South Korea’s reactor venture highlights the loss of nuclear expertise by Western powers (Part 1/Part 2)

South Korea’s plan to build two nuclear reactors in the Czech Republic, “effectively making a bridgehead for nuclear plant exports to Europe,” raises a number of interesting questions, says Dr. Chris Busby, a physical chemist and scientific secretary of the European Committee on Radiation Risk.

“Why can’t Europe build its own reactors? Why is South Korea suddenly involved?” he inquires, noting that South Korea apparently also plans to export more reactors to the UK, the Netherlands, Poland and “other countries.”

“In Europe, if you (as a politician, as a State, as someone with no idea of the poisonous downstream effects) want to buy a nuclear power station, you have few choices. France, USA, Russia and South Korea. No one else is selling them, it seems,” Busby explains.

The United Kingdom essentially “gave up on building their own” and while France did “jump in… the French EDF just can’t seem to complete one, and costs go up and up and up,” he notes.

“As for the US reactors, they have all kinds of problems including cost problems. South Korea must have seen a gap in the market and dived in,” Busby adds. “The Czech government cannot deal with Russia because it is in the EU basket and mustn’t talk to the Russians. No doubt there was a good deal offered by South Korea, and the agreement was signed.”

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South Korea’s reactor venture highlights the loss of nuclear expertise by Western powers (Part 1/Part 2)

Russian political scientist and nuclear energy expert Alexey Anpilogov also suggests that South Korea’s foray into the nuclear reactor market is the result of the loss of expertise in nuclear power field not only in the United States but also in the EU and even in France who until recently “remained an island of stability of sorts for nuclear energy.”

“Because a large number of countries, like Germany and Italy, has given up nuclear power. Spain has also adopted a program of shutting down nuclear plants,” Anpilogov says. “And some countries, like Britain, have lost the expertise needed for building nuclear reactors while formally retaining their nuclear energy capabilities.”

Meanwhile, French nuclear power plant projects, both in France and in Finland, took much longer to complete than originally intended and cost a lot more than originally planned, he adds.

“In my opinion, it became apparent in the modern world that if you halt all production activity in some high-tech sphere even for 10-15 years, you end up losing key expertise because during that specialists [in that area] leave you so there is no more succession i.e. the passing of technology to new generations,” he explains.

Thus, the problems that could have been easily solved by American and European engineers in the 1970s or 1980s pose a serious challenge for their successors today, which, in the nuclear power field, leads to safety issues and to a serious increase of time and money spent on nuclear projects, Anpilogov concludes.

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📹 Celtic football fans fly the Palestine flag in protest during the USA's national anthem before a match in Washington DC.

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❗️Russian air defense systems destroyed 47 drones over the Rostov region; one drone each over Belgorod, Voronezh, and Smolensk regions, and eight over Kuban, the Russian Defense Ministry announced.

In addition, 17 UAVs were destroyed over the waters of the Black and Azov Seas.

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"Wreaks of a coup" — American entrepreneur, David Sacks, on Joe Biden's sudden exit from the presidential race.

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Biden's decision to withdraw from the presidential race "did not have to do with any medical issues", CNN reports, citing a senior White House official.

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🇷🇺🇰🇵Russian Prosecutor General arrives in North Korea 

This is the first visit of the Russian Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov to North Korea, in the history of cooperation between the supervisory authorities of the two countries.

In the capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the head of the supervisory authority will hold talks with his counterpart, and discuss issues of bilateral cooperation with other officials.

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◾️ How did Joe Biden put US ‘in a serious state of crisis’ with his decision to withdraw?

◾️ Larry Johnson: 'American politics entered a great new period of chaos'

◾️ Kamala Harris is on her way to cringe to the presidential race

◾️ Russia is able to counter US ‘satellite jammer’ space plans

◾️ What does South Korea’s reactor venture in Europe signal to the West

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⚡️Head of Zelensky’s office oversaw preparation of Crimea terrorist attack in 2023 - FSB

The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) found a delivery channel of explosives and detonators, which were sent in parcels from Italy and Germany to Russia.

The explosives were in the cavities of the auto parts. The ministry notes that a similar scheme for transporting explosives from Europe to Russia has already been exposed in April 2023 in Crimea.

The persons involved in the preparation of the terrorist attack were detained. They were supervised by the deputy head of Zelensky's office, Roman Mashovets, the FSB noted.

Requests have been sent to European special services to identify the organizers and accomplices of the terrorists, but no response has been received yet, the agency emphasizes.

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❗️The Russian Federal Security Service showed a video of packages with explosives coming from Europe.

The footage shows how specialists extract explosives from auto parts.

A representative of the transport company, through which the parcels were sent, said that their services were used behind the scenes.

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The German Foreign Ministry has a "crisis group" to discuss and prepare for Trump's return to the White House, the Financial Times writes. 

Germany has long considered the victory of the ex-president in the elections "implausible", now this prospect inspires deep unease in Berlin, the newspaper notes.

The main reason is concern about the possible desire of the new administration to withdraw some of the security guarantees that have "underpinned Europe’s stability" since NATO was formed, according to FT.

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The day before Biden announced his withdrawal, he had met with his two closest advisers, who said that a path to victory was “basically nonexistent”, CNN writes, citing a source familiar with the matter.

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Kamala Harris’ second presidential campaign to fail - just like her first?

With Joe Biden endorsing Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee after his decision to exit the presidential race on Sunday, the first female US vice president “will likely have to answer questions” about her last botched campaign for the top job, the Washington Post has reported. 

Harris, who has said that she intends to “earn and win” the nomination, is now facing “an abrupt launch” of her surprise second presidential campaign, the success of which will depend on how she resolves the problems that hampered the first campaign, according to the newspaper. 

In this vein, the Washington Post cited an unnamed Democratic strategist as saying that Harris previously failed to live up to Democrats’ expectations because “she ran a terrible campaign (which kicked off in January 2019).”

 
Her efforts, which notably collapsed before a single ballot was cast, were disrupted by "declining cash, an inability to articulate a cohesive campaign message, and a steady patter of departing staffers", the newspaper pointed out. 

The report comes after Harris’ approval numbers dropped, following Biden’s “catastrophic” debate against former US President Donald Trump on June 27. According to FiveThirtyEight's average, the vice president’s disapproval rating stood at 51.2 % on July 5, compared to 49.4 % on June 27.

Last year's polls showed that Harris had the lowest approval rating of any first-term US vice president since Dan Quayle in the early 1990s. The surveys indicated that the 49th vice president’s approval rating dropped from 41.7% to 36.3% in early 2023. 

Previous polls revealed that Harris, who has been repeatedly criticized for turning a blind eye to the US migration crisis, and keeping mum on America’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, is "not qualified" or "not at all qualified" to be US president.

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😳Trump sponsored Kamala Harris' bid for political office? 

Donald Trump's check for $5,000 in support of the re-election of California Attorney General Kamala Harris in 2011 has gone viral on social media. 

According to Newsweek, Trump has donated twice to Harris' campaigns: he donated $5,000 to Harris's campaign on September 26, 2011, and $1,000 on February 20, 2013, when she was running for California attorney general.

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Netanyahu plans to meet with Trump during visit to US - adviser to Prime Minister

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to meet with Republican nominee and former US President Donald Trump during his visit to the United States, but there is no confirmation yet that the meeting will take place, Dmitry Gendelman, an adviser to the prime minister, told Sputnik.

"A meeting with former US President Donald Trump is also planned, but there is no confirmation yet that this meeting will take place," Gendelman said.

Work on organizing the visit is ongoing without changes after the announcement of US President Joe Biden about withdrawing his candidacy from the presidential race, the official said, adding that Netanyahu will meet with Biden.

"The prime minister's schedule includes a speech in the Congress, as well as meetings with Vice President Kamala Harris, White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, congressmen and several interviews with US media," Gendelman said.

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Respect for journalists' rights an empty phrase for Macron - Russia's Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on France's refusal of Russian journalists to cover the Olympics

The organizing committee of the Olympic Games in Paris have refused accreditation for some Russian journalists, referencing the decision of the French authorities.

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said that his organization has refused entry to many journalists, citing threats of espionage and cyberattacks. The International Olympic Committee has declined to comment on the matter.

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The Kremlin was not surprised by Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw from the election race: events in the United States taught us not to be surprised by anything, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

He emphasized that this topic is “not our internal matter” and cannot be a priority for Russia. Peskov also noted that it is not Moscow’s place to evaluate Biden’s decisions; this should concern American voters.

As for Kamala Harris, who Biden tapped to run, Peskov said that he could not remember a single contact between Vladimir Putin and her, and the Kremlin cannot currently evaluate her potential candidacy.

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Biden's electoral exit headlining Western media:

🔹The New York Times: [Biden] made what may be the most difficult political decision of his career... He decided to announce the end of his candidacy on X because it gave him the ability to do it “his way", avoiding the intrigue and leaks that have plagued his campaign in recent weeks.

🔹The Guardian: Biden’s decision to step aside, but remain as president, caps an unusually tumultuous electoral season as a singular stunning episode.

🔹The Wall Street Journal: Biden’s decision to withdraw will also reverberate across the Republican Party. Some senior GOP officials privately held out hope that Biden would stay in the race because they figured he would be easy to defeat due to aging concerns.

🔹The Telegraph: The president’s desperate attempt to postpone the inevitable may deny his party an electoral victory.

🔹Financial Times: [Biden's decision to leave the race is] the outcome of nearly a month of bitter and damaging debate within the Democratic Party about his mental and physical capacity to defeat Trump.

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Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid announced the need to call up 10,000 ultra-Orthodox Jews for military service.

On Sunday, the army sent out its first 1,000 summons to connoscripts from the ultra-Orthodox community. The announcement of the connoscription sparked riots in Tel Aviv last week.

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