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Resistance to nuclear waste survey in Hokkaido

Hokkaido town may delay bid for nuclear waste survey amid pushback, Japan Times , JIJI, Aug 21, 2020

SAPPORO – The mayor of Suttsu in Hokkaido, which is considering applying for a survey to host a final disposal site for high-level radioactive waste, said Friday that it might be difficult to make the decision by September as planned.

“It is difficult to make the decision after listening to many voices,” Suttsu Mayor Haruo Kataoka told reporters after meeting with the nine members of the town’s assembly. “It would not be appropriate to rush the decision by our own judgment. Our plan to decide in September might be postponed.”

Kataoka’s remarks came a day after the mayors of three municipalities neighboring Suttsu said Thursday they will urge the town to make a careful decision.

The mayors of the three municipalities unveiled the plan at a meeting with Hokkaido Gov. Naomichi Suzuki.

Of the three, Rankoshi Mayor Hideyuki Kon and Kuromatsunai Mayor Mitsuru Kamada expressed opposition to Suttsu’s move, which involves applying for a literary survey, the first stage of the process for choosing a disposal site.

Kon, Kamada and Shimamaki Mayor Masaru Fujisawa told Suzuki that they will ask Suttsu as early as this month to make a careful decision on the application. ……..

Seven other municipalities, including the town of Niseko, an internationally known ski resort, are planning to oppose the plan, sources said Friday.

Also on Friday, members of the association of fisheries cooperatives made up of nine co-ops around Suttsu, submitted to Kataoka a protest letter expressing strong opposition to the town’s plan.

Referring to the fact that the fisheries industry suffered harmful rumors following the 2011 triple core meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant, the letter said: “It is utterly unacceptable for those in the fisheries industry. It will have an immeasurable adverse impact not only on the region but also on the fisheries industry as a whole.”

Katsuo Hamano, head of the association, criticized the mayor for making an announcement on the plan even before obtaining the municipal assembly’s approval.

“It goes against the rules of parliamentary democracy,” Hamano told reporters…….

The central government offers up to ¥2 billion in subsidies to any municipality that undergoes the literary survey  https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/08/21/national/hokkaido-suttsu-nuclear-waste-survey-delay/

August 22, 2020 Posted by | Japan, opposition to nuclear, politics, wastes | Leave a comment

Debate rages on for nuclear waste facility proposed near Carlsbad, more hearings scheduled

August 22, 2020 Posted by | politics, USA, wastes | Leave a comment

Biggest bribery and money-laundering bust in Ohio history, but the crooked pro nuclear law still stands!

Opinion: How bad nuclear plant bailout legislation got passed

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/opinion/2020/08/19/opinion-how-bad-nuclear-plant-bailout-legislation-got-passed/5571847002/  Jigar Shah

It’s not often a law about power plants and electricity rates leads to a federal raid – let alone the biggest bribery and money-laundering bust in state history. But Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder, once forced to resign in 2004 due to “corrupt activity,” managed to outdo himself when he was charged as a ringleader of a $60 million bribery case tied to the 2019 taxpayer-funded bailout of the state’s decrepit coal and nuclear plants.
Householder and four others stand to trade their Brooks Brothers and Rolexes for jumpsuits and bracelets. Gov. Mike DeWine, a fellow Republican, called on the speaker to resign. But plenty of others were also complicit in passing a law that, even without charges of federal corruption, stank to high heaven. And it’s a law that’s still on the books.
Just how bad is it? What was then called House Bill 6 is so toxic that it united the American Petroleum Institute and environmentalists last year to oppose it. The law is designed to prop up ailing nuclear plants, but it’s so radioactive even the nuclear industry’s main trade group declined to support it. And even as ad campaigns swamped Ohio airwaves like the height of election season, it ultimately took President Trump swooping in from Washington to convince state lawmakers, who even then knew better, to close their eyes, hold their noses and vote for it.

Now the law is forcing Ohio taxpayers to cough up $1.3 billion in subsidies to prop up two aging nuclear plants – quashing cheaper natural gas and zero-emissions renewables like wind and solar. It also memorialized taxpayer subsidies for ailing coal plants – including, because Householder and his alleged co-conspirators were apparently feeling neighborly, for a coal plant across the border in Indiana.

But let’s not lose sight of FirstEnergy. The opaque electric utility had already long shirked accountability for its actions, cloaking itself in expendable subsidiaries and opposing virtually any measure to improve Ohio’s air and water, which the utility has long been responsible for befouling. This time, to protect its toxic nuclear and coal assets, the company apparently happily engaged in what even the scheme’s conspirators allegedly openly referred to as “pay to play,” buying Ohio lawmakers for a song compared to the $1.3 billion the utility now stands to skim from Ohioans’ pockets.

We have yet to see how many more dominoes fall. There’s Sam “The Randazzler” Randazzo, the supposed ex-lobbyist and current public utilities commission chair, who seems to have much to answer for in the scheme. And FirstEnergy, it appears, didn’t stop at allegedly buying Ohio politicians. Even after the law passed, it spent another $38 million in an apparent dark-money campaign to make sure it’d stopped Ohio’s vital transition to a clean energy economy – the prospect of thousands of new clean jobs, not to mention saving the Earth, apparently not enough when compared to FirstEnergy profit margins and executives’ Christmas bonuses

Even as the feds continue following the money, we know what must happen: Gov. DeWine, who unenthusiastically signed the bill, is now calling for its repeal – a crucial first step toward righting this eye-popping wrong. As we now know, courtesy of the FBI and Justice Department, supporting these ailing power plants was nothing more than a successful bid to line executives’ pockets – and, it seems, buy the house speaker a vacation home in Florida. As we continue to learn who knew what when, erasing this law will clear the way for cleaner, far cheaper, truly market-competitive resources like natural gas and renewables to power our homes and businesses.

Ohioans deserve better – more honest politicians, truly transparent electricity providers, cleaner air and water. Repealing this law, and holding our officials to account, is the way to get there.

Jigar Shah is president of Generate Capital, a San Francisco-based finance company that builds, owns and operates renewable energy infrastructure.

August 20, 2020 Posted by | politics, secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

Is the £20 billion Sizewell C project right for the region and country?

East Anglia’s nuclear option – is the £20 billion Sizewell C project right for the region and country?  ANGLIA

Thursday 20 August 2020,  It’s one of the region’s most talked-about and controversial projects – Sizewell C nuclear power station.

The electricity company EDF plans to build a new nuclear power station on the Suffolk coast, but what will that mean for our region?

How will it impact local people and the environment? And what role does nuclear power play in the East as the country moves towards zero carbon emissions by 2050?

    • EDF proposes building a twin nuclear reactor at a cost of £20 billion pounds. .
    • ………………..It’s expected to operate for 60 years.
    • The whole project will take around 10-12 years to build with a construction site covering 620 acres.

  • also a fear that it will come at a cost to existing businesses – especially the tourism industry.

    One of those concerned is local brewery Adnams.

    Andy Wood from Adnams said: “The tourism industry employs nearly 100,000 people, the value of tourism in Norfolk and Suffolk is about £5.4 billion, and all of these things are going to be impacted by a large construction infrastructure project.”

    The impact on wildlife is also raising concerns.

    At RSPB Minsmere – an internationally important wildlife reserve – there are serious concerns about how noise and pollution would irrevocably damage rare wildlife habitats and species.

    Adam Rowlands, from RSPB Suffolk, said: “We’re concerned about the direct impact, so the noise, the visual disturbance, in essence that could change the patterns of the birds and the other species that use the area.”

    …… People have until September 30 to give their views before a decision is made.

August 20, 2020 Posted by | politics, UK | Leave a comment

Hitachi waiting for tax-payer funding, to start nuclear projects in UK

Horizon waiting for chance to restart new-build projects, WNN 19 August 2020  Horizon Nuclear Power has been holding “detailed conversations” with the UK government in recent weeks to persuade ministers that the proposed Wylfa Newydd plant on Anglesey could be quickly re-mobilised if they can produce a new financing model for large nuclear power plants in Britain, according to an article in the Financial Times on 16 August. A decision on Wylfa’s planning application is expected by the end of next month.Horizon announced the suspension of its new-build projects in January 2019. The UK subsidiary of Japan’s Hitachi said it had made substantial progress with its plans to provide at least 5.4 GWe of new capacity across two sites – Wylfa Newydd, in north Wales, and Oldbury-on-Severn, in southwest England – by deploying Hitachi-GE UK advanced boiling reactors.

The UK government is currently considering the Regulated Asset Base (RAB) model for new nuclear projects. This would allow investors to start making a pre-determined return as they invested, but any new policy would require primary legislation and the whole process of developing and then enacting a new policy would likely take a minimum of 18 months……. https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Horizon-waiting-for-chance-to-restart-new-build-pr

August 20, 2020 Posted by | politics, UK | Leave a comment

Joe Biden will ,be just as pro nuclear as Trump- maybe worse?

August 18, 2020 Posted by | politics, USA | 1 Comment

Will Ohio finally be able to use its wind resources, now that the nuclear corruption is being exposed?

August 18, 2020 Posted by | politics, renewable, secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

Nuclear waste should no longer be exempt from environmental laws

How Bedrock Environmental Law Can Break the Nuclear Waste Logjam, https://news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-and-energy/insight-how-bedrock-environmental-law-can-break-the-nuclear-waste-logjam   Geoffrey Fettus, NRDC  17 Aug 20
The 30-year battle over nuclear waste disposal at Yucca Mountain in Nevada shows it’s time for the Atomic Energy Act to be amended. Geoffrey Fettus, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, says Congress should pass legislation to end the exemption of nuclear waste from hazardous waste and other bedrock environmental laws.
For more than 30 years, Congress and the federal government have tried again and again to shove our nation’s spent nuclear fuel down a hole at Yucca Mountain, Nev. It’s time to use our foundational environmental laws get out of this seemingly impenetrable maze.

Congress should amend the Atomic Energy Act to remove exemptions from environmental laws for radioactive waste, a proposal that got an important boost from the House Select Committee on Climate Crisis as it called for a task force of federal, state, local, and tribal officials to study the implications of this idea.

Earlier this year, President Trump bowed to reality and abandoned efforts to force the radioactive waste on Nevada, the Yucca mirage finally dissipated. What’s clear now is that trying to force Nevada, or Utah, or New Mexico, or Tennessee (or any other state) to take the entirety of the nation’s most toxic nuclear waste won’t work. Continuing down that path will get us nowhere.

Instead of seeing recalcitrant states as the problem, what if we acknowledge the reality that they must be a key part of the solution for nuclear waste?

Feds Have Exclusive Jurisdiction Over Radioactive Materials
Remarkably, our bedrock environmental laws don’t cover nuclear waste, and they should. The Atomic Energy Act started the nuclear industry and was enacted years before our key pollution safeguards were established.

Crucially, and mostly for nuclear weapons reasons, the AEA gave the federal government exclusive jurisdiction over all radioactive materials, including radioactive waste. When Congress enacted our foundational environmental laws decades later, each of them included an exemption that excludes radioactive waste except in limited or marginal ways.

This is the original sin that must be rectified.

To explain this pernicious problem, when Congress considered nuclear waste in its precedent setting 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act, it just accepted the AEA’s sole federal authority and nuclear waste’s exclusion from environmental law as the way of the world. Only a few years later, for the sake of political expedience, Congress cut short a well thought out siting process and required the Yucca Mountain repository as the only option.

This was supposed to expedite the process, but not surprisingly, it exploded in controversy and eventually ground to a halt. And now it has finally, truly, died. But nuclear waste remains just as toxic and problematic as ever.

If nuclear waste were covered by environmental laws, i.e., without the current exemptions that limit EPA and state authority, protective federal health and welfare standards can combine with state-level decision-making over where and how the waste could be stored within its borders.

Amending the AEA and removing the provisions that exempt nuclear waste from our hazardous waste and water laws would give us our best chance to garner public acceptance for a process to find safe, technically sound storage sites for toxic nuclear waste—waste that will remain dangerous to human health for hundreds of thousands of years.

Why This Can Work
Consider how things could change if environmental laws could operate as intended.

Under regular environmental law (that covers pollution of air, water, land), the EPA sets strong standards commensurate to the harm of the pollutant. States can then assume the management of that program (or leave it to the EPA) and set additional, stricter standards if they wish.

A state can have strong regulatory authority to set terms for how much waste it might dispose of, how the facility will operate, and the requisite power to enforce those protective standards and protect its citizens—all things it cannot do now for radioactive waste.

To be clear, the standards for high-level radioactive waste will need to be special and extraordinarily protective, and the rulemaking for those standards will be quite a technical ordeal. But, there’s no getting around doing that hard work; Congress tried to take a short cut and it failed.

Once those standards are in place, the EPA and the states can, as in other instances, share the necessary roles of guarding public safety and welfare from radioactive waste. This institutional framework allows for both scientific defensibility of potential sites and, importantly, public acceptance of the process.

The Task Falls to Congress
For far too long many members of Congress and officials in Washington fought any efforts like this as they sought the quick fix of Yucca. Now there’s evidence of change. The ambitious report from the House Select Committee on Climate Crisis included this key recommendation:
Congress should establish a task force comprised of federal, state, local, and tribal officials to study the implications of amending the Atomic Energy Act to remove exemptions from environmental laws for spent fuel and high-level waste, while maintaining federal minimum standards.

Lawmakers should pick up this recommendation, create just such a task force, and move forward with this plan. Will this work? Yes—but it will take both hard work and time.

One thing I can guarantee is that the current approach isn’t working and won’t ever work. No single state is going to willingly accept the entirety of the nation’s nuclear burden without any way to protect their citizens; we have decades of evidence for this proposition. No amount of stomping of feet in the halls of Congress can change that.

Author Information
Geoffrey Fettus is a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council’s climate and clean energy program in Washington, D.C. He litigates in federal courts and testifies before Congress on the beginning and end of the nuclear fuel cycle. Prior to joining the NRDC, he was a staff attorney at the New Mexico Environmental Law Center and an assistant attorney general in New Mexico’s Office of the Attorney General.

August 18, 2020 Posted by | environment, politics, USA, wastes | Leave a comment

A real setback to UK”s Bradwell nuclear project: Colchester Council voted unanimously to reject the proposal

Blow to Bradwell B nuclear power plant as council unanimously reject plans, Maldon Standard 

By Francesca Edwards  @bwt_Francesca, Multimedia Reporter , 17 Aug 20,   MULTI-MILLION pound plans for a new nuclear power station in Essex have been opposed by a council.Colchester Council voted unanimously to reject the proposal for Bradwell B nuclear power plant saying it would destroy an ecologically rich landscape.

A motion, put forward by council leader Mark Cory, said: “This council objects to new nuclear at Bradwell due to the local environmental impacts and prefers a focus on renewable energy alternatives.”

During the debate, councillors called for a “united front” approach amongst councillors and north Essex MPs.

he Bradwell B project is a joint operation between CGN and EDF Energy. Its backers claim it will create 900 permanent jobs as well as 9,000 jobs during construction.

If permitted, it would be built alongside the decommissioned Bradwell power station, however, the proposals have generated a wave of opposition.

Campaign group Blackwater Against New Nuclear Group (BANNG) welcomed Colchester Council’s decision after submitting a statement to the council, outlining four reasons for rejecting the proposal.

Chairman Prof Andy Blowers said: “It is unacceptable for such a dangerous power station and long-term highly radioactive waste stores to be located so close to large populations such as Mersea and Colchester which would be completely unprotected in the event of a major release of radioactivity.

“And the site is unsuitable since its precious environment and heritage is irreplaceable and would be severely compromised if not altogether destroyed.”

Peter Banks, of West Mersea Town Council and co-ordinator of BANNG, added: “With my practical, scientific mind, I endorse this policy. With my passionate, environmentally pumping heart, I endorse this policy.

“BANNG is delighted that all councillors, regardless of political persuasion, have endorsed this policy.”….https://www.maldonandburnhamstandard.co.uk/news/18652490.blow-bradwell-b-nuclear-power-plant-council-unanimously-reject-plans/

August 18, 2020 Posted by | opposition to nuclear, politics, UK | Leave a comment

U.S. Senator Harris and Rep Ocasio-Cortez introduce Bill on climate harm

Reuters 6th Aug 2020, U.S. Senator Kamala Harris and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on
Thursday introduced legislation to beef up federal accountability for
pollution in minority communities disproportionately harmed by climate
change. Harris, a leading contender to be Democratic presidential candidate
Joe Biden’s running mate, was running in the Democratic primary last year
when she first floated the Climate Equity Act with Ocasio-Cortez.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-congress-environmentaljustice/u-s-sen-harris-rep-ocasio-cortez-offer-environmental-justice-bill-idUSKCN2522RC

August 18, 2020 Posted by | climate change, politics, USA | Leave a comment

Hitachi renews interest in Wylfa nuclear project, wants government assurance on funding

Hitachi seeks to resurrect Welsh nuclear plant plans, Ft.com, 16 Aug 20, 

Japanese industrial group wants clarity from UK ministers on financing model,

Hitachi is talking to the UK government about resurrecting plans for a nuclear power plant in north Wales, which were frozen at the start of last year.

 Horizon Nuclear Power, a UK-based subsidiary of Hitachi, has been holding “detailed conversations” with the government in recent weeks to persuade ministers that the proposed Wylfa Newydd plant on Anglesey could be quickly re-mobilised if they can produce a new financing model for large nuclear power stations in Britain.
 Hitachi suspended the £20bn Wylfa project at the start of 2019 after failing to reach an agreement over financing. The Japanese group decided at the time the project still posed “too great a commercial challenge”, despite the UK government offering to take a one-third equity stake and provide debt financing.
But Hitachi has maintained a skeleton staff at Horizon and continued to pursue planning permission for Wylfa after the government launched a review into a “regulated asset base” funding model, which would see consumers pay upfront through their energy bills for a new plant and significantly reduce the construction risk for developers.
 There has also been talk in the industry of the state taking majority stakes in nuclear schemes, which could enable developers such as Horizon to become contractors. A decision on Wylfa’s planning application is expected by the end of next month.   ……….
the clock is also ticking for Horizon, which has to submit a business plan to its parent company by December before its funding expires early next year. It wants clarity from government on its nuclear strategy and a potential funding model by the autumn, when ministers had been expected to publish a delayed energy white paper and national infrastructure strategy.
 If sufficient commitment isn’t forthcoming, Mr Hawthorne conceded it would be “easy” for Hitachi to “say we’re out of here” and sell the site, raising fears CGN could potentially move in. …….
Environment activists insist Britain should not be pursuing large new nuclear plants as other forms of power generation, such as offshore wind, are substantially cheaper.  https://www.ft.com/content/6ec9bdb2-8b5b-4aa3-ad51-a799734273f2

August 17, 2020 Posted by | business and costs, politics, UK | Leave a comment

Maldon District Council now to hold Nuclear Public meeting In Secret

Maldon Nub News 14th Aug 2020, THERE was turmoil at a Maldon District Council meeting yesterday (Thursday,
13 August) when it was abandoned during a row between councillors over whether some of the debate on plans for a nuclear power station at Bradwell should be held in public or private.

The virtual meeting had three major planning applications on the agenda – with a planned exclusion of the
public and press after the first while councillors heard ‘exempt information’ on the two applications listed last on the agenda –including the power station plan. Independent Councillor Chrisy Morris then objected to the exclusion of the public and press.

He argued that the entire discussion of the Bradwell plans should be heard in public and demanded a committee vote on whether to continue in private or not. Chair of the meeting, Deputy Leader and Conservative Councillor Maddie Thompson, did not agree and the discussion became heated before public and press access to the live stream was cut off.

The meeting was not resumed later as planned. A spokesperson for Maldon District Council said: ““Due to the
continued interruptions during the meeting, the Deputy Leader decided that the best option was to call a halt to the meeting.

Discussions are currently taking place as to when this meeting can be reconvened.” In a statement after the meeting, Cllr Morris said: “The councillors quite overwhelmingly refused these applications and we asked the officers to make
our objections watertight if the applicants were to appeal.

It appears that they instead decided to seek legal advice that would make our objections seem unreasonable at appeal in an attempt to change our minds – my personal opinion is this is bullying. “I am against hearing this advice in private as if an attempt to bully us is made – the public have a right to know. I believe that once there was a possibility that this bullying attempt was going to be in the public domain, they used it to shut the meeting. “I am
here to represent the wishes of the people and will not be bullied. The public has a right to know.”

August 16, 2020 Posted by | politics, UK | Leave a comment

No prefecture in Japan wants to host nuclear waste dump

August 15, 2020 Posted by | Japan, politics, wastes | Leave a comment

Alberta joins Ontario, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan -led by the nose by nuclear NuScam?

Going Nuclear: Alberta Signs Inter-Provincial MOE to Explore Small Modular Reactors, J.D. Supra, 14Aug 20, 

On August 7, 2020, the Government of Alberta announced its intention to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to explore emerging nuclear power generation technology in the form of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs).

Alberta is the fourth province to sign the MOU, following in the footsteps of the governments of Ontario, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan, which signed the MOU in December 2019. Ontario and New Brunswick are Canada’s only provinces currently producing nuclear energy, while uranium fuel is mined in Saskatchewan. Athabasca Basin contains the world’s largest high-grade deposits of uranium and straddles the Alberta-Saskatchewan border……

August 15, 2020 Posted by | Canada, politics | Leave a comment

Malaysia rejects nuclear power, focuses on renewable energy

Khairy says nuclear energy ‘not on the table’ for now, focus on renewable energy sources, Malay Mail, Friday, 14 Aug 2020, BY YISWAREE PALANSAMY  KUALA LUMPUR, — Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said today that the idea to develop nuclear energy as a power source will be a last option for Malaysia, as there are many other sources of energy in the same category which the country has yet to explore.

The Rembau MP said that his ministry is not considering nuclear energy development for now…..

In February, then Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad spoke of the inherent need for a more non-polluting renewable energy source for the world, but rejected nuclear energy source, over the fear of the radioactive level in its waste.

Dr Mahathir pointed out that Malaysia does not have enough expertise in science that is needed to manage nuclear power.

He also expressed worry about the long-term effects of radioactive waste.

In July 2018, Yeo announced that the then PH government would not be building nuclear power plants or explore nuclear energy.

In winding up her ministerial reply on the 2020 Budget in Parliament last year, Yeo also announced that the Malaysian Nuclear Power Corporation (MNPC) would be shut down. ……. https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2020/08/14/khairy-says-nuclear-energy-not-on-the-table-for-now-focus-on-renewable-ener/1894036

August 15, 2020 Posted by | Malaysia, politics | Leave a comment

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