The Platts Small Modular Reactor meeting attracted about 250 registered attendees. That might seem like a rather small number to people who are used to industry gatherings where the attendee list can be measured in the thousands, but this meeting was taking place at one of the newer and more expensive hotels in Washington and…
I am eagerly looking forward to spending some time during the next couple of days talking with others who are interested and perhaps as excited about the prospects for opening new markets to the possibility of using nuclear energy instead of diesel engines, combustion gas turbines or small coal fired steam plants. It is time…
There is a depressing meme circulating around the Internet and in the commercial media that attempts to use BP’s incredibly costly accident on the Deepwater Horizon as a reason why we should avoid using nuclear energy. (See, for example, BP spill an argument against nuclear power.) The very idea of trying to use what is…
Suzy Hobbs and her team at PopAtomic.org have been hard at work producing images and posters aimed at changing the conversation about energy. They have a point of view that is difficult to argue with, but I am sure there will be those who want to try. Out of their recently produced work, this one…
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has released two frequently referenced studies on the future of major energy sources titled The Future of Nuclear Power (2003 with update in 2009) and The Future of Coal (2007). The most recent installment in the series is titled The MIT Study on The Future of Natural Gas. The…
On Tuesday, June 22, Nuclear Townhall announced its debut and released a fully developed site full of articles and links with a front page design that looks a bit like the Drudge report. The new publication bills itself as “self-appointed Guardians of the Renaissance” and states that its mission is to provide answers to several…
Now I know that the Cape Wind off-shore project is going to have a very tough time getting completed. Wl-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, and a company that has been paying for a major advertising campaign touting its efforts to to “green” its operations has filed a motion to intervene in the Massachusetts Department of…
On June 16, 2010, Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now hosted a roundtable discussion on energy that included Amy, Michael Brune, Executive Director of the Sierra Club, Monique Harden of Advocates for Environmental Human Rights, and Amory Lovins, founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute. The quartet spoke for 30 minutes and covered a wide variety of ideas…
Every once in a while, I write up an observation or thought that cannot be directly related to the kinds of energy discussions appropriate for Atomic Insights. I occasionally publish those observations on a separate blog called Questioning Attitude that is named after one of the life philosophies that Admiral Rickover encouraged in his nuclear…
In less than two weeks, I will be attending the Platts Small Modular Reactor meeting being held in Washington, DC on June 28 and 29. Electric Utility Consultants, Inc. (EUCI) is hosting a Small, Modular, & Mini Nuclear Reactor Workshop July 19-20, 2010 in Arlington, VA. I received an invitation yesterday to speak at a…
It continues to frustrate me when people like Amory Lovins, Joe Romm or Craig Severance boldly claim that nuclear energy is “too expensive” despite all evidence to the contrary. Yesterday, World Nuclear News published another piece of evidence to add to the pile supporting the notion that many of the expensive cost drivers of nuclear…
The above video is inspiring, seductive and well produced. It makes a number of important points, but it is missing at least three key elements that would change it from being a vision that is as unreachable as a mirage to something that is tangible, optimistic and achievable. Those elements are uranium, thorium and plutonium…