The Atomic Show #053 – Commercial Nuclear Ships
Shane and I discuss commercial nuclear ship history and future opportunities Commercial nuclear powered ships were tried in the 1960s and 1970s with little follow on units. The United States built the...
View ArticleAtomic Show #137 – Michael Kurzeja – President – North American Young...
Michael Kurzeja is the President of North American Young Generation in Nuclear – NA-YGN. He is a dynamic leader, an excellent emissary and an excited professional who loves what he does. He also...
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Does “highly” enriched uranium make it easier to build more compact reactors?
It is easier to design and build compact nuclear reactors with uranium that has a higher fraction of U-235. The higher the U-235 content, the easier it is to overcome the effects of impurities in the...
View ArticleWhat happened to the NS Savannah?
One of the more frequent inquiries I have received during my years operating Atomic Insights is “What happened to the NS (nuclear ship) Savannah?”. I just learned about a recently completed documentary...
View ArticleWhy did gullible reporters promote a student paper about nuclear facility...
There was a flurry of attention in the press last week when a political science professor held a press conference to tell the world that one of his students had written a paper concluding that all of...
View ArticleNaval Reactors should be empowered to show the way – again
President Obama should task John Richardson with a mission similar to the one that President Dwight Eisenhower gave Hyman G. Rickover. Richardson is the current leader of Naval Reactors (NR), the...
View ArticleRoot cause of Naval Reactors policy of strict secrecy about nuclear...
As a Navy nuke, I was carefully taught to believe that everything we learned about atomic energy had to be strictly protected from release to anyone who was not “cleared”, especially anyone who was not...
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Dedication of the Apprentice School at Newport News Shipbuilding
Yesterday, on an unusually warm December day, I attended the dedication of the new Apprentice School building in downtown Newport News, Virginia. It was an event that made me proud to be an American,...
View ArticleIcebreaker saved by fossil fuels. Nuclear might have been better
Just before Christmas 2013, a diesel-powered, ice-capable Russian research vessel named MV Akademik Shokalskiy, which was carrying scientists studying climate change, got stuck in the Antarctic ice....
View ArticleAntarctic misadventure failed to plan for resilience
I’ve been pondering the misadventures of the Akademik Shokalskiy for several days, thinking about the difference in result between an excursion planned on the cheap by people who depend on things going...
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SUNY Maritime Student Advocates Commercial Nuclear Ship Propulsion
NS Savannah in Baltimore Harbor For 50th Anniversary Refurbishing Stimulated by early atomic optimism, naval successes and Eisenhower’s Atoms for Peace initiative, four nations built ocean going ships...
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Trip report from visit to NS Savannah
About three weeks ago, I wrote an article about commercial nuclear ship propulsion. That post introduced Benjamin Haas, a student at SUNY Maritime, who has been leading a design team that is developing...
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NS Savannah tours May 18, 2014
Press Release Historic Ship N.S. Savannah Open for Tours May 18, 2014 in Observance of Maritime Day N.S. Savannah Association, Inc. 4/17/2014 The unique, nuclear powered ship N.S. Savannah will be...
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Nuclear-Powered Trans-Ocean Shipping – 3rd place in New York Advanced Energy...
I received an update from Benjamin Haas, the SUNY Maritime student who has been working on nuclear powered ship designs from a complete systems perspective for the past three semesters. He and his team...
View ArticleAtomic Show #232 – Against the Tide by RADM Dave Oliver
Though it has been more than 30 years since Admiral Rickover finally retired from his position as the head of Naval Reactors, his legacy lives on in the people he directly trained and in the people...
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No obstacles prevent China from rapidly building floating nuclear power plants
1968 photo of the Sturgis, the first nuclear power barge, in the Panama Canal. It provided electricity to operate the locks from 1968-1975 Credible entities in China have begun lining up the supply...
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Atomic Show #294 – Mikal Boe, Core Power Founder and CEO
Mikal Boe, courtesy of Core Power Mikal Boe has spent 30 years in and around the commercial shipping industry. Several years ago, he began wondering how his industry was going to meet the increasingly...
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