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October 27, 2020 by Nukewatch Leave a Comment

White House Gangster Wants to Avoid Nuclear-Armed Stigma

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons is about to won its 50th state ratification on Saturday, October 24th, the golden number needed for the treaty to enter into force. The list of 50 signatories can be seen at ICANw.org, website of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize-winning coalition that helped navigate the treaty.

Formal ratification of the new law — TPNW for short — is a nation’s binding promise “never under any circumstances … develop, test, produce, manufacture, otherwise acquire, possess or stockpile nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices.” The United Nations opened the TPNW for consideration by a vote of 122 to 2 in July 2017.

On January 22, 2021, a mere 90 days after the 50th nation state ratification, the TPNW will enter into force as international law, binding on countries that have seen it ratified.

Now, in a fashion reminiscent of lawless dictatorships the world over, the Trump White House has written to countries that have adopted the treaty urging them to withdraw their ratifications.

According to the Associated Press, which obtained the U.S. letter, the Trump Administration claims that the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France and all 30 NATO allies “stand unified in our opposition to the potential repercussions” of the treaty.

The AP reported that Beatrice Fihn, executive director of ICAN, said several diplomatic sources had confirmed to her that they and other states that ratified the TPNW had been sent letters by the U.S. requesting their withdrawal.

Fihn told the AP that the “increasing nervousness, and maybe straightforward panic, with some of the nuclear-armed states and particularly the Trump administration,” shows that they “really seem to understand that this is a reality: Nuclear weapons are going to be banned under international law soon.”

So, while the US and the other nuclear-armed countries have opposed the ban treaty, they do recognize the stigma of violating a civilized prohibition that is coming into force. Like a drug cartel with the terroristic muscle and political connections to operate outside the law, the White House wants to pressure its lesser associates.

The absurdity of the White House letter is flabbergasting. It’s like imagining that President Lincoln had urged countries to reinstate slavery.

Ray Acheson, director of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom disarmament program, said in a tweet: “It’s incredible that a nuclear-armed state is demanding other countries withdraw from a treaty banning nuclear weapons.”

Back on March 27, 2017 when negotiations for the treaty ban began, Governor Nikki Haley, then US Ambassador to the UN, led a 40-state boycott of the proceedings. Speaking at the UN, Haley made two verbal slips that spoke the truth.

Haley said, “We would love to have a ban on nuclear treat….” She caught herself and said “weapons” instead of “treaties.”

Later, Haley flubbed her claim that: “… one day we will hope that we are standing here saying, ‘We no longer need nuclear weapons.'”

Evidently, the Trump administration doesn’t hope for a ban on nuclear weapons but instead would love to have that ban on nuclear treaties.

An earlier version of this article was published at Counterpunch.org on October 23, 2020.

Filed Under: Nuclear Weapons, On The Bright Side, Weekly Column

October 11, 2020 by Nukewatch Leave a Comment

Nuclear Free Future Awards

Nukewatch Quarterly Fall 2020
Jack and Felice Cohen-Joppa, above, in St. Mary’s, Georgia where they reported on the trial of the Kings Bay Plowshares 7.

This year’s winners of the international Nuclear Free Future Award include our friends and colleagues Felice and Jack Cohen-Joppa, editors of the Nuclear Resister. The editors were honored in part because, “Over the past 40 years, the Nuclear Resister has chronicled more than 100,000 anti-nuclear and anti-war arrests around the world, while encouraging support for more than 1,000 jailed activists.”

The Nuclear Free Future Foundation, in Munich, Germany, established the award to “honor the largely unsung heroes of the worldwide anti-nuclear movement for the work they do to end both the military and civilian use of nuclear energy.”

Congratulations!

Filed Under: Direct Action, Newsletter Archives, On The Bright Side, Quarterly Newsletter, Uncategorized

October 11, 2020 by Nukewatch Leave a Comment

Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty Progresses

Nukewatch Quarterly Fall 2020
By Christine Manwiller

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which opened for signatures in New York on Sept. 20, 2017, is winning increasing support from nations around the world. Malta became the 84th state to sign on August 25, 2020.

Ireland, Nigeria, Niue, and Saint Kitts & Nevis ratified the treaty in August, honoring the 75th anniversaries of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The number of treaty ratifications is now 44, just six short of the 50 required for it to enter into force as international law. The progress comes in spite of the effect that Covid-19 restrictions have on campaigning for the Ban Treaty.

On July 15, the African Commission on Nuclear Energy marked the 11th anniversary of the Treaty of Pelindaba, establishing Africa as a nuclear-weapons-free zone. The commission called on all African states to ratify the TPNW, while also noting the anniversaries of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. “Bringing into force the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons would be a most fitting tribute to the victims and survivors of the atomic bombings.”

In Minnesota, a petition calling for support of the Treaty now has 23,000 signatures. Although face-to-face meetings with the state’s congressional delegation are postponed due to pandemic rules, the End War Committee of Women Against Military Madness and the Minneapolis/St. Paul chapter of Veterans for Peace have organized over 100 people who are calling the state’s US Senators monthly, urging their support of the Treaty. Please join this effort if you live in Minn., or start the ball rolling in your own state.

Filed Under: Newsletter Archives, Nuclear Weapons, On The Bright Side, Quarterly Newsletter

October 11, 2020 by Nukewatch Leave a Comment

Huge Cost Overruns May Defeat Small Reactor Prototype as Investors Flee

Nukewatch Quarterly Fall 2020

With projected costs leaping from a 2017 estimate of $3.6 billion, to $4.2 billion in Nov. 2019, and reaching $6.1 billion last July, municipal investment in a Utah scheme to build the nation’s first so-called small modular reactors (SMRs) is starting to dry up.

To date, Logan, Utah and Lehi City have quit the project, and Bountiful, Utah’s power department says the chances are greater than 50-50 that it too will withdraw.

“[I]f we can’t bring this power in at a competitive price we just won’t build this project,” said LaVarr Webb, a spokesperson for the Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS), Reuters reported. UAMPS is the Utah state agency that delivers electricity to member cities in six western states. Webb told the Washington Examiner he expected other members could decide to leave too.

The experimental reactor venture is being built at the Idaho National Laboratory. UAMPS is partnered with dozens of regional cities, the companies NuScale, Fluor, and Worldwide Construction, and the US Dept. of Energy. The plan is to build the first of 12 small modular reactors by 2029. Cities including Brigham City, Hyrum, Logan and Lehi joined the effort to subsidize some of the development costs for the first SMR, which is being engineered to produce 60 megawatts.

A major financial shock was the Energy Department reneging on its promise to provide $1.4 billion for the first reactor, the Cache Valley Daily reported. Then in early August, the Utah Taxpayer’s Association issued a scathing report urging all the municipalities to quit the project citing cost overruns, construction delays, and “dependence on unpredictable federal subsidies.”

Edwin Lyman, the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Director of Nuclear Power Safety, told Reuters, “the only hope for the UAMPS project, or any other of these first-of-a-kind projects, is that the Department of Energy will end up financing it.”

—JL

Filed Under: Newsletter Archives, Nuclear Power, On The Bright Side, Quarterly Newsletter

October 11, 2020 by Nukewatch Leave a Comment

Renewables Outshine Nuclear; Reactor Futures Slammed by Investors’ S&P 500

Nukewatch Quarterly Fall 2020
By Christine Manwiller

As renewable energy sources become more cost effective, nuclear power is being seen as a losing investment. In its November 2019 report “The Energy Transition: Nuclear Dead and Alive” S&P Global Ratings stated, “Renewables are significantly cheaper and offer quicker payback on scalable investments at a time when power demand is stagnating.” Indeed, current international energy investment trends favor renewables, largely because nuclear power is not considered “clean.” Building nuclear reactors is hugely expensive due to increasing construction costs, and the complexity of meeting safety requirements imposed after Fukushima. Significantly, the S&P report even tells investors that nuclear power would not exist without “massive government support.”

S&P also advises against investing in small modular reactors (SMRs), which may eventually be permitted, but which can’t be developed without government funding. Although SMRs are considered a low initial investment, the reactors’ safety can’t be assured, high-level radioactive waste leaves the same disastrous legacy, while renewables are far less expensive and quicker to bring online.

Filed Under: Newsletter Archives, Nuclear Power, On The Bright Side, Quarterly Newsletter, Renewable Energy

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