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Posts Tagged ‘Nuclear’

A Brave New Republican Energy Future?

Posted in Air Quality, Energy, Global Warming, Nuclear, tagged , , , , , , , , , on November 3, 2010 |

According to Bloomberg, electricity producers such as NRG Energy Inc. and Southern Co. will benefit as the new house Republican majority promotes nuclear power as part of clean-energy legislation.  They go on to point out that cap-and-trade was denounced in ads by candidates of both parties, and they expect a fight over plans by the Environmental Protection Agency to impose its own restrictions on carbon emissions.

They also anticipate that renewable-energy legislation next year would encourage construction of nuclear and “clean- coal” plants.

For those close to the Barnett Shale, House Republicans will probably resist efforts to limit hydraulic fracturing, a technique used in drilling for natural gas in which chemically treated water is pumped underground to loosen rock and let gas flow, and a process that has been of significant concern to Texans in the Dallas-Fort Worth air shed.  The EPA is currently conducting a study of potential environmental impacts of the practice.

The Republican takeover of the House also puts Representative Doc Hastings of Washington state, an opponent of new restrictions on offshore oil and gas drilling, in line to take over the Natural Resources Committee. Hastings denounced a measure, that would have removed a $75 million cap on liability for leaks, and would bar BP (the company responsible for the Gulf of Mexico deep water oil spill off the coast of Louisiana) from new U.S. leases.

I’m sure you can see where this could be taking U.S. energy and environmental policy.  If you are concerned, consider making a donation to Public Citizen as we head into a new political era.

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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.

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U.S. nuclear loan-guarantee program is testing how much risk the US government is willing to take

Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Nuclear, tagged , , , , , , , , , on October 12, 2010 |

Constellation Energy Group Inc. said last week it was pulling out of talks on a $7.5 billion loan guarantee to build a reactor at its Calvert Cliffs facility in Maryland.  Constellation Energy Group’s Chief Operating Officer Michael Wallace told the Energy Department that they felt the estimated $880 million the company would have to pay the Treasury Department was “shockingly high”.

Still, that’s only 12% of the loan guarantee, and only 7% of the estimated (pre-financed) cost of building a nuclear plant.  Compare that to low-risk lender qualifications for buying a home in this country and it doesn’t seem so shockingly high.  Traditionally lenders required a down payment of at least 20% of the home’s purchase price for a home mortgage, and to qualify for owner-builder construction loans, the down payment can be up to 30 percent of the requested loan amount.  Seems to me the industry is getting a better break than the American public right now.

A senior energy and environment analyst for a Milwaukee-based brokerage whined that the administration is offering terms no better than Constellation could get from private investors, yet we are not seeing private investors lining up to get a piece of this action-especially considering that these projects are projected to have a 50% loan default rate.

If the administration must support a nuclear renaissance, it is irresponsible of them to not consider limiting the risk that taxpayers will be stuck with should a nuclear utility default, and the Office of Management and Budget is doing just that by requiring these fees.

Constellation’s decision probably places NRG Energy Inc., a Princeton, New Jersey-based power producer, in the lead for the next loan-guarantee award.  However, if the fees are this large, it might be a victory that NRG and its partners will also not necessarily want, dooming that project too.

NRG is seeking a guarantee to add two units at its South Texas power plant in Matagorda County.  The company is also seeking to secure Japanese government financing, but that is also contingent upon the project securing the US loan guarantee.  Perhaps this is a project that needs to be doomed.  Clearly the building of nuclear plants are so high risk that the private sector appears unwilling to take on that risk, without the US government (read US taxpayer) bearing the brunt of the risk.  If they put it up to a vote, I certainly wouldn’t vote to put my money into such a high risk project, would you?

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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, cleaner cars, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.

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Human error causes a partial shutdown of Texas nuclear plant

Posted in Energy, Nuclear, tagged , , , , , , , , , on August 27, 2010 |

STP

South Texas Project

Human error appears to have caused a partial shutdown last Friday at the South Texas Project, one of the state’s two nuclear plants.

Last week, prices spiked in the wholesale electricity market.  On Monday the 16th,  wholesale electricity, which had been selling for less than $30 per megawatt-hour spiked to more than $2,000.  That’s an increase of more than 7,000 percent. Prices also spiked several times to the $1,000 level. A price spike of $2,200 is especially startling, given that the regulatory cap is set at $2,250. That is, the wholesale prices legally could not have gone much higher.  At the same time, according to the Electric Reliabiilty Council of Texas (ERCOT), who manages the Texas electricity grid, a new record for statewide power use was set.

Then, to top off the week, Unit 1 of the South Texas Project apparently tripped off (also known in the industry as a SCRAM – an acronym for safety control rod axe man but which is essentially an emergency shutdown of a nuclear reactor).

The event, first reported in a trade journal SNL Power Daily, was apparently caused by human error. “The NRC said in its Aug. 23 event report that the unit experienced an automatic reactor trip that was caused by an inadvertent turbine signal initiated during testing,” reported SNL’s Jay Hodgkins, citing the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The publication reported that power was restored by Monday. It’s unclear whether the outage contributed to the price spikes, although that seems likely.

I guess I’ll take a contribution to a price spike over a meltdown any day, but still kind of scarey!

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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.

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Federal Investigation of Texas’ Radioactive Waste Dump Urged

Posted in Nuclear, tagged , , , , , , , , , on August 11, 2010 |

No Radioactive WasteNRC and EPA called upon to examine radioactive waste site and licensing process, risks of groundwater contamination and potential risks to the Ogallala Aquifer, which lies beneath eight states

AUSTIN – Environmental groups today asked the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to investigate the radioactive waste storage and disposal programs administered by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) for the West Texas radioactive waste site owned by Waste Control Specialists (WCS).  The groups say the TCEQ has failed to protect public health, safety and the environment by repeatedly and brazenly abusing its legal authority and disregarding warnings of its technical staff about the site’s hazards. Further, citizens have not had adequate opportunities to participate in the licensing processes.

The groups are calling on the NRC to consider terminating or suspending the TCEQ’s authority to regulate the storage and disposal of low-level radioactive waste and radioactive byproducts in Texas. The groups also are asking the EPA to review the potential impact on the water supply and take action if necessary.

Read the full release, the request to NRC and EPA,and supporting documents online at www.TexasNuclearSafety.org. The request was filed by Public Citizen and the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club, along with State Representative Lon Burnam (Texas House District 90), and individuals from Andrews, Texas and Eunice, New Mexico, who live near the WCS facility in Andrews County. The matter is urgent because WCS has been pushing the Texas Low Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission to let it import radioactive waste from at least 36 other states.

Some of the hottest radioactive waste that exists, including nuclear reactor containment vessels and poison curtains that absorb reactor radiation, could be buried in the proposed radioactive waste dump. There is not a single radionuclide that can’t go to the so-called ‘low-level’ site, and many of them remain hazardous for literally millions of years.

Radioactive waste dumps around the country have leaked. Cleaning up contaminated groundwater is difficult and expensive. Texas taxpayers could be on the hook for clean up costs if the site and groundwater become contaminated or if there are transportation accidents.

Go to www.TexasNuclearSafety.org to learn more.

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NRG Energy Scales Back Nuke Investment; Makes TPPF Look Bad

Posted in Consumers, Efficiency, Energy, Nuclear, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 2, 2010 |

In their recent report on how energy efficiency is bad for consumers in Texas, the Texas Public Policy Foundation took some time to tout nukes.

To distinguish the development of new nuclear reactors from the previous generation which was frought with cost overruns and delays, they claim the following (page 7-8):

“But unlike consumers from the 1980s, today’s consumers won’t be taking on the risk of cost overruns. In fact, they won’t be taking any risk at all. Once the new nuclear plants are complete, the price of the electricity sold from the plants will be determined by market forces. If the price is higher than the cost of the electricity, the plants will be profitable. If not, the plants will lose money. But it is the investors–not consumers–who will bear that risk.”

The investors will bear all the risk? Really? Well, published today is a report from Forbes.com that, in addition to announcing NRG’s dramatic scaling back on nuclear development (by some 95%) quotes NRG Energy’s CEO David Crane as saying he is:

“more comfortable when someone else takes risk.” (as in, the citizens of San Antonio?)

Ouch! I encourage y’all to read the full Forbes article and this one from last December, which notes that a major part of NRG’s strategy is to sell to municipally-owned utilities and electric cooperatives. They are medicine for those that think new nuclear is cost-competitive because they’re all about how dependent nuke developers are on federal loan guarantees (aka subsidies).

EDITOR’S NOTE: Also of interest is an article from this morning’s NYTimes that shows the cost of solar is now cheaper than the cost of nuclear, and a hot-off-the-presses article from Greg Harman at the San Antonio Current saying that with NRG taking so much investment out of developing the plant, and the US gov’t balking at more subsidies for this nuclear pork behemoth, that the only way to make the deal work is to get the governments of France and Japan to also help bail out their investors with, you guessed it- more loan guarantees. How many countries and government bailouts does it take to build a nuke plant in Texas?  Three, apparently.  Ahhh, nuclear power- it’s like fiscal conservative kryptonite. One mention of it and any and all pretense of being pro free market just disappears as they can’t stop lining up to the gravy train of pork, loan guarantees and subsidies. ~~Andy

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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.

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Come See Us This Saturday in Houston at The Great Texas Clean Up!

Posted in Air Quality, Coal, Efficiency, Energy, natural gas, Nuclear, Renewables, solar, tagged , , , , , on July 22, 2010 |

The concert is FREE to the public and welcomes all ages.
The Sierra Club and Texas Environmental Justice are rolling out the Great Texas Clean-Up Festival, from 4-10 at the Discovery Green in Houston, an event expected to kick off a larger campaign to clean up Texas. Public Citizen is a coalition partner and will be there! Check out our booth!

Headlining the event is Dallas native Ray Johnston with the Ray Johnston Band, a groovy, rock soul act with plenty of attitude. Rounding out the event are Los Pistoleros de Texas, bluesman Mrs. Glass, and country western singer songwriter Robert Ellis.

Expect keynote speaker State Senator Rodney Ellis of Houston to give a rip-roaring speech, flanked by the impassioned Ana Hernandez, three term representative from district 143 of Houston.

About a dozen Houston-based artists are expected to showcase, including Lizbeth Ortiz, who created this piece, “Nurturing Hands”.

There will be a Kids’ Corner and plenty of political activism.

Check them out at www.cleanuptexasnow.org

Hope to see ya’ll there!

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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.

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Take Action Today! Texas Representative Chet Edwards is pushing for $25 billion in US taxpayer backed loans for nuclear reactors

Posted in Global Warming, Good Government, Nuclear, tagged , , , , , , on July 14, 2010 |

On Thursday, July 15, the House Energy and Water subcommittee is scheduled to vote on $25 billion in loan guarantees for new nuclear reactors in the FY2011 Energy and Water Appropriations bill. Only last month, the House passed $9 billion in nuclear loan guarantees in the 2010 Supplemental Appropriations bill (it has not yet passed the Senate). Together with the Department of Energy’s existing nuclear loan guarantee authority, the US taxpayer’s burden would be tripled to an enormous $52.5 billion.

The additional $25 billion in nuclear loan guarantees comes at the behest of Rep. Chet Edwards (D) to fund two proposed reactors at Comanche Peak in his district in Texas.  The proposed new reactors have an uncertified and untested design, and are years away from licensing approval. There are also two reactors proposed for the South Texas Project site in Bay City, Texas.  

Putting another $25 billion into costly, economically risky and polluting new reactors will be at the expense of solving climate change with clean, renewable energy and efficiency.  Call or email your Representatives today and tell them that these subsidies are unacceptable! 

(Find out who represents you at http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us)

Feel free to use this message or edit as you’d like:
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Dear Representative __________________,

I am writing to urge you to oppose $25 billion in additional nuclear loan guarantee authority in the FY2011 Energy and Water Appropriations bill.  Given the nuclear industry’s inability to reduce the soaring capital costs of new reactors, assure the safety of its technology, or resolve radioactive waste storage issues, burdening U.S. taxpayers with tens of billions dollars of additional liability for new reactors is irresponsible.  

The Department of Energy currently has over $10 billion in unallocated existing authority. The House has passed an additional $9 billion in nuclear loan guarantees in its 2010 Supplemental Appropriations bill. Together, this would triple the nuclear loan guarantees to a massive $52.5 billion. Many of the proposed new nuclear projects even have designs that are certified.

Moreover, according to a recent Governmental Accountability Office (GAO) report, the DOE’s loan guarantee program does not even have a way to evaluate whether the program is meeting its goals.  GAO also found that DOE has provided preferential treatment to nuclear applicants that it has not given to renewable and efficiency applicants.  Additional nuclear funding will only exacerbate these structural problems.

Please oppose an additional $25 billion in nuclear loan guarantees in the FY2011 Energy and Water Appropriations bill.  US taxpayers should not be expected to bail out yet another industry.

Sincerely,

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South Texas nuke expansion project cuts staff

Posted in Nuclear, tagged , , , , on July 2, 2010 |

About 20 of the roughly 100 contractor personnel working on the proposed addition of two new 1,350-MW nuclear units at the South Texas nuclear station have been let go.

Nuclear Innovation North America (NINA), an 88/12 joint venture of NRG Energy and Toshiba, currently owns 92.35% of the planned expansion, and CPS Energy, the municipal utility in San Antonio owns the remaining 7.65%.   In May, NINA announced Tokyo Electric Power Co. plans to eventually take up to a 20% stake in NINA’s share, beginning with a 10% stake in that share–or a 9.235% stake in the  project itself–if a $7 billion federal loan guarantee is secured.

NINA has recently said it expects the project to cost about $13 billion, including $10 billion in “overnight” costs and $3 billion in financing costs. Although earlier cost projections have put the project coming in at $18 billion.

At this time, there is spectulation that the remaining loan guarantees will go to Calvert Cliffs in Maryland.  NINA has said they would not go forward with the expansion without the loan guarantees.  Could this be the beginning of the end for the STP expansion?  Stay tuned.

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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas

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NRC ACCEPTS APPLICATION FOR EARLY SITE PERMIT AT VICTORIA COUNTY SITE IN TEXAS

Posted in Nuclear, tagged , , , , , , on June 14, 2010 |

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has accepted for review the Exelon Nuclear Texas Holdings Early Site Permit (ESP) application for the Victoria County site near Victoria, Texas.

The application and associated information were initially submitted on March 25 and is available, minus proprietary and security-related details, on the NRC Web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-reactors/esp/victoria.html.

Exelon’s application seeks approval for safety and environmental issues for the site, approximately 13 miles south of Victoria.  If approved by the NRC this would give Exelon three to 20 years to decide whether to build a plant in Victoria County. It can be extended for another 20 years, giving the company up to 40 years to begin construction from the time that the NRC approves the permit.

Now the site permit application will undergo a three- to four-year review process by the NRC in which it will evaluate the project’s environmental impact and safety preparedness.

Water use figures prominently into the concerns of many. The Guadalupe River is the designated water source for the possible power plant, and Exelon has a water reservation agreement with the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority (GBRA) that expires in 2013. (more…)

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HEARING ON NUKE DUMP NOW SET FOR SATURDAY

Posted in Nuclear, TCEQ, tagged , , , on June 11, 2010 |

At a time when lax regulatory oversight has contributed to such catastrophic problems for our nation as the financial crisis and the BP oil spill, Texas may be in the process of setting itself up for a fiscally disastrous and environmentally catastrophic future – all because of a vote by an appointed committee taking place out on the dusty, lonely edges of West Texas.

The hearing on plans to expand the low-level radioactive waste facility in Andrews County, that was postponed last month because of the volume of comments for official review, has been rescheduled for Saturday, and opponents of the facility are stepping up their opposition. (more…)

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Ramming Nuclear Power Subsidies Into War Appropriations Bill Is Inappropriate and Should Be Blocked

Posted in Energy, Nuclear, tagged , on May 24, 2010 |

A Deal is Struck to Add $9 Billion in Risky Nuclear Loan Guarantees for Failing South Texas Nuclear Project.   

In a deal between the Obama administration and House of Representatives leadership, struck last week behind closed doors, taxpayers would be on the hook for lending $9 billion to build two new nuclear reactors at the South Texas Project site in Bay City, Texas. 

Nuclear Power in War Appropriations BillIt is highly inappropriate for the Obama administration to stuff subsidies for nuclear power into an emergency war appropriations bill and lawmakers should strip this nuclear utility pork out of the war funding bill.  Subsidizing new reactors that will take a decade or more to build cannot be considered an emergency and it is a stretch of the imagination to see how exactly it is related to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Public Citizen and the Sustainable Energy and Economic Development (SEED) Coalition are challenging the South Texas nuclear reactors’ license before the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, and Karen Hadden of the SEED Coalition said, “It is clear that the only emergency here is the fact that the South Texas plant doesn’t have sufficient investors to make this a viable project.”  

After the estimated cost of the project more than tripled in three years to a whopping $18.2 billion, the city of San Antonio wisely pulled out of 85 percent of its investment. Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has since offered a measly 10 percent investment.  NRG, the primary stakeholder in the Texas project, has been financially shaky in recent years and filed for bankruptcy in 2003, making it incomprehensible how the U.S. government can justify backing this lemon of a project with $9 billion of taxpayer money. (more…)

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New study shows jobs from Kerry-Lieberman mostly in Nukes, CCS

Posted in Energy, Global Warming, green jobs, Nuclear, tagged , , , , , , , , , on May 21, 2010 |

One point we often forget when debating climate change strategies is the major economic case for changing our economy to new, clean technology.  A new study has been released on the impacts of the Kerry-Lieberman bill, which we’ve never been so hot on, but it shows that despite what the chicken littles at the Chamber of Commerce might spew about how a carbon cap is a jobs killer, it’s anything but.  From the NY Times articles on this story:

The Peterson Institute for International Economics said in its 18-page report that the bill from Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) creates the new jobs between 2011 and 2020 because of its mandatory limits on greenhouse gases, which will prompt $41.1 billion in investments per year as the nation shifts away from traditional fossil fuels like coal and oil and toward new nuclear power and renewables.

So, good news, right? 

Looking closer at the study itself, we see something very interesting.  Michael Levi of the CFR points out that it looks more like this is a nuclear jobs bill than a climate bill,  echoing what Public Citizen’s Tyson Slocum has said repeatedly about this bill.

And indeed, here is average ANNUAL net job creation by industry from 2011-2020 according to page 12 the analysis:

  • Nuclear: 165,000
  • CCS: 96,000
  • Renewables: 19,000

Yikes.  Overall, this is a bad deal. And, this assumes that carbon sequestration is economical, safe, and practical.  But more on that later.

The sad thing is, we know what we need to do to create more jobs in renewable energy.  (more…)

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The Nuclear Energy-Promoting, Oil Drilling-Championing, Coal Mining-Boosting Gift to Polluters Bill

Posted in Coal, Efficiency, Global Warming, Nuclear, Renewables, solar, tagged , , , , , on May 12, 2010 |

[polldaddy poll=3193510]

After half a year of delay, Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) are set to release their nuclear energy/cap-and-trade bill today. Until we see legislative text, we can comment only on the broad outline made available yesterday and an additional summary being circulated among legislative staff.

It’s not accurate to call this a climate bill. This is nuclear energy-promoting, oil drilling-championing, coal mining-boosting legislation with a weak carbon-pricing mechanism thrown in. What’s worse, it guts the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) current authority to regulate greenhouse gases as pollutants under the Clean Air Act.

Here’s our take on what we know is in the new bill: (more…)

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Webinar on Texas Low Level Radioactive Waste Compact Commission Proposed Rule

Posted in Nuclear, tagged , , on May 11, 2010 |

The day after our radioactive waste importation webinar, the Texas Low Level Radioactive Waste Compact Commission announced that it would delay consideration of the rule that would have allowed the import of low level nuclear waste from the entire nation into Texas.  The rule will not be considered now until at least June.  This is great news!

The announcement came shortly after a letter signed by 15 members of the Texas Legislature was sent to the Compact Commission. The Commission’s interim director sited the need to “consider and respond to” the “more than 2,000 comments” (2,490 to be precise) submitted on the proposed rule as a primary reason for the delay.  The majority of those comments were generated by the Sierra Club, and many others were generated or submitted by the other groups that helped organize the webinar. (more…)

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NEGATIVE COURT RULING IN GEORGIA THROWS DOE’S NUCLEAR LOAN GUARANTEE BAILOUT PROGRAM INTO QUESTION

Posted in Nuclear, tagged , on May 7, 2010 |

U.S. Nuclear Reactor Projects In Line for Loan Guarantees Pose Major Risks to U.S. Taxpayers.

The only taxpayer-backed loan guarantee bailout to be offered for new nuclear reactors – $8.3 billion for two reactors at Plant Vogtle in Georgia was dealt a setback in a decision by a Georgia judge that state officials illegally certified the project, according to the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) and Public Citizen. 

Despite the push in Congress for more controversial loan guarantees for new nuclear reactors, the other two leading contenders for such bailouts – the South Texas Project at Bay City on the Gulf Coast (114 miles from San Antonio and 90 miles from Houston) and Calvert Cliffs in Maryland – are more unsettled than ever and now pose an even greater risk to U.S. taxpayers.  Given this, the  Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, Sustainable Energy and Economic (SEED) Coalition and Public Citizen believe the Department of Energy (DOE) should overhaul its evaluation process before offering any new loan guarantees to nuclear projects .

DOE has stated that the $10 billion remaining in loan guarantee authority is only sufficient for one of the two projects and has requested another $9 billion in the appropriations supplemental to cover the second project.  In its FY2011 budget request, the Obama Administration has already requested $36 billion in loan guarantee authority, a tripling of the nuclear loan guarantee program. (more…)

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