The mayor of a town near the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant filed a complaint Nov. 20 against Shiroishi city for providing radiation-contaminated pasture grass to a local farmer. ajw.asahi.com

Russia will resume exporting nuclear technology to Iran, President Vladimir Putin has decreed on a visit to Tehran. bbc.com

In an eerie reminder of a possible nuclear catastrophe, a senior Ukrainian energy official revealed that the attack on transmission towers that cut off the delivery of electricity from Ukraine to Crimea also created an emergency situation at nuclear power plants. rt.com

Heavily reliant on coal-fired electricity, South Africa is launching ambitious new projects aimed at diversifying its energy sources and avoiding the regular power cuts that have hobbled the economy in recent years. phys.org

Changes in Congenital Anomaly Incidence in West Coast and Pacific States (USA) after Arrival of Fukushima Fallout. file.scrip.org

Nevada tells feds that 1,400 in farm area could face threat of tainted water from nuclear dump. usnews.com

A demonstration plant to vitrify radioactive waste has completed initial commissioning prior to its deployment at the UK’s Sellafield site. world-nuclear-news.org

China is on track to become the world’s biggest nuclear power by 2030, the year it has set as a deadline to bring the most advanced reactor ever developed to market. scmp.com

        I have known for a long time that the Nazis were working on an atomic bomb during WW II but it is believed that they never actually built one. A team of Norwegian commandos were instrumental in slowing down the Nazi nuclear program. Their exploits were celebrated in the 1965 movie, “The Heroes of Telemark.”

        The Nazis had a fertilizer plant in at Vemork, in southern Norway, that was manufacturing heavy water which was critical to their nuclear research. It was their only source of heavy water. Attempts had been made to destroy the plant in 1942 and thirty five men had been killed. The British Special Operations Executive organized a raid by Norwegian commandos in 1943.

        Joachim Ronneberg is a ninety six year old Norwegian who is the only member of the Norwegian commando team who is still alive and was recently interviewed about his part in stopping the Nazis from getting an atomic bomb as part of a Norwegian mini-series that reignited interest in the WW II commando raids on the plant. He had been told that it was critical to the war effort that a set of pipes in the Norwegian plant be destroyed. He was not told what was so important about that plant.

        Ronneberg’s team of commandos parachuted into Norway to carry out the raid. Once inside the plant, the team of commandos quickly planted two strings of explosives provided for the mission. The fuses were originally intended to burn for two minutes but Ronneberg decided to cut them down to thirty seconds. He wanted to have enough time for the commandos to get out of the plant but he wanted them to be close enough to hear the explosions.

         Ronneberg did not know anything about nuclear physics or the Nazi work on creating an atomic bomb. As far as he knew, the Norwegian plant was just a fertilizer factory. It was only years later that he discovered what the true purpose of the mission was.

         The Norwegian commando raid on the Norwegian plant slowed down the Nazi nuclear research but did not stop it. The Nazi rebuilt the plant after the raid and the Allies repeatedly bombed it. The Nazis finally gave up on the plant and tried to move all the remaining heavy-water to Germany but Norwegian commandos blew up the ferry carrying the heavy-water.

         There is a dispute over how close the Nazis came to creating an atomic bomb. There have been books published that claim that the Nazis actually tested some nuclear devices but the general consensus is that even thought they started work on a bomb before the U.S. Manhattan project, they failed because of the inferiority of German science and the effectiveness of Allied saboteurs. The choice of heavy-water as a moderator instead of graphite proved to be a costly mistake because it made the Nazis dependent on the Norwegian plant. It is interesting to note that some of the scientists who worked on the U.S. nuclear program were Jews who fled persecution in Germany before WW II.

          If the Nazis had successfully manufactured atomic bombs and attached them to their advanced missiles, England would be a radioactive wasteland today and we might all be living in a Nazi empire. We managed to avoid this fate but recent international tensions have galvanized political movements of a distinct fascist orientation. Even in the U.S., there are groups and politicians who openly support many of the hallmarks of past fascist governments. Some of the countries where this is happening have nuclear weapons. The “demons” of WW II are awakening across the world and WW III looms on the horizon. 

Vemork plant where the Nazis manufactured heavy-water:

Three Japanese reactors have approval to operate for their full licence periods of 40 years after decisions by the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA). One of the units – Sendai 2 – is already in operation, the other two – Takahama 3 and 4 – are soon to restart. World-nuclear-news.org

The government on Friday lowered the threshold for evacuating residents during accidents on nuclear vessels, bringing it in line with accidents at atomic power plants. japantimes.co.jp

Moscow and Cairo signed an agreement on Thursday for Russia to build a nuclear power plant in Egypt, with Russia extending a loan to Egypt to cover the cost of construction. reuters.com

Energy Solutions EU (ES EU) and the UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) met in court this week over the company’s claim the government agency violated its own rules last year when it awarded a contract to manage the Magnox Ltd and Research Site Restoration Ltd nuclear sites. World-nuclear-news.org

        There is a major schism in the European Union over the use of nuclear power. Some western European countries including Germany and Austria want to end the use of nuclear power in the EU. Eastern European members of the EU countries including Hungary want to continue and expand the use of nuclear power. There has been an ongoing political and legal dispute in the EU over a contract that Hungary signed with Rosatom, the Russian nuclear company for the construction of new reactors at the Paks power plant. Austria pushed for legal action to block the contact with the EU court. Recently, the EU notified the Hungarians that their contract with Rosatom was not acceptable according to EU rules. The Hungarians said that they did not care and were going to press on with the project.

        The EU Executive Commission has been holding discussions with the countries involved in the dispute in the hopes of finding a solutions that was agreeable to all. The contract with Rosatom to build two new reactors at the Pak power plant in Hungary includes a generous loan from Russia of almost eleven billion dollars. The problem is that this arrangement does not follow the EU rules for public utility procurement.

         Recently, a representative for the Commission said that they had given Hungary two months to reply to their concerns. Hungary says that the Commission demanded that they halt work on the Paks project but the Commission has not confirmed this. Hungary claims that it took all the relevant laws and regulations of the EU into account in the creation of the contract with Rosatom. Hungary says that it will send a response to the Commission soon but that they were going to continue with the project.

        The Hungarian Prime Minister said that Hungary notified the Commission in 2013 that it intended to sign a contract with Rosatom. He said that the head of the Commission did not raise any concerns about the proposed arrangement at that time and Hungary proceeded with the project. The PM stated that Hungary had been in constant contact with the Commission up to the present and that EU Commission regulators had approved the plans for fuel supply and the technical specifications for the Paks project.

        The PM charged that this challenge to their Rosatom project was not really a dispute about following proper procedures but rather an attempt to stop a member of the EU from entering into an eleven billion dollar commercial project with a non-member state. The PM said that EU companies wanted to be involved in the expansion of the Paks plant but that none of them were willing to abide by the terms that Rosatom offered. Specifically, Rosatom has agreed that Hungary will have permanent ownership of the new Paks reactors. Representatives of Rosatom say that it agreed with the PM and that it intended to fulfill its obligations under the contract.

         It is possible that this dispute could reach the highest court in the EU and that fines might be levied against Hungary. Hungary says that it is ready to fight the challenges to the Paks deal in court. The Commission says that an additional concern over the project is that the Paks plant would be “overly dependent” on Russia. This is a problem given the recent belligerent behavior of Russia in the seizure of Crimea and agitation in eastern Ukraine. Russia has a history of using control of energy such as oil and natural gas to exert political and economic pressure on other countries.

Hungarian Paks power plant:

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff and the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, Philadelphia District, said Monday they had issued a final environmental impact statement (EIS) that finds no overriding environmental roadblock for a new nuclear power plant adjacent to the existing Salem and Hope Creek nuclear power plants in Salem County, N.J. nuclearstreet.com

The US launched a third flight test of the newly upgraded B61-12 nuclear gravity bomb, which it says shows the nation’s “continued commitment to security.” The launch was completed by the US Air Force and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). rt.com

Nuclear energy regulators in South Africa and China have signed a technical cooperation agreement as Africa’s most industrialized economy presses forward with controversial plans to build eight new nuclear reactors. alarabiya.net

Sirens will sound and nearly 1,000 police, fire and other emergency and TVA workers will respond Wednesday to a public evacuation around the Watts Bar Nuclear Power Plant near Spring City, Tenn. timesfreepress.com