49th Edition of Carnival of Nuclear Energy @ Yes Vermont Yankee

Yes Vermont Yankee hosts this weeks edition -- # 49 -- of the Carnival of Nuclear Blogs. Excerpts below. Follow link to full carnival.

Fear of Radiation and Effects of Fear

Why is there irrational fear of radiation? At ANS Nuclear Cafe

In a first for the ANS Nuclear Cafe, four contributing bloggers do a group post on this subject. They ask whether improvements are needed in explaining the significance of the numbers to the public. The answer, as an outgrowth of media and public confusion related to the ongoing Fukushima crisis, appears to be a resounding "yes."

The contributors are Stewart Brand, ecologist; Cheryl Rofer, chemist; Steve Aplin, management consultant, and Mimi Limbach, public relations executive. Dan Yurman of Idaho Samizdat pulled the group together and wrote the introduction.

Fear of Radiation is Killing People and Endangering the Planet Too. Rod Adams at Atomic Insights

This post is a reprint of a 1998 paper written by Ted Rockwell. In light of the reminders of the 25th anniversary of Chernobyl - with outrageous claims of long term health effects - and the continued confusion about the evacuation zone around Fukushima it seemed important to share this work more widely. Radiation is something to be understood, not something to be feared. Its health effects have been widely and extensively studied for more than a century.

Shaping the Energy Debate: Brian Wang at Next Big Future

About a month ago, Brian Wang wrote an excellent post on deaths per TWh for different energy technologies. In these week's post, he notes that even Greenpeace is quoting his earlier post. With careful research and honesty, pro-nuclear bloggers are shaping the energy debate.

Fukushima

Some New Directions Post-Fukushima: Posted by Gail Marcus at Nuke Power Talk

In this post, Gail Marcus looks at the future of regulation and research after Fukushima. Emphasis will probably shift to research and regulation about the systems that led to the accident (back-up generation and fuel storage), but research on non-traditional nuclear designs will also get a boost. Pebble Bed reactors, for example do not use water for cooling.

Nuclear Fusion

Lawrenceville plasma physics continues to work toward nuclear fusion: Brian Wang at Next Big Future

Brian Wang examines the steady progress Lawrenceville Plasma Physics (LPP) is making toward nuclear fusion. LPP is solving one problem at a time, and Brian describes their latest advance.

_YVY

Brian Wang has more news about Helion Energy's fusion approach

Energy drives all other industry, and energy itself is driven by human psychology along with basic economics. Basic economics is reasonably well understood, but the human psychology of the coming quasi-suicidal Idiocracy -- and how things came to be this way -- is something the powers-that-be do not wish you to even think about.

Who is John Galt?