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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

Smoking Gun

Stanford’s University’s New Natural Gas Initiative

May 30, 2015 By Rod Adams

It is virtually impossible to get an educational institution to understand something when its revenue depends on its audience not understanding it. – Rod Adams, Stanford’s New Natural Gas Initiative, Atomic Insights, May 30, 2015 Aside: In case the allusion doesn’t work for you, the above is deliberately structured to align with a quote from […]

Filed Under: Fossil fuel competition, Fracking, LNG, Natural Gas, Smoking Gun

“Greens” fighting Pebble mine are helping Rio Tinto, Anglo-American and BHP Billiton

May 21, 2015 By Rod Adams

I came across an interesting saga yesterday. My introduction came from a May 14, 2015 opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal titled The Greens’ Back Door at the EPA. (Hint: If you don’t have a WSJ subscription, copy and paste the article title into the Google search engine. That should provide you a link […]

Filed Under: Economics, rhetoric, Smoking Gun

Atom and the Fault

April 12, 2015 By Rod Adams

I came across a fascinating little book by Richard Meehan titled The Atom and the Fault: Experts, Earthquakes and Nuclear Power. It was published in 1984 by MIT University Press. Meehan is a geotechnical engineer who participated in several controversial nuclear plant projects in California, including Bodega Head, Malibu, and Diablo Canyon. Though the book […]

Filed Under: Atomic politics, Diablo Canyon, Fracking, Politics of Nuclear Energy, Smoking Gun

Antinuclear activists are too modest

October 3, 2014 By Rod Adams

Jim Conca has published a couple of recent posts on Forbes.com about the premature closure of nuclear power plants in the United States. One titled Are California’s Carbon Goals Kaput? focuses on some of the environmental aspects of the San Onofre debacle; the other, titled Closing Vermont Nuclear Bad Business for Everyone focuses on the […]

Filed Under: Antinuclear activist, Atomic politics, Economics, Fossil fuel competition, Smoking Gun

Esso Italiana paid political parties for specific “corporate objectives” including oil instead of nuclear

August 22, 2014 By Rod Adams

In 1972, an Exxon internal audit disclosed that Esso Italiana, Exxon’s Italian subsidiary, had been making payments to Italian political parties that were tied by amount to specific corporate objectives. One of the objectives that was listed on documents seized by Italian authorities was halting nuclear energy development in Italy in favor of burning more […]

Filed Under: Atomic politics, Fossil fuel competition, Smoking Gun

Smoking gun – Antinuclear talking points coined by coal interests

March 6, 2014 By Rod Adams

Some of the earliest documented instances of opposition to the development of commercial nuclear power in the United States originated from designated representatives of the coal industry. They were the first people to mount sustained opposition to the use of taxpayer money to support the development of nuclear power stations. They testified against the implied […]

Filed Under: Book, Coal, Fossil fuel competition, Politics of Nuclear Energy, Smoking Gun

Smoking gun: AEC told President Kennedy why coal industry was opposed to nuclear energy

February 22, 2014 By Rod Adams

It’s been quite a while since my last smoking gun post on Atomic Insights. It may be time to revive the series to remind nuclear energy advocates to follow the money and know their opponents. In the battle for hearts, minds and market share it is always useful to know why vocal opposition exists, but […]

Filed Under: Atomic politics, Book, Coal, Fossil fuel competition, Smoking Gun

Cape Wind scrambling to meet deadline to qualify for $780 million taxpayer gift

December 27, 2013 By Rod Adams

Cape Wind is the leading offshore wind energy project in the United States. In 2001, more than 12 years ago, Jim Gordon, the project founder, started the process of promoting his vision of a building a 430 MWe (peak capacity) field of 130 massive (rotor diameter – 110 m, hub height – 80 m, nacelle […]

Filed Under: Alternative energy, Smoking Gun, Unreliables, Wind energy

Smoking Gun research continuing in earnest

December 5, 2013 By Rod Adams

In 1993, after I had made a decision to resign my active duty commission and design a small atomic engine, a colleague warned me that “the oil companies will never let you succeed.” At the time, I was pretty naive, so I didn’t heed his warning. Over the years, I have gradually learned more about […]

Filed Under: Book, Energy density, Fossil fuel competition, Smoking Gun

How important has oil money been to antinuclear movement?

August 7, 2013 By Rod Adams

A couple of days ago, I wrote about my discovery that Robert O. Anderson, a long time leader in the global petroleum business, had provided the seed money that David Brower used to fund Friends of the Earth, an organization that has been fighting against nuclear energy for more than 40 years. I pointed out […]

Filed Under: Antinuclear activist, Atomic politics, Fossil fuel competition, Smoking Gun

Smoking gun: Robert Anderson provided initial funds to form Friends of the Earth

August 4, 2013 By Rod Adams

In 1969, Robert O. Anderson, an oil man whose long career included a stint as the Chief Executive Officer of Atlantic Richfield (ARCO) (now part of BP, the company formerly known as British Petroleum), gave David Brower $200,000 to start Friends of the Earth (FOE). Here is a quote from that organization’s page about nuclear […]

Filed Under: Antinuclear activist, Fossil fuel competition, Smoking Gun

Dieter Helm – Coal Critic, Atomic Agnostic, Natural Gas Enthusiast

December 30, 2012 By Rod Adams

Dieter Helm’s The Carbon Crunch: How We’re Getting Climate Change Wrong–and How to Fix It has the potential to be an influential energy policy book, not just for the UK but for the rest of Europe and the United States. Helm has been making the rounds to promote the book and recently gave a concise […]

Filed Under: Climate change, Fossil fuel competition, International nuclear, Natural Gas, Smoking Gun

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