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TOPIC: nuclear power

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This Happened — October 9: North Korea's First Nuclear Test

North Korea conducted its first nuclear weapon test on this day in 2006. The test marked a significant development in North Korea's nuclear capabilities.

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Zaporizhzhya, Inside Job: Russia's Most Likely Nuclear Weapon Isn't A Missile

Ukraine is warning about a possible terrorist attack on the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, which Moscow's military has occupied since the early days of the invasion. The U.S. Senate warns that, in that case, NATO is ready to enter the war.

-Analysis-

The Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine recently reported that Russia is considering an attack on the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant. The plant, the largest in Europe, has been occupied by Russian troops since the very early days of the full-scale invasion.

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Russian troops have turned the plant into a heavily fortified military base: the reactor's cooling system is mined, and ammunition depots have reportedly been placed in the radioactive waste storage department. Moscow's military also runs the plant itself, and even Russian nuclear experts who were transported to Zaporizhzhya take orders from local generals.

The area around the station is mined, and missiles and ballistic missiles have been launched from nearby bases. Observers from the International Atomic Energy Agency can no longer get to the plant, and their previous visits were useless.

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How To Stand Up To Putin's Bogus Nuclear Blackmail

The idea of "peacemaking" with Russia has been creeping into Western media, bolstered by fears that Putin could ultimately resort to nuclear weapons. But Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of the National Security Council of Ukraine, warns of the traps of this thinking.

-OpEd-

KYIV — I recently had a very interesting and, in my opinion, revealing conversation with a Western journalist. His questions, as well as his reaction to my answers, are a perfect example of a new "peacemaking" line that is beginning to develop in the Western information space.

I will not claim that journalists deliberately become collaborators of the Russian narrative campaign. But the fact that this new line works primarily in Russia’s favor is an indisputable fact.

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This Happened - March 28: Three Mile Island Meltdown

On this day in 1979, a nuclear reactor at the Three Mile Island power plant in Pennsylvania experienced a partial meltdown due to a combination of equipment malfunctions, operator errors, and design flaws. As a result, radioactive gas was released into the environment, and the plant had to be shut down permanently.

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FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War
Anna Akage

Will Putin's ICC Arrest Warrant Reignite The Nuclear Threat? One Plain Reason Not To Worry

The war crimes arrest warrant issued by the Hague puts the pressure on the Russian president. Would that prompt him to follow through on his past threats to use nuclear weapons? An extensive investigation by independent Russian publication Project.Media into Putin's life finds that he has other priorities closer to home.

Over his 23 years in power, Vladimir Putin has gone from a young liberal politician to an authoritarian dictator.

Before becoming president, Putin was a mediocre KGB officer who'd earned him the nickname "Moth" and worked with St. Petersburg thugs on low-level missions. There was no outward sign that he would evolve into the image of a global ideological leader for Russians, and enemy No. 1 of the civilized world.

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His failure to conquer Ukraine and open conflict with the West have prompted him to repeatedly make reference to Russia's nuclear arsenal. Fears and threats of the nuclear option may be revived after Friday's decision by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue an arrest warrant for the Russian President for alleged war crimes, including claims of the unlawful deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia.

Moscow has denied the accusations, and denounced the warrants as "outrageous." While some debate whether Putin can actually be arrested, there is also the question of what the Kremlin would do in response. How obsessed is Putin in punishing the West? How far could a cornered Putin go?

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Geopolitics
Pierre Haski

Putin's Nuclear Scare Tactics Come With Real Consequences

Russia has announced its withdrawal from a post-Cold War nuclear arms control treaty it signed with the U.S. The decision risks re-launching a global arms race.

-Analysis-

PARIS — It began as just another violent diatribe against the West, guilty of both wanted to destroy Russia and of moral decadence. But then Russian President Vladimir Putin unveiled a major announcement: suspending Russia's participation in the "New Start" nuclear arms control treaty.

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Only a small crowd of experts is generally interested in these issues, but the context of the war in Ukraine obviously makes the subject alarming.

The question everyone has a right to ask is whether this announcement makes a nuclear war possible? In other words, did the world become incrementally more dangerous on Tuesday?

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Future
Tyler J. Kelley

Irrational Nuclear Fears Are The Real Risk — Just Look At Ukraine And Climate Change

Greener than renewables, safer than oil and gas, nuclear power is deeply misunderstood — to the detriment to humans and our planet.

-OpEd-

When Russian forces attacked the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, back in March, many watched on in horror.

“By the grace of God, the world narrowly averted a nuclear catastrophe last night,” said the United States ambassador to the United Nations the next morning. When power was cut to Chernobyl five days later, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister tweeted that its reserve diesel generators only had a 48-hour capacity and that radiation leaks were “imminent.” And several months later, in an August video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky discussed the ongoing occupation of Zaporizhzhia, claiming that “every minute the Russian troops stay at the nuclear power plant is a risk of a global radiation disaster.”

None of these statements were accurate.

Commentators, either through ignorance or willful denial, misunderstood the layers of redundant safety systems built into nuclear plants like Zaporizhzhia. If power from the grid was cut, generators would turn on; if primary coolant was lost, a secondary system would kick in.

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In The News
Bertrand Hauger, Laure Gautherin, Emma Albright and Hugo Perrin

FTX Founder Arrested, EU Offices Searched, Fusion Breakthrough

👋 Yáʼátʼééh!*

Welcome to Tuesday, where disgraced crypto entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried is arrested in the Bahamas, the EU parliament faces its worst corruption scandal in decades, and U.S. scientists are expected to announce a nuclear fusion breakthrough with huge clean energy implications. Meanwhile, Warsaw-based daily Gazeta Wyborcza unpacks the new law that sees Poland try to slap blasphemers with jail time.

[*Navajo]

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Economy
Ireneusz Sudak

Why Poland Still Doesn't Have Nuclear Power

Poland has announced plans to build its first nuclear power plant with the help of a U.S. firm. But it's not the first time the country has tried to build such a plant. So, will it actually happen this time?

-Analysis-

WARSAWPoland is surrounded by numerous nuclear power plants in the neighborhood: in Germany, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Hungary, Belarus, Bulgaria, Finland and Sweden. But we don't have our own. There are more than 500 reactors in operation worldwide, and another 55 are under construction. Most are slugging along, and their prices have risen well above the original construction costs.

The best example is Britain's Hinkley Point C power plant. The UK owns the most expensive nuclear power plant in the world. But the work is still going on, as the construction has been delayed.

The construction of a Polish nuclear power plant seemed to be underway in the 1980s, when the country was to join the ranks of nuclear-powered countries. We were to have not one but two power plants — one in Pomerania in Żarnowiec in the north of the country and another in the village of Klempicz, near the city of Poznań in the west. But the government abandoned these plans in 1990. The reasons were a lack of money, the collapsing USSR, and a lack of enthusiasm following the Chernobyl disaster.

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Green
Daniel Wetzel

COP Out! How Germany Went From Energy Policy Ideal To Moral Failure

Germany was once a leading light in the green energy transition, but no longer. The country arrives at the COP27 climate conference empty-handed and lacking in moral authority.

-OpEd-

BERLIN — The international climate change conference (COP27) that begins in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, on Sunday will see Germany unveiling a new joint climate and foreign policy. For the first time ever, it will not be Germany’s environment ministry leading the negotiations around protecting the planet but its foreign office.

The move to send experienced diplomats to the conference is designed to increase Germany’s influence over global efforts to reduce CO2 emissions, but it will likely have the opposite effect.

Head negotiator Germany's Minister of Foreign Affairs Annalena Baerbock and her State Secretary for International Climate Action Jennifer Morgan will not only arrive at the Egyptian seaside resort empty-handed but also lacking in moral authority. Germany has lost its reputation as a leading light in the move towards renewable energy. No coal-dependent developing country will be put to shame by Germany's energy and environmental policy now.

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In The News
Anne-Sophie Goninet, Lisa Berdet, Chloé Touchard and Lila Paulou

Armenia-Azerbaijan Reignites, Greenpeace Nuke Protest, Godard Dies

👋 Ushé-ushé!*

Welcome to Tuesday, where Ukraine continues to reconquer territory, fresh clashes on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border leave at least 49 dead and France says adieu to two 20th-century titans of the visual arts. Meanwhile, business daily Les Echos draws a profile of Vladimir Potanin, one of Russia's top 10 billionaires who continues to grow his business despite Western sanctions.

[*Kanuri, Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon]

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In The News
Anne-Sophie Goninet, Lisa Berdet, Chloé Touchard and Lila Paulou

Mourning Queen Elizabeth II, Ukraine Hails Advances, “Anti-State” Nooble Vendor

👋 Aссалом!*

Welcome to Friday, where the world (from political leaders to newspapers and even one fluffy fictional character) reacts to the passing of Queen Elizabeth II at age 96. In The Conversation, UK lecturer Laura Clancy offers a look-back on the most represented person in British history and the meaning of her legacy. Meanwhile, Ukraine hails advances, North Korea declares itself a “nuclear state” and China goes crazy for EVs.

[*Assalom - Tajik, Tajikistan]

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