Daily Mail 25th Nov 2018 Troubled utility SCANA has reached a $2 billion settlement with the South Carolina customers who sued after they were charged high rates to pay for the company’s failed nuclear construction project. SCANA announced the agreement in a news release Saturday. As part of the settlement, South
Carolina Electric & Gas Co. customers will also receive $115 million that The State newspaper reports had been set aside for soon-to-be-ousted SCANA executives.
November 25, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
Legal, USA |
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Residents of nuclear crisis hit Namie to sue TEPCO, gov’t after settlement talks failNovember 19, 2018 (Mainichi Japan) KORIYAMA, Fukushima — Residents of the town of Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, are set to sue the government and the operator of nearby Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station for more compensation over damages caused by the plant’s March 2011 triple core meltdown, lawyers for the residents said on Nov. 18.
The lawyers told a press conference here that the residents decided to take the case to the Fukushima District Court on Nov. 27 after the operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), repeatedly rejected settlement proposals offered in an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) process.
The lawyers said roughly 100 people from the town in northeastern Japan are expected to launch the suit, but the number will likely reach about 2,000. Participating residents held a meeting on Nov. 18 to establish a group of plaintiffs in the prefectural city of Koriyama.
This will be the first time that a group of residents has filed a class action lawsuit after an ADR effort over the nuclear disaster was discontinued, according to the attorneys…….
In the suit, the residents will demand compensation for being forced to evacuate from their neighborhoods, having their communities destroyed by the disaster and having their expectations for a settlement betrayed by the utility.
Evacuation instructions have been lifted in Namie except in areas designated as zones where it will be difficult for residents to return in the foreseeable future. However, the residents will demand a uniform amount of damages in the suit they will launch. They will also sue the government in order to clarify the state’s responsibility for the nuclear accident in March 2011……….
(Japanese original by Toshiki Miyazaki, Fukushima Bureau) https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20181119/p2a/00m/0na/015000c
November 22, 2018
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Japan, Legal |
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I WARNED ZUMA OF NUCLEAR PROCUREMENT IMPLICATIONS, SAYS GORDHAN https://ewn.co.za/2018/11/19/i-warned-zuma-of-nuclear-procurement-implications-says-gordhan
Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan says he advised former President Jacob Zuma that nuclear procurement would be a complex issue. Clement Manyathela 20 Nov 18 JOHANNESBURG – Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan has told the state capture commission that former President Jacob Zuma was determined to go ahead with the nuclear build programme despite the reality that the country could not afford it. Gordhan appeared before the inquiry on Monday in Parktown.
His interactions with the Gupta family are among other issues he is expected to deal with.
The minister says he advised Zuma that nuclear procurement would be a complex issue.
“I indicated to the former president that it would be lawful to follow procurement processes for such an expensive process to avoid being marred in scandals such as the arms deal.”
He says he wanted Zuma to be aware of the cost implications.
“I wanted to impress upon the former president that that undertaking, the nuclear procurement, required careful consideration of its costs, choice of supplier and due process.”
Last month, former Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene told the commission Zuma was so determined to proceed with the nuclear build programme that he showed disregard and no appreciation for the financial ramifications for the country.
Gordhan will continue his testimony on Tuesday.
November 19, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
legal, South Africa |
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In fight over power bills, SCE&G seeks to disparage ex-employees, $1 million nuclear report, Greenville News, Avery G. Wilks, The State Nov. 19, 2018 COLUMBIA — When the S.C. Public Service Commission rules on SCE&G’s electric rates next month, the Cayce-based utility doesn’t want those regulators to put too much stock into scathing testimony by two of its former employees.
Nor does SCE&G want the commission to weigh heavily a nuclear contractor’s late 2015 assessment that concluded SCE&G’s $9 billion nuclear construction project was foundering and way behind schedule.
Fighting allegations of fraud and mismanagement in this month’s PSC hearing into the failed V.C. Summer Nuclear Station expansion project, SCE&G has sought to disparage its former employees and a high-powered construction company that it paid $1 million.
It is a key part of SCE&G’s defense as the state’s utility watchdog, environmentalists and consumer groups cite those witnesses to bolster their arguments that the utility’s power bills – which rose by about $27 a month to bankroll the failing project – should be slashed.
That strategy likely will be on display again Tuesday when former utility executive Carlette Walker, vice president of nuclear finance administration for SCE&G’s parent company SCANA, and retired SCE&G engineer Ken Browne testify before the commission for the first time in this case.
Impeach your own people’
Walker and Browne are star witnesses for the S.C. Office of Regulatory Staff, the state’s utility watchdog.
In sworn statements filed with the PSC, both have said SCE&G executives misled the commission in 2015 by testifying the project would cost $698 million more to complete – a number supplied by the project’s lead contractor, Westinghouse.
That number was unrealistically low and based on a productivity rate that never had been achieved at the Fairfield County construction site, Walker and Browne say. A team of SCE&G accountants and engineers worked for weeks to estimate the project actually would cost an additional $1.2 billion to finish — $500 million more than Westinghouse had said.
That half-billion-dollar difference is key to Regulatory Staff’s argument that SCE&G fraudulently won rate hikes and kept its failing nuclear project alive by providing the PSC with low-balled cost estimates. ……..https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/2018/11/19/sce-g-seeks-disparage-ex-employees-1-million-nuclear-report/2055992002/
November 19, 2018
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legal, USA |
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Anti-nuclear power plant activists turn to Turkey’s highest court , Ahval, Ezgi Karataş
Nov 17 2018
Turkish environmentalists are deeply concerned about the ongoing construction of the country’s first nuclear power plant and plan to bring their case to Turkey’s highest court.
In the past year, environmental groups have brought up many legal cases against the plant, which is being built in Akkuyu, near Mersin, on the Mediterranean coast. Scientists have argued that the plant will adversely impact the regional ecology and economy, undermining the livelihoods of people who rely on the marine ecosystem and tourism.
Last month, an appeals court upheld a local court’s decision to accept the Turkish government’s environmental impact assessment, even though several news reports said some scientists’ signatures on the report were forged.Following the appeals court’s decision, environmentalists say they plan to petition the Constitutional Court. Sevim Küçük, a lawyer and vocal member of the Mersin Anti-Nuclear Platform, believes Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan influenced the appeals court’s decision.
“The president issued instructions to speed up the work one day before the hearing at the appeals court,” she said. “The judiciary was pressured by the executive. As a result, we were not expecting a just decision.”
Küçük says their appeal to the Constitutional Court does not automatically indicate a motion to stay. Plant construction, which began in April 2018 with a ceremony attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Erdoğan via video conference, is expected to continue during the proceedings. “Lower courts did not issue a motion to stay either, so the construction was continuing during all our legal battles as well,” says Küçük.
Küçük says that government assessment is out of line with scientific evidence and based on falsified expert reports. She believes the report was copy-pasted from falsified expert reports, and that the court, in its decision, copy-pasted the same reports as well.
A key concern of the environmental group is the storage of nuclear waste, which the assessment does not adequately address. “While Europe, Japan, America are trying to close down their nuclear power plants, why is our government so determined to build one?” asks Küçük. “As locals we are worried that the plant will store its nuclear waste in our neighbourhoods.”
Dr. Ful Uğurhan, another member of the anti-nuclear group, says that
The location of Akkuyu is not suited to build a nuclear power plant, argues Ful Uğurhan, another member of the anti-nuclear group. Uğurhan says that the seawater temperatures in Akkuyu are high, which not only means spending more energy to cool down the reactors, but the process will further increase the seawater temperatures and upset the ecological balance.
An active geological fault line near Akkuyu means additional risk.
“Considering the effects of global climate change, it’s not safe to build a nuclear power plant anywhere,” says Uğurhan. “Storms, earthquakes, tsunamis all increase the risk involved in building a nuclear power plant, instead of ecologically safe electricity production plants.” ………https://ahvalnews.com/akkuyu/anti-nuclear-power-plant-activists-turn-turkeys-highest-court
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November 19, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
Legal, opposition to nuclear, Turkey |
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U.S. sailors filed a class action in the Southern District of California in 2012 claiming radiation they were exposed to following the meltdown of a nuclear power plant in Fukushima, Japan while aboard U.S. vessels on a humanitarian mission has caused cancer, brain tumors, birth defects in their children and other rare health problems. Some have even died, according to their attorneys.
If U.S. courts dismiss the two related cases – Cooper et al. v. TEPCO et al. and Bartel et al. v. Tokyo Electric Power Company Inc. et al. – the sailors could bring their claims in Japan under its Compensation for Nuclear Damage Act.
Sammartino did clarify throughout the hearing that she would not waste her or the attorneys’ time by holding a court hearing if she wasn’t going to consider their arguments.
Class attorney Charles Bonner of Sausalito, California implored the judge not to dismiss the litigation, noting that attorneys have not been able to conduct discovery in the case, and that the defendants’ motions to dismiss were “based on legal arguments,” not facts.
Bonner suggested class counsel needed to obtain contracts between GE, which designed and helped to maintain the nuclear reactors for 40 years in Fukushima, and TEPCO, which operated the plant. Bonner said the contracts likely contain a choice-of-law provision that would indicate whether the parties would agree to litigate in the U.S. or Japan.
“Our sailors have already been here five years. They need some resolution in this court,” Bonner said……..
Edwards suggested if the Southern District of California dismissed the cases, the sailors wouldn’t “go to Japan and hire Japanese lawyers.”
Bonner buoyed Edwards’ point, noting a declaration from Japanese lawyers who said the class would not get a fair trial in Japan, where no jury would decide the case’s merits……..
Sammartino took the matter under submission and indicated that she will issue a written ruling.https://www.courthousenews.com/attorneys-implore-judge-to-keep-sailors-fukushima-case-in-u-s/
November 17, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
Japan, Legal |
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2 Hanford whistleblowers sue. They say they lost their jobs for raising safety concerns, Tri City Herald, BY ANNETTE CARY, acary@tricityherald.com, November 15, 2018 RICHLAND, WA
November 17, 2018
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U.S. government ordered to remove deadly nuclear substance from South Carolina, BY EMILY BOHATCH ebohatch@thestate.com, October 26, 2018
South Carolina officials celebrated a victory Friday after a U.S. court ruled the federal government must remove a metric ton of plutonium from the state, according to a statement from the S.C. Attorney General’s Office.
The U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an earlier ruling ordering the U.S. Department of Energy to remove the element from the Palmetto State by the beginning of 2020, according to the statement. …..https://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/article220680625.html
November 17, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
- plutonium, Legal, USA |
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https://japantoday.com/category/national/High-court-rejects-bid-to-shut-down-Shikoku-Electric-reactor, Nov. 16 TOKYO
A high court in western Japan on Thursday rejected a lawsuit to shut down Shikoku Electric Power Co’s only operable nuclear reactor.
The Takamatsu High Court denied a legal bid by residents of Ehime prefecture to shut down the No. 3 reactor at the Ikata nuclear plant, the company said in a statement.
The 890-megawatt reactor was restarted on Oct 27 and is currently running at full capacity.
The restart followed a Hiroshima High Court in late September that lifted a 2017 injunction blocking operations at the reactor.
November 17, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
- Fukushima 2011, Legal |
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Court forces VA to reveal extent of veterans’ contamination in Spanish nuclear disaster https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2018/11/14/court-forces-va-to-reveal-extent-of-veterans-contamination-in-spanish-nuclear-
By: Leo Shane III WASHINGTON — An appeals court will force Veterans Affairs officials to identify how many troops may have been exposed to radioactive debris from a 1966 plane crash, a move that supporters hope will be the precursor to
a class-action lawsuit against the department for overdue benefits.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims made the unusual ruling demanding the records’ release six weeks after VA lawyers argued the information is nearly impossible to obtain, given aging and missing military records from the accident.
But the court, by a 6-3 ruling, gave the department 30 days to determine the number of military personnel assigned to the accident clean-up, the number of veterans who have applied for benefits connected to the event, and the number who have been denied compensation. That information will be used to decide how a lawsuit on the benefits denial may proceed.
Veterans involved in the accident have been unsuccessfully petitioning VA on their case since the mid-1970s, after a host of strange cancers and other illnesses began appearing among individuals involved.
In January 1966, seven airmen were killed and four more injured when a B-52 crashed into a KC-135 during a refueling mission off the coast of Spain. The B-52 was carrying four nuclear weapons at the time of the accident, and two of them exploded near the town of Palomares, spreading radioactive plutonium over hundreds of acres.
U.S. officials quickly ordered military personnel into the area to collect contaminated debris, crops and soil in an effort to repair the damage. But veterans involved in that cleanup say they were given no protective clothing or respiratory devices, and told very little about the potential long-term health effects from exposure to the nuclear material.
Earlier this year, the appeals court ruled in a separate case that veterans can file suit against the Department of Veterans Affairs as a class rather than individuals, in limited circumstances.
Since then, legal experts have been monitoring a host of lawsuits before the court to see which could be the first class recognized, a move which will set important precedents for future legal cases.
The three judges who argued against the records request in the Palomares lawsuit said the move would effectively force VA to justify the need for a class-action lawsuit against itself, and that the majority ignored concerns that Defense Department records for the incident may not exist.
But the majority opinion noted that no final decision on whether to recognize a class of Palomares has been made, and data on the denied benefits is the sole property of VA, inaccessible in any way for outsiders.
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit have contended that more than 1,600 veterans should be eligible for disability benefits related to the toxic exposure, but VA thus far has denied their requests because not enough scientific evidence exists to classify all of the health problems as service-related illnesses.
November 15, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
health, incidents, Legal, Spain, USA |
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The State. BY TOM BARTON, tbarton@thestate.com, November 14, 2018 COLUMBIA, S.C.
An attorney involved in hiring a consultant to study problems at a failed $9 billion nuclear expansion project Wednesday defended deleting items from that critical report.
Atlanta-based attorney George Wenick testified during Day 10 of S.C. Public Service Commission hearings into the failed effort by SCE&G, a SCANA subsidiary, to build two nuclear reactors in Fairfield County. The commission also is considering SCE&G’s future electric rates and a proposal by Dominion Energy to buy SCE&G’s parent, SCANA.
The report by the San Francisco-based Bechtel Corp., completed in February 2016, showed SCE&G knew the project was troubled long before it collapsed……
SCANA chief executive Jimmy Addison last week testified he never had read the damning Bechtel report and never intends to, calling it “history.” But, he added, he wished it had been disclosed to the Public Service Commission and the public in 2015.
At stake is who will pay for the failed nuclear project — SCE&G’s customers, SCANA’s shareholders or both — and how big the future power bills will be for SCE&G’s roughly 730,000 electric customers.
SCE&G increased the electric rates for its typical residential customer by about $27 a month to pay for the nuclear project before it pulled the plug on the unfinished reactors in July 2017. Subsequently, the PSC cut SCE&G’s nuclear-related rates temporarily.
Wenick’s testimony could also be used in ongoing federal investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission. https://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/article221641145.html
November 15, 2018
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Legal, USA |
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Utility consultant: SCE&G ignored ‘stop signs’ about failed nuclear project, Greenville News,Tom Barton, The State Nov. 13, 2018SCE&G ignored numerous warning signs before walking away from a failed $9 billion nuclear expansion project, an industry consultant told the S.C. Public Service Commission on Monday.
“Let me be blunt: You have a utility that bet the farm and lost,” Scott Rubin, an independent utility consultant and attorney from Pennsylvania, testified Monday on behalf of AARP South Carolina. “By the end of this year, customers will have paid $2.2 billion for absolutely nothing — not a single watt of electricity.”
Rubin’s testimony came on the eighth day of PSC hearings into the failed effort by SCE&G, a SCANA subsidiary, to build two nuclear reactors in Fairfield County. The commission also is considering SCE&G’s future electric rates and a proposal by Richmond-based Dominion Energy to buy its parent, Cayce-based SCANA.
At stake is who will pay for that failed project — SCE&G’s customers, SCANA’s shareholders or both — and how big the future power bills will be for SCE&G’s roughly 730,000 electric customers. …..https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/2018/11/13/utility-consultant-sce-g-ignored-stop-signs-nuclear-project/1988385002/
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November 15, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
business and costs, legal, USA |
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Independent 4th Nov 2018 , The Supreme Court has refused to halt a novel lawsuit filed by young
Americans that attempts to force the federal government to take action on
climate change, turning down a request from the Trump administration to
stop it before trial.
The suit, filed in 2015 by 21 young people who argue
that the failure of government leaders to combat climate change violates
their constitutional right to a clean environment, is before a federal
judge in Oregon. It had been delayed while the Supreme Court considered the
emergency request from the government.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/climate-change-lawsuit-trump-us-young-people-children-supreme-court-allows-julia-olsen-a8616136.html
November 5, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
climate change, legal, USA |
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SCANA accountant says CEO put her on medical leave over complaints about nuclear project, Independent Mail, Avery G. Wilks, The State Nov. 2, 2018 COLUMBIA — In newly unsealed documents, a former SCANA employee says the utility’s then-chief executive, Kevin Marsh, put her on “special medical leave” after she went to him with concerns about a failing, $9 billion nuclear project.
Carlette Walker, once SCANA’s vice president of Nuclear Finance Administration, also testified that, in 2015, her bosses filed misleading testimony under her name with state regulators about how much the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station expansion project would cost.
Carlette Walker, once SCANA’s vice president of Nuclear Finance Administration, also testified that, in 2015, her bosses filed misleading testimony under her name with state regulators about how much the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station expansion project would cost.
“While I was out, they wrote testimony under my name, and they filed testimony under my name with the (lower cost) number that I had fought against,” Walker said in an April 24 deposition.
Walker’s full sworn statement — parts had been released before with sections blacked out, or redacted — was made public Thursday as the S.C. Public Service Commission began its weeks-long hearing into the nuclear-related power rates of SCE&G, SCANA’s electric subsidiary.
A spokesman for SCE&G said the utility would not comment except during the PSC hearing.
Previously, most of the pages of Walker’s 187-page deposition had been at least partially blacked out at SCE&G’s request. However, PSC hearing officer David Butler ruled Wednesday the entire document should be made public.
The state’s utility watchdog, the Office of Regulatory Staff, plans to use Walker’s deposition as evidence SCE&G misled the PSC — which sets utility rates — in order to keep the project alive, and its revenues and executive bonuses flowing.
In her deposition, Walker said she had projected the cost to finish the floundering project was about $500 million higher than contractors had estimated. But, she said, her SCANA bosses submitted the contractors’ lower numbers — which she considered unrealistic — to regulators in her name while she was out of work on leave, taking care of her sick husband.
Another former SCE&G employee, Ken Browne, said in his deposition the contractor’s cost projections were based upon productivity rates that V.C. Summer construction workers never had attained. Work was going so slowly, the project could have taken far longer — until 2030 — to complete, Browne said.
According to Walker’s deposition, when Browne objected internally to SCE&G using the lower cost submitted to the PSC, under Walker’s name, he was “pretty much cussed out by (SCE&G outside attorney) Mitch Willoughby and put in his place, and so he just shut up.”
In the formerly redacted portions of her deposition, Walker said she went to both then-SCANA CEO Marsh and current CEO Jimmy Addison — then the company’s chief financial officer — with concerns about the nuclear project in the fall of 2015………. https://www.independentmail.com/story/news/2018/11/02/v-c-summer-nuclear-station-fiasco-scana-accountant-put-leave/1856615002/
November 3, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
Legal, secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA |
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