A commenter here on Atomic Insights pointed to a couple of interesting articles published by The Economist, a well respected publication that has never been much of a fission fanzine. One of the articles, published on March 19, 2009, was titled The critical issue of safety. Here is a quote from that article that demonstrates…
One of the memes continually repeated by the forces of opposition to nuclear power is that “Wall Street does not like nuclear power.” The most recent time I have run across that quote was in an article titled Out of the Shadows: Can Japan’s Nuclear Power Renaissance Reduce Global Emissions? on a blog named Japan…
There is an article in the Chicago Tribune titled Chicago’s ‘green’ promise fades: Chicago taxpayers on hook for carbon credits that do little to fight global warming that tells the story of the city purchasing carbon offsets from a plant burning wood waste from the forest products industry. People like Joe Romm are expressing disappointment…
A friend reminded me that I need to keep an eye on the activities of Better Place – an electric car company with some intriguing ideas and growing momentum. They appear to be signing up additional industrial, financial and government partners for their idea of building and deploying electric cars by focusing on supplying them…
One of the big ideas in promoting a large industry dedicated to producing solar panels and wind turbines is the “feed in tariff”. As practiced in Germany, this concept guarantees that any supplier of power using approved methods can sell the power at a price high enough to provide a rate of return – normally…
Arstechnica has a story titled Nuclear power? Yes please! inspired by a session titled Keeping the Lights on: The Revival of Nuclear Energy for Our Future held on February 14, 2009 at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Chicago. Apparently the writer has been mulling over the topics discussed during…
A friend sent me a link to the video for a hearing held yesterday, March 18, 2009 by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Nuclear Power. There were three witnesses testifying at various times; Dale Klein, the Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by himself, and then a tiny panel consisting of Marvin…
The more I have read about the discussions surrounding Vermont Yankee’s license extension, the more I have become convinced that the underlying major issue is the fact that its customers are trying to establish a strong negotiation position. Not only is the plant up for an operating license extension, but it is also operating under…
Nancy Thorner of Lake Bluff has written a letter to the editor of the Daily Herald to tell them she would rather have a restarted Zion Nuclear Plant in her backyard than accept several proposed wind turbines that would produce just a tiny fraction of the power – if the wind blows from the right…
One of the weapons that the anti-nuclear movement used against nuclear power in the first Nuclear Age was the testimony of disgruntled workers who often had legitimate concerns about the way that their particular slice of the industry was being managed. In some cases, the specific workers became so disillusioned by their particular experience that…
The Utah legislature has added nuclear power to a list of energy sources defined as “renewable”. You can read about it at Renewable Energy Incentive Includes Nuclear Power and Utah governor, Legislature at odds over climate change. It is not clear yet whether or not the governor will sign the bill, but he has made…
I have always tried to be clear when I talk about how fossil fuel interests have been responsible for much of the success of the organized anti-nuclear movement. Many people in various discussion forums have misinterpreted my words “fossil fuel interests” as meaning just major oil companies, but I am trying to encompass a larger…