Nuclear Power’s Future May Hinge on Georgia Project

Nuclear Power’s Future May Hinge on Georgia Project

WAYNESBORO, Ga. — The two nuclear reactors rising out of the red Georgia clay here, twin behemoths of concrete and steel, make up one of the largest construction projects in the United States and represent a giant bet that their cost – in the range of $14 billion – will be cheaper than alternatives like natural gas.But something else is at stake with the reactors called Vogtle 3 and 4: the future of the American nuclear industry itself.

The Alvin W. Vogtle nuclear power plant near Augusta is using a new plant design, a new construction method and a new system of nuclear regulation for what the industry says is a faster, better and cheaper system that will lead the way for a new generation of reactors.

Until recently, a new reactor construction project had not been started in the United States for 30 years, and now Vogtle and a similar project in South Carolina, V.C. Summer 2 and 3, are supposed to provide the answer to nuclear power’s great questions: What does a new reactor cost? With the price of natural gas near historic lows, can it even be worthwhile?

As the current generation of reactors moves toward retirement, the two projects may be the industry’s last best hope.

“Everybody’s watching the construction of that plant,” said Barry Moline, executive director of the Florida Municipal Electric Association, speaking of Vogtle. Several association members are considering investing in a nearly identical plant proposed by Florida Power and Light in Miami. Mr. Moline said of Vogtle’s builders, led by Georgia Power, “If they can do it, that will be the model.”

And if they can’t, it could years before anybody thinks of trying again. The new designs are supposed to be 10 times less likely to have an accident and be easier to operate, but if they cannot be built roughly on time and on budget, then nuclear power will have trouble in the era of plentiful natural gas and emerging technologies like wind. Nuclear power could become a bypassed technology — like moon landings, Polaroid photos and cassette tapes.

Executives at Southern Company, Georgia Power’s corporate parent, say they are eager for the challenge. “It takes leadership to do something like this,” said Joseph A. Miller, Southern’s vice president for nuclear development.

Southern, one of the biggest utilities in the United States, raced to grab incentives offered by Congress to restart the nuclear construction business and to try out a licensing system devised by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to avoid a repeat of the experience of the 1970s and ‘80s.

In those decades parts of plants were built, ripped out and rebuilt because of design and regulatory problems, leading to ruinous costs. Examples sit across the muddy construction site: Vogtle 1 and 2, which opened in 1987 and 1989, cost $8.87 billion. When they were proposed in 1971 the estimated cost was $660 million.

For Vogtle 3 and 4, the company submitted a license application with a design described as nearly complete and received an operating license when construction had barely started, contingent on building exactly what it said it would.

The older plants, in contrast, were built by welders and pipe fitters and electricians who were working from incomplete plans that were conflicting, vague or inadequate to meet regulatory standards.

In a second innovation, Southern chose a system in which large sections of the plant would be prefabricated in multiton sections, shipped to the site and welded together into gigantic modules, then loaded into place by the world’s largest crane.

But with construction now roughly one-third complete, it is clear that much is not going as planned, and that the schedule — which is closely linked to cost because of growing interest expense on the incomplete asset — has slipped by at least 14 months and possibly more.

Still, all is not lost. Some of the changes since the company committed to the project seven years ago have helped it along; interest rates are at historic lows and the price for labor and materials has been held down by recession.

Turkish Police Push Into Square Near Park Protest

Turkish Police Push Into Square Near Park Protest

ISTANBUL — A large force of riot police entered Taksim Square early on Tuesday, firing tear gas grenades and using water cannons to disperse demonstrators who have occupied the square for more than a week as part of a protest to save a nearby park that the government wants to develop.

Television footage of the ongoing operation showed protesters hurling stones and Molotov cocktails at police vehicles as security officers responded with tear gas.

It appeared that relatively few protesters were in the square as the police moved in and many retreated to the park.

Huseyin Avni Mutlu, the governor of Istanbul, said in a Twitter message that the police would remove banners and posters. He said the activists who have been occupying Gezi Park for more than two weeks would not be affected.

“Gezi Park and Taksim will never be touched,” he said. “This morning you are in the safe hands of your police brothers.”

The police also tried to calm protesters. “Young people, please, stop hurling stones,” a police officer announced over a loudspeaker. “We are not going to touch Gezi Park.”

Despite that assurance, a group of police officers made its way into the park to pull down posters and banners. They were met with protesters chanting, “Everywhere Taksim, everywhere resistance,” but no confrontation ensued.

Television footage showed at least eight protesters standing behind metal shields against the pressure of water cannons, and CNN Turk reported that some demonstrators in Gezi Park had tried to persuade others outside to stop throwing rocks at the police. Other footage showed hundreds of activists inside the park wearing gas masks or swimming goggles and spraying soothing liquids into the eyes and mouths of people who had been affected by the tear gas around Taksim Square.

Official figures were not available, but news reports said dozens of people were injured in clashes that began around 7 a.m. At least three ambulances drove into the square to gather the injured, television images showed.

The operation came a day after the government appeared to change tactics, with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreeing to meet with protest leaders. Opposition to the razing of the park was a catalyst for the violent antigovernment demonstrations nationwide that began more than a week ago, escalating into the current political crisis.

The meeting between the prime minister and the protest leaders is scheduled for Wednesday, said Bulent Arinc, a deputy prime minister and government spokesman.

Mr. Arinc did not specify who among the protest leaders would attend. Still, it was the first public sign that Mr. Erdogan, a popular but stubborn leader who has broadly denounced the protests as the work of looters and thugs, was willing to directly engage at least some of the organizers in a dialogue.

“Our prime minister gave an appointment to some that led the events, and have been there from the very first day,” Mr. Arinc said in a televised statement. “I assume he will be meeting some of them on Wednesday.”

The Radikal newspaper said the list of people to meet Mr. Erdogan included Mucella Yapici, the spokeswoman of Taksim Solidarity, and representatives of Greenpeace and the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly, two nongovernmental organizations.

Mr. Arinc spoke Monday after a nearly seven-hour cabinet meeting during which members of Mr. Erdogan’s pro-Islamic Justice and Development Party discussed the protests, which began peacefully on May 31 but grew into sometimes violent confrontations in more than 60 cities across the country.

On Tuesday afternoon, protesters were standing behind a burning barricade in Tarlabasi Boulevard, one of the main streets leading to Taksim Square. Inside the square, police officers were standing guard around Cumhuriyet monument, an important national symbol celebrating the birth of the Turkish republic, which the police had earlier cleared of protesters’ posters and banners.

Water Levels Fall in Great Lakes, Taking a Toll on Shipping

Aboard the Dorothy Ann, in Lake Erie near Fairport Harbor, Ohio — As Capt. Jeremy R. Mock steered this 711-foot combination of tug and barge toward a harbor berth, a screen of red numbers indicated the decreasing depth of water under the vessel: 6 feet, 3.6 feet, 2 feet.Suddenly the numbers gave way to a line of red dashes: — — — — .

It was a signal that there was not enough water to measure.

Drought and other factors have created historically low water marks for the Great Lakes, putting the $34 billion Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway shipping industry in peril, a situation that could send ominous ripples throughout the economy.

Water levels in the Great Lakes have been below their long-term averages during the past 14 years, and this winter the water in Lakes Michigan and Huron, the hardest-hit lakes, dropped to record lows, according to the Army Corps of Engineers. Keith Kompoltowicz, the chief of watershed hydrology with the corps’s Detroit district, said that in January “the monthly mean was the lowest ever recorded, going back to 1918.”

While spring rains have helped so far this year, levels in all five Great Lakes are still low by historical standards, so getting through the shallow points in harbors and channels is a tense affair.

The combination of low water and infrequent dredging is annoying to recreational boaters, but the biggest impact is economic: shippers, carriers and the industries that rely on the bulk materials like limestone, iron ore, coal and salt are hugely dependent on lake travel.

Lakers can move products at prices that beat rail or road by as much as $20 per ton of cargo, using much less fuel. Given those advantages and an improving economy, about 30 ships are being built this year to run cargo on the Great Lakes, according to Craig H. Middlebrook, the deputy administrator of the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation.

But for now, low water is “hammering our industry,” said Glen G. Nekvasil, communications director for the Lake Carriers’ Association, a trade group. To cope, shipowners have had to lighten the loads on their boats, making hauling less efficient and profitable.

“When the water level drops as it has, we’re ripping tons out of the boat,” said Mark Barker, the president of the Interlake Steamship Company, which owns the Dorothy Ann.

In the Dorothy Ann pilothouse, 70 feet above the water, the sudden appearance of dashes on the screen was a moment of tight shoulders and held breath. The boat had already been lightened by dropping off thousands of tons of cargo earlier in its journey to float at this depth, and the boat glided the last few hundred feet over the soft bottom.

A large laker, 1,000 feet long, will lose 250 to 270 tons for every inch the water level drops, Mr. Nekvasil said. That can add up to 324,000 tons a season per boat, he said.

The impact does not stop with shippers. “The aggregate impact over time will be to raise the cost of commodities, which in turn will raise the price of manufacturing goods, which in turn raises the price to the consumer,” said Richard D. Stewart, the director of the Transportation and Logistics Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Superior.

The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that inadequate harbor maintenanceincreased the cost of traded products by $7 billion in 2010 and that this cost would increase to $14 billion by 2040 if the work was not stepped up.

The most recent causes of low water were the mild winters in 2011 and 2012, which left too little snow to feed the lakes, traditionally “the largest source of water to the Great Lakes,” Mr. Kompoltowicz of the corps said. Last spring, the water level rose just 4 inches instead of the usual 12 in Michigan and Huron, he said, and that was followed by an unusually dry summer and above-average evaporation in the fall — 12 inches more than average. The water level currently stands at 577.20 feet, 22 inches below the long-term average.

A measure of the drop in water levels can also be attributed to the engineering that makes Great Lakes shipping possible. The 1962 dredging of the St. Clair River may have lowered the water in Lake Huron and Lake Michigan by five inches, said John Nevin, a spokesman for the International Joint Commission, founded by the United States and Canada nearly 100 years ago to study issues pertaining to boundary waters.

Other dredging projects may have emptied 16 inches in all from the lakes, Mr. Nevin said. Ways to slow water flowing down the St. Clair, including water gates or turbines that could generate power, have been discussed for years, but any changes would have to be weighed against factors like environmental impact on aquatic life.

Anything that puts more water in Lake Michigan could, in the long run, affect lower-lying areas, he said. “You don’t want to do something that would, ultimately, flood Chicago in 50 or 100 years,” Mr. Nevin said. Climate change is expected to reduce water levels still further in the long run.

The owners of the big lake boats like the Dorothy Ann and its barge, the Pathfinder, contend that the federal government has fallen down on the job of dredging these harbors, which could help compensate for the low water. “If we had the dredging, we wouldn’t have the dashes,” said Mr. Barker, president of the Interlake Steamship Company.

He said the Great Lakes ports could be properly dredged for $200 million. “Pretty much all we’re asking for is the cost of a highway interchange,” he said.

The federal government has a trust fund for harbor dredging, based on taxes on cargo. The fund is supposed to receive $1.8 billion in the 2013 fiscal year, but the Army Corps of Engineers requested to spend only $850 million of the fund, a situation that led Senator David Vitter, Republican of Louisiana, to hold up a piece of paper that read “I.O.U. $6.95 Billion,” the surplus in the fund since it was established in 1986, in a hearing with Jo-Ellen Darcy, the assistant secretary of the Army for civil works. The Water Resources Development Act, which was drafted to address many of these issues, has passed the Senate and is under consideration in the House.

Don T. Riley, a former official with the Army Corps of Engineers who works with a Washington lobbying and consulting firm, Dawson & Associates, acknowledged that the extra money could seem absurd. “You’ve got this major surplus — that just sounds so dumb not to spend at least what you take in because that’s what you’re paying for,” he said. But the corps spends only what Congress appropriates, he said, and tapping the fund is not necessarily easy: even if money has been collected, ordering it to be spent increases the appropriation for the corps, and that can be politically troublesome in times of budget cutting.

The ability of humans to fix the situation is limited, said Mr. Nevin of the International Joint Commission. “We can’t make it rain.”

Nora Istrefi blows lips

Aesthetic operations have become normality to our singers. Fighting with each other to be seen as beautiful, is that they did every day more, to perform operations, mainly in the face.

Singer Norah Jones these days has published photos in which is seen a major change in her lips. In fact, she has performed for aesthetic intervention to swollen lips.

In this photo, you can clearly see the difference in Nores lips.

This is not the first time that Nora did aesthetic intervention. She has also conducted an operation in the nose in order to look more beautiful.

Leonora Jakupi joins protest (Video)

Today's protest Veterans Associations KLA, is joining the singer Leonora. It is objected to arrest its fellow.

Leonora has marched along with other protesters meanwhile kept wearing a white shirt with the emblem of the KLA.

Besides participating in the protest, she replied addressed all the participants with a song dedicated to liberation.

Saves Nora Istrefi (Photo)

Last night, the night-VFM is accompanied by praise than criticism of different. VIP For some, this night also can end up badly.

Super sexy singer Norah Jones, anyway that was present in this event.

Wearing a white dress, she was invited on stage to receive an award, but for some it was not pinned.

It is unknown if Nora had escaped high heels, long dress and inappropriate, or had caught "evil eye".

However, it is satisfied after having divided the prize draw, where even then she has performed with a song to the audience.

On June 23 vote 3.2 million Albanians

National list of voters for the June 23 parliamentary elections will be over 3.2 million names. These voters will exercise their right by law in 5508 polling stations throughout the territory of Albania.The Central Election Commission (CEC) approved on Tuesday the number of ballots that will produce results and that will be 3,337,388 sheets (total of 3,271,885 voters). Election Code provides that the number of ballots to be 2 percent more than the number of voters.

While the 2011 Census came to the conclusion that the Albanian population is 2.8 million (counted here they do not have the right to vote, under 18 years).

Compared to the 2001 Census, which brought a population of 3 million, the population has declined 8 percent in 10 years.

Samantha Karavello with new tattoo

Singer, Samantha Karavello has shared with her ​​fans on Instagram new tattoo she has on her body. She says the family dedicates i'a tattoo.
As seen from the picture she has decided to perpetuate the initials of her family, father, mother and sister

Anaidi Just sexual relations with Joana

"With Joanën was simply sexual relations. We slept together for two months without being kissed on the lips again. " Thus explained the winner of the sixth edition of "Big Brother", Anaidi, relationship with Joanën, from which the said division immediately after the show. They were introduced during the stay in the house of "Big Brother" and from the beginning was very near to each other. Linking the two proceeded normally until that Joanna was knocked out of the game, a few weeks before the end of Reality Show-t.
Even after competitor, Anaidi not expressed any dissatisfaction on the link Joanën. But immediately after stepping out of the door of "Big Brother", everything changed. He said in a live broadcast from the girls division which had created a bond of two months. The main reason for its decision Joanës are statements regarding the ex-boyfriend, Janin.
"I heard strong statements that Joanna had done. Were unacceptable to me. For example Joanës statement 'when I Anaidin mate, who will accompany us to the altar will be Jani'. That is according Joanës 'I husband and I are with you lover that accompanies'. These and others are the reason I ran away from this relationship, "says Anaidi for" Albanian newspaper ".
He also told us that among them there was never really feeling.
"I was feeling. There was more passion. Even passion is a form of late, but not by those with heart romantic type. It was a common way that both knew better than to go where. I did not use, nor has used. Our relationship was passionate and the first steps of creating something. People need not wonder at all, because I've never said that I love, "says the winner of" Big Brother ".
Anaidi has ruled out any possibility of unification with Joanën. He is enjoying the days as the winner with his family and society seems really pleased by this experience.

Albanian singer split from her husband

Before few days known singer "CILJETA" found in social networks that she had had a "quarrel" between her and
its spouse. She said that this is not about marriage can not continue with. Once he stood almost all nights
family away through the neighborhood pubs to Tiranes.She added that now had no connection with her ​​escape. The news brought something to her fans Particular Because she had very few months or years is known to the person concerned and now it was done with their children. but again
fans expressed by saying that her story is moving as any of the other VIPs. 
 /24onews.