Shane and Rod discuss boiling water reactors, one of the two types of established light water reactors. There are two main types of light water reactors, pressurized water reactors (PWR) and boiling water reactors (BWR). They share some characteristics, but also have a number of differences. There are plenty of sources of information on the […]
Atomic history
The Atomic Show #053 – Commercial Nuclear Ships
Shane and I discuss commercial nuclear ship history and future opportunities Commercial nuclear powered ships were tried in the 1960s and 1970s with little follow on units. The United States built the NS Savannah, Germany built the Otto Hahn, and Japan built the Mutsu. None of these remain in operation today and all demonstrated various […]
The Atomic Show #51 – Uranium – interesting history and politics
We’re back after a couple of weeks off. The atomic geeks chat about uranium, which has an interesting history in politics, discovery and economics. Uranium is as common as tin and can be found in measurable quantities almost anywhere in the world. Its price often varies by several hundred percent over short periods of time, […]
The Atomic Show #050
The atomic geeks chat about the new radiation warning symbol, France’s interest in selling large plants to South Africa, Japan’s new mixed oxide fuel plant and much more. Enjoy the ride! Half of Atomic Show 50 comes to you from a food court in Norfolk, VA – I am on travel this week. Shane and […]
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, […]
