News

June 14, 2009

The Week In Alternative Power: The Way Opens For More US Nuclear Energy

By Sally White

The American Energy Act will cut in half the amount of time necessary to permit a new nuclear power plant. The current schedule for new plant permitting - which has already been streamlined - takes approximately four years, assuming everything goes according to plan. The act also aims to provide an efficient, predictable, and expedited pathway to permitting new reactors, suspend tariffs on imported reactor components, and to provide an avenue to start recycling spent nuclear fuel in the US. According to Ux Consulting the Ux U308 latest spot price was up 50 US cents at US$50 a pound.

Ethanol production is rising, even if at its slowest rate in five years. Research group FO Licht forecasts a cut in the estimated ethanol surplus this year of 50 per cent, as the market adapts to more difficult times. According to Licht’s managing director Christopher Berg, output is likely to rise to 67.63 billion litres in 2009 against 67.3 billion last year. He told a Seville conference on World Biofuels that the estimated global surplus would be 0.73 billion litres in 2009, against 1.4...