nuclear-news

Science and Technology:

¶ July was the world’s hottest month ever, according to NASA, the tenth month in a row to break temperature records globally. Since October 2015, every month has set a new global record for hottest temperatures, but the rise may slow down soon. A developing La Nina weather pattern may help, though probably not until 2017. [CNN]

Road closed due to weather. FEMA photo, after Hurricane Katrina.
Public domain. Wikimedia Commons.

World:

¶ Scotland’s next generation of onshore wind farms could be at least 20% cheaper if the Scottish and UK governments work with industry and regulators to remove barriers, according to Scottish Renewables. A Scottish Renewables study said industry could cut onshore wind costs by more than £150 million per year. [reNews]

Hill of Towie wind farm in Scotland (reNEWS)

¶ Under an agreement with China, Egypt is to construct a 1,000-MW…

Cameco Headquarters Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

“Cameco is a company that mines uranium in Saskatchewan. In 1999, it signed a deal with its own subsidiary in Zug, Switzerland to sell that uranium to Switzerland at a fixed price of $10 per pound. Switzerland was not the ultimate destination or user of that uranium. The subsidiary in Zug was just reselling it to other jurisdictions around the world at market prices. Of course, the market price of uranium is variable, but it has consistently been quite a bit more than $10 a pound. It is currently around $30 a pound. It was up to as high as $140 a pound in 2007. The only real effect of this arrangement was to transfer billions of dollars of profits from Canada to this Swiss tax haven. The Canada Revenue Agency has calculated that from 2003 through 2015, that cost the governments of Canada…

Opinion:

¶ “Global climate is spinning out of control – but now, we have the technology!” • Heatwaves of more than 50° C in Iraq and India in recent weeks show climate disruption is a present-day reality, not something for a leisurely response. But almost by the week, real-world advances provide a more positive prognosis. [The Ecologist]

Installation of a new 3-MW Siemens offshore
wind turbine. Image: artist’s impression by Siemens.

World:

¶ A Solar Citizens consumer campaigner said that in the first five months of this year, the uptake of small-scale solar in Tasmania had been up by at least 25%. He attributes the turnaround to the recent energy crisis when Basslink was disabled, coupled with an extremely dry year which depleted Hydro’s water reserves. [ABC Online]

Solar irrigation shaves more than six thousand
dollars off this farmer’s annual power bill. (Margot Foster).

¶ The…