After receiving flowers and surviving a hail of flash bulbs, new IAEA chief Yukiya Amano officially began his four year term and made a short statement (there’s a video there, too, and Amano speaks in English):
"The situation surrounding the Agency is stormy now. [...]
The Los Angeles Times ran an editorial on nuclear energy this past weekend. It’s pretty weak tea.
Senate Republicans and many moderate Democrats are seeking to lard up prospective climate and energy bills with billions of dollars in loan guarantees and other subsidies for [...]
Not exactly a tipping point, but when advertisers are using nuclear energy power plants in their creative to reach ad agencies and designers, you know that something has changed. We found this ad atop a newsletter from Creativity, an Advertising Age publication.From January 2009 to August 2009, US primary energy consumption fell by 5.7 percent compared to the same time period in 2008. For the first eight months of 2009, petroleum provided 31.7% of US energy consumption, natural [...]
One of the themes – or is that memes – we’ve been following here is the growing support for nuclear energy among Congressional Democrats. We might be expected to consider nuclear energy a post-partisan issue – that is, one where Republicans and Democrats more-or-less agree [...]
This is certainly an interesting application of using radiation, via Nuclear Street:The Olive Fruit Fly only lays its eggs in olives. It can infest up to 90% of a farmer´s fruit, damaging the crops and the livelihoods of the olive growers and exporters. (Photo: FAO/IAEA). [...] 
Let’s take a snapshot of the legislative landscape as it relates to nuclear energy:
Last week, Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Jim Webb (D-Va.) introduced a climate change bill that includes a strong nuclear title, something missing from the initial draft of the Kerry-Boxer [...]
The Council on Foreign Relations has an interesting interview up with James E. Rogers, Duke Energy’s CEO. Right at the start, interviewer Roya Wolverson notes that Duke is the country’s third largest producer of carbon emissions and stands to be a “loser” in any climate [...]
If you’ve been following the health care or climate change debates, you know that your local newspaper will run a story each day whether or not anything significant happened that day because of the intense interest in the subjects. Some stories can roll on for [...]
Stewart Brand has been the subject of multiple NNN blog posts over these last several weeks: his latest book, Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto, was reviewed and the kerfuffle between Amory Lovins and Brand has been discussed in multiple posts. Earlier [...] 
Generally speaking, folks who dislike nuclear energy have lost their footing a bit because the pressing energy issue of the day – climate change – seeks solutions that nuclear energy readily provides. A fair number of former anti-nuclear advocates have put the issues [...]
Never say never, but the cap-and-trade provisions in the Kerry-Boxer climate change bill have made a number of Senators nervous about supporting it. A number of Republicans have termed it cap-and-tax and some Democrats are not inclined toward it either. For example, take this [...]
Louise Gray at the Telegraph (U.K.) clears it all up for us:
Professor Ian Plimer, a geologist from Adelaide University, argues that a recent rise in temperature around the world is caused by solar cycles and other "extra terrestrial" forces.
Extra terrestrial? That sounds [...]
You would be perfectly within your rights to give us the fishy eye if we said anything other than that nuclear energy plants are very expensive to build. Most power plants suffer this problem, because costs are so front-loaded: plants take time to build, introducing [...]
The “portfolio myth”
On page 82, Brand states that:
climate change is so serious a matter, we have to do [...]
Shall we see what’s doing in the world of nuclear energy?
Aris Candris, the CEO of Westinghouse makes the case in the Wall Street Journal:
Nuclear energy … must play a larger role in our effort to become and remain energy independent, and to [...]
One of the issues in getting the nuclear renaissance rolling – but one that is particularly responsive to capitalist imperatives – is the manufacturing of pieces that make up a plant.
After all, it’s been a long time since an American nuclear plant has [...]
We can’t really call yesterday’s passage of the Kerry-Boxer climate change bill through the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee tainted, because the bill itself is almost pristine. No amendments were added to it, nothing was removed. But the process lacked a – certain [...]
We have to give our friends in the coal industry credit – it has had a pretty good showing in the climate change bill, even if the goal of the bill builds on the hope that carbon capture and sequestration proves itself, and it survived [...]
Actually, Electricite de France (EDF) and Constellation Energy have been working together for awhile, including as partners in UniStar. But this is a different venture, lately approved by the Maryland Public Service Commission and, let us say, spectacularly good news:
EDF [...]
As opposed to Bob McDonnell below, governor-elect Chris Christie of New Jersey tilts rather away from the national Republican party on energy issues. Might not mean anything: It may just be that he has a genuine desire to move New Jersey to solar energy and [...]
The governors-elect in this case being Bob McDonnell in Virginia and Chris Christie in New Jersey. We’ll let the political blogs worry about what the win of two Republicans in previously Democratic-run states means (and that means no partisanship in the comments, please) and take [...]
When NEI announced its corporate sponsorship with the Washington Capitals one month ago, we knew that our advertising neighbors on the dasher at Verizon Center would be Papa Johns and Geico. Naturally, we were curious to know what other advertisers were trying to [...] 
The plausibility of using small nuclear reactors in situations where a full-scale reactor might be seen as overkill is an idea pushed, as you would imagine, by vendors with such reactors in their portfolios. In fact, a group of those vendors travelled around Washington during [...]
We provided you with some of the nuclear energy highlights from last week’s hearings on the Kerry-Boxer climate change bill. Now comes the finagling that makes politics so engaging for those who like to follow it, so frustrating for everyone else. This story from the [...]
And day last. We’re going to focus today on John Rowe, Exelon CEO. As we said over the last two days, the focus of the hearings has been general in nature, alighting on nuclear energy and other energy generators only occasionally. But Rowe dove straight [...]
As you might expect, the second of three days of the hearings on the climate change bill saw some themes emerge. First, the tenor more-or-less avoids talking about specific energy generators even when representatives of relevant companies are present. Natural gas probably picked up the [...]
The industry’s release of the nuclear title has multiple goals. One, of course, is to provide information to Congress as it considers the Kerry-Boxer climate change legislation, to indicate how the industry can help government achieve its goals.
But that information is fully public, so [...]
The first of three days of hearings about the Boxer-Kerry climate change bill in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (chaired by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.)) went the way opening days often do. The Senators kicked things off with what were essentially position papers, [...]
We gave you a heads up the other day with some fact sheets that outline what the industry - and NEI – has been doing as hearings on the energy bill get underway today (Look at the Twitter feed on your right for some quotes [...]
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) released what called the chairman’s mark of the Kerry-Boxer climate change bill, called the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act (S.1733). At least, this is an accurate title – bills are often called something benign despite repulsive [...]
President Barack Obama’s energy speech at MIT could have focused a bit more on nuclear energy. But he intended to cover a lot of bases and clearly did that. He noted the green jobs created by the stimulus bill, he called for bipartisanship in crafting the climate change bill in [...]
The Thorium Energy Alliance had its first annual conference in Washington earlier this week, so The New York Times decided to take a look at the potential of Thorium as a fuel for nuclear energy plants.
Rajendran Raja, a physicist at Fermilab — [...]
If this article about the Czech Republic’s energy profile is correct, the number one goal of the country is to disentangle itself from Russia, with which it was of course deeply entangled for some fifty years.
The number two goal, though, is to [...]
We don’t normally point you to NEI’s content because we assume you know it’s there and will go there – as well as to the NRC, ANS and other such worthy organizations – for all your nuclear knowledge needs. However, with energy issues heating up [...]
The difficulties of identifying and exploiting a market – whether to provide nuclear energy or to market a new food product – is never easy and, for a start-up, notably difficult.Ken Edelstein over at Mother Nature News acknowledges that what we might call “classic” environmentalists, those raised on the Whole Earth Catalog and the No Nukes concerts, might have a bit of a problem.
How much less politically radioactive nuclear power has become was underscored Oct. 11 in [...]
While President Obama pulled duty in New Orleans the other day, as we reported in the post below, Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu is in Paris speaking to a meeting of the International Energy Agency. You can decide who pulled the better duty.
Chu and the energy ministers [...]
Interesting doings in Florida today:
The Florida Public Service Commission rejected arguments from environmentalists and clean-energy advocates and voted 3-1 today to approve a request by Progress Energy, and Florida Power & Light, to charge customers for four new nuclear power plants that wouldn't' [...]
The bipartisan push for a nuclear title in the Senate’s climate change bill picked up considerably today:
Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) is helping to negotiate a nuclear energy amendment that could help bring aboard swing votes who support the industry. Architects and backers of [...]
Nuclear power, based on existing technologies, still has all its original problems: proliferation of nuclear weapons, terrorism, lack of long-term waste management, rare but catastrophic accidents and huge economic costs. All except the risk of accidents are worse now than in the 1970s. In several [...]
Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) co-wrote an op-ed for the New York Times demonstrating that distinguished gentlemen from opposite ends of the ideological spectrum can agree on a few things. Like what, for example?
Second, while we invest in renewable energy [...]
At long last, Viking-Penguin releases tomorrow the much-anticipated Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto by the celebrated author, environmentalist, Merry Prankster, finder and founder Stewart Brand.
We mentioned in an earlier post that we didn’t think Germany was a notably good locale for solar power. This snap judgment came due to our visits to Germany, where the sun was, at best, a fickle friend. But let Germany’s Economics and Technology Ministry [...]
As you may know, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has five commissioners. Currently, the count is three: Gregory Jaczko, who chairs, Kristine Svenicki and Dale Klein, the former chairman. Nils Diaz left in 2006 and Peter Lyons earlier this year. Terms run for five years, which keeps electoral politics from interfering [...]
Let’s get the long weekend going with some good reading:
The Energy Information Administration, the statistics arm of the Department of Energy, has launched a new portal called Energy Explained, which, um, explains energy. All the usual suspects are accounted for and nuclear energy [...]
In the annals of bad arguments, this is one of our favorites:
Germany's newly elected government could hinder the expansion of renewable energy in the country with its plans to extend the lifetime of nuclear reactors, warns the German Renewable Energy Federation.
Well, yes, [...]
Let’s peek in on some stories we’ve been following and see what’s what:
The South Texas Project wants to build a new unit on its site and has found strong support from the San Antonio Express News:
CPS customers pay rates that are routinely among [...]
In a bit of a surprise, Sen. John Kerry (R-Mass.) has taken the lead on the Senate climate change bill – a surprise because it was widely expected Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) would do so – but regardless, this is a topic Kerry has had an [...]
What’s the value of nuclear energy? Let’s let Indian Prime minister Manmohan Singh tell us:
"Nuclear energy is vital to meeting our energy and developmental needs, particularly those of large, developing countries like India," Mr. Singh said.
We’d add that that’s a pretty good [...]
Just in case you thought we’d have to wait a bit for some comment on the Kerry-Boxer climate change bill introduced yesterday, think again. Here’s Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska):
“We’ve got to be honest with ourselves if we are truly going to decrease emissions,” Murkowski [...]
Or, The Senate Moves on Climate Change. Senators Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and John Kerry (D-Mass.) have presented the Senate’s version of the climate change bill that will start off in the Environment and Public Works committee chaired by Boxer. As we’ve seen with the health bill, [...]
If you’re passing through the mid-Atlantic the first part of October to see the magnificent foliage points west and north you may consider dropping by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission complex in world-famous Rockville, Maryland, Thursday & Friday, October 8-9, for what promises to be a fascinating [...] 
Let’s ignore our Persian friends for awhile and see what’s going on in the world of domestic nuclear energy.
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Entergy would really like the Vermont Pubic Interest Research Group not to bear false witness against Entergy’s plant in the state, Vermont [...]
Yesterday, we noted that Libyan President Muammar el-Qaddafi followed President Obama’s speech at the United Nations with a speech that ran about an hour over its quota. We didn’t mention that it drifted in from Cloud Cuckooland with a pit stop in Madville. It did [...]
As you may have heard, President Barack Obama gave a speech at the United Nations about climate change yesterday. Now, just to get it out of the way, he had nothing or next to nothing to say about nuclear energy. If nuclear is there, it [...]
We thought to call this post “Diseased Waste,” but decided it wasn’t only inaccurate but sounded like a death metal band. When we hear [...]
Sen. Joe Lieberman [I-Conn.] wants you to know:
“I don’t think we’re going to [pass a bill] without bipartisan support,” Lieberman told POLITICO last week. “And without a nuclear title that’s stronger than in the House climate change legislation, we’re not going to be [...]
Now, here’s the thing: if you go to a conference about some topic in your field, you’re likely to eat some bad food, catch up with colleagues you never liked and end up with a bag full of plastic from various widget vendors.
So [...]
Ever since Yucca Mountain succumbed – well, almost succumbed – to the Obama administration’s uncertainties about it, the question of used nuclear fuel has been a bit of a question mark.
Hmmm, maybe that’s misleading. The fuel currently rests in pools or in dry [...]
And Sisters, too, of course. Darn that Shakespeare.
During AFL-CIO Convention proceedings yesterday in Pittsburgh, delegates adopted Resolution 10, entitled “Creating and Retaining Sustainable Good Green Jobs.” An excerpt from this resolution reads:
In addition to coal plants with CO2 capture, new nuclear generation also [...]
A fair number of news stories are not about what happened but what might happen soon. The story below about California concerns an as-yet unissued executive order that might (or might not) include nuclear energy. A thing to come.
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A Bad Thing to Come: [...]
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger wanted a bill that would ensure that 33% of the state’s energy would be powered by renewable energy sources by 2020. The legislature delivered just such a bill. The governor now threatens to veto it and impose a solution via executive [...]
Constellation’s Vice Chairman and COO Michael J. Wallace is making the case.
Constellation Energy and Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE), our utility subsidiary, have introduced Smart Grid technology and other programs aimed at helping customers reduce demand in exchange for significant rebates. These [...]
And here we had just gotten used to Mohamed ElBaradei – we were almost fans:
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Monday formally appointed Yukiya Amano of Japan as its new director general from December 1, succeeding Mohamed ElBaradei.
The 150 member states [...]
We’re always on the lookout for interesting anti-nuclear editorials. These days, the arguments have thinned out considerably – perhaps the fear factor enabled by Three Mile Island and Chernobyl has finally been beaten back by the pummeling of time, maybe the inability to deny the [...]
Even if one allows that the coal industry solves outstanding issues with carbon capture and sequestration – and it might - the rising tide of nuclear and renewable energy sources can make the coal industry look, fairly or unfairly, retrograde and outmoded. Although coal [...]
WGAL Channel 8 caught the video and pictures of one of two 510 ton steam generators crawling off the barge in Maryland. Here's TMI's page describing the project:Exelon Nuclear entered into a contract with AREVA NP Inc., to design and build TMI's' [...]
Mark Flanagan, David Bradish, RSM, KB
