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Energy futuresFutureGen 2.0 clean-coal project awarded $1 Billion in funding
The Obama administration awarded $1 billion to an Illinois project that aims sharply to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions from coal-fired power plants; this was but the latest move in a long-running saga aiming to prove coal's viability as a source of fuel amid widespread pressure to combat climate change
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Experts: securing U.S. critical infrastructure against cyberattack not feasible
Experts say securing the U.S. power grid and other computer systems that operate the nation's critical infrastructure against cyberattack is unrealistic, because companies cannot afford to check if suppliers have provided trustworthy products
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InfrastructureA surge protector to end all surge protectors
If an equipment failure, terrorist attack, or lightning strike causes a power surge, also known as a fault current, that fault current can cascade through the grid and knock out every substation and piece of equipment connected to the problem site; DHS's Resilient Electric Grid project aims to develop a superconductor cable designed to suppress fault currents that can potentially cause permanent equipment damage
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The gridIt may be impossible to protect the North American grid against catastrophic events
Making sure the North American grid continues to operate during high-impact, low-frequency (HILF) events -- coordinated cyber and physical attacks, pandemic diseases, and high-altitude nuclear bomb detonations -- is daunting task; the North American bulk power system comprises more than 200,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines, thousands of generation plants, and millions of digital controls; more than 1,800 entities own and operate portions of the system, with thousands more involved in the operation of distribution networks across North America
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Power gridSolar-powered robot crawls on aging power lines to inspect the grid
The U.S. grid infrastructure has two characteristics: it is vast and it is aging; now there is a cost-effective way to examine thousands of miles of power lines: a new, solar-powered, 140-pound, six-foot-long robot; the robot uses rollers to clamp onto and move along a line; it can maneuver past towers, known as pylons, using cables built into newer towers or retrofitted onto old ones
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The gridGrid in western U.S. can handle more renewable energy
A new study says 35 percent of electricity in the western United States could come from solar and wind -- without expensive new backup power plants; the findings provide a strong counterargument to the idea that the existing power grid is insufficient to handle increasing amounts of renewable power
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Nuclear mattersNew York denies water permit for Indian Point nuclear plant
The New York Department of Environmental Conservation denied water-quality certification to Indian Point nuclear power plant; the operator requires the certification to extend by twenty years the license to operate the 2,000-megawatt plant
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Nuclear mattersJapan plans nuclear power expansion
Japan imports 80 percent of its energy; the government has a plan aiming to reduce that figure to just 30 percent by 2030; the key to the plan: building eight new nuclear reactors by 2020 -- adding to the country's 54 operating reactors; Japan is also about to resume operations of the world's only fast-breeder reactor; the plan faces public opposition, especially in light of Japan's history of earthquakes
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Experts say smart meters are vulnerable to hacking
In the United States alone, more than eight million smart meters have been deployed by electric utilities and nearly sixty million should be in place by 2020; security experts are worried that this rush to deployment of smart meters ignores serious security vulnerabilities: the interactivity which makes smart meters so attractive also makes them vulnerable to hackers, because each meter essentially is a computer connected to a vast network
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Smart grid attack likely
The smart grid’s distributed approach exposes these networks and systems, especially in the early phases of deployment; the communication among these networks and systems will be predominantly wireless and it is assumed they will be sniffed, penetrated, hacked, and service will be denied
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NIST request for input on Smart Grid Interface
NIST launches a blog seeking public comment and discussion on three aspects of Smart Grid implementation; considers further online discussions in the future.
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Nuclear mattersOperator of shut-down Monju fast reactor seeks resumption of operations
Japan's only breeder reactor was shut down in 1995 after sodium coolant leak; the reactor's operator now seeks to restart the reactor, saying that a vast remodeling effort would prevent a similar accident in the fufutre; critics are no so sure, pointing to glitches affecting the reactor's leak detector and other defects which have caused its restart to be put off four times since the coolant was infused again in May 2007
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Nuclear mattersFederal loans notwithstanding, Georgia nuclear power plant faces hurdles
The Obama administration has signaled its interest in expanding the U.S. domestic nuclear power industry by giving $8.3 billion in loan guarantees for a Georgia nuclear power plant expansion; critics say that the American tax-payer is at risk; that the original nuclear reactor design has been rejected by the NRC, and that there is no solution for the nuclear waste problem
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Concerns in Brockton over proposed power plant
Residents in Brockton, Massachusetts do not want Advanced Power Services of Boston to build a 350-megawatt plant near their neighborhood; they point to the weekend’s explosion in a power plant in Connecticut as reason for added concern
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TrendUtilities to bolster smart grid cybersecurity
Annual spending on cybersecurity by electric utilities will triple by 2015, driven by investment in equipment protection and configuration management; between 2010 and 2015, Utility companies will invest more than $21 billion on cybersecurity
The Long View
Nuclear mattersDebate over alternatives to Yucca Mountain project
The Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository project is being deliberately starved for funds by the Obama administration; some argue the United States should use UREX reprocessing technology to reprocess waste (this was the Bush administration's preference); MIT and Harvard scientists say it is perfectly safe to store nuclear waste above ground for 60 or 70 years, while working on a better alternative to UREX
Nuclear mattersHow long will the world's uranium deposits last?
At current consumption rates, the planet's economically accessible uranium resources could fuel reactors for more than 200 years; further exploration and improvements in extraction technology are likely to at least double this estimate over time; if we extract uranium from seawater, and build breeder reactors, then supplies will last 30,000 to 60,000 years
AnalysisUranium is good investment
Many analysts, disoriented by the fall of uranium prices from $130+ to about $45 a pound, fail to notice that the fundamentals of the uranium market have not changed
New CFIUS regulations
CFIUS issues final regulations governing national security reviews of foreign investment in the United States
Shape of things to comeNew reactor design lessens risk of weapon proliferation
Nuclear materials for power reactors cannot be stolen by those interested in using it for nuclear weapons while the material is in the reactor -- it is too hot to handle; the risks of diversion are during the enrichment process, and while the material is being transported; to lessen the risk, researchers offer innovative reactor design
