Last night, CNN Presents aired a completely one sided and inaccurate portrayal of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. It extensively quoted both Arnie Gundersen and Bernie Sanders and included a staged interview that made the Nuclear Regulatory Commission look both incompetent and unresponsive. That episode is scheduled to be repeated tonight. Here is a…
Corrected copy Yesterday, the Byron nuclear power station lost power to Unit 2, which had to shut down. During the shutdown, the plant vented steam from the plant secondary side, which MIGHT contain minute quantities of tritium based on the assumption of some leakage between the primary and secondary through steam generator tubes. Here is…
An alternative title for this piece might be – Seeing the art that already exists in radioactive materials. Until today, I had never heard of James Acord, a sculptor who devoted more than 20 years of his life to sustained efforts to create art from radioactive materials. The first part of that struggle involved 12…
I received an invitation by email to read and review a post on a blog called “TXCHNOLOGIST”. The invitation was well worded and inviting, most likely composed by a trained expert in public relations. The subject post, titled Your Prius Won’t Save You: Questions for David Owen, Author of The Conundrum intrigued me. It was…
I know, I am like one of those people who are still sending out Christmas cards in January. However, I just ran across this brief little video that I thought was worth sharing. The good news, bad news story is that Amazon lists Nuclear Power: How a Nuclear Power Plant Really Works as temporarily sold…
This is a Public Service Announcement. November 30 Film and Panel at the Gund Institute The Energy Education Project of the Ethan Allen Institute has two members of our Board of Advisors on the panel at an event sponsored by the Gund Institute at University of Vermont (UVM). The film and panel start at 4…
On November 22, 2011, I spoke to the student ANS chapter at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA. It was a fairly compact, but enthusiastic gathering of bright individuals who have recently decided to make a career in nuclear technology. Some are interested in nuclear medicine, some in the materials used in nuclear reactors, and…
The Richmond-Times Dispatch hosted a debate on November 15, 2011 titled Public Square: The debate over nuclear energy in Va.. Since I recently moved to Virginia specifically because of nuclear energy, I figured that attending the debate was a good way to invest my time. Aside: . I am one of several hundred people who…
I remain baffled about why so many people who consider themselves to be political liberals fight the use of nuclear energy. It is not only an emission-free, reliable, low cost power source with a demonstrated record of safety, it is also a source of some excellent, career employment at wages that allow people to raise…
One of my favorite jokes about the difference between scientists and engineers is the one in which a scientist and an engineer are both put into a room with a pot of gold on the other side. They are given the rules of the challenge – the gold will be given to the person who…
The Columbia Journalism Review has published an article titled A Frustrating AP Series on Nuclear Safety that analyses the four part series of “investigative” reports published during June of 2011. Here is an example quote from the article: But the AP series, while it tackles a critically important public policy issue, suffers from lapses in…
Ray has released Chapter 6 of the Shoreham saga. Unlike some filmmakers, he has allowed plenty of time for even slow readers to fully read the front matter on this chapter, so either be patient or skip ahead to about minute 1:20 to watch the action start. The stars in this section include Harvey Wasserman,…