Search Results for: "mark cooper"

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Mark Cooper is wrong about SMRs and nuclear energy

ByRod Adams

Mark Cooper of the Vermont Law School has published another paper in a series critiquing the economics of nuclear energy; this one is titled The Economic Failure of Nuclear Power and the Development of a Low Carbon Electricity Future: Why Small Modular Reactors are Part of the Problem and Not the Solution. It is not the most comforting paper for a nuclear energy and small modular reactor advocate to read, but it is worthy of attention and discuss…

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Are Mark Cooper and Peter Bradford climate change deniers?

ByRod Adams

In a recent paper, Mark Cooper and Peter Bradford advocate expanded use of natural gas, even if that expansion requires using hydraulic fracturing. They believe that fossil fuel plants should continue dumping vast quantities of combustion waste into our shared atmosphere, even after new nuclear energy plants start operating. They dismiss the notion of a direct fee placed on atmospheric waste disposal and do not advocate even a cap and trade schem…

Don Gillispie, CEO of Alternative Energy Holdings, Inc. challenges Mark Cooper’s assertion that solar is cheaper than nuclear

ByRod Adams

…ease that was picked up by MarketWatch.com, Gillispie took aim at the same Mark Cooper generated pronouncements on the cost comparisons between unreliable forms of energy like solar or wind and nuclear that I have attacked here on Atomic Insights. (See, for example, Gullible Reporting by New York Times on the Cost of Solar Electricity Versus Nuclear Electricity or Positive Lessons Extracted From Cooper’s Paper on French Nuclear Experience) Here is…

Mark Cooper Has Valid Concerns About Factors That Can Increase Nuclear Power Costs But He Draws the Wrong Conclusions

ByRod Adams

Mark Cooper, of the Vermont Law School’s Institute for Energy and the Environment, apparently subscribes to the Al Gore theory that nuclear power plants come in only one size – extra large. In the above video clip titled The Economics of Nuclear Reactors from CleanSkies.com, dated July 17, 2009, he explains why he does not like the assumption that plant construction costs may come down with increased experience. Though I do not like much of what…

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Cooper’s criticism may awaken nuclear competitive spirit

ByRod Adams

…y, international security and climate stability. Renaissance in Reverse is Mark Cooper’s latest in a string of critical reports about nuclear energy economics published during the past half decade. In this instance, however, Cooper’s publication timing is nearly perfect; four nuclear plants have been shutdown in the past six months, ostensibly because they could no longer provide electricity at a competitive price. That experience has made reporte…

If French Nuclear Success Is Socialism – Call Me a Socialist

ByRod Adams

…Reactor Construction: Cost Escalation and Crowding Out Alternatives by Dr. Mark Cooper. During the press conference, Dr. Cooper emphasized that the French model for nuclear energy development was state socialism. Michael Kanellos at Greentech Media also picked up that important word from the press conference as the headline for his post titled Time to End Nuclear Socialism, Says New Study. Here is a quote of Dr. Cooper from his initial remarks dur…

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How long before Wisconsin electricity customers regret loss of Kewaunee?

ByRod Adams

…y electric power producers. Natural gas electric power price After reading Mark Cooper’s paper criticizing the economic prospects of VC Summer and the Levy project, I contacted Geoff Styles, publisher of Energy Outlook. Geoff has professional experience in the fuel commodity futures trading market. One of Cooper’s assumptions is that it is possible for electric power companies to lock in natural gas prices on long term contracts at a favorable pri…

Positive Lessons Extracted From Cooper’s Paper On French Nuclear Experience

ByRod Adams

…I wrote yesterday about the press conference announcing the release of Dr. Mark Cooper’s paper titled Policy Challenges of Nuclear Reactor Construction: Cost Escalation and Crowding Out Alternatives. Though I strongly disagree with the conclusions, I believe that the paper is worth reading because it can provide both cautionary information and some indications for ways to improve on past history. Unlike Dr. Cooper, I am unabashedly in favor of the…

How does a sociologist become a “senior fellow in economic analysis”?

ByRod Adams

Mark Cooper’s academic and professional background shows little evidence of formal training or experience in economics or cost analysis. Though his recent report indicating that nuclear power plants in the United States are suffering from competitive cost pressures contains some accurate information, it does a poor job of identifying the cost drivers and makes no attempt to prescribe any solutions. It makes the illogical assumption that energy pr…

Professional Anti-Nuclear Analysts Deny the Existence of a Nuclear Revival

ByRod Adams

…nd held a press conference. During the report, I heard two familiar names, Mark Cooper and Steven Thomas. To learn more about the background of the story, which I assumed was based on a Washington, DC press conference, I did a Google News search for “thomas cooper nuclear renaissance”; the search provided a single result. That link was to a site with the interestingly titled International Yacht Vacations and Charters which had faithfully reproduce…

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Gullible Reporting By New York Times On the Cost of Solar Electricity Versus Nuclear Electricity

ByRod Adams

…relied on a 2009 cost projection paper written by a lone researcher named Mark Cooper, whose current employment is described as “Senior Research Fellow for Economic Analysis” for the Vermont Law School Institute for Energy and the Environment. His brief biography states that he has a “PhD from Yale” but it does not specify his field of study. It indicates he is an “activist/advocate” with a rather wide range of interest areas including telecommun…

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Antinuclear activists don’t like continued storage rule

ByRod Adams

Several of the usual suspects — including Dr. Mark Cooper, Dr. Arjun Makhijani, and Diane Curran — have banded together to assert their opinion that the NRC’s recently issued NUREG-2157, Generic Environmental Impact Statement for Continued Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel, violates the following provision of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954. In connection with applications for licenses to operate production or utilization facilities, the applicant shal…

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