Free Republic

July 17, 2012 Commercializing Small Modular Reactors for Domestic and International Markets 2012, Washington, D.C. Question: I’ve got a question on the international cooperation. There is still probably some R&D to develop other projects to move them to commercialization. Do you see any benefits to international cooperation in the field of R&D, like generation 4, and things like this, and working with companies in China, Russia, Europe …? Answer from John Kutsch, Thorium Energy Alliance, discussing the CEUSP. ( See video posted at RFNJ)

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory ran a Molten Salt Reactor for over 55,000 hours from 1970 to 1976. It used molten thorium fluoride salts as fuel, which in its liquid state is a clear blue liquid. Thorium is fertile, not fissile, so the Oak Ridge reactor achieved criticality with the introduction of U-239 and later U-233 as a source of neutron radiation. A Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR) operates at atmospheric pressure, maintaining a peak temperature of 1,300 degrees F. A LFTR will not go kerpow like Fukushima Daiichi because you do not need power to cool fuel rods...

All you need to know as an American politician or bureaucrat is that Thorium is bad, because it is radioactive. Thorium was discovered in 1828 by the Norwegians who named it after the God of Thunder. At one time, annual U.S production of brightly glowing thorium mantles in gas lamps stood at 40 million units. But as we in the U.S. matured from a manufacturing powerhouse, we learned that nearly all naturally occurring thorium exists as thorium-232, which undergoes alpha decay with a half-life of about 14.05 billion years. Alpha decay consists of two neutrons and two protons, basically...

We have a lot of stupid people the United States governments. ItÂ’s not their fault. The creators of our Constitution designed a system that should rarely entangle itself in highly profitable transactions that involve innovative products or strategies. As a result, our economy historically bids the most driven and intelligent away from government jobs. Government, then, finds a governing formula that works, and sticks to it, often no matter what. China, as every American senses, differs. There, the government bears no shame in announcing that it is the sole source of all beneficial economic activity. In this way, the...

frithguild: Well Baron, thank you for your time today. I just want to let Radio Free NJ readers know that you have been a very valuable resource behind The Google Purge stories, especially as it relates to Dave Patraeus and Kip Ward. (Links appear at RFNJ) Baron Scepter: Well thank you frithguild, I must say that you first came on my radar when you connected the dots between the feds being the largest purchaser of information from Google, how the Obama campaign used strategies to target very small groups and is now using information as a weapon against individuals. That...

The inspector general’s report found that [Gen. William ‘‘Kip’’] Ward used military vehicles to shuttle his wife on shopping trips and to a spa and billed the government for a refueling stop overnight in Bermuda, where the couple stayed in a $750 suite. The report detailed lengthy stays at lavish hotels for Ward, his wife and his staff members, and the use of five-vehicle motorcades when he traveled to Washington. It also said Ward and his wife, Joyce, accepted dinner and Broadway show tickets from a government contractor during a trip during which he went backstage to meet actor Denzel...

It takes me a little time to deal with the emotions that bubble up when something does not go my way. I even got into a spat when Tom said after the election that locusts were next here at the Jersey Shore. I shot back saying I would kick his ass if I saw even one locust and that, even though he is a far more accomplished brawler that I, I could do it because in Jersey we don't fight fair. NJ is more often than not ahead of the curve. Obama took the middle in this election because "...

Dear Mr Drudge, In this piece on "The Hill" blog, you received a request from a Democrat liberal operative to "stop the race stories". As an American citizen I'm asking you to please not stop. I do this not for partisan reasons - after President Obama's reelection I find I'm less partisan than ever. I do it because modern American journalism is suffering from a terrible illness, and that illness is eating away at our ability to recognize the truth. It's not that American journalism is slanted or political with regard to race as much as it is deeply...

“Those ads taking my words about small business out of context — they’re flat-out wrong,” Obama says. “Of course Americans build their own businesses. Every day, hardworking people sacrifice to meet a payroll, create jobs and make our economy run. And what I said was that we need to stand behind them, as America always has.” Did they really just put that into a TV commercial? I mean Really????????????

“Those ads taking my words about small business out of context — they’re flat-out wrong,” Obama says. “Of course Americans build their own businesses. Every day, hardworking people sacrifice to meet a payroll, create jobs and make our economy run. And what I said was that we need to stand behind them, as America always has.” Did they really just put that into a TV commercial? I mean Really????????????

I have tried to make the point that the architects of our Constitution understood that the regulatory state favors big interests over people and small business. To prevent the rise of a royal central power, they divided federal power into discreet compartments. I have examined precisely how our Supreme Court permitted the rise of a federal regulatory state beyond these compartments on January 6, 1936 by acquiescing to then favorably viewed fascist and socialist policies. I have also looked at how resulting agricultural regulatory policy oppressed especially southern tenant farmers, whose organized pleas for better laws and regulation went ignored....

I am going to put this at the top, though it refers to Update 6, where I posted a Reuters image captured October 1, 2011 on the Brooklyn Bridge of a protester that appears in the YouTube video I have found so curious. The clarity of this image leads me to conclude, contrary to what I have believed the past several days, that the protester that appears when James W. Holmes sings "hate is on the rise" is not James E. Holmes. It appears that all of this is just a weird thing on the internet. I apologize to the...

While I'm sympathetic to those who would wish to wave a magic wand to prevent tragedies like the one in Aurora Colorado, we all know that no such magic wand exists. I wish it did. I wish it were possible to simply pass a law and with its passing, prevent all future meaningless acts of violence - or all violence for that matter. If only such a thing were possible, I'd happily support it. But since that isn't possible, we must tragically content ourselves to deal with what is. If we are to draft our laws based exclusively on what...

As a blog on Daily Kos notes, the Right is once again Swift Boating the truth ... The problem for the Right is as usual, not one shard of credible evidence to back up their slander and innuendo. ... Mr. Warner should stick to being hired to bust out those Rich Republicans retired in Florida who are engaged in coveting thy neighbors wife or maybe considering their guilty homophobia all those Righties out there really secretly covet they neighbors husband. His story about Holmes OWS involvement is just Right Wing wishful thinking and belongs right up there with that Texas...

I thought I would post a few thoughts. This image is now running around out there, without attributing the work done here at RFNJ: I have not made any conclusions here [at RFNJ] that James E. Holmes belonged to any particular occupy group. It seems that only here at RFNJ can you see the truthful source of this image. For any OWS participants who come here, I will only say that I find admitting truth to be a liberating experience. I draw an inference from the YouTube upload of this carefully edited video that it was NOT produced by the...

Look at 0:16 of this video, posted by James Willie Holmes, in the YouTube HolmesCollection, and compare to the picture of Holmes running around out there: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xn2cql9LAuU&feature=plcp His image appears in the video as the singer sings "Hate is on the rise"

There has been an up-tic in Fast & Furious chatter - Mitt mentioned it on Fox & Friends this morning. Look for the Complaint to be filed maybe Thursday. Senator Grassley has asked whether U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. exercised independence when he declined to pursue criminal contempt without a “particularized description” of the withheld documents. Senator Grassley has also said that without this DOJ description, Mr. Machen “cannot reasonably make an intelligent judgment as to the validity of any privilege claim and his duty to present the citation to a grand jury." This is a set up for...

I have picked up on a strange report about Jason “Main Justice” Weinstein, whose appearances in subpoenaed documents brackets Department of Justice involvement Fast & Furious. Weinstein first appears in a September 9, 2009 email to Lanny “Deep in the Cheese” Breuer, which discusses ATF and DOJ coordination of gun trafficking investigations. It ends with an analytical review, now claimed to be the subject of executive privilege, ordered by Breuer, sometime after February 4, 2011. On that date, the DOJ provided a letter to Congress, drafted in part by Weinstein, which falsely claimed that ATF made “every effort to interdict...

I have taken a quick look at some of the opinion pieces out there, which almost pray that the Supreme Court will save at least the popular parts of Obamacare. I don’t pay much attention to the chattering class. It interferes with the peace and serenity I find in my own little world, where I can read actual transcripts and Supreme Court opinions. Then I can make my own guess how Justice Kennedy will decide whether the commerce clause can support the individual mandate. Tom has cautioned me to keep my writing “accessible.” So I have tried to write as...

We live in strange times, when an arcane rule of law may become a burning national interest. Well, ok - I used a rhetorical flourish to grab your interest. Sometimes law can be pretty dry, so please forgive me. But the U.S. Supreme Court is now deciding whether the commerce clause permits the federal government to compel Americans to enter contracts they don’t want. This is the biggest case of our lifetimes. That is no rhetorical flourish. The law of accumulation, it has been said, results in the immiseration of the working class. Congress was probably well aware of this,...