Tag: nuclear power

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Releases Report Confirming Radioactive Material Lost in Transit — Shipping Container Arrives Damaged and Empty in New Jersey

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has confirmed that radioactive material was lost in transit earlier this month, heightening fears about public safety and sparking theories about mysterious drone activity in New Jersey.

Officer Lew, a prominent political commentator, highlighted the NRC’s event report during a review of regulatory alerts.

“While looking at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Alerts. I can confirm that there is radioactive material that has gone missing on Dec 2nd, 2024 out of New Jersey. This might be the reason for the drones… just speculation at this point,” he wrote.

The missing material, identified as a Ge-68 pin source manufactured by Eckert & Ziegler, was reported lost by its licensee on December 3, 2024. Shipped for disposal, the container arrived at its destination severely damaged and empty.

According to the NRC’s report, the radioactive source, while classified as “Less than IAEA Category 3,” still poses potential risks if mishandled or exposed for prolonged periods.

According to the report:

AGREEMENT STATE REPORT – SOURCE LOST IN TRANSIT

The following information was provided by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) via email:

“The licensee reported to NJDEP on December 3, 2024, that a Ge-68 pin source that they sent for disposal has been lost in transit on December 2, 2024. The source is a Eckert & Ziegler model HEGL-0132, with current approximate activity of 0.267 mCi. The shipping container arrived at its destination damaged and empty. The licensee has filed a claim with the shipper. If the source is not located within the 30 days, the licensee will follow-up with a full written report to include root cause(s) and corrective actions.

“This event is reportable under 10 CFR 20.2201(a)(1)(ii).”

New Jersey Event Report ID number: To be determined

THIS MATERIAL EVENT CONTAINS A ‘Less than Cat 3’ LEVEL OF RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL

Sources that are “Less than IAEA Category 3 sources,” are either sources that are very unlikely to cause permanent injury to individuals or contain a very small amount of radioactive material that would not cause any permanent injury. Some of these sources, such as moisture density gauges or thickness gauges that are Category 4, the amount of unshielded radioactive material, if not safely managed or securely protected, could possibly – although it is unlikely – temporarily injure someone who handled it or were otherwise in contact with it, or who were close to it for a period of many weeks.

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New Jersey Receives Report Radioactive Medical Device “Lost In Transit”

While everyone, including local, state, and federal authorities, is desperately searching for answers, there has been a notable lack of disclosure regarding what is actually happening in the skies above New Jersey—some of the most restricted airspace in the world.

One theory points to drones equipped with payload sensors designed to detect radioactive material, given ongoing and heightened Al-Qaeda threats on the East Coast. Others believe this could be part of a large psyop aimed at pushing through new drone legislation in Washington, DC. Additional theories suggest that Iranian or Chinese operators may be deploying drones to spark mass hysteria.

Even Washington Post’s Josh Rogin called out the feds for “the lack of disclosure is damaging public trust.” He added it’s time for the feds “to come clean.”

If these really are Defense Department drones doing radiation sniffing for possible dirty bombs, one could understand why they wouldn’t want to admit that & panic people. But at this point, the lack of disclosure is damaging public trust. Time to come clean.

— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) December 15, 2024

What may seem like a mere coincidence is worth noting: reports of drone sightings began in mid-November, and on December 2, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission disclosed that a medical device containing radioactive material was “lost in transit” in New Jersey.

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“We Don’t Have Enough…”: Russia Temporarily Limits Exports Of Enriched Uranium To U.S.

In news that will act as a headwind for the U.S.’s re-emerging nuclear industry, it was reported last week that Russia is temporarily restricting enriched uranium exports to the U.S., raising supply concerns for reactors that produce nearly 20% of the nation’s electricity.

Russia provided no details or timeline for its uranium export restrictions in a Friday Telegram statement, though utilities’ advance purchasing likely mitigates immediate effects, Bloomberg wrote in a report on Friday.

Amid global backlash over its war in Ukraine, Russia continues leveraging energy as a geopolitical tool, also cutting gas supplies to Austria—ending a 60-year agreement that fulfills 80% of its demand—citing a legal dispute.

Bloomberg noted that Russia’s move targets a key U.S. vulnerability in the nuclear fuel cycle, as it controls nearly half of global uranium enrichment capacity and supplied over a quarter of U.S. enriched fuel last year.

Chris Gadomski, head nuclear analyst for BloombergNEF commented: “We don’t have enough enriched uranium here. They should have been stockpiling enriched uranium in anticipation of this happening.”

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Iran warns Israel: Nuclear doctrine may shift if its nuclear facilities are attacked

A senior adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has suggested that the country may revise its nuclear doctrine if Israel attacks its nuclear facilities.

In an interview with Iran’s Fars News Agency on October 9, Brig. Gen. Rasoul Sanaei-Rad warned Israel against targeting these facilities.

“These days, there is talk of approaching zero hour and the reaction of the Zionists,” he said, emphasizing that even officials in the United States have been advising Israel to avoid such escalatory actions, indicating that the potential repercussions of striking Iran’s nuclear sites must be carefully considered.

Sanaei-Rad articulated that an attack on Iran’s nuclear centers could significantly alter the strategic landscape and lead to changes in Iran’s nuclear policies. He declared that targeting these facilities would cross “regional and global red lines” and reminded that there are established protocols regarding nuclear facilities that must be respected during wartime.

Iran’s primary nuclear facility is located in Natanz, a central city in Isfahan Province. The facility has previously been a target of cyberattacks attributed to Israel.

In April 2021, Iran accused Israel of carrying out a devastating cyberattack at Natanz that damaged its centrifuges. Later that month, Iran announced that it had enriched uranium to 60 percent, a level closer to weapons-grade material. Additionally, Iran attributed a drone strike on a military facility in Isfahan to Israel in April.

Sanaei-Rad cautioned that Israel must “reflect on Iran’s possible reaction,” warning that any attack on Iran’s oil and gas infrastructure could impact global fuel prices and energy security.

“The rational advice is not to take any action that will lead to the development of tension. If they want to take action, they should consider these issues,” Sanaei-Rad said.

He highlighted that Israel’s infrastructure is densely concentrated in a relatively small area, making it more vulnerable to a potential Iranian response. 

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Israel’s 1981 Attack on Nuclear Facility “STARTED” Iraq’s Nuclear Weapons Program

Biden announced that Washington doesn’t support an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, which to some knowledgeable observers, given Biden’s record, makes that more likely. 

There are many other hypocrisies and fallacies, but obviously the first thing to be said about Israel’s propaganda regarding Iran’s nuclear program being weaponized is that Israel has its own massive nuclear weapons program that both it and the US government have refused to acknowledge for decades, as I’ve long documented.

But one myth is little known and important to understand as Israel seems to be eyeing striking Iran’s nuclear facilities.

The Telegraph yesterday claimed: “Israel did the world a historic favour when it bombed Iraq’s Osirak reactor in 1981.”

Bullshit.

Israel would claim in 1981: “From sources whose reliability is beyond any doubt, we learn that this reactor, despite its camouflage, is designed to produce atomic bombs.” Which seems to be a case of projection given their deceit regarding their Dimona facility.

In fact, Richard Wilson, who was Mallinckrodt research professor of physics at Harvard University, visited the Osirak Iraqi reactor in 1982 after it was bombed by Israel. He told me back in 2006: “Many claim that the bombing of the Iraqi Osirak reactor delayed Iraq’s nuclear bomb program. But the Iraqi nuclear program before 1981 was peaceful, and the Osirak reactor was not only unsuited to making bombs but was under intensive safeguards. Certainly, Saddam Hussein would clearly have liked a nuclear bomb if he could have had one, but the issue is whether there were enough procedures for that reactor in place to prevent him from doing so and all the indications are that there were enough procedures.

“The Osirak reactor was destroyed in June 1981. It was not until early in July 1981 that Saddam Hussein personally released Dr. Jafar Dhia Jafar from house arrest and asked him to start and head the clandestine nuclear bomb program. The destruction of Osirak did not stop an Iraqi nuclear bomb program but probably started it. Worse still, the Israelis were so pleased with themselves that it appears that neither they nor the CIA looked for and understood the real direction of the Iraqi nuclear bomb program.

“In the international discussions with Iran, this must be borne in mind. Bombing a peaceful program, rather than controlling it, is very dangerous. But, alas, this is not the lesson that many people, who have not studied the technical evidence, have gained.” Wilson died in 2018. See his piece in New Outlook: “Iraq’s uranium separation: the huge surprise.”

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While we’re supplied unreliable “renewable” energy, reliable “green” nuclear energy will be supplied for data centres and AI

AI’s insatiable need for power is driven by the complexity and scale of its computational requirements.

AI models are often trained and deployed in data centres, which are massive facilities housing thousands of servers. These servers consume a substantial amount of energy, equivalent to that of 30,000 homes.

AI inference, the process of answering user queries, relies heavily on Graphics Processing Units (“GPUs”). Each inference requires GPU processing power, which uses energy. This demand is expected to increase as more AI models are developed and deployed.

Larger AI models, such as those used in language processing and computer vision, require more computational resources and, consequently, more energy. These models have billions of parameters and rely on massive data sets, further straining energy demands.  And as AI adoption grows, so does the need for more powerful infrastructure to support it.

In an own goal for those eager to implement Agenda 2030 and its Sustainable Development Goals – such as those who eagerly signed the ‘Pact for the Future’, ‘Global Digital Compact’ and ‘Pact for Future Generations’ at the UN Summit of the Future on Sunday – the energy consumption of AI systems contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, so they say, and strains global grids. 

In Bloomberg’s podcast below (audio only) published on Tuesday, host David Gura and Bloomberg reporter Josh Saul discuss just what the insatiable AI data centre power needs mean for local communities, energy prices and efforts to switch to “renewables” to combat climate change.

“The big tech companies have set ambitious impressive clean energy goals … almost to a company [they] have said, ‘By 2030 we’re going to be 100% clean energy for our data centres’. But it’s a difficult thing to do because data centres are on all the time, 100% of the time, so to match that to clean energy is hard,” Saul said.

We guess matching large energy requirements 100% of the time is hard to do with “renewable” energy, i.e. wind and solar, because it is unreliable and intermittent.

However, the solution is simple; label nuclear energy as “green” energy. Gura posed the question: “Do they, the tech companies, believe that kind of traditional green energy, do they think that green energy is going to be enough to make up the difference that they need?”

Saul responded, “Well everybody loves nuclear I mean nuclear has gotten so hot, like Joe Rogan talking about nuclear.”

Gura chipped in, “Bill Gates is talking about it now.”

“Everybody. Yeah, everyone’s very excited about nuclear,” Saul said.

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Constellation Energy to restart Three Mile Island nuclear plant, sell the power to Microsoft for AI

Constellation Energy plans to restart the Three Mile Island nuclear plant and will sell the power to Microsoft, demonstrating the immense energy needs of the tech sector as they build out data centers to support artificial intelligence.

Constellation expects the Unit 1 reactor at Three Mile Island near Middletown, Pennsylvania, to come back online in 2028, subject to approval by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the company announced Friday. Constellation also plans to apply to extend the plant’s operations to at least 2054.

Constellation stock jumped about 15% in morning trading. Its shares have more than doubled year to date.

Microsoft will purchase electricity from the plant in a 20-year agreement to match the energy its data centers consume with carbon-free power. Constellation described the agreement with Microsoft as the largest power purchase agreement that the nuclear plant operator has ever signed.

“The decision here is the most powerful symbol of the rebirth of nuclear power as a clean and reliable energy resource,” Constellation CEO Joe Dominguez told investors on a call Friday morning.

Unit 1 ceased operations in 2019 as nuclear power struggled to compete economically with cheap natural gas and renewables. It is separate from the reactor that partially melted down in 1979 in the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history.

Constellation will rename the plant the Crane Clean Energy Center. The facility is named after Chris Crane, who was CEO of Constellation’s former parent company and died in April.

Constellation will invest $1.6 billion in restarting the plant through 2028, including on nuclear fuel, Chief Financial Officer Dan Eggers told investors during the call.

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‘There is a risk of a nuclear incident at the Kursk nuclear power plant,’ warns IAEA, blames Ukraine for drone strikes on plant

As the expanding frontline inches within just a few kilometers of the Kursk nuclear power plant in Russia, there are fears there could be a major nuclear disaster.

“There is a risk of a nuclear incident at the Kursk nuclear power plant,” said Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), after visiting the facility in Kurchatov, in the Kursk region bordering Ukraine, on Tuesday.

He added that he had seen evidence of drone strikes during his visit to the plant.

“I was told today that there have been several cases of drone attacks on the site (the site of the Kursk nuclear power plant), on the facilities. The fact that there is fighting a few kilometers away from the nuclear power plant raises great concerns and anxiety about the security system,” Grossi added.

He stressed that under no circumstances should a nuclear power plant be the target of military action, nor should it be used by either side for military purposes. The director general also said that the security systems of a plant must be fully operational under all circumstances.

Grossi noted that the IAEA delegation was shown the traces of the Ukrainian attack on the Kursk nuclear power plant. Based on the evidence his team gathered, he said there could be no doubt that Ukraine carried out these strikes and where they came from.

Putin also announced on Thursday that Ukraine had attempted a drone strike on the Kursk nuclear power plant.

Grossi, who said that he had visited the reactor hall, the engine room, and the control room of an operating power plant unit — as well as the spent nuclear fuel storage — found that the Kursk plant was operating at what is very close to “normal” mode.

He stressed that the IAEA is responsible for maintaining nuclear safety and security in nuclear installations worldwide. He said that he had accepted Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invitation to visit the Kursk nuclear power plant with his team to assess the situation personally and to find solutions together with his Russian counterparts. Earlier in the day, the IAEA director general was received by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov.

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Ukraine attempted attack on Kurchatov nuclear power plant

“The primary goal of the Ukrainians was to seize the Kursk nuclear power plant to blackmail Russia. They failed and now they are trying to bomb him risking nuclear destruction over Europe” revealed Russian officials and the president of Russia himself who also informed the IAEA.

In more detail, Russian special forces commander “Akhmat” revealed to Russia Today Kiev’s failed plan to seize the nuclear power plant in Kursk province and use it as a bargaining chip against Moscow in possible peace negotiations.

In this way, it is supposed that Ukraine could … trade the area around the nuclear plant for some of the territory that the Russians completely control, possibly in Donbass, Kherson and Zaporizhia.

And if their… demands were not met, then they might threaten the entire Russian border province with even a nuclear disaster, betting that the Russians would not dare to hit them inside the nuclear power plant.

Chechen General Apty Alaudinov added that the actual number of Ukrainian and foreign well-trained commandos who stormed Kursk is over 11,000.

“The Ukrainians wanted to seize the Kursk nuclear power plant by August 11. Obviously they could not achieve their goal.

The Ukrainians deployed over 11,000 men. Most of the military equipment that the Ukrainians brought with them has already been destroyed. They have already wasted all the resources they had available.”

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Another Chernobyl in the Making?

Ukraine has tried to attack the Kursk nuclear power plant reinforcing a theory that the Kursk offensive was aimed at creating significant havoc by either capturing or wrecking the Kursk NPP.  

The Russian Ministry of Defense reported a single suicide drone attack on the plant.  Russian President Vladimir Putin said that “The enemy tried to strike the Nuclear Power Plant … and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been informed, and they have promised to visit and send specialists to assess the situation.” The head of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, said he plans to visit the plant during the week of August 26th.

Last year there was a Ukrainian drone attack on the same facility. Nuclear Engineering International reported that in July 2023 “Unit 4 at Russia’s Kursk NPP was completely disconnected from the grid following a Ukrainian kamikaze drone carrying explosives fell near the station.”

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