Atomic Insights: For the Rest of Us

Atomic Insights:
"For the Rest of Us"

"For the Rest of Us"
Arranged in reverse chronological order.

May 12, 2004: Atomic Energy: Powerful Job Generator

It is often said that high energy prices act like a tax. However, taxes in a democracy are normally passed after a good deal of debate. They also have a purpose and a goal to help at least a portion of the population that needs the assistance.
High energy prices, on the other hand, happen without debate and mainly benefit individuals and powerful multinational companies that control natural resources. An increased emphasis on atomic energy can change energy from a natural resource intensive industry to one that is far more labor intensive, benefitting workers and the rest of the population.

November 27, 2003: Rooting for the Underdog: Small Nations Often Need Atomic Power

One precondition to economic prosperity is access to supplies of abundant, low cost energy. It is hazardous to the long term health of any nation to ignore possible avenues to ensuring adequate energy supplies. It makes sense for nations to work hard to produce such supplies, even if the rest of the world does not understand their plan or motivation.

November 11, 2003: Ike Was Right: We Need Atoms for Peace

Heavy metal is better than oil. Oil suppliers know this and have worked diligently to try to remain competitive by influencing the restrictions on atomic energy development. This effort is hurting the rest of us.

April 01, 2002: Ike Was Right: Oil is Obsolete

In 1956, during the Suez Crisis, President Eisenhower sent a represenative to King Saud to tell him that America had developed a cheaper and more efficient source of energy than oil. Unfortunately, Ike was better at picking technology than in understanding that you do not send an oilman to tell someone that oil is going to be worthless.

February 02, 2002: Yucca Mountain: Right Answer; Wrong Question

The nuclear industry thinks they are finally nearing an acceptable solution to the nuclear waste problem. The leaders of the industry are pulling out all the stops to get Yucca Mountain approved as America's first permanent repository for spent nuclear fuel. The antinuclear industry lobbyists are just as busy trying to ensure that the Yucca Mountain project is stopped dead. On this issue, I tend to side with the antinuclear people; Yucca Mountain is a dumb idea that should be halted as soon as possible.

November 16, 2001: Irradiation and Semantics

Radiation is a potent sterilizing tool with a large number of potential applications. Unfortunately, some participants in the industry have decided that it benefits their business to raise questions about their competitors. This column is designed to help the rest of us cut through the semantics for an honest evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the available alternative systems.

October 24, 2001: Wouldn't It Be Great If We Didn't Need Oil?

Oil is a tough competitor in the energy market. In many ways it is superior to other alternatives. It is so valuable that people have been fighting over it for nearly a hundred years. Wouldn't it be great if there was a better alternative?

June 12, 2001: CAREM: A Small, Innovative Pressurized Water Reactor

CAREM is being developed jointly by INVAP, a company based in Patagonia, Argentina and CNEA (Comision Nacional de Energia Atomica) the National Atomic Energy Agency of Argentina. It is a 27 MWe self pressurizing reactor with natural circulation of the primary coolant and steam generators located inside the pressure vessel.

May 25, 2001: NA-YGN is Alive and Kicking

Young, proud, professional, and very excited, the members of North American Young Generation in Nuclear (NA-YGN) recently held a conference in Washington, D. C. They are enthusiastic about the potential for a resurgence in their chosen profession as a source of incredible innovation in wide range of scientific, industrial and technological applications.

May 17, 2001: The "N" (Nuclear) Word is no Longer Taboo

During the past six months, the whisper has become a roar. Politicians, led by the US Vice President Dick Cheney, have begun to introduce nuclear power into polite conversation.

April 26, 2001: The long term effects of Chernobyl debated

Media reports often claim that the accident at Chernobyl on April 26, 1986 caused thousands of deaths. A detailed study conducted by the United Nations Scientific Committee on Effects of Atomic Radiation published during the summer of 2000 claims that the total death toll during the accident and the subsequent 14 years is 30. Which is correct, thousands or 30?

April 3, 2001: Atlas is shrugging in the People's State of California

There are scary similarities between news stories about California's energy supply problems and the industrial collapse described in Atlas Shrugged Ayn's Rand's 1957 classic novel.

March 22, 2001: Get your ash out of here!

Cenfuel is a brand name for a substance more generally called refined coal. Made using the Lloyd process, the fuel is essentially ash free coal, improving the energy density and almost completely eliminating the problems associated with coal ash. The fuel is clean enough for use in direct cycle gas turbines.

March 6, 2001: The 760 MMMPG Carburetor

Somehow the old story of the 100 MPG carburetor pales in comparison to the fact that uranium can provide the equivalent of 760 Million miles per gallon. The fossil fuel industry certainly has some extremely good reasons to work hard to obscure that basic physical truth.

February 13, 2001: Exelon goes first with PBMR

Exelon is the company that was formed when PECO (formerly known as Philadephia Electric Company) merged with Unicom (former known as Commonwealth Edison) It is the largest owner and operator of nuclear power plants in the United States, with a fleet of twenty plants representing more than 18,000 MW of electric power capacity. The company has recently invested in the South African Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) project along with Eskom and BNFL. On January 31, 2001, Exelon met with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to discuss a plan to license the new type of reactor in the US.

January 23, 2001: Cenfuel could burn well in California.

This column is unusual here because it supports the development of a non-nuclear energy technology. However, it does represent an interesting technology that is an improvement in several aspects over that currently in use. The thing it has in common with nuclear power is its real potential to reduce the market power of the oil and gas industry.

January 9, 2001: Dear Mr. President, Send in the Nukes.

California's electricity supply problem is not a failure of deregulation; it is a failure to allow free market forces to find the best means of supplying the desired product. When objective criteria are taken into account, modern nuclear power plants offer an incredible bargain. They can meet all emissions standards with ease, they can resist damage from earthquakes and storms and the electricity they produce can be far cheaper than that from any other available or projected source.

December 29, 2000: Bandwagon Gas Market

During the period from 1963-1968, nearly every major electric utility in the United States decided that it was time to buy nuclear power plants, creating what has been called The Great Bandwagon Market. As a natural result of demand exceeding the available supply, price and construction times both increased for nuclear power plants. The same phenomenon has been happening in the market for natural gas fired combined cycle power plants. Because of the nature of natural gas fuel supplies, the consequences might be even more dramatic this time around.

December 6, 2000: Nuclear Confusion, anti-nuclear collusion

Many people dislike nuclear energy because its success threatens their ability to continue to prosper by mining, transporting, and selling coal, oil or natural gas.

November 6, 2000: A Vision for Nuclear Power

In this introductory column, Rod Adams expresses his optimistic view for the future growth of nuclear power. He also explains the background for the title of the column.