Nuclear is not renewable, but it's listed here for organizational reasons. I wasn't really interested in nuclear, didn't think it had any future, and that it was effectively dead. I wasn't writing about it. However, like a vampire, nuclear kept rising from the grave and stalking the land. Talk continued of reviving it one more time. This talk had a real effect on public policy in North America, especially in Ontario, Canada. Thus, I felt it necessary to include nuclear topics and this was the place on my web site where it was easiest to insert.
Governments have no time to waste on “fantasy PowerPoint designs” of small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) that could never be built in time to save humanity from the climate crisis, says the author...
An executive who lied to regulators about two South Carolina nuclear plants that never generated a watt of power has been sentenced to two years in prison.
But for all the good vibes and stellar sunsets, beneath the surface hides a potential threat: 3.6m lb of nuclear waste from a group of nuclear reactors shut down nearly a decade ago. Decades of...
So yes, Ontario’s nuclear program will be a fiscal burden on Ontarians to the tune of around $40 billion CAD which will be spent through roughly 2135, finally being paid off by the...
Nuclear power's contribution to climate change mitigation is and will be very limited.
The idea of citizens’ taxes going to experimental small nuclear seems especially short-sighted knowing that the Canadian government under former prime minister Stephen Harper sold Atomic Energy of...
Small modular reactors won’t achieve economies of manufacturing scale, won’t be faster to construct, forego efficiency of vertical scaling, won’t be cheaper, aren’t suitable for remote or brownfield...
But they need a fund of closer to $70 billion, and they are short regardless. So the US fleet cleanup is going to cost the taxpayer probably closer to an additional $40 billion, if it all goes...
I’ve been ‘anti-nuclear’ since 1974 –ever since I joined the Green Party. My basic position hasn’t changed much during that time. Not because I decided back then that nuclear power was an inherently...
Headlines out of the UK are pointing out the horrible state of affairs for nuclear generation decommissioning after a committee of Members of Parliament that the UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning...
The untimely Oct. 15 shut down of the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant’s Unit 2 is the second malfunction in a critical component of its electric generator, which was just rebuilt. In July, the same...
PG&E, which pled guilty to 84 cases of manslaughter this past spring, has been banking on regulatory inattention to increase profits while ignoring risks to residents and ratepayers from its aging...
Hitachi Ltd. said Wednesday it is pulling out of a nuclear power plant project in Wales, citing a worsening investment environment, in a blow to Britain’s low-carbon energy policy.
Exelon is following through with a threat to close two of its Illinois nuclear power plants by next year unless it receives state support to boost their financial viability, a move that could...
Georgia’s utility regulating agency voted unanimously Tuesday to approve $674 million in spending on the Plant Vogtle nuclear expansion Georgia Power Co. reported incurring during the last half of...
It would be tempting to describe last week’s nuclear scandals — in three states — as something out of the Wild West. But Al Capone’s Chicago would be a more accurate analogy.
Stephen Byrne, a top executive of the now-defunct SCANA electric utility, pleaded guilty Thursday to criminal conspiracy fraud charges in federal court in Columbia. Byrne’s guilty plea showed that...
The number two executive of the defunct SCANA Corp. — whose top officials engineered the biggest business failure in South Carolina history: the $10 billion V.C. Summer nuclear plant fiasco — has...
The government has moved to revise a law to allow for the diversion of budgetary funds set aside for the promotion of renewable energy to help cover ballooning costs related to the storage of...
Tepco presented the outline of decommissioning plans to the municipal assembly of Tomioka, one of the two host towns of the nuclear plant, on Wednesday.
EDF has temporarily suspended operation of three units at its Cruas-Meysse nuclear power plant to assess the reactors following a magnitude 4.9 earthquake yesterday in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region...
A plan is under way to develop 11 solar power plants and 10 wind power plants in the prefecture, on farmlands that cannot be cultivated anymore and mountainous areas from where population outflows...
The Flamanville plant is now slated to be completed in 2022 at a price tag of 12.4 billion euros ($13.8 billion), with the latest glitch costing a whopping 1.5 billion euros. Bemoaning the loss of...
A responsible Commission concerned for California’s future should consider that ratepayer dollars are more wisely spent hardening our grid against future wildfires than propping up ...
The Kansai scandal erupted last week, when it was revealed the utility took payments from a local company that worked on its nuclear plant in Takahama, via one of its former deputy mayors. On Friday,...
Japan's nuclear plant operators face ballooning costs for meeting safety requirements imposed six years ago, potentially throwing a wrench into the government's policy of promoting the atom as a...
There is a small group of scientists that have proposed replacing 100% of the world’s fossil fuel power plants with nuclear reactors as a way to solve climate change. Many others propose nuclear grow...
The ministry plans to establish the subsidy system by the end of fiscal 2020 in line with the scheduled review of the "feed-in tariff" system that set prices for purchasing electricity generated by...
In a startling disparity, a private think tank puts the cost of addressing the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster between 35 trillion yen and 81 trillion yen ($315 billion and $728 billion), compared...
Hitachi has scrapped plans to build a nuclear power station in Wales, becoming the second firm in two months to abandon a major nuclear project and triggering “a full-blown crisis” for the UK...
When he was prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi championed the use of atomic power to generate electricity. . . Koizumi, in office from 2001 to 2006, and widely regarded as one of Japan's most popular...
The Japanese conglomerate Hitachi looks certain to cancel its plans for a £16bn nuclear power station in Wales, leaving Britain’s ambitions for a nuclear renaissance in tatters.
The Japanese government's strategy to export nuclear power technology has run aground amid rising safety costs and deteriorating prospects for project profitability.
If the Japanese conglomerate freezes the ¥3 trillion Wylfa Newydd plant construction, all of the overseas nuclear projects promoted by the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as part of his...
Japan has all but abandoned plans to export nuclear plant technology to Turkey, dealing another blow to a pillar of the Abe administration’s economic growth strategy.
President Emmanuel Macron of France depressed nuclear executives globally in late November 2018, announcing the planned retirement of 14 of 58 reactors by 2035. This was still less than was promised...
The new third generation (EPR) nuclear reactor is being built in France and Finland and is also proposed in the UK. A similar design went into operation in South Korea in December 2016 – but it...
Congressman Salud Carbajal announced a new bill Monday to encourage investment in renewable energy businesses in San Luis Obispo County. The bill, called the Energy Opportunity Zone Act, is targeted...
The "European Pressurized Reactor (EPR)", once proclaimed to be a new impetus for the nuclear renaissance, turned out to be a disaster, characterized by safety deficiencies ...
Ramping – when power plants adjust their output according to market needs – is crucial in an energy system that includes renewables. So can nuclear reactors ramp enough to accommodate significant...
Without any official announcement having been made, French nuclear reactor operator EDF seems poised to close up to five reactors next year. What will this mean for the French energy market?
Building Britain’s first new nuclear reactor since 1995 will cost twice as much as the 2012 Olympics – and by the time it is finished, nuclear power could be a thing of the past. How could the...
Over the past decade, state legislatures across the country rewrote rule books for how power companies pay for new power plants, shifting financial risks away from electric companies to you and...
France has announced (report in French) the abandonment of plans first adopted in 2012 to reduce the share of nuclear from 75% to 50% by 2025. The reason given is that such a fast reduction would not...
After months of hearings, regulators would not support FPL's plan to bill electricity customers for the costs of the nuclear power project, which lacks a feasibility analysis and has also had its...
Even countries with long-standing nuclear aims are adding wind power much faster, as Brazil, China, and India show. Those interested in the fastest way to mitigate climate change can forget nuclear.
Various studies on future low-carbon electricity mixes suggest that the least expensive option is one with nuclear along with solar and wind mixed in. But the economists overlook the cost impact of...
Proponents of 100% renewable energy face harsh criticism, even well-respected scientists like Mark Jacobson. He has been arguing for countries to switch to an all-renewables grid for years, both...
But following the decision last week by two utilities to scrap the expansion at the Virgil C. Summer Nuclear Generating Station in South Carolina, that vision is in tatters. There's now just one...
It is a meaningless concept at the least and dangerous at its worst
Public Service Commission chairman Swain Whitfield added that the reactors' cancellation after $9 billion of investment — more than the state’s annual budget — “is going to shatter lives, hopes and...
Scana is seeking state approval to collect $4.9 billion from customers to cover the costs of scrapping two half-finished reactors after construction delays and billions in cost overruns forced the...
The robot found large amounts of solidified lava-like rocks and lumps in layers as thick as 1m on the bottom inside a main structure called the pedestal that sits underneath the core inside the...
But 43 of Japan's 54 original reactors are still offline. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, for his part, has promoted a policy of restarts, but he is politically weaker now than at any time since...
Ukraine is talking to one of France’s largest energy companies about building a giant, billion-euro ($1.25 billion) solar park in the uninhabited radioactive zone surrounding the abandoned Chernobyl...
French state-owned EDF said the cost overrun for two new reactors at Hinkley in Somerset could hit £2.2bn, taking the total spend to £20.3bn, up from £18bn previously.
The re-elected governor here has given an emphatic “No” to the question of whether the Hamaoka nuclear power plant, often described as the most dangerous facility of its kind in Japan, should be...
President Moon Jae-in said Monday that his administration will halt the construction of new nuclear power plants and will not extend the operations of aging reactors.
In the US, a debate on “deep decarbonization” is raging: going nearly zero-carbon in energy supply. Journalist David Roberts says we will need “dispatchable” nuclear. Via Twitter, he told readers...
Virginia is about to receive approval for the most expensive nuclear reactor ever built in the USA. It’s been a 10-year hunt with reactor technologies changing at least twice to add a third unit to...
A new Penn State Medical Center study has found a link between the 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear accident and thyroid cancer cases in south-central Pennsylvania.
Three Mile Island - which experienced a partial reactor meltdown in 1979, spawning nationwide protests - will shut in 2019.
My assumption was always that the single reactor in question is being sacrificed to keep the rest of the fleet from having to change much. Recently, I had the time to delve into the data to verify...
Craig Morris reviews a few papers by Americans and advises them to tackle the best European studies for 100% renewables head-on, not ignore them.
Money spent nursing nukes may be better spent on wind, solar, and research into new technologies.
Five nuclear reactors in Japan were approved for decommissioning on Wednesday, pushing utilities and other companies to join hands to tackle both the great business opportunities and daunting...
Westinghouse, one of the most storied names in the nuclear energy business, filed for bankruptcy Wednesday, dealing a blow to the nuclear power industry and raising questions about the fate of four...
A United Nations committee has asked the UK to suspend work on the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station in Somerset because of the government’s failure to consult with European countries over the...
An Indian airliner passing over Europe lost radio contact and had to be escorted by fighter jets (it could have been a terrorist attack). As the plane passed over German reactors, some were evacuated...
The Japanese public has lost faith in nuclear safety regulation, and a majority favors phasing out nuclear power. However, Japan’s current energy policy assumes nuclear power will play a role.
Giant portions of public spending are now at risk of pouring down a nuclear power black hole as calls for the Government to make direct investments into new nuclear power plant intensify.
Desperate to cover the latest catastrophic meltdown to hit the nuclear industry as Toshiba sinks under the weight of its failures to construct nuclear power plant through its Westinghouse subsidiary,...
Toshiba Corp.’s chairman resigned Tuesday after the company logged such massive losses in its nuclear business that it must sell its lucrative computer-chip business to avoid going belly-up.
Authorities say fire in turbine hall was outside nuclear zones of Flamanville power station near Cherbourg
However, what’s being missed in this narrative is the hundreds of districts across Japan that are building local distributed energy systems that maximize efficiency and use of local renewable-energy...
Whoever succeeds Francois Hollande as France’s president may find one of their first tasks in office will be selling off some of the nation’s prized assets to prop up the state’s nuclear industry.
France was heavily dependent on power imports during the first cold spell of this winter. Yet, most of the country’s reactors are back online.
New nuclear projects need power price of around EUR 127/MWh in 2015 prices, as the Hinkley Point C project in the UK shows. And this price needs to be indexed to inflation. It is highly unlikely...
Once envisioned as playing a key role in Japan’s nuclear fuel-recycling policy, the controversial Monju prototype fast-breeder atomic reactor will now be scrapped, the government formally announced...
At the end of November, Switzerland clearly rejected a proposal by the Greens for a fast closure of the country’s five reactors, leaving the Swiss with a phaseout plan without a roadmap
28 youtube.com videos on the Energiewende with an emphasis on the Electricity Rebels who sparked a renewable energy revolution in Germany.
The French nuclear industry is in its “worst situation ever” because of a spate of plant closures in France and the complexities it faces with the UK’s Hinkley Point C power station, according to a...
At present, around the third of France’s nuclear fleet is currently off-line as safety experts inspect small cracks in containment vessels. Earlier this year, we learned that improper manufacturing...
The documentary thus is an ad for thorium and cleverly begins with one in order to appear more objective; a comic strip version of the late nuclear expert Alvin Weinberg tells viewers he i
On the weekend, Swiss media reported (in German and in French) that Swiss reactor operator Alpiq could find no buyer for its two nuclear plants and is therefore hoping to give them to the Swiss...
An anti-nuclear stance taken by opposition parties could lift them from their doldrums and defeat the ruling coalition, former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said, pointing to the recent Niigata...
The cost of cleaning up Tokyo Electric Power’s wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant may rise to several billion dollars a year, from less than US$800 million now, Japan’s industry ministry said on...
A poll conducted by the Asahi Shimbun newspaper on October 15 and 16 determining that 57 percent of the public is against the nation's nuclear power plants being restarted, and just 29 percent...
An anti-nuclear candidate has been elected in a region of Japan that houses the world’s biggest atomic power station, striking a blow to Tokyo Electric Power’s attempts to restart the plant in the...
Last month, the British government signed off on what might be the most controversial and least promising plan for a nuclear power station in a generation.
One wonders when the international media will catch on. Maybe never—or did you know that Switzerland implemented a nuclear phaseout (by 2034) in the wake of Fukushima back in 2011?
We have a surplus because Ontario operates three gigantic nuclear plants (including the world’s biggest – the Bruce Nuclear Station). Demand for electricity has fallen over the past decade in...
As Hinkley C received the green light to go ahead last week, research published by the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex shows how intense British Government attachments to...
The state’s Fair Political Practices Commission has launched a formal probe into the California Democratic Party, sparked by allegations of corruption and a tangle of close ties involving the party,...
British MP Caroline Lucas perhaps put it best: “Do we keep ploughing billions into mammoth infrastructure projects such as Hinkley, or do we refocus resources and build up an energy democracy from...
“It looks like a contract that was written five years ago on a business case that was probably pulled together 10 years ago,” British journalist Ambrose Evans-Pritchard cites a spokesperson for...
In the 21st century, the UK will have to supply itself with power that is affordable, reliable and clean. But in almost every way, the proposed Hinkley Point C nuclear power station offers only...
While Japan’s once-charged anti-nuclear movement struggles to retain its momentum five years after the 2011 Fukushima catastrophe, former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi remains doggedly determined...
The inside story of how a little known group and its level-headed activists led to the closure of two of the most infamous nuclear reactors in the United States. The forthcoming closure of the two...[more]
EDF leaders are now in such a state of panic over their Hinkley C proposals that desperate messages were being sent out to tell the British Government that they need to take a £6 billion equity share...
The "voice of Europe's nuclear industry" has produced an embarassingly manipulative chart that hypes up nuclear and plays down renewables. This is how you don't do it, folks.
Technological advances mean the cost of renewables is coming down, representing far better value for taxpayers’ money
Name of China General Nuclear Power, which holds stake in the planned new reactors, has appeared in US legal papers
UK government’s own projections expect onshore wind power and large-scale solar to cost less per megawatt hour than new nuclear by 2025
FBI says Chinese stakeholder in proposed plant has been engaged in two-decade conspiracy to steal US nuclear secrets
When clean energy doesn’t mean what you think it does.[more]
Two years ago, a retired British MP gave me a tip under the condition of anonymity: “look for connections between Hinkley and British nuclear weapons.”
But it's also generating controversy, as it props up the state's faltering nuclear industry to the tune of about $500 million a year in subsidies—and potentially lays out a blueprint for other states...
The Democratic Party Platform calls for a global summit to solve the climate crisis within the first 100 days of the new administration and a WWII-level mobilization to combat climate change. If...[more]
If Theresa May says that she will agree to Hinkley C but will not agree to the Bradwell project, then it is likely that the Chinese will walk away from Hinkley, thus ending the project - unless the...
Britain’s first new nuclear power station for a generation is in fresh doubt after the government postponed a final decision on the £18bn project, despite the French energy company behind it voting...
Once again, EDF's superb public relations is convincing people that its disastrous Hinkley C power plant project is moving ahead, whilst the reality is that it is announcing that the project will not...
Japan's use of nuclear power is unlikely to meet a government target of returning to near pre-Fukushima levels and the world's No.3 economy needs to get serious about boosting renewables, a senior...
The Otsu District Court ruled against Kansai Electric Power Co. for the third time in five months Tuesday, in a decision that will keep its Takahama No. 3 and 4 reactors in Fukui Prefecture shut down...
On July 10, Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), under PM Abe Shinzo, won a massive majority in the Upper House elections. A couple of years ago, that result would have been read as...[more]
Anti-nuclear advocate Satoshi Mitazono was elected governor of Kagoshima Prefecture on Sunday, beating incumbent Yuichiro Ito, who agreed to the resumption of reactors at a power plant in the...
A lot of business elites have clearly thrown in the towel on nuclear and are instead openly lobbying to have Japan vault to global leadership in renewables, efficiency and smart infrastructure.[more]
The Dutch Government has awarded a contract to build two 350 MW Borssele offshore windfarms for 87 euros per MWh (£74 per MWh), some 25 per cent cheaper than the current value of the contract for...
Critics said it showed just how volatile and uncertain the project had become, given that the same energy department’s estimate 12 months earlier had been £14bn.
Yet, Brexit does offer a unique opportunity for the European community to put an end to the support of nuclear power. Therefore, the termination of the EURATOM Treaty needs to be put on the EU agenda...
This tells us two things. First, that California has been resting on its laurels since the early 1980s, regarding geothermal. Not much has been done since. Second, it tells us because of California’s...[more]
The following is post-nuclear vision for Diablo Canyon.[more]
3-minute video montage of the seismic history at the troubled Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, put to the 1964 song parody recorded by "The Goodtime Washboard 3" (Bratton-Fagerstrom-Pope).
Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant will be shut down in 2025 after its operating licenses expire, owner Pacific Gas & Electric Co. has announced. Here's a look at what will become of the plant,...
Weeks after the first new US reactor in decades failed to ramp up for the first time, the Washington Post has run two articles on how important the reactor will be in combating climate change. There...
"The present schedule for constructing the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant is predicated on beginning construction in October 1972. This schedule is extremely tight and failure to begin construction in...
In late May, strikes reduced nuclear power production in France. Yet even more plants were offline a few weeks earlier without any strikes at all. German and European renewable electricity may have...
The Wynne government in Ontario is considering spending more than $300 million to patch up Canada’s oldest nuclear generating station in hopes of keeping it running for another eight years or more.
If you follow nuclear news, it’s been an exciting week. First, Der Spiegel reported (in German) that the EU aimed to ramp up nuclear “massively,” including with the construction of “flexible...
According to spokespersons for the proposed 'NuGen' nuclear development at Moorside in Cumbria either or both the Japanese and American Governments could end up part-paying for the proposed 3.8 GW...
The nuclear plant at Fort Calhoun is simply too expensive to run when compared to other, cheaper forms of power, the Omaha Public Power District’s chief executive said Thursday. So it needs to shut...
French nuclear therefore does not facilitate the integration of wind and solar in neighboring countries. Rather, it clogs up the grid and reduces flexibility.
Overall, Chernobyl led to an educated German public, not a fearful one, as this book attests.
Chernobyl allowed the nuclear sector to claim that uninformed hippies blocked nuclear by spreading irrational fear. The claim not only overlooks Wall Street, but also supposes a level of influence...
The French Government has been faced with what seems to many to be the ludicrous prospect of heavily subsidising a power station to supply the British with electricity.
So let's get this right, the Torygraph is saying that nuclear power plant can't or won't turn down their power stations, so it's windfarms and solar farms that are the problem?
ake a large number of scientists who have grown up with the firm belief that nuclear power is the future of energy, face them with the fact that nuclear power is proving to be undeliverable in...
Solar and wind would generate the equivalent power to Hinkley over the plant’s planned lifetime for £40bn less, says analysis comparing future costs
Engineers at the French utility EDF have also called for delay, saying that the project is very complicated and unproven. “Right now, Hinkley is too risky for the company. We think it is better to...
Bernard Chabot is back today with a comparison of wind and nuclear in the "BICS" countries (BRICS without Russia). He points out that wind has boomed in China since the country got rid of auctions...
Onshore wind schemes now being installed are being paid over 30 per cent less than what Hinkley C would be paid under the UK Government's current agreement with EDF if it was generating now.
EDF’s £18bn project to build nuclear reactors in Britain is potentially risky for the state-owned utility, whose foreign investments in recent years have proved disappointing, France’s top public...
But not only can renewables supply baseload power, they can do something far more valuable: supply power flexibly according to demand. Now nuclear power really is redundant.
Strange as it may seem, there is now a plausible argument for anti-nuclear campaigners to call for Hinkley C to be built. Why? Because the financial catastrophe that would, as a result, envelope, and...
The French press should start asking tough questions and stop making this a “he said, she said” issue between allegedly anti-nuclear Germans and the French. Don’t do it for the Germans; the French...
However, the resignation of EDF’s finance director, Thomas Piquemal, shows nervousness at the top of the group about the dangers of a project of this magnitude, even though chief executive...
Nearly five years after the nation’s worst nuclear accident, Tokyo Electric Power Co. has admitted that its staff failed to follow damage assessment guidelines, according to which they should have...
The boss of one of the three supposed consortia claimed to be building Britain's nuclear power stations has all but admitted that his project is a fantasy one.
The announcement by the Treasury that their offer of loan guarantees for the EPR at Hinkley C is linked to successful functioning of the Flamanville EPR means that short of absolute lunacy reigning...
he spectacle of the disastrous attempts to build a new generation of nuclear reactor - the European Pressurised Reactors (EPRs) - and EDF's apparent desire to carry on despite the increasing...
Despite the majority of Japanese opposing a restart of the nation's nuclear reactors, the government continues to press for a full resumption of nuclear power. Energy expert Tetsunari Iida tells DW...
As if anything extra was needed to demonstrate the financial lunacy of the Hinkley C project to all parties concerned, EDF, according to French press reports, now wants the French Government to pay...
So we are backing up the cheap renewables with fossil fuels that are not so cheap, and the solution to that is to use the fossil fuels that are not so cheap all the time? That sum does not quite add...
Further delays at the Daishan EPR project being built in China are hammering another nail in a coffin. The only debate now is whether the coffin will house the Hinkley C project or the whole of EDF.
The “Exit now” article assumes that the phase-out caused this financial misery. In fact, the phase-out gave power firms a brief respite. If the nine (of 17) reactors switched off immediately after...
Reuters has reported that China Group Nuclear (CGN) will put its investment in Bordeaux-based renewables installer Inovia Concept Development with the aim of installing around 1GW of solar on...
The 1-cubic-meter bags are found at some 114,700 interim storage or decontamination sites across the prefecture. In the town of Tomioka -- covered by a nuclear disaster evacuation order -- mounds of...
Line up energy sources by unpopularity, and you have the British government's priorities listed; in other words, the government is doing exactly what the British public don't want
The chancellor, George Osborne, revealed on Wednesday that at least £250m will be spent by 2020 on an “ambitious” programme to “position the UK as a global leader in innovative nuclear technologies”.
Amber Rudd today compounded the fantasy that surrounds UK energy policy by declaring that the future would depend on new gas fired and nuclear power stations without any realistic policies of...
But we still need to keep in mind that the French dump nuclear on neighboring countries on the cheap when demand is low. When demand is high, French reactors cannot even cover domestic demand. In...
The Abe government’s repositioning on energy is evident in an accelerating shift away from support for the nuclear village, in spite of a few restarts, and towards an increasingly impressive...
My own guess is that the British Government is only keeping the PR for the project positive because it hopes to provide a smooth passage for other financial deals it is doing with China, and to...
“It’s against the law for a company to misrepresent material information to a safety regulator,” said Aguirre, who is challenging a settlement agreement that forces customers to pay for most of San...
Further drastic losses on Hinkley C similar to the mounting losses accrued by AREVA and EDF on the EPRs being built in Finland (Olikuoto) and France (Flamanville) might lead to what hitherto has...
The government confirms that it is not continuing the ‘no public subsidy policy’ [for nuclear power] of the previous administration.
More than 70 percent of the nuclear fuel in one of the reactors at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant is highly likely to have melted in the wake of the massive 2011...
“Time will certainly come when the nuclear power issue will emerge as a key campaign issue in elections,” Koizumi said. “Candidates will be judged by their positions on nuclear power."
The belief that somehow nuclear power will be cheaper if somehow it is done differently here has been stoked by a recent IEA Report which says that British nuclear power, in the shape of the proposed...
This document describes and analyses the main characteristics of electricity production, imports and demand in California since 2001. Comparisons are made for Nuclear and renewables, with the clear...
Finally, a sophisticated, sober, and revealing explanation of why successive British governments have been hell bent on building two new--and very expensive--reactors by the French & Chinese. It just...
In short, Switzerland thus briefly lost 3,300 megawatts of baseload generation capacity. Power demand in the country ranges from around 5,000 (baseload) to over 10,000 megawatts (peak) in the summer.
Japan's Kyushu Electric Power has halted the ramp-up of power output from its Sendai No. 1 nuclear reactor due to a problem with a pump in the plant's secondary cooling system, a spokesman said on...
The authors have a hierarchy of steps to take. First, “sufficiency” and efficiency reduces energy demand. Second, renewable energy cover
Environmental groups are urging the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission to release a study on nuclear disaster scenarios that they say was suppressed. The commission released a study last year looking...
As widespread incredulity spreads about the UK Government's insistence that the plan to build Hinkley C nuclear power station is still on track, we must wonder which country and which companies will...
Fifty-seven percent of respondents to the weekend survey opposed Kyushu Electric Power Co's restart of a reactor at its Sendai plant in southwest Japan, set for Tuesday. Thirty percent supported the...
Regional power companies were cranking out the juice during the recent heat wave, proving that Japan can do without nuclear reactors even during the hottest days of summer.
French energy activists, Association négaWatt, have released their plan for France to reach nearly 100% renewable energy by 2050 in English. The move is a dramatic step by the French NGO to draw the...[more]
The flaws at the EPR reactor still under construction in Flamanville were apparently known way back in 2006. Now, the Swiss are finding similar fissures as those detected in Belgium – because they...
This situation once again disproves the common notion that Germany can “rely” on French nuclear when it needs power. In reality, trading takes place based on price, not dire need to prevent...
Catherine Mitchell launches a series of articles on designing a “no-regrets” energy policy that is as much a plea for sanity in Great Britain as it is an explanation why no resource is 100%...[more]
So far, as said elsewhere, we are witnessing a Government which is dismantling sustainable energy policies. The energy world is broadly going in one direction – and as said before that’s not the same...
France is not ramping up renewables fast enough, so it will not reach that target anyway. Furthermore, it will not reach its target for the reduction in nuclear power, which is completely unrealistic...
In a brief study, the French operator of the country’s nuclear plants unsurprisingly finds that backup generation capacity for fluctuating wind and solar will need to be as flexible as possible. The...
In a nutshell, France relies on Germany to cover its peak demand, not vice versa. There is, however, a risk of Germany decommissioning so much coal and nuclear capacity over the next seven years as...
The IPPR favour developing nuclear power as a publicly owned development, on the same basis as projects like HS2. There would be a 'cost plus' contract given to the nuclear power developers, who...
The French government announced plans to inject cash into Areva, the firm that constructs nuclear plants in the country. It is a desperate attempt to ward off the inevitable: bankruptcy.
The European nuclear industry, led by France, seems to be in terminal decline as a result of the cancellation of a new Finnish reactor, technical faults in stations already under construction, and...
Second, there has been no surge in coal power during the nuclear phase-out. In fact, total coal power production (both lignite and hard coal) fell by six percent last year alone.
Using the Government's own contract prices for nuclear power and wind power we can demonstrate how nuclear power is more expensive than both onshore wind AND offshore wind.
But more rapidly than could have been imagined even five years ago, pointing a finger at France doesn’t evoke nuclear success. Rather, France, whose nuclear industry is in speedy and accelerating...
Former parliamentarian Alan Simpson bemoans the paucity of serious debates of public paucity in the recent British election concluded today. Beginning in Churchillian tones, he laments "What...[more]
In a nutshell, the UK overpays wind power in particular because big utilities with big expectations for returns run the show, whereas new players and communities have largely driven the German wind...
What are the findings? The leaked PDF has two blank pages where the executive summary should be. So I wrote my own.
Given GB’s disastrous auction policy in the 1990’s, one can understand the scepticism of this from the German renewable energy industry. Again, this may have unforeseen impacts.
Japan stands at a point now, where it can no longer hide behind the Fukushima nuclear disaster for its passive stance toward anti-climate change measures.
If the Act is not replaced, the UK will be treading energy water until four or so years time when we will be forced to rethink a new Act anyway. Yes, this means putting EMR on hold until new...
A court in Japan has dealt a blow to plans by the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, to relaunch nuclear power generation four years after the Fukushima meltdown by halting the restart of two reactors over...
Nuclear power output stood at zero throughout fiscal 2014 for the first time since the country began commercial operation of its first nuclear plant in fiscal 1966, the Federation of Electric Power...
As if things were not bad enough for the prospect of completing constructions of the ailing European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) design, things have now gotten worse with the discovery of a serious...
Areva has found weak spots in the steel of the EPR nuclear reactor it is building for utility EDF in Flamanville, France, French nuclear regulator ASN said on Tuesday.
The Chinese nuclear interests, who are needed to provide a large part of the equity investment in the project, are demanding that the French Government agrees to carry the can and pay for cost...
The nuclear renaissance has failed to materialize, but it looks like the renewable era is getting started.
Three of Japan’s oldest nuclear reactors will be decommissioned, the start of what is expected to be a series of shutdowns because of costs to meet tougher safety standards introduced after the...
Normally, Chabot's presentations are quite long and exhaustive. Today, this one is short and sweet – four charts, one for each country, and a single comparison of kilowatt-hours of electricity from...
French Environmental Minister Ségolène Royal . . . defended (article in French) the policy of “getting out of all-nuclear” (sortir du tout nucléaire). Here, something easily gets lost in translation:...
This view once again highlights the gap between government policy and reality. EDF are certainly not going to go ahead without at least a guarantee of compensation from the UK Government in the event...
In their search warrant affidavit, state investigators said that among the items they were looking for was evidence related to the Kern County alternative energy plant known as Hydrogen Energy...
Peevey’s 2005 decision to let Edison upgrade San Onofre absent a cost-justification may be more questionable in light of the release of emails he traded with utility officials.
The UK is now ‘issuing threats’ to Austria that a series of retaliatory measures will be undertaken if Austria goes ahead with its legal challenge to the EU State Aid decision approving GB Government...
Weatherill is right about one thing: Nuclear energy, he says, is “not something that would be economically viable in South Australia, or indeed the nation.”
An ad in Die Zeit from 22 June 1990 posted by a German nuclear organization shows how greatly wind power was underestimated. And how nuclear never lived up to the dreams of its supporters.
The utility says 2016 forecasts show it will require $71 per MWh to earn an 11% return from the 581 MW plant in upstate New York, and $56 to $64 per MWh to break even.
While the government says it will approve restarting idled nuclear reactors after the NRA's clearance, NRA Chairman Shunichi Tanaka says he is not saying it is safe and would not commit to endorsing...
But critics say the move by an agency under the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry does little to solve the basic electricity transmission issues, and hint that the real purpose of the changes...
“Today, thanks to investments in renewable energy such as solar, Vermont’s energy future is on a different, more sustainable path that is creating jobs, reducing energy costs for Vermonters and...
What next? The financial woes of French developers Areva and EDF may mean that their £24 billion 3.4 GW Hinkley nuclear project, despite being heavily subsidised by British taxpayers and consumers,...
Internal emails show that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Pacific Gas & Electric Co. may have worked together to counteract widespread news coverage. Numerous outlets reported that the...
It was recently revealed that the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) and Bruce Power have been in secret negotiations since December 2013 regarding a long-term supply contract to finance the re-building...
Denmark's steady fall in emissions and adoption of policies to expand renewable energy gave it a score of 77.76, putting it in the highest spot in fourth place for the third year running, followed by...
Japan's electric utilities are spending significantly more than what they calculated about two years ago on enhancing the safety of their nuclear power stations under tighter security regulations.
The Government has refused to confirm that it it will sign a contract with EDF allowing Hinkley C to be built before April 2015, which is only a few weeks before the General Election.
With £37bn of financial promises and loan guarantees still pledged to Hinkley Point C, the Coalition is still betting heavily on Milk Rounds. And with unlimited endorsements of 'Fracking' and further...
Hot on the heels of news of further escalations of delays (and thus) costs for EPRs being built in Finland and France there is news that the Treasury is conducting a 'secret' review of the EPR...
The future of the Hinkley Point C nuclear plant in Somerset is under a cloud amid a financial crisis at Areva, a shareholder in the project and the designer of the proposed reactors. Shares in the...
Nearly half of all heads of prefectures and municipalities near nuclear power plants say plant operators should be required to obtain their consent before restarting reactors, according to an Asahi...
Chris Goodall, one of those pro-nuclear greens who saw the radioactive light a few years ago but who didn't notice the sheer uneconomic nature of nuclear power has now realised that the Hinkley C...
A comparison of the payments schedule for Hinkley C and government projections of renewable energy spending plans suggests that from 2023 spending on first Hinkley C, and later other nuclear power...
Naturally, the technologies themselves will also have to become cheaper, but all signs indicate that the future looks bright for wind and solar power. The International Renewable Energy Agency...
The big waste comes with the nuclear investment. The problem with the ability of the electricity system to absorb more variable wind power supplies lies with the inability, and unwillingness, of...
Observers might be forgiven for imagining that the 35 year contract for Hinkley C, underpinned by £10 billion of state loan guarantees paying higher premium prices (£92.50) than privately built...
Green groups in the UK are now being subjected to a withering assault on their anti-nuclear position, which is amounting at worst to a campaign of disinformation or at best wishful thinking by the...
The Fukushima District Court ordered Tokyo Electric Power Co. to pay 49 million yen ($471,600) in compensation to the family of a woman who committed suicide by setting herself ablaze after being...
. . . support for onshore wind among the public is 67 per cent, with just 11 per cent opposed. Solar power is the most popular renewable fuel (82 per cent support) with offshore wind a bit ahead of...
According to the FT, National Grid said the closures should not affect the UK’s energy supply. “Demand is low at this time of year, and a lot of wind power is being generated right now,” it said.
A document released by the panel on Thursday showed it voted in favor of indicting Tsunehisa Katsumata, chairman of Tokyo Electric Power Co. at the time of the crisis, along with vice presidents...
There’s an enduring myth related to wind energy and nuclear energy that needs to be put to bed. That myth is that only nuclear can be scaled to sufficient capacity to reduce the impacts of global...
In Britain nuclear's recent record for availability is not outstanding - 65 per cent according to the Digest of UK Energy Statistics for the year 2008-2012. Remember this is for a technology that is...
Former lawmaker Taizo Mikazuki who supports phasing out nuclear power won a three-way race to succeed Shiga Gov. Yukiko Kada on Sunday, beating a candidate backed by the ruling parties by a narrow...
An anti-nuclear citizens’ network has translated a Japanese court’s ruling blocking the restarts of two reactors into English, Korean and Chinese to spread the “universal values” of the judgment.
Japan is indeed poor in fossil fuels—but among all major industrial countries, it’s the richest in renewable energy like sun, wind, and geothermal. For example, Japan has nine times Germany’s...
Former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi again blasted the Abe administration’s pro-nuclear energy strategy, saying the plan to restart reactors across the nation is “too optimistic” and goes against...
A heavily edited assessment of the project to overhaul the Darlington nuclear station has identified up to $300 million in cost increases, two years before physical work is scheduled to start.
I argue that nuclear energy ceased to be a viable option in the world's energy mix as the result of the disappearance of the subsidies it received in the form of plutonium purchases by the military....
There is broad consensus for the Swiss nuclear phaseout, even across party lines. In the latest representative survey of 1,264 households in Switzerland, a large majority of the Swiss expressed their...
An in-depth look reveals that coal is not making a comeback in Germany. The current addition of new coal projects in Germany is a one-off phenomenon. Recent projects started in 2005-2007 as part of...
But first we need to get data for the nuclear decline, so as to find a suitable time frame for measuring the renewable growth.
It took the Fukushima disaster to put the future of nuclear power in doubt – but could renewable energy mean the end for nuclear power?
Wednesday’s court ruling blocking restarts of the No. 3 and 4 reactors at Kansai Electric Power Co.’s Oi plant may embolden opponents of nuclear power nationwide.
he Fukui District Court ruled Wednesday that it will not allow the restart of two reactors at Kansai Electric Power Co.'s Oi nuclear plant, now under safety examination by Japan's top nuclear...
A Canadian has discovered that radioactive trees aren’t decomposing, suggesting that fallout may be even more dangerous than we realize.
Environmentalists are applauding a landmark Federal Court ruling that puts the brakes on building expensive and risky new nuclear reactors in Ontario.
Compared to the IPCC, the US military is both more forthright in its assessments of climate change risk and realistic in its appraisal of the cost-cutting merits of renewable energy and efficiency....
Former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa, co-founder of the Japan Assembly for Nuclear Free Renewable Energy, which was officially inaugurated on May 7, said he fully agrees with Saigo, and stressed...
Former prime ministers Junichiro Koizumi and Morihiro Hosokawa on Wednesday established a new entity to promote renewable energy as part of a joint antinuclear campaign that previously led Hosokawa...
And OPG has paid $793 million to prepare to do the Darlington refurbishment, which we haven’t even contracted to do yet. This included the construction of a mock reactor, so workers could practice...
If nuclear power is to provide a carbon-free future for all of our energy, how many plants would need to be built? One per day for the next 22 years. In reality, the world faces a reduction in...
Japan’s energy policy regime appears dangerously adrift in the context of accelerating climate change. The core problem is agency. On the one hand, Japanese PM Abe Shinzo and the nuclear village...
But as his Figure 1 and, in particular, Figure 3 show, the boom in nuclear mainly took place in the 1970s. Growth continued in the 80s, but began stagnating at the end of the 90s, and has taken a...
Areas with periodic droughts, like California, Australia, and even the US and Canadian west (remember the dust bowl) need to preserve their rivers and aquifers, or face severe economic consequences....
The Hinkley C nuclear power plant deal that gives the nuclear developers a £92.50 per MWh premium price for 35 years will give nuclear power a clear competitive advantage over solar pv in what will...
A majority of respondents continue to oppose bringing idle nuclear reactors back online, despite moves by the Abe administration to allow restarts as soon as this summer, according to an Asahi...
Andrew DeWit of Rikkyo University talked about Koizumi’s vision and laid out how Japan’s energy path could change. Its power market is being deregulated, the number of independent power producers is...
Two class-action lawsuits have been filed in New York City against General Electric Co. over the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, court documents show.
So no, Germany has not imported more nuclear power from abroad during its nuclear phaseout. We do, however, continue to run the risks. From my home in Freiburg, Germany, it is 25 kilometers as the...
In China, wind power is leaving nuclear behind. Electricity output from China’s wind farms exceeded that from its nuclear plants for the first time in 2012, by a narrow margin. Then in 2013, wind...
As construction delays for the French and Finnish EPR nuclear power schemes lengthen, the odds that the British taxpayer will end up bailing out the EPR planned for Hinkley C in Somerset are rising...
Areva also took a new 425 million euro ($587 million) provision on Olkiluoto, taking total provisions on the project to 3.85 billion euros and knocking Areva into a 494 million euro loss for 2013.
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), perhaps incorporating lessons-learned from the oversight misfortunes of San Bruno and the shuttered San Onofre nuclear plant, has called for...
In a remarkable piece of double-think Caroline Flint, Labour's energy spokesperson, has declared that nuclear power in the shape of Hinkley C is 'cheaper than other forms of renewable energy'. This...
The irony in these complaints is that for fifty years the selection of generating capacity has been rigged in favor of nuclear power with socialized accident insurance and waste management costs,...
But today, 5 out of 16 of the nuclear plants are off line (source: Sygration ). That is 27% of our nuclear capacity, or 3400 MW. The nuclear units that are off line are 50% more than the total...
Japan will scrap its grand nuclear energy plans centering on the accident-prone Monju fast breeder reactor, a decision that will likely force a reassessment of a fuel cycle program that was supposed...
These potential costs should nevertheless be minimized, which is done when moral hazard or free-riding is the lowest, which seems to minimally require unlimited liability on the operator side.
Anyway, here was a man who held Japan's highest political office for five and a half years, lamenting now--and openly admitting--that he'd been lied to [about nuclear power].
Ontario’s bill for refurbishing 10 nuclear reactors is coming due, and it’s massive.
A group of lawmakers from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party seeking to phase out nuclear power generation has compiled a proposal that the government drastically revise the nation's basic energy...
Japan’s energy policy is at a watershed; the country must now decide which form of energy to adopt as its foundation of the society. Japan Renewable Energy Foundation is urging the government to take...
The figures in Ontario’s just-released energy plan show a dramatic drop in the province’s dependence on nuclear power.
So the Government's price for its nuclear programme will be hefty price rises for an increasing size of the UK electricity market being owned by the Chinese Government.
As Komaneff points out in detail, the cost of nuclear projects are hard to understand exactly. That’s because it takes a long time to build a nuclear power plant. Lots of things can and do go wrong...
Sweden, reviving its nuclear power, will not follow Britain's example of offering state guarantees to fund the construction of new plants, its energy minister said on Wednesday.
I dutifully opened up Porter’s column and was quickly appalled. . . The column fails the single most critical precept in nuclear economics: don’t confuse promise with performance. I made this point...
Work to decommission the nation's first commercial nuclear reactor cannot start for the simple reason there is still no disposal site for radioactive waste.
Former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Nov. 12 used his first public session with reporters since retiring from politics to continue pressing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to abandon nuclear energy.
Since then, we have received an analysis from Deutsche Bank, which makes some other observations about the cost of nuclear, the comparisons with gas, the price of abatement, and the cost of upkeep...
Ed Davey's excuse for limiting wind power contracts to 15 years whilst Hinkley C gets a whopping 35 year contract is blown away by some elementary history checking. Lots of wind turbines in Altamont...
Even the German feed-in rates for smaller solar pv arrays have been reduced to well below the contract price being offered to EDF etc in the UK (see link at the bottom of this post). In addition,...
The UK government’s announcement of a preliminary deal with EDF and its financial partners on the Hinkley Point C European Pressurised-water Reactor (EPR) project, was met with a mixed response. ...
The Government has talked about extending the size of the schemes which qualify under the small feed-in tariff from 5MW to 10 MW. However this makes little difference as the rates payable under the...
Judging from the chatter in social media, the German renewables community is quite pleased at the announcement of a new nuclear plant in the UK. The prices are now, finally, so transparent -- and so...
The Government's hoo-hah over the Hinkley C nuclear deal hides what should be regarded as a decision by the British state - after denying it for years - to give a blank cheque for the power plant. In...
Fire at Windscale (one of the reactors on the Sellafield site, England) ranked 5 out of 7 on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale . . . Harold Macmillan, told the cabinet that he...
There are many interesting points about the much trailed nuclear announcement today but the ones I find particularly interesting is that regarding the 10% return on investment and the various issues...
The cost of nuclear energy has tripled in just five years, while the cost of renewable energy is falling fast, making the UK government's deal a truly terrible one
Costs can’t be ignored, not only is the playing field for the cost of nuclear uneven, in respect to learning rates, despite widespread deployment they are not falling – recent estimates suggest that...
Ontario’s Liberal government has decided it will not spend billions of dollars to build two new nuclear plants, but will refurbish existing reactors at two nuclear generating stations.
Ontario’s government will shelve plans for a major new investment in nuclear power, according to industry and government sources.
The operator of Japan’s wrecked nuclear plant said Monday that a pump used to cool one of the damaged reactors had stopped, possibly because of human error, in the latest mishap at the...
How could the world have misjudged the dangers associated with nuclear power, especially those from the light water reactors that so dominate the nuclear industry today? The simple answer is lack of...
Ministers are considering bearing some of the construction risk for the £14bn project . . . An agreement will see the energy company a guaranteed “strike price”, reported to be between £90 and £93,...
Squeezing another five years of life out of the Pickering nuclear station could turn into a $1.3 billion benefit -- or a $760 million loss . . .
In a speech to business executives in Nagoya, the former populist maverick surprised many in the solidly pronuclear crowd by proclaiming that Japan should rid itself of atomic plants and switch to...
France will introduce a levy on nuclear energy as well as a tax on carbon emissions from fossil fuels to raise billions needed to boost renewable power and improve energy efficiency.
Japan is shutting down its last functioning nuclear reactor, with no timetable for a restart.
In a report released today, the Pembina Institute and Greenpeace Canada questions Ontario’s commitment to new and refurbished nuclear plants. The groups say that a mix of conservation and renewables...[more]
A government white paper in 2002 estimated the cost of decommissioning Britain’s current fleet of plants would be £43bn, many times greater than EDF’s investment at Hinkley Point. This estimate has...
Japan's government is to spend almost $500m (£320m) in an attempt to contain leaks and decontaminate highly toxic water at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Mohl called the 41-year-old plant no longer financially viable, and said the closure announcement gives employees and customers more certainty. He pledged that the company will ensure the plant will...
Again, we are only dealing with proposals here, but clearly the EU is seriously considering allowing capacity payments for nuclear towards ensuring the reliability of de-carbonized power supply; the...
In mid-August, former Liberal Democratic Party leader and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, 71, visited Germany -- which has decided to give up nuclear power -- and Finland -- which continues to...
Over its history as a significant California energy source, the nuclear power industry has received four times more subsidies than the California distributed solar industry and has had six times...
Before we all become pro-nuclear greens, however, you’ve got to ask three questions: Is nuclear power safe and clean? Is it economical? And are there better alternatives?
The operator of Japan's wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant was careless in monitoring tanks storing dangerously radioactive water, the nuclear regulator said on Friday, the latest development in a...
The operator of Japan’s tsunami-hit nuclear power plant sounded the alarm on the gravity of the deepening crisis of containment at the coastal site on Friday, saying that there are more than 200,000...
About 800 people are engaged in decommissioning work, outnumbering those who had operated the nuclear power plant. Because the initial phase of the decommissioning operation takes more than 30 years,...
Two months since The Japan Times’ June 11 editorial “Cease promoting nuclear power,” things seem to have gotten alarmingly worse. The Japanese and the world community should come to terms with the...
Amec claims to have delivered “good value” in managing nuclear waste clean-up operations at Sellafield and is “optimistic” of retaining the £22bn contract, despite admitting failings that could see...
As the scope of the latest crisis became clearer on Wednesday, Japan’s popular prime minister, Shinzo Abe, ordered his government to intervene in the cleanup of the plant — taking a more direct role...
Duke Energy said Thursday that it had dropped plans for a $24.7 billion nuclear reactor complex in Levy County, Fla., on which the company has already spent $1 billion, most of it collected from...
Considering that the Japanese government has already taken control of much of the company, there is little to stop it from taking the next step and putting the Fukushima plant directly under the NRA.
French utility EDF, the world's biggest operator of nuclear plants, is pulling out of nuclear energy in the United States, bowing to the realities of a market that has been transformed by cheap shale...
A price of RMB0.43 will be paid for each kilowatt-hour generated by new Chinese nuclear power plants, according to a ruling by the National Development and Reform Commission intended to incentivise...
Below are some excerpts from are recent public opinion survey on attitudes toward energy policy. Renewable Energy Among the British public we find a strong preference for a shift to renewable...[more]
A comprehensive survey published by the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) of attitudes of the British public has found low support for nuclear power as a solution to the UK's problems compared to...
Solar and wind are by far the most popular, and wind gained the most support from the previous year, jumping from 59 per cent to 67 per cent. Coal and nuclear were the least popular, with nuclear...
The cost of refurbishing New Brunswick's Point Lepreau nuclear power plant could be as high as $3.3 billion, nearly $1 billion more than previously estimated, a memo for the Prime Minister's Office...
You would think that no other country in the world could get by without building more nuclear power stations! Why do some British people think we need them so bad? Maybe it is a feeling for the old...
Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), one of California’s major electric utilities, shut down its 1,122 MW Unit #1 at its Diablo Canyon nuclear plant last week just as the state prepared for a serious heat...[more]
Nuclear Decommissioning Authority declines to predict final lifetime clean-up cost amid fears total bill could exceed £100bn
A key issue in the election was the fate of Chubu Electric Power Co.’s Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant, which was idled after the 2011 Fukushima disaster. Kawakatsu said a referendum should be held on...
The Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station operated at 43 per cent power in May new figures show, losing millions of dollars for the month and dragging its overall performance numbers to a new low,...
The last thing we should do right now is lock into expensive and inflexible nuclear mega projects. Instead, we need to focus on transitioning to a dynamic and responsive electricity system that can...
In the present article, I suggest that Japan cannot restart its nuclear capacity in the time-frame suggested by Professor Schaede. And drawing on recent research by Japanese and American experts, I...
There’s no sugar-coating what happened last week. Ontario’s Minister of Energy, Bob Chiarelli, used the occasion of the annual conference of the Canadian Solar Energy Industry Association (CanSIA) to...[more]
There is a two-day public hearing underway on Ontario's Pickering nuclear power plant licence extension. Meanwhile, the public hearing on a proposed wind farm in Prince Edward County has been going...[more]
“This is very good news for the people of Southern California,” said Erich Pica, President of Friends of the Earth. “We have long said that these reactors are too dangerous to operate and now Edison...
Thousands of anti-nuclear demonstrators have rallied in Tokyo as conservative Prime Minister Shinzo Abe considers restarting reactors. Read more:...
In a hard-hitting letter to all members of Ontario's Provincial Parliament, the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association (OSEA) has called for legislative sanctions against SNC-Lavalin and their CANDU...[more]
In a report riddled with pro-nuclear fantasy hopes and statements, the Select Committee of MPs which scrutnises the Department of Energy and Climate Change has called upon the Government to give much...
The Ontario government is thinking about delaying construction of new nuclear units, says energy minister Bob Chiarelli. . .
U.S. power company Dominion Resources Inc shut the 566-megawatt (MW) Kewaunee nuclear power plant in Wisconsin on Tuesday, as planned.
Recent surveys in the United States and Germany show that renewables remain very popular – and that an overwhelming majority of people oppose nuclear. At the same time it, surveys show that the...
When the Kewaunee Power Station stops generating electricity next month, a new chapter in its life will open - one that could last until the 2070s and cost nearly $1 billion. . .
The Ontario Power Authority has completed a contract amendment to the Bruce Power Refurbishment Implementation Agreement (BPRIA). The amendment secures a cost-effective source of electricity to the...
'The size of the nuclear programme will depend on the effectiveness of developers initially being able to build to time and budget, and subsequently being able progressively to reduce costs through...
Proponents of nuclear often argue that we cannot do without the technology if we are going to lower our carbon emissions from the energy sector. As a new study by French energy expert Bernard Chabot...
French energy expert Bernard Chabot provides the hard math behind the calculations of feed-in tariffs for nuclear in the UK and compares them to current FITs for wind (offshore and on) and PV under...
In the next few weeks, the future of nuclear in the UK could be decided. French electricity provider EDF is essentially asking for guaranteed prices – feed-in tariffs – for the electricity generated...
Maximum liability is £140m in the UK, but Fukushima clean-up and compensation costs are running to tens of billions – and the state is footing the bill . . .
In 1976 nuclear power, specifically the advanced gas cooled reactors, was labelled by the Central Electricity Generating Board as one of the major blunders of British industrial policy. . .
In an especially brazen piece of pro-nuclear pleading the DECC Select Committee has effectively said that nuclear power should be given cost priority over all green energy options. . .
Georgia Power’s Plant Vogtle nuclear expansion project will take about 19 months longer to complete than originally expected and cost about $740 million more than originally thought, the company said...
On 27 February 2013 the Bulgarian Parliament voted by 114 to 40 to permanently abandon the Belene nuclear power plant. The vote was prompted by a referendum on 27 January 2013. . .
The debacle over funding nuclear power is increasingly likely to delay the renewable energy programme. . .
The Guardian has learned that ministers, intent on keeping the guaranteed wholesale cost of each unit of energy below the politically crucial figure of £100 per megawatt hour [$0.158/kWh USD], are...
This 40 year contract length means that consumers will be paying the premium under the 'contract for differences' (CfD) arrangements for more than twice as long compared to what the Government wants...
Commercial production at Finnish nuclear reactor Olkiluoto 3 is likely to be delayed to 2016, utility Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) said, sparking a new round of accusations between TVO and the builder,...
The report’s concluding remarks should send chills down the spines of politicians, industry, and policymakers on both sides of France’s political divide. Those in positions of authority, say the...[more]
France is at an energy crossroads. To meet future electricity needs, the country could extend the operating lives of nuclear power plants beyond 40 years, accepting the safety challenges and costs of...
Germany likes to sell itself as a leader in environmental protection, but not everyone is convinced. In particular, the Anglo world remains devoted to nuclear power and criticizes Germany for not...
Since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear incident in March 2011, there has been an active debate on the future of Japan’s nuclear energy program. The feed-in tariff (FIT) law took effect in July 2012. [1]...
The latest energy statistics suggests that Germany is doing much better in restraining coal used to generate electricity compared to the UK. Yet, to read the British press you would automatically...
German Environment Minister Peter Altmaier said on Friday his country would never return to nuclear energy, hitting back at a top EU official who doubted Berlin's commitment to phase out nuclear...
Toshiba Corp. (6502), the Japanese builder of nuclear reactors, is in talks to sell as much as 36 percent of its Westinghouse Electric atomic-power unit as industry growth slows after last year’s...
Nearly 2% of Land Area Set Aside for Wind Energy Not 100%, Not 200%, But 300% Renewable Energy by 2020 Says Government The German state of Schleswig-Holstein recently approved doubling the land...[more]
Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the operator of the now infamous Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan admitted Thursday that it does not have enough funds make payments related to the disaster...
BDEW says that renewable energy has now a share of 23%, which would mean around 136 TWh generated over the year, assuming with BDEW a 594 TWh electricity consumption. Solar is up the most, to 28.5...
One day in the not-too-distant future — probably sooner than many expect — some parts of the world will have power grids that are completely powered by renewables. Eventually, the entire world could...
Liberation reports that for the second time in a little more than a year the cost of a new reactor under construction at Flamanville, France has risen dramatically. . .[more]
For decades, the elite engineers turned out by Paris's grand Corps des Mines academy were faithful followers of the pro-atomic creed that transformed their country into the most nuclear-reliant...
he Windsor Star reported that all of Canada's nuclear reactors are supplying the grid. I find it interesting that it is considered newsworthy that the reactors are actually operating, reportedly for...
The cost of the Fukishima nuclear accident could double. . .
Four of the six members on a government panel drafting new nuclear safety regulations each received between ¥3 million and over ¥27 million in payments, donations and grants from entities in the...
Outages at U.S. nuclear power plants so far in 2012 are generally higher than in recent years because of extended forced outages at four nuclear power plants. U.S. nuclear reactor operators typically...
Prolific Canadian author and award-winning investigative reporter, McKay takes on why Ontario's political class so fervently believes in the fairy tales about nuclear power . . .
The German decision to pursue a nuclear-free future was, however, anything but precipitous or unmindful of climate change. Because of a combination of historical and political factors, Germany has in...
Conservative State of Indiana First Out of the Gate with Coal Gas Tariff--British Nuclear Tariffs Expected Shortly . . .[more]
Nuclear reactors are barely mentioned when disaster preparedness agencies begin issuing storm warnings. This is a mistake. In the past, floods, storms, lightening strikes and earthquakes have...
Britain's energy policy is in trouble. Plans to have five more nuclear plants running by 2025 look like missing their targets without significant foreign investment, part of which, until recently, it...
French electricity spot prices rose on Wednesday, decoupling from lower German prompt prices, boosted by a sharp decline in French nuclear power capacity caused by a series of unplanned outages,...
La compagnie d'électricité japonaise Tepco, qui gère la centrale nucléaire de Fukushima, a admis pour la première fois vendredi qu’elle avait minimisé le risque de tsunami de peur d’une fermeture...
The utility behind Japan's nuclear disaster acknowledged for the first time Friday that it could have avoided the crisis. . .
She said some activists cycled into the fenced-off outer perimeter of one of the plants, and that recent European Union stress tests on nuclear facilities should have paid more attention to whether...
WNET: We want to ask you some questions about alternative energy. Gipe. Whoa. Stop right there. "Alternative energy?" Wind, solar, and biomass haven't been called "alternative energy" for three...[more]
Quebec's only nuclear power plant will shut down on Dec. 28, Hydro-Québec announced Wednesday, but the process of dismantling it will take 50 years and cost $1.8 billion. . .
La fermeture de Gentilly-2 coûtera 1,8 milliard de $, étalés sur plus de 50 ans. Hydro-Québec rend public son rapport sur le projet de réfection de Gentilly-2. Au terme d'une analyse détaillée, elle...
The drop-out of bidders for nuclear operator Horizon, opposition from the one British community that might host buried nuclear waste, and a damning European report on existing plant safety, all...
Areva SA (AREVA) and China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group Co. decided against bidding for the Horizon venture in the U.K. being sold by German utilities EON AG and RWE AG. (RWE) . . .
Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has announced the results of the first two full months of the nation's feed-in tariff program (FiT), reporting that 1.03 GW of applications for...
Japanese mobile phone group and prime proponent of Feed-in Tariffs, Softbank, is planning to build wind farms with up to 1GW of capacity on Hokkaido island, as the company expands its investments in...
The move to close all 50 of the country's functioning reactors by around 2040 marks a dramatic change of course by a country that had previously championed atomic energy, putting Japan alongside...
GBG's Bettina Meyer has analyzed studies on these external costs in her recent report. She estimates that additional risks raise the cost of nuclear energy to between 0.11 and 0.34 euros per kWh. If...
Le gouvernement de Pauline Marois entend toujours déclasser la centrale nucléaire Gentilly-2, à Bécancour, comme il le promet depuis deux ans. . .
