Vogtle Nuclear Reactors: '....down the radioactive sink hole...'

Great points raised by Harvey Wasserman about the total rip-off of the Vogtle Nuclear Reactors being built in Georgia.....all taxpayer funded!

Nuclear Energy makes absolutely no sense!

Obama Shills for Nuclear Industry and Cost Overruns at Taxpayer Expense

President Barack Obama during his remarks on the George Zimmerman case. (photo: Carolyn Kaster/AP)

Obama's Nuke-Powered Drone Strike on America's Fiscal Sanity

By Harvey Wasserman, Common Dreams

20 February 14

o the "all the above" energy strategy now deems we dump another $6.5 billion in bogus loan guarantees down the atomic drain. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz has announced finalization of hotly contested taxpayer handouts for the two Vogtle reactors being built in Georgia. Another $1.8 billion waits to be pulled out of your pocket and poured down the radioactive sink hole.

 

A nuke-powered drone strike on fiscal sanity.

 

While Fukushima burns and solar soars, our taxpayer money is being pitched at a failed 20th century technology currently distinguished by its non-stop outflow of lethal radiation into the Pacific Ocean.

 

The money is to pump up a pair of radioactive white elephants that Wall Street won't touch. Georgia state "regulators" are strong-arming ratepayers into the footing the bill before the reactors ever move a single electron—which they likely never will.

 

Sibling reactors being built in Finland and France are already billions over budget and years behind schedule. New ones proposed in Great Britain flirt with price guarantees far above currently available renewables.

 

The Vogtle project makes no fiscal sense … except for the scam artists that will feed off them for years to come.

 

Substandard concrete, unspecified rebar steel, major labor scandals, non-existent quality control … all the stuff that's defined this industry since the Shippingport reactor started construction outside Pittsburgh some six decades ago is with us yet again.

 

It would be nice to say this is merely $6.5 billion wasted. But that's the tip of the iceberg. Long Island's Shoreham and New Hampshire's Seabrook came in at 5-10 times their original cost estimates.

 

Shoreham never made it to commercial operation. Neither did Seabrook Unit Two.

 

Should Vogtle, for which these loans are designated, beat the odds and actually go on line in the years to come, it will multiply its sunk cost by irradiating the countryside and creating radioactive waste nobody can handle.

 

Nor can it get private insurance to shield future victims and the taxpaying public from the inevitable disaster. The next commercial reactor to explode (joining the five that already have) will do damage in the trillions.

 

Its owners will not be liable, and the people making this decision will never go to prison.

 

But many along the way will pocket major fortunes from substandard construction, corner-cutting "safety" scams, black market parts purchasing, mafia-run hiring operations and the usual greasing of radioactive palms that defines all reactor construction projects.

 

Take that $6.5 or $8.3 billion and invest it right now in wind, solar, sustainable bio-fuels, geothermal, ocean thermal, wave energy, LED light bulbs, building insulation and Solartopian south-facing windows.

 

THEN we can dent in our climate crisis.

 

THAT's where the jobs are.

 

THERE would be an all-the-above energy strategy that actually makes sense.

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Harvey Wasserman | Obama's Nuke-Powered Drone Strike on America's Fiscal Sanity

Harvey Wasserman, Common Dreams
Wasserman writes: "While Fukushima burns and solar soars, our taxpayer money is being pitched at a failed 20th century technology currently distinguished by its non-stop outflow of lethal radiation into the Pacific Ocean."
READ MORE

Charles Pierce | The Voting Wars Go On
Charles Pierce, Esquire
Pierce writes: "This is not about laziness or ignorance. This is about institutional barriers placed deliberately in the way of the former group of voters by politicians working on behalf of the latter."
READ MORE

Rand Paul | The NSA Is Still Violating Our Rights
Rand Paul, Guardian UK
Paul writes: "James Clapper now says the National Security Agency (NSA) should have been more open about the fact that they were spying on all Americans. I'm glad he said this. But there is no excuse for lying in the first place."
READ MORE

PLO Official: US Ideas for Peace Deal Fall Short
Karin Laub, Associated Press
Laub reports: "Ideas floated by Washington so far for an Israeli-Palestinian peace framework don't provide a basis for serious talks, a Palestinian official said Wednesday, signaling continued deadlock as an April deadline approaches."
READ MORE

Where Ohio Got Its Execution Drugs
Andrew Welsh-Huggins, Associated Press
Welsh-Huggins reports: "Ohio's most recent batches of lethal injection drugs were produced by a company that wants states to stop using them for capital punishment."
READ MORE

Yet Another Toxic Spill in North Carolina
Lindsay Abrams, Salon
Abrams reports: "Officials announced that the coal ash dump that leaked into North Carolina's Dan River earlier this month, contaminating the water with arsenic and other toxic chemicals, has sprung a new leak that's contaminating the water with arsenic and other toxic chemicals."
READ MORE

Meet the Family the Tar Sands Industry Wants to Keep Quiet
Emily Atkin, ThinkProgress
Atkin reports: "Though Alain once thought having the tanks on his property would be a blessing, he now describes them as a curse."
READ MORE

Obama Shills for Nuclear Industry and Cost Overruns at Taxpayer Expense

The Nuclear Industry wined, dined, schmoozed and bought Congress to exempt itself from risks - the taxpayers pick up the cost overruns and the failures.

Why is Obama approving a LOAN GUARANTEE for NUCLEAR when it's more expensive that WIND, SOLAR or other CLEAN ENERGY?

Vogtle is already experiencing cost overruns and no one can control them - included in this summary of articles:

TEPCO reveals record cesium level in Fukushima No. 1 well

 Agency seeks funding to track Vogtle nuclear plant costs 26 Jan 2014 Badly outnumbered regulators in Georgia want to hire two more employees to keep tabs on the 14 billion project to build a first-of-its-kind nuclear plant. Southern Co. subsidiary Georgia Power says its share of the project to build Plant Vogtle is projected to go hundreds of millions of dollars over budget. Its 2.4 million customers will pay for the company's building costs unless regulators force the utility to take losses on questionable spending. Regulators are at a disadvantage when contending with Georgia Power, a monopoly that owns a 46 percent stake in the nuclear plant.


This was posted in 2011 - the cost parity has changed - WIND & SOLAR are now cheaper, as are other CLEAN ENERGY options:

U.S. Nuclear Policy Governed by Lobbyists & Campaign Contributions
 

Nuclear Energy is extremely expensive, riddled with cost overruns and subsidized by U.S. taxpayers.

From a strictly cost/benefit analysis, Nuclear Energy has never made any sense, and that's before we consider the cost of 'waste.'



Consider this -- Nuclear Energy costs
$7,500 per kilowatt to build
That’s more than double the capital costs for solar power and three and a half times the cost for wind.

the most heavily subsidized industry in the energy sector.

In 2005, Congress handed the nuclear power industry $13 billion in federal aid, and two years later went on to approve an additional $20.5 billion in loan guarantees, making U.S. taxpayers the cosigners on loans for new nuclear projects -- half of which are expected to end in defaults.

Wind is already more competitive than electricity generated from new nuclear and coal-fired power plants.

These are just a few of the entries posted about the Failures of the Nuclear Industry, the lack of security, the lack of safety:

Unprotected Nuclear Facility Break Ignored by Corporate Media!

“If unarmed protesters dressed in dark clothing could reach the plant’s core during the cover of dark, it raised questions about the plant’s security against more menacing intruders.”

Sellafield nuclear plant staff told to stay home after 'elevated levels of radioactivity' detected 31 Jan 2014 The Sellafield nuclear plant has been evacuated after "elevated levels of radioactivity" were detected. More than 10,000 non-essential staff have been told to stay at home following problems at the site in Cumbria, which is the biggest nuclear site in the UK. A perimeter alarm was triggered at the north of the site, leading to buildings being checked by safety staff, but it was later discovered the higher than normal levels had occurred "naturally".

The Fukushima Secrecy Syndrome

Scotland's tidal energy potential is greater than a nuclear power plant

The Fukushima Silence

This man wants you to know the truth about Fukushima

 

'Fukushima Fascism' & Elizabeth Warren's Moral Insight

 

....wind energy is now coming in even cheaper than natural gas....

Nuclear Regulation in a Post-Fukushima World

Fukushima - ignored by the media

Plymouth: ....a nuclear waste storage facility

Pilgrim No. 1 in U.S. for shutdowns

Fukushima etc

Radioactivity level spikes 6,500 times at Fukushima well 18 Oct 2013 Radioactivity levels in a well near a storage tank at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan have risen immensely on Thursday, the plant's operator has reported. Officials of the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) said on Friday they detected 400,000 becquerels per liter of beta ray-emitting radioactive substances - including strontium - at the site, a level 6,500 times higher than readings taken on Wednesday, NHK World reported. The storage tank leaked over 300 tons of contaminated radioactive water in August, some of which is believed to have found its way into the sea through a ditch.

 

Fukushima on the Hudson?

 Atomic Energy - Unnecessary, Uneconomic, Uninsurable, Unevacuable and Unsafe
Holy Cow: Former Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Says Every Single Reactor in the U.S. Should Be Shut Down

Pilgrim Nuclear: “That is not what we signed up for. It is not the legacy we want to leave for our children.”

Time to close Pilgrim!

Fukushima Apocalypse: Years of duct tape fixes could result in 'millions of deaths'

350.org's photo.

Amazing numbers. Statistics can sometimes look good.

The world has installed more solar power in the past two and a half years than in the previous 40 years.

We can build fast. The only question is can we build ...fast enough -- and that will be answered by how much organizing we can do.

All 104 nuclear power reactors in U.S. have safety problems.....

Radiation: The Invisible Peril

The Secret Fukushima Poisoning The Bread Basket Of The World

Dirty Energy Prostitution

Nuclear Makes No Sense!

 

 

 

From DEMOCRACYNOW:

U.S. Approves Loan Deal for 1st New Nuclear Power Plant in 30 Years       

The Obama administration has approved $6.5 billion in loan guarantees to back construction of the nation’s first new nuclear power plant in more than 30 years. The Vogtle nuclear plant is currently under construction in Waynesboro, Georgia. The announcement comes as the administration investigates a radioactive leak at a nuclear waste site in New Mexico.

Democracy Now! Daily Digest A Daily Independent Global News Hour with Amy Goodman & Juan González

Stories

A New Cold War? Ukraine Violence Escalates, Leaked Tape Suggests U.S. Was Plotting Coup A short-lived truce has broken down in Ukraine as street battles have erupted between anti-government protesters and police. Last night the country's embattled president and the opposition ... Read More →

Venezuelan Protests: Another Attempt by U.S.-Backed Right-Wing Groups to Oust Elected Government? In Venezuela, at least six people have died in recent days during a series of anti-government protests. The latest casualty was a local beauty queen who died of a gunshot wound. The protests ... Read More →

Excessive Force? Migrant Shot Dead by U.S. Border Agent Near San Diego After Throwing Rock While the United States, Mexico and Canada held a major summit in Mexico on Wednesday, U.S. border policies are back in the spotlight after a U.S. Border Patrol agent shot and killed a ... Read More →

Democracy Now! Celebrates 18 Years On Air Eighteen years ago, on February 19, 1996, Democracy Now! aired for the first time. We began as a daily election-year show on Pacifica Radio and a handful of community radio stations. ... Read More

Truce Breaks Down in Ukraine; Clashes Kill 21

Trial Opens for 3 Detained Al Jazeera Journalists in Egypt

Nebraska Judge Voids State’s Approval of Keystone XL Oil Pipeline

More Coal-Waste Leaks Found in North Carolina, West Virginia

U.S. Approves Loan Deal for 1st New Nuclear Power Plant in 30 Years

Bahraini Activist Faces Possible Return to Prison

FCC to Rewrite Net Neutrality Rules for Equal Internet Access

Documents Tie Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker to Secret Email System

Juror in Trial of Michael Dunn Speaks Out

New York Terror Suspect Pleads Guilty in Case That Feds Turned Down

New York Agrees to Reform Use of Solitary Confinement in State Prisons

Texas Suspends Abortion Provider Under Harsh New Law

Pennsylvania Mother Faces Criminal Charges for Buying Abortion Medication for Daughter

Pussy Riot Members Beaten by Cossack Militia

TEPCO reveals record cesium level in Fukushima No. 1 well

FROM CLG:

Breaking News and Commentary from CLG16 Feb 2014

http://www.legitgov.org/
All links are here:http://www.legitgov.org/#breaking_news

Previous edition: US to pump $300mn into Afghanistan to end 'war economy' - report [which NSAssociate Google relegated to the sp-m bin].

TEPCO reveals record cesium level in Fukushima No. 1 well --Experts: radioactive water could be leaking from underground tunnel, located close to second power unit on seashore 14 Feb 2014 A record high level of radioactive cesium has been found in groundwater beneath the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, operator TEPCO revealed. On February 13, Tokyo Electric Power Co. reported 37,000 becquerels of cesium-134 and 93,000 becquerels of cesium-137 were detected per liter of groundwater sampled from a monitoring well earlier that day... These figures (the total reading) are the highest of all the cesium measurements taken previously.

4.1 magnitude earthquake strikes near Georgia Power nuclear plant --Quake strong enough to send tremors into Georgia, Tennessee 15 Feb 2014 An earthquake with an epicenter northeast of Augusta shook metro Atlanta homes Friday night. The quake measured a magnitude of 4.1 and happened at 10:23 p.m., according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The earthquake's epicenter was Edgefield, S.C., about 25 miles from Augusta. Plant Vogtle, which is on the outskirts of Augusta in Waynesboro, [allegedly] suffered no problems from the earthquake, a Georgia Power spokesman said Saturday afternoon.

Agency seeks funding to track Vogtle nuclear plant costs 26 Jan 2014 Badly outnumbered regulators in Georgia want to hire two more employees to keep tabs on the 14 billion project to build a first-of-its-kind nuclear plant. Southern Co. subsidiary Georgia Power says its share of the project to build Plant Vogtle is projected to go hundreds of millions of dollars over budget. Its 2.4 million customers will pay for the company's building costs unless regulators force the utility to take losses on questionable spending. Regulators are at a disadvantage when contending with Georgia Power, a monopoly that owns a 46 percent stake in the nuclear plant.

Afghanistan releases 65 prisoners against objections from US 13 Feb 2014 The Afghan government has released 65 prisoners who the US says are dangerous fighters with American and Afghan blood on their hands but Kabul argues are innocent men illegally locked up for years by foreign soldiers. The decision to let the men go is the latest blow to a creaking relationship between the Afghan government and its main fin-ncial backer. [That would be the US t-xpayer.] Karzai said then that a government investigation had found there was evidence to potentially try only 16 of the prisoners. It is unclear why 23 have been retained in custody.

Blast Kills NATO Soldier in Afghanistan 15 Feb 2014 An improvised explosive device killed a NATO service member in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, the U.S.-led international military coalition said. Saturday's death brings to five the number of coalition troops who have died in Afghanistan so far this month. In a statement commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Soviet withdrawal, the Taliban drew parallels with American forces in the country and called on Afghans to drive them out.

Listen up, Obusha: There will be no coup in Venezuela: President Maduro 13 Feb 2014 Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has ruled out the possibility of any coup by the [CIA-backed] opposition, as protests turn deadly in the South American country. "There will be no coup d’état in Venezuela; you can rest assured. Democracy will continue, and the revolution will continue," the president said on a national television broadcast on Wednesday. Maduro has promised to tighten security across the country after clashes between anti-government protesters and police left three people dead in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas.

U.S. Army builds fake city to shoot at during training 13 Feb 2014 The U.S. Army has built a fake city designed to be used during combat training [aka martial law implementation] exercises. The 300 acre 'town' includes a five story embassy, a bank, a school, an underground subway and train station, a mosque, a football stadium, and a helicopter landing zone. Located in Virginia, the realistic subway station comes complete with subway carriages and the train station has real train carriages. The U.S. Army's Army Asymmetric Warfare Group opened the 96 million training centre last month.

Snowden-leaked document shows NSA monitored U.S. law firm 15 Feb 2014 The National Security Agency monitored a U.S. law firm representing a foreign government, a document leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden reveals. The New York Times reported Saturday the top-secret document provides rare insight into eavesdropping by the U.S. security agency. The newspaper said lawyers in the United States with overseas clients have expressed concern such government snooping.

Three former NSA workers accused of aiding Snowden 14 Feb 2014 Three people at the National Security Agency have been implicated in Edward Snowden's efforts to copy classified material, including a civilian employee who resigned last month after acknowledging he allowed Snowden to use his computer ID, according to an NSA memo sent to Congress. The other two were an active-duty member of the military and a civilian contractor. The memo does not describe their conduct, but says they were barred from the NSA and its systems in August.

N.S.A. Fires Civilian Employee Tied to Snowden Leaks 13 Feb 2014 The National Security Agency has told Congress that it has forced out a civilian employee after a lengthy investigation to "assign accountability" for the disclosure of intelligence secrets by Edward J. Snowden, one of its former contractors. Two others - identified only as an "active-duty military member" and another contractor -- were "removed from access to N.S.A. information" and facilities last August. But because neither worked directly for the N.S.A., the agency told the House Judiciary Committee in a letter, any further action would have to be determined by their employers.

Former German chancellor surprised that NSA continued to spy on Merkel 14 Feb 2014 The former chancellor of Germany now says he was surprised to hear that the United States National Security Agency, or NSA, spied on his country's current head of government after he left office almost a decade ago. Earlier this month, NSA documents showed that the spy agency conducted surveillance operations starting in 2002 that targeted Gerhard Schröder during his term as chancellor. Schröder told reporters at the time that he wasn't surprised about the operation, which was made public due to documents disclosed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

China Reports Another Case of New Bird Flu Strain 15 Feb 2013 Chinese officials have said a new strain of avian influenza, H10N8, has killed another person, according to a report on Friday by Xinhua, the state news agency. The man's illness is the third case of H10N8. Scientists are also concerned about the rapid spread of another strain of avian flu, H7N9. It has already infected about 300 people and infects more each day. A quarter of those infected have died.

Pandemic Potential Seen in Gene Changes of Bird Flu 13 Feb 2014 Genetic variations in the deadly bird flu virus circulating in China increase the potential for a pandemic strain to emerge, researchers in Shanghai said. Three new variants of the avian influenza type-A H7N9 virus have been found this winter, spurred by transmission in poultry and the incorporation of genetic material from another strain called H9N2, scientists at the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center and Institutes of Biomedical Sciences said... Each case increases the risk of the virus becoming better suited to humans, rather than birds, giving it the ability to spread easily from person to person.

New bridge scandal subpoenas seek records related to Chris Christie, ARC tunnel and more 12 Feb 2014 The legislative panel investigating the George Washington Bridge scandal wants to know how closely Gov. Chris Christie's office and allies at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey coordinated to blame the lane closings on a traffic study, records released today show. The 18 subpoenas issued this week also cast a far wider net than past rounds, seeking information about the defunct ARC (Access to the Region's Core) tunnel project, any dossiers compiled by Christie and his campaign on Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, and a month and a half of State Police helicopter records.

Court tosses California's concealed-weapons rules 13 Feb 2014 A divided federal appeals court on Thursday struck down California concealed-weapons rules, saying they violate the Second Amendment right to bear arms. The 2-1 ruling of a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said California counties were wrong to require law-abiding applicants to show "good cause" beyond self-defense to receive a concealed-weapons permit.

Comcast takeover of Time Warner Cable 'will throttle choice on the web' 13 Feb 2014 Consumer groups reacted angrily to the merger of cable giant Comcast and Time Warner Cable on Thursday, claiming the combination could "throttle" choice on the internet. Comcast’s proposed 45.2bn takeover of TWC will create a media behemoth that will dominate broadband internet access across the US. Jodie Griffin, senior staff attorney at consumer rights group Public Knowledge said: "This is a deal that needs to be blocked." She said Comcast was likely to use the extra leverage to "drive up costs and reduce choices for consumers.", and claimed the new company would be too powerful, becoming a "gatekeeper" capable of "throttling competition."

Virginia gay marriage ban overturned by US judge 14 Feb 2014 A US federal judge in Virginia has ruled that the state's ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. It is the first time that a southern state has had a voter-approved prohibition on gay marriage overturned. The ruling will not apply pending a possible appeal.

Pennsylvania Turnpike turned into parking lot after 100-car pileup 14 Feb 2014 The Pennsylvania Turnpike was turned into a parking lot after as many as 100 vehicles were involved in a chain-reaction of car crashes Friday morning. An eight-mile stretch of I-276 between exits 343 and 353 was reopened after a seven-hour shutdown as officials got a handle on the early morning wreck, according to police and local reports. First responders transported roughly 30 people to area hospitals, all of which were expected to survive, according to Bill Capone with the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission.

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