Short Quiz

[johnkarls]

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1. Are all three types of nuclear power (conventional uranium/fission, proven thorium/fission and will-o’-the-wisp hydrogen/fusion) technologies that are or could be employed today?

2. Do all three types of nuclear power share the advantages of (a) producing no greenhouse gases; (b) eliminating the dependence of the U.S. and its allies on members of OPEC (the long-standing Organization of Petroleum-Exporting Countries) and, in the case of Europe, natural gas imports from Russia (in addition to oil & gas imports from OPEC); and (c) eliminating the gaping U.S. balance-of-payments deficit and resulting piling up of our foreign national debt?

3. Do conventional uranium/fission and will-o’-the-wisp hydrogen/fusion suffer from the same problem = they are both, in essence, trying to control a nuclear/thermonuclear bomb explosion in order to extract energy -- in contrast to proven thorium/fission which is incapable of exploding?

4. Does proven thorium/fission have the following advantages over both conventional uranium/fission and will-o’-the-wisp hydrogen/fusion -- (1) LFTR’s (Liquid Floride Thorium Reactors) require minimal containment chambers because meltdowns are physically impossible since LFTR’s operate near atmospheric pressure, (2) LFTR’s do not require elaborate cooling systems because they operate well below the boiling point of molten salt and can be passively cooled, (3) thorium has such an incredibly-high “burn-up” that there is virtually no long-lived radioactive waste, and (4) thorium is so stable that it is impossible to make a nuclear weapon from thorium which is why the U.S. turned to uranium and plutonium instead of thorium?

5. Has will-o’-the-wisp hydrogen/fusion consumed massive amounts of research funds for more than 50 years?

6. Have the managers of the will-o’-the-wisp hydrogen/fusion research project which is building an experimental plant in Southern France, conceded that will-o’-the-wisp hydrogen/fusion technology will not be commercially viable for AT LEAST ANOTHER DECADE, IF EVER?

7. Does the will-o’-the-wisp hydrogen/fusion experimental plant being built in Southern France require magnets WEIGHING 2 MILLION POUNDS to suspend in a vacuum the nuclear-fusion material because there are no substances on earth capable of containing it?

8. Can we expect an explosion equivalent to a hydrogen/nuclear bomb if the electric current powering the 2-million-pound magnets fail?

9. What is the sole advantage of the will-o’-the-wisp hydrogen/fusion technology claimed by its apologists?

10. Under the unlimited-supply-of-hydrogen-from-seawater assumption, was the vaunted “hydrogen economy” of the second President Bush based on hydrogen/fusion?

11. How long would currently-known supplies of uranium and thorium last if 100% of the world’s power came from conventional uranium/fission and/or thorium/fission? How rapidly could additional uranium and thorium deposits be discovered and developed if demand increased? Would this likely be similar to the way the world’s production of oil & gas TRIPLED since Jimmy Carter’s claim as President that it had already peaked?

12. Are known supplies of thorium in the world already 4 times the amount of the world’s uranium supplies?

13. Since only 1% of the total energy in uranium fuel rods can be accessed before they degrade and have to be replaced whereas 99% of the energy in thorium is accessible, does this really mean that FOUR HUNDRED TIMES AS MUCH ENERGY is available from the world’s currently-known thorium supplies as is available from its currently-known uranium supplies?

14. Even if U.S. decision-makers opt for (1) continuing to kowtow to Russia and Middle Eastern oil-producing countries for AT LEAST ANOTHER DECADE, and (2) continuing to watch the destruction of the American economy as it continues to pile up foreign debt -- how do we know that will-o’-the-wisp hydrogen/fusion bomb technology can ever be harnessed for domestic-energy production???

15. And even if it can eventually be harnessed, how do we know that it will be more economic than oil & gas or than coal-fired electric plants -- the way proven thorium/fission is??? After all, on the many occasions in the past when we have discussed either energy or global warming, nobody has ever favored invading China to prevent it from continuing to bring on line a new monster-sized coal-fired electric plant EVERY WEEK!!! [And all of us have always conceded that many if not most of the world’s nations will continue to use the most economic energy source regardless of damage to the environment.]

16. Wouldn’t it make more sense to replace both coal and oil & gas NOW with proven thorium/fission while re-evaluating the need for will-o’-the-wisp hydrogen/fusion research for that distant day when the world’s existing and to-be-discovered-in-the-future thorium supplies become exhausted???

17. And hasn’t this been true for the past 50 years since proven thorium/fission was demonstrated in an 18-month-continuous demonstration project at the U.S. Oak Ridge National Nuclear-Research Laboratory back in the 1960’s???

18. Accordingly, since so many of us like mysteries on TV or in books, and since the detectives always look for who benefits from the crime -- the “elephant in the room” is who benefits from the nation’s continuing to Shun The Promised Land in favor of Wandering In The Wilderness For Another 50 Years (100 years total vs. only 40 for the Israelites in the Bible) by continuing to shun proven thorium/fission??? Coal companies??? Oil companies??? Oil-exporting countries such as Russia and Middle-Eastern Kingdoms??? Anyone who does not believe in American Exceptionalism in the world??? Anyone who believes America is The Great Satan??? Any American Pols who accept “campaign contributions” from any of the foregoing (keeping in mind that foreign contributions have to be funneled through intermediaries)???