On April 1, 1995, I published the fist issue of a paper newsletter initially titled Atomic Energy Insights. For old times sake, here is a reprint of the introduction to the newsletter that was included in that issue.
Please join me in a quiet celebration and raise a cup of coffee as a toast. Here’s hoping that there will be more progress made in the next 20 years than in the last 20.
Dateline: April 1, 1995
Welcome to: Atomic Energy Insights
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 require releasing several thousand tons of carbon dioxide, and varying amounts of sulfur dioxide, nitric oxide, and carbon monoxide into the atmosphere.
A pound of uranium is easy to move while transporting 2 million pounds of oil requires the service of about thirty standard sized tanker trucks.
The facts above can be verified using any physics book, the implications of the facts are almost never discussed. The mission of Atomic Energy Insights (AEI) is to instigate a discussion that is urgently needed.
Fact vs. Popular Opinion
There are few technological innovations that can generate the same level of emotional response as nuclear energy. One has difficulty finding a mention of the technology in the press without some accompanying comment about nuclear waste, Three Mile Island or Chernobyl.
This emotional response prevents rational discussion about the ability of our industrialized society to survive. We are frequently treated to pleas for radical action to reduce the impact of acid rain, carbon dioxide emissions or ground level ozone concentrations. The fact that atomic power plants eliminate these problems is rarely reported!
Energy Is Not Scarce
People in industrialized countries are told that their way of life is wasteful and that there is not enough fossil fuel in the world to allow developing nations to duplicate our kind of prosperity. We are rarely told that the world’s stockpile of uranium and plutonium represents many decades worth of energy resources or that extensive deposits of uranium exist in the United States, Australia, and Canada. The fact that thorium, an element that is more common than uranium, has been used to fuel certain kinds of reactors is virtually unknown.
About Nuclear Reactors
Many Americans believe that nuclear reactors are too big or too expensive. Nuclear power plants the same size as a truck engine have been built for space applications.
At least five of the 25 lowest cost electricity producers in the United States are nuclear plants.
Nuclear Waste Fund Surplus
We have even been told that nuclear power is hopelessly dependent on massive government subsidy programs. Here are the facts:
- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is fully supported by licensee fees.
- Few utilities have ever made a claim under the Price-Anderson Act.
- The Nuclear Waste Fund shows an eight billion dollar surplus with more coming in every day.
Atomic Fission: Safe
The accumulated record of nuclear power is even more incredible when one realizes that humans have only known about the basic physical process of fission since 1938 and about chain reactions since 1942.
Atomic fission is easily controlled, there is a large base of fully trained plant operators and builders, and the fuel is concentrated and abundant. The process offers the hope of unlimited prosperity for all of the world’s people. With abundant energy we can make dirty water pure, convert scrap metal into vehicles, and turn sand into computer chips.
The nuclear industry in the United States has amassed an incredible safety record of zero deaths caused by radiation. Nuclear powered submarines, cruisers and aircraft carriers have combined for over 100 million miles of ocean travel during a forty year period. The energy source has proven its merit and deserves to be carefully considered and discussed.
Compared to other technologies, fission is an infant. Innovations and ideas that make nuclear energy more accessible will be reported so that people can make more informed decisions about their future.
A New Era
It is time to begin a new discussion about energy in America, one that is based on facts and comparisons instead of one based on fear, vested political interests and ignorance. Since our government has abdicated its role in educating and moderating active debate in favor of subsidizing the interests of narrowly focused groups, we will take on the responsibility for bringing you information and discussion.
We encourage your participation in this newsletter. With the help of your questions and our attempts at response, we expect to produce a lively source of information unavailable elsewhere. Let the fireworks begin.
Atomic Insights LLC is a for-profit, tax-paying, publishing company based in Virginia whose aim is to produce and distribute accurate information about a variety of topics associated with atomic technologies. We discuss atomic energy, the competitors to atomic energy, radiation, the risks and benefits of using nuclear technology, and the hazards of avoiding the use of nuclear technology.
Many people ask how we make money by giving information away. Our enterprise uses a “value for value” model that depends on people who believe our products and services are worth supporting. We let you decide how much they are worth to you. Some of our supporters recognize additional value by ensuring that our products remain available to all and not obscured with advertising or hidden behind pay walls.
Atomic Insights never sells contact information; readers and listeners are the customers, not the product. While contributions are always welcome, they do not influence our editorial judgement.
If you value Atomic Insights and believe that more people need access to atomic information, here is a convenient button for making a donation – which is not tax deductible.
Congratulations. Yes indeed. My reliable source of education on many topics. Not just nuclear.
Rick
Congratulations Rod! Keep up the good work. Atomic Insights is one of my daily must-visit sites. I may be addicted.
Thank you for your excellent efforts. Here’s hoping that by the end of the next twenty years there will be far less need for those efforts than there is now.
SUPER CONGRATS! And I’d bet most of it has been at near 100% Capacity Factor and without a first Refueling Outage.
Congratulations Rod. As a relative newcomer, I had no idea you’ve been at this so long. Thanks for being a force of reason amongst all of the noise.
Wow ………20 years is true devotion, Rod. Commendable.
“One has difficulty finding a mention of the technology in the press without some accompanying comment about nuclear waste, Three Mile Island or Chernobyl”
I note your “Welcome” post does not invite comment. I’m curious why you didn’t include Fukushima in the above quote. I find that most people I talk to recently about NE immediately want to talk about Fukushima. You have also opined here that the media has been largely responsible for the FUD regarding Fukushima. You are pretty meticulous, so I’m betting you ommitted Fukushima on purpose. How come? Not nit-picking, or being critical. Just curious.
@poa
Fukushima happened in 2011. I’m reasonably far sighted, but I could not have predicted that event when I wrote “Welcome to Atomic Energy Insights” on April 1, 1995.
Rod – You’ve been at this game long enough to know how it goes. It’s not sufficient that the technology be perfect, but the blogs about the technology must also be perfect as well.
NNadir calls this “nuclear exceptionalism.”
Brian, that nuclear exceptionalism and the associated feel of needing to provide maximum reference links to any statements that I typed was one of the main reasons that my blog (http://entreprenuclear.blogspot.com) has now sat dormant for very close to 2 years. I started it, of course, in large part due to reading Rod’s most excellent blog here.
I echo Andrew Jaremko’s sentiment above regarding possible addiction, although my day job has caused me to be a little behind on my Atomic Insights reading this week.
Woosh………
Skimmed the post on my lunch break. Misse
Oooops……
……missed the 1995 date somehow. Hey, I’m old. Give me a break.
Well, Brian, the site is pretty close to being perfect. The braying in the background gets a little old though.
What perfect irony. You’re complaining about the constant braying??
Congratulations Rod. Well done. I have followed you off and on those twenty starting with electricnet. Does that bring back memories? I remember when you were promoting Atomic Motors. I’m a Navy vet who worked all my life in radio and electronics, retiring after 29 years at a electric utility. I’m starting to get long in tooth so I better stop now. I wish you the best of luck the next twenty.
Thank you for your dedication Rod.
Russ
Congratulations from Down Under, Rod. It’s thirty one years since New Zealand barred your nuclear powered navy ( after an election fought over the issue ). Let’s hope we can welcome you back, in peace, in less time.
A very happy 20th anniversary to Atomic Insights, and a huge and warm “thank you” to Rod Adams for all he has taught me after I really became interested in this topic following the facts which happened in 2011.
I have since then discovered a world full of fascinating physics and chemistry, and met with a number of very interesting and dedicated people.
The Atomic Show has been a wonderful source of information, and I had the time and patience to go back to the first episodes where Shane was co-host with Rod. Some podcast episodes and blog posts are true gems, and I wish that all the newcomers to this blog would spend some time to educate themselves by browsing the old content.
Thanks Rod for all what you have been doing. Looking forward to the next 20 years. And then some more.
Ciao, Luca
Happy Birthday, AtomicInsights!
But what a date to get launched under!
James Greenidge
Queens NY
Happy birthday, Rod!!
And yes, I realize that it isn’t Rod’s birthday…but Atomic Insights IS Rod!
Congratulations, Rod! Your site is a great source of information that I’ve found especially useful to turn to whenever I find myself arguing with purveyors of anti-nuke propaganda.
I’ve been something of an energy hobbyist for the past few years, and one of the personal discoveries I’ve made is that there is a pretty consistent set of arguments used by anti-nukes (which seem to come primarily from the “renewables and renewables alone can and must save us” crowd), that, no matter how many times they have been demonstrably killed by actual facts and evidence, keep rising from the dead. Have you ever thought of putting together a page that lists these standard anti-nuke myths and their corresponding debunkings like the guys at Skeptical Science (http://www.skepticalscience.com/argument.php) have done with global warming myths vs. actual science? I’m sure there would be plenty of volunteers who would be happy to help you put together something like that. It would so useful to have a one-stop-shop reference for dealing with the whack-a-mole style FUD that constantly flows from the anti-nuke crowd.
I have been working on a list of those, on and off (mostly off).
I don’t particularly care where it’s hosted.
My ultimate goal is to have a list of stock phrases which trigger a filter to insert notes and hyperlinks, and down-rate the trustworthiness of both the comment and the commenter on those sites which allow for it (like Slashdot).
Congratulations Rod!
Thank you for this great fountain of information and discussion. It was here that I stopped being in two minds about nuclear power.
Rod,
Thank you for staying at it for 20 years, and continuing to provide a valuable source of educational articles and analysis.
Happy anniversary!
How is Shane doing? I miss him.
I’d like to sincerely thank all of the people who took the time to congratulate me on the 20 year anniversary of Atomic Insights.
It’s been an interesting hobby that I hope to turn into a sustainable endeavor that will allow me to remain active and engaged long after the conventional retirement age. Though some have expressed the desire that there might not be a need for Atomic Insights 20 years from now, I’m pretty sure our effort to share accurate atomic information has just barely begun.
Along those lines, I’ll now express a bit of disappointment.
Written congratulations are great, but even greater would have been in a few supporters had seen fit to accompany their words with enabling tools – aka dollars. Did you all overlook the “Donate” button?
We’re going to fail in our attempt to overcome five decades worth of misinformation if we can’t afford to start advertising and begin demanding more attention.
Atomic Energy Insights inspired me to get a California “ATMC NRG” license plate for my motorcycle back in the late 90’s.
@Michael P
Thank you for visiting Atomic Insights and providing the above comment. It’s good to hear from old friends.
You are referred to in the “About” page of Atomic Insights in the following paragraph.
After 20 years your essay above still makes perfect sense.
We may differ on the details but you have a great grasp of the “Big Picture”.