The first Atomic Show of 2013 is a geeky, chemistry laden discussion aimed at helping to answer the question that many people who fight nuclear energy try to use as their trump card “What do you do with the waste.” It often makes their head spin or makes them put their fingers into their ears…
The ANS Nuclear Cafe recently posted the above video in a post titled Nuclear Cafe Matinee: Nuclear Recycling in 4 Minutes. It is a useful example of the kind of information that needs to be made more accessible to the public. I hope you share it widely, but more importantly, I hope it inspires you…
One of the biggest threats to the continued wealth and power held by the global fossil fuel industry is a “plutonium economy” fueled by abundant resources of uranium that can be converted into fissile plutonium in a breeder reactor. (Yes, I know that a thorium economy is just as big of a threat to the…
Kirk Sorensen is the co-founder and chief technologist of Flibe Energy. He is a member of a tiny club of people who can honestly claim to be atomic entrepreneurs. He is a brilliant man – one of the few people who has been both a rocket scientist and a nuclear engineer. Kirk is best known…
On June 13, 2012, Allison Macfarlane will be a witness in her confirmation hearing as a new commissioner and the prospective Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Commissioner Kristine Svinicki will also be a witness in her quest to be confirmed for a second term as a commissioner. In June 2007, I had the opportunity…
One of the more contentious political issues in south central Virginia is whether or not to allow mining at the largest known deposit of uranium east of the Mississippi River. That deposit, at Coles Hill in Chatham is located just slightly more than an hour’s drive from my current residence. It is estimated to contain…
Note: Len Koch, whose participation in nuclear energy research started in the 1940s, wrote the below open letter to colleagues who are striving to restore interest in the progress that they made in research and development of the Integral Fast Reactor during the period from 1954-1994 the year that President Clinton and Hazel O’Leary, his…
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…
Kirk Sorensen is an inspiring speaker and teacher who is motivated by an incredible vision. As he eloquently describes in the video below, he has excavated and dusted off ideas and documentation from the archives at Oak Ridge National Laboratory about using thorium in molten salt reactors. According to back of the envelope calculations by…
Gordon McDowell, the film maker who produced Thorium Remix, has released some additional mixes of material gathered for that production effort. One in particular is aimed at those people whose main concern about using nuclear energy is the often repeated question “What do you do with the waste.” Many people who ask that question think…
I am a subscriber to a Google group of fast reactor experts and advocates who strongly believe that the Clinton Administration’s decision to eliminate funding for the Integral Fast Reactor (IFR) project was an enormous political mistake that has had long term impacts on America’s national security and economic vitality. Recently, two members of the…
Guest article by Charles Forsberg. The below originally appeared on April 28, 2011 in a Bulletin of Atomic Scientists roundtable discussion titled “Is nuclear energy different from other energy sources?” Charles’s contribution was titled “Mutually assured energy independence.” It was so good that I contacted Charles and obtained his permission to share his thoughts with…