The March/April 2016 issue of Mother Jones includes a thoughtful piece by Gabriel Kahn titled Dreamers of the Golden Dream: Does California have a blueprint to fix global warming?. Regular Atomic Insights readers will not be surprised to find that I’ve already decided that California’s chosen path for reducing CO2 emissions and dependence on fossil […]
Climate change
Clean energy, sustainable energy – both terms include nuclear energy
For the Democratic Party debate held last night, the scientists at MinuteEarth were asked to provide a video giving some context for their question to the candidates about climate change. Here is their video, their question and responses from Senator Bernie Sanders and Governor Mark O’Malley. Secretary Clinton wasn’t given a chance to answer; it […]
295th Carnival of Nuclear Energy Blogs
Atomic Insights is proud to be hosting the 295th weekly addition of the Carnival of Nuclear Blogs. Here are some of the highlight posts produced during the first full week of 2016. From Yes Vermont Yankee: Vermont Yankee was replaced by natural gas: Doing the numbers By: Meredith Angwin and The replacement for Vermont Yankee […]
Is slowly rising sea level really a concern for nuclear power plants?
Christina Nunez wrote a piece for National Geographic titled As Sea Levels Rise, Are Coastal Nuclear Plants Ready?. It is a journalistically balanced piece that poses a worrying question about nuclear plant vulnerability. It begins by describing reasons to support nuclear energy along with reasons why some oppose and fear it. It includes critical commentary […]
Don’t Nuke the Climate – A Response to NIRS from Rauli Partanen and Janne M. Korhonen
By Rauli Partanen and Janne M. Korhonen Earlier this year, we wrote a piece called “A most unwise campaign.” Writing as independent researchers, members of the Finnish Ecomodernist Society, and in association with non-profit organization Energy4Humanity, we criticized some of the claims prominently made in support of one of the staples of established anti-nuclear activism: […]
Caldeira, Emanuel, Wigley and Hansen Statement at COP21, December 4, 2015
On December 4, 2015, during COP21, Energy for Humanity hosted a press conference at which four leading climate scientists provided statements explaining why they believe that nuclear energy must be included in the effort to reduce CO2 emissions from the the power sources currently used to enable our modern, increasingly prosperous society. The effort is […]
Natural gas leak polluting Porter Ranch in LA county since October 23, 2015
Earlier today, I found a link in one of my news feeds to a December 14, 2015 MarketPlace story titled A Natural Gas Leak With Seemingly No End. It describes an event near a community called Porter Ranch in Los Angeles county, California that has been in progress since October 23, 2015. Here is the […]
Mark Jacobson describes attributes of his incredibly optimistic wind, water, solar energy plans
During COP16, Dr. Mark Z. Jacobson described attributes of his team’s most recently produced paper. The abstract leads with the following claim about the paper’s content. This study addresses the greatest concern facing the large-scale integration of wind, water, and solar (WWS) into a power grid: the high cost of avoiding load loss caused by […]
Climate scientists skeptical about Mark Z. Jacobson’s 100% renewable energy “plans”
During COP21, Energy for Humanity‘s Kirsty Gogan moderated a press conference featuring Drs. James Hansen, Tom Wigley, Kerry Emanuel, and Ken Caldeira. The complete event is available on YouTube at [LIVE] Conférence presse de James Hansen à La Galerie by World Efficiency. These experts are the four climate scientists who have spent a part of […]
James Hansen takes stage at COP21 to explain carbon fee and dividend
During a press conference held in Paris on December 2, 2015, Dr. James Hansen provided an explanation of what he called a simple market based approach to address CO2 emissions. He suggests that a world wide fee on all hydrocarbon fuels could be assessed at the domestic mine or port of entry. His proposed fee […]
John Holdren nuclear energy’s importance as ultra low carbon power source – White House Summit on Nuclear Energy (WHSNE)
John Holdren holds what might be the longest complete title available in the current Administration. He serves as Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Co-Chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). In his role as an […]
Labor and Business perspectives from White House Summit on Nuclear Energy – Liz Shuler (AFL-CIO) and Danny Roderick (Westinghouse)
On November 6, 2015, a Friday afternoon, the White House hosted a Summit on Nuclear Energy. The seats in the conference room had been filled before much information about the event had been released, but the organizers provided a live stream on the web. That turned out to have been at least as informative as […]
