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Feature
Nuclear Renaissance Blossoms—Without the USA
The world is going nuclear while we’re going nowhere.
(Page 2 of 2)
It is easy to see where this is going. If the NRC ever issues a construction license, the builder will be second-guessed on every rivet until the project is years behind schedule and $5 billion over budget. That will prove, once again, that nuclear is “too expensive to be built in this country.” Meanwhile, China and Japan are building their reactors in less than four years for $5 billion. To the swift goes the race.
SIX MONTHS AGO, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu electrified the industry by suggesting in a Wall Street Journal editorial that the U.S. might find a niche in building small modular reactors — something about the size of a gazebo — that can be buried in the ground and power a town of 20,000 while running for 20 years without refueling. Both Babcock & Wilcox and a California company named Hyperion have designs. Moving in this direction could break the logjam at the NRC and offer utilities bite-sized projects that would not require them to risk their entire net worth.
Yet Hyperion already enquired about a license application at the NRC in 2006 and was told to go away — the Commission didn’t have time for such small potatoes. (License applicants must pay the entire cost of the process, which means an investment of tens of millions.) Meanwhile, the dream that the U.S. might regain some technological lead is already fading. Toshiba has a mini-reactor it has been trying for years to sell to Galena, Alaska, an isolated village entirely dependent on diesel imports. The Russians are outfitting small reactors on barges and floating them into Siberian coastal villages. Then three months after Chu’s op-ed, the Koreans announced they would also enter the field with their own mini-reactor. The idea that American companies, lumbering along under supervision of the NRC, can compete in this vigorous international market is already evaporating.
So the world is going nuclear without our help.
This will be the first time since the days of the American Revolution that the U.S. has not led a technological revolution. Railroads, central electricity, the automobile, the airplane, the Internet — all propelled us to the forefront of international competition while securing our economic dominance. Now we are lagging far behind in what will certainly be the prime energy source of the 21st century. The consequences may not show up in our economy for another two to three decades. When they do, however, they will be significant.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (19) | Leave a comment
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Eric Cartman| 10.31.10 @ 12:05PM
I wonder if Thomas Friedman would like us to be this China for a day. Someone should ask him.
Thomas Friedman| 10.31.10 @ 3:32PM
You have offended the proletariat with your anti-state rambling. You will be executed and your family billed for the cartridge. You may escape this fate by immediately buying subscriptions to the New York Times for yourself and sixty-eight friends.
David W| 10.31.10 @ 3:03PM
We can thank the NRC for continuing the stonewalling. We can thank the environmentalists who, instead of working to ensure nuclear power is safe, work hard to keep filing injunction after court order after complaint after whatever to slow advancement to a crawl. As they screw the nuclear energy companies they will start screwing the coal and natural gas companies with the help of Obama, the EPA, and the democrats. Energy costs will skyrocket, and we will be forced to burn wood to heat. This will of course require us to cut down all of the trees in the country. The environmentalists will try to stop that, but preventing us from cutting down trees is a lot harder than using the courts to stop the construction of more energy plants. Soon, we will be begging the Chinese to send us "energy" instead of just buying our treasury bonds.
Bruce | 10.31.10 @ 3:16PM
Exactly right, David. We had this happen right here on Long Island after the now defunct Long Island Lighting Company (morphed into the Long Island Power Authority) spent millions to build a supremely safe nuclear plant that could have powered the island for years, and was forced by enviro-Nazi lawsuits to tear the damned thing down before it ever went on line - with more millions spent to do so. Thank you NYPIRG for effectively doubling my electric rates, tripling my natural gas rates, and leaving me with a $300 per month gas &electric; payment ... on the "budget" plan! BTW, my home is only 1600 sq ft, fully insulated, all new energy star rated appliances, new 90% efficient gas furnace/water heater.
Oh the joy of living in the Peoples Republik of NY.
chuck| 10.31.10 @ 5:02PM
For God's sake,MOVE! I can't believe that people put up with the crap tha's being dished out daily in places like New York and California. At least California has nice weather, but what the hell does NY have besides being full of liberal bastards?
Bruce | 10.31.10 @ 9:04PM
Chuck, my home has been on the market for 2 years. I have reduced the price as far as I can while having enough left to pay cash for construction of a new place on property I already own in Tennessee. I am lucky in that my mortgage is long paid off - I have only credit card debt to pay off. Since I am on SS Disability, I cannot get a new construction mortgage, which leaves me in a bind.
The problem many like me in NY have is the damned Democrats have bumped every conceivable tax and fee so astronomically high that nobody can sell! There were at last count over 100 listings just in my town.
I would dearly like to have the means to just pick up and tell these clowns to shove it, but at my age I can't - simple as that. I am by no means alone in this quandary. The rich are leaving in droves, leaving middle class folks like me and the welfare leeches.
chuck| 10.31.10 @ 10:12PM
Bruce,
Sorry for your horrible situation. I truly hope you are able to sell your home, and move to Tennessee. I live in Ga, grew up in PA, then off to TX, and now GA. Love the south, people here are friendly, and much more conservative than in the north.
Good luck to you.
Chuck
Dixie Pixie| 10.31.10 @ 3:34PM
Like China under the Mandarins, the USA is being crushed under deliberately nonsensical rules and regulations.
Liberalism simply wants to repeal the Industrial Revolution so we can all live as Hunter-Gatherers as Gala intended.
To the Environmental Liberals all Technology is Evil especially Energy producing Nuclear Technology.
Anthony| 10.31.10 @ 5:20PM
Great point Eric. Somehow Thomas al Friedman remains strangely quiet on the subject of freeing the hands of our nuclear industry.
As is the case with this fraud and his fellow leftists, bureaucracy is just fine as long as it's Americans that are being hindered. China and the rest of the totalitarians are given a "green" pass.
It goes to further show the point that it's not about the enviornment, it's about punishing America.
Tuesday can't come fast enough!! Time to find new places to bury our nuclear waste, along with the America hating left.
Intelligent Design| 10.31.10 @ 5:44PM
We should be building nuclear power plants with the same sense of urgency that we manufactured weapons during WW II. Instead, nuclear construction has been on hold for 30 years (or more?). The radiation released at Three Mile Island was equivalent to a chest X-ray, but that incident along with the movie China Syndrome have shaped public policy. Ignorance of facts has caused the U.S. to remain dependent on foreign oil. This ignorance continues to jeopardize our economy, national security, and freedom.
no1patriot| 10.31.10 @ 5:51PM
The facts are there for all to see-in North Carolina where I live, we have had approval to build a nuclear reactor for 5 years..Everytime it's getting started, some environmentalist or official stop it again and again. The Japanese are building this one when our first one was built by America in the 60's, I think. It's unbeleivable how much pressure is being put on our economy by progressives and Obama to stiffle it while they give money to other countries for oil drilling, etc. Stimilus money was mostly a give away to foreign countries and to pay reparation for the "poor" whose new poverty level is now around $90,000 for a family of 4?? I love the idea that France is recycling their waste-I've always wondered why America wasn't doing this already since we have outstanding scientists and businesses who could do this if the government would leave them alone. We've lost 43,000 factories in 10 years-God help us-the government is killing us along with environmentalsists..I know Soros is funding monies all over to help kill our dollar since he made so much money off the collapse of Britain's pound. Sometimes it's hard to beleive that Americans don't see what's happening in greater numbers or just how many support our growing liberal society. Thanks for your remarks. I agree.
Osamas Pajamas| 10.31.10 @ 10:42PM
Very simple. When we run out of energy due to the moronic energy policies of green meanies, ecofreaks, and enviromaniacs, let's burn all the green meanies, ecofreaks, and enviromaniacs --- they're getting FAT on our tax oney, their fat will pop and sputter and burn real nice, in the fire.
Osamas Pajamas| 10.31.10 @ 10:42PM
Very simple. When we run out of energy due to the moronic energy policies of green meanies, ecofreaks, and enviromaniacs, let's burn all the green meanies, ecofreaks, and enviromaniacs --- they're getting FAT on our tax money, their fat will pop and sputter and burn real nice, in the fire.
Osamas Pajamas| 10.31.10 @ 10:46PM
We could pursue wind energy by chaining all the Democrats and the entire Democrat-captured media behind some huge windmills. These blowhard blowers could blow and blow and blow for wind-generated energy. It doesn't actually matter if this scheme works --- just as long as it gets all these stupid bastards the hell out of the way.
Nicolas Day| 11.1.10 @ 12:30AM
China's nuclear industry In 2001, the nuclear capacity for the most heavily populated country on Earth was slightly less than that of Finland. Nevertheless, the international nuclear industry is 'beating a path' to China's open door. Asia is a growth market for nuclear power. The question is no longer: can China’s nuclear industry maintain its current growth rate? The question now being asked is, can China accelerate that growth rate to meet the even more ambitious pace of its new energy plan?
http://dermaliftreview.com
Rod Clemetson| 11.25.10 @ 8:09AM
==> It's really tempting to lose patience with all the environmentalist/NRC negative attitudes. Paralysis by analysis. Look around. There's a quiet revolution under way in nuclear reactor design. Have you ever heard of a nuclear fuel called thorium? Well, innovation is alive and well in America, in the person of Kirk Sorensen, one of the leaders of the Thorium Energy Alliance (TEA). Kirk has a truly "green" solution to U.S. energy independence, plus an alternative to Iranian and North Korean nuclear weapons development.
Please take a look at the TEA web site. I promise you'll be amazed -- http://thoriumenergyalliance.com
-- check out Kirk's blog at -- http://energyfromthorium.com
Since 1965 there has existed a *CLEAN*, SAFE*, *NON-PROLIFERATING* nuclear reactor design called Molten Salt Reactor (MSR). The original 8 megawatt MSR was created by Alvin Weinberg's research team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). After considering several dozen alternative designs, Alvin's MSR was up and running for 5 years in the late 1960's.
Then the AEC trashed the MSR program and fired Dr. Weinberg, ORNL director, for insisting on better nuclear safety -- a career-ending, politically incorrect attitude. The AEC was convinced it already had all the best answers to construction safety and operating procedure safety -- so who needs another option? Now the NRC has driven Westinghouse and GE out of the nuclear energy business, and established China, South Korea, and Japan as the new owners of the nuclear reactor designs.
Google the "Thorium for Singapore" web site for a terrific set of essays detailing the obsessive path from Nautilus to Enterprise to Shippingport power plants, to another 100+ similar reactors (LWR's) that supply ~20% of our electricity. Then there's all the billions and billions spent on failed breeder reactors that could have been better spent on developing the proven MSR design.
So here we are, still stampeding down the path to uranium-fueled, water-cooled reactors. Kirk Sorensen is Chief Nuclear Technologist for Teledyne Brown Engineering, and is earning his doctorate in nuclear engineering. His work with thorium has led to the re-discovery of MSR's -- one of the best-kept (or MOST IGNORED) secrets of the last 50 years. Now the TEA has created a prototype design for a 4th-generation, thorium-fueled, version of the MSR called Liquid Flouride Thorium Reactor (LFTR).
Kirk has posted PDF files of all the original Oak Ridge MSR research papers at the "Energy from Thorium" web site. *SO* MSR's are no secret -- just *THOROUGHLY IGNORED*. Any nation with reasonably intelligent nuclear engineers can do the R&D to build LFTR's. Alvin's simple old MSR design (nicknamed the "3-P" -- a pot, a pipe, and a pump) could be engineered into commercial reality as LFTR within two or three years. Coal-fired generators could be completely phased out in 15 to 20 years. (Watch the coal lobby try to kill this notion.)
Power plant efficiency will be nearly 50% (vs. 35% for coal). Power at the meter will be around $.03/kwh (vs. $.04 for coal). Thorium can be totally, 100%, consumed (vs.
Rod Clemetson| 11.25.10 @ 8:22AM
==> (continuing original posting)
Power plant efficiency will be nearly 50% (vs. 35% for coal). Power at the meter will be around $.03/kwh (vs. $.04 for coal). Thorium can be totally, 100%, consumed (vs.
Rod Clemetson| 11.25.10 @ 8:12AM
==> (continuing previous post)
Power plant efficiency will be nearly 50% (vs. 35% for coal). Power at the meter will be around $.03/kwh (vs. $.04 for coal). Thorium can be totally, 100%, consumed (vs.
Rod Clemetson| 11.25.10 @ 8:20AM
==> (still continuing previous post)
Power plant efficiency will be nearly 50% (vs. 35% for coal). Power at the meter will be around $.03/kwh (vs. $.04 for coal). Thorium can be totally, 100%, consumed (vs.