Category: Sustainability

Nuclear abolition, climate change, environmental degradation, nature, peace and justice.

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Sustainability

Nuclear Energy Revisited

Photo by Ilya Perelude on Pexels.com

On July 1, Interstate Power and Light Company, the parent company of Alliant Energy, filed an application to add 1,000 megawatts of wind energy “to help boost Iowa’s electric grid and further diversify its energy portfolio,” Olivia Cohen wrote in the Cedar Rapids Gazette. The timing of the filing takes advantage of tax credits included in the Inflation Reduction Act before they change as a result of the budget reconciliation bill enacted this month. This project seems like a good deal for everyone.

What we don’t see is applications to construct new nuclear reactors to generate electricity. There has been a stream of media articles about pulling the Duane Arnold Energy Center in Palo out of mothballs and bringing it on line again. There is an exploratory committee for that purpose. In addition, the Linn County Supervisors have undertaken to establish a nuclear zoning code for parts of the compliance not preempted by federal authorities. These are not real solutions to meet energy demand.

I wrote before, “The technology at Duane Arnold is old. The physical plant is old. Its permit has been renewed twice. There is a limit to the life of these facilities built in the 1970s. Why throw new money after old technology? We shouldn’t.” If we do anything regarding nuclear power generation, we should wait until known problems have been resolved. That is one of Bill Gates’ current projects. Gates appears to rely heavily on government subsidies for his small modular reactor in Wyoming.

Why even consider nuclear energy? I knew why when I was a kid back in the 1950s and ’60s after President Dwight Eisenhower’s Atoms for Peace speech at the United Nations General Assembly on Dec. 8, 1953. Eisenhower sought to solve the terrible problem of splitting atoms in nuclear weapons by suggesting a means to transform the atom from a scourge into a benefit for mankind. Follow this link for the text of the Atoms for Peace speech. That idea had its heyday. That time is over.

Even Iowa is getting in the act with Governor Reynolds’ Nuclear Energy Task Force created via Executive Order to make recommendations for how we can move forward with nuclear energy in Iowa. The task force was just formed, so we don’t know the direction they will take. Well, we do. There is only one game in town. Generate nuclear powered electricity using government subsidies to offset the high costs which render the idea a non-starter as a stand alone business proposition.

Today our government wants nuclear weapons and nuclear power for the express purpose of making money for contractors and their wealthy owners. Profits are to be propped up by government subsidies. The message, clear in the Alliant Energy application, is government subsidies for green energy are coming to an end under the current administration. Why not phase out and end the subsidies for nuclear power and fossil fuel companies as well? We know why. The government has been captured by these energy industries.

Society has not begun to tap the potential of wind and solar energy. When the issue of storage is solved, the two methods of electricity generation should just take off. It is up to us to resist a resurgence of nuclear power and allow wind and solar to take market share. Based on what is happening now in Europe, they will. The United States has chosen to service oligarchs and large corporations in its energy policy. We should lead rather than do this and fall behind.

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Environment

Wildflowers – July 2025

Trail walking.

My words can’t compete with the beauty of a hike along the state park trail.

Wildflowers 2025
Wildflower closeup.
Lilies.
Wildflowers after a rain.
Wildflowers
Wildflowers.
The trail toward home.
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Sustainability

Clean Energy Future

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

If a person doesn’t believe an industry can capture the U.S. government, they haven’t been paying attention. The proposed rescission of congressionally approved funding for clean energy projects, combined with the omnibus reconciliation bill endeavor to strip away any government support for wind and solar generated electricity, electric vehicles, and more. The same moneyed players are at work here to retard progress toward a clean energy future: the fossil fuels industry.

Former Vice President Al Gore of the Climate Reality Project shared his thoughts on the regressive Republican policies:

We don’t have any time to waste if we want to solve the climate crisis in time to avert the truly catastrophic impacts that can still be prevented. But dangerous delay – which is the new “climate denial” – is exactly what Congress has done by repealing the clean energy provisions of the IRA: wasting time we don’t have by trying to prop up the fossil fuel industry while the world burns. 

Make no mistake, the clean energy transition will continue in the United States despite these efforts – our direction of travel is clear. 

But by prioritizing the fossil fuel industry over true climate solutions – even forcing taxpayers to add yet more subsidies for large oil and gas companies – our leaders are shirking their responsibility to the American people and ceding leadership in the global economy to China, Europe, and others who are embracing the many benefits of a clean energy future. (Statement by Former Vice President Al Gore on the Budget Bill, The Climate Reality Project, July, 3, 2025).

Gore is right. An obvious truth is that if the United States steps back from what once was robust governmental support for clean energy, there are two consequences. The domestic transition from fossil fuels to solar and wind powered energy will continue. The course is set, despite hobbles the fossil fuel captured Trump administration tries to attach to it. Second, if the United States doesn’t want to lead, China, Europe and others will, putting our country at a competitive disadvantage.

Last Wednesday, Reuters reported, “Solar power was the European Union’s largest source of electricity for the first time in June, overtaking nuclear and wind while coal’s contribution fell to an all-time low, data from energy think tank Ember showed.” The next challenge for Europe’s power system is expansion of battery storage and grid flexibility to reduce reliance on fossil fuels when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow, according to the article. The U.S. should be leading this energy transformation instead of ceding it to other countries.

The future is ours if we will grasp it. Despite Republican efforts to stop the clean energy transition, progress will continue, only this time with the United State playing catch up.

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Sustainability

Today’s Nuclear Times

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visits the Natanz nuclear enrichment facility April 8, 2008 Photo Credit: Reuters

I remember watching one of the Soviet Sputnik satellites flying over the back yard of our Iowa home. Besides launching a “space race” between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Sputnik heightened tensions between the two countries over potential use of nuclear weapons. Back in the 1960s, we graders practiced school drills for a nuclear attack. This period of competition became known as the Cold War. To this day, the U.S. and Russia own most of the nuclear weapons that exist. The NASA website makes a point:

The Sputnik launch changed everything. As a technical achievement, Sputnik caught the world’s attention and the American public off-guard. Its size was more impressive than (the U.S.) Vanguard’s intended 3.5-pound payload. In addition, the public feared that the Soviets’ ability to launch satellites also translated into the capability to launch ballistic missiles that could carry nuclear weapons from Europe to the U.S. Then the Soviets struck again; on November 3, Sputnik II was launched, carrying a much heavier payload, including a dog named Laika. (NASA website).

Our life of living with nuclear weapons changed dramatically since Sputnik. The public is vulnerable to being caught off guard again because few are paying any attention to nuclear weapons proliferation. Last year, Annie Jacobsen published Nuclear War: A Scenario, which provided an update on where the country stands regarding our nuclear weapons complex. Jacobsen’s work is part of the picture.

Our compliance with the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, which commits all parties to negotiate in good faith on effective measures relating to the cessation of the nuclear arms race, nuclear disarmament, and general and complete disarmament, is at a stand still. The story of how that happened is less interesting than the diversion from this core compliance issue caused by attention to North Korea and Iran’s development of nuclear technologies. It avoids the basic question of when will the U.S. and Russia comply with Article Six of the treaty?

Daryl G. Kimball, Executive Director of the Arms Control Association, addressed the recent bombing of Iran by Israel and the U.S. He argues, “U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to join Israel’s illegal military attacks against Iranian scientists and safeguarded nuclear sites represents an irresponsible departure from his earlier pursuit of diplomacy. It will increase the risk of a nuclear-armed Iran and erode confidence in the nuclear nonproliferation system.”

The nuclear deal that Trump unilaterally abandoned in 2018, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), imposed limits, prohibitions and intrusive inspection requirements on Iran that were to last for 10 or 15 years, with some being permanent, Kimball wrote. He expressed hope that the negotiating framework can still be salvaged, even if it has been severely damaged by this year’s U.S. military operations in Iran.

In the meanwhile, the U.S. government continues to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on our nuclear complex. We don’t hear much about that, except when it’s federal budget time. Ann Suellentrop, vice chair of the PeaceWorks Kansas City board and a member of the Physicians for Social Responsibility Board, noted in the Kansas City Star, “Kansas City’s nuclear bomb parts plant is ramping up significantly.” She provided details:

There is a new federal government plan to increase production of plutonium pits — the trigger that starts the bomb explosion in nuclear weapons — to 80 pits per year in each of the next 50 years. This is in comparison with the current production of fewer than 30 per year. The sites that are supposed to work together on what amounts to a new nuclear arms race include Kansas City’s federal nuclear bomb parts plant, managed by Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies. That is the Kansas City National Security Campus located in the south part of the city. The recent allocation of taxpayer funds for this National Nuclear Security Administration site reveals a huge jump from the 2025 budget from $1.3 billion to $1.7 billion in 2026. The plant is now doubling in size as it produces electrical and mechanical parts for seven new nuclear weapons programs simultaneously. (Kansas City Star, July 9, 2025).

Despite the efforts of Suellentrop and others, the nuclear weapons spending issue gains little media traction. “We need a mass movement of people to speak up and hold the government accountable,” Suellentrop said. The fact is we need a mass movement to speak up and hold the government accountable in many areas. If such a thing exists, it hasn’t ramped up fast enough.

The irony with the war between Israel and Iran is we appear to be returning to the days of Sputnik. Joe Cirincione recently opined, “we look at the unintended consequences of this 12-day war: the risk of dragging us back to the nuclear anarchy of the 1950s, when many nations — friends and foes — sought nuclear weapons.” The 1950s may be a fond memory for some of us. We definitely don’t want to go back, especially as it pertains to proliferation of nuclear weapons.

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Environment

Iowa Summer Photos

Hiking west at dawn.

Here are some of the best shots from the first days of summer 2025:

Oak Tree Leaves
Young Oak Tree Leaves
Summer light.
Trail flowers.
Exiting the canopy into the light.
Cloud formation.
Light on cluster of trees.
Sidewalk flowers in Skokie, Ill.
Dill pickles.
Categories
Environment

The Heat Backed Off

Daylilies in front of the house.

The heat and humidity backed off, making Tuesday a pleasant summer day. Ambient temperature got up to the mid eighties, yet a lack of high humidity made everything outdoors tolerable. I spent a good amount of time there.

Like many, I’m not happy the U.S. Senate passed the budget reconciliation bill. It apparantly came down to Alaska’s Senator Lisa Murkowski who, fearing retribution for a no vote, changed her mind and provided the 50th yes vote. That enabled the vice president to break the tie and deliver a win for Republicans. It is now up to the House to concur… or do what they will.

There is a lot to deal with. Senator Adam Schiff pointed this out in the bill:

If it passes, this will be a setback for environmental quality. Many environmental advocates may feel like the U.S. is back to square one. Me? I can’t give up.

For now, we have perfect summer weather. For how long is hard to say.

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Sustainability

Bunker Busted… or Not?

Morning of a new day, filled with potential for good.

The hubris of the United States is on clear display on a day like today, where late Saturday, we used so-called bunker buster bombs to attack the uranium enrichment capacity of Iran at three sites: Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. The president said in an address Saturday night, “Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.” I’m calling bullshit. So are a lot of folks who know more than I do.

“It is impossible to know at this stage whether this operation accomplished its objectives,” ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee Jim Himes (D-Conn.), said in a statement.

Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a news conference Sunday that the Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear facilities “sustained extremely severe damage” but it was too early to tell the scale of destruction, according to the Washington Post.

Dr. Ira Helfand addressed the question at the heart of this:

What if the United States attacks Fordow with a GBU-57 “bunker buster” bomb and the bomb does not take out the deeply buried site? Does the United States escalate up to the use of a nuclear weapon?

A 2005 report issued by Physicians for Social Responsibility examined the effects of an attack on the Iranian nuclear facility in Isfahan with a 1.2-megaton B-83 thermonuclear warhead, then under consideration for use in a Robust Earth Nuclear Penetrator (the “bunker buster”). The study used software known as the Hazard Prediction and Assessment Capability—developed by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency—to model nuclear weapons explosions’ effects. The study found that the attack could kill 3 million people—half of them from radiation sickness—and that the radioactive fallout would spread over a wide area of Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

The population near Fordow is much smaller than in Isfahan, but the death toll and radioactive contamination resulting from the use of a nuclear weapon there would still be catastrophic. (“Why Congress and the people should stop Trump from attacking Iran,” by Dr. Ira Helfand, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, June 19, 2025).

The American hubris to which I referred is our decades long failure to comply with Article VI of the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Both we and Iran are parties to the treaty. The idea the U.S. could escalate this situation to include use of nuclear weapons would not be an option if we were in compliance with the treaty.

The irony of Saturday’s bombing is it may cause Iran to withdraw from the treaty and develop a nuclear program which includes nuclear weapons. This is something that according to people who read the intelligence before the bomb-dropping, was not previously on the table.

As Daryl Kimball of the Arms Control Association put it, “The U.S. military strikes on Iranian nuclear targets, including the deeply fortified, underground Fordow uranium enrichment complex, may temporarily set back Iran’s nuclear program, but in the long term, military action is likely to push Iran to determine nuclear weapons are necessary for deterrence and that Washington is not interested in diplomacy.”

My initial reaction to news of the bombing persists: “The bombing of Iran’s fuel enrichment sites was an illegal, useless act that makes the world less safe.”

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Environment

A Morning Hike

I decided to call my morning exercise a hike instead of a walk. That’s mostly because when my sneakers wore out, I replaced them with a pair of hiking shoes. I don’t know if this will persist, but I’m trying it on for size, to wit:

Here are some photos from my morning hike.

Sunrise on the trail.
The trail goes on forever.
Reflections in the state park lake.
A neighbor’s bush.
Bur Oak tree leaves.
Categories
Sustainability

Looking Forward

Forking path.

We must get on with our lives. There is no better time than right now to lean into empowerment of ourselves and our identities in the face of trying times. These are trying times. From the uncertainties of markets to the fragile nature of our environment, it is always something new, different, or difficult. We didn’t ask for this, yet it is our gift from the body politic.

I’ve been thinking about the trees on our lot that were damaged during the August 10, 2020 derecho. The mulberry tree, with a big crack in the main trunk, is beginning to lose branches. The Autumn Blaze Maple also has main trunk cracks. It is only a matter of time before they will have to come down. In addition, the two Ash trees are already dead from the Emerald Ash Borer. How does one deal with climate change? By getting a decent chainsaw, obviously.

I continue to lean into the garden and work until I can’t work any longer. The shifts are shorter than they were ten years ago. Nonetheless, it is beginning to look more like a garden.

Editor’s Note: I am short posting when I get time until the garden is planted. It is taking longer than expected, yet I am determined to harvest produce from this soil, this year.

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Living in Society Sustainability

Memorial Day 2025

Oakland Cemetery on Memorial Day

Editor’s Note: This post from 2011 expresses my feelings about Memorial Day better than anything I could write today.

A soldier feels a sense of connection to his country that is like few other things. That connection is to current events, but to the lives of past soldiers as well. Being a soldier can be a form of living history.

When I left the 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry, and the Robert E. Lee Barracks in Mainz-Gonsenheim, Germany, I returned my service revolver to the arms room and never looked back. It was with a sense of duty, family tradition, and adventure that I had entered the post-Vietnam Army. My enlistment was finished, I resigned my commission, and like many soldiers turned civilian, my main interest was in getting back to “normal,” whatever that was.

A soldier’s connection to country includes being a part of living history. For example, many of us are familiar with Lieutenant General George Patton from the movie starring George C. Scott. When I stood at Patton’s grave in the Luxembourg American Cemetery and Memorial there was a personal connection. I learned a history I had not known. He died in a car accident after the war and his life seemed visceral, real…he was one of us. His actual life story, considered among the American soldiers laid to rest in Luxembourg, was real in a way no movie ever could be.

Words seem inadequate to describe the feeling I had when visiting the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial at Colleville-sur-Mer in France. I was traveling with some friends from Iowa and we went to Omaha Beach and the Pointe-du-Hoc, where the United States Army Ranger Assault Group scaled the 100 foot cliff under enemy fire. It is hard to believe the courage it took for these men to make the assault that was D-Day. The remains of 9,287 Americans are buried at Normandy. What moved me was that so many grave markers indicated deaths within such a short period, buried at the site of the battle. The lives of these men embody the notion of devotion to country.

The Andersonville, Georgia National Cemetery is where some Civil War dead are buried. This cemetery is active with veterans and their dependents continuing to be interred there. Andersonville is a part of our history that is often forgotten. Some 45,000 Union soldiers were confined at Camp Sumter during its 14 month existence. More than 13,000 of them died “from disease, poor sanitation, malnutrition, overcrowding, and exposure to the elements.” It was an ignoble death for a soldier and emblematic is the large number of graves marked “unknown” at Andersonville. It saddens us that citizens activated to serve the cause of preserving the union ended up this way. It seems like such a waste in an era when we have knowledge that proper public health procedures and basic sanitation could have prevented many of these deaths.

A friend of mine in Davenport kept the bullet that killed a relative during the Civil War on a “whatnot” in her living room. It was a constant reminder of the sacrifices servicemen and women make when they put on a uniform. It is also a reminder that defense of the common good is no abstraction.

On this Memorial Day, it is worth the effort to consider those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country and pay them respect. People and organizations are decorating cemeteries with American flags, reminding us that military service is not about images and speeches. It is about the decision individuals make that there is something more important than themselves and that from time to time it is worth giving one’s life to defend the common good.

~ First published on May 29, 2011 on Blog for Iowa.