Bob Hargraves, the author of Thorium: Energy Cheaper than Coal, recently traveled to Shanghai to present a 30 minute talk summarizing the main points of discussion that he covered in his book. The occasion of the trip was Thorium Energy Conference 2012. Bob is a professor with a good facility for numbers and a talent…
A friend shared the above video about the Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF). I thought it was worth sharing and discussing, though I am not sure how current it is. The FFTF was not a shining example of government efficiency; it was initially conceived in the 1960s, finally completed in the late 1970s, started up…
I’m doing a little history reading today and came across a passage worth sharing. The source is Glenn Seaborg’s “The Atomic Energy Commission Under Nixon” St. Martin’s Press, NY 1993 pg 101-102. In December 1965, the management of Northern States Power Company (NSP) reached an internal decisions that a new generating unit in the 500-electrical-megawatt…
I’ve always been a National Geographic fan. I discovered this while looking for something else, and decided it was worth saving and sharing.
Now this is the kind of messaging I keep trying to tell my colleagues that the nuclear industry should be unashamedly sharing. I could not care less if it happens to offend some dirt burners. As the ad shows, when nuclear energy production increases, energy production from competitive fuel sources decreases. It is as simple…
Allow me to share a couple of examples of surprising talent from my alma mater. Ray Ban Vision Go Navy, Beat Army!
Update I checked the NRC blog to find out that the comment that is the main subject of this post had not been approved by the moderator. I edited it to remove the supporting links and made a couple of other minor changes. It appeared right away. I have learned a valuable lesson; on many…
Even with decades worth of passionate discussions about CO2 emissions, it is difficult for some people to comprehend the scale of the problem. This video graphic takes a big step in the right direction. The creator has helped us to see what it would mean if we packed fossil fuel waste from a single large…
(CHARLOTTE, N.C. – December 4, 2012) – The Babcock & Wilcox Company (B&W) (NYSE: BWC) is pleased to announce that the production-standard control room prototype for its B&W mPower™ small modular reactor (SMR) is now operational. This engineering simulator is a key milestone in the B&W mPower development program. The B&W mPower control room prototype,…
On Sunday, December 2, 2012, I gathered together a group of nuclear professionals to talk about the impact to human history of the construction and operation of Critical Pile 1 (CP-1). That simple assembly of graphite, uranium, and uranium dioxide was built in about 6 weeks. When measurements taken during construction indicated that the system…
In the summer of 2012, Argonne National Laboratory recorded the first hand memories of two members of the group of 49 engineers, scientists and students who were present when mankind first proved that it could control a fission chain reaction. Just imagine – you can watch a very recently recorded account from people who were…
An article titled Fukushima inspires safety features for Georgia nuclear reactors is a recent addition to CNN’s Powering the Planet series. It is packed full of misinformation about nuclear energy along with subtle and not so subtle promotion of natural gas, one of nuclear energy’s strongest competitors. The most important misinformation in the article is…