New Nuke Could POWER WORLD UNTIL 2083 — Salt Reactor Runs On Nuclear Waste

A company spun off from MIT is claiming it has cracked the holy grail of nuclear technology: a reactor design that runs on materials the industry currently discards as waste and which could meet all of the world’s power demands for the next 70 years. It’s also “walk-away safe,” the designers claim, making it immune to the kind of meltdown that destroyed the Fukushima reactors.

The Waste Annihilating Molten Salt Reactor (WAMSR) is based on designs first dreamt up in the 1950s for reactors that used liquid rather than solid fuels. Two graduate students at MIT have now upgraded those designs so that the reactors can be fueled by nuclear waste, and also designed a safety system that will automatically shut the reactor down without power or human intervention.

Japan Decides Economy First

Despite safety concerns Japan has decided to resume operations at two idle nuclear reactors, opening the door to the country’s return to nuclear power after complete shutdown in the wake of the Fukushima disaster.

­On Saturday, Prime Minster Yoshihiko Noda announced the decision to restart the reactors at Ohi nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture in central Japan, Reuters reports. Earlier Fukui Governor Issei Nishikawa conveyed his approval for restarting the No.3 and No.4 reactors to the prime minister.

This is the first restart among Japan’s 50 idle nuclear reactors since March 2011, when the country was struck by world’s worst nuclear catastrophe after Chernobyl.

The decision comes despite numerous public protests and safety concerns.

The nuclear industry remains powerful in Japan and has been pushing for the restart of operations as country’s economy has heavily relied on nuclear power.

The decision reflects government’s concerns about the damage to the economy and underlines the unpopular premier’s eagerness to win backing from businesses worried about high electricity costs that could push factories offshore.

Germany Building 17 New Coal, 29 New Gas-Fired Power Stations

I guess the glbal warming lies were too much for Germany this winter. But Obama is still plugging agead, as he must think Americans are too stupid for his grandiose teleprompter and his magic negro voice.

But in Europe they froze this last winter, the weather was not as kind to them as it was in the eastern USA.

German utilities and private investors have plans to construct or modernize some 84 power stations, energy and water industry association BDEW said on Monday. Of the total number counted 29 units were gas-fired and 17 coal-fired generation plants, it said. The plans this year reflect over a year of debate on how to best replace Germany’s nuclear power stations, which must be closed faster than planned in light of the nuclear disaster in Japan in March 2011.—Reuters, 23 April 2012

It’s a real paradox: As a result of Germany’s green energy transition, nuclear power is on its way out, but coal, Germany’s dirtiest resource, has become the most important energy source again. Brown coal (lignite) in experiencing a renaissance in Germany. Last year, about a quarter of the electricity generated used this most environmentally adverse resource. Its consumption grew by 3.3 percent. This has made lignite the number one energy supplier. The Government’s planned energy transition was supposed to, among other things, produce environmentally friendly electricity. It turns out, however, that the power gap, which was created by the shutdown of eight nuclear power stations, will be largely filled by brown coal.

And don’t forget in WWII Hitler ran the Germain war machine on a coal to liquids process, called
Fischer–Tropsch process. Hey you don’t know what that is, google it.

Argentina’s shale reserves are believed to be the third biggest in the world, after those of the US and China.

Sheesh it is unbecoming to see a US President lie without any hesitation.

Some more choice headlines …

The Prime Minister believes that unlocking the reserves of gas in shale rock under the county’s countryside has the potential to be a “revolution” creating thousands of extra jobs for the county. Mr Cameron said: “We can complete the review and see whether gas can be extracted safely, clearly in America this has been something of a revolution. I am fully alert to the potential and I am looking very closely at this industry with energy independence and security of vital importance to our country.”—Lancashire Evening Post, 20 April 2012

Until recently we thought that conventional gas was going to run out and the most plentiful supplies of the stuff were in Russia or the Gulf. Now that we realise the rocks under our feet may hold supplies that would last for generations, the world has changed and the greens haven’t caught up. I detect something else behind the “shale rage” of the European greens. They got too close to the present renewables industries and let governments hand out subsidies without enough competition over price. They thought gas would get so expensive that renewables would look cheap by comparison. They were wrong. Instead of getting angry with the frackers, they should adapt their thinking to a world in which gas prices could fall, and persuade governments to spend some of the money we will save on a generation of renewables that might actually solve our problems.—Charles Clover, The Sunday Times, 22 April 2012 [Registration Required]

The EU member states’ energy ministers remain opposed to binding energy efficiency targets and a freeze on CO2 emissions allowances. The debate at an informal Energy Council, on 19 April in Horsens, Denmark, gave them the opportunity to confirm their positions on this issue. Without going back over all the different points of the directive, the ministers reiterated their total opposition to the inclusion of binding targets in the text, as demanded by Parliament. They could nevertheless agree to an indicative target of 1.5% energy savings, to be achieved gradually by 2020.—Anne Eckstein, Europolitics, 20 April 2012[Registration Required]

Obama’s Nuclear Politics

Congress has approved plans to go ahead with the Yucca Mountain waste facility. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko has other ideas.

No Yucca Mountain, no nuclear waste storage, no nuclear power plants. Isn’t that Obama’s plan for America’s nuclear energy, flush billions of dollars down the drain, for nothing, and deprive America of nuclear power. Besides, storing in in pools of water outside the power plant worked so well for the Japanese — If anything it showed the dangers of such a plan.

How To Speed The Issuance Of Nuclear Power Permits: Issue them!!

At this weeks House Energy and Power Subcommittee hearing on EPA’s job killing greenhouse gas regulations, Rep. Cory Power (R-CO) asked panel witness Dan Reicher — a longtime anti-nuke campaigner trying to position himself as some sort of “clean energy” expert — what could be done to accelerate the issuance of nuke plant permits.

While Reicher stammered and temporized, another witness  took the microphone and ironically declared, “Issue them.”

Government people at the EPA have strange minds …

Obama, America’s WTF President

President WTF … Why don’t we invest in something like this?

China bets on thorium

China has committed itself to establishing an entirely new nuclear energy programme using thorium as a fuel, within 20 years. The LFTR (Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor) is a 4G reactor that uses liquid salt as both fuel and coolant. China uses the more general term TMSR (Thorium Molten-Salt Reactor).

The thorium fuel cycles produce almost no plutonium, and fewer higher-isotope nasties, the long-lived minor actinides. Thorium is much more abundant than uranium, and the reduced plutonium output eases proliferation concerns. The energy output per tonne is also attractive, even though thorium isn’t itself a fissile material.

Thorium reactors are also safer, with the fuel contained in a low-pressure reactor vessel, which means smaller (sub-500MWe) reactors may be worth building. The first Molten-Salt Breeder prototype was built at Oak Ridge in 1950, with an operational reactor running from 1965 to 1969. Six heavy-water thorium reactors are planned in India, which has the world’s largest thorium deposits.

The design has also had its champions in Europe, but planning restrictions and a continent-wide policy obsession with conservation and renewables have seen little commercial action. But that might change.

A private company founded by Kazuo Furukawa, designer of the Fuju reactor, called International Thorium Energy & Molen-Salt Technology Inc (iThEMS) aims to produce a small (10KW) reactor within five years. Furukawa is aiming for a retail price of 11 US cents per kWh (6.8p per kWh).

Is this too complicated for you? I mean we will need electricity, and as this Feb 1, 2011 photo shows, it’s tough to deliver at only 8x current rates.

And solar, you don’t want to know what that does to the $1 a KWH that wind delivers. Compare to your current bill and report back.

Nuclear Power, Good — Lying, Not So Good

So tell me, why did you just cancel Yucca Mountain? Where you gonna store the wastes, because I am pretty sure just keeping in in barrels somewhere is not a really good long term idea. A bribe for supporting a hoax … Only in Obama’s weird world does this make sense.

Trillions in new taxes for two nuclear power plants, if you pass our lying climate change bill, so our government scientists can pretend to control the weather. Tough sell a lie, especially when everyone knows it is a lie … The White House is working hard to advance climate change legislation in Congress and hopes an announcement to jumpstart the nuclear power industry will appeal to Republican skeptics, a top adviser to Obama said.

Obama will announce on Tuesday an $8.3 billion loan guarantee to help Southern Co build two reactors, a move that the administration hopes will invigorate the nuclear power industry after nearly three decades in which no new plants have been built.

Carol Browner, Obama’s top energy and climate adviser, said she was hopeful about progress on energy and climate legislation that is currently stalled in the U.S. Senate.

Say Obama, I have a suggestion, why not build nuclear power plants and skip the lies. Just trying to help. You may want to consider, trust is not a renewable resource, and you sir, are running really low on it.

The Joker On Energy Independence

A Senate vote to kill funding for the spent fuel repository in Nevada shows the Democratic Party and this administration aren’t serious about energy independence, economic growth or environmental protection.

More here:

How Do You Know There Is A Greenhouse Crisis ?

Simple, the DOE is refusing to allow construction of nuclear power plants. Now how stupid is that? Why would you deny loan guarantees? Nuclear Power is the only thing that does not emit the dreaded greenhouse gases.

Even China has ten nuclear power plants under construction right now.

DOE denies USEC’s loan guarantee; layoffs coming: The Department of Energy has denied USEC Inc.’s application for a $2 billion loan guarantee, and the company has started “demobilizing” the American Centrifuge Project, which currently employs about 450 at its Oak Ridge manufacturing site.

“There will be layoffs,” USEC spokeswoman Elizabeth Stuckle said this morning. However, the number and the timing of those layoffs has not been determined, she said..

“We will have more details later on. All those details we’re still figuring out,” Stuckle said.

USEC Chief Executive Officer John K.Welch, after learning that DOE would not grant the loan guarantee, made this statement today:

“We are shocked and disappointed by DOE’s decision. The American Centrifuge met the original intent of the loan guarantee program in that it would have used an innovative, but proven, technology, reduced greenhouse gas emissions and created thousands of immediate jobs across the United States.

Source:

We Need 100 Nukes by 2030

Let me start off, I am a big supporter of nuclear power. If you worship the CO2 god, then your salvation should be nuclear power — Else you are just scamming for the taxes. It’s a good issue for Republicans to push …

I stole this post, because when I read the part about 100 nukes, the first thing that occurred to me is they better be safe nukes. The world is designing, and in some cases building, smaller nuclear power plants. These are designed to reduce the needs for huge transmission lines, but have a worry of all their own. Are they safe? No, not the reactor itself, but the operations of the reactor, and the physical security of the reactor. These new reactors complexes are small, typically under a few hundred megawatts in generation capacity, and are therefore much more vulnerable to all sorts of hazards.

I am not convinced these smaller nuclear generators, unless clustered in a central location, are as safe as their larger brethren. Factory built, does reduce costs and increase quality of build though. So someone would have to step up and show me the facts about siting and operation before I would say OK.

We Need 100 Nukes by 2030 [Carl Shockley]

After fumbling over the Waxman-Markey initiative for several months, Republicans have finally hit their stride. Both House and Senate members are quickly falling behind the rallying cry, “100 New Reactors by 2030.”

“I think global warming is a real problem but I don’t think the solutions the Democrats are coming up with are going to accomplish anything,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander (R., Tenn.), head of the Senate GOP caucus. “The only thing that’s going to allow us to cut carbon emissions is clean nuclear energy. We built 100 reactors between 1970 and 1990. We can do the same thing now. If global warming is the inconvenient problem, then nuclear power is the inconvenient answer.”

Alexander and three other Tennessee legislators were on hand Wednesday morning as Babcock & Wilcox introduced its new “mPower” 125-megawatt modular reactor that it will submit to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2011. The $750 million reactor will be built in a factor and shipped to the site by rail, where it would be completely buried underground and refuel only once every five years. “Everything in this reactor would be made in America,” said Republican Bob Corker, Tennessee’s other senator.

Congressman Zach Wamp (R., Tenn.) warned that the United States is falling behind other countries in nuclear technology. “What we’re talking about here isn’t just a revival of the nuclear industry,” he said. “We’re talking about an American industrial renaissance.”