NRC plans to name U.S. nuclear reactors using potentially flawed Areva parts, Japan Times, 6 Jan 17,
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission told French nuclear power company Areva SA it will publish as early as next week the names of U.S. reactors that contain components from its Le Creusot forge that the firm is suspected of falsifying documents despite the company’s claim that the information is proprietary.
The written notice, dated Dec. 30 and seen by Reuters on Thursday, underscores rising tension between the U.S. nuclear regulatory body and Areva after French authorities opened an investigation last month into decades of alleged forgery relating to the quality of parts produced at the forge and used in power plants around the world.
The NRC has investigated whether the suspected falsification of documents poses any risks for U.S. nuclear plants, but has said it has found that the plants are safe.
“At this time, there are no indications of any specific safety concerns for U.S. reactors,” NRC spokesman David McIntyre said on Thursday.
Still, anti-nuclear power advocates, including Greenpeace, have pushed NRC to reveal which U.S. reactors have the components, saying that there could be risks to the public.
The secret nuclear bunker built as the UK’s last hope, Dug for an underground ‘shadow factory’ for aircraft during World War Two, the Drakelow tunnels were re-purposed as a nuclear bunker to be used by the UK government. We went inside., BBC By William Park 4 January 2017
Deep beneath a hill in the Worcestershire countryside, about 20 miles west of Birmingham, lie a series of hidden tunnels. Once home to a secret aeroplane factory during World War Two, they were later repurposed to protect the UK in the event of a nuclear war: it’s from here that the government would have continued to run the country.
“This would have been the last resort of the UK government,” says Michael Scott, a volunteer with the Drakelow Preservation Trust, which is restoring the site. The Trust’s aim is to reopen parts of the tunnels as a museum to preserve their history in World War Two and the Cold War. But the organisation remains some years away from finishing the work, and without much funding, the volunteers are restricted mostly to repainting walls.
When cities across the UK came under siege during the war, the government needed to find a way to continue production of tanks, aircraft and ammunition. The solution was to build underground factories – also called shadow factories – away from large cities. The Drakelow Tunnels housed one of them. And the same remoteness and fortress-like qualities that made Drakelow an effective underground aircraft factory would later make it the location of choice for responding to nuclear attack in Britain.
Today, the entrance used by Scott and the other volunteers is called Adit A; it’s where the security office would have stood. Most of the hillside around the entrance is bare, revealing a sandstone mass towering above us that would have made this site virtually bomb-proof in World War Two.
Adit A shows many signs of the alterations that were made to Drakelow Tunnels to retrofit it for use as a nuclear bunker – including covered air vents that would have protected those inside from fallout. Through the heavy steel door, visitors would have had to strip, incinerate their clothes and shower as they decontaminated themselves……..
There are examples of similar subterranean shadow factories in Germany, too. The largest was Mittelwerk, Kohnstein, which produced V-1 and V-2 bombs from 1943 to 1945. The move underground was a direct result of the destruction of other, above-ground V-2 production plants, like Peenemunde in northern Germany. Unlike Drakelow, Mittelwerk was left in ruins after the war.
Perhaps the most intriguing underground network of Nazi military tunnels is the series of seven structures that make up Project Riese. Buried in the Owl Mountains – then part of Germany but now in south-west Poland near the Czech border – these sites were never finished and documents about their full purpose seem to have been destroyed…….
Cold comfort
Top-secret military construction did not end with World War Two. In 1949, as the Cold War bloomed, the UK government began to build 15 fortified war rooms across the country.
But in the case of the much bigger threat of a nuclear attack, these buildings would not have been enough to protect their inhabitants. They were too small, making them unable to support a workforce for the extended period of time they’d need to remain indoors to avoid the fallout of a nuclear explosion. They also were built too close to the major cities which could have been a target for an attack: five were built in London, for example.
Having seen the effect of a nuclear attack in Japan, the British government commissioned the Strath Committee, led by head of the Central War Plans Secretariat William Strath, to analyse the potential effects of a nuclear attack on the UK. In 1955 the committee published the Strath Report which found that even a ‘limited’ attack would have devastating consequences. Food and water would be contaminated, the NHS would be overwhelmed with four million serious casualties and 12 million deaths, and industry would shut down. In short, the “social and economic fabric of the country [would be] destroyed”.
Inside Glanrhyd, the first solar ‘eco hamlet’ in Wales Residents of the new eco hamlet in Pembrokeshire can expect greatly reduced fuel bills and shared use of an electric car, Guardian, Steven Morris, 6 Jan 17,
Most of the houses in the Welsh village of Glanrhyd are of traditional construction – walls made out of hefty local stone, roofs of grey slate. They can get chilly when the winter winds whistle through the gaps.
The six houses that make up the “eco hamlet” of Pentre Solar look and feel very different. They are built using light, bright timber sourced from a nearby valley. The houses are carefully insulated, airtight and powered by solar panels.
Over the next few weeks the first tenants, local people from Pembrokeshire county council’s housing list, will move into what is being billed as the only development of its kind in the UK.
Their fuel bills are expected to be a fraction of their neighbours’ – and they will even get the use of a shared electric car for the school run, the shopping trip to nearby Cardigan, or even for a jolly to one of the many glorious local beaches…….
If the project, which has been backed by the Welsh government, does work, the hope is that similar developments could be rolled out across Wales and eventually across the UK.
Western Solar’s first venture was a solar farm, five miles from the eco hamlet. Doubts that it was sunny enough in this part of the British Isles (after all, the nearby village of Eglwyswrw made headlines last year after it rained for more than 80 days in a row) proved unfounded and the project thrived…….
Using technology borrowed from Germany, Western Solar built a prototype eco home called TŷSolar (Tŷis Welsh for house). The idea was to produce a high-quality, brilliantly insulated, airtight house made of locally sourced timber and powered by solar energy…….
GM Commits to 100 Percent Renewable Energy by 2050 15.09.2016 GM pledges to source global electricity from wind, sun and landfill gas, joins RE100
DETROIT – General Motors plans to generate or source all electrical power for its 350 operations in 59 countries with 100 percent renewable energy — such as wind, sun and landfill gas — by 2050.
“Establishing a 100 percent renewable energy goal helps us better serve society by reducing environmental impact,” said GM Chairman and CEO Mary Barra. “This pursuit of renewable energy benefits our customers and communities through cleaner air while strengthening our business through lower and more stable energy costs.”
This new renewable energy goal, along with the pursuit of electrified vehicles and efficient manufacturing, is part of the company’s overall approach to strengthening its business, improving communities and addressing climate change. GM is also joining RE100, a global collaborative initiative of businesses committed to 100 percent renewable electricity, working to increase demand for clean power.
In 2015, GM required 9 terawatt hours of electricity to build its vehicles and power its offices, technical centers and warehouses around the world. To meet its new renewable energy goal, GM will continue to improve the energy efficiency of its operations while transitioning to clean sources for its power needs.
Today GM saves $5 million annually from using renewable energy, a number it anticipates will increase as more projects come online and the supply of renewable energy increases. In addition, the company anticipates costs to install and produce renewable energy will continue to decrease, resulting in more bottom-line returns.
How climate change in Central Asia is threatening to spark regional conflict
Lower water supplies, caused by rising temperatures, is increasing risk of political tensions, Chinese researchers warn SCMP, Stephen Chen, 06 January, 2017, Competition for dwindling water supplies from a mountain range in Central Asia could erupt into regional conflict, Chinese researchers have warned.
Global warming and retreating glaciers in the Tianshan range – the “water tower” of the region – have raised the spectre of water shortages that will affect “the relationship between countries in Central Asia,” the researchers warned in a report on the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ website.
Central Asia is a dry, landlocked hinterland and Tianshan is the tallest and biggest mountain range in the region. About 2,500km long and up to 350km wide, the range winds through numerous countries including Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and the Xinjiang region in China.
Its seasonal snowmelt contributes most of the water for the majority of rivers in Central Asia.
But over the past decade, the range has been losing its “total water storage” at a rate of about 223 million cubic metres per year, according to the research led by Professor Chen Yaning from the academy’s Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography in Urumqi.
The culprit, the researchers say, is rising temperatures.
Since 1960, annual average temperatures in the area have been rising at 0.3 degrees Celsius per decade, resulting in warm winters and less snow.
In a paper last year detailing some of their findings, Chen and colleagues warned that the situation “may pose great danger for the water tower and influence the water supply for the oasis and desert regions”.
Labour chiefs urge voters to ignore Jeremy Corbyn’s nuclear views ahead of Copeland by-election, Mirror UK, BYBEN GLAZE5 JAN 2017 The Labour leader is a veteran anti-nuclear campaigner, which could be a problem for him in Copeland in Cumbria Labour chiefs are quietly urging voters to ignore Jeremy Corbyn’s anti-nuclear views in a crunch by-election.
The Labour leader, a veteran anti-nukes campaigner, faces his biggest electoral test when voters go to the polls in Copeland, Cumbria.
The constituency is home to the Sellafield nuclear plant and next-door to Barrow-in-Furness, home to the shipyard building the Navy’s new Trident nuclear submarines.
Labour is defending a slim 2,564 majority in the vote triggered by the resignation of MP Jamie Reed.
The Tories are favourites to win.
Senior Labour figures fear the Conservatives will highlight Mr Corbyn’s lifelong opposition to nuclear power and weapons. The Labour leader will “absolutely” visit the constituency during the campaign, according to party sources.
Copeland council’s Labour group leader Lena Hogg, who voted for Mr Corbyn in his successful leadership campaigns, hoped he would accept nuclear was popular locally.
Pro-nukes Mrs Hogg told the Mirror: “We have got it and it’s staying and people are quite happy about the fact we have had it since 1952.
State, federal leaders push for transparency after shutdown and safety concerns. State officials are pushing for more transparency from federal regulators about safety concerns at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant in Plymouth.
In a letter dated Jan. 4 to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Gov. Charlie Baker, Attorney General Maura Healey, Sen. Edward Markey and several other lawmakers called for a public meeting in Massachusetts to allow the agency to answer questions and communicate directly with the public about the safety of the nuclear power plant and provide details about recent shutdowns.
The letter comes after the inadvertent disclosure of an email last month from the leader of the NRC special inspection team noting continued concerns about operations at the plant, including poor engineering expertise and a “safety culture problem.”
In the letter, the team leader commented that plant staff “seems overwhelmed by just trying to run the” nuclear plant.
“The NRC has an obligation to address the operation of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant and the increased public concerns that continue to plague the plant at a time when it should be showing significant improvements,” Healey said. “The public’s serious questions about the safety of this plant and risks it poses to the environment, workers and residents need to be answered immediately.”
The letter states that a public meeting also would provide an opportunity for the NRC to discuss the cause of the plant’s most recent shutdown, including how the leaks in three of the plant’s eight main steam isolation valves were discovered, why they were not discovered earlier, and what steps have been taken to inspect the integrity of the remaining steam isolation valves. These valves are used to prevent a leak of radioactivity into the environment during a nuclear accident.
In light of the documented ongoing safety issues at the plant, the letter also calls on the NRC to deny a request from the plant’s owner, Entergy, for an exemption from NRC’s post-Fukushima Dai-ichi plant safety upgrades.
The NRC downgraded Pilgrim safety’s status to the least safe category in September 2015 based on recurring safety issues at the plant. In October 2015, Entergy announced that it will shut down the plant by June 2019, citing low energy prices, reduced revenues, and increased operational costs.
ReNew Canada reports that The Government of Canada has proposed its pan-Canadian approach to pricing carbon pollution. Under the new plan, all Canadian jurisdictions will have carbon pricing in place by 2018. In order to accomplish this, Canada will set a benchmark for pricing carbon emissions—set at a level that will help Canada meet its greenhouse gas emission targets, while providing greater certainty and predictability to Canadian businesses.
Provinces and territories will have flexibility in deciding how they implement carbon pricing: they can put a direct price on carbon pollution or they can adopt a cap-and-trade system.
Pricing carbon pollution will give Canada an edge in building a clean-growth economy; it will make Canadian businesses more competitive; it will bring new and exciting job prospects for middle class Canadians; and it will reduce the pollution that threatens our clean air and oceans.
“Pricing pollution is one of the most efficient ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to stimulate innovation,” said Catherine McKenna, minister of Environment and Climate Change. “Already 80 percent of Canadians live in a province where there is pollution pricing. We want to continue this trend and cover the final 20 per cent.”
Pricing will be based on greenhouse gas emissions and applied to a common and broad set of sources to ensure effectiveness. The price on carbon pollution should start at a minimum of $10 per tonne in 2018 and rise by $10 a year to reach $50 per tonne in 2022. Revenues from carbon pricing will remain with provinces and territories of origin.
Provinces and territories will use the revenues from this system as they see fit, whether it is to give it back to consumers, to support their workers and their families, to help vulnerable groups and communities in the North, or to support businesses that innovate and create good jobs for the future.
The overall approach will be reviewed in 2022 to ensure that it is effective and to confirm future price increases. The review will account for actions by other countries.
¶ “China cementing global dominance of renewable energy
and technology” • China is cementing its global dominance of renewable energy and supporting technologies, aggressively investing in them both at home and around the globe, leaving countries including the US, UK, and Australia at risk of missing the growing market. [The Guardian]
China, leading the world in renewable energy (Photo: Tyrone Siu / Reuters)
World:
¶ The International Finance Corporation will invest $125 million (€119 million) in Hero Future Energies, an Indian producer of renewable power that aims at adding 1 GW of greenfield solar and wind capacity in the next 12 months. The investment will allow Hero Future Energies to expand its portfolio and create jobs. [SeeNews Renewables]
¶ Following an earlier decision by the South Korean government to ban the sale of some Volkswagen models (following emissions testing irregularities), authorities in the country have…
Human activity has given rise to a new geological epoch. | NASA
Scientific researchers studying climate change have come to the conclusion that the effects are so great that the earth has entered a new geological epoch, which they have named the Anthropocene. Ian Angus, in this book, sets out to explain the reason why.
The existence of global warming and the threat of catastrophic climate change is now generally accepted as fact. Governments, as represented at international conferences, have reluctantly recognized the need for action – not that they ever fulfilled their commitments. The Paris conference in 2014 was hailed as a breakthrough, as it appeared at last that they were getting serious. Even so, the commitments made there are certainly too little and possibly too late. There continues a well-financed campaign of climate change denial, which featured largely in Trump’s election campaign and threatens to derail even the…
In 2013, less than a year prior to sanctions imposed against Russia:
“Vladimir Putin is encouraging Exxon and Rosneft to start their new partnership off with a bang and head for the open waters of the Gulf of Mexico. If any company knows how to one up BP on oil spills, its Rosneft.“. http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/climate-change/arctic-impacts/The-dangers-of-Arctic-oil/Black-ice–Russian-oil-spill-disaster/ Former BP CEO Tony Hayward led Glencore and BP actually have minority ownership in Russian State-owned Rosneft! US Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Emily F. Alley, Oil beach feather BP BP oiled turtle
Only the sanctions against Russia are holding back the creation of what is effectively a mega-conglomerate monster of ExxonMobil and Russian State owned Rosneft. Trump nominee for Secretary of State, ExxonMobil CEO (until 30 Dec. 2016) Rex Tillerson is a Putin buddy and wants to stop sanctions against Russia (in place subsequent to Russian annexation of Crimea). Just imagine…
A wounding blow for global warming denialists
Claims that global warming is on “pause” are wrong, new research has found.
Many researchers have long thought that there had been a slowdown in the rate of global warming in recent years. It was a claim often made by those who doubt or downplay the effects of man-made climate change, who argued that the slowdown showed that warming was happening less quickly or extremely than claimed.
But new research published in the journal Science Advances supports previous studies that find scientists have been underestimating the rise in ocean temperatures for decades.
After the re-evaluation, scientists have suggested that what looked like a pause in temperatures between 1998 and 2014 didn’t seem to have happened at all. The study finds that the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was right when it challenged the pause in a major paper published in Science in…
yogarhythms, 6 Jan 17 Taro Yamamoto, has a voice and mind connected to his heart. Taro is asking questions of the powerful, the state agencies, large corporations. Who will answer? Why is Taro’s question important? Taro’s question is asking for the answer which is to painful for Japan and the world to answer. The failure of our generation to protect the future has to be admitted. Thousands of tons of molten melted nuclear reactor fuel rods and nuclear reactor core assembly inside three Fukushima Nudlear Reactor Vessels are totally unrecognizable. Unrecognizable! Unrecognizable as former unique designed elements used to boil water to create steam to generate electricity.
Now 5 years 8 months after 11MAR11 there are no fuel rods, no reactor core pipes, cooling water tubes, just a molten melted radioactive moving puddle at the bottom of three reactor vessels. When will the reactor vessels breach? When will the China Syndrome begin? Has the China Syndrome begun as the radioactive plume of Pacific Ocean water reaching West Coast of USA 30DEC16 suggests? Will TEPCO and Japan Government release Muon Energy Location Technology (MELT) findings verifying location of Fukushima Unit 1,2,3, reactor core meltdown locations after 11MAR11. Everyone knows where TEPCO Fukushima Unit 1,2,3, reactor cores were located 10MAR11. – This post refers to https://nuclear-news.net/2016/12/14/taro-yamamoto-defends-the-fukushima-victims-rights/
The investment will create over 13 million jobs in the sector, the National Energy Administration (NEA) said in a blueprint document that lays out its plan to develop the nation’s energy sector during the five-year 2016 to 2020 period.
The NEA said installed renewable power capacity including wind, hydro, solar and nuclear power would contribute to about half of new electricity generation by 2020.
China’s Green Energy Push
The agency did not disclose more details on where the funds — which equate to about $98 billion each year — would be spent.
The investment reflects Beijing’s continued focus on curbing the use of fossil fuels, which have fostered the country’s economic growth over the past decade, as it ramps up its war on pollution.
Last month, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country’s economic planner, said in its own five-year plan that solar power would receive 1 trillion yuan of spending, as the country seeks to boost capacity by five times.
The spending comes as the cost of building large-scale solar plants has dropped by as much as 40 per cent since 2010. China became the world’s top solar generator last year.
Israel to build world’s tallest solar tower in symbol of renewable energy ambition, Independent, 5 Jan 17 With Israel traditionally running its economy on fossil fuels, renewable energy has long been hobbled by bureaucracy and a lack of incentives. In sunny Israel, solar energy supplies only a small percentage of the nation’s power needs, leaving it far behind countries with cloudier and colder climates.
Now the fledgling solar industry is trying to make a leap forward with a large-scale project boasting the world’s tallest solar tower, as a symbol of Israel’s renewal energy ambitions.
The country is starting to make an effort, setting a goal of generating 10 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020, up from the current 2.5 percent.
The Ashalim project, deep in the Negev desert, is made up of three plots, with a fourth planned for the future, each with a different solar technology. Together, the fields will be Israel’s largest renewable energy project when completed by 2018. They are set to generate some 310 megawatts of power, about 1.6 percent of the country’s energy needs — enough for about 130,000 households, or roughly 5 percent of Israel’s population, according to Israel’s Electricity Authority. …….
Another solar-thermal plot at Ashalim will be able to store energy even when the sun goes down. A third plot will use photovoltaic solar technology to produce energy.
Yaron Szilas, CEO of Shikun & Binui Renewable Energy, the lead developer of the second solar-thermal plot, said combining the three technologies was a wise move because each has its own advantage. The amount of electricity it produces will be comparable to large-scale solar fields in California and Chile……..
Israel has developed some of the world’s most advanced solar energy equipment and enjoys a nearly endless supply of sunshine. But Israeli solar companies, frustrated by government bureaucracy, have mostly taken their expertise abroad.
Countries with cooler climates have outpaced Israel. Germany, for example, gets nearly 30 percent of its energy from renewable sources.
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