It has been more than a month since the last show. Many apologies. Dan Yurman and Charles Barton agreed to help me get back into the rhythm by chatting for a while about current atomic events. We discussed a recent Moody’s special report on companies considering new nuclear power plants – not very positive, TVA…
Jaco Kriek has been the CEO of PBMR Pty LTD of South Africa for five years. On July 7, 2009 he spoke with me for nearly an hour about a wide range of topics. The topics we discussed included the following: History of PBMR as a stand alone company Change in technical direction Customer focused…
Tom Sanders took office as the President of the American Nuclear Society on June 18, 2009. Rod Adams spoke with him on the day before. Tom explained his goals for the year, the importance of nuclear technology to national security and the enthusiasm that he has for “right-sized” reactors. Podcast: Play in new window |…
I am in Atlanta, GA for the American Nuclear Society Annual Meeting. Though the use of Twitter, email and face to face communications, five active atomic geeks with web presences got together for lunch. We had a wide ranging conversation that only true geeks could love. People at the table included: John Wheeler – This…
Ray Squirrel is the screen name used by a documentary film maker who is collecting material for a film about nuclear power. You can find some of the work he has done so far at RaySquirrel’s youtube site. I am not sure how the film will come out, but I thought you might be interested…
David Walters from Left Atomics and Daily Kos joins Rod Adams for a discussion about atomic energy from a far left point of view. It is well known that much of the opposition to nuclear power in the US, Europe, and Australia comes from people who are normally considered to be on the political left….
Kirk Sorensen, Charles Barton and Rod Adams got together for a long distance conversation inspired by President Obama’s speech about his commitment to reduce nuclear weapons stockpiles. That action will free up valuable material useful for many power plant applications. It is important to understand – the president’s call is for a world free from…
As most people who keep up with nuclear trivia know, March 28, 1979 was a bad day for the industry. As a result of a series of mechanical and operational issues, the reactor at Three Mile Island experienced a loss of coolant accident through a stuck open relief valve. When all was said and done,…
(Like all parts in this series, the reference book is Light Water: How the Nuclear Dream Dissolved written by Irvin C. Bupp and Jean-Claude Derian and published in January 1978 by Basic Books, Inc. of New York.) One of the primary themes running through Light Water is the fact that the economic predictions associated with…
On February 3, 2009, I attended a public meeting regarding the future construction of North Anna Unit 3. Several of the people who attended that meeting gathered via Skype last night to share notes. I will add some more notes to this post later today, but now it is time to get ready for my…
On Thursday February 5, 2009, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! moderated a brief debate about nuclear power between Harvey Wasserman and Patrick Moore. The forcing function for holding the debate on that date was the fact that the Senate has included an additional authorization for $50 billion in loan guarantees for clean energy as part…
Social media sites like Facebook and LiveJournal have added several new words to our American lexicon; one that I want to explore today is “unfriend”. In the Facebook vocabulary, that is a term that means quietly striking someone off of your computerized list of “friends”. Those are the people that you care enough about to…