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If Democrats take over Congress in November, there’ll be cuts to USA’s nuclear weapons spending

Cuts to nuclear spending and special ops oversight: Expectations for new congressional leadership https://www.defensenews.com/smr/defense-news-conference/2018/09/05/cuts-to-nuclear-spending-and-oversight-of-socom-what-to-expect-from-a-democratic-hasc/

By: Aaron Mehta  WASHINGTON — If Democrats take the House in November, expect the new leadership of the House Armed Services Committee to train a skeptical eye on President Donald Trump’s nuclear weapons plan and attempt to rein in the Pentagon’s actions around the globe.

Speaking at the second annual Defense News Conference, Rep. Adam Smith, the Washington representative who would become the HASC chairman if the parties flip, laid out his vision for what a Democratic HASC would look like.

Top of the list in what might change between a Republican and Democratic HASC: “nuclear weapons,” according to Smith.

“I think the Republican party and the nuclear posture review contemplates a lot more nuclear weapons than I — and I think most Democrats — think we need. We also think the idea of low-yield nuclear weapons are extremely problematic going forward,” Smith said. “When we look at the larger budget picture, that’s not the best place to spend the money.”

Smith later added that the expected price tag for upgrading America’s nuclear weapons — one potential estimate was $1.2 trillion over the next 30 years before the Pentagon’s plans for two new systems were revealed — meant the U.S. “certainly can’t afford it.”

“Where can we save money? Where are we spending money where we shouldn’t be spending money?,” he asked rhetorically, adding he believes America can improve deterrence by using those funds on conventional capabilities. “I think nuclear weapons are an area where we are spending too much.”

More broadly, Smith said he wanted the HASC to “step up” on oversight of what he called an “expansive” military taking part in operations all over the globe.

He pointed to Niger as an example where special operators were supposed to only be involved in a train and equip mission, but exceeded the boundaries of that operation — a situation that led to the deaths of four Americans last October.

“The Trump White House, by and large, has let the Pentagon have a lot of free rein,” Smith said. “I think that’s inappropriate, and I think there is a real role for congress to step in where the White House has stepped back to make sure our military is not engaged in ways” contrary to American values or interests.

He also called out the ongoing conflict in Yemen as a “major problem.”

“I don’t think we are pursuing the right policy there,” he said. “It is leading to the largest humanitarian crisis on the planet.”

Given that Democrats in both the Senate and House have attempted legislation to investigate American support for the Saudi coalition, Smith’s comments seem like a warning sign that greater scrutiny of that conflict in particular is on the table if the HASC flips.

Finally, Smith said he would be “actively engaged” in fighting for the rights of women and members of the LGBTQ community to take part in military service however they desire.

He lashed out at the idea that, at a time of personnel shortfalls, a qualified individual could not serve “because of some bigoted bias with no basis in reality,” adding: “I think it’s wrong and something in the committee that, if I were the chairman, I would be actively involved in fighting.”

September 6, 2018 Posted by | business and costs, politics, weapons and war | 1 Comment

USA’s Duke Energy rules out any new nuclear plants in its long range plans

No more nukes: Duke Energy writes new nuclear out of its long-range plan,  By John Downey  – Senior Staff Writer, Charlotte Business Journal

 Sep 6, 2018, For the first time in 13 years, Duke Energy Carolinas is not proposing any new nuclear construction in its 15-year road map for new power plants.

Instead, Charlotte-based Duke (NYSE:DUK) will focus on getting license extensions for its existing, almost 11,000-megawatt nuclear fleet. The company will start with the first of the Oconee Nuclear Station’s three, 880-megawatt units, the current license for which expires in 2033. Oconee is near Seneca, South Carolina.

Glen Snider, Duke’s director of resource planning for the Carolinas, says the change is born of a number of developments in the industry. They include last year’s decision by S.C. Electric & Gas to abandon the proposed, $20 billion-plus V.C. Summer nuclear expansion and the expectation that strict limits on carbon emissions are likely to be further off than had once been expected.

Some version

Every year since 2005, Duke had included plans for some version of a new nuclear plant. That year, the Integrated Resource Plan filed by Duke proposed having the plant up and running by 2016.

Even last year, after Duke had announced it dropped plans for the proposed, 2,234-megawatt W.S. Lee Nuclear Station in Gaffney, South Carolina, the long-range plan still had a place for a possible, 1,100-megawatt plan that might start construction in 2032.

This year’s IRP, which projects through 2033, was filed Wednesday and there is no new nuclear construction proposed.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission initially licensed nuclear plants for 40 years. It has already established that qualified plants can get a 20-year extension to total 60 years.

All of Duke’s plants are currently licensed to run for 60 years. The NRC is now considering whether it will allow plants an additional 20-year extension……….https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2018/09/05/no-more-nukes-duke-energy-writes-new-nuclear-out.html

September 6, 2018 Posted by | business and costs, USA | Leave a comment

The economic pain of nuclear power station closures

Nuclear Plant Closures Bring Economic Pain to Cities and Towns, Pew, STATELINE ARTICLE, September 5, 2018, By: Martha T. Moore  “…….. Aging nuclear power plants are closing, doomed by the high cost of refurbishing them and the low price of natural gas. That is causing fiscal pain for municipalities that rely on revenue from the plants, and creating political pressure for state subsidies to forestall further shutdowns……….

Six reactors have shut down in the past five years, and eight more reactors are scheduled to close by 2025 at plants in California, Iowa, Massachusetts and Michigan. Nuclear power operators have said they will close a further five reactors at four plants in Ohio and Pennsylvania if those states don’t offer subsidies.

The closure of Indian Point, announced in January 2017, capped decades of controversy over its safety, and was a victory for environmental groups and Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who had long opposed the plant.

But the closure presents the local Hendrick-Hudson school district, where 2,500 children practice evacuation drills annually and nurses have iodide pills on hand in case of a radiation leak, with a budget crisis. About one-third of the district’s annual $79 million budget comes from Indian Point’s payment in lieu of taxes. By 2024, three years after the power plant huts, the yearly payments will have dwindled from $25 million to $1.35 million. ……..

Many nuclear power plants have curried public favor by being good corporate citizens. In Londonderry, for example, Three Mile Island runs a golf tournament for the local fire department that raises enough money to cover the $50,000 annual mortgage payment on the firehouse.

Redevelopment of Three Mile Island isn’t an option, Letavic said, because of the nuclear waste that will remain on the site, which is in the middle of the Susquehanna River……

In Lacey Township on the New Jersey shore, the nation’s oldest operating nuclear plant, Oyster Creek, will shut down in September after 49 years. The town gets $11 million in annual taxes from Oyster Creek and has identified itself so closely with the nuclear plant that its municipal seal bears the symbol of an atom as well as a sailboat and a pheasant. …….

Asking for State Help

Four states have moved to shore up nuclear power plants financially despite opposition from some environmental groups, consumer advocates and the coal and natural gas power industries.

In 2016, New York passed a $7.6 billion package to help three upstate nuclear power plants — though not Indian Point. And Illinois passed legislation directing $2.4 billion to two plants in the state through “zero emissions credits” 

……..In New Jersey, where 40 percent of the state’s electricity comes from nuclear plants, the state will subsidize two plants at a rate of $300 million a year under a bill enacted in May. (Oyster Creek was not included in the subsidy plan.) Connecticut enacted legislation last October that could allow its sole nuclear plant, the Millstone reactor in Waterford, to sell electricity at higher prices if Dominion Energy, its owner, can show the reactor is financially strapped. ………

As part of the nuclear subsidy packages, some states have increased requirements for obtaining power from renewable sources: New York and New Jersey will require half of their power to come from renewables by 2030, and Connecticut will require 40 percent by that date. Illinois will require a quarter of its power to come from renewables by 2025.https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2018/09/05/nuclear-plant-closures-bring-economic-pain-to-cities-and-towns

September 6, 2018 Posted by | business and costs, employment, USA | Leave a comment

Companies Orano – formerly AREVA, and Holtec aim for private-public partnerships on USA’s nuclear wastes

Plans Move Forward for Privately Funded Storage of Nuclear Waste, Power 09/05/2018 | Darrell Proctor The Trump administration has revived the discussion of using Yucca Mountain in Nevada as a repository for the nation’s nuclear waste. Nevada officials remain opposed to the idea of putting spent nuclear fuel in long-term storage at a site about 100 miles from Las Vegas.But while a bill to resurrect Yucca Mountain as a storage site moves through Congress, other groups have stepped forward with plans to site, build, and operate nuclear waste storage and disposal facilities in areas including Texas and New Mexico. Those plans have reignited the debate about what the U.S. should do with its nuclear waste, along with the discussion of whether the federal government or the individual states should take the lead in developing long-term storage plans.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) says at least 12 U.S. reactors are committed to closing over the next five years, joining the more than 20 reactors shuttered over the past 10 years across the country. That’s lot of spent nuclear fuel, in multiple locations, in need of safe storage, whether at an interim site or at a facility designed for long-term storage……….

Interim Storage Sites in Development

Two members of Wednesday’s panel represented companies developing interim storage sites. Interim Storage Partners (ISP), a joint venture of Orano USA [Orano – formerly AREVA] and Waste Control Specialists (WCS), is pursuing a license for a consolidated interim storage facility (CISF) for used nuclear fuel at an existing WCS disposal site in Andrews County, Texas. Holtec International, which has been acquiring nuclear plants that have closed or are scheduled to close in order to carry out their decommissioning, is developing a CISF in southeastern New Mexico, in a remote area between Carlsbad and Hobbs……..

Joy Russell, vice president of corporate business development and chief communications officer for Holtec, said her company formed a business unit—Comprehensive Decommissioning International—in a 2018 joint venture with SNC-Lavalin after SNC-Lavalin in 2017 acquired Atkins, a nuclear waste solutions company. Russell said the New Mexico site encompasses about 1,000 acres, with “about 500 acres being used to build the facility.” Russell said the site, known as HI-STORE CIS, would use the company’s HI-STORM UMAX technology, which stores loaded canisters of nuclear waste in a subterranean configuration.

Russell said her group has a public-private partnership with the Eddy Lee Energy Alliance, representing Eddy and Lee counties in New Mexico, for the project, which she said has support from both local and state officials.

“We’re doing educational outreach in New Mexico,” said Russell. “We do township meetings, where we testify before the mayor and town council. We meet one-on-one with candidates. We had to start with the basics. What people think of when they hear nuclear fuel, they think of the fuel you put in your car, and how that could leak into the ground. We have to educate people on what [nuclear] fuel is. We focus on safety, security, and technology.”

Russell agreed that public concerns centers on the transport of nuclear waste. “The number-one thing I hear, all the time, about consolidated interim storage is transportation.” Holtec also has its license application before the NRC for review; Russell said it expect the agency will complete its review in July 2020, putting the New Mexico site on a timeline to receive its first shipment of spent fuel in 2023.

Revisiting Yucca Mountain

Congress first chose Yucca Mountain as a storage site for nuclear waste in 1987. Years of research into the site followed; estimates are that $15 billion was spent on the project. Sproat noted his efforts on licensing for Yucca Mountain before his retirement from the DOE, with a license application submitted to the NRC in 2008. The Obama administration ended funding for the project and halted the licensing process in 2009.

Meanwhile, the Nuclear Waste Fund (NWF), which collected money from the states to finance waste storage projects, was ordered by a federal court in late 2013 to stop collecting that money until the federal government made provisions for collecting that waste………….. https://www.powermag.com/plans-move-forward-for-privately-funded-storage-of-nuclear-waste/?pagenum=1

September 6, 2018 Posted by | business and costs, USA, wastes | Leave a comment

Nuclear reprocessing has little future in Japan, as utilities end funding

Japanese utilities ended funding for nuclear fuel reprocessing in 2016, putting MOX program in doubt https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/09/03/national/japanese-utilities-ended-funding-nuclear-fuel-reprocessing-2016-putting-mox-plans-doubt/#.W48CsSQzbGg

4 Sept 18, Kyodo,, Utilities that operate nuclear power plants stopped funding the reprocessing of nuclear fuel in fiscal 2016, their financial reports showed Sunday, a step that may affect resource-scarce Japan’s nuclear fuel recycling policy.

The 10 utilities, including Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. and Japan Atomic Power Co., apparently halted allocating reserve funds for reprocessing costs due to the huge expenses linked to building the reprocessing facilities, sources said.

The government, along with the power companies, has been pushing for the reuse of mixed-oxide, or MOX, fuel, which is created from plutonium and uranium extracted from spent fuel.

While Japan has not changed its policy on spent fuel reprocessing, the outlook for it has remained uncertain since the 2011 Fukushima disaster. At the same time, the government’s latest energy plan in July also stated for the first time that disposal of spent MOX fuel as waste can be considered.

If MOX fuel cannot be reprocessed, nuclear fuel can only be reused once. For the reprocessing of spent MOX fuel, the utilities had allocated about ¥230 billion in reserves as of March 2016.

Currently, only two reactors at Kansai Electric Power Co.’s Takahama power plant, one reactor at Shikoku Electric Power Co.’s Ikata plant and one reactor at Kyushu Electric Power Co.’s Genkai power plant use MOX fuel in so-called pluthermal power generation.

As Japan has decided to cut its stockpile of plutonium, the government and utilities aim to increase plants for pluthermal generation. But if spent MOX fuel is not reprocessed, it would be considered nuclear waste, raising concerns over how to deal with it.

Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. — in which power companies have invested — has been pursuing the construction of a spent nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in northeastern Japan as well as a MOX fuel fabrication plant, with the costs coming to about ¥16 trillion.

But a series of problems has resulted in their delay. When operational, the Rokkasho plant in Aomori Prefecture, key to Japan’s nuclear fuel cycle policy, can reprocess up to 800 tons of spent nuclear fuel per year, extracting about 8 tons of plutonium.

With this setback, if new MOX reprocessing plants are to be built, it would be hard to secure further funding.

September 5, 2018 Posted by | business and costs, Japan, reprocessing | Leave a comment

Nuclear reactors shutting down faster than ones are being built

Nuclear plant decommissioning outpacing new-build – report https://www.reuters.com/article/energy-nuclearpower/nuclear-plant-decommissioning-outpacing-new-build-report-idUSL8N1VM4EC

PARIS, Sept 4 (Reuters) – The decommissioning of nuclear reactors is far outpacing the construction of new plants, as the pace of Chinese reactor building has slowed and several developing countries have scrapped nuclear projects, an industry report showed.

In mid-2018, a total of 115 reactors were being decommissioned, about 70 percent of the world’s 173 reactors that have been permanently shut down, according to the annual World Nuclear Industry Status Report (WNISR).

Only 19 reactor units have been fully decommissioned – of which 13 are in the United States, five in Germany, and one in Japan – and just 10 have been returned to greenfield sites.

Many utilities prefer to let reactor cores cool off for decades on-site.

“Unscrewing a nuclear installation by workers who know how it was put together makes more sense than cutting it apart decades later by people who know nothing about it,” said Mycle Schneider, lead author of the report.

Decommissioning has become a major activity for many reactor builders and operators here, turning the costly process into a business opportunity.

By comparison, 15 countries are currently building nuclear power plants, two more than in mid-2017, as newcomer countries Bangladesh and Turkey started building their first units. Belarus and United Arab Emirates (UAE) have nuclear new-build projects that are well under way.

Nuclear new-build plans have been cancelled, including in Jordan, Malaysia and the United States, or postponed such as in Argentina, Indonesia and Kazakhstan, the WNISR report said.

Last week, South Africa scrapped a plan here to add nearly 10 gigawatt (GW) of nuclear power by 2030.

At the end of June, 50 reactors were being built worldwide — of which 16 are in China – with total capacity of 48.5 GW. Following the 2011 Fukushima disaster, the number of reactors under construction topped at 68 in 2013 but has trended downward since then.

A total of 413 reactors were in operation in 31 countries in mid-2018, ten more than a year ago and compared with a peak of 438 in 2002. The increase was due to the restart of several reactors that had suffered long-term outages.

The amount of electricity generated with nuclear energy worldwide rose one percent to 2,500 terawatt hours in 2017 and the share of nuclear power in power generation was 10.3 percent, virtually stable over the past five years. (Reporting by Geert De Clercq; Editing by Mark Potter)

 

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September 4, 2018 Posted by | 2 WORLD, business and costs | Leave a comment

Even before Wylfa nuclear station approved, Horizon Nuclear Power wants to demolish buildings, clear area

North Wales Chronicle 31st Aug 2018 , Horizon Nuclear Power is seeking planning permission to carry out the 15
month long process that includes clearing field boundaries, demolishing
buildings and “relocating species”, covering an area the equivalent of
almost 500 football pitches. The plans, to be discussed by Anglesey
Council’s planning committee next week, also include building car parks
and offices at the site on the outskirts of Cemaes.

Recommended for approval by officers, Horizon has endeavoured to begin the work even before
the fate is known of the necessary Development Consent Order (DCO)
application for the nuclear plant itself. A process that could take at
least 18 months for the Planning Inspectorate to decide upon, the DCO will
also include a substantial public consultation period.
http://www.northwaleschronicle.co.uk/news/16611204.740-acre-site-for-wylfa-newydd-recommended-for-approval/

September 3, 2018 Posted by | business and costs, politics, UK | Leave a comment

Agreement for USA commercial nuclear power to provide tritium for nuclear weapons

NNSA, TVA agree to ‘down-blend’ uranium to produce tritium for weapons, Oak Ridge Today  AUGUST 29, 2018, BY JOHN HUOTARI The National Nuclear Security Administration and the Tennessee Valley Authority announced last week that they intend to enter into an agreement to “down-blend” highly enriched uranium to low-enriched uranium in order to help produce tritium, a key “boosting” component in nuclear weapons.The highly enriched uranium used for the “down-blending” is processed, packaged, and shipped from the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, according to the NNSA. Y-12 is the main storage facility for certain categories of highly enriched uranium, which can be used in nuclear weapons and in naval reactors.

Low-enriched uranium, or LEU fuel, is used in a commercial power reactor run by TVA at the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant Unit 1 near Spring City in Rhea County, southwest of Oak Ridge. Tritium is produced there by irradiating lithium-aluminate pellets with neutrons in rods known as tritium-producing burnable absorber rods, or TPBARs.

The irradiated rods are then shipped to the Savannah River Site, an NNSA production facility near Aiken, South Carolina. The Savannah River Site extracts the tritium from the irradiated rods, purifies it, and adds it to the existing inventory, according to the NNSA’s Fiscal Year 2018 Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan.

Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen that has two neutrons and one proton. It has been described as an essential component in every nuclear weapon in the U.S. stockpile. It occurs naturally in small quantities but must be manufactured to obtain useful quantities. It enables weapons to produce a larger yield while reducing the overall size and weight of the warhead in a process known as “boosting,” the U.S. Department of Energy said in an environmental impact statement about 20 years ago.

But unlike other nuclear materials used in nuclear weapons, tritium decays at a rate of 5.5 percent per year—its half-life is about 12 years—and it must be replenished periodically…….

The new agreement follows a determination by U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry on August 21 that allows the NNSA to continue transfers of enriched uranium from DOE’s inventories in support of national security, the NNSA said in a press release.

The rest of this story, which you will find only on Oak Ridge Today, is available if you are a member: a subscriber, advertiser, or recent contributor to Oak Ridge Today.  https://oakridgetoday.com/tag/tritium-production/

August 31, 2018 Posted by | business and costs, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

South Korea’s nuclear corporation in desperate effort to save Moorside nuclear plant project 

Kepco in last-ditch attempt to save Moorside nuclear plant project https://www.ft.com/content/50389e18-a6df-11e8-926a-7342fe5e173fSouth Korean utility group looks at potential lenders to finance construction Sylvia Pfeifer in London, Song Jung-a in Seoul and Leo Lewis in Tokyo, 28 Aug 18

Korea Electric Power Corp is meeting lenders to finance the construction of a new nuclear power plant in west Cumbria, as it makes a last-ditch attempt to save the project. Kepco said it was “exchanging opinion with potential lenders” but noted that the Korean government, which owns a majority stake in the company, had said it was “too early” to enter financing negotiations. The South Korean group was named last December as the preferred bidder for Toshiba’s NuGen unit, which was to build the plant at Moorside. But the deal ran into problems after the UK announced in June that it was considering how the funding for new nuclear power plants should be structured. One model under review is for private investors to secure a return on a nuclear plant’s so-called regulated asset base (RAB). The following month, Toshiba said it was exploring alternative options for the business and had terminated Kepco’s preferred bidder status.

Toshiba has set a deadline to secure a deal by the end of September, according to people close to the negotiations. The company declined to comment. The persistent delays have prompted NuGen to review its operations. It started a 30-day consultation period at the start of August raising the prospect of about 100 job losses. Toshiba is believed to have spent hundreds of millions of pounds on developing the site so far. It was forced to pay close to $139m to buy a 40 per cent stake held by France’s Engie last year. The failure of the Moorside plant would deal a blow to the UK government’s plans to encourage the construction of new reactors to replace its ageing fleet.

A government spokesperson in Seoul confirmed the company had launched a joint study to ascertain whether the RAB model was “workable”. The Korean government is understood to remain keen to progress with the investment because it would give it a foothold in one of the few western nations backing the construction of new reactors. But it has said the investment must pass a “national audit” test before it can proceed.

Kepco wants to deploy two of its APR-1400 reactors at Moorside to generate a combined electricity of about 3GW — close to 7 per cent of Britain’s electricity needs. Kepco said it was “too early” to say whether it would be able to meet the criteria for the audit. A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said the government had “repeatedly engaged with Kepco and the government of the Republic of Korea both in Korea and the UK in support of ongoing Moorside negotiations”. “Ultimately, this remains a commercial matter between Toshiba and Kepco,” he added.

August 29, 2018 Posted by | business and costs, South Korea, UK | Leave a comment

Nobody wants to pay the $4.7 Billion Nuclear Bill for South Carolina’s abandoned nuclear project

The $4.7 Billion Nuclear Bill That No One Wants to Pay  Utility and South Carolina lawmakers clash over who should pick up the costs of abandoned project, WSJ By  Mengqi Sun, 26 Aug 18 

Aug. 25, 2018 The primary owner of a power plant with two partially built nuclear reactors in South Carolina walked away from the $9 billion project last summer because of high construction costs and delays. Now no one wants to pay for it.

The utility overseeing the Virgil C. Summer plant is asking ratepayers across the Palmetto State to shoulder its construction expenses of $4.7 billion, citing a law passed last decade. But local lawmakers are trying to force South Carolina Electric and Gas Co to pick up more of the tab. … (subscribers only) https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-4-7-billion-nuclear-bill-that-no-one-wants-to-pay-1535194801

 

August 27, 2018 Posted by | business and costs, USA | 1 Comment

War fear panic is good for bunker salesmen in South Korea

In South Korea’s war panic economy, sales thrive on nuclear angst, USA Today Patrick Winn, Global  Aug. 23, 2018 Seoul is renowned for its stoicism in the face of potential war. At least that’s what we’re often told, that the majority of people in this city of 25 million can wake up to North Korean threats about immolation in a nuclear “sea of fire,” shrug and just go to work.

Even when Pyongyang was detonating nukes last fall  —  and President Donald Trump spoke of bringing “fire and fury” to their peninsula  —  polls suggested that roughly six in 10 South Koreans believed there was “no possibility” of war. (Even Americans living an entire ocean away appear more panicky over North Korean nukes than that.)

But what about those in South Korea who can’t shake an impending sense of doom? For that anxious minority, there is a marketplace offering to aid in their survival should North Korea ever unsheathe its self-proclaimed “nuclear sword of justice.”

Call it the war panic economy: a small industry selling all the stuff you might want on doomsday. Think gas masks, hazmat suits and emergency rations. Or, for the upper classes, your own personal bunker………..

 priciest bunker runs about $37,000. That buys a roughly 600-square-foot sanctum, complete with four beds, a sink trickling out purified water, an electrical system powered by a hand crank and an air purification system that can filter out radiation.

Imagine a small studio apartment with rounded steel walls, as in a submarine, with an entrance hatch that’s heavy as a bank-vault door. To make the bunker fully nuke-proof, he says, it must be buried underground and encased in cement.

“My clientele tend to be people in their 60s or older who might have memories of the war,” he says. “Often they want to provide bunkers to their sons or daughters.”

Those old enough to recall the aftermath of the Korean War can be forgiven for shivering at any mention of a redux. Between 1950 to 1953, parts on the peninsula were turned to veritable seas of fire, largely thanks to more than half a million American bombs.

As Curtis LeMay, the U.S. Air Force general overseeing the aerial campaign, put it:

“Over a period of three years, we killed off — what? — 20 percent of the population of Korea as direct casualties of war or from starvation and exposure.”

That these horrors exist within living memory might explain why some elderly Koreans feel especially jumpy over Pyongyang’s bombast — or aggressive tweets sent from the White House. Go has noticed that calls have spiked when either side makes threats.

But there is a flip side to this war panic economy. When fear runs hot, it thrives. But when peaceful vibes pervade, it practically collapses……..

Lee sells hundreds of items, all of which might prove handy in a world turned anarchic by nuclear or chemical attacks. Among his inventory: flare guns, attack batons, radiation detectors, four types of gas masks and, for the discriminating survivalist, emergency rations that taste like French Basque-style chicken stew. ………https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/08/23/south-koreans-prepare-north-korean-nuclear-attack/1074765002/

August 25, 2018 Posted by | business and costs, South Korea, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Big safety costs for Japan’s nuclear power stations- and costs will grow yearly

Asahi Shimbun 23rd Aug 2018 Mandatory steps to respond to possible terrorist attacks and other safety
measures will cost 11 nuclear plant operators at least a combined 4.41
trillion yen ($40 billion), according to this year’s estimate, an Asahi
Shimbun study found. The soaring outlays undermine a government claim that
nuclear energy will be the cheapest source of power in 2030.
What is clear is that costs will increase year by year. Operators are obliged to
strengthen their facilities to withstand a terrorist attack within five
years of clearing more stringent regulations on reactor restarts imposed by
the Nuclear Regulation Authority.
http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201808230044.html

August 25, 2018 Posted by | business and costs, Japan, safety | Leave a comment

Hitachi makes plans to rein in the ballooning cost of Wylfa nuclear power project

Nikkei Asian Review 23rd Aug 2018 , Japanese industrial group Hitachi seeks to rein in the ballooning cost of
its British nuclear power plant project by naming a manager and clarifying
the roles performed by the company and its partners. U.S. engineering
company Bechtel will serve as a project manager for the proposed Wylfa
Newydd power plant from now on, overseeing design, construction and cost
control, while Hitachi and Japanese plant builder JGC will handle design
and construction, Hitachi said on Wednesday.

Hitachi is building two reactors on the Welsh island of Anglesey through U.K. subsidiary Horizon
Nuclear Power. Before the reorganization of roles, Hitachi, JGC and Bechtel
had been undertaking the project as three-way joint venture. The new
arrangement is designed to let Horizon reduce costs on the Wylfa project by
placing orders directly for turbines and other equipment.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Companies/Hitachi-names-Bechtel-as-manager-for-UK-nuclear-project

August 24, 2018 Posted by | business and costs, UK | Leave a comment

The heat stroke threat affecting Fukushima nuclear clean-up workers

Leaving no stone unturned in heatstroke battle at nuclear plant http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201808180033.htmlBy HIROSHI ISHIZUKA/ Staff Writer  , 18 Aug 18  OKUMA, Fukushima Prefecture–How to avert a heatstroke is more pressing than usual in Japan this summer as the archipelago bakes in a record heat wave.

It’s not just sun-worshipers, children, the elderly and the infirm who should worry.

Spare a thought for the 5,000 or so workers who toil at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant to get it ready for decommissioning.

They have to work outside in protective gear, with limited access to water and other resources.

At 5 a.m. on Aug. 6, a manager reminded a 20-strong group from IHI Plant Construction Co., which was contracted by Tokyo Electric Power Co., of the importance of adhering strictly to work rules.

“Please limit your efforts to shifts of less than 90 minutes,” the manager told the assembled workers in a lounge at the plant as he checked the complexion of each individual to gauge their health condition.

The workers are installing storage tanks for radioactive water that is accumulating at the plant.

They are not permitted to take food and beverages with them because of the risk of internal radiation exposure if the perishables are contaminated while they are working.

Water stations have been set up, but workers generally don’t bother to quench their thirst as it means they have to change out of their work gear to reach the sites.

During the morning meeting, the manager also checked each worker’s alcohol level and made sure that everybody had water from oral rehydration solution. After that, workers put a cold insulator in their vests and headed to the work site.

The Fukushima plant complex has about 900 tanks set up. IHI Plant Construction installed about 20 percent of them.

The workers’ primary responsibility in recent weeks is to inspect the condition of covers put in place to stop rainwater from accumulating around the tanks.

The workers are spared from the scorching sun as they work under cover, but coping with 90 to 95 percent humidity is a formidable challenge.

Junichi Ono, the head of the IHI Plant Construction’s task force assigned to the plant, said his company has tried to take every precaution against heatstroke.

“We need to pay attention because we work in a humid environment,” he said. “If a worker falls sick, we will lose valuable time taking that person to the doctor.”

According to TEPCO, 23 workers suffered heatstroke in the summer of 2011, shortly after the nuclear crisis unfolded at the plant.

Learning a lesson from that, workers were later instructed to start their tasks early in the morning and not work outdoors in principle between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. in July and August, the hottest part of the day.

The “summer time” schedule appears to be paying off.

In fiscal 2014, the number of workers afflicted with heatstroke at the plant stood at 15.

It dropped to four in fiscal 2016, but went back up to six in fiscal 2017 despite it being a relatively cool summer that year.

Although this year’s heat wave is unprecedented, only four workers have suffered heatstroke at the plant this summer.

The Japan Meteorological Agency forecast blistering summer heat in the coming week after a respite this weekend.

August 20, 2018 Posted by | climate change, employment, Fukushima continuing | Leave a comment

Electrical utility JEA orders co-owner to abandon “economically obsolete” Plant Vogtle nuclear power project

JEA issues ultimatum to Plant Vogtle co-owner: Walk away from nuclear project, The Florida Times Union, Jacksonville.com, By Nate Monroe,  Aug 17, 2018 

JEA’s chief executive officer issued a sharply worded letter Friday to one of the Georgia-based co-owners of the faltering Plant Vogtle nuclear expansion project demanding it walk away from the $27 billion effort, accusing the agency of rebuffing requests from local utility officials for more information about the increasingly expensive construction project that Jacksonville ratepayers are tied to.

JEA interim CEO Aaron Zahn told James Fuller, president and CEO of the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia, that the two agencies have a “starkly different understanding of our joint business and legal relationship as well as the fundamental viability” of completing the two “economically obsolete” nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle, outside Augusta, Ga. Zahn said MEAG risks violating the terms of a 2008 purchase-power agreement between the two agencies that put JEA on the hook for a portion of the construction costs and obligated it to purchase power from the reactors for 20 years.

That obligation could cost JEA up to $4 billion over two decades.

The demand letter represents a significant escalation in JEA’s determination to kill the Plant Vogtle project. It has previously told financial analysts it wanted the project to get canceled but has stayed on the sidelines as Georgia power regulators debated its future.

Zahn said JEA officials in the past have been “rebuffed” by MEAG when seeking detailed financial information about the Vogtle project, and demanded the agency turn over those records. Zahn asked Fuller to respond within five days.

MEAG officials could not be immediately reached for comment Friday evening.

The 2008 contract has weighed heavily on the minds of JEA officials, who are seeking ways of exiting the agency’s obligation to help build the two nuclear reactors. In the years since the JEA board of directors agreed to buy power from the yet-to-be-constructed reactors, the project has nearly doubled in cost, skyrocketing JEA’s own obligations with it.

Nuclear power, just years ago thought to be entering a golden age, is no longer favored by American electric utilities. The Plant Vogtle expansion is the only remaining active nuclear power project in the nation.

Zahn’s letter came a day after Central Florida state Sen. Debbie Mayfield asked legislative auditors to examine JEA’s agreement with MEAG, citing concerns she had heard from Jacksonville residents and citing it as an “alarming example” of “potential mismanagement.”…….http://www.jacksonville.com/news/20180817/jea-issues-ultimatum-to-plant-vogtle-co-owner-walk-away-from-nuclear-project

 

August 20, 2018 Posted by | business and costs, USA | 1 Comment

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