92nd Carnival of Nuclear Energy Bloggers

Governor Shumlin tilts his lance again announcing an appeal of a Federal District Court ruling against the efforts of the legislature and the governor to shut the reactor down.

The carnival weekly post is the collective voice of blogs with legendary names which emerge each week to tell the story of nuclear energy.

If you want to hear the voice of the nuclear renaissance, the Carnival of Nuclear Energy Blogs is where to find it.

Past editions have been hosted at Next Big Future. Yes Vermont Yankee, NuclearGreen, Atomic Power Review, ANS Nuclear Cafe, Idaho Samizdat, and CoolHandNuke, as well as several other popular nuclear energy blogs.

The publication of the Carnival each week is part of a commitment by the leading pro-nuclear bloggers in North America that we will speak with a collective voice on the issue of the value of nuclear energy. While we each have our own points of view, we agree that the promise of peaceful uses of the atom remains viable in our own time and for the future.

If you have a pro-nuclear energy blog, and would like to host an edition of the carnival, please contact Brian Wang at Next Big Future to get on the rotation.

This is a great collaborative effort that deserves your support. Please post a Tweet, a Facebook entry, or a link on your Web site or blog to support the carnival.

This Week's Carnival

Here's what some of the nation's nuclear bloggers have to say about Vermont Yankee news generally and CNN in particular.

Yes Vermont Yankee

• Vermont AG to appeal Federal court ruling - Meredith Angwin writes that yes, we all knew it would happen. The State is appealing the judgment. The State is throwing good money after bad, but Shumlin has to show his hard-core supporters that he really tried.

• Citizens Rights, State Rights, and Vermont - Everyone knows that the Vermont Attorney General stressed "state's rights" as he fought Vermont Yankee and two clauses of the Constitution (Commerce Clause and Supremacy Clause).  However, once a state begins defying the Constitution, the rights of the citizens are also compromised.

NEI Nuclear Notes

• Preview of CNN report - the nation's nuclear trade group calls the TV program "alarmist reporting," provides some examples, and points out the news network never call NEI for information or comment.
• Some facts that didn't make it into CNN's report - If the Vermont Yankee reactor was closed, the resulting fossil fueled replacement power would add 2.7 million metric tonnes of CO2 to the atmosphere.
• How safe is Vermont Yankee? Ask the NRC not CNN - green bars across the board

ANS Nuclear Cafe

On January 19, the Federal District Court in Brattleboro, Vt., issued a court decision in favor of Entergy Corporation, regarding the continued operation of its Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.  Howard Shaffer examines the political milieu of the Vermont Yankee court decision in light of states rights issues, shared authority among Federal and State regulators, and the political history of some other rather extreme positions taken by state governors.

Tamar Cerafici has a plain English review of the legal ins-and-outs of the Federal court ruling. It is worth your time to step through the issues because so much is at stake.

Atomic Power Review

Will Davis catches up on various news items from this week, including comments on Fukushima Daiichi, a CNN report, and nuclear energy in various far places in the world.

Next Big Future

Brian Wang reports that the Areva Anteres reactor was selected by the next generation nuclear plant project. Also, he reports on French, U.S., China, India and Ukraine nuclear generation figures for 2011

Idaho Samizdat

Dan Yurman has an indepth report on the selection of Areva's HTGR design by the NGNP Alliance for process heat applications.

Also, he reports on a major deal involving Areva reactors to be built in the U.K. by EDF as a result of a face-to-face meeting between U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Atomic Insights

Rod Adams writes that MIT's studies on the future of various energy fuels are important guides for policy makers. The contrast between strong optimism over the future of natural gas compared to a far more pessimistic view of the future of nuclear energy is stark and difficult to ignore.

An explanation might be found in the amount of natural gas money and the number of natural gas salesmen on the Advisory Committee for the study on natural gas when compared to the more neutral funding source for the study on the future of nuclear energy. He asks if the MIT Energy Initiative has been captured by natural gas money?

Nuke Power Talk

Gail Marcus is pleased to be able to pass on information provided by a reader of her blog providing more details on the Japanese personnel practice called 'amakudari,' the institutionalized system of moving Japanese government retirees into positions in the organizations they used to regulate.

Nuclear Diner

Cheryl Rofer has a unique report that Peter Alaric DeSimone tells how he makes music from the random disintegration of radioactive isotopes and provides MP3 files and videos of the process.

Also, she reports that the National Research Council released a report this week on nuclear technologies NASA needs, including nuclear rocket propulsion, nuclear reactors for power in space, and radioisotope power systems. Susan Voss presents the details.

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