The reluctance of U.S. federal regulators to require operators of nuclear reactors to spend $5 billion to enhance the security of spent fuel rods that are stored underground threatens the country with a potential catastrophe, scientists warned on Friday. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission greatly underestimated the risk and potential contamination of a nuclear waste fire triggered by a quake or a planned attack, experts wrote in the journal Science.
Japan Times 27th May 2017 read more »
Executives of a company financing construction of two nuclear reactors in Georgia continue to be awarded millions of dollars in incentives, despite it being behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget. Southern Company, the parent firm financing Plant Vogtle’s two new reactors, held its annual shareholders meeting recently to give investing companies and others the chance to discuss issues with executives. Some shareholders are not happy about the board of directors’ decision to award incentives to executives in light of losses at two of the company’s major projects: Kemper Plant in Mississippi and the Vogtle expansion in Georgia’s Burke County, the Georgia newspaper reported.
US News 27th May 2017 read more »
Earlier this year, the bankruptcy of Westinghouse, builder of the AP1000 reactor — the model scheduled for use at plants in South Carolina and Georgia as well as Turkey Point — rattled the industry. Both projects are now years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget. The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy estimates that construction on Turkey Point has been delayed until 2028 at the earliest, with costs expected to balloon to over $20 billion. FPL has refused to publicly revise its projections at Turkey Point, for now. “We don’t think there is value in coming up with a new cost or schedule until those reactors are closer to completion,” Robbins said. “Most people think Turkey Point will never get built,” said Mark Cooper, senior research fellow at the Institute for Energy and the Environment, Vermont Law School, referring to FPL’s proposed two new nuclear reactors. “It turns out it was not the environmentalists, it was not the lawsuits,” Cooper told AFP. “They could not deliver a safe, economically viable product. They couldn’t do it.
France24 28th May 2017 read more »