Saturday, May 3, 2014

Is energy market volatility a sign of things to come?

How New England reacts to changing energy picture could have a significant impact on future prices and economic growth

http://www.nhbr.com/May-2-2014/Energy-market-volatility-a-sign-of-things-to-come/

How Many More Fiery Rail Explosions Do We Need?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/noah-greenwald/how-many-more-fiery-rail-explosions_b_5243630.html?utm_hp_ref=green

NY Times learns nothing from Chernobyl, evades reality of nuclear failure in U.S.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/05/02/1296400/-NY-Times-learns-nothing-from-Chernobyl-evades-reality-of-nuclear-failure-in-U-S#

Nuclear investment to increase, says IPCC

http://www.neimagazine.com/news/newsnuclear-investment-to-increase-says-ipcc-4214209

Energy Technology Perspectives 2014 - Harnessing Electricity's Potential

http://www.iea.org/etp/

Senators to NRC: Do not exempt decommissioning nuclear reactors from emergency response and security Measures

http://vtdigger.org/2014/05/02/senators-nrc-exempt-decommissioning-nuclear-reactors-emergency-response-security-measures/

Should anti-fossil expansion movement align with pro nuclear movement?

http://atomicinsights.com/anti-fossil-expansion-movement-align-pro-nuclear-movement/

New York Times wants you to want nuclear energy

The paper's recent opinion and news coverage portrays climate realities trumping nuclear concerns.

http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/magazine/physicstoday/news/10.1063/PT.5.8045

Iran Designing 10MW Nuclear Research Reactor

http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13930213000466

A Chinese Mathematician Figured Out How To Beat Anyone At Rock-Paper-Scissors

http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-beat-anyone-at-rock-paper-scissors-2014-5?utm_source=alerts&nr_email_referer=1#!HVbZP

ANS Nuclear Cafe: Nuclear Video Matinee: Fukushima Health Effects in North America (?)

Updates from ANS Nuclear Cafe Blog

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Nuclear Video Matinee: Fukushima Health Effects in North America (?)

By ansnuclearcafe on May 02, 2014 03:57 pm

Studies by Janette Sherman and Joseph Mangano purporting to link radiation from Fukushima to health effects in the United States have made for alarming headlines in news outlets on occasion, and have come under fire by critics who charge flawed … Continue reading →
Read in browser »

Senators Warn of Safety Risks at Closed Reactors

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/senators-warn-safety-risks-closed-reactors-23572153

Bad Mines, Good Money - The Coal Industry's Dirty Deals

1:01pm May 3

A documentary to be broadcast of German TV (DW) in the near future.

Bad Mines, Good Money - The Coal Industry’s Dirty Deals | Documentaries and Reports | DW.DE |...

www.dw.de

Phasing out nuclear power means that Germany's demand for coal is still immense. http://www.dw.de/bad-mines-good-money-the-coal-industrys-dirty-deals/a-17553768

Friday, May 2, 2014

Introducing New York State’s Energy Storage Testing Center

A new state-of-the-art testing center boosts the empire state’s clean energy economy.

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2014/05/introducing-new-york-states-energy-storage-testing-center?cmpid=rss

TVA: Watts Bar nuclear plant set for completion in December 2015, systems ready for testing

http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/5f3c78800d4249a4a39745434322e07d/TN--TVA-New-Reactor-Tennessee

Nuclear Freeze Why Nuclear Power Stalled -- and How to Restart It

Nuclear Freeze

Why Nuclear Power Stalled -- and How to Restart It

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/141206/per-f-peterson-michael-r-laufer-and-edward-d-blandford/nuclear-freeze

NNSA Awards $25M Grant to Consortium including NSE to Improve Nuclear Arms Control Verification Technology

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Research and Development today announced the award of a $25 million grant a consortium that includes NSE for research and development (R&D) in nuclear arms control verification technologies, including nuclear safeguards effectiveness. The sizeable, long-term investment will support the consortium at $5 million per year for five years.
...morehttp://nnsa.energy.gov/mediaroom/pressreleases/consortium

Strain can alter materials’ properties

Strain can alter materials’ properties

New field of “strain engineering” could open up areas of materials research with many potential applications.

In the ongoing search for new materials for fuel cells, batteries, photovoltaics, separation membranes, and electronic devices, one newer approach involves applying and managing stresses within known materials to give them dramatically different properties.
This development has been very exciting, says MIT associate professor of nuclear science and engineering Bilge Yildiz, one of the pioneers of this approach: “Traditionally, we make materials by changing compositions and structures, but we are now recognizing that strain is an additional parameter that we can change, instead of looking for new compositions.”
Yildiz, who authored a recent Materials Research Society Bulletin paper describing work in this field, explains that “even though we are dealing with small amounts of strain” — displacing atoms within a structure by only a few percent — “the effects can be exponential,” in some cases improving key reaction rates by tenfold or more. ... morehttp://newsoffice.mit.edu/2014/strain-can-alter-materials-properties

NSE publishes report on lessons learned from Fukushima-Daiichi accident

"This report presents the reflections of members of the MIT Nuclear Science and Engineering faculty on the accident at Fukushima, and is offered as a contribution to the debate on the implications of the accident for the nuclear industry. Our purpose is twofold: we identify and discuss technical issues arising from the accident; and we begin a review of how the lessons learned can be used to improve the safety of current and future plants. The information is organized in six sections: “Emergency Power following Beyond-Design-Basis External Events”, “Emergency Response to Beyond-Design-Basis External Events”, “Containment”, “Hydrogen Management”, “Spent Fuel Pools”, “Plant Siting and Site Layout”. For each area, we present key issues observed at Fukushima and corrective actions that should be evaluated for implementation in current and future plants".
http://web.mit.edu/nse/news/2011/nse-fukushima-report.html

download pdf of report

How it Works: The NRC’s Process for Licensing Uranium Recovery Sites

Leave a comment Posted by Moderator on May 2, 2014

William Von Till

Chief, Uranium Recovery Licensing Branch

After years of thorough review, the NRC has issued a handful of licenses over the past several months for uranium recovery facilities in the Western United States. We thought this would be a good opportunity to explain all the work that goes into NRC approval of these licenses.

Locations of Uranium Recovery Facility Sites

First some context: like all commodities, the price of uranium rises and falls based on a number of factors. About a decade ago, the price of uranium began to rise, prompting mineral companies to begin looking seriously at developing new uranium production facilities. Beginning around 2006, these companies were contacting the NRC to better understand our licensing process.
Generally, our work with an applicant begins years before we ever receive an application. Any meetings we have with an applicant are open to the public, whether before or after they apply. We ask interested companies to let us know their plans ahead of time so we can budget resources to conduct our reviews. And we are available to answer questions on our regulations, the application process, environmental reviews, or whatever other issues a potential applicant or the public may want to discuss.
The first step on receiving a uranium recovery facility application is for the NRC to conduct a thorough review to make sure the application addresses all aspects of our regulations and is complete. Sometimes these reviews find areas where an applicant needs to provide more information. We do not “accept” an application for technical and environmental review until we are satisfied the information we will need is there.
Once the application is accepted, we invite interested parties to participate in the licensing process. We provide details on how to find the documents and offer a chance for them to ask for a hearing. We set a proposed schedule for our review. We also begin the process of reviewing the environmental impacts of the proposed facility. This extensive process involves the public as well, providing opportunities to weigh in on which environmental issues need to be addressed at any given site.
The technical reviews for recently licensed facilities have taken years. For example, the Dewey Burdock facility in South Dakota received an NRC license April 8, about four and one-half years after we accepted it for review. The application for the Ross facility in Wyoming, which we licensed last week, took us about three years to review. How long our review takes depends on several things—the quality of the application, the amount of confirmatory work we need to do, and how long the applicant takes to respond to our questions, just to name a few.
The environmental review proceeds in parallel but also involves a lot of work. In addition, we must consider the impacts on cultural and historic resources. These evaluations require us to consult with other federal, state and tribal officials and the public—a time-consuming but invaluable process that gives us the most complete picture possible of the impacts a facility could have.
Only after these reviews are completed does the NRC issue a license. All the documents associated with our technical and environmental reviews are made available to the public through our documents database. We are pleased that two of our multi-year licensing reviews came to a close in April. We have seven additional uranium recovery applications under review and may receive as many as 11 more this year.

Exelon's next deal? The spinoff of its nuclear fleet

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20140501/BLOGS10/140509964

Japan effort to restart nuclear plants delayed until after summer

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/fa45a170-d1dd-11e3-8ff4-00144feabdc0.html?siteedition=intl#axzz30Z2RONWm

Editorial: MOX extension buys time for SRS’s future

http://www.aikenstandard.com/article/20140501/AIK0201/140509997/1018/AIK02/editorial-mox-extension-buys-time-for-srs-s-future

Local leaders: MOX has short-term victory

http://www.aikenstandard.com/article/20140501/AIK0101/140439950/1004/local-leaders-mox-has-short-term-victory

SMRs on Standby Responding to Customer Needs

SMRs on Standby

Responding to Customer Needs

http://www.energybiz.com/magazine/article/354117/smrs-standby

Why is Environmental Defense Fund backing Lindsey Graham? By Ben Adler

Why is Environmental Defense Fund backing Lindsey Graham?

By Ben Adler

http://grist.org/politics/why-is-environmental-defense-fund-backing-lindsey-graham/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Daily%2520May%25202&utm_campaign=daily

Images suggest N. Korea testing ICBM engine: US think-tank

Images suggest N. Korea testing ICBM engine: US think-tank
Seoul (AFP) May 02, 2014 - New satellite imagery indicates North Korea has been testing the engine for an inter-continental ballistic missile, a US think-tank said Friday, amid concerns the North is also preparing a nuclear test. The US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University said images of the North's main rocket launch site suggested one "and maybe more" tests of what is probably the first stage of a KN-08 road- ... morehttp://www.spacewar.com/reports/Images_suggest_N_Korea_testing_ICBM_engine_US_think-tank_999.html

Corn crops increasingly vulnerable to hot, dry weather

Corn crops increasingly vulnerable to hot, dry weather
Washington (AFP) May 01, 2014 - US farmers can grow more corn than ever before thanks to genetic modifications and improved planting techniques, but the crops are also increasingly vulnerable to drought, researchers said Thursday. The study in the journal Science found that "densely planted corn appears to be unexpectedly more sensitive to water scarcity," raising concerns about future food supply as the planet warms. ... morehttp://www.seeddaily.com/reports/Corn_crops_increasingly_vulnerable_to_hot_dry_weather_999.html

Magnitude of quake scales with maturity of fault

Magnitude of quake scales with maturity of fault
San Francisco CA (SPX) May 02, 2014 - The oldest sections of transform faults, such as the North Anatolian Fault Zone (NAFZ) and the San Andreas Fault, produce the largest earthquakes, putting important limits on the potential seismic hazard for less mature parts of fault zones, according to a new study to be presented at the Seismological Society of America (SSA) 2014 Annual Meeting in Anchorage, Alaska. The finding suggests that m ... morehttp://www.terradaily.com/reports/Magnitude_of_quake_scales_with_maturity_of_fault_999.html

The Supreme Court's Air Pollution Decision Is Wrong, But Don't Blame The Court

http://theenergycollective.com/brian-h-potts/375936/supreme-courts-air-pollution-decision-wrong-dont-blame-court?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=The+Energy+Collective+%28all+posts%29

US Energy Renaissance Brings Important Foreign Policy Choices

http://theenergycollective.com/jared-anderson/374311/us-energy-renaissance-brings-important-foreign-policy-choices?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=The+Energy+Collective+%28all+posts%29

Can Europe wean itself from Russian natural gas?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/03/28/can-europe-ween-itself-from-russian-natural-gas/

Energy independence hinges on closing gas infrastructure gap

Without a solution to the significant gas pipeline infrastructure gap that currently exists, the energy independence that the shale gas revolution could provide may never be realized. That is according to a new report from global law firm White & Case LLP.

http://www.fierceenergy.com/story/energy-independence-hinges-closing-gas-infrastructure-gap/2014-05-02?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal

Hawaiian PUC orders state utilities to take action

http://www.fierceenergy.com/story/hawaiian-puc-orders-state-utilities-take-action/2014-05-02?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal

Cumbrian nuclear plant edges closer with £200m land lease deal

Energy department hails "major milestone" as Toshiba and GDF Suez agree key commercial terms for option to build reactors at Moorside site in West Cumbria

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/10802520/Cumbrian-nuclear-plant-edges-closer-with-200m-land-lease-deal.html

The Right Lessons From Chernobyl

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/02/opinion/the-right-lessons-from-chernobyl.html

Why You Should Stop Worrying About Nuclear Radiation

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/capt-trevor-greene/nuclear-radiation_b_5219470.html

Nuclear power’s unlikely allies

Former anti-nuclear activists are €˜coming out€™ as pro-nuclear, warning that climate change is far more of a threat
http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/america-tonight/articles/2014/5/1/nuclear-power-s-unlikelyallies.html

Mystery of WIPP release deepens

Mystery of WIPP release deepens
Workers investigating the radiological release in the underground Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico have found no evidence of a roof collapse but could not explain the discovery of damage to several bags of backfill.http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/RS-Mystery-of-WIPP-release-deepens-0205144.html

Supreme Court Rules 6-2 On EPA Air Pollution Reductions Across State Lines

http://www.forbes.com/sites/brighammccown/2014/05/02/supreme-court-rules-6-2-on-epa-air-pollution-reductions-across-state-lines/

James Hansen is worried about CO2, but realistic about solutions

http://atomicinsights.com/climate-activists-also-realistic-solutions/

Experts question ice wall at Japan nuclear plant Read more here: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2014/05/02/3619780/experts-question-ice-wall-at-japan.html#storylink=cpy

Experts question ice wall at Japan nuclear plant

Read more here: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2014/05/02/3619780/experts-question-ice-wall-at-japan.html#storylink=cpy

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2014/05/02/3619780/experts-question-ice-wall-at-japan.html

Taking on Fukushima

02 May 2014

One month after being put in charge of decommissioning Fukushima Daiichi, Naohiro Masuda talked to World Nuclear News about his priorities for the site and its workforce.

http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/WR-Taking-on-Fukushima-0205141.html

Exelon Will Acquire Pepco and Form Largest Utility in the US

http://theenergycollective.com/katherinetweed/375516/exelon-will-acquire-pepco-and-form-largest-utility-us

Big Questions: US Executives Ponder Current and Future US Renewable Energy Development

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2014/05/big-questions-us-executives-ponder-current-and-future-us-renewable-energy-development?cmpid=rss

Keystone XL, Obama, and the Politics of Indecision

May 02, 2014 02:00 am | Robert W. Murray, Christopher Sands

Robert W. Murray

Christopher Sands

Days before a self-imposed deadline, the Obama Administration again delayed its decision on the future of the Keystone XL pipeline last week. It was a delay like previous delays, with the now-routine explanations that more study was needed and that others (a Nebraska court) must decide first.
Yet this time, the delay offered something more: a glimpse of an administration that is losing control and, subsequently, relevance.
The Keystone XL pipeline project is nothing revolutionary in the context of moving crude oil. It would extend 1,897 km from Hardisty, Alberta to Steele City, Nebraska, where other existing pipelines or other means of oil transportation would then be capable of moving crude oil to the Gulf Coast area or elsewhere in the U.S. Midwest. There has been no evidence to suggest that the Keystone XL project would increase carbon emissions, negatively impact the environment, or is somehow unsafe; conclusions reached by the State Department’s own Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement report.
read morehttp://nationalinterest.org/commentary/keystone-xl-obama-the-politics-indecision-10375

Grid Storage Startup Ambri Raises $35 Million

https://recode.net/2014/04/30/grid-storage-startup-ambri-raises-35-million/

TVA’s Browns Ferry nuclear power plant cited by NRC

http://www.power-eng.com/articles/2014/05/tva-s-browns-ferry-nuclear-power-plant-cited-by-nrc.html

UK’s support for nuclear is growing, survey finds

http://www.energyvoice.com/2014/04/uks-support-nuclear-growing-survey-finds/

Berkshire Hathaway Energy to acquire Alberta transmission giant AltaLink for C$3.2B

Berkshire Hathaway Energy to acquire Alberta transmission giant AltaLink for C$3.2B
http://www.snl.com/InteractiveX/Article.aspx?cdid=A-27976382-9773

How Materials Science is Altering the World We Live In

http://wayfinder.co/pathways/535574efd5d32b11005b9765/how-materials-science-is-altering-the-world-we-live-in

The Week's Most Read Articles on Power Engineering 5/2

The Week's Most Read Articles

Video: Floating nuclear power plants could withstand natural disasters
MIT engineers say that today’s nuclear power plants are challenged with threats from natural disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis, and finding available real estate near a body of water that could be used for cooling.
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Natural gas combined-cycle power plant to be built in West Virginia
A 549-MW natural gas combined-cycle power plant will be built on a 37-acre site in Marshall County, W.Va. with construction planned to begin in mid-2015.
Read More
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Supreme Court overturns decision invalidating EPA’s CSAPR
The U.S. Supreme Court has vacated a decision by a federal appeals court that ruled the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Cross State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) violated the Clean Air Act (CAA).
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GE in talks to buy Alstom
General Electric (NYSE: GE) is in talks to buy Alstom and an agreement may be announced as early as next week, according to a report from Bloomberg. People with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg a potential transaction may value Alstom at about $13 billion.
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More Headlines
• Energy Department to invest $10M in wave energy technology at Navy’s Hawaii test site
• Utah's largest commercial PV installation reaches 100 day performance milestone
• BNI Coal, Minnkota extend coal supply agreement
• Renewable energy generation projection sensitive to multiple factors
• SunEdison secures construction financing on 60 MW solar power facility
• CMS Energy announces new VP, CIO
• NRG, MidAmerican begin operations at 290-MW solar PV plant in Arizona
• Westinghouse forms business unit to develop nuclear in Brazil
• Hanford nuclear site under scrutiny over waste storage
• Exelon buying Pepco Holdings for $6.83 billion
• JinkoSolar to supply PV panels to EDP Renewables for California solar facility
• UPDATE: GE, Siemens make offers to acquire Alstom
• NRC bars former Indian Point nuclear worker for one year
• Rolls-Royce in talks to sell assets to Siemens
• EPA proposes approval of plan to cut emissions in New Mexico
• Mars Inc., Sumitomo enter joint venture on Texas wind farm project
• Scalia gets his facts wrong in EPA dissent

Alstom to accept $17 billion deal with GE

http://www.power-eng.com/articles/2014/04/alstom-to-accept-17-billion-deal-with-ge.html

High-level waste arrives in Japan

23 April 2014

The fourth and largest shipment so far of high-level waste from the UK to Japan has been completed. All such waste, resulting from the reprocessing of used reactor fuel, should be returned from the UK to Japan by the end of the decade.

http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/WR-High-level-waste-arrives-in-Japan-2304144.html

The Big Apple Embraces Long-Duration Energy Storage

By Jared Andersonhttp://breakingenergy.com/2014/05/01/the-big-apple-embraces-long-duration-energy-storage/?utm_source=Breaking+Energy&utm_campaign=077947603e-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f852427a4b-077947603e-407304281

A little over two years ago we reported that utility-scale energy storage could be “around the corner” thanks to flow-battery technology that relies on a rare earth mineral called vanadium. That vision leapt closer to reality last week. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) announced it will partner with energy storage

Keep reading →

New Software Service Promises to Convert More Wind Into Power

New Software Service Promises to Convert More Wind Into Power
Gothenburg, Sweden (SPX) May 01, 2014 - The Breeze Production system takes wind farm management software beyond mere analytics by letting wind farm owners benchmark their production assets. Wind farm owners around the globe are struggling to get their wind turbines profitable. The wind, the technology and the problems affecting output are similar everywhere. Reports have indicated more than 3% in unused potential due to underper ... morehttp://www.winddaily.com/reports/New_Software_Service_Promises_to_Convert_More_Wind_Into_Power_999.html

PennEnergy's Top Oil & Gas News 5/2

Top Oil & Gas News

Hundreds evacuated after crude oil train derails and burns in Virginia
Hundreds were evacuated from Lynchburg, Virginia April 30th after a CSX train carrying crude oil derailed downtown. The Chicago to Virginia train lost 15 cars at about 2:30pm. 3 of the cars burst into flames. No fatalities or injuries have been reported.
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PennEnergy Video News Update
From a major milestone for the Bakken field, to ExxonMobil's success in Papua New Guinea, to Gear Energy's acquisition in Canada, all of the week's biggest headlines are in the PennEnergy Video News Update.
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This Week's Most Popular Oil & Gas News
• Aker Solutions to split into 2 companies
• Bakken field produces first billion barrels of oil
• ExxonMobil PNG LNG Project starts production ahead of schedule
• Gear Energy acquires $85 million in heavy oil assets
• Williams halts investment in Bluegrass NGL pipeline
• Gazprom and CNPC draft gas pipeline supply contract to be signed in May
• EPB to buy natural gas assets from Kinder Morgan for approximately $2 billion
• McDermott achieves offshore Asia-Pacific reel-lay industry first
• Encana agrees to sell producing properties in East Texas
• Foster Wheeler awarded EPC contracts by Pemex for refineries in Mexico
• GE launches Tech collaboration with Mexican Petroleum Institute
• Silver Tusk announces completed oil exploration well in Austin
• Jayhawk Energy announce Farmout Agreement in southeast Kansas
• Linde to build hydrogen production unit for Neste Oil

PennEnergy's Top Power Headlines 5/2

Top Power Headlines

4 die in plane crash at South Dakota wind power farm
Investigation continues into the crash of a single-engine aircraft at a South Dakota wind power farm that claimed the lives of all four onboard
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U.S. Supreme Court upholds EPA Cross-State Air Pollution Rule
The U.S. Supreme Court in a 6 to 2 vote has ruled to revive the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSPAR)
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Top Power News
• Alstom trading halted amid GE acquisition rumors
• Google, SunPower to finance $250MM in residential solar power
• ADB lends $400MM to help Pakistan end crippling energy crisis
• NRG, MidAmerican complete 290 MW Agua Caliente solar facility
• Federal judge rules against Minnesota law blocking coal power
• DOE report finds major potential to grow U.S. hydropower
• Exelon to buy Pepco for $6.8B in cash
• Massive wind farm moves Mars toward carbon neutral operations
• RWE announces close date for 1,140 MW Littlebrook Station
• Integrated energy-water planning for a sustainable future
• Westinghouse forms subsidiary in Rio de Janeiro
• Projected CO2 emissions vary with coal, nuclear power plant retirements

Michele Kearney's Nuclear Wire