The dose makes the poison. Almost anything can be a poison or health hazard if the dose is high enough. Most people are aware of this idea and use it in their daily decision making. Unfortunately, people do not often question just what constitutes a small, harmless dose and what constitutes a poisonous dose. Over…
Rarely is the word “plutonium” published in a major news source without the adjective “deadly” nearby. Ralph Nader, noted activist and lawyer, once claimed that plutonium was “the most toxic substance known to mankind.” Hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent each year in the United States doing studies of the characteristics of a…
One frustration that persists in making judgements about technical matters is that it has not yet been possible to develop a consistent system of units. People are creatures of habit and tend to use those units with which they are familiar. Old and useful textbooks and reference materials use old units that are out of…
Everyone on earth is continually exposed to radiation. It comes from the certain isotopes of carbon and potassium in the food we eat, from cosmic radiation, from radon gas and from the decay of naturally occurring uranium, thorium and their decay products. Radiation: A Part of Daily Life There is a wide variation in the…
TVA gives up on Bellefonte Units 1 and 2 and Watts Bar Unit 2 The Tennessee Valley Authority has suspended construction activities at three sites after spending over $5 billion dollars. Bellafonte 1 is 88% complete, Bellafonte 2 is 57% complete, and Watts Bar 2 is 61% complete. TVA estimated that it would have cost…
One of the main reasons for publishing this letter is to add a healthy dose of reality to the mythology that has surrounded the atomic energy field. There are so many of these myths that this column will be a regular feature of the Atomic Energy Insights. One of the most prevalent myths is that…
Atomic energy provides an amazing source of concentrated power. The potential applications that have been proposed are widely varied. There is room for unlimited innovation and creativity. Imagine what it would be like to have a battery that could provide power for several decades without recharging. Sounds almost like science fiction. Fact, in this case,…
On December 2, 1942, Enrico Fermi and a small band of scientists and engineers demonstrated that a simple construction of graphite bricks and uranium lumps could produce controlled heat. Let’s look back to see how simple that first reactor was. Behind the Scenes The space chosen for the reactor was a squash court under the…
My name is Rod Adams. I am a Nuke. I am proud to claim that title and proud of what I have done to earn it. I have been fascinated by nuclear energy for as long as I can remember. My father was an engineer with Florida Power and Light, a utility that built four…
The Simple Facts One pound of uranium contains as much energy as 2 million pounds of oil. Releasing that energy from the uranium results in less than one pound of waste material that can be stored in a simple container for decades with no effect on the environment. Burning 2 million pounds of oil will…