Quote of the Day

Dan Kammen of the World Bank and UC Berkeley (and who taught me ER100 at Cal) has a nice, quick piece up in The Atlantic today on small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs). His analysis indicates that SMRs present multiple advantages that overcome some or many of the challenges typically presented by nuclear power, but that any forward momentum of a "nuclear renaissance" may have been irreparably slowed by the incident in Fukushima.

At this point the nuclear industry faces a range of issues; resilience of backup systems; waste management; cost; and public trust. While SMRs offer potentially attractive approaches to a number of design issues, many of the most pressing issues facing the nuclear industry today are not technological.

Budget Roundup

While I will always think the President could bring more political gravitas to energy policy, at least there's some interesting energy dynamics in the budget proposal released yesterday.

• President Obama's 2012 budget proposal includes the elimination of $4 billion of subsidies and tax incentives for oil companies (via @NoahFisher at Americans for Energy Leadership).
• The Administration will also push for small modular nuclear reactors.
• Many scientists were relatively pleased with the budget proposal.
• Budget increases in DOE R&D and a rollback of subsidies for carbon energy amounts to $8 billion directed towards clean energy.
• Loan guarantees for nuclear power would triple under Obama's budget, something I recently advocated.
• Energy Secretary Steven Chu has a nifty presentation on science, research and innovation in the budget.