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Atomic Insights

Atomic energy technology, politics, and perceptions from a nuclear energy insider who served as a US nuclear submarine engineer officer

General

Paying attention to energy discussions on Twitter

January 4, 2018 By Rod Adams 12 Comments

I apologize for the virtual silence here over the past couple of weeks.

I’ve been keeping up a fairly active presence on Twitter, posting short updates and getting involved in a few serious conversations as time allows.

Even if you do not have a Twitter account, you can read my feed at https://twitter.com/Atomicrod?s=17

One topic that is keeping me up at night is the stress being put on the grid and on fuel supplies by the extreme weather. I hope that my friends and everyone else in New England and on the Atlantic coast from north Florida up stays reasonably warm and completely safe.

I hope the winter reliability program oil doesn’t run out.

So far, I’ve been impressed with the fact that 99 out of 99 nuclear reactors in the U.S. are operating at or very close to full power. As of yesterday, there were just 5 that reported a power level less than 100% in their daily status report to the NRC. Those 5 were at 99, 98, 94 and 2@93.

For whatever reason, VOX’s Umair Irfan decided to write a story about the cold wave and energy supply without mentioning that fact.

Filed Under: General

Duke TIP Nukes at GA Tech

July 27, 2015 By Rod Adams 5 Comments

As mentioned a few days ago, I spent the first three weeks of July teaching Nuclear Science to a group of interested, bright, open-minded teenagers who have the inherently questioning attitude that makes working with them so rewarding. We got to know each other pretty well during the nearly 100 hours of class time that we spent together. We were able to cover — to a varying level of detail — a wide range of topics, from the history of the discovery of radiation, to the development of beneficial uses of radioactive materials in industry and medicine, to the development of fission power reactors, the testing of atomic weapons, the health effects of radiation doses from high to low, the siren song promise of energy from nuclear fusion, careers available in nuclear science and technology, and advanced medical imaging and treatments using radiation and radioactive materials.

The students had the opportunity to watch Trinity and Beyond, Pandora’s Promise, Einstein’s Big Idea, Our Friend the Atom, A is for Atom, and a BBC documentary on the life of Marie Curie. We used visuals from posted videos on various nuclear reactor designs, looked for radioactive sources using Geiger counters, saw a sub-critical experimental pile, and talked to a grad student who was using a high bay shielded room to test a quad copter programmed to perform radiation surveys. Lisa Styles, a senior evaluator from INPO in Atlanta, visited the class to talk about careers in nuclear technology and Leslie Corrice, the well known Fukushima event expert, visited via Skype to share some little known information about the event and its aftermath.

One regret caused by the tight daily schedule of the program was that we were within a three hour drive of the Vogtle 3 & 4 construction site, but unable to visit and tour. We had to substitute photos and videos instead. We were also limited by the lack of a research reactor at GA Tech; there was one there until it was defueled in preparation for the 1996 Olympic Games. Apparently there were people who were worried about the nuclear reactor safety implications of international terrorism even then.

Even though the Neely Reactor facility was relicensed in 1997, it was never started again after the Olympics. There was a declining interest and enrollment in Nuclear Engineering, the reactor was underutilized, and the fuel had already been removed and transported to the Savannah River Site.

Here is a photo of most of my class (15 out of 17) taken during a break from the final dance. (They gave me permission to share this. They were pleased to find out that I had written a little about our time together already.)

Duke TIP Nuclear Science Term 2 GA Tech 2015
Duke TIP Nuclear Science Term 2 GA Tech 2015

One of the features of a Duke TIP experience is creating a class tee shirt. I was impressed by the design that the Nukes created; I will proudly add this shirt to the collection of shirts I wear at public meetings.

Gone_Fission_Duke_Nukes

I hope I’m invited back. It was a blast and a stimulating intellectual challenge to spend so much time sharing knowledge with such interesting young people. I freely admitted my strong biases about atomic fission and radiation, but told the students that I enjoyed students who asked hard questions and stubbornly probed the bases of my assertions.

Filed Under: General

Teaching Nuclear Science to bright, open-minded, questioning teenagers

July 22, 2015 By Rod Adams

Some of you might have been missing irregular, but frequent, updates here on Atomic Insights for the past few weeks. You may have wondered why most comment threads have been closed. You may have even noticed that the Twitter tool in the right hand column didn’t include any new tweets for days on end. I […]

Filed Under: Advanced Atomic Technologies, General, Nuclear workforce

Who is reading Atomic Insights these days?

May 2, 2014 By Rod Adams

Every once in a while, I skim through Google Analytics to learn a little more about the people who are visiting Atomic Insights. (My title is making the assumption that most visitors are actually reading the pages that they land on.) Here is the most recent global map. I’m not sure why the east coast […]

Filed Under: General, Nuclear Communications

Off-topic diversion – Army-Navy spirit spots

December 6, 2012 By Rod Adams

Allow me to share a couple of examples of surprising talent from my alma mater. Ray Ban Vision Go Navy, Beat Army!

Filed Under: General, Uncategorized

Personal reflections of September 11, 2001- ten years later

September 11, 2011 By Rod Adams

This is a personal reflection of an event that altered world history. If you are already overwhelmed by other stories and coverage of the event, please forgive me, read something else and come back to Atomic Insights later. In July 2001, I was transferred from my job as the Associate Chairman of the Weapons and […]

Filed Under: General

Dr. James Hansen Explaining Why Cap and Trade Will Not Work

February 28, 2010 By Rod Adams 1 Comment

Dr. James Hansen is one of the world’s leading climatologists. He recently wrote a book titled “Storms of My Grandchildren” explaining the need to take effective action to reduce the potential danger of building up CO2 in the atmosphere. He is opposed to international agreements for capping and trading emissions and offsets and instead recommends […]

Filed Under: Alternative energy, Economics, General

Sorry for the silence – will correct soon

November 22, 2009 By Rod Adams

Some of you have graciously let me know that you are impatiently awaiting the next episode of the Atomic Show after a long period of silence. Please rest assured, there will be a new show soon. My goal is to get it produced and posted by Tuesday morning – US east coast time.

Filed Under: General

The Podcast Network Deserves Your Support

November 21, 2008 By Rod Adams Leave a Comment

As we come close to the holiday season, several listeners have very generously asked what they can do to show their appreciation for The Atomic Show. I am actually quite humbled by those requests. Since March of 2006, a loosely connected team of people has been working with available time to provide you with the […]

Filed Under: Economics, General Tagged With: pledge drive

Video – Failure of a wind turbine

September 27, 2008 By Rod Adams 1 Comment

This video should provide some food for thought for people who believe that wind energy is clean and safe. Here is another video that details some of the mechanical and business risks associated with wind energy developments. This is not a spectacular failure, but one where a manufacturing or engineering problem has resulted in a […]

Filed Under: General

Follow-up from Atomic Show 105 – The Promised Elephant Kiss

September 8, 2008 By Rod Adams Leave a Comment

While working in South Africa on the PBMR project, Hans and Mary Lou Gougar are taking full advantage of the opportunity to try new experiences and visit new places. During Atomic Show #105, Hans, ever the devoted husband, offered to share a video of Mary Lou being kissed by an elephant. I have her permission […]

Filed Under: General Tagged With: Elephant kiss

Taking some time off – hope someone notices

July 7, 2008 By Rod Adams 16 Comments

I apologize for my lack of shows during the past couple of weeks. Summer is always a challenging time – there is less news, potential guests are out of town, and there are always competing activities that can take the place of putting together a show. I hope you all forgive me, but it sure […]

Filed Under: General

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