Advanced Atomic Technologies Archives

Atomic Show #197 – Radium, educational museums and Voices for Vermont Yankee

Rod Adams · February 26, 2013 · 2 Comments

On Sunday, February 24, I gathered a group of fission fans to talk about a number of nuclear energy related topics. We discussed Romance of Radium and how perceptions about radiation have been molded over the 76 years since it was produced. Then, people had learned enough about the benefits of using power emitted from atomic nuclei so that the only powerfully radioactive material was valued at $750,000 per ounce, and had also learned enough about time, distance, shielding and consumption avoidance to have essentially eliminated accidental radiation related injury.

We also talked about the importance of sharing accurate nuclear science and technology related material with as many people as possible. We discussed an interesting model situation in the UK where the Sellafield installation is taking over a financially struggling, but popular tourist museum named The Beacon so that it can help people better understand the benefits of a complicated technology.

Guests on this episode of The Atomic Show include:
Meredith Angwin, who publishes Yes Vermont Yankee and who recently released Voices for Vermont Yankee on Kindle.
Steve Aplin, who publishes Canadian Energy Issues which focuses on the energy situation in Ontario. (Steve confessed that his day job employer is in the fossil fuel industry, but we don’t hold that against him. He knows the importance of energy density and ultra low emissions.)
Gwyneth Cravens, author of Power to Save the World: The Truth About Nuclear Energy and one of the stars of the Sundance sensation titled Pandora’s Promise. (Gwyneth talked a little about some of the opportunities she has had recently to talk to some very deep-pocketed people in Mountain View, CA who are intensely interested in using nuclear energy to save the world.
Will Davis, who publishes the authoritative Atomic Power Review and who frequently contributes to ANS Nuclear Cafe and Fuel Cycle Week.
Andrea Jennetta, who publishes Fuel Cycle Week and I Dig U Mining

I hope you enjoy the conversation. Please provide your commentary; we are always interested in learning more about how to better communicate what I believe is the most important message available – nuclear energy really does have the power to change the world and make it a cleaner, more prosperous, more energetic place.

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Recycling used nuclear fuel – Argonne research explained in 4 min video

Rod Adams · February 22, 2013 · 8 Comments

One of the most frequently used arguments against using nuclear energy is “the waste issue.” When people ask me, “what do you do with the waste”, my standard answer is “recycle it.” The truly curious then ask for more information. A few days ago, Nuclear Street shared a video produced by Argonne National Laboratory that [...]

Explaining my dismissal of fossil fuel alternatives that are NOT nuclear fission

Rod Adams · February 14, 2013 · 96 Comments

Windmills at the windmill farm Middelgrunden

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 into useful power in almost exactly the same [...]

SOTU – Clean energy focus, but “nuclear” treated as the other ‘N’ word that cannot be spoken

Rod Adams · February 13, 2013 · 89 Comments

During President Obama’s February 12, 2013 State of the Union address, he spoke for six and a half minutes about the importance of energy to the American economy and the importance of being a world leading supplier of clean energy technology. As a proud contributor at an American clean energy company that is developing a [...]

Adams Engine – Goal is cheap, ultra low emission fuel coupled to cheap machinery

Rod Adams · January 31, 2013 · 83 Comments

Though I am not actively pursuing the idea right now, I have had several opportunities in the past couple of days to explain to people why I made the design decisions I did when putting together the Adams Engine concept. As a rather lazy man, I figured it would be easier to repurpose those arguments [...]

Correcting a journalist’s excessive pessimism about US nuclear industry prospects

Rod Adams · January 13, 2013 · 49 Comments

This morning I found an article titled Builders pessimistic about new nuclear plants published in the Tampa Bay Times, one of my former hometown newspapers. (As a retired naval officer, I have about a dozen former hometowns.) The author built his case about pessimism for new nuclear plant construction on the words of a single [...]

Radioimmunontherapy (RIT) for follicular lymphoma

Rod Adams · December 21, 2012 · 1 Comment

Andrew Schorr, the founder and host of Patient Power, interviewed Dr. Anton Hagenbeek of the University Medical Center Utrecht Netherlands about the result of clinical trials of radioimmunotherapy (RIT) to combat follicular lymphoma. The treatment uses a monoclonal antibody that is covalently bound to Y-90, which is a beta emitter. The monoclonal antibody selectively binds [...]

FFTF – What could a functional Fast Flux Test Facility do for the US?

Rod Adams · December 10, 2012 · 7 Comments

A friend shared the above video about the Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF). I thought it was worth sharing and discussing, though I am not sure how current it is. The FFTF was not a shining example of government efficiency; it was initially conceived in the 1960s, finally completed in the late 1970s, started up [...]

B&W mPower™ Reactor Control Room Simulator Begins Operations

Rod Adams · December 4, 2012 · 5 Comments

(CHARLOTTE, N.C. – December 4, 2012) – The Babcock & Wilcox Company (B&W) (NYSE: BWC) is pleased to announce that the production-standard control room prototype for its B&W mPower™ small modular reactor (SMR) is now operational. This engineering simulator is a key milestone in the B&W mPower development program. The B&W mPower control room prototype, [...]

Terrific application for highly enriched uranium fuel – tiny NASA reactors

Rod Adams · November 30, 2012 · 17 Comments

How many times have you heard politicians tell you that the only reason a nation with abundant oil and gas might want to enrich uranium is to build nuclear weapons. The United States has always been one of the top two or three oil and gas producers in the world, but we also have scientists [...]

Musing about resilient power systems – natural gas, NGL (propane) and nuclear

Rod Adams · November 6, 2012 · 16 Comments

Widespread power outages stimulate me to intense bouts of thinking about building resilient power systems, both when they happen to me and when they happen to someone else. During the summer of 2012, during one of the hottest weeks of the year, we lost power for a little more than a week as a result [...]

Virginia ANS – Uranium mining, mPower, NGNP progress

Rod Adams · October 19, 2012 · 37 Comments

Last night I participated in a well-attended meeting of the Virginia chapter of the American Nuclear Society. It was great to be surrounded by a bunch of nukes who were interested in learning about technical developments and in discussing the current local and national political situation from an energy perspective. Before dinner, I had the [...]