Toronto Star, April 21, 2009
Just a few years ago we were worried about having enough power to keep Ontario running. These days, we're paying people to take it.
http://www.cleanairalliance.org/node/697
No new nuclear or coal plants may ever be needed in the United States, the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said today.
"We may not need any, ever," Jon Wellinghoff told reporters at a U.S. Energy Association forum.
Wellinghoff said renewables like wind, solar and biomass will provide enough energy to meet baseload capacity and future energy demands. Nuclear and coal plants are too expensive, he added.
He added, "People talk about, 'Oh, we need baseload.' It's like people saying we need more computing power, we need mainframes. We don't need mainframes, we have distributed computing.
"The technology for renewable energies has come far enough to allow his vision to move forward, he said. For instance, there are systems now available for concentrated solar plants that can provide 15 hours of storage.
Wellinghoff's statement -- if it reflects Obama administration policy -- would be a huge blow to the U.S. nuclear power industry, which has been hoping for a nuclear "renaissance" based on the capacity of nuclear reactors to generate power without greenhouse gas emissions.
Rethinking your opposition to nuclear power?
Rethink again.
"The numbers have simply gone flying past our highest 2007 estimates," says Jim Hempstead, a senior vice president at Moody’s, which now predicts new nuclear power plants will cost $7,500 per kilowatt to build. That’s more than double the capital costs for solar power and three and a half times the cost for wind.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2009/0901.blake.html
A Four-Part Radio Series
The audio podcasts described below are all posted at:
http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/thechoice/
Three Mile Island - Part One (about 1 hour)
Three Mile Island - Part Two (about 1 hour)
From Chalk River to Chernobyl (about 1 hour)
From Darlington to Decommissioning (about 1 hour)
A catastrophe like Chernobyl could happen here. It's the radioactive core of the second biggest lie in US industrial history.
The atomic pushers say such a disaster is “impossible” at a US reactor. But Chernobyl's explosion spewed radiation all over the world. And Sunday’s tragic 23rd anniversary reminds us that any reactor on this planet can kill innumerable people anywhere, at any time, by terror, error and more.
It further clarifies why yet another grab at billions of taxpayer dollars for new reactor construction must be stopped NOW!
http://www.counterpunch.org/wasserman04222009.html
If you haven’t signed the online petition yet, do it now! http://www.ontariosgreenfuture.ca/petition.php
And send the link to all your friends!