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The Fastlinks:
- Germany's Nuclear Blind Spot- from Nuclear Tourist
- Fukushima at Two Years- from Nuke Power Talk
- Fukushima Two Years Later- from ANS Nuclear Cafe
- Japan Correctly Takes Umbrage with WHO Risk Estimates- from Hiroshima Syndrome
- China to Start Exporting their CAP1400- from Next Big Future
- Cameco Will Start Up the World's 2nd Largest Uranium Project- from Next Big Future
- Germany's Renewables Increase lags Nuclear Phaseout and Leads to Increased Cost ($1.3 Trillion), Coal Use, Pollution (surprise, surprise!)- From Next Big Future
- UK Science and Technology Committee Calls for Tripling of UK Nuclear Power in Order to Meet Legally Binding 2050 Emissions Requirements- from Next Big Future
- Bill McKibbin is Not Serious about Climate Change- from Atomic Insights
- SanOnofre Steam Generators: an Honest Error Driven by a Search for Perfection- from Atomic Insights
- It Was Safety, Safety, Safety... Lawyers Can't Rescue a Weak Case- from Yes Vermont Yankee
- Filtered Vents and Boiling Water Reactors: It’s Not About the Costs- from NEI Nuclear Notes
- Why Nuclear Energy is Critical to American Energy Diversity- from NEI Nuclear Notes
- San Onofre: the MHI Document Release and What it Really Means- from Atomic Power Review
- America's Two-pronged Anti-proliferation Policy- from Canadian Energy Issues
From Nuclear Tourist:
"...why is it that when nature heats up water with
radioactive materials it’s good, but when humans heat up water with radioactive
materials it’s bad?" As a part of the Nuclear
Tourist Blog at the Nuclear Literacy Project, Suzy Hobbs Baker offers insights
into the historical and cultural context of the German nuclear phase out. Baker
suggests, "that
we should all try to understand and be compassionate about their perspective
whether we agree with it or not."
From Nuke Power Talk:
Gail
Marcus looks at some of the larger impacts of Fukushima in her blog at Nuke
Power Talk this week. She points out that that the sudden shutdowns of
nuclear power plants in Japan and Germany have had real consequences.
Although both countries seemed to keep functioning, and some have claimed
that showed that nuclear power wasn't "needed," she shows why that
isn't so, and points to the very real health and economic consequences of the
shutdowns.
From Canadian Power Issues:
“Assessing America’s two-pronged
anti-proliferation policy: failures, successes, and a way forward”
U.S. policy for preventing nuclear weapons
proliferation is a two-pronged work in progress. Prong One is essentially
intellectual property protection: blocking certain other countries from access
to technologies and processes that can help make explosives and bombs. Prong
Two is dissuasive diplomacy: using various forms of diplomatic pressure, up to
and including military force, to dissuade countries from making, getting, or
keeping weapons. Steve Aplin argues that only Prong Two has been successful;
Prong One has been an unqualified, and unlamented, failure.
Fukushima Two Years Later
As we approach the two year anniversary of the Great East
Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, it’s important to look back and ask honest and
direct questions about the subsequent nuclear accident at Fukushima Daiichi and
what it means today.
What do we know now that we didn’t in the early days?
Could the accident have been prevented? What are we doing to ensure something
similar never happens again? What about the radiation exposure to the public?
Will Davis with an authoritative account and answering of
these and many other important questions.
From the Hiroshima Syndrome/Fukushima Commentary:
The Japanese government is less than happy with the recent WHO
risk estimates. They feel WHO’s results are purely hypothetical and can only
increase the wide-spread fear of radiation infecting millions of their people.
WHO ignored other studies out of Japan and within the United Nation's family
itself. Japan's might be the first government to ever challenge WHO's
methodology. They are entirely correct in criticizing WHO.
From Next Big Future:
 |
| The construction site of the Tianwan Nuclear Power Plant. Geng Yuhe / For China Dail |
Officials behind China's self-developed nuclear reactor,
known as the CAP1400, expect to sign its first overseas orders for the
technology this year, most likely from South America or Asia.
Sun Qin, the chairman of China National Nuclear Corp told China Daily in an exclusive interview, that the deals could seal should the construction of a CAP1400 reactor in China begin by the end of this year, after approval from the State Council.
Sun Qin, the chairman of China National Nuclear Corp told China Daily in an exclusive interview, that the deals could seal should the construction of a CAP1400 reactor in China begin by the end of this year, after approval from the State Council.
The Chinese technology is attractive because of
the “favorable and unconditional” credit conditions offered to other nations.
Cameco Corp. is just months away from opening its Cigar Lake
uranium project, the world’s second-largest high-grade
uranium deposit, more than thirty years after it was discovered and just as
global prices for the nuclear fuel show promise of a rebound.
“We’re on track with Cigar Lake. We said we’d be starting the mining in mid-2013 and we will and we’ll have first production from the mill in 2013,” said Tim Gitzel, chief executive officer of the Saskatchewan-based owner of uranium projects in Canada, the United States, Australia and Kazakhstan
“We’re on track with Cigar Lake. We said we’d be starting the mining in mid-2013 and we will and we’ll have first production from the mill in 2013,” said Tim Gitzel, chief executive officer of the Saskatchewan-based owner of uranium projects in Canada, the United States, Australia and Kazakhstan
In an in-depth interview with Frankfurter
Allgemeine, Altmaier said that costs for the plans to reform and restructure
the country's energy sector by the end of the 2030s could reach €1 trillion
($1.3 trillion). Feed-in tariffs - guaranteed electricity prices designed to support the adoption of renewables such as wind
and photovoltaics - would alone cost some €680 billion ($910 billion) by 2020.
That figure could increase further if the market price of electricity fell, he
warned.
The shift to renewables is lagging the phase out of nuclear energy and that is being made up by increased coal usage. Increased coal usage is increasing pollution. The current pace of renewable addition will last for many years.
The shift to renewables is lagging the phase out of nuclear energy and that is being made up by increased coal usage. Increased coal usage is increasing pollution. The current pace of renewable addition will last for many years.
A UK Science and Technology Committee Report, Nuclear
Research and Development Capabilities, calls for at least
tripling the current number of nuclear reactors (16 reactors now) in order to
meet legally binding emission targets for 2050. The eventual number could be
much higher because the new unconventional reactors are expected to have a
smaller generating capacity.
Scenarios for future electricity generation suggest that between now and 2050 nuclear power could supply between 15% and 49% (12 and 38 GW) of the total. To meet the UK's legally binding target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 80% below 1990 levels by 2050 it is likely that between 20 and 38 GW of nuclear power will be needed.
From Atomic Insights:
Is
Bill McKibben really serious about climate change?
Andy
Revkin recently published a post on his Dot Earth blog titled A
Communications Scholar Analyzes Bill McKibben’s Path on Climate. In one of
the videos that is embedded in the article, Matthew Nisbet describes Bill
McKibben as a public intellectual and compares his activism on climate to that
of Rachel Carson on the effects of pesticide chemicals.
In
this post, Rod Adams makes his case that McKibben is simply not serious
enough about climate change to overcome an imposed phobia or take the time
to learn just why he and his followers have been taught to have
that fear.
Does
Bill McKibben ever stop to think about how his reluctance to use nuclear
energy plays into the hands of the fossil fuel companies whose behavior he
is trying to alter through his divestment campaign?
Rod
Adams also published a detailed analysis of MHI's root cause analysis of the
steam generator leaks at San Onofre. The report, in a redacted form, was just
made publicly available on Friday afternoon (March 9, 2013).
From Yes, Vermont Yankee:
In 2011, the Vermont state senate voted to close down Vermont Yankee. In 2012, federal judge Gavan Murtha ruled that the reason for their vote was the concerns with nuclear safety. Since nuclear safety is regulated solely by the federal government, not state legislatures, Murtha ruled against the state. The state appealed the ruling. Nuclear opponents claimed they had been "out-lawyered," so the state hired a more high-powered attorney for its appeal. However, if the senators weren't voting on nuclear safety, what was the basis for their vote? The new attorney argued the senators were voting on economics. To bolster his argument, he cited two facts about Vermont Yankee: it provides low-cost power, and it will share money with the state utilities if prices rise on the grid. These facts are completely correct, but most people would say these are economic arguments for keeping the plant, not shutting it down.
 |
| Bill Mohl testifies before the Energy and Power Subcommittee |
From NEI Nuclear
Notes:
Filtered Vents and Boiling Water Reactors: It’s Not About the Costs
Two NEI staffers attempt to set
the record straight on the industry position on filtered vents.
Why Nuclear Energy is Critical to American Energy Diversity
Taking a closer look at House testimony from Entergy
executive William Mohl, and how the shale gas boom won't last forever.
From Atomic Power Review:
Will Davis bounces the newly released MHI Root
Cause Analysis documents and the letter to the NRC by Senator Boxer / Rep.
Markey against each other to see what falls out. Detailed explanation of
the causes; many background / supporting links.
Thank you for hosting the carnival and for applying some creative formatting to make the posts readily accessible.
ReplyDeleteIn a world where people who are opposed to progress often shout louder than the majority of people who actually enjoy the benefits of progress, it is important that people who favor nuclear energy work together to help balance out the negativity that is often associated with the technology.
There is little doubt that the world would be a better place with more nuclear power plants operating instead of more coal, gas, oil, wind turbines, or solar panels.
Rod Adams
Publisher, Atomic Insights
"Safety-related concrete has been poured for the basemat of the first of two AP1000 units at the VC Summer plant in South Carolina. The milestone marks the official start of construction of the USA's first new reactor in 30 years."
ReplyDeletehttp://www.world-nuclear-news.org/NN-AP1000_construction_underway_at_Summer-1203134.html