It is getting increasingly obvious to oil exporting nations that nuclear power plants offer an intriguing investment opportunity. Russia recently inked a deal with Bulgaria to build a couple of new nuclear power reactors, investors in Alberta have been looking hard at using nuclear power in the oil sands region, and this morning I came…
I just finished reading a fascinating article on Bloomberg.com titled Prius Designer Says Industry Must Lose Oil Addiction (Update1). The focus of the article is the challenge facing the world as we move further into an age where oil extraction gets more and more difficult. The writers did a great job of personalizing the story…
Dan Yurman at Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes published a blog on Sunday, February 10, 2008 titled News media sees nuclear in a new light that is worth a look. In the article, he provides several links to stories supporting his thesis of the fact that the mainstream media is starting to take a new look…
On Sunday, February 10, I got together with four of my favorite nuclear industry correspondents for a chat about the current state of affairs in the electric power industry. You can listen to the show at The Atomic Show #081 – Five friendly atomic geeks. The guests on the show included: John Wheeler – host…
John Wheeler, Kirk Sorensen, Kelly Taylor, Robert Margolis and Rod Adams talk about nuclear news as of February 10, 2008. Topics include Indian Point, dash to gas, new plants, anti-nuclear antics Virtual round table discussion with four guests whose total nuclear experience is more than 100 years. John Wheeler – host of This Week in…
One of my favorite memories from my continuing quest to share my ideas about small, inherently safe nuclear power plants was a time in 1994 when I visited the University of Wisconsin in Madison for an ANS student conference. To this day, I keep in touch with several people that I met during that conference….
During the last three months, there has been a significant controversy in Canada about the National Research Universal (NRU) – a fifty year old 135 MWth nuclear research reactor that is a primary source of several important medical isotopes. The story is a complicated one that deserves some thoughtful investigation and understanding. It is also…
Even though the Olkiluoto plant in Finland has experienced the typical first of a kind project delays and budget expansions, Finnish industry is working on plans for an additional 2 or 3 new nuclear power plants. According to an article titled Two More Nuclear Units To Be Sought published by YLE.fi the main reason for…
Mike Fox, an old acquaintance of mine, retired to Hawaii after more than 40 years in the nuclear business. He was a pretty careful observer of the world around him, and he now writes for the Hawaii Reporter. Another old friend recently sent a link to an article that Mike published at the end of…
The Heritage Foundation published a blog titled Less Is More for Energy In Bush’s Budget on February 4, 2008. The entry talks about the budget items submitted by the Administration for energy in 2009. Heritage likes the idea of spending large sums of money on Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) and likes the fact that…
I have published a couple of comments about MidAmerican Nuclear Energy, a company owned by Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett’s investment vehicle. The unit was investigating the possibility of building a nuclear power plant in western Idaho that would probably sell most of its power output in the Pacific Northwest markets. Last week, MidAmerican Energy Holdings…
CNNMoney published an article on January 30, 2008 that would surprise anyone who was active in nuclear politics in the 1990s and then stopped paying attention. The brief article, titled Constellation Energy Challenges Md’s Regulatory Environment informed readers that the company was going to take a proactive stance about any delaying tactics that might impede…