UPDATE:  4/9/22

The IAEA:  “You had one job, only one job.  And…”

CNN has made it to Chernobyl before the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA. The IAEA has expressed only an intense sense of urgency regarding getting into the Chernobyl site and the exclusion zone and yet they are not there but CNN is. The IAEA lost all ability to track the nuclear fuel on the site to prevent nuclear proliferation at Chernobyl when Russia seized the site. They have not been there to check the radiation levels at the facility or within the Red Forest where the Russian soldiers dug trenches and likely contaminated themselves. The IAEA has not been able to ensure the safety and security of the nuclear site or provide the safeguards needed to protect nuclear materials. The IAEA has not been able to confirm the radiation exposure to Russian soldiers or to what level of exposure they received. These are all duties of the IAEA. How can nuclear power operate safely in a world that goes to war when IAEA members go rogue and do not follow the guideline or treaties regarding nuclear power facilities as Russia has done in Ukraine?
The European Union should be helping Ukraine move to a 100% renewable energy supply so they can shutdown their nuclear power plants.  Certainly the Ukrainian people do not want another Chernobyl on their land, impacting the Ukrainian people, Europe or the world.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/08/europe/chernobyl-russian-withdrawal-intl-cmd/index.html

 

UPDATE:  4/8/22

From Moscow to Kansas

This certainly makes you wonder what cyberattacks are being tried now and how many years from now we will hear about them.

https://www.flatlandkc.org/news-issues/inside-story-kansas-cyber-spies-nuclear-power-and-the-ukraine-war/?utm_medium=email&fbclid=IwAR3y1A3hi1WttZchie2f_cP-5JBN_7v6sPMX_AZwnnmUAqQyQmeEP6hphFY

 

UPDATE:  4/4/22

Russian troop’s exposure to radiation.

It has been reported that Russian troops have been exposed to radiation in the Chernobyl zone. We have been searching for more detailed information as to the level of illness the Russian troops have. How sick they are would give some indication as to the level of exposure they received. Could the troops have received an ‘acute’ dose from digging in the Red Forest area which has the highest levels of radiation in the exclusion zone or did they have exposure to some other radioactive materials at the actual Chernobyl facility? We hope answers will be forthcoming from Russia and Belarus, who reports say are treating the soldiers. Both Russia and Belarus are members of the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, and if they decide not to cooperate with the IAEA on conveying accurate information it will just be yet another example of how the IAEA has no real power or authority over IAEA members when they go rogue and put everyone at risk of another nuclear disaster.

The global nuclear industry has been telling the world that nuclear reactors could be operated safely, that nuclear proliferation could be prevented and that humans could be stewards over nuclear waste for generations into the future. What we have found now, in just 36 years since the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, is that a country that had agreed to operate within the global nuclear industry rules can on any given day decide to disregard safety and security of nuclear reactors and their stored waste. They can send soldiers into nuclear contamination zones who are ignorant to the special nuclear agreements their country entered into previously and who are uninformed to the harm they put themselves and others in through their actions. We are not capable of being good stewards of the aftermath of nuclear disasters or nuclear waste now and we cannot expect generations 200 years from now to remember what hazards Chernobyl or Fukushima are. The nuclear industry and the IAEA have cloaked themselves in a veneer of safety & security and non-proliferation safeguards that have been exposed as ineffective and easily transgressed.

https://thebulletin.org/2022/04/russian-forces-leave-chernobyl-un-watchdog-offers-ukraine-more-help/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=MondayNewsletter04042022&utm_content=NuclearRisk_RussianForcesLeaveChernobyl_04012022

 

 

With the nuclear reactor crisis emerging in Ukraine as a backdrop, a bill – HB 5589 — has been introduced in the Illinois Legislature that would remove a decades-old moratorium on constructing new nuclear reactors in Illinois. Read more

2022 has been quite a year so far.  No sooner do we begin recovering from the gut-punching reminder of “Don’t Look Up!” that we have a potentially civilization ending Climate Code Red to contend with, and fast, when along comes – Russia. Read more

       
 

UKRAINE NUCLEAR UPDATE —  3/6/2022, 9 pm (CST)

Gail Snyder, NEIS Board President

Ukraine has 4 sites with a total of 15 operational reactors, Chernobyl is also a nuclear site of concern because of the nuclear waste stored on site as well as the contaminated accident site. Read more

Ukraine Nuclear update: 10 pm, Thursday, March 3, 2022

Like many of you we are watching the situation in Ukraine with the nuclear power plants unfold as if our worst nightmare is coming true. 

By Gail Snyder, NEIS Board President

CHERNOBYL

The Chernobyl nuclear facility is now occupied by the Russians and did experience a large spike in radiation that returned to its previous normal level. It is not understood what caused the spike in radiation and it is our understanding that new radiation levels have not been updated. It has been speculated that the army moving about the area disturbed the contaminated soil causing the radiation to spike. We have also heard that such a high spike in radiation would have to have been caused by something else, possibly opening the sarcophagus that covers the damaged reactor but we do not have any confirmation that anything like that occurred and as far as we know that is just a theory of what could have caused the spike.

ZAPORIZHZHYA
The brave Ukrainians that blocked the Russians from accessing the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant were overtaken by the Russians. As you are probably already aware there are currently multiple types of artillery fire around the nuclear power plant and a structure adjacent to or within the nuclear site is on fire. Such a facility has many buildings. We do not know what is on fire. CNN this evening had the spokesperson for the facility, Android Tuz, on, he said, “many buildings are on fire” but “not fire on the reactor”. He also said firefighters cannot enter the facility to put the fire out.

There are six reactors at this site, one is in operation but all six are loaded with fuel in the reactors according to the spokesperson.  This is the largest nuclear reactor site in Europe

The spokesperson said a nuclear accident could occur at any time if the Russians start firing weapons again. It seems to have stopped for the moment.

There is a great amount of spent nuclear fuel on the site. Which is of equal or greater concern that the reactors themselves depending on how the spent reactor fuel is stored.

Under the current situation there are many ways that significant damage can cause a nuclear accident to either the fuel in the reactors or to the spent fuel. A meltdown of any fuel could cause a significant release of radiation into the environment impacting those nearest the facility and anyone downwind.

Here is a link to the latest IAEA update but it is already outdated as it does not talk about the fire.

https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/pressreleases/update-9-iaea-director-general-statement-on-the-situation-in-ukraine

Russia Attacks Ukraine – LIVE BREAKING NEWS COVERAGE (Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant, War Updates)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HVRapGiNoY

 

 

“Public Official A”  — the former Illinois Speaker of the House Michael Madigan — has (finally) been indicted under the charges of racketeering, relating to the ComEd lobbying scandal of 2020.  It ultimately led to Madigan leaving his post in the Illinois legislature after serving as House Speaker for 36 years.

Illustrated by George Eckart

The scandal resulted in a guilty plea by ComEd and a $200 million fine; and the indictment of three of ComEd/Exelon’s top executives: Exelon Utilities CEO and President Anne Prammagiore, former ComEd lobbyist John Hooker, and consultant Jay Doherty.   ComEd’s vice president of governmental and external affairs Fidel Marquez resigned, and later plead guilty to a charge of bribery.  Trial dates are expected in 2022.  Throughout initial FBI investigations relating to these individuals, references were made of “Public Official A”, which by description could only have been Madigan.

Madigan becomes the second state legislature House speaker to be indicted by the FBI.  Former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder was also indicted relating to a $60 million bribery scheme to support a nuclear utility in Ohio.  Madigan continues to proclaim his innocence.

It is amazing how nuclear power utilities and federal indictments relating to bribery and more are being paired up in recent years.  In addition to the two indictments above, a utility executive overseeing the construction of SCANA’s VC Summer nuclear plant in South Carolina also plead guilty in the $11 billion fraud case in 2020.

Nuclear power seems to go hand in hand with political corruption.

 

Ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan is indicted on federal racketeering charges

By Dan MihalopoulosDave McKinneyTony Arnold —  WBEZ-FM

ILLINOIS ENERGY TRANSFORMATION #29:

When Nuclear Power Meets War

Feb. 24, 2022

As I write this, the World is greeted with the news that Vladimir Putin has ordered the Russian invasion of Ukraine.  The feeling in my stomach is the same as I had when I watched the Fukushima reactors in Japan explode in early March, 2011.  It comes from thinking and remembering the people I met in Kyiv in 2006 at the 20th anniversary of the Chornobyl (Ukrainian spelling) disaster conference NEIS helped plan;  the beauty of old, historic Kyiv; the memory of St. Andrew’s Church (my favorite of the many old ones, even better than St. Sophia and St. Michael.) – and how all of these are now in grave danger. Read more

ILLINOIS ENERGY TRANSFORMATION #28: Getting Our Money’s Worth with Nuclear Power? Caveat Emptor!

Feb. 12, 2022

The recent $694 million bailout of 6 Constellation (nee Exelon) nuclear reactors in Illinois was not good news for ratepayers, Illinois or a renewable energy future.  It was made recently worse by the announcement by Constellation Energy (the Exelon nuclear spin off LLC corporation) that it would seek permission from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to operate its 11 Illinois reactors for up to 80 years – 40 more than the originally granted operating license, and 20 years beyond the 20-year operating license extensions already granted all Illinois reactors except the single Clinton reactor. Read more

ILLINOIS ENERGY TRANSFORMATION #26:

BEWARE THE POST-COP-26 NUCLEAR HUCKSTERS

Nov. 22, 2021

COP-26 and its aftermath have seen a dramatic rise in nuclear power being marketed as a “solution” needed to fight climate disruption.  A “devils in the details” analysis of these claims and a candid review of the history of nuclear power reveal them to be false – little more than marketing hype, aimed at syphoning funds and resources better spent on truly effective and sustainable climate fighting resources like renewables, energy efficiency, energy storage and improved transmission. Read more

Say “NO!” to $60+ Billion Nuke Subsidies in BBB Act

Congress is set to begin voting on the Build Back Better Act as early as this week.  Huge subsidies for nuclear and fossil fuels are imbedded in a so-called climate bill.  It’s up to you – and us – to stop them! Read more