First - from Texas' The Dallas Morning News:
Lockheed goes global to build its nuclear business
In a nondescript strip mall across town from the heavy security of its fighter jet operations, defense contractor Lockheed Martin opens its doors each day to a rotating crew of Chinese engineers.
While the U.S. and Chinese governments spar over the theft of classified military data, Lockheed has entered into a deal with China’s State Nuclear Power Technology Corp. to help build that country’s next generation of nuclear plants.
The only hitch is that the Chinese want their own engineers working on the project. As a military contractor, Lockheed has to be sensitive about employing foreign nationals anywhere where classified military technology is being developed. So it found alternative digs near Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.
Nowhere is the outlook for nuclear power brighter than in China, where the government is on a campaign to clean up the country’s air. Most of China’s electricity is generated by burning coal, which casts a lung-wrenching haze over its major cities. One of China’s goals is to add to its existing fleet of around 15 nuclear power plants. Analysts believe China will build between 60 and 100 more nuclear plants over the next four decades.
Right now Lockheed has a contract to engineer its reactor control system for China through 2017. But Michael Syring, director of nuclear systems for Lockheed, says the company believes the project will lead to a longer-term relationship helping China develop its nuclear sector.
Good news - bring some jobs to America and when the American Renaissance happens, we will have the necessary skill-set here at home. Lockheed's nuclear history?
Lockheed has more than a 50-year history of building nuclear power systems for U.S. Navy submarines and aircraft carriers. The company took a stab at applying its technical know-how to commercial power plants in the 1970s. But after the partial meltdown of a reactor at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania in 1979, much of the U.S. nuclear engineering industry shut down.
Second - from the Union of Concerned Scientists:
Will California Go Green or Go Gas?
When one of California’s two nuclear plants–the San Onofre Nuclear Generation Station (SONGS)–unexpectedly closed last year because of damage to its steam tubes, many clean energy advocates including UCS hoped that the state would replace much of that electricity with generation from renewable resources, as well as increased investments in other carbon-free energy resources, such as energy efficiency, demand response, and energy storage devices. Unfortunately, plans are now in the works to replace most of the SONGS electricity with a new natural gas plant, without a process that gives clean energy resources a chance to compete.
San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E) recently filed a plan with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) that contained details on how they would replace the SONGS power. The plan needed to conform to the guidelines set forth by the CPUC (details start on page 141 of the Commission’s decision), which allowed SDG&E to procure up to 800 MW of electrical capacity. At least 200 MW of this must come from “preferred” (aka carbon-free) resources like renewables, energy efficiency, and storage, and the remaining 600 MW could be chosen through a competitive bidding process, although the CPUC said some of this energy could also be picked through a bilateral contract, which means a contract with one project, no competitive bidding.
Heh - suck it up hippies, alt.energy is a bottomless rathole for effort, money and time. It has a place in remote areas and there is zero reason why research should not be continued - breakthroughs happen. But for now, nuke and gas are the two best solutions to our energy needs and we need to pursue these two aggressively. They are stable and mature technologies with millions of trouble-free hours of operation.