The Feb 6, 2024 Energy Gang podcast was titled “A pause in US gas export approvals: a big win for the climate? US hits the brakes on gas exports!” It was described as a gassy episode with a focus on international natural gas trading, the impact of the Biden Administration’s pause on issuing new permits that would enable future growth of what is already the world’s largest gasification infrastructure and the production and use of hydrogen as a partial natural gas replacement. The value of the conversation, however, was limited because the Gang members made a choice – perhaps conscious, perhaps ..read more

I wish I knew why some nuclear advocates feel that it’s worth their time to spread as much negative information as they can find about the potential utility and value of advanced nuclear power technologies. IMO, modern water cooled reactors qualify as advanced in the same way as a modern BMW engine qualifies as advanced even if it is still using the same Otto Cycle (4-stroke spark plug internal combustion) that was first patented in 1861. There are very innovative water-cooled reactor designs. Reactors that don’t use any coolant pumps or nuclear power plants that can be assembled almost as eas ..read more

Here is another instance of climate reporting that treats nuclear fission as if it barely exists. Before COP28, Cipher published an “Exclusive” that led off with “The United States is working behind the scenes to ensure nuclear power is not excluded from an expected global pledge to boost renewables at the upcoming climate summit in Dubai, Cipher has learned.” (Emphasis added) Anca Gruzu’s article, Exclusive: U.S. pushes to ensure nuclear “is not forgotten” in COP renewables pledge describes the diplomatic effort craft a broad COP agreement to mitigate climate change, including tripling renewa ..read more

The Energy Gang’s Dec 15 episode discussed the major outcomes from COP28. Ed Crooks (@Ed_Crooks), Dr. Melissa Lott @mclott, and Amy Harder (@AmyAHarder) completed the show without mentioning nuclear energy. That episode of the long-running, respected energy podcast was produced just four days after a focused episode reporting on #nuclear energy’s important role at COP28. As reported during that earlier show, nuclear’s role in Dubai was so large that some even called it the nuclear COP. Mark Nelson, Managing Director of Radiant Energy Group marvels at Expo City’s outdoor lighting As Mark Nelson ..read more

James Krellenstein is a physicist, consultant and nuclear energy historian. He is currently employed as a senior advisor to Global Health Strategies. He started up their decarbonization practice with an emphasis on nuclear energy along with renewables. He was the lead author on GEH’s report on ways to reduce global dependence on Russia for necessary supplies of enriched uranium. He had the unusual and fortunate experience of growing up with a father who was a nuclear engineer turned nuclear financial specialist and a grandfather who ran a custom manufacturing machinery production facility. Bot ..read more

I’ll start with a disclosure. I’m still long on NuScale in my personal portfolio and have no intention of changing that position in the near future. I believe that the company has a good product and excellent potential for growth. The image above with Jose Reyes and me is from a visit I paid to the NuScale test loop in October 2014. Yesterday (Nov 8, 2023), an expected shoe dropped. NuScale and UAMPS (Utah Association of Municipal Power Systems) announced that they had decided to abandon their Carbon Free Power Project. The press release stated, “Despite significant efforts by both parties to ..read more

Stefano Buono is a physicist and the successful founder of Advanced Accelerator Applications, a multibillion dollar company that pioneered the use of several therapeutic medical isotopes. After making several people very rich, including himself, he sold the medical isotope business and returned to his early 1990s field of study – nuclear fission reactors using molten lead as a coolant. About two years ago, Stefano Buono and some of his colleagues and associates founded newcleo, a company with Italian roots based in the UK. Last year, newcleo ran two successful rounds of start-up funding that n ..read more

Cross-posted from Nucleation Capital June, July and August of 2023 were the three hottest months the Earth has ever seen by such a large margin, it left climate scientists agog. Climate disasters are abounding apace, with the U.S. hit by 23 large-scale disasters, a record-breaking year already. In Pakistan, extreme rainfall and flooding affected 33 million people, killing more than 1,700, displacing more than 8 million and causing damage estimated at over $30 billion, not counting the estimated 2.2% loss to the country’s gross domestic product. North America and even Hawaii were ravaged by i ..read more

Commissioners on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission are worried. They see a pending avalanche of license applications for new reactors, fuel production facilities, uranium mines, transportation containers, and waste repositories with an insufficiently sized and trained licensing workforce. They seem to be increasingly aware of their role in enabling a clean energy transition and they want to avoid being put into an untenable situation. Many actions are being discussed to address this issue. But there’s a finite base of qualified and qualifiable people available and training new ones isn’t quick ..read more

Mary Jo Rogers is a trained clinical psychologist who developed her interest workforce safety cultures and leadership in the nuclear power sector while consulting and working for ComEd (later Exelon). At the time she began her work, ComEd was a perennially under-performing utility with new leaders that were committed to turning it into the best nuclear plant operator in the United States. That leadership team included Oliver Kingsley and Chris Crane at the operating level and John Rowe at the corporate level. Dr. Rogers learned many lessons in leadership, and safety culture and observed the wa ..read more