Tag Archives: Thomas A. Fanning

Trust the radiation-lying document-forging nuclear industry to build new nukes?

TEPCO that lied about deadly levels of radiation at Fukushima is part of the industry Southern Company CEO Tom Fanning brags about as producing

“nuclear power as a clean, safe, affordable solution for this world’s energy future”.

SO and Georgia Power are building two new nukes at Plant Vogtle on the Savannah River, including parts by Korea’s document-forging Doosan. Forging as in lying, as in what the Korean press is now calling the Korean nuclear mafia of power companies, vendors, and testers. Stateside U.S. NRC is refusing to supply Congress with safety documents. And when I asked NRC if they were going to take account of Doosan in their webinar about foreign ownership of U.S. nuclear reactors NRC staff told me Vogtle was an unbuilt reactor and they were only dealing with existing power reactors. Which is very strange, considering their Commission Direction explicitly refers to unbuilt and not-even-permitted Calvert Cliffs 3 in its subject.

And considering Doosan’s online map of its customers includes not only six not built yet, Vogtle 3,4, Summer 2,3, Duke Energy’s Levy County 1,2 (since cancelled), but also nine operating nuclear power reactors, Entergy’s Waterford 3 (west of New Orleans; remember the dark Super Bowl?), TVA’s Sequoyah 1 and 2 near Chattanooga and Watts Bar 1 near Knoxville (all within 500 miles of here) plus Entergy’s Indian Point 2 and 3 near New York City and Arizona Public Service’s Palo Verde 1,2,3 near Phoenix, Arizona. With Vogtle 2 and 3, that’s fifteen reactors in the U.S. supplied by document-forging Doosan. OK, 13 now that Levy County 1 and 2 won’t be built.

How about we say the same soon about Vogtle 3 and 4? That they won’t be built? Probably Georgia Power CEO Paul Bowers could say that. GA PSC, Georgia legislature, or SO CEO Tom Fanning could say that. We’re listening.

-jsq

Southern Company missed earnings on Kemper Coal but Plant Vogtle is dominant

The dominant financial consideration is “what’s going to happen with Georgia”, meaning with nuclear Plant Vogtle, said SO CEO Tom Fanning, referring to the GA PSC CWIP monitoring hearings currently in progress. Meanwhile, that $160 million estimate 2 July 2013 of more Kemper Coal cost overruns by 30 July turned into $278 million after taxes (AP). This is on top of $333 million after taxes in May. SO earnings fell 52% (WSJ), missing projections, and SO stock dropped 2% yesterday.

Remember GA PSC Tim Echols already suggested a Plant Vogtle cost overrun cap similar to the one Mississippi PSC applied to Kemper Coal that caused SO to have to eat all those costs. If that happens, SO’s got financial problems.

Has SO seen the solar light yet, as in reliable, dependable, and deployable on time and on budget? Nope. Solar was tacked onto the end of Tom Fanning’s summary of interesting stuff in the 31 July 2013 earnings call: Continue reading →

SO’s plan to make the Southeast a net exporter of the energy from solar and wind? –John S. Quarterman @ SO 2013-05-22

SO CEO Tom Fanning didn’t budge from nuclear and coal, but he did announce a tiger team to get on top of distributed solar and wind through a smart grid, headed by SO’s COO, at the 22 May 2013 Southern Company Stockholder Meeting.

Mr. John S. Quarterman from Lowndes County, Georgia, and he holds 220 shares of Southern Company.

TF: Hello, John. Good to see you again this year.

jsq: Hi. I’ve come to compliment Tom Fanning and Paul Bowers. Last year, Tom Fanning was so persuasive I ran out and bought $10,000 worth of stock.

TF: Bless you. [Applause]

However, apparently because of SO’s admission a few minutes before in that same meeting that it was going to have to eat Kemper Coal cost overruns, SO stock tanked that same day, causing my stock to stop out, and Standard & Poor’s downgraded SO the following day because of Kemper Coal, noting that if the same thing happened with SO’s nuclear project at Plant Vogtle, S&P’s would probably Continue reading →

Farley 1 reactor tripped

Nuclear reactor Farley 1, about 125 miles from here tripped off its Reactor Coolant Pump Buses yesterday. They plan to get around to informing the press about it real soon now; they didn’t even tell the NRC until today. Maybe somebody would like to call Farley and ask what’s going on? “The Farley plant resident inspectors can be reached by calling 334-899-3386.” Maybe ask them what caused all those other downtimes at Farley over the years; maybe also about Browns Ferry and Hatch, where new Resident Inspector Phillip Niebaum previously worked. Southern Company CEO Thomas A. Fanning asked us to look at SO’s safety record.

NRC Current Event Notification Report for June 12, 2013,

Event Number: 49106:
Notification Date: 06/12/2013
Notification Time: 01:33 [ET]
Event Date: 06/11/2013
Event Time: 21:05 [CDT]

UNIT 1 AUTOMATIC REACTOR TRIP DUE TO THE LOSS OF A START-UP TRANSFORMER

“This is a report of an automatic RPS actuation and automatic ESF actuation per 10CFR50.72(b)(2)(iv)(B) and 10CFR50.72(b)(3)(iv)(A). Additionally, this is to report intentions for a press release per 10CFR50.72(b)(2)(xi).

“At 2105 CDT on 6/11/13, Farley Unit 1 experienced an automatic reactor trip from 100% power. The initiating event was the loss of the 1B Start up Transformer which resulted in de-energization of the B-Train ESF 4KV buses and the 1B and 1C Reactor Coolant Pump Buses. The 1B Emergency Diesel Generator auto started and tied to the B-Train 4KV Emergency buses.

“Both MDAFW Continue reading →

Kemper Coal cost overruns at Southern Company Stockholder Meeting @ SO 2013-05-22

SO CEO Tom Fanning used Julia O’Neal’s question about cost overruns to tout the alleged benefits of Kemper Coal, which include selling CO₂ to oil companies to pump into the ground to produce more oil. He didn’t mention that oil is then burned to produce more CO₂. And that Mississippi lignite coal he said would otherwise stay in the ground? Yes it and its CO₂ would stay there if SO would get on with solar instead of coal.

Before her question, he had not said much about that project, mostly this about Major Projects, at 29 minutes and 28 seconds in SO’s own video of the 22 May 2013 Southern Company Stockholder meeting. You’ll have to skip there manually, because of the SO’s video format. SO prohibited “unauthorized” videoing, so we don’t have the usual LAKE video on YouTube.

I always call out Vogtle and Kemper County. Both projects are going to serve our customers for decades to come. We’ve had some challenges with Kemper. We’ll probably talk about those later. But when I think about the value that these projects will bring, I think our customers, and the economy of the southeast, will be benefited for decades. And we’re very excited about the progress we’re making on both of those.

It’s curious he mentioned SO’s flagship coal and nuclear projects without saying coal or nuclear. And if by “progress” he means Continue reading →

Kemper Coal: SO’s bitter pill @ SO 2013-05-22

“Corporate responsiblity,” answered Southern Company CEO Thomas A. Fanning to questions about Kemper Coal from Linda St. Martin of Mississippians For Affordable Energy. I don’t think that word means what he thinks it means.

Ray Henry wrote for AP yesterday, Southern Co. CEO defends Miss. power project,

Continue reading →

Sierra Club goes to Southern Company stockholder meeting

“Almost like a Berkshire-Hathaway meeting,” remarked SO CEO Tom Fanning after Sierra Club (and other) activists asked questions at the Southern Company stockholder meeting at Callaway Gardens yesterday, as promised by the numerous news stories the previous day after the press conference organized by Georgia Sierra Club Director Colleen Kiernan. As usual Fanning turned in a Class A CEO performance, although he seemed bemused by the diversity and sometimes very positive slant of the questions, which nonetheless brought up numerous problems with SO’s coal and nuclear agenda, lackluster renewable energy agenda, and the impending disruption of distributed solar power.

New rule this year: no unauthorized video or flash photography, posted on big signs outside the conference room door. I asked Georgia Power CEO Paul Bowers to authorize me, but he said it was a shareholder meeting and thus a different level. The person in charge of SO’s own videoing promised they’d be available on the web soon after the meeting. I told him I’d been checking since last year’s meeting, and those still weren’t on the web. He said they had been briefly; then they were taken down. But he would make them available. We’ll see…. Meanwhile, you only get this one picture of Tom Fanning (he insists everyone call him Tom) as he compared SO’s stock price to the only more stable company: Hormel. That’s right, SO is almost as stable as Spam. He looked at me rather pointedly as he announced that new rule. And rather wryly later when I pointed out that according to Edison Electric Institute SO’s business model was due for disruption very soon. More on that later, along with other reports on Wednesday’s meeting.

Walter C. Jones wrote for Morris News Service 21 May 2013, Southern Co. expects to face environmental challenges,

Continue reading →

Dear SO: Time to move beyond coal –Sierra Club

You can to talk to Southern Company even if you can’t come to SO’s annual stockholder meeting 22 May at Callaway Gardens. Sierra Club helps you to ask SO CEO Thomas A. Fanning questions; maybe about SO’s nuclear financial and safety performance, or why SO is already losing on its “clean coal” bet in Mississippi, or when SO might get serious about distributed solar power, or when SO will help Georgia join the Atlantic Offshore Wind Energy Consortium, or…. So many possible questions, and you don’t even have to go to ask them!

Sierra Club message to Southern Company, Tell Southern Company to Move Beyond Coal,

On May 22, Southern Company will host its annual shareholder meeting in Georgia, giving us a great opportunity to push them forward on clean energy.

Southern Company has taken steps to grow clean energy in the Southeast — Alabama Power and Georgia Power both invested in wind energy and Georgia power increased solar energy investments — but they can do a lot more.

Southern Company still provides some of the dirtiest, most unreliable, dangerous, and expensive power in the country. And its subsidiaries continue to place “Big Bets” on dirty coal electricity that poisons the health of our communities’ water, air, and families. Georgia is even home to the biggest emitter of carbon pollution in the nation, Scherer Plant in Juliette.

Send a message to Southern Company’s CEO Tom Fanning to thanking him for clean energy investments, and demand that Southern Company clean up its act and invest in job creating clean energy.

Follow the link to send a message.

-jsq

Highest paid public employee in Georgia?

Come on, guess! You’re right: it’s a football coach. UGA football coaching staff get even more compensation than Paul Bowers, CEO of Georgia Power, or Thomas A. Fanning, CEO of the Southern Company, let alone any insignificant college president or elected official.

If I’m reading the ESPN database right, UGA coaches get around $14 million a year, while Georgia Power CEO Paul Bowers gets only Continue reading →

Look at Southern Company’s safety performance –SO CEO Fanning

At last year’s Southern Company Stockholder Meeting, Southern Company CEO Thomas A. Fanning said about the U.S. nuclear industry and Southern Company’s safety performance:

And if you look at our performance, we absolutely meet the standards that our customers expect and frankly deserve. So let’s start there.

Since then SO has not managed to pour the concrete base correctly at Plant Vogtle and not managed to get a reactor vessel from Savannah port to the site. Also existing Vogtle Unit 1 had a fire while Unit 2 was shut down for almost all of March 2013. The two Plant Hatch reactors, same design as Fukushima, so far as we know still have substandard fire protection and has a chronic problem of radioactive tritium leaking into groundwater. Tritium, even the smallest amounts of which can have negative health effects. And what gets into the watershed spreads in the watershed. The U.S. nuclear industry in general has problems with alcohol, drugs, and broken equipment. But back to SO CEO Fanning about Fukushima: Continue reading →

On the LAKE front

Citizen dialog for transparent process by the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange