Green World Blog
News, views & musings for our nuclear-free, carbon-free future
-
Nuclear Newsreel, Friday, February 14, 2014
Nuclear Power The mindset over at the Tennessee Valley Authority is just impossible to fathom. The Chattanooga Times Free Press reports that TVA will spend $160 million for replacement steam generators at Watts Bar-2–before the reactor is even built! Construction at Watts bar-2 began more than a generation ago–back in the 1970s–and the reactor still…
Read More -
Nuclear Newsreel, Thursday, February 13, 2014
Nuclear Power Scientific American: Is radioactive hydrogen (i.e. tritium) in drinking water a cancer threat? Well, yes, but real data is surprisingly sparse. Because of large tritium releases from numerous U.S. reactors into water and groundwater in recent years, the Environmental Protection Agency is beginning to re-evaluate its tritium standards. Unfortunately, while SciAm does cover…
Read More -
Nuclear Newsreel, Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Nuclear Power Tom Henry’s (Toledo Blade) blog: The Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) is pinning a lot of hopes on its upcoming Wall Street briefing tomorrow. Henry says NEI President Marvin Fertel will try to “regain some of the investor confidence it has lost in recent years.” That’s a tall order. Wall Street already has bailed…
Read More -
Nuclear Newsreel, Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Nuclear Power Argentina begins construction of world’s first SMR (Small Modular Reactor; in this case, VERY small reactor). It’s only 25 MW, and in fact is meant to be a pilot project to build an actual-size SMR. Notably, unlike the advanced SMR designs most industry boosters want to pretend are the wave of the future,…
Read More -
Nuclear Newsreel, Monday, February 10, 2014
Nuclear Power What those pro-nuke climate scientists just don’t understand: The unavoidable economics of nuclear power. Another on-target piece from economist Marc Cooper, who takes the small minority of climate scientists arguing for more nuclear power to task. A couple of excerpts that provide a sense of Cooper’s well-formed arguments: “But the evidence shows that…
Read More -
Nuclear Newsreel, Friday, February 7, 2014
Exelon says it may close nuclear reactors if it can’t get higher prices for their electricity. The problem for Exelon, the nation’s largest nuclear utility, is that many of its reactors can no longer compete with lower-cost wind and natural gas. Exelon’s preferred solution is that its reactors get preferential treatment, especially over wind, which…
Read More -
Nuclear Newsreel, Thursday, February 6, 2014
Nuclear utilities cry that the market is stacked against them. Maybe it’s that nukes are just too expensive? What they want is a system that is stacked for nuclear power–that would be a system stacked against ratepayers. This is an issue that will grow in importance this year and next as some utilities fight to…
Read More -
Guest Post: nuclear power is not the answer to climate change mitigation
Today we are pleased to publish our first guest post on GreenWorld. It is a major contribution to the debate on nuclear power and climate change that has arisen since the November 3, 2013 publication of a letter from four esteemed climate scientists urging environmentalists to reconsider our opposition to nuclear power as a strategy…
Read More -
Nuclear Newsreel, Tuesday, February 4, 2014
EPA seeks to “modernize” radiation standards. At least that’s how The Hill put it. What really appears to be happening is a new effort to reduce current levels of protection–which are already inadequate. NIRS will be analyzing the EPA’s proposed new rules and letting you know their implications and how you can participate in pushing…
Read More -
Nuclear Newsreel, Monday, February 3, 2014
Go Bernie! Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont may introduce legislation to repeal the Price-Anderson Act, which protects nuclear utilities from having to pay the potential full cost of damages in the event of a reactor accident. Then we would surely find out just how safe the nuclear industry thinks its reactors really are: they’d shut…
Read More