Atomic Show #265 – Atomic Optimism. Under-appreciated opportunities in sight.

On Sunday, Feb 17, I realized that I was feeling extraordinarily good about the future of atomic energy, the future of clean energy production, and the future prosperity of the world that my grandchildren are going to inhabit. I immediately composed and sent an invitation to some atomic colleagues to join me in a conversation….

Turning nuclear into a fuel dominated business

Under our current energy paradigm, nuclear power has the reputation of needing enormous up-front capital investments. Once those investments have been made and the plants are complete, the payoff is that they have low recurring fuel costs. Just the opposite is said of simple cycle natural gas fired combustion turbines. They require a small capital…

With immediate and profound changes, U.S. nuclear power can become an unexpected but welcome low carbon wedge

Researchers from Carnegie Mellon, University of San Diego, and Harvard recently published a useful call to action titled U.S. nuclear power: The vanishing low-carbon wedge. For pro-nuclear observers and debaters, their conclusion may seem quite depressing. It should be a source of profound concern for all who care about climate change that, for entirely predictable…

Atomic Show #262 – New thinking about nuclear energy

It’s time – or way past time – to think and talk about nuclear energy in new ways, recognizing the importance of the topic for the future health and prosperity of humanity. This show includes 5 forward leaning thought leaders in atomic energy. All of them are optimistic about nuclear’s future, often driven by their…

Will the U.S cold wave help solve OPEC’s oil inventory hangover?

Since 2014, investor-focused publications have used terms like ‘awash in oil’, ‘oil glut’ and even ‘world is “drowning” in oil’ to describe the world’s stockpile of already extracted and stored inventory of crude oil. Similar phrases have also been occasionally used to describe inventories of various refined products like gasoline, distillate fuel oil, and kerosene….

Logical Basis For Sec. Rick Perry’s Resiliency Pricing Rule.

The intense conversation Energy Secretary Rick Perry purposely initiated with his Sept. 29 letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission continues to occupy the attention of specialists. The direction was concise: implement pricing rules that protect electricity generators that meet certain requirements from being pushed into early retirement. The marching orders came with an aggressive but…

Ad Campaign Touts Marvels Of Atomic Technology With Tagline ‘Nuclear. Power The Extraordinary’

The Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) announced in early September that was starting a new advertising campaign with reimagined creative materials. Using the general tagline of “Nuclear. Power the Extraordinary” the U.S. nuclear industry’s trade organization will be speaking “to the critical role that nuclear technology plays in our lives. With dramatic visuals, the new campaign captures the…

Who will be ThorCon’s EPC contractor?

Who will be ThorCon’s EPC contractor?

By Jack Devanney Engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractors have led recent nuclear plant projects into disasters. Deca-billion dollar cost overruns. Schedules doubling. Some projects being cancelled after squandering billions of dollars. Giant corporations facing bankruptcy. This raises the obvious question: if Westinghouse can’t build a standard nuclear power plant, how in the world will a start up like ThorCon…

Long awaited DOE report on electricity markets and reliability

In April, Secretary of Energy Perry announced a 60 day study of current U.S. electricity markets with an emphasis on their effects on long term grid reliability, reliance and stability. That report was issued sometime around 10 pm yesterday. It’s a lengthy, detailed product backed up with data, charts, customer feedback, and expert input. Here’s…

Nuclear’s Fork in the Road

By Jim Little Would you be willing to continue investing in an established business with flat revenues, increasing costs while competing against an agile field of competitors who enjoy a market advantage of lower costs, quicker deployment schedules and the support of government subsidies and favorable public opinion? Should you stay the course and focus…

Clean Nuclear Energy Handed Decisive Win In U.S. District Court

In July 2017, District Court Judge Manish Shah, U.S. District Court of Northern Illinois, handed a decisive victory to nuclear energy supporters and plant owners in a case that challenged Illinois’s right to choose the mix of fuels used to produce power inside its borders. The plaintiffs opposed the “Future Energy Jobs Act” recently passed…