After 40 years of effort and over $3 billion in government funds, the Department of Energy still has no end in sight for the cleanup of the abandoned West Valley, N.Y., plutonium reprocessing site, according to a recent Government Accountability Office report. The congressional watchdog agency said DOE “cannot estimate the cleanup’s final cost until … More GAO: West Valley plutonium cleanup stalled
The long-running decline of nuclear and coal electric generation in the U.S. will continue this year, according to the Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration. Nuclear plants will lead the capacity slump at 5.1 GW of retirements, followed by coal at 2.7 GW. Nuclear retirements, EIA said, should amount to “half of all total retirements … More EIA: Nukes, and coal to lead generator retirements in 2021
How will the incoming Biden administration affect energy policy, both in Washington and around the country? Advanced Energy Economy, a trade group for renewable and energy efficiency firms, took a shot at that question at a zoom conference on Wednesday, suggesting that the new administration will look far more favorably on renewable energy, energy efficiency, … More AEE: What will Biden do on U.S. energy policy?
Rita Baranwal, assistant energy secretary for nuclear energy in the Trump administration’s Department of Energy, announced last Friday (Jan. 8) that she was leaving the job at the end of the day. She had served in the job as the top nuclear R&D official in DOE since July 2019. She succeeded the legendary Pete Lyons, … More Rita Baranwal abruptly leaves DOE’s nuclear program
Kristine Svinicki, chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, announced Monday, Jan. 4, that she will leave the regulatory agency on Jan. 20, the day that Joe Biden will become president. She has been a Republican NRC member for nine years, and chairman for the entire Trump administration. Her current term was scheduled to end … More Svinicki to leave NRC Jan. 20
The sad failure of the V.C. Summer nuclear project in South Carolina appears to be a never-ending tale of woe, intrigue, and crime. In the latest development, the federal and state criminal sentencing of the former CEO of the now defunct investor-owned utility SCANA, Kevin Marsh, originally scheduled for late last year, has been postponed. … More Turmoil continues in aftermath of South Carolina’s nuclear collapse
Is hydrogen, the most abundant element on the planet and a clean-burning gas, the solution to the difficult dilemma of how to abandon carbon-dioxide producing fossil fuel? Hydrogen has been high up on the energy agenda before, fallen from favor, and now appears to be peaking again. Ottawa has unveiled a “Hydrogen Strategy for Canada,” … More Hydrogen: green hope or green hype?
Incoming President Joe Biden’s approach to the U.S. response to global warming “has to come with a substantial package” of early executive actions, Ernest Moniz (once and future energy secretary?) told a Washington webinar Tuesday. He said the Biden agenda should include a policy to “roll back the roll-backs” of the Trump years. Moniz, 75, … More Moniz calls for early Biden climate action
The Trump administration’s latest attempt to subvert use of cost-benefit analysis in regulatory proceedings, a Dec. 9 rulemaking on air pollution rules, is a “paper tiger,” according to veteran environmental economist at the venerable think tank Resources for the Future Alan Krupnick. At a fortuitous RFF zoom meeting on cost-benefit analysis just a day after … More New EPA cost-benefit rule a “paper tiger”
In the U.S., argues economist and nuclear power advocate Edward Kee, nuclear power plants and competitive electricity markets can’t work together. In a new book, Market Failure: Market-Based Electricity is Killing Nuclear Power, Kee, head of the Nuclear Economics Consulting Group, writes, “The biggest threat faced by nuclear power is from a market approach to … More Are competitive electricity markets and nukes incompatible?