Obama pulled the plug on the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository after the government spent 13 billion dollars making the facility. This was another example of how the government manages its business. This project was poorly conceived to begin with.
It was really not what the nuclear utility companies wanted. What they really wanted was the legal authority to reprocess and recycle the spent fuel.
The recycled spent fuel is a valuable source of fuel.
In addition reprocessing drastically reduces the amount of nuclear waste that needs to be disposed of.
Most of the spent fuel is U238 commonly known as depleted uranium. Only a small part of the fuel, less than five percent, is radioactive waste. This material can and should be put in "torpedo" canisters and sunk in the mud at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
There are nuclear reactors currently under testing at the Idaho National Lab that can burn almost all the nuclear fuel. They are a type of "breeder reactor" that transforms the U238 into more radioactive isotopes. These reactors will further reduce the amount of waste to an insignificant amount.
But, the closing of Yucca Mountain was a victory for the radical anti-nuclear activists in the Obama administration. They say they are for nuclear energy but all their actions indicate the contrary. If they do not allow reprocessing this then will be the end of nuclear energy in this country.
That means the bet is "all in" on "green energy." Obama has doubled down on this bet by throwing $3.4 billion of stimulus money out of a helicopter for the so-called "Smart Grid." This new electrical grid is required to have any chance for green energy to work. But it will also be used to restrict electrical use - it will do this by charging more for electricity in peak demand periods and even cutting off power if necessary.
So the government is now taking over banking, healthcare industry, auto makers, electrical power - hmmm, what's next? There seems to be a picture emerging, a picture where the government is taking over our entire economy - scares the he11 out of me !!!
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The Sierra Club is a club of liars. They will say and do anything to raise false concerns and fears about nuclear energy. I'm afraid they have infested or maybe they were welcomed into the Obama administration.
We are on the edge of an economic abyss. There will be electrical shortages and escalating electrical rates in the not so distance future. This is the norm whenever the government gets involved in the distribution of goods and services.
November 5, 2009 at 1:34 p.m.Just one more thing we have to thank Jimmy "Peanut Farmer" Carter for. Just add it to the list, although in terms of impact on the country, it pales in comparison to his Community Reinvestment Act. If there is ONE thing one can point to as the cause of the recent financial collapse, that is it. This ill-conceived, misbegotten piece of legislation lay relatively dormant until Bill "Hillbilly White Trash" Clinton and his minions rediscovered it. They used it to blackmail banks and mortgage companies into make loans they would never have otherwise made, leading to a baloon real estate market, massive mortgage defaults and the financial failures that inevitably followed.
If you want to witness a really amusing series of contortions, ask a dyed-in-the-wool tree-hugger how they can favor "greenhouse gas" reduction and simultaneously oppose nuclear energy, the only truly non-polluting source of electricity. The resulting song and dance is hilariously entertaining.
November 5, 2009 at noonIt is sad the propaganda against nuclear energy. If we had gone far more for it years ago we would be much better off in the electrical needs.
I remember when I was going to college the economics prof. subscribed to some magazines from Europe. In them there were articles many times that Europe was worried that we were not pushing more nuclear energy since it would keep us from going to war for oil.
:-O
November 5, 2009 at 11:35 a.m.