Nuclear Power News

Nuclear energy remains the cleanest, most reliable approach to large scale, long-term electrical power generation. Growing numbers of nuclear bloggers are contributing to the collective online knowledge of the state of the art. Here is an excerpt from the 35th Carnival of Nuclear Energy at NEINuclearNotes:

Published by the American Physical Society, Energy From Thorium highlighted a piece by Robert Hargraves and Ralph Moir where they reviewed “some of the history, potential advantages, potential drawbacks, and current research and development status of liquid-fueled reactors.”
Jack Gamble at Nuclear Fissionary took on a comment from a nuclear critic who believed that nuclear energy will leave our children with doom and gloom. In it, Jack refuted the critic who claimed that nuclear neglects the costs of its entire fuel cycle and our children will hate us for “contaminating the world.” Oy, good thing smart nuclear folks already know how to manage the fuel cycle responsibly.
At Cool Hand Nuke, Dan Yurman reported on Duke’s and Progress’ $14BN merger with a combined six Westinghouse AP1000 reactor license applications pending with the NRC. Over at his own blog, Dan reported on Areva’s monthly blogger call where CEO Jacques Besnainou said the Calvert Cliffs III reactor project is alive and well. Areva’s CEO also talked about clean energy parks and gave advice for the Blue Ribbon Commission on recycling spent nuclear fuel.

As well, at Areva’s blog you can find the latest pictures of the EPR construction of Taishan 1&2 in China (pic to the right). 
Rod Adams at Atomic Insights held a lively discussion on how even power uprates attract opposition. Two Wisconsin organizations, one claiming to be dedicated to consumer protection and one claiming to be focused on clean air and water, came together to file their opposition to NextEra Energy Resources’ proposal to increase the output at the Point Beach nuclear plant by 17%. Even though 63% of the electricity generated in Wisconsin each year comes from burning coal, these two groups claim that Wisconsin does not need any more electricity from nuclear - even if the project would not add any new facilities.
Slightly diverging from nuclear, Gail Marcus at Nuke Power Talk brought up a report from Germany saying that the explosion of solar due to “generous feed-in tariffs” is seriously stressing the country’s aging power grid. Gail’s message is that “the German experience is just the latest cautionary tale that we really need to learn to do a better job of anticipating the potential impacts of all technologies.”
_NukeCarny35@NEINN_via_NextBigFuture

Babcock and Wilcox has received a $2 billion order from the US Navy for nuclear power equipment.

Production of uranium in Wyoming is increasing. As technology moves to III and IV generation reactors, concerns about global peak uranium should fade rapidly.

Some scholars of complexity and collapse are studying nuclear reactors as a good example of highly complex systems

Brian Wang presents information discussing some of the many advantages of the liquid fuel thorium reactor (LFTR).

It will require the extinction of carbon hysteria and nuclear phobia, but eventually energy policies in the western world will return to at least semi-sanity.