Atlanta, U.S.A. — Testing has begun on a major component in the construction of two new nuclear units at Plant Vogtle 3 and 4 – a 560-foot tall heavy lift derrick, one of the biggest cranes in the world.

The derrick, which will be used to move large pieces at the site of the first new nuclear units built in the United States in 30 years, has the capacity to move the equivalent of five 747 jets across the distance of more than three-and-a-half football fields in a single lift.

In addition, major components will begin arriving to the site later this year and early 2013, the first of which will be the reactor vessel for Unit 3. The Unit 3 condensers have arrived from South Korea, where they were manufactured. Unit 3 is scheduled to go online in 2016, and Unit 4 will follow in 2017.

Also at the site, significant work has been done on turbine islands, cooling towers and nuclear islands. Over the next several months, progress will continue to be made in the nuclear island, turbine building and module assemblies.

“The project is progressing extremely well, especially when compared to other large-scale infrastructure projects worldwide,” said Joseph A. “Buzz” Miller, executive vice president of Nuclear Development for Georgia Power and Southern Nuclear. “The Vogtle 3 and 4 project provides at least $2.2 billion more value to customers than the next best available technology, according to Georgia Public Service Commission staff.”

The construction of Vogtle 3 and 4 is the largest job-producing project in Georgia, employing approximately 5000 people during peak construction and creating 800 permanent jobs when the plant begins operating. Once complete, the new units will produce enough electricity to power 500,000 Georgia homes and businesses.

Southern Nuclear, a subsidiary of Southern Company, is overseeing construction and will operate the two new 1,100-megawatt AP1000 units for Georgia Power and co-owners Oglethorpe Power Corporation, the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia and Dalton Utilities. Georgia Power owns 45.7 percent of the new units, with a certified cost of $6.1 billion.

Georgia Power is the largest subsidiary of Southern Company, one of the nation’s largest generators of electricity. The company is an investor-owned, tax-paying utility with rates below the national average. Georgia Power serves 2.4 million customers in all but four of Georgia’s 159 counties.

Image Courtesy of  spirit of america / Shutterstock.com

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The small New England state of Vermont is battling the U.S. government over control of the state’s lone nuclear power plant. A federal court denied the state’s recent attempt to shut down the 40-year-old Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant for safety concerns. Vermont lawmakers must now decide if they want to appeal the decision and risk a high stakes legal fight that could affect how the nuclear energy industry is regulated.

In 2010 the Vermont Senate voted not to renew the plant’s operating license after 2012, claiming that the plant’s owner, Entergy, had falsified reports and ignored operational problems. Entergy sued the state claiming that they were attempting to override the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Agency’s decision that the plant was safe to continue operating. Entergy said only the federal government, not individual states, can evaluate plant safety.

U.S. District Judge Garvan Murtha sided with Entergy, saying that despite the state’s claim that it was troubled by operational mismanagement at the plant, their real motive was concern over safety. Murtha noted in his decision that transcripts of the Vermont Senate debates leading up to their vote to close the plant were filled with discussion of the plant’s safety, particularly with references to reports of radioactive tritium leaking into the nearby Connecticut River.

Environmental activists and a majority of state lawmakers had been pushing to shut down Vermont Yankee for many years, but their concerns took on a new urgency with the disaster at Japan’s Fukishima Daiichi plant in 2011. The Fukishima reactors were similar in design to Vermont Yankee’s, and the Connecticut River, which would absorb most of the radiation if a major leak occurred, flows through densely populated areas in western Massachusetts and Connecticut before emptying into Long Island Sound near New York City.

Supporters for keeping the plant open say the state and regional power grids need the electricity it produces to hold down energy costs. Others say that the overall safety record at the plant is good, and that nuclear power must be part of the alternative energy mix if the US is going to reduce its dependence on oil and coal burning plants. Critics argue that continuing to operate a leaky, 40-year-old nuclear reactor is not a smart way to fight global warming.

Vermont can appeal the court’s decision or it can attempt to have its public service board, which regulates energy prices, impose restrictions on the plant that would make it too expensive to operate. But either approach is likely to trigger a legal battle with Entergy, a national corporation with very deep pockets that operates nuclear plants throughout the country.

The state has already spent millions trying to shut the plant down without success, and after the court ruled in Entergy’s favor, the company has now demanded that the state reimburse its $4.6 million in legal costs. Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin, who just completed his first year in office, sided with environmental activists during his campaign, and has vowed to continue his efforts to close the plant despite the setback.

But Shumlin’s political opponents and Vermont business leaders say the state’s fragile economy cannot afford the jolt in energy prices that would occur if Vermont Yankee were to stop operating. With Vermont facing a $176 million deficit and still repairing the damage from Hurricane Irene last August, the state should cut its losses and give up the fight, they say.

So far, Shumlin and Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell have remained silent on their next move. Backing down might make financial sense, but it would also strike a significant blow against states trying to regulate nuclear power plants within their borders. With the Obama administration promoting nuclear power as a key component of its strategy to rebuild America’s energy infrastructure, their decision could have far reaching consequences.

Image Courtesy of  Nuclear Regulatory Commission (United States Nuclear Regulatory Comission) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

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National environmental organizations, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Friends of the Earth, Public Citizen, Clean Water Action, and Greenpeace, along with regional energy advocacy organization Citizen Power, are sending a letter to teacher organizations throughout the United States to alert teachers to be careful when considering using the resources of the National Energy Education Development Project (NEED).

NEED conducts teacher training workshops around the US and gives participants teaching resources, including “Infobooks” that contain information about various energy sources. A review of the NEED Secondary Infobook * reveals that some of the information it contains is incomplete, unbalanced, or simply not accurate.

Despite repeatedly being asked to correct the Infobooks, NEED continues to disseminate this misinformation. Some of the more egregious omissions or errors are listed in the letter to teacher organizations. To see the letter and citations, click here:http://www.citizenpower.com/NEED/NEED_Teacher_Orgs_letter.pdf.

“It is unacceptable that teachers of future decision makers are getting information about energy sources that is misleading at best and, at worst, simply wrong,” said Christopher Paine, Nuclear Program Director at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

“The information being presented to students misleads them on very basic questions of health and safety.  Fossil fuels like coal have very damaging effects on health, and schools should warn students about them, not ignore them,” noted Barbara Gottlieb, Director of Environment and Health at Physicians for Social Responsibility.

In April 2009, NEED asked for and was given more than 100 citations to support the contention that the Infobooks contain misleading or inaccurate information. It was hoped that the 2010 edition of the Infobooks would be revised per this supporting documentation. Regrettably, that was not to be the case. In January 2011 a letter was sent to the 30 member NEED Teacher Advisory Board, along with the supporting citations, requesting that the TAB work to revise the 2011 Infobooks.

Unfortunately, the 2011 Infobooks still contain very misleading or inaccurate information about coal and nuclear energy. In addition, ongoing reviews reveal an additional need for revisions, including in the Petroleum and Biomass sections. Citations for these suggested revisions were also sent to NEED in January 2011.

“It is bad enough that our democracy is under assault by unregulated corporate lobbying – but now energy companies are influencing educational curriculums. Our children deserve fact-based education – not lesson plans approved by energy corporations,” said Tyson Slocum, Director of Public Citizen’s Energy Program.

“Now, more than ever, we need sound science and fact-based analysis to shape the energy education of young Americans.  If the NEED program is determined to dispense coal and oil industry spin in their place, parents, teachers, and administrators must start taking a harder look at whether they want NEED materials in their local schools,” said Dave Hamilton, Director of Global Warming and Energy Programs for the Sierra Club.

“It is obvious that NEED has made a conscious decision to continue disseminating this information despite having evidence that it is inaccurate,” said David Hughes, President of Citizen Power. “We intend to continue to pressure NEED to make its Infobooks accurate and to alert teachers about NEED’s misleading teaching resources.”

*http://www.need.org/needpdf/Secondary%20Energy%20Infobook.pdf

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After all the boycott attempts made by the Italian government and especially by the Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his party, the 57% of Italian people went to vote for the four referendums last Sunday and Monday.

More than 29 millions of Italians went to the polls and 95% of them said no to the return to nuclear energy, no to privatization of public water and no to parliamentary immunity law.

These results are very important both for the future of the country and for the political sign given by the electors to the government. Italian people rejected all the programs and the laws introduced by Berlusconi and his parliamentary majority, giving another slap in the face to the Prime Minister and the government just after the heavy defeat of the local elections of May.

In spite of the numerous abstention requests made by Berlusconi and his party, the electors – also the right-wing ones – expressed their democratic will on the four fundamental questions of the referendum, ruining the government’s plans.

The need of change and the frustration of the Italian people were stronger than the boycott campaign carried out by the government by any means. The appeals to the courts for the referendums to be declared invalid and illegal and the sabotage of the television information turned out completely vain and useless.

Italians sent another strong signal to Berlusconi and the ruling class. It is clear that the distance between people and government is getting wider every day, and that the country has the will to change and want to express its disapproval of the disastrous policy of the government.

Also from a political perspective the results of the referendums are very important. The right-wing governmental coalition seems to be giving way after the defeats suffered in the last weeks. Northern League – the second party of the majority – expressed its discontent in regard to Berlusconi’s policy and his party’s line. Moreover, many Northern League exponents have publicly opposed Berlusconi’s program in occasion of the referendums’ campaign.

It remains to be seen which will be the choices of the government in the matter of energy, the country needs an energy plan but we don’t know yet what will be chosen as “substitute” to Berlusconi’s dearly beloved nuclear plants.

Anyway, for the second time in 24 years, Italy says no to nuclear energy – the first referendum had been held in 1987 – and for at least the next five years the country won’t start any atomic plan.

About the questions on privatization of water, Italians decided to keep the service public as it has been until now, confirming the value of water as a fundamental public good.

The other question was about legitimate impediment law which, if not rejected by electors, would have warranted the parliamentary immunity to the Prime Minister and the other ministers, saving Berlusconi from his numerous trials – four at the moment.

Thus, a terrible blow for the Premier and his government, and a strong signal by the people that there is a need for democracy and change.

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