November, 2009

Conventional wisdom tells us that "Environmentalists" worried about one or more of the below complaints have influenced world opinion and encouraged the current negative investment perception that surrounds new nuclear power plants: Nuclear plants are not completely safe Nuclear energy...

CBSNews.com - a company whose lineage includes a period when its corporate name was Westinghouse and its basic nuclear plant design was the basis for approximately 2/3 of the plants built in the United States - has published an opinion piece by Chrisian Parenti titled What To Do With Zombie Nuke Plants...

I got distracted this morning with doing some Analytics work on Atomic Insights, trying to figure out more about who reads this publication. If you have not tried Google Analytics and you have a web site or blog, you should. Fascinating and somewhat addicting to page through all of the different ways...

In the November 23, 2009 issue of the Washington Post, there is an article titled Nuclear Power Regains Support that describes how some established Environmental groups and individuals have decided that nuclear power can be part of a set of tools that will enable a transition away from fossil fuels....

On Saturday, November 21, 2009, at about 4:00 pm installed radiation monitors inside the containment building at Three Mile Island Unit one showed higher than normal readings. The normal actions for such indications were taken. People in the area were directed to leave the building while the source of...

On November 16, 2009, at the American Nuclear Society Winter Meeting, Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) gave a speech titled Nuclear Energy in a Carbon Constrained World that included the following intriguing paragraph: “I plan to introduce a second bill, to complement Senator Udall’s bill. My new bill would...

During the ANS Winter Meeting, I stopped by the B&W booth and had a chat with some of the booth representatives about the progress that the company is making on its mPower TM modular reactor. We had a good conversation about steady progress and a project that is meeting its planned milestones. I...

I have had a busy week trying to time share between a day job and at least some attendance and coverage of the American Nuclear Society Winter Meeting. While searching for other views of the event that I might have missed earlier in the week, I found the below segment titled Nuclear Industry Holds Winter...

Fox 11 News out of Green Bay, Wisconsin has been airing a story on the future of nuclear power. The most recent segment was a journalistically balanced view about used nuclear fuel - what most people call "nuclear waste". One part of this story that bothers me is that the plant owners and their...

Gail Marcus, who blogs at Nuclear Power Talk , shared a story on Saturday November 14, 2009 about a song contest that she supported during her tenure as president of the American Nuclear Society . It was inspired by memories of the artistic work produced during the Great Depression with government support...

I am highjacking the Atomic Insights feed and blog site for a brief advertisement. People who visit the site instead of receiving posts via RSS feed might have noticed a series of profile photo changes as I went clean shaven for the first time in 28 years and as I have gradually replaced my mustache...

I saw a deceptive headline in my Google Alert for new nuclear power plants this morning. Can you imagine - a headline writer who chooses a deceptive headline! The story, titled FACTBOX-U.S. Coal Plant captures and stores 2% of its carbon comes from Reuters News Service. It sits above an article...

Like many people who blog, I use it as a tool to communicate with people who share a common interest, but not a common location. Sometimes, however, there are wonderful opportunities to actually meet people in person with whom you have shared thoughts and ideas for several years. I had just such an opportunity...

The November 1009 issue of Scientific American carried a cover story titled A Plan to Power 100 Percent of the Planet with Renewables by Mark Z. Jacobson and Mark A. Delucchi. That article has received some pointed criticism from some of my favorite pro-nuclear bloggers and podcasters, including John...

Until very recently, the understanding held by most associated with nuclear energy has been that nuclear energy plants had to be very large to achieve "economy of scale". Yesterday a group of several hundred ANS meeting attendees heard from representatives from the USA, Jordan, Mexico, Japan...

Today is the first official day of the American Nuclear Society (ANS) Winter Meeting for 2009. The title of this year's meeting is "Nuclear Power: Crafting Energy Solutions". During the plenary session that is scheduled for this morning at 8:00-11:30 two US Senators (James Webb (D-VA) and...

On Friday, November 13, 2009, President Obama paid a brief visit to Tokyo, Japan. As part of his visit, he gave a speech in which he affirmed America's commitment to the basic bargains of the nuclear non proliferation treaty . All nations have a right to peaceful use of nuclear energy Nations...

Dan Yurman at Idaho Samizdat has led the charge in organizing a blogger meetup during the upcoming American Nuclear Society Winter meeting . The meetup will take place in the Capitol Room between 6:30-8:30 pm on November 17, 2009 at the OMNI Shoreham Hotel on Calvert St NW. Areva will be providing refreshments...

In the past couple of days, I have noticed a significant increase in the amount of highly visible outdoor marketing in Washington, DC that is touting the benefits of burning methane, which is sold under the brand name of "clean, natural gas." At the corner of 7th Street and Pennsylvania...

Steve Kirsch has recently published a guest post on Brave New Climate titled Fee-and-dividend is superior to cap-and-trade for effective carbon emissions reductions that does a better job than I have been able to do to explain my favorite solution to the need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions . (I called...

One of the banes of my current existence is a long commute from Annapolis to Washington. There are some advantages of a daily opportunity to see a lot of people and pass by a lot of examples of how people live and work. I also am blessed by being able to pass by some inspirational sites on a daily basis...

While visiting our daughter this weekend for a gathering to celebrate the pending birth of our granddaughter, I noticed the below bumper sticker on a vehicle belonging to a young friend who attends college in western Virginia. I gave her a big hug and told her I was proud of her proclaimed sentiments...

The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) is one of the most respected news sources in the world. Its status as a media tax supported organization that does not completely depend on advertising dollars has allowed it to maintain investigative journalism departments, to continue to cover the world and...

This morning I posted a blog talking about how a second round of new nuclear power plants analogous to the one that the US undertook during the period from 1970-1990 might lead to a lengthy period where natural gas supplies will be greater than natural gas demand. I described how such a situation can...

Just yesterday, I wrote a lengthy piece talking about how natural gas suppliers are working hard to market their product to both gas customers and to politicians who are making large impact energy policy decisions. One of the marketing bullets being used is that natural gas is newly abundant and can...