#MEDICAREFORALL

Affordable Care Act enrollment hits record number

Demonstrators show their support for the Affordable Care Act in front of the Supreme Court in 2020. On Wednesday, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced open enrollment for coverage under the ACA had hit a record number, with one month to go until the period closes. 

File photo by Ken Cedeno/UPI | License Photo


Dec. 22 (UPI) -- A record number of Americans have signed up for health coverage under the Affordable Care Act so far this year, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on Wednesday.

With a month to go in the current open registration period, CMS numbers show a historic 13.6 million people have registered for coverage in 2022.

Under the ACA, which is also known as Obamacare, more than 9.7 million people enrolled in coverage across the 33 states using HealthCare.gov for 2022. That figure is approximately 900,000 higher than the previous high of 8.8 million in 2018, when 39 states were using the platform.

In addition, almost 3.9 million consumers chose plans or were automatically re-enrolled in one for 2022 health coverage using the 18 State-based Marketplaces. That's up from 3.4 million people using 15 SBMs last year at the same time.

The American Rescue Plan increased subsidies and extended enrollment times for the ACA this year. Of those people who signed up for plans through Dec. 15, 92% will receive premium tax credits for their 2022 coverage.

"The historic 13.6 million people who have enrolled in a health insurance plan so far this period shows that the demand and need for affordable healthcare remains high. Thanks to President Biden's American Rescue Plan, more people today have affordable coverage -- and we aren't finished yet: people still have time to sign-up and get covered before the Jan. 15 deadline. This holiday season, let's share the peace of mind that comes with having coverage," said Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.

Open enrollment began Nov. 1 and the period runs a month longer than last year, until Jan. 15. Coverage begins Feb. 1.

The Biden administration has also prioritized reaching out to "those most in health coverage and who have historically lacked access," according to CMS. It has added marketing in six additional languages as part of that initiative.

#ABOLISHPRISON

Incarcerated youths at greater risk for dying early, study finds

Previously incarcerated youths are at higher risk for early death compared with those who have not served time in juvenile detention, according to a new study. File photo by Alexander Raths/Shutterstock


Dec. 23 (UPI) -- People incarcerated as adolescents and teens are more likely to die at young age than the rest of the population, an analysis published Thursday by JAMA Network Open found.

Those ages 11 to 21 years who previously served time in juvenile detention facilities have a nearly six-fold higher risk for early death compared with those who have not been incarcerated, the data showed

Of previously incarcerated youths, 56% were slain, the researchers said.

"Youths who have been previously incarcerated are dying at a rate significantly higher than youths who are not involved with the juvenile legal system," study co-author Donna A. Ruch said in a press release.

RELATED Former inmates have higher blood pressure  DUH OH

"We must take the time to understand and spread awareness that youths exiting incarceration in the juvenile legal system are at risk," said Ruch, a researcher at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

Roughly 50,000 adolescents and teens are confined in juvenile correctional facilities across the United States, according to the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

In earlier studies, youth incarceration has been associated with academic failure, limited job opportunities, poor physical and mental health and a lifetime of criminal behavior following release.

RELATED Incarcerated girls may be more aggressive   YA THINK

For this study, Ruch and her colleagues examined death rates and causes of death for 3,645 youths ages 11 to 21 years who were incarcerated in Ohio's juvenile legal system between 2010 and 2017.

They compared the findings within this group with those from a population of same-aged, non-incarcerated, Medicaid-enrolled youths, they said.

Of the 3,645 incarcerated youths in the study, 93% of whom were male, 113 died during the study period, the researchers said.

RELATED Analysis: Juvenile detention overused?

Incarcerated youth were 11 times more likely to be killed, four times more likely to die by suicide and four times more likely to die as the result of a drug overdose compared with non-incarcerated youths, the data showed.

In addition, previously incarcerated Black youths had a 14-fold higher risk for being murdered than White youth who had served time in juvenile detention, the researchers said.

Based on the findings, strategies that incorporate a culturally informed approach are key to reducing early death in this high-risk population, they said.

These include counseling, mentoring programs, family-centered interventions and school-based initiatives, the researchers said.

"We need more information on the re-entry process itself, not one solution fits all," Ruch said.

"We'd like to prevent delinquency in the first place, but we also need to do a better job supporting youths in this reentry process by assessing their needs, connecting them to appropriate resources and establishing a target for intervention," she said.

Atlanta owns up to legacy of convict labor that rebuilt city
By MICHAEL WARREN

1 of 6

Atlanta's skyline is shown, with Bellwood Quarry Reservoir in the foreground, on Dec. 20, 2021. Atlanta was built with slavery’s successor: unpaid convict labor. Thousands of Black men worked in horrific conditions to break granite at the quarry, now a reservoir holding the city's backup water supply. (Elliott Augustine via AP)


ATLANTA (AP) — The City of Atlanta’s official seal shows a phoenix rising from the ashes of the Civil War. What it doesn’t show is that Atlanta was rebuilt with slavery’s successor: convict labor, working in horrific conditions to break granite at the Bellwood Quarry and burn clay at the Chattahoochee Brick Company.

Thousands of Black men, women and children were pulled off the streets and convicted of petty or nonexistent crimes before vanishing into camps and factories where many were worked to death. The peonage system lasted across the South for seven decades until World War II, yet many Americans have never heard of it.

Restoring this long-ignored chapter of U.S. history to public memory is the goal of a coalition of politicians, executives, foundation chiefs, historians, educators and grassroots activists that has taken shape over the past few months.

“In the same way we served as an example during the civil rights movement of what’s possible in America, I believe that that moment is before us now,” Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms told The Associated Press. “I think it’s very important for our children and for adults to know what that history is all about.”

A marker in English Park, seen on Dec. 20, 2021, in Atlanta, honors James W. English, a Confederate Army captain, police official and Atlanta mayor who exploited the convict labor system to force unpaid Black men to work in his Chattahoochee Brick Company. They endured whippings and other atrocities while producing hundreds of thousands of bricks a day at the turn of the 20th century. (AP Photo/Michael Warren)

AP Exclusive: Polish opposition senator hacked with spyware
By VANESSA GERA and FRANK BAJAK

Polish Senator Krzysztof Brejza on the night of parliamentary elections on Oct. 13, 2019. An investigation by The Associated Press and Citizen Lab, a watchdog at the University of Toronto, has found that Brejza's mobile phone was hacked with military-grade Pegasus spyware nearly three dozen times in 2019 as he ran an opposition campaign to unseat the right-wing populist government in parliamentary elections. The ruling party won a slim majority and Brejza is convinced that the hacking of his phone gave it an unfair advantage. (AP Photo)

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish Sen. Krzysztof Brejza’s mobile phone was hacked with sophisticated spyware nearly three dozen times in 2019 when he was running the opposition’s campaign against the right-wing populist government in parliamentary elections, an internet watchdog found.

Text messages stolen from Brejza’s phone — then doctored in a smear campaign — were aired by state-controlled TV in the heat of that race, which the ruling party narrowly won. With the hacking revelation, Brejza now questions whether the election was fair.

It’s the third finding by the University of Toronto’s nonprofit Citizen Lab that a Polish opposition figure was hacked with Pegasus spyware from the Israeli hacking tools firm NSO Group. Brejza’s phone was digitally broken in to 33 times from April 26, 2019, to Oct. 23, 2019, said Citizen Lab researchers, who have been tracking government abuses of NSO malware for years.

The other two hacks were identified earlier this week after a joint Citizen Lab-Associated Press investigation. All three victims blame Poland’s government, which has refused to confirm or deny whether it ordered the hacks or is a client of NSO Group. State security services spokesman Stanislaw Zaryn insisted Thursday that the government does not wiretap illegally and obtains court orders in “justified cases.” He said any suggestions the Polish government surveils for political ends were false.

He wore a wire, risked his life to expose who was in the KKK
By JASON DEAREN

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Joseph Moore looks out of a window at his home in Jacksonville, Fla., on Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2021. Moore worked for nearly 10 years as an undercover informant for the FBI, infiltrating the Ku Klux Klan in Florida, foiling at least two murder plots, according to investigators, and investigating ties between law enforcement and the white supremacist organization. “From where I sat, with the intelligence laid out, I can tell you that none of these agencies have any control over any of it. It is more prevalent and consequential than any of them are willing to admit.” (AP Photo/Robert Bumsted)

Jacksonville, Fla. (AP) — For nearly 10 years, Joseph Moore lived a secret double life.

At times the U.S. Army veteran donned a white robe and hood as a hit man for the Ku Klux Klan. He attended clandestine meetings and participated in cross burnings. He even helped plan the murder of a Black man.

However, Moore wore something else during his years in the klan — a wire for the FBI. He recorded his conversations with his fellow klansmen, and shared what he learned with federal agents trying to crack down on white supremacists in Florida law enforcement.

One minor mistake, one tell, he believed, meant a certain, violent death.

“I had to realize that this man would shoot me in the face in a heartbeat,” Moore said in a deep, slow drawl, remembering a particularly scary meeting in 2015. But it was true of many of his days.

The married father of four helped the federal government foil at least two murder plots, according to court records. He was also an active informant when the FBI exposed klan members working as law enforcement officers in Florida at the city, county and state levels.

Today, he and his family live under new names. Apart from testifying in court, the 50-year-old has never discussed his undercover work in the KKK publicly. But he reached out to a reporter after The Associated Press published a series of stories about white supremacists working in Florida’s prisons that were based, in part, on records and recordings detailing his work with the FBI.

“The FBI wanted me to gather as much information about these individuals and confirm their identities,” Moore said of law enforcement officers who were involved with the klan.

“From where I sat ... it is more prevalent and consequential than any of them are willing to admit.”

The FBI first asked Moore to infiltrate a klan group in rural north Florida in 2007.

Moore said he came across dozens of police officers, prison guards, sheriff deputies and other law enforcement officers who were involved with the klan and outlaw motorcycle clubs.

He alerted the feds to a plot to murder a Hispanic truck driver, he said. Then he pointed the FBI toward a deputy with the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office who was a member of the same group. The FBI also identified a member of the klan cell working for the Fruitland Park, Florida, police department.

His years as an informant occurred during a critical time for the nation’s domestic terrorism efforts. In 2006, the FBI had circulated an intelligence assessment about the klan and other groups trying to infiltrate law enforcement ranks. The assessment said some in law enforcement were volunteering “professional resources to white supremacist causes with which they sympathize.”

The FBI did not answer a series of questions sent by the AP about Moore’s work

Moore said he joined the klan only after the government approached him. As a U.S. Army-trained sniper, he said he felt that if his country asked him to protect the public from domestic terrorists, he had a duty .

Moore said he never shared the klan’s racist views and never used racial slurs while under cover. On FBI recordings reviewed by the AP, he was never heard using racial slurs like his former klan brothers.

But he also acknowledges that successful undercover work required him to change into a wholly different person.

“I laid out a character that had been overseas. That had received medals in combat,” Moore said. “That had special operations experience — more experience than I had. But someone that they would feel confident would be a useful asset to the organization at a much higher level.”

It worked, and Moore was given high level access.

“If you’re not credible, if you’re not engaged on all levels, you don’t get to go home to your family,” he said.

It also required Moore to lie to his wife. Eventually she became suspicious and he cracked. He told her and her parents what he was doing.

When the FBI discovered that his wife knew, they ended the relationship with the agency.

But in 2013, the agency was back, asking him to infiltrate a different Florida klan chapter.

Within a year of becoming “naturalized,” he’d become a Grand Knight Hawk of the “klavern” based in rural north central Florida. He was in charge of security, and the go-to guy for violence.

It was at a cross-burning ceremony in December 2014 that Charles Newcomb, the “Exalted Cyclops” of the chapter, pulled him aside to discuss a scheme to kill a Black man. Warren Williams was a former inmate who’d gotten into a fight with one of their klan brothers. The klansmen wanted Williams dead.

Moore alerted the FBI. He then recorded discussions of the murder plot that would lead to criminal convictions for three klansmen.

Moore said the three former prison guards implicated in the murder plot operated among a group of other officer-klan members at the Reception and Medical Center in Lake Butler, Florida, a prison where new inmates are processed. He said the officers he knew were actively recruiting at the prison.

Florida’s Department of Corrections disputes that.

“Every day more than 18,000 correctional officers throughout the state work as public servants, committed to the safety of Florida’s communities. They should not be defamed by the isolated actions of three individuals who committed abhorrent and illegal acts several years prior,” the department said in an emailed statement.

Spokeswoman Michelle Glady has told AP the agency found no evidence of a wider membership by extremist white supremacist groups, or a systemic problem. She said every allegation of wrongdoing is investigated by the department’s inspector general.

“That statement by the state is not accurate,” said Moore, who asserts he saw evidence of a more pervasive problem.

After Moore testified in that case, his FBI work ended because he’d been publicly identified.

“I was on track to uncover more activity in law enforcement, but the immediate threat to the public with the murder plot was a priority,” Moore said.

He went public now because he does not want his work, and those of other confidential informants who put their lives on the line to help expose domestic extremists, to have been in vain.

He wants corrections and law enforcement leaders to root out white supremacists and other violent extremists.

“If you want to know why people don’t trust the police, it’s because they have a relative or friend that they witness being targeted by an extremist who happens to have a badge and a gun. And I know as a fact that this has occurred. I stopped a murder plot of law enforcement officers,” said Moore.

Blast at ExxonMobil plant near Houston a 'major industrial accident,' police say

Dec. 23 (UPI) -- Multiple people were hurt early on Thursday when an explosion rocked an oil refinery near Houston, authorities said.

The blast and fire occurred at the ExxonMobil refinery in Baytown, located about 25 miles east of downtown Houston. At least four people were injured and are in stable condition.

The complex, which includes several petrochemical facilities, covers 3,400 acres and can process more than a half-million barrels of crude oil a day.

The Harris County Sheriff's Office tweeted that Thursday's explosion was a "major industrial accident."

Refinery manager Rohan Davis told reporters that a fire broke out in a unit that produces gasoline.

"All other personnel at the site have been accounted for, and we're ensuring that [the injured] are receiving the best care possible," Davis said, according to KTRK-TV.

Davis added that there was no impact to the air quality.

BULLSHIT THERE ARE ALWAYS AIR QUALITY ISSUES WHEN TOXIC SMOKE IS RELEASED

Officials said the fire has been put out and the cause of the blast is under investigation.

 

'SHOOK MY HOUSE'
Exxon ‘explosion’: Huge blaze at Texas ExxonMobil oil refinery in Baytown as cops declare ‘major accident with injuries’

Chris Bradford
 Dec 23 2021

AT least four people have been injured following an "explosion" and huge blaze at an ExxonMobil oil refinery in Texas.

Harris County Cops have declared a “major industrial accident” in Baytown after reports of the fire emerged at around 1am local time.

3A large fire was reported at the ExxonMobil oil refinery in Baytown, Texas on ThursdayCredit: Reuters

3 Cops say that four people were injured and they have been hospitalized

Credit: Reuters

Dramatic footage shared online showed raging flames and thick black smoke billowing into the sky over the San Jacinto Bay.

Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said at least four people may be injured. Three people were taken to the hospital by air ambulance.

Rohan Davis, a refinery manager at the ExxonMobil site, said the four people hospitalized appeared to be in a stable condition.

Social media users took to Twitter to say they had heard a "boom".

One Twitter user said: "Explosion at Exxon! It rumbled my apartment and knocked my pictures off the wall."

Another commented: “Exxon explosion made my whole f** house shake (sic).”

And a third posted: “Exxon explosion made my house jump fr LMAO wtffff.”


Some said the "boom" sounded like a "freight train connecting with cars" outside their home, while others compared it to a "sonic wave".

The Harris County Sheriff's Office tweeted earlier Thursday: "Deputies are on the scene of a major industrial accident at 3525 Decker Dr. in Baytown. The Exxon/Mobil plant. Some injuries have been reported. Please avoid the area."

The Baytown Fire Department told The Sun that its crews had not responded to the fire and confirmed a shelter-in-place order had not been issued.

The cause of the blast remains unknown and it's not known how far the fire has spread.

In a statement, ExxonMobil said: "Our emergency response teams continue to work to extinguish the fire at our Baytown Complex. Our first priority is people in the community and in our facilities.

"Air monitoring continues along the fence line. Available information shows no adverse impact at this time.

"No shelter in place has been called for our community and near neighbors. We deeply regret any disruption or inconvenience that this incident may have caused the community."

In 2019, 37 people were treated for non-life-threatening injuries, including first-degree burns after an explosion.

The 3,400-acre complex was founded in 1919 and the plant can produce up to 584,000 barrels of crude oil a day, according to ExxonMobil's website.

Around 7,000 employees work at the company's Baytown plant.

Baytown is located around 25 miles east of Houston.

3An explosion at the ExxonMobil facility in 2019 left 37 people needing treatment for non-life-threatening injuries (file pic)Credit: Reuters

At least 4 injured after 'major industrial accident' at ExxonMobil facility in Baytown, Texas

N'dea Yancey-Bragg
Thu, December 23, 2021



At least four people were injured early Thursday when a large fire broke out at an ExxonMobil oil refinery in Texas.

Emergency response teams extinguished a fire that broke out around 1 a.m. at the Baytown refinery, about 25 miles east of Houston, the company said in a statement. Initial reports indicated an explosion of some kind had occurred inside the plant, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said on Twitter.

Officials cautioned residents to avoid the area of the "major industrial accident" as deputies responded to the scene but did not issue an evacuation or shelter in place order.

Three injured people were taken to hospitals by helicopters and a fourth was transported in an ambulance, Harris said. No fatalities were reported.

Rohan Davis, the refinery's manager, said everyone else working at the site has been accounted for. The refinery, which can process up to 584,000 barrels of crude oil each day, employs about 7,000 people, according to the company's website.

Smoke still fills the air at ExxonMobil’s refinery on Thursday, Dec. 23, 2021 in Baytown, Texas. Crews have extinguished a large fire at a Houston-area refinery that left four people injured.

The fire occurred in a unit that produces gasoline and a section of the plant has been isolated but the rest is still in operation, Davis said. When asked if an explosion occurred, Davis said a fire broke out at the time of the event but that the company is still collecting information.

"We will do a thorough investigation to make sure an event like this doesn't happen again," Davis said. "We're really sorry for what's happened."

The cause of the fire is not yet known. ExxonMobil said air quality monitoring along the fence line has not found any "adverse impacts" to the community or employees on site.

"Our first priority is the people in the community and in our facilities," the company said in a statement. "We deeply regret any disruption or inconvenience that this incident may have caused the community."

In July 2019, an explosion and fire rocked an ExxonMobil plant in Baytown and left nearly 40 people with minor injuries, prompting the city to issue a shelter in place order.

Another fire erupted at a refinery at the complex in March 2019 that was extinguished within hours, but continued to release toxic pollutants for eight days, according to Harris County officials.

2017 settlement: Exxon settles pollution case with feds by upgrading 8 plants

Contributing: The Associated Press

Owner of closed nuclear plant faces security-violation fine


Wed, December 22, 2021

LACEY TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) — The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Wednesday it plans to fine the owners of the shuttered Oyster Creek nuclear power plant $150,000 for security violations at the New Jersey site.

The agency would not reveal the nature of the violations, citing security concerns, but said the site's overall security program “remains effective.”

Holtec Decommissioning International LLC has 30 days to pay the fine or contest it.

The company issued a statement saying that “protecting the security and safety of the public is the number one priority of Holtec International at all our facilities. We have taken steps to address the concerns and overall security performance at Oyster Creek and shared those learnings with our fleet to prevent a reoccurrence."

The plant, in the Forked River section of Lacey Township, on the Jersey Shore, shut down in 2018 and is being decommissioned, a process that involves removing and storing nuclear fuel that had been used at the plant.

The nuclear agency said it conducted inspections between May and July and found “apparent violations” of security regulations.

It notified Holtec of the violations in late July and met with the company about what it called a “pre-decisional enforcement conference” in October.

The NRC said Holtec has taken steps to address the violations.

Hyundai joins Holtec in plan that could put small reactor at Oyster Creek

Amanda Oglesby
Asbury Park Press

LACEY — A subsidiary of South Korean automaker Hyundai and the nuclear company Holtec International have partnered to build a nuclear plant prototype that could be placed in Lacey in the future.

Holtec International, the Camden-based company that is decommissioning the former Oyster Creek nuclear plant, announced the new partnership this week. The companies are working to build Holtec's SMR-160 plant, a "small modular reactor" meant to reduce costs for nuclear power and re-energize nuclear's place in electricity markets.

Holtec expects its SMR-160 prototype to be complete by 2030. The company has also expressed interest in its Lacey property as the site for the prospective reactor. Other communities are also under consideration.

Across the nation, aging and expensive nuclear plants are being closed or bolstered with government subsidies to remain economically viable against competition from cheaper natural gas plants. Nuclear companies hope new designs in small modular reactors will provide an energy-generating alternative that is less expensive than traditional nuclear and carbon-free, a factor they hope will be an advantage over cheap, carbon-emitting natural gas plants.

The nuclear companies are also touting the emerging small modular reactor technology as more reliable than solar and wind power and safer than older, more complex nuclear reactor designs.

Lacey Mayor Peter Curatolo is pleased that Holtec is eyeing its Oyster Creek property for the prototype's location. Watch the 2017 video for Curatolo speaking about plans for the township after the closing of the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant.

"Anytime that there's an expansion and the possibility of increasing employment in our town… I would support that," he said. "I'm very comfortable with the level of security there and the level of federal oversight (of decommissioning) that continues… there at the plant location."

Township concerns

Lacey officials have worried that as the defunct nuclear plant is decommissioned, the township's commercial tax base will shrink, forcing officials to raise taxes on surrounding homeowners to meet the needs of police service, road paving, school taxes and other necessities. A new power plant — albeit a smaller, less expensive one — could fill some of the financial hole when the older plant, and its annual tax bill, is gone.

The U.S. Department of Energy expects SMRs (small modular reactors) like Holtec's design will be part of America's energy future, playing "a key part of the Department's goal to develop safe, clean, and affordable nuclear options." Department officials see benefits in SMRs in that they take up less space than older plants, require less money to build, and can help promote U.S. energy independence.

Related:NRC says Oyster Creek had safety violations, armorer who falsified records

As a result, the Energy Department awarded millions of dollars in grants to nuclear companies to support research and development in new technologies. Among the award recipients was Holtec, which received $6.3 million for its research in new reactor designs. The department also awarded Holtec subsidiary SMR LLC, based in Holtec's Camden plant, $1.6 million toward its small modular reaction testing and safety system performance research.

Under the new partnership with Hyundai Engineering & Construction, the South Korean company will complete portions of the plant design and prepare construction specifications for Holtec's SMR-160 plants. Hyundai Engineering & Construction will also receive the rights to construct the plant. Holtec will serve as the overall architect for the plant and provide the main nuclear components, made at its U.S.-based manufacturing sites, while instruments and the plant's control systems will be created through Holtec's partnership with Mitsubishi Electric Corp.

Once complete, the reactor should produce as much as 160 megawatts of electricity. For comparison, the decommissioned nuclear plant at Oyster Creek had a 625-megawatt capacity, or enough electricity to power more than 600,000 homes, according to a 2017 fact sheet by its former owner Exelon Generation.

Miles away in the Atlantic Ocean, wind farm companies are preparing to build thousands of wind turbines, which New Jersey officials hope will provide another 7,500 megawatts of electricity by 2035.
Some residents critical

Some Lacey residents, such as frequent Holtec critic Paul Dressler, worry the Oyster Creek site is not a good location for a future nuclear plant, even a small one. Dressler said he is in favor of the new small modular reactors, but not for Lacey.

Dressler said rising sea levels threaten any future construction at the Oyster Creek site and any nuclear accident would risk contaminating the Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer below, he said. The aquifer, which runs under the Pine Barrens, supplies the drinking water to most of the southern half of New Jersey.

Janet Tauro, New Jersey chairwoman for the environmental advocacy group Clean Water Action, shares similar concerns. The combination of high population density along the Jersey Shore and environmentally sensitive areas around Oyster Creek, such as the Pine Barrens and coastal ecosystem, make Lacey a bad choice to try a new nuclear technology, she said.

"Ocean County shouldn't be a test case, with over 600,000 full-time residents, that swells to more than 2 million in the summer," Tauro said. "You have a fragile environment. You have Barnegat Bay. You have the Atlantic Ocean… and it's densely populated."

At the existing plant, all the nuclear spent fuel from a half-century of power generation has been moved into steel and concrete casks for long-term storage. Demolition of the buildings at the site is ongoing and the reactor vessel components will be cut up for disposal early next year, said Holtec spokesman Joe Delmar.

Holtec expects to have decommissioning of the former nuclear facility completed by 2025.

More:Holtec employee splashed with radioactive water in Oyster Creek cask accident

Holtec receives NRC approval to acquire Michigan nuclear plant


Jim Walsh, Cherry Hill Courier-Post
Mon, December 20, 2021

CAMDEN – Holtec International has received an initial approval to acquire a nuclear power plant that it plans to decommission and dismantle.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said the Camden firm “met the regulatory, legal, technical and financial requirements” to obtain the license for the Palisades plant in Covert, Michigan.

The NRC similarly supported a license transfer for a second Michigan site, the Big Rock Point facility. The Hayes Township plant has already been decommissioned, with only a fuel storage facility remaining, according to the NRC.


Holtec executive Joy Russell described the approval as “a major milestone” for the firm’s decommissioning efforts. An affiliate, Holtec Decommissioning International, is currently dismantling the Oyster Creek power plant in Ocean County, as well as nuclear generators in Massachusetts and New York state.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved a license transfer that would allow Holtec International of Camden to decommission and dismantle an atomic power plant in Michigan.

But opponents of the license transfer will “seriously consider” a court appeal of the NRC’s “shocking” decision, said Terry Lodge, an attorney for a coalition of environmental groups.

“We have been denied our due process rights,” claimed Michael Keegan of Don’t Waste Michigan, who said the NRC had denied a hearing “on our very serious environmental, health, safety, and fiscal concerns.”

Among other points, the critics question whether the power plants’ decommissioning trust funds will cover needed expenses. They also assert Holtec is tapping the trust funds for unrelated costs.

The two plants are on the Lake Michigan shoreline, about 250 miles apart. Their licenses currently are held by Entergy, a Louisiana-based power company.

In its Dec. 13 decision, the NRC noted license transfers would not occur until June 2022. That would follow additional hearings by the NRC and theMay 31 shutdown of the Palisades’ complex.

Holtec says it plans to store spent nuclear fuel at the Michigan sites “until the U.S. government takes possession of it … or the canisters are transferred to an alternative location.”

It notes an alternative site could be Holtec’s proposed nuclear-waste storage facility in a remote area of southeastern New Mexico.

Holtec expects the NRC to grant final regulatory approval for the storage site by early 2022. It noted Ukraine, “facing a similar problem, is tantalizingly close” to commissioning a centralized storage facility using Holtec’s technology.

But the environmental groups are fighting the proposed storage facility in federal court, where they've raised concerns about shipping nuclear waste across the country.

Jim Walsh covers public safety, economic development and other beats for the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal.

This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Holtec clears hurdle to obtain license of Michigan nuclear power plant

Holtec says it won't dump radioactive water in Cape Cod Bay in 2022


Doug Fraser, Cape Cod Times
December 7, 2021·

PLYMOUTH — The company in charge of decommissioning Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station announced Monday that it would not discharge radioactive water into Cape Cod Bay in 2022.

"We wanted to share that in the near term the decision at Pilgrim has been made that the processed water will remain on site, safely stored, and that we will not discharge any processed water in 2022 while this evaluation (of alternative disposal options) is undertaken," according to an emailed statement from Patrick O'Brien, a senior manager for government affairs and communications for Holtec Decommissioning International.

The email said the company appreciated and understood the public's questions and concerns, and "remain committed to an open, transparent process on the decommissioning of Pilgrim Station focused on the health and safety of the public, the environment, and on-site personnel.”

The company decommissioning the closed Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth says it will not release radioactive water, which was used to cool components at the facility, into Cape Cod Bay next year.

The news that releasing as much as 1 million gallons of water used to cool radioactive rods and other components in the spent fuel pool and in other parts of the facility was being considered was announced at a Nov. 22 meeting of the Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel.

On Monday, O'Brien reiterated that no decision had been reached on whether to evaporate, discharge or transport the water to another facility.
Radioactive water release plans

But that appeared to contradict an email to U.S. Rep. William Keating's staff last week from Nuclear Regulatory Commission Congressional Affairs Officer Carolyn Wolf that "Holtec has informed the NRC that it plans to discharge liquid effluents sometime in the first quarter of 2022."

At the advisory panel meeting the company said it would be evaluating options over the next six months to a year. Monday's press release committed to at least a year while that process was followed.

Previous story: Pilgrim nuclear plant may release 1M gallons of radioactive water into bay

Holtec and NRC officials said in interviews that radioactivity and other contaminants like metals in the coolant water would be reduced through a filtering process to levels allowed under federal permits before being released, and environmental impacts and levels in the ocean would be monitored. The plant had released treated radioactive water periodically during the course of its operations, most recently in 2017, O'Brien said.

In an interview Monday, Keating said he was hopeful Holtec would honor the pledge not to release any water into Cape Cod Bay in 2022. But he was disappointed that Monday's press release didn't mention public and stakeholder engagement in making that decision, calling it an "obvious omission."

NRC and Holtec have said repeatedly there is no required public comment in making their decision.

"The NDCAP (advisory panel) is the public forum really for the decommissioning, I’m not sure if EPA/DEP/NRC will have anything else," said O'Brien in an email Monday.
More time to study impact on maritime industries

Keating hoped the year delay would allow the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the state agencies an opportunity to weigh in.

"It's really important we have this period to really look at this issue because once (the disposal option) is implemented, we can't undo it," Keating said.

in an interviewFriday, Keating said any release of radioactive water from the plant would impact the region's maritime industries including aquaculture, fishing and recreation — potentially through bioaccumulation in the food chain but also by damaging the region's reputation as a source of seafood and recreational opportunities.

Keating advocated trucking the water to an off-site facility and O'Brien had identified an Idaho plant at the advisory panel meeting as one possible site.

Holtec is paying for the Pilgrim cleanup out of a $1.03 billion decommissioning trust fund that ratepayers paid into over time.

During a Dec. 1 Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works hearing on oversight of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, U.S. Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., was critical of the agency's handling of decommissioning and lack of public input.

Markey told NRC Chairman Christopher Hanson that his agency has abrogated its responsibility, leaving decisions largely to the private companies that do the work.

"The NRC has decided that the best way to shield itself from criticism is to take itself out of the process," Markey said. He said a new decommissioning rule relegates the agency only to acknowledging receipt of a plan from a private company looking to dismantle a plant.

"It (the NRC) would serve as a glorified filing cabinet. Ceding the job of regulator to the nuclear industry itself is not a win for safety, for communities or for the energy sector," said Markey, who was especially critical the diminished role of public comment.

"I would urge you to insure that there is full NRC and public participation (in vetting decommissioning plans) because the (nuclear power) industry ... has been known to cut corners and ultimately we cannot allow the public safety to be put in jeopardy at all," Markey said.

Contact Doug Fraser at dfraser@capecodonline.com. Follow him on Twitter: @dougfrasercct.

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Holtec says it won't dump radioactive water in Cape Cod Bay in 2022

Belgian government reaches compromise on nuclear power exit



Thu, December 23, 2021

By Philip Blenkinsop

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The Belgian government agreed in principle on Thursday to close its nuclear power plants by 2025, but left open the possibility of extending the life of two reactors if it could not otherwise ensure energy supply.

The seven-party coalition has wrestled for months with the topic, with the Greens adamant that a 2003 law setting out a nuclear exit be respected, while the French-speaking liberals favoured extending the life of the two newest reactors.

The government had given itself an end-2021 deadline to settle the matter.

Belgium's two nuclear plants, with seven reactors in total, are operated by French utility Engie and account for almost half of the country's electricity production.

After talks through the night, ministers settled on a compromise whereby the last existing nuclear power plant should close in 2025, joining other countries such as Germany that are also phasing out the technology.

However, Belgium still needs to establish how to make up for the energy shortfall and there is a problem. The winner of a contract to build a gas-fired plant just north of Brussels has been denied a permit.

The government will now wait until March 15 to see if the permit is granted and, if not, look into other options, including other contract bidders.

Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said it was possible that certain nuclear reactors could be left to operate longer, but added that was "very unlikely".

Belgium will also invest 100 million euros ($113 million) over four years in research into nuclear power technology, emphasising smaller modular reactors and possibly cooperating with France and the Netherlands.

The planned nuclear exit will begin with the closure of one reactor on Oct. 1, 2022. Decommissioning, including the removal of all radioactive materials and demolition of buildings, is to be completed by 2045.

($1 = 0.8821 euros)

(Reporting by Philip BlenkinsopEditing by Mark Potter)

Belgium agrees to shut down its 7 nuclear reactors by 2025

Cooling towers from a nuclear reactor shown at the Boeretang Lake

 in Belgium. Photo by Michael Weinhold/Wikimedia Commons

Dec. 23 (UPI) -- Belgium officials reached an agreement Thursday to close all seven of the country's nuclear reactors by 2025, but they will be open to new, smaller nuclear plants under the compromise.

Belgium's relevant ministers reached the compromise after a night of negotiations following weeks of debate about the effect of the closures on energy shortages and prices, The Brussel Times and De Standaard reported.

As part of the agreement, Belgium will invest 100 million euros in research into new, smaller modular nuclear power plants. France and the Netherlands have invested in similar research.

The country's nuclear plants managed by French energy company Engie account for nearly half of its power production, and the issue had geopolitical implications since Russia is Europe's primary supplier of fossil fuel.

Russia has been accused of exacerbating high prices of natural gas by limiting supplies to Europe in recent months and natural gas prices have doubled this year.

The ministers had debated between two different exit plans, Plan A to close all plants, and Plan B to keep the two newest reactors open in case of supply shortages.

They decided to go with Plan A, and will close all seven plants by 2025, which is the target date the current government committed to when it took office five years ago, Euronews reported.

The nuclear power phaseout has been codified in Belgian law since 2003.

Manchin's West Virginia worst in the nation for power reliability

FILE PHOTO: U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) leaves the Senate floor after a vote at the U.S. Capitol building in Washington

Wed, December 22, 2021
By Nichola Groom and Tim McLaughlin

Dec 22 (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Joe Manchin has said one of the reasons he can't support President Joe Biden's sweeping climate and social spending bill was that its incentives for renewable energy would put the stability of the U.S. power grid at risk.

But West Virginia, the coal-reliant state Manchin represents, has the least reliable electricity in the country, according to a Reuters review of government data, and for reasons that have nothing to do with the limitations of solar and wind technology.

The average electric customer in West Virginia, a state that relied on coal-fired power plants for 88% of its power needs last year, experienced 468 minutes of outages last year, excluding major weather events, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

That's higher than any other state and four times the national average of 116 minutes, according to the data.

The reasons for West Virginia’s power woes were not related to problems with coal-fired power plants, which are considered a reliable energy source because they can run uninterrupted regardless of sun or wind conditions, but to trouble with the state’s local power lines.

West Virginia's landscape is heavily forested, and trees falling into power lines accounted for more than half of the outages in the service territory of utility Appalachian Power, according to a company spokesperson.

Appalachian Power, a unit of American Electric Power , is West Virginia's biggest utility, serving 460,000 customers in the state.

In addition, the large numbers of customers in rural areas increases the time it takes to respond to outages, the company said.

Recent widespread blackouts in Texas and California, states with large amounts of wind and solar energy, have prompted some backers of fossil fuels to slam renewable energy as unreliable.

Manchin, a conservative Democrat, reiterated those concerns this week when he said he could not vote for Biden’s sweeping Build Back Better bill, which included $300 billion in tax credits for producers and buyers of clean energy sources like wind and solar. Manchin’s vote was critical to passing the legislation.

In a statement, he warned of "catastrophic consequences for the American people like we have seen in both Texas and California" if a transition to renewable energy happens "faster than technology or the markets will allow."

Electric customers in Texas and California last year saw 132 minutes and 107 minutes of outages, respectively, according to the EIA data, both far below the duration of outages seen in West Virginia.

Manchin did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The Texas blackouts also had little to do with the state’s renewable energy sources, according to regulators. Rather, its fleet of natural gas-powered generators proved unreliable as equipment froze and supplies of fuel seized up.

California’s blackout, meanwhile, was caused mainly by poor planning for extreme heat and the state’s inability to import power from the surrounding region due to high demand.

Both Appalachian Power and Mon Power, a unit of FirstEnergy , said reliability challenges in West Virginia were related entirely to the state's distribution system rather than generation sources.

West Virginia utility regulators earlier this year ordered the state's four investor-owned utilities to improve their reliability targets by 5%. In its order, the Public Service Commission said some companies had seen little to no reliability improvement over the previous eight years.

The commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Reporting by Nichola Groom in Los Angeles and Tim McLaughlin in Boston; Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Aurora Ellis)

Dozens Vanish Without a Trace in America’s New ‘Bermuda Triangle’ Next Door

Luis Chaparro
Thu, December 23, 2021

DEA / G. SIOEN

CIUDAD JUÁREZ, Mexico—In the dead of night this fall, 12 migrants left the small northern Mexican town of Coyame to enter the vast Chihuahuan desert, with the hopes of crossing into the U.S. by way of the Texas border. Among them was a 14-year-old boy from Southern Mexico who was dreaming of reuniting with his family on the other side of the border.

Before taking off on the journey on Sept. 25, a 32-year-old man with the group reportedly called his wife to tell her that he had paid 25,000 pesos (roughly $1,200) to a smuggler to guide him all the way to Odessa, Texas, where he would get a job, all in an effort to support his two young children, a 7-year-old and an 11-year-old, back in Mexico.

That was the last time anyone heard from a member of the group, all of whom disappeared except for the 14-year-old who was travelling with them. According to local Ciudad Juarez media reports, the teenager managed to escape what he said was an orchestrated kidnapping. He told Mexican authorities that the group was stopped in the middle of the desert by several heavily armed men traveling on three pickup trucks. The 12 migrants and the smuggler were taken away, but when their captors noticed the boy was underage, they reportedly let him go.

The migrants had entered a treacherous mountain area in the Chihuahuan desert—dubbed a migrant “Bermuda Triangle” by local reporters. In the last few years, dozens of migrants, including kids, women, and complete families, have vanished in the area without a trace, according to local reports and official figures.

The latest disappearances are part of a growing trend occurring in the same corridor, used mostly by people handing themselves over to human smugglers—or as locals call them, ‘coyotes’—to be illegally taken into the U.S.

In May of this year, an indigenous 31-year-old woman was reported missing while trekking through the same area. A local Mexican newspaper reported she was abandoned by her smuggler after getting tired on the hike. In the first days of June, another woman, a 20-year-old from Southern Mexico, was also reported missing. She last spoke with her family right before leaving for the desert on her way up to the U.S. border. Her whereabouts are unknown to this day.

In the last two years alone, more than 35 migrants have disappeared from the area while trying to reach the U.S., according to Chihuahua’s State General Attorney’s Office. Considering that many of these cases go unreported to Mexican authorities, the real number is likely even bigger.

Security sources in Mexico told The Daily Beast that most of the migrants who never make it to the United States are either kidnapped or killed by cartel members fighting against each other in the desert. That, or they die from dehydration during the grueling walk that often takes as long as six days.

Two Sisters Flipped a Coin, One of Them Was Sent to Hell

“Disappearances around Ciudad Juarez and Texas have been happening more often than before. Organized crime is more and more involved in human trafficking and now the operations are as large as drug trafficking,” Howard Campbell, an expert on national security at the University of Texas at El Paso, told The Daily Beast.

A Mexican official who agreed to speak with The Daily Beast on the condition of anonymity, and who is involved in the investigation into the disappearance of the 12 migrants, said they also could have been abandoned in the desert by their smugglers.

“Smugglers don’t care about migrants. In many cases they just abandon them in the middle of the desert and during summer or winter a few hours out without the proper gear could get you killed,” the source told The Daily Beast.

“In many other cases they are handed over to cartels who kidnap them or force them to smuggle drugs before being killed,” the officer added.

After much pressure from the families of migrants who disappeared in September, Mexican authorities launched a search operation in the Chihuahuan desert on Sunday, covering the general vicinity where the migrants are thought to have disappeared. But so far, the search has been unsuccessful. Authorities have only found old belongings, burnt vehicles and human remains believed to have belonged to people who were living in the area before the 12 migrants stepped foot there.

“My husband decided to migrate to provide for our daughters, he’s always been very responsible and he worked hard to get the money for that journey,” the wife of one of the 12 migrants who disappeared, told The Daily Beast on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. “I never knew something like this would happen, we never thought about it since we did not do research or read news about this happening in that area.”

The aerial search that took place over the weekend included a Blackhawk helicopter, officials from the Mexican Immigration Institute, the National Guard, the Mexican army, and state police, according to a press release published by the Chihuahuan government.

Concerns about the safety of migrants have raised alarm among human rights activists since the launch of the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), a program that requires non-Mexican asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for months before appearing in a U.S. immigration court to plead their asylum cases.

The New Family Separation Crisis Brewing Under Biden

The order began in 2019 under the administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump. It was suspended for a few months earlier this year, before being relaunched by the Biden administration in December—a move that sparked backlash from migrant activists and lawmakers across America.

Critics say that this measure has allowed criminal organizations to cash in on desperate migrants who hand themselves over to smugglers only to be kidnapped and, in many cases, killed when the ransom is not met.

A report by Human Rights First, an international Human Rights advocacy organization, has found that at least 7,000 people have been abused, extorted, kidnapped, or killed while waiting for their court dates in Mexico

“Migrating is not a crime and he was not committing any crime or doing anything wrong,” the wife of one of the missing migrants told The Daily Beast. “We just want to know he is alive.”