Margaret Ryan

 

Posts by Margaret Ryan

Summer Nuclear Unit Already Behind As It Gets Federal Green Light

By

Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Gregory Jaczko listens to his introduction before he delivers remarks at the Regulatory Information Conference on March 13, 2012 in Rockville, Maryland.The long-expected federal decision giving SCANA a license to build two new nuclear reactors in South Carolina came along with news that project has already encountered delays and cost overruns.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved the license for SCANA’s Summer station near Columbia, SC on Friday, seven weeks after approving a similar license for Southern Company’s Vogtle station near August, Georgia. The vote was again 4-1, with Chairman Gregory Jaczko again dissenting over the commission’s decision not to attach a specific provision requiring compliance with future post-Fukushima requirements. Keep reading →

 /  Published April 3, 2012 at 10:00 AM

A Break For Some Coal Plants, But Challenges Remain

By


Coal generating plants that retrofit to meet new mercury pollution rules won’t have to meet the greenhouse gas limits just proposed for new coal plants, says the Environmental Protection Agency.

The EPA said it doesn’t have sufficient information to impose GHG limits on those plants. Normally, plants performing major retrofits are required to meet the same pollution standards as brand new plants. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 28, 2012 at 1:30 PM

Selling the Smart Grid

By


Utilities converting to smart meters must find out how the new technology creates value for their customers, and not just financial value, experts told the Edison Foundation’s Powering the People 2.0 conference in Washington, DC March 22.

Utilities nationwide are wrestling with how to get customers to buy into the potential the new technology offers. Smart meters have met resistance from customers citing privacy worries, claims of health issues from the meters’ communication chips, and charges the devices are a subterfuge to raise electricity prices. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 27, 2012 at 10:00 AM

Military Fostering Wide Range of Innovative Energy Solutions

By

A House Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, on March 22, 2012 in Washington, DC.

The U.S. military can jump-start commercialization of energy innovations by serving as a test bed for new ideas, top Department of Defense officials say. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 26, 2012 at 3:00 PM

Small Modular Reactors – The iPads of Nuclear Power

By


Small modular reactors are not a substitute for the familiar 1,000-plus-megawatt reactors, says Tennessee Valley Authority Chief Operating Officer William McCollum, any more than the iPad is a substitute for a laptop computer or a cell phone. Instead, he said, SMRs, like iPads, are creating a whole new niche for nuclear.

Supporters see them as safer than the big plants, cheaper, requiring less time and up-front investment to build, and, longer term, pioneering in nuclear nonproliferation and spent fuel disposal technology. Some designs have the potential to bring electricity to isolated and water-short communities. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 22, 2012 at 9:00 AM

Chief Nuclear Regulator Admits Safety Goals Are ‘Insufficient’

By

Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Gregory Jaczko delivers remarks at the Regulatory Information Conference on March 13, 2012 in Rockville, Maryland.

US nuclear safety goals are insufficient, and don’t address effects like those seen after the Fukushima disaster in Japan, the head of the US nuclear regulator says. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 15, 2012 at 9:00 AM

Renewable Energy Will Cost Grid More: MIT

By


Integrating more renewables into the US grid will be costly and have unintended consequences, including potential for increased carbon emissions, that policymakers need to plan for, warns a new Massachusetts Institute of Technology Energy Initiative study.

The study, unveiled Monday, looked at what needs to be done to accommodate increasing percentages of renewables on electricity grids, said MITEI head Ernest Moniz. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 13, 2012 at 9:15 AM

Fukushima Meltdown Didn’t Have To Happen: Report

By

Believers pray for victims of the March 11 massive earthquake and tsunami at a memorial in Natori, Miyagi prefecture on March 8, 2012. The earthquake-tsunami disaster, concentrated in the prefectures of Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima, left more than 19,000 people dead or missing.

A year after a massive earthquake and tsunami struck Tokyo Electric Power’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, international experts have come to a stark conclusion: the resulting meltdown did not have to happen. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 9, 2012 at 12:00 PM

For Industry, Fukushima Fading As Anniversary Nears

By

This file picture taken on February 28, 2012 shows workers walking at the emergency operation center of the stricken Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okuma, Fukushima prefecture.

At the first anniversary of the March 11, 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident, the nuclear industry outside Japan and central Europe is largely continuing as before the accident, says a World Energy Council report. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 9, 2012 at 11:00 AM

Education, Immigration Said Keys To US Manufacturing

By

A man works on the factory floor at Quadrant, a high end plastic processor on October 19, 2011 in Reading, Pennsylvania. Quadrant, a 70 year old company, employs more than 2000 people in 20 countries and is one of the few remaining manufacturers in the area to still provide stable jobs in an uncertain economy.

Modern manufacturing is not your grandfather’s factory, and the same traditional education and immigration policies are forming barriers to keeping manufacturing in the US. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 6, 2012 at 9:00 AM
Page 7 of 151...34567891011...15