The American Nuclear Society's Dr. Burchill spoke to students at Vanderbilt University about...
...the factors that are producing the renaissance of nuclear power in the United States, the current status of that renaissance, and the challenges that it presents. These challenges include re-establishing the United States nuclear infrastructure, addressing proliferation concerns, building public confidence, licensing the Yucca Mountain High Level Waste Repository, and closing the nuclear fuel cycle.You can listen here for the podcast.
Comments
I am listening to the talk and on minute 11 of 55 with the first five minutes or so being introductory.
So far, I have heard the following statements that are a bit less than accurate:
- The price of natural gas 10 years ago was about $2 per million standard cubic feet (the real number is either $2 per million BTU or $2 per thousand cubic feet),
- No one ever uses natural gas for baseload (and this is from a guy who used to teach at Texas A&M and lived in a state where the grid is more than 50% natural gas powered)
- Most of the 3% of the US electricity that comes from renewables is coming from homes where people feed the power back to the grid. The reality there is that about 2/3 of the "renewable" electricity in the US today comes from burning wood and wood waste to produce paper and from municipal solid waste to electricity plants.
Can someone please help Dr. Burchill provide better information to his important audiences?
I don't know about you, but sure looks like an awful lot of black smoke above a nuclear plant.