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Viewpoint: Lessons from Three Mile Island aren’t over

By on April 8, 2019 in Energy, Environmental Justice, Nuclear Power, Xcel Energy

Note: This was published in the Red Wing Republican Eagle on April 5, 2019. It is a shorter version of this previous post.

Alan Muller is an environmental consultant. He has been executive director of Green Delaware, an environmental and public advocacy organization in Delaware, since 1995, and before that was a contract consultant DuPont Co.’s engineering department. Muller focuses on environmental and health issues including energy; waste; incinerators; air, water and land quality and pollution; and climate change.

To ignore the human impacts of the nuclear industry is a moral failure

Forty years ago, on March 28, 1979, the Three Mile Island Unit 2 nuclear power reactor in central Pennsylvania partially melted down and experienced at least one explosion.

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40 years on, have we learned the lessons of Three Mile Island?

By on March 28, 2019 in Childrens' Health, City of Red Wing, climate change, Energy, Nuclear Power, Xcel Energy
Monticello nuke plant with tall stack for venting radioactives.


[Note: A version of this distributed by email had the wrong title. Apologies!]

40 years ago, on March 28, 1979, Three Mile Island (TMI) Unit 2 nuclear power plant melted down and experienced a hydrogen explosion.  (Unit 1 has continued to run all these years but likely will be shut down soon as it loses a lot of money for the owners.) 

Days afterwards: “Governor Thornburgh advised pregnant women and pre-school age children to leave the area within a five-mile radius of the Three Mile Island facility until further notice. This led to the panic the governor had hoped to avoid; within days, more than 100,000 people had fled surrounding towns.”

The cause was a combination of equipment failures, design defects, and operator errors.

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Xcel Energy–the most abusive special interest in Minnesota?

By on March 22, 2018 in City of Red Wing (Minnesota), Minnesota energy policy, Minnesota Legislature, MN Public Utilities Commission, Nuclear Power, Xcel Energy

Action Alert:  Oppose Xcel Energy ripoff legislation

Is Xcel really the worst?  It’s hard to say–there are so many candidates.  The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce?  3M?  The shadowy interests behind PolyMet and Twin Metals?

From where I write, in Red Wing, which is some sort of ultimate Xcel “company town,” there’s just no contest.  And for someone with a history of working on waste and energy issues, living in a community (nice as it is in many other ways) rendered so bereft of dignity and integrity by it’s servile relationship with Xcel can be painful.  (Of course, the locals don’t seen it that way–they are so used to being told what to do and what to think that they don’t notice.)

Info on Xcel’s latest foray is below, Senate File 3504 /House File 3708 (they are identical).

To see the abuses of Xcel on a larger playing field, one needs to visit the MN Public Utilities Commission and/or the state Legislature.  A puppet show on a different scale entirely.

A few things I’ve written here in the past might be useful or at least entertaining background:

https://alanmuller.com/minnesota-a-wholly-owned-subsidiary-of-xcel-energy-1-in-a-series/

https://alanmuller.com/action-alert-another-inexcusable-giveaway-to-xcel-energy/

https://alanmuller.com/areva-nuclear-scandal-casts-doubt-on-the-safety-of-the-prairie-island-i-and-ii-reactors/

https://alanmuller.com/integrated-resource-planning-and-why-doesnt-minnesota-have-it/

https://alanmuller.com/do-nuclear-waste-dumps-again-threaten-minnesota/

https://alanmuller.com/another-utility-only-public-gagged-energy-commission-meeting-march-3rd/

So, Xcel Energy has three nuclear power units, the only ones in Minnesota.  They were all built in the 1960s/1970s and are old, rickety, dangerous, and expensive.  The are not much needed for the electricity they produce but are highly efficient and effective for separating Xcel’s ratepayers from their money.

Over the last decade or so hundreds of millions of dollars have been poured into these units, for “uprates” (running them at higher output than originally designed for, but cancelled in the case of the two Prairie Island reactors) and license extensions (running them 20 years longer than originally promised).  Xcel is allowed to charge ratepayers a high and guaranteed rate of return on these investments, often above ten percent, so has an incentive to spend as much as possible.

Now it’s time for another big reach into our pockets to feed the nukes.  Behold Senate File 3504/House File 3708 (they are identical) introduced on March 15th and 12th 2018.  These bills rename the nukes “carbon reduction facilities” and would create a whole new bill category called a “carbon reduction rider” to pay for them.  Ratepayers and their advocates would have very limited rights to effectively object.

These bills are such gross ripoffs that some Minnesota NGOs, often comfortably snuggled up with Xcel, are objecting.  These include “Fresh Energy,” AARP, “Citizens Utility Board” (CUB), Energy Cents Coalition, and Citizens Federation–Northeast.

The problem is that they, like the Star Tribune, seem to be accepting the basic argument that the nukes deserve a giant infusion of our cash to keep them going.  They are only complaining about the oppressive details.  For instance, Fresh Energy says:

“While Fresh Energy believes it is potentially economically and environmentally beneficial to keep Xcel Energy’s nuclear plants open until the end of their federal license, a blank check is not the way to do it. The bill provides no guardrails to ensure these investments are prudent. We support pursuing a comprehensive analysis at the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission of what it may take to keep these plants operating another 15 years.”

A joint letter from several orgs, likely written by CUB, raises various objections to the bills as they stand, but doesn’t object to the basically problematic concept of “special processes for cost recovery of nuclear facilities.”  This suggests that in advocating on this issue and these bills, people should be wary of dealmaking and sellouts.  It’s happened before.  For a disgraceful example, CUB rolled over on Xcel legislation allowing it to build a fossil-fuel plant in Becker without the usual regulatory review.  Likewise, “Fresh Energy” rep J. Drake Hamilton has been going around giving “how great they are” presentations about Xcel.  Can objections from “Fresh Energy” be taken seriously?

In spite of all this, the news on future energy sources is basically good.  Wind is cheapest and getting cheaper.  Cost of solar is dropping rapidly.  “Storage” of various kinds, such as giant batteries, can deal with the intermittency of wind and solar.  There is no reason why carbon emissions and electric bills can’t go down together.  But it obviously won’t happen if Xcel and other utilities are allowed to keep on driving the train.  From an industry source, January 8, 2018

  • An Xcel Energy resource solicitation received more than 400 individual proposals, the utility reported last month, including what may be record-low prices for renewable energy paired with energy storage. 
  • The median price bid for wind-plus-storage projects in Xcel’s all-source solicitation was $21/MWh, GTM Research’s Shayle Kann noted on Twitter, and the median bid for solar-plus storage was $36/MWh. Previously, the lowest known bid for similar solar resources was $45/MWh in Arizona.

This is much cheaper than even old-nuke power and illustrates the foolishness of dumping more money into them.  Note also that these are for “power purchase agreements” and do not involve any rate-base-inflating capital investment by Xcel.

(Aside, we can note that since around 2010, while the actual wholesale cost of fuels and electricity has dropped, Xcel has received multiple large, unjustified rate increases and Minnesota now has above-average electricity rates. Right-wing policy shops like the Center of the American Experiment blame this on investment in “renewable energy.”  This is not the case.  The cause is the chokehold that Xcel and other utilities have on regulators, legislators, and NGOs.  So far as I have seen, only Attorney General Lori Swanson has offered much opposition, and that has been rather low-key.)

So yes, these two bills are horrible.  They probably have some throwaway aspects Xcel is prepared to give up to encourage rollovers.

The bigger picture is that Minnesota needs to start regulating its utilities in the public interest, not allowing the utilities to twist and distort policies to the benefit of their management and stockholders but at high cost to the public.  We need a PUC and a Legislature with backbone and integrity.

SF 3504 was to be heard March 22nd, but many concerned citizens showed up and the hearing was postponed to March 27th (Tuesday), scheduled for 01:00 PM in Room 1150 Minnesota Senate Bldg.  Energy and Utilities Finance and Policy Committee

If you would like to speak, contact Committee Administrator Darrin Lee at 651-293-2962 or darrin.lee@senate.mn.

Three of the 10 committee members, including the Chair (Osmek)  are bill sponsors and one (Goggin) is an Xcel employee.  Don’t assume you will be treated respectfully or that the meeting time and place won’t be moved around to frustrate citizens.

HF3708 has been referred to the House Job Growth and Energy Affordability Policy and Finance committee but as far as I know no hearing has been scheduled.

“A kakistocracy (/ˌkækɪsˈtɒkrəsi, –ˈstɒk-/) is a system of government which is run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens.”

Alan Muller

 

 

 

 

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Anti-smokestack resolutions “disappeared” by Goodhue County DFL operatives

By on March 28, 2016 in air pollution, City of Red Wing (Minnesota), Garbage, Garbage Incineration, Goodhue County, Minnesota energy policy, Nuclear Power, Uncategorized

At the DFL (Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party for the edification of my non-Minnesotan readers) precinct caucuses on March 1, in Red Wing, Minnesota, various resolutions were presented, as is customary.  These are supposed to make their way up the organizational hierarchy of the party, and help determine the state “platform.”  It’s supposed to be democracy in action.

(The good news  from my point of view is that the precinct, in a generally conservative area, was overrun with Bernie Sanders supporters, and the state as a whole went for Sanders over Clinton.) Continue Reading →

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Action Alert: Minnesota Public Utilities Commission: Withdraw funding for increased garbage incineration!

By on January 12, 2016 in "biomass", air pollution, City of Red Wing (Minnesota), Energy, Garbage Incineration, Goodhue County, Minnesota, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, MN Public Utilities Commission, Nuclear Power, Xcel Energy

If you want, skip the gory details and go directly to the action items lower down!

As someone with a longstanding interest in energy and environmental issues, Minnesota can be a little strange.  The state, or at least the central part of it, often seems like a wholly owned subsidiary of Xcel Energy (Northern States Power Company).  I’m appalled by the ease with which Xcel seems able to impose its will, and the lack of dignity and self-respect with which officials and self-proclaimed energy/environmental advocates kowtow, grin and shuffle, for Xcel.  Worse, I’m living in Red Wing, blessed with two Xcel nuclear reactors, Prairie Island 1 and 2, two Xcel garbage incinerators ( an old convertedcoal plant) and an Xcel nuclear waste parking lot, all within the city limits.  As far as what Xcel has to offer, Red Wing has it all!

There are so many interlocking scams going on, involving so many entities and so many moral and intellectual failures, that it can look and feel overwhelming.  I’m going to focus on one here and ask for your help: Continue Reading →

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Renuking Minnesota?

By on March 3, 2015 in Childrens' Health, City of Red Wing (Minnesota), Minnesota energy policy, Nuclear Power, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Uncategorized
monti1[1]Above: The Monticello reactor.  Note the tall stack used to vent cancer-causing radioactive gases.

(Please forgive the personal notes in this post.  So often we debate the technical merits of nuke power, without sufficiently considering the human side, the human impacts, of the decisions getting made.)

I’ve had more of a relationship with the nuclear industry than seems ideal.  In Delaware, I can look out a window and see the domes of three reactors.  In 2000, I wrote in an alert:

“Parts of New Castle County (DE) are in the “ingestion zones” (= within fifty miles) of 7 nuclear reactors (Limerick 1 and 2, Peach Bottom 2 & 3, Salem 1 and 2, and Hope Creek). While the nuclear industry has always claimed that it’s radiation output is too small to cause health problems, more and more reports are linking proximity to nuclear facilities to breast cancer, leukemia, childhood cancer and birth defects, and other health problems.”

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“What are we doing to our children’s brains?”

By on February 19, 2015 in "biomass", air pollution, Childrens' Health, climate change, Environmental Justice, Environmental Regulation--Protecting Minnesota, Garbage, Garbage Incineration, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, Nuclear Power, water pollution

“Environmental chemicals are wreaking havoc to last a lifetime”

In November, election results put many anti-health, anti-environmental activists into public office.  Did this happen because millions of people said to themselves “I have too much money … we need more pollution and disease … corporations and banks are being oppressed by the people …?”  I doubt it, but the effect is the same. Continue Reading →

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NRC Nuclear nonsense hearing in Minnetonka December 4th

By on December 5, 2013 in City of Red Wing (Minnesota), Goodhue County, Nuclear Power, Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Nuclear Regulatory Commission “Waste Confidence” public meeting December 4.

Minnetonka, Minnesota
Minneapolis Marriott Southwest
5801 Opus Parkway
Minnetonka, MN 55343

Open House
6:00-7:00 p.m. CST
Meeting
7:00-10:00 p.m. CST

This meeting (apparently it is not a formal public hearing) was originally scheduled for October 17th but postponed due to the federal government “shutdown.”  Previous meetings have had a three-minute time limit for speakers.  “NRC staff will not be available to answer questions related to the proposed rule or DGEIS during the formal meeting.”   (But they will at the Open House.) Continue Reading →

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Permanent shutdown of Vermont Yankee nuke plant announced–Monticello should be next

By on September 4, 2013 in Minnesota energy policy, Nuclear Power, Xcel Energy
Xcel’s Monticello nuke plant deserves the same fate, ASAP

This is significant to Minnesota as Vermont Yankee is similar in age and design to the Monticello nuke and also to the four destroyed Fukushima-Daiichi reactors that seem to pose an expanding threat with the passing of time.  (VT Yankee is a couple of years older, slightly smaller and has had more high-publicity scandals.) “Fukushima radiation leaks reach deadly new high” Exposure to emissions would be fatal within hours, say Japanese authorities, as race to build frozen wall begins. Continue Reading →

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