Visual – How much material does it take to run a 3,600 MWe coal plant

Utility companies that operate both coal and nuclear power plants rarely use the important communications techniques of comparison and contrast to help people understand the benefits of nuclear energy. There is some business logic behind that policy. I have a different set of interests and am not constrained by a need to protect any particular…

Switch II Fission, the Sequel

Last night I drove to Lexington, VA where the Washington and Lee sustainability program was hosting a screening of Switch (to a smarter future). There was a decent crowd; perhaps 100 or more students, faculty and townspeople. It is an impressive documentary, with inside views of facilities that people rarely see. It also does a…

How long before Wisconsin electricity customers regret loss of Kewaunee?

After a number of discussions with people in positions close to the decision to destroy the Kewaunee nuclear power station, I am now about 98% sure that it will be shut down as currently scheduled in May of 2013. I am also about 95% sure that the decision will cost electricity customers in the Midwest…

Are Mark Cooper and Peter Bradford climate change deniers?

In a recent paper, Mark Cooper and Peter Bradford advocate expanded use of natural gas, even if that expansion requires using hydraulic fracturing. They believe that fossil fuel plants should continue dumping vast quantities of combustion waste into our shared atmosphere, even after new nuclear energy plants start operating. They dismiss the notion of a…

Nuclear energy fights climate change and energy poverty at same time

The Washington Post Wonkblog recently published an article with the following headline Can the world fight climate change and energy poverty at the same time? There is a straightforward answer to that question that involves some hard work and some paradigm busting, but at least it is a path that offers a good chance of…

Switch Energy Project – faint praise for nuclear energy

A colleagues who used to work in the oil and gas industry pointed me to an article from the November 2012 issue of the Journal of Petroleum Technology titled Switch: The New Documentary on Energy’s Future. The article describes a video research project undertaken by Scott Tinker, a former oil and gas company geologist who…

New York Times says positive things about new nuclear energy

I’ll admit that I am actively searching for good news about nuclear energy to counter the conventional wisdom that we are losing the market battle to cheap natural gas. I found an interesting take on recent Cabinet appointments in a New York Times editorial titled Two Enlistees in the Climate Wars. Though it appears as…

Coal down, nuclear up – punchy ads from Bruce Power

Warning – these ads from Bruce Power might offend those who make their living by selling coal, financing coal, transporting coal, burning coal, mining coal, or selling systems that attempt to make coal cleaner. The general theme of the series is: We’re proud to be nukes! Supplying clean, affordable, reliable nuclear power that empowers prosperity…

Use all the electricity you want; we’ll make more

While participating in a discussion thread associated with my recent appearance on Dot Net Rocks, I remembered I’ve been meaning to write a post recommending that the the electricity production industry change its attitude about electricity conservation. For many complex reasons, the power business is one of the only industries I can think of where…

Robert Stone calls Pandora’s Promise his most important film

Robert Stone calls Pandora’s Promise his most important film

Robert Stone calls Pandora’s Promise his most important work because it discusses our biggest collective challenge – how do we supply a growing world population with the reliable power it needs without slowing choking the Earth’s ability to support our civilization and all of its existing infrastructure. He and the people whose conversions he describes…

Should customers allow natural gas to push nuclear out of market?

Rebecca Smith asked an interesting question in a recent Wall Street Journal article titled Can Gas Undo Nuclear Power? She describes how financial analysts are wondering whether or not certain nuclear plants are at risk of being shuttered as being uneconomical in an era of cheap natural gas. It is a legitimate question for people…