In nuclear safety, we spend too much time chasing statistical ghosts—deploying studies that cannot resolve risk instead of governing the risks that actually matter.

Today, @BulletinAtomic published my article with @PeterJamesSeel on this exact problem. Calls for a new national cancer study near nuclear power plants are not driven by a lack of data.

They reflect a misunderstanding of what epidemiology can and cannot do, and what statistics can and cannot show, at very low radiation doses.

To truly modernize, the NRC must finally adopt the scientifically grounded standard for nuclear power and other risks set in the Clean Air Act. It should be the lens through which the NRC considers the mandated "wholesale revision" of regulations. With @stoohill13 and @MattLWald Link to the whitepaper: thebreakthrough.org/issues/energy/…

🚨New Report: Updated Mining Footprints and Raw Material Needs for Clean Energy
What are the material intensity and associated mining impacts of energy sources? This report aims to provide updated values and much-needed rigor.
thebreakthrough.org/issues/energy/… We find that clean energy sources have a significantly smaller mining and mineral footprint than fossil fuel energy sources.
Overall a transition to clean energy will reduce mining intensity, not increase it.

The @NRCgov Commission approved the new rule for emergency preparedness for SMRs and advanced reactors. thebreakthrough.org/blog/moving-fo… The rulemaking started in 2016 and has been with the Commission for vote and finalization for 20 months. Finalizing this long-delayed rule provides regulatory clarity to developers who are delayed in pre-application, or developed their own EP approach while waiting for this rule

Five dead, more injured, three homes completely destroyed, debris thrown blocks away.
I have responded to too many of these disasters as a first responder.
I expect these events to become more common as gas use goes down and financial incentives to maintain pipelines diminishes. The explosion was even caught on video. Scary.

https://twitter.com/toriyorgeytv/status/1690517187084058624

Confirmation bias beware.
What looks like an obvious decimal error in an article fools experts with anti-nuclear priors. $373/MWh is three times higher than EIA, IEA, Lazars, etc. "Experts" who speak authoritatively should know better

https://twitter.com/NaomiOreskes/status/1675886018208100353

This seems like a decimal error while transferring a report into the article could be the cause. The report isn't linked so I can't check. $373/MWh is conveniently an order or magnitude less than the cost of operating existing nuclear plants of about $37/MWh = $0.037 kWh

CAISO declares EEA3 and expects rotating blackouts to shed load.

https://twitter.com/California_ISO/status/1567313062348079105

CAISO is doing all they can to keep the lights on. Gas has been increasing all day. Batteries partially discharged earlier today to match drops in electricity imports. Solar is ramping down for the evening. A lot of hydro is derated due to low water supply.

Wow. At these temperatures it gets difficult for some who reduced A/C use in response to the FlexAlert to bring the house back down to normal temperature overnight.

https://twitter.com/DustinMulvaney/status/1566895002612944896

High outside temperature even over night.
Flex alert extended to 10pm reduces catch-up time before high heat
If customers can't cool their house sufficiently to sleep they are less likely to participate in the next FlexAlert.
Multiple days of Flex alerts creates response fatigue

First impressions - There is $600M for HALEU production and an improved PTC for nuclear energy in the draft Inflation Reduction Act. There may be other provisions for technology-neutral clean energy investments. Other good provisions for non-nuclear clean energy. Link to full text democrats.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/…

🚨 NEW REPORT🚨
ADVANCING NUCLEAR ENERGY: Evaluating Deployment, Investment, and Impact in America’s Clean Energy Future

Evaluating the value of nuclear energy to reach net-zero by 2050 in a technology-neutral US electric grid
thebreakthrough.org/articles/advan… @TheBTI🧵 This report provides a more comprehensive and realistic estimate of the potential for advanced nuclear energy in a decarbonized energy system. Typically reports don’t consider advanced nuclear reactors at all, and if they do they are modeled the same as conventional reactors

A study published yesterday claims SMRs will create more waste. However, the study is too limited to make that claim. 1/ pnas.org/doi/full/10.10… First, I support a better understanding of the back-end of the fuel cycle for SMRs. This area of study has potential. But it needs to be done dispassionately and neutrally. Unfortunately, this study design was skewed to only highlight the author’s desired outcome. 2/

The introduction of new "first tier", "second tier" safety criteria in the Part 53 licensing design was almost unanimously rejected - including by NRC's independent Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards. After months of work they fixed it by *checks notes* changing the title🤔 Judging by what is being discussed in the ACRS meeting today there is still a lot of work to be done. That isn't great since the schedule is already pushed back 7 months.

This is a 3MW diesel backup generator. There are 8 of these generators in this one building for a total of 24 MW. 🧵on backup generation

📸: my friend not on twitter There is a lot I could point out here. 8 cylinder motor. Large bank of batteries is just to start motor. White pipes are cooling water. Metal pipes (top right) are exhaust. Corrugated pipes at connection and spring mounts on the floor are seismic protection and vibration control.

This study from Patrick Brown and Audun Botterud from @MIT shows that a national grid can reduce the overall cost of a 100% renewable electricity system by almost half. It also shows that the system is *even cheaper* and requires less capacity with nuclear in the mix In this figure focus on the blue and green blocks, which indicate the existing regional transmission or adding new regional transmission (most likely). Keeping existing nuclear lowers the cost from "default" 100% renewables. Adding new nuclear lowers the cost further.

There is no cause for alarm related to the Taishan Nuclear Power Plant in China. Despite reports by CNN, that were later picked up by other outlets, there does not appear to be any immediate threat to public safety. A thread: An article from CNN this morning claimed to have information from US officials and had reviewed a June 8th memo from Framatome requesting assistance and mentioned an "imminent radiological threat." This document was not made public by CNN for our review.