The Institute for National Strategic Studies-a component of the National Defense University-has published a new article examining the potential for using small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) to address the U.S. Department of Defense's (DOD) dependence on civilian power grids. The article also looks at the potential for using SMRs in the field.

I teach students of engineering. Many of them (although certainly not all) prefer logarithms to literature and algebra to anthropology. No doubt they get a fair share of that in my classes, but I try to include a bit of history whenever I can.

President Obama during his 2011 State of the Union address stated that we should have one million electric vehicles (EV) in the United States by 2015. The benefits of that would be to to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and to reduce emissions. These are worthy goals. This article will take look at the economic impact of using electric cars, their emissions, and their impact on the electric grid.

Dr. Patrick Moore spoke on February 7 in Richmond, Va., to a National Academy of Sciences panel that is studying the potential for uranium mining in Virginia. Moore appeared as a guest of the Virginia Energy Independence Alliance (VEIA).  A video of his remarks appears below and a full transcript can be found on the VEIA Web site.

The Society opens its 9^th international section

The 39th Carnival of Nuclear Energy Blogs is up at CoolHandNuke. The carnival  features blog posts from the leading nuclear bloggers in the United States.

Don't miss a post! The ANS Nuclear Cafe includes ANS member perspectives on a range of timely nuclear topics and activities. Subscribe by  entering your email address in menu to the right under ANS Nuclear Cafe Email Subscription Service.

Zuckerberg

When Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook in 2004, it can be assumed that he did not imagine himself becoming Time's 2010 Person of Year;  he simply wanted to make friends. As a member of the generation that has fully embraced the use of Facebook, I can proclaim that social networking has become a strong part of how I develop my connections with those I meet, both inside and outside the nuclear industry. That Facebook exists only so that teenagers can post whatever floats into their heads-as some Facebook detractors believe-is a huge misconception. On the contrary, I hope that this post helps to explain why we must use social networking sites such as Facebook to our advantage in the new era of nuclear power and technology.

By  Suzanne Hobbs

The View from Vermont

The ANS 2011 Student Conference, Living in the Heartland of the Nuclear Renaissance, will be hosted by the ANS Student Section from Georgia Institute of Technology at the Hyatt Regency in Atlanta, April 14-17, 2011. Registration for the conference is now open.

Chalk talk at EBR-1 in Idaho December 21, 1951. It is the first known nuclear energy blog post

The 38th Carnival of Nuclear Energy Blogs is up at Canadian Energy Issues.  The carnival features blog posts from the leading U.S. nuclear bloggers and is a roundup of featured content from them.

But first EdF and Areva have to get organized at home

Happy Groundhog Day! This doesn't actually count as a holiday, but at the very least it is the one day each year that every American can devote to the contemplation of quantum physics. Can there be any bigger fun than that?

For the majority of human history, people used their own muscles to provide almost all of the work required for survival and development. A thin slice of humanity achieved a moderate amount of personal comfort and leisure because they were able, often through an accident of birth, to control a portion of the daily work output of hundreds to thousands of their fellow humans. The only sources of work-in the engineering sense-that were not either human or animal muscle came from capturing falling water or intermittently by capturing the breezes through devices like cloth sails or wind mills.

Eric Loewen, the American Nuclear Society's vice president/president-elect, appeared on the Fox News Charlotte (North Carolina) television show on January 28 to promote new nuclear energy as part of the push in the United States for clean energy technologies.

From high in orbit above planet Earth... to the dusty surface of the moon... to the stunning cloud tops and moons of Jupiter... to the dazzling rings of Saturn... even to the darkness at the edge of interstellar space-nuclear technology has made possible incredible journeys to extraordinary destinations in our Solar System, and opened doors to some of the most profound discoveries of all time. Yet, the future of nuclear technology for space exploration promises even more remarkable journeys and more amazing discoveries.

The 37th Carnival of Nuclear Energy Bloggers is now up at Idaho Samizdat.

In his State of the Union speech on January 25, President Barack Obama advocated a Clean Energy Standard that includes natural gas as well as renewables, nuclear and "clean coal." In my previous post on Clean Energy Standards, I said that if the standard were expanded to include natural gas generation, then the required clean energy percentage would have to be increased substantially in order for the policy to remain meaningful, particularly if gas is given "full credit" (i.e., is treated no differently than non-emitting generation).

It is often stated that since no one can charge money for the wind, wind-generated electricity is free. This is not true. A modern wind turbine, which can generate 2 megawatts of electricity (MWe) when the wind is blowing, costs about $3.5 million installed. Five hundred of these turbines installed at a wind farm, to be able to generate 1000 MWe, would cost $1.75 billion. Add in other costs, such as for operation and maintenance (O&M) and transmission lines, and the total sum could match the approximate $4 billion required to build a nuclear plant.