Wind Is The New Power In America’s Heartland, Forbes, Chris Brown, 14 May 17, U.S. wind energy recently achieved a major milestone, which underscores a new reality that is generating power and jobs across America’s heartland. In February, low-cost clean electricity from wind turbines on the Great Plains supplied more than half (52.1%) of all power on the grid serving Americans in a 14-state swath of the central U.S., stretching from Texas to Montana.
This was the first time a North American grid operator supplied a majority of its electricity from wind, powering millions of households. “Now we have the ability to reliably manage greater than 50%,” said Bruce Rew, vice president of operations, Southwest Power Pool (SPP). “It’s not even our ceiling.”
SPP understands the power of wind. They aren’t alone.
The CEO of Great River Energy Inc., which supplies 28 electric co-ops in Minnesota, recently said that “wind is quickly becoming the new base load, and to be viable going forward, all other sources must be flexible enough to be supplemental to the wind.”
Wind is winning in energy markets because of its proven reliability and market-beating cost, which fell 66% since 2009. It’s now the cheapest source of new electric-generating capacity across much of the nation, attracting utilities such as Xcel Energy and MidAmerican Energy, and corporatebuyers including Amazon, Google, Home Depot and GM.
Wind isn’t just becoming a major contributor to U.S. power – it’s a rapidly expanding base for U.S. jobs. Every year, the wind industry as a whole now supports more than 30 U.S. jobs for every new wind turbine, according to analysis of new economic impact data by Navigant Consulting. A modern wind turbine takes 18 full-time U.S. jobs to develop, manufacture, transport and construct, and creates 44 years of full-time employment, including long-term operations and maintenance, over its lifetime.
Nationwide, wind powers 102,500 jobs, driving economic development in the rural Midwest, Rust Belt and all 50 states. By 2020, projected wind-related jobs will rise to a quarter million, including jobs in communities surrounding wind farms and factories. Today, U.S. wind counts more than 1,000 utility-scale projects, 52,000 wind turbines and 500 factories.
Though 9.1 GW of new capacity is projected to be added, 29.9 GW is expected to be retired. The reactors already announced for closure include Palisades in 2018, Pilgrim Unit 1 in 2019, Oyster Creek Unit 1 in 2020, Indian Point Units 2 and 3 around 2020 and Diablo Canyon Units 1 and 2 in 2025 and 2026.
Though Quad Cities Units 1 and 2 and Clinton Unit 1 were set for retirement, financial incentives passed by the state of Illinois caused the operators of those plants to keep them open.
EIA assumes 25 percent of nuclear capacity now operating without announced retirement plans will be removed from service by 2050.
The four new reactors under construction at V.C. Summer and Vogtle are included in the assessment, EIA said their future process is uncertain due to the bankruptcy of Westinghouse Electric.
New nuclear power plants are licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for 40 years, though 90 percent of currently operating nuclear plants are either operating under or have applied for 20-year license renewals. Nearly all nuclear plants now in use began operation between 1970 and 1990.
EIA noted the capital investment needed to keep plants operating beyond 60 years is currently unknown and could vary significantly across the nuclear power fleet.
Is Rosatom selling debt and dependence to its overseas customers? http://bellona.org/news/nuclear-issues/2017-05-is-rosatom-selling-debt-and-dependence-to-its-overseas-customersWhen a court in South Africa torpedoed a $76 billion deal to build 10 nuclear reactors with Russia’s Rosatom because the arrangement reeked of corruption, it seemed like the project was kaput. May 10, 2017 by Charles Digges, charles@bellona.no, When a court in South Africa torpedoed a $76 billion deal to build 10 nuclear reactors with Russia’s Rosatom because the arrangement reeked of corruption, it seemed like the project was kaput.
At issue to the court was the fact that Rosatom was given the lucrative contract behind closed doors without any competing tenders, and that the company had been granted “special favors.” South Africa’s president, Jacob Zuma, even sacked his finance minister for opposing the deal.
The high court demanded that a contract of such breathtaking magnitude – representing a quarter of South Africa’s gross domestic product and $24 billion more than its state utility, Eskom, has in the bank – be approved by parliament.
Hanging over the deal, and numerous others like it, is the degree to which Rosatom seems to be pursing not just energy dominance in a world trying to wean itself coal, but political influence as well by putting its customers in long-term hock to Moscow.
The South Africa deal may yet come off, but it’s also surprising that it got so far in the first place.
It began as one of Rosatom’s handshake “memorandums of understanding” that the company is using to blanket the nuclear construction market and squeeze out competition. The company says it has 27 of these MOUs and other arrangements, amounting to $135 billion in incoming business, a claim that invites skepticism.
Many of the counties Rosatom counts among that number – like Jordan, Algeria, Nigeria and Bolivia – won’t be ready for nuclear for decades. Others where Rosatom builds are already underway – like India’ Kudankulam, Iran’s Bushehr, China’s Tianwan and Belarus’s Ostrovets – are already familiar with Rosatom’s typical cost overruns and delays.
Rosatom’s approach to marketing its VVER-1000 and VVER-1200 reactors is unique because it offers to finance, build and operate its plants. These generous terms come thanks to the enormous state subsidies it receives, and which it can then funnel into loans that boost its profits on paper. With government subsides set to decrease or dry up in 2020, however, Rosatom seems desperate to announce ever more MOUs.
While the terms of the financing for the South Africa deal never got spelled out, it’s clear from Rosatom deals in other countries that the terms are often steep.
To build Hungary’s controversial Paks-2 plant, Rosatom gave Budapest an $11 billion loan spread out over 30 years. Hungary has to start paying that back even if the plant is not completed on time. The interest Moscow could collect from Hungary is unclear, but a similar 30-year, $11.4 billion agreement with Bangladesh inked last year could result in $8 billion in interest. A $25 billion deal Rosatom signed with Egypt could, over 35-year term of the loan, swell to $71 billion.
And that’s if everyone behaves. The plant Rosatom is building in Turkey offers an indication of what happens when they don’t. To build Hungary’s controversial Paks-2 plant, Rosatom gave Budapest an $11 billion loan spread out over 30 years. Hungary has to start paying that back even if the plant is not completed on time. The interest Moscow could collect from Hungary is unclear, but a similar 30-year, $11.4 billion agreement with Bangladesh inked last year could result in $8 billion in interest. A $25 billion deal Rosatom signed with Egypt could, over 35-year term of the loan, swell to $71 billion.
And that’s if everyone behaves. The plant Rosatom is building in Turkey offers an indication of what happens when they don’t.
On the opposite side, supporting FirstEnergy, were unions, a contractor’s group, and the Perry local school district, which benefits from taxes from the Perry nuclear power plant.
The Ohio Manufacturers’ Association, the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel, the Lordstown Energy Center, Dynegy, now the state’s largest owner of coal-fired power plants, the American Petroleum Institute and the Electric Power Supply Association were among more than a dozen groups testifying against enabling legislation before the Ohio House Public Utilities Committee.
“House Bill 178 or the Zero Emission Nuclear credit bill would provide an enormous subsidy to one nuclear operator for units that they contend are no longer economic to operate,” said Robert Flexon, CEO of Houston-based Dynegy Inc.
“Our economy will not grow and prosper by artificially keeping alive business that can no longer compete in the marketplace through expensive subsidies,” he told lawmakers. “That has been the case throughout American history. Were that not so, we’d still have buggy whip and icebox manufacturers and teletype and elevators operators.”
Later in an interview, Flexon said the zero emissions argument, meaning the plants deserve higher rates because they don’t produce carbon dioxide, is a “red herring.”
“The nuclear plants are deeply out of the money. You [the state] would be throwing billions of dollars down a nuclear waste hole. These plants can’t live without subsidies. Why do you want to put more bills on your citizens? It’s beyond me.”
Flexon was joined by William Siderewicz, president of Boston-based Clean Energy Future, which is building four gas turbine power plants at two northern Ohio locations, including Lordstown.
You would be throwing billions of dollars down a nuclear waste hole. These plants can’t live without subsidies.”
Calling for the House to “summarily reject” any form of the legislation, Siderewicz charged that FirstEnergy’s objective was not to save Davis-Besse and Perry nuclear power plants, but to prepare for selling the plants or closing them and paying for the decommissioning.
Former Republican lawmaker Jeff Jadobson, now a lobbyist, appeared before the committee on behalf of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel and the Northeast Ohio Public Energy Council, which oppose the bill.
He said Ohio consumers are stuck with the 18th highest electric rate in the nation despite being “awash in shale oil and natural gas that have given us historically low gas prices” — which is leading to a building boom in new gas plants.
“But there is a problem that is preventing Ohio families and businesses from realizing the full benefits of lower prices in the market,” he said. “That problem is the continuing requests by Oho electric utilities — now years since the 1999 deregulation law’s transition period ended — for consumers to pay subsidies above the market price of electricity.”
He said FirstEnergy received $9.8 billion in subsidies between 2001 and 2010 to help it transition from the old regulated markets to competitive deregulated markets. And as of Jan. 1, the company has been permitted to collect an additional $204 million a year for up to five years in additional subsidies.
“FirstEnergy is back. Respectively, you should stop this cycle of subsidies and give consumers more of the benefit of competition intended under the 1999 law,” he told the lawmakers.
Earlier in the day, Chris Zeigler, executive director of the American Petroleum Institute’s Ohio division, and Erica Bowman, API chief economist, told reporters that FirstEnergy’s proposed subsidies could stall the development of the 10 or more gas turbine power plants proposed or already being built in Ohio. And in turn, that could stall further development of Ohio’s rich shale gas deposits.
Bowman also testified, concluding that API is strongly opposed to House Bill 178. It would skew markets by propping up uncompetitive nuclear generation, increase costs for ratepayers and job-creating industries, and discourage investment in natural gas production and gas-fired power plants. ”
Other opponents included the Ohio Environmental Council, AARP Ohio, the League of Women Voters of Ohio, Ohio Citizen Action the Environmental Defense Fund and the Nuclear Information and Resource Service.
FirstEnergy initially asked that lawmakers vote on the bill by June 30, but at this point that is not expected to happen.
All of the testimony is posted on the committee’s website.
Reports of impending Toshiba bankruptcy raise new doubts about S.C. nuclear project, The Post and Courier, By David Wren dwren@postandcourier.com, May 11, 2017
The utilities building new reactors at a Midlands nuclear plant aren’t saying what impact a potential Toshiba Corp. bankruptcy filing could have on the troubled construction project, even as more questions are being raised about the Japanese conglomerate’s financial health……..Toshiba’s business partners told The Wall Street Journal that they are bracing for a bankruptcy filing that could wipe out many of the Tokyo firm’s commitments, including a guarantee to pay up to $1.7 billion in cost overruns at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station in Jenkinsville…….
The utilities must make a decision by June 26 whether to build one or both of the reactors or scrap the plan entirely. Santee Cooper’s board of directors met in a private session Wednesday to get legal advice on the project but took no action…….
The utilities also are counting on an extension of federal tax credits for new nuclear projects to keep V.C. Summer alive. Those credits expire at the end of 2020, and it’s not certain the two reactors — which are only about one-third complete, according to a filing with the S.C. Public Service Commission — will be online by then. An effort to extend the tax credit deadline has gotten little traction in Congress.
“It is very, very important to the viability,” Jimmy Addison, SCANA’s chief financial officer, said of the tax credits during a conference call with analysts last month.
Meanwhile, Georgia Power, the nation’s only other utility adding new nuclear generation, could make a decision as early as Friday whether to finish two reactors under construction at its Plant Vogtle near Augusta. Westinghouse is the contractor on that project, where Toshiba has guaranteed $3.7 billion in payments. An interim agreement to keep work on track at Vogtle expires Friday but could be extended.
Georgia Power spokesman John Kraft told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the utility “will take every action available to hold Westinghouse and Toshiba accountable for their financial responsibilities” even if the parent company files for bankruptcy protection.
Like V.C. Summer, the Vogtle project is behind schedule and over budget to the tune of about $3 billion……..
Bulgaria Seeks Private Investors for Nuclear Project, US News, May 11, 2017, SOFIA (Reuters) – Bulgaria is seeking private investors to build a nuclear power plant on the Danube River, which was canceled five years ago, Prime Minister Boiko Borisov said during a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday.
Sofia canceled the Belene project in 2012 after failing to find foreign investors and under pressure from Brussels and Washington to limit its energy dependence on Russia………It hopes to privatize the nuclear plant project after it paid more than 600 million euros ($652 million) in compensation to Russia’s state nuclear giant Rosatom when it canceled the 10 billion euro project. Rosatom had agreed to provide the nuclear reactors…….https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2017-05-11/bulgaria-seeks-private-investors-for-nuclear-project
Japan’s Tepco to seek partners for nuclear business, Reuters, By Osamu Tsukimori and Aaron Sheldrick| TOKYO, 11 May 17Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power Co said on Thursday it will seek partners for its nuclear business as part of a recovery plan after the Fukushima disaster of six years ago brought the utility to its knees and put it under state control.
The company, known as Tepco, is trying to place itself on a sounder financial footing after the government in December almost doubled its estimate for the costs related to the Fukushima disaster to 21.5 trillion yen ($188 billion).
It is the third attempt to boost its finances in the six years since the disaster, after the targets in previous plans proved to be unattainable.
Central to its efforts to boost profits and pay for the costs of the disaster is the restart of its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa (KK) nuclear plant in northern Japan, the world’s biggest power station not including hydroelectric dams…….
However, the governor of Japan’s Niigata prefecture, where KK is located, is opposed to a restart without a review of its safety plans, which could take several years. It also must resubmit applications with the national atomic regulator…….
Finding partners for Tepco’s nuclear business will be difficult. Top executives of Tohoku Electric Power and Chubu Electric Power, which operate in regions abutting Tepco’s service area, have said they were not considering any nuclear tie-ups with Tepco……
Tepco submitted the revised business plan to the government, which is expected to give its approval after providing its own input over the last few months.
Tepco plans to allocate 500 billion yen annually in the coming decades to pay for decommissioning at Fukushima and compensation.
Tepco is estimating net profit of 288 billion yen in the year through March 2018, more than double the year earlier period. Revenue is forecast to rise to 5.75 trillion yen from 5.36 trillion yen.
A state regulatory hearing on Thursday opened the Georgia Public Service Commission’s latest biannual review of Plant Vogtle (VOH’-gohl) costs, focused on $222 million reported between July and December. But the bankruptcy filing by Westinghouse Electric Co., the U.S. nuclear unit of Japan’s Toshiba Corp., loomed large.
Construction of two new reactors south of Augusta is already years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget.
Georgia Power officials said the company still is studying the cost and timeline to complete both reactors, cancel one or both. They say a recommendation will be brought back to the commission.
Why Nuclear Energy Doesn’t Dominate the Globe It was supposed to be the energy of the future. But then came the upkeep.http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/a26426/nuclear-energy-problems/By David Grossman May 8, 2017 Once upon a time, the Atomic Age was right around the corner. The promise of nuclear power would lead it to take over the world and power all our incredible tomorrows.
What are the challenges of nuclear power? – M. V. Ramana and Sajan Saini
And then, life happened. Here, TED Ed gives a nice rundown of some of the technical issues keeping nuclear power at bay across the globe.
Safety, of course, is the big one. The challenges facing nuclear energy are inherent within the system. The control rods need to be cooled down to generate the steam which powers the generators. When things go wrong, they go very wrong. Accidents at sites like Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima draw massive headlines and bad publicity.
That hasn’t stopped some from using nuclear, though. While it doesn’t dominate the world like people once predicted, nuclear energy still powers slightly over 10 percent of the planet, which is saying something. Thirteen countries rely on nuclear for at least a third of their energy supply although this is generally seen to be a downward trend. Nuclear leader France, for example, just elected Emmanuel Macron to be prime minister partially on a campaign promise of reducing the country’s 72 percent reliance on nuclear to 50 percent. The upkeep is just too great.
Macron, like many around the world, is hoping to transition to renewable energy, which recently became the cheapest form of energy on the globe. One of the big advantages of renewables? Minimal upkeep, and never having to worry about rods again.
Unviable economics of nuclear power catches up with Cameco, Independent Australia, Jim Green 9 May 2017 Multinational uranium producer Cameco is battling a uranium downturn, the tax office, disinterested customers and Traditional Owners, Dr Jim Green reports.
ECONOMICS is killing the nuclear power industry.
Westinghouse, a giant of the industry, recently filed for bankruptcy protection and its parent company Toshiba may also go bankrupt — both companies brought undone by $15 billion cost overruns building four reactors.
In France, nuclear utilities EDF and Areva would have gone bankrupt if not for repeated multi-billion-dollar government bailouts — their most immediate problem is cost overruns of $18 billion building just two reactors.
The question arises: will them nuclear power crisis create similar carnage in the uranium industry? Might it bring down a uranium industry giant like Cameco, which provides about 17% of the world’s production from mines in Canada, the U.S. and Kazakhstan?
The short answer is that Cameco will likely survive, but the company has been downsizing continuously for the past five years:
In 2014, Cameco cut its growth plans and uranium exploration expenses, warning that the “stagnant, oversupplied short-term market” was not going to improve any time soon.
Another 120 workers are to be sacked by May 2017 at three Canadian uranium mines ‒ McArthur River, Key Lake and Cigar Lake ‒ and production at McArthur River, already reduced, will be suspended for six weeks in mid-2017.
Cameco’s revenue dropped US$238 million (AU$321 million) in 2016 and the company posted a US$46 million (AU$62 million) loss for the year. The loss was largely the result of US$267 million (AU$360 million) in impairment charges, including US$91 million (AU$123 million) related to the Rabbit Lake mine and a write-off of the full US$176 million (AU$237 million) value of the Kintyre uranium project in Western Australia.
“I think it’s fair to say that no one, including me, by the way, expected the market would go this low and for this long … market conditions in 2016 were as tough as I have seen them in 30 years.”
Cameco’s “tier-1” mines ‒ McArthur River and Cigar Lake in Canada and the Inkai ISL mine in Kazakhstan ‒ have been largely unaffected by the cutbacks except for the slowdown at McArthur River. But the tier-1 mines aren’t safe, Cameco plans to reduce production by 7% in 2017, the two mines in the U.S. might be sold (if a buyer can be found), and new mines are off the table.
TEPCO cancels billion-dollar contract
Cameco faces a new problem with notorious Japanese company TEPCO ‒ owner of the Fukushima reactors ‒ announcing on January 24 that it had issued a contract termination notice, sparking a 15% drop in Cameco’s share price over the next two days. The termination affects about 9.3 million pounds (4.22 kilos) of uranium oxide due to be delivered until 2028, worth approximately US$959 million (AU$1294 million).
TEPCO argues that a “force majeure” event occurred because it has been unable to operate its nuclear plants in Japan ‒ four reactors at Fukushima Daini and seven reactors at Kashiwazaki Kariwa ‒ for some years due to government regulations relating to reactor restarts in the aftermath of the March 2011 Fukushima disaster.
Cameco plans to fight the contract termination and will pursue “all its legal rights and remedies”.
‘They’ve taken delivery under this contract in 2014, 2015 and 2016, so we’re a bit perplexed as to why now all of a sudden they think there’s a case of, as they say, “force majeure”.’
TEPCO has received and paid for 2.2 million pounds of uranium oxide from Cameco since 2014
Japan is “swimming – some would say drowning – in uranium”, the senior editor of Platts Nuclear Publicationssaid in early 2016. According to Forbeswriter James Conca, Japan’s existing uranium inventory will suffice to fuel the country’s power reactors “for the next decade”.
Nick Carter from Ux Consulting said he believes TEPCO is the first Japanese utility to terminate a long-term contract, while many others have tried to renegotiate contracts to reduce volumes or prices or delay shipments. Gitzel acknowledged that “there is concern over the risk of contagion from the TEPCO announcement” ‒ more customers might try to cancel contracts if TEPCO succeeds.
Tax dispute
A long-running tax dispute is starting to heat up with the October 2016 commencement of a court case brought against Cameco by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). The dispute has been slowly winding its way through appeals and legal motions since 2009 when Cameco first challenged the CRA’s findings. The court case is likely to conclude in the coming months but the court’s decision may not be finalised until late-2017 or 2018.
Cameco is accused of setting up a subsidiary in Switzerland and selling it uranium at a low price to avoid tax. Thus Cameco was paying the Swiss tax rate of about 10% compared to almost 30% in Canada. Cameco set up the subsidiary in 1999 and established a 17-year deal selling uranium at approximately US$10 (AU$13.50) a pound — far less than the average price over the 17-years period. Another subsidiary was established in Barbados — possibly to repatriate offshore profits.
If Cameco loses the case in the Tax Court of Canada, it could be liable for back taxes of US$1.6 billion (AU$2.2 billion). Last year, the company spent approximately US$89 million (AU$120 million) legal costs related to the tax dispute.
Canadians for Tax Fairness have been arguing the case for legislative change to stop profit-shifting schemes, and for Cameco to pay up. Last year, the NGO teamed up with Saskatchewan Citizens for Tax Fairness and the international corporate watchdog, SumOfUs, to deliver a petition with 35,000 signatures to the Canadian Prime Minister’s office and to Cameco’s executive offices.
America’s first ’21st century #nuclear plant’ already has been shut down for repairs, LA Times, Michael HiltzikContact Reporter, May 8 2017, When the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Watts Bar 2 nuclear power plant was finally approaching completion the big public utility hailed it as “the nation’s first new nuclear generation of the 21st century.”
That was in October 2015, and the plant was thought to be only a few months away from going online. But it wasn’t until October 2016 that Watts Bar 2 began operating commercially. In March, just over five months later, the plant went offline — and it’s expected to remain offline at least into this summer, the TVA region’s peak period for electrical demand.
The 21st century is shaping up as not a good one for nuclear power, and Watts Bar Unit 2 may show why. The U.S. nuclear industry is running in neutral, except when it runs in reverse. Other than Watts Bar 2, the last new nuclear plant to enter American service is now nearly 20 years old — TVA’s 1996-vintage Watts Bar Unit 1.
California is on the verge of exiting the nuclear power field entirely, with the planned mothballing of Pacific Gas & Electric’s Diablo Canyon power plant. Diablo Canyon’s two reactors are to be shut down in 2024 and 2025 as part of a deal reached last year for the utility’s transition to other renewable sources. That deal followed the 2013 decision of Southern California Edison to permanently close San Onofre, the state’s only other nuclear power plant, following a botched attempt at its refurbishment.
The immediate cause of the Watts Bar shutdown is the failure of components of the unit’s condenser, which cools steam used to drive the generating turbines back into water. TVA took the plant off-line on March 23 and is still trying to pinpoint the cause of the condenser failure.
But the problems at Watts Bar arise from more than just a structural failure of the condenser. They’re also connected to the plant’s long gestation and to maladies endemic to the entire nuclear power industry.
Watts Bar 2 holds the world record for the longest gestation of any nuclear plant in history, having been listed as “under construction” for 43 years. Construction was launched in 1972 and suspended in 1985, when the plant already was 60% complete. By then, despite an initial cost estimate of about $400 million, some $1.7 billion had been spent. Construction resumed in 2007. The total cost is now estimated at $6.1 billion……..
Watts Bar, the so-called 21st century American nuclear plant, defines the crisis facing the U.S. nuclear industry. It’s stuck with outmoded technology and a management culture that exacerbates, rather than constrains, the technology’s safety issues. With every episode like this, the industry moves one step further away from making the case for its survival. http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-nuclear-shutdown-20170508-story.html
Areva pulls out of Baker Lake, Nunavut uranium mine remains mothballed, NUNATSIAQ ONLINE, Nunavut May 05, 2017 JANE GEORGE Areva Resources Canada, the proponent of the Kiggavik uranium project, has decided to close shop in Baker Lake and put its office building up for sale.
“After over 10 years exploring in the territory, studying the possibility of developing the Kiggavik Project and making numerous friends in the Kivalliq region, it’s time to say good bye,” the company said in an advertisement in the Nunatsiaq News print newspaper of May 5…..
The decision to sell the building comes after Areva opted to place its uranium mining project on hold.
That followed a 2015 recommendation from the Nunavut Impact Review Board that the project, 80 kilometres east of Baker Lake, should not proceed.
Kiggavik will remain in care and maintenance for an “indefinite period,” McCallum said May 4.
Meanwhile, its permits will be maintained and the property will be secured and visited once a year, he said.
The uranium mine to be located at two sites, Kiggavik and Sissons, would have comprised four open pits and an underground operation.
Areva said the project, with an estimated lifespan of about 12 years, would have been operating by some time in the 2020s or 2030s.
But opponents, such as the Nunavummiut Makitagunarningit group, said uranium mining posed a serious risk to the Kivalliq region’s caribou herds and that the environmental risks associated with the operation would outweigh its economic benefits.
While the mine would have cost $2 billion to build, McCallum said Areva had spent $80 million on developing the project, with $30 million going to northern contractors since 2006—numbers he recently shared in a meeting with the mayor of Baker Lake and the Kivalliq Inuit Association……The price of uranium currently stands at about $22 per pound—down nearly by half since 2013 and much lower than its high of more than $136 per pound in 2007. http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/65674areva_pulls_out_of_baker_lake_as_nunavut_uranium_mine_mothballed/#.WQzPWFlWLhM.twitter
Moorside nuclear plant ‘on hold’ as review announced, BBC News 4 May 2017 A plan to build a nuclear power station in Cumbria has been put on hold while the company behind it carries out a strategic review.
NuGen, which is overseeing the planned Moorside plant, was initially co-owned by French firm Engie and Toshiba.
Toshiba’s bankrupt nuclear arm may be prevented from providing any emergency funds to its overseas interests, throwing the future of the Moorside nuclear plant in Cumbria into fresh doubt.
It has emerged that Westinghouse, the Toshiba-owned American nuclear reactor developer, faces orders not to prop up any joint venture agreements that it entered into before the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March.
Wall Street private equity giant Apollo has pledged an $800m (£617m)rescue loan to the Pennsylvania-based company, which is awaiting court approval, while a group of hedge funds is also interested in providing emergency financing. However, it is understood that many of these prospective new investors want to see any fresh funds funnelled into Westinghouse and its main subsidiaries, not foreign joint venture projects like Moorside. They are calling for partners involved in Toshiba’s overseas interests to also step in and provide support.
The £18bn Moorside project is a central pillar of the UK’s atomic energy programme. The 3.4 gigawatt plant will power up to 6m homes but it has been thrown into doubt by Toshiba’s financial crisis and the bankruptcy of Westinghouse. The reactor maker, which the Japanese corporation bought from the British government in 2006, had been due to install three of its AP1000 reactors at Moorside. The project received a further blow when its other backer, French energy provider Engie, pulled out. Without the support of the only remaining backer, there are fears that the plant will never be built.
However, an industry source said: “Engie is a nuclear developer and a nuclear operator – it’s what they do. Senior people in the company have said that if the project found a way to move forward they would be interested in coming back.”
So-called “fitness champions” will now offer advice to colleagues on a wide range of issues, such as how to achieve and maintain peak physical condition, how to avoid injury and even what to eat in order to stay healthy. They will be recruited internally, but will receive special training, in the hope that they can help reduce the current average of 12.8 sick days a year, per officer.
In addition the force is increasing the amount of money spent on physiotherapists to help officers who suffer injuries get back to work as soon as possible. Despite having many of the same powers as ordinary police officers, those who serve with the CNC are not allowed to retire at 60, in line with their colleagues in the 43 Home Office forces.
They have argued that the physical nature of their role means they cannot guarantee they will be able to fulfil their duties beyond the age of 60, putting the public at risk.
But new rules mean they will have to work until 65 and eventually 68, before they are entitled to claim their pension.
Established in 2005, the CNC has more than 1,250 armed officers, who patrol all non-military nuclear sites – including the 14 atomic power stations – and keep them safe from terrorist attack.
The highly trained specialists can also be deployed at short notice to assist with any large scale national emergencies in order to bolster the number of armed officers on the streets.The move comes at a time when CNC officers are embroiled in a long running battle with the Government over their retirement age. While they have the same powers of arrest as ordinary warranted officers, the role of a CNC constable is very different, and when not out on patrol spend a large amount of their time undertaking rigorous training exercises.
They provide a round the clock ring of steel around nuclear establishments and must be prepared to repel any form of attack by terrorists.
In addition they are also expected to accompany nuclear materials being transported within the UK and further afield.
Given the risks of working in close proximity to nuclear material, officers are also regularly checked for exposure to radiation and carry dosage meters on them at all times. The CNC’s most recent annual report, revealed that the force had failed to meet its sickness target of an average of 10.5 days for the past five years running.
Officials discovered that rather than illness an increasing number of officers, were being signed off work with injuries, picked up due to the physical nature of the role.
Carrying almost 50 lbs in kit, the officers are susceptible to back injuries and other musculoskeletal complaints.
The introduction of fitness champions is intended to provide more support for those officers who are struggling with the physical demands of the role
nuclear-news 