Nuclear Energy and Commercial Ship Propulsion

I took a day of leave from my day job on January 20, 2010 to attend a workshop titled Nuclear Power for Commercial Ship Propulsion sponsored by the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME) and the Center for the Commercial Deployment of Transportation Technologies (CCDoTT) of the California State University, Long Beach. It…

Natural Gas Marketing Messages in Key Washington DC Locations

It is not hard to find examples of a serious marketing push by the natural gas industry in our nation’s capital. The industry recognizes that important decisions for the future of the industry and its long term profitability are going to be made within the next few months. I snapped a few photos of the…

Do We Need a Smart Grid, A Strong Grid, Or Less Grid?

One of the reasons that I am a strong advocate of smaller nuclear energy plants is that I resist the notion of the inevitability of greater interconnectedness and dependence. I like systems that have firewalls, circuit breakers, and air gaps to ensure that a failure in one location can be isolated. I do not like…

Natural Gas Pipelines are Targets in the Conflicts in the North Caucasus Region Between the Black and Caspian Seas

According the the UPI, an explosion in a gas pipeline in the North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia has resulted in service disruption to somewhere between 100,000 and 230,000 people. The article indicates that repairs should be completed by Monday January 18, 2010. The article does not state the cause of this explosion, but it implies…

Putting a Human Face On Nuclear Energy for Amanda Little – Author of Power Trip

On Tuesday, January 12, 2010, I visited the Politics and Prose bookstore in Chevy Chase, Maryland. I went there for an author talk by Amanda Little. She shared the story of the journey of discovery about energy that formed the basis for her recently published book titled Power Trip: From Oil Wells to Solar Cells—Our…

Meeting Amanda Little On Her "Power Trip" Book Tour

Last night I had the pleasure of attending a book talk by Amanda Little, author of Power Trip: From Oil Wells to Solar Cells – Our Ride to the Renewable Future. It was the last stop on her ten city tour to promote the book. It was fitting that this was the final stop in…

BBC Visits A Proposed Location For An International Nuclear Fuel Bank

A friend shared a link on Twitter to a BBC article and video titled International nuclear bank – helping world peace?. The article discusses the long history of the proposals to establish a fuel bank that can be placed in territory under the control of the International Atomic Energy Agency as a means of reassuring…