Attention all you nuclear nerds. Hot off the press, article by Aaron M. Datesman, in Nature, Scientific Reports, and a concept, shot noise, which “should motivate a comprehensive re-evaluation of the conventional understanding of the 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power station, especially regarding its impact upon the population of the surrounding area.”

Check it out:

This article is open access, spread it around, with credit to orignal author, the source, and link to Creative Commons license.

It looks like I missed posting Xcel Energy’s Peak Demand for 2019, down from 2018. You can get all their SEC filings on their INVESTORS’ page.

Here’s their 2019 SEC 10-K:

And here’s what the last 20 years looks like:

“Free marketers,” duck and cover. And utilities, contractors, get ready… Just in, for Public Inspection, will be released Monday:

The gist of it is that utility infrastructure and equipment should not be coming in from other countries, particularly “adversaries.” Threat? What threat?

From the E.O., p. 2-3:

I further find that the unrestricted acquisition or use in the United States of
bulk-power system electric equipment designed, developed, manufactured, or supplied by persons owned by, controlled by, or subject to the jurisdiction or direction of foreign adversaries augments the ability of foreign adversaries to create and exploit vulnerabilities in bulk-power system electric equipment, with potentially catastrophic effects. I therefore determine that the unrestricted foreign supply of bulk-power system electric equipment constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States, which has its source in whole or in substantial part outside the United States. This threat exists both in the case of individual acquisitions and when acquisitions are considered as a class. Although maintaining an open investment climate in bulk-power system electric equipment, and in the United States economy more generally, is important for the overall growth and prosperity of the United States, such openness must be balanced with the need to protect our Nation against a critical national security threat. To address this threat, additional steps are required to protect the security, integrity, and reliability of bulk-power system electric equipment used in the United States. In light of these findings, I hereby declare a national emergency with respect to the threat to the United States bulk-power system.

WHAT?!?!

Nine years ago, when this happened, I posted as much as I could find about it, and it was hard to nail info down, but this photo above pretty much said it all, massive explosion.

Today, the release of SimplyInfo.org’s 9th Anniversary report:

View The 9th Anniversary Annual Report Here

SimplyInfo.org, a group of talented volunteers deep-researching this issue, has been tracking this for 9 years now. From their site’s “about us” page:

Our group began out of a live blog run by Reuters during the Great East Japan Earthquake and the related Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident. We wanted the real news and a way to do something about this unprecedented tragedy. Our strength is in our diversity. People from around the globe, from varied professions and industries came together to research, investigate, analyze and educate about this ongoing incident. Using the knowledge of the crowd for research and analysis of both the technical and humanitarian aspects of complex incidents and concerns without focus on profit.

Back when it happened, I put these up on my Legalectricsite, and shortly after it happened, Day 3 I believe, I had over 4,000 hits in ONE DAY! People were hungry, desperate, for information. When I’d reported the explosion, the first one, someone commented that “no way was it melting down,” and that made no sense, even given what little objective information we had. And in fact, it was a lot worse than those folks thought. I knew it was a disaster, but as it kept getting worse, well, stunning… and the impacts are still affecting us, will be for thousands of years. Right now, they’re on the verge of dumping radioactive water into the ocean!

These Legalectric posts below were no real scoop, “just information lite,” a compilation of public info, news reports, but its information that we in Minnesota should take into account because our Monticello nuclear plant is the same design as Fukushima Diiachi:

The “peaceful atom” strikes Japan March 12th, 2011

Fukushima Reactor 3 blows… March 13th, 2011

Nuclear saga continues in Japan March 21st, 2011

Fukushima Daiichi update March 26th, 2011

Another Fukushima Daiichi update March 30th, 2011

More on Fukushima nuclear disaster April 8th, 2011

Fukushima can’t happen here? Uh-huh… right… June 6th, 2011

Fukushima admittedly a mess… August 9th, 2011

One year after Fukushima Daiichi meltdown March 10th, 2012

Fukushima Daiichi — 4 years ago today March 11th, 2015

Photo by moi

Here’s the bill everyone’s talking about:

Comments? It’s important to let them know what you think. Here’s the contact info for the Senate Energy Committee (LINKED HERE).

In last week’s Rochester Post Bulletin, about the Senate Energy and Utilities Finance and Policy Committee meeting in Rochester:

Senators take heat on waste-burning energy