I have the privilege of hosting the ninth in a series of blog carnivals highlighting nuclear energy related posts around the blogosphere. Volunteering to host this week’s carnival is part of my celebration of having a bit more control over my schedule now that I have retired from my first career. I am enjoying some saved leave days before starting hot and heavy into the second career. Of course, part of the free time gets expended thinking about what I really want that second career to be; I often tell people that I have not figured out what I want to do when I grow up.
Without further distractions about my personal story, here are some of the highlights that I think are worth reading this week.
Brian Wang at NextBigFuture had a bet going with Michael Dittmar based on several posts and commentary at The Oil Drum. Michael believes that the world is running out of uranium and predicted that world uranium production for 2009 would be just 44,000 tons or less. Brian predicted 49,722 tons with the bet being set at the mid-point of 47,383 (over under). The actual number was 50,572 tons. Brian won the bet. You can read all about it and find some of the background links at World Uranium Production for 2009 Was 50572 tons. (I found it fascinating and ended up spending an hour or so reading the back story.)
Dittmar has also predicted that world uranium production will not go over 45,000 tons/year through 2018. He is and will be more and more wrong. Dittmar published his wrong predictions in arxiv and had it published on theoildrum.com and Technology Review Arxiv blog and the Economist magazine and several newspapers.
Brian also wrote about Diamond methane Impact fusion simulations. He describes this as another promising approach for nuclear fusion. Net 12.7 Megajoules Generated During Impact, Quench, and Initial Ignition Phase Per Shot of Methane Impact Fusion
I must admit that I still think fission is so much easier than fusion.
Dan posed a thought provoking question at Cool Hand Nuke titled Are Investors Wary of New Nuclear Builds
On Idaho Samizdat, Dan Yurman talked about the current trends in new nuclear power plant supplies with his post titled Is Asia rising to dominate the global nuclear industry?
Steve Aplin at Canadian Energy Issues published a post titled Wind missing in action, again, as heat wave smothers Ontario. Here is his summary of the content.
“At ten a.m. on a sweltering Wednesday, i.e., at exactly the time we need all the power we can get, Ontario’s wind turbines are contributing less than one tenth of one percent of the province’s power. All the power that wind is supposed to be providing is being provided by natural gas plants, which in the last hour dumped 2,884 metric tons of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse pollutant, into the atmosphere. Some climate change solution.”
Meredith Angwin at Yes Vermont Yankee provided some wry humor – perhaps to help alleviate anxiety for people who are working hard to salvage a difficult situation It’s the Nukes What Gets the Blame: A Fish Story Continued.
Charles Barton at Nuclear Green continued with his part two of his white paper analyzing ways to introduce lower cost low carbon energy systems in his post titled White Paper Draft: Deployment and Lowering Post-Carbon Energy Costs, Part 2.
Aside:Though I do not like to intrude on people’s private lives, I think it is also worth mentioning that our friend Charles is currently spending some time in the hospital while adjusting to a new medicine regime. I would not have mentioned it, but Charles provided the information on why his blog has been a little quiet this week with his post titled Note on Nuclear Green Postings. Please keep Charles in your thoughts as we all hope for a speedy recovery. End Aside.
Previous Nuclear Energy Blog Carnivals
- Carnival of Nuclear Energy 8 – Finland Approves Reactors
- 7th Carnival of Nuclear Energy With More Blasts from the Past
- Heavy Writers and Deep Thinkers: 6th Carnival of Nuclear Energy is Here
- Carnival of Nuclear Energy 5 – Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors, Energy Waste and more
- Fourth Carnival of Nuclear Energy Featuring a Vermont Freak Show
- Carnival of Nuclear Energy 3 – NEI 2009 Stats, Nuclear Renaissance and More
- Blog Carnival of Nuclear Energy Number Two
- Carnival of Nuclear Energy Number One
Rod,
Regarding your first paragraph, since I haven’t read the rest:
Congratulations Commander Adams SIR! I call you “sir” with respect for your rank and service. But most especially your service, as I would (with his or her permissioin) any retiring Chief/Sergeant. Or Admiral/General. Or LDO mustang Ensign/Lt. Anyone who gave a major chunk of his life (or the whole blessed thing) in defense of our beloved country. Heroes.
Now, grow up!
Yours,
Reese
About nuclear fusion: before the green energy wave began, i remember in the 90ies one argument against nuclear (fission) plants was the prospect of fusion. Proponents always argued that nuclear fusion would soon be achieved, rendering the “old” nuclear plants with their waste problem obsolete. So the idea was to just wait a little longer, and don’t go nuclear yet, because the next energy source is just around the corner. Well, now we’re being told we’ve just got to wait a little longer, then “renewables” will solve our energy problems, then the subsidies won’t be required, then some energy storage will have been invented for them, just wait a little longer…
These empty promises serve as a barrier to invest in what is practically available today, by promising better returns for those that “wait”. It wouldn’t surprise me if the hype about fusion could be traced back to the same people that support the renewables & natural gas combination today.