Houston: A Global WarningThe devastation of Hurricane Harvey marks a turning point and raises the terrible possibility that we’ve entered the age of climate chaos, Rolling Stone, By Jeff Goodell, 31 Aug 17, Let there be no doubt: the horrific damage wrought by Hurricane Harvey was an almost entirely man-made catastrophe, one fingerprinted by all-too-human neglect, corruption and denial. If we needed a reminder of the power of water to destroy an American city, Hurricane Harvey provided it. In Houston, a fast-growing metropolis of more than 2 million people, it wasn’t the wind that was so damaging, or a storm surge pushing in – it was just water everywhere, falling for days in biblical torrents and transforming highways into rivers, flowing into homes, killing dozens, sending tens of thousands of people fleeing for higher ground. It was a terrifying and deadly display of what happens when nature collides with urban life on a planet radically altered by climate change…….
given what scientists know now about how rising CO2 levels impact the climate, it’s wrong to dismiss Harvey as a purely “natural” event.
First, thanks to increasing carbon pollution, the waters in the Gulf of Mexico, over which Harvey formed, were about five degrees higher than average. “As the world warms, evaporation speeds up,” explained climate scientist Katherine Hayhoe. So on average, there is more water vapor in the air now to sweep up and later dump over land. Also, because hurricane winds are generated by the difference in temperature between the atmosphere and oceans, the warmer waters tend to intensify a hurricane’s gales.
Second, a warming climate fuels sea-level rise, which is the result of the thermal expansion of the oceans and the melting of glaciers. Higher seas mean bigger storm surges, which can be devastating (recall the destruction wrought by Hurricane Sandy). But when the seas are higher, it also means that it is more difficult to drain rainwater into the ocean. And that is what happened in Houston: The water had nowhere to go.
This was a disaster foretold. ……
we’ve allowed cities like Houston to become empires of denial. If you set out to design a metropolis that is poorly adapted to the future, you couldn’t do much better than Houston. Consider the rate at which it’s paved over the wetlands, nature’s sponges for absorbing water. Thirty percent of the surrounding coastal prairie wetlands was developed between 1992 and 2010, creating what amount to concrete catch basins that capture the water and funnel it toward destruction. In Houston, the bayou is just a place to drive your Lexus – this is a city that’s said to have 30 parking spots for every resident.
Houston proudly touts itself as “the City With No Limits,” playing up its Wild West heritage of endless land and opportunity. But it is also the largest U.S. city to have no zoning laws, meaning you can build whatever you want, wherever you want. While that makes developers happy, it’s not how you build a climate-resilient city. According to a Washington Post investigation, more than 7,000 residential buildings have been constructed in 100-year FEMA-designated flood plains since 2010. But given that FEMA’s flood maps haven’t been updated to reflect sea-level rise and other factors, the actual number of new buildings constructed in high-risk places is likely much larger. And this is true not just in Houston but in Miami, South Carolina and every other flood-prone region. Ten years ago, Houston officials banned development in areas with high risk of flooding. But developers sued, until the policy was weakened by the City Council. Government officials tried putting up flood gauges in low-lying areas to show how high the water could get during a hurricane, but pressure from real-estate agents got the signposts removed.
The feds bear some responsibility for the disaster-friendly design of Houston, too. Virtually all flood insurance in America is administered through the National Flood Insurance Program, which is supposed to prevent risky development by requiring better building standards and relocation of buildings that flood repeatedly. But since it was founded in 1968, the program has been contorted by developers, real-estate agents, and politicians lobbying for special treatment for their constituents. In places like Houston, the program helps enable development in high-risk areas by offering subsidized insurance rates that don’t reflect the real cost of living in flood-prone areas, as well as by offering repeat payouts for often-flooded homes. Even before Harvey, the program was already $25 billion in debt……….
we are likely to get a lot of rah-rah about rebuilding Houston bigger and better than before, some marginal improvements in building codes, and a lot of fighting in Congress over how much money to spend on recovery. President Trump will tout the heroics of the rescuers and the TV ratings of the storm – he is his own empire of denial. He not only pulled the U.S. out of the Paris climate deal, but just weeks before Harvey hit, he rolled back common-sense requirements for flood protection in federal projects.
Beyond the post-storm platitudes, it’s not hard to foresee what is coming. There will be another hurricane – next time it might hit Charleston or Miami or Norfolk, and it will destroy buildings and highways built in harm’s way and it will again cause billions of dollars worth of damage. Eventually, taxpayers in Kansas will get tired of bailing out people who live on the coast, and disaster-relief funds will dry up. As seas rise, mortgage companies will stop writing 30-year loans for homes by the sea. Bond ratings for cities will fall. Coastal roads will be washed away. Airports will be flooded. And the great coastal retreat will begin.
September 1, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
climate change, USA |
Leave a comment
As Harvey Raged, Workers Stayed at Nuclear Plant’s Controls, Bloomberg, By Mark Chediak
August 31, 2017,
-
Despite heavy rain, South Texas Project runs at full capacity
-
Biggest challenge is finding workers who can return to plant
As Hurricane Harvey bore down on them, workers remained at the controls of Texas’s biggest nuclear power plant, 
keeping the lights on for 2 million customers even while some of their own homes were flooded.
Teams of employees have been stationed at the South Texas Project power plant since early Friday. While the site is 90 miles (145 kilometers) southwest of Houston and avoided the worst of the deadly storm, it had to cope with heavy rain and flooding on nearby roads that made it difficult for people to get around.
Plant technicians and engineers were organized into special storm-team crews, working rotating 12-hour shifts, washing clothes in the showers and sleeping on cots set up before Harvey hit. Throughout the storm, the concrete-domed twin reactors have continued operating at full capacity, providing electricity for Texans who can still get service amid a historic flood.
“Really, it’s a matter of getting the sleep you need so you are prepared and ready for the next shift,” said Bob Tatro, a 30-year veteran at the plant and a shift manager for a storm crew that’s kept the plant operating……..
Despite as many as 10 inches of rain on Monday, the nuclear plant near the Gulf of Mexico hasn’t been threatened by the rising waters in nearby tributaries, Eller said. Winds from Harvey never reached hurricane force at the site, which would have required the plant to shut down, he said. There was no flooding at the facility, which is near a wildlife nature preserve.
Workers have been making sure the site’s storm drains are clear and there is enough potable water, said Kurt Moorefield, a shift manager who has been at the plant since Friday.
‘Biggest Issue’
“The biggest issue is finding other employees who can safely make it back to the site,” Eller said. Some workers’ homes have flooded and the company was focused not only on keeping the plant running but helping to assist employees displaced by the storm, he said……..
About 250 operators, engineers, maintenance and other support staff have been stationed at the 2,700-megawatt plant since the storm hit. Additional workers were trickling in to provide help as the weather permitted, and the company was looking to transition back to normal staffing levels, Eller said……..https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-30/as-harvey-raged-workers-slept-on-cots-to-keep-nuclear-power-on
September 1, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
climate change, USA |
Leave a comment
Time for the energy sector to self-correct. EE, August 15th, 2017, by Prof. Hartmut Winkler, University of Johannesburg, May and June 2017 will go down as two of the most dreadful months in the history of the South African power utility Eskom. Its credibility in the eyes of the public has reached rock bottom after a series of well-publicised scandals.
Following the suspension of the then acting Eskom CEO, Matshela Koko, over a large contract allegedly benefitting his step-daughter, the nation was stunned by the reinstatement of the former CEO, Brian Molefe, who had previously left the utility under a cloud. The saga also forced the power utility to face the wrath of the parliamentary portfolio committee on Public Enterprises.
Highly damaging revelations followed from leaked emails, corroborating the findings of the Public Protector that Eskom’s leadership had allegedly irregularly assisted the Gupta family’s Oakbay Investments in securing the Optimum mine and the associated coal supply contract. The emails apparently also highlighted indefensibly close links between the Guptas and specific Eskom board members and executives. To top it off, the R4-billion Duvha boiler replacement was inexplicably awarded to a Chinese company, at a much higher cost than proposed by its competitors.
The scale of these alleged transgressions and the initial unwillingness or inability of government to deal with these matters has generated the impression that there are other agendas at play. It suggests that, like many other state-linked entities, Eskom has been taken over by persons furthering individual interests at the expense of the national good, a phenomenon now referred to as state capture.
This further raises the suspicion that the brazen taking of sides in the rollout of new generating capacity is also driven by other motives. Koko and Molefe have been outspokenly pro-nuclear and have blocked the long outstanding conclusion of power purchase agreements with successful bidders under the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers Procurement Programme (REIPPPP). The power utility appears to have also promoted the distorted narrative that renewables are chiefly responsible for job losses at Mpumalanga coal mines.
The latest REIPPPP projects offer vastly reduced power purchase tariffs compared to the early rounds. Most renewables are now clearly cheaper than the cost of new coal and nuclear. Therefore Eskom’s opposition to REIPPPP on affordability grounds sounds decidedly hollow. The perception has therefore been created that Eskom is part of an effort to sabotage the renewable energy sector, which is the nuclear industry’s chief competitor in South Africa’s future energy landscape……..
While at this stage not directly compromised in the manner of Eskom, the nuclear industry too is in need of deep introspection. The sector has failed to condemn the irregularities and presidential interference in the nuclear procurement process to date, which saw Russian developer Rosatom allegedly placed in a dominant position over its competitors.
The Western Cape High Court ruling that the Russian nuclear agreement is invalid is viewed in some quarters as merely a speed hump rather than a call to return to the drawing board. NECSA board chair Kelvin Kemm’s defiant pronouncement in Moscow that the nuclear deal will be finalised before year end, probably to Rosatom’s advantage, is the worst thing the nuclear sector could do right now. Whatever the intention, such sabre rattling will merely harden the opposition from a public seemingly skeptical of all things nuclear.
There are respected people working in the nuclear field who genuinely believe that nuclear technology has a role in the future South African energy mix. These nuclear advocates have to now recognise that rehabilitating their sector requires the rebuilding of public trust, and honest attempts to allay concerns about costs, safety and potential corruption associated with new builds.
The renewable energy sector has been riding high on the back of positive international sentiment and the successful implementation of projects from the first three REIPPPP phases. That ride is however about to get much bumpier as the sector runs into opposition from unions and government.
While this opposition is to some degree based on misinformation, possibly planted deliberately, the renewable industry also needs to re-evaluate its tactics. Green hype and crude PR are no longer going to cut it, and current and past mistakes are about to be exploited ruthlessly. As with nuclear, sober engagement and diplomacy are now crucial to take the renewable energy sector forward to its rightful place in South Africa’s energy landscape. Send your comments to energize@ee.co.za http://www.ee.co.za/article/time-energy-sector-self-correct.html
September 1, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
secrets,lies and civil liberties, South Africa |
Leave a comment
The U.S. Backs Off Nuclear Power. Georgia Wants to Keep Building Reactors, NYT, By BRAD PLUMER, AUG. 31, 2017 WASHINGTON — Even as the rest of the United States backs away from nuclear power, utilities in Georgia are pressing ahead with plans to build two huge reactors in the next five years — the only nuclear units still under construction nationwide.
September 1, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
business and costs, USA |
Leave a comment
German region to hand out iodine over Belgium nuclear fears, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/german-region-to-hand-out-iodine-over-belgium-nuclear-fears/2017/08/31/2ff1bdd0-8e4c-11e7-9c53-6a169beb0953_story.html?utm_term=.b575ae8357bb By Associated Press August 31 BERLIN — A German border region is preparing to hand out potassium iodide tablets to residents who want them in case of an accident at a nuclear power plant in Belgium that has caused friction between the two countries.
Local officials in the Aachen area received permission from the regional government to distribute the tablets as a precaution amid longstanding concerns in Germany over the safety of the Tihange plant, less than 70 kilometers (43 miles) away. They’re meant to prevent thyroid cancer in case of radioactive contamination.
From Friday through Nov. 15, people under 46 can apply online for a coupon for the iodine tablets, which they can pick up free at pharmacies.
Germany plans to switch off all its nuclear reactors by 2022 and already has shut its oldest plants.
September 1, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
Germany, safety |
Leave a comment
Group: Water plan to remove Fukushima fuel ‘not viable’ http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201708310042.html, By KOHEI TOMIDA/ Staff Writer, August 31, 2017 The Asahi Shimbun A decommissioning organization on Aug. 31 formally recommended bypassing a safety measure to remove melted nuclear fuel from crippled reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.
The Nuclear Damage Compensation and Decommissioning Facilitation Corp. (NDF) urged the central government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. to use the “airborne method” in which the melted fuel is removed even when the water level in the reactor containment vessel is kept low.
Proposals have been made to fill the containment vessels with water to restrain the spewing of radioactive materials during the fuel removal process.
But the NDF said that method is currently not viable because of the difficulties in patching up the holes in the containment vessels.
The government and TEPCO are expected to decide on a fuel removal method in September and confirm the specific steps next fiscal year.
The removal of equipment and other structural objects in and around the reactors must be completed before work can start on taking out melted fuel that remains in the pressure vessels.
The nuclear fuel that has seeped through the pressure vessels and landed at the bottom of the containment vessels will be the first to be removed.
Work will also have to be done to develop a robot arm that can remove fuel from the side of the containment vessel. Under the current schedule, removal of the melted fuel will start at one of the three, No. 1 to No. 3, reactors of the Fukushima No. 1 plant in 2021.
However, officials still do not know the exact location of the melted fuel in the reactors.
Hajimu Yamana, NDF president, pointed out there would likely be a need to combine various methods instead of pushing through with one specific procedure to meet the scheduled deadline.
September 1, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
Fukushima continuing |
Leave a comment
Secretive report on South Carolina nuclear reactor construction never given to state utility regulators, Post and Courier, By Andrew Brown abrown@postandcourier.com, Aug 31, 2017 COLUMBIA — SCANA Corp. may have misled state utility regulators about the existence of a secretive report that detailed construction failures at two troubled nuclear reactors at the V.C. Summer station in Fairfield County, months before the $9 billion energy project was abandoned.
The director of the state Office of Regulatory Staff told The Post and Courier on Thursday that SCANA officials repeatedly told state agency employees they didn’t have a copy of a report that was produced by Bechtel Corp., an engineering and project management company that observed the nuclear construction near Jenkinsville in past years.
“They have continued to ask for it,” said Dukes Scott, the regulatory staff director. “As we asked for it, they never said, ‘Yes, here it is.'” Those state regulators were surprised last week when SCANA and Santee Cooper officials admitted under oath in a Senate hearing the document did exist, and they were again denied access to it by SCANA, who is now claiming it as legally privileged information……http://www.postandcourier.com/business/secretive-report-on-nuclear-reactor-construction-never-given-to-state/article_6d7d5560-8e56-11e7-a0f0-cf722935ab39.html
September 1, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
business and costs, secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA |
Leave a comment
Don’t you think that there’s something surreal about the idea of nuclear reactors in Bangladesh? the whole place is likely to be under water before too long – nuclear reactors and all!
Russia officially agrees to take back nuke plant wastes, Dhaka Tribune, Aminur Rahman Rasel August 30, 2017 Russia will take back the spent fuel from Bangladesh territory for reprocessing, recycling and management
Bangladesh has signed an agreement with Russia to return the spent nuclear fuel from Rooppur nuclear power plant, which is being built with Russian assistance.
Science and Technology Minister Yeafesh Osman and Alexey Likhachev, director general of Rosatom, Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation, signed the agreement in Moscow on Wednesday.
Earlier on March 15, the two countries had approved a draft of the agreement on spent fuel management of the project after a bilateral meeting in Dhaka.
According to the agreement, Russia will take back the spent fuel from Bangladesh territory for reprocessing, recycling and management, confirmed Science and Technology Ministry’s Information Officer Md Kamrul Islam Bhuiyan.
From the outset of the project, Bangladesh has been keen to return nuclear waste to Russia, he added…..http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/power-energy/2017/08/30/russia-officially-agrees-take-back-nuke-plant-wastes/
September 1, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
ASIA, marketing, Russia |
Leave a comment
A historic chimney is set for demolition at Sellafield. The Primary
Separation Plant Chimney Stack was built in the 1950s to provide
ventilation for surrounding buildings.
It is now one of the biggest risks at Sellafield because it does not meet modern safety standards. Demolishing
a 61-metre chimney in the middle of Europe’s most complex, congested
nuclear site is a challenge. Explosives are not an option and there is no
space for a crane so engineers have spent the last seven months getting a
self-climbing platform to the top of the chimney metre by metre so they can
begin demolition.
Demolishing this chimney will cost more than £60m. The
Nuclear Decommissioning Authority which oversees Sellafield says the
complexity of this one project demonstrates why cleaning up this site is so
expensive. £2bn was spent at Sellafield last year alone. http://www.itv.com/news/border/2017-08-29/historic-sellafield-chimney-ready-for-demolition/
September 1, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
decommission reactor, UK |
Leave a comment
keeping the lights on for 2 million customers even while some of their own homes were flooded.
nuclear-news 