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A $36.8 billion lesson from Georgia- “The most expensive electricity in the world”

In May, the plaintiffs along with four other prominent Georgia consumer groups released a report, Plant Vogtle: The True Cost of Nuclear Power in the United States. The analysis detailed how the U.S. Department of Energy, Georgia Power, and the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC), conspired to force Georgians into purchasing the most expensive electricity in the world, costing ratepayers $10,784 per kilowatt, compared to $900 to $1,500 per kilowatt (KW) for wind or solar.  Recent Georgia Power electricity bills have shown the bill increase to be in the 30-40% range.  

Again and again, the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) was warned about the astronomical cost of the Vogtle reactors and the financial toll it will bear on Georgians for decades to come.

   by beyondnuclearinternational

Ratepayers beware. New nuclear power plants will gouge customers

From Georgia Conservation Voters Education Fund and Georgia WAND

Georgia consumer groups have filed a major lawsuit against the State of Georgia [AF1] in federal court, alleging Georgia lawmakers violated the state’s constitution by unilaterally postponing Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) elections. According to the lawsuit, the PSC election’s unlawful postponement allowed the sitting commission members to rubberstamp the largest utility rate increases in Georgia history and grant utility companies the authority to charge Georgians for cost-overruns and mishaps. The groups argue that the charges may not have been passed onto consumers if elections were held as regularly scheduled.

House Bill 1312, which Georgia legislators passed in April, delays the election of new PSC members until at least 2025, giving multiple sitting PSC members an extra two years in office. Georgia’s constitution requires that PSC terms shall be six years, and therefore cannot be lengthened without a constitutional amendment. All PSC members have had their office terms extended to eight years, and one nine years as a result. 

…………………………………….Brionté McCorkle, plaintiff and executive director of Georgia Conservation Voters Education Fund, said: “Georgians are fighting every month to stay ahead of rising costs for food, housing, and now energy. These aren’t optional costs. They’re things we need to survive. Public Service Commissioners like Tricia Pridemore, Fitz Johnson, and Tim Echols have allowed Georgia Power to take money out of the pockets of hard-working Georgians – and it has to end.”

In May, the plaintiffs along with four other prominent Georgia consumer groups released a report, Plant Vogtle: The True Cost of Nuclear Power in the United States. The analysis detailed how the U.S. Department of Energy, Georgia Power, and the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC), conspired to force Georgians into purchasing the most expensive electricity in the world, costing ratepayers $10,784 per kilowatt, compared to $900 to $1,500 per kilowatt (KW) for wind or solar.  Recent Georgia Power electricity bills have shown the bill increase to be in the 30-40% range.  

Additional Key findings in the May Vogtle report included:

  • Plant Vogtle allowed Georgia Power to expand its rate base, the assets on which they earn a guaranteed rate of return, by over $11 billion. Yet their share of Vogtle is 1,020 megawatts, making it the most expensive electricity in the world at $10,784/KW. Normal (wind, solar, natural gas) generation prices range from $900 to $1500/KW. 
  • Vogtle Units 3 & 4 took 15 years to build and cost $36.8 billion, well over twice the projected timeline and cost. 
  • Vogtle independent construction monitors documented that Georgia Power provided materially false cost estimates for at least ten years, falsehoods used to justify expanding Plant Vogtle. Similar false cost estimates sent South Carolina utility executives to jail for that state’s failed nuclear plant, which started construction at the same time as Plant Vogtle.

Patty Durand, consumer advocate, founder of Cool Planet Solutions and a recent candidate for the Georgia PSC, said: 

“Again and again, the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) was warned about the astronomical cost of the Vogtle reactors and the financial toll it will bear on Georgians for decades to come.  Commissioners repeatedly declined to protect ratepayers from cost overruns and ignored PSC staff recommendations to cancel the project. People went to prison for actions like this in South Carolina, yet we have had no accountability for the same, and worse, behavior here. Instead, the state legislature decided to shield current commissioners from facing voters by delaying PSC elections indefinitely. This is clearly unconstitutional. This is un-American.”  https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2024/07/28/a-36-8-billion-lesson-from-georgia/

 

July 29, 2024 Posted by | business and costs, Legal, USA | Leave a comment

Dialogue Over Deterrence

The theory of nuclear deterrence is one of these root causes of tension and conflict that must be addressed……………….. the violent potential of nuclear deterrence policies means that everyone in the world is at risk all of the time.

the profits of the new nuclear arms race have superceded all sense of logic or reason in international relations and domestic budgets.

The theory of nuclear deterrence is one of these root causes of tension and conflict that must be addressed……………….. the violent potential of nuclear deterrence policies means that everyone in the world is at risk all of the time.

the profits of the new nuclear arms race have superceded all sense of logic or reason in international relations and domestic budgets.
Ray Acheson, 24 July 2024

Download the full edition in PDF

People at this NPT Preparatory Committee are worried. Really worried. Delegations delivering general debate statements, activists holding meetings with each other and with diplomats, anyone paying attention, is worried about nuclear war. Words like abyss, doomsday, annihilation, and other cheery phrases were on everyone’s lips, in official statements and by the coffee bar. The fear is justified—the nuclear-armed states are building up their arsenals, modernising their weapon systems, and coming up with new deployment strategies—and they are not talking to each other. The interactions between Russia and the United States are so tense that a Dr. Strangelove moment of “You can’t fight in here. This is the war room!” seems possible at any moment.

Mozambique very astutely called out the worrying trend of “deterrence diplomacy,” which is a pretty good term for what seems to be happening. Perhaps it’s a strategy of confrontation in the conference room to deter a nuclear confrontation outside; or maybe it’s just the use of diplomatic spaces like NPT meetings to bolster one’s claims. But just like deterrence doesn’t work, as evidenced by the many conflicts fought by nuclear-armed states throughout the nuclear age, deterrence diplomacy doesn’t work either. It only leads to the collapse of international law, which most of the rest of us are relying upon to constrain massive nuclear violence.

This may sound awfully gloomy. It is. But as always, hope is found in the determination and creativity of those who do not see their strength or security coming from bombs and bombastic quarrels. Calls for dialogue, (real) diplomacy, and disarmament resounded during the general debate. Delegations highlighted the work that has been done to prohibit nuclear weapons, to study the harms of nuclear production and testing, to address nuclear injustice, and to reduce the dangerous risks of nuclear war. The vast majority of this work is being carried out by non-nuclear-armed states, activists, and international organisations. It’s time the nuclear-armed states put down their swords, picked up their pens, and got to work, too. They can start by acknowledging the reality of the situation they have created, in which they have weaponised international law and created a culture of defiance of rules and norms that are meant to protect us all.

The invisibilised genocide

Part of the dangerous situation the nuclear-armed states have created is their refusal to implement the laws to which they have previously bound themselves. It was striking that mid-way through the first week of the PrepCom, you’d barely know there was genocide going on in the world. During the general debate, many states reiterated their condemnation of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, especially in relation to its threats to use nuclear weapons, deployment of nuclear bombs to Belarus, and its attacks against the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. But there were very few comments about Israel’s slaughter of Palestinians over the past ten months, even in the wake of the International Court of Justice (ICJ)’s finding of plausible genocide in January 2024 and its ruling in July 2024 that Israel is guilty of apartheid and that its occupation of Palestine is illegal, and the International Criminal Court (ICC)’s application for an arrest warrant for the Israeli Prime Minster for war crimes in May 2024. Algeria, Egypt, Finland, Lebanon, Indonesia, Kuwait, Mozambique, Oman, Peru, Slovakia, Syria, Tunisia, Türkiye, and Venezuela criticised Israel’s “war on Gaza” to various extents, or condemned Israel’s nuclear threats in that context. But most delegations said absolutely nothing.

Why this comparative silence? Some might claim Israel’s genocide of Palestinians is not an NPT issue. But for whom should hundreds of thousands of deaths, mass displacement and injury, starvation, disease, and the destruction of an entire strip of land where more than two million people live under conditions of apartheid and “open-air” incarceration not be an issue? Especially when nuclear weapons, and the aura of impunity and lawless violence these weapons perpetuate, are the heart of it all.

Beyond the moral imperative of caring about humans living and dying through such suffering, Israel’s genocide is an NPT issue. Israel is a nuclear-armed state. It is not an NPT state party, but that is only because it is allowed to remain outside the treaty by its protectorates. Israel is also only able to wage genocide because NPT states parties are providing it with weapons and other military equipment, including the United States, Germany, Canada, Italy, Australia, the United Kingdom, and others. Again, in contrast to the situation in Ukraine, it was very striking that during the PrepCom’s general debate, some delegations condemned arms transfers to Russia from China, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and/or Iran in support Russia’s war effort, while saying nothing about the billions of dollars of weapons being transferred to Israel to commit atrocities and facilitate the destruction of Palestine.

Weaponisation of international law

The selective defiance of international law, lack of accountability, and granting of impunity are all NPT issues. They are features of the way the Treaty has been implemented since 1970. This is not simply a matter of double standards. This is about the inequality that the nuclear-armed states have intentionally built up and baked into international law over decades. The UK’s claim to be “a government that believes in the rule of law at home and internationally” would be laughable if it was not so offensive as it expands its nuclear arsenal and ships bombs to the Middle East to be dropped on civilians.

The nuclear-armed states weaponise international law by shirking from their own obligations and accountability while enforcing it, sometimes violently, upon others. The nuclear-armed states see themselves as being above the law and act accordingly. Their modernisation of nuclear weapons and nuclear arms racing, their refusal to comply with their legal obligation to disarm, their attempts to reinterpret NPT provisions and commitments, their trashing of arms control agreements and NPT outcome documents, are all part of their collective contempt for international law.

This contempt is shared among all nuclear-armed states. They could work together to eliminate their nuclear arsenals in compliance with international law; instead, they work together to perpetuate patriarchal myths about nuclear deterrence and strategic stability and undiminished security for all—buzzwords that mean the indefinite possession and manufacture and possible use of weapons of mass destruction. Nuclear deterrence theory is a protection racket of apocalyptic proportions, leading to vast profits for a few and terror for most. Deterrence diplomacy leads away from, not toward, nuclear disarmament.

It might be hard to identify anything the nuclear-armed states do as a collective project, of course. During the general debate (and side events), the Russian and US delegations predictably accused each of being obstructionist to reviving nuclear arms control talks or reducing the risk of use of nuclear weapons. Neither will accept their mutual responsibility for creating the profoundly dangerous environment within which everyone on this planet is forced to live. But this situation of grave peril is a joint project, manufactured by governments and war profiteers seeking power through violence in supremacy in a world that is already burning from climate change, colonialism, and conflict.

Dismantling deterrence to build back better

“Never has it been more important to commence the process of rebuilding trust, of prioritizing dialogue over deterrence and of getting the world back on to the path of the verifiable, irreversible elimination of nuclear weapons,” said the UN High-Representative for Disarmament Affairs during the general debate. Most delegates attending the PrepCom clearly share this sentiment. From working papers about reducing nuclear risk to interventions about the importance of rebuilding trust and relationships, non-nuclear-armed states emphasised again and again the unacceptability of the fraught and fragile nature of the current moment.

Brazil noted that real security “does not derive from the number or quality of weapons of mass destruction” but in “our ability to build trust, foster cooperation, and address the root causes of tension and conflict.” The theory of nuclear deterrence is one of these root causes of tension and conflict that must be addressed. As long as a handful of nuclear-armed states and heavily militarised allies claim protection from nuclear weapons, invest billions of dollars into maintaining and modernising their arsenals, and engage in nuclear war planning in preparation for using these weapons, diling back the tensions and finding avenues for dialogue will remain elusive.

As the states parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) said in a joint statement to the PrepCom, “The perpetuation and implementation of nuclear deterrence in military and security concepts, doctrines and policies not only erode and contradict non-proliferation but also obstruct progress towards nuclear disarmament.” Rather than preventing conflict or preserving “strategic stability,” the violent potential of nuclear deterrence policies means that everyone in the world is at risk all of the time. When there are people actively planning for nuclear war—building the bombs, testing the missiles, targeting the systems, and making threats of use—the possibility of dialogue becomes increasingly marginalised. We have seen this happen over the last decades, where the profits of the new nuclear arms race have superceded all sense of logic or reason in international relations and domestic budgets.

Nuclear deterrence is the opposite of dialogue. And dialogue is essential to overturning deterrence. Many nuclear-armed allies, like the NATO members, of course call for dialogue, but it’s usually only among the nuclear-armed states. The nuclear-armed states are failing miserably at that task, though, so we need much more than that. We need concrete action, not endless discussions. We need disarmament, without any more delay.

Determining disarmament

Disarmament is a strategic imperative. Our survival depends upon it. The only way out of this mess is through demilitarisation; is through the abolition of nuclear weapons and the structures of war profiteering and military supremacy that are used to justify them. But disarmament is also a moral imperative. The end of nuclear weapon programmes is owed to those who have suffered from nuclear violence for generations, without their consent and often without their knowledge. As decribed in the powerful Joint Statement on Legacy of Nuclear Weapons and reiterated throughout several civil society presentations, Indigenous Peoples and other marginalised groups have long suffered the catastrophic humanitarian and environmental impacts of nuclear weapons from uranium mining to nuclear testing and use to radioactive waste. The dismantlement of the entire nuclear fuel chain, the end of the nuclear industry, and the elimination of nuclear weapons is essential to nuclear justice, as are reparations and remediation for harms caused already.

As Austria said, the existential risk inherent in nuclear deterrence and the nuclear status quo is intergenerational injustice. The only way to change the current and future reality being imposed upon the world is to end nuclear weapons and the violent structural thinking in which genocide, perpetual war, and nuclear annihltion can ever again be considered “reasonable” responses to disagreements that manifest in the global system.

As a group of civil society organisations said in a statement from WILPF to the PrepCom, as the so-called leaders of the most heavily militarised states in the world are “thumping their chests at each other as if they’re a group of drunk men in a bar, ready to burn the place down just to prove that they are the manliest,” it should be clear now is the time for a different approach to disarmament diplomacy.

July 29, 2024 Posted by | politics international, weapons and war | Leave a comment

6 August WEBINAR. Never Again! Remembering the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

On the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, GPAX will present a webinar on the growing danger of global nuclear war resulting from expanding regional conflicts involving the U.S. Speakers will address the history of the nuclear weapons threat, starting with the Hiroshima and Nagasaki attacks and growing through the Cold War until the current period of extreme danger, when the Doomsday Clock is now set to 90 seconds before midnight. 

August 6, 2024 7:30 PM ET, 6:30 CT, 5:30 MT, 4:30 PM PT You Must Pre-Register for the Webinar HERE

July 29, 2024 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

French nuclear giant ORANO slips into the red following Niger-French breakup

French nuclear giant Orano ended the first half of the year with a loss of €133 million, weighed down by difficulties in its mining activities in Niger due to a “highly degraded” political context since a military regime came to power a year ago.

Radio Free Europe: 29/07/2024 –

At the end of June 2024, the group noted “the deteriorated situation affecting mining operations in Niger,” Orano’s chief financial officer, David Claverie, said in a statement.

The coup d’état in Niger on 26 July last year led to a halt in imports of critical materials necessary for uranium exploitation in Orano’s Somaïr mine, such as soda ash, carbonate, nitrates and sulphur.

And although uranium extraction continued in the first quarter of 2024 “after several months of early maintenance,” Somaïr’s sales were unable to resume “due to a lack of logistics solutions approved by the Niger authorities”.

The blockage led the mine into “financial difficulty … weighing on its ability to continue its operations”, the statement read.

In late June, Niger decided to withdraw the licence of Imouraren SA, a company jointly operated by Orano, Niger Mining and Korea Electric Power, and which ran the Somaïr mine.

The situation could eventually lead to “insolvency in the short to medium term, in the coming months”, Claverie said………………………………  https://www.rfi.fr/en/international/20240729-french-nuclear-giant-slips-into-the-red-following-niger-french-breakup

July 29, 2024 Posted by | business and costs, France, Niger, Uranium | Leave a comment

Severe heatwave in Iran forces shops and public institutions to close

A heatwave blanketing Iran has forced authorities to cut operating hours at
various facilities on Saturday and order all government and commercial
institutions to close on Sunday, as hospitals received more than 200 people
for heatstroke treatment. Temperatures ranged from 37C (98.6F) to 42C
(107F) in the capital, Tehran, according to weather reports. The state-run
Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) said banks, offices and public
institutions across the country would close on Sunday to protect people’s
health and conserve energy and that only emergency services and medical
agencies would be excluded.

Guardian 27th July 2024

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/27/severe-heatwave-in-iran-forces-shops-and-public-institutions-to-close

July 29, 2024 Posted by | climate change, Iran | Leave a comment

War Criminal Benjamin Netanyahu Addresses the US Congress

Lies proliferate and Congress cheers genocide in Gaza

The Unz Review, Philip Giraldi • July 26, 2024

To my surprise, last Thursday morning there was relatively little coverage of the address to the US Congress delivered by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last Wednesday afternoon apart from a critical opinion piece that appeared in the New York Times regarding Israel’s war on the Palestinians. The article, by Megan K. Stack, asserted:

“History will cast Mr. Netanyahu’s visit in deservedly ugly tones. He’s not a guest we should aspire to host, but he is a visitor we deserve. Gaza is our war, too, thanks to the indispensable military aid and political cover the US government has lavished on Israel as the death toll climbs… What exploded as a war of retribution against Hamas has looked increasingly like a broader campaign of annihilation — the slaughter of trapped civilians; the excruciating deaths of thousands of children; the destruction of hospitals, schools and much of the civilian infrastructure.”

Polls have shown for months that more Americans disapprove than approve of the Israeli onslaught in Gaza, but Congress and the White House are not interested in the views of the public when they are on the receiving end of hundreds of millions of dollars in “donations” from Jewish billionaires.

Much of the coverage of the Netanyahu appearance in the mainstream media was toothless and even adulatory. It generally reflected what was hailed as Bibi’s “fiery speech” that “did not give an inch” which vowed to continue fighting until “total victory” is achieved. There was some coverage of how Netanyahu went so far as to portray the many thousands of demonstrators, some of whom were pepper-sprayed and arrested, who surrounded the Capitol as “useful idiots paid for by Iran.” The jibe, together with other calls to go to war with Iran, produced cheers and other paroxysms of joy among the leaping and waving Congressmen. Bibi might have been particularly personally aggrieved by Pro-Palestinian protesters successfully having released insects into the Watergate Hotel where he was staying. Online video showed maggots running amok on the dinner table.

The Netanyahu speech was light on serious analysis, but heavy on emotional appeals, repeatedly invoking the assertion that he and the United States, in its “ironclad” support of Israel, are fighting to save “civilization” and that “our enemies are your enemies” and “our victory will be your victory.” Predictably, the Congressmen and guests who filled the chamber bobbed up and down applauding wildly after nearly every sentence, producing 53 standing ovations, far exceeding Netanyahu’s record 29 obtained the last time he addressed Congress in 2015.

Notably some Congressmen with active consciences skipped the event, including Nancy Pelosi, who, after the fact, denounced the address in a post on X:

“Benjamin Netanyahu’s presentation in the House Chamber today was by far the worst presentation of any foreign dignitary invited and honored with the privilege of addressing the Congress of the United States. Many of us who love Israel spent time today listening to Israeli citizens whose families have suffered in the wake of the October 7th Hamas terror attack and kidnappings. These families are asking for a ceasefire deal that will bring the hostages home – and we hope the Prime Minister would spend his time achieving that goal.”

nore https://www.sott.net/article/493515-War-criminal-Benjamin-Netanyahu-addresses-the-US-Congress
A substantial number of progressive and moderate Democrats, possibly as many as 136, also did not attend, suggesting that Netanyahu is not well regarded by many in the Democratic Party. Netanyahu spoke for an hour and the over-the-top reception he received from congress suggested that:

the government’s true loyalty is not to the voters who elected them but rather to a foreign leader who is a war-criminal, implying to some that Bibi is actually de facto the American president and Israel and the US are in practical terms one country, with Israel as the dominant partner in the arrangement.……………………………………………………………………

My particular gripe was over the fact that Netanyahu’s speech was full of uncontested lies and grossly exaggerated assumptions designed to get his audience roaring. The falsehoods were certainly recognizable as such by much of the audience, but Netanyahu was not challenged by anyone save only Representative Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat of Michigan and the sole Palestinian-American member of Congress, who attended the speech while holding up a sign while many of her colleagues applauded Netanyahu’s comments………………………………………………………………….more https://www.sott.net/article/493515-War-criminal-Benjamin-Netanyahu-addresses-the-US-Congress

July 29, 2024 Posted by | Israel, politics international, USA | Leave a comment

Israel nearing ‘all-out war’ – foreign minister

Rt.com 27 July 24

Hezbollah “crossed all lines” with a rocket attack that killed ten people, Israel Katz has said.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz has vowed to launch a “disproportionate” response after Hezbollah allegedly killed ten people in a rocket attack on a football field in the Golan Heights. The incident has brought Israel to the brink of “all-out war” with the group, Katz has warned.

Most of the dead were children, and more than a dozen were injured by the strike in the town of Majdal Shams on Saturday, according to Israel’s Magen David Adom ambulance service. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) blamed the attack on “the Hezbollah terror group.”

“There is no doubt that Hezbollah crossed all red lines,” Katz told Israel’s Channel 12 News. “We are facing an all-out war” with the group, he continued, adding that Israel “will respond disproportionately.” 

Katz said that he would “not go into detail” on what such a response would look like, but claimed that Israel has the “full backing” of the US and Europe to escalate against Hezbollah…………………………………………….. more https://www.rt.com/news/601747-israel-katz-war-hezbollah/

July 29, 2024 Posted by | weapons and war | Leave a comment

Two legal actions against the hasty commissioning of Flamanville nuclear reactor

Flamanville EPR, still at the heart of scandals, is heading towards a hasty start,

Sortir du Nucleaire, CRIIRAD, CRILAN, Global Chance, Robin des Bois, and the “Exit from Nuclear Power” Network,23 July 24

On May 7, 2024, we denounced the decision to commission the Flamanville EPR. Today, we are raising the alarm through two legal actions about this hasty commissioning while questions remain unanswered. We are filing an appeal with the Council of State against this commissioning decision, and a complaint against X in order to shed full light on the irregularities noted by the Nuclear Safety Authority on parts of the EPR.

We are filing an appeal against the hasty commissioning of the EPR to the detriment of safety requirements

On 7 May 2024, the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) gave its approval for the Flamanville EPR to be commissioned, i.e. for it to receive its first fuel load. A decision taken above all to avoid the legal consequences of yet another postponement. Indeed, the commissioning of the Flamanville EPR has already been postponed by decree twice in the past , in 2017 and 2020 , because the facility was not ready to start up.

One might have thought that these two postponements would provide EDF with a comfortable margin to ensure that its installation could start up safely in 2024. However, 
despite the additional time granted to the operator, it has not managed to commission the Flamanville EPR within the allotted time:

The nuclear reactor should have been commissioned before April 10, 2024, according to the creation authorization decree. It finally took place almost a month later, on May 7, 2024. Problem: the commissioning deadlines exist to protect the population and the environment from a project that has become too old. It was 
the ASN itself that indicated in an opinion that these deadlines aim to 
“avoid the commissioning of an installation whose environment would no longer be compatible with its operation and/or not to allow the creation authorization to continue for an installation whose operator would not be able to complete construction” .

The deadline for examining the commissioning application, which can last one or two years if the file is complex, was also not respected. …………………………………………

We are filing a complaint to shed light on the irregularities noted on certain parts of the EPR

This decision to put it into service is even more surprising in light of the revelations of the ASN, which, during its 2024 press wishes, revealed new problems of counterfeiting, falsification and suspicion of fraud (CFS) .  [ 1 ]

These cases, according to the ASN, are distinguished by the significant scope of materials potentially affected, as well as by the potentially significant consequences for the safety of the reactors . The Nuclear Safety Authority has therefore reported these facts to the courts and has since refused to give us further information under cover of the confidentiality of the investigation  [ 2 ] .

It was an 
article from Reporterre that allowed us to obtain more information on this affair and learned that these cases concerned, among others, two companies producing materials intended for the EPR reactor in Flamanville. The article states that 
“it was during the examination of the EPR commissioning authorization [that the ASN] allegedly noted irregularities in certificates of conformity, particularly for valves, pipes, etc.”

At this point, with the elements we have, we can ask ourselves:

  • Have components that do not comply with essential safety requirements been placed on the market?
  • Were false documents drawn up and used to cover up these defects?
  • Did EDF properly monitor its suppliers to prevent the installation of non-compliant parts on its EPR?

We demand answers to these questions………………………………………………………………….more https://www.sortirdunucleaire.org/L-EPR-de-Flamanville-toujours-au-coeur-de

July 29, 2024 Posted by | France, Legal | Leave a comment

EDF looks towards future projects after flagging tough second half

French energy giant EDF aims to meet its schedule for future nuclear
reactor projects, its CEO said on Friday, with final tests ahead of the
start-up of its newest French reactor imminent after years of delays. The
group earlier reported a jump in first-half profit on higher electricity
production, but said regional market prices had fallen and warned core
earnings in the second half would decline year-on-year.

In Britain, EDF is continuing talks with the newly elected Labour government over its Hinkley
Point C and Sizewell C nuclear projects, Remont told reporters, adding it
is “a bit early” to give a date for a final investment decision on
Sizewell.

Reuters 26th July 2024

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/frances-edf-logs-20-surge-first-half-profit-warns-about-price-declines-2024-07-26/

July 29, 2024 Posted by | business and costs, France, UK | Leave a comment

Sizewell A Nuclear Site: Direction to Nuclear Decommissioning Authority

The Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (Ed Miliband), 26 July 24  https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2024-07-26/debates/24072618000010/SizewellANuclearSiteDirectionToNuclearDecommissioningAuthority
I am today laying a new designation direction to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority in respect of the Sizewell A nuclear site, which amends the existing direction. The direction has been given in accordance with sections 3 and 5 of the Energy Act 2004, with the consent of Nuclear Restoration Services Ltd, which controls the site.

This direction will end the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s responsibilities under the Energy Act 2004 for specific land and buildings on the Sizewell A nuclear site, so that the land can be sold to EDF and become part of the Sizewell B nuclear site. This will facilitate the development of new nuclear at the Sizewell C nuclear site.

July 29, 2024 Posted by | politics, UK | Leave a comment

Scottish parliamentarian highlights ‘nuclear annihilation risk’ in major UN speech

AN SNP MSP has made a statement to the United Nations on reducing the risk
of nuclear weapons. Bill Kidd – in an address at a conference of the UN
Preparatory Committee of the Non Proliferation Treaty on Tuesday – called
on states to work together to reduce the risk of nuclear war.

The Glasgow Anniesland MSP also urged the USA, Russia, China, France and the UK to halt
their programs to develop and deploy new nuclear weapons. Kidd is a staunch
supporter of anti-nuclear power and weapons policies and is a co-president
of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (PNND) –
an international organisation comprising 70 parliaments and over 800
members from around the world.

The National 24th July 2024

https://www.thenational.scot/news/24473503.snp-msp-makes-major-un-speech-reducing-risk-nuclear-weapons/

July 29, 2024 Posted by | weapons and war | Leave a comment

Nuclear energy not the way to go: coalition Taiwan

By Yang Yin-ting and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer,  https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2024/07/27/2003821385

Relying on nuclear power is the wrong strategy for Taiwan to achieve net zero emissions, a coalition of environmental groups said yesterday, amid rising calls from some lawmakers and government officials in support of it.

The National Nuclear Abolition Action Platform held a news conference in Taipei yesterday — two weeks before the National Climate Change Response Committee’s inauguration meeting, which is expected to discuss nuclear power.

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has indicated that it would seek to extend the operations of the nation’s nuclear reactors, including the ones at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County, a coalition spokesperson said.

The Ma-ashan plant’s first reactor, which has reached the end of its 40-year service life limit, is to be deactivated today, while its second reactor is scheduled for decommissioning in May next year, it said.

The KMT’s failure to acknowledge the public security risks posed by the nation’s aged reactors or the problem of nuclear waste disposal has exposed the recklessness of the party’s energy policy, it said.

Lawmakers should drop proposed amendments to the Nuclear Reactor Facilities Regulation Act (核子反應器設施管制法) and allow the Ma-anshan plant to be decommissioned as planned, the spokesperson said.

Green Citizens’ Action Alliance secretary-general Tsuei Su-hsin (崔愫欣) said that high operating costs and the lack of suitable sites for waste disposal make the bid to continue generating nuclear power impractical for Taiwan.

Taiwan Environmental Protection Union executive Lin Ren-pin (林仁斌) said that global energy production trends point to a decline in nuclear energy.

China — which has built more new nuclear reactors than any country in the world — reported that renewables experienced faster growth than nuclear energy, he added.

The Ma-anshan plant straddles a geological faultline in the Hengchun Peninsula and has a terrible safety record, Lin said.

The scarcity of land, high population density and propensity to build nuclear power plants on soft rock strata are a recipe for disaster on the scale of the partial meltdown at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, he said.

Moms Love Taiwan Association secretary-general Yang Shun-me (楊順美) said that the Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant is practically decommissioned, as the lion’s share of its equipment and transmission towers had already been removed.

The remaining facilities at the power plant has not been maintained for many years, she added.

The Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant has two inoperable reactors, while the Ma-anshan plant cannot resume operations without a full shutdown and replacing critical components, Yan said.

This means none of the nation’s three nuclear power plants stand a chance of contributing to emissions reduction, she said.

Citizen of the Earth Taiwan deputy director Huang Ching-ting (黃靖庭) said opposition lawmakers were making untruthful claims about a purported energy shortage.

Citing Taiwan Power Co’s electricity supply report this month, he said that Taiwan has enough energy to keep the nighttime reserve margin above 10 percent through 2030, which does not indicate a shortage.

Nuclear power plants must obtain safety certifications and replace key components before lengthening their service life, he said, adding that the process is estimated to take five to 10 years.

The Ma-anshan plant is rightly decommissioned since the facility’s reactors generate a marginal amount of electricity compared with the safety risks they represent, he said.

Altogether, there is virtually no chance that Taiwan could get any of its old nuclear power plants back online before 2030, Huang said.

Using nuclear energy to reduce emissions is impractical and impossible to implement in time, he said

July 28, 2024 Posted by | opposition to nuclear, Taiwan | 1 Comment

The World Court Has Cleared the Fog Hiding Western Support for Israel’s Crimes

The Unz Review, JONATHAN COOK • JULY 24, 2024

The legal ruling by the world’s highest court obliges western states not just to end their persecution of the boycott movement but to take up that cause as their own

Don’t be fooled. The ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on 19 July that Israel’s occupation of Palestine is unlawful is earth-shattering. Israel is a rogue state, according to the world’s highest court.

For that reason, the judgment will be studiously ignored by the cabal of western states and their medias that for decades have so successfully run cover for Israel.

Doubters need only watch the reception Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu receives during his visit to the United States this week.

Even though he is currently being pursued for war crimes by the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, the US Congress will give him a hero’s welcome when he addresses its representatives on Wednesday.

The warm handshakes and standing ovations will be a reminder that Netanyahu has had the full backing of western powers throughout the nine-month slaughter of at least 16,000 Palestinian children in Gaza – with another 21,000 missing, most of them under rubble.

The welcome will be a reminder that western capitals are fully on board with Israel’s levelling of Gaza and the starvation of its population – in what the same court concluded way back in January amounted to a “plausible genocide”.

And it will serve as a heavy slap in the face to those like the World Court committed to international law – reminding them that the West and its most favoured client state believe they are untouchable.

Western politicians and columnists will keep emphasising that the World Court is offering nothing more than an “advisory opinion” and one that is “non-binding”.

What they won’t point out is that this opinion is the collective view of the world’s most eminent judges on international law, the people best positioned to rule on the occupation’s legality.

And it is non-binding only because the western powers who control our international bodies plan to do nothing to implement a decision that doesn’t suit them.

Nonetheless, the ruling will have dramatic consequences for Israel, and its western patrons, even if those consequences will take months, years or even decades to play out.

‘Top secret’ warning

Last week’s judgment is separate from the case accepted in January by the ICJ that put Israel on trial for genocide in Gaza. A decision on that matter may still be many months away.

This ruling was in response to a request from the United Nations General Assembly in December 2022 for advice on the legality of Israel’s 57-year occupation.

That may sound more mundane a deliberation than the one on genocide, but the implications ultimately are likely to be every bit as profound.

Those not familiar with international law may underestimate the importance of the World Court’s ruling if only because they had already assumed the occupation was illegal.

But that is not how international law works. A belligerent occupation is permitted so long as it satisfies two conditions.

First, it must be strictly military, designed to protect the security of the occupying state and safeguard the rights of the occupied people.

And second, it must be a temporary measure – while negotiations are conducted to restore civilian rule and allow the occupied people self-determination.

Astonishingly, it has taken 57 years for the world’s highest court to deliver a conclusion that should have been staring it – and everyone else – in the face all that time.

The military nature of the occupation was subverted almost from the moment Israel occupied the Palestinian territories in June 1967.

Within months, Israel had chosen to transfer Jewish civilians – mostly extreme religious nationalists – into the occupied Palestinian territories to help colonise them.

Israel knew that this was a gross violation of international law because its own legal adviser warned it of as much in a “top secret” memo unearthed by the Israeli journalist Gershom Gorenberg some two decades ago.

In a declaration enlarging on the ICJ’s reasoning, Court President Nawaf Salam specifically referenced the warnings of Theodor Meron, who was the Israeli foreign ministry’s legal expert at the time.

In September 1967, his memo cautioned that any decision to establish civilian settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories “contravenes explicit provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention”. Those provisions, he added, were “aimed at preventing colonization”.

Nine days later, the Israeli government rode roughshod over Meron’s memo and assisted a group of young Israelis in setting up the first settlement at Kfar Etzion.

Sham peace-making

Today, hundreds of illegal settlements – many of them home to what amount to armed militias – control more than half of the West Bank and much of East Jerusalem.

Rather than protecting the rights of Palestinians under occupation, as international law demands, the Israeli military assists Jewish settlers in terrorising the Palestinians. The aim is to drive them off their land.

In the words of the Israeli government, the settlements are there to “Judaise” Palestinian territory. In the words of everyone else, they are there to ethnically cleanse the Palestinian population.

Which brings us to Israel’s second violation of the laws of occupation. In transferring hundreds of thousands of settlers into the occupied territories, Israel intentionally blocked any chance of a Palestinian state emerging.

The settlements weren’t makeshift encampments. Some soon developed into small cities, such as Ariel and Maale Adumim, with shopping malls, parks, public pools, synagogues, factories, libraries, schools and colleges.

There was nothing “temporary” about them. They were there to incrementally annex Palestinian territory under cover of an occupation that Washington and its European allies conspired to pretend was temporary.

The whole Oslo process initiated in the early 1990s was a switch-and-bait exercise, or a “Palestinian Versailles”, as the Palestinian scholar Edward Said warned at the time.

Israel was never serious about allowing the Palestinians meaningful statehood – a fact the then-Israeli prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, admitted shortly before he was killed by a far-right settler in 1995………………………………………………………………………..

Apartheid rule……………………………………………………………………………………….

Acts of aggression……………………………………………………

Complicit in war crimes

But the implications don’t just apply to Israel………………………………………………………

The fog clears

Israel’s supporters will take comfort from the fact that an earlier judgment from the World Court on Israel was roundly ignored by both Israel and its western patrons.

Asked for an advisory opinion, the judges ruled in 2004 that, under cover of security claims, Israel was illegally annexing swaths of territory by building its 800km-long “separation wall” on Palestinian land………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Words have power. They are our route to understanding reality. And the World Court has just cleared away the fog. It has wiped clean the mist on the window.

The West will do its level best once again to shroud Israel’s crimes. But the World Court has done the Palestinians and the rest of mankind a service in unmasking Israel for what it is: a rogue, criminal state.  https://www.unz.com/jcook/the-world-court-has-cleared-the-fog-hiding-western-support-for-israels-crimes/

July 28, 2024 Posted by | Israel, Legal | Leave a comment

Hundreds protesting Netanyahu visit arrested at US Capitol

The protesters belonged to the Jewish Voice for Peace activist group

News Desk, JUL 24, 2024,  https://thecradle.co/articles/hundreds-protesting-netanyahu-visit-arrested-at-us-capitol

Around 200 pro-Palestine protesters were detained on Capitol Hill on 23 June, ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the US Congress the day after. 

The protest took place in the Canon House Office Building. The demonstrators, wearing shirts with the slogan “Not in our name,” were organized by the Jewish Voice for Peace group. 

According to police, the protesters were warned that demonstrating in the Canon House Office Building was illegal. 

Executive Director of Jewish Voice for Peace, Stefanie Fox, said the Israeli premier’s speech in Congress on Wednesday was the reason for the demonstration. 

“For nine months, we’ve watched in horror as the Israeli government has carried out a genocide, armed and funded by the US. Congress and the Biden administration have the power to end this horror today. Instead, our president is preparing to meet with Netanyahu and Congressional leadership has honored him with an invitation to address Congress,” she said. 

Republican representative Mike Lawler called the protest an “embarrassment” and accused the Jewish Voice for Peace activists of being “pro-Hamas.”

Netanyahu’s address to Congress was announced in late May by Mike Johnson, Republican Speaker of the US House of Representatives. At the time, the International Criminal Court (ICC) had announced its decision to seek arrest warrants against Netanyahu and his defense minister. 

Johnson threatened during his announcement in May that the US “should punish” the ICC for its decision. 

The Israeli prime minister arrived in Washington on Monday, ahead of his speech at Congress on 24 May and a meeting with US President Joe Biden, scheduled for the following day. 

The ICC said on Tuesday that it has accepted 64 filings by states, individuals, and organizations to intervene regarding arrest requests against Netanyahu and others, including Hamas leaders. 

It is highly expected that Netanyahu’s address will focus on the idea of continuing the war in Gaza until Hamas’ defeat – in line with his government’s stated goals and in stark contradiction to efforts to reach a ceasefire deal.

The premier’s much-anticipated address in Congress comes on the 292nd day of Israel’s genocidal war against the Gaza Strip, which has killed over 39,000 people – mainly women and children – and has injured over 90,000. 

July 28, 2024 Posted by | Israel, Legal, politics | Leave a comment

Spain: Nuclear Industry Reels After Tax Increase

Energy Intelligence Group, Fri, Jul 26, 2024, Author, Grace Symes, London, Editor, Phil Chaffee

Spain’s nuclear operators are warning that last month’s move by Madrid to significantly raise a tax on these utilities may undermine the commercial viability of Spain’s seven operating reactors, even as they approach a government-mandated nuclear phaseout by 2035.

\The 30% tax rise is meant partly to cover the costs of seven separate interim nuclear waste storage facilities for spent fuel and high-level waste, a strategy mandated after the government discarded plans for a controversial single centralized facility. Owners argue they had no say in the storage decision, and should not be required to pay the significant added costs it will entail…………… (Subscribers only)  https://www.energyintel.com/00000190-bb7f-db32-ad93-bb7ff87a0000

July 28, 2024 Posted by | business and costs, Spain | Leave a comment

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