Posted on 08/21/2011 9:28:54 PM PDT by neverdem
Scientists have long sought easier ways to make the costly material known as enriched uranium — the fuel of nuclear reactors and bombs, now produced only in giant industrial plants.
One idea, a half-century old, has been to do it with nothing more substantial than lasers and their rays of concentrated light. This futuristic approach has always proved too expensive and difficult for anything but laboratory experimentation.
Until now.
In a little-known effort, General Electric has successfully tested laser enrichment for two years and is seeking federal permission to build a $1 billion plant that would make reactor fuel by the ton.
That might be good news for the nuclear industry. But critics fear that if the work succeeds and the secret gets out, rogue states and terrorists could make bomb fuel in much smaller plants that are difficult to detect.
Iran has already succeeded with laser enrichment in the lab, and nuclear experts worry that G.E.’s accomplishment might inspire Tehran to build a plant easily hidden from the world’s eyes.
Backers of the laser plan call those fears unwarranted and praise the technology as a windfall for a world increasingly leery of fossil fuels that produce greenhouse gases.
But critics want a detailed risk assessment. Recently, they petitioned Washington for a formal evaluation of whether the laser initiative could backfire and speed the global spread of nuclear arms.
“We’re on the verge of a new route to the bomb,” said Frank N. von Hippel, a nuclear physicist who advised President Bill Clinton and now teaches at Princeton. “We should have learned enough by now to do an assessment before we let this kind of thing out.”
New varieties of enrichment are considered potentially dangerous because they can simplify the hardest part of building a bomb — obtaining the fuel...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Great except it’s GE and they will want to use the billion dollars of tax-payer money to build the plant in Red China.
Doesn't seem to make sense to oppose GE's effort when Iran already knows how to do it.
If GE knows how to do it..then the Chicoms know how to do it and the Paki’s aren’t far behind. They have so many people working in these fields that the technology cannot be kept bottled up in a test tube.
We sacrificed a log of technology and time to the Chicoms when we should have continued to work on the neutron bomb and EMP bombs. I’m sure they have continued to work on them.
One of my business associates in Asia was a US citizen of Chinese origin who studied Nuclear Physics at Bezerkly.
He seemed to be pretty straight, but what he believed was that most of the Chinese students in nuclear physics were on the payroll of the Chicoms.
OK ... So just WHAT THE H*LL are we worried about “terrorism” for with respect to nuclear weapons?
North Korea get nukes? They already have them, and Washington wants them to keep them, the democrats want them to continue enriching fuel!
Syria get nukes? They already have them, and Washington wants them to keep them, the democrats want them to continue enriching fuel!
Iran get nukes? They already have them, and Washington wants them to keep them, the democrats want them to continue enriching fuel!
Communist China get nukes? They already have them, and Washington wants them to keep them, the democrats want them to continue enriching fuel!
Iraq get nukes? They already tried to get them, and Bush fought a war to stop it, but the democrats fought back even harder so they could keep them, the democrats wanted them to continue enriching fuel!
.....
I didn't see that in the article. Where did you get that from?
He's likely correct. Instead of giving Americans those university seats, the government again rolls out the red carpet for Chinese and foreign students to take those seats.
Now that everybody knows its possible, whats the point?..........
Laser enrichment is like fusion, a fifty-year-old will-o-wisp always just out of reach.
Is this state of affairs REALLY about to change or are we just looking at more “cold fusion”?
I remember Dr. Khidir Hamza’s 1994 memoir: “Saddam’s Bombmaker”
He recalled his colleagues getting all fired up over laser enrichment in the seventies and eighties.
He did some of his own digging at the time and concluded it was the Mossad trying to trick their foes into wasting time and money.
Now he didn’t say it couldn’t ever be done, he was just certain at the time that it was a long way from being practicable. This may have changed, but I think we need to see some real evidence.
““We should have learned enough by now to do an assessment before we let this kind of thing out.”
Look for more pentagon and White house lap-tops to come up
missing. Accidentally left at predesignated places so China has it ASAP.
bump
BTTT.
GE can sell one to Iran.
He opened up the govt. labs on purpose.
NO cheers, unfortunately.
Reporters need to quit tagging every scary concept with “terrorism”.
Terrorists do not build multi billion dollar uber high tech laboratories to generate super dangerous fuels for advanced weaponry.
Terrorists are not going to nick a nuke, build a satellite launch facility, and send the device into orbit just to attemt an EMP attack.
Terrorists buy a bunch of box cutters, plane tickets, and start slitting throats at altitude.
Terrorists build shitty improvised explosives and hope they go off roadside.
Terrorists buy a gun and start shooting people.
Terrorists are not smart enough to do nasty things with super sophisticated technology; if there’re that smart, they’ll figure out that they can do better without dying in the process - like make millions in stocks.
Obama will give one to Iran.
Obama will give all of them to Arab terrorists. What else would you expect from a Muslim Terrorist playing POTUS? Bill Clinton’s treason is insignificant compared what the Muslim terrorist in chief is doing.
Using the US Military to set up Al Qaeda in Libya
Giving $Billions to Egypt for the Muslim Brotherhood
Demanding Isreal withdraw to pre-1967 borders.....
You will have your confirmation when the US throws Israel under the bus next month when the UN votes to force Israel withdraw.
Most Americans won’t figure it out until Obama joins the UN to militarily force Isreal to withdraw. Imagine, Obama using the US Military to attack Israel. I know, you won’t believe it until you see it and then America will still listen to MSM telling them it was necessary.
Even most of the dens stand against Obama’s position with Israel. If he tried to attack, even they would impeach him, if only to save their party.
Fixed it.
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