I really like Practically Green in offering ideas and products that can help consumers reduce their environmental footprint and encourage behavioural shift. Technology has a major role to play but so does our behaviour. A more efficient appliance can sometimes make us – the consumer – less careful about how we use it because it is more efficient.
While I wrote about Unilever’s goals to change consumer behaviour as unexpected, and a bit confusing.. it is nevertheless an important step. If we are to rethink consumerism in the face of global resource depletion, companies such as Unilever are integral, technology has its part, governments must be more active and consumers take responsibility for their purchasing patterns and behaviour.

I think the plant you are thinking of is the one in the following Wikipedia article. It was a high temperature gas cooled reactor design. Enjoy the article.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_St._Vrain_Generating_Station

I think this paragraph from the original Reuters article is a good example of what happens when you shut down lots of nuclear plants.

“Having boomed in recent decades on the exports prowess of big brands like Sony, Toyota and Canon, the economy suffered its first trade deficit in more than three decades in 2011 as power producers spent billions of dollars on oil-and-gas imports to fuel extra generation capacity.”

Two birds with one stone. Whaddya say, Craig?