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Abstract: America needs a clean, safe, and sustainable energy source. Nuclear power could be part of the solution -- with the right set of free-market reforms. Congress, the nuclear industry, and many Americans agree that reform of U.S. nuclear policies is necessary, but cannot agree on what those reforms should look like. The nuclear provision in the Senate's new Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act is a nice nod to nuclear power, but leaves the waters muddied. Heritage Foundation energy experts Jack Spencer and Nicolas Loris provide some clarity.

Abstract: America needs a clean, safe, and sustainable energy source. Nuclear power could be part of the solution -- with the right set of free-market reforms. Congress, the nuclear industry, and many Americans agree that reform of U.S. nuclear policies is necessary, but cannot agree on what those reforms should look like. The nuclear provision in the Senate's new Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act is a nice nod to nuclear power, but leaves the waters muddied. Heritage Foundation energy experts Jack Spencer and Nicolas Loris provide some clarity.

oday I have had the opportunity to meet with Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia and other distinguished Indian leaders. We had productive discussions about the opportunities for partnerships between our two countries on clean energy technologies. Meeting the climate and clean energy challenge is a top priority for President Obama. In the past ten months, the United States has demonstrated its renewed commitment to these goals both by supporting domestic policies that advance clean energy, climate security, and economic recovery; and by vigorously vigorously re-engaging the international community through bi-lateral relationships, the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, the G20, and the UN negotiations. The U.S. will continue to work hard toward combating climate change and reaching a strong international agreement that puts the world on a pathway to a clean energy future. Working together, we can meet the clean energy and climate challenge in a way that will drive sustainable, low-carbon economic growth in the 21st century.

oday I have had the opportunity to meet with Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia and other distinguished Indian leaders. We had productive discussions about the opportunities for partnerships between our two countries on clean energy technologies. Meeting the climate and clean energy challenge is a top priority for President Obama. In the past ten months, the United States has demonstrated its renewed commitment to these goals both by supporting domestic policies that advance clean energy, climate security, and economic recovery; and by vigorously vigorously re-engaging the international community through bi-lateral relationships, the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, the G20, and the UN negotiations. The U.S. will continue to work hard toward combating climate change and reaching a strong international agreement that puts the world on a pathway to a clean energy future. Working together, we can meet the clean energy and climate challenge in a way that will drive sustainable, low-carbon economic growth in the 21st century.

CPS Energy has made two critical errors in their dealings on the South Texas Project (STP) nuclear plant: assuming that nuclear energy will be cheap and that the cost of alternatives is too high. This month, just two days before the San Antonio City Council was to vote to approve $400 million in bonds to move forward with the STP expansion, CPS announced that the cost estimate for the project had risen as much as $4 billion. That brought the cost of expanding the nuclear power plant to $17 billion - a $12 billion increase from NRG Energy's original estimate just last year of $5.4 billion. Cheaper and safer ways exist to meet the city's need for power. With the bond vote now pushed back until January, the City Council should take the time to get bids on alternative energy scenarios for San Antonio's new electric generation. This input would present the council with the most cost-effective, least risky, most environmentally sustainable plan possible.

CPS Energy has made two critical errors in their dealings on the South Texas Project (STP) nuclear plant: assuming that nuclear energy will be cheap and that the cost of alternatives is too high. This month, just two days before the San Antonio City Council was to vote to approve $400 million in bonds to move forward with the STP expansion, CPS announced that the cost estimate for the project had risen as much as $4 billion. That brought the cost of expanding the nuclear power plant to $17 billion - a $12 billion increase from NRG Energy's original estimate just last year of $5.4 billion. Cheaper and safer ways exist to meet the city's need for power. With the bond vote now pushed back until January, the City Council should take the time to get bids on alternative energy scenarios for San Antonio's new electric generation. This input would present the council with the most cost-effective, least risky, most environmentally sustainable plan possible.

"Utah's radiation programs have new leaders. The new director of the Radiation Control Division is Rusty Lundberg, who has worked in the state's solid waste and sustainability programs. Lundberg replaces Dane Finerfrock, who has led radiation programs for the past seven years and retires at the month's end. "Rusty has excellent management and leadership skills," said Utah Department of Environmental Quality Director Amanda Smith, "and will do an outstanding job in the Division of Radiation Control." Lundberg has been with DEQ for 25 years, serving for more than 15 years as the branch manager overseeing solid waste for the Division of Solid and Hazardous Waste."

"The United States should consider a criteria-based nuclear deal for Pakistan as part of a comprehensive strategy to secure the key South Asian country's anti-militancy cooperation over the long-term, a new study by American scholars said Monday. In a critical appraisal of Islamabad's fight against terrorist threat since 2001 in the context of US-Pakistan cooperation as well as Pakistani policies, the Rand Corporation study notes the vitality of "politically valuable initiatives" that Washington should take towards ensuring Pakistan's sustained cooperation in the high-stakes struggle. These initiatives should also include a free trade agreement between the two allies, the study entitled "Counterinsurgency in Pakistan" says. The nuclear deal for Pakistan "could be based on an exclusive relationship with the United States, rather than seeking broad accommodation with the Nuclear Supplier's group and other regimes thatlimit the proliferation of nuclear technology and access to materials for nuclear programs, " authors Christine Fair of Georgetown University and Seth Jones of Rand Corporation suggest."

"Issue #156 - July 2010 The Sunflower is a monthly e-newsletter providing educational information on nuclear weapons abolition and other issues relating to global security. Help us spread the word and forward this to a friend. Visit www.wagingpeace.org/donate to help sustain this valuable resource by making a donation. To receive our free monthly e-newsletter subscribe at www.wagingpeace.org/subscribe * Perspectives o British Petroleum, Imagination and Nuclear Catastrophe by David Krieger o Nuclear Deterrence Scam Blocking Progress to a Safer World by Commander Robert Green * US Nuclear Weapons Policy o US and Japan Reaffirm Nuclear Pact * Nuclear Disarmament o US Conference of Mayors Calls for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons * Nuclear Proliferation o China Bends International Rules to Sell Reactors to Pakistan o Myanmar May Have a Nuclear Program * Nuclear Labs o Plans for New Kansas City Nuclear Plant Move Forward * Nuclear Testing o US Tests Nuclear-Capable Missiles o Russia to Strengthen Nuclear Testing Capabilities * Nuclear Energy and Waste o Australian Union Bans Nuclear Work o Nature Preserve on Uranium Enrichment Site * War and Peace o Israel Stations Nuclear Subs Near Iran * Iraq War o US Opposes Effort to Include Aggression as a Crime * Resources o ICAN Report on the NPT Review Conference o 2010 Global Peace Index * Foundation Activities o Waging Peace Today: New NAPF Blog o Sadako Peace Day Commemoration: August 6 o NAPF Internship Program"

"About 250 people attended the Students of Sustainability (SoS) conference at Flinders University in Adelaide over July 4-8. A highlight of the conference was the attendance of the Indegenous Solidarity Rides bus full of passengers on their way from Newcastle to the convergence at Alice Springs. They presented workshops on the NT intervention, its effects on Aboriginal communities and the struggle to repeal the racist laws. Another strong feature of the conference was the many workshops given by members of Aboriginal communities in South Australia about the disastrous effects the mining and uranium industries were having on their land and water."

"The United States must cut military spending dramatically to allow the government to fund other necessary programs, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., said Friday. Frank released a report by a panel he created that recommends almost $1 trillion in cuts during the next 10 years, The Hill reported. The Sustainable Defense Task Force includes members from left-liberal groups and from libertarian ones like the Cato Institute. Frank heads the House Financial Services Committee. He acknowledged many of the task force proposals will have trouble passing Congress, especially weapons systems that provide jobs for constituents."

"Conservation Law Foundation officials called for the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant to shut down, citing the recent leaks in the site's underground piping and within its main reactor building. Calling nuclear power "last century's technology," a panel of CLF delegates criticized the Vernon plant for its recent safety record and advocated for a more sustainable energy future in New England during a Thursday evening public forum in downtown Brattleboro. Nearly 50 people from Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts attended the event. CLF Senior Attorney Sandy Levine said Vermont Yankee should shut down the plant because of the continuing contamination at the site and into the Connecticut River. "The plant should not be operating while this is ongoing," she said. "And we wanted to put this in a more regional context, it's not just Vermont. What happens to Vermont Yankee matters throughout the region." "

"President Obama is looking for help in collaring American nuclear power. On Friday, the Department of Energy asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to reconsider its refusal to kill the Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste storage project. In doing so, Mr. Obama continues his relentless quest to throttle this politically incorrect form of clean energy while pretending to sustain it. In June, a three-judge NRC panel said the Obama administration cannot halt the licensing of the facility without approval from Congress. Now the administration hopes the full five-member commission will overturn the earlier ruling and end the project once and for all. Americans should hope that doesn't happen."

In his inaugural address, President Obama gave many reasons why our nation is "in the midst of crisis," concluding with "and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet." He continued with "….our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions - that time has surely passed." Among the bold, swift actions he proposed "not only to create new jobs, but (to) lay a new foundation for growth" was this resolve: "We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories." Wow! A leader who gets it! One who sees that our energy future lies in renewable, sustainable, earth-friendly sources. Here in Vermont, we have an opportunity to make a huge leap in that direction. Hopefully our state legislators are as wise as our president. Hopefully they understand, and will acknowledge with their votes against its relicensing, that the aging, obsolete Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station is no longer acceptable as it poses serious risks to the public's health and safety, and to the environment.

Despite long-standing public concern about the safety of nuclear energy, more and more people are realizing that it may be the most environmentally friendly way to generate large amounts of electricity. Several nations, including Brazil, China, Egypt, Finland, India, Japan, Pakistan, Russia, South Korea and Vietnam, are building or planning nuclear plants. But this global trend has not as yet extended to the U.S., where work on the last such facility began some 30 years ago. If developed sensibly, nuclear power could be truly sustainable and essentially inexhaustible and could operate without contributing to climate change. In particular, a relatively new form of nuclear technology could overcome the principal drawbacks of current methods-namely, worries about reactor accidents, the potential for diversion of nuclear fuel into highly destructive weapons, the management of dangerous, long-lived radioactive waste, and the depletion of global reserves of economically available uranium. This nuclear fuel cycle would combine two innovations: pyrometallurgical processing (a high-temperature method of recycling reactor waste into fuel) and advanced fast-neutron reactors capable of burning that fuel. With this approach, the radioactivity from the generated waste could drop to safe levels in a few hundred years, thereby eliminating the need to segregate waste for tens of thousands of years.

All links on this page are to documents in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF). See our Plugins, Viewers, and Other Tools page for more information. Part 1 - Morning Session: * NRC Staff Presentation Part 2 - Afternoon Session: * State Government Representatives: Donald R. McKenzie - Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality * Other Stakeholders: Katie Sweeney, National Mining Association Michelle R. Rehmann, Uranium Program Manager, International Forum on Sustainable Options for Uranium Production (IFSOUP)

Turkey needs a huge amount of energy investment to sustain its fast growing economy. Where this money come from is a big question. But the rising oil prices and dependency on foreign natural gas and oil has inflated the import numbers. In 2006, Turkey has paid 26 billion USDs for imported energy sources. In 2007, this number is expected to increase at least %5, around 1 billion USD. So with basic math, one can easily deduct that in 5 years time, this money adds up to 5 billion dollars, which is more than enough to finance the cost of a 4500 MWs of nuclear plant construction. But the finance side of the problem is not that easy…

The presidentially appointed commission that oversees the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has rejected an appeal by the groups and a state assemblyman challenging the Indian Point license renewal application under the umbrella of WestCAN. The groups include the Westchester Citizens Awareness Network (WestCAN), Rockland County Conservation Association, Public Health and Sustainable Energy (PHASE), Sierra Club -- Atlantic Chapter and state Assemblyman Richard Brodsky. On July 31, the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board panel handling the Indian Point license renewal hearing expelled WestCAN from the proceeding. It did so because the counsel for WestCAN repeatedly disregarded agency regulations and instructions from the panel. In its ruling Tuesday, the commission upheld the expulsion, noting that the actions by WestCAN's counsel have "seriously disrupted the Board's efforts to meet its responsibility to conduct a fair, orderly and efficient hearing, has interfered with the other participants' efforts to use their own litigation resources efficiently, and has made our own review of the appellate documents and the underlying record far more time-consuming than necessary."

The heat has been turned up on Germany's radiation protection office after it was revealed that an old salt mine in the German state of Lower Saxony, where nuclear waste is being stored, has sustained damaged. The Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) had learned late last year that pieces of the ceiling of the 750-meter (2,500-foot) deep chamber were unstable and could collapse on top of the 6,000 radioactive waste drums below.

The Nov. 25 column by Robert Alvarez is full of assertions that require clarification and/or rebuttal. Sign up for breaking news alerts from The Chronicle First of all, reprocessing of used nuclear fuel is an issue because about 95 percent of the energy value in the original fuel remains in the "spent" fuel , so it begs the question of "shouldn't that valuable resource be recovered?" Secondly, the concept of fast reactors coupled with thermal reactors and reprocessing results in minimum waste and sustainable nuclear fuel supplies for hundreds of years.

Critics had some harsh words for the U.S. Department of Energy on Tuesday regarding a draft environmental impact statement prepared for a proposed program meant to safely, securely and sustainably expand the use of nuclear energy. DOE has prepared the statement for what is known as the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, and officials had a public hearing on the program at the New Hope Center at the Y-12 National Security Complex. First proposed by the Bush Administration, GNEP would expand the use of nuclear power as an energy source, both domestically and internationally. Officials say it would also strive to reduce the risk of nuclear proliferation and limit the impacts of getting rid of spent nuclear fuel.

We are told that nuclear power is about to achieve a "green renaissance," "clean coal" is just around the corner, and municipal garbage is a "renewable resource," which, when burned, will yield "sustainable energy." On the other hand, sometimes we are told that solar, geothermal and tidal power are what we really need to "green" our energy system. How is a person to make sense of all these competing claims? Luckily, scientists have developed two sets of criteria that we can use to judge the "greenness" of competing technologies. The first is called "The 12 principles of green engineering" and the second is "The 12 principles of green chemistry."

A fire broke out at a nuclear power plant in northern Japan on Thursday, injuring one worker but causing no radiation leak, the operator said. Firefighters put out the fire about an hour after white smoke was spotted coming out of the reactor, which was already shut for a regular check-up, Tohoku Electric Power said. "One worker sustained minor burns but was not exposed to radiation," a company spokesman said, adding there was no leak to the outside environment either.