LOS ANGELES — Southern California utility officials are warning that blackouts in the region are possible this summer as a result of the sidelined San Onofre nuclear power plant.
The damaged plant is likely to remain shut down until at least the end of August while investigators probe excessive wear in tubing that carries radioactive water, the plants operator said Thursday.
The officials say if a heat wave hits while the twin-reactor plant is offline, rotating blackouts are a possibility. Utilities have been scrambling to find replacement power as a precaution, including restarting two retired natural gas-fired plants in Orange County.
Southern California Edison said the company intends to submit a plan by the end of July to federal regulators to restart the Unit 2 reactor, where damage to tubes in its steam generators has been less severe than in its twin, Unit 3.
A proposal to restart either reactor must be approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and that review could take weeks or longer. Edison spokeswoman Jennifer Manfre said its likely the plant between San Diego and Los Angeles will remain offline at least through August.
The trouble began in January, when the Unit 3 reactor was shut down as a precaution after a tube break. Traces of radiation escaped, but officials said there was no danger to workers or neighbors. Unit 2 had been taken offline earlier that month for maintenance, but investigators later found unexpected wear on hundreds of tubes in both units.
Gradual wear is common in such tubing, but the rate of erosion at San Onofre alarmed officials because the generators are relatively new. The company has said 1,300 tubes will be taken out of service, although the number is well within the margin to allow the generators to keep operating.
The company has found that the wear is being caused by vibration and friction with adjacent tubes and bracing, but investigators have yet to say why thats happening or how they will fix it.
The NRC has said there is no timetable to restart the reactors, which were replaced in 2009 and 2010 in a $670 million overhaul.
About 7.4 million Californians live within 50 miles of San Onofre, which can power 1.4 million homes.
Safety issues at the plant have attracted congressional scrutiny, and some officials in nearby communities have called for San Onofre to be shut down permanently. The Irvine City Council urged the NRC to review safety conditions at the plant before it is considered for relicensing in 2022.
Source: www.htrnews.com
California Highway Patrol union tentatively accepts furloughs - Sacramento Bee
The California Highway Patrol officers union and Gov. Jerry Brown's administration have reached a furlough agreement to cut pay 5 percent for a year.
Under the deal, the CHP's roughly 6,300 officers will be furloughed eight hours per month starting July 1.
The union is the first to reach agreement with Brown, who wants pay reduction deals in place with all state worker unions to save an estimated $839 million to help close a budget gap estimated to be at least $15.7 billion.
The governor proposed putting most state workers on 9.5-hour shifts four days per week and closing departments on either Fridays or Mondays.
The agreement with the California Association of Highway Patrolmen signals that other unions representing workers in 24/7 jobs – prison officers, psychiatric technicians, firefighters and others – are under pressure to take similar deals.
It may also complicate talks scheduled with other unions, including today's scheduled negotiations with SEIU Local 1000, which represents 93,000 workers. Those talks center on Brown's plan instead of the arrangement worked out with the CHP union.
CHP officers will be able to bank the hours to take later, but their paychecks will reflect the 5 percent pay reduction regardless.
Jon Hamm, CEO of the California Association of Highway Patrolmen, said that the language of the agreement encourages officers to take their banked furlough time before taking paid vacation.
The Brown administration had said that it wanted to avoid a policy that allowed banking furlough hours because that leads to employees taking less paid leave, creating a deferred cost for the state when the leave credits with monetary value are cashed out at the end of an employee's career.
Until now, CAHP members had never been furloughed. Hamm said union members understand that they need to make a sacrifice, given the state's $15.7 billion budget crisis.
"Our members' reaction has been pretty positive (to the furlough)," Hamm said Friday. "I think this is sinking in. They're saying, 'I'm lucky to have a job.' "
The union plans to put the furlough agreement to a ratification vote next week.
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Source: www.sacbee.com
Public-employee pensions face a rollback in Calif. - The Guardian
ELLIOT SPAGAT
Associated Press= SAN DIEGO (AP) — For years, companies have been chipping away at workers' pensions. Now, two California cities may help pave the way for governments to follow suit.
Voters in San Diego and San Jose, the nation's eighth- and 10th-largest cities, overwhelmingly approved ballot measures last week to roll back municipal retirement benefits — and not just for future hires but for current employees.
From coast to coast, the pensions of current public employees have long been generally considered untouchable. But now, some politicians are saying those obligations are trumped by the need to provide for the public's health and safety.
The two California cases could put that argument to the test in a legal battle that could resonate in cash-strapped state capitols and city halls across the country. Lawsuits have already been filed in both cities.
"Other states are going to have to pay attention," said Amy Monahan, a law professor at University of Minnesota.
The court battles are playing out as lawmakers across the U.S. grapple with ballooning pension obligations that increasingly threaten schools, police, health clinics and other basic services.
State and local governments may have $3 trillion in unfunded pension liabilities, and seven states and six large cities will be unable to cover their obligations beyond 2020, Northwestern University finance professor Joshua Rauh estimated last year.
In San Jose, current employees face salary cuts of up to 16 percent to fund the city's pension plan. If they choose, they can instead accept a lower benefit and see the current retirement age of 55 raised to 57 for police officers and firefighters, and to 62 for other employees.
The voter-approved measure in San Diego imposes a six-year freeze on the pay levels used to determine pension benefits for current employees, a move that is expected to save nearly $1 billion over 30 years. Public employee unions have sued to block the measure, saying City Hall failed to negotiate the ballot's wording as required by state law.
Legal experts expect the cities to argue that their obligations to provide basic services such as police protection and garbage removal override promises made to employees.
In San Diego, the city's payments to its retirement fund soared from $43 million in 1999 to $231.2 million this year, equal to 20 percent of the operating budget. At the same time, the 1.3 million residents saw roads deteriorate and libraries cut hours. For a while, fire stations had to share engines and trucks. The city has cut its workforce 14 percent since 2005.
San Jose's pension payments jumped from $73 million in 2001 to $245 million this year, or 27 percent of its operating budget. Four libraries and a police station that were built over the past decade have never even opened because the city cannot afford to operate them. The city of 960,000 cut its workforce 27 percent over the past 10 years.
"It's a problem that threatens our ability to remain a city and provide services to our people," said Mayor Chuck Reed. "It's huge dollar amounts and has a huge impact on services."
Unions representing police officers and firefighters in San Jose claimed in lawsuits filed last week in state court that the measure violates their vested rights.
"What they've done in San Jose is patently unlawful under existing court precedent," said Steve Kreisberg, national collective bargaining director for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. "We know of no other places where this has survived legal scrutiny. ... There is no justification for essentially seizing the property of employees."
Michael Lotito, a San Francisco labor lawyer who has represented governments, predicted that dire fiscal straits may carry weight with judges.
"It's a horrible, horrible story for the taxpayer. But worse off the city is, the more they have to lay off, the stronger legal argument they have," he said.
The cities are also expected to argue that they are not stripping workers of anything they already earned, only changing what they will earn in the future.
"You don't have a vested right to keep having your salary increased," said San Diego City Attorney Jan Goldsmith.
The University of Minnesota's Monahan said some state courts have recognized that distinction, but not in California, where she said the state courts have held since the 1940s that benefits granted on the first day of employment are protected.
Private companies, whose pensions are governed by federal law, have been whittling away at current employees' retirement benefits for years. Pensions for state and local government workers are covered by state laws, and those benefits have been left alone for the most part.
Rhode Island has gone further than any other state to cut pensions for current workers under legislation approved last year, and opponents have vowed to challenge it in court, said David Draine, senior researcher at the Pew Center on the States. Other states have fended off legal challenges to the relatively modest step of eliminating pension increases for inflation.
"This is an area that remains legally unsettled," Draine said.
City Councilman Carl DeMaio, a chief backer of the San Diego measure who is staking his mayoral bid on a pension overhaul, said he has fielded scores of calls from government officials nationwide interested in copycat measures. He predicted the legal challenges in San Diego will fail.
"We're showing the way," he said. "We're offering a model — at least one model."
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Blend - an exhibition of artwork by pupils from Sandelford School - ballymoneytimes.co.uk
An amazing new exhibition of artwork by pupils from Sandelford School has just gone on display in Ballymoney Town Hall.
This beautiful and inspiring exhibition which is entitled “Blend”, features a wonderful array of work by students, past and present, who have been working towards their CCEA Level 1 Certificate in Drawing and Painting at the Northern Regional College, Ballymoney. All of the pieces on display show the creativity, development and determination of each individual to reach such a high level.
Speaking at the launch of the exhibition, the Chairman of Ballymoney Borough Arts Committee, Mac Pollock, congratulated the students on the high quality of their work and encouraged guests to spread the word so that as many people as possible would visit the exhibition.
“Blend” is on display in the Shiels Room, Ballymoney Town Hall until Thursday 21 June. Opening hours are Monday to Thursday & Saturday from 9am until 5pm & Friday from 9am until 4.30pm. Admission is free.
The exhibition has been organised by Ballymoney Borough Arts Committee in conjunction with Sandelford School and the Northern Regional College, Ballymoney.
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