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Atomic Insights

Atomic energy technology, politics, and perceptions from a nuclear energy insider who served as a US nuclear submarine engineer officer

Smaller reactors

Root cause of Naval Reactors policy of strict secrecy about nuclear propulsion plant design

December 4, 2013 By Rod Adams

As a Navy nuke, I was carefully taught to believe that everything we learned about atomic energy had to be strictly protected from release to anyone who was not “cleared”, especially anyone who was not a US citizen. I started to question that policy after I completed my tour as the Engineer Officer on the […]

Filed Under: Politics of Nuclear Energy, Atomic history, Atomic ships, Nuclear Ships, Pressurized Water, Small Nuclear Power Plants, Smaller reactors

Naval Reactors should be empowered to show the way – again

November 13, 2013 By Rod Adams

President Obama should task John Richardson with a mission similar to the one that President Dwight Eisenhower gave Hyman G. Rickover. Richardson is the current leader of Naval Reactors (NR), the organization that Rickover built. If directed, NR could begin a new assignment to show others how to manufacture complete nuclear fission power systems starting […]

Filed Under: Atomic Advocacy, Atomic ships, Climate change, Conferences, New Nuclear, Nuclear Ships, Politics of Nuclear Energy, Smaller reactors, Water Cooled Reactors

Turning small modular reactor concepts into reality in Idaho Falls

October 11, 2013 By Rod Adams

In the past half dozen years, the term “small modular reactor (SMR)” has entered the nuclear energy lexicon. Numerous projects have been initiated to develop various concepts, all aimed at producing nuclear reactor based power plants that are small enough to be built in a factory setting to take advantage of concepts like series manufacturing […]

Filed Under: Conferences, New Nuclear, Small Nuclear Power Plants, Smaller reactors

McMurdo Station – the New York of the Deep Freeze South

October 9, 2013 By Rod Adams

(Note: If you are impatient and do not want to watch cute photos of penguins, skip to 19:06 to learn more about the reasons why the PM-3A, a 1,500 kilowatt nuclear electricity generator and process heat supply system, was such a valuable contributor to sustained Antarctic research.) Nearly all of the images that are used […]

Filed Under: Army Nuclear Program, Atomic history, Energy density, Fossil fuel competition, Pressurized Water, Small Nuclear Power Plants, Smaller reactors

Smaller nuclear power plants can be beautiful, despite the opposition of the UCS

September 28, 2013 By Rod Adams

Dr. Edwin Lyman, Senior Scientist, Global Security Program, Union of Concerned Scientists, has published a paper titled Small Isn’t Always Beautiful: Safety, Security, and Cost Concerns about Small Modular Reactors that poses many questions about the development of SMRs. I’ve seen Dr. Lyman taking notes and asking questions at a number of SMR related conferences; […]

Filed Under: Advanced Atomic Technologies, Antinuclear activist, Small Nuclear Power Plants, Smaller reactors

Camp Century – Nuclear plant designed, manufactured, constructed & tested in less than 2 years

July 28, 2013 By Rod Adams

Under current rules and assumptions, anyone who claims that they can design and build a power-producing nuclear reactor in less than 10-15 years is considered to be naive or hopelessly unrealistic. However, there is no reason to believe that everyone with the technical capacity for completing the task will follow the same rules. Even in […]

Filed Under: Army Nuclear Program, Atomic history, Pressurized Water, Small Nuclear Power Plants, Smaller reactors

Can nuclear energy save Detroit?

July 24, 2013 By Rod Adams

Update: (August 2, 2013) – American Atomics is now claiming that there is no site in Detroit that is large enough to house the infrastructure that they are planning to build. Here is a link to their post. http://safereactor.org/post/57104636966/no-room-in-detroit It is a pretty incredible claim for a company that currently has no facilities. Supposedly the […]

Filed Under: Advanced Atomic Technologies, Atomic Entrepreneurs, Liquid Metal Cooled Reactors, New Nuclear, Smaller reactors

B&W’s Jim Ferland describes company’s global business outlook

May 28, 2013 By Rod Adams

Jim Ferland, the CEO of The Babcock & Wilcox Company, was recently interviewed by Bill Loveless of Platts Energy Week about the company’s global business outlook. During the interview, Ferland discussed the B&W mPowerTM reactor, one of the leading small modular reactor development projects; FutureGen 2.0, a carbon capture and storage demonstration project; the impact […]

Filed Under: Advanced Atomic Technologies, Climate change, New Nuclear, Small Nuclear Power Plants, Smaller reactors

NuScale announces achievement of unlimited coping time

April 17, 2013 By Rod Adams

At the Nuclear Energy Insider SMR Conference in Columbia, S.C., Dr. Jose Reyes, a co-founder and the Chief Technology Officer of NuScale Power, announced that his team had achieved an impressive design breakthrough. Two years after the Fukushima event, NuScale is introducing a safety system for our nuclear reactor that does not require DC batteries […]

Filed Under: New Nuclear, Pressurized Water, Small Nuclear Power Plants, Smaller reactors

The Weather Channel visits B&W mPower, Inc.

March 4, 2013 By Rod Adams

On February 14, 2013, my day job employer hosted a contingent from The Weather Channel who wanted to learn more about the B&W mPowerTM Reactor project. The video is quite informative and encouraging; even though there is a little poetic license taken with the story and the technical description. Though I work for B&W mPower, […]

Filed Under: New Nuclear, Pressurized Water, Small Nuclear Power Plants, Smaller reactors

Atomicrod visits Dot Net Rocks to chat with Carl and Richard

February 8, 2013 By Rod Adams

On January 18, I joined Carl and Richard, the hosts of Dot Net Rocks, for an hour long conversation about nuclear energy. We spanned a number of topics including current light water reactors, breeder reactors, accidents, safety records, SL-1, NR-1, Mars Rover, pebble beds, IFR, and traveling wave reactors. Please go visit and listen.

Filed Under: Adams Engines, Ask Atomic, Nuclear Communications, Smaller reactors

Adams Engine – Goal is cheap, ultra low emission fuel coupled to cheap machinery

January 31, 2013 By Rod Adams

Though I am not actively pursuing the idea right now, I have had several opportunities in the past couple of days to explain to people why I made the design decisions I did when putting together the Adams Engine concept. As a rather lazy man, I figured it would be easier to repurpose those arguments […]

Filed Under: Adams Engines, Advanced Atomic Technologies, Economics, Smaller reactors

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