Sunday, December 6, 2015

Nuclear Blogger Carnival 287, The Paris Edition


Pro-nuclear flag designed by Robert Hargraves
UN colors, world grid

Once again, we are proud to host the Carnival of Nuclear Energy Bloggers, right here at Yes Vermont Yankee.  The Carnival is a compendium of nuclear blogs that rotates from blog site to blog site, and it is always a pleasure and an honor to host it.

This week, the majority of the posts are about nuclear and Paris (COP 21), nuclear and carbon, and nuclear and climate change.
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From Atomic Insights: Rod Adams


James Hansen and the Citizen's Climate Lobby have a plan to gradually add a waste disposal fee to fuels that produce CO2 when burned to produce energy. The plan uses market forces to help properly price energy alternatives so that the full cost is visible. Instead of giving the money to appointed bureaucrats to select recipients, the plan returns all collected money back to citizens in an equal amount per person.

Read the post, but pay close attention to the much better than average discussion.
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Ramp-up, from Breakthrough Institute
John Dobken takes on the reasons why opponents claim that nuclear can't help with climate change.  There's "can't build them fast enough." Wrong.  Nuclear has ramped up faster than any other low-carbon source of electricity.  There's the "free-market" argument. This argument seems to be suspended when people discuss a wind ramp-up.  Dobken's well-illustrated post should be on everyone's quick-reference list for climate change issues.


Neutron Bytes: Dan Yurman


Two significant US vendors, Westinghouse and NuScale, are making serious efforts to develop the market for SMRs in the UK.
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Energy Reality Project:

Post by Rick Maltese

Letter box in Paris
COP 21 and What is Missing From the Table

Solutions are missing. I make a case in a shorter than usual post about doing more than reductions. I suggest reversing CO2. After hearing James Hansen's interview by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now this is very relevant. He talks about "honest" accounting. The idea that fossil fuel companies be held accountable for the costs to environment and society by charging them or fining them for the damages created by their carbon emissions. That is a solution that gets closer to the real problem. Using words like "penalty" and "reward" are more needed. Nuclear needs to be rewarded for clean non-emitting reliable energy. Dirty fossil fuels need to be punished.

Guest post by Robert Rudolph Hasspacher

How Would Advanced Aliens Size Up Our Reluctance to Use Nuclear Energy

The title suggests that they would see our choices as foolish. Making poor choices instead of sensible choices makes us seem less advanced than we think.
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It's back! Fossil fuel burning is on the rise again in New England during the winter. Nitrogen oxide pollution, sulfur dioxide pollution, and carbon emissions are rising right along with it.  Graphs from a NESCOE presentation. 
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Another Link Between Alcohol and the Atom: Whiskey and Radioactivity

In a lighter mode.  Over the last several years, Gail Marcus has reported several times at Nuke Power
Talk on interesting “connections" between alcohol or food and radioactivity—particularly, ways in which one can benefit the other.  This week, she reports on a new one:  a finding that the grains left over from whiskey making may be useful for biosorption of radioactive environmental contaminants.

3 comments:

jim said...

I know they worked hard to dream up a flag, but it just looks "too NASA" to me and evokes the old U.S. Steel logo. Also why run from the familiar atomic symbol of a nuclear and electron orbits, is that too much taken as a skull-and-crossbones by the public?

Good assembly od topics to graze! Thanks!

James Greenidge
Queens NY

Rick Maltese @pronuclear said...

What is more important than the design is that it is proposed by a very credible spokesperson. Sure it could change. There could be a contest eventually. Robert Hargraves has a knack for coming up with transformative ways to present nuclear energy. He was the first with Aim High and his books title Thorium: than Coal and now this flag idea. The nuclear industry needs ll the help it can get. If enough pronuclear groups adapted such a flag it would bring about a needed symbol of unity among a splintered community divided by numerous relatively small issues. It would be wise to propose what commonality exists and how our splintered opinions converge.

Rick Maltese @pronuclear said...

Correction Thorium: Energy Cheaper Than Coal