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“Our freedoms can
only
be maintained by the advancement of technologies that serve mankind—
not
advancing technology puts Freedom at Risk and
our freedom is
threatened because we
don't take the time to
participate in it” GJD |
OUR SPOTLIGHT FOR TED
ROCKWELL
Because he believes in our
mission
a 60 year veteran of nuclear technology going back to the Manhattan Project
12-29-11
Ted, I’m responding to your dialogue with BLUE
type. Gary
Gary: Of course I know Alan. Everybody does.
He’s an important ally to any advancement in the nuclear field. I’ve been
urging him to get more circulation of his “Day with the Atom” piece, that
shows what a tremendous spread and depth of devices and products and
processes depend on “The Atom.”
And I’m happy you got my two atom books. There’s a little overlap up front,
but just skim over that. Hope you enjoy them. Now let’s talk about YM.
I’ve said this before, but I don’t seem to get much resonance on it. I’ll
try again. YM now comes with a huge amount of baggage that we must not just
pick up as part of the deal. The million-year guarantee, the 15mr/yr and 4
mr/year in the water and the huge “safety factors” in each variable.
It is my understanding that the million-YR
requirement has already been reduced to 10-15 thousand years and I also
think they were “negotiating” the MR per year. Our proposal is to INCLUDE
“eventual” plans for reprocessing and the 6% remaining material AFTER
reprocessing only has about a 300 year life. Once the “public” understands
this, they will trump the Nevada politics. Those are not reasonable
requirements and if we promise to buy in on them, we’ll be in another
multi-decade charade that has nothing to do with reality, and will be an
unbearable burden on the nuclear renaissance. A
USNEF proposal concerning Yucca MT on our website is suggesting that a PPP
entity establish “reasonable” safety
requirements through the NRC based on the DOE study build and implement on
that basis. For many, many years our federal government has maintained top
secret testing and military bases on FEDERAL land in Nevada. These events
and activities were put in place for the protection of the “United States of
America” and continue to function. Our spent nuclear fuel has become a
national security issue. The NWPA of 1982 “passed” by congress
constitutionally usurps Nevada’s claim of “States Rights” of the Yucca site
selection. Yucca Mountain is located on “federal land”. The truck and rail
transportation “could” be designed with routes on federal land and whatever
minor sections need federal ownership simply acquire via eminent domain.
(Yes, everybody hates that term, but it exists for good reason) National
security needs trump ALL states rights in our Constitution. Many Nevadan’s
believe that the federal government should have educated that grassroots
public rather than taking the “Yucca issue” to Nevada bureaucracy where
politics has wasted the taxpayer science study. Some of us question that
there was never a need to talk with the State of Nevada.
Let’s go back to basics. One of the biggest advantages of nuclear power is
that the waste problem is trivial. Even our most dedicated adversaries –
such as Sheldon Novick, author of “The Careless Atom” and “The Electric
Wars” has said publicly, in books, that “nuclear waste” is no worse than
many other industrial wastes, once its decay heat is died down - a few
decades. Its volume, measured in either cubic yards or lethal doses, as
also trivial compared too many other non-nuclear wastes. I’ve documented
this in detail, with numbers and references. I don’t need to do it again
here. (Page 231 of “Creating the New World” tabulates some of the numbers.)
So we’ve got to agree on some reasonable requirements for handling this
material until we’re ready to burn it in fast reactors.
We agree here, we know that today’s theoretical “fast reactor” designs
WILL burn and eliminate all spent fuel inventories, with a high probability
within the next 50-100 years, negates ANY discussion of future safety.
There are various groups whose agendas benefit by making the “nuclear
waste” a problem. It simply isn’t. We just have to keep people from eating
it. Just like we should be doing with mercury and the materials that go
into solar panels and windmill generators. It’s easier for us than for
them. Why pretend it’s harder? I think facing this problem should be a
lot simpler than predicting the condition of the earth and its water-levels
and geological slip planes a million years from now.
We see the Yucca issue SIMPLY as a grassroots
educational failure by the industry, associations and the nuclear lobby.
“They” may not like this implication but hopefully they would accept the
TRUTH. A knowledgeable public will change the direction of their political
representatives. Washington and industry doesn’t see this yet, but they
will. New communication technology is moving faster than the “political
strategists” can keep up.
Unless we can do that – and who can stop us – I’m not interested in carrying
on the whole phony debate about a million years.
You understand my point, Gary? Let’s put our effort into the right battles.
If we do that, then we’re all on the same page, and I’ll help any way I
can. This is what we are trying to do Ted. USNEF is
an “out of the box” proposal to the “resolution” of this illogical political
verses science debate called Yucca Mountain. PPPs are a way for the
government to allow its grassroots citizens to work directly on major issues
side-by-side with the science and engineering community “politically free
but scientifically accountable”. We have to move in this direction with our
national laboratories, agencies and other departments in order to separate
science from politics. Gary Duarte
Ted Rockwell
LETTERS FROM
TED
08/24/10
To: US Nuclear Energy Foundation
Friends and Colleagues:
The question is not WHERE to put “nuclear waste.” The type of radioactive
material produced by commercial nuclear power plants is not a public health
hazard. YM is probably the best place, since it’s already there. We’ll
soon be wanting the material back, to recycle the fuel in fast reactors, and
recover the rare earths, etc.
But defending the current YM specs is a real booby trap: a million years, 4
mrem/ year, etc. No mortal can claim to have any basis for describing the
geology a million years from now. So we should stop trying to restore the
pre-Obama status quo. The current status is that a panel has been formed,
to define what is needed. We should let them do their job. “It stays toxic
for thousands of years” is not a scientific specification. The fact is that
the material is no worse than many industrial wastes we handle safely in
millions of times greater quantities. The fact that it is radioactive just
means that it gets LESS toxic every day. That is not an unprecedented
hazard. Just the opposite. Many utilities store their used fuel containers
outdoors, and invite scout troops, church groups, etc. to touch the
containers, measure the radiation levels, etc. They are not scary in the
sunshine, with birds and squirrels playing on them.
People are not stupid. I find when I explain these facts to friends, to
people sitting next to me on airplanes, etc., their response is, “Why
haven’t you guys told us this, a long time ago?
Let’s do that.
Ted Rockwell
Member, National Academy of Engineering
Active in nuclear technology since 1943
06/16/10
Gary:
If you want to fight for jobs in NV, don’t be a “pyramid builder.” The
pyramids provided jobs, but not much of value for the people. Build nuclear
facilities. The only jobs that YM will continue to provide is for lawyers
and theoretickers, arguing about the world a million years from now. Build
something of value. Build for the future.
If we really get the nuclear enterprise going in America, as is happening
all over the world, companies will be fighting to get the “nuclear waste”
back to use the uranium, recover the rare earths, and dispose cheaply the
tiny amount of actual “waste.”
It reminds me of all the coal miner songs: the first verses bemoan the life
of a miner, the last verse cries that the company may be shutting down the
mine. As the revered union leader John L. Lewis said: “I don’t want to
protect your jobs. I want your kids to go to college.”
The Wicked Witch of the West is dead. Rejoice! Don’t spend your time
trying to revive her.
Ted Rockwell
03/16/10
Gary
So long as nuclear advocates insist that public safety
depends on the ridiculous requirements of a million years of guaranteed
infallible storage in a multi-billion dollar hole in the ground, American
nuclear power will have trouble competing in the real world. There is no
valid scientific basis for such a requirement. As President Obama has
proclaimed, the used nuclear fuel is perfectly safe where it is. After
processing, it can be handled like any other industrial waste of comparable
toxicity, of which there are many, in much greater quantities. The only
difference is that the nuclear material gets less toxic every day, and
becomes quite harmless in a few hundred years. Other, non-nuclear, toxic
wastes maintain full toxicity, undiminished, forever.
I recognize that the Yucca Mtn project has represented nearly a billion
dollars a year, employing a whole generation of people. But let’s put that
money into something productive—like new nuclear plants.
Theodore Rockwell
Member, National Academy of Engineering
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