nuclear-news

Real change: Take an axe to U.S. budget Mansfield News Journal By Ryan Alexander • Minuteman Media • December 30, 2008 The watchword for the recent election was “change.” Considering the mandate for change and soaring costs of a sight-unseen stimulus package, we have listed a few suggestions for agencies that the new administration and Congress should target for reform and increased accountability……………………

Department of Energy

DOE’s Loan Guarantee Program is currently slated to dole out $38.5 billion in loan guarantees to high risk projects like nuclear reactors. The Congressional Budget Office found nuclear loan guarantees have a 50 percent default rate and GAO has warned DOE is not prepared to administer the multi-billion dollar program.

It’s also time for DOE to put the final stake in its international initiative to expand nuclear power and commercially reprocess nuclear waste. Known as Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) the program began in 2006 and has continuously been riddled with controversy for its high costs and sketchy details. The National Academy of Sciences has estimated that reprocessing existing domestic nuclear waste could cost more than $100 billion dollars.

Alternative Energy Goes Mainstream
Business Today By James Chester January 2009
Egypt and a number of other countries in North Africa are not only capable of generating enough electricity using PV cells to supply all their domestic needs, but many claim, enough for the world.While it is difficult to imagine the world’s energy companies embracing energy from one source, the Egyptian government does recognize the potential to export electricity.“We are looking forward to integration with the Mediterranean countries to be an exporting country. We have endless resources of solar energy and [] we target to interconnect, actually establishing a super high voltage DC connection [from the south Mediterranean to Europe] but we don’t want to wait for this,” says El Salmawy. A lot depends on the transmission company’s capacity and Egypt’s relations with its Nile basin neighbors. If capacity can be increased then Egypt can position itself as an energy transit country, claims El Salmawy, as well as exporting to its neighbors and Europe: “I am fully optimistic for renewable energy but we need to come up with the proper mechanism and be liberal in thinking, dynamic, more open for new ideas.”………….
……….While Egypt only contributes 0.57% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, low-lying areas of the country are likely to be affected severely by sea-level rises caused by global warming. Up to now, clean energy has just not been cheap enough. Now, however, there is no excuse for not investing in renewables. The small companies and research centers that have invested so much time and money in solar, wind and other alternative energy technologies are finally getting some financial reward for their work. Unlike countries in the region like Saudi Arabia and Libya that rely heavily on massive fossil fuel reserves, Egypt’s comparatively small reserves provide incentive to find energy from other sources.