Ontario’s nuclear comedy show
a storyline where the plant is paid millions of dollars not to generate electricity. Too ridiculous? Well, head on over to Ontario in Canada where the people there ‘paid Bruce Power nearly $60 million in 2009 to not generate electricity for the province’…The people of Ontario got ‘a bargain’ for handing over $60 million for something they didn’t need and didn’t get.
Nuclear power in Canada: busy doing nothing Greenpeace International, by Justin – September 30, 2010 Regular readers are probably asking themselves how our plans for a comedy show set in a nuclear power plant are progressing. Continue reading
Questions on Stuxnet’s ability to get into world’s top nuclear facilities
Among the questions that experts would like to answer concern the origin of the virus, its exact purpose and how it was able to spread between the protected and isolated infrastructures of some of the world’s top nuclear facilities.
All Eyes On Stuxnet At Annual Virus Researcher Summit, threat post September 29, 2010, The world will know more about the mysterious Stuxnet virus by week’s end, after top virus researchers reveal the findings of their post mortem on Stuxnet at the annual Virus Bulletin Conference. Continue reading
New laser uranium enrichment technology fraught with problems
Regulatory agencies are worried that laser enrichment of uranium could lead to the proliferation of nuclear weapons….GE and Hitachi “are betting that there will be an upsurge of nuclear power plant construction—that’s a huge and extremely risky bet.”….laser enrichment has been held back by substantial technical hurdles.
Laser Uranium Enrichment Makes a Comeback The controversial technology poses proliferation risks, but nuclear firms press on, IEEE Spectrum: By Sandra Upson 1 October 2010 Two technology giants, GE and Hitachi, are betting big on a nuclear renaissance. 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.
Funky Town Finance Meets The Nuclear Renaissance :: The Market Oracle by Andrew McKillop (Project Director, GSO Consulting Associates Former chief policy analyst, Division A Policy, DG XVII Energy, European Commission )30 Sept 10, Like a Marlene Dietrich show in a remake of 1945 Berlin, surrounded by Soviet troop hordes, the nuclear sales show has to go on. Continue reading
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
IEER/PSR: ‘Small Modular Reactors’ No Panacea for What Ails Nuclear Power – Fact Sheet Explores Cost, Safety and Waste Issues Glossed Over by IndustryWASHINGTON, Sept. 29 /PRNewswire – The same industry that promised that nuclear power would be “too cheap to meter” is now touting another supposed cure-all for America’s power needs: the small modular reactor (SMR). Continue reading
Nuclear finance squabble as France’s debt-laden EDF in dispute with USA’s Constellation
Moving up a long way in funky financing, state-to-state bilateral deals in the nuclear power sector are now in high gear. Amounts in play are usually well above US $ 10 billion per project, and very complex mix-and-mingle methods and processes are used for their financing
From Put Options to Development Aid The French EDF ex-monopoly electricity supplier with the biggest number of nuclear reactors of any traded power company in the world, also the most debt-laden traded company in France, and with a share price down about 25% through Jan-Aug 2010, is using financial engineering to keep a foothold in the US nuclear power market. Continue reading
Costs are looking like the killer for the nuclear industry
Critics such as Mark Cooper at the University of Vermont say the real costs tend to range toward $7,000 to $10,000 per kilowatt. State support of these projects turns into “nuclear socialism,” Cooper says. Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute says costs have escalated beyond what proponents claim.
Cost remains a huge problem for the nuclear industry. : Greentech Media, Michael Kanellos, 29 Sept, 10 The MIT report estimates that overnight cost — i.e., the cost of a plant minus financing during construction — is around $4,000 a kilowatt, compared to $2,300 per kilowatt for natural gas and $850 for coal. A nuclear facility at this level could produce power for 8.4 cents per kilowatt hour compared to 6.2 cents per kilowatt hour for coal and 4.2 cents to 8.7 cents for natural gas…….. Continue reading
French nuclear empire in retreat as EDF pulls out of Suez
THE NUCLEAR RETREAT – GDF Suez pulls out of French EPR project throwing French nuclear expansion into doubt Beyond Nuclear -September 23, 2010 GDF Suez, the second largest utility in France, has withdrawn from the newest nuclear reactor project there. GDF Suez, 35% state-owned, was a partner with the leading – and fully government-owned – French utility, EDF in the new reactor construction project planned at Penly on the north coast. But despite shouldering 25% of the financing, Suez was prevented by EDF from operating the reactor, a role reserved for EDF. Suez depended on operating experience to market its expertise overseas. The withdrawal marks another blow to the French EPR reactor project already suffering from huge delays and cost over-runs at its French and Finnish construction sites.
Nuclear power plants are vulnerable to the Stuxnet worm!
after finding a way into a plant’s system, the worm can simply steal data or potentially wreak havoc, causing its systems such as cooling pumps to malfunction.
Analysts: Stuxnet Raises Concerns About Vulnerability of Nuclear, Industrial Facilties , News.com, William Ide , 28 Sept 10, A powerful computer virus called the Stuxnet worm has apparently targeted Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant and infected computer systems from Asia to Europe and the United States. The capability of this malicious software is raising questions about the vulnerability of nuclear, electrical and other types of industrial facilities. Continue reading
Iran’s nuclear plans under cyber attack
Cyber attack suspected on Iranian N-plans THE AUSTRALIAN, Tom Coghlan * From: The Times * September 25, 2010 3 A COMPUTER virus that has infected more than 60,000 machines in Iran may be a sophisticated cyber-warfare attack on Iran’s clandestine nuclear arms program, according to software experts. Continue reading
Iran’s nuclear plant hit by computer worm
has also affected equipment linked to the country’s nuclear program, which is at the core of the dispute between Tehran and Western powers like the United States.
Worm hits computers of staff at Iran nuclear plant, Google hosted news, By NASSER KARIMI (AP) –17 Sept 10, TEHRAN, Iran Continue reading
Smart software designed to sabotage nuclear power plant
“This was assembled by a highly qualified team of experts, involving some with specific control system expertise,”
Software smart bomb fired at Iranian nuclear plant: experts, Google hosted news, By Glenn Chapman (AFP) –24 Sept 10, SAN FRANCISCO — Computer security experts are studying a scary new cyber weapon: a software smart bomb that may have been crafted to find and sabotage a nuclear facility in Iran. Malicious software, or malware, dubbed “Stuxnet” is able to recognize a specific facility’s control network and then destroy it, according to German computer security researcher Ralph Langne Continue reading
Highly sophisticated computer worm might have targeted Iran’s nuclear reactor
suggestions that Israel, known for its high-tech prowess and (ahem) deep suspicion of Iran’s nuclear programme, might be behind it….if Stuxnet has been deliberately aimed at Iran, one possible target is its Bushehr nuclear reactor
The Stuxnet worm: A cyber-missile aimed at Iran? | The Economist, Sep 24th 2010, THE internet is abuzz this week with speculation about Stuxnet, a “groundbreaking” computer worm that attacks industrial-control systems. Put that way, it doesn’t sound very exciting. But the possibility that it might have been aimed at one set of industrial-control systems in particular—those inside Iranian nuclear facilities—has prompted one security expert to describe Stuxnet as a “cyber-missile”, designed to seek out and destroy a particular target. Continue reading
“New Generation” nuclear reactors – a selection of duds

The death of the Pebble Bed has considerable significance. Harvey Wasserman, 23 Sept 10, For nearly two decades reactor backers have counted it in the imaginary fleet of new generation reactors coming to save us. Its alleged bright future would make it just one of the many new nuclear technologies that would render solar and wind energy unnecessary. 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
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