Nuclear power ‘seven decades of economic ruin’, says new report

From Pressenza: New research has found that almost all nuclear power plants built since the nuclear industry’s inception have generated large financial losses.

The report by the German Institute for Economic Research examines 674 nuclear power plants built since 1951. Its authors found that typical nuclear power plants averaged 4.8 billion euros in losses.

The report authors argue that new technology for nuclear plants won’t solve the underlying economic difficulties: “Those in favor of nuclear energy like to point out the ongoing technological developments that could lead to it growing more efficient in the future.

“They include ‘fourth generation’ nuclear power plants and mini-nuclear power plants (small modular reactors, SMRs). Anything but new, both concepts have their roots in the early phase of nuclear power in the 1950s. Then as now, there was no hope that the technologies would become economical and established.”

Kate Hudson, CND general secretary, said:

“The history of nuclear power is seven decades of economic ruin and environmental catastrophe. Toshiba’s decision last year to abandon plans to build a reactor at Moorside in Cumbria and Hitachi’s suspension of work this year on the Wylfa Newydd plant in Anglesey simply reflect the economic reality that this report sets out.

“Nuclear power isn’t only expensive, it creates an unsolvable waste problem, and as the TV drama Chernobyl so graphically reveals, nuclear accidents create human misery and environmental destruction.

“Our new Prime Minister should learn these lessons and adopt a fresh approach to energy that centres on clean and economically viable renewable technology.”

More Than 160 Environmental Defenders Were Killed in 2018, and Many Others Labeled Terrorists and Criminals

As reported by The Intercept.

Inside the Secret Campaign to Export U.S. Nuclear Tech to Saudi Arabia

Industry coalition’s push to win over the Trump administration is concerning officials on Capitol Hill who are fearful that it could threaten U.S. national security.

As reported by the Daily Beast.

NRC reviewing decades of reactor operating license extensions, while cutting its safety inspection programs to make money for industry

Peach Bottom nuclear power station Photo credit: U.S. Department of EnergyOn June 20, 2019, an Atomic Safety Licensing Board of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) denied Beyond Nuclear a federal public hearing to scrutinize how Exelon plans to manage the attack of age-related degradation as part of a “Subsequent License Renewal” application that seeks the continued operation of Pennsylvania’s Peach Bottom Unit 2 and 3 out to 2053 and 2054. The federal nuclear agency’s denial of a request for a hearing is big step towards granting a second twenty-year license extension to the two Fukushima-style reactors (both1960’s-vintage designs of the GE Mark I boiling water reactor) beyond their current expiration dates of 2033 and 2034; a total of 80 years of operation.  Beyond Nuclear has filed a formal appeal to the Commission.

At the same time, the NRC announced it is cutting back core safety inspections for operational impact on reactor systems, structures and components exposed to the harsh day to day environment of extreme levels of temperature, radiation bombardment, vibration, pressure and fatigue that cause cracking and corrosion.   The reduction in the NRC core safety inspection programs additionally includes reducing, if not eliminating completely as industry requested, the NRC inspection of onsite Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installations at operating reactors around the country, replacing NRC led inspections of drills of mock terrorist attacks with industry self assessments, industry self assessments of radiation protection including onsite radiological monitoring equipment and radioactive effluent control and relaxation of emergency planning performance indicators by relaxing the frequency of NRC reviews from annual to biennial.

Democrats in the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee wrote a letter on July 15, 2019 to the NRC Commissioners callnig for a hearing and expressing their concern that the NRC is abandoning its core mission to protect the public health and safety through the Reactor Oversight Process in favor of allowing a financially distressed nuclear industry to save money on what they claim to be unduly burdensome regulations.

Beyond Nuclear agrees. At a time when the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is seeking to extend operations for the nation's nuclear reactors by decades, considering this is an inherently dangerous technology, to place industry financial margins ahead of public safety margins, is negligence, pure and simply. Its just common sense, for any technology, the older it gets, more wear and tear requires more inspections, not less, whether its an automobile or an atomic reactor.  Otherwise, such neglect puts us on a collision course with an accident.

In the event of a severe nuclear accident here in the United Station with radioactive releases as occurred at the Ukraine's Chernobyl and Japan's Fukushima nuclear power stations, that negligence becomes criminal in our view.

Karl Grossman: “The Hoax That Nuclear Power Is Green”

Just out TV program -- “The Hoax That Nuclear Power Is Green.” 

This “Enviro Close-Up with Karl Grossman” debunks the hoax that nuclear power is green. The program features actor Alec Baldwin who has long challenged nuclear power; former U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission chairman Gregory Jaczko who declares that nuclear power “is not the right way forward” and not “a solution to climate change;” Joseph Mangano, executive director of the Radiation and Public Health Project, who tells of releases to the environment by nuclear power; attorney Susan H. Shapiro now in court taking on the $7.6 billion New York State bail-out of nuclear plants based on the no-emissions claim—a bail-out being imitated by other states; Dr. Mark Cooper of the Vermont School of Law who says continuing with nuclear power “will delay the transition to a clean energy future:’ New York State Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffee who blasts the $7.6 billion bail-out; and Dr. Mark Z. Jacobson, energy analyst at Stanford University who emphasizes how “nuclear is not zero carbon at all." The program was filmed at a New York City conference organized by the Radiation and Public Health Project.

Karl Grossman serves as a Beyond Nuclear board of directors member.