A disturbing series of events at China’s flagship Taishan two-unit nuclear power station is raising questions about what is going on at the 3,200-MW pressurized water reactor site. It’s disturbing because the still unclear events mirror what has happened in previous major nuclear accidents around the world, including confusion, obfuscation, lying, and coverup. That the … More What’s up with China’s Taishan plant?

Virginia-based Dominion Energy is negotiating with Utah-based EnergySolutions to sell Dominion’s shut Kewaunee nuclear plant in Wisconsin so it can be fully decommissioned, the Wisconsin State Journal reported. If the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission approves the deal, work could begin this year on a project estimated to cost $1 billion. No financial details of the … More Dominion to sell shut Kewaunee nuke for final decommissioning

Facing the potential shutdown of two of Exelon Corp. nuclear plants, the Democratic Gov. of Illinois, J.B. Pritzker, and the Chicago-based utility holding company, which owns six nuclear plants in the state, on June 1 reached a deal with to keep the two unprofitable plants open. The deal came after Pritzker extended the session of … More Illinois last minute deal to save two Exelon nukes?

Georgia Power’s long-troubled, over-budget, and consistently off schedule two-unit, 2,000-MW Vogtle nuclear construction project has taken another hit. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported last Wednesday (May 19) that Georgia Power and Southern Nuclear, both subsidiaries of Atlanta-based utility giant Southern Co., told Peach State utility regulators that the first of two new reactors, the only nuclear … More New Vogtle nuke faces new startup delays

Despite its theoretical promise of “endless energy” by producing electricity from fusing hydrogen atoms, after some 70 years of failure, dead ends, and outright fraud, fusion remains far too expensive to offer a reasonable approach to generating power. That’s the view of two long time observers and participants in fusion energy research, who write in … More Is tokomak fusion too expensive to develop?

For many climate activists, “adaptation” has long been a dirty word. The notion that the way to deal with a warming earth is through localized, adaptive activities, not large-scale, internationally organized science-based political action, has been derided as failing to get to the root causes of global warming, an admission of defeat, focusing only on … More Columbia climate scientist says it’s time to get practical and focus more on effects than causes

Coal v. nukes politics in the coal-rich Powder River Basin have surfaced in Montana, the northern reaches of the Wyoming-Montana coal field. On a partisan vote, Montana has repealed a 1978 law that provided for a referendum that would have allowed the public to vote on whether they wanted nuclear plants in the Big Sky … More Is Montana positioned to replace coal with nukes?

Wyoming: Rock-ribbed Republican; loudly conservative; free-market advocates; pushes small government. Huh? Wyoming’s economy for the past 40 years has relied on revenues from the low-sulfur, low-BTU steam coal from the Powder River Basin (which also extends into neighboring Montana). The state benefitted enormously from the early federal clean air rules, which displaced eastern, high-BTU, high-sulfur … More Wyoming wants to force states to buy Powder River Basin coal

Given that fossil fuel requirements will continue well into the future, and the worldwide desire for cuts to ultimate emissions, is CO2 recycling a valid tactic for emissions reductions? A new study from Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy – Opportunities and Limits of CO2 Recycling in a Circular Carbon Economy: Techno-economics, Critical Infrastructure Needs, … More Is recycling CO2 a path to deep emissions reductions?

The US nuclear power industry, failing to produce a growing business from new civilian plants, large and small, is turning to small, mobile nukes to use on military bases in war zones and in space. It’s a concept a Republican Congress and the Trump administration have embraced, but is getting scathing reviews from nuclear non-proliferation … More US nuke industry turns to military and space electric applications for rescue