On August 13, 2011, I braved the 13.5 hour time difference between Adelaide, South Australia and Lynchburg, VA to record an interview with Ben Heard, the force behind Decarbonise SA and Dr. Barry Brook, the well respected climate scientist who blogs at Brave New Climate. Aside: I used the phrase “braved the time difference” because [...]
Photos of Sanmen 1 pressure vessel arrival
The pressure vessel for Sanmen unit 1, which will most likely be the world’s first Westinghouse AP1000 in operation, arrived on site in late July. I thought you might like to see some photos of the component. One thing that never ceases to impress me is the fact that the pressure vessel fully contains the [...]
Chairman Jaczko does not like the NRC voting process when he loses
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman, Dr. Greg Jaczko, has expressed his frustration with the voting process in effect at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. He is the same man who defended that process rather vigorously when it allowed him to pocket veto a vote about legal requirement for the NRC to continue its evaluation of the [...]
Does the Nuclear Regulatory Commission mission include enabling new reactor construction?
During the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing on August 2, 2011, Senator Lamar Alexander invested his five minutes of question time wisely by engaging Chairman Jaczko in an important philosophical discussion; does the mission of the NRC to protect public health and safety include a mission to enable the construction of new nuclear [...]
Nuclear professionals move forward with due haste – rushing is not in our DNA
On August 2, 2011, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee held a hearing with all five members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The subject was the 90-day report by six career regulators with recommendations for actions to take as a result of their interpretation of the sketchy information that has been discovered so far [...]
Spreading Calm, Certainty, and Reassurance About Nuclear Energy (counteracting focused FUD)
On Friday, July 29, 2011, Matt Wald of the New York Times published an article titled N.R.C. Lowers Estimate of How Many Would Die in Meltdown that describes a US Nuclear Regulatory Commission project whose results need to be widely understood and repeated. The project was a multi-year modeling effort at the US Nuclear Regulatory [...]
Is Big Oil using crude & gasoline profits to temporarily hold down natural gas prices?
The Huffington Post recently posted an article on July 29, 2011 titled Big Oil Companies Post Huge Profits On High Gas Prices that has apparently tapped a deep well of anger and emotion – it has already received more than 3,400 comments. I can empathize with that anger; though I drive a small car that [...]
Smaller nuclear reactors allow decentralized power – some critics not pleased
Even a broken clock is right twice a day. That is one of the sayings that I remember whenever I read works about energy by people like Amory Lovins or Ralph Nader and find myself agreeing with something they have written. (I rarely agree with either of them, but that does not mean that I [...]
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 [...]
False media balance – radiation health risks contrasted against climate change
An Atomic Insights reader pointed me to Joe Romm’s recent post titled False Balance Exposed: BBC Gives Too Much Weight to Fringe Views on Climate Change, Independent Review Finds. Duh. In that post, Joe discusses how an outside reviewer has determined that the BBCs strong desire to show impartiality can result in providing poor information [...]