Austria continues its legal action crusade against nuclear power in Europe
Liberation 5th sept 2018 Austria continues its legal crusade against nuclear power in Europe. The
government has decided to appeal against an ECJ ruling authorizing public
subsidies to the British Hinkley Point EPR. “Just back from her maternity
leave, the Minister of Sustainable Development, Elisabeth Köstinger,
declares war again at the Atomic Lobby.”
The Kronen Zeitung , the country’s
leading newspaper, set foot on the plate announcing Tuesday, that the
Austrian government would appeal, before the Court of Justice of the
European Union (CJEU), a judgment that authorized public subsidies from the
British government for the Hinkley Point nuclear power plant. The Austrian
Council of Ministers will decide this Wednesday to appeal, with the support
of Luxembourg.
Austria does not want to abandon the legal battle against
nuclear energy in Europe, which it is conducting on several fronts. Last
March, Vienna also filed another complaint, this time concerning the Paks
reactors in neighboring Hungary. On the left, right and even far right, no
Austrian political party defends atomic energy. Antinuclearism is indeed
the subject of a broad consensus in the country. Since 1978, this type of
energy is de facto prohibited. That year, a referendum prevented the
commissioning of the Zwentendorf atomic power plant, which would have been
the first in Austria.
http://www.liberation.fr/planete/2018/09/05/l-autriche-poursuit-sa-croisade-juridique-contre-le-nucleaire-en-europe_1676553
For the first time, Japan acknowledges radiation death from Fukushima, and will compensate the family
Fukushima disaster: Japan acknowledges first radiation death from nuclear plant hit by tsunami Japan has acknowledged for the first time that a worker at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, destroyed by an earthquake and tsunami more than seven years ago, has died from radiation exposure.
Key points:
- The man had worked at the plant since the earthquake and tsunami in 2011
- He was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2016, in his 50s
- The Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry ruled that compensation should be paid to the family
The Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry ruled that compensation should be paid to the family of the man in his 50s who died from lung cancer, an official said.
The worker had spent his career working at nuclear plants around Japan and worked at the Fukushima Daiichi plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power at least twice after the March 2011 meltdowns at the station.
He was diagnosed with cancer in February 2016, the official said. ……..
The ministry had previously ruled exposure to radiation caused the illnesses of four workers at Fukushima, the official said.
But this was the first death……
Tokyo Electric is facing a string of legal cases seeking compensation over the disaster.
The news came as the northern Hokkaido region was hit by a 6.7 magnitude earthquake, sparking concerns at the three-reactor Tomari nuclear plant, which lost power as a result of the earthquake.
The Tomari plant has been in shutdown since the Fukushima disaster.
The Fukushima crisis led to the shutdown of the country’s nuclear industry, once the world’s third-biggest.
Seven reactors have come back online after a protracted relicensing process.
The majority of Japanese people remain opposed to nuclear power after Fukushima highlighted failings in regulation and operational procedures in the industry.http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-06/first-man-dies-from-radiation-from-fukushima-nuclear-disaster/10208244
Austria will appeal EU ruling on UK’s Hinkley Point nuclear plant
Austria plans to appeal EU ruling on UK’s Hinkley Point nuclear plant https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-nuclear-uk-austria/austria-plans-to-appeal-eu-ruling-on-uks-hinkley-point-nuclear-plant-idUSKCN1LJ0Y5
VIENNA (Reuters) – Austria plans to appeal against a ruling by Europe’s second-highest court which rejected its objections to Britain’s plans for a nuclear power plant at Hinkley Point, the country’s sustainability minister said on Monday.
“Our lawyers have examined this in detail in the past weeks. We believe the chances of an appeal remain intact,” Sustainability Minister Elisabeth Koestinger said in an interview with newspaper Kronen Zeitung.
The ministry said it expects Austria’s cabinet to formally give the go-ahead for an appeal when it meets on Wednesday.
French utility EDF and China General Nuclear Power Corp aim to have the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station on line in 2025 with costs for the project seen at 19.6 billion pounds ($25.3 billion).
The European Commission cleared the project in 2014, saying it did not see any competition issues. But Austria took its objections to the General Court in Luxembourg, which dismissed them in July.
One aspect Vienna objects to is a guaranteed price for electricity from the plant which is higher than market rates. It also opposes state credit guarantees of up to 17 billion pounds being provided for the project.
Austria can appeal to the European Court of Justice but only on matters of law.
Opposition to nuclear power is widespread in Austria, which built a nuclear reactor but never brought it on line.
Voters rejected plans to bring it into operation in a referendum in 1978 and the reactor, at Zwentendorf on the Danube northwest of Vienna, now serves as a training center.
($1 = 0.7757 pounds) Reporting by Francois Murphy; editing by Jason Neely
Should Santee Cooper executives have told investors about V.C. Summer nuclear plant project failing?
During nuclear audit, Santee Cooper executives faced a question: ‘Disclose or not’
By Thad Moore tmoore@postandcourier.com- Two years before their nuclear ambitions foundered, Santee Cooper’s top executives and lawyers got on the phone to talk about a top-to-bottom study of their $9 billion plant project, one that would later cast serious doubts about its viability.
- They hadn’t gotten results yet, but the utility wasn’t expecting a positive review: They had demanded an audit by the engineering and construction giant Bechtel Corp. to show just how far off track the V.C. Summer nuclear plant project had gone. They wanted to use it as leverage to get their partner, South Carolina Electric & Gas, to hire professional help.
- But while they waited for the audit’s findings, someone asked a pivotal question, one that would come to define the fallout from the project’s failure:
- Do we need to tell our investors about this?
- Their conversation is just one piece of evidence that federal investigators will consider as they sift through tens of thousands of subpoenaed records, probing South Carolina’s nuclear debacle for potential criminal wrongdoing. Through a Freedom of Information Act request, The Post and Courier obtained the trove of documents that Santee Cooper handed over to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including handwritten notes about the phone call………. https://www.postandcourier.com/business/during-nuclear-audit-santee-cooper-executives-faced-a-question-disclose/article_ee13b992-a7de-11e8-87d7-2ba1c923965f.html
Hot weather continues to cause lower nuclear power production in France
S&P Global 20th Aug 2018 , Delayed reactor returns slash French nuclear availability nearly 9 GW. Available nuclear 
power generating capacity in France fell sharply by almost 9 GW after EDF delayed the return of multiple nuclear plants, while high temperatures continued to restrict production at its Saint Alban power station, the operator said. This amounted to a total nuclear output loss of around 2.37 TWh, according to S&P Global Platts calculations.same generating capacity on the other hand, was delayed by two days after it was taken off the grid on August 6. The 1.31-GW Golfech-2 reactor, which was taken off the grid for planned outage in May, is now expected to restart on Friday, extending the outage by four days. The restart of both 915-MW Cruas-4 and 1.495-GW Civaux-1, which was scheduled for Tuesday, was set to return on Friday and Saturday, respectively, EDF said.
Dumping of Hinkley nuclear’s radioactive mud would break the law
Medium 22nd Aug 2018 , The dumping of radioactive mud would break the law because the project has
had no Environmental Impact Assessment carried out to ensure that the
radioactive mud has been properly assessed as to the risk to the
environment and people’s health!
Without such an assessment it would also
fall foul of Section 4 of the Environment Wales Act 2016 which requires
full consideration of all relevant evidence and gather evidence on
uncertainties, the Well-being of Future Generations Act 2015 which requires
public bodies in Wales to think about the long-term impact of their
decisions, to work better with people, communities and each other and the
Marine Works (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Amendment) Regulations
2017. https://medium.com/@tomstanger/hinkley-c-a-project-literally-stuck-in-the-mud-an-update-a7891d8803de
Legal move to get money returned to ratepayers, over failed South Carolina nuclear power project
Attorneys for SCE&G customers ask for all money collected since nuclear cancellation, By Andrew Brown abrown@postandcourier.co, Aug 15, 2018 Updated 3 hrs ago
· COLUMBIA — Attorneys suing South Carolina Electric & Gas say the power company should have to refund everything it collected for its failed nuclear project over the past year — some $452 million in all.
· In a motion filed Wednesday, lawyers representing SCE&G ratepayers say the utility should have dropped its nuclear financing charges from electric rates as soon as it told construction workers at the V.C. Summer power plant to leave the site.
· They say state law only allows SCE&G to charge people for the nuclear project while it is under construction or if it’s fully built — something the company gave up after it abandoned the $9 billion investment on July 31, 2017.
· The nuclear project was dropped after nine years of work on the power plants. SCE&G’s customers paid more than $1.8 billion to finance the endeavor. The troubled utility company is now facing a wave of legal challenges due to the unfinished reactors —now considered the biggest economic failure in state history.
· The new motion threatens to pile another massive liability onto SCE&G’s books.
· State lawmakers already forced the power company earlier this month to temporarily slash its nuclear charges, a move that reduced its customers’ bills by 15 percent and will cost the company roughly $270 million by the end of this year.
· Those customers will also receive a rebate for the power they purchased between April and July.
· The attorneys opposing SCE&G want to go even further, however. They’re effectively asking a state judge to order SCE&G to repay the entire $37 million per month the utility collected since August of last year. If the judge rules in their favor, part of that money could go to SCE&G electric customers who join the proposed class action lawsuits. ……….https://www.postandcourier.com/business/attorneys-for-sce-g-customers-ask-for-all-money-collected/article_2f5c0a7c-a0c2-11e8-8a68-0baaf18b8b0e.html
UK compensation for nuclear workers with radiation induced cancers
Trib Live 9th Aug 2018 The volunteer efforts of a Hyde Park environmental activist and a retired
Washington Township engineer helped about 300 former nuclear workers in the
region collect $60 million from the federal government for cancers likely
caused by their jobs.
A federal entitlement program that was enacted in 2000, the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program pays$150,000 tax-free, plus medical benefits, to workers who became ill,
because of their work for the government or contractors for nuclear weapons
and Cold War-related work.
The illnesses covered include diagnoses of one
of 22 types of cancers. But that program fell short in its early years for
workers from the former Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corp. (NUMEC)
because many of the workers or their families couldn’t find the required
medical records and the company couldn’t come up with the required
documentation.
https://triblive.com/local/valleynewsdispatch/13956792-74/volunteer-activists-credited-with-getting-compensation-for-former-nuclear-workers
Julian Assange was asked to testify before Senate, but he first needs immunity from prosecution
Assange should secure immunity before taking risk of testifying to Senate – whistleblower Kiriakou https://www.rt.com/usa/435543-assange-senate-testimony-kiriakou/
“If Assange is offered immunity by the committee, he then could not be charged with the crime because anything he said before the committee could not be used against him,” Kiriakou stressed, recalling how in 1987 former marine Oliver North was granted congressional immunity in exchange for his testimony on the Iran-Contra affair.
The Department of Justice then filed multiple felony charges against North, and he was arrested. But the Supreme Court later dismissed the charges, citing his immunity. Kiriakou believes the same measure can shield Assange, who has spent the last six years living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London fearing extradition to the US.
The WikiLeaks founder was earlier requested to give a closed interview to the staff of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee as part of the investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election – an accusation Moscow flatly denies.
In October, 2017, WikiLeaks published the cache of emails belonging to Hillary Clinton’s campaign chair John Podesta, whose account the US Intelligence Community claims was hacked by ‘Russian operatives.’
Kiriakou reminded viewers that while many view Assange as a journalist and publisher, American lawmakers generally have a much more negative perception of the whistleblower. “On the Senate Intelligence Committee almost nobody believes that,” he said, explaining why the potential trip to the US can be risky for Assange.
Over the years, US politicians and intelligence officers have branded Assange a “traitor” and an “enemy of the state” for publishing classified materials on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as leaking US diplomatic cables. Last year, the then-head of the CIA Mike Pompeo, who now serves as the secretary of state, labeled WikiLeaks a “non-state hostile intelligence service.”
The animosity harbored towards Assange suggests that the US Senate has “ulterior motives” for summoning him, human rights activist Peter Tatchell believes.
“I believe they want to snare him into somehow admitting or implying that he got information from Russian sources. That seems to be the focus of their attention,” the activist said, adding that the US authorities might use the interview to collect new evidence to prosecute Assange in the future.
Former MI5 officer Annie Machon, meanwhile, argues that it may be “difficult” for Assange to agree to a closed interview with US officials on such a sensitive subject. She believes he “always has got to be very careful about how they approach this, how it might be perceived, and what might be the outcome.” But crucially, the very nature of the hearing goes against the principles of WikiLeaks which Assange has staunchly defended.
“The whole ethos of WikiLeaks is to be open and transparent, and to bring the information out for the public’s good,” she said.
Eight more Tahiti nuclear compensation claims accepted
https://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/363581/eight-more-tahiti-nuclear-compensation-claims-accepted A French Polynesian anti-nuclear group has been advised that eight compensation claims lodged over the French atomic weapon tests have been accepted.
The Association 193 has told a news conference in Tahiti it has been encouraged by the response from the commission charged with assessing claims for poor health.
The Association’s Auguste Uebe-Carlson said six applications, however, have been rejected.
Father Uebe-Carlson is encouraging people to contact his association to lodge claims if they meet the criteria for compensation, such as location and type of illness.
According to the public broadcaster, since 1992 about 10,000 people have developed radiation-related conditions or illnesses which might be eligible for compensation.
Between 1966 and 1996, France carried out 193 nuclear weapons tests in the South Pacific.
An honest accountant – had to leave SCANA nuclear project rather than tell lies
SC nuclear project’s top accountant says she quit ‘because I wasn’t going to lie’ Post and Courier, By Andrew Brown and Thad Moore abrown@postandcourier.com tmoore@postandcourier.com, Jul 30, 2018
A top SCANA accountant says the company’s most powerful executives pressured her to lie and she was given altered information to share with state regulators about how much it would cost to finish the utility’s faltering nuclear project, according to a transcript of her sworn testimony.
If the estimates were lower, that could have made the project appear healthier than it was. Leaders at SCANA, which owns South Carolina Electric & Gas, have been accused of painting a rosy picture to regulators, customers and investors about the health of the $9 billion project before it failed a year ago.
Carlette Walker, who managed the nuclear project’s finances, testified under oath that she left her $565,000-a-year job in 2016, “Because I wasn’t going to lie.”
“And who do you feel was pressuring you to lie?” an attorney representing SCE&G customers asked.
Walker answered with the names of the power company’s top officials: Kevin Marsh, its CEO throughout the nuclear project’s final years; Steve Byrne, who had been its operations chief; and Jimmy Addison, the finance chief who was her boss and is now SCANA’s chief executive.
SCANA and attorneys representing Addison, Byrne and Marsh did not respond to requests for comment Monday. Marsh and Byrne resigned from the company last year after the project went bust and state lawmakers called for them to step down.
Walker was in SCANA’s inner circle and was repeatedly called to testify about its budget to South Carolina’s utility regulators and her work won her raises year after year as one of the project’s leaders.
Now, her legal testimony is central to a series of lawsuits and regulatory cases that will decide if SCE&G ratepayers should get a refund for the $2 billion they’ve already poured into the unfinished reactors at the V.C. Summer nuclear power plant. The work costs them $37 million a month, nearly a fifth of their electric bills. ………https://www.postandcourier.com/business/sc-nuclear-project-s-top-accountant-says-she-quit-because/article_66d8c638-940c-11e8-bb6e-5b2933e6631d.html
Responses to European Court of Justice’s approval of Hinkley nuclear project
Hinkley Notes, No2Nuclearpower, 29 July 18
AN AUSTRIAN appeal against UK Government funding for Hinkley Point C has been dismissed after a sprawling investigation. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled the UK government’s contribution to the new nuclear power station did not constitute illegal ‘state aid’.
Green MEP for South West Dr Molly Scott-Cato said. “This decision is hugely regrettable. There can be no justification for EU subsidies to be thrown at nuclear. Hinkley C is a particular tragedy for the South West when we are blessed with exciting renewable energy alternatives. The region has huge potential for both onshore and offshore wind; for tidal and geothermal energy and is the region best suited in the whole of the UK to capture the power of the sun. Sadly, today’s ECJ ruling will only serve to reinforce the government’s ideological obsession with nuclear. The National Infrastructure Commission agrees that nuclear is not the way forward for the UK and that we should seize the golden opportunities that renewable energy technologies provide.” (1)
Austria objected on three grounds. First, that Britain was guaranteeing to buy energy from the plant for 35 years at £92.50 per megawatt hour, index-linked from 2012 – or twice today’s wholesale price. Second, the government has undertaken to compensate the developers “in the event of an early shutdown on political grounds”. Third, that the UK was happy to underwrite project debt, via credit guarantees on bond issues, up to a total £17 billion.
The Times said according to the ECJ none of that remotely counts as state aid. No, the EU’s general court has just slapped down Austria for bringing its complaint, arguing that “aid is necessary in order to attain, in good time, the objective of creating nuclear energy generating capacity” Yes, just don’t call it state aid. (2)
Rebecca Harms, spokeswoman for the Greens / EFA Group in the European Parliament says “The Euratom Treaty is a relic of the past and gives the high-risk nuclear technology with billiondollar subsidies an unfair competitive advantage. The Euratom Treaty does not match the European requirements for clean energy and fair competition. We must end the distortion of competition in the European energy market, reform the Euratom Treaty and rely on the energy transition.” A report “Pathways to a Euratom Reform ” by Dr. Dörte Fouquet on behalf of the Greens / EFA Group is available here: http://rebeccaharms.de/files/1/n/1nqn7097gnq8/attc_9ZoZQVsNer5ciwSC.pdf
http://www.no2nuclearpower.org.uk/wp/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/NuClearNewsNo109.pdf
Legal repercussions continue after two South Carolina nuclear fiascos
1 year after nuclear plants abandoned, fallout continues https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/year-nuclear-plants-abandoned-fallout-continues-56885294 BY JEFFREY COLLINS, ASSOCIATED PRESS
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Jul 28, 2018 In the 12 muddled months since the abandonment of two South Carolina nuclear reactors that never produced a watt of power, only one thing seems certain: it will take a lot of litigation to untangle the mess.
Courtrooms are where much of the saga some call South Carolina’s nuclear boondoggle will unfold.
South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. and state-owned utility Santee Cooper spent more than $9 billion before abandoning construction on the reactors at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station near Columbia last year. State and federal authorities are probing the failure, and irate customers and shareholders have filed lawsuits.
“We’re just at the end of the beginning,” said Lynn Teague, vice president of the League of Women Voters in South Carolina who has made protecting ratepayers her goal since noticing things weren’t going right for the projects three years ago.
Customers of SCE&G, a SCANA subsidiary, got a temporary 15 percent rate cut. But even the rate cut isn’t on bills yet. Four months of cuts are supposed to show up in August. SCE&G is asking a federal court to stop it, but a judge hasn’t taken up the request.
There is also a likely showdown ahead between Gov. Henry McMaster and the state Senate about whether the governor’s pick to run the board of state-owned Santee Cooper can start immediately without Senate approval. And there are ongoing criminal investigations of potential wrongdoing.
The complexity in unraveling the mess is in part because the two different utilities involved. SCE&G is privately owned with shareholders able to shoulder the loss . Dominion Energy in Virginia appears to be working toward a merger with SCE&G that is awaiting approval.
Santee Cooper is owned by the state and its holdings include land and lakes as well as the power grid. The utility the chief provider for power for the tinier co-ops that serve some of the most remote areas of South Carolina. The utility’s debt — which includes more than just the billions poured into the failed nuclear reactors — is around $8 billion or roughly equal to the annual state budget.
“We got out the paddles and kept the patient from dying. We did CPR,” Climer said of the past year in the Legislature. “Now we need to nurse him back to health.”
But experts predict whether Santee Cooper is sold or not, rates are going up for its customers. The average Santee Cooper customer pays $130 a month, while SCE&G customers pay some of the highest rates in the nation at $163 a month, based on power usage statstics.
“They had three to four billion of state assets and they go up there and they put money in the hole and now, of course, they’re not going to go under because they have a captive audience,” Condon told lawmakers considering his appointment in April. “But is that fair to all concerned? I think not.”
———
Follow Jeffrey Collins on Twitter at https://twitter.com/JSCollinsAP . Read his work at https://apnews.com/search/jeffrey%20collins .
Legal action against Franced’s EDF over Framatome (i.e AREVA) ‘s violations of environmental code
Liberation 17th July 2018 , Flamanville: NGOs lodge a complaint against EDF for “breaches” of security.
Sortir du nucléaire and Greenpeaceare to take legal action this Wednesday morning in the case of defective welds detected on the pipes of the future EPR reactor. The soap opera of the shipyard of the EPR reactor, built by EDF on the Flamanville power station (Manche), takes a legal turn.
According to our information, Sortir du nucléaire and Greenpeace France will file this Wednesday morning with the prosecutor of the High Court of Cherbourg a complaint against EDF and its industrial subsidiary Framatome
(ex-Areva NP) “for ten violations of the code of the environment and the regulation of basic nuclear installations “.
http://www.liberation.fr/france/2018/07/17/flamanville-des-ong-portent-plainte-contre-edf-pour-infractions-a-la-surete_1667181
1 This Month
26 April – Chernobyl: Inside the Meltdown airs on National Geographic on Sunday 26th April from 4pm
29 April – Nuclear Expert Webinar #1 – Radiation Impacts on Families with Mary Olson and Cindy Folkers
- 12:15 PM MT – 1:45 PM MT
- Location: Virtual – REGISTER TODAY
4 May -West Suburban Peace Coalition to discuss Iran war at May Educational Forum
Monday, May 4, 7:00 – 8:00 PM Central Standard Time
Title: : How Trump’s Narrative Tries to Shape the Reality of the War on Iran.
Contact Walt Zlotow, zlotow@hotmail.com 630 442 3045 for further information
14 May – online event From Bombs to Data Centres: the Face of Nuclear Colonialism
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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