Green World Blog
News, views & musings for our nuclear-free, carbon-free future
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More media misinformation about Germany’s Energiewende
Solar power in a small village in Germany’s Black Forest region. Reuters today published a story (and it is indeed a “story”) with the alarming headline Costs for Germany’s nuclear exit could rise to $75 billion. You can be sure the nuclear and coal advocates will start spreading that around as yet one more “failure”…
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Bailouts, Areva, cracking and more…
Belgium’s Doel reactors. The U.S. NRC doesn’t seem to care that cracking in their reactor pressure vessels may exist in U.S. reactors as well. Photo from Wikipedia. A bit of a mishmash for this Friday, but we wanted to bring some additional attention to some news and developments you might have missed over the past…
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Europe is not prepared for a Fukushima-level accident
Fukushima radiation plume overlaid on map centered at Indian Point reactors. Can anyone (other than NRC) seriously believe this area can be successfully evacuated in a nuclear accident? From Samuel Lawrence Foundation website. Apparently we have a European theme going this week. At least that’s where the major reports and news seem to be coming…
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The EPR “anamoly;” what’s at stake for Areva
Installation of the reactor dome at Areva’s EPR reactor at Flamanville, France. Now, indications of a serious problem with the reactor pressure vessel could scuttle the already delayed and over-budget project. In early April, the troubled French nuclear reactor manufacturer Areva announced that there is an “anamoly” in the reactor pressure vessel installed at Electricite…
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Yucca opposition: it’s not just Harry.
Spouting conventional wisdom in Washington is a booming business. It’s the business of innumerable reporters and pundits and even supports entire publications, like Politico and The Hill. The trick, I guess, if you’re in the conventional wisdom trade, is to find some tiny little nuance to that wisdom that is ever so slightly different than…
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The utilities’ war on solar won’t work. Because Americans already have decided the outcome.
Last week, we published the tale of two public opinion polls, one from Gallup and one from the Nuclear Energy Institute, that asked the same question but came up with radically different numbers. Another new poll provides additional proof that one of those polls cited last week–the NEI poll–is the one that is way off…
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Exelon plays dirty
Exelon’s Fukushima-clone Dresden nuclear complex (Unit 1, on the right, has been closed since 1978 as it couldn’t meet safety regulations). It should surprise absolutely no one that a utility that relies on dirty energy to make its money also plays dirty when its money is threatened or when a state legislature is considering whether…
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Comparing the opinion polls; why NEI gets it so wrong
Digging into the Gallup poll shows Americans’ energy priorities: clean energy. Every Spring, Gallup conducts a poll on energy issues and the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) usually does so too–and usually tries to beat Gallup to the punch so that it can tout its numbers first. Not surprisingly, the NEI numbers somehow always show large…
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Oops! Real reason for Exelon-Pepco merger inadvertently revealed
Oops. Exelon’s nuclear cat was inadvertently let out of its radioactive bag by the Baltimore Sun today. The Sun was supposed to run an ad last Thursday in support of the proposed takeover of mid-Atlantic utility Pepco by Exelon. The ad was supposed to show that some sort of local coalition of community groups support…
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Rooftop solar benefits all ratepayers
We’re pleased to repost, with permission, this post that was published yesterday by David Schlissel and Karl Cates of the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. We linked to this post yesterday on Facebook and Twitter, and it was the day’s most popular link for us. Still, we thought it deserves a wider audience.…
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