“Pure-play” clean-energy” Brookfield Renewable Partners goes dirty as it partners with Cameco and the nuclear industry
Brookfield Renewable operates one of the world’s largest publicly traded, pure-play renewable power platforms.
Westinghouse Electric, a US nuclear power company, is being bought by a
private equity-backed consortium in a $7.9bn deal four years after it
emerged from bankruptcy, as the war in Ukraine spurs fresh interest in an
industry that had fallen out of investor favour.
Brookfield Renewable Partners, one of the world’s largest clean energy investors, and Cameco,
a supplier of uranium fuel, are buying the company in a bet that climate
and energy security concerns will revive the nuclear sector’s fortunes.
They will purchase the group, which makes technology used in about half the
world’s roughly 440 nuclear reactors, from a separate division of
Brookfield Asset Management that runs its private equity investments. The
sale of Westinghouse represents a large windfall for Brookfield’s private
equity business. It invested $1bn in equity to acquire Westinghouse after
Toshiba, its former owner, put it into bankruptcy in 2017 amid large cost
overruns at projects in Georgia and South Carolina. It will receive roughly
$5.5bn through the sale and dividends.
FT 11th Oct 2022
https://www.ft.com/content/46df2aa9-0963-47a6-881c-f715a18a8527
‘Technology geriatrics’ will not ensure survival of nuclear power, says analyst
Comparing the 2021 trajectory of nuclear power with that of renewable energy, the authors of the report noted that investments in non-hydro renewables totaled $366 billion, which is 15 times more than the investments made for the construction of nuclear power plants, which reached 8.8 GW last year.
The latest World Nuclear Industry Status Report shows that nominal net nuclear generating capacity fell by 0.4 GW between 2020 and 2021, even though six new reactors were switched on throughout the world last year. This brought the share of nuclear power in the global electricity mix to below 10% for the first time in four decades.
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2022/10/07/technology-geriatrics-will-not-ensure-survival-of-nuclear-power-says-analyst/— OCTOBER 7, 2022 EMILIANO BELLINI
The current energy crisis, triggered by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, seems to have given some oxygen to the global nuclear energy industry, with six new reactors going online last year. That compares to none in 2020 and six in 2019.
According to the latest annual edition of the World Nuclear Industry Status Report, published by French nuclear consultant Mycle Schneider, three of the six reactors are located in China and the other three are located in India, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates.
“Last year was a bit better in terms of power generation and construction starts,” Schneider told pv magazine. “Six reactors came online in 2021 but the closure decision was taken for ten, two of which did not generate any power since 2018, so in our statistics, they are closed retroactively in 2018.”
He said this slight upward trend cannot be described as a global rebound.
“There were 10 construction starts in 2021, including six in China, and four built by Russia,which is double the five in 2020, including four in China and one by Russia. In the first half of 2022, there were three construction starts in the world, all in China,” he said. “So it looks as if China is increasing construction again. But it is much too early to call this a trend. And outside China, absolutely nothing is happening, except for the few Russian projects – and who knows what impact sanctions will have, even if the nuclear sector is so far excluded.”
Schneider acknowledged that there is huge pressure to extend lifetimes due to the current energy crisis. And there have been some results, like in Belgium and California, for example. But he also said this may not be enough to help the industry recover, with nominal net nuclear electricity generating capacity declining by more than 0.4 GW in the year leading up to 2021.
“Technology geriatrics cannot ensure nuclear power species’ survival,” he said.
In the report, Schneider and his team of experts revealed that there have been 98 startups and 105 closures of nuclear power plants over the past two decades.
“Of these, 50 startups were in China which did not close any reactors,” the team said. “Thus, outside China, there was a net decline by 57 units over the same period; net capacity dropped by 25 GW.”
Currently, there are 411 reactors operating across 33 countries. That’s four units less than last year, seven less than in 1989, and 27 less than the 2002 peak of 438.
“Nuclear production increased by 3.9% in 2021, but remained just below the 2019 level,” the report said. “China produced more nuclear electricity than France for the second year in a row and remains in second place – behind the United States – for the top nuclear power generators.”
Comparing the 2021 trajectory of nuclear power with that of renewable energy, the authors of the report noted that investments in non-hydro renewables totaled $366 billion, which is 15 times more than the investments made for the construction of nuclear power plants, which reached 8.8 GW last year.
The analysts cited recent figures from US-based Lazard showing that between 2009 and 2021, the levelized cost of energy of large-scale solar and wind fell by 90% and 72%, respectively, while that of nuclear power rose by 36%.
“In 2021, wind and solar alone reached a 10.2% share of power generation, the first time, they provided more than 10% of global power and surpassed the contribution of nuclear energy that fell to 9.8%,” they said. “The nuclear share is below 10% for the first time in four decades.”
The report also presents data on individual countries, potential emerging countries, the decommissioning of existing plants, and the current status of the small modular reactor technology. It also includes a chapter on the difficult decommissioning of the Fukushima reactor in Japan and a new section on the vulnerabilities of nuclear reactors during wars.
Maintenance on eight French nuclear reactors delayed by strike
https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/maintenance-five-french-nuclear-reactors-delayed-over-strike-2022-10-12/ By Forrest Crellin, 12 Oct 22,
PARIS, (Reuters) – France’s FNME trade union said on Wednesday that some workers at EDF’s (EDF.PA) nuclear plants resumed their strike over salaries, delaying maintenance work on eight reactors as the union sent a message of support to striking refinery workers.
Reporting by Forrest Crellin; Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Elaine Hardcastle
Three of the Cruas nuclear plant’s reactors are affected by the strike, while two reactors at the Cattenom and Tricastin plants and one Bugey reactor have had their maintenance delayed by the strike, FNME said.
EDF nears cut-price deal for GE nuclear turbine unit with Russian contracts
French energy group renegotiates terms for business that also supplies Rosatom
Sarah White in Paris YESTERDAY 6 Print this page French power operator EDF has renegotiated a deal to buy a nuclear turbine maker from General Electric, cutting its offer price for a business seen as strategic for France’s atomic industry but that is exposed to the risk of sanctions because of orders from Russia’s Rosatom. State-controlled EDF, which is on the cusp of being fully renationalised, was encouraged into making a move on the turbine company by the French government in a deal announced by President Emmanuel Macron at the start of the year.
The acquisition was touted as a way of recovering French control of the technology as EDF gears up to build new reactors, while also securing the future of a large factory in eastern France at a time when GE was exploring asset sales and looking to cut jobs. But the business has since been caught up in the fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, even though its dealings with state-owned Rosatom, one of the world’s biggest nuclear plant developers, have not faced sanctions so far………………………. more https://www.ft.com/content/4e3f8a9e-e89c-47c9-9caa-b84825db1e70—
Nuclear share in energy generation falls to lowest in four decades-report
Nuclear share in energy generation falls to lowest in four decades-report | Reuters By Nina Chestney LONDON, Oct 5 (Reuters) – The share of nuclear power in global gross electricity generation fell below 10% last year to the lowest in around four decades, an industry report showed on Wednesday.
Nuclear energy generated 2,653 terawatt hours of electricity last year, accounting for 9.8% of global generation – the lowest since the 1980s, the annual World Nuclear Industry Status Report (WNISR) showed.
Proponents of nuclear say as a low-carbon power source it could be vital in helping countries meet climate targets, but several plants around the world are coming to the end of their life expectancies and many new ones have faced delays.
The most nuclear power in the world is generated in the United States, followed by China.
As of mid-2022, 411 reactors were operating in 33 countries, four less than a year earlier and 27 below a 2002 peak of 438.
The slow pace of new projects coming on stream has meant the average age of reactors is around 31 years old.
Out of 53 reactors under construction currently, at least half of the projects are delayed. Five new units became operational in the first half of this year, while eight closed last year.
Global investment in new nuclear construction projects last year was around $24 billion, accounting for 6.5% of total investment of $366 billion in non-hydro renewables projects.
Nuclear power is also losing ground to renewables in terms of cost as reactors are increasingly seen as less economical and slower to build.
The levelised cost of energy – which compares the total lifetime cost of building and running a plant to lifetime output – fell to $36 per megawatt hour (MWh) last year for solar photovoltaic from $359/MWh in 2009, while the cost for wind fell to $38/MWh from $135/MWh, the report showed.
However, nuclear power costs rose by 36% last year to $167/MWh from $123/MWh in 2009.
The great ratepayer robbery: how UK new nuclear rips off its customers
the taxpayer will be liable for the inevitable cost overruns and the RAB scheme itself makes it even less likely that developers will keep within the bounds of their agreements, thereby further increasing costs.
decision on Sizewell C as a stitched up deal behind closed doors, bringing extra cost to the consumer, producing unmanageable waste and squandering our capital on a white elephant scheme.
it is criminal that our time and money is wasted and all our futures thrown away on the back of this scam.
How new nuclear rips off its customers
By Linda Clare Rogers
A recent BBC documentary called Big Oil versus the World exposed the excellent job by oil companies in fending off what could have been an existential threat to their future, at the cost of one for the rest of us. The program revealed how the oil industry brought us near to catastrophe while knowingly lying about the role of fossil fuels in creating global warming.
There are vital lessons to be learned from this about the nuclear power industry. As with the oil industry, the nuclear industry continues to mislead us about the need for nuclear power to save the planet, in order to preserve itself. And, like the oil industry, it contributes to the catastrophe of global warming.
Nuclear power stations take too long to build to help mitigate the effects of global warming, and divert money from renewable power and other more immediate means of doing so.
To add insult to injury, we, as taxpayers, are now being asked to contribute to this catastrophe by paying for the building of yet more destructive nuclear power stations. The astronomical cost of nuclear power means that the industry itself can’t and won’t take on the economic risk.
Instead, money taken from our earnings and our benefits (in the U.K, low-income people on Universal Credit are not to be exempted), to set up new nuclear build, is meant to encourage other investors to take the risk in the future. This is before the plants are actually built.
The name of the UK government scheme , or, more accurately, scam, is the Regulated Asset Base model, known as RAB. (Editor’s note: In the U.S., a similar fleecing of ratepayers exists in some states, known as Construction Work In Progress or CWIP.)
In the introduction to RAB — the Ministerial Foreword to the Statement on Procedure and Criteria for Designation — we are told that the government will be taking one nuclear project to Final Investment Decision this parliament and two projects to Final investment Decision in the next parliament, including small modular reactors. The push for this scenario is undermining safety, fleecing the taxpayers at a time of economic crisis, and disregarding the real problems increasingly associated with nuclear power.
The Nuclear Energy Financing Act 2022 implements the nuclear RAB model and is meant to facilitate investment in the design, construction, commissioning and operation of new nuclear energy generation projects.
There are two criteria that government say have to be met in order that a new nuclear power project should receive RAB funding. But both of these criteria are largely meaningless:
Criterion one: the Secretary of State is of the opinion that the development of the relevant nuclear project is sufficiently advanced to justify the designation of the nuclear company in relation to the project, for instance, that the project has received a Development Consent Order (DCO).
Criterion two: the Secretary of State is of the opinion that designating the nuclear company in relation to the project is likely to result in value for money.
The government draft designation document for the two-reactor EDF project at Sizewell C in Suffolk, emphasizes these criteria. To fulfill the first, it is necessary that a DCO is approved, amongst other markers. The DCO contains evidence about the suitability of the proposed site for the project as well as the impact on the local community and its environment.
The Planning Inspectorate have advised that the DCO for Sizewell C be rejected. This in itself is really important news. Those of us who have been fighting against the building of Wylfa B, or Wylfa Newydd, are familiar with this scenario.
The Planning Inspectorate also advised the Secretary of State to reject the DCO application for Wylfa B. Many of the reasons were on similar grounds as those given for the rejection of the application for Sizewell C. The scheme broke habitat regulations and had detrimental impacts on biodiversity and the environment.
Notably, one of the main reasons for the advised rejection of the DCO for Sizewell C was the impact on the local water supply. We need only see what happened in France this past summer, with the shutdown of nuclear power stations due to the overheating of the rivers necessary for the cooling of the plants, to see that issues over water supply will only get worse as climate change gets worse.
So, for RAB funding to be designated, the DCO has to be granted. The Planning Inspectorate recommended it be rejected, and the government went ahead and passed it anyway. This is a profoundly dangerous decision and needs to be fought.
Hard on issuing the DCO will come the designation of RAB funding. The second criterion to allow for this will also be sure to pass: value for money for the taxpayer. The government explains that RAB will be eliminating significant compound interest on capital invested, thus saving us money. It makes the hopeful statement that, “the RAB model has the potential to reduce the financial cost for new nuclear projects, thereby reducing consumer bills while still preserving incentives for the private sector to complete nuclear projects to time and budget”.
Commentators have made it clear that the taxpayer will be liable for the inevitable cost overruns and the RAB scheme itself makes it even less likely that developers will keep within the bounds of their agreements, thereby further increasing costs.
The model has been criticized by two advisory bodies, the Climate Change Committee and the National Infrastructure Commission.
The draft document for the designation of RAB for Sizewell C would be laughable if it were not so serious in its implications and its precedent for further nuclear developments.
Under the heading —Results: Value for Money for Consumers — we are told, “this has been calculated by comparing the cost of the electricity system with and without Sizewell C….. The modelling compares the cost of an electricity system with a RAB funded Sizewell C against two different net zero compliant counterfactuals.” (These latter are the use of renewables and carbon capture and storage.)
It then provides a chart showing the costings and savings for the taxpayer. All that can be seen in each and every box are a row of the letter x. No figures at all.
When the chief executive of the Nuclear Industry Association, Tom Greatrex, was asked what he knew about the lack of figures available for the Sizewell C agreement on Radio 4, he could give no answer, but offered that RAB was a “different finance mechanism” that would allow for a very predictable price for electricity for a very long time.
This is another example of the nuclear industry and government getting together to present a false narrative: this one uses the present scandal of the cost of energy to persuade us that nuclear power can give us future security and control over future energy supplies.
It should be noted that Hitachi withdrew its application to build Wylfa Newydd for cost reasons, prior to the advised rejection of the DCO. The £5 billion offered by UK government to subsidize building that project was not enough for the Japanese company. This underlines how little risk developers are willing to take and how much risk government is happy to heap on us.
Another major issue with the RAB funding scheme is that, as government documents delicately put it, “the Secretary of State is aware that there could be a perception of a conflict of interest between his role in determining the DCO application for the Sizewell C project and his role in determining whether or not to designate the nuclear company. To avoid any perceived conflict of interest the Secretary of State will delegate the final decision on the DCO to another BEIS minister.”
Well that sorts that problem out then. Of course, while the taxpayer is paying for a nuclear project, it is unlikely to be halted by government. The overriding of the Planning Inspectorate findings against Sizewell C bears this out. How will the government not grant a Final Investment Decision, due next year?
Greenpeace has described the decision on Sizewell C as a stitched up deal behind closed doors, bringing extra cost to the consumer, producing unmanageable waste and squandering our capital on a white elephant scheme.
We say no to nuclear, no to RAB and will be looking to other allies and partners to fight this scheme. Maybe, like the Peace Tax 7, we can find ways to withhold our payments. Perhaps there are legal ways to stop the self -serving deceptions and corruption.
We need to keep calling out the UK government and the Welsh government on these deceptions. When so many people are in fuel poverty and it is so important that the best is made of our precious resources, it is criminal that our time and money is wasted and all our futures thrown away on the back of this scam.
Linda Clare Rogers is a member of People Against Wylfa B and CND Cymru.
NextEra Energy finds that small nuclear reactors (SMRs) really are the biggest boondoggle of all
There were a couple of interesting developments in June in regards to electric power. One was that NextEra Energy issued its Investor Conference Report 2022 to its stockholders. Another was a paper from Stanford University, “Low-cost solutions to global warming, air pollution, and energy insecurity for 145 countries,” (LCS study) by Mark Z. Jacobson, et al. Looking into them is rather interesting.
The first of these makes very clear that in the opinions of the people running NextEra Energy, combustion
generating sources and nuclear power are getting too expensive. Furthermore, their opinion is that the most expensive of these, at least in the late 2020s, will be small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs).
We should make clear, just in case anyone doesn’t know, that NextEra is hardly anti-nuclear. While it is already the biggest investor in renewable energy in the US, it does own seven nuclear reactors, including the one at Seabrook. Electricity from new, near-firm solar and wind plants is a good deal less expensive than electricity from existing nuclear plants.
Let’s state this clearly: We are paying extra for electricity from nuclear plants, even after they have been paid down, and even though the sun can shine and the wind can blow almost all the time, because of really cheap battery storage. Put another way, it would be cheaper to close the nuclear plants and replace them with new renewable facilities.
Clean Technica 4th Oct 2022 https://cleantechnica.com/2022/10/04/why-should-we-pay-extra-for-nuclear-power/
Will Sizewell C nuclear really go ahead? EDF’s €60bn debt, and €52bn costs for French nuclear build.
When EDF board members joined a video call in late August to discuss a landmark UK nuclear project, they were instead treated to a stand-off between the utility’s outgoing boss and the French state. Rather than signing off the Sizewell C plant in Suffolk as Jean-Bernard Lévy had pushed for, the biggest French power producer’s controlling shareholder demanded more time to finish new audit reports and the meeting descended into acrimony, according to people familiar with the discussions.
“Some people didn’t understand what they were doing there and why there wasn’t going to be a decision on anything,” one of the people said. “It was messy.” The episode, one of several clashes at the company to have spilled into the open in recent months, will provide little comfort to Lévy’s successor, Luc Rémont, who is due to take over as chief executive and chair just as Paris executes a plan to buy out the 16 per cent of EDF it does not already own.
While the nationalisation clarifies the ownership structure, the company could still be subject to demands from the French state that have not always been in its immediate interest, including that it shield consumers from soaring energy prices. Big strategic questions on everything from Sizewell to renewable energy investments, meanwhile, still loom large.
Rémont, currently a senior executive at industrial conglomerate Schneider Electric, will need to solve
the group’s short-term problems while also preparing EDF to take on some of France’s biggest nuclear construction projects in two decades — a period when it has struggled to complete any on time or on budget.
The company’s electricity output is on course to reach all-time lows this year, after corrosion problems at the company’s nuclear plants added to maintenance stoppages and led to the outage at one point of more than half the French fleet of 56 reactors. That has strained supplies across Europe just as the region pivots away from Russian gas, while also turning France into a net power importer for the first time.
French officials have so far insisted that the Sizewell C plant in Britain will go ahead, adding that the state had commissioned extra audits simply to calculate the financial consequences of removing a Chinese state-backed company from the project.
But the government may eventually want to revisit some of its choices, bankers and union representatives close to EDF said, particularly as the group grapples with costly investments. By the end of this year, EDF’s
net debt is already forecast to swell to about €60bn, while its French construction programme alone could cost another €52bn.
FT 5th Oct 2022
https://www.ft.com/content/559ce578-fa0d-4bbe-9860-9d512b1510e1
Sizewell C nuclear plan – an insane legacy for our grandchildren
Letter: Dave Haskell, Cardigan: It is the height of madness to fund
another nuclear fission power station at Sizewell costing £34 billion,
with Hinkley C currently costing £24 billion and yet to come on stream.
What a legacy to leave to our children and grandchildren – foreign owned,
very expensive and years to build, dangerous, hazardous waste and
horrendous decommissioning costs – not to mention a potential target for
terrorists.
Cambrian News 1st Oct 2022
https://www.cambrian-news.co.uk/news/why-we-must-avoid-using-nuclear-power-565623
Russia’s oil and gas sanctioned, – but its profitable nuclear trade allowed to roll on!
Russia’s nuclear trade with Europe flows despite Ukraine war. European
Union nations are continuing to import and export nuclear fuel that is not
under EU sanctions on Russia. While the European Union has agreed to
curtail its use of Russian oil and gas, its member nations continue to
import and export nuclear fuel that is not under EU sanctions — to the
chagrin of the Ukrainian government and environmental activists.
A cargo ship carrying uranium that departed from the French port of Dunkirk
traveled across the North Sea on Thursday, heading toward the Russian
Baltic port of Ust-Luga. It was the third time in just over a month that
the Panama-flagged Mikhail Dudin ship docked in Dunkirk to transport
uranium from or to Russia.
Environmental group Greenpeace France denounced
the ongoing shipments and called for stopping all trade in nuclear fuel,
which it said was “financing the war in Ukraine, extending (Europe’s)
energy dependence and delaying the transition to renewable energy.” The
EU’s executive arm, the European Commission, did not propose targeting
Russia’s nuclear sector in its latest sanctions package presented
Wednesday.
ABC News 29th Sept 2022
Giant pensions group Phoenix considers investing in nuclear, but wary of the financial risks
One of Britain’s biggest investors is preparing to back the
Government’s plans for a nuclear renaissance, but only if ministers
overhaul the funding model that previously led to the collapse of proposed
power stations. Andy Briggs, chief executive of pensions giant Phoenix
Group, said he has been in talks with the Government about investing in
nuclear power infrastructure and is exploring how it could support the
creation of new plants.
His support is unusual for the industry, with
pension companies traditionally avoiding nuclear because of the huge
up-front costs involved. However, Mr Briggs also warned that ministers need
to give private sector investors greater clarity on returns around the
investment if the FTSE 100 company is to back future projects. He said:
“We’re in ongoing dialogue regularly [with Government] on this. To
date, we haven’t made significant investments into nuclear, [but] it’s
something we would consider.”
Under the new proposed model, companies
building plants would be paid during the construction phase, cutting down
their development risk and allowing them to secure cheaper financing. Mr
Briggs said: “There’s definitely risks associated with it so we would
need to be comfortable that there’s a robust and safe model around it. It
seems to us likely that it will form part of the [energy] solution going
forward provided it’s done safely and sensibly. “It’s about getting
clarity on the model around it…but it’s definitely an area of potential
interest where there may be attractive returns in long-term, illiquid
assets.”
Telegraph 2nd Oct 2022
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/10/02/pension-titan-vows-back-nuclear-power-renaissance/
US Senate Approves $12 Billion In New Aid For Ukraine Amid War
Russia-Ukraine War: It comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to declare the annexation of parts of Ukraine occupied by Russian troops on Friday.
NDTV WorldAgence France-Presse September 30, 2022,
It also provides $4.5 billion for Kyiv to keep the country’s finances stable.
The US Senate approved $12 billion in new economic and military aid for Ukraine Thursday as part of a stopgap extension of the federal budget into December.
The measure, agreed by senators of both parties, includes $3 billion for arms, supplies and salaries for Ukraine’s military, and authorizes President Joe Biden to direct the US Defense Department to take $3.7 billion worth of its own weapons and materiel to provide Ukraine.
It also provides $4.5 billion for Kyiv to keep the country’s finances stable and keep the government running, providing services to the Ukrainian people.
It comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to declare the annexation of parts of Ukraine occupied by Russian troops on Friday……………
The Ukraine aid is part of a short-term extension of the federal budget, which is to expire at the end of the fiscal year on September 30 without the parties in Congress having agreed to a full-year allocation for fiscal 2022-23………. https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-senate-approves-12-billion-in-new-aid-for-ukraine-amid-war-3390355
Electricite de France, (EDF) loaded with debt and safety problems , gets a new CEO
The French government has picked a senior Schneider Electric executive to
head EDF as it moves to fully renationalise the embattled nuclear power
operator and seeks an end to reactor outages straining electricity supplies
across Europe.
Luc Rémont is set to become chair and chief executive after
President Emmanuel Macron cleared his nomination at the group, which is 84
per state-owned, the Élysée Palace said. His appointment, still subject
to parliamentary checks, comes as the government kicks off a
nationalisation process.
A €9.7bn tender offer to buy out minority
shareholders could be handed to regulators next week, two people close to
the process said. The management overhaul at France’s former electricity
monopoly follows a fraught search for candidates that underscored some of
the turmoil around a group with huge industrial tasks ahead and that has
long been intertwined with politics.
Run-ins between the government and outgoing boss Jean-Bernard Lévy over some of the company’s operational problems have spilled into the public in recent weeks, in a blame game over
the state of its existing reactors and France’s hesitation to invest more in the sector. Already highly indebted, EDF is gearing up to build at least six new nuclear reactors in France, the biggest order in more than a quarter of a century.
It is still struggling with long delays and cost overruns on existing projects. A record number of outages at its 56 reactors have plunged its nuclear output to 30-year lows, torn a hole in its profits and turned France into a net importer of power in the middle of an energy crisis. On Thursday, a series of strikes over wages further squeezed EDF’s output.
FT 29th Sept 2022
https://www.ft.com/content/43a1dbd8-fbf0-420e-919e-e9b67bf8305d
The real Winners of Ukraine war – the USA weapons manufacturers! U.S. Announces $1.1 Billion In Aid For Building Ukraine’s Military
The United States has now committed approximately $16.9 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since January 2021
Radio Free Europe, 29 Sept 22, The United States will provide an additional $1.1 billion in military aid to Ukraine, including funding for about 18 more advanced rocket systems and other weapons to counter drones, the White House announced on September 28.
The package is aimed at helping Ukraine secure its longer-term defense needs under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which funds the purchase of weapons and equipment. This means it could take a year or more for Ukraine to get the systems.
Most of the other military aid packages announced by the United States have thus far used Pentagon drawdown authority to provide weapons more immediately.
The new package “represents a multi-year investment in critical capabilities to build the enduring strength of Ukraine’s Armed Forces” as they continue to battle the invading Russian Army, the Pentagon said in a statement.
The package includes funding for 18 units of the High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System, known as HIMARS, and 12 Titan systems, which are used to counter drones………………
Also in the package is funding for about 150 armored vehicles, 150 tactical vehicles for towing weapons, trucks and trailers, and a variety of radars, communications, and surveillance equipment.
The United States has now committed approximately $16.9 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since January 2021. https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-us-military-aid-1-1-billion/32056533.html
Subsidies to Nuclear Power in the Inflation Reduction Act still won’t save the poor economics of nuclear power – Cato Institute
Subsidies to Nuclear Power in the Inflation Reduction Act, Cato Institute By David Kemp and Peter Van Doren, 28 SEpt 22, Last month, the United States enacted the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA),……… The act includes many provisions to subsidize clean power plants, including nuclear generators.
Many believe that nuclear is the perfect solution to climate change…….. Our recent working paper examines the economics of nuclear power and concludes that it is very high‐cost relative to natural gas generators. Most importantly in the context of climate change, we also determine that the potential climate benefits of nuclear are insufficient to offset its costs.
From the 1960s to 1980s, many nuclear power plants were built, but nuclear construction costs rose dramatically resulting in a severe decline in new construction. Very few plants have been built in the United States and Western Europe in the past several decades. In fact, the most recent projects in the West (the United States, France, the United Kingdom, and Finland) have experienced numerous issues with quality control, supply chains, and labor force management, leading to a more than doubling of construction schedules and costs. The fact that nuclear construction costs increased dramatically in countries with different regulatory regimes suggests that the problem is not simply overly cautious regulators.[1]………………..
Nuclear power is capital intensive. Thus, its levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) depends mostly on its construction cost. To model different scenarios, our calculations use three levels of construction costs for nuclear. The highest level (a cost of $9,000 per kilowatt of capacity constructed) represents the average construction costs of the West’s most recent projects. The middle and low levels ($6,700 and $4,000 per kilowatt, respectively) envision substantial reductions in nuclear construction costs through some combination of regulatory reform, improvements to construction management, or innovation. The low level, which is nearly 65 percent lower than the most recent nuclear project in the United States (the Vogtle plant in Georgia where ongoing construction has reached costs of about $11,000 per kilowatt), is particularly optimistic. Whether such a reduction is achievable is not known, but historically US nuclear construction costs have increased as new capacity has been built………………………………………………………..
The IRA expands subsidies to new nuclear plants through two options for tax credits, a production tax credit (PTC) and an investment tax credit (ITC)……………………………………………………………………………………..
The IRA subsidies are not sufficient to change the economics of nuclear power. ………..https://www.cato.org/blog/subsidies-nuclear-power-inflation-reduction-act
1 This Month
Protect Sazan Island from the Trump family! https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/protect_sazan_island_from_the_trump_family_loc/?bqFCVab&v=174511&cl=22707147157&_checksum=5e9dde668860e8231c33699735e16a1fbf22ab2cb01da50c999fe8732b9775ef&utm_source=email&utm_medium=blast_email&utm_campaign=174511
25 June- THE PUKE ON NUKES
Thursday, June 25, 2026
7pm Central Time (8pm ET, 6pm MT, 5pm PT) UTC – 5
From NRC & DOE Deregulation to Techno-Fascist Billionaires Going Nuclear, Plus a Few Songs from Atomic Cabaret REGISTER
26 June – Radiation Trainwreck at the NRC / Join the Protect Better Campaign – https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/4ZlZ5_qLSHGiLSCg8FF6Bg#/registration
Cuba Is Not a Failed State – It Is a Besieged State
PETITION: “Global Appeal to Endorse Palestinian Right of Return of Refugees”
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
-
Archives
- June 2026 (162)
- May 2026 (306)
- April 2026 (356)
- March 2026 (251)
- February 2026 (268)
- January 2026 (308)
- December 2025 (358)
- November 2025 (359)
- October 2025 (376)
- September 2025 (257)
- August 2025 (319)
- July 2025 (230)
-
Categories
- 1
- 1 NUCLEAR ISSUES
- business and costs
- climate change
- culture and arts
- ENERGY
- environment
- health
- history
- indigenous issues
- Legal
- marketing of nuclear
- media
- opposition to nuclear
- PERSONAL STORIES
- politics
- politics international
- Religion and ethics
- safety
- secrets,lies and civil liberties
- spinbuster
- technology
- Uranium
- wastes
- weapons and war
- Women
- 2 WORLD
- ACTION
- AFRICA
- Atrocities
- AUSTRALIA
- Christina's notes
- Christina's themes
- culture and arts
- Events
- Fuk 2022
- Fuk 2023
- Fukushima 2017
- Fukushima 2018
- fukushima 2019
- Fukushima 2020
- Fukushima 2021
- general
- global warming
- Humour (God we need it)
- Nuclear
- RARE EARTHS
- Reference
- resources – print
- Resources -audiovicual
- Weekly Newsletter
- World
- World Nuclear
- YouTube
-
RSS
Entries RSS
Comments RSS
nuclear-news 