Michele Kearney's Nuclear Wire - Major Energy and Environmental News and Commentary affecting the Nuclear Industry. Nuclear Activities
Tuesday, August 1, 2023
For a cleaner energy future, we must embrace small nuclear reactors | The Hill
For a cleaner energy future, we must embrace small nuclear reactors | The Hill: Small nuclear reactors offer numerous advantages like efficient power generation, low carbon emissions and potential versatility that make them a key component in achieving a renewable energy future.
Monday, July 31, 2023
Global Boiling? Don’t Be Ridiculous | RealClearPolicy
Global Boiling? Don’t Be Ridiculous | RealClearPolicy: It’s time to stand up to the eco-fearmongering of our medieval elites.
At PG&E innovation conference, Musk warns of looming challenges to meet energy needs
At PG&E innovation conference, Musk warns of looming challenges to meet energy needs: IN ITS INAUGURAL conference dedicated to innovative energy technology, the Bay Area’s largest utility company, PG&E, heard from one of the most influential figures in the renewable energy space — Tesla CEO Elon Musk. PG&E kicked off its first Innovation Summit last week with panels featuring Musk and other technology leaders, along with discussions of […]
Op-Ed: One Simple Energy Question Devastates 'Net-Zero' Pipe Dreams
Op-Ed: One Simple Energy Question Devastates 'Net-Zero' Pipe Dreams: Wind, solar and other "green" energy sources require massive amounts of land compared to traditional power plants.
The Clash of Opinions on the Future of Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant
The Clash of Opinions on the Future of Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant: The Clash of Opinions on the Future of Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant - EnergyPortal.eu
US Senate votes to 'onshore' nuclear fuel production : Uranium & Fuel - World Nuclear News
US Senate votes to 'onshore' nuclear fuel production : Uranium & Fuel - World Nuclear News: The US Senate has voted by 96-3 to approve legislation that would strengthen domestic nuclear fuel production and ensure that disruptions in uranium supply will not impact the development of advance reactors or the operation of the USA's existing power reactor fleet.
Vogtle 3 begins commercial operation : New Nuclear - World Nuclear News
Vogtle 3 begins commercial operation : New Nuclear - World Nuclear News: The USA's first newly constructed nuclear power plant in more than 30 years is now serving customers - it reached first criticality in March, was connected to the electricity grid in April and is now officially generating electricity for customers, Georgia Power has announced.
Alaska simplifies microreactor regulations : Regulation & Safety - World Nuclear News
Alaska simplifies microreactor regulations : Regulation & Safety - World Nuclear News: The US state of Alaska has adopted regulations to streamline the regulatory process for the siting of microreactors. The new regulations, which waive some requirements imposed on larger nuclear facilities, come into effect in August.
First new Vogtle nuclear reactor enters operation, making history
First new Vogtle nuclear reactor enters operation, making history: After years of delays and billions of dollars over the original budget, the first of the two new units at Plant Vogtle has officially entered commerci
Sunday, July 30, 2023
The Profiteers of Armageddon - TomDispatch.com
The Profiteers of Armageddon - TomDispatch.com
William Hartung, Cashing in on a Perpetual Nuclear Arms Race
July 30, 2023
Yes, the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima on August 6 and Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, would kill staggering numbers of people and be an eerily (if all too grimly) appropriate ending to the war that started with the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and, by August 1945, had resulted in the saturation bombing of 64 Japanese cities.
The scientist who led the team responsible for creating the bombs that destroyed those two cities (and for the initial nuclear test in New Mexico that, as we only recently learned, spread fallout over 46 states, Canada, and Mexico), the 41-year-old J. Robert Oppenheimer, would later borrow a line from the Bhagavad Gita, the Hindu scriptures, to describe his mood at the time: "Now, I am become death, the destroyer of worlds." And eerily enough, the use of the weapon that would prove to be the second way humanity found to destroy our planet -- the first, climate change, was already in effect but not yet known -- would find all too few in the U.S. government hesitant to use it at that time. As historian John Dower would put it in his memorable book Cultures of War,
"The policy makers, scientists, and military officers who had committed themselves to becoming death... never seriously considered not using their devastating new weapon. They did not talk about turning mothers into cinders or irradiating even the unborn. They brushed aside discussion of alternative targets, despite the urging of many lower-echelon scientists that they consider this. They gave little if any serious consideration to whether there should be ample pause after using the first nuclear weapon to give Japan's frazzled leaders time to respond before a second bomb was dropped."
They just did it, twice, and the world changed radically. Almost 80 years later, at a moment when a global leader is once again evidently considering the possible use of what are now called "tactical nuclear weapons" (but can be several times more powerful than the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki), Oppenheimer is having his moment in the sun (or is it a blaze of atomic light?) in a film that, to the surprise of many, has hit the big time in an almost nuclear fashion. And as TomDispatch regular and Pentagon expert William Hartung reminds us while considering that three-hour odyssey of a film, what "Oppie" began then has by now become a full-scale nuclear-industrial complex on a planet where ultimate destruction, it often seems, always lurks just around the corner. Tom
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