Alternative Energy / Nuclear Power

Mar 30, 2011 at 04:10 | SciDev SciDev

The World Still Needs Nuclear Power — But it Must be Safer and More Transparent Earlier this month, an explosion in the energy sector caused immense destruction, costing the lives…

Mar 29, 2011 at 04:34 | Gloria Gonzalez

The near-meltdown of nuclear reactors in Japan may derail already shaky prospects for a US clean energy standard (CES) and an expansion of the US nuclear fleet. Prospects for a…

Mar 28, 2011 at 03:13 | Gail Tverberg

The usual plan for spent nuclear fuel in the United States is to transfer it to a cooling pool and then after some time to transfer it to dry cask…

Mar 24, 2011 at 14:22 | Professor Chris Rhodes

97% of world market supplies of rare earth elements (REEs) come from China and look to become insecure in regard to meeting "green" energy targets, since exports of REEs are…

Mar 23, 2011 at 16:39 | Gail Tverberg

We are at a crossroads with respect to nuclear energy, having discovered a new way (or several new ways) that nuclear plants can fail. How do we deal with such…

Mar 23, 2011 at 16:29 | SciDev SciDev

Four of the reactors at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan seem to be steadily moving towards progressive core melting. If sizeable core melt occurs, very dangerous species of…

Mar 23, 2011 at 06:07 | Brian Westenhaus

Fast answer – an interesting concern.  Those words are chosen as the human tragedy unfolds.  Perhaps hundreds or thousands of people are exposed to the elements, including overnights in cold…

Mar 21, 2011 at 17:00 | Llewellyn King

For 40 years I've written about nuclear power, defended it and believed, as I still do, that it offers the best signpost to a great future; to what Churchill called…

Mar 21, 2011 at 16:54 | Kurt Cobb

Famed student of risk and probability and author of The Black Swan Nassim Nicholas Taleb tells us that in 2003 Japan's nuclear safety agency set as a goal that fatalities…

Mar 21, 2011 at 16:50 | RFE/RL staff

Just a half-hour drive from the Armenian capital, Yerevan, a Soviet-era nuclear power plant sits precariously on an earthquake fault line. Environmentalists have long said the Ararat Valley, located just…

Mar 21, 2011 at 09:51 | SciDev SciDev

As Japan's nuclear accidents send shockwaves round the world, Alex Abutu explores whether Africa is ready to provide safe nuclear power. The disasters that struck several Japanese nuclear facilities in…

Mar 18, 2011 at 15:24 | Jeb Handwerger

There's an old saying in investing: Buy a winter coat in the summer. Uranium stocks are certainly out of season and deeply discounted. Media coverage has shifted from the destruction…

Mar 18, 2011 at 11:13 | Robert Rapier

After the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico, someone said to me “We have to stop all offshore drilling.” My response was that I could get behind that…

Mar 18, 2011 at 10:48 | RFE/RL staff

BRUSSELS -- EU Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger has announced that EU-wide stress tests on nuclear power plants will be conducted in the wake of the nuclear disaster unfolding at the…

Mar 17, 2011 at 10:49 | RFE/RL staff

The troubles surrounding Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant in the wake of the recent earthquake and tsunami there have set off a debate on the safety of nuclear power in…

Mar 16, 2011 at 22:54 | Mad Hedge Fund Trader

Having once worked for the Atomic Energy Commission at the Nuclear Test Site in Nevada, I do have some insights into the melt down at Fukushima. The media is wallowing…

Mar 16, 2011 at 09:55 | The Oil Drum

Yesterday, I believe, will go down in history as one of the most significant for mankind. Whilst most citizens of the developed and developing world do not realize this yet,…

Mar 15, 2011 at 08:37 | Gail Tverberg

We are very much reaching limits in the field of energy. This seems to mean that we ending up taking more and more risks, so that there is a greater…

Mar 04, 2011 at 08:43 | ISN Security Watch

Construction work started at a site close to the UAE border with Saudi Arabia last December, and the first reactor is scheduled to go online in 2017, despite expected delays.…

Feb 27, 2011 at 16:22 | Brian Westenhaus

Dale Klein, Ph.D., former commissioner (and former chairman) of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of Texas System and Associate Director of the University of…