Dr. Allison MacFarlane is an Associate Professor of Environment Science and Policy at George Mason University. She is also a self proclaimed nuclear agnostic who is not sure that nuclear power can grow much. About a month ago a friend sent me a link to an interesting panel discussion that was held at MIT on […]
Podcast
The Atomic Show #060 – A Liberal View of Atomic Energy – NNadir Visits Atomic HQ
NNadir, a popular diarist from The Daily Kos visits Atomic HQ for a face to face chat about nuclear materials, solving climate change and other important topics. NNadir of The Daily Kos stopped by for a visit – wearing a shirt that said “I am in my element – Seaborgium”. What a great way to […]
The Atomic Show #059 – Delayed Indian reactors, unit conversions, Shane’s farewell
Shane and Rod discuss Indian nuclear power, the importance of unit conversions, and Shane’s farewell. Shane and I discuss a delayed reactor project in India, the importance of unit conversions and the reasons why it is not easy to change a system of measurements. We also divert into other interesting topics including the Global Nuclear […]
The Atomic Show #058 – Uranium on NYMEX, Water use by reactors
Shane and Rod discuss uranium futures markets new to the New York Mercantile Exchange, water consumption by thermal power plants, scaling reactors to fit various markets and locations Shane found some good follow on information relating to our uranium availability story a few weeks ago and listener John asked some questions that provided some good […]
The Atomic Show #057 – Boiling Water Reactors
Shane and Rod discuss boiling water reactors, one of the two types of established light water reactors. There are two main types of light water reactors, pressurized water reactors (PWR) and boiling water reactors (BWR). They share some characteristics, but also have a number of differences. There are plenty of sources of information on the […]
The Atomic Show #056 – Visiting tech mecca, powered competition (nuclear versus coal)
Talking about nuclear fission power from California Shane and I talked about my Google Tech Talk titled “Fission is the new Fire”, the power of competition and human interests, the difference in atomic success between the US and France (emphasizing the fact that the US produces 2 times as much electricity with nuclear power as […]
The Atomic Show #055 – Texas – next nuclear capital of US?
The great state of Texas seems to be poised to become the nuclear capital of the US based on the number of new nuclear plants that have been proposed for the state. TXU, Exelon, NRG and Amarillo Power have all proposed major new nuclear power plant projects in Texas, already the home of 4 of […]
The Atomic Show #054 – Russian – Canadian nuclear cooperation
Shane and I jumped around a bit, but spent most of the time on Russian interest in nuclear power The Russians are actively traveling the world marketing their nuclear power plants and services. They have been in South Africa and Canada recently looking for cooperative arrangements to share technology and skills. Shane and I also […]
The Atomic Show #053 – Commercial Nuclear Ships
Shane and I discuss commercial nuclear ship history and future opportunities Commercial nuclear powered ships were tried in the 1960s and 1970s with little follow on units. The United States built the NS Savannah, Germany built the Otto Hahn, and Japan built the Mutsu. None of these remain in operation today and all demonstrated various […]
The Atomic Show #52 – Climate change controversy
Shane and I discuss our understanding of human activity’s effects on global climate. As two geeks not trained in climate science, but comfortable with complex systems, our approach is unique. Unless you live under a rock, you have an opinion about whether or not man’s activity is causing a coming global catastrophe. Two recent films […]
The Atomic Show #51 – Uranium – interesting history and politics
We’re back after a couple of weeks off. The atomic geeks chat about uranium, which has an interesting history in politics, discovery and economics. Uranium is as common as tin and can be found in measurable quantities almost anywhere in the world. Its price often varies by several hundred percent over short periods of time, […]
The Atomic Show #050
The atomic geeks chat about the new radiation warning symbol, France’s interest in selling large plants to South Africa, Japan’s new mixed oxide fuel plant and much more. Enjoy the ride! Half of Atomic Show 50 comes to you from a food court in Norfolk, VA – I am on travel this week. Shane and […]
