ANS Nuclear Cafe

The Carnival is up at Atomic Power Review.

Today's matinee is a foreign film feature: an excellent overview of the very basics of nuclear energy.

Many people would like it to be theoretically possible to replace nuclear power with wind power, since the wind is a free resource. The way that I would like to approach the topic is to not discuss the source of power, but to discuss this question from the perspective of "intermittency." Stating the question another way: Can an intermittent source replace a baseload power source for producing electricity? This question has nothing to do with how the electricity is generated, but everything to do with when the electricity is generated.

Okay... Well, the Dalai Lama probably isn't much of a drinker.

Part III: Nuclear Thermal Propulsion

In 2009, the United States and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed a "123" agreement, which allowed the transfer of US nuclear technology (e.g., reactors, etc.) to the UAE. As a condition of the agreement, the UAE gave up all rights to enrich uranium or reprocess spent nuclear fuel, now and at any point in the future. Thus, the UAE agreed to give up significant rights that are granted to it as a signee of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

The Carnival is up at Yes Vermont Yankee.

Decades of nuclear science in just two minutes! This dramatic video takes the viewer inside the world of atomic particles, describing a rather important difference between the encounters of alpha particles and neutrons when scientists direct them at heavy atomic nuclei. The scientist referred to in the video is Leo Szilard, who conceived the possibility of a nuclear "chain reaction" among many other important scientific achievements. This nuclear chain reaction is quite a ride- so enjoy!

Getting the NRC license is just the first step

One of my college roommates served for a while as the manager of our football team; we would talk about the "tape review" sessions that were used by the team to evaluate past performance and to prepare for future opponents. Nuclear organizations, for their part, often have highly developed "lessons learned" programs and they practice the use of technical methods that have been successfully employed by other organizations.

For many years, I practiced yoga and Aikido, both of which included considerations of full-attention and the ancient Buddhist practice of mindfulness. A spiritually enlightened person is mindful. She pays attention to what she is actually doing and to the reality of her life and actions. Such a person does not live in a world of daydreams or overly-complex thought processes. She does not live in the past or in the future. The enlightened person is "here now."

The month of May is knocking on the door, but don't forget to turn to your April issue of Nuclear News magazine for the latest in outage management news. The April issue, which is available in hard copy and electronically for American Nuclear Society members (must enter ANS user name and password in Member Center), contains the following articles on outage management:

The Carnival is up at Next Big Future.

The 4^th annual Texas Atomic Film Festival (TAFF) is being held April 26 to May 3, 2012. The festival attracts short films (3 to 5 minutes) produced by students in nuclear engineering courses at the University of Texas at Austin. A public screening of the films, which focus on nuclear and energy related topics, is being held on April 26 at 12:30 pm at the UT Student Activities Center auditorium.

This evening there will be a debate on a nuclear referendum that is on the town ballot in Plymouth, Mass. The referendum calls for a halt to relicensing the Pilgrim nuclear power plant, pending implementation of Fukushima lessons learned.

India is fast emerging as a leading world power in nuclear science and technology. In this video interview, American Nuclear Society President Eric Loewen discusses the recent delegation he led to help foster U.S.-India nuclear cooperation to benefit both countries.

The American Nuclear Society will be participating this weekend in the largest celebration of science in the United States: the 2nd annual USA Science & Engineering Festival.  The finale Expo of the festival will be Saturday and Sunday, April 28-29, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington DC.

David Pointer, principal nuclear engineer at Argonne National Laboratory and the founding chair of the American Nuclear Society's Young Members Group (YMG), was honored with the 2012 ANS Landis Young Member Engineering Achievement Award. The award recognizes an individual who has made significant technical contributions in any one of the many engineering disciplines served by ANS. The contributions can be in the form of a new principle, concept, design, method of analysis, product emanating from research or development, or from effective application of engineering knowledge to yield a commercial service or product needed in the nuclear energy enterprise.

The Carnival of Nuclear Energy Bloggers enters its second century this week.  If you missed it, the 100th Carnival was published last week at Atomic Power Review which is maintained by Will Davis.  It includes messages of congratulations from the American Nuclear Society and the Nuclear Energy Institute. This recognition shows that social media is here to stay as a communication tool in the nuclear energy industry.