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South Carolina’s $9 billion nuclear fiasco – another legal saga develops, criminal investigation coming

3 years later: How the fallout from SC’s $9 billion nuclear fiasco continues   Post and Courier,  By Avery G. Wilks and Andrew Brown awilks@postandcourier.com abrown@postandcourier.com, Jul 31, 2020

     It has been three years since two of South Carolina’s largest electric utilities abandoned their $9 billion effort to build two nuclear reactors, but the legal, political and financial consequences continue to ripple across the Palmetto State.

The scuttled V.C. Summer expansion in Fairfield County is now widely considered one of the biggest business failures in the state’s history. The announcement of the project’s cancellation on July 31, 2017, shook South Carolina’s power industry, state government and business community.

The two homegrown S.C. utilities that partnered on the project were thrown into disarray. Investigations were initiated by state lawmakers, financial regulators and federal law enforcement officials.

The state and federal court systems were flooded overnight with lawsuits by investors, ratepayers, construction workers and lenders. The state regulatory system that backed the project for nearly a decade was called into question.

And more than 1.7 million utility customers with S.C. Electric & Gas, Santee Cooper and the state’s 19 local electric cooperatives realized they might be forced to pay billions of dollars more for a power plant that will never produce a watt of electricity.

Much has changed since Santee Cooper and SCE&G’s leaders suddenly announced the project’s collapse. But the saga isn’t over quite yet. Here is a breakdown of where things stand.  Continue reading →

August 1, 2020 Posted by | business and costs, legal, secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | 1 Comment

Assange appears in court, as lawyers warn case may be delayed by new US indictment

July 30, 2020 Posted by | Legal, secrets,lies and civil liberties, UK | Leave a comment

Should aging nuclear reactors get propped up with subsidies? Ohio scandal highlights this question

After $60M Bribery Charges, Questions Renewed over Ratepayer Subsidies for Nuclear Power    https://www.njspotlight.com/2020/07/after-60m-bribery-charges-questions-renewed-over-ratepayer-subsidies-for-nuclear-power/   TOM JOHNSON | JULY 28, 2020 

New Jersey opted for $300 million annual subsidies only after bitter legislative battle. Will Ohio nuclear scandal initiate new round of skirmishes?

FirstEnergy Corp. CEO Chuck Jones was more than halfway through his second-quarter earnings call Friday, when he could no longer hold in his frustrations. “It’d be really nice,’’ he said softly, ‘’we have 15 minutes left if we could actually talk about the great quarter that we had at some point here.’’

Unfortunately for him, analysts were not interested. Instead, they sought to gauge the Ohio energy giant’s risks and exposure following the announcement three days earlier of its role in the $60 million bribery scandal related to the bailout of two nuclear plants formerly owned by the company. The federal investigation led to the arrest of Ohio’s speaker of the House, his chief political aide and three lobbyists.

The alleged scheme involved using funds from FirstEnergy, its former subsidiary and operator of the plants, and another subsidiary, to help pass a bill last year to keep the plants open with a $1.3 billion subsidy paid for by utility customers. Once enacted into law, funds funneled to a dark-money nonprofit set up by the Ohio Speaker Larry Householder were used to block a referendum seeking to overturn the law.

The scandal has revived questions about whether these aging nuclear plants deserve the subsidies and how they were awarded. New Jersey was one of four states to allow ratepayer subsidies to avoid closing nuclear power plants.

At this juncture, there are more questions than answers relating to FirstEnergy’s , involvement. FirstEnergy, which owns Jersey Central Power & Light and its subsidiaries, is cooperating with the investigation, Jones said. “I believe First Energy acted properly in this matter,’’ Jones told analysts. None of the money from the bailout went to FirstEnergy, he said.

FirstEnergy source of some funds

In the call, peppered repeatedly with questions about the probe, Jones acknowledged about one-quarter of the $60 million in funds diverted to the nonprofit Generation Now came from FirstEnergy. “We do make prudent decisions to spend corporate funds on issues that we believe that are important to our customers and shareholders,’’ he said.

The lobbyists arrested and identified in the 82-page affidavit never worked for FirstEnergy on the nuclear bailout bill, according to Jones. “Who they worked for, I’m not sure, but I know they did not work for us.’’

The Justice Department affidavit never specifically identified companies or entities involved in the scheme, leading to confusion about where in the corporate structure the illegal activity is coming from, according to one analyst.

Renewed criticism about ratepayer subsidies

Still, the affidavit renewed criticism from some in the energy sector over states subsidizing bailout of nuclear power plants, a process that has also occurred in New York, New Jersey and Illinois. In New Jersey, Public Service Enterprise Group and Exelon Corp. won subsidies amounting to $300 million a year to prevent their three plants in South Jersey from closing after a bitter two-year legislative battle.

“This should raise questions in New Jersey whether the ZEC (zero-emission certificate) legislation is necessary,’’ said Glen Thomas, president of the P3 Group, a coalition of energy suppliers that opposes nuclear subsidies. “We now know in Ohio the only reason these bills passed (was) legislators were being bribed.’’

Last week, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, reversing a stance he took only the day before, called for the repeal of the law, saying Householder’s alleged bribery scheme ‘’tainted’’ it.

Others were more circumspect. Paul Patterson, an analyst with Glenrock Associates, asked Jones a question on Friday’s call wondering what, if any, illegal activity was cited in the affidavit against the company. Jones said he would let his prepared remarks answer that question.

“If this is the rules that are set up, and if you are so dependent on government policies, then why are people so surprised that they then try to influence policies,’’ Patterson said in an interview with NJ Spotlight.

According to the Justice Department affidavit, companies in the alleged scheme paid out $60.8 million over a three-year period. Householder was elected speaker in January 2019. Three months later, HB6, the nuclear bailout bill, was introduced and it passed in late May 2019.

Money kept flowing

Even after the bill was enacted, the money still flowed freely, according to the affidavit. At least $450,000 was paid out to 15 signature-collection firms so they would be conflicted by working on behalf of the ballot campaign, the affidavit said. In addition, funds were found to bribe workers collecting signatures, including to find out details about how well the signature signups were going.

In the end, the groups opposing the subsidy failed to collect enough signatures to put the issue on the ballot.

“These are matters of utmost public concern,’’ said Steven Goldenberg, a lawyer actively involved in the nuclear subsidy case in New Jersey. “It is critical they are decided on their merits, not on behalf of undue political influence.’’

 

July 30, 2020 Posted by | politics, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

Karl Grossman on the Ohio Nuclear Scandal 2020

July 30, 2020 Posted by | secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

Looks as if 20 municipalities in Utah have been NuScammed for those not so small nuclear reactors

readers may wonder how UAMPS convinced some members to sign an “option” contract, which eventually converts to a “hell-or-high-water” contract, meaning that the buyer has no right, under any circumstances, to abandon the contract once construction, the Achilles heel of nuclear projects, is authorized.

July 28, 2020 Posted by | business and costs, marketing of nuclear, politics, secrets,lies and civil liberties, Small Modular Nuclear Reactors, spinbuster, USA | Leave a comment

The Santa Susana site – America’s Secret Chernobyl

July 28, 2020 Posted by | safety, secrets,lies and civil liberties, wastes | Leave a comment

Investigation into several Ohio nuclear bailout bills

July 28, 2020 Posted by | legal, secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

Former executive of South Carolina utility Scana Corp has pleaded guilty in nuclear conspiracy case

US executive pleads guilty in nuclear project delay cover-up   https://www.globalconstructionreview.com/news/us-executive-pleads-guilty-nuclear-project-delay-c/, 27 July 2020 | By GCR Staff 

A former executive of South Carolina utility Scana Corp has pleaded guilty to his role in what investigators called a “breathtaking” conspiracy to hide unresolvable problems in a project to build a $10bn nuclear power plant.

Stephen Byrne, 60, an executive vice president of Scana, repeatedly assured investors, taxpayers and state officials that two new units at the VC Summer nuclear power station would be finished in time to qualify for a federal nuclear production tax credit, worth up to $1.4bn, that is set to expire on 31 December this year.

Prosecutors said Byrne knew the scheme was hopelessly behind and over budget, but that his and co-conspirators’ deceptions allowed Scana to obtain rate increases from Scana’s customers to continue financing it.

“This conspiracy to defraud Scana customers is breathtaking in scope and audacity,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Jody Norris. “The FBI remains committed to ensure all those responsible for this crime, which only served to enrich a few by robbing families and communities within South Carolina, are held accountable.”

Byrne, who was in charge of Scana’s nuclear work, agreed a plea deal with prosecutors and has been cooperating with investigators. He faces up to five years in prison.

Peter McCoy, US attorney for the district of South Carolina, told reporters outside the courtroom after the plea: “Today is a good start to years upon years of investigation, so we’re mighty proud about what happened here today.”

The project to add two reactors to the station was abandoned by Scana subsidiary SCE&G three years ago after it became mired in cost overruns and then fell foul of the collapse of Westinghouse, a subsidiary of Japanese engineer Toshiba, which was carrying out the work.

The first concrete pour for unit two was made in March 2013, making it the first reactor to start construction in the US in 30 years. The first concrete for unit three was completed in November of the same year. However, the original $9.8bn cost of the scheme had increased to roughly $25bn by 2017.

As an example of Byrne’s deception, prosecutors gave evidence that in July 2016, Byrne submitted written testimony to the South Carolina Public Service Commission, the Office of Regulatory Staff and the public stating that the construction schedule was “logical and appropriate” when Byrne knew it was unreliable and unlikely to be achieved.

As part of the plea deal, the Virginia-based utility Dominion Energy, which acquired Scana in 2018, will provide $4bn to state rate-payers as damages for criminal activity that took place in 2015 and 2016.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission filed a second lawsuit against Byrne and former Scana chief executive Kevin Marsh in February, also connected with misleading statements about progress at VC Summer.

Byrne joined Scana in 1995 and has more than 30 years’ experience in the utility industry. He has been released pending sentencing.

Image: The second containment vessel ring being placed on unit two in February 2017 (Santee Cooper)

Further reading:

July 28, 2020 Posted by | secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

Takeover of UraMin – a scam linked to incompetence of leaders in the nuclear industry

Le Media 25th July 2020, Son of resistance fighters, Marc Eichinger was a trader for several banks before leading his investigation and security company, APIC, which protects companies in hostile terrain. With the Areva affair he becomes a spy, specializing in financial crime.

Since I opened the Areva file in February 2010, at the request of Admiral d’Arbonneau, I have the feeling that the
takeover of UraMin is not only a scam linked to incompetence or lightness of the leaders of the nuclear group in the treatment of this acquisition. A certain number of clues suggest that it goes beyond …I tend to think that the UraMin file will eventually come to light and become a historical benchmark in the area of international corruption. Yet at no time did we receive the slightest support from an elected politician. In this area, it is obvious that everyone sticks together. There is nothing to expect from politicians: the soup is too good, as they say.

https://www.lemediatv.fr/articles/2020/lex-agent-secret-qui-en-sait-beaucoup-trop-9-connivences-et-procedures-baillons-les-grands-groupes-contre-la-liberte-de-la-presse-L6D5euhaTROqLLqh65ceRg

July 27, 2020 Posted by | France, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

Nucleargate in Ohio  Huge criminal racketeering conspiracy orchestrated reactor bailouts

Nucleargate in Ohio  Huge criminal racketeering conspiracy orchestrated reactor bailouts, https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2020/07/24/nucleargate-in-ohio/ By Linda Pentz Gunter, 24 Jul 20 

It’s been a bit of a Watergate week for nuclear power, with individuals in two states arrested for criminally defrauding the public to keep nuclear power alive. In Ohio, it was public officials, backed by nuclear company money, who illegally orchestrated a massive subsidy. In South Carolina, it was the arrest of an energy company official who has pled guilty to a $9 billion nuclear fraud. This week, we feature the Ohio story. Next week, it will be South Carolina’s turn.

If you were going to pull someone out of central casting to play a thuggish villain, you would choose Larry Householder. But he wouldn’t need any acting skills.

On July 21, Householder, along with four others, was arrested for his alleged involvement in what amounts to the biggest criminal racketeering conspiracy in Ohio history. Somehow it’s not a surprise that it revolved around pots of money to keep two aging and unaffordable nuclear power plants open.

While Householder may physically embody everyone’s idea of a gangster, it’s not his official profession. He is — and presumably that will soon be a “was” — the Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives.

The scheme is laid bare in an 81-page criminal complaint. It was busted open by a year-long, detailed and covert investigation by the US Attorney’s office and the FBI, and involves the flow of $61 million of dark money directed toward activities that would ensure the passage of legislation in Ohio guaranteeing the bailout of the Davis-Besse and Perry nuclear reactors to the tune of $1.5 billion. The subsidy is being funded via a surcharge on electricity customers.

The bill, known as HB6, also slashed mandates for wind and solar energy and eliminated energy efficiency requirements. It was, as David Roberts described it on Vox just after the bill passed in July 2019, “the worst piece of legislation in the 21st century” and “the most counterproductive and corrupt piece of state energy legislation I can recall in all my time covering this stuff.”

FirstEnergy Solutions, the then owner of the plants, had threatened their closure if the subsidy was not forthcoming.

That ultimatum set in motion a breathtaking sequence of criminal activities beginning in 2018, with the $61 million slush fund first used to bankroll political elections, then to ensure sufficient votes for the July 2019 passage of HB 6, and finally the sometimes violent suppression of citizen efforts to overturn it.

Millions of dollars went into the campaign war chests of 21 political candidates, in order to stack the House with friendly votes for the subsequent nuclear bailout bill. (Only one ended up voting against it.) The money also shored up Householder’s successful bid to regain the House Speakership.

The money also went into the personal pockets of the co-conspirators, although the exact amounts and their purposes are still being investigated.  As events unfold we may also learn whether votes in favor of HB6 were “bought” by Householder.

As the story is far from over, more arrests will almost certainly follow. And more news on this will continue to break. By necessity, this can only be a glimpse of the story so far.

The crimes with which Householder and four political advisors and lobbyists have been charged constitute  “a shameful betrayal of public trust,” said FBI special agent, Chris Hoffman during a July 21 press conference announcing the arrests and indictment.

It was also, “likely the largest bribery money-laundering scheme ever perpetrated against the people of the state of Ohio,” said US Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, David DeVillers at the same press conference, whose department led the investigation alongside the FBI.

But whose money was it?

The racketeering scheme that the justice department uncovered found a money trail of $61 million flowing from what they are required to call “Company A” in the indictment, into a 501(c)(4) fund named Generation Now. Generation Now has also been charged with racketeering conspiracy.

“Company A” is FirstEnergy, whose subsidiary, FirstEnergy Solutions (FES) was the then owner of the crumbling and uneconomical Davis-Besse and Perry reactors. (They are now owned by yet another spin-off, Energy Harbor).

Although FirstEnergy has been served with subpoenas, so far no one there has been named in the indictment. And while the company clearly handed out the $61 million, DeVillers said of the web of conspirators that “this enterprise went looking for someone to bribe them”.

Meanwhile, the money trail that led from FirstEnergy to Larry Householder’s pocket and others’ was deftly concealed. As DeVillers described it, the entire scheme was “created completely and utterly to hide where there donor came from and [who it] was.”

Generation Now, as a 501(c)(4), was not obliged to declare the source of its funding. If it had been, said DeVillers at the press conference, the criminal enterprise it operated could never have happened. Despite its name, DeVillers said, “make no mistake, this is Larry Householder’s 501(c)(4).”

And a Republican-led operation. Generation Now’s treasurer is D. Eric Lycan, a Lexington, KY attorney with ties to the Kentucky House Republican Leadership Caucus. In addition to the ad buys Generation Now made for FirstEnergy, it also made them for an entity called Strategic Media Placement, run by GOP operative, Rex Elass. As DeVillers told the media as he pointed to a rather simple flow chart displayed at the press conference, “the real one would have covered this whole wall.”

FBI special agent Hoffman lumped Householder and his cronies in with FBI usual suspects like “gangs, child sex trafficking and Chinese spies,” but said that “public corruption is actually the top criminal priority for the FBI.”

But it should not be the priority for the US Attorney’s office. DeVillers, a Republican and Trump appointee, could not suppress his anger as he told reporters that his district is already struggling with limited resources and “a massive overdose epidemic where you’ve got people dying of overdoses of fentanyl, people stacked up like cord wood at a coroner’s office, we’ve got violent crime sky-rocketing, we’ve got two Franklin County sheriff’s deputies shot this morning.”

And yet, he continued, “we have to take our resources away from those real victim cases and investigate and prosecute some politicians who just won’t do their damn job.”

Chinese spies were in fact part of the Generation Now misinformation campaign, a scare tactic used to derail efforts by a coalition called Ohioans Against Corporate Bailouts (OACB), which launched a petition drive to repeal HB6.

A FirstEnergy/Householder front group ran scaremongering “yellow peril” ads to deter people from signing a petition that would have reversed the nuclear bailout bill, HB6

As petitioners took to the streets, attempting to gather enough signatures to get a repeal of HB6 onto a November ballot, a smear campaign suggested that, among other things, the petition gatherers were in the payroll of Chinese government operatives who were “quietly invading our American electric grid” and that if you signed the HB6 repeal petition, the Chinese government would be capturing “your name, your address, your signature”. National security would be at risk.

Most ludicrously, the Chinese scare ad, put together by Ohioans for Energy Security (in reality a front group funded by Generation Now) suggested China, and by definition the ballot petitioners, were “taking Ohio money,” which is precisely what the Householder racket was doing.

It worked. OACB eventually ran out of time and petition gatherers, with some having been bought off with a portion of the $61 million. In October 2019, OACB withdrew the initiative, which is when HB6 effectively became law. And it still is.

That’s the worst part of the news. Householder and others may pay a fine, or even see jail time, but the people of Ohio remain in danger. Davis-Besse and Perry are two of the most seriously degraded reactors in the country and should have been shut down long ago.

If Davis-Besse suffered a serious meltdown, there could be “1,400 peak early fatalities, 73,000 peak early injuries, 10,000 peak cancer deaths, and $84 billion in property damage,” according to Beyond Nuclear’s Kevin Kamps, citing a 1982 study by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. With populations having soared since then, today’s figures would be far higher, he pointed out.

Likewise, the Perry plant’s numbers would be well above the 5,500 acute radiation deaths, 180,000 radiation injuries, 14,000 latent cancer fatalities, and $102 billion in property damage, cited in the 1982 study, should that reactor suffer a major accident.

The $1.5 billion subsidy, says Toledo public interest attorney, Terry Lodge, “didn’t go to ensure safe nuclear plant operations for the next five years, but instead was paid to investors as dividends once the FirstEnergy bailout was over.”

However, it looks unlikely that HB6 will be undone, despite the criminal machinations behind its passage. While Howard Learner, executive director of the Chicago-based Environmental Law & Policy Center, told the Toledo Blade that the Ohio bailout “should not remain in effect if obtained through bribery or other means”, it would have to be nullified by the legislature itself, an action for which there seems little political inclination.

One reason for that reluctance could be yet one more sinister discovery. Prior to the vote on HB6, a Trump operative, Bob Paduchik had pressured “at least five members of the Ohio House of Representatives,” to vote ‘yes’ on HR6, according to Politico. “The message is that if we have these plants shut down we can’t get Trump reelected,” one senior legislative source told Politico.

As DeVillers said: “We’re not done with this case.”

July 25, 2020 Posted by | politics, secrets,lies and civil liberties, spinbuster, USA | Leave a comment

How Facebook fosters climate denial

‘Everybody’s entitled to their opinion – but not their own facts’: The spread of climate denial on Facebook‘The arguments are that people can’t trust scientists, models, climate data. It’s all about building doubt and undermining public trust in climate science’, Independent Louise Boyle, New York @LouiseB_NY, 24 July 20, 

An article linking climate change to Earth’s solar orbit went viral last year, racking up 4.2million views on social media and widely shared on Facebook. It was the most-engaged with climate story in 2019, according to Brandwatch.

There was just one problem. It wasn’t true.

Facebook removed the article from Natural News, a far-right conspiracy outlet with 3 million followers, after it was reported.

But the spread of misinformation on the climate crisis by groups who reject climate science continues on Facebook and other social media platforms.

While tech giants have taken steps to remove, or label as false, potentially harmful misinformation on the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a seeming acceptance of those who spread false theories on the climate crisis.

In August, an op-ed by two members of the CO2 Coalition, a pro-fossil fuel nonprofit with close ties to the Trump administration, was published in the Washington Examiner and subsequently posted to the group’s Facebook page.

The article, which claimed climate models are inaccurate and climate change has been greatly exaggerated, was initially tagged as “false” by five scientists from independent fact-checkers Climate Feedback who said it used “cherry-picked” evidence and deemed its scientific credibility “very low”.

Facebook doesn’t check content but outsources to dozens of third-party groups. A fact-checker’s false designation pushes a story lower in News Feed and significantly reduces the number of people who see it, according to Facebook policies.

The CO2 Coalition did not take the fact-checkers’ decision lying down, branding Climate Feedback “alarmists” and writing an open letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. They succeeded in having the false label removed.

Andy Stone, Facebook’s policy communications director, told the New York Times last week that all opinion content on the platform, including op-eds, has been exempt from fact-checking since 2016…………

https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-crisis-denial-facebook-global-warming-denier-social-media-a9595546.html

July 25, 2020 Posted by | climate change, media, secrets,lies and civil liberties, spinbuster | Leave a comment

Guilty plea by former SCANA executive – who will be a valuable witness to prosecutors in South Carolina nuclear scandal

July 25, 2020 Posted by | legal, secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

UK public has been misled over plans for nuclear reactors in Essex

Mersea Island Environmental Alliance 22nd July 2020,   Mersea Island Environmental Alliance have been investigating discrepancies between the National Policy Statement for Bradwell in Essex and what is ‘proposed’ by CGN/EDF in their Consultation document. CGN/EDF Consultation
proposal is for two reactors and in that document, they state that:
“Parts of the Project which are not likely to be influenced by the
consultation include:
“The principle of building a new nuclear power
station on land adjacent to the existing Bradwell power station (as a
matter of Government policy)…and…Technical details including the
proposed deployment of two reactors”.
The National Policy Statement for Bradwell however is for just one reactor. Mersea Island Environmental
Alliance working with The Environmental Law Foundation sought legal
opinion. This is the Barrister’s opinion having reviewed the Consultation
document: “Arguably this is highly misleading as the National Policy
Statement does not set out government policy support for a two-reactor
station, which was not assessed as part of the NPS. Consultees (the public
included) may not be aware that they are entitled to make representations
on this.
This is potentially unlawful since a single reactor station is an
alternative option, and consultees should be made aware that they are
entitled to comment on this: see R. (Moseley) v LB Haringey [2014] UKSC 56.
Section 104(3) of the Planning Act 2008 states: “The Secretary of State
must decide the application in accordance with any relevant national policy
statement, except to the extent that one or more of subsections (4) to (8)
applies.”
The relevant NPS is EN-6 (although the Government is in the
process of preparing a new NPS for nuclear power). This states at paragraph
4.1.1 that Bradwell is a site “that the Government has determined are
potentially suitable for the deployment of new nuclear power stations in
England and Wales before the end of 2025”
The public have been forced to
engage in a mockery of a consultation held at the peak of the Pandemic. To
make matters worse Government are clearly aware of the CGN/EDF remit. The
public have been deliberately mislead! The site selection process for one
reactor and the NPS are being ignored both by the developer and Government.
The public are illegally excluded from comment on the two-reactor proposal.
The latter exclusion courtesy of CGN/EDF who are just the contractor! The
intriguing side to this is how despite the initial enthusiasm from my media
contacts over the developing story it hits the buffers of the editorial
desks and goes no further.

https://www.facebook.com/Stop-Nuclear-Dumping-In-Blackwater-Estuary-1473134316325437

July 25, 2020 Posted by | politics, secrets,lies and civil liberties, UK | Leave a comment

Why the nuclear whistleblower exposing AQ Khan was ignored

Nuclear secrets: the Dutch whistleblower who tried to stop Pakistan’s bomb Frits Veerman first warned the authorities in 1973 about the suspicious activities of his colleague AQ Khan. Why was he ignored?  Simon Kuper– 24 July 20, 
  In the early 1970s, the Dutch technician Frits Veerman shared a large desk in a lab in Amsterdam with a charming Pakistani scientist named Abdul. One day, Veerman mentioned that he’d like to visit Pakistan. He asked if he could stay a few nights with his colleague’s family. Abdul — full name Abdul Qadeer Khan — replied that Pakistan’s government would pay for his entire trip. That’s when Veerman began to suspect that Khan was stealing Dutch nuclear secrets.  ………
Veerman first tried to report Khan to the Dutch authorities in 1973. He didn’t make it past a secretary. Had he been heard, then or later, the world might have been spared a nightmare. The Dutch allowed Khan to leave their country in 1975 and to keep visiting European suppliers. The US Central Intelligence Agency didn’t stop him either. Khan ended up building Pakistan’s nuclear bomb and selling the technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya.
………….After Veerman blew the whistle, he lost his job. A report this month by the Huis voor Klokkenluiders, the new Dutch Whistleblowers Authority, finally absolves him. It also helps explain why he and not Khan was punished.

Khan is now 84, and living under unofficial house arrest in Pakistan, where he has long had an up-and-down relationship with the authorities. He is closely escorted by security officials during his restricted movements, while any visitors to his home are screened in advance.  …………
The Dutch briefed the CIA on Khan, Lubbers told Japanese TV in 2005. The Americans opposed the nuclear ambitions of their Pakistani allies. Nonetheless, the CIA stopped the BVD from arresting Khan. The Americans wanted to watch him, so as to track Pakistan’s nuclear procurement and Europe’s secretive nuclear suppliers.

The CIA’s failure to stop him in 1975 “was the first monumental error”, Robert Einhorn, who worked on nonproliferation in the Clinton and Obama administrations, told Frantz and Collins. The Americans asked the Dutch “to inform them fully but not take any action”, Lubbers recalled, laughing. He said he “found it a bit strange”, but also thought, “‘OK, it’s American business.’ We didn’t feel . . . safeguarding the world against nuclear proliferation as a Dutch responsibility.” The business of the Netherlands was business. The CIA would watch Khan for decades.

FDO didn’t tell Khan he was under suspicion. It gave him a new job, calling it a promotion, and said he could stop visiting Almelo. He may have realised the game was up. On December 15 1975 he flew to Pakistan on leave, taking his wife, daughters and blueprints of centrifuges. Soon afterwards, from Pakistan, he resigned from FDO.  ……..
In September 1976, FDO held a meeting about Khan. Veerman told his colleagues that he thought Khan was a spy. FDO doesn’t seem to have launched an investigation or taken measures, says the Dutch Whistleblowers Authority. Later, Veerman detailed Khan’s actions to BVD agents. But his speaking out was unpopular. There had been rejoicing within FDO when an executive returned from a visit to ex-employee Khan in Pakistan with orders of work. Pakistani technicians began visiting FDO for what Veerman calls “a course in ‘how to build an ultracentrifuge’”.
In September 1976, FDO held a meeting about Khan. Veerman told his colleagues that he thought Khan was a spy. FDO doesn’t seem to have launched an investigation or taken measures, says the Dutch Whistleblowers Authority. Later, Veerman detailed Khan’s actions to BVD agents. But his speaking out was unpopular. There had been rejoicing within FDO when an executive returned from a visit to ex-employee Khan in Pakistan with orders of work. Pakistani technicians began visiting FDO for what Veerman calls “a course in ‘how to build an ultracentrifuge’”.  ………..
Why was Veerman sacked? A former Dutch security investigator, who handled the Khan case from 1979, told the whistleblowers authority that Veerman was “sacrificed” because he wouldn’t stop talking. FDO’s security had been lax, the Netherlands and its high-tech sector were embarrassed, those involved didn’t want the story to reach the media or other countries, and the junior employee had to shut up. This is what Veerman had always suspected.
No other Dutch tech company would hire him. Is Veerman bitter? The question seems to surprise him. He doesn’t have a large emotional vocabulary. “I don’t cry about it all day. A great injustice was done to me, but I don’t think about it much. When something like that happens, you have to make an assessment — maybe I am too sober — and go on.”  Now, with the whistleblowers’ report, Veerman plans to seek compensation from the Dutch state and the present incarnation of FDO’s former holding company, VMF-Stork (FDO closed in 1992). The current Stork, which now consists of a very different set of operating companies, says it “has fully co-operated with the investigation [by the Dutch Whistleblowers Authority], even though this question is from a very long time ago . . . The ­current Stork cannot be regarded as Mr Veerman’s employer, as the Authority’s report confirms.”  ………
Meanwhile, Khan regularly flew into Brussels, then drove to nearby countries visiting suppliers and scientists. The BVD took no action, even when Dutch businessman Nico Zondag reported in 1977 that Pakistan was seeking products to build a nuclear bomb. A Dutch foreign-ministry official wrote in a memo in 1984 that exports to Pakistan continued, “including essential bomb components that for whatever reason couldn’t be blocked”.  Khan said in 1987 that Europeans were keen sellers: “People chased us with figures and details of equipment they had sold to Almelo and Capenhurst [the British site of another Urenco plant]. They literally begged us to buy their equipment.” There were few restrictions on such exports in those days. If an item seemed particularly problematic, the trick was to conceal its destination by routing it through an inoffensive third country.
A small country with an impenetrable language can generally keep national embarrassments secret. The Dutch government commissioned a report on Khan only in 1979, after the German TV channel ZDF — using sources other than Veerman — revealed Khan’s espionage to the world. Nobody then thought Pakistan was close to getting the bomb and the CIA believed it had the matter under control, but the Netherlands — a vocal supporter of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty of 1968 — was humiliated in front of its allies.
In 1983, Veerman was summoned to a meeting at the Bijlmer prison. There, he later told the whistleblowers authority, government officials ordered him to keep quiet about Khan “because the Netherlands’ international relations and reputation were at risk, and the interests of Dutch industry”. When he said he’d keep speaking out, an executive from FDO snapped that speaking out had got him fired — thereby blowing the company’s cover story
Veerman went straight from the meeting to a Dutch newspaper, but afterwards retreated into his social security job and was hardly heard of again in public for decades until now. He was also put on an international watchlist and for many years was questioned by the authorities when he travelled abroad. On one family holiday in Italy, his car was stopped by armed police.
In 1983 the Netherlands sentenced Khan in absentia to four years in jail for seeking secret information. The main evidence was his letters to Veerman. Khan was offended by the verdict and his biographer Zahid Malik would record his complaint that two of the judges were Jews. Later, his sentence was overturned because he hadn’t been served the summons. The Dutch then abandoned prosecution of the most consequential crime committed on their territory since the second world war. The ministry of justice later admitted that Khan’s legal file had gone missing.
Lubbers, who became prime minister in 1982, wanted Khan arrested but was told to “leave it to the [intelligence] services”. Looking back, he told the Argos radio show: “The last word is Washington. There is no doubt they knew everything, heard everything. There is an open line between The Hague and Washington . . . It was very dumb.” Khan was allowed to return to the Netherlands repeatedly, including for a visit to his dying father-in-law in 1992.
 The CIA’s former director of central intelligence, George Tenet, once boasted: “We were inside [Khan’s] residence, inside his facilities, inside his rooms.” Yet the Americans missed a lot, partly because they expected Pakistan to pursue a bomb made with plutonium rather than uranium. They were also late to realise that Khan had opened a nuclear supermarket, offering starter kits to many countries including Syria and Saudi Arabia. Decades after leaving the Netherlands, he was still selling Dutch knowledge. He grew rich. In 1998, he also became celebrated as “Mohsin e-Pakistan” (Saviour of Pakistan), after the country detonated six nuclear bombs at a test site.
 Proof of his sales emerged in 2003, when the US Navy intercepted a ship carrying nuclear technology from one of his factories to Libya. Later, the Libyans handed the Americans two plastic bags (bearing the names of an Islamabad tailor and a dry cleaner) that contained bomb designs. In 2004, Khan confessed on live television to transferring the technology to Libya, Iran and North Korea. By then, the US couldn’t demand his punishment, as Pakistan was an ally in the “war on terror”.
Meanwhile, the Dutch government admitted in 2004 that Iranian centrifuges had been seen that used “Urenco technology from the 1970s”. Pakistan’s centrifuges were similar. The Dutch foreign ministry told the FT: “The Netherlands attaches great importance to the Non-proliferation Treaty and the prevention of proliferation. The Netherlands did not actively contribute to unwanted proliferation of knowledge.” Khan later withdrew his confession. Some years ago, an American documentary-maker arranged for Veerman to phone his old friend. Khan, who resents being painted as a common spy, told him, “Frits, you are the biggest liar around.” Khan is now out of favour with Pakistan’s government. Security forces personnel installed in the house next door block him from meeting his relatives, friends and lawyers, he complained in an appeal to Pakistan’s Supreme Court last month.  ……
Veerman is harsher about his own country: “If Iran ever manages to destroy Israel, they could put on the weapons, ‘Made in Holland.’”  https://www.ft.com/content/be09ba7c-b0d8-45e4-aff8-bf01b4aa558e

July 25, 2020 Posted by | EUROPE, Pakistan, secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

Nuclear power: Still a rip-off after all these years 

Nuclear power: Still a rip-off after all these years    https://www.nevadacurrent.com/2020/07/23/nuclear-power-still-a-rip-off-after-all-these-years/

By  Hugh Jackson, July 23, 2020   Nuclear waste is probably the last thing on the minds of Nevadans these days, what with … everything.

But Nevada politicians, industries, and people have expended untold jillions of FTE hours fighting Yucca Mountain over more than three decades.

So Nevadans may be interested to know that the industry trying to ram that waste down our throats is at the heart of this week’s FBI arrest of the Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives on a racketeering charge.

Recap (cribbed from the Current’s sibling, the Ohio Capital Journal): A now-bankrupt utility called FirstEnergy Solutions paid $61 million into a “dark money” PAC controlled by Ohio state Rep. Larry Householder, who then showered the money on fellow Republican legislators, who then selected Householder as House Speaker, and next thing you know Ohio lawmakers passed (and Ohio’s governor signed) a $1.2 billion bailout for FirstEnergy’s economically failing nuclear power plants.

Nevadans may like to take a perverse pride in their state as a very interesting, anything-goes sort of place where a uniquely craven politics is unusually rife with shady shenans and sweetheart deals.

To which Ohio is entitled to say, hold my beer.

I mean, sure, Ohio’s population is about four times bigger than Nevada’s. But $61 million? That’s pretty impressive.

The $1.2 billion public subsidy for a private company, on the other hand, is not particularly outlandish by Nevada standards. Nevada shelled out as much in “incentives” for Tesla, and ladled $750 million to the Raiders.

At least when Nevada elected officials recklessly steered public resources away from public services and to the private sector, it got a battery factory and Mid-Air Engine Failure Field. All Ohio got was a pair of old nuclear power plants that Ohio already had.

Leaving aside for the moment Ohio’s policy decision, ludicrous in design and corrupt in execution, to force electricity customers to rescue a power company, you may be wondering, Why would an electric utility need $1.2 billion to keep some old reactors reacting in the first place?

Glad you asked!

When nuclear power was new on the scene, which is to say about the same time charming mid-mod houses were being built east of the Strip & south of Desert Inn, it came with the promise nuclear energy would be “too cheap to meter.”

A half-dozen decades and countless cost overruns, skyrocketing maintenance expenses and public bailouts later, the financial sector won’t touch nuclear power with a 13-foot spent fuel rod assembly.

The Bush-Cheney administration was hot for nuclear power. Early in Bush’s first term, Cheney stacked a panel with nuclear industry representatives to prepare a plan to build more plants, part of of what people sometimes back then called “a nuclear renaissance.” At the time I was working for Public Citizen, writing about nuclear power (we were against it) and I will never forget one surprisingly candid phrase from the report: “economic viability for a nuclear power plant is difficult to demonstrate.”

Even then, the price per kilowatt was more expensive than coal, let alone gas. It still is, of course. And nearly 20 years later, nuclear can be almost three times as expensive as solar or wind.

Finance is only one industry that wants nothing to do with nuclear power. There’s another: Insurance.

That’s why there is U.S. law called the Price-Anderson Act. If/when a nuclear power plant has, you know, an “incident” that causes economic as well as ecological devastation, taxpayers will foot the bill, even in cases of private sector negligence or misconduct.

As businesses today clamor for protection against covid-related liability, perhaps they’ll point to the no-fault insurance model Congress pioneered in the Price-Anderson Act. If protection from liability is a good idea for nuclear power plants, why wouldn’t it be a good idea for casinos and retailers who put their employees in impossible and risky situations by failing to protect them from the rona?

About the same time Bush and Cheney were firing up their nuclear revival scheme, Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn was disapproving the Bush administration’s official designation of Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste dump.

“Nevada is not anti-nuclear and does not oppose nuclear power,” Guinn wrote.

To which you might ask, Why not?

The answer I always got had nothing to do with the desirability, expense or calamitous risk of nuclear power, but the politics of nuclear waste: If Nevada, including and especially its congressional delegation, were against nuclear power, it would make it all the more difficult to win support of congressional colleagues in other states in the effort to keep waste out of Nevada.

It’s a legitimate concern, one on display as recently as last year, when Trump’s plan to fund the dump were supported not only by all the Republicans in the U.S. House (except Mark Amodei), but a whole lot of Democrats, too. But in the end Nancy Pelosi backed Nevada, and Trump’s Yucca wishes fizzled.

Gregory Jazcko was a nuclear policy staffer for Harry Reid, a position where he probably had to draw distinctions between opposing Yucca Mountain, but not nuclear power, on an almost daily basis. In fact, Jazcko would later become chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which has never been a habitat for people who oppose nuclear power.

But after leaving that job, Jazcko wrote a book describing nuclear power as “a failed technology” that “is more hazardous than it’s worth,” and “will lead to catastrophe.”

Thankfully earlier this year, Trump proclaimed to Nevada via twitter that the tiny Trump palm had gone to the orange Trump forehead so he no longer wanted to dump nuke waste in Nevada. And if he wins a second term, well, everyone knows how trustworthy and consistent the president is.

In other words, during a second term, maybe Trump will put a revived Yucca project under the direction of former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder.

July 25, 2020 Posted by | business and costs, politics, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

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