Posts Tagged by nuclear energy
Fukushima — An Update
| May 15, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Nuclear |
Our short attention span for news caused us long ago to bid goodbye to Fukushima as a story of interest and importance, yet the situation is quite dire – in fact, probably more so now than it was a few months ago. Here’s a good summary, including a piece on Fukushima Reactor #4 — well worth the six minutes.
Energy Policy’s Difficult Choices
| May 10, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Science |
I recently wrote a post critical of radical environmentalists who take rigid positions and refuse to make the tough choices that confront us all in the real world. In particular, I stand in disagreement with people’s unwillingness to exile the tortoises from 4613 acres (about five square miles) in the California desert that would have been used for a gigawatt of solar photovoltaics, an almost exact replacement for a full coal-fired power plant. Read More
Ending Subsidies for Nuclear Power
| April 14, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Nuclear |
We speak often about ending the subsidies for Big Oil, in an effort to create a level playing field for renewable energy, and simply to stop transferring wealth from the U.S. tax-payer to the captains of the most profitable industry on Earth. And the discussion is heating up even further, now that America is $15 trillion in debt.
Here’s an article that points out that the federal government has spent more than $95 billion (in 2011 dollars) on nuclear energy research and development (R&D). That is more than four times the amount spent on solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, biofuels, and hydropower combined.
Its authors note:
Many in Congress talk of getting big government off the back of private industry. Here’s an industry we’d like to get off the backs of the taxpayers. …..One thing we strongly agree on is the need to end wasteful subsidies that prop up the nuclear industry. After 60 years, this industry should not require continued and massive corporate welfare. It is time for the nuclear power industry to stand on its own two feet.
Frontline on PBS: Nuclear Aftershocks
| April 11, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Nuclear |
I hope everyone gets the opportunity to catch this episode of Frontline on PBS: Nuclear Aftershocks – one that essentially claims that nuclear energy is both unacceptably dangerous but completely necessary. I’m reminded of the way Amory Lovins begins his current-day presentations: “Which would you rather die from? Nuclear holocaust, drowning from rising sea levels, respiratory disease, or terrorist attacks and social chaos from the demand for increasingly scarce oil?” I have to admit; it’s a great way to capture an audience’s attention.
“Aftershocks” did a great deal to explore the dangers of nuclear energy Read More
Infographic: The Pros and Cons of Renewable Energy
| February 5, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Science |
Whenever I speak on renewable energy, I’m careful to leave my audience with a sense of the “tough realities.” We all want simple answers to our questions, but in the case of clean energy, none exist.
There are dozens of different flavors of solar, wind, biomass, hydro, and geothermal, each improving in terms of cost and efficiency, but at different rates. There are economic issues, as none of these flavors can compete with the dirtiest form of coal, if we don’t take into account the “externalities” like lung disease and environmental damage. And Lord knows there are political issues, where we have serious candidates for president of the U.S. who, if elected, boldly pledge to dismantle our Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy. If this occurs, it would effectively end the efforts of the largest economy on Earth to migrate away from fossil fuels and nuclear. Read More
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
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
[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
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
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.
