April, 2009

Energy advocates must talk to each other and to decision makers and not be cheese heads about baseload demand Over at the Energy Collective , Robin Carey , the CEO of the group  that backs it and other online social media forums, has some advice for the nuclear energy industry.  She writes...

Rare opportunity to take a look at one of their plants.   Hat tip to Cheryl Rofer at Whirlwind One Russian blogger, unnamed, has paid a visit to a Russian nuclear power plant. Normally it is forbidden to take photos there, but they made an exception for him. So now we have a rare chance to see what’s...

Two nuclear fuel banks are needed – one in Russia’s sphere of influence and another in the West.  Is Saskatchewan it? When President Barak Obama made a proposal in Prague on April 5 to establish an international nuclear fuel bank in Kazakhstan, what he was talking about was putting non-commercial...

If the US turns them down, other countries will supply the reactors The United Arab Emirates ( UAE ) is getting ready to make its case with Congress to acquire nuclear reactor technologies according to a report by the Associated Press.  At the heart of the debate is whether a country that counts...

Ameren calls it quits in Missouri and a top federal energy regulator says baseload power is dead The U.S. nuclear industry had good reason to be spooked this  week even though Halloween is still on the other side of the equinox. Two unrelated events that represent significant setbacks for the nuclear...

NRC license application for Idaho Eagle Rock uranium enrichment plant will change Areva Enrichment Services will ask the NRC to change  its license application to double the capacity of the planned $2.4 billion ‘ Eagle Rock ’ Enrichment Facility in Idaho Falls.  The change in the license application...

France and Russia compete for market share. Neither Rome nor reactors are built in a day. In an exclusive post at the Energy Collective this week, I explore the progress of the nuclear renaissance in Italy. Italy is looking for energy independence, and like many of its politicians, has taken up with...

Cold war legacies and new enrichment plants generate plenty of political heat Utah is the center of another uranium waste debate and this time it is tailings from enrichment plants.  Utah’s sole Democrat, already a fit to be tied over delays in cleaning up the Moab mill site, has joined forces with...

Many nuclear utilities, like Duke, also have major investments in coal-fired plants The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) uncorked its long  expected policy statement that formally declares carbon dioxide and five other green house gases to be pollutants that are a threat to public health...

No final resting place for once hugely ambitious program A UK nuclear energy trade journal reports that the U.S.  Department of Energy has pulled the plug on the GNEP program once and for all.  There had been several previous reports that the program was dead.  This time it looks like it is the real...

Wire service confuses yellowcake with weapons grade uranium Bloomberg wire service put its foot in the bucket on April 14 with a muddled story about how Lehman Bros had an "inventory" of 500,000 lbs of yellowcake or uranium oxide commonly known by its chemical symbol U3O8. What set people on...

Tokyo Electric Power Kashiwazaki-Kariwa seven-reactor 8.2 MW site remains shut down Bloomberg Wire Service reports the world’s single largest nuclear plant remains closed even though repairs following an earthquake are complete.  The reason is the political landscape is still experiencing significant...

Shaw will build two Westinghouse AP1000s for Georgia Power Southern Nuclear has given a green light to Westinghouse and Shaw  to break ground for two new reactors. The firms have signed an Engineering & Procurement Contract (EPC) with Georgia Power.  Each AP1000 will produce 1,105 MW of...

Business & civic leaders tackle nation’s capital. Students sweep through France It was a classic two-fer this month as dual delegations from one of the nation’s most remote states grabbed their carry-ons, laptops, and, for some, their passports, and hit the road to promote the use of nuclear energy...

The President’s high profile speech is upstaged by a North Korean missile U.S. President Barack Obama went to the Czech Republic on  April 5 and 41 years after Soviet tanks crushed the bloom of “ Prague Spring ” stood in the middle of that city and called for all nations to strive to rid the world...

Opponents at Indian Point, Vermont Yankee may find it harder to prevail The nation’s oldest operating commercial nuclear reactor is going  to get older, and continue operating. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), by a vote of 3-1, will renew the license for the 650 MW Oyster Creek nuclear power...

Robert Hargraves opens his 2009 class online at Dartmouth Last year, Robert Hargraves offered his now acclaimed online class on nuclear energy over the Internet.  This year he’s added new content and launched a new program called “Aim High” to accompany the class. He’s developed material on a little...

Portions of this blog post were published in Fuel Cycle Week , V8N321 on April 2, 2009 by International Nuclear Associates, Washington, DC ~ Note to readers: This column will shift from biweekly to monthly starting with this issue. The next edition will appear in mid-May. ~ The nightmare in uranium stock...

Funds will remediate hazardous & nuclear waste at INL creating over 500 jobs. President Barack Obama's economic stimulus package showed up in Idaho this week with a whopping $468 million for cleanup of hazardous and nuclear waste in eastern Idaho. The Department of Energy approved the funding...