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Comment Who is a terrorist? (Score 1) 116

by mdsolar (#49088865) Attached to: The Disastrous Privacy Consequences of Canada's Anti-Terrorism Bill
"The RCMP has labelled the “anti-petroleum” movement as a growing and violent threat to Canada’s security, raising fears among environmentalists that they face increased surveillance, and possibly worse, under the Harper government’s new terrorism legislation." http://www.theglobeandmail.com...

Submission + - U.S. to Monitor Air Quality in India and Other Countries (nytimes.com) 1

Submitted by mdsolar
mdsolar writes: The United States says it will expand air-quality monitoring at some overseas diplomatic missions, following several years of reporting pollution data in China.

The goal is to increase awareness of the health risks of outdoor air pollution, which easily spreads across borders, Secretary of State John Kerry said in announcing the program on Wednesday.

The program is intended to help United States citizens abroad reduce their exposure to pollution and to help other countries develop their own air-quality monitoring through training and exchanges with American experts, he said.

“We’re hoping that this tool can also expand international cooperation when it comes to curbing air pollution,” Mr. Kerry said.

The program, run in conjunction with the Environmental Protection Agency, will begin to operate in India in a few months. New Delhi has some of the world’s worst air pollution, and residents there are becoming increasingly concerned about the dangers.

American diplomatic missions will also monitor air quality in Vietnam, Mongolia and elsewhere, Mr. Kerry said.

Comment Learning Curve (Score 0) 145

by mdsolar (#49083621) Attached to: The Burden of Intellectual Property Rights On Clean Energy Technologies
The learning curve on renewable energy technology (which generates new IP) is very favorable to bringing costs down. IP would seem to be working the way it should in this case. We will be seeing increased prosperity as energy costs decline. This seem different from healthcare, where IP costs seem to be eating up economic vitality. For a large scale renewable energy industry, entering emerging markets at low cost and rapidly, it does not seem like IP costs are much of a burden and are acting more as a benefit.

Submission + - 'Distortions' in energy markets hurting FirstEnergy's nuclear fleet, exec says (post-gazette.com)

Submitted by mdsolar
mdsolar writes: In Donald Moul’s view, the competitive energy market in Pennsylvania isn’t broken. But the rules that govern it are distorting FirstEnergy’s ability to compete.

Mr. Moul, vice president of commodity operations for FirstEnergy Solutions, said as much on Tuesday to a room full of nuclear operators, analysts and regulators gathered for the Platts 11th Annual Nuclear Energy Conference in Washington, D.C. He places the blame not on normal market functions, he said, but on policy decisions that have eaten away at the value of its coal and nuclear fleet.

“We don’t really have a completely deregulated market,” he said. “We just have a different kind of market.” ...

FirstEnergy has plenty at stake. About 57 percent of the company’s total generation comes from coal, and another 23 percent comes from nuclear. It operates four nuclear units — two in Ohio, and two at the Beaver Valley Power Station near Shippingport.

Last summer, the company asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to help make their coal and nuclear plants more competitive in regional auctions that set the price for capacity payments, or charges paid to an electric supplier for agreeing to meet a portion of expected demand.

The company is peeved by the auction’s valuation of demand response — the process by which consumers agree to cut back during times of peak demand — by PJM Interconnection, the regional grid operator tasked by the federal government with ensuring reliability in 13 states and the District of Columbia.

In PJM’s auction last May, bids of demand response earned the same price per megawatt as any other power generator. Demand response comprised 6.5 percent of committed megawatts — up from 0.1 percent a decade ago — while nuclear made up less than 16 percent of commitments, down from 21 percent a decade ago.

FirstEnergy has argued that demand response is a retail product whose regulation should fall to the states, and its complaint with FERC followed a ruling last May from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals that generally agreed with that notion. FERC has appealed, and the Supreme Court is expected by this summer to decide whether to hear the case.

Submission + - Cracks in nuclear reactors prompt call for worldwide inspections (wisconsingazette.com)

Submitted by mdsolar
mdsolar writes: The discovery of thousands of additional cracks in critical components of two Belgian nuclear reactors prompted Greenpeace to call for immediate checks of nuclear power plants worldwide.

The cracks were found in the steel nuclear reactor pressure vessels in nuclear reactors Doel 3 and Tihange 2 in Belgium. The vessels contain highly radioactive nuclear fuel cores and the failure of the components can cause catastrophic nuclear accidents, according to Greenpeace.

On Feb. 13, two leading material scientists announced that the pervasive and unexpected cracking could be related to corrosion from normal operation, with potential implications for reactors worldwide.

Responding, Greenpeace Belgium energy campaigner Eloi Glorieux, said, “What we are seeing in Belgium is potentially devastating for nuclear reactors globally due to the increased risk of a catastrophic failure. Nuclear regulators worldwide must require reactor inspections as soon as possible, and no later than the next scheduled maintenance shutdown. If damage is discovered, the reactors must remain shut down until and unless safety and pressure vessel integrity can be guaranteed. The nuclear industry, already in crisis, is faced with an aging nuclear reactor fleet at increasing risk of severe disaster.”

In reaction to the findings, the director-general of the Belgian nuclear regulator of the Federal Agency for Nuclear Control has said that this could be a problem for the entire nuclear industry globally. He added that the solution is to begin the careful inspection of 430 nuclear power plants worldwide.

Submission + - Nuclear plants delayed in China, watched closely by US firms (pennenergy.com)

Submitted by mdsolar
mdsolar writes: U.S. power companies struggling with the escalating costs of building nuclear plants are closely watching similar efforts in China, where officials are expecting delays.

Two plants under construction in Sanmen and Haiyang, China, are the first-ever built using Westinghouse Electric Co.'s AP1000 reactor design. Utility companies in Georgia and South Carolina are building two similar plants in the United States using a very similar design. Since the project in China is father along, U.S. executives and safety regulators watch it closely.

Officials at China's State Nuclear Power Technology Corp. blame the delays on the late delivery of equipment from the United States. Westinghouse Electric Co. and project manufacturers are working to redesign a coolant pump for the plant.

Chinese officials are building a fleet of nuclear plants as they aim to produce a fifth of their country's electricity from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030.

"Because it is the first of this kind in the world, it is normal to have some delay," said Guo Hongbo, director of the firm's general office. He was vague on how long the delays may last. "It is not a problem whether the delay is one year or two years. The technological breakthrough will be utterly valuable to the development of ... world nuclear power."

The projects in the United States are already under cost pressure. Westinghouse Electric Co. and Chicago Bridge & Iron Co. expect construction of two new AP1000 reactors at Plant Vogtle in eastern Georgia will go three years beyond the approved schedule, according to financial filings. Southern Co., which owns a 46 percent stake in the plant, and the plant's other owners have not accepted that timeline.

Regulators in Georgia estimate the latest delays could push Southern Co.'s share of spending on the plant from $6.1 billion to more than $8 billion.

A sister plant owned by SCANA Corp. and Santee Cooper in South Carolina has run into similar delays and cost overruns.

Comment Re:Unreliable indeed (Score -1, Flamebait) 311

by mdsolar (#49066563) Attached to: Nuclear Plant Taken Down In Anticipation of Snowstorm
There are a lot of fanbois here, which is why this type of information is useful. Entergy already has a history of neglecting their plants and lying about it to those responsible for oversight. They seem particularly vulnerable to this kind of dangerous dishonesty with so much at risk. http://www.forbes.com/sites/je...

Comment Brittle (Score -1, Troll) 311

by mdsolar (#49063863) Attached to: Nuclear Plant Taken Down In Anticipation of Snowstorm
Nuclear power seems to add brittleness to the system. They get shut down when it is too hot in the summer. http://green.blogs.nytimes.com... They extend blackouts by being too big to fail gracefully. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T... And, they don't allow consumers access to the lowest cost power by failing to shut down when not needed. http://will.illinois.edu/nfs/R... They seem to add more problems than they solve.

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