Michele Kearney's Nuclear Wire

Major Energy and Environmental News and Commentary affecting the Nuclear Industry.

Friday, December 23, 2016

The Energy Collective Daily: Congressman Gives Trump a Plan to Erase Health, Safety, and Environment Safeguards

Congressman Gives Trump a Plan to Erase Health, Safety, And Environment Safeguards | The Energy Collective Daily

Link to The Energy Collective

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: Nuclear Roundup December 23, 2016

 
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Nuclear Roundup
December 23, 2016
A compilation of quality nuclear policy news published on the Web, around the world.
Please note: The Nuclear Roundup will not be published the week of Monday, December 26the to Friday, December 30th.
Iran Nuclear Deal

Is the Iran nuclear deal already being violated?

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/56134461.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

Heavy Water Loophole in the Iran Deal

http://isis-online.org/isis-reports/detail/heavy-water-loophole-in-the-iran-deal

United States

Sidney Drell, Who Advised US Presidents on Nuclear Weapons, Dies at 90

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/22/science/sidney-drell-dead.html

Trump pledges to 'expand' U.S. nuclear capability

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/trump-us-nuclear-capability-232920

Trump on nukes: 'Let it be an arms race'

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/trump-nuclear-arms-race-russia-232944

Trump tells TV host he welcomes a new nuclear arms race

http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-doubles-down-nuclear-weapons-morning-joe-let-it-be-an-arms-race-2016-12

Trump’s Nuclear Weapons Tweet, Translated and Explained

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12/22/world/americas/trump-nuclear-tweet.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region

Could Trump's Tweets Spark a Nuclear Arms Race?

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/12/show-about-global-thermonuclear-war/511583/

'Let it be an arms race': Trump's history of discussing nuclear weapons

https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/trumps-history-of-discussing-nuclear-weapons/2016/12/22/63959e04-c895-11e6-acda-59924caa2450_video.html

Krauthammer on Trump suggesting US must bolster Nuclear weapons arsenal

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/12/22/krauthammer-on-trump-suggesting-us-must-bolster-nuclear-weapons-arsenal.html

Trump's nuclear tweet raises question of 'quid pro quo' for defense contractors

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/12/22/trump-nukes-tweet-boeing-commentary.html

NNSA reaches milestone with cooperative agreements to accelerate domestic production of Mo99

http://www.yournuclearnews.com/nnsa+reaches+milestone+with+cooperative+agreements+to+accelerate+domestic+production+of+mo99_139170.html

NNSA Highlights 2016 Successes in Stockpile Stewardship, Nuclear Security, Naval Propulsion and Enterprise Management

https://nnsa.energy.gov/mediaroom/pressreleases/nnsa-highlights-2016-successes-stockpile-stewardship-nuclear-security-naval
Special Operations Command takes a lead role in countering weapons of mass destruction

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/12/23/special-operations-command-takes-a-new-lead-role-countering-weapons-of-mass-destruction/?utm_term=.19b90f1e7c79

APNewsBreak: New Mexico OKs Reopening Troubled Nuclear Dump

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/apnewsbreak-mexico-oks-reopening-troubled-nuclear-dump-44351895

International

China 'closely following' Donald Trump comments on nuclear weapons policy

http://www.oregonlive.com/today/index.ssf/2016/12/china_closely_following_trump.html

Rudd warns North Korea about nuclear weapons

http://www.skynews.com.au/news/politics/national/2016/12/22/rudd-warns-north-korea-about-nuclear-weapons.html

General Interest

U.S., Russia dominate nuclear weapons list

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/12/22/us-russia-dominate-nuclear-weapons-list/95768258/

It's Time To Revisit This Terrifying 1980s TV Movie On Nuclear War

http://gothamist.com/2016/12/22/the_day_after_the_inauguration.php


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Duke Awarded Licenses For Two AP-1000 Reactors In South Carolina - News - Nuclear Power News - Nuclear Street - Nuclear Power Plant News, Jobs, and Careers

Duke Awarded Licenses For Two AP-1000 Reactors In South Carolina - News - Nuclear Power News - Nuclear Street - Nuclear Power Plant News, Jobs, and Careers

Russian scientists claim breakthrough in nuclear fuel research

Russian scientists claim breakthrough in nuclear fuel research

States Are the Nuclear Industry’s Best Hope - Bloomberg

States Are the Nuclear Industry’s Best Hope - Bloomberg

Beyond Nuclear Calls for Immediate Shutdown of Reactors with Defective Parts | Common Dreams | Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community

Beyond Nuclear Calls for Immediate Shutdown of Reactors with Defective Parts | Common Dreams | Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community

Fewer Reactor Applications Squeeze Nuclear Agency’s Budget, Staff | Bloomberg BNA

Fewer Reactor Applications Squeeze Nuclear Agency’s Budget, Staff | Bloomberg BNA

Anti-nuclear group: Defective parts warrant shutdown of Millstone, other plants

Anti-nuclear group: Defective parts warrant shutdown of Millstone, other plants



http://www.theday.com/local/20161222/anti-nuclear-group-defective-parts-warrant-shutdown-of-millstone-other-plants

Committee Releases Report on Department of Energy Misconduct

Committee Releases Report on Department of Energy Misconduct

Dec 20, 2016
Press Release
WASHINGTON – The Majority Staff of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Technology today released a report, U.S. Department of Energy Misconduct Related to the Low Dose Radiation Research Program. The report includes findings from the majority staff’s investigation that senior Department of Energy officials deliberately withheld information from Congress and removed an agency scientist from federal service for providing complete answers to committee staff.  The report also covers an overview of the Low Dose Radiation Research Program and H.R. 5544, the Low Dose Radiation Research Act of 2014.
Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas): “Instead of providing the type of scientific information needed by Congress to legislate effectively, senior departmental officials sought to hide information, lobbied against legislation, and retaliated against a scientist for being forthcoming.  In this staff report based on lengthy record before the committee, much has been revealed about how senior level agency officials under the Obama administration retaliated against a scientist who did not follow the party line.  Moving forward, the department needs to overhaul its management practices to ensure that Congress is provided the information it requires to legislate and that federal employees and scientists who provide that information do so without fear of retribution.”
Background:
Findings from the Report:
  1. DOE management developed a scheme to withhold information from congressional staff.
  2. Dr. Noelle Metting was directed to omit information from a presentation to congressional staff given during the briefing.
  3. DOE management avoided critical information pertinent to the continuance of the LDRRP.
  4. DOE management worked to kill the LDRRP because it did not further the administration’s goals to advance climate research.
  5. With regard to H.R. 5544, DOE management sought to manipulate congressional staff – both republican and democratic staff.
  6. DOE management and senior employees gave intentionally misleading statements to Congress.
  7. Dr. Julie Carruthers and Dr. Sharlene Weatherwax both made inconsistent statements at different points during the Committee’s investigation.
  8. Management quickly took steps to remove Dr. Metting from federal service.
  9. Dr. Metting was removed for providing Congress with candid testimony without regard to the potential chilling effect on other scientists.
  10. Dr. Metting was the DOE’s sole expert on LDRR and her opinion was silenced to further political interests.
Conclusions and Recommendations in the Report:
  1. The DOE exhibited a complete disregard for the legislative process and Constitutional separation of powers at an institutional level. 
  2. The DOE must overhaul its management practices to ensure that the Department carries out its Constitutional responsibilities to be truthful with Congress and respects the legislative process.
To view the full report, click here.
114th Congress


https://science.house.gov/news/press-releases/committee-releases-report-department-energy-misconduct

Thursday, December 22, 2016

The Energy Collective: The Shale Oil Threat Will Not Go Away

The Shale Oil Threat Will Not Go Away | The Energy Collective Daily

Link to The Energy Collective

A nuclear America can be a great America: Column

A nuclear America can be a great America: Column

To Slow Global Warming, We Need Nuclear Power - The New York Times

To Slow Global Warming, We Need Nuclear Power - The New York Times

Did The Government Just Save Nuclear Power? | The Daily Caller

Did The Government Just Save Nuclear Power? | The Daily Caller

EM News Flash Dec. 22, 2016

DOE Office of Environmental Management

EM News Flash | Dec. 22, 2016


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Workers this year began tearing down a key facility — the Plutonium Finishing Plant — to reduce risks and save money. This major EM Richland Operations Office achievement is highlighted in EM's 2016 Year-in-Review. 

EM Captures 2016 Cleanup Accomplishments in Year-in-Review Publication 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today EM released its 2016 Year-in-Review outlining the vast amount of work conducted in the nuclear cleanup program across the DOE complex this year.
   “Major cleanup progress achieved this year, combined with our focus at EM headquarters on supporting work in the field, expanding technology development, strengthening partnerships and maximizing cleanup dollars, will enable EM to build upon this momentum in the years to come,” EM Assistant Secretary Monica Regalbuto said.  
   The Year-in-Review highlights major accomplishments at each EM site and at EM headquarters, including:
  • Implementation of a new management structure to strengthen support for work at EM’s active cleanup sites, putting them at the center of daily activities to address inefficiencies and help them perform work in a safe, efficient and cost-effective manner;
  • Demolishing a gaseous diffusion plant for the first time at the East Tennessee Technology Park at Oak Ridge, Tenn. — increasing safety, reducing monitoring costs and paving the way for economic development;
  • Completing construction of the Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, which, once operational, will significantly accelerate EM’s ability to treat tank waste;
  • Starting demolition of the Plutonium Finishing Plant at Hanford in Washington state, once one of the most dangerous buildings in the DOE complex;
  • Relocating solidified high-level waste to safe storage at the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York; and
  • Passing the halfway point in remediating uranium mill tailings at the Moab Site in Utah.    
   A PDF of the full 2016 EM Year-in-Review, including graphics and photos, can be accessed here.
   As the largest environmental cleanup program in the world, EM has been charged with the responsibility of cleaning 107 sites across the country, totaling a combined area equal to that of Rhode Island and Delaware.

War News Updates: Canada Defends $15-billion Arms Deal With Saudi Arabia In Canadian Courts

War News Updates: Canada Defends $15-billion Arms Deal With Saudi Arabia In Canadian Courts

Hillary Clinton, Bush Family On GQ's List Of Least Influential People Of 2016 | Zero Hedge

Hillary Clinton, Bush Family On GQ's List Of Least Influential People Of 2016 | Zero Hedge

US companies prepare for borehole field tests

US companies prepare for borehole field tests
The US Department of Energy has selected four companies to explore the possibility of conducting a deep borehole field test. One will ultimately be chosen to test the feasibility of engineering deep boreholes that might offer an alternative to mined geologic repositories for the disposal of some forms of nuclear waste. http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/WR-US-companies-prepare-for-borehole-field-tests-2212167.html

Nuclear Energy Development Groups Refresh their Vision

Nuclear Energy Development Groups Refresh their Vision

If Nuclear Can Bring Together Climate Skeptics & Scientists, Can It Bring Together the World?

Environmental Progress

I am very happy to announce the publication of an open letter to President-elect Donald Trump and Governor Rick Perry, urging them to unite Americans and the world around an inspiring new vision: making nuclear great again.
Co-authors include climate scientists, climate skeptics, and scholars from American Enterprise Institute and Brookings Institution. At a time when America is more divided than ever, nuclear stands out in its ability to unites liberals, conservatives and a growing number of environmentalists. I invite you to add your name.
As I note in a new oped in USA Today, a focus on making nuclear reactors for export may seem quixotic. After all, nuclear energy is struggling against cheap natural gas and heavily subsidized renewables. And historically, nuclear plants have been built locally, not manufactured.
But, the letter signers note, global demand for electricity is set to rise 70% over the next 25 years, mostly due to increased energy demand in developing nations.
And technological advances mean that new nuclear reactor components can increasingly be mass-manufactured in factories and shipped around the world for re-assembly on-site.
What’s at stake is a market worth $500 to $740 billion over the next decade, according to Commerce Department, and hundreds of thousands of high-skill and high-wage jobs.
U.S. leadership on nuclear dates back to 1953, when President Dwight Eisenhower announced a U.S.-led effort “to provide abundant electrical energy in the power-starved areas of the world.” It was called “Atoms for Peace.”
It was a win-win for U.S. and energy-hungry developing nations. Thanks to this effort, the U.S. today gets 20% of its electricity from nuclear plants which employ 32,000 workers directly, and create an additional 200,000 jobs in the economy.
And simply helping China to build four nuclear plants has created 20,000 jobs in 20 U.S. states, according to Westinghouse, whose nuclear division is based in the U.S. but owned by the Japanese conglomerate Toshiba.
Global competition is threatening. “Despite the U.S. civil nuclear industry’s strengths,” the Commerce Department warned earlier this year, “U.S. companies continue to lose significant market share to an ever‐increasing number of foreign government‐owned or led competitors, including Russia, Japan, France, China and the Republic of Korea.”
The reason is clear: those nations offer low-cost loans to nations seeking to finance nuclear plant construction. The U.S. does not.
Meanwhile, China is racing past America in terms of innovation. China has at least four next generation nuclear reactors in the works, including one financed by Bill Gates, who is expected to put millions and perhaps billions of his own money into the joint venture.
The situation facing nuclear plants domestically is urgent. Five U.S. nuclear plants have closed prematurely since 2013. Now 50% to 75% of all U.S. nuclear plants could be shuttered in just a few years, threatening 100,000 to 150,000 high-wage jobs.
The problem isn’t that nuclear plants are uneconomical, it’s that they are punished by discriminatory policies that treat one zero-carbon energy option more favorably than another.
Trump and Congress should seize opportunity from the crisis. What’s needed is a comprehensive vision and bold leadership on infrastructure, tax reform and energy policy.
Every one of the five nuclear plants that closed in recent years could have kept running had there been some incentive for owners to invest in retrofits and repairs. The infrastructure bill that Trump and Congress are talking about is the right place to provide just such an incentive.
Such an incentive could quickly create thousands of jobs. Building a new plant employs 3,500 people at peak construction, and preventing one from closing saves 500 to 1,500 jobs.
Tax reform should level the playing field. If there is an incentive for pollution-free power it should go to nuclear plants and coal plants that capture their air pollution, not just wind and solar.
To support innovation, Trump and Congress should take a page from history and authorize the Departments of Defense and Energy to demonstrate and purchase advanced nuclear reactors for use at military bases and laboratories.
The Department of Defense already does this with the nuclear reactors it uses in submarines and aircraft carriers, and this approach helped make General Electric the global leader in turbine manufacturing.
Such an effort will require new regulations. It makes no sense to regulate jet planes the same way we do propeller planes and yet that is precisely how the federal government treats new nuclear reactor types.
This new Atoms for Peace effort could inspire and unite the country and the world around something almost everyone wants: cheap, clean energy.
Trump should work Congress to significantly increase the financing of U.S. nuclear plants in foreign nations, and personally involve himself in selling projects to allied nations. Such work will directly create jobs in the United States and abroad, and provide one of the most important drivers of economic growth: abundant and inexpensive power.
Given that nuclear is our largest source of clean energy — and the only one proven capable of scaling up rapidly — a new Atoms for Peace effort will do more for clean air and climate change than any number of pollution regulations or United Nations treaties.
Nuclear energy brings together climate scientists and climate skeptics, liberals and conservatives. Could it bring together America — and the world?
Happy holidays,
Michael