22nd Carnival of Nuclear Energy at ANS Nuclear Cafe

ANS Nuclear Cafe is hosting the 22nd Carnival of Nuke Energy.  Here are a few excerpts:

At Next Big Future, Brian Wang has two compelling blog posts. First, he reports on how laser enrichment of uranium could be made more efficient. Brian also gave a talk at the TedX conference in the Bay Area on October 5th on energy technologies. Brian is a futurist and his views are always thought provoking. Check out his slides from the talk which are now online.

At the Nuclear Green Revolution, Charles Barton has a blog post titled “Reverse engineering the future of energy.”

This post calls attention to further problems in renewable energy plans, problems which appear to limit the ability of renewable energy sources to keep the grid.stable. A renewable dominated grid appears likely to rely on carbon emitting natural gas power generation facilities, for peak power, and to respond to Summer and Winter temperature variations. While conventional nuclear power approaches do not appear to offer satisfactory solutions, Molten Salt nuclear approaches appear to offer attractive solutions to a number of post carbon energy options.

At NEI Nuclear Notes, Everett Redmond, Director, Nonproliferation and Fuel Cycle Policy, NEI, has his first blog post on Yucca Mountain. He writes “What is certain in policy consideration is that we will be securely storing used fuel in above-ground facilities for an extended period of time.”

More:  The US is to cooperate with France and Japan in the development of molten sodium cooled fast reactors.
Such advanced reactors are necessary in order to make nuclear energy safer, cleaner, more sustainable, and less prone to weapons proliferation concerns.

Small modular reactors are shaping up to be the most logical near-term approach to rapid nuclear energy development.  If only the Obama regime's Nuclear Regulatory Commission were not dragging its feet.