Hidden Truths About Nuclear Power

Hidden Truths About Nuclear Power
Submitted by Michael Collins on Mon, 03/28/2011 - 03:15

A poster at The Agonist, Joaquin, published an elegant and important analysis this weekend. His tightly packed, brief post made three key points. We're headed for an ugly future with nuclear power based on shortages and future fuel cycles more volatile than those imploding and exploding in Japan. Governments, the nuclear industry, and the media are avoiding this issue entirely. As a result, the rulers and technocrats who got us to the latest meltdown cannot be trusted to make any more decisions about energy needs.

"The truth is, there is a big fat lie that the nuclear power industry and the media are foisting on the public and that has not changed." Joaquin
(snip)

Joaquin offers up the future of nuclear power, the future carefully avoided by governments, the nuclear industry, and the media. Instead of the current generation of plants, the nuclear industry will give us "improved reactors" and fuel cycles that require less uranium. Supplementing that will be imports from the same type of unreliable suppliers that we have for petroleum (e.g., Kazakhstan, the Soviet Union).

"So, where's all the nuclear fuel going to come from? The answer has to be that the nuclear industry and U.S. government intend to use more exotic fuel cycles in the future power plants including, MOX (currently leaking our of Fukushima1, unit 3), reprocessed Uranium, Thorium, and breeder reactors of various types (See Note)
(more)

http://www.economicpopulist.org/content/hidden-truths-about-nuclear-power

...are interesting. A cursory look makes them seem far more appealing than the Uranium alternatives.

and on paper but no one the last I've read have ever built a thorium reactor. In fact the last I read they were at best still 20 maybe 30 years out. I'm sure someone will correct this if its not true so hang on.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium_fuel_cycle#List_of_thorium-fueled_reactors

It's not a big leap to fuel CANDU reactors with it, but uranium is cheap and well known.

so can you tell me if there is any operating as a power producing plant today?

Thorium is far from being ready to go. There are a large number of obstacles that have prevented it being deployed that have nothing to do with the bullshit ratioanlizing that it has been rejected because it isn't good for bombmaking.

Nuclear industry propaganda at its finest - or worst; depending on your point of view.

Russia, France, S. Korea, Japan, Canada, and indirectly the US are in a race to SELL NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY to anyone around the world stupid enough to buy it. If thorium was a good approach that could compete with renewable energy sources, don't you think these for profit quasi-governmental entities would all have thorium projects in the pipeline?

Do they?

Nope.

Nuclear pushers rush from one discredited technology to another when ...


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=760295&mesg_id=760470

I thought so but was wanting to get the message out that there is no thorium reactors out there producing power like I insinuated in my last post. Betting on a come at best, foolish at worse.
They'll never be a safe fission or fusion or thorium plant ever. We're throwing money and time at a wasted endeavored. I say to the nuclear engineers either get new degrees, new work or starve to fucking death cause this what is happening in japan today is proof of what I've been saying all along.