Obama pleases his corporate nuclear backers, but safety troubles won’t go away
The problems all occurred within days of President Obama’s post-election press conference in which he promoted restarting the U.S. nuclear power industry. His remarks came after heavy spending by the nuclear power industry during the recent election cycle .
As Obama pushes nuclear industry’s expansion, its safety troubles mount, FACING SOUTH, By Sue Sturgis on November 8, 2010, Two nuclear power plants owned by New Orleans-based Entergy were forced to shut down over the weekend following serious operating problems, including a radioactive leak at one plant in Vermont. Continue reading
Is nuclear power really safe? – explosion was too close for comfort
Energy analysts will tell you that nuclear power, …… is on the verge of a renaissance……….But an explosion at a power plant barely over a marathon’s distance away from NYC? That’s still scary.
New York Nuclear Power Plant Faces Emergency Shut Down -Is Nuclear Power Really Safe?, By: Eben Harrell 9 Nov 10, At Indian Point nuclear power plant—about 35 miles north of midtown Manhattan—a transformer exploded on reactor 2 Continue reading
Nuclear power plants just not getting built in USA, despite govt loans
President Obama even proposed another $36 billion in federal loan guarantees for the industry in February of this year.
Yet last year, only one application was filed. And none at all this year…
Obstacles to Nuclear Construction in the United States, by Tony D’Altorio, Investment U Research November 2, 2010 Electricite de France or EDF ADR (PINK: ECIFY) just got dumped by Constellation Energy (NYSE: CEG). And that could spell some big changes to its plans. Continue reading
France’s EDF faced with ‘sluggish’ nuclear revival in USA
before it can proceed with building and operating new plants, unlikely before 2012, the French state-controlled utility will have to line up a new partner with the endurance necessary for an increasingly sluggish U.S. nuclear renaissance…..
EDF’s Expensive U.S. Divorce – WSJ.co, 27 Oct 10, By MATTHEW CURTIN Paying to get out of a marriage that isn’t working isn’t unusual. But in the U.S. nuclear industry, where foreign operators require local partners to build and operate new plants, going it alone isn’t a long-term option. Continue reading
The Emperor’s New Nuclear Clothes
Washington’s resolute reaction to the shrinking renaissance affirms the brilliance of Hans Christian Anderson’s ending to his fable “The Emperor’s New Clothes”:
“But he has nothing on!” everybody shouted at last. And the emperor shivered, for it seemed to him that they were right; but he thought within himself, “I must go through with the procession.” And so he carried himself still more proudly, and the chamberlains walked along holding the train which wasn’t there at all.
Honey, I Shrunk the Renaissance: Nuclear Revival, Climate Change and Reality, CleanEnergy Footprints, by Peter Bradford, 15 Oct 10, “………Where have all the reactors gone?The 18 applications to build 27 new reactors that were on file at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in January 2009 (with five more applications for seven units expected by the end of 2010) were hailed by a compliant press to constitute “a nuclear renaissance.” Continue reading
Old nuclear plants have low market value, new ones not viable
..Constellation’s finances have stabilized but demand for electric power has fallen, reducing not only the market value of old power plants but the viability of building new ones.
Constellation’s fallout with French firm unfortunately the new business as usual, The Washington Post, By Steven Pearlstein, October 14, 2010 If you were looking for an example of the erosion in standards of business behavior, you couldn’t do better than the story of Constellation Energy and its recent falling-out with the French nuclear energy company EDF….. Continue reading
Massive anti-nuclear protest in Munich
Tens of thousands take part in Munich anti-nuclear protest | Germany | Deutsche Welle | 09.10.2010Richard Connor (dpa/AFP) Opponents of the German government’s plans for nuclear power claim success after a major demonstration in Munich. The event was the largest of its kind in Bavaria for more than two decades. Tens of thousands of people turned out on the streets of Munich on Saturday against the nuclear power policy of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition government.A focus of the protest was the formation of a human chain, about 10 kilometers long, through the center of the city…..Tens of thousands take part in Munich anti-nuclear protest | Germany | Deutsche Welle | 09.10.2010
Security of Supply Obligation – the nuclear industry’s latest con
From being a piece of history, the nuclear industry – a fading dinosaur that has wasted billions and left a toxic legacy that will cost billions more – is pushing itself back into the headlines, rebranded as the only source of the cheap, secure and clean energy demanded by modern Britain……the nuclear industry’s real agenda: a new system of subsidies to ensure it is never again exposed to the chill winds of a free market. The industry even has a name for it: the Security of Supply Obligation.
When PR Goes Nuclear – Hybrid Guide, 29 Sept 10, In the plush surroundings of the Army & Navy Club on London’s Pall Mall, Mike Alexander, chief executive of British Energy, was holding court. Assembled before him were more than a hundred leading figures from the UK’s energy industry – all there at the behest of the Energy Industries Club, an industry body that keeps its membership secret.. Continue reading
The costly reality behind AREVA’s funky nuclear spin
the reality behind this romantic green image of a nuclear panacea to future energy needs is something altogether different….obsessional ad campaign run by the French Areva state-backed nuclear monopoly, under the banner of “semi-private” as portrayed in the business press.
Small modular nuclear reactors, costly, dangerous, and proliferation risk
SMRs are not only unlikely live up to the hype, but may well aggravate cost, safety, and environmental problems,….”Amidst the evaporating hopes for a nuclear renaissance, nuclear power proponents are pinning their hopes on small modular reactors without thinking carefully about the new problems they will create
Financing the Nuclear Resuscitation will bring about Global Debt
Financing the Nuclear Renaissance in 2010-2020 will almost surely shift to international and multilateral debt financing methods. The IMF will surely be there, and all creative methods will have a look-in to using nuclear power plants as the underlying security in a vast new upsurge in global debt trading. –
Sovereign Debt to Global Debt The UN’s Nuclear Suppliers Group has an impressive 45-nation list of supposed nuclear equipment and service suppliers, but these include countries like Iceland, Malta, Croatia, Cyprus and Romania, everyone short of the Vatican. Continue reading
How tax-payer money funds the nuclear industry’s expansion
Already marshalled into this private-public ‘Marshall Plan’ for selling US nuclear power and services to India are the US Ex-Im (export-import) Bank, leading Wall Street private banks, and major downstream infrastructure companies such as Bechtel, all primed and ready to go….US state agencies, especially the Ex-Im Bank can in some cases finance up to 85% of the initial sale…….the UN’s nuclear agency the IAEA could be extended to cover nuclear financing.
Like deals between South Korea and Abu Dhabi, Russia and Iran or France and Pakistan, the US-India arrangement targets business opportunities of epic dimensions. On the basis of the 2008 bilateral agreement, U.S. companies—most importantly Toshiba-Westinghouse and GE-Hitachi—are planning to build nuclear power plants in India. Continue reading
Electricite de France trying to salvage failed USA nuclear venture
EDF fell 0.1 percent to close at 31.69 euros in Paris. The shares are down 24 percent this year….Constellation was spending $1 million a day on design work for the proposed plant in Lusby, Maryland, adjacent to its Calvert Cliffs reactors. It cut spending and staff after the loan guarantee failed to materialize, costs rose, power demand fell, and the price of natural gas, a competing fuel for power generation, tumbled,
DF, Constellation in Talks to Save U.S. Nuclear Venture By Tara Patel, Jeffrey McCracken and Jim Polson – Sep 25, 201 (Bloomberg) — Electricite de France SA, Europe’s biggest utility, and Constellation Energy Group Inc. are in talks to avoid the collapse of their U.S. nuclear venture, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions. Continue reading
Death of the Pebble Bed Nuclear Reactor
economic realities make any tangible future Pebble Bed as a major source of new energy largely imaginary.
(South Africa) Another feeble-headed nuke drops dead Harvey Wasserman September 24, 2010
For years “expert” reactor backers have touted the “Pebble Bed” design as an “inherently safe” alternative to traditional domed light water models. Now its South African developers say they’re done pouring money into it. Continue reading
Ralph Nader spells out the case against nuclear power
Nader shares locals concerns about uranium, GoDanRiver.com, 19 Sept 10, “…… Nader pushed for more energy efficiency and conservation and clean energy, which he said didn’t include more nuclear reactors or uranium mining.
“We don’t believe the country needs nuclear power,” Nader said in a Thursday interview. “It’s too costly. The opportunities for energy efficiency and electric generation to the consumer are far greater.”…
Nader said money should be invested in solar, wind and other forms of renewable energy rather than nuclear power, which he called a “gigantic technological lemon.” Nuclear plant projects can’t go forward without federal loan guarantees, he said, because Wall Street won’t invest in them without that backing.
Additionally, nuclear plants have the problem of radioactive waste, he said. The enrichment of uranium to concentrate it for use in fuel rods for nuclear reactors also takes coal-fired power, Nader said.
“Why do we need uranium mines?” Nader said. “They are extremely dirty.”….
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