Beyond Nuclear International Weekly Digest, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2024

Posted: 18th November 2024

The UK may have returned the Chagos islands to Mauritius, but a UK-leased US military base there could violate the nuclear-free zone Treaty of Pelindaba, writes David Fig. The US NRC has “apologized” for claiming no tritium leaked into the Mississippi River from the Monticello nuclear power plant but new public safety assurances aren’t to be trusted, reports John LaForge.

What price freedom in Chagos?

Britain may have returned the Chagos islands to Mauritius, a welcome decolonization. But Mauritius is a full signatory to the Treaty of Pelindaba, which disallows any nuclear weapons on the soil of treaty member countries. Yet the UK is pushing to retain its lease of Diego Garcia - the largest Chagos Island - to the US as an ongoing military base and a potential strategic staging site for US nuclear weapons. READ MORE

Tritium got into Mississippi

Xcel Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission made false assurances that a leak from the Monticello, MN nuclear reactor of at least 829,000 gallons of cooling water into the Mississippi River did not contain tritium. But now an NRC official has apologized for a “miscommunication,” admitting that tritium had indeed contaminated the drinking water source for 20 million people. READ MORE

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