Is the Nuclear Regulatory Commission too cozy with the industry it regulates?
Security has been heightened at Sweden's nuclear power plants after explosives were discovered on a vehicle entering a protected nuclear site, authorities said Thursday.
Wind turbines have long produced renewable energy but a French engineering firm has discovered another eco-purpose for the towering structures.
The Environmental Protection Agency recently finalized a rule that for the first time requires U.S. coal and oil-fired power plant operators to limit emissions of mercury and other hazardous air pollutants.
Police fired tear gas Friday at demonstrators gathered for a fourth straight day of protests over a coal power plant in the southern Chinese town of Haimen and for the release of villagers detained during earlier scuffles with authorities.
Police fire tear gas at demonstrators who gathered for a fourth day to demand the removal of a local power plant.
The EPA unveils new standards on toxic pollutants from coal power plants.
The Environmental Protection Agency finalized new federal standards on toxic pollutants and mercury emissions from coal power plants Wednesday, a move being praised by environmentalists but criticized by others, who predict lost jobs and a strain on the nation's power grid.
Riot police used tear gas to disperse a large crowd of people who gathered Tuesday to protest a coal power plant in southern China.
A Japanese power company restarted a nuclear reactor this week, the first to come back online since a March earthquake and tsunami in the nation.
SolarReserve got $200 million more than Solyndra from the government, but insists they're different. Casey Wian reports.
Renewable energy is generating a lot of political heat. The bankruptcy of solar-panel manufacturer Solyndra, after a half billion dollar loan from the Federal government, has set off a hot debate on Capitol Hill. And a group of American-based solar companies are demanding 100% tariffs on imports of Chinese solar panels. They charge that China unfairly competes by subsidizing the Chinese industry, which Beijing resolutely denies.
A new solar plant in southern Spain can produce electricity at all hours, even when the sun goes down. Al Goodman reports
Typical solar power plants stop working when the sun sets, but a new one in southern Spain, called Gemasolar, can stay awake all night.
Two nuclear reactors at the North Anna power plant outside Richmond, Va. regained offsite power Wednesday after losing it as the result of the earthquake Tuesday, the plant's owner Dominion Virginia Power told CNN.
Two nuclear reactors at the North Anna power plant outside Richmond, Va. have shut down as a result of the earthquake Tuesday, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said.
One of the frightening new realities in Washington is that many strongly held policy positions are built on untruths. One of the most persistent untruths is that we can't afford to move away from coal-powered electricity.
Environmental interest groups recently rejoiced at the news that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's foundation was donating $50 million to the Sierra Club's "Beyond Coal" campaign. However, this campaign -- if successful -- would do more than move America beyond coal. It would go a long way to moving America beyond jobs, economic growth, energy security and global competitiveness.
CNN's Don Lemon talks to Patrick Oppmann about two nuclear power plants in danger of being flooded.
In the shadow of the nation's oldest operating nuclear power plant, Alfonse Esposito fishes along Oyster Creek in central New Jersey, where he's caught and eaten bluefish and kingfish for 37 years.
The loss of two nuclear power plants means the Tokyo region will face the summer peak demand with a loss of about 20% of capacity, the plant's owner said Thursday.
CNN's Anna Coren looks at the continuing problems caused by the damaged nuclear power plant in Japan.
Health and safety concerns about Japanese nuclear power plants after this month's earthquake and tsunami have Lindsey Schiller wondering what could happen across the street from her own house in her Philadelphia suburb.
CNN's Allan Chernoff gains exclusive access inside Indian Point's two nuclear reactors.
TVA officials reassure public with rare look inside a nuclear plant. David Mattingly reports.
Since Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant suffered damage from a massive earthquake and tsunami March 11, you might be a little more aware of the nuclear power plant nearest you. Does it really need to be there? Is it safe?
The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant crisis in Japan understandably caused many Americans to worry and ask: Could that happen here? It's the most frequent question I've received in the past two weeks.
Timothy Mitchell with Entergy Nuclear explains the safety precautions taken at the company's 12 nuclear plants.
The Environmental Protection Agency proposed new national guidelines on Wednesday for mercury and air toxics released from power plants.
The devastating earthquake and subsequent tsunami last week has claimed an untold number of Japanese victims, but there's one casualty in the U.S. that won't go down without a fight: the nuclear power industry. The resulting damage to one of Japan's nuclear power plants has resurrected old debates about the safety and soundness of nuclear technology and its ability to be used as a viable power source.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero Wednesday ordered a review of his country's nuclear power plants in light of the crisis unfolding in Japan, where workers are battling to contain radioactive materials at a plant after an massive earthquake and tsunami.
David Crane is CEO of NRG Energy, a Fortune 500 electricity producer based in Princeton, New Jersey. NRG has something of a split personality. On the one hand, with its heavy reliance on burning coal to generate electricity, it remains among the dirtiest power companies in the country, as measured by CO2 emissions. Yet it also aspires to a leadership role in the power industry's long march to zero-carbon emissions.
Any plans to build a nuclear power plant in an area of the United States prone to earthquakes should be reconsidered in light of the damage to Japanese reactors by last week's earthquake and tsunami, Democratic Rep. Ed Markey of Massachusetts told CNN on Monday.
Japanese Cabinet secretary says radiation is at a level that "can impact human health" at a nuclear power plant.
Here's a minute-by-minute look at the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on Friday and subsequent worries over damage at nuclear power plants. (All times and dates are local Japanese time).
In the wake of the earthquake and tsunami, Japanese citizens are anxious to find loved ones.
After years playing banker, real estate developer and television mogul while relying on older technology in its core products, GE is going back to the lab to reclaim its role as the world's top innovator.
Ever since electric cars began commanding headlines a few years back, some have questioned whether the vehicles are really better for the environment.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says it plans to improve security procedures in the wake of an investigation into an al Qaeda suspect's employment at several U.S. nuclear power plants.
A German experiment tests unusual method to stop gases at a coal plant. CNN's Fred Pleitgen reports.
Germany is often viewed as one of the most advanced countries in the world when it comes to protecting the environment.
When the natural gas ignited, it caused a blast so powerful that people 30 miles away thought there had been an earthquake. Inside the almost finished power plant in Middletown, Conn., around 11:15 a.m. on Feb. 7, the explosion blew the siding off the structure, crumpled construction trailers, and sparked a conflagration that sent a dense plume of black smoke hundreds of feet in the air. Six men died. Another 50 were injured, some of them gravely.
Unidentified gunmen killed two people and injured another two Wednesday in what Russian officials called a terrorist attack intended to blow up a hydroelectric power station.
As an intrepid producer for CNN, I have been in some strange situations. Possibly the strangest, however, was on a recent trip to France to produce a piece on nuclear energy for the latest episode of Earth's Frontiers. We were about to be taken on a rare behind-the-scenes tour of Tricastin Nuclear Power Station's nuclear reactor.
Earth's Frontiers travels to France where the country has shown such a commitment to nuclear energy like no other.
In the energy business, Jim Rogers is an anomaly. His company, Duke Energy, relies heavily on coal, a rock that accounts for 45% of America's energy use. Yet Rogers is also an environmentalist and a believer in renewables.
Several weeks ago, President Obama announced that $8 billion in government-loan guarantees would be made available to Southern Co. to begin construction of two nuclear reactors in Georgia.
Enough natural gas to fill a professional basketball arena was released into a "congested area" before an explosion this month at a power plant under construction in central Connecticut, federal investigators said Thursday.
Quick: which nation builds the most wind turbines? If you guessed America, with its blustery Great Plains dotted with whirring GE blades, you'd be wrong. In 2009, China became the planet's largest producer.
CNN's Anjali Rao has a preview of the upcoming climate summit in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The world has taken a step closer to "clean coal," thanks to new technology that actually uses CO2 to make power generation more efficient.
There was no mistaking the target: the eight huge cooling towers at Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station, sending plumes of steam high into the watery blue sky of the English Midlands.
There are many reasons as to why coal today is the dominant fuel in power generation. In coal many countries found a way to alleviate the extreme dependence of Middle East oil after the 1970's oil crisis.
Scientists in the United States are developing a "synthetic tree" capable of collecting carbon around 1,000 times faster than the real thing.
CNN's Reynolds Wolf profiles a restaurant owner who installed a wind turbine at his restaurant.
The gale force of President Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus package could breathe new life into an emerging industry: small wind turbines.
Global warming concerns took center stage Monday as two organizations held rallies to draw attention to an issue that President Barack Obama has promised to place near the top of his agenda.
When Rita Bryer sees 300-foot-tall wind turbines sprouting up from the prairie near her home in western Oklahoma, she can't help but wonder about the view from the top, where blades the size of semi-trucks spin.
President Obama says the U.S. must find energy alternatives to gasoline.
Think of the future of green energy and the mental picture you may conjure up is one of vast solar plants glinting like a beetle's eye in the sun, or ranks of wind turbines turning in the breeze.
Imagine climbing 276 steps to change a light bulb. That's all in a day's work for Rian Harford.
See how a ski resort harnessed the wind to save money, fuel and cut pollution.
Concerns over testing at Iran's first nuclear power plant in Bushehr has ignited fierce debate. CNN's Reza Sayah reports.
Iran tested its first nuclear power plant Wednesday, a stride that prompted one Iranian technician to declare it was "independence day" for the Islamic republic.
Nuclear power plants will likely add fortifications to future atomic power stations despite the cost involved, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said Wednesday.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission voted Tuesday to require any future nuclear power plants to be designed to withstand strikes from commercial jetliners, addressing a possible terrorist scenario that has haunted some people since the September 11, 2001, attacks.
In a sharp departure from Bush Administration policy, the Obama Justice Department on Friday informed the Supreme Court it is dismissing a challenge on rules dealing with allowable mercury emissions from power plants.
Strange lights in the sky, mysterious flashes, dozens of witnesses, a missing wind turbine blade and a tabloid splash featuring the pun: E.T. farm harm.
James Bond would be lost without them -- those madcap gadgets merging two technologies that help him beat the bad guys and save the planet. The underwater watch with a built-in Geiger counter, for example; or the car that doubles as a submarine; or the exploding bagpipes and missile-launching wheelchair.
Nuclear NRGupdated: Tue Jan 06 2009 06:39:00
David Crane is a man who isn't afraid of a challenge. When he took the helm at NRG Energy in the winter of 2003, the company was mired in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings -- just one of many companies caught in the meltdown of the U.S. power generation industry, instigated by the scandalous collapse of Texan power giant Enron in 2001.
Plans to rejuvenate a dilapidated London icon -- known worldwide to movie and music fans -- were unveiled last week.
The site has been secured, the tents pitched, banners raised and, most importantly, compost loos installed; there is little to do now but wait for thousands of campers to arrive for one of Britain's biggest environmental protests this year.
If there was a most wanted list for climate change culprits, coal-fired power stations would be number one.
Twenty four hours before the greatest scientific experiment of our time gets underway at CERN's Large Hadron Collider, political and scientific dignitaries assembled at a site a few hundred miles north east of the French/Swiss border at a site in Germany to inaugurate another groundbreaking engineering test.
Micro wind turbines are beginning to pop up all over our urban and rural landscapes. But is it worth investing your hard-earned cash in your very own wind machine? In short, it depends. Take a look at our quick guide to see if "small wind" could help you reduce your energy bills and your carbon footprint.
Starwood's Sheraton Hotel and Towers in Manhattan, Verizon's call center on Long Island, the Sierra Nevada brewery in northern California and a Whole Foods Market in Connecticut have little in common except this - all are powered by fuel cells that turn hydrogen into electricity, saving energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
It looks like a scene from an old episode of The X-Files: As a red-tailed hawk circles overhead and a wild pronghorn sheep grazes in the distance, a dozen people in dark sunglasses move methodically through a vast field of golden barley, eyes fixed to the ground, GPS devices in hand. They're searching for bodies.
A government-controlled firm is forging ahead with plans to resume expansion of Brazil's nuclear power program.
Doug Buchanan grins with relief when he sees the carcasses. He has just driven up a steep dirt road onto a vast, sunbaked mesa overlooking the Mojave Desert in western Nevada. There, a few feet from the trail, lie the corpses of two steers. A raven perches on one, the only object more than three feet above the ground on this pancake-flat plateau. Cattle, dead or alive, qualify as good news in Buchanan's line of work. If cattle are present, that means grazing is permitted, and that in turn means that this land is most likely not protected habitat for the desert tortoise.
Since it became a viable energy resource around 20 years ago, wind power has emerged as a leading renewable technology.
Curt Mann's neighbors are livid, accusing him of erecting an ugly wind turbine among their historic homes for no other reason than to show off his environmental "bling."
CNN's Susan Candiotti and CNN.com's Nicole Lapin discuss the power outage that affected major portions of Florida.
Florida authorities are investigating how a small fire and a switch failure at an electrical substation outside Miami triggered a power failure that affected millions of people.
Power was restored Tuesday for most of Florida after a failed switch and fire at an electrical substation outside Miami triggered widespread blackouts across the state.
Whisky is for drinkin', water is for fightin'.
Widespread anxiety about the damaging effects of burning fossil fuels, coupled with a genuine fear that oil and gas will become scarce before the century ends are fueling a renewed interest in renewable energy and, in particular, solar power solutions.
Environmental author Alan Weisman has fielded questions exclusively from CNN.com users on the environmental matters that concern you most. These are his answers.
A typical exchange about wind farms tends to go like this: 'Are you in favor of wind farms?' 'Yes, of course I am...so long as they're nowhere near my house'. Nevertheless, wind turbines are fast-becoming an important piece in the energy puzzle, contributing a growing percentage to our overall energy needs.
There's no place like home -- especially when it comes to affecting the environment, it seems.
A Singaporean inventor finds a way to reduce energy consumption. CNN's Kristie Lu Stout reports
In the two years since Stefano (Steve) Bertamini moved to Shanghai to become CEO of GE China, he has a sense that the days are less smoggy and more sunny.
In the largest environmental settlement in Justice Department history, American Electric Power has agreed to install $4.6 billion in equipment to sharply reduce emissions at coal-fired power plants in five states, sources said.
A unit at a Bulgarian nuclear power station on the Danube River underwent an emergency shutdown Saturday, facility operators said.
One thing I've learned on my 7,000 mile journey through America's nuclear past and present is that when you're driving around scouting for a power plant -- any kind of power plant -- first locate the high-voltage transmission lines. (If you stand directly under those lines, sometimes you can hear the electricity cackle and spatter like rain drops on the roof.)
Fortune: Going nuclearupdated: Tue Jul 31 2007 02:40:00
"We were at heightened security - we were at red," recalls Al Griffith, spokesman for the utility that owns the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant in New Hampshire.
President Bush Thursday said U.S. utilities could build up to 30 new nuclear power plants and could start construction by 2010 in order to keep up with growing electricity demand without spurring more global warming.
Clouds hang low over the New Mexico desert, deep inside a military reservation a dozen miles south of Albuquerque. A breeze stirs the air; tumbleweeds roll by. Then the sun shines through and a low...
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's plan to make the U.S. Capitol complex more environmentally friendly is being hampered by the reluctance of lawmakers from coal-producing states to implement changes at the complex's coal-burning power plant.
As concern for the environment grows, people are starting to take small steps to do their part -- such as driving a hybrid car or installing solar panels.
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