On January 20, 2009 Rod Adams spoke with Alexandra Prokopenko to get a local view of the effects on Eastern Europe of the Ukraine/Russia natural gas supply dispute. Alexandra is a citizen of Belarus who currently lives and works in Sweden. Her husband is living in Kiev, Ukraine and she speaks to him each day….
Exelon is the largest electricity supplier in the country. It also owns and operates the largest fleet of nuclear power plants, with a total of 17 operational reactors that have an average capacity factor well in excess of 90%. Last week, it reported a 26% increase in its 4th quarter profit figures compared to the…
At the beginning of the gas supply interruption in Europe, I commented on the possibility that Russia, a nation of chess players, had made what might be a short sighted strategic move by cutting off gas supplies to Ukraine as part of a negotiation over sales prices to that former Soviet block country. My belief…
While browsing through this morning’s Wall Street Journal (20 January 2009) I could not help noticing the below full page ad from Peabody Coal which claims to be the world’s largest private sector coal company. It was in a prominent location for the the political junkie class – a special Inauguration section that might end…
Steven Chu is a well respected scientist, national laboratory manager and biofuels focused researcher. He has been nominated by President-elect Barack Obama to be the Secretary of Energy, a position that puts him in charge of approximately 30,000 people and an annual budget of approximately $25 billion. As Dr. Chu stated in his testimony, the…
A friend of mine just sent me a link to a desmogblog.com post describing a proud friends and family newsletter from a Virginia based public relations firm called Hawthorn Group. The newsletter provided numerous details about how Hawthorn Group used a focused set of traditional public relations tactics to give the impression that there is…
I published the promised episode of The Atomic Show with clips from Steven Chu’s confirmation hearing with the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee this morning. After spending several hours listening and digesting the sworn testimony of the proposed leader for the DOE, my conclusion is that there is still a lot of work left…
Physical Insights is one of my favorite blogs to visit. It is produced by a science student at the University of Melbourne Australia. He recently produced a pithy post with two photos and some computations that should provide a lot of food for thought for those honest environmentalists that are concerned about the footprint that…
As a former resident of the west coast of Florida, (and the father of a daughter who still lives there), I gave a silent cheer this week as I read the news that Progress Energy had signed a contract to build two new nuclear plants at a green field site in Levy County. Part of…
I have been spending the last couple of hours digesting Chu’s responses to some very interesting questioning in preparation for an Atomic Show that I will be putting together this weekend. Though I have a great deal of respect and hope for what Chu should be able to accomplish, I am now less enthusiastic than…
The gas crisis in Europe continues. The European Commission has sent a letter to Slovakia requesting clarification for the reason it has announced its intention to put aside its EU the accession agreement. That agreement, despite requests for reconsideration, resulted in shutting down two 408 MWe reactors that had met International Atomic Energy Agency safety…
Senators Lisa Murkowski, Jeff Sessions, Richard Burr, Bob Corker, and Mary Landrieu all asked pointed, pro-nuclear questions during Steven Chu’s confirmation hearing yesterday. Warms my heart to think that the message is finally getting across – there is NO supportable logic in a position that states that energy security is vital, protecting the climate is…