Though I am not actively pursuing the idea right now, I have had several opportunities in the past couple of days to explain to people why I made the design decisions I did when putting together the Adams Engine concept. As a rather lazy man, I figured it would be easier to repurpose those arguments…
Here are some items worth watching or listening to when you have some free time: On January 28, the Colbert Report included an interview with Michael Shellenberger of The Breakthrough Institute. Colbert introduced Michael as “an environmentalist who believes in nuclear energy. Finally, liberals who glow in the dark.” On January 30, Mark Lynas, a…
Ted Rockwell has been an active participant in the development of nuclear energy production in the United States since the very earliest days of the technology. He started his nuclear career as an engineering troubleshooter in 1943 at the site that is now Oak Ridge National Laboratory during the Manhattan Project. He was one of…
One of the benefits of being “out there” in the social media world – which includes old fashioned email lists – is the opportunity to meet like minded souls without being limited to people who happen to be in your neighborhood or your physical social circle. I recently saw an exceptional commentary about Pandora’s Promise…
Sami Mäkeläinen and I agree that the world’s economy is barreling forward on a course that will result in a great deal of pain and suffering as we collide with the limitations on the available supply of hydrocarbons paired with the negative environmental effects of continuing to increase the rate at which they are consumed….
There is a meme circulating on web claiming that France’s intervention in Mali can be traced to a desire to capture the country’s uranium resources. That idea is complete and utter rubbish that can only be believed by people who have done no math and no research to recognize whether such a theory can be…
Dear President Obama: I was heartened to hear that you have put fighting climate change near the top of your “to do” list during your second term. It is time for you to dig through your memory banks, your pile of correspondence and the lessons you are learning by studying Eisenhower’s presidency to realize that…
One of the more frequent inquiries I have received during my years operating Atomic Insights is “What happened to the NS (nuclear ship) Savannah?”. I just learned about a recently completed documentary film by Thomas Michael Conner, a former member of the ship’s crew, that is designed to answer that question in detail using sea…
A friend just posted a link to a site that everyone who wants effective energy decision making should bookmark. It is titled Performance of Photovoltaics (PV) in Germany. The site includes animation features that illustrate the modeled output of solar installations over the course of each day. The model used should provide a reasonably good…
The McClean Lake uranium operation is one of the most productive uranium mines in the world. The above video offers a perspective on the operation and its low impact on the surrounding environment from the people who live and work at the facility.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has just published an open letter to President Obama that offers opinions on how to solve various pressing problems. I’d like to riff on that letter and suggest that we should be pursuing ways to use one problem to solve another one. According to the BAS, there is a…
From XKCD: A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language. Hat tip to Dr. Brian Mays, one of the more prolific contributors to the Atomic Insights comment threads.