Jack Spencer of the Heritage Foundation has published an issue paper titled Senate Attempts to Promote Small Nuclear Reactors Fall Short that is worth reading. He notes that the sector is showing some significant private activity already. He expresses concerns that I share that some of what the Senate is proposing will be counter productive…
John Rowe, the man that Fortune Magazine once called “Mr. Nuke” in a May 15, 2006 article titled Meet Mr. Nuke and I have a few things in common. We were both given a copy of Richard Halliburton’s Book of Marvels, a two volume set of travel books that divided the world into two areas,…
Susan McGinnis of Clean Skies News interviewed Bruce Nilles, National Coal Campaign Director from the Sierra Club, about coal plant emissions. There is a very interesting passage in the interview worth transcribing. The following exchange takes place between time marks 4:26 and 5:25 in the clip. Nilles: We do not actually think you should build…
The United Arab Emirates has recently selected a consortium that includes Korea Electric Power Corp., Westinghouse Electric, Hyundai Engineering and Construction, Samsung C&T Corp and Doosan Heavy Industries to supply it with 5.6 gigawatts of electrical power capacity. The order includes four APR-1400 nuclear reactor power plants and all associated secondary equipment. I made contact…
Back in February 2007, I noted that there was a lot of interest among businesses that saw an opportunity to make some money by replacing the power output from the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant in Lithuania. That plant currently supplies 70% of the electricity consumed in Lithuania. It is a valuable anchor for the Soviet…
The United Arab Emirates UAE announced today that it had chosen a South Korean consortium that includes Korea Electric Power Corp., Westinghouse Electric, Hyundai Engineering and Construction, Samsung C&T Corp and Doosan Heavy Industries to supply four nuclear power plants, each producing approximately 1400 MW of electricity. The winning bid has been reported to be…
You have to develop a thick skin in order to operate a blog that covers controversial topics like energy. On Atomic Insights, there is a community of participants that seem to enjoy the discussions and commentary, but there are a few contributors that can get downright nasty in their prose and their attacks on my…
There have been many analytical reports issued in the 8 days since ExxonMobil announced that it was purchasing XTO Energy, one of the largest independent natural gas producers in the United States, for a total of approximately $41 billion. ($31 billion in ExxonMobil stock plus assumption of $10 billion in XTO debt.) Some analysts have…
At the end of last week, Seminole Electric Cooperative – the third largest power generator in Florida – announced that it was canceling a 750 MW coal fired power plant project that it had been developing near Palatka, Florida. The cooperative filed papers with state regulators announcing the cancellation. The stated reasons included uncertainties regarding…
I received a notification this morning that my long time commenting system – Haloscan – was going to be shut down in two weeks. The company was purchased quite some time ago, and I knew this day was coming, but I am a long time procrastinator who hates messing with things that are working well…
This morning, my automatic alerts let me know that there was a new video clip that I should watch about the future of nuclear energy. I think some of you might be interested in watching it as well. The video below is the afternoon edition of the Energy Report for December 16, 2009 from Clean…
Yesterday the Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee held a hearing on the potential for small, modular nuclear power plants that I really wanted to attend, but could not due to schedule conflicts. A loyal reader, however, sent me a link to a video summary of the hearing produced by Dan Goldstein and Tyler Suiter…