The link above is to allow the IAEA’s Director-General Grossi to tell us why neither Russia nor Ukraine is responsible for the repeated dangerous attacks on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. His ‘no blame’ response makes no sense to me, and I will read the article later.
But Russia is the aggressor in this war on Ukraine, so it seems to me that Russia is to blame even if Russian employees have the operational control of the plant. Regardless, this situation is endangering the population of Ukraine as well as other European countries, so the attacks must stop. Hundreds of thousands, or more, of innocent human lives are at stake. ~llaw
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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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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.
There was no damage to Iran’s nuclear sites, including those in Isfahan, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Friday morning. · Iran’s attack on …
It remained unclear if the country was under attack. However, tensions remain high after Iran’s unprecedented missile-and-drone attack on Israel. One …
The Yellowstone Caldera, also called the Yellowstone Supervolcano, is a colossal volcanic feature in Yellowstone National Park. Most of the park is in …
Business Upturn
Overshadowing all other dormant volcanoes in size is the massive Yellowstone caldera spanning a 30×45 mile area in northwestern Wyoming. This …
Following is a guest essay from the New York Times by Stephanie Cooke supporting my own belief that the nuclear energy revival is little more than typical phony propaganda promulgated by both political interests and the nuclear industry itself. The prediction that humanity can and will increase the world’s nuclear power by a third by 2050 is absurd on so many false faces. Her reasons are similar to my own, but also she expands on why politics and hot air with no delivery always plays such a common failure in these kinds of totally illogical (and impossible) solutions to our never-ending nuclear energy and war crises. ~llaw
GUEST ESSAY
The Fantasy of Reviving Nuclear Energy
April 18, 2024
Credit…Alec Soth/Magnum Photos
By Stephanie Cooke
Ms. Cooke isa former editor of Nuclear Intelligence Weekly and the author of “In Mortal Hands: A Cautionary History of the Nuclear Age.”
World leaders are not unaware of the nuclear industry’s long history of failing to deliver on its promises, or of its weakening vital signs. Yet many continue to act as if a “nuclear renaissance” could be around the corner even though nuclear energy’s share of global electricity generation has fallen by almost half from its high of roughly 17 percent in 1996.
In search of that revival, representatives from more than 30 countries gathered in Brussels in March at a nuclear summit hosted by the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Belgian government. Thirty-four nations, including the United States and China, agreed “to work to fully unlock the potential of nuclear energy,” including extending the lifetime of existing reactors, building new nuclear power plants and deploying advanced reactors.
Yet even as they did so, there was an acknowledgment of the difficulty of their undertaking. “Nuclear technology can play an important role in the clean energy transition,” Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, told summit attendees. But she added that “the reality today, in most markets, is a reality of a slow but steady decline in market share” for nuclear power.
The numbers underscore that downturn. Solar and wind power together began outperforming nuclear power globally in 2021, and that trend continues as nuclear staggers along. Solar alone added more than 400 gigawatts of capacity worldwide last year, two-thirds more than the previous year. That’s more than the roughly 375 gigawatts of combined capacity of the world’s 415 nuclear reactors, which remained relatively unchanged last year. At the same time, investment in energy storage technology is rapidly accelerating. In 2023, BloombergNEF reported that investors for the first time put more money into stationary energy storage than they did into nuclear.
Still, the drumbeat for nuclear power has become pronounced. At the United Nations climate conference in Dubai in December, the Biden administration persuaded two dozen countries to pledge to triple their nuclear energy capacity by 2050. Those countries included allies of the United States with troubled nuclear programs, most notably France, Britain, Japan and South Korea, whose nuclear bureaucracies will be propped up by the declaration as well as the domestic nuclear industries they are trying to save.
“We are not making the argument to anybody that this is absolutely going to be a sweeping alternative to every other energy source,” John Kerry, the Biden administration climate envoy at the time, said. “But we know because the science and the reality of facts and evidence tell us that you can’t get to net zero 2050 without some nuclear.”
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Climate change around the world: In “Postcards From a World on Fire,” 193 stories from individual countries show how climate change is reshaping reality everywhere, from dying coral reefs in Fiji to disappearing oases in Morocco and far, far beyond.
The role of our leaders: Writing at the end of 2020, Al Gore, the 45th vice president of the United States, found reasons for optimism in the Biden presidency, a feeling perhaps borne out by the passing of major climate legislation. That doesn’t mean there haven’t been criticisms. For example, Charles Harvey and Kurt House argue that subsidies for climate capture technology will ultimately be a waste.
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That view has gained traction with energy planners in Eastern Europe who see nuclear as a means of replacing coal, and several countries — including Canada, Sweden, Britain and France — are pushing to extend the operating lifetimes of existing nuclear plants or build new ones. Some see smaller or more “advanced” reactors as a means of providing electricity in remote areas or as a means of decarbonizing sectors such as heat, industry or transportation.
So far most of this remains in early stages, with only three nuclear reactors under construction in Western Europe, two in Britain and one in France, each more than a decade behind schedule. Of the approximately 54 other reactors under construction worldwide as of March, 23 are in China, seven are in India, and three are in Russia, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. The total is less than a quarter of the 234 reactors under construction in the peak year of 1979, although 48 of those were later suspended or abandoned.
Even if you agree with Mr. Kerry’s argument, and many energy experts do not, pledging to triple nuclear capacity by 2050 is a little like promising to win the lottery. For the United States, it would mean adding an additional 200 gigawatts of nuclear operating capacity (almost double what the country has ever built) to the 100 gigawatts or so that now exists, generated by more than 90 commercial reactors that have been running an average of 42 years. Globally it would mean tripling the existing capacity built over the past 70 years in less than half that time in addition to replacing reactors that will shut down before 2050.
The Energy Department estimates the total cost of such an effort in the United States at roughly $700 billion. But David Schlissel, a director at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, has calculated that the two new reactors at the Vogtle plant in Georgia — the only new reactors built in the United States in a generation — on average, cost $21.2 million per megawatt in today’s dollars — which translates to $21.2 billion per gigawatt. Using that figure as a yardstick, the cost of building 200 gigawatts of new capacity would be far higher: at least $4 trillion, or $6 trillion if you count the additional cost of replacing existing reactors as they age out.
For much less money and in less time, the world can reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the use of renewables like solar, wind, hydropower and geothermal power, and by transmitting, storing and using electricity more efficiently. A recent analysis by the German Environment Agency examined multiple global climate scenarios in which Paris Climate Agreement targets are met, and it found that renewable energy “is the crucial and primary driver.”
The logic of this approach was attested to at the climate meeting in Dubai, where more than 120 countries signed a more realistic commitment to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030.
There’s a certain inevitability about the U.S. Energy Department’s latest push for more nuclear energy. The agency’s predecessor, the Atomic Energy Commission, brought us Atoms for Peace under Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s in a bid to develop the “peaceful” side of the atom, hoping it would gain public acceptance of an expanding arsenal of nuclear weapons while supplying electricity “too cheap to meter.”
Fast forward 70 years and you hear a variation on the same theme. Most notably, Ernest Moniz, the energy secretary under President Barack Obama, argues that a vibrant commercial nuclear sector is necessary to sustain U.S. influence in nuclear weapons nonproliferation efforts and global strategic stability. As a policy driver, this argument might explain in part why the government continues to push nuclear power as a climate solution, despite its enormous cost and lengthy delivery time.
China and Russia are conspicuously absent from the list of signatories to the Dubai pledge to triple nuclear power, although China signed the declaration in Brussels. China’s nuclear program is growing faster than that of any other country, and Russia dominates the global export market for reactors with projects in countries new to commercial nuclear energy, such as Turkey, Egypt and Bangladesh, as well as Iran.
Pledges and declarations on a global stage allow world leaders a platform to be seen to be doing something to address climate change even if, as is the case with nuclear, they lack the financing and infrastructure to succeed. But their support most likely means that substantial sums of money — much of it from taxpayers and ratepayers — will be wasted on perpetuating the fantasy that nuclear energy will make a difference in a meaningful time frame to slow global warming.
The U.S. government is already poised to spend billions of dollars building new small modular and “advanced” reactors and keeping aging large ones running. But two such small reactor projects based on conventional technologies have already failed. Which raises the question: Will future projects based on far more complex technologies be more viable? Money for such projects — provided mainly under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act — could be redirected in ways that do more for the climate and do it faster, particularly if planned new nuclear projects fail to materialize.
There is already enough potential generation capacity in the United States seeking access to the grid to come close to achieving President Biden’s 2035 goal of a zero-carbon electricity sector, and 95 percent of it is solar, battery storage and wind. But these projects face a hugely constrained transmission system, regulatory and financial roadblocks and entrenched utility interests, enough to prevent many of them from ever providing electricity, according to a report released last year by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Even so, existing transmission capacity can be doubled by retrofitting transmission lines with advanced conductors, which would offer at least a partial way out of the gridlock for renewables, in addition to storage, localized distribution and improved management of supply and demand.
What’s missing are leaders willing to buck their own powerful nuclear bureaucracies and choose paths that are far cheaper, less dangerous and quicker to deploy. Without them we are doomed to more promises and wasteful spending by nuclear proponents who have repeatedly shown that they can talk but can’t deliver.
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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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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.
On numerous occasions, Russian President Vladimir Putin has raised the possibility of using nuclear weapons if the United States and NATO intervene to …
The following is an abbreviated updated article from “Army Technology” concerning the status of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, echoing concerns that a nuclear ‘accident’ might be immanent. But, whatever occurs, as I mentioned yesterday, it is impossible to justify referring to this attack as an accident. Accidents are simply not caused intentionally. ~llaw
Russia holds Zaporizhzhia’s power plant ‘hostage’ – is a nuclear accident imminent?
The IAEA warns that recent attacks on Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the world’s third largest, pose a “major nuclear threat”.
Russia and Ukraine have exchanged blame over a spate of recent attacks on the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), sparking concerns over mass radiological contamination should drones breach the reactors at Europe’s largest nuclear site.
“Reckless attacks” on Russia-occupied Zaporizhzhia in eastern Ukraine “significantly increase the risk of a major nuclear accident”, Rafael Mariano Grossi, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told the UN Security Council on Monday (15 April).
The IAEA sounded the alarm after a series of drone strikes on the ZNPP since 7 April, the first since November 2022. There was one reported casualty.
Spread over several days, the attacks damaged the roof of ZNPP’s Reactor 6, adjacent to the main reactor buildings.
All six reactors were promptly moved into a state of cold shutdown – but there is still a risk of reactor meltdown should shells or drones breach the concrete walls encasing each.
Whodunnit?
Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of carrying out the attacks on Zaporizhzhia.
Moscow accused Kyiv of “very dangerous” attacks on ZNPP, while Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia would undertake a “terrorist attack” at the plant, which it has taken “hostage”.
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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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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.
“But as we look forward into … the increasing U.S. national interest in engaging China in all things nuclear, we’re going to have to cross the Rubicon …
It notes: “Nuclear energy will play a key role in achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. Canada is a Tier-1 nuclear nation with over 70 years of …
Director-general Rafael Mariano Grossi (right) tells the IAEA’s emergency meeting that the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant attacks have “significant …
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, is seen in the background of the shallow Kakhovka Reservoir, which lost its cooling water due to the war along with many other attacks preventing the the the plant from operating safely.
A number of headlines today refer to the attacks on the Zaporizhzhia Power Plant in Ukraine that could lead to a nuclearaccident. How could these intentional armed attacks on the plant and its operations be considered to be a “nuclear ACCIDENT”? This ‘accident’ conversation has been going on for several months now, and the plant has been jeopardized of meltdown possibilities several times, and yet the media continues to refer to these attacks during a horrible war as acts leading to ACCIDENTS. (This is the trouble with the mainstream media news. They don’t do research, they don’t study a given situation, and they don’t accurately report the news, all of for which causes the public to suffer from misleading, false, and meaningless reporting. If they don’t ‘know’ what is real news and what is not accurate news, they should remain silent.
This never-ending problem with today’s media is just an example of misleading, careless, and repetitious rumors and guesses that are filled with jargon and inaccurate useless reports that create the kind of disinterest and lack of concern of the everyday citizen who ought to be on high alert each and every day, but because the repetition becomes blasé, it is not worth the paper it’s printed on, and the ‘concern’ and ‘care’ factors gradually disappear.
The months of contradictory reporting about the many skirmishes and fighting over this plant — the largest in Europe — including contradictory stories about repairs and/or lack of them to incoming power lines which are a matter of ‘life and death’ for the plant’s operations and the future of several European nations, were erroneously reported from day-to-day for weeks, so that no one really knew how close to a meltdown the nuclear power plant came to releasing lethal radiation in Ukraine and neighboring countries.
And the questionable stories continue right along — never challenged — but only occasionally adjusted for better or for worse. We are told as of yesterday that the nuclear plant is in ‘cold shutdown’, but what that means could mean all kinds of future issues, both for the shutdown as well as for any future restarting effort and the consequential future safety of the European people . . .
There is far, far, too much lackadaisical media reporting from the mainstream media over the entire nuclear issues, both in war and peace, when the entire world is in such turmoil and no one knows from day-to-day what tomorrow will bring. We deserve better. ~llaw
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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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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 power plant, a Susquehanna thing? I … So everything they did, every new wind project you brought on, every … all those types of things. But I …
Meetings Coverage and Press Releases – the United Nations
RAFAEL MARIANO GROSSI, Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), recalled that it has been more than two years since the war …
“New threats have been made to use tactical nuclear … nuclear war. While the threat to … The extent to which a nuclear war would also cause a nuclear …
We, and the general run-of-the-mill media is not learning what nuclear war means and how it is fought from the main-stream media. I suppose it is natural to think of war in the old-time military vs. military with little impact on civilians. But that’s not the way nuclear war among nations will work. In fact, concentration of military might will be to destroy both military facilities and civilian-filled cities without favoritism or discrimination.
Nuclear attacks will be similar to how the U.S. ended WWII by annihilating two Japanese cities with just two atomic bombs, killing somewhere around a quarter of a million ordinary citizens. And yet there is a huge difference in nuclear war today than there was then, and that is the bombs are far more powerful and therefore far more destructive, than those two, crudely named “Little Boy” on Hiroshima and “Fat Man” on Nagasaki in August of 1945. A single nuclear bomb today would be capable of destroying the entire city of Washington, D.C., including life. Much loss of life would be instant, and some miserably painful and lingering.
You only need to read the Prologue to Annie Jacobsen’s new book to learn at least that much, but everyone should read and understand the entire work to grasp the devastating reality of what WWIII would be like. Her book is titled “Nuclear War A Scenario”. It allows the general public to quickly and clearly understand what nuclear war is and that it takes no prisoners.
And I will add that there are also many media news outlets that fail to fully understand how nuclear war works, and offer ‘street guides’ to safer places. Nuclear war doesn’t care where you are, and your fate will not necessarily be based on whether you reside next to a military base or elsewhere. Just the fallout from a nuclear war will eventually find you and add you to the death toll. You can’t hide, you can’t run, and you simply can’t escape an all out WWIII nuclear war, and that is likely, if there is a war at all, what will come down upon us if not now, sometime in the not-too-distant future. It must be stopped before it happens.~llaw
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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.
Not ready to buy yet? Download a free sample. We are confident about the unique quality of our Company Profiles. However, we want you to make the most …
Furthermore, a large-scale attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities is more likely to push Tehran to decide that developing nuclear weapons is necessary to …
So now we can add Iran/Israel to our world-wide war scenarios. Will one or both, in desperation, turn to nuclear weapons against one another? The U.S. has stated that they will not intervene. See “Reuters” story in nuclear news media below.
And here is what “agreements” means to today’s world of dishonorable countries: Nothing. . . 4 Nations Gave-Up Their ‘Nuclear Weapons’ For Global Peace; One Was Left ‘Betrayed’ By US, UK & Russia See “EurAsian Times” story in nuclear news media below.
Perhaps the “Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists” and their Doomsday Clock has it about right? I cannot help but wonder each passing day how long humanity will live to see another day . . . ~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:
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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.
All Things · Culture · Food and Drink · The Guide … nuclear program. Since November, Iran had … However, Iran in the past largely has avoided directly …
Both countries requested an emergency meeting of the IAEA’s Board soon after Sunday’s attack. (Reporting by Elaine Monaghan in Washington; Editing by …
Every new day I have to wonder how much longer this unnatural world of insanity and lies that we see, read, and discuss every day here and elsewhere can continue on in this same vein without some kind of change or resolution or at least something besides the never-ending of the daily duplication and doublespeak effort of the media’s rewriting the immanent “threats” of war and the virtuous “resurgence” of nuclear power.
Some days I feel like I can spend just a few minutes summarizing both subjects so that there is no need to post the “best of all” nuclear news, whether it be of threats of impending nuclear war or, on the other hand, the nuclear power industry saving the world from global warming and climate change by by reducing fossil fuel contamination to something called “Net Zero” by increasing our dependence on nuclear power, which may be the most misunderstood term in the history of the world. Not to mention that ‘net zero’ is an outright lie, intentionally offered to us as a pacifier to us concerned citizens to replace thumb-sucking.
Either way, both issues will kill us rather than save us from our ultimate fate, which is the coming 6th Extinction, the 1st one for mankind and also the only one made by mankind because, fortunately, we weren’t around for the 1st five. And it is a shame that we will take most all other living things on Mother Earth right along with us.
Tomorrow will be my 600th consecutive day of letting y’all know that ‘all is not well’ with humanity these days and that ‘All Things Nuclear’ will be the end of us if we don’t change our ways. As Albert Einstein so clearly told us, not so long ago, that we must do away with nuclear energy and the only way to do that is to unite the human world in peace. It is clear to me, given the present raging turmoil on planet Earth that is only growing like a huge inoperable cancer on this once-beautiful planet — similar to the kind that I was once personally privy to, but somehow survived — with no cure for Her or us or them anywhere in sight because the cure, called “World Peace”, does not exist. But Einstein and others knew, not so long ago, as I just said, that the only recovery from the cancerous disease of ‘all things nuclear’ was and still is, “World Peace”. Perhaps some unknown ‘force’ or ‘emancipator’ will step up and save us from ourselves . . . ? (But don’t count on it . . .)
So it is that I will continue to Post the media on ‘All Things Nuclear” news (such as it is, but will turn to more and more ‘fiction’ of my own kind rather than the fiction of the world’s powers-that-be and the mimicking media that is primarily a ‘fiction’ of their own kind beating the ‘nuclear’ war and/or energy drums in unison. Perhaps my own version of fiction wil be better and more educational than theirs. ~llaw
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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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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.
All Things Considered. Next Up: 6:30 PM Marketplace. 0:00. 0:00. All Things … Iran’s nuclear program is a main target. Iran’s nuclear program — which …
But in recent months, the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna received technical reports, written by a small team of inspectors it has posted …
Israel has been on high alert amid multiple threats and intelligence assessments that Iran would launch a strike on Israeli targets in a bid to avenge …
(Note: Chapter 3 of the draft novel “El Nuclear Diablo” will be available on Thursday, April 25, 2024, as Albert Williams, his two important recently hand-picked employees, and the small military entourage arrive to join with the rest of the unique and private world of the huge “Pathfinder Ranch” family and its own kinds with its ultimate mission to help Mother Earth save her own kinds, including you and me . . .)
Previously and upcoming on “El Nuclear Diablo”
The Introduction (March 14, 2024)
Chapter 1 – Time is of the Essence (March 28)
Chapter 2 – The Adjustment (April 11)
Chapter 3 – The Pathfinder Ranch (April 25)
The critical Daily World Nuclear News today continues to be the conflict (and the two countries blaming each other) about the Drone attacks on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant that could lead to an international nuclear meltdown jeopardizing the lives of millions.
The other critical interest beyond the Russia/Ukraine war is in the incredible, but educational, pages of Annie Jacobsen’s new book (I urge you to buy it, if for nothing else to update you on what nuclear war means to the entire world) “Nuclear War (A Scenario), The book will very quickly set you straight on why picking out a safe town or city to live in in the even of a nuclear war is ridiculously stupid. You can’t hide from a nuclear war, nor even any given nuclear bomb. ~llaw
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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.
… emergency meeting, to discuss attacks on the … VIENNA: The recent attacks on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant … atomic agency’s director general …
Washington Today (4-11-24): FBI Dir warns of ‘elevated’ threats, says Sect. … Annie Jacobsen, “Nuclear War“. C-SPAN New 5.9K … The Weekly Podcast: The …
(Note: Chapter 3 of the draft novel “El Nuclear Diablo” will be available on Thursday, April 25, 2024, as Albert Williams, his two important recently hand-picked employees, and the small military entourage arrive to join with the rest of the unique and private world of the huge “Pathfinder Ranch” family and its own kinds with its ultimate mission to help Mother Earth save her own kinds, including you and me . . .)
Previously and upcoming on “El Nuclear Diablo”
The Introduction (March 14, 2024)
Chapter 1 – Time is of the Essence (March 28)
Chapter 2 – The Adjustment (April 11)
Chapter 3 – The Pathfinder Ranch (April 25)
The critical Daily World Nuclear News today continues to be the conflict (and the two countries blaming each other) about the Drone attacks on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant that could lead to an international nuclear meltdown jeopardizing the lives of millions.
The other critical interest beyond the Russia/Ukraine war is in the incredible, but educational, pages of Annie Jacobsen’s new book (I urge you to buy it, if for nothing else to update you on what nuclear war means to the entire world) “Nuclear War (A Scenario), The book will very quickly set you straight on why picking out a safe town or city to live in in the even of a nuclear war is ridiculously stupid. You can’t hide from a nuclear war, nor even any given nuclear bomb. ~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 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.
… emergency meeting, to discuss attacks on the … VIENNA: The recent attacks on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant … atomic agency’s director general …
Washington Today (4-11-24): FBI Dir warns of ‘elevated’ threats, says Sect. … Annie Jacobsen, “Nuclear War“. C-SPAN New 5.9K … The Weekly Podcast: The …
PG&E’s Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant on Avila Beach near San Luis Obispo, CA
LLAW’s COMMENTARY, Thursday, (04/11/2024)
Today’s Post is dedicated to the original 1st draft of Chapter 2 of my new, in-progress, novel dubbed “El Nuclear Diablo”, which is being serialized here in a bi-weekly Post . . .
El Nuclear Diablo
(A novel by Lloyd Albert Williams-Pendergraft)
(Review of Chapter 1 (Unedited Draft): Albert Lloyd Williams has been intercepted on Vancouver Island on his way to Juneau, where he had planned to take over the management and administration of the hastily organized North American operation in an attempt to save as many lives, human and otherwise, as possible while the nuclear power industry tried desperately to stop the radiation leakage at dozens of severely damaged nuclear power plants’ failure to operate without releasing constant radiation to the atmosphere. Rumors of reactor meltdowns were rampant, but because reliable communications were slim and none, knowing anything for certain was impossible.
The interception of Williams before he and his small group reached Juneau, Alaska, was the assignment given the two U.S. military Generals and their own small band of two pilots and a records compilation researcher/reporter assigned to take Williams to an unknown destination that would be disclosed while in transit on the military modified Boeing 737 to be used for completing their mission by the evening of the following day.)
Chapter 2 (Unedited Draft)
“We understand that you are the owner, president, and CEO of “Albert Williams’ Energy Labs” with laboratories and offices in Palo Alto, California, and at your ranch in central Wyoming south of Casper and you have business offices in Carmel, California, and also the existence of major world-wide communication facilities of many kinds and capabilities at the Wyoming ranch. I believe the ranch is called “The Pathfinder” and covers well over a half million acres. Is that correct?”, the Army General asked after introducing himself as Scott Roane who was the general in charge of the military use of nuclear energy at the Pentagon, followed with a short introduction of his counterpart, the Air Force General, Marcus Aurilio, who was also involved in nuclear power management at the Pentagon. The men shook hands sitting in their seats aboard the airplane.
“Yes, that’s all correct,” I said. “I was contacted by the FBI about 30 minutes after the beginning of the incident at the PG&E nuclear plant disaster and was told that nuclear power plants were leaking and spreading radiation all over the country, many already facing meltdown. Fortunately, I was already aware of the containment failures, so I avoided going into shock when that call arrived yesterday afternoon. So where are we going now? And why the change in direction?”
“We’re not at liberty to disclose all that, Mr. Williams, but we can tell you it’s already about probable nuclear war as well as nuclear power plants being used as weapons of mass destruction.”, Aurilio said.
I sat pretending to be calm, while staring wide-eyed at the General across the aisle, considering what I’d just been told, finding myself not surprised even though I hadn’t given such a development even a moment’s thought during the last two days. “Well, I suppose there has to be at least sabotage . . . or terrorism”, letting my voice trail off into brow-curling thought. But, I reminded myself again, it really didn’t matter how or why it happened, because it had and our job now was to find a way to overcome it all.
#
General Aurilio got up from his seat and walked toward the cockpit. In a few seconds he returned with the young lady dressed in fatigues who had said earlier she was the acting ‘stewardess’ on this flight. As she approached, I noted that she wore Captains’ bars on her shoulders, and that she had sparkling wide-awake curious eyes to go with her lovely face. “This is Captain Sabrisse Horvat. She will be your and our biographer and recorder for the foreseeable future, keeping detailed logs or records of communications that would not otherwise be memorialized.”
She held out her right hand and I grasped it gently, saying, “Well, you will fit right in with our several young women who work at the lab and the ranch. I am pleased to meet you, Sabrisse!”
“Well, Sir, I feel like I know you already, Sir,” Sabrisse said, a light cheerful lilt in her voice. “I’ve read every article I could find about you on the Internet, as well as what your companies are all about,” she went on. “I feel a little overwhelmed by who and what you are, what you’ve done, and though I’m probably guessing about what you will do in this situation, but I wouldn’t trade this opportunity for the world, Sir.”
“Okay, then,”, Williams said. “But you need to call me by my first name, Albert, and I hope I am allowed to call you Sabrisse rather than Ma’am or Captain. Are you of French decent?
No, my parents are Czechoslovakian. They still live in Prague. But I went to college here at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. I’ve lived here with my American relatives since I was about twelve years old, and so, of course, I am a citizen of America.”
“So now I have met all five of my hosts on this trip, but I still don’t know what it’s all about,” I said, turning to General Aurilio, with a question mark sort of inscribed look on my face.”
“You will know soon enough, Sir,” Aurilio responded, “We will land for the night at a small Airport near your laboratory at Stanford and ask you to bring your two most adept technicians along with you and then we will proceed on to your private airport at the Pathfinder Ranch. Once there we will tell your entire group how we feel we should proceed in this grave matter, but we will inform you in advance, of course, of our hopes and fears during the longer flight in the morning. You will soon understand exactly why we have kidnapped you, so to speak, and of the value we are most certain you can offer the world that no one else can – especially in such a time that seems like an impending doomsday.”
Earlier, even in the darkness, I had noticed the flight pattern was similar to our yacht trip north, retracing by air the over-sea route we’d taken along the Pacific coastline, because I had expected us to go directly east south east overland in a route toward Washington D.C. and a visit with President Biden and his White House staff. But along the way I had slowly figured this was not a ‘political’ trip, and recognized the urgency that showed from this highly intelligent and trained military personnel who exuded far more well-considered urgency than any political individual I’d ever met.
What little sleep we got, we got on the airplane at a small private airport that I had long previously used, finding a hangar to avoid the present small amounts of radiation that we had tracked as we traveled. I noted that it was only a minimal increase from the day before when I’d been near here, so there was little concern about radiation thus far, but we all knew there was only a minimal dosimeter samples of what was soon to come. But still, I was anxious to get to Pathfinder, a place where I was more comfortable than anywhere else on the planet, and unless there were soon to be warheads attacking our own nuclear missile silos and warheads, the death dosimeter rates of radiation would be several weeks away or even months in the future. Unbeknownst to most, including many of our own close-knit Pathfinder family we had communication capabilities with just about every little inhabited nook and cranny on Earth. I was pretty sure that this fact was a huge reason for what could well be a huge refuge as well as a headquarters area for a major effort to, for the first time in human history, try to save our planet and its gracious life-giving abundance, actually work on protecting our habitat rather than destroying it by slovenly misuse and greedily devouring its life-giving resources. The place was known as “Pathfinder” long before I came along, and I certainly had no inclination to alter the meaning of that truth . . .
After selecting the limited number of two assistants (had I had a choice, and if I was allowed, I would have taken them all, with their families and friends, with us to Pathfinder, but both of those I chose were imaginative and well-trusted experts in our extended nuclear effort to harness the nuclear energy that I was quite suddenly negatively affected with personal doubts about the nearly life-long dream to continue on with in our tiny, barely successful, recently with the first slightly positive transition of energy, and the obvious never-ending effort to develop the god-like ability of a conceited overacting brain of mankind to contain the nuclear reaction in such a way as to accomplish what we call fusion. We know it is possible, but we simply may not be mentally or intellectually capable of creating an under-control-like power that functions like our sun. I often believe the alchemy is simply beyond our ken. In more recent years I have been studying the concept of Tesla’s idea of creating and controlling electricity as nature’s product, spending less time, effort, and money on nuclear fission or the risks of nuclear fusion both. I do believe Tesla’s is the way to creating safely controlled and free electricity as necessary for all kinds of life. We do know how fission and fusion work, but in one case cannot control it at all with a reasonable effort and in the other case cannot control its waste product nor the containment of both. Whenever I see lightning randomly generated in the sky directed naturally at a controlling object such as the Statue of Liberty, a protective lightning rod for a building or someone’s home, or an old lonesome tree on a hill, I cannot help but know that Tesla was right, and had he been searching for a commercial product that could have been cheaply purchased by the multitudes he would have succeeded in creating his knowledge, therefore creating a world of free and absolutely controlled safe electricity. But without a financial reward for his supporters, he and his electrical concepts were worthless.
But now I am wondering if time has run out on us all, and that humanity has outdone its ability to sustain itself on all that Mother Nature has successfully offered to the human way, essentially free of charge such as air to breathe, food to eat, fire (a form of energy) to warm ourselves, animals to travel on, all of which we have in one way or another outgrown for reasons unknown as we reach for the stars without knowing exactly why, or what the reaching really is or if it’s achievable. I know in my heart it is not an intangible thing called money nor a more broad term called capitalism because somehow we can never seem to grow to new heights without ‘buying’ whatever it is we need — or think we need.
Now I have only a few years left personally to find the alchemical link, and because of our use of nuclear fuel that we fail to understand entirely how to use it, or how long our remaining time to find success may be, and I find myself wishing that I had followed in Tesla’s footsteps even if my death had come before success because we can never call nuclear power of either kind a success because they will both require money to buy and use. To me, that is not good enough, but I have spent nearly a lifetime trying to harness a kind of electrical energiy that cannot be controlled in either way.
It is with a feeling of regret that I now feel forced to try to save humanity from themselves because we, us, and them didn’t know any better. My depression shows as we drive to my own Williams Energy Lab Limited I have long called WELL, but knowing all is not. So, I say to myself as I sit in the right front passenger seat of the rental car while we drive to the Lab, “I have one last chance to help save a few of us.” I will use the next few months as my personal WELL-being. And if I find what Tesla would have had he had the same financial resources I have, I will name my success after him rather than use his hams for acquiring something called ‘money’.
We find my Lab at full force, working hard to solve a mathematical problem that will never be solved. Unbeknownst to my companions my life has changed by a polarity of 180 degrees in the time it has taken to fly from Vancouver Island to my nuclear laboratory with its billions of dollars of nuclear reactors for both fission and fusion, neither of which should have ever been considered for use by mankind. I feel foolish.
I quickly choose two young unattached female post-graduate PhDs, with mathematical backgrounds from my own alma-mater, tell the others to continue to come to work until they are no longer allowed to travel to and from their homes and after that they are on their own “until I return; if I return.” The tears are the eye-liners of the day. The hugs are what I believe will be the final goodbye.
We take the short ride (all eight of us) in a limo to the small airport, climb the staircase, find our places, and are soon taxiing down the runway on our way to my favorite possession of all, the “Pathfinder Ranch”.
End of Chapter 2
Subscribed
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.
… war. Israel has not claimed responsibility for … threats from Iran and its proxies is iron-clad”. … nuclear watchdog chief told his agency’s 35-nation …
