Scotland looking to a not for profit, publicly owned energy company
**Energy Policy – Scotland**, Energy Voice 11th Oct 2017
SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has used her 2017 conference speech to announce
that the party is looking into plans for a not for profit, publicly owned
energy company. Ms Sturgeon confirmed that the pledge to explore the
option, which appeared in last year’s SNP manifesto, would be taken
forward. She said more details would be set out in the government’s
forthcoming energy strategy. She said: “Energy would be bought wholesale
or generated here in Scotland – renewable, of course – and sold to
customers as close to cost price as possible.
https://www.energyvoice.com/other-news/152781/breaking-sturgeon-proposes-publicly-owned-not-profit-energy-company/
Ontario PG trying to disguise true costs of Darlington project
OPG trying to disguise true costs of Darlington project ,
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Global News has unearthed some stunning evidence of just how far Ontario Power Generation (OPG) is going to play down the costs of its Darlington Re-build Project.
Global obtained an auditor’s report that called into question a “deliberate management strategy” to attract lowball bids from contractors. Specifically, the auditors questioned how a bid to build a new Heavy Water Storage and Drum Handling Facility was suddenly cut by almost 50% after OPG encouraged contractors to ignore the high likelihood that there might be contaminated soil on the building site (there was).
Of course, attracting lowball quotes has done nothing to keep the actual costs for the storage facility under control. In fact, it is now projected that the final cost may be five times what was originally estimated — $500 million versus a just over $100 million original price tag.
The storage facility for radioactive water is a key part of OPG’s plan to rebuild Darlington, but it is two-and-a-half years behind schedule and already massively over budget.
But what’s a few hundred million in a $12.8 billion budget? That’s the response OPG CEO Jeff Lyash offered in response to the revelations. For OPG, running a few hundred million dollars over budget is just par for the course, it seems, given that every nuclear rebuild project it has ever managed has run massively over budget and behind schedule.
But despite Lyash’s “what, me worry?” response, Global’s digging raises some serious concerns aboutmismanagement and delays on the massive project. Of course, it is Ontario ratepayers (and possibly taxpayers) who will once again pick up the tab for Darlington’s overpriced electricity.
Meanwhile, Quebec’s offer to provide power at one-third the cost of power from the Darlington Re-Buildgathers dust at Queen’s Park. It’s a strange world.
Please contact Premier Wynne and ask her to negotiate a long-term electricity supply contract with Hydro Quebec which will allow us to cancel the Darlington Re-Build Project and lower our electricity bills. Click here to email the Premier (premier@ontario.ca) and PC Leader Patrick Brown (patrick.brown@pc.ola.org)
Trump administration is lying about the Iran nuclear deal – says John Kerry
John Kerry says the Trump administration is ‘lying’ about the Iran nuclear deal Boston Globe By Nik DeCosta-Klipa,12 Oct 17
By his own description, John Kerry was in “blunt mode” Thursday.
Indeed, the former Massachusetts senator and U.S. secretary of state was unequivocal in his condemnation of President Donald Trump’s reported plans to decertify the Iran nuclear deal this week.
“The administration is lying to the American people, to put it bluntly,” Kerry said during a HUBweek forum Thursday afternoon in Boston, referring to the White House’s criticisms of the landmark 2015 deal, in which certain provisions “sunset” after as few as 10 years.
“The agreement — including the additional protocol with the right to challenge — is lifetime. It’s forever,” he said. Kerry added that there’s no evidence Iran was not complying with the deal and that, if there was, the United States was enabled under the deal to order inspections.
According to Kerry, the current relationship with Iran has come a long way since before the deal……..
Now, Kerry said even top security officials in Israel think the deal is working.
Kerry credited the 159-page deal, which he personally helped negotiate over two years, with the decommissioning of a nuclear reactor in Iran, decreasing the country’s centrifuges from 19,000 to less than 5,000, and lowering its uranium stockpiles from 12,000 kilograms to less than 300 kilograms.
“You cannot physically make a bomb with 300 kilograms,” he said.
Kerry was adamant that there is no “better deal” that Trump could realistically make and said the president was pulling his justification for decertifying the deal out of thin air simply because he “doesn’t like the deal.” Some of the most high-profile critics of Iran — and even reportedly the top security officials in Trump’s own cabinet— have urged the president against his plans to decertify the deal.
“Over eight different times, the International Atomic Energy Agency has said Iran is living up to the deal,” Kerry said Thursday.
Kerry said the International Atomic Energy Agency has said Iran is “living up to the deal” on eight separate occasions and called it “reckless,” “dangerous,” and “irresponsible” for the United States to threaten to leave it now. ….
“What I strongly recommend to Iran, to China, to Russia is that their leader be the adults in the room together with Britain and France and Germany, and that all of them together say, ‘We are going to keep this agreement, because it makes the world safer,’” Kerry said.
Watch the full interview below: [on orginal] https://www.boston.com/news/politics/2017/10/12/john-kerry-says-the-trump-administration-is-lying-about-the-iran-nuclear-deal
Controversial plan to ship nuclear waste down the Hudson River
PLAN TO SHIP NUCLEAR WASTE DOWN HUDSON CAUSES DEBATE, Rockland County Times, on In recent months, routes to dispose of 76,000 metric tons of used fuel have been discussed in Congress.
In a 2002 report, the Department of Energy laid out a plan to get rid of the nation’s spent nuclear power plants’ waste, which has been piling up for several decades.
The report envisioned shipped the county’s nuclear waste from various locations via barge, rail and truck routes to the Yucca Mountain in the Mojave Desert, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Among the report’s more controversial proposals is a plan to move spent fuel out of Indian Point in Buchanan along with 16 other power plants without direct access to railroad lines, by barge, down the Hudson River.
Over the course of decades 58 shipments of nuclear waste would be loaded on barges at Indian Point for the 42 miles trip down the River, passing under the new Mario Cuomo Bridge and past New York City on the way to the seaport in New Jersey.
At the NJ seaport, cement and steel casks of spent nuclear matter weighing up to 100 tons, would be placed on rail cars for a 2,600-mile trip west to the Yucca Mountains.
The plan has caused much debate among politicians in New York. Former New Jersey Sen. Robert Torricelli stated the New Jersey ports should not be used “as rest stops for nuclear material.” http://www.rocklandtimes.com/2017/10/12/49179/
Muddled maths on the supposed costs of storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mt
Chinese government boosting storage capacity for renewable energy
China to boost energy storage capacity to fuel renewable power use, Reuters, OCTOBER 12, 2017
Limited options to dispose of San Onofre’s nuclear waste
Travis Rice, Oct 11, 2017 SAN ONOFRE, CA (KGTV) – Millions of pounds of nuclear waste may have to be buried in San Onofre despite public outcry.
UK taxpayers forked out £122million for failed nuclear decommissioning deal
Nuclear Authority’s failure to carry out decommissioning deal cost taxpayer £122million
Energy Voice by Reporter – 12/10/2017 Fundamental failures in awarding a £6.2 billion deal to decommission the UK’s ageing fleet of Magnox nuclear power stations cost the taxpayer £122 million, an official report has found.
The National Audit Office said the saga raised “serious questions” about the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s (NDA) understanding of procurement regulations.
The NDA ran a competitive procurement exercise for decommissioning services at 12 nuclear sites, resulting in the award of a 14-year contract for up to £6.2 billion, but the High Court found it had wrongly decided the outcome of the process.
The NDA agreed to settle claims in March 2017, the same month as the Government set up an inquiry into the Magnox contract.
Energy Solutions unsuccessfully bid for the contract, and later issued legal claims against the NDA for damages.
The High Court found that, had the NDA applied its evaluation criteria correctly, the winning bidder, Cavendish Fluor Partnership (CFP), would have been excluded from the competition.
The NDA agreed to settle legal claims with Energy Solutions and its consortium partner at the time of the bid, Bechtel, at a cost of £97.3 million.
It also spent £13.8 million on legal and external advisers, while in-house staff time cost £10.8 million.
Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office, said: “The NDA’s fundamental failures in the Magnox contract procurement raise serious questions about its understanding of procurement regulations; its ability to manage large, complex procurements; and why the errors detected by the High Court judgement were not identified earlier…….https://www.energyvoice.com/otherenergy/nuclear/153035/nuclear-authoritys-failure-carry-decommissioning-deal-cost-taxpayer-122million/
Scotland’s Dounreay nuclear site: health experts to be appointed by the operator
Scottish nuclear site looks to hire ‘health boffins’, Energy Voice, by Reporter , 12 Oct 17, A nuclear site criticised over its safety is seeking a team of health boffins – with starting salaries of £46,000 “upwards.”
Dounreay near Thurso in Caithness is being decommissioned at a cost of £2.32bn.
Safety concerns were raised in August about the handling of radioactive waste at the plant. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority said safety has “deteriorated” at Dounreay and warned improvements made after a fire in 2014 had not been kept up.
Environmental protection agency Sepa rated the handling of waste last year as ‘at risk’ and called the management of vaults used to store it ‘poor’.
There were three serious incidents at the 60-year-old plant, where decommissioning work has been under way since the 1990s……
The Scottish Government has called for urgent action to address the problems at Dounreay, which were revealed in the NDA’s latest annual report. Gail Ross, SNP MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, has also said she was “seriously concerned” about Dounreay’s safety record.
But now its operators wants to recruit “a number” of senior health physicists…….
The boffins must be an appointed Radiation Protection Adviser, provide radiation protection advice, give advice and support to emergency arrangements at Dounreay and develop and provide specialist radiation protection training as well as contributing to the development of a safety culture……. https://www.energyvoice.com/otherenergy/nuclear/153131/scottish-nuclear-site-looks-hire-health-boffins/ –
South Carolina’s failed nuclear project – SCANA accuses Santee Cooper of misleading leaders for years
SCANA accuses Santee Cooper of misleading leaders for years in failed nuclear project, South Strand News, By Andy Shain Post and Courier, Oct 11, 2017
As they fend off lawsuits from workers, ratepayers, contractors and investors, the partners in South Carolina’s failed nuclear project have turned on each other.
South Carolina’s largest company, SCANA, is accusing its utility partner Santee Cooper of misleading state leaders for years about its role in the failed $9 billion project to build two nuclear reactors north of Columbia. SCANA’s top lawyer, Jim Stuckey, made that allegation in a recent letter obtained by The Post and Courier.
Stuckey accused state-owned Santee Cooper of painting an inaccurate picture that minimized its input and oversight on the V.C. Summer plant expansion in an attempt to shift blame for the expensive debacle onto SCANA. Stuckey sent the letter, dated Oct. 4, to Michael Baxley, his counterpart at Santee Cooper.
SCANA, the parent of South Carolina Electric & Gas, also accused Santee Cooper of failing to share a key document ahead of a legislative hearing last month, leaving SCANA officials blindsided and unprepared for lawmakers’ questions…….http://www.southstrandnews.com/state-news/scana-accuses-santee-cooper-of-misleading-leaders-for-years-in/article_82b4465c-ae89-11e7-924a-933263c56c1b.html
Radioactive waste is to be removed from a contaminated section of Ridgewood
EPA targets radioactive site in Ridgewood, Times Ledger, 13 Oct 17, Radioactive waste is to be removed from a contaminated section of Ridgewood which was once the location of a chemical plant that harvested raw materials from sand and dumped the refuse into the sewer.
The parcel of land — which became contaminated while under use by the Wolff-Alport Chemical Company from 1920 to 1954 — will see all business tenants relocated, buildings demolished, soil removed and sewers replaced, according to the EPA. The three-quarter-acre patch of contaminated land is located at 1125 to 1139 Irving Ave. and 1514 Cooper Ave. It used to be home to Jarabacoa Deli Grocery, as well as office space, residential apartments, several auto repair shops and warehousing space…….https://www.timesledger.com/stories/2017/41/radioactive_2017_10_13_q.html
1 This Month.
Let’s keep radioactive waste away from our river!
Nuclear Power? -Never again
(Switzerland –https://www.greenpeace.ch/de/handeln/atomkraft-nie-wieder/+)
PETITION – Close Down the Monticello Nuclear Reactor on the Mississippi River!
Now until to February 10, 2026 Radioactive waste storage in France: the debate is finally open! How to participate?
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