Delay and doubts on Czech Republic’s nuclear power future
Political Delays to Hamper Czech Nuclear Tender, WSJ< By SEAN CARNEY, 26 June 13, The Czech Republic’s new interim prime minister Tuesday said he wouldn’t make any decisions that define the country’s long-term geopolitical orientation, likely delaying by months or potentially a year the decision whether the country will sign a $10 billion contract to expand its nuclear capacity.
“I won’t make strategic decisions,” said newly sworn-in Prime Minister
Jiri Rusnok, referring to the tender for two new nuclear reactors at
the Temelin nuclear power plant that would be built by an
American-Japanese consortium or by a Russian state-run company.
This throws into question whether Czech 70% state-owned electricity
company CEZAS BAACEZ.PR +0.89% (BAACEZ.PR) will be able to meet its
end of September deadline to select a winner from the tender
process……..
Mr. Rusnok–who Tuesday replaced Petr Necas as prime minister
following a corruption scandal that led the arrest of Mr. Necas’s
chief of staff–said signing off on the nuclear expansion plan
requires deeper analysis than selecting a winner based solely on the
project’s supposed economics and profitability.
The Prague-based company this spring put back its deadline to
September from the earlier envisaged July to select a tender winner
between Westinghouse Electricity Co., a unit of Japan’s Toshiba Corp.
6502.TO -1.08% (6502.TO), or Russian state-owned Rosatom…….
This is the largest-ever contract in value offered by the Czech
Republic and is the only active tender for new nuclear capacity in the
European Union.
The final decision, which would align Czech industry and politics with
Russian or Western partners for the next half-century, requires
approval of CEZ’s majority shareholder, the Czech state as represented
by the government….. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323419604578568831986807530.html
Nuclear firms gave big bucks to US congressmen to promote MOX nuclear program
Energy Department Nuclear Nonproliferation Program Plagued By Problems Center For Public Integrity HUFFINGTON POST By Douglas Birch and R. Jeffrey Smith, 25 June 13 “…..For years, the plant has been kept alive by South Carolina’s mostly Republican congressional delegation, which includes many strident critics of federal spending, budget deficits, and mammoth public works projects – including Sen. Tim Scott (R.) and Rep. Joe Wilson (R.). On the issue of the MOX plant, which employs 2,100 workers, they have been hugely supportive.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), joined others on Capitol Hill in January in asserting that “the time has come for the President to face up to the need to control federal spending.” Since then, Graham has lectured DOE officials at hearings on the diplomatic and security disaster that would ensue if the Savannah River project was halted.
With three other Republican senators, Graham pledged in a joint statement last month to hold up nominations and use the budget process “to ensure the [MOX] program moves forward.”
Graham declined to comment for this article. According to an analysis by the Center for Public Integrity of campaign donations and leadership committee receipts listed by the Center for Responsive Politics, Graham has received $46,500 since 2001 from three private firms with a stake in the MOX project. In total, the firms provided at least $437,000 in campaign funds during this period to members of the four congressional committees that decide the Energy Department’s annual budge
Rep. James Clyburn (D.-S.C.), who has long been a member of the House Democratic leadership and who has boasted about helping block Hobson’s challenge to the plant, collected $51,000 in political funding from the firms, whose lobbyists and officers also donated $40,000 to a golf charity he runs. Clyburn’s spokeswoman Hope Derrick said the congressman “is solely motivated by the best interests of the people and communities he serves in Congress.”
In the last three years alone, Areva and Shaw have spent a total of $6.3 million to lobby for their legislative interests, including efforts by at least four former congressmen and some former committee staffers that advocated spending on MOX and nuclear issues, according to an analysis by the Center for Public Integrity……”.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/25/energy-department-nuclear-nonproliferation_n_
Obama’s Climate Action Plan : the facts
Fact box on Obama’s climate action plan http://www.smh.com.au/business/carbon-economy/fact-box-on-obamas-climate-action-plan-20130625-2ov92.html#ixzz2XMRTluIq June 25, 2013 The White House on Tuesday released a plan to cut global carbon pollution and address the effects of climate change in three broad ways: cutting carbon pollution domestically, preparing the country to be resilient to climate impacts, and leading international efforts to target climate change.
Below are key highlights of the administration’s “Climate Action Plan:” (Read full report here.) Continue reading
No to Oak Ridge nuclear wastes – says Nevada Governor
Nevada Gov. Tells Feds To Bury ‘Dirty Bomb’ Nuclear Waste Elsewhere June 21, 2013 CBS, LAS VEGAS (AP) — Nevada’s governor is telling the federal government the state doesn’t want highly radioactive waste of the type that could be used to build a “dirty bomb” buried in a shallow pit at the former national nuclear proving ground north of Las Vegas.
The federal Energy Department is reviewing Gov. Brian Sandoval’s letter opposing plans to ship about 400 canisters of waste from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee to the Nevada National Security
Site, agency spokeswoman Aoife McCarthy said Friday.
Sandoval, a Republican former federal judge and state attorney general, accused the Energy Department of trying to set a dangerous precedent by exploiting a regulatory loophole to classify the waste as a low-level hazard so that it can be buried at the former test site about 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The governor said the material should be handled as high-level radioactive waste.
“This dangerous waste should be managed in the same manner as remote-handled transuranic waste,” Sandoval said, noting that the Energy Department provides hands-free handling and permanent deep-geologic storage of similar material at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M.
The governor also accused the Energy Department of failing to adequately address concerns of affected local governments and Indian tribes.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported (http://bit.ly/1982fbx) that Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid and U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nevada, are backing Sandoval…….
Even if the canisters meet a “legalistic definition” of low-level waste, Sandoval said in his letter, they aren’t suitable for shallow land burial at the Nevada National Security Site.
The governor noted that the canisters contain a high concentration of isotope uranium 235 and uranium 233 that would be a danger to workers and a potential source of dirty bomb material……. http://lasvegas.cbslocal.com/2013/06/21/nevada-gov-tells-feds-to-bury-dirty-bomb-nuclear-waste-elsewhere/
Dispossession of Aboriginal land for the benefit of mining companies
The Intervention’s extraordinary damage to the Aboriginal sense of control and wellbeing makes it the gravest policy disaster in Australia since the removal of Aboriginal children in the Stolen Generations.
The Australian Government is facilitating this exploitation of mineral wealth as well as directing the major
development contracts not to Aboriginal communities but to those tycoons heading mining companies and construction alliances.
THE WAY AHEAD: The new land grab Tracker, BY JEFF MCMULLEN, JUNE 21, 2013 Neo-liberalism is ahungry beast and this 21st Century strain of capitalism is shaping the agenda for control of Aboriginal lands…..
Australian Government policy is heavily influenced by neo-liberalism through its extraordinary emphasis on managing access for mining companies to resources on Aboriginal lands. This involves controlling
what is still perceived as ‘the Aboriginal problem’ and forcing a social transition from traditional values and Cultural practice to ‘mainstream’ modernism of a particular brand. It also involves displacing many Aboriginal people from their traditional lands and concentrating them in ‘growth towns’……
Now the struggle for Aboriginal land and rights is entering a new phase because of the aggressive global marketing of the resources most essential for a fast growing human population, including water, food,
minerals, energy and the land itself.
To make any sense of the aggression behind most current Indigenous policy in Australia you need to study the impact of neo-liberalism around the globe….. Make no mistake, neo-liberalism is about dispossession. Continue reading
doubt over future of Nuclear Regulatory Commission chairwoman
The botched repair job that doomed a California nuclear plant has created a political whirlpool that may be close to claiming another victim: the chairwoman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The issue is no longer the plant itself, San Onofre, which the majority owner, Southern California Edison, announced on June 7 it would permanently close. The problem now is that Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California, who is chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and a longtime critic of nuclear power, has been seeking documents from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission about the work the utility did and how the commission oversaw that work.
The chairwoman of the commission, Allison M. Macfarlane, agreed during her confirmation hearing to a blanket request to provide documents. Opponents of nuclear power say that some of the San Onofre documents could raise safety issues about plants that are still running. Ms. Boxer’s office said they could also influence California regulators as they decide who should pay the nearly $1 billion cost of addressing the failed repair.
The Senate committee and the nuclear commission are locked in a dispute over the documents, and Dr. Macfarlane’s term ends on June 30. President Obama — who appointed her to fill out the term of the previous chairman, Gregory B. Jaczko, who resigned under pressure last year — has nominated Dr. Macfarlane for a full five-year term, but Ms. Boxer is refusing to have the committee vote on the nomination until the argument over the documents is settled.
The Senate has only three meeting days left before June 30. Dr. Macfarlane, a geologist, has told friends that she has been offered a university teaching position and will accept it if she is not confirmed for a full term. Continue reading
UK’s new nuclear plan will dramatically increase electricity costs
Electricity From New UK Nuclear Plant To Be Linked to Inflation WSJ, By SELINA WILLIAMS AND GERALDINE AMIEL, 18 June 13, The U.K. government has agreed that the guaranteed fixed price for electricity from a new nuclear power plant that Electricite de France SA EDF.FR +0.30% (EDF.FR) wants to build would be fully linked to inflation, said people familiar with the matter, a move that would add tens of billions of pounds to the total cost of electricity from the reactors.
The agreement to inflation-link the electricity price EDF would receive–known as the strike price–for 35 years substantially eases the financial risks for the French utility for constructing two nuclear reactors, but there is still no deal on the actual price, the people said.
The whole nuclear plant is estimated to cost around 14 billion pounds ($22 billion) to build.
EDF, the world’s largest nuclear operator, seeks a strike price between GBP95 to GBP100 per megawatt hour of electricity while the government would rather settle around GBP80 to GBP85 per megawatt hour, one of the people said. The current wholesale electricity price is around GBP48/MWh. The talks are expected to continue for several weeks, the person said.
Whether EDF and the U.K. can reach an agreement is seen as a litmus test for nuclear energy and its economic viability in Europe……
The agreement links the strike price, which amounts to an indirect subsidy for nuclear power, to an inflation measure called the consumer price index, one of the people said. This would dramatically increase the costs to taxpayers, said Roland Vetter, head of research at CF Partners, an environment and energy advisory, trading and investment
firm.
“Indexation is important because it will increase the subsidies every year in line with inflation and the public therefore will carry thelong-term inflation risk in their electricity bills,…… http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323566804578553030018924570.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Nuclear power problems in South Korea
South Korea’s Nuclear Blues The Diplomat, By Sebastian Sarmiento-Saher June 19, 2013 “…..Although South Korea’s burgeoning nuclear energy industry looks set to become a world leader, Seoul will first have to address domestic corruption in the atomic sector and international questions regarding its right to reprocess spent fuel at home. Continue reading
Nuclear industry’s call for subsidies for SMRs must be rejected
During times of economic stress, the nuclear industry has a tradition of rushing forth to proclaim a new technology just around the corner will sweep current problems aside. Unfortunately, these visions have an equally long tradition of expensive failure, most often at taxpayers’ expense. The Department of Energy’s efforts to spend taxpayer dollars on Small Modular Reactors will simply continue this legacy of failure and must be rejected.
Taxpayer Subsidies for Small Modular Reactors Taxpayers for Common Sense February 27, 2013 Download: Golden Fleece: Taxpayer Subsidies for Small Nuclear Reactors (pdf)
The Department of Energy (DOE) is asking Congress to provide hundreds of millions in subsidies to commercialize small modular reactors (SMR). First proposed in the 2011 budget, the Administration has committed to providing more than $500 million dollars for licensing support and research and development for these downsized nuclear reactors. A fraction of the size of conventional-scale reactors, SMRs would be manufactured by assembly line and transported by truck, ship, or rail to their destinations. With designs ranging in size from one-third the size of a large-scale plant down to the size of a hot tub, SMRs will also produce significantly less power: 300 megawatts electrical (MWe) or less compared to 1,000 MWe for a typical commercial-scale reactor.
SMRs will likely never be a good investment, but in the current fiscal climate taxpayers must be especially concerned with any dollars DOE doles out. High-risk, high-cost, and highly questionable, small modular reactors don’t just look like bad investment they are a ridiculous waste. For a range of reasons, subsidies for SMRs equal nothing more than another handout for the nuclear industry. Continue reading
Obama and Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power, Part 2: Nukenomics , By Ned Madden, 14 June 13 TechNewsWorld “……..President Barack Obama, who has received throughout his political career significant campaign contributions from the nuclear industry, has consistently been an outspoken advocate for nuclear power.
In Feb. 2010, Obama pledged $8 billion in loan guarantees needed to build the first U.S. nuclear reactors in nearly three decades. Obama’s $27.2 billion FY 2013 budget request for the DoE included $770 million for nuclear energy, with $65 million for cost-shared awards to support first-of-a-kind SMRs, and $60 million for nuclear waste R&D.
Of course, what can be given can also be taken away.
An FY 2014 budget put forward by the administration in April 2013 cut funding for a key plutonium reprocessing facility in South Carolina that transforms weapons-grade plutonium into usable commercial nuclear reactor fuel, and which is a component of the United States’ international nonproliferation efforts. The budget included only $503 million — $183 million less than was provided under last year’s continuing resolution, when Congress failed to pass a budget.,,,,http://www.technewsworld.com/story/78268.html
USA Federal Subsidies for Small Modular Reactors
Department Of Energy’s Small Modular Reactor Program
Savannah River Nuclear Development Site
Taxpayer Subsidies for Small Modular Reactors Taxpayers for Common Sense February 27, 2013 Download: Golden Fleece: Taxpayer Subsidies for Small Nuclear Reactors (pdf) “…..Federal Subsidies for Small Modular Reactors Federal support for SMRs is provided through a subsidy program for commercial nuclear power that can be traced back to the 1950s when federal subsidies for nuclear power reached astronomical levels. Not only did the government develop reactor and enrichment technology for the private sector, it also assumed legal responsibility for nuclear waste disposal, something never done for any other industry. In addition, the government issued multimillion-dollar development grants for many reactor technologies (most since abandoned) and distributed research reactors around the world. Continue reading
Japan’s government ignoring nuclear phaseout policy, and public opinion
Energy report skips nuclear phase-out Japan Times, KYODO JUN 15, 2013 Japan’s annual energy report released Friday barely refers to the fact that the previous government upheld a goal to phase out nuclear powerin the 2030s, reflecting the pro-nuclear stance of the current government.
The latest Energy White Paper covers a period between last August and around March, during which the previous government led by the Democratic Party of Japan compiled a new energy strategy in light of
the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.
The most controversial part in the strategy was a pledge to “devote all policy resources to enable zero nuclear power plant operation in the 2030s,” but the white paper does not use the phrase in explaining
the strategy…….
The zero-nuclear goal shows up in the white paper once, but only as part of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s quoted statement, which criticizes the energy strategy for stirring concerns and distrust among the local
governments hosting nuclear plants and businesses.
The goal, if maintained, would have marked a massive shift in Japan’s
decades-long promotion of nuclear power……
The white paper also touches on a poll conducted by the previous
government seeking to gauge public opinion on energy policy, but does
not mention that the government at that time concluded that at least a
majority of the people are hoping for a society that does not rely on
nuclear power.
Of the 50 commercial reactors, only two, in western Japan, are online.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/06/15/business/energy-report-skips-nuclear-phase-out/#.UbzfVudwo6I
Continuing taxpayer support for nuclear idnustry
Nuclear Power, Part 2: Nukenomics By Ned Madden, 14 June 13 “………The Energy Policy Act of 2005
The federal “open wallet” strategy for nuclear energy was fully apparent in the U.S. Energy Policy Act of 2005, which not only extended Price-Anderson through 2025, but also provided the nuclear industry with financial incentives to build new nuclear power plants. Among other incentives, the act provided a production tax credit of 1.8 cents per kilowatt hour for up to 6,000 MWe of capacity from new, qualified advanced nuclear power facilities for eight years.
The first application for a new reactor eligible for this incentive was submitted in September 2007 for an expansion of the South Texas Project.
Later, under an amendment in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Section 406, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 authorized loan guarantees for “innovative” technologies that avoid greenhouse gases. These technologies include carbon capture and storage, renewable energy, and advanced nuclear reactor designs such as pebble bed modular reactors.
One result is that tax reductions of $4.8 billion were made available for nuclear power……..
‘Golden Fleece Award’
In February, Taxpayers for Common Sense handed out its “Golden Fleece Award” to the DoE for the dollars being spent on SMRs.
Why the dubious honor?
The DoE has already provided nearly $100 million for SMRs, while their commercial viability remains in question, the group charged. In addition, DoE has committed up to $452 million over the next five years to fund up to two separate demonstration projects.
If DoE believes there is a “need and market” for SMRs, the mature and profitable nuclear industry should bear the full risk and cost of making SMRs a reality, Autumn Hanna, TCS’s senior program director, told TechNewsWorld.
“In these tight budget times, federal taxpayers cannot afford to provide additional subsidies to the nuclear power industry,” Hanna explained.
Scrap all Fukushima prefecture nuclear reactors, says Governor
Fukushima Governor Seeks Scrapping Of All Nuke Reactors RTT News6/12/2013 The Japanese government has been asked to scrap all nuclear reactors in the Fukushima prefecture, where one of the two nuclear power plants had a disastrous accident two years ago, displacing tens of thousands of residents.
Fukushima Governor Yuhei Sato met with Economy, Trade & Industry Minister Toshimitsu Motegi in Tokyo on Wednesday and handed over a letter raising the demand, Japanese media reported.
Sato said Fukushima was aiming for sustained regional development without relying on nuclear power, and it wanted the government to take responsibility in decommissioning all reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi and Daini nuclear plants….. http://www.rttnews.com/2134682/fukushima-governor-seeks-scrapping-of-all-nuke-reactors.aspx?type=gn&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=sitemap
Akie Abe – Japan’s anti nuclear “ opposition party within the family.”
Akie Abe, His “Anti-Nuclear” Wife JUNE 12, 2013 In Japan, wives aren’t part of the show. Back in the day, they walked a few feet behind their husbands. Old couples can still be seen progressing down the sidewalk in that manner. In politics, wives still aren’t part of the show – though recently, they’ve been seen deplaning with their husbands when they alight in Western countries, even holding hands while waving to photographers.
But when a wife suddenly invites herself to the show, and not demurely behind or next to her husband, but vocally at the opposite end of where he stands, it causes a stir. In particular if she takes on the nuclear power industry. Continue reading
1 This Month
of the week – THE ONENESS of HUMANITY
25 June- THE PUKE ON NUKES
Thursday, June 25, 2026
7pm Central Time (8pm ET, 6pm MT, 5pm PT) UTC – 5
From NRC & DOE Deregulation to Techno-Fascist Billionaires Going Nuclear, Plus a Few Songs from Atomic Cabaret REGISTER
26 June – Radiation Trainwreck at the NRC / Join the Protect Better Campaign – https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/4ZlZ5_qLSHGiLSCg8FF6Bg#/registration
1st July – Webinar Waste of Space: The Environmental Harm of Military and Civil Space Activity st July, 7 pm
Report Launch Online: We are seeing an increasing exploitation of space for military and commercial purposes. This must change.
Protect Sazan Island from the Trump family! https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/protect_sazan_island_from_the_trump_family_loc/?bqFCVab&v=174511&cl=22707147157&_checksum=5e9dde668860e8231c33699735e16a1fbf22ab2cb01da50c999fe8732b9775ef&utm_source=email&utm_medium=blast_email&utm_campaign=174511
Cuba Is Not a Failed State – It Is a Besieged State
PETITION: “Global Appeal to Endorse Palestinian Right of Return of Refugees”
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