The Quad Report

By Kennedy Maize In another test of the administration’s belief that Congressionally created independent regulatory commissions are not independent of the president, the White House at 6:15 p.m. Friday (June 13) informed Commissioner Christopher Hanson of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission that he was fired without cause. Trump earlier this year replaced Democrat Hanson as … More Trump fires NRC Commissioner Christopher Hanson

By Kennedy Maize The U.K.  has committed £14.2 billion (about $19.2 billion) for Electricite de France (EDF) to build two new 1,600-MW troubled, French-designed “European Pressurized Reactors,” denominated Sizewell C. The new units will be located at the coastal site of Sizewell A, a decommissioned Magnox reactor, and Sizewell B, a 1995 vintage 1,300-MW pressurized … More Nukes across the pond: UK doubles down; EDF finds more cracks; Germany tiptoes back

By Kennedy Maize no·to·ri·ous: [nəˈtôrēəs] adjective, famous or well known, typically for some bad quality or deed. Citing President Trump’s energy emergency declarations, the Interior Department June 6 approved a major expansion of Montana’s only remaining underground coal mine. Interior gave a green light to Signal Peak Energy’s controversial Bull Mountains mine. The DOI decision … More DOI backs notorious Montana coal mine

By Kennedy Maize Despite animosity from an administration that doesn’t really believe in an “all of the above” energy policy, solar did quite well in this year’s first quarter. Solar accounted for 69% of all electric generating capacity added to the U.S. grid in the 2025 first quarter. According to a new analysis by the … More Solar shines brightly in 2025, clouds ahead?

Executives from Baltimore-based Constellation Energy, owner and operator of the nation’s largest fleet of nuclear power plants, will face a grilling from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission over a serious, long-running coverup of a mishap at the two-unit, 1,819-MW Quad Cities nuclear plant in northwestern Illinois. An April inspection of the plant by the NRC’s … More NRC examines Constellation after 2023 Quad Cities coverup

By Henry Sokolski Among analysts, the military assault of nuclear facilities is generally viewed in one of two ways. The first is to assume meltdowns, massive radiation releases, and evacuation catastrophes will ensue. The second emphasizes how, despite repeated attacks on reactors, no radiological release has yet occurred and stresses how much safety engineers have … More Guest Commentary: When Nuclear Plants Become Military Targets

By Kennedy Maize In his 1841 essay “Self-Reliance,” American Trancendentalist philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.” That seems to be the working credo of the current U.S. Supreme Court, at least when it comes to the National Environmental Policy … More Commentary: Chevron lives? “A foolish consistency…?”

By Kennedy Maize The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission last week approved NuScale Power’s evolutionary small modular reactor design, a 77-MW light water cooled and moderated pressurized water reactor in a six-reactor package. The “US460” SMR is a scaled-up design based on the NRC’s 2020 approval of NuScale’s original 50-MW machine. The NRC staff, in the … More NRC Oks NuScale’s 77-MW SMR design

“Future electricity needs for artificial intelligence (AI) are wildly uncertain—shaped by unproven concepts, disputed performance, limited trust, volatile markets, unpredictable adoption, and technical efficiency that quadruples roughly each year.” That warning comes from Amory Lovins, one of the legendary energy gurus of the 1970s and 1980s. In a May 10 paper from his firm, Lovins … More Amory Lovins on AI hype and electricity realism

By Kennedy Maize Offering an implausible rationale, the Trump administration has ordered a private-sector electric utility to delay plans to shut down a large coal-fired power plant in Michigan from the planned closure this Saturday (May 31) until at least August 21. The order last Friday (May 23) from the Department of Energy bigfoots Michigan-based … More Unbidden, DOE cancels long-planned coal plant shutdown