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Xbox hacker and co-founder of the Chumby project, Bunnie Huang, has designed an open-source Geiger counter to help citizens in Japan detect radiation in the wake of the nuclear disaster, Huang writes on his blog. Read More »

There’s a massive cleantech opportunity right now in Japan, and one small way to commemorate those who lost their lives in Fukushima is to create safe and renewable sources of energy fed into a reliable grid infrastructure. Read More »

 
 

Nuclear waste cleanup startup Kurion (which I once called the most successful greentech startup you haven’t heard of) says it’s responsible for removing 70 percent of the radioactivity from the waste water at the Fukushima nuclear plant after last year’s disaster. Read More »

Crunching the numbers for nuclear fusion

Professor Tom Murphy crunches the numbers for nuclear fusion power, and dissects its potential and problems. Read More »

Workers Controlling the Remote Cleaners at Fukushima

In a year of struggling cleantech firms in 2011, I’ve been searching for untold stories of successful cleantech startups that have been flying under the radar. Here’s one that’s been at the top of my mind: nuclear waste cleanup startup Kurion, which cleaned house last year. Read More »

Bill Gates says the nuclear startup TerraPower that he has backed is in preliminary discussions with the Chinese government, as well as the governments of Russia, India and other countries, too. TerraPower will most likely commercialize its tech outside the U.S. first. Read More »

The state of cleantech venture capital, part 4: Parting thoughts

When it comes to cleantech investing, we’re in the early innings of a long ball game. The last in a 4-part series from Venrock’s Matthew Nordan. Read More »

Dispersing Dust Protectant, Common Pool Area

Reuters reports that the beleaguered Japanese utility that owns the nuclear reactors at Fukushima, Tokyo Electric Power Company, plans to start treating contaminated water at its reactors with technology from stealthy startup Kurion, Toshiba, Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy, and Areva. Read More »

NRG Energy says it will be providing no more money for the development of its nuclear expansion project, the South Texas Project units 3&4, and will be recording a first quarter 2011 pretax charge of about $481 million. Read More »

Beleaguered Japanese utility Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has released dozens of photos and videos of its damaged nuclear reactors and the clean up effort underway by its brave workers. Here’s 25: Read More »

Nuclear Players’ New Love: Solar and Wind

Renewable energy is enjoying a rising profile at the expense of nuclear power. But nuclear power producers and technology developers aren’t necessary the losers there. Some of them have been snapping up solar and wind companies and power plant projects, and the trend will continue. Read More »

Why A Company Would Ditch A DOE Loan Guarantee

What would lead a company to walk away from negotiations for a coveted federal loan guarantee, as solar company Suniva did recently? It has to do with the terms of the government deals, the time it takes to obtain one, and the recovery of private markets. Read More »

More Must Reads

Researchers are already predicting how the nuclear disaster in Japan will affect the nuclear industry. According to Mark Cooper, a senior fellow at Vermont Law School’s Institute for Energy and Environment, construction costs of nuclear reactors are likely to soar for awhile. Read More »

Next-generation nuclear technology could come to a screeching halt in the short term due to the backlash against nuclear in the wake of the Japanese nuclear incident, predicts Ray Rothrock, a partner at venture firm Venrock and a former nuclear engineer. Read More »

The DOE’s Loan Program will seek guidance from relevant nuclear agencies on lessons learned from the Japanese nuclear incident, but at this point remains committed to nuclear power, said Jonathan Silver, DOE Loan Chief at the Cleantech Forum in San Francisco on Wednesday. Read More »

Japan’s massive earthquake, tsunami, and now nuclear disaster, is starting to shine a spotlight on just how important the country is in terms of clean energy technology, from solar to electric cars. Read More »

It’s still not clear how big a disaster Japan’s nuclear problem is yet, but what is clear is it will have far reaching effects on policy and public relations around nuclear power. It’s been front and center in global media and policy debates this weekend. Read More »

Nuclear pod company Hyperion has raised $2.8 million in financing, according to a filing, and has also boosted the price of its nuclear device to $50 million from $25 million, according to its website. Will nuclear-in-a-box ever make it to market? Read More »

Energy Secretary Steve Chu laid out near- to long-term research and deployment plans to meeting goals set by President Obama in his state of the union speech. Aside from solar, electric cars and energy efficiency measures, Chu also is bullish about nuclear power. Read More »

TerraPower, the nuclear power startup backed by Bill Gates, has now brought on another couple of high-profile investors. According to the company this afternoon, TerraPower has raised another $35 million from Khosla Ventures — Vinod Khosla’s venture fund — and Charles River Ventures. Read More »

Out of all the carbon-free power options, nuclear power faces some of the highest hurdles to commercial-scale deployment. But that’s also the reason why supercomputing has started to truly revolutionize the world of nuclear power innovation. Read More »

Yucca Mountain might be “off the table,” for Energy Secretary Steven Chu, but nuclear technology innovation certainly is not. The Obama Administration is planning on allocating $36 billion in loan guarantees for nuclear technology development out of the Department of Energy’s 2011 budget, along … Read More »

Barack Obama’s $8.3 billion in loan guarantees for new nuclear power plants, announced today, is aimed at building more massive, gigawatt-sized reactors. Still, that same budget request could represent opportunity for startups venturing into the world of nuclear power. Read More »

Nuclear energy dominated Bill Gate’s TED talk last week, and this morning it’ll lead the clean power headlines. According to the Associated Press, President Obama today will announce $8.3 billion in federal loan guarantees to build the first nuclear plants in the U.S. in … Read More »

Two years: That’s how long a new “blue ribbon” commission assembled by the Department of Energy has to finalize a report that will look at a path forward for nuclear energy in the U.S. power supply. Created under an executive order from President Obama, the 15-person … Read More »

Quest for Corn-Free Gas: Some SUV and boat owners in Florida are more than willing to drive out of their way to fill up at stations that sell biofuel-free gasoline, looking for “the extra mpgs that come from ditching ethanol.”Autobloggreen, Florida Today Co-Ops Strike Out … Read More »

The idea of nuclear-in-a-box sounds like a joke, but investors and potential customers are taking Hyperion Power Generation very seriously — the company is valued at a whopping $100 million by investors, according to the Denver Post. … Read More »

Where’s the Beef, GM?: General Motors outlined a revised viability plan today, including plans to keep development of the Chevy Volt on track — but it neglected to address the federal auto task force’s criticism that the Volt is expensive eye-candy, not a mass market solution … Read More »

Brits Go Ahead With Green Auto Bailout: Jaguar Land Rover and Nissan’s British factory have won hundreds of millions of dollars in loans to develop cleaner vehicle technology. The money comes from the European Investment Bank in the first round of money for UK-based carmakers. — … Read More »

Growing support for nuclear energy in the U.S. has hinged on three key arguments in recent years: It offers a carbon-free alternative to coal; a domestic alternative to petroleum; and a supposedly cheaper, more reliable alternative to renewable sources like wind and solar. But according to … Read More »

Tesla vs. Recession: Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk says the Model S sedan factory is no longer a done deal, but the company will survive the recession if it watches expenses “like crazy.” — San Francisco Chronicle Here Come the Californians: California Democrats hold key positions … Read More »

One of the unintended but still entertaining side effects of deflated market caps is the corporate catfight. As of yesterday, we have a promising one being performed in the energy sector: After a few weeks of gentle pawing at smaller rival NRG Energy, industry giant Exelon has … Read More »

Energy emerged as a major topic of discussion in the second presidential debate on Tuesday night, and while Obama and McCain disagreed on the details of their energy plans, both candidates largely agreed that clean technology is necessary to both help fix the economy and … Read More »

Hyperion Power Generation, a startup building compact nuclear power reactor units that are “about the size of a typical backyard hot tub”, says commercial deployments could start as early as 2013. The release quotes the company’s CEO John “Grizz” Deal, who says … Read More »

Presumptive Republican nominee John McCain spent yesterday preaching about the benefits of nuclear power. In a town hall-style speech in Springfield, Mo., McCain called for 100 new nuclear power plants, 45 of which he wants built by 2030. While McCain has long been a nuclear … Read More »

Everything is going portable these days, but . . . nuclear reactors? Hyperion Power Generation, a startup based in Santa Fe, N.M., is working on a self-contained compact nuclear power reactor unit that it says is “about the size of a typical backyard hot tub” … Read More »

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