It is possible for engineers to make incredibly complex calculations without a single math error that still come up with a wrong answer if they use a model based on incorrect assumptions. (Originally published May 1996) Pick up almost any book about nuclear energy and you will find that the prevailing wisdom is that nuclear…
This is an August 2022 update of an article first published in November 1996 and updated in February 2019. The first update was stimulated by discussions associated with DOD’s issuance of an RFI for mobile, modest power output atomic power systems. That RFI resulted in Project Pele, which has now selected BWXT to build a…
(Post was originally published on July 1, 1995. It was updated on April 2, 2011 to include information and videos that were not available in when it was first written. The title has also been revised to open up a new discussion – was the NS Savannah a failure or a successful demonstration of a…
Ask Atomic: What was your point regarding the 760 million mile per gallon carburetor? Reader Patrick recently asked me a question about an article titled “The 760 Million Mile Per Gallon (MMMPG) Carburetor” that I originally wrote for an online publication called Power Online a bit more than 5 years ago. With current interest in…
Health Effects of Low Level Radiation: When will we acknowledge the reality?
Several people have either sent email or made a comment on the Atomic Insights Blog about the factors that limit reactor fuel consumption (burnup). Here is one of the questions with my answer. This question came from Iain, who blogs at http://ambivalentengineer.blogspot.com Rod, Could you please explain something to me, or point me at some…
This posting needs a little context. I occasionally get into conversations with people that wonder why I am so passionate about atomic energy. Explanations of that sort often require some background information. I composed this letter as part of a conversation with a journalist whose views are completely divergent, but who is willing to listen…
Petroleum – that term includes oil, gas and derivatives – wells have been going dry for more than 150 years. Until now, the solution to that problem of resource depletion has been to find a new place to drill. Though there is still a lot of oil left inside the Earth, there is a significant…
As frequent readers know, I am a huge fan of the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) project that has been under development in South Africa since 1993. Though there have been some hurdles over the years, and the project has had to overcome a significant amount of resistance, the PBMR team – originally from Eskom,…
On May 16-18 2005, the Nuclear Energy Institute hosted its annual Nuclear Energy Assembly. The conference, held at the Fairmont Hotel in northwest Washington DC was titled Nuclear Energy 2005: A Time of Opportunity. There were both optimistic and cautionary speeches given during the conference. Some of the speeches are available for download from our…
Two energy companies made the cut in the 2005 edition of Wired Magazine’s annual article about cutting edge companies. This year’s installment of the survey led with the following quote: “They’re masters of technology and innovation. They’re global thinkers driven by strategic vision. They’re nimbler than Martha Stewart’s PR team. They’re The Wired 40.” Both…
On September 11, 2001, three fully fueled transcontinental airplanes became terrorist weapons, causing a huge amount of direct damage and killing more than 3,000 people living and working in the United States. Though terrorist attacks are nothing new, the scale and impact of these three coordinated attacks from the air caused a complete revaluation of…