Atomic Show #312 – Tyler Bernstein, CEO Zeno Power
Zeno Power makes cost-effective radioisotope power systems (RPS) for some of the most challenging environments in the solar system. Its systems use a proprietary package that allows a wider variety of isotopes to perform functions previously reserved for Pu-238, a rare isotope that is slowly produced at great expense. What is the value of RPS?…
Experience Power with a healthy dose of microgrids, hydrogen and nuclear energy information
Each year since 1998, POWER Magazine has hosted a conference titled Experience Power that brings together utilities, suppliers, customers and energy leaders to discuss trends in the electric power sector. The event is…
Where is the nuclear industry headed? Four top executives share their thoughts at ANS Utility Working Conference 2023
One good reason to attend industry conferences is to be able carefully listen to the thoughts of industry leaders, especially during unscripted panel discussions. When the executives are among colleagues and aren’t delivering…
Sense of purpose at the 2023 ANS Utility Working Conference
The theme at the annual American Nuclear Society Utility Working Conference (#ANSUWC) was resiliency, a term that applies equally well to the equipment and the people that make up the U.S. nuclear industry….
The most secure place to store Plutonium is inside an operating fission reactor
Plutonium-239 (Pu-239) is a nuclear fuel source that should play an important role in a sustainable, rapidly growing nuclear power enterprise. It is a natural byproduct that is created inside every fission reactor…
Atomic Show #311 – Mary Jo Rogers – Founder, Rogers Leadership Group
Mary Jo Rogers is a trained clinical psychologist who developed her interest workforce safety cultures and leadership in the nuclear power sector while consulting and working for ComEd (later Exelon). At the time…
Atomic Show #310 – Ron Faibish on Space Nuclear Power
In the past few years, there has been a strong revival of interest in using nuclear fission energy to power space travel and planetary exploration. There have also been new developments in radioisotope…
Atomic Show #309 – Matt Huber, Geography of Energy
Matt Huber is a professor of geography at Syracuse University. He writes about energy, economies and the way that energy sources have influenced modern societies and economies. One of his first books was…
Atomic Show #278 – Micro-Modular Reactor (MMR) project partners USNC, GFP and OPG
Global First Power (GFP), Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation (USNC) and Ontario Power Generation (OPG) recently announced that they had formed a joint venture called Global First Power Limited Partnership. That venture will build,…
Terrific application for highly enriched uranium fuel – tiny NASA reactors
How many times have you heard politicians tell you that the only reason a nation with abundant oil and gas might want to enrich uranium is to build nuclear weapons. The United States…
A Question of Economics: The Answer Depends on the Assumptions
In 1970, President Nixon affirmed that the United States had long term objectives in the Antarctic regions and consolidated responsibility for management and funding of all Antarctic operations under the National Science Foundation….
Nuclear plant output in China poised for rapid increases in 2018-2020
The last two days in June 2018 saw the first power generation from two separate first of a kind nuclear plants in China. Taishan 1, a 1650 MWe European Pressurized Reactor (EPR) was…
Who said modular construction would save money on first of a kind units?
On July 27, 2015, the Wall St. Journal published an article written by Rebecca Smith titled Prefab Nuclear Plants Prove Just as Expensive. That piece has been widely shared and discussed on social…
Reactor Coolant Pumps for AP1000 still a problem
This is a story that I really don’t want to tell, but bad news is like old fish. It doesn’t smell any better as it ages. All eight AP1000 construction projects are at…
Smoking Gun Part 11 – Scargill, National Union of Mineworkers, blasts Monbiot for acceptance of nuclear
Arthur Scargill, former leaders of the UK’s National Union of Mineworkers, published a commentary on August 8, 2008 on Guardian.co.uk that qualifies as one of the clearest examples of a professional coal advocate…
Atom and the Fault
I came across a fascinating little book by Richard Meehan titled The Atom and the Fault: Experts, Earthquakes and Nuclear Power. It was published in 1984 by MIT University Press. Meehan is a…
Smoking Gun Part 4 (direct anti-nuclear comment from Dick Armey, who is advocating coal instead)
Dick Armey is a former US Congressman (Republican) who now serves as the chairman of FreedomWorks, a conservative, issues-based organization founded in 1984 that includes “full time staff in ten states and over…
Nuclear Venture Capital
Nuclear Venture Capital – enabling the transition to a low-carbon economy
How Hot is Cold Fusion?
The 24th International Conference on Cold Fusion (ICCF24) was held at the lovely and spacious Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA over four days in late July. As a venture investor looking at evaluating and investing in a wide range of advanced nuclear ventures, I was invited to participate and/or sponsor the event. While…
Nucleating our carbon-managed future
If you’ve studied chemistry, you’ll know that the nucleation point describes the start of a change in physical state, such as from a solid to a liquid, or liquid to gas. Water starting to crystallize into ice nucleates where the first H2O molecules reorganize as a solid. We’re seeing a similar transformation of human society—forced…
Rod Adams
Managing Partner, Nucleation Capital, a venture fund enabling broader investor access to a diverse portfolio of advanced nuclear energy and deep decarbonization ventures. Nuclear energy expert and former submarine Engineer Officer with nuclear propulsion plant experience. Founder, Adams Atomic Engines, Inc. Host and producer, The Atomic Show Podcast.