‘It’s Sellafield or nothing’: what life is like growing up in the shadow of Europe’s oldest nuclear site via The Guardian

Posted on 2025/10/07 by nfield


‘It’s Sellafield or nothing’: what life is like growing up in the shadow of Europe’s oldest nuclear site

Young people in Whitehaven on England’s north-west coast rely on the power plant for everything from jobs to civic investment. But for those who see their future elsewhere, options can be limited.

It is a rainy Thursday in Whitehaven on the north-west coast of England, but the seafront is buzzing with activity. This Saturday is Harbour Fest, a day of music, performance and activities. An array of colourful street food vendors are already setting up.

It’s unusual to see such excitement on the seafront, says 18-year-old Lacey Ritson. Growing up, Lacey and her friends would gravitate to picturesque Saint Bees along the coast or the nearby Lake District if they wanted to spend time by the water. And sometimes, she says, “we’d sit by the river and look at people, guessing who worked at Sellafield – like, ‘they’ve got a nice car – they’re from Sellafield’”.

Sellafield, Europe’s largest nuclear site, looms large in Whitehaven at the centre of Britain’s “nuclear coast”. While it has not generated energy since 2003, decommissioning is expected to take until at least 2125. Between Sellafield Ltd and its wider supply chain, the site employs about 60,000 workers, more than 80% from Cumbria.

The result is that everybody “either works at Sellafield or knows people who do”, says Lacey, whose mum, aunt and cousins all work on the site. Whitehaven’s young people have their own group speak: “Sellafield traffic” for the tailbacks on surrounding roads at home time each weekday; “Sellafield payday” as shorthand in hospitality for a busy weekend. Teenagers talk casually about “going into nuclear”.

The nuclear sector’s influence is also felt economically: each year, Sellafield Ltd, its supply chain and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), which owns the site, provide millions of pounds worth of funding for local projects, from the redevelopment of Whitehaven’s former bus station to the creation of a new digital and gaming hub, and the cleanup of local rivers. This summer, the main stage at Pride was sponsored by engineering firm Mott MacDonald.

“I’d say round here you are helped a lot more than other coastal towns just because of Sellafield and the companies that supply them,” Lacey says.

Just over half of the population of Whitehaven (and neighbouring town Workington) are in work, a figure slightly below the England average, but there are notably more in apprenticeships than the country average.

For those who want to work at the nuclear plant, the career path can be lucrative, with apprentices earning up to about £30,000 at Sellafield Ltd. But those who want something different can find themselves feeling cut off.

[…]

There is also a high turnover in school staff, Cole says, with many teachers leaving for higher-paying careers in the nuclear sector.

In the town centre, at the Whitehaven Foyer, which provides temporary accommodation for young people, Sellafield is far from residents’ minds, despite Arup renting office space here. Many of those living here are care-experienced or have experienced poor mental health; the number of young people in care and the number of mental health hospital admissions in the area are higher here than nationally.

[…]

Last month, the government announced that parts of South Whitehaven would receive £20m of investment over the next decade from its Pride in Place programme for “overlooked” communities. A residents’ survey about how the money should be spent has already highlighted the need for better youth facilities and opportunities for young people, says Williamson.

[…]

She previously worked alongside the council on the university’s Connected Communities project, in which a group of girls from Whitehaven carried out their own community research and projects, including setting up a dementia cafe when they found that older people were more likely to experience loneliness. “It showed the passion and empathy young people have for their local community, and how important it is to recognise their insight, skill and compassion and work with them to create opportunities.”

[…]

Jamie Reed, director of socio-economics at the NDA, was unable to meet the Guardian and local young people. In response to questions about whether all of Whitehaven’s young people were benefiting equally from Sellafield’s impact, Reed wrote in a statement: “One of our areas of focus is investing in developing Stem skills in young people so we have a pipeline of talent, but it’s important to us that we fund a diverse range of projects.

“Across West Cumbria and the UK these include projects which provide mental health support, tackle issues around poverty and social inclusion, support innovation in the supply chain, and improve and protect the environment.”

For Lacey, who attended Energy Coast University Technical College, which is funded in part by the NDA and heavily invested in by the construction firm Morgan Sindall, a career in nuclear was always a consideration. And yet, she says, “I didn’t want to go and work there just because it’s what so many other people do.” Instead, she will soon begin an architecture degree at Newcastle University, one of only two peers going into higher education, most of the rest applying for nuclear apprenticeships.

[…]

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Holtec’s announcement that Palisades has transitioned back to “operations status” via Beyond Nuclear

Posted on 2025/08/27 by nfield

Media Statement by Kevin Kamps, Radioactive Waste Specialist at Beyond Nuclear

Contact: Kevin Kamps, radioactive waste specialist, Beyond Nuclear, (240) 462-3216, kevin@beyondnuclear.org

COVERT TWP., MI, and WASHINGTON, D.C., AUGUST 26, 2025–“What a nuclear nightmare this is for our entire region. Holtec, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Governor Whitmer, the Department of Energy (DOE), state and federal legislators, and others are playing radioactive Russian roulette on the Lake Michigan shore. The Japanese Parliament concluded that the root cause of the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe was collusion, between the safety regulatory agency, company, and government officials. We have such dangerous collusion in spades at Palisades. This is a monstrous nuclear experiment, and area residents are the guinea pigs.

Holtec’s Palisades zombie reactor restart scheme is not only unprecedented, but also unneeded, insanely expensive for taxpayers and ratepayers, and very risky for health, safety, security, and the environment.

We’ve dodged many radioactive bullets at Palisades since it first fired up in 1971. How many more can we dodge, as Holtec rolls the dice on this potentially deadly gamble, aided and abetted by NRC’s ready rubber stamps, and enabled by federal and state bailouts of $3.12 billion, and still counting, from an unwitting public?

But not everyone has dodged those radioactive bullets since 1971. There has long been evidence of elevated cancer rates in the area. Immediately next door to Palisades to the south, at Palisades Park Country Club, a 105-year old resort community of 200 cottages, a shocking 50 thyroid cancer diagnoses have been alleged, not to mention other cancers. Thyroid cancer is so exceedingly rare, there should not be a single case in such a small population of mostly part-time residents. Palisades’ so-called ‘routine releases’ of hazardous radioactivity during ‘normal operations’ could well be the cause.

FEMA has patted itself on the back for ramming eight years of neglected radiological emergency preparedness exercises and trainings into just the past few months. And yet, regular news headlines are decrying FEMA’s free fall under the Trump administration’s mass firings and budget cuts. Is southwest Michigan and beyond ready for a Chornobyl- or Fukushima-scale nuclear catastrophe, which is now a distinct possibility at the restarted Palisades? Even if evacuations go smoothly, which they will not, area residents could well never get to return home again, due to the lingering radioactive contamination downstream, downwind, up the food chain, and down the generations.

Talk about waste, fraud, and abuse. Through a rookie error — Holtec has never operated a reactor, let alone repaired one, nor restarted one — the company severely further damaged already age-degraded steam generators that should have been entirely replaced two decades ago. Now it has slapped some Band-Aid fixes on a very large number of severely cracked tubes, while unplugging 617 tubes that were plugged 35 years ago, as a precaution against damaging vibrations, for which Palisades’ steam generator design is infamous.

Our environmental coalition legally challenged these inadequate shortcuts on safety. Our expert witness, Arnie Gundersen, a nuclear engineer with more than 50 years of relevant experience, testified he has never seen steam generators so degraded that have not been entirely replaced. He played a key role in the permanent shutdown of two reactors at San Onofre in southern California in 2013, due to severe steam generator tube degradation.

The rupture of a single tube, which is all but guaranteed after Palisades restarts, will release a certain amount of hazardous, ionizing radioactivity into the environment. But a cascade of a large enough number of tubes could cause a full-blown reactor core meltdown, unleashing catastrophic quantities of hazardous ionizing radioactivity, which would then blow with the wind, fall with the rain, flow in Lake Michigan, and bio-accumulate, wherever it falls out over time.

Close calls with ruptured tubes at Indian Point, New York in 2000, as well as Byron, Illinois and San Onofre, California in 2012, have been forgotten all about at Palisades.But the steam generators aren’t the only safety-critical system, structure, or component at the breaking point, after 51 previous problem-plagued years of operations, from 1971 to 2022.

The reactor pressure vessel is the worst neutron-embrittled in the country, and perhaps the whole world, at increasing risk of pressurized thermal shock through-wall fracture.The reactor vessel closure head should have been replaced 20 years ago, but never has been, despite the cautionary tale of the Davis-Besse, Ohio ‘Hole in the Head Fiasco’ near miss in 2002. Why wasn’t the lid replaced? Because NRC has never required it.

The sumps and strainers could become quickly blocked in an emergency, as calcium silicate containment insulation coating dissolves into a sludge of Elmer’s Glue consistency, clogging core coolant system flow. This problem has been known about for decades.

Holtec has asked NRC to allow it to kick the can down the road for years or decades longer on fire protection upgrades, as it already has done for a half-century, after the infamous Browns Ferry Unit 1 fire in Alabama in 1975. Fire is the root cause of half of all reactor core meltdown scenarios. Palisades had very serious fire protection scandals nine years ago, brought to light by security guard whistleblowers, who were then scapegoated, with no long-needed upgrades implemented.

Palisades has had numerous high-profile security breaches as well, even after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the U.S., which included consideration by Al Qaeda of targeting multiple nuclear facilities. Domestic terrorist groups have also attempted to attack nuclear power plants in the U.S.

Palisades has had the worst operating experience in industry with control rod drive mechanism (CRDM) seal leaks, beginning in 1972, and continuing until 2022. Despite this, the root cause has never been determined, and corrective action has never been taken to prevent it from recurring. Just over a decade ago, complete replacement of degraded CRDM seals led to nearly 200 workers, including women of childbearing age, being exposed to unnecessarily high radiation doses.

As exhausting as the list above is, it is not exhaustive. Palisades has yet more pathways to meltdown. Holtec’s unprecedented restart of the supposedly closed for good Palisades reactor will put the entire Great Lakes Basin, and all who call it home, at existential risk, 95% of the United States’ surface freshwater, 84% of North America’s, and 21% of the world’s, drinking water for more than 40 million people.

Holtec has hidden behind regulation-free zone decommissioning status since it took over at the supposedly closed for good Palisades reactor on June 28, 2022. This included a waiver from radiological emergency preparedness that NRC should never have granted, given the high risks of highly radioactive irradiated nuclear fuel still stored on-site. In fact, from December 2024 to April 2025, Holtec performed a large number of transfers of this high-level radioactive waste from the indoor wet storage pool, to outdoor dry storage casks. The movement of such heavy loads over the pool is inherently dangerous, and thus should not have been done with no evacuation plan on the books, and one that had not even been subjected to trainings or exercises in many long years.

Holtec promised to decommission Palisades, from 2020 till September 9, 2022, when it announced, alongside Gov. Whitmer, that it intended to restart Palisades instead. Thus, Holtec perpetrated a big lie, a con job, and a bait and switch trick. What is Holtec lying about now? That the restart will be safe? I guess we will see.

It’s ironic Holtec has already declared victory, in that multiple License Amendment Requests (LAR) have not yet received official approval by NRC. This includes an LAR to further delay decades overdue fire protection upgrades. It seems Holtec is quite confident in NRC’s complicity as to the final outcome. Because so much is at stake, we will continue to resist Holtec’s Palisades restart. If and when the NRC Commissioners reject all our numerous safety and environmental appeals of agency staff and licensing board approvals, we will take our appeal to federal court at the earliest opportunity.”

A one-stop-shop for Beyond Nuclear website posts about resistance to Palisades — both to Holtec’s zombie reactor restart, as well as its ‘Small Modular Reactor’ new builds scheme on the same tiny site — dating back to April 2022, when the schemes were first floated by Gov. Whitmer (restart) and Holtec CEO Krishna Singh (“SMR” new builds), can be found here.###
Beyond Nuclear is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit membership organization. Beyond Nuclear aims to educate and activate the public about the connections between nuclear power and nuclear weapons and the need to abolish both to safeguard our future. Beyond Nuclear advocates for an energy future that is sustainable, benign and democratic. The Beyond Nuclear team works with diverse partners and allies to provide the public, government officials, and the media with the critical information necessary to move humanity toward a world beyond nuclear. Beyond Nuclear: 7304 Carroll Avenue, #182, Takoma Park, MD 20912. Info@beyondnuclear.org. www.beyondnuclear.org.

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Israel attacks Iran: What we know so far via Aljazeera

Posted on 2025/06/13 by nfield

13 Jun 2025

Israel has attacked several Iranian nuclear facilities and military sites, and carried out assassinations of top military officials and nuclear scientists. An initial wave of strikes was carried out on Friday morning. A second, separate attack on the city of Tabriz, northwest Iran, was reported by local media later on Friday.

On Friday afternoon, the semi-official state media group, the Iranian Fars news agency reported “unofficial statistics” showing that more than 70 people had been killed and more than 320 were injured in Israel’s attacks.

[…]

What is the danger of hitting nuclear facilities?

Attacking nuclear facilities can cause several consequences of unpredictable scope, including radioactive leaks, explosions and long-term contamination.

Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), says the UN body is closely monitoring the situation in Iran.

He said that the IAEA can confirm that the Natanz site was among the targets hit by Israel.

“The Agency is in contact with Iranian authorities regarding radiation levels. We are also in contact with our inspectors in the country.”[…]

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核ごみ施設受け入れゼロ　全国47知事アンケートvia YAHOO!JAPANニュース　（共同）

Posted on 2025/06/12 by nfield

原発から出る高レベル放射性廃棄物（核のごみ）の最終処分場に関する共同通信社の47都道府県知事アンケートで、福島、島根、鹿児島などの13人の知事が、最終処分場受け入れや3段階の選定調査に「どちらも反対」との回答を選んだことが12日、分かった。残る34人はいずれの選択肢も選ばず、処分場受け入れや調査に「賛成」はゼロだった。 　調査の第1段階である文献調査は北海道の2町村に続き昨年5月、佐賀県玄海町が受け入れたが、続く自治体はない。第2段階の概要調査へ進むには知事の同意が不可欠で、核のごみの行き先が見通せないまま、原発の活用が進む矛盾が改めて裏付けられた形だ。 　アンケートは玄海町での文献調査開始から6月で1年になるのに合わせて4月上旬に送付し、5月中旬までに回答を得た。調査と処分場について「どちらも賛成」「調査には賛成するが処分場受け入れは反対」「どちらも反対」など五つの選択肢から回答を求めた。必要に応じて追加取材した。

原文

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Trump Administration Gutting Regulatory Agency, Recent Nuclear Incidents, Coverup: No Time to Open Illinois for More Nuclear Power, Nuclear Watchdog Group Asserts via Nuclear Energy Information Service Illinois

Posted on 2025/05/28 by nfield

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Use:  Thursday, May 28, 2025

Contact:  David Kraft,  (773)342-7650 (o); (630)506-2864 (c);  neis@neis.org

Trump Administration Gutting Regulatory Agency, Recent Nuclear Incidents, Coverup: No Time to Open Illinois for More Nuclear Power, Nuclear Watchdog Group Asserts

CHICAGO—At a time when the Illinois Legislature and Governor Pritzker are contemplating the repeal of the Illinois nuclear power moratorium, recent real-world events argue strongly against that move, a local safe-energy advocacy organization argues.

On Friday, May 23, President Trump signed Executive Orders (E/Os) which effectively gut the regulatory power of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to fulfill its mandate to protect the public health, safety and environment.

On the same day it was learned that the aged Quad Cities nuclear reactor station in Illinois had experienced a manual emergency shutdown on May 19, and fire on May 22; and further, that a serious nuclear incident that occurred in March 2023 had been covered up by both the utility and the NRC.

Many experts – including two former Chairs of the NRC — have savaged Trump’s ill-advised weakening of nuclear power regulation. (see attached statement list below).  NEIS points out that the Administration’s desire to expand nuclear while slashing regulation of both aging reactors and experimental, unproven new reactors is a recipe for disaster.  The Boeing plane disasters, the East Palestine train derailment, even the Fukushima reactor disaster – all had their root cause in either de-regulation, self-regulation by industry, or government-industry collusion.

“These events show beyond a doubt that while current regulation is clearly suspect, gutting it further at a time when some Illinois legislators and officials want to expand nuclear power is an outright threat to Illinois,” maintains David Kraft, director of the 43-year old Chicago-based safe-energy advocacy/anti-nuclear organization Nuclear Energy Information Service (NEIS). “Now is simply NOT the time to repeal the nuclear moratorium,” he asserts.

Legislation SB1527 and HB3604 call for the repeal of the 1987 nuclear construction moratorium, which simply states that no new reactors will be built in Illinois until the Federal Government demonstrates that it has an operational facility to dispose of – not merely store – high-level radioactive waste (HLRW).  The U.S. has failed to build such a facility; and all HLRW remains in storage at reactor sites.  Illinois – with 11 operating and 3 shuttered/decommissioned reactors – currently stores 11,000+ tons of HLRW, more than any other state.

Illinois is powerless to enact protective legislation to compensate for the regulatory safety void created by the Trump E/Os.  The NRC retains preemptive authority on all matters pertaining to safety and security at nuclear power plants.  No state can enact regulations stricter than those created and administered by the NRC, no matter how well-intentioned or protective.  Therefore, neither Governor Pritzker nor the Legislature can enact anything that will provide additional safeguards.

The Quad Cities reactors are owned by Constellation Energy are older and the same design as those which melted down and exploded during the Fukushima disaster.  A manual “scram” – an emergency shutdown – occurred on May 19, followed by a fire on May 22.  But just before these incidents, it was revealed that according to the NRC a serious accident that involved contaminating workers with radioactive water had occurred in March 2023, but was initially covered up by the plant staff.  Three years after the fact, the NRC has still not brought any corrective action or fines to bear.

As if to punctuate this sorry operational and regulatory performance, on Tuesday May 27 the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) released a report titled, ‘The Terrible 13: The Worst Safety and Security Violators in the US Nuclear Power Fleet.” The Quad Cities reactors are listed in this Report.

“Governor Pritzker is reported to have said that he wants to, ‘expand the options for nuclear in the state of Illinois….But it has to be done in the right way.’” Kraft notes.

“Under these conditions, there is no ‘right way.’  The questionable level of current regulation, and now the further erosion of even that via the E/Os are not the conditions calling for more nuclear power,” Kraft states.

“Current reactors are showing signs of aging. New reactors would require greater oversight during start-up phase.  With reduced regulatory oversight, neither will be safe.  Now is clearly not the time to bring more nuclear power to Illinois,” Kraft maintains.

“One bad day at the nuclear office will reduce Illinois to becoming the Belarus of North America,” he concludes, referring to the country most heavily impacted by the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

–30–

Nuclear Energy Information Service (NEIS) was formed in 1981 to watchdog the nuclear power industry, and to promote a renewable, non-nuclear energy future.

Numerous competent nuclear experts have decried the Trump Administration’s irresponsible nuclear deregulation action:

Statements by Dr. Ed Lyman, Union of Concerned Scientists:

“This push by the Trump administration to usurp much of the agency’s autonomy as they seek to fast-track the construction of nuclear plants will weaken critical, independent oversight of the U.S. nuclear industry and poses significant safety and security risks to the public,” UCS added.

Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the UCS, said, “Simply put, the U.S. nuclear industry will fail if safety is not made a priority.”

“By fatally compromising the independence and integrity of the NRC, and by encouraging pathways for nuclear deployment that bypass the regulator entirely, the Trump administration is virtually guaranteeing that this country will see a serious accident or other radiological release that will affect the health, safety, and livelihoods of millions,” Lyman added. “Such a disaster will destroy public trust in nuclear power and cause other nations to reject U.S. nuclear technology for decades to come.”

Statements by Dr. Alison Macfarlane, former Chairwoman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission:

“An independent regulator is one who is free from industry and political influence…Once you insert the White House into the process, you don’t have an independent regulator anymore.”

“If you aren’t independent of political and industry influence, then you are at risk of an accident,” Macfarlane warned.

Statement by Dr. Gregory Jaczko, former Chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission:

Gregory Jaczko, who led the NRC under President Obama, said Trump’s executive orders look like someone asked an AI chatbot, “How do we make the nuclear industry worse in this country?”

He called the orders a “guillotine to the nation’s nuclear safety system” that will make the country less safe, the industry less reliable and the climate crisis more severe.

Statement by Joseph Romm, a senior research fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media:

…any reduction in capacity at the NRC would be ill-timed with the administration’s proposed ramp-up of nuclear projects.

“This is not the time to be weakening oversight,” said Romm, who was a senior official at the Department of Energy in the 1990s. “It’s very dangerous to be weakening and undermining and politicizing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s oversight at a time when it’s not going to be having to do less work.”

Speeding up the permitting process while accepting proposals for new reactor designs would be “ridiculous and very dangerous,” he added.

Statement by Johanna Neumann, Environment America Research & Policy Center’s senior director of the Campaign for 100% Renewable Energy:

“Do we really want to create more radioactive waste to power the often dubious and questionable uses of AI?”

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Fukushima soil headed to Japan PM’s flower beds to allay nuclear safety fears via The Guardian

Posted on 2025/05/28 by nfield

Slightly radioactive soil from near the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant will be transported to Tokyo and used in flower beds in the prime minister’s garden, in an attempt to prove to a skeptical public that the material is safe.

The decision comes 14 years after the plant suffered a triple meltdown in the world’s worst nuclear accident since Chornobyl.

The sample will be taken from 14 million cubic metres of soil – enough to fill 10 baseball stadiums – that has been removed from near the plant during work to make local neighbourhoods fit for the return of evacuated residents.

The soil is in temporary storage at a vast site near the plant, but authorities have struggled to make progress on a legal obligation to find permanent homes for the material outside Fukushima by 2045.

The government has suggested the material, which it describes as low risk, could be used to build roads and other infrastructure in other parts of Japan. It would be used as foundation material and covered with topsoil thick enough to keep radiation at negligible levels.

[…]

“The government will take the lead in setting an example, and we will do so at the prime minister’s office,” the chief cabinet secretary, Yoshimasa Hayashi, said at a meeting held to discuss the issue.

The Fukushima Daiichi plant released large quantities of radiation into the atmosphere after it was struck by a powerful earthquake and tsunami on 11 March 2011. The disaster knocked out the facility’s backup power supply, sending three of its reactors into meltdown.

Although most of neighbourhoods that were evacuated after the disaster have been declared safe, many residents are reluctant to return. Some are concerned about the potential health effects – particularly on children – of living in former no-go zones, while others have built new lives elsewhere.

Work to remove 880 tonnes of highly dangerous damaged fuel from reactor containment vessels has barely begun. So far, specially designed devices have successfully retrieved two tiny samples of fuel, but removing all of it is expected to take decades and cost trillions of yen.

The plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power, has also had to contend with huge quantities of water that becomes contaminated when it is used to cool the damaged reactors. In 2023, the utility started pumping treated water – with all but one radioactive element removed – into the Pacific Ocean, triggering an angry response from China and South Korea.

The removal of topsoil, trees and other debris from near homes, schools, medical facilities and other public buildings created a stockpile of contaminated waste that now fills a site straddling the towns of Futaba and Okuma, located close to the plant. The material does not include any debris from inside Fukushima Daiichi.

In its final report on the recycling and disposal of the soil last year, the International Atomic Energy Agency said the work had been consistent with its safety standards.

But the public is yet to be convinced. Last month, local opposition forced the environment ministry to abandon a pilot project to use some of the Fukushima soil as landfill for flower beds and lawns at public parks in and around Tokyo.

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US East Coast faces rising seas as crucial Atlantic current slows via New Scientist

Posted on 2025/05/26 by nfield

The weakening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is boosting the sea level along the New England coast on top of sea level rise from melting ice, adding to flooding

By James Dinneen

16 May 2025

The slowdown of a major current in the Atlantic Ocean is boosting the sea level and associated flooding in the Northeast US, on top of the already-rising sea level due to climate change. A total collapse of this Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) as the planet warms could raise the sea level even further.

“If the AMOC collapsed, this would dramatically increase the flood frequency along the US coast, even in the absence of strong storms,” says Liping Zhang at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in New Jersey. “Even partial weakening [of the current] can already have substantial impacts.”

Melting ice sheets and warmer water due to human-caused climate change are leading to a rise in average sea level, but the rate of sea-level rise isn’t the same everywhere. For instance, some coastal land is sinking, speeding the relative rate of sea-level rise in those areas. Local sea level is also shaped by how heat, water and salt circulate in the ocean, with warmer and fresher water taking up more space than colder, saltier water.

The US north-east coast has seen sea levels rising faster than the global average in recent decades. In addition to sinking land, a slowdown in the AMOC – which transports warm water from lower latitudes to the North Atlantic, where it cools, gets saltier and sinks – has long been proposed as a possible driver for this. When this overturning circulation weakens, deep water along the path of the current is expected to warm and expand, sloshing more water onto the shallow continental shelf.

The AMOC naturally varies in strength on different timescales, and climate change has contributed to a slowdown in recent decades as melting ice freshens the North Atlantic and its waters warm. But it wasn’t clear whether this slowdown was making a big difference to sea level.

Zhang and her colleagues used tide gauge measurements along the New England coast to reconstruct the local sea level stretching back more than a century. On top of a steady rise due to climate change, they found a marked pattern of fluctuation between low and high sea levels every few decades. Years with a high sea level aligned closely with years when the AMOC was weak, and these years also had more frequent coastal flooding.

The researchers then used two different ocean models to quantify how much fluctuations in the AMOC’s strength influenced the local sea level. While the main driver of changes was the steady rise due to climate change, they found the weakening AMOC substantially boosted the sea level and associated flooding. In different parts of the coast, they found that a slowdown in the AMOC was behind 20 to 50 per cent of flooding since 2005.

Because the natural cycles in the AMOC’s strength are largely predictable, the findings could enable researchers to forecast which years will see lots of flooding up to three years in advance, says Zhang. This could help make long-term decisions about infrastructure and emergency preparedness.

“It demonstrates that the AMOC really does matter to [sea level rise],” says Chris Hughes at the University of Liverpool, UK, who wasn’t involved in the research. “It’s not just there in models or theory, it’s actually there in the real world.”

It isn’t clear how much of the recent weakening of the AMOC is due to climate change and how much is due to natural variations. […]

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過酷事故ないと言えるなら、原発は首都圏でも…新潟県発表のシミュレーション受け、長岡市長が見解via新潟日報

Posted on 2025/05/24 by nfield

　県が公表した東京電力柏崎刈羽原発事故時の被ばく線量シミュレーションが、福島第1原発事故並みの過酷事故を想定していないことに関連し、長岡市の磯田達伸市長は22日の記者会見で「国や東電が福島のような過酷事故があり得ないと断言できるなら、あえて柏崎刈羽に原発を造る必要はなくなる。首都圏でもよいのではないか」と述べた。

　会見後、発言の趣旨について新潟日報社の取材に、「今後、柏崎刈羽原発のリプレース（建て替え）の議論は当然出てくる。その時は関東圏に近い所に造れば送電ロスもなく合理的だ」とし、柏崎刈羽原発の耐用年数を踏まえた論点の一つだと説明。「新潟県で原発ゼロが実現できれば、県民、市民にとって悪い話ではない」とも語った。 　会見では、県のシミュレーション結果について「安全性に関する情報は全て開示した方がよい。万一でも福島事故並みの過酷事故が起きる可能性があるのなら、それも想定した第2段階のシミュレーションとして公表されるべきだと思う」との認識を示した。

原文

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Pacific

Posted on 2025/05/24 by nfield

20 May 2025

Japan’s Fukushima nuclear wastewater ‘pose major environmental, human rights risks’ – UN experts via RNZ

[…]

In August 2023, Japan began discharging wastewaster from about 1000 storage tanks of contaminated water collected after the earthquake and tsunami in 2011 that caused the meltdown of its Fukushima nuclear plant.

In the formal communication, available publicly, UN Human Rights Council special rappoteurs addressed the the management of Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS)-treated wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (NPS) by the Japan government and TEPCO (Tokio Electric Power), and the ongoing discharge of such waters into the Pacific Ocean.

They said “we are alarmed that the implementation of contaminated water release operations of into the ocean may pose major environmental and human rights risks, exposing people, especially children, to threats of further contamination in Japan and beyond.”

“We wish to raise our concern about the allegations of the failure to assess the consequences on health of the release of wastewater against the best available scientific evidence,” the special rappoteurs write.

“Against this backdrop, we would like to highlight that the threats to the enjoyment of the right to adequate food do not concern only local people within the borders of Japan.

“Given the migratory nature of fish, their contamination represents a risk also for people living beyond the Japanese borders, including Indigenous Peoples across the Pacific Ocean which, according to their culture and traditions, mainly rely on seafood as their primary livelihood.”

The letter follows a complaint submitted by Ocean Vision Legal in August 2023 on behalf of the Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG) and endorsed by over 50 civil society groups in the Pacific and beyond.

In a statement on Tuesday, PANG hailed it as “a landmark move for ocean justice and human rights”.

The organisation said that the destructive legacy of nuclear contamination through nuclear testing is still strongly felt across the region.

It said this legacy is marked by severe health impacts across generations and the ongoing failure to properly clean up test sites, which continue to contaminate the islands and waterways that Pacific peoples depend on.

“As Pacific groups, we remain disappointed in the Japanese Government and TEPCO’s shameless disregard of the calls by numerous Pacific leaders and civil society groups to hold off on any further release,” PANG’s coordinator Joey Tau said.

“Their ignorance constitutes a brazen threat to Pacific peoples’ livelihoods, safety, health and well-being, and the sovereignty of Pacific nations,” he added.

Japan has consistently maintained that the release is safe.

The UN human rights experts have asked for further information from Japan, including on the allegations raised, and on how the Radiological Environmental Impact Assessment has been conducted according to the best available scientific evidence.

This communication sends a clear message: Ocean issues must be understood as human rights issues, requiring precautionary and informed action aligned with international environmental law to safeguard both people and the marine environment.

Ocean Vision Legal founder and CEO Anna von Rebay said while the communication is not legally binding, it is a crucial milestone.

“It informs the interpretation of human rights and environmental law in response to contemporary threats, contributing to the development of customary international law and strengthens accountability for any actor harming the Ocean,” she said.

“Ultimately, it paves the way towards a future where the Ocean’s health is fully recognised as fundamental to human dignity, justice, and intergenerational equity.”

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A new study from the Boston University Institute for Global Sustainability finds that construction costs run over budget for more than 60% of energy infrastructure projects worldwide　via BU Institute for Global Sustainabililty

Posted on 2025/05/20 by nfield

By Laura Hurley

Between now and 2050, the International Energy Agency projects that more than $100 trillion will be spent on building net-zero energy infrastructure globally. Yet every single one of these projects runs the risk of higher-than-expected construction costs or time delays. Newer technologies introduced in the past decade, such as hydrogen or geothermal energy, are even more difficult to evaluate as government agencies, energy developers, utilities, investors, and other stakeholders decide which sustainable energy systems are best for future projects.

In a new state-of-the-art study, published in the journal Energy Research & Social Science, researchers at the Boston University Institute for Global Sustainability (IGS) found that runaway construction costs and delayed timelines stymie many energy projects. In fact, the average project costs 40% more than expected for construction and takes almost two years longer than planned, as the study showed.

Nuclear power plants are the worst offenders, with an average construction cost overrun typically twice as much as expected or more, and the most extreme time delays. To be exact, the average nuclear power plant has a construction cost overrun of 102.5% and ends up costing $1.56 billion more than expected.

Looking at newer net-zero options reveals higher risk as well. Hydrogen infrastructure and carbon capture and storage both exhibit significant average time and cost overruns for construction, along with thermal power plants relying on natural gas, calling into question whether these can be scaled up quickly to meet emission reduction goals for climate mitigation.

“Worryingly, these findings raise a legitimate red flag concerning efforts to substantially push forward a hydrogen economy,” says Benjamin Sovacool, lead and first author of the study, director of IGS, and professor of earth and environment.

By contrast, solar energy and electricity grid transmission projects have the best construction track record and are often completed ahead of schedule or below expected cost. Wind farms also performed favorably in the financial risk assessment.

For Sovacool, the evidence is clear: “Low-carbon sources of energy such as wind and solar not only have huge climatic and energy security benefits, but also financial advantages related to less construction risk and less chance of delays,” he says. “It’s further evidence that such technologies have an array of underrated and underappreciated social and economic value.”

Using an original dataset significantly larger and more comprehensive than existing sources, the study provides the most rigorous comparative analysis of construction cost overrun risks and time delays for energy infrastructure projects globally.

[…]

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