Alternative Energy / Nuclear Power

Oct 04, 2011 at 07:17 | SciDev SciDev

There are 440 nuclear reactors operating around the world, providing about 14 per cent of the world's electricity supply. Most were installed 30–40 years ago, when the relative cost of…

Oct 03, 2011 at 07:33 | John Daly

The USSR might have imploded two decades ago, but debris from its headlong industrialization drive litter the post-Soviet landscape, and nothing more unsettles the population of the fifteen new nations…

Oct 01, 2011 at 02:40 | Charles Kennedy

The Russian Federation’s ambassador to Belarus Alekhandr Surikov told reporters in the Belarusian capital Minsk that a draft Belarusian-Russian interstate agreement on the construction of a new 2,400 megawatt nuclear…

Sep 29, 2011 at 04:03 | SciDev SciDev

Nuclear power is no magic solution, argues Pervez Hoodbhoy — it's not safe, or cheap, and it leads to weapons programmes. A string of energy-starved developing countries have looked at…

Sep 21, 2011 at 08:37 | John Daly

The Iranian media is mounting a full court press against Western charges that its Bushehr nuclear power plant (NPP), which came online last week, in fact conceals a nefarious covert…

Sep 02, 2011 at 07:26 | Ferdinand E. Banks

Many years ago, although it seems like centuries, I was sitting in a small bar-disco in a town near Stuttgart Germany, talking to an Ivy League type from the same…

Aug 31, 2011 at 07:43 | John Daly

Since the 11 March Fukushima nuclear disaster, the global nuclear industry has been mounting an aggressive PR campaign to convince an increasingly skeptical public that not only is nuclear energy…

Aug 31, 2011 at 07:38 | RFE/RL staff

It has been 20 years since the world's most infamous nuclear test site was shuttered, but fallout from the Soviet Union's nuclear program is evident today. From 1949 to…

Jul 28, 2011 at 08:11 | Open Democracy

Germany’s anti-nuclear movement is the poster-boy of its kind in Europe, even worldwide. Over the course of nearly forty years this potent, enduring campaign swayed German public opinion decisively against…

Jul 26, 2011 at 07:48 | Energy Digital

In an attempt to protect its assets from a Fukushima-style meltdown, Chubu Electric Power Co. is constructing an 18-meter (60 foot) anti-tsunami seawall around its Hamaoka nuclear plant.  The plant…

Jul 18, 2011 at 08:00 | Al Fin

After the Fukushima nuclear crisis -- triggered by a massive earthquake and tsunami -- Japan has been strongly divided on nuclear power. Many Japanese will only consider a nuclear future…

Jul 07, 2011 at 07:48 | Ferdinand E. Banks

Miracles take place in every war. The United States accounted for some of these during the Second World War, of which two were decisive. These were the construction of the…

Jul 06, 2011 at 08:41 | John Daly

Japan’s 11 March catastrophe at its six-reactor Daichi Fukushima nuclear power complex has had global repercussions, hardly surprising given the trillions of dollars invested in civilian nuclear energy over the…

Jul 04, 2011 at 09:56 | Energy Digital

Imagine you’re an engineer at a nuclear power plant that contains some of the most dangerous materials known to man.  Suddenly, commandos slip past security guards, killing some of your…

Jun 30, 2011 at 08:39 | Charlotte Dudley

France will invest €1 billion ($1.4billion) in its nuclear power programme, bucking the post-Fukushima trend away from nuclear energy. Announcing the energy funding package – which also commits a further…

Jun 27, 2011 at 08:36 | John Daly

The year 2011 will go down for the nuclear industry worldwide as an annus horribilis.First came the March Fukushima nuclear disaster, with operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) belatedly…

Jun 24, 2011 at 07:32 | Al Fin

Many billions of dollars have been spent on large scale fusion efforts such as the National Ignition Facility in Livermore or ITER in France. But if the best use of…

Jun 23, 2011 at 07:43 | Energy Digital

Amidst the ongoing nuclear disaster in Japan—that third-party scientific investigators are claiming is 30 times worse than Chernobyl—some countries seem to be coming to their senses and rethinking the cost…

Jun 21, 2011 at 07:52 | Ferdinand E. Banks

According to the United Nations energy organization (IAEA), statistics indicate that for 2009 and 2010, nuclear reactors in Sweden and Germany managed by the Swedish firm Vattenfall  had the lowest…

Jun 16, 2011 at 07:31 | John Daly

Nuclear energy company executives worldwide can be forgiven for wondering if Mother Nature is pursuing a vendetta against them. The 11 March 9.0 Richter scale earthquake that rattled Japan saw…