Free Republic

A bombshell report has found that Germany could have been more effective at reducing its carbon footprint while saving hundreds of billions of euros if it had invested in nuclear power rather than green energy projects. Leftist-run governments in Europe’s top economic powerhouse made a devastating error by transitioning away from nuclear power and focussing instead on so-called “renewable” sources of energy like wind and solar, industrial engineer Jan Emblemsvåg of the University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway has said according to German daily Welt. While nuclear energy accounted for around 30 per cent of Germany’s electricity in...

He states that there will be “Rapid Approvals” for the following: —— new drillings, new pipelines, new refineries, new power and electric plants, and new reactors of all types (nuclear) —— “This will quickly reduce the prices of everything almost immediately.”

Michigan is trying to restore a decommissioned nuclear power plant (Palisades, Van Buren County MI) to operation. The State forced its decommissioning in 2022. Now it wants to start it up again. This is of a piece with Gavin Newsome cancelling the decommissioning of the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant, originally scheduled for 2025. "The federal government and the state of Michigan are spending nearly $2 billion to restart the reactor on the shores of Lake Michigan. When it reopens, Palisades will become the first decommissioned nuclear plant anywhere to be put back to work. Driving the rethink: soaring demand for...

When Amazon Web Services paid US $650 million in March for another data center to add to its armada, the tech giant thought it was buying a steady supply of nuclear energy to power it, too. The Susquehanna Steam Electric Station outside of Berick, Pennsylvania, which generates 2.5 gigawatts of nuclear power, sits adjacent to the humming data center and had been directly powering it since the center opened in 2023. After striking the deal, Amazon wanted to change the terms of its original agreement to buy 180 megawatts of additional power directly from the nuclear plant. Susquehanna agreed to...

Rolls-Royce has cleared a key hurdle in the race to build Britain’s first mini-nuclear power plant, as competition across Europe ramps up. On Tuesday, the FTSE 100 engineering giant became the first developer to advance a small modular reactor (SMR) design to the final stage of examination by UK regulators. Helena Perry, director of safety and regulatory affairs at Rolls-Royce SMR, said the latest approval was “the most important milestone to date in advancing deployment of Rolls-Royce SMRs in the UK”.

Bill Gates is pledging billions to promote next-generation nuclear power through TerraPower, focusing on innovations that could make nuclear a key player in global decarbonization.Increasing energy demands from the AI sector prompt tech leaders like Sam Altman and Bill Gates to advocate for nuclear power as a sustainable solution.Innovations in nuclear technology, including smaller, more standardized reactors, aim to reduce construction costs and compete with natural gas.Bill Gates is ready to sink billions into getting next-generation nuclear energy off the ground in the United States. The world’s sixth richest man has been a staunch nuclear supporter for years now, and...

WASHINGTON, May 29 (Reuters) - The White House on Wednesday plans to announce new measures to support the development of new U.S. nuclear power plants, a large potential source of carbon-free electricity the government says is needed to combat climate change. The suite of actions, which weren't previously reported, are aimed at helping the nuclear power industry combat rising security costs and competition from cheaper plants powered by natural gas, wind and solar.

Nuclear power could be a game-changer for energy affordability, grid reliability, and carbon reduction. However, it's been stifled for decades based on one deeply flawed scientific model: the linear no-threshold (LNT) model. The theory underlying this model suggests that any exposure to ionizing radiation, no matter how small, increases cancer risks and that risks rise in a linear way with exposure levels. It's not true. The roots of LNT's dominance are more political than scientific. Its influence traces back to Hermann Muller, a geneticist and 1946 Nobel Prize winner. Muller's research in the 1920s and '30s claimed to show that...

Hundreds of U.S. troops are effectively being held as “hostages” in Niger with medical supplies running low — stuck between the military junta-controlled government’s demands for them to leave and the Biden administration’s refusal to let them go home after the end of their deployments, according to a report prepared by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and obtained exclusively by Breitbart News.

Vast swaths of the United States are at risk of running short of power as electricity-hungry data centers and clean-technology factories proliferate around the country, leaving utilities and regulators grasping for credible plans to expand the nation’s creaking power grid. In Georgia, demand for industrial power is surging to record highs, with the projection of new electricity use for the next decade now 17 times what it was only recently. Arizona Public Service, the largest utility in that state, is also struggling to keep up, projecting it will be out of transmission capacity before the end of the decade absent...

The Patriot-News, after intense coverage of the partial meltdown at Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Londonderry Twp., Dauphin County, printed a special section on April 16, 1979, called “The Agony of the Atom.” That section included this chronology, detailing the days around the country’s worst nuclear power plant accident, 45 years ago now. Three Mile Island, March 28, 1979. (Allied Pix archive photo) WEDNESDAY, March 28 3:53 a.m. – A malfunctioning valve causes the shutdown of two pumps in the secondary feedwater system, a separate unit that cools the water circulating through the reactor core, and triggers a...

When New York’s deteriorating and unloved Indian Point nuclear plant finally shuttered in 2021, its demise was met with delight from environmentalists who had long demanded it be scrapped. But there has been a sting in the tail – since the closure, New York’s greenhouse gas emissions have gone up. Castigated for its impact upon the surrounding environment and feared for its potential to unleash disaster close to the heart of New York City, Indian Point nevertheless supplied a large chunk of the state’s carbon-free electricity. Since the plant’s closure, it has been gas, rather then clean energy such as...

Hello from London, where I am, as a recent American transplant, still adjusting to English understatement (it turns out “you might send me that draft soon” was not just a suggestion). I’m very excited to join this team. This week’s controversy over new climate reporting rules in the US shows that the push for cleaner, fairer capitalism is becoming ever more fiercely contested. And while this debate may not always be moral, it is certainly material. I hope to help readers see which way it will tack next. Today, I have a story on two big themes that may be...

Japan is stepping up efforts to have local authorities approve the restart of the world’s biggest nuclear power plant, the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa facility north of Tokyo... Next week, Japan’s Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Ken Saito, is expected to ask the local governor of the Niigata prefecture to approve the restart of the power plant.. In the wake of the Fukushima disaster in 2011, Japan closed all its nuclear power plants that underwent rigorous safety checks and inspections. Kashiwazaki-Kariwa has been offline since 2012, while the Nuclear Regulation Authority in 2021 barred the plant’s operator, utility Tepco, from operating the...

Switzerland’s nuclear power plant operators plan to keep the facilities operational for longer than initially planned, ... Switzerland has four nuclear reactors, which generate up to 40% of its electricity ... the energy crisis and concerns about the reliability of electricity supply in the country has prompted utilities to look to extend the lives of the reactors as long as the extension of the operations is found to be safe. Axpo Holding and Alpiq Holding have increased the planned lifespan for their nuclear power plants to 60 years from a previous target of 50 years, which means they could be...

The comeback of nuclear power in many countries is expected to drive a record-high electricity generation from nuclear in 2025, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Wednesday. By next year, global nuclear generation is forecast to exceed its previous record set in 2021, the IEA said in its Electricity 2024 report published today.Even as some countries phase out nuclear power or retire plants early, global nuclear generation is expected to rise by nearly 3% per year on average through 2026. The key drivers of growth will be the completion of maintenance works in France, restart of some nuclear power...

'Congress alone has the authority' to breach federal dams, lawmakers write in letter to White House.. The Biden administration is quietly discussing a potentially far-reaching settlement with environmental groups that advocate for tearing down four hydroelectric dams in Washington... ... In the filings, jointly submitted by the federal government and eco groups... However, the filing failed to detail exactly what conditions were included in the secretive package .... We find it necessary to remind you Congress alone has the authority not only to order the breach of the Lower Snake River Dams, but also exclusive authority to direct the study...

It could usher an era of limitless clean, safe and affordable energy to meet the world's demand. Now, the 'holy grail' of power production – nuclear fusion, which makes the sun and the stars shine – has come a step closer. Scientists have switched on JT-60SA, a £500 million fusion device measuring around 40 feet in diameter, located in Naka north of Tokyo, Japan. JT-60SA contains swirling plasma heated up 200 million degrees Celsius (360 million degrees Fahrenheit). This is the threshold where hydrogen atoms can begin to fuse into helium, releasing sustainable energy in the process that could put...

The operator of a power grid in the mid-Atlantic is warning that the planned shutdown of a coal-fired power plant could disrupt and short-change electrical supply before people can replace it. PJM Interconnection, the company that manages wholesale electricity in parts or the entirety of 13 states and provides electricity for more than 65 million Americans, said that they expect the shutdown of the Brandon Shores coal power plant outside of Baltimore to disrupt the power there and leave it wanting. The plant's owner, Talen Energy, made a deal with the environmentalist group Sierra Club to deactivate it by 2025...

Back when we first started waging economic warfare on Russia following the invasion of Ukraine, we slapped all manner of sanctions on Moscow and various Russian businesses and oligarchs. (Unless they had business ties with Hunter and Joe Biden, of course.) There were sanctions on Russian oil, vodka, caviar, and many other exports. But there was one product that conveniently didn’t get any sanctions. That would be uranium. Why? Because we use a lot of uranium for a variety of things, particularly in our nuclear reactors, and we didn’t want to upset the apple cart. Russia is a major exporter...