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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…