The Dark Past and Uncertain Future of Nuclear Energy in Japan
In October 2020, then-Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide declared that Japan would reach net-zero greenhouse gas emission by 2050, an extremely high hurdle for the country to achieve in just thirty years. Japan is among the world’s largest carbon emitters, with forty percent of its emissions coming from energy production; in 2019, fossil fuels composed 88 […]
Troubled Waters at Fukushima Daiichi
Since the 2011 triple disaster decimated Japan’s northeast Tohoku region, the area surrounding Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant has seen the construction of hundreds of massive temporary water storage tanks. These vessels contain highly contaminated water used to cool melted uranium fuel rods in the sites’s three reactors. In the days following the tsunami, each […]
The Media Versus the Environmental Movement: The Unseen Battle
The environmental movement in the United States faces many challenges from varied social, political, and economic pressures. Economic growth and the free market often take priority over all other issues, regardless of the implications of those values. As such, attempts at regulation or environmental protection are viewed as restrictive and infringing upon the rights of […]
Governor Deval Patrick Policy Strategy to Success
On Monday September 29th, the 2014 Massachusetts Clean Energy Industry Report was released. This report highlights the state’s clean energy industry growth of 47% since 2010 with an emphasis on the double-digit growth for the third consecutive year.[[1]] Today, the Commonwealth ranks #1 per capita in early-stage and growth equity clean energy investment. It is […]
UK Energy Policy, Nuclear Optimism, and the Future
The prospect and pursuit of long-term sustainable energy security has caused progressive anxiety among fossil fuel dependent countries as they come to grips with dwindling supplies and an unstable Middle East. Increases in the cost of uranium and fossil fuels, expanding populations, finite energy supplies, and the globally swelling demand for energy factor into a […]
The Last Mountain: Understanding the Toxic Side of Coal
At last year’s Sundance Film Festival, a movie premiered entitled The Last Mountain. At the time of writing The Last Mountain is available for streaming via Netflix – and it is a must watch for all of us. The film’s director, Bill Haney, previously directed and produced the documentary A Life Among Whales, which takes […]
The Real Value of Vermont Yankee
Vermont Yankee (VY) is the only nuclear reactor in the state of Vermont and the second oldest in the country. While President Obama has committed his administration’s energy agenda to galvanizing a nuclear energy renaissance, on February 24, 2010 the Vermont Senate decided, twenty-six to four, in favor of concluding VY operations.[i] Unless the Senate […]