Which led to the easier to understand "science and politics do NOT mix". It's easier to understand in this day and age because it has fewer syllables and smaller words, in case you're wondering.
I wish we could convince the hydrogen fanatics of this fact.
A number of potential Canadian projects are not economic because the build up of infrastructure to support extraction is prohibitive - just as some Saudi oil fields go unexploited, because of remoteness, or poor quality of the oil in the field.
Using nukes to generate energy to refine the oil shales or oil sands would make economic sense if the nukes could be built and operated for substantially less than the value of the lode being mined. Apparently it is a toss up at this point, even with $60 barrel oil.
Not to mention the anti-capitalism that is rampant in this country that poses a dire threat and huge risk to any investment of capital, least it result in "windfall" profits tax, particularly in the evil "oil" industry. It will take a serious crisis for a majority of the population to start hanging the socialists in effigy, perhaps straighting these yuppies out. By then of course, it will be too late.
If it hadn't been for the extreme growth in Saudi oil production in the 70's, the industrialized countries would have faced the crisis of diminishing supply with increasing demand in the 70's.
According to Matt Simmons "Twilight in the Desert", the overproduction of the giant Saudi fields in the 70's may have damaged these fields and could result in early exhaustion. His research into available sources from oil geologists working in the Saudi fields tells him that things are not too rosy in Saudi Arabia. And that Saudi production may have peaked, curiously at about 10 mbpd in 1981. OPEC stopped reporting production figures in 1982, but Saudi already had declined to less than 8 mbpd.
If you want to see an eye-popping graph, take a look at a 10 year chart of the Vanguard Energy Fund, VGENX for you home gamers. Something happened in 2002 that changed the nature of the market. Energy companies share values exploded in an exponential fashion. They still trade like cyclic companies, with low PE multiples (8-15), but their earnings have dramatically increased. Bid up by the consumers of their product: means only one thing - demand is outpacing supply at an ever increasing rate. This does not necessarily mean that we have reached peak production, as demand can grow at a higher rate than production for periods of time, while both are still increasing. It is another clue to me, however, that there is exponential growth, more easily explained by steadily increasing demand, and an accelerating decline in supply
If we recycle and breed the Nuke fuel we have we have fuel for about 500 years: if we don't - about 50 to 100 years. Breeding doesn't cost anything, proving your point.
Nuke plants have been designed to provide heat to crack the oil shale. So breeding Nuke fuel could provide energy to produce oil for almost nothing.
The leftist Democrats know this, and that's why they have always been anti-nuke. They thrive on chaos and destruction; that is all they have to offer!
bttt