NEI Nuclear Notes

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What is the more harmful public policy: Germany's stated intention to phase-out all of its nuclear generating capacity , or Western Australia's adamant opposition to allowing uranium mining on its territory ? Discuss. Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy , Nuclear Power , Environment , Energy , Politics , Economics , Uranium , Australia , Western Australia , Germany

Standard and Poors just came out with a report titled " Why U.S. Utilities Are Seeing Nuclear Power In A New Light " (subscription required for actual report). The report read more like "Why S&P is Seeing Nuclear Power In A New Light. After looking at the report, it appeared S&P had an epiphany in which they are finally understanding how much the industry has changed over the years. They recognized the new licensing framework for new plants, who the nuclear players are, what technologies we are looking at building, the costs associated and the credit implications. What's great about the report is that S&P used almost of their information from NEI's 2006 Status Report (pdf). S&P still has much of their same reservations about the costs to build a new plant but it's great to finally see them keeping up with what's going on in the nuclear industry. Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy , Nuclear Power , Energy , Technology , Environment , Electri...

After reading last Saturday's feature in The Washington Post on the global resurgence in nuclear energy, The Influence Peddler is kicking around some ideas on how the industry might affect the 2008 election : This could be a really interesting issue, politically. I suspect that whichever party - or Presidential candidate - embraces nuclear power first, may have a significant leg up in the next go-round. It seems that the old arguments against nuclear power have lost some of their saliency - perhaps because a whole generation has passed since Chernobyl, and even more since Three Mile Island. An embrace of nuclear power enables a candidate to appeal both to the energy-security crowd and the global warming crowd. That might prove to be a very valuable two-fer, politically. We already know where Rudy Giuliani and Senator John McCain stand. Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy , Nuclear Power , Energy , Technology , Environment , Electricity , Rudy Giuliani , Senator John McCain

Details from Treehugger . For a post from our archives from David Bradish on a speech Spitzer gave on energy policy during last year's campaign, click here . Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy , Nuclear Power , Energy , Technology , Environment , Electricity , New York , Indian Point , Eliot Spitzer

Here's a summary of what went on in the energy markets last week: Electricity prices were mixed throughout the country last week (see pages 1 & 2). Gas prices fell at the Henry Hub decreasing $0.14 to $5.50 / MMBtu (see page 4). Uranium prices remained at $72 / lb U3O8 for the third week in a row (see page 7). Crude oil prices decreased to $60.66 / barrel (see page 5). Nuclear plant capacity availability averaged 99% last week. North Anna 1 experienced a reactor trip due to an electronic circuit card failure. For the report click here (pdf). It is also located on NEI's Nuclear Statistics webpage . Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy , Nuclear Power , Electricity , Environment , Energy , Natural Gas , Oil

Patrick Moore is on the move again, this time in Vermont. The Brattleboro Reformer has the details. Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy , Nuclear Power , Environment , Energy , Politics , Technology , Economics , Vermont , Vermont Yankee , Patrick Moore