Green World Blog
News, views & musings for our nuclear-free, carbon-free future
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New York’s Nuclear Fork in the Road: Subsidizing Old Reactors Is a Dead End
New York is striving to implement one of the most aggressive renewable energy strategies in the nation. Yet at the same time, Gov. Cuomo wants to bail out the upstate and uneconomic FitzPatrick and Ginna reactors–which would only slow the deployment of renewables and would cost NY ratepayers billions. Last week, we let you know…
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The verdict is in: solar and wind have won the technology race
We continue to hear the same old arguments over and over again–in comments in these pages, in blogs and newspaper op-eds, in press releases and out of the mouths of those utility execs trying to hold on to the 20th century model of electricity generation and distribution, and, most depressingly, in the U.S. Senate which…
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Governor Cuomo’s schizophrenic nuclear policies
NY Governor Cuomo thinks Indian Point is too dangerous to operate. He’s right. But why are upstate reactors any different? In mid-1986, New York Governor Mario Cuomo was asked about the future of nuclear power. The future of nuclear power, he replied, “is Chernobyl.” He understood that nuclear power is dangerous, and he understood that…
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2016 could be a transformative year
If 2015 was the year that the ongoing global energy transition away from nuclear power and fossil fuels and toward a clean energy system based on renewables gained public notice, then 2016 naturally should be the year that the transition takes visible and meaningful steps forward. Two critical steps that occurred in December ensure that…
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PTS at Palisades; yes, they knew.
A couple decades ago, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) published what it called the “bathtub curve.” This curve charted the expected and observed performance of nuclear reactors from initial operation until final shutdown. The main finding of note was that when a reactor first comes online, typically there are a large number of problems…
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Looking back–for just one day
Still got a long way to go….Vogtle Units 3 (left) and 4, July 30, 2015. At GreenWorld, we like to look forward. Forward to the day that nuclear power is a bad but fading memory and our planet is powered as safely, cleanly and affordably as possible with renewable energy and advanced 21st century efficiency,…
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The Paris Agreement on climate — a good start, but…
Paris, December 12, 2015 The international Don’t Nuke the Climate campaign had two major goals for COP 21: 1) to ensure that any agreement reached would not encourage use of nuclear power and, preferably, to keep any pro-nuclear statement out of the text entirely; and 2) along with the rest of the environmental community, to…
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Journalism at its best uncovers the ongoing deadly legacy of the atomic age
The unfinished MOX fuel facility at the DOE’s massive Savannah River Site, part of the nation’s nuclear weapons complex whose operation has resulted in the deaths of more than 33,000 Americans, according to a new report from McClatchy News Service. Radiation kills. That is a fact, established by scientific bodies like the U.S. National Academy…
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We Are Unstoppable: A Reminder of What COP 21 Should Have Been
Climate justice advocates break through at COP 21: We are unstoppable! Another world is possible! Civil society finally broke through with a loud voice yesterday at the COP 21 global climate summit. For a week-and-a-half, activists and independent energy and environmental groups had been relegated to the sidelines–literally. The only place where anyone could hold…
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On the ground at COP 21: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly … so far
The nuclear industry is well-represented inside the conference hall; anti-nuclear groups haven’t been allowed to set up information booths. Last Saturday, December 5, two NIRS staff arrived in Paris and joined anti-nuclear colleagues from across Europe for the United Nations climate conference. Officially, this is the 21st Conference of Parties on climate, or COP 21…
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