February, 2009

First, the spinach: NEI's 2009 financial briefing for Wall Street analysts is now available on NEI's YouTube channel . Part 1 can be seen here : And now, the ice cream: AREVA Resources Canada sponsored a Save the Planet video contest . Contestants were asked to submit a "fun, creative, educational...

There's quite a spirited debate going on at WSJ's Environmental Capital about the proposed defunding of Yucca Mountain in President Obama's budget plan . NEI's Scott Peterson notes in the comments , This is an opportune time to re-evaluate America’s policy on managing commercial reactor...

In a story about President Obama’s budget priorities, this popped out at us: As for cap-and-trade, the official said the administration believes it will generate enough money to fund a variety of priorities, including investments in renewable energy and rebates for vulnerable consumers who may struggle...

Jason Ribeiro at Pro-Nuclear Democrats wrote an excellent, fact-based piece on why President Obama should have included nuclear energy in his not-the-State-of-the-Union speech last night . As well, Ribeiro includes some data Obama needs to see that explains the limitations of several of his proposed...

Here is President Obama's paragraph on energy from last night's not-the-State-of-the-Union: But to truly transform our economy, protect our security, and save our planet from the ravages of climate change, we need to ultimately make clean, renewable energy the profitable kind of energy. So I...

We’ve been noting over many posts the exceptionally rapid embrace of nuclear energy by a growing number of European countries and even by the European Union itself. Generally, where there has been opposition on the state level, it has come from the Green Party – we’re thinking mostly of Germany here...

William Tucker, author of Terrestrial Energy (his latest book "about nuclear energy, global warming and the threat to the environment"), shared his thoughts at the American Spectator about what it means to be renewable as well as what renewable mandates may do to the country . Here are a few...

The National Journal's energy blog is asking " How Should America Handle Its Commercial Nuclear Waste? " So far, four experts have weighed in: Chuck Gray from the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners , David Kreutzer from the Heritage Foundation , Thomas Gibson from...

Vietnam is making determined steps toward joining the nuclear family: The Vietnam Nuclear Energy Institute and the US’ Westinghouse Power Company last week introduced AP 1000 nuclear power technology at a workshop in Hanoi. The Vietnamese are starting almost from scratch, but are moving faster than looking...

First it was Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore seeing the light about the benefits of nuclear power , now another former director of the international environmental organization has become a convert. In an exclusive interview with The Independent , Stephen Tindale , Executive Director of Greeenpeace...

Dan Yurman at Idaho Samizdat beat me to this story so I'm going to copy from him ;-): A new report co-authored by the Electric Power Research Institute ( EPRI ) and the Idaho National Laboratory ( INL ) details how nuclear energy research, development, demonstration and deployment can help reduce...

Yesterday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a speech to students at the University of Tokyo. Jason Ribeiro over at Pro Nuclear Democrats took a look at her speech and had quite a few excellent thoughts and criticisms about her comments on nuclear energy . ...read more

Charles Barton at Nuclear Green thinks so and I think he's right. ...read more

Namasté ’s CEO, Blake Jones, is quite upfront about the benefits of the stimulus plan for his company , a solar panel supplier in Colorado: Depending on the details, Jones said the passage of the plan would allow him not only to lift his hiring freeze put into place in October but would allow him to...

When a new administration takes over, there are always some moments of dread, even among those constituencies that might expect to benefit. The change in Washington over the last two elections, however, has been seismic in nature, with the Republicans further out of power than at any time in my adult...

From the Las Vegas Review Journal : Energy Secretary Steven Chu told a group of state officials Wednesday he favors moving toward licensing a nuclear waste repository in Nevada, although whether it would ever be built is another thing altogether. ... The proceedings would continue for the government...

We’ve done a fair number of stories about the actions of several states to overturn bans. These state actions are delightful to us but must be alarming to those who genuinely if irrationally fear nuclear energy . We choose not to identify one from another – we could always be wrong, after all. While...

The news is that Kentucky is en route to overturning its ban on building nuclear energy plants: Sen. Bob Leeper of Paducah said adopting the federal standard would allow Kentucky sites to be considered for next generation nuclear power plants which would help curb greenhouse gas emissions caused by coal...

Baruch Fischhoff wrote an informative piece at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists explaining how the nuclear industry can communicate better with the public : Working the crowd is essential for a technology such as nuclear energy, which depends on the public's acceptance to host plants, invest...

Check out this video that was shown at an American Nuclear Society Conference on Nuclear Training and Education. The numbers are astonishing. The video asks at the end: So what does it all mean? To me, if humans are growing at an exponential pace then we're going to need a lot of new nuclear plants...

We’ve sometimes read stories about people who misjudged where a helicopter rotor was or just how close is too close when in proximity to an airplane propeller. But we hadn’t thought very much about the relative danger of being near a windmill. But danger there is : [The Caithness Windfarm Information...

We’re all in favor of promoting nuclear energy in creative ways, but we have to admit to mixed feelings about the Miss Atom contest (in Russian). Russia's nuclear industry has been trying to change all that in recent years, rolling out the annual Miss Atom Beauty Contest. The competition is open...

We were pleasantly surprised that Georgia has done what Missouri is edging toward doing: Wednesday the Senate took great strides in saving taxpayers and Georgia Power customers significant money by passing the Georgia Nuclear Energy Financing Act, Senate Bill 31. The bill allows recovering of financing...

The International Atomic Energy Agency has been in the news a fair amount lately, especially as it tries to stake out a position vis a vis Iran before the Obama administration really turns it sights eastward: Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the Vienna-based U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency...

Today might be the day we find out if $50B in loan volume for the existing loan guarantee clean energy program makes it into the final "stimulus" bill. The Conference Committee members are supposed to meet at 3 pm today to iron out the details. As promised last week when I explained how the...