|
<< newer stories 3 more stories >>
Change Links September 2018 posted
change links idVer:f3d4cce87c745bdff12897f5cc
2018-09-02 10:22 PM
Change Links September 2018 posted (text/plain)
More Scandals Rock Southern California Nuke Plant San Onofre
Michael Steinberg
2018-08-30 11:09 PM
Nuclear Shutdown News chronicles the decline and fall of the nuclear power industry in the US and abroad, and highlights the efforts of those working to create a nuclear free world. Here is our August 2018 report.
More Scandals Rock San Onofre
The eighth month of the year saw additional scandals erupt at Southern California's San Onofre nuclear plant, which has been shut down since 2013.
Another potentially catastrophic accident occurred, a previously unknown whistleblower spoke out, and the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is sending a special inspection team to try to sort out this whole mess.
San Onofre's majority owner Southern California Edison shut the plant down prematurely after a scandal involving corporate mismanagement that caused a radioactive leak, and environmentalists exposed the utility's rush to restart the plant at the expense of the public's health and safety.
Since the permanent shutdown Edison has begun what's called decommissioning, meaning dismantlement and decontamination of the nuclear plant .A key task in this process is dealing with the nuclear waste left over . This is called spent nuclear fuel, stored in San Onofre's nuclear reactors as well as in pools where it must be constantly cooled or else there could be a serious accident, in the worst case leading to a meltdown.
This highly radioactive waste remains lethal to all life for a very long time. The federal government was supposed to take responsibility for for the megatons of spent nuclear fuel (3.55 million tons in San Onofre's case) for the whole nation by 1980, but still hasn't .
Edison chose to do the job by having the spent fuel removed from the plant and transferred to what is called dry storage, in canisters that are then buried on site for who knows how long. To carry out this task Edison hired Holtec International of Camden, New Jersey. Work began this past February, then stopped--but for only 10 days--after a cask lost a part while being lowered into the burial site in March.
The burial site is only 100 feet from the Pacific Ocean, protected by just a 28 foot seawall.
August Is the Cruellist Month--So Far
On August 10th the San Diego Union Tribune reported on "an incident" during which another spent fuel cask had become stuck on August 4th while being maneuvered down to the bottom of the nuke dump. Specifically, the cask was wedged 18 feet above the bottom, and remained there for "45 minutes to an hour" according to the NRC.
The next day, August 4th, a whistleblower revealed himself at a public meeting about San Onofre's decommissioning, the same U-T article reported. He identified himself as David Fritch, and said he was employed with the federal Occupational and Safety Administration (OSHA) and had been working at San Onofre for three months.
Fritch said he attended the meeting "to see if any of Edison's reps would discuss the 8-3 incident," but when none did he decided to report that the canister in question "could have fallen 18 feet."
In a followup Union Tribune report on August 24th Fritch alleged that only "about a quarter inch" wedge prevented the canister from falling before it was finally repositioned and safely lowered.
In the earlier U-T report Fritch also said some workers with Holtec "are undertrained" and many experienced supervisors are often sent away and replaced by new supervisors "who don't understand it as well."
The 8-24 Union Tribune report said an NRC inspection team "will send a team to evaluate the incident, will come on September 10 and spend a week."
The incident "confirms every fear we've had about what's going on at San Onofre and what measurges they're taking to ensure the public's safety," Charles Langley of theSan Diego Public Watchdogs told the the Union Tribune on August 10. He also expressed concerns that the spent fuel casks are not thick enough and could crack.
In light of all the above, Edison put the cask transfer operations "on pause."
Source: San Diego Union Tribune, uniontribune.com
Holtec's Master Plan
Given Holtec's troublesome performance at San Onofre, you might think the company would be curtailing its activities in other places.
Unfortunately this is not the case. Earlier this year Nuclear Shutdown News detailed its plan to build a nuke dump in Arizona for the nation's spent fuel still sitting around the increasing number of shutting down and already closed nuclear plants. An application to do so has been filed with the NRC. The most likely means of transporting the high level radioactive waste would likely be by rail.
But Holtec has also been removing spent fuel from shutdown nukes and storing it on site, most recently at Vermont Yankee, which closed in 2014.
Holtec appears to be privatizing the job of dealing with the nuke industry's high level radioactive waste and turning it into its own growth industry , after the job was abdicated by the federal government since 1980, as noted above.
On August 1 Utility Drive reported a new Holtec scheme to turn a profit this way in its article "Holtec to buy three nuclear plants, greatly accelerate decommissioning."
The three nuclear plants, all shutting down in the near future, are Oyster Creek in New Jersey, Pilgrim in Massachusetts, and Palisades in Michigan.
Holtec and its partner Comprehensive Decommissioning International, said they would dismantle and decontaminate the three nuke plants in eight years, though they have up to 60 years to do so. The same plan applies to Vermont Yankee.
In that state the Conservation Law Foundation warned, "In the rush to secure a possible--and by no means certain--quick cleanup of the site, the settlement excludes reasonable protection for Vermont communities.
The Utility Drive report did not explain why Holtec is buying the three nukes, or for how much,
But a report by WBUR radio in Boston on August 2 said that in the Pilgrim deal "Holtec will get $1 billion paid by Massachusetts ratepayers into a decommissioning trust fund."
Sources: Utility Drive, utility drive.com; WBUR, wbur.org.
During August more Scandals Rocked the Southern California nuclear plant San Onofre, resulting in an upcoming federal investigation.
(text/plain)
Site Outage Friday
johnk
2018-08-30 3:49 PM
There will be intermittent site outages on Friday. (text/plain)
Change Links August 2018
change links idVer:2273781c704b70f1e0540928e2
2018-08-14 1:56 AM
Change Links August 2018 (text/plain)
Setback for Developer of SC Farm Land
RP
2018-08-12 11:09 PM
Judge: Environmental Impact Report of PIMA warehouses must be revisited. (image/png)
More problems at Shutdown San Onofre Nuke
Michael Steinberg
2018-07-29 10:40 PM
Just when you thought there couldn't be more problems at the shutdown San Onofre nuclear plant, more arise (text/plain)
Change Links 2018 July posted
change links idVer:761a4d55aef6a1c4bc6229e657
2018-07-09 8:27 PM
Change Links 2018 July (text/plain)
More Pix: "Families Belong Together," Pasadena
RP
2018-07-02 7:16 PM
Additional pictures of Saturday's march in Pasadena. (image/jpeg)
"Families Belong Together" March, Pasadena
RP
2018-07-02 7:08 PM
Report back on the march in Pasadena, one of at least 70 in California and 400+ in the US. (image/jpeg)
Short Report on the Families Belong Together Protest in Los Angeles
johnk
2018-06-30 11:26 PM
Just some impressions and comments. (text/plain + 8 comments)
Summer 2018 National Immigrant Solidarity Network News Alert!
Lee Siu Hin - Immigrant Solidarity Network id
2018-06-11 6:58 AM
Trump's Animals ICE And Prisoner Sexual Abuse Racists Are On The Loose! (text/html)
Watch the Debate: Excluded Candidates for Governor of California
Sharat G. Lin idVer:a40bbf99d459cb08ee7c8bfb1
2018-05-31 5:20 AM
Five serious candidates for governor of California in the June 5, 2018 Primary Election debated at San Jose State University on May 10, 2018 because they were systematically excluded or, in one case, marginalized in the mainstream televised debate. (image/jpeg)
Change Links June 2018 posted
Change Links idVer:a4434712405a54a7ecda800ccc
2018-05-28 7:41 AM
Change Links June 2018 posted (text/plain)
The Montrose Peace Vigil at 12 Years
Oss Rae
2018-05-22 8:01 PM
Last January marked the 12-year anniversary of the Montrose Peace Vigil. It continues every Friday from 5:30 to 7 at Honolulu Avenue and Ocean View Boulevard. (image/png + 1 comment)
Unity Archive Project
LRS
2018-05-21 9:42 AM
Link to an archive of Unity newspaper from the 1980s. (text/plain)
Dianne Feinstein's Promotion of War, Secret Animal Abuse, Military Profiteering, Censorshi
California Peace
2018-05-17 10:22 PM
Feinstein has a long history of voting for war appropriations. She quietly cosponsored the Animal
Enterprise Terrorism Act which criminalizes many
exposures of institutional torture of animals. She has profiteered personally from war. (text/plain + 1 comment)
CA Senate Bill 1303 would require an independent coroner rather than being part of police
police accountability idVer:675be0f7a9a7f191f
2018-05-10 9:08 PM
Coroners should be independent of police (text/plain)
Three years after OC snitch scandal, no charges filed against sheriffs deputies
police abuse idVer:2240f243eb5dfe22fe08d1b130
2018-05-10 8:57 PM
Three years after OC snitch scandal, no charges filed against sheriffs deputies (text/plain)
California police agencies violate Brown Act (open meetings)
police state idVer:d4f6d0109d06675f951d380368
2018-05-02 8:31 PM
California police agencies violate the Brown Act (open meetings) (text/plain)
Insane Company Wants To Send Nuke Plant Waste To New Mexico
Michael Steinberg
2018-04-29 11:47 PM
A radioactive waste company, Holtec, wants to send all the nation's high level radwaste, stuff like plutonium, from shut down nuclear plants, to New Mexico. (text/plain)
Change Links May 2018
change links idVer:311280e56ec29133990b431428
2018-04-27 8:40 AM
Change Links May 2018 posted (text/plain)
Worker-Owned Car Wash on Vermont Closed
RP
2018-04-27 5:37 AM
Apparently it only lasted about a year. (text/plain)
GUIDE TO REBEL CITY LOS ANGELES AVAILABLE
LLANO
2018-04-13 12:39 AM
The free Rebel City Los Angeles guide answers the question, what would Los Angeles look like if vertical power as we know it disappeared?. (text/plain)
lausd whistle blower
lausd whistle blower idVer:7c7e3311cfb2d341eb
2018-04-11 6:58 AM
Cheryl Dorsey blows the whistle at LAUSD (text/plain)
Website Upgrade
johnk
2018-04-10 10:02 AM
We'll have outages daily between today and maybe the 20th. (text/plain)
Help KCET and UCLA identify 60s-70s Chicano images
human rights idVer:54dc3ee387794f936373e5c8a1
2018-04-04 8:02 PM
Help KCET identify 60s-70s Chicano images (text/plain)
UCLA Luskin: Casting Youth Justice in a Different Light
UCLA Luskin idVer:e8b57fc09176457b0958b09d311
2018-04-02 6:58 PM
Casting Youth Justice in a Different Light (text/plain)
Change Links April 2018
Change Links idVer:8d8b82d426e9e2d6917cdd82c5
2018-04-01 6:27 PM
April 2018 calendar published (text/plain)
Nuclear Shutdown News March 2018
Michael Steinberg
2018-04-01 1:57 AM
The San Onofre nuclear power plant in SoCal shut down in 2012. But it's still causing a lot of trouble. (text/plain)
Join The Protest Rally in Glendale on April 10, 2018!
Esther
2018-03-30 2:00 AM
Join The Protest at Glendale City Hall on April 10, 2018!
Glendale is planning a $500 million expansion of the Grayson Power Station that will increase emissions by 415,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually, increase ozone and particulate pollution, and generate electricity to sell to other cities. (image/jpeg)
<< newer stories 3 more stories >>
| 
