January, 2010

Students who declare nuclear engineering majors in 2010 have bright prospects College students thinking about careers in nuclear engineering in the middle of their sophomore year in the dead of a recession tainted winter of 2010 have good reason to wonder about their future. What are the real opportunities...

2010 is off to a great start with three new blogs and one re-start There are three new nuclear blogs and one re-start. There’s a lot more activity in the blogsphere as the new year gets underway. It is an exciting time to be involved with the nuclear energy industry and this enthusiasm is reflected in...

Firm plans to build a facility in Hobbs, NM, to extract fluorine from depleted uranium International Isotopes Inc. ( OTC:INIS ) announced Jan 4 it submitted its license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission ( NRC ) for its depleted uranium de-conversion and fluorine extraction processing facility...

Department of Energy is mum after promising awards just before the holidays Less than a month ago, the Department of Energy (DOE) was giving strong signals that a long-running impasse with the Office of Management & Budget (OMB) had been resolved on the pricing of premiums for federal loan guarantees...

Faster than light travel claimed for Idaho nuclear project Alternative Energy Holdings Inc. ( PK:AEHI ) wasted little time issuing a press release in an effort to ride the coat tails of the $20 billion award by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to a consortium of South Korean, Japanese, and American firms...

Eastern Idaho State Legislator and a Pocatello TV station create a tempest in a teapot The Idaho State Legislature is back in session this week and headline seeking in Boise is already taking its toll. Not that KPVI (NBC) in Pocatello is blameless. It’s reporter seems to have been out of the room when...

Join, read, post, put it on your blog or web site A new expression in the use of the social media tool Twitter is now available for people who support the use of nuclear energy as a carbon emission free source of energy. It is called a ‘Twibe’ which is a made up word that means a ‘tribe’ of twitter users...

It is a move to raise confidence in its stock Alternate Energy Holdings, Inc. ( AEHI:OB) announced it received approval from the National Association of Securities Dealers ( NASD )( FIRNA ) to list and trade its common stock on the Over-The-Counter Bulletin Board effective Jan 8, 2010. Don Gillispie...

Texas sized uncertainties loom in the near-term Sometime in the next three months Exelon will file an Early Site Permit application with the NRC. The review process will take about two years. The action will keep the nuclear utility’s options open to eventually build a new nuclear power station near...

Utility will review responses from the industry for third reactor at North Anna site With billions of dollars weighing in the balance, Dominion ( D:NYSE ) is following the principles of the “prudent investor” in making up its mind which nuclear reactor design to reference in a license application to...

Carol Browner says she is talking with the industry In an public live online chat ( video ) held Jan 12, Ms. Browner , a top energy and environmental aide to President Barack Obama, finally moved the pointer, relative to nuclear energy policy, on the ship-of-state’s telegraph from dead stop, past stand...

Environmental groups are not giving up on efforts to close the recently relicensed reactor A coalition of a half-dozen environmental groups, thwarted in their efforts to shut down one of the nation’s oldest operating commercial nuclear reactors, has a new tactic. The groups are pushing the State of New...

Energy Secretary Chu sends protest letter to OMB A President bent on pushing deficit reduction buttons anywhere he can find them has hit a few at the Department of Energy.  Earlier this week the Office of Management & Budget tried to cut the Environmental Management program by a considerable...

Two experts on climate to talk about it in free, online webcast Free Live Webcast January 26, 1 PM EST / 10 AM PST Registration sign-up here The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, or Cop15, took place in Copenhagen December 2009 with the goal of establishing a new climate treaty to replace the...

Best prospects for actually building one Like the barker at a baseball game, you cannot tell the players without a program.  The Department of Energy (DOE) and the American Nuclear Society (ANS) periodically publish updates on the status of new nuclear builds in the U.S.  At DOE a quarterly...

The people who will operate the reactors of the nuclear renaissance are all under 40.   What are the qualities necessary for the next generation of leadership to run the nuclear reactors that are now on the drawing boards of the world’s commercial electric utilities?  By 2012-2015, most of...

Two reactors start using it. With these reports Idaho Samizdat is pleased to announce the start of posting selected dispatches via NucNet from the World Nuclear Organization. ( NucNet ) (Jan 18) The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has given permission for the Tohoku Electric Power...

It will be factory built with 20-year fuel loads and is based on the historically significant design of EBR-II Among the many offerings being developed in the small reactor category, one has a unique legacy. Advanced Reactor Concepts LLC ( ARC ) is based on technology used over a 30-year period by the...

McClean Lake Mill on standby for lack of ore Just before Christmas 140 workers at Areva's McLean Lake uranium mill in Saskatchewan got a holiday greeting they'd been dreading for some time. The firm announced plans to lay off 140 workers in 2010 because of a lack of ore from Cameco's Cigar...

Taxpayers off the hook for cost of new plants ( NucNet ) The British government will not use taxpayers’ money to subsidize  the construction of new nuclear power plants, Philip Hunt , (right) minister of state at the Department of Energy and Climate Change said Jan 21. In an online question and...

This blog post is an edited version of content published in Fuel Cycle Week for 01/13/10 V9:N359 by International Nuclear Associates, Washington, DC. Strathmore gets better offer for Reno Creek. Bayswater matches it. The Reno Creek property in Wyoming was briefly the object of a bidding war between Bayswater...

Florida regulators slam on the brakes over rate increases The two major nuclear utilities in Florida, Progress Energy ( NYSE:PGN ) and Florida Power & Light (FPL) ( NYSE:FPL ), came away Jan 13 from a meeting with the Public Service Commission (PSC) with a lot less than they asked for to build new...

NRC takes first step to reinstate construction licenses, but there are still big decisions ahead for TVA Think of all the metaphors about Phoenix birds rising out of the ashes and then apply them to what’s happening on a 1,600 acre site along the banks of the Tennessee River in northern Alabama. There...

Bloomberg wire service reports the increase will be requested in the 2011 budget Two people familiar with the Department of Energy budget for 2011 have told the Bloomberg wire service that the President’s budget for 2011 will include a request to add $36 billion to the nuclear energy loan guarantee program...

The group has real expertise. Let’s hope they do real work and don’t hand it off to staff. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced Jan 29 a Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future . The Commission, led by Lee Hamilton and Brent Scowcroft, will provide recommendations on managing spent nuclear...