked by a false alarm.
The Pentagon has a big shopping list – a larger Navy, more combat aircraft, new armored vehicles, drones and other unpiloted vehicles. Even with a Pentagon budget soaring towards $1 trillion per year, something may have to be cut. There’s also a chance that at least a few fiscal conservatives in Congress may seek across-the-board cuts, including the Pentagon, upon news that for the first time interest on the federal debt is larger than the Pentagon budget.
On the other hand, despite the occasional criticism, Trump has come to see weapons contractors as important allies in executing his domestic strategy because of the jobs created by contracts with the Pentagon and foreign buyers. This alliance was on display in Trump’s effort to make a huge weapons deal with Saudi Arabia, which he claimed could create 500,000 jobs in the United States, when a more realistic estimate would be one-tenth to one-twentieth of that figure. The ultimate test came after the Saudi regime’s murder of the U.S.-resident Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi, when Trump issued a statement saying that U.S. arms to the Saudi regime would continue, in part because he didn’t want to reduce business for “our wonderful defense companies.”
Donald Trump is nothing if not unpredictable. Will Trump the deal maker pleasantly surprise us by attempting to enter into negotiations to reduce nuclear arsenals, or will he resort to bluster and threats that make negotiations more difficult, even as he helps line the pockets of major weapons makers with billions of dollars of our tax money? To some degree it’s up to what kind of pressure he gets for and against the current buildup, which is a question that can only be answered once he is in office.
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ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA”:
(Please note that the Saturday and Sunday NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS — unedited —are added to today’s and coming Monday posts in order to maintain continuity of nuclear news as well as for research for the overall information provided in “All Things Nuclear”.)
There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War
Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There is one Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in this evening’s Post.)
IAEA Weekly News (Friday’s only)
Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the federal agency in charge of commercial nuclear reactors, says the reason these power plants — Palisades, …
Military installations and other strategic sites could also find themselves under threat from nuclear strikes, especially if aggressors were to launch …
14/2024 · International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi is bringing this message to the 29th · This year’s COP has …
Woodward was most impressed with Joe Biden’s management of the nuclear threat from Russia two years ago when Vladimir Putin was threatening to attack …
14/2024 · International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi is bringing this message to the 29th · This year’s COP has …
Woodward was most impressed with Joe Biden’s management of the nuclear threat from Russia two years ago when Vladimir Putin was threatening to attack …
Geopolitical tensions and processing limitations of refined uranium threaten nuclear power industry · The U.S. bans Russian uranium imports, investing …
Following, from the “Bulletin of Atomic Scientist” is the new revelation-like document (or nuclear bible) that will begin carrying us through the next four years of Donald Trump and his merry band of Nazis. Note that the story refers to Trump as an authoritarian or fascist, which is absolutely not a complimentary tag for a sitting American president.
As I have stated and re-stated many times over the past two-plus years, the survival of us all including Mother Earth herself is in dire danger of extinction, and the insane election of Donald J. Trump as our next president is impossible to reconcile in my own mind and prompted me to almost say, “to hell with it”, and shut myself down from this daily “All Things Nuclear” blog. But after a restless night it occurred to me that this is a bad time to give up because the chances of nuclear war have just spectacularly elevated, increased by a minimal and overly optimistic 10% with Trump at the helm of the United States of America. ~llaw
As an aside, I am making some improvements and adjustments to the blog, some of which will be integrated over time, but I will immediately do away with posts on Saturday and Sunday in order to protect and preserve my mental and physical health (I will turn 83 years old on the 23rd of this month, so I have earned a day or two off each week.)
What to expect from Trump’s second term: more erratic, darker, and more dangerous
Illustration by Thomas Gaulkin / klyona / valeo6 / depositphotos.com
Those who managed to see Trump’s strategic plan for the country through the smoke screen of his brash and boisterous campaign should feel privileged. But most of us—including myself—are still trying to figure out what to make of Trump’s nationalist and isolationist grumbling in his off-script rallies, and whether he’ll stick to a Project 2025 template that the candidate distanced himself from during the campaign, but now his supporters say is the agenda.
The uncertainty does not exist only in the United States. Officials and analysts the world over wonder what Trump’s “peace through strength” approach means, and what they should expect from an erratic and unpredictable president-elect who may not have a concrete plan—or even “the concept of a plan”—for dealing with allies and adversaries.
Will Israel feel emboldened to extend its war to the Middle East? Should Europe worry about the United States reducing, or even ending, military aid to Ukraine? Should China prepare for a new confrontation with Washington? These are only a few of the many questions that have emerged from this year’s US presidential election outcome.
To help understand what the next four years may bring, I invited nuclear policy and security experts to share their views on what a Trump second term could look like—to the extent it is even possible to make any prediction. What they share paints a bleak picture of the US nuclear and foreign policy landscape—possibly with some bright spots and opportunities for increased stability.
Their responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
–François Diaz-Maurin
A dire global fallout
The global implications of the US election result cannot be overestimated. Choosing a leader to navigate the United States and the world through this time of global turmoil was critically important. As a friend recently put it to me, it’s as though the entire world has been waiting on the results of a biopsy. With the results in, the prognosis is dire. The United States, once a beacon of democratic values and practices, withers further into political chaos, and its influence in much of the world wanes at the same time that the nuclear threat increases. If left unchecked, a Trump administration’s policies will only increase this threat.
For the first time since the Cold War, the United States is poised to increase the number of its nuclear weapons. A Trump administration is likely to spend up to $2 trillion on the US nuclear arsenal in the coming decades. There is also a good chance that a shifting US policy toward Ukraine will allow Russian President Vladimir Putin to get away with nuclear blackmail, that Iran will become the world’s 10th nuclear-armed state, and that we’ll experience increased confrontation with China. A Trump administration will also almost certainly push for the resumption of nuclear weapons testing, normalizing what was unthinkable for decades and catalyzing the new nuclear arms race.
The next four years will be one of defending progress previously made, preventing bad trends from becoming worse, and laying the groundwork for when the moment is right to make transformational change.
–Emma Belcher, Ploughshares
A darker, more dangerous future
Americans have elected the first openly fascist president in US history. He will use his unchecked power to accumulate great wealth; policy will be a secondary consideration. Trump’s presidency will set back global responses to the climate crisis (a crisis he denies); weaken and perhaps collapse the US alliance system as allies find themselves standing alone against a rising authoritarian tide; fatally wound Ukraine’s defense against Russian imperialism; and give Israel’s government a blank check to pursue its wars. Social programs will be slashed while military budgets could soar. Defenses against pandemics will weaken.
The most serious—though not the most immediate—consequence of giving unchecked power to an unstable, unhinged man is that Trump will have the unfettered ability to launch nuclear weapons whenever he wants, for whatever reason. Americans may forever regret their failure to reform this outdated system of nuclear command and control when there was still a chance.
–Joseph Cirincione, nuclear policy analyst and author
Erosion of international norms
In terms of strategic consequences, the biggest immediate impact of Trump’s election will be on Ukraine and NATO, where Trump will likely seek to reduce or even end military support to Ukraine while putting pressure on Ukraine and Russia to negotiate a ceasefire. In such a deal, Russia would likely retain control over the roughly 20 percent of Ukrainian territory that it seized through force, and Ukraine would likely have to commit to not joining NATO. This would be an unpalatable outcome for many in the West, although, at this point, Ukraine has little prospect of winning back its eastern territory in what has become a costly and damaging war. Trump’s decision to wield his significant leverage by cutting support to Ukraine will force European NATO allies to foot more of the bill for Ukraine’s defense—as well as their own—to deter future Russian predations. Whether the other 31 NATO countries can step up to the plate with increased defense spending and whether they will remain unified in the face of Trump’s more transactional approach to alliances remains to be seen. Despite some pragmatic reasons for ending the war in Ukraine, a downside is that a negotiated ceasefire would erode the important international norm that territory cannot be acquired through the use of force.
Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu and his right-wing governing coalition will also benefit from Trump’s election, at great cost to a democratic Israel in the long run. While Trump has said that he wants Netanyahu to “wrap up” the Gaza war by the time Trump takes office in January, his election will also greenlight Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and resettlement of northern Gaza, as well as possible Israeli annexation of the West Bank. This will cement Israel’s trajectory as an ethnonationalist apartheid state. Both the Palestinians and Israeli democracy will be among the big losers of Trump’s election.
–Nina Tannenwald, senior lecturer in political science at Brown University
A cloud with some silver lining
There were not many reasons to be optimistic about world affairs before the US elections. Now, after Trump’s victory, there are even fewer. It is very easy to come up with a list of issues that could go wrong—from the war in Ukraine to nuclear proliferation and arms control. Finding something positive is much more difficult, but one can think of a silver lining to this cloud. No one should seriously expect the Trump administration to stop the war in Ukraine in 24 hours. But if it tones down the “strategic defeat” rhetoric in its relationship with Russia, it could be a step in the right direction. This could also help salvage what is left of the nuclear arms control process or at least reach an understanding, maybe informal, on some restraints.
But it could easily go the other way.
There has been talk in the United States about resuming nuclear tests or getting into an arms race with China. Some countries are openly discussing the idea of getting nuclear weapons if they lose US protection. The United States is a key player in the existing nuclear order and its actions—or inactions—can do a lot of damage. But other countries have agency too, and they should not give up on that order easily. Institutions must be protected, laws and norms universally applied, and commitments honored. Resigning themselves to US disengagement and unpredictability should not be an option.
–Pavel Podvig, physicist and independent analyst with the Russian Nuclear Forces Project
Unfinished business
Nuclear arms control and nonproliferation are in for a rough ride over the next four years. Neither will likely be a priority for a second Trump administration but instead could be bargaining chips for other things Trump may want, such as in his relationships with Russia or China. US pressure to end Israel’s assault on Gaza and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will have long-lasting impacts on the risks that nuclear weapons pose.
Trump is unlikely to reprise his nuclear diplomacy with North Korea, perhaps writing this off as a waste of time. Hopefully, he will avoid the nuclear tit-for-tat threat escalation of 2017. If, however, Trump sees North Korea as unfinished business, he may seek Vladimir Putin’s—not Xi Jinping’s—help this time in persuading Kim Jong-un to come to the table. Leverage on North Korea as a collateral benefit to a resolution on Ukraine is one potential outcome.
Having torpedoed the Iran nuclear deal in his first term, Trump will likely avoid negotiations with Iran in his second. Responding to Iranian provocations, however, will be unavoidable and carry nuclear risks. The fallout from other foreign policy thrusts—support for Israel and pressure on Ukraine—may increase proliferation pressures on Europe, where they have long lain dormant, and in the Middle East, where they are close to the surface. Trump 2.0 will likely pursue a nuclear relationship with Saudi Arabia.
Because of China’s nuclear buildup, Trump is unlikely to seek a follow-on agreement to New START, which expires in 2026. He may balk at the costs of building more US nuclear weapons, however. For better or worse, Putin could see both tactical and strategic advantages in promoting a New START-“lite” to rekindle his manipulative relationship with Trump.
–Sharon Squassoni, research professor of international affairs at George Washington University
Increased nuclear dangers
With the re-election of Donald Trump, nuclear dangers just became more dangerous. A bombastic, unpredictable, authoritarian Trump will again have sole authority to order the use of US nuclear weapons and control over the direction of nuclear weapons policy. The second Trump administration will likely bring in a group of opportunistic, loyalist appointees who have promoted foreign policies and nuclear weapons policies that would—if enacted—put the indispensable norms against nuclear proliferation, nuclear weapons use, threats of use, nuclear testing, and nuclear arms racing under stress like never before.
With the last remaining agreement limiting the massive US and Russian nuclear arsenals, New START, due to expire in February 2026, a dangerous three-way nuclear arms race that no one can win and no one can afford may follow. Previously, Trump and his advisors showed little capacity or interest in engaging in a new bilateral arms control framework. Nevertheless, maintaining caps on strategic nuclear arsenals, even by way of an informal agreement between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, would serve US and global interests.
In the months ahead, responsible members of Congress, Western and non-nuclear weapon states, and civil society campaigners must find effective ways to reinforce the taboo against nuclear weapon use. As the US arms control community seeks to prevent the loss of key guardrails against nuclear catastrophe, we also need to be prepared to seize any opportunity to once again progress toward a world free of nuclear weapons.
–Daryl Kimball, director of the Arms Control Association
Skyrocketing defense budget spending
Congress drives bloated Pentagon spending just as much as the executive. Lawmakers routinely increase military spending beyond the president’s budget request, regardless of who is in the White House. Sen. Roger Wicker, a Republican from Mississippi, is set to chair the Senate Armed Services Committee, and he advocated for a $950 billion military budget in fiscal year 2025.
I would not be surprised to see the Pentagon base budget break the trillion-dollar threshold during the second Trump administration.
–Julia Gledhill, research associate at The Stimson Center
More confrontation with China
Trump’s victory is likely to intensify Beijing’s worst-case scenario planning and reinforce its perceived need to prepare for what Xi Jinping has described as “dangerous storms” in US-China relations. Anticipating a more confrontational US policy, including more systematic economic decoupling and a renewed focus on projecting power in the Asia-Pacific, Beijing’s response will likely emphasize “putting its own house in order” first. This will entail a stronger emphasis on China’s own power development and a cautious, risk-averse stance toward any US proposals related to military transparency, confidence-building, and arms control. Simultaneously, Beijing sees greater opportunities to strengthen economic ties with European countries that share its reservations about Trump’s “America first” approach and to consolidate its territorial claims within the First Island Chain, where US commitments to regional allies could become more ambiguous and conditional.
In response, South Korea—and potentially Japan—could engage in more serious internal debates about the need for indigenous nuclear capabilities. Should Trump support friendly proliferation as aligned with US interests, China’s immediate security environment would deteriorate significantly. Growing Chinese skepticism about US commitment to nonproliferation principles could, in turn, prompt Beijing to escalate countermeasures against the AUKUS alliance and bolster strategic cooperation with like-minded countries both within and beyond the Asia-Pacific region, deepening divisions within the international security order.
–Tong Zhao, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
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There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War
Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There are no Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in this evening’s Post.)
IAEA Weekly News (Friday’s only)
Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
For the first time since the Cold War, the United States is poised to increase the number of its nuclear weapons. A Trump administration is likely to …
Trump will have to manage the gravest tensions with Moscow in more than 60 years, in part fueled by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threats to use …
With the re-election of Donald Trump, nuclear dangers just became more dangerous. A bombastic, unpredictable, authoritarian Trump will again have sole …
As the world grapples with the escalating impacts of climate change, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi will join global leaders and stakeholders at COP29, to highlight the vast potential of nuclear solutions for climate change mitigation, adaptation and monitoring. Read more →
The World Fusion Energy Group inaugural meeting, co-organized by the IAEA and Italy, highlighted the growing interest and progress in advancements in fusion technology to provide a clean, safe and limitless source of energy. Read more →
Government ministers and senior officials from dozens of countries convened for the inaugural ministerial meeting of the World Fusion Energy Group today, underscoring the growing interest and progress in developing fusion technology to provide a clean, safe and limitless source of energy. Read more →
With COP29 just around the corner, the focus on nuclear power and its potential continues to grow. Read about the increasingly prominent role nuclear power is playing in the clean energy transition. Read more →
Following a sleepless night and several comments from readers, I have decided not to disappear into the ‘dark nights’ that may be facing us all in the near future. Instead of running away from the villain Trump, I have realized that my mission, because of him, is more necessary than ever, and will certainly provide more reason for more folks to educate themselves and stay abreast of the most serious problem we have ever faced — one of nuclear mass destruction and perhaps extinction caused by ourselves.
So I will stay on, keep on, doing my best to provide awareness of the nuclear issues that we are facing that cannot be resolved without a huge change in our awareness and our hearts. The “All Things Nuclear” issues will not change themselves, and only a united world of united people can make it happen.
I shall reduce my blog posts from 7 to 5 days a week, excluding Saturday and Sunday. Otherwise the posts will be approximately the same, but with more emphasis on America’s nuclear role including our Territories, Canada, and Mexico (because of Trump’s questionable mentality and sanity and his far, far, to the right (Nazi?) administration . , . ~llaw
(Nuclear views, issues, and comments will begin again tomorrow, but you might want to look over the articles in the “Nuclear War Threats” category of today’s TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS .)
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ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA”:
There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War
Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There are three Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in this evening’s Post.)
IAEA Weekly News (Friday’s only)
Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
More recently, nuclear outages have exceeded the five-year average because of weather-related disruptions and refueling outages. Nuclear power plants …
The panel will deliver its final report in 2027 and make recommendations for future research. abc.net.au/news/un-votes-for-nuclear-weapons-scientific- …
If you know the story of Don Quixote, you will know the purpose of this image on such a depressing and inauspicious day as this November 6th has turned out to be . . . llaw
In our collective ignorance and apathy we have invited our own demise . . .
I have, for 803 consecutive days, including today, each and every day warned the world while (often struggling in my effort to allow my message(s) to be posted without violating my free-speech rights, in my effort to educate my fellow humans everywhere around the world about the present and coming dramatic life-threatening dangers from the nuclear devastation we are facing.
Because the United States of America’s thoughtless public citizens have voted to add Donald J. Trump to the mix of those others like him — self-aggrandizing, insane, violent, dangerous, power mongering authoritarian dictators — to the combined madness of those few who have the power to use nuclear weapons of mass destruction to destroy our only Earthly home, including ourselves and other innocent life, simply by authorizing with a single coded nuclear football at their personal discretion, this will be my final post from this blog that has been intended to awaken and advise humanity everywhere (including working on a united world “blueprint” of how we might avoid our own demolition commonly known as extinction.
I have gratuitously spent well over two years of my own time and expense providing verifiable media information to use for your, as a reader, individual personal knowledge and edification while at the same time providing a daily commentary of my own thoughts and opinions commensurate with my own background and understanding of “All Things Nuclear” and its mission. Now that I, in my own personal opinion, see that we Americans have elected a mentally unstable President for a second time, obviously indicating our lack of cognitive knowledge, I must accept the fact that my long daily effort has failed. I had hoped that one day I would find a voluntary sponsor and media partner to help me continue and expand on the quantity and quality with this extremely important effort of humanitarianism. Instead, today I realize that, with Trump’s election, it was all a useless pipe dream.
I wish all of you who were loyal part-time readers and supporters from the several posting sources I have used each day —with your constant encouragement — the very best future possible despite the fact that millions of others have overridden our hopes for a united peaceful world where we all could live as one. (Thank you John Lennon for the last word.) ~llaw
If you know the story of Don Quixote, you will know the purpose of this image on such a depressing and inauspicious day as this November 6th has turned out to be . . . llaw
I have skipped the “About” section and simply posted my last compilation of TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS on this Wednesday, (11/06/2024). You may want to read the Trump election stories available today — particularly those from “Reuters.” Just the headlines should give you 2nd thoughts if you voted for this man . . .
North Korea and Russia seem to be uniting in an expanded international threat of nuclear war involving adding thousands of Korean troops to defend against Ukraine in the Kursk area that includes a Russian nuclear power plant previously attacked by Ukraine in the Russia/Ukraine war but also antagonizing South Korea’s leadership, indirectly directed at the U.S., and possibly Japan. ~llaw
In addition to the “Newsweek” story, you might also want to read a related article from “Foreign Affairs”. I have only linked the article here because it requires a subscription. The link is also posted in (InTODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS, Nuclear War Category: How the War in Ukraine Could Go Nuclear—by Accident – Foreign Affairs
Foreign Affairs
North Korea Issues Ominous ‘Nuclear War’ Warning
Published Nov 04, 2024 at 2:42 PM ESTUpdated Nov 04, 2024 at 2:49 PM EST
00:49
North Korean Soldiers Face First Combat In Russia’s Kursk Region: Reports
Anew North Korean research organization has issued a scathing report targeting South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, writing that his leadership has put the U.S. ally at greater risk of nuclear war.
The North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Sunday that the “white paper disclosing the criminal colors and miserable plight of Yoon” had been published the previous day by a never-before-mentioned research organization known as the Institute of Enemy State Studies.
“‘Yoon’s disastrous policy’ has exposed the Republic of Korea to the danger of a nuclear war,” the KCNA cited the authors as saying.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits Russia’s Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Amur region on September 13, 2023. A North Korean institute has released a paper detailing the Kim regime’s grievances against South Korean President… More Artem Geodakyan/AFP via Getty Images
They referenced hard-line statements by Yoon, who belongs to the conservative People Power Party and is known as a hawk on North Korea, as evidence of escalating hostility on the Korean Peninsula.
Examples included Yoon’s 2022 remark that the South must make “overwhelmingly superior war preparations” to achieve peace and warning that a nuclear attack would lead to the “end of the [Kim Jong Un] regime.”
The North Korean institute also criticized Yoon for approving the suspension in June of a 2018 military agreement that had been reached during a short period of warming ties between the two Koreas. The pact had both sides agreeing to reduce border tensions, establish a no-fly zone along the Demilitarized Zone and cease live-fire artillery drills.
After North Korea successfully launched its first spy satellite into orbit in November 2023, the South partially suspended the agreement by resuming surveillance flights. In response, Pyongyang declared it was “no longer bound by” the document and discarded its confidence-building measures.
The North Korean institute further condemned South Korea’s alliance with the United States and its growing military cooperation with Japan.
The paper highlighted commitments made by President Joe Biden and Yoon in April 2023 to step up dialogue and information sharing on nuclear threats. It also referenced the establishment of the U.S.-South Korea Nuclear Consultative Group, formed during that summit to coordinate on the North Korean threat and align U.S. nuclear planning with South Korean conventional forces.
The North Korean institute further condemned South Korea’s alliance with the United States and its growing military cooperation with Japan.
The paper highlighted commitments made by President Joe Biden and Yoon in April 2023 to step up dialogue and information sharing on nuclear threats. It also referenced the establishment of the U.S.-South Korea Nuclear Consultative Group, formed during that summit to coordinate on the North Korean threat and align U.S. nuclear planning with South Korean conventional forces.
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There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
All Things Nuclear
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Nuclear Power Emergencies
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Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There are two Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in this evening’s Post.)
IAEA Weekly News (Friday’s only)
Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
… Nuclear Warheads, Cause It Might Kill Us All’. 11/4/2024; by William Earl … ‘Jack Ryan’ Returning: Everything We Know About the Prime Video Movie So …
Nuclear plant operators usually avoid scheduling planned nuclear outages during the summer and winter when electricity demand is highest and utilities …
Addressing safety concerns regarding Thailand’s adoption of nuclear energy, he said: “An SMR can automatically shut down in the event of an emergency …
As noted in its previous military doctrines of 2000, 2010 and 2014, Russia refers to the potential use only in response to a nuclear attack or use of …
Trying to pull the cart without the horse didn’t last long as the blue-sky stock prices disappeared in a cloud of nuclear plant smoke for the big computer giants and their AI dreams who thought they could intimidate the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and other agencies and power systems operators into lowering regulatory standards to accommodate their nuclear power-eating plans for data center dreams and AI.
But, at least for now, their market surge came tumbling down — as it should have. And I’m sure these corporations learned a lesson about doing their due diligence before going public with their bid to capture and control nuclear power to satisfy all of their future needs. Perhaps they will manage a reprieve eventually, but carefully regulated nuclear power and its standards are much to sensitive to try to run over at will — especially without the horse. ~llaw
Talen-Amazon Nuclear Power Deal Hits Speed Bump. Why Constellation Stock Is Down More.
on Monday. Talen, which had made the deal with Amazon, was down 2.2%; Vistra was down 3.6%; and Constellation was down 11% despite also posting better-than-expected earnings on Monday.
Constellation experienced a particularly large drop because it’s the largest owner of nuclear power plants in the country, and investors had been expecting the company to sign several specialized deals with big tech companies that want to hook their data centers into nuclear power plants. The regulatory ruling now calls that into question.
Big tech companies like Amazon have turned to nuclear power this year to solve a problem. They need lots of electricity for their data centers, which are processing increasingly complex artificial intelligence applications. But they don’t want to use dirtier electricity sources, like coal, because they’ve made pledges to reduce their carbon emissions. Nuclear power fits the bill because it doesn’t emit carbon and—unlike solar and wind power—it operates continuously.
In March, Amazon bought a data center campus next to Talen’s Susquehanna nuclear reactor that could consume as much as 960 megawatts of electricity capacity—or enough to power around 800,000 homes. Microsoft
made a similarly big nuclear investment in September when it agreed to buy power from a decommissioned Three Mile Island nuclear reactor.
Other nuclear stocks that had risen on this trend, like Oklo and Nuscale Power, were also down on Monday despite not being directly affected by the ruling.
Amazon’s plan was unique. It wanted to plug its data center directly into the reactor so that it wouldn’t have to go through the traditional electricity grid. But nearby utilities objected to the plan. The utilities argued that Amazon was siphoning power away from the grid and not helping pay for the infrastructure that keeps electricity flowing to regular consumers. (The Amazon deal is different from Microsoft’s because Three Mile Island would still be connected to the larger grid.)
FERC, or the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, ruled late on Friday that the Amazon plan should not go forward as originally proposed. “This filing leaves multiple important questions unresolved,” the FERC ruling said. A concurring opinion said the plan “could have huge ramifications for both grid reliability and consumer costs.” FERC’s ruling will still allow Amazon to use 300 megawatts worth of power from the reactor, but not an additional 180 megawatts, as it had proposed to do.
Talen responded to the ruling by saying that the commission’s concerns were misplaced. “Talen believes FERC erred and we are evaluating our options, with a focus on commercial solutions,” the company said in a statement. “We believe this ISA amendment is just and reasonable and in the best interest of consumers.” The amendment could potentially be resubmitted, allowing the deal to still go forward.
Amazon did not respond to a request for comment.
The ruling is a setback for multiple owners of nuclear plants, some of which had hoped to sign similar lucrative agreements. Amazon did not reveal how much it was paying for access to the nuclear power. But using the few financial data points that were released, analysts extrapolated that Amazon was paying Talen at least 30% above the going rate for electricity.
Jefferies analyst Julien Dumoulin-Smith wrote that the FERC ruling is “a major setback for the nuclear data center thesis.” After Amazon’s deal was signed, investors and analysts expected other deals would follow, and they bought up the stocks of other nuclear plant owners like Constellation and Vistra that they thought would benefit. Constellation and Talen have risen more than 100% this year, and Vistra is up more than 200%.
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There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
All Things Nuclear
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Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War
Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There are two Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in this evening’s Post.)
IAEA Weekly News (Friday’s only)
Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
Where “fusion” is combining two or more things together, “fission” is splitting them apart. … All of the nuclear waste from the U.S. over the past 60 …
— Google stuff. Every tonne of mined lithium results in 15 tonnes of CO2 emissions in the environment. In addition, it is estimated that about 500,000 …
South Korea is bolstering its nuclear defenses as North Korea strengthens military ties with Russia … Israel at War Vladimir Putin Russia-Ukraine War …
The story below is just the 1st restraining, rejection, or non-compliance order for nuclear energy expansion, and, I suspect, there will be many more to come from every imaginable direction as the big computer, electronics and AI developers and their data centers will have to face as they attempt to drive nuclear energy down America’s and other countries’ throats.
The regulatory reasons are easy to understand, involving not only incredible power demands but the fears of AI itself, plus the regulatory requirements of quality manufacturing and absolute health and safety requirements of existing and future operations of nuclear power energy itself because of the many threats to human and other life in the event of nuclear accidents, terrorist attacks, or, as we already know from the Russia/Ukraine attacks on nuclear power plants, nuclear war — all of which are very real possibilities along with black-market uranium fuel trade. Nuclear fuel piracy itself could become a huge and dangerous global part among any number of eventual disasters.
Obviously, it stands to reason that the more nuclear power plants we have, large or small, around the world, the more dangerous and perilous they are. ~llaw
US Regulator Rejects Amazon-Talen Nuclear Power Agreement
By Bloomberg
Nov 02, 2024
(Bloomberg) — The top US energy regulator rejected a special deal that would have allowed an Amazon.com Inc. data center to use more power from an adjacent nuclear power plant.
The decision by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission deals a blow to the efforts by big technology companies to feed their power-hungry data centers with electricity from generators located next to their facilities. Commissioners voted 2-1 against the proposal that would have increased the amount of power supplied to an Amazon data center adjacent to the Susquehanna nuclear facility owned by Talen Energy Corp.
The commissioners said the plan, which was an amendment filed by the regional grid operator on behalf of the parties, didn’t adequately prove why the special contract should be allowed under federal rules. The plan would set a precedent and the issues should be reviewed more closely, they said. FERC Chairman Willie Phillips dissented, saying that the grid operator addressed reliability issues and called the order “a step backward” for both electricity reliability and national security.
In March, Amazon Web Services paid Talen $650 million for a 960-megawatt data center campus adjacent to the Susquehanna nuclear plant in Pennsylvania, and signed a long-term agreement to buy power from the plant.
In June, PJM Interconnection, which operates the eastern US grid, serving more than 65 million people, sought approval from the federal agency to increase the amount of power used onsite to 480 megawatts from 300 MW. Utility owners American Electric Power Co. and Exelon Corp. filed a complaint opposing the move, arguing that it could threaten grid reliability and raise customer rates.
The federal order on Friday night came on the heels of a day-long FERC technical conference on the topic, which discussed the merits and challenges of co-locating data centers with existing power plants, also dubbed “behind-the-meter” demand. Phillips said that artificial intelligence and related technologies represented a generational opportunity for national security and economic growth. Data centers are driving potentially unprecedented growth in US electricity usage and the concern is that such deals will allow them to shunt costs to other consumers.
The Friday ruling hinders generators like Vistra Corp., Constellation Energy Corp. and Talen, which saw their shares rally in part on the prospects of signing more power-sales deals at a premium with deep-pocketed tech giants.
While PJM made the filing to enable the Amazon-Talen deal, the grid operator has warned that it’s facing a potential shortfall of generating supply by 2030, Stu Bresler, executive vice president of market services and strategy said in a statement for the technical meeting on Friday. Big consumers located at power plants may create reliability concerns and hinder proper planning, he said. PJM, which serves more than 65 million people from Washington DC to Illinois, has received requests from developers to co-locate 8.5 gigawatts of large load at points on the grid serving existing power plants.
“If behind-the-meter, co-located loads integrate faster than what can be reliably planned for, the industry should appreciate the potential future risks to reliable system operations,” Bresler said in the statement.
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There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War
Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There are no Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in this evening’s Post.)
IAEA Weekly News (Friday’s only)
Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
The United States and Russia combine for 88 percent of all nuclear … While the US has been transparent about its nuclear weapon count, countries like …
… threat of nuclear destruction as well as the threats of climate change and biotechnology. … “Everybody knew about the threat of nuclear war. In 1982 …
This story, no-doubt anything more than a “pie-in-the-sky investment” dream, that will probably never happen for reasons that are obvious to anyone with any common sense about the present day and future of Yellowstone National Park and its incredible caldera — at least definitely not in our lifetimes,
But the story is interesting, not necessarily for the “megatons of lithium” the caldera contains (which are most likely never to be mined), but more as a reminder that the steam generated by the caldera could easily provide our human needs for electrical power for the entire North American continent and more without needing nuclear power nor creating environmental damage to the magnificent beauty and future of our spectacular Yellowstone National Park is (unless it decides to create its own environmental damage).
That much more feasible and sensible concept of capturing Yellowstone’s wasted steam is one that I’ve previously posted on “LLAW’s All Things Nuclear” more than once, and the status of the story’s realistic possibility probably needs to be posted again with updated information and data . . . ~llaw
About 15 million years ago, a cataclysmic event took place in what is now the Western United States. If repeated today, it would likely end human civilization.
The Yellowstone Supervolcano, with its 1300 square mile caldera, exploded, releasing an estimated 240 cubic miles of lava and enough ash to cover the state of Alaska in foot-deep soot.
Catastrophic as this eruption was, it’s something that happens on a fairly regular basis, with the three most recent eruptions occurring 2.1 million, 1.3 million, and 600,000 years ago — each releasing similar amounts of energy and contaminants.
Today, geologists study the Yellowstone region very closely, monitoring the movement of the land with lasers and precision sensors in an attempt to analyze and perhaps even predict sudden changes in activity under the surface.
Whether knowing it’s about to happen or not will change anything is a question that remains to be answered, but since we’re living in a point in history where another eruption is statistically overdue, geologists are drawn to the Yellowstone Supervolcano the same way astronomers are drawn to black holes and pulsars.
The Yellowstone Supervolcano’s Gift: 120 Megatons of Lithium
Last summer, this fascination with the caldera led to a rather surprising discovery.
This is where geologists discovered what could be the world’s biggest concentration of lithium, ever.
Containing up to 120 million tons of the world’s premier battery metal, this ancient geological artifact has been lying dormant ever since.
It’s a massive resource that will require an equally massive amount of work to tap into. But earlier this week, the company operating this property announced that it had just closed on a huge, multi-billion dollar loan from the U.S. Department of Energy to start producing lithium for the American EV battery market.
This loan is exactly what’s needed to fund the enormous, and complex infrastructure required to mine the property, and it’s also a good indication of just how dire our domestic lithium situation is.
Unfortunately it’s not the only indication.
Earlier this week, the U.S.’s biggest drone maker, Skydio, announced that it would have to start ‘rationing’ its batteries to customers after the imposition of sanctions by the Chinese.
The Result Of 30 Years Of Unchecked Chinese Lithium Domination
According to Skydio, these sanctions are a blatant attempt by the Chinese to eliminate its competitors in the drone sector.
The fact that the Chinese government can exert such influence on companies as big and vital as Skydio is a testament to just how important the lithium industry has become.
The company on the receiving end of this loan has its work cut out for it. New lithium projects typically take about 10 years to go from planning to production, but with the level of urgency seen today, it’s likely that this one will be fast tracked at every possible turn.
Once things get rolling, the plan is to start producing about 40,000 tons of the metal annually, eventually scaling up as demand increases and the project expands.
Even at the most modest estimates, the total value of the resource exceeds $300B — or about 300x the company’s current market cap.
Of course, it will take many years for all of that value to be unlocked, but just based on the news of the loan closing, shares are already up more than 40%. And it’s likely heading even higher as this mountain of federal funding starts pushing the project towards realization.
The stock was beat up then, but now, with the lithium bubble long since passed, it looks like things are finally falling into place for the company, for this unique property, and for American lithium as a whole.
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There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War
Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There are two Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in this evening’s Post.)
IAEA Weekly News (Friday’s only)
Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
… energy regulator rejected a special deal that would have allowed an Amazon.com Inc. data center to use more power from an adjacent nuclear power plant
He emphasized that if Russia’s existence is threatened, it will have no choice but to respond. The ongoing war in Ukraine has reached a perilous phase …
HMS Vigilant is the third Vanguard-class submarine of the Royal Navy. Vigilant carries the Trident ballistic missile, the United Kingdom’s nuclear deterrent …
I have no idea what this argument is all about, why there is a dispute, and why anyone would care so defiantly. We already know the answer, including previous studies, and the answer is ‘armageddon’. The only way to avoid annihilation is to avoid it, so why worry about the effects of a nuclear war?
The whole issue is just self-important politics and panels of scientific “experts” simply chasing their tails. What we should be doing is coming together and living as one unified world (like John Lennon said). But of course that is never going to happen. It seems humanity is dead-set on exterminating ourselves and has been for a long, long, time — perhaps since our very beginning . . .
It is obvious by our own actions — the never-ending creating and fighting our fellow man with more and more and bigger and stronger and more powerful and destructive weapons from our caveman wooden club days to our nuclear weapons today — until we now have a playground-bully style standoff called deterrence, a foolish temporary name-calling match of vain threats which will last up until the day it happens. So it is that we all already know the answer about what nuclear war means, and, yes, it can all happen in a single day — according to previous studies. ~llaw
HMS Vigilant is the third Vanguard-class submarine of the Royal Navy. Vigilant carries the Trident ballistic missile, the United Kingdom’s nuclear deterrent …
Non-proliferation groups are urging the UK government to make a late about-turn on plans to vote alongside France, Russia and North Korea against a UN resolution to study the effects of nuclear war.
In a debate on Friday, a UN general assembly committee will discuss a resolution to create an international panel of scientific experts to examine the global impact of different nuclear conflict scenarios.
The resolution, drafted by Ireland and New Zealand, is expected to be overwhelmingly approved by the committee and then later by the full assembly. Diplomats involved in preparations for the vote say the US and China are expected to abstain but that the UK, France, Russia and North Korea had indicated they were likely to vote against.
London and Paris joining forces with Moscow and Pyongyang would not stop the resolution but could have an impact on their reputations when it comes to other nuclear proliferation issues.
The UK and French missions to the UN did not respond to requests for comment and diplomats in New York said final decisions could be left until the last hours before the vote.
Arms control advocates expressed disappointment on Thursday that, with just 24 hours to go before the debate, the UK’s new Labour government had shown no signs of changing course.
“People naively thought that, with a Labour government, you would see a shift away from this kind of weird line that the UK has taken on this particular type of thing,” said Patricia Lewis, the head of the international security programme at the Chatham House thinktank. “Maybe this is the Labour party trying to be more Catholic than the pope when it comes to nuclear weapons, but why not vote with the US, and abstain?”
The panel proposed in Friday’s resolution would be the first such UN-mandated study since 1988 and experts say a lot has changed since then, in science and the nuclear threats around the world. For example, Russia and North Korea, countries which have made aggressive nuclear threats, have entered a deepening partnership.
Lewis argued that a no vote by the UK and France would undermine their credibility with other UN member states, especially when London and Paris are trying to rally global support for criticism of Moscow.
“The UK has been struggling to get countries like South Africa and Brazil onboard over the whole issue of Russia’s behaviour, so this is an opportunity for the UK to say: ‘Yes, we hear you,’” Lewis said.
Observers believe the UK position could be the result of a pact with France to fend off criticism of their nuclear arsenals.
“I think this is building bridges with the French,” said Zia Mian, a physicist and co-director of Princeton University’s programme on science and global security. “The French don’t want to be alone with the Russians and the North Koreans and whatnot in voting no.”
The UK, France, Russia and North Korea have been on the same side in a UN vote before. In December last year, they were the only four countries to vote against a general assembly resolution aimed at helping radiation victims of nuclear testing and restoring the environment at past test sites.
Some arms control experts were still hoping on Thursday that the British policy had remained unchanged from the previous Tory government through sheer inertia and could still change if the matter gained the attention of the Labour leadership at the 11th hour.
“People are working hard in London to make sure that the political level knows that this is what’s going on, because often this is done on autopilot,” said Mian, who has argued for a new scientific panel.
The UN panel would be made up of 21 scientific experts and would examine “the physical effects and societal consequences of a nuclear war on a local, regional and planetary scale”.
Scientists say such work is essential as so much has changed in the subject area since 1988, when the last study was done. For example, it was previously thought it would take a full-scale nuclear conflict between superpowers to plunge the world into a “nuclear winter”; it is now thought that even a limited nuclear exchange between regional adversaries could have such a devastating global effect.
“They never imagined that the climate system was so sensitive to these kinds of effects,” Mian said.
In April, the UK Royal Society was part of a joint statement by the national academies of science of the G7 member states, which said: “Among the roles of the scientific community are to continue to develop and communicate the scientific evidence base that shows the catastrophic effects of nuclear warfare on human populations and on the other species with which we share our planet.”
While some governments and national scientific institutions have done their own research, supporters of the resolution said a UN panel could establish a global consensus and a scientific “gold standard”, emulating the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and have an impact on policy.
“Studying the results of nuclear war will flesh out how bad it would be to have one, and maybe add pressure on countries who would otherwise think about using nuclear weapons,” said Andrey Baklitskiy, a senior researcher at the UN Institute for Disarmament Research. “Their leaders, their elites would maybe study or read it, or their populations, or partners or allies, who would maybe say we really don’t want this to happen.”
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There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War
Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There is one Yellowstone Caldera bonus story available in this evening’s Post.)
IAEA Weekly News (Friday’s only)
Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
… nuclear weapons during the Cold War … He manages the podcast team that makes In The NoCo, which also airs weekdays in Morning Edition and All Things …
There’s something of a uranium cult out there: the investors and traders who believe that nuclear is the future of energy, and therefore this crucial …
A Volcanic Danger Still Looms Over the State of Texas · Mexico’s Popocatépetl Volcano gave Texas a very rare volcanic alert on Wednesday, October 30, …
IAEA Weekly News
1 November 2024
Read the top news and updates published on IAEA.org this week.
The IAEA has launched a new app to help frontline officers assess radiation alarms triggered by people at airports, border crossings and other points of entry – and ease delays. Read more →
At Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), repairs are being conducted in one of its six reactors after a small water leakage was detected from an impulse line – essentially a small pipe – connected to the unit’s primary circuit, with the work expected to be completed later this week, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said today. Read more →
The Director General of the IAEA, Rafael Mariano Grossi, highlighted the IAEA’s vital role in global nuclear non-proliferation, safety and security in a keynote address for a unique nuclear law workshop convened in the United States of America. Read more →
