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English and Welsh concerns – call on Marine management leaders to postpone the dumping of Hinkley radioactive mud in te British Channel

 EDF has this week rejected concerns about radioactivity from its dredging in the Bristol Channel around Hinkley Point power station near Burnham-On-Sea. A coalition of concerned Bristol Channel researchers and
campaigners says they have undertaken a pre-dredging radioactivity survey near Hinkley Point because “EDF, who want to dump radioactivity in the Bristol Channel, refuse to do it.”

The coalition, representing interests from both Welsh and English communities along the Bristol Channel/Severn estuary coasts, has appealed to the CEOs of the Marine Management Organisation and Natural Resources Wales (who must both adjudicate on EDF’s application to dredge) and the Westminster and Welsh Governments, who oversee those two agencies, to postpone any dumping decision until the survey results are published. The coalition has also formally requested a Public Inquiry to discuss the issues.

 Burnham-on-sea.com 30th July 2021
 https://www.burnham-on-sea.com/news/edf-rejects-radioactivity-concerns-over-hinkley-point-dredging/

EDF rejects radioactivity concerns over Hinkley Point dredging

August 2, 2021 Posted by | UK, wastes | Leave a comment

Britain’s secret shortlist of areas earmarked for the dumping of nuclear waste


Southend-on-Sea, Essex, is the county’s most populous area, with more people living in the borough than anywhere else, but it’s a different story when you go to one of its most easterly points. Once you pass Shoeburyness, the area becomes almost entirely uninhabited.

A series of islands, including Foulness Island and Wallasea Island, are situated here. They’re mostly marshy, boggy areas, but a few people still live there. A number of these islands are or have been owned by the government’s Ministry of Defence, who use this area for a variety of purposes, including as a
shooting range.

One of these islands is Potton Island. This island is mostly uninhabited, separated from the mainland by a thin creek only navigable via a small bridge which leads to the village of Great Wakering.
In the 1800s, it was used as farmland until a major flood left the island abandoned. It was restored in the 1940s, and fell under the control of the Ministry of Defence in the 1950s before being turned back into a space for
pasture and farmland.

Documents released in 2005, after decades of secrecy, outlined areas the British government had earmarked for dumping nuclear waste in the 1980s and 1990s. Whilst any dumping would have been done in
managed and safe ways, it’s still concerning to know that areas across Britain were being earmarked as graves for radioactive waste. Waste could have potentially been buried on Potton Island, and pedestrian access onto
it possibly restricted completely. Southend Borough Council reportedly had no idea that Potton Island was on the government’s list of potential dumping locations, and were shocked when they found out it was on the
shortlist.

 Essex Live 31st July 2021

 https://www.essexlive.news/whats-on/classified-plans-use-essex-island-5713965

August 2, 2021 Posted by | secrets,lies and civil liberties, UK, wastes | Leave a comment

All logic says that UK’s Hinkley Point C nuclear power project should be abandoned now.

 

“Anything that passes nuclear’s costs on to the taxpayer — costs like nuclear waste management, nuclear station decommissioning, or delays and cost overruns — will be a total betrayal of taxpayers and cost every household in Britain a small fortune,”

Times 1st Aug 2021, David Cameron could barely hide his glee. In June 2014, the then prime minister welcomed Chinese premier Li Keqiang, who signed a string of trade and investment deals totalling £14 billion. The deal bonanza came a year before the Chinese agreed to pump billions into Hinkley Point C in a move that was meant to revive Britain’s nuclear industry, ushering in a new Sino-British golden era.

That vision is long gone and the future of the UK’s nuclear industry is up in the air after reports that the government is exploring ways to remove state-owned China General Nuclear (CGN) from the proposed £20 billion Sizewell C nuclear plant on the Suffolk coast, amid mounting concerns about Beijing’s influence in critical infrastructure projects.

If the government removes CGN from Sizewell, the Chinese could pull out of all three, leaving a multibillion-pound black hole in Britain’s nuclear plans.

One way in which the government might attract new backers to replace Chinese money would be by introducing a regulated asset base (RAB) funding model. Usually reserved for capital -intensive sectors such as water and energy where monopolies exist, RAB takes the risk away from the developer and piles it on to consumers through higher bills during the construction phase. The RAB model was used
to support the Thames Tideway “super sewer”. Steve Thomas, professor of energy policy at Greenwich University, said: “On Hinkley, intuition says it cannot possibly be abandoned now — but all logic says it should be abandoned now.

You can’t imagine that after 15 years, the government is going to say, ‘Sorry, we made a mistake with this.’ But the reality is that it will be the most expensive power on the system, so from a consumer point of view, it will be awful.” A paper authored by Thomas with Alison Downes of the pressure group Stop Sizewell C estimated that using the RAB model could pile more than £500 on to household bills during the
construction, assuming cost overruns and delays.

Sir Ed Davey, the former energy secretary and now Liberal Democrat leader said “Anything that passes nuclear’s costs on to the taxpayer — costs like nuclear waste management, nuclear station decommissioning, or delays and cost overruns — will be a total betrayal of taxpayers and cost every household in Britain a small fortune,”

Sources told The Sunday Times that EDF was also keen to eject CGN from Sizewell, as its involvement was becoming a block on securing further investment. Thomas at Greenwich University said: “The problem is going to be finding investors who think the project [Sizewell C] is attractive enough, whilst at the same time not dumping huge amounts of risk on to consumers. And I don’t see how you can square that equation.
All the experience in the past 20 years says that costs are going to go horribly over budget and construction times are going to be horribly delayed. Who’s going to take that risk?”

 https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/britains-nuclear-winter-wch7cg2t5

August 2, 2021 Posted by | business and costs, politics | Leave a comment

Vogtle nuclear power project’s costs – $27 Billion and rising!

“We’re really so far down the path of absurdity with this project.”

Georgia nuclear plant cost tops $27B as more delays unveiled, By JEFF AMY, July 30, 2021 ATLANTA (AP) — Two new reactors at Georgia’s Plant Vogtle will cost another billion dollars, with shareholders of the parent company of Georgia Power Co. taking a $460 million loss and other owners absorbing the rest.

The news came Thursday as Atlanta-based Southern Co. again admitted what outside experts have been telling regulators for months — its $27 billion-plus project at the complex outside Augusta will take longer and cost more than previously estimated.

Managers project construction will take another three to four months. That pushes the projected start date of Unit 3 into the second quarter of 2022, while Unit 4 is now projected to start in 2023. But independent monitors testified in June that they don’t think Unit 3 will start operation until at least June 2022 and projected total additional spending of up to $2 billion.

“It’s hard to be surprised at this point,” said Kurt Ebersbach, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, which opposes the project. “We’re really so far down the path of absurdity with this project.”

The company and regulators insist the plant — the first new U.S. reactors in decades — is the best source of clean and reliable energy for Georgia. Opponents have long pointed to what they say would be cheaper, better options, including natural gas or solar generation.

Southern Co. recorded the entire additional cost as a loss to shareholders on its quarterly earnings report, citing “the significant level of uncertainty that exists regarding the future recoverability of these costs” because the Georgia Public Service Commission must approve spending. The company said it could ask ratepayers to pay for the overrun, though.

Customers are already paying for the plant. Rates have gone up 3.4% to pay for earlier costs and Georgia Power projects rates will rise another 6.6 percentage points for a total increase of 10%. Commissioners are scheduled to vote on another rate increase in November……….

Georgia Power’s capital budget for Vogtle is $9.2 billion, with another $3.2 billion in financing costs projected. The total effect on the budget of the Vogtle project isn’t clear because Georgia Power is paying for only 45% of the project. Electric cooperatives and municipal utilities are paying for the remainder and have different financing costs.

Georgia Power also announced Thursday that it agreed with Public Service Commission staff to not seek any amounts above $7.3 billion until commissioners decide whether the company spent prudently during construction.

Georgia Power already agreed to write off about the first $700 million over the $7.3 billion……..

Besides extended testing, Georgia Power said Vogtle has been delayed by poor construction productivity, the necessity to redo substandard work, the slow pace of contractors turning over systems to the company and repairs to a leak in Unit 3′s spent fuel pool.

In June, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission began a special inspection to determine why so much of the electrical wiring in the plant had to be redone…….

Every month of delay at Vogtle costs roughly $90 million in capital costs, excluding financing costs.

The reactors, approved in 2012, were initially estimated to cost $14 billion, with the first new reactor originally planned to start generation in 2016. Delays and costs spiraled, especially after the main contractor filed for bankruptcy in 2017.

……. The Public Service Commission has reduced the amount that Georgia Power can earn on construction costs because of delays. Southern Co. said those penalties cost it $150 million last year and are projected to cost it another $630 million through 2023.

___    Follow Jeff Amy on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jeffamy.  https://apnews.com/article/business-environment-and-nature-georgia-90bbe5cc8e3a1a6077b9e4318e2bbf7e

August 2, 2021 Posted by | business and costs, USA | Leave a comment

If man cannot overcome his desire to kill, we are doomed

 If man cannot overcome his desire to kill, we are doomed Independent Australia, We are racing with great speed towards a nuclear holocaust unless man can conquer his fatal disposition for war, writes Dr Helen Caldicott. 1 Aug 21,

”……………..We stand on the brink of extinction unaware that our time on this precious lump of rock in the endless universe is almost certainly to come to an end.

Although the Cold War ended in 1989 to the relief of everyone, vast stores of hydrogen bombs possessed by Russia and the U.S. not only remain intact but missiles armed with these hideous weapons stand on “hair-trigger alert” ready to be activated with a press of the button by either the U.S. or Russian president.

Circling the northern hemisphere they arrive at their destinations 30 minutes after launch, during which the targeted country detects the attack and launches its missiles. Nuclear war would take approximately one hour to complete — eliminating, eventually, most life on the planet.

Failing that catastrophe, the human race and our fellow species face other dreadful futures including the rapid advancement of global warming and radioactive elements emanating from nuclear reactors contaminating food chains for eternity — leading to epidemics of cancer, leukaemia, genetic diseases and congenital deformities. However, presently we are racing with great speed towards a nuclear holocaust.

This deleterious situation is treated with ignorance by politicians and the mainstream media who practice psychic numbing as we stumble blindly towards our demise. 

In the past, men have perpetually fought and killed over territorial disputes, religious convictions, tribal animosities, jealousy and sheer stupidity. But unless men stop fighting and killing we are doomed, because any fraught international event could hold the seeds of a holocaust.

For instance, on 9/11 United States Strategic Command (STRATCOM) put its nuclear weapons on the highest state of alert ready for launch because nobody knew what was happening — was it the Russians, or someone else? Nevertheless, the U.S. was poised to blow up the world if necessary. This is apparently routine practice during international crises of unknown origin.

Recently, the world was faced with an ignorant narcissist with his finger on the nuclear button. How come the physicists, engineers and military men who have laced the world with nuclear weapons ready to launch with a three-minute decision time by fallible men – most likely, a U.S. or Russian president – never factored into their equations of probability that an immature, petulant man-baby could hold the seeds of our destruction in his tiny hands?

So, the outstanding question presents itself — is the human species an evolutionary aberrant with a fatal disposition for war?

Equipped as we are with a large neocortex capable of wondrous scientific discoveries – but little psychological maturity – can we now, armed as we are with nuclear weapons, conquer this disposition and stop fighting, or are we doomed? To use an apt medical analogy, the planet is dominated by a particularly virile pathogenic species and that is us. If we cannot overcome and conquer this desire to kill, then we and most other planetary species are doomed.

So why do men kill?

Albert Einstein believed:

The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything except our thinking. Thus, we are drifting toward catastrophe beyond conception.’

He also said:

‘It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.’

When I was 12 years old I asked my father: “Why do men rape women after they conquer a territory and win a war?”

I respected this man enormously who usually provided answers to my questions, but he was stumped this time. It was obvious that the men had waged the war and killed, but what on earth was the animosity towards women?

This raised the obvious question — what is the connection between violence and sex in males?

‘Apparently, the circuitry for sex and violence is intimately linked in the male brain.’

This work [research on rodents] has not been repeated in humans, however, it is assumed that the circuitry is similar in other mammalian species…………………………………

https://independentaustralia.net/article-display/helen-caldicott-if-man-cannot-overcome-his-desire-to-kill-we-are-doomed,15357

August 2, 2021 Posted by | Uncategorized | 3 Comments

August 1 Energy News — geoharvey

Opinion: ¶ “Enbridge’s Pipeline 3 Threatens An Endangered Species – Contact The EPA” • The drinking water of people who live along the Mississippi River is put into danger by Enbridge’s Pipeline 3. There are many other reasons to oppose it. One, however, is the survival of a rare mussel species. And that gives us […]

August 1 Energy News — geoharvey

August 2, 2021 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

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