Tag: Concerns
EPA Rampaging on Coal Ash Rule Despite Groundwater Concerns
Despite pleas by environmental groups for more time to review recent dumps of groundwater monitoring data from power companies, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is forging ahead to finalize a proposed overhaul of the Obama administration’s 2015 final Coal Combustion Residuals (CCR) rule.
The EPA’s 45-day comment period for the agency’s March 1 proposed rule, which includes more than a dozen significant changes to the 2015 action, is slated to end on April 30. Most of the rule’s changes focus on providing more regulatory flexibility to owners of coal ash landfills or surface impoundments, and they explicitly give states the authority to operate CCR permit programs “in lieu of federal regulations,” as long as they are agency-approved. According to the EPA, those changes are expected to save industry between $ 32 million and $ 100 million per year.
However, the proposal also seeks to address four provisions that a federal court remanded to the agency in June 2016. Those changes, for example, propose a clarification of the type and magnitude of non-groundwater releases that would require a coal plant to comply with corrective action procedure, and it adds boron to a list of constituents that may trigger corrective action.…
France’s Nuclear Storm: Many Power Plants Down Due to Quality Concerns
[Note: This article will appear in the forthcoming December 2016 print issue of POWER.]
The discovery of widespread carbon segregation problems in critical nuclear plant components has crippled the French power industry—20 of the country’s 58 reactors are currently offline and under heavy scrutiny. France’s nuclear safety chairman said more anomalies “will likely be found,” as the extent of the contagion is still being uncovered.
With over half of France’s 58 reactors possibly affected by “carbon segregation,” the nation’s nuclear watchdog, the Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire (ASN) has ordered that preventative measures be taken immediately to ensure public safety. As this story goes into production in late October, ASN has confirmed that 20 reactors are currently offline and potentially more will shut down in coming weeks.
The massive outages are draining power from all over Europe. Worse, new questions continue to swirl about both the safety and integrity of Électricité de France SA’s (EDF’s) nuclear fleet, as well as the quality of some French- and Japanese-made components that EDF is using in various high-profile nuclear projects around the world.…