Germany dumps nuclear power for renewable

By GEIR MOULSON, Associated Press
30 June 2011

BERLIN — German lawmakers overwhelmingly approved on Thursday plans to shut the country's nuclear plants by 2022, putting Europe's biggest economy on the road to an ambitious build-up of renewable energy.

The lower house of parliament voted 513-79 for the shutdown plan drawn up by Chancellor Angela Merkel's government after Japan's post-earthquake nuclear disaster. Most of the opposition voted in favor; eight lawmakers abstained.

Lawmakers sealed for good the shutdown of eight of the older reactors, which have been off the grid since March. Germany's remaining nine reactors will be shut down in stages by the end of 2022.

By 2020, Germany wants to double the share of energy stemming from water, wind, sun or biogas to at least 35 percent. Until this year, nuclear energy accounted for a bit less than a quarter of Germany's power supply.

"Some people abroad ask: will Germany manage this? Can it be done? It is the first time that a major industrial country has declared itself ready to carry through this technological and economic revolution," Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen told lawmakers.

"The message from today is this: the Germans are getting to work," he said. "This will be good for our country, because we all stand together. So let's get to work." […]

Germany dumps nuclear power for renewable

Technorati Tags: Germany,nuclear power,renewable energy

U.S. nuclear industry was in serious trouble before Fukushima and now is stalled

Washington DC (SPX) Jun 17, 2011 – Even as Germany, Japan, Switzerland and other nations move to abandon existing and planned nuclear reactors, the United States is on a path to see at best only a small handful of already planned, government-backed reactor projects proceed, a group of experts have said.

While reversals for the nuclear power industry overseas have attracted substantial media attention, relatively little focus has been paid to such developments in the U.S. as the mothballing of the South Texas Project in Texas (once a prime candidate for a federal loan guarantee), the Calvert Cliffs-3 reactor expansion in Maryland (another federal loan guarantee candidate despite major complications presented by foreign ownership issues), and the decision this week by the French industry leader Areva to halt production at a Virginia reactor component plant - a direct result of the turndown in the industry's prospects.

The industry's situation is now such that even the controversial Obama Administration proposal for $36 billion in Treasury-backed loan guarantees for new reactors likely would be a case of throwing good money after bad, according to the experts.

Peter Bradford, former member of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, former chair of the New York and Maine utility regulatory commissions, and currently adjunct professor at Vermont Law School on "Nuclear Power and Public Policy," said: "Even before Fukushima events over the last two years had amply demonstrated that new nuclear power was a bad investment in the U.S. Cost estimates had continued to rise while those of alternatives fell. Wall Street rating agencies were uniformly skeptical.

Constellation pulled out of Calvert Cliffs last October. Exelon did the same for its proposed Texas reactors, and did so in the context of a review of its low carbon options that showed new nuclear to be far more expensive than most of its other choices .

Bradford added: "Since Fukushima, NRG has pulled the plug on South Texas and the County of Fresno in California has reconsidered its support for new nuclear units there. If the past is any guide, there will soon appear stories about how the U.S. nuclear renaissance was well underway before being stalled by the one-of-a-kind nuclear accident at Fukushima.

Just as we are often wrongly told that the first nuclear construction wave in the U.S. ended because of the accident at Three Mile Island, industry spokespeople will use Fukushima to obscure the fact that new nuclear has been priced out of the market in the U.S. for many years.

Under these circumstances, adding additional exposure to American taxpayers in the form of nuclear loan guarantees can't be justified."

Paul Fremont, managing director of equity research, Jefferies and Company, Inc., said: "The estimated cost of building a new nuclear plant varies widely from $4,500 per KW estimated by NRG for its cancelled project in Texas to $6,350 per KW estimated by Southern Company for its project in Georgia.

Today, nuclear represents the highest cost option to construct compared to traditional technologies including coal at an estimated cost of $2,000-$3,000 per KW and gas combined cycle units at $950 per KW. According to Jefferies analysis, the best economic alternative for new build today is gas based on forward prices ranging from $4.40 expected in 2011 to $6.00 in 2015."

Fremont added: "In March 2010, Jefferies published a report on nuclear new build titled 'Sympathy for the Devil' arguing that absent U.S. government subsidies, gas prices would need to be $8.50 per MCF or higher to earn reasonable (10 percent) returns on new nuclear investment. […]

US Nuclear Industry Was In Serious Trouble Before Fukushima and Now Is Stalled

Technorati Tags: Fukushima,nuclear power

Japan ‘plans solar panels for all new buildings'

TOKYO,’May 22 (AFP) — Japan is considering a plan that would make it compulsory for all new buildings and houses to come fitted with solar panels by 2030, a business daily said Sunday.

The plan, expected to be unveiled at the upcoming G8 Summit in France, aims to show Japan's resolve to encourage technological innovation and promote the wider use of renewable energy, the Nikkei daily said.

Japan has reeled from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami and the nuclear crisis they triggered as it battles to stabilise the crippled Fukushima Daiichi atomic power plant.

On Thursday, the first day of the two-day summit in Deauville, France, Prime Minister Naoto Kan is expected to announce Japan's intention to continue operating nuclear plants after confirming their safety, the Nikkei said without citing sources.

But he is also expected to unveil a plan to step up efforts to push renewable energy and energy conservation.

Kan believes that the installation of solar panels would help Japan realise such goals, the Nikkei said.

He hopes that technological innovation will drastically bring down costs of solar power generation and thereby make the use of renewable energy more widespread, it said.

Japan 'plans solar panels for all new buildings'

Technorati Tags: Japan,solar power,alternative energy,nuclear power

Researchers conclude 100 per cent renewable electricity supply is feasible

European report "debunks" criticism of renewable energy supplies as unreliable and costly

By James Murray, BusinessGreen, 29 Mar 2010

Europe could generate all the electricity it needs from renewable sources by the middle of the century, according to a major new report from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) that rejects concerns about the intermittent nature of renewable energy sources.

The report – which was contributed to by researchers from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis and the European Climate Forum – concludes it is technically feasible to produce a pan-continental supersmart grid powered by solar farms in North Africa, hydro electric plants in Scandinavia and the European Alps, onshore and offshore wind farms in the Baltic and North Sea, marine energy, and biomass power facilities.

Richard Gledhill, partner for sustainability and climate change at PwC, said the report "debunks some of the conventional criticisms of large-scale renewables" by demonstrating how "geographic and technological diversification can help address cost and security of supply concerns".

Significantly, the report predicts that the rapid deployment of renewable energy capacity at scale will bring down the cost of low-carbon technologies, resulting in energy that is cost competitive and can provide affordable electricity across the region.

The report accepts that nuclear power and carbon capture and storage are also likely to play a central role in decarbonising Europe's electricity supply, but argues that renewable energy could meet all the continent's electricity requirements if need be. "The technological capability for developing renewable forms of power generation is already in place, or emerging and envisaged, and the economics of the key technologies is improving, albeit in a difficult financing environment," it states.

The study includes a policy road map which outlines how Europe's leaders could transition away from fossil fuel-based power over the next four decades. ...

Researchers conclude 100 per cent renewable electricity supply is feasible

Technorati Tags: alternative energy,solar power,nuclear power

TR10: Traveling-Wave Reactor

Here’s more on that TerraPower project.

By Matt Wald

Enriching the uranium for reactor fuel and opening the reactor periodically to refuel it are among the most cumbersome and expensive steps in running a nuclear plant. And after spent fuel is removed from the reactor, reprocessing it to recover usable materials has the same drawbacks, plus two more: the risks of nuclear-weapons proliferation and environmental pollution.

These problems are mostly accepted as a given, but not by a group of researcher­s at Intellectual Ventures, an invention and investment company in Bellevue, WA. The scientists there have come up with a preliminary design for a reactor that requires only a small amount of enriched fuel--that is, the kind whose atoms can easily be split in a chain reaction. It's called a traveling­-wave reactor. And while government researchers intermittently bring out new reactor designs, the traveling-wave reactor is noteworthy for having come from something that barely exists in the nuclear industry: a privately funded research company.

As it runs, the core in a traveling-­wave reactor gradually converts nonfissile material into the fuel it needs. Nuclear reactors based on such designs "theoretically could run for a couple of hundred years" without refueling, says John G­illeland, manager of nuclear programs at Intellectual Ventures.

Gilleland's aim is to run a nuclear reactor on what is now waste. ­Conventional reactors use uranium-235, which splits easily to carry on a chain reaction but is scarce and expensive; it must be separated from the more common, nonfissile uranium-238 in special enrichment plants. Every 18 to 24 months, the reactor must be opened, hundreds of fuel bundles removed, hundreds added, and the remainder reshuffled to supply all the fissile uranium needed for the next run. This raises proliferation concerns, since an enrichment plant designed to make low-enriched uranium for a power reactor differs trivially from one that makes highly enriched material for a bomb.

But the traveling-wave reactor needs only a thin layer of enriched U-235. Most of the core is U-238, millions of pounds of which are stockpiled around the world as leftovers from natural uranium after the U-235 has been scavenged. The design provides "the simplest possible fuel cycle," says Charles W. Forsberg, executive director of the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Project at MIT, "and it requires only one uranium enrichment plant per planet."

TR10: Traveling-Wave Reactor

Technorati Tags: nuclear power

Ex-Microsoft scientist crafts nuclear reactor startup

In case you were wondering about this TerraPower thing that Bill Gates was discussing at TED.

TerraPower is gearing up to enter the new nuclear market with a reactor that runs on natural or depleted uranium.

Intellectual Ventures, the high-level think tank created by ex-Microsoft chief scientist Nathan Myhrvold, is going nuclear.

The firm is getting prepared to spin out a company called TerraPower that will develop nuclear reactors that run primarily on natural or depleted uranium, rather than enriched uranium. With un-enriched fuel, the reactors could be loaded up with fuel and sealed for 30 to 60 years.

Switching from enriched fuel would reduce risks associated with nuclear proliferation and transportation as well as reduce the amount of nuclear waste primarily because the stockpile of uranium would go farther. Depleted uranium is a waste product in the enrichment process. TerraPower's reactor needs some enriched uranium, but only at the beginning to initiate a reaction.

The switch could also mean that the available supplies of uranium could be exploited to provide power for centuries or even thousands of years, according to the company, far longer than what can be done with enriched uranium.

The reactors will ideally vary in size from a few megawatts, big enough to power industrial sites or small cities, to large multi-gigawatt reactors that can power a major city. Terrapower is also looking at thorium reactors, which do not release plutonium as a byproduct. That would further reduce any risks associated with nuclear.

Like it or not, nuclear is making something of a comeback worldwide. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Agency expects to receive approximately 30 applications for new reactors over the next few years. Proponents say nuclear is clean and inexpensive and safer than it was in the past. Critics say it still isn't cost effective.

Threading that gap are new startups like TerraPower and Hyperion Power Generation, which is also developing a small nuclear reactor. Some companies such as General Fusion want to do fusion reactors. …

Ex-Microsoft Scientist Crafts Nuclear Reactor Startup

Technorati Tags: nuclear power

Karen Silkwood: an inspiration to fighters for environmental justice and workers' rights

By Sharyn Jenkins

Thirty-Five years ago, on November 13, 1974, US anti-nuclear activist and trade unionist Karen Silkwood was killed in a car crash many suspect was deliberately caused. Karen Silkwood will be remembered as someone who fought an uphill and often unpopular battle against the ruthless nuclear industry. She is an inspiration to all who believe in environmental justice and workers' rights.

Silkwood grew up in Nederland, the petrochemical heart of Texas. Following an unhappy marriage and bitter divorce, in which she lost custody of her three children, she moved to Oklahoma City to look for work. In 1972 she began work in the Kerr McGee Metallography Laboratory.

Union militant

Work at Kerr McGee was not pretty. Silkwood discovered numerous violations of health regulations: exposure of workers to contamination, faulty respiratory equipment, plutonium samples stored in desk drawers and plutonium samples taken to local schools for show and tell.

Because the plant provided just two showers for the 75 workers on each shift and allocated no paid time for workers to shower, most workers left the plant unshowered.

Within a few months of being employed at the plant, Silkwood was elected as the first female committee member of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union at Kerr McGee. Alarmed at the health risks faced by workers, she collected evidence to expose the poor health and safety standards. …

While she was collecting evidence, Silkwood's phone was bugged, her movements monitored and, worst of all, she was deliberately contaminated with plutonium. The contamination was so severe that after her death all the clothes and other belongings removed from her apartment were put into sealed drums to avoid contaminating others. …

Karen Silkwood: an inspiration to fighters for environmental justice and workers' rights

Technorati Tags: nuclear power,activism

10 new technologies that could change the world

From Greenbang:

With so many new technological developments announced every day, which ones show the most promise for society’s future? The editors of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Technology Review have announced the 10 they believe have the greatest potential.

Released annually, this year’s “Technology Review 10″ will be highlighted at the 2 - 3 March EmTech India conference in New Delhi.

So let’s hear the top 10 already, you say? OK, here they are:

• Liquid battery - MIT chemist Donald Sadoway’s liquid battery could “store enough electricity to allow cities to run on solar power at night”;
• Traveling-wave reactor - In development by Intellectural Ventures, such a reactor would run on depleted uranium and could make nuclear power both safer and less costly;
• Paper diagnostic test - Easy-to-use, paper-based medical tests could make it quicker and cheaper to diagnose diseases in developing countries;
• Biological machines - These include devices such as the wirelessly controlled beetle developed by Michel Maharbiz at the University of California, Berkeley. Such machines could be used for either search-and-rescue or surveillance missions;
• $100 genome - A nanofluidic chip developed by BioNanomatrix founder Han Cao could dramatically reduce the cost of genome sequencing, making it easier for doctors to administer genetically-specific medical treatment and quickly identify new viruses;
• Racetrack memory - A new type of data storage that uses magnetic nanowires, racetrack memory could replace existing computer memory technologies and enable a new generation of cheap and tiny portable devices;
• HashCache - Developed by Princeton University’s Vivek Pai, this new method for storing Web content could make Internet access both faster and more affordable;
• Intelligent software assistant - In development by Siri, such virtual personal-assistant software could help users interact more effectively with Web services;
• Software-defined networking - Stanford’s Nick McKeown has created a standard called OpenFlow that enables one-click testing of new networking technologies without interrupting normal service;
• Nanopiezotronics - Georgia Tech’s Zhong Lin Wang is developing piezoelectric nanowires that can generate electricity from tiny environmental vibrations. Such devices could act as miniature sensors of be used to power implanted medical devices.

10 new technologies that could change the world

Technorati Tags: nanotechnology,nuclear power

Nuclear fusion-fission hybrid could contribute to carbon-free energy future

How cool is this?

Physicists have designed a new system that, when fully developed, would use fusion to eliminate most of the transuranic waste produced by nuclear power plants, making nuclear power a more viable alternative to carbon-based energy sources.

The invention could help combat global warming by making nuclear power cleaner and thus a more viable replacement of carbon-heavy energy sources, such as coal.

"We have created a way to use fusion to relatively inexpensively destroy the waste from nuclear fission," says Mike Kotschenreuther, senior research scientist with the Institute for Fusion Studies (IFS) and Department of Physics. "Our waste destruction system, we believe, will allow nuclear power-a low carbon source of energy-to take its place in helping us combat global warming."

Nuclear Fusion-fission Hybrid Could Contribute To Carbon-free Energy Future
Tue, 27 Jan 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Technorati Tags: nuclear power,global warming