Never let it be said that the global nuclear power industry lets a good crisis go to waste….the industry is now promoting the far-fetched notion that the conflict between Ukraine and Russia should lead to new development of nuclear power, especially in Eastern Europe. There is certainly significant truth in the idea that the conflict…
Goldman Sachs says declining prices of solar plus battery storage means that by 2033 homeowners will no longer need to be on the grid in U.S. And that will happen sooner in expensive electricity states like New York and California. This projection tracks well with the recent Rocky Mountain Institute report (Nuclear Newsreel, February 25,…
Nuclear Power Is this one reason the UK has seemingly been among the more reluctant European nations to support imposing sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine? The Guardian reported Wednesday that Britain is talking with Russia and its Rosatom atomic industry about building a new VVER reactor in the UK. A Memorandum of…
The aging of nuclear reactors is a topic that is receiving renewed attention this week, and for good reason. Last year, in the U.S. alone, technical problems faced by older reactors closed two reactors at San Onofre, California and one at Crystal River. Last week we learned that the two reactors at St. Lucie, Florida…
Nuclear Power The Virginia legislature has passed a bill to force ratepayers to help Dominion Resources build a new reactor at its North Anna site. That’s not exactly how the rather convoluted and obscure bill was presented to the legislature, but now that it’s passed that’s exactly how a Dominion official described it to the…
Nuclear Power As we have been reporting regularly, the nuclear industry’s top priority this year is an effort to rig the deregulated electricity markets to favor higher cost nuclear power over cheaper renewables and natural gas. But to do so, they’re going to have to win over at least some public opinion, and especially that…
Nuclear Power Ivan Penn at the Tampa Bay Times has done consistently excellent reporting on Florida’s nuclear power industry, utilities generally, and state government actions and inactions, especially the ongoing battle over “early cost recovery” in the state–which has already cost ratepayers billions with zero results. Now Penn has turned his skills toward the St.…
Nuclear Power The Nuclear Energy Institute is still whining that since nuclear power can’t compete in the marketplace, it should get special treatment. As we predicted last week (Nuclear Newsreel, February 12, 2014), NEI CEO Marvin Fertel’s pitch to Wall Street focused heavily on the notion that the “current competitive market that power producers bid…
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…
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…