Terrifying. That word comes unbidden reading “Midnight in Chernobyl: The World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster,” by Adam Higgenbotham. This splendid book is by far the most detailed and best account of the April 1986 disaster at the Soviet Union’s V.I. Lenin plant in the Ukraine. This is a story of the deep-seated rot in Communist socialism.… More Book review: “Midnight in Chernobyl”
In a short meeting today, postponed from the morning to the afternoon due to snow and some ice Wednesday in Washington, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued rules making some utility mergers easier and streamlining hydropower regulations. FERC also clarified in a draft order its rules on how new generators and technologies can connect to… More FERC issues two final rules, clarifies an existing order
Two states with deep roots in the history of civilian nuclear power in the U.S. are facing disputes over nuclear plant shutdowns: Pennsylvania and New Jersey. In Pennsylvania, site of the nation’s first commercial reactor, Shippingport, opened near Pittsburgh in 1957, the legislature may consider legislation to provide state aid to preserve five nuclear stations,… More Nuke subsidy battles playing out in New Jersey, Pennsylvania
What are the odds that Yucca Mountain will become the final U.S. nuclear waste repository? Ask the odds makers in Las Vegas. They would be glad to take your money, because the odds are slim and none, and Slim is leaving the room. Late last month, three members of the San Onofre Community Engagement Panel,… More Revived Yucca Mountain a longshot
South Carolina’s Republican state Senate may have killed a move to sell the giant state-owned Santee Cooper public power system. The State newspaper reported today that the Senate has pulled the plug on funds flowing to a Virginia consulting company, ICF, which was evaluating bids for the state-wide system that supplies electricity to the state’s… More Is a Santee Cooper sale dead?
President Trump’s feckless campaign promises to revitalize the U.S. steam coal industry has suffered another major blow. As expected, the Tennessee Valley Authority close to closing two more big coal-fired power plants in its giant system. TVA has been moving away from coal and toward natural gas for several years. The Chattanooga Times Free Press… More TVA moving to shut two more coal units
Legendary Democratic legislator John Dingell, 92, is in hospice care at his Dearborn, Mich. home with a cancer diagnosis, according to press accounts and his wife, Rep. Debbie Dingell, who won his district seat in 2014 after he retired from Congress. She tweeted on Wednesday after skipping Tuesday’s State of the Union address, “Friends and… More John Dingell at home in hospice care
PacifiCorp of Portland, Ore., has closed Unit 3 of the elderly Naughton coal-fired generating plant in Kemmerer, Wyo., taking 384 MW of power out of service at the three-unit, 832-MW station. The unit went into service in 1971. The first 192-MW unit went into service in 1963. Economics are the culprit in the Naughton closure.… More Western coal roundup: Big plants face big problems