Green Bubbles Bursting ( comments on the Obama Green Agenda)

Hudson Institute ^ | April 13, 2009 | Alex Alexiev

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

From the April 20, 2009 National Review

With the selling of President Obama’s economic agenda now in full gear, this is a good time to take stock of his energy plans against the background of energy trends worldwide. Alas, even a brief glimpse reveals that Obama’s focus on renewable energy and the introduction of a cap-and-trade regime runs counter to both economic rationality and current energy trends to the point of guaranteeing its inevitable failure, which will result in serious economic harm to the United States.

The president is imposing his green agenda on America, even as the renewable-energy bubbles of the Left are bursting, and the world is witnessing the astounding comeback of the kind of energy Obama scrupulously avoids mentioning: nuclear power. To understand this surprising reality, the best place to start is to look at the record of the three countries Obama specifically mentioned in his address to Congress as leading the United States in the renewable-energy revolution: China, Japan, and Germany.

China, he said, “has launched the largest effort in history to make their economy energy efficient.” True enough, but that effort has nothing to do with renewable energy, and it’s not even clear that it’s working. To the Chinese, energy efficiency means more efficient coal-burning equipment, co-generation, coal liquefaction, and other improvements of their primarily coal-based energy industry. Despite marginal improvements in this area, China is now the largest carbon-dioxide emitter in the world and can, at best, slow down but not stop carbon-emissions growth for the foreseeable future. As far as renewable energy proper is concerned, its share of total energy production not only is minuscule, but has actually declined over the past two years, according to Beijing’s State Electricity Council.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Related :

Advanced nuclear technology and CO2 mittigation (Thorium as an Energy Resource)

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Start at the beggining of the Blog

Energy from Thorium

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Saturday, April 22, 2006

Welcome and Introduction

This weblog is intended to be a location for discussion and education about the value of thorium as a future energy source. Despite the fact that our world is desperately searching for new sources of energy, the value of thorium is not well-understood, even in the "nuclear engineering" community.

The fundamental basis for considering nuclear energy over chemical energy is the binding energy released in each case. Chemical energy is released when the electron configuration of atoms is rearranged through a chemical process (combustion, digestion, etc.) Electrons are bound to nuclei with binding energies measured in electron volts (eV).

The protons and neutrons in an atomic nucleus, on the other hand, are bound with energies measured in millions of electron volts (MeV). Thus, rearranging the nucleus of an atom (through fusion or fission) releases roughly a million times more energy than chemical energy release.

There are four basic nuclear "fuels" found in nature: deuterium, lithium, thorium, and uranium.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

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Fission of natural thorium, on the other hand, is much easier because its absorption product (uranium-233) produces enough neutrons from collision with a slowed-down (thermal) neutron to sustain the fission reaction, given that the reactor is designed to be frugal with its neutrons. This feature, and the abundance of thorium worldwide, give thorium a profound advantage over the other nuclear fuels for sustained energy generation.

Thorium is abundant in the Earth's crust and widespread across the United States and around the world:

[Ev Reeman]

Obummer wants his green agenda adopted NOW. The man has no patience. The problem is the world and our own country are not prepared for such a huge transition all at once. It is better for the country if the transition to green energy is gradual if only to see what such policies do to our extremely fragile economy at the present time.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

From the comments to the article:

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We need the reactor that can advantageously use thorium. All of my research points me to the liquid-fluoride reactor as the machine that can make thorium useful. Fluoride reactor technology was developed and demonstrated in the United States at Oak Ridge National Lab. But because it threatened the AEC's committment to sodium-cooled plutonium fast-breeder reactors, the AEC killed it in 1974.

I think someday history will record that as one of the biggest mistakes in nuclear development.

Are there functioning thorium reactors today? Yes, the Indians have a research reactor that's using thorium, but it's solid-core and not a thorium burner.

[Chickensoup]

He wants to kill our economy, cause anarchism and then institute a fascist totalitarianism.

[PGalt]

Gang-green. Cut it out.

[justa-hairyape]

It is better for the country if the transition to green energy is gradual if only to see what such policies do to our extremely fragile economy at the present time.

All green energy is based on sunlight energy. Solar collectors, wind turbines and bio fuels need sunlight to exist. And the sun is sleeping right now. More so then it ever has in modern history. If we are trending toward an ice age, green energy means no energy. Green Energy will be the last nail in the coffin of the US. Solar collectors wont work when buried in snow. This winter will could see significant snow below 3,000 feet in the southwest (remember Vegas last winter). Wind turbines wont work when covered in ice and during intense winds. Biofuels wont grow when the growing season is nonexistent. Some of us are sitting back and watching Western Civilization commit suicide, and all we can do about it is pop more popcorn and stock more survival gear.

[gakrak]

“He wants to kill our economy, cause anarchism and then institute a fascist totalitarianism.”

If this is true, he had better remember that we are the ones with the guns. Amen.