Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe against uranium minng
Anti-uranium forces press Va. candidates for gov News Leader, May 21, 2013 RICHMOND — Opponents of uranium mining in Virginia met with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe on the issue and they said he’s solidly in their corner, while a meeting with Republican nominee Ken Cuccinelli has yet to be arranged.
Gov. Bob McDonnell, in the meantime, has not decided his response to a February suggestion that he direct state agencies to put uranium mining regulations in place to help guide the 2014 General Assembly if it considers ending a decades-old prohibition on uranium mining in Virginia.
The two pro-mining legislators who proposed the approach after legislation fell flat in the 2013 session are divided on whether the issue will emerge in the next session of the Legislature. The meeting between mining opponents and McAuliffe occurred in Danville about three weeks ago. Two who attended said McAuliffe was clearly opposed to ending the state’s 1982 moratorium on uranium mining.
“He said he had studied the issue and that it made absolutely no sense, either economically or scientifically,” said Jack Dunavant, a longtime opponent of uranium mining from Halifax County. “He was opposed to it and he said you can quote me on that.”
Andrew Lester, executive director of the Roanoke River Basin Association, said McAuliffe called uranium mining a “horrible idea.”
Lester, who was not representing the association at the meeting, said McAuliffe assured him, “I’ll tell you right off the bat you don’t have to worry about me. I am against this thing.”….. http://www.newsleader.com/viewart/20130521/NEWS01/305210004/Anti-uranium-forces-press-Va-candidates-gov
Renewable energy could be boosted by Compressed Air Storage
Compressed Air Storage Could Boost U.S. Renewable Energy Uptake http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=3752 21 May 13, New U.S. research into storing energy in underground caverns in the form of compressed air could lead to improved uptake of utility scale wind power in America’s Northwest.
A study by the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Bonneville Power Administration has found that compressed air energy storage (CAES) has the capacity to store wind power for up to 85,000 homes in two specific geologic areas of inland Washington and Oregon.
CAES storage helps solve the problem of intermittency in renewable energy generation. When the wind powers turbines, or the sun shines on a solar power plant, electricity is abundant and must be stored for later use.
CAES works by using excess energy from a power plant to pump compressed air deep into an underground storage structure such as porous rock, where it remains until needed. The pressurised air is then released back to the surface where it drives a turbine to generate electricity for the grid, thus providing a constant flow of energy.
Study manager for the BPA, Steve Knudsen, believes that with 13 percent of the Northwest’s power supply coming from wind energy sources, CAES technology will become a valuable tool in helping the states meet Renewable Portfolio Standards, which require 20 to 30 percent of all electricity come from variable sources such as wind and the sun.
There are just two CAES plants in the world and both are man-made, one in Alabama and one in Germany. The PNNL/BPA research looked instead for natural geologic formations in Oregon and Washington, finding seams of porous volcanic basalt rock, 450 metres below the surface and at least 10 metres thick.
So far two promising locations have been identified. One is the Columbia Hills Site in Oregon, which is near a natural gas pipeline and could be paired with a CAES system to provide up to 40 days of continual energy storage. The other is the Yakima Minerals Site, which would use geothermal power and CAES technology in a hybrid power plant and utilising geothermal energy to cool the facility’s air compressors, increasing their efficiency.
Anti nuclear nun in gaol for “crimes of violence”
Feds Say Peace Activists Who Trespassed Onto Nuclear Facility Are A National Security Threat http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/20/peace-activists-nuclear_n_3306170.html Radley Balko, 20 May 13,
05/20/2013 11:13 In another case of possible overreach by federal prosecutors, an 82-year-old nun and two anti-nuclear activists face long prison terms after being convicted of “sabotage against the U.S. government” and other serious felonies. In truth, the three trespassed onto a nuclear facility, and damaged and vandalized some government property. Their most serious offense may have been to expose lapses in federal security at a nuclear weapons production facility.
In June of last year, peace activists Sister Megan Rice, 82, Greg Boertje-Obed, 57, and Michael Walli, 63, were able to access the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge, Tenn., simply by cutting through a series of chain-link fences. The three then unfurled banners, spray-painted on the building, sang hymns and prayed until security finally arrived to arrest them.
As the activist site Common Dreams reports, over the next several months federal prosecutors applied increasingly serious charges to the activists, and this monthultimately convicted them of serious felonies that could carry long prison sentences. The three were convicted of “crimes of violence,” and will remain incarcerated until their sentencing in September, though the group didn’t harm anyone and carried with them messages of peace and nonviolence.
The severity of the charges may be more of a response to the public embarrassment the break-in caused for the Obama administration than to actual criminal culpability. In reporting on the case last August, for example, The New York Times reported that nuclear experts were calling the protest “the biggest security breach in the history of the nation’s atomic complex.” The paper called the fiasco a “huge embarrassment for President Obama,” and said that the three protesters had “made nuclear theft seem only a little more challenging than a romp in the Tennessee woods.”
The case is the latest of several — including the January suicide of Internet activist Aaron Swartz – to demonstrate the immense charging power of prosecutors. Some critics say these cases show an out-of-control federal justice system that allows politically motivated prosecutors to use criminal sanctions to target critics, make examples of protesters, or discourage those who seek to expose government lapses, abuses, and oversights.
Prepare for nuclear war: good business for fallout shelter salesmen
A Look Inside Nuclear Fallout Shelters http://abcnews.go.com/US/slideshow/inside-nuclear-fallout-shelters-19185600
These Shelters Will Prepare You For Nuclear War (but don’t those safe inhabitants look bored out of their brains?)
Super expensive nuclear fusion project cancelled
MIT to cut nuclear fusion program, Boston Business Journal, 20 May 13, A program that explores nuclear fusion at the Massachusetts Institute of Technologyis shutting down, after its U.S. funding was cut….. it will leave only two fusion experiments in the U.S. – one at Princeton University, the other at General Atomics, a San Diego firm, according to the Globe. Nuclear fusion is seen as a potential clean alternative to nuclear fission, which is used in today’s nuclear reactors. http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/blog/mass_roundup/2013/05/mit-to-cut-nuclear-fusion-program.html
Whistleblower’s court victory on unsafe nuclear plant conditions – company will appeal
Firm to appeal nuclear plant whistleblower case KSN.com, By The Associated Press, May 20, 2013 WICHITA, Kan. — An engineering firm accused of firing a whistleblower for reporting unsafe conditions at an eastern Kansas nuclear power plant plans to appeal the ruling by federal regulators, the firm said Monday.
KSN.com 20 May 13The Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration found Enercon Services violated whistleblower protections when it retaliated against an engineer for raising concerns during construction work at the Wolf Creek nuclear power plant in Burlington.
The company was ordered to pay $261,152 in back wages, damages and interest, plus attorney’s fees. OSHA found it violated the whistleblower protections of the Energy Reorganization Act (ERA), OSHA said Monday.
“Professionals who work in the nuclear power industry have a right and responsibility to express their professional opinion and report safety-related concerns,” OSHA acting regional administrator Marcia Drumm said in a news release. “The department’s responsibility is to protect all employees from retaliation for exercising basic worker rights. The ERA protects the workers, who, in turn, protect the public.”
OSHA said any appeal would go to the department’s Office of Administrative Law Judges….. OSHA’s investigation concluded the engineer was fired in January 2012 for reporting breaches of minimum soil coverage caused by a trench dug during construction work and for refusing to provide an engineering justification for the use of concrete as backfill. He was fired a few days later. http://www.ksn.com/2013/05/20/firm-to-appeal-nuclear-plant-whistleblower-case/
Connecticut Senator urging a federal decision on nuclear waste storage
it would make sense to stop making this radioactive trash
Murphy urges bipartisan nuclear waste storage plan http://www.wtnh.com/dpp/news/politics/murphy-urges-bipartisan-nuclear-waste-storage-plan#.UZvs8qJwpLs, 20 May 2013, HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy is asking Senate leaders to solve the longstanding problem of where to dispose of nuclear waste.
Connecticut’s junior senator wrote to Democratic and Republican members of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Monday offering his support for legislation that would establish a federal agency and consent-based procedures to manage nuclear waste.
Murphy, a Democrat, said the issue is of immediate importance to Connecticut.
Dominion Resources Inc., the owner of Millstone Power Station, won state permission on May 2 to significantly expand nuclear waste storage capacity over the next 30 years. Millstone and officials of Waterford said that without a federal site, they had no choice.
Congress designated Yucca Mountain in Nevada for a nuclear waste dump. It’s opposed by elected officials, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.
Fukushima to California – the path of nuclear radiation along Latitude 40
Study: Concentrated Fukushima radioactive plume staying on narrow path toward U.S. — Moving with surface water along 40 N — Same latitude as Northern California(MAP) http://enenews.com/study-concentrated-fukushima-radioactive-plume-staying-along-narrow-path-moving-surface-water-along-40-same-latitude-northern-california-map
Title: Surface pathway of radioactive plume of TEPCO Fukushima NPP1 released 134Cs and 137Cs
Source: Biogeosciences
Authors: M. Aoyama, M. Uematsu, D. Tsumune, and Y. Hamajima
Date: May 7, 2013
[…] The main body of radioactive surface plume of which activity exceeded 10 Bq m−3 travelled along 40° N and reached the International Date Line on March 2012, one year after the accident. A distinct feature of the radioactive plume was that it stayed confined along 40° N when the plume reached the International Date Line. […]
A distinct feature of the radioactive plume was that it stayed confined along 40 N when the plume reached the International Date Line, as stated in Sect. 3.2. The radioactive plume travelled 1800 km (from 160 E to 178 E) for 270 days (9 months) (Fig. 5); therefore, an average zonal speed (u) of the surface radioactive plume was calculated to be about 8 cm s−1 which was consistent with the speed of the reported surface current of 4–16 cm s−1 in the region (Maximenko et al., 2009). […]
We can also assume that the Fukushima radioactive plume moved with surface water […]
Full study here
US Department of Defense (DOD) world’s biggest consumer of solar energy
US Military on Track to Reach 3 GW of Solar Energy by 2025, The Energy Collective, 20 May 13 The Army, Navy and Air Force are using more than 130 megawatts of solar for everything from powering remote special operations to air conditioning and lighting for U.S. base residences. And the forces intend to keep building toward 3 gigawatts of solar capacity by 2025 as part of a much bigger Department of Defense (DOD) commitment.
While detractors were declaring solar too intermittent to be reliable at home, U.S. Marines were successfully relying on it at battlefield sites in the Khyber Pass, according to Enlisting the Sun: Powering the U.S. Military with Solar Energy, a new report from the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), released just in time for Armed Forces Day on May 18.
The DOD’s annual $20 billion energy budget makes it the biggest single energy consumer in the world……http://theenergycollective.com/hermantrabish/226186/us-military-3-gw-solar-energy
USA appoints nuclear enthusiast Ernest Moniz, as Energy Secretary
New US Energy Secretary confirmed, supports nuclear energy and natural gas The Verge, By Carl Franzen May 16, 2013 T
he US Senate just voted unanimously to confirm a new Energy Secretary for the country. Ernest Moniz, a 68-year-old nuclear physicist and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will take on the role of the head of the Energy Department, reporting directly to President Obama, who nominated him for the job after the previous Energy Secretary, Steven Chu, resigned earlier this year, saying he wanted to return to academic life. The job puts Moniz in charge of everything from the development of new energy startups, to helping fund new battery research and electric vehicle companies (Tesla Motors was started by a previous Energy Department loan), to managing thesafety of nuclear weapons and nuclear energy in the US.
The latter point is of special interest because Moniz, in contrast to his predecessor, is an advocate for more nuclear power. In the wake of the Fukushima reactor meltdown in Japan in 2011, Moniz wrote an article in The Atlantic calling for the US government to approve a type of smaller, cheaper nuclear reactor. He also supports increased usage of natural gas, which produces lower emissions than oil or coal, and he led an energy research initiative at MIT that was funded by oil and gas companies, leading other scientists to express concern that he was too close to these types of companies to be an effective Energy Secretary…… http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/16/4338118/new-us-energy-secretary-confirmed-supports-nuclear-energy-and-natural
San Onofre nuclear plant at the brink: the beginning of the end?
San Onofre at the No Nukes Brink http://www.nukefree.org/editorsblog/san-onofre-no-nukes-brink By Harvey Wasserman, 18 May 13 In January, it seemed the restart of San Onofre Unit 2 would be a corporate cake walk.With its massive money and clout, Southern California Edison was ready to ram through a license exception for a reactor whose botched $770 million steam generator fix had kept it shut for a year.
But a funny thing has happened on the way to the restart: a No Nukes groundswell has turned this routine rubber stamping into an epic battle the grassroots just might win.
Indeed, if ever there was a time when individual activism could have a magnified impact, this is it (see www.sanonofresafety.org and www.a4nr.org).
This comes as the nuclear industry is in nearly full retreat. Two US reactors are already down this year. Yet another proposed project has just been cancelled in North Carolina. And powerful grassroots campaigns have pushed numerous operating reactors to the brink of extinction throughout the US, Europe and Japan, where all but two reactors remain shut since Fukushima.
In California, it’s San Onofre that’s perched at the brink. Continue reading
Judge rules to keep ban on new uranium mining in grand Canyon
Judge Rejects Uranium Mining Industry Attempt to Repeal Ban on Grand Canyon Mining, Earth Justice Ted Zukoski Ruling again rejects attack on DOI’S authority to temporarily protect lands MAY 16, 2013 GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, AZ —
Walmart going solar in a big way, in Massachusetts.
Walmart Adds More Solar In Massachusetts http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=3744 17 May 13, U.S. retail giant Walmart has taken another step towards its goal of becoming 100 percent supplied by renewable energy, announcing the completion of rooftop solar power systems on eight of its stores across Massachusetts.
The solar power generated by each system will provide an estimated 10 to 15 percent of each store’s electricity needs.
The announcement was made at the launch of the company’s Walpole store, which features a 374-kilowatt rooftop system, with 1337 solar panels generating 383,551 kilowatt hours of electricity per year.
The eight Walmart stores used almost 10,000 solar panels in their PV arrays, providing a combined 2.8 million kilowatt hours of solar electricity and avoiding almost 1,500 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions; earning Walmart the Environment Protection Agency’s top ranking as number one on-site green power generator/consumer in the U.S in 2013.
“The stores in Massachusetts demonstrate our commitment to increasing the share of renewable energy that powers our stores and improving energy efficiency,” said David Ozment, senior director of energy at Walmart.
Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources Commissioner, Mark Sylvia said, “Investments from business leaders like Walmart have helped the Commonwealth meet our 250 megawatt solar goal four years early and earn the number one national ranking in energy efficiency two years in a row.”
Walmart used Connecticut solar installer Greenskies Renewable Energy to complete the project, and a power purchase agreement will see the company buy all the electricity generated by the system.
With a stated goal to source 100 percent of its power from renewables, Walmart now has 280 renewable energy projects in operation and under development worldwide, supplying one billion kilowatt hours of electricity to its stores annually. Onsite renewable projects such as solar, wind and fuel cell technology account for around four percent, while the company’s current total of 21 percent renewable electricity as of the end of 2012 is made up from grid-connected utility-scale renewable sources.
Radioactive water leaking from Catawba Nuclear Station, USA
Leak of radioactive material at U.S. nuclear plant — Amount unknown, but greater than 100 gallons — “Leaking from the reactor itself”? http://enenews.com/leak-of-nuclear-material-at-u-s-nuclear-plant-amount-unknown-but-greater-than-100-gallons-of-radioactive-water-leaking-from-the-reactor-itself
CharlotteObserver, May. 15, 2013: More than 100 gallons of water with traces of tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen, has been leaked from a discharge pipe at the Catawba Nuclear Station [… It] has the potential to reach groundwater, according to the NRC. […] Friends of the Earth, a environmental watchdog group with offices in Columbia, said Wednesday that Duke Energy needs to clarify how large the leak. […] Friends of the Earth also said that Unit 2 at the Catawba plant should be taken out of operation while the leak is investigated and all leaking from the reactor itself, not just from the leaking sump line, is identified and halted. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, drinking water that has tritium can increase the risk of developing cancer.
NRC: Event Notification Report for May 15, 2013 [Catawba Nuclear Station in South Carolina] OFFSITE NOTIFICATION DUE TO LEAK FROM TURBINE BUILDING SUMP CONTAINING TRITIUM […] “Sample exceeding the industry groundwater protection initiative related to radioactivity in groundwater for which a news release is planned and notification to other government agencies will be made.” “A leak greater than 100 gallons containing tritium has the potential to reach groundwater. The source has been identified. Actions to isolate this source are being initiated.” The licensee has identified a leak in a fiberglass discharge pipe from the turbine building sump. The licensee estimates that greater than 100 gallons of water has been discharged through the leak at the present time. The licensee is in the process of installing a temporary sump pump in the turbine building sump in order to isolate the discharge path. Samples indicate a tritium concentration of 8.964 E-6 uCi/mL. […]
See also: Nuclear plant spills radioactive water into Lake Michigan (AUDIO)
San Onofre nuclear plant corrodes, as restart becomes less likely
Death Blow? “Complete rejection” of plan to restart ailing California nuclear reactor without public hearing — Plant corroding as it sits idle http://enenews.com/death-blow-complete-rejection-of-plan-to-restart-ailing-california-nuclear-reactor-without-public-hearing-plant-corroding-as-it-sits-idle 16 May 13
Reuters: An independent nuclear regulatory panel on Monday called for a full public hearing on the proposed restart of one of the two damaged San Onofre nuclear reactors, a move that will delay Southern California Edison’s plan to run the plant this summer. […] Damon Moglen of Friends of the Earth called the ruling “a complete rejection of Edison’s plan to restart its damaged nuclear reactors without public review or input.”
San Diego Union-Tribune:: Murray Jennex, a former systems engineer at San Onofre for nearly 20 years who now teaches at San Diego State University’s College of Business Administration, said the order likely pushes back a final decision on restarting the Unit 2 reactor until after summer. “I won’t say this is a death blow to Unit 2, but it does make restart less likely,” Jennex said. “If approved, the additional downtime makes the Unit 2 restart more complex and costly due to corrosion issues from sitting.”
AP: San Onofre nuke plant restart halted […] A federal panel sided Monday with environmentalists who have called for lengthy hearings on a plan to restart the ailing San Onofre nuclear power plant — a decision that further clouds the future of the twin reactors.
See also: Inside Sources: I was there when San Onofre nuclear plant shut down, I wouldn’t trust them to turn it back on — We’re dealing with unknown territory here (VIDEO)
1 This Month
23-25 October – on Zoom – World BEYOND War’s annual global conferenc
Shut down the radiation-damaged Heysham nuclear reactors now
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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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