Dan Yurman at Idaho Samizdat has the news about US agreements with Vietnam to share enrichment technology. Some members of Congress aren’t quite happy about the agreement and it has China keeping a close eye. As well, be sure to check out some of Dan’s nuclear videos posted Monday, the third one about Diet Coke and Mentos is quite entertaining.
Kirk Sorensen at Energy From Thorium wrote a dense three part piecetitled: Enrichment, or how I learned to stop worrying and love the SWU. It’s always good to work out your brain with some calculations every once in awhile.
Barry Brook at Brave New Climate shared a pamphlet that his sister created for him highlighting the good features of nuclear.
Stephen Aplin at Canadian Energy Issues discussed an option with dealing with CO2 once it’s been captured from fossil plants. He doesn’t think sequestration will work but instead we should use the captured CO2 to create a liquid hydrocarbon for fuel similar to gasoline and diesel.
With all of the number of reactor designs out there, is there one that’s the best? Gail Marcus at Nuke Power Talk has been on the search and found a good article that compared the positives and negatives of the different designs.
Go to NEI NuclearNotes for full carnival content
Nuclear power plants can operate around the clock and today provide about 34 percent of North Carolina's electricity. Nuclear plants provide a more steady and reliable power source than any other type of generation. It's been estimated that a 1,000-megawatt reactor operating at 90 percent reliability in one year can provide enough generation to supply electricity for roughly 740,000 households. The equivalent amount of energy generated from oil would require approximately 13 million barrels.
...Fuel supply is also an important consideration in evaluating energy options, whether wind, solar, coal, gas or nuclear. Uranium fuels nuclear plants and is available worldwide. Other countries already recycle used nuclear fuel. When nuclear fuel leaves the reactor, only 1 percent of its potential has been utilized. Today, used fuel is stored safely and securely on plant sites in our country, and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission determined this fuel could be stored on site for at least 120 years. On-site storage was never meant to be a permanent solution, which is why both recycling and centralized storage are under evaluation in the U.S.
Nuclear is a long-term energy resource, not a quick fix. While it does have higher construction costs than some other types of generation, overall operating costs are lower. If the United States is serious about energy security and maintaining our environmental stewardship, we need to welcome new nuclear stations. _CharlotteObserver
For those of you interested in "the singularity", Brian Wang is liveblogging the Singularity Summit in San Francisco this weekend.
In order to reach the optimistic vision of the singularitarians, we must fight through the various dooms which the doomseekers are trying to force on modern societies. Energy starvation -- or peak energy doom, carbon hysteria doom, overpopulation doom, and so on. All of the political follies which can easily turn into self-fulfilling prophecies of doom.
We must choose between the Idiocracy and the Singularity -- or something very much like it. Take care how you choose.
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