How about this: the new wind turbines installed in just 2009 alone will generate as much electricity as 12 large nuclear reactors:

click image for larger version

According to the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), ‘the world’s wind power capacity grew by 31% in 2009 adding 37.5 gigawatts to bring total installations up to 157.9 gigawatts’.

Only one nuclear power station went online in 2009 and not one did in 2008. It has been 22 years since nuclear power was able to make the contribution wind did last year. It’s an unbelievably poor performance from a struggling nuclear industry even when you take into account the many problems and dangers building new reactors entails.

The International Energy Agency/Energy Technology Perspectives 2008 Blue Map that suggests a four-fold global expansion of nuclear by 2050. That’s a massive 1,300 large reactors being built in the next 40 years. Even if that wildly optimistic target were to be met it would cut greenhouse gas emissions from the energy sector by just 6%.

The wind energy market, on the other hand, is expending so quickly it is already a year ahead of the projections Greenpeace made in our Energy Revolution scenario. According to GWEC, the wind turbines installed at the end of 2009 will save 204 million tons of CO2 every year. That figure will only increase and quickly. It’s a knock-out blow for nuclear power. Wind energy is clean, reliable and easy to install – everything nuclear power isn’t.

Posted by Justin at 5:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today's big stories from the nuclear industry:

Germany's Nuclear Power Extension Splits Merkel's Government
‘Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- German plans to extend the running time of nuclear-power plants split Chancellor Angela Merkel's government after her environment minister suggested a 40-year limit on their operating life. "What the environment minister said isn't the view of the government," Guido Westerwelle, vice chancellor and head of Merkel's Free Democratic Party coalition partner, said on ZDF television. Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen's comments in a Feb. 6 newspaper interview come as Merkel seeks to negotiate the extension with utilities as part of a plan for Germany's future energy mix she wants to present by October. Merkel won Sept. 27 elections pledging to reverse a 2002 law mandating the closure of Germany's 17 nuclear plants by about 2021. She holds to the coalition agreement to extend nuclear plants as a "bridge" to renewable power, her spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm said today.’

Read more »

Posted by Justin at 5:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is part of a trial series

The "Tokyo Two" were featured in ABC News (Australia) saying the UN's judgment is a blow to Japan's judicial system. The UN report says the activists' detention contravenes international covenants on human rights. Read the interview with Junichi Sato here.

Kumi Naidoo, Executive Director of Greenpeace International, is traveling to Japan to support Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki during the trials this week. Read his entry in The Huffington Post here.

IPCC climate scientists focusing on the physical science of climate change in the 2007 reports have criticized colleagues in the field of social and biological science, saying the latter's error has maligned their work, The Guardian reports. The WWF report was cited again for a separate human health section which also referenced two reports from Greenpeace, the World Resources Institute as well as insurance companies. In German news claims about the Netherlands and "Africagate" have traveled with comments from Greenpeace Austria, reaffirming that Greenpeace supports the IPCC and did not call for Dr Pachauri to resign.

Read more »

Posted by Teresa at 10:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The events of history can be made or changed by the smallest of events. What if Isaac Newton had missed the apple falling from the tree? If only Einstein’s nurse has understood German we would know what his dying words were. Would Napoleon have won the Battle of Waterloo if his hemorrhoids hadn’t prevented him from riding his horse?

Take Stephanie Cooke quotation of famous German phycisist Werner Heisenberg in her book ‘In Mortal Hands: A Cautionary History of the Nuclear Age’. Heisenberg ‘later contended the atomic bomb was not inevitable’…

‘In the summer of 1939 twelve people might still have been able, by coming to mutual agreement, to prevent the construction of atom bombs.’

It seems amazing that such a small number of people could have held the future of nuclear weapons (and thus nuclear energy) in their hands. When the Second World War broke out many scientists joined the American atom bomb project in the hope that it would act as a deterrent to any German bomb being built and used. Only later – after completing the American bomb - did they discover that the German programme had been a failure and abandoned. That knowledge had been kept from them and as General Leslie Groves, the Manhattan Project’s leader, admitted, ‘the main purpose of the project was to subdue the Russians’.

Those 12 people knew in 1939 what destructive power the Bomb would have (warnings about atomic weapons had been made as early as the 1900s). A decision from them to abandon the science of nuclear weapons seems such a small thing now and yet the consequences have been huge.

Posted by Justin at 5:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today's big stories from the nuclear industry:

Ahmadinejad says Iran will start producing higher-grade nuclear fuel
‘Iran's President ordered his nuclear chief yesterday to start producing higher-grade fuel, raising the stakes in a dispute with the West days after claiming to have accepted a UN-drafted deal. The announcement, made by President Ahmadinejad on live television, drew an immediate reaction from Britain, which said that it was "clearly a matter of serious concern". Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary, called for an increase in international pressure on Iran. The US, Britain, China and other major powers have proposed that Iran send most of its low-enriched uranium abroad in return for nuclear fuel refined to a level of 20 per cent for use in a Tehran reactor producing medical isotopes. Mr Ahmadinejad appeared to accept the deal last Tuesday. However, a draft of the agreement seen by British MPs showed Iran still refusing to accept UN conditions, and yesterday Mr Ahmadinejad told Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation to start producing higher-grade reactor fuel.’

Read more »

Posted by Justin at 5:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is part of a trial series

British Member of the European Parliament, Godfrey Bloom, was filmed at the climate change summit in Copenhagen congratulating the French for bombing the Greenpeace ship the Rainbow Warrior. Later Mr Bloom said he had forgotten that one man was killed and French secret service agents were convicted of manslaughter after the bombing, reports The Australian. Greenpeace, that demanded an apology to the crew of the Rainbow Warrior and the Pereira family, got the reply from Bloom "We can disagree about climate change without celebrating the killing of a man." He also told Radio New Zealand "I am very very sorry, my belated deep condolences to him and his family. I think it's a great shame that you lose any innocent lives in something like this, I deeply regret that," Mr Bloom said.

Ministers in Britain could save £12bn of public spending over four years by clamping down on tax breaks and support for polluting oil exploration, cement, aluminium and transport, according to a report from WWF, the The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and Greenpeace. Doug Parr, Greenpeace's chief scientist, said: "Britain can be a world leader in renewable technologies and low-carbon transport but only if we stop bailing out the dirty industries of the 20th century."

Read more »

Posted by Teresa at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Source: Data taken from The Center for Responsive Politics, cited New York Times 02.02.10

Last week the New York Times reported on the latest lobbying figures for oil and gas industries in Washington D.C., published by the Center for Responsive Politics, (also featured in our news blog on February 2). The article frighteningly (but not so surprisingly) contrasted the immense lobbying weight of oil, gas and electric utilities against the feeble (but growing) dollar-voice of renewable energy industries and environmental groups. Above is the stark reality, expressed in millions of dollars. In 2009, the oil and gas industry spent $154 million on lobbying, a 16 percent increase on 2008; electric utilities $134.7 million, down from $161.3 in 2008. Meanwhile, alternative energy companies spent only $29 million, up from $22.1 million in 2008; and environmental organizations spent $21.3 million, up from $18.3 million the year before.

Read more »

Posted by Melissa Wilson at 3:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Today's big stories from the nuclear industry:
Italy govt contests regions' anti-nuclear stance

Italy has turned to its Constitutional Court to overrule regional anti-nuclear energy laws, the government said on Thursday, raising stakes in its drive to revive nuclear power. The centre-right government will challenge laws which bar construction of nuclear power stations in the southern regions of Puglia, Campania and Basilicata in order to defend its right to set energy policy, Economic Development Minister Claudio Scajola said. "If we do not contest the three laws it would create a dangerous precedent which could lead regions to adopt other decisions negative for siting infrastructure the country needs," he said in a statement.

Read more »

Posted by Aslihan at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is a trial series.

451 pesticides allowed in the EU are used on our food. Photo: Greenpeace / Holde Schneider

Greenpeace Germany has published a "black list" of the most dangerous pesticides, which includes 451 different chemicals that are used worldwide and pose health or environmental risks. According to the report, around half of the list are permitted for food production in the EU. "In conventional agriculture chemicals that make people sick and destroy the environment can still be used" said Greenpeace chemicals expert Manfred Santen. The report updates a 2008 version comparing and evaluating the hazards posed by various chemicals in widespread use. The full report is available here (page 12 for English translation).

Read more »

Posted by Melissa Wilson at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We have to admit we had taken the nuclear industry a bit too seriously until now. After all they had billions and billions and billions of public money, and determined to affect our energy choices and future.

But now we know the industry is not strong at all and need all the help they can get to survive: Two days ago World Nuclear Association was proud to present that “Nuclear named for Copenhagen reductions”. This is what publicly known as a “huge overstatement”. The whole article is based on one single country: Morocco.

They might fool their industry subscribers but not us, we do read other news. There are 55 countries that have communicated their submissions to Copenhagen Accord and 15 of them are the developing countries that communicated their Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions, One of these countries had nuclear plans, which made the industry extremely happy sappy.

Congratulations to the hard working staff of the World Nuclear Association who has been working day and night to keep the spirits up in a dying industry.

Posted by Aslihan at 6:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)