The #Trump Administration exempts new #nuclear reactors from #environmental review

Geoff Brumfiel, February 2, 20263:09 PM ET

"The Trump Administration has created an exclusion for new experimental reactors being built at sites around the U.S. from a major environmental law. The law would have required them to disclose how their construction and operation might harm the environment, and it also typically required a written, public assessment of the possible consequences of a #NuclearAccident.

"The exclusion announcement comes just days after NPR revealed officials at the Department of Energy had secretly rewritten environmental, safety and security rules to make it easier for the reactors to be built.

"The Department of Energy announced the change Monday in a notice in the Federal Register. It said the department would begin excluding advanced nuclear reactors from the #NationalEnvironmentalPolicyAct. The act requires federal agencies to consider the environment when undertaking new projects and programs.

"The law also requires extensive reporting on how proposed programs might impact local ecosystems. That documentation, known as an #EnvironmentalImpactStatement, and a second lesser type of analysis, known as an #EnvironmentalAssessment, provide an opportunity for the public to review and comment on potential projects in their community."

Read more:
https://www.npr.org/2026/02/02/nx-s1-5696525/trump-nuclear-safety-regulations-environmental-review

#NoNukes #NoNewNukes #NuclearPlants #USPol #PublicReview #Secrecy #NuclearSafety #NuclearPollution #EnvironmentalImpact
#NoNukesWithoutConsent #EnvironmentalLaw #TrumpAdministration #NuclearPowerCorruptionAndLies

RE: https://mastodon.scot/@theferret/115597954685155038

Navy made legal threats to try and keep nuclear pollution on the Clyde secret.

#NuclearPollution #UKNavy #Scotland #CoulportNuclearBombBase

#ClimateChange May Unearth #ColdWar-Era #NuclearWaste Stored by the U.S. in Other Countries

A new report finds that melting ice and rising sea levels could disturb #RadioactiveContamination left over from American nuclear tests after World War II

Tara Wu - Reporter
March 6, 2024

"Rising global temperatures could unearth Cold War-era nuclear waste created by the United States and stored in other countries, posing potential issues for the environment and local inhabitants, according to a new report.

"An assessment conducted by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released earlier this year examined nuclear waste in the #MarshallIslands, #Greenland and #Spain, three locations with radioactive contamination resulting from American nuclear activity in the decades following World War II. Climate change could cause this nuclear waste to enter the environment, as warming temperatures melt ice sheets that contain radioactive liquid and raise sea levels that could pollute food and water sources with toxic waste, per the study.

"This lingering contamination came from nuclear weapon detonations, including #HydrogenBombs, and accidents at numerous sites around the world. Often, the U.S. government stored this waste near the sites of detonation, Robert Hayes, a nuclear engineer at North Carolina State University, says to Julia Jacobo of ABC News. In Greenland, officials disposed of nuclear waste in the ice sheet, and in the Marshall Islands, they placed it in a container with a concrete cap.

" 'The military was in the rush of the Cold War,' Hayes tells the publication. 'In hindsight, they could have done a better job.' "

Read more:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/climate-change-may-unearth-cold-war-era-nuclear-waste-stored-by-the-us-in-other-countries-180983901/

#NuclearWaste #NuclearAccidents #AtomicBombTesting #NuclearPollution #ClimateChange #RisingSeaLevels #NuclearTesting #Contamination #WaterIsLife #NoNukes #NoWar #NoNuclearWeapons

Typical #NukeShill comment - "[UK #MinistryOfDefense] published data on #radioactive discharges from #Coulport and #Faslane every year, along with assessments of the #environmental impacts. It insisted those discharges were 'of no regulatory concern'.

That's because these ASSHATS are in denial about #Bioaccumulation! #BananaMan got to them!

#RadioactiveWater from #UK #nuclear bomb base leaked into sea, files show

Exclusive: #Polluted water was released into #LochLong near #Glasgow because #RoyalNavy failed to maintain 1,500 water pipes, says watchdog

by Rob Edwards and Severin Carrell
Sat 9 Aug 2025

Read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/aug/09/radioactive-water-bomb-base-scotland-leak-sea-files

#NoNukes #NoWar #NoNuclearWar #NuclearWasteIsForever #BioaccumulationIsReal #FoodChain #NuclearFoodChain #Scotland #NuclearPollution #WaterIsLife

Speaking of #Fukushima...

Editorial: Unresolved disposal of Fukushima #nuke disaster soil a barrier to full recovery

January 10, 2025

"The recovery of #FukushimaPrefecture cannot be considered complete until the disposal of soil generated from #radiation #decontamination work after the 2011 #FukushimaDaiichi #NuclearPlant triple-meltdown is resolved.

"The nuclear accident released vast amounts of #radioactive material over a wide area. The decontamination efforts in residential and agricultural areas across Fukushima Prefecture resulted in the collection of approximately 14 million cubic meters of contaminated soil. This soil has been transported to interim storage facilities built in the towns of #Futaba and #Okuma, where the power plant is located.

"Local communities only agreed to the construction of these facilities on the condition that the soil would eventually be disposed of outside the prefecture. By law, final disposal must be completed by March 2045, 30 years after storage began. To meet this deadline, the Japanese government held a meeting involving all Cabinet members late last year. The goal is to draft a concrete timeline for disposal by this summer.

"The government has also proposed reusing soil with radiation levels below a certain threshold. The plan envisions using the soil for public projects across the country, including road embankments and #farmland development.

"In Fukushima Prefecture, pilot projects are underway to confirm that reusing the soil is safe. In September 2024, the International Atomic Energy Agency (#IAEA) concluded that the government's plan complies with its safety standards. However, scientific assurances on safety alone have not been enough to advance the plan. Concerns about potential health risks and local reputational damage remain unresolved.

"In 2022, the Ministry of the Environment attempted to reuse the soil at three facilities it manages, including Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden in Tokyo, but the plan was derailed by strong opposition from residents. To this day, there is no clear timeline for implementation.

"Additionally, about a quarter of the removed soil is still too highly contaminated to be reused. This portion will require final disposal outside Fukushima Prefecture, but no schedule or location has been determined.

"Public understanding of the issue remains insufficient. A December 2023 survey conducted by the Ministry of the Environment revealed that over 70% of people outside Fukushima Prefecture were unaware of the plans for reusing or disposing of the soil.

"The electricity generated by the Fukushima Daiichi plant was primarily consumed in metropolitan areas, especially the Tokyo region. Dealing with the waste soil is a responsibility that must be acknowledged by those who benefited from that power.

"Meanwhile, the decommissioning of the plant is behind schedule, and those displaced from their hometowns around it are growing increasingly anxious. It is the government's responsibility to urgently present a clear path forward to address the aftermath of the nuclear disaster."

Source:
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20250111/p2a/00m/0op/010000c

#TEPCOLies #IAEALies #NuclearPowerCorruptionAndLies #RethinkNotRestart #NoNukes #Bioaccumulation #NuclearPollution #NuclearContamination #Japan

Focus: #France seeks strategy as #NuclearWaste site risks saturation point

"We can't have a responsible nuclear policy without taking into account the handling of used fuel and waste. It's a subject we can't sweep under the rug," a government adviser told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

By Benjamin Mallet
February 3, 2023

#LaHague, France, Feb 3 (Reuters) - At a nuclear waste site in Normandy, robotic arms guided by technicians behind a protective shield manoeuvre a pipe that will turn radioactive chemicals into glass as France seeks to make safe the byproducts of its growing reliance on atomic power.

"The fuel-cooling pools in La Hague, on the country's northwestern tip, could be full by the end of the decade and state-owned #Orano, which runs them, says the government needs to outline a long-term strategy to modernise its ageing facilities no later than 2025.

"While more nuclear energy can help France and other countries to reduce planet-warming emissions, environmental campaigners say it replaces one problem with another."

Read more:
https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/france-seeks-strategy-nuclear-waste-site-risks-saturation-point-2023-02-03/

#NoNukes #NoNuclearWeapons #RethinkNotRestart #NuclearPollution #NuclearIsNotCarbonFree #UraniumMining #Cancer

#Greenpeace image from 2000: Rusting barrels of #NuclearWaste at #HurdDeep, #EnglishChannel.

"Rusting barrels of nuclear waste at Hurd Deep, English Channel, #NorthSea, remnants of barrels tipped into sea by #UK between 1950 and 1963"

https://media.greenpeace.org/archive/Rusting-barrels-of-nuclear-waste-at-Hurd-Deep--English-Channel--27MZIFLXAOSU.html

#OceansAreLife #NuclearPollution

Back before the #BananaMan took over anything nuclear ("Radiation is harmless! It's even in bananas!"), there was actual reporting on the dangers of #NuclearPower (and weapons)!

#Radioactivity in the Ocean: Diluted, But Far from Harmless

With contaminated water from Japan’s crippled #Fukushima nuclear complex continuing to pour into the Pacific, scientists are concerned about how that radioactivity might affect marine life. Although the ocean’s capacity to dilute radiation is huge, signs are that nuclear isotopes are already moving up the local #FoodChain.

By Elizabeth Grossman • April 7, 2011

"Over the past half-century, the world has seen its share of incidents in which radioactive material has been dumped or discharged into the oceans. A British nuclear fuels plant has repeatedly released radioactive waste into the Irish Sea [#Sellafield] , a French nuclear reprocessing plant has discharged similar waste into the #EnglishChannel, and for decades the Soviets dumped large quantities of radioactive material into the #ArcticOcean, #KaraSea, and #BarentsSea. That radioactive material included reactors from at least 16 Soviet #nuclear-powered submarines and icebreakers, and large amounts of liquid and solid #NuclearWaste from USSR military bases and weapons plants."

Read more:
https://e360.yale.edu/features/radioactivity_in_the_ocean_diluted_but_far_from_harmless

#OceansAreLife #NoNukes #PlutoKun #NoNuclearWeapons #NuclearPollution #NuclearPlants #FloatingNuclearPlants #RethinkNotRestart #NoNuclearWar

> If you want to put human faces to the story of nuclear power, you have to begin at the beginning. That’s why those who continue to promote nuclear power never begin at the beginning. Because if they do, they meet the faces of the people who are the first witnesses to the fundamentally anti-humanitarian nature of the nuclear age.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/06/12/the-forgotten-faces-on-the-uranium-trail/
#NuclearPower #UraniumMining #NuclearsHumanFaces #NuclearGenocide #NuclearPollution #UraniumMining

\HT @thomas