Atom and the Fault
I came across a fascinating little book by Richard Meehan titled The Atom and the Fault: Experts, Earthquakes and Nuclear Power. It was published in 1984 by MIT University Press…
If you have followed any of my recent Twitter posts, (atomicrod) you will note that I have been involved for a day or so in an ongoing discussion with an anti-nuclear California lawyer from Marina Del Rey named Roger Sowell on Joe Romm’s Climate Progress blog. It has been an enlightening experience.
Here is one of the quotes from Mr. Sowell’s recent comments:
I strongly oppose nuclear power plants and do all in my power to stop their proliferation. The toxic wastes including plutonium and other elements are being stockpiled by our generation, to be dealt with by future generations. This is completely irresponsible in my view.
Future generations will not thank us. Just imagine how we would respond if ancient civilizations had left a lethal substance that we could not see, nor smell, nor hear. The only way we found out about it was when archaeologists grew ill and died.
This became a smoking gun candidate when Mr. Sowell pointed me to the home page for his legal practice. Here are two direct quotes from his biography page:
Roger Sowell is a refinery defense attorney, and also advises those involved with operating and designing all process plants, including petrochemical plants, chemical plants, and natural gas plants. Legal topics include, but are not limited to, regulatory compliance under Clean Air Act, OSHA and NEPA, design liability, litigation due to process upsets and catastrophic events, construction disputes, advanced and optimization process control issues, and evaluating and protecting intellectual property rights, especially trade secrets.
He practices law after a successful 20-year career as a process consulting engineer world-wide.
…More than 20 years world-wide engineering experience in the continuous process industries, including more than 75 oil refineries, petrochemical plants, and basic chemical plants. His vast experience led to a keen interest in improving process safety, both by design and careful operation.
Former employers include Diamond Shamrock Corp., Champlin Petroleum Company, Solomon Associates, Inc., Profimatics, Inc., Cryogenic Experts, Inc., and Roger Sowell & Associates.
Engineering experience includes process engineering, project engineering, construction supervision, startup and guarantee test runs, planning and scheduling, advanced process control feasibility and master plans, oil movement automation, front-end engineering design, grass-roots refinery feasibility studies, plant energy optimization, steam system optimization, advanced process simulation and optimization, and project economic analysis.
In other words, he has clearly stated financial interests in the continued market domination of the fossil fuel industry, and he pursues legal means to increase the cost and difficulty of employing nuclear fission power.
Reminder: In case you have forgotten or are new to Atomic Insights, “Smoking Gun” posts are about people who are directly associated with the fossil fuel establishment who work to oppose nuclear fission power. They are my tidbits of evidence gathered in building the case that the real power that has opposed nuclear energy is not “The Environmentalists”, but the establishment fossil fuel industry that hates the idea of losing its addicts. You can find the articles by entering the words – smoking gun – in the search block next to the orange blogger logo at the top left side of any Atomic Insights page.
Rod Adams is Managing Partner of Nucleation Capital, a venture fund that invests in advanced nuclear, which provides affordable access to this clean energy sector to pronuclear and impact investors. Rod, a former submarine Engineer Officer and founder of Adams Atomic Engines, Inc., which was one of the earliest advanced nuclear ventures, is an atomic energy expert with small nuclear plant operating and design experience. He has engaged in technical, strategic, political, historic and financial analysis of the nuclear industry, its technology, regulation, and policies for several decades through Atomic Insights, both as its primary blogger and as host of The Atomic Show Podcast. Please click here to subscribe to the Atomic Show RSS feed. To join Rod's pronuclear network and receive his occasional newsletter, click here.
Ken Silverstein posted a thought-provoking piece on Forbes.com titled Being ‘Good Neighbors’ And Staying Out Of Print Motivates Companies To Be Environmental Stewards. The following quote stimulated me to provide a slightly different interpretation and expansion on the reasons why companies and investors large and small are often actively involved in the environmental movement. And…
Richard Muller has a lot in common with Amory Lovins. They both received MacArthur Foundation Fellowships (aka “Genius Grants”) several decades ago – Muller in 1982 and Lovins in 1993. They both get a lot of attention from the commercial media and from elected politicians. They both were active members of large environmental groups early…
On July 8, 2010, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gave a lunchtime speech at Energy Epicenter, the annual conference of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association. That speech provides a number of insights that are useful to those who are concerned about energy issues, concerned about the environment, and interested in the activities of power brokers…
American Municipal Power-Ohio, a nonprofit wholesale power supplier and services provider, is planning to build American Municipal Power Generating Station (AMPGS), a 1000 MWe coal fired power plant in Meigs County, Ohio. The organization’s members are interested in building a plant that gives them more control over the cost of the electricity that they provide…
A ‘smoking gun’ article is one that reveals a direct connection between a fossil fuel or alternative energy system promoter and a strongly antinuclear attitude. One of my guiding theories about energy is that a great deal of the discussion about safety, cost, and waste disposal is really a cover for a normal business activity…
I came across an interesting saga yesterday. My introduction came from a May 14, 2015 opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal titled The Greens’ Back Door at the EPA. (Hint: If you don’t have a WSJ subscription, copy and paste the article title into the Google search engine. That should provide you a link…