I have a passion for nuclear power. It began when I was a teenager and has continued to develop for more than thirty years. It fires me up early each morning, causes me to bore friends and family to tears, and often keeps me awake late into the evening. This passion has been the source…
Truckers, farmers, parcel services, chemical manufacturers, airlines, bus companies, and railroads all need uranium to begin replacing oil. No, they do not yet need their own reactors, but they would all benefit substantially if more nuclear power plants were built to allow more uranium to be used instead of oil and gas wherever possible. The…
More than three years ago, I wrote about the Yucca Mountain project, telling you that I thought that the entire concept was stupid because it was based on flawed assumptions. (See Yucca Mountain: Right Answer; Wrong Question) I also promised that I would discuss a better solution in a future article. The future is now,…
Galena, Alaska has a problem that may be solved with an innovative application of nuclear power. The remote village in Western Alaska is a long way from the grid that supplies electricity to more densely populated regions. It is a fly-in village with only local roads. The energy supply is limited to fossil fuels transported…
“It is not too much to expect that our children will enjoy in their homes electrical energy too cheap to meter, will know of great periodic regional famines in the world only as matters of history, will travel effortlessly over the seas and under them and through the air with a minimum of danger and…
Yesterday morning (3 March 2005) I heard a story on National Public Radio (NPR) that reminded me why I chose an engineering focused career instead of one focused on science. (Aside: I carefully avoid calling myself an engineer, though I served as one in the Navy for a couple of decades. My undergraduate degree is…
The ‘n’ word is definitely back in fashion. There are at least five large partnerships in the United States that are preparing to build new nuclear power plants, though all of them are keeping a rather low profile. The five identified efforts include a consortium led by Excelon that is investigating an early site permit…
As a scientist whose career includes the management of a plutonium laboratory, I am keenly aware of the many attributes of plutonium. Over the years I have also learned that advice from nuclear critics about plutonium is consistently unreliable. The critics are again offering unreliable information to the Secretary of Energy about the disposition of…
In a press release carefully coordinated with mass internet mailings to all the old anti-technology political action groups, Nader’s well-funded Critical Mass organization tries to create the impression of “a growing coalition of national, international and grassroots groups” joined by “many scientists, experts and the public.” But there is nothing spontaneous or grass-rootsy about this…
Please note: This press release is directly quoted from the listed organizations. It does not in any way reflect the position of Atomic Energy Insights or Adams Atomic Engines, Inc. ******* CRITICAL MASS ENERGY PROJECT ******* Nuclear Power Reactor Fuel GREENPEACE INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH MILITARY PRODUCTION NETWORK NUCLEAR CONTROL INSTITUTE NUCLEAR…
For more than forty years, the United States and the Soviet Union built nuclear weapons and aimed them at each other’s heartlands. The process of building those weapons was expensive in strict monetary terms and in terms of sacrificing investments in more productive enterprises. Now, however, the confrontational attitude between the two countries has been…
On December 9, 1996, the United States Department of Energy issued a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement that advocated an investigation of two possible alternatives for handling plutonium from decommissioned nuclear weapons. One option is to combine the plutonium with uranium to produce mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel that can be used in conventional nuclear reactor plants. The…