Annie Jacobsen’s long-awaited book “Nuclear War” subtitled “A Scenario” has finally arrived, and the whole world needs to read it, not just Every World Leader. I urge you to help make it the world’s best-seller in history. I duplicates and expands on what I have been writing about every evening for, let’s see now, 582 consecutive evenings. ~llaw
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:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War
Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There is one Yellowstone Caldera bonus story available in 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 (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
Nuclear war is a topic few care to think about. We sometimes call it unthinkable. But we need to think carefully, and to talk—particularly with high- …
Deeply worried about its looming obsolescence in this new age of atomic warfare, it planned a live-action series of three atomic bomb tests for all to …
Copyright 2024 by Annie M. Jacobsen. Nuclear war is madness. Were a nuclear weapon to be launched at the United States, including from a rogue nuclear …
Comments19 · Kremlin blames MI6 for Moscow terror attack & is Russia committing genocide in Ukraine? · What Happens AFTER Nuclear War? · ABC World News …
… war in Gaza … Israel moves forward with modifications to its F-35s to confront iranian nuclear threats … war in Gaza, will not create obstacles. Some …
Global Nuclear Winter (by Achilleas Ambatzidis – Courtesy of Vanity Fair)
LLAW’s COMMENTARY, Tuesday, (03/26/2024)
In an effort to shorten the length and avoid duplication of media stories and images, I will, as of this nightly Post, only reference a link to the story I am discussing or commenting about (whether or not it is listed in my “All Things Nuclear Daily Categories). This will save me copying, cutting, and pasting time, and you will have quicker and easier access to what I consider to be among the more important articles. (And I chose a day to make this change when the importance and quality of the Digest articles are, overall, the best I’ve ever seen in the 581 days this Blog has been operating. So I will probably be up most of the night reading about the world-wide nuclear mess we are in, even about what might happen to us all if Trump & Putin get back together, but that one is way down on the quality list to my mind . . .
As stated in the article, and an issue that I have often posted my concerns about in the the past, tells me that we can foolishly build all the nuclear reactor powered electrical plants we want, but if we have no fuel to run the reactors, they are just white elephants. So it seems to me have the cart way out in front of the horse. The reason is, as VOA states, in their lead-lines, “ Types of nuclear reactors. Courtesy of U.S. Department of Energy. Gov. Glenn Youngkin dropped one bombshell, figuratively speaking, when he announced … “Of those supplying nuclear fuel, Rosatom, Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation, “is the biggest supplier of uranium enrichment.”
This is the real reason, not the Ukraine War, that Bill Gates’ TerraPower plant with its new experimental liquid sodium, called a Natrium reactor, instead of the usual water-cooled nuclear power plant reactors, being built at an old coal minesite in Wyoming. So it is that TerraPower is suffering through a two-year wait for the type of fuel the one-of-its kind nuclear plant, because Russia will not provide the fuel — which only Rosatom produces. And who among us who know a bit about the nuclear business world and our relationship with Russia would wonder if TerraPower will ever get that Russian-made fuel?You can’t just have a convention of politicians and presidents of corporations, full of optimism against common sense, get together for a conference, make an irrational determination based on ‘hope’ and ‘hot air’ that we are going to triple the output of nuclear power world-wide by a certain date, and ignore all the roadblocks, mistakes, setbacks, necessary engineering, planning, construction, and governmental approvals that are sure to come. And if none of it ever happens, that would probably be our salvation. Maybe we simply have to learn to live with less.
You may remember that CO2-caused climate change/global warming, if you are old enough to care, and have a good memory, was going to be totally under control and just a few short years away from being behind us not so long ago. However nothing has changed, except the CO2 problem has become more serious. And now we’re expecting uranium powered nuclear power plants to be our savior? Ya gotta be kidding! ~llaw
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:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War
Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There 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 (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
Types of nuclear reactors. Courtesy of U.S. Department of Energy. Gov. Glenn Youngkin dropped one bombshell, figuratively speaking, when he announced …
First, the various threats or inducements by other powers that they not pursue nuclear weapons. Second, the nuclear umbrella already provided to them …
First, the various threats or inducements by other powers that they not pursue nuclear weapons. Second, the nuclear umbrella already provided to them …
When a nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania went from a technological miracle to a pile of radioactive rubble in a matter of moments in 1979, the Portsmouth, New Hampshire office of the Clamshell Alliance became a hive of activity. I was working there at the time, fielding calls from activists and journalists from around the world. Everyone wanted our opinion since — over the previous few years — our nonviolent demonstrations to prevent the construction of the Seabrook nuclear power plant put us at the forefront of a growing social movement.
From the arrests of 18 New Hampshire residents in our first act of civil disobedience in 1976 to more than 1,400 arrests the following spring to a permitted rally that drew some 18,000 protesters in 1978, the Clamshell Alliance touched off a grassroots anti-nuclear rebellion that brought the “No Nukes” message to communities across the country and into the popular culture.
With that groundwork in place, Three Mile Island took our message to the next level. The idea that “nuclear power is a bad way to generate electricity” soon became accepted knowledge across the United States. Everyone from Wall Street tycoons to congressional staffers to ordinary voters now understood that the nuclear industry’s promise of safe, clean and affordable power was a fraud.
Unfortunately, in recent years this understanding has slowly eroded, as the industry has worked to tout its product as the answer to climate catastrophe. With the Biden administration now sinking billions into nuclear energy — and Congress on the verge of passing legislation to ease regulatory precautions on new reactors — the nuclear fraudsters are aiming for a comeback.
Now the co-director of Beyond Nuclear, a nonprofit advocacy group based in Takoma Park, Maryland, Gunter says “Nukes are just too expensive, take too long to build and feature too many pathways to catastrophic accidents.” What’s more, as he maintains, their continued use — along with building costly new reactors — make climate change worse and the world less safe.
With this in mind, “seasoned Clams,” as we jokingly call ourselves, have been holding regular meetings over Zoom — and occasionally in person — to strategize on how to bring our anti-nuclear message to younger generations, as well as fellow boomers, for whom Three Mile Island has become a faded memory. We ultimately want to refute the nuclear industry’s claims that it has solved the problems posed by the old reactors.
In a statement on our new website, we assert: “A tsunami of nuclear power propaganda is sweeping the globe.” According to Gunter, this propaganda is backed by a multi-billion-dollar nuclear promotion campaign funded by taxpayers via the Biden administration’s Department of Energy. “They even have a plan to convert coal-fired power plants to nuclear generation,” he said.
Billions of dollars in nuclear subsidies were loaded into Biden’s infrastructure bill, with billions more in the Inflation Reduction Act. Meanwhile, the Atomic Energy Advancement Act — which sailed through the U.S. House 365-36 last month — extends nuclear subsidies further by continuing the $16.6 billion cap on liability from nuclear accidents for the next 40 years.
“The still unrealized total damage costs of a severe nuclear accident, as evidenced by ongoing nuclear catastrophes at Fukushima (13 year ago) and Chernobyl (38 years ago), are already running into the hundreds of billions of dollars,” Gunter said, adding that Congress didn’t even hold a public hearing on the liability cap extension.
As the new Clamshell website maintains, new nukes are not needed to avert a climate crisis. “Far better options are being built much faster than nuclear power plants, at a fraction of the cost and without the grave hazards. They include solar, wind, geothermal, hydro, efficiency and conservation.”
The idea for this statement came from Anna Gyorgy, author of the influential 1979 book “No Nukes: Everyone’s Guide to Nuclear Power.” And true to the Clams’ old principles, the statement was drafted by two writers after consultation with a larger group, reviewed by a committee and ultimately approved by consensus. We have also stuck to our belief that nonviolence is the best method for social movements to disrupt unjust systems and promote alternatives.
“Nonviolence, in the tradition of King and Gandhi, is an effective way to challenge institutional injustice,” said Gyorgy, who serves as communications coordinator for the Traprock Center for Peace and Justice in Western Massachusetts. “Nonviolence is also the best way to build the communities we need to get through crises caused by violence, racism, predatory capitalism and climate disruption.” Nuclear power and its evil twin, nuclear weapons, have no role in the future Gyorgy has been trying to build for decades.
“Nukes just cannot compete with zero fuel cost solar and wind, and that means the era of base load plants running on fossil and nuclear fuel is ending,” said Roy Morrison, a former Clamshell staff member who has worked for years as a commercial solar energy developer. “Solar arrays combined with energy storage from home rooftops already are acting as virtual power plants to meet utility demands for peak power.”
According to Morrison, new battery technology and plunging prices for solar will displace fuels that produce carbon dioxide. “The future for our economy and our planet lies with renewables, not nukes, oil, gas or coal,” he said.
Morrison and I first met in 1977, when were among hundreds jailed in a National Guard armory following the mass arrests at Seabrook. In 1979, when Three Mile Island melted down, we were working together in Clamshell’s scruffy second-floor suite in downtown Portsmouth. With little money and a mimeograph machine — the most advanced technology in our possession — we did battle with a complex of utility companies, banks, engineering firms and government agencies that were doing their best to foist nukes on the American public.
When a reporter from a national news agency called for our comment on the unfolding accident in Pennsylvania, I was the one who happened to pick up the phone. I don’t remember exactly what I said, but I do remember that, at roughly the same time, Dresser Industries — the company responsible for the valve that malfunctioned at Three Mile Island — was buying pro-nuke display ads featuring Edward Teller, the physicist known as “the father of the H-bomb” and a dedicated advocate for all things nuclear.
When the news story came out, it went something like, “Physicist Edward Teller says nukes are safe, but Arnie Alpert from the Clamshell Alliance says they aren’t.” It’s a good memory, but more than that, it’s a reminder that grassroots movements engaging in what John Lewis called “good trouble” can shake up power structures and bring about change.
In the current moment, when renewable alternatives to fossil and fissile energy are urgently needed, the Clams are trying to figure out how to make it happen again.
Arnie Alpert is a longtime nonviolent action trainer in New Hampshire. He blogs at inzanetimes.wordpress.com.
LLAW’s CONCERNS & COMMENTS, Monday, (03/25/2024)
We do need to stop this growing nuclear power plant and nuclear weapons of mass destruction created by the dark capital commercial, ignorant political, and fear-based military nuclear industries, who are peddling disgraceful propaganda from capitalists, and politicians at every level, who understand nothing at all about nuclear horrors, anything nuclear, and find world peace, making the world’s militaries, who understands all things nuclear all too well, impotent and useless, before they begin the 6th Extinction in earnest. We have very little time left to reverse our self-destructive direction and remove ‘all things nuclear’ from ourselves forever.
I departed from the nuclear industry in disgust over the industry attitude over the 3-Mile Island near meltdown and the fact that we in the industry (including me) were not sympathetic to the reality of what happened there, all of pretending that it was nothing, and that our rallying cry was “Let the Bastards freeze to death in the dark”, the words that turned me away from an entire industry that I had been mistakenly proud of since the 1960s. I left in May of 1980 and started my own minerals exploration corporation with a mission to evaluate useful metals deposits, including gold and silver.
I never looked back, but I also waited several years to begin speaking out against the nuclear industry in general and nuclear power specifically. But now I will spend the rest of my days speaking out (mainly in writing) against “All Things Nuclear” This nightly Blog Post is a beginning of my mission to help do away with public use of anything and everything nuclear. Tonight’s Post is #580 over a total of 580 days, so you, the reader, ought to be able to understand that I am serious about this project and also creating future projects to alert the world that uranium fuel with their reactors, bombs, and all other things nuclear are the most dangerous products on the face of the earth, especially in the irresponsible hands of us humans.
We are in the process of exterminating all of us, including all other life, with our own preferred uses of ‘all things nuclear’. It would sadly be the 6th Extinction, the 1st one that humans actually existed during such massive destruction of life, and we are solely responsible for the entire threat to all other life as well. ~llaw
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:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War
Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There is one Yellowstone Caldera bonus story available in 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 (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
Listen Live • Weekend All Things Considered. 00 … He did not specify how or where those jobs would be created, but said that increased demand for new …
“And nuclear delivers cheaper, cleaner home-grown energy for consumers.” “That’s why we are investing in Barrow, the home of UK submarines, and in the …
… nuclear power plant. Isar 1 and 2 (Image: Regine Rabanus / PreussenElektra). The Isar 2 plant – comprising a single 1400 MWe pressurised water reactor …
However, this principle that arguably prevented war for so many decades is now under the threat of becoming outright irrelevant. … threats. … nuclear …
And now Russia seems to be attacking the entire power system of Ukraine, keeping the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant as the final point of ending Ukraine’s sovereignty and possibly its existence, or so it seems to me. If that happens, WWIII will begin, and part of that possibility is the U.S. congress that is refusing to aid Ukraine in their defense, and have no chance to win a war against Russia that could easily turn nuclear without even a single bomb, but by virtue of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant being used as a nuclear weapon of mass destruction (WMD).
Russia’ military is attacking the citizenry of Ukraine, and humans cannot exist in today’s world without electrical power. And, I am ashamed to say, the U.S. is politically contributing to the possible deaths of as many as 40 million people.
The following article by the Associated Press must be read to understand the immanent danger the Ukrainian people are so suddenly faced with. We must demand that our U.S. Congress provide the $60 billion that Ukraine has needed to defend itself and has waited for for so long, and had they had the financial aide, the War may not have come to this. Are we, here in America, so selfish as to not help a suffering ‘free’ nation in an dictatorial part of the world? ~llaw
Russia launches sweeping attack on Ukraine’s power sector, a sign of possible escalation
Russian attacks destroyed residential areas in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson on Friday, and widespread outages were reported after electrical stations were hit. (Mar. 22)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia unleashed one of its most devastating attacks against Ukraine’s electric sector on Friday, an aerial assault it said was retaliation for recent strikes inside Russia and which could signal an escalation of the war just days after President Vladimir Putin cemented his grip on power in a preordained election.
Many Ukrainians were plunged into darkness across several cities, at least five people were killed, and damage to the country’s largest hydroelectric plant briefly cut off power to a nuclear plant that has been a safety risk throughout the war.
Russia fired off more than 60 exploding drones and 90 missiles in what Ukrainian officials described as the most brutal attack against its energy infrastructure since the full-scale war began in early 2022.
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, sustained the most damage, officials said, and the attack came a day after Russia had fired 31 missiles into the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been urging Western allies for weeks to provide it with additional air-defense systems and ammunition, a period in which $60 billion in U.S. aid has been held up by divisions in Congress.
“With Russian missiles, there are no delays, like with aid packages to our state,” Zelenskyy said. “It is important to understand the cost of delays and postponed decisions.”
Russia’s defense ministry called Friday attacks “strikes of retribution.” Ukraine has increased shelling of Russia’s Belgorod region along its northeast border and has launched drone strikes targeting Russian oil refineries and other energy facilities.
Ukraine’s latest strike inside Russia on Friday killed one and injured at least three, according to local officials.
Putin has described Ukrainian attacks on Belgorod and other regions as an effort to frighten residents and derail the highly orchestrated election that ended Sunday. And he vowed to strike back.
The day after he declared victory, Putin said Russia would seek to create a buffer zone inside eastern Ukraine to help protect against long-range strikes and cross-border raids.
Russia has made progress on the battlefield in recent months against exhausted Ukrainian troops struggling with a shortage of manpower and ammunition along the front line that stretches over 1,000 kilometers (620 miles).
When Putin invaded in 2022, he called it a “special military operation,” and his officials have mostly eschewed the word “war.” But in a change of rhetoric Friday that may herald a new escalation, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a Russian newspaper that “when the collective West became a participant in this on the side of Ukraine, for us it already became a war.”
In the winter of 2022-23, Russia targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, causing frequent blackouts across the country. Many in Ukraine and the West expected that Russia might repeat this strategy this winter, but Russia instead focused its strikes on Ukraine’s defense industries.
While launching the strikes, Russia has combined sophisticated ballistic and cruise missiles with waves of cheap Iranian-made Shahed drones in a bid to oversaturate and weaken Ukrainian air defenses.
Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, head of the national utility Ukrenergo, described Friday’s barrage as the largest assault on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure since the full-scale war began.
“This attack was especially dangerous because the adversary combined different means of attack, kamikaze drones, ballistic and cruise missiles,” he said.
Kudrytskyi said that Russia “tried to destroy every significant energy object powering the city of Kharkiv,” leaving at least 700,000 without electricity. He estimated that several hundred thousand customers in other regions were also left without power.
Oleksiy Kuleba, deputy head of Zelenskyy’s office, said that 31 people were injured in the strikes, that also left 200,000 people without constant access to electricity in the Odesa region. He said that power supplies for most of 400 000 customers in Dnipropetrovsk region was restored.
The huge Dnipro hydroelectric power plant, Ukraine’s largest, halted operation after sustaining at least six missile hits that caused massive damage. Ihor Syrota, the head of Ukrhidroenergo company overseeing the country’s hydroelectric plants, said it lost about a third of its generation capacity in a “significant loss for the Ukrainian energy system.”
Syrota said that the extent of damage to the plant remained unclear because its equipment has been buried under concrete and metal debris from the blasts, noting that the repairs will be a “long process.”
The strikes sparked a fire at the Dnipro plant, which supplies electricity to the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia, the largest in Europe. Power to the nuclear plant was lost for several hours before it was restored, International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi said early Friday. The Zaporizhzhia plant has been occupied by Russian troops since early days of the invasion, and fighting around it has raised the risk of a nuclear accident.
The dam at the hydroelectric station was not in danger of breaching, the country’s hydroelectric authority said. A dam breach could not only disrupt supplies to the nuclear plant but could potentially cause severe flooding similar to what occurred last year when a major dam at Kakhovka further down the Dnieper River collapsed.
Arhirova is an Associated Press reporter covering Ukraine. She is based in Kyiv.
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:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War
Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There is one Yellowstone Caldera bonus story available in 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 (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
When the author Tommy Orange received an impassioned email from a teacher in the Bronx, he dropped everything to visit the students who inspired it. A …
Daily Kos
Putin seems to be very fond of threatening to use nuclear weapons every time he gets his ego dinged by every consequence of his actions.
You only have to read the 1st paragraph of the “Vox/Verge” article below to understand why nuclear energy is not the answer to any problem, especially the strange and most unlikely concept that it can solve the CO2 global-warming/climate change issue. Common sense tells anyone with any sense that such a belief is utterly impossible. There are hundreds if not thousands of reasons that this will never happen. In the 1st place there is not enough uranium fuel left in the ground to allow nuclear power plants to take over for the other fossil fuels that are creating the global atmospheric carbon dioxide problem. We must spend our money for electric power only on advancing renewables like solar, wind, hydro and geo-thermal energy. Doing so is the only way to save ourselves from creating our own (and our other living critters) from extinction.
And then there are the “minor” problems like the time-lag between design, planning, constructing, licensing and operating nuclear power plants that take at best 12 to 15 years to produce power (meanwhile the fossil fuel global warming/climate change continues on unablated), and that is followed by leaking nuclear radiation, nuclear waste disposal, nuclear power plant human and/or AI accidents causing meltdowns, along with already enormous costs that can only grow upward forever, and the constant possibility of nuclear power plants being forcibly converted to stationary nuclear weapons of mass destruction or terrorism (as is happening as we read this nightly post in the Russia/Ukraine war). I could go on and on for hundreds of pages, but this ought to be enough to give you, the reader, a clue that such a dream will turn into a never-ending nightmare. ~llaw
THE VERGE IS A VOX MEDIA NETWORK
More than 30 countries have pledged to pursue nuclear energy as one way to meet global climate goals. Even so, nuclear energy is still a controversial energy source that’s bogged down by concerns about radioactive waste, safety, and high costs.
At a nuclear energy summit in Brussels yesterday, the countries pledged “to work to fully unlock the potential of nuclear energy by taking measures such as enabling conditions to support and competitively finance the lifetime extension of existing nuclear reactors, the construction of new nuclear power plants and the early deployment of advanced reactors,” The Associated Press reports. The US, China, Japan, France, Britain, and Saudi Arabia were among the 34 countries to sign the pledge.
It’s a bold statement to support a source of energy over which many governments and environmental groups are deeply divided. Nuclear energy doesn’t generate the greenhouse gas emissions heating up the planet, but the environmental footprint of its supply chain and waste creates other problems. And after decades of missteps, the technology still has to prove whether it can be an affordable, safe alternative to the fossil fuels causing climate change.
Nuclear energy doesn’t generate the greenhouse gas emissions heating up the planet, but the environmental footprint of its supply chain and waste creates other problems
Nearly every nation on Earth has committed to fighting climate change as part of the Paris agreement. That requires a transition from fossil fuels to clean energy over the next few decades. Fortunately, renewables like solar and wind energy are already cheaper than coal and gas and are forecast to make up a majority of new electricity sources deployed in coming years. The challenge is in finding backup energy sources for times when winds die down and the sun sets.
Proponents of nuclear energy say it’s the perfect complement to renewables since nuclear reactors are able to generate electricity around the clock. “Nuclear energy is indispensable along with renewable energy … We must devise strategy to attract further investment which is necessary to enhance the use of nuclear energy,” Japan’s Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Komura Masahiro said during the Nuclear Energy Summit held yesterday by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
It’s a remarkable turnaround from fears stoked more than a decade ago when an earthquake and tsunami triggered a catastrophic meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in Japan. In December, Japan was one of more than 20 countries that agreed to triple renewable energy capacity globally by 2050. The country still plans to prioritize renewable energy, Masahiro said, and “at the same time, Japan will continuously reflect upon the lessons from the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station and ensure that the use of nuclear power places safety as its top priority.”
At the summit, John Podesta, US senior adviser to the president for clean energy innovation and implementation, touted the construction of the country’s first completely new power plant in decades. The Vogtle Unit 3 reactor in Georgia finally started operating last year, no less than $17 billion over budget after seven years of delays.
Next-generation nuclear reactors are supposed to be easier and cheaper to build. But they haven’t overcome the radioactive waste problem. They’ll require more highly enriched uranium, of which Russia has been the largest supplier. And a key demonstration project using advanced small modular reactors in Utah was canceled in November after costs soared.
Protesters with the environmental group Greenpeace attempted to block roads leading to the Nuclear Energy Summit yesterday, claiming they were able to delay the arrival of some delegates.
“All the evidence shows that nuclear power is too slow to build, too expensive, and it remains highly polluting and dangerous,” Greenpeace EU senior campaigner Lorelei Limousin said. “We are in a climate emergency, so time is precious, and the governments here today are wasting it with nuclear energy fairy tales.
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:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War
Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There are no Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in 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 (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
A hydraulic fluid leak caused a U.S.-bound United Airlines flight to return to Sydney for an emergency … Nuclear Power Plant near the city of Netishyn.
Oh, the depravity of men caught up in their self-importance and the temporary power they have been given during war. This story is typical, rather than unusual, and this woman and her daughter, and the others, fortunately were eventually able to escape into Kyiv, and obviously felt obligated to tell their story as a way to avoid retaliation and worse.
Very likely, in this war, and those that came before throughout human history, other innocent women and even children have suffered such physical and mental abuse, pain, and indignation at the hands of military men who overstepped their bounds. Rape, unthinkable torture, even death in the ravages of war are common to all wars where soldiers have access to the public — especially to those of the feminine way. ~llaw
Ukrainian women tell of beatings and threats under Russian occupation
KYIV, March 21 (Reuters) – Alla Antonova says she suffered beatings, had a plastic bag thrust over her head and endured many other threats from Russian soldiers in occupied Ukraine who wanted to know where her son-in-law was serving in the Ukrainian army.
Her mother Natalia Kucherova, 73, was made to sit in an adjacent room of their apartment, but says she was generally left alone – the soldiers were only interested in her daughter.
Reuters could not independently verify their accounts. Moscow has denied accusations that its forces have committed atrocities or deliberately attacked civilians during their invasion, which it calls a “special military operation”.
Now in Kyiv, escaping from the ordeal meant fleeing their home in the port of Berdiansk, in the occupied part of the southern Zaporizhzhia region and taking a circuitous five-day journey.
With the help of Ukrainian volunteer workers, the family and their dog travelled into southern Russia and then overland back over the border into Ukrainian-held territory in early February.
Speaking to Reuters in a rented apartment in the Ukrainian capital, Antonova, 53, said the Russian soldiers visited their Berdiansk home three times in the last few months of 2023 and as recently as January this year.
“They took me into the bedroom and mama into the kitchen,” Antonova said.
“Three of them. Interrogating me is the way I would put it. And they beat me. I had bruises on my legs, on my back.”
Antonova showed Reuters several photographs of severe bruises on her arm and legs.
Another soldier, she said, pulled the plastic bag over her head and pressed down to stop her breathing.
“I started to lose consciousness. They removed the bag and I felt ill,” Antonova said. “I told them: ‘Just kill me. It’s the truth, I know nothing’.”
Russia’s diplomatic mission in Geneva did not immediately reply to a request for comment about the women’s account.
Alla Antonova and her daughter Anastasia sit in a rental-apartment in Kyiv after Antonova escaped from her home in Russian-occupied Berdiansk amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, March 20, 2024. REUTERS/Anna Voitenko
A report on conditions in occupied areas released this week by the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine described a “climate of fear” in occupied areas more than two years after the Russian invasion. It reports the widespread use of such tactics that Antonova and her family describe.
Speaking at the U.N. Human Rights Council on Wednesday after the report’s publication, Russian senior diplomat Igor Sergeev accused U.N. human rights bodies of double standards and of turning a blind eye to violations committed by Kyiv.
BEATEN SENSELESS
Antonova said the soldiers beat her senseless during one of the “visits”, in January this year.
She showed Reuters a video she was made to record, sent to her own 29-year-old daughter, Anastasia, in which she says “good, polite people, soldiers” had come and asked the daughter to cooperate if she wanted to see her mother again.
“My daughter understood straight away and deleted it. And they just said ‘just think about it – we’ll come to see you’.”
Kucherova made it plain what she thought of the soldiers.
“‘What is it you want?’ I said, ‘Are you going to throw my daughter in a cellar and rape her?'” she told Reuters of the experience, prompting a soldier to ask where she had heard such things.
“I told him the whole town is talking about it. The whole town, about how you are abusing people there.”
Kucherova, who had lived all her life in Berdiansk, was tearful about leaving, but in the end needed little convincing.
“They said ‘we are here for a long time to come, in Berdiansk’. And that means ‘we will be paying you frequent visits’,” she said. “So, that’s what happened. We quickly got our things together and left. We were told to go quickly.”
The escalating violence made the women fearful for their lives so the three generations of women readied themselves for a long journey – and no notion of leaving behind Sonia, the family dog.
“We couldn’t bear the thought leaving her tied up with no water, nothing,” Kucherova said. “We all went together. No one was abandoned.”
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Writing by Ronald Popeski; Editing by Lucy Marks
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The following letter of complaint is not only outrageous to witness and be able to openly read, it is deathly serious, and all countries with nuclear powered power plants must be aware that all things nuclear, especially nuclear power plants, are as dangerous to human life as nuclear war, and, in fact what is supposed to support human comforts may well become weapons of mass destruction both before or during a nuclear war. As an instance of nuclear irresponsibility and neglect this plea for help may be the worst example I have ever seen. The letter is short and to the point, and I beg you to read it with what it could portend in mind! ~llaw
POLITICS
Metsamor nuclear power plant poses huge nuclear threat to the region – OPEN LETTER
“We, representatives of Azerbaijan’s civil society and scientists, are appealing to the co-chairs of the Brussels Nuclear Energy Summit – the Prime Minister of Belgium, Mr. Alexander De Croo, and the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mr. Rafael Mariano Grossi – asking them to urge the Armenian government to immediately cease the operation of the country’s Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant, which is in an emergency condition, has significantly exceeded its intended service life, and poses a global threat.
The Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant, built in a 9.5-point seismic zone in 1976, operates using outdated technology and is designed to withstand an earthquake of 8 points in magnitude, poses a huge nuclear threat to Azerbaijan, Turkiye, Armenia and the region as a whole. The irresponsible conduct of the Armenian authorities regarding this nuclear power plant and the circulation of false reports about its operation are intended to mislead the world community and lead the region towards another Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters. This risk is increasing with each passing day. Instead of decommissioning the Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant and following the rules and procedures expected by the international community, the Armenian authorities are trying to artificially extend its service life every time.
Liquid waste from the Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant is ultimately discharged into the Araz, a trans-boundary river. The plant is located in a water-scarce area, drawing water from deep wells to cool its aging reactor. During earthquakes, it is possible to change the level of underground water and the direction of flows, which is a clear evidence of the unreliability of the cooling system.
The illegal trade of some nuclear materials originating from Metsamor is also of great concern. There are more than 200 radioactive sources in the territory of Armenia. These sources include various types of isotopes. There have also been cases of smuggling of radioactive isotopes in Armenia. This increases the possibility of using radionuclides for terrorist purposes.
The fact that the landfills where Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant waste is disposed are already full and the creation of a new nuclear waste landfill show that there are serious problems with the disposal of this waste.
We call on the International Atomic Energy Agency and other relevant international organizations to closely cooperate with the Republic of Azerbaijan as the worst affected country in this regard.
The Armenian authorities, which pay no heed to the nuclear safety of their own people and the peoples living in other regional states, can be forced to stop the operation of the Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant only with a joint global effort. The Nuclear Energy Summit, which defines as its main direction the achievement of the goals arising from COP28, acts as a convenient platform in this regard. This is the expectation of the Azerbaijani community, which will host COP29.
Signatories:
Fagan Aliyev – International Eco-Energy Academy
Islam Mustafayev – “Ruzgar” Ecological Public Union
Sabit Bagirov – Entrepreneurship Development Foundation
Mirhasan Hasanov – “Union of Chernobyl Disabled People” Public Union
Eyvaz Asgarov – “Chernobyl Disabled People of Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic” Public Union
Firuza Sultanzada – “EkoSfera” Social Ecological Center
Gulshan Akhundova – “Women, Development, Future” Public Union
Parvana Valiyeva – “Service to Health” Public Union
Muslim Gurbanov – “Ecoil” Scientific Ecological Public Union
Rovshan Abbasov – “Towards a Healthy Life” Ecological Public Union
Zurab Israfilov – “Azerbaijan Nature Protection Society” Public Union
Maryam Majidova – Youth Gender Equality Center “Gender Hub” Public Union
Zaur Ibrahimli – “Prioritet” Social Economic Research Center Public Union
Umud Mirzayev – International Eurasian Press Foundation
Israyil Iskandarov – “Umid” Social Development Support Public Union
Ramil Iskandarli – Legal Analysis and Research Public Union
Gunel Safarova – “Vatandash” Research and Development Public Union
Khalid Kazimov – Regional Human Rights and Media Center Public Union
Ahmad Abbasbayli – “Center for Community Development” Public Union
Elchin Mukhtarli – “Service to Health” Public Union
Amin Mammadov – Public Union “Experts in the Field of Water Use”
Elman Jafarli – “Green World” Environmental Awareness Public Union
Gorkhmaz Ibrahimli – Biosphere Public Union
Gamza Yusubova – Environmental Awareness and Monitoring Public Union
Rahila Mehtiyeva – “Socioeconomic and Ecological Development” Public Union
Irada Hasanova – “Sema va Eko” Social Economic Development Public Union
Tukazban Aghababayeva – Eco Hub Support for Ecological Initiatives
Sevil Isayeva – “Ekolex” Ecological Legal Center Public Union
Rustam Malikov – “Ana Kur” Public Association for Helping to Study Environmental Problems
Azizagha Hunbataliyev – Environmental Protection Public Union
Yazgul Abdiyeva – “Health Protection” Public Union
Ayyub Karimli – Economic and Social Research Public Union
Tavakkul Iskandarov – “Biological Diversity Center” Public Union
Jasarat Huseynzada – “Support for Information and Social Initiatives” Public Union
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“But as of today, the site work and all of that has really been focused on spots other than in Southwest Virginia. And the primary reason for that is …
Seacoast officials ask for more clarity on changes to Seabrook nuclear emergency plan. Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant Dan Tuohy—NHPR. Published: …
Come June, 2024, with or without a permit from regulators, the startup nuclear power company, Terra Power, wants to start work near a Pacific Corp. coal facility, which is in its waning days. The site is located just south of Kemmerer, Wyoming.
The whole concept of these SMR (Small Modular Reactor) has been fraught with questionable details and problems. For instance, the company has been waiting to begin its Demo Plant for two years because the uranium fuel to operate the plant is only available from Russia, and Russia is not making it available to Terra Power, and given the two nations’ relationships, perhaps never will. SMR’s are thus far of inadequate quality in both safety and durability (there are only two, both state-owned and controlled, operating world-wide thus far. One is in Russia and one is in China and the American largest company producing these start-up unproven power plants, NuScale Power, recently abandoned a project in Utah due to cost overruns and other financial difficulties.
Terra Power, which has already spent 8 years going nowhere beyond their dream, has raised about $1 Billion for a plant that will cost (unless it has the same fate as Nuscale, which is probable) about $4+ billion to engineer and construct. They expect half of that cost to come from the Department of Energy. They also expect the plant to be built and operational in just 6 years, including the NRC’s approval of the plant as safe, secure, functional, and operational, which would of course be an approval time record, but of course that will never happen. How they raised the $1 billion thus far is a mystery to me. Perhaps it all came out of Bill Gates’ pocket, or maybe a handout from General Electric.
If I were a betting man, I would never bet a plug nickel on the success on such an “out of this world” nuclear power plant, its planned reactors, and its ‘very cheap’ Natrium cooling system (a fancy name for liquid (molten) salt that allows a nuclear reactor to operate at much higher temperatures than conventional water cooling). Could anything possibly go wrong with a nuclear reactor operating at hundreds of degrees higher temperatures than conventional water-cooled nuclear reactors, which can and do melt down? That is still to be determined . . . ~llaw
A Bill Gates company is about to start building a nuclear power plant in Wyoming
TerraPower, which Bill Gates founded, plans to build its first nuclear power plant in the US.
CEO Chris Levesque told the Financial Times it wants to start work on a site in Wyoming in June.
TerraPower says its reactor design is cheaper because they’re cooled by liquid sodium, not water.
A company cofounded by Bill Gates is about to start building next-generation nuclear power plants in the US.
Chris Levesque, CEO of TerraPower, told the Financial Times that his firm will start building at a site near a coal plant in Kemmerer, Wyoming in June, even if it hasn’t received a construction permit from regulators by then.
The company plans to bring the nuclear plant online in 2030, he added.
TerraPower, which has raised $1 billion from backers, will use liquid sodium rather than water to cool its Natrium reactors, making them cheaper to run.
Most of the initial work at the Kemmerer site won’t be related to nuclear activity, Levesque said.
“When you use liquid sodium as a coolant instead of water it’s a game changer,” he told the FT.
“Natrium plants will cost half of what light water reactor plants cost … and we are moving our project along pretty aggressively.”
Gates helped found TerraPower in 2006 and has been its chairman since then. The company has said its aim is to provide the world with a more affordable, secure, and environmentally friendly form of nuclear energy.
Its Natrium reactor is expected to cost $4 billion, with about half the cost being met by the Department of Energy. CRV and Khosla Ventures are among the company’s VC backers, Reuters reported.
While Russian and Chinese state-controlled companies have already managed to launch smaller nuclear reactors, progress in developing similar tech in the US has stalled in recent years.
High interest rates have made it tougher for startups to draw in funding, while Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and subsequent exclusion from financial markets has made it tougher for companies to get the uranium needed for their reactors.
In December 2022, TerraPower pushed back the launch of its flagship project by at least two years, which Levesque attributed to the war in Ukraine hitting supplies of high-assay, low-enriched uranium.
In October last year TerraPower missed out on making the shortlisted for the next round of the UK government’s competition for small nuclear plants. Rolls-Royce is one of the leading contenders with its small modular reactor (SMR) designs and has already secured more than £200m of government funding in Britain.
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There are 6 categories, including a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives, as do ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links in each category about the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
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Nuclear Power
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Nuclear War Threats
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Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
Should long-held concerns about nuclear be shelved due to the overriding challenge of the climate crisis? … “The hard part for nuclear, aside from all …
SEABROOK, N.H. —. The owners of New Hampshire’s only nuclear power plant will head back to the drawing board after proposing changes to its emergency …
While Russian nuclear war planning and wargaming against China came as a surprise to many, it should not have. While it is not politically correct in …
Sign up to our free breaking news emails · Russia has threatened to attack French troops as a “priority” if they are deployed on the ground in Ukraine, …
The “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” have added a 5th Horseman to spread the Word
LLAW’s CONCERNS & COMMENTS, Tuesday, (03/19/2024)
We absolutely have to learn the difference between Political and Capitalistic fairy tales and actual facts and truths and how the two opposing concepts of human speech are virtual opposites of human communication necessary in order to survive or face extinction.
“Propaganda” will serve to send us all to early graves if we can’t see the differences. Other than the usual “political” and “cultural” propaganda, even more importantly at the moment, there is the false concept of creating more weapons of mass destruction to enable a world-wide so-called “Deterrence” avoidance of nuclear war through “World Fear” instead of “World Peace” through peaceful common sense and respect for others without prejudice.
Common courtesies of civility and empathy toward all humanity rather than the insane idea threatening nuclear war as well as the also insane industry-fabricated environmental “value” of these potential stationary nuclear weapons of mass destruction, innocently called nuclear power plants, presently being falsely advertised as the savior to the global warming/climate change issue, are both deceitful fairy tales which are on the cusp of destroying humanity as well as all other life on our beautiful and bountiful planet Earth. We are being played for the suckers that we are.
And if you extrapolate what you just read from a small ‘neighborhood gang’ to a global gang of ‘world leaders’ (there are 9 of them at the moment) with huge gangs in every country on nearly every continent, and none of the leaders are representative of the gangs of the other world leaders, and then consider the scale of fear and force attempting to inflict their huge gang’s will and way on all the other worldly gangs.
It is precisely the same thing as the neighborhood gang, only on a global scale with unlimited force. And these world-sized gang leaders all have instant access to the same ultimate use of force, plus they are caught up in their own egotistical self-importance and self-aggrandizement and are dictators or otherwise authoritarian who use a smaller part of the their gang (e.g. the military) to protect them from both their own gang and everyone else’s gangs, too.
They lie and threaten one another every day, and feed their propaganda to not only their own gang, but everyone else’s gang, too. It’s those same four (now five) “Horsemen of the Apocalypse”, and we all know what Apocalypse means.
What do we have then? Utter chaos . . .~llaw
A comment or two from me and why I do this blog as a nightly Post to anyone who wants to listen:
I was in the army stationed in South Korea when the Cuban missile crisis began in mid-October of 1962. Today’s nuclear crisis is much more serious than the Cuban missile crisis ever was or could have been. Both Kennedy and Kruschev knew there would be no nuclear war, but now it’s not just about nuclear war, which could happen any day now, but also about the plethora of nuclear power plants that could well become also used as nuclear weapons of mass destruction as well as nuclear bombs.
I personally spent a part of three decades in the nuclear industry business, and knew well the propaganda and the lies (it is all about Capitalism), and I left it after the Three Mile Island near-meltdown fiasco, much of which is still being hidden from public knowledge. But nuclear propaganda now is enveloping the entire world.
Also, I have no fear of any of it, and no one should because fear is self-defeating, and because fear is not going to resolve the problem, yet our governmental leaders use ‘fear’ or ‘deterrence’ as defensive protection against nuclear war by constantly building more and more powerful nuclear weapons behind their threats. But if humanity is to survive we need to stop what our so-called “world leaders” are doing in the process of ending it all because if they can’t take it with them, neither can we.
I write and Post this nightly blog or column about what is happening in the nuclear world, and try to educate the public about the dangers of both nuclear war and nuclear power and how uranium fuel is the evil ignition of it all. They are both weapons of mass destruction and certain death.
As Albert Einstein said, the only way to stop it is to first have World Peace. And I have long agreed with him and many other scientists and other humanitarians who have known this since the early 1940s. I was born in 1941, and still remember as a toddler my parents’ grief of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to stop World War II by taking hundreds of thousands of innocent civilian lives with our two atomic bombs.
Today there are some 20,000+ nuclear bombs in evil hands around the world, and every one of them is almost infinitely more powerfully destructive than the atomic bombs that devastated Japan. So, instead of searching for peace, we hunt down our enemies in order to survive, when all we should have to do is find some kind of reasonable multilateral World Peace among all of us. But we never seem to think of peace as a uniter or unifier, but only war as a world divider.
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There are 6 categories, including a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives, as do ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links in each category about the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War
Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There are no Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in 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 (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
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Unless Californians address these primary drivers of electricity shortages, the state risks perpetually suffering from major energy emergencies. We’ve …
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The first and only nuclear weapons ever used killed over 100,000 people and caused long-term health, psychological, economic and environmental damage | National Archive/Newsmakers
LLAW’s CONCERNS & COMMENTS, Monday, (03/18/2024)
The following article from Politico.eu deals with the same topic as I posted about yesterday evening — and that is the problem with our “Leaders”, and though this discussion mentions only 5, there are 9 of them, who could easily begin WWIII, and given enough time there will soon be more. They must all be dethroned before one of them pushes the nuclear button.
As I said yesterday, and I’ll say it again today, there is just one way to get rid of our nuclear armed “leaders”, and that is via protests and demands of you and me and the rest of the subordinate human population around the globe by whatever means are required. I believe that if we unite with a peaceful single intent internationally, we can make it happen, but time is of the essence . . . “The voice and the pen can be mightier than the bomb.” (line borrowed and upgraded from novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton)
However, the remedies suggested in this article, “more diplomacy and resilience-based solutions”, are far too weak to work. We have been trying to do that for nigh on 80 years, and have failed with every attempt. The only solution is to, as I have subtitled all of my 573 Posts in 573 consecutive days, “End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity”. That requires removing the insanity of egomaniacal power-crazy “leaders” of every country that has nuclear anything, including nuclear power plants or even visions of grandeur in their envious eyes. ~llaw
POLITICO.eu
As ‘Oppenheimer’ wins big, we should worry about lowering of nuclear thresholds
Just as Oppenheimer challenged Truman on U.S. nuclear strategy, we too must challenge our leaders’ attachment to nukes.
Sophie-Jade Taylor is a senior network development and communications manager at the European Leadership Network nonprofit. Retired Air Marshall Sir Graham Stacey is a senior consulting fellow at the European Leadership Network.
Last summer, director Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” captivated the global public, making history as the highest ever grossing biopic. And having already won big at the Golden Globes and the BAFTAs, the film closed awards season by sweeping the Oscars last weekend.
The film brought fresh awareness of the unique, destructive power that J. Robert Oppenheimer’s creation unleashed. The first and only nuclear weapons ever used — the “Little Boy” dropped on Hiroshima and the “Fat Man” on Nagasaki — packed the equivalent of 15,000 and 21,000 tons of TNT respectively, killing over 100,000 people and causing long-term health, psychological, economic and environmental damage.
By comparison, the world’s most powerful nukes today yield over 1.2 megatons of TNT — 60 times more than Oppenheimer’s bombs.
And much like Oppenheimer, General Leslie Groves and then U.S. President Harry S. Truman, today’s leaders once again find themselves facing huge moral and strategic choices at the dawn of a new technological age. The full weight of nuclear devastation lies in the hands of just a select few. Their decisions have profound implications for humanity — and this shouldn’t be left to chance.
Recognizing the unimaginable horror a modern nuclear conflict would unleash, as recently as January 2022, all five leaders of the nuclear weapons states reaffirmed that a nuclear war couldn’t be won and must never be fought.
All five leaders of the nuclear weapons states recently reaffirmed that a nuclear war couldn’t be won and must never be fought | Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images
Yet, we have been witnessing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s irresponsible nuclear saber-rattling around Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. There have been worrying reports of rock-bottom thresholds for nuclear use — with enemy incursion into territory, the destruction of strategic weapons delivery systems, and even conventional weapons use deemed as posing an existential threat to Russian statehood.
And though Moscow outwardly rejects the policy, such ambiguity seemingly points toward communicating “first strike” capabilities, which rightly should be condemned and carefully assessed.
On the other hand, China continues to push states for political commitments toward the universalization of a No First Use Policy, while also furthering the development of its own arsenal under a worrying lack of transparency — a dilemma that has added complexity to an already intricate and perilous geopolitical chessboard.
Meanwhile, in the West — seemingly without much public discussion or comment — we’ve seen a worrying trend in declarations that states could use nuclear weapons to deter “non-nuclear threats,” again lowering the so-called nuclear threshold in an attempt to provide a quick fix to nuanced challenges.
At this very critical moment, “Oppenheimer” has brought discussions of nuclear weapons back into the public arena. And while the attention will undoubtedly recede, ongoing public engagement on these issues must not. Civic engagement shapes policymaking, and at a time of rising nuclear risks and growing temptation for states to become more reliant on their nuclear weapons, the public deserves a better understanding of when and why a catastrophic weapon may be deployed.
For example, in 2021, the British government stated that while it wouldn’t use nuclear weapons against any non-nuclear weapon state, it remained open to reviewing its policy should any threat from “emerging technologies” with “comparable impact” make nuclear weapon use necessary. Similarly, in 2022, the U.S. declared that the aim of its nuclear arsenal was to deter both nuclear and non-nuclear “strategic-level attacks.” Problematically, however, neither the U.K. nor the U.S. have detailed what “comparable impact” or “strategic-level attack” may mean.
These policies not only lower the nuclear-use threshold and increase global nuclear risks, but they may not even be feasible, given most contemporary threats against states now sit outside the military realm.
While it’s near impossible for a nuclear strike to go undetected, the same isn’t true for emerging technologies such as AI and autonomous systems. By their very design, these technologies are largely democratized and untied to a single government. For instance, the challenge of attribution in cyber is well-documented, and while cyber-attacks have been linked to state-sponsored hacking groups, these groups couldn’t be easily deterred by the threat of a nuclear strike.
As a 2021 U.K. parliamentary report on risk assessment and mitigation noted, today’s security risks do not respect national borders; rather, they have international impact and require global responses. In this new risk environment, governments must focus on developing their national resilience and preparedness to mitigate threats — not just use the blunt and horrific instrument of nuclear weapons as a cure-all.
Increasing the already harrowing role of nuclear weapons in foreign policy undermines the moral and legal position of nuclear weapons states. The logic and evidence behind the current U.K. and U.S. policies of relying on nuclear weapons as a panacea must be subject to greater public and parliamentary scrutiny — as should be the case with open democracies who say they have transparent nuclear policies.
Amid rising global volatility and technological uncertainty, it’s imperative for states to explore non-nuclear solutions that emphasize international cooperation, diplomacy and societal resilience. And there’s an opportunity here for the U.K. and the U.S. to lead the way in international law and treaties that respond to non-nuclear strategic threats more effectively.
Instead of resorting to old playbooks, both policymakers and the public must appreciate that emerging technologies require a new mindset in their management and new legal constructs to regulate their proliferation, development and control. Recent international efforts like last November’s Bletchley AI Safety Summit and the agreement to begin a dialogue on AI risks by U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping are important first steps. But much more needs to be done.
Just as Oppenheimer, haunted by his role in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, challenged Truman on U.S. nuclear strategy, we too must challenge our leaders’ continued attachment to nukes — weapons that can only destroy — and push toward more diplomacy and resilience-based solutions to today’s complex challenges.
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:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War
Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There are no Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in 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 (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
… Things to Do · All Things to Do · All PPH Events … Many of the tests involved nuclear-capable missiles designed to attack South Korea and the mainland …
