Resume available here.
Publisher: Rod Adams – Pro-nuclear advocate with extensive small nuclear plant operating experience. Former Engineer Officer, USS Von Steuben. Founder, Adams Atomic Engines, Inc. Host and producer, The Atomic Show Podcast.
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Beginning in April 1995, Adams Atomic Engines, Inc. (AAE) began publishing Atomic Energy Insights as a series of monthly paper newsletters with the intention of being an alternative source of information for what we hoped would be a newly rejuvenated nuclear power industry. Rod Adams, the founder of AAE, did most of the writing, but there was a small team that did the editing and publishing. It soon became apparent that we were a bit early out of the box.
Despite some encouraging early signs and our own best efforts, there was very little real news in the US related to nuclear energy. The plants that started construction in the 1960s and 1970s continued operating with incremental improvements, but the prospects for new construction disappeared in an era of rapidly changing electric production business models and ever cheaper fossil fuel.
By the end of 1995, with the help of Dr. Sama Bilboa y Leon, then a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin, we began mirroring our paper publication on the World Wide Web. In mid 1996, In an attempt to remain relevant, we shifted our focus from news to history, producing articles on topics ranging from nuclear rocket engines, to pacemaker batteries and from to ship propulsion engines to the health effects of radiation.
In January of 1997, we essentially ran out of things to talk about. With generous help from friends, AAE was able to provide continuing access to our articles on the web. Interestingly enough, there was a steady stream of new readers looking for information on an important topic.
In November of 2000, Rod began writing occasional articles as the earliest stirrings of a nuclear revival began manifesting themselves. Some of those articles originally appeared in a series of columns titled “For the Rest of Us” and published on PowerOnLine.com, a webzine aimed at power industry professionals. The series is still available on PowerOnline.com as well as on Atomic Insights. Here is a link to the first one.
In March 2005, with an improving outlook for a Nuclear Renaissance, we started publishing commentary on a more frequent basis using a Blogger platform at the Atomic Insights Blog. We learned how simple it was to develop an discussion about nuclear energy by posting articles with strong points of view and enabling comments when you have the right kind of software platform.
In March 2006, we took the plunge into audio programming with creation of The Atomic Show, with Rod Adams and Shane Brown, hosted by The Podcast Network. That podcast provides geeky conversations about all aspects of atomic information including history, technology, politics and economics. It started off with a series of weekly shows, but has turned into a less frequent, occasional episode. The occasions generally turn out to be times when there is a willing group of interesting participants and something worth talking about.
In March of 2011, we took another plunge and upgraded the old Atomic Insights web site to use more modern software and enable comments. We combined that site with The Atomic Insights Blog, successfully porting over almost 1700 posts and 10,000 comments. The new Atomic Insights is a treasure trove of atomic history – mostly from one man’s point of view. We have also made friends with dozens of like minded pro-nuclear activists that publish their own blogs and share their own thoughts on the technology and the growing industry. You can find our blog roll at the updated Links page.
The renewed interest in using nuclear energy in the United States and in dozens of other countries, including many who are not currently using nuclear energy, has validated the assertions we have made over the past 16 years. It is still taking way too long and costing far too much to build large, multi-unit nuclear power stations.
There is still a well funded and vocal opposition to new construction projects, but polls in the US show that more than 60% of the population favors new nuclear power plants to contribute to the energy supply and to replace facilities that produce atmosphere polluting gases like SOx, NOx, and CO2.
The challenges associated with building very large facilities have encouraged the development of a slew of new ideas and system conceptual designs that will produce significantly less power per module using far less material, smaller sites, and an increased level of factory manufacturing instead of on-site construction.
There are not yet any of the new, smaller designs at the US NRC undergoing license review, but that situation should change by the end of 2013. Sometimes people who love the high tech industry cannot understand why it takes so long to make changes in the nuclear world, but “blue screens of death” would have a completely different meaning for us. The nuclear world’s careful approach to problem solving works, even though it can be a bit frustrating to watch.
There is still room for large power plants in many markets; more than 50 large nuclear power plants are currently under construction around the world. Just one of those is officially under construction in the US – Watts Bar Unit 2 – but anyone who visits Southern Company’s Vogtle site or SCANA’s VC Summer site would have a hard time believing that neither of them is officially considered to be “under construction”.
Those sites both have a limited work authorization (LWA) to enable required site preparation and non-nuclear work to progress while the combined license application review at the NRC is completed. There are two remaining finalists for the US Department of Energy’s loan guarantee program that is designed to help kickstart new nuclear plant construction in the US – the industry is nearly new again since it has not started any new plants since the 1970s.
Update (Posted February 18, 2012) -
On February 9, 2012, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued its first combined license ever. For the first time since 1978, a new nuclear power plant project will officially start construction – sometime during the month of February 2012. The news is already causing many celebrations and a certain amount of frustrated consternation on the part of the forces that oppose any new nuclear energy project. End Update.
Atomic Insights is now entering a new phase in its development. We are brimming with ideas, and will keep you informed as we make changes. Actually, we might forget to let people know – we will just make the changes and see what you think about them by collecting comments on the blog and the blog associated with The Atomic Show. Thank you for your interest in our efforts.
One thing that really makes our day is when long time readers make contact and tell us that one or more of our articles made an impact on their thinking about nuclear power. That is happening more and more these days, and it makes all of the effort seem worth while.