Vogtle nuclear plant loan guarantee negotiations drag on slowly
Nuclear Energy Institute chief finds Vogtle loan guarantee delays troubling December 12, 2012 By Matthew Bandyk The U.S. nuclear industry is hoping the Vogtle nuclear plant project in Georgia will spur the construction of other nuclear reactors this decade.
But continued delays in negotiations between Southern Co. subsidiary Georgia Power Co., the lead developer of the Vogtle project, and the U.S. Department of Energy over the final terms of a federal loan guarantee are creating troubling implications for the program, Nuclear Energy Institute President and CEO Marvin Fertel said Dec. 12….. Continue reading
Japan: political win for the nuclear Mafia
Far Right Dinosaur Party Wins Japan Elections http://rense.com/general95/farright.html By Richard Wilcox 12-16-12 Looking over the results on the TV here in Japan, the far right CIA created and sustained “Liberal Democratic Party” (LDP) which ruled Japan since WWII is back in power, BIG TIME. They won almost all the seats. The only other parties to win numerous seats are almost or just as far right and as pathologically fueled by power.
All of these parties are captured by the Nuclear Mafia and fiercely devoted to the continuation of nuclear power, if not the development of nuclear weapons to boot. Don’t ask me why the Japanese vote for these nuts and if you ask folks, “why?” they like a certain candidate, they are at a loss to give a reason and smile with embarrassment.
I guess the LDP pay off certain voting sectors with construction projects and kickbacks since they have a pile of stolen money hiddenaway.
Of course, the system is rigged so that only big money candidates can get enough votes. Also, culturally, Japanese tend to support the utmost superficial and glib politicians in a battle of form over substance. Same as USA! Japanese have forgotten about the nuclear disaster thanks to media manipulation so there has been no referendum on nuclear policy.
There are intelligent and sincere political parties and candidates in Japan but they get no-head way, because they are too principled and lack the funds, and the system is set up to block their progress (sounds like USA again, aka Ron Paul). Only the most cheeky and shameless people ascend to power.
Any of the mildly progressive or anti-nuclear power parties took a few pitiful token seats, which are probably in the restroom of theParliament building– the toilet seats.
Look for some of Japan’s nuclear power plants to start up next year, fast and furious, devil take the hindmost. To paraphrase the punk rock band the Sex Pistols: Never Mind The Earthquakes.
Nuclear energy’s friend Liberal Democratic Party wins in Japan elections
The anti-nuclear Tomorrow Party – formed just three weeks ago _captured just nine seats, according to NHK. Party head Yukiko Kada said she was very disappointed to see LDP, the original promoter of Japan’s nuclear energy policy making a big comeback.
Japan Elections 2012: LDP Wins Majority In Parliamentary Elections HUFFINGTON POST, By MALCOLM FOSTER 12/16/12 TOKYO — Japan’s conservative Liberal Democratic Party returned to power in a landslide election victory Sunday after three years in opposition, according to unofficial results,….
The victory means that the hawkish former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will get a second chance to lead the nation
after a one-year stint in 2006-2007. He would be Japan’s seventh prime minister in six-and-a-half years.
In the first election since the March 11, 2011, earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters, atomic energy ended up not being a major election issue even though polls show about 80 percent of Japanese want to phase out nuclear power…….
LDP, the most pro-nuclear power party, had 118 seats before the election. A new, staunchly anti-nuclear power party won just nine seats, according to NHK.
In the end, economic concerns won out, said Kazuhisa Kawakami, a political science professor at Meiji Gakuin University.
“We need to prioritize the economy, especially since we are an island nation,” he said. “We’re not like Germany. We can’t just get energy from other countries in a pinch.”….. Continue reading
City Council wants public hearings before San Onofre nuclear power plant permitted to re-open
LA wants public hearings on nuke plant LOS ANGELES, Dec. 14 (UPI) — Los Angles says it wants the San Onofre nuclear power plant kept out of commission unless its operator agrees to public hearings before it reopens.
The City Council will consider a resolution calling for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to keep the plant closed unless Southern California Edison agrees to a license amendment process that would include a public hearing process in which groups opposed to restarting
the plant could introduce evidence, the Los Angeles Times reported
Thursday…….. http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2012/12/14/LA-wants-public-hearings-on-nuke-plant/UPI-24381355521194/#ixzz2F9JvlDuI
Democratic and Republican lawmakers seek better tax code for renewable energy
US lawmakers to push tax code change for renewable energy in 2013 Climate Spectator, 13 Dec 2012 Reuters WASHINGTON, A group of U.S. lawmakers said on Wednesday that they plan to push ahead in the new year to change the tax code so renewable energy projects could qualify for beneficial tax structures commonly used by pipelines and other energy-related companies.
Democratic and Republican sponsors of proposed legislation said they think momentum is growing for their idea to allow wind, solar, biofuel and other renewable projects to structure as “master limited partnerships” (MLPs).
The structures allow companies to raise money in the stock market, while having income taxed only at the unit holder level, thus avoiding corporate income taxes.
“Small tweaks to the tax code could attract billions of dollars in private sector investment to renewable energy deployment,” the 29 lawmakers said in a letter to President Barack Obama, asking for the administration’s support…… http://www.climatespectator.com.au/news/us-lawmakers-push-tax-code-change-renewable-energy-2013
Britain’s taxpayers up for more than 100 billion pounds in nuclear cleanup
Nuclear clean-up to cost £100bn and take 120 years. Decommissioning, no2nuclearpower, 9 December 2012 BRITAIN’S taxpayers will be landed with a bill of more than £100bn for cleaning up radioactive waste from sites such as Sellafield and Dounreay, according to the chief executive of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA).
The amount represents a near-doubling of the £56bn cleanup cost announced when the NDA began operating in 2005, and could rise still more. The warning comes as NDA 
engineers start work on some of the biggest and most expensive engineering projects seen in Britain — building giant robotic grabs to lift deadly nuclear waste from Sellafield’s decaying 1950s repositories.
The buildings being targeted include Sellafield’s B29 and B30 cooling ponds, where decaying 1950s fuel rods are stored. This weekend John Clarke, chief executive of the NDA, said he was spending £3bn a year on the cleanup, with about £1.6bn of that going on Sellafield alone. Such sums are similar to those spent on the London Olympic site at the peak of construction.
Figures released by the Department of Energy and Climate Change show that, since Britain’s first nuclear power station opened in 1956, they have generated 2.5 billion megawatt hours of electricity — worth £125 billion at today’s prices. If the cost of building Britain’s 20-odd nuclear power stations (around £10bn-£12bn each in today’s money), is included, it would far exceed the value of the power produced, say experts.
Such figures show why power companies, which would be responsible for the waste, are refusing to build new nuclear power stations without government guarantees of a consumer subsidy that will almost double the market price for their power.
Sunday Times 9th Dec 2012 more >> http://www.no2nuclearpower.org.uk/news/daily12/daily.php?dailynewsid=343
In Japan’s elections, nuclear power is THE issue
Nuclear power ‘major issue’ in Japan poll SBS World News, 11 DEC 2012, SOURCE: KATESTOWELL, SBS Opinion polls have suggested the LDP is on course to return to government as the biggest party, but not with an outright majority.(AAP)
The future of nuclear power is shaping up as the major issue on voters’ minds ahead of national elections in Japan this week. … Continue reading
Hanford radioactive cleanup money leads to growth of Tri Cities area
The New Economy: Extreme radioactive contamination responsible for US’s fastest growing metro area http://enenews.com/new-economy-extreme-radioactive-contamination-responsible-uss-fastest-growing-metro-area December 6th, 2012
Title: Tri-Cities combine for nation’s fastest-growing metro area, boosted by federal money to mop up Hanford
Source: The Oregonian
Author: Richard Cockle
Date: December 05, 2012
Tri-Cities combine for nation’s fastest-growing metro area, boosted by federal money to mop up Hanford Continue reading
Chaos in Japan Restoration Party as leader backtracks on abolishing nuclear power
Ishihara nuke flip-flop puts party in crisis Japan Times , 2 Dec 12 By ERIC JOHNSTON
Staff writer OSAKA — With the kickoff of the Dec. 16 Lower House election campaign
just one day away, Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) is in chaos after party leader Shintaro Ishihara declared Friday that he would revise a promise to abolish nuclear power by the 2030s. The
former Tokyo governor’s declaration is adding to a growing sense in
and outside the party that the decision to merge with Osaka Mayor Toru
Hashimoto’s party was a mistake. Continue reading
Ishihara now ambivalent about nuclear power, and considers nuclear weapons for japan
Pro-nuclear Ishihara already wants to rewrite party platform
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/politics/AJ201212010053
December 01, 2012 THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
Japan Restoration Party leader Shintaro Ishihara on Nov. 30 suggested
he will rewrite the party’s day-old campaign promises for the Dec. 16
Lower House election to better reflect his pro-nuclear stance.
In a debate among the chiefs of 11 political parties at the Japan National Press Club, Ishihara was asked about his party’s platform that said “nuclear power generation at existing reactors would fade out by the 2030s.”
Ishihara, a former Tokyo governor, suggested that he will review the platform that he and acting leader Toru Hashimoto, the popular Osaka mayor, announced just the previous day.
He said the party will “think about” stopping some nuclear reactors through simulations. Continue reading
Confusion in Japan over nuclear policies
Japan grapples with nuclear question, Ft.com 2 Dec 12 By Jonathan Soble in Tokyo Japanese voters hoping to use December’s election to cast a ballot for or against nuclear power – the most emotionally charged issue in the
country since the Fukushima disaster – are getting little help from mainstream politicians.
Over the weekend, Japanese lawmakers across the political spectrum suggested in televised debates that the leading parties had converged on something close to a consensus – but their comments left plenty of room for confusion.
“Saying you can achieve zero nuclear in ten years or something is like
selling bananas in the street,” said Toru Hashimoto, the mayor
governor and founder of the upstart Restoration party, referring to
the way Japanese supermarkets used to sell cheap bananas in front of
their stores to draw in customers.
In September, the Democratic Party of Japan – which polls suggest will
be ousted on December 16 – unveiled a plan to abandon nuclear power by
2040. But it contained big loopholes and Prime Minister Yoshihiko
Noda’s administration watered it down days later by promising
“flexible” implementation.
Since Fukushima, Japan has grappled with whether to abandon nuclear
power, which previously provided 30 per cent of its electricity.Politicians have been seeking to balance unresolved safety concerns
with warnings from business about the high cost of abandoning atomic
energy.
Mr Hashimoto’s comments illustrate how far some parties have travelled
to join the emerging consensus. The former Osaka governor gained
attention after Fukushima as one of the most vocal critics of the
nuclear industry, accusing power companies of “lying” about the need
to keep atomic plants running to avoid electricity shortages.
His Restoration party is polling in second place, slightly ahead of
the DPJ with about 15 per cent support. Its campaign platform promises
to uphold the target for eliminating nuclear power by 2040. But Mr
Hashimoto said at the weekend that the timeline was a “starting point”
for policy rather than a hard-and-fast promise…..
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/75d1540c-3c60-11e2-a6b2-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2E1TCQFJH.
France’s confidence in nuclear power is cracking
First public debate on nuclear energy Oman daily Observer, 01 December 2012 By Muriel Boselli — For decades, the elite engineers turned out by Paris’s grand Corps des Mines academy were faithful followers of the pro-atomic creed that transformed their country into the most nuclear-reliant nation in the world. But a new generation of Mines graduates is starting to question that policy. It is a change of mindset that could aid efforts by President Francois Hollande to cut reliance on nuclear power from 75 per cent to 50 per cent of the electricity mix by 2025……
The Corps des Mines became an example of French post-war “dirigisme”
— the policy under which the state seeks to direct the economy —
determining how nuclear energy was used for civilian and military
purposes, with the development of France’s atomic bomb.
The construction of 58 nuclear reactors prompted successive French
governments to invest massively in electric heating to absorb the
supplies. France became the world’s top electricity exporter. Now some
Mines graduates say the heavy dependence on one energy form means
France struggles to cope with seasonal demand spikes…..
Alumni include Anne Lauvergeon, ex-head of nuclear giant Areva,
current head of France’s nuclear energy watchdog ASN, Pierre-Franck
Chevet, his predecessor Andre-Claude Lacoste, and Jacques Repussard of
the IRSN nuclear safety institute.
Socialism in Florida – taxpayers take finacial risks, nuclear company gets profits
Nuclear reactor tax puts unfair risk on customers By
Stephen Smith http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/fl-sscol-oped1130-20121130,0,5749854.story
11:26 a.m. EST, November 30, 2012
A misguided state law that allows big power companies to shift costs
and financial risk to customers for new nuclear power generation is
the last thing Florida’s families and businesses need as they dig out
of the worst recession in recent memory.
In 2006, the Florida legislature passed a bill to promote the
construction of new nuclear reactors, but it did this by shifting all
the costs and financial risk from utility company shareholders to its
customers. It allows companies, such as Florida Power & Light to bill
customers for specific costs before new reactors are built.
The law essentially imposes a “nuclear tax” by forcing customers to
pay preconstruction costs, including a hefty return to power company
shareholders, through their utility bills. Customers are charged
before the reactor has even produced electricity. In fact, the law
allows a big power company to recover all of its construction costs
for a reactor project even if it chooses to abandon it. This could
leave FPL customers on the hook for billions of dollars.
Last year, the Florida Public Service Commission approved $196 million
in costs that were passed on to FPL customers for nuclear-related
projects, including proposed new reactors at Turkey Point, 25 miles
south of Miami. This year, FPL sought and was recently granted another
$150 million. What’s particularly stunning about this is FPL continues
to request and be granted recovery of these costs by the PSC without
ever expressing a clear commitment to build the proposed new reactors.
This law, while saddling customers with significant costs and risk,
turns traditional utility regulation on its head. Power company
shareholders typically shoulder the risk for the construction of power
plants because prior to this new law, utilities could not charge
customers for new plants until they delivered power to customers. In
return, the state allows them to earn a rate of return on their
investment in the plant.
But this law now socializes costs and all the risk of reactor
construction by shifting it to customers. Meanwhile it privatizes all
the reward to big power company shareholders, such as FPL — even
though they shoulder no risk. FPL has recently requested an 11.25
percent return for its shareholders as part of a base rate increase.
The FPL project, if ever completed, is estimated to cost upwards of
$20 billion. Clearly an 11.25 percent return on $20 billion is a sweet
return for FPL shareholders for a risk-free investment.
New york to prepare for closure of Indian Point nuclear power plant
New York tells Con Ed to prepare in case Indian Point shuts By Scott DiSavino Nov 28, 2012 (Reuters) – New York energy regulators told power companies in New York City to develop plans to keep the lights on in the Big Apple in
case the giant Indian Point nuclear power plant, which supplies about
a quarter of the city’s electricity, is forced to shut down.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo wants the two reactors at Indian Point shut when their operating licenses expire in 2013 and 2015 in part because the nuclear plant is located in the New York metropolitan area, home to some 19 million people.
The governor has said even the most unlikely possibility of an accident is too much in the heavily populated area. U.S. power company
Entergy Corp, which owns Indian Point, says, however, the plant is safe, and the company is seeking to extend the reactors’ licenses for another 20 years.
The 2,063-megawatt (MW) Indian Point plant is about 40 miles north of
Manhattan along the Hudson River……
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/28/us-utilities-entergy-indianpoint-idUSBRE8AR18Z20121128
Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda strengthens pledge to phase out nuclear power
The pledge amounted to a slight hardening of announcements made earlier this year when his cabinet said it would work towards scrapping nuclear power by the end of the 2030s
Japan goes to the polls on December 16, with most commentators expecting no party to gain overall control of the powerful lower house. A possibly shaky coalition government is seen as the likeliest outcome.
Japan’s ruling party to phase out nuclear power Radio Australia, 28
November 2012, Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has promised to rid Japan of nuclear energy in coming decades as he set out his party’s platform before next month’s general election. 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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