Part 1 of 2 Parts
     Former foreign minister of Australia, Garth Evans, has urged Australia to lobby the U.S. to promise “no first use” of nuclear weapons. He warned that global arms control agreements “are now either dead or on life support”.
    AUKUS is a trilateral security partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It was announced on September 15, 2021 for the Indo-Pacific region. The partnership will focus on military capability, distinguishing it from the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance that also includes New Zealand and Canada. Under the partnership, the US and the UK will assist Australia in acquiring nuclear-powered submarines for the Royal Australian Navy. The partnership also includes cooperation on advanced cyber mechanisms, artificial intelligence and autonomy, quantum technologies, undersea capabilities, hypersonic and counter-hypersonic, electronic warfare, innovation, and information sharing.
     The creation of the partnership spelled the end of a French–Australian submarine deal. On 17 September 2021, France recalled its ambassadors from Australia and the US; French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called the partnership a “stab in the back” following Australia’s cancellation of the deal worth 69 billion dollars without notice.
     Some southeast Asian nations have expressed concern that the AUKUS deal may destabilize the international security situation in the eastern Pacific.
     Evans said that following the signing of the AUKUS nuclear-powered submarine deal, the Albanese administration should give “some comfort to ALP members and voters that we are really serious about nuclear arms control”. He added that it was “sheer dumb luck” that the world had avoided a nuclear attack since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. “It is utterly wishful thinking to believe that this luck can continue in perpetuity”.
     The Asia-Pacific Leadership Network for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (APLN) is a network of over 110 political, military, and diplomatic leaders from countries across the Asia-Pacific tackling security and defense challenges with a particular focus on addressing and eliminating nuclear weapons risks. The APLN was founded in 2011 to bring together individuals who have held high executive or advisory positions around the Asia Pacific region, from South Asia and East Asia to Australasia; who share a common belief that nuclear weapons pose an existential threat to all nations and peoples; and who have resolved to work together to promote policies in our region and beyond to effectively contain, diminish and eliminate them, and to create a security environment conducive to those goals.
     Evans joined arms control experts and former senior diplomats in a sending a letter from the APLN urging Anthony Albanese, the Australian Prime Minister, to take “a leadership role in addressing the rising nuclear threats in our region”. Evans went on to say that “The most immediately useful step we could take would be to support the growing international movement for the universal adoption of No First Use doctrine by the nuclear-armed states.”
     By making a public commitment not to use nuclear weapons first, a country can send a political message that its arsenal for deterrence.
Please read Part 2 next

Ambient office = 91 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 100 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 98 nanosieverts per hour

Serano pepper from Central Market = 78 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 93 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 80 nanosieverts per hour

     Nuclear power startup NuScale is facing investigation by lawyers following a short-seller’s report which alleged that NuScale has sold twenty-four small modular reactors (SMRs) to a “fake customer”.
     Earlier this month NuScale announced a deal to supply blockchain firm Standard Power with one billion eight hundred and forty-eight million megawatts of electricity. Twenty-four NuScale SMRs will be needed to power two U.S. data center sites.
     Last week, NuScale’s share price dropped about ten percent after a scathing report from short-seller Iceberg Research which claimed that the thirty seven billion dollar deal had “zero chance of being executed.” The share price bounced back about six percent earlier this week after NuScale responded to Iceberg’s report. NuScale said that the Iceberg claims were “riddled with speculative statements with no basis in fact.”
     NuScale has contracted to provide Standard Power with one billion eight hundred and forty-eight million megawatts of electricity. However, Iceberg predicts that Standard Power will be unable to support the contract. Iceberg points out that Standard Power’s CEO Maxim Serezhin has an outstanding fifty-four thousand tax warrant in New York. This renders his assets vulnerable to seizure. Iceberg added that Adam Swickle, a former Standard Power leader, was found guilty of securities fraud in 2003.
     The Standard Power agreement is huge compared to NuScale’s only other contract, with the government-backed Carbon Free Power Project (“CFPP”) to provide Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (“UAMPS”) with 462MW. It is also much bigger than Standard Power’s other major deal, a two-hundred-megawatt contract for nuclear power at Shippingport, Pennsylvania.
     Iceberg claims that NuScale has about fifteen months before its cash runs out. Iceberg added that the UAMPS contract is reaching a crucial stage. “NuScale has been given till around January 2024 to raise project commitments to 80 percent or 370 MWe.”
     Iceberg also cast doubt on NuScale’s commercial partner Entra1. Entra1 was set up in 2021 to finance NuScale reactors. However, it only has one employee and was “very unlikely to be able to finance even a portion of this contract.”
     NuScale said that it “will not engage in a point-by-point rebuttal of every falsehood.” It did issue statements on several of Iceberg’s points, saying that NuScale has a “solid balance sheet,” and that the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) support for the CFPP “has advanced our SMR technology to the point of commercialization.”
     DoE support has been a key factor in NuScale’s development, assisting it to bring nuclear power down to a commercial price point. However, the price of nuclear electricity from its projected plans has been slowly increasing. It has risen from an initial estimate of fifty-five dollars per megawatt hours to around ninety dollars per megawatt hour.
     Iceberg suggested that NuScale may not be able to fully deliver without further support from the U.S. government. This would “dilute” shareholder value. NuScale went public with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) in May of 2022.
     Lawyers investigated NuScale on behalf of investors over “possible violations of federal securities laws.” Howard G Smith issued a press release this week and Rosen Law Firm is planning a class action lawsuit. These releases have been classified as “attorney advertising.”
     Overall shares of NuScale have fallen about seventy five percent since they peaked in late 2022, from about fourteen around three dollars and fifty cents.

Ambient office = 86 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 165 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 165 nanosieverts per hour

Red bell pepper from Central Market = 126 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 84 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 79 nanosieverts per hour

Part 2 of 2 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)
     In the U.S., maintaining and “modernizing” the nuclear weapon stockpile has been possible in part because of the extensive data acquired through earlier tests.
     Sanders-Zarke noted that Israel was suspected of conducting a joint nuclear weapon test with South Africa in 1979. A flash of light picked up by the U.S. satellite Vela near South Africa was the basis of the assessment. Israel is not known to have conducted any other tests. However, Israel did not create its nuclear program without outside assistance.
     In the 1960s, France helped Israel establish the Negev Nuclear Research Centre near the city of Dimona. The Centre is capable of producing nuclear weapons. The U.S. only discovered the facility after construction began.
     Israel has U.S.-made aircraft able to deliver nuclear bombs and German-made submarines able to carry nuclear warheads. Israel has Jericho ballistic missiles able to deliver nuclear warheads over a thousand miles to nearby nations. The exact details of Israel’s nuclear warheads and delivery methods are not known. Its U.S. and German-made vehicles could act as reliable delivery methods if fitted for nuclear warheads.
     In August, the IAEA’s director General wrote in a report that there was a “long-standing and fundamental difference of views” between Israel and other Middle Eastern countries with respect to the regulation of nuclear activity.
     Kimball noted that Israel only has agreements to allow the IAEA to inspect specific facilities and does not have a comprehensive safeguard agreement “to ensure that civilian nuclear activities and materials are not being diverted for nuclear weapons use.” He went on to say that while Israel had a nuclear arsenal, the country had “no justification nor any military need to employ nuclear weapons”.
     Kimball said that the ACA is “deeply concerned about a further escalation of violence against civilian populations. But we are not concerned that this might involve the use of nuclear weapons.”
     Israel has insisted that it has no interest in “introducing” nuclear weapons to the Middle East. However, it has continued to avoid signing comprehensive safeguard agreements with the IAEA.
     In a vote at the U.N. General Assembly last year, a vast majority of member states called on Israel to place all of its nuclear sites under IAEA supervision and to get rid of any nuclear weapons it possessed. The IAEA has not commented on whether Israel has taken any actions in line with this call.
     The civilian death toll in the war between Israel and Hamas since October 7th has already exceeded the death toll of the fifty-day conflict in Gaza in 2014. The bombing of the Al-Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza ignited a world-wide wave of protests. Although there is still uncertainty about the source of the explosion, there were hundreds of civilian deaths.
     Shifting tides among nuclear nations and those feared to join their ranks have made the future of international cooperation on nuclear proliferation uncertain.
     Last week, Russia announced it would begin to revoke its ratification of the comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty. However, they will remain a signatory. The treaty is not in force because it has not been ratified by all necessary parties. When in force, it would ban nuclear explosions for any reason.
     Iran’s U.N. Security Council-imposed ban on ballistic missiles was also lifted on last Wednesday. It banned Iran from acquiring and selling missile technology capable of delivering nuclear weapons. The U.S., Australia and the E.U. have maintained their own sanctions and restrictions against Iran in order to continue limiting Iran’s nuclear potential.

Ambient office = 59 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 100 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 96 nanosieverts per hour

Jalapeno from Central Market = 94 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 79 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 70 nanosieverts per hour