Green World Blog
News, views & musings for our nuclear-free, carbon-free future
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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…
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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…
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Nuclear Newsreel, Thursday, January 30, 2014
The National Journal claims, without much in the way of evidence, that former NRC Chair Greg Jaczko is “persona non grata” on Capitol Hill and to the nuclear industry. On one level, that’s what happens when one speaks the truth. It might have been better if Jaczko had been even more aggressive when he was…
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Nuclear Newsreel, Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Missed this last week, sorry I did. Excellent op-ed from veteran energy journalist Ken Maize: Let the Vogtle DOE Loan Vanish. Completely dismantles, from a free-market perspective, any argument that the proposed $8.3 Billion taxpayer loan for construction of the two Vogtle reactors in Georgia makes any sense at all. Also correctly notes that this…
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Nuclear Newsreel, Tuesday, January 28, 2014
The question of exactly why South Carolina’s largest utility SCANA has embarked on building two new reactors at its Summer site has been rather hazy from the beginning, and SCANA partially covered itself by corralling partners like the Santee-Cooper co-op to take large shares of the second reactor. But Santee saw construction prices rise and…
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Nuclear Newsreel, Monday, January 27, 2014
The Georgia Public Service Commission says it needs more staff to track spiraling construction costs of Vogtle reactors. Under Georgia law, ratepayers are already paying for construction of the Vogtle reactors, which already are hundreds of millions of dollars over budget. But the PSC is supposed to be monitoring those costs and acting to prevent…
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Nuclear Newsreel, Friday, January 24, 2014
Can clean energy replace the shuttered San Onofre reactors in California? Why yes, it can. But it won’t happen automatically: the utilities that owned the reactors may not like the idea of so much rooftop solar they don’t control; they’d rather have new natural gas plants. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) once again plays…
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The ongoing debate on nuclear power and climate change
On January 8, 2014, 311 mostly grassroots organizations from around the world sent a letter to four climate scientists, including the well-known Dr. James Hansen, in response to their November 3, 2013 open letter to the environmental movement calling for our support for new nuclear power as a tool to help address the climate crisis…
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Nuclear Newsreel, Thursday, January 23, 2014
This article is pretty skimpy on information, but this can’t possibly go well: it seems that Iran, France & Argentina are teaming up to encourage construction of a new reactor in Bolivia. If true, we guess France isn’t really all that worried about Iran’s nuclear programs…. EcoWatch: Japanese cooperatives collaborate to help monitor Fukushima radiation…
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Nuclear Newsreel, Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Nuclear “renaissance” in Indiana lasts less than 2 weeks; Senator withdraws bill to encourage new nukes. The chair of the state’s Senate Utilities Committee, James Merritt (R-Indianapolis), introduced a bill that would have put Indiana on par with Georgia and South Carolina by requiring ratepayers to pay in advance for any nuclear reactor a utility…
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