San Onofre nuclear decommissioning funds may go into risky investments
CHANGES EYED FOR NUCLEAR-PLANT MONEY, UT San Diego 10 Sept 12 Rules on investment of decommissioning trust funds may be loosened. Utility regulators are considering loosening strict investment restrictions on money set aside for the eventual dismantling of California’s two nuclear plants. Continue reading
USA bank lends @billions to UAE so USA can sell off nuclear technology
U.A.E. Nuclear Program Gets $2 Billion Loan from U.S. Exim Bank Bloomberg, By Ayesha Daya – Sep 8, 2012 Emirates Nuclear Energy Corp. , the state-owned company developing an atomic power plant in the United Arab Emirates , received a $2 billion loan from the U.S. Export-Import Bank.
The loan to the Barakah One Co., a unit of Emirates Nuclear, will pay for American products and services used in the construction of four 1,400 megawatt reactors, according to a statement from the government-run bank. Westinghouse Electric Corp., based in Pittsburgh, will supply some of the equipment for the facilities, the bank said.
The first of the plant’s four reactors will be ready in 2017, with each additional unit becoming operational every year through 2020, according to Emirates Nuclear….. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-09/u-a-e-nuclear-program-gets-2-billion-loan-from-u-s-exim-bank.html
Challenge to Florida law, letting nuclear companies screw the residents in advance
Southern Alliance for Clean Energy Looking to Fight Off Rising Nuclear Power Costs for FPL Customers New Times, By Chris Joseph Sep. 6 2012 In 2006, the undaunted geniuses in the Florida Legislature came up with the Florida Renewable Technology and Energy Efficiency Act, a shady law that basically gives utility companies like FPL and Progress Energy Florida permission to charge customers for something that might be built or fixed, without even having to reimburse the customer if they decide, meh, that nuclear power plant doesn’t need to be built or fixed after all… Ah well! But hey, thanks for the extra two bucks on that electric bill, yo!
The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy filed a Florida Supreme Court challenge to the law , saying that the statute is a tad too fuzzy and vague and gives utility companies too much free reign to go building (or not building) nuclear reactors willy-nilly at customers’ expense.
Meanwhile, FPL is now asking for $151.4 million to upgrade nuclear plants in St. Lucie as well as the plant in Turkey Point….
PEF customers might get screwed a little harder, with the company requesting $151.6 million for an upgrade at its Crystal River nuclear plant as well as a new plant in Levy County, which would add nearly $5 per monthly bill.
The Florida Public Service Commission held a hearing on Wednesday to determine if customers should be footing the bill for unbuilt, unfixed nuclear power plant projects.
The commission held off PEF on getting their grubby mitts on $9 million in repairs for the Crystal River plant, which has been just a giant stone thing sitting there doing nothing since 2009. PEF hasn’t even decided if it wants to rebuild the plant or just shut it down completely, yet there it is, asking for 9 mil like it’s loose change in Florida’s cup holder.
On July 10, the Office of Public Counsel called in consultant William R. Jacobs to testify that the Turkey Point plant upgrade costs have ballooned to more than half a billion dollars in the past 14 months. Jacobs also said that costs have been hidden because they are mixed in with other projects.
Think of it like a giant Reece’s peanut butter cup made of your money. Feel better now?….. http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2012/09/nuclear_cost.php
“It is now clear that the Turkey Point EPU project is on a runaway course of its own, the extent of which is being buried by FPL’s composite approach,” Jacobs said.
Public to pay upfront nuclear costs? Florida Public Service Commission hearing
Florida regulators holding nuclear costs hearing By Bill Kaczor on September 06, 2012 Businessweek Bloomberg TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The Florida Public Service Commission opened a hearing Wednesday on whether to pass the costs of incomplete nuclear power plant projects to customers of the state’s two largest electric utilities but decided immediately to delay action on a request from Progress Energy Florida and soon went into recess.
The panel heard a single Florida Power and Light Co. witness, who was taken out of order due to a scheduling conflict, before recessing the hearing until Monday, when FPL and consumer advocates will make their opening statements. FPL is a unit of NextEra Energy Inc.
FPL, the larger of the two utilities, is seeking $151.5 million to upgrade existing facilities at its St. Lucie plant and add two new reactors to its Turkey Point plant……
Utilities historically were not allowed to pass on power plant construction costs until those facilities went into service, but the Legislature made an exception for nuclear facilities in 2006 to encourage the development of that form of energy.
Consumer advocates and nuclear opponents argue that consumers may wind up paying for facilities that never get built. http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-09-06/florida-regulators-holding-nuclear-costs-hearing
TEPCO worried about finances with nuclear power’s uncertain future
Tepco Head Fears End of Nuclear in Japan, WSJ, By MARI IWATA, September 5, 2012, TOKYO—The new head of Japan’s biggest electric company aired concerns about the possibility that Japan could phase out nuclear power, saying such a move would necessitate a “complete” revamping of its investment and fuel-procurement plans and could be detrimental to the country’s energy security as well…..
Mr. Hirose’s comments come the week before the administration of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda is expected to announce a long-awaited decision on Japan’s future energy mix, following last year’s devastating accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-power plant. Continue reading
Gloom in South Australia over uranium mining future
Kloppers’ bleak Olympic hopes by: Michael Owen, The Australian September 04, A BLEAK outlook has been presented by BHP Billiton chief executive Marius Kloppers for an expanded Olympic Dam mine ever operating in South Australia.
Mr Kloppers yesterday held talks with Premier Jay Weatherill in Adelaide to explain why the miner’s board last month indefinitely shelved the $28.7 billion project. He emerged from the hour-long meeting to say there was no timeframe for the project and no guarantee it would ever go ahead.
This came more than a week after The Weekend Australian revealed that Mr Kloppers had warned the expansion might never happen because the project was now dependent on the uncertain development of cheaper “leaching” technology to expand the mine’s future production. He had said that unlike “optimistic” scientists, the miner was “insufficiently certain that an eventual project will happen”. Mr Kloppers reiterated that message yesterday after meeting with the Premier. “We have been working and expending a lot of money on trying to make this project a reality,” Mr Kloppers said…… ”I can’t give you any timeframe on how these things could progress.”
Asked if he could give a guarantee the mine would be redeveloped, he said: “No, I cannot.”
Mr Weatherill tried to maintain a positive message, but conceded the current model planned for the expansion “does not work”.. they are not able to advance a time when the technology will be proven, nor are they able to give us certainty about whether the technology will be capable of being proven, and therefore they will not be in a position to give us certainty about when the mine proceeds.”…
Mr Weatherill said that after his meeting yesterday, any future expansion was even further away than he had previously thought……
The opposition said all of the government’s tough-talking about BHP meeting its December deadline to go-ahead with the expansion and the project’s benefits for the state, had proven to be “bluff and bluster”. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/kloppers-bleak-olympic-hopes/story-fn59niix-1226464289847
Nuclear ‘renaissance’ looking sicker than ever
Unraveling the Nuclear Renaissance http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/31/unraveling-the-nuclear-renaissance/?smid=tw-shareBy MATTHEW L. WALD Power plants are a bit like insect eggs. At the start, there are huge numbers, but few of them make it to adulthood.
The last few days may have seen the demise of two reactor projects that had looked promising a few years ago, when the economy was strong and people worried about the high price of natural gas and the possibility of a price on carbon emissions. But natural gas is at historic lows, carbon charges seem unlikely, and lately neither reactor project has looked likely.
On Wednesday, Exelon Corporation, the nation’s largest nuclear operator,threw in the towel on a planned twin-reactor project in Victoria County in Texas.
Texas is short of generating capacity, but it has vast amounts of natural gas and a highly competitive electric market, both of which make it hard to build a reactor.Exelon had not said exactly when it would build, but it took advantage of a provision in a reformed nuclear licensing system to seek early approval of a 11,500-acre site southeast of the city of Victoria. The licensing system now allows companies to get “early site permits” and “bank” the sites, and later match the preapproved site with a preapproved reactor design, potentially shortening the time between deciding to build a reactor and getting it into operation. Exelon was one of the first to try it out.
The company faced opposition from people who said there was not enough water in the area and that the ground was subject to subsidence that could wreck a cooling pond. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission might well have approved the site over these objections, but the company said the economics were not favorable.
On Thursday, a panel of administrative law judges ruled that Electricite de France could not proceed with a plant in Maryland, Calvert Cliffs 3.
That plant was originally a joint venture between Constellation Energy, which owned the adjacent Calvert Cliffs 1 & 2, and the French. But two years ago that consortium, called Unistar, fell apart when it could not obtain a loan guarantee from the Department of Energy on terms that Constellation found acceptable. (Constellation was later bought by Exelon.) Under an American law from the cold war era, reactors must be controlled by American entities. One purpose of the law was to keep American secrets in American hands, which may be inappropriate now since Electricite de France has more recent experience building power reactors than American companies do, and was seeking to build one of a French design.
The judges gave Electricite de France 60 days to show evidence that it was bringing in an American partner. After that, if it wanted to proceed it would have to redo some steps in the application process. But, like Texas, the economics in Maryland are similarly awful.
Two projects, each with two reactors, are under way, one in Georgia and one in South Carolina, but no additional groundbreakings seem very likely soon.
Uranium mining from the oceans doesn’t make financial sense
“…….. Ocean-mined uranium feasible, but not economical The Street By Resource Investing News 08/29/12 – If uranium buyers can’t find enough U308 on land, perhaps they can turn to the sea; or so say scientists from the University of Alabama and the American Chemical Society. “The ocean actually contains more uranium, although very dilute, than you can find in any land source in total,” said chemist Robin Rogers in a recent news conference, “which means we have a wonderful resource; it’s just always been very expensive to get it out.”
On and off over the past half century, scientists have been researching ways to extract uranium from seawater, but the process has always proved so costly and laborious that no one in the industry took it seriously. The US Department of Energy recently funded a project to develop a more cost-efficient process, and as a result researchers were able to decrease the cost estimate for ocean-mined uranium by over 46 percent to $300 per pound. Unfortunately, that’s five times costlier than traditional mining and a far cry from economical.
Who is going to pay up for Vogtle nuclear plant’s ballooning costs?
Georgia Power reports costs, challenges of Vogtle expansion Augusta Chronicle, By Rob Pavey , Aug 31, 2012 Plant Vogtle’s primary owner acknowledged Friday that many factors could increase the nuclear expansion’s $14 billion price tag but did not ask Georgia’s Public Service Commission to amend the project’s certified cost. Plant Vogtle’s primary owner acknowledged Friday that many factors could increase the nuclear expansion’s $14 billion price tag but did not ask Georgia’s Public Service Commission to amend the project’s certified cost….. Other future cost increases, the report said, could be driven by changes to the reactor design approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, taxes, additional backfill work at the site, and governmental mandates such as increased cyber security and physical security.
The owners also remain in a dispute with the contractor consortium, Stone & Webster and Westinghouse, over who is responsible for additional costs that could add as much as $425 million to Georgia Power’s share of the project. Georgia Power, which owns 45.7 percent of Plant Vogtle, has not accepted responsibility for those costs. … http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/business/local-business/2012-08-31/georgia-power-reports-costs-challenges-vogtle-expansion
Secrecy and poor radiation monitoring in Japan’s, (and France’s) nuclear industry
Faced with an ongoing radioactivity which is contaminating Japan’s food and water supply, what should be done? The Nuclear Mafia’s ethos is silken sewn into the socio-political Kabuki theater of a post modern Japanese society, which seems helpless to save itself. Maybe Ambassador Matsumura, with his international political connections of good will, and the Skilled Veterans for Fukushima would be good people to turn to for advice.
The Nuclear Mafia Derails Democracy in Japan Dissident Voice, by Richard Wilcox / August 31st, 2012 “….The Nuclear Workforce French sociologist, Paul Jobin, “began research on Japanese and Taiwanese nuclear plant workers in 2002, mainly at Fukushima Daiichi,” and he did follow up interviews after the Fukushima disaster in 2011.
Jobin notes that:
* Subcontracting labor at nuclear plants in Japan began shortly after their creation, in the mid-1970s. “In France, this trend would develop after 1988, reaching a rate of 80% by 1992.”
* “According to NISA’s data, in 2009, Japan’s nuclear industry recruited more than 80,000 contract workers against 10,000 regular employees.”
* Part time employment is carried out in order to limit labor costs “whether in France or Japan, the nuclear industry nurtures a heavy culture of secrecy concerning the number of irradiated workers.” Continue reading
Scandalous nuclear worker conditions in nuclear Japan
The Nuclear Mafia Derails Democracy in Japan Dissident Voice, by Richard Wilcox / August 31st, 2012 “…..Nuclear Situation Prime Minister Noda recently rejected protester’s requests to shut down the nuclear reactors. As the Metropolitan Coalition Against Nukes told Noda in a face to face meeting, “[w]e the people do not believe you” regarding his empty promises to phase out nukes in the future. The Nuclear Mafia are restarting reactors even though they are unnecessary for electricity production. An overwhelming majority of people want to abolish nuclear power. Having contaminated the world with quadrillions of becquerels of radiation (petabecquerels), Tepco is under a pseudo nationalization process that funnels tax money into their pockets yet maintains their autonomy.
Worker Shortage A common practice among workers in nuclear plants is to hide their real exposure rate of radiation. Because there are legal limits of radiation exposure, workers will take off their dosimeters, or cover them with lead. In normal times in Japan workers could also migrate from one plant to the other without indicating previous work experience, and work “under the table.” How long it takes to get sick and or die from such a practice is anyone’s guess. Continue reading
How much is San Onofre nuclear plant going to cost, and who pays?
What it will cost to store waste safely on our coast for who knows how long? There are numerous cost equations that go along with safety and it’s time for the state to start putting all those cards on the table.”
the decommissioning fund does not cover one significant aspect of decommissioning a plant — dealing with spent nuclear fuel.
California’s Public Utilities Commission will hold hearings this fall into whether rate payers should go on paying for the plant, even when it isn’t generating any power.
Cost Benefit Analysis Underway At San Onofre KPBS, August 30, 2012 By Alison St John The future of Units 2 and 3 at San Onofre is in limbo as the operator, Southern California Edison, and regulators investigate what to do. The plant has been off line since a small radiation leak in January flagged problems in the newly installed steam generators. Cost Benefit Analysis Underway At San Onofre Aired 8/30/12
Debate about what to do with San Onofre has been focused on safety issues. But looking ahead, state regulators are focusing on a cost benefit analysis. Continue reading
Another big loss for Australian uranium miner Paladin
Uranium group Paladin’s loss widens, Business Report August 30 2012 Australian-listed Paladin Energy‚ a uranium producer with projects in Australia and two operating mines in Africa‚ delivered a net loss for the year to June 30 of US$172.8m‚ an increase of 110% from the previous year’s US$82.3m loss. This translates into a loss per share of US21.1 cents form a loss of US11.1 cents the previous year. No dividend was declared.
Uranium mining collapsing in Australia, as uranium market fails
He [BHP CEO Marius Kloppers] said demand for uranium had collapsed after the Fukushima nuclear incident last year
The Olympic Dam and Yeelirrie shocks from BHP came hot on the heels of the decision by Canada’s Cameco to go slow on a development of its Kintyre uranium project in WA’s Great Sandy Desert
Barnett tells miner to sell asset to other developers BY: ANDREW BURRELL The Australian August 27, 2012 BHP Billiton has abandoned its controversial Yeelirrie uranium project in Western Australia, with chief executive Marius Kloppers saying the deposit is too small for the mining giant’s portfolio at a time of collapsing global demand. Continue reading
Unfair market advantages for oil and coal industries, against wind and solar
Why Conservative Attacks On Wind And Solar Energy? — Seeing the Forest, by Dave Johnson. 26 Aug 12, There has been a recent flurry of propaganda attacks on wind and solar energy by oil-and-coal-backed conservatives. A vitally important tax credit to help build a renewable energy industry in this country expires at the end of this year without Congressional action, and the old oil and coal industries — along with certain other countries —
want to make sure it does expire.
Background
The fossil-fuel industry is fully developed after many decades of government help. Going up against a fully-developed industry like oil and coal is enormously expensive, and the industry is trying to block from triggering private investment to help get us out from under its grip. It has nothing to do with government interfering in markets, or “picking winners and losers,” this is about us helping offset the enormous competitive advantage oil and coal have due to
government investment and assistance in oil and coal in prior decades.
We do this because We, the People see the benefits and prosperity that will come to us from developing these alternative energy industries. Oil and coal are, to put it mildly, entrenched in our economy, and, to put it mildly, make out very, very well because of that. Continue reading
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14 May – online event From Bombs to Data Centres: the Face of Nuclear Colonialism
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