Giving thanks for both actinides and hydrocarbons

There is a pervasive myth claiming that energy is difficult to store. The objective fact is that our creator – or nature if you prefer – figured out how to store massive quantities of useable energy at the very beginning. Aside: Refined electricity storage doesn’t appear to be difficult from a consumer’s point of view. Charging small…

1000 Times Too Large – Evacuation Assumption at Indian Point

1000 Times Too Large – Evacuation Assumption at Indian Point

by M. Herschel Specter, former AEC Licensing Manager for Indian Point 3 On November 16, 2015 Jim Malatras, New York State’s Director of Operations, wrote to the Nuclear Regulatory Commissioners arguing that the applications for extending the licenses of the two operating nuclear plants at Indian Point should be denied. His central reasoning was “Indian…

Cheap, emission-free way to boil water

For the majority of human history, people used their own muscles to provide almost all of the work required for survival and development. A thin slice of humanity achieved a moderate amount of personal comfort and leisure because they were able, often through an accident of birth, to control a portion of the daily work…

Everything’s Coming Up Trilliums

by Jeremy Whitlock Ah, Nuclear Power, my old friend. Please do come in. Have a seat. Again you’ve been away too long. I feel silly coming here Doc. Now, now, hush. Sooner or later, everyone comes here. Tell me, how are things going? Well that’s just it Doc – on the face of it you…

New York Times says positive things about new nuclear energy

I’ll admit that I am actively searching for good news about nuclear energy to counter the conventional wisdom that we are losing the market battle to cheap natural gas. I found an interesting take on recent Cabinet appointments in a New York Times editorial titled Two Enlistees in the Climate Wars. Though it appears as…

99% of mankind should love nuclear energy

Please be patient with me on this post – it might take a while before I clearly demonstrate why it belongs on Atomic Insights. First I want to share a couple of entertaining, but informative videos that you’ll probably never see in the commercial media. This is another version of the same song, performed with…

The moral imperative to build new nuclear power stations

On Friday, Nov. 5, I heard an inspirational talk given by a man who had a big influence on my early career; he was the Brigade Commander who welcomed the class of 1981 to the US Naval Academy on July 6, 1977. Col. Art Athens, USMCR (Ret.) is now the Director of the Stockdale Center…

Gregory Jaczko – Example of Public Hazard of Political Appointments

On May 4, 2011, the Subcommittee on Energy and Power and the Subcommittee on Environment and the Economy conducted a hearing titled The Role of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in America’s Energy Future. Watching that hearing and digesting what I heard has resulted in several sleepless nights. I have been struggling with how to share…

Flush With Cash – Where Did Climate Activists Get So Much Money?

The Economist recently published a column titled Climate politics: Flush with cash. So what? that described the results of a recent study by Matthew Nisbet, an researcher at American University in Washington, DC. According to Nisbet, groups classified in the environmental category spent almost $400 million on climate change and energy issues in 2009. The…