I Take The Point That Thorium Is Incapable Of Exploding, But What About The Uranium-Fission Nuclear Accidents?

[solutions]

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Subject: I Take The Point That Thorium Is Incapable Of Exploding, But What About The Uranium-Fission Nuclear Accidents?
From: Solutions
Date: Wed, July 6, 2022 8:22 am PDT
To: ReadingLiberally-SaltLake@johnkarls.com
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Dear John,

I take the point in the Second Short Quiz that thorium-fission is incapable of exploding –

(1) That during the 1960’s, the U.S. National Nuclear-Research Laboratory at Oak Ridge TN conducted a successful 18-month continuous demonstration project comprising a thorium-fueled nuclear reactor.

(2) That President Nixon caused the nation to turn away from thorium (and toward uranium and plutonium) because thorium is incapable of exploding or being utilized to produce nuclear weapons.

(3) That the largest thorium reactor is the earth itself which is why molten lava billows from any rupture in the earth’s surface and why the center of the earth is 7,000 degrees Fahrenheit which is hotter than the sun’s surface.

But shouldn’t the uranium-nuclear accidents demonstrate there is a cause for concern, however much less, for thorium-fission accidents?

Your friend,

Solutions


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Subject: Re: I Take The Point That Thorium Is Incapable Of Exploding, But What About The Uranium-Fission Nuclear Accidents?
From: ReadingLiberally-SaltLake@johnkarls.com
Date: Wed, July 6, 2022 9:53 am MDT
To: Solutions
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Dear Solutions,

Thank you for your inquiry.

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First, it should be noted that former Vice President Al Gore was WRONG when he famously testified before Congress that nuclear plants come in only one size – extra-large.

One would have thought that for someone who was “one heart-beat away” from being Commander-In-Chief, he would have known that FOR MANY DECADES all U.S. Navy submarines and aircraft carriers have been propelled by on-board nuclear-power plants!!!

[Indeed, the U.S. Department of Defense planned decades ago to make its inter-continental bombers powered by on-board nuclear plants but the “bean counters” calculated that it would be cheaper to use tanker aircraft to re-fuel the bombers aloft while enroute to their targets.]

In the now half-century that all U.S. Navy submarines and aircraft carriers have been propelled by on-board nuclear-power plants, there has NOT been a single accident involving that nuclear power.

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Second, with the exception of Three-Mile-Island which will be discussed momentarily, the U.S. civilian use of nuclear power has been spotless.

The public may not understand why American civilian nuclear reactors have been so safe.

It is because they have been operated by retired U.S. Navy nuclear personnel who, after 20 years of experience, take their military pensions and began working in civilian nuclear-power plants.

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The THREE Significant Uranium-Nuclear Power Accidents

Of the only three significant nuclear accidents in the world’s 77-year nuclear history, ALL THREE were the result of unpardonable human actions --

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Three-Mile Island (Pennsylvania) – 1979

There were more than 100 blinking lights and wailing sirens indicating the reactor core was NOT getting enough cooling water!!!

But the operators couldn’t believe their instruments!!! And, UNFORTUNATELY, assumed that the exact opposite was happening!!!

By the time corrective action was taken, there was a small release of radioactive gas and $2.4 billion of damage had been incurred. But no deaths were caused.

BTW, Three-Mile Island blew on 3/28/1979 while my first child (born 9/7/1979 two weeks overdue) was still in utero, and my wife and I were enjoying a "Last Hurrah" in Spain, Portugal and Morocco. Because of all the "scare pieces" in the media, we decided since NYC is downwind from Three-Mile Island PA, that we would NOT return from Europe until it was absolutely safe!!! After all, it is one thing to accept risk to yourselves, but quite another thing to risk harm to a fetus!!!

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Chernobyl (Ukraine, Soviet Union) – 1986

Soviet uranium-powered nuclear plants did NOT have containment chambers because Soviet engineers were so “cock sure” of their expertise!!!

And on that fateful 4/26/1986, TWO TEAMS of Soviet operators were warring with each other to use the plant for two contradictory purposes – the regular team supplying electric power to the grid and the other team experimenting to determine whether the momentum of the turbines would be enough to power the cooling system during an accidental shutdown!!!

[Why couldn't the Soviet geniuses have shut down power-generation by lowering the fuel rods into the cooling water and then, when all possible danger of a nuclear accident was "off the table," have fired up solely the turbines to ascertain whether their momentum was sufficient to power the cooling system during an accidental shutdown???]

The "real world" answer courtesy of the Soviet geniuses??? The momentum of the turbines was NOT sufficient!!!

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Fukushima Daiichi (Japan) – 2011

Yes, the Tōhoku earthquake measured 9.0 on the Richter scale – 2.63 times more powerful than California’s famous 1906 earthquake, the largest since California earthquake records began being kept in 1769 which was nearly a century before California was detached from Mexico and became part of the U.S. And 16.99 times more powerful than California’s most powerful earthquake since 1906.

And yes, the earthquake generated a 43-foot-high tsunami.

HOWEVER, Fukushima Daiichi was a conventional uranium-powered nuclear plant whose fixed uranium fuel rods had to be cooled by water and for a complete shut down, the rods had to be lowered into the cool water. NB: cool-water circulation was by electric pumps.

AND THE GENIUSES WHO DESIGNED Fukushima Daiichi put the emergency generators in the basement where a tsunami was sure to knock them out due to flooding!!!

AND THE GENIUSES WHO DESIGNED Fukushima Daiichi put the fuel tanks for the emergency generators at ground level where they were sure to be washed away by a tsunami!!!

NEVERTHELESS, the containment chambers survived the earthquake and the tsunami, while the highly-publicized but limited radiation contamination of sea water was caused by (1) limited venting LONG AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE/TSUNAMI to guard against a build-up of pressure in the containment chambers because of the continued lack of cooling due to the continued lack of electricity (caused by the design geniuses), and (2) water from the containment chambers leaking FROM PIPES OUTSIDE THE CONTAINMENT CHAMBERS just like your own home plumbing might spring a leak, especially after an earthquake.

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Thank you again for your e-mail.

Hopefully you can rest assured that not only has the world’s 77-year history with uranium nuclear power plants been so safe –

But you can be reassured that thorium-fission is incapable of exploding and that the earth itself is the largest thorium-fission reactor which is why molten lava billows from any rupture in the earth’s surface and why the center of the earth is 7,000 degrees Fahrenheit which is hotter than the sun’s surface.

Your friend,

John K.