Tag Archives: Planning

Failed concrete: the bane of nuclear reactors

Let’s not forget the failed concrete on which

Plant Vogtle’s unprotected stranded reactor vessel is supposed to sit.

A week before

the reactor vessel train wreck, news stories
said concrete pouring was delayed due to “noncompliant rebar”.
Thomas Clements elaborated for the Aiken Leader 14 January 2013,

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



Due to chronic delays in the pouring of “nuclear
concrete” for the basemat of the AP1000 units at Vogtle and VC
Summer, it remains unknown when or if any reactor vessels can
actually be placed into the excavated holes at the sites. A January
10 meeting of the NRC confirmed that another basemat-related
“license amendment request” (LAR) was soon to be filed
by SCE&G for its AP1000 project and that the target date for
granting of the LAR was March 18. It appears that the Vogtle project
has fallen behind the V.C. Summer project and no strategy for the
filing of a similar and necessary LAR by Southern Company is known.




Concrete, the long-time bane of

Seabrook Station
and also what’s keeping

Crystal River shut down because nobody wants to pay the
billions of dollars it would take to fix it.

 




What say we call the whole thing off, like
Dominion Power did with its existing

Kewaunee nuke,
and
TEPCO and NRG did

with their plans for new South Texas nukes.

 



Maybe it’s a sign that meanwhile

Google has invested a billion dollars in wind and solar and gotten
2 gigawatts of power, almost as much as the 2.2 GW the two new Vogtle nukes
were supposed to produce, except Google’s solar and wind projects
are online on time, and for less than just the cost overruns at Vogtle.

The Georgia legislature is in session.
You can contact

your legislator or the PSC today
about

toppling Southern Company’s three-legged nuclear regulatory-capture stool
and

fixing that 1973 Territoriality Law
so we can get on with solar and wind in Georgia,
for jobs and energy independence, and oh by the way clean air and
plenty of clean

water.

-jsq

Centralized Nuclear Bad Investment?

A writer for Forbes spells out the question of nuclear investment:
how can something that expensive, over-budget, late, and phenomenally
risky be a good investment, especially when cheaper and faster energy
sources are readily available?

Peter Kelly-Detwiler wrote for Forbes today,

New Centralized Nuclear Plants: Still an Investment Worth Making?



Just a few years ago, the US nuclear renaissance seemed at hand. It
probably shouldn’t have been. Cost overruns from Finland to France
to the US were already becoming manifest, government guarantees were
in doubt, and shale gas drillers were beginning to punch holes into
the ground with abandon.

Then came Fukushima. The latter proved a somewhat astonishing
reminder of forgotten lessons about nuclear power risks, unique to
that technology: A failure of one power plant in an isolated


location can create a contagion in countries far away, and even
where somewhat different variants of that technology are in use.
Just as Three Mile Island put the kaibosh on nuclear power in the US
for decades, Fukushima appears to have done the same for Japan and
Germany, at a minimum. It certainly did not help public opinion, and
at a minimum, the effect of Fukushima will likely be to increase
permitting and associated regulatory costs.

He goes into detail: they take too long (while gas and solar got cheaper),
they’re extremely expensive to build and run, and they’re all-or-nothing
investments.

I was going to compile this list of recent nuclear financial failures,
but he saves us all the trouble:

Continue reading →

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 →

Georgia legislature still trying to suck up Tennessee River water

Because Atlanta can’t get a grip on its water usage, the Georgia legislature
is still trying to suck up Tennessee River water.
If the legislature is willing to try that, how long before they
try sucking up our Floridan Aquifer water for Atlanta?



Prefiled in December to be up early as the Georgia legisture starts meeting
today, is a bill to try to move the northern border of Georgia to match
an eighteenth century boundary that just happens to include a bit of the
Tennessee River in Georgia.
HR 4,

Georgia and Tennessee; boundary dispute; propose settlement,
was filed by

Rep. Harry Geisinger, R – Roswell, District 48,
and says in part:

WHEREAS, the State of Georgia proposes to the State of Tennessee
that the dispute be resolved by the states agreeing that the current
boundary between the two states reflecting the flawed 1818 survey be
adopted as the legal boundary between the states except for an area
described as follows which shall be made a part of the State of
Georgia by which Georgia shall be able to exercise its riparian
water rights to the Tennessee River at Nickajack:

Georgia is already in a

three-decade-long dispute with Alabama and
Florida over the Chattahoochee River.
Does adding a dispute over the Tennessee River
seem like a good idea to you?

And how can we best stop Atlanta from coming for our Floridan Aquifer?

-jsq

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 →

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 →

Gretchen LCDP v. Austin Scott GA-08 on WCTV


Gretchen with LAKE video camera
Hearing a representative was in town, Gretchen took the LAKE video camera
down to the Chamber of Commerce.
Greg Gullberg of WCTV invited her to rebut Rep. Austin Scott (R GA-08)
in her role as Chair of the Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP).
After some back and forth,

the WCTV story
shows transparency winning, and Gretchen with the last word.


Rep. Scott GA-08

Gretchen as LCDP Chair

But their [sic] is one thing they both agree on.

“I quite honestly think both sides ought to put their budgets on
C-Span and maybe we ought to have those negotiations on C-Span,”
said Scott.

“So I’m all for having everything all out on the table for all
citizens to see,” said Quarterman.


Scott speaking

Gretchen speaking



Hey, what if

the Lowndes County Commission put its board packets and budgets out on the web
for all us taxpayers to see?

Here’s
the WCTV video.
The video Gretchen took will follow.

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 →

Videos: money and transparency @ LCC 2013-01-08



The new Commission with the new portrait got to hear about money and
transparency right away.
And a surprise alcoholic vote caused by their lack of transparency.




Crawford Powell (Dist. 3), Richard Raines (Dist. 2), Bill Slaughter (Chairman),
Joyce Evans (Dist. 1), John Page (Dist. 5), Demarcus Marshall (Dist. 4).

Here’s

the agenda,
with links to videos,
and a few notes,
followed by

a video playlist.
See also
the Monday Work Session.

Continue reading →