Green World Blog
News, views & musings for our nuclear-free, carbon-free future
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FirstEnergy wants a big bailout too
FirstEnergy’s decrepit Davis-Besse reactor has been one of the least reliable reactors in the nation, with a long history of serious safety problems. The two largest nuclear power utilities, Exelon and Entergy, aren’t the only ones looking for ratepayer bailouts for uneconomic power plants. Add Ohio’s FirstEnergy to the list, which is seeking subsidies that…
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Exelon’s proposed takeover of Pepco: what’s at stake
Exelon’s attempt to take over the mid-Atlantic utility Pepco is running into obstacles in DC, Maryland and Delaware. The merger may be critical to Exelon’s long-term survival. Exelon is the nation’s largest nuclear power utility, but burdened by a bevy of uneconomic nuclear reactors, it hasn’t been performing well financially in recent years and was…
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Yes, America wants solar and wind, not nukes
Investing in solar power now brings a better return than investing in the S&P 500. Graphic from NC Clean Energy Technology Center. Just in case there was any doubt, “Americans ‘overwhelmingly’ prefer solar and wind energy to coal, oil, and nuclear energy, according to a Harvard political scientist who has conducted a comprehensive survey of…
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It’s put up or shut up time for Exelon
Exelon’s Dresden nuclear complex (Unit 1, on the right, has been closed since 1978) may–or may not–be one of Exelon’s supposed uneconomic nuclear plants. For a year now, Exelon has been complaining–loudly–that some of its Illinois reactors are uneconomic (though it hasn’t necessarily been consistent about which ones those are). And the nuclear giant has…
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Illinois report deals unexpected blow to Exelon: its uneconomic nukes really aren’t needed
Artist’s rendition of an Exelon building in Baltimore. The nuclear giant didn’t get what it wanted–grounds for a ratepayer bailout– from Illinois state agencies. Last May, the Illinois legislature responded to months of mounting hysteria from Exelon that several of the utility’s reactors in the state were losing money and might be forced to close…
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Vermont Yankee–the other side speaks
A 2007 cooling tower collapse at Vermont Yankee didn’t exactly reassure Vermonters that the plant was well-built or well-operated. GreenWorld seems to have garnered a lot of new readers this week–not that we expect them to stick around long: rather, there’s been a jump among nuclear power advocates and industry members. On Monday, we published…
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Nuclear industry goes hysterically ballistic over Yankee shutdown
A Greenpeace blimp flies in protest above Vermont Yankee. The long-awaited shutdown of the Vermont Yankee (VY) reactor on December 29 was celebrated across New England over the weekend; I’m told the party in Greenfield, Massachusetts Saturday night was especially festive. After decades of campaigning, especially over the past 15 years when the Nuclear Free…
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Solar advances and utility changes
A Clean Energy Collective community solar installation in Boulder, CO. Fracking dominates the energy headlines, and there is no doubt that the cheap natural gas produced by fracking is a major contributor to the ongoing economic woes of a good number of nuclear reactors and coal plants. But fracking has its limits and its own…
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Electricity storage’s time has come
Part of the “smart town” Panasonic is building near Tokyo, Japan. Everyone knows that solar and wind power are variable energy sources; neither on its own produces electricity 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. For that matter, no electricity source can do that indefinitely: nuclear reactors have to be…
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Misplaced priorities
Congress will send even more taxpayer dollars to dirty energy interests these next two years, but it won’t stop the relentless march of clean energy. The big nuclear news in the omnibus federal budget bill currently before Congress is that the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project receives no new funding for 2015–much to the chagrin…
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