Oconee Nuclear Station – one reactor shut down
1 reactor shut down at Oconee Nuclear Station The Tribune, : October 25, 2013 By JEFFREY COLLINS — Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. — The Oconee Nuclear Station near Seneca had to shut down one of its three reactors after a problem in the water system that helps generate electricity, federal regulators said.
Unit 3 at the plant was manually shut down by Duke Energy around 6 a.m. Thursday, about four minutes after the problem was detected, Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Roger Hannah said.
A control valve in the plant’s water system started causing changes in the flow of water that generates steam to turn the turbines and create power. Engineers shut down the reactor before it was automatically turned off, and there was no danger to the public, Hannah said……. The shutdown did come in the same month the Government Accountability Office released a report about nuclear plant safety. Since 2000, the Oconee Nuclear Station reported the most safety violations of any nuclear plant in the Southeast.
The plant reported 163 lower-level violations and 14 higher-level violations. Lower-level violations pose very low risk, such as improper upkeep of a transformer, while higher-level violations range in significance, such as an electrical system that caused a fire…….. The Browns Ferry plant in Decatur, Ala., reported 135 lower-level violations and six higher-level violations, while the Palo Verde plant in Wintersburg, Ariz., reported 299 lower-level violations and five higher-level violations since 2000. http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2013/10/25/2749832/1-reactor-shut-down-at-oconee.html
Careless behaviour by USA nuclear Air Force officials
Nuclear officers left crucial blast doors open, according to AP report The Verge, By Russell Brandom on October 22, 2013 According to an exclusive report by the Associated Press, Air Force officers entrusted with nuclear launch codes have been caught leaving open the blast doors to their underground command post on two separate occasions. The doors are a crucial element of American nuclear security, ensuring that even if the outer facility is compromised, attackers will not be able to reach the codes required to launch a nuclear attack. The AP’s sources say similar violations are much more common than is publicly reported.
There’s no evidence that any facilities or launch codes were compromised, but the breach of protocol raises serious questions about the security of the US nuclear arsenal, especially after the arsenal’s commander, Maj. General Michael Carey, was abruptly firedlast week. In May, three officers from a North Dakota nuclear base were relieved for a lack of “proper attitude.” http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/22/4867234/nuclear-officers-left-crucial-blast-doors-open-according-to-ap-report
Conspiracy theorists working hard against United Nations
“Here’s the simple truth. The U.N. does not do anything that its member countries don’t want to do. Period. There is no such thing as the U.N. being a super-national authority imposing anything on governments. It just doesn’t exist…..All the U.N. does is provide a platform for conversations and an exchange of views.… But there’s no such thing as the U.N. imposing any regulation.”
Debunking the U.N. Climate-Change Conspiracy, http://www.nationaljournal.com/energy/debunking-the-u-n-climate-change-conspiracy-20131021 By Coral Davenport
The United Nations Climate-Change Conspiracy Theory—the idea that human-caused global warming is a false construct invented by the U.N. to justify government control of economies and people’s daily lives—is alive and well in the United States.
The flames of the theory were freshly fanned last month after the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a landmark report concluding with 95 percent scientific certainty that burning fossil fuels are warming the planet, with dangerous consequences.
The report “proves that the U.N. is more interested in advancing a political agenda than scientific integrity,” said Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., author of the book The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future. Inhofe is far from alone. Around the country, Republican lawmakers, bloggers, and even some local TV weathercasters panned the report as further evidence of the U.N.’s plans to use allegedly false climate data to justify a global takeover.
So what do the U.N.’s top officials make of this?….. Continue reading
Michigan’s success in renewable energy and energy efficiency
Renewable energy is the answer, not the enemy The Detroit News, Shari Pollesch, 21 Oct 13 “…..Since 2008, according to a recent Michigan legislative report, there has been a dramatic reduction in the cost of renewable energy, with the latest wind energy contracts coming in 50 percent cheaper than coal. Michigan’s 
Energy Efficiency program has provided the cheapest source of baseload power (over 6x cheaper than coal). For every $1 invested in energy efficiency, customers are saving $3.55 in energy costs.
Although 70 of 71 electric companies in Michigan are on track to meet the 10 percent by 2015, most of these same utilities have declared an unwillingness to do anything more unless required by law. This is notwithstanding the fact that renewable energy is cheaper and cleaner than current or proposed fossil fuel options. Without legislative action, Michigan’s progress toward clean energy will come to a halt.
Consider that Michigan currently gets over 50 percent of our electricity from coal, all of which is imported from other states. In turn, Michigan sends $1.2 billion a year — and the jobs that money creates — to other states to pay for it.
Michigan’s clean energy sector already supports 20,500 jobs and $5 billion in annual economic activity according to a report by conservative Hill Group. Homegrown renewable energy and efficiency are strong economic drivers, attracting investment and creating jobs that can’t be shipped out of state or overseas.
Expanding our use of clean energy will build on our manufacturing strength and will allow us to re-tool and reopen closed manufacturing facilities. A 25 percent RES and 2 percent Energy Efficiency standard is projected to create over 44,000 new jobs in Michigan.
Renewables are cleaner, better for our environment and better for our health. Clean energy creates jobs and saves consumers on energy bills. But the utility companies are not going to do it on their own. We need our state legislature to mandate higher renewable standards. http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20131021/OPINION01/310210004#ixzz2iSTQDlgu
End of plans for Levy nuclear power plant, termination of Crystal River nuclear plant
Duke Energy’s revised agreement ends nuclear power plant plans ww.power-eng.com/articles/2013/10/duke-energys-revised-agreement-ends-nuclear-power-plant-plans.html Oct 17, 2013The Florida Public Service Commission approved a Revised and Restated Settlement Agreement that officially ends plans for Duke Energy Florida (NYSE: DUK) to build the Levy nuclear power plant and allows the retirement the shuttered Crystal River nuclear plant.
As part of the revised agreement, recoverable costs for Crystal River Unit 3 will be capped at $1.4 billion, with stockholders covering the first $295 million. Commissioners said in a release that when a plant is retired, the company has a right, by law, to recover the remaining costs from its customers.
Duke will continue to collect fixed amounts for costs associated with the canceled Levy nuclear plant until 2017. However, customers will earn refunds that were in the original 2012 agreement, including $129 million this year, $139 million in 2014, $50 million in 2015 and $70 million in 2016. Customers will also receive a refund of $835 million from insurance proceeds over the Crystal River unit by the end of 2014.
Energy storage promises to revolutionise renewable energy
The PUC’s big storage decision will boost renewable energy production My desert.com October 17th, 2013 | by K Kaufmann My Twitter feed and email box are lighting up with big news that the California Public Utilities Commission has voted to approve an order requiring the state’s three big utilities to start procuring renewable energy storage technology, with the goal of having 1,325 megawatts of storage on the grid by 2020.
You can read the full text of the original proposed decision, as released Sept. 3, here.
Both Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric will be required to procure a total of 580 megawatts of storage, with 310 megawatts dedicated to transmission, 185 megawatts on distribution and 85 megawatts going to the consumer market, which presumably means distributed generation or rooftop.
San Diego Gas & Electric will be responsible for putting on 165 megawatts of storage, with an 80-55-30 split on the transmission, distribution and customer requirements. The three utilities have until Jan. 1, 2014 to file individual applications on how they will run their first solicitations for energy storage facilities.
Those are the quick basics. Expect plenty of press and discussion on this decision. Its potential impacts are huge — in terms of providing a big push for more research and investment in storage technology in the state and in pushing California to go beyond its current 33 percent renewable energy target. If renewable power can be stored for use when the wind is not blowing and sun isn’t shining, then the potential for clean energy development will be limitless……http://voices.mydesert.com/2013/10/17/the-pucs-big-storage-decision-will-boost-renewable-energy-production/
More jobs and toys for the nuclear boys – blowing up asteroids
David Wright, co-director of the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Global Security Program, said he hoped any joint asteroid defense work would not become a “jobs program” for weapons scientists
Blowing Up Asteroids: The Latest Excuse to Keep Nuclear Stockpiles? While the White House says it seeks a world without nuclear weapons, NASA and US weapons labs are moving ahead with plans to blow up asteroids with A-bombs. Mother Jones, By Douglas Birch, Center for Public Integrity Thu Oct. 17, 2013 When geophysicist H. Jay Melosh attended a meeting of American and ex-Soviet nuclear weapons designers in May 1995, he was surprised by how eager the Cold Warriors were to work together against an unlikely but dangerous extraterrestrial threat: asteroids on a collision course with Earth.
After Edward Teller, father of the hydrogen bomb, urged others meeting at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to consider building and orbiting huge, new nuclear weapons for planetary protection, some top Russian weaponeers lent their support.
“It was a really bizarre thing to see that these weapons designers were willing to work together—to build the biggest bombs ever,” said Melosh, an expert in space impacts who has an asteroid named after him.
Ever since, he has been pushing back against scientists who still support the nuclear option, arguing that a non-nuclear solution—diverting asteroids by hitting them with battering rams—is both possible and far less dangerous. Continue reading
Over $60 billion for USA’s new nuclear weapons spending
U.S. nuclear arms modernization plan misguided: scientists’ group By David Alexander WASHINGTON | Thu Oct 17, 2013 (Reuters) – An Obama administration plan to spend $60 billion over the next 25 years to modernize the U.S. nuclear arsenal is misguided and violates the spirit of its pledge not to develop new nuclear arms, a Union of Concerned Scientists report said on Thursday.
The 81-page report by the independent nonprofit said the $60 billion for upgrading warheads is a fraction of what Washington plans to spend on its nuclear deterrent in the coming decades, on top of billions for new manufacturing facilities and billions more for delivery systems like submarines.
The spending comes despite President Barack Obama’sendorsement of the goal of a world without nuclear weapons and his negotiation of the “New START” treaty with Russia, which committed the former Cold War rivals to reducing deployed strategic nuclear weapons to 1,550 each by 2018…….
The 81-page report by the independent nonprofit said the $60
Energy storage to revolutionise large scale renewable energy
Energy storage mandate expected to bring large-scale renewable energy projects onto the electric grid http://photos.mercurynews.com/2013/10/16/energy-storage-mandate-expected-to-bring-large-scale-renewable-energy-projects-onto-the-electric-grid/ Oct 16, 2013
The first-in-the-nation energy storage mandate is expected to help integrate large-scale renewable projects onto the electric grid, help the grid better manage unpredictable events such as storms or wildfires, push utilities to consider a wider range of emerging technologies and jump-start the storage market as a whole. PG&E’s Yerba Buena Battery Energy Storage System Pilot Project, based in East San Jose, charges batteries when demand is low and sends stored power to the grid when demand grows, allowing operators to balance supply and demand. The project, which cost $18 million, uses the sodium-sulfur batteries made by NGK in Japan that have 4 megawatts of capacity and can store electricity for roughly six hours
PG&E’s Yerba Buena battery energy storage project, seen Tuesday morning Oct. 15, 2013, is capable of storing up to four megawatts of power from its place in the hills above Evergreen Valley College in San Jose, Calif. A California law that requires utilities to get 33 percent of their electricity from renewable sources like solar and wind is widely credited with accelerating the state’s cleantech economy. Now state regulators are poised to compel utilities to invest in “energy storage,” which could jump-start technology long considered the holy grail of the electricity industry. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
Financial failure of Duke Energy’s nuclear plants
Ten years of fast-rising electric rates reveal Duke Energy Florida is not competitive Tampa Bay Times, Robert Trigaux, 14 Oct 13 “……..Duke Energy, which last year bought Progress Energy Florida, has done a lousy job over the past decade running its power plants. This is the company that permanently closed the Crystal River 3 nuclear power plant after what should have been a routine maintenance upgrade.
This is the same company that said it would build a nuclear power plant in Levy County. It charged customers in advance to help start Levy, only to shelve the price-gone-wild project years later.
Customers were charged billions. No electricity was generated.
How did this mess happen? Where were the watchdogs? Why can’t Duke Energy Florida be held accountable for squandering ratepayer money and jacking up rates?……
On Wednesday, the Florida Public Service Commission — a puppet of the utilities it is supposed to regulate — will meet and probably rubber-stamp a proposed settlement.
If the PSC accepts this settlement, Duke will not have to defend its wasting nearly $3 billion forced upon customers to pay in return for delivering zero electricity. Nor will it have to justify why it should get to keep $250 million it made on its two defunct nuclear projects.
Nor is this the end. Higher rates await in the years ahead. If Duke really was Store One in a free market, its customers would flee elsewhere. Instead, they must stay and suffer. The business gods must be crazy.
Sacking of US top nuclear commanders was meant to be kept secret
Top Nuke Commanders Terminated Following Missing Nuclear Warheads Report Top nuke commanders Navy Vice Adm. Tim Giardina and Maj. Gen. Michael Carey terminated following exclusive high level military intelligence over secret nuclear warheads transfer By Anthony Gucciardi, Global Research, October 13, 2013 Two of the top nuclear commanders within the United States have now been terminated following the exclusive high level military leak report by Alex Jones and myself regarding the secret and unsigned nuclear weapons transfer from Dyess Air Force base to South Carolina. Disturbingly, the high level suspensions from top generals within the military establishment are not the only red flags to follow the leaked report…………..
the nuke commanders were terminated behind the scenes in a move that was not meant to hit the public eye — especially not the fact that the second in command was fired on the same day of the leaked nuclear transfer. More importantly, shedding light on the secret transfer of nuclear weapons and the numerous red flags that prove its validity is key in stopping the psychopathic control freaks in government from going through with Graham’s ‘warnings’ of a nuclear explosion that would lead to a war with Syria.
The highest level generals have now installed a new commander, Pentagon Air Force Commander Jack Weinstein, who may be willing to do the bidding of higher ups that the previous two nuke commanders would not…….http://www.globalresearch.ca/top-nuke-commanders-terminated-following-missing-nuclear-warheads-report/5354182
Nuclear power is “unnecessary, unsafe, and uninsurable, undemocratic.”
“This is a technology that can have 40 good years that can be wiped out in one bad day,”
NRC evacuation plans are “fantasy” documents,”
As to a main nuclear industry claim in this promotion to revive nuclear power — that atomic energy is necessary in “mitigating climate change”–this has been shown to be false.
nuclear power is “unnecessary, unsafe, and uninsurable… undemocratic.”
Nuclear Power Through the Fukushima Perspective http://www.huffingtonpost.com/karl-grossman/nuclear-power-through-the_b_4069712.html Karl Grossman : 10/09/2013 It started this June in California. Speaking about the problems at the troubled San Onofre nuclear plants through the perspective of the Fukushima nuclear complex catastrophe was a panel of Naoto Kan, prime minister of Japan when the disaster began; Gregory Jaczko, chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) at the time; Peter Bradford, an NRC member when the Three Mile Island accident happened; and nuclear engineer and former nuclear industry executive Arne Gundersen.
This week the same panel of experts on nuclear technology — joined by long-time nuclear opponent Ralph Nader — was on the East Coast, in New York City and Boston, speaking about problems at the problem-riddled Indian Point nuclear plants near New York and the troubled Pilgrim plant near Boston, through the perspective on the Fukushima catastrophe.
Their presentations were powerful. Continue reading
Indian Point Nuclear Plant emergency procedures won’t be good enough
Former NRC Chair: Emergency Plans Won’t Protect Residents from Radiation Huff Post , Roger Witherspoon, 8 Oct 13 The former head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said yesterday that emergency plans for a catastrophic event at the Indian Point nuclear power plant are not designed to ensure that residents will escape unhealthy doses of radiation and it would be best if the plant closes down.
Gregory Jaczko, who led the five-member commission during the triple meltdown of Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear station and resigned last year after intense clashes with the industry and the other four commissioners, said in a wide-ranging interview that:
- Emergency plans for Indian Point only teach officials how to make the best decisions in a bad situation and minimize the extent of contamination for those within 10 miles of the Hudson River site. The plans will do nothing to protect the 21 million people living within 50 miles, including New York City, northern New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania, and western Connecticut.
- With the exception of Allison M. Macfarlane, his replacement as NRC Chair, the four commissioners “were brought onto the commission because they were more interested in looking at the impact of regulations on the industry rather than on the possible impact on the safety of the public.”
- The agency’s risk assessment, which undergirds its regulatory structure and determines what practices are safe, is seriously flawed because of a basic assumption that worst case scenarios cannot happen. As a result, there is little thought given to the consequences of accidents — even though it is certain that some will occur.
- Because the consequences of a meltdown at Indian Point are incalculably catastrophic, it would be best if the plant were closed. Continue reading
Nuclear industry doesn’t like electricity pricing to shift according to demand
Nuclear Plants Vexed at Prices That Shift as Demand Does NYT, By MATTHEW L. WALD October 8, 2013“……Today energy in most of the United States is priced hourly in a deregulated market far different from the one of regulated power plant construction that ushered in the nation’s reactors in the 1960s and 1970s. Generators — whether coal-fired plants, wind farms or reactors — are paid varying amounts over the course of the day, but in periods of light demand and high winds the price goes below zero, so generators have to pay to put kilowatt-hours on the grid and hope to make up for the loss at other times. Only wind generators, which earn a subsidy per kilowatt-hour generated, make money in that situation.
Decisions about new generating stations are being made by entrepreneurs rather than public utilities, he said, and entrepreneurs are unlikely to do what the utilities used to: commit to expensive generating stations that could take a decade to build.
In fact, the only places in the United States where new reactors are under construction are states like South Carolina and Georgia, where the decisions are still made by public utilities commissions and big utilities, not small companies judging market conditions and then building modest “merchant” generators……
It is bad enough for nuclear operators that the market does not favor new reactor construction, but lately evidence is mounting that it is also undermining the viability of old ones, they say…….http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/09/business/energy-environment/nuclear-plants-vexed-at-prices-that-shift-as-demand-does.html
Ontario hearings on nuclear wastes: US officials unhappy about plan
U.S. officials demand Ontario clarify plan for nuclear waste http://www.macombdaily.com/environment-and-nature/20131003/us-officials-demand-ontario-clarify-plan-for-nuclear-waste By Gina Joseph, The Macomb Daily 10/03/13, Plans by Ontario Power Generation to bury its low- and intermediate-level nuclear waste underground may be a Trojan horse.
On Monday, state Sen. Hoon-Yung Hopgood, D-Taylor, and state Rep. Sarah Roberts, D-Taylor, traveled to a public hearing in Ontario to voice their concerns before a Joint Review Panel on the matter of the Deep Geologic Repository (DGR) on the shore of Lake Huron. Today, Hopgood and Roberts joined other prominent officials in submitting a formal written Request for Ruling regarding the plan, which appears to have a much larger scope than what is detailed in the project report.
In the request, the signatories demanded a suspension of the hearings if the Joint Review Panel and OPG cannot confirm that all highly radioactive wastes are prohibited in this or any future repository on the site. The facility would be located under the Bruce Nuclear Power Plant and about 440 yards below the Great Lakes basin.
“As if the proposal of this radioactive waste repository less than a mile from the shores of Lake Huron wasn’t threatening enough, it is now becoming clear that those fears are just the beginning,” said Sen. Hopgood. “With the hearings underway, information is coming out regarding the actual scope of the project and the potential to include highly radioactive wastes. This isn’t just for the mops and rags that OPG often speaks of, and could include everything short of spent nuclear fuel. If that is the intent, it is absolutely essential that we go back to the drawing board or, better yet, scrap the idea altogether.” Roberts concurred.
“The merits of this debate must be founded on the assumption that we have all of the correct information regarding this (DGR),” said Rep. Roberts. “Otherwise, the potential for negative impacts on our Great Lakes could be far worse than we ever imagined.”
Roberts and Hopgood attended day 12 of the hearings to be held through Oct. 12.
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23-25 October – on Zoom – World BEYOND War’s annual global conferenc
Shut down the radiation-damaged Heysham nuclear reactors now
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Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
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