During the past week or so, I have been spending quite a bit of time following a discussion about nuclear energy between Theo Simon and George Monbiot. It is a deeply philosophical engagement between two literate and concerned people who view nuclear energy through different lenses and have, so far, reached different conclusions about its […]
Smaller reactors
Atomic Show #186 – SMRs, Climate Change, and Natural Gas Competition
On the evening of July 29, 2012, Suzy Hobbs-Baker, Director of the Nuclear Literacy Project and founder of PopAtomic Studios, Dan Yurman, who blogs at Idaho Samizdat and writes for Fuel Cycle Week and the ANS Nuclear Cafe, Margaret Harding, an independent nuclear energy consultant who blogs at 4 Factor Consulting, and Cal Abel, a […]
Pronuclear videos continuing to proliferate – The Nuclear Option
With a hat tip to Ben Heard at Decarbonize SA, I thought it might inspire you to see two videos side by side. These videos were created in geographic locations that are about as far apart as you can get and still be on Earth. As far as I can tell, neither creative team knew […]
Pebble bed reactor safety demonstration test – ABC video from 2007
I spent about 15 years trying (unsuccessfully) to get a small modular reactor company off the ground. Our concept was based on an adaptation of the successful German pebble bed demonstration reactor called the AVR. In 2003, Tsinghua University in China completed the construction of the HTR-10, which was essentially a direct copy of the […]
LFTR in Five Minutes – Is thorium better than a silver bullet energy solution?
On October 10, 2011, Thorium Remix became publicly available. The video is worth watching – there is a lot more information than can actually be squeezed into five minutes, so the headline of this post is actually a bit of a tease.
Update from Hyperion Power Generation Chief Operating Officer
Yesterday morning I wrote a post titled Where is Hyperion Power Generation headed now? By the time I was ready for a lunch break, I had received an email from the Chief Operating Officer of Hyperion Power Generation offering to fill me in on some of the details that he was able to make public. […]
Where is Hyperion Power Generation headed now?
Hyperion Power Generation has been one of the more interesting and vocal companies in the small modular reactor (SMR) business during the past few years. I have attended a number of conferences and meetings at which John “Grizz” Deal and/or his sister Deborah Blackwell have been featured speakers or the centers of interested crowds in […]
Small Modular Reactors Could Be An American Export – But We Need to Move Faster
In the March 23, 2010 issue of the Wall Street Journal, Dr. Steven Chu published an op-ed piece titled America’s New Nuclear Option that describes the Administration’s growing interest in smaller nuclear energy systems that can be produced in factories and delivered nearly complete to sites around the country and around the world. Here is […]
The Atomic Show #148 – Hyperion Power Module Update
On January 21, 2010, I caught up with Forrest Rudin and TJ Trapp of Hyperion Power Generation. Forrest is Hyperion’s Chief of Staff; TJ is the Vice President of Engineering. They were on the road meeting with various stakeholders to explain more about their product. They took the time out of their schedule to provide […]
"Small and Medium Reactors" or "Small Modular Reactors" – Either Way, The US NRC and US DOE Notice a Growing Interest in SMR, Are Listening Carefully and Ready to Engage
On Thursday, October 8 and Friday, October 9, the US Nuclear Regulator Commission hosted a workshop to discuss generic issues related to licensing of small and medium-sized nuclear reactors. The meeting was billed as the first in a series on the topic. The NRC managers responsible for Advanced Reactors organized the meeting because they have […]
Small is Beautiful, Even for Nuclear Fission Reactors
E. F. Schumacher published a book titled Small is Beautiful in 1973 that has become one of the reference sources for ecologists and people interested in living on a human scale. In part, that book was inspired by the steady trend in the post-war era in which Schumacher lived towards building bigger and bigger companies […]
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 | […]
