As oil reaches price levels never before seen, I have been thinking about an article I wrote a bit more than four years ago. I called it the 760 Million Mile per Gallon Carburetor. Though the article is a bit of a thought piece, the basic idea is that it is possible today, using technology…
China is rethinking its planned purchase of nuclear power plants from foreign vendors. Areva, Westinghouse, and Atomstroiexport are currently bidding for a block sale of at least four reactors valued at approximately $8 billion. The announcement of the winning bid has not yet been scheduled, but has been widely expected by the end of 2005….
After writing about Iran’s motivations for atomic energy independence, I came across the following article in the online edition of the Harvard International Review – Forced to Fuel – http://hir.harvard.edu/articles/1294/ which discusses, with more detail and rigor – the current electrical power supply situation in Iran.
Oil prices continue to increase with depressing regularity, mainly due to fears that the available supply will not continue to match the growth in demand. It is truly a strange world when one of the main contributors to that fear seems to be the fact that a major oil exporting country is working diligently to…
Yesterday I mentioned the high cost of the competitors for atomic energy in America. The fact that energy is far more expensive now than it was just two or three years ago is not really news – radio, television and newspaper articles that talk about gasoline prices are published with great regularity. Gasoline prices are…
According to the BBC, – http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4130532.stm – oil prices in Asia have reached $62.69 per barrel on August 8, 2005. Though there will be plenty of commentators that minimize the impact of that very high price by referring to the inflation adjusted prices from the early 1980s, the fact remains that oil prices are nearly…
Several weeks ago, I mentioned that the governments in the area near the Bellefonte Nuclear Generating Station had passed resolutions to encourage the NuStart consortium to build a new plant in their backyard. They have apparently been busy in the past few weeks and have captured the attention of the Alabama state government. The Huntsville…
Davic Falchek of the Scranton Times-Tribune web wrote an in-depth look at the past, present and future of nuclear power in Pennsylvania. Here is the link to the article that was published on July 31, 2005. As of 4:57 am on 31 July, the article is simply titled “More News”, but that might change since…
Here is a link to a well reasoned viewpoint from Donald A. Grant, Ph.D., P.E. He is the R. C. Hill Professor and chair of the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Maine. This piece is recommended reading for anyone trying to understand why so many people are waking up to the importance of…
Marathon Oil has announced plans to drill gas wells approximately 21 miles off the coast of Wales. The company discovered a gas deposit there in 1994, but determined that the market price was not high enough to support the cost of developing the field while still providing an attractive rate of return. The current price…
With a unanimous vote yesterday, the Board of County Commissioners for Calvert County, Maryland decided to submit a resolution and letter of support endorsing the NuStart Energy Development Corporation’s consideration of the Calvert Cliffs site for one of their proposed new reactors. Board of County Commissioners Submits Resolution in Support of NuStart Energy’s Calvert Cliffs…
A friend pointed me to a great article about the North Carolina State nuclear engineering program. Campus reactor leads the way in ‘nuclear renaissance’. Here is a quote from the article that should make young technical types sit up and take notice: Jacobson echoed Ferrell’s statements, when she also added the market for hiring at…