#us nuclear regulatory commission
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There's also a nonzero chance that the "energy fields" this thing emits are literally just ionizing radiation. It's shockingly common to see things branded as "anti 5g" or "negative ion" specifically that contain thorium dioxide and emit radiation.
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worst part of communities who are into environmentalism is the fact checking. alongside of reasonable beliefs about pollution and industrial development effects on the environment, there is always some Facebook antivaxxer type thing in there
there was someone saying that proximity to powerlines causes cancer and i was like...That Doesn't Sound Right so i looked it up and the first website i found that claimed powerlines caused cancer sells very expensive shiny discs that protect you from electromagnetic frequencies thru some undisclosed means
They also have shiny discs that generate a non specific energy field that makes your food more nutritious and stuff
fun fact! you can give yourself fun and cool titles like "director of quantum biology"
#radiation#if they're based in the US you can potentially report them to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and get them shut down#assuming they are actually radioactive and not just bs#Youtube
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Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week #7
Feb 23-March 1 2024
The White House announced $1.7 Billion in new commitments from local governments, health care systems, charities, business and non-profits as part of the White House Challenge to End Hunger and Build Healthy Communities. The Challenge was launched with 8 billion dollars in 2022 with the goal of ending hunger in America by 2030. The Challenge also seeks to drastically reduce diet-related diseases (like type 2 diabetes). As part of the new commitments 16 city pledged to make plans to end hunger by 2030, the largest insurance company in North Carolina made nutrition coaching and a healthy food delivery program a standard benefit for members, and since the challenge launched the USDA's Summer EBT program has allowed 37 states to feed children over the summer, its expected 21 million low income kids will use the program this summer.
The US House passed a bill on Nuclear energy representing the first update in US nuclear energy policy in decades, it expands the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and reduces reducing licensing fees. Nuclear power represents America's single largest source of clean energy, with almost half of carbon-free electricity coming from it. This bill will boost the industry and make it easier to build new plants
Vice President Harris announced key changes to the Child Care & Development Block Grant (CCDBG) program. The CCDBG supports the families of a million American children every month to help afford child care. The new changes include capping the co-pay families pay to no more than 7% of their income. Studies show that high income families pay 6-8% of their income in childcare while low income families pay 31%. The cap will reduce or eliminate fees for 100,000 families saving them an average of over $200 a month. The changes also strength payments to childcare providers insuring prompt payment.
The House passed a bill making changes to the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) program. The 8(a) is an intensive 9 year program that offers wide ranging training and support to small business owners who are socially and economically disadvantaged, predominantly native owned businesses. Under the current structure once a business reaches over 6.8 million in assets they're kicked off the program, even though the SBA counts anything under $10 million as a small business, many companies try to limit growth to stay on the program. The House also passed a bill to create an Office of Native American Affairs at the SBA, in order to support Native-owned small businesses.
The White House and HUD announced steps to boost the housing supply and lower costs plans include making permanent the Federal Financing Bank Risk Sharing program, the program has created 12,000 affordable housing units since 2021 with $2 billion and plans 38,000 additional units over ten years. As well as support for HUD's HOME program which has spent $4.35 billion since 2021 to build affordable rental homes and make home ownership a reality for Americans. For the first time an administration is making funds available specifically for investments in manufactured housing, $225 million. 20 million Americans live in manufactured housing, the largest form of unsubsidized affordable housing in the country, particularly the rural poor and people in tribal communities.
The Department of Energy announced $336 million in investments in rural and remote communities to lower energy costs and improve reliability. The projects represent communities in 20 states and across 30 Native tribes. 21% of Navajo Nation homes and 35% of Hopi Indian Tribe homes remain unelectrified, one of the projects hopes to bring that number to 0. Another project supports replacing a hydroelectric dam in Alaska replacing all the Chignik Bay Tribal Council's diesel power with clear hydro power. The DoE also announced $18 million for Transformative Energy projects lead by tribal or local governments and $25 million for Tribal clean energy projects, this comes on top of $75 million in Tribal clean energy projects in 2023
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg put forward new rules to ensure airline passengers who use wheelchairs can travel safely and with dignity. Under the planned rules mishandling a wheelchair would be a violation of the ACAA, airlines would be required to immediately notify the passenger of their rights. Airlines would be required to repair or replace the wheelchair at the preferred vendor of the passenger's choice as well as provide a loaner wheelchair that fits the passenger's needs/requirements
The EPA launched a $3 Billion dollar program to help ports become zero-emission. This investment in green tech and zero-emission will help important transportation hubs fight climate change and replace some of the largest concentrations of diesel powered heavy equipment in America.
the EPA announced $1 Billion dollars to help clean up toxic Superfund sites. This is the last of $3.5 billion the Biden administration has invested in cleaning up toxic waste sites known as Superfund sites. This investment will help finish clean up at 85 sites across the country as well as start clean up at 25 new sites. Many Superfund sites are contained and then left not cleaned for years even decades. Thanks to the Biden-Harris team's investment the EPA has been able to do more clean up of Superfund sites in the last 2 years than the 5 years before it. More than 25% of America's black and hispanic population live with-in 5 miles of a Superfund site.
Bonus: Sweden cleared the final major barrier to become NATO's 32nd member. The Swedish Foreign Minster is expected to fly to Washington to deposit the articles of accession at the US State Department. NATO membership for Sweden and its neighbor Finland (joined last year) has been a major foreign policy goal of President Biden in the face of Russian aggressive against Ukraine. Former President Trump has repeatedly attacked NATO and declared he wants to leave the 75 year old Alliance, even going so far as to tell Russia to "do whatever the hell they want" with European NATO allies
#Thanks Biden#Joe Biden#Politics#US politics#Democrats#Climate change#end hunger#hunger#proverty#disability#native Americans#tribal rights#clean energy#child care#housing#housing crisis
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As president of the United States, Donald Trump threatened the federally issued licenses of television broadcast outlets that displeased him. In 2017, after NBC News reported a dispute between the president and his military advisors about the size of the nuclear arsenal, the president launched a series of tweets:
These 2017 tweets did not specifically suggest that he would have the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which issues the airwave licenses, revoke them on his order. Instead, they appear to echo the 1972 tactics of Richard Nixon, who, displeased by coverage from the Washington Post, encouraged a third party to file a challenge at the FCC (which ultimately went nowhere).
In response to the 2017 tweets, the Trump-appointed chairman of the FCC, Ajit Pai, took a firm stand. “I believe in the First Amendment,” he said. “Under the law, the FCC does not have the authority to revoke a license of a broadcast station based on a particular newscast.”
Now, in 2024, as a presidential candidate, Donald Trump has reasserted that broadcasters who displease him should lose their federal airwave licenses. A September 2023 post on Truth Social accused NBC of “Country Threatening Treason.” He added, “Why should NBC, or any of the other corrupt & dishonest media companies, be entitled to use the very valuable Airwaves of the USA, FREE?”
The current Chair of the FCC, Jessica Rosenworcel, responded, “the First Amendment is a cornerstone of our democracy. The FCC does not and will not revoke licenses for broadcast stations simply because a political candidate disagrees with or dislikes content or coverage.”
However, the ability of future FCCs to stand up to such instructions could be at risk. Candidate Trump has promised, “I will bring the independent regulatory agencies, such as the FCC and the FTC, back under Presidential authority, as the Constitution demands.” While the Constitution never mentions regulatory agencies, bringing the FCC under direct presidential control would surely undercut its independent decision-making.
But a president of the United States already has powers beyond coercing the FCC. These powers could be exercised not only against broadcasters, but also against those who operate the internet.
The “Doomsday Book”
During his presidency, Donald Trump asserted, “When somebody’s president of the United States, the authority is total.” Whether or not presidential authority is “total,” there does already exist a compendium of presidential powers that have been enacted by Congress for use in extreme circumstances.
Reportedly locked in a White House safe are the secret “Presidential Emergency Action Documents” (PEADs). Colloquially known as the “Doomsday Book,” they are a collection of powers authorized by Congress for the president to use in emergencies. Included in this compendium is Section 706 (codified as 47 USC 606), titled, “War Emergency – Powers of the President,” that is tucked away at the end of the Communications Act of 1934, the statute that created the FCC.
TIME Magazine reports, “When Donald Trump was in the Oval Office, members of the national security staff actively worked to keep him from learning the full extent of these interpretations of presidential authority, concerned he would abuse them.”
Here is what Section 706 authorizes:
(c) Upon proclamation by the President that there exists war or a threat of war, or a state of public peril or disaster or other national emergency… the President, if he deems it necessary in the interest of national security or defense, may suspend or amend, for such time as he may see fit, the rules and regulations applicable to any or all stations or devices capable of emitting electromagnetic radiations within the jurisdiction of the United States as prescribed by the Commission, and may cause the closing of any station for radio communication…
The next subsection, using similar “national security” criteria, gives the president authority over the wired networks, such as those that carry telephone and internet service. Section 706(d), in pertinent part, authorizes the president to “suspend or amend the rules and regulations applicable to any or all facilities or stations for wire communication… cause the closing of any facility or station for wire communication… [or] authorize the use or control of any such facility or station… by any department of the Government under such regulations as he may prescribe…”
The terms “war or a threat of war, or a state of public peril or disaster or other national emergency” are not defined by the Communications Act. Such declarations of national emergency were, however, a go-to solution when Donald Trump was in office. The effort to restrict travel from majority-Muslim countries was justified on national security grounds. Tariffs were levied on foreign steel and aluminum as a national security threat based on their impact on domestic production. When Congress would not give him the funding he wanted for the Mexican border wall, the president simply used a national emergency declaration to reallocate Defense Department funds to build the wall. Reportedly, he even considered declaring that the use of natural gas for electricity production was a national security risk because the gas pipelines could become terrorist targets.
The power of the Chief
Candidate Trump, in September 2023, posted that NBC and other “corrupt & dishonest media companies” are “a true threat to democracy and are, in fact, THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!” He declared, “The Fake News Media should pay a big price for what they have done to our once great Country.”
A 2021 report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) concluded, “in the American governmental experience, the exercise of emergency powers has been somewhat dependent on the Chief Executive’s view of the presidential office.” When he was Chief Executive, Donald Trump explained how he viewed the office: “I have Article II [of the Constitution], where I have the right to do whatever I want as president.”
The tools to do whatever the president wants—whether at the FCC or in the Doomsday Book—are at hand. As the CRS report concluded, such decisions are dependent “on the Chief Executive’s view of the presidential office.”
The institution that created these broad powers, the Congress, has an important role as overseer of the authority they have delegated to the executive. Congress constantly holds oversight hearings on the agencies of the executive branch; hearings on the unilateral powers granted to the president are warranted. The threshold question for such hearings should be whether there are sufficient guardrails in place to protect against their abuse, and what such protections should look like. Regardless of who wins the election—Congress should review whether the unilateral powers granted to the president in the 20th century need updating for the 21st century.
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BREAKING: Trump’s Explosive Quote About Secret Drone Garages Sets Off National Alarm Bells – Everyone Downloading NUKE Apps!
BREAKING: Mysterious drones scanning U.S. skies for radiation as nuclear material goes missing. Trump declares, ‘The drones are OURS.’ Amidst rising radiation levels and a $300M spend on anti-radiation meds, the government remains silent. What's hidden behind this eerie silence?
In America’s skies, something unsettling is unfolding. Thousands of drones, advanced and stealthy, are monitoring from above, hinting at a massive yet undisclosed U.S. operation. Why the secrecy if these drones are ours, as Trump confirms? What lurks behind the government’s stonewall?
The Mystery Drones That Are Freaking Everyone Out Advanced, silent drones are now a common sight, raising alarms. With over 5,000 sightings reported, regions like New York City and New Jersey are under intense aerial scrutiny without clear reasons.
A drone pilot in New Jersey shared a disturbing encounter, "It’s like it sucked the power right out of my drone." These are not ordinary drones; they’re part of something much bigger and unsettling.
Radiation Spikes, Missing Nukes, and $300 Million in Anti-Radiation Pills Radiation is spiking where drone activity is highest. Concurrently, radioactive materials have vanished from New Jersey, paired with a hefty government expenditure on anti-radiation meds. The dots connect to form a sinister picture.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has been tight-lipped about these missing materials. How do you just 'lose' nuclear material? This isn’t a simple oversight; it’s a dire emergency.
Trump Blows the Lid Off the Cover-Up Trump’s recent admission reveals these advanced machines are U.S. drones. "They’re ours, folks. Very advanced. Very effective," he claimed. This revelation only deepens the mystery and the anxiety it breeds.
The Government’s Lie: “Nothing to See Here” As the government dismisses rising concerns with feeble reassurances, the American public remains skeptical. The pieces of the puzzle are troubling:
Over 5,000 drone sightings.
Missing radioactive material.
$300 million spent on anti-radiation meds.
Drones and the Global Panic: Why Are Central Banks Hoarding Gold? In response to these mysterious events, global banks are amassing gold, bracing for economic upheaval that might follow a catastrophic event. Are these drones part of a global operation to thwart a nuclear threat, or is there an even graver danger at play?
Alien Tech? Advanced Surveillance? What’s the REAL Purpose of These Drones? Theories abound. Some suggest these drones are using advanced tech to map gamma radiation, possibly to detect WMDs. Others propose a more outlandish theory — alien technology. Or, are they prepping for a catastrophe they foresee but aren’t disclosing?
Drones Disrupting Airports – Are They Testing Us? Drones have caused chaos at airports, a serious hint that these activities could be tests of broader capabilities. What can they disrupt next if they can stall airports?
Enough Is Enough: The American People Deserve Answers With Trump’s bold statements, the call for transparency grows louder. The stakes are immense, and the public's patience thins.
Conclusion: Eyes on the Skies – We Won’t Be Fooled Trump’s remarks have slightly opened the curtain to the ongoing saga in our skies. We’re vigilant, concerned, and demand the truth about these drones and the shadows they cast over our security and sovereignty.
This "Anonymous Post" in 2022 should kinda put things into a better perspective for everyone. But You Decide 🤔
#pay attention#educate yourselves#educate yourself#reeducate yourselves#knowledge is power#reeducate yourself#think about it#think for yourselves#think for yourself#do your homework#do some research#do research#do your own research#ask yourself questions#question everything#drone situation#drones#false flag#scare event#controlling the people#government corruption#evil lives here#lies exposed#you decide#news
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Microsoft deal would reopen Three Mile Island nuclear plant to power AI
Pennsylvania’s dormant Three Mile Island nuclear plant would be brought back to life to feed the voracious energy needs of Microsoft under an unprecedented deal announced Friday in which the tech giant would buy 100 percent of its power for 20 years.
The restart of Three Mile Island, the site of the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history, would mark a bold advance in the tech industry’s quest to find enough electric power to support its boom in artificial intelligence.The plant, which Pennsylvanians thought hadclosed for good in 2019 amid financial strain, would come back online by 2028 under the agreement, according toplant owner Constellation Energy.
If approved by regulators, Three Mile Island would provide Microsoft with the energy equivalent it takes to power 800,000 homes, or 835 megawatts. Never before has a U.S. nuclear plant come back into service after being decommissioned, and never before has all of a single commercial nuclear power plant’s output been allocated to a single customer.
But the economics of both the power and computing industries are changing rapidly. Tech companies are scouring the nation for power that is both reliable and helps them meet their pledge to fuel AI development with zero emissions electricity — driving a nuclear power revival.
“The energy industry cannot be the reason China or Russia beats us in AI,” said Joseph Dominguez, chief executive of Constellation. “This plant never should have been allowed to shut down, ... It will produce as much clean energy as all of the renewables [wind and solar] built in Pennsylvania over the last 30 years.”
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The four-year restart plan would cost Constellation about $1.6 billion, he said, and is dependent on federal subsidies in the form of tax breaks earmarked for nuclear power in the 2022 Inflation Recovery Act.
Constellation will also need to clear steep regulatory hurdles, including intensive safety inspections from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which has never before authorized the reopening of a plant. The deal also raises thorny questions about the federal tax breaks, as the energy from the plant would all be produced for a single private company rather than a utility serving entire communities.
A partial reactor meltdown at Three Mile Island in 1979 sent the nation into a panic and the nuclear industry reeling. The unit that Constellation plans to fire back up sits adjacent to the one that malfunctioned 45 years ago.
Constellation and Microsoft conceived the novel deal to solve a deepening energy problem. The sprawling data centers Microsoft and other digital giants need have become so big and energy-intensive that they are straining existing power supplies across the nation.
Constellation disclosed months ago that it was exploring options for restarting Three Mile Island, which sits along the Susquehanna River. The news was met with mixed reactions. Nuclear safety advocates expressed alarm. But some community leaders welcomed the development, seeing potential to revive an economic anchor in a region beset with financial hardship. A study funded by the Pennsylvania Building & Construction Trades Council says a reopening would create 3,400 jobs at the plant and in businesses serving it and its workers, and generate $3 billion in state and federal taxes.
The tax breaks in the Inflation Recovery Act are crucial to making the deal economically feasible, according to Constellation. They provide a credit for every megawatt hour of nuclear energy produced.
Constellation declined to provide details about its contract with Microsoft or disclose the value of tax credits. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm has said in the past that federal subsidies could cut the cost of bringing a new plant on line by as much as half.
The announcement of the Microsoft deal follows an agreement Amazon reached with Talen Energy to purchase power produced by the financially troubled Susquehanna nuclear plant for a planned data center campus in Pennsylvania. That arrangement is running into snags with regulators, as regional utilities express concern that their ratepayers will be saddled with the bill for the power grid updates needed.
Amazon’s plan also raised concerns among clean-energy advocates that tech companies are shifting from driving the transition to clean energy to elbowing others out of it by claiming such large amounts of available clean electricity for themselves.
Dominguez argues that the Three Mile Island case is an example of how Silicon Valley’s outside-the-box thinking will help stabilize the power grid for everyone. The power from the plant will not go directly to Microsoft facilities but into the overtaxed regional power grid that serves 65 million people across 13 states and the District of Columbia, called the PJM Interconnection.
Nuclear power is considered “clean” because unlike burning natural gas or coal to produce electricity, it does not create greenhouse gas emissions. The plants are expensive to build or restart, and industry still has no long-term solution for spent but highly radioactive uranium fuel rods.
“This agreement is a major milestone in Microsoft’s efforts to help decarbonize the grid in support of our commitment to become carbon negative,” said a statement from Bobby Hollis, vice president of energy at Microsoft.
Dominguez said other ratepayers on the PJM grid will not be expected to shoulder any of the costs, nor will Constellation be seeking special subsidies fromthe state of Pennsylvania.
Constellation has already been doing extensive testing at Three Mile Island.It says most of its components are ready to operate again. “The plant is in extraordinary shape,” Dominguez said.
Three Mile Island is not the only nuclear plant the industry is eager to revive. The owners of a plant in Western Michigan called Palisades are also working to bring that dormant facility back. That project was approved for a $1.5 billion federal loan guarantee. The plant owner, Holtec, says it hopes to feed nuclear energy from Palisades into the region’s power grid by late next year.
The Palisades effort came about at the urging of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), as her state struggles to both meet its climate goals and generate adequate energy. The plant was destined for permanent closure when Holtec acquired it in 2022. The company had planned to decommission the facility but changed course after conversations with the governor.
On Wednesday, though, that plan was dealt a setback when federal nuclear regulators disclosed “a large number of steam generator tubes” could be faulty and need further inspection. Holtec said the finding does not alter its plans. But some nuclear safety advocates argue the company’s push to quickly reopen the plant puts the public at risk.
The huge cost and regulatory headaches associated with nuclear power are not deterring the tech industry from betting on it. In a remarkable turn of fortune for an industry that just a few years ago was struggling to stay competitive and focused mostly on closing plants, it now finds itself in expansion mode. Beyond seeking contracts for power from existing plants, tech companies are also bullish on next generation nuclear technologies.
Several are investigating the potential of locating their facilities near small modular nuclear reactors that could feed them power directly. Such technology is in its infancy and has not yet been approved by regulators. That isn’t stopping a company chaired by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates from doubling down on it. The firm, called Terra Power, this year began construction at what it plans to be a small reactor site in site in Wyoming.
Microsoft is also pursuing power from nuclear fusion, a potentially abundant, cheap and clean form of electricity that scientists have been trying to develop for decades — and most say is still a decade or more away from generating electricity. Microsoft has signed a contract to purchase fusion energy from a start-up that claims it can deliver it by 2028.
correction
A previous version of this article misspelled the last name of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. The article has been corrected.
#bsky#Meanwhile in the department of headlines as condensed dystopian novels#dystopian#AI#Anthropocene#doom scrolling#dystopia#pennsylvania#three mile island#nuclear disaster
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Billionaire fossil fuel mogul David Koch died August 23, 2019. Though he will rightfully be remembered for his role in the destruction of the earth, David Koch’s influence went far beyond climate denial. Ronald Reagan may have uttered the famous words, “Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem” back in 1981—but it was David Koch, along with his elder brother Charles and a cabal of other ultrarich individuals, who truly reframed the popular view of government. Once a democratic tool used to shape the country’s future, government became seen as something intrusive and inefficient—indeed, something to be feared.
“While Charles was the mastermind of the social reengineering of the America he envisioned,” said Lisa Graves, co-director of the corporate watchdog group Documented, “David was an enthusiastic lieutenant.”
David Koch was particularly instrumental in legitimizing anti-government ideology—one the GOP now holds as gospel. In 1980, the younger Koch ran as the vice-presidential nominee for the nascent Libertarian Party. And a newly unearthed document shows Koch personally donated more than $2 million to the party—an astounding amount for the time—to promote the Ed Clark–David Koch ticket.
“Few people realize that the anti-American government antecedent to the Tea Party was fomented in the late ’70s with money from Charles and David Koch,” Graves continued. “The Libertarian Party, fueled in part with David’s wealth, pushed hard on the idea that government was the problem and the free market was the solution to everything.”
In fact, according to Graves, “The Koch-funded Libertarian Party helped spur on Ronald Reagan’s anti-government, free-market-solves-all agenda as president.”
Even by contemporary standards, the 1980 Libertarian Party platform was extreme. It called for the abolition of a wide swath of federal agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Bureau of Land Management, the Federal Election Commission, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, the Federal Trade Commission, and ��all government agencies concerned with transportation.” It railed against campaign finance and consumer protection laws, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, any regulations of the firearm industry (including tear gas), and government intervention in labor negotiations. And the platform demanded the repeal of all taxation, and sought amnesty for those convicted of tax “resistance.”
Koch and his libertarian allies moreover advocated for the repeal of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other social programs. They wanted to abolish federally mandated speed limits. They opposed occupational licensure, antitrust laws, labor laws protecting women and children, and “all controls on wages, prices, rents, profits, production, and interest rates.” And in true libertarian fashion, the platform urged the privatization of all schools (with an end to compulsory education laws), the railroad system, public roads and the national highway system, inland waterways, water distribution systems, public lands, and dam sites.
The Libertarian Party never made much of a splash in the election—though it did garner almost 12 percent of the vote in Alaska—but doing so was never the point. Rather, the Kochs were engaged in a long-term effort to normalize the aforementioned ideas and mainstream them into American politics.
(continue reading)
#politics#republicans#libertarians#koch brothers#koch bros#libertarianism#conservatism#ronald reagan#reaganism#charles koch#david koch#libertarian party
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ATLANTA (AP) — A new reactor at a nuclear power plant in Georgia has entered commercial operation, becoming the first new American reactor built from scratch in decades.
Georgia Power Co. announced Monday that Unit 3 at Plant Vogtle, southeast of Augusta, has completed testing and is now sending power to the grid reliably.
At its full output of 1,100 megawatts of electricity, Unit 3 can power 500,000 homes and businesses. Utilities in Georgia, Florida and Alabama are receiving the electricity.
Nuclear power now makes up about 25% of the generation of Georgia Power, the largest unit of Atlanta-based Southern Co.
A fourth reactor is also nearing completion at the site, where two earlier reactors have been generating electricity for decades. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Friday said radioactive fuel could be loaded into Unit 4, a step expected to take place before the end of September. Unit 4 is scheduled to enter commercial operation by March.
The third and fourth reactors were originally supposed to cost $14 billion, but are now on track to cost their owners $31 billion. That doesn’t include $3.7 billion that original contractor Westinghouse paid to the owners to walk away from the project. That brings total spending to almost $35 billion.
The third and fourth reactors were originally supposed to cost $14 billion, but are now on track to cost their owners $31 billion. That doesn’t include $3.7 billion that original contractor Westinghouse paid to the owners to walk away from the project. That brings total spending to almost $35 billion.
The third reactor was supposed to start generating power in 2016 when construction began in 2009.
Vogtle is important because government officials and some utilities are again looking to nuclear power to alleviate climate change by generating electricity without burning natural gas, coal and oil.
“This project shows just how new nuclear can and will play a critical role in achieving a clean energy future for the United States,” Southern Co. CEO Chris Womack said in a statement. “Bringing this unit safely into service is a credit to the hard work and dedication of our teams at Southern Company and the thousands of additional workers who have helped build that future at this site.”
In Georgia, almost every electric customer will pay for Vogtle. Georgia Power currently owns 45.7% of the reactors. Smaller shares are owned by Oglethorpe Power Corp., which provides electricity to member-owned cooperatives, the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia and the city of Dalton. Oglethorpe and MEAG plan to sell power to cooperatives and municipal utilities across Georgia, as well in Jacksonville, Florida, and parts of Alabama and the Florida Panhandle.
Georgia Power’s 2.7 million customers are already paying part of the financing cost and elected public service commissioners have approved a monthly rate increase of $3.78 a month for residential customers as soon as the third unit begins generating power. That could hit bills in August, two months after residential customers saw a $16-a-month increase to pay for higher fuel costs.
Commissioners will decide later who pays for the remainder of the costs of Vogtle, including the fourth reactor.
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Nuclear Accidents to read about for more Burrow’s End Context (Besides Chernobyl):
I’ve recently become hyperfixated with reading about these and a lot of them have bits that I think can add to what’s going on in Burrow’s End. (These are far from all the possible examples I could give you, these just seemed the most relevant). I’ve grouped them by location in honor of the Cold War themes we’ve been seeing.
Soviet Incidents:
Mayak Kyshtym Disaster (1957) | Considered the third worst nuclear plant disaster in history (behind Chernobyl and Fukushima). Case of neglect and lack of oversight and general human stupidity. Caused huge amount of contamination to surrounding area; they had previously already been dumping their waste into a nearby lake. High civilian casualties; at least 200 people died and many, many more were affected.
“In the 45 years afterwards, about half a million people in the region have been irradiated in one or more of the incidents, exposing them to up to 20 times the radiation suffered by the Chernobyl disaster victims outside of the plant itself.”
Vinča Nuclear Institute Criticality Excursion (1958) | Researchers smelled ozone while they were unknowingly being irradiated, resulting in one death
Greifswald Nuclear Power Plant Incidents | 1975: Electrical fire destroyed control lines to coolant pumps 1989: Another cooling pump malfunction caused near-meltdown
KS-150 Incidents (1976, 1977) | Several different incidents involving coolant malfunction
K-431 Chazhma Bay Accident (1985) | Criticality excursion on a nuclear submarine caused by operator error. Resulted in a large area of severe contamination. (10 fatalities, another 49 injured, unknown how many could have been affected by contamination).
US Incidents:
Louis Slotin Accident (1946) | There are several excursions and deaths associated with the Manhattan Project and Los Alamos— but this one involved witnesses reporting a “blue glow” as the resulting radiation ionized the surrounding air. Slotin died within days, and several of his colleagues were injured, one permanently disabled, with some later dying early deaths.
Cecil Kelley Accident (1958) | Procedural error caused criticality accident that resulted in a “bright flash of blue light;” (warning that the descriptions on this one get particularly grisly as Kelley received more than seven times the adult lethal dose of radiation; he was the only one affected).
Surry Power Station Incidents (1972, 1979, 1986, 2011) | Multiple cooling system accidents, primarily those involving escaping steam, resulting in burns and one explosion. (Only the events in 1972 and 1986 resulted in loss of life, for 6 deaths total)
Three Mile Island Accident (1979) | Water escaped from the coolant system due to a mix of operator error and design flaws. This led to the reactor overheating and an eventual leak of radioactive gases via the steam released during the incident. Luckily the contamination of surrounding areas appears to have been minimal (for the most part).
Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station Malfunctions (1986) | Used Cape Cod Bay as the water source for its cooling system, resulting in an impact on aquatic plant and animal life. In 1986, recurring equipment malfunctions resulted in an emergency shutdown. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission once referred to it as “one of the worst-run″ nuclear power plants in the US.
Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station Incidents (1987) | Nuclear Regulatory Commission found evidence of misconduct, procedure error, corporate malfeasance, deliberate disregard for safety regulations, and pollution via accidental waste leakage into a nearby river. Resulted in a forced shutdown in 1987, associated with cooling malfunctions.
(There are several other [mostly nonfatal] US incidents at nuclear power plants, too many to fully get into here. See: Idaho National Laboratory, Enrico Fermi Nuclear Generating Station, Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant, Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station, Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant, Millstone Nuclear Power Station, Crystal River Nuclear Plant, and Davis–Besse Nuclear Power Station)
Other Locations:
Lucens Reactor Accident (1969) | Loss of coolant accident led to partial meltdown and contamination of the reactor cavern
Vandellòs Nuclear Power Plant Accident (1989) | A fire damaged the cooling system, leading to near-meltdown
Other Resources:
Wikipedia:
Page for nuclear and radiation accidents
Page for criticality accidents
Page for LOCA (Loss-of-coolant accident)
Union of Concerned Scientists:
A Brief History of Nuclear Accidents Worldwide
National Health Institute:
Civilian nuclear incidents: An overview of historical, medical, and scientific aspects
See Also:
World Nuclear Association, Atomic Archive, Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the International Atomic Energy Agency.
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The “death map” tells the story of decades of sickness in the small northwest New Mexico communities of Murray Acres and Broadview Acres. Turquoise arrows point to homes where residents had thyroid disease, dark blue arrows mark cases of breast cancer, and yellow arrows mean cancer claimed a life.
Neighbors built the map a decade ago after watching relatives and friends fall ill and die.
Dominating the top right corner of the map, less than half a mile from the cluster of colorful arrows [...] : 22.2 million tons of uranium waste left over from milling ore to supply power plants and nuclear bombs. “We were sacrificed a long time ago,” said Candace Head-Dylla, who created the death map with her mother after Head-Dylla had her thyroid removed and her mother developed breast cancer. [...]
Beginning in 1958, a uranium mill owned by Homestake Mining Company of California processed and refined ore mined nearby. The waste it left behind leaked uranium and selenium into groundwater and released the cancer-causing gas radon into the air.
State and federal regulators knew the mill was polluting groundwater almost immediately after it started operating, but years passed before they informed residents and demanded fixes. [...]
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Uranium mining and milling left a trail of contamination and suffering, from miners who died of lung cancer while the federal government kept the risks secret to the largest radioactive spill in the country’s history. But for four decades, the management of more than 250 million tons of radioactive uranium mill waste has been largely overlooked, continuing to pose a public health threat. [...] At Homestake, which was among the largest mills, the company is bulldozing a community in order to walk away. Interviews with dozens of residents, along with radon testing and thousands of pages of company and government records, reveal a community sacrificed to build the nation's nuclear arsenal and atomic energy industry. [...]
In 2014, an EPA report confirmed the site posed an unacceptable cancer risk and identified radon as the greatest threat to residents’ health. Still, the cleanup target date continued shifting, to 2017, then 2022. Rather than finish the cleanup, Homestake’s current owner, the Toronto-based mining giant Barrick Gold, is now preparing to ask the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the independent federal agency that oversees the cleanup of uranium mills, for permission to demolish its groundwater treatment systems and hand the site and remaining waste over to the U.S. Department of Energy to monitor and maintain forever. Before it can transfer the site to the Department of Energy, Homestake must prove that the contamination, which exceeds federal safety levels, won’t pose a risk to nearby residents [...].
Part of Homestake’s strategy: buy out nearby residents and demolish their homes. [...] Property records reveal the company had, by the end of 2021, purchased 574 parcels covering 14,425 acres around the mill site. This April, Homestake staff indicated they had 123 properties left to buy. One resident said the area was quickly becoming a “ghost town.”
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Even after the community is gone, more than 15,000 people who live nearby, many of them Indigenous, will continue to rely on water threatened by Homestake’s pollution. [...]
At the state level, New Mexico regulators waited until 2009, 49 years after first finding water pollution, to issue a formal warning that groundwater included substances that cause cancer and birth defects. [...] Other uranium mines and mills polluted the area’s main drinking water aquifer upstream of Homestake. [...]
More than 500 abandoned uranium mines pockmark the Navajo Nation [...].
Leaders of communities downstream from Homestake, including the Pueblo of Acoma, fear that wishful thinking could allow pollution from the waste to taint their water. The Acoma reservation, about 20 miles from Homestake’s tailings, has been continuously inhabited since before 1200. Its residents use groundwater for drinking and surface water for irrigating alfalfa and corn, but Donna Martinez, program coordinator for the pueblo’s Environment Department, said the pueblo government can’t afford to do as much air and water monitoring as staff would like. [...]
Most days, Billiman contemplates this “poison” and whether she and Boomer might move away from it [...]. “Then, we just say ‘hózho náhásdlii, hózho náhásdlii’ four times.” “All will be beautiful again,” Boomer roughly translated. [...] Now, as a registered nurse tending to former uranium miners, Langford knows too much about the dangers. When it’s inhaled, radon breaks down in the lungs, releasing bursts of radiation that can damage tissue and cause cancer. Her patients have respiratory issues as well as lung cancer. They lose their breath simply lifting themselves out of a chair.
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Text by Mark Olalde and Maya Miller. “A Uranium Ghost Town in the Making.” ProPublica. 8 August 2022. [Some paragraph breaks and contractions added by me.]
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The government is not known for its efficiency. And yet, right before Christmas, it fast-tracked two key pieces of nuclear legislation into law. I’d even call it turbo-tracked. These are the ADVANCE Act and the Nuclear Fuel Security Act. Both policies raced out of congressional sub-committees and straight into this year’s defense policy – the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2024. It was a major legislative leapfrog. It shows how crucial nuclear power, technology, and fuel are to U.S. national security. But these acts are just the tip of the iceberg. I also learned behind closed doors in Congress that there will be more nuclear policies to come. Right now, a bipartisan deal to overhaul the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is in the works. The NRC is the main nuclear regulatory agency in the U.S. Talks are focused on its licensing process. The overhaul could cut red tape and lower licensing fees for advanced reactors. These reactors are smaller, safer, and more efficient than older ones.
yeah i'm sure shortening the NRC licensing process is a great idea, that's only one of several reasons none of the spent fuel is in storage (because it has nowhere else to go, because the NRC has no choice but to extend and expand short term onsite storage outlined in the initial application without any further environmental impact review. this has happened for every existing reactor)
sure is curious that none of this new legislative action gives a damn about storage! i wonder why its absence is so acceptable. really makes you think about how properly stored waste cannot be reprocessed, and what they would rather use it for
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Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson (August 5, 1946) is a Physicist, born in DC. She has achieved numerous firsts for African American women. She was the first African woman to earn a Ph.D. from MIT; to receive a Ph.D. in theoretical solid state physics; to be elected president and then chairman of the board of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; to be president of a major research university, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; and to be elected to the National Academy of Engineering. She was both the first African American and the first woman to chair the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
She was accepted at MIT, where she was one of the very few women and even fewer African Americans. Despite discouraging remarks from her professors about the appropriateness of science for an African American woman, she chose to major in Physics and earned her BS. She continued at MIT for graduate school, studying under the first African American Physics professor in her department, James Young. She earned her Ph.D.
She completed several years of postdoctoral research at various laboratories, such as Fermi in Illinois, before being hired by AT&T Bell Laboratories, where she worked for 15 years. She researched the optical and electronic properties of layered materials, surface electrons of liquid helium films, strained-layer semiconductor superlattices, and most notably, the polaronic aspects of electrons in two-dimensional systems. She is considered a leading developer of Caller ID and Call Waiting on telephones.
After teaching at Rutgers University, she was appointed chair of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission by Bill Clinton. She became President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where she still serves today. She was elected president of AAAS and she served as chairman of the board for the Society. She is married to a physicist Morris A Washington and has one son. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence #deltasigmatheta
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Excerpt from this LA Times story:
Under two gargantuan domes of thick concrete and steel that rise along California’s rugged Central Coast, subatomic particles slam into uranium, triggering one of the most energetic reactions on Earth.
Amid coastal bluffs speckled with brush and buckwheat, Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant uses this energy to spin two massive copper coils at a blistering 30 revolutions per second. In 2022, these generators — about the size of school buses — produced 6% of Californians’ power and 11% of their non-fossil energy.
Yet it comes at almost double the cost of other low-carbon energy sources and, according to the federal agency that oversees the plant, carries a roughly 1 in 25,000 chance of suffering a nuclear meltdown that could endanger life before its scheduled decommissioning in just five years — due primarily to nearby fault lines.
As Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration looks to the aging reactor to help ease the state’s transition to renewable energy, Diablo Canyon is drawing renewed criticism from those who say the facility is too expensive and too dangerous to continue operating.
Diablo is just the latest in a series of plants built in the atomic frenzy of the 1970s and ’80s seeking an operating license renewal from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission as the clock on their initial 40-year run ticks down. As the price of wind and solar continues to drop, the criticisms against Diablo reflect a nationwide debate.
The core of the debate lives in the quaint coastal town of San Luis Obispo, just 12 miles inland from the concrete domes, where residents expected Diablo Canyon to shut down over the next year after its license expired.
Instead, Newsom struck a deal on the last possible day of the state’s 2021-22 legislative session to keep the plant running until 2030, citing worries over summer blackouts as the state transitions to clean energy. The activists who had negotiated the shutdown with Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and the state six years prior were left stunned.
Today, the plant is still buzzing with life: Nuclear fission, in the deep heart of the plant, continues to superheat water to 600 degrees at 150 times atmospheric pressure. Generators continue to whir with a haunting and deafening hum that reverberates throughout the massive turbine deck.
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Google strikes a deal with a nuclear startup to power its AI data centers
🔹 Google is turning to nuclear energy to help power its AI drive. On Monday, the company said it will partner with the startup Kairos Power to build seven small nuclear reactors in the US. The deal targets adding 500 megawatts of nuclear power from the small modular reactors (SMRs) by the decade’s end. The first is expected to be up and running by 2030, with the remainder arriving through 2035.
🔹 It’s the first-ever corporate deal to buy nuclear power from SMRs. Small modular reactors are smaller than existing reactors. Their components are built inside a factory rather than on-site, which can help lower construction costs compared to full-scale plants. Kairos will need the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to approve design and construction permits for the plans. The startup has already received approval for a demonstration reactor in Tennessee, with an online date targeted for 2027.
🔹 The company already builds test units (without nuclear-fuel components) at a development facility in Albuquerque, NM, where it assesses components, systems and its supply chain. The companies didn’t announce the financial details of the arrangement. Google says the deal’s structure will help to keep costs down and get the energy online sooner. “By procuring electricity from multiple reactors — what experts call an ‘orderbook’ of reactors — we will help accelerate the repeated reactor deployments that are needed to lower costs and bring Kairos Power’s technology to market more quickly,” Michael Terrell, Google’s senior director for energy and climate, wrote in a blog post. “This is an important part of our approach to scale the benefits of advanced technologies to more people and communities, and builds on our previous efforts.”
🔹 The AI boom - and the enormous amount of data center power it requires - has led to several deals between Big Tech companies and the nuclear industry. In September, Microsoft forged an agreement with Constellation Energy to bring a unit of the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania back online. In March, Amazon bought a nuclear-powered data center from Talen Energy.
#artificial intelligence#technology#coding#ai#open ai#tech news#tech world#technews#ai hardware#ai model#ai news#google#internet#nuclear power#nuclear energy#clean energy
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New US nuclear power legislation dropped:
Reduces fees for experimental reactors on DOD or DOE sites
Nuclear Regulatory Commission has 18 months to develop regulations for "micro-reactors" (undefined) taking into account their size and risk levels relative to standard large fixed-location Light Water Reactors.
Expedites licenses for building additional reactors at currently- or formerly-licensed nuclear power plants using already-licensed designs
Allows the DOE to enter into long-term power purchase agreements, which stabilizes financing for new reactor builds and thereby lowers costs to build.
Here's the list of current sponsors in the Senate; call your Senators to get them to back this bill!
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What's your favourite person from history whom most people don't know the name of?
Aw fuck that's not easy to answer. Actually this is quite easy to answer if we increase the weight of the condition "most people" someone like Marie Curie or Earnest Rutherford would work. But I won't cheese your question instead I will tell you about Hyman G Rickover the man who was perhaps the biggest fan of nuclear submarines the world will ever see.
Brosky was working with people to make a nuclear reactor for big ships, I think destroyers I don't know my ship types, really big ships. Anyways he's looking at this tech and he thinks "man imagine if we put a reactor in a submarine that'd be pretty cool" so he tells his boss and his boss is like "look at this idiot, fuck this guy" and get Hyman reassigned to like a shit post or something just not great. Naturally Hyman does this like a bunch more times and truly nobody gives a shit, everyone thinks it's a dumb idea that'd never work.
Now at this he's been at this for a good deal of time, but he finally gets a boss man who's receptive to his idea and sends it up the chain. Bam! Suddenly Hyman off to the races. He works up a plan, some schematics, ect.. you get it, gets his ducks in row and sends his plan off to the nuclear regulatory commission. Now if you don't know who they are, they had absolute authority on everything nuclear, actually don't know if they're still around. Anyway if they didn't like your idea, your reactor, your nuclear plane, your bomb, whatever it was they don't like it you don't do it.
Naturally they looked at Hymans plans and said this is a terrible idea, look at this fuckin idiot. So he sends a different, if similar plan, and gets rejected again. He does this so persistently they start rejecting his proposals as soon as they realize his names on it. (This would be a cool story if he just lied about who he was but honestly what he did instead was approximately 9000x cooler)
Like two years after he starts working on his nuclear sub idea, called the Nautilus, he gets himself appointed as a director in the nuclear regulatory commission. I'm not 100% certain as to how high that is, whether he was big man in charge or part of council. Realistically probably the later. Regardless, this baller ass man is now the person who gets to decide if a reactor is made.
So he submits his proposal again, and wouldn't you know he approved it as well. Undoubtedly a terrible conflict of interest and indicative of some rather terrible hiring practices, but good for nuclear submarines and actually like everyone on earth. Dude bro made this reactor, with a team, that was like super tiny and when it exploded was pretty tame all things considered. Plus it was a water steam reactor, meaning to resupply you just more fuel rods and more water, the first of its kind. There are more effective reactors, there are more efficient reactors. Most reactors produce plutonium as a waste product, and some funky peeps, I believe in Japan, created plutonium reactors that used waste plutonium for nuclear fission.
But that plutonium reactor, when it was created in France, exploded, admittedly due to user error, and was nearly catastrophic. Haymans reactor on the other did explode, in the U.S and nobody gave a shit. I believe there were three casualties, one dead, because he got hit by the door of the reactor. Quite literally the safest reactor ever invented. Every reactor in operation currently is based on Hayman's design.
Hayman was legendarily concerned with nuclear safety. For all that his motives in getting the position, while the/a director for the nuclear regulatory commission, there were 0 reactor explosions in the entire U.S navy. Let me repeat that 0. He earned a shit ton of medals too, cause he was really good at his job.
He revolutionized, with help, nuclear energy and saved countless lives from the potential risk of more dangerous reactors. Admittedly did so by creating weapons of war, which also killed people
He died in disgrace after a scandal, which, I believe, he was not culpable for, and accepting bribes which he was culpable for
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US people, which of the following agencies' involvement would probably mean you had the worst day?
(international people welcome to play along! but the answers are fairly US-centric)
It doesn't strictly have to be one day! And you don't have to assume you were directly involved in the incident; some incidents are more likely to affect surrounding populations (but if you work in an industry where any of these agencies is directly relevant, you can certainly picture A Terrible Day At Work)
i am being coy about the acronyms (if you know, you know:)) but I highly recommend looking up the ones you don't know! They can really ruin your day! <3
More info under the cut. I made this because I am on a disaster kick and because there are actually A Lot of agencies investigating Very Bad Days
U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board
Center for Disease Control
National Transportation Safety Board
Environmental Protection Agency
Food and Drug Administration
Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
International Revenue Service
International Atomic Energy Agency
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