Prefecture’s subsidies for residents near Fukushima No. 1 plant to run out next year
FUKUSHIMA – Fukushima Prefecture’s fund to provide subsidies to residents living near Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant is expected to run out during fiscal 2017, sources said Tuesday.
The prefectural government will hold talks with nine municipalities around the plant this autumn to decide whether to abolish the subsidy program during fiscal 2016, which ends next March, or find a new revenue source to continue it, the sources said.
The fund finances benefits provided to some 33,770 households and offices in the nine municipalities.
The balance of the fund is expected to decline to about ¥50 million by the end of fiscal 2016 from ¥280 million a year before.
Benefits to residents near the plant began in fiscal 1981. Initially, they were provided by the central government through the prefecture.
The central government halted the grants to the prefecture at the end of fiscal 2014, after Tepco decided in January 2014 to decommission all of the reactors at the plant following its triple meltdown in March 2011.
But the prefectural government continued the provision using subsidies not given to residents whose whereabouts became unknown after the nuclear disaster started.
Chiba wants radioactive designation lifted from Fukushima-contaminated waste
CHIBA – The Chiba Municipal Government on Tuesday filed for Environment Ministry approval to lift the radioactive designation for waste stored in the city that was contaminated by the Fukushima reactor meltdowns five years ago.
This marked the first application in Japan seeking to lift the radioactive designation for waste tainted by the 2011 meltdowns at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
The move came after the city found that levels of radioactive materials in the designated waste are lower than the national designation standards of over 8,000 becquerels per kilogram.
At present, designated radioactive waste generated by the nuclear disaster is stored in 12 prefectures in eastern Japan, including Tokyo.
The ministry plans to judge whether to lift the designation for waste in Chiba in about one month.
In Chiba, 7.7 tons of designated waste is currently stored at a waste disposal center.
The lifting of the designation will allow the city to dispose of the waste the same way as general waste, but the city plans to continue storing the waste for the time being.
Utilities asked by shareholders to abandon nuclear energy
Protesters including shareholders hold up signs criticizing Tokyo Electric Power Co. executives in front of the Yoyogi First Gymnasium where the utility held its annual shareholders’ meeting on June 28.
Shareholders call on utilities to abandon nuclear energy
Japan’s nine major electric power companies faced renewed calls to end their dependence on nuclear energy at their annual shareholders’ meetings on June 28.
However, as such proposals require approval by a two-thirds majority of shareholders with voting rights for passage, all were expected to be rejected.
A total of 73 motions from shareholders were submitted at the meetings of the nine utilities. Many called on the companies to leave nuclear power generation.
But executives again stressed the need for nuclear plants to turn a profit.
At the shareholders’ meeting held by Kyushu Electric Power Co., President Michiaki Uriu said: “We have been able to secure a profit due to the resumption of operations at nuclear plants and a large decrease in fuel costs. We will work toward an early resumption of operations at the Genkai nuclear plant (in Saga Prefecture).”
Kyushu Electric Power resumed operations last year at two reactors of the Sendai nuclear power plant in Satsuma-Sendai, Kagoshima Prefecture, in southern Kyushu.
Kansai Electric Power Co. also resumed operations at two reactors at the Takahama nuclear plant in Fukui Prefecture in central Japan this year, but the Otsu District Court issued a temporary injunction to halt them.
“We will make every effort to gain the understanding of society, starting with local residents,” President Makoto Yagi said at the Kansai Electric Power shareholders’ meeting on June 28. “Nuclear plants are an important energy source from the standpoint of economics and environmental issues. We will implement a cut in electricity rates as soon as possible through an early resumption of operations.”
At the Tokyo Electric Power Co. Holdings Inc. meeting, President Naomi Hirose said: “We will proceed with measures to allow us to work on the important corporate issue of resuming operations at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant (in Niigata Prefecture).”
Hirose also apologized for a delay in announcing that meltdowns had occurred at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant after the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami struck in March 2011.
Members of the Nuclear Phase-Out TEPCO Shareholder’s Movement handed out fliers in front of the venue for the TEPCO meeting.
Yui Kimura, 63, a leading member of the group, criticized the revelation about covering up the meltdown at the Fukushima plant.
“TEPCO is trying to resume operations at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant without taking responsibility for the accident,” Kimura said.
Another shareholder, Fusako Iwata, 66, from Gifu Prefecture, said: “At that time, the public believed without question what the central government and TEPCO said. We will not be deceived again.”
http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201606280064.html
Utilities reject shareholders’ call to abandon nuclear power
Japan’s nine major electric power companies shot down renewed proposals calling for them to end their dependence on nuclear energy at their annual shareholders’ meetings on June 28.
The top executives of each utility again stressed the importance of nuclear power and indicated that they plan to resume such operations at their plants as soon as possible.
At the Tokyo Electric Power Co. shareholders’ meeting, President Naomi Hirose apologized for his predecessor’s instruction to employees to avoid using the term “meltdown” during the early phases of the March 2011 disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
“I sincerely apologize for causing concerns,” Hirose said in responding to a question from a shareholder. “I promise that we will never impose silence on our employees under any circumstances.”
TEPCO described the condition of the Fukushima reactors as suffering less serious “core damage” for two months after the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami crippled the plant.
Seventy-three motions from shareholders were submitted at the meetings of the nine utilities. Many called on the companies to end nuclear power generation.
However, since proposals require approval by a two-thirds majority of the voting rights of participating shareholders for passage, all were rejected.
Japan’s roads to have radioactive foundations
The country’s environment ministry will use irradiated soil from the Fukushima nuclear disaster to build roads, sea walls, railway lines and other public building projects
It is one of the biggest headaches of the Fukushima nuclear accident: how to dispose of vast volumes of radioactive soil, enough to fill 18 sports stadiums, contaminated by fallout from the disaster? Now the government of Japan has found an original, and controversial, answer — use it to build roads.
The country’s environment ministry is pressing ahead with a plan to use the irradiated soil as the foundations of roads, sea walls, railway lines and other public building projects. They insist that the concrete and asphalt which will cover the soil base will shield motorists and local residents from…
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/_TP_/article/japan-s-roads-to-have-radioactive-foundations-wtkvxdgsc
GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy’s struggle to get the Indian market
India Won’t Buy Untested GE-Hitachi Reactors, Atomic Chief Says, Bloomberg Rajesh Kumar Singh Rick Clough June 29, 2016
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GE Hitachi reactors don’t have a reference plant, Basu says
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GE calls for channeling nuclear liability to plant operators
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India won’t buy untested GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy’s atomic reactors, reflecting safety concerns, the country’s top atomic-energy bureaucrat said.
“Right now they have offered us reactors that do not have a reference plant,” Sekhar Basu, secretary at India’s Department of Atomic Energy, said in a phone interview. “We will not buy a reactor that doesn’t have a reference plant.”
India’s reservations come months after General Electric Co. Chairman Jeffrey Immelt said his company won’t risk building a nuclear plant in India, citing the nation’s nuclear liability law, which exposes equipment suppliers to claims and litigation if there is an accident. The law has stood in the way of India’s nuclear expansion plans, as reactor suppliers including GE and Westinghouse Electric Co. weigh risks of doing business in the country.
- “GE Hitachi continues to have a strong interest in providing our technology to India for the eventual construction of multiple” economic simplified boiling-water reactors, or ESBWRs, the company said in an e-mailed statement. “We believe the path forward requires a sustainable regulatory environment, which would include a nuclear-liability law that channels liability to plant operators consistent with global best practices.”…….
- EDF has a pact to build a plant in the western state of Maharashtra, while the Russian-designed reactors are being used for a plant in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-29/india-won-t-buy-untested-ge-hitachi-reactors-atomic-chief-says
Brexit vote- the finish for Hinkley nuclear power plan?
Brexit vote is ‘final nail in the coffin’ for £18billion Hinkley Point nuclear power station plans, says energy expert
Brexit vote could spell end for long-delayed Hinkley power station project
Energy expert Dr Paul Dorfman voiced concerns about £18billion scheme
He said French-owned EDF ‘extremely unlikely’ to invest in current climate
Dorfman said there were too many political uncertainties for the company
By STEPHANIE LINNING and SAM TONKIN FOR MAILONLINE, 29 June 2016 The UK’s Brexit vote is the ‘final nail in the coffin’ for an £18billion project to build a new power station at Hinkley Point, a leading energy expert says.
Dr Paul Dorfman, an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Energy Institute, University College London, said EDF, a majority French-owned company, is ‘extremely unlikely’ to invest given the current economic climate.
The long-delayed project was due to have Hinkley Point power station producing 7 per cent of the UK’s electricity by 2017. But, if built, the earliest date it could now start doing so is 2025.
Even that looks a remote possibility according to Dr Dorfman, who told MailOnline Brexit was ‘the final nail in the coffin’ for Hinkley Point.
He said: ‘It gives everybody the chance to slip out without losing any more face.
‘How is France going to invest in the UK if the UK is no longer part of the union?
‘Not only that but the French nuclear industry has huge financial problems and unions are screaming that they don’t want it [Hinkley Point].’
Dr Dorfman, a member of the European Nuclear Energy Forum, also believes the knock-on effect would see plans for a third reactor at Sizewell power station in Suffolk ditched too.
‘If Hinkley fails, which it will do, then Sizewell will go the same way.’ he said. ‘That will have serious implications for the UK energy industry.’……..http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3663424/Nuclear-power-station-likely-18billion-casualty-Brexit-vote-says-government-advisor.html
Solar powered spacecraft to arrive on Jupiter on July 4
| Juno spacecraft demonstrates viability of solar power in deep space, Enformable, Karl Grossman 27 Jun 2016 What NASA insisted for decades could not be a spacecraft using solar energy rather than nuclear power going beyond the orbit of Marswill be proven false next Monday, July 4th, Independence Day, when the solar-energized Juno space probe arrives at Jupiter.NASA had maintained that to provide on-board power and heat on spacecraft in deep space, plutonium-powered systems were requireddespite the disaster if there were an accident on launch or in a fall back to Earth and the plutonium was released. I broke the story 30 years ago about how the next mission of NASA’s ill-fated Challenger shuttle was to involve lofting a plutonium-powered space probe and I have been reporting in articles, books and on television on the nuclear-in-space issue ever since. If the Challenger accident did not happen in January 1986 but the shuttle exploded on its next scheduled mission, in May 1986, with the plutonium-powered space probe in its cargo bay, the impacts could have been enormous. Plutonium is the most lethal of all radioactive substances. Still, when NASA re-scheduled the two plutonium-powered missions it had planned for 1986one the Galileo mission to Jupiterit not only publicly declared that plutonium systems to provide on-board power for space probes in deep space were necessary but swore to that in court. Opponents of the Galileo mission brought suit in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. in 1989 seeking to stop the nuclear-energized Galileo shot because of its public health danger in the event of an accident, and they pressed NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on the availability of a safe energy alternative. NASA and DOE officials swore that only nuclear power would do that far out in space, that solar energy could not be harvested beyond the orbit of Mars. And now comes NASA’s own Juno spacecraft energized by solar energy functioning in deep space. Indeed, NASA acknowledges, “This is the first time in history a spacecraft is using solar power so far out in space.”…… “Just like here on Earth there is a tug-of-war going on between those who wish to promote life-giving solar power and those who want nukes. That same battle for nuclear domination is being taken into the heavens by an industry that wants more profitno matter the consequences. The Global Network will continue to organize around the space nuclear power issue by building a global constituency opposed to the risky and unnecessary nukes in space program.” – Gagnon, coordinator of The Global Network —Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space With solar-energized Juno’s arrival at Jupiter, this Independence Day should mark a blow for independence from dangerous nuclear power above our heads in space. http://enformable.com/2016/06/juno-spacecraft-demonstrates-viability-solar-power-deep-space/ |
Hinkley nuclear power plan, and the costs of its radioactive wastes
Short term tombs for radioactive trash, in Texas
Why a West Texas Nuclear Dump May Be a Short-Term Fix, KUT org By MICHAEL O’BRIEN, 28 JUNE 16, “…….Waste Control Specialists in Andrews County — currently storing contaminated rags, gloves, and other low-level nuclear waste — submitted an application in April which would allow them to receive high-level spent fuel.
The fuel would sit on-site, entombed in concrete-steel casks, until the DOE comes up with a permanent solution……..the majority of spent fuel sits near the reactor in 45-foot deep, industrial grade pools.
Spent fuel is so hot when it comes out of the reactor that it has to sit submerged for a few years before it can be safely transported or even placed in those casks……
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) official stance is that the pools are so safe that there is no reason to spend billions of dollars moving all the spent fuel – the spent fuel cool enough to even move – into the dry-casks.
But the National Academy of Sciences warns that the NRC has under-estimated the risk. In May, the Academy published the final phase of its report on Fukushima and nuclear safety where it recommends “expediting” the spent fuel out of the pools and into the casks.
The pools are more vulnerable to accident or sabotage than the casks, the report states. The pools also hold much more fuel than does an individual cask – just one ruptured pool could cause a devastating radioactive fire capable of contaminating thousands of square miles……The heavily-guarded pools will continue to hold decades worth of spent fuel until the DOE comes up with a permanent storage solution or the NRC changes its guidelines. http://kut.org/post/why-west-texas-nuclear-dump-may-be-short-term-fix
Did Prime Minister Abe have a role in the Fukushima coverup
How far up the ladder did the #Fukushima cover up really go? Digital Journal, By Karen Graham Jun 27, 2016 Tokyo – About the only country today where a public apology is still accepted is in Japan, and quite honestly, this writer has always thought life would be so much more simpler if that’s all it took to right a profound wrong.
Hirose’s apology on the cover-up was to be expected after the news came out that an investigation had found Hirose’s predecessor had instructed staff to avoid using the term, “meltdown” after the disaster in March 2011. “I would say it was a cover-up,” Hirose told a news conference. “It’s extremely regrettable.”……..
And owing to the fact that Mr. Abe has been adamant in saying Japan needs its nuclear power plants, anything he says about Fukushima I would take with a grain of salt. Digital Journal reported that on March 6, this year at a press conference, Abe insisted that safety of nuclear plants was the government’s “top priority.” He also said the government would “not change its policy” in which reactors that meet the new standards can be restarted. So, yes, I think he probably did speak sternly with TEPCO officials in March 2011.
French Polynesia at UN presses case for compensation for nuclear tests
French Polynesia goes to UN over nuclear compensation http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/307569/french-polynesia-goes-to-un-over-nuclear-compensation, 29 June 16, A legislator from French Polynesia has appeared at the United Nations pressing the territory’s case for compensation over nuclear testing.
Richard Tuheiava appeared before the UN Committee on Decolonisation, in an effort to bring the issue to international attention.
The French Government has compensated just a handful of French Polynesians who suffered from exposure to radiation after thirty years of tests in the territory’s vicinity.
Mr Tuheiava said France should compensate the territory as well as individuals.
“The fact is since the nuclear testing most of the diseases were cancer, leukaemia. Most of the diseases were as a result of the nuclear testing, so we collectively also put a request for the state of France, the colonial power to not only compensate directly the veterans, but also compensate this fund, this public health care fund.”
Richard Tuheiava said he has serious doubts about whether anything will come from the negotiations, but at least the truth is being exposed on a global stage.
Earlier this year during a visit to the territory, the French president Francois Hollande acknowledged that the weapons tests had an environmental impact with consequences for people’s health.
He promised to revisit the way compensation claims are being treated.
South Carolina Electric and Gas wants more ratepayers’ money for building nuclear reactors
SCE&G files for 3.1 percent rate increase to fund nuclear plant construction, The Post and Courier David Wren Email @David_Wren_ Jun 28 2016 South Carolina Electric & Gas is asking state regulators to approve the largest single rate increase yet under a state law that lets the utility charge customers for construction of two new reactors at the V.C. Summer nuclear plant in Jenkinsville years before they are completed.
The proposed increase, which needs approval from the state’s Public Service Commission, would boost residential customers’ rates by 3.1 percent, or an average of $4.44 per bill for those using 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per month. Commercial customers would see their rates increase by between 3 percent and 3.3 percent, depending on the size of the business, if the new rate structure is approved.
Until now, the biggest annual increase was 2.87 percent in 2013……..If the increase is approved, nearly 19 percent of residential customers’ monthly bills will be going solely toward construction of the new reactors, according to Dukes Scott, executive director of the state’s Office of Regulatory Staff, which represents consumers’ interests in utility matters.
To date, SCE&G has charged its customers more than $1 billion for construction of the units, Scott said. The proposed rate increase would raise another $74.2 million and would take effect at the end of November if approved……..
The proposed rate increase is part of the Base Load Review Act, passed in 2008 by the General Assembly. The law allows the utility to charge its 700,000 customers for construction as the nuclear project proceeds. Historically, utilities have financed construction through bond sales that are repaid after the project is completed.
The Base Load Review Act amounts to a “blank check” for SCE&G, according to Frank Knapp, president and CEO of the S.C. Small Business Chamber of Commerce and an opponent of the rate increases.
“The law was written by the industry, the General Assembly didn’t understand it and there has been no good evaluation of it since it was passed,” Knapp said. “Consequently, here we are.”……..
The nuclear reactors initially were supposed to go online in 2016 and 2018, but are now about two years behind schedule. Further construction delays could lead to more rate increases. SCE&G plans to receive $2.2 billion in federal Production Tax Credits, but those credits — part of the Energy and Policy Act of 2005 — expire if the units aren’t up and running by Dec. 31, 2020……http://www.postandcourier.com/20160628/160629448/sceg-files-for-31-percent-rate-increase-to-fund-nuclear-plant-construction
Route 66 – America’s first public solar road
The street pavers were developed by Solar Roadways, a company created by inventors Scott and Julie Brusaw which raised more than $2.2 million in crowdfunding in 2014 to bring their technology to market. The Brusaws claim that replacing all of America’s roads and parking lots with their solar pavers would generate more than three times the country’s electricity consumption in 2009.
Missouri’s transportation department is set to launch their own crowdfunding campaign to support their energy experiment, and expects the hexagonal solar panels to be fully installed and operational by the end of the year.
Brexit and Climate Change – examples of inter-generational theft
The inter-generational theft of Brexit and climate change, Skeptical Science, 27 June 2016 by dana1981In last week’s Brexit vote results, there was a tremendous divide between age groups. 73% of voters under the age of 25 voted to remain in the EU, while about 58% over the age of 45 voted to leave.
This generational gap is among the many parallels between Brexit and climate change. A 2014 poll found that 74% of Americans under the age of 30 support government policies to cut carbon pollution, as compared to just 58% of respondents over the age of 40, and 52% over the age of 65. Inter-generational theftThe problem is of course that younger generations will have to live with the consequences of the decisions we make today for much longer than older generations. Older generations in developed countries prospered as a result of the burning of fossil fuels for seemingly cheap energy. However, we’ve already reached the point where even contrarian economists agree, any further global warming we experience will be detrimental for the global economy. For poorer countries, we passed that point decades ago. A new paper examining climatecosts and fossil fuel industry profits for the years 2008–2012 found:
For much of the time during which developed nations experienced strong economic growth as a result of fossil fuel consumption, we were unaware of the associated climatecosts. We can no longer use ignorance as an excuse. And yet the older generations, who experienced the greatest net benefit from carbon pollution, are now the least supportive of taking responsibility to pay for it. The longer we delay, the more devastating the consequences will be for the younger generations. Similarly, today’s youth who are early in their career paths will face the harshest consequences of the Brexit vote that was dominated by older voters. As Jack Lennard put it:
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Nuclear weapons risk could spread if laser uranium enrichment technology is adopted
Laser uranium enrichment technology may create new proliferation risks, Science Daily, June 27, 2016
- Source:
- Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs
- Summary:
- A new laser-based uranium enrichment technology may provide a hard-to-detect pathway to nuclear weapons production, according to a forthcoming paper.
- A new laser-based uranium enrichment technology may provide a hard-to-detect pathway to nuclear weapons production, according to a forthcoming paper in the journalScience & Global Security by Ryan Snyder, a physicist with Princeton University’s Program on Science and Global Security.
- One example of this new third-generation laser enrichment technique may be the separation of isotopes by laser excitation (SILEX) process which was originally developed in Australia and licensed in 2012 for commercial-scale deployment in the United States to the Global Laser Enrichment consortium led by General Electric-Hitachi. Research on the relevant laser systems is also currently ongoing in Russia, India and China.
The paper explains the basic physics of the new uranium separation concept, which relies on the selective laser excitation and condensation repression of uranium-235 in a gas. It also estimates the key laser performance requirements and possible operating parameters for a single enrichment unit and how a cascade of such units could be arranged into an enrichment plant able to produce weapon-grade highly enriched uranium.
Using plausible assumptions, the paper shows how a covert laser enrichment plant sized to make one bomb’s worth of weapon-grade material a year could use less space and energy than a similar scale plant based on almost all current centrifuge designs, the most efficient enrichment technology in use today. The results suggest a direct impact on detection methods that use size or energy use as plant footprints……..https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/06/160627160941.htm
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