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With Trump in charge of America – there is little hope for humanity

What hope is there for humanity? The answer must be: none, Canberra Times, Julian Cribb, 25 Aug 17,  The day foreseen by US journalist HL Mencken when the White House is ‘adorned by a downright moron’ seems, on the face of the accumulating evidence, to have dawned. Regrettably this person has his finger on a certain button.

Why Americans are not more alarmed about this can only be attributed to the very poor level of scientific literacy in what is, to all intents and purposes, the world’s foremost scientific society. How Americans can be so great at science yet, in aggregate, understand so little about it, is a question for the Ages. Unfortunately, the Ages will probably not have the leisure to debate it.

The missing bit of information is that a nuclear war, even a small one, could eliminate most of civilisation, Americans (even those with well-stocked fallout shelters) included.

It is still an obscure historical detail that all-out nuclear Armageddon between the USSR and USA was avoided, in the 1980s, by some rather brave scientists sticking out their necks to warn Reagan and Gorbachev that their calculations had revealed that “a nuclear war cannot be won and should never be fought”, as Reagan summarised it in his Address to the Nation (1984).

These scientists had worked out that – regardless of fireball, blast and radiation – the amount of dust and smoke thrown into the atmosphere by the unleashing of multiple nuclear warheads would chill the planet by several degrees for several years, causing massive crop-killing frosts which would destroy the food supply for just about everyone worldwide.

 Fast forward a few decades and climate modelling has become immensely more precise and sophisticated.  In more recent times Alan Robock and Brian Toon used it to calculate that the amount of dust and ash from even a ‘limited nuclear war’ would wreck food supplies globally for years. Fifty to 100 small (Hiroshima-sized) nukes would cause 1-2 billion people to starve and possibly end civilization, they calculated. Eight countries presently have this power in their nuclear arsenals.

But, to be brutally frank, how many of the countries are run by someone who is completely sane, and doesn’t suffer from some wild, obsessional hatred for some other branch of humanity?

Thus, the real problem emerges. There are, and will be, innumerable idiots with their finger on a button potent enough to destroy all or most of the 7.5 billion human inhabitants of Earth. The conjunction between nuclear firepower and mental incapacity is unavoidable.

Trump alone, we are told, commands the potential first-strike launch of 900 nuclear weapons – 9-18 times enough to eliminate civilisation. Then he has another 6000 nukes in varying states of readiness to support his initial misjudgement. So the Donald, if he has a bad night’s viewing, can – in theory at least – take out human civilisation 50 times over…

The New York Times recently published a mocking article contrasting Trump with the mad Roman Emperor Caligula, unfavourably to Trump. But Caligula, whatever his bloodlust, never wielded the power to eliminate civilisation, not even his own. Americans, in their naivety, have awarded that power to their present chief…..

like Americans, a third of the world’s countries simply do not grasp the remorseless scientific logic of human extinction. Their education, imagination or simple common sense, does not encompass it. They have no intuition of what global famine, societal disintegration, mass cannibalism and infanticide might look like. So, they block out the issue.

This, alack, does not abolish it.

Only wisdom can do that.

Ban all nukes, their materials and technology. Ban them now. Ban them everywhere. Ban them forever.

Julian Cribb is an Australian science writer and author of Surviving the 21st Century (Springer 2017)  http://www.canberratimes.com.au/comment/what-hope-is-there-for-humanity-the-answer-must-be-none-20170822-gy1b1i.html

August 25, 2017 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Oh My God! Climate Change is messing up our wine supply!

Climate change is real. Maybe once it comes for our vino, more people will get on board with trying to slow it.

Climate change is about to mess with your wine supply, so yes, things are very serious http://hellogiggles.com/climate-change-is-about-to-mess-with-your-wine-supply/Karen Fratti August 24, 2017 Most of us know that climate change is an ongoing problem, but it can be hard to see the direct effects of it in our daily lives. Unless you study the populations of animals that are suffering due to it or are a farmer, the change is definitely incremental enough to ignore. But climate change is already affecting wine production, so maybe more people will notice what is going on a little sooner than expected. Because whether you can experience the effects of climate change or not, it’s happening.

European wine crops are suffering under climate change.Which means it’s going to be harder — and more expensive — to order an oaky Tuscan red or sparkly Champagne very, very soon. Because of warming temperatures, more and more crops of grapes are suffering. There’s just not enough of a harvest since the plants die before they’re able to pull water from underground during a climate change-induced drought. Producers are picking the grapes earlier, which inevitably changes the taste and quality of the wine. Winemaker Michele Reverdito, an Italian winemaker,  told The New York Times, “Nebbiolo [the grape used to make barolo] means ‘the wine of the fog’ because you picked the grapes in November. Now we pick in September! The world is changing.”

European winemakers are worried for a few reasons. The least serious is that if all of the studies on climate change are true, they’re going to have to start cultivating grapes that are meant for hotter temperatures. Which means that the old school wines that they’re so proud of in certain regions will have to be changed. Imagine a Bordeaux, France without a cabernet franc! Or if Champagne, France is no longer the capitol of sparkly wine?

This is all an issue if you’re really concerned about heritage. But it’s not just about “never changing.” Because of this year’s drought, production of Piemontese franciacorta (which is just an Italian version of champagne, really) will be down 15 percent. That means fewer profits for the small wine producers and families who depend on their business as a primary source of income. And it means less imported wine on our shelves, and higher price tags when it is in stock.

This is not good on so many levels. Obviously, there are far more important and severe reasons to pay attention to climate change than what kind of wine we prefer to drink. But there are tons of economic consequences, too, like small European winemakers going out of business. Climate change is real. Maybe once it comes for our vino, more people will get on board with trying to slow it.

August 25, 2017 Posted by | climate change, EUROPE | Leave a comment

UK Royal Navy detonates the second bomb found in the sea near Hinkley Point.

 West Somerset Free Press 22nd Aug 2017, A ROYAL Navy bomb squad was in action for the second time in eight days last Wednesday as it detonated another bomb found in the sea near Hinkley
Point. The 250lb Second World War device, discovered by divers checking the
seabed before the construction of cooling water tunnels for the power
station, was half the size of the bomb that Navy experts successfully
detonated on August 8, as reported in last week’s Free Press. As before,
the bomb was ringed by a one kilometre exclusion zone and the area was
off-limits for shipping for 24 hours. http://www.wsfp.co.uk/article.cfm?id=108283&headline=Second%20bomb%20found%20near%20Hinkley§ionIs=news&searchyear=2017

August 25, 2017 Posted by | incidents, UK | Leave a comment

The danger of NASA testing bomb-grade materials for its Mars mission

Why is NASA testing bomb-grade materials for its Mars mission? , Alan J. Kuperman, Edwin Lyman, Baltimore Sun, 24 Aug 17    A new space race is afoot. President Donald Trump and CEOs Elon Musk (Tesla) and Jeff Bezos (Amazon) are all advocating manned missions to Mars, a tantalizing objective. However, in humankind’s drive to explore strange new worlds, we must be careful not to endanger life here on Earth.

Regrettably, to power its Mars mission, NASA’s Goddard Space Center is trying to develop a nuclear reactor fueled by weapons-grade, highly enriched uranium — the stuff of the Hiroshima bomb — threatening to undermine decades of progress in phasing out such dangerous material from reactors worldwide to reduce risks of nuclear terrorism and proliferation.

Instead of violating U.S.-led nonproliferation norms, NASA should embrace an ongoing alternative reactor design that uses fuel made with low-enriched uranium, unsuitable for nuclear weapons.

If terrorists got hold of a sufficient quantity of highly enriched uranium, they could set off an actual nuclear explosion simply by slamming two pieces of the material together. This was the principle behind the Hiroshima bomb that killed tens of thousands in 1945. The resulting devastation from blast effects, fire and high radiation would dwarf that from an improvised “dirty bomb,” which disperses relatively tiny amounts of radioactive material.

In the 1960s, the United States foolishly exported large quantities of weapons-grade uranium for civilian applications, opening huge security risks. Belatedly recognizing this error, Washington launched a global effort in the 1970s to phase out use of such bomb-grade fuel, eventually eliminating hundreds of pounds annually from research reactors and medical isotope production. More recently, Congress has even started funding the U.S. Navy to explore converting its own nuclear reactors in aircraft carriers and submarines to safer low-enriched uranium fuel.

But NASA inexplicably is headed in the opposite direction, proposing to renew use of bomb-grade uranium in U.S. space reactors for the first time since 1965. Each of NASA’s proposed “Kilopower” reactors would use at least 65 pounds of highly enriched uranium, more than sufficient for a nuclear weapon. Indeed, the U.S. government requires maximum security for even a fraction of that amount — a mere 11 pounds.

NASA plans to start testing its bomb-grade uranium space reactor next month at a former nuclear weapons testing site in Nevada. Other countries and private interests could well respond by pursuing their own highly enriched uranium space reactors, increasing both proliferation and terrorism risks.

The U.S. government needs to practice what it preaches. No competitor would forego bomb-grade uranium if NASA charges ahead with use of this dangerous material. Now is the moment to make clear that the global norm against highly enriched uranium in reactors applies to space missions too.

A space reactor could instead use low-enriched uranium fuel, unsuitable for bombs, just like state-of-the-art nuclear research reactors on Earth……

Admittedly, it would take some time to perfect a new space reactor using low-enriched uranium. Fortunately, there is no great rush. Just last month, NASA’s chief of human spaceflight, William Gerstenmaier, acknowledged that the space agency’s budget lacks funding for a manned mission to Mars, estimated to cost $100 billion to $1 trillion over a quarter-century. Even the wealthiest private companies are unlikely to pony up such resources in the near future…..http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-op-0821-nasa-uranium-20170815-story.html

August 25, 2017 Posted by | safety, technology, USA | 2 Comments

 German Social Democrat candidate for chancellor wants US nuclear arms removed from Germany

US nuclear arms should be removed from Germany – chancellor candidate, Rt. 23 Aug, 2017 German Social Democrat candidate for chancellor Martin Schulz says he will push for US nuclear weapons to be removed from Germany, calling for an end to the “armament spiral” pushed by US President Donald Trump.

“As German Chancellor… I will champion for the withdrawal of the nuclear weapons stationed in Germany,” the leader of the Social Democrats (SPD) said in Trier, addressing a campaign rally on Tuesday.

About 20 US nuclear warheads are currently stationed at a military base in Buechel, Germany, DPA news agency reported, citing unofficial estimates. The SPD leader also made it clear that, unlike Angela Merkel, he is strongly opposed to President Trump’s demands for NATO members to increase their defense spending.

“Trump wants nuclear armament. We reject it,” Schulz said, adding that his position also applies to the North Korea crisis.

“More than ever, the North Korean conflict signals the need for arms limitation, especially [need for] nuclear disarmament.”….

Schulz says the money would be better used for other purposes, like schools. “It cannot be that Federal Republic of Germany looks without any comment or action at how the armament spiral, which is wanted by Trump, continues to develop.”

In an opinion piece last week, German Foreign Minister and SPD leader Sigmar Gabriel slammed Trump’s calls for NATO members to meet the defense spending target of two percent of GDP, accusing Merkel of following Trump’s “dictate” and essentially “kneeling” to the US leader.

“We must free ourselves from the devilish logic saying that security is to be reached through armament,” Gabriel said…..

Strong opposition to Trump’s armament plans also came from European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker earlier this year. “I am very much against letting ourselves be pushed into this,”he said……https://www.rt.com/news/400656-schulz-germany-us-nuclear/#.WZ3nUOZRYVQ.facebook

August 25, 2017 Posted by | Germany, politics, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Donald Trump spouted nonsense about “clean coal” , at rally in Phoenix

Trump thinks clean coal is when workers mine coal and actually ‘clean it’ http://reneweconomy.com.au/trump-thinks-clean-coal-workers-mine-coal-actually-clean-36755/ By Joe Romm on 24 August 2017 ThinkProgress

How off the rails was President Donald Trump’s rally speech in Phoenix Tuesday night? He spouted utter nonsense on clean coal, and it didn’t even make CNN’s story, “Donald Trump’s 57 most outrageous quotes from his Arizona speech.”

Trump appears to believe that clean coal — which, it must always be pointed out, doesn’t actually exist — is when workers mine coal and then physically “clean it.” That does not happen, but facts have never stopped Trump.

“We’ve ended the war on beautiful, clean coal, and it’s just been announced that a second, brand-new coal mine,” said Trump, “where they’re going to take out clean coal — meaning, they’re taking out coal. They’re going to clean it — is opening in the state of Pennsylvania, the second one.” nia, the second one.”

 There are many misstatements or outright lies in those brief lines. First and foremost, “clean coal” is a fantasy. You can’t “clean it.” In terms of carbon pollution, coal is the dirtiest of fossil fuels, so you couldn’t clean coal unless you could remove or capture all the carbon and bury it.

The phrase “clean coal” refers to expensive and mostly non-commercial technologies that reduce pollution and capture carbon dioxide when coal is burned.

Even Robert Murray, CEO of the country’s largest privately held coal-mining company, doesn’t believe in that. “Carbon capture and sequestration does not work,” he said last month. “It is neither practical nor economic.”

Second, there never was a “war on coal.” Indeed, as we reported last month, a leaked draft of the Department of Energy’s electric grid study concluded that factors like environmental regulations and renewable energy subsidies “played minor roles” in the shutdown of big coal plants.

Instead, coal has simply become uneconomic. “[Coal] plants that have retired are old and inefficient units that were not recovering their operations and fuel costs, much less capital cost recovery,” the draft report says.

Finally, Trump’s “second, brand-new coal mine” in Pennsylvania is actually a renovation and reopening project for a metallurgical coal mine.

The increase in the metallurgical coal market is largely being driven by China’s steel industry, not by any policies from Trump, as the Washington Post fact checker explained in June. The mine project will create, at most, dozens of jobs.

The Post gave Trump three Pinocchio’s for lying about the first coal plant back in June. These new statements deserves a lot more.

August 25, 2017 Posted by | climate change, politics, USA | Leave a comment

Another $5bn US suit against TEPCO over Fukushima nuclear disaster

Tepco faces another $5bn US suit over Fukushima nuclear disaster, Business Live, 24 AUGUST 2017 – 14:54 AGENCY STAFF TOKYO —Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (Tepco) said on Thursday it faces another US lawsuit over the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, with the latest one demanding at least $5bn in compensation.

A total of 157 US residents who were supporting Fukushima victims at the time filed the class action suit in a California district court earlier this month against the utility and a US company…….

The plaintiffs, who joined aid efforts along with US troops shortly after the disaster, claim they were exposed to radiation because of the improper design, construction and maintenance of the plant.

They were seeking $5bn to cover the cost of medical tests and treatment needed to recover from the disaster, Tepco said in a statement.

They are also demanding compensation for physical, mental and economic damage but no further details such as a sum of money or the identities of the claimants were available.

It was the second multi-plaintiff suit filed against the utility in a US court following one by more than 200 individuals in 2013.

In Japan, more than 10,000 people who fled their homes over radiation fears have filed various group lawsuits against the government and the firm. https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/companies/2017-08-24-tepco-faces-another-5bn-us-suit-over-fukushima-nuclear-disaster/

August 25, 2017 Posted by | Fukushima continuing, Japan, Legal | Leave a comment

America’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences has deleted references to climate change from its site.

Another Government Agency Has Purged References to Climate Change From Its Site http://gizmodo.com/another-government-agency-has-purged-references-to-clim-1798397016?IR=T Sidney Fussell 24 Aug 17, Data-tracking watchdog group, Environmental Data & Governance Initiative (EDGI), has reported dozens of instances where the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences has deleted references to climate change from its site.

 As the name suggests, the NIEHS’ site links to research summariesdetailing how the environment affects personal health. Since it began tracking changes to the site in April, the EDGI report found that the NIEHS has deleted dozens of references to climate change or edited them to simply say “climate.”

Obviously, “climate” is not the same as human-driven climate change. But eliding that difference casts climate change as something abstract or distant. It’s not. It’s real, it’s tangible and its effects have an enormous impact on people’s health. Unfortunately, the NIEHS is failing in its mission to inform people of this. Among the removals is a fact sheet, “Climate Change and Human Health” that lists the immediate health impacts of climate change. Though still hosted on the site, the links have been removed and its no longer listed on the NIEHS’ Brochures and Fact Sheet page.

The fact sheet regionalizes weather effects like extreme heat, flooding and poor air quality and connects them to climate change, summarizing how climate change has an outsized impact on specific vulnerable populations—the elderly, pregnant women, low income and indigenous groups. These groups are both the most vulnerable to the effects of climate and are the clear targets of campaigns meant to mislead on the dangers of climate change.

  The latests revisions in the NIEHS only compound with similar deletions on the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency websites. They’re falling in line with the Trump administration’s stance on climate change: deflection (senior officials admitting they “haven’t asked” if the President believes in climate change,) and casting the consensus as a “both sides” debate. Further, it works against the newer, soft rebranding of climate denial employed by EPA head Scott Pruitt—this pernicious idea that the science of climate change is unsettled and no cause for alarm.

But if climate change doesn’t pose a threat, then why are they so afraid of it?

August 25, 2017 Posted by | civil liberties, climate change, USA | Leave a comment

Baltic or Visaginas: Will any of the two nuclear neighbor-competitor plants get built?


http://bellona.org/news/nuclear-issues/2014-04-baltic-visaginas-will-two-nuclear-neighbor-competitor-plants-get-built  
VILNIUS—As the Lithuanian government has it, Russia’s halting its Baltic Nuclear Power Plant project in Kaliningrad Region is a result of Moscow’s failure to secure prospects of exporting the station’s energy and synchronizing the regional grid with that of Europe, but, says Vilnius, Lithuania – where politicians, against public disapproval, still have their sights set on a new reactor in Visaginas – should be able to avoid making the same mistakes. April 14, 2014 by Andrei Ozharovsky   This article was translated by Maria Kaminskaya.  idc.moscow@gmail.com

VILNIUS—As the Lithuanian government has it, Russia’s halting its Baltic Nuclear Power Plant project in Kaliningrad Region is a result of Moscow’s failure to secure prospects of exporting the station’s energy and synchronizing the regional grid with that of Europe, but, says Vilnius, Lithuania – where politicians, against public disapproval, still have their sights set on a new reactor in Visaginas – should be able to avoid making the same mistakes.

Kaliningrad Region “has no link connecting its power lines with Poland, and no guarantees that they will be able to deliver electric power to Lithuania [and] other countries, and building such a powerful site and producing energy in a situation where it can’t be sold to anyone would, I think, be a huge risk for [Russia],” Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius said in early April in a conversation with the national radio station LRT, the Baltic portal DELFI reported (in Russian).

Butkevičius said that “anyone familiar with the energy system that exists in Kaliningrad Region understands that after building a [nuclear power plant] they will have to install power lines to provide for transport of electric power to other countries.” And there is, Butkevičius added, another problem still in Kaliningrad Region’s energy system: “according to my information, […] they need to upgrade the domestic power lines as well, since these are worn out,” the prime minister said.

Russia’s project of a nuclear power plant (NPP) in Kaliningrad Region – a Russian territory bordered by the Baltic Sea in the west, Lithuania in the north and east, and Poland in the south, with Belarus lying further to the east – was aimed from the start at selling energy for export to neighboring states: The amount of power that the future Baltic NPP would produce – two units equipped with VVER-1200 reactors to a combined capacity of 2,300 megawatts – is well in excess of the region’s own needs. According to a late March report by the Russian daily Kommersant (in Russian), the region’s peak demand is 827 megawatts.

But all attempts by Russia to land power delivery contracts with potential customers in the European Union – first and foremost, Lithuania and Poland – fell flat, much like the Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom’s negotiations to secure investment funds or loans from energy and banking heavyweights in Europe.

Late last May, news reports broke saying that work at the site in Kaliningrad’s Neman District, where construction started in 2010, had been halted, and that Rosatom was considering an alternative option of building small- and medium-capacity reactors at the site. In an extensive interview given to the popular radio station Ekho Moskvy last June Rosatom head Sergei Kiriyenko admitted the re-planning would cause construction to “definitely halt for a year to two years,” and, possibly, longer.

According to Lithuanian Prime Minister Butkevičius, Vilnius so far has no official confirmation of Russia’s decision to give up its project in Kaliningrad……….

…against the will of their voters

In October 2012, over 62% of votes cast in a national advisory referendum, held alongside  parliamentary elections, said “no” to building a new nuclear power plant in Lithuania……..

In a comment given to Bellona in early April, Linas Vainius, of the Lithuanian environmental organization Atgaja, said that “the referendum incurs explicit legal obligations, and decisions by the parliament should have followed which did not follow.”

“It is unbecoming of democratic parties and a democratic country of the European Union to negate and trample on a decision of their citizens that they expressed in a referendum. And this was a clear decision – ‘no’ to a new nuclear power plant,” Vainius said.

“As we see, the people’s representatives do not – or will not – understand and respect the will of the public. No wonder, given that the public is only remembered when the time comes to rise, with its help, to the height of power,” a statement by Lithuania’s environmental movement Association Žali.lt, published last October, said in response to the government’s continued attempts, over the year that had passed since the referendum, to push for the Visaginas construction.

“Those in power could gain back the respect of the public if they stopped listening to tall tales on the order of those told by [Belarusian President Alexander] Lukashenko and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin about the flourishing future of nuclear power, and if they stuck their heads from behind the dusty walls of the past, before the death knell is rung on this energy sector,” the statement read, referring to another nuclear project underway in the region – the two-unit Belarusian NPP, which is being built to a Rosatom-developed project near Ostrovets in Lithuania’s neighbor Belarus, close to the Lithuanian border.

All three NPP construction plans sparked a wide-scale cross-border activist campaign fighting to preserve the nuclear-free status of the region and uniting the efforts of political, environmental, and other NGOs from Russia, Lithuania, and Belarus in anti-nuclear initiatives and protest actions.

“The world – not just the regions affected by the Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters – is fast distancing itself from this Cold War technology, which is not improving at all, but only becoming more expensive,” Žali.lt said in its statement.

August 25, 2017 Posted by | EUROPE, politics | Leave a comment

Vast majority of UK accept climate change is real, finds new poll

 Old men in the East Midlands are less likely to accept scientists’ evidence than young women in the South-east, The Independent, Ian Johnston Environment Correspondent @montaukian  , 24 Aug 17, About 13 per cent of people in Britain do not accept the science of climate change, according to a new poll.

The survey of 1,200 adults in the UK by Censuswide found men (17 per cent) were significantly more likely than women (11 per cent) to deny the widespread evidence of global warming – from melting sea ice and glaciers and rising sea levels to animals and plants heading for the poles.

However, a substantial majority of 70 per cent said they did agree the temperature is rising and that greenhouse gas emissions are to blame – as accepted by every major scientific organisation in the world. …… http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/uk-climate-change-real-accept-majority-global-warming-poll-finds-a7909841.html

August 25, 2017 Posted by | climate change, UK | Leave a comment

Small-scale solar will displace $2 billion of US power by 2025

 http://reneweconomy.com.au/small-scale-solar-will-displace-2-billion-us-power-2025/ By Bloomberg New Energy Finance on 23 August 2017   By 2025, over $2 billion worth of U.S. electricity production will change hands from traditional generators to small-scale generation assets.

Worldwide, the small-scale solar photovoltaic capacity operated by homes and businesses is predicted to grow consistently as depicted by Bloomberg New Energy Finance in the New Energy Outlook 2017.

 In countries like the U.S. which face stagnant electricity demand growth, the growth in distributed electricity production will take sales from generators in the wholesale markets and regulated power regions.

Australia leads the way in distributed energy, with around 45 per cent of total demand to be delivered by locally sourced distributed power  solar, wind and storage, by 2040.

Clients can access the full report here.

August 25, 2017 Posted by | 2 WORLD, decentralised | Leave a comment

How 139 countries could be powered by 100 percent wind, water, and solar energy by 2050

The latest roadmap to a 100% renewable energy future from Stanford’s Mark Z. Jacobson and 26 colleagues is the most specific global vision yet, outlining infrastructure changes that 139 countries can make to be entirely powered by wind, water, and sunlight by 2050 after electrification of all energy sectors.
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-08/cp-h1c081717.php

August 25, 2017 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Listen to radio, on South Africa’s dodgy nuclear deals

[LISTEN] ‘NUCLEAR DOCS FUEL PUBLIC PERCEPTION OF DODGY DEALS’ http://ewn.co.za/2017/08/24/listen-nuclear-docs-fuel-public-perception-of-dodgy-deals    Radio 702 | Energy expert Chris Yelland says that the latest documents linked to the nuclear industry are deepening public suspicion about dubious dealings in the procurement process.

JOHANNESBURG – Energy expert Chris Yelland says the latest documents linked to the nuclear industry are deepening public suspicion about dubious dealings in the procurement process.

The Auditor-General (AG) apparently found key nuclear-related contracts entered into by the Department of Energy are irregular and unauthorised, according to the Democratic Alliance.

Radio 702’s Bongani Bingwa speaks to Yelland about an alleged report yet to be finalised by the AG, this is according to the DA energy spokesperson Gordan McKay.

For more information listen to the audio  

August 25, 2017 Posted by | secrets,lies and civil liberties, South Africa | Leave a comment

The State, South Carolina, names the people who brought on the nuclear power fiasco

These are the people who brought us the SCE&G/Santee Cooper nuclear debacle http://www.thestate.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/cindi-ross-scoppe/article168891607.html, CINDI ROSS SCOPPE, Associate Editor, AUGUST 24, 2017 COLUMBIA, SC 

You want names? We’ve got names.

Names of the SC Public Service Commissioners, who have been acting on SCE&G’s rate requests and will decide how much more the utility can charge us for its unfinished nuclear reactors at the VC Summer nuclear facility.

Names of the commissioners who gave SCANA the initial go-ahead to start the project, back in 2008.

Names of SCANA’s management and board members.

Names of Santee Cooper’s management and board members.

 And a link to the names of legislators who approved the law that made it oh, so much easier for us to be charged already — and left holding the bag — for the failed project.

Public Service Commission

The links take you to contact and biographical information about them on the PSC website.

John E. “Butch” Howard, District 1*

Elliott F. Elam, Jr., District 2

Comer H. “Randy” Randall, Vice Chairman, District 3

Elizabeth B. “Lib” Fleming, District 4*

Swain E. Whitfield, Chairman District 5

Nikiya “Nikki” Hall, District 6

G. O’Neal Hamilton, District 7*

* Was serving on the commission in 2008, when the project was given its crucial, initial approval

PSC members in 2008, when the project was given initial approval

John E. “Butch” Howard, District 1, Charleston

David A. Wright, District 2, Columbia

Randy Mitchell, District 3, Saluda

Elizabeth B. “Lib” Fleming, District 4, Spartanburg

G. O’Neal Hamilton, chairman, District 5, Bennettsville

Mignon L. Clyburn, District 6, Charleston

C. Robert Moseley, vice chairman, at large, Irmo

SCANA Corp (parent of SCE&G)

Kevin Marsh, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Names and information about other corporate officers

Board of Directors

Gregory E. Aliff, Certified Public Accountant, Retired from Deloitte & Touche LLP, Reston, VA

James A. Bennett, South Carolina Central Area Executive, First Citizens Bank & Trust Company, Columbia, SC

John F.A.V. Cecil, President, Biltmore Farms, Asheville, NC

Sharon A. Decker, Chief Operating Officer, Tryon International Equestrian Center, Mill Spring, NC

D. Maybank Hagood, Chairman & CEO, Southern Diversified Distributors, Charleston, SC

Kevin B. Marsh, President & CEO, SCANA Corporation, Cayce, SC

Lynne M. Miller, Environmental Consultant, Great Falls, VA

James W. Roquemore, CEO and Chairman, Patten Seed Company, Orangeburg, SC

Alfredo Trujillo, President & COO, Georgia Tech Foundation, Atlanta, GA

Maceo K. Sloan, Chairman, President & CEO, Sloan Financial Group, Chairman & CEO, NCM Capital Management Group, Durham, NC

Santee Cooper

Lonnie N. Carter, President and Chief Executive Officer

Santee Cooper contact information

Names of other corporate officers

Board of Directors

W. Leighton Lord III, Chairman, Nexsen Pruet law firm, Columbia

William A. Finn, 1st Vice Chairman, chairman of AstenJohnson, a specialty textile company for the printing and papermaking industries based in Charleston

Barry Wynn, 2nd Vice Chairman, president of Colonial Trust Company, a private trust company specializing in investment management and estate services, Spartanburg

Kristofer Clark, broker with Easlan Capital and owner of Pristine Properties LLC., Easley

Merrell W. Floyd, retired staff coordinator at Horry Electric Cooperative, Conway

J. Calhoun Land IV, Land, Parker & Welch law firm, Manning

Stephen H. Mudge, co-founder, president and CEO of Serrus Capital Partners, a Greenville-based real estate investment firm

Peggy H. Pinnell, owner of the Peggy H. Pinnell Insurance Agency in Moncks Corner, a State Farm agency

Dan J. Ray, president of DR Capital Group, a Pawleys Island-based financial advisory and investment company

David F. Singleton, president of Singleton Properties, a real estate investment and sales firm, Myrtle Beach

Jack F. Wolfe Jr., past president and CEO of the Mid-Carolina Electric Cooperative in Lexington

Office of Regulatory Staff

Dukes Scott, executive director

You might also want to read these other pieces I’ve written

Here’s who voted to give SCE&G a blank check

How ‘waste not, want not’ became ‘spend more, profit more’

SCE&G nuclear fiasco: It’s complicated. Here are some explanations.

SCE&G law could cost you more than you imagine

This is what has to change after the SC nuclear meltdown

Ms. Scoppe writes editorials and columns for The State. Reach her at cscoppe@thestate.com or (803) 771-8571 or follow her on Twitter or like her on Facebook @CindiScoppe.

August 25, 2017 Posted by | business and costs, politics, USA | Leave a comment

More than 70 per cent of the countries in the world could run entirely on renewable energy

Independent 23rd Aug 2017, More than 70 per cent of the countries in the world – including the UK, US,China and other major economies – could run entirely on energy created by
wind, water and solar by 2050, according to a roadmap developed by
scientists.

And they pointed out that doing so would not only mean the
world would avoid dangerous global warming, but also prevent millions of
premature deaths a year and create about 24 million more jobs than were
lost.

One of the scientists said the social benefits of following their
roadmap were so “enormous” and essentially cost free that human society
should “accelerate the transition to wind, water and solar as fast as
possible”. Rooftop solar panels and major solar power plants; offshore and
onshore wind turbines; wave, hydroelectric and tidal schemes; and
geothermal energy would also be used to replace fossil fuels to generate
electricity, power vehicles and heat homes.

The UK is about to publish its own Emissions Reduction Plan, which is supposed to set out how Britain willmeet its international commitment in the fight against climate change – to
cut emissions by 57 per cent below 1990 levels by 2030. While the UK has
been making good progress on decarbonising electricity generation, the
transport and domestic heating sectors remain problematic. As part of its
attempts to improve air quality, the Government has announced it will ban
the sale of new fossil fuel-powered vehicles in 2040.

It remains to be seen how radical it will be in encouraging the switch from gas-central heating
to low or zero-carbon methods. Writing in the journal Joule, a team of
researchers led by Professor Mark Jacobson, of Stanford University in the
US, warned the stakes were high. http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/wind-solar-water-power-countries-entirely-powered-2050-renewable-energy-climate-change-fossil-fuels-a7908821.html

August 25, 2017 Posted by | 2 WORLD, renewable | Leave a comment

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