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UK govt’s dubious plan for funding Amec Foster Wheeler’s research on Small Modular Nuclear Reactors (SMRs)

Amec Foster Wheeler To Lead UK Government’s Nuclear Reactor Research, Alliance News , By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance, 28th Jul 2017 LONDON  – Amec Foster Wheeler PLC on Friday said it has handed a GBP2.9 million contract from the UK government to lead a “key” research programme that aims to use developments in digital technology to optimise the next generation of nuclear reactors……

The project is part of a broader effort to put UK industry at the forefront of developing Generation IV and small modular reactors…….

Amec Foster Wheeler is being supported by partners and sub-contractors from industry, academia and science, including the University of Liverpool’s Virtual Engineering Centre, the Hartree Centre, National Nuclear Laboratory, Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC, EDF Energy, the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London.

Professor Eann Patterson from the University of Liverpool, also partnering on the project, will be the lead academic of the research programme……..

The contract award comes as Amec Foster Wheeler is in the midst of merging with peer John Wood in a GBP2.20 billion deal that is expected to take place in the fourth quarter. Amec Foster Wheeler only last month made a decision to retain its European nuclear business after consulting John Wood, but is still pushing to offload its North American nuclear unit.

The North American nuclear operations are nominal within the wider company, adding a trading profit of just GBP1.0 million and revenue of GBP83.0 million to Amec Foster Wheeler’s 2016 results.

What’s more, Amec Foster Wheeler is being investigated by the UK Serious Fraud Office about possible offences related to corruption and bribery related to its past relationship with Monaco-based Unaoil SAM, which has been being probed by the SFO for suspected fraud, bribery and money laundering since July 2016.

That probe into Unaoil also hit oil services provider Petrofac Ltd, forcing the resignation of its chief operating officer.  http://www.lse.co.uk/AllNews.asp?code=w955wuya&headline=Amec_Foster_Wheeler_To_Lead_UK_Governments_Nuclear_Reactor_Research

July 29, 2017 Posted by | business and costs, politics | Leave a comment

First Energy presses lawmakers for new customer-paid subsidies for nuclear reactors

FirstEnergy nuclear charges crucial to operating or selling Davis-Besse, Perry, says CEO, Cleveland.com 28 July 17 , By John Funk, The Plain Dealer, AKRON — FirstEnergy’s top executive says the company will continue to press Ohio lawmakers for new customer-paid subsidies for its nuclear power plants even though it may not own them in the future……

 Chuck Jones, president and CEO, also revealed that FirstEnergy is preparing to talk to creditors of its subsidiary, FirstEnergy Solutions, the company that owns the corporation’s old, uncompetitive power plants, which have been losing money.

FirstEnergy Solutions’ debt and the declining value of its power plants has made it a potential liability as it negotiates with its creditors amidst rumors of an eventual bankruptcy, and FirstEnergy has tried to distance itself from the subsidiary……

As for the special, customer-paid charges to help Davis-Besse, Perry and Beaver Valley, Pa., nuclear power plants, Jones said he doubted anybody could operate them without special subsidies. The problem is that they cannot compete with gas turbine plants and, at times, with wind power.

“I’m not sure [they] will run unless there is something done either federally or by the state of Ohio to ensure they get a different financial return model,” Jones said.

The company previously said the nuclear charges would increase customer bills by about 5 percent. Subject to periodic review by state regulators, the charges would run for 17 years.

Selling the nuclear plants is part of the company’s overall plan “to exit the commodity-exposed generation business,” Jones said. In other words, if the company cannot have its power prices set by a state utility commission, it does not want to be in the generating business. ……

Jones also made it clear during the conference that FirstEnergy’s campaign to persuade Ohio lawmakers to approve a nuclear plant subsidy would continue no matter what the U.S. Department of Energy recommends.

The Trump administration in April asked the DOE to figure out whether wind, solar and natural gas power plants are forcing the premature retirement of very large old coal and nuclear power plants, and whether those closings might de-stabilize the nation’s high-voltage power grid……. http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2017/07/firstenergy_nuclear_charges_cr.html

 

July 29, 2017 Posted by | business and costs, politics, USA | Leave a comment

Nuclear danger as Trump government guts science, removes Department of Energy’s skilled personnel

The department trains every international atomic-energy inspector; if nuclear power plants around the world are not producing weapons-grade material on the sly by reprocessing spent fuel rods and recovering plutonium, it’s because of these people

Since Perry was confirmed, his role has been ceremonial and bizarre. He pops up in distant lands and tweets in praise of this or that D.O.E. program while his masters inside the White House create budgets to eliminate those very programs.

Trump’s budget …  cuts funding to the national labs in a way that implies the laying off of 6,000 of their people. It eliminates all research on climate change. It halves the funding for work to secure the electrical grid from attack or natural disaster

WHY THE SCARIEST NUCLEAR THREAT MAY BE COMING FROM INSIDE THE WHITE HOUSE Donald Trump’s secretary of energy, Rick Perry, once campaigned to abolish the $30 billion agency that he now runs, which oversees everything from our nuclear arsenal to the electrical grid. The department’s budget is now on the chopping block. But does anyone in the White House really understand what the Department of Energy actually does? And what a horrible risk it would be to ignore its extraordinary, life-or-death responsibilities? BY MICHAEL LEWIS SEPTEMBER 2017 “………..Two weeks after the election the Obama people inside the D.O.E. read in the newspapers that Trump had created a small “Landing Team.” According to several D.O.E. employees, this was led by, and mostly consisted of, a man named Thomas Pyle, president of the American Energy Alliance, which, upon inspection, proved to be a Washington, D.C., propaganda machine funded with millions of dollars from ExxonMobil and Koch Industries. Pyle himself had served as a Koch Industries lobbyist and ran a side business writing editorials attacking the D.O.E.’s attempts to reduce the dependence of the American economy on carbon……….

…..There was a reason Obama had appointed nuclear physicists to run the place: it, like the problems it grappled with, was technical and complicated……..

Pyle, according to D.O.E. officials, eventually sent over a list of 74 questions he wanted answers to. His list addressed some of the subjects covered in the briefing materials, but also a few not:

“Can you provide a list of all Department of Energy employees or contractors who have attended any Interagency Working Group on the Social Cost of Carbon meetings?

Can you provide a list of Department employees or contractors who attended any of the Conference of the Parties (under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) in the last five years?”

That, in a nutshell, was the spirit of the Trump enterprise. “It reminded me of McCarthyism,” says Sherwood-Randall……..

The one concrete action the Trump administration took before Inauguration Day was to clear the D.O.E. building of anyone appointed by Obama…….

Roughly half of the D.O.E.’s annual budget is spent on maintaining and guarding our nuclear arsenal, for instance. Two billion of that goes to hunting down weapons-grade plutonium and uranium at loose in the world so that it doesn’t fall into the hands of terrorists. In just the past eight years the D.O.E.’s National Nuclear Security Administration has collected enough material to make 160 nuclear bombs. The department trains every international atomic-energy inspector; if nuclear power plants around the world are not producing weapons-grade material on the sly by reprocessing spent fuel rods and recovering plutonium, it’s because of these people. The D.O.E. also supplies radiation-detection equipment to enable other countries to detect bomb material making its way across national borders. To maintain the nuclear arsenal, it conducts endless, wildly expensive experiments on tiny amounts of nuclear material to try to understand what is actually happening to plutonium when it fissions, which, amazingly, no one really does. To study the process, it is funding what promises to be the next generation of supercomputers, which will in turn lead God knows where.
The Trump people didn’t seem to grasp, according to a former D.O.E. employee, how much more than just energy the Department of Energy was about……..Trump had nominated three people and installed just one, former Texas governor Rick Perry……..With the nuclear physicist who understood the D.O.E. perhaps better than anyone else on earth, according to one person familiar with the meeting, Perry had spent minutes, not hours. “He has no personal interest in understanding what we do and effecting change,” a D.O.E. staffer told me in June. “He’s never been briefed on a program—not a single one, which to me is shocking.”

Since Perry was confirmed, his role has been ceremonial and bizarre. He pops up in distant lands and tweets in praise of this or that D.O.E. program while his masters inside the White House create budgets to eliminate those very programs. His sporadic public communications have had in them something of the shell-shocked grandmother trying to preside over a pleasant family Thanksgiving dinner while pretending that her blind-drunk husband isn’t standing naked on the dining-room table waving the carving knife over his head.

Meanwhile, inside the D.O.E. building, people claiming to be from the Trump administration appear willy-nilly, unannounced, and unintroduced to the career people. “There’s a mysterious kind of chain from the Trump loyalists who have shown up inside D.O.E. to the White House,” says a career civil servant. “That’s how decisions, like the budget, seem to get made. Not by Perry.”…….

Because of that lack of communication, nothing is being done. All policy questions remain unanswered.”……..

Another permanent employee, in another wing of the D.O.E., says, “The biggest change is the grinding to a halt of any proactive work. There’s very little work happening. There’s a lot of confusion about what our mission was going to be. For a majority of the workforce it’s been demoralizing.”

Over and over again, I was asked by people who worked inside the D.O.E. not to use their names, or identify them in any way, for fear of reprisal…..

…….The D.O.E. ran the 17 national labs—Brookhaven, the Fermi National Accelerator Lab, Oak Ridge, the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab, and so on. “The office of science in D.O.E. is not the office of science for D.O.E.,” said MacWilliams. “It’s the office of science for all science in America. I realized pretty quickly that it was the place where you could work on the two biggest risks to human existence, nuclear weapons and climate change.”…….

Indeed, if you are seeking to preserve a certain worldview, it actually helps to gut science. Trump’s budget, like the social forces behind it, is powered by a perverse desire—to remain ignorant. Trump didn’t invent this desire. He is just its ultimate expression. http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/07/department-of-energy-risks-michael-lewis

July 28, 2017 Posted by | investigative journalism, politics, safety, USA | Leave a comment

USA government in confusion over funding of MOX nuclear facility

Trump administration opposes House measure funding MOX nuclear facility http://www.janes.com/article/72606/trump-administration-opposes-house-measure-funding-mox-nuclear-facility,Daniel Wasserbly – IHS Jane’s Defence Weekly, 26 July 2017

Key Points

  • The White House ‘strongly opposes’ a House effort to continue funding the MOX plutonium disposition programme
  • House and Senate appropriators are at odds over funding the controversial facility

The White House is backing a US Department of Energy (DoE) request, once again, for Congress to terminate a multi-billion-dollar project aimed at disposing weapon-grade plutonium, the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF).

MFFF has suffered significant cost and schedule issues but is strongly supported by South Carolina’s congressional delegation and there are few easy options to replace the facility. It has survived repeated White House and DoE efforts during the Obama administration to curtail or terminate the programme, and last year even survived Russia’s suspension of the arms control agreement that underpins the project.

The Trump administration, in its fiscal year 2018 (FY 2018) budget request for the DoE, asked for USD270 million “to terminate the Mixed Oxide [MOX] Fuel Fabrication Facility with an orderly and safe closure of the facility”. It also asked for USD9 million in FY 2018 to pursue a ‘dilute and dispose’ method as an alternative for plutonium disposition. The Obama administration asked for, but did not receive, the same thing last year.

So far, during a tumultuous FY 2018 budget process, Senate appropriators appear to back the White House’s request to end MOX but House appropriators want the programme to continue.

In a 24 July ‘statement of administration policy’, the White House said it “strongly objects to continued construction of the Mixed Oxide [MOX] Fuel Fabrication Facility” as directed in the House appropriations bill. That legislation is still being finalised and must be reconciled with the Senate version before being enacted by the president. The White House did not indicate that it would consider a veto.

July 28, 2017 Posted by | politics, technology, USA | Leave a comment

Thomas Perez, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, callously disregarded nuclear workers’ health

Former Labor Secretary Perez Ignored Nuclear Plant Workers Pleas for Help  National Legal and Policy Center,  July 26, 2017 by Carl Horowitz As a multicultural radical, Thomas Perez is well-suited for his current job as chairman of the Democratic National Committee. As a government official, he is anything but that. Last week a lawyer for the Department of Labor went public with damning evidence that Perez, while heading DOL during the second Obama term, thwarted congressionally-mandated payouts to Cold War-era nuclear arsenal employees with job-related illnesses. The whistleblower, Stephen Silbiger, accused Perez of “open hostility” toward the workers, some of whom died waiting in futility for their claims to be processed. The story, which appeared in last Friday’s Washington Free Beacon, suggests the Democratic Party, like Perez, is not on the side of American workers, populist rhetoric notwithstanding……..
Before Thomas Perez can celebrate future victories, however, he now has to deal with an unexpected problem from his past. An article appearing in the July 21 Washington Free Beacon quoted Stephen Silbiger, a senior attorney at the Solicitor’s Office of the U.S. Department of Labor and now a whistleblower. Silbiger accused top DOL officials of withholding mandated compensation for former employees at Oak Ridge, Los Alamos and other nuclear arsenals suffering from cancer and other job-related illnesses. Some of these people, he told Free Beacon senior writer Susan Crabtree, died waiting for money and/or services that the DOL did not approve or even necessarily consider. Secretary Perez and certain other agency officials, said Silbiger, not only ignored these workers, but displayed “open hostility” toward them.

Back in 2000, Congress passed a law known as the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA). This legislation, which had broad bipartisan support, authorized the federal government to pay medical bills and lost wages of workers and supervisors who had assembled nuclear weapons during the Cold War, and who in the process had exposed themselves to high doses of toxins. The law, which established a $400,000 per household cap, was intended to speed up disbursements of funds. And there was much disbursement. By the end of last July, the program had paid out a cumulative $12.7 billion in compensation and medical benefits to 105,602 nuclear weapons workers and surviving family members. What those figures don’t reveal is that deserving workers now are getting shortchanged, a legacy of Tom Perez’s tenure at the Department of Labor.

During the latter months of the Obama era, the Labor Department revised program regulations to severely restrict the availability of compensation and medical services. Moreover, the department behaved unethically by: 1) refusing to disclose all application rules; 2) changing eligibility rules after they had been established; and 3) knowingly delaying compensation until the sick workers died. Silbiger, who previously had worked eight years at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), said he raised these issues with Assistant Secretary of Labor Michael Kerr and DOL Solicitor Patricia Smith, but received no response. EEOICPA Ombudsman Malcolm Nelson did respond, and sympathetically, but told Silbiger that his office, unlike the Office of Inspector General, lacked the power to conduct investigations.

Silbiger’s accusations received a boost in credibility last August in a New Mexico federal court ruling on a complaint lodged almost two years earlier. In Lucero v. Department of Labor, U.S. District Judge Martha Vazquez overturned a Labor Department denial of compensation to the widow of a deceased nuclear worker. The governing statute, wrote Judge Vazquez, “unambiguously entitled” survivors of a worker already qualifying for the compensation to a sum that the employee “would have received in accordance [with the law] if the employee’s death had not occurred before compensation was paid.” The department’s rejection of the application, being contrary to the “plain meaning” of the statute, was “arbitrary and capricious” and therefore void. Silbiger believes the department’s denial of benefits demonstrates a larger problem within the agency. “There’s explicit hostility toward claimants,” he told the Free Beacon, “and this has become a game for bureaucrats to see how clever they can be in manipulating the statute and the regs to deny benefits to indigent claimants.”

A group representing program beneficiaries, the Alliance of Nuclear Workers Advocacy Groups (ANWAG), makes these points as well. In a July 12 letter to Labor Department Inspector General Scott Dahl, ANWAG charged that the rule change proposals are illegal because they were never adopted through official rulemaking procedures and were used to deny claims months and even years before. The group demanded an investigation of ethical and legal lapses during the revisions. The new rules require that a worker identify the “trigger month” in which he or she first became disabled, and that the worker must be employed during that month to be eligible for wage-loss compensation. ANWAG counters that the rule does not take into account symptoms that could have taken root well before a medical diagnosis. The group stated: “We believe government employees responsible for implementing EEOICPA have abused their power, ignored the laws of the land [and] failed to comply with executive orders requiring that agencies operate in a transparent manner.”

As labor secretary, Thomas Perez had a hand in this. Pursuant to congressional mandate, Perez on April 1, 2016 appointed 15 members representatives from the scientific, medical and legal communities to a panel that would develop recommendations to make the program more accountable. Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Tom Udall, D-N.M., had written a letter to Secretary Perez the previous day requesting that he delay rule the changes, which had been proposed the previous November, until the advisory board could offer input. They wrote:

The men and women who were exposed to radiation and toxic substances at our nation’s nuclear facilities deserved to have their claims evaluated in a fair and equitable manner. DOL’s proposed rule change may increase the burden on claimants with little or no explanation. While some changes memorialize existing practice, others have raised concerns, including modifying a claimant’s ability to change their treating physician which arguably provides DOL more discretion to exclude providers, but also takes away the right of a patient to be seen by a doctor of their choice. Under the proposed rule, qualified claimants also risk losing coverage if they are too sick to travel for second medical opinions or represent themselves at administrative hearings. Such a requirement increases the burden on those least able to care for themselves.

Were this not convincing enough for Perez to look before he leaped, the Government Accountability Office earlier in the month had released a report, based on a random sample of claimant experiences, concluding that while the DOL generally adhered to established procedures, there was a good deal of room for improvement. The GAO cautioned against finalizing the rule changes without taking into account the report’s findings. But the department went ahead and instituted the new rules anyway.

How, then, does one explain Thomas Perez’s aversion to sensible advice from a variety of sources? Why did he and other Labor Department officials circumvent standard procedures for rule changes in order to prevent ailing workers from receiving due benefits? One can speculate at length here, but the best explanation is that Perez is a racial grievance politician first and a public servant second. For him, expanding the “right” of Hispanics illegally in this country to remain permanently is a priority. Protecting the “right” of black revolutionaries to terrorize white voters in Philadelphia (and firing DOJ prosecutors who complained about it) is a priority. But assisting American workers who risked and often lost their lives handling hazardous materials at nuclear weapons facilities isn’t a priority. Perez’s elevation to the top of the Democratic Party hierarchy says many things about him and the party – none of them good. http://nlpc.org/2017/07/26/former-labor-secretary-perez-ignored-nuclear-plant-workers-pleas-help/

July 28, 2017 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

World watching Australian government – ready to sacrifice the Great Barrier Reef for Adani coal interests?

Australia’s Greatest (Dying) Global Asset, By DAMIEN CAVENew York Times, JULY 26, 2017 “……..on a local level, it’s a magnet for tourism that generates around $6 billion ($4.8 billion USD) a year. This is what the Australian government seemed intent on protecting when it removed all references to the reef and the way it was being ruined by warming waters, among other things, from a United Nations report on climate change last year.

But it’s also more than that.

“Corals are foundational,” Dr. Cantin told me, comparing the reef to giant forests, like the Amazon. “It’s not just people from tropical countries who care about them.”

And, he said, those who do care are increasingly concerned. The effects of climate change are accelerating beyond what the ecosystem can handle. Rib Reef, where Dr. Cantin was diving, was teeming with color and life just a year ago; now most of it is just coral skeleton covered in algae that looks like soot.

There is still time to adjust. “It’s a big system,” Dr. Cantin says, with areas that can recover if given a decade or so of prime conditions.

But the world is watching to see what will happen next.

Will tour operators and the Australian government speak with more force about the damage from climate change? Will the giant Adani coal mine, which would bring more coal ships close to the reef, gain final approval? Will more of the reef die — or recover — in the coming year?….https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/26/world/australia/letter20-great-barrier-reef-climate-change-coral.html

July 28, 2017 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, climate change, environment, politics | Leave a comment

Florida Power & Light nuclear plans contested by regulators and community and business groups

State regulators grapple with Florida Power & Light nuclear plans Orlando Weekly  By Jim Saunders, News Service of Florida on Thu, Jul 27, 2017 With Florida Power & Light saying it expects to “pause” the project, state regulators next month will wade into a dispute about how to handle the utility’s long-discussed plans to add two nuclear reactors in Miami-Dade County.

The dispute, detailed in documents filed last week at the Florida Public Service Commission, pits FPL against consumer representatives, the city of Miami and business and environmental groups.

At least in part, it involves an FPL strategy to continue pursuing a crucial license for the reactors and then pausing for what could be years before making decisions about whether to move forward with the project. The utility is asking the Public Service Commission to allow it to recoup costs from customers in the future for the licensing and other expenses.

But opponents of the request argue FPL has not submitted a needed study that would show whether the nuclear project is feasible. They say the utility should not be given approval to continue adding millions of dollars in costs and billing customers later……..

opponents question whether FPL will ever build the reactors and say customers should not face the prospect of added costs.

“FPL’ s position begs a basic policy question: If FPL cannot produce a feasibility analysis showing that pursuing the reactors makes economic sense for customers, why would the (Public Service) Commission saddle customers with more risk and costs?” said a document filed last week by the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, one of the opposition groups.

The issue is rooted in a 2006 state law that was designed to encourage the development of nuclear power in Florida. That controversial law allowed utilities to incrementally collect money from customers for costly nuclear projects, rather than recouping project costs after reactors start operating……..
“FPL has not satisfied, and almost certainly cannot satisfy, the statutory requirement that it prove that it has committed sufficient resources to enable its Turkey Point project to be completed, and that its alleged intent to do so is realistic or practical,” the Florida Retail Federation said in a filing last week. “FPL has not filed a realistic feasibility study for its project for more than two years, and in those intervening years, significant developments have occurred that cast serious doubt on the viability value of pursuing the COL for (the Turkey Point reactors).” https://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/archives/2017/07/27/state-regulators-grapple-with-florida-power-and-light-nuclear-plans

July 28, 2017 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

Lawmakers are forcing taxpayers to go nuclear.

Taxpayers shouldn’t have to bail out the nuclear industry: David Williams Press Journal 27 July 17 Lawmakers are forcing taxpayers to go nuclear.

Now that nuclear energy is becoming less competitive nationwide, lawmakers are responding by using Americans’ hard-earned dollars to bail out floundering nuclear plants.

But government handouts are no way to protect consumers. Rather than favor certain energy sources over others, lawmakers should let consumers benefit from a competitive, level energy playing field.

Many nuclear companies are struggling to compete with other forms of energy. As a result, nuclear bailouts are becoming the norm.

Consider Illinois. Last year, Chicago-based Exelon — the owner of Three Mile Island — announced that without government intervention, its power plants in Clinton and the Quad Cities would be forced to shut down. So legislators cooked up the Future Energy Jobs Act, which will throw a $200 million a year lifeline to Exelon — allowing its plants to limp on.

And they’ll pay for that bailout with the largest tax-rate increase in U.S. history. The scheme would hit Illinois residents with an extra $16.4 billion in energy costs. All told, the plan would forgo $14.7 billion in economic activity and $429 million in local and state tax revenue, costing Illinois up to 44,000 jobs……

In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo approved a similar plan to spend $7.6 billion to save struggling nuclear plants. Exelon is purchasing an additional plant in the Empire State on the condition that the state’s government help pick up the tab by raising utility rates.

That’ll cost New Yorkers big time. Indeed, experts estimate the plan will rob New Yorkers of $3.4 billion over the first five years — and more in the long term. New York and federal taxpayers will also feel the pinch when energy costs for state and federal buildings increase.

The bailouts don’t stop there. Now that nuclear companies have locked down funding models in Illinois and New York, they’re getting ready to turn to other states for more money.

In Ohio, for instance, another power company, FirstEnergy, is looking to sell its floundering plants near Cleveland and Toledo. Exelon is considering moving in — asking the state for a little help in taking over the facilities. Nuclear companies are also eyeing handouts in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Connecticut.

These other states should look to New York and Illinois as cautionary tales. Throwing taxpayer-subsidized lifelines to nuclear energy will hurt energy markets across America, resulting in poorer service, less choice, and higher utility rates for customers.

Indeed, if all nuclear plants in the northeast and mid-Atlantic win similar subsidies, it could cost ratepayers an astounding $3.9 billion a year, according to a report by Bloomberg Intelligence…….

David Williams is president of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to educating the public on the government’s effects on the economy. http://www.pressandjournal.com/stories/taxpayers-shouldnt-have-to-bail-out-the-nuclear-industry-david-williams,16140

July 28, 2017 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

Indian State Government hands over land for nuclear development, displacing 2,200 families

Nuclear plant: 473 acres handed over toNPCIL, The Hindu, STAFF REPORTER, SRIKAKULAM,JULY 27, 2017  Remaining 1,500 acres to be given in three months

The State government on Wednesday handed over 473 acres of land to the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) to facilitate construction of an atomic power plant in Kovvada village of Ranasthalam mandal in the district.

The government would hand over the remaining 1,500 acres of land in three months. Revenue Divisional Officer B. Dayanidhi handed over the relevant documents to NPCIL Project Director, Kovvada, G.V. Ramesh, at a programme organised in the office of the tahsildar in Ranasthalam……..

According to the revenue officials, the government will construct a model colony for the 2,200 families facing displacement in Dharmavaram village of Etcherla mandal in the district. An extent of 250 acres of forest land has already been acquired for the construction of the colony. ……http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/andhra-pradesh/nuclear-plant-473-acres-handed-over-to-npcil/article19366598.ece

July 28, 2017 Posted by | India, politics | Leave a comment

3 big errors in UK’s debate about Euratom

Mark Johnson’s Blog 23rd July 2017, In the current UK debate about Euratom, there are three common errors.

July 26, 2017 Posted by | politics, UK | Leave a comment

Israel STILL punishing Mordechai Vanunu

The Ferret 18th July 2017, On 10 July 2017, Mordechai Vanunu was given a two-month suspended jail
sentence by Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court. Vanunu is a former nuclear
technician at the Negev Nuclear Research Centre in Dimona, Israel, who
served an 18-year prison sentence for revealing information about
Israel’s atomic program in 1986.

He was sentenced earlier this month for
violating the conditions of his release from prison, having met with
foreigners in recent years. After his release from jail in 2004, Israel
banned Vanunu from travelling abroad or speaking with foreigners without
approval, alleging he has more details to divulge on the Dimona atomic
reactor.

Billy Briggs has been to Jerusalem twice to interview Vanunu. In
2005, Vanunu was arrested three days after they met and charged with
speaking to foreigners and violating the conditions of his parole. https://theferret.scot/mordechai-vanunu-nuclear-israel/

July 26, 2017 Posted by | Israel, politics | 1 Comment

South Korea’s process on the Suspension of 2 Nuclear Reactors

Gov’t Begins Process to Decide on Suspension of 2 Nuclear Reactors http://world.kbs.co.kr/english/news/news_Po_detail.htm?No=128915 2017-07-24 Former Supreme Court justice Kim Ji-hyung has been appointed as the head of a state committee tasked with gauging public sentiment on the permanent suspension of construction of two nuclear reactors.

The Office for Government Policy Coordination on Monday announced the list of the nine-member committee, consisting of Kim, now a lawyer, and eight experts of humanities and social sciences, science and technology, polling and statistics, and conflict management.

After receiving the certificates of appointment from Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon, the committee members held their first meeting.

The committee will form a civil jury, who will decide on whether or not to permanently suspend the construction of the Shin-Kori 5 and 6 reactors in Ulsan.

Late last month, the government decided to temporarily suspend the construction of the two reactors, saying it will let the public decide on whether to move forward with the reactors’ construction through an up to three-month-long public discussion.

July 26, 2017 Posted by | politics, South Korea | Leave a comment

France to set out options for nuclear power closures, in 2018

France to spell out nuclear closure options in 2018, (Montel) Aia Helena Brnic, aia@montel.no, 26 July 2017 The French government will next year spell out different scenarios on how to cut the share of nuclear in its power mix, as the nation looks to step up its renewable generation.

 Energy minister Nicolas Hulot told parliament late on Tuesday that the different scenarios will be “put on the table” and debated at the government’s next multiannual energy programme (PPE) in 2018.

“I prefer that we put all the scenarios on the table in the PPE [next year] and look at what is realistic and what is not,” Hulot said at a hearing in the lower house of parliament, insisting that France will not be able to avoid nuclear reactors closures.

The minister had earlier said that France would need to close up to 25 out of its 58 operational reactors to achieve its nuclear objectives…..https://www.montel.no/StartPage/SubPage.aspx?id=815053

July 26, 2017 Posted by | France, politics | Leave a comment

Trump picks an advocate of pre-emptive nuclear strike for his defense team

Trump’s new nuclear defense pick once wrote, “America must be ready to nuke first.” New Republic, Emily Atkin, 21 July 17   The White House announced a slew of nominations earlier this week to fill some of the many open positions in the administration. The last on the list was Guy B. Roberts, whom Trump tapped to be the assistant secretary for nuclear, chemical, and biological defense programs at the Department of Defense. In this role, Roberts will “prevent, protect against, and respond to weapons of mass destruction threats,” according to the DOD website. He’ll also advise the secretary of defense in “matters concerning nuclear, chemical, and biological defense programs.” ……..

During the campaign, Trump took a terrifyingly casual attitude toward nukes, saying America should “greatly strengthen and expand” its capability. Two Democratic senators introduced a bill this year that would essentially pry the nuclear football out of Trump’s hands by mandating that America can never launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike. But unlike other countries, the U.S. has always kept the option of first-use on the table. If that hasn’t changed under less hawkish presidents, it almost certainly won’t change under Trump.https://newrepublic.com/minutes/143978/trumps-new-nuclear-defense-pick-wrote-america-must-ready-nuke-first

July 26, 2017 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

Financially unachievable – UK govt’s £43 billion plans to replace the Trident nuclear weapons system

Plans to replace Trident slammed as “unachievable” by Westminster watchdog, http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15427620.Plans_to_replace_Trident_slammed_as____unachievable____by_Westminster_watchdog/ 23rd July, THE UK Government’s £43 billion plans to replace the Trident nuclear weapons system and build a new fleet of nuclear-powered submarines for the Clyde are “in doubt” or “unachievable”, according to a high-powered Westminster spending watchdog.

A new report from the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) to the Cabinet Office and the Treasury in London has condemned three major nuclear projects run by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for being poorly managed, over-budget and beset by technical problems.

The financial rating for a submarine reactor manufacturing plant has been sharply downgraded for 2017, while two other nuclear submarine projects have had “major risks” every year for the last three years. All of the IPA’s assessment of a fourth £20bn plan to upgrade Trident warheads has been kept secret for national security reasons.

To try and combat the problems the MoD has launched a major reorganisation and set up a new Submarine Delivery Agency. It has also renamed the Trident replacement programme Dreadnought, and engaged in “rebaselining” to delay project delivery.

The IPA report, which covers 143 projects run by 17 UK Government departments, was posted online last week. Buried in a table and spreadsheet released at the same time were damning indictments of the MoD’s flagship nuclear projects.

A £1.7bn project to build new submarine reactor manufacturing plants at Rolls Royce in Derby called Core Production Capability is given the IPA’s worst rating of ‘red’ for 2017. “Successful delivery of the project appears to be unachievable,” said IPA.

“There are major issues with project definition, schedule, budget, quality and/or benefits delivery, which at this stage do not appear to be manageable or resolvable. The project may need re-scoping and/or its overall viability reassessed.”

The reactor plants were £250 million over budget and needed “rebaselining” to meet target dates, IPA said. It had previously rated the plants as “amber” in 2015 and 2016, meaning they they had “significant issues” requiring management attention.

The £31.6bn project to build four new nuclear-armed Dreadnought submarines to replace Trident and a £9.9bn programme to build seven new conventionally-armed nuclear-powered Astute-class submarines were both rated as “amber/red” for the third year running. All the submarines are due to be based at Faslane on the Gareloch near Helensburgh.

According to the IPA an amber/red rating suggests the schemes may not be viable. “Successful delivery of the project is in doubt, with major risks or issues apparent in a number of key areas,” it said.

“Urgent action is needed to address these problems and/or assess whether resolution is feasible.”

Three of the Astute submarines have been delivered to the MoD, and four are still to be completed. “Overall affordability remains the programme’s key challenge,” said the IPA.

The date when the nuclear-armed Dreadnought submarines are currently scheduled to be ready to replace ageing Trident boats has been kept secret. The Vanguard-class submarines that carry Trident nuclear missiles have already had their lives extended from 25 to 38 years.

The IPA has also assessed the financial viability of the MoD’s £20bn Nuclear Warhead Capability Sustainment Programme to upgrade the weapons. But its verdict has been deleted from its report on the grounds that it is exempt from freedom of information law under national security and defence provisions.

The Scottish National Party argued that Trident costs were escalating out of control. “A billion here – a billion there – to add to the bill for these weapons of mass destruction,” said SNP defence spokesperson, Stewart McDonald MP.

“The Westminster obsession with Trident is already squeezing conventional defence expenditure as everything else is sacrificed for these redundant, eye-wateringly expensive weapons. The Tories need to get a grip on costs if they insist on Trident renewal.”

Arthur West, chair of the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, pointed out that MoD projects kept going substantially over budget. “The Trident programme in particular continues to be a shambles from a cost point of view,” he said.

The Nuclear Information Service, which monitors nuclear activities, warned that the UK was going to encounter more problems building a new generation of nuclear weapons. “The delays and cost increases that we are already seeing cast further doubt on the MoD’s ability to deliver these projects on time and within budget,” said the group’s research manager, David Cullen.

The MoD has set aside a “contingency” of £10bn in case replacing the four Trident submarines costs more that the estimated £31bn. There were matters relating to nuclear weapons that it could not discuss openly, it said.

“These ratings reflect the complexity and scale of delivering the most advanced submarines ever commissioned by the Royal Navy, the ultimate guarantee of our national security,” stated an MoD spokesperson.

“We are determined to get our submarine programmes right. That’s why we have established a new Director General Nuclear sponsor organisation and a new Submarine Delivery Agency.”

July 24, 2017 Posted by | politics, UK, weapons and war | Leave a comment

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