CNIC (accessed) 3rd Dec 2020, Nuke Infor Tokyo, November December now available. Includes articles on: METI and NUMO’s Fiasco Applications by two municipalities in Hokkaido to host a nuclear dump actually highlight a massive failure by the Japanese
government; CNIC Statement: We condemn the hasty decision to restart Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant Unit 2; Cultivation trials using contaminated soil with no soil cover
Demonstration Project to compare cultivation with and without soil cover in Nagadoro District, Iitate Village; Nuclear power simply cannot be relied on.
At present only one of the nine nuclear reactors in Japan that have been judged to be in compliance with the new regulatory standards are operating
https://cnic.jp/english/?p=5211
December 4, 2020
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
general |
Leave a comment
Biden Aides’ Ties to Consulting and Investment Firms Pose Ethics Test
Some of the president-elect’s choices for top posts have done work for undisclosed corporate clients and aided a fund that invests in government contractors. NYT, By Eric Lipton and Kenneth P. Vogel, Dec. 1, 2020
WASHINGTON — One firm helps companies navigate global risks and the political and procedural ins and outs of Washington. The other is an investment fund with a particular interest in military contractors.
But the consulting firm, WestExec Advisors, and the investment fund, Pine Island Capital Partners, call themselves strategic partners and have featured an overlapping roster of politically connected officials — including some of the most prominent names on President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s team and others under consideration for high-ranking posts.
Now the Biden team’s links to these entities are presenting the incoming administration with its first test of transparency and ethics.
The two firms are examples of how former officials leverage their expertise, connections and access on behalf of corporations and other interests, without in some cases disclosing details about their work, including the names of the clients or what they are paid.
And when those officials cycle back into government positions, as Democrats affiliated with WestExec and Pine Island are now, they bring with them questions about whether they might favor or give special access to the companies they had worked with in the private sector. Those questions do not go away, ethics experts say, just because the officials cut their ties to their firms and clients, as the Biden transition team says its nominees will do.
WestExec’s founders include Antony J. Blinken, Mr. Biden’s choice to be his secretary of state, and Michèle A. Flournoy, one of the leading candidates to be his defense secretary. Among others to come out of WestExec are Avril Haines, Mr. Biden’s pick to be director of national intelligence; Christina Killingsworth, who is helping the president-elect organize his White House budget office; Ely Ratner, who is helping organize the Biden transition at the Pentagon; and Jennifer Psaki, an adviser on Mr. Biden’s transition team.
WestExec did not respond when asked for a list of its clients. But according to people familiar with the arrangement, they include Shield AI, a San Diego-based company that makes surveillance drones and signed a contract worth as much as $7.2 million with the Air Force this year to deliver artificial intelligence tools to help drones operate in combat missions.
At the same time, Mr. Blinken and Ms. Flournoy have served as advisers to Pine Island Capital, which this month raised $218 million for a new fund to finance investments in military and aerospace companies, among other targets.
The team recruited by Pine Island Capital Partners — which is led by John Thain, the chief executive of Merrill Lynch at the time of its collapse in 2008 during the recession and sale to Bank of America — was chosen based on its members’ “access, network and expertise” to help the company “take advantage of the current and future opportunities present in the aerospace, defense and government services industries,” including artificial intelligence, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing in September describing the new fund, Pine Island Acquisition Corporation.
Pine Island Capital has been on something of a buying spree this year, purchasing the weapons system parts manufacturer Precinmac and a company until recently known as Meggitt Training Systems and now known as InVeris, which sells computer-simulated weapons training systems to the Pentagon and law enforcement agencies.
Another person listed as a member of the Pine Island team is Lloyd J. Austin III, a retired Army general who is also under consideration for defense secretary, according to a person familiar with the selection process……..
Mr. Biden’s team has faced pressure from the left and government watchdogs to outline steps to minimize the sort of corporate influence and conflicts of interest that marked President Trump’s tenure from the start.
These groups worry not only that Mr. Biden’s aides could shape government policies in ways that could benefit companies that paid their firms, but also that the firms could become magnets for access seekers in the Biden administration……….. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/28/us/politics/biden-westexec.html?smid=tw-share
December 4, 2020
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
election USA 2020, politics |
Leave a comment
20Minutes 3rd Dec 2020, This Thursday and until January 15, the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) is opening a public consultation on the conditions for the continued operation, beyond 40 years, of the 34 900 MWe (electric megawatt) reactors in France. The subject is very sensitive. “France has not prepared any alternatives so that the non-extension of these reactors can be an option”, deplores Greenpeace.
The challenge then is that these reactors provide the same levels of safety as the EPRs, new generation reactors. Is it
possible ? Yves Marignac, at NegaWatt, like Roger Spautz, at Greenpeace, doubt it. Above all, they question the technical and financial capacities of EDF to carry out the adjustments requested by ASN to allow these extensions.
https://www.20minutes.fr/planete/2920535-20201203-nucleaire-prolongation-reacteurs-dela-40-ans-serieux
tion.wordpress.com/
December 4, 2020
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
France, politics |
Leave a comment
|
  SCANA, Dominion agree to pay $25 million civil fine in massive nuclear fraud case, The State, BY JOHN MONK, DECEMBER 03, 2020, COLUMBIA, SC
SCANA and its successor company, Dominion Energy, have reached an agreement to pay the federal Securities and Exchange Commission a $25 million civil fine in one of the state’s largest civil fraud cases, according to public court records filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court.
Under the proposed settlement, neither SCANA, a now-defunct company, nor Dominion Energy, its successor company, admit any fault in the multi-billion dollar business failure of one of the state’s largest construction projects ever – the effort to build two nuclear power plants in Fairfield County.
However, under the proposal, neither corporation can publicly claim it is innocent of any wrong-doing alleged in the SEC’s 87-page civil complaint, filed last February in U.S. District Court in Columbia.
In its February complaint, the SEC depicted the once-respected SCANA, whose shares had been publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange, and its two top executives as carrying out a brazen con scheme for nearly three years to prop up the company’s stock and hide the truth about the impending collapse of the nuclear project.
The SEC alleged more than 35 separate instances of alleged lies and cover-ups by former SCANA CEO Kevin Marsh and former SCANA executive vice president Stephen Byrne from the beginning of 2015 to August, 2017, just after SCANA announced it was abandoning the project after a total of $9 billion was spent.
The 35-plus alleged lies and deceptions by the two men fell in five separate categories over some 32 months: untruths to investors and analysts, cover-ups of crucial information, falsehoods to S.C. government oversight bodies, concealment of vital information to the federal SEC and deceitful video and other presentations to lawmakers and the news media, according to an analysis of the complaint by The State newspaper.
Byrne, 60, recently pleaded guilty to criminal fraud in the case and is awaiting sentencing. Marsh, 65, last week agreed to plead guilty to criminal fraud, according to filings in U.S. District Court.
Both Marsh and Byrne are defendants in the SEC’s civil fraud case, and the civil fraud charges against them “remain ongoing,” court records said.
The proposed settlement, which was filed by U.S. Attorney for South Carolina Peter McCoy and signed on Wednesday, still must be approved by a federal judge…………. https://www.thestate.com/news/local/crime/article247563565.html
|
|
December 4, 2020
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
Legal, USA |
Leave a comment
Court retracts NRA approval of safety measures at nuclear plant, Asahi Shimbun, By TAKASHI ENDO/ Staff Writer, December 4, 2020 OSAKA--A district court struck down central government approval of safety measures at the Oi nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture, effectively rejecting tougher safety screening guidelines used by the Nuclear Regulation Authority.
The Osaka District Court on Dec. 4 sided with plaintiffs who argued that the safety guidelines underestimated the maximum possible movement generated by an earthquake around the No. 3 and No. 4 reactors at the plant, operated by Kansai Electric Power Co.
However, the lawsuit filed by about 130 residents who live in Fukui and six neighboring prefectures did not seek a temporary injunction, so the two reactors can continue operating until the ruling is finalized.
The tougher safety standards were adopted after the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami caused the triple meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in 2011.
The lawsuit revolved around whether the basic earthquake ground motion figure used by Kansai Electric in its safety measures was appropriate.
Electric power companies that operate nuclear plants set their own basic earthquake ground motion figures. The NRA uses its screening guidelines to determine if the calculated figures are appropriate……..
The plaintiffs argued that this calculation method only produces an “average” for the quake scale, meaning that the safety measures are not based on the maximum strength of a possible earthquake in the area. …….
The court, however, accepted the plaintiffs’ case and ordered a retraction of the approval of the Oi plant’s safety measures.
The ruling was the fourth victory for resident plaintiffs seeking a temporary injunction or retraction of government approval. http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/13989665
December 4, 2020
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
Japan, Legal |
Leave a comment
Weather Channel 2nd Dec 2020, The only underground nuclear waste dump in the United States is suffering from shortfalls in planning and staffing that could lead to disruptions at the facility, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office. The report published last month indicated that the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, New Mexico, could become full if the amount of waste shipped to the facility keeps expanding or if a new way of measuring waste is rejected in a pending court challenge, according to the Associated
Press.
The plant, known as the WIPP, was built in the 1980s for the disposal of defense-related nuclear waste, including clothing, tools, rags,
debris, soil and other items contaminated with radioactive elements, according to a fact sheet from the facility. The WIPP’s disposal rooms were carved out of ancient salt beds 2,150 feet below ground.
https://weather.com/news/news/2020-12-02-underground-nuclear-waste-dump-carlsbad-new-mexico
December 4, 2020
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
USA, wastes |
Leave a comment
|
SCANA agrees to settlement on fraud charges in failed nuclear power plant expansion, https://www.wistv.com/2020/12/03/scana-agrees-settlement-fraud-charges-failed-nuclear-power-plant-expansion/ Patrick Phillips | December 3, 2020 CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) – SCANA Corporation and its subsidiary, SCE&G, agreed to settle a lawsuit alleging they defrauded investors about a nuclear plant expansion that was ultimately abandoned, the U.S. Attorney for South Carolina announced Thursday.
United States Attorney Peter M. McCoy, Jr. said the decision will settle Securities and Exchange Commission’s lawsuit which accused them of making false and misleading statements about the nuclear plant expansion. The proposed settlement, which remains subject to court approval, would require SCANA to pay a $25 million penalty and require SCANA and SCE&G to pay $112.5 million in disgorgement plus prejudgment interest, according to a release from McCoy’s office.
“Shareholders were deceived by SCANA and robbed of millions upon millions of dollars,” McCoy said. “I am hopeful that, along with the criminal charges brought forward by our office, this multimillion dollar civil fine and penalty shows that no person or organization is above the law.”
The SEC’s complaint filed in February 2020 alleged that SCANA, SCE&G, and two former senior executives misled investors by claiming that a project to build two nuclear units would qualify the company for more than $1 billion in tax credits when they knew the project was far behind schedule and therefore unlikely to qualify for the tax credits. The complaint alleged that the false statements and omissions boosted SCANA’s stock price and enabled it to raise rates on customers and sell more than $1 billion in bonds. In mid-2017, SCANA announced it was scrapping the project and, according to the complaint, investors lost hundreds of millions of dollars when the truth was revealed.
“The securities laws require public companies and their senior executives to speak truthfully in their statements to investors,” SEC Atlanta Regional Office Associate Director Justin Jeffries said. “This settlement holds SCANA and SCE&G accountable for their alleged fraud and reinforces that companies must not deceive investors.”
The SEC’s complaint, filed in federal court in South Carolina, charged SCANA, SCE&G, SCANA’s former CEO Kevin Marsh and former executive vice president Stephen Byrne with violations of the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws. The complaint charged SCANA, SCE&G and Marsh with reporting violations.
Without admitting or denying the allegations, SCANA and SCE&G agreed to a permanent injunction and to pay $112.5 million in disgorgement plus prejudgment interest, which will be deemed satisfied by SCANA and SCE&G’s settlement payments and related rate payer and shareholder litigation. SCANA also agreed to pay a $25 million penalty.
The litigation against Marsh and Byrne is still ongoing.
|
|
December 4, 2020
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
Legal, USA |
Leave a comment
Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Department accept that nuclear is not a ‘zero carbon’ source of electricity– implications for EdF’s advertisement claims. TASC 30th November 2020
On the 15th October, Together Against Sizewell C (TASC) wrote to BEIS pointing out that the nuclear power developer behind Hinkley Point C and the notional Sizewell C plants was justifying its TV ad claim that it is the ‘biggest producer of carbon free electricity’ by referencing a BEIS website in which the claim of ’zero carbon’ was made for renewables and nuclear.
In a response to TASC received on the 25th November, Director of Nuclear at BEIS, Stephen Speed who also co-chairs the BEIS/NGO nuclear forum acknowledged the error, stated, ‘….we agree with your argument that the environmental impact table of the Fuel Mix Disclosure report could cause confusion. I have asked for the report to be amended with a line that explains that the table relates only to generator emissions in the operational phase and does not include emissions related to the fuel supply chain or maintenance
activities.’
Despite the fact that TASC would still contest the assumption that even generator carbon emissions are zero, the concession
from BEIS is a good interim result. Commenting on the agreement to alter the information on the website, Pete Wilkinson, Chairman of TASC, said today, ‘This acknowledgement from BEIS is welcome and important. At a time when the future of nuclear power in the UK is in the balance, removing official support for the zero carbon claim changes the game, and fundamentally exposes nuclear power’s climate change credentials as insignificant.
The word ‘zero’ can no longer be used when referencing nuclear power and carbon. ‘Moreover, it forces EdF to desist in making
the assertion which they had hitherto justified by pointing to a BEIS website which upheld their misplaced claim. ‘It may also, finally, force our local MP, Dr Therese Coffey, to drop the phrase as well. Incredibly for a Secretary of State, she has used the zero carbon claim in her response to the EdF planning application which the inspectorate will be examining next year and has refused to meet members of TASC on the grounds that our anti-nuclear views are ‘well known’. Such an attitude is rude, facile and possibly in breach of the Parliamentary Code.’
https://tasizewellc.org.uk/tasc-news/
December 3, 2020
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
climate change, UK |
Leave a comment
Nuclear has fewer emissions than other sources of power? Think again! https://www.thestar.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editors/2020/12/02/nuclear-has-fewer-emissions-than-other-sources-of-power-think-again.html Evelyn Gigantes, Ottawa, Wed., Dec. 2, 2020 – “Nuclear a source of clean energy, waste still a problem to be solved, “
There is more than one problem with nuclear (energy).
It is not true that nuclear produces no carbon emissions once it is in operation. The problem is not just the highly dangerous waste, itself, but the fact that dealing with the waste would necessarily involve enormous amounts of machine-handled waste packaging, transportation, construction and maintenance, each of which would produce significant carbon emissions.
To claim that the “only” problem with nuclear is the unsolved waste problem is to sneakily promote more nuclear development: witness the new campaign by the nuclear industry and its backers to start a new building program of so-called SMRs (small modular reactors), some fuelled by recycled high-level nuclear fuel waste and producing more radioactive waste than current CANDU reactors.
You think we have waste problems now?
December 3, 2020
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
general |
Leave a comment
|
 Trump’s Support for Israel’s Killing of Iranian Scientist Could Lead to War,
Marjorie Cohn, Truthout– December 1, 2020,
- In the weeks remaining before Joe Biden’s inauguration, Donald Trump is taking actions — including aiding and abetting murder — to prevent his successor from pursuing diplomacy with Iran.
On November 27, Israel assassinated Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, Iran’s top nuclear scientist. International law expert Richard Falk called it “an outrageous act of state terrorism.” Although the Israeli government has not claimed credit for the illegal killing, there is little doubt of its culpability. Trump implicitly praised the assassination, retweeting a comment by Israeli journalist and intelligence expert Yossi Melman that the killing was a “major psychological and professional blow” to Iran. This was an “implicit approval if there ever was one,” according to Sina Toossi, a senior research analyst at the National Iranian American Council.
The Israel Defense Forces have been ordered to prepare for a possible U.S. military attack on Iran before Trump’s term ends, senior Israeli officials told Axios. They expect “a very sensitive period” leading up to Biden’s inauguration.
In mid-November, Trump requested plans to attack Iran’s Natanz nuclear power facility but was reportedly talked out of it. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi Arabia and strategized about Iran. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Israel, the West Bank, the Golan Heights and several countries in the Gulf to discuss Iran.
During Pompeo’s visit to the Gulf, the U.S. Central Command announced that B-52 strategic bombers carried out a “short-notice, long-range mission into the Middle East to deter aggression and reassure U.S. partners and allies.”
And in an unusual move, the U.S. military sent the aircraft carrier the U.S.S. Nimitz back to the Gulf region following the assassination of Fakhrizadeh.
“All options are on the table,” State Department officials who were traveling with Pompeo told reporters.
Trump Appears to Have Outsourced His Iran Policy to Israel
Israeli leaders think Iran poses an existential threat to Israel’s existence, in spite of the fact that Iran has never attacked Israel or any other country in the last 200 years. In fact, Israel is the only Middle East country that has nuclear weapons and it refuses to join the new UN International Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
At Netanyahu’s urging, Trump pulled the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal, which was preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons. And in January, the Trump administration illegally assassinated Iran’s top general, Qassim Suleimani. Shortly before that assassination, Pompeo followed the same pattern — traveling and meetings with U.S. allies in the region, according to Iranian American journalist Negar Mortazavi.
The Iran nuclear agreement is embodied in the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), negotiated during the Obama administration between Iran, the U.S., France, U.K., Russia, China, Germany and the European Union. Iran, which has consistently maintained that its nuclear program is only intended for peaceful purposes, agreed to restrict its uranium enrichment and other nuclear activities. In return, it received relief from the punishing U.S. sanctions. The UN International Atomic Energy Agency certified several times that Iran was complying with its obligations under the agreement. Nevertheless, Trump withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018 and reimposed the sanctions against Iran.
One year after the U.S. withdrawal, Iran began to pull back from its commitments under the JCPOA, which allows a party to abandon its obligations if another party is in noncompliance. Trump intensified the sanctions that have devastated Iran’s economy, impoverished 82 million Iranians and hindered its ability to respond to the pandemic. With his campaign of “maximum pressure” on Iran, Trump has waged economic warfare against the Iranian people……..
It is becoming clear that Trump aims to cater to Israel’s agenda until he leaves office.
U.S. and Israel Try to Bait Iran to Retaliate and Lead to Middle East War
Hopefully, Iran will resist the apparent U.S.-Israeli attempt to provoke it into retaliating for Fakhrizadeh’s assassination and thereby provide Trump with a pretext to launch a retaliatory strike, which would ignite a war in the Middle East. The U.S. military already has more than 40,000 troops in the region on high alert.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani pledged to respond to the assassination of Fakhrizadeh at the “proper time.” Rouhani said, “The Iranian nation is smarter than falling into the trap of the Zionists. They are thinking to create chaos.” The day after the assassination, Iran’s parliament unanimously voted to end future UN inspections of Iran’s nuclear sites. The inspections had confirmed that Iran was in compliance with the JCPOA. Terminating them could spell an end to the nuclear deal…….
It is up to Congress, as well as civil society, to prevent the Biden administration from continuing the U.S. policy of caving to Israel’s demands — a practice that not only deepens the oppression of the Palestinians but could also actively imperil the national security of the United States.
Meanwhile, we must pressure Congress to prevent Trump from attacking Iran. The consequences to the Middle East and the entire world would be catastrophic. https://truthout.org/articles/trumps-support-for-israels-killing-of-iranian-scientist-could-lead-to-war/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=1a5fde20-0879-45fe-9c19-50ff3b76e37e
|
|
December 3, 2020
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
Iran, politics international, USA, weapons and war |
1 Comment
US Nuclear Site Cleanup Underfunded By Up To $70 Billion, Clean Technica, December 1st, 2020 by Michael Barnard
Headlines out of the UK are pointing out the horrible state of affairs for nuclear generation decommissioning after a committee of Members of Parliament that the UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority really doesn’t have a handle on the 17 sites, their costs, or the vendors they selected for cleanup. They are currently projecting $177 billion and 120 years for the full decommissioning, over $1 billion per site. Some of this is due to botched procurement, with two different cleanup vendors stripped of their contracts.
Certainly the UK cleanup is a fustercluck of epic proportions, equivalent in fiscal sense to building Hinkley. That new reactor, billions and years over budget and schedule, required a commitment for 35 years to pay $150/MWh for every MWh they generated, at a time when onshore wind and solar in the UK are at or under $50/MWh and offshore wind is under $100/MWh.
Some US commenters were feeling chuffed, although that’s not a term they would use, that the US was handling things so much better. But the USA isn’t far behind the UK in problems, it just isn’t as public.
Per the World Nuclear Association:
In the USA, utilities are collecting 0.1 to 0.2 cents/kWh to fund decommissioning. They must then report regularly to the NRC on the status of their decommissioning funds. About two-thirds of the total estimated cost of decommissioning all US nuclear power reactors has already been collected, leaving a liability of about $9 billion to be covered over the remaining operating lives of about 100 reactors (on the basis of an average of $320 million per unit). NRC data for the end of 2018 indicated that there was a combined total of $64.7 billion held in the decommissioning trust funds covering the 119 operational and retired US nuclear power reactors.
An OECD Nuclear Energy Agency survey published in 2016 reported US dollar (2013) costs in response to a wide survey. For US reactors the expected total decommissioning costs range from $544 to $821 million; for units over 1100 MWe the costs ranged from $0.46 to $0.73 million per MWe, for units half that size, costs ranged from $1.07 to $1.22 million per MWe. For Finland’s Loviisa (2 x 502 MWe) the estimate was €326 million. For a Swiss 1000 MWe PWR the detailed estimate amounts to CHF 663 million (€617 million). In Slovakia, a detailed case study showed a total cost of €1.14 billion to decommission Bohunice V1 (2 x 440 MWe) and dismantle it by 2025.
[Brief aside: I love the World Nuclear Association, because they are actually honest and report details that contradict their mission. I cite them on Germany’s wholesale electricity prices, which they freely admit are among the lowest in Europe as that country ramps up renewables rapidly and dumps nuclear. They aren’t just a lobbying organization, although they are an industry-funded lobbying association. Unlike the equivalent oil and gas organizations, they seem compelled to be honest and complete, perhaps because being honest and complete usually isn’t so disgustingly horrific for them, just simply bad.]
Back to the thread. The US has collected a bunch of money from operating reactors into a cleanup fund that they acknowledge is underfunded to the tune of billions already. But the industry estimates show that they are collecting under half of what it will actually take to decommission the sites.
There are about 100 reactors in the United States. Assuming they collect the $320 million per reactor (they won’t, as reactors are closing prematurely), they would have a fund of $32 billion. But they need a fund of closer to $70 billion, and they are short regardless. So the US fleet cleanup is going to cost the taxpayer probably closer to an additional $40 billion, if it all goes according to the estimates.
Note that the UK and Slovakia examples show that it usually doesn’t, just as building new nuclear never seems to come in on time or budget. The reality is going to be closer to the European and Slovakian costs, so let’s assume a billion per reactor as a reasonable number.
The US will have maybe $30 billion. They’ll need $100 billion. Yeah, $70 billion is the more reasonable number.
“A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you’re talking real money.”
– US Senator Everett McKinley Dirksen
Of course, this is on top of the $1.6 billion annual tax breaks nuclear plants in the US get, the $10 billion liability insurance cap with the taxpayer holding the bill should a Fukushima-scale disaster occur and the state-level boondoggles like the $1.1 billion Ohio subsidy that came with a side helping of $60 million in bribes…………….https://cleantechnica.com/2020/12/01/us-nuclear-site-cleanup-underfunded-by-up-to-70-billion/
December 3, 2020
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
business and costs, wastes |
Leave a comment
|
 Three detained in probe into nuclear power plant case, https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2020/12/03/2003748020 By Jason Pan / Staff reporter
- Three people — including Kuo Chien-tsun (郭簡村) of the Heavenly Way (天道盟) crime gang — have been detained for alleged bid-rigging and violence related to the submission of public tenders on two nuclear power plants, the Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday.
Police on Friday last week arrested Kuo, 52, who allegedly led the operation, and questioned more than 10 people in connection with the case, including Kuo’s two deputies, both surnamed Lee (李), who were released after posting bail on Tuesday, the office said.
The investigation found that Kuo’s operation, based in New Taipei City’s Jinshan District (金山), rigged bids, as well as extorted, coerced and assaulted other contractors, to win about NT$150 million (US$5.21 million at the current exchange rate) in bids related to two nuclear power plants, prosecutors said.
Kuo, his two deputies and two colluding contractors were listed as suspects in the case, and could be charged with assault, attempted murder, intimidation and extortion, as well as breaches of the Government Procurement Act (政府採購法).
Prosecutors said evidence showed that Kuo from 2016 to last year won seven projects related to the decommissioning of the Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Shihmen District (石門) and one project in 2017 at the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Wanli District (萬里).
Taipower Power Co (Taipower), which was responsible for the bidding process, is reported to have planned NT$150 billion in expenditures over 25 years to decommission the Jinshan plant.
While most of the work requires advanced engineering skills, NT$30 billion has been budgeted for maintenance, material procurement, warehouse construction and other parts of the project, attracting many businesses and contractors.
The investigation found that while Kuo and his friends pooled money to register a construction company, he did not have a business license or permits for the projects, but illegally borrowed a license and other documents from colluding contractors.
Kuo initially persuaded legitimate contractors to join his bids by offering them a percentage of the project money, but when they refused to cooperate, he instructed his deputies and subordinates to beat them up and scare them off.
In March last year, a contractor surnamed Hsu (許), who had won the bid on a landscaping project that Kuo had wanted, was invited to a dinner meeting, at which Kuo’s deputies allegedly stabbed him, leaving him with serious injuries, prosecutors said.
An investigation led to Kuo and his deputies being charged with assault and attempted murder, they said.
“Taipower should also be held liable for the gangsters’ bid-rigging and other illegal profiteering in this and related cases worth billions of dollars, as company officials failed in their due diligence and permitted gangsters to intimidate and use violence to secure the bids on these projects,” one Shilin prosecutor said.
|
|
December 3, 2020
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
secrets,lies and civil liberties, Taiwan |
Leave a comment
|
 Decaying Soviet-era nuclear power plant makes Armenia a ticking time bomb DAILY SABAH, ISTANBUL, DEC 02, 2020 Once Armenia’s defeat against Azerbaijan was put on paper, some Armenians, struggling to face reality, brought up nuclear weapons as a form of potential retaliation. These discussions, however, ignore the fact that Armenia does host nuclear power on its soil but in the form of a decaying Soviet nuclear reactor – a ticking bomb that is not only a threat to Armenia itself but its neighbors as well.
The Metsamor nuclear power plant, located just 16 kilometers (10 miles) from the Turkish border, is one of the oldest nuclear facilities in the world. Built back in 1976, the power plant consists of two VVER-440 Model V270 nuclear reactors, known to be some of the oldest and least reliable reactor models still in use.
Apart from unreliability issues, the power plant also lacks adequate earthquake resistance. While the volcanically-active region is at risk of earthquakes up to magnitude 8, the power plant can only endure a magnitude 7 earthquake, at most. Due to all these issues, Soviet authorities shut down the facility in 1988. However, Armenia reopened it in 1995 due to energy scarcity. Currently, the facility meets nearly 40% of Armenia’s energy needs, thus the security concerns are often ignored.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the European Union increased its efforts to shut down most Soviet-era nuclear power plants, particularly those in Bulgaria and Slovakia that pose any possible threat.
Similar efforts were made for Metsamor, considered to be the most dangerous of them all, but in vain. Armenia rejected the EU’s call to shut down Metsamor in exchange for 200 million euros ($226 million) to help meet the country’s energy needs. Giving up on its hopes of closing the facility, the EU instead provided aid to improve the safety standards at the power plant.
Although Armenian officials and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) claim that there have been major safety upgrades at the facility over the past 20 years, making it no less safe than any other nuclear power plant, given the VVER-440s do not have a containment structure, a characteristic shared with the infamous Chernobyl, its security insurance is still questionable. In fact, many experts still consider it to be one of the world’s most dangerous nuclear facilities.
The original closing date of the facility was determined as 2016. However, following an agreement with the Russian state nuclear agency, Rosatom, this date was pushed back to 2026. ……
In 2009, the Turkish Atomic Energy Authority (TAEK) warned about the danger of three nuclear power plants, including Metsamor, in neighboring countries.
Ankara, which has not had diplomatic relations with Armenia since the 1990s, also urged Yerevan to shut down the plant due to the imminent danger it poses to Turkey. Six years ago, it submitted an official appeal with the IAEA to shut down the plant. https://www.dailysabah.com/world/europe/decaying-soviet-era-nuclear-power-plant-makes-armenia-a-ticking-time-bomb
|
|
December 3, 2020
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
EUROPE, safety |
Leave a comment
US Nuclear Site Cleanup Underfunded By Up To $70 Billion, Clean Technica, December 1st, 2020 by Michael Barnard
…………………..Nuclear power is going to be the gift that keeps on returning fiscal dividends for a century.
That’s why Brookfield bought the bankrupt Toshiba Westinghouse division, for the long-term, guaranteed decommissioning revenue. SNC Lavalin bought Canada’s CANDU for the same reason, although I’m sure they are at the trough on the Canadian SMR idiocy too.
This isn’t exactly a secret. Nuclear projects always go over budget and over schedule, and there is exactly zero reason to believe decommissioning estimates provided by the industry. So why have jurisdictions been building more nuclear plants, whether at the egregious but at least honest costs of Hinkley, or the massively underestimated but increasingly obvious costs of the Virgil C. Summer and Vogtle sites? Three reasons.
The first is the magic of net present value. That calculates the value of future dollars today given inflation. Just as a thousand bucks bought a lot more in 1990 than it does today, in 2050 it will buy a lot less than it does today. That means that liabilities that will be incurred decades in the future approach zero cost in today’s cost benefit analysis. Can you say generational inequity?
The second is ideology. When really blatantly obvious economic sense gets thrown out the window, you start looking around for irrationality or graft. A lot of conservatives really hate onshore wind because it spoils the views from their manses (UK) or ranches (US) or country estates (Oz). They also think of wind and solar as inadequate hippy shit. They think nuclear is the answer. These are opinions that they formed in the 1970s or perhaps the 1980s, but conservatives have a stronger tendency to not let empirical reality change their mind. So Hinkley, Vogtle, and Summer are a triumph of ideology over reality.
The third is graft. When we start talking about $10 billion or more to build a plant, billions in subsidies, and another billion to take the thing apart, a lot of people start rubbing their hands together and figuring out who they have to bribe now to get a big payoff later. The entire regulatory structure in the two states that had nuclear plants in construction until recently when one was finally put out of the state’s fiscal misery were both structured so that no matter how much the utility spent, it was guaranteed a set profit. If they built a $15 billion nuclear plant, they made a lot of profit off of the rate payers. If they built $2 billion worth of wind and solar instead, they made a lot less money off of the rate payers. It’s dumb as a box of hammers, but it’s part of the reason a lot of utilities love nuclear, and coal-generation carbon capture schemes to boot. They are licenses to print money.
Outside of China, where they have trained resources who can build nuclear plants who would be mediocre at building wind and solar (which they are building a lot more of) and nuclear plants will displace coal plants, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to build new nuclear. The looming decommissioning debacle is just the icing on the cake.
Wind and solar have proven themselves to be vastly cheaper, completely reliable on grids, and easy to integrate in very large amounts. Their decommissioning costs are trivial. That’s yet another reason why nuclear is dead, but pretending it’s not. https://cleantechnica.com/2020/12/01/us-nuclear-site-cleanup-underfunded-by-up-to-70-billion/
|
“……….
|
December 3, 2020
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
business and costs, secrets,lies and civil liberties, UK, USA, wastes |
Leave a comment
nuclear-news 