“In 1939, Leo Szilard (discoverer of fission) and Albert Einstein sent a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt advising that fission could be used to create a powerful new bomb. In 1945 came the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. By 1949 our former allies, the Soviets, had their own nuclear weapon, too.
“Later we built dozens of nuclear generating plants to provide about 20% of the American electrical supply. One of those plants, Wolf Creek, owned by two regional utilities, has been online in Kansas since 1985. Now comes a firm, TerraPower, founded by one of the world’s richest men, Bill Gates, with the lure of bringing ‘advanced’ nuclear power to Kansas. He announced a partnership last month with the state’s Department of Commerce and Evergy, one of the owners of Wolf Creek, to explore placing a natrium reactor somewhere in the utility’s service area of eastern Kansas.
“Another firm, Deep Fission, is working with an undisclosed partner to tap straight into the growing AI sector because data centers consume so much electricity. It sees tech companies as potential customers, and says it could provide them with on-site power by drilling 30-inch boreholes 1 mile deep and putting nuclear reactors at the bottom of each hole. But it’s not answering questions about details or whether it has sought state approval.
“TerraPower promises clean and safe power through its innovative technology, which uses molten salt (natrium is Latin for sodium) to cool the 345-megawatt reactor instead of water, as is done at Wolf Creek. Some of the projected energy may power AI data centers.
“The gold rush for new nuclear is on. But those vying to bring TerraPower jobs to their communities might want to cool their enthusiasm long enough to consider the safety and security risks presented by natrium reactors. These risks were described to me by Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety for the Union of Concerned Scientists. It is important to note that TerraPower public relations specialist, Brooke Leader, refused my repeated requests for an interview.
“The problems with the natrium reactor, Lyman said, are inherent in the design of any sodium-cooled reactor. The molten sodium bursts into flame upon contact with air or water, he said, and these types of reactors have historically been expensive to build and prone to leaks. But, he said, the most worrying thing about the natrium reactor is that it uses fuel enriched to up to 20% of the isotope Uranium 235. Called HALEU, it’s just below the threshold for weapons-grade material. Conventional nuclear reactors use fuel that is between 3 and 5% enriched.
“Natrium reactors require HALEU to make them smaller and more efficient, Lyman said. In addition, security at natrium reactors would have to be beefed up compared with conventional reactors, because HALEU is attractive to terrorists and rogue states. There’s also no long-term storage solution for spent fuel. We can’t even keep the government running year-round or provide reliable food and health care to our poorest Americans. How can we expect to keep the distant future safe for us?”
Alberta, Canada mesmerized by the silver nuclear bullet
“Premier Danielle Smith proposes that nuclear power could be ‘Alberta’s next energy frontier’. According to Smith, nuclear generators will not only help power scores of artificial-intelligence data centres in rural Alberta but also help to double oil production from the oilsands, while fuelling growth.
“So far the feds have invested nearly $1 billion to advance experimental small modular reactors. The industry has new powerful promoters. Everyone from Jeff Bezos to Bill Gates is investing in nuclear reactors.
“Unfortunately, these nuclear claims are an illusion. Even the 2024 World Nuclear Status Industry Report offers a reality check. It reports that apart from new reactors built in China (almost all over budget), ‘the promise of nuclear’ has ‘never materialized’. The report pours cold water on the ability of SMRs, a nascent technology, to play any significant role in reducing carbon emissions.
“Due to its cost and complexity, it will not provide cheap or low-emission electricity in timeframe or scale that matters as climate change continues to broil an indifferent civilization.
“The nuclear fixations of Smith and Carney are a telling symptom of our Titanic-like predicament. Every energy solution trotted out to solve a growing matrix of issues such as climate change or, in Alberta’s case, doubling oil production just becomes a source of more problems. Or an opportunity for corporate raiders to deplete the public purse.
“Smith and other politicians might consider the brief history of nuclear energy and its rousing propaganda. Its high priests (now they are nuclear bros) promised ‘electrical energy too cheap to meter’ and ‘nuplexes’ that would power satellites, TV stations and desalinization plants. Atomic energy also promised to replace oil.
“Today nuclear power accounts for about 2% of delivered global energy consumption. Energy analyst, Vaclav Smil has done his math. To provide 10% of its electrical supply, the U.S. would have to build and regulate some 1300 SMRs capable of putting out 100 megawatts per unit, he says.
“But the evidence shows that SMRs are not small (they occupy the area of a city block), cheap or, for that matter, any safer than large reactors. A good question recently posed by Professor M.V. Ramana, author of Nuclear Is Not the Solution, was ‘If nuclear power is so expensive and it takes so long to build a reactor, why do corporations get involved in this enterprise at all?’
“The answer isn’t complicated. If the public can be convinced ‘to bear a large fraction of the high costs of building nuclear plants and operating them, then many companies find nuclear power attractive’. Members of the public, therefore, should be aware of the risks they are being asked to take on by funding the “advanced” technology of SMRs.
“According to JP Morgan’s annual energy 2025 report, there are only three operating SMRs in the world: two in Russia and one in China and another under construction in Argentina. None came in on budget. ‘The cost overruns on the China SMR was 300%, on Russian SMRs 400% and on the Argentina SMR (so far) 700%.
“And then there is the inconvenient issue of nuclear waste. SMRs will produce more voluminous and chemically/physically reactive waste than Light Water Reactors. And sodium-cooled SMR designs will increase the volume of nuclear waste in need of management and disposal by factors of two to 30.
“The global economy is now using renewable energy not to retire fossil fuels but to add to energy consumption, thereby amplifying the crisis. An honest and imperfect response to the climate crisis would require a political, behavioural, economic and moral transition that would systematically reduce our energy and material consumption at an unprecedented pace. But that’s not an action any modern politician seems to be able to contemplate, let alone discuss.”
Don’t listen to Bill Gates, says Bill McKibben
“There is something odd about me devoting an edition of this newsletter replying to Bill Gates’ new missive about climate [dismissing it’s dangers]. But I fear I must. Gates, with impeccable timing, decided to drop his remarks at the same moment that Hurricane Melissa plowed into Jamaica. The same day Hue, in Vietnam, reported one of the two or three greatest rainfalls in recorded human history: five feet of rain in 24 hours.
“Gates hopes for hundreds of coal-to-nuclear transformations in the future, the vision of replacing fossil fuel that drove Gates to found TerraPower in the first place. Gates wrote in his 2021 book ‘The hotter it gets, the harder it will be for humans to survive’. Nuclear represented our best hope of stopping global warming, he claimed.
“Recently, Gates has changed his tune on climate. In a memo to COP30, the United Nations climate change conference scheduled for next week in Brazil, Gates abandoned his previous ‘net zero’ views. Climate change is a serious problem’, he said, ‘but it will not be the end of civilization’. Any conversation about Bill Gates and climate should begin by acknowledging that he’s been wrong about it over and over again.
“Jigar Shah, who led the Department of Energy loans office under Biden, put it best: Bill Gates hasn’t made sense on Climate since he teamed up with Bjorn Lomborg, claiming ‘We shouldn’t use our finite money for climate’. What they get wrong is that climate solutions are now fully profitable.
“Rajiv Shah, writing in the New York Times last year said ‘Want to End Poverty? Focus on One Thing. Clean electricity’. I doubt Rajiv Shah can say anything about Gates’ letter — he worked at the Gates Foundation for years. In fact, not many people can really reply to Gates — Gates money is too important to too many agencies and organizations. But since I don’t get any of it, so let me say: he’s really not the guy to be listening to on this stuff. Really.”
China’s purchases in yuan inching them closer to becoming the global reserve currency
“Alarmed by the US Federal Reserve’s aggressive money printing during the 2008–2009 global financial crisis, which threatened the value of Beijing’s $1.9 trillion in foreign assets, the People’s Bank of China launched a pilot scheme in July 2009 to settle cross-border trade in the yuan, or renminbi, for the first time.
“The pilot kickstarted a 16-year campaign that now sees the yuan used to settle 30% of China’s $6.2 trillion global trade in goods, the Chinese central bank’s deputy governor, Zhu Hexin, told an economic summit in June. If you count all cross-border payments — including bond purchases and foreign investment — the yuan’s share leaps to 53%, overtaking China’s dollar trade for the first time in 2023.
“Chinese steel mills are looking to gain a greater say in iron ore pricing by opting for yuan-denominated settlements, with a key deal concluded in the Chinese currency recently. Baoshan Iron and Steel Co Ltd (Baosteel), a subsidiary of China Baowu Steel Group, completed a 100 million yuan ($14.1 million) iron ore settlement deal via blockchain technology with mining giant Rio Tinto Plc, after inking purchase deals with Brazil’s Vale in January and Australia’s BHP Group in April in Chinese currency.
“China Baowu Group said that settling part of its massive iron ore purchases in yuan reflects the trend of the yuan’s globalization. ‘Such trade is attractive to multinational companies with an interest in long-term cooperation in the Chinese market’, the company said on its WeChat account.
“‘China is the world’s largest importer of commodities and hence we will see more commodity deals being undertaken in yuan, especially iron ore’, said Chen Derong, chairman of China Baowu Group. ‘The deal is a sign that the scale of yuan settlements is increasing in the iron ore trade, where China is heavily reliant on imports’, said Wang Guoqing, research director at the Beijing Lange Steel Information Research Center.”
China dominates world electronics industry through rare earth elements
“Back in 2019 the United States had a dust-up with China regarding trade and tariffs and China threatened to reduce export of rare earth elements (REEs) essential for many civilian and military electronics. The Chinese then as now held a dominant position in the mining and processing of these metals.
“Fast forward to today and we have China and the United States deescalating a trade dispute far broader in its scope with both sides reducing tariffs and China agreeing to drop its restrictions on exporting REEs to the United States. But none of this alters China’s stranglehold on REEs production and mining. China currently controls 69% of the REEs mine production and almost 90% of the processing of these elements.
“To guard against ongoing dependence on Chinese supplies, the Trump administration has provided capital for a facility that will produce high-strength magnets made from REEs for delivery to the U.S. military. What’s missing from the Trump administration strategy is it only focuses on the needs of the military. The broader U.S. consumer and business electronics industries remain dependent on Chinese supplies, supplies that could be upended at any time.
“But governments that don’t secure supplies of critical materials for their industries will likely find themselves at the mercy of those who embrace resource nationalism. This trend runs counter to globalization and suggests that more of the value added to raw materials will be added closer to where those materials are sourced.”
Declining bird populations related to modernity’s eco-destruction
“More than half of all bird species are in decline, according to a new global assessment, with deforestation driving sharp falls in populations across the planet, with 61% of assessed species now recording declines in their numbers.
“Many bird species have lost habitat to expanding agriculture and human development. Just nine years ago, 44% of assessed bird species had declining populations, according to the red list of endangered species from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
“At last month’s IUCN’s congress, the fate of many of the world’s most at-risk wildlife species was discussed. In the face of global headwinds on environmental action, scientists are urging governments to deliver on recent pledges to better protect nature.
“Birds play an important role in ecosystems, helping to pollinate flowers, disperse seeds and control pests. Hornbills – which are found across the tropics – can spread up to 12,700 large seeds a day in a square kilometre. The fates of birds and trees are intertwined: trees depend on birds for regeneration and birds depend on trees for survival.”
IUNC delegates back genetic engineering, spurn indigenous opposition
“Last month, members of the International Union of Conservation of Nature, IUCN, voted against a moratorium on the release of genetically engineered (GE) species into the wild, and in favor of the use of technology to alter or ‘edit’ genetic material in living cells. The two motions have drawn intense criticism from Indigenous-led groups and international organizations focused on agriculture, beekeeping, conservation, and biodiversity, which lobbied the IUCN.
“Scientists have worked on efforts related to climate change, such as disease vectors carried by mosquitoes, which have increased due to hotter temperatures driven by climate change. For instance, in August, a nonprofit released 16,000 genetically modified mosquitoes to subdue Anopheles gambiae, the mosquito species responsible for carrying malaria. The project was shut down a week later by authorities.
“Indigenous organizations including the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon River Basin and Wise Ancestors, meanwhile, have argued that consultation protocols and policies must be established, which ‘includes addressing ethical considerations such as free, prior, and informed consent’ — the gold standard for Indigenous rights enshrined in international law.
“‘Unintended consequences can permanently impact ecosystems including people and animals’, said Dana Perls, a senior food and technology manager at Friends of the Earth. ‘And so [we must not experiment with nature] until there are precautionary regulations and robust risk assessments’.”
There are better forms of mobility than cars
“The book, Life After Cars, details the various ways cars — or, more specifically, car culture — ruin childhoods, destroy wildlife, perpetuate societal injustices, and kill people, to name a few particularly negative effects. But authors Sarah Goodyear, Doug Gordon, and Aaron Naparstek also ask readers to imagine how humans could thrive in a post- automobile world.
“Life After Cars emerged out of a desire to explain the ‘tyranny of the automobile’, as the authors put it, in an accessible way. The book serves as a birds-eye view of the ways cars have ruined society and what we can do to reverse course. But for a book that’s shorter than 250 pages, it’s impressively comprehensive. Those new to thinking about the automobile’s reign of terror on society might bristle at the book’s explicitly anti-car message, but the authors aren’t throwing around assertions they can’t back up.
“Parents of young children may be particularly intrigued by the chapter that details how cities built for cars have effectively sapped opportunities for childhood independence. The ‘Do It Yourself’ chapter is particularly interesting, explaining the strategy of ‘tactical urbanism’, in which everyday people take to the streets to make the changes their city officials won’t.
“‘It took about 100 years, and a lot of different forces to get to the point where we’re at now. And it’ll take a long time to turn back’, Gordon said. ‘But you just keep going, and then things change, often very quickly. We don’t have to live like this, and we don’t have to wait for permission to initiate change’, the authors write.”
Kreisler: tangible and ongoing mutualism and reciprocity
“Community organizer Cléo Mieulet and designer Max Mauracher have long been exploring how to make local circularity tangible — beyond theory, beyond policy — in the daily lives of people. What would it mean to truly organize around sufficiency, cooperation, and mutual aid — not in concept, but in concrete terms?
“This was the seed for the first Kreisler, a space of community repair-and-share in Berlin’s Gropiusstadt that has since grown from an experiment into a scalable, open-source infrastructure for local resilience. Blending grassroots organizing with strategic systems thinking, Kreisler offers a hands-on response to the crises of overconsumption, social isolation, and infrastructural neglect.
“But unlike dominant interpretations of circularity — which often focus narrowly on green tech, recycling loops, and product lifecycles — Kreisler associations apply a critical and social understanding of circularity. Kreisler associations are spaces where everyday needs are met collectively. This includes direct democratic governance in accordance with sociocratic principles. A hybrid team of around twelve people combining volunteers and employees runs the association.
“Kreisler associations claim empty failing shopping malls everywhere! There are millions of square meters of emptied commercial spaces in every city, ready to be taken. Neighbors take shifts to keep the space running, and members collectively fund operations through income-related, regular contributions. This form of co-financing is more than practical — it creates a sense of co-ownership, meaning shared responsibility and agency rather than passive consumption.
“Each Kreisler is a social and educational infrastructure that supports multiple activities: Repair services, a lending service for tools and household items, tutoring support for school children, social counseling, neighborhood meetings and informal exchanges, and practice in commons-supported economic activity.”
