When it comes to the economics of electricity, there is no report more important than Projected Cost of Electricity, issued every 5 years by the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA). This report (now in Read more
What a year it has been! A year ago, we were all looking forward to the possibilities of a new decade. Today, as the year comes to a close, we are happy to see 2020 behind us. We don’t usually Read more
Adopted in 2015, 196 countries signed the Paris Climate Agreement (to date 188 of them have ratified it) accepting global ambition to limit global warming to “well below” 2C and adding an aspirational goal of limiting warming to 1.5C. The Read more
On October 22, 2020 Darlington Unit 1 achieved a milestone never achieved before by a nuclear power plant running for 1,000 days continuously without an outage, either unplanned or planned1. And it is still running. This unit, operated by Ontario Read more
Nuclear power can provide almost limitless economic, reliable, low carbon electricity to power the world, yet it continues to struggle to achieve the respect it so desperately seeks. For 40 years we have been hearing the same thing – that Read more
Last year we started a 3-part series on Saving the planet with nuclear power. First, we talked about keeping the existing nuclear fleet operating as long as possible (Saving the planet step 1). Then, in step 2, we talked about Read more
Nuclear power is a people business. Through the hard work of many, most plants operate at very high operating factors and produce clean economic electricity 24 hours a day 7 days a week. They produce in good weather and bad, Read more
It has been about two months that most of us have been staying home to help flatten the curve of the COVID 19 pandemic. While it may seem difficult, we keep telling our kids how lucky we are to have Read more
Watching the news has never been more difficult. The world seems to have changed in an instant. Although only named on February 11, 2020, a mere few weeks ago there is likely no one on the planet who has not Read more
At the Canadian Nuclear Association conference on February 27, the Honourable Seamus O’Regan, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, made the Canadian position on the role of nuclear power to combat climate change crystal clear. “As the world tackles a changing Read more
In December European leaders agreed to make the European Union carbon neutral by 2050. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen described it as Europe’s “man on the moon” moment. With this kind of strong statement of commitment, you would Read more
It’s hard to believe, but a new decade is upon us. (We wrote the decade and nuclear power in our post earlier this year celebrating 10 years of blogging.) As the decade comes to a close, 2019 seems to be Read more
It has been more than a decade since the nuclear industry focused its attention on the next generation of nuclear plants, the Generation III designs. Most of the world’s current operating fleet (440 nuclear reactors in 30 countries) are classified Read more
Here in Canada, we recently held a bitterly fought federal election with the outcome being the existing government was returned to power but reduced to a minority. One of the big issues this election cycle was climate change. It was Read more
On the cusp of the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York where there was a collective outrage at the slow pace of decarbonization in the world, we lost another operating nuclear plant before its time as Three Mile Read more
The facts are clear. Nuclear power is a critical part of our global low carbon electricity generation system. It provides abundant, reliable and economic low carbon electricity needed to power our energy hungry economies. Yet, as stated in the recent Read more
It has been a wonderful experience participating in the World Nuclear University (WNU) for the last 12 years. The best part has been meeting fascinating people who are interested in nuclear power in so many different countries. I am involved Read more
The International Energy Agency (IEA) plays an important role in looking at the global energy scene. Every year it publishes the World Energy Outlook (WEO) providing important information and analysis to countries to support their development of energy policy. Over Read more
It’s hard to believe, but this month it is 10 years since our first blog post in May of 2009. 10 years! And what a decade it has been for the nuclear power industry. There were highs and lows, and Read more
We often speak about the incredible energy density of nuclear fuel; a pellet the size of the end of your finger can deliver as much energy as a ton of coal. In addition to producing a large amount of energy Read more