Trump Admin. Pours $12 Billion Into Dying Nuclear Energy Project In Georgia, Triple Pundit. by Tina Casey on In a last-ditch attempt to save the struggling Vogtle nuclear energy project in Georgia, the U.S. Department of Energy has just proposed adding another $3.7 billion in loan guarantees to the $8.3 billion load it is already carrying, for a total of $12 billion. In a related move, the Energy Department also proposed a regulatory carve-out that would enable nuclear and coal power plants to continue operating, even if less costly alternatives are available.
That’s quite a bit of over-extension to aid a single industry, and it puts President Trump in a tight spot. After all, he is the chief representative of a political party that advocated long and hard against “picking energy winners and losers” during the Obama Administration.
Nuclear energy as a raison d’être
Before digging into this latest episode in the U.S. nuclear energy industry, it’s worth recalling that the Energy Department’s mission is deeply entwined with nuclear energy……
Southeast Asia can’t afford to meddle with nuclear energy http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/your_say/30328306Ken Albertsen, Chiang Rai, 3 Oct 17 Another large electricity provider has decided to abandon the nuclear option. Duke Energy Corp announced it was ceasing plans to build a nuclear plant in Florida.
The utility company instead plans to invest $6 billion in solar panels. It is also going to set up hundreds of electric vehicle charging venues. The new plan involves the installation of 700MW of solar power over four years.
How does that relate to Thailand? Thai electric utility companies have not yet sworn off nuclear. So there’s still a possibility of Chernobyl-like or Fukushima-like reactors getting built in Thailand in the future. Who wants those types of time bombs in their villages? Thai people should demand that EGAT and other electric providers swear an oath to never build nuclear power plants in Thailand. Anything less is vacillating.
Indeed, all of Southeast Asia should be a nuclear-free zone. Southeast Asia is a relatively small region, so any serious breach would likely adversely affect neighbouring countries. It wouldn’t be good for relations if, for example, Vietnam or Indonesia had a Chernobyl-type breach, and radioactivity spread over neighbouring countries. Radioactivity knows no national
Citizen group prays for fix to Westlake Landfill nuclear waste problem, Sean Franklin , KSDK September 24, 2017, ST. LOUIS – A citizen group that wants to clean up the West Lake Landfill prayed for a solution to what they claim could be a nuclear waste disaster.
For years, ‘Just Moms STL’ has advocated moving the illegally dumped nuclear waste out of the community’s backyard.They say a fire is growing under the buried waste, moving toward where the Environmental Protection Agency knows nuclear waste is sitting.
The landfill is already considered a Superfund Site, so it’s targeted to be cleaned up.
Dawn Chapman is one of the founders of Just Moms STL.
She says prayer and encouragement is what they’re looking for, as she claims the EPA continues to drag its feet on a decision about the landfill.
Chapman says the Landfill near her home worries her.
“At our site, what appears to be a sleeping giant with the radioactive waste sitting there for 44 years,” said Chapman.
No corporate welfare: States shouldn’t bail out nuclear plants, Savannah Now, September 23, 2017
By DAVID WILLIAMS “…..There is no denying that more than half of America’s nuclear power plants face a financial crisis. Collectively, these plants lose nearly $3 billion a year. They simply haven’t been able to compete with power plants that run on cheap natural gas.
In desperation, nuclear operators are begging state legislatures for subsidies to keep their plants running. They’re hoping to lure lawmakers into bailing them out by promising zero-emissions energy production.
State legislators should reject their requests. Nuclear subsidies cost taxpayers and consumers billions of dollars and offer little to no economic or environmental benefits.
Nuclear plants in several states already receive taxpayer-funded subsidies. In July, an Illinois federal judge upheld state legislation that funnels $230 million per year to Chicago-based Exelon to keep its nuclear facilities operating. The same month in New York, a federal judge dismissed a consumer lawsuit against a $480 million annual handout to three nuclear plants.
Subsidy proponents say additional bailouts are needed to prevent plant closures. They claim that if plants go offline, utilities will have to raise electricity rates. They’re wrong.
Nuclear bailouts don’t protect consumers from energy price increases; they facilitate them. Nuclear subsidies are expected to raise New Yorkers’ electric bills by $3.4 billion within the first five years. The Illinois program constitutes the biggest energy rate hike in U.S. history — projected to cost residents and businesses $16.4 billion.
The same goes for other states. Under a proposed subsidy in Ohio, consumers would see their electric bills climb 5 percent per year. Consumers in the mid-Atlantic and the Northeast would have to pay $3.9 billion more per year if nuclear plants in the area received similar backing.
Bailout proponents also raise the specter of job losses. While nuclear facilities do provide local jobs — Exelon employs 5,900 people at its plants in Illinois —subsidy programs just rob Peter to pay Paul. The downsides of propping up an inefficient sector outweigh any economic benefits. An analysis of the Illinois subsidies found they would cost the state 43,000 jobs by 2030 and $14.7 billion in economic output.
Natural gas firms create jobs and grow the economy without picking taxpayers’ pockets. According to the American Petroleum Institute, in Illinois the natural gas industry supported nearly 150,000 jobs and contributed $18 billion to the state economy in 2015. The numbers are higher still for New York, where natural gas is responsible for 152,000 jobs and more than $20 billion in economic output.
Unlike nuclear subsidies that jack up monthly energy bills, natural gas saves consumers billions. And, also according to the aforementioned API report, electricity prices in Ohio have dropped 50 percent since 2008 thanks to affordable natural gas. Last year, thanks to the continued natural gas boom, Americans spent just 4 percent of their household budgets on energy costs — the lowest share ever……http://savannahnow.com/opinion/column/2017-09-23/no-corporate-welfare-states-shouldn-t-bail-out-nuclear-plants
Both incidents were detailed in a recent report by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board.
In the first incident, according to the report, workers mishandled plutonium metals. The second incident occurred just 11 days later, when nearly a dozen workers were exposed to particles that caused radioactive contamination to at least one worker.
Safety has become a serious concern at the labs in recent months. In June KOB reported that a watchdog group said key safety inspectors had quit out of frustration
When will humans be horrified by climate change? When the media give it the coverage it deserves LA Times, Grace Bertalot, 22 Sept 17 We hear a variety of explanations for the American public’s lack of real alarm about climate change: The science requires a fair amount of explanation; the enormity of the effects will become indisputable only at some future date; and economic interests and ideological momentum keep society moving along well-worn paths. (“Why the wiring of our brains makes it hard to stop climate change,” Opinion, Sept. 17)
But we are homo sapiens, the “clever humans” whose technology has transformed our planet. Are we really incapable of recognizing an existential threat and moving quickly enough to avert catastrophe?
Against all the forces that encourage confusion, indecision, and delay, one institution bears the ultimate responsibility for educating the public and sounding the alarm: the media. However, reporting on climate remains lamentably uneven and incomplete.
Every reputable news venue should be providing ongoing coverage of climate science, its implications for our way of life, and a thorough discussion of the pathways out of our predicament.
Pam Brennan, Blaming inaction regarding climate change on human heuristics is a great way to kick the can of responsibility down the road to the next generation. It’s what the baby boomer generation did when faced with evidence of a big hole in the ozone and its threat to human viability in the eighties.
Wait. No, they didn’t. They enacted legislation in cooperation with global countries to regulate the industry responsible for the offending imbalance in the global atmospheric equilibrium. It was the Montreal Protocol, and it worked.
Daily Record 21st Sept 2017 Emergency services raced to Hunterston power station after reports of an
explosion at the Ayrshire electricity-generating facility. Fire crews
rushed to the site near the nuclear plant on Thursday afternoon.
No one has been hurt in the incident and there was no danger to the public. Locals in
the area took to Twitter to report hearing a loud bang following a
component failure in a substation at the Western Link site. The incident
took place at the converter plant operated by Scottish Power next to the
Hunterston B nuclear facility. http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/breaking-news-explosion-hunterston-nuclear-11214982
by MAX BURMAN, 18 Sept 17 North Korean leader Kim Jong Un promises his country would continue to develop its nuclear weapons program with the ultimate goal of establishing “equilibrium” in military force with the U.S., according to state media…….
Actor Leonardo DiCaprio said climate change is making storms like Hurricanes Harvey and Irma stronger and more destructive. By Rich Scinto (Patch Staff) – Updated NEW HAVEN, CT — Actor and longtime environmental advocate Leonardo DiCaprio closed a two-day climate change conference at Yale University with a plea for people to think long-term when it comes to the environment, both for the sake of the planet and for the future of America’s economy.
“While climate change didn’t cause these storms we are seeing right now it is without a doubt, in the scientific community, making them more extreme and more destructive,” he said, referencing Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and soon Maria that have caused untold billions in damage over the past few weeks.
The Kerry Initiative at the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs at Yale University hosted a two-day climate change conference. Speakers and panelists included former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker, California Gov. Jerry Brown, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, General Electric Chair of the Board Jeffrey Immelt and actor Leonardo DiCaprio……https://patch.com/connecticut/newhaven/leonardo-dicaprio-speak-yale-climate-change-conference
By Michael Havis For Mailonline, 13 September 2017. Seattle is a target for Kim’s nuclear missiles warns local politician who says Washington State must be ready for North Korean attack
State senator Mark Miloscia said danger to Washington State was now ‘starting to become imminent’
The senator warned that the threat was now growing with each weapons test
He has urged American lawmakers to back a bid for an emergency response plan
US could not rely on safeguards that prevented hostilities with Soviets, he said, ……http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4875824/Washington-prepare-nuclear-attack-state-senator.html
For 15 years, hundreds of environmental groups have advocated for hardened on-site storage of irradiated nuclear fuel, as close and safely as possible, to the point of generation as a necessary interim measure.
Why ship highly radioactive waste a thousand miles to the east when it could be moved just a few miles? San Onofre’s wastes can be transferred out of the tsunami zone, away from the earthquake faults, across the 5 Freeway, further inland and to higher ground. By moving the dangerous nuclear fuel rods into the heart of Camp Pendleton, there would be the added bonus of many thousands of U.S. Marines to help guard it.
RTBF 12th Sept 2017, [Machine Translation] Doel 3 and Tihange 2: a new alarming scientific
report asks them to be stopped. Should we extend the life of our nuclear
power plants beyond 2025? The FEB, the Belgian Federation of Enterprises,
advocates it to ensure our energy supply in the future.
Fox News 14 Sept 17One of the United States’ most advanced nuclear submarines returned to port in Washington state this week flying a Jolly Roger, a move steeped in maritime lore and mystery.
The images of the USS Jimmy Carter, a Seawolf-class nuclear-powered submarine passing through the Hood Canal, were posted to a Pentagon media site and Twitter page. They show the skull and bones flying beside the American flag, the Washington Post reported.
nuclear-news 