News & Articles on Nuclear Power
Nuclear is not renewable, but it’s listed here for organizational reasons. I wasn’t really interested in nuclear, didn’t think it had any future, and that it was effectively dead. I wasn’t writing about it. However, like a vampire, nuclear kept rising from the grave and stalking the land. Talk continued of reviving it one more time. This talk had a real effect on public policy in North America, especially in Ontario, Canada. Thus, I felt it necessary to include nuclear topics and this was the place on my web site where it was easiest to insert
‘Fantasy PowerPoint Designs’ Won’t Deliver Nuclear Power in Time to Solve Climate Change
By
Paul Brown
Governments have no time to waste on “fantasy PowerPoint designs” of small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) that could never be built in time to save humanity from the climate crisis, says the author of an annual status report on the world nuclear industry.
Ex-CEO Who Oversaw Doomed Nuclear Project Sentenced
By
An executive who lied to regulators about two South Carolina nuclear plants that never generated a watt of power has been sentenced to two years in prison.
‘A combination of failures:’ why 3.6m pounds of nuclear waste is buried under a popular California beach
By
Kate Mishkin
But for all the good vibes and stellar sunsets, beneath the surface hides a potential threat: 3.6m lb of nuclear waste from a group of nuclear reactors shut down nearly a decade ago. Decades of political gridlock have left it indefinitely stranded, susceptible to threats including corrosion, earthquakes and sea level rise.
Ontario’s Unfunded Nuclear Decommissioning Liability Is In The $18-$27 Billion CAD Range
By
Michael Barnard
So yes, Ontario’s nuclear program will be a fiscal burden on Ontarians to the tune of around $40 billion CAD which will be spent through roughly 2135, finally being paid off by the great-grandchildren of babies born in 2021. Nuclear, the gift that keeps on giving.
Nuclear energy – The solution to climate change?
By
Nikolaus Muellner
Nuclear power’s contribution to climate change mitigation is and will be very limited.
Trudeau making mistake investing in nuclear research
By
Peggy Cameron
The idea of citizens’ taxes going to experimental small nuclear seems especially short-sighted knowing that the Canadian government under former prime minister Stephen Harper sold Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL) to SNC-Lavalin for $15 million.
Small Modular Nuclear Reactors Are Mostly Bad Policy
By
Michael Barnard
Small modular reactors won’t achieve economies of manufacturing scale, won’t be faster to construct, forego efficiency of vertical scaling, won’t be cheaper, aren’t suitable for remote or brownfield coal sites, still face very large security costs, will still be costly and slow to decommission, and still require liability insurance caps. They don’t solve any of the problems that they purport to while intentionally choosing to be less efficient than they could be.
Nuclear plant decommissioning costs three times as much as estimated
By
Michael Barnard
But they need a fund of closer to $70 billion, and they are short regardless. So the US fleet cleanup is going to cost the taxpayer probably closer to an additional $40 billion, if it all goes according to the estimates.
Net Zero without Nuclear: The Case Against Nuclear Power
By
Jonathon Porritt
I’ve been ‘anti-nuclear’ since 1974 –ever since I joined the Green Party. My basic position hasn’t changed much during that time. Not because I decided back then that nuclear power was an inherently ‘wicked’ technology that must be avoided at all costs. I can genuinely claim thatI’ve been waiting more than 45 years for someone to prove me wrong about nuclear power, to falsify my working hypothesis that it’s simply ‘the wrong technology at the wrong time’ for sorting out all the challenges that we face.
Small Modular Nuclear Reactors Are Mostly Bad Policy
By
Michael Barnard
People asserting that SMRs are the primary or only answer to energy generation either don’t know what they are talking about, are actively dissembling or are intentionally delaying climate action.
