According to Solar and Nuclear Costs – The Historic Crossover; Solar Energy is Now the Better Buy, from John O. Blackburn, a Duke University professor of economics, solar photovoltaic (PV) energy-generated electricity now costs around 14-to-19 cents per kilowatt-hour (kW-hr) and nuclear plants in the planning stages will not be able to sell their electricity at less than 14-to-18 cents per kW-hr. That makes NOW the “crossover point” at which solar achieves price parity with nuclear and it makes "16 cents per kW-hr" the numeric formulation heralding the arrival of what visionary Hazel Henderson called The Age of Light.

The test run of the prototype fast-breeder reactor (FBR) Monju in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, is now expected to start after Golden Week, after prefecture Gov. Issei Nishikawa on April 28 gave the go-ahead for test runs to be conducted. The 280,000 kW reactor — an important part of Japan's planned nuclear fuel cycle — has been inoperative for the 14 years and five months since Dec. 8, 1995, when some 640 kg of secondary-coolant sodium leaked and caused a fire.

Those in favor of building more nuclear power plants should visit Pripyat

Yucca Mountain to Become an "Energy Park?"

Now that the Department of Energy has withdrawn its application to open a nuclear repository in southern Nevada, one non-profit group has formed to take advantage of what's already built at Yucca Mountain. "Nevadans 4 Carbon-Free Energy" wants to turn Yucca into an energy park, with a research center and a nuclear reprocessing plant to generate pollution-free power for the state. They say Mercury, Nevada could be the nation's center of carbon-free energy technology, saving a thousand jobs and hiring thousands more once the reprocessing begins. (KVTN)

Hopes that the "fast breeder"- a plutonium-fueled
nuclear reactor designed to produce more fuel than it consumed -- might
serve as a major part of
the long-term nuclear waste disposal solution are not merited by the
dismal track record to date
of such sodium-cooled reactors in France, India, Japan, the Soviet
Union/Russia, the United
Kingdom and the United States, according to a major new study from the
International Panel on
Fissile Materials (IPFM).

Obama, a Democrat who is trying to win Republican support for a bill to overhaul U.S. energy practices, said the United States needed to increase its supply of nuclear power to meet its energy needs and fight climate change.

The NRC's (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) Neil Sheehan has confirmed leaks involving 27 of 104 licensed US reactors, and says that probably doesn't account for all of them. At Yankee, Oyster Creek and elsewhere, rotting pipes are the likeliest culprit, but no one is 100% certain.

An expansion of nuclear facilities and energy sources is
unlikely to occur over the next two decades, unless the global community
adopts major changes to improve safety and security as well as working
to prevent the risk of proliferation, said a new report released on Thursday.

Investing in emerging technologies that can eventually thrive on their own makes sense, but the nuclear industry doesn't fit the bill. After more than 50 years as one of the biggest recipients of federal subsidies, the industry should sink or swim on its own.

Most scientists in this field agree that there is danger even in small doses of radiation