Trackback added – comments?

Since Blogger does not directly support trackback, the kind folks that run the service suggest that their users wanting this feature use Haloscan commenting and trackback. The installation process was very simple, I would be interesting in hearing feedback from anyone that tries using the service from here.

Interesting explanation for Westinghouse decision

On July 6, 2005, Malcolm Wicks spoke to a group of 200 delegates of the British nuclear industry. Mr. Wicks is the UK’s minister of state for energy. He stated that the government had put a lot of thought into the decision to sell Westinghouse. A major factor in the decision process was the fact…

Nigerian Nuclear Program

Nigeria is an interesting case of an oil rich but useful energy poor country. It is a major crude oil exporter, but its citizens get by with an average of about 8 watts of electricity, which is about 1/5 of what the light above my computer uses. Apparently, some of the leaders of the country…

Better use of Tritium for power

One of the issues that I have with fusion enthusiasts is that they obscure the truth about the fuel that they plan to use. When talking about the potential for fusion to supply the world’s energy needs, they often talk about using hydrogen and point out that it is the most abundant element on the…

ITER Fusion Project manager on Science Friday

On July 1, 2005, Ira Flatow interviewed Ned R. Sauthoff, Project Manager, U.S. ITER Project, DOE Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton University. As usual, I was not able to listen to the program at the time that it was broadcast, but fortunately Ira has established a podcast edition of his show, so it showed up…

Update on Westinghouse sale

It seems that BNFL’s unions are pretty upset that their employer is planning to sell off the Westinghouse organization. Here is a relevant article from Cumbria Online http://www.cumbria-online.co.uk/viewarticle.asp?id=260225.

Export-Import Bank Loan to Westinghouse Blocked

On Tuesday 28 June, Rep Bernard Sanders I-VT introduced an amendment to the foreign aid bill that would prevent the Export-Import Bank of the United States from lending $5 Billion to Westinghouse that is intended to finance the sale of nuclear reactors to China. The Sanders amendment to H.R.3057 was passed by a 313-114 vote….

Nuclear referendum in the market

BNFL has announced that they are going to sell their Westinghouse division. This sale is going to be an interesting case to watch, as it will either validate my position about the bright future for nuclear power or disprove it. Though there are a lot of legacy products with the Westinghouse brand on them, the…

Atomic Retro

I’ll admit it. I am a child of the 70’s and actually liked doing the Bump when I was in high school. I even wore a leisure suit and polyester shirts with long pointed collars. I just stumbled across a web site that had me laughing out loud. The site is sponsored by Friends of…

Reduce the need for transmission lines

Another low sleep night. Through a long and unrepeatable browsing path involving the Chris Perillo show and Dave Ryder’s excellent web site, I came across this picture link, which made me remember that I had something to say about transmission lines. The joy of blogging and streams of random thoughts. I recognize that electric power…

Who says "no one wants to invest in nuclear power"?

One of the most often repeated myths about nuclear power is that no one wants to invest in it. There was a time when that seemed to be true, but that time is long gone. If you review the performance of utility companies during the past three years, the more nuclear exposure that the utility…

Building New School Energy Wells

Petroleum – that term includes oil, gas and derivatives – wells have been going dry for more than 150 years. Until now, the solution to that problem of resource depletion has been to find a new place to drill. Though there is still a lot of oil left inside the Earth, there is a significant…