September 2014

Nulcear Reactors 166 - Nuclear Insurance - Part 1

         I have mentioned insurance for nuclear power plants in previous blog posts but have never really gone into nuclear insurance in detail. At the World Nuclear Association's 2014 Symposium in London, Mark Tetley, the managing director of the power, nuclear and construction division at Lloyd's broker Price Forbes discussed nuclear insurance. "It is my belief that insurers could do more.

Nuclear Reactors 165 - Problems and Trendes in Nuclear Licensing and Permitting in the United Kingdom

         In my last blog post, I talked about the U.S. NRC approving the GE-Hitachi Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor design. The whole issue of licensing is complicated with different countries applying different criterion for granting licenses. And inside a particular country, the rules may not be applied consistently. The nuclear industry would prefer to have a more consistent and faster licensing process.

Nuclear Reactors 164 - The NRC Certifies the New GE-HItachi Economical Boiling Water Reactor Design

          New nuclear reactor designs are constantly being developed. Any design that will be built in the United States has to get approval from the NRC. That approval is a critical step in the construction of any new reactor. The NRC has just approved the design of the GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy's Economic Simplified Boiling-water Reactor (ESBWR) for use in the U.S. Once the new certification rule is published in the U.S. Federal Register, thirty days later the rule goes into effect.

Nuclear Reactors 163 - U.S. Taxpayer Will Pay Dearly for Our Use of Nuclear Power

         I have stated in previous blogs that when you consider all the different factors such as economic, political, social, technological, public health and environmental, it is obvious that nuclear energy is not a good way to produce electricity.  I have often said that the only reason nuclear power is still being discussed as a viable power source is because there is so much money involved in their construction and operation.

Nuclear Weapons 92 - Los Almos National Laboratory Fires an Employee for Publication of an Article of Nuclear Disarmament

         James Doyle spent seventeen years as a nuclear policy specialist at the U.S. Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The LANL receives about two billion dollars each year for work that includes nuclear weapons development. Last year Doyle published an article titled "Why Eliminate Nuclear Weapons?" in the journal Survival: Global Politics and Strategy. This journal is published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies in the U.K.

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