India’s People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) aim top stop nuclear expansion in Tamil Nadu
Campaign against expanding nuclear projects in TN, THE HINDU, 5 Jan 16 As negotiations between India and Russia are in the advanced stages for installing the third and fourth units of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant anti-nuclear activists have intensified their campaign against the expansion
of nuclear assets in Kalpakkam and Kudankulam.
Distributing pamphlets to the public advocating against nuclear power at the Egmore Railway Station on Monday, S.P. Udayakumar, Convenor of People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) said, “As the first unit in Kudankulam is not operational for over six months and the second unit is further delayed, we have serious doubts about the project.”
Claiming that the project was “inherently flawed” and the components supplied to the project were sub-standard, he said the Site Evaluation Report, Safety Analysis Report and the Environment Impact Assessment Report, which were to be made available to them as per the Central Information Commission’s order were not provided yet, as the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited had obtained a stay on the order in the Delhi High Court in 2014……http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/campaign-against-expanding-nuclear-projects-in-tn/article8066591.ece
South Africa’s nuclear energy project is not likely to succeed
Why South Africa’s nuclear energy plan will likely fail By News24Wire January 5, 2016 South Africa will likely fail in its quest to develop its nuclear energy capacity, according to emerging markets economist Peter Attard Montalto of Nomura.
Montalto told Fin24 that if the 9 600 MW nuclear procurement programme does see the light of day, it will be a “slimmed down programme spread over a longer period of time, given the affordability issue”.
“For this reason we need to remain calm, but vigilant,” he said. “The end point remains uncertain.”…..
Questioning South Africa’s transparency, Montalto said the decision to gazette so close to Christmas strengthens the perception that the government has “signed non-public agreements with Russia” to award its state-owned company, Rosatom, the nuclear contract.
Rosatom prematurely announced it had won the contract in 2014, after President Jacob Zuma secretly visited Russia. It later retracted its statement and told Fin24 in 2015 that it was a public relations mistake.
Controversy over Rosatom’s announcement intensified after a local newspaper reported Zuma personally negotiated the deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin,” AFP reported in 2014.
Regardless of these perceptions, Montalto said, there needs to be more transparency on what advice National Treasury has provided and the sequencing of their advice compared to the process of moving to tender.
“I still believe no formal sign off on affordability under any financing option has been provided by National Treasury and indeed that it remains totally unaffordable under any financing model including vendor financing,” he said.
“The next steps are likely to be murky as tenders are requested and then submitted along with financing models.
“Parliament and the courts will likely be crucial through this stage in providing transparency,” he said. http://businesstech.co.za/news/energy/108051/why-south-africas-nuclear-energy-plan-will-likely-fail/
America’s NRC checking cables at South Carolina’s Oconee nuclear plant
NRC checking cables at South Carolina’s Oconee nuclear plant http://www.wltx.com/story/news/2016/01/05/nrc-checking-cables-south-carolinas-oconee-nuclear-plant/78293416/ Seneca, SC (AP)- Federal regulators are doing a special inspection of a nuclear plant in South Carolina.
Officials from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission say they are going to begin a special inspection on Tuesday at Duke Energy’s Oconee nuclear plant near Seneca.
Inspectors are going to be assessing the degradation of power cables on startup transformers for two of the plant’s three units.
A plant operator making routine inspections last month discovered a disconnected cable that should have been connected to a startup transformer on Unit 3. The NRC says cables on another unit were also degraded.
Officials say all the cables have been repaired, and the transformers are available for use if needed.
The inspectors say they’ll issue a report within 45 days.
NRC says Nuclear plants along Mississippi, Missouri rivers not hurt by heavy rain
Nuclear plants along Mississippi, Missouri rivers not seen hurt by heavy rain -NRC Yahoo News 6 Jan 16 Reuters) – The nuclear plants along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers are not expected to be adversely affected by flooding and heavy rains, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said on Tuesday….. The swollen Mississippi and rivers that feed into it caused havoc in Missouri and Illinois after late December heavy rain and severe storms brought flooding across several central U.S. states, leaving at least 33 people dead. http://news.yahoo.com/nuclear-plants-along-mississippi-missouri-rivers-not-seen-220326395–finance.html
Not much headway in India’s much-touted nuclear power project
‘Make in India’ for affordable nuclear power: Expert Zee News January 6, 2016 – Mysuru: More nuclear power could be generated if foreign suppliers make technology and products affordable for setting up reactors, an expert said on Tuesday.
“The stumbling block is economics, as installing a nuclear plant has to be affordable to sell its power at a competitive rate,” former Atomic Energy Commission chairman Srikumar Banerjee told IANS at the 103rd Indian Science Congress here, about 140 km from Bengaluru.
In spite of hype over the India-US nuclear deal and opening up of the civilian nuclear industry to foreign suppliers, barring two recent agreements on setting up two more units at the Russian-backed Kudankulam plant in Tamil Nadu and the French-backed Jatipur project in Maharahstra, not much headway has been made over the years.
As setting up nuclear power plants involves not only technology transfer and making components in the country, but also operating them by the state-run Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. (NPCIL), consensus has been eluding stakeholders owing to high cost and liability clause…….http://zeenews.india.com/news/science/make-in-india-for-affordable-nuclear-power-expert_1842048.html
Ontario Clean Air Alliance urges Ontario to abandon $13-billion Darlington nuclear rebuild
Environmentalists urge Ontario to abandon $13-billion Darlington nuclear rebuild, National Post Keith Leslie, The Canadian Press | January 5, 2016 TORONTO — Environmentalists want the Ontario government to abandon plans for a $13-billion refurbishment of four nuclear reactors at the Darlington generating station east of Toronto and instead import more electricity from Quebec.
The Ontario Clean Air Alliance says nuclear projects always run over budget, and it doesn’t want to see taxpayers on the hook to pay for rebuilding the Darlington reactors that are owned and operated by Ontario Power Generation.
“Every single nuclear project in Ontario’s history has gone massively over budget by two and a half times,” said Alliance president Jack Gibbons. “OPG says this project will cost $12.9 billion, but if history repeats itself it will be $32 billion.”
Gibbons said even if the refurbishment came in on budget, the cost to taxpayers of maintaining about 2,225 jobs at Darlington would work out to nearly $6 million per job.
Greenpeace Canada, meanwhile, is concerned about the safety and health risks posed by nuclear power generation in the event of an accident, and says refurbishing the aging reactors at Darlington is not worth the risk.
“The government agencies mandated to protect the public are helping push the project through by concealing Darlington’s true risks from the public,” said Greenpeace spokesman Shawn-Patrick Stensil.
Quebec is the fourth-largest producer of electricity generated by water in the world, has the lowest power rates in North America, and could sell Ontario enough electricity to replace what would be generated by a refurbished Darlington, said Gibbons.
“We should sign a long-term deal with Quebec which would enable us to cancel the Darlington rebuild project, keep our lights on and reduce our electricity bills,” he said………
Bruce Power announced plans last month to spend $13 billion to refurbish the nuclear reactors at the generating station it operates in Kincardine, on Lake Huron, and the private company will assume all risks of cost overruns.
Ontario’s only other nuclear station, in Pickering, is also scheduled to be decommissioned by 2020, and there are no plans to rebuild its reactors to extend their lives……. http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/environmentalists-urge-ontario-to-abandon-13-billion-darlington-nuclear-rebuild-2
Belgium’s nuclear power plants ‘falling to bits’
Belgium’s nuclear power plants ‘falling to bits’ – German officials 30 Dec, 2015 The German government is preparing “critical questions” to the Belgian authorities on operational safety at the nation’s two active nuclear power plants, following a number of recent successive incidents at nuclear facilities.
After incidents at both Belgian nuclear power plants, German Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks has again put her concerns point-blank, demanding whether security is guaranteed at the Belgian NPPs, proposing Brussels to get rid of the nuclear energy altogether. ……https://www.rt.com/news/327457-belgium-nuclear-power-hendricks/
Days after restart, Belgium’s Doel nuclear reactor went offline again
Belgian nuclear plant’s reactor shuts down days after reboot ,Rt.com 3 Jan, 2016 Belgium’s Doel nuclear reactor went offline on Saturday, after it was restarted just three days ago, the plant’s spokesperson said. Meanwhile, Germany has stepped up criticism on operational safety of its neighbor’s aging nuclear facilities.
Doel 1 nuclear reactor, located in northern Belgium, was taken offline automatically, RTL broadcaster quoted the communications manager Els De Clercq as saying……..
Meanwhile, Germany, which is also eliminating the use of nuclear power, has been raising red flags over possible environmental consequences, arguing that it is too dangerous to keep the Doel reactors going.
The German government said it is preparing “critical questions” to the Belgian authorities on operational safety at the nation’s two active nuclear power plants. German Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks has demanded Brussels scrap its nuclear energy program altogether. https://www.rt.com/news/327763-belgium-nuclear-reactor-offline/
South Africa, India, and the nuclear terrorism risk
The Center for Public Integrity traced where the Islamic State’s ammo comes from in 2014 and this year wrote about a grave setback in the U.S. military’s effort to take on the group. Through a series of investigative and revelatory articles, it also brought new attention to the possibility that terrorists might get ahold of nuclear explosive materials, due to lax security controls in a handful of key nations.
From South Africa to Iraq and from Moldova to India, here are some of the most alarming stories we published about terrorism and nuclear-related risks in 2015…….
South African facilities present a ripe target for nuclear terrorists The Obama administration has twice asked South African President Jacob Zuma to hand over the country’s supply of weapons-grade uranium. He did not agree.
South Africa’s nuclear stockpile is among the most vulnerable to theft in the world, U.S. officials say.Lieutenant Farhan al-Jassem signed up to join a U.S.-backed force against the Islamic State. He was captured in July by the Nusra Front, another anti-ISIS group.
It’s a cautionary, close-up tale about the long war against the Islamic State, which has been undermined by conflicting goals and wary allegiances.
Experts say someone is looking for a buyer for this nuclear material
Material seized in separate arrests by police in three countries, spanning more than a decade, has led experts and intelligence officials to conclude that a significant quantity of Soviet-era nuclear materials are on the loose.
India’s push for nuclear power has its residents, close neighbors and the West worried.
If India continues to power itself with coal, it could be the world’s No. 1 polluter by 2050. But the country’s answer to this global concern — to build dozens of new nuclear reactors over the next two decades — is beset by serious problems.
Toxic and radioactive pollution from India’s uranium mining and processing are harming citizens, according to Indian and Japanese experts. The country’s explansion of its military nuclear program has displaced tribal communities and alarmed Western analysts. And India’s security precautions for nuclear explosive materials are considered far too lax by U.S. government officials, who say they have been unable to persuade India to take the issue more seriously.
India’s Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) in bed with the nuclear industry
The problems with India’s atomic energy expansion: A critique by a nuclear energy evangelist , First Post India Jaideep Prabhu Dec 31, 2015 “……. In the United States, the complaint of the nuclear industry is that the process for the approval of new reactor designs is laborious, expensive, and sometimes done with criteria that reflects older knowledge than the latest developments in the industry.
In India, the hurdles start sooner — in that the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) is not a body independent of the chain of command of those it regulates. Several members of the DAE have stressed on previous occasions that this administrative quibble does not in any way impinge upon the working of the regulatory authority, but in a country like India where command influence and the flouting of laws is not at all uncommon, even the appearance of impropriety is reason to worry.
Over decades of governmental misconduct, citizens have lost faith in government institutions and in areas like nuclear energy where the scope for damage is enormous, unflattering reports from the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) such as in 2012 are damning….”
Are USA and Russia careering towards nuclear war?
Growing nuclear dangers are ‘dimly perceived’ by public
Crusading former Pentagon chief: nuclear dangers are growing but ‘dimly 
perceived’ by public, Fox News 29 Dec 15 WASHINGTON – Late in a life lived unnervingly near the nuclear abyss, William J. Perry is on a mission to warn of a “real and growing danger” of nuclear doom.
The 88-year-old former defense secretary is troubled by the risks of catastrophe from the very weapons he helped develop. Atop his list: a nuclear terror attack in a major U.S. city or a shooting war with Russia that, through miscalculation, turns nuclear. A terrorist attack using a nuclear bomb or improvised nuclear device could happen “any time now – next year or the year after,” he said in an interview with reporters earlier this month………
“It was, of course, a false alarm,” Perry said, but it was one of many experiences throughout the Cold War and beyond that he says have given him a “unique and chilling vantage point from which to conclude that nuclear weapons no longer provide for our security — they now endanger it.”
His views are remarkable, not least because they strike at the heart of the conventional wisdom about nuclear weapons that has been embraced by both political parties for decades. For example, Perry thinks the U.S. nuclear force no longer needs land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs, and can rely on the other two “legs” of the force — bomber aircraft and submarine-based missiles. ICBMs should be scrapped, he says, adding, “I don’t think it’s going to happen, but I think it should happen. They’re not needed” to deter nuclear aggression.
He also opposes the Obama administration’s plan to build a new nuclear-capable cruise missile.
Perry looks at Russia’s nuclear modernization and U.S. plans to spend hundreds of billions to update its nuclear arsenal and sees irrational nuclear competition.
“I see an imperative to stop this damn nuclear race before it gets under way again, not just for the cost but for the danger it puts all of us in,” he said……….
“Our chief peril is that the poised nuclear doom, much of it hidden beneath the seas and in remote badlands, is too far out of the public consciousness,” he wrote in his memoir.
In his book’s preface Perry outlines a nuclear terror scenario, which he calls “my nuclear nightmare, born of long and deep experience.”…..
“The danger of a nuclear bomb being detonated in one of our cities is all too real,” Perry writes. “And yet, while this catastrophe would result in a hundred times the casualties of 9/11, it is only dimly perceived by the public and not well understood.” http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/12/29/crusading-former-pentagon-chief-nuclear-dangers-are-growing-but-dimly-perceived.html
Today’s renewable energy headlines
reNews-27Dec.,2015
UPI.com-28Dec.,2015
Energy Voice-28Dec.,2015
Renewable Energy Trading Launched in GermanyMIT Technology Review-2 hours ago
Renewable Energy’s Secret Weapon
Spain’s Top Stock: A Renewable-Energy Company That Isn’t Abengoa
Renewable energy is crucial
180 MW Of Renewable Energy Projects In Pipeline In Jordan
In-Depth-The Guardian-28Dec.,2015
New Google Data Center To Be 100% Renewable Energy Powered
PennEnergy-23Dec.,2015
Nuclear power not justified economically for South Africa
Who knows if the Indian chiefs are currying favour with the promise of thorium and the mysterious “M” will supply it at the right price? Steenkampskraal will be happy to provide that all-important discount and become Stampskraal. You go, Gupta!
On a more sober note before new year, M provides a handy reference to the ERC’s Energy Journal (26:2 of May 2015), in which the following assumptions are given:
“1: Uranium resources are expected to deplete, being the sole resource for supplying fuel to about 435 nuclear power reactors currently in operation and 71 under construction worldwide, which will bring up the prominence of thorium (WNA, 2014).”
Of course, if uranium resources “deplete”, then the sustainability of nuclear power itself is thrown into question. Uranium, after all, is a finite resource.
“2: The reactor construction duration is assumed to be four years (Koomey & Hultman, 2007).”
This has never been achieved in the history of the industry.
“5. The used UO2 fuel in PWRs is cooled for five years before it is chemically reprocessed to recover useful plutonium and uranium (Rose et al, 2011).”
Fuel reprocessing is hellishly expensive and dirty.
“8. It is assumed the lifetime of the two PWRs currently operating in Koeberg, SA, will be extended from 40 years to 60 years.”
Given the regular breakdowns and mishaps at Koeberg, this seems a little more risky. International, peer-reviewed studies have shown that neutron bombardment leads to the embrittlement of all metals in contact with the pressure vessel and the primary coolant loop, causing the entire reactor to be classifiable as nuclear waste. How is this embrittlement to be averted over the proposed 60-year lifespan and what NNR licensing programme has been introduced to manage this application?
“9. A new Accelerator Driven System (ADS), envisaged to incinerate nuclear waste and to produce electricity, needs a minimum of 40 years to be designed, built and reach commercial maturity (Hesketh & Worall, 2010). It is assumed that the first ADS will operate 45 years from now.”
And pigs can fly.
“10. The annual discharge of recyclable plutonium from a standard PWR is about 250kg (Galperin et al, 1997).”
If Koeberg has two reactors and has been operating for 30 years, this amounts to 2 x30 x 250kg = 15 000 kg of plutonium, with a half-life of 24 400 years. Where is this weapons-grade plutonium being stored?
Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes.
As the priestess proclaimed on sighting the Trojan Horse: “I fear the Greeks, especially when they bring gifts.”
There has never been any economic justification for any form of nuclear power production and there never will be. It has always been a cover-up for nuclear weapons production and the sooner we abandon taxpayer and electricity consumer support for nuclear power, the sooner we will see the end of nuclear weapons.
This is the position of the World Council of Churches and every self-respecting believer ought to stand firm in telling truth to power.
l Kantey is a media and development consultant based in Plettenberg Bay
Explosives and uranium dumped at Hampshire tips
Revealed: explosives and uranium dumped at Hampshire tips 29 December 2015 EXPLOSIVES found at tips across the area have led to a warning to people dropping off waste.
It comes as The News can reveal mortars, Second World War shells and explosive caps have been found at tips serving the Portsmouth, Gosport, Havant and Fareham areas. Depleted uranium was even found dumped at Segensworth Household Recycling Centre……..http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/revealed-explosives-and-uranium-dumped-at-hampshire-tips-1-7135224
1 This Month
29 Jan. Thursday 7-8 p.m. Webinar – World’s Largest Nuclear Station in Port Hope, ON?
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31st January – Challenging the War Machine – a DECLASSIFIED UK SUMMIT
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