Tag: technology

President Trump signed 4 nuclear power Executive orders today. Small Nuclear Reactors (preferably Molten Salt Reactors) will finally be realized!

In addition he signed one Executive Order restoring Science to the Golden Standard: Free from politics!

In the presentation of the Executive Orders the CEO of Oklo, James DeWitte mentioned that we are restarting a technology that has been inactive for over 40 years. This can only mean he meant without saying so the Oak ridge Molten Salt Thorium reactor. It was going great, but President Nixon wanted to go with the fast breeder reactor and move nuclear development to California, so they started to badmouth the MSR. One false accusation was that it was unreliable and needed to be shutdown frequently. The real reason was it was routinely shut down on weekends to save money and personnel. The Molten Salt Reactor does not have a poison time after shutdown as does conventional power station but can be scaled up and down including small power stoppages. I see this as an advantage. Anyhow, this is what Mr. DeWitte said:

One of many new options

There are only a few fissionable options, Uranium 233, Uranium 235 and Plutonium 239. Uranium 233 is produced by bombarding Thorium 232 with neutrons. Plutonium 239 is produced by bombarding Uranium 238 with neutrons.

Right now only 0.5% of the mined uranium is used. The rest goes to nuclear waste. Molten Salt reactors can use the nuclear waste as raw material and use the other 99.5% of the available energy. Another exciting use of Plutonium is when we finally dismantle the nuclear arsenal and burn it for peaceful use. And there is four times as much Thorium as there is mine-able Uranium, enough for thousands of years!

This is the beginning!

Here are 30 reasons why Thorium is a superior source for nuclear power:

 1. A million year supply of Thorium available worldwide.

 2. Thorium already mined, ready to be extracted.

 3. Thorium based nuclear power produces 0.012 percent as much TRansUranium waste products as traditional nuclear power.

 4. Thorium based nuclear power will produce Plutonium-238, needed for space exploration.

 5. Thorium nuclear power is only realistic solution to power space colonies.

 6. Radioactive waste from an Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor decays down to background radiation in 300 years compared to a million years for U-235 based reactors. A Limerick.

 7. Thorium based nuclear power is not suited for making nuclear bombs.

 8. Produces isotopes that helps treat and maybe cure certain cancers.

 9. Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors are earthquake safe, only gravity needed for safe shutdown.

10. Molten Salt Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors cannot have a meltdown, the fuel is already molten, and it is a continuous process. No need for refueling shutdowns.

11. Molten Salt Nuclear Reactors have a very high negative temperature coefficient leading to a safe and stable control.

12. Atmospheric pressure operating conditions, no risk for explosions. Much safer and simpler design.

13. Virtually no spent fuel problem, very little on site storage or transport.

14. Liquid Fluoride Thorium Nuclear reactors scale beautifully from small portable generators to full size power plants.

15. No need for evacuation zones, Liquid Fuel Thorium Reactors can be placed near urban areas.

16. Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors will work both as Base Load and Load Following power plants.

17. Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors will lessen the need for an expanded national grid.

18. Russia has an active Thorium program.

19. India is having an ambitious Thorium program, planning to meet 30% of its electricity demand via Thorium based reactors by 2050.

 20. China is having a massive Thorium program.

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

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

23. With a Molten Salt Reactor, accidents like Chernobyl are impossible.

24. With Molten Salt Reactors, a catastrophe like Fukushima cannot happen.

25. Will produce electrical energy at about 4 cents per kWh.

26. Can deplete most of the existing radioactive waste and nuclear weapons stockpiles.

27. With electric cars and trucks replacing combustion engine cars, only Thorium Nuclear power is the rational solution to provide the extra electric power needed.

28. The race for space colonies is on. Only Molten Salt Thorium Nuclear reactors can fit the bill.

29. President Donald J. Trump on Jan. 5 2021 issued an Executive Order on Promoting Small Modular Reactors for National Defense and Space Exploration. Only Liquid fluoride thorium reactors can meet all the needs.

30. We have to switch from Uranium to Thorium as nuclear feed-stock. We are running out of domestic Uranium.

A hint of why medical expenses are so high in the U.S.

If you can, do.

If you can’t do, teach.

If you cant teach, administrate.

If you cant administrate, administrate.

This saying is old, and was circulated both when I was in private industry and when I worked at the University. During my 56 years in the U.S. I have watched the cost of medical care rise from 6% of GNP to over 20% of GNP. Part of it is of course that we are getting older, and people used to die at their first heart attack, and now they can survive multiple heart attacks, just to name one disease.

I got a hint at the real reason seeing this official chart:

While the number of doctors have slightly more than doubled, the number of administrators have risen thirty-twofold. and that was in 2009. Things are even worse now, since another level of federal bureaucracy have come between the doctors and the patients. It used to be simple, you paid the doctor, and that was it. The problem with this was that many could not afford a doctor, so during the second world war companies offered free health care since there was wage controls and competition for available workers was strong. This got institutionalized, and unions negotiated the best contracts, so pressure for national health care, which was the norm in many parts of the world never materialized.

Obamacare was finally enacted in 2010 and we now have the worst of all possible health care systems. The pharmaceutical establishment operate under their mission statement: “To cure a patient is not a sustainable business model” and so all pharmaceutical research is directed to control diseases, not to find permanent cures. Granted, there are many doctors that want to cure their patients, but they are swamped by incentives to control the diseases instead; the U.S. and New Zealand are the only two countries in the world that allow medical advertisements. The doctors operate in a difficult regulatory environment, there are local and state regulations, overlayed by federal regulations, often in conflict with each other. The hospitals are burdened with a lot of patients that are not willing or able to pay leading to people that are able to pay with horrendous bills, that they have to pay for the rest of their lives. I could go on, but you get the picture.

There has been much ballyhoo about to control the cost of medicine, like limit the cost of insulin to no more than 35 dollars per month. this all makes sense, since a person with type 1 diabetes is totally dependent on insulin for survival.

Yesterday I received a reimbursement for overpaying a drug. They really try to control drug costs!

This is how bureaucracy works. Thanks for the 15 cents back.The stamp alone was 59.3 cents. And the letter included the obligatory “Discriminating is against the law” page. Just to be sure, it was the bureaucracy itself that made the request, not me.

Thanks, bureaucracy!