April, 2012

Industry/Regulatory/Political Japanese central government officials met last week with more than 550 people living near the Ohi nuclear energy facility to make the case that two of the four reactors are safe to restart. The mayor of Ohi said the town council would decide whether to approve the restart...

It’s not hard to understand the reason why : Kansai Electric Power said it incurred a net loss of 242.26 billion yen ($3 billion) turning around from a year-before profit of 123.14 billion yen. This is in Japan. I mentioned last week that a nuclear plant can be very expensive to build but very inexpensive...

When many of us think of robots, images of Wall-E, Optimus Prime, R2-D2 and other droids from our favorite science-fiction movies come to mind. However, robots have many critical real-life functions, including detecting bombs in war zones and assisting in recovery efforts at disaster areas. More recently...

Here’s some good news : The Tennessee Valley Authority board in the US has approved continuing with construction of the second generating unit at Watts Bar Nuclear Power Plant located on the Tennessee River near Spring City following a revised estimate. The estimate presented to TVA in early April, revealed...

The following story originally appeared in NEI’s Nuclear Energy Overview. A new report by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum warns that Japan could put its energy security at risk if it turns its back on nuclear energy. A case study on Japan in the report “New Energy Architecture: Enabling an Effective...

A few days ago, we wrote about big tech companies moving their data centers to nuclear friendly states and getting some grief for it for not being “green” enough. I take no credit for the following, but it’s nice not to be talking in a vacuum. This a letter to the editor of the New York Times commenting...

Received the following in my email box concerning some American Nuclear Society work around a public meeting on the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant that will take place later tonight. If you're up on Twitter, please consider listening in to their feed and retweeting the best parts. WHEN: Wednesday, April...

For a number of weeks, we've been paying close attention to our colleagues at Southern California Edison (SCE) as they work to resolve a problem with the steam generators at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station or SONGS. Unit #2 and #3 at SONGS have been out of service for several weeks ever...

The following is a guest post from Scott Peterson, the Nuclear Energy Institute’s Senior Vice President of Communications, who just recently returned to the U.S. following a trip to Japan. FUKUSHIMA PREFECTURE–The safe shutdown of Japan’s Fukushima Daini plant could be instructive to the...

Ameren Missouri and Westinghouse Electric Co. last week revealed a new partnership to compete for federal funds to develop and license a small reactor at the Callaway nuclear plant site in Missouri. The joint collaboration has the potential to open the doors for nuclear energy to play a more prominent...

We’ve followed the French election here a bit because we were interested to see whether challenger Francois Hollande would hold to his stand to close 30 nuclear plants – a promise he made to the Green party when it appeared he might need its help against incumbent Nicholas Sarkozy. He’d already broken...

Some folks in Vermont shared the following about a radio debate on the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant that will take place on Tuesday morning. WHEN: Tuesday, April 24, 8-10 AM WHAT: Vermont Yankee Power Struggle: Radio Panel, Northhampton, MA WHERE: WHMP Radio with frequencies at AM1400/1240/1600...

Plant Update Tokyo Electric Power Co. last week began preparing to build a covered structure alongside and above the reactor 4 building at Fukushima Daiichi. The structure will house a fuel-handling crane that will eventually remove more than 1,500 used fuel assemblies from the reactor’s used fuel storage...

Words to live by: Not only would a nuclear expansion create mining and construction jobs, it would also open opportunities in the scientific sphere. "We have sufficient local capacity in terms of scientists and scientific companies and we can capitalize from our own intellectual capacity instead...

Today's Washington Post features an unsigned editorial that asks an important question: CAN THE WORLD fight global warming without nuclear power? One major industrialized country — Germany — is determined to find out, and another — Japan — is debating whether to try. Both illustrate how hard it would...

This week's edition of the Carnival of Nuclear Energy has been posted at the ANS Nuclear Cafe . Please check it out. ...read more

Although IBM is largely focused on computer science issues, it has labs all over the world that do all kinds of things – after all, IBM is also focused on making money. This page contains a good slice of what IBM is doing in the energy sphere. But I was most interested in its battery technology project...

Last week, I hinted that Dr. Helen Caldicott had gotten more than she had bargained for when she visited the University of South Carolina recently. Unfortunately, I failed to follow up and link to the following post at the Nuclear Literacy Project . The author is Kallie Metzger, a graduate fellow studying...

In conjunction with Earth Day, our friends at Energy Northwest have issued a new public service announcement touting the benefits of nuclear energy. What's the twist? The message is deliverer by their own employees: Here's a copy of the press release that the company issued in conjunction with...

Sort of a silly article from the New York Times: Internet companies often cloak themselves in an image of environmental awareness. But some companies that essentially live on the Internet are moving facilities to North Carolina, Virginia, northeastern Illinois and other regions whose main sources of...

From the Associated Press : Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon and energy officials are to announce plans Thursday that could include the development of another nuclear reactor in the state. The Democratic governor's office called the plans significant for energy development and economic growth in Missouri...

Earlier today, the Minnesota State Senate passed a resolution urging President Obama and the U.S. Congress to carry out the recommendations of Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future , especially with regard to consolidated storage of used nuclear fuel. The resolution passed by a vote...

Did you know that yesterday, April 17, was National Haiku Poetry Day ? Well, we sure did—and to have a little fun, we decided to launch a contest on our Facebook page to see who could write the best nuclear energy-related haiku. Not sure how the contest would go over with our fans, I was surprised to...

Yesterday the Union of Concerned Scientists published a new study about how using electric vehicles could help the U.S. cut fuel costs and reduce emissions. When auto companies begin manufacturing electric vehicles in larger numbers, the nation's 104 nuclear reactors (and counting) will be standing...

Yesterday the winners of the 2012 Pulitzer Prizes in journalism and the arts were announced. Though it failed to win a Pulitzer, a series by the Associated Press (AP) on safety at American nuclear plants was nominated in the national reporting category . We were a little taken aback by the news considering...