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By Paul Lorenzini In the yin and yang of energy policy debates, we know some can get carried away. Normally we ignore the radical fringe, but sometimes their claims take on a life of their own and need to be addressed. One such charge has found its way as an authoritative reference on Wipikedia, alleging...

Rick Maltese is a creative artist who spent this afternoon creating an amusing parody of the diffuse, weather dependent, unreliable power sources that some think can beat both fossil fuel and nuclear energy. Share Call Them Unreliable widely! PS – Just in case you would like to have a sing along...

On May 7, 2013, the Kewaunee Nuclear Power Station is scheduled to stop generating emission free electricity for the last time. The plant is one of the better run and maintained facilities in the US, it has an operating license that is effective until December 2013, and it generates electricity for an...

I’ve been engaging in a discussion with several commenters who strongly disagree with my assertion that atomic fission is the ONLY technology that has the technical potential to beat hydrocarbon combustion in the market. It can provide cheaper, cleaner and more reliable heat that can be converted...

I’m mad as hell and I don’t want to take it any more. Groups that fight any and all use of nuclear energy and also spend time advocating for the increased use of massive, industrial scale energy collectors on undeveloped, virgin land should NEVER be called “environmental groups”...

When the Congress decided to extend the Production Tax Credit for wind energy projects, they made a couple of changes to the law that provide a substantial temptation for unscrupulous developers to take the money and run. While many sources describe the PTC as a $22 per megawatt-hour (indexed for inflation...

On Friday, Nov 16, I wrote about the potential impact of applying a “peanut butter spread” sequestration algorithm to the NRC budget. (I spent a few years as a government budget analyst, so I sometimes speak the lingo.) If the accountants at the Office of Management and Budget continue on...

One of my sources posted a link to this brief video clip from Russia Today titled Fukushima Legacy: Nuclear phase-out hits Germans with high energy prices regarding Germany’s Energiewende, a well-publicized effort sold to the German public as a replacement of nuclear energy with renewable energy...

The European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) has published a blog titled Nuclear Decommissioning Costs Amount to €66 Billion in UK alone that is a direct response to a post on Foratom titled To subsidise or not to subsidise: that is the question. There seems to be a conflict brewing over energy-related...

The Discovery Channel is teasing a show called Earth 2050: Powering the Future. One of the primary sponsors of the show is the Royal Dutch Shell Oil Company. Here is a brief teaser about future energy supplies from “renewable” sources of power. On the one hand, it was interesting to note...

Guest post by Andy Dawson One anti-nuclear argument that’s frequently made is that nuclear is slow to deploy – that renewables can make inroads into carbon production rather faster than can building new nuclear stations. I was recently proiked into taking a look at this, in the context of the UK’s...

One of the more powerful concepts that I studied in college was called “groupthink.” The curriculum developers in the history department at the US Naval Academy thought it was important for people in training to become leaders in the US Navy learn to seek counsel and advice from as broad...

My new word for the energy sources popularly known as “renewables” is “unreliables”. Though there may be some tiny exceptions, the general characteristic is that they are all diffuse sources that cannot actually be controlled by humans or automated control systems. One of the...

While driving home after a great Labor Day weekend with friends and family, we ran into scattered showers. My wife helped me figure out the switches that control the timing of the intermittent windshield wipers for both the front and rear windows. (She is the primary driver for our recently purchased...

Yesterday, Vermont Governor Peter Shumulin appeared on Democracy Now to talk about the effect of Hurricane Irene on his Green Mountain State. Twice in the interview, he used the words irrational, but throughout the interview he and his interviewer were remarkably illogical. Though many parts of his state...

Guest Post by Willem Post The Green Mountain Power (GMP)-instigated 63 MW Lowell wind turbine facility with (21) 3 MW Danish wind turbines stretched along 4 miles of ridge lines has nothing to do with community-scale wind, everything with utility-scale wind. GMP is using blatant PR to soft-soap/deceive...

Watch the full episode. See more Colorado State of Mind. On Friday, June 24, 2011, the Colorado State of Mind program aired a discussion about nuclear energy that featured respectful conversation from several different points of view. The impetus for the discussion was to reflect on the implications...

I deliberately chose a provocative title to discuss a theory that surprises nearly everyone. Though full of many sincere and hard working people who are trying to make the world a cleaner and more human friendly place, I believe that most of the really big and well-funded non-profit organizations that...

Peter Lang has published an intriguing guest post at Brave New Climate titled CO2 avoidance cost with wind energy in Australia and carbon price implications. It has attracted about 125 lengthy, mostly well-referenced comments and repeat visits from Michael Goggin of the American Wind Energy Association...

Annapolis Harbor Early Morning Ajax Eastman has just published a piece on the Baltimore Chronicle , non-profit, internet only news site. Ajax's article, titled Pulling Back the Curtain on Wind Power is one of the clearest, most concise explanations for why building massive turbines is a dumb idea...

There have been some interesting recent discussions about the overall effect of introducing large amounts of weather dependent wind energy into a complex power grid supplied by more controllable forms of power generation. The conversations have been building on research conducted over several years as...

When you watch this video, put on your critical thinking cap and consider the following questions: Are all birds equally important? Just because no power plant operates 100% of the time every year, does that mean that all of them are "intermittent" sources of power? Do you like the...

Jason Ribero at Pro-Nuclear Democrats embedded the below video on his site a few days ago . I thought Atomic Insights readers might also enjoy watching it. It is no wonder why tireless fossil fuel marketers like T. Boone Pickens , Joe Romm , John Podesta , Ted Turner , and Tim Wirth are such...

A very common theme in works or speeches by Joe Romm, Amory Lovins, T. Boone Pickens, and Tim Wirth (and a whole chorus of other like minded people) is that natural gas, which is mostly methane (CH4), is a bridge to a utopia that can be powered by natural flows from the sun and wind. The problem...

Amory Lovins often derides the investment picture associated with nuclear energy projects. As he states it in his recent Grist article titled Stewart Brand’s nuclear enthusiasm falls short on facts and logic . "They cost too much to build and incur too much financial risk." In contrast, here...