Nuclear
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Nuclear energy, as has become abundantly clear this year, has no future in Germany. For once the government, the parliament and the public all agree: Atomic reactors in the country will be history a decade from now. Before that can happen, however, the country has to find alternate power sources. In fact, amid concerns that supply shortages this winter could result in temporary blackouts, Germany's Federal Network Agency on Tuesday indicated that one of the seven reactors shut down in the immediate wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan could be restarted this winter to fill the gap.
Phase-Out Hurdle: Germany Could Restart Nuclear Plant to Plug Energy Gap - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International
TF1 et France 2 se mouillent pour refroidir les centrales nucléaires - Le fil télévision
Connectez-vous à Facebook et partagez vos affinités culturelles. TF1 et France 2 se mouillent pour refroidir les centrales nucléaires Ma vie au poste | Le 23/05/2011 à 00h00 Samuel Gontier La catastrophe de Fukushima aura au moins servi à ça : désormais, une totale transparence règne dans l’industrie nucléaire française. Ainsi, la semaine dernière, EDF ouvrait grand les portes de la centrale de Civaux aux journalistes de TF1 et de France 2.
Transatomic Power , an MIT spinoff, is developing a nuclear reactor that it estimates will cut the overall cost of a nuclear power plant in half. It’s an updated molten-salt reactor, a type that’s highly resistant to meltdowns. Molten-salt reactors were demonstrated in the 1960s at Oak Ridge National Lab, where one test reactor ran for six years, but the technology hasn’t been used commercially. The new reactor design, which so far exists only on paper, produces 20 times as much power for its size as Oak Ridge’s technology. That means relatively small, yet powerful, reactors could be built less expensively in factories and shipped by rail instead of being built on site like conventional ones.
A New Molten-Salt Reactor Could Halve the Cost of Nuclear Power
Nuclear Nimbyism: Germans Oppose New Plants Next Door - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International
They say you should keep your friends close and your enemies closer, but when it comes to nuclear power plants, German anti-nuclear activists are finding they're too close for comfort. Less than a year after securing the rapid phaseout of nuclear plants in Germany, citizens concerned about nuclear safety are facing the unwholesome prospect of new plants popping up just over the border in neighboring countries. But they aren't letting it happen without a fight. After Poland announced several possible locations for new reactors, including one less than 150 kilometers (93 miles) from the German border, German citizens flooded the Polish government with letters objecting to the plans. Environmental groups claim that a week ago Wednesday alone, the last day of the comment period, opponents of the plans submitted 50,000 objections.
At the recent ASPO conference in Washington, DC I found myself in a lunchtime conversation discussing the contributions Nuclear and Hydro were making to world energy supply. It’s worth noting that Hydropower did experience an uptick in global use in the past five years.
