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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

Technical History Stories

Reflections on the 69th anniversary of anthropogenic sustained nuclear fission

December 4, 2011 By Guest Author

By: Cal Abel (submitted for publication on December 2, 2011, but slightly delayed by an inept editor.) Today marks the 69th anniversary of CP-1 criticality and 54th anniversary of Shippingport criticality. Perhaps with too much time to think I wrote some thoughts and observations about my brief experience with nuclear power. It began in 1996 […]

Filed Under: Atomic Advocacy, Fossil fuel competition, Guest Columns, Technical History Stories

Celebrating the first self sustaining chain reaction at CP-1

December 2, 2011 By Rod Adams

The CP-1 Team

On December 2, 1942, a small team of scientists and technicians methodically pulled neutron absorbing rods out of a carefully stacked pile of graphite bricks and natural uranium/uranium oxide spheres. The pile has been assembled in just a few weeks with a total project budget in the range of a few hundred thousand dollars. The […]

Filed Under: Atomic history, Atomic Pioneers, Technical History Stories

Building Curiosity’s nuclear power source at Idaho National Laboratory

November 28, 2011 By Rod Adams

NASA Curiosity nuclear powered rover

I have been fascinated by radioisotope thermal generators (RTGs), aka nuclear batteries, ever since I saw a display at the Maryland Science Center in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor sometime in the early 1990s. In that energy exhibit, there was a tiny RTG that was designed to power a cardiac pacemaker. What impressed me the most was […]

Filed Under: Batteries, Politics of Nuclear Energy, Technical History Stories

Inspiring vision of hope for thorium powered future

October 17, 2011 By Rod Adams

Kirk Sorensen is an inspiring speaker and teacher who is motivated by an incredible vision. As he eloquently describes in the video below, he has excavated and dusted off ideas and documentation from the archives at Oak Ridge National Laboratory about using thorium in molten salt reactors. According to back of the envelope calculations by […]

Filed Under: Nuclear Fuel Cycle, Technical History Stories, Thorium

LFTR in Five Minutes – Is thorium better than a silver bullet energy solution?

October 12, 2011 By Rod Adams

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.

Filed Under: Smaller reactors, Technical History Stories, Thorium

Some of world’s finest people doing one of world’s most important jobs

September 9, 2011 By Rod Adams 11 Comments

I’ll admit my bias – my father spent his whole career in the business of making electricity. I learned very early in life just how important that job is. Some of the unsung heroes that I have celebrated over the years include the linemen who restored our electricity nearly two weeks after Hurricane Hugo decimated […]

Filed Under: Reactors, Technical History Stories, Water Cooled Reactors

Shoreham Chapter 9 – Concluding thoughts; one battle in long war over nuclear energy

September 6, 2011 By Rod Adams

Ray has released the final chapter of the Shoreham documentary. He has also established a store on CafePress.com that features merchandise and artwork. The proceeds from any purchases will help support the documentary artist as well as the educational efforts of PopAtomic Studios. I hope you enjoyed this production. There appears to be a burst […]

Filed Under: Antinuclear activist, Politics of Nuclear Energy, Technical History Stories

Shoreham Chapter 2.5 – Researching background, dramatizing fear

August 24, 2011 By Rod Adams 1 Comment

This segment of the Shoreham documentary lays some of the groundwork for the interviews that will be a part of the story. James and Ray spent a lot of time in libraries and press vaults finding material and identifying potential candidates that could provide views from various perspectives. Interview candidates mentioned are Michio Kaku, who […]

Filed Under: Politics of Nuclear Energy, Technical History Stories

Shoreham – Chapter 1 (The Penn Jillette Inspiration)

August 16, 2011 By Rod Adams

Though many casual observers of the nuclear energy industry in the US believe that Three Mile Island and a fear of “The China Syndrome” are the root cause of our 35 year hiatus in new nuclear plant construction, perceptive observers more often point to the Shoreham Syndrome as the more important contributing cause. Shoreham was […]

Filed Under: Politics of Nuclear Energy, Technical History Stories Tagged With: Shoreham

What does a melted nuclear core look like?

May 27, 2011 By Rod Adams

One of the most useful ways to overcome fear of the unknown is to gain knowledge about the source of the fear. There have been a lot of scary sounding reports recently about the state of the nuclear fuel cores inside the pressure vessels at Fukushima Daiichi units 1, 2, and 3. Many of them […]

Filed Under: Accidents, Technical History Stories

Why Did The NS Savannah Fail? Can She Really be Called a Failure?

April 2, 2011 By Rod Adams

(Post was originally published on July 1, 1995. It was updated on April 2, 2011 to include information and videos that were not available in when it was first written. The title has also been revised to open up a new discussion – was the NS Savannah a failure or a successful demonstration of a […]

Filed Under: Atomic Insights July 1995, Nuclear Ships, Technical History Stories

Welcome to a Revived Atomic Insights

March 28, 2011 By Rod Adams

Atomic Insights has been on the web in one form or another since the fall of 1995. It started as a paper newsletter produced by a tiny team at Adams Atomic Engines, Inc. (AAE) that was designed to help potential customers learn more about the history and technology associated with using heat from fission to […]

Filed Under: Editorials, Technical History Stories

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