PETITION: Stop calling uranium mined fuels “clean energy”
Scrap the rebranding of nuclear as “clean.” Even the very first step of the fuel cycle, the mining of Uranium is uniquely dirty and dangerous. The extraction of a finite resource which is far from “home grown.”
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero announced in July that “The UK’s nuclear renaissance begins with the launch of Great British Nuclear helping us deliver clean, reliable energy for generations to come.”
Future generations are being dangerously misled about the main product of nuclear power – nuclear waste. This will be just as dangerous to their lives as it is to ours. Using Greenhouse Gas Protocol methodology, the total NDA (Nuclear Decommissioning Authority) group carbon footprint for 2019/20 is 1,046,950 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e)”. We believe much of this is indirectly looking after radioactive wastes at Sellafield………… #nuclear #antinuclear #NuclearFree #NoNukes #NuclearPlants
Ukraine admits to conducting 3 commando raids against the city that hosts Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant
Ukraine’s nuclear admission a ‘wake-up call’ to the world – Moscow
https://www.rt.com/russia/584418-zakharova-budanov-energodar-raids/ 11 Oct 23
Kiev’s top military spy Kirill Budanov confirms launch of three botched assaults to retake Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.
The acknowledgement by Ukraine’s military intelligence chief Kirill Budanov, that three amphibious commando raids had been launched against the city that hosts Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, must not go unnoticed by the UN or by citizens of NATO states, Russia’s foreign ministry has said.
In an interview with Ukrainian media last week, Budanov and some subordinates described how the country’s military intelligence agency GUR had conducted commando raids on the city of Energodar and that each of these had failed.
The confession should bring people in NATO states “out of their hypnotic trance” in which they were “led to believe [by their governments] that Russia creates nuclear threats,” ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated on Monday.
Zakharova also called for a reaction from the UN, which she said “has been claiming for all these months” that they couldn’t determine the direction from which the nuclear facility was being threatened.
None of Kiev’s three commando operations managed to establish a Ukrainian foothold in Energodar but officials claimed the expeditions gave them valuable experience and contributed to a larger goal of preventing Russia from using the plant to provide electricity to the region. The Zaporozhye station is in a state of partial shutdown, with a single reactor providing power for its own consumption.
The site was the focus of a protracted diplomatic spat between Moscow and Kiev last year. Ukraine claimed that Russia kept heavy weapons at the plant and was attacking Ukrainian forces from it. Moscow denied the accusation and said Kiev’s forces regularly targeted the facility with shelling and drone strikes.
The mutual accusations turned down a notch after UN watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) deployed a permanent on-site monitoring mission in September 2022. The organization repeatedly declined to assess who was responsible for sporadic incidents involving the facility.
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi attempted to mediate a Russian-Ukrainian deal to declare the vicinity of the Zaporozhye plant off-limits for hostilities, but did not succeed.
In July, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky claimed that Russia had rigged the site with explosives and could blow it up at any moment, possibly in a false-flag operation. Kiev described the purported plot as part of Moscow’s alleged “nuclear blackmail” of Ukraine and its Western backers.
Russia dismissed the allegations. IAEA monitors reported that territory outside the perimeter of the plant was mined but otherwise could not confirm Zelensky’s claims. The Ukrainian leader cited reports by his intelligence services. #Ukraine
New Brunswick small nuclear tech could be used for nuclear war: physicist.
John Chilibeck, Local Journalism Initiative reporter|, Brunswick News, 11 Oct 23
A physicist from British Columbia is warning that New Brunswick is heading down a dangerous path, increasing the likelihood of a nuclear war by supporting the development of small reactors for export.
M. V. Ramana, a professor and Simons Chair in Disarmament, Global and Human Security at the University of British Columbia, says the two companies that are trying to develop small modular reactors at Point Lepreau near Saint John – Moltex and ARC – use technology that could one day be used to make nuclear weapons.
If those reactors fell in the wrong hands, he says, humankind could be put at risk.
“All reactors use plutonium and many of them use enriched uranium. Both of these processes can also be used to produce weapons material,” the academic said from the Vancouver airport on Wednesday, a day ahead of his lecture at St. Thomas University in Fredericton at 7 p.m. at the Kinsella Auditorium, McCain Hall. “The other issue is personnel. People working with reactors can learn to make nuclear weapons. And lastly, in many countries, it’s the same institutions that are involved in developing nuclear energy as developing nuclear weapons.”
Ramana cited the country of his birth, India, which ostensibly developed reactors for peaceful purposes through its Department of Nuclear Energy but after a couple of decades started making weapons out of the material to counter the influence of Pakistan, which it has fought four wars against since independence in 1947.
He also mentioned Iran, which first acquired the technology for nuclear energy in the 1970s when the Shah was in power and the country was friendly to the West. Following the revolution of 1979, religious extremists took over who now sponsor terrorist attacks around the world – such as the Hamas raid last weekend that left 1,000 Israeli citizens and soldiers dead – and also want to develop their own nuclear arsenal.
New Brunswick, he said, could unwittingly undo years of international efforts to stop nuclear proliferation once the ARC and Moltex technologies are ready, expected sometime around 2030 or a few years after.
Despite a long history of producing nuclear energy, Canada has never made nuclear weapons. Ramana said that could change if the wrong politicians came to power.
“Look at what happened on January 6, 2021 at the Capitol Building,” he said of the attempted insurrection in the United States. “I don’t think anyone thought that would ever happen. And we don’t know who will be in power in Canada in 30 years.”
Moltex and ARC have made no secret of their desire to create prototype reactors in New Brunswick that could one day be made and sold to other places, both within Canada and to other countries. It’s part of their business model.
Rory O’Sullivan, the CEO of Moltex, recently wrote a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rebutting the criticisms of a group of anti-nuclear non-proliferation academics from the United States.
Ottawa has already provided Moltex $50 million to develop its technology, and New Brunswick $5 million. It will likely need more public investment to keep developing its technology…………………………..
“Imagine one day they export reactors to South Korea, or Saudi Arabia, or Nigeria, whatever country you want to think about it. When they send the reactors abroad, they’ll have to send the fuel for those reactors, and they have a very large amount of plutonium. A country could get the reactor and the plutonium and say, ‘we’re going to use the plutonium to make nuclear weapons,’ there’s very little we can do to sanction that country.”– said Ramana #nuclear #antinuclear #NuclearFree #NoNukes #NuclearPlants
Boss of Sizewell nuclear project calls for “curbing protestors powers’ to block them in the courts
Nuclear plant developer calls for limits on legal challenges. The
government should seek to accelerate major projects by curbing protestors
powers’ to block them in the courts the boss of Sizewell C says.
Times (not on the web) 9th Oct 2023 #nuclear #antinuclear #NuclearFree #NoNukes #NuclearPlants
Ministry confirms Israel’s deployment of white phosphorous bombs against Gaza
Wednesday, 11 October 2023 https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2023/10/10/712479/Palestine-Israel-war-white-phosphorous
The health ministry in the Gaza Strip, which has come under an all-out Israeli war, has confirmed the regime’s deployment of banned white phosphorous munitions against a densely populated neighborhood in the coastal sliver.
“Israeli warplanes use internationally #prohibited_white_phosphorus, destroying al-Karama neighborhood,” the official Palestinian Wafa news agency wrote on X on Wednesday, referring to a neighborhood lying in the north of the Palestinian territory.
Calling up an unprecedented 300,000 reservists, the Israeli regime has declared a “long” war on Gaza in response to Operation al-Aqsa Storm.
Gaza’s Hamas and Islamic Jihad resistance movements initiated the operation on Saturday, killing hundreds of Israeli forces and illegal settlers and taking many others among them hostage. The resistance fighters say they waged the operation against the occupying regime in response to its decades-long campaign of bloodshed and destruction against Palestinians.
The Israeli war has so far killed 900 Palestinians, including 260 children and 230 women, and injured as many as 4,600 others.
Reporting on Monday, Iran’s Arabic-language al-Alam news network reported that the regime had started using the banned munitions against Gaza earlier in the day.
The use of white phosphorus shells for direct targeting of enemy positions is illegal under the international law as the practice can amount to war crime and cause widespread fatalities.
This is not the first time that Tel Aviv targets the territory with such weapons.
Israel admitted to “using munitions containing white phosphorus” during its 2008-2009 war on Gaza, but the regime denied violating the international law by insisting that such weapons were not fired into areas populated by civilians. #Israel
Interest, but skepticism, on nuclear microreactors, fusion , and thorium
The Nuclear Microreactor Race Is Heating Up
Zero Hedge,Oct 11, 2023,
“…………………………………………………………..Interest and Skepticism
Interest in microreactors and other advanced nuclear technology has increased partly because of concerns about climate change. While various processes associated with nuclear power can produce greenhouse gasses–for example, mining uranium for fuel–nuclear fission doesn’t directly generate them. For governments and corporations that have committed to net zero carbon emissions by 2050, nuclear energy can look rather enticing.
Yet, some experts and activists contend that the world can radically scale back hydrocarbons without using more nuclear power.
In early June of this year, for example, former Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) chair Gregory Jaczko held a briefing in which he and others argued that nuclear power is too expensive and risky to help the U.S. decarbonize.
“There are now better ways to generate carbon-free electricity. We have renewable energy. We have geothermal, hydro, solar, wind,” Mr. Jaczko told the CBC in a 2019 interview…………………………
Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker has also sounded somewhat skeptical of advanced reactors.
In August of this year, he vetoed a bill that would have lifted the state’s moratorium on building new nuclear plants.
In a statement on the veto, his office said that “the vague definitions in the bill, including the overly broad definition of advanced reactors, will open the door to the proliferation of large-scale nuclear reactors that are so costly to build that they will cause exorbitant ratepayer-funded bailouts.”………………………………………………………..
Need for Non-Russian Fuel Another Challenge in Advanced Nuclear
The ADVANCE Act also directs the NRC to report to Congress on its ability to lessen its dependence on Russia for fuel.
Indeed, Russia’s dominance of the high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU) used in most small advanced reactors has already delayed the launch of TerraPower’s Natrium reactor.
The Department of Energy in 2020 launched a HALEU consortium as part of its efforts to develop domestic sources.
Nano, a founding participant in the consortium, touts a subsidiary focused on HALEU production, HALEU Energy Fuel Inc.
The HALEU problem raises a basic question: even if Nano’s reactors are ready to roll by 2030, will they be able to operate?
“You can have a Ferrari, but if you don’t have fuel, it’s not going to run,” Mr. Yu said.
Chuckling at Fusion, Still Bearish on Thorium
In late 2022, the achievement of ignition in a fusion reaction at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory got a lot of media attention.
At the time, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm suggested the result supports the Biden administration’s goal of a commercial fusion reactor in the next decade, saying the work “shows that it can be done.”
Yet, when the subject of fusion came up, both Mr. Yu and Mr. Walker started chuckling.
“Well, the reason why we’re laughing a bit is because we’ve got some scientists on board, and they get asked this quite a lot, and they lose their temper about this,” Mr. Walker explained.
“You do get very hyped-up articles,” he added.
He pointed out that the fusion breakthrough celebrated last year required massive energy input, far more than the reaction itself generated………..
Mr. Walker voiced a few concerns about thorium reactors, saying some of Nano’s technical staff “were very bearish on it” and stressing that he lacks significant expertise on thorium. #nuclear #antinuclear #NuclearFree #NoNukes #NuclearPlants
Zelensky fears Israel will distract from Western aid to Kiev
Rt.com 11 Oct 23
The Ukrainian president has visited NATO headquarters, concerned that the flow of Western help could be imperiled
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has voiced concerns that the security crisis in the Middle East could draw international attention away from his country. He blamed Russia for the Hamas incursion into southern Israel last week.
“If international attention shifts away from Ukraine, one way or another, it will have consequences,” the Ukrainian leader warned in an interview with France 2 on Tuesday.
“The fate of Ukraine depends on the unity of the rest of the world,” he added, expressing hope that Washington would ensure continued assistance…………………………….
On Wednesday, Zelensky made an unannounced visit to NATO headquarters in Brussels, where he reportedly sought reassurances that the Hamas raid and Israel’s retaliation would not distract from attention to Ukraine…………..
Last month, the US Congress declined to allocate money for Ukraine aid in a 45-day stopgap spending bill. The White House reportedly wants to include it in a package meant for Israel to overcome resistance from some lawmakers………
The Pentagon announced its latest $200 million package of assistance to Ukraine on Wednesday.
The Zelensky government has rejected the idea of peace talks with Russia and seeks a military victory with Western help instead. Moscow has argued that the US and its allies are using Ukrainians as “cannon fodder” in a proxy war against Russia. https://www.rt.com/russia/584640-zelensky-aid-israel-nato/
Was the massacre in a Ukrainian village in fact a false-flag provocation by the Kiev regime?
More proof of a false-flag massacre at village funeral by Kiev regime
Strategic Culture Foundation, Tue, 10 Oct 2023 https://www.sott.net/article/485035-More-proof-of-a-false-flag-massacre-at-village-funeral-by-Kiev-regime
A massacre in a Ukrainian village last week that was roundly blamed on the Russian military in Western media reports has taken a new twist that further shows the incident was actually a false-flag provocation by the Kiev regime.
Western media last week reported that 52 people were killed when a cafe was allegedly hit by a Russian precision missile on Thursday, October 5. All Western media reports cited Ukrainian officials as their source for attributing blame on the Russian military firing an Iskander missile.
The cafe was crowded with families who had attended a funeral for a Ukrainian soldier.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, who was on the same day attending a summit in Granada, Spain, with European leaders, denounced the atrocity as “genocidal aggression” by Russia.
After widely reporting the slaughter in the village of Hroza in eastern Ukraine amid a torrent of condemnations of Russia, as usual, Western media have quickly shifted their focus onto other world events, primarily the eruption in violence between Israelis and Palestinians over the weekend.
However, a follow-up report by AP on the horror at Hroza inadvertently sheds more light on who actually fired the missile. There is good reason to suspect that the Kiev regime orchestrated the air strike as a false-flag propaganda stunt. In other words, the regime deliberately killed civilians in its own territory in a cynical effort to smear Russia.
The new twist is that the families of the victims are reportedly at a loss as to how Russian forces knew of the gathering of people for the dead soldier’s funeral. The village has no military bases or tactical value. It is situated nearly 30 kilometers from the frontline between Ukrainian and Russian troops in eastern Ukraine.
The follow-up AP report claims that local people suspect that an informer in the village might have given the coordinates of the funeral to the Russian military. But rather than making that deduction, a more plausible explanation for the deadly attack can be found in the acutely felt political needs of the Kiev regime.
The timing of the massacre on the same day that Zelensky was making a big pitch for more military aid from European NATO members strongly suggests that Kiev regime forces carried out the strike on Hroza village to give its president more emotive power in his set-piece appeal to European leaders.
There is precedent for such a vile act. As noted earlier, when U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Kiev last month on September 6 to deliver $1 billion in American weaponry, on the same day a missile strike killed 17 people in the town of Konstantinovka in eastern Ukraine.The town is under the control of the Ukrainian military. That atrocity was immediately blamed on Russia which Zelensky and Blinken vociferously condemned at the time. It turned out later, though, that the Armed Forces of Ukraine carried out the air strike in a seeming error, according to the New York Times.
It is argued by this author that the strike on Konstantinovka was not an error, but rather a deliberate act of killing Ukrainian civilians to smear Russia and to garner support for more American military aid.
The same modus operandi is believed to explain the massacre at the village of Hroza last week.
Bear in mind that the summit in Granada addressed by Zelensky where he cited the carnage at Hroza and suitably accused Russia of depraved terrorism was held at a crucial political moment concerning American and European financial support for the Kiev regime. The U.S. Congress has temporarily suspended billions of dollars for Ukraine and the pressure is on Europe to maintain the flow of money.
The highly emotive appeal by Zelensky in Granada appeared to bolster European military support with reports that same day of Spain pledging to supply more air-defense systems to Ukraine.
Returning to the latest AP report, it was said:
“Locals say it [Hroza village] is strictly a civilian area. There has never been any military base, whether Russian or Ukrainian. They said only civilians or family came to the funeral and wake, and residents were the only people who would have known where and when it was taking place.
“Dmytro Chubenko, spokesman for the regional prosecutor, said investigators are looking into whether someone from the area transmitted the cafe’s coordinates to the Russians — a betrayal to everyone now grieving in Hroza… Many share that suspicion, describing a strike timed to kill the maximum number of people. The date of the funeral was set a few weeks ago, and the time was shared throughout the village late last week.”
This version of events stretches credulity. Would a local village inhabitant go out of their way to tell the Russian military about a family funeral gathering? Would the Russian military go to the trouble of firing an Iskander precision missile at a civilian gathering 30 kms from its front line and also knowing that Western media would predictably vilify Russia for “barbarity”?
That explanation of an alleged informer and Russian depravity does not add up.
What does add up, rather, is the Kiev regime authorities knew that a funeral for one of their own soldiers was taking place on the same day that their president was making a big appeal for more weapons at a summit in Spain.
Zelensky needed a propaganda punch for his appeal and Western media obliged as usual to paint Russia as evil barbarians. #Ukraine
Sunken Nuclear Submarine May Be Leaking Radiation Into The Ocean
The wreckage has been resting on the seabed for over 30 years, but is it now contaminating the surrounding water?
IFL Science, DR. RUSSELL MOUL 10 Oct 23
In April 7, 1989, a Russian nuclear submarine sank off the coast of Norway after a fire broke out on board as a result of a short circuit. At the time, the sub was carrying two nuclear torpedoes which it took with it to the cold depths of the Arctic Ocean. To this day, neither the vessel nor its weapons have been recovered and, unfortunately, it seems these artifacts from the Cold War have been leaking radioactive materials ever since.
A terrible accident
The Russian K-278 Komsomolets, as the submarine was called, was a nuclear-powered attack submarine that belonged to the Soviet navy. It was commissioned in 1983 and was one of the first submarines to have a titanium hull, which allowed it to dive to much greater depths than any of her competitors – the vessel could reach depths below 914 meters (3,000 feet). The K-278 was the only one of its kind to enter into service…………………………………………………………………………
What is the legacy?
For more than 30 years, K-278 and her nuclear torpedoes have rested at the bottom of the ocean in one of the richest fishing areas in the world. In that time, the seawater has slowly corroded the vessel’s hull and the casings surrounding its nuclear warheads, which have been leaking radioactive material into the surrounding ocean.
In 2019, researchers from Norway reported that some samples taken from the water at the K-278 wreckage site had about 800,000 times higher levels of radiation than what is normal for the Norwegian Sea. The samples of radioactive cesium (cesium-137) were collected from a ventilation shaft on the sunken vessel by a Norwegian remotely
…………………….. Whether the contamination is coming from the nuclear reactor or the torpedoes remains unknown. ……………………………………………………………. https://www.iflscience.com/sunken-nuclear-submarine-may-be-leaking-radiation-into-the-ocean-71037 #nuclear #antinuclear #NuclearFree #NoNukes
Regulators reject request to shutter nuclear reactor
The Journal Record, By: Associated Press//October 9, 2023
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Federal regulators have rejected a request from two environmental groups to immediately shut down one of two reactors at California’s last nuclear power plant.
Friends of the Earth and Mothers for Peace said in a petition filed last month with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that long-postponed tests needed to be conducted on critical machinery at the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, located midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. They argued the equipment could fail and cause a catastrophe.
In an order dated Tuesday, the NRC took no action on the request to immediately shut down the Unit 1 reactor and instead asked agency staff to review it.
……………. According to the groups, the last inspections on the vessel took place between 2003 and 2005. The utility postponed further testing in favor of using results from similar reactors to justify continued operations, they said.
The commission found there was no justification for a hearing.
The groups said in a statement that the decision showed “a complete lack of concern for the safety and security of the people living near” the plant, which started operating in the mid-1980s……………..
The petition marked the latest development in a long fight over the operation and safety of the seaside plant, which sits on a bluff above the Pacific Ocean. In August, a state judge rejected a lawsuit filed by Friends of the Earth that sought to block PG&E from seeking to extend the operating life of the plant.
PG&E agreed in 2016 to shutter the plant by 2025, but at the direction of the state changed course and now intends to seek a longer operating run for the twin reactors. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who once was a leading voice to close the plant, said last year that Diablo Canyon’s power is needed beyond 2025 to ward off possible blackouts as California transitions to solar and other renewable energy sources. https://journalrecord.com/2023/10/09/regulators-reject-request-to-shutter-nuclear-reactor/
Slovenian nuclear plant to stay closed until leak fixed.
Reuters, Tue, October 10, 2023
SARAJEVO, – Expert teams at Slovenia’s only nuclear power plant Krsko (NEK), jointly owned by Slovenia and Croatia, have narrowed down the location of the leak which led to the plant’s shut down last week, the NEK said on Monday.
The leak occurred on the connection system of the primary circuit, NEK said on its web page, adding it will analyse the cause and draw up a plan to fix it.
“All this will require more time, probably several weeks; however, it is currently too early to assess the forecast for the power plant’s return to operation,” the company said.
Since Friday, the plant had been first placed under safe state of so-called hot-standby and then under so-called cold shutdown, which allowed the teams to determine the precise location of the leak that had been found in the primary system within the containment building, the company said…………………
NEK was built in cooperation with U.S. company Westinghouse Electric Corporation and started operating in 1982. In 2016 Slovenia and Croatia agreed to prolong its lifespan by 20 years until 2043. (Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Louise Heavens) https://finance.yahoo.com/news/slovenian-nuclear-plant-stay-closed-130321224.html #nuclear #antinuclear #NuclearFree #NoNukes
Labour should follow Welsh government and commit to nuclear weapon prohibition, fringe meeting hears
Labour Party Conference 2023
Morning Star 9 Oct 23
LABOUR should follow the example of its government in Wales and commit to signing the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, Beth Winter told a packed CND fringe meeting today.
The Cynon Valley MP joined her colleague Bell Ribeiro-Addy in slamming the government’s warped priorities in committing to spend hundreds of billions on nuclear warheads at a time of soaring poverty.
The Senedd voted last year to back the UN treaty, with First Minister Mark Drakeford saying the world needed to get serious about disarmament…………… more https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/labour-should-follow-welsh-government-and-commit-to-nuclear-weapon-prohibition-fringe-meeting-hears #nuclear #antinuclear #NuclearFree #NoNukes
Judicial review will hear appeal against UK govt’s consent for Sizewell C nuclear
Together Against Sizewell C is delighted to announce that we now have the
date for our judicial review in the Court of Appeal, a two-day hearing has
been set for Wednesday 1st and Thursday 2nd November 2023.
This will give our legal team the opportunity to present TASC’s appeal against Justice
Holgate’s refusal in the High Court of our judicial review of then
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng’s decision to give development consent
to Sizewell C.
The unusually early date for the hearing is a result of
pressure from the government requesting the case be treated as a priority.
TASC continues to have the support of Suffolk Coastal Friends of the Earth
and Stop Sizewell C in this vitally important battle for the soul of the
Heritage Coast, however because of the short timeframe that has been forced
on us we have little time to raise the £25,000 needed to cover the costs
of our legal team for this appeal stage of the proceedings.
Crowd Justice 8th Oct 2023 #nuclear #antinuclear #Nuclearfree #NoNukes
https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/save-suffolks-heritage-coast-w/
Motor fault, legal problems, future delays …. giant costly Vogtle nuclear project struggles on
Vogtle 4 start-up moved to 2024
World Nuclear News, 09 October 2023 #nuclear #anti-nuclear #nucler-free #NoNukes
The in-service date for the second AP1000 plant at the site near Waynesboro, Georgia, has been revised after a motor fault was discovered in a reactor coolant pump. Meanwhile, Georgia Power has agreed to pay the plant’s co-owner Oglethorpe Power Corporation USD308 million in settlement of an ongoing dispute.
The motor fault in one of the unit’s four reactor coolant pumps – or RCPs – was discovered during start-up and pre-operational testing, Georgia Power said in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)……………………………
Southern Nuclear believes that the motor fault on the RCP at Vogtle 4 is an isolated event, the companies said. The projected schedule for Vogtle 4 “primarily depends on the continued progression of pre-operational testing and start-up”, it added: “As testing continues, new challenges also may continue to be identified, which may result in required engineering changes or remediation related to plant systems, structures, or components (some of which are based on new technology that only within the last few years began initial operation in the global nuclear industry at this scale). These challenges may result in further schedule delays and/or cost increases.”
Dispute settled
In the same SEC filing, Georgia Power and its parent, Southern Company, announced the agreement with Oglethorpe Power to resolve a dispute regarding cost-sharing and tender provisions of the joint ownership agreements relating to Vogtle units 3 and 4. Georgia Power has agreed to make a payment of USD308 million to Oglethorpe for a portion of Oglethorpe’s previously incurred construction costs, as well as paying a portion of Oglethorpe’s further construction costs for the units – around USD105 million – based on the current capital cost forecast. It will also pay 66% of Oglethorpe’s costs of construction with respect to any amounts above the current project capital cost forecast. The parties have agreed to dismiss pending litigation on this issue, including counterclaims by Georgia Power.
Georgia Power resolved a similar dispute with another of the plant’s co-owners, the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia (MEAG Power) in September 2022. Similar litigation with the other co-owner, Dalton Utilities, is still pending.
Construction of the two Westinghouse AP1000s began in 2013. Unit 3 ………………… Plant Vogtle is jointly owned by Georgia Power (45.7%), Oglethorpe (30%), MEAG Power (22.7%) and Dalton Utilities (1.6%).
Endless electricity and water use: the Artificial-Intelligence-Blockchain-Data Centre -Nuclear-NuScale nightmare to come
Blockchain biz goes nuclear: Standard Power wants to use NuScale reactors for DCs
Please, no crypto boom, thank you
The Register, Tobias Mann, Sun 8 Oct 2023 #nuclear #anti-nuclear #nucler-free #NoNukes
Colocation outfit Standard Power hopes to power two new datacenters in Ohio and Pennsylvania entirely by miniaturized nuclear reactors from NuScale.
Standard Power makes no secret it focuses on providing datacenter services to not just those into AI workloads and other kinds of high-performance computing but also those performing proof-of-work blockchain mining, the kind needed to craft digital tokens like Bitcoin. The significant energy requirements of this type of blockchain work spurred an investigation by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy last year, and calls by lawmakers to implement reporting and/or sustainability requirements for such operations.
Generally speaking, a datacenter packed with proof-of-work miners is going to demand a chunky amount of power. Concerned it may not get adequate electricity supplies for its new facilities, which by the sounds of it will support blockchain mining as well as other workloads, Standard Power said it hopes to take the nuclear option.
“We see a lot of legacy baseload grid capacity going offline with a lack of new sustainable baseload generation options on the market especially as power demand for artificial intelligence-computing and datacenters is growing,” Standard Power CEO Maxim Serezhin said in a statement.
And the colo outfit’s Ohio and Pennsylvania datacenters may need or get a lot of power. The company expects to deploy 24 of NuScale’s small modular reactors between the two sites. These reactors are reportedly capable of generating 77 megawatts apiece — putting the total deployed capacity at 1,848 megawatts.
Despite the announcement, it may be a few years before Standard Power can realize its nuclear dreams. As we learned in January, Idaho National Labs will be among the first to demonstrate NuScale’s reactors, and the first of these modules isn’t expected to come online until 2029. We asked Standard Power when it expects its facilities will be operational; we’ll let you know if we hear anything back…………………………………..
Standard Power is hardly the first datacenter operator to get excited about nuclear power, either. Cumulus Data opened a datacenter next to a nuclear plant — the full-size kind — in January and last month we learned that Microsoft is now hiring someone to potentially deploy SMR systems to power its growing cloud enterprise. https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/08/standard_power_nuclear_datacenter/
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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