If a special session occurs and the press ignores it, did it really happen? Ted Rockwell, one of my favorite nuclear pioneers, was unable to attend the American Nuclear Society annual meeting despite having worked diligently to help organize a President’s Special Session titled “Low-Level Radiation and Its Implications for Fukushima Recovery.” He eagerly looked…
NRC Chairman Greg Jaczko was asked to resign from his position of authority over the Nuclear Regulatory Commission because the agency charged with independent audits of his organization found that he was not trustworthy and not discharging the duties assigned to him as the Chairman of a duly appointed group of commissioners who share equal…
In keeping with a familiar pattern, Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Chairman Gregory Jaczko issued a press release in advance of the the official release of a damaging NRC Inspector General (IG) report about him. In my opinion, for what little it is worth, it is another example of his routine abuse of the power of…
Richard Martin’s new book titled Superfuel: Thorium, The Green Energy Source for the Future is a book that should come with a warning label. Though the author professes to be worried about climate change and fossil fuel depletion and wants to be seen as favoring new nuclear power development, that support comes with a very…
Meredith Angwin, who blogs at Yes Vermont Yankee, published a book review post titled Superfuel: A Book I Wanted to Love. The book is a tribute to thorium and the people that Richard Martin refers to as “thorium-heads”. The villains in the book are the people that Martin calls “nuclearati” – otherwise known as the…
Several months ago, Cameron Reilly, the founder of The Podcast Network (TPN), notified me that he was shutting down TPN. He had worked hard to build the business for many years, but had decided to move on. That announcement meant that I had to find a new home for The Atomic Show podcast. As a…
After work on Monday June 18, 2012, I drove the short distance from Lynchburg to Chatham, VA to attend a public information meeting held by the governor appointed task force on uranium mining. As I arrived in Chatham, I was treated to a fairly common event in the southeastern United States, a drenching thunderstorm that…
The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Augmented Inspection Team (AIT) held a public information meeting on June 18, 2012 to present findings from their investigation into the cause of the excessive steam generator tube degradation found in units 2 and 3 of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS). Southern California Edison (SCE), SONGS owner and…
A couple of days ago, I happily reported on an article by Mark Lynas indicating that Friends of the Earth (FOE) UK was reconsidering its stance on nuclear energy. Aside Mark’s article reminded readers that FOE is a federation, not a monolithic organization; each country’s chapter can produce its own policies. End Aside. Mark based…
I noted a disturbing comment in an article titled Fairfield County hopes reactors will boost economy The article is about the understandable desire among leaders in Fairfield County, SC to ensure that the construction of VC Summer units 2 and 3 result in local benefits. They want local people to have a shot of landing…
Mark Lynas has published a remarkable interview with Mike Childs, the head of policy, science and research for Friends of the Earth UK. The article includes a full transcript of the audio interview so that people cannot claim that Lynas has taken Mr. Childs’s views out of context. The bottom line is that FOE UK…
It is difficult to organize pronuclear rallies because happy, prosperous, employed people can rarely be bothered to get out on the street, shout and shake signs. However, Meredith Angwin and Howard Shaffer have done a pretty fair job of organizing some interesting pronuclear rallies in Vermont, but they have generally received just local coverage. It…