NUKE WASTE, ARSENIC FOUND IN DUKE UNLINED, DRIED-UP COAL ASH BASIN IN SC. High levels of arsenic in groundwater. Plant's former owner got Fed approval to put low-level nuke waste there instead of shipping it to WA. Duke may cover the basin so rain won't take more toxins to groundwater (in theory). Or dig up the ash, ship it out. But digging up ash could take radioactive material airborne .... Little progress in US refineries strike .... US natgas rigs down to 268, lowest since '93 .... Kurds got 1st payment of '15 from Baghdad .... Syria, Hezbollah recapturing towns held by moderate forces .... Obama expanding Venezuela sanctions .... Genera Energy switchgrass harvest efficiency record with field chopping system .... Miscanthus beats switchgrass, corn stover for yields, costs of cellular ethanol production: U of IL study .... Ascent Solar (ASTI) partnering with US consumer electronics retailer Micro Center .... S Korea next-gen nuke reactor passed prelim NRC review. Longer lifespan, less cost to gen power. Final review in '18 .... Alstom 58M Euros from Sinohydro for 6 100Mw turbine gensets for Uganda hydropower project .... Uruguay utility to build 141Mw wind farm for $321M. German bank loans for 70% of costs. Online in '16 .... "Bionic leaf" breakthrough from Harvard. Sunlight to H + C to make fuels. NREL has artificial leaf with 12% efficiency. Nature's is 1%. But NREL system 25x cost of competition. Cal Tech working on it too with $116M DOE grant .... Principal Solar to build 73Mw farm in N Carolina. $154M. Online in '16. Buying from Innovative Solar Systems. Duke to buy the power .... Hanergy Thin Film Solar (Hong Kong) working with "unproven" tech, discloses few details: Bloomberg. $36B valuation, up 5x last 12 months .... Japan utility to build 7Mw wood biomass power plant.