This post represents the latest link in an unbroken chain of more than five years of the weekly summaries of the best of the pro-nuclear blogs.

With the recent updated assessment by the IPCC of the outlook for climate change, the leveraging the nuclear energy to mitigate future growth of CO2 emissions comes even more prominently into the public eye. Want to know what’s going on? Read all about it here.

Previous editions of the Carnival have been posted at the blogs cited below and elsewhere. See the “Blogs We Read” sidebar at the ANS Nuclear Café for a complete list. It is published by the American Nuclear Society. A great site for the industry perspective is the blog and the dynamic blog roll at NEI Nuclear Notes. It cites new blog posts from around the nation as they are published.

For day-to-day breaking news and updates, check out the entries on Twitter list posted on this blog which contains more than 80 pro-nuclear sources. This is a Twitter list you can follow.

About these bloggers

The bloggers who write the posts cited here do so because they have come to see, based on experience, that nuclear energy is a cost-effective, carbon emission free, source of electrical power which can raise the standard of living for any population which benefits from access to it. Your kind attention to these blog posts is appreciated. Please repost or cite in your favorite social media channels. There are live icons, with one click action, for doing so at the end of this blog post

Carnival 278

Yes Vermont Yankee – Meredith Angwin

Bruce Parker Guest Post: Vermont Town Protests Providing Renewable Energy Credits for Massachusetts and Connecticut

The Elizabeth Mine is a superfund site in Strafford Vermont, and developers want to put a 4.9 MW solar array at the site. The town was in favor, until they released that the Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) for the solar would be sold to neighboring states to allow these states to meet their renewable requirements (while burning natural gas for actual electricity). In the past, Vermont had no requirements for RECs, and it has been selling RECs out of state for years. For Strafford, though, this time it’s personal.

Nuke Power Talk – Gail Marcus

Impacts of Renewable Energy Sources: More Unexpected Consequences

At Nuke Power Talk, Gail Marcus comments on two recent reports on impacts of renewable energy sources. Although this may at first seem out of line for a nuclear power-related blog, she points out that the same kinds of thinking need to be applied for all power sources–continually improving our understanding of the impacts as new understandings emerge, and trying to find ways to reduce any impacts so we can take benefit from all energy sources.

Jim Conca, Forbes

If Sarah Palin Wants To Be Energy Secretary, Maybe She Should Learn What the Agency Does

Sarah Palin wants to be Secretary of Energy under President Trump. She doesn’t know what DOE does, but she’s eager to kill it anyway. “I think a lot about the Department of Energy because energy is my baby,” said Palin. “Oil, gas, minerals, those things God has dumped on this part of the earth for mankind’s use instead of us relying on unfriendly foreign nations for us to import their resources.” She’s right if Canada is one of those unfriendly foreign nations and we just don’t think about the bombs.

Atomic Insights – Rod Adams

NRC Calls Off Expensive Search for Witches

On September 8, 2015, the NRC announced that it would stop funding the National Academy of Sciences’s (NAS) five-year-long, multimillion dollar effort to create a method that could be used to study whether or not populations that are exposed to radiation doses that are a tiny fraction of average background radiation related to proximity to licensed nuclear energy and fuel cycle facilities have an elevated risk of contracting cancer.

In support of the decision and in addition to the press release, the NRC made public SECY-15-0104, Analysis of cancer risks in populations near nuclear facilities study, dated August 21, 2015. While the press release emphasized the impracticality of completing the study, given the schedule and financial resources required in a time of tightening budgets, the policy issue paper provides a deeper understanding of the decision process.

Neutron Bytes, Dan Yurman

China to leverage investor role in Hinkley C nuclear project

In return for taking a 30-40% equity stake in the $24 billion project Hinkley nuclear project, two Chinese state-owned nuclear firms are asking UK Prime Minister David Cameron for the rights to build a 1000 MW Hualong One reactor at the Bradwell site near London

It looks like a deal with something for everyone. The UK gets significant equity funding for the first reactor in a massive 19 Gwe nuclear build in return for letting Chinese firms book an export sale of its newest light water reactor (LWR) technology in a western nation with the ability to pay for it.

Next Big Future, Brian Wang

First Concrete Poured at 4th reactor at UAE

The first safety concrete has been poured for the basemat of the containment building of the fourth reactor at the United Arab Emirates’ Barakah nuclear power plant.

Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (Enec) received regulatory approval for the construction of Barakah units 3 and 4 last September. The company said preparatory work at unit 4 has been carried out over the past seven months which included excavation work, lining the foundation pit and installing reinforcing steel bars.

Construction of the reactor containment building for unit 4 will be completed over the next three years, Enec said. It added that unit 4 is on track to enter commercial operation by 2020.

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