#holteclies — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #holteclies, aggregated by home.social.
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#Trump has undermined the agency tasked with making sure America never has another #nuclear meltdown
By Ella Nilsen, Updated Mar 10, 2026
"The federal regulatory agency tasked with keeping America’s #NuclearPower plants safe and running smoothly is set to make huge cuts to the amount of time its staffers spend on #safety and emergency #inspections, opening the door to more self-policing from the industry.
"As it embarks on a reorganization to fulfill executive orders from President Donald Trump, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission [#NRC] is proposing to dramatically reduce its inspection hours for existing #NuclearPowerPlants, cutting back on the amount of time independent inspectors look for plants’ security procedures, #radiation protection for staff, #maintenance and safety.
"The NRC has been a crucial part of keeping America’s nuclear energy operating for the past 40 years — and experts say its authority is only more necessary than ever as the Trump administration seeks to usher in a new golden age of nuclear energy. But Trump wants to streamline the agency, and staff cuts combined with executive orders are troubling signs that Trump is undoing the NRC’s independence, experts said."
Read more:
https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/10/climate/trump-nuclear-regulation-safety-energy-future#NoNewNukes #NoNukes #USPol #TEPCOLied #HoltecLies #TrumpLies #NoMoreChernobyls #NoMoreFukushimas #SMRs
#NRCFail #RenewablesNow #MakeAmericaRadioactiveAgain -
The Rise and Fall of #NuScale: a nuclear cautionary tale
Kelly Campbell
October 29, 2024"A decade ago, NuScale, the Oregon-based small modular nuclear company born at Oregon State University, was on a roll. Promising a new era of nuclear reactors that were cheaper, easier to build and safer, their Star Wars-inspired artist renditions of a yet to be built reactor gleamed like a magic bullet.
"As of last year, NuScale was the furthest along of any reactor design in obtaining Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing and was planning to build the first small modular nuclear reactor in the United States. Its plan was to build it in Idaho to serve energy to a consortium of small public utility districts in Utah and elsewhere, known as #UAMPS.
"This home-grown Oregon company was lauded in local and national media. According to project backers, a high-tech solution to climate change was on the horizon, and an Oregon company was leading the way. It seemed almost too good to be true.
"And it was.
"Turns out, NuScale was a #HouseOfCards. The UAMPS project’s price tag more than doubled and the timeline was pushed back repeatedly until it was seven years behind schedule. Finally, UAMPS saw the writing on the wall and wisely backed out in November, 2023.
"After losing their customer, NuScale’s stock plunged, it laid off nearly a third of its workforce, and it was sued by its investors and investigated for investor fraud. Then its CEO sold off most of his stock shares.
"NuScale’s project is the latest in a long line of failed nuclear fantasies.
"Why should you care? A different nuclear company, #XEnergy, now in partnership with #AmazonCorp, wants to build and operate small modular #nuclear reactors [#SMRs] near the #ColumbiaRiver, 250 miles upriver from #PortlandOR. #BillGates’s darling, the #Natrium reactor in #Wyoming is also plowing ahead. Both proposals are raking in the Inflation Reduction Act and other taxpayer funded subsidies. The danger: Money and time wasted on these #FalseSolutions to the #ClimateCrisis divert public resources from #renewables, #EnergyEfficiency and other faster, more cost-efficient and safer ways to address the climate crisis.
"A recent study from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis concluded that small modular nuclear reactors are still too expensive, too slow to build and too risky to respond to the climate crisis.
"While the nuclear industry tries to pass itself off as 'clean,' it is an extremely dirty technology, beginning with #UraniumMining and #UraniumMilling which decimates #IndigenousLands. Small modular nuclear reactors produce two to thirty times the radioactive waste of older nuclear designs, waste for which we have no safe, long-term disposal site. Any community that hosts a nuclear reactor will likely be saddled with its radioactive waste – forever. This harm falls disproportionately on #Indigenous and #LowIncome communities.
:For those of us downriver, X-Energy’s plans to build at the Hanford Nuclear Site on the Columbia flies in the face of reason, as it would add more nuclear waste to the country’s largest nuclear cleanup site.
"In #Oregon, we have a state moratorium on building nuclear reactors until there is a vote of the people and a national waste repository. Every few years, the nuclear industry attempts to overturn this law at the Oregon Legislature, but so far it has been unsuccessful. This August, Umatilla County Commissioners announced they’ll attempt another legislative effort to overturn the moratorium. Keeping this moratorium is wise, given the dangerous distraction posed by the false solution of small modular nuclear reactors. Let’s learn from the NuScale debacle and keep our focus on a just transition to a clean energy future–one in which nuclear power clearly has no place."
#EnvironmentalRacism #HoltecLies
#NuclearLies #TEPCOLied
#NoNukes #NoNukesForAI #Hanford #NuclearPowerCorruptionAndLies -
Experts warn #Trump’s #nuclear blitz could trigger ‘Next #ThreeMileIsland'
by Brett Wilkins, Common Dreams
May 24, 2025"U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday signed a series of executive orders that will overhaul the independent federal agency that regulates the nation's nuclear power plants in order to speed the construction of new fissile reactors—a move that experts warned will increase safety risks.
"According to a White House statement, Trump's directives 'will usher in a nuclear energy renaissance,' in part by allowing Department of Energy laboratories to conduct nuclear reactor design testing, green-lighting reactor construction on federal lands, and lifting #RegulatoryBarriers 'by requiring the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (#NRC) to issue timely licensing decisions."
"The Trump administration is seeking to shorten the yearslong NRC process of approving new licenses for nuclear power plants and reactors to within 18 months.
"White House Office of Science and Technology Director Michael Kratsios said Friday that 'over the last 30 years, we stopped building nuclear reactors in America—that ends now.'
" 'We are restoring a strong American nuclear industrial base, rebuilding a secure and sovereign domestic nuclear fuel supply chain, and leading the world towards a future fueled by American nuclear energy,' he added. [And radioactive waste!!!]
"However, the Union of Concerned Scientists (#UCS) warned that the executive orders will result in 'all but nullifying' the NRC's regulatory process, 'undermining the independent federal agency's ability to develop and enforce #safety and #security requirements for commercial nuclear facilities.'
" 'This push by the Trump administration to usurp much of the agency's autonomy as they seek to fast-track the construction of nuclear plants will weaken critical, independent #oversight of the U.S. nuclear industry and poses significant safety and security risks to the public,' UCS added.
"#EdwinLyman, director of nuclear power safety at the UCS, said, 'Simply put, the U.S. nuclear industry will fail if safety is not made a priority.'
" 'By fatally compromising the independence and integrity of the NRC, and by encouraging pathways for nuclear deployment that bypass the regulator entirely, the Trump administration is virtually guaranteeing that this country will see a serious accident or other #radiological release that will affect the health, safety, and livelihoods of millions,' Lyman added. 'Such a disaster will destroy public trust in #NuclearPower and cause other nations to reject U.S. #nuclear technology for decades to come.'
"Friday's executive orders follow reporting earlier this month by NPR that revealed the Trump administration has tightened control over the NRC, in part by compelling the agency to send proposed reactor safety rules to the White House for review and possible editing.
"#AllisonMacfarlane, who was nominated to head the NRC during the Obama administration, called the move 'the end of independence of the agency.'
" 'If you aren't independent of political and industry influence, then you are at risk of an accident,' Macfarlane warned.
"On the first day of his second term, Trump also signed executive orders declaring a dubious 'national energy emergency' and directing federal agencies to find ways to reduce regulatory roadblocks to 'unleashing American energy, including by boosting #FossilFuels and nuclear power.
"The rapid advancement and adoption of artificial intelligence systems is creating a tremendous need for energy that proponents say can be met by nuclear power. The Three Mile Island nuclear plant—the site of the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history—is being revived with funding from #Microsoft, while #Google parent company #Alphabet, online retail giant #Amazon, and #Facebook owner #Meta are among the competitors also investing in nuclear energy.
" 'Do we really want to create more #RadioactiveWaste to power the often dubious and questionable uses of #AI?' #JohannaNeumann, Environment America Research & Policy Center's senior director of the Campaign for 100% #RenewableEnergy, asked in December.
" '#BigTech should recommit to solutions that not only work but pose less risk to our #environment and #health,' Neumann added."
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-nuclear-2672196220/
#RethinkNotRestart #NoNukes #NoNukesForAI #BigTech #EnvironmentalRacism #UraniumMining #NuclearWaste #TEPCOLies #TrumpLies
#HoltecLies #WaterIsLife #NuclearPowerPlants #Datacenters #AIPollution #MicrosoftSucks #TrumpSucks #NuclearIsNotCarbonFree #CancerRates #Downwinders #NuclearPowerCorruptionAndLies -
Oh yeah. Fast-tracking a #NuclearPlant restart is such a good idea...NOT!
#ThreeMileIsland nuclear plant reboot fast-tracked to 2027
By Laila Kearney
June 25, 2025Excerpt: "Despite the enthusiasm, nuclear power plant projects have historically been far over budget [leaving taxpayers on the hook] and behind schedule [which is why nuclear plant companies often fabricate and lie about details. They milk it for all it's worth!]
"No fully shut nuclear power plant has been restarted, but at least one other attempted restart - of the #PalisadesNuclearPlant in #Michigan - is under way.
"As the technology industry drives U.S. electricity demand to record highs, nuclear power has broadly seen a resurgence of interest after decades in decline. New York plans to build a new nuclear power plant, which would be one of the first to be constructed in a generation."
#RethinkNotRestart #NoNukes #NoNukesForAI #BigTech #NuclearWaste #RethinkNotRestart #NuclearIsNotCarbonFree #Pennsylvania #CancerRates #TEPCOLies #HoltecLies #WaterIsLife #NuclearPowerPlants #Datacenters #AIPollution #MicrosoftSucks
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#Palisades power plant will restart. Here's where on the #GreatLakes #NuclearPlants operate
Story by Sarah Moore, Lansing State Journal, 2/27/2025
"Owners of Michigan's Palisades nuclear energy plant this week announced a new five-year program aimed at restarting the power station while adding two smaller, modular reactors to the existing facility.
"Holtec has launched 'Mission 2030,' a program to build America’s first small modular reactors — Holtec’s SMR-300 — at the Palisades site in Covert Township, Michigan, with a target of 2030 for first commercial operation.' Holtec International said in a release. "The new SMR-300s will be co-located with the existing 800-megawatt Palisades plant, which is on track to restart after an extended outage following shutdown in 2022.'
"The program was discussed at a ceremony Feb. 25, at which #Holtec said it has joined forces with #Hyundai Engineering & Construction to build a 10-gigawatt fleet of SMR-300s in North America, the release said.
"Nuclear energy production is seeing growing interest for power generation because it requires no fossil fuels and can help reduce greenhouse gases. The systems, however, generate tons of highly #RadioactiveWaste that has to be stored. In #Michigan, waste is stored within a short distance of the #GreatLakes in some locations."
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/palisades-power-plant-will-restart-heres-where-on-the-great-lakes-nuclear-plants-operate/ar-AA1zUV7D
#RethinkNotRestart #NoNukes #Renewables #RenewablesNow #WaterIsLife #RadioactivePollution #HoltecLies -
High tide for #Holtec
#Tritium dumped into #CapeCodBay will wash back onto community shores, says a new report
"The permanently closed Pilgrim nuclear power plant is now owned by Holtec, which wants to dump #RadioactiveWastewater into Cape Cod Bay. While waiting for a permit, so far denied, the company is quietly venting #tritium into the air."
by Linda Pentz Gunter, Posted on December 29, 2024
"Holtec, the company that has purchased a number of permanently closed #nuclear reactors in order to decommission them, has encountered yet another obstacle to its '#dilution is the solution to pollution' plans.
"One of the reactor sites Holtec has taken over is #PilgrimNuclearPlant in Plymouth, Massachusetts, on the Cape Cod Bay, which closed permanently in 2019. Holtec’s not-so-little problem there is what do with what started out as at least 1.1 million gallons of radioactively contaminated #wastewater stored at the site.
"The company first suggested it would simply release the wastewater into Cape Cod Bay, assuring residents and the immediately alarmed fishing community not to worry because (a) the wastewater isn’t dangerous anyway (b) everyone does this all the time at reactor sites and no one has gotten sick so far and (c) it would quickly disperse into the wider ocean. Holtec chose this disposal method for one reason alone: it is the cheapest.
"The proposal was vigorously fought by citizens, the state, and powerful Massachusetts Democrat, Senator Ed Markey. The state of Massachusetts effectively banned the discharge option, a decision Holtec is contesting.
"That Final Determination to Deny Application to Modify a Massachusetts Permit to Discharge Pollutants to Surface Waters was issued by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection [#MassDEP] Division of Watershed Management on July 18, 2024. A month later, Holtec launched its appeal to reverse the decision, something that could take months or longer to find its way to court.
"In the meantime, help has come from a new quarter in the form of an in-depth study by the prestigious Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution [#WHOI], also, as it happens, based on the Massachusetts shoreline, near Falmouth.
"The study — Model-Based Study of Near-Surface Transport in and around Cape Cod Bay, Its Seasonal Variability, and Response to Wind — found that contrary to Holtec’s claims, the wastewater would not immediately disperse into the ocean, but would linger potentially for months, and wash up on the shores of area communities.
“'We found virtually no out-of-the-Bay transport in winter and fall and slightly larger, but still low, probability of some of the plume exiting the Bay in spring and summer,' said Woods Hole study leader and physical oceanographer, Irina Rypina.
"The radioactively contaminated wastewater stored at Pilgrim is contaminated with what Holtec and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health have described as 'four gamma emitters — #Manganese54, #Cobalt60, #Zinc65 and #Cesium137 along with #Tritium, a beta radiation emitter'.
"While the Woods Hole Study did not look at the health outcomes of releasing the radioactive water into Cape Cod Bay — only at the plume pathway — there are plenty of data that demonstrate the harmful effects of these #radioisotopes on human health, especially women and children.
"After acquiring the Pilgrim reactor, Holtec’s President and CEO, Kris Singh, assured surrounding communities that,
'the decommissioning of Pilgrim will replicate the superb record of public health and safety and environmental protection that typified the plant’s 47 years of operations.'But since that acquisition, Markey observed, 'Holtec has fallen woefully short on this commitment.' He noted of the Woods Hole report that 'In light of these recent findings, I urge Holtec to develop a wastewater discharge plan that is informed and guided by scientific fact and community input.'
"Long-time #PilgrimWatch activist, #MaryLampert, welcomed the report’s initial findings and said that 'Holtec dumping Pilgrim’s radiological and chemically #contaminated wastewater into semi-enclosed CapeCod Bay is harmful to human health, the environment, and our marine economy.'
"In a handbook explaining Pilgrim’s decommissioning process on the Pilgrim Watch website, the authors note that 'Cape Cod Bay, #PlymouthBay, #DuxburyBay, and #KingstonBay are all protected #OceanSanctuaries. Cape Cod Bay is a critical habitat for right whales and other endangered or special species. Dumping this #radioactive and chemically contaminated wastewater into them would cause incalculable economic damage and would harm both the environment and public health.'
"Absent a liquid discharge permit, Holtec’s preferred solution since has been to quietly evaporate the wastewater into the air. It has done this, as revealed during a Pilgrim Nuclear Decommissioning Citizen Advisory Panel meeting, by installing submerged electric heaters to increase the plant’s ambient temperature, ostensibly in order to improve worker comfort and expedite the drying of plant components.
"But, as Markey noted in an April 30, 2024 letter to Singh, the consequence of installing the heaters in that location 'is an increased rate of wastewater evaporation above the pace at which it occurs naturally.' That 1.1 million gallons is now down to 880,000 gallons remain, according to Holtec’s own reports.
"As Lampert points out, 'Meteorology studies show 60% of winds blow offshore,' which means at least some of that evaporated wastewater is going to fall into the bay anyway.
"Under Nuclear Regulatory Commission rules, Holtec has four disposal options: liquid discharge, evaporation, storage onsite, and shipping to a licensed facility. None of them are good solutions.
"In August, Holtec filed an appeal against the state’s ban on liquid radioactive discharges, in part claiming that the decision on whether or not to allow the discharge falls under federal not state jurisdiction.
"This, argue some opponents of Holtec’s discharge plans, is a stall and a distraction while it quietly gets on with the gradual evaporation of all the wastewater.
"'They’re using the appeal to buy themselves time,' Andrew Gottlieb, executive director of the Association to Preserve Cape Cod, told radio station WBUR. 'And what they buy themselves, with time, is the ability to continue to induce evaporation of the wastewater, so that ultimately it’s gone, at minimal cost to them.'
"Lampert agrees. 'Holtec can evaporate all the water to meet its schedule to dismantle the reactor building,' she said.
"In October, Lampert, along with other citizens representing the fishing, environmental, real estate and medical communities traveled to Boston to meet with staff in Massachusetts Governor Mary Healy’s office to demand that Healy’s administration call a halt to the evaporation.
"'There are laws on the books already that prohibit #AirbornePollution,' Diane Turco of #CapeDownwinders told the local NPR station after the Boston meeting. “And we’re asking our governor to immediately enforce those laws… She’s been very strong about no dumping in the bay. And we see this as a parallel assault on our communities,' Turco said.
"So far the governor has not taken action."
https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2024/12/29/high-tide-for-holtec/
#HoltecLies #PilgrimNuclear #NuclearPowerCorruptionAndLies #NoNukes #RethinkNotRestart #NoRadioactiveDumping #WaterIsLife #AirIsLife #RadioactiveWaterDumping #NewEngland #BeyondNuclearInternational