A recent European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) blog post about nuclear energy “subsidies” includes a statement revealing a common misunderstanding about energy system economics. There is also a puzzling contradiction in Foratom’s blog. First it claims, “today nuclear energy is competitive in the internal energy market without requiring public financial support.” Later in the same…
It was a surprise to many of my pro nuclear friends, but Dominion’s recent announcement that it had decided to close its Kewaunee nuclear power plant was the almost inevitable result of current market and political conditions. The conditions bring back many memories of the mid 1990s, which were a rather dark time in my…
The New York Times recently published an article titled So Far Unfruitful, Fusion Project Faces a Frugal Congress that made me feel just a little prescient. It is no surprise to me to read that the $5 billion dollar facility is no closer to producing useful nuclear fusion today than it was when it was…
My friends and family recognize that I am an odd bird. I often wake up in the middle of the night as a result of thinking about things that few others worry about. Tonight was a great example; my eyes failed open at midnight as I thought really hard about how to spread the word…
During the first week of August each year, the American Nuclear Society hosts a conference called the Utility Working Conference (ANS-UWC). It is one of my favorite ANS meetings because it draws a crowd of professionals whose daily employment is focused on safely operating electricity production facilities powered by atomic fission. Those facilities produce 20%…
On August 13, 2011, I spoke with Ben Heard of Decarbonise SA and Barry Brook of Brave New Climate. These two Australians are both working hard to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases in a land where the idea of reducing the consumption of carbon and hydrocarbon fuels trends on the interests of some very powerful…
I received an email from Tom Popik, the founder of the Foundation for Resilient Societies a few days ago. The email was addressed to a selection of people who blog favorably about nuclear energy. For some odd reason, Tom thought that we might be interested in supporting the petition for rulemaking that his organization has…
PopAtomic Studios has taken a conversation regarding a lack of nuclear energy advertising that occurred on a private email list frequented by both amateur and professional nuclear energy communicators and decided to run with the inspiration. The Nuclear Literacy Project was approved by the PopAtomic Studios board yesterday. The new web site is not yet…
Inspired by Steve Aplin’s excellent post titled Nuclear exceptionalism: why is a nuclear fatality more noteworthy than a non-nuclear one? show # 165 focuses on the reasons why nuclear exceptionalism exists. We also talk about ways to change the tone of the discussion and actions that are already being done. Guests on this episode of…
More and more articles about nuclear energy are appearing to reach the conclusion that the technology is safe enough, reliable enough, and competitive enough except for the fact that the plants take too and cost too much. Some people in the pronuclear camp have determined that the only way to solve that problem is to…
A group of pro-nuclear bloggers discusses industry events from 2010 and predictions for 2011. It has been far too long since the last episode of The Atomic Show. Life got in the way with a career transition and a move to a new home. However, there is always a bit of motivation to use the…
The Washington Nuclear Engineering Student Delegation makes an annual trip to Washington DC. The trip provides students in nuclear engineering programs around the country the opportunity to talk with leaders in DC based organizations important to nuclear technology like the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Energy Institute. The trip also…