February, 2008

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is one of the best places to work in the federal government. It is staffed with dedicated professionals who provide technical expertise and work very hard. It is a fair, but tough regulator that goes by the book. However, it is not providing Americans with the service...

Yesterday, February 26, 2008, I had the opportunity to take a couple of hours off of my day job to attend an event sponsored by the Progressive Policy Institute titled PPI Debate: Is Atomic Energy A Cure for Climate Change? . PPI had invited four speakers, each of whom have significant credentials as...

Chinaview.cn published a story on February 26, 2008 titled China starts excavation for world's first 3rd-generation nuclear plant . The plant is the first of four reactors whose order was initially announced in December, 2006 . At the time, Steve Tritch, who was serving as Westinghouse president...

Marianne Lavelle writes Beyond the Barrel on the Money and Business section of the US News and World Report web site. She posted a blog on February 21, 2008 titled Nuclear Industry Eyes a Smaller Renaissance that reported on the NEI's recent brief of Wall Street investors . Her report included an...

Excerpt from the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2008. SEC. 1012. POLICY RELATING TO MAJOR COMBATANT VESSELS OF THE STRIKE FORCES OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. (a) INTEGRATEDNUCLEAR POWER SYSTEMS.—It is the policy of the United States to construct the major combatant vessels H...

American Municipal Power-Ohio , a nonprofit wholesale power supplier and services provider, is planning to build American Municipal Power Generating Station (AMPGS), a 1000 MWe coal fired power plant in Meigs County, Ohio . The organization's members are interested in building a plant that gives...

Platts - a McGraw-Hill company - is one of the most active and reliable providers of energy industry focused conferences and information publications. As an indicator of the momentum that is building for the Nuclear Renaissance, Platts has started a new publication titled Platts Insight - Nuclear Energy...

Dominion Resources is planning a 585 MWe coal and wood waste fueled power plant in Wise County, in southwest Virginia. The current plans include locally mined coal and wood waste from nearby lumber processing activities. During construction, the plant will employ about 800 people; once it is operating...

A nuclear engineering student from the University of Wisconsin in Madison has started a blog titled NYRTIN KOTISIVU , which roughly translates to "Nerd's Homepage". Since I like nuclear nerds and geeks, I added it to my growing list of blog links and recommend that you go over and say hello...

Though plans for several coal fired power plant projects in Germany have been suspended, RWE recently announced that it is pressing forward with its project to construct a 1600 MWe hard coal facility in Hamm, in the Westphalia region. RWE has several partners in the project including 23 municipal utilities...

About a month ago, I wrote about a large uranium deposit in Virginia located under a family farm named Coles Hill owned by Mr. Walter Coles, a retired US government employee. ( Coal mining versus uranium mining in Virginia ) One aspect of the story that intrigued me was the fact that even studying the...

The Houston Chronicle serves a reader base that includes a high percentage of people in the energy business. The city's prosperity has risen and fallen and risen again as the energy markets have fluctuated during the past 100 years. The primary focus of Houston's energy business has been oil...

In my last post I asked about your reactions to the long running story of the security guards who were caught napping in the ready room at the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station. A reader's question led me to make it easier for you to find the video of that illustrate the basis for the NRC and company...

Late last year there was a lot of hype about a series of cell phone videos recorded by a new security guard at the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station of fellow guards dozing off while in a room identified as a "ready room". Having never actually been on the commercial side of the nuclear business...

One of the reasons that I am so enthusiastic about atomic fission is the fact that it is an extremely concentrated form of energy production. When all effects are considered, it often provides the very lowest impact on the environment because the amount of land affected is minimized, the amount of air...

Geoffrey Gunn has written a summary article about energy options in the ASEAN countries titled Asian tigers eye nuclear future that provides an interesting perspective. He has a cautious attitude about the technology and its potential for project failures, but he also provides a lot of useful information...

Karen Street produces a thoughtful blog titled A Musing Environment . In a recent post, she makes a case for increasing energy R&D - Increase R&D, don’t cut it . I generally agree that there is a need for more development of high payoff energy technologies with certain focused research efforts...

Okay, my title is a bit of a paraphrase of the below exchange from Five Questions for Vinod Khosla posted on January 30, 2008 on Mendo Coast Current . E2T: You’re well known for having big macro views as to how these things have to change. What do you think is the single biggest failure of American environmental...

Jill Buck is the mother of 3, a former Naval Officer, a conservationist and the founder of the Go Green Initiative . She is also a strong supporter of the need to build new nuclear power plants. I interviewed her for Atomic Show 082 and found her to be a very articulate and passionate source of inspiring...

It is getting increasingly obvious to oil exporting nations that nuclear power plants offer an intriguing investment opportunity. Russia recently inked a deal with Bulgaria to build a couple of new nuclear power reactors, investors in Alberta have been looking hard at using nuclear power in the oil sands...

I just finished reading a fascinating article on Bloomberg.com titled Prius Designer Says Industry Must Lose Oil Addiction (Update1) . The focus of the article is the challenge facing the world as we move further into an age where oil extraction gets more and more difficult. The writers did a great job...

Dan Yurman at Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes published a blog on Sunday, February 10, 2008 titled News media sees nuclear in a new light that is worth a look. In the article, he provides several links to stories supporting his thesis of the fact that the mainstream media is starting to take a new look at...

On Sunday, February 10, I got together with four of my favorite nuclear industry correspondents for a chat about the current state of affairs in the electric power industry. The discussion available for your listening pleasure under the title of Atomic Show #081 - Five friendly atomic geeks . The guests...

One of my favorite memories from my continuing quest to share my ideas about small, inherently safe nuclear power plants was a time in 1994 when I visited the University of Wisconsin in Madison for an ANS student conference. To this day, I keep in touch with several people that I met during that conference...

During the last three months, there has been a significant controversy in Canada about the National Research Universal (NRU) - a fifty year old 135 MWth nuclear research reactor that is a primary source of several important medical isotopes. The story is a complicated one that deserves some thoughtful...