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

Still more to be done, to decrease danger risk in USA’s nuclear reactors

US hardens nation’s power plants seven years after Fukushima nuclear disaster, Washington Examiner,   by John Siciliano | Seven years later, all of the nation’s 99 reactors comply with NRC regulations established in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, according to the commission.

However, the reactors that are of the same or similar design to the Japanese Daiichi power plant still have some work to do.

The commission ordered all boiling-water reactors with Mark I and Mark II designs to achieve “full compliance” with new venting requirements beginning at the end of June 2018………..

Lawsuits filed against the Japanese utility company that ran the Daiichi plant will be heard in court later this year.

More than 100 U.S. sailors and servicemen who participated in the rescue effort after the tsunami hit Japan are suing the TEPCO electricity company for not warning them about the threat of radiation after they knew of the damage to the power plant.

“The NRC was not a party to that,” said Burnell, who said the agency has not been requested by the courts to participate.

In 2011, the commission issued warnings to U.S. citizens in Japan about the risk of radiation, directing all citizens who live within 50 miles of the Daiichi plant to evacuate. Japanese authorities downplayed the seriousness of the radiation and refuted the claims made by then-NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko.

Senior management at the NRC have visited Fukushima and interacted with their Japanese counterparts since then, Burnell said. The NRC and the Energy Department meet regularly with Japanese officials to discuss what happened.  http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/us-hardens-nations-power-plants-seven-years-after-fukushima-nuclear-disaster/article/2651239

 

March 12, 2018 Posted by | safety, USA | Leave a comment

U.S. mining industry files petitions to overturn prohibition on uranium mining near Grand Canyon

Guardian 10th March 2018, The US mining industry has asked the supreme court to overturn an Obama-era
rule prohibiting the mining of uranium on public lands adjacent to the
Grand Canyon. The National Mining Association (NMA) and the American
Exploration and Mining Association (AEMA) filed petitions on Friday asking
the court to reverse the 2012 ban on new uranium mining claims on more than
1 million acres of public land surrounding Grand Canyon national park.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/mar/10/grand-canyon-uranium-mining-ban-supreme-court

March 12, 2018 Posted by | Legal, Uranium, USA | Leave a comment

Donald Trump’s historic gamble on meeting Kim Jong Un – so much could go wrong

Donald Trump’s historic bet on Kim Jong Un summit shatters decades of orthodoxy Straits Times 9 Mar 18  WASHINGTON (BLOOMBERG) – US President Donald Trump took the biggest gamble of his presidency on Thursday (March 8), breaking decades of US diplomatic orthodoxy by accepting an invitation to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The bet is that Mr Trump’s campaign to apply maximum economic pressure on Mr Kim’s regime has forced him to consider what was previously unthinkable: surrendering the illicit nuclear weapons programme begun by his father.

If the president is right, the US would avert what appeared at times last year (2017) to be a steady march towards a second Korean War………

Regardless of how it turns out, the stunning decision by Mr Trump hands Mr Kim a prize long sought by the regime’s ruling dynasty: the legitimacy conferred by a historic meeting with the sitting president.

So much could go wrong.

…….Senator Brian Schatz, a Hawaii Democrat, applauded Mr Trump’s diplomatic effort.

“Expectations should be low and history demonstrates that scepticism and careful diplomatic work are necessary, but it is better to be talking about peace than recklessly ramping up for a war,” he said on Twitter.

DENUCLEARISATION ‘UNLIKELY’

Mr Adam Mount, a senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists, said that while the talks would extend the period of relative warmth that began during the Olympics, denuclearisation remained “extremely unlikely”.

Nuclear weapons are fundamental to the Kim family’s grip on power at home.

“Kim Jong Un has rational incentives to keep his nuclear arsenal,” Mr Mount said in a phone interview.

He also cautioned that the meeting was “a massive coup” for a regime that “wants to be seen as a regular nuclear power”.

It could lend Mr Kim insights into how the US and South Korea coordinate, and the regime could test Mr Trump by asking for exorbitant terms in exchange for denuclearisation.

“I do worry about a president who has no foreign policy experience getting out-manoeuvred,” he said. “I don’t trust Donald Trump alone in a room with Kim Jong Un.” http://www.straitstimes.com/world/united-states/trumps-historic-bet-on-kim-summit-shatters-decades-of-orthodoxy

 

March 10, 2018 Posted by | North Korea, politics international, USA | 1 Comment

Donald Trump agrees to meet Kim Jong Un

Trump accepts invitation to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un  Boston Globe, By Anna Fifield THE WASHINGTON POST  

TOKYO – President Donald Trump has agreed to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for talks, an extraordinary development following months of heightened nuclear tension during which the two leaders exchanged frequent military threats and insults.

Kim has also committed to stopping nuclear and missile testing, even during joint military drills in South Korea next month, Chung Eui-yong, the South Korean national security adviser, told reporters at the White House on Thursday night after briefing the president on his four-hour dinner meeting with Kim in Pyongyang on Monday.

After a year in which North Korea fired intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching all of the United States and tested what is widely thought to have been a hydrogen bomb, such a moratorium would be welcomed by the United States and the world.

Trump and Kim have spent the past year making belligerent statements about each other, with Trump mocking Kim as ‘‘Little Rocket Man’’ and pledging to ‘‘totally destroy’’ North Korea and Kim calling the American president a ‘‘dotard’’ and a ‘‘lunatic’’ and threatening to send nuclear bombs to Washington, D.C.

But Kim has ‘‘expressed his eagerness to meet President Trump as soon as possible,’’ Chung told reporters.

‘President Trump said he would meet Kim

Jong Un by May,’’ Chung said, but he did not provide any information on where the meeting would be. In Seoul, the presidential Blue House clarified that the meeting would occur by the end of May.

The White House confirmed that Trump had accepted Kim’s invitation to meet…….https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2018/03/08/trump-says-south-korea-make-major-statement-tonight/IEsGcNLscqxxoyjoAQiXIK/story.html?event=event25

 

March 10, 2018 Posted by | North Korea, politics international, USA | 1 Comment

Mikhail Gorbachev pleads for USA and Russia to Stop the Race to Nuclear War

Mikhail Gorbachev: The U.S. and Russia Must Stop the Race to Nuclear War  http://time.com/5191433/mikhail-gorbachev-nuclear-weapons-trump-putin-russia/  By MIKHAIL GORBACHEV  10 March 18 

Mikhail Gorbachev was the president of the Soviet Union and is the author of The New Russia.

When I became the leader of the Soviet Union in 1985, I felt during my very first meetings with people that what worried them the most was the problem of war and peace. Do everything in order to prevent war, they said.

By that time, the superpowers had accumulated mountains of weapons; military build-up plans called for “space combat stations,” “nuclear-powered lasers,” “kinetic space weapons” and similar inventions. Thank God, in the end none of them were built. What is more, negotiations between the U.S.S.R. and the United States opened the way to ending the nuclear arms race. We reached agreement with one of the most hawkish U.S. presidents, Ronald Reagan, to radically reduce the arsenals.

Today, those achievements are in jeopardy. More and more, defense planning looks like preparation for real war amid continued militarization of politics, thinking and rhetoric.

The National Security Strategy and Nuclear Posture Review published by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration in February orients U.S. foreign policy toward “political, economic, and military competitions around the world” and calls for the development of new, “more flexible” nuclear weapons. This means lowering the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons even further.

Against this backdrop, Russian President Vladimir Putin, in his recent address to the Federal Assembly, announced the development in Russia of several new types of weapons, including weapons that no country in the world yet possesses.

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, published in Chicago, set the symbolic Doomsday Clock half a minute closer to “Midnight” in January. As the scientists see it, we are now within two minutes of a global catastrophe. The last time this level of danger was recorded in 1953.

The alarm that people feel today is fully justified.

How should we respond to this new round of militarization?

Above all, we must not give up; we must demand that world leaders return to the path of dialogue and negotiations.

The primary responsibility for ending the current dangerous deadlock lies with the leaders of the United States and Russia. This is a responsibility they must not evade, since the two powers’ arsenals are still outsize compared to those of other countries.

But we should not place all our hopes on the presidents. Two persons cannot undo all the roadblocks that it took years to pile up. We need dialog at all levels, including mobilization of the efforts of both nations’ expert communities. They represent an enormous pool of knowledge that should be used in the interest of peace.

Things have come to a point where we must ask: Where is the United Nations? Where is its Security Council, its Secretary General? Isn’t it time to convene an emergency session of the General Assembly or a meeting of the Security Council at the level of heads of state? I am convinced that the world is waiting for such an initiative.

There is no doubt in my mind that the vast majority of people both in Russia and in the United States will agree that war cannot be a solution to problems. Can weapons solve the problems of the environment, terrorism or poverty? Can they solve domestic economic problems?

We must remind the leaders of all nuclear powers of their commitment under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to negotiate reductions and eventually the elimination of nuclear weapons. Their predecessors signed that obligation, and it was ratified by the highest levels of their government. A world without nuclear weapons: There can be no other final goal.

However dismal the current situation, however depressing and hopeless the atmosphere may seem, we must act to prevent the ultimate catastrophe. What we need is not the race to the abyss but a common victory over the demons of war.

March 10, 2018 Posted by | Russia, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Saudi Arabia lobbying USA hard to get nuclear technology including enriching uranium

Saudis Enlist Washington Lobbyists in Bid for Nuclear Plants https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-09/saudi-arabia-enlists-lobbyists-in-quest-to-build-nuclear-plants  By Jennifer A Dlouhy, 

  • Three firms file disclosures to consult with Saudi Arabia
  • Deal faces obstacles over fears about uranium enrichment

Saudi Arabia is enlisting blue-chip lobbyists in Washington as it prepares for a fight over its ambition to build nuclear power plants.

 Three law firms have filed disclosures saying they’re advising the kingdom on the issue, as American and Saudi leaders negotiate the contours of a possible nuclear technology-sharing agreement that could allow the enrichment of uranium.

The flurry of registrations underscores the high stakes in Saudi Arabia’s bid to build as many as 16 nuclear reactors over the next quarter century. Trump administration officials, eager to revive the moribund American nuclear industry, are pushing the kingdom to consider a consortium of U.S. companies for the job instead of competitors from Russia, China and other countries.

 One of the law firms, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLC, said in a Feb. 20 Justice Department filing that it would be billing the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources $890 per hour to give advice on a potential bilateral agreement with the U.S. “concerning peaceful uses of nuclear energy under Section 123 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954” as well as “related legal matters concerning the development of a commercial nuclear program.”

DOJ Filings

Among the key players is Jeff Merrifield, a former presidential appointee on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission who now leads Pillsbury’s energy practice.

King and Spalding LLP used almost identical language in a Feb. 21 filing with the Justice Department, which maintains registrations of foreign agents in the U.S. The firm said it would be paid as much as $450,000 for an initial 30-day contract, which could be extended.

And in a third registration on Feb. 20, David Kultgen, a lawyer and retired Saudi Arabian Oil Company executive, said he was recruited in early October to provide legal and consulting services to Saudi Arabia, including on its national atomic energy project.

Plutonium Warnings

Lawmakers and nonproliferation experts warn that without strict prohibitions, a deal to supply Saudi Arabia with nuclear power plants could allow spent fuel to be reprocessed into weapons-grade plutonium.

Energy Secretary Rick Perry met with Saudi officials in London last week to discuss the possible nuclear plant deal, even as the Trump administration reluctantly prepares to offer the Saudis an accord that falls short of a so-called “gold standard” prohibition on enriching and reprocessing of uranium that was embedded in a nuclear-sharing agreement with the United Arab Emirates a decade ago.

At least one other such “123 agreement” to share nuclear technology — named after a section of the U.S Atomic Energy Act — contains similar prohibitions, but more than a dozen others fall short of that “gold standard.”

Supporters of a nuclear plant agreement are girding for a fight. Even if the Trump administration agrees to share nuclear technology with Saudi Arabia, the deal faces bipartisan criticism in Congress. Federal law requires congressional approval of and consultation over any 123 agreements laying out the framework for nuclear cooperation, with a special role reserved for the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

Netanyahu’s Concerns

Under some scenarios, a 123 agreement can enter into force after 60 days unless Congress adopts a joint resolution disapproving it, according tothe Congressional Research Service.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shared his concerns about Riyadh’s nuclear power goals with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee earlier this week, telling lawmakers he opposed any agreement allowing the Saudis to enrich uranium and reprocess plutonium.

The chairman of that committee, Senator Bob Corker, a Republican from Tennessee, said that “there will be a lot of attention paid as to how this is crafted.”

And that scrutiny is bipartisan. Senator Ed Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts who also sits on the Foreign Relations panel, said any watering down of the gold standard “would set a negative precedent for the entirety of the Middle East.”

“It would be hard to say to the United Arab Emirates, to the Egyptians, and for that matter other countries around the world, that they shouldn’t also have uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing,” Markey said in an interview.

— With assistance by Ari Natter

March 10, 2018 Posted by | politics international, Saudi Arabia, USA | Leave a comment

MIT’s $millions plan for small nuclear fusion station

MIT Receives Millions to Build Fusion Power Plant Within 15 Years https://gizmodo.com/mit-receives-millions-to-build-fusion-power-plant-withi-1823644634?IR=T   Ryan F. Mandelbaum 10 Mar 18 Nuclear fusion is like a way-more-efficient version of solar power—except instead of harnessing energy from the rays of a distant sun, scientists create miniature suns in power plants here on Earth. It would be vastly more efficient, and more importantly, much cleaner, than current methods of energy production. The main issue is that actually realizing fusion power has been really difficult.

But MIT has announced yesterday that it is working with a new private company called Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) to make nuclear fusion finally happen. CFS recently attracted a $50 million investment from the Italian energy company Eni, which it will use to fund the development.

The goal? “The 15-year timeline is to get a device that puts 200 megawatts on the grid,” CFS CEO and MIT grad Robert Mumgaard told Gizmodo. “That’s a small city.”

Nuclear fusion is the process by which two hydrogen atoms are fused together into helium. This process results in the release of lots of energy. Scientists have been chasing fusion for a long time, perhaps since the 1950s. But there have been technological roadblocks, mainly making a device that outputs more energy than it takes to run. Another fusion device under construction in Europe called ITER, for example, should be ready by 2035 but is far over budget. The US Senate has attempted to pull out of the project, reports Nature.

MIT’s “tokamak” fusion reactor seems to promise much cheaper fusion power. It relies on a non-traditional, higher-temperature superconductor called ytterbium-barium-copper-oxide, a kind of cuprate, to allow electricity to flow efficiently without resistance. These produce strong magnetic fields and high pressures in plasma that confine the fusion reactions inside of the device. The sun confines its own reactions with its immense gravity.

The MIT group has been researching the device for a few years. This infusion of capital should allow them to build magnets four times stronger in the next three years. The planned device, called Sparc, will be a 65th of ITER’s size but release a fifth the power, according to an email sent by MIT’s press office.

  Of course, there are challenges. Martin Greenwald, deputy director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, told Gizmodo that they have yet to actually develop these magnets and integrate them into such a machine. They will also need to learn how to build and operate the device, and bring it to a position that it can actually enter the market.

It’s important to note that fusion is way different from fission, the process that powers current nuclear power plants. Fusion can’t cause an explosive runaway chain reaction without some sort of fissile material, and rather than using uranium like fission does, it’s water and lithium in, helium out. This also cuts down on nuclear weapons risks. “There’s no reason to have fissile materials around fusion plants,” said Greenwald. “If you do, you’re up to no good.”

Some, like the folks at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, still worry that the excess neutrons produced in fusion could lead to radioactive waste or contaminants, as well as high costs.

Nature points out that there are plenty others are in the fusion-with-high-temperature-superconductors game, too. Princeton has its own tokamak, and there’s a British company called Tokamak Energy using a similar device to produce fusion energy. But all of the cash towards the MIT effort is significant.

“If MIT can do what they are saying—and I have no reason to think that they can’t — this is a major step forward,” Stephen Dean, head of Fusion Power Associates, in Maryland, told Nature.  Perhaps all fusion power needed to become reality was, well, a lot of money. Mumgaard said that CFS’ collaboration with MIT will “provide the speed to take what’s happening in the lab and bring it to the market.”

March 10, 2018 Posted by | Reference, technology, USA | Leave a comment

Radiation monitors failed at Hanford nuclear station – spread of contamination was not detected

Report says radioactive monitors failed at nuclear plant, abc news, By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS RICHLAND, Wash. — Mar 9, 2018,   A new report says mistakes and mismanagement are to blame for the exposure of workers to radioactive particles at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state.

Contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. on Thursday released its evaluation of what went wrong in December during demolition of the nuclear reservation’s highly contaminated Plutonium Finishing Plant.

The Tri-City Herald reports the study said primary radioactive air monitors used at a highly hazardous Hanford project failed to detect contamination. Then, when the spread of contamination was detected, the report said steps taken to contain it didn’t fully work……..https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/report-radioactive-monitors-failed-nuclear-plant-53639672

March 9, 2018 Posted by | incidents, USA | Leave a comment

Crucial US-North Korea talks – could defuse nuclear tensions?

Nuclear crisis at ‘crucial moment’ for US-North Korea talks, Chinese minister says  SCMP, Teddy Ngteddy.kyng@scmp.com, 8 Mar 18

Wang Yi says the moment has arrived to test whether all sides are sincere in wanting to resolve tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme

 China called for direct dialogue between North Korea and the United States to defuse tensions on the Korean peninsula and warned there was still the potential for chaos amid the stand-off over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme.

The warning by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Thursday came despite the announcement that North and South Korea’s leaders are to meet at a summit, raising hopes that the nuclear crisis might be defused. …….

The South China Morning Post reported that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un may propose sending his sister, Kim Yo-jong, to the US as part of efforts to launch direct talks between Washington and Pyongyang.

This may be one of a number of possible messages South Korean envoy Chung Eui-yong will deliver to US National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster in Washington this week, a South Korean diplomatic source told the Post, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Chung is travelling to Washington with South Korea’s national intelligence service chief Suh Hoon, who, according to multiple South Korean diplomatic sources, will meet his US counterpart Mike Pompeo.

……. The fact that North Korea did not conduct nuclear and missile tests during the Winter Olympics, while South Korea and the United States have suspended their military drills, proved that China’s approach to handle the nuclear crisis was effective, Wang said.

Beijing has called for South Korea and the US to stop military exercises in exchange for North Korea not conducting nuclear tests……..http://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2136263/china-calls-us-north-korea-talks-defuse-nuclear-crisis

 

March 9, 2018 Posted by | North Korea, politics international, USA | Leave a comment

Trump aims for global ‘energy dominance’ through pushing ahead the nuclear industry

White House: Nuclear power dominates ‘energy dominance’, Washington Examiner, by John Siciliano | 

The White House says President Trump’s biggest achievements in his energy dominance agenda are all about nuclear energy.

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy underscored the president’s achievements Wednesday in a report that highlights a number of scientific advancements made under Trump’s watch.

The biggest energy achievements were on nuclear power, not coal, oil, or natural gas, which are typically promoted as key parts of the administration’s energy dominance agenda.

The report linked Trump’s recently released nuclear policy review, which has much to do with nuclear weapons, with moving the country closer to energy dominance. Trump issued a directive in June ordering his administration to look for ways to expand nuclear power domestically.

“The White House is leading the nuclear policy review, which includes a focus on restoring U.S. nuclear [research and development] capabilities and enabling innovation in the development and deployment of new reactors,” the new report read.

It also pointed out that on Nov. 13, Energy Secretary Rick Perry authorized national lab contractors to strike agreements with the private sector on nuclear technology licensing to help commercialize new reactors.

“The authorization adds a new and powerful technology transfer tool to help unleash American energy innovation by removing barriers for businesses and other entities interested in working with DOE’s National Laboratories,” the report said.

It also pointed out that Trump reopened a program that had been dormant for 23 years, which will boost nuclear power research and development.

“For the first time in 23 years, the U.S. Department of Energy has resumed operations at the Transient Reactor Test Facility,” the White House said. “TREAT is a crucial part of the nation’s nuclear [research and development] infrastructure, and provides the capability to test nuclear reactor fuels and materials under extreme conditions. Such testing can help to improve safety and performance of the current and future nuclear reactor fleet.”

The TREAT reactor at the Idaho National Lab operated for 35 years until it was closed under former President Bill Clinton. The TREAT website said the Energy Department had been considering reopening the test reactor, which is used to experiment with new nuclear power plant fuels. …http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/white-house-nuclear-power-dominates-energy-dominance/article/2650941

March 9, 2018 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

Who will pay the astronomic cost of storing America’s nuclear trash? NRC reviews New Mexico proposal

Goodbye Yucca? NRC to review New Mexico nuclear waste storage proposal,  https://www.utilitydive.com/news/goodbye-yucca-nrc-to-review-new-mexico-nuclear-waste-storage-proposal/518653/  Robert Walton

Dive Brief:

Dive Insight:

Lawmakers are reportedly not going to fund Yucca Mountain development this year, despite a $120 million request from President Trump who has indicated he wants to revive development. That will maintain the status quo for dealing with spent fuel, a process which involves companies suing the federal government to recover their costs.

Processing and storing the spent fuel was supposed to be done by the government under the terms of a 1983 contract. Instead, generators file breach of contract lawsuits to cover the costs, and so far there have been more than 70 judgments resulting in payments to nuclear operators upwards of $6 billion.

Holtec is proposing an interim storage site, and last month the NRC informed the company that it would review the project. Regulators said the application “is sufficiently complete for the staff to begin its detailed safety, security and environmental reviews.”

Holtec is just the second private company to file such an application, according to Power Magazine. Waste Control Specialists proposed a site in Texas, but subsequently put its application on hold due to escalating

costs.

​NRC staff informed Holtec that the cost to review its application would likely reach $7.5 million. The company would use a the Hi-Storm UMAX canister storage system, which stores loaded canisters underground.  According to Holtec, the Hi-Storm system “is widely considered by industry experts to be the last word on public safety and security.”

The facility would be constructed on 1,000 acres of unused land, about midway between the cities of Carlsbad and Hobbs, N.M. The company says the area has many advantages, not least of which is being located 35 miles from the nearest populations.

The costs to store spent nuclear fuel are astronomical: The U.S. Department of Energy has estimated the government’s total liability will be $29 billion by 2022, assuming that the government starts accepting nuclear waste by then. Some estimates put the cost as high as $50 billion.

March 9, 2018 Posted by | USA, wastes | Leave a comment

South Carolina House cuts customers bills over failed nuclear project, but Senate delays decision

S.C. House cuts customers’ bills over failed nuke project, Aiken Standard. By MEG KINNARD Associated Press, 7 Mar 18,

      COLUMBIA — South Carolina lawmakers on Wednesday nearly unanimously advanced a measure aimed at cutting utility bills in the wake of a nuclear construction project failure that’s already cost ratepayers billions.

Now the measure, approved on a 107-1 vote, goes back to the state’s Senate for consideration. That chamber has yet to agree to previous House measures that included cutting customers’ payments for the shuttered project.

Since convening two months ago, state lawmakers have tussled over what to do about the failed project at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station, a $9 billion reactor construction effort that collapsed last summer. Co-owners SCANA Corp. and Santee Cooper, South Carolina’s public utility, abandoned the project July 31 following the bankruptcy of lead contractor Westinghouse.

 State and federal investigations into possible wrongdoing by SCANA are ongoing. Multiple lawsuits alleged company executives knew the project was doomed but kept that information from ratepayers, whom they continued to charge a collective $37 million per month to fund the project.

House and Senate panels quickly convened to examine the debacle, with House lawmakers producing a package of half-a-dozen bills. The proposals included bills cutting rates for customers of SCANA subsidiary South Carolina Electric & Gas by 18 percent – the amount they’ve been paying toward the project – and allowing refunds of what customers have already paid, if regulators conclude there had been “poor management” by SCE&G.

Both chambers put the nuclear mess at the top of their “to do lists” for this year’s session, with some in leadership saying they feared little would get accomplished until the state’s angry ratepayers had some sort of resolution. But debate has lagged in the Senate, where lawmakers have discussed issues related to the failure but also engaged in lengthy debates on other topics, including the recent placement of chicken farms.

The House has passed several proposals reforming the state’s regulatory structure for projects like V.C. Summer. The Senate has yet to take them up but has approved a bill to delay making decisions on fixing the debacle until the end of this year……https://www.aikenstandard.com/ap/s-c-house-cuts-customers-bills-over-failed-nuke-project/article_567263ef-7d18-529d-8b04-20d398e0ad9b.html

March 9, 2018 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) seeks permit to allow more nuclear waste storage

WIPP Facility Officials Seek Permit Changes http://krwg.org/post/wipp-facility-officials-seek-permit-changes, By KRWG NEWS AND PARTNERS , CARLSBAD, N.M. (AP) 7 Mar 18, — Officials are seeking permit changes to allow more nuclear waste to be stored in an underground facility in southeastern New Mexico.

The Carlsbad Current-Argus reports Waste Isolation Pilot Plant officials are looking to redefine how the volume of the waste is calculated at the facility near Carlsbad.

The facility is about halfway to capacity under the current calculations, which take into account the air between the waste containers for the total volume.

The drums of waste are packed into another case to protect against spills.

Officials are seeking to change the volume calculations to be based on the inner containers, which they say is a more accurate measurement.

Officials say the facility is about a third full under the new volume calculations.

March 9, 2018 Posted by | USA, wastes | Leave a comment

Washington State to give more help to sick Hanford nuclear workers and former workers

Help on the way for ill Hanford workers  Tri City Herald, BY ANNETTE CARY, acary@tricityherald.co, – March 07, 2018 

Ill Hanford workers will no longer have to prove to the state that their poor health was caused by working at the nuclear reservation.

On Wednesday, Gov. Jay Inslee signed sweeping legislation that should help more Hanford workers win approval for state worker compensation claims.

“Washington state has recognized the often terrible price Hanford workers on the front lines of nuclear production and cleanup have to pay for their service to the nation,” Tom Carpenter, executive director of the Seattle-based watchdog group Hanford Challenge, said in a statement………

Workers who spend as little as one eight-hour day at many areas of the nuclear reservation will no longer have to show that working at Hanford caused illnesses ranging from respiratory disease to many cancers.

Instead, the state Department of Labor and Industries must presume that the sickness was the result of a chemical or radiological exposure at Hanford.

The presumption may be rebutted by evidence that proves other causes for the disease, including smoking, lifestyle, hereditary factors, physical fitness or exposures to toxic substances at other jobs or at home.

The bill was first introduced in 2017 out of concern for central Hanford workers who can be exposed to toxic chemical vapors associated with chemicals held in underground tanks.

In March 2017, Lawrence Rouse stood before a state Senate committee and attempted to talk about his illness called toxic encephalopathy, a brain dysfunction caused by exposure to chemicals. He had worked at Hanford for more than 20 years.

As he struggled to get a few clipped words out, his wife took over saying, “He doesn’t speak well. I pretty much speak for him all the time.”

Hanford Challenge and the pipefitters union Local 598 promoted the bill, saying tank farm workers have developed serious neurological and chemical diseases from exposure to chemical vapors………

Under the new law, workers, and families of workers who have died, and been denied compensation in the past can refile a claim under the new standards, according to Hanford Challenge.

…………The claims may be filed any time within the lifetime of the worker, since many illnesses can take years to develop after exposure.

……….  Covered diseases under the law include:

▪  respiratory disease

▪  beryllium sensitization or disease

▪  heart problems experienced within 72 hours of an exposure

▪  neurological disease

▪  many cancers, including leukemia, some lymphomas and cancer of the thyroid, breast, esophagus, colon, bone, brain and others, with some exceptions.

The state compensation program is separate from a federal program, the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program, that also offers compensation and medical coverage for cancers and other diseases that could have been caused by Hanford exposure.

DOE plans to open a new center to help ill Hanford workers and their survivors sort out their options for compensation and care, including available federal and state programs.

The center is expected to open this spring at 309 Bradley Blvd., Suite 120, Richland.

Annette Cary: 509-582-1533, @HanfordNews  http://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/local/hanford/article204035419.html

March 9, 2018 Posted by | employment, health, USA, wastes | Leave a comment

West Lake Landfill: residents in the area want 100% removal of radioactive trash

Residents voice support for plan to remove all radioactive waste from West Lake Landfill http://fox2now.com/2018/03/06/residents-voice-support-for-plan-to-remove-all-radioactive-waste-from-west-lake-landfill/ MARCH 6, 2018, BY KATHERINE HESSEL,  

BRIDGETON, MO – It was a packed room Tuesday night as a huge turnout in Bridgeton as the public got a chance to weigh in on the EPA’s plan to clean up the West Lake Landfill.

After investigating and studying the landfill for decades the EPA came up with eight different plans on how to clean up the radioactive waste.

The EPA thinks the best choice is alternative 4. The plan calls for about 70% of the waste would be removed from the site by digging down 16 feet deep.  Then a permanent cap would be placed on the area.  It would cost about $246 million and take 5-years to implement.

Many residents said a partial removal is only a partial solution and when over 1,000 residents were asked during the meeting who would like alternative 4 not one person raised their hand.

Instead, during the public comment section of the meeting residents made it clear that they want the EPA to go with alternative 7.

That plan is the removal of all radioactive material with an offsite disposal.  It would cost $455 million and take about 14-years to implement.

Residents said they feel like the only solution is to get rid of all of the waste.  Public comments on the plans is available online through April 23rd. Here is that link.

Here is the EPA’s full proposed plan.

March 9, 2018 Posted by | USA, wastes | Leave a comment

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