Welcome ! As a young French Marketing professional with a Master's in International Management I have been selecting since January 2007 the latest headlines and best researches on sustainable development, climate change, cleantech and the world energy sector. Sounds great ? Don't hesitate to subscribe now !
Just as Grist is asking if Germany did the right move on nuclear – here is as a reminder my opinion piece on Cleantechies – several bad news for the industry of this energy source got my attention this week.
First and foremost, the reactor number 2 of Fukushima ” had probably experienced “spontaneous” fission “ according to an official quoted by the Agence France Presse.
Furthermore, it has been estimated that fully decommissioning Fukushima could take no less than 30 years. All this could have terrible consequences for the whole industry. Continue »
To the Huffington Post : ” Defying growing global skepticism over the use of atomic energy, (the Czech Republic) is planning to dramatically increase the country’s nuclear power production.
” (…) Other former Soviet bloc nations, now in the European Union, are following the Czechs’ lead on nuclear power – reflecting diverging economic needs between east and west. ”
” Slovakia is currently building more nuclear facilities. And Poland has engaged in talks with firms about know-how and technology for its first nuclear installation to be completed by 2030. ” Continue »
To Yale Environment 360 : “In the wake of the Fukushima meltdowns, some nations are looking to move away from nuclear power. But not China, which is proceeding with plans to build 36 reactors over the next decade.
Now some experts are questioning whether China can safely operate a host of nuclear plants.” Indeed, building so many reactors in such a little time seems dangerous, especially if as the article goes :
” The International Energy Agency suggests that 30 new nuclear reactors must be built each year between now and 2050 to cut CO2 emissions in half. ” Continue »
First, the good ones : To Reuters : ” Significant progress has been made in efforts to contain and stabilise the situation at Fukushima, the head of the United Nations atomic agency said on Friday.”
And some bad : To the Wall Street Journal ” EDF announced that its EPR project in Flamanville, France (…) will be delayed until 2016, due to “both structural and economic reasons,” which will bring the project’s total cost to EUR6 billion.”
The reactor was due to start in 2014 and to cost much less… Meanwhile, China announced a nuclear power breakthrough by switching on its first fast breeder reactor.
As the world’s first energy consumer and greenhouse gases emitter, the People’s Republic of China is under closed scrutiny from energy analysts. Last week, not one or two but three different news caught my attention on this country.
The climate situation there is dreadful as according to CNN massive floods forced 1.6 million people to evacuate their homes. It is indeed high time for all of us to act as forcefully as China is. It indeed seems the local government got it right.
Massive plans on energy efficiency, renewables and nuclear are planned in order to curb the increasing reliance of the country on coal and oil, two major pollution sources. Continue »
As the Guardian states : ” The amount of radiation released by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (…) could have been more than double that originally estimated by its operator, Japan’s nuclear safety agency has said. “
” The revelation has raised fears that the situation at the plant, where fuel in three reactors suffered meltdown, was more serious than government officials have acknowledged. “ When you think a situation can’t possibly get worse, it does.
Even if I still support the technology to prevent more catastrophic climate change, I believe the IAEA should really step up rules and regulations to ensure such a catastrophe never occurs again. Continue »
Further to the decision Germany took on Monday about nuclear energy, I wrote an opinion piece for Cleantechies. I hope you will like and share it. As you can imagine, I am not really approving. Here it goes :
” You may surely know it by now : Germany decided to phase out completely all its nuclear power plants by 2022. This is done for political reasons as the local Greens are gaining power. ”
” Some people are cheering as they believe these are great news for the environment. I, however, believe this is utterly wrong for the reasons I will outline in today’s article. “
It seems that April is a bad month for the environment. Last week I was writing about the BP oil spill and now I am writing about what took place in Ukraine. The worst nuclear accident ever indeed took place on April 26th, 1986.
This was the occasion for Ban Ki Moon – the secretary general of the United Nations - to visit Chernobyl. He also published an interesting opinion article in today’s edition of the New York Times.
In this article, Mr Moon outlines a five point strategy to improve nuclear safety and reliability. Only this way will we be able to keep using this low carbon energy source. Continue »
As I was reading an article [Es] on the expansion of nuclear in China – where 24 reactors are currently being built compared to 12 online to date – I was wondering if a nuclear renaissance is really under way.
To World Nuclear News it seems to be the case as 58 reactors are currently being built in 15 countries around the world. Most reactors currently planned are in Asia, as the economy and the electricity demand increase rapidly.
The capacity of nuclear power plants around the world could reach 511 to 807 GWe by 2030, to be compared to the current 327 GWe. (from +63% to +246%). Continue »
We have heard that before : ” Wind power is far too unreliable ” or ” Nuclear power isn’t a safe solution “. Yet the reality is most of the times far from these myths. Popular Mechanics published a long article debunking energy myths.
I wrote about some of them such as clean coal that won’t clean up our air or biofuels that won’t cure our addiction to oil or don’t even represent an alternative to oil. Some others, like algae are quite new topics here.
After debunking all these myths, this long article ends with a true fact that I have been hammering here since the beginning of this blog : ” Energy saved, it turns out, is the cheapest new source. “
