The Atomic Show #044 – Rural electricity to atomic airplanes

Topics on the show range all the way from rural electricity to atomic airplanes. The desire for electricity and the services that it provides is growing throughout the world. In many places the main source of that power is burning diesel fuel in small generators. Much of the conversation was spurred by an article in…

The Atomic Show #037 – Nuclear power in the Middle East

Making Deserts Bloom – Nuclear Power in the Middle East Shane and I chatted about recent announcements by Morocco, Algeria, UAE, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Tunisia that they have been talking with the International Atomic Energy Agency about developing nuclear power programs. All of the countries have indicated that they are interested in using nuclear…

The Atomic Show #034 – Aimless atomic chatting

Mixed bag of atomic (and a few non-atomic) topics – enjoy! Shane and I have had a few busy days in our day jobs, so this show is a zero prep show with a variety of topics including long term storage of used nuclear fuel, the design and operation of Fermi’s CP-1, Steorn’s claim of…

The Atomic Show #033 – Pebble Power (pebble bed reactors)

Pebble bed reactor history and future At the request of several listeners and blog readers, Shane and I decided to focus this podcast on the graphite and heavy metal “pebbles” that form the basic fuel element for a number of currently proposed reactor types. We talk a bit about the inventor of the pebble bed…

The Atomic Show #030 – Nuclear energy: Status and outlook

Impressions of talk by the Nuclear Energy Institute President. Shane and I start off the show by congratulating the voters in Sweden for their recent election of a new government. The leaders of the parties that seem likely to form the new coalition government have declared that they will not shut down any of Sweden’s…

The Atomic Show #029 – Nuclear power in space

Space exploration applications of nuclear power Space exploration is critically dependent on energy sources that are long lasting and can operate in a vacuum. Nuclear power fits the bill, but there have always been objections that limited its applications. Objections notwithstanding there have also been a number of missions where the only real solution was…

The Atomic Show #014 (MP3 – 17.5MB – 51min)

Show number 14 is something special. It is the first time that Shane and I invite a guest for an interview. Though we have a little difficulty with sound quality, we believe that this is one of our best efforts so far. Our guest, Ted Rockwell is a true nuclear pioneer, having been a part…

The Atomic Show #012

Shane and Rod take a trip into atomic fission history as they discuss the events and people leading up to the initial discovery that uranium nuclei could be broken, releasing vast quantities of energy. In just a few short years, a small number of physicists and chemists, mostly European and working with tiny research budgets,…