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“Clean Coal” not a goer, for White House – support withdrawn

On Feb. 3, the Department of Energy announced it was withdrawing support. Environmentalists who want investment in renewable power technologies rather than fossil energy cheered the decision. “We don’t need it, and we can’t afford it,” Bruce Nilles, head of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign, says of carbon-capture projects
clean-coal.The White House Walks Away from Clean Coal  A $1 billion Illinois project, meant to be the poster child for coal’s climate-friendly future, gets scuttled. Bloomberg, Feb 15, 2015  Jim Snyder  Mark Drajem Matthew Philips
 On the banks of the Illinois River, about 60 miles west of the state capital in Springfield, an old coal-fired power plant sits waiting for its future to arrive. First opened in 1948, it’s been dormant since 2011, when its owner, St. Louis-based Ameren, shut down the plant rather than retrofit it to meet federal standards. Last year workers came to give it a makeover. Using almost $1 billion in stimulus money, the project was supposed to become the poster child for clean-coal technology. Rather than spewing into the sky, the carbon dioxide produced as the plant burned coal would be captured into a pipeline buried below corn and soybean fields. It would run 30 miles east to Jacksonville, where the gas would be injected 4,000 feet underground. “It was like we were the phoenix rising,” says the plant’s director, Mike Long.

The resurrection was short-lived. On Feb. 3, the Department of Energy announced it was withdrawing support. Environmentalists who want investment in renewable power technologies rather than fossil energy cheered the decision. “We don’t need it, and we can’t afford it,” Bruce Nilles, head of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign, says of carbon-capture projects……

The Illinois project, called FutureGen, was supposed to be a model for coal’s climate-friendly future. It was backed by some of the world’s biggest coal mining companies, who created a nonprofit, the FutureGen Industrial Alliance, to oversee the plant’s conversion. The White House saw FutureGen as a way to show leaders in China and India, where coal fuels more than half of electricity generation, that they can address their own carbon emissions without compromising economic growth. About 40 percent of man-made carbon emissions come from power plants……http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-02-14/the-white-house-walks-away-from-clean-coal

February 20, 2015 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

Unexplained rising water caused Nine Mile Point 2 nuclear plant’s shutdown

Nine Mile Point 2 nuclear plant shuts down for unexplained rising water By Tim Knauss | tknauss@syracuse.com  SCRIBA, N.Y. — Operators at Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station removed Unit 2 from service at 2:07 p.m. today, after water levels in the unit’s reactor unexpectedly increased.

Water levels have since returned to normal, but the unit remains offline, according to officials at plant owner Exelon Corp.

Company technical experts are working to determine the cause of the water level increase. ……http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2015/02/nine_mile_point_2_nuclear_plant_shuts_down_for_unexplained_water.html

February 20, 2015 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Nuclear reactor disconnected in Brazil

Brazil disconnects nuclear power plant AP  |  Rio De Janeiro  February 20, 2015 One of Brazil’s two nuclear reactors has been disconnected because of a flaw in a condenser that cools the steam used by the plant’s electric power generator.Eletronuclear that operates the Angra Nuclear I power plant in the coastal city of Angra dos Reis in the state of Rio de Janeiro says on its website that the plant was disconnected early Thursday morning to safeguard of other equipment such as steam generators. …..http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/brazil-disconnects-nuclear-power-plant-115022000050_1.html

February 20, 2015 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Minors told to lie about their age, to work at Fukushima cleanup

Executive Arrested for Exploiting Youth to Help Cleanup at Fukushima Sputnik News 18 Feb 15 Aichi Prefectural Police arrested a construction firm executive on Wednesday for sending a 15-year-old boy to help clean up radioactive waste outside the Fukushima nuclear plant.

 Police arrested the manager of a construction firm at Fukushima for using a 15 year old boy to help eliminate soil and debris contaminated by radioactive substances released in the nuclear accident in Fukushima Prefecture…….

Chiba apparently told the teenager not to reveal his real age, saying: “Our construction sites do not allow minors under 18 years of age to work. If anyone questions you, tell them you’re 18.”

The boy was to be paid a daily income of 3,000 yen ($25.25) for the decontamination work. However, he left before being paid after he was physically attacked by Chiba.

According to the police, there were more cases of minors involved in similar jobs in the Fukushima region.

The Koriyama branch of the Fukushima District Court sentenced the president of a Fukushima-based construction firm to two years in prison in October 2013 for having seven minors lie about their ages and participate in decontamination work.

The involvement of criminal organizations in the business has also become a rising concern. The tax money for decontamination is likely to be funding criminal organization.http://sputniknews.com/asia/20150219/1018473544.html

February 20, 2015 Posted by | Fukushima 2015 | Leave a comment

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