Hi Tom,
As a reader of The Bulletin, you may have read this issue. I was particularly interested to read about Fukushima from a researcher [1] since I had inside knowledge from somebody who had lived near there and said that the nuclear fall-out danger was covered up, right from the start. Children were allowed to play outside at school, despite parents' concerns. Thousands of children then got problems with thyroid glands, which the researcher didn't pick up on.
I followed the clear-up operation, in which hundreds if not thousands of workers were involved, each for a short time because of exposure to radiation. The operations were extremely risky, because a single mistake could have meant meltdown. There was just one person who was writing about all the hazards; the authorities were silent. They were also silent about the huge plume of radioactive material released from settling tanks into the Pacific Ocean, which affected fish and fishermen.
This was a classic case of cover up. We have another case of cover up with the scientists who advocate for the Emissions Reduction Alone strategy: it is doomed to failure. Ideally this fact should be exposed in The Bulletin. What chance? Instead the need for SRM is treated as a kind of conspiracy theory: conspiring against the ERA strategy, e.g. with the moral hazard argument.
Needless to say, Trump has fallen for this conspiracy theory, raised by one of his side-kicks, and is trying to ban work on SRM I believe. Will the Democrats rise to the occasion, if they take over after Trump? Is there any sign that they recognise the urgent need for SRM and are working on SRM deployment behind the scenes?
Cheers, John
[1] Maxime Polleri
Counting the dead at Fukushima
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The B-21 Raider stealth strategic bomber in a hangar at Plant 42 in Palmdale, California. The conversion of the non-nuclear B-1 host bases to receive the nuclear B-21 bomber will increase the overall number of bomber bases with nuclear weapons storage facilities from two bases today (Minot AFB and Whiteman AFB) to five bases by the 2030s. (Photo: US Air Force) |
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"In this issue of the Nuclear Notebook, we estimate that the United States maintains a stockpile of approximately 3700 warheads," write Hans M. Kristensen, Matt Korda, Eliana Johns, and Mackenzie Knight-Boyle. The latest Notebook takes a look at the US nuclear arsenal amidst a wide-ranging nuclear modernization program. Read more. |
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Despite the increase, the underlying spirit of strict sufficiency—maintaining only what is necessary to protect France's vital interests—remains present in Macron's speech, writes Astrid Chevreuil. Read more. |
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Political scientist Joseph Uscinski talks to Bulletin contributing editor Dawn Stover about conspiracy theories and the people who believe them. Uscinski's research has found that conspiracy theories are not new, nor are they more prevalent than in the past. What has changed, he says, is that people at the highest echelons of power in the United States are embracing conspiracy theories, and conspiracy-mindedness is becoming more concentrated in one political party than in the past. This Bulletin magazine article is available to all readers for a limited time. |
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The Alva Myrdal Centre Multidisciplinary Conference, on 9–10 June in Uppsala and online, gathers researchers and practitioners interested in nuclear disarmament, non-proliferation and arms control.
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