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With news today that the United States Nuclear Watchdog, Dale Klein, Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, is set to visit the Turkey Point Nuclear Reactor Power Plant in South Miami-Dade Florida we thought we’d look at just how safe our nuclear reactors are from a surprise terrorist attack. A 1982 study by Sandia National Laboratories found that a core meltdown and radiological release at one of the two operating Indian Point reactors could cause 50,000 near-term deaths from acute radiation syndrome and 14,000 long-term deaths from cancer. When these results were originally disclosed to the press, an NRC official...

A coalition of water users filed a notice Thursday stating its intent to file a lawsuit alleging that power plants are harming fish in the troubled Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The four water districts allege that Mirant Corp.'s natural gas-fired power plants in Antioch and Pittsburg are harming species including the delta smelt. The smelt's decline triggered a recent federal court decision that was expected to limit the amount of water available from the delta for people and farmers, including those served by the Belridge, Berrenda Mesa, Lost Hills, and Wheeler Ridge-Maricopa water districts. The plaintiffs say that Mirant's power plants...

Eighty-two percent of Americans living in close proximity to nuclear power plants favor nuclear energy, and 71 percent are willing to see a new reactor built near them, according to a new public opinion survey of more than 1,100 adults across the United States. Only residents within 10 miles of an operating nuclear power plant—electric company employees excluded—were questioned. The survey also found that 86 percent give the nearest nuclear power plant a “high” safety rating and that 87 percent are confident that the company operating the power plant can do so safely. The telephone survey of 1,152 randomly selected...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House agreed Wednesday to give the government broader powers to review foreign investments in U.S. power plants, ports and other facilities that could be vulnerable to terror attacks. The legislation, passed 423-0, would give legal muscle to a once- obscure federal office that gained attention a year ago with the uproar over plans by a Dubai-owned company to manage six of the nation's largest ports.

WASHINGTON – One of the world's top scientists on global warming called for the United States to stop building coal-fired power plants and eventually bulldoze older generators that don't capture and bury greenhouse gases. But 159 coal-fired power plants are scheduled to be built in the next decade or so, generating enough power for about 96 million homes, according to a study last month by the U.S. Department of Energy. Burning coal is one of the major sources of carbon dioxide, the chief greenhouse gas causing global warming. In prepared remarks to be delivered at the National Press Club Monday...

In what is being projected as an economic boom for the East Texas region (if it comes to fruition), the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) will soon begin work on a feasibility study for an East-West corridor. The announcement was made last week as the TxDOT Commission voted to move forward with the study that will cost an estimated $2 million. The corridor is the brainchild of the Gulf Coast Strategic Highway Coalition. "If we had a major four-lane, east-west highway through Jasper it would mean to us what I-10 means to Beaumont and I-20 means to Shreveport," said Jasper...

AUSTIN — Carrying signs with slogans of "Stop the Coal Rush" and "Shame on Texas," about 1,000 people rallied at the state Capitol on Sunday to call for lawmakers to slow down a plan to build up to 18 new coal-fired power plants. Environmentalists fear the new plants, with 11 proposed by energy giant TXU Corp., will pump millions of tons of pollutants into the air every year. "Coal plants seem so archaic," said Stacy Foss, an Austin teacher who brought her two young children to the rally in the 50-degree weather. "Texas is so environmentally incorrect." Organized by about...

A TV advertisement opposing TXU Corp.'s plan to build 11 new coal plants in Texas begins airing Wednesday in the Waco market, and will air next week in Dallas. The ad campaign, titled "Profits and Pollution," are being paid for by Environmental Defense, a nonprofit environmental group that is suing the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality over the permit applications process. The ads are asking viewers to contact their state legislators and ask them to slow down TXU's fast-tracked coal plan. The fast-tracking plan could cut down the regulatory approval process for a new plant to six months. It previously...

Elected officials, business leaders and environmental watchdogs, invited by the editorial board, recently met at The Dallas Morning News to discuss clean air issues. This is the first of three excerpted transcripts from the roundtable. The speakers quoted: Colleen McCain Nelson, editorial writer; Margaret Keliher, Dallas County judge through 2006; Richard Greene, regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency; Tom "Smitty" Smith, director of Public Citizen's Texas office; Jim Schermbeck, Downwinders at Risk board member; Todd Campbell, director of public policy for Clean Energy and mayor of Burbank, Calif.; Al Armendariz, assistant professor, SMU School of Engineering; Robert Cluck, Arlington...

Facing new regulations intended to limit greenhouse-gas emissions by the electricity industry, California utilities are using their clout as big power buyers to snub "dirty" resources outside the state and push forward development of renewable resources in and around California. At a meeting next month, California utility regulators are expected to approve a measure that will prohibit utilities from entering into contracts to buy electricity from resources that emit substantial greenhouse gases, such as coal. The policy, believed a first among states, implements a new state law that takes aim at global warming. (See related article.) Utilities in the state...

BEIJING - China and the United States on Saturday signed an agreement that paves the way for Westinghouse Electric Co. to build four civilian nuclear reactors in China, a multibillion dollar deal. The memorandum of understanding was signed by China's Minister for the National Development and Reform Commission Ma Kai and U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman. Stephen Tritch, Westinghouse's president and CEO, said the details of the contract have yet to be finalized but that it was a multibillion dollar deal. He said the company want the plants up and running by 2013. Westinghouse, which was acquired by Japan's Toshiba...

March 3 — Suspected Sept. 11 planner Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is believed to command a global network of al Qaeda terrorists, but in the three days since his arrest he has refused to tell interrogators anything about planned attacks, instead reciting the Koran to himself, U.S. officials told ABCNEWS. Mohammed was questioned for a third day by U.S. and Pakistani agents today. Analysts said interrogators were seeking details of any planned al Qaeda attacks and leads on the whereabouts of the world's most-wanted man, Osama bin Laden. Though the arrest of Mohammed in Pakistan on Saturday has been described as...

SACRAMENTO - The effects of California's sweltering heat became a political issue today for the candidate seeking to replace Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Phil Angelides, the Democratic nominee for governor, charged that Schwarzenegger has failed to deliver on a campaign promise to attract new power plants to ease energy shortages on summer days that lead to high electricity consumption, thus creating a new energy crisis. ``With this heat wave our energy grid has been strained almost to breaking,'' Angelides said. ``His lack of attention on this issue, his failure to move us forward, has resulted in the state once again playing...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California's power grid is expected to post a new electricity demand record on Friday as air conditioners across the state battle a powerful heat wave, the California Independent System Operator said on Thursday. The Cal ISO manages the power grid that connects major power lines in the state. The grid operator called on Californians to conserve electricity by calling a "power watch" from Friday to Monday, said Stephanie McCorkle, spokeswoman for the ISO. By Thursday evening, there had been no weather-related outages, McCorkle said. "New temperature data (are) indicating a warm air mass is pushing up...

Recently the Trib showed a map of the proposed 640-mile-long Trans-Texas Corridor-35 and the initial 316-mile toll road-and-rail segment between San Antonio and Dallas. Notice the area through Williamson, Bell, Fall and McLennan counties, then deduce why TXU’s previous plans to build three coal-burning plants in Robertson and Milam counties were suddenly switched to McLennan County. You will see, raising its ugly head, a 10-mile-wide “blue line” east of and roughly parallel to our Interstate 35. This marks the path of the TTC-35 tollway with its proposed electric-powered bullet train. With 11 coal-burning plants planned in Texas, is corporate TXU...

(2006-03-02) — As part of an historic nuclear deal between the U.S. and India, President George Bush announced today that officials at U.S. nuclear power plants who experience technical difficulties will call a toll-free number to get immediate help from a tech-support center in New Delhi. “Our friendship with the people of India grows stronger every day,” said President Bush. “It’s good to know that from now on, when a nuculer reactor starts to overheat, or meltdown, the plant manager can call on the world leaders in concise and courteous customer service. They’ll hear that cheerful voice saying, ‘Hello, my...

VIENNA (Reuters) - Most people back the use of existing nuclear power plants but are against building new reactors as some states are considering, a survey conducted in 18 countries for the U.N. nuclear watchdog showed on Wednesday. The survey, commissioned by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is charged with promoting nuclear energy, showed 62 percent of the roughly 18,000 respondents said existing nuclear facilities should continue to be used while 59 percent were opposed to building new plants. Its release comes two weeks after British Prime Minister Tony Blair put nuclear power back on the agenda by...

LONDON - Prime Minister Tony Blair said Tuesday the government may consider building a new generation of nuclear power stations, in a speech delayed briefly by anti-nuclear activists. "The issue back on the agenda with a vengeance is energy policy," Blair told the Confederation of British Industry. "Energy prices have risen. Energy supply is under threat. Climate change is producing a sense of urgency." Nuclear power currently provides one-fifth of Britain's electricity, but the nation's 12 nuclear power plants are aging and unless replaced will provide just 4 percent by 2010. A government policy paper on energy resources will be...

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration proposed new regulations Thursday that could allow the nation's dirtiest power plants to release more air pollutants each year — and possibly undercut lawsuits aimed at forcing companies to comply with the Clean Air Act. The proposal follows a June federal court ruling that said power plants can throw more pollutants into the air each year when they modernize to operate for longer hours. It's the latest in a series of attempts by the Environmental Protection Agency to make the nearly 30-year-old Clean Air Act rules for coal-fired power plants more industry-friendly. Some changes were...

SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal judge here said environmental groups and four U.S. cities can sue federal development agencies on allegations the overseas projects they financially back contribute to global warming. The decision Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White is the first to say that groups alleging global warming have a right to sue. "This is the first decision in the country to say that climate change causes sufficient injury to give a plaintiff standing, to open the courthouse door," said Ronald Shems, a Vermont attorney representing Friends of the Earth. That group, in addition to Greenpeace and the...

Officials in New York and eight other Northeastern states have come to a preliminary agreement to freeze power plant emissions at their current levels and then reduce them by 10 percent by 2020, according to a confidential draft proposal. The cooperative action, the first of its kind in the nation, came after the Bush administration decided not to regulate the greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. Once a final agreement is reached, the legislatures of the nine states will have to enact it, which is considered likely. Enforcement of emission controls could potentially result in higher energy prices in...

WASHINGTON — Unborn U.S. babies are soaking in a stew of chemicals, including mercury, gasoline byproducts and pesticides, according to a report to be released Thursday. Although the effects on the babies are not clear, the survey prompted several members of Congress to press for legislation that would strengthen controls on chemicals in the environment. The report by the Environmental Working Group is based on tests of 10 samples of umbilical cord blood taken by the American Red Cross. They found an average of 287 contaminants in the blood, including mercury, fire retardants, pesticides and the Teflon chemical PFOA. "These...

WASHINGTON - A federal appeals courts on Friday rejected claims by thirteen states that the Bush administration's decision to let older power plants spew more pollution into the air undermines public health in violation of the Clean Air Act. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia sided with the Environmental Protection Agency, saying New York and a dozen other states failed to show how the administration's new regulations violate the 1970 environmental law. The Bush administration argued its decision to let power and other industrial plants modernize without making them install expensive new...

"There is a growing consensus that more nuclear power will lead to a cleaner and safer nation," President Bush said on Wednesday during a trip to a nuclear power plant in Maryland. "It is time for this country to start building nuclear power plants again," he said to applause at the Calvert Cliffs plant. "We're taking practical steps to encourage construction of new plants, Bush said, as he pressed Congress to send him an energy bill by August. President Bush joked that he didn't understand all the buttons and dials in the control room of the Calvert Cliffs plant --...

SHANGHAI, China - China plans to build 40 nuclear power plants over the next 15 years, making them the main power source for its booming east coast, a government official said in remarks reported Thursday. China is expected to be the world's biggest developer of nuclear power stations in coming decades as the government tries to meet soaring demands for electricity while reducing pollution from coal-fired power plants. Zhang Fubao, an official of the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, made the prediction Wednesday at a symposium on the nuclear power market and technology, the official Xinhua...

Compiling a list of suspicious incidents nationwide, including train derailments, chemical/oil refinery fires and or explosions, etc. Don't forget to include news link for source. Please send to my attention.

ALBANY, Jan. 11 - The operators of six coal-burning power plants in upstate New York have agreed to significantly reduce emissions that cause smog and acid rain in what state officials called the state's largest settlement ever for reducing air pollution. The agreements with the plants - which were announced here jointly on Tuesday by Gov. George E. Pataki, a Republican, and Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, the Democrat who would like to replace him in two years - call for them to cut the air pollution they produce to a level that officials said would be the equivalent of removing...

... [S]tates' attorneys general garnered a huge windfall for their treasuries (and for the bank accounts of selected private lawyers) in tort suits against tobacco companies. The suits were invalid as a matter of law, but never mind -- they pressured Big Tobacco to agree, in exchange for shelter from competition, to split future profits with the states. (When private parties do this, it's racketeering.) ... [T]hey filed a new pseudo-tort intimidation suit against five large electric utilities. What civil wrong have these defendants committed? They dared to operate 174 power plants, in full compliance with state and federal regulations....

State feels fallout of energy crisis Producers are ready and eager to build, but they can't get the cash David R. Baker, Chronicle Staff Writer Sunday, April 11, 2004 ©2004 San Francisco Chronicle On 14 windy acres at the edge of a Hayward industrial park, Calpine Corp. has everything it needs to build a power plant. Everything except the cash. The company already has the blessings of government officials. It has a source of fuel -- a natural gas pipeline running through the park. Water from a sewage treatment plant, literally across the street, will cool the turbines if they're...

PG&E Corp., owner of California's largest utility, hopes to get approval to build plants that would sell electricity at regulated rates, reversing a state policy of separating ownership of power stations and utilities. "We want to invest in new cost-of-service generation," Chief Executive Robert D. Glynn Jr. said at an investor conference in New York sponsored by Morgan Stanley and broadcast on the Internet. "It's a business we know how to do." PG&E and other California utility owners were forced under the state's deregulation plan to sell power plants to help foster competitive wholesale electricity markets. During the California energy...

<p>Electric power dispatchers for the California Independent System Operator (CAISO), the nonprofit agency that runs much of the state's electric grid, anxiously gathered in the afternoon hours in the control center in Folsom last Monday.</p> <p>The news was not good. Unseasonably hot weather was rapidly shrinking margins between demand and available power. The demand was rising faster than anticipated in Southern California, and, although power plants had been ordered earlier to ramp up their production levels, they could not keep pace. As a result, a critical transmission line was in danger of becoming overloaded. CAISO was forced to order Southern California Edison to initiate a 20-minute rolling blackout involving some 70,000 customers in an effort to prevent the failure of the key transmission line potentially yielding far worse impacts than a rolling blackout.</p>

<p>WASHINGTON -- Sen. Dianne Feinstein has raised the prospects of another electricity shortage as early as this summer in a letter asking Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to embrace immediate measures to control prices and speed construction of new generating plants.</p> <p>Among her proposals is that consumer prices charged by the state's three investor-owned utilities, including Pacific Gas and Electric and Southern California Edison, be based on their costs rather than the less flexible three-year rate schedule process now used by the California Public Utility Commission.</p>

<p>Following the major blackout on the East Coast last week, the demand for Distributed Generation -- using small, on-site power plants -- is heating up.</p> <p>Distributed Generation is like having a small power plant on-site at a commercial or industrial property. While the property still is connected to the grid, it gets its heat and power from natural gas fired generators so it never has to lose power in a blackout.</p>

Reflections in a blackout Posted: August 20, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2003 Creators Syndicate, Inc. First, the lights flickered, then they went out. Then, they came on again. Then they went out, for good. August demand for air conditioning overloaded the circuits, I thought. The hall was dark as I made my way down to "the nook," the guest studio at NBC's offices at 30 Rockefeller Center. I called MSNBC to volunteer a live report from "30 Rock" on the blackout and what was going on below on 6th Avenue. They said they would get back to me. But...

Electrical outlets had barely cooled Thursday night when New York Sen. Hillary Clinton took to the airwaves to blame the Bush administration for causing the nation's worst blackout ever. Given her outraged tones, however, one would never know that she's been a leader in opposing energy independence for New York State, preferring instead to champion environmental cause celebs like fighting acid rain and closing the Indian Point nuclear plant. At times Sen. Clinton's rhetoric bordered on the hysterical as she fought to make it more difficult for energy suppliers to meet New Yorkers' growing demand for their product. Last year,...

CHENEY WARNS U.S. ON ENERGY AP-NY-03-21-01 1946EST Washington (AP) - Vice President Dick Cheney warmed Wednesday that the United States must generate more of its own energy or the country risks power shortages like those in California, but on a national scale. Cheney cited estimates that the United States will need 1,300 new power plants over the next 20 years - roughly 65 each year to have adequate generating capacity. Plus, he said those plants will need other infrastructure, such as a means of obtaining the coal or gas and transmission lines. "Our infrastructure in the energy area is very...

<p>New Jersey counter-terrorism officials are denying a state lawmaker's claim that detailed plans of the Salem/Hope Creek nuclear power complex - situated across the Delaware River from Augustine Beach - were found in a cave in Afghanistan.</p> <p>Following a tour of the complex Tuesday, Assemblyman Gary Guear announced that a National Guard member had told legislators the plans had been found in a cave used by al-Qaida members.</p>

WASHINGTON: The US Energy Department announced a $466 million deal to build two coal-burning power plants for Russia in return for a Russian promise to close three plutonium-producing reactors considered among the most dangerous in the world. Two American companies - Washington Group International and Raytheon Technical Services - will oversee construction of the two fossil fuel plants. Most of the actual work is expected to be done by Russian companies and workers. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham on Tuesday called it a major step in the US-Russia nuclear nonproliferation effort, although it will be five to eight years before the...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's collapsed infrastructure means the re-establishment of basic services and civil authorities are more urgent priorities than food aid, humanitarian workers said on Saturday. The U.S.-led war on Iraq has left many cities without power or water supplies, government buildings burned and looted and a security situation so bad that many essential workers are too frightened to report for duty. "This country has collapsed. Nothing works -- no phones, no electricity, no schools, no proper medical care, no transportation, nothing," said Roland Huguenin-Benjamin of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Baghdad. "It's more than...

US President George W. Bush said that Russia had agreed to international inspectors visiting a nuclear plant under construction in southern Iran to settle US fears over Moscow's backing for the project.Russian President Vladimir Putin said during talks with Bush last week that Moscow would not object to inspectors visiting the Bushehr plant, which Washington fears could lead to Iran developing a military nuclear capability.Putin "is willing to allow for international inspection to determine whether that's true or not," Bush told a press conference in Paris with President Jacques Chirac on his first day of an official visit to France."We...

By Daniel Sobelman and Yossi Melman, Ha'aretz Correspondents and Reuters A senior adviser to the Russian Minister of Atomic Energy dismissed as mistaken Wednesday the Russian foreign ministry announcement that Moscow was building a nuclear reactor in Syria. Nicolai Shingrab said that even though Syria and Russia have been holding "very general" discussions on the matter for the past two years, no agreement has been reached, because Syria could not afford to buy the reactor. Shingrab said that the possibility of selling a reactor to Syria had come up during a visit to Syria by a Russian commerce delegation,...

Russia is in negotiations to build a nuclear power plant in Syria, risking damage to its tighter relationship forged with the west in recent months and triggering fresh concerns over the spread of nuclear weapons. Moscow's ministry of atomic energy (Minatom) confirmed the discussions yesterday. It said Syria wanted the project and that Russia "in principle" could supply it, while stressing that an agreement was "not ready". The development is likely to be a fresh source of irritation to the US. Washington has long been a critic of Russia's contract to build the Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran, which...

Mike Getscher is on a power trip. As director of facilities and life support for the Aquarium of the Pacific, Getscher has spent the last few months overseeing a project that will make the Long Beach attraction one of the first in the nation to continuously create its own energy. Getscher and his staff are still waiting for the finishing touches on the aquarium's new cogeneration plant. But once it's up and running - likely by early January - the sprawling structure off Aquarium Way is expected to annually save hundreds of thousands of dollars by creating about 90 percent...

Tough air quality standards being phased in over the next two years could force owners of old power plants to take those facilities offline -- or spend millions on expensive pollution control equipment. Power plants that are 35 years old or more make up about 39 percent of California's in-state generating capacity, according to the California Energy Commission. Many of those plants are easily identified by their tall exhaust stacks -- such as those that tower over Pittsburg and Morro Bay. "The emission rules, they're getting tighter and tighter," said Patrick Dorinson, spokesman for Mirant Corp., which owns three Bay...

WASHINGTON, Dec 18 (AFP) - The European Union on Wednesday pressed Iran to open two sites that the United States says are part of a covert nuclear weapons program, to international inspection. Europe, which has just launched unprecedented political and trade talks with the Islamic Republic, issued the call at ministerial meetings with the United States, which has branded Iran part of an "axis of evil." EU External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten said that Europe wanted Iran to allow International Atomic Energy Agency teams (IAEA) to inspect the two sites, publicly identified by the United States last week. "We're pressing...

San Marcos steps back from power site projectCity's stake in venture too risky, council feels By John Berhman STAFF WRITERDecember 12, 2002SAN MARCOS – The city is getting out of the Magnolia Power Project, a multimillion-dollar electricity-generating plant that city leaders now say is too risky a venture for San Marcos. Citing unknowns in the fluctuating electricity market and fears that the state soon may be taking money from the city to balance its budget, the City Council, sitting as the Discovery Valley Utility board, voted unanimously last night to withdraw from the multicity Magnolia project. The city's cost for...

Energy plants face Baja backlashDumping ground feared by residents By Diane Lindquist STAFF WRITERNovember 29, 2002TIJUANA – Rich or poor, well-connected or disenfranchised, many people in Baja California are increasingly united by a common fear: that the area is becoming a dumping ground for giant industrial complexes that will supply energy to California. Two electricity power plants are under construction and four more are planned by 2010. At least five energy companies are competing to erect liquefied natural gas re-gasification facilities between Tijuana and Ensenada. "Why don't they put these plants on the other side?" asked Humberto Cervantes, a homeowner...

<p>Sacramento -- California power plants that were up and running during the energy crisis could have squeezed out enough additional electricity to avoid most of the rolling blackouts that darkened the state and led to record rate increases, according to a report by state regulators.</p>

Heat Wave, Power Plant Crash Sap State's Electricity Supplies
Energy: A Stage 2 emergency is declared as reserves hit lowest level in a year. Public is urged to conserve. By NANCY VOGEL, Times Staff Writer July 11, 2002 SACRAMENTO -- With the West gripped on Wednesday by a second day of record high temperatures, the sudden loss of a key Southern California power plant pushed the state's electricity reserves to their lowest level in a year and forced a Stage 2 emergency. Power supplies slipped dangerously low, and state officials urged residents to conserve. The emergency ended at...