Green World Blog
News, views & musings for our nuclear-free, carbon-free future
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Tesla and its implications: it’s a wild time
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKORsrlN-2k] If you read our piece Tuesday on Tesla’s new PowerWall battery storage announcement, but spent the past three days thinking about whether you wanted to get one for your own home, well, you waited too long. According to several reports, Tesla has sold 38,000 PowerWalls since its announcement a week ago, and is…
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Tesla wants to change the world. It just might happen.
The Tesla PowerWall. Photo by Tesla. Last week, Elon Musk and his Tesla corporation changed the world. Or so you might think from reading the press coverage about Musk’s long-expected announcement that the gigafactory Tesla is building in Nevada will produce batteries not only for Tesla automobiles, but to use as storage for renewable energy–especially…
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Exelon presses its luck
Exelon’s allegedly uneconomic Byron reactors. Photo from wikipedia. Exelon, the nation’s largest nuclear power utility, has upped the ante in its quest for a bailout from the Illinois legislature, saying it has “to have an answer” by September as to whether Illinois ratepayers are going to pay more for their electricity just because it’s from…
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Friday roundup: nukes want more from DOE, Ex-Im, Exelon, and a happy note
Westinghouse AP-1000 reactor under construction in Sanmen, China, courtesy of the U.S. Export-Import Bank. On Tuesday, the Obama administration released the results of a major review of the nation’s electric grid, concluding that billions of dollars of investment is needed to modernize the grid, replace aging power lines and prepare for more renewables entering the…
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Musicians as activists, and tales from the Clinton White House
Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, David Crosby, Steven Stills, John Hall et al, at a press conference before the August 2011 Musicians United for Safe Energy concert in Mountain View, California. They’re talking about nuclear power, not chord changes or stage decor. Today I sent out a letter to NIRS’ supporters and I thought…
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More media misinformation about Germany’s Energiewende
Solar power in a small village in Germany’s Black Forest region. Reuters today published a story (and it is indeed a “story”) with the alarming headline Costs for Germany’s nuclear exit could rise to $75 billion. You can be sure the nuclear and coal advocates will start spreading that around as yet one more “failure”…
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Bailouts, Areva, cracking and more…
Belgium’s Doel reactors. The U.S. NRC doesn’t seem to care that cracking in their reactor pressure vessels may exist in U.S. reactors as well. Photo from Wikipedia. A bit of a mishmash for this Friday, but we wanted to bring some additional attention to some news and developments you might have missed over the past…
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Europe is not prepared for a Fukushima-level accident
Fukushima radiation plume overlaid on map centered at Indian Point reactors. Can anyone (other than NRC) seriously believe this area can be successfully evacuated in a nuclear accident? From Samuel Lawrence Foundation website. Apparently we have a European theme going this week. At least that’s where the major reports and news seem to be coming…
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The EPR “anamoly;” what’s at stake for Areva
Installation of the reactor dome at Areva’s EPR reactor at Flamanville, France. Now, indications of a serious problem with the reactor pressure vessel could scuttle the already delayed and over-budget project. In early April, the troubled French nuclear reactor manufacturer Areva announced that there is an “anamoly” in the reactor pressure vessel installed at Electricite…
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Yucca opposition: it’s not just Harry.
Spouting conventional wisdom in Washington is a booming business. It’s the business of innumerable reporters and pundits and even supports entire publications, like Politico and The Hill. The trick, I guess, if you’re in the conventional wisdom trade, is to find some tiny little nuance to that wisdom that is ever so slightly different than…
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