The Atomic Show #030 – Nuclear energy: Status and outlook
Impressions of talk by the Nuclear Energy Institute President.
Shane and I start off the show by congratulating the voters in Sweden for their recent election of a new government. The leaders of the parties that seem likely to form the new coalition government have declared that they will not shut down any of Sweden’s currently operating 10 nuclear reactors during the next four years despite a 1980 referendum putting 2010 as the end of the nuclear age in Sweden.
Alliance coalition ends Prime Minister Goran Persson’s rule By Lennart Simonsson
The rest of the conversation – with the exception of a few stray ramblings by each of us – remained focused on my impressions of a talk given on 18 September 2006 by Skip Bowman, the President of the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI). The talk was given to a group consisting of US military members, defense contractors and other people interested in actions that can be taken to alleviate America’s oil addiction.
The talk was part of a series of “energy conversations” hosted by the Office of Force Transformation and the Under Secretary for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics. The series has already include talks by a diverse group of thought leaders that includes Congressman Roscoe Bartlett, Matt Simmons, Jeremy Rifkin, and Suzanne Hunt. Each have shared very different perspectives and possible solutions to the energy supply challenges. You can find out more about the series and even download many of the presentations at the following link:
Energy: A Conversation About Our National Addiction. An Inter-Agency Learning Opportunity
Admiral Frank L. (Skip) Bowman’s presentation slides, referred to on the show, can be found under the heading of “Presentation” at the following link:
Admiral Frank L. “Skip” Bowman,
President and CEO of the Nuclear Energy Institute
Nuclear Energy 2006: Status and Outlook
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I don’t know if you saw this article over at the Energy Blog (http://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/2006/09/nuclear_saftey_.html), the Union of Concerned Scientists and the New York Times seem to be spreading some FUD directly related to ADM Bowman’s presentation. They are questioning the reliability of nuclear plants, saying they are prone to long, costly shut-downs. I think they fail to seperate planned and unplanned shut-downs at the very least.