nuclear-news

The News That Matters about the Nuclear Industry Fukushima Chernobyl Mayak Three Mile Island Atomic Testing Radiation Isotope

Constitutional Violations: Julian Assange, Privacy and the CIA

December 28, 2023, Dr Binoy Kampmark,  https://theaimn.com/constitutional-violations-julian-assange-privacy-and-the-cia/

As a private citizen, the options for suing an intelligence agency are few and far between. The US Central Intelligence Agency, as with other members of the secret club, pour scorn on such efforts. To a degree, such a dismissive sentiment is understandable: Why sue an agency for its bread-and-butter task, which is surveillance?

This matter has cropped up in the US courts in what has become an international affair, namely, the case of WikiLeaks founder and publisher, Julian Assange. While the US Department of Justice battles to sink its fangs into the Australian national for absurd espionage charges, various offshoots of his case have begun to grow. The issue of CIA sponsored surveillance during his stint in the Ecuadorian embassy in London has been of particular interest, since it violated both general principles of privacy and more specific ones regarding attorney-client privilege. Of particular interest to US Constitution watchers was whether such actions violated the reasonable expectation of privacy protected by the Fourth Amendment.

Four US citizens took issue with such surveillance, which was executed by the Spanish security firm Undercover (UC) Global and its starry-eyed, impressionable director David Morales under instruction from the CIA. Civil rights attorney Margaret Ratner Kunstler and media lawyer Deborah Hrbek, and journalists John Goetz and Charles Glass, took the matter to the US District Court of the Southern District of New York in August last year. They had four targets of litigation: the CIA itself, its former director, Michael R. Pompeo, Morales and his company, UC Global SL.

All four alleged that the US Government had conducted surveillance on them and copied their information during visits to Assange in the embassy, thereby violating the Fourth Amendment. In doing so, the plaintiffs argued they were entitled to money damages and injunctive relief. The government moved to dismiss the complaint as amended.

On December 19, District Judge John G. Koeltl delivered a judgment of much interest, granting, in part, the US government’s motion to dismiss but denying other parts of it. Before turning to the relevant features of Koeltl’s reasons, various observations made in the case bear repeating. The judge notes, for instance, Pompeo’s April 2017 speech, in which he “‘pledged that his office would embark upon a ‘long term’ campaign against WikiLeaks.’” He is cognisant of the plaintiffs’ claims “Morales was recruited to conduct surveillance on Assange and his visitors on behalf of the CIA and that this recruitment occurred at a January 2017 private security industry convention at the Las Vegas Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.”

From that meeting, it is claimed that “Morales created an operations unit, improved UC Global’s systems, and set up live streaming from the United States so that surveillance could be accessed instantly by the CIA.” The data gathered from UC Global “was either personally delivered to Las Vegas; Washington, D.C.; and New York City by Morales (who travelled to these locations more than sixty times in the three years following the Las Vegas convention) or placed on a server that provided external access to the CIA.”

Koeltl preferred to avoid deciding on the claims that Morales and UC Global were, in fact, “acting as agents of Pompeo and the CIA.” Such matters were questions of fact “that cannot be decided on a motion to dismiss.”

A vital issue in the case was whether the plaintiffs had standing to sue the CIA in the first place. Citing the case of ACLU v Clapper, which involved a challenge to the National Security Agency’s bulk telephone metadata collection program, Koeltl accepted that they did. In doing so, he rejected a similar argument made by the government in Clapper – that the injuries alleged were simply “too speculative and generalized” and that the information gathered via surveillance would necessarily even be used against them. “In this case, the plaintiffs need not allege, as the Government argues, that the Government will imminently use their information collected at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London.” If the search of the conversations and electronic devices along with the seizure of the contents of the electronic devices “were unlawful, the plaintiffs have suffered a concrete and particularized injury fairly traceable to the challenged program and redressable by favorable ruling.”

Less satisfactory for the plaintiffs was the finding they had no reasonable expectation of privacy regarding their conversations with the publisher given that “they knew Assange was surveilled even before the CIA’s alleged involvement.” The judge thought it significant that they did “not allege that they would not have met Assange had they known their conversations would be surveilled.” Additionally, it “would not be recognized as reasonable by society” to have expected conversations held with Assange at the embassy in London to be protected, given such societal acceptance of, for instance video surveillance in government buildings.

This reasoning is faulty, given that the visits by the four plaintiffs to the embassy did not take place with their knowledge of the operation being conducted by UC Global with CIA blessing. In a general sense, anyone visiting the embassy could not help but suspect that Assange might be the object of surveillance, but to suggest something akin to a waiver of privacy rights on the part of attorneys and journalists aiding a persecuted publisher is an odd turn.

The US Government also succeeded on the point that the plaintiffs had no reasonable expectation to privacy regarding their passports or their devices they voluntarily left at the Embassy reception desk. In doing so, they “assumed the risk that the information may be conveyed to the Government.” Those visiting embassies must, it would seem, be perennially on guard.

That said, the plaintiffs convinced the judge that they had “sufficient allegations that the CIA and Pompeo, through Morales and UC Global, violated their reasonable expectation to privacy in the contents of their electronic devices.” The government even went so far as to concede that point.

Unfortunately for the plaintiffs, the biggest fish was let off the hook. The plaintiffs had attempted to use the 1971 US Supreme Court case of Bivens to argue that the former CIA director be held accountable and liable for violating constitutional rights. Koeltl thought the effort to extend the application of Bivens inappropriate in terms of the high standing nature of the defendant and the context. “As a presidential appointee confirmed by Congress […] Defendant Pompeo is in a different category of defendant from a law enforcement agent of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics.” More’s the pity.

Leaving aside some of the more questionable turns of reasoning in Koeltl’s judgment, public interest litigants and activists can take heart from the prospect that civil trials against the CIA for violations of the US Constitution are no longer unrealistic. “We are thrilled,” declared Richard Roth, the plaintiffs’ attorney, “that the court rejected the CIA’s efforts to silence the plaintiffs, who merely seek to expose the CIA’s attempt to carry out Pompeo’s vendetta against WikiLeaks.” The appeals process, however, is bound to be tested.

December 31, 2023 Posted by | Legal, USA | Leave a comment

‘Cover-up’ hearing Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission for late January 2024.


Gordon Edwards., 29 Dec 23

There will be a most unusual public hearing by the CNSC in late  January 2024. It’s not a licensing hearing. It’s an attempt to cover up or to exonerate an act already performed by OPG without explicit approval.

The first construction licence for a commercial SMNR (Small Modular Nuclear Reactor) in Canada has been requested by OPG, who wants to build up to 4 GE-Hitachi “boiling water” reactors on the Darlington site. But there’s a glitch.

OPG used an old 2011 “site preparation licence” to prepare the site for the GE-Hitachi BWRX-300 reactor on the same property as the Darlington Nuclear Generating Station, where 4 large CANDU reactors are currently being refurbished.

The old licence was granted on the basis of an Environmental Assessment Report published in 2011 by a Joint Review Panel (JRP) who had examined and approved four large candidate reactors that had very little in common with the BWRX-300.

The JRP stipulated in their report that if OPG chooses a reactor design that is “significantly different” from those that they had examined from 2009-2011, then a NEW EA should be conducted. In other words, OPG should start over again.

But OPG “jumped the gun” by using that antiquated site preparation licence without explicit approval.

Fearing that they may have violated the terms of the 2011 EA Report, by using an old site preparation licence granted for a significantly different reactor construction project, OPG is now asking the CNSC to declare that the BWRX-300 design was, in effect, already approved by the JRP back in 2011 (even though no design of that type was ever considered by the JRP).

My intervention for this upcoming hearing is entitled “DNNP: Mischief in the Making” in which I argue that the 2011 EA Report did not and could not be construed to cover the BWRX-300, and recommending the CNSC to so confirm as a matter of fact.

Accordingly, before a construction licence is considered for a BWRX-300, a new EA is required.

Here is a link to my intervention: http://www.ccnr.org/DNNP-Mischief_in_the_Making_2023.pdf

December 31, 2023 Posted by | Canada, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

Former chair of Ohio utility regulator surrenders in $60 million bribery scheme linked to energy bill

PBS Newshour , Julie Carr Smyth, Associated Press 27 Dec 23

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio’s former top utility regulator surrendered Monday in connection with a $60 million bribery scheme related to a legislative bailout for two Ohio nuclear power plants that has already resulted in a 20-year prison sentence for a former state House speaker.

Sam Randazzo, former chair of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, self-surrendered at U.S. District Court in Cincinnati after being charged in an 11-count indictment that was returned on Nov. 29, U.S. Attorney Kenneth L. Parker’s office announced. Randazzo was scheduled for an initial court appearance later in the day.

“Today’s indictment outlines an alleged scheme in which a public regulatory official ignored the Ohio consumers he was responsible for protecting, instead taking a bribe from an energy company seeking favors,” FBI Cincinnati Special Agent in Charge J. William Rivers said in a statement.

Randazzo, 74, resigned in November 2020 after FBI agents searched his Columbus townhome and FirstEnergy revealed in security filings what it said were bribery payments of $4.3 million for his future help at the commission a month before Republican Gov. Mike DeWine nominated him as Ohio’s top utility regulator.

He faces one count of conspiring to commit travel act bribery and honest services wire fraud, two counts of travel act bribery, two counts of honest services wire fraud, one count of wire fraud and five counts of making illegal monetary transactions.

A message seeking comment was left for his lawyer. If convicted as charged, the defendant could face up to 20 years in prison.

Ohio Consumers’ Counsel Maureen Willis, who represents the state’s utility ratepayers, said the indictment was “an important first step to bring justice to Ohio utility consumers” — but that more is needed.

“It underscores the need for near-term reform of the PUCO selection process that led to his appointment as Chair of the PUCO,” Willis said in a statement. “OCC’s calls for reform so far have gone unanswered. Ohioans deserve better from the public officials in this state.”

The long-awaited indictment marks the latest development in what has been labeled the largest corruption case in Ohio history.

Former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder was sentenced in June to 20 years in prison for his role in orchestrating the scheme, and lobbyist Matt Borges, a former chair of the Ohio Republican Party, was sentenced to five years.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Cincinnati indicted three others on racketeering charges in July 2020. 

 Lobbyist Juan Cespedes and Jeffrey Longstreth, a top Householder political strategist, pleaded guilty in October 2020. The third person arrested, statehouse lobbyist Neil Clark, pleaded not guilty before dying by suicide in March 2021. The dark money group used to funnel FirstEnergy money, Generation Now, also pleaded guilty to a racketeering charge in February 2021.

All were accused of using the $60 million in secretly funded FirstEnergy cash to get Householder’s chosen Republican candidates elected to the House in 2018 and then to help him get elected speaker in January 2019.

The money was then used to win passage of the tainted energy bill, House Bill 6, and to conduct what authorities have said was a $38 million dirty-tricks campaign to prevent a repeal referendum from reaching the ballot…………………………………….. more https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/former-chair-of-ohio-utility-regulator-surrenders-in-60-million-bribery-scheme-linked-to-energy-bill

December 31, 2023 Posted by | Legal, secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

The failed Nuscale project lets Utah down — again

Every time we gamble on a nuclear project like Nuscale to deliver carbon-free power, we are hampering our ability to meet critical climate goals by 2030.

By Lexi Tuddenham | For The Salt Lake Tribune, Dec. 29, 2023  https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/commentary/2023/12/29/opinion-failed-nuscale-project/

Early last month, Nuscale made headlines by canceling its 462 MW proposal for a small modular nuclear reactor (SMNR) at the Idaho National Laboratory. Here in Utah, the news was met with little surprise.

For the past six years, we’ve been raising crucial questions about the viability of the so-called “Carbon Free Power Project” (CFPP). Was it a project that could deliver power on time and at a reasonable cost to ratepayers? How much would taxpayers and ratepayers ultimately pay, and who would bear the environmental, public health and financial risks? Could it meet our energy needs at a time when electrification is more critical than ever?

In 2015, the Nuscale project was eight years out. In 2022, it was still eight years out. As we watched other nuclear power projects be abandoned or blunder online years late and billions of dollars over cost, there was a sense of inevitability about who would suffer when this project failed: the communities who had placed their faith in its fantastical promises of affordable, reliable and “clean” power.

We were told that these SMNRs would be revolutionary — smaller, more cost-effective and with cutting-edge technology, but as we watched the costs swell from $55/MWh to $89/MWh and well beyond, even with huge federal subsidies, it was clear the financial risks were only mounting. With the collapse of the hypothetical project, Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS) member communities in rapidly growing areas like Hurricane and Washington City are now left with the reality of scrambling for alternatives to meet their future energy needs.

As we see nuclear projects around the country experience delay after delay, the Nuscale experience is one reason why we continue to watch the developments of the Terrapower Natrium reactor in Kemmerer, Wyoming, with a mix of skepticism and concern. The other reason is that the Terrapower project has promised not just electricity to Pacificorp customers, but also jobs in a community that desperately needs them. This is irresponsible at best.

The projected timeline for the Terrapower reactor to come online has already been pushed to 2030, which Terrapower external affairs director Jeff Navin admits is “cutting it close.” In addition, the community faces an economic abyss between the projected closure of the coal plant and the startup of the nuclear facility, and federal officials recently noted that with no permanent waste repository existent in the U.S., spent nuclear fuel will be stored “temporarily” on-site. Similar concerns can and should be raised about the proposed nuclear plants at Hunter and Huntington in Utah. At the end of the day, it is workers who are being let down, and it is communities who have to deal with the long term consequences.

We know that the next few years are of critical importance in our ability to combat the worst effects of climate change before we kick off even more warming feedback loops. Every time we gamble on a nuclear project like Nuscale to deliver carbon-free power, we are hampering our ability to meet critical climate goals by 2030. As timelines for such projects are inevitably dragged out, in the interim we continue to burn fossil fuels that choke the air that people breathe and force the climate ever closer to its tipping point.

The hard truth is that there is no silver bullet for climate change. Relying on nuclear power maintains dependence on a flawed energy system that primarily benefits industries that have historically profited from past harms. Now they promise to seamlessly plug in nuclear power and conduct business as usual.

According to the latest estimates, about a billion dollars was sunk into the now-abandoned Nuscale CFPP. This is a drop in the bucket compared to some other nuclear projects this country has seen over the last 30 years. But imagine that $1 billion spent elsewhere on legacy cleanups of the nuclear and uranium mining industry, aiding Downwinders or boosting renewable energy capacity that we know can work. There is an opportunity cost for investing in nuclear when we have faster, lower-risk options that we can prioritize now. Instead, we can take on climate change with what has been called “rational hope,” by investing in wind, solar, geothermal power, storage, grid improvements and efficiency technologies that offer cost-effective climate solutions. And Utah’s potential in these areas is immense.

But this energy future requires a reimagining. It requires permitting and energy-sourcing processes that put the health and vitality of communities front and center. It means changing course to avoid mistakes of the past.

Here at HEAL Utah, we collaborate with communities to shape an energy future crafted by the people it serves. This future prioritizes clean air, a healthy environment and family-sustaining jobs, all powered by accessible, sustainable and affordable renewable energy sources. In short, this is rational hope in practice. Together, we can make it a reality.

Lexi Tuddenham is the executive director of the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah (HEAL Utah).

December 30, 2023 Posted by | climate change, Small Modular Nuclear Reactors, USA | Leave a comment

The Biden Administration Is Quietly Shifting Its Strategy in Ukraine

For two years, Biden and Zelenskyy have been focused on driving Russia from Ukraine. Now Washington is discussing a move to a more defensive posture.

Politico, By MICHAEL HIRSH, 12/27/2023

With U.S. and European aid to Ukraine now in serious jeopardy, the Biden administration and European officials are quietly shifting their focus from supporting Ukraine’s goal of total victory over Russia to improving its position in an eventual negotiation to end the war, according to a Biden administration official and a European diplomat based in Washington. Such a negotiation would likely mean giving up parts of Ukraine to Russia.

The White House and Pentagon publicly insist there is no official change in administration policy — that they still support Ukraine’s aim of forcing Russia’s military completely out of the country. But along with the Ukrainians themselves, U.S. and European officials are now discussing the redeployment of Kyiv’s forces away from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s mostly failed counteroffensive into a stronger defensive position against Russian forces in the east, according to the administration official and the European diplomat, and confirmed by a senior administration official. This effort has also involved bolstering air defense systems and building fortifications, razor wire obstructions and anti-tank obstacles and ditches along Ukraine’s northern border with Belarus, these officials say. In addition, the Biden administration is focused on rapidly resurrecting Ukraine’s own defense industry to supply the desperately needed weaponry the U.S. Congress is balking at replacing.

The administration official told POLITICO Magazine this week that much of this strategic shift to defense is aimed at shoring up Ukraine’s position in any future negotiation. “That’s been our theory of the case throughout — the only way this war ends ultimately is through negotiation,” said the official, a White House spokesperson who was given anonymity because they are not authorized to speak on the record. …………………………………………………………….

“Those discussions [about peace talks] are starting, but [the administration] can’t back down publicly because of the political risk” to Biden, said a congressional official who is familiar with the administration’s thinking and who was granted anonymity to speak freely……………………………………….

Over the past year — with U.S. military support flagging fast on Capitol Hill and Zelenskyy’s once-vaunted counteroffensive failing since it was launched in June — Biden has shifted from promising the U.S. would back Ukraine for “as long as it takes,” to saying the U.S. will provide support “as long as we can” and contending that Ukraine has won “an enormous victory already. Putin has failed.”

Some analysts believe that is code for: Get ready to declare a partial victory and find a way to at least a truce or ceasefire with Moscow, one that would leave Ukraine partially divided…………………………………………………………………. more https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/12/27/biden-endgame-ukraine-00133211

December 30, 2023 Posted by | politics international, USA | Leave a comment

Cold War nuclear waste is prioritized at Carlsbad-area repository. How much is there?

Ed comment. This article is yet another example of what a mess the nuclear industry really is!.

Whatever label they give it, nuclear waste is just long-lasting toxic radioactive trash, with no real solution in sight.

Yet our revered leaders still think it’s OK to just keep on making this trash!!

Adrian Hedden, Carlsbad Current-Argus

Concerns were raised by government watchdog groups for a plan to dispose of Cold War nuclear waste at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant repository in southeast New Mexico, as the federal government could soon generate more new waste through weapons development that would also need disposal.

In a recent 10-year renewal of the Department of Energy’s permit with the New Mexico Environment Department for WIPP’s operations, the NMED added a mandate to prioritize “legacy waste” held for decades at DOE sites and ensure there was adequate space in the underground for its disposal.

At a Dec. 13 public meeting held in Carlsbad and virtually, required by the new permit enacted Nov. 3, DOE and WIPP officials sought input on officially defining legacy waste and how it would be disposed of at WIPP.

:More than 400 shipments of nuclear waste came to Carlsbad-area repository in 2023

Joni Arends with New Mexico-based Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety argued the DOE had held inadequate public meetings with the generator sites, and needed to work quicker to determine how much legacy waste was needing disposal around the U.S.

“You’ve got to do more to get people involved in this very important issue so that we have a complete inventory by the due date in November 2024,” she said.

The permit specified that a legacy waste disposal plan must be developed and submitted to NMED a  year after the permit takes effect, and reserved Panel 12 for the disposal of this waste.

That panel was one of two new panels approved for mining in the permit, intended to replace space lost to contamination in a 2014 incident……………………………………………………………………

Edward Holbrook, with the Department of Ecology’s nuclear waste program at Washington State University said legacy waste is not officially defined at the DOE’s Hanford Site in Washington.

He proposed meetings at the local level as the project moves forward to better determine what the term meant to specific sites, and how much of the waste was present.

“I don’t have those answers right now,” Holbrook said.

Former-NMED scientist Steve Zappe said during the meeting the legacy waste requirement was added to the permit amid concerns that newer streams of waste, such as from increased plutonium pit production at Los Alamos and other facilities, could take up space originally intended for older waste.

“Newly-generated waste which might be easier to dispose of could displace legacy waste which is maybe difficult to characterize or retrieve,” he said.

Tom Clements, executive director at Savannah River Site Watch, a government watchdog group focused on the DOE facility in South Carolina, worried an ongoing project to “down-blend” or dilute surplus weapons-grade plutonium at the facility could result in excess waste needing disposal.

This new stream would likely not be considered legacy waste, and Clements argued the DOE would need to find a process to balance such emerging needs, including planned pit production at Savannah River.

“This is not legacy material,” Clements said. “The pit-TRU is not included. I wonder how the plutonium down-blended material is going to be categorized. To me it is not legacy waste.”

Chavez agreed that the wastes Clements mentioned were not legacy waste.

That could be a problem, said Don Hancock with the Southwest Research and Information Center in Albuquerque.

Hancock pointed to a 2020 study from the National Academies of Science finding there may not be enough space at WIPP for the waste the DOE plans to produce in the coming years.  https://www.currentargus.com/story/news/2023/12/28/cold-war-nuclear-waste-disposed-of-new-mexico-amid-space-concerns/72014679007/

December 30, 2023 Posted by | USA, wastes | Leave a comment

South Carolina nuclear plant’s cracked pipes get downgraded warning from officials

Federal regulators have lessened the severity of their warning about cracks discovered in a backup emergency fuel line at a South Carolina nuclear plant northwest of the state capital

VOA News, By The Associated Press, December 30, 2023

JENKINSVILLE, S.C. — Federal regulators have lessened the severity of their warning about cracks discovered in a backup emergency fuel line at a South Carolina nuclear plant northwest of the state capital.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission downgraded its preliminary “yellow” warning for V.C. Summer Nuclear Station issued this October to a final “white” one after owner and operator Dominion Energy showed its generator could still run for six hours in an emergency, the agency announced Thursday.

That demonstration calmed officials’ concerns that Dominion Energy’s failure to maintain cracks and leaks — discovered at least five times over the past two decades — had neutralized the plant’s ability to cool down its reactors if electricity failed.

The new rating means that the generator is underperforming but still meeting its key targets.

“While not indicative of immediate risk, this finding underscores the need for continuous vigilance and improvement in the plant’s corrective action process,” NRC Region II Administrator Laura Dudes said in a statement………………………………..

Officials plan to complete another inspection to see if Dominion Energy fixes the ongoing issues. In a statement to The Associated Press on Friday, the company said it immediately replaced the piping and will install “more resilient piping” early next year………………………………………

The State Newspaper reported that a leader at a watchdog group said the length of the problem warranted the more serious finding. The risk is that fires could break out, according to Edwin Lyman, the director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists. The changes from Dominion Energy seem to be “pencil-sharpening exercises that make a bad situation look better on paper,” Lyman told The State.  https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/south-carolina-nuclear-plants-cracked-pipes-downgraded-warning-105988939#:~:text=The%20U.S.%20Nuclear%20Regulatory%20Commission,emergency%2C%20the%20agency%20announced%20Thursday.

December 30, 2023 Posted by | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Feds back away from harsh rating of SC nuclear plant, but will keep an eye on it BY SAMMY FRETWELL UPDATED DECEMBER 28, 2023

27 Dec 23  https://www.thestate.com/news/local/environment/article283528323.html

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has toned down concerns it had raised about a safety system at the V.C. Summer power plant northwest of Columbia — but the agency says it will keep an eye on the facility. After hearing from Dominion Energy, the federal oversight agency recently reduced a “yellow’’ safety finding to a “white’’ finding. Both ratings flag concerns about the quality of operations at nuclear plants, but yellow findings are more serious. The NRC has had its eye on the Summer plant because the power company failed for two decades to stop cracks and leaks in its backup diesel generator system. The system is designed to provide electricity to parts of the nuclear plant in the event of a power outage.

Proper maintenance and operation of the backup diesel generators ensures that water will continue to circulate through the atomic reactor during an emergency. Without cooling water, reactor cores can overheat and release radiation. In an email to The State this week, the NRC said it downgraded the yellow finding to white after Dominion presented more evidence that the emergency diesel generator system’s shortcomings were not as serious as originally thought. The power company, which owns the nuclear plant, showed that the diesel generator system, even with the problems that had been outlined, could operate for six hours during an emergency. That would give plant workers time to take additional measures to avoid a problem, according to the nuclear agency.

“The insight into the generator’s capacity led the NRC to reassess the issue’s safety significance, ultimately concluding that it posed a lower risk than initially assessed,’’ the email from NRC spokesman Dave Gasperson said. The NRC’s scale of severity for nuclear plant problems runs from green, which is of least concern, to red, which is of most concern. A yellow finding is the second most serious. White findings are less serious than yellow, but greater than green. Cracks and leaks involving the diesel generator system occurred on at least five occasions from 2003 to 2022, according to the NRC.

Each time, Dominion — or its predecessor, SCE&G — fixed the problems. But the utilities never resolved to the NRC’s satisfaction why the cracks and leaks continued to occur. The full reason for the problems remains unclear, but previous NRC reports suggested that vibrations and maintenance of the pipes that later cracked may have contributed. The problems were found during testing at the plant, so they did not occur during an actual emergency. Despite lowering the safety rating from yellow to white, the NRC will conduct an additional inspection at the V.C. Summer plant, according to a Dec. 21 letter from the agency’s regional administrator, Laura Dudes, to Dominion nuclear chief Eric Carr.

The agency will make sure the cause of the problems are fully understood and that changes made by Dominion are sufficient to ensure problems at the plant don’t happen again, the letter said. “This inspection aims to ensure Dominion Energy has thoroughly analyzed the root cause and implemented effective measures to prevent recurrence,’’ according to the NRC’s email. Dominion, in a statement this week, said it is replacing piping in the diesel generator system and has improved the design of the fuel delivery system. “More resilient piping’’ will be installed in the first quarter of 2024, the company said.

“Dominion Energy’s commitment to safety, along with the NRC’s process for regulating nuclear power stations, ensure we continue to operate to the highest safety standards,’’ the company’s statement said. The company also noticed that one of the problems, found in November 2022, marked the first time in 40 years that a fuel oil leak had made an emergency diesel generator inoperable. Problems with cracks in the diesel generator system were uncovered at about the same time electrical problems with the system were noted last year.

In that case, an electrical problem was found in the plant’s “B” diesel generator system. That made the system inoperable for several weeks in 2022. In that case, the NRC also said the company failed to correct the problem and issued a white finding against Dominion. The history of problems with the generator system prompted one nuclear power watchdog to express reservations about the NRC’s recent decision to drop the safety designation from yellow to white. Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said Dominion’s assurances appear to be “pencil-sharpening exercises that make a bad situation look better on paper.’’ Most of the risk from the cracks and leaks comes from the possibility of fires that could break out, he said.

“I think that given the length of time that this problem was ignored, since at least 2003, despite warning signs, … the more serious finding was warranted,’’ Lyman said in an email. Dominion Energy’s V.C. Summer plant is located about 25 miles northwest of Columbia in Fairfield County. Its former owner, SCE&G, attempted to build two additional reactors, but the project was beset by cost overruns and delays and was ultimately abandoned in 2017.

December 30, 2023 Posted by | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Inside the Pentagon’s Painfully Slow Effort to Clean Up Decades of PFAS Contamination

By Hannah Norman and Patricia Kime / Kaiser Health News, December 28, 2023

Oscoda, Michigan, has the distinction as the first community where “forever chemicals” were found seeping from a military installation into the surrounding community. Beginning in 2010, state officials and later residents who lived near the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base were horrified to learn that the chemicals, collectively called PFAS, had leached into their rivers, lakes, and drinking water…………………………………….

PFAS chemicals have been linked to increased cholesterol levels, preeclampsia in pregnant women, decreased birth weights, and decreased immune response to vaccines, as well as certain types of cancer. A federal study of U.S. military personnel published in July was the first to show a direct connection between PFAS and testicular cancer, and the chemicals have been linked to increased risk of kidney cancer…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. more https://scheerpost.com/2023/12/28/inside-the-pentagons-painfully-slow-effort-to-clean-up-decades-of-pfas-contamination/

December 30, 2023 Posted by | environment, USA | Leave a comment

Low-Flying Helicopters Will Monitor Any Nuclear Threat In Las Vegas This Weekend

Matt Novak, Senior Contributor Forbes 27 Dec 23

If you see low-flying helicopters over the Las Vegas strip during the next few days, don’t be alarmed. The U.S. Department of Energy is conducting surveillance flights to make sure any potential terrorists aren’t able to sneak a dirty bomb into the tourist destination. And, believe it or not, it’s the kind of surveillance that’s been happening since the 1970s, even if it doesn’t always get a public announcement.

The low-flying aircraft are operated by the National Nuclear Security Administration under a special group called the Nuclear Emergency Support Team, which was established almost 50 years ago to protect the U.S. from nuclear threats.

The flights are scheduled for Friday, Dec. 29 and Sunday, Dec. 31 to prepare for the big New Year’s Eve celebrations in Las Vegas.

“The public may see NNSA’s twin-engine Bell 412 helicopter, which is equipped with radiation-sensing technology,” the Department of Energy said in a press release on Wednesday………………..

The helicopter flights first measure the amount of background radiation that’s naturally occurring in a major city and allow investigators to look out for any abnormal radiation, which would be present if terrorists ever constructed what’s called a “dirty bomb” from nuclear material.

The NEST task force was first set up in 1975 after a number of nuclear threats against major American cities, many of which didn’t make the evening news and were only revealed decades later in the book Defusing Armageddon by Jeffrey T. Richelson. Some of the threats turned out to be just kids, like the 14-year-old who threatened to blow up Orlando in 1970 if he didn’t get $1 million. But other threats stemmed from instances where actual nuclear material was stolen from U.S. labs.

And that’s why NEST has been in action ever since, largely working behind the scenes, as many Americans have no idea that the Department of Energy is even monitoring for such things. But they’re constantly monitoring for nuclear threats, especially during large events like the Super Bowl or New Year’s Eve celebrations in a city like Las Vegas………………………………….. more https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattnovak/2023/12/27/low-flying-helicopters-will-monitor-any-nuclear-threat-in-las-vegas-this-weekend/?sh=13cd7d4784b9

December 29, 2023 Posted by | safety, USA | Leave a comment

US….Arsenal of Genocide in Gaza 

Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL 27 Dec 23

During 80 days of mass destruction and human slaughter in Gaza, the US has done its part. President Biden has shipped 10,000 tons of US weapons to help Israel utterly destroy Gaza. Took 244 cargo planes and 20 ships to deliver all those weapons of mass civilian destruction with endless more on the way. 

In WWII the US was the Arsenal of Democracy in defeating fascism. In the current Israeli war on the entirety of Gaza, the US has morphed into the Arsenal of Genocide in destroying the Palestinians in Gaza.

December 29, 2023 Posted by | Israel, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Israel receives 230 planes, 20 ships loaded with US arms amid Gaza war

US military assistance includes artillery shells, armored vehicles, basic combat tools for soldiers, lsraeli daily says

Ahmed Asmar  26.12.2023, https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/israel-receives-230-planes-20-ships-loaded-with-us-arms-amid-gaza-war/3092301

ANKARA 

The United States has sent 230 cargo planes and 20 ships loaded with weapons and military equipment to Israel since the outbreak of the Gaza conflict on Oct. 7, according to Israeli media on Monday.

The US military assistance includes artillery shells, armored vehicles and basic combat tools for soldiers, Yediot Ahronoth newspaper reported.  

Israel’s Defense Ministry estimates the cost of the current war on the Gaza Strip at around 65 billion shekels ($17 billion).  

The newspaper, citing a Defense Ministry official, said the army had used most of the ammunition in its warehouses at the beginning of the war.

“But Israel managed to re-fill its warehouses in preparation for a possible large-scale war with the Lebanese Hezbollah group,” it added. 

At least 489 Israeli soldiers have been killed in clashes with Palestinian fighters in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, according to Israeli military figures.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7, killing at least 20,674 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring 54,536 others, according to local health authorities. 

Around 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.
The Israeli onslaught has left Gaza in ruins, with half of the coastal territory’s housing damaged or destroyed and nearly 2 million people displaced within the densely populated enclave amid shortages of food and clean water. 

December 29, 2023 Posted by | Israel, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Ralph Nader: ‘Nothing Will Stop Us’

There is only one institution that could stop Netanyahu’s mass military massacres of the Palestinian people. That is the U.S. Congress.

In 2015, over 400 Rabbis from Israel, the USA and Canada called on Prime Minister Netanyahu to stop the practice of demolishing hundreds of Palestinian homes as being contrary to international law and Jewish tradition. Their successors Rabbis for Human Rights are being ignored by the regime.

By Ralph Nader / Nader.org,  https://scheerpost.com/2023/12/27/ralph-nader-nothing-will-stop-us/

The unstoppable Israeli U.S. armed military juggernaut continues its genocidal destruction of Gaza’s Palestinians. The onslaught includes blocking the provision of “food, water, medicine, electricity and fuel,” openly genocidal orders decreed by Netanyahu and his extreme, blood-thirsty ministers.

The stunning atrocities going on day after day is being recorded by U.S. drones over Gaza and by brave Palestinian journalists directly targeted by the Israeli army. Over 66 journalists and larger numbers of their families have been slain. Israel has excluded foreign and Israeli journalists for years from Gaza.

This no-holds-barred ferocity came out of the Israeli government’s slumber on October 7th which allowed a few thousand Hamas and other fighters to take their smuggled hand-held weapons and attack soldiers and civilians before being destroyed or driven back to Gaza.

Seventy-five years of Israel military violence against defenseless Palestinians and fifty-six years of violently and illegally occupying their remaining slice of the original Palestine provides some background for Israel’s Founder, David Ben-Gurion’s candid statement: “We have taken their country.” (See, his full statement here).

The overwhelming military superiority of Israel – a nuclear armed nation – in the Middle East has produced a more aggressive Israeli government. Being more secure than ever before doesn’t seem to temper the expansionist missions of right-wing Israeli colonies in the West Bank.

Presently, the narrow Netanyahu majority in the Parliament believes that “nothing can stop us.” Presently, they are right.

Joe Biden and Congress are vigorously enabling the annihilations. The UN is frozen by the Joe Biden administration’s vetoes in the Security Council against ending the carnage in Gaza. The Arab nations either lay in ruins – Syria, Iraq – or are too weak to cause Israeli generals any worry. The rich Arab nations in the Gulf want to do business with prosperous Israel and, other than Qatar, care little about their Palestinian brethren.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) are no obstacle. Israel, along with Russia and the U.S. do not belong to the International Criminal Court. The Palestinian Authority is a party, but the practical difficulties of investigating Israeli war crimes in Gaza and apprehending the accused are insurmountable. The ICJ’s jurisdiction requires a country to bring Israel before the Court for war crimes or genocide. In any event, the Court’s lead-footed procedures trespass on eternity. So much for international law and the Geneva Conventions. Netanyahu rejects the moral authority of seventeen Israeli human rights groups, including Rabbis and reservist soldiers. Their open letter to President Biden in the December 13, 2023 issue of the New York Times on “The Humanitarian Catastrophe in the Gaza Strip” was ignored by the media despite the truth and courage it embodied.

In the U.S., protests and demonstrations are everywhere. Many are organized by Jewish human rights groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace, If Not Now, Standing Together, Veterans for Peace and various student organizations. Everywhere Biden travels there are people from all backgrounds protesting.

A few days ago, the first protests by labor union members occurred in Oakland, California. Union activists could turn their attention to why, for years, union leaders put billions of dollars into riskier lower-interest Israeli bonds rather than U.S. Treasuries or bond funds investing in America. Like U.S. weapon deliveries, purchases of Israeli bonds by states, cities and unions have surged since October 7th.

Pope Francis, informed of the Israeli attack on the only Catholic Church and Convent in Gaza, which housed people with disabilities, killing and injuring Christians sheltering there, sorrowfully said: “Some would say, ‘It is war. It is terrorism.’ Yes, it is war. It is terrorism.”

In 2015, over 400 Rabbis from Israel, the USA and Canada called on Prime Minister Netanyahu to stop the practice of demolishing hundreds of Palestinian homes as being contrary to international law and Jewish tradition. Their successors Rabbis for Human Rights are being ignored by the regime.

The Head of the U.S. Bishops Conference and the National Council of Churches, representing millions of parishioners, condemned the bombings but received little coverage.

There is only one institution that could stop Netanyahu’s mass military massacres of the Palestinian people. That is the U.S. Congress. As long as over 90% of the politicians there automatically support AIPAC, the Israeli Government Can Do No Wrong Lobby, even a peace-loving Joe Biden cannot deter Netanyahu. Bibi (his nickname) could simply say to a hypothetically transformed Biden “Joe, take it up with OUR Congress.”

How has AIPAC achieved such domination on Capitol Hill? By years of relentless lobbying and the smear of “anti-semitism” to anyone defying them. AIPAC and its chapters don’t bother with marches or demonstrations. They personally focus on the legislator – one by one. Carrots or sticks. Praise, PAC money and junkets are the Carrots. The Sticks are smears and money for selected primary challengers in their Districts or States. Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN) called AIPAC “a Hate Group.”

There are about 300,000 citizens spending significant time back in the states working Congress in AIPAC’s favor. They know the doctors, lawyers, accountants, clergy, local politicians, donors, golf champions and other friends of the Senators and Representatives, and forcefully promote Israeli expansionism backed to the hilt by the U.S. government.

AIPAC is proficient in part for lack of any organized opposition. It is also practicing state-of-the-art non-stop grassroots lobbying.

Congress is poised to send $14.3 billion to Israeli militarism – a “genocide tax” on U.S. taxpayers – without public hearings. While growing public opinion in the U.S. is against unconditional backing of the Israeli regime, it has not changed a single vote in Congress. Someday, more organized support for America’s national interest will.

(For calls to your legislators, the Congressional switchboard is 202-224-3121.)

December 28, 2023 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

Site for Canada’s underground nuclear waste repository to be selected next year

They don’t know if this vastly expensive nuclear waste disposal system will work – to protect future generations from toxic ionising radiation.

Yet they still keep making the poisonous stuff any way !!!

Allison Jones, The Canadian Press, December 27, 2023 

A critical milestone is on the horizon for Canada’s 175-year-long plan to bury its nuclear waste underground, with two pairs of Ontario communities set to decide if they would be willing hosts.

Late next year, the Nuclear Waste Management Organization plans to select the site for Canada’s deep geological repository, where millions of bundles of used nuclear fuel will be placed in a network of rooms connected by cavernous tunnels, as deep below the Earth’s surface as the CN Tower is tall — if the process goes according to plan.

The sites are down to the Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation-Ignace area in northwestern Ontario and the Saugeen Ojibway Nation-South Bruce area in southern Ontario. The municipalities and First Nations are planning votes for next year, the culmination of a years-long information gathering process that some say has left deep divisions within their communities.

The process to move ahead with a deep geological repository is already more than 20 years along. The NWMO was established under legislation in 2002 and is funded by the corporations that generate nuclear power and waste, such as Ontario Power Generation and Hydro-Quebec.

While officials say they are confident at least one area will say yes, two rejections would be a major setback for the $26-billion project.

Ultimately, if both areas say no, then we have to start over — and by we I mean Canada,” said Lise Morton, the vice-president of site selection.

“We as a country would then be really pushing the resolution of this issue to the next generation.”

Both the municipality and First Nation in the area of either proposed site must confirm willingness to host the repository before the NWMO will proceed.

…………………………..there are a good number of people in the community who are not convinced — about 20 per cent are with Protect Our Waterways, the main opposition group, Goetz estimates — and it has caused “quite a friction.”

South Bruce is also in the shadow of Walkerton, Ont., where seven people died and thousands fell ill after drinking contaminated water in 2000. Fears about drinking water have lingered there long after the tragedy, said Bill Noll, vice chair of Protect Our Waterways.

Water also weighs heavily on the minds of members of the Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation, who have seen members of another northwestern Ontario First Nation on the English-Wabigoon river system grapple with generations of mercury poisoning after a mill in Dryden dumped 9,000 kilograms of the substance in the 1960s.

“That’s the evidence right now of how an industry went astray or how government oversight wasn’t there,” said Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation Chief Clayton Wetelain…………………………………………………….

all the tests and planning and modelling are not easing the fears of the project’s critics, either with the southern Ontario-based Protect Our Waterways or We the Nuclear Free North.

“The whole thing is a grand experiment,” said Brennain Lloyd, with the northern group.

“There’s not a deep geological repository … operating anywhere in the world. The NWMO likes to say, ‘Well, this is best international practice,’ but practice implies that it’s been done before. And there is no practice. Nobody has done this before.”…………………………………………………………………………….more https://www.cp24.com/news/site-for-canada-s-underground-nuclear-waste-repository-to-be-selected-next-year-1.6701756

“There is a big concern relative to water,” Noll said. “Once you pollute the water, there’s not much you can do about it.”

December 28, 2023 Posted by | Canada, wastes | Leave a comment

Judge Rules Assange Visitors May Sue CIA For Allegedly Violating Privacy

Kevin Gosztola, Dec 19, 2023, The Dissenter

A federal judge ruled that four American attorneys and journalists, who visited WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange while he was in the Ecuador embassy in London, may sue the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for their role in the alleged copying of the contents of their electronic devices.

The Americans sufficiently alleged that the CIA and CIA Director Mike Pompeo—through the Spanish security company UC Global and its director David Morales—“violated their reasonable expectation of privacy” under the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution.

Richard Roth, attorney for the four Americans, reacted, “We are thrilled that the court rejected the CIA’s efforts to silence the plaintiffs, who merely seek to expose the CIA’s attempt to carry out Pompeo’s vendetta against WikiLeaks.”………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

The U.S. government on behalf of the CIA will likely appeal the decision. Nevertheless, it is a remarkable development because there is a distinct possibility that there may be a civil trial, where CIA spying on Americans is challenged. And all while the U.S. government pushes forward with the unprecedented act of putting a publisher on trial for engaging in journalism.  https://thedissenter.org/judge-assange-visitors-may-sue-cia-for-spying/?ref=the-dissenter-newsletter&fbclid=IwAR1S-KR9qxfueGXiIYf0quxldvaXEus_rLZsBUQbwIbPaTmZ_VjSft9KBzI

December 24, 2023 Posted by | legal, USA | Leave a comment

« Previous Entries     Next Entries »