Nuke Free Texas: Home

Jan 26, 2012

Atomic-Free Japan by April Roils Debate on Reactor Restarts, Blackout Risk

Japan will lose its last nuclear- generated power in April at the current rate of shutting down reactors for safety checks, cheering opponents of the industry after the Fukushima disaster while adding to concern about potential blackouts and factory shutdowns.

The country has just three of its 54 nuclear reactors producing electricity after one more unit was idled for maintenance today. Another Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501) unit was shut earlier this week for scheduled checks.

With one exception, no reactors taken off-line since the March 11 disaster have been allowed to restart as they await results of so-called stress tests. The checks began after an earthquake and tsunami caused reactor meltdowns at Tokyo Electric’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi station that led to radiation fallout over an area about half the size of New York City and the evacuation of about 160,000 people.

December 28, 2011

Report: U.S. nuclear renaissance unlikely after Fukushima

The Los Angeles Times just reported:

A new study released Wednesday said that the regulatory fallout from the Fukushima power plant disaster in Japan in March will short-circuit the U.S. nuclear renaissance of new power plant construction.

The report, “Nuclear Safety and Nuclear Economics”, was written and presented by Mark Cooper, a frequent critic of the nuclear power industry.

According to Cooper:

“This is an important moment to compare what is really likely to happen over the next 10 years with the industry’s expectations” of a nuclear renaissance, Cooper said. “When that comparison is performed properly, it becomes clear that we are witnessing not a revival but a collapse in expectations for new reactor construction.”

Read more….

Greg Palast: Fukushima Texas

Check out Greg Palast’s new book, which has a chapter entitled Fukushima Texas – a MUST READ for anyone concerned about nuclear power!

Order Vultures’ Picnic

10/26/11

House Dems to Republicans: What about nuclear loan guarantees?

Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee pressed Republicans Wednesday to broaden their loan guarantee investigation to include investments in nuclear energy projects.

Republicans are”picking oversight targets based on which administration approved the loan or loan guarantee or on whether [they] approve or disapprove of the type of energy produced,” the Democrats said.

“The Committee’s goal should be to protect the taxpayer, not to single out an industry you may disfavor for special scrutiny,” Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the committee, said in a letter to Republicans Wednesday.

Committee Republicans have focused much of their attention on the $535 million loan guarantee to the failed California solar panel maker Solyndra. But Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), the chairman of the committee’s investigative panel, has expanded the investigation to include a number of other loans and loan guarantees to renewable energy projects.

Read more…

Officials prepare for opening of radioactive waste facility

November 10, 2011

The radioactive waste disposal facility outside of Andrews, the first of its kind in Texas and one of three in the United States, celebrated its ribbon cutting Thursday.

Rod Baltzer, president of Waste Control Specialists, which operates the low-level radioactive waste disposal facility in Andrews County, said he’s been with the company since 1998, just three years after it began its involvement in the project.

November 02, 2011

Tepco Detects Nuclear Fission at Fukushima Dai-Ichi Station

Nov. 2 (Bloomberg) – Tokyo Electric Power Co. detected signs of nuclear fission at its crippled Fukushima atomic power plant, raising the risk of increased radiation emissions. No increase in radiation was found at the site and the situation is under control, officials said.

The company, known as Tepco, began spraying boric acid on the No. 2 reactor at 2:48 a.m. Japan time to prevent accidental chain reactions, according to an e-mailed statement today. The detection of xenon, which is associated with nuclear fission, was confirmed today by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, the country’s atomic regulator said.

Read more…

October 31, 2011

South Texas Project Hearing in Rockville, MD

Hearing Announcement- U.S.NRC

Atomic Safety and Licensing Board

STP Evidentiary Hearing

October 31, 2011

Susan Dancer, of South Texas Association for Responsible Energy, is one of the Intervenors opposing proposed South Texas Project reactors, along with SEED Coalition and Public Citizen.

Attorney Bob Eye and energy efficiency expert Phil Mosenthal with Optimal Energy were impressive at the NRC hearing on October 31st in Rockville, Maryland!

Perry says he’s changed on energy loans

October 30, 2011

Texas Gov. Rick Perry acknowledged Sunday that he has changed his position on federal loans to energy companies.

“Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace pressed the Republican presidential candidate on a 2008 letter he wrote to the energy secretary, seeking federal support of a nuclear power generating facility in Texas.

October 17, 2011

Poor Performance by Advanced Boiling Water Reactors in Japan – the same design proposed for the South Texas Project

Hamaoka Nuke
COMMENT: Hit by a $1 billion liability verdict in Japan, Hitachi negotiates new reactor deal with Lithuania

A court in Tokyo has ruled Japan’s Hitachi liable for over $1 billion in damages resulting from an accident, and subsequent loss of profit, at Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant’s (NPP) Hitachi-made ABWR reactor. Boiling reactors, to which the ABWR series belongs, have earned their share of infamy with Chernobyl’s explosion and the disaster at Fukushima– but they have also proven challenging both in operation and repairs. Still, Hitachi continues to promote ABWRs for export construction, including in Lithuania, where it hopes to build a new station to replace the shut-down Ignalina

Economics hinder US new build

16 August 2011

World Nuclear News

The near-term prospects for an expansion in the use of nuclear energy in the USA “will be miserably hard and extremely challenged by economics,” according to the head of Exelon, the country’s largest nuclear utility.

Speaking at the American Nuclear Society’s 2011 Utility Working Conference in Hollywood, Florida, on 15 August, Exelon chairman and CEO John Rowe said that the renaissance of the US nuclear industry is being limited by economics rather than technology. Read more….

August 1, 2011

Tepco Says Highest Radiation Detected at Fukushima Dai-Ichi

Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of Japan’s crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, said it detected the highest radiation to date at the site.

Geiger counters, used to detect radioactivity, registered more than 10 sieverts an hour, the highest reading the devices are able to record, Junichi Matsumoto, a general manager at the utility, said today. The measurements were taken at the base of the main ventilation stack for reactors No. 1 and No. 2.

NRC’S Japan Task Force Recommends Changes to Defense in Depth Measures at Nuclear Plants

NRC’S Japan Task Force Cites Station Blackout, Seismic, Flooding and Spent Fuel Pools as Areas for Improvement.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Japan Task Force has proposed improvements in areas ranging from loss of power to earthquakes, flooding, spent fuel pools, venting and preparedness, and said a “patchwork of regulatory requirements” developed “piece-by-piece over the decades” should be replaced with a “logical, systematic and coherent regulatory framework” to further bolster reactor safety in the United States.

The report has been given to the five members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, who are responsible for making decisions regarding the Task Force’s recommendations.

Download and read the full report:

Recommendations for Enhancing Reactor Safety in the 21st Century
The Near-Term Task Force Review of Insights From the Fukushima Dai-ichi Accident

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, July 12, 2011

June 29th, 2011

CleanEnergy.org

Nuclear safety and NRC oversight called into question by series of investigative reports

The Associated Press (AP) has published a hard-hitting four-part series, detailing the cozy relationship between the nuclear power industry and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the federal agency that regulates utilities operating nuclear power plants. The depth and scope of the investigation provides a stunning look behind the scenes of the nuclear power industry in the U.S.

The series of reports comes at a time when revelations about the relationship between Japanese nuclear regulators, government officials and the electric utilities are being uncovered. The recent news that Tepco seriously underestimated the risk and size of a tsunami in their one-page tsunami plan, which regulators shockingly approved, should give pause that the U.S. is not immune to similar oversight issues.

The first article in the series, “U.S. nuke regulators weaken safety rules” pulls no punches when criticizing the NRC: “Federal regulators have been working closely with the nuclear power industry to keep the nation’s aging reactors operating within safety standards by repeatedly weakening those standards, or simply failing to enforce them, an investigation by The Associated Press has found.”

GAO: leaks at aging nuke sites difficult to detect

June 22, 2011

U.S. nuclear power plant operators haven’t figured out how to quickly detect leaks of radioactive water from aging pipes that snake underneath the sites” and the leaks, often undetected for years, are not going to stop, according to a new report by congressional investigators.

The report by the Government Accountability Office was released by two congressmen Tuesday in response to an Associated Press investigation that shows three-quarters of America’s 65 nuclear …

U.S. nuclear power plant operators haven’t figured out how to quickly detect leaks of radioactive water from aging pipes that snake underneath the sites â€” and the leaks, often undetected for years, are not going to stop, according to a new report by congressional investigators.

Protesters Want NRG Energy to Halt Nuclear Reactor Licensing

No More Chernobyls, No More Fukushimas, No More Nuclear Reactors

Media Release

April 26, 2011 – For Immediate Release

Austin & Houston, TX Last week NRG Energy announced that they will halt further investment in two proposed South Texas Project nuclear reactors, a strong step in the right direction. However, protesters demanding crucial further steps took to the streets today, urging NRG to halt reactor licensing.

“NRG was right to protect the financial health of the utility by pulling out of investment in the $18.2 billion reactors,” said Karen Hadden, Director of the SEED Coalition. “But it is crucial that NRG fully halt the licensing of the proposed reactors and withdraw their federal loan guarantee application, since approval would allow billions of taxpayer dollars to go toward building more nuclear reactors. Another company could come in and buy out the reactor project, which should instead be halted entirely. These reactors should not be built by NRG or any other company.”

Reactor opponents have a strong legal case addressing the risks of co-locating multiple reactors at the same site and contend that NRG’s plan to deal with fires and explosions is inadequate. The groups recently wrote to the NRG Board, urging that the reactor license application and federal loan guarantee application be withdrawn and that the company stop pursuit of adding 20 years of operating life for existing aging reactors. STP Nuclear Operating Company estimates an $18.2 billion pricetag for two reactors. If the financially shaky project somehow moves forward, a loan default would fall on the shoulders of already burdened taxpayers.