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Thursday
Feb282019

JUSTIN TRUDEAU FACES CALLS TO RESIGN RE: SNC-LAVALIN SCANDAL

As reported by Newsweek.

Liberal Party Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau now faces calls from his Conservative Party challenger in this autumn's election to resign over a scandal involving SNC-Lavalin, a giant engineering firm based in Montreal, Quebec. SNC-Lavalin has been accused of bribery, fraud, and other corruption over its practices in Libya. If convicted of such wrongdoing, SNC-Lavalin could be barred from Canadian federal contracts for a decade. (SNC-Lavalin has been previously barred for a decade from World Bank contracts.)

Holtec International has teamed with SNC-Lavalin to form a nuclear power plant decommissioning consortium. Already, the Holtec/SNC-Lavalin consortium has taken over ownership of the permanently shutdown Oyster Creek atomic reactor in NJ. This includes on-site irradiated nuclear fuel management.

Holtec & SNC-Lavalin are also vying for taking over the ownership of such other soon-to-be decommissioning nuclear power plants as Pilgrim in MA, and Palisades in MI.

Holtec is also the proponent for a national centralized interim storage facility for irradiated nuclear fuel in southeastern New Mexico.

Its partnership with a corrupt company like SNC-Lavalin calls into question Holtec's own judgment.

However, Holtec itself has engaged in bribery, at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Browns Ferry nuclear power plant; in addition, Holtec CEO Krishna Singh has been accused by whistleblowers Oscar Shirani (Commonwealth Edison/Exelon) and Dr. Ross Landsman (NRC Region 3) of attempting to bribe them into silence, re: QA violations (see below).

And Holtec CEO Krishna Singh has also made racist remarks re: his own African American and Puerto Rican American workers in Camden, NJ.

Holtec is also infamous for QA (Quality Assurance) violations in the manufacture of its irradiated nuclear fuel canisters, brought to light by whistleblowers.

See these previous Beyond Nuclear website posts, for more info. on concerns re: SNC-Lavalin:

---May 31, 2012 

Gordon Edwards: "SNC-Lavalin and the Demise of CANDU Competence"

 

---Jan. 25, 2013, "Millions in SNC-Lavalin bribes bought Gaddafi's playboy son luxury yachts, unsealed RCMP documents allege"

---Jan. 26, 2013, "Former executive accused of $160 million in Gaddafi kickbacks a 'scapegoat' for SNC-Lavalin, brother says"

 

---April 17, 2013, 

SNC-Lavalin Inc. 2013. World Bank Debars SNC-Lavalin and its Affiliates for 10 years, World Bank press release (Apr 17, 2013)

http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2013/04/17/world-bank-debars-snc-lavalin-inc-and-its-affiliates-for-ten-years.

[“The World Bank Group today announced the debarment of SNC-Lavalin Inc. - in addition to over 100 affiliates - for a period of 10 years following the company’s misconduct in relation to the Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project in Bangladesh, as well as misconduct under another Bank-financed project.”  SNC-Lavalin Inc. is a subsidiary of SNC-Lavalin Group.]

 

---August 1, 2018

Holtec expands n-waste and new build business model with rapid decommissioning 

 

---August 5, 2018

Company to decommission US reactors has corruption history

 

---August 21, 2018

[Canadian] First Nations, NGOs condemn federal plans for defunct nuclear reactors

 

---September 20, 2018

Oyster Creek closure should mark the end of an “error”; prompt more GE shutdowns