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Atomic Insights

Atomic energy technology, politics, and perceptions from a nuclear energy insider who served as a US nuclear submarine engineer officer

Atomic politics

Atomic Show #290 – Myrto Tripathi, Voices of Nuclear

February 9, 2021 By Rod Adams

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 Tripathi, the founder and chair of Voices of Nuclear, visited the Atomic Show to tell us more about her group and its efforts to tell the nuclear energy story.

She describes the current situation in Europe, where there are a handful of new reactors under construction, there are numerous reactors being closed and there is a solid front of opposition from several prominent EU member states – particularly Austria and Germany.

She explains how the European reaction to the Fukushima event – now almost ten years ago – helped to convince her to leave a successful career in the nuclear industry to play a bigger part in the civil society discussion about its role, especially in light of the growing threat of climate change.

She talks about the role of young people, primarily under the age of 35, in bringing their vibrant, optimistic energy to the Voices and she discusses the challenges that her group faces in obtaining necessary and useful financial support from the established industry.

She also mentioned the importance of retired people in sharing their stories about pride in their life’s work in developing and operating clean nuclear generation facilities.

We spoke at length about the successful, well-funded and carefully planned efforts by nuclear energy opponents to spread misinformation and fake news about nuclear and how those efforts have helped to silence nuclear energy supporters.

We spoke about the disappointing state of public misunderstanding as illustrated by a recent poll taken in France in which 86% of the respondents between 18-34 years old said they believed that nuclear energy contributed to the problem of climate change.

With their diligent efforts over a number of decades, nuclear opponents effectively created a “taboo” around nuclear. They made it politically and economically costly for ambitious leaders in both government and in commercial enterprises outside of nuclear to publicly take a supportive position.

One reason I invited Myrto to be a guest on the Atomic Show was that I sense there are many in the US who believe that the nuclear grass is greener on the other side of the Atlantic. At the moment, the situation in Europe is tenuous and could use a strong public engagement effort.

Voices of Nuclear is working hard to be a positive part of that effort. They have a base of talented volunteers, but they could use all the additional support anyone wants to offer. It would be especially useful, if your time is more constrained than your resources, to support their efforts financially.

Myrto did not ask me to say that and might even be a little mad at me for making the statement, but changing people’s minds isn’t easy or cheap.

Please join in the conversation.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/AtomicShowFiles/atomic_20210209_290.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:15:21 — 86.4MB)

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Filed Under: Atomic politics, International nuclear, Podcast, Politics of Nuclear Energy

Atomic Show #289 – All Reactors Large and Small

January 29, 2021 By Rod Adams 16 Comments

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 of the world’s most focused experts on the topic of nuclear plant costs and the relationship of costs to sizes and deployment concepts.

Guests include:

  • Kirsty Gogan – co-founder of Energy for Humanity, Managing Director of Lucid Catalyst and Co-Founder of TERRAPRAXIS
  • Eric Ingersoll – co-founder of Lucid Catalyst and co-founder of Terrapraxis
  • Nick Touran – creator of WhatisNuclear.com and advanced reactor design engineer
  • Chris Keefer – President of Canadians for Nuclear, founder of Doctors for Nuclear Energy, host of the Decouple podcast and the We CANDU It Podcast
  • Jessica Lovering, co-founder and co-Executive Director of Good Energy Collective

We reached several conclusions.

  • Nuclear can be expensive but it doesn’t have to be expensive
  • Series building programs can successfully reduce construction and manufacturing costs
  • Series building programs that keep crews together on the same site for unit runs of 4, 8 or even more units have an established history of success.
  • Factory manufacturing is an intriguing prospect that might best be applied to nuclear plants by using shipyards for production and delivery.
  • Seismic isolation techniques can enable systems to be more location agnostic and limit the amount of redesign required for new locations.
  • There is room for innovation and new ideas in nuclear.
  • Smaller nuclear systems can make the technology more accessible and more widely acceptable.
  • Long held beliefs about nuclear in terms of risks, public acceptance, and needs for isolation and security deserve to be challenged.
  • Some believe that the more experience you have with nuclear, the better you will appreciate its benefits and capabilities.

Your comments and reactions are welcome and add value to this publication.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/AtomicShowFiles/atomic_20210128_289.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:17:14 — 88.8MB)

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Filed Under: Atomic politics, Economics, New Nuclear, Podcast

Open Letter to Interim Storage Partners and Holtec – please find better locations for your CISF projects ASAP

November 7, 2020 By Rod Adams 19 Comments

Dear Holtec and Interim Storage Partners: Both of you are actively pursuing permission from the US Nuclear Regulatory to build consolidated interim storage facilities in an area of southwest Texas and southeast New Mexico that seemed well suited for the purpose at the time that you began the process. Times have changed since then. One […]

Filed Under: Atomic politics, Fossil fuel competition, Nuclear Waste

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

May 30, 2020 By Rod Adams 1 Comment

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 […]

Filed Under: Advanced Atomic Technologies, Atomic history, Atomic politics, Podcast, Small Nuclear Power Plants, Smaller reactors

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

March 11, 2019 By Rod Adams 40 Comments

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 […]

Filed Under: Uncategorized, Advanced Atomic Technologies, Army Nuclear Program, Atomic politics, Smaller reactors

Atomic Show #264 – Building momentum in advanced nuclear energy

January 28, 2019 By Rod Adams 7 Comments

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 […]

Filed Under: Advanced Atomic Technologies, Atomic politics, Clean Energy, Climate change, Podcast

Documentary evidence that fossil fuel industry knew–by 1948–that it faced prospect that atomic energy would make it obsolete

August 26, 2018 By Rod Adams 3 Comments

No industry cheerfully accepts the prospect that a newly developed technology could make it obsolete. Executives and investors earn much of their wealth by constantly evaluating potential threats to their business. They invest time, energy and resources in conceiving and implementing response or prevention plans. “Inside the Atom” is a 1948 vintage snapshot of the […]

Filed Under: H. J. Muller, Atomic history, Atomic politics, Health Effects

Why can’t existing nuclear plants make money in today’s electricity markets?

July 25, 2018 By Rod Adams 42 Comments

What does it mean when nuclear plant owners tell people that their plants are struggling to make money in competitive markets as currently structured? They are attempting to more precisely state what is often misleadingly dismissed by journalists as “nuclear plants cannot compete.” The more commonly used statement gives the impression that nuclear plants produce […]

Filed Under: Alternative energy, Atomic politics, Economics

“Waste issue” continues to be part of antinuclear movement strategy of constipation

May 4, 2018 By Rod Adams 43 Comments

(Reprint. Originally published September 17, 2013. During the 4.5 years since the original appeared, the licensing moratorium mentioned has been lifted, and the confidence rule has been replaced by Continued Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel [NRC–2012–0246] but stubborn opposition arises in response to any proposed solutions.) During the 1970s, the antinuclear movement made a collective […]

Filed Under: Nuclear Waste, Atomic politics

I apologize for falling for a dirty trick that might have been planted by an oil and gas lobbyist

March 29, 2018 By Rod Adams 7 Comments

Though I take some pride in my critical reading skills and resistance to getting snookered by scam stories, I fell for a doozy yesterday. Unfortunately, I ended up propagating what might have been a clever ruse designed to paint nuclear energy advocacy in a bad light. It’s a story worth telling after I apologize profusely […]

Filed Under: Atomic Advocacy, Atomic politics, Fossil fuel competition

Michael Shellenberger. Independent thinker. Lifelong Democrat. Trying to take back California from “country club” Establishment

March 7, 2018 By Rod Adams 10 Comments

California, an enormously populous and wealthy state with an outsized impact on the culture, economy and politics of the United States, has a gubernatorial election this year. Jerry Brown, who has served a total of four terms and is the son of a former two-term California governor, isn’t running for reelection due to term limits. […]

Filed Under: Atomic Advocacy, Atomic politics, Diablo Canyon

Deep state actors at OMB turn DOE leaders into red-faced liars. Cannot revive, revitalize and expand nuclear energy with 25% less money

February 28, 2018 By Rod Adams 13 Comments

Mark Menezes, the Undersecretary of Energy at the Department of Energy, gave an optimistic, forward-looking, audience-flattering, stage-setting talk at the Advanced Reactor Technical Summit. At least five times during his 10-minute talk, he repeated various combinations of a phrase – “revive, revitalize and expand” – that is apparently the mantra that the Administration has chosen […]

Filed Under: Atomic politics

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