[NukeNet] New Jersey Weighs Building Another Nuclear Plant, First Since 1973, Largest Wind Farm In World

[Bill Smirnow]

The May/Jine 2008 edition of "Mother Jones" magazine is devoted to energy
issues. On page 56 Judith Lewis asks us to reconsider nuclear energy.

    The excellant Mothersalert web site is still up but to access it one has
to leave out the www in the URL, just go to  http://mothersalert.org  NOT
http://www.mothersalert.org   All kinds of excellant data including the
CRAC-2 report & TMI coverup there at: http://mothersalert.org/crac.html

   http://mothersalert.org/.rickover.html
http://mothersalert.org/bertell.html

 1.   New Jersey Weighs Building Another Nuclear Plant, First Since 1973
  2. Russia: Former Nuclear Minister Is Resentenced and Set Free
  3. Vermont weighs longer life for state's aging nuclear reactor
 4.  Billionaire Texas Oil Man Makes Big Bets on Wind



1.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/18/nyregion/18nuke.html?scp=3&sq=nuclear&st=nyt
    New Jersey Weighs Building Another Nuclear Plant, First Since 1973

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By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: April 18, 2008
TRENTON (AP) - Gov. Jon S. Corzine said on Thursday that New Jersey was
considering building a nuclear power plant, the first in the United States
since 1973, as part of an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the
state.

Skip to next paragraph

The New York Times
A nuclear plant may be added at Lower Alloways Creek.

The proposal, part of a 15-year energy master plan, does not specify a site,
but a spokesman for Public Service Electric & Gas said the company was
investigating the possibility of adding a fourth plant to its Lower Alloways
Creek site in Salem County and expected to make a decision by the end of the
year.

The plan calls for reviewing sites, permits, financing and waste disposal
involved in bringing another nuclear plant to the state and for studying
other technologies that would cause only minimal or no carbon dioxide
emissions.

"A business-as-usual energy policy risks enormous economic and environmental
consequences," Mr. Corzine wrote in the plan. "In contrast, an energy policy
that focuses on producing and using energy as wisely as possible greatly
reduces these consequences and positions us to be a strong competitor in the
global economy."

The proposal would be the subject of public hearings, and the federal
Nuclear Regulatory Commission would have final approval.

Last year Mr. Corzine signed legislation making New Jersey the third state
to enact a comprehensive greenhouse gas reduction law. California and Hawaii
have similar laws.

The legislation requires the state to reduce global warming gases to 1990
levels by 2020 and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 80 percent below
2006 levels by 2050.

In addition to considering another nuclear plant, Mr. Corzine said he wanted
to generate 20 percent of the state's electricity with renewable energy like
wind and solar power.

The master plan discusses ways to promote energy conservation, meet
electricity demands, find methods to get electricity from renewable sources
and invest in clean energy technologies and businesses.

Lisa Jackson, the state environmental protection commissioner, said, "Few
initiatives will more significantly shape New Jersey's environmental future
and positively affect generations to come than the work we're now doing to
embrace and implement progressive clean-energy policies and programs."

Environmental groups were sharply critical of Mr. Corzine's 15-year energy
plan.

Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club, said the
governor "needs to step up and lead New Jersey to a cleaner, greener future
with more wind, solar and better energy efficiency goals."

Dave Pringle of the New Jersey Environmental Federation said, "The question
is not coal versus nuclear to keep the lights on, but rather those
antiquated, dangerous technologies versus cutting-edge clean renewable and
efficient solutions."

As in most states, residents in New Jersey are struggling with rising fuel
prices. The cost of electricity has also soared because the price of coal,
gas and uranium is making power plants more expensive to operate.

Another nuclear plant in New Jersey, the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating
Station in Lacey Township, is waiting for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
to grant a 20-year extension of its license.

About 100 nuclear power plants are in operation in the United States, but an
order has not been placed for a new reactor since 1973, six years before an
accident at the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania intensified
opposition to nuclear power.





  2.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/18/world/europe/18briefs-FORMERNUCLEA_BRF.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=nuclear&st=nyt&oref=slogin
Russia: Former Nuclear Minister Is Resentenced and Set Free

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By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: April 18, 2008
Court officials in Moscow say that Russia's former nuclear energy minister,
Yevgeny O. Adamov, has been released from prison. He was convicted in
February of stealing millions in United States government funds earmarked
for strengthening security at Russian nuclear plants and was sentenced to
five and a half years in prison. A spokeswoman for the Moscow City Court
said the court revised the sentence, giving Mr. Adamov a suspended sentence
and setting him free. He was arrested in Switzerland and jailed for nearly
six months in 2005 at the request of American prosecutors. But Russian
officials, fearing he could reveal nuclear secrets, succeeded in having him
sent to Russia to face trial on similar charges.

  3.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Vermont-Reactor.html?scp=2&sq=nuclear&st=nyt

     Vermont weighs longer life for state's aging nuclear reactor

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By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: April 18, 2008
Filed at 4:04 a.m. ET

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) -- Vermont's love-hate relationship with its lone
nuclear power plant is coming to a head: Lawmakers have to decide next year
whether to shut down the reactor in 2012 as scheduled or keep it humming for
another two decades.

Vermont is as known for its green living as its green landscapes, and some
environmentalists in the state have come to appreciate nuclear power for its
low greenhouse gas emissions, said Steve Terry, a former journalist who
covered the construction of the Vermont Yankee plant in the late 1960s.

But the plant's benefit ''comes in a clash with a rather determined minority
that has opposed nuclear power for basically radiological safety issues,''
said Terry, who went on to become vice president of Green Mountain Power
Corp., one of the 36-year-old plant's first owners.

The debate among lawmakers about whether to shutter the plant could only
happen in Vermont, the only state with a law giving its Legislature veto
power over continued operation of a reactor beyond the expiration of its
license, said Linda Sikkema, group director for environment, energy and
transportation at the National Conference of State Legislatures. Such
questions generally are left to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The federal agency has never rejected a nuclear plant's request to extend
its license, and some in Vermont question whether it can give the reactor
the thorough physical they say it needs before getting the green light to
extend its life span by 50 percent.

''The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is a wholly owned subsidiary of the
nuclear industry,'' Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin, a Democrat whose
Windham County district includes the reactor site, said this week.

Rep. Sarah Edwards, a member of the Progressive Party whose Brattleboro
district is near Vermont Yankee's site in Vernon, on the banks of the
Connecticut River in the state's southeast corner, agreed that ''there's a
lack of confidence in the NRC's oversight process by many, many citizens of
the state of Vermont.''

David Lew, the NRC's director of the Division of Reactor Projects, defended
the agency's performance in testimony before a House committee this week. He
told lawmakers the NRC spends more than 7,000 hours inspecting Vermont
Yankee in a typical year.

The 650-megawatt plant sends about half its power to Vermont, and the rest
to other parts of New England. The share staying in the state represents
about a third of Vermont's total power demand.

Critics also question whether plant owner Entergy Nuclear Operations, an
Entergy Corp. subsidiary, will have enough money in the Vermont Yankee
decommissioning fund when it comes time to dismantle the plant, especially
given a corporate restructuring Entergy has proposed.

Even if the Legislature decides that the plant has to shut down in 2012, the
battle may merely move to the courts. States are generally pre-empted from
regulating the safety aspects of nuclear power, and NRC spokesman Neil
Sheehan said his agency guards its prerogative in that realm carefully.

If Vermont ''crosses over into trying to regulate nuclear safety, then that
would be of concern to us,'' Sheehan said.

No fewer than five bills in the legislative hopper this year involve
operations at Vermont Yankee. Most were written by nuclear foes.

''If this is the debate in 2008,'' Terry said, ''it's going to be even more
of a heated debate in 2009.''

  4.
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-usa-oil-pickens-wind.html?scp=13&sq=nuclear&st=nyt

 Billionaire Texas Oil Man Makes Big Bets on Wind

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By REUTERS
Published: April 18, 2008
Filed at 9:00 a.m. ET

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Legendary Texas oil man T. Boone Pickens has gone
green with a plan to spend $10 billion to build the world's biggest wind
farm. But he's not doing it out of generosity - he expects to turn a buck.

The Southern octogenarian's plans are as big as the Texas prairie, where he
lives on a ranch with his horses, and entail fundamentally reworking how
Americans use energy.

Next month, Pickens' company, Mesa Power, will begin buying land and
ordering 2,700 wind turbines that will eventually generate 4,000 megawatts
of electricity - the equivalent of building two commercial scale nuclear
power plants - enough power for about 1 million homes.

"These are substantial," said Pickens, speaking to students at Georgetown
University on Thursday. "They're big."

Pickens knows a thing or two about big. He heads the BP Capital hedge fund
with over $4 billion under management, and earned about $1 billion in 2006
making big bets on commodity and equity markets.

Though a long-time oil man, Pickens said he has embraced the call for
cleaner energy sources that don't emit heat-trapping greenhouse gases.

"I'm an environmentalist - I can pass the saliva test," he said.

But Pickens is not out to save the planet. He intends to make money.

Though Pickens admits that wind power won't be as lucrative as oil deals, he
still expects the Texas project to turn at least a 25 percent return.

"When I go into these markets, I expect to make money on them," Pickens
said. "I don't expect to lose."

America is facing a looming power crunch, with electricity demand expected
to grow 15 percent in a decade. And while many states have rejected big
coal-fired power projects on environmental concerns, they are offering a
bounty of incentives to build renewable sources.

U.S. crude futures at new records above $115 a barrel means a bright future
for renewable sources like wind and solar.

Pickens' wind farm is part of his wider vision for replacing natural gas
with wind and solar for power generation, and using the natural gas instead
to power vehicles.

To picture Pickens' energy strategy, imagine a compass.

Stretching from north to south from Saskatchewan to Texas would be thousands
of wind turbines, which could take advantage of some of the best U.S. wind
production conditions.

On the east-west axis from Texas to California would be large arrays of
solar generation, which could send electricity into growing Southern
California cities like Los Angeles.

The end result would be to free up more clean-burning natural gas -
primarily a power-generation fuel now - to power automobiles.

Major oil companies have embraced so-called natural gas liquids because they
have spent billions of dollars building refineries and pipelines to turn
crude oil into gasoline, Pickens said.

But shifting natural gas used in power generation to transportation needs
could cut U.S. crude oil imports by nearly 40 percent, he said.
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