NUCLEAR REACTORS FACE LONG SCREENING TIME
Nearly eight years have passed since the severe accident at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in March 2011. Based on the lessons from the accident, new safety standards for nuclear power plants were implemented in July 2013, and 15 nuclear reactors at eight power plants cleared the new standards.
Of them, nine reactors at five plants have resumed operations. On the other hand, safety screenings for some reactors have been prolonged, and it has been decided that many reactors will be decommissioned.
Levee heights soar
On Jan. 27, I visited Chubu Electric Power Co.’s Hamaoka nuclear power plant in Shizuoka Prefecture, where I saw a 22-meter-high coastal levee. After the Great East Japan Earthquake, an 18-meter-high levee was constructed and subsequently heightened by four meters. As I looked up at the levee, it was so high that I got a sore neck.
“Before the earthquake, the plant only had a sand embankment. Compared to that, we significantly enhanced countermeasures against tsunami,” said Toshihiro Kodaka, general manager of Chubu Electric Power’s Communication Planning and Public Relations Group in the Hamaoka Community Relations Office.
The Hamaoka nuclear power plant is located near the likely focuses of an anticipated Tokai or Nankai Trough earthquake. In May 2011, just after the earthquake, then Prime Minister Naoto Kan requested that the power company suspend operations at the nuclear power plant and it accepted the request; operations have been suspended ever since.
About five years have passed since the company applied for a safety screening of the plant’s No. 4 reactor, while 3½ years have passed for the No. 3 reactor.
Concerning the Nuclear Regulation Authority’s safety screenings, discussions are ongoing about how to factor in tsunami. While Chubu Electric Power assumes a tsunami of up to 21.1 meters, the NRA calls for the company to make calculations based on even harsher conditions.
On Jan. 28, I visited Tohoku Electric Power Co.’s Onagawa nuclear power plant in Miyagi Prefecture, where I saw a 29-meter-high levee that had been constructed after the disaster. The nuclear power plant was hit by tsunami of 13 meters in the wake of the earthquake. The nuclear reactor building is located on a site 14.8 meters above sea level.
While the earthquake caused the entire Ojika Peninsula, where the nuclear plant is located, to subside by 1 meter, the plant was not flooded. Since one of the external power sources remained intact, cold shutdown of all three reactors could be done by the following day.
http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0005524941
>Blaise Pascal: The chicken felt pressure on this side of the road. However, when it arrived on the other side it still felt the same pressure.
DEUTSCHE BANK RENEGS ON IT"S PLEDGE TO HELP DISTRESSED HOMEOWNER'S
This ought to win Deutsche Bank some badly needed good will with global prosecutors investigating the bank for its involvement in various financial frauds - not to mention Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters.
According to a Bloomberg report on Friday, DB has decided - apparently with the blessing of a federally appointed monitor - that it won't pay out the $4 billion balance on its commitment to help distressed homeowners impacted by the housing collapse. The bank had agreed to spend billions of dollars on consumer relief during the waning days of the Obama administration as part of a massive settlement with the DOJ over its role in selling mortgages.
Instead, the bank will use the money on providing new loans.
The bank's monitor said the decision might disappoint some homeowners who had reached out to the bank for relief over the past two years…but, to be fair, DB has already paid out $1.5 billion as part of the program.
The decision reverses pronouncements by the bank and the U.S. Justice Department that some of the funds - part of an overall $7.2 billion settlement over bad mortgage bonds sold before the 2008 crisis - would go to aiding people who were in imminent risk of defaulting on their mortgage payments, have especially high interest rates or owe more on their mortgage than in the value of their home.
The change in plans “may disappoint distressed homeowners and others, including the many individuals who have reached out to the monitor over the past two years, hoping to receive different types of consumer relief from the bank,” Bresnick wrote in the report, which was posted online.
Bresnick, a partner at the law firm Venable LLC and a former U.S. prosecutor, declined to comment for this article. The Justice Department didn’t have an immediate comment.
The bank rationalized its decision by saying the "most effective" form of consumer relief would be to provide loans to consumers so they can purchase homes (though, presumably, those distressed consumers wouldn't qualify under the more stringent lending standards of the modern era).
The decision reverses pronouncements by the bank and the U.S. Justice Department that some of the funds - part of an overall $7.2 billion settlement over bad mortgage bonds sold before the 2008 crisis - would go to aiding people who were in imminent risk of defaulting on their mortgage payments, have especially high interest rates or owe more on their mortgage than in the value of their home.
The change in plans “may disappoint distressed homeowners and others, including the many individuals who have reached out to the monitor over the past two years, hoping to receive different types of consumer relief from the bank,” Bresnick wrote in the report, which was posted online.
Bresnick, a partner at the law firm Venable LLC and a former U.S. prosecutor, declined to comment for this article. The Justice Department didn’t have an immediate comment.
Unlike other bank settlements from the Obama era, DB's settlement didn't require the bank to spend the money on consumer relief; instead, DOJ and DB had what amounted to a handshake agreement. The money earmarked for consumer relief wasn't specifically earmarked for loan modifications, which means the bank is free to use it for loans at its discretion. By comparison, similar settlements reached during the Trump era haven't required money be set aside to help consumers.
Earlier monitor reports said the bank was planning to offer loan relief and had entered into financing arrangements with two companies specializing in modifications.
"The bank now has declined to pursue these options for relief," the latest monitor report said. "It will not, after all, help any underwater homeowner by forgiving a portion of the principal owed on a mortgage, offer forbearance to any homeowner finding it difficult to make a monthly mortgage payment, or provide any of the other relief addressed in the monitor’s prior report."
The settlement - which initial reports suggested could be as high as $14 billion - instead required the bank to pay a roughly $3 billion fine and offer the $4 billion for consumer relief. But rest assured, the bank's new Democratic overlords on the House Financial Services Committee likely won't forget this.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-02-15/deutsche-bank-renegs-promise-spend-4-billion-distressed-homeowner-relief
Been waiting for many years anon. Ready!
Jesteśmy wszyscy brat anon. To jest wspaniały!!
yes. using a translator. Gotta be worldly if the world is watching!
using translator but a citizen of world iykwim…we all should be as it would be a much better place!
yes. I am so glad I saw parts of it 20/10 odd years ago and have much respect for Lech kicking ass.
Never made it to poland but italy, france, germany. Italy was pissed off with the 'invasione' 10 years ago when I went there.