A recurring theme on Atomic Insights is that nuclear energy is a disruptive technology that has the potential to reshuffle the wealth and power underpinning what my generation called “The Establishment”, which is essentially the same as what some now call the 1%. Though it may be a bit of an exaggeration or over simplification,…
At first I was ready to yawn and say, “So what?” The headlines seemed almost tailor made for tabloids or TV news – “Radiation from Fukushima power plant meltdown ‘triggers genetic mutations in butterflies’. Since I rarely watch television news and never read more than the blaring headlines of tabloids that are inescapable in the…
During the first week of August each year, the American Nuclear Society hosts a conference called the Utility Working Conference (ANS-UWC). It is one of my favorite ANS meetings because it draws a crowd of professionals whose daily employment is focused on safely operating electricity production facilities powered by atomic fission. Those facilities produce 20%…
On Sunday, August 12, 2012, I wrote a brief commentary about how the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) had managed to produce a week long series about the changing landscape of energy production in America without a single mention of the ‘N’ word – nuclear. Daniel, an Atomic Insights regular, was interested enough in finding out…
This past week, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) ran a series of shows focusing on energy development in the United States. The above video is well moderated debate about the topics described in the shows featuring Robert Bryce, a senior fellow from the Manhattan Institute and the author of Power Hungry: The Myth of Green…
James Hansen has been warning the world since the 1980s about the risks we are imposing on ourselves. Unfortunately, not enough people have listened so we are continuing to increase the rate at which we are dumping CO2 into the only atmosphere we have. In the above video [no longer available], Hansen uses clear, unemotional…
On Monday, August 6, 2012, Chevron’s refinery in Richmond, California erupted in flames, spewing thick black smoke that included a mixture of hydrocarbons, heavy metals, and combustion products high into the atmosphere. A shelter in place order was issued and several hundred people experienced enough pain and discomfort from exposure to the smoke to seek…
Ben Heard of Decarbonise SA shared a teaser video clip from a recent Big Ideas debate titled We’ve seen the future and it’s nuclear. In this clip, Ben spends his allotted 9 minutes telling people how he became convinced that the only path to an abundant, reliable future energy supply system that minimizes CO2 and…
Richard Muller has a lot in common with Amory Lovins. They both received MacArthur Foundation Fellowships (aka “Genius Grants”) several decades ago – Muller in 1982 and Lovins in 1993. They both get a lot of attention from the commercial media and from elected politicians. They both were active members of large environmental groups early…
Update (August 14, 2012) The Atomic Show podcast is now working properly on iTunes. Here is the link to the show. You can open it on iTunes as well. This is a new location, so all of those wonderful comments and ratings that you provided have disappeared. If you like the show and want to…
I know that some people want to declare the Jaczko era over and to move on to other items, but there is still a good deal of information about the reign and its long term effects that has not been fully exposed or discussed. Though Jaczko and his patrons have declared that the OFFICIAL USE…
During the period from July 15-18 2012, more than 440 nuclear professionals attended the annual U. S. Women In Nuclear (US WIN) conference held in Orlando, FL. I spoke to three of the attendees – Julie Ezold, Sandy DePirro, and Savannah Fitzwater – about the conference and about the organization. The women work in three…