Spot uranium price eases to about $35.60/lb Washington (Platts)–28 Jan 2014 The uranium spot price is around $35.60 a pound U3O8, about 15 cents lower than last Tuesday, as buyers showed resistance to rising offer prices that followed the mid-month announcement that an institutional buyer was poised to purchase a substantial amount of material, market sources said in interviews…..The spot price has declined since it crested at just over $36/lb on January 20, according to market sources.
“The excitement of [UPC] buying up to 1 million lb has worn off a bit,” one market source said. “[T]his led to less optimism on the price and more resistance [by buyers] to higher offer prices, so the spot price weakened a bit,” he said.
“People tried to raise [sell] offers to see if buyers would bite, but they didn’t and the price came down towards $35.50″ a lb, a second market source said in an interview……. http://www.platts.com/latest-news/electric-power/washington/spot-uranium-price-eases-to-about-3560lb-21138271
January 29, 2014
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Thorium fuel not viable, Prof Glen Lawrence http://www.thesundaily.my/news/942473 28 January 2014 I REFER to “Use thorium to cut power cost” (Press Digest, Jan 27). There was no mention of the fact that to use thorium as a fuel to generate electricity requires a nuclear reactor.
Thorium does not undergo fission like uranium or plutonium, but would have to be used in combination with fissionable materials such as uranium and plutonium to produce a fissionable form of uranium that could then be used as a fuel.
Although thorium is abundant in the earth, the technology for using thorium to produce nuclear fuel has not been developed because it is not economically viable.
In addition, the nuclear waste generated would also have to be disposed, just like all nuclear waste should be, but countries like the United States have been putting off disposal since the beginning of nuclear power generation and now have thousands of tons of highly radioactive waste sitting at each reactor site.
Nuclear power has never been cost effective and would not exist anywhere without huge government subsidies.
January 29, 2014
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Number of US nuclear ‘cheats’ doubles – officials The number of US airmen embroiled in a nuclear cheating scandal has doubled to several dozen, officials speaking on condition of anonymity say. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/25936781 28 Jan 14
Thirty-four US Air Force officers in charge of launching nuclear missiles were suspended earlier this month.
They are accused of cheating in monthly proficiency tests.
The US Air Force said some staff had texted answers to the routine tests to others, while others had known about the cheating but failed to report it.
The ranks included captains.
The allegations emerged during investigations into alleged drug use by personnel at other bases. t was not immediately clear whether the additional 30 or so airmen implicated were alleged to have participated in the cheating or were involved in an indirect way.An Air Force spokeswoman said earlier this moth that the entire team at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana in charge of overseeing missile launches would be re-tested.
Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered a high-level review of the US nuclearforces last week, saying he was “deeply concerned” about morale and discipline among nuclear officers – but insisted that US nuclear arms were safe.
January 29, 2014
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Irish president urged to free ailing peace activist Margaretta D’Arcy Pardon sought for elderly playwright jailed for refusing to stop protests over US military flights at Shannon airport Henry McDonald, Ireland correspondent The Observer, Saturday 25 January 2014
Ireland‘s president, Michael D Higgins, is under growing pressure to release from prison a friend and cancer-stricken peace activist whose cause is being championed by some of the country’s most prominent artists.
Family and supporters of the ailing 79-year-old playwright Margaretta D’Arcy have called on Higgins to pardon the anti-war campaigner and secure her early release from Limerick jail, after she was given a three-month sentence for disrupting US military flights at Shannon airport in Ireland’s south-west….. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/25/irish-president-free-margaretta-darcy
January 28, 2014
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William Killian, the US attorney for the eastern district of Tennessee, wrote to the judge asking him to reject any consideration of non-violence and setting out in stark terms how the US government views this white-haired octogenarian and her co-defendants.
Octogenarian nun awaits sentence for protest break-in at US nuclear plant.Guardian, 27 Jan 14 Megan Rice was charged with sabotage for breaking into Y-12 facility at Oak Ridge, Tennessee On Monday morning, three days short of her 84th birthday, Sister Megan Rice ate a hearty breakfast of pancakes and oatmeal at the ungodly hour of 4.30am in Knox county jail, Knoxville, Tennessee.
Rice, a white-haired Catholic nun and anti-nuclear activist, was in fine spirits, giving a broad smile and a thumbs-up sign through the glass partition that separates her from visitors to the jail where she is awaiting sentence, according to her good friend, Pat McSweeney.
McSweeney took Rice letters of support from the anti-nuclear community to bolster her spirits. “Don’t worry about me, I’m fine” Rice told her.
Rice was charged with federal sabotage, along with co-defendants Greg Boertje-Obed, 57, a carpenter, and Michael Walli, 64, a Vietnam veteran, for breaking into the Y-12 nuclear facility in Oak Ridge, and they will learn their fate on Tuesday when they appear before Judge Amul Thapar in a federal court in Knoxville, to be sentenced.
The charge of sabotage, under a statute of the US criminal code used against international and domestic terrorism, carries a maximum sentence of up to 30 years in prison. Continue reading →
January 28, 2014
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Fukushima radiation may be linked to unusual Alaska seal deaths, Voice of Russia, 27 Jan 14, “……During summer 2011 it became evident to coastal communities and wildlife management agencies that there was a novel disease outbreak occurring in several species of Arctic ice-associated seals.
Although the skin ailments that appear to be affecting seals and walruses in Alaska have a generic name – ulceratitive dermatitus disease syndrome – there are many unanswered questions about the illnesses. Scientists and hunters here and in Russia want to better understand what’s causing the sicknesses and how concerned about them they should be.
Currently, the underlying etiology remains undetermined. Results on gamma analysis (cesium 134 and 137) of muscle tissue from control and diseased seals is taken, and scientists discuss wildlife health implications from different possible routes of exposure to Fukushima fallout to ice seals. Since the Fukushima fallout period occurred during the annual sea ice cover period from Nome to Barrow, a sea ice based fallout scenario in addition to a marine food web based one is of particular relevance for the Fukushima accident.
Sea ice and snow would have acted as a temporary refuge for deposited radionuclides; thus radionuclides would have only become available for migration during the melting season and would not have entered the regional food web in any appreciable manner until breakup (pulsed release). The cumulative on-ice exposure for ice seals would have occurred through external, inhalation, and non-equilibrium dietary pathwaysduring the ice-based seasonal spring haulout period for molting/pupping/breeding activities.
Many other West Coast animals have gotten sick. Scientists need to get to the bottom of what is making them sick, whether it’s radiation or something else. http://voiceofrussia.com/2014_01_27/Fukushima-radiation-may-be-linked-to-unusual-Alaska-seal-deaths-9364/
January 28, 2014
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Guilty nuclear resistors write essays for judge, National Catholic Reporter, Megan Fincher | Jan. 27, 2014 Eight nuclear protesters found guilty of trespassing onto the Kansas City Plant were given an unusual sentence Dec. 13 (see story here). Instead of jail or community service, Presiding Judge Ardie Bland sentenced the defendants with homework. They were required to write one-page, single-spaced answers to six questions Bland posed on the spot.
The following are a sampling of the defendants’ answers to the six questions, which their lawyer delivered to Bland Jan. 23. The full text for each defendant can be accessed here. ……http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/guilty-nuclear-resistors-write-essays-judge
January 28, 2014
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Investors see green in clean energy, Boston Globe By Derrick Z. Jackson GLOBE COLUMNIST JANUARY 25, 2014 IT WAS NOT THE USUAL ROUNDUP OF ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISTS SAYING THE SKY IS FALLING. INSTEAD, IT WAS THE BIGGEST BANKERS AND INSURANCE COMPANIES CALLING FOR MASSIVE INVESTMENTS IN CLEAN ENERGY LEST WE — AND THEY — PAY IN MASSIVE DAMAGES FROM CLIMATE CHANGE.
“It’s the issue of our day,” said former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin.
“The costs of another Sandy will grow from $19 billion to $90 billion,” said J. Eric Smith, the CEO of Swiss Re Americas.
Lisa Carnoy, head of global capital markets for Bank of America Merrill Lynch, exhorted her colleagues to fund clean energy projects until “every blue chip company in the S&P and . . . every investment manager has a green energy bond.”
They all spoke last week at the Investor Summit on Climate Risk, a forum of about 500 people sponsored by the UN and Ceres, the Boston-based coalition of investors, industries, and environmental groups that has sought for 25 years to engage big business in environmental protection and the climate change battle. The gathering offered the best evidence to date of corporate capital being thrown into the fight.
In the last two years, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, and Morgan Stanley have announced goals to finance and invest in renewable energy projects, transmission lines, energy efficiency and storage, and transportation, water, and waste projects. Combined with an earlier commitment by Citi, those institutions have pledged a total of $180 billion by 2022. Annual global investment in “green bonds” for renewable energy and climate mitigation projects reached a record $10 billion last year………http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/editorials/2014/01/24/investors-see-green-clean-energy/F7sxg6y3Ljfsp2WwARNGZN/story.html
January 28, 2014
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U.S. Solar Jobs Grew 20% Last Year http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=4144 The fourth annual National Solar Jobs Census shows the U.S. solar industry employed 142,698 Americans in 2013. The Solar Foundation (TSF) census found 23,682 solar jobs were added over the previous year, which represents 19.9 percent growth in employment since September 2012. Of those positions, installers were the most common, growing by 22% – an increase of 12,500 workers. The Census report notes average solar installer earnings are comparable to wages paid to skilled electricians and plumbers and higher than average rates for roofers and construction workers.
Most of the newly created jobs are generally not entry-level positions; with just over half requiring at least some solar experience, and 28% needing at least a bachelor degree. Only approximately 12 percent required an associate degree or certificate from an accredited college.
TSF says solar employment grew 10 times faster than the national average employment growth rate for the period.
“The solar industry’s job-creating power is clear,” said Andrea Luecke, Executive Director and President of The Solar Foundation. “The industry has grown an astounding 53 percent in the last four years alone, adding nearly 50,000 jobs.
In comparison, jobs in the fossil fuel electric generation sector shrank by 8.7 percent during the same period.
The good news on solar jobs appears it will continue during 2014, with employers expecting to add another 22,000 positions this year. Forty-five percent of all solar establishments expect to add staff.
A related press release from TSF states cost savings are driving uptake of solar in the USA – 51.4 percent of customers report going solar to save money, and another 22.9 percent because costs are now competitive with utility rates.
The fourth annual National Solar Jobs Census can be viewed in full here.
January 28, 2014
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Powering California with 50% Renewable Energy by 2030: New Analysis Shows It Can Be Done, Union of Concerned Scientists, Laura Wisland, January 27, 2014 Last week, a new analysis was released that explored the technical, environmental, and economic implications of raising California’s Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS)from 33 percent by 2020 to 50 percent by 2030. I’m excited to report that although the study illuminates the challenges of installing unprecedented amounts of renewables on the grid, it is technically possible. Moreover, California has tools in hand today to scale up renewables, and is developing programs and policies that will continue to lower the cost and technical challenges of doing so.
The study was led by a private consulting firm — Energy and Environmental Economics, Inc. (E3) — and commissioned by the state’s five largest electric utilities. E3 modeled a 33 percent by 2030 RPS and compared those results to a 40 percent RPS and several 50 percent RPS cases that varied primarily by the amount and size of photovoltaic (PV) investments…….http://blog.ucsusa.org/powering-california-with-50-percent-renewable-energy-by-2030-393
January 28, 2014
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EU Sets 2030 Target Of 27% Renewables http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=4143 The European Commission has announced a new 2030 greenhouse gas reduction target of 40 percent below 1990 levels as part of sweeping measures to transform the Union to a low-carbon economy and provide member nations with long-term energy security.
The 2030 goal includes a Union-wide binding renewable energy target of at least 27 percent, as well as energy efficiency and regulatory policies designed to promote investment in new clean energy technologies. Continue reading →
January 28, 2014
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Nova Scotia set to exceed renewable energy targets: minister http://globalnews.ca/news/1108849/nova-scotia-set-to-exceed-renewable-energy-targets-minister/ By Brett Ruskin Global News HALIFAX — Nova Scotia’s Minister of Energy says the province is on track to exceed its renewable energy goals.
In 2010, the government passed a law requiring 25 per cent of the province’s power to come from renewables — like wind and hydro — by 2015. The law’s second target is set at 40 per cent by 2020.
“We have no concerns about meeting that 25 per cent,” said Andrew Young, Nova Scotia’s Minister of Energy.
“In fact, we expect that that will be exceeded.”
Nova Scotia’s electricity production comes from a mix of sources. Renewable energy makes up 18 per cent of that mix, according to the latest estimate from Nova Scotia Power. That estimate might be low and outdated, energy department officials said. A request has been made by the department for Nova Scotia Power to reassess the balance of resources.
A more accurate measure of how much renewable energy Nova Scotia generates is expected in two to three weeks.Nova Scotia’s 40 per cent renewable target for 2020 should be easily met as well. “The fact that we have the Maritime Link coming on stream,” said Younger, “we’re not concerned about meeting the 40 per cent target.”
Younger’s comments come the same week the government announced plans to reinvigorate Nova Scotia’s tidal power opportunities. Companies looking to sell tidal power to the grid can now apply for feed-in tariffs, outlined by a Utility and Review Board decision.In March, the government will grant access to two undersea berths for companies to test tidal technology and possibly begin feeding small amounts of tidal power to the grid.
January 28, 2014
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http://wfae.org/post/duke-ends-attempt-buy-share-sc-nuclear-plant
After two and a half years of negotiations, just when it looked like Duke Energy would buy a portion of a new nuclear plant in South Carolina, the company announced it has cut off negotiations.
Duke had been looking to purchase a share of two nuclear units being built at the V.C. Summer station near Jenkinsville, South Carolina—one of the first new nuclear plants in decades, projected to cost roughly $10 billion. Duke began talks in 2011 with the minority owner, power company Santee Cooper for a 10 percent stake and looked poised to pull the trigger. Santee Cooper’s board voted today to sell a portion of the project.
But, it turns out, not to Duke and not 10 percent. It will transfer five percent to South Carolina utility SCG&E, which already owns the majority of project.
Duke filed a notice with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it has ended negotiations with Santee Cooper—a spokesman said the companies couldn’t agree to terms. Duke will continue to move forward with plans to build two new reactors at the Lee Nuclear Station in Cherokee County, South Carolina.
January 27, 2014
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….Calvert Cliffs has had several other unplanned outages in the last year and a half, most of them involving problems with control rods….
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced Monday that it is conducting a special inspection at the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant in southern Maryland after an electrical malfunction caused the two reactors there to shut down.
The plant, which restarted both reactors over the weekend, suffered the shutdown after snow and ice during a storm Jan. 21 apparently affected a ventilation louver filter and caused a short circuit. After the electrical supply system shut down, so did several plant systems and components that rely on electricity, the nuclear regulatory agency said Monday.
Those components included motors for moving control rods and water circulating pumps for the Unit 2 reactor, the agency said. The main turbine control circuit for the Unit 1 reactor also malfunctioned after the electricity loss.
Both units shut down as a result, with “no impacts on public health and safety,” the agency said.
The three-person inspection team began working at the plant Monday, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said.
“We want to gain a better understanding of the chain of events that caused both of the reactors to simultaneously shut down and equipment anomalies subsequent to the plant trips,” said Bill Dean, the commission’s administrator for the region that includes Maryland, in a statement. “This inspection is designed to shed additional light on not only why the outages happened but how the plant operators handled them.”
A Constellation Energy Nuclear Group spokesman said in an email that federal reviews after shutdowns are common, adding that the company welcomed the inspection at its plant.
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January 27, 2014
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http://www.pogo.org/blog/2014/01/peace-activists-deserve-leniency-their-actions-exposed-dangerous-security-flaws.html
January 27, 2014
If justice is served Tuesday, a federal judge will exercise leniency when he sentences Sister Megan Rice, Greg Boertje-Obed, and Michael Walli for their non-violent protest at the Y-12 nuclear facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn., in July 2012.
The three peace activists did much more to raise awareness about the security gaps at Y-12 than any harm committed when they breached the compound’s outer fence.
Important lessons were learned about the nuclear weapons complex’s security failings and, more importantly, the failings were discovered through non-violent methods.
We hope the court will take into account that the only real impact their protest had was to expose the extremely flawed and dangerous security at Y-12.
For background on the case, click here.
Image from Transform Now Plowshares.
By: Danielle Brian
Executive Director, POGO
January 27, 2014
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