Oyster Creek nuclear plant sale to Holtec is complete, App.com, Amanda Oglesby, Asbury Park Press, July 2, 2019, LACEYOyster Creek Generating Station is now in the hands of Holtec – International, which completed the purchase of the now-defunct nuclear facility on Monday.
Oyster Creek, before it shut down in September, was one of the nation’s oldest nuclear power plants. Camden-based Holtec plans to decommission this half-century-old facility and profit off the reactor’s nearly $1 billion decommissioning trust fund, money set aside for dismantling the reactor.
Under the agreement, Holtec subsidiaries Oyster Creek Environmental Protection International LLC will serve as owner and Holtec Decommissioning International will oversee decommissioning.
Holtec purchased the power plant for an undisclosed amount from Exelon Generation of Chicago.
Exelon had originally planned to take the plant down slowly over the course of 60 years in a process that would have allowed some of the facility’s dangerous radioactivity to degrade to safer levels. But Holtec’s proposal seeks to complete the decommissioning within a mere 10 years. The company says its new spent fuel storage systems enable hot, radioactive fuel to be removed from the plant’s cooling pool and placed into storage casks years earlier than originally planned.
Holtec is also applying to build an fuel storage facility in New Mexico, but is waiting on approvals. In the meantime, the spent fuel will be stored in steel and concrete canisters on the plant’s property in Lacey…….
Currently, Holtec is also developing small modular nuclear reactors….
Inside the cask
Casks hold dangerous radioactive elements like Cesium-137, Strontium-90 and Plutonium-239, fuel bi-products created inside reactors, which remain dangerous for generations.
Here’s what they do to people.
Cesium 137
Can burn skin, cause radiation sickness and damage tissue. In high doses, it can cause cancer.
Strontium-90
Is absorbed like calcium within the body and can lead to bone cancer, bone marrow cancer, and cancer in the tissues near bones.
Plutonium 239 and 240
Both remain dangerously radioactive for thousands of years. If inhaled, plutonium particles can scar the lungs, damage bones, liver and spleen and cause cancer.
A local residents group, the Concerned Citizens for Lacey Coalition, is demanding more answers from the company about its plans to quickly demolish Oyster Creek. Coalition member Paul Dressler worries about Lacey being a “guinea pig” for the relatively new and evolving process.
Dressler and coalition Chairman Ron Martyn, who live about five miles from the plant, want assurances that Holtec won’t abandon the project if money runs out before completion. They also want to see the regulatory agency that oversees plant decommissioning, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, come up with more stringent rules and best practices for this emerging practice.
MOSCOW –President Vladimir Putin has signed a bill suspending Russia’s participation in a pivotal nuclear arms treaty. Putin’s decree released on Wednesday formalizes Russia’s departure from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty with the United States following Washington’s withdrawal from the pact.
The U.S. gave notice of its intention to withdraw from the INF in February, setting the stage for it to terminate in six months unless Moscow returns to compliance. Russia has denied any breaches, and accused the U.S. of violating the pact. Moscow followed Washington’s example in February, also suspending its obligations under the treaty.
Putin has warned the U.S. against deploying new missiles in Europe, saying that Russia will retaliate by fielding new fast weapons that will take just as little time to reach their targets.
From ProPublica: https://www.propublica.org: “THE REAL BOSSES OF NEW JERSEY Meet the Congressman Defending Questionable Tax Breaks for a Company Connected to His Rich Brother After multiple issues have surfaced with Holtec International’s New Jersey tax break application, Rep. Donald Norcross, its biggest congressional supporter (and the brother of a Holtec board member) is playing defense. […]
Originally posted on Mining Awareness + : Nuclear waste can oligarch Kris Pal Singh of Holtec International has a son named Kris Pal Singh Jr. Junior loves to spend millions at a time on fast cars. This Lamborghini is probably too cheap for him. He paid over $4 million for one. We will let the interested reader…
Deadline is blown, but Ohio nuclear plant operators say there’s still time for bailout, By Marty Schladen The Columbus Dispatch Jul 1, 2019
The proprietors of two struggling nuclear power plants in Ohio say they’re continuing with plans to shut down their Lake Erie facilities, but add that they can switch gears to keep them operating if the state legislature passes a bailout bill quickly.
Meanwhile, an opponent of the bailout is continuing his efforts to keep that from happening, and he says it’s a battle that could affect negotiations over Ohio’s belated budget.
Rep. Mark Romanchuk, R-Ontario, said the Davis-Besse plant east of Toledo and the Perry Nuclear Power Plant northeast of Cleveland have received $10.2 billion in state subsidies since 1999.
“While FES is optimistic about the outcome for HB6, the company remains unable to purchase the fuel required for Davis-Besse’s next refueling cycle without the certainty of critical legislative support,” the company said in a statement. “We remain on path for a safe deactivation and decommissioning. Should we receive the long-term certainty that comes with an affirmative vote within this time frame, we will immediately reevaluate our options.”
FirstEnergy Solutions, which is working to emerge from bankruptcy, says it needs $150 million a year from Ohio ratepayers for six years to operate its plants, for a total of $900 million.
Also included in the bailout proposal are two coal-fired power plants, one in Ohio and one in Indiana, that are owned by a group of utilities that includes Columbus-based American Electric Power.
And while HB6 initially was sold as a “clean” energy bill, the latest version would eliminate subsidies for energy efficiency, make it harder to develop wind farms and eliminate a requirement that Ohio’s power companies get 12.5% of their electricity from renewable sources by 2027. ……..
Romanchuk said just the subsidies for the nuclear plants should be enough to reject House Bill 6.
“I’m opposed because 20 years ago we deregulated,” he said Monday. “We don’t need to be giving them subsidies any longer. They’re supposed to be able to compete.”
Over the weekend, as work stalled on HB6, lawmakers failed to pass a two-year budget by the midnight-Sunday deadline, forcing them to pass a 17-day extension. Conflicts over taxes, education and other matters could be sticking points, but Romanchuk suspects the real hangup was HB6.
Inside new £1,300,000,000 structure built over destroyed Chernobyl nuclear reactor https://metro.co.uk/2019/07/03/inside-new-1300000000-structure-built-destroyed-chernobyl-nuclear-reactor-10106545/Georgia Diebelius [excellent photos] 3 Jul 2019Anew structure built to confine the Chernobyl reactor at the centre of the world’s worst nuclear disaster was previewed for the media yesterday. Reactor No. 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine exploded and burned April 26, 1986. The complex construction effort to secure the molten reactor’s core and 200 tons of highly radioactive material has taken nine years to complete under the control of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The structure itself cost £1.5 billion and the entire shelter project cost £2.2 billion. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development managed a fund with contributions from 45 countries, the European Union and £715 million in the bank’s own resources.‘
This was a very long project,’ said Balthasar Lindauer, director of the bank’s Nuclear Safety Department
He said Ukraine was a big contributor, contributing €100 million in cash along with expertise and personnel. Journalists were invited to view the new safe confinement shelter ahead of the handover to Ukrainian authorities.
British Nuclear Expert Says U.S. Has Put Europe In A Tough Spot On Iran, NPR, July 2, 2019 Heard on All Things Considered
NPR’s Audie Cornish talks with former British Iran deal negotiator Richard Dalton. He’s a nuclear expert and talks about Iran’s decision to exceed the uranium limit in the 2015 nuclear agreement
AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:……….
RICHARD DALTON: The Europeans have been put in a position where, after more than a year of patience by Iran, it’s inevitable that they won’t be the only country observing the agreement in full. They are bound to negotiate to try and improve the position in which the United States has left them. But the trouble is that the United States is not showing any interest in putting forward terms that would be negotiable. Iran would, for example, go back into compliance if some of the restrictions on its sale of oil were permitted, thus allowing the Europeans to put more funds into the special purpose vehicle which they’ve put in place to facilitate trade in humanitarian goods. …………
DALTON: Well, most British companies that were interested in trading with Iran are now no longer interested in doing so. There are some maintaining their links in the hope of profitable deals in future when the situation improves. What is needed now is a diplomatic effort involving not just the European Union but also the United States to take some of the heat out of the situation and set the stage for meeting some of the United States’ long term objectives for its diplomacy with Iran.
CORNISH: You used the term bully earlier in talking about the U.S. effort when it comes to Iran. Do you see this as a test of European power, whether it’s strong enough to oppose the U.S. and enforce this deal?
DALTON: European companies and the European Union recognize that the dominance of the dollar in international trading gives the United States very considerable power. And I believe that the Iran episode is going to be a turning point. It will show Russia, China, India, the European Union the value of building up alternative mechanisms for concluding international trade that do not use the dollar in any shape or form.
Oswego County reaches tax agreement with nuclear plants, WRVO, ByPAYNE HORNING 3 July 19,Exelon, the company that owns and operates the nuclear power plants in Oswego County, has reached an agreement with the county on a $69 million tax agreement.
The Payment In Lieu Of Taxes (PILOT) agreement will provide a steady stream of revenue to the county through 2023. Each year, the Mexico Central School District will get $9 million, the county will get $4 million, and the Town of Scriba will get $500,000. That’s about $2 million more per year than under the previous PILOT agreement……
Such deadlines are usually set through negotiations among the Washington Department of Ecology, the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
But the Tri-City Herald reports that the state has become frustrated with a lack of legally-binding deadlines related to the 56 million gallons of radioactive waste in underground storage tanks on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.
The Energy Department had not negotiated the deadlines as required by 2015.
Among other things, the state is requiring the Energy Department to design new underground storage tanks by 2023.
DOE has long objected to building new tanks.
Hanford for decades made plutonium for nuclear weapons.
WIPP Facility Receives 12,500 Shipment Of Nuclear Waste https://www.krwg.org/post/wipp-facility-receives-12500-shipment-nuclear-waste ByKRWG NEWS AND PARTNERS CARLSBAD, N.M. (AP) 3 July 19,— The federal government’s underground nuclear waste repository in New Mexico has received its 12,500th shipment since operations began two decades ago.
The U.S. Energy Department made the announcement Tuesday, saying the shipment arrived at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant just before midnight on June 27.
The shipment originated at Idaho National Laboratory.
The repository is licensed to take Cold War-era waste generated by decades of bomb-making and defense-related nuclear research. The waste includes gloves, clothing, tools and other materials contaminated with radioactive elements.
In all, more than 178,500 containers have been trucked over 14.9 million miles to the repository from sites around the country since 1999. The waste is entombed in disposal rooms carved out of an ancient salt formation about half a mile down.
THREE CONVICTED IN DIMONA NUCLEAR RESEARCH AGENCY FRAUD, Besides the three individual defendants, the case also led to charges against two entities used by the defendants. Jerusalem Post, BY YONAH JEREMY BOB JULY 4, 2019
The Beersheba District Court has convicted three persons engaged by Israel’s nuclear research agency in Dimona of an NIS 3.2 million fraud scheme, including also money-laundering and breach of trust.
Announced for the first time by the court spokesperson’s office on Wednesday, the convictions and jail sentences of the three were actually handed down in April and earlier, but were under gag order due to the implications for national security.
Unlike a normal case probed by police, the investigation was led by a special division in the Defense Ministry which eventually worked with a special team in the state prosecution – again all due to the extreme sensitivity of all issues related to Dimona.
Israel has never confirmed that it has nuclear weapons, but according to foreign sources, the Dimona reactor has been used to produce between 80-200 nuclear weapons which Israel can deploy by land, sea and air.
The central defendant, an external consultant in 2002 who eventually became a senior manager within the Negev Nuclear Research Center in 2011, was sentenced to 30 months in prison and fined NIS 100,000. Another defendant was sentenced to 18 months in prison and fined NIS 75,000. A third defendant had cut a plea deal with the state at an earlier date. Due to the cooperative plea deal, the third defendant received only six months of community service and a NIS 50,000 fine.
Unlike a normal case probed by police, the investigation was led by a special division in the Defense Ministry which eventually worked with a special team in the state prosecution – again all due to the extreme sensitivity of all issues related to Dimona.
Besides the three individual defendants, the case also led to charges against two entities used by the defendants.
Combined, the court fined those companies or seized assets worth NIS 450,000.
A statement by the Justice Ministry said that some of the defendants had appealed the decision to the Supreme Court. …….
David Lowry’s Blog 2nd June 2019 Climate change was the only issue where consensus failed to be reached at the G20 meeting of leaders of the globe’s biggest economies, held in in
Osaka, Japan at the end of last week. Nuclear still is seen as having a
place in the energy mix, but without any real enthusiasm. http://drdavidlowry.blogspot.com/2019/07/g20-in-osaka-blows-hot-and-cold-over.html
The bill would amend the 1990 Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, or RECA. It provides restitution to many people known as “downwinders,” along with uranium mine workers throughout the West.
However, residents in some areas of the Navajo Nation, Arizona, New Mexico and other states aren’t covered, along with miners who worked during much of the 1970s. Many are tribal members who suffer from lung disease, cancer and other health problems they attribute to working in the mines and being exposed to radiation.
The current Senate bill would broaden eligibility for compensation and medical benefits. Navajo President Jonathan Nez and a group of former tribal uranium miners are pushing for its approval.
The U.S. tested nearly 200 atmospheric nuclear weapons between 1945 and 1962. About 30 million tons of uranium ore was mined on or near the Navajo Nation until the mid-1980s.
