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Podcast of ANS's Vice President/President Elect

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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.
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Rod Adams said…
With all due respect to Dr. Burchill and the American Nuclear Society, this talk needs some serious fact checking.

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?
March 18, 2008 at 9:20 AM
David Bradish said…
Dr. Burchill also stated that the Comanche Peak units were the last two nuclear units to come online. Watts Bar 1 was actually the last unit to come online in 1996.
March 18, 2008 at 10:34 AM
Unknown said…
this is off topic, but I couldn't find an email link to send this story in. I found this article today and was wondering if this photo of Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant is doctored or photoshopped. http://www.tol.cz/look/TOL/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=260&NrSection=4&NrArticle=19455

I don't know about you, but sure looks like an awful lot of black smoke above a nuclear plant.
March 18, 2008 at 12:17 PM
David Bradish said…
dash, to me it looks like a storm above the nuclear plant. Here's the link to the story dash was referencing.
March 18, 2008 at 12:23 PM
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