Month: December 2009

On December 5, 2009, Scott Simon of National Public Radio interviewed Undersecretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs Maria Otero. He asked her about the politics surrounding the US government’s negotiating position at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, which starts tomorrow, December 7 and runs through December 18 in Copenhagen, Denmark. President Obama’s…

The below audio is the result of an investigation about the prospects for an American Nuclear Renaissance produced by BBC reporter Julian O’Halloran. Mr. O’Halloran’s report contains a few misconceptions – like the idea that it is only concern about climate change that is encouraging a new look at nuclear power and the idea that…

A few weeks ago, there were a number of reactions to a recent front page article in Scientific American titled A Plan to Power 100 Percent of the Planet with Renewables. John Wheeler produced a This Week In Nuclear episode in response to that article that he called Un-Scientific American in which he expressed his…

Despite the best efforts of anti-nuclear activists, who appear to be stuck on stage one of the Kubler-Ross Model of recognizing that they have suffered a loss, people are working hard to solidify the foundations needed for a sustainable nuclear industry restoration. At a recent one day conference held in Cincinnati, 100 potential suppliers gathered…

Lloyd Yates, the CEO of Progress Energy, has published a terrific op-ed piece in the Charlotte News-Observer titled Coming clean on coal that clearly explains why his company has chosen to shut down coal fired power plants that supply 30% of its current electricity demand. More importantly, he explains HOW his company will continue to…

In another sign that the momentum is growing to build new nuclear power plants in the United States, Platts will be hosting a conference titled “Nuclear Energy: Opportunities for Growth and Investment” in Washington DC during the period from February 17-19. In a sign that Atomic Insights is starting to achieve some status as a…

Over at The Energy Collective, Jesse Jenkins, who directs the energy and climate policy program at the Breakthrough Institute posed a series of questions about public policy aimed at initiating a discussion about overcoming hurdles to nuclear power deployment. His entering position for the sake of this discussion is that deploying nuclear power is a…

Though there are many benefits of nuclear energy and many reasons to justify the claim that it is superior to fossil fuel combustion, one particular aspect of the technology is being given credit by many journalists for its recent rise in popularity – it does not produce any carbon dioxide during plant operation. It also…