Most recent 40 articles: Union of Concerned Scientists - Nuclear Power
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When It Comes to Nuclear Power, “Advanced” Isn’t Always Better - Union of Concerned Scientists - Nuclear Power  (Jun 14, 2021) |
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Jun 14, 2021 · Nuclear power proponents have long been prone to wishful thinking. Back in 1954, Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Lewis Strauss famously predicted that nuclear-generated electricity would ultimately become “too cheap to meter.” Today, nuclear power is among the most expensive forms of electricity. Strauss’s successor at the commission, Nobel laureate Glenn Seaborg, projected in 1971 that nuclear power would produce nearly all the world’s electricity by 2000. Today, nuclear energy’s share of worldwide electricity is only 10 percent. In the United States, it produces about 20 percent, and about a third of the country’s fleet of aging reactors is struggling to compete with ... Read more ... |
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Renewable Energy to Surpass Coal and Nuclear by 2030: 7 Key Takeaways from EIA’s Annual Energy Outlook 2016 - Union of Concerned Scientists - Nuclear Power  (May 27, 2021) |
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May 27, 2021 · As a certified energy geek, I always look forward to this time of year. On July 11 and 12, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) is holding their annual conference to discuss current energy technology, market, and policy issues, and will present results from their new Annual Energy Outlook (AEO) 2016 report. One of the headlines this year is EIA’s new projections for renewable energy, which under their reference case is expected to surpass nuclear power by 2020 and coal by 2028 to become the second largest source of U.S. electricity generation after natural gas (see Figure 1 below). Here are seven key takeaways from AEO 2016 that explain why EIA is projecting such ... Read more ... |
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Senate Should Reject Trump’s Coal-Friendly Energy Commission Nominee - Union of Concerned Scientists - Nuclear Power  (May 27, 2021) |
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May 27, 2021 · The steady parade of ideologically driven appointees for key Trump administration positions has resumed now that things in Washington have settled down after the mid-term elections. Last week, Trump tapped Matthew G. Whitaker to replace Attorney General Jeff Sessions. This Thursday, the Senate will hold a hearing to confirm attorney Bernard McNamee to fill a vacancy at the five-member, presidentially appointed Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), a relatively obscure - but critically important - independent agency that oversees interstate power lines and pipelines. Trump presumably picked McNamee to put the administration’s pro-fossil-fuel spin on a number of key ... Read more ... |
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5 Reasons Why HB 6, Ohio’s Nuclear Plant Subsidy Proposal, Should Be Rejected - Union of Concerned Scientists - Nuclear Power  (May 26, 2021) |
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May 26, 2021 · Last November, UCS released Nuclear Power Dilemma, which found that more than one-third of existing nuclear plants, representing 22 percent of total US nuclear capacity, are uneconomic or slated to close over the next decade. This included the Davis-Besse and Perry plants in Ohio that are owned by Akron-based FirstEnergy Solutions. Replacing these plants with natural gas would cause emissions to rise at a time when we need to achieve deep cuts in emissions to limit the worst impacts of climate change. When we released our report, my colleague Jeff Deyette described how a proposal backed by FirstEnergy to subsidize its unprofitable nuclear plants in Ohio was deeply flawed and ... Read more ... |
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7 Things People Got Wrong with our Recent 'Nuclear Power Dilemma’ Report - Union of Concerned Scientists - Nuclear Power  (May 26, 2021) |
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May 26, 2021 · On November 8, UCS released The Nuclear Power Dilemma: Declining Profits, Plant Closures, and the Threat of Rising Carbon Emissions, which found that more than one-third of existing nuclear plants, representing 22 percent of total US nuclear capacity, is uneconomic or slated to close over the next decade. Without new policies, we found that if these and other marginally economic nuclear plants are closed before their operating licenses expire, the electricity would be replaced primarily with natural gas. If this occurs, cumulative carbon emissions from the US power sector could rise by as much as 6 percent at a time when we need to achieve deep cuts in emissions to limit the worst ... Read more ... |
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Why We’re Taking a Hard Look at Nuclear Power Plant Closures - Union of Concerned Scientists - Nuclear Power  (May 26, 2021) |
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May 26, 2021 · Last month the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a sobering report. Based on the most up-to-date scientific evidence, the report warns that we are rapidly losing any appreciable chance of meeting the Paris climate agreement goal of keeping temperature increases to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The report also makes clear that if we fail to meet this goal, the consequences will not only be severe, but they will be experienced sooner than expected. (For more information on the IPCC report, see our blog series) In stark defiance of science, here in the United States the federal government has abdicated its leadership role ... Read more ... |
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White House Attacks on ARPA-E Endanger US Energy Innovation - Union of Concerned Scientists - Nuclear Power  (May 24, 2021) |
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May 24, 2021 · The America First Budget Blueprint released by the White House last month proposes to eliminate the Advanced Research Project Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) of the US Department of Energy. The only reason given is that “the private sector is better positioned to advance disruptive energy research and development and to commercialize innovative technologies.” My reaction: They’re kidding, right? No, this is a serious threat. According to recent news stories and my own reliable sources, the White House is now preventing ARPA-E from spending money that Congress appropriated to ARPA-E in earlier federal budgets. These moves could quickly kill ARPA-E, an energy innovation ... Read more ... |
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Forget the Trump Bailout - Here’s a Real Solution for Nuclear and the Climate - Union of Concerned Scientists - Nuclear Power  (Nov 13, 2018) |
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Nov 13, 2018 · The Trump Administration’s proposal to bail out uneconomic coal and nuclear power plants is a bad idea predicated on a made-up problem. The real crisis we face is the climate crisis, as the recent IPCC report highlighted in stark terms last month. We must steeply reduce CO2 emissions over the next decade and beyond or we will lock in warming that will have disastrous consequences for people around the word. We’ve dwindled away our most precious commodity in the climate fight… time. Now there are no easy options; no easy pathways. We are in a world of trade-offs. We must reconcile the science and the clock with the reality of where we are in our transition to a clean energy ... Read more ... |
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Carbon Pricing is Key to Economic Viability of Xcel’s Nuclear Power Plants in Minnesota - Union of Concerned Scientists - Nuclear Power  (Nov 08, 2018) |
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Nov 08, 2018 · A new UCS report released today found that more than one-third of U.S. nuclear plants–representing 22 percent of total US nuclear capacity–are uneconomic or slated to retire over the next decade under current market conditions. The UCS study, The Nuclear Power Dilemma, shows that the economic viability of the nation’s nuclear plants is threatened by low natural gas prices, the declining cost of renewable energy, investments in energy efficiency, and the costs of upgrading aging plants to ensure safe operation. The uneconomic plants include Xcel’s Monticello and Prairie Island nuclear power plants, which provided 23 percent of Minnesota’s electricity generation in ... Read more ... |
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Even in a Carbon-Constrained World, FirstEnergy’s Nuclear Bailout Proposal in Ohio Must Be Rejected - Union of Concerned Scientists - Nuclear Power  (Nov 08, 2018) |
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Nov 08, 2018 · A new report, The Nuclear Power Dilemma, released today by my UCS colleagues, finds that more than one-third of the nation’s nuclear power fleet – that provides more than 20 percent of the country’s nuclear power – are uneconomic or slated to retire over the next decade primarily due to economic, safety, and performance reasons. Two of the uneconomic plants - Davis-Besse and Perry - are in Ohio and owned by Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. Like the analysis’s other unprofitable nuclear plants, Davis-Besse and Perry can’t compete in today’s power markets with the cheap natural gas and renewable energy that is transforming our nation’s electricity sector. That’s why FirstEnergy is now ... Read more ... |
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What the New UCS Report on Nuclear Plants Means for Illinois - Union of Concerned Scientists - Nuclear Power  (Nov 08, 2018) |
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Nov 08, 2018 · Today UCS released a new report entitled The Nuclear Power Dilemma that examines the economic viability and performance of most of the 60 nuclear power plants operating in the United States as of July 2018. The report also analyzes what electric generating resources are likely to replace these nuclear plants if some of them were to abruptly retire from service. So what did the report find and what does it mean for a state with so much nuclear power like Illinois? The economic viability of power plants is typically defined by how much revenue they earn compared to how much it costs to operate them. Our analysis defines “profitable” as making more than $5 per ... Read more ... |
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Donald Trump’s State of the Union: Actions Speak Louder Than Words - Union of Concerned Scientists - Nuclear Power  (Jan 31, 2018) |
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Jan 31, 2018 · In his State of the Union address to Congress, President Trump exaggerated the benefits of the Republican tax cut bill to average Americans, overlooked the harm that will result from his push to weaken public health and worker safety protections, and disregarded the serious concerns expressed about key elements of his forthcoming infrastructure proposal. Meanwhile, he failed to even mention a host of other issues where actions being taken by his administration are threatening the health and well-being of all Americans, including the assault on science-based policymaking at federal agencies, the dismantling of strategies to limit and respond to the mounting impacts of climate ... Read more ... |
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7 Things We Expect to See in Rick Perry’s Unnecessary and Biased Grid Study - Union of Concerned Scientists - Nuclear Power  (Jun 22, 2017) |
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Jun 22, 2017 · On April 14, Energy Secretary Rick Perry requested a 60-day “Study examining electricity markets and reliability.” The study was scheduled to be released on June 26, but it now appears it will be delayed until July. Perry’s letter calling for the study is riddled with flawed assumptions and predetermined conclusions about the value so-called “baseload” coal and nuclear power plants provide to the grid and the impacts renewable energy have on reliability that contradicts overwhelming evidence from dozens of studies by DOE’s own national labs, regional grid operators, and even Perry’s home state of Texas. Do you think we’re going to learn anything new in 60 days that these ... Read more ... |
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UCS Board Member Dick Garwin Wins Presidential Medal of Freedom - Union of Concerned Scientists - Nuclear Power  (Nov 18, 2016) |
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Nov 18, 2016 · The White House announced this week that UCS Board member Dick Garwin will receive the Medal of Freedom from President Obama on November 22 - where he’ll be joined by Michael Jordan, Diana Ross, Bruce Springsteen, Bill and Melinda Gates, Tom Hanks, and others. Richard Garwin (Source: UCS) Dick may not have won Oscars or NBA rings, but he has had a fascinating career with his share of awards, and is a great addition to this eclectic collection of awardees. Dick has advised presidents from Eisenhower through Obama. He is one of the very few people elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, and the National Academy of Engineering. ... Read more ... |
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New Analysis Shows Fixing Illinois Clean Energy Policies Is Essential to Any “Next Generation Energy Plan” - Union of Concerned Scientists - Nuclear Power  (Jun 01, 2016) |
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Jun 01, 2016 · Last Friday, my colleague Jessica Collingsworth identified some of the key flaws in ComEd’s and Exelon’s proposed Next Generation Energy Plan that would prevent Illinois from moving toward a truly clean energy future. New UCS analysis shows that fixing and strengthening Illinois’s renewable energy and energy efficiency policies is a cost-effective strategy for cutting carbon emissions and complying with the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Power Plan (CPP). It would also allow Illinois to capitalize on newly extended federal renewable energy tax credits, while delivering significant health and economic benefits for all the state’s residents. Our new analysis ... Read more ... |
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Five Years After Fukushima, U.S. Reactors Still Vulnerable - Union of Concerned Scientists - Nuclear Power  (Mar 11, 2016) |
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Mar 11, 2016 · Radiation hotspot in Kashiwa, February 2012 Five years ago today, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan was hit first with a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and then with a 50-foot tsunami. The reactors shut down as they were designed to do, but the nuclear core of a shut-down reactor remains hot and needs to be cooled to prevent a meltdown of the fuel. In addition, the radioactive spent fuel stored in pools of water needs to be cooled. Cooling requires electrical power - but the electric grid was destroyed and the backup diesel generators, located in the basements, were flooded and rendered useless. In the following days, the three operating reactors ... Read more ... |
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The Obama Administration Decides to Terminate MOX Project - Finally! - Union of Concerned Scientists - Nuclear Power  (Feb 17, 2016) |
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Feb 17, 2016 · The United States has around 50 metric tons of plutonium from nuclear weapons programs it wants to dispose of. Until last week, it was pursuing a plan to do so by using most of this excess plutonium to produce mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel for power reactors. Enough plutonium for thousands of nuclear weapons would be used to generate electricity. Sounds like a win-win situation, right? Wrong. Producing MOX fuel would make it easier for terrorists to steal the plutonium, which they could then use to make their own nuclear weapon(s). Neither plutonium nor MOX fuel is highly radioactive, and it would be relatively easy for terrorists to extract the plutonium from MOX. The MOX ... Read more ... |
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How Scientists Helped Drive The Iran Deal - Union of Concerned Scientists - Nuclear Power  (Sep 16, 2015) |
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Sep 16, 2015 · Last week, the United States officially approved the Iran nuclear agreement when congressional opponents failed to round up the votes needed to stop it. The debate was often bitter and polarizing, and the vote in the Senate was divided strongly along partisan lines. But here is something everyone should be able to agree on: scientists played a highly prominent role in this agreement, befitting the complex, technical nature of the subject. At its heart, the agreement is about making sure Iran, a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, does not use its nuclear power program to build nuclear weapons. It’s an extremely complex and technical issue. We were all well ... Read more ... |
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Lessons from the Fukushima Nuclear Accident - Union of Concerned Scientists - Nuclear Power  (Aug 03, 2015) |
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Aug 03, 2015 · The 2011 Fukushima accident has many lessons for U.S. nuclear power, and how to make it safer. Are we learning them? The first step in learning from the accident is understanding what happened - both what went wrong and what went right. Toward this end, a new Nova program from PBS, Nuclear Meltdown Disaster, looks at the accident and interviews people who worked at the plant, as well as UCS’ Dave Lochbaum. Nova takes the approach of comparing the situations at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, which had three reactor cores melt down, with the nearby Fukushima Daiini nuclear plant, which avoided meltdowns. It’s an interesting comparison. In an Earth Focus ... Read more ... |
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Remembering Jay Fay - Union of Concerned Scientists - Nuclear Power  (Jun 11, 2015) |
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Jun 11, 2015 · In my first year at UCS, I learned that several extraordinary individuals have left unmistakable and enduring marks on this organization. James “Jay” Fay, a long-time member of the UCS Board of Directors, was one of them. He died last week at age 91. Back in 1969, while I was still in elementary school, a visionary group of faculty members at MIT banded together to question the ethos of the time that steered many brilliant scientists into careers designing weapons of mass destruction. “We were dissatisfied that so much of the research at MIT was supported by the Department of Defense,” said one of those visionaries in an interview - Jay, at the time a ... Read more ... |
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How Much Is Your Life Worth? - Union of Concerned Scientists - Nuclear Power  (May 27, 2015) |
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May 27, 2015 · I recently bought a new bicycle to replace the one I bought in college, which I was still riding despite its deteriorating condition. I also decided to buy a new bike lock. Since the value of my new bike was considerably higher than that of my old one, it was clearly worthwhile for me to spend the money to upgrade my security system. This sort of cost-benefit analysis is one way we all make decisions. For example, the more money a bank is designed to store safely - and therefore the greater the potential loss if it fails to do so - the more it’s worth for the bank to invest in security systems to prevent such a loss. The same principle that holds for bikes and banks is ... Read more ... |
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UCS Webinar on the Nuclear Deal with Iran - Union of Concerned Scientists - Nuclear Power  (Apr 17, 2015) |
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Apr 17, 2015 · Last week we presented a webinar discussing key points of the recent framework agreement for a nuclear deal with Iran, which was announced on April 2. In case you missed it, you can watch a recording of it here. The webinar starts with an introduction to the issues behind the negotiations, with Lisbeth Gronlund describing the two routes countries can take to produce fissile materials for a nuclear weapon. I follow that with a brief history of Iran’s nuclear program, beginning in the 1950s, and then provide an overview of what is publicly known about the April 2 framework. In the final part of the webinar, Ed Lyman discusses some of the key technical issues and questions ... Read more ... |
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A First Look at the Iranian Nuclear Deal - Union of Concerned Scientists - Nuclear Power  (Apr 03, 2015) |
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Apr 03, 2015 · The world got some good news yesterday. The countries involved in negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran announced they had agreed on many of the key issues they will need to formalize in a final agreement over the next three months. So, how does that interim agreement look? So far, so good. It’s still too early, of course, to know many of the details behind yesterday’s announcement, or what roadblocks the negotiators may hit in trying to turn the interim understandings into a final, formal deal. But that said, the White House released a fact sheet about the agreement listing a set of provisions that seems surprisingly broad and detailed, providing grounds for ... Read more ... |
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Good News for the Climate: U.S. & China Agree to Cut Emissions (Finally!) - Union of Concerned Scientists - Nuclear Power  (Nov 12, 2014) |
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Nov 12, 2014 · One day, when historians look back to pick the time when the world finally woke up and decided to address global warming, that time may well be the fall of 2014. First, the march in New York drew 400,000 people and many thousands more across the globe to demand that our leaders take action on climate change. And today, the United States and China announced a truly historic agreement to cut emissions of carbon dioxide. The agreement is a welcome breakthrough. It is very promising that the world’s two biggest economies - together responsible for roughly 40 percent of global emissions - have agreed to cut their emissions. Specifically, President Obama committed the U.S to ... Read more ... |
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The Day After: What the Mid-Terms Mean and How To Move Forward - Union of Concerned Scientists - Nuclear Power  (Nov 05, 2014) |
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Nov 05, 2014 · While this morning’s headlines naturally focus on the change in leadership in the U.S. Senate, nothing in the results should change anyone’s mind on these clear truths: we know Americans trust science, support cutting global warming emissions, and want help for communities struggling with the very real consequences of climate change. The fact is, history shows that by the sixth year of a two-term president’s tenure, the party out of power almost always makes strong gains. The gains here (a pick up of seven senate seats as of this writing) are in line with past elections (democrats picked up 13 seats during President Eisenhower’s 6-year mark, 8 during President Reagan’s, and 8 ... Read more ... |
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