nuclear power
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Japan’s emissions shot up after Fukushima — but it could have been worse
After the Fukushima disaster, Japan launched a campaign to cut energy use. Businessmen wore relatively skimpy outfits to the office, turned off lights, abstained from air conditioning. But despite those energy efficiency efforts, carbon emissions still went up after the nuclear plant shut down. Aw hell — hot dark rooms full of scantily clad people […]
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Critical List: IG blesses State’s Keystone work; fair trade gasoline
The State Department’s inspector general has delivered his report on the Keystone XL environmental review process, and concludes that TransCanada did not improperly influence the assessment. The gist of the report is that the review wasn’t corrupt, just incompetent. Two nuclear new reactors have been approved, the first ones since 1978. The Pennsylvania government could […]
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Critical List: Approval coming for two nuclear plants; warrant issued for Nasheed’s arrest
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will give its blessing to two new nuclear power plants in Georgia today. There’s a warrant out for the arrest of Mohamed Nasheed, the Maldivian president and environmental crusader forced to resign at gunpoint. The new president, who deposed him, says the warrant will be used only to ensure Nasheed’s safety. […]
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Operators fined $140k for surfing web instead of running nuke plant
Nine operators of the River Bend nuclear power plant near Baton Rouge, La., just landed their employer a $140,000 fine for surfing the web from the plant's control room, reports Mark Halper at SmartPlanet.
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Critical List: Oil slick moves towards Nigerian coast; adorable polar bear cub
The oil slick off the Nigeria coast is moving towards shore. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved the design for a new generation of nuclear reactors. Climate change will help parasites thrive. Simple design is green design. Here is an adorable polar bear cub. That is all.
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Germans turn nuclear power plant into Disneyland
The "nuclear renaissance" is here, only it looks like a whirling swingset ascending the interior of a massive cooling tower at what used to be a 327-megawatt fast breeder reactor in Germany. Business is so good at the park — 600,000 visitors a year — that its owner is working on a "winter annex" inside […]
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The U.S. electricity mix in 20 years: A prediction
What will the U.S. power mix look like in 10 to 20 years? It’s impossible to predict for certain, of course, because there’s no way to know what regulators will do. Given the heavily regulated nature of the electric sector, even in so-called “deregulated” markets, surprises tend to come from regulatory reform, not innovation. (The […]
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Fukushima nuclear reactor meltdown more terrifying than we thought
In a new report, Tokyo Electric Power company has revealed that the Fukushima meltdown probably did more damage and was more dangerous than anyone realized at the time. The report's based on a simulation, but that simulation indicated that the entire ration of fuel inside one reactor could have turned into a pile of molten […]
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Clean, cheap long distance electricity transmission? Worth investigating.
I recently stumbled upon some High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) technology that seems promising to me for long distance transmission. It is not existing technology; it is a detailed proposal with no prototype and not even a computer simulation behind it. Nonetheless it looks like a less expensive and more environmentally friendly way to move […]