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• Nuclear Reading List from the Wall Street Journal

  I received several comments from people who had perused yesterday's Wall Street Journal. Apparently they saw the abbreviated paper version of the article titled Reading Up on Nuclear Energy . It was nice to hear from so many people and kind of nice to see my name in print. ( I am the guilty owner of a bit of vanity: sometimes it's not well hidden.) In the same special section of the Journal... Posted Nov 18 2008, 08:57 PM by Atomic Insights Blog Filed under: Nuclear Energy

• Diamonds Versus Pennies - Nuclear Fission Versus Chemical Combustion

  An good friend just sent me a letter (yes, it was digital, but not your typical "email") that included mention of a topic important to both of us, but somewhat difficult to explain. Ted mentioned that most nuclear advocates do not spend enough time talking about the important difference in ultimate capability between a raw power source that produces 200 Million electron volts (MeV) for each... Posted Oct 18 2008, 02:26 AM by Atomic Insights Blog Filed under: Nuclear Energy

• Thoughts about CNBC's "The Nuclear Option"

  On October 14, 2008, I watched CNBC's premier of "The Nuclear Option" , a 35-40 minute video documentary about using nuclear fission as a power source. The show was squeezed into a 60 minute television time slot shared by many minutes worth of commercials, but that is par for the course and part of the cost that most people seem to be willing to accept in order to watch "free"... Posted Oct 15 2008, 03:21 AM by Atomic Insights Blog Filed under: Nuclear Energy

• Getting my popcorn ready for "The Nuclear Option"

  I would hate to be called a "shill" for the established media, but I am very interested in seeing what CNBC's Melissa Francis will be showing us tonight when The Nuclear Option airs at 9:00 pm eastern time. After watching the show, I hope to provide some commentary. It might go up early tomorrow morning since the show will be ending well after my normal bedtime. (As Ben Franklin would... Posted Oct 14 2008, 07:49 PM by Atomic Insights Blog Filed under: Nuclear Energy

• The Nuclear Option - CNBC Original Premiering on October 14, 2008

  I received a comment on a recent post letting me know about a new CNBC Original production titled - The Nuclear Option . It will be shown starting October 14, 2008. Check your local schedule for a listing, but the web site says it will be shown at 9 pm Eastern Time in the US. I would have preferred to find out about a show titled "The Nuclear Imperative", but what do I know about marketing... Posted Oct 09 2008, 02:22 AM by Atomic Insights Blog Filed under: Nuclear Energy

• Beyond Fossil Fools - New, Must Read Book by Joe Shuster

  I have a new hero, even though I have not yet read his book. Joe Shuster is a retired entrepreneur who is spending $200,000 of his own money to promote the idea that the United States needs to build about 800 new nuclear power plants in order to stretch supplies of fossil fuels far into the future. Joe's book, Beyond Fossil Fools: Roadmap to Energy Independence by 2040 was published in June 2008... Posted Oct 07 2008, 03:07 AM by Atomic Insights Blog Filed under: Nuclear Energy, Joe Shuster

• Welcoming CleanEnergy4America.org to the blogosphere

  There is a new pronuclear voice in town - CleanEnergy4America.org . I read about it on NEI Nuclear Notes this morning and just had to check it out. I recommend that you do the same - right now. After you have perused the well designed site, come back here for a little more discussion. While I followed my own advice, I discovered CleanEnergy4America's Blog and read the growing collection of posts... Posted Sep 21 2008, 05:51 AM by Atomic Insights Blog Filed under: Nuclear Energy

• Has the fossil fuel industry worked to slow nuclear power development?

  After pointing to the clear thinking on the natural progression of energy technology provided on Chicago Boyz , I have continued to participate in an interesting conversation thread tied to Shannon Love's post titled Fantasy Energy . Shannon's position is that the only real opposition to nuclear power developments has been the technology fearing leftists who vocally oppose nuclear power and... Posted Sep 03 2008, 04:41 AM by Atomic Insights Blog Filed under: Nuclear Energy

• Clear thinking on the natural progression of energy technology

  My friend, David Bradish at NEI Nuclear Notes pointed out a well written essay by Shannon Love on Chicago Boyz titled Fantasy Energy . Here is a sample from that blog: I think it important to emphasize that we would need to move to nuclear energy even if we had an infinite supply of fossil fuels and an infinite carbon dioxide sink. Fossil fuels just don’t have the energy density we will need moving... Posted Aug 30 2008, 04:34 AM by Atomic Insights Blog Filed under: Nuclear Energy

• Freakonomics Discussion on the Delay in Accepting New Technology Like Nuclear Power

  Bill Tucker, author of Terrestrial Energy (warning: Terrestrial Energy has a fascinating intro video that plays automatically unless you skip it) has produced a series of posts for the Freakonomics blog hosted by the New York Times. The comments are being moderated - which slows down the conversation, but elevates it to something worth reading. On Bill's most recent of the three guest posts, titled... Posted Aug 29 2008, 03:55 AM by Atomic Insights Blog Filed under: Nuclear Energy

• Atomic Show 101 - Small reactor discussion with Charles Barton, Kirk Sorensen, and Dan Yurman

  On Saturday, August 2, I gathered a group of well informed bloggers to talk about the growing interest in small nuclear power plants. Kirk Sorensen blogs at Energy from Thorium and is nearly finished with his MS in Nuclear Engineering. Charles Barton blogs at Energy from Thorium and Nuclear Green . Dan Yurman blogs at Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes and also writes for Fuel Cycle Week. Go and listen to... Posted Aug 03 2008, 10:14 PM by Atomic Insights Blog Filed under: Nuclear Energy

• Effect of Nuclear Contribution to US Electricity Compared to Petroleum 1954-2007

  Many observers, perhaps even most observers, claim that the growth of nuclear power has nothing to do with oil consumption. They claim that nuclear power is limited to electrical power and that there is very little oil used to generate electricity. I want to dispel that rumor right now. Since I do not have a source of data for international consumption, I will focus on the US, but the point should... Posted Jul 13 2008, 07:32 AM by Atomic Insights Blog Filed under: Nuclear Energy

• More about Bill Gates and nuclear energy

  In the past week, retirement has been a big topic on my mind. I served as a sideboy and flag passer for a colleague, I dig some digging into the cost of a flag officer retirement, and I attended a surprise retirement party for a man who had worked for the DC Metro system since he was 16 years old, starting at a time when there were only buses. I have also spent quite a lot of time thinking about the... Posted Jun 29 2008, 05:44 AM by Atomic Insights Blog Filed under: Nuclear Energy, Bill Gates

• Bill Gates is investing in advanced nuclear power development

  I've got a hot tip for you. According to an article in Seattlepi.com titled What's next for Gates? Anything he can dream up , Gates is taking an active interest in a nuclear power project. He has been talking about all kinds of ideas with Nathan Myhrvold, the former chief technology officer at Microsoft. According to Myhrvold, Gates is investing in a project inside Myhrvold's Intellectual... Posted Jun 27 2008, 03:31 PM by Atomic Insights Blog Filed under: Nuclear Energy, Bill Gates

• Wired says "Face it Nukes Are the Most Climate-Friendly Industrial-Scale Form of Energy"

  Wired Magazine's Spencer Reiss has long been a supporter of new nuclear power plants. In a recent series of short articles all under the heading of 10 GREEN HERESIES that environmentalists must overcome to succeed in a battle against global climate change, Spencer's contribution is titled EMBRACE NUCLEAR POWER: Face It. Nukes Are the Most Climate-Friendly Industrial-Scale Form of Energy I encourage... Posted May 21 2008, 05:08 AM by Atomic Insights Blog Filed under: Nuclear Energy