How to Reach 100% Renewable Energy Goal?

Photo: Jukka Seppälä / C.F.

Well, most people are saying "You're a dreamer! Never in a Real World!" if you try to speak about energy change being possible in the near future to 100 % renewable, clean energy.

How about the winter and heating, or how about the high temperatures and peak consumption? Wind doesn't always blow and the sun refuses to shine every day! We'll have the grid down and that would be a catastrophe! Our industry needs cheap, constant power supplies - and renewables just don't fit there!

Over and over again I keep hearing this stuff. And it is quite natural - people aren't just used to think that wind and solar power together with geothermal and wave power generation as well as biogas and biomass based combined heating/power generating systems have become a profitable, large scale industry in just a couple of recent years. And the decision makers and  CEOs of the powerful energy industry are mainly offline on this process. Everything has changed so quickly. No time to think.

Perhaps it's now - time to think. And rethink.

Arts photo: Jukka Seppälä / C.F.

A professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University, Mark Jacobson, has made with his research group a road map for the U.S.A. to enter to a new renewable energy era.

His group gives the tools to make The United States running 100 %  with renewable energy by 2050. And this is how it works:

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2014/february/fifty-states-renewables-022414.html

If you consider this as pure fantasy or theory, it could be quite useful to find out what others have done - in real life - during the last five years when most of the countries have been only speaking about the climate change.

In Northern Germany, in Schleswig-Holstein, They are going to reach the goal of 100% renewable energy in a few years and they'll rise the goal up to 300% to be reached by 2020.

http://www.wind-works.org/cms/index.php?id=85&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=2106&cHash=d36a584b83ea6fb828128b3ad2a5a238

http://www.welt.de/regionales/hamburg/article128273203/Schleswig-Holstein-deckt-Strombedarf-oekologisch.html

And the little Scottish isle of Eigg is reaching already 85-90% renewable energy generation and is aiming to 100 %  in the near future.

http://www.naturalnews.com/045167_self-sustainability_renewable_energy_Scottish_isle.html

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/01/greenest-island-world-201412783012455475.html

And nearly a third of US new electricity came from solar - a trend that continues.

http://gigaom.com/2014/03/05/almost-a-third-of-new-u-s-electricity-came-from-solar-last-year/

It's time for a national and international debate. The climate change won't wait. We have the tools. Let's start working!

JPS

Apple - A Global Leader - Also in Renewable Energy!

Apple showed some statistics (adding it to their mega profits just announced) where they show how their 3 -year program succeeded to transform this leading mobile / IT-company from bad guys of Greenpeace black list to the best example of almost zero-carbon / renewable energy user that generates most of energy it is using.

According to Apple the company is now 73% renewable powered and its data centers have reached full 100% renewable energy milestone!

A long time winner is born!

LINK - the9billion:   http://www.the9billion.com/2014/04/21/apple-now-73-percent-powered-by-clean-energy/


Who's the next?



JPS

WIPP - Mess: a Bad Signal for Finnish "Onkalo" and other Nuclear Waste Disposal Plans - BREAKING: AREVA Withdrawing from Olkiluoto-3 EPR Constructing Site?

Well, there was an incident at WIPP

( LINK - Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_Isolation_Pilot_Plant ) in New Mexico, U.S.A. a few weeks ago. Several WIPP - workers were contaminated with Plutonium and Americium isotopes. The plant has been releasing Plutonium and Americium since the incident and the latest estimates tell 1 % of radionuclides to bypass WIPP filtering system instead of 0,13 % initially announced. The nearest city of Carlsbad, situated 42 km from the site, has also received small amount of Plutonium and Americium airborne particles. There is no detailed plan yet when the facility is able to return to normal operation because of high radiation levels inside the WIPP-plant.



Radioactive release is always a serious issue - the WIPP -incident is one of the worst nuclear dump accidents up to date. Nuclear industry is living on probabilities, not on reality. NPPs are releasing radioactive substances like tritium on daily basis, even when running normally.  - Arts-photo: Jukka Seppälä / C.F. 

The probability of a spontaneous explosion of a plutonium waste container has been estimated to occur once in 10 000 years. And the other possible cause of an incident resulting this kind of leak - collapsing ceiling or roof  of the cave - is estimated to happen once in a million years. WIPP -plant has now been running for about seven years.

WIPP Happens!

LINK - W-N-N:  http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/RS-WIPP-radiation-under-investigation-2702144.html

LINK - RADCAST: https://www.radcast.org/updates-on-wipp/

LINK - KOB: http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S3359397.shtml#.UyINuPl_t8G

LINK -NUCLEAR-NEWS: http://nuclear-news.net/2014/03/04/u-s-seeks-nuclear-waste-research-revival-in-light-of-wipp-nuclear-accident/

LINK - FAIREWINDS: http://fairewinds.org/media/fairewinds-videos/whats-leaking-nuclear-waste-isolation-pilot-program

LINK - ABQJOURNAL: http://www.abqjournal.com/363325

LINK -ABCJOURNAL: http://www.abqjournal.com/364795/news/leak-never-supposed-to-happen.html

*   *   *  

What about Finnish "Onkalo", then? 

This nuclear waste dump is also calculated to be safe for 100 000 years. But is it really? Three studies show that inner copper cylinders containing the spent fuel may corrode in 1 000 years instead of 100 000 years promised by the industry. And now after 7 years of operating WIPP we have this one-million -year-event happening! Is nuclear engineer / geologist this clever?






Copper cylinders for Onkalo - Photo: Jukka Seppälä / C.F.

We should think twice before we dump nuclear waste. We should not produce any new nuclear waste by nuclear power generation. Unless we don't want to be the generation that becomes famous to kill its own children and grandchildren. We still are able to choose!

*   *   *  

And what about Areva?

Making big losses - 500 million euros last year, most of it from Finnish Olkiluoto-3 NPP -project - the company is rumored abandoning or freezing Olkiluoto EPR- construction site which is causing the project additional delays. The last estimate for Olkiluoto-3 to be finished is somewhere between 2018 to 2020, according to Finnish Kauppalehti:

 http://www.kauppalehti.fi/etusivu/areva+ajaa+olkiluodon+tyomaata+alas/201402652139

Last year Areva estimated the total costs of Olkiluoto-3 EPR to rise up to 8,5 billion euros. Each extra year adds the cost. ( My estimate in 2012 was 10 Billion euros - time will tell which one was closer to reality http://solarwindpronet.blogspot.fi/2012/12/olkiluoto-3-epr-to-cost-at-least-85.html  )

Olkiluoto-3 construction site - Photo: Jukka Seppälä / C.F.

Let's hope this crazy project to build the most expensive building mankind has ever built will be mothballed and abandoned 

before it is contaminated with radioactive isotopes. We still could make it a gas (biogas as well) powered power plant to give back up power for renewable power generation like wind and solar.

LINK - (French) LE-VEILLEUR:http://www.le-veilleur.com/articles.php?idcat=2&idrub=23&id=1636



JPS

Finnish Government to Force Fennovoima to Abandon Agreement with Russian Rosatom due to Russian Illegal Military Operation in Ukraine?

After last days illegal military operation run by Russian Army in Ukraine there is a good reason to believe that Finnish Government is taking the initiative to freeze the negotiations of Finnish Fennovoima nuclear power company with Russian military nuclear complex Rosatom.

There has been a lively discussion whether Finns should allow Rosatom to enter Finnish energy markets, especially when we are dealing with such a sensitive and important technology for national security as nuclear power generation.

There has been opinions criticizing the military role of Rosatom - it is a part of Russian nuclear weapons industry, although it is selling "peaceful atoms" abroad. How peaceful are Russian atoms - that must be now questioned after Vladimir Putin's grave mistake to invade Ukraine illegally.



Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen should now take initiative to freeze the Fennovoima - Rosatom NPP-project due to Russian military aggression against Ukraine. / photo: Jukka Seppälä / C.F.

It would be a clear signal to Russia if Finnish Government, backed up with the Finnish Parliament, would announce that nuclear reactors capable of producing raw material for nuclear weapons must not be bought from a country that is running an illegal war and  aggression against a smaller neighbor country - against UN resolutions.

According to Finnish law it is illegal for any Finnish company to sell weapons or military material to any country that is involved in a war. This is just what Rosatom is doing: it is helping Russia to build its nuclear strike ability by manufacturing raw materials to nuclear weapons.

*  *  *

And if you dig deep enough you will find the basic reasons for increasing tensions in Ukraine and in other former Soviet Union republics in the energy sector.

Russia is blackmailing the poorer independent republics with threatening to shut the gas pipes. During the winter it is a serious threat. Also Germany has felt the Siberian freezing winds a couple of times.

But the world is quickly changing, and that must Mr. Putin also recognize, the sooner, the better! Renewable energy is cutting the rope of Russian gas and oil around Germany's neck pretty fast. Windy and sunny days are now giving more than half of  the electricity Germany produces, and they have coal just in case....

IMAGINE

Imagine if Ukraine had a large scale renewable energy project funded by EU, the U.S.A and China. Imagine if they would produce 50 % of their energy with Wind, Solar and Biomass.

This would boost their economy and give them lower unemployment rates. And it would cut their dependence on Russian gas and oil. Mr. Obama, Mrs. Merkel and Mr. Xi Jinping, please receive this call! 

And the same with other east European countries. True independence comes with regional, renewable energy production. And it could benefit the economies of their partners by giving their renewable energy utility suppliers plenty to sell.

What about Russia then? Mr. Putin, please think twice! You could have a win - win situation.

And I don't mean now war - there you'll loose in the end -  but pulling your troops back and offering Ukraine a new fair deal: let's create a new, independent Ukraine - that kind of Ukraine that the people living there really want. Russia could also be funding renewable energy projects - together with western countries and China - and benefiting also by gathering experience and know-how for the future energy change of the great, innovative new Russia that was quick to learn of its mistakes of the past (and present).

JPS

Finland and Sweden - the Real Bad Boys of Nuclear Power ? ( And Their Dirty Guns)

Olkiluoto BWR:s of TVO are quick to melt down if total SBO (station black out) occures  Arts photo: JS / CF



As we think about the two Northern European Countries of high standard of living - Finland and Sweden - and read the news about Finland being the leading country in education, and knowing Sweden to have a long history of defending human rights, it is quite astonishing to find out the hidden scaletons of secret Swedish  nuclear weapons programs   http://solarwindpronet.blogspot.fi/2012/10/the-secret-swedish-nuclear-arms-program.html
or their nuclear power plants import to countries blacklisted by the western world because of their  Bomb projects.

Link - UTNE: http://www.utne.com/community/rumsfeldcompanysoldnuclearweaponequipmenttonorthkorea.aspx#axzz2fBlrNAX1

LINK - THEGUARDIAN:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/may/09/nuclear.northkorea

The famous super-expensive but not super-safe EPR Olkiluoto-3 in Eurajoki, Finland. Melt-through in 7-8 hours by total SBO, according to European Stress Test for Nuclear Reactors.  Photo: JS / CF


And the first nuclear reactor to be built inWestern Europe after Chernobyl was the problem-cost-leader; famous Olkiluoto-3 in Finland  http://solarwindpronet.blogspot.fi/2012/12/olkiluoto-3-epr-to-cost-at-least-85.html . Actually our parliament made the decision to allow the construction of this plant just a few weeks after Swedish Forsmark-1 had been 14 minutes to LOCA (loss of coolant accident) according to German officials, after having almost total station blackout for over 20 minutes. It was later given INES-2 label, some experts saw it as the worst nuclear accident in the world after Chernobyl.  http://solarwindpronet.blogspot.fi/2012/10/thirty-five-minutes-to-meltdown-most.html

LINK - SPIEGEL :
http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/nuclear-scare-how-close-did-sweden-come-to-disaster-a-430458.html

LINK(Swedish) - DN:
http://www.dn.se/nyheter/sverige/hardsmalta-nara-i-forsmark-ar-2006/

Still Finns got their Olkiluoto-3 EPR built, our nuclear watchdog, STUK, didn't see any problem with beeing only minutes or hours away of our very own Nordic Chernobyl. But STUK was guided by Jukka Laaksonen    http://solarwindpronet.blogspot.fi/2012/03/one-year-has-passed-since-great-japan.html   who instantly after being pensioned started selling reactors recruted by Rosatom, the Russian nuclear reactor -company.

LINK (Finnish) - TALOUSELÄMÄ:
http://www.talouselama.fi/uutiset/venalaisten+pestaama+stukin+exjohtaja+myontaa+rosatomilla+on+poliittisia+tehtavia/a2094302

So the Western World Nuclear Renessance was started by Finnish companies, nuclear regulatory authorities and well lobbed parliament of Finland. No real discussion was held publicly. Just like in Fukushima prefecture in Japan or in Japanese Nuclear Village. It was simply stupid to speak about the possible risks of nuclear power. If you did, you lost all your credibility, you were a person non grata.

So when our Minister of Environmental Issues Mr. Ville Niinistö recently estimated that Fennovoima, Rosatom NPP-project in Pyhäjoki, would be abandonned during the next half year because of economical reasons, it was a sign of new realistic post-Fukushima thinking among our leading politicians. Are we finally starting to learn from our "dark" past?

LINK (Finnish) -TALOUSELÄMÄ:
http://www.talouselama.fi/uutiset/fennovoiman+ydinvoimala+kaatuu+hintaan++uusi+laskelma+julki+tanaan/a2158029

Finnish nuclear power plants are woulnerable against worst case scenarios. Total station blackout would cause a melt through accident in Olkiluoto BWR 1-2 reactors in 2 hours: the nuclear fuel would be exposed after half an hour, the reactor core would start melting down in one hour and it would melt through the reactor pressure vessel in two hours according to EU stress tests for nuclear reactors. In addition to total station blackout the loss of ultimate heat sink - seawater cooling - would cause a melt-through in two to three hours:

"Total loss of AC power sources would lead to a severe reactor accident. Core uncover would take place within 30 minutes, extensive fuel damage would be caused within an hour and RPV melt through would take 2 to 3 hours." (STUK: European Stress Tests for Nuclear Power Plants, National Report, Finland, p. 163/236).

The original design basis of Olkiluoto 1-2 BWRs does not count severe accidents -  they were then seen as impossible events with very low probability:

"Even though the management and mitigation of severe accidents was not included in the original design basis of OL1 and OL2, several original plant systems also play an important part in the severe accident management schemes,..." (STUK: European Stress Tests for Nuclear Power Plants, National Report, Finland, p. 166/236)
 
And the one called the most safest nuclear reactor in the world - Olkiluoto-3 EPR built by Siemens-Areva - would have a core melt through in 7-8 hours after a total blackout and loss of seawater coolant:

"Total loss of all AC power sources would lead to a severe reactor accident. Core uncovery would take place within 3 hours, extensive fuel damage would be caused within 4 hours and pressure vessel melt-through would take 7…8 hours."   (STUK: European Stress Tests for Nuclear Power Plants, National Report, Finland, p. 220/236)

So if we count the severe accidents from Three Mile Island via Chernobyl to Fukushima, it can be estimated that in the case of a serious accident, the people living around Olkiluoto 1-3  would be given no information about the real situation before a melt-through, or multireactor melt-through would  be a fact. Two hours is a very short time to evaluate and inform about the situation. In Chernobyl it took several days to admit the severity of the accident also among the nuclear scientists. In Japan it took Tepco and the Japanese Government months to admit the multireactor melt-throughs, although they occurred during the first hours or days of the crisis.

An excellent article about the Fukushima Daichi NPP accident is recently written by the former prime minister of Japan, Mr. Naoto Kan:

LINK - HUFFINGTONPOST:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/naoto-kan/japan-nuclear-energy_b_4171073.html

Last year Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen told renewables and clean tech to be the magic key to positive change. Fennovoima is not clean tech! Photo: JS / CF  

So, it seems that Finnish and Swedish politicians (and perhaps the majority of ordinary people) have not learned anything about the risks of nuclear power. No word of possible accidents or safety has been mentioned while discussing this week about Fennovoima -project. Unrealistic economical idealism about nuclear power being cheap seems to be again the main topic.

(Here's some realism: LINK -INDEPENDENT:  http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21587782-europes-electricity-providers-face-existential-threat-how-lose-half-trillion-euros )

Our government is acting like a group of irrresponsible teenagers backing up this Fennovoima 8.6 Billion Euros maniac investment: last year the same ministers spoke about renewable energy to be the backbone of Finnish economy and one of our main employers in the future. ( http://solarwindpronet.blogspot.fi/2012/09/minister-of-economic-affairs-jyri.html  and in Finnish   http://solarwindpronet-suomi.blogspot.fi/2012/09/ministerit-linjasivat-uusiutuvat.html ) 


Was this just political nonsence? Has someone been lobbying hard?

 

Last autumn also Minister Jutta Urpilainen saw renewable energy and distributed energy generation through intelligent grids as well as green technology as answer for Finland's problems. Now she demands Fennovoima -plan to be quickly to be run forward. Well, what we need is a break here!  Photo: JS / CF 

We would really need some experienced politicians and international experts on energy issues and nuclear power who have personal experience of nuclear accident, to give us lessons to find new perspectives.

Former Prime Minister Naoto Kan sharing his lessons of Fukushima nuclear disaster last year in Tokyo   Photo: JS / CF

LINK - HUFFINGTONPOST:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/roger-witherspoon/former-nrc-chair-emergenc_b_4060780.html

LINK - WICKEDLOCAL:
http://www.wickedlocal.com/plymouth/news/x1843605621/-FUKUSHIMA-ONGOING-LESSONS-Not-in-the-playbook?zc_p=0

LINK -RIVERKEEPER:
http://www.riverkeeper.org/news-events/events/rvk-events/fukushima-ongoing-lessons-for-new-york/

VIDEO LINK -NEW:
http://new.livestream.com/accounts/5618637/events/2441546

 

There is a black swan lurking behind every nuclear reactor (also behind Finnish and Swedish reactors)

 Photo: JS / CF

The immortality-inwoundability syndrome should be left behind. (S*)it can happen here. Statistically, it will happen here. We still have the opportinity to choose if that risk is worth taking or not. But to do that, we need some honest information.

Clean tech in sight!                          Photo: JS / CF

JPS

Fukushima Daichi Accident Getting Worse Day by Day

Arts Picture: JS / C.F.

The operator of Fukushima Daichi nuclear power plant, Tepco, is struggling every day to contain the accident. But the more they try, the more new problems occure. Recent weeks we have been hearing about highly radioactive water seeping into the ocean. And there are millions of liters more to come.

Tepco doesn't tell everything they know and everything they should tell to Japanese authorities and international organizations having the role of a watchdog of the nuclear industry. And what is the most important they deny the right to know what is going on there from the great audience, Japanese citizens and people everywhere in the world. This is not a Japanese matter any more, this is a global catastrophe, an event that is affecting somehow every single human being on this planet earth.

Let me explain a little bit.

Senior cheaf engineer of Fairewinds Energy Education and former executive of nuclear industry Arnie Gundersen estimated a few weeks ago that whole the Pacific Ocean would have in five years 5 to 10 times as much man made radioactive isotopes such as cesium 134, Cs137, Sr90 and plutonium  as it had after the nuclear weapons testing during 1950ies - 1970ies. Whole the water mass of our largest ocean will be radioactively contaminated by crippled Fukushima plant. That will cause whole the ocean food chain to be contaminated for decades. And hundreds of millions even billions of people are and will be affected. And statistically even low level radiation will cause hundreds of thousands or millions of people getting genetic damage, cancer and other health problems, some of them lethal. But it takes decades and the connection between radioactive contamination and getting sick is hard to prove. It can be seen statistically but is it enough?

*    *    *

I wrote this upper first part of this blog post as a draft almost two months ago, but the situation has not been changing any better by now. The contaminated water keeps on flowing to the Ocean - although Prime Minister Abe keeps on telling us the tainted water is all contained in the harbor of Fukushima Daichi (scientists say 40% of the water in harbor is mixed with the ocean sea water daily) and no-one have injured because of the Fukushima nuclear accident and never will (still huge increase in thyroid gland cancers have been found among the children and youth in Japan after FD-accident). And the situation is fully under control. So says Mr. Abe. Three out of four Japanese citizens and most of the experts disagree with him. But at least he got the Olympic Games 2020 in Tokyo. Well, if the city will not be evacuated by then!

There is a real risk of huge radioactive fallout in addition to the 300 to 400 tons of tainted water seeping daily to the ocean now. The removal of spent fuel from the badly damaged spent fuel pool of reactor 4 is a very risky business. According to nuclear power specialists it may cause uncontollable criticality or a prompt criticality explosion if two nuclear fuel rods move too close each other during the removal, or corroded nuclear fuel rods or racks break and the fuel pellets drop to the bottom of the pool. This is all because of bended and corroded fuel racks and rods. And Fairewinds Cheaf Engineer Arnie Gundersen said that Tepco had admitted that the protective Boron of fuel rods had decayed away - adding Boron in pool water doesn't protect against unintented criticality if fuel rods get too close to each other. And the result of this could be radioactive fallout  over 15 000 times more severe than that of the Hiroshima bomb, or 50-100 times as severe as Chernobyl. Fukushima Daichi (and Daini) could be forced to be abandonned because of extreme radiation. And then the cooling down of reactors and all spent fuel pools could be compromized. Tokyo and half of Japan would be in danger to be evacuated. And the fallout would be worldwide.

Tepco is to begin the removal of those fuel rods in October - November this year.

*    *    *

The former Chairman of NRC Mr. Gregory Jaczko was giving a Speech yesterday in Japan. He was also commenting this  harsh situation at Fukushima Daichi NPP. The speech can be watched here:

LINK - YOUTUBE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fs-Ok1BbI4

Let's hope the worst scenario doesn't happen! International help is needed in Japan. Tepco can't cope with such a huge task to decommission six reactors, spent fuel ponds and one thousand leaky tanks of contaminated water - and 300 tons of tainted groundwater contaminating the ocean each day. Nor doesn't the Japanese government seem to be able to handle the situation. The time is running short.


JPS

Been Busy with My Book and Documentary

Arts-photo: Jukka Seppälä / Creator's Fingerprints

Last month I have been busy writing a fiction book about a nuclear power plant accident in Finland. I hope people could understand better what the risks of nuclear power mean if they see them to become reality in your everyday life. It may be too hard for the people to see the documentaries and read the news articles of Japanese victims of NPP accident or hear the interviews of Chernobyl children or their parents. They just don't receive the information because of the pain involved. But when you have a story where fiction and facts are interacting, it may be easier to read. And after that you may see that one day your life can be affected by a nuclear disaster in a way that you really don't want things to happen. I hope this will generate energy discussion on a national level in Finland.

The other thing I have been involved in for the last weeks has been recording and editing the English version of my video documentary "The Battle of Our Energy Future"  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPL_q3XOSWA&feature=plcp .   I have only a few days left before the deadline to get it ready and copied for CMS VATAVARAN  http://www.cmsvatavaran.org/  environmental film festival in India . I'm not really sure if I can manage to catch the deadline.

But being too busy for blogging I have still been following intensively energy news. Let's hope I'll find more time for blogging during this summer.


Have Nice, Sunny, Windy and (some) Rainy Renewable Summer Days!

JPS