[chimera]

Meanwhile, I am still waiting for the nuclear energy that will be so cheap they won't even meter your usage, LOL.

However, that's exactly what was being told (sold?) to the public back in the 1950's by nuclear energy advocates. So I remain skeptical of any 'free energy' talk.

This was never said by "nuclear energy advocates". It was said by one man, one time. That man was Lewis Strauss, then Chairman of the old Atomic Energy Commission, and it was stated in a speech given in New York City on September 16th, 1954, to the National Association of Science Writers. And, like the children's game of "telephone", the statement has been distorted and morphed over the years into something never intended.

First, what Strauss was referring to is the bulk-delivery concept of a flat rate independent of usage. He never implied that nuclear-generated electricity would be free of cost to the consumer, simply that metering as a measure of usage and cost would under some circumstances not be needed. Here is the context of his speech:

“It is not too much to expect that our children will enjoy in their homes electrical energy too cheap to meter, will know of great periodic regional famines in the world only as matters of history, will travel effortlessly over the seas and under them and through the air with a minimum of danger and at great speeds, and will experience a lifespan far longer than ours as disease yields and man comes to understand what causes him to age.”

Second, and this is something people who carelessly throw this phrase around out of context as a condemnation of the nuclear industry today don't know, and that is that Strauss was not even referring to nuclear fission. He was alluding to a then-secret program, Project Sherwood, which dealt with controlled nuclear fusion.

So, LOL, indeed.

[Kevmo]

It was said by one man, one time.
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[Kevmo]

“too cheap to meter”

I remember that bs.

[ARepublicanForAllReasons]

Thank you sincerely for explaining the source of this statement. However, like a rumor with wings, "It was said by one man, one time" isn't the whole truth. It was repeated, distorted if you say so, in at least one documentary which made hyperbolic claims about the 'peaceful atom', while warning about the bad side of nuclear energy. This pro-disarmament, utopian documentary was shown at our church when I was about 11 years old (circa 1959). That's how I know about it.

BTW, I no longer associate with that denomination. It is one of the most liberal-infested/infiltrated religious instruments of leftist hype in the world. Not going to name it though, out of respect for it's noble early history.

Anyhow, thanks again. And I have no bone to pick. I would welcome something approaching 'free energy', and I suspect it is coming, but not next week or next year.