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The case for Thorium. 24. With Molten Salt Reactors, a catastrophe like Fukushima cannot happen..

With Molten Salt Reactors, a catastrophe like Fukushima cannot happen. It began with a magnitude 9.0 earthquake not far from the Fukushima 6 Nuclear reactor complex. The impact was a magnitude 6.8 earthquake and the operators immediately scrammed the safety rods to stop all the reactors. This succeeded! The reactors were designed with earthquakes in mind, and they passed the test. The backup power started up successfully so the cooling pumps could operate. There was one major problem though. The earthquake was so bad that the water in the spent fuel holding tanks splashed out and exposed the spent fuel rods to air, releasing enough radioactivity to make entering the buildings impossible.

Image result for fukushima reactor design

The water pumps worked for a while, but then came the tsunami. All the reactors were inside a tsunami wall, so far, so good. But the fuel storage tanks for the fuel for the backup power generators were outside the tsunami wall and were washed away. The batteries were only supposed to last until backup power was established, and with complete power loss and water circulation ended the meltdown started. This disaster was even bigger than Chernobyl and contamination is still spreading.

In a molten salt Thorium reactor, when power is cut off in an emergency, only gravity is needed for a safe shutdown, and gravity hasn’t failed us yet.

July 21, read through the Holy Bible in a year in Power-point, with comments.

In between the Apostle Paul’s Second letter to the Corinthians and his letter to the Galatians we read two Psalms and three chapters of Job.

July 21: Psalm 60, Psalm 61, Job 17, Job 18, Job 19 (click on the chapter to begin reading).

Psalm 60, of David. A Psalm intended for teaching. Even though they were defeated, David gave God the glory for future victories and deliverance.

Psalm 61, of David. As so often happened, David was in trouble and cried out to God, proclaiming his trust in God, singing praises.

Job 17. Job continued praying for relief.

Job 18. Bildad pours it on; the wicked are punished.

Job 19. “I know that my redeemer liveth“.

The case for Thorium. 23. With a Molten Salt Reactor, accidents like Chernobyl are impossible.

With a Molten Salt Reactor, accidents like Chernobyl are impossible. The Three Mile Island accident was bad. The Chernobyl disaster was ten million times worse. Ah yes, I remember it well.

One morning at work, a fellow co-worker, a Ph.D. Chemist working on an Electron Capture Detector, containing a small amount of Nickel 63, came with a surprising question: You know nuclear science, how come the reactors in Chernobyl don’t have a containment vessel? Well- I answered, it is because they are carbon moderated and their failure mode is that they go prompt critical, and no containment vessel in the world can hold it in, so they skip it. He turned away in disgust. A few weeks later my wife’s father died, and we went to Denmark to attend the funeral. The day of the return back to the U.S. we heard that there had been a nuclear incident in Sweden, too much radiation had caused two nuclear power stations to close down. The Chernobyl disaster had happened 26 April 1986, and this was the first time anyone outside of Chernobyl has heard about it, two days later. This was still the Soviet Union, and nothing ever did go wrong in it worthy of reporting.

Image result for the chernobyl disaster

(Photo Courtesy of EBRD)

(But the carbon moderated Uranium reactors are the most efficient in producing Pu-239 the preferred nuclear bomb material.)

This has nothing to do with anything, but Chernobyl can be translated wormwood. It is mentioned in the Bible, Revelation 8: 10-11 “ And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter. ”

Molten Salt Thorium reactors cannot be used to supply bomb material, and they are far safer than even Light water Uranium reactors.

July 20, read through the Holy Bible in a year in Power-point, with comments.

In between the Apostle Paul’s Second letter to the Corinthians and his letter to the Galatians we read two Psalms and two chapters of Job.

July 20: Psalm 58, Psalm 59, Job 15, Job 16 (click on the chapter to begin reading).

Psalm 58, of David. A short, but intense prayer that God would punish the wicked and judge righteously.

Psalm 59, of David. A prayer for deliverance from Saul and his men seeking to Kill David. It ends up with David singing God’s praises.

Job 15. Eliphaz unloaded on Job, accusing him of folly.

Job 16. Job replied: You pitiless comforters, you call yourself friends.

The case for Thorium. 22. With a Molten Salt Reactor, accidents like the Three Mile Island disaster will not happen.

With a Molten Salt Reactor, accidents like the Three Mile Island disaster will not happen. Ah yes, I remember it well, March 28, 1979. We lived in South East Pennsylvania at the time, well outside the evacuation zone, but a fellow engineer at work took off, took vacation and stayed at a hotel in western Virginia over the weekend fearing a nuclear explosion. My wife went to a retreat just outside the evacuation zone, and none of them so much as heard of any problem, there never was any evacuation. There was concern though, and a disaster it was indeed with a partial meltdown of the core, rendering the installation a total loss, leaving a big, forever cleanup bill. The cost so far has totaled over 2 billion dollars.

A combination of personnel error, design deficiencies and component failures caused the TMI accident, which permanently changed both the nuclear industry and the NRC. Public fear and distrust increased, NRC’s regulations and oversight became broader and more robust, and management of the plants was scrutinized more carefully. Careful analysis of the accident’s events identified problems and led to permanent and sweeping changes in how NRC regulates its licensees – which, in turn, has reduced the risk to public health and safety.

The side effect of increased regulation is increased cost and delay in construction of new nuclear plants. Eventually, more than 120 reactor orders were cancelled, and the construction of new reactors ground to a halt. Of the 253 nuclear power reactors originally ordered in the United States from 1953 to 2008, 48 percent were canceled.

Another side effect of the TMI accident is fear of trying a different and safer approaches, since they conflict with existing regulations. The next Nuclear power reactor came online in 2016, but it is the same type of boiling water reactor as before, not a Molten Salt Thorium reactor with its inherent radically increased safety.

July 19, read through the Holy Bible in a year in Power-point, with comments.

In between the Apostle Paul’s Second letter to the Corinthians and his letter to the Galatians we read 0ne chapter of Proverbs and three chapters of Job.

July 19: Proverbs 9, Job 12, Job 13, Job 14 (click on the chapter to begin reading).

Proverbs 9 contrasts the way of wisdom with the way of folly.

Job 12. Job had heard enough and answered his critics.

Job 13. Job continued answering his three friends, and added a despondent prayer that contains this gem: “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.”

Job 14 contains the rest of Job’s prayer.

The case for Thorium. 21. United States used to be the leader in Thorium usage. What happened?

United States used to be the leader in Thorium usage. What happened?

The 40 MWe Peach Bottom HTR in the USA was a demonstration Thorium-fueled reactor that ran from 1967-74. and produced a total of 33 billion kWh.

The 330 MWe Fort St Vrain HTR in Colorado, USA, ran from 1976-89. Almost 25 tons of Thorium was used in fuel for the reactor.

A unique Thorium-fueled light water breeder reactor operated from 1977 to 1982 at Shippingport in the USA– it used uranium-233 and had a power output of 60 MWe.

However, after 10 years passed and billions invested, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission abandoned thorium research, with uranium-fueled nuclear power becoming the standard. In the 1980s, commercial Thorium ventures failed, such as the Indian Point Unit 1 water reactor near New York City, because of the vast financial costs of going alone in a hostile regulatory environment, and fuel and equipment failures. By the 1990s, the US nuclear power industry had abandoned Thorium, partly because Thorium’s breeding ratio was thought insufficient to produce enough fuel for commercial industrialization.

After the Three Mile Island accident, Middletown, PA in 1979 there was a 30 plus year hiatus in building another nuclear plant, and Thorium was not on any politicians list of areas in which to invest scarce research funds.

Some research and development was still conducted, but it was more concentrated in protecting the U.S. leading position in monitoring and controlling existing nuclear technology. As a contrast even the Netherlands is developing a molten salt Thorium reactor.

Will the U.S. again show leadership?

The Three Gorges Dam is is danger of collapsing. A Limerick.

Precarious, the Three Gorges dam;

the rain is the battering ram

and the earthquake as well

as the Yang Tse does swell

Constructing the dam was a sham.

When the Three Gorges River was built it was hailed as an engineering masterpiece and proof of the superiority of the central planning and execution of the Communist regime of the People’s Republic of China. But there were real problems from the start. It was built without an independent quality control function, so they asked a western organization to verify the structural integrity of the construction. It turned out that the rebars in the large concrete blocks were not affixed properly from unit to unit, and had not been affixed to the bedrock below, but could be subject to a slow creep under the pressure of water. The findings were not only ignored, but the inspectors were accused of racial prejudice, and besides, the construction was already done, and could not be changed. So it was given the final go-ahead.

There are troubling pictures emerging of that “slow creep:”

The creep in not inches, some parts of the dam has moved many feet from their original position. This is a disaster in making.

The torrential rains have been falling and now all the floodgates are open. The water behind the dam has risen to more than 50 feet above flood level and is close to top the whole dam.

Downstream there is a 700 year old Buddhist temple. It is still standing, but mostly under water

And this is what it looks like under normal circumstances.

Further downstream the flooding is getting worse than they were before the Three Gorges dam was constructed. After all it was made to alleviate floods.

Downstream are big cities like Wuhan, Nanjing and Shanghai.

Death toll in the north and central China floods have risen to 150 people, with scores still missing and hundreds of thousands forced from homes.. The dam is in a region that experiences frequent earthquakes, and so far there has been a small, shallow earthquake in the region, but everybody is bracing for the “big one.”

This is just the beginning.

July 18, read through the Holy Bible in a year in Power-point, with comments.

In between the Apostle Paul’s Second letter to the Corinthians and his letter to the Galatians we read two Psalms and three chapters of Job.

July 18: Psalm 56, Psalm 57, Job 9, Job 10, Job 11 (click on the chapter to begin reading).

Psalm 56, of David. The Psalm is from the time when the Philistines captured him in Gath It deals with the period between the visit to the tabernacle at Nob and David’s arrival at Adullam. David was alone, desperate, afraid – and had no one left to to trust but the LORD.

Psalm 57, of David. Charles Spurgeon noted, “There are four of these ‘Destroy not’ psalms, namely, the 57th, 58th, 59th, and 75th. In all of them there is a distinct declaration of the destruction of the wicked and the preservation of the righteous.” It ends with “Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: let thy glory be above all the earth.“

Job 9, Job: There is no mediator, no one is righteous before God, even though I am righteous.

Job 10, Job: I would Plead with God.

Job 11. It was time for Zophar the Naamathite to speak. He urges urged Job to repent.

The case fatality rate of COVID-19 is reduced by a factor of 2.65 if HCQ + Zinc is administered as soon as possible. 1.25 Million cases are proof enough!

This picture was displayed at a Monday July 6 White House press conference. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters that the American death toll has fallen for weeks and the virus fatality rate is below France, the United Kingdom and Germany.

She said the death toll has significantly dropped from the height of the outbreak when the U.S. logged 2,500 deaths per day to 254 deaths on Saturday July 3, according to the article.

To confirm it the case fatality rate for Germany is as of July 15: 4.54 %

The case rate for the world is 4.24%

The corresponding number for U.S.A.: 3.83%

Is that the lowest percentage in the world?

There are more than ten countries with a lower case fatality rate. At least ten of them have one thing in common. These ten countries prescribe the use of HydroxyChloroQuine to all people that show symptoms of COVID-19, even before a positive test is confirmed.

Turkey: 2.51%

South Korea: 2.14%

Senegal: 1.87%

Morocco: 1.58%

Russia: 1.60%

Malaysia: 1.39%

United Arab Emirates: 0.60%

Costa Rica: 0.44%

Bahrain: 0.34%

Qatar: 0.14%, but since 88% of the population are migrant workers between 20 and 60, the adjusted death rate for the permanent residents would be maybe 8 times higher, or about 1.1%

The total number of positive cases for these ten countries are over 1.2 million, far more than any double blind test could ever produce.

Taking the average, adjusted for the number of positive cases, the average adjusted death rate for ten countries, where people are taking HCQ + Zinc as soon as they are showing symptoms or diagnosed positive, is 1.60%.

This means that the risk of death is reduced by a factor of 2.65 if HZQ + Zinc is taken as early as possible after showing symptoms or after a positive diagnosis for corona-virus!

This means the daily could be reduced by 3700 a day in the world if the HCQ regimen was implemented worldwide.

For the U.S.A. the number of deaths would be reduced by an average of over 400 a day at today’s case and death rates, if HZQ + Zinc is taken as early as possible after showing symptoms or after a positive diagnosis for corona-virus!