Legal « nuclear-news

U.S. Court fins that mass surveillance program exposed by Snowden was illegal

U.S. court: Mass surveillance program exposed by Snowden was illegal, Raphael Satter, (Reuters) 4 Sept 20, – Seven years after former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden blew the whistle on the mass surveillance of Americans’ telephone records, an appeals court has found the program was unlawful – and that the U.S. intelligence leaders who publicly defended it were not telling the truth.In a ruling handed down on Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said the warrantless telephone dragnet that secretly collected millions of Americans’ telephone records violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and may well have been unconstitutional.

Snowden, who fled to Russia in the aftermath of the 2013 disclosures and still faces U.S. espionage charges, said on Twitter that the ruling was a vindication of his decision to go public with evidence of the National Security Agency’s domestic eavesdropping operation. …….

“Today’s ruling is a victory for our privacy rights,” the ACLU said in a statement, saying it “makes plain that the NSA’s bulk collection of Americans’ phone records violated the Constitution.”

Reporting by Raphael Satter; Editing by Tom Brown https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-nsa-spying-idUSKBN25T3CK?fbclid=IwAR3sRR-njWN8HPgtFcejytlwQP7TV5Ca0HqxOYy-PhSL-AnnEE5fL3krU5w

September 5, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | civil liberties, Legal, USA | Leave a comment

Six Portuguese youth file ‘unprecedented’ climate lawsuit against 33 countries

Six Portuguese youth file ‘unprecedented’ climate lawsuit against 33 countries Climate Home News,By Chloé Farand03/09/2020,IN the first climate case to be filed with the European Court of Human Rights, six Portuguese youth argue inadequate emissions cuts violate their human rights t

Six Portuguese young people have filed a legal action accusing 33 countries of violating their right to life by not doing their fair share to tackle the climate crisis.

This is the first climate change case to be filed with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, France. If admissible, it could set an important precedent, showing the way for other climate lawsuits based on human rights arguments.

Cláudia Agostinho (21), Catarina Mota (20), Martim Agostinho (17), Sofia Oliveira (15), André Oliveira (12) and Mariana Agostinho (8) are suing the 27 European member states, as well as the UK, Switzerland, Norway, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine for failing to make deep and urgent emissions cuts to safeguard their future.

Their complaint comes after lethal wildfires in Portugal in 2017 killed more than 120 people. Researchers have linked the intensity of the 2017 blaze to global warming. The case is being filed after Portugal recorded its hottest July in the last 90 years……….. https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/09/03/six-portuguese-youth-file-unprecedented-climate-lawsuit-33-countries/

September 5, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | climate change, EUROPE, Legal | Leave a comment

Nuclear Workers Sue Over ‘Creeping Chernobyl’ in Ohio

Nuclear Workers Sue Over ‘Creeping Chernobyl’ in Ohio (1) Maya Earls, Legal Reporter, Sept. 5, 2020,

COURT: S.D. Ohio
TRACK DOCKET: No. 2:20-cv-04621 (Bloomberg Law Subscription)
JUDGE: Edmund A. Sargas Jr. (Bloomberg Law Subscription)
DEFENDANTS: Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Lockheed Martin Corp.

Companies including Lockheed Martin Corp. and Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. recklessly and negligently operated a nuclear site in Ohio that poisoned nuclear workers and contaminated the environment, according to a class complaint filed in an Ohio federal court.

The defendants not only showed a lack of concern for safety, but they tried to hide information about criminal operations at the site in violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, according to the lawsuit filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.

The lawsuit’s claims stem from operations at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion… (subscribers only) https://news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-and-energy/nuclear-workers-sue-over-creeping-chernobyl-in-ohio

September 5, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | legal, USA | Leave a comment

Small nuclear reactor NuScam’s parent company Fluor sued over allegations of insider trading and deception

Fluor Board Sued Over Insider Trading, Accounting Allegations, Mike Leonard, Legal Reporter, Aug. 14, 2020, COURT: Del. Ch., TRACK DOCKET: No. 2020-0655 (Bloomberg Law Subscription, JUDGE: J. Travis Laster (Bloomberg Law Subscription), COMPANY INFO: Fluor Corp. (Bloomberg Law Subscripti

The board of Fluor Corp., a leading engineering and construction conglomerate that does significant business with the federal government, has been hit with a Delaware lawsuit claiming several of its members sold stock at inflated prices while conspiring to mask the company’s deteriorating finances.

“At the same time,” Fluor’s board and top executives “engaged in a pattern” of having the company “repurchase its own shares at over-inflated prices,” the 98-page Chancery Court complaint says. “This repurchase of inflated stock cost the company over $1.6 billion.”

The heavily redacted derivative suit, made public Wednesday, comes about three months after Fluor……….(subscribers only) https://news.bloomberglaw.com/mergers-and-antitrust/fluor-board-sued-over-insider-trading-accounting-allegations

September 3, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Legal, secrets,lies and civil liberties, Small Modular Nuclear Reactors, USA | Leave a comment

Plowshares’ Clare Grady, longtime Catholic Worker and peace activist, may face 21 years in gaol

Plowshares activist facing 21 years in jail finds ’cause for rejoicing’, Natiional Catholic Reporter, Aug 29, 2020, by Eric Martin
Clare Grady is a longtime Catholic Worker and peace activist who now faces the possibility of more than 21 years in jail for her participation in the Kings Bay Plowshares action. Despite that, Grady said in a recent interview that she sees “cause for rejoicing” in the current political moment.On April 3, 2018, Grady and six other Catholics entered Kings Bay Naval Base in Georgia to symbolically and nonviolently disarm nuclear Trident submarines, which Grady says are used as “a cocked gun to enforce systems of white supremacy, global capitalism and global domination.”

The seven hammered on a shrine for nuclear missiles, painted biblical messages, and carried an indictment against the federal government for crimes against peace.

All seven were found guilty on felony charges. Liz McAlister received time served and the remaining six expect their sentencing dates on Oct. 15 and 16 might be delayed…….

NCR: Why have you pushed to link this movement that focuses on nuclear weapons with white supremacy?

Grady: It was my intention that when we got together to plan the Kings Bay Plowshares action, we would include Dr. [Martin Luther] King’s triplets [connecting racism, militarism and materialism]. And I just made a personal commitment that I wasn’t going to do that action unless I could do a little more justice to those triplets. And thankfully, the community was willing to embrace that……………

After the trial, you went on the court steps and said, “We are only as sick as our secrets. This disarming process is revealing the weapons that are ours.” And you pointed to your heart. It seemed like you were talking about collective possession of weapons but also something more personal.

Yes, all those dimensions for me. It’s the full spectrum. It’s the secret of the weapons, the secret of the systems that those weapons enforce that we don’t even know the half of what is hidden around the violence of those systems. And then, when we take up these Plowshares sacramental prophetic actions, we do it in community….,…….. https://www.ncronline.org/news/justice/plowshares-activist-facing-21-years-jail-finds-cause-rejoicing

September 1, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Legal, PERSONAL STORIES, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Nuclear Regulatory Commission bans TVA executive over whistleblower retaliation

Nuclear Regulatory Commission bans TVA executive over whistleblower retaliation, Jamie Satterfield, Knoxville News Sentinel, 31 Aug 20

The nation’s nuclear power watchdog says a Tennessee Valley Authority executive’s retaliation against a safety whistleblower was so egregious he is banned from the industry for five years.

TVA Vice President Joseph Shea is barred from working for five years in any activities that require licensing by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the agency said in a news release. The agency said the penalty is warranted to protect the public.

Shea, the regulatory agency concluded, “played a significant role” in the 2018 firing of nuclear engineer Beth Wetzel after she repeatedly raised safety concerns about TVA’s nuclear power program.

The U.S. Department of Labor last year ruled TVA executives, including its corporate attorney, cooked up a fake reason to fire Wetzel after she criticized one of her bosses. TVA later brokered a secret settlement with her……….. https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/crime/2020/08/31/nuclear-regulatory-commission-bans-tva-executive-joseph-shea-over-whistleblower-retaliation/3442778001/

September 1, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | legal, USA | Leave a comment

Santee Cooper finalizes settlement over leftover material at failed SC nuclear project

Santee Cooper finalizes settlement over leftover material at failed SC nuclear project, Post and Courier, By Andrew Brown abrown@postandcourier.com, Aug 31, 2020

Santee Cooper may finally be able to recover some of the money it dumped into two unfinished nuclear reactors in South Carolina.

The board of the Moncks Corner power provider finalized a settlement this weekend with Westinghouse Electric that will enable the state-run utility to sell off leftover parts and materials from the failed expansion of the V.C. Summer project.

The settlement, which has been in the works for months, requires Santee Cooper and Westinghouse to split the profits from any remaining equipment that could be used on another site. …….

……. The state-run utility still has more than $3.6 billion in bonds tied to construction at V.C. Summer, and Santee Cooper’s leadership said any proceeds from the nuclear equipment will go toward paying down that debt……..

The V.C. Summer project is widely considered one of the worst business failures in South Carolina history.

Santee Cooper was the minority owner of the project. It partnered on the unfinished reactors with Cayce-based South Carolina Electric & Gas, which was sold to Dominion Energy after construction was halted in mid-2017 after years of delays and cost overruns.

The two South Carolina utilities spent more than $9 billion on construction before the reactors were abandoned in July 2017.

By that time, Westinghouse had filed for bankruptcy and left the struggling project in the laps of SCE&G and Santee Cooper. As a result, electric customers for both utilities are still paying off debt tied to the abandoned project.

The amount of material left over from the two unfinished nuclear reactors is vast, and there’s one big reason for that. By the time SCE&G and Santee Cooper pulled the plug on the project, they had already purchased more than 90 percent of the parts. Yet only a third of the reactors were actually built. ………….https://www.postandcourier.com/business/santee-cooper-reaches-settlement-over-leftover-material-at-failed-sc-nuclear-project/article_8d01c2e4-eba1-11ea-a8d5-5fad5583ac38.html…..

September 1, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, legal, USA | Leave a comment

A string of USA nuclear scandals: bribes, corrupt politics and lies, in effort to keep the industry alive

Nuclear Industry Politics: Bribes, Corruption and Lies https://www.ewg.org/energy/23289/nuclear-industry-politics-bribes-corruption-and-lies?utm_campaign=EWG+Content&utm_content=1598472836&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR1paLNGDeZaXdPj0OfluAkJC31n5WWzJdlOTUamCB5IA5The U.S. nuclear industry knows it can’t compete fairly on the open market with safe, clean, cost-effective renewable energy sources like solar, wind and storage batteries, so it’s turning to illegal and unsavory tactics. This year, a string of scandals has exposed how some utilities are willing to use bribes, corrupt politics and lies to keep aging reactors online and planned new plants alive.

In July, the FBI filed racketeering charges against the speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives for taking more than $60 million from FirstEnergy Corporation to ensure passage of legislation for a ratepayer bailout of the company’s nuclear plans, and for using bribery to quash a referendum to repeal the bailout.
The very next day, Commonwealth Edison Company, or ComEd, a subsidiary of Exelon, agreed to pay a $200 million fine to settle federal charges for bribing the speaker of the Illinois House to ensure passage of legislation that ensured a ratepayer bailout of two nuclear plants.
In February, the federal Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, filed a complaint against the owner of South Carolina Gas and Electric for lying to regulators and investors about progress of the V.C. Summer nuclear plant, cancelled in 2017 due to $13 billion in projected cost overruns and construction delays.
It’s no mystery why utilities resort to such unlawful and shady tactics: The risk is worth the payoff. Last year, an EWG analysis found that since 2016, five states, including Illinois and Ohio, have forced more than $15 billion In nuclear bailouts on ratepayers.
“When companies like ComEd and FirstEnergy have billions of dollars at stake, spending tens of millions of dollars on campaign contributions, bribes and other activities is sort of a down payment,” Howard Learner, executive director of Environmental Law and Policy Center, told Inside Climate News.

In Ohio, House Speaker Larry Householder and cronies created a political advocacy nonprofit, Generation Now, that they used to funnel bribes to hide the payments and the scheme from public scrutiny. The FBI said Householder and his associates used millions of FirstEnergy’s money to get candidates elected that would support him in his bid for speaker, and who would also vote to rescue the Perry and Davis-Besse nuclear plants – a bailout worth $1.3 billion to FirstEnergy.
They also took $38 million from FirstEnergy to hire firms to collect signatures to put the bailout-repeal referendum on the ballot, which would have been a prohibited conflict of interest for Householder. They tried to bribe a signature collector for inside information on the campaign, and gave a signature collection company $600,000, which the firm offered to pro-referendum collectors to get them to quit.
In Illinois, federal prosecutors say ComEd curried favor with House Speaker Mike Madigan by funneling more than $1.3 million over the past decade to his friends and associates. In return, ComEd was able to secure passage of a bill to make customers bail out the Cline and Quad Cities nuclear plants. In an op-ed for The Hill, conservative anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist said the deal will cost Illinois residents $2.4 billion.

“[T]he legislation would amount to the largest energy rate hike in U.S. history,” Norquist wrote. “The city of Chicago alone would see more than $127 million in higher energy costs.”
In South Carolina, the SEC found that senior executives of SCANA, owner of South Carolina Gas and Electric, “repeatedly deceived investors, regulators, and the public over several years about the status of a $10 billion nuclear energy project,” the Summer nuclear plant. “When the truth was revealed, it resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in losses to SCANA’s investors and to South Carolinians.”
A result of SCANA’s lies is that South Carolina ratepayers will pay $2.3 billion to cover the sunk cost of the scrapped project.

“In the private sector, you would never be able to justify this,” Gregory Jackzo, former chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, told The Intercept. “It’s insane for a project that’s done nothing, and never will. And is just a giant hole in the ground. Well, a filled-in hole now, at this point.”

In Ohio, state senators will convene a special session next month to consider repealing the bill that gave First Energy the $1 billion bailout. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has announced legislative initiatives to curb utility influence. But to stop the scandals plaguing energy politics – which are not limited to the nuclear industry – here’s what should be done:
- Legislation to bail out uneconomic power plants should instead replace them with clean energy.
- Electric rates and policies should support aggressive energy efficiency and customer-owned and community solar programs to reduce costs, replace financially untenable plants and ensure least-cost service.
- States should mandate reporting of all lobbying expenditures and campaign contributions.
“If we get the corrupting influence of utility money out of politics,” David Pomerantz, executive director of the Energy and Policy Institute, told Inside Climate News, “I’ll very happily take my chances with honest policy debates that engage the public, which broadly supports the rapid transition from fossil fuels to clean energy.”

August 31, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Legal, secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

The Assange extradition hearing – a continued travesty of justice

Assange Travesty Continues https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2020/08/assange-travesty-continues/?fbclid=IwAR2MvHqWNmC2Z7gpPI3I24-XwXRvFGIUFmxoa5LgBm5vJqgDJ3BxSDexU4U

August 30, 2020 by craig The travesty that is Julian Assange’s extradition hearing resumes fully on 7 September at the Old Bailey. I shall be abandoning my own legal team and going down to London to cover it again in full, for an expected three weeks. How this is going to work at the Old Bailey, I do not know. Covid restrictions presumably mean that the numbers in the public gallery will be tiny. As of now, there is no arrangement for Julian’s friends and family in place. It looks like 4am queuing is in prospect.

By 7 September it will be six months since I applied to resume my membership of the National Union of Journalists. I STILL have not the slightest idea who objected, or what the grounds were for objection. I have not heard from the NUJ for months. A senior official of an international journalists’ organisation has told us that he inquired, and learnt that the NUJ national executive has considered my application and set up a sub-committee to report. But if so, why is this secret, why have I not been informed, and why am I not allowed to know what the objection is? I find this all very sinister. At this stage it is not paranoid to wonder whose hand is behind this.

The practical effect of this is that without NUJ membership I cannot access a Press card, and avail myself of whatever media arrangements are in place for the Assange hearing (just as I was kept out of most of the Salmond trial). I have now reached the stage where I would like to take legal action against the NUJ, but the finances are beyond me. I am not going to ask you to donate because we are going to need all our resources for the contempt case against me, which the Crown drags out.

I shall be writing next week about my own case and that hearing earlier this week. I would just note now that the “virtual hearing” is entirely unsatisfactory and unfair on defendants. There was at least one occasion when my QC agreed with a suggestion of the judge when I would have instructed them not to had I been, as I should normally have been, seated near them in court and able to instruct.

Unlike our adversaries including the Integrity Initiative, the 77th Brigade, Bellingcat, the Atlantic Council and hundreds of other warmongering propaganda operations, this blog has no source of state, corporate or institutional finance whatsoever. It runs entirely on voluntary subscriptions from its readers – many of whom do not necessarily agree with the every article, but welcome the alternative voice, insider information and debate.

August 31, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Legal, media, UK | Leave a comment

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost considers legal action over corruption tainted nuclear bailout law

Ohio Attorney General Considering Legal Action To Stall Nuclear Bailout Rate Hikes https://www.wvxu.org/post/ohio-attorney-general-considering-legal-action-stall-nuclear-bailout-rate-hikes#stream/0, By ANDY CHOW August 28, 2020

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost says he’s considering taking legal action to stall the billion-dollar nuclear power plant bailout as legislators consider a possible repeal to the law that created the subsidies.

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio have approved the mechanism to be used to increase nearly every ratepayer’s electric bills next year. The increase is part of HB6, a law that creates $150 million in annual subsides to two nuclear power plants.

Yost’s discussion of a possible injunction is the latest action from leaders, advocates and interest groups fighting to repeal HB6, which is said to be the catalyst for a $60 million racketeering scheme.

Michael Hartley with the Coalition to Restore Public Trust says legislators must toss out the law.

“Every single word of it is corrupt, and every single word of it is tainted. That is why, to restore the public trust in Ohio’s government and political system, that’s why the legislature needs to repeal HB6 in its entirety,” Hartley says. “The citizens of Ohio feel duped. They feel that their government duped them on this bill. And therefore, they’re mad, they’re very mad. And they want this repealed.”

Federal investigators say a utility company believed to be FirstEnergy and its subsidiaries funneled millions of dollars to personally and politically benefit former House Speaker Larry Householder (R-Glenford) in exchange for the bailout.

HB6 allowed an increase of $0.85 for everyone’s monthly electric bills. That increase would generate $170 million in annual subsidies, $150 million for nuclear power plants, and $20 million for solar farms.

The bill also created an increase of up to $1.50 a month on electric bills to subsidize two coal plants, Kyger Creek in Gallia County and Clifty Creek in Madison, Indiana.

Several measures in HB6 were priorities for FirstEnergy and its former subsidiary FirstEnergy Solutions, now called Energy Harbor. FirstEnergy CEO Chuck Jones has said he believes the company acted properly in the matter and intends to fully cooperate with investigators.

August 29, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Legal, USA | Leave a comment

Ohio Attorney General could seek injunction to stop nuclear plant surcharge

Ohio AG Yost considering lawsuit to halt nuclear plant surcharge, LIZ SKALKA. The Blade. lskalka@theblade.com–26 Aug 20, COLUMBUS — Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost on Wednesday said he’s prepared to seek an injunction that would stop the imposition of a ratepayer surcharge flowing to two northern Ohio nuclear power plants at the center of the $61-million statehouse corruption scandal.

Mr. Yost, a Republican, indicated he’s considering moving ahead with a lawsuit as the Ohio Senate prepares to return to Columbus next week to discuss repealing or replacing the energy law, House Bill 6, at the heart of the scandal.

Pressuring lawmakers to act quickly on what will be a complex process, Mr. Yost said he could file a lawsuit as soon as September if the legislature doesn’t move swiftly to repeal the law. He declined to set a deadline or elaborate on what might trigger him to file, except to say he supports a repeal……..

Lawmakers have debated how to handle the controversial law since former House Speaker Larry Householder (R., Glenford) and four others were charged in July with conspiring to funnel $61 million from FirstEnergy and related interests to help elect Mr. Householder’s allies who would then elevate him to speaker. The political power he gained was used to pass the energy law.

Its key feature is a new surcharge to FirstEnergy Solutions’ customers monthly bills beginning in 2021 to generate $150 million a year to support the struggling nuclear plants and $20 million a year for solar projects.

House Republicans and Democrats have introduced separate repeal bills that would block the new subsidies while restoring mandates that utilities obtain more of their power from renewable sources.

A bipartisan measure doing the same thing has been introduced in the Senate.

Mr. Yost said a lawsuit would stop a billion-dollar revenue stream from flowing to the nuclear plants while lawmakers deal with the fallout from the corruption scandal. ……

The Coalition to Restore Public Trust, a pro-repeal group, applauded Mr. Yost.

“The potential injunction sought by AG Yost should serve as further notice to Ohio’s legislature that they must move expeditiously to remove this tainted legislation from Ohio law,” executive director Michael Hartley said in a statement. https://www.toledoblade.com/business/energy/2020/08/26/ohio-ag-yost-considering-lawsuit-to-halt-nuclear-plant-charge/stories/20200826129

August 27, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Legal, politics, secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

Jacksonville Electric Authority (JEA) tried to become part-owner of Plant Vogtle in 2019

Lawsuit settlement document shows JEA tried to become part-owner of Plant Vogtle in 2019 https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/local/2020/08/24/jea-prepared-1-9-billion-offer-plant-vogtle-nuclear-plant-2019/3402832001/

David Bauerlein, Florida Times-Union Before JEA lost a lawsuit in June that tried to void its contract for purchasing electricity from Plant Vogtle, the utility wanted to settle the suit in 2019 by buying an ownership stake in the Georgia nuclear plant for $1.9 billion, according to a draft document that outlined terms of the utility’s strategy for settlement talks.

The controversial power purchase agreement, which dates back to 2008, weighs heavily on JEA because the contract binds JEA to buy electricity for 20 years at a high cost from two Vogtle nuclear reactors slated to go online in late 2021 and late 2022.

The agreement also was a thorny issue for JEA when it sought offers last year from private companies for a potential sale of the city-owned utility. Converting the power purchase agreement into an ownership interest in Plant Vogtle would have made JEA a more marketable asset.

The settlement talks in April 2019 occurred during the tenure of Aaron Zahn, who was CEO when the JEA board voted in July 2019 to put the utility up for sale. Since then, Zahn along with the rest of the senior leadership team and the board have been replaced.

JEA spokeswoman Gerri Boyce said the turnover means current JEA employees cannot say what the rationale was for any settlement offers in April 2019.

“Anything we could say would be speculation since no one currently at JEA was part of that meeting or proposed settlement,” Boyce said.

When JEA first evaluated privatization in early 2018 — prior to Zahn becoming CEO — an attorney for Holland and Knight sent an email to JEA outlining possible strategies for how JEA could get out of the purchase power agreement.

“Obviously, Plant Vogtle and and the purchase agreement (PPA) greatly affect valuation,” Holland & Knight attorney Allen Maines wrote in the Feb. 4, 2018, email.

Maines wrote that “one underlying assumption to privatization is that prospective purchasers will not be interested unless JEA sheds itself of the PPA.”

Maines wrote one way to get rid of the agreement would be to pay the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia, also known as MEAG, to “take back the PPA.”

When JEA and MEAG entered into settlement talks in April 2019, Holland & Knight drafted proposed terms of a settlement in which JEA would pay $1.9 billion to MEAG in order to get JEA released from the power purchase agreement.

In turn, JEA would become part-owner of the Plant Vogtle plant by having a stake equal to 150 megawatts of the two reactors being built. That would be less than the 206 megawatts of electricity in the power purchase agreement.

WJXT-TV reported in April 2019 that JEA and MEAG met in Atlanta for settlement talks. WJXT reported at that time JEA was negotiating to get out of the nuclear power contract.

The station disclosed the talks after a JEA administrative aide mistakenly sent an email to WJXT reporter Jim Piggott that had the draft settlement terms attached to it.

The ownership stake would have given JEA more direct influence over decisions on Plant Vogtle, whose construction is years behind schedule with a cost that has doubled since JEA entered the power purchase agreement in 2008.

The proposed terms also would have enhanced the marketability of the utility in a sale to a private company.

If a private company purchased JEA, the rates charged to customers would have been regulated by the Florida Public Service Commission.

In the commission’s rate-setting structure, an investor-owned utility does not earn a profit from a purchase-power agreement, said Florida Public Counsel J.R. Kelly of the Office of Public Counsel, which represents consumers in rate-setting cases before the Public Service Commission.

A private utility’s cost from a purchase-power agreement is regulated as a break-even expense, meaning it doesn’t lose money or earn a profit from such agreements, Kelly said. The utility just passes the cost through to customers in the overall rate structure.

But if a private utility has ownership of a plant, it can get a profit from owning an asset and have that profit built into the rate structure approved by the state

Kelly said.

“They have a right to a return of and a return on that asset,” Kelly said. “That’s how they make a profit. That’s how utilities earn money.”

The draft settlement terms from April 2019 for Plant Vogtle proposed that after JEA paid $1.9 billion to end the power purchase agreement and become a part-owner of the nuclear plant, JEA no longer would pay any additional money to cover future cost over-runs for the plant’s construction.

The settlement talks failed to reach any agreement with MEAG. When JEA entered into negotiations last year for the potential sale of the utility, JEA proposed to separate the Plant Vogtle purchase power agreement from the sale by having JEA remains as a shell entity that would remain a party to the agreement.

The cost of the power purchase agreement then would have been passed along to customers on their bills. That arrangement would have been a hard sell to City Council members who would have had to agree to the terms of any sale.

U.S. District Judge Mark Cohen ruled June 17 in MEAG’s favor by finding the power purchase agreement is valid and enforceable. JEA and MEAG then agreed to end the lawsuit.

August 25, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Legal, USA | Leave a comment

Court actions over delays in delivering Russia’s giant nuclear icebreaker line

Delays in delivering Russia’s giant nuclear icebreaker line sparks lawsuitsDelays plaguing the launch of the Arktika nuclear icebreaker, billed to be Russia’s largest to date, have prompted a number of lawsuits against the ship’s builder as frustrations mount over a series of technical faults thwarting the vessel’s scheduled release. Bellona , August 21, 2020 by Charles Digges

According to the Barents Observer, which cites industry news portals, Atomflot, Russia’s nuclear icebreaker headquarters, has filed three multi-million dollar lawsuits against the Baltic Shipyard, the St Petersburg-based shipbuilder that has forged most of the country’s icebreaking muscle.

Details of the lawsuits are sketchy. But the Barents Observer reports that the suits seek nearly $13.5 million in damages over faulty ship systems and overdue part deliveries, all of which have caused the icebreaker project to overshoot its 2017 deadline.

The latest of these mishaps involves a 300-ton electric propulsion engine that failed during the Arktika’s sea trials in February, crippling one of the vessel’s three propeller systems. While the breakdown is not related to the Arktika’s nuclear propulsion system, it was nonetheless an embarrassing setback that will ultimately require the engine to be entirely replaced.

Russian media now suggest that the Arktika won’t be repaired before 2021.

A new series of upgraded nuclear icebreakers are central component of a Kremlin strategy to keep Arctic sea routes open on a year-round basis. Russia has since Soviet times maintained the world’s largest stable of these vessels. But many have been decommissioned in recent years, and Moscow has embarked on renewing the fleet.

The target of this effort is the Northern Sea Route, a 5,600-kilometer sea artery joining Europe to Asia, whose frozen shores are laden with fossil fuels and mineral deposits.

To stimulate its development, President Vladimir Putin ordered in 2017 that cargo volumes along the passage reach 80 million tons by the middle of this decade – more than double current volumes.

The Arktika, and two other icebreakers in its class – the Ural and the Sibir – are meant to lead the way. Each vessel measures up to 173 meters in length and all are powered by twin RITM-200 nuclear reactors, which deliver a combined 175 megawatts of power – making them the most powerful civilian vessels in the world.

Atomflot has filed its suits against the Baltic Shipyard in Moscow’s Arbitration court, the Barents Observer reports. In turn, the shipyard is suing one of its own suppliers – the giant Kirov Plant in St Petersburg, which manufactures heavy machinery.

The Arktika’s rollout has face previous delays. In March of 2017, turbines produced by a Ukraine-based manufacturer were held up by military tensions between Moscow and Kiev. https://bellona.org/news/nuclear-issues/2020-08-%EF%BB%BF%EF%BB%BFdelays-in-delivering-russias-giant-nuclear-icebreaker-line-sparks-lawsuits

August 22, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Legal, Russia | Leave a comment

South Carolina’s $9 billion nuclear fiasco – another legal saga develops, criminal investigation coming

3 years later: How the fallout from SC’s $9 billion nuclear fiasco continues Post and Courier, By Avery G. Wilks and Andrew Brown awilks@postandcourier.com abrown@postandcourier.com, Jul 31, 2020

It has been three years since two of South Carolina’s largest electric utilities abandoned their $9 billion effort to build two nuclear reactors, but the legal, political and financial consequences continue to ripple across the Palmetto State.

The scuttled V.C. Summer expansion in Fairfield County is now widely considered one of the biggest business failures in the state’s history. The announcement of the project’s cancellation on July 31, 2017, shook South Carolina’s power industry, state government and business community.

The two homegrown S.C. utilities that partnered on the project were thrown into disarray. Investigations were initiated by state lawmakers, financial regulators and federal law enforcement officials.

The state and federal court systems were flooded overnight with lawsuits by investors, ratepayers, construction workers and lenders. The state regulatory system that backed the project for nearly a decade was called into question.

And more than 1.7 million utility customers with S.C. Electric & Gas, Santee Cooper and the state’s 19 local electric cooperatives realized they might be forced to pay billions of dollars more for a power plant that will never produce a watt of electricity.

Much has changed since Santee Cooper and SCE&G’s leaders suddenly announced the project’s collapse. But the saga isn’t over quite yet. Here is a breakdown of where things stand. Continue reading →

August 1, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, legal, secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | 1 Comment

Electricite de France fined for lying about Hinkley nuclear project, faces costs and delays due to pandemic

Bloomberg 30th July 2020, Electricite de France SA was fined 5 million euros ($6 million) by

France’s markets regulator for providing false information on the Hinkley
Point C nuclear project. EDF and former Chief Executive Officer Henri
Proglio, who was fined 50,000 euros, failed to properly disclose new
circumstances concerning the U.K. project’s financing, the Autorité des
Marchés Financiers said in a statement on Thursday.

In October 2013, EDF
announced it would build the U.K.’s first nuclear reactors since 1995
after reaching a deal with the government on guaranteed prices for the
power they’d generate. The energy firm also said the project would
benefit from a British credit guarantee on conditions that were yet-to-be
agreed. EDF and Proglio should have specified in a statement a year later
that there had been significant changes on the guarantees, the AMF said.

EDF and its current CEO Jean-Bernard Levy were cleared of a second
accusation brought forward by AMF investigators. The AMF’s enforcement
committee assesses civil market-abuse cases ranging from insider trading to
publishing misleading information.

Electricite de France SA said it’s
facing delays at the Hinkley Point C nuclear plant as the coronavirus
pandemic hampered work on-site and hit supply chains. The largest and most
advanced infrastructure project in the U.K. will miss three key milestones
this year, one of them critical — risking the 2025 completion deadline.

EDF plans to make up time by the end of 2021 but the threat of a second
wave of coronavirus and lockdowns could cause more long-term set-backs.
“We’ve absorbed a lot of factory delays but we had some margin in our
program to do so,” Hinkley Point C’s managing director Stuart Crooks
said in an interview on-site in the southwest of England. EDF still expects
Hinkley to be finished on time.

The French utility is working on the
assumption that the virus peters out by the end of the year so supply
chains and work at Hinkley can return to normal. There are about 4,500
staff currently on the site that covers an area equal to 245 soccer fields.
Initial plans were to ramp-up the number of workers to around 6,000 but
that depends how long social distancing rules stay in place.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-30/edf-fined-6-million-in-market-abuse-case-over-nuclear-project

August 1, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | France, Legal | Leave a comment

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23 April – WEBINAR – Why new nuclear reactors are the wrong tools for decarbonization Thursday, April 23 • 1 AM – 2 AM AEST

Pine Ridge Uranium is the real threat, not Tehran- Tell Burgum: Stop the Extraction.

Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes – A good documentary on Chernobyl on SBS available On Demand for the next 3 weeks– https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/chernobyl-the-lost-tapes/2352741955560

To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com

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