Posts Tagged energy
Huge Untapped Uranium Reserves in Virginia
Posted by John Wheeler in Audio Podcasts, News on May 25th, 2010
Podcast – Download the MP3 Here
This has been a deadly year for fossil fuels in the United States. In February five workers lost their lives in an explosion at the Kleen Energy natural gas power plant in CT. Then in April 29 coal miners perished in a mining accident at the Massey Energy coal mine in West Virginia. Of course that was followed by the disaster on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform that killed 11 workers and caused a massive oil spill that is contaminating hundreds of miles of coastline.
With events like these (and others similar events around the world), and our growing reliance on huge quantities of imported oil and natural gas, it is time for America to expand its domestic supply of uranium.
On this show I was joined by a panel of experts who discussed efforts underway in Virginia to unlock the vast potential of uranium resources that have been discovered there. My guests were:
- Aaron Ruby from the Virginia Energy Independence Alliance
- Patrick Wales, the project manager and geologist for Virginia Uranium, Inc, and
- Lisa Stiles, a nuclear engineer with many years experience in the nuclear industry, and a former president of NA-YGN and the International Youth Nuclear Congress.
Topics we discussed included why allowing safe uranium mining in Virginia is so important, the huge untapped Coles Hill uranium deposit, uranium mining safety, and the many benefits that developing the Coles Hill mine would bring to an economically depressed region.
Enjoy!
John Wheeler
A Gathering of Visionaries (TWiN Podcast 76)
Posted by John Wheeler in Audio Podcasts, News on October 19th, 2009
Sitting in the audience at the 1st Thorium Energy Alliance Conference, I could not help but think about the people who stood around that pile of uranium and graphite in a squash court almost 70 years ago at the site of the first man-made self-sustained nuclear c
hain reaction. Most were visionaries, brilliant scientists, some engineers, and a few reporters. I wondered how many of them truly understood the significance of what they were doing that day and how their work would change the world.
The mix of talent was the same here today; engineers, physicists, and media. They clearly have a vision for the future and a compelling case for getting there. This podcast is an audio recording of the keynote address for the conference provided by Kirk Sorensen of Energy from Thorium, a passionate engineer with a vision that is best told in his own words.
I’ve been reporting events from the conference using Twitter. If you are not following me on Twitter you might want to give it a try. You can follow me here or on the link on the right side bar of this page.
John Wheeler
Nuclear Powered Plug-In Hybrids
Posted by John Wheeler in News on April 24th, 2009
I’ve been preaching long and hard that a combination of plug-in hybrid vehicles and nuclear energy can help solve two problems at once; energy independence and CO2 emissions. It seems The Weekly Standard in the UK has reached the same conclusion.
In the United States there are 104 remodeled conventional nuclear power generating plants. … On average they produce more than a gigawatt (a billion watts) each or about 22 percent of total U.S. electrical consumption, without sending a single drop of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. … By upgrading our own 100-plus plants to that level, we could produce enough cheap electricity to competitively replace gasoline and charge the batteries of every potentially electrified car and light truck in the United States. An additional 40 such plants would be sufficient to power all our buses, heavy trucks, and trains. With 200 plants, augmented by existing and upgraded hydropower, we could replace all hydrocarbon-based power-generating plants and virtually eliminate the U.S. carbon footprint. If this seems too big a task, one need only look at France which gets 80 percent of its electrical power from nuclear plants.
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Listen and Watch Here!
