Brian Vanderhoff's North Fulton Real Estate Blog

A new round of negotiations began Wednesday amid tough talk from Iran's supreme leader, reflecting tensions from nearly a decade of negotiations on Tehran's nuclear program that have begun to make headway only recently.  

While voicing support for the talks, Iran's supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, insisted there are limits to the concessions Tehran will make. And he blasted Israel as "the rabid dog of the region" — comments rejected by French President Francois Hollande as "unacceptable." 

“The (Israeli) Zionist regime is a regime whose pillars are extremely shaky and is doomed to collapse,” Khamenei said, according to French news agency AFP. “Any phenomenon that is created by force cannot endure.” 

French spokeswoman Najat Vallaud-Belkacem told reporters in Paris that such statements complicate the talks, but France still hopes for a deal and its position has not changed. 

Meanwhile, Vice President Joe Biden stressed in a meeting Wednesday with a dozen Democratic senators that the goal of talks involving the U.S., other world powers and Iran is to keep Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.  

Some lawmakers want to slap Iran with a new round of sanctions. But the Obama administration has been urging them to hold off, arguing that existing sanctions have been so onerous that they have forced Iran to come to the table seeking relief. The administration says new sanctions could jeopardize the delicate talks.

The White House said Biden emphasized that President Obama has a responsibility to seek a peaceful solution. Biden's meeting follows a personal appeal by Obama at the White House to other lawmakers on Tuesday.

America's longtime allies Israel and Saudi Arabia fear a deal will fall short of ending the Iranian threat and that a resurgent Iran will transform the balance of power in the Middle East.

A senior U.S. official said Wednesday's brief plenary was only a formality and that bilateral meetings would continue through the evening to try to hammer out the first steps of a deal. She demanded anonymity under U.S. government briefing rules. 

Khamenei gave no further details in a speech to a paramilitary group aimed at both placating hard-liners and showing his backing for the Iranian officials meeting with international negotiators in Geneva. But his mention of Iran's "nuclear rights" was widely interpreted as a reference to uranium enrichment. 

For his part, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed ahead with criticism of what he asserts is a deal in the making that will give Iran too much for too little in return.

Netanyahu, in Moscow to meet with President Vladimir Putin, renewed his demand for a full stop to all Iranian nuclear programs that could be turned from peaceful uses to making weapons.

He said that Israel wants to see a negotiated settlement, but added that it must be "genuine and real."

"Israel believes that the international community must unequivocally ensure the fulfillment of the U.N. Security Council's decisions so that uranium enrichment ends, centrifuges are dismantled, enriched material is taken out of Iran and the reactor in Arak is dismantled," Netanyahu said, referring to Iran's plutonium reactor under construction. 

Putin had no public reaction to Netanyahu's comments. "We expect that mutually acceptable solutions will be found shortly," he told reporters. 

If the talks produce a deal to freeze Iran's nuclear efforts, negotiators will pursue a more comprehensive agreement that would ensure that Tehran's program is solely for civilian purposes. Iran would get some sanctions relief under such a first-step deal, without any easing of the harshest measures — those crippling its ability to sell oil, its main revenue maker.

Iran has suggested it could curb its highest-known level of enrichment — at 20 percent — in a possible deal that could ease the U.S.-led economic sanctions.

But Iranian leaders have made clear that their country will not consider giving up its ability to make nuclear fuel — the centerpiece of the talks since the same process used to make reactor stock can be used to make weapons-grade material.

Details of sanctions relief being discussed have not been revealed. But a member of Congress and legislative aides on Wednesday put the figure at $6 billion to $10 billion, based on what they said were estimates from the U.S. administration.

The aides and the member of Congress demanded anonymity because they weren't authorized to divulge the estimate publicly. 

The senior U.S. administration official declined comment beyond saying that envisaged sanctions would give Iran only limited relief and they could be rolled back if Iran reneges on terms of any initial deal.

"We will not allow this agreement, should it be reached ... to buy time or to allow for the acceptance of an agreement that does not properly address our core, fundamental concerns," Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters in Washington

But Kerry said the issue of whether Iran will ultimately be allowed to enrich uranium would not be decided in an interim deal under consideration by the world powers, Reuters reported.  

"We are at the initial stage of determining whether or not there is a first step that could be taken, and that certainly will not be resolved in any first step, I can assure you," Kerry was quoted as saying.   

The talks are being convened by Catherine Ashton, the European Union's top diplomat. Her spokesman, Michael Man, said there is "room for flexibility" on sanctions relief if Iran's concessions warrant it. 

In Washington, Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki expressed optimism, saying the Obama administration believes "we have an opportunity to move forward on a diplomatic path with the Iranians."

Khamenei said he would not "interfere in the details of the talks," in a clear nod of support for the government of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, which has opened historic exchanges with the U.S. However, he also said the main goal is "stabilization of the rights of the Iranian nation, including nuclear rights."

But, 'there are red lines," he told the Tehran gathering. "There are limits. These limits must be observed."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Labels: Iran, nuclear, Talks

WASHINGTON — President Obama, speaking to an enthusiastic audience of union officials in Lanham, Md., on Tuesday, underscored his embrace of nuclear power as a clean energy source, announcing that the Energy Department had approved financial help for the construction of two nuclear reactors in Georgia.

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If the project goes forward, the reactors would be the first begun in the United States since the 1970s.
The announcement of the loan guarantee — $8.3 billion to help the Southern Company and two partners build twin reactors in Burke County — comes as the administration is courting Republican support for its climate and energy policies. With climate legislation stalled in the Senate and its prospects for success dim, Democrats are seeking new incentives to spur clean energy development and create jobs.
At the same time, the president’s embrace of nuclear energyhas drawn the ire of environmental groups that have long opposed any return to a reliance on nuclear power.
In his speech, Mr. Obama portrayed the decision as part of a broad strategy to increase employment and the generation of clean power. But he also made clear that the move was a bid to gain Republican support for a broader energy bill.
“Those who have long advocated for nuclear power — including many Republicans — have to recognize that we will not achieve a big boost in nuclear capacity unless we also create a system of incentives to make clean energy profitable,” Mr. Obama said.
Some Republicans, however, said that the announcement would have little effect on their votes.
Don Stewart, a spokesman for the Republican Senate leader, Mitch McConnell, said that Mr. McConnell had repeatedly praised Mr. Obama for favoring additional loan guarantees for nuclear power plants. But, he said, this would not translate into support for a cap on carbon dioxide emissions.
“It won’t cause Republicans to support the national energy tax,” Mr. Stewart said.
He added that Republican and Democratic ideas on energy policy overlapped in some areas, but that much of Mr. Obama’s energy program did not fall into those areas.
Robert Dillon, a spokesman for Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, said that she thought nuclear power was “a core component of a comprehensive energy plan,” but that she would vote on an energy bill as a whole.
“One or two provisions aren’t going to offset bad provisions,” he said.
The announcement of the loan guarantees, which had been signaled in advance, drew immediate praise from the nuclear industry and criticism from some environmental groups.
David M. Ratcliffe, the chairman and chief executive of the Southern Company, said that a nuclear renaissance was in the wings and that “we will get on with that at a more rapid pace now that we’ve made this first step.”
Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, however, said that nuclear power was not the fastest or cheapest way to reduce the greenhouse gases linked to global warming.
“The loan guarantees announced today may ease the politics around comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation, but we do not believe that they are the best policy,” he said.
Despite the financing, the reactors are far from a done deal: their design has not yet been fully approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, whose staff has raised questions about whether changes made to harden the plant against aircraft attack had made it more vulnerable to earthquakes.
The builders hope to have a license to build and run the plant by the end of next year, under a revised process that is supposed to eliminate problems that caused huge cost overruns in the 1970s and 1980s, when regulatory changes during construction added billions to costs. About 100 reactors were abandoned during construction in that era.
The Southern Company applied two years ago to the commission for permission to build and operate the reactors, adjacent to its Vogtle 1 and 2 reactors.
The loan guarantees were authorized by the Energy Policy Act of 2005. If the reactors are built and operate profitably, the borrowers will repay the banks and pay a fee to the federal government in exchange for the guarantee; if the borrowers default, the federal government will repay the banks. Critics have argued that the chance of default is high, and the loans have been delayed by protracted negotiations over what the fee should be.
The money for the reactors is the first award from $18.5 billion in loan guarantees provided for under the 2005 act. But Mr. Obama proposed this month to triple that amount. The guarantees can cover up to 80 percent of the estimated project cost, although some builders may ask for less. Southern asked for 70 percent, but the project may also be eligible for loan guarantees from the Japanese government; the reactors were designed by Westinghouse, a unit of Toshiba.
The Energy Department is negotiating with potential borrowers for three other projects, two of which could win guarantees soon. The Scana Corporation and Santee Cooper want to build a nuclear plant near Jenkinsville, S.C., and UniStar is planning a reactor in southern Maryland, adjacent to the Calvert Cliffs reactors. A third project, in Texas, is in some doubt because of rising cost estimates and a lawsuit filed by the municipal utility serving San Antonio against its partner in the project, NRG of Princeton, N.J.
The United States has 104 operating power reactors, but all the reactors ordered after 1973 were canceled.

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Brian and Jennifer Vanderhoff
North Fulton County REALTORS
Vanderhoff Real Estate
(770) 888-9269
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Labels: Georgia, nuclear, Nuclear plant

Southern Co., which operates two nuclear power plants in Georgia and one in Alabama, might build another nuclear generating plant that could initiate licensing requests as early as 2011, the Augusta Chronicle reported. “The forecast date is 2011, but that is an early estimate to support some long-range planning,” company spokeswoman Beth Thomas told the Chronicle Monday. “We’re not committed to submit in the 2011 time frame.”

She told the paper it was too soon to discuss site locations for a new plant.

“We are continuing to evaluate our needs, so we’re not really far enough along in the process to determine when or where,” she said. “Our major focus right now remains on the Plant Vogtle project, and we’re continuing to work through the licensing effort.”

The company’s application for an early site permit and combined operating license, which would allow construction of two additional reactors at Vogtle, is in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s final evaluation stages.

An early site permit will likely be approved this year and the combined operating license could be obtained in 2011, allowing the new reactors to go online in 2016 or 2017.

Factors influencing the new plant’s approval will include energy demand, population growth in the area and financing availability, Thomas told the Chronicle.

Southern Co. operates Plant Vogtle near Augusta, Plant Hatch in Baxley and the Farley Plant near Dothan, Ala.

Labels: Bank Owned, Bank owned properties, foreclosure, Georgia, nuclear, Nuclear plant, Southern Co.