You may wonder why a blog called Canadian Energy Issues so closely follows U.S. energy and environment policy. Aside from the deep interdependencies between the Canadian and U.S. economies, and aside from the fact that Canada, a friendly country, is now America’s main source of foreign oil, there is a policy affinity between our countries […]

Over the last couple days I have participated in a very interesting discussion on the relevance of proliferation concerns to the renaissance in civilian nuclear energy. This closely preceded the announcement, a few minutes ago, by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists that the hands of its famous “Doomsday Clock” have been reset from 5 to 6 […]

Quintus Fabius Maximus, the Roman dictator whose ex post facto victory over the original Hannibal has for centuries inspired both admiration and contempt, would applaud the strategies of the major players in the Ontario nuclear reactor competition. The major players are the governments of Ontario and Canada. The decision strategy of each is pure Fabius: […]

Think big or go home. That used to be the Ontario way: anybody who has looked at Ontario’s three nuclear power plants knows that the people who built them were big thinkers and big doers. No surprise then that the three bidders in the ongoing billion-dollar reactor competition are AECL, Westinghouse, and Areva. And on […]

Areva is still in the Ontario reactor competition, and remains open to playing a role in the future of Canadian nuclear research, a company executive said in a conference call on September 18. This follows the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission’s announcement on August 31 that it sees “no fundamental barriers” to licensing the new CANDU reactor in Canada. AECL, […]

Can the proposed U.S. climate change legislation actually reduce carbon emissions? Not according to utility industry advocates worried about certain provisions in the American Clean Energy and Security Act (a.k.a. Waxman-Markey), which narrowly passed the House of Representatives in June. The concern is that carbon offsets—financial instruments each representing one tonne of carbon dioxide (CO2) […]

Go to DOE’s GNEP internet address (www.gnep.gov) and you get a drab intro to DOE’s nuclear energy program. The acronym GNEP is nowhere to be found, nor is any explanation of what has become of one of the most ambitious, far-reaching, and problematic undertakings since the dawn of the nuclear age

It’s pretty certain that the fast reactor–based back end of the U.S.-led Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) is dead. What will happen with GNEP’s front-end objective, which is to manage global proliferation risks by offering comprehensive fuel services including spent fuel management? Here’s what I think should happen

The next U.S. president will face a complex challenge as he develops nuclear policy. He is on record as opposing the Yucca Mountain spent fuel repository. At the same time, he supports nuclear energy as an important part of America’s energy mix (see article). So does Steven Chu, the nominee for Energy Secretary. Does this […]

Now that the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) has voted to lift its general ban on nuclear trade with India, western countries are lining up to grab their share of this burgeoning and lucrative civilian nuclear market. What opportunities are there for companies in the Canadian nuclear industry? India has 17 power reactors, 15 of which […]