Why Trump might bend nuclear security rules to help Saudi Arabia build reactors in the desert

As report by Steven Mufson in the Washington Post.

The article quotes a number of voices skeptical of the nuclear weapons proliferation risks a nuclear power program in the Middle East would represent:

Henry Sokolski, the executive director of the nonprofit Nonproliferation Policy Education Center who served in President George H.W. Bush’s Pentagon, asked, “How do we feel about the stability of the kingdom? The reactors are bolted to the ground for a minimum of 40 years and a maximum of 80 years. That’s enough for the whole world to change.”

...Many experts on Saudi Arabia say the kingdom wants its own program to deter or counterbalance Iran. “I think part of it is keeping up with the Iranians and trying to build up a nuclear infrastructure that could be turned into weapons capability,” Gause said. [F. Gregory Gause is a professor of international affairs at Texas A&M University.]

...“We have a tendency to use nukes as a way of ingratiating ourselves with countries around the world and then we get into a negotiation of whether there are safeguards,” said Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.). “I think ultimately it’s going to come back to haunt us.”

...Saudi Arabia “would like us to cave to some degree on some elements of the 123 agreement,” said Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. But, he added, “the fewer Mideast nuclear weapons states, the better. And the fewer nondemocratic nuclear states, the better. And the fewer states where I can’t predict 10 years down the road what their attitudes will be toward the United States, the fewer of those countries that have nuclear weapons the better.”

Nuclear power could END this history of southwest Michigan

In an article by Alexandra Newman in the St. Joe-Benton Harbor Herald-Palladium entitled "How nuclear power became a Southwest Michigan powerhouse," the following section quotes Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps (who is from s.w. MI, and has served as a board member of the statewide anti-nuclear group Don't Waste MI since 1992, representing his hometown Kalamazoo chapter):

A history of opposition

Kevin Kamps, of the anti-nuclear group Beyond Nuclear, said long before he joined the anti-nuclear effort in 1992, grassroots activists were fighting against Palisades and Cook.

“I had mentors that opposed, at least Palisades, before construction even began,” he said. “Sandy Adams told me of her times gathering signatures on petitions and a local man, Maynard Koffman, started very early opposing the plant. You hear a lot of stories like that.”

Kamps said Mary Sinclair, who died in 2011, was a prominent anti-nuclear activist in the state who got her start opposing nuclear power when original owner Consumers Power announced its intention to build the Palisades plant.

Kamps said people like him still fight against nuclear power because of all the risks involved. He claims, for example, that Palisades has one of the most embrittled reactors in the country; Cook’s design is weak and small, making it uncertain that if an accident happened, whether the containment system would actually contain it; they both have very problematic dry cask storage systems; and they pose huge risks to Lake Michigan.

“What these risks represent is the ending of history in Southwest Michigan if areas have to be evacuated because of some sort of accident,” Kamps said. “It has only happened a handful of times, but it does happen. They’re playing nuclear Russian roulette. Energy can be created in much safer ways.”

NUKE POWER SHUTDOWNS are getting us closer to Solartopia

Solartopia Green Power and Wellness Hour - 02.02.18

NUKE POWER SHUTDOWNS are getting us closer to Solartopia.  We join TIM JUDSON and KEVIN KAMPS to explore the growing parade of atomic power plants being closed for reasons of economics, old age and grid limitations in light of the massive influx of renewable energy.

Coming from the NUCLEAR INFORMATION & RESOURCE SERVICE & BEYOND NUCLEAR, we explore the situations at DIABLO CANYON in California, at PERRY, DAVIS-BESSE & BEAVER VALLEY in Ohio & Pennsylvania, and at four reactors in upstate New York being bailed out by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.  NIRS has joined a lawsuit to prevent those bailouts which has just gotten favorable news from a state court.

We also talk about the extreme danger of nukes being built in CHINA and the horrors of FUKUSHIMA, 3 MILE ISLAND, CHERNOBYL and other catastrophes of the atomic age.

With the onrush of renewables, there is hope for a green-powered Earth, and the path is being cleared by these truly great activists.  Don’t miss what they say.

Listen to the audio recording, here.

Power’s Prophet: Remembering Gene Sharp

As Stephen Zunes' remembrance in The Progressive states, "[Gene] Sharp’s writings were employed by modern U.S. progressive movements from the anti-nuclear movement of the 1970s through the Occupy movement earlier this decade."

As Democracy Now! reported on Jan. 31st:

Nonviolent Resistance Advocate Gene Sharp Dies at 90

And Gene Sharp, a lifelong advocate of nonviolent resistance, has died at the age of 90. Sharp was most famous for his extensive writings on nonviolent struggle, which include the influential book “From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation.” He was also the founder of the Albert Einstein Institution, which is dedicated to advancing the study of nonviolent action. This is Gene Sharp accepting the Right Livelihood Award in 2012.

Gene Sharp: “Nonviolent struggle, or nonviolent action, includes three categories of methods, specific means of acting. One, the methods of nonviolent protest, that are symbolic activities, such as marching down the street or displaying certain colors. But this technique, if it has only that, wouldn’t be worth much. It also includes the much more powerful methods of noncooperation, such as social boycotts, economic boycotts, labor strikes, political boycotts, civil disobedience. And thirdly, the methods of nonviolent intervention and disruption, such as sit-ins, fasts and the creation of new institutions.”

Gene Sharp died Sunday at the age of 90 in his home in Boston.

The Washington Post also published an obituary.