One of the more contentious political issues in south central Virginia is whether or not to allow mining at the largest known deposit of uranium east of the Mississippi River. That deposit, at Coles Hill in Chatham is located just slightly more than an hour’s drive from my current residence. It is estimated to contain [...]
Pursuing the unlimited energy dream – history of the Integral Fast Reactor
Note: Len Koch, whose participation in nuclear energy research started in the 1940s, wrote the below open letter to colleagues who are striving to restore interest in the progress that they made in research and development of the Integral Fast Reactor during the period from 1954-1994 the year that President Clinton and Hazel O’Leary, his [...]
TEDx New England – Nuclear entrepreneurs aiming to use waste for fuel
Two young graduate students describe their plans to develop something called the Waste Annihilating Molten Salt Reactor (WAMSR). The biggest applause line in the talk was the following: Right now in the world there are about 270,000 metric tons of high level waste that exists. We can take that waste, put it into our reactors [...]
Inspiring vision of hope for thorium powered future
Kirk Sorensen is an inspiring speaker and teacher who is motivated by an incredible vision. As he eloquently describes in the video below, he has excavated and dusted off ideas and documentation from the archives at Oak Ridge National Laboratory about using thorium in molten salt reactors. According to back of the envelope calculations by [...]
What do you do with the waste? – Kirk Sorensen’s answers
Gordon McDowell, the film maker who produced Thorium Remix, has released some additional mixes of material gathered for that production effort. One in particular is aimed at those people whose main concern about using nuclear energy is the often repeated question “What do you do with the waste.” Many people who ask that question think [...]
Responses to BRC on America’s Nuclear Future from fast reactor experts
I am a subscriber to a Google group of fast reactor experts and advocates who strongly believe that the Clinton Administration’s decision to eliminate funding for the Integral Fast Reactor (IFR) project was an enormous political mistake that has had long term impacts on America’s national security and economic vitality. Recently, two members of the [...]
Nuclear fission energy is superior to other energy sources
Guest article by Charles Forsberg. The below originally appeared on April 28, 2011 in a Bulletin of Atomic Scientists roundtable discussion titled “Is nuclear energy different from other energy sources?” Charles’s contribution was titled “Mutually assured energy independence.” It was so good that I contacted Charles and obtained his permission to share his thoughts with [...]
Update on fast reactor group challenge to MIT
Steve Kirsch, an MIT graduate and enough of an entrepreneurial success to have an auditorium at the school that carries his name, has updated his challenge to the faculty at his alma mater in a post on The Huffington Post titled Is MIT Afraid to Debate Nuclear Report?. Steve is quite serious about this challenge [...]
Fast reactor advocates throw down gauntlet to MIT authors
Near the end of 2010, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology released a summary of a report titled The Future of the Nuclear Fuel Cycle as part of its MIT Energy Initiative. The complete report was released a few months ago. The conclusions published that report initiated a virtual firestorm of reaction among the members of [...]
Reduce, reuse, recycle – good for aluminum; good for uranium
(Note: Video credit to Barry Brook of Brave New Climate.) The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy is taking issue with the idea of recycling used nuclear fuel to recover the energy that remains after the first pass of the fuel through a nuclear reactor. They have issued a call for action to encourage their members [...]