All SONE articles


All articles and newsletters, most recent first

SONE Newsletter 307 – April 2025

SONE visit to Springfields — Germany’s First Offshore Wind Farm — GBN SMR news — News from Kazakhstan and Plymouth — Uranium ore availability and US tariffs — US Secretary for Energy and SMR funding — International Regulation initiatives from UK — An interview on Youtube — News from Moltex — IAEA promotes food irradiation.


SONE Newsletter 306 – March 2025

Speed-bumps slow the nuclear revolution — “Actinide to Zeta” — Choice of small reactor designs — All change at EDF — Nuclear policy for England & Wales — Renewables poor performance — Czech investment in RR SMR — UK Regulations to be rolled back — Teeside – Community Nuclear Power — Change of heart at World Bank — Korea nuclear green bonds — Progress on marine nuclear power — News on fuel — Plutonium — Comment on E=mc² — Fusion


Renewables Poor Performance

Electricity has increased in importance in recent years, but neither wind nor solar power can supply power continuously.


SONE Newsletter 305 – February 2025

A new Patron for SONE, Chris Cockcroft — Reflections on UK Nuclear Power, by Philip Greatorex — Insurance — UK Plutonium for disposal? — News from America — New Nuclear for Maritime — Wind, fire and batteries — Urenco — UK reduces hurdles


Nuclear Energy: Its Discovery and Development before and during my lifetime

A unique view of the history of Nuclear Energy by Christopher Cockcroft, son of Sir John Cockcroft:
 • 'My understanding of what was going did not begin until I was ten when my father and Ernest Walton were awarded the 1951 Nobel Prize for Physics.'
 • 'Albert Einstein’s E=mc² which was proved by my father and Ernest Walton.'


Reflections on UK Nuclear Power

Back in 1956 a nuclear energy ideal was created across society founded on scientific and economic reasoning. Despite several setbacks, that ideal has endured in the UK, due in no small part to the extensive educational and public outreach activities throughout the latter half of the last century. That work continues, but not at anything like the same level.


SONE Newsletter 304 – January 2025

Uranium extraction from seawater, by Paul Spare — Waste Vitrification at Sellafield — Nuclear energy is still the number 1 source of electricity in the European Union in 2024 — Russian plans in the Arctic — Lawsuit challenges NRC on SMR regulation — Waste recycling regulation in USA — “The Best of 2024” according to the The Ecomodernist Society of North America.


SONE Newsletter 303 – December 2024

Happy New Year 2025 — Life extensions announced for four UK AGR plants — Flamanville 3 connected to the grid — District heating in Finland — German restart — Scandinavian energy news — Virginia Crosbie, Trudy Harrison and Nuclear Capital LLP — The NDA, Decommissioning? — Radon Therapy in Tajikistan — Greens go for nuclear in Ontario.


Fear of radiation and nuclear weapons

Use of a nuclear weapon would release vast quantities of energy and radiation. Although the blast and fire would destroy buildings and life within a few miles, the radioactivity and radiation would have a much smaller and limited effect. This is confirmed by all available evidence and popular experience. However, it is not what has been supposed for the past 70 years.


SONE Newsletter 302 – November 2024

SONE AGM, new Patrons and panel discussion — Capenhurst Visit — Other methods of enrichment, a note — The road to net zero: renewables and nuclear working together — A recent posting on LinkedIn by Wade Allison — New links and posts in support of nuclear energy.


SONE Newsletter 301 – October 2024

Banking sector gets the message – Nuclear shipping comment by Neville – UK policy from the Labour Party – Great British Nuclear narrows SMR Competition – Three Mile Island & Microsoft – Negative solar energy prices – Swedish Deputy PM emphasises science over politics – Fusion in perspective – Future nuclear plants in Russia – Heat in Finland – Lead cooled SMRs – Fuel production at Springfields – Fukushima, recall of an early visit to combat fear.


SONE Newsletter 300 – August 2024

UK SMR contestants — UK & Denmark nuclear shipping regulation — What if Germany had invested in nuclear? — IAEA welcomes thirty nuclear newcomers and SMR interests — China approves 11 new reactors — In the USA nuclear is omitted from Democratic electoral case — Disposable Power Plants — Texas electrical power on 20th August — Finnish SMR designed to produce heat, not electricity — India ramps up nuclear plants — Enrichment in UK and a podcast with Urenco — Energy sources top trumps — A poster published by ResearchFeatures.


The future of energy: Why should it be nuclear-based?

Professor Wade Allison shows that nuclear energy can provide a viable, safe, and environmental replacement for fossil fuels and renewables.


Energy sources information cards

Ben and Marie Zabell are both Imperial College graduates, and have created a series of info cards to simplify the realities of each currently known energy source.


SONE Newsletter 299 – July 2024

Climate Challenge for the New Government — AGM and provisional site visit — Some in Australia look to UK — Italy invests in nuclear education — SMR submissions to Great British Nuclear — Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power wins Czech contest — USA: the ADVANCE Act — Data centres and their growing hunger — Turkey and the UK — History Corner.


SONE Newsletter 298 – June 2024

Elections and nuclear energy — Climate change in reverse — UK SMR interests — New Nuclear in Maritime — Breakthrough? — Norway’s nuclear plans — Poland approves Rolls-Royce SMRs — Interconnectors fail to make friends — Calder Hall Booklet 1961.