New Carnival and Two New Blogs

The 143rd Carnival of Nuclear Energy Bloggers is up at Hiroshima Syndrome. It includes blog posts on unexpected interactions (cool white pavements save energy...unless you consider the effect of reflected sunlight on buildings), smog in China, the status of new reactor builds, the Crystal River decision, and more.  Come to the Carnival and have some fun!

Meanwhile, I have added two new blogs to my blog roll.  One really IS a new blog:  Diary of a Nuclear Tourist. Suzy Hobbs Baker is an artist and communicator.  She founded Popatomic Studios and the Nuclear Literacy Project (NLP).  As part of NLP, she is taking a nuclear tour of Europe, and blogging about it.

Here's her post at ANS Nuclear Cafe about the Diary of a Nuclear Tourist project, and here's her post Day One, Up and Running. I welcome this new project and new blog!

I cut and pasted part of the blog banner here, because Baker is an artist and the banner is just so neat!

The second blog I have added is Nuclear Grrl--Atomic Feminist.  The subheading is "Questioning the universe one neutron at a time." I have followed NuclearGrrl on Twitter for quite a while, but somehow missed the fact that she has a blog.  Her bio reads: The musings and opines of a wickedly assertive female nuclear engineer, Buckeye, afro queen, black mamba, feminist, clinic escort, and all around spectacular human being.  Her most recent post A Snowstorm and a Pilgrim  comments on the headlines written when the snowstorm took down the power grid and Pilgrim went off-line. As she notes: CBS Local got it right but AP wrote a doomsday headline.  (None of us is surprised by AP, are we?)

Musings:

I have been thinking about my blog roll.  What are my criteria for putting a blog on the blog roll?  I think I am beginning to see how I choose blogs.  They have to be one of two things:

-  Pro-nuclear power blogs, preferably referencing actual operating plants.
Or
-  Local New England news blogs, often referencing Vermont Yankee.

I just recently realized these are my criteria, though I didn't have an explicit statement about it before.

What about blogs that I don't include? I don't have blogs that are primarily about global warming or thorium reactors.  I believe that global warming is man-made, and I hope the thorium reactor is developed.  However, so far, I don't put blogs on these subjects on my blog roll.  This may change in the future.  Currently,  I use the criteria above.

My blog list has 26 blogs. Visit the blogs and have fun!

128th Carnival of Nuclear Energy Bloggers and Atomic Power Review

The 128th Carnival of Nuclear Energy Bloggers is up today at Atomic Power Review.  Will Davis gets into the spirit of the Carnival with a guessing game: "What is this picture?"

Will, this picture was too hard for me.  I had NO clue.  You just have to make these pictures easier to guess.  I was reduced to trying to figure out the time frame by how people were dressed.  Men in hats?

However, I assure you  that even if you can't guess the picture, you will still enjoy the Carnival! It contains news about Japan, Vermont, new builds, the Waste Confidence Ruling at NRC, Canadian reactors, nuclear market competitiveness, nuclear good news, and a historical perspective on the Material Test Reactor at Idaho National Labs.

This Carnival is a feast of information and commentary, and you won't want to miss it.

And if you were able to guess the picture at the top of the Carnival, please tell me.

Blog Milestone: 200,000 Page Views

On Friday, August 31, Yes Vermont Yankee past a milestone of 200,000 page views.  The statistics from Google Blogger are shown above.

Just right

I think the blog is doing pretty well, considering that it covers mostly Vermont issues, and Vermont is a small state. I recently described Yes Vermont Yankee as a "niche blog." Some of my friends objected to that description.

Instead of describing it as "niche" or "general-interest" or whatever, I will quote my friend Gaila:

"It's not too big and it's not too small.  It's Just Right!"

Thank you to everyone who reads this blog!

Update: I want to thank the American Nuclear Society for sending  their congratulations through a lovely post at ANS Nuclear Cafe: Yes Vermont Yankee passes 200K pageview milestone.

The Blue Ribbon Commission and the Nuclear Bloggers

Today, at ANS Nuclear Cafe, Dan Yurman has put together a Blue Ribbon Panel of Nuclear Bloggers.

In the post Advice to the Blue Ribbon Commission, eleven bloggers give advice to the Blue Ribbon Commission formed by President Obama. If you remember, President Obama traded "closing Yucca Mountain" to Nevada Senator Henry Reid in return for Reid's support in the Senate.

Canceling the Yucca Mountain repository was probably great for Obama in the Senate, but when the utilities saw that there was no plan for the government to remove spent fuel (and the utilities had paid the government billions of dollars to do exactly that), they began suing the government for their money back.

The obvious answer was to appoint a commission to study the matter. Obama did so.

The Commission decided the matter needed even more study.

In the post at ANS Nuclear Cafe, the Nuclear Bloggers (I am one of them) give the Commission some honest and pithy advice. After all, fuel recycling is a known technology. Other geological repositories for high-level materials are operational. All the Blue Ribbon Commission had to do was make a decision.

Of course, they didn't.

Monday Blue Ribbon: Howard Shaffer and Public Outreach

Howard Shaffer: Knowledge, Outreach, and Perseverance

Howard Shaffer has been an advocate for Vermont Yankee for years. He debates anti-nuclear activists, testifies at hearings, writes for the press, and is a member of the American Nuclear Society Public Information Committee.

The problem with writing about Howard Shaffer is that he is my mentor in nuclear outreach. It's not easy to write about someone whom I admire so greatly. But I'll try.

How I Met Howard Shaffer

I was writing a novel. Specifically, I was writing a mystery, Nuclear Gentleman. Most of the action takes place in a power plant, and my nuclear plant experience was out-of-date. Also, in my working life, I had been a researcher. I visited nuclear plants to solve problems. For my book, I needed information on daily life in a nuclear plant.

I had just moved to Vermont, so I scoured the local newspaper for pro-nuclear letters to the editor. There was a letter from Howard, and it included information on the town in which he lives. He was in the phone book, and I called him up to ask him about life in a nuclear plant. It was the beginning of a wonderful friendship.

I soon learned that Howard had been a start-up engineer on Vermont Yankee, Chin Shan in Taiwan, and a pumped storage plant. He was also an engineer for for Dresden, Seabrook, Watts Bar 1, and a member of the GE SBWR project. Howard is a licensed professional engineer in Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Illinois. He was a Congressional Science Fellow in 2001. He was a submarine officer. His engineering degrees are from Duke University and M I T.

In other words, he can answer almost any question about BWRs with significant authority and practical experience.

What he spends his time on now, though, is outreach.

Outreach

Howard attends meetings, testifies in writing and orally at hearings and debates against anti-nuclear activists (when they are willing to debate). He writes letters to the editor. His article, The Downside of Nuclear Power, By An Advocate, was published in the Vermont Journal of Environmental Law. ( This Vermont Law School publication is not known for pro-nuclear views!) Despite its title, Howard's article is pro-nuclear.

He also answers comments in local papers, being a strong voice for nuclear when not that many voices are available. Here he is, today, answering a letter from old-line anti-nuclear activist, Gary Sachs, in the Rutland Herald. Or countering a comment from another nuclear activist who commented on a Rutland Herald article. Today, Howard summarizes both the geography and the politics of Vermont in a View From Vermont blog post in ANS Nuclear Cafe.

Teaching Me About Outreach

I don't know how to say this without sounding a bit sappy. Howard constantly teaches me about outreach. He manages to be unwavering in his support of the plant, and a gentleman to plant opponents. Both at the same time. Howard brings handouts to meetings: some that he writes, some he obtains from NEI. He is a firm presence at these meetings, both in what he says and what he does. He talks gently to people on both sides of the fence. He respects people, even when he disagrees strongly with their opinions.

I constantly learn from Howard.

Photograph of Howard Shaffer used by permission.

The Second Blog Carnival

Charles Barton is hosting the second Blog Carnival of Nuclear Energy at his blog, Nuclear Green. Once again the Yes Vermont Yankee blog is included, which makes me very happy.

Charles has written short, pointed introductions to the posts. Even if you don't link to the posts themselves, reading his summaries will give you a terrific view of the current topics of conversation in the community.

I can't resist some quotes from Charles here...

• Nuclear Fissionary's Jack Gamble offers Antinuclear Spin Machine Exploiting Fossil Fuel Disasters This story discusses how the crazy anti-nuclear disinformation campaign twists the facts of fossil fuel related accidents to tar nuclear power with the same brush.

• Nuclear Archer is offering posts on Generation IV nuclear materials, including one on "ferritic and austenitic stainless steel."

• I have been aware for some time that the National Renewable Energy Laboratory appeared to be cooperating with the Wind Industry Lobby to the extent that the NREL could be described as an adjunct of the AWEA. "Uvdiv"of Capacity Factor recently posted a investigative report, FOIE email: NREL collaborated with the AWEA - The US wind industry lobby - in writing a government report controverting a wind industry critic.

• The most discussed blogger on the Energy Collective at the moment is Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee. The Senator's most recent post, Oil Industry Can Learn from Nuclear’s Good Safety Record, pays tribute to the safety of the nuclear industry.

Read the Carnival. You'll like it.

Blog Carnivals

I am happy to be participating in a group of Blog Carnivals. For the carnivals, a group of bloggers link key posts to a post named Carnival of Nuclear Energy.

The first Carnival is hosted by the Next Big Future blog, and contains

• two posts from Yes Vermont Yankee,
• a key video and comments, provided by Nuclear Fissionary in which Rod Adams convinces a nuclear skeptic,
• NEI's coverage of the American Power Act
• And more.

You might call it the Best of the Nuclear Blogs. More precisely, this Carnival is Some of the Best of the Nuclear Blogs. There are many excellent blogs out there, and I don't mean to insult anyone who is not in the Carnival! The posts in this Carnival are top-notch.

I hope to participate in more Nuclear Carnivals in the future.

Thanks and Links

I posted my first blog last night, and by the time I awoke this morning Dan Yurman and Rod Adams had both posted kind words about my blog on their blogs. Thank you, Dan and Rod!

Dan Yurman posted about new nuclear bloggers here

Rod Adams posted about this blog here

And Kirk Sorenson welcomed me here

With this post, I am also adding some site links and a blogroll.