In the past few days, both ad-supported commercial media and the social media universe have been filled with stories about how scientists on the US West coast were able to find traces of radioactive cesium and could conclusively link that cesium to the material released from the Fukushima nuclear power plants. Just in case you…
A number of people who have read of my opposition to the appointment of Dr. Allison Macfarlane to be the Chairman of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission have counseled me to passively accept a “done deal” because they believe it is obvious that the fix has been in for quite some time. They think that…
This video was produced by the World Nuclear Association (WNA). It shows that the predicted health consequences of nuclear accidents are often orders of magnitude greater than the actual, measured health consequences of the accidents that have occurred. Instead of the “worst case scenarios” of hundreds of thousands to millions of people getting sick and…
Dr. Allison Macfarlane, an associate professor at George Mason University, with a PhD in Geology from MIT, has been nominated by President Obama to be both a Commissioner and the new Chairman of the U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Agency. If the President does not change his mind, that decision alone will be enough to turn…
On Monday, May 21, 2012, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission released Dr. Greg Jaczko’s letter of resignation. The first phrase in the letter jumped out at me as an example of why I have been so strongly opposed to his tenure at the Commission. After nearly eight years on the Commission, I am announcing my…
For the next three days (May 21-23, 2012), the Nuclear Energy Institute is hosting the annual nuclear industry conference and nuclear supplier expo called The Nuclear Energy Assembly. The meeting, normally held in Washington, DC, will be at the Westin in Charlotte, North Carolina. Over the past several years, Charlotte has become a significant hub…
I do not have much time in my schedule over the next few days for a long form blog post, but I have lots of thoughts to share on a variety of atomic related topics. If you are interested in that stream of consciousness, follow @Atomicrod on Twitter. Others who have posted interesting recent tweets…
Dr. Arjun Makhijani has been fighting against the use of nuclear fission energy since his college days in the late 1960s. He was influenced by Professor Thomas Pigford at the University of California, Berkeley who lectured on the need to build 1000 nuclear reactors because using fission was better than depending on coal. After hearing…
Will Davis took the lead and tapped his well of colleagues who are nuclear energy professionals to produce a fact filled post for ANS Nuclear Cafe titled Spent fuel at Fukushima Daiichi safer than asserted. Aside: I have a small quibble about the chosen title; I wish that Will – or the assigned headline writer…
Linus Pauling was one of the most famous scientists of his era. In the period immediately following WWII, he became active in efforts to ban the bomb and stop atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons. Like Hermann Muller, he had no compunction against using inaccurate information about the health effects of radiation to instill sufficient fear…
This evening I had the opportunity to talk with Dr. Arjun Makhijani, the President and Senior Engineer at the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER) of Takoma Park, MD. The conversation is available at Atomic Show #183 – Arjun Makhijani Explains Carbon Free, Nuclear Free Strategy Dr. Makhijani is the author of Carbon Free,…
There is a scary myth floating around the internet. According to the tall tale, the spent fuel pool at Fukushima Daiichi unit four poses a dire threat to all mankind. As I explain in the above video, nothing could be farther from the truth. The sources of the lies have a well established history of…