On Sunday January 24, I invited some of my pronuclear colleagues to chat about the building phenomenon of people outside of the nuclear industry becoming more interested in its advantages and advocating for its increased use. We discussed Meredith’s book project, Gwyneth’s recent speaking engagement at NC State, organized events at COP21, the increasing interest in new nuclear plants in Saudi Arabia and South Africa, and the importance of being nice human beings when engaging people who are fearful or suspicious of nuclear energy.

Guests on the show include

Steve Aplin, who publishes Canadian Energy Issues

Meredith Angwin, who publishes Yes Vermont Yankee

Gwyneth Cravens, the author of Power to Save the World: The Truth About Nuclear Energy

Bob Apthorpe, an active nuclear technology advocate who is professionally involved in numerous safety analysis efforts

Hope you enjoy the show.

S. David Freeman and Leah Y Parks have published a book titled All-Electric America: A Climate Solution and the Hopeful Future.

There are a number of visionary sections of the book that appeal to me. However, I was not surprised to find out that the book takes a strong position in opposition to nuclear energy. I’ve long been aware of S. David Freeman, his career in the electricity production enterprise, and his forty-fifty year old position on nuclear energy.

With the help of the book’s publicist, I was able to arrange an interview with Dave and Leah. As luck would have it, our arranged appointment was at noon on January 22, 2016. That is the day when the mid-Atlantic region of the US was scheduled to receive an epic snowstorm that the Weather Channel had named Winter Storm Jonas.

Jonas arrived in Lynchburg at about 7:30 am, almost exactly when the forecasters predicted about 72 hours in advance of the storm. At noon, when we started talking, it had not yet arrived in Washington, DC, where David was located. Since Leah was on the west coast, she had no weather related comments to make during the discussion.

The presence of that storm gave me a little bit of ammunition for discussing the limitations of an All-Electric America vision that avoids both fossil fuel and nuclear energy, instead planning to rely on wind, solar and storage.

I may be a little biased, but I think this might be one of the more intriguing Atomic Show’s yet.

One of the interesting aspects of the conversation was realizing that Freeman traces his opposition to nuclear energy to the enormous costs that were being imposed on TVA as a result of the Three Mile Island accident. He might have been a little taken aback by the way I understood his experience and provided a different point of view on the basis for the disruptive changes ordered by the NRC.

I think you might also enjoy the segment in which Freeman appeals to the authority of President Carter and his proclaimed training as a nuclear submariner, despite the documented historical fact that LT Jimmy Carter resigned his commission and returned to Plains, GA about 14 months BEFORE the first nuclear powered submarine reported that it was “Underway on nuclear power.”

In fact, when LT Carter left the Navy, the USS Nautilus was still in the drydock at the Electric Boat shipyard. It wasn’t launched until January of 1954; Carter was in Plains by October of 1953.

Note: I called Leah immediately after we finished the show to exchange a little more information. We ended up talking for about a half an hour about shared values and dreams.

I apologize for forgetting to use my mute button. I’ve a bit of a cold, so you can hear my breathing while my guests are talking. No excuses.

On Thursday, November 19, 2015, I interviewed Dr. Pete Pappano, vice president of fuel development for X-Energy. As described in X-Energy introduced its company and first product to Virginia chapter of ANS, X-Energy is a start-up company based in Maryland that is developing a modular high temperature gas cooled reactor.

Each module will produce 50 MWe using a helium-cooled, high temperature reactor. The reactor thermal power output and geometric configuration have been selected to ensure that the highest temperature in the hottest part of the core under all postulated accident conditions will remain below 1600 degrees C. If the modeled scenarios can be validated, and if they are determined to be challenging enough to encompass the worst credible conditions, the reactor may be considered passively safe.

The enabling technology is the highly refined TRISO fuel particle. That fuel, first developed in the early 1960s, has been steadily improved and rigorously tested, most recently as part of the Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) project. X-Energy plans to leverage the work done as part of the NGNP as it develops its own design and licensing strategy.

Dr. Pappano and I talked about fuel performance, the overall reactor design, and some additional safety considerations. We also talked about whether or not a small pebble bed reactor using fuel consisting of TRISO particles compacted into spherical elements would need a containment as part of a defense-in-depth strategy.

I hope you enjoy the conversation.

Jigar Shah is the founder of SunEdison, a former CEO of the Carbon War Room, and is currently the President of Generate Capital.

He is also a member of The Energy Gang on Greentech Media.

Jigar and I have been engaged in some lively discussions on Twitter about the future of solar and nuclear energy as businesses and as carbon free electricity generating sources.

Though I love the sun, I remain convinced that collected solar energy has only limited usefulness in supplying the kind of controllable, on demand power needed to run a modern society. In my analysis, atomic fission is the new fire that will take humanity to new heights of prosperity while enabling us to consume far less material. Doing more while consuming less will enable a cleaner, more evenly abundant, more inhabitable, less contentious planet for all human beings.

Jigar has a different point of view. He believes that solar energy development is a multi-trillion dollar opportunity. In addition to his commercial ventures, Jigar published a book titled Creating Climate Wealth: Unlocking the Impact Economy. Though he has spent his professional career developing solar energy, he has been intrigued by the potential of nuclear energy since he was 16.

Jigar has been far more successful in developing and marketing his vision than I have been. He has some tough-love advice for the nuclear industry and the people who want to see nuclear energy grow as a source of clean, abundant energy.

Last night, we decided to continue our sparring in an audio conversation. I hope you will agree that our engagement was lively and worth the time you invest in listening to it.

We still see the world through dramatically different lenses, but there is much that we can each learn from the other’s point of view.

I hope this will not be the last discussion that you will hear featuring the two of us.

In November 2014, I spoke with Carmen Bigles, the founder of Coqui Pharmaceuticals, a company that is preparing to build a $330 million medical isotope production facility near Gainesville, FL.

Since that discussion 11 months ago, Coqui has made steady progress in completing their construction and operating license application to the NRC for a class 104 license to build two medical isotope reactors.

They have also made considerable progress in the design of their production and administrative facilities.

Carmen and I got together on a call for an update this morning. You can hear the excitement in her voice as her company’s plans take shape and approach reality. Coqui is working with some highly qualified partner companies, including MPR Associates for engineering and license preparation, INVAP for reactor design and licensing support, Gresham, Smith and Partners for architectural design and Hogan Lovells US, LLP for legal/regulatory advice and consulting.

Though the license application has not yet been submitted to the NRC, it is in the final stages of preparation and should be finalized during the first half of 2016. Ms. Bigles is planning a big party to celebrate that milestone.

I hope you enjoy our conversation and agree that Coqui should a terrific employer for nuclear professionals in a couple of years.

I applaud reasoned, long term thinking that aims to use science, technology and deep understanding of human wants and needs — aka politics — to set a course for success.

You can find one of my favorite current examples of an effort that meets my criteria in the expansive, lightly populated, rather dry state of South Australia. South Australia is blessed with abundant natural resources, including nearly one third of the world’s known uranium resources. It has developed a resources-heavy economy that is now paying the price of being a little too heavily dependent on the world commodities markets.

State debt is high on a per capita basis, unemployment is higher than average, and many leaders are casting about for ways to build a more solid foundation for continued prosperity.

Senator Sean Edwards, a Liberal Party Senator from South Australia, has sponsored the development of a solid prosperity plan guided by one of the basic principles of economic success — provide a product or service that solves a problem that is important enough for customers to be willing to pay dearly for a solution.

In this case, Edwards and his team — led by Ben Heard, a person who is no stranger to Atomic Insights participants — have decided that they should plan to offer a service to the world that effectively answers the frequently asked question, “What do you do with the [nuclear] waste?”

Their timing was fortuitous; they had already begun working on their used fuel storage and recycling plan when the South Australian government announced the formation of a Royal Commission on the nuclear fuel cycle. As they explain during our conversation; that announcement came as a surprise. It was a welcome surprise, but Sean and Ben assured me that they did not know that it was coming.

Their powerful prosperity plan is not something that was sketched out on a couple of white boards or Post-it notes; it is the result of months of research, modeling and intensive critical review. I’ve obtained their permission to share their plan — titled Transforming our economy. Cleaning our energy. Sustaining our future — with you.

It is a masterful piece of work; a vision that is solidly supported by facts, available technology, identified resources, and a well-founded optimism for the future.

Briefly stated, the plan envisions South Australia as an international destination for used nuclear fuel. The state will accumulate an inventory of the material in well-proven dry cask storage systems. With revenues from taking responsibility for the waste, it will build a commercially useful, pilot scale pyroprocessing plant to convert used nuclear fuel into metallic fuel assemblies suitable for fueling sodium cooled fast reactors, most likely using GE-Hitachi’s PRISM design.

When the plan reaches a mature state, used light water reactor fuel will be routinely accepted for storage, recycling systems will be in place, and enough nuclear power plant capacity will be installed to provide all the electricity South Australia can consume — with some left over for growth and selling to neighboring states.

To answer the South Australians who pose the inevitable question of “What’s in this for me?”, the plan proposes setting a wholesale price of $0 for the electricity generated for state residents, industries and commercial establishments.

If you can’t believe that price point can be profitable; you’ll have to download the plan and run the numbers yourself.

Sean, Ben and I had a great chat; we all agreed that it would be just the first of many as the plan gains acceptance and begins implementation. I hope you enjoy the show and send your best wishes to people who are strivin...

For the first time in several months, I gathered a group of nuclear energy experts to chat about recent events and announcements in nuclear energy. Participants in this episode include:

Meredith Angwin who blogs at Yes Vermont Yankee and Northwest Clean Energy

Steve Aplin who blogs at Canadian Energy Issues

Les Corrice who blogs at Hiroshima Syndrome. Les keeps the world up to date on Fukushima cleanup and recovery operations and provides perceptive commentary about the politics of the situation.

Dan Yurman who blogs at Neutron Bytes

We discussed the proceedings of the South Australia Royal Commission on nuclear energy, the emergence of two different groups who are seriously interested in storing US origin used nuclear fuel, the ability of citizens to change laws written by man, the growing realization among many nuclear supporters that the EPR may be a white elephant, the growing interest in Saudi Arabia in smaller reactors, the apparent success of the nuclear construction projects underway in the UAE, the interest at the US DOE and US NRC in advanced non-light water reactor technology developments, petitions at the NRC to move away from regulations based on the “no safe dose” model and a renewed political effort in Kentucky to overcome that state’s virtual nuclear moratorium.

I hope you enjoy the show. We know we had a good time talking with each other and promise to try to do again soon.

Cara Santa Maria is an Emmy award-winning journalist who studied and taught neuroscience and psychology before deciding that her primary interest was in communicating about science. She was born and raised in Texas, but now lives in Los Angeles. She told me that she has found a terrific community of scientists, communicators, and other creative people even though she describes some of the people in her chosen home are “vapid.”

Here is a quote from Cara’s bio page:

She is a regular contributor to “TechKnow” on Al Jazeera America and reports on local issues for “SoCal Connected” on KCET. Cara also hosts a weekly science podcast called “Talk Nerdy with Cara Santa Maria” and cohosts the popular “Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe” podcast.

Previously, Cara worked as a cohost and producer of Pivot TV’s nightly live television show, “TakePart Live.” Before that, she was the Senior Science Correspondent for The Huffington Post and costarred in “Hacking the Planet” and “The Truth About Twisters” on The Weather Channel.

Cara has made appearances on BBC America, CBS, CNN, Current TV, Fox, Fox News, G4tv, Nat Geo WILD, Science Channel, SundanceTV, and the Travel Channel. She is also a regular contributor to The Young Turks.

Suzy Baker suggested that I begin following Cara’s Talk Nerdy podcast if I wanted to learn how to reach a younger audience of people interested in science and technology. I’ve been listening for several months now and have been both fascinated and informed by her stellar lineup of weekly guests.

Aside: It’s probably worth noting that the Talk Nerdy podcast often includes the kinds of expletives that I used to hear from my sailors. This chat, like her network television appearances does not. End Aside.

She and her guests frequently discuss their concerns about climate change but nuclear energy is not often mentioned. Even as science communicators, they rarely bring it up as a potential technological tool in the battle to reduce the waste products from energy production that are major contributors to the increases in atmospheric CO2 concentration that worry them. That situation is one of the primary reasons that I wanted to talk with Cara for the Atomic Show.

The other major attraction was the fact that she is a media professional who has formally studied psychology and demonstrates a good understanding of human motivations, fears, and decision processes.

As an added bonus making her an excellent guest, she pays careful attention to geopolitics, understands the importance of energy the way any self-respecting Texan/Californian should, and thinks critically complex issues and root causes that don’t always reveal themselves without a lot of research and digging.

I think you will enjoy this show. Let Cara and me know, one way or another, what you think about our approach to problem solving.

Moltex Energy has developed a unique conceptual design for a molten salt reactor called the Stable Salt Reactor. In this design, the fuel salt is loaded into tubes that resemble the standard cladding tubes into which solid pellets are loaded in a conventional water cooled reactor. The tubes are arranged into assemblies that resemble the assemblies used in conventional reactors. The coolant that moves on the outside of the tubes is also a molten salt operating at essentially atmospheric pressure.

I first learned about Moltex Energy while reading a report issued in July 2015 titled MSR Review: Feasibility of Developing a Pilot Scale Molten Salt Reactor in the UK. That report evaluated about half a dozen different molten salt reactor concepts and decided that the Moltex concept was the one that would best suit the UK’s core competencies in terms of its readiness to develop and deploy at a pilot scale.

The more I read, the more interested I became in the concept. Though many of my friends and associates who are enthused about the capabilities of molten salt technologies have assured me it is not a problem to move fuel salt around, and they have developed plans that seem to avoid most of my concerns about systems full of mobile fission products, I’m a bit of a traditionalist. It is reassuring when reactors are designed to keep fission products in a known location and surrounded by a layer of high quality material that keeps them from moving around.

Aside: I’ve also been convinced by designers at ThorCon and Terrestrial Energy that their designs address my concerns, they just use a larger container as their sealed initial fission product barrier. End Aside.

On August 31, 2015, I had a lengthy conversation with Dr. Ian Scott, the designer of the Moltex concept, and John Durham, Moltex’s initial funding supplier and business strategy developer.

I think you’ll enjoy learning about their design and finding one more example of the kind of innovative thinking that is percolating within the nuclear technology sector.

Ian and John admit that they are in the very early stages of development and have a long road in front of them, but their enthusiasm and vision is infectious.

Rachel Pritzker is a philanthropist motivated to solve problems, even if they require rethinking long held notions. She is the founder and chairman of the Pritzker Innovation Fund, which she operates along with her brother, Roland. The tagline used by her organization is “Supporting the development and advancement of paradigm-shifting ideas to address the world’s most wicked problems.”

Rachel is also the Chairman of the Advisory Board for the Breakthrough Insititute and played a role in the production of Pandora’s Promise. She is one of 18 authors of the recently released Ecomodernist Manifesto.

Philanthropy Today published an article about her in May 2015 titled Rachel Pritzker: A Philanthropist Takes on “Wicked Problems” by Backing New Ideas

Like many progressive thinkers who are worried about climate change, providing ample energy supplies for a more prosperous world, and addressing many other challenges that can be solved with more abundant clean energy sources, Rachel has overcome her initial assumptions about nuclear energy to become a strong supporter for advanced nuclear energy technology.

We’ve been trying to schedule a chat for the Atomic Show for a couple of months, but our travel schedules were out of phase until today. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did.