It was nuclear power’s birthday bash, but Exelon CEO Chris Crane, head of the nation’s largest nuclear operator, named energy storage the most promising technology of the future, one that could render nuclear power unnecessary. “In our view the long-term viable technology that will drive a cleaner future is economic storage,” Crane said at “Reactions: New Perspectives on Our Nuclear Legacy,” the University of Chicago’s commemoration of the first manmade nuclear reaction 75 years ago under the stands of its abandoned football stadium. Crane’s comments departed from those of former Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, who, delivering the event’s closing keynote, insisted the United States must continue to pursue nuclear energy for reasons of both climate and national security.
Forbes 2nd Dec 2017 read more »
A proposal by a California administrative law judge has given safe energy advocates new hope that two Diablo Canyon nuclear reactors will be shut before an earthquake on the San Andreas fault turns them to rubble, potentially threatening millions of people. The huge reactors—California’s last—sit on a bluff above the Pacific, west of San Luis Obispo, among a dozen earthquake faults. They operate just 45 miles from the San Andreas. That’s half the distance from the fault that destroyed four reactors in Fukushima, Japan, in 2011. Diablo’s wind-blown emissions could irradiate the Los Angeles megalopolis in less than six hours if an earthquake destroyed the plant. The death toll could be in the millions, the property damage in the trillions of dollars. The owner of the plant, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), would not be legally liable.
Truthdig 24th Nov 2017 read more »