The Senate Energy and Environment committee, chaired by Senator Lisa Murkowski, held a confirmation hearing yesterday for former Texas Governor Rick Perry, the Trump Administration nominee for Secretary of Energy. Sam Britton, the nuclear waste specialist from the Bipartisan Policy Center, produced a valuable resource by watching the full hearing and producing a series of […]
Economics
Natural gas burners file suit challenging fairness of New York Zero Emission Credts
A coalition of electric power producers that operate natural gas-burning generation plants have filed suit in the U.S. District Court Southern District of New York. They are challenging the New York State Department of Public Service’s (NYSDPS) recently enacted Zero Emission Credit. Competition wasn’t designed with customers in mind The lawsuit filing document Indicates that […]
Another nuclear plant will close for good on Monday
The Ft. Calhoun Station (FCS) is scheduled to shut down for good on Monday, October 24. The number of operating nuclear power reactors in the US will have been in the three digits again for a just one week. That event will be a tragic shame for the surrounding community, for a gradually growing portion […]
Stockpile of 20% enriched uranium will enable advanced reactor deployment
This is a call to action. The Department of Energy is soliciting comments on its excess uranium management plan. The deadline for comments, initially announced as August 18, 2016, has been extended until September 19. That is just 4 days away. Here is a quote from the Federal Register request for information: The U.S. Department […]
First offshore wind farm in US completed. Details of FOAK costs & schedule
Deepwater Wind has completed attaching blades to the last of five massive, 6 MWe peak capacity wind turbines that make up the 30 MWe Block Island Wind Farm. That is one of the final steps in the process of installing and commissioning the facility. By the end of 2016, the developer expects that the project […]
Why are nuclear plants losing money at an astonishing rate?
Joe Romm recently wrote a piece for Climate Progress titled Nuclear Power Is Losing Money At An Astonishing Rate. In that post Romm exaggerates the amount of support that the New York Zero Emissions Credit (ZEC) will provide, absolves the massive build out of industrial scale wind and solar from any responsibility for contributing to […]
Atomic Show #257 – Rich Powell, Managing Director Policy and Strategy ClearPath Foundation
ClearPath Foundation has established a new niche; it is an unabashedly conservative organization that believes that clean energy is an important issue. It is taking aggressive action to seize the initiative. It asserts that the definition of “clean” energy should not be left in the hands of people who do not like material prosperity and […]
Amory Lovins Cheers Diablo Destruction Deal
Amory Lovins has once again chosen to publicly display his incredibly creative math skills. This time he is claiming that closing and destroying Diablo Canyon, a well-run and nicely situated nuclear power plant, 20 to 40 years before it has completed its useful life will reduce CO2 emissions and save money. His latest example of […]
How Can We Halt The Reverse Great Bandwagon In Nuclear?
A couple of weeks ago, Exelon announced that it was going to begin taking action to close the Clinton and Quad Cities nuclear power stations. According to the company, those stations have lost a combined total of $800 million during the past seven years. Both facilities are well run and reliable, and their ongoing operating […]
Addressing Economic Challenges Facing Nuclear Power Plants
Reprinted with permission. Original published on Forbes.com on May 20, 2016. On Thursday, May 19, the Department of (DOE) hosted a four-hour, invitation-only summit in a meeting room in the Senate Office building. Billed as an action-oriented forum for a variety of stakeholders to discuss what they can do about the economic challenges facing nuclear […]
Brinksmanship tactic fails in Illinois. Competitors handed easy victory
Exelon, a corporation that I publicly “unfriended” in 2009, has apparently failed to receive the assistance it demanded by the May 31st deadline it imposed on the Illinois legislature. Aside: For reasons that aren’t obvious, Exelon’s public communications about financial difficulties affecting its nuclear plants rarely, if ever, mention the magnitude of the cost increases […]
How Did the MOX Project Get So Expensive?
Over the past week or so, I’ve engaged in a “root cause analysis” project to determine why the US is having so much difficulty implementing a plan to take 34 metric tons of nearly pure plutonium 239 — a fissile isotope with virtually the same energy value as uranium 235 — out of our nuclear […]
