Finnish energy company to take Russia’s nuclear giant to court
Fennovoima, a Finnish energy company, announced it would launch several
arbitrations and other proceedings against various Rosatom entities on
Saturday, following the collapse of a nuclear power plant project in
Finland.
Fennovoima purchased the nuclear power plant from RAOS Project, a
subsidiary of the Russian Rosatom Group, in 2013. The estimated €7
billion Hanhikivi 1 project in northwestern Finland was set to be finished
by 2029. After delays in delivering technical and safety documents to
Finnish authorities, Fennovoima terminated the project at the start of May.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine also made continuing impossible. Rosatom
denied any technical issues, claimed the work was proceeding as planned and
blamed the Finnish side for politicising the project. A bitter divorce made
compensation claims from both sides inevitable. Fennovoima is seeking
compensation amounting to €2 billion for: “damages arising out of the
delays and inability to deliver the project and related issues.”
Euractiv 22nd Aug 2022, https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy-environment/news/finnish-energy-company-to-take-russias-nuclear-giant-to-court/
d Aug 2022
Zelensky ‘troubled’ as he questions inner circle’s loyalties – Erdogan
https://www.rt.com/news/561328-erdogan-zelensky-betrayal-cabinet-firings/ 22 Aug 22, The Ukrainian leader is surrounded by “people who deceive him a lot,” he allegedly told the Turkish president
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky is concerned he is being taken advantage of by someone close to him, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, citing their conversation during the meeting in Lviv on Thursday.
Asked by a farmer about the Ukrainian leader’s “situation” on Monday during a visit to local vineyards, Erdogan claimed Zelensky was “very worried. There are people around him who deceive him a lot.”
Erdogan had not mentioned this confession during earlier public statements about the negotiations in western Ukraine, and he did not elaborate further on who Zelensky believed was deceiving him. The two men met with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and signed an agreement on restoring Ukrainian infrastructure destroyed during the conflict.
The Ukrainian president has been firing high-ranking members of his administration at a fast clip since Russia’s military operation began in February. Special forces commander Grigory Galagan was removed last month.
First Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Ruslan Demchenko was also let go last month, though for apparent health reasons, while Prosecutor General Irina Venediktova and Intelligence Bureau chief Ivan Bakanov were suspended and placed under investigation on suspicion of working with Russia.
Not content to merely behead the Ukrainian security service (SBU), Zelensky announced a personnel audit in the agency and fired several regional heads as well. He had apparently been planning to audit the SBU for some time, claiming that on February 24, the day Russia launched its offensive in the Donbass, some representatives of a law enforcement agency were “somewhere [else], instead of protecting their people.”
‘We should kill as many Russians as we can’ – Ukrainian envoy
Ukraine is doing its best to “kill as many Russians” as possible, the nation’s ambassador to Kazakhstan, Pyotr Vrublevsky, told local media outlets on Monday.
Speaking to a local blogger, Vrublevsky was asked to comment on the ongoing Ukraine conflict. “What can I say … We are trying to kill as many [Russians] as possible. The more Russians we kill now, the fewer our children will have to. That’s it,” he said………………………………………….. more https://www.rt.com/russia/561314-kill-russians-ukraine-ambassador/
—
Is Ukraine ready for another Chernobyl-like catastrophe? – Paul Dorfman
Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of shelling Zaporizhzhia. Now,
International atomic energy agency team will visit Zaporizhzhia. Still the
question arises, is Ukraine ready for another Chernobyl-like catastrophe?
Paul Dorfman at 3.57
WION 20th Aug 2022
Germany rules out delay to nuclear phaseout
Germany’s three remaining nuclear power stations are due to close at the end of the year
DW, 21 Aug 22, Germany won’t extend the lifespan of three remaining nuclear power stations due to the energy crisis, Economy Minister Robert Habeck said. He also warned against public panic over a potential winter gas shortage.
Germany’s three remaining nuclear power stations are due to close at the end of the year
German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said Sunday that allowing the country’s three last nuclear power stations to remain operational would be of little help in solving the country’s energy crisis.
Speaking during a discussion with citizens at the government’s open-door day in Berlin, Habeck said extending the lifespan of the plants — which are due to close at the end of the year — would only save about 2% of gas use.
t is the “wrong decision given how little we would save,” Habeck, who is also Vice Chancellor, added.
One nuclear plant could stay open
However, the minister said he was open to extending the lifespan of one nuclear plant in Bavaria, subject to the results of a stress test of the country’s power system.
The results of the test, to calculate how the country will cope if Russia cuts off natural gas supplies this winter, are due out in a few weeks.
Bavaria is a major manufacturing hub that depends on gas-fired power plants and has few coal-fired plants and low wind power production.
Germany has been phasing out nuclear energy since legislation was passed by former Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan.
But voices calling for some nuclear plants to be kept in use have grown louder since energy prices soared over the past year and tensions with one of Germany’s main suppliers, Russia, intensified. The government has not signaled that it would reconsider the Merkel-era policy.
No need to panic over winter gas supplies
Habeck also told the public not to panic about the prospect of a gas shortage during the colder months, noting if households and industry cut their usage by 15-20% “then we have a really good chance of getting through the winter.”
Even if Russia were to cut supplies entirely, there would be no situation where zero gas would reach Germany, the minister said,……….
Over the longer term, Habeck said Germany must expand its investment in renewable energies and phase out fossil fuels, which he said were the cause of many political conflicts and abuse of power…………. https://www.dw.com/en/germany-rules-out-delay-to-nuclear-phaseout/a-62880769
Why Crimea matters. Russia shoots down Ukrainian drone over Crimea
Russia shoots down Ukrainian drone over Crimea | DW News 21 Aug 22, Russian officials in occupied Crimea say they’ve shot down a drone, headed for a key military base. It was targeting the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol. It was the second assault of its kind against the naval command in Crimea in less than a month – and it comes as Russia claims to have shot down drones elsewhere on the peninsula. Russia annexed Crimea in 2014. However, the international community still recognizes it as part of Ukraine.
Boris Johnson has secretly committed Britain to costly tax-payer funding for Sizewell nuclear plant
Boris Johnson commits to Sizewell on the quiet. The prime minister’s decision to part-fund a new nuclear plant will ‘tie Liz Truss’shands’ in tackling the cost of living. Boris Johnson has secretly given the green light for a £30 billion nuclear power station — sparking concerns within Liz Truss’s team that the cost will limit her ability to cut taxes and help the public with the cost of living.
The government is proposing to buy a 20 per cent stake in the plant, at a cost to the taxpayer of around £6 billion. But experts believe the plans are at risk of cost overruns and delays. One of Truss’s senior aides complained that Johnson’s decision to take a taxpayer-funded stake in the project would eat into the headroom available to her.
Johnson and Zahawi, lame ducks both, are understood to see the new power station as vital to Britain’s
future energy security and to want to make the announcement themselves to burnish their legacies in office. An ally of Zahawi stressed that the decision was made with Kwasi Kwarteng, the business and energy secretary, who is set to become Truss’s chancellor and that “no one is more enthusiastic than Kwasi”.
In an interview with The Mail on Sunday, Kwarteng told voters that “help is on the way” but also stressed the need to raise domestic energy production. “We need to crack on with more nuclear power stations,” Kwarteng said, “back British-made small modular reactors, invest in cheap renewable energy like offshore wind, and lift the ban on shale gas extraction in England where there is local consent.”
Times 21st Aug 2022
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/boris-johnson-commits-to-sizewell-on-the-quiet-xdv79rrpf
Sizewell C nuclear plant funding approved despite Tory split.
“Our next prime minister should call Sizewell C in. There are so many better ways to spend billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money than on a project that won’t light a single lightbulb for at least a decade.”
Boris Johnson gives financing go-ahead after warnings decision could limit incoming government,
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/21/sizewell-c-nuclear-plant-funding-approved-despite-tory-split. Rowena Mason Deputy political editor Mon 22 Aug 2022
Boris Johnson has approved funding for a new nuclear power station at Sizewell in Suffolk in the final weeks of his premiership, but some of Liz Truss’s senior allies are split over the decision.
The prime minister and the chancellor, Nadhim Zahawi, approved financing for the construction of two new reactors known as Sizewell C, enabling private funding of about £20-30bn to be raised.
However, Simon Clarke, another key Truss ally and a Treasury minister, warned in a letter leaked to the Sunday Times that the decision could limit Truss’s economic vision.
In the letter, he said the costs of Sizewell C were “sufficient to materially affect spending and fiscal choices for an incoming government, especially in the context of wider pressures on the public finances”.
In an article for the Mail on Sunday, Kwasi Kwarteng stressed the need to “crack on with more nuclear power stations” in order to increase Britain’s energy security.
He gave development consent for Sizewell C in July, but negotiations over the government’s investment decision had been ongoing.
A Whitehall source said Boris Johnson had taken the decision to press ahead with Sizewell several weeks ago. However, he dismissed the idea that the move would tie the hands of the next prime minister, following reports that the Truss campaign was worried that it was irreversible.
“In the next few weeks, we will announce a government investment decision on Sizewell C where the government formally commits to the project’s financing. It allows the project to raise private capital in the markets. But it’s only at the point of the final investment decision in early 2023 that the government would formalise any equity share.”
Johnson’s decision over Sizewell was challenged by a campaign to stop the nuclear reactor being built.
A spokesperson for the campaign, Stop Sizewell C, said: “Whatever way you look at it, this is a very dodgy decision. Has it been made by a lame duck PM who is not supposed to tie the hands of his successor, or was it in fact made before Sizewell C was granted planning consent, lending serious weight to our conviction that this was a prejudiced, political decision?
“Our next prime minister should call Sizewell C in. There are so many better ways to spend billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money than on a project that won’t light a single lightbulb for at least a decade.”
Truss has not stated a clear position on Sizewell C, but hinted last year at concerns about the involvement of China’s state-owned energy company, CGN, as part of a consortium providing funding for the preparatory work at the nuclear plant. She told the Telegraph at the time: “I think it’s very important that we don’t become strategically dependent and I think it’s important that we make sure that we’re working, particularly in areas of critical national infrastructure, with reliable partners.”
EDF, the French state energy firm, worked with CGN on the first phase of the project for a new nuclear power station to sit alongside Sizewell B, which is operational, and Sizewell A, which is being decommissioned. The UK government is keen to ease CGN out, however, over concerns about Chinese involvement in sensitive assets.
Johnson’s government has already put up £100m of funding this year to support the development of Sizewell C.
The £billions cost of the Sizewell nuclear plan becomes an issue in the fight for the role of Prime Minister
In a move that has caused great irritation in Team Truss, Nadhim Zahawi, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Johnson are set to approve the financing of the Sizewell C nuclear plant in Suffolk. It received planning consent last month and the government signalled that it would buy a 20 per cent stake in the project, which is being run by the French company EDF and is expected to cost between £20 billion and £30 billion after inflation. The final investment decision has not been announced.
Simon Clarke, the chief secretary to the Treasury who backs Truss and who sources say will have a “top half of the cabinet job” under her leadership, wrote to Johnson and Zahawi warning that a signoff for Sizewell would compromise the new prime minister’s ability to cut taxes or spend more on the cost of living. In his letter, Clarke wrote:
“The quantum is sufficient to materially affect spending and fiscal choices for an incoming government, especially in the context of wider pressures on the public finances.” While the cost to government is likely
to be about £6 billion, rather than £30 billion, that will give Truss far less room for manoeuvre.
Times 20th Aug 2022
Expert forum Claverton Energy Group concludes that renewable energy +battery storage can meet UK’s needs – nuclear is not needed.
Open University Professor Bill Nuttall’s updated version of his 2005 ‘Nuclear Renaissance’ book makes a case for nuclear power as low carbon and reliable, although, as the promotional blurb says, it accepts that
‘in recent years it has struggled to play a strong role in global plans for electricity generation in the 21st century’.
The new book also accepts that the much-hyped renaissance didn’t in the event happen- with Fukushima blowing it off course. Do we really want to build new nuclear plants to be ready on standby to provide spinning reserve backup and/or to provide rotational grid stability? Hydro can do that, and wind too to some extent, and virtual inertia can be provided by battery systems fed by PV solar.
Claverton Energy Group (CEG), a UK energy expert forum, has recently summarised some of the key conclusions of current research on energy system mixes and say they show that renewables can supply all our needs, with grid balancing provided in part by battery and heat storage.
Nuclear is not needed. The newly revised and updated 100% renewables global energy scenario produced by Prof Mark Jacobson and his team at Stanford University has come to similar conclusions, with 4 hour battery storage playing major balancing roles. All at competitive costs.
Renew Extra 20th Aug 2022
https://renewextraweekly.blogspot.com/2022/08/nuclear-renaissance-revisited.html
Putin Claim U.S. Is Dragging Out War Isn’t Crazy, Military Expert Says
Newsweek, BY NICK MORDOWANEC ON 8/18/22
aims made by Russian President Vladimir Putin that the United States is intentionally prolonging the Russia-Ukraine conflict may not be as implausible as described, says one U.S. military veteran and journalist.
In a speech this week, Putin called out “Western globalist elites” who he said are “provoking chaos, inciting old and new conflicts,” and attempting “to preserve the hegemony and power that is slipping out of their hands.” He added that the situation in Ukraine shows the U.S. is “trying to prolong the conflict.”
Sean Spoonts, a U.S. Navy veteran and editor-in-chief of Special Operations Forces Report (SOFREP), told Newsweek that President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky seem to have separate policy goals in mind.
“It seems like while Ukraine would like to end the war quickly and decisively defeat Russian forces and drive them out of their country, U.S. policy almost seems designed to prolong the conflict hoping to bring about the collapse of Russia itself, both militarily and economically,” Spoonts said.
……………. As a recent report by The Washington Post indicated, the U.S. was privy to some of Russia’s plans for the invasion of Ukraine before it officially began on February 24. Spoonts alluded to Biden’s remarks on that day, when he said, “Some of the most powerful impacts of our actions will come over time as we squeeze Russia’s access to finance and technology for strategic sectors of its economy and degrade its industrial capacity for years to come.”
“Biden has said publicly that his goal is to degrade Russia as a world power, never again in the position to threaten its neighbors,” said Spoonts. “That goes a lot further than Zelensky’s goal, which is to simply get Russian armies out of his country and regain lost territories in Donbas, Luhansk and Crimea.”………………………………. https://www.newsweek.com/sean-spoonts-us-russia-ukraine-war-policy-goals-1735019
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Macron that Ukrainian shelling of Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant risks disaster
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned his French counterpart Emmanuel
Macron that shelling of the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power
plant in southern Ukraine, which he blamed on Kyiv, could result in a
large-scale disaster.
Reuters 19th Aug 2022
Russian Military From Nuclear Plant Showing Signs Of Radiation Sickness – Paramedic
https://ukranews.com/en/news/877286-russian-military-from-nuclear-plant-showing-signs-of-radiation-sickness-paramedic 21 Aug 22, The Russian military men, who were on the territory of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, were hospitalized with symptoms of radiation sickness. To find out what is really happening on the territory of the Zaporizhzhia NPP, it is necessary to immediately demilitarize it and put it under the control of international organizations.
Paramedic Bohdan Bondarenko, who is now on the front line, stated this on Facebook.
“The Russian military, who performed tasks at the Zaporizhzhia NPP, were taken to intensive care with signs identical to radiation sickness. The Russians, of course, talk about chemical poisoning, but brought the wounded from the nuclear plant. Not to mention the level of trust in Russian information. Now, before it is too late, you need to do everything possible to get a true picture of the situation at the station,” Bondarenko said.
He noted that the military from the Zaporizhzhia NPP on July 31 were taken to a military hospital and are in intensive care. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation distributed information that examination of the victims “revealed the presence of an organic poison of artificial origin.” But this happened when the Russians fired on the Zaporizhzhia NPP.
“Around this time, Russia and Ukraine exchanged mutual accusations of shelling the station. Ukrainian Energoatom announced a possible radiation leak at the Zaporizhzhia NPP. At the same time, Rosatom brought its employees out of the station as an emergency, and the occupiers refused access to the station to IAEA inspectors,” writes Bondarenko.
The paramedic believes that the situation with the concealment of information by Russia resembles the behavior of the leadership of the USSR immediately after the Chornobyl tragedy.
“Something similar was last observed in the first month after the Chornobyl disaster. The leadership of the USSR desperately hid and distorted the truth, which led to catastrophic consequences both for the health and life of millions of people, and for the Soviet government itself, which was not forgiven for this lie. It is necessary to immediately demilitarize the station and put it under the control of the UN, IAEA or other independent structure. It’s a matter of survival. Aware of the level of opportunities of international organizations, or rather their level of helplessness, but there is no other,” Bohdan Bondarenko stressed.
Ukraine nuclear accident fears heightened
Canberra Times 21 Aug 22, New blasts have resounded in the Russian-annexed Crimea peninsula and a Russian missile hit a residential area of a southern Ukrainian town not far from a nuclear power station, wounding 12 civilians, Russian and Ukrainian officials say.
The strike at the Pivdennoukrainsk (south Ukraine) nuclear station and fresh shelling near the Zaporizhzhia station, Europe’s largest such facility, heightened fears of a nuclear accident during the war, Ukrainian officials said. In Crimea, ….the Russian-appointed governor not recognised by the West said a drone had struck a building near the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet on Saturday morning.
“A drone flew onto the roof. It was flying low,” governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said on Telegram. “It was downed right over the Fleet headquarters. It fell on the roof and burned up. The attack failed.”
Ukrainian media reported explosions in nearby towns – including the resorts of Yevpatoriya, Olenivka and Zaozyornoye.
Explosions and fires have struck Crimea in the past week — including a blast at a Russian air base that appeared to destroy large numbers of aircraft according to satellite photos.
Ukrainian officials have made no comment. Analysts have said the attacks were made possible by new equipment used by the Ukrainian army and predicted more would occur………………………………………..
Russia and Ukraine traded fresh accusations of shelling around the Zaporizhzhia station – held by Russia since March.
Vladimir Rogov, a Russia-appointed official in the nearby town of Enerhodar, said Ukrainian forces had launched at least four strikes on the plant. Yevhen Yetushenko, mayor of the Ukrainian-controlled Nikopol on the opposite bank of the Dnipro River, said Russian forces had repeatedly shelled the town.
Talks have been underway for more than a week to arrange for a visit to the plant by the UN nuclear power agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency………………………………….. https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7869033/ukraine-nuclear-accident-fears-heightened/
We must never forget the risks nuclear stations pose to us all in conflict situations
The Herald, Isobel Lindsay, 19 Aug 22, CURRENTLY there are two different discourses going on in relation to nuclear power with no cross-over (“If Russia turns up the heat, could a nuclear winter follow?”, The Herald, August 17).
There is a cosy consensus among UK politicians and commentators that we should have more nuclear power stations and that this is supposed to be environmentally friendly. This message is, of course, actively promoted by commercial interests. Never mind the huge cost of both the build and the decommissioning, the legacy of radioactive waste we are leaving for future generations, the impact of rising water levels and drought on these plants and the long build time.
But the other discourse playing out is the huge vulnerability of nuclear power plants in conflict situations. Both Russia and Ukraine are playing “dare you” in relation to the Zaporizhzhia power plant. The Russians are using it as a base that is too dangerous to attack and Ukraine has been having a few shots at it to frighten the Russians and the rest of Europe in order to get more help. If the worst happens, it is the wind that will determine who suffers most, not state boundaries.
The threat is not just from war situations. While we have careful security measures, risk is always there. In 2017 a member of a far-right apocalyptic group in the US was arrested with weapons on his way to a nuclear power plant. One of those killed in the January 2021 storming of the US Capitol was an employee of a nuclear plant. In 2014 an insider at a Belgium reactor sabotaged one of the plant’s turbines, leading to months of shut-down. There are plants on earthquake and tsunami vulnerable areas.
We are not short of low-risk methods for the radical reduction in carbon emissions. We need to challenge those who are promoting high-risk choices, https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/20672345.letters-must-never-forget-risks-nuclear-stations-pose-us-conflict-situations/
1 This Month
of the week– Nuclear Reactor Information Task Force
14 May – online event From Bombs to Data Centres: the Face of Nuclear Colonialism
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