Folks, I have been quite busy the last couple of weeks and have not gotten around to putting together another show. I has occurred to me that now would be a good time to ask – does anyone miss the regular chats about atomic topics? Let me know if you want to hear more shows.
Rod Adams is Managing Partner of Nucleation Capital, a venture fund that invests in advanced nuclear, which provides affordable access to this clean energy sector to pronuclear and impact investors. Rod, a former submarine Engineer Officer and founder of Adams Atomic Engines, Inc., which was one of the earliest advanced nuclear ventures, is an atomic energy expert with small nuclear plant operating and design experience. He has engaged in technical, strategic, political, historic and financial analysis of the nuclear industry, its technology, regulation, and policies for several decades through Atomic Insights, both as its primary blogger and as host of The Atomic Show Podcast. Please click here to subscribe to the Atomic Show RSS feed. To join Rod's pronuclear network and receive his occasional newsletter, click here.
As I talk with other “nukes” at conferences, on the web and in other social circumstances, I often get into political discussions. I know – you are supposed to avoid politics, religion and sex in social circumstances, but I guess I never really accepted the idea that one should avoid all interesting topics as a…
Shane and I have missed you all the last couple of weeks. One week it was illness – it is hard to do an audio show with laryngitis – and then this week we had an operator error by the show’s producer – me. We had a great chat about uranium and the hazards of…
Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, the President of India wants his government to back a plan to increase its nuclear power generating capacity from 2700 MW to 50,000 MW by the year 2030. He also called for an increased focus on the use of thorium since India owns about 30% of the world’s know supplies of…
I apologize for the silence in the past few weeks. I hope that some of you, at least, have been disappointed as days continued to go by without a new episode of The Atomic Show. I have been working hard at several different time consuming tasks recently including getting a new iMac set up and…
Mixed bag of atomic (and a few non-atomic) topics – enjoy! Shane and I have had a few busy days in our day jobs, so this show is a zero prep show with a variety of topics including long term storage of used nuclear fuel, the design and operation of Fermi’s CP-1, Steorn’s claim of…
Impressions of talk by the Nuclear Energy Institute President. Shane and I start off the show by congratulating the voters in Sweden for their recent election of a new government. The leaders of the parties that seem likely to form the new coalition government have declared that they will not shut down any of Sweden’s…
I look forward to seeing and promoting Nuclear (and you in it).
How much work is it to move the fuel from those huge ungainly casks to a central location in US?…
@Rob Brixey The project you mention were not the kind of commercial prototypes I am suggesting. As far as I…
Vallecitos BWR was a prototype in its day. But that was built during the AEC (collaboration) vs NRC (regulation) paradigm.…
That makes sense. I suppose that as long as the storage system allows for relatively easy access to the casks,…
I always check for it several time a week. It provides me with ideas and concepts I can explore further from other sources. My web site would be a lot less rich without it.
Thanks for what you’ve already done. Hope you keep going but understand if you don’t. It’s a lot of work. I recorded local classical music for about 10 years as a community service after retiring in 1996 and it eventually became not worth the effort. I then drifted back into engineering.
Regards,
Jim Holm
James P. Holm, P.E., Retired
I’m among those who would be happy to hear more episodes of the Atomic Show. You’re one of the few people I know of who not only has a good inside knowledge of the nuclear industry, but is willing to share what you know through this medium, and I was happy each time I learned something new through one of your podcasts.
Absolutely I miss the show! Sorry to see Shane go… sorry I don’t have any great thoughts as to what directions you could now consider… But I always really enjoyed the topics, and the format
I believe energy will become increasingly forefront and costly in the coming years. I think as a society we are in for some surprises, and some changes. I take very seriously the geological and political peaking of oil production, and all its implications. Nuclear power seems destined to become the shining star that wins the blue ribbon, after all the other seemingly bright ideas finally don’t meet expectations
Thanks
Kim
Thank you all for noticing so quickly. Sometimes one just needs to feel a little “love” from listeners. There will be more shows coming.
(Aside: – As you can see, I got your second message.)
Rod,
You have always done a terrific job, and yes I would miss the show. Ditto about Shane. Glad to know more shows are under consideration after reading your reply.
Thank you for the wonderful show. It has been constantly refreshing to hear a level-headed discussion on nuclear power.
One area I think you could add a substantially to is education about nuclear physics and nuclear power. I was once again frustrated yesterday and today listening to the uninformed reactionaries on Capitol Hill talking about the NRC and their licensing a group to handle Americium. The tying this license to building a “Dirty Bomb” highlight as how little people understand about all things nuclear.
That, and the recurring suggestion I have mailed you directly about. Please take the time to run your .mp3 files through a normalize and compress phase before posting them. It should take a few minutes and make the podcast sound a lot more professional.
Yes! Of course we miss it! BTW…the interview done with you was one of the most educational I’ve heard yet. It was quite informative.
Feel the love, sir. I’ve listened to every show. I’m in the choir, though.
Reese:
One of the strange hobbies I have is turning cliches inside out and really thinking about their implications. I have determined that “preaching to the choir” is a very necessary activity and I am not alone in thinking that way.
Try going to an evangelical church – you will find that the preacher often focuses his message on the most faithful members of the congregation. He knows that his job will be made easier if he fires them up and makes them remember why they are believers.
I also have no thought that I will change anyone mind who is adamantly opposed to the use of nuclear energy. The thing that makes me a huge optimist is the fact that there are few people who even think about nuclear energy to any great extent. They are open minds waiting for us to provide them with solid reasons why they should get excited!
It is self-defeating when pro-nuclear people start off in a defensive mode. Our favored power source is BETTER than all of the rest – it is cleaner, cheaper, more reliable, more compact, needs less supporting infrastructure, and has a much safer track record.
Love the show! I’ve been a fan for the last year or so and have become quite the proponent for modern implementations of nuclear power.
While I’ve got your ear for a moment, could you give your thoughts on the S-PRISM reactor design put forward by Allen Dubberly of GE Nuclear? His Scientific American cover article got me started in all this and I’d like to hear your learned opinion.
By all means continue. Nuclear Energy is on the verge of a new renaissance and your site is one of the leading popularizers for it. Your advocacy and the honest exposition of the many strengths and few but surmountable weaknesses of Nuclear Energy production will go a long way to dispelling the mostly superstitious resistance to it.
Yes, I miss it as well. After I discovered your podcast, I went back and listened to every episode. You may not be able to keep up the same pace, but I’ll listen to whatever you put out.
I do miss your Atomic Shows! However I understand it takes time and effort to produce them…
I have a tip for a future show: What about one focused on IFR with Stewart Peterson from niof.org? He seems to be knowledgeable about the IFR (see comments to your show #38).
I just recently discovered the podcast and I enjoy it.
However, I have to second Robin Holts comments about the sound quality. I have given up on trying to listen to the podcast on my iPod because the sound alternates between too loud and too soft often in the same breath. A little effort to make the sound quality as good as the content would go a long way.
Absolutely I miss it. It always make me think, as should be the goal of all podcasts….
I missed it for a few months due to problems with the USB connection on my computer & no sound card in the computer.
Now I’m listening to old Atomic Shows & catching up by about 1 show per day. They’re always interesting.
Bloody hell yes I miss the show. It seems like you guys are the only link to anyone on this tiny threatened planet that realy cares about non polluting energy generation thats practical. Come back and help save us from greenhouse gases. More techy the better just save us please.