ANS Nuclear Cafe

Coolant pump, primary loop, Clinch River Breeder Reactor project, 1981

Today's session entitled "Supply Chain and Procurement Issues" was another great feature of the American Nuclear Society's 2013 Annual Meeting. The panel was sponsored by the ANS Operations and Power Division, and featured five speakers describing their views of the most pressing issues in the area of parts procurement for existing and new build nuclear plants to an engaged and very interested audience.

by Will Davis

The President's Reception is an auspicious and delightful event that occurs on the eve of the Opening Plenary at the American Nuclear Society Annual Meeting. The reception provides an opportunity for meeting-goers to interact (mingle) with ANS elected leaders, catch up with long-time colleagues, and meet new ones. A few select photos from the 2013 ANS Annual Meeting President's Reception:

The Opening Plenary at the 2013 ANS Annual Meeting is now underway-and it's amazing how much goes on before the "Opening". Already on Saturday morning a Teachers Workshop was in progress, and Saturday evening the Global Leadership Reception was in full swing. A few select photos:

This 161st edition of the Carnival of Nuclear Energy, presented at the ANS Nuclear Cafe, comes to you posted from the 2013 ANS Annual Meeting at the Hyatt Regency, Atlanta, Georgia.  Everyone here is excited and energized about this year's meeting, and we're proud to host the Carnival in its midst!

How often do you get the chance to go see an acclaimed nuclear energy documentary at your local theater? We're talking real movie theater popcorn here, folks, not that microwave kind.

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

The governor of Vermont last year established the "Energy Generation Siting Policy Commission" after citizens protested  a proposed wind farm (meanwhile, the legislature proposed a wind farm moratorium bill). The main purpose of the governor's initiative was to evaluate how much local input should be required in energy siting decisions.

As I discussed last fall, a federal appeals court ordered the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to perform more thorough evaluations in support of its new Waste Confidence Rule, particularly with respect to the potential impacts of long-term storage of spent fuel at plant sites. While those evaluations are being performed, the NRC has suspended all new plant licensing and plant license renewals.

The 160th Carnival of Nuclear Energy is up at Meredith Angwin's "Yes Vermont Yankee" blog.  You can click here to access this latest edition in a long-running tradition (over three years now!) that showcases the best pro-nuclear blogs each week.

By Will Davis

Company Will Continue Its Work with State Agencies on Electric Grid Reliability

Meet Tim Lucas, Ph.D., a nuclear engineer who is piloting his sailboat around the world, spreading the news of nuclear technology - and many other rather amazing activities. Why is circumnavigating the globe a perfect job for a nuclear engineer? Watch and find out!

The Breakthrough Institute recently compiled some of the tough questions it is frequently asked about nuclear power by fellow environmentalists. The answers (originally published at BTI's Energy and Climate) illustrate that if we're serious about climate change and alleviating global poverty, we need nuclear power on a large scale. 

As a nuclear engineer by education and someone whose family has worked in the nuclear energy field, I've never doubted the safe and environmentally-friendly electricity that nuclear energy provides. For those of us who have been advocates our entire lives, it is often difficult, however, to see why some people are afraid of and opposed to nuclear energy.

The 159th Carnival of Nuclear Energy is up right now at Next Big Future.  You can click here to get to this latest edition of the nuclear blogosphere's flagship promotion.

Last week at the ANS Nuclear Cafe Matinee we caught up with the latest milestones in nuclear construction going on at the V.C. Summer site in South Carolina.  Now, let's take a look at history in the making at Plant Vogtle in Burke County, Georgia, where construction of two new AP1000 reactors is quickly moving onward and upward.  How in the world do you make a nuclear power plant?  Watch, and find out.

The June 2013 edition of the research journal Nuclear Science and Engineering is available both electronically and in hard copy for American Nuclear Society member subscribers and others.

City people sometimes move to a farming community and then are somewhat shocked that the beautiful fields are actually not just for looking at and painting. A farmer's fields are a sort of factory. The fields produce stuff. They take inputs of raw materials, such as seeds, fertilizer, water, pesticides, and so forth. With these inputs, they produce food. Some farms are organic, and they use non-chemical fertilizer and more "natural" methods of pest control, but the goal is the same. A farmer's fields are supposed to produce food. That's the goal of farming.