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Early shutdown for nuclear power plant – court orders

Swiss court orders nuclear plant offline in 2013  By Katharina BartMar 7, 2012  ZURICH, March 7 (Reuters) – A Swiss court ruled that Switzerland’s Muehleberg nuclear power plant must go offline next year for security reasons, according to a judgment made public on Wednesday.

“The state of the nuclear shell, the assessment of the plant’s resistance to withstand earthquakes which is not complete, and lacking cooling possibilities independent of the river Aare allow operations of Muehleberg only up to mid 2013 at the most,” the federal
administrative court said in a ruling handed down March 1.

The ruling backs residents near to the plan in their bid to have the court overturn a previous decision by environment, transport energy and communication department UVEK to grant a longer operational period…

.. Muehleberg, built in 1972, is one of the plants frequently cited by opponents of nuclear energy as ripe for mothballing. The government decided to scrap plans to build new nuclear reactors after Fukushima shook public confidence in the industry. Until now, it had not planned to shut existing power plants prematurely…. http://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL5E8E771P20120307

March 8, 2012 Posted by | Legal, Switzerland | Leave a comment

$67 billion lawsuit against executives of nuclear company Tepco

Shareholders to sue Tepco execs for $US67b, SMH, March 6, 2012,   Shareholders of Tokyo Electric Power Co Inc, operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant in northeast Japan, are suing the utility’s executives for a record 5.5 trillion yen ($US67.4 billion) in compensation, lawyers said….

. In the biggest claim of its kind in Japan, 42 shareholders filed a lawsuit in the Tokyo District Court on Monday accusing 27 current and former Tepco directors of ignoring multiple warnings of a possible tsunami and of failing to prepare for a severe accident, lawyers for the shareholders said in a statement.
They want the executives to pay damages to Tepco, which would then use the money to compensate those affected by the disaster.

There is deep public anger over Tepco’s handling of the crisis and the perceived arrogance of top management, including underplaying the seriousness of the disaster in its early stages and delays in compensating those forced to leave their homes. Government officials
have walked a tightrope between that taxpayer anger and keeping afloat a firm that provides electricity to 45 million people in Japan.
Japan’s trade minister last month approved nearly $US9 billion in additional support for Tepco to help compensate victims of the crisis, but said the government would not go ahead with a plan to inject more money into the utility unless it had more say in its management.

“By seeking to hold individuals responsible, we want to correct the collective and systemic irresponsibility in the nuclear industry,” Hiroyuki Kawai, one of the lawyers, told a news conference.
Kawai said the record compensation was based on calculations by a government-appointed experts’ panel of what Tepco might have to pay to victims and businesses. The company has forecast an annual net loss of 695 billion yen……. http://www.smh.com.au/business/world-business/shareholders-to-sue-tepco-execs-for-us67b-20120306-1ueup.html#ixzz1oN2tudjN

March 6, 2012 Posted by | Japan, Legal | Leave a comment

More woes for AREVA- the nuclear company faces legal problems

Areva could face competition inquiry if it wins UK nuclear power contract, Rival argues French state-owner company would have monopoly if chosen to build Wylfa reactor on Anglesey Dan Milmo, guardian.co.uk,   4 March 2012   Areva, the French state-owned nuclear power group, faces the threat of a competition investigation by the European commission if it wins a hotly-contested contract to build UK reactors.

Detailed legal documents drafted by a competitor and seen by the Guardian state that Areva will secure a market monopoly which should trigger a sector inquiry if the company wins the contest to build a reactor at the Wylfa site on Anglesey. Horizon, the British nuclear joint venture owned by the German power groups E.ON and RWE, is also planning a reactor for Oldbury in Gloucestershire…. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/mar/04/areva-competition-inquiry-nuclear-reactors?newsfeed=true

March 6, 2012 Posted by | France, Legal | Leave a comment

Federal govt confident of legal win in keeping new uranium mining from Grand Canyon

Sandy Bahr, director of the Grand Canyon Chapter of the Sierra Club aid the mining industry is used to getting its way when it comes to public lands, and she believes that is one reason for Monday’s lawsuit. “The mining industry seems to forget that these are public
lands, not their lands,” she said. “There are more important things than their short–term profits – namely the Grand Canyon.”

Environmentalists also said they do not believe the department’s environmental analysis will be found to be flawed as it spent more than two years on research, analysis and review of “hundreds of thousands of comments in support of the withdrawal,”

Salazar confident uranium-mining ban will withstand legal challenge By SALVADOR RODRIGUEZ Cronkite News, 28 Feb 12, WASHINGTON – Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Tuesday he is confident a 20–year ban on uranium mining near the Grand Canyon will hold up to an industry lawsuit challenging the January withdrawal of the land by federal officials.

Salazar’s comments came one day after the National Mining Association
and the Nuclear Energy Institute filed suit U.S. District Court in Arizona, arguing that the Department of the Interior cannot withdraw more than 5,000 acres of land at a time under the law it cited. Continue reading →

February 29, 2012 Posted by | Legal, USA | Leave a comment

Professors in court over radiation death, and injuries

Radiation Leak: DU Professors Summoned on March 12 Outlook India.com PTI | NEW DELHI | FEB 27, 2012 Six Delhi University professors were today summoned by a court here to explain their alleged criminal culpability in death of one persons and critical injuries to seven others in 2010 due to radiation from a radioactive irradiator, disposed of in a scrap market here.

The summonses seeking the professors’s appearance on March 12 were issued by Metropolitan Magistrate Lovleen, who took cognisance of the chargesheet, which was under the court’s consideration since September last year.

The Delhi Police had filed the chargesheet accusing the professors of endangering lives by auctioning a radioactive Cobalt-60 gamma irradiator without due mandatory precautions….. The matter came to fore when one person died and seven people were critically injured in
April 2010 after they were exposed to radiation when they cut open a Cobalt-60 irradiator at Mayapuri scrap market here. The irradiator was traced to the varsity’s Chemistry Department……. http://news.outlookindia.com/items.aspx?artid=753243

February 28, 2012 Posted by | India, Legal | Leave a comment

Poverty prevents Nigerians from legal wins over mining corporations

Nigerians ‘too poor to sue over corporate abuse’, News 24 2012-02-22  Geneva – Victims of environmental disasters or other abuses inflicted by corporations in Nigeria are being denied justice as they are too poor or do not know how to seek legal recourse, jurists said on Wednesday.

“Poor rural victims of corporate human rights abuse are usually unaware of their legal rights and don’t have the financial resources to file court process, gather information and evidence, and afford legal services,” said Carlos Lopez, the International Commission of Jurists’ senior legal advisor in a report.

Even though a legal aid scheme exists, it “suffers from chronic underfunding”. “As a result, it fails to help those most in need to access judicial remedies,” added Lopez.

The problem is illustrated by the small numbers of litigations against corporations, despite several instances of serious pollution generated over the decades of oil or mineral extraction. Of the few that make it to court, even fewer manage to obtain rulings in favour of victims, noted the report…….

The UN environment agency had said that decades of extensive oil pollution in the Ogoniland region – which lies in the Niger Delta – may require the world’s biggest ever clean-up.  ….
http://www.news24.com/Africa/News/Nigerians-too-poor-to-sue-over-corporate-abuse-20120222

February 27, 2012 Posted by | Legal, Nigeria | Leave a comment

Giant uranium miner BHP challenged by Aboriginal elder

‘Tiny voice’ of elder takes on Olympic Dam BY: SARAH MARTIN, SA POLITICAL REPORTER  The Australian February 22, 2012   BHP Billiton’s proposed $20 billion Olympic Dam mine expansion, to create the world’s largest open-cut mine, will be challenged in the Federal Court after an application was lodged by Aboriginal elder Kevin Buzzacott.

Mr Buzzacott, who is known as Uncle Kevin, is being represented by the Adelaide-based Environmental Defenders Office. The office claims the mine expansion has been approved unlawfully under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act by federal Environment Minister Tony Burke.

Among the claims are that much of the environmental assessment and decision-making was based on plans and studies that have not yet been prepared and that the minister did not properly consider impacts from the above-ground storage of radioactive tailings waste, the export of uranium and on groundwater resources, including the Great Artesian Basin.

Mr Buzzacott, an elder from Arabunna land in South Australia’s remote north, is known for his anti-uranium campaigning, and in 2007 was awarded an Australian Conservation Foundation award recognising his protest work. The EDO filed an application on his behalf in the Federal Court yesterday, saying his “tiny voice” was prepared to take on the giant……
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/state-politics/tiny-voice-of-elder-takes-on-olympic-dam/story-e6frgczx-1226277611443

February 22, 2012 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, Legal | Leave a comment

Vermont appeals court, to keep its right to shut nuclear power plant

Sat Feb 18, 2012    (Reporting By Jonathan Leff and Eileen O’Grady in Houston, editing by Todd Eastham   (Reuters) – Vermont’s Attorney General appealed on Saturday a federal judge’s ruling that had prevented the state from shutting down its only nuclear power plant, escalating a two-year battle over state’s rights and atomic energy. Continue reading →

February 21, 2012 Posted by | Legal, USA | Leave a comment

Court action over radioactive waste faces Australian company Lynas

Lynas itself had admitted it had no prepared any such permanent waste storage facility 

 I cannot understand why Malaysia is prepared to tolerate the potential hazards to occur here from a plant which will give no substantial benefit of Malaysia because of the pioneer status granted to Lynas for 10 years

Lynas Corp failed to meet any of the conditions in its first proposals, according to the regulator.

Anti-Lynas groups are planning a mammoth rally in Kuantan on February 26 to pressure Putrajaya to terminate the project.

A year on, anti-Lynas campaign goes to court http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/a-year-on-anti-lynas-campaign-goes-to-court The Malaysian Insider By Debra Chong , February 17, 2012 KUALA LUMPUR,   — A nationwide campaign to stop Lynas heads into the courtroom with damaging allegations against the Australian rare earths producer and Malaysia’s regulators.

The court filing also accuses Lynas of economic imperialism and points out that until today it does not have a plan to permanently dispose of its waste, some which contain potentially harmful levels of radiation. Continue reading →

February 18, 2012 Posted by | ASIA, Legal, Uranium | Leave a comment

Class action in Israel, by cancer sufferers who worked for nuclear centre

Israel nuclear reactor sent unprotected workers to search for uranium ore, lawsuit claims Haaretz 13.02.12 Former employees at the Negev Nuclear Research Center in Dimona saywere given only dusk masks, goggles during an official search for the rare mineral.

By Gili Cohen Workers at the Dimona nuclear reactor were sent to search for uranium ore across Israel without the necessary protective gear, a court hearing discussing the class-action suit advanced by the reactor’s former employees indicated on Sunday.

The hearing in the Petah Tikva District Court was held on the complaint by 44 employees and their families that the workers are suffering from cancer and other diseases due to radiation at work . According to claims made by the plaintiffs, some of the reactor’s workers were employed at a “project to search for uranium ore inIsrael,” working week-long stints, equipped with only goggles and dusk masks…… http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israel-nuclear-reactor-sent-unprotected-workers-to-search-for-uranium-ore-lawsuit-claims-1.412648

February 14, 2012 Posted by | Israel, Legal | Leave a comment

A novel idea for nuclear waste plans – ban lawsuits!

Lawmaker suggests limiting judicial review of nuclear waste sites Las Vegas Review Journal, BY STEVE TETREAULT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU   Feb. 8, 2012  WASHINGTON — The nuclear waste blue ribbon commission has recommended the government try a new cooperative approach to recruit volunteer states to host a high-level radioactive waste site.

But when several commissioners testified Wednesday in Congress, Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala.,
offered another idea — don’t allow lawsuits. Continue reading →

February 9, 2012 Posted by | Legal, USA | Leave a comment

9 Organisations planning court action against Vogtle nuclear plant license

Anti-nuke groups plan court action to block Georgia plant, Charlotte Business Journal by John Downey,   February 8, 2012,  The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission    is expected to vote Thursday on whether to license the Southern Co. ’s proposed 2,234-megawatts Vogtle nuclear plant.

But anti-nuclear activists are asking the commission to delay the vote as they prepare to file a federal suitnext week against the proposed licensing. Continue reading →

February 9, 2012 Posted by | Legal, USA | Leave a comment

Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) ‘s legal battle for transparency on nuclear costs

Nuclear Secrecy with $8 Billion on the Line, Clean Energy, Leslie Anderson Maloy, 6 Feb 2012, As Final Arguments Are Filed, Southern Co., Obama Administration Fight FOIA Request to Figure Out Danger to Taxpayers in the Event of Default in Deal More Than 12 Times the Size of Solyndra

Atlanta, Ga. (February 6, 2012) – With the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) believed to be within days of announcing the final federal approval of the controversial Vogtle nuclear project, the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) has asked a court to stop more than two years of stonewalling by Southern Co. and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), which are resisting any meaningful public disclosure to taxpayers of the risks to which they are exposed in the massive commitment of $8.33 billion in conditional federal loan guarantees to Southern Company and their utility partners for two proposed new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle in Georgia. Continue reading →

February 7, 2012 Posted by | Legal, USA | Leave a comment

Florida lawsuit challenges upfront payments for nuclear power reactors

Energy advocates: State nuclear cost recovery bill is unconstitutional, Miami Herald, 24 Jan 12,  The state law that has allowed Florida Power & Light and ProgressEnergy to charge customers $1 billion so far for speculative nuclear power plants is unconstitutional, a group of energy advocates claims in a lawsuit before the state’s highest court.

The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy is asking the Florida Supreme Court to throw out the 2006 law and reverse a decision by state regulators who have allowed the companies to charge customers for upgrading existing nuclear power plants and for the pre-construction
costs of building new nuclear power plants that may never be built. Continue reading →

January 25, 2012 Posted by | Legal, USA | Leave a comment

Vermont has a good case to appeal federal court’s pro nuclear decision

 Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont pronounced the decision “ripe for appeal.’’ “I believe the law is very clear, and that states have the right to reject nuclear power for economic and other non-safety reasons,’’ he said.

 First Round: Entergy 1, Vermont 0 NYT By MATTHEW L. WALD  January 20, 2012, As I wrote in Friday’s New York Times, the first round in federal court has gone to Entergy, the electrical power production company that does not want to shut down its Vermont Yankee nuclear plant. The state of Vermont has been seeking to close the plant when its initial 40-year federal operating license expires on March 21.

Had the court decision gone the other way and the state had prevailed, it conceivably could have ended there. That’s because the cost of maintaining a reactor and paying the plant’s staff are roughly the same whether it is running or not. If the judge, J. Garvan Murtha in Brattleboro, had sided with the state, Entergy would have faced a painful decision on whether to keep the plant on standby after March 21 while waiting for the issue to work its way through the courts.

Entergy had already rolled the dice by buying fuel in anticipation of a favorable decision.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has granted a 20-year extension, but Vermont lawmakers had passed a law that effectively gave themselves veto power over renewal of the license. Judge Murtha ruled that federal law trumps the state’s action because “radiological safety” is solely the province of the federal government.

Entergy could still lose on appeal. Continue reading →

January 24, 2012 Posted by | Legal, USA | Leave a comment

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