All SONE articles


All articles and newsletters, most recent first

It is time to really embrace the nuclear option

Of all the options, only electricity generated from nuclear energy ticks all the boxes against the required criteria. It is safe, clean, secure and reliable; managed properly it is one of the cheapest forms of electricity available to us. It emits almost zero carbon.


Nuclear energy is abundant and available 24×7

Since life began on Earth there have been four energy revolutions. Now we stand at the threshold of the fifth. This should maintain the environment, follow the laws of natural science, and support the socio-economic needs of society. Only nuclear energy can match these, but a new spirit of informed public engagement is needed to replace seventy years of irrational aversion.


SONE Newsletter 287 – May/June 2023

Moltex Flex webinar: Quick! Join this webinar on 9 June — Daily Telegraph article disowned — A week in S Korea — Dow getting a big nuclear-based industrial act together?


Heat Pumps for Gas Boilers?

It is proving difficult to persuade the public to replace their efficient and convenient gas boilers because generally, heat pumps will not have equivalent thermal performance. This is a blessing in disguise, because providing the electrical energy for the new equipment will be a massive challenge.


SONE Newsletter 286 – April 2023

SONE Silver Jubilee: Prizes and Competition announced — The Plusses and Minuses of the Energy Beauty Pageant — “Hug pylons, not trees” — A new paper on the fear of radiation by Brookes et al — X-Energy: news of actors getting together, there and here — A second discussion with Hugo Kruger — A few older videos and other links.


The SONE Silver Jubilee essay competition

To stimulate the imagination of the current generation, unfettered by the mistakes of their elders, Supporters Of Nuclear Energy (SONE) is offering two prizes, each of £1000, to mark the 25th anniversary of its foundation on 1 June 1998.


SONE Newsletter 285 – March 2023

Sir Bernard Ingham (1932-2023) — SONE, 25 years old in June — Centenaries for the Flying Scotsman and de Broglie Waves — HALEU fuel for small or micro reactors — Head winds for financing renewables, but nuclear too — Power plant build rate required in the UK — Simple UK stats presented by Dr Tim Stone.


SONE Newsletter 284 – February 2023

SONE escapes the clutches of the Green — Change in Whitehall — Poland, Canada, Estonia, USA — Japan supports extended reactor life times — Uranium mining and fuel milling — Enthusiasm from Korean shipping lines — MoltexFLEX — Equilibrion, a startup for hydrogen, heat and synfuels — Safety of ionising radiation — JET's impending retirement.


SONE Newsletter 283 – January 2023

News of New Nuclear in UK — Robert Oppenheimer’s name cleared — At the Science Museum — At the Frontier Energy 2050 Summit Conference — Review of Net Zero by Chris Skidmore MP — A view on low level nuclear waste — Wind energy.


The failure of wind as a reliable source of electrical energy

The plan to cut the combustion of fossil fuels was accepted at the 2015 Paris Conference. The instinctive reaction around the world has been to revert to “Renewables”, the sources of energy replenished intermittently by the power of the Sun. Unfortunately this power, attenuated by the huge distance that it must travel to reach the Earth, is extremely weak.


Energy for 2030 and 2050: The non-negotiable requirements of science, economics, and the environment

A short in-person lecture given at the Frontier Energy 2050 Summit Conference, 24 Nov 2022, organised by Frontier Energy, and sponsored by various energy interests.


Why nuclear energy should be powering shipping safely by 2050

Slides with notes of a brief talk given at the first international in-person conference for shipping interests organised by CORE POWER at the Science Museum, 6 Oct 2022.


SONE Newsletter 282 – December 2022

Happy Christmas — Sizewell C — Nuclear power in Scotland — Electricity price fluctuations — Production of electricity as the wind speed changes — Hydro — Low Dose Radiation and Hormesis.


Hydrogen Storage — How Much Will it Help?

There has been relentless pressure over the last 25 years to reduce UK CO₂ emissions. Carbon emissions in the electricity sector were reduced until 2020, but have started to rise again. There is very little scope for reducing the sector emissions further, since renewables require secure back up from either gas or coal-fired generation. Can hydrogen storage help?


SONE Newsletter 281 – October/November 2022

Sizewell C — Annual General Meeting — Education needed on a grand scale — News from EDF, Moltex, and Rolls Royce — “The Big Mistake”: a discussion — Renewables and batteries in trouble — The World’s First Nuclear Maritime Conference — SONE on Twitter.


Achieving Net Zero by 2050

A presentation by Candida Whitmill of Penultimate Power UK Ltd, given at SONE's 2022 Annual General Meeting. It describes the use of EnergiHabu™ High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactors for industrial heating applications.