So I grew up next to #Chernobyl and this is, well, TERRIFYING.

A story for y’all: I’m from a city called Zhytomyr, 2 hours west of Kyiv in the North of #Ukraine. We were downwind of the Chernobyl #nuclear power plant when the 1986 disaster happened.

I wasn’t born for another 12 years, but my childhood was filled with stories and the aftermath of it all. Things like:

- My grandmother worked as a head doctor in a hospital and rehabilitation facility exclusively for children of Chernobyl victims to treat the extremely high prevalence of Tuberculosis and other severe health complications. (To specify: these were SECOND GENERATION of exposure).

- A lot of the kids in that facility were orphans, because their parents died young from health problems.

- My uncle’s wife was born in Pripyat. She was 1 year old when the disaster happened. Her parents were told to evacuate while given no information about what happened. They had to pack up their things and rush out to an unfamiliar city with their baby, never to see the rest of their belongings, apartment, or hometown again.

- When I was a kid, it became so common to see weirdly mutated animals and insects that even 2-3 year olds would make jokes about “Chernobyl mosquitos” and I wouldn’t even flinch seeing occasional giant bugs, dark frogs, weird-looking dogs.

- We’d frequently hear of nearby farms having issues with their animals being born too mutated to survive or random outbreaks from contaminated water / food. Crops would randomly fail. People would get poisoned on a regular basis. This all got less common as I grew up.

- My mother still remembers being a little girl, 10 years old, and looking outside from their balcony at the clouds blowing over from Chernobyl that day. People were told to not go outside and to shut all the windows, but not given an explanation as to why. My mother swears that the rain looked different. They weren’t able to go and buy more food for the kitchen for multiple days.

Anyway - nuclear safety isn’t a joke. I don’t understand how this level of carelessness can happen after Chernobyl and Fukushima.

https://www.404media.co/power-companies-are-using-ai-to-build-nuclear-power-plants/

'It will poison everything.' #NativeAmericans protest #YuccaMountain #Nuclear Waste site

by Ed Komenda, May 22, 2019

"“Those transportation routes go through any number of sensitive habitats where a #derailment or a truck accident could cause significant impacts on water or on wildlife that live along those transportation corridors,' Donnelly [Nevada state director for the Center for Biological Diversity] said.

"The office of #Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford identified the complexity of waste transport as one of many reasons storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain does little to protect the #environment and people. Other concerns include national security (waste shipments as terrorist targets) and geology (Yucca's aquifer drains to the #AmargosaValley – home to more than 1,400 people and several #endangered species). [And is seismically unstable]

"' #Contamination from Yucca Mountain could very easily contaminate the #aquifer,' Donnelly said, 'and thus contaminate all sorts of springs that harbor some kind of endemic life.'"

#NoNukes #WaterIsLife #EnvironmentalRacism

https://www.rgj.com/story/news/2019/05/22/yucca-mountain-nuclear-waste-nevada-test-site/3694806002/

The Silent Killers in #IndianCountry: #Copper, #Lithium, #Uranium and #Plutonium

Judge finds plutonium plants in #NewMexico and #SouthCarolina violated environmental laws

By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews, Oct. 10, 2024

"The U.S. government's plan for increased plutonium production at #LosAlamos National Laboratory, in the heart of Pueblo lands in northern New Mexico, has been delayed by a federal judge.

"Continuing the U.S. legacy of poisoning Indian country with #radiation, this comes as the U.S. government is granting leases to foreign #mining companies targeting Native #sacred lands and communities.

" #CopperMining is targeting San CarlosApache's sacred #OakFlat; #Hualapai are suing the US Department of Interior to halt lithium mining at their sacred spring Ha'Kamwe'; and the U.S. government is promoting the ongoing digging into the #Paiute Massacre Site in northern Nevada for #lithium, in violation of all federal laws that protect Native religious and historic sites, the environment and endangered species.

"Uranium mining in the Grand Canyon threatens #Havasupai's aquifer, the haul route endangers everyone in the Four Corners region, and the uranium mill at White Mesa Ute in #Utah is poisoning #Utes.

"Interior Sec. #DebHaaland said in Farmington, N.M., that Los Alamos Labs would be the leader in the so-called ' #GreenEnergy transition' in the #FourCorners region.

"More than 500 radioactive #UraniumMill sites remain on the #NavajoNation that have not been cleaned up by the U.S. #EPA, which deceives the public by announcing plans and promises to clean up the #ColdWar sites.

"In the current federal lawsuit, a federal judge in South Carolina ruled that U.S. energy officials illegally neglected to study impacts to the #environment in efforts to increase plutonium production for nuclear weapons in New Mexico and South Carolina.

"'South Carolina District Court Judge Mary Geiger Lewis sided with environmental, #AntiNuclear proliferation and community groups last week who sued the National Nuclear Security Administration ( #NNSA), which oversees the nuclear weapons stockpile as part of the U.S. Department of Energy [ #DOE],' reports Source New Mexico.

"The U.S. is investing billions into restarting the manufacture of #PlutoniumPits, the grapefruit-sized spheres developed for #nuclear weapons. The plutonium is produced from uranium.

"'The federal government halted its manufacturing program at the #RockyFlatsPlant in #Colorado in 1989 after an FBI raid due to safety concerns and #EnvironmentalCrimes,' Source New Mexico reports.

"The U.S. government's #AtomicBombTesting in #Nevada left a trail of cancer and death for #WesternShoshone. The documentary 'Downwind' reveals the truth.

"'This is a very serious issue and that's why I can't let it go. I can't move on. People say, 'oh, why don't you just let it go?' Because it's killing my family. It's killing my land. It's killing my people. And that will not stand. It's being done in secret. And killing Indians in secret will not stand,' said Ian Zabarte, Principal Man of the Western Bands of the #ShoshoneNation of Indians. Zabarte is featured in ' #Downwind' about radiation poisoning from U.S. #NuclearTests.

"Currently, foreign companies -- which receive the profits and find it easy to avoid clean up and responsibility for #environmental crimes and deaths from #cancer -- are receiving the mining leases from the U.S. government. The leases are granted by the U.S. Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and in the case of #UraniumMining in the #GrandCanyon, it is the USDA's Forestry Service. #Biden's attorneys have joined the lawsuit with #RioTinto to devastate #OakFlat.

"Australian and Canadian mining corporations are devastating Native lands and communities, poisoning the water and causing widespread cancer.
Rio Tinto, targeting Apaches #OakFlat, is an Australian company which destroyed 46,000 years of #Aboriginal sacred history in caves in #Australia.

"Another Australian mining company is targeting #Hualapai's sacred site. It is #Hawstone / #ArizonaLithium, in Perth, Australia.

" #EnergyFuels, now uranium mining in the Grand Canyon, and operating the uranium mill at #WhiteMesaUte, is a Canadian company. Another Canadian company is digging into the #Paiute Massacre Site. It is #LithiumAmericas.
#Hopi judge #DianeHumetewa granted a temporary restraining order to halt the lithium mining at #Hualapai's sacred spring."

Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/10/the-silent-killers-in-indian-country.html

#NoUraniumMining #CopperMining #LithiumMining #NoMiningWithoutConsent #EnvironmentalRacism #NoWar #NoNukes #NuclearWeapons #RecycleCopper #RecycleLithium #WaterIsLife #NuclearWaste #DefendTheSacred #WhiteMesaMill #Ute #AtomicBomb #CulturalGenocide #Genocide #FirstNations #NativeAmericanNews #SuperfundSites #ToxicWaste #SaveOakFlat #OpenPitMining #Pollution #ReaderSupportedNews

Department of #Energy officials to meet with White House to tamp down Trump’s idiotic idea of explosive nuclear testing

Top energy & #nuclear officials in the #Trump administration are planning to meet with the White House & #NationalSecurity Council in the coming days to dissuade Trump from resuming testing of the nation’s #NuclearWeapons, sources told CNN.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/14/politics/nnsa-nuclear-testing-white-house-meeting-exclusive?cid=ios_app

So I grew up next to #Chernobyl and this is, well, TERRIFYING.

A story for y’all: I’m from a city called Zhytomyr, 2 hours west of Kyiv in the North of #Ukraine. We were downwind of the Chernobyl #nuclear power plant when the 1986 disaster happened.

I wasn’t born for another 12 years, but my childhood was filled with stories and the aftermath of it all. Things like:

- My grandmother worked as a head doctor in a hospital and rehabilitation facility exclusively for children of Chernobyl victims to treat the extremely high prevalence of Tuberculosis and other severe health complications. (To specify: these were SECOND GENERATION of exposure).

- A lot of the kids in that facility were orphans, because their parents died young from health problems.

- My uncle’s wife was born in Pripyat. She was 1 year old when the disaster happened. Her parents were told to evacuate while given no information about what happened. They had to pack up their things and rush out to an unfamiliar city with their baby, never to see the rest of their belongings, apartment, or hometown again.

- When I was a kid, it became so common to see weirdly mutated animals and insects that even 2-3 year olds would make jokes about “Chernobyl mosquitos” and I wouldn’t even flinch seeing occasional giant bugs, dark frogs, weird-looking dogs.

- We’d frequently hear of nearby farms having issues with their animals being born too mutated to survive or random outbreaks from contaminated water / food. Crops would randomly fail. People would get poisoned on a regular basis. This all got less common as I grew up.

- My mother still remembers being a little girl, 10 years old, and looking outside from their balcony at the clouds blowing over from Chernobyl that day. People were told to not go outside and to shut all the windows, but not given an explanation as to why. My mother swears that the rain looked different. They weren’t able to go and buy more food for the kitchen for multiple days.

Anyway - nuclear safety isn’t a joke. I don’t understand how this level of carelessness can happen after Chernobyl and Fukushima.

https://www.404media.co/power-companies-are-using-ai-to-build-nuclear-power-plants/

I think I understand why the worst people are excited about building new #nuclear power plants, but are cold (or even antagonistic) towards #renewables.

It's about centralization and centralization is about control. Renewables spread out power generation, even sometimes generating power at the point of use.

Renewables are democratic; massive power stations, no matter what they are burning, are autocratic. It's as simple as that.

#ClimateChange #solar #solarpunk

It’s the latest sign of fallout from #Trump’s October social media post instructing the Department of #Defense to start testing #NuclearWeapons “because of other countries testing programs.”

But #NNSA, which falls under the Department of #Energy, is the federal agency responsible for building & testing #bombs & maintaining the #nuclear stockpile, not the Defense Department.

#idiocracy

#Energy Secretary Chris Wright, National #Nuclear Security Administration leader Brandon M. Williams & officials from the US National Laboratories are planning to inform the White House that they do not think blowing up #weapons for nuclear warhead testing, as #Trump suggested last month, is tenable, two sources familiar with the matter said. They asked not to be named to discuss a sensitive matter.

#NationalSecurity

Department of #Energy officials to meet with White House to tamp down Trump’s idiotic idea of explosive nuclear testing

Top energy & #nuclear officials in the #Trump administration are planning to meet with the White House & #NationalSecurity Council in the coming days to dissuade Trump from resuming testing of the nation’s #NuclearWeapons, sources told CNN.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/14/politics/nnsa-nuclear-testing-white-house-meeting-exclusive?cid=ios_app

Today in Labor History November 13, 1974: Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers union activist Karen Silkwood was assassinated during her investigation of a Kerr-McGee nuclear plant in Oklahoma. Her car was run off the road while she attempted to deliver documents to a New York Times reporter. Silkwood first started working at Kerr-McGee in 1972. She joined the Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers union and participated in a strike. After the strike, her comrades elected her to the union’s bargaining committee. She was the first woman to attain that status at Kerr-McGee. In this role, one of her duties was to investigate health and safety issues. Not surprisingly, she discovered numerous violations, including exposure of workers to contamination. The union accused Kerr-McGee of falsifying inspection records, manufacturing faulty fuel rods and other safety violations. After testifying to the Atomic Energy Commission, Silkwood discovered that her own body and home were contaminated with radiation. Her body contained 400 times the legal limit for plutonium contamination and she was expelling contaminated air from her lungs. Her house was so contaminated they had to destroy much of her personal property.

Later, she decided to go public with documentation proving the company’s negligence. She left a meeting with union officials in order to meet a New York Times journalist. She brought a binder and packet of documents supporting her allegations with her. However, she never made it, dying in a suspicious car crash. The documents were never found. Some journalists believe she was rammed from behind by another vehicle. Investigators noted damage to the read of her car that would be consistent with this hypothesis. She had also received death threats shortly before her death. However, no one has yet substantiated the claims of foul play.

In 1979, an Oklahoma jury ruled in favor of the estate of atomic worker Karen Silkwood. Kerr-McGee Nuclear Company was ordered to pay $505,000 in actual damages and $10 million in punitive damages for negligence leading to Silkwood’s plutonium contamination. On appeal, the court reduced the settlement to a pitiful $5,000, the estimated value of her property losses. In 1984, the Supreme Court restored the original verdict, but Kerr-McGee again threatened to appeal. Ultimately, Silkwood’s family settled out of court for $1.38 million and the company never had to admit any wrongdoing.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #silkwood #atomic #union #nuclear #nytimes #assassination

Today in Labor History November 13, 1974: Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers union activist Karen Silkwood was assassinated during her investigation of a Kerr-McGee nuclear plant in Oklahoma. Her car was run off the road while she attempted to deliver documents to a New York Times reporter. Silkwood first started working at Kerr-McGee in 1972. She joined the Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers union and participated in a strike. After the strike, her comrades elected her to the union’s bargaining committee. She was the first woman to attain that status at Kerr-McGee. In this role, one of her duties was to investigate health and safety issues. Not surprisingly, she discovered numerous violations, including exposure of workers to contamination. The union accused Kerr-McGee of falsifying inspection records, manufacturing faulty fuel rods and other safety violations. After testifying to the Atomic Energy Commission, Silkwood discovered that her own body and home were contaminated with radiation. Her body contained 400 times the legal limit for plutonium contamination and she was expelling contaminated air from her lungs. Her house was so contaminated they had to destroy much of her personal property.

Later, she decided to go public with documentation proving the company’s negligence. She left a meeting with union officials in order to meet a New York Times journalist. She brought a binder and packet of documents supporting her allegations with her. However, she never made it, dying in a suspicious car crash. The documents were never found. Some journalists believe she was rammed from behind by another vehicle. Investigators noted damage to the read of her car that would be consistent with this hypothesis. She had also received death threats shortly before her death. However, no one has yet substantiated the claims of foul play.

In 1979, an Oklahoma jury ruled in favor of the estate of atomic worker Karen Silkwood. Kerr-McGee Nuclear Company was ordered to pay $505,000 in actual damages and $10 million in punitive damages for negligence leading to Silkwood’s plutonium contamination. On appeal, the court reduced the settlement to a pitiful $5,000, the estimated value of her property losses. In 1984, the Supreme Court restored the original verdict, but Kerr-McGee again threatened to appeal. Ultimately, Silkwood’s family settled out of court for $1.38 million and the company never had to admit any wrongdoing.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #silkwood #atomic #union #nuclear #nytimes #assassination

About the nazi-security-digital complex and threat to democracies worldwide:
‘Once #Palantir becomes indispensable to government operations, once #Anduril’s drones become the NATO standard, once #nuclear facilities power the #AI systems running everything else, the transformation becomes irreversible.’
https://mondediplo.com/2025/11/01zlonger-view

About the nazi-security-digital complex and threat to democracies worldwide:
‘Once #Palantir becomes indispensable to government operations, once #Anduril’s drones become the NATO standard, once #nuclear facilities power the #AI systems running everything else, the transformation becomes irreversible.’
https://mondediplo.com/2025/11/01zlonger-view

Lo que esconde el debate de alargar la #nuclear.

El debate se presenta como si solo se tratara de decidir entre unas tecnologías u otras, pero lo que está en juego es quién posee los activos y cómo su concentración en pocas manos condiciona la política energética de todo un país. Y, sobre todo, cómo esa concentración puede hipotecar el desarrollo de las energías renovables y del almacenamiento, pilares indispensables de la transición energética. https://www.eldiario.es/opinion/tribuna-abierta/soga-nuclear_129_12740159.html

Interesting real world data, on 1GW firm power supply.

Masdar UAE - solar + batteries.
Cost USD 6 billion.
Construction time 2 years (caveat, not sure if this is a tranche or all of it)

Hualong One
Cost USD 3 billion (from actuals)
construction time 5 years

So purely on construction cost, large scale firm solar is twice the price of Chinese nuclear.

Note, fuel, op costs, water needs, llife time, site cleanup etc not accounted for.

#nuclear #solar #batteries #energytransition

Lo que esconde el debate de alargar la #nuclear.

El debate se presenta como si solo se tratara de decidir entre unas tecnologías u otras, pero lo que está en juego es quién posee los activos y cómo su concentración en pocas manos condiciona la política energética de todo un país. Y, sobre todo, cómo esa concentración puede hipotecar el desarrollo de las energías renovables y del almacenamiento, pilares indispensables de la transición energética. https://www.eldiario.es/opinion/tribuna-abierta/soga-nuclear_129_12740159.html

Hot take. The western nuclear industry was actually killed by Friedman, Reagan, Thatcher, Neo Liberal values and cheap gas.

The antinuclear campaigners just got lucky.

#nuclear #neoliberalism

Fuck off, Starmer!

#DeclassifiedUK | The UK’s £1 billion Thank You to Uncle Sam

"Keir Starmer’s plan to buy American fighter jets armed with nuclear bombs whose use will be entirely under the US president’s control makes no military sense"

https://www.declassifieduk.org/the-uks-1-billion-thank-you-to-uncle-sam/

#Nuclear #MOD #UK #US #WeaponsIndustry

#RUSSIA PLANS FULL-SCALE #NUCLEAR TESTS: Russian Defense Minister Belousov has called for the immediate preparation for full-scale testing of Russia’s nuclear arsenal, Hromadske reported, citing Russian media.

https://hromadske.ua/heopolityka/254228-u-rosiyi-zahovoryloypro-vyprobuvannia-iadernoyi-zbroyi-komentuiuchy-zaiavu-trampa