If you know the story of Don Quixote, you will know the purpose of this image on such a depressing and inauspicious day as this November 6th has turned out to be . . . llaw
In our collective ignorance and apathy we have invited our own demise . . .
I have, for 803 consecutive days, including today, each and every day warned the world while (often struggling in my effort to allow my message(s) to be posted without violating my free-speech rights, in my effort to educate my fellow humans everywhere around the world about the present and coming dramatic life-threatening dangers from the nuclear devastation we are facing.
Because the United States of America’s thoughtless public citizens have voted to add Donald J. Trump to the mix of those others like him — self-aggrandizing, insane, violent, dangerous, power mongering authoritarian dictators — to the combined madness of those few who have the power to use nuclear weapons of mass destruction to destroy our only Earthly home, including ourselves and other innocent life, simply by authorizing with a single coded nuclear football at their personal discretion, this will be my final post from this blog that has been intended to awaken and advise humanity everywhere (including working on a united world “blueprint” of how we might avoid our own demolition commonly known as extinction.
I have gratuitously spent well over two years of my own time and expense providing verifiable media information to use for your, as a reader, individual personal knowledge and edification while at the same time providing a daily commentary of my own thoughts and opinions commensurate with my own background and understanding of “All Things Nuclear” and its mission. Now that I, in my own personal opinion, see that we Americans have elected a mentally unstable President for a second time, obviously indicating our lack of cognitive knowledge, I must accept the fact that my long daily effort has failed. I had hoped that one day I would find a voluntary sponsor and media partner to help me continue and expand on the quantity and quality with this extremely important effort of humanitarianism. Instead, today I realize that, with Trump’s election, it was all a useless pipe dream.
I wish all of you who were loyal part-time readers and supporters from the several posting sources I have used each day —with your constant encouragement — the very best future possible despite the fact that millions of others have overridden our hopes for a united peaceful world where we all could live as one. (Thank you John Lennon for the last word.) ~llaw
If you know the story of Don Quixote, you will know the purpose of this image on such a depressing and inauspicious day as this November 6th has turned out to be . . . llaw
I have skipped the “About” section and simply posted my last compilation of TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS on this Wednesday, (11/06/2024). You may want to read the Trump election stories available today — particularly those from “Reuters.” Just the headlines should give you 2nd thoughts if you voted for this man . . .
North Korea and Russia seem to be uniting in an expanded international threat of nuclear war involving adding thousands of Korean troops to defend against Ukraine in the Kursk area that includes a Russian nuclear power plant previously attacked by Ukraine in the Russia/Ukraine war but also antagonizing South Korea’s leadership, indirectly directed at the U.S., and possibly Japan. ~llaw
In addition to the “Newsweek” story, you might also want to read a related article from “Foreign Affairs”. I have only linked the article here because it requires a subscription. The link is also posted in (InTODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS, Nuclear War Category: How the War in Ukraine Could Go Nuclear—by Accident – Foreign Affairs
Foreign Affairs
North Korea Issues Ominous ‘Nuclear War’ Warning
Published Nov 04, 2024 at 2:42 PM ESTUpdated Nov 04, 2024 at 2:49 PM EST
00:49
North Korean Soldiers Face First Combat In Russia’s Kursk Region: Reports
Anew North Korean research organization has issued a scathing report targeting South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, writing that his leadership has put the U.S. ally at greater risk of nuclear war.
The North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Sunday that the “white paper disclosing the criminal colors and miserable plight of Yoon” had been published the previous day by a never-before-mentioned research organization known as the Institute of Enemy State Studies.
“‘Yoon’s disastrous policy’ has exposed the Republic of Korea to the danger of a nuclear war,” the KCNA cited the authors as saying.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits Russia’s Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Amur region on September 13, 2023. A North Korean institute has released a paper detailing the Kim regime’s grievances against South Korean President… More Artem Geodakyan/AFP via Getty Images
They referenced hard-line statements by Yoon, who belongs to the conservative People Power Party and is known as a hawk on North Korea, as evidence of escalating hostility on the Korean Peninsula.
Examples included Yoon’s 2022 remark that the South must make “overwhelmingly superior war preparations” to achieve peace and warning that a nuclear attack would lead to the “end of the [Kim Jong Un] regime.”
The North Korean institute also criticized Yoon for approving the suspension in June of a 2018 military agreement that had been reached during a short period of warming ties between the two Koreas. The pact had both sides agreeing to reduce border tensions, establish a no-fly zone along the Demilitarized Zone and cease live-fire artillery drills.
After North Korea successfully launched its first spy satellite into orbit in November 2023, the South partially suspended the agreement by resuming surveillance flights. In response, Pyongyang declared it was “no longer bound by” the document and discarded its confidence-building measures.
The North Korean institute further condemned South Korea’s alliance with the United States and its growing military cooperation with Japan.
The paper highlighted commitments made by President Joe Biden and Yoon in April 2023 to step up dialogue and information sharing on nuclear threats. It also referenced the establishment of the U.S.-South Korea Nuclear Consultative Group, formed during that summit to coordinate on the North Korean threat and align U.S. nuclear planning with South Korean conventional forces.
The North Korean institute further condemned South Korea’s alliance with the United States and its growing military cooperation with Japan.
The paper highlighted commitments made by President Joe Biden and Yoon in April 2023 to step up dialogue and information sharing on nuclear threats. It also referenced the establishment of the U.S.-South Korea Nuclear Consultative Group, formed during that summit to coordinate on the North Korean threat and align U.S. nuclear planning with South Korean conventional forces.
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Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
… Nuclear Warheads, Cause It Might Kill Us All’. 11/4/2024; by William Earl … ‘Jack Ryan’ Returning: Everything We Know About the Prime Video Movie So …
Nuclear plant operators usually avoid scheduling planned nuclear outages during the summer and winter when electricity demand is highest and utilities …
Addressing safety concerns regarding Thailand’s adoption of nuclear energy, he said: “An SMR can automatically shut down in the event of an emergency …
As noted in its previous military doctrines of 2000, 2010 and 2014, Russia refers to the potential use only in response to a nuclear attack or use of …
Trying to pull the cart without the horse didn’t last long as the blue-sky stock prices disappeared in a cloud of nuclear plant smoke for the big computer giants and their AI dreams who thought they could intimidate the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and other agencies and power systems operators into lowering regulatory standards to accommodate their nuclear power-eating plans for data center dreams and AI.
But, at least for now, their market surge came tumbling down — as it should have. And I’m sure these corporations learned a lesson about doing their due diligence before going public with their bid to capture and control nuclear power to satisfy all of their future needs. Perhaps they will manage a reprieve eventually, but carefully regulated nuclear power and its standards are much to sensitive to try to run over at will — especially without the horse. ~llaw
Talen-Amazon Nuclear Power Deal Hits Speed Bump. Why Constellation Stock Is Down More.
on Monday. Talen, which had made the deal with Amazon, was down 2.2%; Vistra was down 3.6%; and Constellation was down 11% despite also posting better-than-expected earnings on Monday.
Constellation experienced a particularly large drop because it’s the largest owner of nuclear power plants in the country, and investors had been expecting the company to sign several specialized deals with big tech companies that want to hook their data centers into nuclear power plants. The regulatory ruling now calls that into question.
Big tech companies like Amazon have turned to nuclear power this year to solve a problem. They need lots of electricity for their data centers, which are processing increasingly complex artificial intelligence applications. But they don’t want to use dirtier electricity sources, like coal, because they’ve made pledges to reduce their carbon emissions. Nuclear power fits the bill because it doesn’t emit carbon and—unlike solar and wind power—it operates continuously.
In March, Amazon bought a data center campus next to Talen’s Susquehanna nuclear reactor that could consume as much as 960 megawatts of electricity capacity—or enough to power around 800,000 homes. Microsoft
made a similarly big nuclear investment in September when it agreed to buy power from a decommissioned Three Mile Island nuclear reactor.
Other nuclear stocks that had risen on this trend, like Oklo and Nuscale Power, were also down on Monday despite not being directly affected by the ruling.
Amazon’s plan was unique. It wanted to plug its data center directly into the reactor so that it wouldn’t have to go through the traditional electricity grid. But nearby utilities objected to the plan. The utilities argued that Amazon was siphoning power away from the grid and not helping pay for the infrastructure that keeps electricity flowing to regular consumers. (The Amazon deal is different from Microsoft’s because Three Mile Island would still be connected to the larger grid.)
FERC, or the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, ruled late on Friday that the Amazon plan should not go forward as originally proposed. “This filing leaves multiple important questions unresolved,” the FERC ruling said. A concurring opinion said the plan “could have huge ramifications for both grid reliability and consumer costs.” FERC’s ruling will still allow Amazon to use 300 megawatts worth of power from the reactor, but not an additional 180 megawatts, as it had proposed to do.
Talen responded to the ruling by saying that the commission’s concerns were misplaced. “Talen believes FERC erred and we are evaluating our options, with a focus on commercial solutions,” the company said in a statement. “We believe this ISA amendment is just and reasonable and in the best interest of consumers.” The amendment could potentially be resubmitted, allowing the deal to still go forward.
Amazon did not respond to a request for comment.
The ruling is a setback for multiple owners of nuclear plants, some of which had hoped to sign similar lucrative agreements. Amazon did not reveal how much it was paying for access to the nuclear power. But using the few financial data points that were released, analysts extrapolated that Amazon was paying Talen at least 30% above the going rate for electricity.
Jefferies analyst Julien Dumoulin-Smith wrote that the FERC ruling is “a major setback for the nuclear data center thesis.” After Amazon’s deal was signed, investors and analysts expected other deals would follow, and they bought up the stocks of other nuclear plant owners like Constellation and Vistra that they thought would benefit. Constellation and Talen have risen more than 100% this year, and Vistra is up more than 200%.
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Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
Where “fusion” is combining two or more things together, “fission” is splitting them apart. … All of the nuclear waste from the U.S. over the past 60 …
— Google stuff. Every tonne of mined lithium results in 15 tonnes of CO2 emissions in the environment. In addition, it is estimated that about 500,000 …
South Korea is bolstering its nuclear defenses as North Korea strengthens military ties with Russia … Israel at War Vladimir Putin Russia-Ukraine War …
The story below is just the 1st restraining, rejection, or non-compliance order for nuclear energy expansion, and, I suspect, there will be many more to come from every imaginable direction as the big computer, electronics and AI developers and their data centers will have to face as they attempt to drive nuclear energy down America’s and other countries’ throats.
The regulatory reasons are easy to understand, involving not only incredible power demands but the fears of AI itself, plus the regulatory requirements of quality manufacturing and absolute health and safety requirements of existing and future operations of nuclear power energy itself because of the many threats to human and other life in the event of nuclear accidents, terrorist attacks, or, as we already know from the Russia/Ukraine attacks on nuclear power plants, nuclear war — all of which are very real possibilities along with black-market uranium fuel trade. Nuclear fuel piracy itself could become a huge and dangerous global part among any number of eventual disasters.
Obviously, it stands to reason that the more nuclear power plants we have, large or small, around the world, the more dangerous and perilous they are. ~llaw
US Regulator Rejects Amazon-Talen Nuclear Power Agreement
By Bloomberg
Nov 02, 2024
(Bloomberg) — The top US energy regulator rejected a special deal that would have allowed an Amazon.com Inc. data center to use more power from an adjacent nuclear power plant.
The decision by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission deals a blow to the efforts by big technology companies to feed their power-hungry data centers with electricity from generators located next to their facilities. Commissioners voted 2-1 against the proposal that would have increased the amount of power supplied to an Amazon data center adjacent to the Susquehanna nuclear facility owned by Talen Energy Corp.
The commissioners said the plan, which was an amendment filed by the regional grid operator on behalf of the parties, didn’t adequately prove why the special contract should be allowed under federal rules. The plan would set a precedent and the issues should be reviewed more closely, they said. FERC Chairman Willie Phillips dissented, saying that the grid operator addressed reliability issues and called the order “a step backward” for both electricity reliability and national security.
In March, Amazon Web Services paid Talen $650 million for a 960-megawatt data center campus adjacent to the Susquehanna nuclear plant in Pennsylvania, and signed a long-term agreement to buy power from the plant.
In June, PJM Interconnection, which operates the eastern US grid, serving more than 65 million people, sought approval from the federal agency to increase the amount of power used onsite to 480 megawatts from 300 MW. Utility owners American Electric Power Co. and Exelon Corp. filed a complaint opposing the move, arguing that it could threaten grid reliability and raise customer rates.
The federal order on Friday night came on the heels of a day-long FERC technical conference on the topic, which discussed the merits and challenges of co-locating data centers with existing power plants, also dubbed “behind-the-meter” demand. Phillips said that artificial intelligence and related technologies represented a generational opportunity for national security and economic growth. Data centers are driving potentially unprecedented growth in US electricity usage and the concern is that such deals will allow them to shunt costs to other consumers.
The Friday ruling hinders generators like Vistra Corp., Constellation Energy Corp. and Talen, which saw their shares rally in part on the prospects of signing more power-sales deals at a premium with deep-pocketed tech giants.
While PJM made the filing to enable the Amazon-Talen deal, the grid operator has warned that it’s facing a potential shortfall of generating supply by 2030, Stu Bresler, executive vice president of market services and strategy said in a statement for the technical meeting on Friday. Big consumers located at power plants may create reliability concerns and hinder proper planning, he said. PJM, which serves more than 65 million people from Washington DC to Illinois, has received requests from developers to co-locate 8.5 gigawatts of large load at points on the grid serving existing power plants.
“If behind-the-meter, co-located loads integrate faster than what can be reliably planned for, the industry should appreciate the potential future risks to reliable system operations,” Bresler said in the statement.
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Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
The United States and Russia combine for 88 percent of all nuclear … While the US has been transparent about its nuclear weapon count, countries like …
… threat of nuclear destruction as well as the threats of climate change and biotechnology. … “Everybody knew about the threat of nuclear war. In 1982 …
This story, no-doubt anything more than a “pie-in-the-sky investment” dream, that will probably never happen for reasons that are obvious to anyone with any common sense about the present day and future of Yellowstone National Park and its incredible caldera — at least definitely not in our lifetimes,
But the story is interesting, not necessarily for the “megatons of lithium” the caldera contains (which are most likely never to be mined), but more as a reminder that the steam generated by the caldera could easily provide our human needs for electrical power for the entire North American continent and more without needing nuclear power nor creating environmental damage to the magnificent beauty and future of our spectacular Yellowstone National Park is (unless it decides to create its own environmental damage).
That much more feasible and sensible concept of capturing Yellowstone’s wasted steam is one that I’ve previously posted on “LLAW’s All Things Nuclear” more than once, and the status of the story’s realistic possibility probably needs to be posted again with updated information and data . . . ~llaw
About 15 million years ago, a cataclysmic event took place in what is now the Western United States. If repeated today, it would likely end human civilization.
The Yellowstone Supervolcano, with its 1300 square mile caldera, exploded, releasing an estimated 240 cubic miles of lava and enough ash to cover the state of Alaska in foot-deep soot.
Catastrophic as this eruption was, it’s something that happens on a fairly regular basis, with the three most recent eruptions occurring 2.1 million, 1.3 million, and 600,000 years ago — each releasing similar amounts of energy and contaminants.
Today, geologists study the Yellowstone region very closely, monitoring the movement of the land with lasers and precision sensors in an attempt to analyze and perhaps even predict sudden changes in activity under the surface.
Whether knowing it’s about to happen or not will change anything is a question that remains to be answered, but since we’re living in a point in history where another eruption is statistically overdue, geologists are drawn to the Yellowstone Supervolcano the same way astronomers are drawn to black holes and pulsars.
The Yellowstone Supervolcano’s Gift: 120 Megatons of Lithium
Last summer, this fascination with the caldera led to a rather surprising discovery.
This is where geologists discovered what could be the world’s biggest concentration of lithium, ever.
Containing up to 120 million tons of the world’s premier battery metal, this ancient geological artifact has been lying dormant ever since.
It’s a massive resource that will require an equally massive amount of work to tap into. But earlier this week, the company operating this property announced that it had just closed on a huge, multi-billion dollar loan from the U.S. Department of Energy to start producing lithium for the American EV battery market.
This loan is exactly what’s needed to fund the enormous, and complex infrastructure required to mine the property, and it’s also a good indication of just how dire our domestic lithium situation is.
Unfortunately it’s not the only indication.
Earlier this week, the U.S.’s biggest drone maker, Skydio, announced that it would have to start ‘rationing’ its batteries to customers after the imposition of sanctions by the Chinese.
The Result Of 30 Years Of Unchecked Chinese Lithium Domination
According to Skydio, these sanctions are a blatant attempt by the Chinese to eliminate its competitors in the drone sector.
The fact that the Chinese government can exert such influence on companies as big and vital as Skydio is a testament to just how important the lithium industry has become.
The company on the receiving end of this loan has its work cut out for it. New lithium projects typically take about 10 years to go from planning to production, but with the level of urgency seen today, it’s likely that this one will be fast tracked at every possible turn.
Once things get rolling, the plan is to start producing about 40,000 tons of the metal annually, eventually scaling up as demand increases and the project expands.
Even at the most modest estimates, the total value of the resource exceeds $300B — or about 300x the company’s current market cap.
Of course, it will take many years for all of that value to be unlocked, but just based on the news of the loan closing, shares are already up more than 40%. And it’s likely heading even higher as this mountain of federal funding starts pushing the project towards realization.
The stock was beat up then, but now, with the lithium bubble long since passed, it looks like things are finally falling into place for the company, for this unique property, and for American lithium as a whole.
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There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
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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.
… energy regulator rejected a special deal that would have allowed an Amazon.com Inc. data center to use more power from an adjacent nuclear power plant
He emphasized that if Russia’s existence is threatened, it will have no choice but to respond. The ongoing war in Ukraine has reached a perilous phase …
HMS Vigilant is the third Vanguard-class submarine of the Royal Navy. Vigilant carries the Trident ballistic missile, the United Kingdom’s nuclear deterrent …
I have no idea what this argument is all about, why there is a dispute, and why anyone would care so defiantly. We already know the answer, including previous studies, and the answer is ‘armageddon’. The only way to avoid annihilation is to avoid it, so why worry about the effects of a nuclear war?
The whole issue is just self-important politics and panels of scientific “experts” simply chasing their tails. What we should be doing is coming together and living as one unified world (like John Lennon said). But of course that is never going to happen. It seems humanity is dead-set on exterminating ourselves and has been for a long, long, time — perhaps since our very beginning . . .
It is obvious by our own actions — the never-ending creating and fighting our fellow man with more and more and bigger and stronger and more powerful and destructive weapons from our caveman wooden club days to our nuclear weapons today — until we now have a playground-bully style standoff called deterrence, a foolish temporary name-calling match of vain threats which will last up until the day it happens. So it is that we all already know the answer about what nuclear war means, and, yes, it can all happen in a single day — according to previous studies. ~llaw
HMS Vigilant is the third Vanguard-class submarine of the Royal Navy. Vigilant carries the Trident ballistic missile, the United Kingdom’s nuclear deterrent …
Non-proliferation groups are urging the UK government to make a late about-turn on plans to vote alongside France, Russia and North Korea against a UN resolution to study the effects of nuclear war.
In a debate on Friday, a UN general assembly committee will discuss a resolution to create an international panel of scientific experts to examine the global impact of different nuclear conflict scenarios.
The resolution, drafted by Ireland and New Zealand, is expected to be overwhelmingly approved by the committee and then later by the full assembly. Diplomats involved in preparations for the vote say the US and China are expected to abstain but that the UK, France, Russia and North Korea had indicated they were likely to vote against.
London and Paris joining forces with Moscow and Pyongyang would not stop the resolution but could have an impact on their reputations when it comes to other nuclear proliferation issues.
The UK and French missions to the UN did not respond to requests for comment and diplomats in New York said final decisions could be left until the last hours before the vote.
Arms control advocates expressed disappointment on Thursday that, with just 24 hours to go before the debate, the UK’s new Labour government had shown no signs of changing course.
“People naively thought that, with a Labour government, you would see a shift away from this kind of weird line that the UK has taken on this particular type of thing,” said Patricia Lewis, the head of the international security programme at the Chatham House thinktank. “Maybe this is the Labour party trying to be more Catholic than the pope when it comes to nuclear weapons, but why not vote with the US, and abstain?”
The panel proposed in Friday’s resolution would be the first such UN-mandated study since 1988 and experts say a lot has changed since then, in science and the nuclear threats around the world. For example, Russia and North Korea, countries which have made aggressive nuclear threats, have entered a deepening partnership.
Lewis argued that a no vote by the UK and France would undermine their credibility with other UN member states, especially when London and Paris are trying to rally global support for criticism of Moscow.
“The UK has been struggling to get countries like South Africa and Brazil onboard over the whole issue of Russia’s behaviour, so this is an opportunity for the UK to say: ‘Yes, we hear you,’” Lewis said.
Observers believe the UK position could be the result of a pact with France to fend off criticism of their nuclear arsenals.
“I think this is building bridges with the French,” said Zia Mian, a physicist and co-director of Princeton University’s programme on science and global security. “The French don’t want to be alone with the Russians and the North Koreans and whatnot in voting no.”
The UK, France, Russia and North Korea have been on the same side in a UN vote before. In December last year, they were the only four countries to vote against a general assembly resolution aimed at helping radiation victims of nuclear testing and restoring the environment at past test sites.
Some arms control experts were still hoping on Thursday that the British policy had remained unchanged from the previous Tory government through sheer inertia and could still change if the matter gained the attention of the Labour leadership at the 11th hour.
“People are working hard in London to make sure that the political level knows that this is what’s going on, because often this is done on autopilot,” said Mian, who has argued for a new scientific panel.
The UN panel would be made up of 21 scientific experts and would examine “the physical effects and societal consequences of a nuclear war on a local, regional and planetary scale”.
Scientists say such work is essential as so much has changed in the subject area since 1988, when the last study was done. For example, it was previously thought it would take a full-scale nuclear conflict between superpowers to plunge the world into a “nuclear winter”; it is now thought that even a limited nuclear exchange between regional adversaries could have such a devastating global effect.
“They never imagined that the climate system was so sensitive to these kinds of effects,” Mian said.
In April, the UK Royal Society was part of a joint statement by the national academies of science of the G7 member states, which said: “Among the roles of the scientific community are to continue to develop and communicate the scientific evidence base that shows the catastrophic effects of nuclear warfare on human populations and on the other species with which we share our planet.”
While some governments and national scientific institutions have done their own research, supporters of the resolution said a UN panel could establish a global consensus and a scientific “gold standard”, emulating the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and have an impact on policy.
“Studying the results of nuclear war will flesh out how bad it would be to have one, and maybe add pressure on countries who would otherwise think about using nuclear weapons,” said Andrey Baklitskiy, a senior researcher at the UN Institute for Disarmament Research. “Their leaders, their elites would maybe study or read it, or their populations, or partners or allies, who would maybe say we really don’t want this to happen.”
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There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
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IAEA Weekly News (Friday’s only)
Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
… nuclear weapons during the Cold War … He manages the podcast team that makes In The NoCo, which also airs weekdays in Morning Edition and All Things …
There’s something of a uranium cult out there: the investors and traders who believe that nuclear is the future of energy, and therefore this crucial …
A Volcanic Danger Still Looms Over the State of Texas · Mexico’s Popocatépetl Volcano gave Texas a very rare volcanic alert on Wednesday, October 30, …
IAEA Weekly News
1 November 2024
Read the top news and updates published on IAEA.org this week.
The IAEA has launched a new app to help frontline officers assess radiation alarms triggered by people at airports, border crossings and other points of entry – and ease delays. Read more →
At Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), repairs are being conducted in one of its six reactors after a small water leakage was detected from an impulse line – essentially a small pipe – connected to the unit’s primary circuit, with the work expected to be completed later this week, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said today. Read more →
The Director General of the IAEA, Rafael Mariano Grossi, highlighted the IAEA’s vital role in global nuclear non-proliferation, safety and security in a keynote address for a unique nuclear law workshop convened in the United States of America. Read more →
Following is the most detailed Elon Musk/Starlink story I have read, If you are concerned about Musk’s penchant for launching communications satellites, and creating controversy, you will want to read this story — not that doing so will allay your concerns in any way. And, then, too, there are other concerns, including environmental issues relating to Musk’s satellite enterprise. But his actions at the time may have helped to at least temporarily delay the beginning of a nuclear war . . .
Musk is a loose cannon and his independence and aggressive actions along with his alliances in high political places reminds me a bit of the old film Dr. Strangelove. (You have to watch the movie to understand, but the Soviet Union with the help of a nuclear bomb is the target there as well. And then there is a Trump-like General Jack Ripper, another interesting character, who personally deploys the bomb in an odd manner.)
If this important Forbes story contributed by Kevin Holden Platt story is nothing else, it is informative and thought-provoking — and entertaining as well. ~llaw
Russian Threats To Elon Musk And Strikes On SpaceX Dishes Skyrocket
Kevin Holden Platt writes on space defense, SpaceX, ISS, Space War I
Oct 30, 2024,09:35pm EDT
Updated Oct 31, 2024, 01:02pm EDT
Russian nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles parade through Red Square. The Kremlin … [+]AFP via Getty Images
While The Wall Street Journal has been blasting out its bombshell story that Elon Musk has had “secret conversations” with Vladimir Putin for the last two years, this same timeline has been marked by the Kremlin’s unending barrage of threats against SpaceX’s founder, and military assaults on his Starlink satellite terminals crisscrossing Ukraine.
These threats have ranged from dark hints of assassinating Musk – from the same Kremlin cabal that has despatched henchmen armed with radioactive polonium, or the Soviet chemical weapon Novichok, to deal with political enemies – to cascading warnings that Russian missiles could be fired at SpaceX satellites circling the globe.
They started right after Russia’s blitzkrieg assault on Ukraine in February of 2022, when SpaceX’s founder began airlifting hundreds, then thousands, then tens of thousands of Starlink transceivers to the besieged democracy, even as Russia escalated its missile attacks to wipe out the country’s internet infrastructure. Activating his rings of satellites above the globe, Musk foiled Moscow’s plan to imprison Ukraine inside a bomb-backed Iron Curtain.
The Kremlin’s rulers were furious.
Their revenge started when the head of the Russian space agency – who also oversaw building Moscow’s intercontinental ballistic missiles – threatened Musk with personal retribution for supplying Ukraine’s “fascist forces” with satellite-beamed Web connections.
The SpaceX leader reacted with macabre humor: “If I die under mysterious circumstances,” Musk posted on Twitter, “it’s been nice knowin ya.”
The combative deputy defense minister elevated by Putin to reign over Roscosmos had lashed out at the creator of the planet’s greatest constellation of satellites for allowing Ukraine’s armed defenders to link up nationwide via their hyper-tech, ultra-mobile SpaceX Starlink dishes.
A SpaceX rocket launches Starlink satellites from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. … [+]Getty Images
“It turns out that the internet terminals of Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite company were delivered to the militants … by military helicopters,” Dmitry Rogozin, then Director General of Roscosmos, charged in a fantastical falsehood. “The delivery of the Starlink equipment was carried out by the Pentagon. Elon Musk, thus, is involved in supplying the fascist forces in Ukraine with military communication equipment. And for this, Elon, you will be held accountable.”
So started the fusillade of threats against Musk that would explode over the next two years – from Kremlin calls to deploy anti-satellite missiles against his mega-constellation to warning the use of Starlinks to stage attacks on occupied Crimea could impel Russia to detonate a nuclear bomb in Ukraine.
Russia has deployed its advanced Su-34 fighter-bombers to seek out and destroy SpaceX Starlink … [+]AFP via Getty Images
Yet in a story that has ricocheted around the world, The Wall Street Journal reported last week that: “Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and a linchpin of U.S. space efforts, has been in regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin since late 2022.”
In the dramatically titled “Elon Musk’s Secret Conversations With Vladimir Putin,” the five WSJ reporters who penned the article didn’t identify any of their sources by name or even government title, rather citing “several current and former U.S., European and Russian officials.”
“Knowledge of Musk’s Kremlin contacts appears to be a closely held secret in government,” they reported. “Several White House officials said they weren’t aware of them.”
“One person aware of the conversations,” they wrote, conceded that “no alerts have been raised by the administration over possible security breaches by Musk.”
As a whirlwind of press reports based on the WSJ article swept across the continents, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida issued a statement criticizing Musk’s trial by media: “Anybody who has contracts with the U.S. government undergoes a constant review for security background and clearances.”
“I will tell you that without SpaceX, I don’t know how we’re going to rescue our astronauts that are stuck in space,” Senator Rubio stated. “All that said, I can’t opine on whether Musk called Putin or not, because I don’t know, and he’s a private citizen. If that imperils his clearance, there’s a process for all of that. It’s not through the media ….”
One reporter probably has closer insights than anyone else on Musk’s attempts to shield himself and SpaceX from the bombardment of Kremlin threats while balancing his dealings with the major players in the life and death struggle over the Ukraine invasion: Walter Isaacson, Musk’s hand-picked biographer, became embedded in the SpaceX inner circle for two years as he crafted his blockbuster book Elon Musk, even as Russian tanks and missile brigades began crashing across the border to spearhead their invasion.
Isaacson, who’s scripted a series of bestselling bios on world-changing figures like Albert Einstein and Steve Jobs, reveals in the memoir that late one evening in September of 2022, Musk frantically contacted him to tell him about Russia’s just-issued threat to explode a nuclear warhead in Ukraine – in revenge for a planned attack using submarine drones, guided by Starlink technology, against the Russian fleet stationed in occupied Crimea.
In an excerpt from the book, “The untold story of Elon Musk’s support for Ukraine,” published in the Washington Post, Isaacson disclosed that Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., Anatoly Antonov, had just warned Musk the Kremlin would use the most powerful weapons in its arsenal if the drone subs hit its navy.
“The ambassador had explicitly told him [Musk] that a Ukrainian attack on Crimea would lead to a nuclear response,” Isaacson recounted.
Musk, in turn, refused Ukrainian appeals to extend the coverage of the Starlink system to reach Crimea’s port, the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, to carry out the planned Pearl Harbor-style assault.
While engaging in backstage diplomacy with the Russian envoy to forestall a nuclear strike, Musk also shot off an urgent message – via Twitter – to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky:“Trying to retake Crimea will cause massive death, probably fail & risk nuclear war.”
The SpaceX leader also rushed to brief White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and General Mark Milley, then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on the looming crisis, Isaacson reported.
At that time, President Joe Biden and his security team projected that the likelihood of Russia unleashing a nuclear bomb in Ukraine had risen sharply, according to reporting by The New York Times.
“President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has repeatedly threatened the use of nuclear weapons against Ukraine, including during a crisis in October 2022, when Mr. Biden and his aides, looking at intercepts of conversations between senior Russian commanders, feared the likelihood of nuclear use might rise to 50 percent or even higher,” the Times reported.
Elon Musk raced to brief White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and General Mark … [+]Getty Images
Could Musk’s moves to deescalate the conflict, via his backchannel talks with Ambassador Antonov and limits on the use of Starlinks by Ukraine’s democratic resistance, have been one factor in tipping the balance in favor of Russia freezing its plan to deploy tactical nuclear weapons?
Musk came under fire in the U.S. for placing limits on Ukraine’s weaponization of Starlink navigation and guidance technology, but it remains a puzzle whether that helped prevent a Russian nuclear strike.
His placing territorial restrictions on the use of SpaceX Starlink technology by Ukraine’s resistance paralleled the White House ban on using American weapons to hit targets inside Russia, says Ron Gurantz, an associate professor at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.
Professor Gurantz, an expert on space power and security, states in a paper for the U.S. Army’s Strategic Studies Institute that Musk “decided not to activate Starlink because he worried such an attack could cause escalation, or perhaps even nuclear war, between Russia and the United States.”
“Would the US government have made the same decision?”
The U.S. had similarly held back on supplying Ukraine with weapons that could reach Crimea, Professor Gurantz reported in his fascinating, just-released study, “Satellites in the Russia-Ukraine War.”
“Moreover, recent reports suggest the Biden-Harris administration was extremely worried at the time about a scenario in which a Ukrainian offensive against Crimea could provoke Russia to use nuclear weapons.”
“The decision to limit Starlink,” Gurantz concluded, “may not have been different if government officials had been involved.”
Kevin Holden Platt covers world-leading breakthroughs in science and hyper-technology.
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There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
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IAEA Weekly News (Friday’s only)
Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
In response, international nuclear agencies and governments adopted stringent standards for reactor design, operator training, and emergency protocols …
These insights are essential not only for informed nuclear policy and decision-making but also to educate citizens around the world about the risks of …
I love the opening paragraph in this article from “NPR” . . . It echoes my own thoughts and concerns exactly. And then there is the 2nd article I have added on to this one today that makes one wonder if ‘Big Tech’ and their “AI” want to power-up the new style SMRs (Small Modular Reactors), not with the limited typical 5% nuclear fuel of the past, but with up to 20% nuclear fuel, or, in other words, nuclear bomb power potential. Apparently technical data corporations have lost control of their sanity, or AI has already taken over . . . ~llaw
Article 1: (from the Article: Why does this sound like the plot to some end of the world movie where AI and nuclear power get together?
Tech companies look to renewable energy to power AI
By Dara Kerr,
A Martínez
Published October 29, 2024 at 3:28 AM MDT
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
There is an arms race for artificial intelligence. Every major tech company is working on it. The downside? Well, AI uses a lot of energy, far more than your typical web search. Now some companies are planning to bring back a surprising source of energy – nuclear power. NPR tech reporter Dara Kerr is here to talk about it. Dara, why does this sound like the plot to some end of the world movie where AI and nuclear power get together?
DARA KERR, BYLINE: Yes, this is about AI’s energy usage, and all the companies are working on AI right now, and it just eats up power. For example, a ChatGPT query uses about 10 times as much energy as a Google search. And that energy mostly comes from traditional power plants, which, as we know, are highly polluting. And they release greenhouse gases into the air. So the tech companies are looking at alternative power sources to help fuel their AI. Earlier this month, Amazon and Google both announced they’re investing in small nuclear reactors. And another big tech company, Microsoft, says it’s planning to revive Three Mile Island. You remember Three Mile Island, right? It’s that power plant in Pennsylvania that infamously had a partial meltdown in the ’70s.
MARTÍNEZ: I do remember Three Mile Island. Wow. So why are they doing this?
KERR: All of the tech companies say they’re doing this to help meet their climate goals. All of the top five tech companies have the ambitious goal of reaching net zero emissions by 2030. That includes Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple and Facebook parent Meta. So nuclear energy doesn’t release greenhouse gases. It also doesn’t burn fossil fuels like coal and gas, and fossil fuels are the primary driver of climate change. And unlike other renewable energies such as wind and solar, nuclear delivers a lot of energy all of the time. And that’s important to these companies who need huge amounts of power 24/7 to feed their AI.
MARTÍNEZ: So it sounds like a good thing for addressing climate change. I mean, how long will all this take?
KERR: That’s the thing, A. It’s expected to take at least a decade or even more. Building nuclear reactors or reviving old ones like Three Mile Island is expensive and time-consuming. They’re heavily regulated to ensure safety, and that means everything takes a while. And these small, modular power plants that Amazon and Google are looking at are really a different kind of technology. We don’t have any operating in the U.S. yet. I spoke to Ivy Main, who’s been researching the energy usage of data centers for years. She says she’s skeptical of these companies’ plans.
IVY MAIN: One of the problems here is that the demand is now. And these small, modular reactors, assuming they pan out, are 10 years from now. So this is a situation of, I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.
KERR: Main says a fix for AI energy consumption needs to come now, not in several years.
MARTÍNEZ: I love the Wimpy reference from the Popeye cartoons. Now, you know, in the meantime, are tech companies looking at other types of renewable energy?
KERR: Yes. So all of the major tech companies use solar and wind power in at least some of their data centers, but solar and wind aren’t reliable 24/7. They’re also looking at other types of renewables. Google, for example, is working with a startup in Nevada that uses geothermal heat as an energy source. But a lot of these companies’ climate change commitments came before the AI boom. Both Google and Microsoft say their emissions have skyrocketed over the last couple of years, and they attribute that specifically to AI. And that’s the tension, A. These data centers that fuel AI are creating a lot of pollution right now, and the proposed solutions are years on the horizon.
MARTÍNEZ: That’s NPR’s Dara Kerr. Thank you very much.
KERR: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF THE AMERICAN ANALOG SET “(THEME FROM) EVERYTHING ENDS”) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
Dara Kerr
Dara Kerr is a tech reporter for NPR. She examines the choices tech companies make and the influence they wield over our lives and society.
A Martínez
A Martínez is one of the hosts of Morning Edition and Up First. He came to NPR in 2021 and is based out of NPR West.
Article 2: (Whoever said nuclear fuel is “clean” doesn’t have a clue. It is the most dirty and dangerous fuel on planet Earth. It is the stuff of nuclear bombs . . . llaw)
Oklo CEO wants to make clean nuclear energy more accessible
Energy and power grid constraints look to be the biggest hurdles for Big Tech to overcome in the industry’s wider buildout of AI data center infrastructure. Tech players have begun investing in nuclear energy developers to find the clean energy output needed to power these expansions.
Oklo Co-Founder and CEO Jake DeWitte joins Julie Hyman and Josh Lipton on Market Domination to talk about the long-term investments in small modular reactors (SMR) and the intricacies of these systems; Oklo doesn’t expect to finish building its first SMR and producing power from it until 2027.
“When you split an atom, you get almost 50 million-times more energy than when you combust like a molecule of natural gas or so. It’s incredible,” DeWitte tells Yahoo Finance. “What that means, then, is there’s a lot of energy in nuclear fuel. And actually in almost all reactors, you only use about 5% of the fuel in one pass through the reactor. And there’s reasons why long story short, is you could put more fuel in, it could run for longer. But that comes at increased cost for the added systems you would need to manage all that.”
US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm told Yahoo Finance that her department’s focus will be on ensuring these AI data centers are powered by clean energy, while understanding the challenge in widespread SMR adoption: “Nobody wants to be the one to buy the first one.”
Oklo has already inked energy partnerships with date center providersw Equinix (EQIX) and Wyoming Hyperscale. DeWitte describes the regular business model for nuclear systems as “clunky.”
“One of the things that we set out to do in the beginning was, was make it easier to buy what people really want from nuclear systems, in other words, make it easier to buy nuclear power because the clean, reliable, affordable power, that’s the stuff people really want,” DeWitte explains.
“We’re unique because we actually make that easy — we design, we own, we operate the plants, we contract someone to build them, and then we just sell the power out to the customers through off-take agreements. That makes it easy for them to buy what they want.”
For more coverage on Big Tech’s adoption of nuclear energy, catch Yahoo Finance’s respective interviews with X-energy CEO Clay Sell about Amazon’s (AMZN) investment into the nuclear reactor designer and Kairos Power Co-Founder and CEO Mike Laufer’s input on the nuclear startup’s partnership with Alphabet’s Google (GOOG, GOOGL).
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There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War
Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There is one Yellowstone Caldera bonus story available in this evening’s Post.)
IAEA Weekly News (Friday’s only)
Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
More than 1,000 troops had been deployed to the province to help with the emergency response, the Military Emergencies … nuclear power plant · Explore …
“Given the growing geopolitical tensions and the emergence of new external threats and risks, it is important to have modern and constantly ready-to- …
… nuclear response to an enemy first strike. Advertisement. “Given the growing geopolitical tensions and the emergence of new external threats and risks
A NEST AgustaWestland 139 helicopter equipped with special radiation monitoring equipment on display during the team’s 50th anniversary celebration at Joint Base Andrews. The helicopters, which measure radiation by flying low and slowly, are deliberately painted with a civilian color scheme to avoid the “black helicopter” stereotype.
In addition to the following article on secret nuclear health and safety investigations, there is another story in today’s blog that will emphasize that this job will become an international effort of great importance if SMRs (Small Modular Reactors) are eventually spread around the world, especially dealing with the control of nuclear terrorism, that I discussed in my recent post #792 on on Saturday, October 26th, concerning tyrannical and terrorist elements as well as avoiding a “black market” for nuclear fuel, all of which goes far beyond health and safety, and which is already more than enough danger to humanity. ~llaw
The related story, which offers the potential ‘bright side’ of SMR nuclear energy without considering the more-than-obvious ‘dark side’, link is available in the Nuclear Power section of TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS, Tuesday, (10/29/2024), from You Tube titled,Small modular reactors could give developing countries access to nuclear energy
Meet America’s secret team of nuclear first responders
Members of the Nuclear Emergency Support Team training for a radiological contamination scenario. For 50 years, the secretive team has been the first line of defense against nuclear emergencies.
NNSA
In an aircraft hangar at Joint Base Andrews, just outside of Washington, DC, one of the government’s most secretive groups gathered recently to celebrate its 50th anniversary.
Though there were drinks, cake and speeches, right from the start, it was clear this was not an ordinary birthday party.
“Please note that this is an unclassified event, so please understand that there is a lot that our people are not going to be able to discuss,” Rick Christensen, the director of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s office of nuclear incident response told the small crowd sitting in folding chairs.
The group is known as the Nuclear Emergency Support Team (NEST). It’s made primarily of people who work elsewhere in the government—scientists, federal law enforcement personnel, and regulators—who all take time out of their day jobs to prepare for a nuclear incident. Think of it as a volunteer fire department – except the volunteers have high-level security clearances and they respond to nuclear threats.
NEST has always kept a low profile because almost everything it does related to nuclear weapons and nuclear terrorism is classified, and because it doesn’t want to alarm people.
But in an era when the Pentagon says the world is facing new nuclear threats and challenges, the group is trying to be slightly more open about its mission.
“We are always ready, 24-7, and always prepared to deploy,” says Wendin Smith, the Deputy Under Secretary for Counterterrorism and Counterproliferation at the Department of Energy, which runs NEST. She hopes talking more openly about the mission might help people feel more assured, as well as deter adversaries who may be out to cause nuclear mayhem.
It all began in 1974, when a person going by the name “Captain Midnight” threatened to set off a nuclear bomb somewhere in Boston unless they were paid $200,000.
Government scientists from the nation’s nuclear weapons laboratories rushed to an airbase near Boston, but missed flights and problems with their equipment meant they never actually entered the city. The crisis ended when the FBI left a bag containing phony bills at the ransom spot, but nobody came. The incident was deemed a hoax, according to the 2009 book Defusing Armageddon, which details the history of the NEST group.
Then-president Gerald Ford was appalled, and six months later the government created NEST to aid in the response to, “lost or stolen nuclear weapons and special nuclear materials, nuclear bomb threats, and radiation dispersal threats,” according to the secret memorandum that set up the team.
It quickly found work. In 1978, NEST deployed in Canada’s remote Northwest Territories to recover debris from a crashed Soviet reconnaissance satellite that was powered by uranium. A year later, NEST helicopters circled over the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, after one of the plant’s reactors partially melted down. At the time, little was known about how much radiation had leaked from the plant, and it was NEST who helped collect the necessary data to guide evacuation orders.
In 2011, NEST experts and equipment flew to Fukushima, Japan, after a nuclear power plant there melted down and spewed a plume of radioactivity across the countryside.
The mission was “to help the Japanese government understand what is being released from the damaged reactors, and where is that plume going, where is it deposited on the ground,” says Jay Tilden, the DOE’s head of intelligence and counterintelligence who until recently ran NEST.
NEST does more than survey areas for radioactivity. Teams also train to search for and disarm nuclear weapons that are lost or damaged. And they learn how to evaluate other terrorist threats—for example, using nuclear material to make a so-called “dirty bomb.”
There’s less that can be openly discussed about those missions, but, Tilden says, NEST doesn’t want to be seen as a shadowy government agency flying around in black helicopters. In fact, when the group purchased new helicopters a few years ago, he explicitly avoided the color.
A NEST AgustaWestland 139 helicopter equipped with special radiation monitoring equipment on display during the team’s 50th anniversary celebration at Joint Base Andrews. The helicopters, which measure radiation by flying low and slowly, are deliberately painted with a civilian color scheme to avoid the “black helicopter” stereotype.
NNSA
“We didn’t even want them dark gray because they look military,” he says. “We wanted to be very distinct. We’re a civil agency and when those aircraft are flying they’re flying largely for a public health and safety mission.”
The aircraft have a two-toned, blue-and-gray color scheme, and the government agents who fly them around aren’t exactly men in black either. They are folks like Jacqueline Brandon, a physical chemist who works as a mission manager for NEST.
“When I found out as a scientist I get to fly in a helicopter and do real national security missions, I was like, ‘sign me up right away!’ ” Brandon recalls.
Her job is to sit in the back of the helicopter scanning for signs of radioactivity as the helicopter flies low to the ground.
“To me it’s like a rollercoaster ride, I love it,” she says.
Constantly watching
She’s airborne a lot. This year alone, NEST aircraft have flown above the Super Bowl, the Boston Marathon and both Democratic and Republican National Conventions. Part of their job is to monitor large events like these even when there’s no specific threat.
And then there’s the calls they haven’t planned for.
“They happen periodically,” she says. When they do, “we’ll pack up all of our gear and be up and be in the air in four hours and flying over whatever we’re trying to fly over.”
Brandon didn’t want to get into too many specifics about what might spur a NEST team into action, but Smith, the current head of NEST, was willing to talk in broad strokes.
NEST scientist Jacqueline Brandon displays radiation detection equipment inside one of NEST’s helicopters. “When I found out as a scientist I get to fly in a helicopter and do real national security missions, I was like sign me up right away,” she says.
G. Brumfiel/NPR
“We don’t provide the details but I would say on a weekly basis there’s either an unknown event that triggers the deployment of a NEST team or a question from a local responder,” she says.
Smith says nuclear materials are more a part of daily life than most people may realize. They’re used in oil and gas drilling, and in a lot of medical applications. Sometimes people are even injected with radioactive dye to aid with medical imaging.
In fact, somebody with radioactive dye in their body caused a recent NEST response. A team was called out after local police found a radioactive puddle in a fast food parking lot somewhere in America.
Smith says they quickly identified the source. “If somebody doesn’t use a public restroom and happens to alleviate their need in a parking lot, then that can cause a troubled signature if there is indeed an isotope, a medical isotope involved,” she says.
Of course NEST prepares for far worse. Smith is less open about those dark scenarios, but she says, “the fact that people understand that NEST exists…is important to help people sleep at night.”
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There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War
Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There is one Yellowstone Caldera bonus story available in this evening’s Post.)
IAEA Weekly News (Friday’s only)
Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
Reactor operators and shift supervisors, including Shift Engineer Simon Thomas, complete this startup sequence routinely to achieve criticality. Read …
The caldera is relatively small by Yellowstone standards and is nested within the much larger 75x 45 km (47 x 29 miles), 631,000-year-old Yellowstone …
During the two years that I’ve been constantly railing about the inevitability of nuclear power plants “magically” becoming nuclear war weapons of mass destruction, this is the first responsible public article (other than reports from the IAEA) to my knowledge to echo my fears.
This extremely critically dangerous situation that the greater news media and the entire nuclear world remains oblivious to, or perhaps fiscally unwilling to report on, the nuclear war associated-implications. Instead they simply stick to the nuclear “accident” excuses. Anyone who knows anything about nuclear power plants clearly understands, whether they will admit it or not, that nuclear power plants are sitting ducks waiting to be used as weapons of mass destruction in nuclear war . . .
These well-voiced concerns come from Australia, historically one of the most anti-nuclear countries on the planet along with its territorial neighbor, New Zealand. These countries have always had their common sense about “all things nuclear” in high gear, and I hope they keep it forefront in their minds as Australia considers the idea of allowing commercial nuclear power plants in their country. ~llaw
War risks from nuclear power plants? Just look at Zaporizhzhia
Proposals for nuclear power in Australia will have to take national security risks into account.
As evidenced in an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report released in September, Russia’s occupation of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine continues to create high risk of a nuclear disaster. In considering future conflicts, no one can safely assume that an enemy will avoid targeting nuclear power stations.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s repeated threats to use nuclear weapons and new nuclear doctrine are alarming. But, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned at the United Nations on 25 September, the immediate nuclear risk is at Zaporizhzhia.
The Zaporizhzhia plant has been on or near the frontline since the Russian invasion in February 2022, exposed to nearby combat and, since Russian seizure in March 2022, dangerous mismanagement. There is significant risk of an accidental or intentional nuclear incident at the plant.
It is no longer tenable to argue that nuclear power plants are protected in conflicts by taboo. This must be considered as the Australian Liberal-National opposition proposes building seven major nuclear power plants and two small modular reactors in Australia.
The IAEA, the global nuclear watchdog, has been clear on the risks associated with the Zaporizhzhia plant. As established in the most recent and earlier reports, Russia’s actions during the conflict have either partially or fully compromised all seven of the IAEA’s ‘indispensable pillars’ of nuclear security. Notably, this framework was developed only in response to the invasion of Ukraine and Russia’s unprecedented wartime targeting and occupation of nuclear facilities.
Physical integrity (Pillar 1) and safety and security systems (Pillar 2) have been compromised by damage to the plant from direct attacks and nearby combat. The plant was first shelled in March 2022 when Russia seized control. More recently, on 27 June, an external radiation monitoring system 16km away was destroyed by shelling—which also compromised radiation monitoring and emergency preparedness (Pillar 6).
Drone strikes targeted the plant in April and July, and IAEA monitoring teams at the plant reported nearby explosions as recently as September. In August, fires at the plant coincided with the Ukrainian incursion into Kursk, with large amounts of smoke billowing from a cooling tower.
In 2023, Russia conducted unauthorised structural changes and Russian forces even stored explosives in proximity to a nuclear reactor. Additionally, anti-personnel mines were also laid between the plant’s inner and outer fences in 2022, and more mines were laid in January 2024.
The capacity of operating staff, (Pillar 3) has been affected by the treatment of Ukrainian employees at the plant, including physical violence and torture, some fatal, by occupying Russian military and security forces. Workers have also been denied access to critical security systems and exposed to high stress. The chain of command has become unclear, resulting in conflicting messages to workers.
Shelling and other damage to the nearby city of Enerhodar has left workers and their families in poor living conditions, intermittently without power or fresh water supply. By early 2024, Ukrainian employees were reportedly no longer permitted at the facility. It is now operating with a personnel shortage: the plant has about 5000 workers, down from the pre-war peak of 11,000. In May, remaining staff were reporting severe psychological stress.
Russia has also weakened the facility’s necessary off-site power supply (Pillar 4). Since Russia tried to connect it to the Russian energy grid, the plant has lost three 750kV power lines and five of its 330kV backup power lines. It now operates with one of each and has suffered eight complete losses of off-site power. External power supply is essential to secure operation of the plant and continued operation of safety systems. In early 2024, the plant went 23 consecutive days without a backup connection.
As for Pillar 5 (an uninterrupted supply chain), the IAEA has reported the plant’s fragile logistics for spare or replacement parts and safety equipment. This is in part due to reliance on equipment from Western suppliers. Pillar 7, the requirement for reliable communications, has been compromised by the limitations on communication between the plant and the Ukrainian energy grid operator.
Additional threats have come from the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in June 2023, an event that is widely attributed to Russia. This reduced water supply to the Zaporizhzhia plant for cooling reactors and spent fuel.
Russia has targeted other Ukrainian nuclear facilities, too. The Institute of Physics and Technology in Kharkiv, which housed a small experimental reactor, was destroyed from the air in March 2022. Moscow has also continually spread disinformation and stoked nuclear fears, most recently regarding the security of the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant after the Ukrainian advance into the region.
This is a lesson on the vulnerability of nuclear infrastructure during a conflict. Political leaders and policymakers must pay attention to it as they consider domestic energy policy.
Author
Henry Campbell is the strategic engagement and program manager of ASPI’s Northern Australian Strategic Policy Centre (NASPC), Strategic Policing and Law Enforcement Program and Counterterrorism Program.
Image of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant during an IAEA visit in 2023: IAEA Imagebank/Flickr.
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