Carnival of Nucular Bloggers 101

The 101st Carnival of Nuclear Energy bloggers is being held at ANS Nuclear Cafe (h/t Dan Yurman). Here are some excerpts from the carnival:

• Turkey [woos] China for new reactor

The Turkish government recently signed a $20 billion project with Russia to build nuclear power facilities in Akkuyu, Turkey. Now the Turkish government has set its sights on constructing a nuclear plant in Sinop, Turkey.
The Financial Times recently reported that China is the primary contender for this contract due to its ability to secure financing without requiring guarantees from the Turkish government. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited China last week, confirming reports of the deal when Energy Minister Tanir Yildiz held talks with Chinese authorities. At these meetings, Chinese Energy authority Liu Tienan pledged full financial guarantees for the $20 billion project.

• [WNA projections of a nuclear power century]

This is a review of estimates for a nuclear energy century. It reports 1000 reactors for 2030 would be the high-2030 scenario from the World Nuclear Association (WNA) – Nuclear Century. The WNA lists nuclear generation targets by country.
Idaho Samizdat – Dan Yurman

• Debunking nuclear energy nonsense

Once again it is time to spit on your hands, rub them together, and raise the black flag of contention to respond to deliberate attempts at creating fear, uncertainty, and doubt.
It will take upwards of three decades to decommission Fukushima. There are many engineering challenges ahead. However, feat mongering is not useful as part of the dialog about the future nuclear energy in Japan or anywhere else.
In California Friends of the Earth is using Gundersen’s report to create fear of the SONGS plant by questioning the design basis of the steam generators. That’s propaganda. It isn’t engineering fact.
ANS Nuclear Cafe – Paul Bowersox

• Nuclear Literacy Project Launches

Suzy Hobbs Baker introduces the Nuclear Literacy Project, a new website and outreach initiative geared toward reaching young, non-technical audiences with information about nuclear energy. The new website is just the beginning… which you can check out at http://www.nuclearliteracy.org/ There are many ways to support Nuclear Literacy.

• Competition heats up for DOE SMR funding

Dan Yurman covers the breaking story of a partnership between Westinghouse and Ameren Missouri to develop and build Small Modular Reactors at Ameren’s Callaway site — and other recent entrants in the race to win $452 million in cost-shared funding from the U.S. Department of Energy for SMR licensing and technical support.
Atomic Insights – Rod Adams

• ExxonMobil is betting that natural gas will NOT remain cheap

Electric utility executives, public utility commissions and energy industry pundits all seem to agree that the ability to extract useful quantities of gas from deep, tight shale gas reservoirs has opened up a 100 year supply of cheap natural gas. Many have publicly stated that abundant supplies of low-priced gas makes nuclear energy irrelevant and hopelessly uncompetitive.
ExxonMobil, one of the most widely respected multinational petroleum companies in the world is betting in the other direction. They are investing heavily in the capability to produce and distribute natural gas. They are not investing tens to hundreds of billions of dollars in natural gas related capital assets because they think gas will remain cheap.
ExxonMobil often places contrarian bets and rewards stockholders because they successfully buy cheap assets when no one else wants them and sells massive quantities of high margin products when everyone else is buying
Atomic Power Review – Will Davis

• Sylcor Westrern Office / Part 1

Will Davis at Atomic Power Review continues on his mission to give nuclear energy its history back by introducing an unusual (to the nuclear energy world) series of historical prose.
Previously announced at APR were four recurring, new historical features; the actual launch occurs now with the first installment covering Sylvania-Corning Nuclear Corporation’s Western Sales Office. Through many original documents both from Sylcor and from the late Jim Vadeboncoeur, Will Davis tells the inside story of the early days of commercial nuclear energy.
Thorium MSR – Rick Maltese

• Book Review “Superfuel” by Author Richard Martin of Wired Magazine

_ANSNuclear Cafe Nuke Carnie 101

Nuclear energy in the US is being unjustly held back by US NRC chairman Jaczko and a cabal of energy starvationist, anti-nuclear senators including Harry Reid and Barbara Boxer. Dan Yurman has more on the latest of the Jaczko follies

The US state of Missouri is joining Westinghouse in the competition for US DOE funding meant to promote the creation of small modular fission reactors.

US energy companies would be best off working together to defeat US President Obama's re-election bid in November, as well as working to eliminate other energy starvationist politicians who are ensconced within the fossil bureaucracies and divisions of the monstrously overgrown US government.