Anybody watch the DNC final night and Obama? Just kidding. People need a bit of hope on occasion. Its gonna be a long hard haul. Bush said the same thing about Yucca Mt. 8 years ago.
Lots of global news. Another LIbel suit, this time in Finland, protests in Taiwan over n-waste. The UK has started decommissioning one of its facilties at Sellfield, Areva is facing 50% sticker shock on its Finnish reactor, the North Korea settlement has erupted as we are seeing blocks of countries lining up behind Russia, over the U.S. inability to use diplomacy once again.
Here on Mars, the Vermont and Indian Point reactors are reaching critical junctures and a jury convicted a Davis-Besse worker for covering up the dangers that nearly led to a melt down there. On other issues I’ve posted quite a few video links I hope you will get the time to review. The Peak Oil movement is getting quite a bit more sophisticated. One of the video’s linked documents an extensive profile of human nature and why getting humans to reduce their consumption patterns may be the wrong strategy.
Lastly, I will be posting a larger strategy article about energy policy, its history fairly soon. I hope you will take the time to review and comment on it.
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Nuclear Reactor News
YLE News: YLE Accused of Libel over Nuclear Construction Story
Claims of substandard welding at the construction site of Finland’s third commercial nuclear reactor have led to a request for a police investigation. An engineer serving as deputy project chief for the construction company Bouygues feels that a current affairs programme on YLE TV-2 libelled his company with claims of substandard welding at the site.
French nuclear group Areva is facing a 50 percent rise to the cost of building the world’s first next-generation pressurised water reactor in Finland, the business daily Les Echos reported Thursday.
The cost of constructing the plant at Olkiluoto has risen from three billion to 4.5 billion euros (6.7 billion dollars), the paper reported citing an unidentified source.
Scana releases power generator design-build costs
Scana Corp. said it and Santee Cooper will pay $6.4 billion to the companies hired to design and build two proposed nuclear power generators in the Midlands.
The two contractors on the 1,117-megawatt nuclear expansion are Westinghouse Electric Co. and Stone & Webster Inc. The total cost of the project is estimated to be $9.8 billion, with SCE&G paying $5.4 billion and state-owned Santee Cooper paying $4.4 billion.
San Luis Obispo Trib | Two new steam generators arrive at Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant
The second batch of replacement steam generators has arrived at Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant.
Two of the four massive cylinders were pushed by tugboat into the plant’s cooling water intake cove Thursday morning. The other two will be unloaded Friday.
Surprise Nuclear Plant in Kalingrad
Rosatom head Sergei Kiriyenko has signed a decree for the construction of a nuclear power plant in the Kaliningrad region, the country’s atomic energy company announced Wednesday.
Design of the two-reactor plant is to be completed by the end of 2009, and the first of the two 1,200-megawatt reactors is to come on line in 2015, Rosatom said in a statement.
St. Petersburg’s Atomenergoproyekt institute will design the facility, while construction will be carried out by Energoatom at an estimated cost of 5 billion euros ($7.4 billion).
Yankee workers evacuated: Rutland Herald Online
Radiation levels rise in reactor building
VERNON - About a dozen workers in the reactor building at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant were evacuated Tuesday around noon because of a doubling of radiation levels in a portion of the plant, Entergy officials said late Tuesday.
The higher radiation levels were the result of human error, they said, in changing a filter in the reactor’s cooling system.
There were no radioactive releases to the environment and the problem did not affect the operation of the plant nor its power production, according to Robert Williams, spokesman for Entergy Nuclear.
Under pressure from the public, the Vermont Legislature can close the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.
The Vermont Legislature will make history in a vote expected as early as January on whether to allow the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant to continue operating after 2012. Never before has a state taken such a vote. “This is a tremendous opportunity for us,” said Deb Katz of the Citizens Awareness Network, an antinuclear group based in Shelburne Falls. “But it’s not going to be easy.”
toledoblade.com — Ex-engineer found guilty of concealing Davis-Besse dangers
Former FirstEnergy Corp. engineer Andrew Siemaszko was convicted yesterday on three of five counts of intentionally misleading federal regulators about the danger at the Davis-Besse nuclear plant in Ottawa County in 2001.
The verdicts were the final ones in a seven-year saga that has had national implications for the nuclear industry as it plans for a rebirth to help meet America’s rising energy needs.
NewsRoom Finland: Finnish union issues strike notice on nuclear site
The Finnish Construction Trade Union on Tuesday issued a strike notice covering the nuclear power station construction site in Olkiluoto.
The union said in a statement that temporary employment agency Rimec, thought to be registered in Cyprus, had withheld more than third of the pay of its Polish builders for tax and social security contributions but failed to explain where the money had been rendered.
FOE Europe: Voodoo Economics and the doomed nuclear renaissance
This is an exellent review of the European nuclear industry with a timline of events.
toledoblade.com — Former FirstEnergy engineer guilty on 3 of 5 counts
A former FirstEnergy Corp. engineer was found guilty Tuesday afternoon by a U.S. District Court jury on three of five counts he faced for lying or withholding information from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission about Davis-Besse’s operating status in the fall of 2001.
A federal jury deliberated over three days before returning the verdict against Andrew Siemaszko, a native of Poland.
Jury: Worker covered up damage at Ohio nuke plant
Jurors on Tuesday convicted a former nuclear plant engineer of hiding information from government regulators about the worst corrosion ever found at a U.S. reactor.
Prosecutors said Andrew Siemaszko and two other workers lied in 2001 so the Davis-Besse plant along Lake Erie could delay a shutdown for a safety inspection. Months later, inspectors found an acid leak that nearly ate through the reactor’s 6-inch-thick steel cap.
FOCUS Information Agency: Kozloduy NPP used in a smear campaign targeting Bulgaria
Bulgaria has once again been tarnished before the face of Brussels, as reports over substituted nuclear fuel in NPP Kozloduy reached José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission. This is what representatives of the Committee for protection of nuclear physicist Georgi Kotev announced yesterday.
Oyster Creek may shut over towers | Courier-Post
The owners of the Oyster Creek nuclear power station, now in the middle of a contentious relicensing battle, may close the plant if the government requires the installation of cooling towers, a company document shows.
Exelon Corp., Oyster Creek’s owner, said the cost of cooling towers could “negatively impact” a decision to keep the oldest commercial nuclear plant running. The statement came last month in an Exelon filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
AFP: Spanish nuclear plant closed after fire in electrical generator
A Spanish nuclear power plant shut down after an electrical generator fire Sunday, safety officials said, the latest incident at a reactor that has already been hit with record fines for its safety record.
The incident came just weeks after the government vowed to take action against another nuclear station over a radioactive leak last year.
New nuke plant years in future- Syracuse.com
A youngster starting kindergarten next month most likely would be a high school senior by the time any new nuclear plant is switched on at Nine Mile Point.
Building a new nuclear reactor is a lengthy, drawn-out process.
On Thursday, federal nuclear regulators held their first meeting to talk about a proposal to build a fourth reactor at Nine Mile Point, about six miles northeast of the city of Oswego. So the process is in the very early stages.
Nuclear power option still alive at TVA despite Phipps Bend debacle
Politicians often tout nuclear power generation as a more reliable — and less costly — future solution to America’s energy woes, but that idea met an expensive death here in 1981.
The region’s top Republican lawmaker at the time wasn’t happy about it.
Nuclear Health and Safety News
FR:NIOSH: special cohort Spencer Chemical Company/Jayhawk Works
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) gives notice of a decision to designate a class of employees at the Spencer Chemical Company/Jayhawk Works near Pittsburg, Kansas, as an addition to the Special Exposure Cohort (SEC) under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000. On August 15, 2008, the Secretary of HHS designated the following class of employees as an addition to the SEC: All Atomic Weapons Employer (AWE) employees who worked at Spencer Chemical Company/Jayhawk Works near Pittsburg, Kansas, from January 1, 1956 through December 31, 1961 for a number of work days aggregating at least 250 work days occurring either solely under this employment or in combination with work days within the parameters established for one or more other classes of employees in the Special Exposure Cohort.
FR: NIOSH: Y-12 ORNL special Cohort designation
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) gives notice of a decision to designate a class of employees at the Y-12 Plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, as an addition to the Special Exposure Cohort (SEC) under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000. On August 15, 2008, the Secretary of HHS designated the following class of employees as an addition to the SEC: All employees of the Department of Energy (DOE), its predecessor agencies, and DOE contractors or subcontractors who worked at the Y- 12 Plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee from March 1, 1943 through December 31, 1947 for a number of work days aggregating at least 250 work days occurring either solely under this employment or in combination with work days within the parameters established for one or more other classes of employees in the Special Exposure Cohort.
Radioactive material found in Quebec trash
Managers of a landfill waste site in Cowansville said Tuesday they recently found radioactive material dumped in the trash.
The discovery was made when newly installed radiation detectors went off as a garbage truck rolled into the site.
The load was dumped on the ground and a worker with a handheld detector was able to identify the source of the radiation. “It turns out the radiation came from one old military aircraft dial,” said Brigitte Nadeau, head of the regional waste management organization.
FR: NIOSH: a petition to add a class of employees at the Sandia National Laboratory–Livermore, Livermore, California
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) gives notice of a determination concerning a petition to add a class of employees at the Sandia National Laboratory–Livermore, Livermore, California, to the Special Exposure Cohort (SEC) under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 (EEOICPA), 42 U.S.C. 7384q. On July 29, 2008, the Secretary of HHS determined that the following employees do not meet the statutory criteria for addition to the SEC as authorized under EEOICPA:
FR: NIOSH: a petition to add a class of employees at the Sandia National Laboratory–Livermore, Livermore, California
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) gives notice of a determination concerning a petition to add a class of employees at the Sandia National Laboratory–Livermore, Livermore, California, to the Special Exposure Cohort (SEC) under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 (EEOICPA), 42 U.S.C. 7384q. On July 29, 2008, the Secretary of HHS determined that the following employees do not meet the statutory criteria for addition to the SEC as authorized under EEOICPA:
Lockheed admits Tallevast water spill traced to unapproved pipe – Local – Bradenton.com
Lockheed Martin Corp. has acknowledged it installed the wrong pipe in a water treatment system that leaked Aug. 3, spilling more than 5,000 gallons of contaminated water.
Moreover, the spill penetrated soil up to 30 feet away from the treatment system used to clean toxic groundwater from the source of the Tallevast plume, according to an incident report Lockheed filed as required with state regulators on Friday.
Editorial – Fish to the Slaughter – Editorial – NYTimes.com
The Indian Point nuclear power plant in Buchanan, N.Y., has a long history of problems, including radioactive water leaking from its aging fuel pools and emergency sirens that regularly fail in tests. About a billion fish are also killed each year when the plant sucks water from the Hudson River to cool its enormous condensers.
NY state says nuke plant kills too many fish — Newsday
The huge numbers of fish sucked to their death by the cooling system at the Indian Point nuclear plant prove that the system harms the Hudson River environment, a state official has ruled.
The finding by J. Jared Snyder, assistant commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation, is a victory for plant critics who claim that up to 1.2 billion fish and eggs are killed each year as the plant continuously draws in river water for use as a coolant.
NRC News
TMI license transfer sought – PennLive.com
AmerGen Energy has asked federal regulators for permission to transfer the operating licenses for Three Mile Island and two other nuclear plants to its parent company, Exelon Corp. If approved by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Exelon would hold the licenses for 10 plants and AmerGen would be dissolved as a subsidiary, said Ralph DeSantis, a spokesman for AmerGen.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission seeks input on whether to open up | Lynchburg News Advance
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission held a meeting in Lynchburg on Wednesday to receive public comments about whether it should start telling people more about events that are now kept secure and secret at plants that produce nuclear fuel and electric power.
FR: NRC hearing north anna early sit permit
Dominion Nuclear North Anna, LLC; North Anna Esp Site, Early Site Permit ESP-003; Notice of Consideration of Approval of Transfer of Early Site Permit and Conforming Amendment and Opportunity for a Hearing
FR: NRC: ASLB convened for Turkey Pt 3-4
notice is hereby given that an Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (Board) is being established to preside over the following proceeding: Florida Power and Light Company (Turkey Point Nuclear Plant Units 3 and 4)
NRC denies union’s request to intervene in license transfer – Brattleboro Reformer
Neither a group of environmental organizations nor a labor union have grounds to contest Entergy’s plan to spin off six of its nuclear reactors into a new company, stated the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, in a ruling issued Aug. 22.
Because they have no standing, wrote the NRC, their petition to intervene in the license transfer of nuclear power plants in Vernon, Oswego and Buchanan, N.Y., Plymouth, Mass., and Covert Township, Mich., was denied.
8/27/2008 – TVA Asks NRC To Reinstate Bellefonte Construction Permits – Breaking News – Chattanoogan.com
Evaluating Feasibility of Existing Assets As Future Generation Resource
TVA has asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to reinstate the construction permits for its two unfinished nuclear units at the Bellefonte site in North Alabama as part of efforts to evaluate the feasibility of completing them to meet future power needs.
No decision has been made to complete the Bellefonte units or to add any base load generating units beyond completing Unit 2 at Watts Bar Nuclear Plant in Spring City, officials said.
Licensing board wants more tests of Oyster Creek leak containment “drywell”
The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board panel asked Oyster Creek Generating Station in Lacey Township to conduct further corrosion analysis of its drywell, one of the contention points among environmental groups in the ongoing license renewal process for the nation’s oldest operating nuclear plant.
The drywell is designed to contain steam in the event of an accident and send it to be condensed and cooled into water that must also be contained.
Nuclear Fuel Cycle News
Russia says uranium deal unaffected – Breaking News
Russia is arguing that the current troubles in Georgia shouldn’t affect a deal it has struck to buy Australian uranium.
Conservationists are urging the federal government to reconsider the deal, struck by the former Howard government last year, which allows Russia to buy Australian uranium for civilian purposes under strict safeguards.
Uranium mine expansion angers Greens – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
The Greens are outraged at Federal Government approval for expansion of the Beverley uranium mine in South Australia’s far north-east.
Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett says a comprehensive process considered potential environmental impacts before he made his decision.
Australia approves uranium mine expansion plan | Reuters
Australia, which is looking to sell more uranium overseas to meet growing demand for nuclear power, on Thursday approved a proposal by Heathgate Resources to expand its outback Beverley uranium mine.
News – Finance/ Labour: Koeberg to reprocess spent fuel overseas
Government plans to send the highly-radioactive spent fuel rods stored at the Koeberg nuclear power station overseas for reprocessing, Parliament’s minerals and energy portfolio committee heard on Wednesday.
This was a short-term solution to disposing of it, in terms of policy approved by Cabinet “but not announced yet”, minerals and energy department nuclear safety director Schalk de Waal told MPs.
Whitehaven News: First fuel element removed only 39,000 to go
THE final defuelling of one of the reactors at Chapelcross began last week.
The first fuel element was removed from the core of Reactor 1, beginning the active commissioning of the newly-upgraded fuel route.
About 40,000 fuel elements will be systematically removed from all four reactors and dispatched for reprocessing at the Sellafield site in west Cumbria.
ABC North West WA – Indigenous group rejects uranium mining ban proposal
Premier Alan Carpenter has been accused of failing to consider the impact on native title holders of his proposal to legislate to ban uranium mining.
Mr Carpenter says he will introduce legislation banning uranium mining in Western Australia if he is re-elected.
The Western Desert Lands Corporation, which represents the Martu people, says uranium mining could provide numerous opportunities because the area is home to the major Kintyre uranium deposit which was sold to Cameco and Mitsubishi earlier this month.
Environment and Geology: Jadugoda: Pipes carrying radioactive wastes burst in Jadugoda in Jharkhand State of India.
The tailing pipes carrying the radioactive and toxic slurry from the mills of the Uranium Corporation of India (UCIL) burst Saturday night(16/8/2008) in the Dungridih village under the Jadugoda police station of Potka block of East Singhbhum in Jharkhand State of India, spewing the village with uranium waste.
Danger ahead with uranium mining – Roanoke.com
I read the story by Max Schulz of the Manhattan Institute that appeared in the Wall Street Journal about uranium mining at Coles Hill in Pittsylvania County (“Cross Country: Virginia is sitting on the energy mother lode,” July 26). I have also read numerous quotes from James Kelly, former head of the nuclear engineering program at the University of Virginia on this same subject.
Deseret News | Nuclear plant proposal fuels worries
Proposals for a uranium mill and nuclear power plant near Green River, Emery County, are raising more and more eyebrows.
A group that says it seeks to protect Utahns from nuclear and toxic waste wants to know where high-level radioactive waste will go if the state allows a nuclear power plant to be built in an industrial park on state trust land near Green River.
Nuclear Waste News
Utah is poised to join suit over foreign N-waste – Salt Lake Tribune
The state has been asked to join the federal court fight over a Salt Lake City company’s proposal to import foreign radioactive waste.
Utah has agreed to become a defendant in a case brought by EnergySolutions Inc. against a regional organization that oversees low-level radioactive waste, according to papers filed this week in federal court.
Taipower gets nod for nuclear waste dump in Taipei County – The China Post
he Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) gave conditional approval to a plan by the state-owned Taiwan Power Co. (Taipower) to build a temporary dump site in Taipei County to dispose of spent nuclear fuel rods from the neighboring No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, despite strong protest from the area’s residents yesterday.
Charleston, SC Latest Editorial News: Nuclear surge needs waste plan
The bipartisan support of nuclear power expressed last week by Rep. James Clyburn and Sen. Lindsey Graham should be an indication of real movement toward a new national energy policy. In comments at a Charleston conference, both acknowledged the state’s long background in nuclear power.
The state also has a long background in nuclear waste disposal, and any advance for more nuclear power production will require even more progress on waste management. Federal efforts toward safe, secure waste disposal continue to face obstruction in Congress.
Drive to clear Dounreay of radioactive hazards goes under the sea – The Scotsman
WORK to remove one of the most persistent problems affecting the clean-up of the Dounreay nuclear site has begun beneath the waves off Caithness.
A remotely operated vehicle is combing the seabed to find the worst of the radioactive particles that have caused concern for more than quarter of a century.
Up to £25 million will be spent on covering an area the size of 60 football pitches and on monitoring up to the 2020s.
Reduce, reuse, recycle — nuclear waste? – Roanoke.com
Sen. Webb wants to explore whether the U.S. should recycle nuclear fuel rods. The experts are divided, and an investigation is worthwhile.
After a visit to a nuclear fuel processing plant in Lynchburg, Sen. James Webb said he wants to consider whether it’s time for the United States to get serious about recycling nuclear waste
Nuclear waste containers likely to fail, warns ‘devastating’ report – The Independent
Thousands of containers of lethal nuclear waste are likely to fail before being safely sealed away underground, a devastating official report concludes.
The unpublicised report is by the Environment Agency, which has to approve any proposals for getting rid of the waste that remains deadly for tens of thousands of years.
Nuclear Policy News
The Associated Press: Iran, Nigeria to share peaceful nuclear technology
An Iranian trade delegation announced an agreement Thursday for Iran to share peaceful nuclear technology with Nigeria, to help Africa’s biggest oil producer bolster its woeful electricity-generation capacity.
Officials of both countries stressed that the agreement involves only the peaceful uses of atomic energy.
Website of the Baltic-Polish nuclear power plant project is lauched :: The Baltic Course
Information about the new Visaginas Nuclear Power Plant (VNPP) project is now available at the Internet website “www.vae.lt”; the website provides information about the project’s preparatory work, career and business opportunities, as well as expert opinions. The website is in Lithuanian, there is also a shorter version in English.
BBC NEWS | UK | UK Politics | Hutton warns over energy policy
Business Secretary John Hutton has appeared to warn against imposing a windfall tax on energy companies.
He told the Daily Telegraph the “right framework” was needed to ensure £100bn was invested in nuclear, renewables and clean coal power stations.
Asia Times Online: India’s nuclear deal headed for fiasco
As the tortuous negotiations for the United States-India nuclear deal enters its final stage, it becomes clear that India seriously underestimated the discomfort and opposition the agreement would arouse in many countries because of the special privileges granted to India, largely on New Delhi’s terms.
FT.com / Comment & analysis / Editorial comment – A nuclear impasse
Anyone who went off to the beach a month ago in the expectation that the future of Britain’s nuclear industry had been settled will be returning to a serious disappointment. The structure of the industry is still undecided, while the government maintains the fiction that it is a question that can be resolved by the private sector alone. With the security of Britain’s energy supplies at stake, this muddle and confusion is dismaying.
Turkey resorts to nuclear energy to meet its increasing demand
Turkey seeks to finalize the tender process, which is expected to attract many foreign investors, for its first nuclear power plant without any delays in a bid to close the gap between energy demand and supply.
Turkey resorts to nuclear energy to meet its increasing demand
Turkey needs to make a total $70 billion investment in energy production and distribution network by 2020 to meet its increasing demand, a government body said this week. It also said net energy import in 2008 is expected to hit $46-47 billion.
Energy Minister Hilmi Guler admitted the urgent need of increasing energy production and ruled out any delay or postponement in Turkey’s first nuclear power plant tender, saying, “We have no time to lose.”
Toshiba to tie up with S. Korean nuclear firm: The Daily Yomiuri
Toshiba Corp. has reached an agreement with IHI Corp. and South Korea’s leading heavy industries corporation over a business tie-up in the production of nuclear reactors, company sources said Tuesday.
The latest accord means IHI, a major shipbuilding and engineering corporation formerly known as Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co., and Doosan Heavy Industries Co. will participate in a nuclear power business framework established in 2006 when Toshiba acquired the U.S. company Westinghouse Electric Corp.
French firm rakes in TVA cash | Asheville Citizen-Times
Call it the French nuclear connection.
Electricity ratepayers’ dollars in Western North Carolina as well as federal tax money are increasingly going to a company owned largely by the French government: the nuclear power conglomerate AREVA.
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The company holds U.S. Department of Energy contracts for nuclear-related projects at major facilities such as Hanford, Wash., and Yucca Mountain, Nev., and others, including in Erwin, Tenn., and Aiken, S.C.
French firm rakes in TVA cash | Asheville Citizen-Times
Call it the French nuclear connection.
Electricity ratepayers’ dollars in Western North Carolina as well as federal tax money are increasingly going to a company owned largely by the French government: the nuclear power conglomerate AREVA.
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The company holds U.S. Department of Energy contracts for nuclear-related projects at major facilities such as Hanford, Wash., and Yucca Mountain, Nev., and others, including in Erwin, Tenn., and Aiken, S.C.
FPL wants nuclear power to be counted as alternative energy
Florida Power & Light officials told state regulators today that nuclear power should join solar and wind as a renewable energy source in Florida.
“I think the goal, the intent is to have the most material impact on greenhouse gases,” said Eric E. Silagy, FPL’s chief development officer in explaining why Florida’s Public Service Commission should reconsider the definition. Since nuclear power plants do not burn fuel, there are virtually no air emissions, such as greenhouse gases that may contribute to global warming, according to FPL’s Web site.
Louisiana Gov. Jindal Announces Major Shaw Westinghouse Nuclear Partnership
Today, Governor Bobby Jindal joined The Shaw Group Inc. and Westinghouse to announce that the companies will build the first module fabrication and assembly facility focused on constructing components for new and modified nuclear reactors in the United States. The facility, a joint venture between Shaw and Westinghouse, will be located at the Port of Lake Charles. Additionally, Governor Jindal and Shaw also announced that the company has committed to keep and grow its corporate headquarters in Baton Rouge for at least fifteen years.
Safe Energy Analyst: Nuclear Energy is a Money Grab. . .
Twelve Reasons to Oppose Nuclear Energy and Support a Green Energy Future
We have a complete set of energy solutions: solar cells, wind turbines, concentrating solar, ocean current and wave energy, energy efficiency, and the list goes on.(1) As these technologies mature, we can quickly reduce nuclear and coal usage and, in the future, cut oil and natural gas use.
The most environmentally and economically destructive sources of electricity should be reduced now, as other technologies emerge. The phase-out of nuclear and coal energy will reduce global warming while freeing up monies for renewables and efficiencies.
Jordan to buy nuclear reactor from France Xinhua
Energy-thirst Jordan plans to purchase a nuclear reactor from France to produce electricity and enriched uranium for peaceful purposes, Prime Minister Nader Dahabi was quoted by official news agency Petra on Monday.
Jordan is currently negotiating such a cooperation deal with a French company, Dahabi said in a meeting with members of the Jordanian-French Parliamentary Friendship Committee.
Jordan to buy nuclear reactor from France Xinhua
Energy-thirst Jordan plans to purchase a nuclear reactor from France to produce electricity and enriched uranium for peaceful purposes, Prime Minister Nader Dahabi was quoted by official news agency Petra on Monday.
Jordan is currently negotiating such a cooperation deal with a French company, Dahabi said in a meeting with members of the Jordanian-French Parliamentary Friendship Committee.
AFP: Britain still backs British Energy-EDF tie-up: minister
Britain continues to favour a tie-up between British Energy and French energy group EDF, Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks said in an interview published Monday.
Speaking to the Financial Times last week while on a visit to Lagos, Wicks said a deal with EDF was “the most sensible option” and added that the government thought “that’s the natural link”.
Nuclear Weapons News
RIA Novosti – Opinion & analysis – Washington’s nuclear maneuver
Quoting anonymous sources, the Western media are making a stir by saying that the United States is ready to freeze the intergovernmental agreement with Russia for peaceful nuclear cooperation because of the Georgian conflict.
Nuclear Power: It is in Spain Where they have the problems
The arrival of a nuclear-powered submarine at Gibraltar has the same impact as the arrival of a cruise liner, for example. That is, none.
However, there are those in the Campo area who like to stir it up for obvious political reasons.
The CIA and the AQ Khan nuclear network – The National Newspaper
Under pressure from the CIA, the Swiss government destroyed thousands of documents that would have revealed the CIA’s relations with a family a Swiss engineers, Friedrich Tinner and his two sons, who are suspected of supplying Iran and Libya with nuclear technology, The New York Times reported. Last May, when the Swiss president announced the documents’ destruction, he claimed that it was to make sure that detailed plans for nuclear weapons never fell into the hands of terrorists. The real explanation, according to US government officials, was that the United States had urged that the files be destroyed in order to conceal ties between the Tinners and the CIA.
North Korea Halts Disabling Nuclear Plant
South Korea urged North Korea, Tuesday, to honor its pledge to disable the regime’s nuclear facilities in Yongbyon, denouncing Pyongyang’s announcement that it had halted the denuclearization process agreed upon at six-party nuclear talks last year.
Officials from Seoul’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade downplayed the move as a trademark brinkmanship tactic.
AFP: CIA used Swiss to thwart foreign nuclear programs: report
The US Central Intelligence Agency recruited a family of Swiss engineers to help it thwart the Libyan and Iranian nuclear programs as well as an underground supply network of Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, The New York Times reported on its website late Sunday.
The newspaper said the operation involved Friedrich Tinner and his two sons, who have been accused in Switzerland of dealing with rogue nations seeking nuclear equipment and expertise.
AmericanHeritage.com / Atomic Aftermath
The profound shock felt in Hiroshima on the morning of 6 August rippled outward to the rest of the world, less destructive but hardly less psychologically powerful for its distance from its source. Two days after the bombing, an editorial writer for the Australian Courier-Mail was dumbstruck:
Barnett: What reviving Cold War will end up costing us: Knoxville News Sentinel
The West’s re-demonization of Russia is in full swing, with aging advocates barely able to conceal their glee in resurrecting the “good old days.” It’s a sad commentary on our grand strategic thinking that we so blithely add back the Cold War to our already full plate of global security interests.
Department of Energy News
knoxnews.com |Final cleanup of ORNL reactor on hold
The 1950s-era Tower Shielding Reactor was defueled a few years ago, and since then it’s remained in a “surveillance and maintenance” mode.
There’s no date yet for final cleanup, but DOE said it will be a part of the proposed Integrated Facilities Disposition Program, which still awaits funding.
FR DOE: ROD Foreign research reactor spent nuclear fuel
Revised Record of Decision for the Environmental Impact Statement on a Proposed Nuclear Weapons Nonproliferation Policy Concerning Foreign Research Reactor Spent Nuclear Fuel
Controversial Nuke Research Quietly Returns… | Danger Room from Wired.com
Nuclear isomers are back. The controversial field of exploiting excited nuclei, to release atomic energy on demand, was brought low a years back, after some controversial experiments – and some loose talk of creating an “nuclear hand grenade.” Now, the field is beginning to thrive once again, as I report in the Guardian. But mindful of earlier controversies, the researchers are keeping a low profile.
knoxnews.com | 100 tons of weapons material off the books
The National Nuclear Security Administration announced today that 100 tons of highly enriched uranium — enough for about 2,200 nuclear bombs — had been downblended over the past decade to eliminate its weapons capability. All told, the U.S. government has designated 217 tons of HEU as “excess” and scheduled for downblending.
knoxnews.com | POGO questions new security policy at DOE nuke sites
The Project On Government Oversight said the Dept. of Energy is implementing a new policy on security requirements at its nuclear weapons facilities and that the plan — known as Graded Security Protection — will actually decrease the security requirements at some sites.
The new security policy, according to POGO, is replacing what was known as the Design Basis Threat, which set the standards for protection against terrorism. In a prepared statement, POGO exec director Danielle Brian said, “One thing we don’t understand is why different sites need different requirements if they are guarding the same thing: highly enriched uranium or plutonium.”
Other Energy News
The Mexican reforms | Energy Bulletin
In the vast interior of rural México, awareness of an approaching energy and economic tsunami is below even Alert Azul, the first stage of a hurricane watch. For those who read the newspapers or follow television there is no shortage of news about the usual political scuffling between Presidente Felipe Calderón Hinojosa and opposition party leader José Ramiro López Obrador concerning Cantarell oil field’s breathtaking 14% annual decline rate. People just don’t seem to register it as anything other than the usual politics that goes on in México City, a world away from their lives planting corn, grinding steel, or serving tourists with poolside Margaritas.
The last radioactive lighthouses get solar technology
The last five strontium-fuelled lighthouses along the Barents Sea coast are now being replaced with solar technology. All together, 153 of the radioactive lighthouses have been removed as part of a Russian-Norwegian project.
Since year 2000, Murmansk regional authorities have together with the Norwegian Finnmark county governor removed all the radioactive lighthouses (RITEGs) from the Russian Barents Sea coast. As many as 85 of the lighthouses were located in Murmansk Oblast, while 68 of them were in Arkhangelsk Oblast.
Solar Thermal Really Heats Up in Nevada: BrightSource Plans 1200 MW Facilty Outside Las Vegas : TreeHugger
At the risk of sounding like a cheerleader, the scale of some of the new solar power plants being announced over the past few weeks are just astounding. PG&E has contracted with a 250 MW and a 500 MW solar plant in California, a 250 MW integrated solar plant/manufacturing facility is being built in India, and the Clinton Foundation is discussing building a similar 5,000 MW facility in a different part of India. At the beginning of the summer a new 10 MW thin-film facility was claiming the record for that category and a 400 MW solar thermal plant in the Mojave Desert was big news. Furthering the great solar scale-up:
YouTube – Technology Management Program UCSB: Energy Peak Oil
Peak oil theory states that oil will have a beginning, middle, and an end of production, and at some point it will reach a level of maximum output. It is estimated that approximately half of all oil…
Think Progress » Glenn Beck Encourages Listeners To Use More Energy To ‘Wipe Out Any Potential Energy Savings’ At The DNC
In April, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) promised that the Democratic National Convention this week will be the “greenest, most sustainable†convention in history. The Democrats greening efforts include the use of biodegradable balloons and signage, an army of volunteers for recycling, and a calculation of the convention’s carbon footprint.
The Fifth U.S. Conference on Peak Oil and Community Solutions
This year’s conference, enhanced through a partnership between Community Solutions and Upland Hills Ecological Awareness Center, is organized around Community Solutions executive director Pat Murphy’s just published book, Plan C: Community Survival Strategies for Peak Oil and Climate Change. The book, and this conference, “point to the life we must lead, if we are to survive on this planet.”
The Oil Drum | Supply and Demand on a Full Planet – ASPO VI Speech by Nate Hagens
Next month is the ASPO conference in Sacramento CA. Nate Hagens will be one of the speakers in the plenary (as well as on the Sunday TOD breakout panels). Here is a video of the talk he gave last year at the international ASPO VI venue in Cork Ireland. The speech covered net energy, energy properties and externalities on the supply side and addiction, relative fitness and steep discount rates from an evolutionary perspective on the demand side. Here is a link to the slides themselves, (which aren’t fully shown at times on the video).
Exxon agrees to pay out 75 percent of Valdez damages – Yahoo! News UK
Exxon Mobil agreed to pay out 75 percent of a $507.5 million (276 million pounds) damages ruling to settle the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska, the Anchorage Daily News reported on Tuesday.
Citing both Exxon and the plaintiff’s lawyer, the Anchorage Daily News said the oil giant will release about $383 million for distribution to the nearly 33,000 commercial fishermen and others who sued Exxon after the worst tanker crash in U.S. history.
Arctic ice at second-lowest level ever – CNN.com
New satellite measurements show that crucial sea ice in the Arctic Ocean has plummeted to its second-lowest level on record.
Arctic ice always melts in summer and refreezes in winter. But more and more ice is being lost and not recovered.
The National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, announced Wednesday that the extent of sea ice in the Arctic is down to 2.03 million square miles.
The lowest point on record is 1.65 million square miles set last September.
With about three weeks left in the melt season, the record may fall, scientists say.
Santa Fe Reporter – Feel The Heat
Behind the headlines, scientists warn that climate change is already hitting New Mexico
Signs of ancient life are scattered across the mesas above the Chama River as it winds along highway 84 in northern New Mexico. The ground here is strewn with pieces of black and white pottery, and bumps and divots in the soil reveal the lines of stone rooms and walls.
It’s the Oil, stupid!, by Noam Chomsky
The deal just taking shape between Iraq’s Oil Ministry and four Western oil companies raises critical questions about the nature of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq  questions that should certainly be addressed by presidential candidates and seriously discussed in the United States, and of course in occupied Iraq, where it appears that the population has little if any role in determining the future of their country.
Newsvine – The Green Candidate’s Record And Some Remarks On Oil
Cynthia Mckinney was last seen in a slap down with a White House Security guard who doesn’t place much faith in his ability to remember faces. While I was feeling some sympathy when I discovered the old story on the internet recently, her position in this election is obviously to be an alternative of the same color as the the likely Democratic candidate. The little siphoning drain on what makes the candidate stand out. The 3rd party prospect can say, I voted for a better African American candidate when they subtract their vote from the Democrats.
ENN: Cogeneration Can Slash Carbon and Costs
Cogeneration of electricity and heat is one of the most promising means of using existing technologies for sustainable ends, but it is also one of the most neglected and least understood. Cogeneration can dramatically increase energy efficiency, slash carbon emissions, and save money.
Media Resources
The Lovin’s Power Point presentations on energy
Great resource that is available for use.
Newsvine – Bush blames Democrats for high gas prices
President Bush on Saturday blamed the Democratic-led Congress for the high cost of gasoline and renewed his call for expanded offshore
drilling to increase U.S. oil supplies.
Offshore Oil Drilling – Green 2008 Election Issues 101 – Obama and McCain Position on Offshore Oil – thedailygreen.com
Offshore drilling became a campaign issue as gasoline prices hit $4 a gallon. Public opinion polls show that not only do Americans want their elected leaders to do something about it, but they think drilling for oil on the continental shelf is a great idea.
Energy Costs – Green 2008 Election Issues 101 – Obama and McCain Position on Energy Costs – thedailygreen.com
The cost of oil peaked above $140 a barrel this summer, nearly double the price a year earlier and 40% higher than worst-case scenarios discussed just months earlier. Gas prices followed suit, peaking well above $4 a gallon during peak driving season and sending drivers, carmakers and politicians all into fits. Heating oil prices started climbing to record levels months before heating season.
Bacteria Power: Future For Clean Energy Lies In ‘Big Bang’ Of Evolution
 Amid mounting agreement that future clean, “carbon-neutral”, energy will rely on efficient conversion of the sun’s light energy into fuels and electric power, attention is focusing on one of the most ancient groups of organism, the cyanobacteria.
Coal Power Plant Retrofit With Solar : EcoWorldly
New South Wales, Australia is the site of a pilot project where solar thermal technology reduces the use of fossil fuels. Coal and solar generate electricity using the same turbines.
Coal power plants can utilize solar to produce 15%-60% of the electricity. A higher quantity is possible, but requires significantly more modifications to be made to the coal boilers.
Green Bike Project gets rolling
Giving away bicycles to commuters to get them out of their cars is no longer strictly a private enterprise. The state and King County are trying it as well.
A new “green bike” program announced Thursday is aimed at getting 300 workers to reduce their commute trips by 60 percent between now and May.
David Fiderer: Energy for Dummies: The GOP’s Secret Weapon Is A Clueless Media
Harwood alluded to the usual stereotypes: “pro-growth versus environmentalism” and “progress versus not-in-my-backyard.” But “nuclear power versus imported oil” isn’t a stereotype. It’s a lie. If we built more nuclear power plants, the impact on our oil imports would be zero. Yes, nuclear reactors and oil are both types of energy, just as apples and vodka both types of calories. No one in the real world — the oil business and the utility business — considers one to be an economic substitute for the other.
Nuclear Editorial and Opinions
FT.com / Home UK / UK – Saving Britain’s nuclear future
Anyone who went off to the beach a month ago in the expectation that the future of Britain’s nuclear industry had been settled will be returning to a serious disappointment. The structure of the industry is still undecided, while the government maintains the fiction that it is a question that can be resolved by the private sector alone. With the security of Britain’s energy supplies at stake, this muddle and confusion is dismaying.
Letter: Nothing safe or clean about nuclear power: Times Argus Online
Both Bill Day of Barre and Howard Fairman of Vernon, who wrote about the safety and cleanliness of nuclear power, mentioned nothing about waste – the most toxic radioactive stuff ever created — taking milleniums to store safely in their letters that appeared in the Aug. 3 edition of the Sunday Rutland Herald and Times Argus.
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Tags: nuclearn-weapon energy renewables solar fuel-cycle safety