Green World Blog
News, views & musings for our nuclear-free, carbon-free future
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On awards and elections
Michael Mariotte and daughter Zoryana receive lifetime achievement award from Ralph Nader, November 10, 2014. In the background to the left is a poster signed by all the musicians involved in the 2011 No Nukes concert in Mountain View, California. Wow! What a gift! I haven’t posted anything on GreenWorld in a week. I feel…
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Mobile Chernobyl, Yucca Mountain and climate change denial…elections matter
Artwork by Margaret Matson. There will be a lot of post-election analysis from every possible angle over the next several days. We might supply some more too, but here is our first take as stated in a letter to our members sent today. November 5, 2014 Dear Friends, The election is over and yes, things…
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35 clean energy organizations urge DOE to end nuclear loan program
Seven years later, the DOE’s $18.5 Billion nuclear loan program has paid only for this (the Vogtle reactors as of March 2014). And according to Southern Co. execs, the taxpayer loan wasn’t even needed. Today, 35 clean energy organizations from across the country submitted formal comments to the Department of Energy (DOE) urging it to…
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Exelon fights back, even amid growing earnings
Is Quad Cities uneconomic or making money? Probably the former, but some of Exelon’s other reactors may be doing better than the company has let on. The nation’s largest nuclear utility, Exelon, has launched a new website intended to encourage people in Illinois to write their state legislators in support of Exelon’s nuclear reactors–especially the…
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Within 2 years, Deutsche Bank says rooftop solar will be the cheaper option for everyone
Deutsche Bank has released a new report predicting that rooftop solar will reach “grid parity” in all 50 states of the U.S. in just two years–by the end of 2016. “Grid parity” means that the cost of obtaining electricity from rooftop solar–including installation–is equal to or less than the cost of obtaining electricity from traditional…
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With a reliance on nuclear industry talking points, Carol Browner continues to embarrass herself
Carol Browner. Photo from wikimedia commons. Former White House climate “czar” and now Nuclear Matters shill Carol Browner continues to embarrass herself with her ill-informed, although presumably lucrative, rants in support of nuclear power no matter its bevy of environmental, safety and economic failings. One hopes that, if not Browner herself, at least the League…
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Is storage the new solar? And other news from our solar future…
It wasn’t that long ago–what, just seven, eight years ago now–that solar power was considered, justifiably, an expensive niche technology. Sure, environmentally solar power has always reigned supreme and there were enough people wanting clean energy for their homes to keep the industry in business, but solar was just too costly for mainstream use. But…
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The return of Yucca Mountain?
The tortured history of the Yucca Mountain radioactive waste project took another twist Thursday as the NRC released a key portion of its Safety Evaluation Report (SER) for the project. Judging from the reaction of the nuclear industry and its backers, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the release of Volume 3 (of five volumes,…
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Why Nuclear Matters doesn’t matter
Nuclear Matters doesn’t matter because its fundamental argument doesn’t make sense. Not to these marchers, not to the general public, not even to politicians. Regular readers of GreenWorld know that we have dropped a lot of digital ink writing about Nuclear Matters, the astroturf group launched by Exelon early this year to try to make…
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Will NRC allow more foreign ownership of U.S. reactors?
Section 103(d) of the Atomic Energy Act (42 U.S.C. § 2133) states in plain language: “No license may be issued to an alien or any corporation or other entity if the Commission knows or has reason to believe it is owned, controlled, or dominated by an alien, a foreign corporation, or a foreign government.” Those…
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