politics « nuclear-news

Renewed political turmoil over plan for Yucca Mountain as nuclear waste dump

Nevada braces for renewed fight over Yucca storing nuclear waste, By Gary Martin / Las Vegas Review-Journal, May 5, 2019, WASHINGTON — A concentrated effort in Congress to address the growing national stockpile of nuclear waste is underway and Nevada is bracing for a wave of new legislation and efforts to bury radioactive materials in the desert north of Las Vegas.

Two bills are moving through the Senate that would open Yucca Mountain as a permanent waste repository.

Similar legislation is expected in the House as early as this week as key committees weigh a Trump administration budget request of $116 million to process the Department of Energy license to open the Nevada site.

“Safely disposing of nuclear waste is a national problem. It requires a national solution,” said Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., who dropped a Senate bill to expedite development of Yucca Mountain.

Another bill was filed by Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. It would push for interim storage facilities in other states while Yucca Mountain is developed.

Last week, Nevada officials in Carson City and Washington were united in delivering their message that federal and nuclear energy industry efforts to dispose of waste at Yucca Mountain are unfair to Nevada, which does not produce or use power generated by the plants……..

It will take a concentrated effort by the Nevada delegation, which huddled last Thursday, to stop the bipartisan push by lawmakers who represent states and cities where nuclear waste is currently stockpiled……..

Meanwhile, a new cast of political players from the state has emerged to oppose the concentrated push to transport the nation’s nuclear waste through Nevada and store it permanently below Yucca Mountain, located about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, which attracted 42 million visitors in 2018 alone.

In addition to Sisolak, a former Clark County commissioner who opposed Yucca Mountain from that elected position, Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., who fought development of the repository as a congresswoman, testified against a Senate bill to revive licensing procedures…….

Nevada officials noted that because of Yucca Mountain’s location, there are few routes available for the waste to travel without passing through Las Vegas and Reno, a major point in the state’s opposition……

“The history of the federal nuclear waste program has been dismal,” agreed Geoffrey Fettus with the Natural Resources Defense Council, but with an entirely different outlook.

Fettus warned that efforts to restart the Yucca Mountain licensing process over continued opposition by Nevada, tribal leaders, environmentalists and business groups, will “lead to years of litigation, and thus derail needed efforts to find disposal sites.”

The state of Nevada has pledged substantial funds to challenge Yucca Mountain on legal fronts……… “The history of the federal nuclear waste program has been dismal,” agreed Geoffrey Fettus with the Natural Resources Defense Council, but with an entirely different outlook.

The state of Nevada has pledged substantial funds to challenge Yucca Mountain on legal fronts. ….. Contact Gary Martin and gmartin@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7390. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter. https://www.reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/nevada-braces-for-renewed-fight-over-yucca-storing-nuclear-waste-1656701/

May 6, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, wastes | Leave a comment

Highland Green MSP John Finnie points out the danger of transporting nuclear material across the Atlantic

Press and Journal 4th May 2019 Highland Green MSP John Finnie has expressed concern after three quartersof a ton of highly enriched uranium was transported from Dounreay in
Caithness to America. He said: “The appropriate place for dangerous
material is secure storage and supervision by highly trained staff where it
was created, not transportation.

“Whilst pleased that this risky has been completed without incident, that we know of. “But before the authorities on both sides of the Atlantic pat themselves on the back, they need to
reflect on the dangers they put communities in. “As was evidenced when a
ship which was transporting nuclear material in the Moray Firth went on
fire. As with oil and gas reserves, the message regarding nuclear waste has
to be ‘keep it in the ground’.”

https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/highlands/1740397/700kilos-of-uranium-transported-from-dounreay-to-us/

May 6, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, safety, UK | Leave a comment

Senator Chris Van Hollen on Gorging at the Nuclear Buffet Table

REMARKS: Gorging at the Nuclear Buffet Table Arms Control Association, May 2019
By Sen. Chris Van Hollen “…….we gather here at another urgent moment. It has been important work all along, but we are in an urgent moment now. Because with the Trump administration, all signs indicate that we’re jettisoning, we’re abandoning what has been a bipartisan tradition of recognizing that we need to modernize our nuclear forces, we need to modernize our triad, we need to make sure its survivable and resilient, but that we should do it within the framework of an arms control architecture that leads to predictability, stability, and transparency. That has been an important formula even as relations between the United States and the Soviet Union, now Russia, have gone up and down. We have still maintained that conversation, we have still maintained that structure, and that structure has helped keep the peace.

Now with this new administration, with [National Security Advisor] John Bolton in the White House, we are in a very different world. He has not found a nuclear arms agreement or, as far as I can tell, any multilateral agreement or international agreement that he likes.

But when it comes to arms control, despite his being a foe, he has never explained how an unconstrained nuclear arms race would actually make us any safer. He can never answer that argument. He just tells us what he doesn’t like, but he doesn’t tell us what is better, that would make us more stable.

That’s where we are right now. The tearing up of the INF Treaty was an early indication of where this administration is going……

The notion that we should therefore just proceed with developing not just one, but multiple noncompliant INF missiles makes no sense. We already have a robust capability when it comes to responding to anything in the European theater. We already have dual-capable bombers with gravity bombs, we have air-launched cruise missiles, we have a range of weapons that already serve as a deterrent. So, just building more for the sake of building more doesn’t do us any good, and it creates more instabilities.

In addition, I don’t buy the argument that we need to have an intermediate-range missile on Guam with the purpose of holding the Chinese in check. There are lots of things we need to be doing in that region, but I don’t think a missile on Guam does the job. As you know, our other allies, Japan and South Korea, have made it very clear they won’t deploy this kind of missile.

There is really no good argument for rushing to tear up the agreement. …….

The other issue I want to focus on has to do with the overall nuclear posture that this administration is pursuing when it comes to nuclear weapons. I think we all agree that we need to modernize our nuclear forces, but we don’t need to add on every single, conceivable new capability.

It’s like showing up at a buffet and, instead of having a balanced meal, you say, “I will just gorge on every single capability that is out there.” When you only need a balanced meal to do the job, you don’t need to eat everything at the nuclear buffet table, including offensive and defensive weapons.

Unlike a dinner buffet where it’s “all you can eat at a fixed price,” the nuclear buffet table requires you to pay for everything. With the current spending plan, that is right now estimated to be $1.7 trillion over the next 30 years by the Congressional Budget Office. If you add on all the other capabilities this administration apparently wants to add on, you’re talking about an even bigger price tag.

So, in addition to having a big price tag, you’re also talking about building additional capabilities that are not only unnecessary, but can be very destabilizing. That is especially true when it comes to the administration considering two new capabilities with submarine-launched ballistic missiles, putting a low-yield warhead on some, as well as resuscitating the nuclear-armed, sea-launched cruise missile.

I think that if you look at the direction we’re going, it is very worrisome from a price tag perspective when we have so many other national requirements and priorities. But also, we are going to be spending taxpayer money on something that actually makes us less, not more, safe by lowering the threshold of use of nuclear weapons. Therefore, we’re increasing the risks of an all-out
nuclear war…….. https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2019-05/features/remarks-gorging-nuclear-buffet-table?fbclid=IwAR1vuIj-ArO29ADKtaUGtH990DcT5OYD97SvRnZ3tuwBopgnFbQaX5iMX4k

May 4, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | election USA 2020, politics, weapons and war | Leave a comment

No evidence for this, but a Republican lawmaker says Russia has nuclear weapons in Venezuela

GOP Rep. says Russia has nuclear weapons in Venezuela but offers no evidence, Roll Call, Griffin Connolly, 1 May 19,

Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart made the comments in a Fox News segment with host Tucker Carlson. Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart asserted Tuesday that Russia might already have nuclear missiles stationed in Venezuela as that country’s political turmoil continues to churn in the wake of a disputed presidential election.

Díaz-Balart, a longtime Florida Republican, provided no evidence to support his claim……

“Are you saying the Russians will put nuclear missiles in Venezuela?” Carlson asked in a follow-up question.

“What I am suggesting is that they are already there,” Diaz-Balart said. The Florida congressman did not provide any evidence to support that suggestion.

The Russian military flew and landed a nuclear-capable bomber in Venezuela in 2018, but there have been no reports or claims that they have outfitted such aircraft with nuclear bombs or transported nuclear missiles to the country…… “Are you saying the Russians will put nuclear missiles in Venezuela?” Carlson asked in a follow-up question……. https://www.rollcall.com/news/russia-already-has-nuclear-bombs-in-venezuela-gop-rep-suggests-sans-evidence

May 4, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA | 1 Comment

Nuclear bailout could help “old” technology at the expense of “new nuclear”

Daily on Energy: Utility group CEO says popular nuclear energy bill could be a bailout in disguise https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy/daily-on-energy-utility-group-ceo-says-popular-nuclear-energy-bill-could-be-a-bailout-in-disguise

by John Siciliano & Josh Siegel May 01, 2019 UTILITY GROUP CEO SAYS POPULAR NUCLEAR BILL COULD BE HIDING A BAILOUT: A popular Senate bill to advance nuclear energy could line the pockets of more conventional power plant owners, rather than pave a way for new, less expensive reactor types as intended.

John Shelk, the president and CEO of the merchant utility group Electric Power Supply Association, has raised the possibility of such a bailout ahead of Tuesday’s hearing in the Senate on the bill, the bipartisan Nuclear Energy Leadership Act introduced by Energy Committee chairwoman Lisa Murkowski and backed by high-profile Democrats like presidential candidate Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey.

Shelk tells John he will be sitting down with Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee staff as soon as this week to discuss changes to the bill to assure that it is narrowly focused on only advanced nuclear reactors and not the current fleet of reactors that are pushing for incentives in a challenging energy market.

What’s at issue: The bill would extend the contract time for federal power purchase agreements, which are used to secure electricity from a utility company for 10 to 40 years.

But the language is too open-ended and could benefit the existing fleet of reactors in addition to more advanced types, Shelk tells John.

Why the concern? Shelk’s group has been waging a national fight against state incentives for nuclear plants, and sees the bill becoming “yet another front in the fuels battles” to use government power to tip the scales in favor of less-economic resources like older nuclear plants.

In talking to sponsors of the bill, Shelk says he is “getting conflicting information … on why they want to keep the 40 year [power purchase agreement] open ended.”

Some offices say the idea is meant to make the federal contract fuel-neutral and open to other resources like geothermal and hydropower. But the problem is that a committee section-by-section summary of the bill describes nuclear power — not more advanced reactors — as “disadvantaged” when it comes to securing federal contracts. That raised the alarm for Shelk that the bill could be used as a means to give preferential treatment to all nuclear plants, undermining the free market system for electricity that supports competition.

Reminiscent of the Perry plan: Shelk says that when Energy Secretary Rick Perry was pushing for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to install market-based incentives to benefit coal and nuclear, the idea of using federal procurement rules to benefit generators was kicked around on the sidelines. Shelk and dozens of other groups opposed Perry’s push, and FERC rejected it in a unanimous vote.

Not everyone is a fan of the bill: Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, said the bill offers a backward approach to nuclear power.

“I think we’ve got it backwards; let’s solve the waste problem and then talk about promoting nuclear power,” King said at Tuesday’s hearing.

Murkowski, in almost anticipation of the criticisms King raised, introduced a bill Tuesday evening to rekindle the federal government’s obligation to move waste from existing power plants.

The bill would look for alternatives to less politically viable projects like Yucca Mountain in Nevada.

Meanwhile, the Environment and Public Works Committee held a hearing on Wednesday on a bill to jumpstart a new repository program separate from Yucca Mountain. Sen. Catherine Cortez-Masto, D-Nev., led the charge at the hearing on why the Yucca site was unworkable, citing its many structural flaws such as its proximity to a known earthquake fault.

Climate concerns should trump the need for the bill: “Time and money spent on unproven, new nuclear reactors is a distraction from the pressing need to address climate change,” Damon Moglen, senior strategic adviser at the left-leaning Friends of the Earth, tells John.

His group says the focus should be turned to zero-emission renewables, calling nuclear a “failed technology.”

May 2, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA | Leave a comment

Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak reiterates Nevada opposition to Yucca nuclear storage

Sisolak reiterates Nevada opposition to Yucca nuclear storage, By Gary Martin / Las Vegas Review-Journal, April 30, 2019 WASHINGTON — Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak sent a letter Tuesday underscoring the state’s opposition to nuclear waste storage to the chairman and ranking member of a Senate panel in advance of a hearing on reviving the licensing process needed to open Yucca Mountain.

“My position, and that of the state of Nevada, remains identical to the position of Nevada’s past five governors,” Sisolak, a Democrat, wrote. “The state of Nevada opposes the project based on scientific, technical and legal merits.”

Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., who chairs the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, has introduced a bill that would revive licensing for the Yucca Mountain site, designated by Congress in 1987 as the location for permanent storage of nuclear waste produced by power plants.

The project, though, has been delayed by political opposition…….https://www.reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/nevada/sisolak-reiterates-nevada-opposition-to-yucca-nuclear-storage-1652992/

May 2, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | opposition to nuclear, politics, wastes | Leave a comment

‘Climate emergency’ declared by Welsh Government,

BBC, 29 April 2019 A “climate emergency” has been declared in Wales following protests demanding politicians take action on climate change.

May 2, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | climate change, politics, UK | Leave a comment

How bailout of Pennsylvania nuclear plants would cost consumers billions,

By RICHARD MINITER, THE MORNING CALL MAY 01, 2019

Pennsylvania and New Jersey lawmakers are preparing to push up your monthly electricity bill … in order to shovel subsidies to failing nuclear-power plants. Consumers like you are projected to pay billions in higher electricity bills over the next decade — killing jobs and shrinking your savings in the bargain.

What’s driving this? For the past few years, natural-gas pipelines have delivered cheap fuel, shrinking the cost of generating electricity. It is now cheaper to make electricity with natural gas than with any other fossil fuel. That’s a big win for consumers and manufacturers. But it is bad news for nuclear-power plant operators, whose generating costs are often higher than the market price for power.

So now nuclear-power operators hope to persuade lawmakers that taxpayers should bail them out. And their plan, backed by a pile of lobbying dollars, is working.

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities awarded “zero-emissions certificates” on April 18 to three state nuclear plants, all owned and operated by investor-owned utility Public Service Enterprise Group. That’s a subsidy of some $300 million per year. Those subsidies will be paid by surcharges on consumer electric bills. The Newark Star-Ledger summed it up best: “For PSEG, a windfall. For us, the shaft.”

And Pennsylvania is not far behind the Garden State.

Pennsylvania state Rep. Thomas Mehaffie, a Republican, has introduced a bill that would offer subsidies to the Keystone state’s five nuclear plants. He says the plan will cost some $500 million per year — raising utility bills roughly $21.24 per home per year. The real cost will be much higher, critics say, pointing to estimates of more than $60 per year per household.

The battle is not over yet in Pennsylvania. Lawmakers in Harrisburg are getting an earful from the AARP and consumer groups. State regulators also believe the Pennsylvania bailout proposal is misguided. Public Utility Commissioner Andrew Place sent a memo to members of the state Senate saying that “this bill, in its current form, is far from the least cost mechanism to achieve these goals.”

No kidding. In fact, the subsidy plan is so broadly written that it would also fund nuclear plants, like Beaver Valley Nuclear Station, that are not actually losing money.

What’s clear is that utilities are getting what they paid for. In New Jersey, PSEG reportedly spent some $2.4 million lobbying for subsidies in 2017.

In Pennsylvania, the company that owns the struggling Three Mile Island plant — Exelon — reportedly tripled its lobbying expenditures since 2016, spending $1.78 million in 2018.

While the nuclear-power industry can’t seem to make money off its failing plants, it has certainly figured out how to squeeze a return on investment from its lobbyists and its campaign contributions.

The hard truth is that plain-old competition is killing the dinosaur utilities. Thanks to natural gas, U.S. manufacturers enjoy lower industrial kilowatt per-hour prices than all of the other 35 countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, except Norway. That is a huge advantage for factories in Pennsylvania and elsewhere.

Subsidies just slow the inevitable. No bailout can change the reality that nuclear plants are whales beached by high insurance and regulatory costs. Their losses should provoke soul-searching among shareholders and far-reaching reforms of current management — not a cry for government bailouts…….. https://www.mcall.com/opinion/mc-opi-pennsylvania-nuclear-industry-bailout-20190501-hjzucrrqm5hovcunhj7dencnly-story.html

May 2, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA | Leave a comment

Exploitation of foreign workers in Japan’s Fukushima nuclear clean-up

Japan needs thousands of foreign workers to decommission Fukushima plant, prompting backlash from anti-nuke campaigners and rights activists, SCMP Julian Ryall , 26 Apr, 2019

Activists are not convinced working at the site is safe for anyone and they fear foreign workers will feel ‘pressured’ to ignore risks if jobs are at risk
Towns and villages around the plant are still out of bounds because radiation levels are dangerously high

Anti-nuclear campaigners have teamed up with human rights activists in Japan to condemn plans by the operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant to hire foreign workers to help decommission the facility.

Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) has announced it will take advantage of the government’s new working visa scheme, which was introduced on April 1 and permits thousands of foreign workers to come to Japan to meet soaring demand for labourers. The company has informed subcontractors overseas nationals will be eligible to work cleaning up the site and providing food services.

About 4,000 people work at the plant each day as experts attempt to decommission three reactors that melted down in the aftermath of the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and the huge tsunami it triggered. Towns and villages around the plant are still out of bounds because radiation levels are dangerously high.

TEPCO has stated foreign workers employed at the site must have Japanese language skills sufficient for them to understand instructions and the risks they face. Workers will also be required to carry dosimeters to monitor their exposure to radiation.

Activists are far from convinced working at the site is safe for anyone and they fear foreign workers will feel “pressured” to ignore the risks if their jobs are at risk.

“We are strongly opposed to the plan because we have already seen that workers at the plant are being exposed to high levels of radiation and there have been numerous breaches of labour standards regulations,” said Hajime Matsukubo, secretary general of the Tokyo-based Citizens’ Nuclear Information Centre. “Conditions for foreign workers at many companies across Japan are already bad but it will almost certainly be worse if they are required to work decontaminating a nuclear accident site.”

Companies are desperately short of labourers, in part because of the construction work connected to Tokyo hosting the 2020 Olympic Games, while TEPCO is further hampered because any worker who has been exposed to 50 millisieverts of radiation in a single year or 100 millisieverts over five years is not permitted to remain at the plant. Those limits mean the company must find labourers from a shrinking pool.

In February, the Tokyo branch of Human Rights Now submitted a statement to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva demanding action be taken to help and protect people with homes near the plant and workers at the site.

“It has been reported that vulnerable people have been illegally deceived by decontamination contractors into conducting decontamination work without their informed consent, threatening their lives, including asylum seekers under false promises and homeless people working below minimum wage,” the statement said. “Much clean-up depends on inexperienced subcontractors with little scrutiny as the government rushes decontamination for the Olympic Games.”

Cade Moseley, an official of the organisation, said there are “very clear, very definite concerns”.

“There is evidence that foreign workers in Japan have already felt under pressure to do work that is unsafe and where they do not fully understand the risks involved simply because they are worried they will lose their working visas if they refuse,” he said……

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3007772/japan-needs-thousands-foreign-workers-decommission-fukushima

April 30, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | civil liberties, employment, Japan, politics, wastes | Leave a comment

As Tokyo Olympics approach, Japan’s futile push to repopulate cleaned-up parts of radioactive areas of Fukushima

Japan’s nuclear horror relived as people return to Fukushima’s ghost towns,

It is eight years since a devastating tsunami caused three reactors to meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station on the north-east coast of Japan Mirror UK, Emily RetterSenior Feature Writer, Mirror UK, 29 Apr19

Wide streets still lie empty, scavenging boar and monkeys the only signs of life.

Only wild animals, and the 6ft weeds, which have rampaged through deserted homes and businesses, suffocating once-chatty barbers shops and bustling grocery stores; strangling playgrounds and their rusting rides which lie empty and eerily still.

Laundry hangs where it was pegged out to dry, clock faces are frozen in time, traffic lights flash through their colours to empty roads, meals laid out on tables in family homes, remain uneaten.

Once unextraordinary, mundane symbols of everyday lives have taken on the appearance of a horror film set in these areas closest to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station on the coast of north-east Japan, eight years after the devastating tsunami which caused a meltdown at three of the plant’s reactors, forcing tens of thousands to flee.

The earthquake on March 11, 2011, claimed 19,000 lives, and triggered the world’s largest nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

Radiation leaking in fatal quantities forced 160,000 people to evacuate immediately, and most to this day have not returned to their toxic towns and villages…….

The official mandatory evacuation order was lifted, and while reports reveal just 367 residents of Okuma’s original population of 10,341 have so far made the decision to return, and most of the town remains off-limits, the Japanese government is keen this be seen as a positive start to re-building this devastated area…….

The Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, visited to mark the milestone.

The government is particularly keen to show progress before the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Six Olympic softball games and a baseball game will be staged in Fukushima, the capital of this prefecture, which is free of radiation.

The torch relay will even begin at J Village, which was once the base for the crisis response team. Hearteningly, it is now back to its original function, a football training centre.

But the truth is, it is mainly older residents who have decided to return to their homes.

Seimei Sasaki, 93, explained his family have roots here stretching back 500 years.

His neighbourhood in Odaka district now only contains 23 of its original 230.

“I can’t imagine what this village’s future looks like,” he admitted.

Young families are few and far between – these areas are still a terrifying prospect for parents.

But the re-built schools are slowly filling a handful of classroom seats.

Namie Sosei primary and middle school, less then three miles from the plant, has seven pupils.

One teacher said: “The most frustrating thing for them is that they can’t play team sports.”

A sad irony as the Olympics approach.

And with so many residents still fearful, so the deadly clean-up operation continues.

Work to make the rest of Okuma safe is predicted to take until 2022. The area which was its centre is still a no-go zone.

In the years following the disaster, 70,000 workers removed topsoil, tree branches, grass and other contaminated material from areas near homes, schools and public buildings.

Bags of nuclear waste generated after the meltdown of one of Fukushima’s nuclear power plants in 2011 are now stored in the nearby town of Naraha. MUST CREDIT: photo for The Washington Post by Shiho Fukada.

A staggering £21billion has been spent in order to make homes safe.

Millions of cubic metres of radioactive soil has been packed into bags.

By 2021 it is predicted 14million cubic metres will have been generated.

The mass scale operation uses thousands of workers. Drivers are making 1,600 return trips a day.

But residents understandably want it moved out of Fukushima for good.

As yet, no permanent location has agreed to take it, but the government has pledged it will be gone by 2045.

At Daiichi itself, the decontamination teams are battling with the build up of 1m tonnes of radioactive water. …..https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/japans-nuclear-horror-relived-people-14420671

April 30, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, politics, spinbuster | Leave a comment

Curious contradictions on climate change in USA – Denial and Reality

The Last Time There Was This Much CO2, Trees Grew at the South Pole, Dahr Jamail, Truthout, 29 April 19,

“……….Denial and RealityWhile this certainly comes as no surprise, yet another report came out highlighting how oil and gas giants are spending millions of dollars in their ongoing effort to lobby their paid politicians to block policies aimed at addressing climate disruption. The giant fossil fuel companies are spending an average of $200 million annually to weaken and/or oppose legislation aimed at addressing climate disruption. BP led the way in spending with $53 million, followed by Shell ($49 million), ExxonMobil ($41 million), Chevron and Total ($29 million each).

Meanwhile, as per usual, President Donald Trump has signed executive orders to speed up oil and gas pipeline projects, making it harder for states to block construction projects due to environmental concerns.

Yet, as the White House is actively denying climate disruption and working as hard as it can to promote fossil fuel use, the U.S. military is planning and preparing for dealing with the vast impacts of ongoing climate disruption. “People are acting on climate not for political reasons, but [because] it really affects their mission,” Jon Powers, an Iraq War veteran who served as the federal chief sustainability officer who is now president and chief executive of the investment firm CleanCapital, told The Washington Post. “With the military, it’s now ingrained in the culture and mission there, which I think is the biggest change over the last 10 years.”

Meanwhile, a federal climate disruption study panel and advisory group that was disbanded by the Trump administration due to it not having enough members “from industry,” recently released a report warning that the muddled political response to very clear climate science is putting Americans at risk.

“We were concerned that the federal government is missing an opportunity to get better information into the hands of those who prepare for what we have already unleashed,” Richard Moss, a visiting scientist at Columbia University, who previously chaired the federal panel and is a member of the group who released the report, told The Guardian. “We’re only just starting to see the effects of climate change, it’s only going to get much worse. But we haven’t yet rearranged our daily affairs to adapt to science we have.”

With each passing month, the impacts of runaway climate disruption continue to intensify. And as they do, so must our awareness of what is happening across the planet, and our resolve to take action to address it – especially since most governments around the world are failing to meet these challenges.https://truthout.org/articles/the-last-time-there-was-this-much-co2-trees-grew-at-the-south-pole/

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April 30, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | climate change, politics, USA | Leave a comment

The cost of pretending that nuclear power is “clean”

Pennsylvania decides whether to subsidize nuclear energy as “clean” https://thebulletin.org/2019/04/pennsylvania-decides-whether-to-subsidize-nuclear-energy-as-clean/?utm_source=Bulletin%20Newsletter&utm_medium=iContact%20email&utm_campaign=PAnuclear_04222019, By Heather Wuest, April 22, 2019

To drive growth in its clean energy market and combat climate change, Pennsylvania adopted the Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards Act in 2004.This requires energy companies to buy specific percentages of their total electricity from clean energy sources. The requirements started small but are designed to increase over time.

There are now 16 different clean energy choices for electric utilities to choose from in Pennsylvania. But new legislation would include a 17th clean generation option—nuclear power. Bills introduced in the state’s House and Senate are intended to prevent the retirement of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant outside Harrisburg and the Beaver Valley plant near Pittsburgh. Both plants are set for closure because they cannot compete on price with electricity from natural gas-fired power plants and renewable energy sources.

Adding nuclear to the clean energy list would not be a simple or inexpensive process. Pennsylvania energy consumers would have to pay hundreds of millions in subsidies to make the nuclear plants economically viable. It’s a process that other energy generators and the manufacturing sector worry will distort Pennsylvania’s energy market. But the nuclear industry supports roughly 16,000 industry jobs and generates 93 percent of the electricity produced in the state by sources that don’t emit carbon dioxide in the process.

Pennsylvania is hardly alone in its quest to buy clean energy; many other states are implementing plans that require energy companies to purchase set amounts so-called “carbon-free” electricity. In some states, nuclear is subsidized as a “green” energy source; in others, it is not. In Pennsylvania, it may be. The battle over that issue will play out in the state Legislature between now and early June, when the owner of the Three Mile Island plant is expected to decide whether to refuel or close it.

April 30, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA | Leave a comment

Final closure of nuclear research reactors in Norway

It continues to amaze me, the way that Australia props up its uneconomic research nuclear reactor. Why not move fully to particle accelerators, producing medical isotopes with no nuclear waste?

Norway’s last nuclear research reactor to close permanently https://www.reuters.com/article/norway-nuclear/norways-last-nuclear-research-reactor-to-close-permanently-idUSL5N22789V, OSLO, April 25 (Reuters) – Norway’s last nuclear research reactor will shut permanently and be decommissioned after more than 50 years of operations, the country’s Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) said on Thursday.

The JEEP II research reactor at Kjeller near Oslo has been shut for scheduled maintenance since last December and corrosion was found on several important safety components during an inspection.

The institute said it would be too costly to repair the reactor.

“The board of directors has decided, based on an overall assessment, that the reactor will not be restarted. IFE will consequently initiate work to prepare the decommissioning of the reactor,” the institute said in a statement.

Nuclear fuel and heavy water have been already removed, meaning that the reactor poses no danger to the environment, it added.

The rector, some 20 kilometres away from Oslo, has been used by researchers in physics, materials, cancer medicine, renewable energy and nuclear disarmament since starting operations in 1967, the IFE said.

In June 2018, Norway’s research reactor in Halden was shut down after 60 years of operation.

“Both Norwegian nuclear reactors are now closed and Norway will enter into a new era with decommissioning of the national nuclear programme which was started in 1948,” the IFE said.

Norway has no commercial nuclear reactors, and generates more than 90 percent of its electricity at hydropower plants. (Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis. Editing by Jane Merriman)

April 30, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | EUROPE, politics | Leave a comment

Political leaders in Britain are not strong enough to tackle the climate change crisis- Lord Stern

Times 29th April 2019 , Political leaders in Britain are not strong enough to tackle the climate
change crisis, according to one of the country’s leading authorities on the
subject. Lord Stern of Brentford, author of the Stern Review on the cost of
tackling global warming, said that politicians were holding the country
back from making progress on the issue.

“Has the political leadership been
strong enough? No, I don’t think so,” he said. He added that protests by
campaigners such as Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old climate activist from
Sweden, and Extinction Rebellion, a group that caused disruption in the
capital last week, would help to build awareness and spur politicians into
action.

“Leadership is absolutely fundamental, but that doesn’t come out of
nowhere, it comes as these pressures build,” he said. Lord Stern, a former
chief economist at the Treasury and the World Bank, is among Britain’s most
respected thinkers on the environmental crisis. In 2006 he published The
Stern Review: The Economics of Climate Change, which described global
warming as the “greatest and widest-ranging market failure ever seen”.

He told The Times that policymakers needed to act to avert a catastrophic rise
in global temperatures. If they waited an additional ten to fifteen years
before taking radical steps to reduce carbon emissions, it would be too
late, he said.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/c233cb30-69e1-11e9-95be-9353feb218cd

April 30, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | climate change, politics, UK | Leave a comment

Subsidies to nuclear industry – legislation “anti-competitive” and “anti-consumer.”

Free-market advocate chastises nuclear energy subsidies in committee hearing, Ohio Watchdog, By Tyler Arnold | Watchdog.org, Apr 24, 2019,

“The Buckeye Institute opposes government subsidies, pure and simple,” institute Research Fellow Greg Lawson said in his testimony to the Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy Generation. “Any subsidy given to one entity puts other competitors at a disadvantage. And using the power of government to disadvantage market competitors makes for bad public policy.”

House Bill 6, sponsored by state Reps. Jamie Callender, R-Concord Township, and Shane Wilkin, R-Hillsboro, is designed to boost the state’s investment in clean energy and incentivize the building and maintenance in facilities that produce few carbon emissions and reduce energy bills.

Critics of the bill have classified the legislation as a bailout aimed at saving two FirstEnergy Solutions nuclear power plants – the Davis-Besse and Perry plants. The company, which has lobbied for legislative help, has said that the plants will be shut down without financial aid from taxpayers.

If passed, the legislation would impose a $2.50 monthly fee for every residential customer, a $250 fee for industrial customers and a $2,500 fee for large users. This would generate about $170 million to keep the plants open……

Lawson’s testimony criticized the subsidies further.

“Although described as incentives, the policies … are classic examples of government subsidies being used to prop-up declining businesses…,” Lawson testified. “[The bill] deals more broadly than just FirstEnergy Solutions, leaving leftover funds for other utilities to draw down, but everyone understands that FirstEnergy Solutions, or whoever eventually buys the two nuclear power plants, will be the bill’s primary beneficiary.”…….

Several other organizations testified in the committee hearing, touching on how the legislation would affect competition as well as jobs and workers.

Luke Harms, who testified on behalf of the Ohio Manufacturer’s Association, said that the legislation would put an unfair cost on industrial consumers for the purpose of propping up two nonviable plants. He called the legislation “anti-competitive” and “anti-consumer.”

Bill Siderewicz, who testified on behalf of Clean Energy Future, said that it is inconsistent to label the bill a clean energy bill because it replaces a cheaper form of clean energy with a more expensive form through a bailout and a regressive tax…….https://www.watchdog.org/ohio/free-market-advocate-chastises-nuclear-energy-subsidies-in-committee-hearing/article_a0208772-66cb-11e9-abed-c3d999e15c7f.html?fbclid=IwAR3z3zHqrFMqarwjugRTeXRnDFjymsM7S0LU2nf-43IIyaR9XOEtWj8lbjI

April 30, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, politics, USA | Leave a comment

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