Centerpoint energy

The United Nation’s chief nuclear energy official met on Monday with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine to discuss what he describes as increasingly dire fears about a battle-scarred nuclear plant on the front line of the war, ahead of his first visit to the plant in almost seven months. The official, Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, met with Mr. Zelensky in the battered Ukrainian-held city of Zaporizhzhia, about 35 miles northeast of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which invading Russian forces have held for more than a year. The plant, on the Dnipro River, is the first in the world to be engulfed by a war zone, raising fears of a catastrophic release of radiation. Shelling and shooting have repeatedly damaged the plant and temporarily knocked out vital supporting equipment. And reports that Ukraine is planning a major counteroffensive to retake southern territory that includes the plant have heightened fears of a … [Read more...] about U.N. Official Heads to Ukrainian Nuclear Plant as Safety Fears Grow

KYIV, Ukraine — Russia’s assault on Ukraine’s energy grid is endangering the safe operation of the country’s nuclear power plants, the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency has warned. Russian missiles knocked one plant offline in Khmelnytskyi in western Ukraine on Tuesday evening, and it was left it to rely on diesel generators to perform critical cooling functions. A second nuclear power plant, in nearby Rivne, was forced to reduce the energy it produces after Russian strikes on Tuesday damaged the power lines that connect it to the national grid. And in southern Ukraine, the Russian occupation of the Zaporizhzhia power plant has forced engineers there to cycle down all of its reactors. For months, attacks in and around that plant have left engineers racing from one crisis to the next as it has repeatedly been disconnected from the national energy grid. The effect of the new strikes on the energy grid is “a very concerning development,” Rafael M. Grossi, the director of the … [Read more...] about Russian attacks on Ukraine’s power grid are endangering nuclear plants, a U.N. agency warns.

The long-defunct Chernobyl plant in Ukraine is completely dependent on outside sources of electricity. So when that power is cut, as Ukrainian officials and the International Atomic Energy Agency say it has been by Russian troops, problems can result. As of Wednesday Chernobyl, the scene of the worst nuclear disaster in history when one of its four reactors exploded and burned 36 years ago, is operating mainly on power from diesel generators. A former longtime employee of the plant with knowledge of conditions there said that some equipment was functioning on battery power as well, and that firefighting systems, as well as radiation monitoring, had been affected. The I.A.E.A. said Wednesday that it saw “no critical impact on safety” at the complex. But what could happen if all these backups failed and Chernobyl was left with no power at all? The Chernobyl plant came online in the late 1970s, with the completion of its first two reactors. By 1983 the third and fourth … [Read more...] about What a Power Cutoff Could Mean for Chernobyl’s Nuclear Waste

KYIV, Ukraine — A team of international nuclear experts departed from Ukraine’s capital on Wednesday morning hoping to ensure the safety of an imperiled nuclear plant, though a senior Ukrainian official had warned that many challenges remained to the team’s mission, not least finding safe passage through an active battlefield to the Russian-occupied facility. Fourteen experts with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations nuclear watchdog, landed in Ukraine this week, where they are confronted by one of the most complicated missions in the agency’s history. The I.A.E.A. has also worked in Iraq, Iran and North Korea. To reach the occupied facility, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the team must negotiate the craters and trenches of the front and enter an area where frequent shelling has raised fears of a possible nuclear catastrophe. “As you know, we have a very, very important task there to perform, to assess the real situation there, to help stabilize the … [Read more...] about Experts Arrive to Inspect Nuclear Plant, but Ukraine Warns of Pitfalls

Photo-Illustration: Intelligencer; Photo: Jenny Kane/AP/Shutterstock Over the past several months, a severe shortage of Adderall and similar medications has wreaked havoc on the lives of ADHD sufferers, children, and adults alike. There are many factors behind the rolling crisis, including manufacturing issues and increased drug demand. But Dr. David Goodman, director of the Adult Attention Deficit Disorder Center of Maryland, believes that one reason for the shortage’s persistence — or at least the sluggishness in addressing it — is the widespread public misapprehension of ADHD as a mild condition. I spoke with Goodman, who along with treating patients consults with several pharmaceutical companies on products in the ADHD arena, about the medicine shortage and its ramifications. The FDA announced this shortage back in October, citing manufacturing delays. Now we’re in late March, and people who take the drug are still having a lot of trouble finding it. Do you have … [Read more...] about Where’s the Urgency on the Adderall Shortage?

First Citizens Bank has agreed to purchase Silicon Valley Bank, which collapsed after a bank run, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said. All of Silicon Valley Bank's 17 branches will open as First Citizens branches on Monday, the FDIC said in a news release dated Sunday. First Citizens said the branches will operate as "Silicon Valley Bank, a division of First Citizens Bank." The announcement that First Citizens, based in Raleigh, N.C., would buy the Northern California bank is a significant step in the efforts to quell the chaos that unfolded after Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) collapsed this month, setting off wider unease across the global financial sector. First Citizens agreed to buy all of SVB's deposits and loans, as well as a large portion of its assets, leaving about $90 billion in securities and other assets under the control of the FDIC, the regulator said. The FDIC said it estimated that SVB's failure cost the government's Deposit Insurance Fund about $20 billion. … [Read more...] about First Citizens Bank to buy Silicon Valley Bank after collapse, FDIC says