Well, now, our ex-president, D. J. Trump, who swears he cannot tell a lie, llolloll, has it all figured out , and we who read this Post every night need to have a bit of humor and delight injected once in a while to help keep us somewhat sane. Trump says we are close to beginning WWIII in one breath (which means either he doesn’t know what he’s talking about or he is lying about what he does know — or both). He is also apparently continuing to say that he can prevent WWIII “very easily”, and that he is the only ‘candidate’ who can do so. (He has been saying so for over 9 months, so maybe WWIII is not quite so close at hand.) . . .
Why would anyone ever doubt anything he says? The Washington Post has counted the ways. He even says he actually won the election of all election when he ran against Obama. That skipped my mind somehow . . .
So it is a shame that Colorado has removed him from running for the presidency next year, and I suspect other states will follow suit. So it doesn’t matter that we will never again hear him tell another presidential lie, including the one about how he can easily prevent WWIII. (Which, in reality, would have meant that a nuclear WWIII would have been a sure thing — simply because he said it wouldn’t.).
So, for now at least, there remains a thin chance that nuclear war will not happen! But the world(s) of reality are that we have other pressing issues to tend to as well. Good-day Mr. Trump, and thanks for never telling another presidential lie. ~llaw
ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:
There are 5 categories (plus a bonus category at the end for news about the Yellowstone caldera and others 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 linked most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none. The Categories are listed below in their usual appearing order:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear War
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War Threats
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). There is one Yellowstone Caldera bonus story available in this Post. If a category heading does not appear, it means there was no news reported from this category today.
(Just a reminder: When linked, the access to the media story will be underlined. If there is no link to a media story of interest you can still copy and paste the headline and lead line into your browser to find the article you are seeking. Hopefully this will never happen.)
… energy emergencies across the area.” … The reason is painfully clear: States and utilities are shutting down reliable power plants, especially coal- …
Deterrence, the idea that no one will attack you if you have a nuclear weapon, relies on the threat being ambiguous. But scientists and other experts …
Solving the death-defying mission of weaning ourselves from and reversing our daily march toward the 6th Extinction requires the active cooperation of every human on planet Earth. Saving ourselves is not just for the egghead academics, the power-consuming industries and manufacturers, the capitalistic banks, the protestors, the technological scientists, nor the power supply companies that can’t keep up with the demand from the rest of us, and so it goes on and on and on, but also exposed to you and me and our neighbors down the street. And we assume there is nothing we can do about it.
If humanity, and therefore most other innocent life on Earth, is going to survive, we — the ones who are creating this doomsday issue — must join the effort with no exceptions or we will fail. We can’t have “pie-in-the-sky” worldly political or military agreements made by politicians and self-important leaders who only pretend to “one-day in the future” accomplish this life-or-death purpose. Because if we rely on ‘agreements’, ‘compacts’, “promises”, “deterrence”, “handshakes”, and ‘I do’s”, no progress will ever be made. Why? Because ‘failure’ is built into everyone of these kinds of mutual well-intentioned but impossible to achieve concepts. It happens every time an international conference on such issues is held, including the just completed CO28 conference in Dubai where multiple, but not all, nations agreed to increase nuclear power energy by a multiple of three times by 2050.
I can assure you, and most of those who signed on to the agreement, already know it will never happen. As an example, a similar agreement was made in 2009 from which not one resolution from that agreement has been accomplished, enacted or resolved. This “by 2050 declaration” will be the same (partly because it is impossible as has been pointed out in two previous nightly Posts — and because it’s all about nuclear energy, I am very glad to watch it fail — even though I won’t still be around in 2050 because my concerns will have permanently expired. But maybe yours and your kids and theirs’ will still be ‘facing the music’ if you’ve not already joined me by radiation and/or asphyxiation.
We, you, me, and the family down the street know what is wrong because we see it every day wherever we go, staring us in the same shame-faced flabby shape of over-indulgence. We are over-indulging ourselves to our immanent deaths because if only a few of us stop stuffing ourselves full of comforting energy, but the others don’t, we are, like all the others, the ones who also suffer on our own self-imposed diet that nobody else pays any attention to. So we all lose together as one . . .
My point is that we all — and I mean all — have to join the clean-up energy consumption party or we all die because once the Earth is polluted to a rapidly approaching certain point, we have no other place to go, so we all share the same fate, and as Pogo has warned us over and over, “We have found the enemy and he is us.” We need to remember that humans, like other animals, once lived like those other animals and survived quite well with what Mother Nature had to offer, but this idea of living our lives beyond what She has to offer is nothing more than self-inflicted death. We have created our own hell-fire and brimstone right here on this extremely gorgeous and generous and easily livable planet, and if we don’t realize that as a mutual admiration society, we will soon pay the consequences. Perhaps it will happen in what remains of my own lifetime. ~llaw
ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:
There are 5 categories (plus a bonus category at the end for news about the Yellowstone caldera and others 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 linked most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none. The Categories are listed below in their usual appearing order:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear War
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War Threats
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). There are two Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in this Post. If a category heading does not appear, it means there was no news reported from this category today.
(Just a reminder: When linked, the access to the media story will be underlined. If there is no link to a media story of interest you can still copy and paste the headline and lead line into your browser to find the article you are seeking. Hopefully this will never happen.)
“Russia tends to do this fantastic thing, where, at the end of every year, the commanders of their missile forces, they all sit down for an interview …
Additional support from the “Bulletin of Atomic Scientists” relative to my Post last night that the agreement for increasing nuclear power by three times its present capacity by 2050 will never happen . . . ~llaw
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La Collette Power Station, the main power station for Jersey, in the Channel Islands. (Photo by Travis Leery on Unsplash)
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Editor’s note: This story was originally published by The Guardian. It appears here as part of the Climate Deskcollaboration.
The decision text from Cop28 has been greeted as “historic”, for being the first ever call by nations for a “transition away” from fossil fuels, and as “weak and ineffectual” and containing a “litany of loopholes” for the fossil fuel industry. An examination of the text helps to explain this contradiction.
Reducing fossil fuel use
The text states the huge challenge with crystal clarity:
Limiting global warming to 1.5C [above pre-industrial levels] with no or limited overshoot requires deep, rapid and sustained reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions of 43% by 2030 and 60% by 2035 relative to the 2019 level and reaching net zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050. [Countries] further recognise the need for deep, rapid and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in line with 1.5C pathways.
The problem is that carbon emissions are not plunging as required – they are still rising. So the text on action is vital. The previous draft suggested measures that countries “could” take. The final agreement is somewhat stronger and “calls on” countries to do the following:
Tripling renewable energy capacity globally and doubling the global average annual rate of energy efficiency improvements by 2030.
This is good but, due to objections by China and India, fails to quantify the goals. That means countries could choose whatever baseline suits them, undermining the target.
Accelerating efforts towards the phase-down of unabated coal power.
This is no stronger than the text from Cop26 in 2021, which is disappointing as the dirtiest fossil fuel must unquestionably be phased out rapidly. Next in the decision text comes the pivotal paragraph:
Transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner, accelerating action in this critical decade, so as to achieve net zero by 2050 in keeping with the science.
Extraordinary as it might seem, this is the first time the root cause of the climate crisis – fossil fuels – have been cited in a decision text in nearly 30 years of UN climate talks. But “transitioning away” is weaker than “phasing out”. The latter was supported by 130 countries but fiercely opposed by petrostates. In the real world, fossil fuels are actually being phased up, with many new fields being exploited. Is “transitioning away” a strong enough signal to halt these investments? Probably not, but at least the direction of travel is finally clear.
Accelerating zero- and low-emission technologies, including, inter alia, renewables, nuclear, abatement and removal technologies such as carbon capture and utilisation and storage (CCUS), particularly in hard-to-abate sectors, and low-carbon hydrogen production.
Fossil fuel states such as Saudi Arabia pushed very hard to include CCUS, as they see it as a way to continue their lucrative business, with the emissions being trapped and buried. But the vast majority of leaders and scientists see an extremely limited role for CCUS; it is expensive, currently far from the scale required, and does not even trap all emissions. The idea that it can allow fossil fuel firms to continue anything like business as usual is a “fantasy”, says the boss of the International Energy Agency.
Subsidising the fossil fuels that drive global heating has been compared to pouring petrol on a fire: coal, oil and gas get $7tn a year in support – that is $13m a minute.
Phasing out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that do not address energy poverty or just transitions, as soon as possible.
This is the first time such a call has appeared in a global UN decision, but “inefficient” is seen as a weasel word enabling nations to largely do as they please. The G20 promised the same in 2009, with no progress to date.
Another weasel word is “transitional fuels” – it is code for fossil gas.
Recognises that transitional fuels can play a role in facilitating the energy transition while ensuring energy security.
This is the biggest win for the fossil fuel industry – it almost amounts to a poison pill in the agreement. It legitimises gas burning on the basis that it is less polluting than coal, though liquefied natural gas (LNG) may actually be even worse than coal due to methane leaks. It is worth noting that the US, the world’s biggest oil and gas producer, is planning a huge LNG expansion. The time for transitional fuels is long past; renewables are cheaper, faster and more secure.
What is missing from the text is as important as what is in it, most importantly on finance. Money is needed to build out clean energy (mitigation), prepare vulnerable communities for escalating climate impacts (adaptation) and for recovery after disasters (loss and damage). The text acknowledges that trillions of dollars of investment will be needed, but fails to provide numbers on what will be provided and when. Without funding, all talk of climate action is cheap.
A global plan for adaptation, in UN-speak, was the top priority for some of the most vulnerable countries. But the text is weak and lacks specifics.
One last concern relates to ending the destruction of forests.
Results-based payments for policy approaches and positive incentives for activities relating to reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries.
This text raises the spectre of rich nations paying to restore or protect forests in developing nations rather than reducing their own emissions
ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:
There are 5 categories (plus a bonus category at the end for news about the Yellowstone caldera and others 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 linked most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none. The Categories are listed below in their usual appearing order:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear War
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War Threats
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). There is one Yellowstone Caldera bonus story available in this Post. If a category heading does not appear, it means there was no news reported from this category today.
(Just a reminder: When linked, the access to the media story will be underlined. If there is no link to a media story of interest you can still copy and paste the headline and lead line into your browser to find the article you are seeking. Hopefully this will never happen.)
WU WENZHANG: (Speaking Chinese). FENG: He points out the profile of the Lungmen Nuclear Power Plant from the highway. In 2021, a referendum to restart …
SMRs, as Joanne Liou of the International Atomic Energy Agency International Atomic Energy Agency explains, ‘are advanced nuclear reactors that have a …
… threats, according to details announced by Seoul’s presidential office. … nuclear attack. The North has test-fired more than 100 missiles since the …
The Yellowstone Caldera, often referred to as the Yellowstone Supervolcano, is a geological feature that represents a long history of volcanic events …
”End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity”
By Lloyd Albert Pendergraft-Williams
LLAW’s ISSUES & THOUGHTS TONIGHT:
Tonight’s big news appears (from the repetitive headlines) to be the U.S. warning to North Korea concerning ending the present regime if Kim Jong un should attack us with nuclear weapons. We don’t seem to realize that should they do that and we do that that WWIII would be immediately under way, so such a threat is inane. Idle threats result from loud-mouth ignorance and every nation in the nuclear world knows it. So why the hell does it go on? It’s like a shouting match between a man and his wife, and not much more, for sure.
By far the most important ‘real’ news is the 5 year extension of life for PG&E‘s Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in California at Avila Beach near San Luis Obispo. This is a guaranteed ‘pure nuclear accident waiting to happen’. And just remember, we are all downwind from California’s (or, if you will, the entire western coast of the Pacific ocean’s) last commercially operating nuclear power plant, and as we know, anything and everything PG&E touches turns to eventual death, including human. Their record is so bad that the company should have been put out of business years and years ago.
I recently re-capped their never-ending death and destruction calamities over the years in one of these Posts – offering a warning for the safety of not only our entire country but other nations around the world as well. (I must build an online catalogue and index of links to my now nearly 500 consecutive nightly posts about the calamity of “All Things Nuclear”, so that you all can instantly go to any Post to follow up on Posts that become renewed important issues . . . and ‘all things PG&E is one of the most serious of them all. (Over the year and beyond since I began this nightly “All Things Nuclear” Post I have written more than half a dozen informative articles of concerns about PG&E’s record of ‘oblivion’ and the fear, now apparently a reality, that their Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant’s operating life would be extended. And now it has happened — against all odds — just as I feared.)
This is a tragedy waiting to happen, and I will tell you that the plant has already proven its instability by leaking nuclear radioactivity from cracks in its concrete reactor walls that the company has been forced to report themselves. Keep in mind that it is the last commercially functioning nuclear power plant on the western shores of the Pacific ocean from the Aleutian Islands to the north to the southern tip of Tierra Del Fuego. The year 2025 was dangerous enough to wait for the nuclear power plant’s shut down, but an extension of 5 more years? It amounts to unbelievable irresponsibility by both the our federal government and the state of California. ~llaw
ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:
There are 5 categories (plus a bonus category at the end for news about the Yellowstone caldera and others 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 linked most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none. The Categories are listed below in their usual appearing order:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear War
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War Threats
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). There are three Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in this Post. If a category heading does not appear, it means there was no news reported from this category today.
(Just a reminder: When linked, the access to the media story will be underlined. If there is no link to a media story of interest you can still copy and paste the headline and lead line into your browser to find the article you are seeking. Hopefully this will never happen.)
… caldera in recent years. Their concerns are added to recent … READ MORE Yellowstone supervolcano warning as eruption would ‘bring world to its knees’.
”End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity”
LLAW’s THOUGHTS TODAY:
We seem to collectively forget or ignore the fact that nuclear power plants use fuel for the same raw source as other fossil fuel power plants, e.g. coal, oil, and gas. We all recognize that these greenhouse gas emitting plants not only are the primary factors in global warming and climate change and that fossil fuels are not renewable, meaning that at some point we will have used them all up forever.
So, what do we do to ‘remedy’ the problems fossil fuels now and on into the future have for us? We turn to uranium for the remedy of the future, in denial about the realit8ies that uranium is also a fossil fuel, that it can and will cause greater environmental damage than its cousins, and that it is also non-renewable to a degree far more critical than the other fossil fuels.
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I can’t help but laugh at how foolish we are to believe that nuclear power plants are the remedy and the “permanent” solution to end global warming and climate change. Nothing could be farther from the truth, yet the United States leads a group of some 28 other nations to triple the number of operating nuclear power plants by 2050, making laugh again and louder. It is even more foolish than believing Daylight Savings Time (DST) makes our daylight longer so we foolishly set our clocks forward or backward twice a year when all we need do is change our schedules for the various and sundry things we do.
But there is a much greater problem with the idea of nuclear power plants saving us from global warming without even recognizing the obvious major one — annihilating ourselves. This one has to do with supply and demand and its association to availability and cost of the fuel for nuclear power plants. It’s called uranium 235. Like other fuels, uranium has a grade school that go from military grade down to nuclear plant grade sort of like the gasoline you buy. But high grade uranium around the world has already been mostly mined and used up, leaving lesser grades (and therefore more expensive to produce and refine as we use more and more of it. Without getting technical, this plainly tells us two things: the price of the fuel will spiral out of sight and one day there won’t be any of it left to mine, process, and burn.
And so you see? There is no way that can triple our uranium power production by three times what it is today unless we want to bankrupt the world while increasing the risk of global radiation replacing what we now call fossil fuel. We would buy ourselves into our own version of the next version of Earth’s extinctions. We are simply lying to ourselves about resolving our death-defying climate cures. The fact is there is only one answer — and that is to stop doing what we are doing or else we suffocate and radiate ourselves to certain death no matter whether it be nuclear war, nuclear and fossil fuel mixed together, or all three.
But for the immediate future the plan doesn’t work either — because Russia controls 80% plus of the world’s nuclear reactor and plant manufacturing, including the fuel. The USA already long been forced to buy uranium fuel from Russia in order to continue to operate our existing nuclear power plants. So what do we do about it? Again, I can only laugh.
I remember when the uranium price was fixed by the government at $8.00 a pound with a slightly upward sliding scale for lower grade mining and milling operations. I also remember the price of that same uranium rising to $40.00 per pound after the government began to allow uranium producing corporations and nuclear power plants to negotiate prices among themselves. Today the price is $57.65, up from $53.20 last month and up from $41.30 one year ago. What will the price be if we triple the capacity of nuclear plants while Russia corners the price and the availability of the product? The price will naturally go higher as the grade of uranium ore grows lower. And Russia controls the nuclear world both militarily and commercially. This USA dream is actually a terrible nightmare.
So it is that, along with other reasons too numerous to bother to mention tonight, you can see on the face of cost alone that tripling the capacity of nuclear power plants is cost prohibitive in this and so many other prohibitive ways that the agreement made by the U.S. and 21 other nations (pledging to triple nuclear generation capacity by 2050 was signed on December 2nd by 22 countries at the UN’s Climate Change Conference in Dubai, including the US, Canada, Japan, France, the UK and the UAE) ain’t never gonna happen . . . ~llaw
ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:
There are 5 categories (plus a bonus category at the end for news about the Yellowstone caldera and others 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 linked most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none. The Categories are listed below in their usual appearing order:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear War
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera
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). There are no Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in this Post. If a category heading does not appear, it means there was no news reported from this category today.
(Just a reminder: When linked, the access to the media story will be underlined. If there is no link to a media story of interest you can still copy and paste the headline and lead line into your browser to find the article you are seeking. Hopefully this will never happen. ~llaw
The Hollywood actress supports Paul Jay’s Daniel Ellsberg documentary ‘How to Stop Nuclear War,’ based on the book ‘Doomsday Machine’ by the Vietnam- …
… emergency shelters are, and the nuclear classifications, how nuclear power works in general,” Tennessee Valley Authority spokesman Scott Fiedler said.
Generation IV reactors represent the most recent advancements in nuclear power plants … emergencies independently without external assistance. Due to …
Two critical existential threats are analysed in this article—nuclear proliferation and climate change. … war must be abolished before they abolish us …
”End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity”
LLAW’s THOUGHTS TODAY:
The following article by from The Union of Concerned Scientists in today’s “All Things Nuclear” Post tells us exactly what’s wrong with our human world of leadership. Simply said, money is more important than human life. I am, as I often am, angry tonight about the inhumanity of humanity . . . ~llaw
Congress Must Act on Justice for Victims of U.S. Nuclear Weapons Program in New Year, Science Group Says
Without Action, Radiation Exposure Compensation Program Will Expire in June
Today, Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), after stripping out provisions that would have strengthened the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) to ensure victims of U.S. nuclear weapons tests, production and waste have access to health care and compensation to help cover medical debt and other expenses.
The provisions proposed by Sens. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), would have given victims more time to apply for aid by extending the program, which is currently set to expire this summer. The proposed changes to the program also would have extended coverage to additional uranium miners and people downwind of nuclear tests, including those in New Mexico harmed by the first atomic bomb.
“The people sickened by U.S. nuclear weapons activities do not have time to spare waiting for Congress to step up and do the right thing. They are sick now. They need medical care now. They are dying now,” said Lilly Adams, senior outreach coordinator in the Global Security Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “Strengthening the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act is urgent and should be the first thing on Congress’ agenda when they return in January. We cannot allow RECA to expire, leaving atomic veterans, hardworking miners, and communities who unknowingly found themselves on the frontlines of the Cold War without care and fair compensation. This wrong has been allowed to fester for nearly 80 years, and it needs to be resolved now. President Biden has said he stands ready to help these communities get the support they need. Stripping RECA from the NDAA was a failure, but the administration and Congress can still make it right in January.”
ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:
There are 5 categories (plus a bonus category at the end for news about the Yellowstone caldera and others 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 linked most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none. The Categories are listed below in their usual appearing order:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear War
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera
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). There are no Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in this Post. If a category heading does not appear, it means there was no news reported from this category today.
(Just a reminder: When linked, the access to the media story will be underlined. If there is no link to a media story of interest you can still copy and paste the headline and lead line into your browser to find the article you are seeking. Hopefully this will never happen.)
… nuclear weapons programs. … It comes months after the archdiocese announced its All Things New restructuring plan that closed 35 parishes and merged …
All Things Considered. Next Up: 6:30 PM Marketplace. 0:00. 0:00. All Things … Illinois lifts decades old moratorium on new nuclear facilities | First …
Introduction: The threat of nuclear war has been a grave concern since the development of atomic weapons. Understanding the potential consequences of …
”End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity”
LLAW’s THOUGHTS TODAY:
LLAW’s COMMENTS TODAY: We have our first newworthy Video (along with a couple of previous movies) on “All Things Nuclear” tonight and it will shock you if you have previously believed nuclear energy is the way to solve our CO2 and other green house gas emissions that are contributing (along with ‘all things nuclear’) to our sad lemming-like “over the cliff” march to the Earth’s 6th Extinction, which we are creating all by our voracious parasitic selves . . .
You cannot afford to miss or neglect the incredibly ugly sad story that lies stark naked between the lines of this exceptionally produced video, so I urge everyone to watch it and to also tell your family, friends, neighbors, and your work companions to watch it — either here or on You Tube — but to also introduce everyone you know about what this unique nightly Post has to offer in terms of unbiased “all things nuclear” media news from around the world along with the very real and grave situation planet Earth is in if we don’t stop doing what we’re doing — especially with the threats of nuclear war hanging over us as well as the dangers of nuclear power itself, which could easily be used as bonus weapons of mass destruction for nuclear war that would essentially double nuclear war arms’ capacity (not that we need any more), not to mention nuclear power plant accidents themselves. I have discussed this issue several times in previous “All Things Nuclear” Posts because it is real and it is probable. The Russia/Ukraine war has clearly demonstrated that revelation.
The U.S. has the most vulnerable ‘Achilles Heel” of all the nations in the world to build even one more nuclear power plant because if Russia says no more uranium fuel, then we have no way to use the power plant itself, nor existing ones, to generate electricity. We already have one small nuclear plant located in Wyoming in that very situation. I have mentioned several times that Russia controls more than 80% of the entire nuclear business from fuel to nuclear power plant construction. In fact, the United States ranks 4th in the world in nuclear capability even though we have by far the most existing and operating nuclear reactors. As you can imagine, this puts us in a helluva shaky situation — and at the mercy of countries like Russia and South Africa.
Instead of building new nuclear power plants, the U.S. should be getting entirely out of the nuclear power plant business and concentrate on solar, wind, geothermal, and some hydro energy sources, but most of all we should be generating geothermal electricity from the Yellowstone caldera and other collapsed volcanos in the U.S. and around the world. Yellowstone alone has the energy capacity to provide the entire north American continent along with a few neighbors a virtually unlimited supply of electrical power to satisfy the USA’s needs for more than a century if not longer. We are totally insane (as well as other countries with similar geothermal capabilities) because we could gradually do away with ‘all things nuclear’ as well as greenhouse gas power plants that are causing global warming and climate change via their burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas.
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We and the rest of the planet’s earthly world(s) are on the wrong track and we must immediately do an about face and march back the way we came until there is no more nuclear anything anywhere on the surface of our beautiful blue, green, and tan Earth. Time is of the essence . . . ~llaw
ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:
There are 5 categories (plus a bonus category at the end for news about the Yellowstone caldera and others 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 linked most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none. The Categories are listed below in their usual appearing order:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear War
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera
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). There are no Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in this Post. If a category heading does not appear, it means there was no news reported from this category today.
(Just a reminder: When linked, the access to the media story will be underlined. If there is no link to a media story of interest you can still copy and paste the headline and lead line into your browser to find the article you are seeking. Hopefully this will never happen.)
With three units the Palo Verde Generating Station, located in Buckeye and within a 50-mile radius of Wickenburg, is the largest nuclear plant in the …
The political gamble to threaten a limited nuclear strike is prohibitively dangerous and, historically speaking, nuclear-weapon states that have tried …
Today, the threat of nuclear escalation, in the context of the ongoing war in Ukraine, is a concern for the international community. You may also like …
The nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours have fought three of their four … Analysis: Is the Houthi threat to world order worse than the war on Gaza?
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ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:
There are 5 categories (plus a bonus category at the end for news about the Yellowstone caldera and others 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 linked most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none. The Categories are listed below in their usual appearing order:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear War
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera
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). There are no Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in this Post. If a category heading does not appear, it means there was no news reported from this category today.
(Just a reminder: When linked, the access to the media story will be underlined. If there is no link to a media story of interest you can still copy and paste the headline and lead line into your browser to find the article you are seeking. Hopefully this will never happen.)
With three units the Palo Verde Generating Station, located in Buckeye and within a 50-mile radius of Wickenburg, is the largest nuclear plant in the …
The political gamble to threaten a limited nuclear strike is prohibitively dangerous and, historically speaking, nuclear-weapon states that have tried …
Today, the threat of nuclear escalation, in the context of the ongoing war in Ukraine, is a concern for the international community. You may also like …
”End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity”
The Lucky Mc Open Pit Uranium mine (1976) in central Wyoming
LLAW’s COMMENTARY TODAY:
How it came to be that I joined the uranium/nuclear business ‘Back in the Day’ in January, 1968 . . .
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 1930s-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 in white collar jobs. 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. But that is another story—still in progress. ~llaw
ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:
There are 5 categories (plus a bonus category at the end for news about the Yellowstone caldera and others 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 linked most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none. The Categories are listed below in their usual appearing order:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear War
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera
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). There are no Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in this Post. If a category heading does not appear, it means there was no news reported from this category today.
(Just a reminder: When linked, the access to the media story will be underlined. If there is no link to a media story of interest you can still copy and paste the headline and lead line into your browser to find the article you are seeking. Hopefully this will never happen.)
The prospect of six more years in power for Russian President Vladimir Putin is likely to mean no let-up in nuclear … war on Ukraine’s side. “How can …
For the Pentagon, there are expectations the modern Sentinel will meet threats from rapidly evolving Chinese and Russian missile systems. The Sentinel …
Tonight we take a recent look at the Chernobyl nuclear disaster from 1986 to this year. The human toll of death and displacement has been well into the hundreds of thousands and a work force of near a quarter of a million are still working in Ukraine to control the radiation expelled from the nuclear power plant more than 37 years ago. The city remains a disturbingly quiet ghost town symbol of dread.
Coupled with the 2011 tsunami caused Fukushima nuclear disaster, where we are now insanely dumping nuclear waste into the Pacific ocean, along with the Three-Mile Island near meltdown in 1979, I have to wonder if our renewed commitment led by the USA delegation to the just closed COP28 world summit with more than 20 nations in agreement to triple our nuclear power plants around the world by 2050 is a reasonable idea made by reasonable people with their heads on straight. I am pretty sure they don’t . . .
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I have long contended that we humans are incapable of designing, engineering, constricting, and operating anything nuclear for an extended period of time without accidents, from our own mistakes or forces of nature. And nuclear accidents of all kinds do not forgive and recover from whatever massive damage is accidentally or purposely done to them, particularly in an environment of war among nations that we face today. Additionally, in the light of war, I sense the revelation that nuclear power plants can also be used as nuclear weapons of war and definitely would be in a global nuclear war like the one we are threatened with daily.
In that light all things nuclear, including radioactive fuels, plants, bombs, operating machinery, buildings ,and facilities, must be disabled, removed and buried in deep underground man-made disposal caches similar to, or even the same as, the excavations the fuel initially came out of, and never again allowed to be recovered. If we do that, we can also deal with concentrating on global warming and climate change before it is also too late for the survival of life on planet Earth. ~llaw
The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Disaster & Its Long-Lasting Effects
The Chernobyl disaster caused by operator errors and reactor design flaws spread dangerous radioactive elements throughout the atmosphere in Central and Eastern European countries.
Feb 24, 2023 • By Amy Hayes, BA History w/ English minor
The 1986 Chernobyl disaster took place at a nuclear power plant in the Ukrainian SSR. One of the four reactors in the plant exploded due to unstable conditions and a lack of safety procedures. The disaster left areas surrounding the reactor exposed to harmful radioactive materials, which also traveled to other areas, including present-day Belarus and the Russian Federation. Studies conducted on the radiation in the area have revealed that the disaster led to a number of health and environmental issues, along with the deaths that occurred shortly after the event.
What Caused the Chernobyl Disaster?
The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was constructed in the late 1970s and early ‘80s. It consisted of four RBMK reactors, which could generate up to 1,000 megawatts of electric power per reactor. RBMK is a Soviet-designed boiling light water reactor that uses uranium dioxide fuel. The plant was stationed in present-day northern Ukraine, about 130 kilometers north of Kyiv and about 20 kilometers south of the Belarus border. RBMK reactor Units 1 and 2 were constructed in the 1970s, and Units 3 and 4 were completed by 1983. Plans for additional reactors were in place when the disaster occurred.
On April 25, 1986, a test was conducted during a routine maintenance shutdown to see if the reactor could produce electrical power for emergency equipment in the event that the station lost power. However, the test was performed when the reactor was in an unstable condition. The power was reduced significantly below the level it should have been to stabilize the reactor’s condition prior to shutdown. The RBMK reactor has a positive void coefficient, which means that steam production increases when power is increased, or water flow is decreased. This process causes fuel temperatures also to increase. When power levels are very low, it causes the positive void coefficient to become dominant. As a result, it creates unstable conditions for the reactor and makes it vulnerable to sporadic power surges.
Plant operators attempted to increase the power level to a stabilized condition. Control rods are used to help keep the reactor controlled. However, only a handful of rods were used during the test compared to the minimum 30 rods required for safe operations. In an effort to maintain constant power, operators removed most of the control rods. This compromised the condition of the reactor even further. As operators continued to try and maintain power and steam pressure, they decided to lessen the amount of water needed to cool the reactor. A steam explosion occurred due to increased heat and steam production, and a second explosion followed seconds later.
The first explosion destroyed the reactor core and caused the cover of the reactor to be lifted. It also caused more than 1,500 pressure tubes to rupture. The reactor core was exposed following the second steam explosion, which is largely responsible for the release of radioactive materials into the environment. The explosions occurred at around 1:23 a.m. on April 26, 1986. Assessments of the accident determined that the cause of the explosions was due to a lack of safety procedure practices on part of the plant operators and some flaws in the design of the reactor.
Immediate Aftermath of the Accident
Fragments and hot graphite were thrown out from fuel channels and the reactor. A number of fires started, which contributed to more radioactive materials being released into the atmosphere. Throughout the day of April 26, hundreds of tonnes of water were injected into one-half of the reactor that was still partially intact. Injecting water into the reactor was halted after concerns grew over water possibly leaking into the Unit 1 and 2 reactors. Thousands of tonnes of sand, clay, boron, and other materials were dumped onto the reactor core to extinguish the fire at the core and prevent the release of any more radioactive particles. This process took place for about nine days.
One operator died when the explosions occurred, and another died in the hospital hours later as a result of injuries. Within 36 hours of the accident, about 49,000 residents in the nearby town of Pripyat were evacuated from the area. Within three weeks of the accident, about 116,000 people living within a 30-kilometer radius of the Chernobyl plant were relocated to less contaminated areas. In 1986 and 1987, about 240,000 emergency workers were called in to help clean up the site. Within the first few weeks of clean-up, 28 individuals died as a result of Acute Radiation Syndrome (ARS) due to high amounts of radiation exposure.
Radioactive Materials Released into the Environment
Map of the radionuclide deposition of caesium-137 in Chernobyl and surrounding areas, via United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation
The Unit 4 reactor explosion released more than 100 radioactive elements into the environment. Some elements had shorter lives, while others were still present within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ). The CEZ is known as the area within 30 kilometers of the plant. Some of the most dangerous radioactive elements released into the atmosphere after the explosion included iodine, caesium, and strontium. Most radiation exposure that occurred shortly after the accident was caused by Iodine-131. This radioactive element has a half-life of eight days. Caesium-137 was more hazardous long-term, with a half-life of about 30 years.
Scientists conducted a study on the crops in the Chernobyl region to test their level of radioactive contamination 25 years after the accident occurred. Almost half of the samples they collected still contained Strontium-90, considered very dangerous for human consumption. A small population of inhabitants who were previously evacuated from the site at the time of the accident has since returned. The CEZ is illegal to live in; however, some inhabitants have decided to resettle in the area.
Throughout the years since the accident, scientists and researchers have studied how different concentrations of radiation in materials surrounding the site have affected the health of inhabitants. These studies also provide insight into how long-term exposure to certain radioactive elements affects human health. Dust and debris dispersed most of the radioactive elements into surrounding areas. The soils in the CEZ also contained radioactive elements.
Wind and weather conditions caused some of these materials to travel to other regions. Radioactive fallout occurred in many parts of the northern hemisphere. Large parts of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia experienced heightened levels of radioactivity. Some parts of Scandinavia and Europe also experienced minor contamination. The amount of contamination in these areas varied due to the inconsistent distribution of radioactive elements caused by natural weather conditions. About 190 metric tons of fission products and uranium dioxide fuel were in the Unit 4 reactor. Soviet scientists estimate that up to 30% of these products were released into the environment.
Effects of Chernobyl Radioactive Elements on Humans & Wildlife
People who were most impacted by exposure to radioactive elements were the emergency responders who spent time cleaning up the Chernobyl disaster site. Many suffered from ARS, which causes burns, headaches, fevers, and gastrointestinal issues. High amounts of exposure to radiation were more dangerous to these individuals compared to those who have been exposed to lower levels long-term.
A study conducted by researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) concluded that children exposed to radioactive iodine had an increased risk of being diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Iodine from the accident gave off radiation that disrupts the chemical bonds in a human’s DNA. Tumors were also found in individuals exposed to high radiation doses.
Scientists and researchers used the Chernobyl disaster as an opportunity to conduct studies on how animals were affected by radioactive fallout. One study showed that eastern tree frogs in the CEZ went through a quick evolutionary change. The frogs located near the Chernobyl site were pitch black in color compared to other individuals of the same species in other places. This evolutionary process took place over ten generations of the eastern tree frogs living in the CEZ.
Genetic changes and mutations also affected other animals in the CEZ. Birds that were exposed to high levels of radiation had visible tumors. Some birds and mammals also exhibited partial albinism. Researchers determined that the Chernobyl disaster would have long-term effects on the biological systems of species and ecosystems present in the CEZ.
Responses to the Chernobyl Disaster
The Chernobyl disaster devastated the area surrounding the plant and directly affected the nearby inhabitants of Pripyat. Thousands of people were directly exposed to harmful radioactive materials released from the reactor core upon its explosions. Fires that broke out from the accident caused radioactive elements to be distributed into the atmosphere. Present-day Ukraine, Belarus, and the Russian Federation were most affected by radioactive contamination. Approximately 6.4 million people were living in areas that were contaminated.
Radioactive materials are still present in Chernobyl, but exposure levels are much more tolerable. However, long-term exposure continues to pose a threat to human health. Several safety measures were taken in response to the Chernobyl accident to prevent future accidents from occurring. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) stepped in to assist countries in the former Soviet Union and Central and Eastern Europe in identifying issues in the RBMK reactor design. Design improvements and upgrades were made to the RBMK reactors to eliminate any deficiencies. The IAEA also assisted in increasing operational safety awareness.
The Unit 4 reactor was covered with a temporary concrete and steel shield, known as the “sarcophagus,” to prevent more radioactive elements from being released into the environment. The sarcophagus was built in May 1986 and encloses the entire Unit 4 reactor. Concerns over the condition of the sarcophagus and its deterioration due to radiation led to the launch of a new project to shelter the reactor. The New Safe Confinement was built off-site and placed over the sarcophagus in 2016. The structure is made of steel and is expected to last for at least 100 years.
The Chernobyl disaster was an eye-opening disaster that led to increased safety efforts. The effects of the accident led the Ukrainian government to push sustainable energy measures to reduce the need for nuclear energy. A solar power plant with 3,800 solar panels sits across from the Chernobyl disaster site, which provides power to thousands of apartments. All reactors were shut down over time, with the last reactor closed in December 1999. Decommissioning of the site officially began the following year, which included the removal of wastes and decontamination of the area. Due to the presence of radioactive elements, clean-up of the CEZ is expected to take several decades.
ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:
There are 5 categories (plus a bonus category at the end for news about the Yellowstone caldera and others 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 linked most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none. The Categories are listed below in their usual appearing order:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear War
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera
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). There are no Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in this Post. If a category heading does not appear, it means there was no news reported from this category today.
(Just a reminder: When linked, the access to the media story will be underlined. If there is no link to a media story of interest you can still copy and paste the headline and lead line into your browser to find the article you are seeking. Hopefully this will never happen.)
… nuclear weapons testing capabilities from Soviet era. The recent brandishing of nuclear threats evokes the Cold War days of the 1950s and early 1960s.
It seems our government(s), in particular the U.S. government and military, aren’t satisfied with the probability of destroying the world with existing earth-bound nuclear weapons and nuclear power plants, but suddenly require them, and even nuclear powered space transportation.
So now our dear leaders want more ‘all things nuclear’ in orbit to ensure that we continue the nuclear insanity effort in space. And to make us auto-appreciative, but ignorant everyday folks feel like we’re wanted and needed as a financial contributor (disguised as an investor) and a necessary partner, we will be allowed to proudly invest in the ever-expanding genius-of-man-made construction of space-planes (for all kinds of travel) and missiles (for war), as well as for generating in-space power plants and lloyd knows what else to make you happier and more comfortable, kindly taking your hard-earned money to help champion the cost of building the final frontier of likely ongoing nuclear destruction. In the end, the Manhattan Project did no one any benefit nor future comfort from war – so why do we keep on believing in its value for anything of value or purpose?
Read on from an article by “The Motley Fool” posted in LLAW’s “ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” extracted from ”TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS relating to the latest about new uses for nuclear reactors and the things we humans want to do with them in space when we can’t control the ones we have right here on the ground. Insanity seems to build obsession and aggression, or maybe it’s the other way around. ~llaw
Once again, when the US government wants to put nuclear power plants in space, Lockheed is the company it calls for help. ~ from the Motley Fool
The U.S. military likes nuclear power — and I mean, it really likes nuclear power.
Powered by highly enriched uranium nuclear reactors, U.S. Navy submarines and aircraft carriers can operate for as long as 30 years before needing to add fuel. This frees them from the need to have oil tankers tag along on missions for periodic refueling. It allows the submarines to operate underwater without the need to come up for air for the combustion of hydrocarbons. For that matter, not needing to burn hydrocarbons helps the military burnish its environmental credentials as a user of green energy.
Given all these advantages, therefore, it should perhaps come as no surprise that the Pentagon would also like to put nuclear power in its spaceships. The big surprise is that 65 years after America launched its first satellite, we’re finally making progress toward building nuclear-powered spaceships.
Lockheed goes nuclear
Several months ago, if you recall, I wrote about the DRACO spaceship that NASA and DARPA — the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency — were building. For $499 million, Lockheed Martin would build a small craft to test nuclear-powered spaceflight in Earth orbit, and its partner BWX Technologies(BWXT -0.56%) would build a high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) nuclear engine and provide the fuel to power it.
The DRACO project is expected to launch in late 2025 or early 2026 and begin testing in 2027. Before this project has even gotten off the ground, however, it turns out that Lockheed is already working on another nuclear spaceship project.
As SpaceNews reported last month, the U.S. Air Force Research Lab has hired Lockheed Martin, along with Intuitive Machines and Westinghouse Government Services, to design and build a different kind of space nuclear reactor to extend the lives of satellites in orbit.
Meet (George) JETSON
Dubbed the Joint Emergent Technology Supplying On-orbit Nuclear Power — “JETSON” — project, this is a relatively small bet on nuclear power’s potential in space. In total, AFRL is doling out only $60 million — $33.7 million for Lockheed, and a bit less than that split between Intuitive Machines and Westinghouse.
Intuitive Machines’ role will be to design a spacecraft to house the JETSON reactor. Westinghouse will design and build a nuclear fission system (i.e., the power plant). Lockheed’s role appears to be that of overall general contractor on the project, bringing Intuitive’s and Westinghouse’s contributions together, getting them ready for a “preliminary design review,” and guiding the project all the way through “critical design review.”
Which explains why the JETSON contract is so much smaller than the DRACO project earlier this year. Whereas DRACO involves the actual building and testing of a nuclear-powered spaceship, for the time being, all Lockheed Martin and its partners are being asked to do is prepare plans to build one.
Getting the band back together
Interestingly, this isn’t the first time these three companies have worked together.
In June of last year, if you recall, NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy awarded a total of $15 million to these same three companies (plus a few other partners working with them) to draw up plans for a 40-kilowatt mini nuclear power plant. As the government explained at the time, that would be enough electricity to power about 30 average American homes…or one lunar outpost, once Project Artemis gets around to building one on the moon.
What it means to investors
Admittedly, $15 million, $60 million — even $499 million — all of these may seem like piddling sums to a defense contracting behemoth like Lockheed Martin, which pulled in nearly $66 billion in revenue last year, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. The question may arise: Should even space investors give any attention to contracts this small?
I’d argue the answer is yes. Remember, even the $499 million DRACO construction contract began in 2021 with a trio of DARPA contracts valued at less than $28 million combined. Just two years later, as construction of DRACO begins, the contract size has swelled roughly 18 times that size. If the JETSON contract follows a similar course as it transitions from planning to construction, its value could easily eclipse $1 billion — a material sum even for a giant like Lockheed.
And again, that’s the price to build just one single spacecraft, and a small spacecraft at that. Assuming all goes well and nuclear propulsion proves a viable option for spacecraft, further contracts can be expected, generating even more money for Lockheed Martin.
This, I’d argue, is one segment of the space business that is worth keeping an eye on.
Should you invest $1,000 in BWX Technologies right now?
ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:
There are 5 categories (plus a bonus category at the end for news about the Yellowstone caldera and others 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 linked most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none. The Categories are listed below in their usual appearing order:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear War
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera
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). There are no Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in this Post. If a category heading does not appear, it means there was no news reported from this category today.
(Just a reminder: When linked, the access to the media story will be underlined. If there is no link to a media story of interest you can still copy and paste the headline and lead line into your browser to find the article you are seeking. Hopefully this will never happen.)
Now everything is getting modernized at once. The Sentinel work is one leg of a larger, nuclear weapons enterprise-wide $750 billion overhaul that is …
Research groups, including the International Energy Agency, have called for an aggressive expansion of carbon-free nuclear technology to help rein in …
India To Raise 1st Squadron Of LCA Tejas Mark 1A Near Pakistan Border Amid Rising “Nuclear Threats” … war experts, is the first in South Asia to have …
