Category Archives: nuclear

“What About Chernobyl?” World’s Deadliest Energy Accidents in Perspective

Posted on April 11, 2019 by Thoughtscapism

Whenever nuclear power comes up in discussions online, more often than not someone declares that all anyone needs to know can be said with one word: Chernobyl. This name evokes a chilling reaction in most of us, and the idea … Continue reading →

Posted in energy, environment, health, nuclear, renewables | Tagged , | 23 Comments

Radiation Exposures at a Glance

Posted on December 17, 2018 by Thoughtscapism

Inspired by a risk conference I attended, I decided to try my hand at visual demonstrations of toxicological safety limits and pesticide exposures. It struck me that the same kind of visualisation might work well for a demonstrating radiation dosages. I … Continue reading →

Posted in biology, health, nuclear | Tagged , , | 10 Comments

Nuclear is a Crucial Piece of the Carbon-Free Puzzle

Posted on September 16, 2018 by Thoughtscapism

The findings of the recent MIT study bear repeating: to achieve a carbon-free grid, exclusion of nuclear would make the effort much, much more expensive. the team’s analysis shows that the exclusion of nuclear from low-carbon scenarios could cause the … Continue reading →

Posted in climate, energy, finance, nuclear, renewables | Tagged | 2 Comments

Saving Lives Is Not Shameful – Let’s Break the Stigma on Supporting Nuclear Energy

Posted on September 7, 2018 by Thoughtscapism

I own a t-shirt that says “Ask me about nuclear energy.” On the back there’s an image of a cooling tower and the words: “Sustainable. Ecological. Independent.” I wore it to my daughter’s first day at our village music kindergarten … Continue reading →

Posted in energy, environment, nuclear, parenting, psychology, renewables, society | Tagged , | 15 Comments

Radiation and Cancer Risk – What Do We Know?

Posted on March 1, 2018 by Thoughtscapism

I recently visited Switzerland’s interim repository for nuclear waste, called ZWILAG, and wrote about the insights gained during that experience in Warming My Hands On Nuclear Waste. While in the heart of the place – the dry cask storage hall which houses … Continue reading →

Posted in health, nuclear | Tagged , , | 15 Comments

Warming My Hands on Nuclear Waste

Posted on February 28, 2018 by Thoughtscapism

I left my sleeping family at home and headed out without breakfast in the freezing cold to catch the 7 AM train, enthusiastic about the prospect of visiting a nuclear waste repository. I’ve written about nuclear waste at length, and … Continue reading →

Posted in energy, nuclear | Tagged , | 14 Comments

UNEP’s Narrow-minded Views on Innovation

Posted on February 2, 2018 by Thoughtscapism

World’s energy production needs all the innovation it can get, but UN-director Erik Solheim appears not to have gotten the memo. GUEST AUTHOR: This piece was written by journalist Øystein Heggdal, and it was originally published in the Norwegian newspaper Klassekampen on … Continue reading →

Posted in climate, energy, history, nuclear, renewables | Tagged , | 1 Comment

At the Source: Where 13 % of Swiss Electricity is Created

Posted on January 25, 2018 by Thoughtscapism

A friendly nuclear engineer I met at the screening for the movie New Fire made the off-hand mention that he might be able to give a tour of his nuclear plant, Gösgen – an offer I held onto like a leech! … Continue reading →

Posted in energy, nuclear | Tagged | 7 Comments

Off the Press: Nuclear Energy Is a Fast and Inexpensive Way to Improve the World

Posted on December 11, 2017 by Thoughtscapism

This piece was originally published in the Finnish newspaper Aamulehti on Friday 8th of November 2017. The article is based on an earlier English blog piece I wrote, which was quite a bit longer than the 4500 character limit at the paper, and … Continue reading →

Posted in climate, energy, finance, nuclear, renewables | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Nuclear Energy Is the Fastest and Lowest-Cost Clean Energy Solution

Posted on November 27, 2017 by Thoughtscapism

I’ve joked to my friends that if there is anything that proves how important I consider the clean energy topic to be, it’s me digging into electricity pricing. I have a natural aversion to economics – I’ve demoted that aversion … Continue reading →

Posted in climate, energy, finance, nuclear, renewables, society | Tagged , , | 22 Comments