I decided that it might be interesting to see what the Esperanza crew thought about my idea that they could use an AdamsEngineTM. Here is the comment that I made on their most recent blog post by Irene titled Are we there yet?: Irene: I heard about your expedition while listening the interview that Melissa…
Yesterday while on a long bike ride on one of my favorite local routes, I was listening to the NPR Environment Podcast. NPR’s (the initials stand for National Public Radio) description of the show is: Environmental science and reporting on issues from Morning Edition, All Things Considered and other award-winning NPR programs. I like listening…
One of the arguments that is often used against new nuclear power plants is that they have the potential to contribute to the spread of nuclear weapons. That charge is debatable, but what is not debatable is the fact that only nuclear reactors can permanently destroy the material that is left over once nuclear weapons…
For many years, I have been involved in discussions with a dedicated group of scientists and engineers who question the basis of our current radiation control limits. According to the way that these people, mostly member of an organization called Radiation, Science and Health, interpret the results of hundreds of carefully conducted studies, the Linear,…
One of the more common arguments on this blog is one about the left-right, conservative-liberal views about atomic energy. I and a number of readers like to caution people that you cannot equate liberal with anti-nuclear any more than you can equate conservative with pro-nuclear. The effort to slow or halt nuclear power developments is…
The popular New York Times blog titled Freakonomics noticed the Wall Street Journal review of Gwyneth Cravens’s book Power to Save the World and produced a post on 21 November 2007 titled Do Not Read This If You Are Anti-Nuclear Energy. Apparently Stephen J. Dubner, the author of Freakonomics has been thinking and writing quite…
There was a long front page article in the November 19, 2007 issue of the Wall Street Journal with a rather scary title: Oil Officials See Limit Looming on Production. Though the article described peak oil theory as “an older, often-derided notion”, it provided a convincing amount of support for the theory as I understand…
Spencer Reiss, who often writes about energy for Wired Magazine, published a review of Gwyneth Cravens’s Power to Save the World: The Truth About Nuclear Energy in the November 20, 2007 edition of the Wall Street Journal. The value of this review has already been demonstrated to me – I have received several emails mentioning…
A friend sent me a link to an interesting article on the web site of the International Herald Tribune titled A green city confronts its energy needs and nuclear worries. The article is intriguing on several levels. It talks about two businesses with a common location. One is a solar panel manufacturer – AVA Solar…
It is well known and accepted that tiny particles breathed into human lungs can cause a number of different health effects including asthma, heart attacks, lung cancer and other respiratory illnesses. The dangerous size is particles that are 2.5 microns or less because there are few natural defenses against these becoming deeply embedded into lung…
Jack Spencer at the Hertiage Foundation has published an important new paper with a substantial list of references that traces the effects of a shift in US public policy during the period from 1953-1980 regarding nuclear power from strong support to overt discouragement and over regulation. The paper is titled Competitive Nuclear Energy Investment: Avoiding…
I am a subscriber to the paper edition of the Wall Street Journal. It is a valuable source of information about the world of business. It has little in common with what people often refer to as “the liberal media”. Several times in the past couple of weeks, however, the Journal has featured stories about…