NEI Nuclear Notes

One of my colleagues at NEI, Steve Kerekes, just got off the phone with the folks from the television gameshow Jeopardy . They told him that next Tuesday's show, airing January 17, will include a first-round category on nuclear power plants. Check your local listings for time and station in your area. Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy , Nuclear Power , Energy , Electricity , Jeopardy!

Concerned about Massachusetts' tight energy supplies and high energy prices, business, labor, academic and community leaders have joined together to advocate for more in-state electricity generating capacity. MASS AREA (Affordable, Reliable Electricity Alliance) has issued a call to increase supplies, lower costs and counter "NIMBY-ism." Click here to read the press release. Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy , Nuclear Power , Environment , Energy , Politics , Technology , Economics , Massachusetts

The debate over nuclear energy in the U.K. reached a new low today as Greenpeace U.K. trotted out a video depicting a passenger jet crashing into a seaside nuclear power plant as a screaming family looked on. Color U.K. resident John Connors unimpressed: I'm no nuclear advocate, but blantantly manipulative ploys like this *really* annoy me, and deserve to backfire. Next straw man please. And he's not the only one . I can't say I'm terribly surprised about this . After all, now that a growing number of environmentalists (including Greenpeace International co-founder Patrick Moore ) are coming to realize how the expanded use of nuclear energy can contribute to clean air, controlling carbon emissions and enhancing energy security, groups like Greenpeace U.K. and their confederates around the world are having to turn to increasingly shrill and hysterical tactics -- and as we've seen, those tactics are starting to backfire . If you want facts, you might want to start...

One of the prerequisites for new nuclear power plants to become a reality in the U.S. is the backing of Wall Street. Antinuclear groups like to say that nuclear power isn't economical, but in the past year evidence of support from the financial community has been accumulating. Most recently, in its report "Cleaning the Environment" issued last month, Merrill Lynch said: Utilities with sizable holdings of emission-free nuclear power plants are well-positioned for gains through the end of the decade as a result of more stringent air quality regulations that will affect other forms of electricity generation. More of what the company said about nuclear is here . Time to check my investment portfolio...

The six nations that make up the Asia-Pacific Partnership for Clean Development and Climate met in Sydney earlier this week to outline the broad goals and establish a fund to develop new technological solutions. Over at E&ETV, one reporter interviewed Annie Petsonk of Environmental Defense and asked her what she thought of the partnership. A colleague of mine passed along a note after watching: Today's Onpoint internet "TV" interview has Annie Petsonk, international counsel at Environmental Defense on, who, at 8:40 in the interview, says ED supports "a competitive market in which anyone that comes up with a better, cheaper, faster way of cutting GHG emissions and growing the economy can make money." Interesting. For the complete archive of E&ETV's interviews, click here . Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy , Nuclear Power , Environment , Energy , Politics , Technology , Electricity

A few days ago, my colleague Lisa Stiles-Shell wondered if solar was well positioned to provide peaking power . Through Futurepundit , I found an article concerning some R&D work being done on organic photovoltaics that, "sheds some light" on the subject: Global Photonic Energy Corporation (GPEC), developer of organic photovoltaic (OPVtm) technology for ultra-low cost high power solar cells, announced that the company's research partners at Princeton University and the University of Southern California (USC) have achieved a new record in an organic solar cell that is responsive to light in the near infrared (NIR) range of the solar spectrum. NIR radiation is invisible to the human eye. ... Imagine organic photovoltaics coating windows especially in hot climates. Instead of letting in the infrared frequencies the photovoltaics convert those photons to useful electricity. So instead of heating a building and thereby increasing the demand for air conditioning the phot...

In August 2005, NEI published a study that found that the strongest supporters of nuclear energy are often the folks who live closest to nuclear power plants . Here's Dan Pierce from NH Insider : Living, as I do, about eight miles from Seabrook Station, New Hampshire's only nuclear power plant, my ears prick up whenever I hear someone talking about making changes at the plant. This week it was Senate Majority Leader Bob Clegg who brought up the subject of rebuilding the second reactor at the plant. It's not a bad idea, actually. I doubt that adding a second reactor would significantly add to the danger I face from the plant (which I don't think is very much at all), and it would probably go a long way toward alleviating some of our energy problems here in the Granite State . For more from earlier this week, click here . Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy , Nuclear Power , Environment , Energy , Politics , Technology , Economics , New Hampshire , Seabrook Nuclear Power P...