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  • Cold, expensive winter

    Natural gas and oil prices began rising again this week as parts of the eastern United States received their first significant snowfall of the 2005-2006 winter season. As of yesterday’s market close, Bloomberg.com is reporting that heating oil is trading at $1.87 per gallon (compared to a gasoline price of $1.59) on the New York…

  • Did the World Bank Tell Eskom to Cancel the PWR Project?

    I ran across a Reuters article that got me thinking. On December 4, 2008, Reuters reported that the World Bank had agreed to loan Eskom up to $5 Billion for a power capacity expansion program deemed crucial to the mining sector. On that same day, Eskom’s board met and determined that it would no longer…

  • Water consumption used as a weapon against coal plants

    Duke Energy has a plan to increase the capacity of its Cliffside facility located in Rutherford County, NC. The Myers Park Baptist Church in Charlotte recently hosted a public meeting to discuss the expansion plans. According to Drought fires up foes of coal plant: Duke Energy’s plans to expand criticized in view of climate change…

  • TerraPower Update – Latest Series B Funding Round Raises $35 Million

    TerraPower is working on the detailed design for a Traveling Wave Reactor that can effectively convert and consume actinide isotopes that are often considered to be waste products in a traditional light water reactor. The company was spun out of Nathan Myhrvold’s Intellectual Ventures after the team’s design progress attracted the attention of Bill Gates…

  • NRU shows the need to replace legalist focus with technical focus

    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…

  • FP&L – Constellation deal cancelled

    The planned merger of Constellation Energy Group into FP&L has been cancelled at the request of the Constellation board of directors due “continued uncertainty over regulatory and judicial matters in Maryland.” Last month, for similar reasons, a planned merger between Exelon and Public Service Enterprise Group of Newark, NJ was also cancelled. It appears that…