By David G. Eselius
A Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) report released Thursday, July 21, 2011, makes no conclusions about whether entombing the nation's most radioactive material at the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Repository site in the desert northwest of Las Vegas is scientifically sound or safe. This is because the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Repository project was permanently closed under order of President Obama. Such closure of Yucca Mountain is directly opposed to decades of Congressional directives and legislation. Without an expanded U.S. nuclear program that includes Yucca Mountain, the human race shall be terminated 2050-2099.
Considering the gravity of the situation of a non-viable 21st Century U.S. nuclear program, the closure of Yucca Mountain by President Obama requires impeachment proceedings by the U.S. House of Representatives.
Impeachment
Impeachment in the United States is an expressed power of the legislature that allows for formal charges against a civil officer of government for crimes committed in office. The actual trial on those charges, and subsequent removal of an official on conviction on those charges, is separate from the act of impeachment itself. At the federal level, Article Two of the United States Constitution (Section 4 - Disqualification) states that "The President, Vice President, and all civil Officers of the United States shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other High Crimes and Misdemeanors." The House of Representatives has the sole power of impeaching, while the United States Senate has the sole power of all impeachments trials.
Impeachment, in the U.S. and Great Britain, are proceedings by a legislature for the removal from office of a public official charged with misconduct in office. Impeachment comprises both the act of formulating the accusation and the resulting trial of the charges; it is frequently but erroneously taken to mean only the removal from office of an accused public official. An impeachment trial may result in an acquittal or in a verdict of guilty. In the latter case the impeached official is removed from office; if the charges warrant such action, the official is also remanded to the proper authorities for trial before a court.
Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other High Crimes and Misdemeanors has well defined case law, mostly found in English law. Impeachment was first used in the British political system against Baron Latimer the 4th during the Good Parliament of 1376.
Obama’s shutdown of Yucca Mountain October 1, 2010
In agreement with congressional left Democrat leadership, President Obama ordered the shutdown of the nation’s proposed Yucca Mountain Nuclear Repository, October 1, 2010. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff commenced orderly closure of its Yucca Mountain activities.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev, has remained a staunch political foe of the Yucca project, and President Barack Obama reached the White House after promising to terminate the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Repository project. Left Democrat political opposition to nuclear energy is political appeasement of the U.S. communists and promote Washington DC and state renewable energy profiteering, corruption, and election contributions.
Obama controls NRC – Prior to October 1, 2010, the NRC staff was preparing a Safety Evaluation Report that represented NRC’s licensing assessment of DOE’s SAR.
President Obama stacked the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) with his political appointees. Gregory B. Jaczko (former adviser to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev) was designated Chairman of the NRC by President Barack Obama on May 13, 2009. Obama’s NRC October 13, 2009 appointees are George Apostolakis, William Magwood, and William Ostendorff. Commissioner Kristine L. Svinicki was sworn in March 28, 2008.
Why was there a need for President Obama to replace three NRC Commissioners?
Yucca Mountain shut down 1978-2011
After an independent licensing board last year 2010 rejected the Obama administration's request to withdraw the Yucca Mountain project application, NRC Chairman Jaczko instructed NRC staff to stop work on questions about possible groundwater contamination 10,000 years from now, and radiation releases a million years from now. Answering these questions was central to left Democrat anti nuclear protest groups.
Promoted by decades of anti-nuclear leadership and blocking completion of Yucca Mountain, is the left Democrats requirement to exclude “possible groundwater contamination 10,000 years in the future and radiation releases for a million years.” The left Democrats’ 10,000-year requirement is a political ploy to block Yucca Mountain and U.S. nuclear industry development, the human races does not exist past 2099. Resulting from not a timely development of many nuclear energy facilities is increased natural and human (anthropomorphic) greenhouse gas emissions. There is no justification for the political “possible groundwater contamination 10,000 years” requirement. Continuing human global warming greenhouse emissions is a mass suicide pact for more than 9 billion people.
The NRC staff report does not address any licensing or regulatory issues concerning Yucca Mountain, which has been in the planning stages for nearly three decades at an estimated cost of $15 billion. The 733-page NRC technical evaluation includes no findings about whether the proposed Yucca Mountain repository meets regulatory requirements.
In a statement, the NRC staff described the closing report as "part of the agency's orderly closeout of the Yucca Mountain license review process" and said it was "intended as a public record of the staff's scientific and technical work."
Yucca Mountain is the nation's planned repository for spent nuclear fuel. The U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) began studying Yucca Mountain, Nevada, in 1978 to determine whether it would be suitable for the nation's first long-term geologic repository for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. Currently stored at 126 sites around the nation, these materials are a result of nuclear power generation and national defense programs.
Since the 1960s, it has been the position of various state Democrat extreme environmentalist movements, communists, and anti nuclear groups to ignore science, technology, and U.S. strategic interests – and to forward their authority and control over commercial nuclear high-level waste and strategic high-level nuclear waste. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) was established in 1974, at the start of Green nuclear energy chaos.
A nuclear repository is necessary for America's nuclear fuel cycle and is an integral part of American energy needs and national defense programs, which satisfies defense needs and global greenhouse gas reductions. As they did with the development of sustainable clean nuclear base-load electricity, the anti nuclear coterie effectively undermined the decades of development of the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Repository and multinational efforts to reduce global warming temperature increase.
The blocking of U.S. nuclear power development and safe Yucca Mountain Repository long-term storage development has profound implications for U.S. nuclear base-load electricity generation availability, well into the 21st Century. Additionally, a lack of a proper national nuclear waste repository has implications concerning national strategic defense programs and terminal global warming temperature increase.
The Bush Administration has moved forward with the Department of Energy (DoE) application for a construction license to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) (at Rockville, Md., Tuesday, June 3, 2008). The application is to build the nuclear repository at Yucca Mountain, within in Nevada.
Seventeen volumes of reviewed data and reports make up the application. The construction license application runs to 8600 pages backed up by tens of thousands of pages of documentation. A truck delivered the application package. Significant sections of the construction document package have been previously peer reviewed by national and international nuclear agencies and experts.
The US Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 made the DoE responsible for finding a site, building and operating a geologic repository for the country's spent fuel and high-level radioactive waste. Nine potential sites under consideration in 1983 were subsequently narrowed down to three, and in 1987 Congress directed the DoE to pursue only one of them, Yucca Mountain. The final legislative vote approving the development of a repository at the site was passed by the Senate in 2002.
Work started on an Exploratory Studies Facility at Yucca Mountain in 1993 and by 1998, a five-mile main tunnel with several connected research areas off it plus a 1.7-mile cross drift tunnel had been built to enable detailed site characterization studies to be performed. The Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) estimates that about $9 billion has been spent on Yucca Mountain so far. A railway connection needs to be built. State and individual litigation against the federal project remains a concern.
On March 3, 2010, the Department of Energy (DoE) filed a motion with the NRC to withdraw the license application for a high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain with prejudice. The President's fiscal year 2011 budget request eliminates funding for OCRWM. The new Office of Nuclear Energy formed by President Obama will lead used fuel activities previously performed by OCRWM.
Funding from the private nuclear industry for Yucca Mountain has been collected and is being held in government receivership.
Not identified within this letter are several important additional Yucca Mountain and nuclear facility state and federal legislation.
President George W. Bush gave the go-ahead for the Yucca Mountain waste repository in 2002. Despite the 2002 Senate approval of the site, the future construction of a repository at Yucca Mountain was subject to the vagaries of the prevailing politics.
President George W. Bush gave permission to proceed for the Yucca Mountain waste repository in 2002 and despite the 2002 Senate approval of the site, the future construction of a repository at Yucca Mountain was subject to the vagaries of the prevailing politics, NRC delay and unnecessary increased the cost of new U.S. nuclear facilities
By design, over decades, congressional Democrat leadership has unnecessary delayed and unnecessary increased the cost of new U.S. nuclear facilities. NRC members have delayed Approval Design Certification Applications and applications for a combined license (COL).
Despite a near halt in new U.S. construction of more than 30 years, U.S. reliance on nuclear power has continued to grow, but with few new reactors built. It is expected that only 4-6 new U.S. units may come on line by 2020, the first of those resulting from 16 license applications to build 24 new nuclear reactors made since mid-2007:
Adding in pre-application time with licensing certification period for the NRC review of a new reactor certification is 7-20+ years and of the more than one dozen different reactors that have been up to pre-application only 4 reactors are certified and three of those are variations of the same reactor. So 7-20+ years and the odds of successfully getting through certification are about 20% or less. Obviously, since the NRC was installed by Congress in 1974, for self-serving political reasons the anti nuclear Democrats have undermined U.S. nuclear energy.
The 20% odds seem even worse if your reactor is not submitted by Westinghouse (which three of the four certified reactors, but did not get the International Reactor Innovative and Secure (IRIS) reactor certified yet), or the reactor is not a light water reactor, or a pressure water reactor. International Reactor Innovative and Secure (IRIS) is a Generation IV reactor design made by an international team of companies, laboratories, and universities and coordinated by Westinghouse. IRIS is hoped to open up new markets for nuclear power and make a bridge from Generation III reactor to Generation IV reactor technology.
There have been CANDU heavy water reactors (which have had versions built around the world), pebble bed and high temperature reactors that have been put before the NRC members but they have never made it to the start of the certification process after ten years or more. CANDU ® stands for "CANada Deuterium Uranium." Canadian-designed power reactor of PHWR type (Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor) use heavy water (deuterium oxide) for moderator and coolant, and natural uranium for fuel.
It appears obvious that anti nuclear congressional Democrats retain tight control over NRC members’ delay of Approval Design Certification Applications and applications for a combined license (COL).
In the United States, state and federal environmental and NRC regulatory approvals, state regulatory approvals, and litigation lengthen the time from initiation of the project until its beginning operation, increasing financing costs and making capital more difficult to obtain.
This means that the fully loaded capital costs for nuclear plants in the United States could potentially be 200 to 250 percent more expensive than the new Chinese nuclear plants. The U.S. is throwing $100 billions down the drain to maintain state and federal U.S. Green anti nuclear policies.
With President Obama’s closure of Yucca Mountain, there is no long-term nuclear waste material storage for existing and future use of nuclear electrical generation, and other nuclear uses. Without long-term nuclear waste storage facilities, nuclear electrical generating facilities are an increasingly unnecessary risky to build. Lacking of a working nuclear repository and denial of construction new nuclear facilities is a congressional national security issue.
There an additional nuclear development funding concerns. With the end of the human race 2050-2099, the nuclear energy industry will not have enough customers to pay off the development debt of a new nuclear site.
Technology, Transfer, and Westinghouse
China can build Western-designed nuclear reactors in less than 4 years at 40% less Western cost.
Without public consultation with Congress, President Obama in 2009 transferred the U.S. DoE’s Argonne (IFR) nuclear reprocessing project to China along with Westinghouse AP1000 Generation III design and construction drawings. The Westinghouse AP1000 is the main basis of China's move to Generation III technology, and involves a major technology transfer agreement. By so doing the AP1000 technology transfer, President Obama’s gave away critical U.S. nuclear technology to a significant economic adversary to the U.S.
The first four Chinese AP1000 reactors build are from modules fabricated adjacent to each site. The timeline is 50 months from first concrete to fuel loading, and then six months to grid connection, with first costs expected to reduce significantly for the following units. The cost of the first four built is expected to be less than $2000/kW of rated capacity and reducing to $1600/kW for further units. Contrasting Chinese construction cost examples of U.S. nuclear units undergoing the permit process that include other charges are estimated at around $8,000 to $10,000/kW of rated capacity and an additional financing charges and project contingencies, at $5,335/kW. American huge costs in the nuclear industry result from political overhead. America and other industrialized nations prosper with cheap energy. Now America needs cheap clean energy, not expensive ‘renewable’ energy.
Note that Westinghouse AP1000 has three of the four NRC new certified reactors and appears to be receiving preferential political treatment. Westinghouse appears to be receiving preferential favorable treatment from Obama. There may be a political quid quo pro campaign contribution Bribery issues within the Obama administration that involves Westinghouse and their U.S. nuclear technology and “renewable” energy expansion.
Carbon economies changes
Human energy consumption is the major contributor of human greenhouse gases (GHGs) of 61%. Within energy consumption, 40% is electricity and heat generation, another 20% is transportation, and the remainder is heat and industry use. Other greenhouse gas (GHG) factors contribute 39% of the GHGs.
“Renewable energy” has nothing to do with global warming temperature reduction. The only reason to shift the United States from an existing coal carbon (coal, oil, natural gas) economy to a clean nuclear energy economy is an essential need to reduce U.S. global warming greenhouse gas emissions. Without such gas reductions, the human race terminates 2050-2099. “Renewable energy” does nothing to reduce GHGs.
We live in an age with considerable doubt as to the ability of the human race to survive much longer. It is up to the politicians to decide now what will be the course of action that will save humanity.
Global warming temperature increase is at 0.8oC. The global warming temperature increase is increasing faster. By 2030-2040, global temperature will exceed +2oC above preindustrial temperature. There are only four avenues available that might alter the course global warming, environmental, and human events:
With the United Nations predicting world population growth from 6.6 billion in 2007 to 8.2 billion by 2030, demand for energy must increase substantially over that period. Global temperature crosses “The 2oC Limit” 2030-2040. Both population growth and increasing standards of living for many people in developing countries will cause strong growth in energy demand.
Over 70% of the increased energy demand is from developing countries, led by China and India - China overtook the USA as top carbon dioxide (CO2) emitter in 2007.
Nuclear power generation is an established part of the world's electricity mix. What is NOT STATED is “safe” greenhouse gas level for a global warming temperature increase. Until “safe” natural and human greenhouse gas emission-levels are established, U.S. and multinational safe energy sources CANNOT be established. Therefore, the national energy ratios of coal, oil, natural gas, hydro, nuclear, and “renewables” CANNOT be safely established. Natural methane clathrate releases of methane must be included within all human GHG emissions.
If there are no significant changes in global politics and energy the human race between 2050 and 2099 will end.
With the 2010 understanding of global warming, to have any reasonable 75% chance of avoiding greater dangerous climate change by keeping the global warming temperature rise relative to preindustrial temperatures below +2oC — global carbon emissions (CO2) will need to peak global greenhouse gas equivalent emissions (CO2eq) by 2015-2020, and fall at least 16% worldwide by 2030 (based on 1990 levels). Additional global human and natural greenhouse gas emission-reductions are necessary beyond 2050 towards a zero carbon economy by the end of the century. To remain below a +1.5oC threshold requires greater reductions of human global carbon emissions (CO2).
National economic systems have built in carbon emissions and other human (anthropogenic) greenhouse gas emissions. Nature responds with her own greenhouse gas emissions. Combined and accumulated natural and human global warming greenhouse gas emissions (CO2eq) form radiant forces that control Earth’s global warming temperature environment.
You can’t fool Mother Nature. If natural and/or human greenhouse gases increase, global warming temperature increases. Natural methane clathrate is a particularly troubling global warming greenhouse gas.
Congressional Impeachment
Considering the gravity of the situation of a non-viable 21st Century U.S. nuclear programs, the closure of Yucca Mountain Nuclear Repository by President Obama requires congressional Impeachment.
President Obama closed Yucca Mountain as a political act without regard to public safety, national and private economies, global warming temperature increase, and U.S. national security. There is concern that these actions constitute High Crimes and Misdemeanors.
Westinghouse appears to be receiving preferential favorable treatment from Obama, which could be a result of Bribery.
President Obama in 2009 transferred the U.S. DOE’s Argonne (IFR) nuclear reprocessing project to China along with Westinghouse AP1000 Generation III design and construction drawings. It is not in national economic or long-term interests for President Obama to give away U.S. high-technology.
President Obama in 2009 transferred the U.S. DoE’s Argonne (IFR) nuclear reprocessing project to China along with Westinghouse AP1000 Generation III design and construction drawings. It is not in national economic or long-term interests for President Obama to give away U.S. high technology. To restore national security and reduce global warming temperature increase it is necessary that Congress conduct a congressional Impeachment on issues of Bribery, or other High Crimes and Misdemeanors. The Impeachment concerns President Obama’s oversight of NRC’s and DoE’s management of U.S. nuclear future, Obama’s nuclear technology transfer to a foreign country, Obama’s management of global warming temperature increase, and Obama’s closing of Yucca Mountain Nuclear Repository.
The U.S. House of Representatives has the sole power of impeaching.
A Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) report released Thursday, July 21, 2011, makes no conclusions about whether entombing the nation's most radioactive material at the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Repository site in the desert northwest of Las Vegas is scientifically sound or safe. This is because the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Repository project was permanently closed under order of President Obama. Such closure of Yucca Mountain is directly opposed to decades of Congressional directives and legislation. Without an expanded U.S. nuclear program that includes Yucca Mountain, the human race shall be terminated 2050-2099.
Considering the gravity of the situation of a non-viable 21st Century U.S. nuclear program, the closure of Yucca Mountain by President Obama requires impeachment proceedings by the U.S. House of Representatives.
Impeachment
Impeachment in the United States is an expressed power of the legislature that allows for formal charges against a civil officer of government for crimes committed in office. The actual trial on those charges, and subsequent removal of an official on conviction on those charges, is separate from the act of impeachment itself. At the federal level, Article Two of the United States Constitution (Section 4 - Disqualification) states that "The President, Vice President, and all civil Officers of the United States shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other High Crimes and Misdemeanors." The House of Representatives has the sole power of impeaching, while the United States Senate has the sole power of all impeachments trials.
Impeachment, in the U.S. and Great Britain, are proceedings by a legislature for the removal from office of a public official charged with misconduct in office. Impeachment comprises both the act of formulating the accusation and the resulting trial of the charges; it is frequently but erroneously taken to mean only the removal from office of an accused public official. An impeachment trial may result in an acquittal or in a verdict of guilty. In the latter case the impeached official is removed from office; if the charges warrant such action, the official is also remanded to the proper authorities for trial before a court.
Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other High Crimes and Misdemeanors has well defined case law, mostly found in English law. Impeachment was first used in the British political system against Baron Latimer the 4th during the Good Parliament of 1376.
Obama’s shutdown of Yucca Mountain October 1, 2010
In agreement with congressional left Democrat leadership, President Obama ordered the shutdown of the nation’s proposed Yucca Mountain Nuclear Repository, October 1, 2010. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff commenced orderly closure of its Yucca Mountain activities.
"The attached Evaluation Report on the Content of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Yucca Mountain Repository License Application, represents the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff’s assessment of information DOE provided about repository performance after a repository is permanently closed."... "In October 2010, the NRC staff commenced orderly closure of its Yucca Mountain activities. As part of that orderly closure, the NRC staff prepared a knowledge management document, to document NRC staff’s technical assessment of information presented in DOE’s Safety Analysis Report (SAR), dated June 3, 2008 as amended, and supporting information."... "Prior to October 1, 2010, the NRC staff was preparing a Safety Evaluation Report that represented NRC’s licensing assessment of DOE’s SAR. Since October, reviews of individual chapters have been ongoing for the purposes. This was the most effective and efficient method of capturing the staff’s technical review of DOE’s SAR for knowledge management purposes and precluded the need to start entirely over."
Reference: NRC staff MEMO - Sub: TECHNICAL EVALUATION REPORT ON THE CONTENT OF THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY’S YUCCA MOUNTAIN REPOSITORY LICENSE APPLICATION; POST CLOSURE VOLUME: REPOSITORY SAFETY AFTER PERMANENT CLOSURE, Catherine Haney, Director Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguard, July 19, 2011.
U.S. NRC staff REPORT "Technical Evaluation Report on the Content of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Yucca Mountain Repository License Application" Post closure Volume: Repository Safety After Permanent Closure
Obama controls NRC – Prior to October 1, 2010, the NRC staff was preparing a Safety Evaluation Report that represented NRC’s licensing assessment of DOE’s SAR.
President Obama stacked the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) with his political appointees. Gregory B. Jaczko (former adviser to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev) was designated Chairman of the NRC by President Barack Obama on May 13, 2009. Obama’s NRC October 13, 2009 appointees are George Apostolakis, William Magwood, and William Ostendorff. Commissioner Kristine L. Svinicki was sworn in March 28, 2008.
Why was there a need for President Obama to replace three NRC Commissioners?
Yucca Mountain shut down 1978-2011
After an independent licensing board last year 2010 rejected the Obama administration's request to withdraw the Yucca Mountain project application, NRC Chairman Jaczko instructed NRC staff to stop work on questions about possible groundwater contamination 10,000 years from now, and radiation releases a million years from now. Answering these questions was central to left Democrat anti nuclear protest groups.
Promoted by decades of anti-nuclear leadership and blocking completion of Yucca Mountain, is the left Democrats requirement to exclude “possible groundwater contamination 10,000 years in the future and radiation releases for a million years.” The left Democrats’ 10,000-year requirement is a political ploy to block Yucca Mountain and U.S. nuclear industry development, the human races does not exist past 2099. Resulting from not a timely development of many nuclear energy facilities is increased natural and human (anthropomorphic) greenhouse gas emissions. There is no justification for the political “possible groundwater contamination 10,000 years” requirement. Continuing human global warming greenhouse emissions is a mass suicide pact for more than 9 billion people.
The NRC staff report does not address any licensing or regulatory issues concerning Yucca Mountain, which has been in the planning stages for nearly three decades at an estimated cost of $15 billion. The 733-page NRC technical evaluation includes no findings about whether the proposed Yucca Mountain repository meets regulatory requirements.
In a statement, the NRC staff described the closing report as "part of the agency's orderly closeout of the Yucca Mountain license review process" and said it was "intended as a public record of the staff's scientific and technical work."
Yucca Mountain is the nation's planned repository for spent nuclear fuel. The U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) began studying Yucca Mountain, Nevada, in 1978 to determine whether it would be suitable for the nation's first long-term geologic repository for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. Currently stored at 126 sites around the nation, these materials are a result of nuclear power generation and national defense programs.
Since the 1960s, it has been the position of various state Democrat extreme environmentalist movements, communists, and anti nuclear groups to ignore science, technology, and U.S. strategic interests – and to forward their authority and control over commercial nuclear high-level waste and strategic high-level nuclear waste. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) was established in 1974, at the start of Green nuclear energy chaos.
A nuclear repository is necessary for America's nuclear fuel cycle and is an integral part of American energy needs and national defense programs, which satisfies defense needs and global greenhouse gas reductions. As they did with the development of sustainable clean nuclear base-load electricity, the anti nuclear coterie effectively undermined the decades of development of the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Repository and multinational efforts to reduce global warming temperature increase.
The blocking of U.S. nuclear power development and safe Yucca Mountain Repository long-term storage development has profound implications for U.S. nuclear base-load electricity generation availability, well into the 21st Century. Additionally, a lack of a proper national nuclear waste repository has implications concerning national strategic defense programs and terminal global warming temperature increase.
The Bush Administration has moved forward with the Department of Energy (DoE) application for a construction license to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) (at Rockville, Md., Tuesday, June 3, 2008). The application is to build the nuclear repository at Yucca Mountain, within in Nevada.
Seventeen volumes of reviewed data and reports make up the application. The construction license application runs to 8600 pages backed up by tens of thousands of pages of documentation. A truck delivered the application package. Significant sections of the construction document package have been previously peer reviewed by national and international nuclear agencies and experts.
The US Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 made the DoE responsible for finding a site, building and operating a geologic repository for the country's spent fuel and high-level radioactive waste. Nine potential sites under consideration in 1983 were subsequently narrowed down to three, and in 1987 Congress directed the DoE to pursue only one of them, Yucca Mountain. The final legislative vote approving the development of a repository at the site was passed by the Senate in 2002.
Work started on an Exploratory Studies Facility at Yucca Mountain in 1993 and by 1998, a five-mile main tunnel with several connected research areas off it plus a 1.7-mile cross drift tunnel had been built to enable detailed site characterization studies to be performed. The Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) estimates that about $9 billion has been spent on Yucca Mountain so far. A railway connection needs to be built. State and individual litigation against the federal project remains a concern.
On March 3, 2010, the Department of Energy (DoE) filed a motion with the NRC to withdraw the license application for a high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain with prejudice. The President's fiscal year 2011 budget request eliminates funding for OCRWM. The new Office of Nuclear Energy formed by President Obama will lead used fuel activities previously performed by OCRWM.
Funding from the private nuclear industry for Yucca Mountain has been collected and is being held in government receivership.
Not identified within this letter are several important additional Yucca Mountain and nuclear facility state and federal legislation.
President George W. Bush gave the go-ahead for the Yucca Mountain waste repository in 2002. Despite the 2002 Senate approval of the site, the future construction of a repository at Yucca Mountain was subject to the vagaries of the prevailing politics.
President George W. Bush gave permission to proceed for the Yucca Mountain waste repository in 2002 and despite the 2002 Senate approval of the site, the future construction of a repository at Yucca Mountain was subject to the vagaries of the prevailing politics, NRC delay and unnecessary increased the cost of new U.S. nuclear facilities
By design, over decades, congressional Democrat leadership has unnecessary delayed and unnecessary increased the cost of new U.S. nuclear facilities. NRC members have delayed Approval Design Certification Applications and applications for a combined license (COL).
Despite a near halt in new U.S. construction of more than 30 years, U.S. reliance on nuclear power has continued to grow, but with few new reactors built. It is expected that only 4-6 new U.S. units may come on line by 2020, the first of those resulting from 16 license applications to build 24 new nuclear reactors made since mid-2007:
NRC DESIGN CERTIFICATION APPLICATIONS
The NRC staff is currently reviewing the following lengthy design certification applications:
● AP1000 Amendment: Westinghouse Electric Company
● ABWR Design Certification Rule (DCR) Amendment: South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Company
● Economic Simplified Boiling-Water Reactor (ESBWR): GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy
● U.S. EPR: AREVA Nuclear Power
● U.S. Advanced Pressurized-Water Reactor (US-APWR): Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.
● ABWR Design Certification Renewal: Toshiba Corporation Power Systems Company
● ABWR Design Certification Renewal: GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy
The NRC has issued only provisional design certifications.
NRC APPLICATION FOR A COMBINED LICENSE (COL)
Currently there are four certified reactor designs that can be referenced in an application for a combined license (COL) to build and operate a nuclear power plant. However, the COLs are not approved by the NRC. They are:
● Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) design by GE Nuclear Energy (May 1997);
● System 80+ design by Westinghouse (formerly ABB-Combustion Engineering) (May 1997)
● AP600 design by Westinghouse (December 1999)
● AP1000 design by Westinghouse (January 2006)
● Location of Projected 28 New Nuclear Power Reactors: http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-reactors/col/new-reactor-map.html
Adding in pre-application time with licensing certification period for the NRC review of a new reactor certification is 7-20+ years and of the more than one dozen different reactors that have been up to pre-application only 4 reactors are certified and three of those are variations of the same reactor. So 7-20+ years and the odds of successfully getting through certification are about 20% or less. Obviously, since the NRC was installed by Congress in 1974, for self-serving political reasons the anti nuclear Democrats have undermined U.S. nuclear energy.
The 20% odds seem even worse if your reactor is not submitted by Westinghouse (which three of the four certified reactors, but did not get the International Reactor Innovative and Secure (IRIS) reactor certified yet), or the reactor is not a light water reactor, or a pressure water reactor. International Reactor Innovative and Secure (IRIS) is a Generation IV reactor design made by an international team of companies, laboratories, and universities and coordinated by Westinghouse. IRIS is hoped to open up new markets for nuclear power and make a bridge from Generation III reactor to Generation IV reactor technology.
There have been CANDU heavy water reactors (which have had versions built around the world), pebble bed and high temperature reactors that have been put before the NRC members but they have never made it to the start of the certification process after ten years or more. CANDU ® stands for "CANada Deuterium Uranium." Canadian-designed power reactor of PHWR type (Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor) use heavy water (deuterium oxide) for moderator and coolant, and natural uranium for fuel.
It appears obvious that anti nuclear congressional Democrats retain tight control over NRC members’ delay of Approval Design Certification Applications and applications for a combined license (COL).
In the United States, state and federal environmental and NRC regulatory approvals, state regulatory approvals, and litigation lengthen the time from initiation of the project until its beginning operation, increasing financing costs and making capital more difficult to obtain.
● Energy Information Administration estimates the development and construction overnight capital cost for an advanced nuclear reactor, which excludes financing charges and project contingencies, at $5,335 per kilowatt.
● Construction costs of nuclear units undergoing the permit process that include these other charges are estimated at around $8,000 to $10,000 per kilowatt.
This means that the fully loaded capital costs for nuclear plants in the United States could potentially be 200 to 250 percent more expensive than the new Chinese nuclear plants. The U.S. is throwing $100 billions down the drain to maintain state and federal U.S. Green anti nuclear policies.
With President Obama’s closure of Yucca Mountain, there is no long-term nuclear waste material storage for existing and future use of nuclear electrical generation, and other nuclear uses. Without long-term nuclear waste storage facilities, nuclear electrical generating facilities are an increasingly unnecessary risky to build. Lacking of a working nuclear repository and denial of construction new nuclear facilities is a congressional national security issue.
There an additional nuclear development funding concerns. With the end of the human race 2050-2099, the nuclear energy industry will not have enough customers to pay off the development debt of a new nuclear site.
Technology, Transfer, and Westinghouse
China can build Western-designed nuclear reactors in less than 4 years at 40% less Western cost.
Without public consultation with Congress, President Obama in 2009 transferred the U.S. DoE’s Argonne (IFR) nuclear reprocessing project to China along with Westinghouse AP1000 Generation III design and construction drawings. The Westinghouse AP1000 is the main basis of China's move to Generation III technology, and involves a major technology transfer agreement. By so doing the AP1000 technology transfer, President Obama’s gave away critical U.S. nuclear technology to a significant economic adversary to the U.S.
The first four Chinese AP1000 reactors build are from modules fabricated adjacent to each site. The timeline is 50 months from first concrete to fuel loading, and then six months to grid connection, with first costs expected to reduce significantly for the following units. The cost of the first four built is expected to be less than $2000/kW of rated capacity and reducing to $1600/kW for further units. Contrasting Chinese construction cost examples of U.S. nuclear units undergoing the permit process that include other charges are estimated at around $8,000 to $10,000/kW of rated capacity and an additional financing charges and project contingencies, at $5,335/kW. American huge costs in the nuclear industry result from political overhead. America and other industrialized nations prosper with cheap energy. Now America needs cheap clean energy, not expensive ‘renewable’ energy.
Note that Westinghouse AP1000 has three of the four NRC new certified reactors and appears to be receiving preferential political treatment. Westinghouse appears to be receiving preferential favorable treatment from Obama. There may be a political quid quo pro campaign contribution Bribery issues within the Obama administration that involves Westinghouse and their U.S. nuclear technology and “renewable” energy expansion.
Carbon economies changes
Human energy consumption is the major contributor of human greenhouse gases (GHGs) of 61%. Within energy consumption, 40% is electricity and heat generation, another 20% is transportation, and the remainder is heat and industry use. Other greenhouse gas (GHG) factors contribute 39% of the GHGs.
“Renewable energy” has nothing to do with global warming temperature reduction. The only reason to shift the United States from an existing coal carbon (coal, oil, natural gas) economy to a clean nuclear energy economy is an essential need to reduce U.S. global warming greenhouse gas emissions. Without such gas reductions, the human race terminates 2050-2099. “Renewable energy” does nothing to reduce GHGs.
We live in an age with considerable doubt as to the ability of the human race to survive much longer. It is up to the politicians to decide now what will be the course of action that will save humanity.
Global warming temperature increase is at 0.8oC. The global warming temperature increase is increasing faster. By 2030-2040, global temperature will exceed +2oC above preindustrial temperature. There are only four avenues available that might alter the course global warming, environmental, and human events:
● Modify land, groundwater, and sea use practices. Not a viable option.
● Limit the size of the human population rate of growth that is now about 6.7 billion people. Not a viable option.
● Stop powerful greenhouse gas methane clathrates release of methane by regulating ocean temperatures. Not a viable option.
● Stop (extremely limit) using hydrocarbon energy (coal, oil, natural gas). A viable option only if there is rapid and significantly expansion of clean energy globally. Nuclear energy is the only new clean energy that has the energy capacity to meet U.S. and global clean energy needs for global warming.
With the United Nations predicting world population growth from 6.6 billion in 2007 to 8.2 billion by 2030, demand for energy must increase substantially over that period. Global temperature crosses “The 2oC Limit” 2030-2040. Both population growth and increasing standards of living for many people in developing countries will cause strong growth in energy demand.
● The world will need greatly increased energy supplies 2015-2020, especially cleanly generated electricity.
● Electricity demand is increasing twice as fast as overall energy use. Demand is likely to rise 76% to 2030.
● Nuclear power provides about 14% of the world's electricity, almost 24% of electricity in OECD countries, and 34% in the EU. Its use is increasing.
● Nuclear power is the most environmentally benign way of producing electricity on a large scale.
● Renewable energy-sources other than hydro have high generating costs but are helpful at the margin in providing clean power.
Over 70% of the increased energy demand is from developing countries, led by China and India - China overtook the USA as top carbon dioxide (CO2) emitter in 2007.
Nuclear power generation is an established part of the world's electricity mix. What is NOT STATED is “safe” greenhouse gas level for a global warming temperature increase. Until “safe” natural and human greenhouse gas emission-levels are established, U.S. and multinational safe energy sources CANNOT be established. Therefore, the national energy ratios of coal, oil, natural gas, hydro, nuclear, and “renewables” CANNOT be safely established. Natural methane clathrate releases of methane must be included within all human GHG emissions.
If there are no significant changes in global politics and energy the human race between 2050 and 2099 will end.
With the 2010 understanding of global warming, to have any reasonable 75% chance of avoiding greater dangerous climate change by keeping the global warming temperature rise relative to preindustrial temperatures below +2oC — global carbon emissions (CO2) will need to peak global greenhouse gas equivalent emissions (CO2eq) by 2015-2020, and fall at least 16% worldwide by 2030 (based on 1990 levels). Additional global human and natural greenhouse gas emission-reductions are necessary beyond 2050 towards a zero carbon economy by the end of the century. To remain below a +1.5oC threshold requires greater reductions of human global carbon emissions (CO2).
National economic systems have built in carbon emissions and other human (anthropogenic) greenhouse gas emissions. Nature responds with her own greenhouse gas emissions. Combined and accumulated natural and human global warming greenhouse gas emissions (CO2eq) form radiant forces that control Earth’s global warming temperature environment.
You can’t fool Mother Nature. If natural and/or human greenhouse gases increase, global warming temperature increases. Natural methane clathrate is a particularly troubling global warming greenhouse gas.
Congressional Impeachment
Considering the gravity of the situation of a non-viable 21st Century U.S. nuclear programs, the closure of Yucca Mountain Nuclear Repository by President Obama requires congressional Impeachment.
President Obama closed Yucca Mountain as a political act without regard to public safety, national and private economies, global warming temperature increase, and U.S. national security. There is concern that these actions constitute High Crimes and Misdemeanors.
Westinghouse appears to be receiving preferential favorable treatment from Obama, which could be a result of Bribery.
President Obama in 2009 transferred the U.S. DOE’s Argonne (IFR) nuclear reprocessing project to China along with Westinghouse AP1000 Generation III design and construction drawings. It is not in national economic or long-term interests for President Obama to give away U.S. high-technology.
President Obama in 2009 transferred the U.S. DoE’s Argonne (IFR) nuclear reprocessing project to China along with Westinghouse AP1000 Generation III design and construction drawings. It is not in national economic or long-term interests for President Obama to give away U.S. high technology. To restore national security and reduce global warming temperature increase it is necessary that Congress conduct a congressional Impeachment on issues of Bribery, or other High Crimes and Misdemeanors. The Impeachment concerns President Obama’s oversight of NRC’s and DoE’s management of U.S. nuclear future, Obama’s nuclear technology transfer to a foreign country, Obama’s management of global warming temperature increase, and Obama’s closing of Yucca Mountain Nuclear Repository.
The U.S. House of Representatives has the sole power of impeaching.
