If we are going to seize the opportunity to harness U.S. potential in clean energy and become less dependent on foreign oil, we must build more nuclear power plants.Few people realize there are more than 16,000 facilities across America that generate the electricity we need each day. Although just 104 of those facilities are nuclear power plants, they produce 20 percent of our nation’s electricity, and more than one-third of Pennsylvania’s power.Independent organizations, including the National Academies of Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), all agree that nuclear energy must be aggressively expanded over the next few decades.Pennsylvania and the nation need this expansion for three reasons: replacing existing nuclear plants that eventually will close, meeting growing demand for electricity and expanding a low-carbon energy portfolio.By 2050, virtually all of the nuclear plants operating today, including nine in Pennsylvania, are scheduled to close after operating for 60 years. Because nuclear plants generate continuous electricity, intermittent power generators such as wind and solar cannot replace them. More than 70 new nuclear plants will be needed to replace existing reactors, but those will not address growing demand for electricity or replacing other facilities on an electricity grid that is increasingly high-tech……Building new nuclear energy facilities cannot solve our energy and environmental challenges alone, but they will be an important part of a balanced solution. A single reactor can replace seven fossil-fueled power plants that burn 5.7 million tons of coal a year and emit 11 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. One reactor can replace 19 typical natural gas plants that burn 86 billion cubic feet of natural gas a year and pump another 5.5 million tons of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere.
Monthly Archives: November 2010
Getting on with business very difficult for nuclear related ventures.
This article “Boss Power Provides Update on Progress of Company’s Lawsuit Against Province of B.C.” by Marketwatch.com
Discusses the unreasonable delays for permits and basically ruining there chance for competition.
…on October 28th and 29th, 2010 the Province brought an application in British Columbia Supreme Court attempting to have the Boss Power claim and action against the Province dismissed on a summary application. In a written judgment dated November 23rd, 2010, the Court dismissed the Province\’s application. In addition to dismissing the Province\’s application, the court ordered the Province to pay Boss Power’s legal costs for responding to the application.
Boss Power Corp.\’s President and CEO Randy Rogers noted: “We continue to seek compensation for the damages suffered by the Company from both the expropriation of the Blizzard Uranium Property in 2008 and the conduct of certain officials in failing to deal with our exploration permits. The trial will proceed in this matter in early 2011.”
Are we hopelessly lost in the past? Nuclear is back and better than ever.
Fertel: New nuclear plants essential to Pennsylvania’s future
By MARVIN FERTELContributing writer with GoErie.com
Good article for putting things in perspective. To employ so many and to activate local industry growth are huge reasons to support nuclear energy!!!
American Nuclear Society
AUDEEN FENTIMAN Associate dean of engineering, professor of nuclear engineering at Perdue University testifies to Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future.
Last week Fentiman testified on behalf of the American Nuclear Society to the Blue Ribbon Commission. Their final report will be submitted in January 2012 to The Blue Ribbon Commission. The Blue Ribbon Commission final report is also due by January 2012.
Eric Weddle of BoilerStation.com asked “In your testimony, you said the main obstacles to a rational fuel cycle policy are political, financial and social, but not technological. Why is that?”
AUDEEN FENTIMAN: That is a major point that we made. All of the things that we are saying we need — geological storage, interim storage sites or even recycling — all of those things are being done and have been done to some extent somewhere in the world. So technically we know how to know them. We need a long-term policy and for that, we need financial, political and social (support). …READ MORE
Main obstacles “political, financial and social, but not technological” How about that?
For Sale: Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant
UPDATE: Not sure if it’s too late but for full background on the foolishness behind the shutdown read
EnergyFromThorium discussion on Vermont Yankee Shutdown
This article discusses how some nuclear shutdowns are too costly and undesirable to look after.
But I see this as a big maybe for a Generation IV Nuclear makeover. But how much will it cost to convert or clean up? 180 million could mean that this is a potential shortcut to getting new licencing for a LFTR.
Is nuclear power facing a reversal of fortune?
TUESDAY, 16 NOVEMBER 2010 14:03
BY ROGER WITHERSPOONANALYSIS
Entergy Corporation’s low key announcement might well have been posted on Craig’s List:
For Sale: Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant
Used, unpredictable radioactive leaks, poorly run, financially indebted, locally unpopular, politically shunned and currently not working. $180 Million — Or Best Offer.
Nuclear more sustainable forget renewable!!!
What’s all this talk about Nuclear Energy not being renewable as if renewable is the best way to go. They appear like an elegant solution in theory but in practice the solar and wind technologies are not clean or sustainable. The space they occupy is enormous and the the fact that they are intermittent means that the base load energy that is used when the wind or the sun is not around makes them ineffective and environmentally unfriendly in land use. You know that I’ll mention that nuclear is very efficient and land usage is small per kilowatt compared to the renewable’s. Any time someone wants to chip in some facts and figures please do.
I’ve found myself loaded with day and night work lately so my postings are less frequent. My best months this year were July, August and September for keeping the blogs going.
One thing hasn’t changed much. The way that corporations run the energy sector. They are profit driven and run by non-scientists. What happens when the often mentioned silver bullet proves to be a risk financially but is the actual best solution to saving the planet from climate change? That leaves us with a conscience that needs to question whether our political and economic system need to be more balanced with nature and less influenced by profit motive and politics and doing business less codependently. A political system that has four year cycles may not be the answer when technologically challenging goals of 10, 20, 30 and 40 year spans need to be seriously considered.
I have noticed the public is waking up to the possibility of a Nuclear Energy future. Let’s renew the hope for Nuclear Energy. I remember the time when we thought with some idealism, when shows like The Jetsons had scripts that reminded us that the future was not so unattainable.
Wikipedia describes The Jetsons plot as:
George Jetson works 3 hours a day and 3 days a week for his short, tyrannical boss named Mr. Cosmo Spacely, owner of the company Spacely Space Sprockets. As found in Season 2, Episode 23, A Jetson Christmas Carol, George Jetson and Cosmo Spacely have been friends since their childhood. Typical episodes involve Spacely firing, rehiring, promoting and demoting Jetson. Spacely has a competitor, H. G. Cogswell, owner of the rival company Cogswell’s Cosmic Cogs. The Jetson family live in Skypad Apartments in Orbit City, where all homes and businesses are raised high above the ground on adjustable columns in the Googie style, reflective of Seattle‘s Space Needle and the Theme Building of the Los Angeles International Airport. George commutes to work in an aerocar that resembles a flying saucer with a transparent bubble top. Daily life is characterized as being comically leisurely because of the incredible sophistication and number of labor saving devices, which occasionally break down with humorous results. George’s work day consists of pressing a single computer button. Despite this, characters often complain of exhausting hard labor and difficulties of living with the remaining inconveniences.
Other Jetson family members include Jane Jetson, the wife and homemaker; teenage daughter Judy; and genius preteen son Elroy. Housekeeping is seen to by a robot maid, Rosie. She only appears in two episodes of the original 1960s show[citation needed], excluding her appearance in the closing credits, but makes many appearances on the 1980s show.
The family dog Astro can mumble and say his words beginning with R’s. Astro’s catch phrases are “Ruh-roh!” (now a meme in informal conversation by many), “Right, Reorge!”, and “Rats Rall Right Reorge!” Later Hanna-Barbera cartoon dogs including Scooby-Doo and Muttley would use speech as well; voice actor Don Messick played all three.
I will finish with just saying that Molten Salt Reactor science was tested and proven to be operable back in the 1960’s. Back then they talked about leisure time increasing in the future and somehow the opposite has become true. Perhaps abundant energy could enable this possibility.
Two Reports from John Kutsch – Washington DC and London England
John Kutsch’s Field Trip to Washington DC for Small Modular Reactor Conference and the London ITHEO Thorium Energy Conference Monday October 18, 2010 (Both events the same week)
Small Modular Reactor Conference
Morning session – a deadly combination – Dull and Depressing. It was supposed to be about the licensing procedure for an S.M.R The DOE and NRC droned on about the absolute nature of the NRC. They gave a monotonous panel discussion that amounted to:
1) Things are going to stay exactly as they are
2) We know best and have the track record to prove it
3) We may get around to licensing Small Modular Reactors in the next decade or so
– new fuel arrangements (no mention of Liquid Fuels) could beapproved in 20 to 30 years, depending on staffing levels. Basically a repeat of what was said at the Blue Ribbon Commission in Washington DC I attended.
The afternoon session was to be about the economics of Small Modular Reactors. First, there would be three speakers from industry first, then Jim Kennedy from Wings Iron and I would speak about LFTR / MSR, Thorium and Rare Earths.
The first speakers presented some basic information about what size reactors would make sense, a bit about what they might cost, how to deploy them in a reasonable manner, and even a little bit about what nation(s) may get around to licensing such reactors.
The icing on the cake was when the last speaker of the three said “There is no example of aworking small reactor, so this is all uncharted territory . . .”
I said “ What about Submarines and University reactors” – I wish Rod Adams was there. After a break when I thought we would lose the noticeably weary audience, it was our turn to talk. [I believe I need to thank Stephan Colvin, a Public Relations person who heroically made the trip to DC, who I hear told folks they should stay for the talk.] The moderator got up and asked “Has anyone here heard of Thorium?” – about ¼ of the hands went up. [This was at a SMR conference]
My talk was this: Thorium Energy Alliance is here to help reawaken research and deployment of the Molten Salt Reactor. I told them the core points about Thorium that we all know but was clearly news to them. I gave a very brief history mentioning the Shipping Port Reactor, The Aircraft Reactor, and the MSRE – pointedly noting that these are real reactors that ran for thousands of hours and not paper reactors. I let them know that the MSR Type reactor is the original Small Modular Reactor. I showed them some plans and a layout of what a Molten Salt (LFTR) Reactor would look like, specifically our proposed pre-commercial consortium facility that we are working to place at the University of Illinois.
I asked them to make an urgent appeal to save the Uranium 233 from needless destruction. I also made the point that you find Thorium Oxide most everywhere in the world, it was much cleaner to mine than Uranium, and you always find some amount of it with Rare Earth Deposits. So if we made domestic Rare Earth concentrates for things like the technologies of the future , we would also get the the fuel element to run the technology of the future. I ended by telling them that they aredoing important work and that I hope they consider switching to Thorium.
An impact must have been made, because I got several questions. The questions came from the Canadians, an Indian, and 2 Men from England – I am assuming the folks in the audience giving me the hairy eyeball were the Americans from Hyperion, B&W, and NuScale.
Jim Kennedy, from Wings Iron and the Peabody Mine was the final speaker and took up the talk about the need for a domestic Rare Earth Facility. Most importantly, by far, was the announcement at the conference that Jim had gotten backing for the Peabody Mine operation from Glencore, a huge start to having a full Rare Earth Refinery back in operation in the USA. It was so great to see that Jim, after years of struggle in the middle of a huge recession had finally gotten the message through and had deservedly finally got the backing to bring the USA back into the business of making things. Jim made the the case that we are loosing the ability to retain advanced manufacturing in the USA because China is using the leverage of control of the worlds supply of Rare Earths to force companies to relocate to China.
It was fortunate to have the example of the Japan incident to show China was willing to play black mailer. It was good to finally be able to show China’s true stripes to the Senate staff that Jim met with just before the conference. Jim pointed out that China has a game plan and that the United States and the rest of the world do not, that if we wanted the materials of the future and the energy of the future we must have a plan for domestic lanthinide production and a means to stockpile Thorium.
Jim ended the talk by saying that we need to solve some core problems as well as energy generation from domestic sources if we want a future for our children. There was a tremendous response to Jim, and the questions came very fast. I urged them to go to ThoriumEnergyAlliance.com and learn about the issues and join us, before I had to leave to London – Jim Kennedy and Stephen Colvin answered questions for an hour more, they had to be told to clear the room.
Jim had predicted from the time we signed on to speak that we would cause a ruckus, it would appear we knocked the scales from many of the attendees eyes. I need to look up what Rod Adams experience was the next day. I hope we primed the audience for him. Gwyneth Cravens was also there, I’ll have to see what her take on the event was.
Wednesday, October 20th, 2010 – ITHEO Thorium Conference
I actually arrived on Tuesday the 19th, I am very disappointed that I missed Kirk Sorensen speak but I did get to see one of my favorite speakers Dave LeBlanc.
Dave gave a great rundown of his work designing reactors and had a great visual display using a golf ball, a soccer ball and the Auditorium of the Royal Institution which is ball shaped to point out the energy density of Thorium, Uranium and Coal , but Jet-lag is a bummer and my brain seized up late in the day and I crashed at the Mermaid Hotel after only a few Ales at the corner pub.
I arrived back at the Royal Institution in the morning more or less just in time to jump up to the podium (I need to look at those conference notes closer). What I said was this: The Thorium Energy Alliance exists to help the worlds Nuclear community switch to a Thorium based energy economy. I spoke some about our concept for the consortium MSR for University of Illinois (or maybe University of Missouri).
I asked for their support in trying to save the stock pile of U233. Ask their governments and institutions to contact ours, etc.
I think the most pertinent point I stressed was that absolute intractable nature of the NRC. I explained my experience at the BRC and the SMR conference, and I pointed out that they need to be concerned because OUR NRC is THEIR NRC whether they like it or not. The NRC is the regulator of the world and their work will depend on how successful we are in getting some reform at the NRC that will be a responsive licensor of new technologies.
At that point I thanked them, told them I was proud of all their hard work and I gave Andreas Norlin a Thorium Energy Alliance T-Shirt and thanked him for organizing the conference.
Later in the afternoon there was a question and answer session for the media.
I need to thank Kirk Sorensen for correcting a missperception I had had that Admiral Rickover was primarily responsible for the demise of the MSRE, apparently I need to brush up on my history a little.
Robert Hargraves gave a wonderful bit of evidence that he is having an impact on the international dialog by showing how Peabody Coal(?) had pilfered some of his talking points almost word for word. Always a great surprise to hear what Robert has to say.
Andreas Norlin ended the conference, and I think he should be very proud of his great work in wrangling folks from far and wide. Kirk and I spoke about having another TEAC event in March, I think he is right on. I’ll have to wait until he has the venue secured to make a firm announcement.
Kirk really summed it up noting that it had ONLY been exactly a year since the first ThoriumEnergy Alliance Conference in Washington DC. He made my day when he waxed on about the great progress made in just a year – he gave me great hope that rapid progress can be made and that some impatient folks willing to put their time and resources behind some thing can move mountains. Thank you all for your inquiries and interest, you are the reason I do this – can’t wait until we meet again!
– John Kutsch , Executive Director , ThoriumEnergyAlliance.com 312-303-5019
ThoriumMSR 
