I have been fascinated by radioisotope thermal generators (RTGs), aka nuclear batteries, ever since I saw a display at the Maryland Science Center in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor sometime in the early 1990s. In that energy exhibit, there was a tiny RTG that was designed to power a cardiac pacemaker. What impressed me the most was…
This is a Public Service Announcement. November 30 Film and Panel at the Gund Institute The Energy Education Project of the Ethan Allen Institute has two members of our Board of Advisors on the panel at an event sponsored by the Gund Institute at University of Vermont (UVM). The film and panel start at 4…
The people who operate Master Resource believe to the bottom of their pocketbooks that hydrocarbons are THE prime energy product. They often attempt to disguise their assumption; here is their explanation of the etymology of their chosen blog title: MasterResource is a blog dedicated to analysis and commentary about energy markets and public policy. Precisely…
On November 22, 2011, I spoke to the student ANS chapter at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA. It was a fairly compact, but enthusiastic gathering of bright individuals who have recently decided to make a career in nuclear technology. Some are interested in nuclear medicine, some in the materials used in nuclear reactors, and…
The Bakken Shale formation near Williston, North Dakota is fueling a rapid oil boom and change in lifestyle for the residents. Oil production in North Dakota is nearing a half a million barrels of oil per day (in a nation that consumes roughly 19 million barrels of oil per day during a recession and a…
I spent about 15 years trying (unsuccessfully) to get a small modular reactor company off the ground. Our concept was based on an adaptation of the successful German pebble bed demonstration reactor called the AVR. In 2003, Tsinghua University in China completed the construction of the HTR-10, which was essentially a direct copy of the…
A frequent commenter on Atomic Insights is a very experienced nuclear professional who often keeps me on my toes by sharing thoughts that are fairly common in our community. I have recently been posting quite a number of blogs on the need to revise radiation protection standards to base them on a more accurate model…
I received a link from the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) to a fascinating video about their recent efforts to develop CoSecTM, a new resin technology that is more effective at capturing cobalt-60. Most of the radiation doses that nuclear workers receive come from this single isotope. One possible cost savings aspect of this technology…
By Ted Rockwell How are Permissible Radiation Limits Set? How Much is Science, How Much “Prudence”? U.S. Regulatory Report NCRP-136 examined the question of establishing permissible radiation limits. After looking at the data, it concluded that most people who get a small dose of nuclear radiation are not harmed by it, and in fact are…
This post was written by Ted Rockwell. A Plea for Common Sense New lessons are beginning to emerge from Fukushima. Each new problem leads to heaping on additional safety requirements. But some contradictions are beginning to raise questions: Amid tens of thousands of deaths from non-nuclear causes, not a single life-shortening radiation injury has occurred….
Two young graduate students describe their plans to develop something called the Waste Annihilating Molten Salt Reactor (WAMSR). The biggest applause line in the talk was the following: Right now in the world there are about 270,000 metric tons of high level waste that exists. We can take that waste, put it into our reactors…
The Richmond-Times Dispatch hosted a debate on November 15, 2011 titled Public Square: The debate over nuclear energy in Va.. Since I recently moved to Virginia specifically because of nuclear energy, I figured that attending the debate was a good way to invest my time. Aside: . I am one of several hundred people who…