Matthew Simmons is an investment banker who has long been associated with the idea that the era of cheap oil is coming to an end. His analysis is based on the work of M. Hubbert King and other oil exploration experts who have recognized the idea that the world has a finite quantity of oil…
The Department of Energy has been holding a series of public meetings to share information and gather reactions to proposals to build and operate one or more of three types of facilities related to the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership program. The program leaders currently envision that there will be three new facilities built – a…
We’re back after a couple of weeks off. The atomic geeks chat about uranium, which has an interesting history in politics, discovery and economics. Uranium is as common as tin and can be found in measurable quantities almost anywhere in the world. Its price often varies by several hundred percent over short periods of time,…
Though The Atomic Show does not play music – yet – I am a big fan of independence and the idea that artists do not benefit much from big music labels. One way to show the power of independent music artists is a promotion called Bum Rush The Charts. The idea is that podcast listeners…
I found this speech in a book titled “The West Virginia Mine Wars.” As far as I know, it is the earliest use of the term “clean coal”, but I am willing to be educated. I am publishing this as a way of getting people to think a bit about the difference between real descriptions…
Shane and I have missed you all the last couple of weeks. One week it was illness – it is hard to do an audio show with laryngitis – and then this week we had an operator error by the show’s producer – me. We had a great chat about uranium and the hazards of…
Chris Matthews of the MSNBC show “Hardball” interviewed Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons about what candidates need to do to win in Nevada. The segment is titled Nevada: New battleground of 2008? A big issue there is, of course, Yucca Mountain, which is nearly universally opposed in the state. Governor Gibbons does not question the science;…
The nuclear debate continues to progress in Australia, with recent opinion polls indicating a shift in perception of the technology, especially when its nearly zero emission nature is linked to a contribution to reducing global greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. According to a March 6, 2007 article published on News.com.au titled Australians warm to…
One of the habits that English majors cannot resist is trying to read between the lines of a piece of written material to try to determine what the author is really saying. Many people make fun of this activity and claim that the words on the paper tell everything that the author intends and that…
A March 5, 2007 article titled Countdown to climate change had some favorable comparisons between nuclear power and other possible new energy sources. Geosequestration is further away and arguably more unsafe than the nuclear option. Its problems include: there is no evidence to show it can be done on a commercial scale; nobody knows what…
Every once in a while I leave my computer screen and read materials written on “old dead trees” covered with shiny wax. In other words, I love to read magazines. One of my weekly favorites is Forbes which has a rather annoying, flash and popup filled on line version. Somehow the advertisements in the hard…
In a March 2, 2007 investment opinion piece titled GE Cleans Up Jack Uldrich, a Motley Fool writer, had this to say about nuclear energy growth prospects: GE will also benefit as public attitudes about nuclear power continue to soften. Although no new nuclear plants have been built in three decades, nuclear power (which emits…