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 On a partisan vote, Montana has repealed a 1978 law that provided for a referendum that would have allowed the public to vote on whether they wanted nuclear plants in the Big Sky … More Is Montana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
On April 17, less than a week before the Biden administration’s Earth Day climate summit April 22, which demonstrated return from the Trump administration’s distain for international cooperation in any forum and Trump’s skepticism about global warming, the U.S. and China produced a joint statement on their shared goals for reducing greenhouse gases. The word … More Earth Day warning: coal remains king in China, distorting climate response
Texas is an electrical (among other things) mess. The state features an independent grid operator that is purposefully, and stupidly, unconnected to the rest of the U.S. It has inadequate and unreliable generation, with little flexibility. It has retail rate regulators subservient to the utilities it regulates. Its ideology is autarky, which never works. Texas … More Analysis: Texas is a mess