Category: Nuclear
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Musings of a Nuclear Engineer and a Coal Power Engineer on the Adequacy of Bulk Power Supply for the Future
This document summarizes discussions of Don Spellman, a senior nuclear engineer, retired U.S. Navy Submarine officer and Dick Storm, a retired coal power engineer. We have had ongoing discussions for several years regarding the inadequacy of new replacement of Dispatchable or Base Load capable coal and/or nuclear power plants. Therefore, We decided to jointly write this article to share our views. Introduction America’s Grid grew from the days of Edison, Tesla and Westinghouse to about the 1990’s in an…
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The Real Problem With American Energy Policy
This post will be short and to the point. Myself and many of my energy experienced friends have watched as absolutely anti-American, anti-Human energy polices have come to be. My friend Tom cut through the BS and wrote the following as a response to the Daily Caller article which documented Chinese involvement in NGOs impacting…
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How Can a 6,000 MW Regional Utility in 2030 which Likely Will Be a 9,000 MW Utility in 2050… Achieve Net Zero Carbon? An Update on my Electricity Provider in South Carolina
The Great State of South Carolina is usually thought of as a “Conservative” state. However, when it comes to applying destructive “Climate Policies”, South Carolina is no more conservative than is California or New York. So, I thought I would repost my comments on the Santee-Cooper IRP. It is my understanding that the major Utilities…
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Facing the Hard Truths of Energy, Electricity Generation and Environmental Protection, Part 4: What is the True Agenda for Climate Policies?
Energy and climate policies, if not reversed, are progressing toward shortages of not only fuels for transportation and electricity, but also the supply of products for our materialistic society.(359) This includes food supplies, freedom of travel, quality of life in the western world, weakening of the Free World economy and including an acceleration in the decline…
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Facing the Hard Truths of Energy, Part 2: Some Facts on the Reality of Replacing Conventional Forms of Energy
I was recently invited to a local civic club and my host asked that I focus on the limitations of minerals and difficulty of replacing conventional fuels with wind and solar. Here are some of the slides and my explanation which I used to attempt to drive the point home: The U.S. does not have…
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Facing the Hard Truths of Energy, Part 1: 79 Quadrillion Btus:The Enormity of the Fossil Energy Systems Providing Sustainable Lives
Conventional energy is vitally important for all that we do. Missing from news reports to the general public is an honest communication to try to explain the huge and enormous energy systems that we depend on each day and the impossibility of replacing conventional energy with wind and solar. To start 2024, I thought I…
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The Importance of Fuel Diversity to Power Our Economy and Our Lives, Part 1
Much has been written on the importance of energy to power a nation’s economy and to continue to provide a high quality Human Development Index. The purpose of this post is to focus on the importance of Fuel Diversity for electricity generation. There is a proven concept for energy storage for electricity generation. It is…
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The Rise, Fall and Rise Again of Nations and the Realities of Energy
Introduction The University of South Carolina provides OLLI programs (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) which include Geopolitics, Science and many other courses. I am an instructor on energy and electricity. Two other instructors that I respect and have enjoyed their courses are retired senior military officers. General Craig Whelden served in the Pacific and has taught…
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Green Energy Crisis, Part 3, Public Energy Education is Needed! Each person in the U.S. uses about 315 Million Btus of Primary Energy/Year. This is NOT Practical or even Possible to Replace with wind and solar alone
Introduction In parts 1 and 2 of this Green Energy Series, the Green Energy Crisis and which people and organizations caused it. (part 1 here and part 2 here) The purpose of this post is to attempt to explain the impossibility of replacing conventional forms of Primary energy with wind and solar. America consumes right…
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How Can a 6,000 MW Regional Utility in 2030 which Likely Will Be a 9,000 MW Utility in 2050… Achieve Net Zero Carbon?
This is an update on my comments to the IRP development for my local Regional Utility, Santee-Cooper. The last draft IRP has been published for comment and the figure below shows the expected load growth up to 2042. This Figure is from page 28 of the IRP presentation updated in April 2023. Shockingly, there is…
Power for the U.S.A. 