Kirk Sorensen is the founder of Flibe Energy. He has been prospecting in libraries for years to learn more about a path not taken (yet). He is convinced that the way forward for energy in the United States and around the world is the molten salt thorium reactor that can produce an almost unlimited amount…
The Discovery Channel is teasing a show called Earth 2050: Powering the Future. One of the primary sponsors of the show is the Royal Dutch Shell Oil Company. Here is a brief teaser about future energy supplies from “renewable” sources of power. On the one hand, it was interesting to note that Discovery had classified…
A friend tweeted a link to a terrific satire titled Roentgen Shrugged that was published in the March 2011 issue of Health Physics News. The piece describes what might happen to modern medical care in the foreseeable future if the radiation protection guild keeps ratcheting down allowable radiation dose exposure levels to an ever more…
Have you noticed this refreshingly honest ad about the real purpose behind much of the push to implement taxpayer subsidized energy efficiency programs? Let me translate how I read the words in the ads that are popping up all over the place (on line, in the DC metro, in Union Station, and on street corners…
The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory issued a press release on December 20, 2011 titled New Take on Impacts of Low Dose Radiation: Berkeley Lab Researchers Find Evidence Suggesting Risk May Not Be Proportional to Dose at Low Dose Levels. The press release summarizes the results of a paper that has been published in the Proceedings…
A friend on Twitter posted a link to this song; the beat and the graphics helped to put me into a contemplative mood.
Joseph Mangano and Janette Sherman are at it again with their infamous efforts to scare as many people as possible about the effects of atomic radiation. With much fanfare and a coordinated issuance of press releases, they announced the publication of a new “study” claiming that radiation released by the three reactors at Fukushima Daiichi…
I correspond regularly with advocates for various nuclear fission technologies; there are many disagreements about the best way forward. The advocates can get pretty passionate about what they believe to be the weaknesses of competing technologies. There are times when I need to step in to remind them that their competitive target should be the…
In the months and years to come, post-Fukushima, people who influence power plant construction decisions will be making choices that will have a large impact on future generations. In this reflective time of the year, it is important to gather the most accurate lessons learned and to offer some food for thought about the motives…
Senator Tom Carper (D-DE) is a retired US Navy Commander and a former governor of the state of Delaware. In the below clip taken from the December 15, 2011 hearing held by the Senate committee on Environment and Public Works, he offers some sage advice to the inexperienced and poorly trained Chairman of the Nuclear…
On December 15, 2011, at the end of a long hearing in which four dedicated, experienced, mature commissioners from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) testified that Chairman Jaczko was an abusive leader who filtered information and berated professional staff members, Senator Barbara Boxer offered the opportunity for closing statements from her colleagues on “the other…
On December 15, 2011, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing titled “Review of the NRC’s Near-Term Task Force Recommendations for Enhancing Reactor Safety in the 21st Century”. Instead of remaining on that topic, the hearing turned into a story where he said ‘A’, another guy said ‘A’, a woman said ‘A’, and a…