Uranium mining threatens long term jobs in Virginia
New coalition urges a delay in uranium mining in Virginia, Washington Post, By Anita Kumar, 18 Jan A new coalition that wants to delay — maybe indefinitely — mininguranium in Southside Virginia is taking a different tact: They aren’t talking about safety as much as the potential effect on jobs.
The Virginia Coalition and the Alliance for Progress in Southern Virginia urged the General Assembly Wednesday not to lift the state’s ban this year because it could harm their employees and the ability to attract employees and companies to the region. They were joined by a half-dozen Southside lawmakers including Sens. Frank Ruff (R-Clarksville) and Bill Stanley (R-Moneta) and Dels Danny Marshall (R-Danville), Don Merricks (R-Martinsville), James Edmunds (R-Charlotte) and Tommy Wright (R-Amelia). Continue reading
Nuclear fuel plant unable to get loan guarantee
‘Crunch time’ at troubled nuclear fuel plant Washington Post By Steven Mufson, January 13 U.S. Enrichment Corp., which produces fuel for nuclear power plants, is having its own sort of meltdown.
Disillusioned investors have wiped out 95 percent of the company’s market value since 2007. Standard & Poor’s has saddled it with a dismal CCC-plus credit rating. Continue reading
Florida residents up for $millions for nuclear plants?
Progress Energy rate-payers are already on the hook for part of the $2.5 billion in repairs 
for the existing Crystal River nuclear plant. The plant has been offline with various problems since September 2009 and is not expected to be operating again before 2014. The utility wants customers to pay about $670 toward the repairs and insists that scrapping the plant would cost rate-payers more than fixing it.
Nuclear plant opponents in Fla. voice concerns Washington Examiner, By: MITCH STACY | 01/12/12 Opponents of two proposed nuclear power reactors in west-central Florida told a Nuclear Regulatory Commission panel on Thursday that the units will upset the delicate balance of the rural area’s water system and present a health risk……. The hearing before a
three-judge panel of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board — the judicial arm of the NRC — addressed a legal challenge to Progress Energy’s application to license the plants. The NRC is expected to complete an environmental impact statement this spring and a formal trial on the challenge could happen as early as October. Continue reading
Big investment in wind farms USA
Global Deal: BP, Sempra Energy to Invest $1 Billion in U.S. Wind Farms WSJ, JANUARY 11, 2012, By Cassandra Sweet of Dow Jones Newswires BP PLC and Sempra Energy said Tuesday that together they will invest more than $1 billion in two wind farms under development in Pennsylvania and Kansas. Continue reading
An “under-performing investment” – Cameco uranium company
Cameco (CCJ) Downgraded by Zacks Investment Research to “Underperform”, Localised USA, Jan 10th, 2012 Cameco (NYSE: CCJ) was downgraded by equities research analysts at Zacks Investment Research from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday.
Cameco Corporation (Cameco) is a Canada-based company. The Company and its subsidiaries are primarily engaged in the exploration for and the development, mining, refining, conversion and fabrication of uranium for sale as fuel for generating electricity in nuclear power reactors in Canada and other countries. Cameco has three reportable segments: uranium, fuel services and electricity.
The company has a 31.6% interest in Bruce Power L.P. (BPLP). Cameco’s uranium joint venture interests are comprised of McArthur River, Rabbit Lake, Cree Extension Millenium, Moon Lake, Dawn Lake, Read Lake and Virgin River. Cameco’s projects include Kintyre Uranium Exploration Project (Kintyre) and GoviEx Uranium (GoviEx). Kintyre project is located in the East Pilbara region of Western Australia. Cameco holds 12% interest in GoviEx. Its wholly owned subsidiary is Global Laser Enrichment LLC (GLE).
India borrowing from France, to buy France’s nuclear reactors
Interesting to watch the developments in India, as the people’s Koodankulam anti nuclear protest continues. The Russian engineers have now left the site, as work cannot proceed, due to the public opposition.
The Indian nuclear corporation cannot afford its planned new nuclear plants at Jaitapur and Koodankulam, which they are buying from France and Russia respectively. But hey! – that’s no problem, because they are going to borrow the money from France and Russia. Seems like the Indian government is working on behalf of foreign companies, not the Indian people. Nuclear Power Corp Looks Overseas for Loans .http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204257504577149981322117366.html
The Indian government is also learning from France’s nuclear company, AREVA, on how to manipulate public opinion. With jolly jingles and other cheery messages, they hope to convince the community that nuclear power is just fine. At left above, a sample of AREVA’s message to children, in its Australian brochure. – Christina Macpherson
NPCIL launches campaign to clear KNPP concerns,Zee News, January 09, 2012, Chennai: Amid the standoff over the controversial Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant, the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited has launched an intense media campaign to allay safety fears of the people in and around the project site.
“NPCIL has produced 60-second long advertisements to be telecast on TV channels. These will carry messages on cancer and on some issues raised by fishermen,” an official said here today.
In the advertisements, renowned oncologist Dr V Shanta of Cancer Institute, Chennai, marine life experts Murugesan and Sugumaran will clear doubts that locals and fishermen might have (about nuclear
power), they said. The campaign would be telecast on Tamil TV channels, apparently targeting the local population who have been up in arms against the Indo-Russian collaborative project since September last.
NPCIL officials had already aired 60-second long jingles on private radio channels in Tirunelveli district. The commissioning of the plant, earlier slated in December 2011, has been delayed after protests by locals on grounds of safety.
http://zeenews.india.com/news/tamil-nadu/npcil-launches-campaign-to-clear-knpp-concerns_751574.html
Japan: taxpayers to take on nuclear costs, companies to keep profits?
Fukushima exposes contradictions / Nuclear crisis prompts govt to rethink private companies’ operation of N-plants Hiroshi Ikematsu / Yomiuri Shimbun, 7 Jan 12
The government’s moves to overhaul the state’s nuclear policy were prompted by serious contradictions discovered in that policy, as a result of the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
Although the Law on Compensation for Nuclear Damage stipulates that electric companies have unlimited liability in the case of accidents, the government had no choice but to support Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s efforts to pay compensation for damage caused by the Fukushima crisis. Therefore, the government plans to overhaul the law, including a review of utilities’ unlimited liability.
If it does so, however, entrusting utility companies with the operation of cost-efficient nuclear power plants, the companies may just siphon off profits and push the risk of accidents onto the
state……. http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T120106005620.htm
Uranium mining in Africa on a downward spiral
The signals of a troubled uranium sector are manifest. On Tuesday Areva wrote down the performance of its African mines, including Trekkopje and suspended further development.
Fukushima still haunts uranium producers, The Southern Times, South Africa, 30 Dec 11 International prices of uranium, the major feedstock in nuclear reactors, have remained flat; averaging US$53 per pound as the market struggles to shrug off the effects of Japan’s nuclear crisis earlier this year.
Market analysts are warning that shrinking order books, a flat spot price and production cutbacks – largely attributable to the Fukushima disaster – will haunt uranium producers well into 2012.
A sluggish US economy and sovereign debt problems in advanced economies will continue to severely impact the uranium spot price. Global uranium stocks have significantly underperformed during 2011 and analysts attribute this to the diminishing appetite for nuclear energy after the horror of Fukushima. Continue reading
France turning against nuclear energy, as its costs soar
to fulfill its safety recommendations will cost over $13 billion, no small sum considering French operators were already planning to spend $52 billion over the next three decades to consolidate or upgrade existing infrastructure. As always when adversity hits business in the pocketbook, the final cost will be passed all the way down to the French consumer’s monthly electricity bill—
62% of French respondents supporting a gradual phasing out of nuclear power—over 20 to 30 years—and 15% calling for a rapid halt.
The Fukushima Effect: France Starts to Turn Against Its Much Vaunted Nuclear Industry TIME, By BRUCE CRUMLEY | January 4, 2012 “……..The recent French introspection about the merits of nuclear power is posing some serious questions about the nation’s energy independence, industrial future, and role as one of the world’s biggest business proponents of civil nuclear technology.
The newest development in France’s post-Fukushima mulling came Tuesday, when the country’s independent watchdog agency delivered a government-commissioned audit of the nation’s 58 nuclear power plants, calling for significant safety upgrades. Continue reading
Iran developing nuclear fuel rods and plates
First nuclear fuel rod tested in Iran TEHRAN, Tehran Times 1 Jan 12 – Scientists and researchers at the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran have successfully tested the first domestically produced nuclear fuel rod containing natural uranium, Iranian news agencies reported on Sunday.
According to the reports, the first nuclear fuel rod was loaded into the core of the Tehran research reactor as part of an experiment to test its performance in operation.
Now Iran should convert fuel rods into fuel plates to power the Tehran research reactor, which produces radioisotopes for cancer treatment.
Iran has constructed an advanced plant at the Isfahan nuclear facility for manufacturing nuclear fuel plates. With the construction of the plant, Iran is now among the few countries that can manufacture both nuclear fuel rods and plates. The nuclear plant for converting enriched nuclear fuel into fuel rods was inaugurated in Isfahan in early spring 2009. ….
http://tehrantimes.com/politics/94128-first-nuclear-fuel-rod-tested-in-iran
Nuclear power industry winding down world-wide
Is Nuclear Power Being Phased Out? Aol Energy, By Shifra Mincer, December 8, 2011 Nuclear is not so hot these days. The percentage of nuclear electrical generation worldwide is shrinking as countries slow or halt new construction and in some cases even close existing plants in favor of other types of power, according to the latest Vital Signs Online (VSO) report released by the Washington DC-based think tank Worldwatch Institute. Although nuclear provided 6% of the world’s energy in 2001, it constituted only 5% of the world’s energy portfolio in 2010.
“Not only is nuclear too risky from a health and security point of view, it’s also just too expensive,” said Director of Worldwatch’s Climate and Energy program, Alexander Ochs. “Whereas renewable energy sources are growing at rates of up to 70% and more on an annual basis, nuclear energy is the only major energy technology experiencing negative growth.”
The report found that world nuclear capacity fell from 375.5 GW at the end of 2010 to 366.5 GW in 2011. Only four countries added new nuclear between 2009 and 2010: The Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia and the United States.
And in 2011, only two countries, India and Pankistan, are constructing new reactors. During the first 10 months of 2011, 13 nuclear reactors were closed globally, reducing the world’s total from 441 in the beginning of this year to 433 currently…..
In 2012 nuclear power more costly, more problematic
Experts: Even Higher Costs and More Headaches Ahead for Nuclear Power in 2012 Market Watch, WASHINGTON, Dec. 28, 2011 – Given Long-Term Uncontrollable Costs and Short-Term Pressure from Needed Post-Fukushima Safety Regulations, Nuclear Reactors Even Less Able to Take on Natural Gas, Other Alternatives
With the Fukushima disaster, earthquake-related reactor shutdowns, further reactor project cost escalation, infighting at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and cheap natural gas, 2011 was a year the nuclear power industry would prefer to get behind it as quickly as possible. But, looking ahead to 2012, experts see continuing challenges that will make it extremely difficult for the nuclear power industry to expand in the U.S. beyond a small handful of reactor projects that government agencies decide to subsidize by forcing taxpayers to assume the risk for the reactors and mandating that
ratepayers pay for construction in advance.
A new paper presented by Mark Cooper, senior fellow for economic analysis, Institute for Energy and the Environment, Vermont Law School, suggests that the cost of nuclear power, which already had risen sharply in 2010 and 2011 before the Fukushima disaster, could climb another 50 percent due to tighter safety oversight and regulatory delays in the wake of the reactor calamity in Japan. The Cooper paper is available online at
http://www.markcooperresearch.com/Nuclear-Safety-and-Nuclear-Economics-Post-Fukushima.pdf ….
USA’s ‘nuclear renaissance’ is just not going to happen
Report: U.S. nuclear renaissance unlikely after Fukushima Los Angeles Times, December 28, 2011 A new study released Wednesday said that the regulatory fallout from the Fukushima power plant disaster in Japan in March will short-circuit the U.S. nuclear renaissance of new power plant construction.
The report, “Nuclear Safety and Nuclear Economics,” was written and presented by Mark Cooper, a frequent critic of the nuclear power industry. The report can be found here. Cooper is a senior fellow for economic analysis at the Institute for Energy and the Environment at the Vermont Law School.
Cooper said that past nuclear disasters, such as the one at the Three Mile Island power plant in Pennsylvania in 1979, have tended to greatly raise regulatory barriers and have also severely multiplied the cost of reactor construction. After Three Mile Island, for example, the report said, the cost of nuclear power plant construction doubled in most cases and trebled or quadrupled in some rare instances.
“This is an important moment to compare what is really likely to happen over the next 10 years with the industry’s expectations” of a nuclear renaissance, Cooper said. “When that comparison is performed properly, it becomes clear that we are witnessing not a revival but a collapse in expectations for new reactor construction.”
The report comes just days after a panel appointed by the Japanese government released a scathing assessment of the reponse to the disaster, which was caused when a huge earthquake generated a tsunami that struck the facility….
A recently updated online report by the World Nuclear Assn. said that as few as four of the 26 new nuclear facilities that have been proposed or planned in the U.S. will be finished by 2020. But it did not mention Fukushima and instead said the primary reason was the fact that a boom in domestic natural gas production has “put the economic viability of some of these projects in doubt.” http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2011/12/a-new-study-released-today-said-that-theregulatory-fallout-from-the-fukushima-power-plantdisaster-in-japan-last-marchwill-pro.html
2012 will be an even worse year for the nuclear power industry
Experts: Even Higher Costs and More Headaches Ahead for Nuclear Power in 2012 Market Watch, WASHINGTON, Dec. 28, 2011 – “………Highlights of the new Cooper paper include the following: Fukushima has stimulated vigorous reviews around the world, in part because of the severity of the accident, in part because it is the worst accident affecting a nuclear reactor in a market economy and in part because it occurred in a nation that was assumed to have a high standard of safety and superb technical expertise.
The challenges perceived by those responsible for nuclear safety around the world in the wake of the Fukushima accident are quite substantial. Continue reading
Nuclear company AREVA failing in nuclear and uranium sales
Tough times for French nuclear giant Areva, Daily Press, Virginia, 27 Dec 11 These are difficult days for French nuclear giant Areva. The company announced earlier this month it would shed 1,500 jobs in Germany and suspend a controversial nuclear enrichment plant project in Idaho. It is trying to offset losses this year that could exceed $2 billion, the Associated Press reported.
Areva partnered with Newport News Shipbuilding to build a $363 million plant that would manufacture nuclear power plant components. Located off Huntington Avenue in Newport News, the plant is stalled indefinitely due to a lack of new nuclear projects in the U.S.
Another pertinent detail about Areva: the company said its earnings could be hurt by the drop in new reactors being built worldwide — fallout from the nuclear disaster in Japan. The company said this will also depress the price of uranium….. http://www.dailypress.com/news/science/dead-rise-blog/dp-tough-times-for-french-nuclear-giant-areva-20111227,0,2218239.story?track=rss
1 This Month
PLEASE OPPOSE HR 8255 AND S.3639 – bills would accelerate satellite deployment, with no environmental review or safeguards – https://ncstd5li.quorum.us/campaign/169331/
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