Posts Tagged by nuclear energy
Can the American Political Process Result in Real Leadership?
| January 27, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
A friend who favors right-wing ideologies sent me a video in which the Cato Institute ripped up Obama’s State of the Union Address, pointing out certain claims as lies – even challenging the legality of some of the actions he’s taken as president. While I’m not a huge fan of the Cato Institute, they’re no fools, and they certainly make some good points here. Let’s also admit that Obama has been a bitter disappointment, as millions of us realized that he’s just another politician, put in place with huge money (in this case, Big Pharma and Wall Street) to protect and expand these interests. Read More
Related posts:
Energy Videos for Newcomers
| October 13, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Science |
I’ve been preparing to make a few videos for newcomers to the subject of clean energy that answer basic questions on renewable energy, fossil fuels, nuclear energy, and the energy-related challenges we face. I’ll be recording a series of short talks, aided by graphics, that point out that all our energy sources go back to the Big Bang, and come forward through time to us as follows:
Solar power is nuclear, of course, as all that hydrogen that became our sun billions of years ago undergoes fusion and emits enormous amounts of energy. That which we accumulated over hundreds of millions of years as fossil fuels (ancient biomass) we extract and burn as oil, coal, and natural gas. That which we receive right now, or in the very recent past, we have the potential to harvest as renewables: photovoltaics, concentrated solar power, wind, new biomass, run-of-river hydro, ocean current, and wave. Read More
Related posts:
[The Vector] Nuclear Madness
| June 26, 2011 | Posted by Kathy-Heshelow under Nuclear |
While many in the world are rejecting, stalling or abandoning nuclear power, what about the U.S.? Why should the U.S. consider abandoning nuclear? What are a number of experts saying about the nuclear industry in the U.S., and its future? That it is problematic, contentious and not well thought-out. The Obama Administration proposed $36 billion in Treasury-backed loan guarantees for new reactors, which is controversial in itself on many fronts.
I personally would say there are simply two main reasons to reject or Read More
Related posts:
The Dubious Appeal of Nuclear Energy
| March 20, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Nuclear |
I just posted a piece to Renewable Energy World, in which I recollect my encounters in airports with other college-aged kids of the 1970s who were vigorously gathering support for nuclear energy. I recall how one self-satisfied young fellow quipped, “More people died in Ted Kennedy’s car than in the sum total of all nuclear reactor incidents.”
Now, four decades later, I’m still wondering about the pro-nuclear people. Who are they? What’s the attraction? Read More
Related posts:
Favor Nuclear Energy? Read Jim Bell's Article First
| February 22, 2011 | Posted by Nikoli under Nuclear |
Jim Bell is a brilliant author and social observer who believes that nuclear power represent one of humankind’s most tragic errors. In this excellent article on the perils the nuclear age, he argues that, if we survive it, our descendants will wonder what we were thinking to justify leaving them nuclear power’s toxic legacy.
Related posts:
From a Guest-Blogger: Concerned about Nuclear Energy? We Have Work To Do
| February 16, 2011 | Posted by Nikoli under Nuclear |
A piece written by the president of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service:
Dear Friends,
Yesterday, President Obama released his Fiscal Year 2012 budget and I’m afraid the overriding message is: we’ve got to get to work!
Even while slashing funds for heating assistance for the poor and cleaning up the Great Lakes, the President’s budget–like last year–proposes to triple the loan “guarantee” program for new nuclear reactor construction. That would mean another $36 Billion in loan “guarantees” for nuclear utilities to buy reactors from wealthy foreign companies like Areva and Toshiba, while the poor shiver through the winter.
Tell Congress: NO WAY! Read More
Related posts:
From a Guest-Blogger: What You Should Know About Nuclear Energy
| February 16, 2011 | Posted by Nikoli under Nuclear |
I’d like to present a piece written by Ace Hoffman:
The most dangerous times for any nuclear power plant are: Initial start-up or during a restart, and during a shut-down, especially an emergency shut-down.
Three Mile Island Unit II, for instance, had been in commercial operation for less than three months when it partially melted down. It was only slightly different from, slightly more powerful than, Unit 1, which, today, was relicensed by the same careless Nuclear Regulatory Commission we seek redress from today as well — for another 20 years — until April 19, 2034. Some of Three Mile Island Unit 1′s parts will be 60 years old when it is finally “retired” — irradiated, thermally heated, pressurized, chemically embrittled, and cycled on and off hundreds or even thousands of times. Read More
Related posts:
2GreenEnergy Video Report: What Forms of Energy Really are Clean?
| February 3, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Science |
In this installment of the 2GreenEnergy Video Report, George Alger asks some very good, basic questions: What forms of energy really are clean? What about clean coal? Nuclear?
Related posts:
Guest Post from Wayne Mackey — Be Skeptical of Nuclear Energy
| January 13, 2011 | Posted by Wayne-Mackey under Renewables - Politics |
Last March, I became aware of a situation that gave me great pause of concern. I read that U.S. Intelligence had captured a U.S. Citizen in Somalia and while interrogating him they discovered that he had worked as a laborer in 5 of our nuclear power plants here in the eastern part of the country. Having worked for NSA back in the early 1970′s I quickly realized that he wasn’t there just for the money. I suspect that he was there probing for ways to plan future attacks on our nuclear power plants. The M.O. was similarly eerie to that of the planning and implimentation that brought down the World Trade Centers on 9/11. Instead of their trying to bring a nuclear device into this country, why not take advantage of the ones that are readily available in this country (our nuclear power plants). The terrorists found a way to circumvent our security right underneath our eyes and used what they found readily available in our aviation training schools and used our own planes as low level missiles. Read More
Related posts:
Nuclear Energy and Uranium Shortages
| July 26, 2010 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Business |
A few people commented on my piece about nuclear energy last week, and scolded me for believing that shortages of uranium may be one of many serious issues confronting this beleaguered industry. I’m not the only one who sees this, however. Editor of Peak Oil Review and former CIA analyst Tom Whipple writes this week:
China’s demand for uranium may rise to 20,000 tons a year by 2020. That translates into more than a third of the 50,500 tons mined globally last year. All of the world’s current uranium output currently has a market, supplying the existing global demand for uranium. Don’t be surprised to see uranium in shortage by the second half of this decade. Looking ahead, there’s just not enough new production in the planning stages. The world needs new mines, but startup costs are much higher than 10 or 20 years ago.
China currently has 12 reactors in operation and another 23 under construction, with others in development, according to the World Nuclear Association.
