Green World Blog
News, views & musings for our nuclear-free, carbon-free future
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Vermont Yankee–the other side speaks
A 2007 cooling tower collapse at Vermont Yankee didn’t exactly reassure Vermonters that the plant was well-built or well-operated. GreenWorld seems to have garnered a lot of new readers this week–not that we expect them to stick around long: rather, there’s been a jump among nuclear power advocates and industry members. On Monday, we published…
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Nuclear industry goes hysterically ballistic over Yankee shutdown
A Greenpeace blimp flies in protest above Vermont Yankee. The long-awaited shutdown of the Vermont Yankee (VY) reactor on December 29 was celebrated across New England over the weekend; I’m told the party in Greenfield, Massachusetts Saturday night was especially festive. After decades of campaigning, especially over the past 15 years when the Nuclear Free…
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Solar advances and utility changes
A Clean Energy Collective community solar installation in Boulder, CO. Fracking dominates the energy headlines, and there is no doubt that the cheap natural gas produced by fracking is a major contributor to the ongoing economic woes of a good number of nuclear reactors and coal plants. But fracking has its limits and its own…
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Electricity storage’s time has come
Part of the “smart town” Panasonic is building near Tokyo, Japan. Everyone knows that solar and wind power are variable energy sources; neither on its own produces electricity 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. For that matter, no electricity source can do that indefinitely: nuclear reactors have to be…
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Misplaced priorities
Congress will send even more taxpayer dollars to dirty energy interests these next two years, but it won’t stop the relentless march of clean energy. The big nuclear news in the omnibus federal budget bill currently before Congress is that the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project receives no new funding for 2015–much to the chagrin…
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Why is the US teaming with Russia to gut international nuclear safety standards?
The U.S. is teaming up with the people who brought us Chernobyl. Not in an effort to improve nuclear safety, but to block new safety rules proposed by Europe. Even after 30 years at NIRS, some days the news is just so appalling that it makes one want to scream. And some days, the actions…
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The utility pushback against clean energy accelerates
A wind farm in south-central Kansas. Wind has brought enormous benefits to the state over the past decade. Is the state ready to throw that away for ideological reasons? We have been saying for months that the nuclear and coal industries are on the ropes–that’s true and grows more evident daily. But on the ropes…
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Nukes, climate, and the actions of thousands
Yesterday was, in some ways, the culmination of months of NIRS’ work on nuclear power and climate issues, as we showered the Environmental Protection Agency with many thousands of public comments on its proposed Clean Power Plan. That followed months of outreach that resulted in the turnout of many thousands–far more than we had expected–for…
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Some real Turkey Week turkeys
It’s a race to the bottom: which reactor will come online first? Vogtle (pictured here in March 2014) or Flamanville (pictured below). Or, alternatively, which project will be abandoned first? It’s Thanksgiving week here in the U.S., what better time to take a look at some of the real turkeys in the nuclear power business?…
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Solar comes (finally) to (much of) the Southeast
Perhaps the most misleading state welcoming sign ever–at least if you think “sunshine” should equal solar power. When it comes to solar power, the Southeast U.S.–despite its abundant sunshine–has long been like the kid at the back of the class who refuses to raise her hand: a complete non-participant in the action. That is now…
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