Suggested Discussion Outline

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johnkarls
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Joined: Fri Jun 29, 2007 8:43 pm

Suggested Discussion Outline

Post by johnkarls »

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SUGGESTED DISCUSSION OUTLINE -- NUCLEAR FUSION = 50 MORE YEARS WANDERING IN THE WILDERNESS SHUNNING THE PROMISED LAND

Referring to last week’s e-mail, a copy of which follows below for your convenience, it is respectfully suggested that we focus on the following questions --

1. Do we agree that conventional uranium fission, proven thorium/fission and will-o’-the-wisp hydrogen fusion share all of the following advantages: (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.

2. Do we agree that proven thorium/fission has 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, as mentioned above, it is impossible to make a nuclear weapon from thorium which is why the U.S. turned to uranium and plutonium instead of thorium.

3. Do we agree that the only advantage ever claimed by proponents of will-o’-the-wisp hydrogen/fusion is that hydrogen is more plentiful than uranium (while ignoring thorium supplies)?

4. Do we agree that proven thorium supplies are capable of supplying 100% of the world’s energy (not just electricity) for more than 1,000 years? [For your convenience are attached the Suggested Answers to the Short Quiz which contain the calculation of the more-than-1,000 years.]

5. Who do we think is behind the successful campaign (50 years and counting!!!) to keep America wasting prodigious amounts of money on hydrogen-fusion research rather than entering the Promised Land???

6. Is it the 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)???

7. What should we do???

It is respectfully suggested that we have tried Six-Degrees-Of-Separation E-mail Campaigns in September 2013 addressed to President Obama, and in October 2012 to then-DOE Secretary Steven Chu -- both to no avail.

And that Letters to the Editor of The New Yorker and The New York Times will, at most, produce only an apology. Which is unlikely since both probably accepted considerable bribes from The Usual Suspects to publish their articles in the continuing campaign to keep American Wandering In The Wilderness Shunning The Promised Land.

[The New York Times has been notorious for accepting bribes to publish false and misleading articles in the past, at least in the area of the performing arts.]

However, it strikes me that Senator Dianne Feinstein is a very-promising possibility!!! The article in The New Yorker indicates that she has been reducing funding for nuclear fusion!!! With the transparent motive behind the article of trying to put pressure on Senator Feinstein to increase such funding again.

[Among the many pivotal positions she holds in the U.S. Senate such as Chair of the Select Committee on Intelligence, she chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Energy and Water.]

Why such a promising possibility???

Senator Feinstein has always impressed -- both from the volume and content of the news she generates, and also from looking at her website which, inter alia, solicits comments from ALL Americans and not just her constituents which virtually NONE of her colleagues are willing to do -- as being incredibly hard-working and incredibly honest (one of the few in Washington who “calls them like she sees them”!!!).

So it is respectfully suggested that we give her a try with one of our Six-Degrees-Of-Separation E-mail Campaigns.


---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Suggested Answers to the Short Quiz – Nuclear Fusion: 50 More Years Wandering in the Wilderness Shunning the Promised Land
From: ReadingLiberally-SaltLake@johnkarls.com
Date: Sat, March 29, 2014 2:36 - 6:40 am MDT
To: ReadingLiberallyEmailList@johnkarls.com
Bcc: The approximately 150 recipients of our weekly e-mail
Attachment: Suggested Answers to the Short Quiz (also posted on http://www.ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Friends,

Our next meeting is Wednesday Evening April 9th at the Salt Lake Public Library.

Our focus will be on Nuclear Fusion: 50 More Years Wandering in the Wilderness Shunning the Promised Land -- and recent disgraceful articles in The New Yorker and The New York Times plugging more nuclear-fusion research while ignoring proven thorium fission which they do not even mention, much less discuss (both articles are posted on http://www.ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org).

[NB: The New York Times has been notorious in the past for taking bribes to publish false and misleading articles, particularly in such areas as the performing arts!!!]

50 years ago, the U.S. National Nuclear-Research Laboratory at Oak Ridge TN conducted a successful 18-month continuous demonstration project comprising a thorium nuclear reactor.

However, President Nixon caused the nation to turn away from thorium (and toward uranium and plutonium) because thorium is incapable of producing an explosion.

All three types of nuclear power -- conventional uranium fission, proven thorium/fission and will-o’-the-wisp hydrogen fusion -- 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.

However, proven thorium/fission has 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, as mentioned above, it is impossible to make a nuclear weapon from thorium which is why the U.S. turned to uranium and plutonium instead of thorium.

So why are we dealing with “The Crime Of A Century” (50 years plus 50 more years)???

Because the only advantage that proponents of will-o’-the-wisp nuclear fusion have ever claimed is that hydrogen is more abundant than URANIUM.

While ignoring the seemingly-unknown fact that the world’s currently-proven reserves of THORIUM could supply 100% of the world’s total energy (not just electricity) for more than 1,000 years!!!

[Please check my arithmetic in the attached Suggested Answers to the Short Quiz.]

So please help us ascertain who, for 50 years, has caused the U.S. to waste massive amounts of money on research on will-o’-the-wisp hydrogen fusion which The New York Times reports is still “decades” (plural) away from success -- if, indeed, success is ever achievable!!!

Is it the 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)???

And please help us decide what to do about this!!!

Your friend,

John K.

PS -- Cal Burgart (PhD in Nuclear Engineering from the U.S. National Nuclear-Research Laboratory at Oak Ridge TN) has agreed to attend as our nuclear-engineering expert like he did for our 10/10/2012 meeting on Thorium Nuclear Reactors and our 4/13/2011 meeting on the Japanese nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi.

PPS -- To un-subscribe, please press "reply" and type "deletion requested."

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