MOSCOW − When the Soviet Union introduced its Alfa class submarine − at the time, the world’s fastest − the subs were the bane of American sailors. Now, the reactors that powered those submarines are being marketed as the next innovation in green power.

Environmentalists say the technology is outdated and potentially dangerous, and marketing it as green energy is an abuse of nuclear power´s good green name.

Last month, President Obama said he would guarantee federal loans for two new nuclear power plants in Georgia. For nuclear energy advocates, those were welcome words. But it takes billions of dollars to get big nuke plants built. "The challenge isn´t technical. It´s economic," says Christofer Mowry, President and CEO of B&W´s (The Babcock and Wilcox Company) modular nuclear energy business. "Traditional, large nuclear power plants are very, very expensive, and there are very few companies who have the ability to afford them." Mowry and team are trying to, in his words, "turn the paradigm of nuclear on its head," not by developing new technologies, but through better engineering.

Just like modular houses turned your on−site home construction project into an off−site manufacturing project, so too B&W hopes that its possible to, yes, factory−build nuclear reactors. The company is calling it the mPower. Instead of one gigantic above−ground 1,000 MW reactor, Mowry envisions a series of up to four, pre−manufactured nuclear modules, each running at around 125 MW. These smaller reactors (15 ft. wide by 75 ft. long), and the entire containment for them, would be housed underground. They would be shipped by rail to their installation location.

VERNON, Vt. − At Vermont Yankee, a nuclear reactor on the ropes, the search for a tritium leak that may doom the plant is proceeding as quickly as possible − which is to say, at a painstaking pace.

Over the last few weeks, in the buildup to a vote Wednesday in which the State Senate approved shutting down the plant, engineers have been digging well after well here in an exploratory strategy that evokes the child´s game of Battleship. At each spot, workers measure the level of radioactive tritium found in the water in the hope of triangulating their way to the source of the contamination.

MONTPELIER, Vt. − In an unusual state foray into nuclear regulation, the Vermont Senate voted 26 to 4 Wednesday to block operation of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant after 2012, citing radioactive leaks, misstatements in testimony by plant officials and other problems.

Unless the chamber reverses itself, it will be the first time in more than 20 years that the public or its representatives has decided to close a reactor.

Does the need for new sources of low-carbon energy now outweigh the costs and risks associated with nuclear power?

Commentaries by:

* Samuel Thernstrom, American Enterprise Institute
* Robert Hahn and Peter Passell, regulation2point0.org
* Ellen Vancko, Union of Concerned Scientists
* Peter van Doren and Jerry Taylor, Cato Institute
* Christopher Paine, Natural Resources Defense Council
* Denis Du Bois, Energy Priorities Magazine

WASHINGTON (Reuters) − The Obama administration, advancing nuclear power use to help cut greenhouse gas emissions, will announce on Tuesday an $8.3 billion loan guarantee to help Southern Co build two reactors, a government official told Reuters.

The reactors are in line to be among the first nuclear generating facilities to win U.S. government approval in three decades.

A new reactor design could make nuclear power safer and cheaper, says John Gilleland.

Enriching the uranium for reactor fuel and opening the reactor periodically to refuel it are among the most cumbersome and expensive steps in running a nuclear plant. And after spent fuel is removed from the reactor, reprocessing it to recover usable materials has the same drawbacks, plus two more: the risks of nuclear-weapons proliferation and environmental pollution.

Long Beach, California (CNN) −− Microsoft Corp. founder and philanthropist Bill Gates on Friday called on the world's tech community to find a way to turn spent nuclear fuel into cheap, clean energy.

"What we´re going to have to do at a global scale is create a new system," Gates said in a speech at the TED Conference in Long Beach, California. "So we need energy miracles."

Gates called climate change the world´s most vexing problem, and added that finding a cheap and clean energy source is more important than creating new vaccines and improving farming techniques, causes into which he has invested billion of dollars.

MONTPELIER, Vt. − Radioactive tritium, a carcinogen discovered in potentially dangerous levels in groundwater at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, now taints at least 27 of the nation's 104 nuclear reactors − raising concerns about how it is escaping from the aging nuclear plants.

The leaks − many from deteriorating underground pipes − come as the nuclear industry is seeking and obtaining federal license renewals, casting itself as a clean−green alternative to power plants that burn fossil fuels.

LA HAGUE, France −− Visiting the spent nuclear fuel reprocessing facility here is a bit like stepping into the script from a 1960s Star Trek show. When visitors peer through a 40−inch−thick, radiation−shielding plate of glass, they can see a ballet of industrial−strength robots.

Spokesmen for Areva −− the name of France´s majority state−owned complex of nuclear companies −− regard this plant as the "crown jewel" of its technology. "Old fuel in, new fuel out. A pretty elegant solution," said Mike McMahon, one of a number of Americans being trained at French facilities to learn the ropes so that they can bring the knowledge back to similar Areva facilities planned for the United States. The United States has the biggest nuclear power market on the planet, and Areva has laid ambitious plans to participate in its "nuclear renaissance."

San Francisco − Plans to bury America´s nuclear waste inside Nevada´s Yucca Mountain, a project that has long been the subject environmental and political opposition, appear all but dead.

Funding for the nuclear repository was eliminated in President Obama´s budget proposal released Monday. What´s more, according to the Las Vegas Sun, the Department of Energy has moved to suspend licensing for the desert storage site.

Physicists may be one step closer to achieving a form of clean energy known as nuclear fusion, which is what happens deep inside the cores of stars.

A recent experiment with a giant levitating magnet was able to coax matter in the lab to extremely high densities − a necessary step for nuclear fusion.

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration soon may guarantee as much as $18.5 billion in loans to build new nuclear reactors to generate electricity, and Congress is considering whether to add billions more to support an expansion of nuclear power.

These actions come after an extensive decade−long campaign in which companies and unions related to the industry have spent more than $600 million on lobbying and nearly $63 million on campaign contributions, according to an analysis by the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University .

ROCKVILLE, Md. — The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is bursting out of its headquarters in the box−store, strip−mall northwestern suburbs of Washington .

Buses shuttle among four structures where the commission has leased overflow space, but that´s not enough to relieve the feel of a college that badly underestimated the size of its incoming freshman class. Portions of the main cafeteria are partitioned off before and after lunch to form makeshift conference rooms. The actual conference rooms are off limits because they´ve been pressed into service as offices.

Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Lab are betting $3.5 billion in taxpayer money on a tiny pellet that could produce an endless supply of safe, clean energy. For some, that´s hard to swallow.

It doesn´t look like much from the outside−just a drab, 10−story building on the campus of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, about an hour´s drive east of San Francisco. But as I'm walking across the parking lot on a sunny day in October I can´t help thinking that someday I might be telling my grandchildren about the time I came to this lab and met Edward Moses and saw the technology that was about to change the world.

WASHINGTON − Next year will mark the 50th birthday of the laser, one of the most productive and widely used mega−inventions of the last century. Scientists hope that 2010 also will see the launch of laser technology´s greatest challenge: creating an inexhaustible supply of clean, carbon&minus'free energy.

If it works, fusion eventually could power a new class of atomic energy plants. The trick is to build a system that produces more energy than it consumes, a goal that researchers admit is still many years away.

MOSCOW — What´s powering your home appliances?

For about 10 percent of electricity in the United States, it´s fuel from dismantled nuclear bombs, including Russian ones.

"It´s a great, easy source" of fuel, said Marina V. Alekseyenkova, an analyst at Renaissance Capital and an expert in the Russian nuclear industry that has profited from the arrangement since the end of the cold war.

If he had to choose between having a coal—fired energy plant or a nuclear facility next door to his home, "me personally, I'd rather be living near a nuclear power plant," Energy Secretary Steven Chu tells Morning Edition co—host Steve Inskeep.

A nuclear plant, he says, produces less pollution and U.S. nuke plants have good safety records. Chu also thinks advances in technology will make storage of nuclear waste less of an issue in coming years. ..(more)