“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity”
MAY 07, 2024
Pacific Ocean Coastal View of PG&E’s Diablo Canyon nuclear Power Plant
LLAW’s NUCLEAR ISSUES & COMMENTS, Monday, (05/06/2024)
The following opinion piece from “Counter Punch” by Winslow Myers is an excellent short but powerful counterpunch to George Will, who apparently fails to understand that nuclear power plants are every bit, if not moreso, as likely to be a major issue in and contributor to the future 6th extinction of life on planet Earth than nuclear war,
If Mr. Will had actually carefully read Annie Jacobsen’s brilliantly researched scenario of a present day blow-by- blow view of what nuclear war would be like, he would know that any attack on a nuclear power plant would be additionally devastating all by themselves. There are already far, far, too many of them — there should be none — all around the world that could become incredibly powerful weapons of war and mass destruction. As demonstrated by her depiction of a North Korean ICBM delivering a nuclear bomb to the last commercial operating nuclear power plant in California (PG&E’s Diablo Canyon Station) near San Luis Obispo) and how one 300 kiloton nuclear bomb could permanently devastate life in all of southern California as well as other states as far east as Colorado caused from the destruction of just one power plant.
Incidentally, this is coincidentally the same actual currently operating nuclear power plant that I am writing a similar kind of a nuclear dystopian future about in my own imagined novel of ‘LLAW’s All Things Nuclear’ with abridged drafts of each chapter posted here once every two weeks. The next such post will be on Sunday, May 12th, with Chapter 4 of “El Nuclear Diablo”, telling the story of how nuclear power plants can create a dystopian world without nuclear war involved at all . . . ~llaw
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MAY 6, 2024
What the Analysts Leave Out
The conservative columnist George Will wrote a very welcome column calling attention to a book, Nuclear War: A Scenario by historian Annie Jacobsen, a riveting must-read that details just how easily deterrence could unravel, how fast and irreversibly escalation would occur, and how compete the destruction would be.
But Will undercut the value of his review by contrasting nuclear war with the climate crisis, of which he is a denier. Climate deniers these days are as obsolete as Holocaust deniers and surely neither should be given space in major American newspapers.
The climate crisis is inescapable and the nuclear crisis is becoming more so. But it is essential and useful to see how the two are intertwined:
Both crises continue because of denial. The extreme kind is exemplified by Mr. Will and, from all indications, candidate Trump—neither of these thinks global climate change is an emergency at all.
A lesser degree of denial encompasses almost all the rest of us. We see the obvious indicators of climate and nuclear dysfunctionality but feel helpless. At the other extreme are the Bill Mckibbens and Greta Thunbergs and their millions of followers who have given their utmost to waking the rest of us up to the urgency, including the doctors in groups like International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, or the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017) who are doing the same for nukes.
The denial of the passive mass middle around both issues includes the political establishments of many nations. Some countries are doing more than others to mitigate global warming, even as the powerful fossil fuel industry fights tooth and nail against its own looming obsolescence. On the nuclear issue things are far worse, with the invasion of Ukraine and China’s ongoing threat to repossess Taiwan rendering new arms control initiatives seemingly impossible—just when the aggressive pursuit of such treaties is most needed.
This is too obvious to mention, but both crises represent existential threats. Global warming may be more gradual, but it is just as all-encompassing as nuclear war. In the Jacobsen book it takes only 72 minutes to pretty much change the planet we know and love into a world where the still living would envy the dead. But because global warming is not just somewhere over the horizon but here now, there are going to be far too many people who will die in the summer of 2024 from the effects of heat, while Mr. Will continues in comfortably air-conditioned denial.
Establishment thinking assumes that we have enough money and creativity to cope with both crises. For 35 years one member of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War who is on the activist end of the spectrum, Dr. Robert Dodge, has been writing hair-on-fire editorials that apply a formula for determining how much of our tax revenue is poured down the nuclear weapons rathole. It’s mind-boggling. In tax year 2023, the town of Ojai where Dodge lives spent $2,742,698 funding U.S. nuclear weapons programs, just the one town. Ventura County where Ojai is located in California spent $253,174,999. The total U.S. Nuclear Weapons Programs expenditure was $94,485,000,000. That’s 94 billion.
There are differences between the leaders of the nine nuclear powers. Mr. Biden has little in common with Kim Jong Un, though the other candidate for U.S. president, spending his down time in court at the moment even as he polls neck-and-neck, may have all too much in common.
But the leaders of the nuclear powers are all failing to put the interests of the planet above the interests of their sovereign nations: they know that a nuclear war cannot be won, that launch-on-warning is insane, that none of them is prepared for those fateful few minutes of decision described so powerfully by Jacobsen that would unfold out of a deterrence breakdown. But all refuse to act creatively upon the implications.
There is a way out, and, once again, it involves the interconnection between nuclear war and the climate crisis. Start by pulling our ostrich heads out of the sand and admit the crazy, suicidally dysfunctionality of nuclear deterrence. The nine nuclear powers need to sign the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons even if they may be in violation of its provisions for some years yet. Make gestures which are quickly reversible if no other party responds, like bringing home a few submarines. Convene the generals and talk about the no-exit nature of the situation—and talk, loudly, about it even if some generals refuse the invitation.
And talk equally loudly about the need for a new level of cooperation on climate. Think outside the box: the military forces of all nations happen to also be the biggest polluters. How could they work together instead to help with the effects of climate already here, the refugees, the water crises, the conflicts over resources? It’s a proven fact that tensions decrease when adversaries cooperate on a common goal. We can all have conversations locally about the connections between the two challenges, conversations that would lead to probing questions of our representatives at every level.
Everything has changed in our world; we have begun to become aware that everything I do affects you and vice versa. The nuclear deterrence system and George Will-Donald Trump-style climate denial leaves out too much of our reality.
Winslow Myers is author of “Living Beyond War: A Citizen’s Guide.” He serves on the Advisory Board of the War Preventive Initiative.
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TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS, Monday, (05/06/2024)
All Things Nuclear
NEWS
Putin orders tactical nuclear weapons drills in response to Western ‘threats’ – CNN
CNN
… all topics. Russian President Vladimir Putin has …
What the Analysts Leave Out – CounterPunch.org
Counterpunch
On the nuclear issue things are far worse … Global warming may be more gradual, but it is just as all-encompassing as nuclear war. … But the leaders …
Atomic vets are on the verge of losing federal benefits. Congress hasn’t helped – NPR
NPR
“An American issue” … New Mexico Democratic Senator Ben Ray Luján knows about the need for that lifesaving help all too well. He’s seen the scores of …
Nuclear Power
NEWS
China continues rapid growth of nuclear power capacity
U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)
In the past 10 years, more than 34 gigawatts (GW) of nuclear power capacity were added in China, bringing the country’s number of operating …
Goldman bullish on nuclear power, sees upside for this uranium play – CNBC
CNBC
Goldman Sachs raised Cameco’s price 12-month stock price target by $1.
Private Investment Fuels Race For Nuclear Fusion Power In US | Barron’s
Barron’s
Spurred on by major technological advances and huge private investment, the United States’ nuclear fusion sector could be producing electricity …
Nuclear Power Emergencies
NEWS
Nuclear power safety (was – argument in the Woke thread) – Dropzone.com
Dropzone.com
… nuclear reactor in an emergency, and everything looked good. But then a tidal wave damaged – not the reactor, not the control room, but the power …
UN nuclear watchdog’s board sets emergency meeting on Zaporizhzhia attacks – MSN
MSN
Drones attacked the Russian-held facility in southern Ukraine, Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant, on Sunday, hitting one reactor building, the …
UN nuclear watchdog’s board sets emergency meeting after Zaporizhzhia attacks – MSN
MSN
… Nuclear Power Plant, after the enemies accused each other of drone attacks. The International Atomic Energy Agency has said drones struck the …
Nuclear War
NEWS
Alarming! Putin Orders Mega Nuke Wargames; Ukraine War Set For Nuclear End?
YouTube
Amid escalating tensions, Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered nuclear drills involving troops near Ukraine, aimed at practicing the …
Putin orders tactical nuclear weapons drills in response to Western ‘threats’ – CNN
CNN
… nuclear weapon, in what would have been the first nuclear attack in war since the US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki nearly 80 …
Russia announces nuclear weapon drills after angry exchange with senior Western officials
The Washington Post
The war already has placed significant strain on relations between Moscow and the West. Story continues below advertisement. Tactical nuclear weapons …
Nuclear War Threats
NEW
Russia announces nuclear weapon drills after ‘provocative’ Western threats – Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera
Since the war began, Russia has repeatedly warned of rising nuclear risks – warnings which the US says it has to take seriously though its officials …
Putin orders tactical nuclear weapons drills in response to Western ‘threats‘ – CNN
CNN
… war is “going to take a while” and warned of the “increasing” threat of nuclear war.
Putin orders tactical nuclear weapon drills to deter the West – Reuters
Reuters
… threats in the way that Russia has. NUCLEAR RISKS. U.S. President Joe Biden said last year that he felt there was no real prospect of Russia using …