Atomic Insights

I have a new hero, even though I have not yet read his book. Joe Shuster is a retired entrepreneur who is spending $200,000 of his own money to promote the idea that the United States needs to build about 800 new nuclear power plants in order to stretch supplies of fossil fuels far into the future. Joe's book, Beyond Fossil Fools: Roadmap to Energy Independence by 2040 was published in June 2008...

Yesterday morning I noticed a scary story on the front page of the Baltimore Sun. David Murrin, and Marcellous Butler are working to build a wind farm with 10 large turbines on Greenbury Point, just upwind from the Annapolis harbor . Them's fightin' words, as they used to say in my Dad's part of the country (southern Georgia). Some of my very best memories over a lot of years originated...

Atomic Show #108 is an edited version of the press conference held after the opening session at ASME's 4th International Topical Meeting on High Temperature Reactor Technology. ( Note: The conference is also known as HTR 2008.) Unfortunately, I am having a tiny technical challenge with the Atomic Show blog right now, so I cannot complete the task of posting the show for subscribers. However, if...

Craig Severance recently wrote a commentary that he calls analysis titled The Case Against Nukes . The piece has been picked up by EcoWorld.com and is currently prominently featured on the home page. Though the author blurb that follows the article claims that Severance was the co-author of a book published in 1976 titled "The Economics of Coal and Nuclear Power" . that might be one more...

Again, I have an uncharacteristically off-topic comment/question for your consideration. In nearly every article I have read in the past couple of weeks, the lending/credit crisis in America has been blamed on home mortgages made under less than stringent lending rules and on complex financial instruments designed - ideally - to package those mortgages into bundles that would make them less risky....

Many of you are intensely interested in the energy policies that will be implemented following the US election. It is often much easier to hear 5-10 second sound bites and chants like "drill baby drill" than to find serious discussions about what the candidates and their staffs are really thinking. On September 23, 2008, the North American Young Generation in Nuclear (NA-YGN) conducted a...

Friends of the Earth is running an internet ad campaign that attempts to link the current world financial crisis with the future prospects of nuclear power. Paul Gunter - a career anti-nuclear activist - has tried to make the same link. From a logical argument point of view, the effort is a real stretch. For many years, an often repeated line from many people and individuals opposed to new nuclear...

During the period of September 28 - October 1, 2008, Washington, DC is hosting the 4th International Topical Meeting on High Temperature Reactor Technology . If you are reading this on the day that I post it, you still have a little time to get over to the Renaissance Washington DC Hotel. (I wonder if the choice of venue had anything to do with the hotel name?) Just under 600 experts from all over...

A friend sent me a link to a well-written expose of the treatment given to a card carrying UK Green Party member after his "Damascene conversion" from an opposer to a supporter of nuclear power. As he says, ...the Green case against nuclear power is based largely on myth and dogma. My tipping point came when I discovered just how much nuclear power has changed since I first set my mind against...

I generally try to remain on topic on Atomic Insights, so please forgive me or simply move past this post if you do not want to read about something outside of the energy field. For the past couple of weeks I have been struggling to understand just why my country's leaders are working feverishly to buy worthless paper based on promises that people like me and my children will pay for it. Even though...

Roger Fraley at XDA produced a pithy summary of the benefits and limitations of various energy alternatives . Here is what he said about nuclear power: There is one solution that seems just the ticket. Nuclear. It produces almost no CO2. It works really well (just look at Sweden and France) and a single, merely large nuclear power plant would produce as much power as 1400 of the largest commercially...

There are already tributes being paid to the long career and many contributions of Paul Newman. One activity that will probably not be mentioned in most media is Paul Newman's sustained efforts to share information about nuclear energy and to promote its use through his Newman-Wachs racing team . Here are other articles detailing some of those efforts: NEI Nuclear Notes post about Paul Newman's...

The New York Times has a complete, uncut version of the presidential debate , including even the introductory monologue by Jim Lehrer to the live audience telling them how to behave during the debate. I listened carefully to the whole thing - after all, the selection of a Commander in Chief is important to serving members of the armed forces. As you might suspect, however, I listened and watched particularly...

A friend sent me a link to a Harvey Wasserman comment about nuclear energy on DailyKos . As usual, he is pushing his lifelong anti-nuclear agenda by pointing to a Colbert Show skit with Jackson Browne - who is a far better singer than he is an energy solutions analyst. If you have time, stop by for a visit and leave a comment. While you are at DailyKos, you might also want to read Charles Barton's...

One of the many things that continue to bug me about the world is the way that many people in the computer and electronics world have captured the term "tech" for their industries. I sometimes feel like that kid in a great big family who finally acts up just to get some attention. I want to jump up and down and tell Silicon Valley types - especially the ones on Sand Hill Road - hey guys,...