Carnival of Nuclear Energy 146

1. Atomic Insights – Cure climate crisis by shifting to Fission, Fast!

Randy Olson, author of “Don’t be Such a Scientist, recently wrote about the contribution of a short, alliterative slogan to the mass attraction of the No Nukes movement. That post inspired Rod Adams to create a new pronuclear slogan: Fission Fast!

Olson has responded to that proposal with his own idea in a post titled Curb Carbon or Fission Fast?.

Pro-nuker Rod Adams correctly pointed out that I know nuttin’ when it comes to the issue of nuclear power today, but more importantly, he offered up a simple slogan (Fission Fast!) just as I was thinking of a similar simple slogan (Curb Carbon), neither of which are much use in a world so fractious and leaderless that nobody’s listening to any leaders. Oh, well.

Rod responded, hoping to continue the dialog with a well-educated, nuclear-curious communications specialist.

2. Nuclear Diner examines Uranium enrichment in Iran. Enriched Uranium in Iran – Are they Close to Israel’s Red Line?

3. At Nuke Power Talk, Gail Marcus follows up on the issue of the decommissioning of the damaged Fukushima reactors. Specifically, she notes that the Director General of the IAEA, Yukiya Amano, has made a strong statement that the decommissioning effort should be an international effort, so that it can benefit from the insights of experts all over the world, and further, so that everyone can benefit from what can be learned from that effort. There had been concerns that Japan would want to conduct the decommissioning themselves in the hope of monopolizing the decommissioning market in the years ahead, and this initiative by Amano helps to dispel that concern.

4. Gail Marcus profiles Meredith Angwin’s new e-book, “Voices for Vermont Yankee,” at Nuke Power Talk. The book consists of testimony, previously published in Meredith’s blog, that people have given in favor of Vermont Yankee at Public Service Board hearings. The book provides both a model for the types of actions that have proved successful and some of the facts that she and the others have found useful in framing their arguments.

5. NGNP Alliance blog: The NGNP Alliance explores the difference between Energy and Electricity and makes the case why a different kind of reactor will do more to reduce carbon by changing the method of creating process heat for industrial use.

6. NEI Nuclear Notes – Nuclear Energy and the Value of CWIP

Mitch Singer takes issue with a Forbes article questioning the value of concurrent cost recover for new nuclear construction

7. NEI Nuclear Notes – Why the Leaking Underground Tanks at Hanford Have Nothing to Do With Used Nuclear Fuel at US Nuclear Power Plants

Eric McErlain sets the record straight on sloppy reporting and the leaking tanks of defense waste at the Hanford site.

8. NEI Nuclear Notes – No Tears, Please, for Nuclear Energy

Mark Flanagan takes a look at recent reporting predicting the decline of nuclear energy and comes away unimpressed.

9. ANS Nuclear Cafe – Vermont Yankee and Optimism

Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant will be refueling this spring, making upgrades and improvements, and continuing to plan and schedule for operation through coming decades. Meredith Angwin shares her vindicated optimism regarding the refueling at Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant – AND announces a new *ebook* of powerful, and personal, testimonials made by supporters of Vermont Yankee.

10. ANS Nuclear Cafe – Preparing to restart: Tsunami safety measures at Japanese nuclear power stations

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has pledged to restart Japanese nuclear power reactors which pass tougher safety guidelines that may be adopted as early as July. Will Davis provides an in-depth look atnuclear sites and utilities in Japan which are pouring massive work and investment into upgrades and preparations for a nuclear restart – with ‘must see’ videos.

11. Forbes – news outlets across the country last Saturday reported on a nearly 70-year-old leaking underground radioactive nuclear weapons waste tank at a nuclear reservation, but showed irrelevant photos of a nuclear power plant many miles away.

12. The Neutron Economy: Serious climate advocates don’t turn upon their vanguard

A key way to distinguish “serious” environmentalists from the dilatory variety is in how they treat the vanguard against climate change: nuclear energy.

13. The Neutron Economy – The inherent shallowness of “market-based” arguments against nuclear

Too often “free market” critiques of nuclear are but a thin paint job over an ideological vehicle; a more robust (and fair) critique would also examine the inherent (and unequal) regulatory barriers to energy development.

14. Canadian Energy Issues – The electric grid: the greatest invention of all time expanded after women won the vote

The electric grid exists today because human slavery is immoral and inefficient. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Suffrage March on Washington, Steve Aplin discusses the social movement that brought electricity—the greatest equalizing force in human history—into every modern home.

15. Yes Vermont Yankee – Meredith and George Angwin have written an e-book, Voices for Vermont Yankee available for Kindle and Nook. The book contains 21 statements that people made in favor of Vermont Yankee at Public Service Board hearings in Vermont. In this post at Yes Vermont Yankee, two pro-nuclear bloggers describe how the e-book inspired them, and Meredith Angwin explains why she felt the e-book would be useful to the nuclear community.

16. The Hiroshima Syndrome’s Fukushima Commentary…Was Naoto Kan Responsible for Fukushima Daiichi’s Unit #1 Explosion?

Last October, former Japanese PM Naoto Kan published his Fukushima memoirs; My Thoughts as Prime Minister on the Tepco Fukushima Nuclear Plant Accident. A January 26, 2013, Japan Times editorial covered Kan’s book with highly sympathetic journalism. After reviewing all my saved information, a chilling question entered my mind – Was Naoto Kan the single-most responsible person for the March 12, 2011, hydrogen detonation at unit #1?

17. ThoriumMSR – Questions & Answers with Russell Wilcox CEO of Transatomic Power

ThoriumMSR asked Russell Wilcox to fill us in a little more about the WAMSR (Waste Annihilating Molten Salt Reactor.)

The history of missed opportunity regarding advances in the area of reprocessing, embraced by France, has left the US behind. It started back when it was made illegal to recycle used fuel in the US. Many people don’t realize that law was reversed but the stigma attributed to nuclear waste and what to do with it has left a vacuum of unrealized potential. The WAMSR is one proposed solution.

18. Things Worse Than Nuclear Power has Our first Friday Funday- exploding beer kegs, phish concerts, and mountaintop removal

19. Things Worse Than Nuclear Power has
Asbestos in Australia- a guest article by Steve Schulin.

20. Atomic Power Review has SMR program misrepresented.

A recent Golden Fleece Award given to the DOE SMR program reveals that the awarding association understands little or nothing of the program. Atomic Power Review clears the situation up with a Babcock & Wilcox press release and some added commentary.

21. Atomic Power Review – IAEA Backs Fast Breeders

A new piece from the IAEA details present developments in fast breeders world wide, pointing up a thousand year fuel potential.

22. NewOk has solar flares can cause many effects on earth

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