On Thursday (December 10, 2015), the Virginia chapter of the American Nuclear Society (ANS) held its traditional annual joint meeting with the Virginia chapter of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). The evening’s invited speaker was Marshall Cohen, who became the first full time director of the Virginia Nuclear Energy Consortium (VNEC) in July…
Bottom line up front. Atomic fuel utilization facilities should not be subjected to the export control regime that is supposed to be focused on special nuclear materials production facilities. Instead, utilization facility exports should be subjected to rules similar to those that apply to other advanced technology exports like aircraft, computers, and communications equipment. The…
I’m hoping to start a firestorm. Here’s a burning question that won’t allow me to sleep, so I’m going to be really selfish and try to share it with the world so that more people can lose some sleep in the process of trying to answer it. It’s a complicated question that has a number…
Last week was one in which the words nuclear, energy and innovation came together in more places and in more contexts that in any other week I can readily recall. On Monday, November 30, President Obama, President Hollande and several other world leaders introduced Mission Innovation, which is a non binding pledge by the leaders…
During a press conference held in Paris on December 2, 2015, Dr. James Hansen provided an explanation of what he called a simple market based approach to address CO2 emissions. He suggests that a world wide fee on all hydrocarbon fuels could be assessed at the domestic mine or port of entry. His proposed fee…