Saudi Arabia is blackballing Canadian products. The good news is, one of those is a 14-reactor nuclear project

In an excellent new piece, now also published on Beyond Nuclear International, Henry Sokolski and Victor Gilinsky, of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, show how Saudi Arabia's decision to suspend all new business with Canada could inadvertently aid the non-proliferation cause. That's because Westinghouse, which was to sell 12-14 reactors to the Saudis, is now owned by a Canadian company. US president, Donald Trump, had hoped the nuclear deal, forged with the Saudi Crown Prince, would keep the Westinghouse name -- and coffers -- alive. Now, because of one tweet by a Canadian minister in favor of women's human rights, that deal could mercifully be off.

"In the latest you-can’t-make-this-stuff-up event, Saudi Arabia’s furious campaign of economic retaliation against Canada — in response to Canadian foreign minister Chrystia Freeland’s criticismof the arrest of Saudi women’s rights activists — threatens to dash Westinghouse’s hopes for a lucrative nuclear deal with the Saudis. And, ironically, it may help to preserve tough rules on nuclear exports (“gold standard”) that the Saudi deal might otherwise scuttle.

On Aug. 7, the Saudis recalled their ambassador and expelled Canada’s ambassador, canceled flights to and from Canada, ordered Saudi students and even Saudis in Canadian hospitals to leave Canada, ordered the immediate sale of Saudi-owned Canadian assets “no matter the cost,” and — what is most important for our story — suspended all new business with Canada." Read the full article.

Fukushima workers exploited and exposed

The United Nations has criticized the Japanese government for exploiting low-income workers at the stricken Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant and exposing them to unacceptable levels of radioactivity while they conduct "cleanup" work at the site.

In a breaking news story on August 18, the UN special rapporteurs revealed that workers suffering financial hardship were being coerced into working at the site where they were then improperly protected and effectively lied to about the amount of radiation exposure they received on the job, multiple news sources reported.

In a damning report, the UN experts said that tens of thousands were affected, some of whom are homeless or migrant workers with no other employment options. They wrote that workers are "often exposed to a myriad of human rights abuses, forced to make the abhorrent choice between their health and income, and their plight is invisible to most consumers and policymakers with the power to change it."

This is a major black eye and exposé that Japanese authorities must now confront even as they continue to indulge in shameless propaganda suggesting that evacuees can return and that 2020 Olympic events planned for Fukushima will not expose athletes and spectators to radioactivity.

Vigilance needed against FirstEnergy Nuclear's attempted ratepayer/taxpayer robbery to prop up dangerously old atomic reactors

As reported by the Fremont (Ohio) News-Messenger: "Perry, Davis-Besse nuclear power plants move one step closer to deactivation."

However, as Akron, OH-based FirstEnergy officials make clear in their quotes in the article, the company's lobbyists' quest continues for state-level bailouts (as from the state legislatures in OH and PA -- FirstEnergy also owns/operates Beaver Valley in Shippingport near Pittsburgh), regional bailouts (as from the PJM grid operator), and even federal bailouts.

Re: the latter, NIRS, Public Citizen, and UCS board member Peter Bradford recently reported that the FirstEnergy so-called "emergency request" (bending old laws to the breaking point) to President Trump and Energy Secretary Perry, if approved, could cost the public (ratepayers and taxpayers) a total of $34 billion (yes, with a B) per year, half in old nuke bailouts, and half in old coal bailouts.

Obviously, FirstEnergy's announced closure dates for its atomic reactors at Perry, Davis-Besse, and Beaver Valley must be viewed with deep skepticism. Multiple announced reactor closure dates in NY and IL were simply reversed, when massive public bailouts were awarded, to keep dangerously old reactors operating. The announced closures were simply used as a lobbying ploy to secure bailouts -- the nuclear power plant workers' jobs, local tax revenues, etc., were threatened, till complicit decision makers went along -- at public expense, and increasing safety risk to countless communities downwind and downstream.

Here are links to related media coverage:

• Cleveland Plain Dealer - Union workers at FirstEnergy nuclear plants excluded from retention bonuses, union argues discrimination - John Funk
• E&E Daily - NUCLEAR: FirstEnergy takes step toward closing Pa., Ohio plants - Sam Mintz
• Toledo Blade, OH - FirstEnergy Solutions takes next step toward shutting down Davis-Besse nuke plant - Tom Henry

Turning space into a war zone must be stopped

“This is a crucial moment where the public must stand and say ‘hell no!” said Bruce Gagnon, coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, on his blog. “Star Wars” isn’t “affordable, is an insane idea, and would very likely lead to WW III—the final war,” said Gagnon.

Gagnon is quoted in a new article by Karl Grossman -- published today on Counterpunch -- who decries the Trump White House announcement about the planned creation of a new "Space Force." Writes Grossman:

"If Donald Trump gets his way and there is a U.S. Space Force, the heavens would become a war zone, there would indeed be an 'arms race in space,' and inevitably war in space." Read the full article.

Groups protest high risks of trucking irradiated nuclear fuel through Michigan

As reported by the Detroit Free Press.

See the groups' press release, and additional media coverage, here.