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According to the BBC, – http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4130532.stm – oil prices in Asia have reached $62.69 per barrel on August 8, 2005. Though there will be plenty of commentators that minimize the impact of that very high price by referring to the inflation adjusted prices from the early 1980s, the fact remains that oil prices are nearly…

Several weeks ago, I mentioned that the governments in the area near the Bellefonte Nuclear Generating Station had passed resolutions to encourage the NuStart consortium to build a new plant in their backyard. They have apparently been busy in the past few weeks and have captured the attention of the Alabama state government. The Huntsville…

Davic Falchek of the Scranton Times-Tribune web wrote an in-depth look at the past, present and future of nuclear power in Pennsylvania. Here is the link to the article that was published on July 31, 2005. As of 4:57 am on 31 July, the article is simply titled “More News”, but that might change since…

Here is a link to a well reasoned viewpoint from Donald A. Grant, Ph.D., P.E. He is the R. C. Hill Professor and chair of the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Maine. This piece is recommended reading for anyone trying to understand why so many people are waking up to the importance of…

Marathon Oil has announced plans to drill gas wells approximately 21 miles off the coast of Wales. The company discovered a gas deposit there in 1994, but determined that the market price was not high enough to support the cost of developing the field while still providing an attractive rate of return. The current price…

With a unanimous vote yesterday, the Board of County Commissioners for Calvert County, Maryland decided to submit a resolution and letter of support endorsing the NuStart Energy Development Corporation’s consideration of the Calvert Cliffs site for one of their proposed new reactors. Board of County Commissioners Submits Resolution in Support of NuStart Energy’s Calvert Cliffs…

A friend pointed me to a great article about the North Carolina State nuclear engineering program. Campus reactor leads the way in ‘nuclear renaissance’. Here is a quote from the article that should make young technical types sit up and take notice: Jacobson echoed Ferrell’s statements, when she also added the market for hiring at…

An article from the June 23, 2005 edition of Forbes Magazine was titled Buffett Still Power Hungry. Here is a quote from that article: Buffett also said that Berkshire is looking at new-generation nuclear power plants with an “open mind.” While Buffett has spoken positively about the utility and pipeline segments of the energy business…

One of my regular readers recommended that I share the following link with you – http://www.canada.com/fortstjohn/story.html?id=48b3a2a1-950a-4bc9-a39e-50f38f5f4013 – Public favours refurbishment of Point Lepreau plant. Point Lepreau supplies approximately one third of the electricity in Canada’s New Brunswick province. It was the first CANDU-6 to be licensed and begin commercial operations. It is due for an…

Yesterday, I posted a link to a new anti-nuclear diatribe by Amory Lovins, a man that has been preaching the gospel of “negawatts” for more than a quarter of a century. According to his dogma, the only energy supply we need is conservation; and, implicitly, a little less of all of the sources of energy…

Amory Lovins, of the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), one of the anti-nuclear industry’s leading mouthpieces has produced another diatribe against the use of the cleanest, cheapest, most abundant, and most reliable energy source available both now and in the immediate future. You can find this document at http://www.rmi.org/sitepages/pid1154.php. During the next couple of days, I…

On July 18, 2005, President Bush met with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the White House. The leaders announced several new areas of cooperation including commercial nuclear power. This is the first time since 1978 that the United States government has allowed nuclear technology sharing with India, the world’s most populous democracy. The chill…