Beyond Nuclear, TAKOMA PARK, MD, May 9, 2017— A tunnel at the Hanford Nuclear Site in Washington State collapsed today on top of railcars stored there that contain “mixed” radioactive waste, an accident that local watchdog group, Hanford Challenge, describes as a “crisis.”
The tunnel is located next to the Plutonium Uranium Extraction Facility, also known as PUREX, and contains substances classified as “dangerous waste.” The collapse prompted an initial evacuation of workers in the area that then spread to a “take cover” order for the entire site.
The already embattled Hanford site was originally part of the Manhattan Project, and a major supplier of military plutonium. It houses 177 storage tanks containing liquid radioactive sludges, some of which have been leaking radioactive effluent that could eventually threaten the Columbia River. Cleanup at the site did not begin until 1989. The Hanford tunnel collapse may have been caused by soil subsidence due to vibrations from nearby road works.
“The current unfolding crisis at Hanford, the bursting barrel at Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico in 2014, and the exploding radioactive waste dump in Beatty, Nevada in 2015, show that radioactive waste management is out of control,” said Kevin Kamps, Radioactive Waste Watchdog at Beyond Nuclear
”That’s why the Yucca Mountain dump in Nevada, the Canadian dump targeted at the Great Lakes shore, and the parking lot dumps in Texas and New Mexico must be blocked, to prevent future disasters,” Kamps added.
WIPP, a radioactive waste repository mainly for military waste and situated near Carlsbad, NM, suffered an accident on February 14, 2014. The explosion there released radioactivity that exposed workers who were stationed above ground at the time and forced an almost three-year shutdown of the site. The disaster cost $2 billion and counting. As at Hanford, a relatively minor event — the use of the wrong kitty litter for cleanup — was blamed for the WIPP accident, prompting serious questions about competence and safeguards at such critically dangerous sites.
A leak in a massive nuclear waste storage tank at Hanford in April 2016 was described as “catastrophic” by a former tank farm worker there, even as the U.S. Department of Energy tried to downplay the problem.
Most commercial radioactive waste is currently stored at reactor sites around the country. However, military radioactive waste has continued to pose an on-going storage nightmare. Beyond Nuclear advocates for commercial reactor waste to be stored on-site but in facilities known as Hardened On-Site Storage, or HOSS, and not in the risky pools and inadequate waste casks, as is the current practice. -30- Beyond Nuclear aims to educate and activate the public about the connections between nuclear power and nuclear weapons and the need to abandon both to safeguard our future.
Beyond Nuclear advocates for an energy future that is sustainable, benign and democratic. The Beyond Nuclear team works with diverse partners and allies to provide the public, government officials, and the media with the critical information necessary to move humanity toward a world beyond nuclear. Beyond Nuclear: 6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 400, Takoma Park, MD 20912. Info@beyondnuclear.org. www.beyondnuclear.org.
Tunnel collapses at Hanford; no radiation released, officials say http://www.king5.com/news/local/hanford/tunnel-collapses-at-hanford-no-radiation-released-officials-say/438227872Hundreds of workers were told to take cover at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation after a tunnel full of highly contaminated materials collapsed Tuesday morning. But officials say no radiation was released and no workers were hurt.Officials say a collapsed patch of ground above the tunnel was larger than first believed. The U.S. Department of Energy said the collapse covered about 400 square feet (37.1 square meters) instead of the 16 square feet (1.4 square meters) first reported.
Nuclear waste storage tunnel caves-in at Hanford
Hundreds of workers were told to go into a “take cover” position after the tunnel in a plutonium uranium extraction (PUREX) plant collapsed.
The agency says the rail tunnels are hundreds of feet long, with about eight feet (2.4 meters) of soil covering them. The U.S. Department of Energy says the incident caused the soil above the tunnel to sink between 2 and 4 feet (half to 1.2 meters).
“I would underscore this is confined to a small area of the Hanford site,” Destry Henderson, deputy news manager for the Hanford Joint Information Center, told NBC News. “The facility does have radiological contamination right now but there is no indication of a radiological release,” Henderson said.
A manager sent a message to all personnel telling them to “secure ventilation in your building” and “refrain from eating or drinking.”
A source said “take cover” status was expanded to the entire site at 10:35 a.m. The source also said that crews doing road work nearby may have created enough vibration to cause the collapse, and that Vit Plant employees were in cover mode as well.
The reason is that rocket fuel contains a deadly chemical component called perchlorate. And since the Seongju area is a melon farming community the risk of ground water contamination by perchlorate should be alarming to all concerned.
Perchlorate, the explosive ingredient in solid rocket fuel, has leaked from military bases and weapons and aerospace contractors’ plants in at least 22 states, contaminating drinking water for millions of Americans.
In the US scientists have warned that perchlorate could cause thyroid deficiency in more than 2.2 million women of childbearing age. This thyroid deficiency could damage the fetus of pregnant women, if left untreated.
Reports indicate that 20 million to 40 million Americans may be exposed to the chemical.
“We know that the Center for Disease Control has found perchlorate in 100 percent of the people they’ve tested, so there’s widespread exposure, through contaminated drinking water and also through contaminated food,” one expert reported.
The government has found traces of a rocket fuel chemical in organic milk in Maryland, green leaf lettuce grown in Arizona and bottled spring water from Texas and California.
Iceberg lettuce grown in Belle Glade, Florida had the highest concentrations of perchlorate discovered anywhere. The greens had 71.6 parts per billion (ppb) of the compound, the primary ingredient in rocket propellant. Red leaf lettuce grown in El Centro, California had 52 ppb of perchlorate. Whole organic milk in Maryland had 11.3 ppb of perchlorate.
Next week South Koreans go to the polls to elected a new president after the previous right-wing President Park was impeached.
The Pentagon rushed the THAAD deployment ahead of schedule wanting to lock-in the controversial MD system before a new government took office. The US fears that the likely new President Moon (a progressive) would ultimately delay or possibly even prevent the US from deploying the interceptor system due to the outrage coming from China and Russia who view THAAD as really being aimed at them rather than North Korea.
As the people of Seongju continue their fight against THAAD they’d be wise to begin to talk about the likely groundwater contamination from the rocket fuel that will be transported and stored on site at the new base presently being constructed at a former golf course. It’s only a matter of time that perchlorate will be seeping into the water and ultimately impacting their health and their melon crops.
NHK World, May 1, 2017 (emphasis added): Wildfire continues in Fukushima — A wildfire has been raging for more than 2 days near the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The area is part of a zone designated as “no-entry” due to high radiation levels… Fukushima and Miyagi prefectures and the Self-Defense Forces are using helicopters to fight the blaze. They are also looking at the possibility of using ground crews. Footage from an NHK helicopter on Monday morning showed smoke rising from wide areas and fires burning in several locations
Mainichi, May 1, 2017: Wildfire rages in highly radioactive Fukushima mountain forest — A fire broke out in a mountain forest near the crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant on the evening of April 29, consuming an area approximately 20 hectares in size, according to prefectural authorities… As the fire continued to spread, however, helicopters from the GSDF, Fukushima Prefecture and other parties on May 1 resumed fire extinguishing operations from around 5 a.m. … As of May 1, there were no major changes to radiation levels in the heart of Namie and other areas near the fire scene, according to the Ministry of the Environment. “We will continue to closely watch changes in radiation doses in the surrounding areas,” said a ministry official.
Common Dreams, May 1, 2017: Sparking Fears of Airborne Radiation, Wildfire Burns in Fukushima ‘No-Go Zone’; Contaminated forests such as those outside fallout sites like Fukushima and Chernobyl ‘are ticking time bombs’ — A wildfire broke out in the highly radioactive “no-go zone” near the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant over the weekend, reviving concerns over potential airborne radiation… Local officials were forced to call in the Japanese military… In a blog post last year, Anton Beneslavsky, a member of Greenpeace Russia’s firefighting group who has been deployed to fight blazes in nuclear Chernobyl, outlined the specific dangers of wildfires in contaminated areas. “During a fire, radionuclides like caesium-137, strontium-90 and plutonium rise into the air and travel with the wind,” Beneslavsky wrote. “This is a health concern because when these unstable atoms are inhaled, people become internally exposed to radiation.” Contaminated forests such as those outside fallout sites like Fukushima and Chernobyl “are ticking time bombs,” scientist and former regional government official Ludmila Komogortseva told Beneslavsky. “Woods and peat accumulate radiation,” she explained “and every moment, every grass burning, every dropped cigarette or camp fire can spark a new disaster.”
Sputnik News, May 1, 2017: Japanese Authorities Fighting Wildfire in Evacuation Zone Near Fukushima NPP… There were no reports either about the wind direction or the changes in the background radiation level in relation to the fire.
Why Nuclear Energy Doesn’t Dominate the Globe It was supposed to be the energy of the future. But then came the upkeep.http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/a26426/nuclear-energy-problems/By David Grossman May 8, 2017 Once upon a time, the Atomic Age was right around the corner. The promise of nuclear power would lead it to take over the world and power all our incredible tomorrows.
What are the challenges of nuclear power? – M. V. Ramana and Sajan Saini
And then, life happened. Here, TED Ed gives a nice rundown of some of the technical issues keeping nuclear power at bay across the globe.
Safety, of course, is the big one. The challenges facing nuclear energy are inherent within the system. The control rods need to be cooled down to generate the steam which powers the generators. When things go wrong, they go very wrong. Accidents at sites like Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima draw massive headlines and bad publicity.
That hasn’t stopped some from using nuclear, though. While it doesn’t dominate the world like people once predicted, nuclear energy still powers slightly over 10 percent of the planet, which is saying something. Thirteen countries rely on nuclear for at least a third of their energy supply although this is generally seen to be a downward trend. Nuclear leader France, for example, just elected Emmanuel Macron to be prime minister partially on a campaign promise of reducing the country’s 72 percent reliance on nuclear to 50 percent. The upkeep is just too great.
Macron, like many around the world, is hoping to transition to renewable energy, which recently became the cheapest form of energy on the globe. One of the big advantages of renewables? Minimal upkeep, and never having to worry about rods again.
North Korea plans sixth nuclear test, Sky News, 10 May 2017– North Korea’s ambassador to the UK has told Sky News his country will go ahead with its sixth nuclear test at the time and place of its leader’s choosing.
In his first interview in the role, ambassador Choe Il said his country would continue its ballistic missile and nuclear programmes in spite of intentional warnings against them, and dismissed UN sanctions as having no legal grounds, and no effect.
‘In regards to the sixth nuclear test, I do not know the scheduled time for it, as I am here in the UK, not in my home country,’ Mr Choe said.
‘However, I can say that the nuclear test will be conducted at the place and time as decided by our supreme leader, Kim Jong-Un.’……..
He said a pre-emptive strike on his country would not be possible because they would turn US assets in the region ‘to ashes’ at the first sign of movement towards an attack.
‘The US cannot attack us first,’ the ambassador said, adding: ‘If the US moves an inch, then we are ready to turn to ashes any available strategic assets of the US……….
Sky News asked the ambassador whether his country would be prepared to stop anywhere short of a deliverable nuclear warhead – whether a formal peace treaty or the protection of China’s nuclear deterrent would convince them to suspend their programme and return to negotiations.
‘The only way to protect our country is that we strengthen our power enough to suppress any enemy countries,’ Mr Choe said. ‘This is the only way to protect our peace and security. This is a lesson we felt in our bones.’
He said his country had learned the lesson of US military interventions elsewhere. ‘As you have read on newspapers, the US has been attacking only the weak countries, including Afghanistan and Libya,’ he said.
‘They cannot actually attack the strong countries, although they talk about it. ‘We have to have nuclear power. We have shown our strong military power and nuclear power this April. Because of our strong military power, the US could not attack us first.’
Dahr Jamail | Former US Intelligence Officers Scathingly Critique Trump’s So-Called Foreign Policy, May 08, 2017, By Dahr Jamail, Truthout | News Analysis
“……..As the Trump administration appears poised to become increasingly involved in Syria and the greater Middle East, what is life like under the bombs?………
As that conflict continues with no end in sight, in yet another direct contradiction to his campaign promises to avoid involvement in Middle East conflicts, Trump is now on the brink of plunging the US deeper into the morass of blood, destruction and suffering across the Middle East and beyond.
Several former intelligence officials spoke with Truthout about the Trump administration’s military escalations, and what his mistakes could mean for the world’s future.
Syria as a Distraction The former officials pointed to Trump’s escalation of US attacks on Syria as a distraction from investigations into his administration.
I think it’s clear that Donald Trump found it expedient to fire the 59 Tomahawk missiles at the Syrian air base on April 7 as a way to quell the media frenzy surrounding ‘Russiagate’ that was causing his approval ratings to tank,” Elizabeth Murray, who was formerly the deputy national intelligence officer for the Near East in the National Intelligence Council, told Truthout. Murray retired in 2010 after a 27-year career with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), where she served as a media and political analyst on Middle Eastern issues.
Murray believes Trump seized the opportunity to blame the Syrian government for the April 4 chemical weapon incident so that he could use it as a pretext to bomb.
“By giving his generals the green light to launch the missiles, he was able to silence media criticism, appease pro-war neoconservative elements and shore up his flagging image,” Murray explained……….
From Bad to Worse
According to Murray, in terms of the trajectory of developments in Syria and Iraq, it’s very difficult to be optimistic in the near term.
“What’s really disturbing is that US citizens are being prevented from knowing what is really going on with regard to US involvement in those countries,” she said. “The Trump administration has announced that the public will no longer be informed of new troop deployments to Iraq and Syria, while this was routinely disclosed under the previous administration.”
She sees that as an indication that US military activity in both countries is being ramped up in a clandestine manner; and since deploying ground troops to these countries is wildly unpopular, the Trump administration has decided to keep the American people in the dark………
Given that the US military does not report numbers of civilian casualties in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, it is impossible for Americans to hold their so-called leaders accountable when they are prevented from knowing what is even occurring.
“These kinds of policies will leave us dependent on journalists and whistleblowers willing to risk their lives and livelihoods to tell the truth,” Murray added. “Meanwhile, weapons manufacturers and Washington, DC-based ‘beltway bandits’ [the cottage industry of think tanks and contractors servicing the Defense Department and intelligence agencies] will continue to thrive under a foreign policy of endless wars.”………
Murray thinks face-to-face talks with North Korean leadership are required to de-escalate tensions, which Trump has gone out of his way to ratchet up. Additionally, she says Washington should scale back the ongoing hostile rhetoric and major military maneuvers it has been conducting in the region.
Dismantling nuclear: German power firms sell new skills,http://www.reuters.com/article/us-toshiba-accounting-nuclearpower-decom-idUSKBN1850GP 9 May 17, By Christoph Steitz| FRANKFURT\ Energy groups E.ON and EnBW are tearing down their nuclear plants at massive cost following Germany’s decision to abandon nuclear power by 2022, but they are seeking to turn a burden into business by exporting their newfound dismantling skills.
Germany is the only country in the world to dump the technology as a direct consequence of Japan’s Fukushima disaster in 2011, a decision that came as a major blow to the two energy firms which owned most of Germany’s 17 operational nuclear stations.
E.ON and EnBW have already shut down five plants between them and must close another five by 2022. Not only are they losing a major profit driver – a station could earn 1 million euros ($1.1 million) a day – but are also facing combined decommissioning costs of around 17 billion euros.
This tough new reality has nonetheless forced them to rapidly acquire expertise in the lengthy and complex process of dismantling nuclear plants – presenting an unlikely but potentially lucrative business opportunity in a world where dozens of reactors are set to be closed over the next 25 years.
They say their skills are attracting the interest of international customers. Continue reading →
Marysville, St. Clair restate opposition to Lake Huron nuclear waste dump, By Jim Bloch For The Voice, May 7, 2017 At the urging of Michigan state Sen. Phil Pavlov, the cities of Marysville and St. Clair have passed updated resolutions opposing the efforts of Ontario Power Generation to build a Deep Geological Repository for low- and medium-level nuclear waste on the shore of Lake Huron in Kincardine, Ontario, Canada.
The Marysville City Council unanimously approved a new resolution of opposition to the dump at its regular meeting on April 24. St. Clair followed suit on May 1.
“In 2015, you took the bold action of passing a resolution opposing the proposed nuclear waste dump less than one mile from the shorelines of Lake Huron in Canada,” Pavlov wrote to each city council. “Unfortunately, our fight is not over.”
Pavlov noted that townships, cities and counties representing 23 million citizens in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio and Ontario have passed 187 resolutions opposing the nuclear waste dump.
“In spite of our majority opposition, Ontario Power Generation is continuing to pursue their dangerous plan to bury over seven million cubic feet of nuclear waste directly across the lake from the residents of St. Clair, Sanilac and Huron counties,” Pavlov said. “To even consider constructing a permanent nuclear waste disposal site near our valuable Great Lakes is dumbfounding.”
City Manager Randy Fernandez and Mayor Dan Damman spoke against the waste repository, proposed to be excavated about six-tenths of a mile from the lake at a depth of 2,200 feet.
“It’s mind-boggling that this is still a topic of concern,” said Damman. “I’m a full proponent of this resolution.”
The measure passed in Marysville 7-0.
The resolution noted that some of the waste “will remain toxic for over 100,000 years.”
The Great Lakes contain 20 percent of the world’s surface fresh water and 95 percent of the fresh water in the United States “vital to human and environmental health.”
“Under the 2012 Protocol Amending the Agreement between Canada and the United States of American on Great Lakes Water Quality, the governments of the U.S. and Canada acknowledge the importance of anticipating, preventing and responding to threats to the waters of the Great Lakes,” the resolution reads.
AUSTIN, Texas — Today marked a win for environmentalists and opponents of nuclear waste storage in Texas. Under pressure from his peers in the legislature, Texas Rep. Brooks Landgraf (R-Odessa) removed key provisions from his bill (CSHB 2662) proposing to expand storage capacity at the low-level radioactive waste site in Andrews County, Texas.
Public Citizen mobilized its members in Texas to oppose the bill.
“This was the latest attempt by Waste Control Specialists to expand its low-level radioactive waste site,” said Adrian Shelley, director of Public Citizen’s Texas office. “The company is in dire financial straits already, and digging another pit won’t change that. It would have created an expensive radioactive mess that the people of Texas would have been left to clean up.”
“The pared-back bill is a great victory for the health and safety of Texans,” said Karen Hadden, director of the SEED Coalition. The bill, which the House of Representatives approved, only commissions a study of storage capacity at the site.
The Senate companion bill, SB 1137, is pending in committee and contains the original language to expand nuclear waste storage capacity at the Andrews County site. But in floor comments, Landgraf, pledged to stick with his House version of the bill during future negotiations with the Senate.
“They can study this all they want,” added Shelley. “They’re going to find that it’s a bad idea.”
Atomic veterans to be recognised after 61 years, Mandurah Mail, 8 May 17,The service of veterans exposed to British atomic testing off the coast of Western Australia in the 1950s is to be recognised in the federal budget on Tuesday.
On Sunday Canning MP Andrew Hastie announced $133 million would be spent giving the men who served in the Montebello Islands, where three nuclear weapons tests took place in 1952 and 1956, access to Department of Veterans Affairs gold cards.
Mr Hastie said the gold cards, which entitled the veterans to free public and private health care, were an acknowledgment the men had served in dangerous circumstances.
“It says to them that the Australian government, on behalf of the Australian people, care about them and are going to see their responsibility to care for them through,” he said.
“For these men it is recognition they did serve in hazardous conditions, that they were exposed to nuclear radiation after atomic testing, so for them it means a lot, especially since quite a few of them have suffered from cancer.”
Only 51 of the 89 servicemen who were conscripted to assist with the atomic tests are still alive.
Half of those who have since died succumbed to cancer……..
Many of the veterans said they had not been told of the dangers of nuclear radiation and were not issued protective gear.
“We got up there and didn’t even know what was happening, all we knew is that something big was happening so we got out on the upper deck and the count down came down,” Australian Ex-Services Atomic Survivors Association secretary Jim Marlow said.
“We were told to turn our backs, so we turned our backs and there was a blinding flash and a push of wind and a whole lot of noise and we turned back again and saw the smoke going up.”
Mr Marlow said he was back working in the ship 10 minutes after the blast.
Unviable economics of nuclear power catches up with Cameco, Independent Australia, Jim Green 9 May 2017 Multinational uranium producer Cameco is battling a uranium downturn, the tax office, disinterested customers and Traditional Owners, Dr Jim Green reports.
ECONOMICS is killing the nuclear power industry.
Westinghouse, a giant of the industry, recently filed for bankruptcy protection and its parent company Toshiba may also go bankrupt — both companies brought undone by $15 billion cost overruns building four reactors.
In France, nuclear utilities EDF and Areva would have gone bankrupt if not for repeated multi-billion-dollar government bailouts — their most immediate problem is cost overruns of $18 billion building just two reactors.
The question arises: will them nuclear power crisis create similar carnage in the uranium industry? Might it bring down a uranium industry giant like Cameco, which provides about 17% of the world’s production from mines in Canada, the U.S. and Kazakhstan?
The short answer is that Cameco will likely survive, but the company has been downsizing continuously for the past five years:
In 2014, Cameco cut its growth plans and uranium exploration expenses, warning that the “stagnant, oversupplied short-term market” was not going to improve any time soon.
Another 120 workers are to be sacked by May 2017 at three Canadian uranium mines ‒ McArthur River, Key Lake and Cigar Lake ‒ and production at McArthur River, already reduced, will be suspended for six weeks in mid-2017.
Cameco’s revenue dropped US$238 million (AU$321 million) in 2016 and the company posted a US$46 million (AU$62 million) loss for the year. The loss was largely the result of US$267 million (AU$360 million) in impairment charges, including US$91 million (AU$123 million) related to the Rabbit Lake mine and a write-off of the full US$176 million (AU$237 million) value of the Kintyre uranium project in Western Australia.
“I think it’s fair to say that no one, including me, by the way, expected the market would go this low and for this long … market conditions in 2016 were as tough as I have seen them in 30 years.”
Cameco’s “tier-1” mines ‒ McArthur River and Cigar Lake in Canada and the Inkai ISL mine in Kazakhstan ‒ have been largely unaffected by the cutbacks except for the slowdown at McArthur River. But the tier-1 mines aren’t safe, Cameco plans to reduce production by 7% in 2017, the two mines in the U.S. might be sold (if a buyer can be found), and new mines are off the table.
TEPCO cancels billion-dollar contract
Cameco faces a new problem with notorious Japanese company TEPCO ‒ owner of the Fukushima reactors ‒ announcing on January 24 that it had issued a contract termination notice, sparking a 15% drop in Cameco’s share price over the next two days. The termination affects about 9.3 million pounds (4.22 kilos) of uranium oxide due to be delivered until 2028, worth approximately US$959 million (AU$1294 million).
TEPCO argues that a “force majeure” event occurred because it has been unable to operate its nuclear plants in Japan ‒ four reactors at Fukushima Daini and seven reactors at Kashiwazaki Kariwa ‒ for some years due to government regulations relating to reactor restarts in the aftermath of the March 2011 Fukushima disaster.
Cameco plans to fight the contract termination and will pursue “all its legal rights and remedies”.
‘They’ve taken delivery under this contract in 2014, 2015 and 2016, so we’re a bit perplexed as to why now all of a sudden they think there’s a case of, as they say, “force majeure”.’
TEPCO has received and paid for 2.2 million pounds of uranium oxide from Cameco since 2014
Japan is “swimming – some would say drowning – in uranium”, the senior editor of Platts Nuclear Publicationssaid in early 2016. According to Forbeswriter James Conca, Japan’s existing uranium inventory will suffice to fuel the country’s power reactors “for the next decade”.
Nick Carter from Ux Consulting said he believes TEPCO is the first Japanese utility to terminate a long-term contract, while many others have tried to renegotiate contracts to reduce volumes or prices or delay shipments. Gitzel acknowledged that “there is concern over the risk of contagion from the TEPCO announcement” ‒ more customers might try to cancel contracts if TEPCO succeeds.
Tax dispute
A long-running tax dispute is starting to heat up with the October 2016 commencement of a court case brought against Cameco by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). The dispute has been slowly winding its way through appeals and legal motions since 2009 when Cameco first challenged the CRA’s findings. The court case is likely to conclude in the coming months but the court’s decision may not be finalised until late-2017 or 2018.
Cameco is accused of setting up a subsidiary in Switzerland and selling it uranium at a low price to avoid tax. Thus Cameco was paying the Swiss tax rate of about 10% compared to almost 30% in Canada. Cameco set up the subsidiary in 1999 and established a 17-year deal selling uranium at approximately US$10 (AU$13.50) a pound — far less than the average price over the 17-years period. Another subsidiary was established in Barbados — possibly to repatriate offshore profits.
If Cameco loses the case in the Tax Court of Canada, it could be liable for back taxes of US$1.6 billion (AU$2.2 billion). Last year, the company spent approximately US$89 million (AU$120 million) legal costs related to the tax dispute.
Canadians for Tax Fairness have been arguing the case for legislative change to stop profit-shifting schemes, and for Cameco to pay up. Last year, the NGO teamed up with Saskatchewan Citizens for Tax Fairness and the international corporate watchdog, SumOfUs, to deliver a petition with 35,000 signatures to the Canadian Prime Minister’s office and to Cameco’s executive offices.
America’s first ’21st century #nuclear plant’ already has been shut down for repairs, LA Times, Michael HiltzikContact Reporter, May 8 2017, When the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Watts Bar 2 nuclear power plant was finally approaching completion the big public utility hailed it as “the nation’s first new nuclear generation of the 21st century.”
That was in October 2015, and the plant was thought to be only a few months away from going online. But it wasn’t until October 2016 that Watts Bar 2 began operating commercially. In March, just over five months later, the plant went offline — and it’s expected to remain offline at least into this summer, the TVA region’s peak period for electrical demand.
The 21st century is shaping up as not a good one for nuclear power, and Watts Bar Unit 2 may show why. The U.S. nuclear industry is running in neutral, except when it runs in reverse. Other than Watts Bar 2, the last new nuclear plant to enter American service is now nearly 20 years old — TVA’s 1996-vintage Watts Bar Unit 1.
California is on the verge of exiting the nuclear power field entirely, with the planned mothballing of Pacific Gas & Electric’s Diablo Canyon power plant. Diablo Canyon’s two reactors are to be shut down in 2024 and 2025 as part of a deal reached last year for the utility’s transition to other renewable sources. That deal followed the 2013 decision of Southern California Edison to permanently close San Onofre, the state’s only other nuclear power plant, following a botched attempt at its refurbishment.
The immediate cause of the Watts Bar shutdown is the failure of components of the unit’s condenser, which cools steam used to drive the generating turbines back into water. TVA took the plant off-line on March 23 and is still trying to pinpoint the cause of the condenser failure.
But the problems at Watts Bar arise from more than just a structural failure of the condenser. They’re also connected to the plant’s long gestation and to maladies endemic to the entire nuclear power industry.
Watts Bar 2 holds the world record for the longest gestation of any nuclear plant in history, having been listed as “under construction” for 43 years. Construction was launched in 1972 and suspended in 1985, when the plant already was 60% complete. By then, despite an initial cost estimate of about $400 million, some $1.7 billion had been spent. Construction resumed in 2007. The total cost is now estimated at $6.1 billion……..
Watts Bar, the so-called 21st century American nuclear plant, defines the crisis facing the U.S. nuclear industry. It’s stuck with outmoded technology and a management culture that exacerbates, rather than constrains, the technology’s safety issues. With every episode like this, the industry moves one step further away from making the case for its survival. http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-nuclear-shutdown-20170508-story.html
Water is rallying cry for opponents at uranium-mine hearing, Rapid City Journal, Seth Tupper Journal staff, May 9, 2017 The spirit of a recent protest against a crude-oil pipeline energized opponents of a proposed southwest South Dakota uranium mine Monday during a public hearing.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency hosted the hearing — the first of four this week — at the Best Western Ramkota Hotel in Rapid City, where about 100 people attended during the first few hours of the seven-hour event.
The gathering turned lively when one of the first audience members to speak, Carol Hayse, of rural Nemo, concluded her remarks with a fist-pumping chant that was joined by numerous audience members.
“Protect our water!” Hayse called to the audience. “Mni Wiconi!”
“Mni Wiconi” is a Lakota Sioux phrase that translates to “water is life.” It is also the name of a rural water system that serves several Native American tribes and other users in western South Dakota.
Protesters who recently and unsuccessfully sought to prevent the completion of the Dakota Access crude-oil pipeline have said the pipeline’s crossing under the Missouri River in southern North Dakota puts the Mni Wiconi system at risk of contamination.
Hayse urged opponents of the uranium project to follow the example of the Dakota Access protesters.
Water quality was a main concern of people who spoke Monday against the proposed uranium mine. The EPA has issued two draft permits for the mine to Powertech, a U.S.-based division of the global Azarga Uranium Corp., and the EPA is taking oral public comments about the permits at this week’s hearings and written public comments until May 19 before making a final decision.
Powertech already has a license from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. If Powertech’s EPA permits are finalized, the company would still need additional permits before it could start mining, including some from the state of South Dakota. Powertech has had mining rights in the Edgemont area since the mid-2000s…….
Hayse was one of many speakers Monday to characterize the mining project as a probable water polluter. “In situ leaching will allow poisons into our Black Hills aquifers,” Hayse said.
Native American themes were also prominent in the comments from the audience. Floyd Looks for Buffalo, a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, said the mining project is within the boundaries of an area set aside for the tribes of the Great Sioux Nation by treaties signed in 1851 and 1868. He said the tribes granted the United States “trespass authority” in those treaties.
Matsui made the request in a Monday meeting with Izumi Nakamitsu, the new U.N. undersecretary general and high representative for disarmament affairs, handing over a letter written jointly with Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue.
Matsui, president of the nongovernmental organization Mayors for Peace, said he told Nakamitsu that many citizens, including survivors of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, hope for progress in the negotiations to ban nuclear weapons.
Mayors for Peace, an organization seeking nuclear disarmament and world peace, involves about 7,300 cities in 162 countries and regions. It is scheduled to convene a general conference in Nagasaki on Aug. 7-10.
Nakamitsu, who took her new posts on May 1, was quoted as saying that the key will be how nuclear powers and non-nuclear nations can work together to make the proposed nuclear ban treaty effective. So far, major nuclear powers have refused to join the negotiations.
Matsui and Nakamitsu met on the sidelines of a meeting in Vienna of the preparatory committee for a 2020 conference to review the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
nuclear-news 