Gas pipelines near Indian Point nuke could cause catastrophe

Natural gas pipelines running close to the Indian Point nuclear power plant pose a threat with potentially catastrophic consequences, according to Paul Blanch, an independent energy consultant. The pipelines pose what Blanch described as "a low probability" event but with "unimaginable" consequences if there should be an explosion causing a fire. Such an event is well within the bounds of possibility since it already occurred in San Bruno, CA where a large gas line exploded killing eight people and destroying 37 homes. Blanch has filed a petition with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission  that questions whether the NRC has properly studied the effects of an explosion of the lines or planned for such an accident.

Beyond Nuclear challenges twenty year license extension of the Seabrook nuclear power plant with the renewable energy renaissance

Beyond Nuclear has partnered with the New Hampshire Sierra Club and the New Hampshire Seacoast Anti-Pollution League to intervene before the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to oppose the relicensing of the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant on the New Hampshire Seacoast .

Florida Power & Light has submitted its application to relicense the nuke 20-years in advance of Seabrook's current operating license expiration date in 2030 in an effort to ignore the renewable energy renaissance and dodge its responsibilities under the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) to evaluate  energy alternatives that are less harmful to the environment. 

Beyond Nuclear wants a fair and accurate assessment of the region's renewable energy potential and the inclusion of current plans for the advancement of clean, safe and renewable energy as an alternative to an additional 20-years of dirty, dangerous and expensive nuclear power from the Seabrook nuke. 

In fact, Florida Power & Light  omitted numerous significant current events, scientific analyses and expert documents, as well state and federal agreements to responsibly advance the generation and transmission of electricity for the region through interconnected offshore and deepwater wind turbine farms located 10 to 50 miles off the coast. Among the company’s many omissions are the specific collaborative plans by the State Maine and the US Department of Energy to be generating five (5) Gigawatts of offshore wind energy within the Gulf of Maine by the requested relicensing period of 2030.   

A copy of Beyond Nuclear's legal filing to the NRC can be viewed here along with the 21 exhibits of scientific papers, expert evaluations and current events documenting the advent of the deepwater wind contribution to the renewable energy renaissance.

Farewell to a Michelangelo of the renewable energy renaissance

It is with great sadness that we must note the passing of a pillar of the renewable energy movement, Hermann Scheer. As Kate Connolly writes in The Guardian, Scheer, of Germany, "who died unexpectedly aged 66 after suffering from chest pains, was a tireless campaigner for the promotion of renewable energies, in particular solar power, a cause he championed long before it was fashionable to do so, even in a country with such long-established environmental consciousness as his native Germany. He is credited with boosting the status of alternative energy, both at home and abroad, thanks to his visionary zeal." Scheer was the creator of the feed-in tariff by which individuals and businesses that generate power through renewable energies are able to sell it back to the grid at above-market prices, thus encouraging the spread of wind, solar and hydro power. It is now used around the world. More recently, he founded the International Renewable Energy Agency to counter-act the International Atomic Energy Agency, and was about to publish a book that showed it was technically and economically feasible for renewable energy to fully replace fossil and nuclear energy within just a few years, if the political will existed. (Pictured are Scheer and IRENA executive director Hélène Pelosse, at IRENA’s headquarters, in June 2010).

Update on October 21, 2010 by admin

Apparently Pelosse has resigned - this week.

"Shockingly high" financial risks doom new reactor proposal in Maryland

The New York Times' Matt Wald reports that low natural gas prices, no price on carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion, high new reactor construction costs, and the ongoing economic recession have dimmed the nuclear power industry's hopes for a "renassiance" as one of the lead new reactor proposals -- at Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland -- may very likely be cancelled. ClimateWire's Peter Behr declared the "nuclear renaissance" -- if not dead, then comatose, given Constellation's precipitous abandonment of Calvert Cliffs 3.

So-called "nuclear renaissance" pushed back "a decade, maybe two" as proposed new reactor in Maryland bites the dust

The Center for American Progress's Joseph Romm quotes Exelon Nuclear's CEO, John Rowe, as saying that due to the low price of natural gas and no price on carbon -- not to mention the skyrocketing construction costs of new reactors -- the nuclear renaissance has been pushed back "a decade, maybe two...We think natural gas will stay cheap for a very long time,” Rowe said in an interview today at Bloomberg’s headquarters in New York. “As long as natural gas is anywhere near current price forecasts, you can’t economically build a merchant nuclear plant...Absent a price on carbon dioxide emissions, gas would have to rise to $9 or $9.50 to make the reactors economically attractive," Rowe said. In addition to links to other good Romm blogs, this entry includes an analysis by CAP's Richard Caperton on Constellation Nuclear's withdrawal from the Calvert Cliffs 3 new reactor proposal in Maryland.