Skip to main content

Diaries on Nuclear Energy at DailyKos

David Walters stirred up the debate with Charles Barton by discussing California's wind energy problems while adding in the benefits of nuclear plants. NNadir wrote A Comment On Whether Nuclear Energy Can Save Your Pathetic Butt in which tinhat7 wrote back saying he doesn't think so. Unfortunately for tinhat7, most of the votes agreed with NNadir.

Comments

Charles Barton said…
Actually David and I seemed to agree about the problems of wind power in California. The debate was with people who disagreed with David's Daily Kos post. centered around

David called my attention to the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) wind data. Since I had previously posted on the California summer wind problems, I generated another post to address problems revealed by the CAISO data.
http://nucleargreen.blogspot.com/2008/05/california-wind-fails-again.html

David posted about the same data on Daliy Kos, and quoted my post. Other people debated with David.

By the way, when are you guys going to link to "Nuclear Green"? I have been up for 6 months. Am I going to have to post pictures of naked women fondling reactors to get you guys to link to my blog?
David Bradish said…
Charles, I think I may have worded the post wrong. I didn't mean that you and Walters were debating each other, I meant Walters (along with your post) were debating the others. We'll get you up on our blog roll. Keep up the good work!
Anonymous said…
Does anyone know of a map that shows the footprint of a nuclear power plant compared to windmills providing the same energy? I saw that T. Boone Pickens is proposing a wind farm in Oklahoma that's 400,000 acres!!
David Bradish said…
We have an infographic displaying how much land would be needed from wind or solar to supply the US 20% of its electricity. A nuclear plant requires only one-square mile of land which would be a spec on the infographic. I haven't seen yet a map that has correctly displayed the footprint of a nuclear plant versus a windfarm of equivalent size.

Popular posts from this blog

Fluor Invests in NuScale

You know, it’s kind of sad that no one is willing to invest in nuclear energy anymore. Wait, what? NuScale Power celebrated the news of its company-saving $30 million investment from Fluor Corp. Thursday morning with a press conference in Washington, D.C. Fluor is a design, engineering and construction company involved with some 20 plants in the 70s and 80s, but it has not held interest in a nuclear energy company until now. Fluor, which has deep roots in the nuclear industry, is betting big on small-scale nuclear energy with its NuScale investment. "It's become a serious contender in the last decade or so," John Hopkins, [Fluor’s group president in charge of new ventures], said. And that brings us to NuScale, which had run into some dark days – maybe not as dark as, say, Solyndra, but dire enough : Earlier this year, the Securities Exchange Commission filed an action against NuScale's lead investor, The Michael Kenwood Group. The firm "misap...

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...

Nuclear Utility Moves Up in Credit Ratings, Bank is "Comfortable with Nuclear Strategy"

Some positive signs that nuclear utilities can continue to receive positive ratings even while they finance new nuclear plants for the first time in decades: Wells Fargo upgrades SCANA to Outperform from Market Perform Wells analyst says, "YTD, SCG shares have underperformed the Regulated Electrics (total return +2% vs. +9%). Shares trade at 11.3X our 10E EPS, a modest discount to the peer group median of 11.8X. We view the valuation as attractive given a comparatively constructive regulatory environment and potential for above-average long-term EPS growth prospects ... Comfortable with Nuclear Strategy. SCG plans to participate in the development of two regulated nuclear units at a cost of $6.3B, raising legitimate concerns regarding financing and construction. We have carefully considered the risks and are comfortable with SCG’s strategy based on a highly constructive political & regulatory environment, manageable financing needs stretched out over 10 years, strong partners...