NEI Nuclear Notes

I’m giving a signal boost to One Direction’s fifth album, “Made in the A.M.,” which at the end of the day is just perfect. (Both puns intended – looking at you, Harry.) You may wonder what this band has to do with nuclear energy. Turns out since they launched the Action 1D campaign this past summer, quite a lot.  Louis, Niall, Harry and Liam for Action 1D. I never went through a boy band phase as a teen, never hung the posters, bought the merchandise or cared about individual members. Sure, I listened to Backstreet Boys and NSYNC, but who didn’t? One Direction has been around since 2010, yet I only discovered Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Liam Payne earlier this year. Zayn Malik too, aka the one that got away. How I got into the fandom was probably not how most of their supporters got there. Belonging to the band’s army of devotees, fittingly dubbed Directioners , is like being in a 24/7 glass case of emotion . I have no regrets, however, and I’m happy to ca...

Late last year, we made it clear that we were going to ignore Climategate, the release of emails from the University of East Anglia. Some interpreted those emails as indicating that the science behind climate change had been cooked up by scientists looking for grant money. We read the most incriminating emails – and a fair number of others, too – and a lot of the commentary - and concluded that there wasn’t enough there to change minds on either side of the debate. Anyway, to quote ourselves: But there are some investigations going on. Let’s wait for the results and then let’s choose sabers or pistols. And that brings us to: A British panel on Wednesday exonerated the scientists caught up in the controversy known as Climategate of charges that they had manipulated their research to support preconceived ideas about global warming. Now, cooking the books and general bad behavior are different things and the investigators did think the scientists engaged in too much ...

We’ve turned the spotlight on some politicians who really seem to have done their homework on climate change, cap-and-trade, nuclear energy and the other topics that will be important as the climate change and energy bills work their way through Congress. We did that because, first, they deserve a little attention for doing their jobs well – we’ve spotlighted Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), but there are plenty of others who have done the home work and shared what they’ve learned. That they mostly support nuclear energy – well, surely the mark of advanced intelligence, no? And second, because all this good work can get drowned out when you run into comments like this : This whole thing strikes me [as] if it weren’t so serious as being a comedy, you know? I mean, we just went from winter to spring. In Missouri, when we go from winter to spring, that’s a good climate change. I don’t want to stop that climate change, yo...

A couple of posts below, we wrote about Rep. Michelle Bachmann’s objections to cap-and-trade and suggested the arguments were not very well thought out yet. As cap-and-trade wends its way forward, we expect there will be a fair number of arguments against it – after all, Europe’s first try at it was an unmitigated mess and if not carefully thought out, it could prove a massive shock to the energy industry and its customers – so there are arguments to be made. We like cap-and-trade more than not, as long as one accepts as premises that carbon emission reduction is a desirable goal – we do – and would prefer not to crater industries while achieving that goal – we do so prefer. Almost anyone is going to accept the second premise; however, not all accept the first. This can be for honest reasons – the science is questionable enough to sow doubt – or for dishonest ones – chances for getting reelected to Congress decline if big donors or a constituency gets upset. And of course there are ...

I don't have it in front of me, but the filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein once wrote something close to "Once montage was everything; now it is nothing." Montage is editing and its use a major feature of Soviet (and Eisenstein's) silent cinema. But montage as Eisenstein used it allowed for ambiguity and Stalin's regime found that threatening. Thus came Socialist realism and many years of stodgy filmmaking (and art in general) and, most alarmingly, Eisenstein's attempt to fit himself to the new model with the essay that contains that sentence. Eisenstein's mea culpa may not encapsulate a philosophy to live by - being and nothingness writ large - but it might well illuminate some of the more puzzling aspects of the world around us. For example, consider the debate on Lieberman-Warner bill, which yesterday devolved into partisan bickering and maneuvering for advantage. Before then, though, you got a good sense of everything and nothing in action. Here is Bar...

The Fox News Channel is determined to play as still controversial an issue that much of industry, not to mention the public, not to mention Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch, has decided is not controversial. Al Gore has won fair and square, but since Fox has no use for Gore, that's easily discounted. If Fox really wants to play the opposition, though, the network has to be sure everyone stays on task. And unfortunately, that's becoming difficult, a sign that the opposition has become increasingly irrelevant. Fox and Friends is the network's breakfast show - I think it used to have a puppet as a co-host. Human host Alisyn Camerota brought on MIT Professor of Meteorology Kerry Emanuel and this happened : Introducing him, [Camerota] gushed that [Emanuel]  is one of THE most influential scientists when it comes to global warming and its link to hurricanes; he used to think that climate change caused more tropical storms but now, he's changed his mind. Three years ago ...

Looks like they can't build that next generation of U.K. nuclear power plants fast enough. From The Telegraph : Street lights in suburban areas are to be switched off after midnight as part of council plans to save energy. A series of trial blackouts will be carried out over the next few weeks by local authorities in the Home Counties, Hampshire and Essex among others. Buckinghamshire council is reported to be switching off more than 1,700 lights along 25 miles of road in an attempt to meet energy targets. It says the scheme will save £100,000 and reduce CO2 emissions by nearly 600 tons a year. If the trials are successful, all street lamps across the country could be turned off between midnight and 5am. Other areas taking part in the scheme include Maldon and Uttlesford in Essex, while parts of Hampshire have already carried out pilots. Residents' groups, police organisations and motoring groups have expressed fear that the darkness could cause increases in crime and road tra...

The American takes a closer look.

It looks like Adam Blinick's post at TNR has kicked off a little debate. Over at The Atlantic , Matt Yglesias had this to say: We'll be weaned off the dastardly power, perhaps, with nuclear powered cars? What about plug-in hybrids ? The idea here is simple: If you generate electricity with a non-emitting source like nuclear, you can power plug-in hybrids while cutting the emission of carbon and other particulate matter like sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxide, which would deliver the added benefit of helping to avoid acid rain. Yglesias continues: I have no problem with the idea that putting a proper price on carbon might lead to good things for the nuclear power industry, but the issue in practice is that nuclear advocates are busy demanding large subsidies. It makes sense to some extent to subsidize clean sources of electricity, but we should target subsidies on really, truly clean sources of power -- and nuclear's not that. The idea that dastardly anti-nuclear activist...

Over at Planetsave , Shirley Siluk Gregory, a self-described nuclear skeptic, has just finished reading James Lovelock's book, The Revenge of Gaia . Though she still has her doubts about nuclear energy, that didn't stop her from compiling 10 Green Arguments for Nuclear Power . Give it a look.

From the AP : SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - California sued the federal government on Thursday to force a decision about whether the state can impose the nation's first greenhouse gas emission standards for cars and light trucks. More than a dozen other states are poised to follow California's lead if it is granted the waiver from federal law, presenting a challenge to automakers who would have to adapt to a patchwork of regulations. The state's lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., was expected after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vowed last spring to take legal action. "Our future depends on us taking action on global warming right now," Schwarzenegger said during a news conference. "There's no legal basis for Washington to stand in our way." At issue is California's nearly two-year-old request for a waiver under the federal Clean Air Act allowing it to implement a 2002 state anti-polluti...

From the AP : BEIJING,: China will reject any agreement that calls for binding limits on carbon dioxide emissions that will replace the Kyoto Protocol, an EU official said Wednesday. Guido Sacconi, chairman of a visiting European Parliament delegation, said that was the impression he got after three days of talks in Beijing with government and environmental officials. "In the private meetings we have had, particularly with Chinese politicians, there were of course some differences of opinion," Sacconi, who heads the European Parliament's Temporary Committee on Climate Change, told a news conference. "The main difference is, unlike the European Parliament or the European Union, the Chinese believe that it will not be possible, in the agreement which follows the Kyoto Protocol, for China to accept any binding obligations — this was one difference between us."

From Life Cycle Analysis : Bringing to a dramatic close the successful POWERSHIFT 2007 conference in Washington, D.C., hundreds of youth and community members converged on a downtown branch of the financial giant Citibank yesterday. In a unique "direct action," they dumped a half-ton of coal on the doorsteps of Citibank. A delegation of coal-field residents and students went inside to denounce Citibank’s investments to their customers and employees. Out in the street, hundreds of youth began coughing violently, with a massive “die-in” surrounding the bank that shut down them down for the rest of the day. Looks like it won't be the last .

Couldn't help but shake my head when I read this paragraph from Spiegel Online : As energy companies plan several new coal-burning power plants to replace nuclear reactors, experts warn against the environmental impact. Cleaner technologies are not yet production-ready. No kidding. The equation is simple: Eliminate nuclear energy, get used to spewing more carbon. For more from our archives on Germany, where we've been writing about this very problem for a couple of years now, click here . Thanks to Brian Davey at FEASTA for the link.

Our friends at Ontario Power Generation have started to post their own videos, including this basic explanation on how their CANDU reactors at Pickering generate electricity.

From Daniel Gross at Slate .

The Wall Street Journal takes a look at the debate over how to constrain carbon emissions .

Visit Politics in the Zeroes and Kiwiblog .

This morning on NPR, Morning Edition ran a feature on France's nuclear reactor fleet and how about a third of those reactors had to cut power during the European heat wave of 2003 . While I'm not going to quibble with the basic premise of the piece, there are a number of facts that NPR left out that taken together, fail to show the entire picture. The situation described in France and occurring right now at Browns Ferry here in the U.S. is not unique to nuclear reactors, it's something that can affect any power plant that uses the steam cycle -- and that's about 80% of our current generating capacity. For example, three coal plants in Canada had to go off line recently for just the same reason. We also need to keep in mind that this is not an operating problem, rather, utilities are simply acting as responsible stewards of the environment. As our CEO Skip Bowman put it in a note to us here at NEI this morning: Commercial reactors typically operate under licenses/agr...

From Nuc Net: Australia has decided to change its foreign policy to allow the export of uranium to India, but only subject to a number of “strict conditions”, prime minister John Howard has announced. In a statement today Mr Howard said conditions for uranium exports to India, which has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), include: • Conclusion of a suitable safeguards agreement between India and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) covering all designated civil nuclear facilities; • A consensus decision by the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to make an exception to its guidelines enabling international civil supply to India; • Conclusion of a bilateral civil nuclear cooperation agreement between India and the US; • Satisfactory progress in implementing India’s commitment to place designated civil nuclear facilities under IAEA safeguards in perpetuity. Mr Howard said Australian uranium supply to India would also be conditional on the conclusion of a b...