Thorium Energy Alliance Conference this weekend

The Thorium Energy Alliance Conference in St. Louis

The Thorium Energy Alliance will take place in St. Louis starting this weekend.  I signed up to attend long ago, but people are still joining right now.  Here's the link to the website.   I encourage you to attend if you can!

Much of the conference will be about molten salt reactors, of course.  But there will be much more! More than two hours of how-to-do-advocacy workshops, led by leading advocates such as Eric Meyer of Generation Atomic and Heather Matteson of Mothers for Nuclear. (I will be a co-leader in one of the sessions.) There will be great talks by many authors. One of the featured talks is by Victoria Bruce, and people who register for the meeting will get her latest book, free with their registration.  Sellout: How Washington Gave Away America's Technological Soul, and One Man's Fight to Bring it Home.  Mathijs Becker will be a speaker.  He will be here from the Netherlands. He is the author of one of the few books debunking Jacobson's "100% renewables" claims (The Non-Solutions Project) as well as posting an excellent youtube channel, the Nuclear Humanist.

It will be a great conference.  But why should you come?

A Conference that is truly  for the "Rest of Us"

I have been to many pro-nuclear conferences, and I love them all.  Most of the conferences are sponsored by an industry group.

Sometimes, these conferences don't feel very welcoming to people who are not in the industry.  This conference feels very different.  Some of the speakers are from industry (EPRI advanced reactor group), and some are from industry start-ups (ThorCon, Elysium, Terrestrial and others). However, many speakers and attendees are "just" nuclear advocates. They are people who have never worked in the nuclear industry, but have a presence in the world of advocacy, ideas and books engaged with new versions of nuclear power.

The "just advocates" are the most important people at the conference, in my opinion.  They are the group that can reach out to other groups, and to their neighbors.

This is a very welcoming conference. I encourage you to attend.

Note: if you are defending an existing nuclear plant, you will be right at home.  You don't have to be a molten salt maven to get a lot out of this conference. For example, I could annotate the list of speakers, giving examples of the important and brave things various speakers have done in defense of our current fleet of reactors.  Look at the bottom of the conference page for the list of speakers.

Another note: The conference will include a break for Eclipse Viewing.  How many conferences are planned around something like that?

This will be a great conference.  I hope to see some of you there.   Here's the conference link, again:

Thorium Energy Alliance Conference 8

How to Help Nuclear Plants in Ohio

Davis-Besse
NRC photo

Two plants and three ways to help them

Ohio has two nuclear plants,  Davis-Besse and Perry.  They add up to around 2000 MW electric. Ohio as a whole is a coal and natural gas state.  I did a quick addition, based on this table of power plants in Ohio. By my calculations,  Ohio has about 14,000 MW of coal. That is a lot of coal.

 I grant you that some of those coal units are scheduled to close, and will probably be replaced by natural gas.  Nevertheless, it is clear that these two nuclear plants are essential for Ohio to avoid being completely fossil power.

As a Vermonter, I do not want Ohio to have nothing but fossil-powered electricity.  The prevailing winds are from the West, and Vermont has a long history of resenting the acid rain visited on our forests by the coal-burning states of the Midwest.  The rain is less acid nowadays, but our soils have not fully recovered.  And "less acid" does not mean: Good for the forests.  It does mean: Better than it used to be.

Three ways to help nuclear in Ohio

How can you help nuclear in Ohio? Three ways, and you can do it now.

1) If you live in Ohio: Write your legislator in support of two bills that value nuclear for its zero-emissions electricity.   NEI has a post  with links. Exelon Rep Urges  Ohio Lawmakers to Support Zero-Emission Program. 

2) If you don't live in Ohio (or even if you do) donate to Generation Atomic. Generation Atomic has been going door to door in Ohio, building support for the nuclear plants.  They have a plan, they have volunteers, they have an App for your phone, and they are having success, including more than a thousand people who are now actively in favor of nuclear, and excellent press coverage.  Here's their latest field report (Notes from the Field, Week 5, Sandusky Ohio)  And here's a very important link for people: the Donate screen for Generation Atomic.

3) If you live in or near Ohio, go to the rally-symposium June 13!  Well, okay, the event is called an educational symposium on nuclear technology. (I added the "rally" part because I think of it as a rally.) The symposium will include panels, speakers and questions. This event at the Ohio Statehouse atrium includes American Nuclear Society Michigan-Ohio Section, the AFL-CIO, and North American Young Generation in Nuclear.  Maria Korsnick, president of NEI, will speak. Be there!  I think this symposium  (rally?) will be heavily covered in the press, and quite important.

Help the Ohio nuclear plants keep generating clean low-carbon power.  The environment needs you!

Generation Atomic open meeting in Ohio

Pro-Nuclear Advocacy Post at ANS Nuclear Cafe

Great Days, right now.

These are great days for pro-nuclear advocacy. Many states are moving in the right direction to save their nuclear plants. Nuclear opponents are fighting desperately to get the states to stomp on nuclear. ("All you need is a few wind turbines to meet your carbon goals.  That's all you need. Pay no attention to the gas plant behind the curtain.")

In other words, pro-nuclear forces are winning, right now, at the state level! But we have well-armed opponents, and we have to keep fighting!

These are great days for pro-nuclear advocacy.

I have a blog post at ANS Nuclear Cafe about the importance of pro-nuclear advocacy, especially local pro-nuclear advocacy.  I encourage you to read it, and comment either here or at the ANS post.

ANS Nuclear Cafe logo

Pro-Nuclear Advocacy

by Meredith Angwin

Right now, in the United States, citizens have become active advocates on many subjects. Ever since the last election, congressional phone lines have been swamped. .....

However, the backlog on the D.C. phone lines is of little importance to pro-nuclear advocates. For pro-nuclear advocates, right now most of the action is not in Congress, but in the states.

Read the entire post here:
- See more at: http://ansnuclearcafe.org/2017/03/16/pro-nuclear-advocacy/#sthash.C7zs7nuz.dpuf

Nuclear Energy Weekly News Digest 351

Toronto Globe and Mail staff await news of D-Day

Nuclear Energy Weekly News Digest

This is an occasional summary of the best posts from the pro-nuclear blogging community in North America. This week’s collection comes from items submitted for the week ending March 19, 2016. The previous digest was posted on March 12, at Neutron Bytes.

Fukushima Commentary--Les Corrice

Fukushima 6-years-on: Part 1  Japan’s Press subverts Fukushima repopulation
Japan’s popular Press has effectively disrupted the efforts of Tokyo Electric Power Company and the Tokyo government to return the Fukushima evacuation zone to some semblance of normalcy. But one outlet – Fukushima Minpo – has been an objective ray of sunshine, posting more positive articles than the rest of Japan’s popular Press combined.

Fukushima 6-years-on: Part 2  Positive and negative Fukushima 6th anniversary articles
Fukushima accident anniversary articles literally flood the Japanese and international Press. In the past, nearly all focused on the dire and gloomy. This year, most of the reports were once again dedicated to the negative. However, some enterprising news outlets bucked the tide and took the positive approach.

Fukushima 6-years-on: Part 3  Fomenting Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD)
Fukushima FUD has plagued the internet since March, 2011. The frequency of antinuclear scare-mongering posts increases every year to “celebrate” the March 11 anniversary of the nuclear accident. We are identifying only a few of the disreputable postings concerning this year’s anniversary, rather than give all of them free publicity.

Nuke Power Talk-- Gail Marcus

Energy and Jobs: A delicate balance
At Nuke Power Talk, Gail Marcus discusses the issue of jobs lost when any major facility, be it a mine or a factory or a power plant, shuts down.  These job losses can be devastating for the individuals involved and for the communities that host these facilities.  She cites an article by someone who grew up in coal country who argues that plans to reduce the emissions from burning coal need to take a multi-pronged approach that includes planning for assistance to workers affected by these policy decisions.

Forbes--James Conca

NuScale’s Small Modular Nuclear Reactor Keeps Moving Forward
NuScale Power is on track to build the first small modular nuclear reactor in America, having been notified that their first-ever SMR Design Certification Application was accepted for full review by the NRC after only two months - light speed for our nuclear bureaucracy.

The Beguiling Promise Of John Goodenough's New Battery Technology
A new fast-charging battery technology from Jack Goodenough, the inventor of the Li battery, will again revolutionize electric vehicles and smart phones, using a glass electrode instead of a liquid one, sodium instead of lithium, having three times as much energy density as Li-ion batteries and doesn’t get hot.

ANS Nuclear Cafe--Meredith Angwin

Pro-Nuclear Advocacy
Historically, nuclear advocates have been effective when they take action in their own communities.  As Tip O'Neill said: all politics is local.  (Post includes links to several organizations that take local action.)

Neutron Bytes - Dan Yurman

Banner Week for Progress on U.S. Advanced Reactors
Four major announcements were made this week by developers of advanced nuclear reactors in the U.S. All of them indicate progress towards completing designs and engagement with nuclear safety agencies.

There are significant distinctions between them in terms of technical details of the designs and there are also a range of commitments in terms of the key success factor – paying customers.

Now Available: Campaigning for Clean Air: Updated

Front Cover of Campaigning for Clean Air

Campaigning for Clean Air: The book is available!

My book,  Campaigning for Clean Air: Strategies for Pro-Nuclear Advocacy, is now available on Amazon!  You can buy it as a Kindle, or you can buy it as a paperback.   It should also be available for order in most bookstores (Ingram-Spark distributor).  Here's my summary:

Pro-nuclear people can make important contributions to the energy debate. This book will help you make your voice heard.  Advocates appreciate the importance of nuclear power for clean air and for our planet’s future.

In this book, award-winning author Meredith Angwin guides you in your advocacy:
• Support nuclear energy while simply sitting at your computer
• Support nuclear energy in public, using the same techniques as professional speakers and communicators
• Speak at a public hearing or be invited to speak to a legislative committee
• Learn how to deal with your own emotions in a world saturated with anti-nuclear messages
• Find other nuclear supporters and have fun together.
Campaigning for Clean Air features anecdotes, examples and insights from many pro-nuclear advocates. This book will inspire your work for a clean energy future.

Update: A wonderful announcement of the book at Dan Yurman's Neutron Bytes blog! Campaigning for Clean Air & Nuclear Energy.   Thank you, Dan!

Why this book?

Happily, more and more books are appearing to describe the advantages of nuclear power.  Power to Save the World, Climate Gamble, The Non-Solutions Project, Thorium, Energy Cheaper than Coal, and After Fukushima: What We Now Know.  Buy all of them! (I did.)  And this is far from a complete list of excellent pro-nuclear books.

But whichever of these books you buy, please also buy my book.  It's a little different.  It's about getting the pro-nuclear word out to the world.   My fear is that with all the pro-nuclear books, pro-nuclear people will read the books and enjoy the books and then....Then what?

We pro-nuclear people have to raise our voices to support nuclear power. That is why I wrote Campaigning for Clean Air.  This book is about how to support nuclear energy, with some discussion (of course) about why to support it.

As one of my friends said: "Your book is a guidebook, a sort of how-to."  Exactly right.  How to write a letter to the editor.  How to organize a rally.  And everything in between.  Campaigning for Clean Air has the subtitle: Strategies for Pro-Nuclear Advocacy.  I  might have subtitled it: Advocacy the Easy Way, or maybe Activism for the Shy. 

More on this later but meanwhile: Buy the book!
----------
 P.S. If you want to read what others are saying about the book: 

Some wonderful endorsements are scrolling on this page of my new website: http://www.meredithangwin.com/book/

Celebrating and Advocacy

Collage of the Chicago Victory
Courtesy of Generation Atomic

The nuclear advocacy blog

I have a new post at my meredithangwin.com website blog.  I call that blog the Nuclear Advocacy blog, because my posts are all about advocacy, rather than general news.

My latest post is Joy and Celebration: Part of the Activist Toolkit.  Advocates saved the Illinois nuclear plants. Time to celebrate!

Celebration

In many circumstances, celebrating a win might  be just, "Of course we celebrate. That just goes without saying." However, I think that nuclear advocates sometimes skip that step.  We tend to look at the work-that-lies-ahead, which is admirable.  But it is also admirable to celebrate, because it is helps us stay motivated.  "YES!  We DID this!"   That's a good feeling, and makes us want to go out and do this again!

My husband used to be a member of the Western Wheelers bicycling club, and he often rode the Sequoia Century (and part-Centuries with the kids, when the kids were younger).  He told me when that when he was bicycling up a hill, he never looked up at the top of the hill.  It always felt discouraging to look at the top.  He said: "I just keep pedaling." Good advice for everyone.

And when you get to the top, celebrate!

---
And please visit my new blog if you can!  I have a few posts up there already....
 

Celebrating, traveling, and a book about advocacy

George and me on our wedding day
1965

Moving Forward and Celebrating

Someone once wrote that at a certain point, a person stops trying to hide their age, and begins boasting about it.

This year is the turning point, for me. This month, I will turn 70.  Later in the year will be our 50th anniversary.  Here's my post about  our 49th anniversary, last year.

George and I are doing some serious traveling this year.  We aren't exactly "adventure" travelers.  I could illustrate our upcoming  trips with a picture of the Eiffel Tower and Big Ben.  Sorry if you were expecting that we were planning visits to the uplands of Borneo ;-)

Standard fare as it might be, we will be traveling.  These are big trips for us.  There will sometimes be weeks between blog posts.

I don't plan to try to keep the blog going while I am out of town. To some extent, I am still re-adjusting to Vermont Yankee closing.  I will be glad to visit the Eiffel Tower without worrying about Vermont Yankee or my blog. That's my plan, for sure.

Other family events are also happening this year.  For example, for many years, we have not visited with the man who was Best Man at our wedding.  We spent yesterday with him and his wife! Another event: a big family visit in the near future, complete with attending a Broadway show.  In March, I took a trip to Arizona to visit an elderly relative. Lots of personal travel.

We're not rich, but we are re-arranging our priorities, in order to see people that we love, and enjoy ourselves while we still can.

Moving Forward and Writing

From Wikipedia
 photo by Benh

I love this blog, but it just hasn't been the same to me since the plant closed.  Instead of concentrating on the blog, I am starting a big project, a book project.  I have experienced a lot and learned a lot in the past few years, and I want to share my knowledge.

For me, writing is fairly easy.  (If writing weren't easy for me, I wouldn't have a blog.) A book is different, though. A book is hard. Organizing a book, deciding on the theme, setting up the chapters, getting endorsements for it, deciding on whether to self-publish or seek a publisher: this stuff is all hard.  

I'm working on it now.  I will probably publish through my little company Carnot Communications, the same way my husband and I published Voices for Vermont Yankee. (paperback edition here) I will do it this way because I want the book to be available quickly.  Also, the book may not have a big enough potential market to interest a main-stream publisher.

I have a working title.  Campaigning for clean air: secrets of pro-nuclear advocacy and community. 

I hope for a good summer, with travel, family, friends and a Work In Progress (the book).

Moving Forward

I move forward with hope, and with gratitude. Gratitude for my husband, for my family, for my health, for my readers.   I am grateful to G-d.  I am grateful for the love and support of so many people.

And next---the Eiffel Tower!

At American Nuclear Society Blog: Second Part of Analysis on Vermont Yankee Closing

It's the politics?

In yesterday's post at the American Nuclear Cafe blog, Les Corrice and I analyzed Vermont Yankee's closing. We both concluded that  the statement that "it was uneconomic to operate the plant" was kind of a smokescreen. The "economics statement" was a way to avoid admitting the real issue: the plant closed mostly due to political opposition. That was the first post in the series at ANS Nuclear Cafe: you might call it "the politics post."

I also encourage you to read the first comment on the post, clearly written by someone who worked at the plant.  The comment includes more detail on exactly the type of political pressures the plant was facing.  Once you have read the comment, join the conversation.

It's the economics, maybe? Or the lack of advocacy?

Today, ANS posted  the second part of that three-part series on Vermont Yankee's closing.

In this post, three bloggers comment on the closing. Two of the bloggers describe the economics of the plant, and the third describes what real advocacy could mean.

1. Rod Adams worked hard to convince buyers that the plant was worth saving, and he presents cogent economic arguments for keeping the plant running. Adams blogs at Atomic Insights, and most bloggers who read this blog have seen his posts and guest posts.   One of his recent posts is Prevention is Easier and Less Painful than Cure--Keep Vermont Yankee Open.  In today's post at ANS Nuclear Cafe, he gives a concise analysis of how Vermont Yankee could be an economic asset.
2. Edward Kee is an energy economist, and the owner of the Nuclear Economics Consulting Group.  He blogs at Nuclear Economics where he recently posted Nuclear Lessons from Vermont Yankee Closure.  Today, at the American Nuclear Cafe blog, Kee writes that the lack of profitable power contracts was a major cause of Vermont Yankee's closing. He also notes that the grid markets do not financially favor nuclear plants, despite their reliability. 
3. The third blogger, Robert Margolis, feels that the major problem was lack of advocacy.  We needed advocacy for Vermont Yankee, and while we had some, we didn't have enough.  As an example of "enough," Margolis cites Frederick Salvucci, a civil engineer who had personal reasons to advocate for the Big Dig in Boston...and he fought for it, and he won.  The Big Dig was built, however unlikely that might seem in retrospect.  Nuclear advocates are fighting for something better than the Big Dig, but we need some of Salvucci's fire.

I encourage you to read this second Vermont Yankee post at the American Nuclear Society blog, and comment on it.

1-93 Tunnel, part of the Big Dig