Industry | Energy |
---|---|
Founded | 1905 |
Founder | General Electric |
Defunct | 1993 |
Fate | sold to Raytheon |
Headquarters | New York City |
Ebasco Services was a United States-based designer and constructor of energy infrastructure, most notably nuclear power plants.
The company was formed from the Electric Bond and Share Company, a holding company that sold securities of electric utilities. Its headquarters were located at 2 Rector Street, New York City. It was created by General Electric in 1905. Electric Bond and Share was restructured after the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935, forming EBASCO Services, a provider of engineering consulting and construction services.
Following the passage of the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) oversaw the closure, re-organization or divestment of EBASCo's holding companies except for its American & Foreign Power Co., making annual reports on its monumental legal breakup case between 1936 and 1961.
Among other projects EBASCO designed nuclear power plants. By 1986, Ebasco claimed have built 220 hydroelectric, 700 fossil fueled and 35 nuclear facilities around the world. Ebasco Services Incorporated: the saga of electric power 1986
1905-1937 Intermediate Holding Company Subsidiaries
The Securities and Exchange Commission ordered the breakup of the above Holding companies in 1937 except for the American and Foreign Power Company. SEC v. EBASCo., 18 F. Supp. 131 (S.D.N.Y. 1937
Boise Cascade acquired Ebasco in 1969. Boise Cascade then tried to sell off Ebasco's International Holdings that included the Cuba Electric Company and others in South America and China. However, it is claimed that the Cuban Electric Company's stock is now held by Staples Inc. Yet, in 1969, the U.S. Foreign Claims Settlement Commission denied the claim in its CU-4016 decision
Halliburton acquired Ebasco in 1973, but on April 24, 1973 the US District Court, Southern District of New York filed suit against Halliburton using the Clayton Act to reverse the sale.
In 1976, the Lone Star Gas Company purchased Ebasco, changing its name to Ensearch Ensearch Company History.
By the 1980s, EBASCO had these divisions: Ebasco Engineering, which provided engineering design and A/E services, Ebasco Environmental, which provided environmental engineering and science services, EBASCO Constructors, which provided construction and construction management and Ebasco Risk Managers (ERMCI) division. ERMCI became the Independent Consultation Services of Ebasco, Inc. or INDECS on January 1, 1984 About INDECS. Ebasco Environmental was sold to Enserch Environmental before being sold to Foster Wheeler, Inc., becoming Foster Wheeler Environmental. [1]
Ebasco (EBS) was included in Dow Jones Utility Average from 1938 to 1947. [2]
Ebasco Services was one of the major US architect-engineers, that coordinated the design of many nuclear power plants both in the USA and abroad [3] [4] including the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (units 1, 2 and 6). [5]
EBASCO Engineering and Constructors were sold to Raytheon in 1993 and became part of a Raytheon subsidiary, United Engineers and Constructors. In 1996 Morrison-Knudsen Corp. of Boise was purchased by Washington Group International, taking the Morrison-Knudsen name until it purchased Raytheon in 2000. [6] [7]
During the September 11 attacks of 2001, Raytheon had an office in the South Tower of the World Trade Center on the 91st floor. Their office, being 6 floors above where United Airlines Flight 175 collided with the building, was spared from the immediate collision, but was utterly destroyed in the subsequent collapse of the South Tower. [8]
Throughout its history of building power facilities around the world, Ebasco would issue insurance policies to each utility company for various aspects of the facility which would later include policies for issues like their extensive use of asbestos. These policies have since become major legal issues Ebasco Insurance
Nuclear whistleblower Ronald J. Goldstein was a supervisor employed by EBASCO, which was a major contractor for the construction of Houston Lighting and Power Company's South Texas Project (a complex of two nuclear power plants). In the summer of 1985, Goldstein identified safety problems to SAFETEAM, an internal compliance program established by EBASCO and Houston Lighting, including noncompliance with safety procedures, the failure to issue safety compliance reports, and quality control violations affecting the safety of the plant.
SAFETEAM was promoted as an independent safe haven for employees to voice their safety concerns. The two companies did not inform their employees that they did not believe complaints reported to SAFETEAM had any legal protection. After he filed his report to SAFETEAM, Goldstein was fired. Subsequently, Golstein filed suit under federal nuclear whistleblower statutes.
The U.S. Department of Labor ruled that his submissions to SAFETEAM were protected and his dismissal was invalid, a finding upheld by Labor Secretary Lynn Martin. The ruling was appealed and overturned by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that private programs offered no protection to whistleblowers. After Goldstein lost his case, Congress amended the federal nuclear whistleblower law to provide protection reports made to internal systems and prevent retaliation against whistleblowers. [9]
The United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is an independent agency of the United States government tasked with protecting public health and safety related to nuclear energy. Established by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974, the NRC began operations on January 19, 1975, as one of two successor agencies to the United States Atomic Energy Commission. Its functions include overseeing reactor safety and security, administering reactor licensing and renewal, licensing radioactive materials, radionuclide safety, and managing the storage, security, recycling, and disposal of spent fuel.
Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Incorporated is a Japanese electric utility holding company servicing Japan's Kantō region, Yamanashi Prefecture, and the eastern portion of Shizuoka Prefecture. This area includes Tokyo. Its headquarters are located in Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo, and international branch offices exist in Washington, D.C., and London. It is a founding member of strategic consortiums related to energy innovation and research; such as JINED, INCJ and MAI.
Entergy Corporation is a Fortune 500 integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations in the Deep South of the United States. Entergy is headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana, and generates and distributes electric power to 3 million customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy has annual revenues of $11 billion and employs more than 13,000 people.
The South Texas Project Electric Generating Station, is a nuclear power station southwest of Bay City, Texas, United States. STP occupies a 12,200-acre (4,900 ha) site west of the Colorado River about 90 miles (140 km) southwest of Houston. It consists of two Westinghouse Pressurized Water Reactors and is cooled by a 7,000-acre (2,800 ha) reservoir, which eliminates the need for cooling towers.
Morrison–Knudsen (MK) was an American civil engineering and construction company, with headquarters in Boise, Idaho.
Nuclear safety in the United States is governed by federal regulations issued by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The NRC regulates all nuclear plants and materials in the United States except for nuclear plants and materials controlled by the U.S. government, as well those powering naval vessels.
The Higashidōri Nuclear Power Plant is located in the village of Higashidōri in northeastern Aomori Prefecture, on the Shimokita Peninsula, facing the Pacific Ocean. The plant has not generated electricity since Japan's 2011 nationwide nuclear shutdown in the aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.
The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant is a disabled nuclear power plant located on a 3.5-square-kilometre (860-acre) site in the towns of Ōkuma and Futaba in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. The plant suffered major damage from the magnitude 9.1 earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on March 11, 2011. The chain of events caused radiation leaks and permanently damaged several of its reactors, making them impossible to restart. The working reactors were not restarted after the events.
The Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power Plant Genshiryoku Hatsudensho, Fukushima II NPP, 2F) is a nuclear power plant located on a 150 ha (370-acre) site in the town of Naraha and Tomioka in the Futaba District of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) runs the plant.
The Sendai Nuclear Power Plant is a nuclear power plant located in the city of Satsumasendai in Kagoshima Prefecture. The two 846 MW net reactors are owned and operated by the Kyūshū Electric Power Company. The plant, like all other nuclear power plants in Japan, did not generate electricity after the nationwide shutdown in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011, but was restarted on August 11, 2015, and began providing power to nearby towns again. Sendai is the first of Japan's nuclear power plants to be restarted.
The GE Three are three nuclear engineers who "blew the whistle" on safety problems at nuclear power plants in the United States in 1976. The three nuclear engineers gained the attention of journalists and the anti-nuclear movement. The GE Three returned to prominence in 2011 during the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.
Arnold "Arnie" Gundersen is a former nuclear industry executive, and engineer with more than 44 years of nuclear industry experience who became a whistleblower in 1990. Gundersen has written dozens of expert reports for nongovernment organizations and the state of Vermont. Gunderson was a licensed reactor operator from 1971-1972 on Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's zero-power open-pool university research reactor at the Reactor Critical Facility in Schenectady, New York, where he was a nuclear engineering graduate student.
The Fukushima nuclear accident was a major nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan which began on 11 March 2011. The proximate cause of the accident was the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which resulted in electrical grid failure and damaged nearly all of the power plant's backup energy sources. The subsequent inability to sufficiently cool reactors after shutdown compromised containment and resulted in the release of radioactive contaminants into the surrounding environment. The accident was rated seven on the INES by NISA, following a report by the JNES. It is regarded as the worst nuclear incident since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, which was also rated a seven on the INES.
The Investigation Committee on the Accident at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Stations of Tokyo Electric Power Company was formed June 7, 2011 by the Japanese government as an independent body to investigate the March Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. The Investigation Committee issued an interim report in December 2011, and issued its final report in July 2012.
Masataka Shimizu is a director of Fuji Oil Company, and was the president and chief executive officer of Japanese electric utility Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) from 2008 to 2011. He was also a vice-chairman of Keidanren, the employers' federation of the companies of Japan, until he stepped down after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. On July 25, 2012, he became an outside director of Fuji Oil.
National Diet of Japan Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission or NAIIC is the commission to investigate the background and cause of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster formed by the statutory law enactment by Diet of Japan on 7 October 2011 and started with the first commissioning meeting was held in Fukushima City, Fukushima Prefecture. The commission is scheduled to issue the report in six months on investigation and to propose the policy to reduce and prevent future accident and reduce damage on the nuclear power plant in Japan.
Investigations into the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster (or Accident) began on 11 March 2011 when a series of equipment failures, core melt and down, and releases of radioactive materials occurred at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station from the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake and tsunami on the same day.
The Electric Bond and Share Company (Ebasco) was a United States electric utility holding company organized by General Electric. It was forced to divest its holding companies and reorganize due to the passage of the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935. Following the passage of the Act, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) selected the largest of the U.S. holding companies, Ebasco to be the test case of the law before the U.S. Supreme Court. The court case known as Securities and Exchange Commission v. Electric Bond and Share company was settled in favor of the SEC on March 28, 1938. It took twenty-five years of legal action by the SEC to break up Ebasco and the other major U.S. electric holding companies until they conformed with the 1935 act. It was allowed to retain control of its foreign electric power holding company known as the American & Foreign Power Company (A&FP). After its reorganization, it became an investment company, but soon turned into a major designer and engineer of both fossil fuel and nuclear power electric generation facilities. Its involvement in the 1983 financial collapse of the Washington Public Power Supply System's five nuclear reactors led to Ebasco's demise because of the suspension of nuclear power orders and lawsuits that included numerous asbestos claims. The U.S. nuclear industry stopped all construction of new facilities following the 1979 nuclear meltdown at Three Mile Island, going into decline because of radiation safety concerns and major construction cost overruns.
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