Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) told a packed audience Feb. 23 at conference held by The New Republic that he was working with a group of leading senators and the Obama administration on renewed push for a climate bill.
“We’re on a short track here in terms of piecing together legislation we intend to roll out,” Kerry told the conference. While he acknowledged that his optimism about the legislation was “contrary to conventional wisdom” and added that all of the approaches are on the table. read more…
Yesterday, Radio WHYY from Philadelphia, Pa., featured a conversation on nuclear power renaissance in the United States. Alan Hanson, AREVA Executive Vice-President for technologies and used fuel management, and Sharon Squassoni, Senior Fellow and Directors of the Proliferation Prevention Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, debated key nuclear energy issues and its potential for expansion following recent support from the Obama administration.
To learn more about the nuclear energy debate and critical questions, listen to the program, Radio Times, here.
By Lisa Peterson, Marketing Specialist, AREVA Federal Services
AREVA is the only company in the world to work in every stage of the nuclear fuel cycle, from mining uranium, enrichment and fuel fabrication to reactor construction and maintenance, and recycling used fuel. What’s more, AREVA’s expertise extends to developing solutions for safely and effectively packaging and transporting nuclear material.
AREVA Federal Services is part of AREVA’s back end business which manages a wide range of operations focused on the latter part of the nuclear cycle, from recycling used fuel to developing packaging and transportation solutions for used fuel. Remediating former weapons production sites, such as the Hanford and Savannah River are central parts of our business. This work together with the renaissance of nuclear power will increase demand for innovative packaging and transportation solutions. read more…
Here’s a chart showing the International Energy Agency’s estimate of the combination of technologies that will be needed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the United States – and put the world on a sustainable energy path.
As you’ll see, we need nuclear power as part of a comprehensive solution: investing in energy efficiency, wind, solar, geothermal, carbon capture, energy storage, electric vehicles, and more. In doing so, we are sparking a new industrial revolution that will create millions of new jobs here in the United States and lay the foundation for America’s long-term economic prosperity.
Join the online chat today “Is nuclear energy a sustainable energy source” with Bertrand Barré today at 9:30am.
Participate in the dialog and ask your questions on areva.com
In the first op-ed, “Nuclear Power’s Time has come,” CNN interviews author and environmentalist, Stewart Brand, on his support of nuclear energy.
Looking for a surefire way to cut greenhouse gases, Brand said the alternative to burning coal became clear: “We already had a very good supplier of …electricity. It worked like mad and was as clean as it could be — and that was nuclear.”
Brand concludes: “Look, you’re not going to cure greenhouse gases with nuclear, but curing greenhouse gases without nuclear is approximately impossible.”
In the contrasting opinion piece, Mark Z. Jacobson, a Stanford University professor, discusses why “Nuclear Power is Too Risky.”
Jacobson writes on how the planet can be powered by renewable energy sources like wind, solar, and geothermal alone, saying “If our nation wants to reduce global warming, air pollution and energy instability, we should invest only in the best energy options. Nuclear energy isn’t one of them.”
Both pieces debate the current issues concerning nuclear energy. We’ll let you compare the “nuclear argument” yourself.
There are two items to highlight from the Washington Post today. First, here is this quote from an op ed piece we like a lot:
“The merits of nuclear power have been debated for years. Such power has drawbacks, not least the waste that reactors produce and that the government cannot decide where to store. But given that nuclear power produces essentially no carbon emissions, it’s an appealing option for consistent and relatively clean electricity generation….the president is right to signal that he will unfreeze the regulatory process, which, in concert with public discomfort, has stymied the industry for decades. And there is a reasonable argument that nuclear should get this federal push. Though nuclear may well be more cost-efficient than its critics allege, huge upfront construction costs scare off investors. If loan guarantees for the first batch of new plants help demonstrate that reactors can be built without the delays and cost overruns that have characterized some nuclear projects, capital will come to nuclear without as much governmental support in the future and without taxpayers actually spending much.”
And in a separate section of the WashPost site, blogger Ezra Klein posts this chart, explaining in part why the Administration is supporting Nuclear over other dirtier electiricity generation technologies…
AREVA, which launched its new global website this month, will host its first Video Chat, live February 24 at 9:30 am (EST) on areva.com. The topic of discussion: “Is nuclear power a sustainable energy source?”
Betrand Barré, the Scientific Advisor for AREVA and Professor Emeritus at the French National Institute for Nuclear Sciences and Technology, will respond directly to your questions on this issue.
You will be able to participate in the dialogue and ask your questions directly on areva.com.
President Obama’s recent support for nuclear energy has ignited a genuine discussion on the issue. No longer can nuclear energy’s benefits be ignored or scare tactics employed to shut down discussion, the American media is getting behind the facts.
“Absent nuclear power, any clean-energy policy is largely decorative since the more talked about elements – wind, solar – can only supply power at the margins. Nuclear plants generate 20 percent of U.S. power now and 70 percent of the power considered to come from clean sources.”
On Feb. 13, the Discovery Channel aired an episode of “The Green Room,”
hosted by John Holden which provided a great look at AREVA’s La Hague
facility and the process of recycling used nuclear fuel.
Check out the clip below that features AREVA Executive V.P. Alan Hanson
as he walks through the key facts about recycling and the facility
itself.
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) told a packed audience Feb. 23 at conference held by The New Republic that he was working with a group of leading senators and the Obama administration on renewed push for a climate bill. 
“The merits of nuclear power have been debated for years. Such power has drawbacks, not least the waste that reactors produce and that the government cannot decide where to store. But given that nuclear power produces essentially no carbon emissions, it’s an appealing option for consistent and relatively clean electricity generation….the president is right to signal that he will unfreeze the regulatory process, which, in concert with public discomfort, has stymied the industry for decades. And there is a reasonable argument that nuclear should get this federal push. Though nuclear may well be more cost-efficient than its critics allege, huge upfront construction costs scare off investors. If loan guarantees for the first batch of new plants help demonstrate that reactors can be built without the delays and cost overruns that have characterized some nuclear projects, capital will come to nuclear without as much governmental support in the future and without taxpayers actually spending much.”
