Video Day: The Molten Salt Thorium Reactor

Cheerful Nuclear Video for Friday

This is a nice little pro-nuclear video, which ends with a push for the development of molten salt thorium reactors. One of the nice things about this video is the comparison between quantities of nuclear waste (tiny amounts) and solar panel waste (huge amounts). Both of these waste streams contain toxic materials.


 

Christmas Links: Cookies and Friends, A Christmas Carol, and the Carnival

Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree

Links of the Season

Friendship and Food:  ANS Nuclear Cafe usually uses a guest post from me late in the month.  Consequently,  I have a holiday season post up today: The Other Side of the Cookie: Anti-Nuclear People in Our Lives.

We can all get along, if we try. We all want the best for our children.

Dickens and Harry Reid: The ghosts of Christmas Past (in terms of nuclear waste), Christmas Present (France and the WIPP) and Christmas Future visit a group of U S Senators in a Nuclear Waste Carol. This informative and funny post is from the Heritage Foundation.

136th Carnival: The most recent Carnival is up at Atomic Power Review, including Will Davis's signature guess-this-picture at the front of the post.  Then there's Rod Adams on climate change skeptics in the pro-nuclear community (can't we all just get along?), a great reading list on nuclear from Dan Yurman, and Gail Marcus celebrating 70 years of nuclear fission.  Plus much more.   A year-end treat, for sure!

For all my readers who celebrate Christmas, have a Merry Christmas with friends, family, food, music, and spiritual renewal. And even presents under the tree!

122nd Carnival of Nuclear Energy Bloggers at ANS Nuclear Cafe

The 122nd  Carnival of Nuclear Energy Bloggers is up at ANS Nuclear Cafe.    This is a fascinating Carnival.  For example, it contains two bloggers covering the NRC MOX hearings in Chattanooga, and two bloggers covering the Connecticut River controversies in Vermont.  Then there's a blog post about nuclear waste disposal in the Permian basin, and a new Brayton cycle process that can make future plants more thermodynamically efficient.  Plus Fukushima updates,  South Korean nuclear updates, and the needs for a mixed energy portfolio.  It's a great read for an early autumn evening.

Enjoy!

117th Carnival of Nuclear Bloggers at Next Big Future

The 117th Carnival of Nuclear Energy is up at Next Big Future!  It has been quite a week in nuclear, and there's an amazing collection of blog posts in this Carnival. There's Mars, for example.  The Curiosity Rover is nuclear-powered (what else could it be) and some posts describe nuclear batteries or the Rover itself.  Brian Wang, the blogger at Next Big Future, has several posts about new types of power sources, and a very important post about health effects of Fukushima (lesson learned: don't evacuate old people).  Several posts cover the Waste Confidence Rule. There are also a couple on the positive effects of nuclear energy.  Two positive effects include the resurgence of crocodiles in Florida, and successful emergency planning for the Iowa floods, inspired by existing planning for Duane Arnold (the plant was fine throughout the flooding, but the planning for plant emergencies helped first responders in the flood).  Michael Angwin of Australia took part in a successful debate, and that debate inspires some posts at the Carnival too.

Visit the Carnival! There's nothing quite like it in the nuclear industry!  Have fun!

Remember: you can always link to the latest Carnival through the lady-in-the-mask in the right hand column of this blog.

A Debate with a Comedian

A man dressed in a suit, and Deb Katz, dressed more casually, took the stage. A moderator introduced William Newcomb from NuCorPAC (he was never referred to by his real name) and Deb Katz from Citizens Awareness Network. The moderator asked the questions and thanked people politely, as if this was a real debate.

At first, I got more and more angry, but then I settled down. After ten minutes, anyone would understand that "Will Nukem" was not from the nuclear industry. He was actually very funny, good theater. His answer to "what should we do with the waste" included not worrying about it since it will flow down the river to Massachusetts ("You people in southern Vermont have done enough. Let Massachusetts do its part") and putting it on trucks to spend a week in every township in Vermont ("Spread the burden. You have done enough, But don't send it to Montpelier. We gotta stay on good terms with Montpelier."). At the end of the debate, he literally danced off the stage, singing "Nuke is Green" and clapping his hands. You gotta hand it to a good actor.

Unfortunately, in my opinion, Deb Katz was not as good an actor. She had the world by the tail: a hand-picked comedian to oppose her, a very receptive audience. This apparently encouraged her to make remarks that I considered nonsensical. For example, she said: There are people missing from our homes, from around our tables. People who will never come back. We must make sure this stops. ( or maybe...make sure this does not continue...my notes are only my notes).

It sounded for all the world like she thought death itself would stop if Vermont Yankee goes out of service. Death would stop, the gene pool would be safe forever? That's a pretty powerful nuclear plant, bringing "Death into the World and all our woe." Whoops, that quote from Milton was about Adam's fall, not Vermont Yankee!

Katz also said that "you shouldn't let them scare you about global warming. If Vermont Yankee is out of service, it won't make a bit of difference about global warming." It made me nostalgic to hear James Moore of VPIRG, who admits that closing VY will lead to using more fossil fuels "for a few years." In Moore's oft-stated opinion:"Relicensing Vermont Yankee would be a twenty-year solution to a three-year problem". At least, he admits a possible problem.

I was also surprised that Deb Katz was potty-mouthed. This was a public forum and at least parts of it were recorded. Yet she raised giggles and applause from the audience several times by referring to the nuclear industry as having "wet dreams." She also said that Entergy planned to "shtup us again." ("Shtup " is a very coarse Yiddish word). Finally, she got quite a hand with the statement that "don't piss on my back and tell me it's raining." Well, I guess all applause is good applause.

After the meeting, one of the organizers asked us if we had enjoyed ourselves. We both said it had been very entertaining. I said that I had been a little surprised that, at the end, they had not introduced the man who played Will Nukem, but instead had him be "Will Nukem" the whole time. They should have told the name of the actor, at least at the end. The organizer admitted that had confused some people, and they probably should have done something at the end to introduce him. It didn't seem like a big deal to him, however.

I wonder if there were some people at the meeting who thought that Nukem was a real industry representative. In the question period, almost all the questions were addressed to Nukem, not Katz.

I am often somewhat depressed on the drive home from these events. This one was no exception. I will try to have more upbeat posts in the future.