Like all but immediately essential federal government workers in Washington, DC, I have spent the past 4.5 working days at home since the city has been effectively shut down. We have experienced two heavy snowfalls within 48 hours of each other. While shoveling what must have been several tons of heavy, wet snow over a…
Arnie Gundersen, a self-described expert witness, testified in front of the Vermont Senate Natural Resources & Energy Committee earlier this week. The topic of the testimony was the discovery of tritiated water in groundwater monitoring wells located within 100 feet of the power plant and its associated buildings. A secondary topic was speculation about the…
One of my frustrations with the nuclear establishment is the fact that the standard response to criticism to to politely accept it and promise to do better. That response is offered whether or not the criticism is valid or not. It also is accepted in isolation without an understanding of scale or comparison to competitive…
At least five people were killed on Sunday, February 7, 2010 at a natural gas fired power plant nearing construction completion. You can read more details including the names of the men who were killed at Middletown Explosion’s Victims Were Fathers, Grandfather. Additional Resources WSFB Hartford – Eyewitness News video from the day of…
I just had a BFO (Blinding Flash of the Obvious) moment. I have figured out why Chairman Jaczko seems to be working at cross purposes to the Secretary of Energy and the President by insisting that his job as an independent regulator of nuclear energy does not include efforts to encourage its growing use. The…
It has been one really strange winter here in Annapolis, Maryland. We have already had two snowstorms that each dumped something close to 20″ of snow. My wife and I just finished digging out from the most recent one yesterday afternoon, but we are now under a winter weather watch with a prediction for another…
It is always a pleasure to discover another blogger who is writing about nuclear energy from a perspective of knowledge and sound research. I have recently begun reading a new blog titled Go4Nuclear’s Blog. It is being produced by a nuclear engineering student from the University of California at Berkeley. Here is an excerpt from…
Just in case you want a tiny diversion that provides inspiration on the power of science and technology, here is a short clip of this morning’s shuttle launch – mission designation was STS-130. The voice in the background is a friend from my days at the Naval Academy. He was there because one of the…
The more I read his work, the more I respect James Hansen’s intellect and passion. I am reading his recently published book titled Storms of My Grandchildren and learning more than I ever knew before about his work as an atmospheric scientist studying the earth for the past 30 years. Dr. Hansen and I share…
On Friday, February 5, Areva hosted a conference call for invited bloggers to discuss the progress that they were making on their Eagle Rock (Idaho) nuclear fuel enrichment facility. Areva was represented on the call by Sam Shakir, the head of Areva Enrichment Services. Dan Yurman at Idaho Samizdat has a summary write up about…
There is an op-ed piece in the New Hampshire Sentinel-Source titled READER OPINION: Radiation must be taken seriously written by Kevin Kamps. The op-ed is focused on trying to elevate concerns about tritium found in the groundwater at Vermont Yankee. He is responding to an article that the paper had previously published titled Scientists: Tritium…
Many of the most virulent anti-nuclear activists have begun focusing almost exclusively on spreading the assumption that nuclear energy means expensive energy. They have been helped in this effort by statements from the established nuclear industry who claim that new plants are so expensive that they require government assistance and incentives in order to get…