I am in Atlanta, GA for the American Nuclear Society Annual Meeting. Though the use of Twitter, email and face to face communications, five active atomic geeks with web presences got together for lunch. We had a wide ranging conversation that only true geeks could love. People at the table included: John Wheeler – This…
One of the important action items from yesterday’s American Nuclear Society plenary sessions was provided by NRC Commissioner Dale Klein. During his talk, he pointed out the need for an increased focus on education and information sharing. He talked about various ways of getting information to the new workers who will be needed to make…
A good friend sent me the below screen shot of iTunes on June 16, 2009. Pretty cool, don’t you think?
One of the mantras often repeated by the anti-nuclear community during the nadir of the nuclear industry was that any company announcing a nuclear project would see its stock price hammered on Wall Street. That argument has actually been quite effective at slowing down corporate interest in investing – no leaders like to make big…
At ANS annual meetings, the President’s Reception is the traditional kickoff event with lots of good food, freely flowing beverages and opportunities to meet and greet old friends and make new ones. There are not too many places where a guy can find conversations about supercritical CO2, liquid metal breeders, space nuclear reactors, modular power…
At the B&W mPower™ modular reactor press conference, Tina Seeley of Bloomberg News asked the first questions. She was interested in getting some kind of pricing information and also information about the relationship of the federal loan guarantee program to the success of the project. John Fees, CEO of McDermott International Inc. took the question…
Craig Lambert is Director of Engineering, New Business Development, Exelon Generation Company, LLC. He was the tenth and last speaker at the B&W hosted press conference announcing their mPower™ modular reactor. In the above video, he describes Exelon’s analysis of some of the potential benefits that can come from modular reactors and he describes Exelon’s…
Yesterday I posted a clip of John Fees, the CEO of McDermott International, announcing the mPowerTM modular reactor. It was an important announcement, delivered competently by the responsible leader of a major international engineering company. At least one of the comments on that post asked for a bit more “enthusiasm”. Having spent my life around…
During a press conference held on June 10, 2009 at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, John Fees, CEO McDermott International, introduced the mPowerTM modular reactor and described its potential for making a positive impact on American job creation, manufacturing strength, and clean energy development.
Sometimes, games really do change while few people are watching. That is what happened yesterday when Babcock and Wilcox announced their mPowerTM modular nuclear power plant. The big difference is not the basic technology – after all, the mPower reactor is a pressurized water reactor using the same kind of coolant, the same kind of…
During my nearly thirty years of being a nuke, I have participated in hundreds of conversations about the basis for the widespread misunderstandings about the technology that are held by the general public. A variety of possible causes have been proposed over sodas, beers and glasses of wine including weaknesses in a public education system…
Discover Magazine recently published an article with interesting information about next generation nuclear power plants that contains all of the information that you need to know about why the US Department of Energy is one of the largest employers of scientists in the country yet rarely succeeds in its title mission of providing tools that…