Thursday, September 13, 2018

Nuclear Catastrophe Bonds: A Losing Best for Everyone


The Wall Street Journal is reporting that "insurers face unique threat from storm" (Paul Davies Sep 13 2018 p. B12) because Hurricane Florence is anticipated to produce huge storm surges, significant flooding and destructive winds.

The WSJ article is addressing the insurance and re-insurance markets for flooding, which is increasingly financed by catastrophe bonds. Insurance companies sell these bonds to investors, who purchase catastrophe bonds hoping no catastrophe will occur because if it does, they lose their investment, which goes to the insurance or re-insurance company issuing the bond.

I'm guessing that holders of catastrophe bonds are in for losses produced by Hurricane Florence.

I wonder whether any of those catastrophe bonds cover flooding-induced nuclear meltdowns?

This may seem absurd but it turns out that nuclear catastrophe bonds are a "thing" as this article here illustrates:
Ayyub, B., Pantelous, A., and Shao, J. (2016). Toward Resilience to Nuclear Accidents: Financing Nuclear Liabilities via Catastrophe Risk Bonds. ASME J. Risk Uncertainty Part B 2(4), 041005 (Aug 19, 2016) (9 pages)Paper No: RISK-15-1055; doi: 10.1115/1.4033518 http://risk.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/article.aspx?articleid=2522159
I think the article is mis-titled because "resilience" is not something that money is going to be capable of delivering after a nuclear accident when contamination is dispersed in air, soil, and water.

See the detailed comments on the risks from bioaccumulation of radioncuclides in living tissue made by a reader in the comment section of my last blog post (here).

There are at least 9 nuclear power plants at risk from Hurricane Florence and the tropical storms coming up behind it.

Let us hope that emergency generators and pumps are in place and have been tested, as alleged:

Pam Wright (2018, September 13). North Carolina Nuclear Power Plant Shuts Down Ahead of Florence; It's One of 9 in the Path of the Storm https://weather.com/safety/hurricane/news/2018-09-13-hurricane-florence-nuclear-power-plants-at-risk-brunswick

..There are 12 nuclear plants in the Carolinas, nine of which are in the storm's potential path, including Duke Energy's Brunswick nuclear power plant, a 1,870-megawatt facility located about 30 miles south of Wilmington on North Carolina's southern coast.
Brunswick officials announced Thursday the plant was shutting down, per federal law.

Anytime winds are expected to exceed 73 mph, which is equivalent to just shy of a Category 1 hurricane, nuclear plants are required to shut down two hours before the winds arrive....
...Duke spokeswoman Mary Kathryn Green told Reuters the plants installed more safety equipment in the wake of the disaster, including pumps and generators that are needed to cool the reactor core and keep radioactive fuel rods from overheating....

12 comments:

  1. Never before, human history, has so much of America been contaminated and saturated with radionuclides. Even the gold ol boy antinucs will not admit it. They have no idea, of the oncoming consequences. The old to1ned down and epidemiological studies, do not even begin to assess the grave situation we are in. Cecalli gave us that ewg stuff. It showed that 170 million drink radioacive water, in amurica. That is only the tip of the iceberg. Staup constantly updating us on reactor malfunctions and near misses. Vital1 says get your geigers out and watch for substantial irradiations this hurricane season. That is especially true, with the orange haired nutso nukeape in charge deregualting the nuclear industry.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Took 10 years of letter writing, to even get started, removing a nuclear waste pile by our town. It has to be done meticulously and cleanly because of the radionuclide material.

      Corporation that made the mess, purposely went bankrupt to avoid paying for the cleanup.100s of millions of dollars. 15 years in, half done. Does anyone seriously believe, that any of the shithead corporations that run reactors and the huge hi-level waste pools, will close them and cleanup properly? Look at what the evil fukers have done at San Onofre.

      Does anyone seriously believe, that anything other than a huge concerted, monumental, effort can properly cleanup, any one, of the 400 nasty reactors and 40 yrs of hi-level nuclear waste stored by them?

      When civilization goes down, i do not want to be alive in the radionuclide tsunami that will accompany fuel pools on fire and hundreds or thousands huge nuclear waste sites smoldering burning and or exploding. The northern hemisphere, IS SO CONTAMINATED AS IT IS. It is contaminated with the worst chemicals! It is contaminated by massive amounts of lesser radionuclides that saturate aquifers, city dumps with americium, the cities themselves, country and industrial landscapes of nucleoape civilizations.
      Perhaps it will be a quick death. Maybe a 5 day acute radiation poisoning where all of your hair falls out . Where you bleed out of every pore in your body. I would not bet on it though.

      Delete
  2. Enenews is just worthless now. Diversionist pap to steer away from the hurricane dangers. Paid, spook, trolls!!!!! Ukrainian trolls!!!!! for counter propaganda and, propaganda to take the heat off the orange-haired monster

    ReplyDelete
  3. Florent Pirot
    @FlorentPirot
    ·
    9h
    One can see how the uranium fuel fire in Fukushima lasted for months here, the CCTV records prove it and show it was not over any reactor, that the fuel is in a pool elsewhere closer to ground level
    #BrunswickNuclear

    #BrunswickNPP

    #NorthCarolina

    Fukushima : Uranium fire & supercriticalities in the used fuel pool and uranium contamination...
    depleteduranium.org

    https://depleteduranium.org/2018/03/12/fukushima-uranium-fire-supercriticalities-in-the-used-fuel-pool-leads-to-uranium-contamination-around-feu-duranium-et-supercriticites-dans-la-piscine-de-combustible-use-de-fukushima-pollu/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. From a Green Road Journal and Citizens.org

      WHAT IS THE PRICE ANDERSON ACT?

      When the Price Anderson Act was first passed, it was supposed to be only a temporary aide to help the new nuclear industry prosper and grow, while addressing concerns about it’s safety and risk.
      http://www.citizen.org/documents/Price%20Anderson%20Factsheet.pdfhttp://www.citizen.org/Page.aspx?pid=2117

      According to the pro nuclear ‘experts’, the Price-Anderson Act is what brings nuclear regulation to any nuclear activity. But the net effect of this seemingly ‘good’ law, is that it allows the nuclear industry to get away with pushing all of their liabilities and risks onto the taxpayers, while also getting unlimited corporate welfare (that will go on forever and ever) from taxpayers at the same time. How does this nuclear shell game of hiding risks and transferring costs to you the taxpayer work specifically?

      Source: http://wakeup-world.com/2014/01/22/is-nuclear-experimentation-fascism/
      PR ACT LIMITS LIABILITY TO NUCLEAR INDUSTRY, SHIFTS UNLIMITED RISKS AND COSTS TO TAXPAYERS

      The Price-Anderson limits the liability costs of any manufacturers or operator of any nuclear reactor to a paltry $10 to 12.5 Billion, out of which the utilities and lawyers get paid first, in case of a mega nuclear radiation disaster happening. This fund is paid for by all nuclear plants. Actually, it is the ratepayers who use nuclear power, that pay for this fund, not the nuclear power companies. A full blown nuclear mega disaster such as Fukushima has been estimated to cost between 1 – 10 TRILLION dollars, not a 12.5 Billion. For more on this, follow this link;
      http://www.citizen.org/cmep/article_redirect.cfm?ID=10322

      Only a small fraction of the risk is being covered, and the public is left naked and exposed to all of the risk that the nuclear industry creates. After Fukushima, the taxpayers picked up the tab and are still paying through the nose to try and handle that mega nuclear disaster. There is no way that TEPCO is ever going to ‘pay back’ the taxpayers.

      Delete
  4. Imagine that you are a passenger on a very large ship. You discover that some people aboard want the ship to sink; another group seem to be ignorant or indifferent. And only a small group of relatively powerless people want it to not sink. Is this a hopeless situation? Perhaps you are having a nighmare. You might try converting the indiffernt or ignorant group to your position, but after how much time do you decide it is in vain. Perhaps several of the save the ship persons can make a little mney via donations. Most just set on the various decks and watch the waves. Or write articles for an underground news letter. You might occasionally hold meeting. You can do these things because the people in power do not see you as a threat. And they deny that there is any real threat to the ship's intergrity. Perhaps you are wrong and the persons seen trying to drill holes in the hull are not really there.
    And finally you are way too far from a shore to swim; and the lifeboats are flimsy and unreliable. Fortunately the ship has an excellent library.

    Earlier today you had to chose between Moby Dick and Don Quixote (the Spanish edition). Perhap one of these might hold a key to your quanddry.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good metaphor. America is like a sinking battleship picking up passengers from other ships that we have sunk while others become stowaways without the crews knowledge.

      On one hand, we have a responsibility to save them. But if we can't stop this ship from sinking, are we really doing them any favors in the long run?

      Delete
    2. I think of all my Ukrainian froends that came here to escape the radiation, and hidden ramifications of Chernobyl. In Seattle and the Bay area. Blasted by Fukushima radiation in 2011. So many, now understand that places like Nevada and Utah are no less contaminated than Chernobyl, or Mayak or Kazakhstan. So many old reactors in the US ready to blow. Incredible amounts of nuclear waste. 170 to 200 million in murica drink the most radioactive water in the world. Poor to no access to medical care for most. Shithole merica now run by the worst fascist assholes

      Delete
    3. It was a sunk ship a long time ago fools! 1000 nuclear bombs exploded openair on its own people1 the analogy is just stupid and demented. FARENHEIT 451 IS an apporopriate book gor now

      Delete
    4. Crickets...
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAST139RPCo&app=desktop

      Delete
    5. That was a good one. Thumbs up

      Delete
    6. It is always crickets, here by the way Dahling

      Delete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.