Years ago in the Land of Nod there were some very serious "nuclear accidents". There were also some really stupid regulatory mistakes, But it is as if the progressives and the conservatives have swapped places and the progressives are the ones that are resisting change and advance as opposed to seeking it. Far too much of the environmentalism is ab-using past science and past history to inflame rhetoric and tantrums against SAFE nuclear. And I know that this will be received with the same warmth and adoration as "clean coal". The claim will be that such things are impossible. Yet that simply illustrates the point I am making. When we dismiss things out of hand, based on sloganeering and past problems we are being entirely too conservative. And what I would like to do is to at least stir some interest in Modular Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors (LFTR) or, alternatively, Remote Large Scale Breeders in conjunction with High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) electrical backbones.
The French, having started much sooner, have also missed out on a lot of very good science. The systems they run are not actually safe, even though, to my knowledge, the French have never had a serious nuclear accident. They do reprocessing and then disposal on site and seem to get away with it. But perhaps in a few more years the containment on those wastes will break down and destroy the entire nation. It is difficult to understand why further development of nuclear power is allowed without a better solution to the problem of the wastes. But that is why I am so high on LFTR or Molen Salt Reactors (MSR).
LFTR seems to promise a much safer reactor with far, far less waste and much less concern for weapons proliferation. India and China are both moving forward with thorium reactors and with using thorium in their current reactors. Here we sit crabbing about BOOGERMAN stories. It is as though the owners of carbon and uranium processing are paying the environmentalists to protect their golden geese.
And without LFTR why not put the nuclear reactor IN Yucca Mountain and feed the electricity to New York City using HVDC lines??? Why is everyone all hyped up over electric trains when they should be paying a lot more attention to the electrical grid that is needed to carry power from the windmills and the solar farms and the nukes in the middle of nowhere to the cities where all the consumers abide???
Aren't progressives are about progress?