nuclear-news

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, storage and grid technologies. Forward to that day of a nuclear-free, carbon-free energy system.

It’s a day that we believe is coming, and is coming sooner than could have been believed even five years ago. But while we believe that day is inevitable, the timing is important: if it comes too late to turn back the worst effects of climate chaos, then its inevitableness won’t matter. And it won’t come on its own in time. As we’ve said here often, it will take all of us who believe in that future to act to bring…

Sellafield Nuclear Site, Cumbria, England

Even as Japan is starting up more nuclear reactors, it has found a neat trick for dealing with the plutonium waste generated by nuclear power stations: Send it elsewhere. At the Sellafield nuclear site, the UK reports 126.3 metric tons of “civilian” plutonium, as of December 2014: https://www.iaea.org/sites/default/files/infcirc549a8-18.pdf Around 21 tons is Japanese. Even if Japan eventually repatriates its plutonium, some will stay in Nordic air and seas – legally emitted during fuel “reprocessing”. Meanwhile, The US DOE wants to let Japan dump almost one ton of plutonium on the USA. See more: http://www.srswatch.org

In the British Parliament:
“Energy: Plutonium
Question
Asked by Lord Avebury

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will state how much of the 140 tonnes of civil separated plutonium that will be held by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority in the United Kingdom on completion of reprocessing operations is owned…

Opinion:

¶ The strong economics of wind energy • At the recent climate conference in Paris, 70 countries highlighted wind as a major component for their emissions-reduction schemes. Companies are investing in wind power not only because wind is competitive economically, but because it reduces emissions. [The Guardian]

The full moon shines behind a wind park near Norden, Germany. Photograph: Ingo Wagner/dpa/Corbis

¶ NC Experts See Hope in Climate Deal • North Carolina could benefit from the deal made at COP21. An economist with the Environmental Defense Fund points to a set of provisions that encourages the use of markets to drive up investment in clean energy and drive down pollution. [Coastal Review Online]

¶ 10 Sustainable Business Stories That Shaped 2015 • The year 2015 was a pivotal time when humanity turned more decisively toward building a thriving and sustainable world. On our largest shared…