Atomic Show #326 – Jigar Shah, former director of DOE Loan Programs Office

Atomic Show #326 – Jigar Shah, former director of DOE Loan Programs Office

Jigar Shah has had a lengthy career as an energy industry entrepreneur and strategic thinker. He founded Sun Edison and helped to create a new model for deploying solar power systems. He was part of the Carbon War Room and then founded Generate Capital to provide loans to proven technologies that had not yet achieved…

Chris Wright on nuclear power, Nov 6, 2020

Chris Wright on nuclear power, Nov 6, 2020

Yesterday, Chris Wright was confirmed as the next U.S. Secretary of Energy. After that important step in his energy career, it’s worth taking a few moments to learn what he thinks about nuclear power outside of any political context. In my experience, people like Wright form and hold opinions that do not shift much over…

Atomic Show #325 – Marco Visscher – The Power of Nuclear

Atomic Show #325 – Marco Visscher – The Power of Nuclear

After many years as an independent journalist with an antinuclear bent, Marco Visscher began questioning his long-held beliefs. He realized that the accepted alternatives to fossil fuel were not actually reducing fossil fuel use so much as they were limiting the rate at which it was increasing. He began acknowledging that nuclear energy was a…

IRA’s Clean Electricity Tax Credits (Sections 48E and 45Y) are an under-appreciated boon for new nuclear power

IRA’s Clean Electricity Tax Credits (Sections 48E and 45Y) are an under-appreciated boon for new nuclear power

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) should make an important contribution towards mitigating future inflationary periods. It accomplishes this beneficial goal by providing important support for facilities that increase US clean electricity production. The key sections of the Inflation Reduction Act are new IRS code sections 45Y and 48E. Respectively, these are called the Clean Electricity…

Ontario leads the way to clean energy credit registry

Ontario leads the way to clean energy credit registry

On September 26, 2022, Microsoft Canada and Ontario Power Generation (OPG) announced an important agreement for clean energy credits (CECs). The most significant part of the deal was the fact that OPG would supply the credits from its nuclear and hydro-electric plants. Microsoft will procure the credits on an hour by hour basis to match…

A Path from Coal to Nuclear is Being Blazed in Wyoming

Many of those who care about finding solutions to the physical distress that our climate is experiencing, as reported on this week in a landmark 1,300 page report by the IPCC‘s Sixth Assessment Working Group 1 (Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis), are not looking at Wyoming. But based upon the announcement made in…

Atomic Show #290 – Myrto Tripathi, Voices of Nuclear

Atomic Show #290 – Myrto Tripathi, Voices of Nuclear

Nuclear energy professionals are credible sources of information about a powerful technology that can help address climate change and contribute to humanity’s development. Voices of Nuclear is an international non-profit group that seeks to empower nuclear supporters, both professionals in the industry and allies outside of the industry, with tools, organization and effective messages. Myrto…

Atomic Show #289 – All Reactors Large and Small

Pro-nuclear advocates generally agree that there is a large and growing need for new nuclear power plants to meet energy demands with less impact on the planet and its atmosphere. There is frequent, sometimes passionate discussion about the most appropriate reactor sizes, technologies and specific uses. Atomic Show #289 is a lively discussion among some…

Atomic Show #277 – Simon Wakter, pro-nuclear engineer in an ambivalent country

Simon Wakter is a strongly pro-nuclear engineer in a country that passed a referendum officially phasing out nuclear energy since several years before he was born. He has to round up to be called a thirty-something. Simon works in the nuclear energy branch of AFRY, a well-established 17,000 employee, all-of-the-above. engineering company that recently adopted…

Project Dilithium – Boldly going back to a place our ancestors visited and prematurely abandoned

Project Dilithium – Boldly going back to a place our ancestors visited and prematurely abandoned

In January 2019, the Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO) of the U.S. Department of Defense officially informed the world that it was interested in learning more about small, mobile, nuclear generators. The SCO said it wanted to find out if there was technology available that could supply a forward operating base with abundant, emission-free electricity for…

Atomic Show #264 – Building momentum in advanced nuclear energy

It’s not glaringly obvious, but preparatory steps enabling a take off for advanced nuclear power systems are making measurable progress. Enabling legislative acts have been passed by both the Senate and House and signed by the President, turning them into laws requiring actions. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is back to full strength and under a…