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Solar ‘tax’ removed from Diablo Canyon extension proposal, advocates say

9/1/2022

 
Solar advocates said that a so-called "monthly tax" on rooftop solar customers that was included in a proposal to extend the life of a nuclear power plant in California has been removed from the legislation at the urging of industry supporters. The Solar Rights Alliance said that the authors of Senate Bill 846, Gov. Gavin Newsom's push to approve a $1.4 billion loan to keep the Diablo Canyon Power Plant running, clarified that the legislation "will not impose a solar tax on the solar energy produced and consumed" by solar customers. The Environmental Working Group also joined the last-minute push against a potential "nonbypassable solar tax of up to $60 a month" that the group attributed to utility interests.
- Renewable Energy World 
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Emerging small reactors projected to provide 90 GW of nuclear power to US grid by 2050: NEI survey

8/21/2022

 
The push for carbon-free energy will drive the growth of small modular reactors, or SMRs, with 300 of them expected to be online by 2050 supplying 731 TWh of power, according to the results of a survey the Nuclear Energy Institute conducted with a subset of its member utilities and released Aug. 5. - Utility Dive

‘Nuclear is just not part of any feasible strategy that could counter climate change.’

2/24/2022

 
The climate is running hot. Evolving knowledge of climate sensitivity and polar ice melt-rate makes clear that sea-level rise is ramping, along with destructive storm, storm surge, severe precipitation and flooding, not forgetting wildfire. With mounting concern and recognition over the speed and pace of the low carbon energy transition that’s needed, nuclear has been reframed as a partial response to the threat of global heating. But at the heart of this are questions about whether nuclear could help with the climate crisis, whether nuclear is economically viable, what are the consequences of nuclear accidents, what to do with the waste, and whether there’s a place for nuclear within the swiftly expanding renewable energy evolution. As key experts who have worked on the front-line of the nuclear issue, we’ve all involved at the highest governmental nuclear regulatory and radiation protection levels in the US, Germany, France and UK. In this context, we consider it our collective responsibility to comment on the main issue: Whether nuclear could play a significant role as a strategy against climate change. The central message, repeated again and again, that a new generation of nuclear will be clean, safe, smart and cheap, is fiction. The reality is nuclear is neither clean, safe or smart; but a very complex technology with the potential to cause significant harm. Nuclear isn’t cheap, but extremely costly. Perhaps most importantly nuclear is just not part of any feasible strategy that could counter climate change. To make a relevant contribution to global power generation, up to more than ten thousand new reactors would be required, depending on reactor design. - Nuclear Consulting Group

Report says new nuclear reactor is risky; utilities disagree

2/18/2022

 
A new type of nuclear reactor that would provide carbon-free energy to at least four states in the Western U.S. poses financial risks for utilities and their ratepayers, according to a report released Thursday that was immediately criticized by the project’s owner and the company developing the reactor. The report by the Ohio-based Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis said the small modular nuclear reactor being developed by NuScale Power in Oregon is “too expensive, too risky and too uncertain.” - KOIN News (Portland)
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In GA, Bloated Costs Take Over a Nuclear Plant & a Fight Looms Over Who Pays

1/23/2022

 
Ballooning cost overruns and construction delays at Georgia Power Co.’s  Vogtle nuclear project threaten to cost the state’s electricity consumers  billions of dollars in the decades to come, a new think tank report concludes. The report, from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, a nonprofit advancing a sustainable energy economy, builds a case that stockholders of the company should take the lead on construction and carry much of the financial load, rather than ratepayers. Once estimated to cost $14 billion, the price tag for two new reactors at Georgia Power’s Plant Vogtle property has climbed past $30 billion, and both units will be more than six years late in coming online, the institute reported after combing through public records including testimony at a Georgia Public Service Commission hearing in December. The plant already has two existing nuclear power units that began producing electricity in the 1980s. - Inside Climate News
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Can California Resurrect Its Lone Nuclear Power Plant Because Of Climate Change?

11/13/2021

 
Some Californians and powerful scholars are trying to resurrect nuclear energy in the state from the dead. They want PG&E Corp. to keep its Diablo Canyon plant in operation past its planned closure for 2025. The reason: California cannot meet its climate change obligations without it. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University have raised new questions. In their just-released study, they conclude that extending Diablo Canyon through 2045 would save $21 billion — a number that would be compounded if the plant could be also used to produce hydrogen and desalinated water. If the plant stayed operational from 2025 to 2035, they say that CO2 levels would drop by 10% a year and displace natural gas use, saving customers $2.6 billion. - Forbes
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Pushing renewable power immediately could save trillions in health costs

11/2/2021

 
The use of fossil fuels comes with a wide variety of externalized costs. The big focus tends to be on the carbon dioxide fossil fuel produces and its role in warming the climate. But fossil fuels also cause environmental damage when they're extracted, and burning them produces particulate pollution and ozone. Those substances have downstream effects on human health and agriculture. If all of these costs were included in the price of fossil fuels, then alternatives would be far more competitive.

There have been numerous attempts over the years to quantify these externalized costs. Some look at the issue from a purely economic perspective, and others look at efforts to inform policy. These efforts tend to be based on our best understanding at the time; however, as our knowledge improves, the figures can be worth revisiting. That's exactly what's been done by a team of researchers at Columbia and Duke Universities who use current climate scenarios and updated health data.

The researchers' results say that, even if you ignore the climate benefits, moving away from fossil fuels rapidly would lead to benefits that, in the US alone, can add up to trillions of dollars before the century is over. - ArsTechnica / CarbonBrief

DOE commits $20M to create clean hydrogen from Palo Verde NGS

10/26/2021

 
The U.S. Department of Energy on Friday unveiled plans to spend $20 million on research into the production of clean hydrogen from nuclear power. The money will help pay for a demonstration project by PNW Hydrogen at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station in Phoenix. DOE’s funding announcement comes amid growing interest by the Biden administration and the utility sector in the potential large-scale use of clean hydrogen to reduce carbon emissions. - Utility Dive
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US Air Force to install nuclear micro-reactor at Alaskan base

10/25/2021

 
The US Air Force is installing a nuclear micro-reactor at Eielson AFB, located 26 miles (42 km) southeast of Fairbanks, Alaska. Authorized by the Department of the Air Force, the commercially-owned next-generation reactor is scheduled to go into operation by 2027. The US military operates bases and other installations located in remote, inaccessible regions – not only abroad, but also within US states and territories. Supplying these sites is often a formidable task, especially when it comes to heating and electricity. In the case of Eielson, this means regularly hauling in tonnes of coal to provide it with 33.5 MW of electricity. Aside from the environmental impact, it's also expensive, a logistical nightmare, and ties up personnel better employed elsewhere. This isn't unique to the Alaskan base, so the Air Force is interested in looking at nuclear energy as a cleaner and simpler alternative. - New Atlas
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Renewable energy is cheaper, a game changer in the climate change battle

10/24/2021

 
Renewable energy prices have fallen far more quickl than the industry anticipated, says a new report. And they are fast becoming cheaper than fossil fuels. A rapid transition to emissions-free ‘green’ energy could save many trillions of dollars in energy costs - and help combat climate change. The global energy sector has an impressive record of scaling-up renewables like wind and solar – but it is not so good at predicting future price changes of the clean energy these renewables produce, according to a new report. Researchers at the University of Oxford’s Institute of New Economic Thinking suggest early pricing prediction models have consistently underestimated both how far the costs of renewable energy sources might fall, and the benefits of an accelerated switch to clean energy. - WEForum / Oxford University
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Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant Gears Up To Move Its Radioactive Waste (Podcast-12:12)

10/5/2021

 
Just before Thanksgiving, the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant in Plymouth is expected to reach a historic milestone. All the radioactive fuel that generated electricity - and controversy - for nearly half a century will finally be removed from the reactor building. It will be stored outside in special steel and cement casks.  The rare occasion will be celebrated by both supporters and opponents of the plant. But as the decommissioning of Pilgrim proceeds, concern over the long-term safety of the highly radioactive waste continues.  Even though Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant stopped producing electricity two years ago, there are still armed guards in watchtowers, surveillance cameras spread over the site, mazes of barbed wire fences and concrete vehicle barriers. - Science Friday
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Another indictment in South Carolina’s nuclear fiasco / Vogtle lumbers toward completion

9/28/2021

 
People in South Carolina turn their lights on and off the same way people in Georgia do. But over the past four years, the two states have diverged dramatically in their relationship with the utilities which produce their electricity.  In Georgia, there’s been significant grassroots reaction to Georgia Power’s plans for dealing with the coal ash problem at its plants. There was a hearing last week in the now 10-year-old case in which the utility is charged with improperly charging ratepayers with fees to cover the soaring costs of its nuclear project at Plant Vogtle. Federal regulators are talking about increasing scrutiny of the way over-budget and way late nuclear expansion project.  There’s little about the way these problems are being handled that’s different from the way they would have been a decade ago. In South Carolina, on the other hand, three top executives involved in a nuclear project nearly identical to the one at Plant Vogtle have pleaded guilty to fraud charges, and a fourth was indicted last month on charges that could result in 20 years in prison and a $5 million fine. The state’s largest utility has changed hands, and the cozy relationship between regulators and regulated has been roughly shaken. - Saporta Report
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World’s longest subsea cable will send clean energy from Morocco to the UK

9/28/2021

 
A 10.5 gigawatt (GW) solar and wind farm will be built in Morocco’s Guelmim-Oued Noun region, and it will supply the UK with clean energy via subsea cables. The twin 1.8 GW high voltage direct current (HVDC) subsea cables will be the world’s longest.  UK-based renewables company Xlinks is the project’s developer. The Xlinks Morocco-UK Power Project, as it’s known, will cover an area of around 579 square miles (1,500 square kilometers) in Morocco and will be connected exclusively to the UK via 2,361 miles (3,800 km) of HVDC subsea cables. They’ll follow the shallow water route from Morocco to the UK, past Spain, Portugal, and France. The project will cost $21.9 billion. Xlinks will construct 7 GW of solar and 3.5 GW of wind, along with onsite 20GWh/5GW battery storage, in Morocco. The transmission cable will consist of four cables. The first cable will be active in early 2027, and the other three are slated to launch in 2029. An agreement has been reached with the National Grid for two 1.8GW connections at Alverdiscott in Devon. - Elektrek & XLinks

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