news Ríogan Broadcasting Corporation

[Gaellicia]

The RBC is a Ríogan Corporation.

[Gaellicia]

31 October, 2022

This is the RBC News Hour, I’m Raghnall MacDonald and I’d like to thank you for joining me this Monday morning.

Power-plant Rehab

Efforts have begun in Cathures to bring the historic Cuarón Power Station back to operation. The station was originally built and operated by the Man Company before the firm went out of business and shuttered the plant in 2000. On Friday The Ríogan Corporation Octan announced plans to restore the coal-fired power station to operation. The government pledged to finance any upstart costs in order to get power generation started as soon as possible. However, funding from the government has stalled due to disputes between the Treasury Ministry and the Ríogan Bank. In the meantime, the nation continues to struggle with power demand exceeding current generation capabilities. 

Winter Armed Forces Mobilization Ends with a Bang

Sunday saw the conclusion of the nation’s winter armed forces mobilization. A debrief by the numbers with RBC’s primary military consultant, Albert Hillgauntlet, will be conducted on air later this evening. For now, though, we’d like to discuss with Albert the naval exercises carried out in the Rejañs Caolas.

Thanks for having me on, Raghn. The Ríogan Navatorm indeed carried out significant exercises in the Rejañs Caolas over the weekend. The exercises began on Friday with a level of unpredictability.

Reserve sailors and officers were ordered to rapidly form up aboard their ships at the highest speed possible. The men were given a false muster time so that when an earlier order was sent out, they were unprepared and still at their places of work and residences. This element of surprise gave the Navy the chance to measure the amount of readiness to be expected in an emergency situation.

Over the weekend, maneuvers were conducted with fast attack craft, larger blue water capable vessels, and a flight of F4EJ Phantoms from the Ríogan Aeratorm. Maneuvers climaxed on Sunday with live fire exercises. A flotilla of fast attack craft in conjunction with an offensive ‘Sword and Shield’ formation, consisting of an air defense frigate and a hero class destroyer, practiced closing off a strait with a hostile vessel in between. Playing the aggressor was the destroyer leader Bonaventura.

Bonaventura was one of four "command destroyer" vessels built for escort of Gaellicia’s aircraft carrier, all built in the mid 1970s. Her most notable moment came in the 1980s, when she was rammed by a Tagmatine frigate in the midst of disputed resource rights in the Ranke Sea. Bonaventura experienced a catastrophic propulsion failure in the 1990s and as a result was decommissioned and relegated to duty as a test platform. The ship ended her service yesterday with a bang.

Bonaventura was fitted with foreign purchased countermeasures and defensive equipment, including equipment found on Tagmatine, Volscian, and Haru vessels, and operated remotely by sailors playing the role of an aggressor crew. Despite their best efforts, and concessions in the war game to favor them, the aggressor team could not overcome the pincher maneuver conducted by the Navatorm. The ship was sunk in the middle of the Rejañs Caolas by three ‘Cabar’ missiles launched from fast attack craft and from an F4EJ.

A fiery end for a good ol' ship, aye?

Aye Raghn.

Albert, thank you for joining us.

Coming up after the commercial break, some critics are accusing Nive Anselm’s coalition of dysfunction and inability to cooperate. It hasn't been a week yet, is it too early to say? We’ll be discussing with RBC chief political correspondent, Arjun Nielsen.

Edited January 8 by Gaellicia
spelling (see edit history)

[Gaellicia]

Sunday, November 6, 2022

In Focus

It’s now been more than three months since the disastrous events of the summer. A hydroelectric power station wrecked. A critical resource hobbled. A preliminary report has now come out regarding the disastrous dam failure at Loch Turftine. Next week’s episode of In Focus will be dedicated to unpacking and explaining the disaster, but to understand this week’s topic, the energy crisis plaguing the nation, a brief summary is required.

The accident happened on July 17th, at 08:17. Oleg Fraser was starting his shift working in the turbine hall when disaster struck.

“I was working on Turbine 10. Off you see. Doing a diagnostic, we call it. Then I felt the ground rumble and shake neath me feet. This wasn’t normal. You always felt vibration in the plant. But this was like the Eurth turning upside down. I look up. Across the hall, the top of Turbine 2 is starting to rise. Up it goes, Water’s shooting up. Punches a hole in the roof of the turbine hall. The actual rotor of the turbine comes up. Spinning. Before it shatters n the blades shear off flying in different directions. My mate, he grabs my arm and tells me to move my arse. We turn and run, climbing the stairs to get out of the ‘all as the ‘ole thing comes a part behind us. I dunno how we did it, but we kept climbing until we were above the water.”

The Turbine had been unseated from its mount, allowing water to gush out and flood the plant and the valley below. The cause? Inadequate maintenance for Turbine 2 combined with lack of preparation for the historically high amounts of rain seen in the highlands over this year's spring and summer.

A heroic few plant workers manually shut off the water feed pipes to the turbine hall, but not before the water made a path of destruction. 100s of homes in the valley below were wiped away. 36 people perished in the disaster. A vital piece of infrastructure was taken offline as well. A stretch of the “Wine Coast Pipeline” which connects a major refinery on the West coast with the Stout Valley natural gas plant.

Both plants are owned by the Akiiyan in origin energy company NEFCO. Loch Turftine Hydro Station and Stout Valley Natural Gas plant were designed and built to work in conjunction. Together they are intended to take on the power grid of the Southern aspect of the nation. To handle its needs with ease while also taking on loads in peak times for the more populous North. Now, two key pieces of the energy grid puzzle have been taken out of commission.

Repairs to the hydro plant are expected to take years. The pipeline should be repaired by now, though, the plant it feeds back online. Yet neither are in working condition. In fact, repairs have not even begun. Three governments have now failed to reach an agreement with NEFCO to make repairs. The corporation, for its part, has shown no desire to initiate construction in a timely manner. Meanwhile, the coming winter in the nation is projected to be historically cold.

Two power plants offline is not the whole story, however. There are other factors at play. The Aed, Fionnoula, and Beauport oil fired power stations, together, should be able to handle the increased load even if a little taxed. The issue is, the amount of oil available to feed these plants is finite. Gaellicia extracts its oil and gas from three locations. The “Vineyard” pockets, located in the Oinops channel, the Dembo and Khar’Toba fields within the Kosscow Sea.

The majority of Gaellicia’s mineral rights to oil deposits in the Kosscow were sold or leased to foreign firms by the government of Angela Bruce. Some to TEFCO, but the majority to Suverina State Petroleum. Gaellicia retains rights to the majority of the crude oil in the Dembo fields, but Octan, the Ríogan Corporation tasked with extracting and refining it, is only able to process so much in a quarter. The truth is, at the current rate, only the needs for one plant can be met. Gaellicia has rights to gas, however, only three natural gas plants. The out of commission Stout Valley plant, the small Cath Bay plant, and the plant on the island of Adrarus. The latter two are designed for meeting local requirements rather than generating enough power to boost the national grid.

As for the deposits in the Oinops channel, they are currently unused, and their future is uncertain. Failures by Octan to meet environmental regulations stipulated in the 2000s Oinops agreements, combined with Europatorion’s skepticism of Gaellician neutrality in wider Wurld events, has led to drilling rights being limited and revoked. Both previous ADC governments have failed to negotiate with Aroma about reopening the fuel taps in the Oinops. An agreement with any nation to import needed oil has so far also failed to materialize. The clock is ticking for the new coalition government under Nive Anselm.

The majority of domestic oil reserves are in the possession of foreign firms as well. At current rates of consumption, the nation’s oil reserves are projected to last until December. With rationing, they could be stretched as far as February.

For RBC’s In Focus, I’m Bairbre Valtars.

[Gaellicia]

21 May, 2021

Gaellician Entrepreneur Circles the Glube

Gaellician entrepreneur and explorer Robard Anspaugh wowed the wurld today after completing a circumnavigation of the glube. The 40-year-old Anspaugh is the CEO of the technology firm Sigma and an engineer. Anspaugh is known for performing daring feats and experiments when not tending to his business interests. Previously, Anspaugh has traveled to the lowest point of the ocean in a custom submersible, summited the Eurth’s tallest mountain, and circumnavigated the wurld solo in his personal sail yacht, the Naofanat (Holyhead).

Robard Anspaugh in the cockpit of the Solar Chariot prior to takeoff.

The feat was performed with the custom-built aircraft named the Solar Chariot. The plane was designed by a private venture in which Anspaugh had invested. The plane utilizes batteries and solar panels produced by Sigma Enterprises. The 26-hour circumnavigation was performed by Anspaugh (who is a licensed pilot), and a co-pilot, to demonstrate the capabilities of the solar panels and battery technology produced by Sigma. The flight is the first successful circumnavigation of the glube in an entirely solar-powered aircraft.

The Solar Chariot crosses over the west coast of @Adaptus. The four-engined aircraft is entirely solar-powered. Its production was partially financed by Robard Anspaugh.

Speaking to reporters after landing in @Esonice, Anspaugh said, “We wanted to do this, not only to advertise the kinds of products we produce at Sigma, but because we could. It is euman nature to dream and conquer. But instead of conquering each other, we should conquer the sea, the sky, and the stars.”

Sigma Enterprises is a private firm that, through an intermediary, holds a minority stake in the large Anglian-Esonian conglomerate Weylade-Hatani.

Edited October 26, 2023 by Gaellicia (see edit history)