International
Beyond Nuclear has added a new division -- Beyond Nuclear International. Articles covering international nuclear news -- on nuclear power, nuclear weapons and every aspect of the uranium fuel chain -- can now mainly be found on that site. However, we will continue to provide some breaking news on these pages as it arises.
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Sometimes the best way to spread the message and communicate the injustice of the nuclear industry is through music. Here are Hatutaki-Wakazi feat and Sophie & the Harmonies on uranium mining plans in Tanzania.
In a reminder of how dangerous it is to oppose the nuclear power industry in some countries comes disturbing news from Tanzania. Tundu Lissu, an outspoken lawyer, human rights activist, opposition member of the Tanzanian Parliament, and a critic of extractive industries, was shot and wounded in Dodoma on September 7 when returning home from a session of parliament.
Gunter Wippel, a leading advocate against uranium mining and who administers the international Uranium Network, met Lissu on several occasions. He writes: “Tundu, whom I had met during our first information tour on the issue of uranium mining, attended and spoke out at several occasions at our conferences and supported our partners in Tanzania critical of uranium mining repeatedly.
“He was supposed to attend next week's conference "Human Rights, Future Generations and Crimes of the Nuclear Age" in Basel, Switzerland.”
Conflicting reports have Lissu in critical and in stable condition. It is unclear at the moment why he was shot and who by but he is a vocal opponent of Tanzanian president, John Magufuli.
The fact that the alleged nuclear revival has evaporated into the ether is being trumpeted as breaking news. But there was never a nuclear revival -- only "plans" and "aspirations" built on quicksand. The collapse of the South Carolina nuclear new build project at V.C. Summer had been seen coming since it's first glimmer on paper -- by groups such as Southern Alliance For Clean Energy, relegated, as are many of us, to anti-nuclear Cassandras.
The same reactor design -- the untested AP 1000 -- is planned for a site next to the Sellafield reprocessing faciity in the UK. But with the implosion of Toshiba under the weight of the Westinghouse financial collapse, that project is under serious threat. The site is owned and operated by the rashly named consortium, NuGen. But as the sign at the site indicates, there is nothing happening there right now as NuGen partners scamper for the exits and the South Koreans -- who have forsaken nuclear power at home -- mull sticking it on others overseas. If the South Koreans switch out the AP 1000 for their own reactor design at the Moorside NuGen site, it will become very old Gen indeed, with likely many more years of delay. By that time, nuclear energy will have become 100% redundant, as renewables, combined with energy efficiency, will have completely taken over.
As Martin Forwood of Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment commented in a recent press release: "The latest news of the plug being pulled on the half-built AP1000 reactors in the US and the fall from grace on the Tokyo Stock Exchange of NuGen’s sole investor Toshiba will further add to the increasing uncertainties swirling around in the Moorside mists”.
Writes Survival International: "Officials in India are threatening to evict a tribe from a tiger reserve in the name of conservation – but have just approved uranium exploration in the same reserve. The move has angered campaigners, who accuse the authorities of hypocrisy.
The Chenchu tribe in Amrabad tiger reserve have pleaded to be allowed to stay on the land which they have been dependent on and managed for millennia.
Indian authorities justify their forced evictions of tribal people – which are illegal according to national and international law – on the grounds that any human presence in the reserves is harmful to tigers. However, in many tiger reserves in India, fee-paying tourists are allowed to visit in large numbers, and road-building, mineral exploration and even mining have all taken place." More
At a recent conference, Rosatom’s deputy director Vyacheslav Pershukov called the market for nuclear power stations abroad “exhausted.” Rosatom is showing interest in small hydroelectric plants and wind energy. More.
October 4, 2017