Late on a Friday afternoon (September 23), the Department of Energy released an updated performance report on the MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF). DOE’s internal Office of Project Management Oversight and Assessment in partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers produced the report using assumptions and data provided by DOE leadership. The report concludes…
Human activity has created a carbon dioxide problem. Dr. Frank Shu and his team have a partial solution called “supertorrefaction” that is worth sharing. Problem Solving Versus Panicking When faced with problems, rather than panic or fret, people with an engineering mindset prefer finding solutions using the best available tools. The more creative members of…
This is a call to action. The Department of Energy is soliciting comments on its excess uranium management plan. The deadline for comments, initially announced as August 18, 2016, has been extended until September 19. That is just 4 days away. Here is a quote from the Federal Register request for information: The U.S. Department…
A high fidelity simulation of the North American Eastern Interconnect known as ERGIS–Eastern Renewable Generation Integration Study–indicates that the system could continue to function in the year 2026, even if as much as 30% of its annual electricity generation and consumption was produced using variable power sources like the wind and the sun. At the…
Loyal Atomic Insights readers might wonder why it’s been more than a week since I last wrote a post here. Those who follow @atomicrod on Twitter might have noticed a few hints about what I’ve been busily doing for the last ten days or so. It seems likely to me that Thomas Gold, Dimitri Mendeleev,…
Deepwater Wind has completed attaching blades to the last of five massive, 6 MWe peak capacity wind turbines that make up the 30 MWe Block Island Wind Farm. That is one of the final steps in the process of installing and commissioning the facility. By the end of 2016, the developer expects that the project…
Joe Romm recently wrote a piece for Climate Progress titled Nuclear Power Is Losing Money At An Astonishing Rate. In that post Romm exaggerates the amount of support that the New York Zero Emissions Credit (ZEC) will provide, absolves the massive build out of industrial scale wind and solar from any responsibility for contributing to…
If you plan to attend future nuclear energy rallies, it might be worthwhile to practice singing Battle Hymn of the Atom. It’s sung to the tune of Battle Hymn of the Republic Update (posted August 16 at 6:45 PM EST) After incorporating the inputs from comments here, this is the current version. Battle Hymn of…
Amory Lovins recently visited the Pentagon. After a glowing introduction by the flag officer who is in charge of fleet readiness and logistics for the US Navy, Lovins told people who are tasked with looking into the future and planning budgets that human society is moving from an age of carbon to an age of…
The US environment and electrical supply system measurably improved yesterday. That is something worth celebrating. The New York State Department of Public Service (NYSDPS) took a small, but significant step forward yesterday. By a vote of three yeses and one concur, the commissioners decided to implement a clean energy standard that includes zero emission credits…
Today, the New York State Department of Public Service (NYSDPS) will consider a motion to establish a large-scale renewable program and a clean energy standard that will result in a price floor for wholesale electricity prices from zero or near zero emission power sources. Nuclear advocates from New York, along with supporters from around the…
Californians for Green Nuclear Power (CGNP) has assembled a persistent, dedicated and skilled team of engineers, scientists, retired public servants and interested citizens who are certain that nuclear energy is a valuable economic and environmental resource. They have invested a considerable amount of time learning the details of the technology but they have not ignored…