Category Archives: Nuclear

Vogtle reactor vessel sitting unprotected at Savannah port

What happened to Plant Vogtle’s new reactor vessel after

it was in a train wreck a week ago?
It went back to Savannah port and sits there unprotected and unguarded.

Thomas Clements wrote for the Aiken Leader 14 January 2013,

Vogtle AP1000 Nuclear Reactor Vessel Discovered Unprotected, Stranded in Savannah Port since December 15 Shipment Failure,




Tom Clements, Alliance for Nuclear Accountability

The reactor pressure vessel (RPV) for the chronically delayed Vogtle
AP1000 reactor construction project near Waynesboro, Georgia sits
stranded and seemingly unprotected in the port of Savannah. The
special railroad car carrying the 300-ton vessel had unknown
mechanical problems on December 15 on exiting the port. The NRC has
said that the vessel only got one-quarter mile before a sound was
heard and the car stopped. Plans by Westinghouse and Southern
Company to move the vessel are unknown. It is also unknown if the
railroad car can be repaired and used or if the railroad company
which owns the line is concerned that the rail car might break down
again on its line in an in accessible place. Meanwhile, the
apparently unguarded reactor might be subject to sabotage and sits
in apparent violation of NRC quality assurance and “administrative
control” regulations.

The article includes links to several more pictures
taken 13 January 2013 by Tom Clements of

Alliance for Nuclear Accountability,
such as this one with the bridge clearly visible:

Continue reading →

Overwhelming majority of Americans want clean water and renewable energy –poll



A
new poll
says 94% want new energy balanced with clean air and water, 86% want to shift from coal and nuclear to wind and water power, and 79% are concerned about shale gas fracking affecting water quality.

A few excerpts from the PR

Water is High Priority for Bipartisan Majority of Americans,
10 January 2013,

  • 92 percent of Americans think “U.S. energy planning and
    decision making” should be based on “a comprehensive
    understanding of what our national water resources are”
    — a national water roadmap that Congress asked for, but which
    was never produced. The national water roadmap attracts the support
    of 92 percent of Republicans, 89 percent of Independents, and 94
    percent of Democrats.
  • 86 percent of Americans want leadership on shifting from coal and
    nuclear energy to wind and solar. Support for this approach exists
    across party lines, including 72 percent of Republicans, 83 percent
    of Independents, and 97 percent of Democrats.
  • 86 percent of Americans “support more studies of the health
    and environmental consequences of the chemicals” used in
    fracking. Supporters of this approach include 81 percent of
    Republicans, 84 percent of Independents, and 89 percent of
    Democrats.
  • Three quarters of Americans have heard of fracking, with 51 percent
    saying they are very or somewhat familiar with it. 79 percent of
    Americans are concerned about fracking “as it relates to water
    quality.”

What is to be done?

Continue reading →

The water is not lost. —Forrest H. Williams



Valdosta resident Forrest H. Williams replied in the VDT today to

my op-ed of 6 January.
His information seems a bit out of date.
For example, he cites

Progress Energy’s Crystal River nuke
as a good example, when it’s been

down since 2009
and is still

producing zero percent power,
both according to the NRC.
Readers of this blog know that

the blog version of my op-ed
already links to sources for everything I said.
I may respond more later, but no doubt there are other people
who want to get involved in this discussion.
And I do thank Forrest H. Williams for airing the sort of disinformation
that is out there, so others can dispel it.

Oh, and saying water that is evaporated is not lost is like saying trees that are burned are not lost. Evaporated water is not available for agricultural or wildlife or drinking water use, and thus is indeed lost.

Continue reading →

Google invests in wind and solar

While Southern Company and Georgia Power pour money
down that nuclear pit by the Savannah River and Progress Energy can’t
afford to fix its Crystal River nuke, Google’s
wind and solar projects are already online on time,
all for less than the cost overruns so far at Vogtle
or the fix-it price at Crystal River.

David Goldman wrote for CNN Money 10 January 2013,

Google invests $200 million in Texas wind farm,



“We look for projects like Spinning Spur because, in addition to
creating more renewable energy and strengthening the local economy,
they also make for smart investments,” Kojo Ako-Asare, Google’s
senior manager of corporate finance, said in a

blog post.

Ako-Asare added that wind farms offer “attractive returns relative
to the risks.”

Which is the opposite of nuclear’s

huge risks relative to the

apparently negative returns.
So how much wind and solar energy does Google generate?

Continue reading →

Crystal River nuke still can’t get insurance payoff



Nobody wants to pay to fix

Progress Energy's Crystal River nuke:
not PGN, not its new owner Duke Energy, not
Nuclear Electric Insurance Ltd. (NEIL).
So maybe this nuke, only

160 miles from here,
will be staying shut permanently?
What say we do the same for the new nukes at Plant Vogtle,
only

200 miles from here,
before they even open?

John Downey
wrote for the Charlotte Business Journal,

Crystal River nuke plant stymies Duke Energy
Utility facing penalties, high costs for repairs,

After two mediation sessions, Progress Energy Florida and its
insurer haven't agreed how much of the potential repair costs for
the utility's crippled Crystal River nuclear unit are covered.

It appears all but certain that Progress — a Duke Energy Corp.
subsidiary — will have to pay millions of dollars as a penalty
for failing to make a timely decision on whether to repair the
plant.

Repair expenses have been calculated at between $1.5 billion and
$3.4 billion, plus what it costs to buy power to replace what
Crystal River would have produced while it is being repaired.

What kept shut Crystal River down from 2009 on was

a concrete containment separation.
Maybe those

errors in pouring concrete at Plant Vogtle
are

Continue reading →

Fire in Texas nuclear reactor

Do

fires at nuclear plants like Plant Hatch actually still occur?
Yep, at the South Texas Nuclear Project, just this week.
And that STP Unit 2 is

a different design and newer (1989) than Hatch 1 or 2.
Austin has been trying to sell its share in that lemon since 1981.
Even TEPCO cancelled plans for new reactors there in 2011,
due to cost overruns and the Fukushima disaster.
What say we cancel our new nuclear lemons at Plant Vogtle?

According to the

NRC event report for 9 January 2013:

UNUSUAL EVENT DECLARED DUE TO MAIN TRANSFORMER FIRE



“Fire in Unit 2 main transformer 2A. Reactor trip. Two train of
offsite power lost to Unit 2.”

“An Unusual Event was declared based on EAL HU-2—Fire or
explosion in protected area or switchyard which affects normal plant
operations.”

At 1655 CST, South Texas Unit 2 declared an Unusual Event due to a
main transformer fire. Unit 2 tripped from 100% power and is
currently at 0% power in Mode 3. The transformer fire is out.


In
addition to the loss of the main transformer, several safety related
electrical busses and non-safety electrical busses lost offsite
power. The appropriate emergency diesel generators started and
powered the safety related busses. Unit 2 is currently stable and on
natural circulation due to the loss of power to the reactor coolant
pumps. Auxiliary feedwater is functioning as required and decay heat
is being removed through the steam generator atmospheric relief
valves. Unit 1 was unaffected by the event.

The licensee notified the NRC Resident Inspector.

Notified DHS SWO, FEMA, DHS NICC and NuclearSSA via email.

According to the NRC,

they still don’t know

Continue reading →

Vogtle nuclear reactor train wreck

Ever wondered what a nuclear reactor vessel looks like?
Here’s one that’s literally a train wreck,
on its way to Plant Vogtle on the Savannah River.

Rob Pavey wrote for the Augusta Chronicle 10 January 2013,

Vogtle reactor vessel slips between Savannah, Burke County,



A 300-ton reactor vessel bound for Plant Vogtle was stranded briefly
in south Georgia this week after a malfunction with the specially
designed rail car moving the nuclear component from Savannah to
Burke County. Workers examine a rail car that was transporting a
300-ton reactor vessel from the Port of Savannah to the Plant Vogtle
nuclear site in Burke County. A misalignment between the cargo
platform and the rail car caused the component to be returned to
Savannah.

“The platform that contained the RV (reactor vessel) during
transport became misaligned with the Schnabel railcar, so the
railcar stopped immediately,” said Georgia Power Co. spokesman
Mark Williams. “The platform and car were re-aligned the same
day and safely returned to the port.”

The Schnabel railcar, which features extra axles that help
distribute and support the weight of heavy objects, did not break,
he said. Georgia Power would not divulge the location of the
incident.

I wonder what the locals think.
We’d ask them, if we knew where they were.

Well, that’s the only mishap so far, right?

Continue reading →

Help Sierra Club send a message to Georgia Power CEO Bowers



Georgia Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign probably contributed to

Georgia Power’s recent decision to shut down some coal plants.
Now Sierra Club offers a petition to ask Georgia Power CEO Paul Bowers
to go farther, and replace those coal plants with solar offshore wind power
for jobs and health for Georgia.


Dirty Coal is Out, Help Usher Clean Energy In!

Georgia Power recently announced their plans to retire three of
their oldest and dirtiest coal fired power plants.


Now, we must send
a clear message to Georgia Power’s leadership that we want to keep
Georgia Jobs by investing in homegrown clean energy and energy
efficiency to power our homes and businesses.

Send a message to Georgia Power CEO Paul Bowers telling him to
replace dirty coal with investments in homegrown clean energy and
energy efficiency that can produce thousands of lasting Georgia
jobs.

It’s a petition; details here.

Seth Gunning
explained why

in Sierra Club PR:

Continue reading →

Nukes economically hard to justify —GE CEO Immelt

The CEO of General Electric,
the company that designed the reactors

at Fukushima and Hatch 1 and 2,
said nukes are economically hard to justify.
And that was back in July, before
the first new nukes permitted in 30 years,
at Plant Vogtle on the Savannah River,

slipped 15 months.
What’s winning? Shale gas, temporarily, but that’s just a bump
in the road on the way to wind and solar power.

Pilita Clark wrote for Financial Times 30 July 2012,

Nuclear ‘hard to justify’, says GE chief,



Nuclear power is so expensive compared with other forms of energy
that it has become “really hard” to justify, according
to the chief executive of General Electric, one of the world’s
largest suppliers of atomic equipment.

“It’s really a gas and wind world today,” said Jeff
Immelt, referring to two sources of electricity he said most
countries are shifting towards as natural gas becomes
“permanently cheap”.

“When I talk to the guys who run the oil companies they say
look, they’re finding more gas all the time. It’s just hard to
justify nuclear, really hard. Gas is so cheap and at some point,
really, economics rule,” Mr Immelt told the Financial Times in
an interview in London at the weekend. “So I think some
combination of gas, and either wind or solar … that’s where we see
most countries around the world going.”



GE CEO Immelt may also want to talk to GE’s own research director

Continue reading →

Putting conservation into conservatives —John S. Quarterman

My op-ed in the VDT today. -jsq

Gov. Deal
(WABE, 14 Nov 2012)
temporarily forgot that “conservative”
includes conserving something,


like

Theodore Roosevelt and national parks,
or when

Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Okefenokee National Wildlife
Refuge which also

administers Banks Lake, when

Richard Nixon started the EPA,
and when

Jimmy Carter signed the Soil and Water Conservation Act.
If Gov. Deal wants to call conservation “liberal”, I’m happy to
be a liberal working for water for our state!


Georgia Water Coalition’s Dirty Dozen



listed the biggest boondoggle
of all as

#11: the nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle
suck up more water from the Savannah River than all local agriculture and almost
as much as the city of Savannah.

If the new Plant Vogtle nukes

are ever completed, all four will use more water than Savannah. In

2009 the legislature approved and Gov. Deal signed a law
letting Georgia
Power charge its customers in advance for building that boondoggle,
to the tune of

about $1.5 billion so far!

Let’s not forget

Continue reading →