Cautionary story for nuclear plant vendors and prospective plant owners

Florida state Rep. Mike Fasano (R-New Port Richey), who voted in favor of Florida’s 2006 Construction Work in Progress (CWIP) advanced cost recovery law, has become the prime sponsor of a new law to overturn that rule. According to a January 11, 2012 op-ed published by the Tampa Bay Times titled No more blank checks…

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…

Debating a natural gas booster about nuclear competition

My discussion with Robert Bradley at Master Resource regarding the relative value of investments in natural gas generation versus nuclear generation continues to result in some interesting exchanges worth additional visibility and comment. Here are some of the recent posts: Robert Bradley { 12.03.11 at 9:47 pm } Rod: $4/MMBtu natural gas–how can nuclear compete…

Pebble bed reactor safety demonstration test – ABC video from 2007

I spent about 15 years trying (unsuccessfully) to get a small modular reactor company off the ground. Our concept was based on an adaptation of the successful German pebble bed demonstration reactor called the AVR. In 2003, Tsinghua University in China completed the construction of the HTR-10, which was essentially a direct copy of the…

The need for more rational radiation protection standards

A frequent commenter on Atomic Insights is a very experienced nuclear professional who often keeps me on my toes by sharing thoughts that are fairly common in our community. I have recently been posting quite a number of blogs on the need to revise radiation protection standards to base them on a more accurate model…

Reducing nuclear operational and capital costs by improved technology

I received a link from the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) to a fascinating video about their recent efforts to develop CoSecTM, a new resin technology that is more effective at capturing cobalt-60. Most of the radiation doses that nuclear workers receive come from this single isotope. One possible cost savings aspect of this technology…

TEDx New England – Nuclear entrepreneurs aiming to use waste for fuel

Two young graduate students describe their plans to develop something called the Waste Annihilating Molten Salt Reactor (WAMSR). The biggest applause line in the talk was the following: Right now in the world there are about 270,000 metric tons of high level waste that exists. We can take that waste, put it into our reactors…

Rowe states that merchant power generators cannot make long term investments

A November 9, 2011 Platts headline caught my attention this morning New Calvert Cliffs nuke ‘almost inconceivable’: Exelon CEO. I have been following the Calvert Cliffs Unit 3 story for several years. I used to be a Maryland resident and made a couple of trips down to Calvert County for public meetings on the proposal…

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…