nuclear-news

Los Alamos National [Nuclear] Laboratory, UPSHOT KNOTHOLE Grable

Questionable Suicide of Los Alamos National Lab Retired Deputy Director

At the beginning of February, 2016, three “whistleblowers sent a certified letter to Mr. Damon Martinez, the US Attorney for the District of New Mexico, asking him to reopen an investigation into fraud and corruption at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and the questionable suicide in 2002 of the then-recently retired Lab Deputy Director“, Richard Burick. http://nukewatch.org/pressreleases/NM-US-Atty-LANL-Fraud-PR.pdf

Why does it matter?

“Renewing the investigation of Burick’s death, the whistleblowers say, may lead to evidence of greater corruption within the lab’s scandal-plagued management.“ See: “Whistleblowers Call for Inquiry into LANL Employee’s Death“, February 2, 2016: http://www.pogo.org/blog/2016/02/whistleblowers-call-for-inquiry-into-lanl-employee-death.html

Justice cannot be justice if it has time limits and Crimes May Continue

“Many of Burick’s peers remain in leadership positions at LANL. Under their watch, two employees stole millions…

World:

¶ The International Energy Agency is warning consumers not to let cheap oil lull them into a false sense of security. In a report, the IEA said it expects prices to start recovering in 2017. But it forecasts a subsequent sharp jump in price as supply shrinks following under-investment by struggling producers. [BBC]

Consumers should expect oil prices to recover

¶ The operator of South Australia’s vast network says it has no concern about the growing penetration of renewable energy on its grid, and is encouraging remote towns to look at renewable micro-grids to cut costs. South Australia is likely to get over 50% of its electricity needs from wind and solar power this year. [CleanTechnica]

¶ At the recently concluded Invest Karnataka summit, two different entities pledged to add a total of 3 GW of solar power capacity in the southern Indian state. Karnataka…

According to KEPCO, at Takahama Unit 4 PWR (pressurized water reactor) in Japan an alarm indicating “caution on the primary system floor drain” went off at 15:42 on February 20, 2016. The operator conducted a field inspection and found a radioactive puddle on the floor in front of the condensate demineralizer (filtering system which uses resins to eliminate impurities from the reactor coolant) in the reactor auxiliary building. Leaked radioactive water was also collected by the auxiliary building sump and other components. The total leakage was an estimated 34 liters with a total amount of radioactivity of 60,000 Becquerels (Radioactive disintegrations or shots per second.) This would be 1,764 Bq per liter. (See original English KEPCO press release at bottom).

US NRC Schematic of PWR nuclear power station layout

What caused the leak? Valve Problems, of course

Anyone who is of a certain age, or has a house…

World:

¶ Japan’s solar installations are expected to peak this year somewhere between 13.2 GW and 14.3 GW, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Japan installed 7.1 GW of solar in 2013, 10.3 GW in 2014, and as much as 12.3 GW in 2015. However, BNEF is predicting a drop in installations for 2017. [CleanTechnica]

Rooftop solar installation in Japan. Photo by CoCreatr (some rights reserved)

¶ SkyPower has signed four power purchase agreements with the Indian state of Telangana to build and operate a total of 200 MW of solar energy projects. The deals bring the total number of solar projects agreed by the company in India to 400 MW, with the other 200 MW planned for the state of Madhya Pradesh. [reNews]

¶ Scotrenewables Tidal Power has completed the deployment of its advanced modular anchoring system at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney…

The $40 million being given by the US DOE to a US nuclear reactor “start-up” company, X-energy, owned by Iranian Kam Ghaffarian, brings to mind the case of Iranian immigrant Khosrow Semnani and the Envirocare – Clive Radioactive Waste Dump, now owned-managed by former Goldman Sachs Investment Bankers (e.g. David Lockwood, CEO of EnergySolutions; Doug Kimmelman, CEO of EnergyCapital).[a]

In 1996, “Mr. Semnani publicly admitted, in court filings, that he had secretly paid Mr. Anderson hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, gold coins, and a ski resort condominium. These payments were made by Mr. Semnani to Mr. Anderson during the period in which Mr. Anderson was the chief official responsible for issuing the Envirocare license, granting the Envirocare exemption, and allegedly authorizing disposal of DOE waste at the Clive, Utah site.” (WCS v. DOE, 1997)

Clive Nuclear Waste Dump Looks Like A Radioactive Junkyard, just west…