Thank you President Carter

 

Thank you President Carter and, your supporting politicians, government employees, the media and the misguided public. The US has depleted Uranium Hexafloride (DUF6) in sufficient quantity to supply US Electrical Energy needs for 700 years, a fuel supply, already mined and milled, worth at least $ 70 trillion, if used in a US developed technology.

 

What is required in the US to make use of that DUF6? We would need:

  1. Experienced technical manpower
  2. Development facilities to evaluate untried components
  3. Critical facilities to check out the reactor core configurations
  4. A manufacturing infrastructure to manufacture the reactor plant equipment
  5. Separation facilities needed downstream to prepare reactor fuel from the blanket assemblies
  6. Construction contractors to build the unique facilities
  7. Experienced manpower to man and operate items 2 through 6 above

 

Items 1 through 7 above would take about 50 years if we want to proceed with a design that utilizes the existing 700 years of US electrical energy fuel (i.e. DUF6) starting now. Where do we stand with these needs today?

 

  1. The Congress and President Carter shut down the Clinch River Breeder Reactor Plant (CRBRP) allowing an over $1 billion investment to be destroyed. The country, in addition to loosing its $1 billion investment lost thousands of experienced technical employees across the country, in addition to losing active manufacturing facilities and their employees.
  2. In the late 1970s the following facilities existed:
    1. EBR-II an experimental breeder reactor had been running developmental tests for about 20 years.
    2. FFTF - Fast Flux Test Facility started developmental testing operations achieving the highest availability of any nuclear plant at that time.
    3. The Savanna River Separations facility.
    4. Idaho (Argonne National laboratory) Critical Assembly used to compare reactor core configurations against calculations.
    5. An industry capable of manufacturing, in addition to Light Water Reactor components, components for FFTF and CRBRP.
    6. Rockwell, Westinghouse, General Electric and other companies test facilities existed for development testing of various FFTF and CRBRP unique components.

 

At this time all of the above mentioned facilities and their experienced personnel are gone. DOE not only shutdown FFTF, but they are in process of completing its deactivation and closure.* DOE is presently contracting with France for the processing (separation) of 34 tons of Plutonium (We can’t do it ourselves since Savanna River separation plant was shut down).**

 

So what do we have now?

 

  1. DOE is now attempting to dispose of the 700 years of US Electrical Power fuel (i.e. DUF6) with no mention of its future use or the loss of $70 trillion by disposing of it.
  2. Without:  reactor development facilities; experienced technical personnel; a manufacturing infrastructure; separations plant; or experienced operators, we are  back to the period just after World War II.
  3. It would probably take at least 30 years for the US to get back the where we were in the late 1970s.
  4. Meanwhile DOE says a decision will be made on what new plant to pursue in the year 2030. Lets see, 2030 plus at least 50 years to the point of building a plant on the utility grid, that takes us to the year 2080 before we can produce economical electrical power utilizing the already mined and milled, 700 year US electrical energy fuel supply (i.e. DUF6), assuming the fuel still exists in a form that is economically useable. At this point in time, GE indicates that they already have a plant design they are ready to start deploying!

 

You may ask, What about the problems with TMI and Chernobyl? Nobody was harmed from TMI and the potential explosive release only existed in the eyes of the media and consequently in the minds of the public.*** Chernobyl, a Russian reactor without the safety requirements and containment of US reactors, did kill 33 operators and firemen at the site, but the UN reported no further implications to the public.****

 

Thank you President Carter, the Congress, the media, the uninformed public and recent follow up by DOE. None of you will be around by 2080, so I guess it’s no skin off your backs. I do observe that our Grandchildren and Great-Grandchildren will be at the mercy of the rest of the world and history has shown that under such circumstances, the results are catastrophic.

 

I am reminded of the words of Burt Rutan at the second successful flight of his x-plane into space, September 2004:

 

“Engineering is just the details, but the will and courage to do it makes the difference”.

 

Do we have the will and courage to do it or will we continue to follow the present path to failure? Wake up America! The world is not kind to those who cannot plot a successful course.

 

References:

* US Department of Energy, September 24, 2004. ‘U.S. Department of Energy Awards SEC Closure Alliance, LLC $235 Million Small Business Contract To Complete Closure of Fast Reactor Test Facility’. ( Number: R-04-314)

** ‘US sends plutonium to France’, 12:16 21 September 04, NewScientist.com news service

*** “Creating a New World,” by T. Rockwell, 2003. Publisher, 1st Books Library.

**** Ibid.