This was the don’t blink week if there ever was one on energy issues. The big stories rolled in like storms one after the other. The top story for me was the finding that Bush’s AG lied to congress over Iraq’s WMD’s that took the country into the biggest mistake of its life. Then there is the Detroit bailout, the huge OPEC cutback, EIA’s acknowledgment of peak oil being right around the corner, California Climate Change Plan and then well, there are the regular stories like EDF buying Constellation… Oh, and I almost forgot. Bush announced his plans to rebuild the entire nuclear weapons infrastructure! Or Like Obama’s clean coal agenda and the question of just how big of a renewable energy package will be seen. NYT’s Krugman made an appearance this week at the National Press Club suggesting that the government would need to be rolling out hundreds of billions of dollars in government stimulus programs to help avoid a depression.
This week DOE announced an 80 billion renewable energy loan program, with the nuke folks crying for a piece of the action. John Holdren was put in charge of OSTP, which brings us back to Chu and DOE. There will be a huge battle for the soul of Chu and that battle has already started as is being seen by articles coming out of Hanford where they are warning the region that Chu better not back out of Yucca Mountain or else the Hanford cleanup is dead. Another Hanford article then laid out part of the battle plan over Chu. That the industry would not be sitting back.
With Mr. Gen IV himself going to OSTP, there is no doubt where the real deep agenda is heading folks. John Holdren, once one of the star scientists of the anti-nuclear movement will be guiding the push for Gen IV. Most folks only want us to see Berkeley LBL in its current facelift of being involved in energy conservation and renewable energy design. However, as a Berkeley resident it wasn’t long ago that LBL was in a huge battle over its tritium dumping problem up on the hill.
LBL isn’t just a loveable sweet eco toy. Yes, LBL does have a renewable energy component but it also has a n-waste sciences component. Here’s where the tricky stuff begins. There’s already a big trail out there that Chu was picked because he is opposed to Yucca Mountain. Its my opinion that Chu will do well on renewables, but he will also team up with Holdren to drag us into Gen IV and the use of IFR’s. Watch out folks.
Dig in as there are many other stories here as well, not to mention a major NRC meeting over uranium mining and three new applications.
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Nuclear Reactor News
The Future of Nuclear Energy: Policy recommendations | Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
* Global warming necessitates investment in low-emission, base-load electric generation alternatives, including new nuclear power plants.
* International standards for safety and nonproliferation are necessary to ensure the successful development of new plants.
* Nuclear weapon states need to strive to meet disarmament commitments to support nonproliferation efforts.
Global warming necessitates the development of new forms of low-emissions, base-load power generating capacity. To assess the financial, regulatory, and proliferation concerns confronting nuclear energy and to develop strategies for addressing the barriers to the deployment of new reactors, in late September 2008, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists convened nearly 40 scientists, policy makers, industry representatives, and nongovernmental experts from around the world. The meeting was cosponsored by the University of Chicago, Argonne National Laboratory, and the Chicago Council on Science and Technology.
A subset of the meeting’s participants developed the following findings and recommendations based upon the presentations and discussions at the meeting. These findings and recommendations do not represent the views of all of the meeting participants or sponsors. Conference participants who endorse this document are listed at the bottom.
Group: TVA estimate for nuclear plans is low | The Tennessean
TVA’s estimate to build two nuclear reactors at its Bellefonte site in northern Alabama is “grossly inaccurate,” says a group that filed a new challenge Monday to the agency’s request for a nuclear power plant license.
A cost of $22 billion would be closer than the $9.9 billion to $17.5 billion industry range the Tennessee Valley Authority quotes in recent documents, said Louis Zeller with the North Carolina-based Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League.
Finance/ Labour: Cost of pebble bed project ‘beyond R16bn’
The cost of the controversial Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) project that Eskom wants to build at Koeberg is likely to run well beyond the government’s present estimate of R16-billion – and that’s without taking into account the cost of dealing with the resulting nuclear waste.
So says Kommetjie architect and environmentalist Rod Gurzynski in a scathing critique of the specialist study on the financial aspects of the project.
No extension for Yankee: Rutland Herald Online
This year, the Vermont state Legislature may cast a binding vote on the continued operation of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power station beyond 2012. I live six miles from Yankee. I am deeply concerned that successful evacuation in the event of an accident is impossible. I fear a “Katrina effect” where-low income, disabled and elderly people fare the worst.
Vermont Yankee was licensed to operate for 40 years. It has operated the past three years in “uprate mode,” generating 120 percent of its original capacity. Yankee has a relatively poor safety record, including the spectacular collapse of a cooling tower just last year.
Nuclear Power: Curse or Opportunity? | Albanian Economy News
Balkan states are gambling on the nuclear option as the best way to reduce the energy shortage but whether the risks pay off remains to be seen.
The three guards stand at the gate in the 40°C afternoon heat, ignoring the bustle around them. Grim-looking barbed wire coils round the top of the tall fence, as if designed to stop convicts escaping from prison.
Norway fund seeks delay in Constellation takeover | Reuters
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund said on Wednesday it has filed a suit in a U.S. court to prevent Constellation Energy (CEG.N) from convening a shareholders meeting due to vote on a takeover by MidAmerican.
Norway’s fund owns 4.8 percent in Constellation, whose value it said was undervalued by the offer by MidAmerican Energy, a unit of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N).
Since MidAmerican’s move was proposed and backed by Constellation’s board, French power company Electricite de France (EDF.PA) made an offer for Constellation assets “that values it substantially higher” than MidAmerican’s offer, the Norwegian oil fund said.
TEPCO mulls building nuclear plants overseas-Kyodo | Reuters
Tokyo Electric Power Co (9501.T), Asia’s largest utility, is considering building nuclear power plants overseas, Kyodo News Agency reported on Wednesday.
Kyodo said TEPCO was considering focusing such moves in emerging countries in Asia, such as Vietnam and India, where demand for electricity is expected to strengthen as their economies grow.
AFP: France’s EDF to buy Constellation nuclear assets for 4.5 bln
Constellation backed out a deal with renowned US investment manager Warren Buffett, whose energy group MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company had offered 4.7 billion dollars for the whole company.
A statement from the French firm said the deal would “enhance Constellation Energy’s long-term stability and liquidity position” and extend “the EDF Group’s nuclear expertise in the United States.”
Constellation, a top US electricity supplier, said it would pay some 1.2 billion dollars to break off the merger with Mid-American in a combination of cash, bonds and shares to be declared in the fourth quarter of 2008.
Ex-Palo Verde worker given prison sentence
A case initially cast as a potential threat to national security ended Tuesday with a 15-month prison term for a former Palo Verde engineer who took nuclear-plant software to Iran.
Mohammad Alavi, 51, was sentenced on charges of illegally accessing a computer and transporting stolen property as part of a plea agreement with federal prosecutors.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office originally sought to put Alavi behind bars for as long as 10 years for multiple charges, including violating a U.S. trade embargo with Iran.
TheDay.com – Millstone Scrutinized Over Gas Incident
Federal inspectors begin assessing how power plant dealt with the problem
Waterford – A special team of federal inspectors arrived Monday at Millstone Power Station to verify how the owner is addressing a recent situation in which gas was trapped in piping for a reactor safety system.
The trapped gas was discovered when the Unit 3 reactor owned by Dominion was shut down for refueling in October, and was corrected by inserting a valve in the pipe, according to Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for Region 1 of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Customers to get tiny refund; FPL will lose $6 million for sabotage, power failure at nuclear plant
A typical Florida Power & Light Co. customer will receive an 87-cent refund this March, the upshot of a tiny hole drilled into piping at the utility’s Turkey Point Unit 3 nuclear plant in 2006.
The credit will show up on March bills.
The Florida Public Service Commission, which oversees utilities, ruled today that FPL failed to prove it prudently managed temporary contract workers during a spring 2006 outage at the plant. On March 31 that year, a small hole was drilled in pressurizer piping. An investigation found that a disgruntled sheet metal worker who had a history of scrapes with the law, failed an initial psychological exam and was hired through an outside contractor most likely intentionally drilled the hole.
Bellefonte another case of nuclear uncertainty | The Tennessean
The Tennessee Valley Authority continues its way on a troubling path of the unknown with nuclear power plants.
Given all the potential ramifications of flaws at any nuclear power facility, the public has good reason to question the path taken by TVA. Among the most recent concerns about TVA operations are questions about the design for potential new nuclear reactors at the Bellefonte nuclear power site near Huntsville, Ala. TVA is seeking a license to build a plant based on a new design, the AP-1000 Westinghouse, but environmental groups say while the licensing process goes forward changes are being made to the design.
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TVA insists the changes in the design are only peripheral to the basic plan. Design changes include changes to the pressurizer; changes in the seismic analysis involving rock and soil conditions; changes in instruments and a redesign of fuel racks. Advocates of the licensing process say the design changes at issue are only the kinds of items that can be carried easily on a parallel track with the application process. The basic design is said to be a simpler version of a nuclear reactor. The design is significant because if and when it is approved for Bellefonte, it streamlines the process for other plant sites that might want to build on a Bellefonte model.
S. Idaho county to consider nuclear plant – The Olympian – Olympia, Washington
Officials in Elmore County plan to meet in February to consider a proposal by developers to build a $4.5 billion nuclear power plant.
Alternate Energy Holdings Inc. filed papers in August asking the county to rezone 1,400 acres of farm land and allow room for the 1,600 megawatt facility. County commissioners are scheduled to consider the proposal at a Feb. 11 meeting.
The company initially pursued building a plant in Owyhee County, but in April shifted its focus to a site in Elmore County on north bank of the Snake River.
Hanford News : New security rules OK’d for nuclear power plants
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Wednesday approved new security rules for nuclear power plants, including measures aimed at better protecting against potential cyberattacks.
For years in the making, the rules update requirements first imposed in emergency orders after the Sept. 11 attacks. But watchdog groups have criticized the agency for not going far enough.
They say the rules do not call on plant operators to help protect against a potential attack from a large aircraft that might be flown into a reactor or a used fuel storage pool. The groups also say security forces still are not required to be strong enough to counter potential coordinated ground attacks by a dozen or more well armed terrorists.
Bnn, Bulgarian news network – Not a Single Employee Fired after Nuclear Plant Blocks Closing
Five years after the closing down of Bulgaria’s Nuclear Power Plant’s 1st and 2nd blocks and two since the closing of 3rd and 4th there isn’t a single employee fired from both sections, “Dnevnik” daily writes Monday.
There are 1095 people employed in the closed down parts out of the total 4492 in the whole AEC-Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant. The plant currently produces power with its 5th and 6th 1000 MW blocks.
The medium salary in the plant is around EUR530, as the money for employee payments is included in the final electricity tax consumers pay. “Dnevnik”‘s Calculations show that for 2008 alone EUR6,500,000 have been spent for the employees in the closed blocks.
Seismic refits too much for old N-plants:Â DAILY YOMIURI
Chubu Electric Power Co.’s plan to decommission two long-suspended nuclear reactors and build a new reactor in their place at its Hamaoka power station is mainly due to the old reactors’ deteriorating economic efficiency and the heavy cost expected for retrofitting the current facilities to meet the latest quake-resistance standards.
The Hamaoka nuclear plant covers about 1.6 million square meters in Omaezaki, Shizuoka Prefecture, and is located near the potential epicenter for a major earthquake expected to strike the Tokai region someday.
The power company completed retrofits of the station’s Nos. 3, 4 and 5 reactors in March.
Nuclear Health and Safety News
Italy to Compensate Soldiers for Balkan War Syndrome | Albanian Economy News
A court in Rome ordered the Italian Ministry of Defense to pay 500,000 Euro as indemnity for the life of Stefano Melone, a military helicopter pilot who died of cancer after serving in Albania, Kosovo and other countries, OrvietoNews.it announced today.
The court concluded that the malignant vascular tumour that caused the death of Melone, was due to exposure to radioactive substances, while serving in Balkans. The Italian pilot was diagnosed with cancer in 2000 and died in Milan in November 2001, only 40-year-old.
KDBC 4 | DOE gives Los Alamos lab workers medical records
The Department of Energy will make the medical records of former Los Alamos National Laboratory workers available to help them prove whether they qualify for federal compensation for exposure to radiation and beryllium.
Sen. Jeff Bingaman and Sen.-elect Tom Udall, both New Mexico Democrats, welcome the DOE’s announcement Thursday of its decision to provide the records available to lab employees.
The medical records are from the Los Alamos Medical Center and were created before the facility was privatized in 1964.
Leak under UO2 plant contributes to contamination, council told – Northumberland Today – Ontario, CA
A leak was found under the UO2 (uranium dioxide) plant during its shutdown that has been contributing to the historical and recent contamination of the soils at Cameco’s Port Hope Conversion Facility, general manager Andy Thorne told Port Hope council last night.
He said a yellow stain led to the discovery of the leak under the main sump near the eastern wall of the U02 building and on Nov. 5, excavation took place to remove 17.5 cubic metres of contaminated soil.
They dug down 1.8 metres to remove as much soil as could safely be removed, and then drilled a collection well outside the wall to capture any groundwater contamination.
Any contaminated water will be addressed by the collection well, Mr. Thorne said. It is a localized area and we are able to address the situation adequately.
The Courier: Radiation fears at Dalgety Bay still high
THE SCOTTISH Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) yesterday said that radioactivity on Dalgety Bay foreshore is a significant cause for concern.
Following analysis of 39 radioactive particles collected in September, recommendations have been made to create clearer warning signs and cement some areas of the beach.
The contamination came from luminous aircraft dials dumped after the war and Ministry of Defence Estates will be held accountable for a solution.
Gulf War veterans deserve VA help | The Leaf Chronicle
An extensive federal report released in November concludes that roughly one in four of the 697,000 U.S. veterans of the 1990-91 Gulf War suffer from Gulf War illness.
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GWI is a condition now identified as the likely consequence of exposure to toxic chemicals, including pesticides and a drug administered by the military to protect troops against nerve gas.
The 452-page report states that “scientific evidence leaves no question that Gulf War illness is a real condition with real causes and serious consequences for affected veterans.”
The report, compiled by a panel of scientific experts and veterans serving on the congressionally mandated Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses, fails to identify any cure for the malady. It also notes that few veterans afflicted with GWI have recovered over time.
NRC News
NRC – NRC Approves License Renewal for Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant for an Additional 20 Years
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved the operating license renewal of the Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant, Unit 1, in North Carolina for an additional 20 years.
The Harris plant is a pressurized water reactor located about 20 miles southwest of Raleigh, N.C. The operator, Progress Energy, submitted an application for renewal of the license Nov. 16, 2006. Their current license would have expired on October 24, 2026; with the renewal, the license is extended until Oct. 24, 2046.
The NRC’s environmental review for this license renewal is described in a site-specific supplement to the NRC’s Generic Environmental Impact Statement for License Renewal of Nuclear Power Plants (NUREG-1437, Supplement 33). Public meetings to discuss the environmental review were held near the plant on April 18, 007 and Jan. 30. The NRC’s review was published in August. The review concluded there were no environmental impacts that would preclude renewal of the license for environmental reasons.
FR: NRC: Callaway COL
Union Electric Company d/b/a Amerenue; Acceptance for Docketing of an Application for Combined License for Callaway Plant Unit 2 Nuclear Power Plant By letter dated July 28, 2008, as supplemented by letters dated September 24, 2008, November 14, 2008, and November 25, 2008, Union Electric Company d/b/a AmerenUE (AmerenUE), submitted an application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for a combined license (COL) for a single unit of the U.S. Evolutionary Power Reactor (U.S. EPR) in accordance with the requirements contained in 10 CFR Part 52, “Licenses, Certifications and Approvals for Nuclear Power Plants.” This reactor will be identified as Callaway Plant Unit 2 and is to be located at the current Callaway County, Missouri site of the Callaway Power Plant. A notice of receipt and availability of this application was previously published in the Federal Register (73 FR 59677) on October 9, 2008, as corrected in Federal Register (73 FR 61444 on October 16, 2008).
FR: NRC: Comanche Peak EIS
Luminant Generation Company LLC; Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant Units 3 and 4 Combined License Application; Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement and Conduct Scoping Process Luminant Generation Company LLC (Luminant) has submitted an application for two combined licenses (COLs) to build Units 3 and 4 at its Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant (CPNPP) site, located on approximately 7,950 acres in Somervell and Hood Counties, Texas. CPNPP is located on Squaw Creek Reservoir, approximately 5.2 miles (mi) north of Glen Rose, Texas. Luminant submitted the application for the COL to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) by letter dated September 19, 2008, pursuant to Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) Part 52. A notice of receipt and availability of the application for the COLs, including the Environmental Report (ER), was published in the Federal Register on November 7, 2008 (73 FR 66276).
NRC: Slide Presentations – 12/11/08 Briefing on Uranium Recovery
All links on this page are to documents in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF). See our Plugins, Viewers, and Other Tools page for more information.
Part 1 – Morning Session:
* NRC Staff Presentation
Part 2 – Afternoon Session:
* State Government Representatives:
Donald R. McKenzie – Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality
*Other Stakeholders:
Katie Sweeney, National Mining Association
Michelle R. Rehmann, Uranium Program Manager, International Forum on Sustainable Options for Uranium Production (IFSOUP)
NRC – NRC Approves Final Rule Expanding Security Requirements for Nuclear Power Plants
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission today approved a rule that enhances security requirements for nuclear power reactors. Many of the requirements of this rule are similar to those previously imposed by orders issued after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
The new rule adds several new requirements as a result of experience in implementing previous security orders and updates the regulatory framework in preparation for the licensing of new nuclear power plants.
In addition, the new rule resolves three petitions for rulemaking that were considered during the development of the final rule.
The final rule is the result of more than four years of work, three public meetings and several opportunities for public comment. Significant stakeholder feedback was received during the process, which resulted in changes to the content, format and organization of the final rule.
NRC – NRC Accepts Application For New Reactor At Nine Mile Point
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has accepted for review the Combined License application for an Evolutionary Power Reactor (EPR) at the Nine Mile Point site near Oswego, N.Y.
Unistar submitted the application and associated information Sept. 30. The application, minus proprietary or security-related details, is available on the NRC Web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-reactors/col/nine-mile-point.html.
Unistar is seeking approval to build and operate an EPR at the site, approximately six miles northeast of Oswego. The EPR is an Areva-designed pressurized water reactor, with a nominal output of approximately 1,600 megawatts of electricity. Areva filed its application Dec. 11, 2007, to certify the design. A version of the EPR is currently under construction at the Olkiluoto site in Finland and at Flamanville, France. The EPR application, minus proprietary or security-related details, is available on the NRC Web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-reactors/design-cert/epr.html.
NRC – NRC Accepts Application for New Reactor at Callaway
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has accepted for review the combined license (COL) application for an Evolutionary Power Reactor (EPR) at the Callaway site near Fulton, Mo.
Ameren submitted the application and associated information July 28. The application, minus proprietary or security-related details, is available on the NRC Web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-reactors/col/callaway.html.
Ameren is seeking approval to build and operate an EPR at the site, approximately 10 miles southeast of Fulton. The EPR is an Areva-designed pressurized water reactor, with a nominal output of approximately 1,600 megawatts of electricity. Areva filed its application Dec. 11, 2007, to certify the design. A version of the EPR is currently under construction at the Olkiluoto site in Finland and at Flamanville, France. The EPR application, minus proprietary or security-related details, is available on the NRC Web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-reactors/design-cert/epr.html.
Nuclear Fuel Cycle News
DAILY NATION – Seized uranium in special room’
Experts have kept uranium seized by the police in a special room after initial tests showed it was highly radioactive.
It has been placed in a one-metre-thick concrete wall room at the National Radiation Protective Board Deputy head of the board Arthur Koteng said final results would be ready on Friday.
“At the moment, nobody is allowed to touch it except experts with protective clothing,†he told the Nation on Wednesday.
Deseret News | Green river uranium-mill hearing is postponed
The Utah Division of Water Rights has postponed a hearing on a company’s plans to build a uranium mill near the Green River, and Moab-based watchdog group Red Rock Forests said Tuesday that the delay is a sign that the company isn’t ready to face regulators’ concerns.
Colorado-based Mancos Resources has applied for water rights on the Green River for use at a proposed uranium mill near the city of Green River. The Utah Division of Water Rights is supposed to hold batches of public hearings twice a year, if needed, in each county to discuss water-rights applications and any related protests.
Red Rock Forests issues director Harold Shepherd and other critics protested Mancos’ water-rights application earlier this year, saying the state should not grant the rights.
Virginia Beach, lobbying firm part ways over uranium mining | HamptonRoads.com | PilotOnline.com
The city and its hired lobbying firm are parting ways after 10 years, a split instigated by conflicting views on the possibility of uranium mining in Pittsylvania County.
The City Council this month came out in opposition to mining, citing water quality concerns. The city’s lobbying firm, The Vectre Corp., also represents Virginia Uranium, Inc., the company who wants to mine the radioactive substance used in nuclear power plants.
The News & Record: Chamber presents uranium study concerns
The Uranium Study Advisory Group formed by the Halifax County Chamber of Commerce presented its final report entitled “Community Concerns Related To Uranium Mining In Virginia” to the Virginia Coal and Energy Commission’s Uranium Mining sub-committee on Friday, Dec. 12, at the General Assembly Building.
This was the organizational meeting of the sub-committee, chaired by Del. Lee Ware and consisting of eleven delegates, senators and one citizen member.
Nuclear Waste News
Windfall lost due to refusal to store radioactive waste
CORNWALL has turned down the chance to receive a jackpot worth billions of pounds by not bidding to have radioactive waste stored in the county.
The Government is currently inviting local authorities to submit expressions of interest to host geological disposal facilities for “higher activity” radioactive waste.
In a white paper published in the summer the Government said that the construction and operation of the facilities would be a “multi-billion pound project that will provide skilled employment for hundreds of people over many decades”.
Senate committee calls for Radioactive Waste Act to be repealed (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
A Senate committee has recommended the Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Act be repealed at the start of next year.
The Environment Senate Committee was asked to look at whether the act should be repealed.
The legislation overrides the power of the Northern Territory to stop a nuclear waste dump being built in the jurisdiction.
Four sites, including Muckaty Station near Tenant Creek, are being considered.
During last year’s federal election, Labor promised to repeal the legislation, but is yet to do so.
‘Radioactive’ beach may be concreted over – Scotsman.com News
A BEACH may have to be partially covered in concrete to seal dangerous material that could give children a dose of radiation.
The move could stop the area being officially designated as contaminated land, which residents fear would devastate the community.
The news follows the discovery of 39 radioactive radium items in the latest survey of the foreshore at Dalgety Bay,
Fife, which is close to a former airfield used in the Second World War. The largest of them was 4in across and weighed 8oz.
UK Indymedia – Hands UP for a Nuclear Dump?
The Cumbria Cabinet’s complete reversal of any semblance of democracy is worthy of the most agile circus acrobat. The nuclear acrobatics continue in the news reports justifying the decision to bury high level nuclear waste by saying : “This is the option being taken in the US at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, where highly radioactive fuel will go underground. The Yucca Mountain project involved URS Washington, a key partner in Sellafield’s parent body organisation NMPâ€Â. Sounds wonderfully cosy and reasurring doesn’t it? But the truth is somewhat different with lawsuits against URS Washington and deep disposal of high level nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain now off the agenda because of contamination risks to the regions water, soil and air.
Call for end to nuclear waste doubt – Press & Journal
A Thurso Church of Scotland minister is calling on the Scottish Government to end the long-standing uncertainty over what is to happen to the country’s intermediate active nuclear waste.
The Rev Ronnie Johnstone said a decision is long overdue about what is to be done with the stockpiles of waste at Dounreay and other sites.
Mr Johnstone said people in the far north want a clear steer on whether the debris is to remain indefinitely on site, or is to be sent to a national waste dump.
He said the situation is muddied by the contradictory positions of the UK and Scottish Governments and Highland Council.
Finalists selected for nuclear waste job – Las Vegas Sun
The search for a successor to nuclear waste chief Bob Loux has been narrowed to three Northern Nevadans.
The Nevada Commission on Nuclear Projects has selected former Sparks Mayor Bruce Breslow, former state Consumer Advocate Tim Hay and attorney Keith Tierney as the three names to submit to Gov. Jim Gibbons, who will make the final appointment.
Nuclear Policy News
Nuclear designs under the microscope
Designs for new nuclear power stations that could be built in this country will be under public scrutiny from today.
EU law requires that before any new nuclear power station is built, their designs must be ‘Justified’. This involves a generic assessment to determine whether the overall benefit of the practice of ionising radiation outweighs any associated health detriment.
Minister of State for Energy and Climate Change Mike O’Brien said: “This Justification process is yet another example of the facilitative actions the government is taking to support new nuclear power in the UK. At the same time it gives people the opportunity to have their say on the benefits and detriments of the practices involved.”
Does Nuclear Energy Need More Loan Guarantees? » Heritage Foundation
Electricite de France SA and Constellation Energy Group say they want Exelon to join their UniStar Nuclear Energy development venture. After being ranked in the lower tier for federal loan guarantees, Exelon said it is seeking a reactor design more proven than the GE Hitachi Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor it initially planned to use in Texas. UniStar plans to use Areva SA’s Evolutionary Power Reactors in Maryland and New York.
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 establishes loan guarantees for handful of reactors built in the United States. Now, some companies are making their case for unlimited loan guarantees and more subsidies to keep things moving forward.
State proposes hefty fee hikes on nuclear plants – The Times Herald Record
State fees on nuclear power plant operators could nearly double next year under the governor’s proposed budget.
Annual fees would swell from $550,000 to $1 million per reactor, according to budget division spokesman Matt Anderson. The money collected from New York’s six reactors would be split half funneling to the counties and local municipalities located around the reactors and the other half staying with the state, Anderson said.
TVA answers exec pay critics : Knoxville News Sentinel
TVA on Tuesday filed its annual report on compensation with the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, with figures backing up earlier assertions its executives are paid well within the margins paid to those at comparable utilities.
Tennessee Valley Authority President and CEO Tom Kilgore received $2,054,426 in total direct compensation during 2008, compared to $5,969,000 to top executives of comparable energy services companies, according to a chart filed by TVA with its report. Kilgore’s package does not include stock options, employer contributions to retirement accounts or other compensation.
Atoms to the Rescue – WSJ.com
During his campaign, Barack Obama lamented our over-reliance on fossil fuels and declared confidently that “the possibilities of renewable energy are limitless.” He then called for American investment in “alternative sources of energy like wind power, and solar power, and advanced biofuels.” To that list — or maybe instead of it — William Tucker would add “nuclear power.”
[Bookshelf]
In “Terrestrial Energy,” Mr. Tucker argues that nuclear power is the best option realistically available to us to reduce our national dependence on foreign oil and address the nettlesome matter of “greenhouse” gas emissions. About the other alternatives he is skeptical, believing that they will deliver too little energy at too high a cost. Mr. Tucker, a veteran journalist, has been writing about energy and the environment for some 30 years and knows whereof he speaks.
ENERGY-US: Obama Faces Hungry Nuclear Industry
As Democratic President-elect Barack Obama prepares to take office in a few weeks, he faces a hungry nuclear industry that wants to be included in his energy plan.
At least 31 new plants have been proposed throughout the United States, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) website. Twenty-six of these are already going through the NRC’s environmental impact review and site approval process.
Obama has included reducing U.S. dependence on foreign oil and promoting alternative energies as key components of his campaign platform.
Nuclear Weapons News
Former White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales misled Congress when he claimed the CIA in 2002 approved information that ended up in the 2003 State of the Union speech about Iraq’s alleged effort to buy uranium for its nuclear weapons program, a House committee said Thursday. The committee also expressed skepticism about claims by then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice that she was unaware of the CIA’s doubts about the claim before President George W. Bush’s speech.
Iraq’s alleged attempt to buy uranium was one of the justifications for the Bush administration’s decision to go to war. The claim has since been repudiated.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said in a memo that its investigation showed the CIA had warned at least four National Security Council officials not to allow Bush, in three speeches in 2002, to cite questionable intelligence that Iraq had attempted to obtain uranium. The sentences were stripped out of those speeches, but made it into the State of the Union address.
RIA Novosti – Foreign spies seek Russia’s military, nuclear secrets – FSB
Foreign intelligence services continue to try to obtain classified information on the Sevmash shipyard in Russia’s northern Arkhangelsk Region, a senior FSB official said on Thursday.
Sergei Stepura, head of the Federal Security Service (FSB) Directorate for the Arkhangelsk Region, said the countries involved included the United States, some of its NATO allies, and specific Asia-Pacific states.
Located in Severodvinsk on the White Sea, Sevmash is Russia’s largest shipyard and builds nuclear-powered submarines, oil and gas platforms and tankers.
USD 100 bn proposal for a buyout of Pak’s nuclear arsenals
An American newspaper columnist has proposed a USD 100 billion buyout of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenals, saying these weapons had become “an inviting target” for Jehadists.” “Let’s buy their arsenal,” wrote Bret Stephens in The Wall Street Journal in an op-ed article in which he highlighted the problems Pakistan’s atomic programme has caused, especially the situation resulting from the export of nuclear technology by the A Q Khan network.
“…Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal has made it an inviting target for the jihadists who blew up Islamabad’s Marriott hotel in September and would gladly blow up the rest of the capital as a prelude to taking it over.” “Since President-elect Barack Obama has already committed a trillion or so in domestic spending, what’s USD 100 billion in the cause of saving the world,” the columnist has suggested.
Congressional Panel Says Nuclear Proliferation Is at a “Tipping Point’ – washington post
The development of nuclear arsenals by both Iran and North Korea could lead to “a cascade of proliferation,” making it more probable that terrorists could get their hands on an atomic weapon, a congressionally chartered commission warned yesterday.
“It appears that we are at a ‘tipping point’ in proliferation,” the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States said in an interim report to lawmakers that was released yesterday
A Reporter at Large: Atomic John: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker
The single, blinding release of pure energy over Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945, marked a startling and permanent break with our prior understandings of the visible world. Yet for more than sixty years the technology behind the explosion has remained a state secret. The United States government has never divulged the engineering specifications of the first atomic bombs, not even after other countries have produced generations of ever more powerful nuclear weapons. In the decades since the Second World War, dozens of historians have attempted to divine the precise mechanics of the Hiroshima bomb, nicknamed Little Boy, and of the bomb that fell three days later on Nagasaki, known as Fat Man.
Department of Energy News
Department of Energy – DOE Awards Sixteen Contracts for up to $80 Billion in Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy, and Water Conservation Projects at Federal Facilities
Today the Department of Energy (DOE) announced the award of 16 new Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Energy Savings Performance Contracts (ESPCs) that could result in up to $80 billion in energy efficiency, renewable energy, and water conservation projects at federally-owned buildings and facilities. ESPCs help to meet the federal government’s energy efficiency, water conservation, and renewable energy goals. The federal government is the largest single user of energy in the United States and these awards demonstrate a commitment to sound government stewardship by recognizing efforts to save energy, reduce federal energy costs, cut greenhouse gas emissions, bring more cutting-edge technologies to use, strengthen national security, and create a stronger economy.
DOE Says Agency Unable to Accept Spent Nuclear Fuel | Environmental Protection
The U.S. Department of Energy’s “Report to Congress on the Demonstration of the Interim Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel from Decommissioned Nuclear Power Reactor Sites” (DOE/RW-0596, December 2008) concluded that the agency does not have authority under present law to accept spent nuclear fuel for interim storage from decommissioned commercial nuclear power reactor sites.
According to a Dec. 10 press release, the report was prepared pursuant to direction in the House Appropriations Committee Report that accompanied the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2008 that DOE develop a plan to take custody of spent nuclear fuel currently stored at decommissioned reactor sites.
knoxnews.com |K-25, the way it was in 1944
The vantage point of the above photograph was roughly the same for Tuesday’s ceremony in which workers started knocking down the southwest corner of K-25’s west wing. According to info from the Dept. of Energy, the demolition of the half-mile-long west wing should be completed in 2010, with the demolition of the entire U-shaped, mile-long K-25 building accomplished by the end of 2011.
Production operations in the K-25 building, where highly enriched uranium was achieved, shut down in the early 1960s. Lower enrichment activities continued at the Oak Ridge gaseous diffusion plant plant until 1985, when the facilities were placed on cold standby and then permanently shut down.
Aiken Standard | Waste building at SRS gets OK for construction
The National Nuclear Security Administration announced this week that they have approved the start of construction of a Waste Solidification Building at the Savannah River Site, as part of the MOX project.
The WSB is one of three critical facilities that will allow for the disposal of surplus weapons-usable plutonium.
“Beginning construction of the Waste Solidification Building is another clear indication that we are moving forward with our plans to dispose of at least 34 metric tons of surplus U.S. weapons plutonium,” said William Tobey, NNSA deputy administrator for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation.
The Waste Solidification Building will process liquid waste from the Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility, currently under construction, and the planned Pit Disassembly and Conversion Facility (PDCF), scheduled to be completed in 2016.
knoxnews.com |Tennessee delegation on Complex Transformation
Elected officials weighed in today on the final step in the Bush adminstration’s planning for transformation of the nuclear weapons complex.
Here are comments released from offices of U.S. Sens. Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker and U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp (all Republicans):
Alexander: “Completion of the Uranium Processing Facility at Y-12 will help reduce the footprint of our nuclear processing operations from 150 acres to 15 acres and save $200 million a year in security costs. Updating the facilities at Y-12 is both fiscally responsible and necessary for national security and it will help keep Tennessee at the forefront of leadership in science and technology.”
Demolition begins on K-25 building : Knoxville News Sentinel
Tuesday was a good day for a landmark demolition to begin.
The misting rain helped keep down the dust from the crunching of beams and bricks, and the day’s general dreariness seemed to underscore the fact that a piece of history was disappearing – a sad inevitability for many.
The milelong K-25 building, a brawny symbol of the nuclear age when it was constructed 65 years ago, never looked worse for wear. With its siding already stripped away, exposing the base structure, K-25 appeared ready to come down, and shortly after 4 p.m. workers got started on a task that will take a couple of years and hundreds of millions of dollars to complete.
Amarillo.com | Plan cements Pantex’s nuke role
Agency to build three new facilities here for storage, modernization
The National Nuclear Security Administration approved a long-term plan Tuesday that keeps nuclear weapons assembly work at the Pantex Plant and cements its role in high-explosives manufacturing.
Pantex, located 17 miles northeast of Amarillo, assembles and dismantles nuclear weapons, modernizes older warheads and stores tons of plutonium weapons cores, the nuclear hearts of modern atomic bombs and long-range missiles.
The plan, unveiled Tuesday by NNSA Administrator Tom D’Agostino, includes three new Pantex facilities: an underground plutonium-storage complex, new high-explosives pressing operations and a $172 million weapons-surveillance facility where warheads and bombs can be monitored for signs of aging
Idaho Mountain Express: We need whistleblowers
It’s disheartening to see factories that churn out the most hellacious waste in the world plop down into Idaho lava fields, set up high-paying jobs, and then become integrated into the area via churches, spirited Little League ball teams and 4-H clubs. When something dreadful occurs at a nuclear site, often our culture covers it up.
Whistleblowers are terrified of repercussions, being shunned by society and worse. Few want to be known as killing the goose with the golden eggs, even if they are speckled with plutonium. Three years ago, right before Christmas, there was a news splash at the Los Alamos, N.M., laboratory. Five workers were exposed to the highly carcinogenic PU-239. It took several days before this information came out to the public. Then it was through the Project on Government Oversight that co-workers coughed this up to, rather than their own trusted government and contractor.
The Associated Press: Nuclear Weapons complex changes approved
The Energy Department gave final approval Tuesday to a program to limit the most dangerous nuclear material to five sites, improving safety and security, and consolidating management of the country’s nuclear weapons.
The proposals to scale back the nuclear weapons complex and its activities had been in the works for more than a year. They reflect the significant decline in the number of warheads being maintained and an expectation of further reductions.
Thomas D’Agostino, head of the department’s National Nuclear Security Administration, said the consolidation will “improve the safety and security of the infrastructure that maintains U.S. nuclear weapons” as nuclear material is consolidated and facilities are modernized.
Site for MOX is accepted – The Augusta Chronicle
Construction work at a $4.8 billion plant that will convert plutonium from dismantled nuclear warheads into fuel safe enough for commercial reactors was given a passing grade Monday by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Work began in 2007 on the 600,000-square-foot Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at Savannah River Site, where 34 metric tons of plutonium will be converted to commercial nuclear reactor fuel over a 20-year period.
knoxnews.com | DOE releases plan for excess uranium
The plan addresses the department’s excess inventory of highly enriched uranium, depleted uranium, natural uranium and low-enriched uranium. That includes 67.6 metric tons of surplus HEU (stored at Y-12 in Oak Ridge) that currently is unallocated for any purpose.
In a statement released by DOE, Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Dennis Spurgeon said, “The plan will promote an efficient disposition approach that seeks to limit adverse material impacts on the domestic uranium mining, conversion and enrichment industries while maximizing the return to the U.S. government on sales of this valuable uranium.”
Energy secretary nominee boon to PNNL | Tri-City Herald
Stephen Chu’s nomination as energy secretary may be good for Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, but how Hanford might fare under his leadership is tougher to predict.
Scientists at national laboratories will “have a distinguished peer at the helm,” President-elect Barack Obama said Monday as he formally announced Steven Chu as his pick for energy secretary.
“His appointment should send a signal to all that my administration will value science, we will make decisions based on the facts and we understand that the facts demand bold action,” Obama said during a news conference in Chicago.
Radioactive contaminants found in Field Laboratory pit : Simi Valley : Ventura County Star
Tests have uncovered radioactive contaminants in an open-air burn pit, already rife with chemical pollutants, at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, according to state regulatory officials.
Low levels of radium-226 were discovered during testing this fall, said Norman Riley, the field lab project director for California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control.
“These are very low levels of radionuclides, and certainly the discovery of radium is not that surprising,” Riley said Monday. “It’s fairly common to find radium in landfills. We don’t know if we found all that there is to find, and it doesn’t answer the question of where it came from.”
knoxnews.com |Vranicar to oversee K-25 cleanupVranicar to oversee K-25 cleanup
The Dept. of Energy has named Russell Vranicar to oversee the cleanup operations at the former K-25 uranium-enrichment plant (now known as the East Tennessee Technology Park).
As federal project director, Vranicar will oversee the management “of all clean-up, decontamination and decommissioning operations at the ETTP site, which encompasses more than 500 buildings and 2,200 acres,” DOE said in its announcement.
NEI Nuclear Notes: Legends and Facts: Steven Chu on Nuclear Energy
So how is Steven Chu playing as the purported candidate for Department of Energy secretary? Before we look at the developing narrative, let’s remember the lesson of John Ford’s movie The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
Here’s the question: Did Senator Ransom Stoddard begin his sterling Senatorial career and usher in statehood for Arizona by shooting bad man Liberty Valance? After we learn the truth, a newspaper editor sagely concludes, “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” He had in mind the George Washington-cherry tree kind of legend, but it works equally well with, say, the Al Gore-internet kind of legend. Once a legend develops, it can be devilishly hard to shake loose of it. And it can warp the truth rather severely. So let’s see what legend is developing around Dr. Chu.
Other Energy News
Wind Powered Generators – Some Faqs Answered | How To Save on your Energy Bill And Save Your Money
The nature has paid the price for extraordinary expansion of human civilization; the non-renewable energy resources of the world have been nearly exhausted. Now scientists all over the world are trying to work out a solution to make up the energy shortage that the human civilization is going to face in the coming years.
Among many other products under development, the scientists have invested great hopes in the potentials of wind powered electricity generators. This is a system that harnesses the power of the wind to produce usable energy.
Editorial — President-elect Obama’s Energy and Environment Team – washington post
NOW THAT President-elect Barack Obama’s energy and environment team is complete, the message he’s sending is loud and clear: The vacuum of U.S. leadership on climate change will be filled. His nominees share his goal of reducing carbon emissions and developing the next generation of energy production that will reduce this nation’s dependence on fossil fuels. More important, they generally reflect the pragmatic approach to governing that Mr. Obama appears to be crafting with his Cabinet picks overall.
So burn this into your mind: between 2007 and 2008 the IEA radically changed its assessment. Until this year’s report, the agency mocked people who said that oil supplies might peak. In the foreword to a book it published in 2005, its executive director, Claude Mandil, dismissed those who warned of this event as doomsayers. The IEA has long maintained that none of this is a cause for concern, he wrote. Hydrocarbon resources around the world are abundant and will easily fuel the world through its transition to a sustainable energy future. In its 2007 World Energy Outlook, the IEA predicted a rate of decline in output from the world’s existing oilfields of 3.7% a year. This, it said, presented a short-term challenge, with the possibility of a temporary supply crunch in 2015, but with sufficient investment any shortfall could be covered. But the new report, published last month, carried a very different message: a projected rate of decline of 6.7%, which means a much greater gap to fill.
OpEdNews» Clean Coal and the Clause
You better watch out!
Better not cry!
Better not pout!
I’m telling you why,
Santa Claus is comin’ to town.
He’s making a list
and checking it twice.
He’s going to find out who’s naughty and nice.
Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town.
We better watch out. We better not cry. While Santa checks his list twice, so too might you and I. The ebony chunks Old Saint Nick might place in our stocking, contrary to what coal corporation sponsored commercials might claim, are not clean. Nor is this source of energy cheap. When used as a resource for power, this sedimentary rock is dirty, deadly, and digs deep into the pocketbooks, and personal lives, of those the industry touches. In America, that may be you and me.
A Promising Catalyst for Solar-Based Hydrogen Energy Production
Scientists have found that a polymer material is an excellent catalyst in a process to produce hydrogen fuel using sunlight and water. The material meets the basic requirements for an ideal catalyst — including being abundant, easy to work with, and non-toxic — and could help this “green” alternative-energy production method become mainstream.
Creating hydrogen gas by splitting water (H2O) molecules with solar energy is a promising way of generating hydrogen fuel, which, by either being burned directly or used in fuel cells, can power many types of vehicles, including automobiles, buses, and even airplanes.
The study’s corresponding scientist is Xinchen Wang, a chemist affiliated with the Max-Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam, Germany, and Fouzhou University in Fouzhou, China.
U.S. will fail to meet biofuels mandate: EIA | Environment | Reuters
The United States will fall well short of biofuels mandates on the uncertain development of next-generation fuels made from grasses and wood chips, the government’s top energy forecasting agency said on Wednesday.
“The key risk factor is rate of development of cellulosic biofuels technology,” Howard Gruenspecht, the Energy Information Administration’s acting head, said at press conference in Washington introducing the agency’s annual energy forecast. “Near term growth of cellulosic … is certainly a question mark.”
Solid fuel appliances increase in popularity
The efficiency and eco-credentials of solid fuel fires have seen such products witness a recent increase in popularity driven in part by the soaring cost of other forms of energy. solid fuel appliances increase in popularity
Writing in the Guardian, Andrew Martin stated that while it is necessary to burn smokeless solid fuel, except in the case of where approved appliances are used, these products can offer a carbon neutral solution to heating.
Mr Martin stated that wood used as a fuel is carbon neutral because the carbon dioxide that is emitted is captured by the growth of the tree.
Debate over Sunrise Powerlink may be near decision – Los Angeles Times
“San Diego doesn’t need to import sunshine from the desert,” said Weiner, conservation coordinator for the San Diego-based Desert Protective Council.
Environmentalists have won some rounds. SDG&E had been pushing to build Sunrise through the heart of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, a recreational jewel beloved by hikers and campers. That 150-mile route appears doomed after recent decisions by an administrative law judge and a utilities commission member.
Judge Jean Veith wants the commission to reject the Sunrise Powerlink because she has concluded it’s too costly, too harmful to the environment and not needed for SDG&E to meet clean-energy mandates.
OPEC approves biggest ever output cut – Oil & energy- msnbc.com
OPEC on Wednesday agreed to slash 2.2 million barrels from its daily production  its single largest cut ever  while bloc outsiders Russia and Azerbaijan announced their own cutbacks of hundreds of thousands of barrels from the market.
“I hope we surprised you,” OPEC President Chekib Khelil said when asked whether the size of the cut would shock moribund oil markets into an upward trend. “If you’re not surprised we need to so something about it.”
Bailout of the Day: Automakers to get $17.4 Billion, Detroit Auto Show Still On : TreeHugger
Lame duck president George W. Bush has approved today a $17.4 billion bailout for the Detroit automakers, proving once again that in this bizarro-Keynesian world, if you run your big business well, you get nothing, and if you don’t, you get a reward.
“The government will have the option of becoming a stockholder in the companies, much as it has with major banks, in effect partially nationalizing the industry.” Read on for more.
Answers to huge wind-farm problems are blowin’ in the wind: ENN
While harnessing more energy from the wind could help satisfy growing demands for electricity and reduce emissions of global-warming gases, turbulence from proposed wind farms could adversely affect the growth of crops in the surrounding countryside.
Solutions to this, and other problems presented by wind farms containing huge wind turbines, each standing taller than a 60-story building and having blades more than 300 feet long can be found blowin’ in the wind, a University of Illinois researcher says.
New analysis: California’s grid can accommodate more renewables
This Wired article summarizes and links to a poster for the American Geophysical Union meetings (pdf) from Elaine Hart, a graduate student in civil and environmental engineering at Stanford. Her power flow simulation suggests that the existing transmission network in California can accommodate up to 70% of renewables in the portfolio on a hot summer day. The number of overloaded lines in the simulation rises from 11 to 31, which is not that large an increase given that there are almost 5,000 transmission lines in California. Still, this kind of work can be really useful to help target transmission investment.
The Wired article also has some good links for further reading. I look forward to seeing more of this research!
John Holdren to be nominated to head the OSTP. So, what’s the OSTP?
According to Eli Kintisch of Science Magazine and ScienceInsider, President-elect Obama will nominate Dr. John Holdren to be Science Advisor to the President and Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Holdren currently serves as the director of the Science, Technology and Public Policy Program and the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, as well as Director of the Woods Hole Research Center.
Obama Adds Another Heavy-Hitter to His Team : Red, Green, and Blue
Oregon State University professor Jane Lubchenco has been added to Obama’s growing cabinet. Lubchenco, a marine biologist, will head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Along with wanting to curb overfishing, Lubchenco has also been a voice for curbing greenhouse admissions that contribute to global warming, reports the Washington Post. Her appointment will put the NOAA in a rank of prestige, as Lubchenco is a member of the National Academy and the Royal Society, of America and England
EPA Ruling Could Allow 8,000MW of New Coal-Fired Power Plants : Red, Green, and Blue
The Bush administration chalked up another in a growing list of environmentally ignorant midnight rulings by clarifying a rule that could allow the approval of several new coal-fired power plants.
Instead of decommissioning America’s fleet of coal-fired power plants and making concerted efforts to prevent the construction of any new ones, the United States Government is finding ways to make sure plenty more can be built. In a memo issued by EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson on Thursday, the Bush administration has clarified a rule prohibiting any federal agency from denying an operating permit to new or significantly remodeled power plants based on their carbon dioxide emissions.
Coal should be warming concern: scientists | Reuters
Researchers and officials concerned about global warming have focused on oil usage, but scientists on Wednesday said liquefied coal could have a greater affect on global climate change.
Global warming scenarios are based on oil reserves, but those reserves will have less impact on global climate than the extent to which liquefied coal replaces oil and gas, scientists said at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.
New study: Ethanol is worst form of renewable energy | Midwest Voices
A fascinating new study ranks alternative energies from best to worst — and showing up last is ethanol.
It’s time to ban all federal subsidies for this wasteful taxpayer investment in Midwest farmers and this inefficient use of corn to power vehicles across America.
BBC NEWS | Opec agrees record oil output cut
The oil producers’ cartel Opec has agreed to make a record cut in output, slashing 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd) from its current supply.
Opec has made two other cuts since September, meaning it has cut a total of 4.2 million bpd in four months.
Despite the record cut, oil prices continued to fall as US data provided fresh evidence of falling demand.
US light, sweet crude for January fell as low as $39.94 a barrel, its first time been below $40 since July 2004.
knoxnews.com | IER raises concerns about Obama’s energy team
Thomas J. Pyle, president of the Institute for Energy Research, issued a statement on President-elect Obama’s announced plans to nominate Steven Chu as his energy secretary, Nancy Sutley as chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality, and Lisa Jackson as EPA administrator – along with the appointment of Carol Browner as his new “energy czar.”
Pyle said the team has “no history of supporting responsible energy production.”
Here’s the full statement:
Special report: How our economy is killing the Earth – science-in-society – New Scientist
THE graphs climbing across these pages (see graph in detail, or explore the data) are a stark reminder of the crisis facing our planet. Consumption of resources is rising rapidly, biodiversity is plummeting and just about every measure shows humans affecting Earth on a vast scale. Most of us accept the need for a more sustainable way to live, by reducing carbon emissions, developing renewable technology and increasing energy efficiency.
But are these efforts to save the planet doomed? A growing band of experts are looking at figures like these and arguing that personal carbon virtue and collective environmentalism are futile as long as our economic system is built on the assumption of growth. The science tells us that if we are serious about saving Earth, we must reshape our economy.
GLOBE-Net – Scotland The Saudi Arabia of Renewable Marine Energy
The Scottish Government has created one of the biggest international innovation prizes in history – a £10 million challenge for advances in wave and tidal energy. At a ceremony this week in historic Edinburgh Castle, details of the ‘Saltire Prize’ were revealed to leading scientists, environmentalists and potential entrants after being finalised by a panel of international experts who comprise the prize Challenge Committee.Dr Anne Glover, Scotland’s Chief Scientific Adviser and Chair of the Challenge Committee, said the Saltire Prize will be awarded to the team that can demonstrate in Scottish waters a commercially viable wave or tidal energy technology that achieves a minimum electrical output of 100GWh over a continuous two year period using only the power of the sea and is judged to be the best overall technology after consideration of cost, environmental sustainability and safety.
California Expected to Pass Most Radical Global Warming Plan in US, Possibly the World : Red, Green, and Blue
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is today expected to adopt the most radical global warming plan in the U.S., and possibly the world. If passed, it will force individuals, as well as the state’s utilities, refineries and large factories to fundamentally change the way they do business, and slash greenhouse gas emissions.
The plan will outline for the first time how people and businesses will be required to meet the state’s 2006 Global Warming Solutions Act’ and transform California into a global leader in the fight against climate change.
The board will be in session all day to consider approval of the AB 32 Scoping Plan to Reduce GHG Emissions in California.
Key aspects of the plan include:
* The creation of a carbon-credit cap and trade market designed to give the state’s major polluters cheaper ways to cut emissions;
* A Low Carbon Fuel standard;
* Stringent transport related greenhouse gas targets;
* A target of generating 33% of the states’s electricity from renewable energy by 2020;
* Ambitious vehicle efficiency measures;
* Implementation of a high speed rail system;
* A radical green building strategy.
Obama will Tap Colorado Sen. Salazar for Interior Secretary : Red, Green, and Blue
President-elect Barack Obama will nominate Colorado Senator Ken Salazar as the next Secretary of the Department of the Interior, three anonymous Democratic sources have confirmed. The sources say that Salazar has been offered the job, one telling the Rocky Mountain News It’s a done deal.
Salazar, a Democrat, is four years into his first term as U.S. Senator from Colorado and has been a vocal critic of the Bush administration’s energy and environmental policies, especially those relating to oil and gas development in the American West. When current Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne announced the draft rule designed to accelerate oil shale development across the West, Salazar reacted strongly, saying:
The five reasons for an energy-efficient stimulus
As President-elect Barack Obama prepares to tackle the vast problems ahead for America, he has consistently made two bold proposals.
First, he intends to make an immense investment in infrastructure roads, bridges, railways to jump-start jobs. Second, he plans to boost clean green technologies to make up for the squandered opportunities of the Lost Decade.
These are both powerful, worthy ideas. But they would be far more powerful if they were directly connected. The incoming administration has a historic opportunity to accomplish five major goals at once through a massive investment in stopping the waste of energy and dollars pouring out of American homes.
Giving serious consideration to compressed-air energy storage
My Clean Break column today is actually more of a feature looking at compressed-air energy storage (CAES) and how Ontario, geologically, would be an excellent location to give it a try. About 50,000 natural gas and oil wells have been drilled in southwestern Ontario over the past 150 years and most of them are depleted. Turns out that depleted gas fields are one of several types of underground reservoir that can be used to store compressed air. Salt caverns are another option, and we have plenty of those as well. In fact, 60 per cent of Canada’s natural gas storage is in the region. Compressing and storing air wouldn’t be that different technically.
Another benefit is that southwestern Ontario has strong wind resources, so building a 1,000 MW-plus CAES facility on its own or as part of a partnership with area wind developers could prove quite economical. The idea, of course, is that cheap wind power generated overnight when demand is down could be used to compress and store the air. The air could then be released to generate electricity during daytime peaks, making wind a dispatchable resource in Ontario and more of a realistic replacement for coal power as it gets phased out of the province. Surplus overnight nuclear power, when we have it (mostly during the summer), could also be stored this way.
Webinar On Energy Efficiency Supply Curves
My colleague In’s gave a webinar recently on her work on energy efficiency supply curves titled: “The US Energy Savings Potential and Who Pays for It”. Watch the webinar for free here.
Energy use and CO2 emissions from the residential sector are distributed among a variety of household services, each of which may use different fuels at different intensities. Efficiency supply curves help policymakers determine where the low-hanging fruit are for GHG mitigation.
Pittsburgh Councilman’s plan to convert all of the city’s street lamps to LEDs could save the city of Pittsburgh $3 million annually
Earlier today I received an email from the office of Pittsburgh city councilman Bill Peduto announcing an ambitious plan that will reduce Pittsburgh’s carbon footprint while saving the city millions in electricity costs. Peduto, who has been the only city legislator to propose green legislation of any sort over the last few years, wants the city to convert all 40,000 of its street lamps to energy efficient LED lighting. The cost of the program will be around $24 million and will be paid using a combination of the annual costs savings and funding from the state’s Guaranteed Energy Savings Agreement. Pittsburgh would join cities such as Austin, Raleigh (home LED manufacturer CREE), and Toronto as major cities who have adopted LED lighting on a large scale. According to Peduto, Pittsburgh would be the largest city in the US to roll out a complete conversion to LED lighting. This would be great news for Pittsburgh’s green agenda, especially in light of today’s Pittsburgh Penguin’s press conference, where they announced the 21 year naming rights deal for their new arena, which will be known as the Clean Coal Center.
Obama Unveils Environmental, Energy Policy Team | Online NewsHour | PBS
U.S. PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA: The pursuit of a new energy economy requires a sustained all-hands-on-deck effort, because the foundation of our energy independence is right here in America, in the power of wind and solar, in new crops and new technologies, in the innovation of our scientists and entrepreneurs and the dedication and skill of our workforce.
Those are the resources that we have to harness to move beyond our oil addiction and create a new hybrid economy. The team that I have assembled here today is uniquely suited to meet the great challenges of this defining moment.
Big energy project launched in NW Ningxia Xinhua
China on Monday began the construction of eight coal mining, power and chemical projects worth about 40 billion yuan (5.8 billion U.S. dollars) in the northwest in an effort to drive domestic demand and promote economic growth.
The projects in the Ningdong area in Lingwu City and Wuzhong City, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, included three coal mines with a total annual capacity of 22 million tonnes and three power plants with a combined capacity of 4.4 million kw.
Good news for wind, bad for ethanol in major energy study
Growing concerns over climate change and energy security have kicked research on alternative energy sources into high gear. The list of options continues to expand, yet few papers have comprehensively reviewed them. And fewer still have weighed the pros and cons in as much depth as a new study published earlier this month in the journal, Energy & Environmental Science. The results are a mixed bag of logical conclusions and startling wake-up calls.
The review pits twelve combinations of electric power generation and vehicular motivation against each other. It is a battle royal of nine electric power sources, three vehicle technologies, and two liquid fuel sources. It rates each combination based on eleven categories. And it was all compiled by one man, Mark Jacobson, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University.
Crapo takes leadership position on renewable energy, energy efficiency caucus
Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, will serve as one of three co-chairman of the U.S. Senate Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Caucus, it was announced Dec. 12. The chairmanship puts the senator in a leading role to advocate for nuclear energy issues at the Idaho National Laboratory, as well as further development of renewable energy sources like geothermal, wind and solar power, according to a release from his office.
Crapo will share leadership of the caucus with Sens. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Joe Lieberman, D-Conn.. He replaces Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., who helped found the bipartisan group in 1998 to increase awareness of the various forms of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies.
Rex Weyler» Ecology
Rex Weyler is one of the older Greenpeace folks out there!
I’ve added him to the blogging list as he recently did an excellent article on nuclear power.
Nuclear Editorial and Opinions
Letter: Go nuclear? Baker’s Island? Good luck with that – SalemNews.com, Salem, MA
I read your story on Ms. Livingston and the power plant and couldn’t resist comment.
If Ms. Livingston was so appalled by the power plant, she should have moved somewhere else. A woman as bright as she is must have known the power plant was there. She claims to be able to see the stacks from her windows!
The idea of wind generation is great, but that would mean dotting the entire Massachusetts coastline with wind turbines. That won’t happen because Ted Kennedy doesn’t want them to blight his viewing of the Vineyard! You can’t have it both ways.
TheStar.com | Opinion | Nuke pursuit anything but PowerWise
As Canada’s industrial centre, Ontario needs a lot of electricity. At one time, it got most of this power from water-driven turbines, hence the name Ontario Hydro. But the name has changed to the Ontario Power Authority, an indication of the province’s increasing reliance on other sources of electricity, especially nuclear power.
Because Ontario’s demand continues to grow, it’s assumed that supply must also continue to grow and nuclear has been touted as the most reliable source of that increasing power.
I’ve always thought it was crazy to plan on steady growth forever. It can’t be maintained in a finite system such as our biosphere. Energy conservation makes a lot more sense, and it has been proven to be effective. After the rolling brownouts engineered in California by Enron in 2001, the state embarked on a conservation program that slashed usage and saved billions of dollars.
Albert Lea Tribune | Nuclear power plants are not the way to go
The post-World War II Atoms for Peace program failed to convince the electric utilities to invest in nuclear power. Insurance companies would only cover $250 million of potential damages from an accident. The government brought the utilities cooperation with the Price-Anderson Act requiring each atomic plant to buy the maximum commercial insurance and provided a second level of coverage from a pool funded by a potential assessment of up to $10 million against each plant. Under the protection of this act about 109 nuclear plants were built, and licensed for 30 years. The act limited the industries liability to $10 billion with the public to absorb anything over that amount.
Victoria Advocate – Is nuclear energy too costly?
Nuclear power critics cite an ailing U.S. economy as yet another reason to rethink the controversial energy source.
“We’re in a new world of hurt,” said longtime energy insider S. David Freeman. “The economy is shrinking. Take a fresh look. There are other alternatives.”
Freeman tours Texas newspapers this week to promote energy efficiency and alternative sources – solar, wind and other renewables.
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