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Ohio Senate moves to end energy efficiency requirements, in favour of subsidising nuclear reactors

Senate Nuclear Subsidies Plan Ends Energy Efficiency Requirements  https://www.statenews.org/post/senate-nuclear-subsidies-plan-ends-energy-efficiency-requirements, By ANDY CHOW • JUL 15, 2019  A new version of the comprehensive energy bill, HB6, was introduced in the Ohio Senate on Monday that would charge residential ratepayers $0.85 a month on their electric bills to bail out the state’s two nuclear power plants.
That fee, along with charges to commercial and industrial users, would generate $170 million. Of that money, $150 million would go to the state’s two nuclear plants and the other $20 million would be directed to existing solar farms.

The bill, which has seen many drafts since being introduced, keeps renewable standards around until 2026. The standards require utilities to put a certain amount of renewable energy into their portfolio. The final benchmark would mandate that 8.5% of energy on a utility’s portfolio come from renewable sources, such as wind and solar. Sen. Steve Wilson (R-Maineville) says the efficiency standard will remain at 17.5% by 2020, which means the utilities must achieve 17.5% in saved energy. But Wilson says, “When they reach the 17.5%, then energy efficiency [standard] ceases.”

Supporters of efficiency standards say they’ve helped save ratepayers nearly $5 billion in 10 years.

“Eliminating energy efficiency guarantees that electricity customers in Ohio will pay more on their monthly electric bills,” says Dan Sawmiller, Natural Resources Defense Council’s Ohio Energy Policy Director. “Adding insult to injury, the money that funded the efficiency programs is being diverted to bail out coal plants from the 1950s.”

Sawmiller is referring to a provision in the bill that allows utilities to charge ratepayers up to $1.50 for subsidies towards the Ohio Valley Electric Corporation. OVEC runs two coal plants, Kyger Creek (Gallia County) and Clifty Creek (Madison, IN)

The bill requires the nuclear power plants, which are currently run by FirstEnergy Solutions, to apply for the subsidies through the Ohio Air Quality Development Authority. Through that application process, any trade secrets or proprietary information will be confidential and not subject to public records laws.

FirstEnergy Solutions is filing for bankruptcy after breaking away from FirstEnergy Corporation. Last year, FirstEnergy Solutions announced that it would close its two nuclear power plants; Davis-Besse and Perry, unless the company received some type of legislative relief.

July 18, 2019 Posted by | politics, USA | 1 Comment

America’s original moon plan was to explode a nuclear bomb on the moon

Inside Project A119, the secret US plan to detonate a nuclear bomb on the Moon, ABC News, By Antony Funnell for Future Tense   18 July 19, Long before JFK spoke inspiringly of sending humans to the Moon, the American intelligence community was concocting a very different plan.

Landing on the Moon was option B.

Option A was to detonate a nuke on it.

In the late 1950s, Washington set in place a secret operation to examine the feasibility of detonating a thermonuclear device on the surface of our closest celestial neighbour.

It was codenamed Project A119.

Had it gone ahead, the expression “shooting for the Moon” would have gained a whole new meaning.

A spectacular scheme born of desperationWhat might now seem unimaginable only makes sense in the context of the Cold War, historian Vince Houghton says……..

The West was given a shock with the launch of Sputnik and very quickly the US Government flew into action and said we need to do something very spectacular,” Dr Houghton says.

“We need to do something so big that the whole world will know that this was just an anomaly, that Sputnik was just a blip, that the United States was still the big kid on the block.”

And with that, Project A119 was born.

One hell of a mushroom

The idea behind the project was ambitious, but simple — to create an explosion and lunar mushroom cloud so awe-inspiring and unavoidable that no matter where you lived on planet Earth, it would be impossible to ignore the extent of America’s military and technological might.

Appointed to lead the project was a physicist named Leonard Reiffel, who later went on to become the deputy director of the Apollo Program at NASA.

Dr Houghton says when delivering the initial findings in June 1959, cost was among the major reasons why the project was scuttled.

But he says there were also concerns about damaging the lunar landscape.

“There were some scientists who said: ‘You know, we might want to walk up there some day. Maybe we don’t want to blow the hell out of it before we do,'” he says.

“But, again, Sputnik was so terrifying that a lot of people were willing to take that chance.

“A lot of people were willing to say: ‘You know what? The Moon’s big enough that we can nuke it and land on it at the same time, so let’s give this a shot.'”

The big bang that fizzed

Dr Reiffel’s secret report into the feasibility of a lunar detonation was eventually declassified in 2000.

It carried a rather innocuous title: A Study of Lunar Research Flights.

It suggested that detonating a nuclear device on the Moon was technically feasible, but it gave no substantive detail as to how it might be done.

The project never proceeded to operational phase.

Interviewed by The Guardian shortly after the report’s declassification, Dr Reiffel expressed his personal relief.

“I am horrified that such a gesture to sway public opinion was ever considered,” he said.

“Had the project been made public there would have been an outcry.

“I made it clear at the time there would be a huge cost to science of destroying a pristine lunar environment, but the US Air Force were mainly concerned about how the nuclear explosion would play on Earth.”

Dr Houghton says it’s important to view Project A119 in its historical context.

He details the operation in a new book called Nuking the Moon, which examines a whole slate of radical intelligence projects that were set in motion during WWII and the Cold War, but which were never carried out………   https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-17/moon-us-plans-cold-war-russia-sputnik/11220340

July 18, 2019 Posted by | space travel, USA | Leave a comment

U.S. Senate committee authorises 40-year power purchase agreements (PPAs) with nuclear power companies

US Senate committee passes bill promoting advanced reactors, WNN, 17 July 2019

Murkowski highlighted a few of the measures on the agenda of yesterday’s meeting, including S. 903, her Nuclear Energy Leadership Act, which “aims to restore US leadership” in the civil nuclear industry by helping to develop “a range of advanced reactors technologies that are clean, safe and reliable”.

A bipartisan group of 15 senators introduced a bill in March to instate NELA, which would offer incentives and set federal goals for advanced nuclear energy. A smaller group of senators originally introduced the bill in September 2018, but the Congressional session ended before the Senate voted on it. NELA aims to boost US nuclear energy innovation by establishing public-private partnerships between federal government, leading research institutions and industry innovators. http://world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/US-Senate-committee-passes-bill-promoting-advanced

July 18, 2019 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

A heightened solar cycle, by chance, reduced the exposure of Apollo astronauts to space radiation

Space radiation: the Apollo crews were extremely lucky  The Conversation, Jim Wild
Professor of Space Physics, Lancaster UniversityJuly 17, 2019   “………..  There is potentially harmful radiation in space. So how did the astronauts survive it?

The term “radiation” is used to describe energy that is emitted in the form of electromagnetic waves and/or particles. Humans can perceive some forms of electromagnetic radiation: visible light can be seen and infrared radiation (heat) can be felt.

Meanwhile, other varieties of radiation such as radio waves, X-rays and gamma rays are not visible and require special equipment to be observed. Worryingly, when high energy (ionising) radiation encounters matter, it can cause changes at the atomic level, including in our bodies.

There are a several sources of ionising radiation in space. The sun continuously pours out electromagnetic radiation across all wavelengths – especially as visible, infrared and ultraviolet radiation. Occasionally, enormous explosions on the solar surface known as solar flares release massive amounts of X-rays and gamma rays into space, as well as energetic electrons and protons (which make up the atomic nucleus along with neutrons). These events can pose a hazard to astronauts and their equipment even at distances as far from the sun as Earth, the moon and Mars.

Potentially dangerous radiation in space also originates from outside our solar system. Galactic cosmic rays are high energy, electrically charged atomic fragments that travel at nearly the speed of light and arrive from all directions in space.

On Earth, we are protected from most of this ionising radiation. The Earth’s strong magnetic field forms the magnetosphere, a protective bubble that diverts most dangerous radiation away, while the Earth’s thick atmosphere absorbs the rest.

But above the atmosphere, the magnetosphere traps energetic subatomic particles in two radiation regions. These “Van Allen belts” comprise an inner and outer torus of electrically charged particles.

Lucky escape

So how did NASA solve the problem of crossing the Van Allen belts? The short answer is they didn’t. To get to the moon, a spacecraft needs to be travelling quickly to climb far enough away from the Earth such that it can be captured by the moon’s gravity. The trans-lunar orbit that the Apollo spacecraft followed from the Earth to the moon took them through the inner and outer belts in just a few hours.

Although the aluminium skin of the Apollo spacecraft needed to be thin to be lightweight, it would have offered some protection. Models of the radiation belts developed in the run-up to the Apollo flights indicated that the passage through the radiation belts would not pose a significant threat to astronaut health. And, sure enough, documents from the period show that monitoring badges worn by the crews and analysed after the missions indicated that the astronauts typically received doses roughly less than that received during a standard CT scan of your chest.

But that is not the end of the story. To get to the moon and safely back home, the Apollo astronauts not only had to cross the Van Allen belts, but also the quarter of a million miles between the Earth and the moon – a flight that typically took around three days each way.

They also needed to operate safely while in orbit around the moon and on the lunar surface. During the Apollo missions, the spacecraft were outside the Earth’s protective magnetosphere for most of their flight. As such, they and their crews were vulnerable to unpredictable solar flares and events and the steady flux of galactic cosmic rays.

The crewed Apollo flights actually coincided with the height of a solar cycle, the periodic waxing and waning of activity that occurs every 11 years. Given that solar flares and solar energetic particle events are more common during times of heightened solar activity, this might seem like a cavalier approach to astronaut safety.

There is no doubt that the political imperative in the 1960s to put US astronauts on the moon “in this decade” was the primary driving factor in the mission timing, but there are counterintuitive benefits to spaceflight during solar activity maxima. The increased strength of the sun’s magnetic field that permeates the solar system acts like an umbrella – shielding the Earth, moon and planets from galactic cosmic rays and therefore lessening the impact on astronaut radiation doses.  https://theconversation.com/space-radiation-the-apollo-crews-were-extremely-lucky-120339

July 18, 2019 Posted by | 2 WORLD, radiation, space travel, USA | Leave a comment

US nuclear weapon locations in Europe accidentally exposed in NATO committee report,

US nuclear weapon locations in Europe accidentally exposed in NATO committee report, BY OWEN DAUGHERTY – 07/16/19  A report from a NATO committee that has since been deleted reportedly exposed the the secret locations of U.S. nuclear weapons in Europe.

The Washington Post reports that the document by a Canadian senator for the Defense and Security Committee of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly detailed the future of the organization’s nuclear deterrence policy but accidentally exposed the open secret.

The report stated that U.S. nuclear weapons are being stored in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey.

While the document titled “A new era for nuclear deterrence? Modernisation, arms control and allied nuclear forces” was originally published in April without making waves, a Belgian newspaper Tuesday published a copy of the document featuring the locations of about 150 U.S. nuclear weapons .

“These bombs are stored at six US and European bases — Kleine Brogel in Belgium, Büchel in Germany, Aviano and Ghedi-Torre in Italy, Volkel in The Netherlands, and Incirlik in Turkey,” a section of the newspaper’s report read, according to the Post.

The Post made note that the original document did not attribute this information to any source.

A final version of the report was reportedly published last week that did not have any specific references to where the weapons are stored…… https://thehill.com/policy/international/europe/453426-us-nuclear-weapon-locations-in-europe-accidentally-exposed-in

July 18, 2019 Posted by | EUROPE, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Ohio Senate to vote on subsidy bill to save state’s nuclear power plants.

Ohio Senate to vote on bill to save state’s nuclear power plants.  (Reuters) 18 July 19 – The Ohio Senate will likely pass a bill on Wednesday that will create subsidies to avoid the early shutdown of the state’s two nuclear power reactors, according to analysts and those watching the legislation.

The two reactors in Ohio – Davis Besse and Perry – are owned by FirstEnergy Solutions, which has said it would shut the money-losing plants in 2020 and 2021 unless the state provides some financial assistance to keep them operating.

FirstEnergy Solutions is a bankrupt unit of Ohio power company FirstEnergy Corp.

Analysts said the Senate version of the nuclear bill, House Bill 6 (HB6), would likely pass the Senate Energy and Public Utilities and the Senate Rules and Reference Committees before going to the full Senate for a vote.

“If the Senate passes HB6 later today as expected, the bill will go over to the House for a concurrence vote,” said Josh Price, senior analyst at Height Capital Markets, noting the state House has an “if needed” session scheduled for Thursday if members need more time to debate the Senate changes to the bill. HB6 passed the House in May.

The current version of the bill would provide an overall reduction in consumer power rates by weakening the state’s renewable and energy efficiency goals even though FirstEnergy Solutions would receive an estimated $150 million a year from 2020-2026 to keep its reactors in service.

……. On Monday, U.S. electric generator LS Power warned it would be forced to terminate development of an expansion of its Troy natural gas-fired power plant in Ohio if the state passes legislation to subsidize nuclear energy. …..https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ohio-nuclear/ohio-senate-to-vote-on-bill-to-save-states-nuclear-power-plants-idUSKCN1UC1Y2

July 18, 2019 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

US’ Nuclear Regulatory Commission planning to reduce inspections at the country’s nuclear reactors?

July 18, 2019 Posted by | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Waste drum at Westinghouse nuclear fuel factory exploded, caught fire

Waste drum at Westinghouse nuclear fuel factory exploded, caught fire https://www.postandcourier.com/business/waste-drum-at-westinghouse-nuclear-fuel-factory-exploded-caught-fire/article_a0052bf8-a726-11e9-8bc5-b3f9366e8ad3.html, By Andrew Brown abrown@postandcourier.co, Jul 15, 2019

A waste drum at a nuclear fuel factory near Columbia caught fire and exploded last week, according to a federal safety report. 

The workplace accident occurred at a Westinghouse facility in Hopkins, just off of Bluff Road. The plant makes pellets for nuclear power plants.

In a report filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Westinghouse said the drum exploded around 2 a.m. Friday after workers at the plant filled it with uranium-contaminated filters, rags, mops and some paper. The container held just over 70 grams of uranium, which is used in nuclear power plants to create a chain reaction that generates electricity.

Westinhouse said a chemical reaction caused the material to heat up, building pressure in the drum. The container blew off its lid, paper inside caught fire, and some of the contaminated material showered the surrounding area, according to the report.

A spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said the fire essentially put itself out.

No workers at the plant were injured during the accident and testing confirmed that radiation levels didn’t exceed federal safety limits, according to the company. Westinghouse employees also checked the other drums at the facility to ensure they wouldn’t overheat and explode.

“Air samples taken within the area confirmed no impact to plant personnel, the public or the environment,” Westinghouse spokeswoman Courtney Boone.

Boone said Westinghouse was studying what caused the drum to explode. The company plans to set new rules to keep the wrong materials from mixing, and it will let containers of nuclear material vent to keep pressure from building inside. The Hopkins plant isn’t packaging waste in the meantime

NRC spokesman Joey Ledford said federal inspectors would address the explosion when they make a routine inspection later this month.

It’s not the first time the factory has caught the attention of regulators. The NRC reported last year that uranium at the factory leaked out a small hole and into the ground, according to a story in The State newspaper.

Thad Moore contributed to this report.

July 18, 2019 Posted by | incidents, USA | Leave a comment

U.S. Bill: he Radiation Exposure Compensation Act Amendments of 2019

RECA bill calls for congressional apology to victims of radiation exposure,   http://www.mvariety.com/cnmi/cnmi-news/local/114180-reca-bill-calls-for-congressional-apology-to-victims-of-radiation-exposure18 Jul 2019, By Mar-Vic Cagurangan – For Variety  

HAGÅTÑA — The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act Amendments of 2019, officially introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday, includes a congressional apology to individuals exposed to radiation while either working in or living near uranium mines or downwind from nuclear weapon test sites.

The bill, introduced by New Mexico Congressman Ben Ray Lujan and cosponsored by Guam Delegate Michael San Nicolas, would expand the coverage of the RECA program to include Guam and the Northern Marianas.

The RECA program is set to expire in 2022. The bill, if enacted into law, would extend the Radiation Exposure Compensation Trust Fund until 2045.

Other jurisdictions covered by the proposed RECA expansion are New Mexico, Idaho, Colorado, Arizona, Utah, Texas, Wyoming, Oregon, Washington, South Dakota, North Dakota and Nevada.

“Tens of thousands of individuals, including miners, transporters, and other employees who worked directly in uranium mines, along with communities located near test sites for nuclear weapons, were exposed during the mid-1900s to dangerous radiation that has left communities struggling from cancer, birth defects, and other illnesses,” states a press release from Lujan’s office.

The RECA amendment legislation provides health and monetary compensations for individuals who were exposed to high levels of radiation that caused sickness, cancer and deaths in identified jurisdictions.

A similar bill was introduced by Sen. Mike Crapo in the U.S. Senate.

The 35th Guam Legislature is scheduled today, Thursday, to hold a public hearing on Resolution 94-35, supporting the passage of Crapo’s S. 947.

The bill does not include the CNMI.

In August 2018, CNMI Delegate Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan said the Northern Marianas should also be considered “downwinders.”

“Perhaps, because the [Northern] Marianas was not represented in Congress in 2005, we were not included in a congressionally mandated study of how fallout from nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands may have harmed people on downwind islands,” Sablan said in an August 2018 letter to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. “I think that inequity needs to be addressed.”

July 18, 2019 Posted by | employment, politics, radiation, USA | Leave a comment

Kim and Kourtney Kardashian join the fight to clean up Santa Susanna nuclear site

This secret gave her daughter cancer
Kim & Kourtney Kardashian Take On Cleaning Up The Site Of A Nuclear Accident  https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2019/07/237799/kim-kourtney-kardashian-visit-nuclear-accident-california SARAH MIDKIFF  

Kim and Kourtney Kardashian are flexing their social platforms for good, and they only had to go 10 miles away from their Southern California homes to do it. This weekend, they supported and advocated for the cleanup of one of America’s largest partial nuclear meltdown sites responsible for more than a thousand cancer cases.
Kim and Kourtney, along with their kids, came to the event and joined the community in painting rocks to be used for a memorial commemorating those harmed by radiation and chemicals. The Kardashians became aware of the site following the Woolsey Fire, which allegedly began at the Santa Susana Field Lab. Since then, Kim has advocated for the cleanup of the site on social media.

The Santa Susana Field Lab Meltdown Anniversary Event was set in motion to create awareness that, despite more than 50 cases of rare pediatric cancer being reported among families living in the area since the nuclear reactor and rocket-engine test facility experienced a partial meltdown in 1959, cleanup has begun but has not yet been finished. The partial meltdown contaminated the lab, leaving behind dangerous, radioactive substances and remnants from testing the limits of nuclear power that are proven to be toxic.
In 2010, the U.S. government and NASA signed administrative orders of consent promising a complete cleanup. Boeing, the only non-governmental organization responsible for the partial meltdown, submitted a cleanup plan that would leave the majority of the contamination on the site. It is up to the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) to determine whether Boeing will be held responsible for a complete cleanup or if they will be allowed to leave the site contaminated.
When the lab was first created in 1947 for rocket, energy, and weapons testing, the surrounding area was largely rural. A small portion of it, known as Area IV, was secretly being used to test experimental nuclear reactors.
In 1959, an experiment was conducted that is estimated to have released 260 times more radiation than the Three Mile Island accident. A 2007 study found that people living within two miles of the Santa Susana Field Lab are 60% more likely to develop certain types of cancer. It’s believed that the partial meltdown that occurred as a result of this experiment is responsible for 1,800 cancer cases.
Today, more than half a million people live within 10 miles of the site. Over the years, different proposals have been made for what should be done with the land. In 2007, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill that would have made restoration standards high enough for the space to be used safely for agricultural or residential property. It was struck down in federal court. The most recent proposal by the DTSC suggests a partial cleanup of the site.
“Today I went to an event for the 60th anniversary of the Santa Susana Field Lab Melt Down. It still hasn’t been cleaned up after 60 years! 60 kids all have rare cancers linked to this toxic site! It’s time to clean this up! This site is 10 miles from my home!” tweeted Kim.
“As we look back at the meltdown anniversary, we also have to look forward and get more people involved in fighting for the cleanup. We have seen some positive steps from our elected officials recently, but more — many more — people have to speak out if we are ever going to get the 100% cleaned up that we were promised,” said activist and event organizer Melissa Bumstead.
Kim has lent her voice and influence to a number of social justice issues recently, including gun safety, clemency for people of color incarcerated for lesser crimes, and criminal justice reform. She has met with President Donald Trump, funded legal teams, and asked her followers to not let injustice go overlooked. Now, she’s adding toxic nuclear site cleanup to her growing list of causes.

July 16, 2019 Posted by | environment, USA | Leave a comment

Space is “new domain of military operations” – nuclear weapons enthusiast Gen Mark Milley , Trump’s choice to head Joint Chiefs of Staff

 

Does this guy think that USA can start, and win a nuclear war?   I have moved this item up to the front page, because of its importance – should this belligerent man get in control of USA’s nuclear weapons policy.

 

Milley throws support behind nuclear modernization, Space Force, Defense News, By: Aaron Mehta 14 July 19, WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump’s choice for the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has thrown his full support behind nuclear modernization plans, the creation of a Space Force and developing new capabilities to offset China.

Gen. Mark Milley, currently the Army chief of staff, faced little in the way of tough questioning during his Thursday confirmation hearing; several members, including Republican Josh Hawley and Democrats Tim Kaine, Doug Jones and Richard Blumenthal, said in their remarks they intend to vote in support of the nomination.

That easy questioning remained even after Milley voiced support when asked whether it would be “helpful” to place conventionally armed, ground-launched intermediate-range missiles in the Indo-Pacific region to help deter Chinese interests in the region.

Those weapons had previously been banned under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which the Trump administration exited earlier this year.

The response was equally calm when Milley called the development of low-yield nuclear weapons “an important capability to have in our arsenal in order to deal with any potential adversaries or contingency operations.” Democrats from both chambers of Congress have raised objections to the creation of those systems, as well as the potential to deploy ground-based cruise missiles. ……

Asked to name his three priorities for dealing with China and Russia, Milley expressed a view in line with the National Defense Strategy.

“I think the very No. 1 for me and No. 1 stated for the Department of Defense is the modernization, recapitalization of the nation’s nuclear triad. I think that’s critical. Secondly, I would say, is space. It’s a new domain of military operations. ……..https://www.defensenews.com/2019/07/11/milley-throws-support-behind-nuclear-modernization-space-force/

July 16, 2019 Posted by | politics, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Bill Gates now glum about the prospects for his nuclear power company TerraPower

Bill Gates faces “daunting” nuclear energy future, Amy Harder  AXIOX 15 July 19 ,The optimism usually radiating from billionaire Bill Gates when it comes to climate change is starting to fade on one of his biggest technology bets: nuclear power.

Driving the news: The Microsoft co-founder has focused much of his time lately on climate change and energy innovation. In an exclusive interview with Axios, Gates said that setbacks he is facing with TerraPower, a nuclear technology firm he co-founded in 2006, has got him questioning the future of that entire energy source.

……It’s declining in most places around the world, including the U.S., due to aging reactors, cheaper energy alternatives and public unease about radioactive risk ……

  • The industry’s future is riding on largely unproven technologies like that of TerraPower because they’re smaller and deemed safer than today’s huge reactors.

“Without this next generation of nuclear, nuclear will go to zero,” Gates said during an interview in Washington last month. Germany is shutting 22 nuclear plants, France — a leader in clean-burning nuclear power — has plans to shut down some of its reactors and a similar trend is underway in the U.S. due to economic conditions, said Gates, before adding with a sigh: “So yes, it is daunting.”

Flashback: Gates announced in December that TerraPower was scrapping plans to build a demonstration reactor in China, largely due to the Trump administration deciding that fall to crack down on technological agreements between the two nations.

“There are times like when TerraPower gets told not to work in China, you’re thinking, ‘Boy, is this thing going to come together or not?’ ” Gates said in what are his first public comments on the matter since it happened. “That was a real blow.”

Where it stands: Gates is now trying to build TerraPower’s demonstration reactor in the U.S., calling on the Energy Department and Congress to more aggressively support advanced nuclear power through more funding and new legislation. Such a plant could cost anywhere between $3-$6 billion, say experts and Gates’ energy advisers.

  • Bellevue, WA-based TerraPower is opening a new 65,000-square foot facility in the same region later this year to expand its research and testing, which is currently done in a lab 1/6th that size.
  • Gates, whose net worth is roughly $100 billion, hasn’t disclosed how much money he has put toward the company, but experts think it’s at least $500 million.

“If at the end of the day we don’t find a country that wants to build an advanced nuclear power plant, then TerraPower will fail. I’m going to keep funding it for a period of years. And working with the U.S. is our strategy right now.”

— Bill Gates   ………‘TerraPower’s traveling wave may prove to be an example of a very ambitious attempt to solve a very challenging problem that has turned out to be too expensive and too difficult,” said Chris Gadomski, head of nuclear research at Bloomberg New Energy Finance.   ………

July 16, 2019 Posted by | Small Modular Nuclear Reactors, USA | Leave a comment

Maine Bill for grants to local governments to offset costs of STRANDED nuclear wastes

Bill would help Maine town offset cost of storing nuclear waste https://wgme.com/news/local/bill-would-help-maine-town-offset-cost-of-storing-nuclear-waste by The Associated Press Monday, July 15th   WISCASSET, Maine (AP) — A proposal before the U.S. Senate would seek to help communities around the country that face the expensive problem of storing spent nuclear fuel.

Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois are calling the proposal “the STRANDED Act.”

That stands for “Sensible, Timely, Relief for America’s Nuclear Districts’ Economic Development.”

The proposal calls for economic impact grants to local governments to offset the impacts of stranded waste. Communities would be eligible for $15 per kilogram of spent nuclear fuel stored.

Collins says the town of Wiscasset has endorsed the proposal. Wiscasset is the location of decommissioned Maine Yankee nuclear plant.

Collins says a permanent solution for the waste is also needed.

The co-sponsors of the bill include Maine’s other senator, independent Sen. Angus King.

July 15, 2019 Posted by | politics, USA, wastes | Leave a comment

Private Notes Show How Big Oil Spread Climate Science Denial

The ‘Historical Jigsaw of Climate Deception’: Private Notes Show How Big Oil Spread Climate Science Denial DeSmogBlog, By Mat Hope • Thursday, July 11, 2019 We’ve all heard the dodgy arguments: ‘the science is uncertain’, ‘climate change is natural, not down to humans’, ‘science has been hijacked by politics’… Now a new cache of documents sheds light on the origins of the disinformation.

In another verse of a now familiar refrain, a fossil fuel industry group in the 1990s publicly promoted arguments to undermine confidence in climate science while internally acknowledging their products were driving up temperatures.

A cache of meeting minutes, briefings, and emails uncovered by the Climate Investigations Center shows how industry group the Global Climate Coalition (GCC) used its financial clout and political connections to cast doubt on mainstream climate science until its disbandment in 2002. The GCC would for decades cast doubt on the veracity of climate science and strategically spread the message that the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was a politicised body, to discourage regulatory reform that would hit coalition members’ profits.

The documents show that the group, which counted fossil fuel giants Exxon, Shell, and Peabody among its members, knowingly pushed misinformation on climate change even as the GCC internally acknowledged humans’ impact on the climate “cannot be denied”. Some of those same companies have been the recent targets of lawsuits seeking damages for climate change impacts.

“These documents are another stain on the fossil fuel industry’s track-record as a disingenuous rogue agent in climate science and politics,” Geoffrey Supran, a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University researching climate science denial, told DeSmog. “They further illustrate the sophisticated combination of inside- and outside-lobbying used by the fossil fuel industry to protect their status quo business operations.”

Peddling Denial

Within the GCC, the Science and Technology Assessment Committee (STAC) took responsibility for assessing contemporary climate science and formulating strategic arguments to undermine it. The STAC was chaired by Mobil Oil’s Lenny Bernstein. Mobil, Exxon, and Texaco (now part of Chevron) all contributed five staffers to the committee.

An internal 1994 document outlining “issues and options” for the GCC to consider regarding “potential global climate change” shows the group’s outright climate science denial.

The document concludes that “the claim that serious impacts from climate change have occurred or will occur in the future has not been proven” and “consequently, there is no basis for the design of effective policy action that would eliminate the potential for climate change.”

In the same document, the GCC cites the work of infamous academics known for spreading climate science denial including Richard Linzen, Patrick Michaels, and Robert Balling. The document asserts that these academics’ arguments disputing mainstream climate science  “have received far less attention than they deserve”. ……….

Politicisation

The GCC’s disinformation strategy extended beyond casting aspersions on the science to the process of gathering evidence for the major IPCC reports, the documents show.

Porter Womeldorff, an Illinois Power Company employee and co-chair of the STAC, suggested the group focus on the politicisation of the IPCC process.

And that’s exactly what the GCC did. In an internal document from 1996, the GCC boasted that its criticism of the IPCC’s processes had been picked up more widely by the mainstream media:

“Publications which have joined in questioning the IPCC approach to conforming technical reports to summaries include the NYTimes, Wall St. Journal, Energy Daily, and Nature.”

This followed a 1995 report that noted with glee a Nature editorial taking aim at the IPCC for a press-release that the erstwhile journal considered to be needlessly attention seeking.

Harvard’s Supran, who recently testified to the European Parliament about Exxon’s history of climate science denial, told DeSmog that the documents “help fill in pieces of the historical jigsaw of climate deception by the fossil fuel industry”.

“History teaches us that when it comes to the fossil fuel industry’s rhetoric on climate change and energy, we take them at face value at our peril.” https://www.desmogblog.com/2019/07/11/historical-deception-global-climate-coalition-science-denial?utm_source=desmog%20%20weekly%20newsletter

July 15, 2019 Posted by | climate change, Reference, secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

New research – climate change is exacerbating wildfires

Climate change is worsening wildfires, new study highlights
Research shows that warming temperatures are likely fueling more deadly and devastating fires. Think Progress

E.A. CRUNDEN JUL 15, 2019, New research this week provides fresh evidence about the connection between climate change and wildfires, specifically in California, where experts say global warming is a key factor in the state’s deadly and increasingly devastating fire seasons.The findings coincide with an already-vicious wildfire season in parts of North America, including on the West Coast and in parts of Canada. One state garnering particular attention is Alaska, where a major heat wave has been linked to many of the fires that have hit the state this year.

A new study in the American Geophysical Union’s Earth Future journal closely inspects the factors that can lead to wildfires, ultimately concluding that a “warming climate” is a decisive driver in many cases. That trend is particularly true in the North Coast and Sierra Nevada regions in California — the main area the study focuses on — where brutal wildfires last year completely destroyed entire towns, in addition to killing dozens of people and costing over $3 billion in damages.

The study looks closely at rising temperatures in California, which has experienced an uptick of 1.80 degrees Celsius (3.25 degrees Fahrenheit) since 1896, most of that since the 1970s. Wildfires are a naturally occurring phenomenon and common to that wooded area, especially during warm weather when moisture evaporates from vegetation and dries out soil. But with temperatures spiking at record rates, the study notes, the already-active fire season is becoming more and more severe. ……. HTTPS://THINKPROGRESS.ORG/CLIMATE-CHANGE-CALIFORNIA-WILDFIRES-ALASKA-TEMPERATURES-NEW-RESEARCH-2CC12958A05A/

July 15, 2019 Posted by | climate change, USA | Leave a comment

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