Atomic history

  • How Did the MOX Project Get So Expensive? [Redux]

    ByRod Adams

    Plutonium, a source of nuclear reactor fuels with incredible potential, is getting a new look. President Trump’s Executive Order 14302, Reinvigorating the Nuclear Industrial Base (May 23, 2025), directed the Executive Branch to strengthen the U.S. nuclear fuel cycle. Though plutonium reuse is mentioned several times, paragraph 3(c) specifically pertains to using surplus material from…

  • Atomic Show #325 – Marco Visscher – The Power of Nuclear

    ByRod Adams

    After many years as an independent journalist with an antinuclear bent, Marco Visscher began questioning his long-held beliefs. He realized that the accepted alternatives to fossil fuel were not actually reducing fossil fuel use so much as they were limiting the rate at which it was increasing. He began acknowledging that nuclear energy was a…

  • The ADVANCE Act – Meaningful changes in U. S. nuclear regulatory framework

    ByRod Adams

    NRC’s Newly Aligned Mission Will Accelerate Nuclear Energy Deployment With resounding bipartisan, bicameral support that also achieved enthusiastic support of the Executive Branch, the US has enacted a new law announcing its support of nuclear energy. It has the potential to make an even larger impact on global atomic energy use than the combination of…

  • Atomic Show #316 – Emmet Penney, Pronuclear Poet

    ByRod Adams

    Emmet Penney is an unlikely, but effective pronuclear advocate. He earned his degrees in fine arts and great books and worked for several years as a professional poet – along with working in a bookstore as a way to keep paying the bills. He gradually transitioned from poetry into writing thoughtful essays on a variety…

  • Pro-nuclear advocates should stop bashing advanced nuclear

    ByRod Adams

    I wish I knew why some nuclear advocates feel that it’s worth their time to spread as much negative information as they can find about the potential utility and value of advanced nuclear power technologies. IMO, modern water cooled reactors qualify as advanced in the same way as a modern BMW engine qualifies as advanced…

  • Atomic Show #314 – Economies of scale for micro, small, medium, large reactors – with James Krellenstein

    ByRod Adams

    James Krellenstein is a physicist, consultant and nuclear energy historian. He is currently employed as a senior advisor to Global Health Strategies. He started up their decarbonization practice with an emphasis on nuclear energy along with renewables. He was the lead author on GEH’s report on ways to reduce global dependence on Russia for necessary…

  • Parnassus Versus Green Century: A Contrast in Styles

    ByValerie Gardner

    Cross-posted from Nucleation Capital June, July and August of 2023 were the three hottest months the Earth has ever seen by such a large margin, it left climate scientists agog. Climate disasters are abounding apace, with the U.S. hit by 23 large-scale disasters, a record-breaking year already. In Pakistan, extreme rainfall and flooding affected 33…

  • Enough with “renewables!”

    ByValerie Gardner

    The American Nuclear Society posted an article entitled How a nuclear victory at COP27 started with a teen and a text reporting on the wonderful story of Ia Aanstoot. This is the 17-year old Swedish highschool student who effectively saved the day for nuclear at COP27 by alerting a WhatsApp chat group with the right…

  • Oliver Stone’s “Nuclear” – An optimistic look at a powerful tool for addressing climate change and energy security

    ByRod Adams

    By early 2019, Oliver Stone, a successful filmmaker who has created a long list of popular works of art, had become increasingly concerned and even depressed about what he had learned about the risk climate change posed to humanity. He’d watched Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth” and paid attention to dire warnings coming from credible scientific…