On September 4, 2010, CBS News aired a story about the controversy and impacts of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale. The video includes some footage showing how the drilling equipment can alter the landscape of what appears to have been a rather quiet rural neighborhood. John Hanger, the Secretary of the…
The American Nuclear Society has begun publishing a blog called ANS Nuclear Cafe. In his September 1, 2010 welcome message, ANS President Joe Colvin described reasons for starting the blog: As the American Nuclear Society President, I am pleased to welcome you to the ANS Nuclear Cafe. The Society has opened the ANS Nuclear Cafe…
One of the bludgeons that the organized opposition uses to discourage new nuclear power plant construction is the charge that the if the effort was really worth it, “Wall Street” would be financing the plants. That charge presupposes the notion that only the bankers on Wall Street have the smarts to run numbers and make…
If I was a print journalist, I would be limited in my ability to describe the vast difference between the presentations of Areva, GE Hitachi, Westinghouse, and EnergySolutions and that of the Union of Concerned Scientists during the first session of the Reactor and Fuel Cycle Subcommittee of the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear…
Germany’s utilities and major energy consuming businesses are taking the battle over special taxes into the public domain. They are refusing to be patsies for the politicians who are trying to frame the debate and tell the public that extending nuclear power plant operation is simply a gift to the plant owners. Though I do…
After spending a couple of days at the Reactor and Fuel Cycle Subcommittee of the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future, I had a sense of deja vu that I could not shake. I kept telling myself that I had heard many of the ideas about used fuel management before. I did some looking…
There have been some interesting recent discussions about the overall effect of introducing large amounts of weather dependent wind energy into a complex power grid supplied by more controllable forms of power generation. The conversations have been building on research conducted over several years as countries and states gain experience in integrating ever larger quantities…