112th Carnival of Nuclear Energy Bloggers – Back At Atomic Insights

Every week, people who write articles about nuclear energy gather their favorites together in a single post called the Carnival of Nuclear Energy Bloggers. We’ve been doing this regularly for more than two years; it is my pleasure to host the 112th issue of the Carnival. Here are our favorite posts from the first week…

Radioactive Tuna versus Chemical Aftermath

In the past few days, both ad-supported commercial media and the social media universe have been filled with stories about how scientists on the US West coast were able to find traces of radioactive cesium and could conclusively link that cesium to the material released from the Fukushima nuclear power plants. Just in case you…

Least informed piece on Fukushima yet

In the weeks leading to the one year anniversary of the demise of the Fukushima Daiichi power station, there have been a number of articles from the usual suspects that seek use the word “Fukushima” as a hypnotic code word that is supposed to result in fear and trembling. Individuals like Karl Grossman, Helen Caldicott…

Senator Boxer expresses admiration for Chairman Jaczko and disrespect for all other NRC commissioners

On December 15, 2011, at the end of a long hearing in which four dedicated, experienced, mature commissioners from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) testified that Chairman Jaczko was an abusive leader who filtered information and berated professional staff members, Senator Barbara Boxer offered the opportunity for closing statements from her colleagues on “the other…

UK nuclear regulation gaining ground as a gold standard in effectiveness

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has often described itself as “the gold standard” in nuclear reactor regulation. Sometimes that view has been reinforced by the nuclear industry by comments along the lines of “if you can license your design in the US, you can license it anywhere.” I am not sure if that is because…

More accurate headline would be “Fukushima Containment Worked”

The advertiser supported media cannot bring itself to admit that the hype and fear mongering that they indulged in for weeks after the Great North East Japan earthquake and tsunami were based on wild “worst case scenario” fantasies. Here is a recent report that carried the following attention grabbing headline: In meltdown, Japan dodged even…

Crowd sourced debunking of Gundersen lies about AP1000 & Fukushima

I have an important request for Atomic Insights readers. Our old friend, Arnie Gundersen, has once again violated the admonition that it is better to remain silent and thought to be a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. In this recent video, he describes how he was commissioned by a group…

Ontario’s CANDUs can be more flexible than natural gas and hydro

By: Donald Jones, P.Eng. There is a widely held belief that commercial nuclear-electric plants are only capable of baseload operation when in fact they can be more flexible than a natural gas-fired generating station. This belief has led the Ontario government to restrict nuclear generation to 50 percent of total demand, in its Long-Term Energy…