A nuclear pioneer’s work on safer, cheaper, inexhaustible nuclear power is still inspiring nuclear environmentalists. by Robert Hargraves Physicist Alvin Weinberg worked on the Manhattan Project and later co-invented the pressurized water nuclear reactor. As Director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory he led development of liquid fuel reactors, including walk-away-safe liquid fluoride thorium reactors with […]
Guest Columns
Westinghouse CEO: Decommissioning is part of the nuclear life cycle
Editor’s note: This guest post is in response to Westinghouse’s Roderick shifts resources from SMR to AP1000. By Danny Roderick I enjoy your blog and overall you get it right so I wanted to provide a little comment about growing our Westinghouse decommissioning business. Our fundamental business is growth in new units and servicing/fueling the […]
CT Scans Save Lives
By Scientists for Accurate Radiation Information (SARI) We are writing to express our concerns with a January 30, 2014 article by Rita F. Redberg and Rebecca Smith-Bindman. The article is alarmingly titled, “We Are Giving Ourselves Cancer”, and is accompanied by a frightening cartoon that appears to be a doctor holding an X-ray film, and […]
If you really care about carbon…
By Paul Lorenzini Two recent reports ought to frame the conundrum for environmental activists who oppose nuclear power and offer guidance for all who are concerned about carbon. Renewables and efficiency are not enough The first was BP’s Energy Outlook 2035. It challenges the prevailing narrative that has been driving the thought of many environmentalists […]
On Germany, coal and carbon
By Paul Lorenzini Germany’s nuclear phase-out has an obvious and unavoidable consequence: they will burn more fossil fuels and emit more carbon. They may succeed in lowering carbon emissions using some artifact (comparisons to some historical year) but only a fool would contend that their carbon emissions will be not be higher than they otherwise […]
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 […]
Open letter to Ralph Nader from Timothy Maloney – Atomic energy is much better than you think
By Timothy Maloney, PhD Editor’s note: Timothy Maloney has written a number of text books about electrical circuits, electricity, and industrial electronics. The below is a copy of a letter that he wrote to Ralph Nader in response to an opinion piece published by CounterPunch under the headline Why Atomic Energy Stinks Worse Than You […]
Ted Rockwell shared knowledge to combat Fukushima fears
By A. David Rossin Internationally recognized radiation engineer Ted Rockwell raised more than a few eyebrows when he maintained, in the aftermath of the Fukushima catastrophe in Japan, that the fear of radiation does more harm than the radiation itself. Responsible health experts know that outside the plant boundaries, radiation levels are detectable but low, […]
Uranium Catalysts for the Reduction and/or Chemical Coupling of Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Monoxide, and Nitrogen
This is a guest post from NNadir, the well-known nom de plume used by a chemical engineer who has professional reasons for obscuring his off-line identity. It is far more technical than most of the posts here, but I found it fascinating. I hope most readers agree that it is a welcome respite from the […]
Lorenzini rebuts Sovacool’s defense of nuclear bird kill paper as weak
By Paul Lorenzini Mr. Benjamin Sovacool claims my earlier article misrepresents his works and contains factual errors. Let me respond. He states: First, and most important: Paul has misstated the actual conclusion from my original study. It never advances the conclusion, as he claims, that “nuclear power causes more bird kills than wind.” Au contraire. […]
Pandora’s Promise and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – What we missed
Author blurb: Paul Lorenzini earned his PhD in Nuclear Engineering from Oregon State University and later earned a JD. He had a distinguished career in the electric utility business and was the Chief Executive Officer for NuScale Power for its first five years. He is now retired and sharing some of his thoughts about energy […]
Benjamin Sovacool takes issue with Lorenzini’s criticism of his work
Editorial note: I received an interesting note in my inbox from Dr. Benjamin Sovacool. Hi Rod/Atomic Insights, I believe you already know me as I see multiple posts attacking my research. One of the most recent ones is from Paul Lorenzini. Given that this post has a number of factual errors in it (and it […]
