Nuclear energy

Why is a Mature, 50-year-old Industry Still Asking for Massive Taxpayer Handouts?, Science Groups Asks

October 29, 2009 -- Earlier this week the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), the nuclear power industry's principal trade organization, released a proposal asking for billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies and radical changes to the federal regulatory process that would shift even more risks and costs from the industry to the public.    » read more »

May 6, 2009 -- Rhode Island Governor Donald L. Carcieri joined Northeast and Mid-Atlantic Governors in a letter to the leadership of the United States and House of Representatives expressing opposition to the various proposals regarding transmission and the move to create a national corridor for transmission of electricity from the Midwest to the East Coast.

The Northeast and Mid-Atlantic Governors expressed concern about the significant risks posed by recent proposals regarding transmission that could jeopardize states efforts to develop wind resources and inject federal jurisdiction into an area traditionally handled by states and regions.    » read more »

Feb. 27, 2009 - Iran's dramatic launch of a satellite into orbit earlier this month, coinciding with the advent of a new American administration, should help spur greater cooperation with Russia on missile defense, according to a leading U.S. missile defense expert.

In discussions over the years, the Russians have said that a demonstration of this level of capability by Iran would be one of the "key triggers . . . as to when they themselves would begin to get worried about the Iranians," retired Lieutenant General Henry A. Obering, former director of the Missile Defense Agency, told reporters at a February 12 briefing.

But he added that, based on his years of trying to engage the Russians on this issue, he has no illusions that this kind of U.S.-Russian détente will come easily.    » read more »

Trial Will Start Friday in Toledo, OH

August 6, 2008 -- Andrew Siemaszko, a former nuclear safety engineer at the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant, will go on trial this Friday for allegedly lying to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) about conditions leading to a near-disaster at the plant in 2002. NRC documents, however, show that Siemaszko is not to blame. It was FirstEnergy, the plant's owners, which falsified reports to the NRC, not Siemaszko. In fact, Siemaszko was one work shift away from discovering the problem at Davis-Besse while cleaning the reactor head in 2000, but FirstEnergy prevented him from completing his task.    » read more »

Hazardous fuel behavior another setback for troubled energy department program, has implications for other reactors

August, 2008 -- Citing the recent failure of an experimental plutonium fuel assembly test at a South Carolina nuclear plant, two watchdog groups today called on the Department of Energy (DOE) to suspend a risky, multibillion dollar program that would use 37 tons of surplus nuclear weapons plutonium for U.S. nuclear reactor fuel.    » read more »

August, 2008 -- The Department of Energy's (DOE) plan to turn 34 metric tons of surplus nuclear weapons plutonium into "mixed oxide" (MOX) fuel for irradiation in nuclear power reactors has stumbled into yet another serious roadblock. Duke Energy has prematurely terminated a multiyear test of four experimental MOX fuel assemblies in its Catawba 1 reactor in South Carolina because of a potentially serious defect in the fuel design.    » read more »

Chicago, IL -- April 25, 2008 -- "I am deeply disturbed by the evidence of North Korea's assistance to an illicit nuclear program in Syria. This represents a dangerous and completely unacceptable development.

Unfortunately, it comes after nearly eight years of a failed policy that has been long on tough talk and short on results, as North Korea has withdrawn from the Nuclear Nonproliferation treaty, quadrupled its stockpile of plutonium, resumed testing of long range missiles, detonated a nuclear weapon, and exported nuclear technology to Syria.    » read more »

Washington, D.C. - 11/14/2007 - On November 9, 2007, the Pew Campaign for Fuel Efficiency hosted a press briefing with Democratic pollster Mark Mellman and Republican pollster Bill McInturff. To kick off the Veterans Day holiday, they discussed the findings of a new nationwide poll on national security, energy security and the energy legislation currently under consideration by Congress.    » read more »

$200 Million Project In Butler County Will Create, Retain 3,174 Jobs

August 14, 2007 -- CRANBERRY WOODS, Butler County – Pennsylvania Governor Edward G. Rendell had a shovel in his hand to help break ground today for a new Westinghouse Electric Company headquarters and technology center in Butler County, but he was thinking about special legislation he signed into law nearly a year ago that was designed to keep global companies like this one from moving out of Pennsylvania.    » read more »

U.S.-India pact, if approved by Congress, would pave way for nuclear trade

Washington 27 July 2007, By David Shelby (USINFO Staff Writer) – The United States and India reached an agreement July 27 to govern their cooperation in developing civil nuclear energy programs. It would allow the countries to cooperate in research and development and nuclear safety and to engage in commercial trade in nuclear reactors, technology and fuel.    » read more »