NEI Nuclear Notes

Some updates of stories we've been following here: Italy has found a partner for its nuclear ambitions. The winner: Great Britain. Here's British PM Gordon Brown: "We both agreed that nuclear power can play an important part (in achieving) our shared objectives on climate change and energy security." And his Italian opposite number, Silvio Burlusconi: "We do hope that there is going to be a single nuclear policy for Europe." Us, too. He needs to get on the horn with our German friends. --- An Israeli expert on middle east affairs thinks Iran needs nuclear energy : "Iran's requirement for nuclear energy is justified... It is very important for Iran to find other sources of energy, especially non oil and non gas," Meir Javedanfar told the Christian Science Monitor. Faced with a nationwide power shortage problem, the country has scheduled power outages of up to two hours a day throughout the country. Hmm! We unde...

This isn't directly related to nuclear power but I'm sure many of the readers here could appreciate the significance and relevance of this event.  From the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) : The first beam in the Large Hadron Collider at CERN was successfully steered around the full 27 kilometres [17 miles] of the world’s most powerful particle accelerator at 10h28 this morning. This historic event marks a key moment in the transition from over two decades of preparation to a new era of scientific discovery. ... Starting up a major new particle accelerator takes much more than flipping a switch. Thousands of individual elements have to work in harmony, timings have to be synchronized to under a billionth of a second, and beams finer than a human hair have to be brought into head-on collision. Today’s success puts a tick next to the first of those steps, and over the next few weeks, as the LHC’s operators gain experience and confidence with the new machine, the ...

This morning, NPR's Morning Edition ran an energy NIMBY story with a twist: An "In My Back Yard" piece titled, " City Dweller Laments Loss Of Urban Trees ," detailing the difficulties power companies can face in dealing with urban homeowners. Utility people say they can't win. If they trim too aggressively, residents, like me, complain that they are destroying the canopy in an old neighborhood. But if untrimmed trees take out power lines during a storm, those same residents jump on the phone and demand that the utility turn the juice back on right away. Earl Eutsler is a District of Columbia arborist. He says there's only one way to solve the conflict between trees and power lines. "Planting the proper tree in this space. For example, the amur maple we installed in front of your house," he explains. "Proper tree, proper place" is the motto for the city's plan to replace tall trees under power lines with species that are more, sha...

A $200 billion pool to finance and drive private investment in carbon-free energy infrastructure is one cornerstone of a comprehensive action plan that the next U.S. president should implement in his first 100 days to secure America’s energy supplies, the Council on Competitiveness said in a report [PDF] issued today. A “clean energy bank,” modeled after the U.S. Export/Import Bank , would provide financing for the development of energy solutions that avoid, reduce or sequester carbon as well as supporting infrastructure. Among the options: nuclear, renewable and biofuels. Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson , president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and chair of the Council’s Energy Security, Innovation and Sustainability Initiative , said jumpstarting energy infrastructure investments is the “unaddressed element to date to transforming our energy sector.” Absent the investment stimulus needed to build nuclear power plants, renewable projects and infrastructure such as a “smart” electric ...

The NRC has renewed Entergy's operating license for the FitzPatrick nuclear plant , located in Scriba, New York. Per Reuters , NEW YORK, Sept 9 (Reuters) - The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission renewed the operating license for of Entergy Corp's 852-megawatt FitzPatrick nuclear station in New York for an additional 20 years, the NRC said Tuesday in a release. The FitzPatrick plant began commercial operation in 1975. Its license was set to expire in 2014. The renewal extends the license to 2034. Entergy applied to renew the license in August 2006. The FitzPatrick renewal brings the total number of license renewals to 49 units, the NRC said.

From the Daily Express : Britain is "quite simply running out of power" and blackouts are almost inevitable within the next few years. This is the stark warning from the head of an energy think-tank who believes power cuts could be serious enough to spark civil disorder. Campbell Dunford of the respected Renewable Energy Foundation said: "It’s almost too late to do anything about it. Nothing will stop us having to pay very high prices for power in future." ... The “retirement” of a string of nuclear and coal-fired power stations will see 37 percent of the UK’s generation disappear by 2015, partly because of EU environmental directives. But here's what caught my eye: The [REF] report concludes: "A near fatal preoccupation with politically attractive but marginal forms of renewables seems to have caused a blindness towards the weakening of the UK’s power stations and a dangerous and helpless vulnerability to natural gas." Wow, I'm a bit stunned (an...

In a statement released earlier today, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced that President Bush has rescinded the U.S. - Russia 123 Agreement . Per Reuters , President George W. Bush on Monday froze a lucrative civilian nuclear pact with Russia, the first big penalty imposed on Moscow after its war with Georgia but one that can be reversed. "The president intends to notify Congress that he has today rescinded his prior determination regarding the U.S.-Russia agreement for peaceful nuclear cooperation, the so-called 1-2-3 Agreement," said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. While Bush's decision to withdraw the agreement from congressional review was seen as punitive, it was also meant to preserve the deal, a senior U.S. official said. That official said the administration wanted to ensure the accord did not go to a vote in Congress, where it could have been rejected following Russia's military action in Georgia. If rejected, it would be difficult for a new...