NEI Nuclear Notes

Reuters is reporting that a gasoline shortage is causing unrest in China's Guangdong province: [A]uthorities had sent a large number of public security officers as well as paramilitary police to fuel stations amid fears that the latest fuel shortage could spark social instability. "Several thousand public security officers and paramilitary police have been stationed at the 547 filling stations across Guangzhou in recent days," the paper said. The country's two biggest oil firms, Sinopec Corp. and PetroChina Co. Ltd. , have to buy crude in soaring global markets but refine it into products sold in China at low, state-set prices. Recently, they have been trimming supply to loss-making domestic markets to protect their balance sheets and this has led to long queues outside gas stations in China's export hub. For pictures, visit Gateway Pundit . Thanks to Instapundit for the pointers. UPDATE : For more on China's burgeoning nuclear energy program, click here ...

Meet noted author and scientist David Brin : In fact, modernism should impel any reasonable person to pull out the stops on efficiency research, almost above any other priority. It should be the top imperative, a goal driven by sure knowledge that our childrens' lives and comfort will depend on vastly muliplying wealth while reducing resource impact by two orders of magnitude. There should be a dozen "Manhattan Projects" aimed at achieving this sustainability goal - including the resumption of building modern and improved nuclear power plants . Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy Environment Energy Politics Technology Economics

Geoffrey Styles of Energy Outlook is taking a vacation, and he's left a variety of links from his archive that are worthwhile. Of particular interest to our readers is his post from February 2005 where he explains why nuclear energy, and not natural gas, may be the best generation source for hydrogen: Staying with natural gas for the moment, the North American gas industry will have its hands full simply maintaining current supply levels for current uses--electricity generation, home heating and industry--over that timeframe, without adding anything for hydrogen. Since liquefied natural gas (LNG) is the industry's current answer to its supply problems, it's worth noting that the amount of gas cited above for future US hydrogen needs [34 billion cubic feet per day] is equivalent to the output of 40 new LNG plants such as this one planned for Indonesia, or about 5,600 fully-loaded LNG tankers per year. Importing even a fraction of this much LNG will be a big challenge, give...

In an Aug. 10 article, Asbury Park Press described New Jersey's Oyster Creek Generating Station as "embattled" while reporting on Sen. Jon Corzine's (D-N.J.) comments about the plant: The Democratic gubernatorial nominee spoke about the embattled plant during a discussion with the Asbury Park Press editorial board. Corzine, who is running for governor of New Jersey, said Aug. 9 that, if elected governor, he would keep the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant open. In a letter to the editor published today, Pete Resler, a communications manager at Amergen (a subsidiary of Exelon ), admonished the paper for its "use of the pejorative and unattributed term 'embattled'" to describe Oyster Creek: We are in no way, shape or form "embattled." Oyster Creek is an outstanding example of the 103 U.S. commercial nuclear energy stations, both in terms of safety and reliability, and is widely recognized for it. The majority of residents in Ocean County, ...

Some good news off the Reuters wire : The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission found no environmental impacts that would preclude the renewal of the operating licenses of units 1 and 2 at Wisconsin Energy Corp.'s (WEC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Point Beach nuclear power station in Wisconsin for an additional 20 years. The current operating licenses expire on Oct. 5, 2010, for the 512-megawatt unit 1 and March 8, 2013, for the 514 MW unit 2, the NRC said in a release. Wisconsin-based Nuclear Management Co LLC, which operates the plant for Wisconsin Energy's We Energies subsidiary, submitted the renewal application on Feb. 25, 2004. Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy Environment Energy Politics Technology Economics

The NRC is soliciting comments on the agenda for the 2006 Regulatory Information Conference . Click here for the questionnaire. As you might recall, our President and CEO Skip Bowman spoke at the 2005 RIC . Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy Environment Energy Politics Technology Economics

The California Energy Commission wrapped up two days of hearings on nuclear energy yesterday, and there was a passage from a story in today's Contra Costa Times that I think is worth examining. Let's take a look at a claim about renewable sources of energy, and whether or not they could possibly replace the state's nuclear generating capacity: Not everyone agreed, however, that nuclear power is a necessary component in the energy mix. Environmentalists and some state regulators say that renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar power, could replace the 4,000 megawatts [actually 4,324, EMc] of power produced by Diablo Canyon and San Onofre. "There are superior ways to deal with global warming than nuclear power," said Robert Kinosian with the California Public Utilities Commission. As it turns out, I've been working on a project with my colleague David Bradish on California's energy future, and we discovered some interesting data from the Energy ...