US bank finances UAE project

 10 September 2012

The Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) is to lend the Barakah One Company $2 billion to underwrite the export of US components and services for the construction of the the United Arab Emirates' (UAE's) first nuclear power plant.

The Barakah nuclear power plant will comprise four Korean-designed APR-1400 pressurised water reactors, but the bank says the $2 billion credit line will support some 5000 jobs in the USA. US company Westinghouse is a member of the Korea Electric Power Company (Kepco)-led consortium which was selected to build the plant, and will provide a range of components and services including reactor coolant pumps, controls, engineering services and training.

The Ex-Im Bank is a federal agency which helps to support US manufacturing jobs by filling gaps in private export financing. Before approving the loan, the bank conducted a "detailed and extensive" risk assessment of the Barakah project.

The loan is the bank's largest ever transaction in the UAE as well as its first financing of a 'greenfield' nuclear plant in over a decade. It has the support of the US National Security Council and the US departments of state and energy. Noting the importance of the transaction to the US economy, Ex-Im Bank chairman and president Fred Hochberg said the bank would also "make history" by backing the construction of the first nuclear power plant in the region.

Construction officially began at Barakah in July, and the first unit is scheduled to enter service in 2017.

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News

 Original:  US bank finances UAE project

Tens of thousands of dead fish stink up Lake Erie shore

 September 5th, 2012 

Tens of thousands of dead fish are stinking up a 25-mile stretch of Lake Erie shoreline.

Tens of thousands of dead fish have washed up on a 25-mile stretch of Lake Erie's northern shore, and Ontario environmental officials say they could be victims of a natural phenomenon called a lake inversion.

The inversion brings cold water, which has lower oxygen levels, to the lake's surface and fish suffocate.

"Essentially it's a rolling over of the lake," Ontario Ministry of the Environment spokeswoman Kate Jordan told The Chatham Daily News. "Something – whether it be a storm, or cooler temperatures at night, or strong winds – triggers a temperature change in the lake."

Jordan said it was windy and choppy on the lake Friday night, according to a report in The Windsor Star. The fish kill was reported Saturday. (Keep reading http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/09/05/tens-of-thousands-of-dead-fish-stink-up-lake-erie-shore/?hpt=hp_t3)

9 Most Dangerous Nuclear Power Plant Accidents

9 Most Dangerous Nuclear Power Plant Accidents

Illinois Nuke Plants Dumping Millions of Gallons of Near 100-Degree Water into Waterways

Published on Monday, August 20, 2012  

 

Byron Nuclear plant in Illinois (photo: Michael Kappel)

The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency is allowing power stations "to dump millions of gallons of hot water into Illinois waterways each day," a Chicago Tribune report released Monday shows.

Coal and nuclear power plants have had problems getting discharge waters down to the thermal limits because the waters they are bringing in are already warmer than normal due to excessive heat and drought.
Provisions from the agency now allow four coal-fired and four nuclear plants to discharge water up to 97 degrees, the report shows.

Environmental groups warn that releasing these hot waters back into waterways can cause ecological harm.
Josh Mogerman with the National Resources Defense Council told CBS Chicago that the warmer water "impacts fish that are evolved to live in a specific sort of a temperature. You’re basically scalding the fish; forcing them either to dive deeper for cold water, or in the case of our rivers, we’re boiling them.”
Mogerman noted the impacts of global warming. “We shouldn’t be thinking about our power plants in the context of just one year’s drought, or one year’s heat wave. It’s very likely that the conditions we’re seeing are going to become more normal.”

Original     Common Dreams