Green World Blog
News, views & musings for our nuclear-free, carbon-free future
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Checking in on the energy transition–in the U.S.
In Germany it’s called the Energiewende–the energy transition. It’s a deliberate decision to move away from nuclear power and fossil fuels in favor of renewables and energy efficiency. And it’s working. Renewables are skyrocketing, nuclear reactors have closed and more shutdowns are on the way, and coal use is declining too, despite the misleading claims…
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NRC caves on foreign ownership (and why you shouldn’t expect it to value human life like other federal agencies)
The NRC Commissioners voted unanimously earlier this month to adopt its staff recommendation that the agency’s rules be changed to allow a “graded approach” on meeting the Atomic Energy Act’s prohibition on foreign ownership, control, or domination of U.S. nuclear reactors. This cave-in to the nuclear power wasn’t entirely unexpected (I wrote about it months…
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Electric rate fantasies: who subsidizes who?
Scott Sklar, former head of the Solar Electric Industries Association and now the principal of The Stella Group, is one of America’s most knowledgeable and outspoken proponents of solar power, and has been for decades. In this piece, first posted (but with a somewhat garbled ending) on RenewableEnergyWorld.com, he takes on the false notion that…
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The accelerating decline of French nuclear power
The containment dome at Flamanville-3 has been installed. It would be exceedingly difficult and costly to replace the bottom head of the reactor pressure vessel installed here. For most people with any interest in energy issues, France is synonymous with nuclear power. With 78% of its electricity generated by the atom, it is by far…
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Redacted DOE report gives details on MOX boondoogle
The Savannah River Site, with the unfinished MOX facility in the right foreground. In the background is Georgia’s Vogtle nuclear complex, where two reactors are operating and two new reactors are under construction. With the likely demise of the MOX project, their power won’t be needed at SRS. Photo by High Flyer, special to SRS…
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Tesla and its implications: it’s a wild time
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKORsrlN-2k] If you read our piece Tuesday on Tesla’s new PowerWall battery storage announcement, but spent the past three days thinking about whether you wanted to get one for your own home, well, you waited too long. According to several reports, Tesla has sold 38,000 PowerWalls since its announcement a week ago, and is…
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Tesla wants to change the world. It just might happen.
The Tesla PowerWall. Photo by Tesla. Last week, Elon Musk and his Tesla corporation changed the world. Or so you might think from reading the press coverage about Musk’s long-expected announcement that the gigafactory Tesla is building in Nevada will produce batteries not only for Tesla automobiles, but to use as storage for renewable energy–especially…
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Exelon presses its luck
Exelon’s allegedly uneconomic Byron reactors. Photo from wikipedia. Exelon, the nation’s largest nuclear power utility, has upped the ante in its quest for a bailout from the Illinois legislature, saying it has “to have an answer” by September as to whether Illinois ratepayers are going to pay more for their electricity just because it’s from…
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Friday roundup: nukes want more from DOE, Ex-Im, Exelon, and a happy note
Westinghouse AP-1000 reactor under construction in Sanmen, China, courtesy of the U.S. Export-Import Bank. On Tuesday, the Obama administration released the results of a major review of the nation’s electric grid, concluding that billions of dollars of investment is needed to modernize the grid, replace aging power lines and prepare for more renewables entering the…
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Musicians as activists, and tales from the Clinton White House
Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, David Crosby, Steven Stills, John Hall et al, at a press conference before the August 2011 Musicians United for Safe Energy concert in Mountain View, California. They’re talking about nuclear power, not chord changes or stage decor. Today I sent out a letter to NIRS’ supporters and I thought…
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