The Atomic Show #26 – Helium, MIT study, coal
Topics range from helium to coal and include high temperature gas reactors.
Shane and I get our groove back and engage in a geeky discussion on topics ranging from helium to coal and somehow manage to include such topics as aviation safety, nuclear engineering career paths, computing the cost of common products like a liter of water, assumptions underlying the MIT study titled the Future of Nuclear Energy, the geology that results in helium contamination of natural gas, a new business model for building nuclear power plants, Ayn Rand’s Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and a singing act that included a cello and a helium bottle.
We are obviously biased, but think that this show is one of our better efforts. We hope you agree. Feedback is always welcome.
Here are some links to articles and topics that we discussed during the show:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 46:55 — 16.1MB)
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Rod and Shane,
Great discussion of the MIT Study. As you stated, many of the assumptions that went into that piece of work have turned out to be invalid for so many reasons. I’ve been tempted to contact the original authors and ask them to update it. Perhaps we should get a working group together and revise it ourselves, then put out a press release and hold a news conference – Call it “Return to MIT – Why Nuclear Power Is on The Comeback”.
Do you think the NY Times and the Washington Post would show up?
Keep up the Great Work!
John
“This Week in Nuclear”
John:
Great idea. Whenever you are ready to put together the working group, count me in. As I mentioned in the show, I have reconstructed the model that the MIT group used in their study – it is a valuable tool for conducting sensitivity analysis to understand what really drives the complex equation of a cost per kilowatt hour. An awful lot of assumptions and predictions have to be made to come up with that number, especially for capital intensive projects with potentially long useful lives.
Rod
When I listen to this podcast, Rod’s voice is very quiet compared to Shane’s. I’ve noticed this on a few other of the atomic show podcasts. It’s as though Rod is not wearing a headset or speaking into the mike. I also notice Rod’s voice appears to be concentrated in the left channel.
Alternatively it could be something wrong with my playback, but all I did was download the mp3 and play it using mediaplayer (I also tried winamp).
Does anyone else get this? Is there some setting at my end I should check?
Lawrence – I had some microphone issues for a few shows. I fixed the problem, but never went back and re-recorded the shows that had issues.
Nothing is wrong with your playback.
One thing I found I could do with winamp, which has an equalizer, is shift the sound all to the left, and then turn up the volume. Shifting the sound all to the left speaker channel makes your and Shane’s audio about equal.