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The operator of a power grid in the mid-Atlantic is warning that the planned shutdown of a coal-fired power plant could disrupt and short-change electrical supply before people can replace it. PJM Interconnection, the company that manages wholesale electricity in parts or the entirety of 13 states and provides electricity for more than 65 million Americans, said that they expect the shutdown of the Brandon Shores coal power plant outside of Baltimore to disrupt the power there and leave it wanting. The plant's owner, Talen Energy, made a deal with the environmentalist group Sierra Club to deactivate it by 2025...

Datacenters use a lot of power and despite our best efforts, a big chunk of that still comes from burning fossil fuels. But what if instead of relying on local utilities for power, these facilities generated their own – maybe using a relatively itty-bitty nuclear reactor?In a recent report, Omdia analysts Alan Howard and Vladimir Galabov made the case that using small modular reactors (SMRs) to power large datacenters might not be as crazy as it sounds.As the name suggests, SMRs are essentially just miniaturized reactors. Instead of a massive facility producing gigawatts or more of power, SMRs are designed...

A United Nations forecast of the possible movement of the radioactive plume coming from crippled Japanese reactors shows it churning across the Pacific, and touching the Aleutian Islands on Thursday before hitting Southern California late Friday.

State water board regulators are mulling a plan to stop power companies from vacuuming the ocean for water to cool their machinery. Environmentalists said the practice destroys too much sea life, while utility advocates said the impact is minimal. Banning the practice would cost too much, jeopardize the reliability of the electricity grid and slow the state's transition to clean energy, supporters of the practice said.

Legislators appear ready to pass a bill encouraging the construction of more nuclear plants in Florida, even though safety concerns have stymied them in the U.S. since the 1970s. Your opinion? I'm in favor of it. Nuclear power is safer with today's technology and helps reduce global warming from fossil fuels. I'm against it. Nuclear power plants are dangerous, create radioactive waste and are targets for terrorists. I'm not sure.

"As of October 31, 2005, however, no U.S. nuclear company has yet applied for a new construction permit.".......

'POTENTIAL HAZARD': State challenges Yucca rail action Energy officials accused of skipping environmental studies By STEVE TETREAULT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU Click image for enlargement.Graphic by Mike Johnson. WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department rushed to begin developing a Nevada railroad line to carry nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain without completing environmental studies required by a federal law, the state charged in court documents filed Thursday. Attorneys for Nevada said the department violated the National Environmental Policy Act in a half-dozen ways, and committed other offenses, when it set out in late 2003 to mark a 319-mile path from Caliente to the...

Despite Yucca uncertainty, industry plans new plants By Suzanne Struglinski <suzanne@lasvegassun.com>SUN WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- Uncertainty on the Yucca Mountain federal nuclear waste repository will not stop the nuclear industry from planning to build new plants, industry experts said at a conference Wednesday. As Congress starts a fifth year of debate on an energy bill, the industry, with support from the White House, will tout its emission-free process of producing electricity while questions still linger on what to do with highly radioactive used fuel. Nuclear power now generates 20 percent of the country's electricity, but as energy demands continue to...