Archive for the ‘News’ Category

March 27, 2011

by Harvey Wasserman/nukefree.org

There is no safe dose of radiation.

We do not x-ray pregnant women.

Any detectable fallout can kill.

With erratic radiation spikes, major air and water emissions and at least three reactors and waste pools in serious danger at Fukushima, we must prepare for the worst.

When you hear the terms "safe" and" insignificant" in reference to radioactive fallout, ask yourself: "Safe for whom?" "Insignificant to which of us?"

Despite the corporate media, what has and will continue to come here from Fukushima is deadly to Americans. At very least it threatens countless embryos and fetuses in utero, the infants, the elderly, the unborn who will come to future mothers now being exposed. (http://nukefree.org/arnie-gundersen-radiation-dangers )

No matter how small the dose, the human egg in waiting, or embryo or fetus in utero, or newborn infant, or weakened elder, has no defense against even the tiniest radioactive assault.
Science has never found such a "safe" threshold, and never will.

In the 1950s Dr. Alice Stewart showed a definitive link between medical x-rays administered to pregnant women and the curse of childhood leukemia among their offspring.

After a fierce 30-year debate, the medical profession agreed. Today, administering an x-ray to a pregnant woman is universally understood to be a serious health hazard.

Those who pioneered the health physics profession—towering greats like Dr. Karl Z. Morgan and Dr. John Gofman—set a definitive, impenetrable standard. A safe dose of radiation does not exist. All doses, "insignificant" or otherwise, can harm the human organism.

That has been repeatedly shown in major studies—done most notably by Dr. Ernest Sternglass, Jay Gould, Joe Mangano, Arnie Gundersen, Dr. Steven Wing (http://nukefree.org/tmia-bloomberg-dr-ed-lyman-developments-fukushima )and others—showing that among human populations near commercial reactors, infant death rates plummet once the reactors shut down.

In 1979, 32 years ago this March 28, the owners of Three Mile Island said there was no meltdown, no serious radiation release and no need for evacuation.
All were lies.

To this day no one knows how much radiation was released or where it went or who it killed.

TMI’s owners ran ads dismissing the emissions as the equivalent of a single chest x-ray given to everyone within a ten mile radius.

But that included all the pregnant women.

Soon infant death rates soared in nearby Harrisburg. Some 2400 central Pennsylvania families sued based on the health impacts.

In 1980 I interviewed dozens of these people. Cancer, leukemia, birth defects, stillbirths, sterility, malformations, open lesions, hair loss, a metallic taste and much more were among the symptoms. (http://www.loran-history.info/health/Killing_Our_Own.pdf )

The death and mutation rate among farm and wild animals was also thoroughly documented by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and a team of investigators from the Baltimore News-American.

We were again told there were "no health dangers" from radiation that hit California from Chernobyl ten days after that 1986explosion. But bird births at the Point Reyes National Seashore quickly dropped 60% from the levels that had been carefully monitored and recorded through the previous decade.

The cloud then crossed the northern tier of the United States. Heightened radiation levels were found in milk in New England—as they were throughout Europe from clouds that had blown from Chernobyl in the other direction.

The doses were neither "insignificant" nor "safe" tothose far or near.

In Russia ten years later, I interviewed dozens of downwind victims, and many of the 800,000 "liquidators" who ran into Chernobyl’s seething corpse to help clean it up. After TMI, it was déjà vu all over again.

The most recently published findings, from acompendium of more than 5,000 studies,indicate a global Chernobyl death toll in excess of 985,000, and still counting. ( http://www.nukefree.org/node/1828 ).

Today we are assaulted by yet another radioactive death cloud from yet another "perfectly safe" nuclear plant.

Fukushima’s radiation is pouring into the air and water. The operators have reported radiation levels a million times normal, then retracted the estimate to a "mere" 100,000. Workers are being exposed to doses that are certain to be lethal. At least three of the reactors, and one or more of the spent fuel pools, hover at the brink of catastrophe.

Fukushima’s radiation has now been detected in LosAngeles and Sacramento, and has blown east across North America. It has also been detected in Sweden, which means it’s blowing across Europe as well.

Radiation is not being released as a single puff. Rather it’s a steady stream that could yet turn into a tsunami.

Fukushima’s worst may be yet to come. Its collective emissions are virtually certain to exceed Chernobyl’s.

And yet we continue to hear smug, misinformed" experts," TV meteorologists and industry talking heads saying these are "safe" doses.

The response of the Obama Administration has been beyond derelict. As the accident began, the President went on national television to assure us there was nothing to worry about, and that he would continue to demand $36 billion in loan guarantees to build new nuclear plants.

Since then, even as the Fukushima crisis mounts, President Obama has remained silent.

Millions of Americans have heard about potassium iodide (KI), which can be used block the uptake of radioactive iodine and perhaps protect the thyroid.

But KI can have potential medical side-effects for some individuals. And timing can be critical. To say the least, we need to know when the radioactive fallout is present.
Yet the administration has not provided us with a national supply of KI, or guidance for using it.

At very least we need reliable real-time mapping of the radioactive clouds as they cross the nation. Every American should be issued a mask, and sufficient KI pills with directions on how to use them, if necessary.

Above all, we need national leadership that puts the health of our people first and foremost.

Americans who are of reproductive age—and their unborn, our babies, the elderly, those of us who may be specially sensitive—we all deserve better.

As we have learned so tragically from Drs. Stewart, Morgan, Gofman and Sternglass, from Gundersen and Mangano and so many other researchers, from TMI and Chernobyl, and from the on-going operation of nuclear plants where infant death rates continue to be affected—a "perfectly safe" dose of radiation does not exist.

No truly informed or responsible scientist, medical doctor, health researcher, TV weatherman, bloviating "expert" or on-the scene reporter would ever tell you otherwise.
Whenever you hear the term "insignificant" fallout, ask yourself: "insignificant to whom?"

"Acceptable" to which expectant mother? To whose child? To how many mourning parents? For which dying elder?

Nuclear reactors make global warming worse and prolongour addiction to fossil fuels. They stand in the way of our transition to a totally green-powered Earth.
As we continue to learn at such a huge cost, there can never be a "perfectly safe" nuclear reactor, any more than there can be a "perfectly harmless" dose of radiation.

"Impossible" accidents continue to happen, one after the other, each of them successively worse.

What we fear most about TMI, then Chernobyl and now Fukushima, is not what has happened—but what is yet to come, there, and at the next inevitable reactor disaster.
Call and email the White House (1-202-456-1111/1414), Your Congress people (nirs.org), your state and local governments, and…

1. DEMAND a national real-time monitoring network that can tell us how much radiation is coming down in our country. Incredibly, our current system relies on volunteers and VERY unreliable slipshod methods. Ironically, the monitors at our existing nukes can be used as part of the network. But we MUST have reliable measurement to protect ourselves. Tell them we need to know, IMMEDIATELY, how much radiation is coming over this country from Japan and where it is going;
2. DEMAND that every American be issued a breathing mask and a supply of potassium iodide (KI) to protect against possible thyroid damage from Iodine131 fallout. The use of KI is well-established, but there is no reliable supply, and there is no standardized source to find out how to use it. In some cases, KI may not be appropriate or beneficial. But there is no doubt its availability is essential to protecting the public.
3. DEMAND the rapid shutdown of all US nuclear plants, but especially the 23 General Electric Mark I reactors that are virtually identical to Unit One at Fukushima. These include Vermont Yankee, Indian Point and others in high-risk regions. They are old, stuffed up with nuke waste, and ridiculously dangerous. Some are being given license extensions. This must STOP, and these plants must shut immediately. You can do this by email via: http://nukefree.org/nirs-shut-all-ge-mark-i-reactors-now.
4. DEMAND of the White House and your Senators and US Representatives that the $36 billion in new reactor loan guarantees be removed from the 2012 federal budget, never to be seen again. You can do this by email via: http://nukefree.org/nirs-let-congress-hear-your-voice-against-36-billion-new-nuke-handouts.
5. And, if you’ve still got some breath in you, tell the White House and Congressionals to rescind the Price-Anderson Act, which limits the liability of a reactor owner to just $12.6 billion in the face of an accident that could kill millions and cost trillions. No other industry gets this kind of public insurance. Why should the nukes?

Taken as a whole, this is an agenda that can change the world and move us very far down the road to a green-powered Earth. But it can’t be just once. Take these five steps every day until they are all realized. Continue to contact your Senators and Representative until this agenda is won!! Become a fixture at town hall or the state legislature. Have your friends do the same!

Nuclear power allows us no room for "a good-faith losing effort." So let’s win….and be NukeFree !!!

Apr. 21, 2011

Taro Koyano, Correspondent
Yomiuri Shimbun

NEW YORK–NRG Energy Inc., a leading U.S. utility, announced Tuesday that it would not spend any more money on a project it has been promoting with Toshiba Corp. to build new reactors at the South Texas Project nuclear power station.

The announcement effectively means that NRG has given up on plans to build two additional reactors at the plant. Toshiba had contracted to build the two reactors single-handedly, in what would have been a first for a Japanese nuclear plant maker.

NRG’s decision, which came as Japan has been struggling to deal with a nuclear crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant in Fukushima Prefecture, will likely deal a great blow to Japan’s joint public-private sector efforts to increase nuclear power plant exports, industry sources said.

NRG and Toshiba jointly established a nuclear development company–Nuclear Innovation North America–in February 2008 to build two new reactors with a combined capacity of 2.7 million kilowatts at the plant, which has two reactors already.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. agreed last year to invest up to 155 million dollars (about 12.8 billion yen) in the Texas project.

But given the crisis at its Fukushima plant, which was crippled in the aftermath the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, TEPCO recently announced a plan to freeze foreign investments.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Dallas Morning News

The old saw "Politics makes for strange bedfellows" was in evidence today as apparently unlikely allies–environmental and consumer groups and the Tea Party, represented by former GOP gubernatorial candidate Debra Merdina–spoke out against legislation that would allow nuclear waste from all over the country to be shipped to a West Texas disposal site.

April 20, 2011

World Nuclear News

The future development of South Texas Project (STP) units 3 and 4 looks unlikely after majority shareholder NRG Energy announced that it will write down its investments so far in the project and make no further investment.

The project to construct two Advanced Boiling Water Reactors (ABWRs) at STP is being developed by Nuclear Innovation North America (Nina) – jointly owned by NRG Energy and Toshiba. It had been considered among the leading new build projects in America, and was one of the few that had survived both the financial crisis and the new availability of cheap natural gas.

NRG noted that it does not have the unilateral right to cancel the project, only the right to terminate its participation in it. The company said, "while it will cooperate with and support its current partners and any prospective future partners in attempting to develop STP 3 and 4 successfully," it will not invest additional capital in the STP effort. NRG will write down its investment so far in STP units 3 and 4 and record a first-quarter 2011 pre-tax charge of some $481 million, for "the impairment of all of the net assets of Nina." The write down consists of $331 million of Nina net assets funded by NRG, together with $150 million of net investment contributed by Toshiba.

The company blamed the move on the continuing emergency at the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan and the subsequent safety review by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) that could lead to modified design requirements for the STP units. Although an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the project has already been awarded, it is impossible to finalize a price without the final design, said NRG. Furthermore, discussions about power purchasing agreements are "pointless" without a firm price for the new units. In addition, NRG said that planned Japanese financial participation in the project is "now significantly in doubt."

David Crane, chairman of Nina and CEO of NRG, said: "The tragic nuclear incident in Japan has introduced multiple uncertainties around new nuclear development in the United States which have had the effect of dramatically reducing the probability that STP 3 and 4 can be successfully developed in a timely fashion."

He added, "We continue to believe both in the absolute necessity of a US nuclear renaissance and that STP 3 and 4 is the best new nuclear development project in the country bar none. However, the extraordinary challenges facing US nuclear development in the present circumstance and the very considerable financial resources expended by NRG on the project over the past five years make it impossible for us to justify to our shareholders any further financial participation in the development of the STP project."

Last month, Nina announced that development of the new STP units had been slowed in response to regulatory uncertainty following recent events at Fukushima Daiichi. At that time, the company said that it was reducing the scope of development of the units "to allow time for the US NRC and other nuclear stakeholders to assess the lessons that can be learned from the events in Japan." For the time being, it had said, work related to development of the two new units would be limited to licensing and securing a federal loan guarantee for the project.

Nina will continue work on securing a combined construction and operating licence (COL) from the NRC and on obtaining a loan guarantee from the US Department of Energy, as these "two assets are absolutely essential to the success of any future project development." It noted that Toshiba will be responsible for funding ongoing costs to continue the licensing process. NRG said that it expects to incur one-time costs, related to a contribution to Nina, of up to $20 million.

Toshiba received a 12% stake in Nina, in return for a $300 million investment over six years. Half of this investment is to support the proposed new ABWRs at STP through Nina Investments Holdings. The other half is for new ABWR projects in North America with other potential partners. Nina holds a 92.4% stake in the project to build STP Units 3 and 4, with the remaining 7.6% held by CPS Energy (which owns 40% of the existing STP units). The project had originally been a 50-50 venture between Nina and CPS, but CPS decided to withdraw from the project altogether. However, in February 2010 an agreement was reached under which CPS would retain a small stake. CPS recently announced that it was indefinitely suspending all discussions with NRG regarding a power purchase agreement for electricity from the planned new STP units.

In May 2010, Japanese utility Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) – owner of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi plant – agreed to invest $155 million for a 9% stake in the project to construct the new STP units, with an option to later increase this stake to some 18% for an additional $125 million within about one year. Tepco has been providing technical consulting services to the project since March 2007. The extent of the company’s future involvement in the STP project is uncertain.

The South Texas Project currently consists of two pressurized water reactors (PWRs), which together produce some 2700 MWe. The reactors were brought online in August 1988 and June 1989. The facility is operated by STPNOC and owned by NRG Texas (44%), CPS Energy (40%) and Austin Energy (16%).

Although the COL for STP is not anticipated until 2012, an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the project has been awarded to a consortium of the Shaw Group and Toshiba America Nuclear Energy Corporation, and an order for one of the reactor pressure vessels has already been placed with Japanese engineering company IHI. Construction of the two new ABWRs at STP was expected to begin next year, with the first 1358 MWe unit coming online in 2016 and the second in 2017.

Researched and written by World Nuclear News

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

By Tracy Idell Hamilton
San Antonio Express-News

NRG Energy stopped all spending on the South Texas Project nuclear expansion and will write off its investment in the face of deeply diminished prospects for the project since Japan’s worst-ever nuclear accident.

"The project is not dead," CEO David Crane said Tuesday, "but it’s not moving forward at this point, and to be frank, under the current circumstances, the reality of it moving forward in the foreseeable future is not high."

The company plans to record a first-quarter pre-tax charge of about $481 million from Nuclear Innovation North America, its joint venture with Toshiba, NRG said. Toshiba funded $150 million of that.

NINA will continue to seek an operating license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Crane said, as well as a federal loan guarantee from the Energy Department.

He called that decision "smart asset management," saying he could see a time when the project near Bay City, with a license and loan guarantee in hand, will be attractive to new investors.

Toshiba, which holds a 12 percent stake in NINA, will take over the costs of pursuing the NRC license. But Crane acknowledged any roadblocks in that process could cause Toshiba to drop its funding.

CPS Energy, which retains a 7.6 percent stake in the expansion, said it will continue to support efforts to secure the federal loan guarantee and operating license. It stopped its investment, which totaled about $386 million, more than a year ago.

The city-owned utility would receive $80 million from NINA if the project gets the loan guarantee.

Spokeswoman Lisa Lewis said it’s too soon to tell whether CPS ultimately will lose its investment in the project. She noted there were times during the development of STP’s original two reactors when the project looked dead, only to be revived by new partners and new circumstances.

CPS is a 40 percent owner in STP 1 and 2; Austin Energy owns 16 percent and NRG 44 percent.

Anti-nuclear activists cheered Tuesday’s announcement but were dismayed that NRG didn’t pull the plug entirely.

Karen Hadden of the SEED Coalition, an Austin-based environmental organization, said her group and others would continue to fight the licensing efforts.

NRG recognized last month that it likely lost a major investor in the expansion after Tokyo Electric Power’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear reactors were crippled by a tsunami spawned by an earthquake. NRG then suspended indefinitely all detailed engineering work and other pre-construction activities. That reduced the project workforce from 1,000 to about 350.

NINA will keep three employees on the project, Crane said.

The South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Co. had about 120 workers assigned to the expansion at its peak; that number now is 24.

Tepco’s president confirmed Monday, according to a story on Nikkei.com, that the company will reconsider its overseas business strategy as it focuses on bringing the damaged reactors under control.