Green World Blog
News, views & musings for our nuclear-free, carbon-free future
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Vogtle cost/schedule issues reiterated at PSC hearing
Construction site of two new Vogtle reactors. Georgia Power claims they’re 56% finished. This photo, taken March 20, 2014, suggests they’re not nearly that far along…. Just over a week ago we reported that all five reactors now under construction in the U.S. are experiencing delays and cost overruns. At a hearing Tuesday before the…
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Duke Energy embraces dirty energy–and the right wing
Former Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers talks a good game. He believes climate change is a real threat. He talks about the need for utilities to get on board with distributed generation and renewable energy and to begin now to change their business models to reflect those technologies. Here’s a sample quote from a long…
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Bloomberg sees a renewable-powered future
Solar power plants in continental U.S. compared to solar potential. Source: EIA A new report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) projecting world investment in energy technologies through 2026 sees a sharp rise in solar and wind power throughout the world by 2030. In the Americas (North, Central and South America) alone, Bloomberg predicts energy…
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Will Exelon Survive?
Artist’s rendition of an Exelon building in Baltimore after the Exelon/Constellation merger. The question of the day is: will the nation’s largest nuclear power utility, Exelon, survive? That’s a question that wouldn’t even have been asked a few years ago; Exelon was riding high. But with its stock price down 60% since July 2008, with…
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A week of 21st century energy news…and a few reflections
A solar-powered house in Germany. There are at least three homes newly solar-powered in my small city; how many are there in your community? About a month ago, I wrote a post titled Five days in solar news which tried to give readers a sense of just how fast solar power is developing—not that there aren’t…
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New U.S. reactors: overbudget, behind schedule, shirking safety regs
The Summer nuclear project, May 2014. Still a long ways–and a lot more rate increases–to go. The nuclear “renaissance” began fizzling about three minutes after it was declared, once utility financial people took over from the nuclear boosters and did a real examination of reactor construction cost estimates, declining electrical demand, falling prices for natural…
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Nuclear power and water: DOE almost gets it…
Several years ago, at the height of the nuclear “renaissance” when the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was reporting that it received or was expecting some 30 new reactor license applications, I met with a group of Capitol Hill staffers generally skeptical of nuclear power. To be honest, I don’t remember what the main topic of the…
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Nuclear Newsreel, Thursday, June 19, 2014
The Waste Control Specialists radioactive waste dump in Andrews County, Texas. WCS wants to triple the site’s capacity and slash its liability at the same time. It’s been a while since we caught up on the news, so let’s jump right in…. Nuclear Power EPA chief Gina McCarthy has in essence admitted that our analysis…
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NRC denies earthquake petition at site called Seismic Time Bomb—the Columbia reactor
New research indicates that Energy Northwest’s Columbia reactor (background) may be at greater risk of earthquake damage than any reactor in the U.S. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission last week denied a petition filed by Oregon/Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility and other groups asking for a shutdown of Washington’s Columbia reactor until it demonstrates it can…
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What does Entergy want? In its own words.
New York’s Indian Point reactors. Entergy is desperately trying to save them–as long as it doesn’t have to invest money in them to do so. Exelon and Entergy are the nation’s two largest nuclear utilities. And both are scrambling to avoid shutdowns of some of their troubled reactors. In Exelon’s case, its two-unit Quad Cities…
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