Legalectric

9:00 a.m. Central, 10:00 a.m. Eastern –TOMORROW, Thursday, June 8, 2017!

Here’s James Comey’s written statement published prior to the Committee hearing:

James-Comey-s-submitted-statement-to-the-Senate

Watch testimony of James Comey, former head of the FBI, before the Senate Intelligence Committee:

In the meantime, we reached “peak tRump” back in January, just days after his coronation — since then, it’s been down in the basement. There is a trend here, shown by most recent Gallup Poll:

tRump says, “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.” Sure Donny…

Listening to him speak is painful.  This idiot is talking about “Clean Coal.”   Claims that the Paris Accord stops development of “Clean Coal.”  DOH, IT’S THE ECONOMY STUPID!

He’s again blathering about 3-4% growth.  Delusional.

The Paris Accord hamstrings America?  The Paris Accord limits the American economy?

His points in the speech are insane.  A load of covfefe!

Here are tRumpe’s talking points handed out prior to today’s announcement:

Paris Accord_Talkers

At long last, the final round of Comments on the 5+ year long rulemaking have been filed.  A five year long process to enact the changes consistent with legislation passed in 2005, 12 years ago.  WHAT!?!?!  Yes, that’s how long it’s taken.  These are rules based on the Minnesota statutes for Certificate of Need (Minn. Stat. 216B.243) and the “Power Plant Siting Act” (Minn. Stat. Ch. 216E), which is transmission routing and power plant siting.

Here are the Reply Comments, and note there are very few:

Public Intervenors – No CapX 2020, U-CAN, North Route Group & Goodhue Wind Truth – FINAL_May 31 2017

McNamasra GWT Reply_20175-132415-01

Commerce EERA Reply_20175-132345-01

ITC Midwest_Reply_20175-132421-02

OtterTail Power_Reply_20175-132275-01

Xcel Energy_Reply_20175-132417-01

Next step — on the agenda at a future Public Utilities Commission meeting, where they’ll discuss changes, hopefully we’ll have oral argument of the parties and comments from the public, and then the rules are formally released to the public for public comment, a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge, and then back to the Commission for approval.  Probably it will be August… given the public comment period and hearing, this will be at least a SIX YEAR PROCESS!

FYI, there’s a St. Croix State Park Management Plan open for comment, due July 7!  Never been to this one, yet, have looked but… Last year after Lindbergh, I sent the DNR a “We’re All Ears” comment about general experiences in the state parks, and this is more specific, so what the hell!!  I want to encourage them to have wifi in all the camps, particularly where there’s no phone access.  In Michigan, the park way way up at the tip of the peninsula of the UP has WiFi, why can’t we?

Here’s a tour of campsites at St. Croix State Park:

Their page about this plan is HERE.

The DNR will host an open house on June 22, 2017 at the St. Croix Lodge visitor center in St. Croix State Park from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. to answer questions and collect comments on the draft plan.

And the plan itself?  It’s here, check it out:

Draft St. Croix State Park management plan

Comments are due by July 7, and should be sent to:

Jade Templin    via email: jade.templin@state.mn.us

MNDNR Division of Parks and Trails
St. Croix Management Plan Comments
500 Lafayette Road Box 39
St. Paul, MN  55155-4039

Draft St. Croix State Park management plan

There’s also a 25 year Parks and Trails Legacy Plan and from that, there’s a Minnesota State Parks and Trails System Plan, and parks are one of three categories, a “Destination” park, a “Core park, or a “Rustic” park. The “Rustic” parks are ones that they say have minimal amenities, but Charles A. Lindbergh, classified as “Rustic,” had great facilities, and even canoes for rent!  Anyway, I’m digging through this today because we’re not out camping until later this month.

Check how they’ve categorized the parks in the Parks and Trails Legacy Plan, above.  The only one I’d not recommend for any reason is Big Bog, it’s buggy, hot, pretty much just a grassy parking lot, and full of big honkin’ RVs and big honkin’ pick up trucks and big honkin’ boats (it does have docks for most of the campsites).  It’s a class thing. UGH!

Destination Parks and Recreation Areas
Bear Head Lake
Forestville/Mystery Cave
Fort Snelling
Gooseberry Falls
Itasca
Jay Cooke
Lake Carlos
Lake Vermilion-Soudan Underground Mine
Mille Lacs Kathio
Sibley
Split Rock Lighthouse
St. Croix
Tettegouche
Whitewater
Wild River
William O’Brien

Core/Adventure Parks and Recreation Areas
Banning
Blue Mounds
Cuyuna Country
Interstate
Iron Range OHV
Temperance River

Core/Gateway Parks and Recreation Areas
Afton
Buffalo River
Camden
Flandreau
Frontenac
Grand Portage
Lake Bemidji
Lake Maria
Maplewood
Minneopa
Myre-Big Island
Nerstrand-Big Woods
Upper Sioux Agency

Core/Classic Parks and Recreation Areas
Big Bog
Big Stone Lake
Cascade River
Crow Wing
Father Hennepin
Fort Ridgely
Glacial Lakes
Glendalough
Great River Bluffs
Hayes Lake
La Salle Lake
Lac Qui Parle
Lake Bronson
Lake Shetek
McCarthy Beach
Moose Lake
Red River
Rice Lake
Sakatah Lake
Savanna Portage
Scenic
Split Rock Creek
Zippel Bay

Rustic Parks
Beaver Creek Valley
Carley
Charles A. Lindbergh
Franz Jevne
Garden Island
George H. Crosby Manitou
Greenleaf Lake
Hill Annex Mine
John A. Latsch
Judge C.R. Magney
Kilen Woods
Lake Louise
Minnesota Valley
Monson Lake
Old Mill
St. Croix Islands
Schoolcraft

Whoa, got some catching up to do!  Last Saturday, yes, a week ago, it was the annual open house at Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant.  They had “fewer menu options” this year, I think last time they had salad and beans, but this year it was kinda grim for us “flexitarians.”  But there was plenty of food for thought: They had a number of displays in various rooms at the training center, and maybe these were the ones that were at the Goodhue County Historical Society a while ago, some looked familiar.  Anyway, I made a bee-line for the casks, and had quite a chat with the staffer “whose name I can’t remember.”  Why casks? Well, casks and I have a long history… and some things about the casks have not been resolved.

Report of the Site Advisory Task Force – January 1996

At the very beginning of attempts to utilize casks at Prairie Island, well, let us not forget the time the crane got stuck with the cask dangling way at the top dangling over the spent fuel pool:

Licensees have also experienced problems during the 
movement of casks as a result of crane interlocks, 
errors in the accounting for the weights of cask
components, and human error...  At Prairie Island 
on May 13, 1995, a cask remained in the hoisted 
position above the spent fuel pool for approximately
16 hours while the licensee developed and implemented
 corrective actions to address an overload-sensing 
system that was inaccurately calibrated for lifting
of a loaded dry storage cask.  Changes in the
lifting procedure were required at Prairie Island 
when it was discovered that a dry storage cask 
weighed more than expected.  The weight difference 
was found to be the result of acceptable variations
 in manufacturing tolerances that had not been 
accounted for in previous weight calculations.  

See also:  NRC IN 96-26, “Recent Problems With Overhead Cranes,” issued April 30, 1996 (Accession Number 9604260095).

A very important issue to me that wasn’t resolved was how to change the cask seals.  Each cask is like a giant steel thermos, with spent fuel assemblies dropped into a grid inside the cask, a seal is put on top and then the cover is bolted down.  The seals are made of aluminum and stainless steel, and when they’re bolted down, the seal crushes some and seals the cask to prevent leakage.  Each cask has monitors that measure inside and outside pressure and are designed to notify us of leaks.  HOWEVER, these seals are to be replaced every 20 years.  That’s a problem because to replace a seal, the cask will have to go into the pool, be filled, and the lid taken off.  Putting it in the water creates two issues: thermal shock and radioactive steam. It’s my understanding that a cask loaded for an extended period has not been unloaded.  Extended meaning years, like these casks at Prairie Island.  It was tried many years ago and resulted in a 3 Stooges scenario where they got the TN 24P into the pool, took the lid off, and one of the assemblies had warped due to the high temp inside the cask, and got stuck coming out.  But they couldn’t get it back in.  So they tried pulling, pushing, called in the experts.  Read between the lines:

INEL-TN-24P-stuck

Here’s a choice on, the “Point Beach Ignition Event” where they left a loaded, but not welded, cask sitting overnight, and when the next crew came in to weld it shut, well, zinc and boron = BOOM!

Pt. Beach Cask Explosion 5/28/1996

EPRI reports on TransNuclear casks:

10150992-p15-TN-24P Warpage 10813-TN4P Leak

On Saturday, I verified that no cask seals have been replaced.  It’s been 22 years since the first cask was loaded at Prairie Island, I think it was May 1995.  So, what’s the deal here, are they just not going to do it?  Inquiring minds want to know!

I did learn that there has been limited unloading of casks, notably at Peach Bottom, and doing my homework found this report on the TN 68 (having trouble uploading here, have another better report on this… soon!):

o5/27/2011 Peach Bottom ISFSI Inspection

There’s a EPRI report on “Premature Degradation” but I’ve certainly not got the thousands of dollars to buy it.