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"According to a report by Bloomberg, Electricite de France SA, (EDF) Europe's biggest generator, would be forced to sell as much as 120 terawatt-hours of power a year to rivals, about one third of its French nuclear output, under a draft law to open competition. EDF, a leading nuclear power utility, operates a French nuclear fleet consisting of 58 reactors spread over 19 different sites. click for full sizeThe planned legilsation is designed to meet antitrust concerns of the European Commission, which raided EDF offices last year as part of a probe into whether the utility abused its dominant position by raising prices on France's wholesale power market. State-controlled EDF holds 85 percent of the market by volume even after it was opened to competition nearly three years ago. "The price will reflect the economic conditions" of EDF's existing nuclear reactors and "all of the costs" of operating them will be calculated by the regulator, according to the document."

"According to a report by newsok.com, a House panel has passed a measure that would allow municipal power authorities to buy electricity from nuclear plants and to invest in a joint venture for a nuclear power plant. The committee voted 21-4 to pass Senate Bill 1668. It now goes to the House of Representatives. Rep. Rex Duncan, House author of the bill, said that the bill removes prohibitions in state law that specifically excluded nuclear energy as an eligible power source. The exclusion was written at a time when it was feared radioactive waste from nuclear plants would threaten public health and natural resources. "

The first comprehensive survey of soil contamination from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant showed that 33 locations spread over a wide area have been contaminated with long-lasting radioactive cesium, complicating Japan's effort to clean up the disaster-hit region, the government said Tuesday. The survey of 2,200 locations within a 100-km radius of the crippled plant found that those 33 locations had cesium-137 in excess of 1.48 million becquerels per square meter, the level set by the Soviet Union for forced resettlement after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. Another 132 locations had combined amount of cesium 137/134 over 555,000 becquerels per square meter, the level at which the Soviet authorities called for voluntary evacuation and imposed a ban on farming.

How Tax Codes Negatively Distort Our Energy Choices Tax codes are often written to support national goals, above and beyond mere revenue generation. This is often called "social engineering" although an engineer might not recognize it as such - By Joseph Somsel - The U.S. tax code is a marvelous and impressive intellectual structure. As an engineer I took a business class in taxation for corporations while getting my MBA. Engineering is the art of extracting utility from first principles of science and combining it with hard-won practical experience. I found, to my frustration, that taxation is not like that. Taxes are whatever Congress and the IRS say they are, logic or principle be damned. "The power to tax is the power to destroy." - Chief Justice John Marshall

How Tax Codes Negatively Distort Our Energy Choices Tax codes are often written to support national goals, above and beyond mere revenue generation. This is often called "social engineering" although an engineer might not recognize it as such - By Joseph Somsel - The U.S. tax code is a marvelous and impressive intellectual structure. As an engineer I took a business class in taxation for corporations while getting my MBA. Engineering is the art of extracting utility from first principles of science and combining it with hard-won practical experience. I found, to my frustration, that taxation is not like that. Taxes are whatever Congress and the IRS say they are, logic or principle be damned. "The power to tax is the power to destroy." - Chief Justice John Marshall

Not only does the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) objection last week to major problems in the AP1000 reactor design call into serious question the future of over half of proposed new reactors in the United States (14 of 25), it also means that it would be "grossly imprudent" for the Department of Energy (DOE) to proceed with its plans for loan guarantees for new reactors that are not finalized and licensed. Four experts delivered that stern warning during a news conference today urging the DOE to halt controversial plans to issue nuclear loan guarantees "soon," according to Energy Secretary Chu. These guarantees are part of the DOE's Title XVII Loan Guarantee Program. Two of the four new nuclear projects that the DOE is reported to be considering for taxpayer-backed loan guarantees are AP1000 designs proposed by the Southern Company at the Vogtle site in Georgia and the South Carolina Electric & Gas (SCE&G) V.C. Summer site.

Not only does the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) objection last week to major problems in the AP1000 reactor design call into serious question the future of over half of proposed new reactors in the United States (14 of 25), it also means that it would be "grossly imprudent" for the Department of Energy (DOE) to proceed with its plans for loan guarantees for new reactors that are not finalized and licensed. Four experts delivered that stern warning during a news conference today urging the DOE to halt controversial plans to issue nuclear loan guarantees "soon," according to Energy Secretary Chu. These guarantees are part of the DOE's Title XVII Loan Guarantee Program. Two of the four new nuclear projects that the DOE is reported to be considering for taxpayer-backed loan guarantees are AP1000 designs proposed by the Southern Company at the Vogtle site in Georgia and the South Carolina Electric & Gas (SCE&G) V.C. Summer site.

The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) expressed its strong concern about President Obama's choice of William Magwood to fill a vacant seat on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). In a letter sent to Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works Chair Senator Barbara Boxer and Ranking Member James Inhofe yesterday, POGO questioned Mr. Magwood's ability to effectively oversee and regulate the more than 120 licenses and renewal applications currently and soon to be before the Commission, and opposed his nomination. "This nomination flies in the face of the spirit of President Obama's commitment to high ethical standards for the Administration's appointees," said POGO Executive Director Danielle Brian. "We believe it should be examined in the full light of public and congressional scrutiny."

The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) expressed its strong concern about President Obama's choice of William Magwood to fill a vacant seat on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). In a letter sent to Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works Chair Senator Barbara Boxer and Ranking Member James Inhofe yesterday, POGO questioned Mr. Magwood's ability to effectively oversee and regulate the more than 120 licenses and renewal applications currently and soon to be before the Commission, and opposed his nomination. "This nomination flies in the face of the spirit of President Obama's commitment to high ethical standards for the Administration's appointees," said POGO Executive Director Danielle Brian. "We believe it should be examined in the full light of public and congressional scrutiny."

On the Navajo Nation, almost everyone you talk to either worked in uranium mines themselves or had fathers or husbands who did. Almost everyone also has multiple stories of loved ones dying young from cancer, kidney disease and other ailments attributed to uranium poisoning. The effects aren't limited to uranium miners and millers; whole families are usually affected as women washed their husbands' contaminated clothes, kids played amidst mine waste and families even built homes out of radioactive uranium tailings.

On the Navajo Nation, almost everyone you talk to either worked in uranium mines themselves or had fathers or husbands who did. Almost everyone also has multiple stories of loved ones dying young from cancer, kidney disease and other ailments attributed to uranium poisoning. The effects aren't limited to uranium miners and millers; whole families are usually affected as women washed their husbands' contaminated clothes, kids played amidst mine waste and families even built homes out of radioactive uranium tailings.

Thirty years after the nation's worst nuclear power plant accident, the partial meltdown at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island, nuclear is back in the news. Polls show increased public support, and advocates tout its relatively clean, homegrown power potential. Georgia is at the forefront of the industry's hopes, with Southern Co.'s Plant Vogtle near Augusta scheduled to put the first of two planned new reactors into service in 2016.

Thirty years after the nation's worst nuclear power plant accident, the partial meltdown at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island, nuclear is back in the news. Polls show increased public support, and advocates tout its relatively clean, homegrown power potential. Georgia is at the forefront of the industry's hopes, with Southern Co.'s Plant Vogtle near Augusta scheduled to put the first of two planned new reactors into service in 2016.

"A Japanese nuclear power plant has come under fire for trying to sway the outcome of a public forum on atomic safety, dealing a fresh blow to the industry's credibility four months after the world's biggest nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. An employee with Kyushu Electric Power Co instructed workers at the utility and its affiliates to pose as ordinary citizens and send e-mails backing the restart of nuclear reactors in southern Japan to a televised public hearing. A massive earthquake and tsunami crippled the coastal Fukushima-Daiichi power plant in northeast Japan on March 11, sparking a fuel-rod meltdown and the biggest nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in Ukraine in 1986. The plant is still leaking radiation in a protracted disaster which prompted the government to go back to "scratch" on its nuclear energy policy. Only 19 of Japan's 54 reactors are still running. "