8 item(s) were returned.
Senior Scientist
UFA Ventures, Inc.
In January, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Advanced Nuclear Technology Act of 2017 (ANTA). At the same time, the latest version of the Interim Consolidated Storage Act (ICSA) was introduced. These bills address two of the most important recommendations made in 2011 by then President Obama’s Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future (the BRC). The nuclear power industry has also been waiting for legislation to break the logjam of bureaucratic red-tape that has hamstrung developing and building new-design reactors as well as to create a central place for used fuel that can be burned later. ANTA would… [more]
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President
Kadak Associates, Inc.
Without significant gains in storage technology, electric generation from solar and wind will not meet the world’s energy needs. Nuclear power, however, can deliver electric power in a sufficiently safe, economical and secure manner to supplement supply from other carbon-free sources. Despite this, there remain major objections to the safety, cost, waste management and proliferation risk of nuclear power, which I’ll seek to address here. Safety There have been three serious accidents that challenged the safety record of nuclear power: the Three Mile Island (TMI), Chernobyl, and the tsunami-induced Fukushima accident. In all these accidents there were no immediate public… [more]
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Since the development of the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository was terminated in 2011, no long-term plan for storing spent nuclear fuel accumulating at nuclear power plants has been developed. As a result, utilities have been forced to store spent nuclear fuel “on site,” where storage space grows tight and is increasingly expensive to manage. The federal government is required by law to provide (since 1998) offsite storage for spent nuclear fuel, but has yet to do so. Furthermore, until last month’s ruling by a federal appeals court, the Department of Energy (DOE) had been collecting a fee from nuclear… [more]
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J.C. Ward Jr. Professor of Nuclear Energy Engineering
Cornell University
The premise of Robert Stone’s newly released documentary, Pandora’s Promise, is that despite the scary features of nuclear radiation, nuclear power is the best chance we have to avoid the catastrophe projected from burning fossil fuels to power the growing world economy. The documentary’s approach is rather unique – former anti-nuclear environmentalists describe how and why they became pro-nuclear, in spite of even the recent major Fukushima Daiichi reactor disaster. It is important to add that Director Robert Stone is not arguing that standard “light water reactors” (LWRs) should be pursued, but rather newer designs, such as inherently safe breeder… [more]
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A recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals (D.C. Circuit) will require the U.S. to reevaluate the environmental impacts of disposal and storage of nuclear waste. The decision vacated the NRC’s Waste Confidence Decision Update and Temporary Storage Rule, which will essentially require the NRC to restart the process of evaluating the safety and potential consequences of producing, accumulating, and storing spent nuclear fuel. Explaining the decision, the Court writes that “the Commission’s evaluation of the risks of spent nuclear fuel is deficient in two ways: First, in concluding that permanent storage will be available ‘when necessary,’ the Commission… [more]
View InsightProfessor of Physics
City College of the City University of New York
For decades many have considered nuclear fusion to be the brass ring of energy technologies, believing that – were it to be successful and commercially viable – it would offer sustained electricity production with no CO2, particulate pollution, or radioactive waste. Research into safely and consistently harnessing fusion’s potential for civil use has been ongoing since the mid-Twentieth Century. Yet to date no viable commercial applications have been developed. Two prominent fusion research efforts – ITER and the National Ignition Facility (NIF) – are facing potential problems. ITER may be at risk of diminished U.S. funding due to tightening Congressional… [more]
View InsightIn an opinion piece in the New York Times, writer David Ropeik argues that the nature of how humans perceive risk has led to some impractical, and potentially counterproductive, energy and environmental policies. According to research cited by Ropeik, the following factors make people more likely to perceive higher levels of risk: “Human-made risks upset us more than risks which are natural; Risks imposed on us are scarier than those we take by choice; Risks grow scarier the greater the pain and suffering they cause.” These perception factors percolate into our energy and environmental policy, Ropeik argues, sometimes leading to… [more]
View Insight[Note: The statements below are intended solely to stimulate discussion among the Expert community, and do not represent the position of OurEnergyPolicy.org. Text in italics indicates clarification or expansion.] It is the cleanest of all available and proven technologies that can grow rapidly. We have to grow the stable supply base, not just grow the renewables. It is our safest bet for independence, reliability and fighting global warming. Nuclear “enjoys” unjustifiable bad public opinion. That’s where leadership is needed to shift public opinion. Build more nuclear power stations: Step 1 — Double the capacity of existing nuclear stations by… [more]
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