NRC Completes SER Process for Braidwood And Byron NPPs - Nuclear Power Industry News - Nuclear Power Industry News - Nuclear Street - Nuclear Power Plant News, Jobs, and Careers

 

There are no technical issues that stand in the way of 20-year license renewals for two Exelon Generation Company nuclear power plants in Illinois, the Byron and Braidwood plants that house two reactors each, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said.

Exelon submitted applications in May 2013 to have the NRC review all four reactors’ licenses for additional 20 year renewals. The NRC said it had issued its final safety evaluation report (SER) and found “no technical issues to preclude license renewal” of the four reactors.

Byron’s two pressurized-water reactors are located approximately 17 miles southwest of Rockford, Ill. Braidwood’s two pressurized-water reactors are located approximately 20 miles southwest of Joliet, Ill.

If approved, Byron Unit 1’s renewed license would expire Oct. 31, 2044, and Byron Unit 2’s renewed license would expire Nov. 6, 2046. If approved, Braidwood Unit 1’s renewed license would expire Oct. 17, 2046, and Braidwood Unit 2’s renewed license would expire Dec. 18, 2047, the NRC said.

Braidwood’s two Westinghouse-designed reactors in Braceville, Ill., began commercial operations in July and October of 1988. Unit 1 is capable of generating 1,194 net megawatts of electricity, while Unit 2 has a 1,166 net MW capacity, according to the company’s Web site. Combined, Braidwood’s reactors can provide electricity to more than 2 million average U.S. homes, Exelon says.

Byron’s Unit 1 and Unit 2 have an approximate capacity of 2,336 net megawatts of electricity. The facility in Byron, Ill., includes two massive towers close to 500 feet tall. These units began commercial operations in September 1985 and August 1987, respectively.

The application process to date has involved an NRC review of the license applications and site audits of Byron’s and Braidwood’s “aging-management programs to address the safety of plant operations during the period of extended operation,” the NRC said.

Exelon was judged to have identified actions to manage the structures and components of the plant to ensure ongoing plant production that meets NRC safety specifications.

The process proceeds along two tracks, the NRC explained. One track involves safety issues. The other involves environmental considerations.

The watchdog agency called issuing the final SER “a significant milestone in the license renewal review process.”

The SER(s) and applications for Byron and Braidwood have been forwarded to the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards, an independent body of experts who plan to review the two license options in a September meeting and then make recommendations to the NRC.

NRC Completes SER Process for Braidwood And Byron NPPs - Nuclear Power Industry News - Nuclear Power Industry News - Nuclear Street - Nuclear Power Plant News, Jobs, and Careers

Do the math: Rauner’s call for repeal of prevailing wage law doesn’t add up | Chicago Reporter

 

Illinois residents are starting to feel the pain from the state’s budget stalemate, as Governor Rauner continues to insist that his anti-union “turnaround agenda” be part of any budget solution.

As part of that agenda, Rauner has called for repeal of the state’s prevailing wage law, which requires that state-funded public construction projects pay wages comparable to average rates in a region. In his state of the state address, he argued that the prevailing wage law increases the cost of construction by 20 percent and raises school construction costs by $160 million a year.

That’s not mathematically possible, according to Frank Manzo of the Illinois Economic Policy Institute.

He points out that wages only account for 20 to 25 percent of the cost of public construction projects, so reducing costs by that amount solely through wage cuts would require paying workers something close to zero.

Indeed, studies of school construction costs in Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Pennsylvania have shown that reducing wages by eliminating or adjusting the prevailing wage has no effect on construction costs.

How can that be?

Manzo said evidence shows that while wages go down 8 to 13 percent without the prevailing wage, productivity decreases between 11 and 14 percent. Contractors paying higher wages hire more skilled labor and use more large equipment, he said. They also save on material and fuel costs.

The alternative is “a low-wage, low-skill, low-quality system,” Manzo said. He tells of an Illinois contractor who took a job in Florida. As the contractor told him, “he does a job in Illinois, the workers show up in hardhats, with tools, properly equipped, properly trained and ready to go. In Florida, he tries to hire local labor, they show up in flip-flops, no hardhat, they’re carrying a hammer, they don’t know what they’re doing. He told me he had to bring workers in from Illinois.”

One study of the industry in Colorado showed no difference in the size of bids for federal projects covered by the prevailing wage and comparable state projects that weren’t covered. To Manzo, this suggests that contractors are simply increasing their profit margins when they’re allowed to pay lower wages.

Another thing—injury and fatality rates are significantly higher in states without a prevailing wage. If Illinois had the safety record of low-wage states, he says, there’d be at least seven more construction fatalities a year (there were 27 in 2010).

It’s wrong to think of it in these terms, but for Governor Rauner’s benefit: injuries and fatalities reduce productivity, damage equipment and cause construction delays.

And while Rauner argues that lower wages would boost the state’s economy by increasing competitiveness, Manzo argues that the opposite is true. Lost wages and reduced consumer demand—as well as lost work, as low-wage contractors come in from out of state—would cut the state’s GDP by over $1 billion if the prevailing wage was eliminated, he estimates.

And cutting workers’ wages would reduce state tax revenues by $44 million, he says. One study shows that construction workers earning the prevailing wage pay more than twice as much in income and property taxes as those who don’t.

Based on the history of exclusion of African Americans from building trade unions, some opponents of the prevailing wage argue that it increases discrimination. Manzo says outreach efforts need to be stepped up. (That’s happening in some unions, but much more needs to be done.) But he points to recent research showing no relationship between prevailing wage laws and African American participation in construction employment, and new studies indicating that prevailing wage laws may in some cases increase the proportion of African Americans in construction jobs.

A similar argument is made against raising the minimum wage by opponents who say it would reduce employment for people of color.  And when the same politicians attacking the prevailing wage are also going after public sector jobs and unions—where blacks are heavily represented—their  concern over racial parity rings hollow.

The prevailing wage issue is “part of a broader debate about what kind of state we want to live in,” said Manzo.  “Do we want an economy that pays workers enough to support a family?”

The economic claims may be a facade for another motivation. “When you look at the evidence, you don’t see any economic boost” from eliminating the prevailing wage, “but you do see a huge impact on declining unionization,” Manzo said.  “That means more power for employers, less power for employees, more wealth for the wealthy.

“It’s part of the playbook of reducing workers’ influence and reducing workers’ share of the economic pie

Do the math: Rauner’s call for repeal of prevailing wage law doesn’t add up | Chicago Reporter

State Senate partially overrides Governor's budget veto | WEEK News 25 - News, Sports, Weather - Peoria, Illinois | Top Stories

 

By WEEK Reporter

July 15, 2015Updated Jul 16, 2015 at 10:23 AM CDT

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- The Illinois Senate passed a temporary stop gap spending plan while no state budget is in place and lawmakers remain at an impasse.

Gov. Rauner has been vocal in his opposition to the $2.3 billion temporary budget and vetoed the bill as soon as it hit his desk Wednesday afternoon.

But the senate can still override that veto.

In fact, the Senate overrode a number of gubernatorial budget vetoes today. All bills passed with at least three-fifths required votes.

The House now has 15 days to do the same.

Republicans say the social services now funded by the overrides are going to suffer more when the state runs out of money.

"This puts us on a path to basically just cementing in an out of balance unconstitutional budget," said State Sen. Matt Murphy.

"It addresses key essential services, key components of the budget to make sure we continue to invest in the people of our state," explained State Sen. Dan Kotowski. "Make sure they have every opportunity to lead a good quality of life."

There were originally 18 total budget bills vetoed. Five were overridden Wednesday.

State Senate partially overrides Governor's budget veto | WEEK News 25 - News, Sports, Weather - Peoria, Illinois | Top Stories

Yahoo News: Walker goes Scott-free as state judges shut down fundraising probe

 

The Wisconsin Supreme Court today ordered a special state prosecutor to shut down a controversial investigation into Gov. Scott Walker’s political fundraising and “permanently destroy” all the evidence it has collected, handing Walker a huge political victory just days after he formally announced his run for president.

“To be clear, this conclusion ends the … investigation because the special prosecutor’s legal theory is unsupported in either reason or law,” Justice Michael Gableman wrote in a majority opinion effectively ending the so-called John Doe probe into Walker’s fundraising.

The sweeping nature of the ruling by a sharply divided court — in which four conservative justices sided with Walker and two liberals with the state prosecutor — pulls the plug on a three-year probe that threatened to expose new details about millions of dollars in secret contributions the Wisconsin governor personally solicited from wealthy donors to defend his record during a bitter 2012 recall election.

But the ruling seems unlikely to end the political controversy spurred by the probe, which had become a lightning rod in the broader debate over the role of so-called dark money in American politics. Critics immediately noted that two of the justices on the court who ruled in Walker’s favor had been elected with $10 million in contributions from outside advocacy groups, which don’t disclose their donors and which were the very subjects of the Walker investigation.

And the prospect that voluminous records, including emails and memos written by Walker and his top campaign aides, will now be destroyed could well become an issue for transparency advocates.

“Walker should call on the courts to release these records so the public could judge for themselves,” said Brendan Fischer, general counsel of the Center for Media and Democracy, a Madison-based group that has criticized Walker’s fundraising.

But such a call by Walker seems more unlikely than ever. Walker had denounced the investigation into his fundraising as a “political witch-hunt,” and today his campaign claimed vindication.

“Today’s ruling confirmed no laws were broken, a ruling that was previously stated by both a state and federal judge,” AshLee Strong, a spokeswoman for Walker’s campaign, said in a statement. “It is time to move past this unwarranted investigation that has cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

“We’re assessing our options,” Francis Schmitz, the special state prosecutor, told Yahoo News when asked whether he and others involved in the investigation would seek to appeal to the ((US))Supreme Court. Schmitz called the decision “a loss for all of the citizens of Wisconsin” and added in a statement: “It defies common sense that a Wisconsin resident … who gives $25 to a campaign has his or her name publicly reported under the law, but according to this decision, someone who gives … $100,000 to a group which closely coordinates with the same campaign can remain anonymous.”

The investigation had been launched three years ago by John Chisholm, the Democratic district attorney in Milwaukee County, as an outgrowth of an earlier probe into Walker’s tenure as county executive that had resulted in six criminal convictions of Walker aides on charges involving improper fundraising and conducting political business on government property.

Chisholm’s probe, which was initiated under Wisconsin’s “John Doe” laws that give prosecutors wide berth to investigate public officials, eventually led to the appointment by state judges of a special prosecutor: Schmitz, a hard-charging former Bush Justice Department lawyer and a Republican. In court papers filed after a series of predawn raids on Walker aides and allies, Schmitz alleged that Walker himself was part of a “criminal scheme” to violate Wisconsin campaign finance laws by personally soliciting millions of dollars from outside groups, such as the Wisconsin Club for Growth, that were working closely with his campaign. Schmitz said that violated Wisconsin law requiring full disclosure of campaign contributions.

But the secret contributions also included entities with major interests before Walker’s administration. They included $700,000 from a Florida-based mining company seeking an iron ore concession from the Wisconsin state government and, as Yahoo News reported in March, more than $1.5 million from home appliance magnate John Menard Jr., whose firm later received $1.8 million in tax breaks from Walker’s economic development agency.

But the conservative majority on the Wisconsin court, relying in part on U.S. Supreme Court rulings that have struck down large chunks of federal campaign finance laws, rejected the entire premise of the Schmitz investigation. The state court described the Wisconsin law requiring disclosure of contributions for a “political purpose” as “unconstitutionally overbroad and vague under the First Amendment” and contended the disclosure requirements did not apply to outside groups that were engaging in so-called issue advocacy.

Not only do Schmitz and other state prosecutors have to “cease all activities,” but they must also “return property seized in the investigation from any individual or organization, and permanently destroy all copies of information and other material obtained through the investigation,” Justice Gableman wrote in his opinion.

But in a blistering dissent, a liberal judge, Shirley S. Abrahamson, denounced the conservative majority for what she called its “convoluted analysis and overblown rhetoric” and its “anything goes” attitude toward “issue advocacy” by political groups.

“The majority opinion delivers a significant blow to Wisconsin campaign finance law and to its paramount objectives of … providing for ‘a better informed electorate,’” she wrote.

GO to following to read more:  Yahoo News

Belvidere School District Superintendent Michael Houselog to retire and join Rockford University - News - Rockford Register Star - Rockford, IL

 

By Chris Green
Rockford Register Star

Posted Jul. 13, 2015 at 10:00 PM
Updated at 7:16 AM

BELVIDERE — Belvidere Superintendent Michael Houselog will retire Aug. 14, according to a Belvidere School Board memo to the Belvidere Education Association.

The board president has been directed to engage firms to begin the search for an interim superintendent.

Houselog, 63, is leaving to become Rockford University's director of graduate programs; he starts Aug. 17.

"I will be working with all the graduate programs, recruitment and developing new graduate program," he said.

The Dubuque, Iowa, native had been pursuing jobs in Iowa for the past three years. Earlier this year, he was denied for the fourth time since 2012 to become superintendent of the Marion,  Dubuque, Johnston and Southeast Polk districts.

More than 8,600 students are enrolled in Belvidere's six elementary schools, two middle schools and two high schools.

Houselog has been Belvidere superintendent for eight years. Before that, he worked for four years in the North Boone School District in Poplar Grove.

Chris Green: 815-987-1241; cgreen@rrstar.com; @chrisfgreen

Belvidere School District Superintendent Michael Houselog to retire and join Rockford University - News - Rockford Register Star - Rockford, IL

Rauner Uses Deep Pockets to Erode Illinois Democrats’ Advantage - Bloomberg Business

Bruce Rauner spent more than $25 million of his own fortune to get elected governor of Illinois. While the state is running out of cash and thousands of state employees might not get paid because of a budget dispute, the Republican chief executive isn’t done spending yet.

As Illinois’s gridlocked government stumbles toward a shutdown, the independently wealthy Rauner remains in campaign mode. He sends cash to his party’s lawmakers and bankrolls statewide TV ads vilifying Democratic legislative leaders who oppose his agenda.

“All they want is higher taxes. Again,” says one ad, seeking to promote Rauner as a reform-minded, can’t-be-bought businessman fighting for the taxpayers of a state saddled with debt, bad credit and corruption.

In Illinois, one of the nation’s Democratic strongholds and home state of President Barack Obama, Rauner’s money makes him an unrivaled counterweight. The 59-year-old former equity capital executive had income of $61 million in 2013, according to tax returns. And he’s willing to spend it -- along with dollars from a few like-minded supporters -- to promote his agenda of tax cuts and less business regulation.

Rauner, the state’s first Republican governor in 12 years, has revived the spirits and the treasury of his party.

“He is unique. We’ve never had a governor like this,” said Pat Brady, former chairman of the Illinois Republican Party. Rauner’s money is shaping the policy debate and eroding the advantage Democrats have long enjoyed from union workers helping their campaigns.

“In an era when patronage is supposed to be dead, you have to have money to put out the get-out-the-vote programs,” Brady said. “Now we’ll be able to match the Democrats.”

Flush Governor

Rauner is as flush as the state is not. Its pile of unpaid bills exceeds $5 billion. Pension liabilities top $111 billion. Chicago and its public schools, burdened by unpaid retirement obligations, have seen their credit plummet. This year’s budget is $6.2 billion in the hole, and the failure to reach a spending deal means tens of thousands of state employees might not be paid next week.

In contrast, the governor’s campaign committee has $20 million. Rauner provided $10 million of that amount, Citadel LLC Chief Executive Officer Ken Griffin gave $8 million and Richard Uihlein, chief executive of Wisconsin-based Uline Inc., $2 million, according to state records. The committee distributed $400,000 to Republican lawmakers as the legislature considered Democratic budget bills that Rauner opposed.

A separate independent committee called Turnaround Illinois is funded by Rauner and Sam Zell, chairman of Chicago-based Equity Group Investments.

“He’s able to exercise influence far beyond what an individual wealthy donor or governor could do because he’s a combination of the two,” said Kent Redfield, a political-science professor at the University of Illinois Springfield.

A spokeswoman for Rauner said there was “nothing out of the ordinary” about his contributions to Republican lawmakers or other spending to push his agenda.

“Advertisements are merely a tool in the governor’s toolbox to get his message to the people of Illinois,” his press secretary, Catherine Kelly, said in an e-mailed statement.

Former California Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger used his wealth and that of others to promote ballot proposals intended to change the operation of that state’s government. While the initiatives were rejected by voters, the effort fueled the practice of mixing campaigning with governing.

‘Arms Race’

Rauner’s post-election spending takes it even further, said David Melton, executive director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, a Chicago-based watchdog group.

“This represents a significant upping of the arms race,” Melton said. “And it opens the door to a form of plutocracy,” with wealthy donors and politicians dictating the public agenda.

Rauner, a first-time officeholder, built part of his successful election campaign attacking Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, who has led that chamber for 30 of the last 32 years. Democrats hold veto-proof majorities in the Illinois General Assembly.

Soon after the election campaign officially ended in November, Rauner began a new one -- blaming Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton for many of the state’s fiscal woes. Cullerton has been in the legislature since 1979.

“This is about good government taking on bad government,” Rauner said in a May 31 press conference. Madigan, he said, “pulls the strings” of lawmakers, like a puppeteer.

A month later, Madigan, 73, accused the governor of “functioning in the extreme” by promoting a political agenda over balancing the budget.

The outcome of Illinois’s solvency-threatening budget impasse could hinge on the money shaping the debate. Redfield said it has the potential of further perverting politics in Illinois.

“Replacing a legislator who’s a wholly owned subsidiary of the speaker with one who’s a wholly owned subsidiary of the governor does not advance the democratic process,” Redfield said.

Bruce Rauner spent more than $25 million of his own fortune to get elected governor of Illinois. While the state is running out of cash and thousands of state employees might not get paid because of a budget dispute, the Republican chief executive isn’t done spending yet.

As Illinois’s gridlocked government stumbles toward a shutdown, the independently wealthy Rauner remains in campaign mode. He sends cash to his party’s lawmakers and bankrolls statewide TV ads vilifying Democratic legislative leaders who oppose his agenda.

“All they want is higher taxes. Again,” says one ad, seeking to promote Rauner as a reform-minded, can’t-be-bought businessman fighting for the taxpayers of a state saddled with debt, bad credit and corruption.

In Illinois, one of the nation’s Democratic strongholds and home state of President Barack Obama, Rauner’s money makes him an unrivaled counterweight. The 59-year-old former equity capital executive had income of $61 million in 2013, according to tax returns. And he’s willing to spend it -- along with dollars from a few like-minded supporters -- to promote his agenda of tax cuts and less business regulation.

Rauner, the state’s first Republican governor in 12 years, has revived the spirits and the treasury of his party.

“He is unique. We’ve never had a governor like this,” said Pat Brady, former chairman of the Illinois Republican Party. Rauner’s money is shaping the policy debate and eroding the advantage Democrats have long enjoyed from union workers helping their campaigns.

“In an era when patronage is supposed to be dead, you have to have money to put out the get-out-the-vote programs,” Brady said. “Now we’ll be able to match the Democrats.”

Flush Governor

Rauner is as flush as the state is not. Its pile of unpaid bills exceeds $5 billion. Pension liabilities top $111 billion. Chicago and its public schools, burdened by unpaid retirement obligations, have seen their credit plummet. This year’s budget is $6.2 billion in the hole, and the failure to reach a spending deal means tens of thousands of state employees might not be paid next week.

In contrast, the governor’s campaign committee has $20 million. Rauner provided $10 million of that amount, Citadel LLC Chief Executive Officer Ken Griffin gave $8 million and Richard Uihlein, chief executive of Wisconsin-based Uline Inc., $2 million, according to state records. The committee distributed $400,000 to Republican lawmakers as the legislature considered Democratic budget bills that Rauner opposed.

A separate independent committee called Turnaround Illinois is funded by Rauner and Sam Zell, chairman of Chicago-based Equity Group Investments.

“He’s able to exercise influence far beyond what an individual wealthy donor or governor could do because he’s a combination of the two,” said Kent Redfield, a political-science professor at the University of Illinois Springfield.

A spokeswoman for Rauner said there was “nothing out of the ordinary” about his contributions to Republican lawmakers or other spending to push his agenda.

“Advertisements are merely a tool in the governor’s toolbox to get his message to the people of Illinois,” his press secretary, Catherine Kelly, said in an e-mailed statement.

Former California Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger used his wealth and that of others to promote ballot proposals intended to change the operation of that state’s government. While the initiatives were rejected by voters, the effort fueled the practice of mixing campaigning with governing.

‘Arms Race’

Rauner’s post-election spending takes it even further, said David Melton, executive director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, a Chicago-based watchdog group.

“This represents a significant upping of the arms race,” Melton said. “And it opens the door to a form of plutocracy,” with wealthy donors and politicians dictating the public agenda.

Rauner, a first-time officeholder, built part of his successful election campaign attacking Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, who has led that chamber for 30 of the last 32 years. Democrats hold veto-proof majorities in the Illinois General Assembly.

Soon after the election campaign officially ended in November, Rauner began a new one -- blaming Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton for many of the state’s fiscal woes. Cullerton has been in the legislature since 1979.

“This is about good government taking on bad government,” Rauner said in a May 31 press conference. Madigan, he said, “pulls the strings” of lawmakers, like a puppeteer.

A month later, Madigan, 73, accused the governor of “functioning in the extreme” by promoting a political agenda over balancing the budget.

The outcome of Illinois’s solvency-threatening budget impasse could hinge on the money shaping the debate. Redfield said it has the potential of further perverting politics in Illinois.

“Replacing a legislator who’s a wholly owned subsidiary of the speaker with one who’s a wholly owned subsidiary of the governor does not advance the democratic process,” Redfield said.

Rauner Uses Deep Pockets to Erode Illinois Democrats’ Advantage - Bloomberg Business

Dems highlight positive workers' comp report

 

SPRINGFIELD — Seeking to blunt Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s push for an overhaul of the state’s workers' compensation laws, Democrats in the Illinois House say a new report shows that changes enacted in 2011 are saving the state money.

The report, compiled by the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission, shows benefit payments to injured workers have dropped by 19 percent since the changes went into effect — the largest decrease in the nation.

The report also found Illinois’ average medical payment per case fell 16 percent from 2010 to 2012, moving it from the highest cost state to near the median.

Discussion of the report at a hearing last week came as Rauner continues to push for  business-friendly changes to workers' compensation laws before he will sign off on a tax increase to avoid drastic cuts to state programs.

Rauner wants to increase the standards workers must meet to prove their injury occurred at the workplace, reduce reimbursement rates for medical providers who treat workers and adjust rules for workers who are injured while traveling to their job.

Last week,  Rauner outlined a series of tweaks to a workers' compensation overhaul, including several changes he says are supported by Democrats.

Among those is the creation of a workers' compensation ombudsman who could assist injured workers.

Democrats who control the House and the Senate have resisted the governor’s proposals, saying they would hurt middle class workers. And, during the hearing Wednesday, they suggested that the 2011 changes are already proving to be beneficial for businesses.

"If you read the report, it is filled with good news," said state Rep. Jay Hoffman, D-Collinsville.

Hoffman, who chairs House Labor Committee, accused the Rauner administation of blocking the author of the annual report from attending the hearing. In a letter to Hoffman, Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission Chairmwoman Joann Fratianni said she was too busy  to attend the hearing.

"To say I am disappointed, that is truly an understatement," Hoffman said.

A Rauner spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.

State Rep. John Bradley, D-Marion, also bemoaned the absence of Fratianni, who was appointed to the position by Rauner. He said she might have helped lawmakers understand the effects of the 2011 changes.

Bradley said more than two million Illinoisans were represented by lawmakers attending the hearing.

"I don't think I would just disregard that," Bradley said.

But Republican lawmakers businesses haven’t seen the estimated $500 million that was supposed to be saved by the 2011 overhaul.

"There is still lots more room for improvement," said state Rep. Dan Brady, R-Bloomington

Dems highlight positive workers' comp report