The world would be a better place if more people thoroughly understood how the balance between supply of a commodity and demand for that commodity worked to establish market prices. The improvement would be even more impressive if customers learned how to take action to shift the balance into their favor instead of allowing the…
As a lazy man who likes to repurpose his work whenever possible, I want to share a note that I just sent to some of my nuclear friends who question my analysis about the actions of fossil fuel interests to restrain the growth of nuclear energy. Rod, I have never been a big fan of…
Why have the efforts to restrict nuclear energy development been so well supported for so many years? My theory is that hydrocarbon marketers have had a strong financial motive for supporting any group that seeks to reduce the supply of energy. Even when those groups seem to be fighting against the hydrocarbon industry, they are…
Last night, CNN Presents aired a completely one sided and inaccurate portrayal of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. It extensively quoted both Arnie Gundersen and Bernie Sanders and included a staged interview that made the Nuclear Regulatory Commission look both incompetent and unresponsive. That episode is scheduled to be repeated tonight. Here is a…
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is one of the most venerated engineering institutions in the United States. Its pronouncements and considered opinions have a significant influence on our government’s policy, especially in such important fields as energy. In recent years, the MIT Energy Initiative, a multi-disciplinary team led by Professor Ernie Moniz has issued…
I am deeply troubled by the sabre rattling over the issue of Iran developing nuclear energy capabilities. Tiny efforts like mine on Atomic Insights may not matter much, but it is time to do all I can to shift the conversation away from war mongering to something that is a more productive and positive use…
George Monbiot (@GeorgeMonbiot) provided a link to the following video in a tweet about the growing influence of Australian mining interests on the news media. Lord Monckton is one of the world’s most famous, and well paid, climate change deniers.
Nature, one of the world’s most prestigious science publications, has published an article that should give natural gas promoters in the environmental community an enormous dose of indigestion. It provides scientific evidence supported by hard data measurements that the act of extracting and “producing” natural gas for consumption releases enough methane into the atmosphere to…
One of the myths that Atomic Insights is continually working to dispel is the idea that nuclear energy is a partisan issue with one party supporting it and one party fighting it. Not only is that perception untrue, but it is destructive to the nation and to the technology. Nuclear energy developments are not easy,…
At noon today, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission is scheduled to hold an affirmation session. The second item on the agenda is listed as “b. Southern Nuclear Operating Co. (Vogtle Electric Generating Plant, Units 3 and 4), Docket Nos. 52-025-COL & 52-026-COL – Draft Mandatory Hearing Decision (Tentative).” The meeting will be available via a…
Note: Len Koch, whose participation in nuclear energy research started in the 1940s, wrote the below open letter to colleagues who are striving to restore interest in the progress that they made in research and development of the Integral Fast Reactor during the period from 1954-1994 the year that President Clinton and Hazel O’Leary, his…
On February 2, 2012, the Sierra Club allowed a Time magazine blog to break a poorly kept “secret” whose existence had threatened to get out of hand. In a post titled Exclusive: How the Sierra Club Took Millions From the Natural Gas Industry—and Why They Stopped Bryan Walsh described how one of the oldest, largest,…