|
Please e-mail me if you have comments or
questions. I will answer questions if possible. Lets have some dialogue.
"You must not be afraid to follow
the truth no matter where it is found."
Thomas Jefferson
Mythology distracts us
everywhere. For the great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie:
contrived and dishonest. But the myth: persistent, persuasive,
unrealistic.
John Kennedy.
Welcome to my energy web site. In this site I reveal the
truth about energy that concerns the future of our country and the world. Also I
discuss the religions, and environmentalists, who strongly espouse energy
policies that I think would return us to the third world living conditions.
The blue underlined links on the left column forms a table
of contents (TOC) of this Web site as well as an easy way to go to any Page by
simply clicking on the link. Be sure and read about the Fast Breeder Reactor and
Fuel Cycles.
Nuclear Power is the answer to our
energy problem.
Nuclear power offers an infinite supply of energy.
Energy produced from nuclear power plants is the
most economical of all sources.
Nuclear power has no pollutants
Nuclear power fission product wastes are minuscule and can
be safely stored.
Nuclear power is safe as demonstrated by the records of
104 commercial plants each operated over 30 years.
Nuclear power employing Fast
Breeder Reactors
offers the world an infinite supply of energy. But
Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter stopped its progress as payback to
the environmentalists who voted for them. Carter also prevented recycle of fuel
coming out of commercial reactors.
Clinton allowed the environmentalists to shutdown Argonne
National Lab's Experimental Breeder Reactor (EBR II) in Idaho and
let them poison the reactor assembly with a carboniferous material so it can
never be started again. This is one of the most egregious acts ever
performed by a mentally sick president.
Nearly 100% of the uranium that is introduced into the
existing commercial nuclear power plant fuel cycles could be used in Fast
Breeder Reactors to produce an infinite amount of energy.
Moreover, if we could reprocess our present stockpiles of
depleted uranium currently stored at the sites of our 104 commercial nuclear
reactors and also the depleted Uranium
Hexafloride (DUF6) from the bomb program and
apply these in Fast Breeder Reactors it could produce all of our Nations
electricity for a 1,000 years without the need for additional uranium mining or
CO2 production.
It is amazing that we now have to bury and throw away the
nuclear fuel discharged from commercial reactors and spend billions of dollars
to purchase natural gas, oil, and coal to generate electrical energy. We
should conserve these fossil fuels for other uses.
Facts from Professor Cohen
(University of Pittsburgh) and others
How long will nuclear energy last? These facts come from a
1983 article by Bernard Cohen. Nuclear energy, assuming breeder reactors, will
last for several billion years, i.e. as long as the sun is in a state to support
life on earth
Breeder reactors use uranium more than 100 times as efficiently as the
current light water reactors. Hence much more expensive uranium can be used. At
$1,000 per pound, uranium would contribute only 0.03 cents per kWh, i.e. less
than one percent of the cost of electricity. At that price, the fuel cost would
correspond to gasoline priced at half a cent per gallon.
See Professor Cohn's web site. Click on the below web site,
http://www.sustainablenuclear.org/PADs/pad8301cohen.html
See Professor
Cohen's Facts
The United Kingdom (UK) of England
has studied the world's energy problems and arrived at the following
conclusion:Following our
consultation on the future of nuclear power 5,
the Government has reviewed the evidence and arguments referred to in the
consultation document in the light of responses it received and in the light of
any other evidence which has emerged. The Government believes it is in
the public interest that new nuclear power stations should have a role to play
in this country’s future energy mix along side other low-carbon sources; that it
would be in the public interest to allow energy companies the option of
investing in new nuclear power stations; and that the Government should take
active steps to open up the way to the construction of new nuclear power
stations. It will be for energy companies to fund, develop and build new nuclear
power stations in the UK, including meeting the full costs of decommissioning
and their full share of waste management costs.
New 1600-MW European PWRs are being built, one in
Finland and one in France, with respective power-up dates of 2008 and 2012. On 5
January, France's president, Jacques Chirac, announced plans for an expansion of
nuclear energy sources for France, including a PBMR by 2020. UK Prime Minister
Tony Blair is expected to announce this spring six to eight new reactors in the
UK.
Democratic
candidates for president are against nuclear power. Hillary Clinton is against
every thing about Bush's energy policy. She simply wants to be president
and to hell with every thing else.
After moderator Brian Williams, the "NBC Nightly News"
anchor, asked for their views on the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump,
Obama vowed to "end the notion" of using the rural Nevada site to deposit
nuclear waste. "I've been clear from the start that Yucca, I think, was a
misconceived project," he said. But Clinton quickly cited her vote against the
proposal in 2001. She noted that one of Obama's key supporters had tried to push
the project. And she pointed out that Edwards had twice voted in favor of the
nuclear site. "I have consistently and persistently been against Yucca
Mountain, and I will make sure it does not come into effect when I'm president,"
she said. Edwards, for his part, criticized past statements by Obama
that he would be open to the construction of nuclear plants, and by Clinton
that she was "agnostic" on the subject. "I am not for it or agnostic,"
Edwards said. "I am against building more nuclear power plants, because I do not
think we have a safe way to dispose of the waste. (With
the IFR system using Fast Breeder Reactors there was no waste.)
"The candidates also skirmished over the 2005 energy bill.
Signed by President Bush, it was the first national energy legislation in more
than a decade. Obama said he supported it as a way to spur the development of
alternative energy sources. "If we are going to deal with our dependence on
foreign oil, then we're going to have to ramp up how we're producing energy here
in the United States," the Illinois senator said. Clinton called the bill a
giveaway to the energy industry that had been concocted by Vice President Dick
Cheney. "It was the wrong policy for America," she said. "It was so
heavily tilted toward the special interests that many of us, at the time, said,
'You know, that's not going to move us on the path we need.' "
As for the path we need,
Hillary's latest uttering's about energy, during one of her debates with Obama,
said that she would get 3 trillion dollars to make solar panels. That would put
everyone back to work and also supply most of our energy needs in the US.
•She
recommends aggressive action to transition our economy toward renewable energy
sources, with renewables generating 25% of electricity by 2025 and with 60
billion gallons of home-grown biofuels available for cars and trucks by 2030.
While Obama is strangely
silent on the issue of nuclear energy, Clinton is not. She believes that energy
efficiency and renewables are better options. As she sees it, there are
significant unresolved issues about the cost of producing nuclear power, the
safety of operating plants, waste disposal, and nuclear proliferation. So
Clinton opposes new subsidies for nuclear power.
She would strengthen the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission and direct it to improve safety and security at
nuclear power plants. Furthermore, she would terminate work at the Yucca
Mountain site while also convening a panel of scientific experts to explore
alternatives for disposing of nuclear waste.
My comments: After 35 years of
flawless operation Hillary is going to improve nuclear power systems.
I believe that Hillary
Clinton, as president, would complete Bill Clinton's demise of nuclear power in
the United States, especially the Fast Breeder concept. She would
again pay back the environmentalists as Bill did. She would send the US
chasing after sun beams and wind power renewables for the next eight
years. As a result we will experience a shortage of electrical energy and
see a sharp rise in energy costs. Also we will not be able to compete in the
supply of the world's rapid expansion of nuclear power plants because we will
have no home manufacturing base to build on.
A break in the dike of the
California anti-nukes.
Gov Arnold Schwarzenegger now
believes that nuclear power has "a great future" and that it is time to
"relook at that issue again rather than just looking the other way and living
in denial." The governor made these comments March 14th, 2008 in Santa
Barbara, "ECO:nomics" conference sponsored by the
Wall Street Journal. His views are making waves in the environmental and energy
circles.
Gov Schwarzenegger told the Wall
Street Journal it is time for the Golden State to reconsider nuclear
power if it ever wants to meet energy demands for the future.
Below is a graph of the
Energy Information Administration's projection of the electric energy
growth in the US. The major energy increase is due to coal fired plants. What
does this do to global warming? It acerbates global warming significantly. Is
this acceptable in the US? I think not.
Electricity Generation by Fuel, 1980-2030
(billion kilowatthours)

We need to reverse the projective
additions of coal and natural gas plants staring right now and replace them with
nuclear plants. And it is true that renewable energy systems do not add
significantly to the energy mix as the State of California thinks they do.
Environmental Policy Alert
ENERGY BILL OPENS DOOR TO
EPA FUEL CREDITS FOR NUCLEAR POWER
December 19, 2007
A little-noticed section of the just-approved federal energy bill opens the
door to EPA eventually granting renewable fuel credits usually reserved for
ethanol and other transportation fuels to electricity produced from nuclear
energy and renewable energy when it is used to power vehicles.
While the move could help refiners and other industry officials meet the
ambitious renewable fuel standard (RFS) set by the bill, any effort to provide
increased incentives for nuclear power and other polluting electricity sources
is likely to draw strong opposition from environmentalists.
Good news this week. August 13,
2007- News release
South Korea, US to Cooperate on Sodium-Cooled
Nuclear Reactor, and Fuel Reprocessing
Since I fought the Korean war it is a
delight to me to hear that the South Koreans will develop the Fast Breeder
Reactor and fuel cycle and sell them world wide. The US environmentalists will
not be able to destroy the South Korean Fast Breeder Reactor program as they did
ours in the United States. When I left South Korean at the end of the war in
September 1953, people in Pusan were living in card board boxes. It is
amazing what they have achieved since then.
From Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia
Future energy development, providing for the world's
future energy needs, currently faces great challenges. These include an
increasing
world population, demands for higher
standards of living, a need for less
pollution, a need to avert
global warming, and a possible end to
fossil fuels. Without energy, the world's
entire industrialized infrastructure would collapse;
agriculture,
transportation,
waste collection,
information technology, communications and much
of the prerequisites that a developed nation takes for granted. A shortage of
the energy needed to sustain this infrastructure could lead to a
Malthusian catastrophe
Conservation and Renewable Energy
Systems are not the answer to our energy security.
Peter Huber
in his book, HARD GREEN
SAVING THE ENVIRONMENT FROM THE
ENVIRONMENTALISTS, makes it very clear that; "The whole
back-to-nature, farmer's market theory of the Soft Greens, the entire
psychological infrastructure of the movement, is anti-environmental. Taking five
billion humans "back to nature" is the worst possible thing we could do, not
only for the humans but for nature, too.
Kenneth Deffeyes, author of the book "Beyond Oil," says
"Conservation' is mostly a euphemism for doing without.
Competition for energy is beginning
to grow immensely.
China today is a most prolific competitor for the worlds oil
supply. China's economy, which has doubled about every eight years since its
opening in 1979, is sending ripples around the world as it's energy demands
continue to outpace available supplies. And China should grow their
economy and improve living conditions as should all nations of the world.
Any attempt to understand or forecast global energy
requirements must take account of population growth. At the beginning of the
twentieth century, world population was about 1.5 billion. Today it is 6 billion
and growing at the rate of 90 million each year. By the year 2025 world
population is expected to reach 8 billion. Two billion of the world's population
today do not have access to electric power. These people need to be served also.
However, I believe that we will all pay an
exorbitant price for oil and natural gas if we do not take action to do
something like developing the hydrogen economy. We need nuclear power to
accomplish the hydrogen economy. It can both solve our energy supply as well as
atmospheric pollution problems.
We Cannot Continue to Let
Antinuclear Activists, Religious and Environmental Groups Dictate Our
National Energy Policy
There Have Been Warnings
In 1954, in The Challenge of Man's Future
Harrison Brown wrote:
If our energy resources dwindle, our industrial technology
will dwindle, and life expectancy and population will slowly dwindle with it.
Consumption of the earth's store of fossil fuels has barely started; yet,
already we can see the end. The age of fossil fuels will be over, not to be
repeated for perhaps another 100 million years. Will its passing mark the end of
civilization and perhaps the beginning of the downward path to man's extinction?
Later in the same book, Brown says "[The] collapse of machine
civilization would be accompanied by starvation, disease, and death on a scale
difficult to comprehend." Of Harrison Brown's effort, Albert Einstein said, "We
may well be grateful to Harrison Brown," and, "This objective book has high
value."
In 1977, England's honored scientist Sir Fred Hoyle,
writing in Energy or Extinction, added his voice to Brown's:
There can be no disagreement with the statement that world
reserves of coal, oil, and gas can provide an adequate energy source for only a
limited future...
Nor can it be contested that most of the world's population,
presently 4,000 million, will die in a disastrous catastrophe should an adequate
energy source not have been developed by the time that reserves of coal, oil,
and gas become exhausted.
Nor can there be any serious debate over the statement that
the only alternative energy source presently known to be technically viable is
energy from the nuclear fission of uranium or thorium.
Writing about Hoyle's book, Sir Alan Cottrell, who was
once the chief scientific adviser to the British government, says:
It (Hoyle's book) is about energy: about the alarming
prospect that oil will soon run out and not be replaced by anything else. It
shows that—contrary to an influential belief—we do not have time, and there is
no practical alternative to nuclear energy, and that western decision makers
have been frightened into immobility in their nuclear energy policies by a
well-orchestrated campaign which has marched under an 'environmentalist' banner,
but yet has a clearly identifiable political basis.
*The information directly under the heading: There Have Been
Warnings was taken from the book entitled "THE ENVIRONMENTAL CASE for
NUCLEAR POWER" by Robert C Morris, published by Paragon House. See page
123.
I suggest this book for reading. Dr. Morris builds an
excellent case for Nuclear power. And we need to start now, not when oil runs
out. We already are probably too late.
Nuclear Power in France
France has 59 nuclear reactors
operated by Electricite de France (EdF) with total capacity of over 63 GWe,
supplying over 426 billion kWh per year of electricity, 78% of the total
generated there. In 2005 French electricity generation was 549 billion kWh
net and consumption 482 billion kWh - 7700 kWh per person. Over the last decade
France has exported 60-70 billion kWh net each year. See also
EdF web site.
The present situation is due to
the French government deciding in 1974, just after the first oil shock, to
expand rapidly the country's nuclear power capacity. This decision was taken in
the context of France having substantial heavy engineering expertise but few
indigenous energy resources. Nuclear energy, with the fuel cost being a
relatively small part of the overall cost, made good sense in minimizing imports
and achieving greater energy security.
As a result of
the 1974 decision, France now claims a substantial level of energy independence
and almost the lowest cost electricity in Europe. Over 90% of its electricity is
nuclear or hydro.
French AREVA has arrived
in the United States. Key figures for AREVA in the United States are:
•
Almost 1.7 billion dollars in sales revenue in 2006 (tripled in 3 years).
• More than 5,000 employees.
• 42 sites, both
industrial and commercial, in 20 states.
• Supplier of almost
half of all steam generators, pressurizes, and reactor vessel head replacements.
• CANBERRA, the AREVA
subsidiary specialized the supply of nuclear measurement
solutions for safety and
security and the world leader in its field,
• AREVA controls 25% of
the American market for PWR fuel.
• Almost 50% of all nuclear waste
transportation is handled by TN International, an AREVA subsidiary
Since our
Nuclear Power Plant additions have not been active in the US for 30 years,
the the French are about to take over the business in the US and the world. We
need to get with it right now.
China is underway big time. We
should also be.
China's nuclear program is
aggressive. Its economy is growing at 8 percent annually and it needs about $1.4
trillion to modernize its energy infrastructure. To get there, it's importing
nuclear technologies from Canada, France and Russia. China has twin goals: to
reduce its reliance on coal that now comprises about two-thirds of its
generating mix while increasing its nuclear portfolio from 2.3 percent of its
generation today to 6 percent -- 40,000 megawatts -- by 2020. By 2050, the aim
is to have 150,000 megawatts of installed nuclear capacity.
China now has
an Experimental Fast Breeder Reactor power plant now in operation that is almost
identical to our EBR II power plant that Clinton ordered destroyed during his
administration as payback to the environmentalists. You can bet the Chinese will
not destroy theirs.
China
and India are at the forefront of most new nuclear development.
China and the United States on
Saturday December 16, 2006 signed an agreement that paves the way for
Westinghouse Electric Co. to build four civilian nuclear reactors in China, a
multibillion dollar coup for U.S. business over French and Russian competitors.
China says it is planning to quadruple the volume of electricity generated at
its nuclear plants over the 2004 level by 2020. India envisages hiking its
volume of power generated at nuclear plants sevenfold.
Here is my prediction
Unless we go nuclear, civilization
as we know it will come to an end sometime in this century when fossil fuels run
out. We have sufficient technology in hand towards energy sustainability,
but we are letting some churches, environmentalists, and left
leaning politicians keeping us from deploying it.
PG&E's Diablo Canyon Power Plant Begins Scheduled
Refueling and Maintenance Outage On Unit 1
AVILA BEACH, Calif., April 30, 2007 /PRNewswire
Diablo Canyon Power Plant operators safely shut down Unit
1 at 1:30 a.m. Monday, April 30, 2007 to begin a scheduled refueling and
maintenance outage. Unit 1 operated continuously for 513 days, beginning at the
conclusion of the last refueling outage in December 2005.
Can you believe this? Full power
operation for almost one and a half years. And the environmentalists say nuclear
plants are not safe and are unreliable.
Epilogue
As you read this Web Site you will see
that nuclear power is the cleanest, safest, and often the cheapest way of
generating reliable electricity. And it is inevitable if we wish to survive.
If we do not get underway soon with
nuclear plants, we will have to import them from China in a decade or so.
Following is an excerpt from a China news article.
In July 2004, Ye Qizhen, chief designer
of the second phase of the Qinshan nuclear project, and a member of the
Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that Chinese engineers could "easily
develop" a 1,000-MW-class reactor. China Business Weekly reported in
February 2005 that China plans to design and build a 1,000-MW nuclear power
plant around the year 2012.
China's program to develop its own nuclear
power plant production infrastructure is aimed at export, as well as
domestic deployment.
Finally, Professor Per Peterson chairman
of the department of nuclear engineering at the University of California,
Berkeley, points out the following:
"We will face major environmental challenges during
the coming century, particularly in reducing carbon dioxide emissions from
our use of fossil fuels. Many people do not realize that by deploying
nuclear power at large scale, France was able to close its last coal mine in
April, 2004. The same potential exists in the United States."
A personal note:
One of my other endeavors is financial math..
I wrote a book entitled "The Mathematics of Personal Finance."
The mathematics in this book is not more advanced than ninth grade
algebra.
If you would like to get a book it is $20.95 and can bet bought through Barnes & Noble.com, Boarders.com
and any other book sellers. It does not appear on book shelves. It is
printed on demand and mailed to the readers who ask for it.
College students who do get the book
think that is great and wished their instructors would get it also. It was a
hobby of mine since I had to learn this subject to pass the State engineering
license exam. Also my youngest son has an MBA.
However, if one reads this book they will
never fall prey to the cheating and obfuscation going on today in the
financial world that has many losing their homes, buying worthless
insurance policies, and making poor investments. etc. You will swim with the
sharks and survive. Your will be more astute about finance than most bankers.
|