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A Gift From the '70s: Energy Lessons

10/07/2008 11:20:08 PM PDT · by neverdem · 6 replies · 254+ views
NY Times | October 7, 2008 | JOHN TIERNEY

The presidential candidates claim to see America's energy future, but their competing visions have a certain vintage quality. They've revived that classic debate: the hard path versus the soft path. The soft path, as Amory Lovins defined it in the 1970s, is energy conservation and power from the sun, wind and plants -- the technologies that Senator Barack Obama emphasizes in his plan to reduce greenhouse emissions. Senator John McCain is more enthusiastic about building nuclear power plants, the quintessential hard path. As a rule, it's not a good idea to revive anything from the 1970s. But this debate is...
Questions for TMI's renewal {Three Mile Island}

10/02/2008 10:36:40 AM PDT · by shove_it · 7 replies · 190+ views
pennlive.com | 10/2/2008 | ERIC EPSTEIN

TMI-Alert Inc. sharply disagrees with the results of a recent poll paid for and released by Exelon on the relicensing of Three Mile Island. At issue are the questions that were not asked. The poll also failed to note that a majority of the folks who actually testified before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission were against extending the license of TMI-1. When the community held a nonbinding referendum on May 18, 1982, more than 67 percent of the voters in Cumberland, Dauphin and Lebanon County opposed the restart of Three Mile Island. TMI and the NRC ignored the results. How many...
Why Nuclear Power Has Languished

09/30/2008 5:43:09 AM PDT · by Invisigoth · 6 replies · 48+ views
North Star Writers Group | September 30, 2008 | Llewellyn King

There is a joke of no known authorship that says, "No good deed shall go unpunished." So, alas, it has been with nuclear power. The gift was given to the world by the storied Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, which wrote and promoted legislation that gave the public unique access to the licensing procedure for new nuclear plants. The idea was that this openness would encourage the public to take a greater interest in nuclear science and the civilian uses of nuclear. No other licensing procedure was so open or, as it turned out, so subject to distortion and abuse....
Venezuela Set to Develop Nuclear Power With Russia

09/29/2008 6:39:09 AM PDT · by ETL · 8 replies · 209+ views
FoxNews.com | September 29, 2008 | AP

CARACAS, Venezuela -- President Hugo Chavez said Sunday that Russia will help Venezuela develop nuclear energy -- a move likely to raise U.S. concerns over increasingly close cooperation between Caracas and Moscow.
US House approves Indo-US nuke deal

09/27/2008 4:03:32 PM PDT · by MyTwoCopperCoins · 2 replies · 178+ views
The Times of India | 28 Sep 2008, 0244 hrs IST | The Times of India

WASHINGTON: The House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to approve the Indo-US nuclear deal that would allow the US to provide nuclear materials to India. While there was bi-partisan support for the Bill, a considerable number of Democrats voted against the Bill moved by party colleague Howard Berman, an opponent of the measure who was persuaded to change his line. While 120 Democrats voted for the Bill, 107 Democrats voted against. Of the Republicans, 178 voted for and 10 voted against. The deal still faces major obstacles in the Senate. The accord reverses three decades of US policy by shipping atomic...
An alternative nuclear-energy solution ( Design addresses Nuclear waste as fuel )

09/25/2008 11:26:42 AM PDT · by Ernest_at_the_Beach · 24 replies · 122+ views
Long Beach Press-Telegram | 09/24/2008 06:59:45 PM PDT | Thomas D. Elias

here may be a workable way to solve most of America's energy problems, end dependence on foreign oil and dramatically cut greenhouse gas emissions with little pain. Remarkably, while proposals for renewed offshore oil drilling, new atomic power plants, expanded carbon trading and other proposed tactics abound in this year's presidential campaign, no one mentions the single most promising technique.This may be because its name contains the word "reactor." Combined with the fact that it depends on a sophisticated form of nuclear technology, that appears to make the notion of power plants using the Integral Fast Reactor anathema to today's...
Reid Testifies at Commerce Committee Hearing on Nuclear Waste, Yucca Mountain

09/24/2008 9:00:43 PM PDT · by mdittmar · 6 replies · 87+ views
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid | September 24, 2008 | U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid

Washington, DC -- Nevada Senator Harry Reid delivered the following statement today at a hearing before the Commerce Committee regarding the safety and security dangers associated with the proposal to ship 77,000 tons of nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain. Both Reid and fellow Nevada Senator John Ensign spoke about the Department of Energy's unpreparedness to begin a massive nuclear waste shipping campaign. Below are his remarks as prepared for delivery: "I want to thank Chairman Inouye, Senator Hutchison, and the members of the Committee for scheduling this important hearing. It has been a long time since the Senate has looked closely at plans...
Breeder Reactors, Uranium from Phosphate and Near Term Thorium usage

09/23/2008 2:48:43 PM PDT · by decimon · 8 replies · 34+ views
Next Big Future | September 22, 2008 | Brian Wang

How long Uranium can supply nuclear power is effected by the kinds of nuclear reactors that are used and the sources of Uranium that are used and
Anti-nuclear protesters detained in Turkey: Greenpeace

09/23/2008 12:33:10 PM PDT · by jmcenanly · 8 replies · 13+ views
AFP via Yahoo | September 23, 2008

ANKARA (AFP) - Police detained 40 protesters Tuesday in a demonstration against government plans to build Turkey's first nuclear power plant, a day before the tender process was to open, activists said. Several dozen members of environmental groups, among them Greenpeace, demonstrated outside the energy ministry in central Ankara, brandishing banners that read "No to nuclear." Some of the protesters, dressed in black overalls and their faces painted white, lay on the ground posing as corpses. Police officers detained about 40 people on the grounds that the demonstration was unauthorized, Greenpeace said. Overriding strong opposition from environmentalists, the energy ministry...
An exchange on coal: McCain hits Biden in Ohio today.

09/23/2008 10:28:08 AM PDT · by Anti-Hillary · 23 replies · 19+ views
Politico | 9-23-08 | Ben Smith

McCain hits Biden in Ohio today: I am going to put in place the priorities and policies that will create jobs in Ohio. One important way that we are going to create jobs here is with the development of additional nuclear plants and through investments in clean coal technology. Not only will investment in our energy infrastructure create millions of new jobs across the country, it will help lead our nation toward the important goal of energy independence. My opponent is against the expansion of nuclear power. His running mate here in Ohio recently said that they weren't supporting clean...
N-deal may support 250,000 American jobs: US Chamber

09/23/2008 5:29:03 AM PDT · by sidewinder009 · 6 replies · 48+ views
business standard | September 23, 2008

America's premier trade body has projected that the Indo-US nuclear deal could revitalise the US nuclear industry and support 2.5 lakh high-tech jobs in the country, much higher than the estimate of the Bush Administration. Lobbying lawmakers to approve the 123 Agreement before the close of the 110th Congress, the world's largest business federation, the US Chamber of Commerce, says that if American companies are allowed to compete in India, even modestly, it could support 2.5 lakh high-tech jobs. "If US companies are allowed to compete, a modest share of that business could support 250,000 high-tech American jobs," R Bruce...
Breaking News: Pelosi 'No Energy' Bill Part of House Draft CR

09/22/2008 7:37:12 PM PDT · by cp124 · 30 replies · 57+ views
Human Events | 09/22/2008 | Jed Babbin

House Democrats are bypassing renewal of the offshore oil drilling ban by including the entire Pelosi "drill nothing" energy bill in a draft of a Continuing Resolution. HUMAN EVENTS obtained a copy of the most recent House draft CR this morning. The Pelosi bill, HR 6899, fails to open more than a miniscule part of the available offshore drilling areas and -- even worse -- it establishes permanent bans on development of most other domestic energy sources (natural gas, oil shale, etc.) and does nothing to develop nuclear power. It passed the House earlier this month and is now languishing...
Breaking News: Pelosi 'No Energy' Bill Part of House Draft CR

09/22/2008 8:52:15 AM PDT · by PowerPro · 53 replies · 145+ views
Human Events | 09/22/2008 | Jed Babbin

House Democrats are bypassing renewal of the offshore oil drilling ban by including the entire Pelosi "drill nothing" energy bill in a draft of a Continuing Resolution. HUMAN EVENTS obtained a copy of the most recent House draft CR this morning. The Pelosi bill, HR 6899, fails to open more than a miniscule part of the available offshore drilling areas and -- even worse -- it establishes permanent bans on development of most other domestic energy sources (natural gas, oil shale, etc.) and does nothing to develop nuclear power. It passed the House earlier this month and is now languishing...