At 12:30 am on December 18, 1957, the operators of the Shippingport Atomic Power Station synchronized the rotation of the alternating current being produced by the plant’s single steam turbine generator with the electricity already being supplied by the local grid and closed the output breaker. For the next few hours, the operators quietly increased…
Two hundred and thirty-four years ago, a group of colonists took action against a unilateral imposition of taxes by a distant government led by King George. Today, there are many liberty loving people who are remembering this event in a rather uniquely internet era way. You can find out more by visiting Tea Party 07….
Vindy.com, the web site of The Vindicator from Youngstown, Ohio, published an article titled Nuclear plant reaches age 50 on Sunday December 16, 2007. I am glad that the publishers gave me two days warning for the actual anniversary date when the reactor first produced grid power of December 18, 2007. It will give me…
I have been around the electric utility industry for as long as I can remember. Dad was a lifer at Florida Power and Light and often brought home discussions of his company, its people, and their plans for the future. These discussions often bored my mom to tears, but for some odd reason I enjoyed…
As I was reading an article about carbon taxes from the New York Times web site (nytimes.com) titled The Carbon Calculus that I found via a link from A Musing Environment, I realized that I had to ask myself – is mulching a source of greenhouse gas emissions that should be avoided or is it…
Poland is currently a net electricity exporter with most of the power coming from aging coal fired power plants. More that 60% of the plants are in excess of 30 years old. Without significant investments, the nation’s excess generating capacity will be used up in just a few years because of growth in both population…
I found an interesting link on A Musing Environment. It is a letter to Bonnie Raitt from a former anti-nuclear activist. It is a good and thoughtful letter. Here is the important conclusion: The real enemy of our planet is the coal industry. Let us take what we have learned from our anti-nuclear organizing to…
Yesterday morning, a story on the front page of the Wall Street Journal titled Saudi Arabia’s industrial drive strains its role as oil exporter got me thinking again about how oil exporting nations are natural customers for new nuclear power plants – especially small, simple ones that can be completely built in a factory and…
While perusing articles with the phrase “new nuclear power plants” in them, I came across an article on dailypress.com titled Debate on nuclear power is cooling. Here is the subtitle: Residents are comfortable with the plant, calling it a “part of industry,” but some environmentalists say better options are available. One of the nice things…
While doing a vanity search on Technorati to see if there was anything interesting being said about Atomic Insights, I found a post by a reader who is also a blogger that caught my attention. The title did it – Sticking Up For “Our Man Adams”. As a pretty vain guy, I had to follow…
As the second Atomic Age begins here in the United States, there are going to be a lot of conversations going on. I hope that more of them reach the quality of the one that has started in response to an article titled Nuke Plant Confirmed on the Argus Observer out of Ontario, Oregon. There…
A couple of days ago, I shared a link to a comment from an Idaho blogger about how MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co., a company controlled by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, is investigating the possibility of building a new nuclear power plant on some pasture land located outside of Boise, Idaho. On Friday, December 7, 2007,…