Small nuclear reactors – NuScam looking dodgy as parent company Fluor shares sink?
declined by -15.01% in the 3 months of the year. Over the past six months meanwhile, it has lost -19.89% and lost -47.51% year-on date. DBT News 25 August 20
Small nuclear reactor NuScam’s parent company Fluor sued over allegations of insider trading and deception
Fluor Board Sued Over Insider Trading, Accounting Allegations, Mike Leonard, Legal Reporter, Aug. 14, 2020, COURT: Del. Ch., TRACK DOCKET: No. 2020-0655 (Bloomberg Law Subscription, JUDGE: J. Travis Laster (Bloomberg Law Subscription), COMPANY INFO: Fluor Corp. (Bloomberg Law Subscripti
The board of Fluor Corp., a leading engineering and construction conglomerate that does significant business with the federal government, has been hit with a Delaware lawsuit claiming several of its members sold stock at inflated prices while conspiring to mask the company’s deteriorating finances.
“At the same time,” Fluor’s board and top executives “engaged in a pattern” of having the company “repurchase its own shares at over-inflated prices,” the 98-page Chancery Court complaint says. “This repurchase of inflated stock cost the company over $1.6 billion.”
The heavily redacted derivative suit, made public Wednesday, comes about three months after Fluor……….(subscribers only) https://news.bloomberglaw.com/mergers-and-antitrust/fluor-board-sued-over-insider-trading-accounting-allegations
Small nuclear reactor NuScam’s parent company Fluor – shares tumble afterdisclosure of accounting probe
Fluor Shares Tumble After Disclosure of SEC Accounting Probe, Fluor shares are tumbling after the engineering company disclosed an SEC probe into its past accounting and financial reporting. ROB LENIHAN, FEB 18, 2020
Fluor (FLR) – Get Report shares were tumbling after the engineering and construction company said the Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into the company’s past accounting and financial reporting.
The Irving, Texas, company also said in a statement that the SEC has asked for documents and information related to projects for which the Company recorded charges in the second quarter of 2019……. https://www.thestreet.com/investing/stocks/fluor-shares-tumble-after-engineering-company-discloses-sec-probe
3 unplanned shutdowns- Turkey Point nuclear station vulnerable to climate extremes
Critics have pushed Turkey Point and the NRC to take sea rise impacts more seriously, Lyman said.
“We think nuclear plants need to be protected not only against the flood hazards that are reasonably expected today but far into the future, especially plants that have a license renewal like Turkey Point,” he said. “Unfortunately, the NRC today is not interested in increasing regulatory requirements for its current fleet.”
After 3 unplanned shutdowns at Turkey Point nuclear plant, feds launch ‘special inspection’, Miami Herald BY ADRIANA BRASILEIRO AND ALEX HARRIS, SEPTEMBER 01, 2020 After three unplanned nuclear reactor shutdowns over three days this month, federal regulators have launched a “special inspection” at Florida Power & Light’s Turkey Point plant.
In a statement issued Monday, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it was inspecting the plant this week to determine why one of the reactors in the two-unit facility “tripped” or shut down three times between Aug. 17 and Aug. 19. Such visits from the federal agency that oversees nuclear power plants aren’t unheard of but are unusual.
The NRC said FPL had supplied different explanations for each event………..
Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists, called the number of scrams “very unusual,” in a whole year, much less a few days. He said the NRC has a specific set of criteria plants must meet before they need a special investigation.
“These inspections are fairly rare events,” he said. “This could be a sign that they think there is some increase in risk to the public.”
Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists, called the number of scrams “very unusual,” in a whole year, much less a few days. He said the NRC has a specific set of criteria plants must meet before they need a special investigation.
“These inspections are fairly rare events,” he said. “This could be a sign that they think there is some increase in risk to the public.”………..
Over the past few years FPL has faced criticism and legal challenges over Turkey Point’s aging cooling system, a unique canal network that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the U.S. The problems from the leaking canal water, which created a saltwater plume encroaching into the adjacent freshwater aquifer, have led state and county regulators to cite FPL for polluting the waters in Biscayne Bay.
The plant last year won federal approval to continue to operate through at least 2053 — an unprecedented decision by regulators to extend the operating lifespan of nuclear reactors to 80 years.
The extended approval also brings up concerns of sea level rise and the increased storm surge that comes with it. By the end of this plant’s current license, Miami-Dade is planning for just under two feet of sea-level rise. Turkey Point is planning for between a half foot and a little over a foot by 2050.
Critics have pushed Turkey Point and the NRC to take sea rise impacts more seriously, Lyman said.
“We think nuclear plants need to be protected not only against the flood hazards that are reasonably expected today but far into the future, especially plants that have a license renewal like Turkey Point,” he said. “Unfortunately, the NRC today is not interested in increasing regulatory requirements for its current fleet.” The plant last year won federal approval to continue to operate through at least 2053 — an unprecedented decision by regulators to extend the operating lifespan of nuclear reactors to 80 years.
The extended approval also brings up concerns of sea level rise and the increased storm surge that comes with it. By the end of this plant’s current license, Miami-Dade is planning for just under two feet of sea-level rise. Turkey Point is planning for between a half foot and a little over a foot by 2050.
Critics have pushed Turkey Point and the NRC to take sea rise impacts more seriously, Lyman said.
“We think nuclear plants need to be protected not only against the flood hazards that are reasonably expected today but far into the future, especially plants that have a license renewal like Turkey Point,” he said. “Unfortunately, the NRC today is not interested in increasing regulatory requirements for its current fleet.” https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/environment/article245384945.html?fbclid=IwAR2h6Kk7IV87lRlc0HWNgR42aIVowxmKXeijJzIwcPyUADkGEUIngnV2xHo
Nuclear corruption in Ohio: HB 6 was never about jobs and communities by keeping nuclear plants open
HB 6 was never about jobs and communities by keeping nuclear plants open. In fact, First Energy Solutions refused to show legislators there was a need for the bailout. Yet, their own numbers posted on the company’s website show subsidies were never needed and, with the subsidy secure, they paid shareholders $800 million! That’s not done by a company in dire straits. Electricity customers should never have been forced to pay for this – especially now when hospitals, households, small businesses, schools and communities are struggling. ...
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Ohioans should take notice when they hear the word “subsidy” because it refers to your money. That’s why most Ohioans have opposed House Bill 6 – the bailout of power plants owned by First Energy Solutions (now Energy Harbor) that will be tacked onto your electricity bill – from the beginning. And you really have no choice because we all need electricity. HB 6 should have never happened. But because of greed, it was secretly conceived through alleged corruption via the Ohio legislature rather than what should have been settled through a private bankruptcy process. An intimidating monopoly and indicted politician stand accused of perverting the legislative process with some $60 million spent to shift the billion-dollar subsidy from shareholders to Ohioans. That’s why Vistra has vigorously fought against this tainted legislation from the start. First, when HB 6 was before lawmakers and the corruption not yet alleged, we were a member of Ohioans Against Nuke Bailouts. Then, after the legislature passed HB 6 and the governor signed it, we pressed on as a member of Ohioans Against Corporate Bailouts, advocating to let Ohioans vote, as allowed by the state constitution, on whether they’d like their money used to bailout select companies. With the corruption that fueled HB 6 now exposed in a criminal indictment, we continue to fight, demanding the immediate and complete repeal of HB 6 as members of the Coalition to Restore Public Trust. We now know, through the substantial and mounting evidence amassed in the FBI’s investigation, that the real winners of HB 6 were a politician and his cronies, charged with racketeering and bribery, and the Wall Street owners of First Energy and First Energy Solutions. The losers are Ohioans still on the hook today to pay more than a billion dollars – unless Ohio legislators act to immediately repeal HB 6 in its entirety. HB 6 was never about jobs and communities by keeping nuclear plants open. In fact, First Energy Solutions refused to show legislators there was a need for the bailout. Yet, their own numbers posted on the company’s website show subsidies were never needed and, with the subsidy secure, they paid shareholders $800 million! That’s not done by a company in dire straits. Electricity customers should never have been forced to pay for this – especially now when hospitals, households, small businesses, schools and communities are struggling. …….. https://www.cincinnati.com/story/opinion/2020/09/01/opinion-nuclear-bailout-corruption-kills-public-trust-and-competition/3455443001/ |
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USA – new plutonium pit production – but no new environmental assessment !
US officials: No new environmental study for nuclear lab, Spectrum, BY ASSOCIATED PRESS AP, SEP. 02, 2020, ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The National Nuclear Security Administration says it doesn’t need to do an additional environmental review for Los Alamos National Laboratory before it begins producing key components for the nation’s nuclear arsenal because it has enough information.The National Nuclear Security Administration on Tuesday released its final supplemental analysis of a site-wide environmental impact statement done for the lab more than a decade ago. The agency concluded that no further analysis is required.
Critics have pushed for a new environmental impact statement, saying the previous 2008 analysis didn’t consider a number of effects related to increased production, such as the pressure it puts on infrastructure, roads and the housing market.
“The notion that comprehensive environmental analysis is not needed for this gigantic program is a staggering insult to New Mexicans and an affront to any notion of environmental law and science,” Greg Mello of the Los Alamos Study Group said in a statement.
Lab officials last year detailed plans for $13 billion worth of construction projects over the next decade at the northern New Mexico complex as it prepares for plutonium pit production. About $3 billion of that would be spent on improvements to existing plutonium facilities for the pit work, the Albuquerque Journal reported…….https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/buffalo/ap-online/2020/09/02/us-officials-no-new-environmental-study-for-nuclear-lab
Republicans And Democrats Clash Over How To Repeal Nuclear Bailout
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Republicans And Democrats Clash Over How To Repeal Nuclear Bailout, WOSU By ANDY CHOW 2 Sept 20, •At the Statehouse on Tuesday, both the Ohio House and Senate addressed the potential repeal of the controversial nuclear power plant bailout. As Democrats call for a quick repeal, Republicans moved ahead with a different approach.
House Speaker Bob Cupp (R-Lima) says a special committee will hold hearings on HB6, the law that bails out nuclear power plants, subsidizes coal plants, rolls back renewable energy standards and eliminates efficiency mandates. Cupp says there’s a lot of unwinding the House must do to understand the impacts of a repeal….. Minority Leader Emilia Sykes says Democrats have asked for hearings on repeal bills that haven’t moved – so they’ll take other steps to, in her words, press the issue …. Supporters of HB6 say a repeal would allow the continuation of increased charges customers see for the renewable and energy efficiency standards. Opponents of HB6 say the energy efficiency standards creates a return on investment with savings that counter the initial cost……. Federal investigators charge that HB6 was at the center of a $60 million bribery scheme. A utility believed to be FirstEnergy and its subsidiary is accused of funneling the money into a dark money group controlled by former House Speaker and current Rep. Larry Householder (R-Glenford), in return for passing the bailout. Householder, who faces federal racketeering charges, says he plans on entering a plea of “not guilty.” https://radio.wosu.org/post/republicans-and-democrats-clash-over-how-repeal-nuclear-bailout#stream/0 |
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Santee Cooper and Westinghouse Electric to sell of equipment at the failed $9 billion VC Summer nuclear site.
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SANTEE COOPER, WESTINGHOUSE BURY NUCLEAR HATCHET Agree to sell millions of dollars in nuclear equipment, Lexington Chronicle , By Jerry Bellune, JerryBellune@yahoo.com, 2 Sept 20, Squabbling over millions of dollars in nuclear equipment may be temporarily over. This gives the taxpayer-owned utility full ownership of all non-nuclear equipment at the failed $9 billion nuclear site. Santee Cooper reportedly is in debt more than $8 billion, at least half of it from the nuclear failure. |
Nuclear waste project proposed near Carlsbad sees mixed response in final public hearing
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Nuclear waste project proposed near Carlsbad sees mixed response in final public hearing, Adrian Hedden– Carlsbad Current-Argus, 3 Sept 20, In its final public comment hearing on an environmental analysis for a nuclear waste facility near Carlsbad and Hobbs, the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) heard arguments both for and against the project that would see high-level spent nuclear fuel rods stored temporarily in southeast New Mexico.Holtec International sought a permit to build and operate the site known as a consolidated interim storage facility (CISF) to remove nuclear waste from generator sites around the U.S., and temporarily store the refuse until a permanent repository was ready. The NRC’s recently released draft environmental impact statement (EIS) found the project, during construction and operation, would have minimal environmental impact. A safety analysis was forthcoming, which would study the project’s impact on human safety and require another period of public comments………… Opponents of the project, including New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and members of her cabinet panned the proposal for environmental concerns and impacts on other industries in the state such as extraction and agriculture. Protesters during Wednesday’s meeting also questioned the NRC’s decision to hold public hearings online and via phone instead of in person amid the COVID-19 pandemic as “rushing” the project and reducing public participation. ……. Rose Gardner, a resident of Eunice near the proposed site and member of the Alliance for Environmental Strategies argued that the project was illegal under federal law and unfairly impacted Hispanic communities in rural New Mexico. “The National Waste Policy Act does not allow for this license to be issued and a privately-owned corporation to take the high-level waste from commercial reactors,” Gardner said. “The failure of the NRC to satisfy the public with these poorly run and moderated webinars is an example of government waste as usual.” New Mexico State Sen. Jeff Steinborn (D-36) argued the EIS was “deficient” in that it did not address the transportation plan that would bring the waste to the facility from “all sides of New Mexico,” he said. “Transportation should not be an afterthought,” Steinborn said. “This is a fatal flaw in this plan. New Mexicans continue time and again to pay the high cost of America’s nuclear legacy.” Steinborn also called on the NRC to postpone the licensing process until after the pandemic subsided and in-person public meetings could be held safely. “New Mexicans have not been proactively reached out to and engaged on this proposal,” he said. “This pandemic has created a digital divide in New Mexico.” New Mexico U.S. Sens. Martin Heinrich and Tom Udall agreed with the call on the NRC to postpone the licensing process amid the public health crisis in a letter sent last month to NRC leadership. “Ultimately, there is no compelling public interest reason to justify this rush to replace meetings with virtual webinars, and this decision gives the Commission the appearance of valuing the preferences of a for-profit company looking to store highly dangerous nuclear waste that of the public and their elected representatives,” the letter said.https://www.currentargus.com/story/news/local/2020/09/02/holtec-nuclear-waste-project-near-carlsbad-sees-mixed-public-response/5681636002/ |
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Increasing climate risks threaten nuclear reactors
Analysis: Nuclear operators face growing climate risks, https://www.michiganradio.org/post/analysis-nuclear-operators-face-growing-climate-risks
In the report, analysts found the Cook, Fermi, and Palisades nuclear power plants in Michigan and the nearby Davis-Besse plant in Ohio fall into the High Risk category (although Palisades is scheduled to close in 2022).
The analysis says that means the nuclear power plants will face relatively high changes in temperature extremes compared to the global average, according to the report.
“If the temperature goes up a little bit too high, the plan would either have to lower its output for a given period or maybe shut down if things are extreme,” said David Kamran one of Moody’s analysts.
The trickiest part for the nuclear power plant operators is reacting to how quickly changes in the climate happen. Recently, some models show the planet is getting warmer faster than previously thought.
“As these entities, the plants, want to have their licenses extended over many years, they may need to make additional investments to keep up with new information regarding climate and temperature and water, that sort of thing,” Kamran said.
The nuclear power plants use massive amounts of water. While the supply is not an issue, the temperature of the water could be an issue in the future depending on how fast the climate changes.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission bans TVA executive over whistleblower retaliation
Nuclear Regulatory Commission bans TVA executive over whistleblower retaliation, Jamie Satterfield, Knoxville News Sentinel, 31 Aug 20
The nation’s nuclear power watchdog says a Tennessee Valley Authority executive’s retaliation against a safety whistleblower was so egregious he is banned from the industry for five years.
TVA Vice President Joseph Shea is barred from working for five years in any activities that require licensing by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the agency said in a news release. The agency said the penalty is warranted to protect the public.
Shea, the regulatory agency concluded, “played a significant role” in the 2018 firing of nuclear engineer Beth Wetzel after she repeatedly raised safety concerns about TVA’s nuclear power program.
The U.S. Department of Labor last year ruled TVA executives, including its corporate attorney, cooked up a fake reason to fire Wetzel after she criticized one of her bosses. TVA later brokered a secret settlement with her……….. https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/crime/2020/08/31/nuclear-regulatory-commission-bans-tva-executive-joseph-shea-over-whistleblower-retaliation/3442778001/
Santee Cooper finalizes settlement over leftover material at failed SC nuclear project
Santee Cooper finalizes settlement over leftover material at failed SC nuclear project, Post and Courier, By Andrew Brown abrown@postandcourier.com, Aug 31, 2020
Santee Cooper may finally be able to recover some of the money it dumped into two unfinished nuclear reactors in South Carolina.
The board of the Moncks Corner power provider finalized a settlement this weekend with Westinghouse Electric that will enable the state-run utility to sell off leftover parts and materials from the failed expansion of the V.C. Summer project.
The settlement, which has been in the works for months, requires Santee Cooper and Westinghouse to split the profits from any remaining equipment that could be used on another site. …….
The V.C. Summer project is widely considered one of the worst business failures in South Carolina history.
Santee Cooper was the minority owner of the project. It partnered on the unfinished reactors with Cayce-based South Carolina Electric & Gas, which was sold to Dominion Energy after construction was halted in mid-2017 after years of delays and cost overruns.
The two South Carolina utilities spent more than $9 billion on construction before the reactors were abandoned in July 2017.
By that time, Westinghouse had filed for bankruptcy and left the struggling project in the laps of SCE&G and Santee Cooper. As a result, electric customers for both utilities are still paying off debt tied to the abandoned project.
The amount of material left over from the two unfinished nuclear reactors is vast, and there’s one big reason for that. By the time SCE&G and Santee Cooper pulled the plug on the project, they had already purchased more than 90 percent of the parts. Yet only a third of the reactors were actually built. ………….https://www.postandcourier.com/business/santee-cooper-reaches-settlement-over-leftover-material-at-failed-sc-nuclear-project/article_8d01c2e4-eba1-11ea-a8d5-5fad5583ac38.html…..
Republicans in Ohio House create new committee for nuclear bailout repeal debate
Ohio House Creates New Committee For Nuclear Bailout Repeal Debate, Cincinnati Public Radio, By ANDY CHOW, 31 Aug 20, Republican leaders in the Ohio House have announced the creation of a new committee to hold hearings on the potential repeal of HB6, a nuclear power plant bailout bill at the center of an alleged $60 million corruption scheme…….
House Democrats criticize the new committee as just another hurdle towards a full repeal.
Rep. Michael Skindell (D-Lakewood) says the legislature should act quickly in order to stop further implementation of the law, such as increased electric bills next year.
Duke Energy Has Squandered Billions in Failed Natural Gas and Nuclear Projects,
Report: Duke Energy Has Squandered Billions in Failed Natural Gas and Nuclear Projects, Alex Formuzis, alex@ewg.org, EWG, 31 Aug 20, WASHINGTON – Since 2013, Duke Energy and its partners have scrapped natural gas pipelines and nuclear power plants totaling $11.6 billion, according to a new report by the Environmental Working Group.
For most businesses, this record of blowing billions of dollars on one failed project and boondoggle after another would send finances reeling and the executives in charge packing.
But not when you are the nation’s largest investor-owned electric utility, with a captive ratepayer base of 7.7 million across six states, and state lawmakers and regulators in your pocket who let you pass those losses onto customers through new fees and rate increases………………
Failed, costly projects like the ACP and the Edwardsport plant are business as usual for Duke, from the cancelled Lee nuclear plant in South Carolina to the cancelled Levy and shuttered Crystal River nuclear plants in Florida.
Plans for the construction of the Levy plant first began in 2006 under Progress Energy, which merged with Duke in 2012. The original estimate was $5 billion to $6 billion. By the time of the merger, the price tag had grown to $24 billion and the in-service date was pushed back eight years, to 2024.
Even in the face of overruns nearly five times higher than the original cost estimates, Duke was unfazed, pressing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a license to build and operate the plant. The NRC granted Duke’s request in 2016, but that same year the utility announced it would halt production. Florida regulators allowed Duke to charge customers $800 million for a plant that never delivered a kilowatt of electricity.
To drag Duke and other utilities into the clean energy future, politicians and regulators must disrupt the monopoly model that has ceded control of energy to profit-first corporations. Electricity rates should be tied to efforts to increase efficiency and promote renewables like rooftop and community solar – both of which Duke has fought to deny the captive ratepayers in its vast expansive service area. And stockholders, not ratepayers, should bear the costs and risks of big capital projects.
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The Environmental Working Group is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization that empowers people to live healthier lives in a healthier environment. Through research, advocacy and unique education tools, EWG drives consumer choice and civic action. Visit www.ewg.org for more information. https://www.ewg.org/energy/release/23293/report-duke-energy-has-squandered-billions-failed-natural-gas-and-nuclear
1 This Month
26 April – Chernobyl: Inside the Meltdown airs on National Geographic on Sunday 26th April from 4pm
29 April – Nuclear Expert Webinar #1 – Radiation Impacts on Families with Mary Olson and Cindy Folkers
- 12:15 PM MT – 1:45 PM MT
- Location: Virtual – REGISTER TODAY
4 May -West Suburban Peace Coalition to discuss Iran war at May Educational Forum
Monday, May 4, 7:00 – 8:00 PM Central Standard Time
Title: : How Trump’s Narrative Tries to Shape the Reality of the War on Iran.
Contact Walt Zlotow, zlotow@hotmail.com 630 442 3045 for further information
14 May – online event From Bombs to Data Centres: the Face of Nuclear Colonialism
Pine Ridge Uranium is the real threat, not Tehran- Tell Burgum: Stop the Extraction.
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes – A good documentary on Chernobyl on SBS available On Demand for the next 3 weeks– https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/chernobyl-the-lost-tapes/2352741955560
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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