Decline and fall of the nuclear industry – it’s the economics, stupid!by Christina MacPherson |
The Real Deterrent to Nuclear Power WSJ BY LIAM DENNING, 6 Feb 13 Long before they consume even a pound of uranium, nuclear-power plants burn through copious quantities of cash. That handicap was laid bare, once again, on both sides of the Atlantic this week.
On Tuesday, Duke Energy said it would decommission its Crystal River nuclear-power plant in Florida rather than pay a repair bill estimated last October at more than …http://online.wsj.com/
Uranium mining efforts persist below the surface
By Julian Walker
Scott Harper
The Virginian-Pilot
So uranium mining in Virginia is dead this year, right?
Really?
Mining opponents find themselves wanting to celebrate but, at the same time, worry that they might have overlooked something - perhaps a new proposal that will suddenly pop up in some committee and unravel their apparent victory.
Their biggest concern continues to be a death-bed request from chief mining sponsor, state Sen. John Watkins, R-Powhatan. As he spiked his own bill that would have lifted a 31-year-old ban on mining and milling the radioactive ore, Watkins urged Gov. Bob McDonnell to flex his executive powers and instruct state agencies to draft possible mining regulations anyway.
Uranium opponents and some of their political allies in the General Assembly saw another potential land mine this week when the Senate and House approved a new body with a tongue-twister of a name: the Virginia Nuclear Energy Consortium Authority.
This body would be a political branch of state government and a separate "nonstock corporation" free from most open-records oversight.
Endorsed by the McDonnell administration, the body would help "make the Commonwealth a national and global leader in nuclear energy" and serve "as an interdisciplinary study, research and information resource on nuclear energy issues," according to the bill creating the organization.
It would consist of 17 board members, mostly tapped by the governor from universities and business, and it could seek funds "from any source." It also could "make and enter into all contracts and agreements necessary or incidental to the performance of its duties," according to the bill.
Uranium opponents are dubious.
Some see the body as a veiled vehicle to gather industry experts in Virginia, continue studying mining sites in the south-central part of the state and perhaps launch new efforts in coming years to allow mining under the guise of supporting nuclear power.
"Are we concerned? Yes," said Dan Holmes, director of state policy for the Piedmont Environmental Council, one of many advocacy groups that formed the Keep the Ban Coalition, which opposes uranium mining. "
Paul Logan, a spokesman for McDonnell, said the organization "has nothing to do with uranium mining."
Logan compared the body to one created two years ago, the Virginia Offshore Wind Development Authority, to help promote wind power spun by ocean turbines.
Similarly, Logan said, the nuclear measure is "a jobs bill" intended "to promote nuclear energy production and technology and R&D."
The Senate passed the bill Tuesday by a 32-7 vote.
But before the balloting, state Sen. Donald McEachin, D-Henrico County, asked the patron, Sen. Jeff McWaters, R-Virginia Beach, why some of the organization's business would be left in the dark, exempt from open-records requirements.
McEachin said he had been flooded by "literally a tsunami of emails" from anxious constituents.
McWaters said there is nothing nefarious about the arrangement. The exemptions from open-records rules are "in order to let businesses, scientists, university leaders get together and talk openly, where they can make a conference call without having to post it," McWaters said.
"They're not going to come and collaborate at the level we need if everything and every conversation has to be open to the public and open to competitors," he added.
http://hamptonroads.com/2013/02/uranium-mining-efforts-persist-below-surface
Plans threaten to move uranium issue forward
Posted: Wednesday, February 6, 2013 9:00 amTo the editor:
Last week Virginia legislators and Virginia Uranium Mining proponents reinforced what Virginia and North Carolina citizens battling uranium mining have been experiencing first-hand, namely, that the cost of freedom, in this case freedom from radioactive aggression, is eternal vigilance.
In fact, on Thursday, even as the bill to lift the ban did not even make it to the floor of the Agriculture, Natural Resources and Health Committee but was withdrawn by its sponsor, Virginia Senator John Watkins, citizens knew there would be an alternate plan. They knew that uranium mining proponents are heavily financially and politically invested in the attempt to get the regulations written and would not walk away from the uranium gold project just because a majority of legislators might have determined that keeping the ban would be the prudent political choice.
So, immediately after he withdrew his bill to lift the ban on uranium mining, Senator Watkins revealed Plan B. He requested that Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell use his executive power under the Administrative Procedures Act to proceed with writing the regulations that would govern uranium mining in Virginia. He claimed that writing the regulations would clarify issues that mining opponents may have, but did not mention that Virginia Uranium Mining, Inc.’s next step in the process of becoming approved for uranium mining was to get the regulations written anyway.
So far, Governor McDonnell has not revealed his latest position on the uranium mining issue. If the governor were to decide to use his executive power to move the process ahead, the plans to mine uranium would be right on schedule for Virginia Uranium Mining, Inc. Regulations would be written this year that would justify and legalize the mining, milling and waste disposal operation as it is proposed based on the “as low as reasonably achievable” standard. The regulations would be especially tailor-made to legalize the Coles Hill mining site.
Yet Governor McDonnell could decide that Plan B -- using his executive power to direct that regulations for uranium mining be written while blatantly disregarding public sentiment -- could be political suicide. So, there is Plan C. Plan C is to create a Virginia Nuclear Energy Consortium Authority (VNECA), the purpose of which is to promote and expand nuclear and nuclear-related industries while making the Commonwealth of Virginia the nuclear center for the nation.
House Bill 1790 and Senate Bill 1138 are based on a premise, an assumption, that nuclear energy and all its repercussions are as an industry that the people of Virginia want to dominate the landscape of their economics. Where is a balanced bill calling for a Renewable Energy Consortium Authority?
The nuclear energy bill gives the Authority the power to implement its powers and statutes, but neither is described in the bill. Therefore, the bill would give the Authority arbitrary and capricious powers and statutes about which the public knows nothing. One power given to the Authority would be to buy or lease property if necessary or convenient. So, what would prevent the Authority from purchasing property for a radioactive waste landfill, for instance, or to invest in uranium mining?
The bill would give the Nuclear Energy Consortium Authority, and the governor who would choose the Authority’s membership, the legal and financial power to promote and expand the nuclear industry. The Authority’s business would be conducted without transparency, without recourse or public discussion, through powers legalized to act with impunity.
Virginia legislators who pass the Virginia Nuclear Energy Consortium Authority bills may circumvent making a direct decision on uranium mining, but if they approve VNECA, they must take responsibility for giving their support to a nuclear industry that necessarily includes the cradle to grave process, including uranium mining and final radioactive waste disposal. Virginia could become the nuclear energy center for the nation all right! But it could become best known as the nation’s radioactive waste disposal capital!
DEBORAH FERRUCCIO
Norlina
http://www.vancnews.com/the_warren_record/opinion/article_560cc396-7062-11e2-b24a-001a4bcf887a.html
Back door approach
Last Updated on Wednesday, 06 February 2013 08:28
Opponents of uranium mining may have had the upper hand Thursday when Sen. John Watkins withdrew his SB 1353 to avoid a vote because he knew 11 or 12 of the 15 on the Senate Ag Committee were against the bill that directed the state to write regulations for uranium mining and milling.
But instead of celebrating victory, uranium opponents are warning local legislators to be ever vigilant because Watkins is now pressing the governor to use the Administrative Process Act to bring the uranium mining issue back from the brink of extinction.
We The People of Virginia, Inc. Chairman Jack Dunavant cautions that Senate Bill 1138 should be feared even more than Watkins’ previous uranium bill.
SB1138 establishes a 17-member Virginia Nuclear Energy Consortium Authority as “a political subdivision of the commonwealth for the purposes of making the commonwealth a national and global leader in nuclear energy and serving as an interdisciplinary study, research and information resource for the commonwealth on nuclear energy issues.”
This bill is being viewed by many as a clever, back-door approach to pave the way for uranium mining on Coles Hill in Pittsylvania County before legislators ever vote to lift the ban.
“SB1138 is a red herring,” according to the We the People chairman. “It is filled with the same buzz words Walter Coles (owner of Coles Hill) fed us at a meeting back in 2007.”
Jack refers to phrases like “making Virginia the nuclear capital of the world” as “propaganda right out of Areva’s playbook.”
“I can think of nothing more dangerous than setting up a ‘consortium’ where nuclear ‘experts’ play footsie with empire building bureacrats. We need to nip this thing in the bud, now,” he is quick to add.
The Halifax town councilman fears if this bill proceeds, “it will come back to haunt us forever.”
SB1138 is, in some ways, more dangerous than John Watkins’ uranium mining bill, Jack believes, because this ‘consortium’ bill would allow giant uranium mining corporations to become an influential part of a quasi-governmental group with powers to influence legislation pertaining to uranium mining and nuclear energy.
SB1138 states that this consortium is to be established “for the purposes of making the commonwealth a national and global leader in nuclear energy.”
Why would we want to do that given the past problems with nuclear power, he asks.
It’s not popular to be against nuclear power, but as long as nuclear waste continues to be stored in above ground containers at nuclear reactors across the nation, danger looms, Jack warns.
We agree that uranium mining is a genie that can’t be placed back in the bottle once it is loosed.
And many other reputable businesses and organizations agree too, having voiced their concerns against lifting the ban on uranium mining in Virginia.
With this many jurisdictions, organizations, churches and groups of concerned citizens going on record with their opposition to lifting the moratorium on uranium mining, there’s got to be something to these fears and concerns.
Local legislators must be ever vigilant. It seems the multi-billion dollar uranium game continues on, and this time the lines may not be as clearly drawn.
Posted: Wednesday, February 6, 2013 10:00 am | Updated: 5:06 pm, Tue Feb 5, 2013.
Gov. Bob McDonnell would have made a great altar boy.He’s respectful of authority and its symbols. He’s dedicated to ritual and dutifully carries it out. He ac-knowledges absolutes and accepts that some things aren’t likely to change.No wonder he punted on uranium.
http://www.tricities.com/news/opinion_columns/article_d9a996d0-6fdf-11e2-a004-001a4bcf6878.html
http://www.tricities.com/news/opinion_columns/article_d9a996d0-6fdf-11e2-a004-001a4bcf6878.html
Last Updated on Wednesday, 06 February 2013 08:23
A little known multidisciplinary field that spans the vast scientific landscape from medicine to earth science goes by the name of “medical geology.”
Defined in an online college course (http://ocw.mit.edu) by the same name as “the study of the interaction between abundances of elements and isotopes and the health of humans and plants,” it is now a subject of exquisite relevance to the Commonwealth of Virginia, not to mention parts known and unknown downstream and downwind.
The vote by a margin of 11-2 by Virginia’s Coal and Energy Commission to open a study of uranium mining in Pittsylvania County in Southside Virginia has brought this obscure discipline front and-center to all Virginians. The General Assembly is now in the throes of debating the issue.
To put oneself in the mindset of medical geology, one must first banish all thoughts of current political boundaries. The proposed Coles Hill uranium mine near Chatham casts a shadow far larger than just Pittsylvania County.
It is in the watershed of the Roanoke River, directly upstream of south central Virginia’s drinking water supply and reservoir for its largest city as well as a major source of the drinking water for northeastern North Carolina. And ground water can seep through the fractured and porous sub-surface rock to aquifers in the adjacent James and Dan River Basins, especially after the deep drilling needed for uranium mining.
Prevailing wind patterns blow east by northeast from Coles Hill over Richmond and on past the nation’s capital along the eastern seaboard. So, water and wind can spread radioactivity far and wide, making Coles Hill a statewide, national and even international issue.
Secondly, and despite one pro-mining senator’s comment that he does not care what will happen a hundred years from now, it is necessary to wrap one’s head around the immensity of geological time.
For example, the decay of radioactive thorium-230, the longest-lived isotope of uranium-234 in the “tailings” left over from mining, has a half-life of 77,000 years, that is, half of it is gone in that period of time. One estimate is that radioactivity from the mined deposit will still pose a human health risk 50,000 years from now. This unfathomable length of time is more than 100 times the entire 400-year history of Virginia.
On the risk side, a medical geological perspective strongly suggests that uranium mining will unleash extremely long-lived disease-causing radioactive isotopes into the earth, air and groundwater that will pose a significant threat of future negative health consequences over a much wider area than Pittsylvania County.
Noel T. Boaz is president of the nonprofit Integrative Centers for Science and Medicine, an affiliated research professor in anthropology at Virginia Commonwealth University and founding director of the Virginia Museum of Natural History
http://www.yourgv.com/index.php/opinion/community-voices/7253-mining-health-risks-and-medical-geologyUranium issue off table for now
South Hill Enterprise - Feb 6, 2013
On Thursday, Jan. 31, a proposed bill that would have set the stage for regulations and a vote to end Virginia's 31-year moratorium on uranium mining was withdrawn by State Sen. John Watkins. Watkins withdrew SB 1353 from the Senate Agriculture, ...
In Niger, New Disputes Over French Uranium Extraction
Niger is home to one of the world’s largest deposits of uranium, a resource that is of great value to highly industrialized states around the world.
But the vast West African country is also plagued by poverty, suffering a drought-induced food crisis and squarely situated in the middle of a very tumultuous region
On Niger’s western border is Mali, where French and African troops are currently battling Islamist insurgents. To the northwest is Algeria, where militants took over a gas plant last month and kicked off a bloody conflict that cost dozens of lives. To the northeast is Libya, where security forces are struggling to enforce order in a divided society -- and where militants from all across North and West Africa gained access to a cache of weapons during the 2011 revolution that toppled Moammar Gadhafi.
It is no wonder that Paris sent its own special security forces to Niger this week to protect a French-operated uranium mine there.
International Showdown
France is highly dependent on nuclear energy. With 58 nuclear reactors generating about 75 percent of its electricity, the country is second only to the United States in nuclear power generation and has become a major energy exporter for Europe.
The vast majority of Areva shares are held by the French public sector.
Digging Deep
Areva has more to worry about than regional conflicts and disputes over the allocations of revenue. Some organizations -- in Niger and abroad -- have accused the French company of neglecting to enforce adequate standards to protect mining communities from radiation.
The mining towns at Arlit and Akokan were in fact established by Areva for the express purpose of housing uranium mine workers and their families.
http://www.ibtimes.com/niger-new-disputes-over-french-uranium-extraction-1064546
