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Decommissioning problems with Vermont Yankee Nuclear reactor

nuke-reactor-deadRECAP 2013: VERMONT YANKEE, RENEWABLE ENERGY CAPS AND WIND PROJECTS STIR CONTROVERSY   HTTP://VTDIGGER.ORG/2013/12/29/RECAP-2013-VERMONT-YANKEE-RENEWABLE-ENERGY-CAPS-WIND-PROJECTS-STIR-CONTROVERSY/  DEC. 29, 2013  VERMONT YANKEE, THE STATE’S ONLY NUCLEAR REACTOR, DOMINATED HEADLINES THIS YEAR.

Entergy Corp., the company that runs the reactor, is plagued by financial problems, and operating the Vermont plant was an expense it could no longer afford. In late August, Entergy announced it would close the plant, ironically just days after the Louisiana corporation won a long-running court battle with the state over the right continue operating the Vernon facility for an additional 20 years.

Entergy amended its application with the Public Service Board and is now seeking a one year license to operate the plant through the end of 2014, when Vermont Yankee is slated to close.

The board held off from ruling on the relicensure case at the request of the Shumlin administration while state officials settled differences over decommissioning, the economic impact of the plant closure, hot water discharges into the Connecticut River and a generation tax.

Many of those issues were resolved when the state and Entergy reached an agreement last week that sets a decommissioning completion date of 10 to 15 years, decades sooner than required by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s 60-year timeframe. Entergy also agreed to pay millions of dollars in payments to the state in tax revenues and in support for regional economic development efforts. In addition, the agreement settled all pending federal litigation.

The settlement is contingent on the Public Service Board approving the plant’s certificate of public good before March 31, 2014.

There are other outstanding issues that have yet to be resolved. The two parties disagree over whether Entergy’s Decommissioning Trust Fund is sufficient to support decommissioning. In addition, the state and the company do not yet have a common understanding of how the site will be restored. Entergy must file a decommissioning plan with the NRC after the plant is closed.

The state is concerned that the 42-year old merchant plant’s worsening financial foundation could compromise the operational safety of the facility in the near term and the decommissioning process over the long haul.

It is unclear what the plant will do with 530 tons of radioactive waste stored on the premises. Vermont Yankee has 3,879 fuel rod assemblies submerged in a spent fuel pool that was originally designed to hold about 350. Spent fuel rods must be kept under water to prevent them from igniting, but once they are cooled, they can be transferred into long-term cement “dry casks.” Vermont Yankee will need 58 casks in all. Right now, the facility has 13. Each cask costs about $1 million.

The agreement requires that all the spent nuclear fuel stored on site pools be placed in dry cask storage, which Gov. Peter Shumlin said could take up to seven years.

Entergy’s decision to close Vermont Yankee was the result of declining wholesale market prices and competition with natural gas. Merchant plants are investor-funded; early this year a Swiss financial services firm UBS Securities downgraded Entergy Corp.’s stock and urged investors to sell.

The downgrade came on the heels of a report by UBS Securities that found Entergy “is unlikely to generate any meaningful cash” from wholesale commodities in 2013 and 2014.

Entergy’s nuclear fleet includes the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts, Vermont Yankee in Vermont, Indian Point Energy Center and the James A. Fitzpatrick Nuclear Power Plant in New York, and the Palisades Power Plant in Michigan.

January 1, 2014 Posted by | decommission reactor | Leave a comment

Tennessee Valley Authority increasing renewable energy programs

TVA moves forward with Plans to Increase Solar Energy Capacity, Expand Renewable Programs http://www.clarksvilleonline.com/2013/12/29/tva-moves-forward-plans-increase-solar-energy-capacity-expand-renewable-programs/ December 29, 2013 Chattanooga, TN – The Tennessee Valley Authority is taking steps that could significantly increase TVA’s solar energy capacity in 2014 while ensuring TVA’s green power programs remain sustainable and cost effective.

TVA is offering a total of 126 megawatts of renewable capacity in the coming year through a variety of power-purchasing programs for homes, businesses and commercial installations, marking a 7 percent increase over 2013.

TVA will be adding capacity and reducing pricing incentives to reflect lower technology costs for generators and to support lower electric rates for the Tennessee Valley’s 9 million residents.

TVA is revising its three renewable energy programs particularly in response to increasingly popular solar energy, with a majority of new capacity offered at prices competitive with TVA’s wholesale costs.

 

TVA currently has 128 megawatts of operating or committed solar projects under contract at more than 2,000 locations across the region. TVA’s renewables portfolio also includes 1,500 megawatts from wind and 60 megawatts from biomass.

“Demand for our renewables programs is strong,” said Patty West, director of TVA’s Renewable Energy Programs. “We are working with our local power companies to direct capacity to the most cost-effective programs and streamlining the processes for these programs to make it easier for participants.

“The cost of renewable technologies, especially solar, is dropping dramatically,” she said. “TVA is aligning its program offerings with those declining costs. That means that Valley residents will pay less for renewable energy.”

(table) TVA is doubling the residential capacity set aside in its most popular program, Green Power Providers. TVA is making 10 megawatts of capacity available for these small renewable projects of less than 50 kilowatts.

Capacity also is being increased for mid-size solar projects by 60 percent in the Solar Solutions Initiative program, which focuses on installations from 50 kilowatts to 1 megawatt in size, and encourages use of local installers to support local economies.

TVA will offer 16 megawatts of SSI capacity in 2014, up from 10 megawatts in 2013. TVA also will extend the program, originally a two-year pilot program, for two more years to 2015.

With 2014 incentives, TVA will pay 14 cents per kilowatt for solar energy through Green Power Providers and 10 cents per kilowatt through the Solar Solutions Initiative, a price reduction of 26 percent and 17 percent, respectively, from 2013.

TVA continues to offer 100 megawatts of capacity available in the Renewable Standard Offer program, which supports large projects between 1 megawatt and 20 megawatts. For 2014, all 100 megawatts of available capacity will be allowed for any of the qualified technologies, including wind, solar and biomass projects. TVA will continue to purchase output at prices competitive with the market.

“We are providing consumers with a renewable energy program that builds upon the success of earlier programs,” West said. “These programs balance low-cost and cleaner energy resulting in a renewable portfolio that is good for all 9 million consumers in the Valley.”

About the Tennessee Valley Authority

The Tennessee Valley Authority is a corporate agency of the United States that provides electricity for business customers and local power distributors serving 9 million people in parts of seven southeastern states. TVA receives no taxpayer funding, deriving virtually all of its revenues from sales of electricity.

In addition to operating and investing its revenues in its electric system, TVA provides flood control, navigation and land management for the Tennessee River system and assists local power companies and state and local governments with economic development and job creation.

January 1, 2014 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

42.4% of Spain’s power supplied by renewable energy in 2013

Renewable Energy Supplied 42.4% Of Spain’s Power In 2013 Renewable Energy News 30 Dec 13 Renewable energy provided 42.4% of the electricity demand in Spain this year, 10.5 percentage points higher than in 2012.According to figures released by Red Eléctrica in its Spanish Electricity System Preliminary Report 2013; wind power contributed most to the annual electricity demand coverage with a share of 21.1%.This was 3 percent higher than in 2012 and just above nuclear power electricity generation.

Other wind related records tumbled this year, included maximum availability of instantaneous power on February 6 (17,056 MW).

This year saw 173 MW of wind power capacity installed in Spain and 440 MW of solar energy technologies – 140 MW of solar PV and 300 MW of solar thermoelectric. With these sources incorporated, renewables now represent 49.1% of the total installed power capacity on the Spanish peninsula…….http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=4099

 

January 1, 2014 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

USA sailors continuing legal action against TEPCO, over their radiation expossure

Reagan sailors press on in radiation lawsuit Navy Times, 28 Dec 13 By Meghann Myers 71 who served during 2011 aid mission suing Japanese power company Dec. 28, 2013 – A group of sailors who were aboard the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan as it rendered aid in the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear power plant meltdown in Japan nearly three years ago are taking another shot at a lawsuit over the health problems they say they’ve suffered since their radiation exposure.

Their attorney, California environmental law expert Paul C. Garner, has until Jan. 6 to amend their complaint against the Tokyo Electric Power Co. and resubmit it for a judge’s ruling.

“What we say is this: The TEPCO people knew what was happening there,” Garner told Navy Times. “They certainly knew the severity of what was happening, because now you have radiological releases into the environment … and the tsunami just washed it all in, and washed it all out, and the Reagan was in the backwash.”……http://www.navytimes.com/article/20131228/NEWS08/312280004/Reagan-sailors-press-radiation-lawsuit

January 1, 2014 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Poor prospects for uranium mining in Black Hills, South Dakota

History shows uranium mine could face voter whims, Argus Leader, 28 Dec 13  Statewide initiated ballot measures previously defeated plans to develop former munitions depot near Edgemont The opponents of a uranium mining proposal in the southern Black Hills say they have an ace in the hole if efforts to block the project at the state and national levels are unsuccessful.

That ace in the hole? The people of South Dakota.

The opponents of Powertech Uranium Corp.’s application to mine about 15 miles northwest of Edgemont have vowed that they will take the issue directly to the people in the form of an initiated measure. That would happen if Powertech wins the appropriate permits to begin a process known as in-situ leach mining.

It’s not an idle threat.

Three times in the past 30 years, opponents of controversial projects near Edgemont have collected enough signatures to force statewide votes. The results in each case have favored project opponents…….

Powertech has applied for a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to recover uranium at the Dewey-Burdock site, which was the location for uranium pit mining in the 1950s until 1973. The company also has applied with the Environmental Protection Agency for a permit to inject water used in the mining process into deep underground wells.

The company also must get mining and water rights permits from the state. Hearings for those permits started earlier this fall, but both state boards decided to postpone any further hearings until after the EPA and NRC have made determinations about Powertech’s proposal.

In-situ leach mining is a process in which oxygenated water is injected into underground geologic formations that contain uranium. The water solution dissolves the uranium, and the uranium laden water is pumped back to the surface where the uranium is extracted and sent for processing to become nuclear fuel.

The water is re-injected into the geologic formation, and the cycle continues until there is no longer enough recoverable uranium in the well area.

Opponents fear that the in-situ leach well fields will contaminate drinking water with radioactive uranium and other chemicals freed by the mining process…..

January 1, 2014 Posted by | politics, Uranium | Leave a comment

India and nuclear terrorism

Nuclear Terrorism in India? http://the-mound-of-sound.blogspot.com.au/2013/12/nuclear-terrorism-in-india.html  Most of us don’t spend a lot of time focusing on terrorism in India.  You might not have even heard of the Indian Mujahideen or “IM”.  As you might have guessed from the name, it’s an Islamist extremist outfit bent on teaching those Hindus a thing or two.  According to The Times of India, one of IM’s leaders was intent on detonating a nuclear weapon in Surat.

The prospect of terror organisations getting their hands on a nuclear device has long concerned both security agencies and thriller writers. Now, it seems Indian Mujahideen India chief Ahmad Zarar Siddibappa alias Yasin Bhatkal too was thinking along similar lines. Bhatkal recently told interrogators that he was planning to explode a nuclear bomb in Surat, according to sources.

Bhatkal was arrested on August 27 in Pokhra, Nepal and has been constantly questioned by the NIA, Intelligence Bureau and police of several states. TOI has accessed the interrogation report.

Bhatkal told the interrogators that he had asked his Pakistan-based boss, Riyaz Bhatkal, over phone whether the latter could arrange a small “nuclear bomb”. According to him, Riyaz responded, “Anything can be arranged in Pakistan”.

“Riyaz told me that attacks can be done with nuclear bombs. I requested him to look for one nuclear bomb for Surat,” Yasin told the officials.

“Riyaz told me Muslims would also die in that (nuclear bomb blast), to which I said that we would paste posters in mosques asking every Muslim to quietly evacuate their families from the city,” Yasin said, according to the report.
Fortunately Indian security types snatched Yasin off the streets in time.  Just the thought of the Indian-Pakistani nuclear exchange this would likely trigger is horrific.

January 1, 2014 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The unpalatable facts on the Fukushima radiation situation

Putting Fukushima In Perspective, http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article43766.html The Market Oracle, Dec 29, 2013  There was no background radioactive cesium before above-ground nuclear testing and nuclear accidents started.

Wikipedia provides some details on the distribution of cesium-137 due to human activities:………………And Fukushima radiation has arrived on the West Coast years earlier than predicted.)

The Canadian government has confirmed in October that Fukushima radiation will exceed “levels higher than maximum fallout” from the nuclear tests.

The party line from the Japanese, Canadian and American governments are that these are safe levels of radiation. Given that those countries have tried to ban investigative journalismand have tried to cover up the scope of the Fukushima disaster, people may want toinvestigate for ourselves.

For example, Gundersen notes that the U.S. government flew helicopters with special radiation testing equipment 90 days after the Fukushima meltdown happened. The government said it was just doing a routine “background radiation” check, but that it was really measuring the amount of “hot particles” in the Seattle area (starting at 27:00). Hot particles are inhaled and become very dangerous “internal emitters”. The government then covered up the results on the basis of “national security”.

As the Washington Department of Health noted at the time:

A helicopter flying over some urban areas of King and Pierce counties will gather radiological readings July 11-28, 2011. [Seattle is in King County.] The U.S. Department of Energy’s Remote Sensing Laboratory Aerial Measurement System will collect baseline levels of radioactive materials.

**Some of the data may be withheld for national security purposes.

Similarly, the Department of Homeland Security and National Nuclear Security Administration sent low-flying helicopters over the San Francisco Bay Area in 2012 to test for radiation. But they have not released the results.

Indeed, residents of Seattle breathed in 5 hot particles each day in April of 2011 … a full 50% of what Tokyo residents were breathing at the time:

After all, the reactors at Fukushima literally exploded … and ejected cladding from the reactors and fuel particles. And see this.

Gundersen says that geiger counters don’t measure hot particles. Unless the government or nuclear scientists measure and share their data, we are in the dark as to what’s really going on.

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/

Washington’s Blog strives to provide real-time, well-researched and actionable information.

We at Washington’s Blog have an insatiable curiosity for new discoveries, new information and new insights.

Despite our passion for what’s new, there are themes that we keep reporting on year after year, as they reflect a bigger picture which remains fairly constant, or the root causes of our problems which have still not been addressed, or potentially powerful solutions which have still never been tried.

© 2013 Copyright washingtonsblog – All Rights Reserved Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors.

January 1, 2014 Posted by | Fukushima 2014 | Leave a comment

Tepco needs restart of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant to save itself financially

TEPCO turnaround hinges on nuclear plant restart http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0000901829 30 Dec 13, An envisioned turnaround of Tokyo Electric Power Co. hinges on the restart of a nuclear power plant for which the firm has failed to gain consent from local authorities.

A special rehabilitation plan submitted Friday envisions that TEPCO will swing back to a recurring profit of about ¥100 billion in fiscal 2014 if the firm can restart reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa power plant in Niigata Prefecture from July 2014. The plant’s restart will help TEPCO slash fuel costs, which nearly doubled to ¥2.79 trillion in fiscal 2012 from fiscal 2010.

In fiscal 2013, the costs have stayed high as all the firm’s reactors have remained halted following the nuclear accident at its Fukushima No. 1 power plant in March 2011.

To help offset the fuel cost increase, TEPCO has slashed jobs and taken other rationalization measures. Personnel costs for fiscal 2012 fell about 20 percent from the fiscal 2010 level to ¥345.8 billion.

But a TEPCO executive said, “No matter how many restructuring measures we take, we cannot achieve a turnaround unless we trim fuel costs.”

TEPCO has applied for Nuclear Regulation Authority safety checks for the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa power station’s Nos. 6 and 7 reactors, which have an output capacity of 1.35 million kilowatts each, aiming to restart both in July 2014.

January 1, 2014 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

USA’s deteriorating nuclear missile force

U.S. nuclear missiles a force in much distress kdhnews.com, 30 Dec 13 WASHINGTON — Hundreds of nuclear missiles that stood war-ready for decades in underground silos along remote stretches of America, silent and unseen, packed with almost unimaginable destructive power, are a force in distress, if not in decline.

They are still a fearsome superpower symbol, primed to unleash nuclear hell on a moment’s notice at any hour of any day, capable of obliterating people and places halfway around the globe if a president so orders.

But the number of intercontinental ballistic missiles is dwindling, their future defense role is in doubt, and missteps and leadership lapses documented by The Associated Press this year raised questions about how the force is managed.

The AP revealed one missile officer’s lament of “rot” inside the force, and an independent assessment for the Air Force found signs of “burnout” among missile launch crews…….

At the core of the ICBM problem is the reality that the U.S. sees less use for nuclear weapons and aims to one day eliminate them, possibly starting with the missiles. The trend is clear, advanced by President Barack Obama’s declared vision of a nuclear weapons-free world………http://kdhnews.com/military/u-s-nuclear-missiles-a-force-in-much-distress/article_8332fbde-7042-11e3-8788-001a4bcf6878.html

January 1, 2014 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

India: political opposition to nuclear energy program

AAP to support nuclear plant stir, says Bhushanhttp://www.indianexpress.com/news/aap-to-support-nuclear-plant-stir-says-bhushan/1213139/ PTI : Tirunelveli, Mon Dec 30 2013 AAP leader Prashant Bhushan Sunday said the party always supported the cause of people’s movement against nuclear energy at Kudankulam and would always be with the people. Addressing members of People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy at Idinthakarai near the Kundankulam Nuclear Power Plant, Bhushan assured his party’s support to the ongoing agitation against KNPP. “We always opposed nuclear energy and also the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project. We supported the cause of PMANE in difficult times,” he said.

“The national political scenario was looking for a substitute to BJP and Congress. Both these national parties are tainted. So the people of our country installed AAP in power at Delhi,” he said.

January 1, 2014 Posted by | India, politics | Leave a comment

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