The Byron Nuclear Generating Station near Byron, Illinois. Photo: Bill Tracey
A $5 billion American-taxpayer-funded plant being built by the French-government-controlled company AREVA has no buyer yet for the controversial fuel
In the quest to convert plutonium from 170,000 nuclear warheads into usable forms of mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has a vexing political problem on its hands. Virtually no commercial nuclear power company wants to touch the stuff.
Continue reading Nuclear Industry Still Skeptical of MOX fuel
April 18th, 2011 | Bulldog Blog | Susan Trento |
Photo: Wikicommons Ruhrfisch
New York Times writer Joe Nocera got such a strong negative reaction to his first column supporting natural gas drilling that he wrote another one last weekend defending his position. In this second attempt he uses ProPublica’s Abrahm Lustgarten, a reporter covering these issues, to bolster his position. He said Lustgarten wrote that environmental issues associated with Marcellus Shale gas extraction “can be readily addressed by the employment of best drilling practices, technological investments, and rigorous regulatory oversight.”
Continue reading NYT’s Joe Nocera touts gas drilling, lives in fantasy world
April 14th, 2011 | Bulldog Blog | Susan Trento |
President Obama confers with senior advisors in the Oval Office. Photo: Pete Souza
Washington – At a press conference entitled “The Future of Nuclear Power,” financial expert Kevin Book said that President Barrack Obama is a “resolute advocate” for nuclear power, supporting the industry even after the Fukushima Daiichi power plant disaster. Book, an energy analyst with ClearView Energy Resources, said Obama’s support does more to preserve the future of nuclear power than any other politician in Washington. Book believes that as a result of the Japanese tragedy, the nuclear power industry will have trouble raising money in private markets because of costs, concerns about liability and the slowness of the regulatory process.
Continue reading Obama Backing Key to Nuclear Power
47th Munich Security Conference 2011: David Cameron (right), Prime Minister, Great Britain, Dr. Angela Merkel (left). Photo: Sebastian Zwez, Securityconference.de
The European countries have agreed to carry out voluntary “stress tests” on the safety of their 143 nuclear power plants in response to the catastrophe in Japan. But doubts have been raised regarding the independence of these tests.
Barely four days after the March 15 devastating earthquake in Japan and its consequences on the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power site, the European commissioner in charge of energy, Günther Oettinger of Germany, met regulators, nuclear safety experts and nuclear industry leaders. At the end of this crisis meeting, Oettinger announced that there was “general agreement for European stress tests for European nuclear power plants.” He added that the tests would be “voluntary” because it was not possible to make them compulsory under current European Union law.
Continue reading Doubts on the Independence of Nuclear Safety Inspections in Europe: A Continent Divided on Nuclear Energy
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