ANS Nuclear Cafe

News out of Fukushima-Daiichi this week is encouraging:  TEPCO successfully transferred the first batch of fuel rod assemblies from the reactor unit No. 4 spent fuel pool to a common fuel pool building offering longer-term stable storage conditions. Completing the process for the more than 1,000 fuel rod assemblies that remain at No. 4 is projected to take a year, and will be a first major step toward decommissioning of the site.

On October 23, The Oregonian newspaper ran an op-ed by Leslie March of the Sierra Club Nuclear-Free Campaign that questioned the independence of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Paul Lorenzini, co-founder of Oregon-based NuScale Power, submitted a rebuttal based on his many years of experience with regulators worldwide.

By Rita Patel and Suzy Baker  [originally published at Nuclear Undone]

It's time for the 183rd Carnival of Nuclear Energy - the weekly rotating feature that brings you the best pro-nuclear authors and bloggers, and their viewpoints on what matters in the fields of nuclear energy and nuclear technology.

NS Savannah

An odd sidelight of my years in the Navy as a Reactor Operator was the time that we were called upon to perform work on the preserved ships at Patriot's Point Naval Museum in Charleston, South Carolina.  This interlude allowed me to become intimately familiar with a ship that was totally out of place at that anchorage of the aged: the nuclear powered commercial ship N.S. Savannah.

Lenka Kollar

Readers of the ANS Nuclear Cafe blog will have seen, from time to time, the work of Lenka Kollar, educating and informing about a wide variety of nuclear issues.  Kollar, formerly of Argonne National Laboratory, has made the bold decision to make her own way as a nuclear advocate and consultant. We had a chance to catch up with Ms. Kollar during the 2013 American Nuclear Society Winter Meeting in Washington, D.C. and ask her a few questions about her just-launched and exciting new initiative Nuclear Undone.

Small Modular Reactors are below 300 MWe output and typically have all components located within the reactor vessel or attached directly to it, as with the South Korean SMART SMR design here

2nd American Nuclear Society SMR Conference

Moniz on Nuclear

The ANS President's Reception at the 2013 Winter Meeting on Sunday, November 10 was a chance for old friends to reunite and new friends to meet with their colleagues and ANS elected leaders.

NS Savannah

Next week, the American Nuclear Society (ANS) will be hosting a Technical Tour of the only nuclear powered commercial vessel ever built in the United States: the NS Savannah.  Will Davis and Paul Bowersox will report from the tour in word and photos. 

This graphic compares the energy density of nuclear to that of wind power.

Join the conversation today and especially during the premiere, on twitter at #pandoraspromise

The American Nuclear Society's Operations and Power Division will host the 2^nd ANS Small Modular Reactor Conference during the ANS Winter Meeting on November 12-14, 2013, in Washington, DC.  The Opening Plenary for the Conference will begin on Tuesday, November 12, at 8:00 a.m. at the Omni Shoreham Hotel.

From October 30 through November 1, 2013, a group of about 150 people with questioning attitudes about small, modular reactors (SMRs) met in Idaho Falls, Idaho.  They were treated to a number of presentations that described the technical progress that has been made so far and also provided a realistic, sobering look at the long, challenging development path that must be traversed to allow the technology to begin contributing to the world's energy security.

The American Nuclear Society is offering new materials in time for the holidays. Buy one for a friend.....and another for yourself!

The 181st Carnival of Nuclear Energy has been posted at Atomic Power Review.  You can click here to access this latest entry in a long running tradition among the world's top English-language, pro-nuclear bloggers and authors.

The Sun is powered by the strongest source of energy in the universe - nuclear fusion - and teams of scientists and engineers around the world are working toward harnessing fusion to power the long-term future of civilization.  In effect... they are working to "create a star" on earth.

My husband and I have lived in Washington, D.C. for 18 years, and we've been amazed at how the city's dining options have evolved.  In a previous blog, I focused on the high-end and classic places where you'll find great food and sometimes see celebrities.  This blog focuses on the places where people who live here enjoy dining and where they often find bargains.  For attendees of the American Nuclear Society's annual Winter Meeting on November 10-14, Washington provides the perfect setting for great dining.

The Young Member Excellence Award recognizes "a young member who has demonstrated overall excellence in a variety of areas."  It is granted to an actively involved ANS YMG member who "advances the goals of the ANS Young Members Group, displays outstanding non-technical skills as well as technical or managerial ability, is recognized by others in their field, demonstrates high quality and safety standards, and positively represents nuclear science and technology to the general population."

Rod Adams posted a good article on this site about the situation in Europe with respect to CO₂ emissions reductions and the electricity market in general. Here, I'll share my own, additional perspectives.