By Rod Adams •
June 12, 2008
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There is a growing recognition that a world based on ever increasing consumption of fossil fuels is a world of constrained human development. Some people think that is a good thing, I tend toward the view that people have a lot of room for improvement and growth. We could use a new basis on which to build the devices that we will use to provide choices for our personal environment, to take us places where we want to go, and to make the goods that enable us to survive no matter what the weather brings.
My contention is that such a discovery has already been made, and that there is a growing recognition of the potential for that basis to expand the boundaries of our growth, creativity and development. The uranium oxide fuel pellet - that tiny black cylinder shown in the photo next to one of my favorite coffee mugs - is made of material with incredible potential compared to the fossil fuels that supply the heat that we use for the vast majority of our controllable power. I like to think of these tiny pellets as equivalent to early stage transistors at the time when most of the system controllers, radios, televisions, and computers in the world depended on magnetic amplifiers or vacuum tubes.
By Max Lindberg •
June 4, 2008
As promised in a podcast interview on February 11th,
Edward Sproat, manager of the Yucca Mountain project in Nevada, filed a license application with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to construct a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada.
By Max Lindberg •
February 23, 2008
Nuclear energy officials appear to be taking the lead in the quest for storage of radioactive waste, as Nevada’s Yucca Mountain looks less and less like a reality, at least in the short term.
Marshall Cohen, an official of the Nuclear Energy Institute told the Las Vegas Review Journal that the industry is looking to several communities that might welcome interim storage of its used fuel.
Two or three communities, according to Cohen, are [...]
By Max Lindberg •
February 20, 2008
I was reading some recent headlines about Yucca Mountain, claiming the federal government will face heavy penalties and judgments if the project isn’t finished. Read beyond the headlines my friends, “we” fund the government, the money comes from our pockets, and it isn’t chicken feed.
The latest estimates are, that if Yucca Mountain isn’t finished until 2017, “we” will owe the utilities an estimated $7 billion in penalties, provided by law, because the repository isn’t finished. Bump completion time up another 3 years, and the bill goes up to about $11 billion.
By Max Lindberg •
February 11, 2008
That’s the question I posed to Ward Sproat, the DOE’s manager of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management. His agency is in charge of the Yucca Mountain waste repository project in Nevada.
This is the classic “Not in my back yard” battle, even more understandable since Nevada was the site of nuclear weapons testing beginning in 1951. There were 100 atmospheric tests until they went underground in 1962, when 828 devices were exploded. [...]
By Max Lindberg •
January 23, 2008
This is the third and final segment of our interview with Robert Loux, Director of the agency for Nuclear Projects in Nevada.
In our previous podcasts, Yucca Mountain: The Nevada Case Podcast, Part One, Mr. Loux talked about his agency, it’s mission and why the state is so critical of the DOE and it’s practices.
In the second presentation, Yucca Mountain: The Nevada Cast Podcast, Part Two, he talks about the regulatory process and unsuitability of the mountain as a long-term repository for high-level nuclear waste.
By Max Lindberg •
January 22, 2008
This is the second part of a podcast with Robert Loux, Executive Director of the Agency for Nuclear Projects in Nevada.
If you missed the first installment, it’s available at: Yucca Mountain: The Nevada Case Podcast, Part One .
In this segment, Loux discusses the Department of Energy’s regulatory process, falsehoods and other manipulation of reports. He also talks about Yucca Mountains unsuitability, even for a short term, as a nuclear repository. [...]
By Max Lindberg •
January 17, 2008
Amid increased activity signaling a possible resurgence of interest in nuclear power facilities, comes word from Nevada that isn’t at all surprising.
Ward Sproat, shown in the Las Vegas Review-Journal photo at the left, is director of the Department of Energy’s Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, and announced Tuesday that Yucca Mountain in Nevada is still a long way from receiving any spent nuclear fuel. Sproat told Nevada’s Legislative Committee on High-Level Nuclear Waste, that lack of funding will result in significant worker layoffs at the facility. He is quoted as saying, “They’re going to come in waves”.
Podcast, if you’d rather listen:
