Rod Adams and Shane Brown discuss the properties of polonium. They move on to the hazards of mining and transporting coal. Polonium talk is all over the news media because of the recent poisoning death of Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB agent living in the UK. The tale is one suitable for a John Le…
Chinese President Hu Jintao has completed his visit to Pakistan without inking the large nuclear power plant deal that some people expected, but there was little indication during the visit that already existing Chinese-Pakistani nuclear cooperation will slow down. In fact, there are many reasons to expect that the atomic business arrangements will grow substantially…
In the competitive energy market in the United States, coal is often a market share winner. With “modern” mining techniques, massive existing transportation infrastructure, and more than 600 electrical power plants the can use the fuel, coal is often seen as a cheap and available alternative to high priced natural gas or oil, unreliable alternatives…
The Washington Post published an article on November 25, 2006 titled Energy Firms Come to Terms With Climate Change. According to the authors of the article, more and more American energy industry leaders are accepting the notion that emissions of climate changing gases like carbon dioxide are going to be regulated. Even companies like Exxon-Mobile…
Monsters and Critics published an article on November 25, 2006 titled Draft nuclear report fails to convince. I am not surprised. There are plenty of critics of nuclear power that have invested too much of their careers in opposition to the technology – the chance of them changing their mind is essentially nil. It does…
On November 24, 2006, Wade Allison, Professor of Physics at Oxford University, gave a talk about the extreme caution with which radiation exposure is treated. According to an article titled Public needs better understanding of nuclear safety, Professor Allison said: Current environmental regulations that attempt to keep variations in radiation exposure to a fraction of…
George Stanford talks about sodium cooled fast reactors George Stanford earned his PhD in experimental nuclear physics from Yale University and then spent his professional career doing nuclear reactor safety research at the Argonne National Laboratory. One of his special interest was the sodium cooled fast reactor program. He worked on the Experimental Breeder Reactor…
Several months ago, I interviewed Ruth Sponsler, an amateur mineral collector. Ruth also runs a blog titled We Support Lee, which is named for a proposed new nuclear power station in Ruth’s home state of North Carolina, located in the southeast section of the United States. Ruth recently wrote a rather detailed post titled The…
I have been trying to learn more about Africa, its people, its markets, and the concerns that face that large continent. One of my current information sources is the MBendi web site and its weekly newsletters. In their 17 November 2006 newsletter, there was a disturbing paragraph that should cause biofuels developers to pause and…
Duke Energy has been planning to build a couple of large coal fired power plants near Charlotte. The project, which Duke officially calls the Cliffside Steam Station Modernization includes building two “state of the art” 800 MWe coal fired steam plants and decommissioning four small plants with a total capacity of 198 MWe that are…
The current topic on Chevron’s well publicized WillYouJoinUs discussion on energy issues is “What role should nuclear power play in the world’s energy future?” The initial conversation features recycled columns by two well known commentators: Patrick Moore – Going Nuclear; A Green Makes the Case. Originally published April 16, 2006 in The Washington Post Amory…
One of the most beautiful places I have ever visited was Lake Tahoe. While leafing though an airline magazine on my way back from Albuquerque, I noticed that the area’s Visitors Authority had started a new advertising campaign that I thought was really cool, since it fits in with my idea about changing the color…