Several years ago, at the height of the nuclear “renaissance” when the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was reporting that it received or was expecting some 30 new reactor license applications, I met with a group of Capitol Hill staffers generally skeptical of nuclear power. To be honest, I don’t remember what the main topic of the…
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission last week denied a petition filed by Oregon/Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility and other groups asking for a shutdown of Washington’s Columbia reactor until it demonstrates it can meet seismic standards. The petition was based on a study that found that earthquake risks for the reactor have been greatly underestimated, as…
Today, Russia’s Ecodefense, the leading anti-nuclear power organization in the country, was branded a “foreign agent” by the Russian government. Under Russian law adopted recently, non-profit organizations that fail to register as a “foreign agent” but are found to be one can be subject to large fines and dissolution of the organization. While part of…
Exelon and Entergy are the nation’s two largest nuclear utilities. And both are scrambling to avoid shutdowns of some of their troubled reactors. In Exelon’s case, its two-unit Quad Cities and Byron reactors, and single-unit Oyster Creek and Clinton reactors, are economically suspect, unable at this point to provide electricity at a competitive price in…
Note: This guest post was written by Doug Koplow of EarthTrack.net, the nation’s foremost expert on subsidies for nuclear power and all other energy sources. You can follow Doug’s writings at earthtrack.net/blog. With no plan for a long-term nuclear waste repository in process, the nuclear and utility industries argued that continued collection of the nuclear…
The EPA’s proposed new carbon rules have dominated the news this week, but there has been more happening–especially on the clean energy front. So let’s get right into this week’s Nuclear Newsreel… Except that the proposed rules’ effect on nuclear power continues to be an issue and two new articles discuss how these rules, if…
By Mark Cooper Within the past year, a bevy of independent, financial analysts (Lazard, Citi, Credit Suisse, McKinsey and Company, Sanford Bernstein, Morningstar) have heralded an economic revolution in the electricity sector. A quarter of a century of technological progress has led to the conclusion that over the course of the next decade a combination…
NIRS factsheet: Nuclear Power and Climate: Why Nukes Can’t Save the Planet. Two-page sheet suitable for downloading/printing on the basic reasons nuclear power is not a global warming solution and, in fact, would be counterproductive at addressing the climate crisis.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s long-awaited proposed rules to attain carbon emission reductions from existing power plants was released today. We’ve noticed some environmental groups already have sent out mass e-mails urging their members to support the proposal. Not so fast. Very few government rule proposals deserve unqualified support and this proposal is no exception. Indeed,…
EPA carbon rule offers misguided subsidies for uneconomic, aging and dangerous nuclear reactors; carbon reductions would be greater and costs lower if such reactors were replaced with renewables and efficiency. NIRS press release.