From the NEI Clip File

Here are some of the news clips we're reading at NEI today. Steve Chu, director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and 1997 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics, recently endorsed nuclear energy in his article on energy concerns.

Fusion research must continue, but commercially viable fusion is not a certainty. Fission energy has significant issues: long-term waste storage and the potential proliferation of nuclear weapons materials. Despite these issues, it needs a second look, especially if radioactive waste can be greatly reduced by recycling and burning down long-lived radioactive products into shorter-lived waste.

In a story in the Jackson Hole Star-Tribune (Wyo.) about the work being done at the Idaho National Laboratory, Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore is continuing to stump for nuclear energy:

"There's no getting away from the fact that 6 billion people wake up every morning with a need for food, material and energy," Moore said. "If we don't move forward on this, we're going to end up buying nuclear technology from the Chinese."

Come back tomorrow for more news from the NEI Clip File.

Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy, Environment, Energy, Politics, Technology, Economics

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Fluor Invests in NuScale

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Wednesday Update

From NEI’s Japan micro-site: NRC, Industry Concur on Many Post-Fukushima Actions Industry/Regulatory/Political Issues • There is a “great deal of alignment” between the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the industry on initial steps to take at America’s nuclear energy facilities in response to the nuclear accident in Japan, Charles Pardee, the chief operating officer of Exelon Generation Co., said at an agency briefing today. The briefing gave stakeholders an opportunity to discuss staff recommendations for near-term actions the agency may take at U.S. facilities. PowerPoint slides from the meeting are on the NRC website. • The International Atomic Energy Agency board has approved a plan that calls for inspectors to evaluate reactor safety at nuclear energy facilities every three years. Governments may opt out of having their country’s facilities inspected. Also approved were plans to maintain a rapid response team of experts ready to assist facility operators recoverin

NEI Nuclear Notes

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