No shame as NRC schedules new nuke review on March 11

Thumbing its nose and what should be a sombre reminder of the perils of nuclear energy, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold a "public" meeting on March 11, 2013 to review the seemingly DOA proposal for a third, redundant reactor at Calvert Cliffs, MD. (And note the NRC's laughable slogan encapsulating precisely what it tries so hard NOT to do - at least at the Commission level where NRC staff safety concerns are routinely over-ridden.)

Another strike against Moniz choice - USEC happy

Ernest Moniz, President Obama's disastrous choice to be the next Secretary of Energy, is a former paid advisor to USEC, a uranium enrichment corporation that is developing the American Centrifuge Project in Piketon, OH. So naturally, USEC was one of the first to laud Obama for his pro-nuclear selection. Moniz was praised by the administration as "an important advocate for the advancement of nuclear energy as a method to address carbon emissions and climate change and is familiar with uranium-enrichment technologies." Moniz actually described nuclear energy - AFTER the Fukushima disaster began - as safe, clean and reliable. There is not much likelihood that Moniz's nomination will be opposed but Beyond Nuclear and other groups deplore his selection at a time when the country should be focused on full-scale development and implementation of renewable energy, energy efficiency and conservation.

Update on March 5, 2013 by admin

And see this Counterpunch article about Moniz by Karl Grossman.

Nuclear Relapse? Canceled! Nuclear power? Game over!

Peter BradfordAs reported by ScienceDaily in an article entitled "U.S. May Face Inevitable Nuclear Power Exit,"  the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (BAS) has concluded its three part "Nuclear Exit" series with a look at the United States. The previous two installments examined the nuclear power phase-out in Germany, and the nuclear power status quo in France.

The BAS U.S. coverage features former U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Commissioner, Union of Concerned Scientists board member, and Vermont Law School professor Peter Bradford's "How to close the U.S. nuclear industry: Do nothing," which concludes that, without massive taxpayer or ratepayer infusions, almost all proposed new reactors will not happen, and currently operating reactors will permanently shutdown by mid-century, unless the NRC rubber-stamps 80 years of operations (as opposed to the current, already risky 60). More.