経済同友会が柏崎刈羽原発を視察 （新潟県）via 日テレNEWS

Posted on 2015/01/29 by yukimiyamotodepaul

首都圏の企業経営者で構成する「経済同友会」は２９日、柏崎刈羽原発を視察し、津波などに対する安全対策などを確認した。経済同友会の長谷川閑史代表幹事は、「経済活動のため、適合審査をパスしたら原発を再稼働してほしい」と述べた。

柏崎刈羽原発を視察したのは、首都圏の企業経営者でつくる「経済同友会」のメンバー、１４人だ。
一行はまず、７号機の原子炉建屋を訪れ、使用済み燃料プールなどを視察。福島第一原発の事故を受けて新たに設置された、水素を水に変えて爆発を防ぐ装置などを確認した。この後、一行は、原発で月１回行われる総合訓練を視察した。
視察には、東京電力の広瀬直己社長が同行している。経済同友会は、広瀬社長に対して、「経済活動のために再稼働に向けて頑張ってほしい」と伝えたという。

続きは経済同友会が柏崎刈羽原発を視察 （新潟県）

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Good News! US Corporations Won’t Have to Pay for Nuclear Disasters in India via Fair Blog

Posted on 2015/01/28 by

Online, the headline was “Obama, India’s Modi Cite Nuclear Investment Breakthrough” (1/25/15). And who doesn’t like a “breakthrough”?
The article itself had the same positive spin, beginning with its lead:
President Obama and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Sunday they reached “a breakthrough understanding” in freeing up US investment in nuclear energy development in India, as Obama began a three-day visit to India.
Not only is it a “breakthrough understanding,” it’s also going to be “freeing up” investment. In these word choices, USA Today is saying it wants you to know that this is good news.
But what is the news? Here’s how the paper’s Mandakini Gahlot summarizes the agreement:
Picking up from a stalled 2008 civil nuclear agreement between the two countries, the deal would allow US firms to invest in energy in India. It also resolves a dispute over US insistence on tracking fissile material it supplies to the country and over Indian liability provisions that have discouraged US firms from capitalizing on the agreement.
[…]
But what is the news? Here’s how the paper’s Mandakini Gahlot summarizes the agreement:
Picking up from a stalled 2008 civil nuclear agreement between the two countries, the deal would allow US firms to invest in energy in India. It also resolves a dispute over US insistence on tracking fissile material it supplies to the country and over Indian liability provisions that have discouraged US firms from capitalizing on the agreement.

“Indian liability provisions”–what does that mean? The only further explanation USA Today gives is a paraphrase of the White House view that the agreement “resolves the US concerns on both tracking and liability.” In other words, it doesn’t explain much.
You get a much fuller picture from a story in the Mumbai-based newspaper Indian Express (1/26/15), which explains that the problem is with Indian law:
India’s Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010, has a simple purpose: to make sure that victims of a nuclear accident can get quick compensation, without having to prove the plant operator was negligent, and irrespective of who was at fault…. Section 17b of CLiNDA says the plant operators…can claim compensation from their equipment suppliers if the accident resulted as a result of “equipment or material with patent or latent defects.” And Section 46 makes both suppliers and operators liable to be sued by accident victims.
This is in conflict with the international rules that the US nuclear industry has arranged for itself when marketing its products abroad:
In the US, the law allows victims to file damages claims against operators, suppliers and designers. However, when US firms started selling abroad, they pushed for the concept of legal channeling, which left only operators liable.
These corporations–who have the political backing of the US government–have succeeded in getting international conventions to agree that “no one other than operators can be held responsible” in the event of a nuclear catastrophe. The suppliers want assurances that these international conventions, and not Indian law, will be applied in the wake of such an event.
The “breakthrough” between Obama and Modi seems to be an agreement that the law will be “tweaked” to let US corporations off the hook in case of a devastating accident.

Read more.

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Sweden’s SSM Says It Has Stopped Processing New Nuclear Plant Plans via Nuclear Street

Posted on 2015/01/28 by

A spokesman for Sweden’s nuclear power regulator Stralsakerhetsmyndigheten, known as SSM, said the agency had stopped processing plans for new nuclear power plants in the country to comply with statements from the new minority-run government, which took over after September’s elections.
Barsebacksverket NPP in SwedenState-run utility company Vattenfall also said it was putting plans for new nuclear power plants on hold.
[…]
Elections in September did not produce a clear winner, which allowed for a coalition of Social Democrats and Greens to form a new government. One goal of the new government is to phase out nuclear power in Sweden.
It may take years for Sweden to reach a formal energy policy it can commit to, but for now the measurable impact is derailment of a nuclear plant project for Ringhals, Sweden, that has been under review since its application was received in 2012.
Sveriges Radio reported that about 40 employees at Vattenfall, who had been working on the Ringhals plant, had been reassigned to other tasks.

Read more.

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Heysham nuclear power plant: Reactor taken offline due to water leak via BBC

Posted on 2015/01/28 by yukimiyamotodepaul

A reactor at a nuclear power plant in Lancashire has been taken offline due to a technical fault.

EDF Energy, operators of Heysham Power Station in Morecambe, said one of the two reactors at the Heysham 1 site was closed down on Tuesday.

A water leak had been discovered in a turbine at a non-nuclear part of the plant, a spokesman said.

He added that the plant was taken offline as a precaution but could not confirm when it would resume.

The Heysham plant was previously closed in August 2014 following a routine inspection which discovered a fault.

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Kazakhstan eyes construction of new nuclear plants via ConstructionWeekOnline

Posted on 2015/01/28 by yukimiyamotodepaul

Kazakh energy minister Vladimir Shkolnik has said that the country is looking to build two new nuclear power plants to meet demand placed on its current network infrastructure.

The country’s only nuclear plant was shut down in 1999 and it now relies on importing power from neighbouring countries to supplement its own power generation capabilities.

The government has two sites in mind: One of the new plants would be built near the town of Kurchatov and is “likely to be Russian-made”, Shkolnik told local media following a parliamentary meeting. Fittingly, the town is named after Soviet nuclear physicist Igor Kurchatov and was once the town was once the centre of operations for the adjoining Semipalatinsk Test Site.

The second potential site is Balkash, and US firm Westinghouse’s design for a reactor there was “one of the most promising” Shkolnik said, without elaborating. It’s unclear which is preferred out of the two.

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An end to nuclear power in Illinois? via WBEZ

Posted on 2015/01/27 by kojimaaiko

Carol Browner, one of our guests on yesterday’s show, is the former EPA administrator under President Clinton, who also served in the Obama administration. Now she helps lead a group called Nuclear Matters, which is bullish on nuclear power. Today, we’re talking with David Kraft, director of the Chicago-based Nuclear Energy Information Service. Its mission is to end nuclear power altogether.

 

https://soundcloud.com/afternoonshiftwbez/an-end-to-nuclear-power-in-illinois

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“Polar-vortex resistant nuclear” not so “resistant” after all via Nuclear Energy Information Service

Posted on 2015/01/27 by

CHICAGO—Nuclear proponents like Exelon Corporation are quick to claim that nuclear power was “reliable energy” during last year’s “polar vortex” days compared to its fossil fuel rivals.

It seems that crowing may have been premature.

The Pilgrim-1 nuclear reactor near Plymouth, MA, was closed today by the heavy snow storm buffeting the Northeast.

The reactor had already been reduced to 20% output as a “precaution” prior to the storm’s arrival when transmission lines connecting the reactor to the power grid failed. This caused the reactor automatically shut down to protect itself. Pilgrim’s safety systems are now running on emergency diesel generators, which, industry-wide have a spotty reliability record. The reactor is not likely to be back on line for several days, according to plant personnel.

“We already knew that nuclear reactors were particularly vulnerable to drought and extreme hot weather events,” notes David Kraft, director of the Chicago-based Nuclear Energy Information Service, a safe-energy advocacy and nuclear power watchdog organization. (NOTE: see, “It’s the Water, Stupid!” on the NEIS website) “Pilgrim’s failure to be available during the snow emergency in New England proves nuclear power’s vulnerability during extreme winter weather as well.”

Pilgrim-1 is a 43 year-old 711 MWe GE boiling water reactor. It has a Mark-I containment, the same as the containments at Fukushima I-IV which melted down and blew up in 2011. Illinois has 4 such reactors: Quad Cities 1 & 2 near Cordova, IL, on the Mississippi River, and Dresden 2 and 3, 50 miles SW of Chicago near Morris, IL.

“The fact that they had already reduced output by 80% as a precaution shows that even the nuclear operators see how vulnerable nuclear reactors can be in a winter storm emergency. The fact that it will take several days to bring the reactor back on line shows that they won’t be available when needed. How ‘reliable’ is that?“ Kraft asks.

Exelon Corporation is seeking a $580 million bailout from Illinois ratepayers via legislative action to make up for a profit shortfall at five of its unprofitable Illinois reactors. In public statements and a report done by the Nuclear Energy Institute in October 2014, they pointed to the “reliability” of their nuclear reactors during last year’s polar vortex as alleged justification for the need to keep even unprofitable reactors operating, at ratepayer expense.

“Reality has a peculiar way of contradicting Exelon’s assertions with frightful regularity,” Kraft says. “Their reactors are vulnerable to power interruptions in extreme hot weather, and as Pilgrim-1 demonstrated today, in extreme cold weather. It’s a crap shoot filled with weather variables – not a healthy gamble to hitch an economy too for decades into the future – especially at ratepayer expense,” Kraft asserts.

“The Governor and the Legislature should not be conned into thinking they should open ratepayers wallets for $580 million simply on Exelon’s claims to reliability. With nuclear, what can go wrong eventually does, it seems,” Kraft points out.

Visit NEIS website.

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福島第1原発事故　全漁連、「処理水」の海洋放出方針に抗議 via FNN News

Posted on 2015/01/27 by yukimiyamotodepaul

全漁連(全国漁業協同組合連合会)は、福島第1原発事故で放射性物質に汚染された水を処理して海に放出する方針が示されたことに抗議し、要望書を提出した。

（略）

全漁連の岸会長と福島県漁連の野崎会長は、宮沢経産相と会談し、原子力規制委員会が21日、原発の廃炉を進めるため、放射性物質を除去する施設「ALPS(アルプス)」で処理し、規制基準を満たした処理水を海洋放出するなどとする方針を明文化したことについて、抗議した。

岸会長らが「安易な放出を行わない」とする国の方針を継続するよう要望書を手渡したのに対し、宮沢経産相は「方針を堅持する」と述べ、風評被害を取り除くよう、関係省庁で取り組む姿勢を示した。

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German court to decide on nuclear exit complaints this year via Reuters

Posted on 2015/01/27 by yukimiyamotodepaul

(Reuters) – Germany’s highest court aims to decide this year on complaints filed by the country’s biggest utilities against a decision to shut down its nuclear plants earlier than initially planned, a court spokesman said on Tuesday.

E.ON (EONGn.DE), RWE (RWEG.DE) and Vattenfall [VATN.UL] filed complaints with the Constitutional Court after the government imposed a stricter closure timetable in 2011 as a result of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.

While not opposed to the closure plans in principle, the firms claim the move to accelerate the pace of shutdowns in the run-up to the 2022 deadline violated their property rights and resulted in billions of euros in damages and losses.

 

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Austria is 100 percent nuclear-free via Renewable International

Posted on 2015/01/27 by yukimiyamotodepaul

On 1 January 2015, Austria’s “ban” on imports of nuclear power went into effect as planned. The event has gone as unreported in the English-speaking world as was the original announcement.

On Twitter this morning, Stephen Tindale asked me a good question – did Austria go ahead with its “ban” on imports of nuclear power? The Austrians are easily the fiercest opponents of nuclear in the EU. In 1978 – a year before Three Mile Island – they voted in a referendum to prevent the country’s first nuclear plant from being switched on; construction had been completed. And this month, Austria also filed suit with the EU against British plans to provide special financial incentives for a new nuclear plant at Hinkley.

Now, the country is 100 percent nuclear free even in terms of imports. Because there were no reports on the event at all, I contacted the press spokesperson at Verbund, Austria’s largest utility and got the following response (my translation of the German):

Starting in 2015, there is an obligation in Austria to demonstrate the origin of electricity. The sale of the ENTSOE mix, which theoretically includes a share of nuclear power, is no longer possible. We therefore also only offer our industry customers electricity with a certificate of origin (which then does not even theoretically contain any nuclear power).

Continue reading at Austria is 100 percent nuclear-free

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