Tuesday, September 2, 2014

PennEnergy's Daily Power Update 9/2

Energy News & Insights
Finding the Green Workforce While there may always be room for debate concerning clean energy initiatives and the long-term merits of a low carbon driven economy, what remains is the fact that the renewable industry is growing rapidly and it requires a substantial workforce. …more>>

Construction time uncertain for Vogtle nuclear project Georgia Power said its $6.7 billion budget to build a new nuclear plant is holding steady, but it reported Thursday that builders face "challenges" sticking to the construction schedule and costs could change in the future. …more>>

206 MW Maine wind power project gets preliminary approval Proposed 206-megawatt wind power in project in Main has received preliminary approval. …more>>

Report: Clean Energy Jobs Doubled in 2nd Quarter in U.S. On the eve of Labor Day weekend, a new report from the nonprofit, nonpartisan business group Environmental Entrepreneurs shows that more than 12,500 clean energy and clean transportation jobs were announced in the second quarter of this year. …more>>


Duke to retire remaining units at W.C. Beckjord coal power station Duke Energy to retire the remaining coal-fired units at its W.C. Beckjord Station in New Richmond, Ohio. …more>>

Fluor completes 170 MW Centinela solar power facility in California Fluor Corporation has completed the engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning for both phases of LS Power’s new Centinela Solar Energy Facility, one of the largest of its kind in the United States. …more>>

Chile announces grand opening of its largest wind power facility President of Chile announces grand opening of Pattern Energy’s 115 MW El Arrayan Wind, Chile’s largest wind power facility. …more>>

B&W previews new waste-to-energy plant in South Florida Babcock & Wilcox hosts tour of the country’s first new waste-to-energy plant to be built since 1995. …more>>

New NRC rule supports indefinite storage of nuclear waste

New NRC rule supports indefinite storage of nuclear waste
http://vtdigger.org/2014/08/31/new-nrc-rule-supports-indefinite-storage-nuclear-waste/

Ray Shadis: NRC’s wishful thinking

Commentary Sep. 1 2014, 7:05

Editor’s note: This op-ed is by Raymond Shadis, a technical adviser and trustee of the New England Coalition and the executive director of Friends of the Coast/Earth Day Commitment of Mid-Coast, Maine.
http://vtdigger.org/2014/09/01/ray-shadis-nrcs-wishful-thinking/

DOE Releases 2013 Wind Industry Report

By EnerKnol Research

Riffgat Offshore Wind Farm Nears Completion

The Department of Energy’s new wind industry reports show modest growth in 2013 annual wind capacity additions and point to a more robust-growth in 2014-2015. On August 18, 2014, the Department of Energy (DOE) released two reports on U.S. wind industry trends in 2013. The reports show that the U.S. ranked second in the world in

Keep reading →http://breakingenergy.com/2014/09/01/doe-releases-2013-wind-industry-report/?utm_source=Breaking+Energy&utm_campaign=98b8a2cb15-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f852427a4b-98b8a2cb15-407304281

The energy sector's perfect storm

Summary: The energy sector has never looked more interesting - can the staid utility industry embrace the digital transformation strategic models required to stay relevant or will they be crushed in the emerging battle between tech and energy companies?

http://www.zdnet.com/the-energy-sectors-perfect-storm-7000033185/

Dry Storage Act Introduced to US Congress: Overcrowded Spent Nuclear Fuel Pools are Disaster Waiting to Happen, US Senator Markey

http://miningawareness.wordpress.com/2014/09/02/dry-storage-act-introduced-to-us-congress-overcrowded-spent-nuclear-fuel-pools-are-disaster-waiting-to-happen-us-senator-markey/

Expect $1.6 Trillion in Clean Energy Investments Through 2020, Says IEA

by Stefan Nicola, Bloomberg | August 28, 2014 | Post Your Comment

Investments in new clean-energy capacity will total $1.61 trillion through 2020 even as the expansion of renewables is expected to slow, the International Energy Agency said. Full Article

TOPNEWShttp://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2014/08/expect-1-6-trillion-in-clean-energy-investments-through-2020-says-iea?cmpid=BioNL-Tuesday-September2-2014

Putin breaks ground on Russia-China gas pipeline, world's biggest:

Putin breaks ground on Russia-China gas pipeline, world's biggest:

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli have launched the construction of the first part of Gazprom's Power of Siberia pipeline - which will deliver 4 trillion cubic meters of gas to China over 30 years.

http://rt.com/business/184176-russia-china-gas-siberian-power/

Monday, September 1, 2014

What It's All About: Russia, China Begin Construction Of World's Largest Gas Pipeline

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-09-01/putin-celebrates-groundbreaking-russia-china-gas-pipeline-worlds-longest

Policy uncertainty threatens to slow renewable energy momentum

http://www.iea.org/newsroomandevents/pressreleases/2014/august/name-125080-en.html

A Veteran Blogger for Nuclear Energy Has Returned – Dan Yurman Now Publishing “Neutron Bytes”

http://atomicinsights.com/veteran-blogger-nuclear-energy-returned-dan-yurman-now-publishing-neutron-bytes/

Five Year Anniversay Of Michele Kearney's Nuclear Wire

Its been an interesting five years.

Pageviews all time history

1,384,745

Pageviews by Countries

Graph of most popular countries among blog viewers

Entry	Pageviews
United States	658066
France	86918
Germany	62741
Ukraine	53760
Russia	52330
United Kingdom	34067
China	28639
Norway	22793
Sweden	21633
Canada	15773

[Increase] [Normal] [Decrease] Israel a US ‘nuclear base’ in Middle East

Israel a US ‘nuclear base’ in Middle East

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/08/31/377247/israel-is-us-nuclear-base-in-middle-east-peace-activist/

No Nuclear Deal In PM Modi's Talks With Japanese Premier Shinzo Abe

http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/no-nuclear-deal-in-pm-modi-s-talks-with-japanese-premier-shinzo-abe-585088

Global Turbo Generators (Coal Power Plants, Gas Power Plants, Nuclear Power Pants, Others) Market - Trends and Forecasts to 2019

http://www.sys-con.com/node/3166826

UK’s proposed ABWR nuclear power station project moves ahead

http://nuclear.energy-business-review.com/news/uks-proposed-abwr-nuclear-power-station-project-moves-ahead-010914-4357818

Denmark High Court rules on compensation for noise from wind turbines

High Court rules on compensation for noise from wind turbines

http://www.internationallawoffice.com/Newsletters/Detail.aspx?g=62778e35-9a95-4c1f-9a93-2fa28ead1dcc

MIT Takes a View on a New Climate Agreement

http://theenergycollective.com/davidhone/478291/mit-view-cop21-new-climate-agreement?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=The+Energy+Collective+%28all+posts%29

PennEnergy's Daily Power Update 9/1

Energy Insights
Consumer focus:The marketing shift in energy Driven by industry standards of cost effective efficiency, reliability, and safety the business of energy has long utilized a successful marketing model of conservative supplier to a passive consumer. While this approach has traditionally offered a coveted level of profit and stability, a rapidly evolving market is shifting this concept of business as usual. …more>>

Six Questions to Assess Your Risk Readiness Safety, of course, is one of several “can’t fail” functions that can determine an energy company’s survival and success. As such, these critical functions – which include financial, operations, legal/regulatory and reputation – are the issues that keep industry Chief Executive Officers awake at night. …more>>

Unlike the Scarecrow in The Wizard of OZ, Some Smart Grid Components Do Have A Brain New tools have changed the grid operation landscape and lucky for us the change is for the better. Getting actual data from grid components increases safety, improves efficiency, and saves money. …more>>

It's time to do the right things "not because they are easy but because they are hard" Without reliable and affordable energy storage systems it is simply not possible to actually decommission the thermal generating plants that we have relied upon for more than 100 years. Simply reducing how much we use those plants is not good enough and in any case is not economically viable in the long run. …more>>


Inspiring Tomorrow's Engineers In a world where men largely outnumber women in science, technology, engineering, and math…and girls lose interest in these subjects as early as age 8, GoldieBlox is determined to change the equation. …more>>

Coal. It's complicated If coal was a person, our relationship status would be “complicated.” I mean, coal has always been so available. There is a lot I like about coal. But I’ve also come to realize that a lot will have to change if we’re going to keep this thing going, and darn it, I don’t want to break up! …more>>

On Petroleum, Power, and Passion To work in oil & gas, you need to have a passion for that industry. Outside of the higher corporate echelon, the work is typically hard, often dirty, and frequently taxing. In many ways, power isn’t much different. To join those worlds, and to stay in them, requires something more than chasing a paycheck. …more>>

Cavendish Fluor takes over UK nuclear sites

Cavendish Fluor takes over UK nuclear sites
Cavendish Fluor Partnership has been formally awarded the contract by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority to manage 12 UK nuclear sites and their respective decommissioning programs.http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/C-Cavendish-Fluor-takes-over-UK-nuclear-sites-0109144.html

Massive Internet Outage Points to Flaws in Policy and Technology

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/530431/massive-internet-outage-points-to-flaws-in-policy-and-technology/

Olkiluoto 3 startup pushed back to 2018

Olkiluoto 3 startup pushed back to 2018
Finland's Olkiluoto 3 will start operations in 2018, 13 years after work began on the first-of-a-kind EPR, the Areva-Siemens consortium building the plant has informed client Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO).http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/NN-Olkiluoto-3-start-up-pushed-back-to-2018-0109147.html

Fukushima Updates 9/1/14

Fukushima Updates 9/1/14 -

Former F. Daiichi plant manager Yoshida’s testimony continues to make headlines… Resentment over Fukushima evacuee compensation has surfaced… Tepco groundwater bypass operation is having a somewhat positive effect… Four subcontractor workers plan to sue Tepco for higher wages… A fuel handling machine destroyed by the 3/14/11 unit #3 hydrogen explosion was dropped into the spent fuel pool.

http://www.hiroshimasyndrome.com/fukushima-accident-updates.html

Sunday, August 31, 2014

French Nuclear Reactors Too Old - Cannot Cut It

An excellent article from EurActive,com, dated 8/18/2014, showing the weakness of aging nuclear power plants not just in France, but other countries in Europe. As the nuclear plants grow older, their time off-line for maintenance and inspection increases. see link

http://sowellslawblog.blogspot.com/2014/08/french-nuclear-reactors-too-old-cannot.html

Molten Salt Reactor Not Good To Go Subtitle: Extolling Virtues and Ignoring Faults is Deceptive

Molten Salt Reactor Not Good To Go

Subtitle: Extolling Virtues and Ignoring Faults is Deceptive

A laughable post appeared today at WattsUpWithThat, titled "A Universally Acceptable and Economical Energy Source?" The article describes, in over-the-top glowing terms, a molten salt nuclear reactor to produce commercial power. Apparently the author, and those who commented on the post, have not read my article 28 on TANP from July 20, 2014 in which the multiple drawbacks of a MSR (molten salt reactor) are provided. Nothing has changed since July, however, nuclear cheerleaders continue to sell, sell, sell the gullible, the ill-informed, their desperate message of Nuclear Is Cheap! Nuclear Is Safe! Nothing could be farther from the truth. Link here to my earlier article on MSR.

http://sowellslawblog.blogspot.com/2014/08/molten-salt-reactor-not-good-to-go.html

The Truth About Nuclear Power - Part 28 Subtitle: Thorium MSR No Better Than Uranium Process

The Truth About Nuclear Power - Part 28

Subtitle: Thorium MSR No Better Than Uranium Process

Preface

This article, number 28 in the series, discusses nuclear power via a thorium molten-salt reactor (MSR) process. (Note, this is also sometimes referred to as LFTR, for Liquid Flouride Thorium Reactor) The thorium MSR is frequently trotted out by nuclear power advocates, whenever the numerous drawbacks to uranium fission reactors are mentioned. To this point in the TANP series, uranium fission, via PWR or BWR, has been the focus. Some critics of TANP have already stated that thorium solves all of those problems and

Thorium Molten Salt Reator process
source: Idaho National Lab

therefore should be vigorously pursued. Some of the critics have stated that Sowell obviously has never heard of thorium reactors. Quite the contrary, I am familiar with the process and have serious reservations about the numerous problems with thorium MSR.

It is interesting, though, that nuclear advocates must bring up the MSR process. If the uranium fission process was any good at all, there would be no need for research and development of any other type of process, such as MSR and fusion. Indeed, as already pointed out in TANP, uranium fission plants have barely captured 11 percent of world-wide electricity production after 50 years of heroic efforts. One would expect, if nuclear power were as great as the advocates claim, that nuclear plants would already supply 80 or 90 percent of all electric power in the world. Clearly, they do not because they are not at all great, they have enormous and insurmountable drawbacks in cost, safety, and toxic product legacy left for future generations. Once the thorium MSR process is discussed in this article, the next article will discuss yet a third hope for the nuclear advocates, in case fusion fizzles out and MSR melts away to nothingness. That next article will be on high-temperature gas reactors, the HTGR. As will be seen, HTGR also has serious drawbacks.

One final preliminary point: some of the nuclear advocates that push MSR lament the fact that, many years ago, thorium MSR lost in a competition with uranium PWR to provide propulsion for ships and submarines for the US Navy. They say, wrongly, that Admiral Rickover chose uranium PWR over thorium MSR so that the US could develop atomic bombs. What is much more likely the reason uranium PWR won is that the materials used for the MSR developed the severe cracking described below. No Admiral in charge of submarines could take a chance on the reactor splitting apart from the shock of depth charges.
http://sowellslawblog.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-truth-about-nuclear-power-part-28.html

Culture Imposed by Image Gently Carries Substantial Medical Risks

http://atomicinsights.com/culture-imposed-image-gently-carries-substantial-medical-risks/

New England Relying More on Natural Gas Along with Hydroelectric Imports from Canada

Posted: 31 Aug 2014 01:00 AM PDT

Electric operators in New England have been both generating more electricity from natural gas and importing more hydroelectric generation from Quebec over the past decade. These two sources of electricity are displacing the use of coal and oil as generation fuels in New England.read morehttp://theenergycollective.com/todayinenergy/471646/new-england-relying-more-natural-gas-along-hydroelectric-imports-canada

Energy Quote of the Day: Turning to Renewable Energy to 'Become Better Warfighters'

Posted: 31 Aug 2014 06:00 AM PDT

It’s no secret the US military seeks to increase its renewable energy production capacity as a way to reduce reliance on the sometimes unreliable civilian power grid while decreasing liquid petroleum consumption which is expensive and dangerous to transport.read morehttp://theenergycollective.com/jared-anderson/470286/energy-quote-day-turning-renewable-energy-become-better-warfighters