Year: 2005

There is a lot of attention being paid to the incredible quantity of money that is flowing from oil consumers to oil gathering and refining companies. Here are some examples of interesting viewpoints on the issue: Gregg says oil company profits should be taxed Off topic: Record oil company profits and gas prices Backlash spreads…

Joshua Gilder, a visiting fellow at the Lexington Institute, published a terrific opinion piece in the October 25, 2005 issue of the Washington Times titled “Chernobyl exposed.” He correctly identifies that the biggest cause of health effects from the accident was the fear that was instilled into the population based on ignorance and misguided government…

The French government has announced that it will not be proceeding with its previously announced plans to partially privatize Areva. The organization is a completely government owned nuclear power conglomerate whose various units are involved in every phase of the nuclear power industry from uranium mining, through fuel fabrication, to plant construction, to fuel recycling…

Exxon-Mobil executives and stock holders will not be hurting this winter. On October 27, 2005 the company released its 3rd Quarter 2005 earnings report. For the first time ever, a publicly traded corporation reported top line revenue exceeding $100 BILLION dollars. A good portion of that top line fell to the bottom line – earnings…

Natural gas and oil prices began rising again this week as parts of the eastern United States received their first significant snowfall of the 2005-2006 winter season. As of yesterday’s market close, Bloomberg.com is reporting that heating oil is trading at $1.87 per gallon (compared to a gasoline price of $1.59) on the New York…

It has been a week where blogging had to fall off the priority list of things to do. However, I did want to follow up on the “Costs of Conservative Action” post from 18 October 2005 to report that Palo Verde did, indeed get back up to full power by the end of the day…

On October 11, 2005, units 2 and 3 of the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station (PVNGS) were shutdown because the plant operators could not prove the validity of a calculation made in the 1970s when the plants were designed. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) challenged the plant engineers to prove that the Emergency Core Cooling…

The Las Vegas Sun has published a column providing some local details about the effects of high electricity and natural gas bills on people in its territory. Several people quoted in the article, however, (including a member of the Public Utility Commission and the Energy Information Agency) incorrectly imply that electric utilities are mere victims…

Lefteri Tsoukalas, the head of Purdue University’s School of Nuclear Engineering wrote a guest column for the Lafayette Journal and Courier about ABC’s October 13, 2005 “Prime Time” investigation of university research reactors. His well written column is well worth a visit for “the rest of the story.”

My old friend Jeremy Whitlock, who has been publishing the Candian Nuclear FAQ since April 1996, published a very amusing article titled “Refurbish thyself” with slightly disguised references to some prominent anti-nuclear leaders and their groups. Worth visiting, especially if you are a nuke that likes recognizing allusions are not necessarily obvious to outsiders.

During my early morning research, I often discover items that catch my interest or spark amusement. I was atracted to the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group’s (NJPIRG) web site by a press release announcing the expansion of a coalition that is opposed to Exelon’s effort to purchase PSEG (Public Service Enterprise Group). The group…

The Orlando (Florida) Sentinel published a column on October 11, 2005 titled “Fossil-fuel bite real; nuclear fears are fables”. Loved it! Mr. Thomas claims to be a radical environmentalist and devotes a good bit of space in this column explaining the significant environmental hazards of fossil – especially coal – fuel energy production. He then…