Nuclear Newsreel, Thursday, February 20, 2014

Nuclear Power

New 100-ton radioactive water leak at Fukushima. Unfortunately, not likely to be the last such leak…We will be seeing headlines like this for decades.

Traces of plutonium are detected outside WIPP transuranic radwaste site in New Mexico. This is the first time radiation leakage has been reported from WIPP, but the exact source of the leaks remains unknown.

Financial Times: more U.S. nuclear capacity could close over next few years than new reactors would produce–even if they are completed. The nuclear industry will continue to shrink and will provide a smaller and smaller percentage of U.S. electricity. Requires free registration to access article.

Why has Britain signed up for the world’s most expensive power station–new nukes at Hinkley Point? This could be a windfall for reactor constructors Electricite de France, but a disaster for ratepayers. Notably, this essay comes from a newspaper normally supportive of Prime Minister Cameron and the Conservative Party.

S.C. Sen. Lindsay Graham still pushing $30 Billion pork barrel MOX project, but hopes to cut costs. Historically there is little hope of that; nuclear projects tend to grow and grow in price, not decline. And cutting corners when building a plutonium factory is not a good option.

New video from Samuel Lawrence Foundation: Lessons from Fukushima: close Indian Point. The Foundation sponsored symposia in New York City and Boston last October, bringing together notables like former Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan, former NRC chair Greg Jaczko, Ralph Nader and others to reflect on the lessons of Fukushima. One clear lesson is that the area around Indian Point cannot be evacuated if faced with a Fukushima-level crisis. The Foundation also has produced a map of the Fukushima radiation plume overlaid over the area around Indian Point, which spreads well beyond the current 10-mile Emergency Planning Zone and reaches into New York City, Long Island, northern New Jersey and Connecticut.

In Obama’s Nuke-Powered Drone Strike on America’s Fiscal Sanity, Harvey Wasserman takes on the taxpayer loan for construction of Georgia’s Vogtle reactors and President Obama’s “all-of-the-above” energy policy.

Clean Energy

The Interior Department announces approval of two new large solar projects along the Nevada/California border. Together they will produce 550 MW of solar power.

Energy efficiency programs are working in the Midwest as intended. Electrical demand is dropping, and is no longer related to the recession. As new energy standards take effect, demand is expected to fall further.

U.S. Geological Survey produces interactive map showing all 47,000 wind turbines currently installed in the U.S. Learn about the ones nearest you!

Michael Mariotte

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