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…
Despite the high capital costs, nuclear ticks boxes.
Kaissa
An experiment in liberalising power markets has been underway in the UK since the 1980s and three phases can be identified. The first ran from around 1989 to 1999, beginning with the privatisation of the…
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…
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been feted during his visit, but there are no guarantees that his new uranium deal with Australia won’t worsen nuclear security.
AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy
Behind the flag-waving and cheers surrounding Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Australia are serious questions about the safety and security implications of Australia’s agreement to…
It’s all smiles until the sanctions begin.
Roland Schlager
Talks in Vienna about the future of Iran’s nuclear programme have failed for the time being. The countries involved have agreed to resume discussions in December with a view to reaching a political agreement…
Looks like a lovely evening for a drone flight.
EPA
Mysterious, seemingly coordinated, drones have appeared in the past month over a number of nuclear power stations in France. We don’t know what these flights are for or who is behind them. But perhaps…
A protester at recent Australia climate change rallies in the lead up to the UN climate summit in New York.
AAP Image/NEWZULU/ZOE REYNOLDS
Today more than 120 world leaders are gathered in New York for the Climate Leaders’ Summit. With global emissions continuing to rise, it is easy to be pessimistic. But new research released today shows…
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…
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…
For years, Australia has been looking at remote Indigenous land to store its nuclear waste. But now that Muckaty is off the table, it’s time to consider big city locations.
Caddie Brain/Flickr
Right now, radioactive material is stored at more than 100 locations in cities and suburbs across Australia. Yet after the withdrawal of a proposed remote site for a “nuclear waste dump” at Muckaty Station…
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…
Getting information out of the IAEA: hard.
Andreas.Roever
When we agree to send our young men and women to war, we expect the reasons why to be made clear. At least some of us will want to subject that explanation to scrutiny at the time, and often even more…
Fishing boats stranded by the 2011 tsunami, with the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in the background.
EPA/Kimimasa Mayama
Three years ago today, Japan was hit by the strongest earthquake ever measured in that country – and Fukushima became an international by-word for disaster. Now, as Japan tries to put its past behind it…
Superheated plasma inside the tokamak reactor, a split second before a fusion reaction.
Scott Silburn/James Harrison/Alex Meakins
Paul Norman, University of Birmingham dan 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…
Germany’s Philippsburg nuclear power plant. Is Australia preparing to follow suit?
Lothar Neumann/Wikimedia Commons
Nuclear power is back on Australia’s radar. In its recent issues paper released as a preface to September’s Energy White Paper, the Abbott government reopened the debate thus: With environmental considerations…
Amid warnings from Washington that the US will be watching very closely, the interim deal agreed late last year to scale-back Iran’s nuclear programme has come into force, a positive development in a slow-burning…
Not all radiation is harmful.
Image from shutterstock.com
Every job comes with risk and for those who work in the nuclear power industry the long-term risk of cancer is small but significant. Last decade, research looking into the prevalence of cancer in nuclear…
Nuclear power and nuclear weapons: what’s the difference?
Patrik Hermansson
It is the received wisdom that nuclear weapons and nuclear power are inseparable. Consequently, any country that builds a civilian nuclear power station is able to build an atomic bomb within a couple…
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…