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82 year old nun appreciated for showing up nuclear unsafety

A Nun Is Appreciated, but Not for What She Intended http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/12/a-nun-is-appreciated-but-not-for-what-she-intended/ By MATTHEW L. WALD An 82-year-old pacifist nun facing felony charges for breaking into a Tennessee nuclear weapons plant was publicly thanked on Wednesday by conservative members of a House committee for exposing security flaws. Representative Joe Barton, a Texas Republican had invited Sister Megan Gillespie Rice of Las Vegas to stand up and be recognized at the hearing, held by the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s subcommittee on oversight and investigations. Continue reading →

September 13, 2012 Posted by | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Hasty appointment by Japan’s PM of new nuclear safety agency

Noda’s appointment of nuclear watchdog chief inevitable The Yomiuri Shimbun, 13 Sept 12,  A nuclear regulatory commission must be established as soon as possible to reconstruct the nation’s nuclear safety administration.

At a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, the government decided to establish the commission next Wednesday. The chairman and four other posts will be appointed by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda based on a law that allows for the appointment of the nuclear watchdog’s members without obtaining Diet approval.

Personnel appointment without Diet approval is not desirable. But considering that the legal deadline for establishing the agency is Sept. 26, the government will have no choice but to take this exceptional step.

There was no vote held on a personnel plan for the commission during the ordinary Diet session that ended last week because of differences within the Democratic Party of Japan.

Former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and former Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Kazuhiro Haraguchi, a candidate in the forthcoming party presidential election, and some other DPJ members called for replacing the proposed personnel with people who do not belong to the so-called nuclear power village……
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/editorial/T120912003426.htm

September 13, 2012 Posted by | Japan, politics | Leave a comment

Sister Megan Rice could face 16 years in gaol

DC hearing focuses on nuclear weapons plant breach  : http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/DC-hearing-focuses-on-nuclear-weapons-plant-breach-3860050.php#ixzz26OOxIhdu   ERIK SCHELZIG, Associated Press , September 12, 2012 NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — An 82-year-old Roman Catholic nun accused of breaching security at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Tennessee with two fellow peace activists elicited both praise and criticism Wednesday at a congressional hearing on the intrusion.

Sister Megan Rice and her co-defendants face federal charges that could carry a maximum prison sentence of 16 years in prison if convicted. Authorities said the activists cut through security fences July 28 surrounding the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility at Y-12 and defaced the building with blood and spray paint.

Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, asked Rice to stand in the audience at Wednesday’s hearing of the House Energy and Commerce oversight and investigations subcommittee in Washington.

“While I don’t totally agree with your platform that you were espousing, I do thank you for bringing out the inadequacies in our security system,” Barton said.http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/DC-hearing-focuses-on-nuclear-weapons-plant-breach-3860050.php#ixzz26OOpOmJD

September 13, 2012 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Repairs to nuclear plants getting more costly – not viable?

Nuclear Repairs No Easy Sale as Cheap Gas Hits Utilities Bloomberg, By Julie Johnsson – Sep 11, 2012  A damaged Florida  nuclear plant that spurred a boardroom coup at Duke Energy Corp. (DUK)in July risks getting scrapped unless the power company can justify spending more than $1.3 billion on the costliest-ever U.S. atomic repair……

Rising Risks The dispute underscores the stakes for U.S. power companies weighing nuclear investments against falling power prices and risks that plants won’t be relicensed or may close prematurely. Regulators haven’t approved Duke’s plans to pass repair expenses on to clients, and decommissioning costs haven’t been tallied.

Edison International (EIX) faces a similar decision with its 30- year-old San Onofre atomic station near Los Angeles , shut down since January because of leaks and unusual wear to its steam generators.

The surplus of gas-fired power plants in the western U.S. weakens the case for repairing and restarting San Onofre’s twin reactors. “The argument that ratepayers need to keep supporting Grandma lasts for about 15 seconds,” John Geesman, a former California  energy commissioner, said in a phone interview. He serves as outside counsel for the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility, which has lobbied the state to keep that plant idle…..

Oyster Creek Exelon Corp. (EXC) of Chicago decided in 2010 that it was more economical to close its Oyster Creek reactor in Forked River, New Jersey , when its license expired in 2019 than spend as much as $801 million to build a cooling tower demanded by state officials.

Duke’s board faces a more complicated analysis as it decides the best approach to its Crystal River plant, 80 miles (129 kilometers) north of Tampa.

The silo-shaped concrete building that houses the Crystal River 3 reactor cracked in 2009 as crews replaced the steam generators, huge pipe assemblies that transfer heat from the nuclear reactor to power-generating turbines. Once the damaged panel was patched, two other sections cracked in March and July 2011 after workers tightened steel tendons intended to strengthen the structure.

“We’re not joking when we call it the Humpty Dumpty reactor,” Stephen Smith , executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, said in a phone interview. “We think they ought to quit throwing good money after bad.”

September 13, 2012 Posted by | business and costs, USA | Leave a comment

Lynas rare earths plant – troubles are far from over

The world will witness one of the biggest civil disobedience events in this nation”

 Mr Ibrahim has demanded that Australians ”hear the frustrations of Malaysians” over the project.

First Weld war looms – Malaysians mobilise to fight Lynas plant, The Age,  September 13, 202 Lindsay MurdochACTIVISTS are planning a multi-pronged attack to try to stop the Australian miner Lynas Corp opening a rare earths
processing plant in Malaysia.
Opposition parties, led by Anwar Ibrahim, are also planning to make the $230 million plant a key issue of the country’s national elections, which must be held by April next year. They have vowed to shut the plant if they oust the government.  Continue reading →

September 13, 2012 Posted by | Malaysia, RARE EARTHS, Uranium | 2 Comments

Palisades managers admit problems at nuclear plant, tell regulators how they’re improving Michigan Live By Fritz Klug , September 12, 2012, “…..While the NRC was looking into issues at Palisades, Entergy contracted with an independent firm to survey the plant’s workforce in January. From responses by about 600 employees, the survey found three key takeaways:
There had been a significant loss of confidence in the site’s leadership team, and leadership did not challenge each other to make the right decisions.
Leadership did not value or prioritize processes to improve plant performance or develop “a learning organization.”
Accountability was viewed as punitive.
Management said these problems were widespread across different departments at the plant….  n May, Gregory Jaczko, the NRC chairman at the time, toured Palisades and said Entergy needed to improve on basics of nuclear safety.…..  On Thursday, anti-nuclear activist Kevin Kamps will give a talk in Kalamazoo about what he contends are worsening conditions at the plant…. http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2012/09/palisades_nuclear_power_plant_6.html

September 13, 2012 Posted by | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Randy Brock, Republican guv candidate wants new nuclear plant in Vermont

Vt. guv candidates spar over energy, other issues Boston.com By DAVE GRAM
Associated Press  / September 12, 2012 MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Gov. Peter Shumlin and Republican challenger Randy Brock differed sharply on energy and other issues in a debate Wednesday evening, with Brock saying he would support construction of
a new nuclear plant in Vernon and Shumlin saying he thought ridge-top wind turbines were ‘‘aesthetically pleasing.’’….

On energy, Brock said he thought Vermont should look into inviting a nuclear company to
build a new power plant in Vernon, home to the 41-year-old VermontYankee reactor, which Shumlin has been pushing to close…..
http://www.boston.com/news/local/vermont/2012/09/12/candidate-brock-build-new-nuclear-plant/Yjbvk3KPf9oOQbjcFQpyPM/story.html

September 13, 2012 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

San Onofre nuclear plant to be offline for months, Market Watch,  By Ryan Tracy, Sept. 12, 2012,   WASHINGTON–-The chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Wednesday that the shut-down San Onofre nuclear station in California will remain offline for months while the agency reviews Southern California Edison’s assessment of the plant’s problems…. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/san-onofre-nuclear-plant-to-be-offline-for-months-2012-09-12

September 13, 2012 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

It will be very costly NOT to act on Climate Change

it is worth exploring the question, what would a world with >2°C global surface warming look like?

Global Warming Impacts

The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) summarizes the magnitudes of impact of various degrees of warming here, and graphically….

This is Why Reducing Emissions is Critical

Realistically What Might the Future Climate Look Like? Sceptical Science   31 August 2012 by dana1981Robert Watson, former Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),recently made headlines by declaring that it is unlikely we will be able to limit global warming to the 2°C ‘danger limit’.  This past April, the International Energy Agency similarly warnedthat we are rapidly running out of time to avoid blowing past 2°C global warming compared to late 19th Century temperatures.  The reason for their pessimism is illustrated in the ‘ski slopes’ graphic, which depicts how steep emissions cuts will have to be in order to give ourselves a good chance to stay below the 2°C target, given different peak emissions dates

Clearly our CO2 emissions have not yet peaked – in fact they increased by 1 billion tonnes between 2010 and 2011 despite a continued global economic recession; therefore, the green curve is no longer an option.  There has also been little progress toward an international climate accord to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which suggests that the blue curve does not represent a likely scenario either – in order to achieve peak emissions in 2015 we would have to take serious steps to reduce emissions today, which we are not.  The red curve seems the most likely, but the required cuts are so steep that it is unlikely we will be able to achieve them, which means we are indeed likely to surpass the 2°C target. Continue reading →

September 13, 2012 Posted by | 2 WORLD, climate change | Leave a comment

Solar power use – the top 20 USA commercial users

USA’s Top 20 Commercial Solar Power Users http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=3379 by Energy Matters, 12 Sept 12, U.S. commercial solar installations could power more than 390,000 American homes according to a new report from the Solar Energy Industry Association (SEIA) and the Vote Solar Initiative.

The top 20 corporate solar users’ installations alone combined generate an estimated $47.3 million worth of electricity each year; enough to power 46,500 average American homes.

Those who made the top 20 list, in order of on-site capacity are: Walmart, Costco, Kohl’s Department Stores, IKEA, Macy’s, McGraw-Hill, Johnson & Johnson, Staples, Inc., Campbell’s Soup, Walgreens, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Toys ‘R’ Us, General Motors, FedEx, White Rose Foods, Dow Jones, Snyder’s of Hanover, ProLogis, Hartz Mountain Industries and Crayola.

The report states the above companies have installed more than 1.2 million solar panels, which would cover more than 544 acres of rooftops. This is an important point – while large ground mount solar farms certainly have their place; our towns and cities offer a massive and under-utilised rooftop real estate resource. The area of suitable roof space available in Australia is said to be enough to provideall of the nation’s electricity needs.

The SEIA/Vote Solar Initiative report also says just two companies, Walmart and Costco, have more installed solar PV capacity than all of that deployed in the state of Florida, commonly known as the Sunshine State. Furthermore, the top 10 companies (by capacity) have deployed more solar energy than most electric utilities in the USA.

As of the middle of this year, businesses, non-profits  and governments across the United States have deployed more than 2.3 gigawatts of commercial solar power systems and during the first half of 2012 one non-residential PV system came online every 72 minutes.

While installing solar panels can help a company’s green credentials, it also makes good business sense in another very important way; slashing operational expenses and buffering against continually increasing electricity costs.
The full Top Commercial Solar Customers in the U.S. report can be viewed here.

September 13, 2012 Posted by | renewable, USA | Leave a comment

New Nuclear Regulatory Commission proposal to ease safety requirements for new plants

New proposal from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission would allow nuclear power plants to skip inspections and inservice testing
http://enformable.com/2012/09/new-proposal-from-the-nuclear-regulatory-commission-would-allow-nuclear-power-plants-to-skip-inspections-and-inservice-testing/
A new draft document released for public comment by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, would allow nuclear power plants to skip inservice testing and inspection of key safety components such as pumps, valves, welds, nozzles, vessels, and other components due to
impracticality, hardship, unusual difficulty, or when they would like to use a different approach for meeting requirements.

When making a decision on a request for relief, the NRC staff assesses the limitations of the examination or testing, evaluates the susceptibility to known degradation, mechanisms or failure modes, the consequences of a failure at the location where the test or

examination is impractical, and if any other inspections or tests should be implemented to compensate for the impracticality, according to the document.

The industry would also be allowed to submit alternative plans due to hardship regarding radiation exposure during an examination or test, which may offer utilities another argument for exemption if none of the other circumstances apply.  The licensee would need to communicate the radiation levels at the test or examination area in this event.

Public comments will be accepted through October 22nd, 2012. Source: Nuclear Regulatory Commission

September 13, 2012 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

Scientists Have a Plan To Power 95% Of the World With Renewable Energy Motherboard, by Brian_Merchant , Sep 12, 2012 “…..It is the dream of every clean energy advocate that the world come to understand that the barriers lie not with technology, but beyond two much deeper moats: a lack of political will and the organized opposition from the powerful fossil fuel companies whose lifeblood it shall displace……. Continue reading →

September 13, 2012 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

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