Edward Snowden surveillance powers ruled unlawful https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-45510662
U.S. announces fresh sanctions over N.K. nuclear program, http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/northkorea/2018/09/13/0401000000AEN20180913011200315.html
2018/09/13 WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 (Yonhap) — The United States on Thursday sanctioned two companies in China and Russia for allegedly facilitating North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
The Department of the Treasury also sanctioned a North Korean individual in the latest set of sanctions aimed at denuclearizing the regime.
JEA sues to get out of Georgia nuclear contract https://www.news4jax.com/news/jea-sues-to-get-out-of-nuclear-plant-contract, Lawsuit filed in Florida court same day Georgia utility filed federal suit, By Steve Patrick – News4Jax digital managing editor, September 12, 2018 JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – JEA and the city of Jacksonville have filed a complaint with a Florida court asking for declaratory judgment on an agreement with the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia (MEAG Power) agreeing to power electricity from Plant Vogtle, a nuclear power plant under construction in Georgia.
JEA entered into the power purchase agreement in 2008. The power provided under the agreement was to be from two new Plant Vogtle units that would provide power to JEA customers in addition to ratepayers across Georgia beginning in April 2016. The project was expected to cost $9.5 billion in direct costs ($14.8 billion total, including indirect and financing costs). The total cost of the portion attributable to JEA was $1.4 billion. The project cost was capped under the 2008 agreement.
Today, the project’s total cost-to-completion estimates have increased to more than $30 billion, with no guarantees that costs could grow beyond that and with a delayed completion date of November 2021.
A new unlimited cost-plus reimbursement agreement was implemented without JEA’s approval in June 2017 after the project’s initial general contractor, Westinghouse, declared bankruptcy. The amended agreement has increased JEA’s liability to more than $2.9 billion, although that amount is uncapped and has continued to rise.
The city and JEA’s complaint seeks to clarify the validity of the amended purchase power agreement. It was never approved by the Jacksonville City Council and the JEA and city lawyers believe the agreement violates the Florida Constitution, and therefore should be void and is unenforceable.
The suit was filed in an effort to protect JEA’s ratepayers from the escalating costs from the project.
“It has become clear that this purchase agreement should be considered ‘ultra vires’ since it was implemented without the approval of the City Council, which violates Florida law,” JEA Interim Managing Director Aaron Zahn said. “A favorable judgment from the court deeming the agreement void will have the added benefit of providing relief to ratepayers across northeast Florida from having to shoulder the financial burden of this project.”
The complaint was filed in the Fourth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida Tuesday, the same day that MEAG Power filed a breach of contract lawsuit against JEA in the Federal Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
Wales Online 11th Sept 2018 , EDF has confirmed it has started to dump mud from the Hinkley Point nuclear
power station in the Severn Estuary off Cardiff. The news came on the same
day that rock musician and anti-nuclear campaigner Cian Ciaran lodged
papers at the High Court seeking an injunction to stop the dumping. The
papers name NNB Generation Company (HPC) Ltd as the respondent in the
action. The firm is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the French energy company
EDF, which obtained a licence to carry out the dumping. More than 100,000
people have signed petitions against the dumping plans , which campaigners
say could pose health risks.
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/politics/radioactive-mud-dumping-begins-coast-15136164
Wales Online 12th Sept 2018 , Letter: It is hard for the layman to know whether or not the assurances
about the safety of the mud from Hinkley Point can be accepted at face
value. Other issues do arise as well, however. Will the addition of this
sizeable tonnage of waste at Cardiff Grounds have any effect on the flows
of sand and mud within the Bristol Channel?
We have all seen how the opposite process – dredging – has over the years changed the nature and
shape of various beaches, usually to their detriment. Also does any income
accrue to Wales from the use of this site for the receipt of waste material
from elsewhere? This is perhaps the least we might expect given the vast
sums of money which are being made available for this project.
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/local-news/western-mail-letters-wednesday-september-15140781
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Consumers lose in nuclear subsidy plan, New Jersey’s nuclear subsidy idea was a loser from the start. Legislators earlier this year bowed to Public Service Enterprise Group’s insistence on financial help from consumers to keep South Jersey nuclear plants afloat — meaning to make them more profitable — and signed off on a $300 million plan.
Of course, lawmakers told us that the money merely represented a maximum, and that a Board of Public Utilities review would determine how much assistance — if any — the plants would receive. That process began last week, and officials have been tossing around a lot of political-sounding comments about extensive scrutiny of the nuclear applications — as if awards weren’t already essentially a done deal.
In a press release, BPU President Joseph Fiordaliso said the board and its staff take their responsibilities seriously, and will determine whether subsidies are warranted. Yet legislators and the governor have already decided they are; that was the whole argument in favor of the subsidies bill, that the plants wouldn’t stay open without help, that New Jersey needs nuclear power, and that the $300 million figure was an appropriate number to put in place. The final subsidies may not hit that number on the nose, but we can certainly assume they won’t be far off.
It’s also no secret New Jersey consumers will be forced to foot the profitability bill not only for PSEG’s South Jersey plants, but also for nuclear plants in other states that contribute to the PJM Interconnection regional energy grid.
What will those states be doing to benefit us? Nothing, basically…………https://www.northjersey.com/story/opinion/editorials/2018/09/12/editorial-nj-consumers-lose-nuclear-subsidy-plan/1270890002/
environmentalists have maintained that the subsidy bill will prop up an outdated source of power at the expense of wind and solar energy, one more part of the governor’s often confusing, hopscotch approach to satisfying the state’s energy needs. Rival power companies have called the nuclear subsidy unfair to a company that reported $558 million in net income for the first three months of this year. And large power users said the subsidy would drive up costs and discourage innovation.
All of this, however, begs the question: Why couldn’t the amount of the subsidies have been determined before legislators created the pot of cash from which they will be taken? The plants aren’t losing money; they’re just not generating enough profit. PSEG won’t open its books to the public. Yet lawmakers felt compelled to announce to one and all upfront that as much as $300 million might be needed to get the job done. That taints everything moving forward………https://www.northjersey.com/story/opinion/editorials/2018/09/12/editorial-nj-consumers-lose-nuclear-subsidy-plan/1270890002/
Cumbria Crack 11th Sept 2018 , The Government has rejected a plea by Workington MP, Sue Hayman, to save
the Moorside nuclear power station project, as the developer, NuGen,
confirms the loss of 70 jobs. Sue, the co-chair of the All Party
Parliamentary Group on Nuclear Energy, wrote to the Secretary of State for
Business, Greg Clark MP, at the end of July, when NuGen announced it was
consulting on job losses, calling on him to guarantee Government support
for the project.
Mr Clark said in June that he “will consider direct Government investment” in the proposed Wylfa
nuclear power station in Wales, but he has refused to make any similar
commitment to Cumbria. In a response to Sue’s letter, energy minister
Richard Harrington MP said: “The Secretary of State and I understand the
potential importance of the Moorside project to the local area. However
(…) the proposed sale of NuGen is principally a commercial matter for
Toshiba and it would not be appropriate for me to comment on those ongoing
negotiations.”
https://www.cumbriacrack.com/2018/09/11/government-rejects-mps-plea-to-save-nuclear-new-build/
Carlisle News & Star 12th Sept 2018 , Business chief blames Government policy for “frightening off” Moorside
investors. Cumbria Chamber of Commerce boss urges ministers to change tack
to save £15bn project. Rob Johnston, chief executive of Cumbria Chamber of
Commerce, told in-Cumbria that the Government’s use of a regulated asset
base (RAB) model to finance Moorside was a risk of killing the
transformation project. Repeating previous calls for the Government to
invest directly in Moorside to ensure it happens, he placed the blame for
the delays squarely at the door of its Nuclear Sector Deal published back
in June.
http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/business/Business-chief-blames-Government-policy-for-frightening-off-Moorside-investors-47c201f1-f162-4f96-b702-629bb2ff41a3-ds
Building 12th Sept 2018 , The company behind the £10bn Moorside nuclear power station in Cumbria is
cutting more than 60 of its 100 staff as its parent Toshiba continues its
struggle to sell the company. NuGen was originally a joint venture between
Toshiba and French multinational Engie but ran into trouble last year when
Toshiba’s US subsidiary Westinghouse – which had been due to supply the
nuclear reactor for Moorside – filed for bankruptcy.
Mediapart 12th Sept 2018 [Machine translation] Nuclear: these signs of aging that EDF would like to
make disappear.
More than a third of French nuclear reactors undergo an
excessive demand of their circuits. EDF monitors these phenomena but does
not repair them. However, the older the plants, the more these problems
increase.
Our revelations from internal documents obtained from a
whistleblower. In collaboration with the German site Correctiv. With a
capacity of 900 megawatts (MW), the 34 oldest reactors of the park begin to
exceed their 40 th year of use and therefore to undergo the examination.
To determine the conditions, an unprecedented consultation of the public has
just opened and will last until March 2019.
In 2015, the energy transition law for green growth marked the principle of reducing the proportion of
nuclear energy to 50% by 2025. But EDF, an 85% state-owned company, refuses
this deadline and plans to close no reactor before 2029, with the exception
of those of Fessenheim (Alsace), at the time when the EPR of Flamanville
(Manche) will enter into activity.
This position of negation of a law yet voted is tacitly supported by Édouard Philippe, who has just announced
that the multiannual energy programming (EPP) , expected document end of
October, will set the goal of a reduction to 50 % of electricity of nuclear
origin around 2035
https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/120918/nucleaire-ces-signes-de-vieillissement-qu-edf-voudrait-faire-disparaitre
Fluor Idaho resumes waste retrievalhttps://www.localnews8.com/news/fluor-idaho-resumes-waste-retrieval/793522258, IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI/KIDK) 13 Sept 18, – After revising its safety procedures, Fluor Idaho has resumed the removal of buried Cold War weapons waste at its Idaho facility.
The Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory cleanup contractor suspended buried waste exhumation at the Accelerated Retrieval Project VIII facility after an April 11 breach of storage drums. The contractor revised its exhumation and repackaging process with additional controls to avoid the risk of a similar event.
Those controls include raking and thermal monitoring of exhumed sludge waste prior to repackaging. Meanwhile, cleanup of the facility continues.
To date, crews have removed buried waste containing plutonium, solidified solvents, and uranium from a combined area of 1.54 acres of ARP VII. The facility is 89.5 percent complete.
Waste generated during the development of atomic weapons was sent from the Rocky Flats Plant near Denver, to Idaho for buried disposal from 1954 until 1970. In 2008, the DOE, Environmental Protection Agency and state of Idaho agreed to remediate a total of 5.69 acres of buried waste and ship the material out of Idaho for permanent disposal. The overall buried waste exhumation effort remains ahead of schedule.
Once exhumation is complete in ARP VIII, work will begin in the nearby ARP IX facility to remove the last of the waste required by the 2008 agreement.
The Idaho Cleanup Project is a 5-year, $1.4 billion project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management.
https://www.registerguard.com/opinion/20180912/nuclear-power-is-risk-we-cant-afford, Susan Cundiff, 13 Sept 18 I appreciated reading Frank Lawson’s update on EWEB’s performance (EWEB working to improve costs, more, Sept. 8). One item gave me pause: the $3.5 million increase from Bonneville Power Administration (BPA). Part of that bill pays for nuclear power. EWEB is the largest purchaser of nuclear power in Oregon, representing 7.5 percent of its energy portfolio. All of this power comes from the aging Columbia Generating Station (CGS) located near the leaking tanks and collapsing tunnels at Hanford Nuclear Reservation on the banks of the Columbia River.
Nuclear power is expensive and a threat to health and safety. When the cost of CGS power is compared to average market prices, EWEB is projected to overspend by $53 million between 2006-2028. The average household could save $25/year if CGS were closed. Visit www.oregonpsr.org/economic_issues for more info. The design of the plant is similar to the Fukushima Daiichi reactor that melted down in Japan. Recognizing this folly, the Board of Seattle City Light sent a letter to BPA indicating they must stop purchasing power from CGS. EWEB commissioners should do the same. Nuclear power is a risk we can’t afford. More than giving us pause, this should be full stop.
Science and Technology: ¶ “Clean energy can provide 100% of electricity” • A report by the Centre for Alternative Technology says clean energy could meet all our electricity needs, using only existing technology, at all times of the day, and all year round. It draws on “scenarios” designed to meet the targets of the Paris […]
The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission NTTF [Near Term Task Force] observed that, “some [nuclear] plants have an overreliance on operator actions and temporary flood mitigation measures such as using sandbags, temporary flood walls and barriers, and portable equipment to perform safety functions.” The NTTF report also states that, “the Task Force has concluded that flooding risks are of concern due to a „cliff-edge‟ effect, in that the safely consequences of a flooding event may increase sharply with a small increase in the flooding level. Therefore, it would be very beneficial to safety for all licensees to confirm that structures, systems, and components (SSCs) important to safely are adequately protected from floods.” [1]
The NRC describes Brunswick Nuclear Power Station’s interim solution to flooding: “the licensee planned to install metal “Cliff Edge Barriers” at targeted areas on site. These barriers are installed 1 to 3 days prior to…
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Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes – A good documentary on Chernobyl on SBS available On Demand for the next 3 weeks– https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/chernobyl-the-lost-tapes/2352741955560
of the week–London Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Tell the Ukrainian Government to Drop Prosecution of Peace Activist Yurii Sheliazhenko
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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