Presented as part of World Environment Day 2012, Environment Institute members Professors Barry Brook and Corey Bradshaw (along with Ben Heard of DecarboniseSA.com and Geoff Russell [regular BNC commenter]) are taking part in an event on nuclear power and environmentalism, held by the Town of Walkerville on Saturday 9th June 2012. We’ll come complete with some entertaining show pieces, including a geiger [...]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A, Hot News, Nuclear | 5 Comments »
Guest Post by Martin Nicholson. Martin studied mathematics, engineering and electrical sciences at Cambridge University in the UK and graduated with a Masters degree in 1974. He has spent most of his working life as business owner and chief executive of a number of information technology companies in Australia. He has a strong interest in business [...]
Filed under: Emissions, Nuclear | 3 Comments »
Guest Post by Martin Nicholson. Martin studied mathematics, engineering and electrical sciences at Cambridge University in the UK and graduated with a Masters degree in 1974. He has spent most of his working life as business owner and chief executive of a number of information technology companies in Australia. He has a strong interest in business [...]
Filed under: Emissions, Nuclear, Renewables | 9 Comments »
Below is an article I wrote for the South Australian Mines and Energy Journal on carbon emissions of uranium mines. (This, and others in the SACOME series, have also been published by my co-author, Ben Heard, on DecarboniseSA.com). This is a new version of a blog post I published on BNC a few years ago — but [...]
Filed under: Emissions, Nuclear | 3 Comments »
This is the fourth and final part of the series of extracts from the book Plentiful Energy — The story of the Integral Fast Reactor by Chuck Till and Yoon Chang. Reproduced with permission of the authors, these sections describe and justify some of the key design choices that went into the making the IFR a different — [...]
Filed under: IFR FaD, Nuclear | 12 Comments »
Well, I’m just about to hop on a plane to Russia to visit for a week — destination Moscow. This is part of my duties as a member of the International Awards Committee for the Global Energy Prize (see here for details). Whilst in the heart of the former Soviet Union, I’ll hook up with [...]
Filed under: Hot News, Nuclear, Uncategorized | 18 Comments »
Guest Post by Bill Sacks and Greg Meyerson. Bill is a physicist and a radiologist, and wrote Lessons about nuclear energy from the Japanese quake and tsunami about a month into the Fukushima crisis. Greg is an English professor with specialization in critical theory. Both are based in the U.S. For further details about the authors, see the [...]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A, Emissions, Future, Nuclear, Policy, Renewables | 68 Comments »
This is the third of a four-part series of extracts from the book Plentiful Energy — The story of the Integral Fast Reactor by Chuck Till and Yoon Chang. Reproduced with permission of the authors, these sections describe and justify some of the key design choices that went into the making the IFR a different — and highly [...]
Filed under: IFR FaD, Nuclear | 54 Comments »
The Open Thread 21 has passed 500 comments and is getting a little bloated, so time for a new one. The Open Thread is a general discussion forum, where you can talk about whatever you like — there is nothing ‘off topic’ here — within reason. So get up on your soap box! The standard commenting [...]
Filed under: Nuclear, Open Thread | 282 Comments »
Guest Post by Ben Heard. Ben is Director of Adelaide-based advisory firm ThinkClimate Consulting, a Masters graduate of Monash University in Corporate Environmental Sustainability, and a member of the TIA Environmental and Sustainability Action Committee. After several years with major consulting firms, Ben founded ThinkClimate and has since assisted a range of government, private and not-for profit organisations to measure, manage [...]
Filed under: Hot News, Nuclear, Policy | 54 Comments »
Last week, the influential weekly news and international affairs publication, The Economist, ran an essay on the future of nuclear energy – The dream that failed: Nuclear power will not go away, but its role may never be more than marginal. As you might have guessed from the title, it was decidedly cool towards nuclear’s future prospects. [...]
Filed under: Emissions, Nuclear, Policy | 70 Comments »
This is the second of a four-part series of extracts from the book Plentiful Energy — The story of the Integral Fast Reactor by Chuck Till and Yoon Chang. Reproduced with permission of the authors, these sections describe and justify some of the key design choices that went into the making the IFR a different — and highly [...]
Filed under: IFR FaD, Nuclear | 49 Comments »
Before I write a scientific paper, I always try to identify: (1) my main message [MM], in 25 words or less, and (2) my target audience [TA]. Doing this helps focus the ‘story’ of the manuscript on a key point. Papers that try to present multiple messages are typically confusing and/or too long for busy [...]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A, Nuclear, Policy, Renewables | 45 Comments »
I think The Breakthrough Institute guys, led by Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus, are doing great working in environmental policy and thought leadership, which is why I was delighted to become a 2012 Senior Fellow. Below I reproduce an important article published today in Slate.com, on Fukushima and its ensuing hyperventilation. Much of the post-accident [...]
Filed under: Hot News, Nuclear | 71 Comments »
Over the next month or two, I will publish four extracts from the book Plentiful Energy — The story of the Integral Fast Reactor by Chuck Till and Yoon Chang. Reproduced with permission of the authors, these sections describe and justify some of the key design choices that went into the making the IFR a different [...]
Filed under: IFR FaD, Nuclear | 86 Comments »
The previous Open Thread has gone past is off the BNC front page, so it’s time for a fresh palette. The Open Thread is a general discussion forum, where you can talk about whatever you like — there is nothing ‘off topic’ here — within reason. So get up on your soap box! The standard [...]
Filed under: Nuclear, Open Thread | 544 Comments »
Guest Post by Elaine Hirsch. Elaine is kind of a jack-of-all-interests, from education to technology to public policy, so she is currently working as a writer for various education-related sites. Currently, she writes for an online school resource. Black Swan Theory, as explained by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his 2007/2010 book, The Black Swan, describes an [...]
Filed under: Nuclear, Policy | 30 Comments »
Ben Heard of DecarboniseSA asked if I’d like to reproduce his recent post, to give it exposure to the BNC audience. Given that I’m still in Spain and will be for a while, I’m happy to oblige. I think it’s an excellent piece — as I’ve come to expect from Ben — and I hope [...]
Filed under: Nuclear, Policy | 28 Comments »
Late last year, Tom Blees, I and a few other people from the International Award Committee of the Global Energy Prize answered reader’s energy questions on The Guardian’s Facebook page. The questions and answers were reproduced on BNC here. Now we’re at it again, this time for the website Eco-Business.com (tagline: Asia Pacific’s sustainable business community). My section [...]
Filed under: Emissions, Nuclear, Renewables | 27 Comments »
I have published a new paper in the peer-reviewed journal Energy Policy with the title “Could nuclear fission energy,etc., solve the greenhouse problem? The affirmative case” (currently online first, DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2011.11.041 — it will appear in the print version, with volume/page details, later this year). If you would like a PDF copy of the article, email me [...]
Filed under: Hot News, Nuclear, Policy | 55 Comments »
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