Throughout the past week, I have gotten increasingly angry as I read more and more drivel coming from the establishment about how the lessons of March 11, 2011 should result in our society turning its collective back on nuclear fission power production. According to countless pundits, the events that took place on that day –…
Last night, CNN Presents aired a completely one sided and inaccurate portrayal of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. It extensively quoted both Arnie Gundersen and Bernie Sanders and included a staged interview that made the Nuclear Regulatory Commission look both incompetent and unresponsive. That episode is scheduled to be repeated tonight. Here is a…
Corrected copy Yesterday, the Byron nuclear power station lost power to Unit 2, which had to shut down. During the shutdown, the plant vented steam from the plant secondary side, which MIGHT contain minute quantities of tritium based on the assumption of some leakage between the primary and secondary through steam generator tubes. Here is…
There was a thought provoking letter to the editor on DesMoinesRegister.com titled MidAmerican’s nuclear plant proposal puts risk on consumers that is worth bringing to the attention of nuclear industry decision makers and influencers. The author is a member of the Iowa Public Interest Research Group, a chapter of an organization that has been opposed…
Kirk Sorensen is the founder of Flibe Energy. He has been prospecting in libraries for years to learn more about a path not taken (yet). He is convinced that the way forward for energy in the United States and around the world is the molten salt thorium reactor that can produce an almost unlimited amount…
In the months and years to come, post-Fukushima, people who influence power plant construction decisions will be making choices that will have a large impact on future generations. In this reflective time of the year, it is important to gather the most accurate lessons learned and to offer some food for thought about the motives…
Senator Tom Carper (D-DE) is a retired US Navy Commander and a former governor of the state of Delaware. In the below clip taken from the December 15, 2011 hearing held by the Senate committee on Environment and Public Works, he offers some sage advice to the inexperienced and poorly trained Chairman of the Nuclear…
On December 15, 2011, at the end of a long hearing in which four dedicated, experienced, mature commissioners from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) testified that Chairman Jaczko was an abusive leader who filtered information and berated professional staff members, Senator Barbara Boxer offered the opportunity for closing statements from her colleagues on “the other…
On December 15, 2011, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing titled “Review of the NRC’s Near-Term Task Force Recommendations for Enhancing Reactor Safety in the 21st Century”. Instead of remaining on that topic, the hearing turned into a story where he said ‘A’, another guy said ‘A’, a woman said ‘A’, and a…
As the father of two professional daughters, one of whom has spent the past ten years in the male dominated US Navy, I have been taken aback by the way that the Democratic Party leaders have reacted to testimony from four appointed Commissioners on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. These four experienced, mature professionals took the…
I am a deeply disappointed supporter of many Democratic platform planks who strongly believes in protecting the environment, building a strong educational system that is freely available to all comers, enabling workers to earn a decent wage for their hard work, increasing the number of jobs available to all residents of the United States, building…
I have spent the past several hours viewing and clipping highlights from an extraordinary hearing conducted yesterday by the House Oversight Committed on “Leadership at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission”. If you want a similar experience, you can find the complete hearing video – of both panels – at http://youtu.be/qEduKirfpTY. In the next several days, I…