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David Raymond Amos‏ @DavidRayAmos
Replying to@DavidRayAmos@Kathryn98967631and  47 others
Methinks it interesting that Matthew Wegener a professor of accounting at UNB came up with the same figure I did last year but in a much different fashion N'esy Pas?


https://davidraymondamos3.blogspot.com/2019/04/top-secret-point-lepreau-insurance.html


 #nbpoli #cdnpoli  


https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/nb-power-point-lepreau-insurance-settlement-cost-1.5089232

Top-secret Point Lepreau insurance settlement details leaking

28 Comments



David R. Amos
Surprise Surprise Surprise 


David R. Amos
Reply to @David R. Amos: Methinks Mr Jones understands why NB Power and the EUB keep barring me from intervening and why I will never understand why he conceals the facts of the matter. However anyone can check the public records of the EUB to read what Mr Jones will not report about N'esy Pas?













David R. Amos

Methinks it interesting that Matthew Wegener, a professor of accounting at the University of New Brunswick came up with the same figure I did last year but in a much different fashion N'esy Pas?








Ferdinand Boudreau
Why always secret stuff-- Its our money?
Getting tired wool pulled over our eyes




Rawlu McIsaac
Nuclear is nothing but a Never Ending Money Pit, from the day it is Built to the day it is Buried somewhere nobody wants it...


David R. Amos 

David R. Amos
Reply to @Rawlu McIsaac: Go Figure some more

2018-05-14

Fredericton, N.B. – The World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) announced the appointment of Gaëtan Thomas as the new Chairman of the WANO-Atlanta Centre Regional Governing Board.

"I am pleased to announce the appointment of Gaëtan Thomas and welcome him to the Atlanta Centre Regional Governing Board and the wider WANO family. Gaëtan brings a wealth of experience and insight to the position, which will be very valuable to the global community of nuclear operators.” said Jacques Regaldo, chairman of WANO.

WANO, which has over 130 members across the globe, is the organization that unites every company and country in the world that operates commercial nuclear power plants. Its goal is to achieve the highest possible standards of nuclear safety and excellence in operational performance. WANO is headquartered in London and, in addition to the Atlanta Centre, which has 38 members, WANO also has regional centres in Moscow, Paris and Tokyo.


David R. Amos
Reply to @David R. Amos: Gaëtan Thomas on why building Point Lepreau was “visionary” by New Brunswick
Posted on November 7, 2017 | Natural Resources Magazine

"The plant came online in 1983. There were some delays and cost overruns, and this was not long after the nuclear reactor accident at Three Mile Island in the U.S. There was also a fairly large earthquake in the early 1980s in the Miramichi. A lot of effort was required to explain the advantage of the CANDU 600 nuclear reactor design Point Lepreau used. We placed a high value on having a good relationship with local communities and the First Nations and it’s still going on today.

If you could go back in time and know what we would be facing today for carbon reduction targets, people would say we were not only visionary but predicting the future. This was done without having the benefit of looking at carbon the way it’s looked at today. I think there are very few people who have opposed Point Lepreau in New Brunswick, and it has generated a lot of pride. I’m told the latest survey shows over 80 per cent of our residents support nuclear power.

I think that’s because we were able to provide benefits. When you have a plant that produces no carbon emissions and we are the fourth-best jurisdiction in regards to power rates in the country, the proof is in the pudding. Our customers are enjoying very competitive rates. They would not be able to do that without Point Lepreau."







Fred Brewer
Point Lepreau is the albatross around NB Power's neck. Mactaquac will be the next.


David R. Amos  












Marc Martin
What a mess....The English population of NB should have let he government sell this corporation, scandal after scandal...


Rawlu McIsaac 

















Lou Bell
160 million ! Yee Haw ! Bonus time again !!!


David R. Amos  




Lou Bell
160 million . CEO will be looking for a buyout of BIGLY proportions I suspect.


David R. Amos  












Andrew St.John
the construction Director was involved in pushing this work forward without taking time for complete test analysis. Not exactly AECL. They are just an easy target from Ontario.


David R. Amos  











David R. Amos
Methinks everybody knows the real story here is the things that Robert Jones and his buddy Marc Belliveau won't tell N'esy Pas? 

Top-secret Point Lepreau insurance settlement details leaking

NB Power deal over nuclear plant refurbishment may be worth $159M, according to inadvertently released figures

What is supposed to be a top-secret settlement between NB Power and insurers over problems encountered during the troubled Point Lepreau nuclear plant refurbishment appears to be worth just under $160 million, according to various financial details inadvertently released by the utility.
NB Power is not confirming the amount, claiming it is still a company secret.

But there are signs the Lepreau settlement, reached last year, is worth slightly less than half the $320.1 million the utility said it was owed when it filed a lawsuit against insurers in 2012 for non-payment of its claim over damages and delays.

"We cannot provide a specific number," said Marc Belliveau, a spokesperson for NB Power, in an email to CBC News about the settlement amount.

"We continue to believe that keeping this information confidential is in the best interest of customers as we continue to work through the remaining litigation."
NB Power has been trying to keep details of the Lepreau insurance settlement under wraps as it pursues additional compensation from Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. It was the main contractor during the refurbishment of the nuclear plant that ultimately ran three years behind schedule and went $1 billion over budget.

But Matthew Wegener, a professor of accounting at the University of New Brunswick's Saint John campus, says NB Power has not been as disciplined redacting information about the settlement from its budget documents this year as it was last year and doubts AECL will have a hard time piecing together precise settlement details if it chooses.

Wegener's own estimate from a review of public information is that the settlement is worth around $159 million, although he says that could be refined with deeper analysis of available information.

"It's not overly difficult, just time-consuming," said Wegener.

"It depends on how much certainty you want. Just to get that estimate, really it only took me a couple of hours."

Last year, NB Power announced it had settled a claim with insurers for part of the refurbishment delays caused when workers used wire brushes that left scratches on critical components of the reactor that were supposed to be polished.

The scratches caused problems as the reactor was being reassembled and eventually took about a year to be resolved.

NB Power made a damage claim with insurers for $65.1 million over the scratches and a further $255 million claim for the delays caused by repairing them.

The redactions [this year] within their budgets are not really sufficient to be concealing anything.- Matthew Wegener, UNBSJ accounting professor

The legal fight dragged on for six years but last April the utility announced it had settled the claims. However, the utility would not say what it received, insisting the information was too sensitive to be released publicly.

"Immediate public disclosure of the terms of settlement would be directly and substantially detrimental to NB Power's opportunity to reach a favourable resolution of remaining claims between NB Power and AECL," NB Power lawyer John Furey told the EUB at a hearing hearing in Saint John.

Furey said if Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. found out what NB Power won from insurers it could affect how much the utility can ultimately wring from the company — or worse — might encourage AECL to make a claim against NB Power for part of the insurance money for itself.

Settlement details were shared with EUB members, financial experts and the public intervener, but were otherwise sealed.

Several hearings dealing with the settlement were held behind closed doors, with those in attendance subject to confidentiality agreements. Transcripts of those hearings remain secret.

NB Power's income, balance sheet and cash flow statements were also rewritten to account for the financial impact of the settlement, but 30 of 66 financial entries were blacked out in the public version to prevent anyone from piecing amounts together.


However, this year many of those blacked out values have been disclosed in the utility's latest application for a rate increase and Wegener says it is much easier to track how settlement money hit NB Power's accounts.

"The original redactions were pretty effective," said Wegener

"The redactions [this year] within their budgets are not really sufficient to be concealing anything."

No lawsuits filed yet

Public intervener Heather Black has seen the settlement, but will not speak about it because of the non-disclosure agreement she signed last year. She also would not comment on whether NB Power has failed to protect the secrecy of settlement details in this year's budget submission.

"I am still bound by the confidentiality undertaking and can't give you any insight without potentially violating it," she said in an email to CBC News.

From publicly available accounts Wegener looked at, he says the information appears to show the insurance settlement involved a $48.5 million payment for direct damage to the plant caused by the scratches and a $102 million payment for startup delays caused by them.

In addition, he says based on those numbers there would have been another $9 million in settlement funds shared between legal fees and a payment to P.E.I.'s power company Maritime Electric, which owns just over four per cent of Lepreau's output and expenses.

Wegener says his $159 million estimate of the insurance settlement could be off slightly, but the fact it can be made at all shows how much information that was secret last year has leaked into public view this year.

Belliveau acknowledges some previously secret information about the settlement has become public in NB Power's financial reporting, but says that was inevitable and expected.

NB Power continues to "engage in negotiations" with AECL for compensation for cost overruns on the Lepreau refurbishment even though the job finished more than six years ago. The utility says it has not filed any lawsuits over the issue yet and any amount it is seeking to recover is "privileged and protected from disclosure."