Tag Archives: Safety

SPLOST VII county list @ LCC 2013-07-22



Not quite most of the money for roads, streets, and bridges
(none of them named to the public), plus everything from animals to public safety,
in the county’s SPLOST VII list.
But don’t be alarmed: it contains no new library and no new auditorium,
and the Chairman referred to it as a “back to basics” list.
It also contains nothing about Internet access; more on that in a separate post.
You can be told about this list tomorrow night or at a forthcoming joint county-cities
public telling: no town hall meetings have yet been scheduled.
These videos and slides are from

this morning’s Lowndes County Commission Work Session
.

5.
Special Presentation & Consideration — Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax VII

There was something new in what Joe Pritchard said:



Commissioners each had an opportunity for independent review and evaluation.

That’s better than the county tradition of the staff write down the list
and Commissioners rubber-stamp it.
However, where are

those town hall meetings Commissioner Joyce Evans promised
?
She reminded me afterwards that she had said “hopefully”.
Mayor Gayle told me afterwards the problem was they were too close
to the deadline for turning in the lists for the election.
He indicated that was because the county was late.
Remember Valdosta already presented its list

9 July 2013
.
Rumor has it the delay was in some Commissioners insisting on actually
having input.
That’s a good thing, but if the county planned ahead, there still
would have been time for the rest of us to provide input before
the lists were finalized.

The slides presented say they’re also available on the county’s website,
but I don’t see them there, so I’m posting stills from the LAKE video here.

Continue reading

Anti-nuke activist Taro Yamomato wins Japanese Diet seat

An actor turned anti-nuke activist after Fukushima just won
a seat in Japan’s upper house in the national government.



Japan Times, 22 July 2013 (Tokyo time is 13 hours ahead of Georgia time),

Actor Yamamoto, ex-wrestler Inoki win
,

Actor and anti-nuclear activist Taro Yamamoto and ex-wrestling star
Antonio Inoki both won seats in Sunday’s Upper House contest, early
returns showed.

Yamamoto, 38, who ran as an independent in the Tokyo constituency,
appeared set to enter the upper chamber after failing to win a seat
in the Lower House election in December.

He became widely known for his anti-nuclear power activities
following the March 2011 Fukushima meltdowns. He has also campaigned
against Japan’s participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade
liberalization negotiations, while calling for improved social
security.

Blogger

In the Eyes of an Étranger

reports Toro Yamamoto said about his election win:

“I will do a banzai to celebrate the occasion when I really
end up helping the victims of the nuclear disaster. A thorny path lies
ahead of me. Vested nuclear interests will no doubt try to sabotage
my efforts. My only friend in my endeavor are the voters who entrusted
their sacred votes.”

WSJ notes

five seats for Tokyo were contested
Continue reading

Pilgrim nuke down because of cold, heat, leak: when does it ever run?

Down in

January, February
, April,

May
, running low March and June,
and now likely to go down because of summer heat,
under what conditions does Entergy’s Pilgrim nuke near Boston, MA like to run?
Entergy also couldn’t keep the power on during the Super Bowl
and

still has Arkansas Nuclear 1 down since a fatal accident in March
.
To be fair,

many nukes can’t handle heat
.
Remind me,

why are we building more of them
?


Pilgrim 1 NRC Power Reactor Status Jan-July 2013

Christine Legere wrote for Cape Cod Times 18 July 2013,

Seawater temps too high for Pilgrim cooling
,

PLYMOUTH — The ongoing heat wave could force Pilgrim Nuclear
Power Station to shut down, as soaring temperatures continue to warm
the Cape Cod Bay waters that the plant relies on to cool key safety
systems.

Pilgrim’s license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission requires Continue reading

Diablo Canyon nuclear units 2 and 1 down one after another

The local newspaper didn’t look past PG&E’s news about unit 2 coming back up (lightning strike)
to notice that unit 1 had been down (pipe leak) a few weeks before.


Diablo Canyon 1 and 2 from 16 June 2013 to 16 July 2013

David Sneed wrote for the San Luis Obispo Tribune 16 July 2013,

Diablo Canyon’s Unit 2 reactor back at full power
, Continue reading

Arkansas Nuclear 1 still down since fatal accident in March

Apparently we still don’t know why this happened:



At approximately 7:50am on Sunday, March 31, 2013, a 600-ton
generator stator fell onto the turbine deck and then about 30 feet
to the train bay floor as was being lifted out of the Unit 1 turbine
building at the Arkansas Nuclear One plant. One worker was killed
and four others injured when the load fell.

Dave Lochbaum wrote for Union of Concerned Scientists 18 June 2013,

Fission Stories #139: Arkansas Nuclear One Fatal Event
,

The

NRC reviewed U.S. nuclear plant experience with lifting loads
with cranes
between 1968 and 2002. The NRC reported that about two
load drops per year happened during this period with ten incidents
causing deaths. The NRC’s review concluded that there had been only
three very heavy load drops (defined as a load weighing more than 30
tons). ANO-1 makes four.

While accidents can also happen with wind turbines or even
installing solar panels on rooftops,
a single solar or wind accident doesn’t Continue reading

China ends a nuclear treatment plant after demonstrations

“In order to respect the popular will, the government of” the city of Heshan
refused to proceed with a $9 billion uranium processing plant.
That happened after this, yesterday:




The cancellation, unusually fast, demonstrates the increasingly important attention
given by the authorities to environmental concerns that are often expressed at the local level.
Several projects of petrochemical plants and metal processing have recently been postponed or relocated.

Yes, I know the plant may just be relocated somewhere else.
But with enough such demonstrations it won’t be built.
How about some of this respect for the popular will about,
for example, the natural gas pipeline through Georgia from Alabama to Florida,
or the new nukes at Plant Vogtle?

Le Monde, today, Continue reading

Three Brooks County football players dead in morning accident

Jon Nelson wrote about an hour ago for GPB,

DEVELOPING: Three Brooks County Players Die In Car Accident
,



Three Brooks County (GA) High School football players died following
a morning wreck near the town of Quitman in southwest Georgia. The
teenagers were reportedly on their way to football practice at the
high school when the accident occurred. Local police are saying that
the wreck happened on the road to school around 9:30AM.



His post has the names of the students, all pronounced dead at the
scene of the accident, and of a fourth student who was

according to WCTV
,
airlifted by helicopter to

Shands Hospital
in Gainesville, Florida.

-jsq

Lowndes County takes no responsibility for the pipeline –Bill Slaughter @ LCC 2013-06-25



You’re on your own if that pipeline company wants your property;
the county government chooses to stay completely out of it,
so said Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter
at

the 25 June Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission
.



He read a prepared statement about a proposed natural gas pipeline.
Why the county couldn’t put it on their
website as a press release is mysterious.
I’ve added the links:

Lowndes County has been
contacted by representatives of

McKenna, Long, Aldridge law firm

of Atlanta
regarding a proposed project expected to impact property owners
of Lowndes County.



Spectra Energy Company
and its subsidiary,

Sabal Trail Transmissions LLC
anticipates construction
of a 465 mile interstate natural gas pipeline from Anniston, Alabama
extending through Georgia and coming through Lowndes County,
terminating in Orlando, Florida.

This project is for the benefit of and is the responsibility of
Florida Power and Light.
Lowndes County has been Continue reading

Corbett or George Road renamed to Caney Branch Road @ LCC 2013-06-25


The road previously known as Corbett or George,
part of which may or may not have been closed at some previous data,
was renamed
to Caney Branch Road after a creek that flows into the Alapahoochee River,
at

the 25 June Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission.

6.1. Public Hearing Renaming George Road (CR #105)


George Road

This time County Engineer Mike Fletcher said the residents

Part to be renamed

wanted to rename George Road to be Caney Branch Road after
Caney Branch, “a small creek that runs through this area, localized”.
because

EMS, 911, and postal services have an issue with locating
the correct houses because there are two George Roads in Lowndes County.

He referred to the
previous morning,
when Commissioner Crawford Powell wanted to know Continue reading

Why are you gambling on nuclear instead of solar? –Gloria Tatum @ SO 2013-05-22

Why is SO gambling our health and dollars on Plant Vogtle
when Georgia Power could be getting on with solar power?
SO CEO Tom Fanning avoided the first part of Gloria Tatum’s question
by simply denying it, and danced around the second part by saying
the rate hike for Plant Vogtle’s cost overruns would only be
6 to 8 percent, not 12 percent.
Do you want to pay 6 or 8 percent more for a radioactive white elephant
when you could be getting power from the sun for less?

The floor person at the

22 May 2013 Southern Company Stockholder Meeting

introduced Gloria Tatum with 164 shares, representing Nuclear
Watch South, and the SO CEO insisted

TF: Call me Tom. Gee whiz.


Gloria Tatum

GT: Tom. Hi,Tom. It’s great to be here on this beautiful day.

TF: Thank you. Yes ma’am.

GT: And I know Southern Company’s done many wonderful things, but I want
to point out a few things to you today.

First, you know, after the
Fukushima meltdown, TEPCO’s $50 billion nuclear complex became a
worthless liability. The deadly radiation still circles the planet,
polluting the earth and increasing cancer. Other countries have
abandoned their nuclear and they’re looking to renewable, but
Southern Company’s affiliate, Georgia Power, continues construction
on two new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle. Now Shell Bluff is a
community down the stream from Plant Vogtle and it has experienced a
25 percent increase in cancer since Vogtle 1 and 2 have been built.

Another problem with Vogtle Continue reading