July, 2009

Reuters has published a story titled PSE&G gets NJ approval to spend $515 mln on solar with some amazing numbers - and at least one that is flat out wrong - related to solar energy systems. The first numbers which should cause people to question the value of this approved project is that it will...

The continuing saga of the USEC project to build a new enrichment facility at the Piketon, Ohio facility using a recently developed and tested technology called the American Centrifuge is getting more intriguing each day. On July 28, 2009, publications specializing in stock market reporting contained...

According to a July 26, 2009 article in the Washington Post titled Miners Boycott Tenn. Over Alexander's Bill: It Would Ban Mountaintop Removal , a group of coal miners from West Virginia have decided to quit visiting Dollywood and the Knoxville Zoo in an attempt to show their displeasure with Tennessee...

The New York Times published an article on July 22, 2009 by Kate Galbraith titled Slow, Costly and Often Dangerous Road to Wind Power that provides some thought provoking details on the difficulty associated with moving 50 yard long turbine blades, tower sections, and the large nacelles that house reduction...

It is with great pleasure that I provide a somewhat tardy welcome to what might become one of the most referenced energy information sources in the blogosphere. Ted Rockwell has decided that it is time to try his hand at "new media" and share his 60+ years worth of energy industry experience...

For a variety of reasons, I was not very productive for most of the month of July. I have finally gotten around to adding another installment to the Adams Engine™ story titled Seeking Simplicity, Finding Complexity . Hope you enjoy learning - slowly - a little more about simple cycle gas turbines connected...

Kirk Sorensen, one of the most enthusiastic energy geeks I know, spent the 40th anniversary of man's first walk on the moon talking to a group of Google employees about LFTR . I have written about ">LFTR's on Atomic Insights several times in the past; I even gave it a slightly different...

Any experienced "nuke" worth his or her salt can provide dozens of examples gleaned over their careers of extra costs that provided no increase in value or safety. I will never forget my first introduction to the ways that layer upon layer of requirements have been added over the years. These...

Though it is most often framed as an academic question where smart people use formulas, spreadsheets and debating techniques to prove that their favorite fuel is better than others, the reality is that energy is a terribly useful product that has real value. The number of potential customers is equal...

Every month, the US Energy Information Administration issues a report called Electric Power Monthly that provides a snapshot of statistics on the production of electricity in the United States. It usually takes several months to process the data provided by utilities and merchant power generators, so...

Peter Behr has written a thoughtful piece about the somewhat confusing - to outsiders - legislative battle royale over climate change/energy legislation that is working its way through the US Senate after squeaking through the US House of Representatives. You can find the report on the New York Times...

Gizmodo published a blog entry by Adam Frucci titled The China Syndrome And Why We Wussed Out On Nuclear Power in which he describes how a coincidental sequence of events turned a 1979 "B" movie into a blockbuster that is still making money today. While The China Syndrome was still in theaters...

The Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Saskatchewan (APEGS) hosted an event on May 1, 2009 titled Round Table on the Future of Nuclear Energy . Pieter Van Vliet, P.Eng. provided a presentation on Low Dose Radiation that included a brief on the history of radiation protection,...

I have had a little extra time on my hands for the last few days. One of the things that I did was a vanity search to see where there was mention of my name on recent blogs. (Sometimes this kind of search can lead to surprising results.) One of the items that I found was a rather curious comment on an...

Kirk Sorensen is one of the most enthusiastic "nukes" I know, with a real passion for sharing his hard won knowledge about using molten salt reactors to convert thorium into a fissile material and ultimately into a heat source for a work producing heat engine. With the help of Charles Barton...

Carl Pope, one of the predictable opponents to any talk of using atomic fission at an antidote to oil, coal and gas addiction, has published a new propaganda piece rehashing many old and false arguments against nuclear power. You can find it on the Huffington Post under the title of About That Nuclear...

On Tuesday, July 7, 2009 Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) chaired a three part hearing of the Environment and Public Works Committee aimed at discussing various aspects of the recently passed Waxman-Markey Bill (formally known as the Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009). Judging from the posturing and...

At the recent ANS meeting, I had the opportunity to talk with some people from the Public Information Committee. One shared the above with me - it is one side of a postcard addressed to: The Outreach Department American Nuclear Society 555 N. Kensington Avenue La Grange Park, IL 60526. Outreach.ans.org...

Blatantly ignoring a potent competitor is frequently an effective way to marginalize that competitor. The technique can be particularly useful when practiced by a well known or important spokesman from a position that can be considered to be a bully pulpit. When the President of the United States uses...

One thing that continues to befuddle me is the consistently repeated myth that nuclear energy is expensive energy. I want you to take a hard look at the above graph. It is a slightly modified version of the original which can be found buried several layers down at the NEI web site under the heading of...

I mourn for the hundreds of people who have been directly affected by a the fiery explosion on June 29, 2009 that was caused when a train axle broke in Viareggio, a small city on the west coast of Italy, about 100 km southwest of Bologna. The broken axle caused the train to derail and overturn. The train's...

The Associated Press is reporting that Exelon will be delaying its proposed two unit nuclear reactor development near Victoria, Texas. The company attributed the decision to the difficult financial markets and its failure to make the cut for the first round of US Department of Energy loan guarantees...