Green World Blog
News, views & musings for our nuclear-free, carbon-free future
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IEA “experts” not particularly expert
The International Energy Agency (IEA) is composed of 29 countries, which are required to be members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The agency was founded in response to the oil crisis of 1973-74 “to help countries co-ordinate a collective response to major disruptions in oil supply through the release of emergency oil…
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NRC’s Magwood refuses to resign, and more from Inside Washington
NRC Commissioner William Magwood refuses to resign over conflict of interest charges. He’ll forget his troubles once he lands in Paris in September. NRC Commissioner William Magwood today sent a letter to attorneys Diane Curran and Mindy Goldstein, who represent 34 groups (including NIRS) that had called for Magwood to resign immediately and retroactively recuse…
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Exelon takes first concrete step to try to save uneconomic reactor
Exelon’s Ginna reactor, on Lake Ontario. Photo from IAEA. It’s no secret that Exelon, the nation’s largest nuclear utility, has a bunch of uneconomic and aging nuclear reactors on its hands. We’ve written about that here and here, for example. And just last Friday, we noted that Exelon’s top nuclear exec said that the company…
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Exelon doesn’t “intend” to shut down any reactors
On the chopping block? Exelon’s uneconomic Clinton reactor in central Illinois. Language matters. When a top Exelon exec, chief strategy officer Bill Von Hoene, said this week that the giant nuclear utility doesn’t “intend” to close any of its nuclear reactors anytime soon, you can be sure he was being careful with his language. “We…
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The nuclear industry’s fightback strategies: Baseload, climate, reducing safety regs
The nation’s largest nuclear facility, at Palo Verde in sunny Arizona, where solar power could–and should–rule the day. Photo from Wikipedia. In any battle, it’s important to know, understand, and keep current on what the other side wants–what its objectives are, how it intends to get there. For clean energy advocates, that means keeping up…
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Nuclear Newsreel, Monday, July 7, 2014
The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear facility in Japan; with seven large reactors, it’s the world largest. Tepco had been hoping to begin restarting them next month, but that’s not going to happen. A mish-mash of various news stories that caught our attention today, beginning in Japan… …where Kyushu Electric’s Sendai nuclear reactors could restart this Autumn without…
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Vogtle cost/schedule issues reiterated at PSC hearing
Construction site of two new Vogtle reactors. Georgia Power claims they’re 56% finished. This photo, taken March 20, 2014, suggests they’re not nearly that far along…. Just over a week ago we reported that all five reactors now under construction in the U.S. are experiencing delays and cost overruns. At a hearing Tuesday before the…
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Duke Energy embraces dirty energy–and the right wing
Former Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers talks a good game. He believes climate change is a real threat. He talks about the need for utilities to get on board with distributed generation and renewable energy and to begin now to change their business models to reflect those technologies. Here’s a sample quote from a long…
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Bloomberg sees a renewable-powered future
Solar power plants in continental U.S. compared to solar potential. Source: EIA A new report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) projecting world investment in energy technologies through 2026 sees a sharp rise in solar and wind power throughout the world by 2030. In the Americas (North, Central and South America) alone, Bloomberg predicts energy…
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Will Exelon Survive?
Artist’s rendition of an Exelon building in Baltimore after the Exelon/Constellation merger. The question of the day is: will the nation’s largest nuclear power utility, Exelon, survive? That’s a question that wouldn’t even have been asked a few years ago; Exelon was riding high. But with its stock price down 60% since July 2008, with…
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