Opinion:
¶ Free Market Hypocrisy: Why Do We Hold Renewables to Different Standards than Fossil Fuels and Nuclear? [RenewableEnergyWorld.com]
Japan:
¶ According to the leaders of the probes into the Fukushima Disaster, the same sort of failure could happen again. More needs to be learned. Yoichiro Hatamura, who chaired a government inquiry, said a new field of research needs to be established, to determine why current approaches do not work. [Asahi Shimbun]
¶ Japanese judges are less confident on the government’s position on nuclear safety than they had been formerly. The Supreme Court had a study meeting to examine what to do about the issue. [The Japan Times]
¶ TEPCO is having problems with water injection in all three of the reactors that suffered meltdowns. They do not know why this has happened. [The Daily Yomiuri]
World:
¶ SMA Solar, a German company, will sell photovoltaic panels specifically for the purpose of offsetting fuel consumption of diesel generators for the off-grid market. [CleanTechnica]
¶ The UK’s biggest turkey farm is getting a new biomass plant, which will provide electricity and heat. It will also eliminate trips per year for trucks to carry waste away for treatment. [Biomass Magazine]
¶ China widened its lead over the US in the renewable-energy rating by Ernst & Young. The rating gauges the attractiveness of countries to investors. [Business Mirror]
US:
¶ Solar is booming coast to coast, and some companies in the field look quite sound. [DailyFinance]
¶ New York State has an energy plan in which it says it expects to make up for the loss of Indian Point several times over, in the event that Indian Point is closed. [Politics on the Hudson]
¶ There is some question about whether the containment building at Crystal River can be repaired at all. Compounding that is the fact that electric demand in the area where it sits has gone down, producing the question of whether the plant is needed at all. [Power Engineering]
¶ The expected cost of new reactors at Vogtle has risen by $116 million since February, putting it above what the state regulators said the utility could recover from ratepayers. [Platts]
¶ Unistar, which was denied permission to build a nuclear plant because the law requires at least 50% US ownership, has sixty days to find a partner. So far it has been looking for two years without success, which is mostly a result of economic circumstances. [Baltimore Sun]
¶ The NRC has released guidance on post-Fukushima changes. The include improvements in design and construction, additional features to prevent radioactive release, and improvements in evacuation and other emergency planning. [Fredericksburg.com]
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