“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity”

LLOYD A. WILLIAMS-PENDERGRAFT

MAR 2, 2024

1

Share

LLAW’s COMMENTS, Saturday (03/02/2024)

Today’s nuclear news is all about Putin threatening to destroy human civilization, particularly in the West. But to try to do so, in my view, would cause retaliation, and of course Russia would be be demolished as well. Perhaps that is what Putin wants because he does not value human lives individually, and he is an old man who may be personally on the edge of death. Ukraine has to be factored in, but how and why is a mystery. Yet he, as the ‘experts’ seem to believe, may be just expounding on such threats that he has made many times over the years.

In glancing through the articles, I have copied the most brief and to-the-point article that I found. It is from “Business Insider” . . . but you can take your pick from several news sources in the overflow of articles in the “All Things Nuclear” categorized media round-up below . . . ~llaw

Putin is rehashing his nuclear threats — but this time, he may be threatening nuclear catastrophe in an effort to sway American voters

Analysis by Erin Snodgrass

Mar 2, 2024, 2:31 AM PST

• Vladimir Putin made an explicit nuclear threat against the West this week.
• But experts remain skeptical of Putin’s nuclear saber-rattling after three years of similar threats. 
• One expert suggested Putin is drumming up fear among American voters to cut US support for Ukraine. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a new nuclear threat this week, threatening the West over its support for Ukraine in his most explicit intimidation tactic yet.

But a regional expert says Putin’s recent bout of nuclear saber-rattling is less a promise of mutually assured destruction and more an attempt to mobilize the American public against ongoing assistance for Ukraine.

In his annual state-of-the-nation speech on Thursday, Putin alluded to recent comments by French President Emmanuel Macron, who said earlier this week that he could not rule out NATO troops being sent to Ukraine to help fight Russia. (Though Germany and Poland quickly countered that suggestion.)

Putin warned that Western nations “must realize we also have weapons that can hit targets on their territory.”

“All this really threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons and the destruction of civilization. Don’t they get that?” Putin said, according to Reuters.

The Russian president made several similar threats after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Most experts at the time, however, cast doubt on the likelihood that Putin would actually deploy a nuclear weapon, given the perilous global position in which doing so would leave Russia.

Two years later, experts still think the chance of nuclear warfare is low.

“Putin’s shtick is, at least, predictable at this point,” Simon Miles, an assistant professor at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy and a historian of the Soviet Union and US-Soviet relations, told Business Insider. “He’s repeating his same, tired nuclear threats.”

Putin is working to project an image of himself as a stalwart president whose leadership is the only thing protecting Russia from catastrophe with the West, Miles said, especially ahead of the country’s presidential election later this month — a race Putin is all but sure to win.

But there may be more than one election on Putin’s mind as he rails off his nuclear threats.

GAVRIIL GRIGOROV vias Getty Images

Putin may be speaking directly to Americans

“He is aiming these remarks at Western publics and Western civilian political leadership,” said Matthew Schmidt, an associate professor of national security and political science at the University of New Haven who previously taught planning at the US Army’s School of Advanced Military Studies.

“He’s trying to make sure that Ukraine does not get significant aid from the US,” Schmidt added, chalking Putin’s most recent nuclear threats up to an attempt to sway American voters against supporting politicians and policies that would result in further US funding for Ukraine.

Since the war began, the Biden administration has directed nearly $75 billion in assistance to Ukraine, including military and financial support, according to The Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a German research institute.

But further funding for Ukraine has been stalled in Congress as House GOP support for US aid wanes. Just this week, Congress narrowly averted a government shutdown but still made no progress on passing a $95 billion package with emergency funds for Ukraine, Israel, and other foreign allies.

“American politicians are already responding to this war in a way that helps Russia,” Schmidt said. “Putin is trying to create the conditions for that to continue happening.”

While military professionals and international relations experts may be rightfully skeptical of Putin’s threats, the average American voter likely doesn’t understand the nuances of nuclear politics, Schmidt said.

When a civilian hears that Putin threatened nuclear warfare as a result of American involvement in Ukraine, that civilian may respond by voicing their opposition to ongoing assistance at the ballot — at least, that’s what Putin is hoping for, Schmidt said.

Putin’s information warfare comes at a critical time for Ukraine, as Russia has racked up a series of military wins in recent weeks. Last week, Zelenskyy pleaded with Western allies for artillery and air defenses, saying Ukraine’s victory depends on continued support.

But Putin may ultimately have the more resonant message when it comes to American voters, Schmidt said.

“It’s far more complicated to explain why Ukraine is important to US voters than it is for Putin to threaten nuclear war,” he told BI.

---

ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:

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:

1. All Things Nuclear
2. Nuclear Power
3. Nuclear War
4. Nuclear Power Emergencies
5. Nuclear War Threats
6. Yellowstone Caldera (There are two Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in tonight’s Post.)

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 (per above). If a category heading does not appear, it means there was no news reported from this category today. There are two Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available tonight.

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

TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS (03/02/2024):

All Things Nuclear

NEW

Putin makes new threat about using nuclear weapons. Hear retired general’s response

CNN

reacts to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s warning to the West about the risk of nuclear … All Rights Reserved. CNN Sans ™ & © 2016 Cable News …

Putin warns of ‘destruction of civilization’. Hear retired general’s response – CNN

CNN

US Army Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges (Ret.) reacts to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s warning to the West about the risk of nuclear war if they send …

Kyrgyzstan Seeks Uranium Mining Restart, Russian-Built Nuclear Plant – Radio Free Europe

Radio Free Europe

Kyrgyz officials are eager to end a 2019 ban on uranium mining in order to boost state coffers. They also see Russian-built nuclear facilities as …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

Renewable energy at nuclear waste site near Carlsbad? Here’s how you can comment

Carlsbad Current-Argus

About 9000 acres at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant could be used to generate “clean energy,” as the DOE requested input.

The game is changing in nuclear energy: What to do next? – Yetkin Report

Yetkin Report

There are reports about new tender will be awarded to the Russian Rosatom for the construction of Turkey’s second nuclear power plant in Sinop.

Plant Vogtle unit 4 generates electricity – News4JAX

News4JAX

On Feb. 14 operators started the nuclear reaction inside the reactor, generating nuclear heat to produce steam. Operators will continue to raise …

Nuclear War

NEW

Vladimir Putin says West sending troops to Ukraine could lead to nuclear war – 6ABC

6ABC

Putin said claims that Russia intends to attack Europe are “nonsense” but warned that his country might strike Western countries with nuclear …

Putin warns of ‘destruction of civilization’. Hear retired general’s response – CNN

CNN

US Army Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges (Ret.) reacts to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s warning to the West about the risk of nuclear war if they send …

Putin Rehashes Nuclear Threats in an Effort to Sway American Voters – Business Insider

Business Insider

Two years later, experts still think the chance of nuclear warfare is low. “Putin’s shtick is, at least, predictable at this point,” Simon Miles, an …

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEWS

Update 214 – IAEA Director General Statement on Situation in Ukraine – ReliefWeb

ReliefWeb

Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) has been without back-up power for the past ten days, leaving the facility entirely dependent on …

U.S. Emergency Communications Are Vulnerable | The National Interest

The National Interest

These are reportedly designed to disable entire satellite constellations through nuclear–power energy surges and electromagnetic pulses. Russia …

Morgan County officials demonstrate emergency equipment – WAFF

WAFF

Emergency officials …

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

Putin Rehashes Nuclear Threats in an Effort to Sway American Voters – Business Insider

Business Insider

… nuclear threats. … “It’s far more complicated to explain why Ukraine is important to US voters than it is for Putin to threaten nuclear war,” he told …

Putin warns of ‘destruction of civilization’. Hear retired general’s response – CNN

CNN

US Army Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges (Ret.) reacts to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s warning to the West about the risk of nuclear war if they send …

‘Destruction of civilisation’: Putin took nuclear threat to West to unprecedented level with …

Sky News Australia

… nuclear war if Western troops enter Ukraine, writes Dr. … It was perhaps the most pointed and meaningful nuclear threat Putin has ever made to the …

Yellowstone Caldera

NEWS

Kansas covered in ash? Yellowstone’s aftermath – YouTube

YouTube

… caldera-chronicles?utm_source=2024-mar-1&utm_medium=youtube&utm_campaign=nh-volcanoes-fy24 Yellowstone Volcano site https://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes …

First Weekend of March ’24 Kicks Off With USGS Having 5 Volcanoes at “Watch” or “Advisory”

Weatherboy

… Volcano Observatory, the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, and the Northern Mariana Islands Volcano Observatory. Each of those additional volcano …

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity”

LLOYD A. WILLIAMS-PENDERGRAFT

MAR 1, 2024

Share

PG&E’s Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant, recently given new life from federal and state governments. The plant was supposed to be shutdown due to age in 2025.

LLAW’s COMMENTS, Friday (03/01/2024)

It is the constantly increasing numbers of headlines like these that prompt me to contradict what more and more factually conflicting, erratic and mistaken facts propaganda about how nuclear energy production can save us all from CO2, which causes global warming, and climate change because nuclear power is ‘clean’. This ‘Big Lie” is a daily event being shoved down our very scratchy human throats, and governments everywhere at every level are are buying into a sham of a scam scene that will never work because it is pure unadulterated fiction.

So to fight back I have resurrected a clear and concise contradictory Post from nearly a year ago, LLAW’s ALL THINGS NUCLEAR #246 (04/24/2023), that positively blows this “pie-in-the-sky” bullshit completely out of our rapidly growing belief in this ridiculous nuclear concept fantasy full of nothing but hot air. These are today’s media headlines of the very kind I am talking about:

Al Jazeera: Nuclear power is experiencing a renaissance on Earth, and in space. Whether we’re talking about lunar bases or space exploration, nuclear might be …

The New York Times: It’s the latest sign that nuclear power, a once-contentious source of energy, is now attracting broad political support in Washington.

LLAW’s ALL THINGS NUCLEAR #246 (04/24/2023)

Intentional or not, the whole world is falsely being told and beginning to believe that Nuclear power plants are safe, but also zero-emission CO2 facilities that will overcome climate change and global warming.

I have been saying continuously that all of that is a ‘world-class’ lie or an insane human delusion in the 246 consecutive days since I began this Post, and yet, during all that time, the media and the misguided nuclear propaganda machine has misinformed a huge part of humanity, convincing them to accept the belief that nuclear energy will save the world, including the global warming/climate change potential ‘apocalypse’ along with ‘all other things nuclear’ that in reality marches us ever closer (like thoughtless lemmings) to following the leaders over the edge of the cliff to our inevitable doom.

And somehow, too, we ignore the accumulation of nuclear waste, which no one has yet found a solution to containing this world(s)-wide killer called radiation — which will only grow more dangerous around the entire planet each and every day as more nuclear facilities of every kind, including converting nuclear power plants into weapons of mass destruction, during war or threats of war. In a nuclear world there will be only one war, and we humans and our other living friends on planet Earth will all be history . . .

Not even considering the incredible time it takes to build a nuclear power plant from drawing board to production (about 15 years on average, and a large enough uranium fuel source and legally allowed grade is also in question) we will still be contaminating our planet with CO2 status-quo with present day fossil fuel plants (as well as all those existing nuclear-reactor plants) building the asphyxiation levels while enduring disastrous climate change at the same time. This entire scam of a scheme being shoved down our gluttonous throats must be aborted and abandoned forever, before known life on planet Earth is over and done with, if, in fact, recovery from our self-destruction is not already too late.

(By the way, partly in order to express my qualifications to write these nightly columns, I worked in this industry for parts of three decades, ending that career by choice in the early 1980s when the industry ignored the dangerous meltdown situation and spoke out against the ‘3-Mile Island’ nuclear incident’ that included an industry war-like chant of “Let the bastards freeze to death in the dark” when those of us with an environmental protection bent, as well as many scientists, organized to begin speaking out against ‘all things nuclear’.)

Following is the essence of and the beginning of the absolute truth about nuclear energy as an initial or introductory 1st grade level-one lesson, with more to follow, but step-by-step, trying to keep it as simple to understand as possible by taking one baby-step grade at a time to higher levels of learning: We start here with the lie that nuclear power plants don’t create CO2 emissions or pollute Earth’s air (not to mention the most dangerous pollution of all – the nuclear waste radiation accumulation being spread around the Earth that we have no idea how to control. So in the grand scheme of things from a reality viewpoint, nuclear products are the dirtiest product of any kind on planet Earth. ~llaw

______________________________________________________________

Carbon-Equivalent Emissions and Air Pollution (Lesson #1)

There is absolutely no such thing as a zero — or even a close-to-zero-emission nuclear power plant using nuclear fission in its reactors — nor will there ever be. When all things are considered, all existing nuclear power plants collectively use fuel from the continuous mining, milling, and refining of uranium needed for the plant, called U235. It will never stop so long as uranium, also a fossil fuel incase no one told you, must be mined, processed through milling and refinement, which creates pollution of its own, and reduced to the governmental controlled nuclear-grade fuel. This entire process alone sets it far apart from other fossil fuels in terms of complexity, but it does not completely eliminate CO2 emissions and of course there are other serious and dangerous facts about nuclear power plants, mostly related to securing radiation and constantly growing nuclear waste.

Emissions from proposed nuclear facilities are 78 to 178 g-CO2/kWh, not, as you probably have been led to believe, close to 0. Yes, Zero, they tell you. Of these emissions, 64 to 102 g-CO2/kWh over100 years are emissions from the background grid while consumers wait 12 to 19 years for nuclear facilities to come online or be refurbished, relative to 2 to 5 years for wind or solar, for example.

But, in addition, the easier to understand bigger lie, all nuclear plants emit 4.4 g-CO2e/kWh from the water vapor and heat they release. This contrasts with solar panels and wind turbines, which reduce heat or water vapor fluxes to the air by about 2.2 g-CO2e/kWh for a net difference from this factor alone of 6.6 g-CO2e/kWh. So, when you read or are told by the media and their industry “experts” that ‘nuclear’ is 100% carbon free, you are being lied to, even if the “expert” and the media reporter-guy has no clue that what they are saying is dead wrong (because they are told what to say). They get paid to lie – just like I did back in the day.

As an example, (according to research by One Earth),to help you understand how all this CO2 stuff works, “China’s investment in nuclear plants that take so long between planning and operation instead of wind or solar resulted in China’s CO2 emissions increasing 1.3 percent from 2016 to 2017 rather than declining by an estimated average of 3 percent. The resulting difference in air pollution emissions may have caused as many as 69,000 additional air pollution deaths in China in 2016 alone, with additional deaths in years prior and since.”

If you’ve been paying any attention at all to these posts, you will have read that CO2 in earth’s atmosphere accumulates or remains the same, but does not diminish over time, whether or not CO2 emissions are diminished, even if new emissions are ‘zero’ . . . ~llaw

---

Now back to this evening:

ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:

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:

1. All Things Nuclear
2. Nuclear Power
3. Nuclear War
4. Nuclear Power Emergencies
5. Nuclear War Threats
6. Yellowstone Caldera (There are three Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in tonight’s Post.)

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 (per above). If a category heading does not appear, it means there was no news reported from this category today. There are three Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available tonight.

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

TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS (03/01/2024):

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

Putin warns of nuclear war if NATO sends troops to Ukraine – Little Rock Public Radio

Little Rock Public Radio

All Things Considered. Next Up: 6:30 PM Marketplace. 0:00. 0:00. All Things … MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered his annual state of …

Putin warns the West risks nuclear war with Russia if NATO troops go to Ukraine – WUSF

WUSF

All Things Considered · 1A · Here & Now · Fresh Air · On Point · Florida Matters … MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered his annual …

Putin warns of nuclear war if NATO sends troops to Ukraine | Alabama Public Radio

Alabama Public Radio

All Things Acoustic · Bama Bluegrass · Classical Music with David Duff … MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered his annual state of the …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

Is nuclear power the key to space exploration? – Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera

Nuclear power is experiencing a renaissance on Earth, and in space. Whether we’re talking about lunar bases or space exploration, nuclear might be …

Forbes

And there’s still “no way to store radioactive waste.” Based on this, and the cost of the Vogtle nuclear plants in Georgia he still opposes nuclear …

House Overwhelmingly Passes Bill to Boost Nuclear Power – The New York Times

The New York Times

It’s the latest sign that nuclear power, a once-contentious source of energy, is now attracting broad political support in Washington.

Nuclear War

NEWS

Putin warns of nuclear war if NATO sends troops to Ukraine – NPR

NPR

Russian President Vladimir Putin issued explicit nuclear threats to the West, even as he assured Russians their country could both win the war in …

Putin threatens West with nuclear weapons if troops come to Ukraine | The Hill

The Hill

In his speech, the Russian leader also accused the West of fomenting hysteria and a new arms race. Russia’s war in Ukraine, which has entered its …

After Macron touted troops to Ukraine, Putin warns West of nuclear war risk – Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera

… nuclear strike. “Putin’s regime has not once used the scare of a nuclear war to frighten the West and convince it not to provide military aid to …

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEWS

New Research Aims to Improve Global Security of Small Modular Reactors – Newswise

Newswise

The technology has the potential to make nuclear power plants … small modular reactors Homeland Security Emergency Management Nuclear Power Generation …

How potatoes can keep an eye on nuclear radiation – Freethink

Freethink

… nuclear energy production would provide carbon-free power … power and regular maintenance, both of which make them less reliable during emergencies.

Study shows Utahns pay cheapest electricity bills in the country

KSL NewsRadio

And Rocky Mountain Power’s long-range plan includes looking at nuclear power. … An emergency generator can thwart a power outage · Decades of data …

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

Putin warns of nuclear war if NATO sends troops to Ukraine – NPR

NPR

Russian President Vladimir Putin issued explicit nuclear threats to the West, even as he assured Russians their country could both win the war in …

After Macron touted troops to Ukraine, Putin warns West of nuclear war risk – Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera

The Russian president, in a state of the nation address, upped the ante. Should the world be worried about his threat?

Bowing to Putin’s nuclear blackmail will make nuclear war more likely – Atlantic Council

Atlantic Council

This was the latest and most explicit in a series of nuclear threats made by Putin since he first ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine just over …

Yellowstone Caldera

NEWS

Lower Geyser Basin lakes sediment reveals ancient changes to landscape – Billings Gazette

Billings Gazette

Yellowstone Caldera Chronicles is a weekly column written by scientists and collaborators of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. This week’s …

Five Thoughts on Resident Alien’s “141 Seconds” – Multiversity Comics

Multiversity Comics

… Yellowstone Caldera. Harry vows to Asta, D’Arcy, and Dan that he’ll stop them, although he also notes that he can’t do anything if the …

Sabancaya Volcano Volcanic Ash Advisory: PUFF EMISSIONS to 27000 ft (8200 m)

Volcano Discovery

Fascinating satellite images, reports, and pictures about the massive explosion of Kelut volcano in East Java on 13 Feb 2014. Yellowstone quakes.

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity”

LLOYD A. WILLIAMS-PENDERGRAFT

FEB 29, 2024

1

Share

PG&E’s Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant on Avila Beach near San Luis Obispo, CA

LLAW’s COMMENTS, Thursday (02/29/2024)

Final Part of the Prologue to “El Nuclear Diablo”, a dystopian novel:

###

These last several days we have followed spring’s warming north along the western United States and British Columbia coasts by yacht. Any boat is ripe for the pickings of choice at any deserted marina, which would likely be most all of them, although two of our crew also happen to be the legal owners of our schooner, which offers us all some conscience relief.

California, Oregon, and Washington (other than the governmental delayed shutdown of the Diablo Canyon plant, have long been devoid of operational nuclear power plants with the exception of Washington’s inland Richmond plant (known as the “Columbia River Generating Station”), which, unlike Diablo Canyon was, is not in the process of closing, leaving it to eventually be the only functional nuclear power generation facility anywhere in the entire Pacific Northwest or anywhere else along the western Pacific coastline from the Aleutians to Tierra del Fuego. We very soon will be looking forward to scientific help from the governmental and corporate professionals in specialized expertise in eastern Washington who are still to this day handling and cleaning up the fallout from the infamous Hanford plutonium military arms manufacturing disaster that has contaminated wide swaths of earth and the Columbia River for decades. Oregon has not had an operating nuclear power plant since the mid-1990s when their only facility, near Mt. St. Helens, developed structural cracks forcing the plant to close, and British Columbia has, quite honorably, never built one. Alaska’s only nuclear facility was shut down more than fifty years ago, and today it uses diesel engines to generate steam. Juneau is the closest downwind haven from nuclear airborne protection and freedom from contamination that the climate and geography can offer, along with the fortunate absence of nearby previously operational nuclear power facilities, providing at least a temporary refuge from the eastern Asian Pacific together with the clusters of endangered nuclear plants in the central and eastern United States, eastern Canada, and European soon-to- become providers of world-wide extinction level atmospheric conditions.

Some of the oceanographers, atmospheric scientists and meteorologists who were already stationed here in Juneau are trying to determine the predicted world-wide safe zones and timelines, comparing Juneau’s and its surrounding weather patterns and wind history elsewhere around the United States and around the world. They have long understood the favorable high-altitude wind currents from the north and southeast creating wind havoc among the treacherous three-thousand+ foot mountain ranges rising from sea level, providing conditions that hopefully will carry airborne radiation far above and around us for a few months at least, giving us critical time to figure out just where the world’s few survivors will need to migrate and congregate. We know, too, that global communications will be inadequate to the point of probable futility, possibly requiring some of us to travel, sometimes long distances afoot, to gather these groups together and guide them to new promising safelands.

Our future could turn out to be very much like an extended encore and final Mad Max film, although, ironically, Australia has no nuclear energy power plants, which they banned officially in 1998. But true isolated tribalism will return everywhere to the few of us who are left to make our way on a mostly neutered and dead planet that will eventually consume Australia as well, although it may be the last bastion of life along with New Zealand, whose leaders have also banned nuclear reactors save for the joint U.S. military/Australia world-wide espionage Pine Ridge project near Alice Springs. Yet this death threat by inept and by nature outclassed human hands meddling with something akin to the power of the sun will eventually be a significant part of their survival story, if they are so fortunate, as well as our own.

A new way of life in a desolate lonesome world does not normally make for a pretty picture — nor a heart-warming romantic adventure tale. But still…so long as there is hope there is a story and an untold story has its own future…  ~llaw (Spring, 2026)

End Prologue

---

“El Nuclear Diablo”, Chapter 1 will begin, serialized, on “LLAWs’ All Things Nuclear” on the evening of Thursday, March 14th. Reminders will be plentiful . . . ~llaw

---

ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:

There are 6 categories (including a bonus category at the end for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity that also play an important role in humanity’s lives) as do ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links to the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:

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

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 (per above). If a category heading does not appear, it means there was no news reported from this category today. There is one Yellowstone Caldera bonus story available tonight.

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

TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS (02/29/2024):

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

Expanding wildfires force Texas nuclear facility to pause operations – Little Rock Public Radio

Little Rock Public Radio

Wildfires swept across the Texas Panhandle early Wednesday, prompting evacuations, cutting off power to thousands, and forcing at least the …

Expanding wildfires force Texas nuclear facility to pause operations | KNKX Public Radio

KNKX

Rapidly moving Texas wildfires Tuesday prompted evacuations in small towns and shut down a nuclear facility as strong winds, dry grass and …

One of the largest wildfires in Texas history still burning in the Texas Panhandle | KERA News

KERA News

Firefighting crews continue to battle the Smokehouse Creek fire in Hutchinson County. The wildfire has affected more than 500000 acres so far, …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

House approves bipartisan bill aimed at bolstering nuclear energy | The Hill

The Hill

The House on Wednesday evening approved bipartisan legislation that aims to bolster nuclear energy. The vote was 365-36, with one additional …

The Long-Awaited Nuclear–Energy Revival Shows Progress – National Review

National Review

There has been a resurgence in support for nuclear–energy development amidst growing concerns about the role of emissions in global climate …

Duncan Delivers Major, Comprehensive, Bi-Partisan Nuclear Energy Reforms in the House

Jeff Duncan – House.gov

Washington, D.C. — After the House passed Rep. Jeff Duncan’s Atomic Energy Advancement Act (H.R. 6544) that ensures efficient and predictable …

NRC shares Clinton license renewal application online – American Nuclear Society – American Nuclear Society

Full Coverage

Nuclear War

NEWS

Putin warns West of risk of nuclear war, says Moscow can strike Western targets | Reuters

Reuters

President Vladimir Putin told Western countries on Thursday they risked provoking a nuclear war if they sent troops to fight in Ukraine, …

Putin warns of nuclear war in Ukraine | – Times of India – Times of India

Full Coverage

Putin warns the West that sending troops to Ukraine risks a nuclear war – NBC News

NBC News

… stepped up his threats against Western countries Thursday, warning that if they send their own troops into Ukraine they risk global nuclear war.

Putin warns that sending Western troops to Ukraine risks a global nuclear war – AP News

AP News

Putin warns that sending Western troops to Ukraine risks a global nuclear war. Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers his state-of-the-nation …

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEW

USA is littered with nuclear sites that could face danger from natural disasters

USA Today

That could either impede regular or emergency maintenance. … Eleven states are home to nuclear weapons, 28 to nuclear power plants and spent nuclear …

Nuclear weapon factory forced to evacuate as Texas wildfires threaten plant

The Independent

… emergency arise on the plant site.” Pantex re-opened and resumed operations as normal on Wednesday morning. Pantex is about 17 miles (27.36 …

Nuclear weapon factory forced to evacuate as Texas wildfires threaten plant – AOL.com

AOL.com

Officials implored them to turn on their cellphones’ emergency alerts and be ready to evacuate immediately. They described some roads as having fire …

Nuclear War Threats

NEW

Putin warns the West that sending troops to Ukraine risks a nuclear war – NBC News

NBC News

Russian President Vladimir Putin stepped up his threats against Western countries Thursday, warning that if they send their own troops into …

Putin threatens West with nuclear weapons if troops come to Ukraine | The Hill

The Hill

But, Putin doubled down on his threats against any NATO action, saying … The Russian leader has threatened to use nuclear weapons throughout the war …

Sending troops to Ukraine would risk provoking nuclear war, Putin tells Nato – The Guardian

The Guardian

Putin spent a considerable portion of the address discussing Russia’s population decline and the threat it poses to the country. Russia suffered two …

Yellowstone Caldera

NEWS

RESIDENT ALIEN Recap: (S03E03) 141 Seconds – Geek Girl Authority

Geek Girl Authority

Instead, he expresses interest in the talking cartoon raccoon display, which informs visitors about Yellowstone’s caldera. … Yellowstone caldera again …

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity”

LLOYD A. WILLIAMS-PENDERGRAFT

FEB 28, 2024

1

Share

“We will take America without firing a shot. We do not have to invade the U.S. We will destroy you from within….” Russia’s President Nikita Khrushchev in 1956.

LLAW’s COMMENTS, Wednesday (02/28/2024)

Tonight’s lead article up for comment is from my Substack colleague Steve Schmidt who tells us what our failure to continue to protect Ukraine from Russia’s invasion may mean to the United States’ future, as well as the rest of the free world . . . Is this what the American citizens want to see happen with the crazed right wing Republicans’ desire to remove our democratic way of governing in favor of dictators like Putin and a Hitler-style copy-cat and demented lifelong criminal Donald Trump who barely remembers his own name? ~llaw

What the abandonment of Ukraine will mean

STEVE SCHMIDT

FEB 28, 2024

Multitudes of Americans have forgotten something that was once known by most all in our country, and certainly understood by presidents of both parties.

Take a look at this image:

This is the USS Maine. Her mission is deterrence. She is one of 14 Ohio-class SSBNs in the American nuclear triad. Each stands as a terrifying peer of the other as the most powerful and deadly weapons platforms that have ever existed in human history. Each ship carries enough nuclear weaponry to classify them as the Earth’s 6th ranking nuclear power.

After the global cataclysm of the Second World War it was broadly understood that humanity would not survive another world war, and that humanity now possessed the power of the gods. Humanity had breached a threshold where it was capable of summoning its extinction and evaporating any trace of civilization in an instant. This is why Douglas MacArthur talked about the necessity of a “spiritual recrudescence” among man as the gateway to lasting peace. While awaiting mankind’s evolution into peaceful beings the fall back option for preserving the peace was massive deterrence based on mutually assured destruction, anchored by the nuclear arsenals of the United States, United Kingdom and France. These were the victorious powers that shattered and pacified Nazi Germany after appeasing its rise and ignoring its danger. The horrors of fascism were thought to be indelibly carved into human memory under banners such as “Never Again” and “Never Forget,” but those turned out to be slogans that whisked away for millions like puffs of smoke.

A great collective security treaty was signed by most all of the world’s most important democracies and bulwarks of liberty after the horror of war that promised an attack on one was an attack on all. The purpose of this was not belligerence, but rather peace. Peace through overwhelming strength was the basis of NATO. It has kept the world from spiraling into the apocalypse for nearly 80 years. The only time its collective security obligations have ever been invoked was on the occasion of the 9/11 attacks against the United States. Many Americans and the whole of MAGA seem utterly ignorant of the scores of dead who died defending America, and were buried under foreign flags most of us couldn’t name. Their families remember their names though, and they understand the price of defending freedom.

The great threat that united the free countries of the world was a vast, powerful and dangerous nation, ruled over by a ruthless dictatorship and security apparatus that exported totalitarianism, terror and menace. That nation was the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the dominant power within it was Russia. Today a revanchist Russia is led by a dictator who rationalizes his war of conquest, murder, rape, kidnapping and destruction with the same ideology, same logic, same dogmas that the 20th century’s deadliest fascist employed. The difference between Hitler and Putin exists in the space between the known and unknown. The thousand-year Reich died in a dank Berlin bunker when the shattered Führer poisoned his dog, next his wife, and then shot himself in the head. We know where Hitler ended, and precisely what he did. We know the full tale from 1923 all the way through the final moments.

The whole world understood for decades the incomparable evil of humanity’s greatest nemesis. Where Putin’s story will end is an open question. Perhaps it is the case that he will be little remembered for his first 20 years in power. Maybe Vladimir Putin remains a figure of our future still. Perhaps it is his destiny, like that of his predecessors, to shatter the world again and test humanity’s capacity and resolve to survive the new slavery — again.

The war he began in Ukraine is estimated to have killed almost 400,000 Russians. This is a staggering number, as is the 32,000 combat deaths sustained by Ukraine as the war enters its third year.

What is happening in Ukraine is much closer than most Americans grasp. Kyiv is just a plane flight away. It is the capital of a European country that is being attacked by a larger country under an old dogma of nationalism that declares that the smaller country and its language, history and customs don’t exist, and never have. The war at hand is one where subjugation and eradication are the goals. A single man has dreams of empire and restorations dancing in his head, and he has the power to do anything he wants. His name is Vladimir Putin and this simple fact of human history should be remembered when his name is discussed. Each century of humanity’s recorded story has been deadlier than the last, and 75 per cent of the 21st century lies ahead of us.

A great hour of moral reckoning has arrived in the United States. Are we prepared to surrender a burden that has saved us all? Are we prepared to welcome the darkness, and next, the abyss? Are we ready to abandon a brave people fighting for freedom and survival against a tyrant? Are we ready to appease the tyrant? Are we ready to lure him into the next country? How about the one after that?

By the way, have you thought about what the world looks like as America abandons her friends, alliances, and turns toward Russia in admiration, as opposed to revulsion?

It looks like this, as captured in a Reuters’ “In pictures: Two years of war in Ukraine.”

There should never be a world where there is a German, Japanese and South Korean nuclear weapon. Yet, as America abandons the realities of grave dangers facing us, and ignores the gathering threat, it is precisely what will happen.

The war drums are beating between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The situation in the Balkans is fragile. Conflict in the Middle East is escalating, and China is rapidly building the naval forces designed to take Taiwan by force.

Ukraine is the linchpin. Ukraine is Czechoslovakia in 1938, with Speaker Mike Johnson playing the latter day role of Neville Chamberlain.

A most dangerous hour has arrived at the doorstep of a fanatic who believes in fantasies, simplicity, power, dogmas and certitude. Speaker Mike Johnson is hostile towards democracy in America and around the world. Eighty-five years ago, America was blessed that such a man of meager abilities and extreme positions could never become the speaker of the US House of Representatives. This appalling hour is testimony to the irreducible truth that courage is the first virtue and its absence obliterates all others.

What is the right thing to do? What is the necessary thing to do? What is the American thing to do? What would our greatest leaders tell us to do?

Perhaps these words from John Kennedy’s presidential inaugural address on January 20, 1961, might help illuminate the question, and shine a light on the American path:

Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans — born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage, and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.

The abandonment of Ukraine will mark a moment of national shame and ignominy that will make our descendants shudder in anger and fear. The consequences will be catastrophic. The Ukraine War is the worst European war since World War II. Vladimir Putin has made clear wherever ethnic Russians may live, or where the Russian  language may be spoken, is a border he refuses to abide. He has assessed American leadership, and found it wanting. He has gained the upper hand through a refusal to bend and blink. During the past 12 months he has faced down an armed rebellion and blew its plotter out of the sky before murdering his chief political opponent and most famous dissident. Now he sits enthralled to the slow motion strangulation of hope in Ukraine, as the world’s most powerful nation and force for freedom turns its back with indifference towards people who are making a stand for their existence. What has happened to the American spirit that would ever allow such indifference toward the fate of tens of thousands of kidnapped children?

The price of 21st century global war will be more than we can comprehend. When it comes, the violence will be shocking. When a small child looks up, and asks why things are the way they are, the answer will be simple.

Appeasement.

---

ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:

There are 6 categories (including a bonus category at the end for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity that also play an important role in humanity’s lives) as do ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links to the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:

1. All Things Nuclear
2. Nuclear Power
3. Nuclear War
4. Nuclear Power Emergencies
5. Nuclear War Threats
6. Yellowstone Caldera (There are three Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in tonight’s Post.)

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 (per above). If a category heading does not appear, it means there was no news reported from this category today. There are three Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available tonight.

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

TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS (02/28/2024):

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

Expanding wildfires force Texas nuclear facility to pause operations – NPR

NPR

“Everything south of Highway 146 in Fritch evacuate now!” city officials said on Facebook. Officials with Hutchinson County emergency management and …

Expanding wildfires force Texas nuclear facility to pause operations | WJCT News 89.9

WJCT News

“Everything south of Highway 146 in Fritch evacuate now!” city officials said on Facebook. On Tuesday evening, the fires were 20 to 25 miles from …

Q&A: Pete Miller’s Journey as a Black Nuclear Engineer | Department of Energy

Department of Energy

Q: Tell us about your early life. A: I’m from the inner city of Chicago. On the South Side, all of us lived in segregated neighborhoods. We were …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

Germany considers getting its own nuclear weapons despite rejecting nuclear energy

Fox News

Developing nuclear weapons may be on the minds of Germany, despite shunning nuclear power in recent years.

Nuclear energy in the spotlight at the World Governments Summit

Nuclear Energy Agency

… Nuclear Power Plant in Abu Dhabi. With projections that twenty-five percent of the country’s energy consumption will be powered by nuclear energy …

Nuclear weapon factory forced to evacuate as Texas wildfires threaten plant

The Independent

Early Wednesday Pantex posted on X, formally known as Twitter, the plant “is open for normal day shift operations” and that all personnel were to …

Nuclear War

NEWS

China Urges Largest Nuclear States to Negotiate a ‘No-First-Use’ Treaty – USNews.com

USNews.com

BEIJING (Reuters) -States with the largest nuclear arsenals should negotiate a treaty on no-first-use of nuclear weapons against each other or …

Germans Debate the Once-Unthinkable: Do We Need Nuclear Weapons? – WSJ

The Wall Street Journal

The discussion is especially fraught in Germany, which has renounced nuclear energy and the atomic bomb. People lay a peace sign out of candles …

Russia planning nuclear strike to counter ‘Chinese invasion’? Report shares details of leaked … – Mint

Mint

… nuclear weapons. President Joe Biden has cautioned that a conflict between Russia and NATO could trigger World War Three. Meanwhile, it is being …

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEW

QCA nuclear emergency response plans evaluated | OurQuadCities

OurQuadCities

The Quad Cities’ nuclear power station emergency response plans are being evaluated. Personnel from both Iowa and Illinois participated in the …

Texas: Disaster declaration issued and nuclear weapons plant shut down as wildfires spread

Sky News

Republican governor Greg Abbott proclaimed 60 counties were in a state of disaster and called for extra emergency services to support local …

USPA Mobilizes Emergency Fire Watch Service In Hartford In Response To Structure Fire

Barchart.com

The International Atomic Energy Agency projects nuclear generation will increase 50% by 2050. Meanwhile, many nuclear power plants that were scheduled …

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

South Korea, US to stage annual drills focusing on Korea nuclear threats – Reuters

Reuters

“The two countries are jointly developing a counter operation concept against North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats and it will be applied to …

Letter: Comparing threats: Global warming vs. nuclear war – Alton Telegraph

Alton Telegraph

Comparing threats: Global warming vs. nuclear war; Alton letter writer says Biden is wrong on the greater threat.

South Korea, US to Stage Annual Drills Focusing on Korea Nuclear Threats – USNews.com

USNews.com

Seoul and Washington say the exercises are defensive and a response to the North’s threats. (Reporting by Hyonhee Shin. Editing by Gerry Doyle).

Yellowstone Caldera

NEWS

What is ‘normal’ earthquake activity in Yellowstone National Park? – Idaho Capital Sun

Idaho Capital Sun

The Yellowstone National Park region experiences 1500–2500 earthquakes per year, according to the volcano observatory’s seismic data.

Flag as irrelevant

Looking at the Most Recent and Most Extreme Earthquakes in Idaho – KIDO Talk Radio

KIDO Talk Radio

… Yellowstone National Park, situated on top of the Yellowstone Caldera, also known as the Yellowstone “Supervolcano.” This volcanic caldera is …

Yosemite Has Its Own Grand Canyon, Here’s How To See It – TheTravel

TheTravel

The Yellowstone River in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone Photo by Rico Gore on Unsplash … The chamber of the volcano collapsed, leaving a caldera …

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity”

LLOYD A. WILLIAMS-PENDERGRAFT

FEB 27, 2024

1

Share

LLAW’s COMMENTS, Tuesday (02/27/2024)

I don’t often express or discuss my concerns about Trump these days after spending years before, during, and after debunking every sound, move, thievery, squirm, or insult to America and our people that he made and continues to make. This time around I have to believe he is nothing more than exactly what he always was — a dried up, lying, demented, belligerent, stupid, ignorant, big-time grifter, and worthless old man, who should be removed from our country to a deserted island in the middle of the Pacific ocean with one palm tree for shade, and that his only human contact with people will be limited to those sailors who are paid by humanitarian governments that he despised, including the USA, who deliver the necessities of life to him — food and water and a small portable Eskimo-like orange plastic shelter that he can push around the tree to remain in the shade on overly warm days. For the rest of his life.

The thing about the brief article pasted just below from the Daily Kos (from the categorized daily nuclear news tonight) is that the short and cogent point made by FreeBandit about how much his life has been virtually parallel to Hitler’s and that he attracts the same kind of overly hateful, uneducated but opinionated, rabble-riser types who despise any kind of social authority or care beyond their own limited concepts of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth of living, rather the idea of a considerate and empathetic humanitarian way of striving for a successful, peaceful, and gratifying life for all. It has been said that the only books that Trump actually read and studied were a couple of Hitler books — Mein Kampf and a book of Hitler’s speeches — and Trump’s demeanor seems to conspicuously resemble his idol’s inhumane concepts. He is typical fodder for igniting a nuclear war. ~llaw

Thanks for reading All Things Nuclear! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Subscribed

---

How many more must die?

by FreeBandit

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday, February 26, 2024 at 5:00:21a PST

---

I picked up an old Doonesbury anthology the other day, “Yuge”.  Through the eyes of his characters, Trudeau follows the career of Donald Trump from a greed-head real estate mogul with a taste for the grotesque in the 1970s and ‘80s, through his preliminary dabbling in politics and “reality” television.  It ends in 2015, when his transformation into the nightmare we are living began.  What struck me as I read is how Trump was viewed as a joke for so long that his essential evil has never really sunk in.  Even today, after all that has happened in the past eight years, the mainstream media still treats him (to a large extent) as an eccentric but viable candidate in a horse race.

What we need is a change in perspective.   The Yellowstone supervolcano was not recognized as such until photographs from space allowed the contours of the giant caldera to be discerned.   Only then could the evidence of massive eruptions over millions of years found scattered across North America be tied to a single source.

It is time that we recognize Donald Trump for what he is:  a mass murderer.  At his behest, aid to Ukraine has been put in limbo, while thousands die.  Adviika has fallen after 10 years of war, for want of ammunition that the US could easily supply.   One could, with some difficulty, blame the unnecessary deaths of so many due to COVID on Trump’s incompetence rather than malice.   But now we have the deaths of thousands, both Ukrainians and Russians, resulting from his active interference.

It is quite possible that Adolph Hitler never killed anyone personally until he took his own life in that Berlin bunker.  Yet we remember him as one of history’s most infamous mass murderers, because he created the conditions where others would kill in his name.   Now Trump is complicit in attempted genocide, simply to serve his own ends.

Not long after the 2020 election, I wrote a letter to the Washington Post that ended:

“The current efforts by Trump to delegitimize the results of an election that was undertaken under difficult conditions by thousands of honest and diligent election workers, postal workers and millions of voters is obscene, and is made more so by the silence, or worse, the active collaboration of GOP members who almost certainly know better.  Those cowards should remember that Hitler came to power by legitimate means, and only a costly world war, with millions of dead, finally ended his regime.  It can’t happen here, of course.  Right?”

---

ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:

There are 6 categories (including a bonus category at the end for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity that also play an important role in humanity’s lives) as do ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links to the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:

1. All Things Nuclear
2. Nuclear Power
3. Nuclear War
4. Nuclear Power Emergencies
5. Nuclear War Threats
6. Yellowstone Caldera (There are three Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in tonight’s Post.)

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 (per above). If a category heading does not appear, it means there was no news reported from this category today. There are three Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available tonight.

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

TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS (02/27/2024):

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

Permian Basin County Renews Opposition to Disposal of Higher-Level Nuclear Waste

The Texan

Photo from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. … Matt Stringer is a reporter for The Texan who writes about all things government, politics, and public …

Poland says Russian nuclear threat ‘mostly empty’ | News – Colorado Springs Gazette

Colorado Springs Gazette

All that is needed to win is our will to act.” That claim has faced growing skepticism in Western policy circles throughout the war but especially …

The Deadly $125-Billion ICBM Boondoggle – Union of Concerned Scientists

UCS blog – Union of Concerned Scientists

Last December, Utah Sen. Mitt Romney issued a press release crowing about all the money he secured for his state in the National Defense …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

Nuclear energy bill passes in state Senate, goes to House for vote | News | paducahsun.com

The Paducah Sun

The Kentucky State Senate voted 34 to 0 Monday in support of Senate Bill 198, which would lay the groundwork for bringing nuclear energy to …

Bill supporting development of nuclear energy powers to pass in Kentucky Senate

AP News

The Kentucky Senate has voted to lay the foundation to attract nuclear energy projects to a state where coal has fueled the economy for …

Canada Launches Second Green Bond Offering, Adds Nuclear Power to Eligible Investment …

ESG Today

The framework lists the deployment of nuclear energy to generate electricity and/or heat under the eligibility category of Clean Energy. Additional …

Nuclear War

NEWS

Wargame simulated a conflict between Israel and Iran: It quickly went nuclear

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

After receiving a war brief and instructions from the Israeli prime minister, teams representing the Israeli Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of …

The Deadly $125-Billion ICBM Boondoggle – Union of Concerned Scientists

UCS blog – Union of Concerned Scientists

… nuclear attack or, in the unlikely event of such an attack, retaliate. … “Yet ICBMs increase the risk that we will blunder into nuclear war by mistake …

While the World Was Looking Elsewhere, North Korea Became a Bigger Threat – WSJ

The Wall Street Journal

Its ability to unleash some form of nuclear attack on the world has … Those weapons are now used by Russian soldiers in the war in Ukraine, according …

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEW

Quad Cities Nuclear Power Station to conduct scheduled emergency response test Tuesday

KWQC

An exercise to test  …

2011 Japan Earthquake – Tsunami Fast Facts – Erie News Now

Erie News Now

– At 5:00 a.m., a nuclear emergency is declared at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Officials report the earthquake and tsunami have cut off …

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

Humanity under shadow of nuclear war again: UN chief

nournews.ir

… has consistently failed to deliver on its promises, warning that the threat of a nuclear war, which appeared on humanity last century, has resurfaced.

Macron won’t rule out using western ground troops in Ukraine – but is Nato prepared for war …

The Conversation

And Vladimir Putin and his senior ministers have regularly issued threats that Russia could resort to using its nuclear arsenal in the case of a …

Russia Is a Serious Threat in Space, But There’s No Need to Panic | The National Interest

The National Interest

… nuclear weapon in space or a nuclear-powered electronic warfare satellite. … threats to use tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine. It is not clear …

Yellowstone Caldera

NEWS

Hydrothermal puzzles in the lakes of Lower Geyser Basin | U.S. Geological Survey

USGS.gov

Sediment from the bottoms of lakes in Yellowstone contain records of past changes to the landscape—including how hydrothermal activity, …

The 1896 ride of the Buffalo Soldiers through Yellowstone National Park – Cycling West

Cycling West

William Haynes, Lance Cpl. Abram Martin, Musician Elias Johnson, Pvt. John Fridley, Pvt. George Scott, Pvt. Hiram L.B. Dingman, Pvt. Travis Bridges, …

How many more must die? – Daily Kos

Daily Kos

I picked up an old Doonesbury anthology the other day, “Yuge”. �Through the eyes of his characters, Trudeau follows the career of Donald Trump …

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity”

LLOYD A. WILLIAMS-PENDERGRAFT

FEB 26, 2024

1

Share

The Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, owned by PG&E, at Avila Beach, California, just 11 miles southwest of San Luis Obispo.

LLAW’s COMMENTS, Monday (02/26/2024)

As our 2nd installment, the last half of the Prologue to my upcoming novel “El Nuclear Diablo” to be written and produced right here beginning with Chapter 1 on Thursday, March 14, 2024, and since there is not much in the way of critical ‘All Things Nuclear News” today (although, as always, the ‘Worlds Nuclear News’ is posted below), I am reposting the first half of the Prologue from February 14th just in case you are interested and haven’t had a chance to read it, or to refresh your memory if you have forgotten what I had to say two weeks ago. ~llaw

El Nuclear Diablo

“Let the Bastards Freeze to Death in the Dark”

 ~ a retaliatory and unkind Nuclear Industry Quote after the 3-Mile Island nuclear accident in 1979, directed at concerned Scientists, worried citizens, and public protesters.

By Lloyd Albert Williams-Pendergraft

Prologue

Juneau, Alaska

Spring, 2026

Does it really matter who, exactly, is to blame, or why humankind is savagely devouring the native resources of planet Earth until there soon will be nothing left but lichenless barren rocks, the salty seas, countless grains of sand, and a poisonous atmosphere? It ought to be not enough to just know it is a critical unvarnished ugly truth. The question should be more like, “When will it happen and is there no way out of it?” Should it not?

I can only wonder if highly intelligent, but virulent, forms of our human species have, for countless eons, long traveled through the universal cosmos continually seeking, finding, and lavishly consuming, ultimately ravaging the natural resources, the flora and the fauna, devas ting the environments of this and other living rich blue-green planets also once full of fossil fuels and innocent living resources similar to Earth’s in order to ensure and serve their own survival at the expense of all else in their way. Obviously, we are the only species on this planet who rape and ravage the earth with such savagely uncontrolled vigor on such a large scale. We are the ultimate u ultimate fungus, the ultimate lethal mushrooms. And I have to also wonder if there are not multiple, or at least two species of us.

Not to ridicule Darwin at all, but does his theory of evolution, based on studies of inbreeding pigeons and chickens, really make much sense to you in this context? Does it not seem to you that we humans may be collectively aggressively demanding, ruthless, impolite, unwelcome extra-terrestrial galaxy-trotting invaders doing our parasitic thing here on Earth rather than a native natural-born integral integrated key part of our indigenous homo-sapiens and the native animal population—as Darwin would have us believe? What about the Octopus, sir?

Could it be possible we or they are simply biologically genetically patterned to look and act like homo sapiens? Or perhaps vice versa? At least some of us? Maybe even a whole lot of us? How do we know the difference between the real human beings and genetically altered or cloned ones? Which one am I? Which one are you? Do any of us know? I use the terms “we”, “us” or “our” and “they”, or “them”, or “their“ interchangeably here because in this context I don’t know who or what I am—an “us” or a “them”.

I just know that I am extremely uncomfortable with our or their willfully passionate desire to destroy everything on the planet for personal power, wealth, and a life of comfort at the expense of the rest of us or them. I don’t know about you, but it sure seems to be that way to me, so that’s why I consider myself to be an us.

At the very least we need to consider the possibility of at least one species of them and one of us. The only way we will ever know who we really are is through our unfettered natural mindful emotions—our feelings of love, care, and respect for Planet Earth, ourselves, and all her fauna and flora—or, conversely, our unnatural lack of those emotions or feelings. Yet we often disguise these characteristics, presenting the opposite of ourselves as themselves, or the other way around. But despite the hidden complexity, our future may depend on solving this psychological dilemma .

If our demise (at least partially) has happened before, it will likely happen again. And there is, in today’s worlds, a very quick, relatively easy long-lasting, if not eternally, way to create such a scenario as an extinction level event, not from an act of nature or a god, but from our own actions. ~llaw (Winter, 2026)

# Before the Beginning of the End

Our small party of seven women (including two teen-aged daughters) and five men (one a teen son) left California from Carmel Bay bound for Juneau, Alaska, on a rainy Friday morning five days after the “accident” that began at Pacific Gas and Electric’s El Diablo Cañón nuclear power plant on a sunny Monday morning, disrupting the entire United States electrical power grid system in a single day before becoming a global disaster by Thursday afternoon. We all knew what had happened and we knew it was not an accident like the MSM was reporting to all of us around the world until by Thursday morning there was no reporting at all. What our little group did not know was who and what was responsible, but we all had our own suspicions. No one wanted to discuss them, because at this point it didn’t really matter anyway. The irrevocable damage was done. We also knew the rain was not a good thing now, or in the long run as time goes by. But, laughably enough, one of us who had the foresight to bring along a Geiger counter reported excitedly, a wide grin on his face, “Hey, it’s okay for now.” No one smiled back. We had a long way to go and we were no more than a mere one hundred and fifty miles north of the remains of the Diablo nuclear facility releasing massive doses of nuclear radiation from every ruptured cell it had, both internally and from its own filthy poisonous airborne waste.

# Back in the Day

More than fifty years have passed since I first learned that nuclear power plants and weapons of mass destruction were fueled by uranium, an element my well-worn dog-eared Webster’s 1940-something dictionary defined essentially as a “worthless low-level radioactive mineral found in the ground.” The reason I remember this definition is because of a letter I received in January of 1969 from a mining company in central Wyoming’s “Gas Hills”, oddly named Lucky Mc (pronounced “Lucky Mac”) Mine, inviting me to an employment interview at the mine site and to please call to set up a date and time for the meeting. I had that old broke-spine 1940s Webster’s dictionary on my bookshelf in our small trailer house, so I looked up the definition. What the hell had changed? What were nuclear plants’ and nuclear bombs’ ingredients if not refined uranium? Of course, I was pretty sure I knew the answer.

The mine, I was told in the letter, was owned by a company known as Utah Construction and Mining Company, which was then best known for building the Hoover Dam, but was now a major player in mining, primarily of coal and uranium. Intrigued, I found a pay phone at the General Store in Elk Mountain, Wyoming, and made the telephone call.

The interview took place a couple of weeks later in mid-January, and I was offered a job as a senior accountant, which I immediately accepted, ending my old job as a field office manager for a highway construction company that had recently transferred me from Grand Junction, Colorado, to a new project between Laramie and Rawlins in southern Wyoming. So I had set up shop in an office trailer halfway between the two towns, preparing for road construction to begin in early spring.

But having a growing family with two young pre-school children and an infant daughter, I was thankful for the opportunity to settle into a new life in a more permanent location than highway construction offered, so I was pleased to accept the job offer.

As I learned my new job, I soon became the chief accountant and then the administrative manager at the mine, directly overseeing more than one hundred employees white collar employees. The company grew rapidly in its uranium branch to include a new mine known as the “Shirley Basin Mine,” blossoming Utah Construction and Mining Company into a new and more sophisticated reformed Utah International Inc, and a bit later, a major subsidiary of General Electric Company, which, among other well-known products, manufactured not-so well-known nuclear reactors. Eventually, the uranium mining division was spun off as Pathfinder Mines Corp. to avoid potential conflicts of interest. During those early days, I learned a lot about the mining and milling operations, including security, health and safety, as well as how the fuel production, the multi-step enriching process, governmental regulation, and how the marketing and selling of uranium was accomplished. In the beginning the only customer the company, as well as the entire uranium industry, had was the United States’ Atomic Energy Commission, and we were the major producer and provider of  relatively stable basic enriched uranium (U308), which would be refined into U238, the active isotope in nuclear reactors, to the government (including the TVA) until deregulation allowed us to sell mill refined U3O8 uranium to operational nuclear power plants as well as plants under construction and in development.

One of these new nuclear power stations was Pacific Gas and Electric’s under construction facility, known as the Diablo Canyon Power Plant, in San Luis Obispo County, California, near Avila Beach. The original facility, Unit 1 of course, began construction in 1968 followed by Unit 2 in 1970. During the following decade Utah Construction & Mining Company, by then known as Utah International Inc, profited immensely from our sale of uranium to American, Canadian, French, German, and other nuclear power facilities around the world. Doing business with PG&E was one of my first clues that rules and regulations were meant to be manipulated and broken by aggressive dollar-worshiping companies. But that’s another story, part of which I will relate later in the book.

What happened at Diablo Canyon between early 2024 and its planned decommission in late 2025, and the beginning of the horrid global devastation that followed just two short years later, is what this story is all about, and it shames me every day of my life that I was once a willing contributor to the shape of the macabre issues to come within the nuclear power industry. There are few of us left alive who know the factually complete and chronological entirety of this doomsday tale, but I am thankful and even proud to be one of the few because I have the knowledge and the motivation to relate this horrific tale. I have an absolute moral and ethical obligation to pass my knowledge of this world-class man-made armageddon (spelled here with a small but still doomsday-deadly “a”) event along to those few who will come after the rest of us, hoping to go a different way whether it be for better or for worse. Your choices and your chances are extremely limited, and I wish you, as well as all of “us”, all the best.

At an overly ripe seventy-something years old, as I write this dystopian-like tale, my mind is clear and fixed on the events that led to this catastrophe that with proper regulatory enforcement and diligent responsibility of the American government and industry corporate officials might never have happened. A common failure of mankind is to brazenly think of ourselves as collectively invincible, making us just delusional enough to fool ourselves into believing that we are smarter, brainier, and more resourceful than Mother Nature. We have proven ourselves wrong countless times concerning thousands of vital issues, but through the ages we have made and continue to make the same mistakes repeatedly. Who was the wise man who said, “The definition of insanity is making the same mistakes over and over again but expecting different results.”?

Just the relatively minor accidents at nuclear facilities (most of them politically covered up or not commonly known) over the years including the more well-known Hanford (Richland), Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima—along with the common political knowledge that several nations’—not all of whom were American allies—ability to cyber-attack our nuclear power plants and our electrical distribution grid systems, ought to have been enough to give us fair warning that—contrary to pseudo-science, corporate greed, political belief and public opinion—nuclear power was never safe, but in reality was the single most dangerous and destructive power generating concept ever developed for all kinds of reprehensible reasons. When something goes nuclear wrong, it goes irreparably wrong, most likely impossible to control or recover from the impending disaster that will last for several hundred to a few thousands, although the half-life of bismuth radiation has been measured at twenty billion billion (yes, twenty billion-billion), years so we in this lonely corner of the universe might consider ourselves lucky. In 2022 there were four hundred and fifty nuclear power plants operating world-wide and sixty more were under construction. Today, of course, there are none.

Despite Meriam-Webster’s innocent grandfatherly definition of uranium, this same earthly tragedy (but on a much smaller scale) has apparently happened on our planet at least once before — more likely twice — though much hypothetical theory (including Biblical references, quiet speculation, and outright loud conspiracy theories) have been written about the evidence of the possibility, few of us seem to understand or have ever cared that a similar nuclear world with massive devastation actually occurred, at least once, thousands of years ago, nor that the archeological and anthropological scientific community has not investigated, researched, endorsed or even acknowledged the historical evidence. This does not surprise me, but today what scientists and historians believed is immaterial because now what is left of our world is all that we need to worry and care about—events of the past, rightly so, mean nothing today. We are long past the life-saving threshold of learning from our mistakes, including our willful ignorance.

We humans, them or us or together, seem to have been running a rigged three-legged race against one another to rend asunder the entire planet against the natural environmental care and protections of Gaia, the Goddess of Nature. In a blind and greedy rush to subconsciously exterminate ourselves and fatally poison our only home—planet Earth and all her abundant bounty—we have, through American style financing of intentional international environmental degradation, hawkish threats of nuclear war, or the patriarchally personalized political, bureaucratic and corporate industrial pandemic earth-cancer super-spreaders that I call those who would allow humanity to “freeze to death in the dark.”  I personally heard this same man say this same phrase, with their — often profane — variants, more than just once or twice. The phrase was coined by the President and CEO of a major mining company I was involved with, echoing his indignant objections to public protests over Three Mile Island in beginning in 1979. Note that all of these doomsday contestants during their race toward human extinction—indeed, by natural extension, including all life — had their in-common triple arsenal of the half-life of airborne nuclear radioactive emissions teamed up with ground and waste water airborne radiation, their three legs at the end entirely unbound, allowing them to overrun the basins and ranges without restrictions, making all of them self-proclaimed “winners” of their race into the likes of Dante’s, or someone’s, Inferno.

(Stay tuned for the next Episode in two weeks on February 29th.)

ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:

There are 6 categories (including a bonus category at the end for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity that also play an important role in humanity’s lives) as do ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links to the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:

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

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 (per above). If a category heading does not appear, it means there was no news reported from this category today. There are no Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available tonight.

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

TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS (02/26/2024):

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

Why This Is the Tensest Nuclear Moment in 60 Years – New York Magazine

New York Magazine

… all concerned about the possibility that they were supporting the spread of nuclear weapons. For decades, the United States has been worried about …

Government ‘talking the mantras of renewables’ without understanding the transition

YouTube

Australia is already a ‘nuclear nation’: Why we should forget about renewables … ‘Labor has got it all wrong’: Government rules out support for …

Recent events raise questions about the role of space in global politics

Little Rock Public Radio

News of a Russian nuclear-powered space device has brought attention to how space is being weaponized … All Things Considered. Next Up: 6:30 PM …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

Nuclear energy experts train researchers to meet future nonproliferation challenges

Idaho National Laboratory

As nuclear energy is increasingly recognized as a vital component of the clean energy transition, American companies have answered the call with …

Signature House nuclear package to get a floor vote – E&E News by POLITICO

E&E News

The “Atomic Energy Advancement Act,” H.R. 6544, from Reps. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) and Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), chair and ranking member of the House …

America’s nuclear energy abandonment doesn’t make sense | Opinions – Collegiate Times

Collegiate Times

During the OPEC oil embargo, nuclear power seemed to meet high energy demands. In the 1970s, new regulations derived from studies claiming …

Nuclear War

NEWS

Germany’s call for the bomb – World Socialist Web Site

World Socialist Web Site

… nuclear war.” This turns reality on its head. In fact, with the … attack with a major nuclear counter-attack.” The basic issue was “that we have …

Ex-Russian President Tells Putin To Take ‘Revenge’ On West; Warns ‘They’re Our Enemies’

YouTube

4:05 · Go to channel. Putin’s Big Statement After Biden’s ‘Nuclear War Fear’ Alert; ‘Nearly All Russian Nuke Forces Now…’ Hindustan Times New 202K …

Fact Check: Has Putin Made New Threat About Ukraine Joining NATO? – Newsweek

Newsweek

… nuclear war. “Are you ready to die to defend Ukraine? I’m not. This needs to be de-escalated immediately.” In the clip, subtitles stated that Putin …

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

Why This Is the Tensest Nuclear Moment in 60 Years – New York Magazine

New York Magazine

Where would you place the current threat level compared to the Cold War era? This is by far the most intense set of nuclear dangers that have …

Putin threatens to go nuclear — because his military is suffering badly in Ukraine

New York Post

… war and secure democracy in Europe. Putin’s nuclear threats must not go unanswered. Washington must confront Putin just as President John Kennedy …

‘Proliferation Everywhere’: How Space Force Will Answer New Threats

Air & Space Forces Magazine

Revelations that Russia is developing a space-based anti-satellite nuclear weapon made headlines earlier this month, posing threats to military and …

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity”

LLOYD A. WILLIAMS-PENDERGRAFT

FEB 25, 2024

1

Share

LLAW’s COMMENTS, Sunday (02/25/2024)

A fairly quiet Sunday. The downed power line feeding the ZPPR nuclear power plant in Ukraine that could have helped create a nuclear disaster has been successfully repaired according to the latest news. Another close call, and always keep in mind that the more operating nuclear plants that come online in the future, the greater the risk of nuclear disaster.

That’s all I have to say this evening, but don’t forget that 2nd half of my the ‘Prologue’ to my planned “El Nuclear Diablo” novel will be Posted on the evening of February 29th, leading into Chapter 1 one of the serialized story to be originally available to readers of this “LLAW’s All Things Nuclear” nightly report on my personal website or on Substack beginning on Thursday March 14, because this is leap year and February has 29 days. Therefore, I will plan to keep it on a Thursday evening permanently. Facebook links to both sites will continue, as always. ~llaw

---

ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:

There are 6 categories (including a bonus category at the end for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity that also play an important role in humanity’s lives) as do ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links to the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:

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

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 (per above). If a category heading does not appear, it means there was no news reported from this category today. There are no Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available tonight.

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

TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS (02/25/2024):

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

UK Trident Missile Test: Has the UK’s nuclear deterrent program failed? | This World | WION

YouTube

The UK has failed to test-fire a Trident ballistic missile for the second time in a row. During the test on January 30, the dummy nuclear missile …

Russia-Ukraine war: Putin’s space nuke is so crazy, it’s an opportunity – AFR

AFR

The spectre of Russian nuclear escalation in space could offer Joe Biden and Xi Jinping to make common cause in restraining and deterring the …

Recent events raise questions about the role of space in global politics – NPR

NPR

News of a Russian nuclear-powered space device has brought attention to how space is being weaponized. NPR’s Ayesha Rascoe talks to Francesca …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

Ukraine eyes Japanese companies for nuclear power expansion: minister – Nikkei Asia

Nikkei Asia

Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, Zaporizhzhia, in the south, has been taken over by invading Russian forces and all six reactors there have …

Ukraine’s Ukrenergo says Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant power supply line repaired …

Yahoo News

Ukrenergo, Ukraine’s national energy company, has reported that it has recovered the reliability of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant’s power …

How the humble potato could monitor radiation surrounding nuclear power plants

Fast Company

The phytosensor in potato plants could act as a backup in the event of a nuclear disaster. … While expanding nuclear energy production would provide …

Nuclear War

NEWS

Private bunker sales boom amid nuclear war fears – The Telegraph

The Telegraph

Private bunker sales boom amid nuclear war fears. Manufacturers of shelters say they have seen an influx in demand in the past year, primarily the …

G7 leaders admonish Russia for ‘irresponsible nuclear rhetoric’ on second anniversary of … – The Hill

The Hill

“Threats by Russia of nuclear weapon use, let alone any use of nuclear weapons by Russia, in the context of its war of aggression against Ukraine are …

A failing British nuclear arsenal reliant on the goodwill of Donald Trump? It’s a terrifying thought

The Guardian

More alarming yet is the prospect of Britain being drawn into a Trump-led nuclear war. Armageddon edged closer during his presidency. As well as …

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEWS

How the humble potato could monitor radiation surrounding nuclear power plants

Fast Company

Mechanical radiation detection equipment needs electrical power and regular maintenance, both of which make them less reliable during emergencies.

NRRC: Ukrainian nuclear plant explosion not affected in anyway Saudi radiation levels

MSN

Saudi Gazette reportRIYADH — The Saudi Nuclear and Radiological Regulatory Commission (NRRC) announced that the commission’s Nuclear Emergency …

Emergency Power Supply Reestablished at Zaporizhzhia NPP – The UBJ

The UBJ

Ukrenergo, Ukraine’s national energy company, has successfully restored the emergency power line to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), …

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

G7 leaders admonish Russia for ‘irresponsible nuclear rhetoric’ on second anniversary of … – The Hill

The Hill

“Threats by Russia of nuclear weapon use, let alone any use of nuclear weapons by Russia, in the context of its war of aggression against Ukraine …

A failing British nuclear arsenal reliant on the goodwill of Donald Trump? It’s a terrifying thought

The Guardian

As well as scrapping arms control treaties, he expanded the list of external threats that might justify first use of nuclear weapons and doubled the …

Ex-CSIS manager on insider threats after alleged nuclear plant info leak, Ortis case

Global News

Watch ‘The most serious threat to national security’: Ex-CSIS manager on insider threats after alleged nuclear plant info leak, Ortis case Video …

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity”

LLOYD A. WILLIAMS-PENDERGRAFT

FEB 24, 2024

1

Share

LLAW’s COMMENTS, Saturday (02/24/2024)

Finally, I have found an article that, except for the fact that it does not include the serious possibilities of radiation leakage, nuclear waste disposal, and other extremely dangerous factors associated with nuclear power plants— including meltdowns and, lately, nuclear war — everything else he has to say conforms precisely to my own points of view that I have been Posting here for 550 consecutive evenings.

But Chris Bowen, Australian MP for Climate Change & Energy, has written a concise and to the point piece here should not be referred to as “opinion”. It is clearly incontrovertible fact, and of course Mr. Bowen is in a position to know what he is talking about. He calls the never-ending propaganda from the entire concept of the nuclear power plant industry ‘hot air’, which is a bit more congenial than my many other descriptions that I use almost on a daily basis here on ‘All Things Nuclear’. But he sharply debunks virtually every propaganda claim that the nuclear power industry and its providers have ever conceived. They are all lies, based on capitalism and profiteering, easily critiqued and demonstrably disproven, and I know from experience that many of the nuclear industry leaders are well aware that their entire industry is based on ‘hot air’. ~llaw

The Hon Chris Bowen MP

Minister for Climate Change and Energy

Chris Bowen

Opinion piece: Proponents of nuclear power are peddling hot air

24 February 2024

Opponents of cleaner, cheaper renewables have used a particularly spectacular contortion of logic to claim the recent catastrophic storms in Victoria and the resulting power outages as evidence of the folly of acting on climate change and boosting renewables.

Predictably, nuclear energy advocates seized on the Victorian events and temporary power outage to re-energise their campaign for Australia to start a nuclear energy industry.

Let’s be clear upfront. Nuclear is not being pushed as a genuine alternative to renewables. It’s being used as a distraction and a delaying tactic.

It’s also quite the feat to assert that had it been nuclear rather than renewables, a coal-fired electricity generator in Victoria wouldn’t have shut itself down as protection against surges from storm-damaged transmission. It’s an even greater leap essentially to assert that a grid under the LNP would involve no distribution – given the vast majority of outages were caused by extreme damage to the distribution network – including from the half a million lightning strikes in eight hours.

Will nuclear powered electricity be transmitted by osmosis? By Bluetooth? By a vibe? Whether your energy comes from coal, nuclear, gas or renewables, if poles and wires are down, electricity won’t get where it needs to go.

The pro-nuclear argument is two-pronged. That the world has realised the perils of renewables and is experiencing a nuclear renaissance, and Australia is missing out.

And that nuclear is much cheaper than renewable energy, once upgrading and expanding the grid is factored in.

Both these arguments collapse faster than a tree in a lightning strike when exposed to the facts.

Global investment in renewable energy sources constitutes three quarters of all power generation investment.

Take just solar, for example. Last year, the world installed 440GW of renewable capacity. This is more than the world’s entire existing nuclear capacity built up through decades of investment. By early 2025, renewable energy will surpass coal as the planet’s largest source of energy, while coal, gas and nuclear will all shrink their market share.

Nuclear and coal combined, however, account for only 16 per cent of new global power investment. In 2005, electricity companies in the US pledged to build more than 30 reactors. Only four ever commenced construction. Two were abandoned due to massive cost and time delays.

The alleged boom in Small Modular Reactors is also a mirage. China and Russia are the only two countries to have installed them. The US has now abandoned its “flagship” commercial-scale pilot SMR (promised back in 2008), wearing 70 per cent cost blowouts without having started construction on a single reactor.

We know the Russian SMRs have extraordinarily low load factors and that nuclear waste from the SMR process is disproportionate to their output. The Chinese data is more opaque, but given SMRs generate about 300MW (compared to a coal-fired power station at 2000MW), we have no reason to believe there is anything approaching a serious contribution to China’s energy demand from their two units.

My shadow minister predicted that last year’s Dubai COP would be remembered as the “nuclear COP”. Not so much. Twenty three countries have pledged to triple nuclear energy by 2050, while 124 countries pledged to triple renewable energy investment within the next six years, before the nuclear dream even gets started.

Then there is cost. Contrary to myth, GenCost does include the cost of transmission and storage, and the CSIRO-AEMO GenCost conclusions about the chasm between nuclear and renewables costs could not be clearer.

But if you don’t want to accept eminent and independent practitioners at those organisations, then you can have a look at the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, which estimates it will cost $US15 trillion to triple nuclear capacity. Or University College London, which recently found that “new nuclear capacity is only cost effective if ambitious cost and construction times are assumed”.

And if you don’t like University College London’s research, ask the merchant bank Lazard, which shows levelised cost of nuclear to be four times higher than utilityscale solar and wind.

Then look at how many nuclear projects are falling over because of cost and time overruns. The UK’s Hinkley C nuclear plant was promised to be “cooking Christmas turkeys by 2017”. It’s yet to warm a single drumstick, with latest costings at more than $86bn. Who in Australia does the opposition energy spokesman expect will be footing those kind of bills?

Like many things in the climate debate, the push for nuclear power has taken on a singular importance in the culture wars. It’s striking that a party that once prided itself on economic rationalism could embrace a frolic so spectacularly uneconomic. This is the triumph of culture wars over climate pragmatism in the alternative government.

The LNP has been promising to reveal the details of its long nuclear fairytales soon. It can’t come soon enough.

No plan for nuclear power in Australia will survive contact with reality. The Australian people deserve more than hot air to power their homes and businesses.

This opinion piece was first published in the Australian on Saturday, 24 February 2024.

END (Note: This article is also available in the Nuclear Power category below.)

---

ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:

There are 6 categories (including a bonus category at the end for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity that also play an important role in humanity’s lives) as do ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links to the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:

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

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 (per above). If a category heading does not appear, it means there was no news reported from this category today. There are no Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available tonight.

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

TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS (02/24/2024):

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

Head Of UN Atomic Watchdog Calls For ‘Restraint’ After Blasts Near Ukrainian Nuclear Plant

Radio Free Europe

UN atomic watchdog chief Rafael Grossi called on February 23 for “maximum military restraint” after a string of powerful explosions occurred near …

Remarks by President Biden at a Campaign Reception | Los Altos Hills, CA

The White House

You know, we’ve made clear from day one of our administration that we believe in science, which the other guy is not quite sure exists. (Laughter.) …

Science Is the New Nuclear Deterrent – Nautilus Magazine

Nautilus Magazine

Science Is the New Nuclear Deterrent. Sarah Scoles on her 3 greatest revelations while writing Countdown: The Blinding Future of Nuclear Weapons. By …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

At every step of this full-scale invasion, Putin uses nuclear catastrophe as a threat by shelling and occupying Ukraine’s nuclear power plants on the …

Science Is the New Nuclear Deterrent – Nautilus Magazine

Nautilus Magazine

Scientists who work at nuclear weapons labs often do research on physics, astronomy, or nuclear power in addition to their weapons-related work. This …

Opinion piece: Proponents of nuclear power are peddling hot air – Ministers

Ministers

It’s also quite the feat to assert that had it been nuclear rather than renewables, a coal-fired electricity generator in Victoria wouldn’t have shut …

Nuclear War

NEWS

The Cost of Nuclear War in Space – The New York Times

The New York Times

Just before the Russian-Ukrainian war reached its two-year milestone today, U.S. intelligence agencies warned that Russia might aim a nuclear …

The Long Shadow: Russian Nuclear Calibration in the War in Ukraine – CSIS

CSIS

It also concludes that the risks of nuclear use will likely rise if Russia faces significant battlefield setbacks in the future or the conflict …

Ahead of Anniversary of Russian Invasion of Ukraine, Senator Markey Condemns Putin’s …

Senator Edward Markey

At every step of this full-scale invasion, Putin uses nuclear catastrophe as a threat by shelling and occupying Ukraine’s nuclear power plants on the …

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEWS

NRRC: Ukrainian nuclear plant explosion not affected in anyway Saudi radiation levels

Saudi Gazette

The Saudi Nuclear and Radiological Regulatory Commission (NRRC) announced that the commission’s Nuclear Emergency Operations Center did not …

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

The Long Shadow: Russian Nuclear Calibration in the War in Ukraine – CSIS

CSIS

Moscow has used explicit threats, including mention of crossing a “red line” in September 2022 if the United States supplied longer-range missiles to …

Ukraine: how nuclear weapons continue to increase the risks, two years on

International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons

… nuclear war is not to increase nuclear arsenals or threaten nuclear retaliation. The answer is for all countries to condemn nuclear threats, end …

Ahead of Anniversary of Russian Invasion of Ukraine, Senator Markey Condemns Putin’s …

Senator Edward Markey

At every step of this full-scale invasion, Putin uses nuclear catastrophe as a threat by shelling and occupying Ukraine’s nuclear power plants on the …

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity”

LLOYD A. WILLIAMS-PENDERGRAFT

FEB 23, 2024

1

Share

Satellite imagery from July shows the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and it’s six uranium-fueled reactors, currently in a cold shutdown. (Maxar)

LLAW’s COMMENTS, Friday (02/23/2024)

This is a much more comprehensive report from NBC and Yahoo on the most recent Russian military attack on the huge nuclear power plant (6 nuclear reactors) in Ukraine. Diesel generators are in use to control the nuclear plant, but the plant is in serious trouble because the incoming power lines are down due to Russian military shelling. It is even more serious than I thought in my recent Post concerning this horrible situation, threatening to put all of Ukraine and other European countries in uninhabitable situations for hundreds of years.

This potential disaster could make the Chernobyl nuclear accident (the worst in nuclear power history in the spring of 1986), look like little more than a local inconvenience. The surrounding city of Pripyat, other communities and rural areas still remain uninhabitable.

And the nuclear industry still says nuclear power is safe, cheap, and clean? War is just one of the thousands of reasons ‘All Things Nuclear’ are the most dangerous products on planet Earth. ~llaw

Europe’s largest nuclear plant is ‘extremely volatile,’ watchdog warns

Richard Engel and Charlotte Gardiner and Gabe Joselow

Thu, February 22, 2024 at 12:32 PM PST·6 min read

• KYIV — Sitting on the front line of the war between Russia and Ukraine, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant is near the brink of a disaster that could imperil the Continent, according to international monitors and Ukrainian officials.

The situation is “extremely volatile,” said Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which closely monitors the Zaporizhzhia facility in the southeast Ukrainian town of Enerhodar. Ukraine’s national energy company and former employees at the plant are also sounding the alarm.

“It is the most dangerous situation that we have,” Grossi told NBC News in an interview last week. “It’s my job not to sow panic, but at the same time I have to tell the truth about what is happening.”

There was growing international alarm when the site was shelled in the months after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine two years ago this Saturday, Feb. 24. And Ukrainian officials have also warned about staffing levels and general maintenance of the plant, which became operational in 1984.   

Both sides have since blamed the other for attacks in the vicinity of the complex, which Russian forces seized shortly after the start of the war and is almost twice the size of Ukraine’s Chernobyl plant, the site of the deadly 1986 disaster widely considered the worst nuclear accident on record.

The atomic energy agency has repeatedly warned about the dangers of a direct attack on the site, although it has noted there has been no shelling of the facility since May.

However, Russian forces remain in control of the plant, which is right on the eastern bank of the Dnieper River, and all the territory around it, including the company town of Enerhodar. Ukrainian forces have maintained control of the river’s other bank.

As the focus of the fighting has shifted farther north, another concern is the frequent power outages at the plant, where eight blackouts have been reported since the start of the war, the most recent in December, according to both the IAEA and Energoatom, Ukraine’s national energy company.

“When you have a blackout, lack of external power supply at a nuclear power plant, the cooling function of the reactors is lost, and you could have a meltdown,” Grossi said.

He added that the situation could be compared to 2011’s disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan, when three reactors melted down in an accident caused by a huge tsunami that battered the country’s eastern coast.

Zaporizhzhia is different because the plant’s six Soviet-era reactors were put into semi-shutdown to stop the nuclear fission reaction and generation of heat and pressure shortly after the start of the war. As a result, they are in a colder state than those in Fukushima and therefore less volatile.

Powering the plant has nonetheless become increasingly difficult because three of the four lines supplying the complex have been destroyed and the fourth is faulty, according to Petro Kotin, the CEO of Energoatom, which ran the facility before it was taken by Russian forces.

For now, the plant is relying on 20 backup diesel generators to keep the reactors operating safely, said Kotin, who is still in contact with a number of Ukrainian workers at the plant.

The destruction of the Kakhovka dam farther up the Dnieper River has also proved problematic for operators at the plant. Water from the dam’s reservoir had been used to cool the reactors, which now could overheat and melt down if turned on.

New wells are being drilled at the plant to make up for the supply of cooling water lost by the dam’s collapse, according to the IAEA.

Another serious point of concern is the lack of qualified staff to oversee safety under the plant’s current operators, a subsidiary of the Russian state nuclear company, Rosatom.

Before the war, about 11,000 employees worked at the plant, many of whom fled as Russian forces advanced. Now there is just a skeleton crew of about 4,000, according to Energoatom, which like Kotin still receives information from both current and former staff members.

Kotin said the Ukrainian staff who stayed behind were forced “under pressure and even under torture” to sign contracts with Rosatom.

NBC News has asked Rosatom for comment on power supply and the staffing issues at the plant.

After the plant fell into Russian hands, Serhii Romanyuk said he reluctantly continued to work there as a deputy head of nuclear safety, which meant he was responsible for the safe storage of new and used nuclear fuel.

But in September 2022, he said he was called into the office of the main engineer and was arrested by representatives of the Federal Security Service (FSB) — the domestic intelligence service that succeeded the Soviet-era KGB.

Romanyuk said they wanted to know if he had a weapon, so they escorted him back to his apartment in Enerhodar to conduct a search.

“They put a hot iron on my chest, choked me, they put a bag on my head so I couldn’t breathe,” he said. “All of that was followed by a beating.”

Although they did not find a weapon, he said they took him to a police cell where he was held in a small, windowless room, crammed with people.

The interrogations and the beatings continued, but this time he said they were searching for information about other members of the staff who were pro-Ukrainian.

“They were trying to convince me to collaborate with them, but it wasn’t about working at the nuclear plant,” he said. “They were interested in some other field of collaboration.”

After more than a month in captivity, he said was released after he refused to cooperate.

Now living in Kyiv, Romanyuk said he feared for the plant because of the poor quality of the remaining staff and the degradation of equipment. On the few occasions he has received information about the facility, he said it appeared that “nothing is done there in terms of maintenance.”

Allegations of abuse against Ukrainian workers have been widespread since Russia took over the plant. A recent investigation by the Ukrainian human rights organization Truth Hounds featured testimony from several people who also alleged similar treatment. It said that Ukrainians on site were targeted for suspicion of working with Ukrainian forces, cooperating with the country’s intelligence services or of having anti-Russian views.

NBC News has asked the FSB and Rosatom for comment about the allegations that workers at the plant have been tortured.

Kotin, the Energoatom CEO, warns that the staffing issue is affecting the overall maintenance of the plant, further increasing the chance of something going wrong and that this is getting worse because of the degradation of the site.

“You can get to the point when any small event somewhere will bring just a cumulative effect,” he said. “After that, you will have this disaster.”

Richard Engel and Charlotte Gardiner reported from Kyiv, and Gabe Joselow from London.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

• Up next

Ukraine’s Zaphorizhzhia nuclear plant loses connection to last backup power line

• Arpan RaiWed, February 21, 2024 at 10:26 PM PST·3 min read
  Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has lost connection to its last external power backup line, UN’s nuclear agency chief Rafael Grossi said on Wednesday.The loss of the last power backup to keep the nuclear facility running is “once again underlining the fragile nuclear safety and security situation at the site”, the International Atomic Energy Agency director general said.He said IAEA officials present at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which sits in Russia-occupied territory, were informed that the 330 kilovolt (kV) power line was disconnected at 2.04pm local time on Tuesday.A team of experts present at the site were told the disconnection occurred “due to a problem which occurred on the other side of the Dnipro river, some 13.5km away from the 330 kV switchyard, which supplies back-up power to the site”.“The cause of the disconnection was not immediately known, the ZNPP said, adding it had been informed by the Ukrainian grid operator that work on the line was under way,” the statement said.

Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya NPP has lost connection to its last back-up external power line & is receiving electricity it needs from its only 750 kV line, again underlining fragile nuclear safety & security situation at the site, DG @RafaelMGrossi said today. https://t.co/7unyHB01xC pic.twitter.com/v5ZGRPradx

— IAEA – International Atomic Energy Agency ⚛️ (@iaeaorg) February 21, 2024

• Before Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2024, the plant had four 750kV lines and six 330kV lines available to keep the nuclear facility running.There are no longer backup options for off-site power.Any disconnection of power or damage to the electricity lines to Zaporizhzhia can threaten the highly reactive reactors and its other essential functions which need electricity to cool them down, even when all reactor units have been shut down.“The ZNPP is still receiving the electricity it needs from its only 750 kV line, but the loss of the 330 kV line means the plant currently has no back-up options available for off-site power,” the IAEA said.Mr Grossi said the “extremely vulnerable off-site power situation continues to pose significant safety and security challenges for this major nuclear facility”.“Even though the main power line remains in operation, the lack of back-up power demonstrates that the nuclear safety and security situation at the plant remains precarious,” he said.The ZNPP has suffered complete loss of off-site power since August 2022 on at least eight events, relying temporarily on emergency diesel generators.Fears over the “fragile” security situation at one of the world’s biggest atomic power plants has been a feature throughout Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.The IAEA has expressed alarm about the facility amid fears of a potential nuclear catastrophe. The plant has repeatedly been caught in the crossfire since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February in 2022, and seized the facility within days of their military offensive.Of particular concern is the Russian decision to block access for Ukrainian staff employed by Kyiv’s national operator, who refused to sign contracts with the Russian operator at the site.The staff working at the plant now are former Energoatom workers who adopted Russian citizenship and signed new contracts with Russia’s operator at the site.

ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:

There are 6 categories (including a bonus category at the end for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity that also play an important role in humanity’s lives) as do ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links to the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:

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

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 (per above). If a category heading does not appear, it means there was no news reported from this category today. There is one Yellowstone Caldera bonus story available tonight.

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

TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS (02/23/2024):

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

Putin Takes a Flight in Nuclear-Capable Bomber in a Tough Message to the West Ahead of Election

Military.com

All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast … GI Bill: Top 5 Things to Know · Checklists for Your PCS Move · Maryland State …

Putin’s Big Statement After Biden’s ‘Nuclear War Fear’ Alert; ‘Nearly All Russian Nuke Forces Now…’

Hindustan Times

Russian President Vladimir announced on February 23 that nearly all of Russian nuclear forces have modernised amid fears of nuclear conflict …

Whose declared existential risk is a bigger threat, Biden’s or Trump’s? – Washington Post

Washington Post

Biden points at climate change as the existential threat to humanity. Trump says it’s nuclear weapons. So we asked an expert.

Nuclear Power

NEWS

Study Details Positive Economic Impact of Nuclear Industry in Southeast U.S.

American Public Power Association

“It serves as a baseline for understanding the benefits of nuclear power and its integral role in regional economic growth and the global clean energy …

DOE inks $303M deal for advanced nuclear reactor – E&E News by POLITICO

E&E News

The Department of Energy has signed an agreement with a nuclear technology company to provide up to $303 million for designing, building and …

Kairos Power, DOE agree on milestone approach to Hermes support – American Nuclear Society

Europe’s largest nuclear plant is ‘extremely volatile,’ watchdog warns – Yahoo News

Yahoo News

KYIV — Sitting on the front line of the war between Russia and Ukraine, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant is near the brink of a disaster that …

Nuclear War

NEWS

Are investors prepared for *checks notes* nuclear war in space? – Financial Times

Financial Times

The explosion test, called Starfish Prime, was a high-altitude nuclear test conducted as a joint effort of the Atomic Energy Commission and the …

Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin flies on supersonic nuclear bomber – Sky News

Sky News

Putin has flown on a supersonic nuclear bomber today – a version of what the USSR would have deployed in the event of a nuclear war.

Putin’s Big Statement After Biden’s ‘Nuclear War Fear’ Alert; ‘Nearly All Russian Nuke Forces Now…’

YouTube

Russian President Vladimir announced on February 23 that nearly all of Russian nuclear forces have modernised amid fears of nuclear conflict …

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEWS

NRC Issues Event Notification for Peach Bottom Nuclear Plant, Pa. – Energy Central

Energy Central

… emergency notification per 10 CFR 50.72(b)(3)(v). “There was no impact on the health and safety of the public or plant personnel. “The NRC …

China science, technology news summary — Feb. 23 – Xinhua

Xinhua

The Zhangzhou nuclear power project is designed to consist of six nuclear … emergency management systems and capabilities. Multiple new models of …

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

Don’t fear the space nuke. The Ukraine war remains the true Russian threat to the West

The Telegraph

Don’t fear the space nuke. The Ukraine war remains the true Russian threat to the West. The ‘God of War‘ is no heavenly entity. David Axe 23 …

Russia warns it could ‘accidentally’ start a nuclear war as ‘impotent’ western leaders … – MSN

MSN

‘ It comes just days after the ex-president threatened Russia could nuke the UK, US, Ukraine and its backers if Russia is forced to concede occupied …

Putin says he STILL wants Biden as president and doesn’t blame him for calling a ‘crazy …

Daily Mail

At the same time, Moscow is ramping up threats of nuclear attack amid … nuclear war with the West to deliver nuclear weapons at long distances.

Yellowstone Caldera

NEWS

Sheveluch volcano (Central Kamchatka, Russia) – Smithsonian / USGS Weekly Volcanic …

Volcano Discovery

… caldera and picturesque villages. Discover its fascinating natural and cultural history on a relaxed walking study tour with us. Yellowstone quakes.

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity”

LLOYD A. WILLIAMS-PENDERGRAFT

FEB 22, 2024

1

Share

LLAW’s COMMENTS, Thursday (02/22/2024)

The following is a nice down-to-earth human interest story, but just one man got a lot of attention through vandalism that helped defeat many nationally planned nuclear power plants. Predictably, he got far more attention than I have by trying to do the same thing on a larger scale, but without doing anything destructive . . . It is sad, sometimes, what gets others’ attention in a meaningful way that the peaceful act of writing a nightly column does. But, anyway, more power to Sam Lovejoy. llolloll! ~llaw

(Note: as I write this the full story is not posted here, but you should be able to click on the “Listen” button at the top of the article to hear it (and it’s a short visit) Sam Lovejoy’s story. Or if not, you can go to this link: To see more, visit https://www.npr.org where you can apparently find the full article.)

• KUAR is experiencing disruptions in Monticello due to issues concerning the transmitter. We appreciate your patience as we actively work to resolve the issues.

50 years ago, one-man’s action helped spark the anti-nuke movement

Published February 21, 2024 at 6:52 AM CST

Thanks for reading All Things Nuclear! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Subscribed

LISTEN • 5:15

On a cold winter’s night in 1974, Sam Lovejoy toppled a 500-foot weather tower in Montague, Massachusetts, designed to gather data for two proposed nuclear power plants.

Lovejoy turned himself in and was acquitted on a technicality. But his act of civil disobedience was instrumental in igniting a movement against nuclear power in the nation.

Jon Kalish reports for New England Public Media.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

---

ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:

There are 6 categories (including a bonus category at the end for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity that also play an important role in humanity’s lives) as do ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links to the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:

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

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 (per above). If a category heading does not appear, it means there was no news reported from this category today. There is one Yellowstone Caldera bonus story available tonight.

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

TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS (02/22/2024):

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

House is heading toward “nuclear” war over Ukraine funding, one top House GOP leader says

CBS News

… about them taking you out, or live every day as your last. Get something out of it. If you lead and get big things done, your reputation enhances.

50 years ago, one-man’s action helped spark the anti-nuke movement

Little Rock Public Radio

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

Biden Calls Putin ‘Crazy SOB’ and Hits Trump on Navalny Remarks – Time

Time

… all think I should be committed … “We have a crazy SOB like that guy Putin, and others, and we always have to worry about nuclear conflict,” Biden …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

Make Carbon-Free Hydrogen with Nuclear Energy? – The Breakthrough Institute

The Breakthrough Institute

Nuclear reactors make heat on their way to making electricity. The goal of the subsidies is to push hydrogen production technology along the learning …

Why Britain Is Struggling With Nuclear Power – The New York Times

The New York Times

The government wants more nuclear plants to help tackle climate change, but delays and soaring costs are complicating the effort.

Commercial shipment marks big step for safer, more efficient nuclear fuels

Idaho National Laboratory

In December, INL received 25 prototype fuel rods irradiated in the reactor core of a commercial nuclear plant. The fuel rods were developed and …

U.S. Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy – Facebook – Facebook

Full Coverage

Nuclear War

NEWS

Putin sends signal to West with flight on nuclear-capable bomber | Reuters

Reuters

Russian President Vladimir Putin flew on a modernised Tu-160M nuclear-capable strategic bomber on Thursday in a move likely to be seen in the West …

House is heading toward “nuclear” war over Ukraine funding, one top House GOP leader says

CBS News

And at the same time, McHenry says the House is heading to a procedural “nuclear” war over funding for Ukraine. “I think the odds [of a shutdown] are …

What are space nukes raising tensions between Moscow and Washington? – CNBC

CNBC

A fresh spat between Washington and Moscow has raised alarm about the potential risk of a space-based nuclear satellite attack.

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEWS

Potato plant radiation sensors could one day monitor radiation in areas surrounding power plants

The Lake Sun

While expanding nuclear energy production would provide carbon-free power and can help countries around the world meet their climate goals, …

Manitowoc County Welcomes New Emergency Services Director – Seehafer News

Seehafer News

She talked on the WCUB Breakfast Club about the Point Beach Nuclear Power Plant and how a drill was run recently if an emergency happened. Green …

IAEA responds to power outage at ZNPP due to shelling – Ukrinform

Ukrinform

… Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), Europe’s largest nuclear power plant. — … power since August 2022, forcing it to temporarily rely on emergency diesel …

Nuclear War Threats

NEW

What are space nukes raising tensions between Moscow and Washington? – CNBC

CNBC

President Joe Biden later said Moscow appears to be developing an anti-satellite weapon but noted that it posed no urgent “nuclear threat” to the U.S. …

Russia warns it could ‘accidentally’ start a nuclear war as ‘impotent’ western leaders … – Daily Mail

Daily Mail

They’re wrong.’ It comes just days after the ex-president threatened Russia could nuke the UK, US, Ukraine and its backers if Russia is forced to …

Russia warns it could ‘accidentally’ start a nuclear war as ‘impotent’ western leaders … – MSN

MSN

Pro-war ex-president has stepped up rhetoric urging imminent nuclear threat … Medvedev reaffirmed threats Russia would be willing to resort to nuclear …

Yellowstone Caldera

NEWS

Linda Hamilton terminates The Terminator – YouTube

YouTube

… for a 3rd time. FOX 13 Seattle New 18K views · 9:18 · Go to channel. The Yellowstone Caldera Erupts | 2012. Clips & Chill New 7.8K views · 4:14 · Go …