Recently in the Energy Category


December 8, 2011 2:47 PM |

ARPA-E's Majumdar Takes First Step Toward No. 3 Post at Energy

Arun Majumdar appears to be on a fast track toward becoming undersecretary of energy. That means Energy Secretary Steven Chu may soon have to decide whether to let Majumdar retain...
November 28, 2011 2:27 PM |

In Wake of Fukushima Disaster, Japan's Scientists Ponder How to Regain Public Trust

TOKYO—Public confidence in Japan's scientists and engineers took a major hit from the 11 March earthquake, tsunami, and subsequent Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster. How to regain it was...
November 21, 2011 7:00 PM |

U.K.'s Nuclear R&D Effort Lagging, Lords Conclude

With the United Kingdom committed to a major expansion of nuclear power, the Science and Technology Committee of the House of Lords—the U.K. Parliament's upper house—has taken a look...
November 21, 2011 10:42 AM |

ITER and Monju on the Chopping Block?

An advisory panel on 20 November called on the Japanese government to cut funding next year for the ITER fusion reactor project and the Monju experimental fast breeder reactor....
November 18, 2011 5:26 PM |

Inside Watchdog Suggests Radical Changes in DOE Labs

Want some provocative ideas for reforming the sprawling network of laboratories and environmental cleanup programs run by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)? Then pick up a copy of...
November 11, 2011 1:30 PM |

DOE's Exiting Science Boss Steven Koonin: 'I've Been Effective'

Two days ago, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced that Steven Koonin, undersecretary for science, would step down on 18 November. Yesterday, Koonin ticked off some of his...
November 11, 2011 11:43 AM |

Germany to Look for New Nuclear Waste Site

BERLIN—Germans are starting over in their search for a permanent nuclear waste storage site. For more than 3 decades, the country has been storing its waste at a site...
November 9, 2011 5:43 PM |

Steven Koonin to Step Down as DOE Science Honcho

Steven Koonin is leaving his job as undersecretary for science in the Department of Energy (DOE) after an unhappy stint in a poorly defined position. Koonin's departure, announced in...
November 2, 2011 3:46 PM |

U.K. Quakes Likely Caused by Fracking

Two small earthquakes that shook the Lancashire coast of northwest England and the nearby city of Blackpool earlier this year were probably caused by hydraulic fracturing, or fracking—a shale...
November 2, 2011 1:14 PM |

Persis Drell to Step Down as Director of SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

When Persis Drell took over 4 years ago as director of SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, California, she vowed that she wouldn't keep the job any longer...
October 27, 2011 5:10 PM |

U.S. Weapons Lab Gets a New Director

A veteran of U.S. national security policy debates has been chosen as the next director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, one of the Department of Energy's two nuclear weapons...
October 14, 2011 11:03 AM |

Australia Eyes Hefty Tax on Carbon Emissions

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA—After months of acrimonious debate, Australia's lower house of parliament on 12 October passed a carbon tax that is expected to transform the country's use of energy. Provided...
October 12, 2011 7:00 PM |

Nuclear Power Likely to Grow, Royal Society Says, So Nations Should Plan Ahead

Despite the ongoing events at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan, Britain's Royal Society, for one, believes that a renaissance of nuclear power construction is likely. If so, it...
October 4, 2011 3:46 PM |

Panel Doubts U.S. Biofuels Goals Will Be Reached

The United States is unlikely to produce enough biofuel by 2022 to meet some congressionally mandated targets, according to an analysis released today by a National Research Council (NRC)...
September 30, 2011 11:39 AM |

Japan to Boost Science Spending, Reduce Support for Nuclear Power

TOKYO—Japan's ministry of education wants to boost overall science-related spending next year by 5.8%, to $14.7 billion. But amid increasing support for most programs there is one big loser:...
September 27, 2011 5:37 PM |

DOE Plan Would Boost Technology Spending on Transportation

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today unveiled the results of a sweeping review designed to make the department's efforts to develop better energy technologies more coherent and productive....
September 12, 2011 12:24 PM |

Blast at French Nuclear Waste Facility Kills One

An explosion at a French plant that burns and melts nuclear waste has killed one person, injured four others, and ignited worries that low-level radioactivity might leak into the environment....
September 9, 2011 3:20 PM |

Senate Budget Bill Holds Energy Department Science Level

Scientists usually howl like wounded puppies at the prospect of a flat budget for an important U.S. science agency. But given the budget-cutting mood of the current Congress, scientists...
September 6, 2011 11:04 AM |

Indian Professors Charged Over Radiation Death

NEW DELHI—Six senior professors at the University of Delhi face up to 2 years in prison over their roles in India's first fatality from accidental exposure to radiation. On...
August 22, 2011 10:35 AM |

Indian Leader Goes to Bat for Nuclear Energy

BANGALORE, INDIA—In a major boost for the embattled nuclear industry, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on 21 August voiced strong support for nuclear power. "I am convinced that nuclear...
August 11, 2011 12:01 AM |

Federal Committee: Shale Gas Needs More Openness, Better Data

A U.S. Department of Energy committee has waded into the fracas over the production of natural gas from shale using the controversial hydrofracturing, or fracking, technology, with a call for...
August 3, 2011 4:48 PM |

U.S. Judge Rejects Latest Salmon Recovery Plan

For the third time in a decade, a federal judge in Portland, Oregon, has rejected as inadequate the U.S. government's plan for making hydroelectric dams safer for endangered salmon...
July 29, 2011 5:43 PM |

Nuclear Waste Report Calls for Interim Storage, New Approach on Repository

The first full report by a presidential commission on how to deal with nuclear waste has, as predicted, called for interim storage of nuclear waste off site from nuclear...
July 15, 2011 5:26 PM |

Renewable Energy Funds Boosted as House Passes Energy Funding Bill

An amendment to bring proposed 2012 funding for ARPA-E, the blue-sky research arm of the Department of Energy, up to the current year level of $180 million passed the House...
July 15, 2011 11:35 AM |

Japan Reconsiders Nuclear Power and the Monju Fast-Breeder Reactor—Or Maybe Not

The difficulty of changing Japan's decades-old nuclear-centric energy policy was in evidence this week. On Tuesday, Environment Minister Satsuki Eda, a member of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ),...
July 13, 2011 5:42 PM |

After Fukushima, Nuclear Task Force Wants Major Changes for U.S. Plants Rules

Redundant defenses against the most likely failures may not be enough to protect U.S. nuclear plants against a catastrophic failure like the one that occurred earlier this year in...
June 16, 2011 5:24 PM |

House Panel Tells Energy Department to Cull Underperforming Research Grants

First, the silver lining for scientists: When the spending panel for the House of Representatives sliced $6 billion from the $30.7 billion budget requested for 2012 by the Department...
June 13, 2011 5:15 PM |

Italy Says No to Reintroduction of Nuclear Energy

"We probably have to say goodbye to nuclear energy." That's how Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi summarized the results of the country's referendum on nuclear power even before the...
June 2, 2011 5:18 PM |

Updated: Marine Scientists Begin Cruise Off Fukushima

Three months after the tsunami-stricken Fukushima Daiichi plant began leaking unprecedented amounts of radioactive isotopes, an interdisciplinary group of scientists will begin measuring the radioactivity in the ocean east...
May 31, 2011 11:35 AM |

Nuclear Phaseout Will 'Pay Off' for German Energy Research, Says Panel Chair

Germany's plans to shut down the last of its 17 nuclear power plants by 2022 is a huge chance for the country's researchers, Matthias Kleiner, head of the German...
May 27, 2011 5:53 PM |

New Los Alamos Director Is Weapons Veteran

The new director of Los Alamos National Laboratory, Charles McMillan, is a career weapons scientist and a Massachusetts Institute of Technology-trained physicist. A press release from the New Mexico...
May 25, 2011 4:30 PM |

Switzerland to Phase Out Nuclear Energy; E.U. Strikes Deal on 'Stress Tests'

In the wake of the Fukushima disaster, the Swiss government announced today that it plans to end its use of nuclear energy in the next 2 or 3 decades....
May 24, 2011 12:06 PM |

New 'Clean Energy Standard' Plan From Former White House Wonk

A white paper released by the Brookings Institution last week charts a new policy to cut U.S. greenhouse emissions. Joseph Aldy, an economist and former special assistant to President...
May 20, 2011 2:30 PM |

Arts and Sciences Academy Tackles Social Science and Green Power

Why are some efforts to get people to conserve energy more successful than others? A 3-day workshop in Washington, D.C., this week on "Social Science and the Alternative Energy...
May 19, 2011 11:56 AM |

Chu Calls NSF's Decision to Abandon DUSEL 'Disappointing'

Energy Secretary Steven Chu says that he's "very disappointed" with the National Science Foundation (NSF) for pulling out of a planned $875-million underground science lab in South Dakota. In...
May 18, 2011 4:45 PM |

Report: No Changes for U.K. Nuclear Plants Post-Fukushima

There is no need for the United Kingdom to curtail the operation of its nuclear power power stations in the wake of the situation at Japan's Fukushima-1 facility, nor...
May 17, 2011 2:20 PM |

Utility: Fukushima Cores More Damaged Than Thought

TOKYO—Over the last several days, evidence has emerged indicating that the situation at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant was far more dire than previously recognized. The main evidence...
May 15, 2011 6:50 PM |

U.S. Panel Suggests Moving Used Nuclear Fuel to Interim Sites

Draft recommendations from a White House commission on spent nuclear fuel released Friday include a call for one or more new aboveground interim storage sites in the United States. But...
May 11, 2011 6:18 PM |

Japan’s U-Turn on Nuclear Power: Reaction

Yesterday, Japan’s prime minister, Naoto Kan, announced that the government was scrapping a planned expansion of nuclear power, which currently provides about a third of Japanese electricity. Instead, the...
May 11, 2011 2:34 PM |

Ethics Commission Recommends Swift German Nuclear Phaseout

BERLIN—Germany should phase out nuclear power by 2021, according to a leaked draft of a report from the "Ethics Commission on Safe Energy Supply" created by Chancellor Angela Merkel in...
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