Nuclear Power

Switzerland Switches Off Nuclear Plant As It Begins Exit From Atomic Power

December 26, 2019 Staff, Reuters.com Create! Energy, Nuclear Power, Switzerland

The 373-megawatt-capacity plant which opened in 1972 has generated enough electricity to cover the energy consumption of the nearby city of Bern for more than 100 years. In scenes shown live on Swiss TV, at 12.30 pm (1130 GMT) a technician pressed two buttons in the control room to stop the chain reaction and deactivate the reactor, shutting down the plant for good. The closure is the first of Switzerland’s five nuclear reactors to be shuttered following the 2011 nuclear accident in Fukushima, Japan, which triggered safety concerns about nuclear power around the world.

Day 2 Of Trial For Kings Bay Plowshares 7

October 24, 2019 Staff, Kingsbayplowshares7.org Resist! Activists, Nuclear Power

BRUNSWICK, GA – Today, the second day of the trial of the Kings Bay Plowshares anti-nuclear activists, the government presented the bulk of its case against the seven defendants. Military police officers testified about apprehending the activists and entered numerous photos, banners, the bolt cutters and even a ten-foot piece of the cut fence into evidence. The afternoon was largely taken up with the prosecution presenting segments of GoPro video footage filmed by two of the defendants during the action. Cell phone messages and photos sent by the defendants during the action were carefully examined.

Iran FM Zarif Arrives As Surprise Guest In G7 Venue Biarritz For Nuclear Deal Talks

August 26, 2019 Staff, Rt.com Educate! G7, Iran, Nuclear Power

Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif spent about five hours in Biarritz, France, at the sidelines of the G7 summit. He talked with French president Emmanuel Macron, who appeared to want to act as negotiator between Iran and the US. The unscheduled visit at the invitation of Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian came after Zarif met President Emmanuel Marcon earlier this week to discuss the fate of the embattled nuclear agreement. Zarif did not meet with US President Donald Trump or anyone from the US delegation, an Iranian spokesman said.

Unraveling Of Arms Control Agreements Continuing, Last Nuclear Pact’s Future Uncertain

August 16, 2019 Andrew Osborn, Reuters.com Educate! Inter-Imperialist Rivalry, Nuclear Power, Russia, United States

The New START treaty limits the number of strategic nuclear warheads the world’s two biggest nuclear powers can deploy to no more than 1,550, the lowest level in decades. It also curbs the number of nuclear launchers and deployed land- and submarine-based missiles and nuclear-capable bombers they can have. “Some want to extend New START. Some are arguing in favor of creating something new. I’m not sure where it will go,” U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman told the Ekho Moskvy radio station on Wednesday.

A Rogue Regulator Worth Reading

June 24, 2019 Libbe HaLevy, Beyondnuclearinternational.org Educate! Nuclear Power, Regulation

If that unequivocal statement by former Nuclear Regulatory Commission chair Greg Jaczko were the only “confession” he made, it would be powerful enough. But in his recently published book, Confessions of a Rogue Nuclear Regulator, Jaczko rips away the secrecy from the inner workings of the NRC as he experienced it first-hand. This ultimate nuclear insider provides a clear picture of the failings of the captured nuclear agency, the corrosive day-to-day political battles with other commissioners, and the unfolding terror when Fukushima’s nuclear reactors were first shaken, then swamped – and no one could predict what was going to happen next.

The Battle To Stop The Shoreham Nuclear Plant, Revisited

June 22, 2019 By Karl Grossman, Counterpunch.org Educate! History, New York (NY), Nuclear Power

“Shoreham Action is One of the Largest Held Worldwide,” was the headline in The New York Times about an event which happened 40 years ago this month. The article told of how “more than 600 protesters were arrested” on June 3, 1979 at the site of the then under-construction Shoreham nuclear power plant and “15,000 demonstrators gathered” on the beach fronting the plant in the protest of it. That action was important in stopping the Shoreham plant from going into operation—and preventing the Long Island Lighting Company from building a total of seven to 11 nuclear power plants on Long Island.

Nuclear Powers Need To Disarm Before It’s Too Late

March 16, 2019 By Conn Hallinan, Fpif.org Resist! Nuclear Power, Treaty

The recent military clash between India and Pakistan underscores the need for the major nuclear powers — the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, and France — finally to move toward fulfilling their obligations under the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The Treaty’s purpose was not simply to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, but to serve as a temporary measure until Article VI could take effect: the “cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on a Treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control.”

Five Year Prison Terms Sought For Former TEPCO Executives For Fukushima

December 28, 2018 Shunsuke Abe, Asahi.com Educate! Corruption, Nuclear Power

Prosecutors on Dec. 26 demanded five-year prison terms for three former executives of Tokyo Electric Power Co. over the disaster caused by a tsunami slamming into the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. “It was easy to safeguard the plant against tsunami, but they kept operating the plant heedlessly,” the prosecution said at the trial at the Tokyo District Court. “That led to the deaths of many people.” Tsunehisa Katsumata, 78, former chairman of TEPCO, Sakae Muto, 68, former vice president, and Ichiro Takekuro, 72, former vice president, are standing trial on charges of professional negligence resulting in death and injury in connection to the triple meltdown at the plant in 2011.

Report Projects DOE Coal, Nuclear Bailout Costs Could Top $34 Billion

July 25, 2018 Emma Foehringer Merchant, Greentechmedia.com Educate! Bailout, Coal, Nuclear Power, Trump Administration

Analysis out this week from The Brattle Group estimates the Trump administration’s coal and nuclear support plan could cost between $9.7 billion and $17.2 billion annually. Working off of the scant details presented in a draft memorandum released by Bloomberg in May, The Brattle Group analyzed several scenarios the administration might employ to support nuclear and coal-fired power plants. One assumes the government would pay an average $50-per-kilowatt flat rate to all plants, costing $16.7 billion a year. In another scenario, facilities experiencing shortfalls would be compensated directly at a customized level between $43 to $58 per kilowatt, costing between $9.7 billion and $17.2 billion each year. The draft memo suggested facilities would receive payments for two years, putting high-end cost estimates north of $34 billion for the duration of the program.

Greenpeace Crashes Superman Drone Into Nuclear Power Plant To Expose Facility’s Dangers

July 5, 2018 Jessica Corbett, Nationofchange.org Resist! Drones, Greenpeace, Nuclear Power

"This is a highly symbolic action: it shows that spent fuel pools are very accessible, this time from the air, and therefore extremely vulnerable to attack." Greenpeace France on Tuesday crashed a drone dressed as Superman into the Bugey nuclear energy plant, located about 20 miles east of Lyon, to expose how vulnerable that facility is to a terrorist attack and highlight the broader dangers of this type of power generation. The activists told AFP that the drone struck “a storage pool for spent nuclear fuel next to a reactor, one of the most radioactive areas at the site.” “This is a highly symbolic action: it shows that spent fuel pools are very accessible, this time from the air, and therefore extremely vulnerable to attack,” Yannick Rousselet, head of Greenpeace France’s anti-nuclear campaign, said in a statement.

California’s Last Nuclear Power Plant Being Shut Down

January 17, 2018 Staff, AP.org Educate! California, Nuclear Power

The last remaining nuclear power plant in California will begin shutting down operations in six years, after state regulators Thursday unanimously approved a plan outlining details of the closure. “We chart a new energy future by phasing out nuclear power here in California,” Michael Picker, the president of the California Public Utilities Commission, said before the 5-0 vote. “We agree the time has come.” The decision comes after the nuclear plant’s operator, Pacific Gas & Electric, in 2016 announced an agreement with a collection of environmental and labor groups to shutter the plant that has delivered electricity since 1985. The utility said Diablo Canyon would be uneconomical to run in the near future because of changes in California’s power grid — specifically, the growth of renewable energy sources, increased energy efficiency measures and the migration of more customers from traditional utilities to community choice aggregation, or CCA, for their local electricity needs.

Fukushima Type Scenarios At 39 US Nuclear Power Plants

November 17, 2017 Josh Cunnings, environews.tv Educate! Fukushima, Nuclear Power

By Josh Cunnings for Enviro News - Well, there you have it. These risks are there and they are all too real. The question is: how many catastrophic nuclear disasters does humanity need to get the point? And how severe do these catastrophes need to be for humans to understand? It’s important to remember that because Mikhail Gorbachev made the incredibly difficult decision to throw about 600,000 men directly at Chernobyl’s ground zero – and due to the incredibly heroic and deadly work performed by those brave young men and soldiers, only about four percent of what could have been released from Chernobyl, was actually released – and even that wreaked untold devastation. How many nuclear disasters must the world undergo, and what must the severity be, in order for humanity to change its ways? Extremely unsafe situations – like reactors downhill from dams, represent only one example of the myriad threats facing nuclear power plants. Nevertheless, old Mark 1s, and many other dangerously located reactors, remain in operation today – despite countless safety concerns. One thing that’s almost certain is if you play with fire long enough you will get burned. Sadly, humans often suffer a form of collective amnesia regarding the severity of these disasters. Hopefully, over time, and with more good reporting and educational programming, that will change.

Plan To Subsidize Coal And Nuclear Plants Is Bonkers

October 10, 2017 David Roberts, www.vox.com Educate! Coal Mining, Nuclear Power, Subsidies

By David Roberts for Vox - The Trump administration has not typically put a premium on transparency or fealty to empirical fact. So it was somewhat puzzling when the Department of Energy released its long-awaited study of power grid reliability in August and it looked ... mostly normal. By all accounts, DOE’s experts were allowed to work on it unimpeded. Its conclusions lined up with the broad consensus in the energy field: The loss of coal plants has not diminished grid reliability; in fact, the grid is more reliable than ever. Reliability can be improved further through smart planning and a portfolio of flexible resources. Regulators should work on ways to better compensate reliability in competitive energy markets. The summary bits of the report added a bit of political spin, but the analytic work and core conclusions were solid — and very much not in line with the administration’s position, which is that reliability is immediately threatened and coal and nuclear plants are necessary to preserve it. Where, wondered the more cynical observers [waves], was the hackery? Where was the political interference to prop up a favored industry, the blithe disregard of expert knowledge? This is not the Trump administration we’ve come to know and ... know. Well, it turns out, we just needed a little patience. The hackery has landed. Repeat: The hackery has landed.

Fukushima Plant Is Releasing 770,000 Tons Of Radioactive Water Into Pacific Ocean

September 6, 2017 Dahr Jamail, www.truth-out.org Educate! Fukushima, Nuclear Power, Oceans, Radioactive Waste

By Dahr Jamail for Truthout - When Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant suffered a triple-core meltdown in March 2011 as the result of devastating earthquake, most people had no idea this was only the beginning of a nuclear disaster that has arguably become the single worst industrial accident in human history. Keeping the three core meltdowns cool has been an ongoing challenge that has yet to be met. As fresh water is pumped over the cores, it is then stored on site in massive tanks. The Tokyo Electric Power company (TEPCO), the operator of the plant, then has to figure out what to do with that water. Recently, TEPCO announced that it would dump 770,000 tons of radioactive tritium water into the Pacific Ocean. The announcement infuriated local fishermen and environmental groups across Japan. According to Mozhgan Savabieasfahani, an environmental toxicologist and winner of the 2015 Rachel Carson prize, their outrage and alarm is not without merit. "The release of thousands of tons of radioactive tritium by a giant utility company into our aquatic and natural environments is a blood-chilling prospect," Savabieasfahani told Truthout.

Duke Energy Offers $6B For Solar, Batteries And EVs

August 31, 2017 Jeff St. John, www.greentechmedia.com Create! Duke Energy, New Economy, Nuclear Power, Solar Energy

By Jeff St. John for GTM - Florida is set to get a lot more solar power and grid batteries -- in exchange for losing a future nuclear power plant. On Tuesday, Duke Energy Florida filed a revised settlement that lays out a four-year, nearly $6 billion investment into 700 megawatts of solar PV, 50 megawatts of energy storage, 500 electric-vehicle chargers, and smart meters and grid modernization across the state. In exchange, Duke will be allowed to shut down its Levy Nuclear Project -- one of many planned nuclear power plant projects being canceled in the wake of the Westinghouse bankruptcy and broader industry disruption. And, in a turnaround from last week’s request for an 8.3 percent rate hike, the new plan would keep rates in line with inflation over the next four years. Duke Energy Florida, which owns about 8,800 megawatts of generation capacity and serves approximately 1.8 million customers, will instead absorb more than $150 million in closing costs, and pass the rest on to customers to the tune of $2.50 per megawatt-hour. It will also reduce customer costs by $2.53 per megawatt-hour by spreading the costs for under-recovered fuel over two years rather than one.

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