The Department of Energy has confirmed that its oldest
double-shell tank is actively leaking radioactive and hazardous chemical waste
from its inner shell.
DOE made the announcement Monday after a video inspection of
the area between the shells Sunday showed more waste in one place than a video
taken Thursday showed.
"It's a very, very small volume," said Tom
Fletcher, DOE assistant manager for the tank farms. Although there's no good
way to measure the amount, it could be a couple of tablespoons of additional
waste between the video inspections.
From The Washington Post: "Dominion Resources
Inc. said Monday that it plans to close and decommission its Kewaunee Power
Station in Wisconsin after it was unable to find a buyer for the nuclear power
plant".
As nuclear power continues to crumble under the weight of
its own disastrous economics, Dominion CEO, Thomas F. Farrell II, becomes
the latest industry CEO to lose confidence in the nuclear business. "This
decision was based purely on economics," Farrell said. Dominion also
operates the two North Anna, VA reactors, where a proposed third reactor plan
looks fragile at best. It also operates Millstone, CT and Surry, VA.
Reuters also reported on this story, stating that more
atomic reactors could follow suit, their bad economics forcing their closure:
"Especially vulnerable under this scenario would be
small, old single reactor sites."
According to Reuters, other units that could be slated for
permanent closure because they fit the Kewanee economic profile include Exelon
Corp's Oyster Creek in New Jersey, Xcel Energy Inc's Monticello in Minnesota,
and Entergy Corp's Palisades in Michigan, Vermont Yankee in Vermont and Pilgrim
in Massachusetts.
In fact, an increasing vulnerable and deteriorating nuclear
industry under the mounting capital costs and uncertainties arising from
Japan's Fukushima disaster can be tallied into a larger
list of single unit sites in the United States targeted for closure.
More.
On the Bankruptcy front:
A bankruptcy judge Monday confirmed Solyndra LLC’s
Chapter 11 plan, brushing aside protests from the Department of Energy, which
stands to lose most of the $527 million in taxpayer dollars it risked on the
company. Read the Daily Bankruptcy Review article here.
A123 Systems Inc., the electric car battery maker that
filed for Chapter 11 last week after receiving nearly $250 million in
government grants, wants to pay more than $4 million in bonuses to a handful of
top executives. Click here for the DBR article.
Links:
Lorca earthquake
’caused by groundwater extraction’ BBC, I wonder if the east coast tremors
are a sign of things to come , thanks to fracking.
More on
China’s PMI MacroBusiness
Is
China Still a “Currency Manipulator”? EconoMonitor
The
IMF and the End of Austerity Huffington Post
Robert
Waldmann: Romney Suffers from CEO Disease Brad DeLong
The
Social Economics of Thorstein Veblen Michael Hudson
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