Monthly Archives: February 2011

Outlook for Ontario's Nuclear Future?

Posted on by • Posted in nuclear, nuclear plants • Tagged , , , , , , , • 1 Comment

Ontario government’s $87 Billion dollar plan proposes large chunk for nuclear energy which is mostly refurbishing of 10 existing reactors plus 2 new reactors assuming the nuclear industry gets their act together. As you may be aware the Canadian government Crown Corporation AECL is for sale. The trouble is the price is enormous and the new investor will need to inherit* a fleet of reactors that are state of the art but have a history of cost over runs and delays. If the new investor knew that delays and accurate predictions were possible it would be a more attractive package.

The Toronto Star’s coverage:
Ontario energy plan raises tough issues
Toronto Star Graphic

*Some exchange I had with DV82XL for a little more clarification:

Rick:I have a question. The $22 Billion deal to sell AECL.
Does that include all of the reactors?

DV82XL: AECL no longer owns any of the power reactors in Canada. They only have the research reactors at Chalk River, and to the best of my understanding that facility is not part of the deal. I believe the plan is to have Chalk River and Whiteshell labs run by the National Research Council, but that hasn’t been firmed up as of this date.

Rick: OK so the 22 Billion entitles the buyers to what exactly?
It seems a very hefty price for not owning any reactors.
What responsibilities would they have?

DV82XL:Well that’s the rub, isn’t it?

As I understand it the only thing that any potential buyer wants is the CANDU division, the refurb division, and the fuel fabrication business, and yes $22B is a bit much. Remember this is the asking price.

The Gov’mt wants the purchaser to take the whole thing, and keep the jobs going, and that seems to be the sticking point.

Rick: Who owns the plants then?

DV82XL: Ontario Power Generation owns and operates the Pickering(6 units) and Darlington(4 units) and Bruce Power(8 units) owns and operates the Bruce Station.

Hey Utah, China knows Weinberg was right about TMSR's. No Water Needed!

Posted on by • Posted in Advocates, Charles Barton, education, Kirk Sorensen, LFTR, nuclear, nuclear plants, reprocessing, thorium • Tagged , , , , , , , , , • 1 Comment

Utah needs water for nuclear power but water is scarce. (see Article in the Salt Lake tribune) The only alternative besides a LFTR is Natural Gas.

What’s that? A “LiFTer”? Huh? A LFTR is a Molten Salt Reactor that is a Fourth Generation Reactor yet it’s origins are predecessors of our current reactors. Why does China and Japan want them? China has started their own program as of last month. Japan will likely follow this year. Why? Because they are extremely adaptable and useful for all kinds of applications.  Besides, thorium is plentiful and the reactors emit zero carbon dioxide. Natural gas emits how much CO2? We know that it’s a lot.

The TMSR’s are cleaner and more fuel efficient and create almost no nuclear waste. Oh, and did I mention that it can also reprocess used fuel very effectively and that they are less expensive to build than LWR’s because they don’t need a dome containment.  Who invented the TMSR? Weinberg!!! Alvin Weinberg. You know who invented the light bulb. You know who invented the telephone. But you don’t know who invented the LWR. The basic principal originated with guess who? Alvin Weinberg!!! The 104 reactors (soon to be 105 if things work out) are all based on Alvin Weinberg’s design. Is his name in your child’s history book or science book? No.

These facts have been stated over and over among the various websites who advocate the Thorium Molten Salt Reactor and it’s successor the LFTR. China says it might take them 20 years but experts here say it could be done in less than 10 years maybe even 5 years. What’s stopping us? Just a few regulatory and licensing hurdles and an entourage of  ”do gooder” antinuclear groups who, like Oprah Winfrey’s audience, judges before they know the facts. Sorry Oprah. I guess you deserve some credit for recognizing they exist. I guess Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck also count on the gullible masses.

LFTR’s don’t use water. They don’t need pressurized containment. They can be shut down very quickly.  What’s the old KnowItAll Nuclear establishment’s excuse? The graphite cracks. Hmm that’s a 50 year old problem. Material knowledge has grown immensely in 50 years. There are a whole group of smart guys who believe in this technology. You owe it to Alvin Weinberg. You owe it to the American people. You can’t just let this huge body of knowledge stay on the shelves of some library at ORNL.

“A single thorium mine in Idaho could produce 4500 MT of fuel per year. The current US energy load could be supplied by 400MT. We also ALREADY have 3200 MT of it stored underground in a Nevada Test Site from past efforts.”

It’s taken almost 30 years for us to realize that we’ve fallen behind in the energy race. We still are a highly resourceful people. The next wave of reactors really should be LFTR’s but how about building just one to start. What better opportunity than a place that is short of water. Ironically the 1st reactor in thirty years will start in 2012 will still be based on the LWR’s. And in that time France built their fleet to handle 80% of their electricity.  It’s not the law enforcers who are to blame it’s the model of regulation, licensing and punitive rules for the unfair advantage they have over fossil fuels.

Even if the country does not embrace LFTR’s I am still pronuclear. The developments over the last 30 years have been huge in improvements to LWR’s and HWR’s (Canada’s contribution).

You can look around here or go to http://energyfromthorium.com or http://nucleargreen.blogspot.com or check out my blog list for more information.

Wired gets the China news on TMSR – LFTR before anyone else

Posted on by • Posted in Advocates, education, LFTR, New Posts, nuclear, nuclear plants, thorium • 1 Comment
Congratulations to Richard Martin for publishing a very important story. Actually Kirk Sorensen on EnergyFromThorium website and forum alerted us advocates and that must have included Richard.

China Takes Lead in Race for Clean Nuclear Power (Wired Magazine article)

The idea that US journalists and politicians have not learned about Thorium Molten Salt Reactors
is shocking and Jason Correia commented on the
news from China on Kirk Sorensen’s post:

I agree about *nobody up high enough knows* but seriously, ANYONE who might spend 30 minutes reading up on nuclear energy matters on the internet would probably stumble upon LFTR. And the fact that talk and buzz about LFTR never seemed to take off in those upper circles means these people have their heads buried in the sand and ought to be ashamed of themselves for their pitiful lack of intellectual curiosity.

Richard Martin is the 4th person I’ve seen mention the “Sputnik moment” that was also mentioned in Obama’s state of the union speech. It looks like China could, and France should have, inspired a “Sputnik moment” but the sleepers and self-interested members of society don’t seem to care.

The idea that this technology has resurfaced and could have remained buried in electronic digital files without being published and what’s worse without being taught in the universities and colleges is a tragedy. The genius of Alvin Weinberg and his colleagues came up with this technology over 50 years ago and the concept goes back to the 1940′s.

You regular readers will know exactly what I’m raving about. If you don’t then it’s time you checked out more of this website. I post regularly on Thorium MSR and LFTR.

Here are some other news outlets that covered the story:

  1. China enters race to develop nuclear energy from thorium (The Guardian – UK)
  2. China bets on thorium (The Register – UK)
  3. Nuclear power’s great leap forward (The Spectator – AU)
  4. Thorium ‘SA’s best-kept energy secret’
    SA has abundance of metal which could be used for greenhouse gas-free electricity generation     (Business Day – ZA)