February 24, 2010 - Safe Is Only Safe until the S#!+ Hits the Fan
Last week, President Obama called for a new generation of "clean, safe nuclear power" plants. Unfortunately, this is an oxymoron (no, Sarah Palin, it doesn't mean what you think it means), as evidenced this week by the complete shutdown of a two-unit nuclear plant in Maryland.
The Calvert Cliffs nuclear station experienced a series of events which shutdown the unit. Now, those of us who follow nuclear issues know this is not unusual. Shutdowns are actually fairly common for a variety reasons. This case was particularly disturbing because when a nuclear plant is "tripped" or goes down, back-up generators are supposed to kick in to keep the cooling systems running, so there isn't a (uh hum) meltdown of sorts. At Calvert Cliffs, one of the two main back up generators failed to keep running, and plant workers had to scurry around and find another power source, which wouldn't have been available in a true loss-of-the-grid situation. Without power, it’s only a matter of time before the spent fuel cooling in giant pools of water starts to heat up and, eventually, catches fire and melts down, releasing enormous amounts of lethal radiation. Following the event, a nuclear plant worker submitted a letter about his concerns . . . here is an excerpt:
"[J]ust so you know, when the 2 B diesel generator was given an automatic start, and it didn't go that is a major violation of the NRC tech specs. You see, the generators are there to provide emergency power to put the control rods back in and provide the power to run the RCPs and the salt water pumps and heat exchangers to get rid of the excess heat and keep the reactors and the spent fuel pool cool. They definitely have had a major problem down there. I told you it’s just a matter of time before one of these puppies blows."
So, President Obama, exactly where is this safe, nuclear power? Certainly not at Calvert Cliffs, and if you think this is an isolated incident, we need to talk . . . And, as of this posting, both units at Calvert Cliffs were at zero power—yes, that's reliable power, now isn't it?
Susan
February 22, 2010 - Nuclear Waste Hot Potato
This past week, our Governor and legislators from Aiken County announced South Carolina’s intention to sue the Federal government for not opening Yucca Mountain. Their suit contends that without Yucca Mountain, a vast amount of nuclear waste intended for Yucca will remain in South Carolina, essentially forever. This latest round of nuclear waste hot potato is a study in cognitive dissonance. Where were these guys from Aiken County a few years ago, when the Energy Department, Governor Sanford and Lindsey Graham all got together and conspired to legislatively reverse the high-level radioactive waste (HLW) case and allow DOE the authority to reclassify its high-level radioactive waste—the waste destined for a proposed geologic repository, such as Yucca Mountain—and abandon that reclassified HLW on-site and in shallow burial near the Savannah River?—it has since developed cracks that have leaked. . .
And now, courtesy of Senator Graham and his friends in South Carolina – which, I have no doubt, includes the legislators from Aiken County – the Savannah River Site is the proud owner of the Salt Waste Disposal Facility which, when full, will contain extraordinary amounts of highly radioactive, long lived HLW that would have otherwise been vitrified (made into glass logs) in the Defense Waste Processing Facility and sent to a repository some day in the (likely distant) future when this country figures out what to do with all its nuclear waste. And these guys claim to be worried about nuclear waste being left in South Carolina? If it weren’t so disturbing, it would be laughable. In the case of nuclear waste, not only do the left and the right hands not know what each other are doing, they don't even seem to be on the same body.
What's really going on here is the boosters in the Aiken area are promoting reprocessing as their next project in the massive nuclear socialist program. . .and they know they can't reprocess unless they have a way out of the state for the waste generated by the reprocessing debacle (cf. high-level waste still at SRS, West Valley, NY, etc).
In case you aren't familiar with reprocessing, it's a process that takes the used fuel rods from nuclear reactors, chops them up, dissolves them in acid and pulls out plutonium, which reprocessing proponents envision as the nuclear fuel of the future. It can be used as Mixed Oxide fuel (MOX), but, of course, the process is incredibly expensive and has its own troubled history, and future, as they continue work on the multi-billion MOX fabrication plant at SRS.
Reprocessing creates a huge radioactive waste stream (much of what they're trying to clean up at SRS is the waste from Cold War weapons production reprocessing). Without a place like Yucca Mountain available to dump waste, the reprocessing boosters know the program is in jeopardy, and that is why all this posturing is just a ruse for the next handout the SRS complex and their Aiken mouthpieces feel entitled to receive. If they really cared about nuclear waste in our state, they wouldn't be promoting programs that will create any more! The bottom line is NO ONE WANTS nuclear waste in their state, not the Nevadans, and certainly not us!
Susan
November 17, 2009 - Nuclear is NOT Homegrown
During the recent S.C. gubernatorial debate, many of the candidates promoting new nuclear reactors characterized nuclear power as clean and homegrown. I will de-bunk the clean part soon, but I want to start with this notion that nuclear is somehow "homegrown" because I heard Sen. Graham also use this adjective.
There is really nothing homegrown about nuclear power, except the nuclear waste that we generate and get stuck with. Nuclear power relies on uranium as its fuel. Right now, most of the uranium we use comes from Russia. We have uranium reserves in this country, but our uranium ore is mostly low grade, requiring expensive enrichment. Uranium mining in this country is akin to coal mining -- dirty, producing toxic waste, and deadly health effects on its workers.
Nuclear reactors are big plants with big components. The reactor vessel which houses the fuel is a large single ingot unit, that we are unable to produce in this country. Since the demise of our steel industry, we no longer have forges large enough to make reactor vessels or the large steam generators used at nuclear plants. We also purchase other main components from other foreign countries like Italy and Japan. All of the money spent on big nuclear parts goes not only out of our state, but out of the country.
Even the reactor itself, the AP1000, whose current design has been rejected by the usually permissive Nuclear Regulatory Commission, is a foreign part, since Westinghouse is owned now by the Japanese company Toshiba.
During the recent hearing at the Public Service Commission, where SCE&G has already started asking for extensions to their schedule, I'm pretty sure I heard that only 37 local people were being employed in the current construction project. I don't know if this will increase, but studies of other plants have shown that nuclear projects require skilled labor not often available in the area, so experts must be hired from outside the community. These employees move to the area, bringing spouses and teenagers, who then themselves compete for local jobs and add stress to community services.
Nuclear may be many things, but homegrown it is not. Once again, we are completely dependent on foreign sources of fuel, or risk running up the cost of nuclear by having to enrich our own supplies (nuclear is already exorbitantly priced at $5000/kw), and we must get in line with China and other countries to order and await key reactor components. How is this remotely energy independence or homegrown?
Again, the only thing homegrown about nuclear power in South Carolina is the deadly radioactive waste we generate for which there is no solution, and which we will inherit as the toxic legacy of a completely now, unnecessary technology. Better truly homegrown technologies, like our own GE produced wind turbines and our own free offshore wind resources would bring true homegrown energy independence to our state, instead of more foreign dependence on an expensive, dangerous and polluting energy source like nuclear.
Susan
November 5, 2009 - Obama Bashers, Glen Beck Believers, Take Note: Stimulus Money Working in Aiken
On Wednesday, Nov. 4, I ventured down to Aiken for a breakfast being hosted to welcome a visit by three DOE higher-ups. . . Dep. Sec. of Energy Daniel Poneman, head of National Nuclear Security Administration Tom D'Agostino and head of DOE's Environmental Management, Inez Triay. They were there to tour the Savannah River site and discuss how things are going (not too well, if you've been keeping up, but more on that another time). The highlight of the breakfast was a locally produced film portraying the clean up work at the site.
This year under the Obama stimulus plan, SRS received $1.6 billion taxpayer dollars to accelerate clean up of the site. The film opens with a concession that radiation is dangerous to human health, and in the past radioactive materials have not been properly handled at SRS, and, therefore, had leaked into the surrounding environment. This section was followed by a series of interviews with local folks who were able to either keep their jobs at SRS, or were hired to work there as part of this new re-dedication to clean up the toxic mess created by previous generations of workers. SO - while the extreme right wing bashes Obama and claims the stimulus has been a failure, we are seeing living proof to the contrary. The very red state that claims Joe Wilson, son of "I-hate-all-things-resembling-socialism" is a major beneficiary of the very programs some claim to hate and assert don't work.
It seems socialist programs are okay when they pertain to the Aiken/Augusta area. Big corporations are more than happy to take taxpayer dollars when it suits their agenda, and the politicians they pay as their mouthpieces turn a blind eye when their constituents are the benefactors. Can you say "hypocrites"? Socialized nuclear programs are okay, but heck no to the public option for health care. What are these people thinking? Once again, they are blind to the big picture. . .
Susan
November 3, 2009 - SC Gubernatorial Debate...
Last night, at the South Carolina gubernatorial debate, we got a good look at the future of SC's energy plan: nuclear, nuclear and more nuclear. I hope the other conservation groups who have been conspicuously silent on the issue of nuclear power, got a bellyful of what will be our fate. Only a couple of candidates made any mention of other alternatives, mainly Vince Sheheen, who immediately brought out the fact that we have an enormous reserve of offshore wind power that is being untapped and virtually ignored. You can thank Sierra Club for Vince's education on that issue, since we were the first to bring him all the information about S.C.'s offshore wind. You can also thank Sierra Club for being the only major S.C. group to oppose more nuclear.
Nuclear power cannot solve climate change. Not enough nuclear power plants can be built fast enough or affordably enough to even replace old units going off-line in the next decade, much less make a substantial dent in the climate fight. And environmentalists have nothing to do with delays or economic problems. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission this past week refused to certify the design for the Westinghouse AP1000 reactor design, scheduled to be used at VC Summer. It seems the shield building, a major structure, is not designed well enough to withstand an earthquake, a hurricane, or even high winds. Oops. . .back to the drawing board. . .good thing they caught that little mistake. . .
We should be putting all our efforts into promoting the fastest, cheapest, and cleanest ways of powering our state, instead of the most expense, most time consuming, highest user of taxpayer subsidies and huge toxic radioactive waste producing technology like nuclear. Instead, it seems we are fiddling while Rome burns, or in our case, watching coastal waters rise.
This past week an industry report disclosed that small amounts of a highly radioactive isotope, Iodine 131, are showing up in Columbia's drinking water. There's only one place it can be coming from: VC Summer. Couple that with the Tritium leaking into the groundwater, and the Cesium-137 now present in Parr lake, and think about this when you hear people tout how clean nuclear power is.
Susan
|
Seeing the Big Picture
