South Australian premier Jay Weatherill on Sunday announced a formal inquiry into the future role of the state in the nuclear fuel cycle, which will be tasked with considering options across the full gamut…
Nuclear power plants, like this one in Tennessee, supply almost 20 percent of the electricity in the US.
Nuclear Regulatory Comission
It’s been almost two decades since a new nuclear plant opened for business in the United States. But that’s about to change as construction wraps up on the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Watts Bar Unit 2…
Energy supply including nuclear is the best way to fight climate change and conserve wildlife and ecosystems.
James Marvin Phelps/Flickr
Should nuclear energy be part of Australia’s (and many other countries’) future energy mix? We think so, particularly as part of a solution to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prevent dangerous climate…
If Australia’s to have nuclear power, there’ll have to be policies to support it.
flokru/Flickr
No sooner had foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop announced that Australia should take a fresh look at nuclear power than Prime Minister Tony Abbott responded that nuclear power would only be supported…
India’s nuclear power industry is rapidly becoming more transparent.
Flickr/IAEA Imagebank
Australia’s prime minister Tony Abbott is set to sign a deal with India that will allow the export of uranium to the country. There are concerns that some of the uranium will be used to produce nuclear…
Now we need a hole big enough. Nuclear waste by Shutterstock.
F.Schmidt
A proposal for radioactive waste to appear at a burial site nearby, would be likely to fill the great majority of the UK population with thoughts of danger, cancer – and falling house prices. This illustrates…
Big may be beautiful but it’s also inflexible and expensive.
Andrew Parsons/PA
Take a hard look at the painful process of de-carbonising the UK’s electricity supply, and it’s clear that the options on the table are not great. From the outset, changes to the system generate further…
Dungeness B nuclear power station: still fit for duty?
Gareth Fuller/PA
Changing the rules by which nuclear power stations are judged to be safe or not may sound unpalatable to some, even outright dangerous. But this is what the Office of Nuclear Regulation is considering…
Superheated plasma inside the tokamak reactor, a split second before a fusion reaction.
Scott Silburn/James Harrison/Alex Meakins
Paul Norman, University of Birmingham and Lee Packer, Culham Centre for Fusion Energy
The latest results from the National Ignition Facility in the US represent the passing of a nuclear fusion power milestone and come after a year of significant progress at projects in France and the UK…
This Russian-built nuclear power plant in India may be one of many soon appearing in developing countries.
Rafiq Maqbool/AP
Jessica Jewell, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
UN inspectors descend on Iran this week to visit the Arak heavy water plant, and engineers at the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plants in Japan attempt one of the most challenging nuclear salvage operations…
Can Scotland generate enough energy to go it alone, or is it blowing in the wind?
Ben Curtis/PA
Could Scotland benefit from having an independent electricity system? Our report published this week found that it could – if it meant Scotland paying for (and benefiting from) its own renewable energy…
Concerns over nuclear energy mean Japan is moving back to fossil fuels.
EPA/TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA
Japan has announced it is significantly reducing its greenhouse gas reduction target. It now aims to achieve a 3.8% cut in carbon dioxide emissions by 2020 versus 2005 levels. The new target amounts to…
Floating nuclear power station under construction.
Rosenergoatom
Though Russia is one of the world’s largest producers of oil and gas, it is embarking on an ambitious and somewhat imaginative programme of building floating nuclear power stations. These are part of Russia’s…
David Cameron’s government has got their new nuclear power stations - but at what cost?
Tim Ireland/PA
The first new nuclear power station in Britain in nearly 20 years is to be built, an announcement that comes only two and a half years after the disaster at Fukushima focused the world’s attention the…
The future Hinkley Point C nuclear power station (centre), with older reactors.
EDF
There has long been talk of the need for a “nuclear renaissance”, and now it seems underway. The deal has been struck that would see the first new British nuclear power station in a generation. But is…
Renewables have failed to get us off fossils fuels. We need nuclear too.
Flickr/Ekhinos
The IPCC fifth climate change report lays out a carbon budget that we must follow if we’re to keep the world under a temperature rise of 2C over pre-industrial levels - the widely accepted level above…
Election 2013 Essays: As the federal election campaign draws to a close, The Conversation asked eminent thinkers to reflect on the state of the nation and the challenges Australia – and whichever party…
Copper clad, steel containers for geological disposal: what the best dressed nuclear waste is wearing in Sweden these days.
kallerna/Wikipedia
It was said originally that nuclear-powered electricity would be “too cheap to meter”, but in the current climate it is nuclear’s capacity to deliver secure, low-carbon energy that appeals. We all use…
Should Australia go beyond exporting uranium “yellowcake” and consider fabricating nuclear fuel rods?
Flickr/NNSA News
It is not the first time in Australia’s economic history that a prevalent sector reaches its peak and gives way to a rapidly developing new one. However, while the mining and education sectors have apparently…
Some of us learned to stop worrying and love the bomb; some of us didn’t.
Tim Ireland/PA Wire
Radioactivity is dramatic. You can’t smell it, taste it, or see it. You may be powerless to avoid it. Nuclear history is a story of dramatic contrasts, of hope and tragedy. Worldwide excitement over Marie…