End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity” ~llaw

Lloyd A. Williams-Pendergraft

Feb 11, 2025

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US President Donald Trump (2L) and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin wait ahead a meeting in Helsinki, on July 16, 2018. (Photo credit ALEXEY NIKOLSKY/AFP via Getty Images)

LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS TODAY with the RISKS and CONSEQUENCES of TOMORROW

This “Breaking Defense” article is another look at Trump and his “Iron Dome for America” (or more of the same) from yesterday’s Post as well as my personal opinion that it won’t work beyond the ridiculous “deterrence” hope of “eternal delay” by keeping up with the Jones’s, which cannot go on forever. And we have proven over and over again that pacts, agreements, etc., aren’t worth the paper they’re written on.

The strictly defensive “Iron Dome for America” is far too late to avoid the possibility of avoiding nuclear war from Russia or any other country and too expensive — I have seen estimates of $3 trillion — as a “nuclear deterrence” defense effort and may even prompt our enemies to attack us sooner rather than later while we are still arguing back and forth whether to build the system, but it would take unavailable years to build anyway.

My question, then, is why are we even talking about this potential “white elephant” as some kind of immediate savior for America when in reality it may never be built and may prove to more likely work as an early invitation to nuclear armed countries to no longer delay an all-out nuclear war.

So, as I see it, there is no solution to the potential of a global nuclear war other than some kind of unknown and unlikely intervention or a change of heart by the very nature of collective humanity about our present depravity of ethnic borders, racial and religious hatred, social and financial inequality, and world peace instead of war — none of which which, in all probably, is likely to happen . ~llaw

Twin political paths President Trump can take to ensure nuclear deterrence

“The fundamental point, though, at least in the short term, would be for Trump to send a political message to Russia via allied consultations that American security is indivisible from NATO,” writes Kyle Balzer of AEI in this op-ed.

By Kyle Balzeron February 11, 2025 at 10:20 AM

US President Donald Trump (2L) and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin wait ahead a meeting in Helsinki, on July 16, 2018. (Photo credit ALEXEY NIKOLSKY/AFP via Getty Images)

President Donald Trump enters office at a possible inflection point in the ongoing nuclear competition with China and Russia. Though it is a moment of great peril for the US nuclear modernization program, it is also one of great opportunity — should Trump choose to seize it.

Both China and Russia have exploited America’s glacial effort to modernize its aging nuclear arsenal and atrophied defense-industrial base by rapidly expanding their own. Beijing has grown the world’s largest fleet of nuclear-capable land-based missile launchers. And Moscow has locked in a glaring theater nuclear advantage in Europe that helped constrain former President Joe Biden’s support for Ukraine’s defense against Russia. Compounding these developments is the fact that Washington, due to its deficient defense-industrial capacity, cannot reverse these trends in the near term by simply accelerating its troubled nuclear modernization program.

And yet, despite the long-term structural problems with nuclear modernization, Trump still has readily available options at his disposal. Two near-term options, in particular, stand out. Both are political in nature, dealing with the “software” of nuclear alliances and the mechanics of US domestic leadership. And both would generate immediate deterrence payoffs.

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/OEXZAYGx1xc?rel=0&autoplay=0&showinfo=0&enablejsapi=0

First, Trump should move quickly to initiate political consultations within NATO to integrate Poland, in some form, into the alliance’s nuclear mission. Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the deployment of Russian short-range nuclear weapons in Belarus, Warsaw has expressed interest in joining NATO’s nuclear-sharing program — an arrangement in which forward-stationed gravity bombs remain in US custody in peacetime, but are carried by allied aircraft during crises and wartime.

Poland’s fervor to host US nuclear weapons is undoubtedly a reflection of NATO’s failure to adjust to two transformations in the post-Cold War European security environment: the migration of the alliance’s center of gravity from Germany to Poland, and Moscow’s massive theater nuclear buildup that dwarfs the hundred or so American gravity bombs based in countries far from Russia’s border, like Germany.

Integrating Poland into NATO’s nuclear-sharing system would address NATO’s changing geography and Warsaw’s growing fear of Russia’s theater buildup. Washington would not necessarily have to station gravity bombs in Poland, where they would be more vulnerable to preemptive attack. Polish pilots, after all, could always fly dual-capable aircraft based in Germany, as both nation’s pilots will soon be trained on the F-35A.

A larger wrinkle would be to bring Finland into the nuclear fold and field weapons in both Poland and Finland — whether permanently or only for temporary rotations. This alternative might appeal to Helsinki, which has expressed a nascent interest in revising its long-held prohibition of nuclear weapons transiting its territory. It would mean Poland was not the only nuclear-armed NATO member along Russia’s border. And it would have the bonus effect of creating a nuclearized perimeter on Russia’s frontier that would greatly complicate Kremlin planning.

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From Breaking Defense

Of course, one can never know what, exactly, will deter Moscow. But Russia has a historic tendency to pick on the “little guy” — and a nuclear-capable NATO frontline is no small matter. The fundamental point, though, at least in the short term, would be for Trump to send a political message to Russia via allied consultations that American security is indivisible from NATO.

To be sure, this option is not a rationale for dramatically scaling back US conventional forces in Europe — which would only weaken the alliance’s overall deterrence. Nor should it be wielded as a bargaining chip in whatever negotiations Trump might pursue regarding the Russia-Ukraine war. Nuclear consultations should be treated on their own terms: as an effort to reinforce NATO via two allies who are already devoting vast resources to their own defense.

The second option readily available to Trump would be for him to get the White House back in the business of explaining to the American people the mounting threats they face — and what this means for their security. Here, Trump has a tremendous opportunity to outshine Biden, who neglected his duty to make the public case for greater defense spending. The simple act of adequately resourcing the military will have a deterrence effect by showing Beijing and Moscow that Washington is serious about defense. But sending this message will be impossible unless Americans hear from their president why they should support a larger defense budget.

Indeed, Trump can rip a page directly out of the Cold War playbook of Ronald Reagan, the last president to make the case for and oversee a military buildup to counter a nuclear-armed peer adversary. Beginning in the mid-1970s, Reagan hammered home the point that the country was on the wrong end of adverse trends in the Soviet-American strategic balance. And he clearly articulated, in speech after speech, why the country required modernized missiles and bombers to penetrate improved Soviet air defenses.

Recommended

The Weekly Break Out Ep. 5: Plans for America’s Iron Dome and Marine F-35s

In this episode of The Weekly Break Out, space reporter Theresa Hitchens takes a deep dive into her coverage of how President Donald Trump’s “Iron Dome for America” plan is beginning to form. Plus, The Marine Corps makes a surprise shift in its F-35 strategy.

By Breaking Defense Video

Reagan’s rhetoric and preparations to deploy these new capabilities ultimately had a demoralizing impact on the Soviets and yielded a landmark arms-control agreement on theater nuclear forces. Indeed, the Kremlin, as one Soviet official later recalled, was “already compromising” before the US nuclear buildup even began to pick up steam in the mid-1980s.

Fortunately for President Trump, the measures discussed above don’t require immediate solutions to America’s troubled defense-industrial base. They simply require the will to speak frankly with allies and the American people.

That nuclear modernization is beset with delays, a work-force shortage, and funding gaps is no reason to surrender to despair. President Trump, like Reagan, can achieve peace through strength if he seizes the opportunities before him.

Kyle Balzer is a Jeane Kirkpatrick Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute

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ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO LLAW’s ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA

(Please note that the Sunday and Saturday NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS are also added below by category, following Monday’s news posts in order to maintain continuity of nuclear news as well as for research for the overall information provided in “LLAW;s All Things Nuclear”.)

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:

1. All Things Nuclear
2. Nuclear Power
3. Nuclear Power Emergencies
4. Nuclear War Threats
5. Nuclear War
6. Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There are three Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in today’s Post.)
7. 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.

TODAY’s NUCLEAR WORLD’s NEWS, Tuesday, (02/11/2025)

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

Inside an underground facility where the U.S. tests nuclear weapons : Short Wave – NPR

NPR

All Things Considered · Fresh Air · Up First. Featured. The NPR Politics … But there are signs the world’s nuclear powers may be readying to test …

An underground facility where the U.S. tests nuclear weapons : Short Wave – NPR

NPR

BARBER: Hey, NPR science correspondent Geoff Brumfiel. Why are you darkening my doorstep? BRUMFIEL: To talk about one of my all-time favorite topics, …

Opposition leader on DPRK, Russian envoy’s interview and US-Japan nuclear pledge

YouTube

… About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Jacco Zwetsloot exclusively for NK News, covering all things DPRK …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

Environmentalists raise concerns, but nuclear power bills advancing – YouTube

YouTube

Environmentalists raise concerns, but nuclear power bills advancing. 5 views · 5 minutes ago …more. FOX 13 News Utah. 302K. Subscribe.

Chris Wright Makes Unleashing Nuclear Power Priority for American Energy Abundance

Chuck Fleischmann – House.gov

President Donald Trump’s Energy Secretary is making commercial nuclear power a priority for unleashing American energy abundance and innovation.

Energy secretary explains the case for nuclear energy growth in the US – YouTube

YouTube

Energy Secretary Chris Wright discusses how he is looking to prioritize the expansion of America’s nuclear infrastructure on ‘The Will Cain Show.

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEWS

Error Shuts Down Swiss Nuclear Power Reactor: Operator – Barron’s

Barron’s

A routine inspection at Europe’s oldest nuclear power plant Monday inadvertently triggered an emergency shutdown of one of the reactors, its Swiss …

Call for Papers: International Conference on Emergency Preparedness and Response | IAEA

International Atomic Energy Agency

Nuclear technology and applications · Energy · Health · Climate change … To ensure countries are prepared to respond to nuclear and radiological .

Translating Trump: Not An Energy Or Climate Emergency But A New Crisis: Electricity

Forbes

The Trump Solution. The Department of Energy (DOE) will focus its R&D budget on “fossil fuels, advanced nuclear, geothermal, and hydropower,” DOE …

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

The Risks of South Korea’s Nuclear Armament Under a Troubled Democracy

United States Institute of Peace

The rationale is that Seoul should pursue nuclearization to counter North Korea’s escalating nuclear threats … nuclear attack. The threat of …

The Value of BARDA | Representative Tom Cole – House.gov

Tom Cole – House.gov

… threats. Yet, many of the products necessary to respond to a chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear attack lack robust commercial markets.

Modi’s US visit raises industry hopes amid tariff threats – Reuters

Reuters

Modi is keen to avert a potential trade war … World · Reuters logo · North Korea says US nuclear submarine at South Korea port posing grave threat, …

Nuclear War

NEWS

Twin political paths President Trump can take to ensure nuclear deterrence

Breaking Defense

President Donald Trump enters office at a possible inflection point in the ongoing nuclear competition with China and Russia. … War European security …

I Just Found My Nuclear War Hideaway in Argentina’s Mendoza – Bloomberg

Bloomberg

Forgive me for interrupting with a macabre thought, but what’s your plan in case World War III breaks? This question is less and less theoretical: …

I Just Found My Nuclear War Hideaway in Argentina’s Mendoza – Bloomberg

Bloomberg

I Just Found My Nuclear War Hideaway. Mendoza, Argentina’s prime wine destination, has everything a refuge from an increasingly unstable and …

Yellowstone Caldera

NEWS

How Geology And Climate Control Vegetation Composition And Distribution In The …

National Parks Traveler

Editor’s note: Yellowstone Caldera Chronicles is a weekly column written by scientists and collaborators of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory.

Climate, geology control Yellowstone’s vegetation – Buckrail

Buckrail

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK — Yellowstone Volcano Observatory’s (YVO) Feb. 10 Caldera Chronicles column reveals that Yellowstone National Park’s …

What will happen if Yellowstone’s supervolcano erupts? – MSN

MSN

‘ Although the Yellowstone caldera’s initial blast would kill thousands in a ‘super-eruption,’ showering multiple US states in ‘pyroclastic flows …

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity” ~llaw

Lloyd A. Williams-Pendergraft

Feb 10, 2025

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Russian Yars intercontinental ballistic missile launcher takes part in the Victory Day military parade general rehearsal on the Red Square in Moscow, Russia, May 5, 2024. Maxim Shipenkov/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS TODAY with the RISKS and CONSEQUENCES of TOMORROW

This short briefing from “REUTERS” is why I believe nuclear treaties, agreements, pacts, or other hand-shaking agreements mean nothing to preventing nuclear war. Not even disarmament agreements among nations would be honored because one nation or another (or all of them) could or would not be trusted to do what they ‘promised’ to do.

That is why “nuclear deterrence” exists and is likely the only reason that nuclear war has been avoided thus far. But ‘deterrence’ is fast coming to a financial impossibility to sustain for nuclear nations to continue to build more and more powerful nuclear weapons of mass destruction along with their silos, missiles, submarines, and accompanying systems to stave off one or more nuclear armed country from eventually saying, “to hell with this”, and unilaterally launching the 1st and only required attack, spurring in-kind response(s) and the inevitable apocalyptical no-win nuclear WWIII.

We are just buying time with broken agreements and “nuclear deterrence” — avoiding the inevitable — until one depraved and deprived nation goes too far with the verbal threats and begins the physical end. ~llaw

Russia warns outlook for extending last nuclear arms pact with US does not look promising

By Dmitry Antonov and Andrew Osborn

February 10, 20255:41 AM PSTUpdated 8 hours ago

Item 1 of 3 Russian Yars intercontinental ballistic missile launcher takes part in the Victory Day military parade general rehearsal on the Red Square in Moscow, Russia, May 5, 2024. Maxim Shipenkov/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

[1/3]Russian Yars intercontinental ballistic missile launcher takes part in the Victory Day military parade general rehearsal on the Red Square in Moscow, Russia, May 5, 2024. Maxim Shipenkov/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

• Summary

• Last nuclear pact due to expire in less than a year
• It caps number of warheads Russia and US can deploy
• Trump has spoken about talks with Russia and China
• Moscow wants Britain and France to be included too

MOSCOW, Feb 10 (Reuters) – Russia warned on Monday that the outlook for extending the last remaining pillar of nuclear arms control between Moscow and Washington, the world’s two biggest nuclear powers, did not look promising and that the situation appeared to be deadlocked.

The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or New START, which caps the number of strategic nuclear warheads that the United States and Russia can deploy, and the deployment of land- and submarine-based missiles and bombers to deliver them, is due to run out in less than a year – on February 5, 2026.

U.S. President Donald Trump, during his first presidential term, withdrew the U.S. from another important treaty – the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty – and the New START agreement is now the only pact remaining.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, who oversees U.S. relations and arms control, told a news briefing in Moscow on Monday that the prospects for talks on amending and extending the agreement looked bleak for now.

“As for our dialogue in the field of (nuclear) strategic stability and the post-New START situation, the situation does not look very promising,” said Ryabkov.

“On February 5, 2026, the pact expires and after this it will not exist.”

Trump in January said he wanted to work towards cutting nuclear arms, adding that he thought Russia and China might support reducing their own weapons capabilities.

“We’d like to see denuclearization … and I will tell you President Putin really liked the idea of cutting way back on nuclear. And I think the rest of the world, we would have gotten them to follow, and China would have come along too,” Trump said.

The Kremlin, commenting on Trump’s remarks, said at the time that Russian President Vladimir Putin had made clear he wanted to restart nuclear arms cuts talks as soon as possible.

But Ryabkov said that while the U.S. wanted three-way arms talks – including China – Moscow wanted five-way arms talks.

Russia has said it wants Britain and France – also nuclear powers – to be included in any talks.

“The U.S. is proposing a three-way talks format and we want a five-way format. We are going round in circles,” said Ryabkov.

Ryabkov also linked progress on agreeing a new nuclear treaty to Washington’s wider policy towards Russia at a time when Trump says he is exploring how to end the war in Ukraine as the Russian economy tries to weather the toughest Western sanctions ever.

“As for (renewing) New START, as Putin has said, nothing prevents us from holding talks and we are ready for that. But this depends on whether we’ll see a real shift in Washington’s policy towards Russia,” said Ryabkov.

“But this hasn’t happened yet and it’s therefore premature to talk about this. The clock is running down.”

The Reuters Daily Briefing newsletter provides all the news you need to start your day. Sign up here.

Reporting by Dmitry Antonov in Moscow. Writing by Andrew Osborn in London Editing by Guy Faulconbridge

Andrew Osborn

Thomson Reuters

As Russia Chief Political Correspondent, and former Moscow bureau chief, Andrew helps lead coverage of the world’s largest country, whose political, economic and social transformation under President Vladimir Putin he has reported on for much of the last two decades, along with its growing confrontation with the West and wars in Georgia and Ukraine. Andrew was part of a Wall Street Journal reporting team short-listed for a Pulitzer Prize for international reporting. He has also reported from Moscow for two British newspapers, The Telegraph and The Independent.

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Subscribed

ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO LLAW’s ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA

(Please note that the Sunday and Saturday NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS are also added below by category, following Monday’s news posts in order to maintain continuity of nuclear news as well as for research for the overall information provided in “LLAW;s All Things Nuclear”.)

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:

1. All Things Nuclear
2. Nuclear Power
3. Nuclear Power Emergencies
4. Nuclear War Threats
5. Nuclear War
6. Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There are two Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in today’s Post.)
7. 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.

TODAY’s NUCLEAR WORLD’s NEWS, Monday, (02/10/2025)

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

A new Doomsday Clock debuted this year. An RIT professor helped design it | WXXI News

WXXI News

Everything started with drawings made by hand, but instead of using them to fabricate physical prototypes, they used generative AI technology to come …

Sanctioned nuclear icebreakers help deliver Russian gas to Shell, investigation reveals

Greenpeace

… all over Europe. Icebreakers can be clearly seen accompanying some of these tankers during the winter months when part of the route is obstructed …

France Taps Nuclear Power for New AI Training Cluster – WSJ

WSJ

I asked the WSJ’s smartest minds—and AI—all your deepest questions about the week’s mania. Continue To Article. Politics. Trump Calls for Rehiring …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

UN nuclear watchdog chief to visit Moscow as fears rise for Ukraine’s nuclear plants – YouTube

YouTube

(4 Feb 2025) RESTRICTION SUMMARY: ASSOCIATED PRESS Kyiv, Ukraine – 04 February 2025 1.Wide shot of substation in Kyiv region 2.

France Taps Nuclear Power for New AI Training Cluster – WSJ

WSJ

Macron aims to dedicate a gigawatt of nuclear power to create one of the world’s largest AI computing facilities.

The safety regulations involved in the construction of nuclear power plants

Innovation News Network

Before nuclear power plant construction, possible threat, from cybersecurity to location and seismic events must be consider

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEWS

Nuclear power plant construction to cost the state €120 million over next decade | News

news | ERR

Additionally €54 million would be needed for the development of emergency response and technical capabilities. Antti Tooming, deputy secretary-general …

New nuclear could power Scotland to a prosperous and a better future

Yahoo News UK

… emergency. Calling a housing emergency and failing to do a thing to fix it is shamefully negligent. As long as there are Scots sleeping rough and …

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

Voices: The Doomsday Clock sends a stark warning – The Salt Lake Tribune

The Salt Lake Tribune

… nuclear threat is the highest it’s been since the Cuban Missile Crisis. Threats of using nuclear weapons in the ongoing war in Ukraine, nuclear …

U.S-Israel Vs Iran Nuclear War Soon? Khamenei To Revoke Fatwa On Nukes Amid Trump’s …

YouTube

… nuclear weapons. The pressure comes amid heightened threats from the U.S. and Israel, intensified by recent Israeli airstrikes on Iranian military …

Iran Update, February 9, 2025 | Institute for the Study of War

Institute for the Study of War

… nuclear weaponization if faced with ”an existential threat.”[5] Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Abbas Araghchi alluded to the ”heated debate” on ..

Nuclear War

NEWS

Russia warns outlook for extending last nuclear arms pact with US does not look promising | Reuters

Reuters

… nuclear powers, did not look promising and that the situation … war in Ukraine as the Russian economy tries to weather the toughest …

Iran Update, February 9, 2025 | Institute for the Study of War

Institute for the Study of War

Senior Iranian military leaders have urged Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in recent months to approve the construction of a nuclear weapon, …

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vows to further develop nuclear forces | Reuters

Reuters

Trump on Friday said he would have relations with North Korea.

Yellowstone Caldera

NEWS

How geology and climate control vegetation composition and distribution in the Yellowstone …

USGS.gov

Yellowstone Volcano receives ample attention for being a large, active, caldera-forming volcanic system. Given the massive eruptions over the last 2.1 …

10 Facts About Yellowstone National Park – MSN

MSN

… Yellowstone lurks a massive supervolcano, an enigmatic giant hidden beneath the earth’s crust. This volcano has a caldera, or a large volcanic .

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity” ~llaw

Lloyd A. Williams-Pendergraft

Feb 09, 2025

1

Share

In order to stay abreast of the weekend nuclear news, I will post Saturday and Sunday’s news, but without editorial comment. If a weekend story warrants a critical review, it will show up on Monday’s posts . . .

If you are not familiar with the weekday daily blog post, this is how the nuclear news post works . . . llaw

ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA”:

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:

1. All Things Nuclear
2. Nuclear Power
3. Nuclear Power Emergencies
4. Nuclear War
5. Nuclear War Threats
6. Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There are no Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available on this weekend’s Post.)
7. 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.

TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS, Sunday,(02/09/2025)

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

What to know about presidents and security clearances – Little Rock Public Radio

Little Rock Public Radio

All Things Considered. Next Up: 6:30 PM Marketplace. 0:00. 0:00. All Things … nuclear weapons,” he said. Much is up to the sitting president’s …

What to know about presidents and security clearances | WVTF

WVTF

All Things Considered · BBC World Service · Fresh Air · Full Disclosure · Here … nuclear weapons,” he said. Much is up to the sitting president’s …

North Korea’s Kim slams US-South Korea-Japan partnership and vows to boost his nuclear program

Star Tribune

… nuclear weapons program, state media reported Sunday … all about good hooks, good looks, good guitars · World. North Korea’s Kim …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

A Nuclear Future is Not Inevitable | Commonweal Magazine

Commonweal Magazine

Consider also Google’s announcement to purchase nuclear energy from small modular reactors (SMRs) owned by Kairos Power. Kairos is currently building …

Scientists’ Plea for Nuclear Revival is “Beating a Dead Horse” – The Desert Sun

The Desert Sun

But neither academicians nor the anti-fossil fuels syndicate have come up with a rational solution for the increasing energy gap needed to satisfy the …

Opinion: The future of energy is nuclear | HS Insider

HS Insider

A nuclear power plant generates nuclear waste, while coal produces carbon dioxide emissions. Coal produces 36% of the world’s electricity usage, while …

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEWS

Despite the shock of China’s artificial intelligence (AI) service, there is a solid sector that rema.. – MK

mk.co.kr

Key to Nuclear Energy ‘Emergency‘ Declaration Among the energy sectors … nuclear power plants, restarting nuclear power plants, and upgrading existing …

Power engineers restore power to 16000 consumers after emergency outages

pravda.com.ua

This helps reduce the load on the grid,” the press service noted. The water level in the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant pond is adequate to meet the …

10 Surprising Ways Animals Play a Role in Emergency Response and Disaster Relief – MSN

MSN

Escape and unwind with Early 2025 Deals. Ad. Russian general charged with looting Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant: Damage exceeds US$1m. Ukrainska …

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

Russia Opposes Updated WHO Assessment Of Health Effects Of Nuclear Weapons

Health Policy Watch

Nuclear threats. Vladimir Putin has threatened to restart nuclear testing throughout his invasion of Ukraine. The two nations opposing the WHO health …

Trump says he prefers nuclear deal with Iran than ‘bombing the hell out of it’

The Times of Israel

… nuclear weapons to counter “existential threats” from the West. In this … war. Advertisement. US President Donald Trump speaks during a …

Trump wants diplomatic solution to Iran’s nuclear threat – The Jewish Chronicle

The Jewish Chronicle

“If they threaten us, we will threaten them. If they act on those threats, we will do the same. If they undermine our nation’s security, we will ..

Nuclear War

NEWS

America Could Soon Have a New Way to Start a Nuclear War – The National Interest

The National Interest

Therefore, in the event of major nuclear attack on the US, a stand-off air-launched nuclear cruise missile may be among the few weapons able to …

North Korea’s Kim slams US-South Korea-Japan partnership and vows to boost his nuclear program

AP News

I think I stopped the war.” During a Fox News interview broadcast on Jan. 23, Trump called Kim “a smart guy” and “not a religious zealot.” Asked …

North Korea’s Kim slams US-South Korea-Japan partnership and vows to boost his nuclear program

ABC News – The Walt Disney Company

I think I stopped the war.” During a Fox News interview broadcast on Jan. 23, Trump called Kim “a smart guy” and “not a religious zealot.” Asked …

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity” ~llaw

Lloyd A. Williams-Pendergraft

Feb 08, 2025

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In order to keep abreast of the weekend nuclear news, I will post Saturday and Sunday’s news, but without editorial comment. If a weekend story warrants a critical review, it will show up on Monday’s posts . . .

If you are not familiar with the weekday daily blog post, this is how the nuclear news post works . . . llaw

ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA”:

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:

1. All Things Nuclear
2. Nuclear Power
3. Nuclear Power Emergencies
4. Nuclear War
5. Nuclear War Threats
6. Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There is one Yellowstone Caldera bonus story available on this weekend’s Post.)
7. 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.

TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS, Saturday,(02/08/2025)

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

Wright: DOGE officials at DOE don’t have access to nuclear secrets – POLITICO

Politico

… nuclear secrets and all that. None of that is true at all,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright told CNBC. | Francis Chung/POLITICO. By Kelsey Tamborrino.

Elon Musk’s DOGE staffers don’t have access to U.S. nuclear secrets, Energy secretary says

NBC Los Angeles

They’re like seeing our nuclear secrets. None of that is true at all,” Wright told CNBC’s Brian Sullivan in an exclusive interview. One of the …

WTF Is DOGE Doing in Department in Charge of Nuclear Weapons? – The New Republic

The New Republic

None of that is true at all,” the energy secretary told CNBC’s Brian Sullivan Friday. But Trump administration officials haven’t been honest with the …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

Indiana, Texas A&M Hope Nuclear Power Draws Big Tech Data Centers

Broadband Breakfast

WASHINGTON, Feb. 7, 2025 – Some states want to be sure they are not left behind in the race to supply Big Tech with nuclear power.

IAEA chief says attacks around Europe’s largest nuclear power plant have increased

YouTube

… nuclear accident. READ MORE : https://www.euronews.com/2025/02/08/iaea-chief-says-attacks-around-europes-largest-nuclear–power-plant-have …

Chris Wright Makes Unleashing Nuclear Power Priority for American Energy Abundance

National Review

President Donald Trump’s Energy Secretary Chris Wright is making commercial nuclear power a priority for unleashing American energy abundance and …

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

Toplines: The United States and its allies must be ready to deter a two-front war and nuclear …

Atlantic Council

The risk of conflict with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) or North Korea poses a serious threat to the United States and its interests.

What Do Drones Mean For Nuclear Deterrence? – The National Interest

The National Interest

… nuclear war. Cold War and subsequent … nuclear matters has deteriorated further with President Vladimir Putin’s repeated nuclear threats.

The Case for More Money for Space

Air & Space Forces Magazine

… threat and the potential for nuclear war. Children practiced emergency … The most logical threats from China are not nuclear Armageddon

Nuclear War

NEWS

Toplines: The United States and its allies must be ready to deter a two-front war and nuclear …

Atlantic Council

Furthermore, with both China and North Korea developing greater incentives and capabilities for limited nuclear attacks, the risk of a nuclear war in …

Russia Opposes Updated WHO Assessment Of Health Effects Of Nuclear Weapons

Health Policy Watch

The opposition comes as Russia has threatened to resume nuclear testing amid its war in Ukraine. In regions known as “sacrifice zones,” where …

North Korea says its nuclear weapons not a ‘bargaining chip,’ KCNA says | Reuters

Reuters

North Korea says its nuclear weapons not a ‘bargaining chip,’ KCNA says … war crimes tribunal over investigations of U.S. citizens or U.S. allies …

Yellowstone Caldera

NEWS

Fishing Was So Good… – Montana Outdoor

Montana Outdoor

Apparently, an earthquake of 1.8 on the Richter Scale had occurred. Earthquakes are common in Big Sky Country thanks to the Yellowstone Caldera, which …

End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity” ~llaw

Lloyd A. Williams-Pendergraft

Feb 07, 2025

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An air defense system in Israel. Photo: Depositphotos

LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS TODAY with the RISKS and CONSEQUENCES of TOMORROW

Or, speaking of speeding up Ukraine peace talks involving Ukraine, Russia, NATO and the U.S., the “iron dome” possible white elephant might cause the opposite reaction as described by “Forbes” and reviewed by this analytical article from European Maiden and author Yevheniia Martyniuk!

The idea that a huge new “nuclear defense system” could delay or even end the Russia/Ukraine war is ridiculous because such a system (at a cost of perhaps $3 trillion) would take years in the making and it would only defend the northern hemisphere of America, and that makes me wonder how such a “defensive” system would prevent nuclear war at all. To me, the whole idea is just a glorified money sink that could possibly do nothing more than continue the “deterrence” game that simply cannot last forever. Logically, the effort to build such an “iron dome” over only America’s heads would only speed up the possibility of global nuclear war rather than slow it down. So why bother . . . ?

More likely, if the U.S. were to embark on such a defense system, doing so could speed-up Russia’s attempt to annex the Ukraine, and that could very well quickly involve the use of Russian nuclear weapons. We forget, also, that any immediate use of nuclear weapons would be referred to as “strategic” nukes directed at Ukraine.

Otherwise we would surely have Word War III breathing down our international necks, although no more than such a minimal “strategic” use of nuclear arms, WWIII could well happen regardless if any nuclear-armed country were to use such “minimal” weapons — which are, in reality, likely to be no less minimal than, say, the atomic bombs used by the U.S. on Japan in 1945 to end WWII.

Any use of any kind of nuclear weapons of mass destruction, large or small, anywhere on planet Earth would likely be the beginning of the end of us and our innocent animal friends . . . ~llaw

Forbes: Trump’s space shield “Iron Dome” could pressure Putin into Ukraine peace talks

As Russia threatens nuclear retaliation against nations backing Ukraine, Trump’s proposed missile defense initiative could reshape strategic dynamics—if it can overcome the immense challenges of implementation.

byYevheniia Martyniuk

07/02/2025

2 minute read

An air defense system in Israel. Photo: Depositphotos

Forbes: Trump’s space shield “Iron Dome” could pressure Putin into Ukraine peace talks

President Trump’s newly announced space-based missile defense system could serve as leverage against Russian nuclear threats and its ongoing war in Ukraine, defense experts tell Forbes. The initiative, outlined in an executive order titled The Iron Dome for America, comes as Moscow continues to brandish its nuclear capabilities amid its invasion of Ukraine.

At the same time, Trump’s efforts to mediate peace in Ukraine face significant challenges. While his team is reportedly working behind the scenes to arrange talks, no official details of his plan have been made public.

“Russia has been threatening nuclear weapons use and claiming to have developed new weapon types,” Elena Grossfeld, a space arms race expert at King’s College London, tells Forbes in an interview.

She suggests that the countervailing Space Age missile defense project could be aimed at halting Putin’s belligerence or even pressuring him to enter talks on withdrawing his troops from Ukraine.

The proposal’s timing is significant, coming just days after Trump revealed at the World Economic Forum in Davos that he had discussed nuclear arms reductions with Russian President Putin.

“We want to see if we can denuclearize, and I think that’s very possible,” Trump said, adding that “President Putin wanted to do it.”

The initiative mirrors President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), which sought to render nuclear weapons obsolete through space-based defenses. However, Victoria Samson, Chief Director of Space Security and Stability at the Secure World Foundation, warns of significant technical hurdles.

“The US would need thousands of interceptors in orbit just to ensure one was in place to hit a launch,” she said, noting that interceptors would have only ‘about 3-5 minutes’ to react to solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists recently set its Doomsday Clock to 89 seconds to midnight, citing heightened nuclear tensions. The organization warns that Russia’s repeated threats to use nuclear weapons against nations supporting Kyiv could lead to catastrophe—whether by a rash decision, accident, or miscalculation.

A space defense analyst interviewed by Forbes adds that sharing this defensive technology with nuclear powers willing to reduce their stockpiles—similar to Reagan’s offer to the Soviet Union—could be crucial to avoiding a new arms race.

---

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ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO LLAW’s ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA

(Please note that the Sunday and Saturday NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS are also added below by category, following Monday’s news posts in order to maintain continuity of nuclear news as well as for research for the overall information provided in “LLAW;s All Things Nuclear”.)

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:

1. All Things Nuclear
2. Nuclear Power
3. Nuclear Power Emergencies
4. Nuclear War Threats
5. Nuclear War
6. Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There are three Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in today’s Post.)
7. 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.

TODAY’s NUCLEAR WORLD’s NEWS, Friday, (02/07/2025)

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

Nuclear power is ‘making a comeback’ around the world, says IEA executive director Fatih Birol

Atlantic Council

… about cooperation among governments and the energy industry on nuclear energy. … All rights reserved. Privacy Policy · Cookie Policy · Terms and …

DOGE staffers at Department of Energy don’t have access to nuclear secrets, secretary says

CNBC

They’re like seeing our nuclear secrets. None of that is true at all,” Wright told CNBC’s Brian Sullivan in an exclusive interview. The secretary …

How the U.S. tests nuclear weapons | Here & Now – WBUR

WBUR

Since the 1990s, the United States has used science to verify its nuclear weapons are working properly … All Things Considered · Here & Now · Morning …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

Global Energy Analyst: ‘Nuclear is Making a Comeback’ – Broadband Breakfast

Broadband Breakfast

WASHINGTON, Feb. 6, 2025 – International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol shared his outline for the future of nuclear energy, …

Nuclear power is ‘making a comeback’ around the world, says IEA executive director Fatih Birol

Atlantic Council

Birol discussed the recent resurgence in nuclear energy and the challenges hindering the nuclear industries in the United States and Europe.

Planners recommended against nuclear plant in 2019 citing fears for Welsh language

The Guardian

Planning inspectors recommended against a Hitachi-built nuclear power plant in Anglesey on the basis that it could dilute the island’s Welsh language …

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEWS

Three Mile Island owner to discuss emergency plans at public meeting | WITF

WITF

The emergency plan is required to restart power operations. Emergency preparedness plans detail what measures a nuclear power plant will use to …

Three Mile Island owner to discuss emergency plans at public meeting – Lancaster Online

Lancaster Online

The company planning to restart the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant is scheduled to meet with regulators Feb. 19 to discuss its emergency …

A Trumped-Up Energy Emergency – Legal Planet

Legal Planet

… nuclear power industry collapsed. We were clearly in a period of energy crisis, but

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

Nato allies discussed sending troops to Greenland after Trump threats – Yahoo

Yahoo

… threats, diplomatic sources told The Telegraph. Questions were even … Easy As Pie Can we all agree that nuclear warfare is bad? Yes? Well …

Forbes: Trump’s space shield “Iron Dome” could pressure Putin into Ukraine peace talks

Euromaidan Press

President Trump’s newly announced space-based missile defense system could serve as leverage against Russian nuclear threats and its ongoing war in …

Khamenei rejects US talks in setback to Trump hopes for a nuclear deal | Iran International

iranintl.com

They make statements about us, express opinions and issue threats.” “If they threaten us, we will threaten them. If they act on those threats, we will …

Nuclear War

NEWS

Russia practises manoeuvres with Yars intercontinental ballistic missiles in Volga region

Reuters

Russia staged similar manoeuvres last year as a nuclear warning to the West at a time of heightened confrontation over the war in Ukraine. The …

Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin admits situation in Kursk ‘very difficult’ amid new Kyiv offensive

The Independent

Without directly referring to the new attack, Volodymyr Zelensky said in his overnight address that the incursion “brought the war home for Russians …

UN nuclear chief says number of attacks on Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant has increased, TASS reports

Reuters

… nuclear corporation Rosatom. Russian forces took control of the plant soon after the start of the war with Ukraine in 2022 and Moscow has said the …

Yellowstone Caldera

News

Yellowstone’s a great outdoor classroom with geology on display in canyons, road cuts

Billings Gazette

Yellowstone Caldera Chronicles is a weekly column written by scientists and collaborators of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. This week’s …

What Would Happen If Yellowstone’s Supervolcano Erupted? – video Dailymotion

Dailymotion

Are we ready for a mega-blast from the supervolcano in Yellowstone National Park?

Mag. 2.8 quake – Greece: Aegean Sea on Thursday, Feb 6, 2025, at 07:44 pm (Universal Time)

Volcano Discovery

… caldera, and Ijen in East Java. … List and interactive map of current and past earthquakes near Yellowstone volcano. Etna · Etna volcano photos

IAEA Weekly News

7 February 2025

Read the top news and updates published on IAEA.org this week.

7 February 2025

How Rays of Hope is Expanding Access to Cancer Care for All

Cancer care is a global challenge, especially in those parts of the world where the number of cancer patients requiring radiotherapy is outpacing access to this technology. Read more →

5 February 2025

Call for Papers: Conference on Resilience of Nuclear Installations

Interested contributors have until 31 May 2025 to submit synopses for the IAEA’s first International Conference on Resilience of Nuclear Installations against External Events from a Safety Perspective. Read more →

4 February 2025

VIDEO: IAEA Director General in Ukraine

IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi is in Ukraine to assess damage to key electricity infrastructure that is critical to the country’s nuclear safety. Read more →

3 February 2025

IAEA Follow-up Mission Recognizes Spain’s Continued Commitment to Improve Nuclear and Radiation Safety

An IAEA team of experts assessed that Spain showed a strong commitment to nuclear and radiation safety, and confirmed that Spain has successfully enhanced its regulatory framework, fully implementing recommendations made during the Agency’s 2018 mission. Read more →

3 February 2025

World Cancer Day: Bringing Life-saving Care to Those Who Need it Most

Through our fast-growing programmes and the Rays of Hope initiative, the IAEA is expanding access to nuclear medicine and cancer treatment in low- and middle-income countries, supporting care to patients around the world with little or no access to treatment. Read more →

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity” ~llaw

Lloyd A. Williams-Pendergraft

Feb 06, 2025

1

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LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS TODAY with the RISKS and CONSEQUENCES of TOMORROW

I haven’t seen much about how the military sees the threat of nuclear war other than the huge increase in new and refurbished weapons to keep up with our nuclear armed neighbors called “deterrence”, which is probably the only way to put off nuclear war since there are no meaningful nuclear treaties or agreements, and if there were, it wouldn’t matter because any nuclear agreement would be broken by every country who pledged to avoid nuclear war in the event of a serious nuclear war threat, just as such previous pacts have are already broken promises and tossed into File 13 .

The general (retired) who wrote this article agrees that agreements and deterrence, too, are not going to prevent nuclear war forever, and that is a good thing, but I must question the way the General proposes to solve the problem. The fact is, his concept amounts to simply a “new” kind of “deterrence” — partially borrowed from former president Ronald Reagan — a defensive one with Trump’s “Iron Dome Missile Defense Shield”, which amounts to little more than a more modern (and costly) better missile defense system to hopefully protect the U.S. from strategic nuclear arms should they be launched by our enemies, which probably would not prevent the U.S. from immediately launching our own nuclear arsenal against the enemy.

So I wonder how this “new” strategy would prevent a nuclear World War III even if our incoming defense “shield” actually worked from a defensive point of view. ~llaw.

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/-ksY_sDNYAQ?rel=0&autoplay=0&showinfo=0&enablejsapi=0

Video courtesy of You Tube – The National Desk

Nuclear Deterrence and U.S. Missile Defense

By Don McGregor
February 06, 2025

Nuclear Deterrence and America’s Missile Defense Program: Time for Change

America’s outdated nuclear deterrence policy is hindering the country’s missile defense program, constraining it to a “limited missile defense” strategy. Consequently, essential missile defense initiatives are overshadowed by competing security priorities, gradual improvements, and insufficient funding, leaving the United States vulnerable to advancing conventional and nuclear missile threats. By adhering to inadequate defense strategies and outdated deterrence doctrines, America is impairing its capacity to develop and deploy effective missile defense systems, putting the homeland at risk from escalating modern threats.

Nuclear Deterrence

The foundation of nuclear deterrence is based on mutually assured destruction (MAD). This principle posits that if one superpower were to launch a nuclear attack, it would trigger an overwhelming nuclear counterattack, resulting in the annihilation of both the attacker and the defender. Following World War II and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the strategic purpose of war shifted. It became less about winning conflicts and more about preventing them. As the prominent American nuclear strategist Bernard Brodie stated in 1978, “From now on, [our military forces’] chief purpose must be to avert them [wars]. It can have almost no other useful purpose.”

While MAD has been effective in preventing nuclear war, it has done little to avert conflicts and the conditions that may lead to catastrophic events. Since the establishment of MAD, the world has witnessed numerous conflicts involving nuclear-capable nations, either directly or through proxy wars, paradoxically bringing us closer to a potential doomsday scenario. Indeed, the metaphorical “Doomsday Clock,” created in 1947 by atomic scientists to represent the estimated likelihood of a human-made global catastrophe, was recently set in January 2025 to 89 seconds before midnight—the closest it has ever been.

Complexities in Global Deterrence Dynamics

The diversity of nuclear-capable nations compounds the challenge of nuclear deterrence. How do lesser nuclear powers like France, Great Britain, or China—nations that typically lack the global reach or extinction-level arsenals of the United States or Russia—fit into the equation? Even more troubling are countries like Pakistan, India, Iran, and North Korea, which present destabilizing influences and heightened risks of regional conflict.

The limitations of strategic frameworks like the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) further complicate matters. While the treaty includes five nuclear signatories, nations like India, Pakistan, and North Korea remain outside its framework, intensifying regional tensions and increasing the risk of a nuclear exchange.

Further complicating the issue, non-NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty) members continue to expand their nuclear arsenals and enhance their launch capabilities. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s 2024 report, Pakistan now possesses over 170 nuclear warheads. Similarly, India is modernizing its nuclear arsenal, with at least five new weapon systems currently under development. These advancements underscore the critical urgency of addressing the growing threats posed by these developments.

Deterrent Derivatives and Regional Issues

Experts have developed concepts like “minimum credible deterrence,” which focuses on maintaining a limited but adequate retaliatory capacity to address nuclear deterrence among regional powers. This doctrine is often coupled with a “no first use” policy, which pledges not to use nuclear weapons unless first attacked. However, the United States and NATO rejected this policy, maintaining a pre-emptive strike option to counterbalance Russia’s overwhelming conventional capabilities.

The differences in global military strategies led to an arms race that peaked in the 1980s when there were over 40,000 nuclear warheads worldwide. Since then, “arms reduction” efforts have decreased this number to 12,121 today. However, new nuclear powers such as India, Pakistan, and North Korea have emerged, contributing to regional tensions. Additionally, regional antagonizers like Iran continue to pursue nuclear capabilities. The proliferation of nuclear weapons and deterrent derivatives has only heightened the risk of global conflict, underscoring the limitations of MAD as a long-term deterrent.

America’s Limited Missile Defense Strategy

Years of nuclear arms reduction agreements and adherence to a nuclear deterrence doctrine have left America’s missile defense program constrained by a “limited missile defense” strategy. This outdated approach has relied on decades-old missiles, sensors, and kill vehicles. A Heritage Foundation 2020 analysis observed, “Instead of dampening an arms race, the ABM [arms reduction treaty] merely served to restrict the development of a robust U.S. missile defense.” This has left America’s Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system—the nation’s primary defense against intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs)—woefully inadequate.

The GMD system’s primary weapon, the Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI), consists of a boost and kill vehicle. Currently, 40 GBIs are deployed at Ft. Greely, Alaska, and four at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. While the first Trump administration requested 20 additional GBIs, the program was canceled in 2019. Efforts to upgrade the system, such as the Redesigned Kill Vehicle (RKV), were similarly abandoned, delaying essential improvements. The 2022 National Defense Strategy (NDS) reaffirmed this by acknowledging that the GMD is “neither intended nor capable of defeating the missile capabilities of Russia and China.”

This led to the Biden administration’s plans to “meet this commitment by fielding 20 of the in-development Next-Generation Interceptors (NGIs) alongside the older GBIs, placing the first beginning in 2028.” However, unlike the RKV program, the NGI program will also involve developing a new booster or upgrading the current booster, which has not been addressed in any recent DoD budget submissions.

Escalating Threats and a Lack of Priorities

Global adversaries like China and Russia are rapidly advancing their missile capabilities, posing significant challenges to U.S. defense systems. China has deployed 75–100 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), including multi-warhead versions, and developed advanced hypersonic glide vehicles that could outpace current U.S. missile defenses. The 2022 National Defense Strategy (NDS) highlights, “The PRC [People’s Republic of China] has dramatically advanced its development of conventional and nuclear-armed ballistic and hypersonic missile technology and capabilities…”

Likewise, Russia continues modernizing its intercontinental missile systems while developing precision-strike technologies aimed at overwhelming American defenses. The 2022 NDS notes, “Over the last 10 years, Russia has prioritized modernization of its intercontinental range missile systems and is developing, testing, and deploying new, diversified capabilities that pose new challenges to missile warning and defense of the U.S. homeland.” These advancements underscore the urgent need for a comprehensive, modernized missile defense strategy.

Despite escalating threats, the U.S. relies on outdated systems and incremental upgrades. Congressional priorities and funding allocations remain insufficient to field robust missile defense systems. For instance, the fiscal year (FY) 2025 Defense Budget allocates $28.4 billion—just 3% of its $850 billion total—to enhance U.S. missile defense capabilities. This funding level has remained unchanged since 2019. Furthermore, initiatives like the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act fail to mandate significant advancements in missile defense, highlighting a lack of prioritization.

A Path Forward: Revisiting Strategic Defense

In 1983, President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) proposed a comprehensive missile defense shield to make nuclear weapons obsolete. Reagan’s vision highlighted the dangers of relying on enemy rationality for national defense. While the SDI was ultimately unrealized, its principles remain relevant today. Reagan was a security realist and recognized that dependence on an enemy for one’s defense was unwise and left the world forever teetering on an Armageddon event. As Vince Houghton, historian/curator at the International Spy Museum in Washington D.C, states, “Reagan seemed to truly believe that the ballistic missile defense could finally release us from the perpetual, enduring, soul-crushing threat of Armageddon.”

President Trump acknowledges the significance of Reagan’s philosophy. In his first term, during the release of the 2019 Missile Defense Review, he stated, “Our goal is simple: to ensure that we can detect and destroy any missile launched against the United States, anywhere, anytime, anyplace.”

He has strengthened this strategy with a recent executive order directing the Department of Defense to develop an “Iron Dome Missile Defense Shield,” or a next-generation missile defense system for the United States, to defend “against ballistic missiles, hypersonic threats, advanced cruise missiles, and other evolving aerial dangers.”

To achieve this, the United States must, in the short term,

1. Increase Investment in Current Missile Defense Efforts: Prioritize and increase funding for FY2025/26 for approved GMD improvements and NGIs capable of addressing hypersonic and multi-warhead threats.
2. Strengthen International Collaboration: Partner with allies to develop and deploy regional missile defense systems that complement U.S. capabilities.

In the long term,

3. Develop a Missile Defense Shield: Prioritize funding across the future year’s defense program for implementing a next-generation missile defense system for the United States against ballistic, hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles, and other next-generation aerial attacks.
4. Reevaluate Strategic Doctrine: Move beyond outdated nuclear deterrent policies to embrace proactive defense strategies that reflect emerging nuclear powers and modern threats.

Conclusion

Relying on outdated nuclear deterrence doctrines is insufficient to address the evolving threats posed by advanced missile technologies and the proliferation of nuclear weapons among rogue states and emerging powers. While deterrence has historically prevented large-scale nuclear conflicts, it has not stopped regional wars, dangerous arms races, or the growing risk of localized nuclear events that threaten global stability.

To ensure the safety of the American homeland, the U.S. must prioritize developing and deploying a comprehensive, modern missile defense system. By moving beyond the limitations of deterrence and adopting a forward-looking defense strategy, the United States can better protect its citizens, secure its national interests, and maintain its position as a global leader in security and technological innovation.

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Major General Don McGregor (USAF ret.) is a combat veteran and an F-16 fighter pilot. While serving as a General Officer in the Pentagon, he was the National Guard Director of Strategy, Policy, Plans, and International Affairs, advising a four-star Joint Chiefs of Staff member. He was the lead liaison between the Council of Governors and the Secretary of Defense and administered the Department of Defense’s premier international affairs program, with over 80 global partnerships. He has held various operational command and director positions across the National Guard and military commands. Major General McGregor is an expert in defense strategy, policy, planning, and global security and is well-regarded for his expertise in the use of military forces to support federal agencies. He holds a master’s degree in Diplomacy and International Conflict Resolution from Norwich University

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Subscribed

ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO LLAW’s ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA

(Please note that the Sunday and Saturday NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS are also added below by category, following Monday’s news posts in order to maintain continuity of nuclear news as well as for research for the overall information provided in “LLAW;s All Things Nuclear”.)

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:

1. All Things Nuclear
2. Nuclear Power
3. Nuclear Power Emergencies
4. Nuclear War Threats
5. Nuclear War
6. Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There is one Yellowstone Caldera bonus story available in today’s Post.)
7. 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.

TODAY’s NUCLEAR WORLD’s NEWS, Thursday, (02/06/2025)

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

IEA’s Fatih Birol on the state of nuclear energy advancement around the world

Atlantic Council

… about. There’s all sorts of—as you talked about small modular reactors, there’s different kinds of nuclear fuels, different kinds of business …

DOGE Could Compromise America’s Nuclear Weapons – The Atlantic

The Atlantic

It has all manner of sensitive information on hand, including nuclear … I spoke with three former officials and nuclear experts about what …

How a military recruitment crisis is leaving the U.S. vulnerable – Central Florida Public Media

Central Florida Public Media

Are We There Yet? Spotlight · Growing Bolder · The Florida Roundup · Morning Edition · All Things Considered … nuclear bomb? And he said, well, they’ …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

Trump to help nuclear energy renaissance: Tema ETFs’ Khodjamirian – CNBC

CNBC

Yuri Khodjamirian, chief investment officer at Tema ETFs, said the Trump administration will help spark a nuclear energy “renaissance.”

Trump to help spark a nuclear energy ‘renaissance,’ investor says – NBC Chicago

NBC Chicago

Nuclear energy is set for a “renaissance” under U.S. President Donald Trump, according to Tema ETFs’ Yuri Khodjamirian. · The chief investment officer …

Arizona utilities considering a new nuclear power plant – YouTube

YouTube

APS will lead an effort to look into the possibility of a new nuclear power plant in Arizona.

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEWS

NRC to hold hearing on TMI Unit 1 emergency plans ahead of potential restart – York Daily Record

York Daily Record

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold a public hearing on Constellation Energy’s proposed emergency … plant to power data centers and …

CND legal letter to Ministry of Defence over nuclear weapons storage in Suffolk

CND

… nuclear plant, it seems to have no such emergency plan for the deployment of US nuclear weapons to RAF Lakenheath. Why such a huge oversight …

Russian attacks on energy system cause emergency power outages in Ukraine – Yahoo

Yahoo

Arizona’s three major electric power utilities said they will collaborate to explore adding more nuclear power generation in the stpossibly ..

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

The unintended consequences of deterring cyber attacks through nuclear weapons and …

European Leadership Network

Eva Siegmann writes that nuclear deterrence is inadequate to deter biological threats. Instead, the threat of biological weapons should be addressed .

Russia could use nuclear weapons in case of aggression against Belarus – Anadolu Ajansı

Anadolu Ajansı

The document outlines conditions for the use of nuclear weapons, threats … Zelenskyy says …

Nuclear Deterrence and U.S. Missile Defense | RealClearDefense

RealClearDefense

… nuclear missile threats. By adhering to inadequate defense strategies … While MAD has been effective in preventing nuclear war, it has done …

Nuclear War

NEWS

One Year from Expiration of New START Nuclear Treaty, Sen. Markey Introduces Resolution …

Senator Edward Markey

… nuclear forces, reversing decades of work to reduce the risk of nuclear war. Representatives Bill Foster (IL-11), John Garamendi (CA-08), and Don …

Beyond the Nuclear Balance: A Strategic Forces Net Assessment | Hudson Institute

Hudson Institute

During the Cold War, the term strategic forces referred to nuclear weapons deployed on strategic delivery systems: intercontinental ballistic missiles …

Trump Says He Wants New Nuclear Deal Letting Iran ‘Prosper’ – Bloomberg

Bloomberg

Araghchi said Iran is already party to the treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons — a post-war international agreement seeking to …

Yellowstone Caldera

NEWS

Will Yellowstone Erupt Soon and Kill Us All? – Scientific American

Scientific American

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity” ~llaw

Lloyd A. Williams-Pendergraft

Feb 05, 2025

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LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS TODAY with the RISKS and CONSEQUENCES of TOMORROW

“Proliferation News is a biweekly newsletter from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace highlighting the latest nuclear trends in the nuclear policy community.” You can receive their biweekly newsletter by submitting your email address via the invitation at the end of this “LLAW’s All Things Nuclear” Post.

The multiple summaries of the medias’ stories on nuclear issues and concerns via links to important coverage are succinct, informative, and to the point on all nuclear proliferation concerns. I highly recommend that anyone wanting to understand today’s world nuclear proliferation issues at a glance subscribe to the their email newsletter.

As you may have guessed beforehand, Trump is the major subject and the catalyst of most all concerns of this biweekly post, and his presence on the nuclear world scene is extremely sensitive and may well add friction to and aggravating any chance of helping to create some semblance of a peaceful world. My thoughts, as my more frequent readers might suspect, where Trump’s official acts as the U.S. president on nuclear war , including nuclear power and other nuclear issues, are chiefly negative. ~llaw

Proliferation News 2/4/25

IN THIS ISSUE: Trump Set to Reimpose ‘Maximum Pressure’ on Iran, Aims to Drive Oil Exports to Zero, Iran Is Developing Plans for Faster, Cruder Weapon, U.S. Concludes, Russian Attacks Near Ukrainian Nuclear Infrastructure Heighten Scrutiny of Kyiv’s Preparedness, Russia Condemns Trump Missile Defence Shield Plan, Accuses US of Plotting to militarise Space, Southeast Asia Looks to Nuclear Power to Supercharge its Energy Transition, Trump Wants a Nuclear Deal. Can He Be the Ultimate Negotiator?

Published on February 4, 2025

Trump Set to Reimpose ‘Maximum Pressure’ on Iran, Aims to Drive Oil Exports to Zero

Steve Holland | Reuters

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday plans to restore his “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran in an effort to stop Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and drive its oil exports down to zero, a U.S. official said…Trump will sign a presidential memorandum that, among other things, orders the U.S. Treasury secretary to impose “maximum economic pressure” on Iran, including sanctions and enforcement mechanisms on those violating existing sanctions, the official said. As part of the maximum pressure effort, the Trump administration will implement a campaign “aimed at driving Iran’s oil exports to zero,” the official said.

Iran Is Developing Plans for Faster, Cruder Weapon, U.S. Concludes

David E. Sanger and Julian E. Barnes | New York Times

New intelligence about Iran’s nuclear program has convinced American officials that a secret team of the country’s scientists is exploring a faster, if cruder, approach to developing an atomic weapon if Tehran’s leadership decides to race for a bomb, according to current and former American officials. The development comes even amid signals that Iran’s new president is actively seeking a negotiation with the Trump administration.

Russian Attacks Near Ukrainian Nuclear Infrastructure Heighten Scrutiny of Kyiv’s Preparedness

SAMYA KULLAB and HANNA ARHIROVA | Associated Press

“The switchyards that handle electrical routing from nuclear power plants are a vital component of Ukraine’s nuclear energy infrastructure — powering homes, schools, hospitals, and other critical civilian infrastructure. Given Ukraine’s heavy reliance on nuclear energy, military attacks on these switchyards would be devastating, severely impacting civilian life and undermining the resilience of the energy grid,” said Marcy R. Fowler, head of the office for research and analysis at Open Nuclear Network, a program of the U.S.-based NGO PAX sapiens that focuses on reducing nuclear risk.

Russia Condemns Trump Missile Defence Shield Plan, Accuses US of Plotting to militarise Space

Dmitry Antonov | Reuters

Russia on Friday condemned an executive order by U.S. President Donald Trump to build a new missile defence shield, accusing the United States of trying to upset the global nuclear balance and pave the wave for military confrontation in space. Trump on Monday signed an order that “mandated a process to develop an ‘American Iron Dome,’” a next-generation U.S. missile defence shield against ballistic, hypersonic, cruise missile and other forms of aerial attack.

Southeast Asia Looks to Nuclear Power to Supercharge its Energy Transition

VICTORIA MILKO and ANIRUDDHA GHOSAL | Associated Press

Southeast Asia’s only nuclear power plant, completed four decades ago in Bataan, about 40 miles from the Philippine capital Manila, was built in the 1970s but left idle due to safety concerns and corruption. It has never produced a single watt of energy. Now the Philippines and other countries in fast-growing Southeast Asia are looking to develop nuclear energy in their quest for cleaner and more reliable energy. Nuclear energy is viewed by its proponents as a climate solution since reactors don’t emit the plant-warming greenhouses gases released by burning coal, gas or oil. Advances in technology have helped reduce the risks from radiation, making nuclear plants safer, cheaper to build and smaller.

Trump Wants a Nuclear Deal. Can He Be the Ultimate Negotiator?

Jon B. Wolfsthal | Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Sadly, President Trump’s track record of actually negotiating nuclear agreements is poor. During his first term, Trump said he wanted to negotiate a nuclear deal with North Korea (he tried and failed), with Iran (he never tried and withdrew from an existing agreement), and with Russia and China at the same time (he failed at both). But this time around, Trump has a chance to prove his negotiating skills—but only if he does it the right way.

Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.

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ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO LLAW’s ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA

(Please note that the Sunday and Saturday NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS are also added below by category, following Monday’s news posts in order to maintain continuity of nuclear news as well as for research for the overall information provided in “LLAW;s All Things Nuclear”.)

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:

1. All Things Nuclear
2. Nuclear Power
3. Nuclear Power Emergencies
4. Nuclear War Threats
5. Nuclear War
6. Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There is one Yellowstone Caldera bonus story available in today’s Post.)
7. 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.

TODAY’s NUCLEAR WORLD’s NEWS, Wednesday, (02/05/2025)

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

Senate passes bills subsidizing small nuclear reactor development – WBOI

WBOI

Search Query. Donate Now. WBOI News. Reveal. WBOI News. Reveal. Next Up: 5:00 PM Weekend All Things Considered. 0:00. 0:00. Reveal. WBOI News. 0:00 0: …

Proliferation News 2/4/25 | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

New intelligence about Iran’s nuclear program has convinced American … All rights reserved.

‘Doomsday Clock’ moves closer to midnight (Letters to The Republican) – masslive.com

MassLive

… about reducing their stockpiles of nuclear weapons. Just as the nuclear … All rights reserved (About Us). The material on this site may not …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

Texas A&M could soon house nuclear reactors – YouTube

YouTube

Texas A&M could soon be home to nuclear reactors, positioning the university as a leader in research and innovation in the field of nuclear energy …

Senate passes bills subsidizing small nuclear reactor development – WFYI

WFYI

The bills would allow utilities to pass along some of the costs of developing small modular nuclear reactors to their customers even if the plants …

Russian attacks near Ukrainian nuclear power sites bring scrutiny on Kyiv | PBS News

PBS

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Moscow’s renewed attacks on Ukraine’s electricity infrastructure this winter have heightened scrutiny over the Ukrainian …

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEWS

We Need Solar and Storage to Address the Energy Emergency

Solar Energy Industries Association

President Trump recently declared an energy emergency. In his … Due to the low number of coal and nuclear plants developed over the …

Russia’s Relentless Strikes on Ukraine’s Power Grid Spark Nuclear Disaster Fears – Regtechtimes

Regtechtimes

… energy infrastructure across the country, causing widespread power outages and emergency blackouts. Ukraine depends heavily on nuclear power, with …

Town of Essex awarded $50,000 grant to improve nuclear response plan – AM 800 CKLW

AM 800 CKLW

Essex was identified in Ontario’s Nuclear Emergency Management Program (NEMP) as the Fermi II Nuclear plant is located across the river in Michigan.

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

How Trump’s ‘Iron Dome for America’ upends four decades of nuclear doctrine

Breaking Defense

Further, in more recent years, the debate has broadened to include what impact SBIs might have on the risks of war in space. “The pursuit of space- …

Zelenskyy on Putin’s goals, the war’s hot phase, nuclear threats, and Kyiv’s terms for talks

The New Voice of Ukraine

Zelenskyy on Putin’s goals, the war’s hot phase, nuclear threats, and Kyiv’s terms for talks … threat of a war between major countries and Russia.

Volodymyr Zelensky demands nukes to end war with Russia | World | News | Express.co.uk

Daily Express

Donald Trump slams European Union ‘atrocity’ as trade war threats heat up.

Nuclear War

NEWS

Call for Applications: Independent Scientific Panel on Effects of Nuclear War

Meetings Coverage and Press Releases – the United Nations

… Office for Disarmament Affairs is issuing a public call for candidates to serve on an independent Scientific Panel on the Effects of Nuclear War.

Trump signs memo aiming to block Iran from achieving nuclear weapon – Reuters

Reuters

… nuclear weapon and to limit its oil exports … Trump in no hurry to talk to Xi amid new tariff war. 13 min ago. U.S. …

Analysts: American Iron Dome reduces nuclear coercion but drives arms race – VOA

VOA

Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened to use nuclear weapons multiple times during an ongoing war in Ukraine that began with its invasion in …

Yellowstone Caldera

NEWS

Multiple earthquakes are rattling Greece’s volcanic island of Santorini. Here’s what we know

MSN

Santorini’s main villages are built along the rim of the volcano’s caldera … Yellowstone Supervolcano: Where Will It Erupt Next? playIndicator.

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity” ~llaw

Lloyd A. Williams-Pendergraft

Feb 04, 2025

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(See the article below for image description and photo credits ~llaw)

LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS TODAY with the RISKS and CONSEQUENCES for TOMORROW

It is a crying shame that the nuclear industry hopes, once again, to sell itself on the idea that nuclear energy is clean, safe, and will end our world-wide problem with carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gasses that are causing climate change and global warming.

The facts are that none of these claims are true — nor is their 4th claim that nuclear power will lower the cost of electricity — all promoted via the nuclear industry, the corporate financial world(s), governmental politics, and the media.

Unsavory nuclear energy products consist of weapons of mass destruction (bombs) and damaged nuclear power plants that create nuclear fallout, consisting of deadly radiation by-products and other harmful nuclear waste, consisting of poisonous radioactive remains such as plutonium — all together perhaps the most “dirty” products, and for sure the most wide-spread and dangerous threats to human and other life on the largest scale known to mankind.

We don’t know what to do with the nuclear waste we already have, yet we are willing to make more of it all the while facing the threat of nuclear war, nuclear power meltdowns, and lethal nuclear waste — not to mention that nuclear power plants have become a huge part of a new kind of war weapons, as proven by their use as weapons against humanity in the current Russia/Ukraine war. It is nuclear insanity. . . . ~llaw

The following article from “The Hill”, written by Cindy Folkers and Amanda M. Nichols explains how Scientists who know the facts about the dangers of radiation are being drowned out by the nuclear industry, politics, and the “gullible” media.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the view of The Hill

They won’t tell you these truths about nuclear energy

by Cindy Folkers and Amanda M. Nichols, opinion contributors – 02/02/25 7:00 AM ET

Scientists have been arguing about the health risks from radiation since the end of the 19th century, when radioactivity was first discovered. Today, with electricity demand soaring and AI companies clamoring for their own nuclear power plants, from small modular reactor projects to giant new nuclear builds, that century-old argument is ongoing.

But now it’s mostly a battle between scientists on the one hand and the nuclear industry, the politicians it lobbies and gullible media on the other.

Currently, scientists are being drowned out. The Biden administration proposed to triple U.S. nuclear capacity by 2050, and President Trump is perceived as favoring nuclear expansion as well. Despite reams of peer-reviewed studies and books showing radiation’s harmful effects, there is persistent denialism that seems impervious to fact-checking.

It took until this century for the U.S. government to finally admit that radiation had killed workers at nuclear weapons plants. For Congress, compensating them remains politically radioactive: lawmakers failed to reauthorize the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act that expired in 2024. Media coverage increasingly and uncritically repeats the talking points of nuclear industry spokespeople, who preposterously claim you would have to stand next to nuclear waste for a year to get as much radiation as having an X-ray, or that eating a banana gives you as much radiation exposure as living next to a nuclear plant.

This is dangerous disinformation in a long line of dangerous disinformation.

After the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Japan, the director of the Manhattan Project, Gen. Leslie R. Groves, debunked reports of radiation sickness as Japanese “propaganda.” Later, when he had to admit its existence, Groves misled Congress and the public by saying it was “a very pleasant way to die.”

Spreading such lies is bad enough. What is even worse is that the truth of the matter has been actively and deliberately suppressed.

Scientists who first dared to expose radiation’s harms — cancer, birth defects, disproportionate impacts on females — had their funding and data seized and suffered professional ostracism and vilification.

Yet their early scientific findings were largely vindicated. It’s now well established that exposure to ionizing radiation has adverse health impacts, affecting the heart, lungs, thyroid, brain and immune system, causing blood disorders, cataracts, malignant tumors, keloids and other chronic conditions. It wreaks genetic havoc that can result in cancer, organ dysfunction and immune and metabolic disorders. Children and pregnant women are particularly vulnerable.

It’s also proven that ionizing radiation disproportionately impacts women and girls, with the youngest worst affected. Ethnicity and other factors beyond biological sex and age may be contributing or compounding factors. There is also a growing body of evidence that radiation has transgenerational impacts.

Meanwhile, regulators set dose limits for radiation exposure that fly in the face of the evidence. These limits purport to set a “safe” level of radiation exposure, ignoring radiation researchers who have long stressed there is no such thing as a safe level, since any exposure can contribute to adverse health impacts.

In fact, nuclear technologies, including civilian power reactors, have poisoned large swaths of land — and not only the areas around Chernobyl and Fukushima, whose radioactive cesium contaminated Tokyo. The U.S. nuclear industry has left a lasting legacy of radiation in our environment, including in our water and food, which U.S. regulators are hardly able to effectively track, let alone remediate.

Uranium mining and nuclear weapons testing particularly and disproportionately affect Indigenous land and Native Americans, compounding the harms of colonization, exploitation and marginalization on already overburdened communities. Nuclear technologies have done and will continue to do long, slow violence, especially to the poor and marginalized, leaving long-lasting ecological, human-health and genetic impacts.

We seem unable to keep these inconvenient truths in our heads, the more so since well-financed nuclear lobbyists and their government targets have misdirected our attention by reframing nuclear power as key to fighting climate change.

This is a fallacy. There’s actually plenty of evidence showing the opposite — that relying on nuclear power actually makes climate change worse, and undercuts the true climate solution of renewables and efficiency. Even the Government Accountability Office called out the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for its nonsensical refusal to consider the growing dangers of operating nuclear plants amid climate change. But none of that has prevented countenancing the myth of nuclear as a climate strategy and other big lies about it.

Perhaps the biggest lies about nuclear stem from Eisenhower’s 1953 “Atoms for Peace” speech, a carefully crafted bid to recast nuclear technology as peaceful after the atrocious 1945 Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. Atoms for Peace promised to make electricity “too cheap to meter” and “make the deserts bloom,” while deliberately concealing the truth that nuclear was utterly uncompetitive and not remotely economically viable as a power source. Civilian nuclear power was misdirection away from the real agenda of building nuclear power plants, which was to help supply the nuclear weapons complex, producing enriched plutonium as feedstocks for nuclear bombs in the burgeoning arms race.

Today, nuclear weapons are still the hidden agenda and secret rationale behind the otherwise nonsensical nuclear power industry. The resurgent nuclear arms race is the real reason why many tens of billions in federal subsidies ($53.5 billion in the Inflation Reduction Act alone, plus billions more in state subsidies) are propping up the utterly uncompetitive nuclear power industry, and why many billions more of taxpayers’ money is now getting thrown at corporations pushing chimerical “advanced” nuclear and uneconomical, dirty, failing small modular reactors (SMRs).

But some are pushing back, like Indigenous nations and public interest advocates in southwest Washington, where Amazon is pushing to build SMRs to power its AI business, heedless of their negative impacts and prohibitive costs.

Of all the dangers of reckless nuclear boosterism, the most insidious is disinformation concealing and denying nuclear’s past, present and future harms while wildly exaggerating its benefits. These are the perennial tactics of the nuclear industry. They litter its history, and they’re again getting traction today.

But they can be countered with sunshine — both the kind that powers real renewables with which nuclear can’t compete, and the kind that exposes its prevarications and lies with scientific evidence and public scrutiny.

Cindy Folkers is the radiation and health hazard specialist at the NGO Beyond Nuclear, and co-author with Ian Fairlie of the new book “The Scientists who Alerted us to the Dangers of Radiation.” Amanda M. Nichols, Ph.D. is a postdoctoral research fellow at University of California Santa Barbara’s Environmental Studies Program, and managing editor of the peer-reviewed Journal of Religion, Nature and Culture.

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ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO LLAW’s ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA

(Please note that the Sunday and Saturday NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS are also added below by category, following Monday’s news posts in order to maintain continuity of nuclear news as well as for research for the overall information provided in “LLAW;s All Things Nuclear”.)

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:

1. All Things Nuclear
2. Nuclear Power
3. Nuclear Power Emergencies
4. Nuclear War Threats
5. Nuclear War
6. Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There are three Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in today’s Post.)
7. 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.

TODAY’s NUCLEAR WORLD’s NEWS, Tuesday, (02/04/2025)

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

Nuclear fusion hopeful nears £60m funding boost amid concern over China breakthrough

Yahoo

Nuclear fusion hopeful nears £60m funding boost amid concern over China breakthrough … “This look is all about American exceptionalism,” she said of …

How Trump’s ‘Iron Dome for America’ upends four decades of nuclear doctrine

Breaking Defense

Scientists then and now are at odds about not only the effects on nuclear … Doing All The Things: Is It Feasible? While there is an argument to be …

Palisades nuclear plant’s restart uncertain amid Trump’s mixed signals – Planet Detroit

Planet Detroit

… all federal loans and grants. Such an environment could complicate things for projects like Palisades that require stability to plan for, say …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

They won’t tell you these truths about nuclear energy

The Hill

In fact, nuclear technologies, including civilian power reactors, have poisoned large swaths of land — and not only the areas around Chernobyl and …

Palisades nuclear plant’s restart uncertain amid Trump’s mixed signals – Planet Detroit

Planet Detroit

The Palisades Nuclear Plant in Michigan is set for reopening amid mixed signals from President Trump, raising questions about its stability.

Vietnam to talk soon with foreign partners on nuclear power plants | Reuters

Reuters

State utility EVN and oil and gas firm PetroVietnam have been assigned as the investors for the first two plants, the government said in a statement.

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEWS

Russian attacks near Ukrainian nuclear infrastructure heighten scrutiny of Kyiv’s preparedness

AP News

… nuclear agency has repeatedly warned since the Russian attacks began in August. And while Ukraine’s nuclear plants have backup emergency power …

24/7 duty, border controls: How UAE regulates nuclear materials, prepares for emergencies

Khaleej Times

The authority conducted three inspections at Barakah Nuclear Power Plant in 2024 to assess emergency preparedness and response arrants. “We ..

Tariffs Using Emergency Economic Powers Risk Undermining U.S. Economic Security

CSIS

… nuclear energy, heavy machinery, and defense industries. Various macroeconomic estimates suggest that U.S. tariffs on Canada will result in higher .

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

A New Era in Nuclear Arms Reduction – New York State Bar Association

New York State Bar Association

… threats of using nuclear weapons. … “The rule of law and basic morality will reign in the threat of nuclear war – we need both to reign in this threat …

An Unreal Pain: Russia’s New Nuclear Doctrine Delivers Headlines, But Not Change

Stimson Center

Just as President Richard Nixon was unable to terminate the war in Vietnam on his terms through use of coercive nuclear threats, Putin must also fail …

Iran warns any attack on its nuclear facilities will lead to regional war – Peoples Dispatch

Peoples Dispatch

Araghchi was responding to repeated Israeli threats made over the last few months about targeting Iranian nuclear facilities. These threats may …

Nuclear War

NEWS

Trump Has a Rare and Short Window to Solve the Iran Problem — Here’s How

War on the Rocks

… nuclear program itself, extending sunset timelines and further restricting certain Iranian nuclear activities. … war against Hamas have also …

The national missile defense fantasy—again – Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

If so, it would repeat the role strategic defenses have played in the Cold War’s nuclear arms race. Efforts to build national defenses always …

IAEA chief warns of nuclear risk from Russia attacks on Ukraine power grids – Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera

“A nuclear accident can result from a direct attack on a plant, but also from power supply disruption.” Moscow has constantly bombarded Ukraine’s …

Yellowstone Caldera

NEWS

Yellowstone’s Monument Geyser Basin might have formed under lake – Buckrail

Buckrail

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK — On Saturday, Feb. 1, Scientist-in-Charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory Mike Poland shared a video exploring …

Will the Yellowstone volcano erupt any time soon? Scientists say it’s not likely – KBZK.com

KBZK.com

The Chief Scientist of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, Dr. Michael Poland, says he’s not worried about an imminent eruption of the volcano …

Yellowstone National Park: Where Geology Is On Display Nearly Everywhere

National Parks Traveler

Editor’s note:Yellowstone Caldera Chronicles is a weekly column written by scientists and collaborators of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory.

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity” ~llaw

Lloyd A. Williams-Pendergraft

Feb 03, 2025

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LAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS TODAY with the RISKS and CONSEQUENCES for TOMORROW . . .

Given the constant Russian attacks on Ukraine’s nuclear power plants and the lesser Ukraine attacks on Russia’s nuclear power plants, how is it that we cannot call this ongoing war a nuclear war? It is obvious to me, at least, that nuclear power plants used for advantages in war are nuclear weapons of mass destruction, and are potentially as dangerous over immense land areas that, like nuclear bomb fallout, have no respect for any country’s boundaries.

So let’s be realistic and honest and call the Russia/Ukraine war a nuclear war. And I suspect that in future wars around the globe nuclear power plants will be favorable targets of nuclear bombs (adding to the nuclear radiation and other damage much like Annie Jacobsen’s conceivable description of such a devastating nuclear attack on the California home of PG&E’s Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant near San Luis Obispo — just 12 miles away — in her remarkable and extremely well researched book “Nuclear War – A Scenario”.

Obviously this kind of warfare can no longer be considered conventional, nor is it fiction, but undoubtedly a very real part of any future nuclear warfare. This is why I continue to say unequivocally that disarmament of nuclear weapons must include all nuclear power plants. Also know that the use of nuclear power will never solve the problem of climate change and global warming. ~llaw

Following is a relevant and more currently detailed news article of the situation in Ukraine from “War on the Rocks” by author Theresa Sabonis-Helf

The Electricity Front of Russia’s War Against Ukraine

Theresa Sabonis-Helf

February 3, 2025

Commentary

Russia is close to achieving a decisive edge on the energy front of the Russo–Ukrainian war. Repeated attacks on key infrastructure have recently intensified, leaving Ukraine’s damaged electrical grid 70 percent reliant on three complexes of nuclear reactors. These reactors are increasingly threatened by the instability of the grid itself and could become unsafe to operate, forcing a shutdown and grid collapse. Since Ukraine has submitted to heightened oversight by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the decision to shut down its nuclear plants if the perceived risk becomes too high may not be entirely its own.

Protecting the grid’s key substations is now the single most important priority for the survival of the Ukrainian state. By targeting electricity, Russia has made the current phase of the war an urban battle between darkness and light — and there is a clear scenario whereby darkness could triumph.

Ukrainian Demand and Supply

Temperatures in January and February in Ukraine remain well below freezing on most days. Due to the collapse of much industry, the current demand for electricity is down, though it still exceeds the remaining available supply. Winter demand is 18 gigawatts, but Ukraine is currently able to generate only 12–13 gigawatts domestically. This leads to frequent outages. Ukrainian sources report that household electricity outages in 2024 totaled nearly 2,000 hours: In November, power was down 25 percent of the time, and in December that rose to nearly 40 percent. Ukraine can make up some of the deficit by importing electricity from neighboring E.U. countries. Under existing agreements, however, Ukraine cannot import enough to meet demand. Widespread residential blackouts are frequent across the country, even when power plants and the grid are not under immediate Russian attack.

And supply seems constantly under threat: There have been over 1,000 attacks on Ukraine’s power grid since the start of the war, with Russia escalating its energy-focused attacks in 2024. A new round of bombardments in August undermined the efforts of Ukrainian authorities to restore the power supply over the summer. By September, the grid was reportedly generating only one-third of its pre-February 2022 level. Due to the repeated bombings of thermal and hydropower plants, the majority of Ukraine’s remaining electricity generation now comes from nine nuclear power plants arranged in three complexes: Rivne (four reactors), South Ukraine (three reactors), and Khmelnitsky (two reactors). Russia has been reluctant to attack these facilities directly due to the risk of releasing radioactive contaminants into the surrounding environments.

Russian Targeting of Ukraine’s Nuclear Power Plants

Russia does not need to attack the three remaining nuclear power plant complexes to collapse Ukraine’s electricity supply. The national grid is connected by 103 substations, which used to integrate electricity from several sources (e.g., nuclear, coal, gas, and hydro) but now rely mostly on nuclear power. This lack of source diversity weakens the grid, increasing the chances of cascading failure.

The substations are a vital part of the entire system. Without them, nuclear power plants can neither supply the grid nor retain the backup supply of power that is essential for reactor safety. Therefore, the loss of offsite power to a nuclear power plant is a serious problem.

To make matters worse, many of Ukraine’s substations are exposed and vulnerable, lacking adequate protection against Russian air attacks. On Nov. 28, attacks against four substations forced a temporary shutdown of one of the four reactors at the Rivne complex. The same series of attacks forced nuclear power plants at all three complexes to reduce electricity output as a precautionary measure since the resulting damage had created dangerous instabilities in the grid.

Forcing a shutdown of a nuclear power plant by attacking the surrounding substations is straight out of the Russian playbook: In September 2022, Russia compelled the closure of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant using similar means. By attacking nearby substations and thereby frequently interrupting the steady flow of power across a period of several weeks, Russia drove the facility to decrease output, then to supply power only to itself, and finally to lose connection to offsite power. This loss of offsite power happened repeatedly during the attacks, raising the perceived risk of an accident enough that the International Atomic Energy Agency intervened, encouraging Ukraine to close the facility, which it did in September 2022. Russia declared that it had taken control of the shuttered plant on Oct. 5, 2022. It remains in Russian hands today.

From that experience, Russia learned how the International Atomic Energy Agency might respond to a situation of heightened danger to a nuclear power plant. In fact, the agency has played a leading role in helping Ukraine manage its nuclear power since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. Thus, the prospect of using the agency as a tool to compel shutdown offers a potentially attractive option to the Kremlin.

The Role of the International Atomic Energy Agency in the Russo–Ukrainian War

In response to the first-ever occurrence of heavy fighting near nuclear power plants, the International Atomic Energy Agency became involved in the war on the second day of the invasion. The Ukrainian government notified the agency on Feb. 25, 2022 that it had lost control of the Chernobyl plant, which had been managed by Ukrainian authorities since its shutdown in 1986. It also invited the agency to take on an enhanced regulatory role during the conflict.

Since that day, the agency has established an important role for itself in the war, reporting on the state of Ukraine’s power supply and working to reduce risks of a nuclear catastrophe. It has supported Ukraine generously, completing 86 deliveries of safety and security equipment worth more than $14 million. In March 2022, the agency established seven “indispensable pillars” for nuclear safety and security amid the conflict, and it has provided regular reports on dangers to these pillars ever since. The presence of “secure off-site power supply from the grid for all nuclear sites” — or pillar four — is among the most often reported. At the invitation of Ukraine, the agency has established monitoring teams at each of Ukraine’s nuclear power plant complexes, including Zaporizhzhia. The agency continues to report on the risks at Zaporizhzhia and regularly emphasizes the fact that closing the plant significantly reduced — but did not eliminate — risk.

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s nuclear safety pillars have subsequently been endorsed by all member states, including Ukraine and Russia. The office of the agency’s director general releases a press statement every time a nuclear-safety-relevant incident occurs. As of Jan. 23, 2025, there had been 271 statements on the situation in Ukraine. The agency has undoubtedly made all of Europe safer by its intervention.

This very intervention, however, suggests a potential lever for the Kremlin. The agency has become the key vehicle for providing European donor assistance to Ukraine’s nuclear power plants. Continuous agency reporting of irregularities and risks can serve to heighten European concern about possible risks to the surrounding areas of an accident or incident. Russia is clearly aware of the concern and seems to be deliberately ratcheting up the fear, including by carrying out a Dec. 10, 2024 drone attack on the vehicle of newly arrived agency observers.

The Acceptable Level of Risk

Ukraine is thus partially dependent both on the agency and on European energy ties. Beginning in 2011, Ukraine joined the European Energy Community, setting itself on a course to be fully compliant with E.U. energy law — and compatible with the massive European grid. This required steadily disengaging from the Russian grid and increasing the transparency of all energy trade with Russia. The European Energy Community, which includes all E.U. members, welcomed Ukraine’s membership, hoping that a new member with surplus nuclear generation capacity could assist with achieving Europe’s ambitious goals to increase electricity generation while continuously decreasing greenhouse gas emissions. Understanding the potential economic windfall involved, Ukraine managed to achieve and implement the difficult but necessary structural energy reforms. From 2011 to 2022, the successive disengagement from Russian energy structures and systems served to further increase tensions with Russia.

By February 2022, Ukraine had only one remaining requirement for gaining membership in the European grid: to demonstrate that it could operate its domestic grid reliably in isolation for a week. This “de-linking” (from Russia, Belarus, and Poland) had been previously scheduled for Feb. 24. Since the full-scale invasion began the same day and Ukraine went ahead with de-linking despite the attack, Ukraine’s grid continued to operate in isolation until it was accepted permanently into the European electricity grid on March 16, 2022. Thereafter, Ukraine became a net exporter, steadily exporting electricity to Europe from March 2022 through August 2022. The revenue and status Ukraine derived from those exports were significant factors in the Russian decision to increase shelling of the substations and power lines associated with the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. Since the closure of that facility on Sep. 12, 2022, Ukraine has become a net importer of electricity, regularly petitioning the European grid system for higher import volumes and more infrastructure. According to Ukraine’s energy ministry, Kyiv regards its energy relationship with Europe as a crucial source of imports at present — but as a critical export market in the longer term. Thus, maintaining a reputation for reliability and safe operation of its power generation is essential.

Ukraine is not the only country focused on a nuclear energy future. In fact, nuclear energy is enshrined in European law as a long-term fuel source for the green transition, and 12 E.U. states joined the United States, the United Kingdom, and Ukraine in pledging to triple nuclear energy capacity by 2050 as part of U.N. climate commitments. However, history suggests a nuclear accident caused by the war could derail a potential nuclear renaissance. The 2011 Fukushima disaster led to a collapse in the global price of uranium and had a measurable impact on the trajectory of nuclear power globally, as it compelled countries to recalculate unanticipated risks. Experts are already reconsidering the military implications of nuclear power and calling for stronger international oversight to precede new construction.

Due to the fear of an accident with local and international implications, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States are likely to join with the International Atomic Energy Agency in insisting on shutting down any of Ukraine’s nuclear power plant complexes if they — or the grid to which they are connected — fail to meet international safety standards. The E.U.–Ukraine Association Agreement states, in Article 342, that Ukraine must cooperate with International Atomic Energy Agency principles and standards for nuclear safety. With the agency monitoring on the ground and releasing regular press statements, there will be little room for Ukraine to negotiate.

Ukraine’s Energy Security Options

International advisors and Ukrainian energy experts agree that the best measure Ukraine can take to avoid grid collapse is to concentrate air defense systems on protecting the key substations: Defending the grid is as critical as defending the remaining megawatts. Even the International Energy Agency, which typically focuses on the infrastructure and market development of its members, has included “bolster the physical and cyber security of Ukraine’s critical energy infrastructure” first among its priority recommendations for getting Ukraine through the rest of the winter.

While air defense in Ukraine has improved dramatically since the first year of the war, they are stretched thin. Ensuring that the systems in operation have sufficient munitions has also been a challenge. It is unclear the extent to which Ukraine has prioritized air defense for the electricity sector — although domestic and international energy sector experts have strongly advocated for it. The Ukrainian defense during the 2024 Christmas attack is illustrative: The reported success rate of destroying 65% of missiles and drones kept Russia from controlling the air, but this leaves considerable room for damage if the attacks are well-targeted.

Meanwhile, the ability to conduct rapid repairs to the grid and substations is an area in which Ukraine has excelled. Ukraine’s ability to restore power to half a million citizens within 24 hours of the Christmas day attacks was remarkable. According to experts at the Ukraine Energy Security Dialogue in December 2024, the ability to repair transformers rapidly has been dramatically improved (although it still takes 17 days). In addition, Ukraine has sought resilience through building up distributed power: Over 1.5 million power generators have been imported, 200 megawatts of energy storage has been purchased to help increase grid resilience, and some decentralized power systems are in place. Absent sufficient air defense for the grid, however, these measures may not be enough.

If Ukraine is able to make it through the winter, the coming year looks more promising. The International Energy Agency released a recent report arguing for a decentralized electricity system for the country to supplement its nuclear power. Such a system would integrate renewables, batteries, and modular gas turbines, which could significantly improve the resilience of the grid. Distributed energy resource systems are typically more difficult to target, while making it possible to generate power closer to demand centers. If sufficient investment can be found, such a system could be put into place relatively rapidly.

While Ukraine improves its own ability to generate power, it can also increase electricity imports from the European grid system. Current import levels are limited by existing contracts and infrastructure, but Ukraine’s imports expanded significantly in the past year from 1.7 to 2.5 megawatts and could be further increased in the spring. The key barriers to imports are security and cost. Russia has regularly targeted cross-border transmission lines, so increased imports must be coupled with improved air defense in additional strategic locations. Finally, like much of the country, Ukraine’s electricity sector is battling insolvency. After a year of near-constant attacks, the grid operator, Ukrenergo, had to suspend payments in November 2024. Although it is said by the Ukrainian government to be “restructuring,” the operator’s inability to pay for electricity imports serves to dampen enthusiasm for expanding exports.

The Worst Case Scenario

If keeping Ukraine’s electrical grid functioning seemingly requires huge investment, consider the cost of a failure to do so. Ukraine’s ability to keep the lights on is closely tied to both regime survival and European stability. Ukraine is 70 percent urban, with five major cities having over 900,000 residents each. Large urban areas such as these rapidly become ungovernable without electricity. The highly centralized systems in Ukraine mean that a loss of electricity puts water, sewage, and heat at risk as well, increasing the likelihood of large-scale population displacement. An estimated 6.8 million refugees have already left Ukraine, with an additional 4.0 million internally displaced. A catastrophic outmigration would create a refugee crisis across Europe, especially in neighboring states. Poland is already hosting over 900,000 Ukrainian refugees and Germany is hosting over 1.5 million. An additional nine European countries are hosting between 100,000 and 900,000 each. Europe has mostly been welcoming, but a second wave of refugees would strain the resources of even the most generous states. A full-blown winter refugee crisis could reduce Europe’s will to continue supporting Ukraine in its fight and in its negotiation of the terms of peace.

A grid collapse, should it occur, would reflect the ongoing role played by energy in this war. From the 2015 severing of Crimea from Ukraine’s electricity grid, to the 2015–2016 massive cyber attacks on Ukraine’s grid, to the destruction of the Nord Stream II pipeline, energy has factored heavily into the grievances and the ends, ways, and means of the Russo–Ukrainian war from its outset. We now find ourselves in a moment in which a slow war of attrition could come to an abrupt end, resolved by the triumph of cold and darkness. Ukraine’s survival now turns not on megatons, but on megawatts.

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Theresa Sabonis-Helf is a professor at Georgetown University, and concentration chair for science, technology, and international affairs in the Masters of Science in Foreign Service program.

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(Please note that the Sunday and Saturday NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS are also added below by category, following Monday’s news posts in order to maintain continuity of nuclear news as well as for research for the overall information provided in “LLAW;s All Things Nuclear”.)

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:

1. All Things Nuclear
2. Nuclear Power
3. Nuclear Power Emergencies
4. Nuclear War Threats
5. Nuclear War
6. Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There are three Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in today’s Post.)
7. 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.

TODAY’s NUCLEAR WORLD’s NEWS, Monday, (02/03/2025)

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

Inside a top-secret US nuclear facility in the Nevada desert – Little Rock Public Radio

Little Rock Public Radio

… about underground nuclear testing. Speaking was the woman who was in … all kinds of experiments to make sure the nuclear weapons still work.

Inside a top-secret US nuclear facility in the Nevada desert – Public Radio Tulsa

Public Radio Tulsa

BRUMFIEL: Then she started talking about what the U.S. is doing, how they run computer simulations and they do all kinds of experiments to make sure …

Inside a top-secret US nuclear facility in the Nevada desert – KCCU

KCCU

All Things Considered. Next Up: 7:00 PM Performance Today. 0:00. 0:00. All … Inside a top-secret US nuclear facility in the Nevada desert. NPR.

Nuclear Power

NEWS

Nuclear curious? Here’s what you need to know about the Coalition’s energy claims

The Guardian

Peter Dutton says building nuclear reactors will bring down power prices, but experts doubt it and say it will cost the climate too

One More Nuclear Country: With 43% Of World’s Uranium, Russia’s Key Ally Is Building Its …

EurAsian Times

However, Kazakhstan had only one Russia-made nuclear power reactor, which operated from 1972 to 1999, generating electricity and desalinating water. A …

Southeast Asia looks to nuclear power to supercharge its energy transition | AP News

AP News

Nuclear energy is viewed by its proponents as a climate solution since reactors don’t emit the plant-warming greenhouses gases released by burning …

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEWS

More emergency flood warnings issued in Far North Queensland | Watch – MSN

MSN

Nuclear Power Redux: Why Scientists Are Reconsidering Its Role in …

Vouchers, tax cuts, water and teacher pay top Gov. Abbott’s State of the State address

Abilene Reporter-News

Abbott also made further cuts to local property taxes a legislative emergency, promised a “nuclear power renaissance” and called for a “generational …

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Names Alexandra Bell Its New President

The New York Times

But that cross-pollination of expertise will be key to how we manage these threats. The looming threat for most people these days seems to be climate …

ROK Navy Task Fleet Command launched to counter NK’s nuclear threats

donga.com

The Republic of Korea Navy Task Fleet Command, a core unit of the maritime three-axis system against North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats, …

Could an Asteroid Really Hit Earth in 2032? – Power FM SA

Power FM SA

Share · How Scientists Track Dangerous Asteroids · Can We Stop an Asteroid? · Should We Be Worried? · Asteroid Extinction Risks vs Other Global Threats.

Nuclear War

NEWS

Nuclear Storytelling: Hollywood and The Bomb

The Nuclear Threat Initiative

The film follows the crew of a submarine exploring a post-nuclear war world that is slowly suffocated by nuclear fallout. On the Beach highlights …

The Electricity Front of Russia’s War Against Ukraine

War on the Rocks

Russia is close to achieving a decisive edge on the energy front of the Russo–Ukrainian war. Repeated attacks on key infrastructure have recently.

An Unreal Pain: Russia’s New Nuclear Doctrine Delivers Headlines, But Not Change

Stimson Center

On November 19, 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a new nuclear doctrine governing the world’s largest nuclear arsenal. … War and the …

Yellowstone Caldera

NEWS

Yellowstone National Park: Where geology is on display nearly everywhere! – USGS.gov

USGS.gov

About 631,000 years ago, a massive eruption formed what today is known as Yellowstone Caldera. New deposits, discovered within the caldera, are…

New discovery uncovers hidden magma chambers in Yellowstone National Park – The Times of India

Times of India

Each caldera provides valuable insights into the … Organizations such as the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory update the public in real time.

Underwater Smokers in Yellowstone? – YouTube

YouTube

… smokers in Yellowstone? 1:10 Activity in Yellowstone over the past month Read Caldera Chronicles https://usgs.gov/volcanoes/yellowstone/caldera …

“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity” ~llaw

Lloyd A. Williams-Pendergraft

Feb 02, 2025

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In order to keep abreast of the weekend nuclear news, I will post Saturday and Sunday’s news, but without editorial comment. If a weekend story warrants a critical review, it will show up on Monday’s postd . . .

If you are not familiar with the weekday daily blog post, this is how the nuclear news post works . . . llaw

ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA”:

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:

1. All Things Nuclear
2. Nuclear Power
3. Nuclear Power Emergencies
4. Nuclear War
5. Nuclear War Threats
6. Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There are three Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available on this weekend’s Post.)
7. 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.

TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS, Sunday,(02/02/2025)

All Things Nuclear

NEWS

Inside a top-secret US nuclear facility in the Nevada desert | Iowa Public Radio

Iowa Public Radio

All Things Considered. Next Up: 6:00 PM The Daily. 0:00. 0:00. All Things … Inside a top-secret US nuclear facility in the Nevada desert. NPR. By …

Inside a top-secret US nuclear facility in the Nevada desert | Alabama Public Radio

Alabama Public Radio

All Things Acoustic · Bama Bluegrass · Classical Music with David Duff … Inside a top-secret US nuclear facility in the Nevada desert. NPR. By …

Inside a top-secret US nuclear facility in the Nevada desert | Boise State Public Radio

Boise State Public Radio

All Things Considered · Reader’s Corner · Our Living Lands · Something I … Inside a top-secret US nuclear facility in the Nevada desert. NPR. By …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

Maryland lawmaker, governor eyes nuclear power to tackle energy gaps amid green shift

YouTube

Two bills before the Maryland General Assembly could fast-track nuclear power plant construction to address the state’s energy generation …

Top Nuclear Energy Companies Shaping the Future of Clean Power | ETF Trends

ETF Trends

With the ability to generate massive amounts of electricity without harmful emissions, nuclear energy offers a sustainable solution to the world’s …

Maryland lawmaker, governor eyes nuclear power to tackle energy gaps amid green shift

WJLA

State Sen. Benjamin Brooks and Gov. Wes Moore are exploring nuclear energy as an option to power Maryland.

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEWS

Nuclear emergency in Russia: Putin fears the worst – MSN

MSN

Russia could face an unprecedented nuclear disaster as its Kursk nuclear power plant is now dangerously close to the frontlines of the war.

Eskom suspends loadshedding following recovery of emergency reserves

Eskom

… emergency reserves. … Leadership changes at Eskom’s Koeberg Nuclear Power Station as Chief Nuclear Officer leaves to join Canadian nuclear operator.

Budget brings renewed hope on thorium-based power plants in Kerala

Mathrubhumi English

In traditional nuclear reactors, even when the reactor shuts down in an emergency, significant heat continues to be generated. To prevent a meltdown, …

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

Rafael Grossi: Is the world edging closer to nuclear conflict? – Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera

IAEA chief Rafael Grossi on nuclear threats, global tensions, and the future of atomic security.

The world at war: the flashpoints that the west ignores – The Guardian

The Guardian

The reasons are familiar: the risk of nuclear war, climate change, pandemics, disinformation, new technologies. The point is, such threae poorly ..

Putin ‘assassination plot’ could spark ‘nuclear war‘ with warning issued – Irish Star

Irish Star

Putin ‘ignores’ Trump threats with Russia planning ‘new attacks’ irishstar … threat to global security, a direct path to nuclear war. Al

Nuclear War

NEWS

Rafael Grossi: Is the world edging closer to nuclear conflict? – Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera

IAEA chief Rafael Grossi on nuclear threats, global tensions, and the future of atomic security.

Putin ‘assassination plot’ could spark ‘nuclear war‘ with warning issued – Irish Star

Irish Star

The Kremlin was rocked by the assassination of one of its top military commanders in Moscow in December, sparking fears that Vladimir Putin could ..

Rafael Grossi: Is the world edging closer to nuclear conflict? | Talk to Al Jazeera – YouTube

YouTube

With wars redrawing global alliances and nuclear tensions rising, is the world at a turning point? From Iran’s stalled nuclear deal to North …

Yellowstone Caldera

NEWS

Yellowstone supervolcano study sparks new debate on where and when it will erupt

Earth.com

Yellowstone’s magma system shows new activity, with the northeast sector possibly hosting future volcanic activity.

Yellowstone Supervolcano New Study Fuels Speculation: Where and When Could It Erupt?

The Daily Galaxy

Beneath Yellowstone’s geysers and hot springs, a vast volcanic system holds secrets that scientists are still uncovering. A new study has mapped …

USGS Monitoring Massive Volcano off U.S. West Coast that Can Erupt Anytime

Weatherboy

… volcano’s 2015 eruption, Axial spewed out 5.5 billion cubic feet of lava. Mike Stone, a USGS researcher at Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, told …