NEI Nuclear Notes

ABC reporter John Stossel featured radiation in his series “Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity" in the May 12 installment of the news program “20/20.” Stossel refuted the myth that “radiation will kill you” by citing a growing number of researchers asserting that low doses of radiation actually may be beneficial to immune system performance and longevity. Stossel discussed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. In each case, he said, predictions about death or deformity rates turned out to be grossly inaccurate. Co-founder and former leader of Greenpeace Patrick Moore agreed. “Not a single person is being killed in the nuclear industry, and people are wanting to ban it. It's pure scare tactics," Moore said. “So next time someone scares you about radiation,” Stossel concluded, “remember that you are exposed to it all the time without harm, and some people even want more of it.” UPDATE: There's a discussion going on an ABC message board about Stos...

American universities are now reporting a rise in enrollment in the nuclear science and engineering. Here's the latest from Mass High Tech : The spike is being attributed to a shift in public opinion on nuclear energy, coupled with a concern about global warming, said Ian Hutchinson, head of MIT's Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering. "That (increase), in our view, is an indication of a change in the perception by students, and science as a whole, in the role of nuclear engineering in our nation," he said. "The visible signs (of global warming) are present, so people are saying, 'Maybe we should think hard about this.'" Hutchinson, as well as officials from the University of California Berkeley, say enrollment in nuclear engineering and nuclear sciences has doubled in the last five years. Ohio State University's nuclear engineering graduate program reports a 25 percent increase in enrollment during the last two years. If you're int...

An editorial that ran in Saturday's edition of The New York Times titled, "The Greening of Nuclear Power," did just what we've been asking critics of our industry to do over the past few years -- to give nuclear energy a second look in light of concerns about energy security and environmental protection: There is good reason to give nuclear power a fresh look. It can diversify our sources of energy with a fuel -- uranium -- that is both abundant and inexpensive. More important, nuclear energy can replace fossil-fuel power plants for generating electricity, reducing the carbon dioxide emissions that contribute heavily to global warming. That could be important in large developing economies like China's and India's, which would otherwise rely heavily on burning large quantities of dirty coal and oil. After running through some of the standard concerns -- ones that our CEO Skip Bowman addressed at MIT back in January -- The Times concluded: Nuclear power has a ...

This morning's Boston Globe is running an op-ed co-authored by Christine Todd Whitman and Dr. Patrick Moore, the co-chair's of the CASEnergy Coalition . Give it a read right now . To join the CASEnergy Coalition, click here . Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy , Nuclear Power , Energy , Electricity , Environment

Another leader in the global environmental movement has broken with orthodoxy, and is now openly advocating the expansion of nuclear energy on a global basis. From Sunday's edition of The Australian : THE outspoken chief of environment group WWF Australia has gone to London to lobby the international organisation to overturn its anti-nuclear stance. Greg Bourne flew out on Friday, a day after he rocked the environment movement by declaring Australia was "destined" to expand uranium mining. Mr Bourne will attend a WWF International global energy taskforce meeting this week with senior managers of one of the world's biggest and most influential conservation groups. The taskforce aims to formulate an energy policy model for dealing with climate change and restraining global warming to an average 2C above the Earth's global average temperature. Mr Bourne, former president of BP Australia, will argue the case for nuclear energy to be a part of that energy policy. Keep ...

Meet Jonathan Hodges : I believe that nuclear energy is the only short term solution to the energy problem until solar power becomes more efficient and viable on a large scale. And one of Greenpeace’s founders agrees with my opinion , despite the organization’s opposition to virtually every currently viable form of energy. In order to reduce atmospheric pollution and to address the issue the waning fossil fuel supply, nuclear energy is the only viable source in which to turn. New reactor technologies (i.e. breeder reactors) since the last plant was built in the US (1970’s) means even more efficient energy production. Building more nuclear power plants would provide additional clean energy sources in a time when there are shortages in energy across the country along with increasing pollution primarily from coal burning plants. It's amazing to see the effect Patrick Moore's op-ed has had on the Blogosphere. Click here to see what I'm talking about. Technorati tags: Nuclear ...

Tanachai Limpaitoon , a PhD candidate at MIT , is thinking out loud about America's energy challenges , and what part his university can play in helping to solve them: Obviously, we all understand the risks that accompany too great a dependence on foreign energy, particularly from politically unstable parts of the world. We also need to secure extended energy delivery systems, which are vulnerable to disruption, whether from sabotage or natural disasters. We must remember that major wars have been fought over access to scarce resources, and our dependence on oil for transport means growing prospects for conflict over energy supply. And while there is a renewed interest in nuclear power as an alternative to carbon-based fuels, we must answer the questions about the consequent potential for the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Plenty of food for thought, though I hope Tanachai is taking a close look at GNEP as a long-term answer to his question. Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy , N...