Safety and insurance problems for Small Modular Nuclear Reactors (SMRs)
Although significantly smaller than traditional reactors, SMRs will still require significant insurance in the event of an accident. New nuclear reactors are currently covered by the Price-Anderson Act for accidents valued at over $12.6 billion. Price-Anderson may fall dramatically short in the case of SMRs
Taxpayer Subsidies for Small Modular Reactors Taxpayers for Common Sense February 27, 2013 Download: Golden Fleece: Taxpayer Subsidies for Small Nuclear Reactors (pdf)
“……..Current Applicants Seeking Federal Subsidies
Five small modular reactor projects have applied for support from DOE to date, but none of the five different reactor designs have been licensed by the NRC. NRC and DOE aim to award the first design certification license by 2018 and final construction/operating license by the early 2020s. Currently, all five projects are in the pre-application phase with NRC working towards initial design certification.
All but one SMR project would develop an integral pressurized light water reactor (iPWR) while the other would develop a fast neutron reactor (FNR)…… Continue reading
Continuing taxpayer support for nuclear idnustry
Nuclear Power, Part 2: Nukenomics By Ned Madden, 14 June 13 “………The Energy Policy Act of 2005
The federal “open wallet” strategy for nuclear energy was fully apparent in the U.S. Energy Policy Act of 2005, which not only extended Price-Anderson through 2025, but also provided the nuclear industry with financial incentives to build new nuclear power plants. Among other incentives, the act provided a production tax credit of 1.8 cents per kilowatt hour for up to 6,000 MWe of capacity from new, qualified advanced nuclear power facilities for eight years.
The first application for a new reactor eligible for this incentive was submitted in September 2007 for an expansion of the South Texas Project.
Later, under an amendment in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Section 406, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 authorized loan guarantees for “innovative” technologies that avoid greenhouse gases. These technologies include carbon capture and storage, renewable energy, and advanced nuclear reactor designs such as pebble bed modular reactors.
One result is that tax reductions of $4.8 billion were made available for nuclear power……..
‘Golden Fleece Award’
In February, Taxpayers for Common Sense handed out its “Golden Fleece Award” to the DoE for the dollars being spent on SMRs.
Why the dubious honor?
The DoE has already provided nearly $100 million for SMRs, while their commercial viability remains in question, the group charged. In addition, DoE has committed up to $452 million over the next five years to fund up to two separate demonstration projects.
If DoE believes there is a “need and market” for SMRs, the mature and profitable nuclear industry should bear the full risk and cost of making SMRs a reality, Autumn Hanna, TCS’s senior program director, told TechNewsWorld.
“In these tight budget times, federal taxpayers cannot afford to provide additional subsidies to the nuclear power industry,” Hanna explained.
There is no budding environmentalist movement for nukes.
Some thoughts on “Pandora’s Promise” and the nuclear debate By David Roberts, Grist 14 June 13 “……..Ever since I started paying attention to “nuclear renaissance” stories about a decade ago, there’s always been this credulous, excitable bit about how enviros are starting to come around. The roster of enviros in this purportedly burgeoning movement: Stewart Brand, the Breakthrough Boys, and “Greenpeace cofounder Patrick Moore,” who has been a paid shill for industry for decades (it sounds like thePandora folks were wise enough to leave him out). More recently George Monbiot and Mark Lynas have been added to the list. This handful of converts is always cited with the implication that it’s the leading edge of a vast shift, and yet … it’s always the same handful.
Anyway, if environmentalists are as omni-incompetent as Breakthrough has alleged all these years, why the eagerness to recruit them? I get the media appeal of “even hippies know the hippies are wrong,” but to me it smells of flop sweat.
As of now, of the 10 leading enviro groups in the U.S., zero support new nuclear power plants. In the movie, Shellenberger says, “I have a sense that this is a beautiful thing … the beginning of a movement.” I fear he has once again mistaken the contents of his navel for the zeitgeist. http://grist.org/climate-energy/some-thoughts-on-pandoras-promise-and-the-nuclear-debate/
Radiation levels high – 45 miles from Fukushima nuclear reactors
Experts: Shock during first trip to Fukushima — Radiation levels so high far away from reactors that full protection suit would be used in U.S., yet people were walking around — “Contamination far more widespread than most understand” http://enenews.com/experts-shock-during-first-trip-to-fukushima-radiation-levels-so-high-far-away-from-reactors-that-full-protection-suit-would-be-used-in-u-s-yet-people-were-walking-around-contamination-far
Title: Cleanup From Fukushima Daiichi: Technological Disaster Or Crisis In Governance?
Source: Fairewinds Energy Education
Author: Art Keller
Date: June 13, 2013
[…] Shortly after arrival on their first trip to Japan, the group headed for Shirikawa, a city 45 miles west and a few miles south of the Daiichi nuclear plant. [Sam Engelhard, an industrial hygenist and certified radiation protection technologist,] was shocked as soon as he unpacked his radiation sensor gear and turned it on. Here they were almost 50 miles from the accident site and in the opposite direction of the prevailing winds, and the crew’s radiation alarms immediately started going off.
“The radiation levels we were seeing were 1,000 times background, higher in spots,” Engelhard said. “If we had been working on a site this contaminated in the US, we would have been fully suited up in radiation protection suits, gloves, and respirators. Yet people were walking around and going about their business, with no idea of how contaminated everything around them was.” […]
[Kevin Wang of Califonia-based company PowerPlus] believes the Fukushima radiological contamination far more widespread that most Japanese understand. “One thing I heard so often during my trips to Japan that it became a mantra, was that ‘Fukushima is a Japanese problem and we have to fix it ourselves.’ So far, I haven’t seen any evidence that the government is taking the right steps to fix things. Instead, the wounded pride of government officials, and a lack of understanding at the urgency of the problem, prevented Japan from taking the steps they needed to.” […]
No to Small Modular Nuclear Reactors (SMRs). Yes to wind energy, for Warren Buffett
The best-known investor in the utility arena is raising its stake in wind in Iowa $1.9
billion….
MidAmerican is cancelling its pursuit of new small modular nuclear power options…..
Buffett & co choose wind energy investment over nuclear REeweconomy, By Mike Jacobs 14 June 2013 The Equation Investors working with utilities are making clear and clean choices for meeting our energy needs. Two big announcements show wind and energy efficiency are financeable and attractive, and new small nuclear reactors are not. Recently MidAmerican Energy chose to add more wind energy to its supply, dump a “modular” nuclear plant proposal, and decline to follow the trend toward burning natural gas.
Meanwhile, today Seattle City Light announced a purchase of energy from a commercial energy efficiency developer, demonstrating a power-purchase approach to fund investments in energy conservation that won’t disrupt a utility company’s financial health.
With Warren Buffet behind the wind decision, (MidAmerican is a subsidiary of Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway), and a new financial model possibly cracking the nut on building owner and utility ambivalence about deep energy retrofits for commercial buildings, these are important developments.
To summarise what just happened: Continue reading
Scrap all Fukushima prefecture nuclear reactors, says Governor
Fukushima Governor Seeks Scrapping Of All Nuke Reactors RTT News6/12/2013 The Japanese government has been asked to scrap all nuclear reactors in the Fukushima prefecture, where one of the two nuclear power plants had a disastrous accident two years ago, displacing tens of thousands of residents.
Fukushima Governor Yuhei Sato met with Economy, Trade & Industry Minister Toshimitsu Motegi in Tokyo on Wednesday and handed over a letter raising the demand, Japanese media reported.
Sato said Fukushima was aiming for sustained regional development without relying on nuclear power, and it wanted the government to take responsibility in decommissioning all reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi and Daini nuclear plants….. http://www.rttnews.com/2134682/fukushima-governor-seeks-scrapping-of-all-nuke-reactors.aspx?type=gn&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=sitemap
World must stand together for zero nuclear weapons
The World Must Stand Together 10 Jun 2013 Matt Damon, Robert De Niro, Michael Douglas, Morgan Freeman, Naomi Watts and Christoph Waltz think this matters to people everywhere: http://goo.gl/oYfrk
On June 17-18 , Presidents Obama and Putin will meet on the side of the G8 Summit, with cutting nukes on the agenda. We must stand together for a world without nuclear weapons. Join the Global Zero movement and demand zero!
Hollywood stars call for zero nuclear weapons
Hollywood to Obama: Eliminate Nuclear Weapons http://thediplomat.com/the-editor/2013/06/14/hollywood-to-obama-eliminate-nuclear-weapons/ By Zachary Keck June 14, 2013 Some of Hollywood’s biggest stars have joined with the anti-nuclear group, Global Zero, in a new You Tube video to demand more action on the elimination of nuclear weapons.
Among the stars making a cameo in the video are Whoopi Goldberg, Morgan Freeman, Naomi Watts, Alex Baldwin, Michael Douglas, Martin Sheen, Danny DeVito, Robert DeNiro, Matt Damon, Zoe Kravitz, and Christoph Waltz.
The video begins with a clip of President Barack Obama’s famous 2009 speech from Prague when he stated, “clearly and with conviction America’s commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.”
The stars then take turns explaining the importance of eliminating nuclear weapons—including denouncing the notion that the spread of nuclear weapons cannot be stopped. While admitting the enormity of the task, the stars contend in the video that if the world decides it can’t stop the spread of nuclear weapons then it is in some ways admitting that nuclear war is inevitable.
In the second half of the video, the stars introduce themselves and one-by-one say that they demand zero, a reference to Global Zero’s goal of a world without nuclear weapons. See the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HbjizKEqG4
Four types of radioactive isotopes emitted during a nuclear accident
How Does Radiation Affect the Body? Big Think, by MICHIO KAKU APRIL 16, 2011, “……Four different types of radiation are emitted during a nuclear accident like the Fukushima meltdown: iodine, cesium, strontium, and potassium. Physicist Michio Kaku, spoke with Big Think this week about these different types of radiation and the effect each one has on the human body. Like Chernobyl, he said, the main problem has been radioactive iodine: “That’s why people have been taking potassium iodide pills—to flood the thyroid glands.” But potassium
iodide pills are not “radiation pills,” he added. They protect against just one byproduct—iodine 131—not against cesium, strontium, or the extremely dangerous plutonium.
Below are these four different radioactive isotopes, their half-lives, and the types of cancer with which they are most often associated. Continue reading
Norway, Iceland -100% renewable energy, and other countries following
EU: 100 Percent Renewable Energy Is Here, The Energy Collective, David Thorpe, 13 June 13 June 13, 2013 Two questions for you: how many countries in the world source their electricity 100% from renewable sources? And which major European nation that is well-endowed with renewable energy resources, is the worst at exploiting them?
The answers can be gleaned from the recently updated International Energy Statistics of Electricity Generation from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) of the US Department of Energy…….New nuclear safety rules proposed for European Union
EU Presents Post-Fukushima Nuclear Safety Rules BRUSSELS June 13, 2013 (AP) abc news, The European Commission proposed tougher nuclear safety rules Thursday, amid international debate about the future of nuclear energy and how to secure aging plants.
Stress tests on European nuclear plants prompted by the 2011 disaster at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant showed that almost all of them needed safety improvements. A report on those tests called for more consistency across the 27-nation EU in assessing and managing nuclear safety threats. EU nuclear plants already undergo regular tests, but the proposed new rules would strengthen that. They include EU-wide safety reviews every six years, and the threat that the EU would send in inspectors if countries don’t do enough to ensure nuclear safety. It would also include a system of peer reviews, allowing national governments to verify their neighbors’ atomic plants.
Another new rule would require emergency response centers on the site of nuclear plants that would be protected against radioactivity, earthquakes and flooding.
Critics called the plan too modest; EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger called it “realistic.”….. Environmental group Greenpeace said the new rules do not do enough to address potential terrorist threats, or to increase the powers of nuclear regulators, which have been accused in the past of being too close to nuclear industry players.
Several European countries are rethinking their reliance on nuclear energy since the Fukushima accident……. After last year’s stress tests to gauge nuclear reactors’ ability to withstand accidents and natural disaster, the commission said the costs of needed improvements to EU reactors could run as high as 25 billion euros ($32 billion) over the coming years. http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/eu-presents-post-fukushima-nuclear-safety-rules-19390098#.UbuQO-dwo6I
New York giant bank to invest $3b in Japan renewable investments
Goldman eyes $3b in Japan renewable investments SMH, 14 June 13, Goldman Sachs, the New York-based bank planning as much as 300 billion yen ($3 billion) in renewable energy investments in Japan, is eyeing offshore wind power after building up holdings in more established clean energy sources such as solar.
Japan Renewable Energy Co. was set up by Goldman in August after Japan began offering above-market rates to producers of clean energy. The incentives, or feed-in tariffs, have spurred investments in renewables, setting Japan on course this year to become one of the world’s largest solar markets by annual installations.
The company sees offshore wind as promising, Shigeru Yasu, a representative director at Japan Renewable Energy, said in an interview in Tokyo yesterday. Geothermal and biomass power also hold potential, he said……..
Five-year investment
Japan Renewable Energy plans in the next five years to invest as much as 50 billion yen directly into clean energy projects with capital provided by GS Infrastructure Partners. It will take as much as 250 billion yen of loans for project financing, Takahisa Nakagawa, also a representative director at Japan Renewable Energy, said in the interview. The investments and loans will amount to about 1,000 megawatts of clean energy, he said……..
Japan is set to overtake Germany as the world’s largest solar market, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said last month……. http://www.smh.com.au/business/carbon-economy/goldman-eyes-3b-in-japan-renewable-investments-20130614-2o7uo.html#ixzz2WFD29I8D
Groundwater radiation problems at Fukushima No 1 nuclear complex
Tepco again corrects water radiation level JAPAN TIMES , 14 JUNE 13 KYODO Tokyo Electric Power Co. has issued another correction for groundwater radiation at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear complex and now says that it’s only a tenth of what it announced earlier this month.
The correction Wednesday was the second the beleaguered utility has issued for groundwater data. Tepco is locked in a battle with water and is desperately seeking fishermen’s consent to divert or dump the least-tainted portions of it into the Pacific Ocean to prevent it from mixing with highly radioactive water accumulating in the reactor buildings.
When it runs out of storage space, the tainted water will flood the premises and the environment, making the decommissioning process incredibly difficult.
Tepco said in May that the level of radioactive cesium in a sample of Fukushima No. 1 groundwater was so low it could not be detected. On June 3, however, the utility said the sample contained 0.61 becquerel per liter. This was then reversed Wednesday to a maximum of 0.055 becquerel. Other radioactive substances were not mentioned.
All of the figures are below Tepco’s upper limit for releasing groundwater: 1 becquerel per liter.
But the latest correction could deal another blow to Tepco’s efforts to dump the water by further damaging its already low credibility.
The radioactive water accumulating at the plant is a natural result of the makeshift cooling apparatus set up to keep the fuel from melting again. The water perpetually injected into the three reactors is leaking through holes created by the crisis and flooding each building.
Attempts to drain the water will be limited by Tepco’s rapidly shrinking storage space, and the penetration of the groundwater is only exacerbating the situation. …. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/06/14/national/tepco-again-corrects-water-radiation-level/#.Ubu_mudwo6I
Could Britain achieve 100% renewable energy?
Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Italy, Spain and all these other European countries show that it is possible to do so. They are all out-classing Britain.
A bright future, full of jobs and export potential, with far less global upheaval caused by climate chaos awaits us, if only the political will was thereEU: 100 Percent Renewable Energy Is Here, The Energy Collective, David Thorpe, 13 June 13 Britain can, clearly, do far better, never mind all the party political wrangling over support for green technologies. If other countries can do it, so can we.
UK wind power succeeding without need for fossil fuel backup
Fossil fuel plants not needed to back up UK wind http://reneweconomy.com.au/2013/fossil-fuel-based-power-stations-unnecessary-to-back-up-wind-23670 By Joshua Hill 14 June 2013 An incidental note at the bottom of a wildlife article covering the culling of badgers in the UK newspaper the Daily Telegraph could have explosive results for the energy industry.
According to the addendum, a measly four paragraphs in length, the National Grid — the country’s electric grid operator — has reported that wind energy produced 23,700 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of power, requiring only 22 GWh of power from fossil fueled stations to fill the gaps: that is less than a thousandth of wind’s output, and ironically, less than a tenth of what was needed to back up conventional fossil fueled power stations.
The figures were similarly impressive when looking at emissions. According to the National Grid, wind saved nearly 11 million tonnes of carbon dioxide over the period accounted for (April 2011 through to September 2012) and required only 8,800 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions to be released as backup, measuring in at only 0.081%.
There is no easy information available on the National Grid website to confirm these figures referenced in the Daily Telegraph article, and furthermore the paper’s final sentence — “Not surprisingly, given these figures, no new fossil‑fuel power station has been built to provide back‑up for wind farms, and none is in prospect” — seems to be in direct contradiction to a BBC News story published this week, reporting that two diesel power stations are planned to compensate for fluctuations in green energy.
According to the article, Green Frog Power received planning permission last year to build its diesel power station in Plymouth, while Fulcrum Power has made an application for a similar power station in Plymouth, as well. Unsurprisingly, given the current climate surrounding the energy industry, both companies said that they support renewable energy. This article was originally posted on Cleantechnica. Re-produced with permission.
1 This Month
22 June – Virtual Event –Climate Change: New Data, New Debate
Monday, June 22, 2026 2:30 p.m. – 3:15 p.m. CT
YouTube. Register here
Protect Sazan Island from the Trump family! https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/protect_sazan_island_from_the_trump_family_loc/?bqFCVab&v=174511&cl=22707147157&_checksum=5e9dde668860e8231c33699735e16a1fbf22ab2cb01da50c999fe8732b9775ef&utm_source=email&utm_medium=blast_email&utm_campaign=174511
25 June- THE PUKE ON NUKES
Thursday, June 25, 2026
7pm Central Time (8pm ET, 6pm MT, 5pm PT) UTC – 5
From NRC & DOE Deregulation to Techno-Fascist Billionaires Going Nuclear, Plus a Few Songs from Atomic Cabaret REGISTER
26 June – Radiation Trainwreck at the NRC / Join the Protect Better Campaign – https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/4ZlZ5_qLSHGiLSCg8FF6Bg#/registration
Cuba Is Not a Failed State – It Is a Besieged State
PETITION: “Global Appeal to Endorse Palestinian Right of Return of Refugees”
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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