Spencer Abraham Cashes In

February 2nd, 2012 | Bulldog Blog, Natural Resources News Service | | 5 comments

January 30 was former U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham’s last day as the non-executive chairman of Areva Enterprises Inc, the French atomic power firm’s American operation. This marked the end of a very lucrative arrangement for both Abraham and the French government own nuclear company – mostly at U.S. taxpayers’ expense.

It all began in the 1990s when the United States’ response to disposing of 34 metric tons of plutonium from shuttered nuclear weapons programs was a proposed mixed oxide (MOX) fuel fabrication facility at the Savannah River Site (SRS) near Aiken, South Carolina. When Abraham became Energy Secretary in 2001, Areva was a key contractor for the MOX plant. According to his DOE calendars, among his first trips were to France to visit their nuclear officials and operations. Abraham maintained a close relationship with the then head of Areva, Anne Lauvergeon. In turn, not long after he left the Energy Department, Abraham cashed in and went to work for Areva and “Atomic Annie,” as she was known. In 2007, DOE broke ground on the MOX plant.

Continue reading Spencer Abraham Cashes In

The Polluters’ Lawyers

November 3rd, 2011 | Bulldog Blog | | 2 comments

Legislation to strengthen the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act and other environmental concerns in the 1970s did not only create new government agencies, it also spawned entire fields of law. While some lawyers work for nonprofits that use lawsuits to challenge pollution and others work as government regulators, the “best of the best” work for large corporations wielding both litigation and lobbying on behalf of polluting industries, according to Chambers and Partners, a group that publishes directories indexing and ranking law firms globally.

The three top U.S. firms in environmental law – Sidley Austin, Latham & Watkins and Hunton & Williams – represent companies notorious for violating the Clean Water and Clean Air Acts and lobbying to weaken laws meant to protect the environment and public health.


Sidley Austin is considered a top tier firm on environmental issues. Chambers states, “the lawyers are renowned for their expertise in air, water and waste pollution litigation,” and list clients such as BP, General Electric and Duke Energy. But perhaps their most significant client when it comes to international pollution is the XL-Pipeline project in Canada. They represent Canadian energy companies attempting to develop a controversial cross-border oil and gas pipeline.

“We represent Alliance Pipeline, Enbridge, TransCanada and other Canadian energy businesses which have sponsored major cross-border oil and gas pipeline projects. We have advised a number of these projects on the permitting and environmental review process under both US federal and state laws. We also counsel clients involved in proceedings initiated by the Office of Enforcement at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission,” states Sidley Austin on their website. Continue reading The Polluters’ Lawyers

Nuclear Accident in France

September 12th, 2011 | Bulldog Blog | | One comment

A nuclear accident at the sprawling and historic Marcoule site, twelve miles north of scenic Avignon, France, killed one worker and injured four others, according to the French Nuclear Authority.

The workers were operating a high temperature industrial oven that burns low-level nuclear waste in a sealed building when the unit blew up. The worker who was killed was burned so badly his body was carbonized, according to officials. Another worker was seriously injured and three others received less serious injuries.

French authorities say no radiation was released outside the Marcoule site and all radiation is contained in the building. It should be noted that the French government and their government-controlled nuclear companies have a long history of poor transparency when it comes to reporting radiation-related accidents and leaks. Much of the French national economy is dependent on these companies providing electricity and exporting nuclear technology and fuel.

The explosion took place at the Centraco nuclear waste treatment facility run by EDF, the large French-government-owned nuclear utility through a subsidiary called Socodei.

The Marcoule facility has played a huge roll in the history of the French nuclear weapons program.

Since the mid-1990s, the Marcoule site has combined fissile uranium and plutonium into MOX fuel. EDF uses MOX in its civilian nuclear power stations. It sells nuclear fuel and technology worldwide through another French-government-owned company called Areva. EDF also produces weapons grade plutonium and tritium gas at the facility for the French government.

The  Marcoule site is to French nuclear weapons production what the Savannah River Site (SRS) in Aiken, South Carolina, is to the U.S. Department of Energy. Both SRS and Marcoule have deep connections to the French nuclear fuel and reactor company Areva. The U.S. government is investing more than $5 billion in a MOX fuel fabrication plant at SRS paying Areva to provide the technology and manage the construction. The American plant is behind schedule and over budget.

DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), which runs the U.S. nuclear weapons program, touts MOX as the solution for arms control by claiming the new SRS MOX plant will be able to take old weapons grade plutonium from around the world and convert it into civilian reactor fuel to produce electricity. One State Department official told National Security News Service “that MOX is the United States’ answer to nonproliferation.” So far there are no paying customers for the reactor fuel. A less powerful version of that fuel that was loaded into Fukushima Reactor Number Three a year ago was dispersed into the Japanese environment after the March 2011 explosions and reactor meltdowns following the earthquake and tsunami.

The Marcoule site is involved in a massive and expensive radioactive clean up effort that so far, like the one at SRS, has been largely unsuccessful. Like the United States, the French have no final nuclear waste storage facility. Exacerbating the problem at Marcoule is the site also houses an experimental breeder reactor program that features a technology that produces more plutonium than it consumes.

Many critics say the French Nuclear Safety Authority, like the American and Japanese authorities, administers weak oversight of the French nuclear industry, which is in serious financial trouble.

EDF company share values are under pressure. In addition to the accident, the company has been criticized for the design of the European Pressurized Water Reactors (EPRs) that, according to government policy, are to provide next generation nuclear electricity. Some opponents call the reactor designs dangerous.

Last July, then French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde suggested the French government urge closer cooperation between utility EDF and reactor maker Areva to increase France’s chances of winning more reactor contracts abroad. “There must be a strategic partnership between Areva and EDF each time that it’s necessary for exports,” Lagarde told French radio station RTL. “Our two big nuclear champions must imperatively get along.”

Shortly after Legarde’s comments, French President Nicolas Sarkozy issued a statement that his government would look into the possibility of EDF buying a stake in Areva, a move opposed by then Areva Chief Executive Officer “Atomic Annie” Anne Lauvergeon.

Taking It to the Streets

August 29th, 2011 | Bulldog Blog | | Leave a comment

At a time when science itself is under assault and the Environmental Protection Agency’s future is challenged, NASA scientist and global climate change awareness activist James Hansen spoke at the National Press Club on Monday in opposition to the proposed Keystone XL – a 1700-mile, $7 billion pipeline which would carry heavy crude oil from “tar sand” mines in Alberta, Canada, to refineries along the Texas and Louisiana coasts.

Environmental protesters have been picketing in front of the White House in opposition to the pipeline. On Friday, the State Department’s Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs issued its final environmental analysis that said TransCanada’s proposed pipeline will have “limited adverse environmental impacts.” The Obama administration is expected to approve or reject Keystone XL by the end of the year.

One of the Bureau’s responsibilities is representing the country on global climate change issues. Its website says:

The United States is taking a leading role in addressing climate change by advancing an ever-expanding suite of measures. We have initiated a number of polices and partnerships that span a wide range of initiatives from reducing our emissions at home to developing transformational low-carbon technologies to improving observations systems that will help us better understand and address the possible impacts of climate change. Our efforts emphasize the importance of results-driven action both internationally and domestically.

Hansen says the oil produced through this unconventional fossil fuel process is “extremely dirty stuff.” In its place, he supports instituting a $10 a ton tax on carbon for 10 years and giving these monies ($600 billion by his estimation) to American families to offset the costs of alternative energy sources. “Tax carbon and give the money to the people. That would stimulate the economy,” he says in response to a question about the jobs the pipeline project would create. He believes that giving money directly to families (he says between $6000 to $9000 per year) is better than previously pursued “cap and trade” policies that would be overtaken by big bank trading instruments.

He is joining several religious leaders today in Washington protesting the Keystone XL pipeline project. Their efforts are to draw attention to “the moral duty to preserve creation.”

He says in his meeting with Senator John Kerry about these issues, the senator called his ideas “unrealistic.” With the Obama administration’s support for the pipeline and leading Republican presidential candidates who do not believe global warning exists or, if it does, humans do not contribute to it, he is turning his attention away from politics and to grassroots advocacy to educate the public on climate change issues.

Hansen says the country is falling behind on alternative energy research and countries like China are investing in future technologies like solar, wind and nuclear. As a physicist, he supports pursuing “fourth generation” nuclear reactors as one of the few on-demand power sources that could meet the world’s energy needs. He believes new reactor designs will produce less waste that is dangerous only for decades rather than the waste current reactors generate that is dangerous for centuries and for which there is no permanent storage facility.

Read more at The Washington Post and The New York Times.