Redstate

...Senator Barack Obama is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being you've ever known in your life.

The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC. I've been usurped!

can you admit you are trying to draw a conclusion without enough evidence. Yes a large fundraiser is a huge Yucca supporter. Does that mean that Obama is planning on switching to supporting Yucca? No. Its that simple.

Just watched the original Manchurian Candidate last night.

The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC. I've been usurped!

Spoilsport. :)

The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC. I've been usurped!

Oh please. As if the truly spectacular responders you're after will actually read the comments thread before replying...

(-2.75, -4.92)

And on that note, let me hit the sack before you score any more off of me. :)

The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC. I've been usurped!

Note: above I said Obama had some dude from Exelor advising him. The story is about the dude from Exelon, not Exelor. Sorry. Exelor sounds like some Lord of the Rings elf village, which would undoubtedly be as anti-nuke given the political environment of Middle Earth. Now, Obama may have an advisor from there, but I'm unaware of it.

(-2.75, -4.92)

but I did not read anywhere about a guy from Exelon advising Obama. I thought it was just a fundraiser, with no roll in his campaign. Please correct me if I am wrong, but if not that further backs up my point that this is a pretty weak post.

Yes, you're right. I misspoke. I'd say sorry, but I'm for Obama as well. It's all money from Exelon (which makes sense for a Senator, ANY Senator, from Illinois...), and no advice, apparently.

(-2.75, -4.92)

My dear Joliphant, I do believe you've hit upon the very solution to the long-term nuclear waste disposal problem. Why, just two days ago there was printed in that most esteemed journal of news, opinion and letters from our nation's Capitol a thrilling article discussing the boom in eco-conscious restaurants in greater Georgetown.

At Le Pain Quotidien, which opened last spring, the 39-seat communal dining table was fashioned out of reclaimed wood from vintage Belgian train cars. Cleaning products used on the floor and kitchen counters are nontoxic and non-polluting. The to-go cups are made of corn and the spoons of potato starch; they will disintegrate within 30 to 90 days in a commercial compost site rather than sit in a landfill. The exceptional croissants, like the other baked goods, are made with organic flour and butter.
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"We look at everything," says Executive Director Michael Oshman, who founded the GRA in 1990. His 11 environmental guidelines cover energy and water efficiency and conservation, recycling and composting, the use of sustainable food, green building design and construction, and more.
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This past year, the GRA has generated the most interest in its history. Oshman credits the popularity of Al Gore's documentary on global warming, "An Inconvenient Truth." Since the movie's release in May 2006, Oshman says, "the phone has been ringing off the hook."
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"We've been working on the green thing for a long time," says Roberts, whose first step was switching to compact fluorescent light bulbs eight years ago. "We're going to set the standard."
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It's a difficult challenge, Jenkins says. "We're looking for a total zero" when it comes to waste, he says, "but we're not there yet."

They are indeed looking at everything. And even though the food and the cost of doing business are 20% higher, these chic restauranters are positively bubbling at the widespread acceptance of their new religion. And of course, if they can eat at communal tables made from the reclaimed wood paneling of old train cars, what better way to light and decorate the premises than by contributing to the safe and responsible storage of America's nuclear waste materials?

Someone with tongue firmly in cheek might reflect on the Presidential candidates from the Democratic side and be struck by the irony that these folks may have already found their "total zero" when it comes to "waste" -- in Barack Obama.

Of course for the trendy people you would have to remove the word nuclear. Witness how NMR became MRI. Nuclear waste could become Mayfly elements or perhaps Effervescent Materia (Cross over appeal to Final Fantasy fans)
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"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777

Of course the French have embraced nuclear power with all their open arms and legs. Historically some of America's most envied allies (at least as far as the NYT is concerned) are doing much more to supply their countries with nuclear power than the United States is. We know why. Her name is Jane Fonda, and his name is Jimmy Carter.

You would think that La Pain Quotidien would be enthusiastically endorsing it, hence the market opportunity. You could just get someone from Urban Outfitters to market the product; I'm sure it would work in Georgetown.

But even Frontline admits that disposal of nuclear waste is not an engineering problem: it's a political problem.

The engineering is much better than it was when that documentary was produced. The problem is really just that the anti-nuclear left in this country has deliberately forced America into a terrible set of choices. It's time we cast them off.

America's freedom to choose better power sources has for the past 30 years been hobbled by the antinuclear movement in this country. The only real alternatives that will *lower* the price of energy to the consumer while also reducing waste are nuclear, thermonuclear, and exoatmospheric solar. Los Alamos National Laboratory has a very detailed overview analysis of this fact that I read more than 5 years ago. All the rest amounts to raising prices artificially to benefit recidivists.

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"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777

This past month because Popular Science highlighted as one of their "ideas that will not die" a new kind of toroidal magnet that is going to be installed in the French ITER reactor. At least they are helping to keep that idea alive.

The only reason we have to tap coal as a natural resource and blow the tops off of mountains is that the Left will not *politically* allow the citizens of the United States the freedom to choose nuclear power. There have recently been some signs of thawing in this regard, Thomas Friedman in the New York Times has halfheartedly advocated it, but he's been beaten down regularly with pointy sticks. The problem is that Americans won't shake these bastards off.

America's global competitors would like nothing more than to see America's "political problem" with clean and efficient power generation continue. It is the single biggest weight that drags our economy down, and makes them seem even remotely competitive. Here in Massachusetts, Deval Patrick and Ted Kennedy have agreed that there will never be a new power plant built in this state, and all the environmental friendliness will happen through taxation and attrition of our existing power plants.

This means effectively that the cost of energy is going to continue to rise while the amount of available energy continues to decline. It's a very deliberate act on their part.

Any Republican administration that thinks it is going to help America in terms of energy should begin right at this moment by rejecting that logic and stating it publicly.

What America needs, and ultimately what the world needs, is *more* energy at *lower* prices and with *lower* pollution, not the reverse.

But if you look at what liberals do, it's precisely the opposite. Joseph Kennedy helps Hugo Chavez import petroleum into this country at below-market prices, and all of that is carbon-based. In the meantime they have decided that no new power plants will be built, regardless of how advanced their designs are.

They're screwing the American people, and they're also screwing the Venezuelan people, and it's about time it stopped.

while the anti-nuclear activists increased the cost of the last generation of plants marginally by dragging out the licensing process, the real culprit were several other factors
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1) The policy of most, if not all state Public Utility Commissions during the 1960's,1970's and 1980's (when most of the plants were in construction) was that the costs for the plants could not be passed along to the ratepayers (customers) until the plants were "used" and "useful". This increased the overall costs of the plants by requiring the utilities to finance 100% of the plant construction. Note: several state legislatures where utilities are still regulated (NC, SC, Georgia) have passed legislation to allow utilities to charge off some construction costs while new plants are under construction. This will decrease finance charges.
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2) In 1979, when many plants were almost cmplete, the TMI accident occurred. As a result of the post mortem review of the accident scenario, a number of plant design changes were identified, that could have significantly reduced the chance of the accident occuring, by providing better information to the plant operators. All plants in construction were required to install these modifications, prior to recieving their operating licenses. This added several years to the construction period and added 100's of millions to the overall costs.
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3) The high inflation and interest rates experienced during and shortly after the Carter Presidency significantly increased the financing costs of the plants under construction, nearly bankrupting a number of utilities.
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4) Over Capacity of Electric Generation - As a result of the low economic growth during the Carter Presidency, as well as the recession in the early part of the Reagan presidency, the growth in electric demand slowed significantly, resulting in ana over supply of electricity.
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5) Since most of the utilities that built plants in the 1960's and 1970's had little experience with operating nuclear plants, the capacity factors for these plants were relatively low through the 1970's and 1980's as the operating experience base grew. Also, while the utilities were regulated, there ws not a large incentive to increase the operational efficiency of the plants. That has obviously changed. Since the utility deregulation of the 1990's, the operation of nuclear power plants has seen significant consolidation, as the experience base matured and poorer operators sold their plants to the better operators. US nuclear plants now have the best capacity factors in the world.
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6) As economic growth picked up during the 1980's and 1990's, natural gas became very cheap. Since the fuel was cheap, and combined cycle plants could be built in 2 - 3 years, versus the 10 - 15 years necessary to build the first generation of nuclear plants, as electric demand grew strongly, it was met by construction of natural gas fuelled plants.
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Until the relatively recent run up in fossil fuel prices, there was just no incentive for a utility executive to build a nuclear power plant. We've added significant nuclear capacity since the constructionof the last plant, but it has largely been through power uprates (most plants were originally designed with 5 - 15% design margin) and turbine replacements, since these projects could be implemented relatively quickly and at much less financial risk.

To dispose of all the "green" lightbulbs due to their mercury content.

Light bulbs are certainly better than throwing the stuff in a cave and hoping nothing bad happens for a few thousand years. But, spent commercial fuel can be re-processed into even better fuel by spending time in a Breeder Reactor.

Nuclear reprocessing extends the life of commercial fuel by approximately sixty (that's one more than 59) times. Imagine being able to snarf up the gases from your car's tailpipe and get another 60 tanks out of it!!

This isn't Science Fiction, reprocessing has been around for decades. The problem Dim-ocrats have with it is that Breeder Reactors tend to make (gasp) Plutonium, which tends to be a better fuel anyway - not to mention its really handy for bombs.

So on this one (1) issue, I agree with B. Hussein Obama - don't use Yucca!! Let's expand the use of commercial nuclear fuel reprocessing, double, even triple the use of nuclear power in the USA!!

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