This week's Nuclear Matinee takes a nostalgic look back to the dawn of the Atomic Age and an exciting new power source: "atomic energy."

The nation continues to chart an independent course

In recent days, a number of articles have been printed that assert that a grave danger exists at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear generating station. These articles claim that this danger exists due to the condition of the spent nuclear fuel at the site and the supposedly shaky condition of its storage and care. Two examples:

Since March 22 of this year, the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant has been operating via a 20-year license extension granted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The State of Vermont has been barred from attempting to shut down the plant by federal court injunctions. Nonetheless, the follies surrounding the plant continue, with all stakeholders participating: the legal system, the legislature, plant supporters, and plant opponents.

The American Nuclear Society today issued the following statement:

ANSI strongly encourages all U.S. delegates to participate in international standardization meetings

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.