January, 2010

Ted Rockwell is a man who literally wrote the book on radiation shielding while he was serving as the Technical Director at Naval Reactors. He was in that position during the period when the Nautilus and the Shippingport reactors were built to use the heat generated by fission to produce useful power...

Every once in a while, I need to produce a post that is not necessarily related to energy or politics. I just finished watching a master presenter describe a device, the Apple iPad, that is now at the top of my list for my next gadget purchase. I love to read, listen to music, create presentations, and...

After posting a video clip of a key segment of Wednesday's State of the Union address, in which President Obama states: "But to create more of these clean energy jobs, we need more production, more efficiency, more incentives. And that means building a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power...

During the State of the Union address on January 27, 2010, President Barack Obama stressed the importance of energy innovation investments in his discussion about leading an economic recovery through infrastructure construction. Here is what he said at the very top of his list: "But to create more...

Several of my regular sources of information about the happenings associated with nuclear energy, including John Wheeler's This Week In Nuclear and Meredith Angwin's Yes Vermont Yankee have published stories about the recent flurry of news regarding the discovery of tritium in ground water on...

During the January 21, 2010 hearing held by the US Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on the subject of the Department of Energy's Research and Development program, Senator Bernie Sanders made some statements about nuclear energy that begged comment. I have put together a video clip...

Yesterday, I shared by introduction to Dr. Bruce Yandle's "Bootleggers and Baptists" theory, which is aimed at trying to explain the often strange alignments of groups that support the imposition of prescriptive regulations. Here is the essence of the theory: Durable social regulation evolves...

I have been trying for several years to explain why I believe that our current nuclear regulatory environment has been influenced by a "strange bedfellows" marriage of interests that joins frightened "environmentalists" with rent-seeking fossil fuel interests who want to slow down...

On January 21, 2010, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a hearing to receive testimony on the research, development, priorities and imperatives needed to meet the medium and long term challenges associated with climate change. The only invited witness was Dr. Steven Chu, the Secretary...

A couple of weeks ago, I met with Marc Gunther , a journalist who is a contributing editor at Fortune magazine and author of four books, at a local coffee shop for a conversation about energy. He has just posted an article describing our meeting and summarizing the conversation. Please forgive my...

I spoke yesterday evening with Forrest Rudin and TJ Trapp of Hyperion Power Generation. TJ is Hyperion's Vice President of Engineering, Forrest is the Chief of Staff. You can listen to our conversation at Atomic Show #148 - Hyperion Power Module Update . We were able to delve into some significant...

I took a day of leave from my day job on January 20, 2010 to attend a workshop titled Nuclear Power for Commercial Ship Propulsion sponsored by the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME) and the Center for the Commercial Deployment of Transportation Technologies (CCDoTT) of the California...

It is not hard to find examples of a serious marketing push by the natural gas industry in our nation's capital. The industry recognizes that important decisions for the future of the industry and its long term profitability are going to be made within the next few months. I snapped a few photos...

In July 2007, all seven units at Japan's Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear power station were shutdown for extensive inspections and minor repairs following an earthquake that registered a 6.8 on the Richter Scale. In May 2009, Unit 7 became the first of the seven to be restarted; it entered into full time...

One of the reasons that I am a strong advocate of smaller nuclear energy plants is that I resist the notion of the inevitability of greater interconnectedness and dependence. I like systems that have firewalls, circuit breakers, and air gaps to ensure that a failure in one location can be isolated. I...

According the the UPI, an explosion in a gas pipeline in the North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia has resulted in service disruption to somewhere between 100,000 and 230,000 people. The article indicates that repairs should be completed by Monday January 18, 2010. The article does not state the cause...

John Wheeler, the host of This Week in Nuclear and I got together for a chat about a variety of nuclear topics. We talked about John's recent trip to the western end of Puerto Rico, where he surfed near the dome of an experimental reactor called BONUS (Boiling Water Superheated) . We talked about...

On Tuesday, January 12, 2010, I visited the Politics and Prose bookstore in Chevy Chase, Maryland. I went there for an author talk by Amanda Little. She shared the story of the journey of discovery about energy that formed the basis for her recently published book titled Power Trip: From Oil Wells to...

Last night I had the pleasure of attending a book talk by Amanda Little, author of Power Trip: From Oil Wells to Solar Cells - Our Ride to the Renewable Future . It was the last stop on her ten city tour to promote the book. It was fitting that this was the final stop in the tour - Washington, DC an...

During the past few weeks, there has been a flurry of writing, revising and reviewing among a senior and accomplished group of people who believe that the United States needs all of the benefits that rapidly growing use of nuclear energy can provide. The final product of the effort is a letter to...

You can all rest easy now the world has an "endless" supply of oil . I know that resource exists because I read it in this week's issue of BusinessWeek, which is written for hard-working, Type A people who believe that markets can solve anything. I have been working around that kind of...

A friend shared a link on Twitter to a BBC article and video titled International nuclear bank - helping world peace? . The article discusses the long history of the proposals to establish a fuel bank that can be placed in territory under the control of the International Atomic Energy Agency as a means...

For as long as the world has understood the power density of nuclear energy, there have been people who have focused on the need to restrict knowledge and access to material to people that they "trust". There are whole cadres of people who are part of the "nuclear non-proliferation community"...

Chairman of the Bahraini parliament Khalifa Al-Dhahrani has indicated that he believes that nuclear energy is an important tool for nations to develop because oil and gas supplies will eventually dry up . Bahrain has first hand knowledge of the risk of oil depletion; it was one of the first countries...

According to a recent article in The State titled Groups gain ground in nuclear plant fight , two anti-nuclear groups have claimed victory in a recent appeal to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) of previous decisions by the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB). As is often the case in claims...