Friday, April 29, 2016

Broke Junk Plant Clinton

What a difficult job the NRC has in front of them? They want to subsidize the nukes on the backs of the natural gas guys.

I consider nuclear plants like this, who are on the chopping block, they are materially, financially and employee psychologically impaired. The risk is similar to if a plant had 50% of their emergency diesel generators secretly and unknowingly inop for the rest of the life of the plant.
 

Legislators trying to save Clinton plant




CLINTON — With Exelon's Clinton nuclear power plant again in jeopardy of closing, state legislators and local officials are renewing their effort to pass legislation to save the plant that is DeWItt County's largest employer. 
State Rep. Bill Mitchell, R-Forsyth, and Sen. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, met with DeWitt County citizens Thursday morning to urge them to get behind Mitchell's HB 6521, even though no one is sure that legislation is in its final form. 
"It could be, but do I think it will be? Probably not," admitted Mitchell, following a packed meeting at the DeWitt County Courthouse. "Negotiations are going on daily on this thing." 
The Clinton plant continues to lose money, Exelon spokesman Brett Nauman said Thursday, and without a change in state law, it will have to be closed.
"Our position is that we need urgent action by the Legislature in order to keep the plant running long-term, and if we don't get that decision, we're going to have to consider making the very hard economic choice of retiring the plant before its license expires," Nauman said. 
He said the plant about 35 miles west of Champaign has hemorrhaged $453 million over the last six years, primarily because its costs to operate are greater than other power plants in the Midcontinent Independent System Operators region, which includes a lot of low-cost wind, coal-fired and natural-gas plants, Nauman said.
"It's just the financial losses," he said. "We've lost a lot of money over the last six years."
Closing the plant, which began operation 29 years ago this week, "would be a shame because it is a high-performing plant. It could operate for another 30 or 50 years," Nauman said.

He said the low cost of natural gas "is not going away anytime soon, and then it becomes as a state, what is it we want to do to keep nuclear plants operating? Do we see the value in the nuclear plants?" 
One part of their value, as defined in Mitchell's bill, is their minuscule carbon emissions and how that would help Illinois meet proposed federal clean-air rules. 
HB 6561 would define nuclear power as low-carbon, renewable energy, similar to wind and solar energy. 
Nauman said Exelon wants legislation that would allow for "a small rate increase that would allow the nuclear plants to get further on down the road and not lose as much money, to get to the point where the government's carbon reduction rules start kicking in."...

Thursday, April 28, 2016

AEP, FirstEnergy: FERC Throws Ohio Into “Unprecedented Transformation.”

Nuke plants involved: Beaver Valley, Davis Besse and Perry...

FirstEnergy down about 10% on the ruling. 

It is Davis Besse that is in the bull's-eye?

By The Columbus Dispatch  •   
Federal regulators dealt a blow to Ohio utility profit guarantees on Wednesday, saying the plans cannot go into effect until after a review of whether federal rules are being violated. 
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission asserted its authority in a pair of orders, finding that the plans are not valid unless American Electric Power and FirstEnergy apply for, and receive, approval from the agency. 
The orders were in response to complaints filed by competing companies that have argued that the AEP and FirstEnergy plans are illegal subsidies that intrude upon the interstate market for electricity. The Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel and others have raised similar issues. 
The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio approved the eight-year profit guarantees late last month, allowing Columbus-based AEP and Akron-based FirstEnergy to receive benefits for selected power plants that might otherwise close.
Until Wednesday, it was not known whether the federal commission would intercede.
 
A key issue in the federal complaint is whether AEP and FirstEnergy customers are “captive,” in that they have no choice but to cover costs related to the plans. The PUCO and the Ohio companies said customers are not captive because they continue be able to choose an alternative provider in the state’s open market. 
The federal commission disagreed, stating that “AEP Ohio retail ratepayers are nonetheless captive in that they have no choice as to payment of the non-bypassable generation-related charges” embedded in the profit guarantees. Opponents of the plans say that wording shows that the Ohio companies are facing a highly skeptical audience in the federal commission, as opposed to the more friendly panel in Ohio. 
AEP spokeswoman Melissa McHenry said, “The decision is a disappointing and unfortunate intrusion by FERC into Ohio’s ability to protect its retail customers from market volatility and plan for the state’s generation needs.”
Meanwhile, opponents of the profit guarantees praised the actions.
 
“Today, federal regulators stood up for customers and defended fair markets and competition, sending a clear signal to any utility trying to bail out their uneconomic power plants through political prowess,” said John Finnigan, lead counsel for climate and energy for the Environmental Defense Fund. 
Bruce Weston, the Ohio consumers’ counsel, said the federal commission “today provided Ohioans the benefits of competitive markets and lower rates that they did not receive in the state plans." 
He said the decision will help lower electricity bills that would have been inflated by the profit plans. At the same time, AEP, FirstEnergy and the PUCO have said the plans will lead to a net savings for consumers. That is one of many areas of disagreement. 
AEP will have additional comments about the orders today when its top executive, Nick Akins, holds a conference call with analysts to discuss first-quarter financial results.


***Frustrated AEP CEO: Ohio should reverse energy deregulation or we'll sell our plants; 'no interest' in prolonged debate with FERC
 
AEP CEO Nick Akins spoke this week at the company's shareholders meeting in Columbus.Tom Knox 
 “I think AEP has reached the point where it’s time to get this resolved once and for all,” he said Thursday morning.Last month the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio approved plans by AEP and FirstEnergy Corp. to have customers subsidize some of their Ohio power plants. The utilities said the "power purchase agreements" would save customers money in the long term and would keep the plants open and operating in Ohio under their control. 
Late Wednesday, though, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission threw a major wrench in AEP's plans by requiring the electric utilities to prove the plans won’t force all Ohio ratepayers to subsidize their plants, even those who have opted for other suppliers in Ohio's electric choice program. 
"While it is true that Ohio ratepayers will continue to have a statutory right to choose one retail supplier over another, we conclude, based on the record, that ... Ohio retail ratepayers are nonetheless captive in that they have no choice as to payment of the non-bypassable generation-related charges incurred under the affiliate PPA,” FERC said in its ruling. “These non-bypassable charges present the ‘potential for the inappropriate transfer of benefits from (captive) customers to the shareholders of the franchised public utility.’" 
AEP responded strongly: It's not going to play along.On an earnings call Thursday morning, Akins said the company has “no interest in getting involved in a protracted FERC jurisdictional debate.” Instead, it will pursue a two-pronged approach:
  1. AEP will begin trying to sell all its Ohio plants. The $16.5 billion utility always said this was an option if the PPAs weren't approved, and it is already looking to sell power plants in the state that weren’t included in the proposals.
  1. AEP will push for re-regulation in the Ohio legislature, including the repeal of Senate Bill 221, the 2008 bill that refined the state’s deregulation of the energy market. This was often a rumored response to an AEP loss with the PUCO. Akins said legislators would have to move "very aggressively."
AEP could still challenge the FERC ruling and ultimately prevail but that’s the third and most unlikely option.“I think that’s probably a longer hurdle at this point,” Akins said. 
A stock analyst asked Akins if the company has talked to legislators about reversing deregulation.“I’m not going to address that,” he said. “They’re fully aware what the issues are. It’s not a huge stretch for them to ask the question, ‘We’ll, why don’t you just re-regulate?’” 
Akins also said it might be simpler for ownership of the plants, now operated by an affiliate, to transfer back to AEP instead of pursuing full re-regulation. A transfer would need legislative and FERC review, but Akins said there is precedent for FERC approving such transfers.AEP services 5 million customers in 11 states, most of them regulated. Utilities prefer regulation because of guaranteed returns, and AEP has zeroed in on improving and increasing its regulated transmission and distribution business – the infrastructure that helps get power to customers – while shedding its power plants in states like Ohio that have competitive marketplaces. 
At AEP’s annual shareholders event this week, before FERC’s intervention, Akins said AEP is undergoing an “unprecedented transformation.” 
An analyst asked if AEP would work with other utilities to lobby the Statehouse. FirstEnergy's CEO has previously advocated for re-regulation. Akins said his company's interests align with others. Akron-based FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) said it is evaluating its options, including seeking a FERC rehearing or letting FERC review it.“It’s always been our position that the PPA will satisfy the FERC’s guidelines for an affiliate contract that benefits customers,” spokesman Doug Colafella said in an email.

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Junk HPIC, RCIC and Turbine Driven Safety Pumps.



Update 4/28: Remember Millstone's TDAFP in 2014?

Power ReactorEvent Number: 51886
Facility: COOPER
Region: 4 State: NE
Unit: [1] [ ] [ ]
RX Type: [1] GE-4
NRC Notified By: ARIC HARRIS
HQ OPS Officer: JOHN SHOEMAKER
Notification Date: 04/27/2016
Notification Time: 01:17 [ET]
Event Date: 04/26/2016
Event Time: 17:54 [CDT]
Last Update Date: 04/27/2016
Emergency Class: NON EMERGENCY
10 CFR Section:
50.72(b)(3)(v)(D) - ACCIDENT MITIGATION
Person (Organization):
JEREMY GROOM (R4DO)

UnitSCRAM CodeRX CRITInitial PWRInitial RX ModeCurrent PWRCurrent RX Mode
1NY100Power Operation100Power Operation
Event Text
 
HIGH PRESSURE COOLANT INJECTION SYSTEM DECLARED INOPERABLE

"At 1736 [CDT] on 26 April 2016, a licensed operator performing a control room panel walkdown noted the green standby light for the HPCI [High Pressure Coolant Injection] Auxiliary Oil Pump (AOP) was not illuminated. The bulb was replaced and the replacement bulb did not illuminate. A non-licensed operator (NLO) was dispatched to the local 250VDC starter rack. The NLO discovered the green standby light on the 250VDC starter rack had failed. An attempt was made to start the AOP with the control switch. The pump did not start. The AOP is required to start in order to open the steam admission valves for the HPCI turbine.

"HPCI was declared inoperable at time 1754 [CDT] on 26 April 2016. Tech Spec LCO Conditions were entered and required actions completed.

"HPCI is a single train system. This report is submitted as a condition that at time of discovery could prevent the fulfillment of the safety function of an SSC [Structure, System, and Component] needed to mitigate the consequences of an accident.

"A similar condition was discovered on 25 April 2016 [see NRC Event #51882]. Corrective maintenance was performed and HPCI was declared operable following satisfactory completion of post work testing of the AOP.

"Initial investigation indicates that the fault which occurred on 26 April is not the same as that which occurred 25 April.

"Investigation is on going."

The licensee has notified the NRC Resident Inspector

***Remember these are very infrequently operated machines. These guys are really susceptible age related failures and not constantly renewing and replacing aging components proactively. The turbine powered main feed pumps and turbine driven emergency feed are in the same category. The rub is, these pumps are obsolete and the repair and replacement part are increasingly getting disconnected from the machines. There just isn't enough technicians to service these obsolete machines

I am saying recentI have seen a lot of LERs and  events reports...there is a troubling trend of failures and not understanding the machine and its instrumentations up in the control room. They are very complicated machines.

Globally if you cut back money on training and maintenance, the unattended degradation problems would show up in new and reoccurring LERs and event reports.

This multiple and back-up electrical power sources nobody understands make these guys more unreliable. This philosophy just makes the machine more unreliable.

These event reports just popped up beginning yesterday. I find the number suspicious and troubling.
Facility: QUAD CITIES
Region: 3 State: IL
Unit: [ ] [2] [ ]
RX Type: [1] GE-3,[2] GE-3
NRC Notified By: MIKE GRAHAM
HQ OPS Officer: HOWIE CROUCH
Notification Date: 04/25/2016
Notification Time: 12:39 [ET]
Event Date: 04/25/2016
Event Time: 06:07 [CDT]
Last Update Date: 04/25/2016
Emergency Class: NON EMERGENCY
10 CFR Section:
50.72(b)(3)(v)(D) - ACCIDENT MITIGATION
Person (Organization):
ANN MARIE STONE (R3DO)

Unit
SCRAM Code
RX CRIT
Initial PWR
Initial RX Mode
Current PWR
Current RX Mode
2
N
Y
100
Power Operation
100
Power Operation
Event Text
HIGH PRESSURE COOLANT INJECTION SYSTEM DECLARED INOPERABLE

"On April 25, 2016, at 0607 hours [CDT], HPCI [High Pressure Coolant Injection] was isolated via the HPCI MO 2-2301-4 (HPCI Inboard Main Steam Isolation Valve) to stop a packing leak on the HPCI MO 2-2301-5 (HPCI Outboard Main Steam Isolation Valve). The packing leak was causing a steam plume potentially impacting the motor operator on the 2-2301-5 valve. HPCI was declared inoperable and T.S. 3.5.1 Condition G was entered.

"Since HPCI is a single train safety system, this notification is being made in accordance with 10CFR50.72 (b)(3)(v)(D), as an event or condition that could have prevented the fulfillment of a safety function.

"The NRC Resident Inspector has been notified."

Facility: COOPER
Region: 4 State: NE
Unit: [1] [ ] [ ]
RX Type: [1] GE-4
NRC Notified By: ARIC HARRIS
HQ OPS Officer: STEVE SANDIN
Notification Date: 04/26/2016
Notification Time: 01:54 [ET]
Event Date: 04/25/2016
Event Time: 21:17 [CDT]
Last Update Date: 04/26/2016
Emergency Class: NON EMERGENCY
10 CFR Section:
50.72(b)(3)(v)(D) - ACCIDENT MITIGATION
Person (Organization):
JEREMY GROOM (R4DO)

Unit
SCRAM Code
RX CRIT
Initial PWR
Initial RX Mode
Current PWR
Current RX Mode
1
N
Y
100
Power Operation
100
Power Operation
Event Text
HIGH PRESSURE COOLANT INJECTION SYSTEM DECLARED INOPERABLE

"8-hour report due to HPCI inoperability.

"At approximately 2109 [CDT] on 04/25/16, a licensed operator performing a control room panel walkdown noted the green light for HPCI Auxiliary Oil Pump (AOP) was not illuminated. The bulb was replaced and the replacement bulb did not illuminate. A non-licensed operator was dispatched to the local 250VDC starter rack. Both the green and red power indicating lights on the starter rack were found extinguished. An attempt was made to start the AOP with the control switch. The pump did not start. The AOP is required to start in order to open the steam admission valves for the HPCI turbine.

"HPCI was declared inoperable at time 2117 [CDT], resulting in entry into Tech Spec LCO 3.5.1 Condition C - HPCI System Inoperable. Required Actions for Condition C are to verify by administrative means RCIC System is operable within 1 hour and restore HPCI System to operable status within 14 days. RCIC was verified operable by administrative means concurrent with HPCl declaration.

"Troubleshooting activities for HPCI are being planned.

"HPCI is a single train system. This report is submitted as a condition that at time of discovery could prevent the fulfillment of the safety function of an SSC [Structures, Systems, and Components] needed to mitigate the consequences of an accident."

The licensee informed the NRC Resident Inspector.
Power Reactor
Event Number: 51882
Facility: COOPER
Region: 4 State: NE
Unit: [1] [ ] [ ]
RX Type: [1] GE-4
NRC Notified By: ARIC HARRIS
HQ OPS Officer: STEVE SANDIN
Notification Date: 04/26/2016
Notification Time: 01:54 [ET]
Event Date: 04/25/2016
Event Time: 21:17 [CDT]
Last Update Date: 04/26/2016
Emergency Class: NON EMERGENCY
10 CFR Section:
50.72(b)(3)(v)(D) - ACCIDENT MITIGATION
Person (Organization):
JEREMY GROOM (R4DO)

UnitSCRAM CodeRX CRITInitial PWRInitial RX ModeCurrent PWRCurrent RX Mode
1NY100Power Operation100Power Operation
Event Text
HIGH PRESSURE COOLANT INJECTION SYSTEM DECLARED INOPERABLE

"8-hour report due to HPCI inoperability.

"At approximately 2109 [CDT] on 04/25/16, a licensed operator performing a control room panel walkdown noted the green light for HPCI Auxiliary Oil Pump (AOP) was not illuminated. The bulb was replaced and the replacement bulb did not illuminate. A non-licensed operator was dispatched to the local 250VDC starter rack. Both the green and red power indicating lights on the starter rack were found extinguished. An attempt was made to start the AOP with the control switch. The pump did not start. The AOP is required to start in order to open the steam admission valves for the HPCI turbine.

"HPCI was declared inoperable at time 2117 [CDT], resulting in entry into Tech Spec LCO 3.5.1 Condition C - HPCI System Inoperable. Required Actions for Condition C are to verify by administrative means RCIC System is operable within 1 hour and restore HPCI System to operable status within 14 days. RCIC was verified operable by administrative means concurrent with HPCl declaration.

"Troubleshooting activities for HPCI are being planned.

"HPCI is a single train system. This report is submitted as a condition that at time of discovery could prevent the fulfillment of the safety function of an SSC [Structures, Systems, and Components] needed to mitigate the consequences of an accident."

The licensee informed the NRC Resident Inspector.

Power Reactor
Event Number: 51882
Facility: COOPER
Region: 4 State: NE
Unit: [1] [ ] [ ]
RX Type: [1] GE-4
NRC Notified By: ARIC HARRIS
HQ OPS Officer: STEVE SANDIN
Notification Date: 04/26/2016
Notification Time: 01:54 [ET]
Event Date: 04/25/2016
Event Time: 21:17 [CDT]
Last Update Date: 04/26/2016
Emergency Class: NON EMERGENCY
10 CFR Section:
50.72(b)(3)(v)(D) - ACCIDENT MITIGATION
Person (Organization):
JEREMY GROOM (R4DO)

Unit
SCRAM Code
RX CRIT
Initial PWR
Initial RX Mode
Current PWR
Current RX Mode
1
N
Y
100
Power Operation
100
Power Operation
Event Text
HIGH PRESSURE COOLANT INJECTION SYSTEM DECLARED INOPERABLE

"8-hour report due to HPCI inoperability.

"At approximately 2109 [CDT] on 04/25/16, a licensed operator performing a control room panel walkdown noted the green light for HPCI Auxiliary Oil Pump (AOP) was not illuminated. The bulb was replaced and the replacement bulb did not illuminate. A non-licensed operator was dispatched to the local 250VDC starter rack. Both the green and red power indicating lights on the starter rack were found extinguished. An attempt was made to start the AOP with the control switch. The pump did not start. The AOP is required to start in order to open the steam admission valves for the HPCI turbine.

"HPCI was declared inoperable at time 2117 [CDT], resulting in entry into Tech Spec LCO 3.5.1 Condition C - HPCI System Inoperable. Required Actions for Condition C are to verify by administrative means RCIC System is operable within 1 hour and restore HPCI System to operable status within 14 days. RCIC was verified operable by administrative means concurrent with HPCl declaration.

"Troubleshooting activities for HPCI are being planned.

"HPCI is a single train system. This report is submitted as a condition that at time of discovery could prevent the fulfillment of the safety function of an SSC [Structures, Systems, and Components] needed to mitigate the consequences of an accident."

The licensee informed the NRC Resident Inspector.

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Trumpism: Is Fentanyl and Heroin our Next 911? "Now Its Total war"

My theory seems to got legs.

Cartels Help Terrorists in Mexico Get to U.S. to Explore Targets; ISIS Militant Shaykh Mahmood Omar Khabir Among Them

APRIL 26, 2016

Mexican drug traffickers help Islamic terrorists stationed in Mexico cross into the United States to explore targets for future attacks, according to information forwarded to Judicial Watch by a high-ranking Homeland Security official in a border state. Among the jihadists that travel back and forth through the porous southern border is a Kuwaiti named Shaykh Mahmood Omar Khabir, an ISIS operative who lives in the Mexican state of Chihuahua not far from El Paso, Texas. Khabir trained hundreds of Al Qaeda fighters in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen and has lived in Mexico for more than a year, according to information provided by JW’s government source.
Now Khabir trains thousands of men—mostly Syrians and Yemenis—to fight in an ISIS base situated in the Mexico-U.S. border region near Ciudad Juárez, the intelligence gathered by JW’s source reveals. Staking out U.S. targets is not difficult and Khabir actually brags in an Italian newspaper article published last week that the border region is so open that he “could get in with a handful of men, and kill thousands of people in Texas or in Arizona in the space of a few hours.” Foreign Affairs Secretary Claudia Ruiz, Mexico’s top diplomat, says in the article that she doesn’t understand why the Obama administration and the U.S. media are “culpably neglecting this phenomenon,” adding that “this new wave of fundamentalism could have nasty surprises in store for the United States.”
This disturbing development appears on the Open Source Enterprise, the government database that collects and analyzes valuable material from worldwide print, broadcast and online media sources for the U.S. intelligence community. Only registered federal, state and local government employees can view information and analysis in the vast database and unauthorized access can lead to criminal charges. Updated data gathered on Khabir reveals he’s 52 years old and was ordered to leave Kuwait about a decade ago over his extremist positions. Khabir is currently on ISIS’s (also known as ISIL) payroll and operates a cell in an area of Mexico known as Anapra, according to the recently obtained information.

A year ago Judicial Watch reported on an ISIS camp in this exact area, just a few miles from El Paso. JW’s April 14, 2015 report identified Anapra as the location of the ISIS base, details that were provided to JW by sources that include a Mexican Army field grade officer and a Mexican Federal Police Inspector. Anapra is situated just west of Ciudad Juárez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. At the time JW reported that another ISIS cell was established to the west of Ciudad Juárez, in Puerto Palomas to target the New Mexico towns of Columbus and Deming. Sources told JW that, during the course of a joint operation, Mexican Army and federal law enforcement officials discovered documents in Arabic and Urdu, as well as “plans” of Fort Bliss – the sprawling military installation that houses the US Army’s 1st Armored Division. Muslim prayer rugs were recovered with the documents during the operation.
A few months later JW reported that Mexican drug cartels are smuggling Middle Eastern terrorists into a small Texas rural town near El Paso and that they’re using remote farm roads—rather than interstates—to elude the Border Patrol and other law enforcement barriers. The foreigners are classified by the U.S. government as Special Interest Aliens (SIA) and they are transported to stash areas in Acala, a rural crossroads located around 54 miles from El Paso on a state road – Highway 20. Once in the U.S., the SIAs wait for pick-up in the area’s sand hills just across Highway 20. At the time JW’s government sources revealed that terrorists have long entered the U.S. through Mexico and in fact, an internal Texas Department of Public Safety report leaked by the media documents that several members of known Islamist terrorist organizations have been apprehended crossing the southern border in recent years. 
Earlier this year, as part of an ongoing investigation into national security risks in the porous southern border, JW obtained evidence that proves the U.S. government has known for more than a decade about the partnership between terrorists and Mexican drug cartels. State Department documents made public by JW in January say that for at least ten years “Arab extremists” have entered the country through Mexico with the assistance of smuggling network “cells.” Among them was a top Al Qaeda operative wanted by the FBI. Some Mexican smuggling networks actually specialize in providing logistical support for Arab individuals attempting to enter the United States, the government documents say. The top Al Qaeda leader in Mexico was identified in the September 2004 cable from the American consulate in Ciudad Juárez as Adnan G. El Shurkrjumah. The cable was released to Judicial Watch under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Reposted from 4/8/16

Update 4/11
Synthetic opiate makers stay step ahead of US drug laws as overdose cases rise 

Because there are so many different kinds of synthetic opiates and variations, the DEA is constantly “trying to play catch up” to track them down, said Bare. 

Adolphe Joseph, 34, is serving a 10-year prison sentence for smuggling fentanyl – an opiate 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine. 

But he has not been charged for the nearly three pounds of a synthetic opiate more than 10,000 times as powerful as morphine investigators found in his South Florida home last Fall. Nor will he be, say prosecutors. 

W-18 is one of thousands of synthetic opiates that is not scheduled as a controlled substance and thus not subject to criminal drug penalties, and one of a handful of drugs that law enforcement officials and scientists say they have seen in increasing numbers in the last six months, as use, abuse and overdose deaths continues to rise.
We got to start spending a lot of money collecting and dispersing information on these kinds terrorism drug problems.
Terrifying True-Chinese’s Flood USA With Deadly Fentanyl 
The dozen packages were shipped from China to mail centers and residences in Southern California. One box was labeled as a “Hole Puncher.” 
In fact, it was a quarter-ton pill press, which federal investigators allege was destined for a suburban Los Angeles drug lab. The other packages, shipped throughout January and February, contained materials for manufacturing fentanyl, an opioid so potent that in some forms it can be deadly if touched. 
When it comes to the illegal sale of fentanyl, most of the attention has focused on Mexican cartels that are adding the drug to heroin smuggled into the United States. But Chinese suppliers are providing both raw fentanyl and the machinery necessary for the assembly-line production of the drug powering a terrifying and rapid rise of fatal overdoses across the United States and Canada, according to drug investigators and court documents. 
The Chinese and South American gangs colluding? If there is one lab, there is a thousand. Where does people get the money for a high on $20 a tab.
“We had a spike in 2007” of fentanyl-related deaths, said Russell Baer, a spokesman for the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. “We traced it to a single production lab in Mexico and the deaths went away. Now, it is not restricted to one site.”
***Even with all this US overdose deaths and the massive proliferation of gang activity and warfare, right, our politicians have spent a lot print on wondering what is causing all the death and destruction with heroin. We think of this thing as gang activity in under developed counties like Mexico and Columbia. What if its not? 
What if it morphed into sophisticated international terrorism? What if they create a new weapon who kills tens of thousands of people and make money hands over fist. Wouldn't that be mircle substance?  
Say tomorrow, what if ISSA or el Qaeda started bragging about instead of knifes, guns and bombs as weapons, they began using hypodermic needles as a weapons of mass destruction. Maybe build some illegal fentanyl production plants or spike heroin with exotic poisons, then flood the USA markets with it.  I mean, high concentrations of fentanyl will do the trick. What if one day we woke up knowing it is no longer loser addicts, but terrorism killing our people? 
This spike from historic record fatality levels is ongoing in many communities across the nation. It is not a spike from low levels, but record breaking levels ongoing for years, and then the unimaginable spike all across NE.
Boston Globe: More than 20 overdose deaths hit Middlesex in 3 weeksBottom of Form
By Andy Rosen Globe Staff  April 08, 2016
Officials in Middlesex County say they have seen more than 20 opioid overdose deaths in the past three weeks, and as another weekend approaches they are urging residents to get help for loved ones who may be struggling with addiction.
Middlesex District Attorney Marian T. Ryan is scheduled to speak Friday afternoon about what her office describes as a “dangerous spike” that has also brought increases in nonfatal overdoses. The issue has been particularly pronounced during weekends, officials said.
The news conference, set for 2 p.m., will also include the organization Wicked Sober, an organization that provides services including addiction treatment and overdose prevention programs.
“We are looking to call attention to this critical issue and provide important information from Wicked Sober for families and loved ones of those suffering from addiction so they can take action to stop this dangerous trend,” Ryan’s office said.
Andy Rosen can be reached at andrew.rosen@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter at @andyrosen.
If I was a terrorist leader, I'd load ten loads of heroin with very cheap and good heroin, if you know what I mean. Then one load that would create a high fatality level. It would be a kind of large scale sporadic kinds of deaths and bring in new addicts also. How would you weaponized death, heroin, fentanyl and addiction?
***So what if ISSA hints all the US heroin problem is us doing it our dirty deed…tell me how you could stop it? Wouldn’t that be a hell of a terror weapon? 
***What if it was a CIA’s and NSA false flag operation? A dark angel covert operation. Wouldn’t it be an efficient and quick way to end heroin addiction in the USA?
Think of the lives and money we would save. I’d be in it right up to my ass. Lace Columbia and Mexican heroin with exotic poisons and dangerous levels of fentanyl with the intent of quickly driving up USA addiction rates and overdoses fatalities, Then angle it so ISSA and el Quesada gets blamed for a new style of weapons of mass destruction. The 911 in 2016…
Right, we'd put a million troops in South America(at least), Mexico and Columbia...we'd spin up our military to a extraordinary level. It would kick up our economy spending all this money. Make them put up the wall under gunpoint! Tell them all we are going disassemble your gangs and drug cartels. If you get in the way, we are going to take out your military for two decades. If you baulk again, it is your the total government and economy that craters next. Think of the message that will send to the rest of the world.      

I am doing this "somewhat" in tongue-in-cheek. I wouldn’t rule out the Mexican and Columbian drug cartels secretly going to war on us with spiking their drugs.
   
Would you kill 10,000 people to save millions and trillions of dollar if there was no other way? Reset the direction of a nation?? I could do it if it was just a push button.
***God damn “House of Cards” and the psychopathic witch of a wife “Clair Underwood”: "Now Its Total War"!!! When women go bad, they get really get evil. Now whose idea was total war?

Wake Up America: some false flag operations do extraordinary good.

Junk Hydro-Quebec Electricity Going to Boston?

The road to ruin is if we choose a power source with the only determinant being some obscure carbon goal. I am so disappointed in the UCS and Boston Globe. What will be the total cost of the electricity as it enters the Massachusetts? The main problem with Hydro-Quebec is its penchant to poison everyone they come in contact with...corruption and it is a foreign source of electricity. This looks like a paid advertisement purchased by Canada and HQ. The final produce will look like a 50 year deal where we never understand the true cost per megawatt hour. It will be the similar non transparent  model we see in most solar panel and wind farm deals. Democracy today in the grid's free market means the final users never get to see the real price of the product. 

Remember, the big electricity users today will make seperate contracts outside the typical utility system and state oversight. They won't get stuck with this foreign expensive electricity. We fundamentally lack national control of this of source of electricity.   

Remember today also, the Canadian Power is extremely non competitive to natural gas...the only driver getting this electricity into Boston is corrupt money and the non transparent system behind it.

At the end of the day, this electricity will subsidized the decline of the Canadian petrochemical industry, such as their bankrupt oil sands business. With the deal collapse driven by our USA nature gas fracting miracle.    

 


Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press/AP
For those inclined to see the glass half full, Massachusetts has made enormous strides in reducing its carbon emissions. Coal-fired plants, the worst offenders, are dying out across the Commonwealth. Investments in energy efficiency have lowered demand. The solar panels sprouting up along the Massachusetts Turnpike are only the most visible of the new generation of green technologies feeding power into homes and businesses.
Yet a state report last year found that without new legislation, the Commonwealth could still miss its statutory goal of reducing carbon emissions by 25 percent compared to 1990 levels. If that happens, the failure would be political, not technological. Since the later years of the Patrick administration, continuing into Charlie Baker’s governorship, lawmakers have been locked in a time-wasting battle over how precisely to meet attainable reduction goals.
How to handle Canadian power has vexed state policymakers for a decade. Part of the opposition stems from environmental qualms: building dams that generate electricity often requires the destruction of forests, and the transmission lines also sometimes provoke controversy. Then there’s an economic concern: Why should state policy tilt in favor of a foreign power generator? Patrick ultimately arrived at a good compromise, which would have allowed utility companies to solicit long-term power contracts from hydropower suppliers, but his plan never made it through the Legislature.
Baker revived many of those ideas, and Beacon Hill is again studying them. Many lawmakers, especially from Southeastern Massachusetts, would prefer state policy to support local offshore wind. But it is not realistic to expect enough offshore wind to come online by 2020. If climate change is the urgent problem that so many politicians say it is, then it requires a hard-nosed approach that recognizes that the perfect can’t be the enemy of the good.



Dams in Canada are already up and running, and the transmission lines that would be needed could be built quickly. The New England Clean Power Link in Vermont has its permits; the Vermont Green Line, Northern Pass, and Maritime Link projects are all in various stages of approval. Passage of the legislation doesn’t mean all of those infrastructure projects would be built, but would set off a competitive scramble among different transmission projects. Onshore wind power in Maine would also benefit if new lines reach them.
Bolstering Canadian hydro does not mean the Legislature should abandon efforts to support local offshore wind, which has tremendous potential in Massachusetts and will undoubtedly form a major part of the state’s long-term energy future in the years after 2020. One recent study found that with regulatory support, the price of offshore wind would plunge by 2030. It could also be a major source of jobs and economic development.
One idea under consideration is a two-part bill that approves long-term contracts for both hydro and offshore wind. The Union of Concerned Scientists looked at that possibility and found it would reduce New England’s overreliance on natural gas at modest cost. Embracing both might be a good compromise — as long as the provisions aimed at Canadian hydropower remain sufficient to meet the 2020 goal.

After all, potential alone doesn’t cut emissions, and the history of setbacks for offshore wind should be enough to dissuade Massachusetts from assuming the best about its progress in 2020. A pressing environmental threat like climate change demands a pragmatic response, and for the moment legislation that includes Baker’s Canadian hydropower plan offers the most realistic way for Massachusetts to meet its climate goals.

Monday, April 25, 2016

APR 1400 and Korea Hydro: Is Korea Hydro Building a Nuke Plant In USA


Today:

Hello Mr. Mulligan;
 
Regarding the ongoing APR-1400 certification review, the NRC’s regulations require us to review any application (foreign or domestic) for which Congress has provided the resources to work on.  The APR-1400 review has such appropriated resources.
 
The APR-1400 review also retains the critical technical staff skills necessary to review small modular reactors or advanced reactor designs until those future design applications are submitted to the NRC for review.  It is very difficult to wait for an application and then hire the necessary skill sets. The APR-1400 applicants, Korea Electric Power Corporation and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co., are paying for all the review hours that are being performed.
 
Please let me know if you have any other questions.  Thank you.
 
Scott Burnell
Public Affairs Officer
Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Design Certification Application Review - Advanced Power Reactor 1400 (APR 1400)
Again dilution of USA and NRC resources; Basically the USA is subsidizing building and certifying nuclear plants in Korea and United Arab Emirates. We don't get enough benefits from doing this?

Design Certification Application Review - Advanced Power Reactor 1400 (APR 1400)
It is a Korean Design?

Basically we are subsidizing building third world nuclear plants in third world countries.

***You get it, it is against the law for a foreigner to own a USA nuclear plant...even a partial owner.  
Wiki: The APR-1400 (for Advanced Power Reactor 1400 [MWe]) is an advanced pressurized water nuclear reactor designed by the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO). Originally known as the Korean Next Generation Reactor (KNGR),[1] this Generation III reactor was developed from the earlier OPR-1000 design and also incorporates features from the US Combustion Engineering (C-E) System 80+ design.[2] Currently there is one unit in operation (Shin Kori unit 3) and seven units under construction, four in the United Arab Emirates at Barakah[3] and three in South Korea: one at Shin Kori and two at Shin Hanul. Two more units are planned with construction yet to commence at Shin Kori. 
APR-1400 design began in 1992 and was awarded certification by the Korean Institute of Nuclear Safety in May 2002.[4] The design certification application was submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in December 2014 and in March 2015, it was accepted for technical review to determine if the reactor design meets basic US safety requirements.[5]

This Insane Talk Is Called Survival Independent of Consequences

Anonymous: The First Casualty of War is the Truth
So how does the Nuclear Industry explain Indian Point's loose baffle bolts?  This is all profit and self interested sick circular logic and rationalizations. It is 'Catch 22' all over again? 
World Nuclear News: Recovering the safety margin of nuclear reactors
US difficulties 
In the USA, operators are being forced to close nuclear power units, not because they lack potential for continued operation, but because of the "bad economics" of running them under deregulated electricity market conditions, said Bob Duncan, vice president of plant operations and supplier support at the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations.
Duncan told the conference that, since the Three Mile Island accident - a partial nuclear meltdown that occurred in March 1979 in unit 2 of Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Pennsylvania - operators have "delivered the promise" of safety, reliability, high capacity factors and higher measures of safety. 
"What we haven't delivered on is economics. So our biggest challenge in the US at this point is matching production costs of our nuclear power facilities against the natural gas prices that for the foreseeable future will be $4 per million BTUs for 50 years and production tax credits associated with solar and wind," he said. Small single units have been "the first to go under the knife", but "we also see bad economics against the large dual-unit plants in the Midwest", he said. 
The latest example was Entergy's announcement earlier this month that its Pilgrim nuclear power plant, a single 680 MWe boiling water reactor, will be refuelled for the final time in 2017 and cease operations in 2019. The company cited poor market conditions, reduced revenues and increased operational costs behind its decision to close the only nuclear power station in the state of Massachusetts. The unit entered service in 1972 and is currently licensed to operate until 2032. 
Duncan, who is also senior vice president for nuclear operations at Duke Energy Corporation, said the US nuclear industry responded to this state of affairs late last year when the Nuclear Energy Institute, the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations and the Electric Power Research Institute "put together a task force to work on economics". This task force established a strategy it named Delivering the Nuclear Promise to maintain operational focus, increase value and improve efficiency. 
"Those three strategies broke into four building blocks" that are very similar to the response to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident that occurred in Japan in March 2011, he said. "Our objective is within three years to create $3 billion worth of operating margin in our costs to run our nuclear power plants. That became 30% of our operating cost, which at that point some didn't believe, but we had to create an ambitious goal so that we would be able to enliven the industry. This isn't just another cost cutting measure; this is the life and death of nuclear power in the US," he said. 
The first three of the four building blocks are "economic analysis, economic viability and development of the teams necessary to make the economics and the efficiencies work", he said. "The fourth centres around stakeholders because when you start to talk about a 30% reduction in O&M [operation and maintenance] costs, who cares about the job - the mechanic, the I&C [instrumentation and control] tech, the unions - many of the stakeholders that we may have taken for granted earlier, taken into the fold."

Junk National Regulator (Japanese): Just Like The NRC?



I won't let any of the Japanese plants to restart until the Japanese regulators were 200% capable with safety overseeing the nation's nuclear plants.
It just shows you how internationally corrosive big business and the corporations are to governments and businesses they oversee? It is a worldwide phenomenon and they are all ganging up on us all. And don’t forget about the dummy news media they all support.
I get it, the USA is putting the Japanese under our welfare system. So why isn't this diluting the NRC resources? Our NRC is under drastic budget cutting and the system is getting more busy by our obsolete and aging USA fleet. Now we got to train the Japanese regulator? Where is Trump when you need him. I'll bet you the way the USA runs the show, we'd pick up the bill of training the NRA.

If Trump was running the show he make a pretty penny out of training the Japanese NRA. 

It is disgusting since March 2011 this is only how far the Japanese nuclear regulator has gotten into being a competent national regulator. It is five years and they are still this bad?  I'd have nothing to do with people like this. I'd be afraid they would poison my mind. 

Right, the Japanese political system is just as dysfunctional as our political system. Really, how could they be worst than us???   
IAEA review spurs nuclear regulators to beef up Japan’s safety regimenAP

The Nuclear Regulation Authority says it will revise laws, nearly double inspection staff and send some inspectors to the United States for training to address insufficiencies cited by International Atomic Energy Agency experts. 

The NRA announced the plans Monday in response to an IAEA evaluation of Japan’s nuclear safety regulations since the 2011 Fukushima crisis. The report was submitted to the government last week. 
The IAEA review, its first since the NRA was established in 2012, was conducted in January. It said that even though Japan has adopted stricter safety requirement for nuclear plant operators, inspections are reactive, inflexible and lacking free access. 
While the 1,000 U.S. inspectors have two years of training, Japan’s 150 staff members receive a two-week course.
The NRA plans to enact laws in 2020 to achieve the IAEA’s recommendations.