The Atomic Show #136 – Jack Tuohy, Executive Director, American Nuclear Society

Jack Tuohy is the Executive Director of the American Nuclear Society. We talked about his goals for the organization, his experiences as a first responder at Three Mile Island and his desire to help nuclear professionals develop their expertise. Other topics discussed during our conversation include: TMI regulation changes as good for nuclear industry Engineers…

The Atomic Show #135 – Tom Sanders – President, American Nuclear Society

Tom Sanders took office as the President of the American Nuclear Society on June 18, 2009. Rod Adams spoke with him on the day before. Tom explained his goals for the year, the importance of nuclear technology to national security and the enthusiasm that he has for “right-sized” reactors. Podcast: Play in new window |…

The Atomic Show #133 – Todd Tucker, Author Atomic America

Atomic America has a thought provoking subtitle – “How a Deadly Explosion and a Feared Admiral Changed the Course of Nuclear History”. The unifying story through the book is one that most nuclear trained people know a little about – the accident at the Army’s SL-1 that took place on January 3, 1961. In Atomic…

The Atomic Show #132 – Ray Squirrel Interviews (Atomic) Rod Adams

Ray Squirrel is the screen name used by a documentary film maker who is collecting material for a film about nuclear power. You can find some of the work he has done so far at RaySquirrel’s youtube site. I am not sure how the film will come out, but I thought you might be interested…

The Atomic Show #131 – View from the Left on Atomic Energy

David Walters from Left Atomics and Daily Kos joins Rod Adams for a discussion about atomic energy from a far left point of view. It is well known that much of the opposition to nuclear power in the US, Europe, and Australia comes from people who are normally considered to be on the political left….

The Atomic Show #130 – Better Uses for Fissile Material

Kirk Sorensen, Charles Barton and Rod Adams got together for a long distance conversation inspired by President Obama’s speech about his commitment to reduce nuclear weapons stockpiles. That action will free up valuable material useful for many power plant applications. It is important to understand – the president’s call is for a world free from…

The Atomic Show #129 – Atomic Gas Turbines

On March 30, 2009, I had the privilege of presenting a talk at my alma mater on the topic of nuclear heated Brayton cycle machines – also known as atomic gas turbines or Adams EnginesTM. This episode of The Atomic Show is my first attempt at an enhanced podcast using chapter markers and trying to…

The Atomic Show #128 – Celebrating 30 Years

As most people who keep up with nuclear trivia know, March 28, 1979 was a bad day for the industry. As a result of a series of mechanical and operational issues, the reactor at Three Mile Island experienced a loss of coolant accident through a stuck open relief valve. When all was said and done,…

The Atomic Show #127 – New Nuclear Plant Public Meetings

On February 3, 2009, I attended a public meeting regarding the future construction of North Anna Unit 3. Several of the people who attended that meeting gathered via Skype last night to share notes. I will add some more notes to this post later today, but now it is time to get ready for my…

The Atomic Show #126 – Wasserman v Moore moderated by Goodman and Adams

On Thursday February 5, 2009, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! moderated a brief debate about nuclear power between Harvey Wasserman and Patrick Moore. The forcing function for holding the debate on that date was the fact that the Senate has included an additional authorization for $50 billion in loan guarantees for clean energy as part…

The Atomic Show #125 – Economic Interests in Environmental Politics

It not shocking news to discover that “recovering” politicians often lobby their former colleagues. This show about Gore’s testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is just an example. This week I spent a several hours listening to the first hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee of the current congressional session. Former Vice President…