LLAW’s All Things Nuclear #781, Tuesday, (10/15/2024)
LLAW’s All Things Nuclear #781, Tuesday, (10/15/2024)
“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity”
(See image caption in Truthout article for description of photo details . . .)
LLAW’s NUCLEAR VIEWS, ISSUES & COMMENTS, Tuesday, (10/15/2024)
Although the magical word ‘deterrence’ is not used, this ‘must read’ article, from “Truthout”, helps to explain what nuclear “deterrence” is doing to the economy of the United States and other nuclear armed nations, which will also continue to ‘rub off’ on economically smaller non-nuclear countries. This story and my comments relate to and expands on my “All Things Nuclear” blog post from yesterday.
All we need to know and understand is that as long as nuclear ‘deterrence’ is the only way to defend ourselves from our fear of nuclear war, our economic stability around the world will only get worse, and of course the lower and middle classes of all nations’ citizens will be the first to continue to suffer to a growing greater degree until poverty, rather than war may take its ultimate toll on humanity, although nuclear war is, of course, far and away the most likely.
Obviously, we cannot have it both ways, and so the simple saving grace, if we are human enough, is to “lay down our arms”, unify around the world, and remove, now and forever, all things nuclear from our way of international life. ~llaw
Costly Replacement of ICBMs With Sentinel Missiles Increases Risk of Nuclear War
Many of our unmet needs as US citizens are due in part to the cost of the US nuclear arsenal.
By
Published
October 15, 2024
R. Nial Bradshaw / U.S. Air Force
At the September 10 presidential debate, Vice President Kamala Harris described her support for maintaining the “most lethal fighting force” in the world. Almost certainly that includes the United States’ plan to upgrade its nuclear arsenal with more powerful, more accurate nuclear warhead delivery systems, as well as new tactical nuclear warheads and bombs for use on the battlefield.
The world is already awash in nuclear weapons with an astonishing capacity for mass death: The U.S. has 14 Ohio-class nuclear-armed submarines. A single submarine can launch 24 missiles. Each missile can carry eight independently targeted warheads with blast forces many times greater than the Hiroshima bomb — 100,000 tons of TNT equivalent versus 15,000 tons. The missiles launched from just one such submarine can obliterate the major cities of any nation on Earth. The U.S. also maintains 400 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) in fixed silos and hundreds of strategic nuclear bombs mounted on B-52 and B-2 bombers.
The U.S., North Korea, France, Russia and China are all upgrading their nuclear weapons arsenals, developing new nuclear weapons, or deploying them more closely to current target areas. Israeli leaders have threatened to use nuclear weapons against Iran, a risk which has intensified since the former’s escalation against Lebanon. Russia has threatened to use nukes if Ukraine moved to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or if the U.S. assists Ukraine in firing conventional missiles deep into Russia. The U.S. has never disavowed first use of nuclear weapons in a conflict. Russian scholar Gilbert Doctorow worries that the U.S. may launch a first nuclear strike against Russia to prevent its total victory in Ukraine. Former senior CIA analyst Ray McGovern, one of several members of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, fears the U.S. may use tactical nukes in Ukraine to forestall total Russian victory in that war. Trump’s advisers are calling for renewing nuclear weapons testing, in violation of the multilateral Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.
The first steps in this unsound direction were taken by the U.S. under President Barack Obama, when design and production of this new generation of nukes began. Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden continued with Obama’s plan, increasing its annual funding.
The 2023, U.S. military budget voted by Congress, included $51.5 billion for nuclear weapons, an 18 percent increase over the previous year and more than all of the other nuclear-armed nations combined. The budget continues funds for upgrading all three legs of the U.S. nuclear weapons triad — ICBMs in fixed silos, nuclear-armed submarines and long-range strategic bombers — with new nuclear missiles. This is happening as the U.S. — the world’s most powerful nuclear-armed nation — has withdrawn from major nuclear disarmament treaties representing decades of successful diplomacy.
ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA”:
There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War
Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There are two Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in this evening’s Post.)
IAEA Weekly News (Friday’s only)
Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS, Tuesday, (10/15/2024)
All Things Nuclear
NEWS
Appropriations 101, Energy and Water Edition
House Appropriations - House.gov
In the second installment of the Appropriations 101 series, Energy and Water Development Subcommittee Chairman Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN) joined ...
Israel tells US it will hit Iran's military, not nuclear or oil sites, source says | CNN
CNN
Israeli officials, including Netanyahu, have assured the US that a counterstrike on Iran will be limited to military targets rather than oil or ...
Israel Assures U.S. It Will Not Strike Iran's Oil and Nuclear Facilities, Officials Say - WSJ
WSJ
U.S. has sought to contain planned Israel counterattack on Tehran, hoping to head off wider Middle East war.
Nuclear Power
NEWS
Google goes nuclear to power its artificial intelligence ambitions - BBC
BBC
Technology firms are increasingly turning to nuclear sources of energy to supply the electricity used by huge data centres that drive AI. The ...
Google to buy power from small modular nuclear reactor company Kairos for AI needs
Yahoo Finance
In March, Amazon.com purchased a nuclear-powered datacenter from Talen Energy. Last month, Microsoft and Constellation Energy signed a power deal to ...
Google and Kairos Power Partner to Deploy 500 MW of Clean Electricity Generation - Kairos Power
Google inks deal with nuclear company as data center power demand surges - CNBC
CNBC
Google is the latest tech company to turn to nuclear energy as power demand from data centers surges.
Nuclear Power Emergencies
NEWS
Energy demands but nuclear power back on the table | | starbeacon.com
Star Beacon
... power Microsoft data centers, has many people thinking about the use of nuclear power again. Ashtabula County Emergency Management Agency Director ...
Benton and Franklin County emergency sirens, alert systems to be tested Oct. 17
Fox 11 Tri Cities Fox 41 Yakima
... nuclear power plant, according to an Energy Northwest press release on the tests. The testing will be conducted by Energy Northwest with the ...
Emergency THAAD Deployment To Israel Heightens Concerns On Strain To U.S. Air Defenses
The War Zone
Nuclear Power · Nuclear Propulsion · Nuclear Policy · Nuclear History · Nuclear ... Emergency THAAD Deployment To Israel Heightens Concerns On Strain To ...
Nuclear War
NEWS
Costly Replacement of ICBMs With Sentinel Missiles Increases Risk of Nuclear War
Truthout
Many of our unmet needs as US citizens are due in part to the cost of the US nuclear arsenal.
Netanyahu tells U.S. that Israel will strike Iranian military, not nuclear or oil, targets, officials say
The Washington Post
The signal is being seen in Washington as a sign of restraint after concerns that an Israeli strike on oil or nuclear facilities could trigger a ...
Would America Survive a Nuclear First Strike? | The National Interest
The National Interest
-Bacon highlights that the U.S. discontinued its 24/7 airborne alert for its nuclear command post after the Cold War, replacing it with a 15-minute ...
Nuclear War Threats
NEWS
Kremlin says NATO's nuclear exercises fuel tensions in light of 'hot war' in Ukraine | Reuters
Reuters
... War Two, that the U.S. was ready to engage in talks with Russia, China and North Korea without preconditions to reduce the nuclear threat. "In the ...
US Carrier Strike Group Pivots to NATO Waters Amid Russia Threat - Newsweek
Newsweek
US Carrier Strike Group Pivots to NATO Waters Amid Russia Threat · US To Expand NATO Air Base To Hold Nuclear-Capable Fighter Jets · Video Shows F-16 ' ...
There is not serious risk now of nuclear escalation by Russia - NATO official - Ukrinform
Ukrinform
Despite Moscow's nuclear threats against the backdrop of Russia's aggressive war against Ukraine, NATO considers it irresponsible to engage in .
Yellowstone Caldera
NEWS
Cosmic Clocks Help Keep Time In Yellowstone - National Parks Traveler
National Parks Traveler
Edigtor's note: Yellowstone Caldera Chronicles is a weekly column written by scientists and collaborators of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory.
Mag. 2.6 quake - South Pacific Ocean, 42 km west of La Serena, Elqui, Coquimbo, Chile, on ...
Volcano Discovery
Its vast caldera has an amazing moonscape and several ... List and interactive map of current and past earthquakes near Yellowstone volcano.