Pennsylvania Senators concerned about coronavirus response plan at Limerick nuclear plant
Sen. Muth seeks answers about coronavirus response plan at Limerick nuclear plant, The Mercury By Carl Hessler Jr. chessler@21st-centurymedia.com @MontcoCourtNews on Twitter, Apr 2, 2020
LIMERICK — A state senator who represents parts of Montgomery, Berks and Chester counties called upon Exelon to improve its commitment to worker and community safety during a refueling at the Limerick Generating Station amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
“Thus far, Exelon has provided an inadequate pandemic response plan, withheld information from county and state officials, and failed to prioritize the safety of its employees, contract workers, community first responders, as well as all residents of the 44th senatorial district and entire region,” Senator Katie Muth (D-44th) wrote in an April 1 letter addressed to Exelon executives. “This is grossly irresponsible as Exelon has brought at least 1,400 workers to the epicenter of Pennsylvania’s Covid-19 pandemic.”…….
Arkoosh said she was “deeply concerned” to learn that a number of the estimated 1,400 contract workers were staying at AirBnBs, private homes, campsites, hotels and other rental units in the Tri-county region, which saw its first cases of coronavirus on March 7.
Muth said she too is concerned and asked Exelon officials to provide a complete list of worker accommodations…….https://www.pottsmerc.com/news/coronavirus/sen-muth-seeks-answers-about-coronavirus-response-plan-at-limerick-nuclear-plant/article_7706e28e-7505-11ea-a590-6307cba4e976.html
Covid 19 and government responses are affecting nuclear construction world-wide
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The restrictions on travel, public gatherings and certain business operations introduced by the USA and other jurisdictions in response to the novel coronavirus have significantly disrupted economic activity in the service territories of Southern Company’s utility subsidiaries and have caused volatility in capital markets, it said in its 1 April financial filing. “The effects of the continued outbreak of COVID-19 and related government responses could include extended disruptions to supply chains and capital markets, reduced labour availability and productivity and a prolonged reduction in economic activity,” it said. “These effects could have a variety of adverse impacts on the company and its subsidiaries, including reduced demand for energy, particularly from commercial and industrial customers, impairment of goodwill or long-lived assets and impairment of the ability of the company and its subsidiaries to develop, construct and operate facilities and to access funds from financial institutions and capital markets. In particular, these effects could disrupt or delay construction, testing, supervisory and support activities at Plant Vogtle Units 3 and 4.” The units’ licensee, Southern Nuclear Operating Company, Inc, has implemented policies and procedures designed to mitigate the risk of transmission at the construction site, including worker distancing measures, isolating individuals who are showing symptoms consistent with COVID-19, being tested for COVID-19 or who have been in close contact with such persons, requiring self-quarantine and adopting additional precautionary measures, the company said. “It is too early to determine what impact, if any, the COVID-19 outbreak will have on the current construction schedule or budget for Plant Vogtle Units 3 and 4,” it added. Rosatom General Director Alexey Likhachov said on 1 April the company was working to give Rosatom personnel working on construction sites abroad the chance to return home. “Everyone will be given the opportunity to return in the very next few days,” he said. According to World Nuclear Association, seven Russian-designed reactors are currently under construction in Belarus, India, Bangladesh and Turkey. Likhachov also said that the entire operational staff working in the control rooms at the Beloyarsk nuclear power plant have been isolated after an employee fell ill with coronavirus. All employees from the five duty shifts now living separately from families in a local clinic, and travel to the plant by special transport, he said. |
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The pandemic is being used by Trump administration to help polluting industries
Trump Administration is using a pandemic to hand out gifts to its favorite polluters
The Trump Administration is using COVID-19 to further its dismantling of environmental protection. Environmental Health News, Peter Dykstra 5 Apr 20, “……… far away from the justifiably wall-to-wall coverage of COVID-19, the Trump Administration is unrepentantly using the pandemic to hand out gifts to its favorite polluters.COVID-19 news deeply saddens me. This other stuff infuriates me.
Last week, the American Petroleum Institute (API) sent a 10-page letter to the White House requesting a loosening of regulations, citing the COVID-19-related crash in oil and gas prices and the threat it posed to the fossil fuel industry. The White House, via Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler, granted their wish list and then some.
Past talk warning against the feds “picking winners and losers” in energy went by the boards.
Five days later, Wheeler issued an order that gave API even more than it asked for, calling for a suspension of any enforcement of EPA regulations if any company, fossil fuel-based or not, or local government can prove that COVID-19 was the cause of its failure to comply.
Former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, now the President and CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council, called the move “an open license to pollute.”
The EPA required companies to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions. No more. Because coronavirus.
Wheeler also took the heat off entities forced by court-sanctioned consent decrees to fix pollution problems. Because coronavirus.
EPA cut frackers a break on wastewater discharges. Because coronavirus………. https://www.ehn.org/trump-epa-pollution-coronavirus-2645628019.html
Nuclear Plant Transfer to go on Despite Coronavirus Concerns
Nuclear Plant Transfer to go on Despite Coronavirus Concerns https://www.capecod.com/newscenter/nuclear-plant-transfer-to-go-on-despite-coronavirus-concerns/April 5, 2020 PLYMOUTH, Mass. (AP) — Plans to transfer radioactive spent fuel at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth to steel-lined dry casks will go on as scheduled despite the coronavirus pandemic.
Pilgrim permanently shut down last May and was subsequently sold by Entergy Corp. to Holtec International for decommissioning.
There have been concerns about moving the fuel during the pandemic because some of the workers brought in to do the job were from out of state.
A Holtec spokesman says the company understands the concerns and in response, some workers were sent home and requested to self-quarantine for two weeks prior to beginning the work.
214 airmen tested positive for COVID-19: but USA still ready to wage nuclear war
Coronavirus Won’t Stop Donald Trump from Waging a Nuclear War
The U.S. military is ready to deter any threat–by any means. National Interest, by Peter Suciu– 5 Apr 20, Earlier this week the United States Air Force implemented a service-wide “reset” that was meant to insulate the most essential missions from the COVID -19 pandemic. Air Force Chief of Staff General Dave Goldfein issued orders to the leaders of each Air Force major command on April 1 to focus on the essential task that could require additional manpower.
Ensuring the readiness of the command remains a priority as the coronavirus has impacted the service.
Wildfires in Ukraine: authorities say that those near Chernobyl are now extinguished
Ukraine Says Fire Extinguished Near Contaminated Site Of Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster, Emergency authorities in Ukraine say there are no signs of any fire still burning in the uninhabited exclusion zone around the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear plant after firefighters mobilized to put out a blaze.
Radio Free Europe, 5 Apr 20, The country’s State Emergency Service said early on April 5 that background radiation levels were “within normal limits.”
More than 130 firefighters, three aircraft, and 21 vehicles were deployed on April 4 to battle the fire, which was said to have burned around 20 hectares (50 acres) in the long-vacated area near where an explosion at a Soviet nuclear plant in 1986 sent a plume of radioactive fallout high into the air and across swaths of Europe.
Fire and safety crews were said to be inspecting the area overnight on April 4-5 to eliminate any threat from sites where there was still smoldering.
The blaze required seven airdrops of water, officials said.
There was no threat to settlements, the State Emergency Service said.
Firefighters battle forest blazes near Chernobyl nuclear site
 Ukraine battles forest fires near Chernobyl https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/forest-fire-chernobyl-boosts-radiation-level-69983859
Ukrainian says firefighters are laboring to put out two forest blazes in the area around the Chernobyl nuclear power station that was evacuated because of radioactive contamination after the 1986 explosion at the plant By The Associated Press 6 April 2020 MINSK, Belarus — Ukrainian firefighters labored into Sunday night trying to put out two forest blazes in the area around the Chernobyl nuclear power station, which was evacuated because of radioactive contamination after the 1986 explosion at the plant.
Ukraine’s emergencies service said one of the fires, covering about five hectares (12 acres), had been localized. It said the other fire was about 20 hectares (50 acres). Earlier Sunday, the head of the state ecological inspection service, Yehor Firsov, said the fires had spread to about 100 hectares (250 acres). The discrepancy in sizes could not immediately be resolved. Firsov said radiation levels at the fire were substantially higher than normal. But the emergencies service said radiation levels in the capital of Kyiv, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) south, were within norms. The fires were within the 2,600-square-kilometer (1,000-square-mile) Chernobyl Exclusion Zone established after the 1986 disaster at the plant that sent a cloud of radioactive fallout over much of Europe. The zone is largely unpopulated, although about 200 people have remained despite orders to leave. |
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Radiation spike as forest fire hits Chernobyl nuclear zone
Radiation spike as forest fire hits Chernobyl nuclear zone https://www.deccanherald.com/international/world-news-politics/radiation-spike-as-forest-fire-hits-chernobyl-nuclear-zone-821778.html AFP, Kiev, APR 05 2020, AFP, Kiev, APR 05 2020, 21:04 IST UPDATED: APR 05 2020, 21:31 IST AFP/file photo Ukrainian authorities on Sunday reported a spike in radiation levels in the restricted zone around Chernobyl, scene of the world’s worst nuclear accident, c aused by a forest fire.
Canada’s Nuclear Waste Management Organization to spend millions on propaganda
Nuclear Waste Management Organization to spend millions on community engagement, stakeholders in coming years, CBC, Jeff Walters ·CBC News 04, 2020, The group responsible for finding a place to bury Canada’s spent nuclear fuel says it will work on community engagement as one of its key priorities over the next handful of years.
The NWMO said it would look for public input on transportation options through 2020, with the first shipment of nuclear waste shipped in 2043.
Public consultation over the past three years noted safety, transportation, and site selection are the major concerns with the project. Local risks and benefits were also noted as major priorities for those who are closest to the proposed sites…..Community engagement is also a priority for the NWMO, with the group budgeting up to $50 million annually within the next five years. An additional $5 million will be spent on stakeholder relations………
Over the past three years, the NWMO has sponsored, or partaken in over 70 community events in the Dryden and Ignace area. There are also dozens of school-related activities sponsored by the NWMO as well. ……https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/nwmo-future-2020-1.5516676
When a nuclear submarine hit an underwater mountain
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This Is What Happens When a Nuclear Submarine Hits a ‘Mountain’
That’s one heck of an accident. National Interest by Caleb Larson Apr 5, 20 20, In 2005, a U.S. Navy nuclear submarine ran around on a mountain. No, it wasn’t out of the water—it hit an underground mountain, and nearly sank. The USS San Francisco is an American nuclear powered submarine, one of the large Los Angeles-class submarines first laid down in 1972 and are among the U.S. Navy’s quietest submarines. At the time of the collision, or grounding in Navy parlance, the USS San Francisco was near Guam on a peacetime training mission en route to Australia. The sub was at a depth of about 525 feet and skipping along at a crisp thirty-ish miles per hour. The grounding was massive. Sailors in the dining room were tossed up to twenty-five feet across the mess-hall. One of the sub’s Petty Officers, Brian Barnes, recalled the incident during an interview with 60 minutes. “I remember just bodies everywhere,” he said. “Broken glass, stepping on plates, your shipmates moaning because they’re in pain, yelling.” The bow of the USS San Francisco was shattered, the frontal thirty feet or so were crushed and exposed to the sea. Water was rushing into the sub—it was critical that an emergency blow be initiated in which air is pumped into the submarines ballast tanks to bring it up to the surface. …… https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/what-happens-when-nuclear-submarine-hits-mountain-140687 |
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Sizewell C nuclear project: community has lost faith in the integrity of EDF
 East Anglian Daily Times (not on web) 3rd April 2020, John Rea Price: Community has lost faith in the integrity of EDF.So EDF has generously agreed to defer their application for planning consent “by a few weeks”, actually for just a month the website of the Planning Inspectorate suggests.
Mr Cadoux Hudson of EDF goes on to promise that more
time would be given for people to register as participants in the public examination. What he didn’t say is that this will be an extremely formal and legalistic process with very little opportunity for genuine engagement by members of the community and is thus a meaningless concession. He goes on to say that over eight years of public consultation EDF has tried hard to be transparent. He doesn’t seem to appreciate that the community has experienced its efforts as truculent and dismissive.
Despite repeated demands at each of the four stage of public consultation it has, in particular, failed to provide any evidence of substance and quality on the probable cumulative environmental impact of its development on this
uniquely sensitive landscape and coastline. The consequence has been that communities that were not in principle opposed to Sizewell C have become its bitterest opponents. Such is the loss of any faith in the integrity of EDF that many now believe that it will exploit the opportunity of this grave national crisis to drive its application forward as aggressively as possible.
It will thus seek to minimise the depth of scrutiny that its very
complex proposals demand at a time when statutory agencies, county, district and parish councils, conservation bodies and community groups have the least capacity to undertake this. https://www.eadt.co.uk/news |
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Cook nuclear station employees prepared to camp at the plant
 Cook Nuclear Plant ready if critical employees can’t go home, Herald Palladium, By ALEXANDRA NEWMAN HP Staff Writer, Apr 3, 2020, BRIDGMAN — Most people don’t imagine camping in the shadow of a nuclear power plant, but that’s what some workers at Cook Nuclear Plant are preparing to do.
“Being part of the nuclear industry, we have to be prepared for everything,” plant spokesman Bill Downey said. “We have to protect the plant and keep the power running. To do that, we’ve got to have some critical employees that are here and available in a moments notice.” Cook employees with access to travel trailers have toted them over to the parking lot at the plant in case the need should arise for them to be sequestered in place on site during the coronavirus pandemic. “We’re ready should things get bad. If we lose employees or if we get surrounded and the governor comes down that we need to protect the plant,” Downey said. “We have pretty high bar guidelines to follow.” Nuclear plants have pandemic plans in addition to their natural disaster plans.,,,,,,, https://www.heraldpalladium.com/news/cook-nuclear-plant-ready-if-critical-employees-cant-go-home/article_5af88489-29c1-5f8e-9666-035eff63bfbe.html |
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Cordova Exelon nuclear plant has worker with confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis
Cordova Exelon nuclear plant has worker with confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis, Robert Connelly, Apr 3, 2020
KEVIN E. SCHMIDT CORDOVA, Ill. — A worker at Exelon Generation’s Quad-Cities Nuclear Power Plant has a confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis.
That worker is receiving, care and any employees who came into contact with that worker or work where that affected worker is employed have been notified, said Bill Stoermer, spokesman for the Quad-Cities Station……. https://qctimes.com/business/cordova-exelon-nuclear-plant-has-worker-with-confirmed-covid-19-diagnosis/article_d665fe44-6d12-5d26-925f-497afc2e1db7.html
Captain on nuclear aircraft carrier took a stand, and is paying the price
Captain Brett Crozier Takes A Stand James Fallows, April 3, 2020 2020 Time Capsule #11: ‘Captain Crozier’The Atlantic The episode I’m about to mention has been receiving saturation social-media attention for the past few hours, as I write. But because the accelerating torrent of news tends to blast away each day’s events and make them hard to register—even a moment like this, which I expect will be included in histories of our times—I think it is worth noting this episode while it is fresh.Until a few days ago, Brett Crozier would have been considered among the U.S. Navy’s most distinguished commanders………
The four-page letter, which you can read in full at the Chronicle’s site, used the example of recent cruise-ship infection disasters to argue that closed shipboard environments were the worst possible location for people with the disease. It laid out the case for immediate action to protect the Roosevelt’s crew, and ended this way:
7. Conclusion. Decisive action is required. Removing the majority of personnel from a deployed US. nuclear aircraft carrier and isolating them for two weeks may seem like an extraordinary measure. A portion of the crew (approximately 10%) would have to stay aboard to run the reactor plant, sanitize the ship, ensure security, and provide for contingency response to emergencies.
This is a necessary risk. It will enable the carrier and air wing to get back underway as quickly as possible while ensuring the health and safety of our Sailors. Keeping over 4,000 young men and women on board the TR is an unnecessary risk and breaks faith with those Sailors entrusted to our care…
This will require a political solution but it is the right thing to do. We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die. If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset our Sailors. Request all available resources to find NAVADMIN and CDC compliant quarantine rooms for my entire crew as soon as possible.
“Breaks faith with those Sailors entrusted to our care.” “We are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset our Sailors.” “Unnecessary risk.” In any walk of life, such language would have great power. Within the military—where terms like faith and trust and care have life-and-death meaning, and are the fundamental reason people follow leaders into combat—these words draw the starkest possible line. This course is right. The other course is wrong. Thus a leader spoke on behalf of the people “entrusted to our care.”…….
- Based on information available as I write, it appears that he took a stand, and is paying the price.
Brett Crozier will no longer be one of the Navy’s most powerful commanders. He remains in the service, but his command has been taken away.
He will likely be remembered among its leaders. https://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2020/04/time-capsule-11-captain-crozier/609409/
Navy sailor dies in accident onboard under-construction nuclear submarine.
Navy sailor dies in accident onboard under-construction nuclear submarine. Navy has ordered a Board of Inquiry into the incident, By Pradip R Sagar April 04, 2020 A navy sailor has died in an accident on board one of Indian Navy’s under-construction nuclear submarines. Considering the secrecy of the project, the Navy has not divulged the name of the submarine.
The Incident happened at Navy’s Vizag-based eastern naval command ship building centre jetty on April 1. …. https://www.theweek.in/news/india/2020/04/04/navy-sailor-dies-in-accident-onboard-under-construction-nuclear-.html
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