It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Sunday, December 05, 2021
Shell Said to Evacuate Staff From Australian LNG Plant After Outage
Stephen Stapczynski and Matthew Burgess Sun, December 5, 2021,
(Bloomberg) -- Royal Dutch Shell Plc has evacuated non-essential staff from its floating liquefied natural gas facility in northwest Australia as the operator struggled to restore power that knocked out operations earlier in the week, according to people familiar with the matter.
The delay in bringing essential power generators back online at the Prelude LNG export plant had left workers without ventilation, potable water services and a sewage treatment system, said one of the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity as they’re not authorized to speak to media. The evacuation of non-essential staff was assisted by Inpex Corp.’s helicopter and rescue vessel, the people said.
Shell said in an emailed statement that work to restore main power is underway, without commenting on the evacuation.
The world’s biggest floating LNG plant suspended production and delayed the loading of a prompt cargo on Friday after suffering an issue that tripped power at the facility. The evacuation indicates that the plant could be shut for longer than originally anticipated, exacerbating a global shortage of natural gas.
Shell and its partners are now considering canceling the scheduled LNG cargo loading due to the ongoing power issue, one of the people said.
VERITAS
Orthodox priest shouts 'Pope, you are a heretic' at Francis in Athens
Sat, December 4, 2021 By Philip Pullella and Karolina Tagaris
ATHENS (Reuters) -An elderly Greek Orthodox priest shouted "Pope, you are a heretic" as Pope Francis was entering the Orthodox Archbishopric in Athens on Saturday and was taken away by police, a reminder of the lingering distrust between the two divided churches.
Video showed the man, who was dressed in black robes and black hat and had a long white beard, shouting the words in Greek outside the building before police bundled him away.
Witnesses said he shouted loud enough for the pope to hear the commotion. The man appeared to have fallen while being taken away and was lifted up by police.
Francis arrived in Greece on Saturday for a three-day visit that Greek Catholics hope will bring the Eastern and Western churches closer together.
Christianity split into the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches in 1054 in what is referred to as the Great Schism, and for centuries relations were rocky.
In his address to the archbishop, Beatitude Ieronymos II, Francis asked forgiveness in the name of the Roman Catholic Church for its part in the historical wrongs that led to the breakup.
"Tragically, in later times we grew apart. Worldly concerns poisoned us, weeds of suspicion increased our distance and we ceased to nurture communion," Francis told Ieronymos, whom he met during his first trip to Greece in 2016.
"I feel the need to ask anew for the forgiveness of God and of our brothers and sisters for the mistakes committed by many Catholics," Francis said.
Pope John Paul II first asked forgiveness for the Catholic role in the break-up when he visited Greece in 2001.
Catholics and Orthodox have been involved in dialogue aimed at eventual reunion for decades and cooperate in many social initiatives but the two sides are still far apart theologically.
"We believe you have the courage and the sincerity to examine the failures and omissions of your fathers," Ieronymos told Francis. "Between those who want to be called Christian brothers, the best language is, and always will be, honesty."
(Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Alex Richardson)
Protesters block roads in Serbia to criticize mining plans 1 / 5 Protesters stand on the highway during a protest in Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, Dec. 4, 2021. Thousands of protesters have gathered in Belgrade and other Serbian towns and villages to block roads and bridges despite police warnings and an intimidation campaign launched by authorities against the participants. Thousands of protesters have gathered in Belgrade and other Serbian towns and villages to block roads and bridges despite police warnings and an intimidation campaign launched by authorities against the participants.
(AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
DUSAN STOJANOVIC Sat, December 4, 2021,
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Thousands of protesters in Belgrade and other Serbian towns blocked main roads and bridges Saturday to decry a planned lithium mine despite police warnings and an intimidation campaign launched by authorities against the demonstrators.
Blowing whistles and chanting “Uprising! Uprising!” protesters stopped traffic on the main highway that goes through the Serbian capital. In the Balkan nation's second-largest city of Nis, the main downtown street was blocked, as was a Danube River bridge in the northern city of Novi Sad.
In Novi Sad, soccer hooligans hurled rocks and bottles at the protesters, who responded by chasing them down. One hooligan was severely beaten.
Uniformed police were not visible during the two-hour protests.
It was the second such nationwide protest called by environmental groups amid growing public discontent with the autocratic rule of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. Last Saturday, the protesters skirmished with police and in one town unidentified masked men attacked them with sticks and hammers.
Environmental groups have criticized Vucic’s populist government for not combating widespread pollution enough in the Balkan nation. They are especially against two laws passed by parliament that they see as laying the groundwork for a lithium mining operation by Rio Tinto in western Serbia.
In a sign of defiance, Vucic on Saturday ignored the protests and traveled to the site where the international mining company plans to start its excavations. His office said he wanted to talk to the locals about the project.
“Our goal is to have a civilized conversation and not under pressure from the streets,” Vucic told the pro-government Pink TV, adding that the police will not intervene Saturday against the protesters.
Many protesters complained that police officers came to their homes and warned them they could face legal consequences and fines if they took part in the environmental rallies. Activist Danijela Vujovic from the southern city of Nis said police came to her home in the morning to warn her that the protests amounted to a “criminal act."
“I don’t see how this is a criminal act,” Vujosevic told N1 regional television. Vujosevic’s daughter could be seen holding a small banner reading “I am public interest!”
The police on Saturday repeated their warning that the protests are illegal and that the organizers will have to bear all eventual consequences. They also issued a special telephone number and an email address for anyone who wanted to report “violence caused by the blockade.”
Vucic and other Serbian officials have denounced the protests and alleged they are financed by the West to destabilize the country. ___
AP writer Jovana Gec contributed.
Honolulu water utility shuts down well after fuel contamination
Erin Doherty Sat, December 4, 2021
Honolulu's water utility said Friday it shut down one of its wells amid concerns over fuel contamination in the Navy's tap water supply, according to the Board of WaterSupply.
Why it matters: The fuel contamination concerns threaten one of Honolulu’s most important water sources and a key military base, where submarines, ships and the commander of U.S. forces in the Indo-Pacific region are located, AP reports.
The big picture: The move comes after the Navy on Thursday announced that a water sample from one of its wells had shown the presence of petroleum.
Nearly 1,000 military households have complained about tap water coming from the well, either of smelling like fuel or causing physical pain, including stomach cramps, per AP.
The well, which serves nearly 93,000 people, is near a World War II-era fuel tank complex that has caused numerous leaks over the years.
Driving the news: The Navy will flush clean water through the distribution system to clear petroleum products from the water, a process that could take four to 10 days, per AP.
Manager and Chief Engineer of the Board of Water Supply Ernest Lau said Friday he was concerned the "utility could pull contaminated water through the porous lava rock that forms the aquifer, and deliver it to its customers," AP writes.
There is no indication that the non-Navy drinking water was contaminated, according to the Honolulu Civil Beat.
What they're saying: "We are deeply concerned that we were not notified immediately by the Navy regarding the shut down of their Red Hill water source," Lau said in a statement.
"We have data that shows when they stop pumping at Red Hill, water starts moving in the direction of our Halawa Shaft due to our pumping. In an abundance of caution, we must shut down Halawa Shaft until further notice."
Axios
Fuel smell drove health official out of Iqaluit water treatment plant 4 days before public was notified
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Department of Health flagged concerns from residents 10
Iqaluit issued its do-not-consume order for city water on Oct. 12. Documents show a Nunavut environmental health officer flagged an 'unbearable' diesel smell at the city's water treatment plant four days earlier — and the Department of Health heard public concerns as early as Oct. 2. (Dustin Patar/The Canadian Press)
When Wilfred Ntiamoah, a Nunavut environmental health officer, assessed Iqaluit's water treatment plant on Oct. 8, the smell of diesel was so intense he had to leave the building to get some fresh air.
That was six days after the Department of Health first began investigating public concerns over a fuel smell in Iqaluit's drinking water. It would be another four days before the City of Iqaluit told its residents stop drinking the tap water due to possible fuel contamination.
Documents obtained by CBC through an access to information request show Ntiamoah flagged what smelled like diesel at the plant — an odour Ntiamoah described as "unbearable" at times.
Using an air quality monitor from Nunavut's Department of Environment, Ntiamoah recorded "significant" levels of fumes inside the plant, which he guessed were diesel fumes. The levels dropped when he went outside. He noted that they were the worst in the facility's basement.
He suggested the city bring on a consultant to find out whether the fumes inside the plant might be contributing to the smell in the water supply.
Photos Ntiamoah provided to Nunavut health officials also included a description of one water tank inside the plant as having an "oily" surface.
In another email sent to health officials that day, Ntiamoah said he wanted to explore the issue of the fumes further and questioned why the doors to the plant were opened widely.
"Was it to dissipate built-up … diesel smell/fumes," he wrote.
Health officials flagged issue on Oct. 2
Other emails obtained by CBC show the Department of Health first began investigating the issue on Oct. 2 after residents posted to social media about the smell. Health officials met with the city about it on Oct. 3.
Between Oct. 2 and 11, the city sent out initial water samples to an Ottawa lab for testing, but the samples hadn't been collected correctly — they were put in normal plastic bottles instead of specialized glass bottles. The water had to be transferred to the right containers by the lab, and ultimately those issues meant it was difficult to interpret the lab results.
Iqaluit on November 14. It's now been nearly two months since people in the city have been able to drink their tap water. (Jane George/CBC)
City officials told Iqaluit's 8,000 residents not to drink the tap water on Oct. 12, after complaints started flooding in about the fuel smell.
The city declared a state of emergency that same day.
Steven Siciliano, a microbiologist and toxicologist who has done research in the North, later told the Canadian Press that the human nose is "incredibly sensitive" to hydrocarbons, meaning people can smell it even if there's a very low amount.
He compared drinking the water every day for a week to smoking one or two cigarettes a day vs. smoking an entire pack a day. He said long-term exposure to compounds found in gasoline could be "very risky" but drinking it for a week probably wouldn't do much harm.
Dr. Michael Patterson, the territory's chief medical health officer, has said repeatedly that there don't seem to be any risks to residents who drank the fuel-contaminated tap water.
Iqaluit frustrated still unable to drink tap water after nearly 2 months
By Emma Tranter The Canadian Press Posted December 3, 2021
WATCH: Contaminated Iqaluit water tank isolated following initial inspection
– Oct 22, 2021
In the summer, the Sylvia Grinnell River near Iqaluit is a popular spot to fish for Arctic char where ice-cold water cascades over rocky ledges.
Now, with thick layers of ice and snow covering the flowing water below, it has become one of the Nunavut capital’s main water sources for drinking and cooking.
The other comes in thousands of plastic water bottles that arrive by plane.
It’s been almost two months since Iqaluit’s tap water was declared undrinkable. On Oct. 12, the city declared a state of emergency when fuel was found in the water supply. Residents had complained the water coming out of their taps smelled like fuel.
Since then, the city has dug up an old underground fuel tank from 1962, which was buried next to the water treatment plant and thought to be the source of the contamination.
Iqaluit Mayor Kenny Bell says he’s frustrated because the city’s testing has come back clean since Oct. 23, but the Nunavut government has the final say in lifting the do-not-consume order.
The city has installed a device to monitor for petroleum, but the territory says it wants two. It also wants the city to build a system that would bypass the water treatment plant’s underground tanks.
Members of the Iqaluit Fire Department assist with flushing the city’s water pipes in Iqaluit, Nunavut, on Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2021. According to a City of Iqaluit news release issued earlier in the day, flushing will conclude by Thursday. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Dustin Patar
Bell says those are important steps to preventing future problems, but he doesn’t think they should be tied to lifting the order.
“It could take three weeks, could take a month, could take two months to build the bypass because of parts and labour and what not,” Bell says.
“That’s going to take time that we frankly just don’t have.”
The city has said it will cost $130 million to fix the long-term problem and has called on the federal government to pay for it.
Water quality monitoring from the city shows that between Nov. 16 and Nov. 23 all sample results came back negative for petroleum hydrocarbons.
“The water is clean. These requirements are for a future possible event,” says Bell.
Throughout the emergency, the city has continued to hand out bottled water to residents at different sites around the city.
But staff are strained, Bell says, and the city has had to close its gym, pool and two arenas to reallocate workers.
“We’re offering $32 per hour to hand out water, but we’ve only hired a couple of people. We just need more staff,” Bell says.
“We’re all tired. We were short-handed well before this crisis. It’s crap for all of us.”
The city has asked the Nunavut government for extra hands, but Bell says that request was denied because the territory has its own staffing issues.
In a statement, Nunavut’s health department says it’s still reviewing the city’s water quality assessments.
“The (Government of Nunavut) is awaiting confirmation from the contracted engineering firm that the site assessment and required remediation have been completed to assure the risk of repeat contamination has been mitigated,” says the statement.
“The Department of Health is working closely with the third party to assess the City of Iqaluit’s field investigation report.”
2:30 Tap water contaminated in Nunavut’s capital, triggering state-of-emergency –
Oct 13, 2021
Nunavut’s department of community and government services, which contracted the engineering firm, did not respond when asked for the name of the company.
The Canadian Armed Forces also arrived in Iqaluit on Oct. 23 to collect and purify water from the Sylvia Grinnell River using a reverse osmosis system.
But the operation ground to a halt on Nov. 22, when high winds knocked over a military tent that was protecting the water purification system.
The military has since moved its system inside a hangar at the city’s airport, and plans to truck river water there for treatment. There’s no timeline for when the operation will start again.
CHINA'S ALLY
Five dead after Myanmar security forces ram car into Yangon protest - media
FILE PHOTO: Police stand on a road during an anti-coup protest in Mandalay
Sat, December 4, 2021,
(Reuters) - Five people were killed and at least 15 arrested after Myanmar security forces in a car rammed into an anti-coup protest on Sunday morning in Yangon, local news portal Myanmar Now reported.
Witnesses on the scene told Reuters dozens had been injured. Photos and videos on social media show a vehicle that crashed through the protesters and bodies lying on the road.
Another protest was held in Yangon in the afternoon despite the morning violence.
Anti-military protests are continuing despite the killing of more than 1,300 people since the Feb. 1 coup. The scattered protests are often small groups voicing opposition to the overthrow of an elected government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and the return of military rule.
The opposition's shadow government said it was heartbroken to see peaceful protesters crashed and shot to death.
"We will strongly respond to the terrorist military who brutally, inhumanly killed the unarmed peaceful protesters," the National Unity Government's defence ministry said in a statement on social media after Sunday's attack.
In the incident, a "flash mob" protest in Yangon, Myanmar's largest city, was rammed minutes after it started, witnesses said.
"I got hit and fell down in front of a truck. A soldier beat me with his rifle but I defended and pushed him back. Then he immediately shot at me as I ran away in a zig-zag pattern. Fortunately, I escaped," a protester who asked not to be identified for security reasons told Reuters by phone.
A car occupied by soldiers hit the crowd from the back, two witnesses said, and followed the scattered protesters arresting and beating them. Some were seriously injured with head wounds and unconscious, according to the witnesses.
A spokesman for the ruling junta did not answer calls seeking comment on Sunday.
The military has said that protesters who have been killed instigated the violence. It says it staged the coup because a November election won by Suu Kyi's party was rigged. The election commission has dismissed the assertion.
Wars with ethnic minority insurgents in remote frontier regions in the north and east have intensified significantly since the coup, displacing tens of thousands of civilians, according to United Nations estimates.
Suu Kyi, 76, faces a dozen cases against her including incitement and violations of COVID-19 protocols.
She has rejected all the charges to date.
(Reporting by Reuters Staff; Editing by Kim Coghill and William Mallard)
The NASA-China space race is about to go nuclear
THE HILL Sun, December 5, 2021,
Recently, NASA and the United States Department of Energy put out a call for industry to propose designs for a nuclear power plant that could be deployed on the moon within the decade, according to Science Alert. In the meantime, Interesting Engineering reports that China has completed a design for its own lunar-based nuclear reactor. The two news items suggests that both sides of the current space race are very serious about returning to the moon and developing Earth's nearest neighbor in a big way.
The Chinese lunar nuclear reactor is described as being capable of generating a full megawatt of electricity. According to Live Science, NASA requires that the lunar nuclear power plant generate just 40 kilowatts of power for 10 years, fit inside a 12-foot long by 18-foot-wide rocket, and weigh no more than 13,200 pounds. Presumably, if the moon base requires more than 40 kilowatts of power, more power plants can be launched and deployed ready for use.
By going nuclear, both NASA and the Chinese recognize that an immense amount of power is required to operate in space in a big way. The systems that keep astronauts alive and keep their experiments running require power; the more astronauts; the more power. If one adds systems that support commercial activities, such as lunar mining, then the proper conclusion is that solar alone is not the answer. Nuclear power is the key to opening space to a wide variety of human activity, for both scientific exploration and commercial development.
Nuclear power also has the advantage over solar power, whether space based, or Earth bound, in that it runs 24/7. Solar power systems need battery backups when sunlight is blocked.
NASA is also studying nuclear power for spacecraft, especially those that would voyage to Mars and points beyond. The space agency has considered nuclear rockets since the Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Applications (NERVA) program in the 1960s. NERVA ended when it became clear that NASA would not send humans to Mars any time soon. Now that Mars is back on the agenda, nuclear rockets, which would use a nuclear reactor to superheat exhaust from the back of a spacecraft, are also back.
A nuclear thermal rocket could send humans and their supplies to Mars much more quickly than a spacecraft with conventional rocket engines. Thus, astronauts voyaging to Mars will spend less time exposed to the radiation-drenched environment of deep space.
Just as nuclear power is experiencing a renaissance for space operations, the technology is being given a second look on Earth. Nuclear power has gotten bad press after high-profile accidents at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima. More enlightened environmentalists have concluded that nuclear power should be part of a solution that transitions human civilization away from dependence on fossil fuels.
Bill Gates, the billionaire philanthropist and co-founder of Microsoft, is partly financing a nuclear power plant that uses new technology to be built in Wyoming by 2028. The nuclear power plant will use liquid sodium instead of water to cool the reactor. The technology reduces the risk of an explosion or a meltdown. It also produces less nuclear waste.
Modern civilization, whether on Earth or in space, requires an immense amount of energy to operate. As technology advances, civilization will require even more power. Nuclear technology is available in the near term to provide that power, whether to run air conditioners in homes on Earth or to keep environmental systems operating on a lunar base or a spacecraft voyaging to Mars.
Will environmentalist opposition arise against nuclear systems in space as it has on Earth, inhibiting their development? Antinuclear activists have protested rocket launches that included fissile material, as they did in 1997 when the Cassini space probe launched with 72 pounds of plutonium 238 that provided power for its mission to Saturn. No doubt similar protests can be expected when a nuclear reactor and its fuel are launched to the moon.
However, as the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists pointed out, once nuclear power plants are deployed in space, either at a moon base or on a spacecraft voyaging to Mars, they would present no danger to humans on Earth. The debate over nuclear power in space will occur, just as it has on Earth and will have to be engaged.
Diablo Canyon supporters rally in SLO to keep nuclear power plant open
Kaytlyn Leslie, Laura Dickinson Sat, December 4, 2021,
More than 100 people gathered in downtown San Luis Obispo on Saturday to voice their support for keeping California’s last remaining nuclear power plant open.
Supporters held a “Save Clean Energy” rally in front of the San Luis Obispo County Government Center on Monterey Street at 11 a.m., shouting their support for keeping Diablo Canyon open.
Speakers included SLO County Supervisor Dawn Ortiz-Legg and Isabelle Boemeke, founder of the Save Clean Energy group.
At one point, participants paraded a miniature blimp down Monterey Street. It was designed to represent the one ton of carbon dioxide.
According to a flyer for the event, the Saturday rally was to express support for keeping open the state’s “largest single producer of clean energy.”
Stephen Williams of Santa Cruz sported a Diable Canyon hat. A “Save Clean Energy” rally held on Saturday, Dec. 4, 2021, in San Luis Obispo called for keeping Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant open.
“We cannot afford to take a step backwards in our fight to save the planet,” the flyer read. “Join us as we rally to save this essential source of zero-emissions energy.”
The nuclear power plant is set to shutter in 2025 when the final license for nuclear reactors expires.
The rally was being held in the wake of a new push to keep the plant open. A Stanford and Massachusetts Institute of Technology report released in November claimed keeping Diablo Canyon open for 10 years beyond its expected closure would drastically help the state meet its clean energy goals.
After the report was released, government officials — both local and national — have voiced support for keeping the plant open.
PG&E however, has repeatedly said it does not plan to reverse course on decommissioning the plant.
EXPROPRIATE PG&E NATIONALIZE IT UNDER WORKERS CONTROL
Isabelle Boemeke, founder of the Save Clean Energy group, spoke at a rally to keep Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant from closing, on Saturday, Dec. 4, 2021, in San Luis Obispo. SLO County Supervisor Dawn Ortiz-Legg spoke at the “Save Clean Energy” rally held on Saturday, Dec. 4, 2021, in San Luis Obispo. It called for keeping Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant open. Isabelle Boemeke is founder of the Save Clean Energy group that held a rally to keep Diablo Canyon from closing, on Saturday, Dec. 4, 2021, in San Luis Obispo. A “Save Clean Energy” rally held on Saturday, Dec. 4, 2021, in San Luis Obispo called for keeping Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant open.
WTF Keating: Holtec has decided to dump radioactive water into Cape Cod Bay Doug Fraser, Cape Cod Times Sat, December 4, 2021
PLYMOUTH — The company decommissioning Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station has told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that it plans to start discharging radioactive water from the plant into Cape Cod Bay sometime within the first three months of 2022. U.S. Rep. William Keating, D-Mass., shared an email with the Times that his staff received from the NRC Wednesday that confirmed Holtec International had informed the agency of its plan to release radioactive water into the bay.
Just a week earlier, Holtec spokesman Patrick O'Brien told a Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel in Plymouth there were other options, including evaporating the million gallons of water from the spent fuel pool and the reactor vessel and other plant components or trucking it to a facility in Idaho.
"We had broached that (discharging water into the bay) with the state, but we've made no decision on that," O'Brien said.
In an interview Tuesday, Harold Anagnostopoulos, Nuclear Regulatory Commission plant inspector and senior health physicist for Region 1 (which includes New England), said he didn't know of any planned discharge, but "we would not be involved in that decision. We would be involved in investigating or inspecting to make sure that they are meeting the requirements of their license."
Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth in 2016.
Keating said that not disclosing their plans at a public forum violated promises of transparency.
"It's troubling that within a couple of days it turned into a sure thing," Keating said Friday.
"If Holtec had true concern for public health and the environment and worked with transparency as they promised, Holtec would halt any dumping until a viable solution is found acceptable," said Diane Turco, director of Cape Downwinders, a citizen watchdog group. "(D)umping into Cape Cod Bay just highlights the fact that the NRC and Holtec don’t have a solution for what to do with nuclear waste. Contaminating our environment is part of the nuclear nightmare process and that is immoral."
Of more concern to Keating than the lack of transparency, was what he said was a decision motivated by cost and not by necessity.
Two years ago, during the negotiations for longtime plant owner Entergy Nuclear Operations to sell Pilgrim to Holtec for the purposes of decommissioning, Keating said he and others expressed concern about turning the process over — including the $1.03 billion decommissioning trust fund — to a private company that hadn't yet dismantled a nuclear plant. At the time, state Attorney General Maura Healey tried to intervene on that basis, citing concerns that the billion-dollar fund might prove insufficient and that Pilgrim would be Holtec's first shot at decommissioning.
In interviews, both the NRC and Holtec said that discharging radioactive water into the ocean is a common practice in the nuclear industry and is the least expensive method. O'Brien said Pilgrim discharged radioactive water into Cape Cod Bay as recently as 2017.
Keating said there is also a profit motive to the dumping plan.
"They are responsible to their shareholders, and that's what is going to drive them," he said.
O'Brien said in an email response Friday night that the company hadn't made any decisions yet on which disposal option to use.
"We are looking at all options allowed under the state and federal NPDES (National Pollution Discharge Elimination System) permit. We are evaluating options that include trucking for disposal, evaporation, overboarding (release) of treated water or some combination thereof. As was stated, we would be looking to come up with a final plan over the next 6-12 months, working with state and federal regulatory authorities to ensure compliance, and provide the public ample notice on the final disposition,” O'Brien wrote in the email. He said Holtec may have informed the NRC that they were ready to discharge, but hadn't finalized plans.
The email shared by Keating from NRC Congressional Affairs Officer Carolyn Wolf said that "Holtec has informed the NRC that it plans to discharge liquid effluents sometime in the first quarter of 2022."
O'Brien said cost is one consideration, but that "all levels of risk are evaluated and considered as well."
In an interview this week, Anagnostopoulos said the water from the plant cannot be discharged unless it meets standards for radioactivity materials and levels. The water is handled in batches (Holtec said the batches will be 20,000 gallons) and is cycled through filters to remove metals and other possible contaminants as well as any longer-lived high radioactive elements.
Radioactive tritium is generally what is released from nuclear power plants and the Department of Energy website put its half-life at 12.3 years.
Anagnostopoulos said the level of radiation allowed to be discharged is 100 millirems. To put that in perspective, soil contains roughly 21 millirems and a mammogram exposes the patient to 42 millirems, according to U.S. Department of Energy data. A cardiac CT Scan contains over 2,000 millirems.
Anagnostopoulos said that the 100 millirem level is right at the mouth of the outfall before dilution comes into play. He said that sensors at the mouth of the discharge pipe and at a distance measure radiation, and that plant employees do biological and water sampling and submit them to an independent lab to test for bioaccumulation. He said there are also risks in transporting radioactive water, such as the potential for a crash or spill along the route, and that it is transferring a problem elsewhere.
But Keating said that claims of low radiation levels in nuclear plant effluent were only one part of the decision-making process. He said the potential biological and economic damage caused to maritime industries such as fisheries, aquaculture and recreation, including the public perception that they may be tainted with radioactivity, should have been factored in. If it was, he said, the clear choice was to truck the water to another site, not dump it into the ocean.
"The issue is much more clear-cut. We have an alternative (trucking) and the only difference is cost," said Keating, who argued that the $1 billion in the trust fund came from ratepayers and that they deserved the best disposal solution that preserved their environment and maritime industries.
Contact Doug Fraser at dfraser@capecodonline.com. Follow him on Twitter: @dougfrasercct.
America alone — with more than 330 million people — may consume over 100 kilograms of meat products per capita in 2021, the OECD estimates.
Plus, there's growing concern that emissions calculations such as these may be vastly underestimated.
Between the lines: While what we eat may affect global warming, climate change itself has an impact on food systems.
It can cause droughts or floods and alter the nutrition of particular crops, making for a more unstable food supply that's vulnerable to price spikes and shortages.
