Green World Blog
News, views & musings for our nuclear-free, carbon-free future
-
Revisiting the pawn/toast prognostication as more reactors close
Another one bites the dust: New York’s Fukushima-clone Fitzpatrick reactor will close permanently next year. In mid-September, I wrote a piece delving into prognostication–always a dangerous endeavor–identifying (with tongue slightly in cheek) the nation’s most troubled nuclear reactors and dividing them into two piles: pawn or toast. Toast was those reactors most likely to shut…
Read More -
Why October 21 will become known as International Embarrassment Day
Imagine it’s October 2017. A young conservative, let’s say Marco Rubio (because the idea of the other young conservative in the race, Ted Cruz, is just too odious), has been elected President. He and his new energy secretary and new treasurer decide what the U.S. needs more than anything is some shiny new nuclear power…
Read More -
Pilgrim’s closure, and what’s next for New England.
Entergy’s Pilgrim reactor–the latest victim of nuclear power’s increasingly wretched economics, not to mention sustained citizen activism. Photo by Enformable. A generation or so ago, New England was one of the most nuclear-dependent regions in the nation. If one defines New England as including New York, then that relatively small corner of the U.S. map…
Read More -
Mainstreaming the nuclear exit
Exelon’s Ginna reactor in New York, one of a growing number of economically troubled reactors. Photo from IAEA. It’s no great revelation to say that the mainstream media, fractured though it may be these days, holds great power. It’s not direct power; the media can’t make actual decisions. Rather, the media grabs a theme–a meme…
Read More -
Some unanswered questions
The Summer reactors construction site July 30 2015. As Alice Cooper once sang, “we still got a long way to go….” – (c) 2015 – SCHighFlyer@gmail.com There are some questions that are simply unanswerable; for example, how is it that Donald Trump’s approval rating is not zero? What defect in the U.S. educational system has…
Read More -
The great nuclear bailout list: who’s a pawn, who’s toast.
Washington DC residents rally outside the District Building September 17, 2015 against Exelon’s proposed takeover of Pepco. Photo by Tim Judson When a nuclear power utility says one of its reactors is economically troubled and it may close early, should you believe it? For that matter, when a nuclear power utility says anything at all,…
Read More -
Nuclear advocates fight back with wishful thinking
The IEA/NEA’s new report doesn’t say what the NEA wishes it did. It must be rough to be a nuclear power advocate these days: clean renewable energy is cleaning nuclear’s clock in the marketplace; energy efficiency programs are working and causing electricity demand to remain stable and even fall in some regions; despite decades of…
Read More -
Ukraine’s nuclear giant attacks activists, not safety problems
The sprawling South Ukraine nuclear complex. Life isn’t easy in Ukraine these days. There’s an ongoing low-grade war in the eastern part of the country that constantly threatens to explode as Russian troops continue building their forces in the region. In the rest of the country, there’s serious economic contraction–far worse to Ukraine’s economy, on…
Read More -
Renewables as baseload power? Yes.
Some specifications of Chile’s upcoming Copiapo 24/7 solar power plant. As pointed out in the article itself, some environmentalists and clean energy advocates remain skeptical that a nuclear-free, carbon-free energy system is attainable; and we’ve had a few strong and interesting responses to my recent post The archaic nature of baseload power–or why electricity will…
Read More -
More woes for Exelon as DC PSC rejects its takeover of Pepco
It hasn’t been a very good week at Exelon headquarters near Chicago. First, four of its reactors–from New Jersey to Illinois, couldn’t clear the PJM capacity auction, putting their future in jeopardy. And this morning came the worst news of all for the company: The Washington DC Public Service Commission unanimously rejected its attempt to…
Read More