How many times have you heard politicians tell you that the only reason a nation with abundant oil and gas might want to enrich uranium is to build nuclear weapons. The United States has always been one of the top two or three oil and gas producers in the world, but we also have scientists…
Ted Rockwell, one of my favorite nuclear energy professionals, recently shared the following comment on an email list that was discussing a recent report about the National Academy of Sciences effort to learn lessons from Fukushima. This fact should be stated loud and clear, right up front: In every “nuclear disaster”. radiation injured few if…
The Virginia Uranium Working Group held its final public meeting before turning their report in to the Governor on November 27, 2012. The meeting was held in a modest sized room at the Virginia Science Museum in a room where the photos on the wall celebrated Virginia’s railway heritage. One of the two large photos…
The Virginia Uranium Working Group, the body chartered by the governor to provide a scientific policy analysis to determine if the current moratorium on mining uranium in Virginia should be lifted, is holding its final public meetin tonight. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 6:00 pm at the Virginia Science Museum, 2500 West Broad…
I’ve been involved in a reasoned discussion with an oil field accountant / attorney about US natural gas prices and total resource base. I thought that it would be worth preserving and sharing that discussion here so that it would not get buried. If you read closely between the lines, you will see why I…
One of my favorite aspects of hosting a topically focused site like Atomic Insights is attracting active participation from people with varied backgrounds who join together to discuss their shared energy interests. I hope you delve into the comment threads; they are often more informative than the initial post that starts the conversation. A few…
Energy discussions often frustrate me, partially because so many people in the discussion ignore what customers want. Perhaps my view is wrong, but my conclusion is that people really want power, not energy. There is a fundamental difference; power is energy per unit time. Power units measure the rate at which energy can be consumed;…
Sabine Roeser, a philosopher, provided a thought-provoking talk at TEDx Delft on the importance of including emotions in debates about risky technologies. Though my initial response to the early part of her talk was defensive, I kept on watching and ended up concluding that I agreed with the vast majority of her message. Though it…
On Friday, Nov 16, I wrote about the potential impact of applying a “peanut butter spread” sequestration algorithm to the NRC budget. (I spent a few years as a government budget analyst, so I sometimes speak the lingo.) If the accountants at the Office of Management and Budget continue on their proposed path, the NRC…
It is time to remind Congress and the President that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s budget is, by law, almost 90% funded with fees assessed on licensees. The structure was put into place during the Reagan Administration at a time when David Stockman was selling the idea that the government could charge fees on users of…
Yesterday I wrote about the need to rationally compare the physical risks associated with producing energy by burning natural gas against the similar risks of producing energy by fissioning uranium in a nuclear power plant. However, even when decision makers includes some reasonable estimates for those kinds of risks, they are still often choosing to…
It is way past time to begin the long process of helping people understand how to rationally weigh the risks versus benefits of available power or fuel systems. For far too many years, promoters of immensely profitable products like natural gas have been loudly and frequently telling society about its benefits while glossing over the…