SOLARWINDPRONET

SOLARWINDPRONET

About me

My photo
Teacher, activist, interested in energy technology, climate change, environmental issues and global security.

Friday, August 31, 2012

Planned and Old Nuclear Power Plants in Trouble

In USA several nuclear power plants are having troubles.

In San Onofre reactor 3 or both reactors two and three could be sentenced to be shut down permanently. The Southern California Edison has reduced its labor force by one third. Lets's hope they close the reactors and the workers will find other jobs. In this kind of situation federal money should be put in for creating new jobs for examle constructing solar power plants and wind farms or biogas power plants so that they could also generate the energy needed after shutdown of NPPs.

Link - BUSINESSWEEK:
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-08-27/ailing-calif-dot-reactor-prepares-to-remove-fuel

Links - ENFORMABLE:
http://enformable.com/2012/08/edison-workers-to-remove-nuclear-fuel-from-san-onofre-reactor-3/

http://enformable.com/2012/08/san-onofre-reactor-2-to-be-subject-of-cost-benefit-analysis/


Exelon is withdrawing from plans to built new nuclear reactors. The Company says that nuclear power is not any more financically competitive with gas and renewables and that people are widely against constructing new nuclear plants.

LINK - ENFORMABLE:

http://enformable.com/2012/08/exelon-shuts-down-nuclear-construction-plans-due-to-uneconomical-markets/



JPS

The Trailer of "The Battle of Our Energy Future" is on YouTube


Finally I got the official trailer of my video documentary on YouTube. It's the Finnish version (3.32 min) and can be found via my website:

http://www.creatorsfingerprints.com.kummi.net/Energy_Battle.html

Or then straight on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPL_q3XOSWA&feature=plcp

I hope I can make the English version in the near future.

JPS

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Power Grids In Danger

Recent studies from the USA and Sweden make the same conclusions: once in 100 years solar storm is possible in the near future and it can cause extreme damage to our power grids and modern societies leaving large areas out of electric power for years, even for one decade.

The Swedish study (2012) suggest the probability of a perfect 100% geoeffective solar storm to occur during years 2012-2014 to be 4,7%. Would you buy a flight with such adds of the plane crashing?
Link -IEA:
http://www.iea.lth.se/publications/MS-Theses/Full%20document/5296_full_document_GIC.pdf

The US study (2010) told 70 % of  the USA to be blackout area after such a solar storm. Each single giant transformer damaged and to be replaced takes at least a year in normal conditions to be back in duty - after such a disaster the demand for such large special units would be peaking and the delivery times could be several years. In some studies 4-10 years blackouts in some parts of the USA can be expected.

The most vulnerable units are coal and nuclear power plants with their large GSU-transformers. The worst would be NPP:s: 92% of them (in the NE Quad) could be out of business for a longer period of time.

NPP:s are also having trouble with their GSU-transformers during minor or medium class solar storms. It is quite probable that year 1994 M-class solar storm caused GIC that injured 12 nuclear power plants GSU-transformers - one died in two days , the other 11 during next two years.

A Medium -geomagnetic storm caused also one NPP fire that was threatening the whole plant when it spread from the transformer to hydrogen-cooled parts of the generator and the vital electrical systems at Zion nuclear plant.

It's kind of a rule that the power companies in question deny the correlation between solar storms and transformer incidents. They don't measure GIC-currents either.

Link - METATECH/FAS: http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/geomag.pdf

(I have analyzed these studies more on my Finnish SOLARWINDPRONET-SUOMI -blog, use Google or other translaters, please: http://solarwindpronet-suomi.blogspot.fi/2012/08/ruotsalaistutkimus-2012-aurinkomyrskyt.html  )




My first video energy documentary " The Battle of Our Energy Future" has now a poster and some more data about it on my homepages :
http://www.creatorsfingerprints.com.kummi.net/Energy_Battle.html

Feel free to check it out! I'm sorry the trailer of the movie is still under work... trying to get it ready in a few days.



JPS

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Back in Business After Finalizing My Video Documentary "The Battle of Our Energy Future"

After editing day and night my first documentary video about energy alternatives of the world I finally have the time to do the blogging. I am sorry for the long pause in blogging!


There are so many news, bad and good ones, I should have shared but I try to list the most important ones and give short comments on them during the next days.

A  model of a nuclear reactor pressure vessel  (not manufactured by Rotterdam Dry Docks)

Twenty one Nuclear Reactors May Have Cracks in Their Pressure Vessels





Several nuclear reactors can be forced to be permanently shut down because of cracks in their Reactor Pressure Vessels. Two reactors in Belgium have been ordered to be shut down for safety reasons. With a new ultrasonic testing method they found thousands of small cracks in the reactor pressure vessel parts of the other reactor
.
If the reactor is having some trouble and forced to emergency shut down or emergency cooling, the reactor can be cracking like hot glass when sprayed with cold water. Then a bad core meltdown accident is immident.

The same Dutch shipyard, Rotterdam Dry Docks, that made these pressure vessels for those reactors in Belgium had delivered pressure vessels for 21 nuclear reactors, to the USA, and to Europe, one of them in Sweden. The  Radiation Safety Officials of the countries involved are gathering for a crisis meeting to deal with this urgent problem.

Link - HURRIYETDAILYNEWS:
 http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/belgian-nuclear-chief-sceptical-reactor-can-be-restarted.aspx?pageID=238&nid=27542&NewsCatID=351 

Link -  SIMPLYINFO: http://www.simplyinfo.org/?p=7064 

Link - Excellent video about "brittle fractures" in nuclear reactors - NHK:


 A model of a nuclear reactor pressure vessel (Not the same as in Belgium reactor)
A closer look at the thick steel wall of a nuclear reactor pressure vessel (model, Finnish reactor)

JPS

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

A Quick Look At The Energy World

Huge demonstrations in Japan - the Ajisai Revolution - has finally reached one of its goals: the Prime Minister of Japan Mr. Noda is ready to negotiate with the demonstrators - and what's more important - he is willing to delay the government decision about Japans energy future and ask his government officials for advice which would be the impacts for the nation of a possible new energy politics of ending Japans reliance on nuclear power.

Link - ENENEWS:
http://enenews.com/nhk-support-growing-0-nuclear-power-option-govt-considering-missing-deadline-decide-energy-policy-video

Let's hope this road will lead to denucleration of Japan and after that the denucleration of the world! That's our goal.

Another US Nuclear Power Company Chief claims nuclear power can't compete economically any more with gas and renewables. General Electric CEO Jeff Immet told on Financical Times interview that nuclear power was "really hard" to defend financially as the costs of nuclear reactors increase due to new safety demands caused by the new information achieved after Fukushima disaster and the lowering costs for new solar panel technology for instance.



I think it's about time to rethink our national plans to build new nuclear reactors in Finland, before we are making errors that cost us billions of euros. And in the worst case, thousands of lives.


The delayed, super-expensive Olkiluoto 3 nuclear reactor, still under construction.

Link - ENENEWS:
http://enenews.com/breaking-ceo-of-ge-says-nuclear-power-really-hard-to-defend-financially-at-some-point-really-economics-rule

Just for remainder:
Link - FORBES: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2012/03/29/exelons-nuclear-guy-no-new-nukes/


A Small Windpark On Crete


US Study reveals the wide economical positive impacts that building large wind parks will have on the surrounding society: 23 largest wind parks in Illinois bring 6 billion dollars to the state  - in economic benefits. So the renewable energy production tax credits are not wasted money, but benefit whole the state and especially the region of the wind parks. The study tells the wind parks had created 19 000 jobs during the construction and 814 permanent jobs.

That should be discussed widely also here in Finland: in 2010 wind power industry employed 190 000 workers in Europe, and it will offer jobs for 25 000 people in Finland in 2020 according to our national roadmap for renewable energy.

Link (Finnish) - KYMENSANOMAT:

http://www.kymensanomat.fi/Mielipide---Sana-on-vapaa/2012/05/28/Tuulivoimarakentaminen+luo+miljardin+euron+ty%C3%B6t/2012313489628/69
Link- THINKPROGRESS:
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/07/24/572881/report-23-largest-wind-farms-in-illinois-bring-6-billion-in-economic-benefits-to-the-state/?mobile=nc 


JPS



Back to Blogging!

After having some holiday and travelling abroad and in Finland I finally got possibility to continue blogging. I have been guite busy with videorecording and editing the first energy-related documentary to be released in a great hurry. I'm fighting against the clock now, so please be patient! I try to update my blog more frequently in the near future (at least after my video-deadline -at the end of August 2012).

Here are some snapshots from my recent journeys:



1. Photovoltage solar power station in Greece (Crete)


2. Wind power on Cretan mountains


3. Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant - reactors 1-3 in Eurajoki, Finland - part of the sad era in Finnish history.


Posting more news and comments asap.

JPS