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Arctic Council meeting: USA might be confronted by Arctic Nations concerned about climate change

Arctic Nations May Confront U.S. on Climate Change Leaders of the Arctic Council could rebuff U.S. position, Scientific American, By Margaret Kriz Hobson, ClimateWire on May 10, 2017, FAIRBANKS, Alaska—Diplomats from eight Arctic nations are facing a standoff today over the Trump administration’s efforts to downplay the importance of climate change in an Arctic Council ministerial statement marking the end of the United States’ two-year council chairmanship.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and the top foreign ministers from the world’s seven other Arctic nations are due to arrive in Fairbanks today for tomorrow’s Arctic Council ministerial meeting.

During that meeting, the top government officials are scheduled to sign a final statement highlighting the accomplishments of the U.S. chairmanship, as well as Finland’s plans for its upcoming term as head of the council.

But foreign policy staff arriving in Fairbanks early this week said they have not yet signed off on the wording of the ministerial statement proposed by the White House in advance of the meeting. They disagree with Trump administration efforts to weaken the references to climate change and the Paris climate accord.

The officials are meeting with U.S. officials this morning to hammer out the final language of the ministerial statement. Like all Arctic Council actions, that statement must be reached on a consensus basis. Along with the United States, the council is made up of Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia and Sweden.

At issue is the abrupt change in the U.S. position on the Paris Agreement since the November election. Former President Obama made climate change the top issue when the United States took the lead of the Arctic Council in 2015.

President Trump, however, has sidelined Arctic policy issues and largely ignored the Arctic Council climate priorities of his predecessor. Trump has dismissed the science backing climate change and proposed to open the American Arctic to oil and gas drilling. His White House is currently embroiled in debate over whether the United States should continue to participate in the Paris Agreement.

Meanwhile, most of the other members of the Arctic Council have been emphasizing their commitment to reducing greenhouse gases under the Paris agreement.

The five Nordic countries recently issued a statement strongly affirming the Paris accord and vowing to take the lead on climate and energy policies. At the same time, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau supported the Paris Agreement on the floor of the Parliament in Ottawa, Ontario, and called climate action “particularly important amongst Arctic nations.”…….https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/arctic-nations-may-confront-u-s-on-climate-change/

May 12, 2017 Posted by | ARCTIC, climate change, politics international | Leave a comment

Bill in USA Congress to ready USA for a nuclear attack emergency

Bipartisan bill allows Washington to prepare for nuclear attack https://mynorthwest.com/628630/bi-partisan-bill-allows-washington-to-prepare-for-nuclear-attack/ BY KIRO RADIO STAFF, Staff report   | May 10, 2017 As North Korea threatens to nuke the United States, a new bill in the Legislature would allow Washington state to prepare for it.

Current state law requires an “all-hazard emergency plan for the natural, technological, or human-caused hazards which could affect” citizens. But a law passed in 1984 says that any such plan “may not include preparation for emergency evacuation or relocation of residents in anticipation of nuclear attack.”

 A bill introduced by senators David Frockt, a Democrat, and Mark Miloscia, a Republican, would get rid of that language.

They say recent tensions between the U.S. and North Korea makes the idea timely.

May 12, 2017 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

Bulgaria trying to get private investors for its nuclear project

Bulgaria Seeks Private Investors for Nuclear Project, US News,  May 11, 2017, SOFIA (Reuters) – Bulgaria is seeking private investors to build a nuclear power plant on the Danube River, which was canceled five years ago, Prime Minister Boiko Borisov said during a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday.

Sofia canceled the Belene project in 2012 after failing to find foreign investors and under pressure from Brussels and Washington to limit its energy dependence on Russia………It hopes to privatize the nuclear plant project after it paid more than 600 million euros ($652 million) in compensation to Russia’s state nuclear giant Rosatom when it canceled the 10 billion euro project. Rosatom had agreed to provide the nuclear reactors…….https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2017-05-11/bulgaria-seeks-private-investors-for-nuclear-project

May 12, 2017 Posted by | Bulgaria, business and costs | Leave a comment

Tepco trying to get investment partners forf its nuclear business

Japan’s Tepco to seek partners for nuclear business, Reuters, By Osamu Tsukimori and Aaron Sheldrick | TOKYO, 11 May 17 Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power Co said on Thursday it will seek partners for its nuclear business as part of a recovery plan after the Fukushima disaster of six years ago brought the utility to its knees and put it under state control.

The company, known as Tepco, is trying to place itself on a sounder financial footing after the government in December almost doubled its estimate for the costs related to the Fukushima disaster to 21.5 trillion yen ($188 billion).

It is the third attempt to boost its finances in the six years since the disaster, after the targets in previous plans proved to be unattainable.

Central to its efforts to boost profits and pay for the costs of the disaster is the restart of its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa (KK) nuclear plant in northern Japan, the world’s biggest power station not including hydroelectric dams…….

However, the governor of Japan’s Niigata prefecture, where KK is located, is opposed to a restart without a review of its safety plans, which could take several years. It also must resubmit applications with the national atomic regulator…….

Finding partners for Tepco’s nuclear business will be difficult. Top executives of Tohoku Electric Power and Chubu Electric Power, which operate in regions abutting Tepco’s service area, have said they were not considering any nuclear tie-ups with Tepco……

Tepco submitted the revised business plan to the government, which is expected to give its approval after providing its own input over the last few months.

Tepco plans to allocate 500 billion yen annually in the coming decades to pay for decommissioning at Fukushima and compensation.

Tepco is estimating net profit of 288 billion yen in the year through March 2018, more than double the year earlier period. Revenue is forecast to rise to 5.75 trillion yen from 5.36 trillion yen.

(Editing by Joseph Radford and Christian Schmollinger) http://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-tepco-idUSKBN18718S

May 12, 2017 Posted by | business and costs, Japan | Leave a comment

Georgia Power officials consider fate of Vogtle Nuclear Power Plant construction – cancellation is an option

Contractor Bankruptcy Looms at Georgia Nuclear Plant Hearing https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/georgia/articles/2017-05-11/contractor-bankruptcy-looms-at-georgia-nuclear-plant-hearing
ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia Power executives say they’re considering all options in ongoing construction of a new nuclear plant near Augusta following March’s bankruptcy filing by the project’s lead contractor.

A state regulatory hearing on Thursday opened the Georgia Public Service Commission’s latest biannual review of Plant Vogtle (VOH’-gohl) costs, focused on $222 million reported between July and December. But the bankruptcy filing by Westinghouse Electric Co., the U.S. nuclear unit of Japan’s Toshiba Corp., loomed large.

Construction of two new reactors south of Augusta is already years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget.

Georgia Power officials said the company still is studying the cost and timeline to complete both reactors, cancel one or both. They say a recommendation will be brought back to the commission.

May 12, 2017 Posted by | business and costs, USA | Leave a comment

Rick Perry’s correct title- U.S. Secretary For The Nuclear Industry

US energy secretary touts nuclear power, KOB4,  May 10, 2017 ALAMOS, N.M. (AP) – U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry says he will advocate for nuclear power as often and as strongly as he can as the nation looks for ways to fuel its economy and limit the effects of electricity generation on the environment.

Perry made the comments during a visit to Los Alamos National Laboratory in northern New Mexico, where nuclear research has been among the main focuses since the lab’s founding years…….Perry says nuclear power is a clean, resilient and reliable source of energy and that continued research in the field could end up leading to fresh discoveries that could have environmental benefits. http://www.kob.com/new-mexico-news/energy-secretary-rick-perry-tours-birthplace-of-atomic-bomb-los-alamos-national-laboratory-lanl/4479174/

May 12, 2017 Posted by | spinbuster, USA | Leave a comment

A sign of the collapse of the entire nuclear industry – the Hanford waste tunnel collapse

Tunnel Collapse at Hanford Nuclear Dump—Harbinger of the Collapse of the Entire Industry?, The Progressive by Harvey WassermanMay 10, 2017 The collapse of a tunnel at the massive nuclear waste dump at Hanford,Washington, 200 miles east of Seattle, has sent shock waves through a nuclear power industry already in the process of a global collapse…….

Robert Alvarez, a former DOE official, told the Post in an email that “the tunnels now store contaminated train cars and a considerable amount of highly radioactive, ignitable wastes including possible organic vapors.” Inspection of the tunnels has not been possible, he said, because radiation levels are too high.

We may never know the full extent of the damage from this latest incident at Hanford, which has been plagued by serious problems for years. Many critical nuclear industry oversight positions remain unfilled by the Trump Administration.

The 580-square-mile Hanford facility dates back to the 1940s production of the first atomic bombs, and is the nation’s major repository for high-level radioactive wastes from seven decades of nuclear weapons production. Since 1989, the Department of Energy has spent billions cleaning up nine reactors and other radioactive facilities there. One commercial reactor, the Columbia Generating Station, still operates at Hanford.

The tunnel collapse happens at a time when the nuclear power industry appears to be in an accelerating death spiral……..

Some atomic devotees are pushing small-scale “modular” reactors as a possible future energy source. But they’re untested, underfinanced, uncompetitive and unlikely to come to fruition…….

Throughout the United States, reactor owners are now flooding state legislatures with bailout scams. In Ohio, FirstEnergy’s pleadings for $4.5 billion for Davis-Besse near Toledo and Perry near Cleveland are meeting stiff resistance. How long the nation’s operable reactors stay open will depend entirely on how much money their owners can gouge out of the public.

Meanwhile the Hanford tunnel collapse further challenges the industry’s credibility on dealing with radioactive waste. Three years ago America’s only major operable waste storage facility, at Carlsbad, New Mexico, exploded due to the use of inappropriate kitty litter (truly!). Some twenty-one workers were exposed and the facility was shut for three years. Fierce debate has erupted over the disposal of wastes left behind by the shutdown of California’s San Onofre reactors, between Los Angeles and San Diego, with billions of dollars at stake. Other such fights are sure to escalate as more reactors close…..

Nuclear energy faces a seriously clouded future……http://progressive.org/dispatches/tunnel-collapse-at-hanford-nuclear-dump-accelerates-the-

May 12, 2017 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

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