As we reported last month at COP 29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, the Government Pledge to triple global nuclear by 2050 added six new signatories bringing the total number of countries who have signed the pledge to 31. Support for nuclear power to both meet countries’ clean energy and energy security Read more…
The war in Ukraine has been going on for more than 2 years now with unimaginable suffering to its people. Yet somehow the press continues to focus on the risks at Europe’s largest nuclear plant, Zaporizhzhya. On April 11, 2024, the IAEA director general reported that “direct attacks against Zaporizhzhya Read more…
In our last two posts we looked at the pledge signed by more than 20 countries at COP28 in Dubai to triple the amount of nuclear globally by 2050 and the pledge made by more than 120 companies in the nuclear industry to meet this challenge. This month we comment Read more…
Making good decisions on issues of importance like climate change requires access to evidenced-based, truthful information. And yet we currently live in a world where there has never been greater effort to control people through misinformation. Unfortunately, more and more people simply don’t seem to care. Likely of no surprise Read more…
Ten years have passed since Japan suffered the great Tohoku earthquake and tsunami that killed 20,000 people, caused US$300 billion of damage and initiated the accident at the Fukushima Daichi nuclear power plant. Reviewing the media reporting last month, the nature of the stories has changed. There were of course Read more…
Nuclear power can provide almost limitless economic, reliable, low carbon electricity to power the world, yet it continues to struggle to achieve the respect it so desperately seeks. For 40 years we have been hearing the same thing – that for nuclear power to achieve its potential we must work Read more…
It’s hard to believe, but a new decade is upon us. (We wrote the decade and nuclear power in our post earlier this year celebrating 10 years of blogging.) As the decade comes to a close, 2019 seems to be the year that climate change is finally being taken seriously, Read more…
The facts are clear. Nuclear power is a critical part of our global low carbon electricity generation system. It provides abundant, reliable and economic low carbon electricity needed to power our energy hungry economies. Yet, as stated in the recent IEA report, Nuclear Power in a Clean Energy System, even Read more…
It has been a wonderful experience participating in the World Nuclear University (WNU) for the last 12 years. The best part has been meeting fascinating people who are interested in nuclear power in so many different countries. I am involved in two WNU programs, the WNU 3-day short course – Read more…
We often speak about the incredible energy density of nuclear fuel; a pellet the size of the end of your finger can deliver as much energy as a ton of coal. In addition to producing a large amount of energy from a very small amount of resource, the plants themselves Read more…
“We are the healthiest, wealthiest, and longest-lived people in history. And we are increasingly afraid. This is one of the great paradoxes of our time.” As said by Daniel Gardner in his book “The Science of Fear: How the Culture of Fear Manipulates Your Brain” more than a decade ago; Read more…
The world is burning – or it’s about to – so says the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its special report considering the benefit to the planet if we manage to keep the increase in temperature to 1.5 C rather than the target most often discussed of 2 Read more…
It is with great sadness that we see the Wolsong Unit 1 reactor start to defuel after being shut down prematurely as part of the South Korean government’s plan to reduce reliance on nuclear energy. This is part of the South Korean government’s commitment to replace nuclear and coal with Read more…
How many discussions have you had today where either you or the other person thought carefully, and then said “here is what I believe….”? Believe is a strong word. It evokes personal values; and when something makes it to the level of a belief, it is often unshakeable. There was Read more…
There are more nuclear plants in the European (EU) than anywhere else. Yet a broad range of nuclear policies across the European nations is having a large impact on its future. Currently there are 127 nuclear plants in operation in the EU (plus another 5 in Switzerland). Of the 14 Read more…
People are dying – lots of people, each and every day. As stated in a study published by Lancet on October 19,” Pollution is the largest environmental cause of disease and premature death in the world today. Diseases caused by pollution were responsible for an estimated 9 million premature deaths Read more…
We live in strange times. Globally, populism is growing in response to a deep-seated anger with so-called liberal elites. Experts are no longer respected over louder voices that support peoples’ strongly held views. There are no facts, only beliefs. While most of the world continues to support the Paris agreement Read more…
Over the last week or so, the internet has been abuzz with articles on the recent paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, “Evaluation of a proposal for reliable low-cost grid power with 100% wind, water, and solar”, by 21 prominent scientists taking issue with Mark Read more…
Not a day goes by when we don’t read something about the public acceptance problem in the nuclear industry. A recent article preaching the end of the nuclear era had a pretty strong statement that sums up like this – “Nuclear looks ever more like a 20th-century dinosaur, unloved by Read more…
Over the last few years, we have written extensively about the strength of peoples’ beliefs and how difficult it is to change them. In spite of this, I thought we were making progress with a push to more evidence-based decision making. For something as polarizing as nuclear power, facts-based decision Read more…