Nukewatch Quarterly Winter 2013-2014

WASHINGTON, DC — On Nov. 19, a federal appeals court gave nuclear reactor operators a small fortune, ruling that the Energy Department (DOE) must stop collecting $750 million per year from them for the radioactive waste landfill fund. The decision was based on the DOE’s failure to find an alternative to the failed Yucca Mountain project in Nevada. The DOE must now reduce the assessment to zero, until it either complies with the Nuclear Waste Policy Act — which established Yucca Mountain as the national nuclear waste disposal site — or until Congress enacts an alternate plan. The fund has collected over $29 billion since it was established in 1983. Exelon Corp., which contributed $168 million into the fund in 2012, stands to benefit most from the dodge of responsibility. Other major beneficiaries include Entergy Corp., Duke Energy and Southern Company. Currently, 70,000 metric tons of radioactive waste are held in temporary storage at reactor sites across the country. 

— Bloomberg News, Nov. 20; Associated Press, Nov. 19; The Recorder, Nov. 15, 2013

Nukewatch Quarterly Winter 2013-2014

CANADA — Ontario’s Liberal Party government cancelled plans for two new nuclear reactors Oct. 10, citing a current energy surplus and the high cost of investment. The reactors, initiated in 2009, were projected to cost $26 billion, and the government spent $26 million on preparatory costs before abandoning the project. Ontario will still invest in the “refurbishment” of its existing reactors at Bruce Power near Kincardine and Darlington Nuclear Generating Station in Clarington. According to Greenpeace spokesperson Shawn-Patrick Stensil in Toronto, “The government deserves credit for finally ending the charade that new reactors are needed and cost effective. Hopefully the government won’t take the industry’s cost claims for the refurbishment at face value and will require a full public review.” Currently, Ontario gets about 50% of its electricity from nuclear reactors. — Reuters Canada, Dec. 4; Platts News Service, Dec. 3; Canadian Press, Oct. 10, 2013

Nukewatch Quarterly Winter 2013-2014

STOCKHOLM — Can humans take a hint? It wasn’t an earthquake or tsunami, but a huge swarm of jellyfish that forced one of the world’s largest reactors to shut down, a phenomenon that is becoming more and more common. Operators of the Oskarshamn nuclear power station on the Baltic Sea in southeastern Sweden — one of three in operation in the country — had to close down reactor 3 on Sept. 29, when tons of jellyfish clogged cooling water intake pipes. At 1,400 megawatts, reactor 3 is the largest boiling-water unit in the world, according to Anders Osterberg, a spokesman for OKG, the reactor operator. In 2005, reactor 1 at Oskarshamn was temporarily shut down after a similar inundation of jellyfish. Last year Diablo Canyon in California also had to shut its reactor No. 2 after gobs of sea salp — a jellyfish-like organism — clogged its cooling water intake pipes. — Arizona Republic, Oct. 2; and Australia’s News.com.au, Oct. 1, 2013