PKKH

The red corridor which is now turning into red alert for Indian sovereignty has been camouflaged by the Government of India so strongly since years to save the face in the world community. But now the cover is proving too short to hide this ugly reality.

Naxals/Maoists issue is widely censored by the common Indians you interact in daily life, but the living reality says otherwise. Naxalite/Maoist insurgents are controlling more than 45% of India without any obstruction from the state anywhere in those regions. The police and paramilitary is too vulnerable to their deadly attacks due to lack of capability and fire power to confront these militants. The most dangerous reality is that the Militants are now in full control of those regions where there are located key Nuclear Installations or most convincingly the Nuclear Arsenal storage sites

Talcher’s Heavy Water Plant

Starting from the state of Orissa at the eastern coast of India, where Maoists are showing much stronger presence. A very important Heavy Water Plant is located in the City of Talcher in this state. Since last many months this city is badly hurt due to repeated terrorist activities of Maoists and their supporters. Maoists displayed their power most recently when they blocked the road access to Talcher making things to complete standstill inside that city and in the surrounding areas. Most ironic is that the presence of law enforcing agencies in these areas is very minimal and almost next to none. Local residents are living in extreme fear and in complete insecurity. In these circumstances, any serious accident to the Heavy Water Plant would lead to complete catastrophe. It is ironic that besides being completely helpless against the growing influence of Maoists near this important nuclear site, Indian media is not alarming any warnings. It is clear that India is hiding this matter deliberately and does not want the world to know about the intensity of the threat.

Uranium mines & mills, Jaduguda, Jharkand

The important Uranium mines and mills in Jaduguda Jharkand are facing worst catastrophe of deadly leakages when a new tailings pipeline burst caused a uranium mill tailings spill that reached nearby homes. Ironically this incidence of International importance was camouflaged again by the Indian media. It is widely believed that this particular area is now under full control of Naxal/Moist forces.

Read More

Madras Atomic Power Station

Located at  Kalpakkam about 80 km south of Chennai, India, is a comprehensive nuclear power production, fuel reprocessing, and waste treatment facility that includes plutonium fuel fabrication for fast breeder reactors [FBRs]. It is also India’s first fully indigenously constructed nuclear power station. It has two units of 170 MWe capacity each. The first and second units of the station went critical in 1983 and 1985 respectively. The station has reactors housed in a reactor building with double shell containment ensuring total protection even in the remotest possibility of loss of coolant accident. An Interim Storage Facility [ISF] is also located in Kalpakkam

Naxal tentacles are reaching Chennai which as mentioned above has this important Power Plant, Naxal presence just few kilometers from this city is a living threat which no one can ignore so easily. The recent train mishap in Chennai is believed to be the activity of Naxals to signal their strong presence in this region too. Read Report

Narora nuclear power plant

Narora is located on the banks of river Ganges, in district Bulandshahar, Uttar Pradesh. A nuclear power plant is located in its vicinity. The insurgent sympathizers smuggle highly radioactive material out of the Nuclear Fuel Complex to detonate a radiological dispersion device or ‘dirty bomb’ in Hyderabad. An example of security blunder that could have resulted in the theft of fissile material in August 2006: Security was tightened in and around the Narora nuclear power plant after three men working there were arrested for giving fake addresses at the time of their appointments. Unbelievably, the men were given access to the facilities without first conducting thorough background checks. The problem is that India does not only have 22 declared including under construction  nuclear reactors, but it also has about 60 less secure agencies connected with nuclear activities. India is well known for lax security and overworked systems; security experts believe smuggling of radioactive materials to be highly probable.

There are several other regions where Naxal ideology is gaining popularity and more and more poor and homeless are becoming part of their Army. The Maoist/Naxals are too close to capture the half of India and consolidate their position for their future goals. Read More

It is extremely ironic that India is yelling and screaming about the vulnerability of Pakistani Nukes, but it is more catastrophic when we see that many important locations of Indian Nuclear Installations are situated in those areas which are in complete control of these insurgents. Why this truth is hidden from the world? The catastrophe of weapons slipping into the hands of most cruel terrorists on earth is quite possible not in years but in days. The question arise that who will raise the alarm for the world? The world leaders are quite unmoved on this issue, but once we come to know that Naxals have obtained few of the war heads for their ugly means then it will become a global threat overnight and the sleeping savers of the world would jump for crash program! This is bad luck for the poor people of India in particular that their government has thrown them in front of Maoists/Naxals and has accepted an undeclared defeat against these forces. Read More

From every corner of India sane and intellectual journalists and news channels are now beginning to raise their voice on this issue but it seems that water has reached the noses already.

When we analyze as to why India is not taking strong action against Maoists/Naxals then we can find few important reasons behind this criminal delay which is hurting Indian existence:

• India has till now portrayed itself as a safe and trouble free country thus gaining maximum attention of tourism and foreign investment which it does not want to loose due to this issue.
• Next year a huge event of Cricket World Cup is to be held in India and the Government does not want a situation in which the neighboring country Pakistan has fallen into after initiating assault over Taliban Militants which brought complete catastrophe and subsequent barring of all International sporting events to be conducted there for security reasons.
• India does not want itself to be slipped into the same situation where Pakistan has been pointed out as an unsafe Nuclear Power.
• It is also believed that Americans are trying to penetrate into Nuclear Installations of India in the name of assistance or help to increase security level of these Installations. Some of them are almost 4 decades old and have completed their life. India is trying to hide the vulnerable status of their Nuclear command and control system to avoid undue interference of USA.

In short, Indian nation would have to bear the threat of Naxals/Maoists helplessly because in the near future Indian Government seems to have no plan but to unwillingly allow these terrorists to spread their influence inside the whole of the Indian territories.

USA, UK, China and Europe should see this latest development with responsibility because the threat of Maoist/Naxals is 1000 times more deadly than the proclaimed threats in Pakistan who are confined to only some remote mountain areas as compared to Naxals/Maoists who are controlling the cities and the huge region in full. World cannot afford to see the Nuclear Arsenal of India easily slipping into the hands of Naxals who can use that any time anywhere to surprise the peace loving nations. It is also possible that these insurgents who are so close to capture these important weapons would also sell them ahead to Al Qaeda or any deadly group which can hit America with unmatchable intensity as USA has put a blind eye on this possibility.

Some of the more extreme climate change deniers, and others who have an anti-science agenda, continue to dredge through the domestic debris of the emails stolen by a hacker from the climatic research unit at the University of East Anglia. Their conclusions are, of course, predictable.  Meanwhile, the balanced media summary oif this fiasco is probably well represented by George Monbiot in the Guardian: “The leaked exchanges are disturbing, but it would take a conspiracy of a very different order to justify sceptics’ claims.” (see Global warming rigged? Here’s the email I’d need to see ).

I particularly liked his depiction of the email that the climate change deniers and their allies would dearly love to find. It’s a great satire and portrays some of the silliest conspiracy theories promulgated by deniers.

From: ernst.kattweizel@redcar.ac.uk

Sent: 29 October 2009

To: The Knights Carbonic

Gentlemen, the culmination of our great plan approaches fast. What the Master called “the ordering of men’s affairs by a transcendent world state, ordained by God and answerable to no man”, which we now know as Communist World Government, advances towards its climax at Copenhagen. For 185 years since the Master, known to the laity as Joseph Fourier, launched his scheme for world domination, the entire physical science community has been working towards this moment.

The early phases of the plan worked magnificently. First the Master’s initial thesis – that the release of infrared radiation is delayed by the atmosphere – had to be accepted by the scientific establishment. I will not bother you with details of the gold paid, the threats made and the blood spilt to achieve this end. But the result was the elimination of the naysayers and the disgrace or incarceration of the Master’s rivals. Within 35 years the 3rd Warden of the Grand Temple of the Knights Carbonic (our revered prophet John Tyndall) was able to “demonstrate” the Master’s thesis. Our control of physical science was by then so tight that no major objections were sustained.

More resistance was encountered (and swiftly dispatched) when we sought to install the 6th Warden (Svante Arrhenius) first as professor of physics at Stockholm University, then as rector. From this position he was able to project the Master’s second grand law – that the infrared radiation trapped in a planet’s atmosphere increases in line with the quantity of carbon dioxide the atmosphere contains. He and his followers (led by the Junior Warden Max Planck) were then able to adapt the entire canon of physical and chemical science to sustain the second law.

Then began the most hazardous task of all: our attempt to control the instrumental record. Securing the consent of the scientific establishment was a simple matter. But thermometers had by then become widely available, and amateur meteorologists were making their own readings. We needed to show a steady rise as industrialisation proceeded, but some of these unfortunates had other ideas. The global co-option of police and coroners required unprecedented resources, but so far we have been able to cover our tracks.

The over-enthusiasm of certain of the Knights Carbonic in 1998 was most regrettable. The high reading in that year has proved impossibly costly to sustain. Those of our enemies who have yet to be silenced maintain that the lower temperatures after that date provide evidence of global cooling, even though we have ensured that eight of the 10 warmest years since 1850 have occurred since 2001. From now on we will engineer a smoother progression.

Our co-option of the physical world has been just as successful. The thinning of the Arctic ice cap was a masterstroke. The ring of secret nuclear power stations around the Arctic circle, attached to giant immersion heaters, remains undetected, as do the space-based lasers dissolving the world’s glaciers.

Altering the migratory and reproductive patterns of the world’s wildlife has proved more challenging. Though we have now asserted control over the world’s biologists, there is no accounting for the unauthorised observations of farmers, gardeners, birdwatchers and other troublemakers. We have therefore been forced to drive migrating birds, fish and insects into higher latitudes, and to release several million tonnes of plant pheromones every year to accelerate flowering and fruiting. None of this is cheap, and ever more public money, secretly diverted from national accounts by compliant governments, is required to sustain it.

The co-operation of these governments requires unflagging effort. The capture of George W Bush, a late convert to the cause of Communist World Government, was made possible only by the threatened release of footage filmed by a knight at Yale, showing the future president engaged in coitus with a Ford Mustang. Most ostensibly capitalist governments remain apprised of where their real interests lie, though I note with disappointment that we have so far failed to eliminate Vaclav Klaus. Through the offices of compliant states, the Master’s third grand law has been established: world government will be established under the guise of controlling man-made emissions of greenhouse gases.

Keeping the scientific community in line remains a challenge. The national academies are becoming ever more querulous and greedy, and require higher pay-offs each year. The inexplicable events of the past month, in which the windows of all the leading scientific institutions were broken and a horse’s head turned up in James Hansen’s bed, appear to have staved off the immediate crisis, but for how much longer can we maintain the consensus? Knights Carbonic, now that the hour of our triumph is at hand, I urge you all to redouble your efforts. In the name of the Master, go forth and terrify.

Professor Ernst Kattweizel, University of Redcar. 21st Grand Warden of the Temple of the Knights Carbonic.

Monbiot concludes: “This is the kind of conspiracy the deniers need to reveal to show that man-made climate change is a con. The hacked emails are a hard knock, but the science of global warming withstands much more than that.”

What do you think? Is he being a bit harsh?

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People listening to policymakers debate the nation’s energy future might think: Just erect a lot of wind turbines, and problem solved. Or install a bunch of solar panels, and let the sun do the work.  However, renewable energy alternatives present costs and challenges just like traditional energy sources — coal, natural gas, nuclear and hydropower.  (read World-Herald article)

PressTv

The 20-meter Agni-II is capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to targets within a range of 2,500 kilometers (1,560 miles).

India’s nuclear-capable, medium-range ballistic missile has proved unsuccessful during its night-time test fire.

The army test-fired the surface-to-surface Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) from Wheeler’s Island, Bhadrak district, around 7:50 pm (1420 GMT).

“The liftoff and the first stage separation was smooth. But it faltered just before the second stage separation and behaved erratically, deviating from its coordinated path,” ‘the Times of India’ quoted a Defense Ministry official as saying on Tuesday.

“Further analysis to ascertain the cause is ongoing,” he said on condition of anonymity.

Sophisticated radars, telemetry observation stations, electro-optic instruments and a naval ship tracked the entire trajectory of Monday’s test fire.

The launch, originally scheduled earlier this month, had been postponed due to some technical problems in its pneumatic system.

Agni-II, which can deliver a nuclear warhead to targets within a range of 2,500 kilometers (1,560 miles), measures 20 meters in length, one meter in diameter.

The missile, first tested on April 11, 1999, has a launch weight 16 tones and can carry a 1,000 kg conventional or nuclear payload.

The user training test was the first night-time launch since the beginning of a missile development program by the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO).

India already has the nuclear-capable 3,000-kilometer range Agni-III missile while unconfirmed reports suggest it is building an Agni variant with a range of 5,000 kilometers.

[The first version of this news release erroneously stated the county where people may send supportive testimony for the Payette County nuclear plant; this error has been corrected in the version below]

Local approval of nuclear plant rezone could lead to as many as 100 short-term jobs this coming spring, according to company
Testimony ran 2-to1 in favor of plant at last week’s public hearing

Nov. 23, 2009

For more information:

Don Gillispie, 209-939-9311

http://aehipower.com

http://facebook.com/aehipower

http://twitter.com/aehi

Testimony for a proposed nuclear plant at a hearing last week was 2 to 1 in favor and the company says it may start hiring a few dozen people locally as early as next spring, assuming the county rezones the land.

“Discounting the usual anti-nuclear group speakers from around the state – who have no vested interest in Payette’s land use – the ratio was closer to 3 to 1 in favor,” said Don Gillispie, CEO of Alternate Energy Holdings Inc.

Gillispie said preliminary site assessment will create an immediate need for drillers, surveyors, earth movers, contractors, laborers and other well-paying jobs.

“Our proposed power plant will put thousands of people to work when construction hits full stride, but preliminary site assessment this spring may start employing workers in the short-term,” Gillispie said. “According to economic projections, the project will create 4,000 to 5,000 jobs during the construction phase, which could start as soon as 2013.”

However, a limited amount of work will need to take place this spring for site study. For example, a meteorological tower and some simple outbuildings will need to be constructed and some grading done. Well drillers will be hired to take core samples and surveyors to stake out preliminary locations. Basic electrical service will also be brought to the site, requiring electricians.

All of this work will be in preparation for an application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Gillispie hopes to make an initial NRC application in the spring of 2011 (the company must collect a least a year’s worth of meteorological data).

Gillispie said these jobs heavily depend on local approval of the comprehensive plan amendment and rezoning of the land, as these will unlock additional investment. He encouraged people to send resumes and letters of interest to info@aehipower.com and to send supportive testimony to Payette County at lroyston@payettecounty.org pr imachuca@payettecounty.org prior to the Dec. 10 deadline. AEHI also expects to have an informational video up on its Web site www.aehipower.com by Tuesday.

“We have lots of investors, including large institutional investors, who are watching the approval process closely,” Gillispie said. “Naturally, they are seeing if we can at least make it over the first hurdle before they consider loaning money for site prep work.”

AEHI considered building a plant in Owyhee County in 2007 and early 2008, until discovery of a geological fault stopped the project. With no other suitable sites in Owyhee County, the company turned its efforts to Elmore County, where the rezone request has been delayed for over a year with no vote on the application. Nevertheless, the company has spent a total of $10 million in these two counties to date – and most of the money was spent in Idaho, creating the equivalent of approximately 200 jobs.

“The closer companies and contractors are to Payette County, the more employment priority we will give them, and those located in the county will get highest priority of all,” Gillispie said. “We will also be going through a stack of hundreds of resumes we have collected from people at a jobs booth in April, and resumes and letters of interest people have sent us over the years.”

AEHI has filed to amend the Payette County comprehensive plan and rezone some 500 acres of a 5,100 acre parcel; the remaining 4,600 acres will remain ag and serve as a buffer.

At a hearing last week before the county planning and zoning commission, about two dozen Payette County and Idaho residents said the plant is needed to bring safe, secure employment and clean industry to the county. The P and Z commission will discuss the issue on Thursday, Dec. 10 and are expected to make a recommendation to the Payette County Commission on that date.

The county commission will hold another hearing and vote on the rezone, possibly by year’s end. Rezone approval will then allow pre-COLA (Nuclear Regulatory Commission Application) preparations to begin in the first quarter of 2010.

“As current national polls show 75 percent of Americans support new nuclear power plants, communities are openly inviting nuclear developers to consider their location as a potential site,” Gillispie said. “It is certainly refreshing to see this change, but not surprising considering the extensive benefits of these plants. It is apparent our new Idaho county is up to the competitive challenge in processing our application in a timely fashion.”

The nuclear industry is already putting people to work. According to the Nuclear Energy Institute, “nuclear energy is one of the few bright spots in the US economy – expanding rather than contracting.” An NEI report says the prospect of new plant construction in has already stimulated considerable investment and job creation among companies that supply the nuclear industry:  “Over the last several years, the nuclear industry has invested over $4 billion in new nuclear plant development and plans to invest approximately $8 billion in the next several years to be in a position to start construction in 2011-2012.” In the course of this, NEI said, “private investment in new nuclear power plants has created an estimated 14,000-15,000 jobs.” The number of new jobs “will expand dramatically after 2011 when the first wave of these new nuclear projects starts construction.”

About Alternate Energy Holdings, Inc. (www.alternateenergyholdings.com)

Alternate Energy Holdings develops and markets innovative clean energy sources. The company is the nation’s only publicly traded independent nuclear power plant developer willing to build power plants in non-nuclear states. Other projects include, Energy Neutral which removes energy demands from homes and businesses (www.energyneutralinc.com), Colorado Energy Park (nuclear and solar generation), and International Reactors, which assists developing countries with nuclear reactors for power generation, production of potable water and other suitable applications. Also, AEHI China, headquartered in Beijing, develops joint ventures to produce nuclear plant components and consults on nuclear power.

“Safe Harbor” Statement: This press release may contain certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Sections 27A & 21E of the amended Securities and Exchange Acts of 1933-34, which are intended to be covered by the safe harbors created thereby. Although AEHI believes that the assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements contained herein are reasonable, there can be no assurance that these statements included in this press release will prove accurate.

So some new news from Greenpeace.  Kumi Naidoo was appointed executive director of the environmental campaign group Greenpeace International this month after two decades leading civil society groups in Africa and internationally. Mr. Naidoo, 44, who is from South Africa, takes over the role at a time when environmentalism increasingly enjoys mainstream status.  Here is his introduction video.

Hummmm… So will there be any real change or will Mr. Naidoo tow the exaggerated and exceedingly irresponsible party line.  Well as he suggested in an interview with the New York Times blog Green inc.  he intends to maintain the party line thing.

Question;

Greenpeace has staunchly opposed nuclear power on a variety of grounds. But a number of former opponents of nuclear have come around to accepting this form of energy and now say that it may have a role to play in the future low-carbon power mix. Do you see any room for nuclear power — including the extension of licenses on existing nuclear power plants — in an era when governments and citizens are searching for low-carbon energy sources?

Answer;

No. Nuclear power is a dangerous distraction to real solutions. When you extend a nuclear plant’s life beyond what it was designed for, you make an unsafe technology even more dangerous, create even more waste, and put off decisions on adopting real solutions.

Why?

Actually it seems to me Mr. Naidoo, that more and more countries are considering, planning, or constructing nuclear reactors to supply clean, electricity to their populace.  I guess the belief that ‘civil disobedience is the only way to push our governments’ isn’t really working on the nuclear issue.  Like any industry, nuclear has grown to meet the challenges that has hindered it in the past.  The answers to the following questions were taken from ‘The nuclear Imperative‘ by  Jeff W. Eerkens, PhD Adjunct Research Professor, Nuclear Science & Eng’ng Institute University of Missouri

1) Nuclear is too expensive

Well this question must be taken in relativity to other solutions that have been offered to limit Co2 emissions namely a massive ramp up in renewable power sources.

Contrary to false propaganda by anti-nuclear groups, the cost of tera-watts of electricity is three times less expensive with nuclear than for wind or solar. Solar and wind power generation requires expensive energy storage systems (batteries, etc) when there is no sunshine or wind. Also many miles of access roads for maintenance and repair are needed to keep blades or solar panels clean from bird droppings, dead birds, sand erosion, and storm damage, and to periodically replace electrodes on storage batteries.

2) Nuclear is dangerous

Today’s nuclear power plants are absolutely safe. Because of the negative “coefficient of reactivity”, reactor fuel elements can only melt (an explosion is not possible) during a maximum credible accident in which the emergency core cooling system totally fails. This was “experimentally” proven in the Three-Mile-Island (TMI) accident. A negative coefficient of reactivity means that neutron multiplication is automatically stopped when the temperature in the reactor gets too high. The Russian Chernobyl reactor which took the lives of 57 people, had a positive coefficient of reactivity because it used graphite as moderator. That design for nuclear power plants was prohibited in the USA since the birth of nuclear power in 1950 and now prohibited worldwide. Furthermore the Chernobyl reactor had no containment vessel, as was/is the law in all Western countries and now globally. The assertion that perhaps thousands of people could still die from the fallout around Chernobyl is nonsense. Of the 60,000 inhabitants of Pripyat who had been exposed to fallout, about 12,000 will die at an advanced age of cancer because worldwide 20% of all people ultimately die from cancer. To ascribe those 12,000 deaths to Chernobyl’s fallout is equally ridiculous as claiming that such a death toll is due to drinking coffee because 20% of all people drink coffee.

3) What about the waste?

The volume of waste amounts to one aspirin tablet per year per person using nuclear electricity, compared to many tons of air pollutants and mega-tons of globe-warming gaseous CO2 emitted by coal or fossil-fuel combustion. Nuclear waste can be easily stored and safely transported, as the US nuclear navy has done for half a century. Contrary to allegations that uranium and plutonium in spent fuel elements pose a problem because of million-year half-lives, they will be separated from fission products by reprocessing and burnt as fuel in future fast-breeder reactors; they will not be dumped. This reduces 400 tons from a one-year accumulation of spent fuel per reactor to 2 tons of fission products, taking centuries instead of decades to fill Nevada’s Yucca or other waste repository. The notion that long radioactive lifetimes are undesirable is also erroneous. The longer the decay lifetime, the less the radiation emitted per gram of radio-isotope. All humans are “hot” because everyone has radioactive potassium-40 (K-40; 0.012% abundance) in the cells of his/her body, which continuously emits beta particles with a half-life of one million years! Man successfully evolved in this environment.

This perfectly sums up Greenpeace and its position on Nuclear.  No scientific basis.

It seems that on the nuclear issue there is no negotiation with the Greenocracy.  Their positions has been and will always be ‘If you hate it come and march with us.  If you’re on the fence you’re just ignorant and if you’re pro-nuclear you are Satan incarnate’.  The antiquated notion that nuclear is dangerous, predisposes Greenpeace out of any balanced debate on how to tackle climate change.  Its like having a debate with a creationist,  the ability to employ objectivity alludes them, rendering their position inadequate. Real solutions are needed quickly in our fight against Anthropogenic Global Warming, not hopeful suggestions and unachievable goals.  Thanks anyway Greenpeace, best of luck with your future endeavors in skewing the debate, clouding the issue and holding on to unjustified positions, but it seems that people are starting to move beyond your fear tactics and are begining to realize the potential of nuclear as a real substitute to fossil fuel generation.

Three Mile Island radiation leak investigated

(CNN) — Authorities at Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island nuclear plant were investigating what caused a weekend radiation leak that resulted in 150 workers being sent home, officials said Sunday.

An airborne radiological contamination alarm sounded about 4 p.m. Saturday in the Unit 1 containment building, according to a statement from Exelon Nuclear, which operates the Three Mile Island plant near Middletown, Pennsylvania. The unit had been shut down since October 26 for refueling, maintenance and steam generator replacement, the company said.

“A monitor at the temporary opening cut into the containment building wall to allow the new steam generators to be moved inside showed a slight increase in a reading and then returned to normal,” the company said. “Two other monitors displayed normal readings.”

Three Mile Island was the scene of the worst U.S. nuclear accident, a partial meltdown in 1979 that resulted in the plant’s second reactor being shut down permanently.

Read the entire article >

Nuclear Power Is Not The Answer

Via Associated Press

– 7 hours ago

MIDDLETOWN, Pa. — The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is sending investigators to the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant after a small amount of radiation was detected there.

About 150 employees were sent home Saturday afternoon after the radiation was detected at the central Pennsylvania plant.

Officials say there is no public health risk.

“Counting on new nuclear reactors as a climate change solution is no more sensible than counting on an un-built dam to create a lake to fight a nearby forest fire.”

— Peter Bradford, former U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission member

Like coal, natural gas, and oil, uranium is a nonrenewable resource. Consequently, is uranium being depleted faster than we think? With all the talk of building and investing in so-called next generation nuclear reactors, is enough uranium available to meet this proposed new demand in addition to sustaining current demand? Some U.S. Senators are proposing that more nuclear energy is the answer to address our climate change and energy troubles.

U.S. Senators Jim Webb, a democrat from Virginia, and Lamar Alexander, a Republican from Tennessee, do not support the current cap-and-trade legislation, but these Senators are throwing their support behind nuclear power and carbon-capture-and-storage technology. Furthermore, “Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who is working with Democrat John Kerry on the bill, highlighted how France now derives 80 percent of its energy from nuclear power and is presently constructing a next-generation reactor, said to be the most advanced in the world.” More on dwindling uranium supplies from the Physics arXiv Blog:

The world is about to enter a period of unprecedented investment in nuclear power. The combined threats of climate change, energy security and fears over the high prices and dwindling reserves of oil are forcing governments towards the nuclear option. The perception is that nuclear power is a carbon-free technology, that it breaks our reliance on oil and that it gives governments control over their own energy supply.

That looks dangerously overoptimistic, says Michael Dittmar, from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich who publishes the final chapter of an impressive four-part analysis of the global nuclear industry on the arXiv today.

Perhaps the most worrying problem is the misconception that uranium is plentiful. The world’s nuclear plants today eat through some 65,000 tons of uranium each year. Of this, the mining industry supplies about 40,000 tons. The rest comes from secondary sources such as civilian and military stockpiles, reprocessed fuel and re-enriched uranium. “But without access to the military stocks, the civilian western uranium stocks will be exhausted by 2013, concludes Dittmar.

It’s not clear how the shortfall can be made up since nobody seems to know where the mining industry can look for more.

That means countries that rely on uranium imports such as Japan and many western countries will face uranium .shortages, possibly as soon as 2013. Far from being the secure source of energy that many governments are basing their future energy needs on, nuclear power looks decidedly rickety.

And from PhysOrg.com:

New York Times energy reporter Matthew Wald, writing in Technology Review, said new reactors would be unable to pay for themselves because of the massive cost of construction and competition from emerging alternatives that could affect the energy price. Wald compared the costs per kilowatt of capacity of nuclear ($4,000), coal ($3,000) and natural gas ($800), which makes the nuclear option a big financial gamble. The future cost of fossil fuels is unknown, and could also affect the nuclear industry’s viability.

Energy efficiency standards and renewable energy options are better solutions than the nuclearization of energy sources. From Los Angeles Times:

If the U.S. wants to help stop global warming, nuclear power is not the way to go, according to a new report released today.

The Environment California Research & Policy Center concluded that launching a nuclear power industry nearly from the ground up is too slow and expensive a process. Energy efficiency standards and renewable energy options are better solutions, researchers said.

.       .       .

But even if the nuclear industry managed to build 100 reactors by 2030, the total power produced would reduce total U.S. emissions only 12% over the next 20 years, which Environment California deemed “far too little, too late.”

The $600-billion upfront investment necessary for the 100 reactors would slice out twice as much carbon pollution in that period if invested in clean energy, according to the report. And given the costs of running a power plant, clean energy could deliver five times as much progress per dollar in lowering pollution.

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

I promise to investigate, push, nag, explain, champion and do everything else in my very unconsiderable power to get the United States to implement a Nuclear Power program.

We need to break the cycle of buying petroleum products from the Middle East, Russia and Venezuela.  We must stop supplying them with so much of our money.

Though we have tons of oil, natural gas and coal, I believe we should reserve most of that for transportation.

We can and should utilize a natural resource that is efficient, radically non-polluting and safe.  Uranium is that resource.

Hyperion Power Generation, Inc. has developed shed sized nuclear generators that can power 20,000 homes.

Tyler Hamilton of the Star writes:

It’s efficient because power is generated where it’s used. It’s flexible because projects can be built quickly when needed. It saves money in the long run because there’s less need for expensive transmission lines that carry the power elsewhere. And if one generator fails, its relatively small size means it doesn’t threaten the stability of the entire system.

THAT’s what I’m talking about – this system of nuclear power generation, if viable, solves many problems all at once.

Power Grid: The fragility of our current power grid and it’s susceptability to terrorist attack, human and other failure is deeply troubling.

Loss of Power In Transmission: As has already been mentioned here in regards to electric vehicles, power can not be transferred across mediums and along long distances with out losing power.  That is one of the huge reasons that solar power produced in Death Valley is not a feasible power source.  You can not take it from there to here with out loosing power rendering it either vastly expensive and inefficient.  If your power source is local you are not shedding as much power thus you are more efficient.

Pollution: Nuclear is clean.

This form of nuclear power provision is relatively cheap.

‘Our goal is to generate electricity for 10 cents a kilowatt hour anywhere in the world,’ said John Deal, chief executive of Hyperion. ‘They will cost approximately $25m [£16m] each. For a community with 10,000 households, that is a very affordable $2,500 per home.’

And so, my promise is to fight for more nuclear power.

Thank you for your support.  Go Piranhas!!!!

The world is about to enter a period of unprecedented investment in nuclear power. The combined threats of climate change, energy security and fears over the high prices and dwindling reserves of oil are forcing governments towards the nuclear option. The perception is that nuclear power is a carbon-free technology, that it breaks our reliance on oil and that it gives governments control over their own energy supply.

That looks dangerously overoptimistic, says Michael Dittmar, from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich who publishes the final chapter of an impressive four-part analysis of the global nuclear industry on the arXiv today.

Perhaps the most worrying problem is the misconception that uranium is plentiful. The world’s nuclear plants today eat through some 65,000 tons of uranium each year. Of this, the mining industry supplies about 40,000 tons. The rest comes from secondary sources such as civilian and military stockpiles, reprocessed fuel and re-enriched uranium. “But without access to the military stocks, the civilian western uranium stocks will be exhausted by 2013, concludes Dittmar.

It’s not clear how the shortfall can be made up since nobody seems to know where the mining industry can look for more.

That means countries that rely on uranium imports such as Japan and many western countries will face uranium .shortages, possibly as soon as 2013. Far from being the secure source of energy that many governments are basing their future energy needs on, nuclear power looks decidedly rickety.

But what of new technologies such as fission breeder reactors which generate fuel and nuclear fusion? Dittmar is pessimistic about fission breeders. “Their huge construction costs, their poor safety records and their inefficient performance give little reason to believe that they will ever become commercially significant,” he says.

And the future looks even worse for nuclear fusion: “No matter how far into the future we may look, nuclear fusion as an energy source is even less probable than large-scale breeder reactors.”

Dittmar paints a bleak future for the countries betting on nuclear power. And his analysis doesn’t even touch on issues such as safety, the proliferation of nuclear technology and the disposal of nuclear waste.

The message if you live in one of these countries is to stock up on firewood and candles.

There is one tantalizing ray of sunlight in this nuclear nightmare: the possibility that severe energy shortages will force governments to release military stockpiles of weapons grade uranium and plutonium for civilian use. Could it be possible that the coming nuclear energy crisis could rid the world of most of its nuclear weapons?

Ref: The Future of Nuclear Energy: Facts and Fiction

arxiv.org/abs/0908.0627: Chapter I: Nuclear Fission Energy Today
arxiv.org/abs/0908.3075: Chapter II: What is known about Secondary Uranium Resources?
arxiv.org/abs/0909.1421: Chapter III: How (un)reliable are the Red Book Uranium Resource Data?
arxiv.org/abs/0911.2628 :Chapter IV: Energy from Breeder Reactors and from Fusion?

"Hell of a job, Brownie!"

Rising CO2 Will Cause Catastrophic Sea Level Rise Finds Antarctic Study by Louise Gray, Environment CorrespondentThe Telegraph/UK

Sea levels could rise by up to six metres if the world fails to get pollution under control, according to the latest study in the Antarctic.

The British Antarctic Survey is the latest research to warn of the consequences of increased greenhouse gases on the Earth’s climate. Carbon dioxide is rising at record rates putting the world on a pathway for a 6C rise in temperature, which will cause a sea level rise of up six metres, threatening coastal cities like London, New York and San Francisco.

The recent studies add pressure on world leaders to agree to an international deal on climate change at a UN summit in Copenhagen this December.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/11/18-6

How Limousine Liberals, Water Oligarchs and Even Sean Hannity Are Hijacking Our Water Supply By Yasha Levine, AlterNet.

A group of water oligarchs engineered a disastrous privatization scheme to make a fortune out of California’s most precious natural resource.

A group of water oligarchs in California have engineered a disastrous deregulation and privatization scheme. And they’ve pulled in hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars without causing much public outrage. The amount of power and control they wield over California’s most precious resource, water, should shock and frighten us — and it would, if more people were aware of it. But here is the scary thing: They are plotting to gain an even larger share of California’s increasingly-scarce, over-tapped water supply, which will surely lead to shortages, higher prices and untold destruction to California’s environment.

California is in year three of a fairly nasty dry spell. And some very powerful forces are not letting this mini-crisis go to waste, fiercely lobbying Governor Schwarzenegger and Senator Dianne Feinstein, paying off corporate shills like Fox News’ Sean Hannity and capitalizing on people’s fear of drought to push a massive waterworks project that will pump more water, build more dams and keep sucking the state’s rivers dry. …This drought hysteria is nothing more than political theatrics, a scare tactic backed by big agribusiness to strong-arm California voters into building a multi-billion dollar system of dams and canals that would not really help small farmers — of which there are very few anyway — but would deliver more water to corporations, subsidize their landholdings, fuel real estate development and enable large-scale water privatization. At its core, it is a war waged for water by California’s megarich on everyone else.  READ MORE:

http://www.alternet.org/water/144020/how_limousine_liberals%2C_water_oligarchs_and_even_sean_hannity_are_hijacking_our_water_supply

Rachel Maddow Interview with Former Evangelist Frank Schaeffer: Christian Right Is ‘Trolling for Assassins’ AlterNet.

Schaeffer: “There is a crazy fringe [receiving] messages that have been pouring out of FOX News … talking about doing away with Obama, asking God to kill him.”  READ MORE:

http://www.alternet.org/rights/144054/rachel_maddow_interview_with_former_evangelist_frank_schaeffer%3A_christian_right_is_%27trolling_for_assassins%27

Shocking Benefits of Legalizing Pot By Ami Cholia, AlterNet.

There are some pluses to legalization that you probably haven’t heard about.

The war on drugs may be a noble intention, but the illegal growing of marijuana is destroying our environment.

Primarily run by Mexican drug cartels California’s illegal growers aren’t your typical peace-loving hippies of the 70s. These men live illegally on farms all summer, putting tons of waste into the soil and water. Pesticides drain into creeks and enter the food chain, sickening wildlife.  Each plant also uses about 15 gallons of water per day soaking up a large part of the water resources around.

Organized crime groups who cash in on the drug war’s distortion of supply and demand dynamics have little regard for the environment. Even illegal growers of organic marijuana impact the environment by felling trees in national forests to make room for illicit grow sites. The plants are seasonal, but the environmental damage lasts forever.

There is a serious exception to be made. Many medical – legal – marijuana growers are among the most responsible citizens around. They buy soil in bulk, use rat traps instead of poison, water with timers and drip systems. They have very little physical impact on the land.

Outside of the obvious benefits of hemp — bio-diesel, burns cleanly, soil builder, better cheaper paper, etc. — organic and sustainable practices for growing marijuana would bring in tons of revenue for the states, clean up the environment, and save the government $150 billion on policing and courts, since 47.5% of all drug arrests are marijuana-related.

We’re not promoting drug addiction.  The positive benefits to the environment by making marijuana legal definitely seem enough to take action.

Even Glenn Beck seems to think this is worth it.  READ MORE:

http://www.alternet.org/environment/144052/world%27s_biggest_polluters_strike_a_deal%3A_u.s._and_china_agree_to_comprehensive_clean_energy_and_climate_plan?page=3

World’s Biggest Polluters Strike a Deal: U.S. and China Agree to Comprehensive Clean Energy and Climate Plan By Joseph Romm, Climate Progress.

The overall plan is much more ambitious in scope and depth than anticipated.

A comprehensive plan for U.S.-China cooperation on clean energy and climate change was announced in Beijing by President Barack Obama and President Hu Jintao. The plan contains directives to create various institutions and programs addressing a wide array of cooperation on clean-energy technologies and capacity building, including very important efforts on helping China build a robust, transparent and accurate inventory of their greenhouse gas emissions.

These efforts include cooperation in the following areas:

1.      Greenhouse Gas Inventory.

2.      Joint Clean Energy Research Center. (Factsheet)

3.      Electric Vehicles. (Factsheet)

4.      Energy Efficiency. Building on the Ten Year Framework on Energy and Environment Cooperation, government officials of both countries will “work together (Factsheet)

5.      Renewable Energy. (Factsheet)

6.      21st Century Coal. The two countries will “launch a program of technical cooperation to …develop clean coal and carbon capture and storage technologies.” (Factsheet)

7.      Shale Gas. The U.S. and China will “assess China’s shale gas potential, promote environmentally-sustainable development of shale gas resources, conduct joint technical studies to accelerate development of shale gas resources in China, and promote shale gas investment in China through the U.S.-China Oil and Gas Industry Forum, study tours, and workshops.” (Factsheet)

8.      Nuclear. The two countries reaffirmed the goals of the Third Executive Committee Meeting of the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership to promote the peaceful use of civilian nuclear energy, and “agreed to consult with one another in order to explore such approaches—including assurance of fuel supply and cradle-to-grave nuclear fuel management so that countries can access peaceful nuclear power while minimizing the risks of proliferation.”

9.      Public-private partnerships on clean energy. A new U.S.-China Energy Cooperation Program (ECP) will “leverage private sector resources for project development work in China across a broad array of clean energy projects, to the benefit of both nations.”

The two countries hope that the upcoming United Nations climate change summit in Copenhagen will follow this example and focus as much on bottom-up technological strategies for achieving real reductions in emissions as it will on top-down targets for carbon caps.  READ MORE:

http://www.alternet.org/environment/144052/world%27s_biggest_polluters_strike_a_deal%3A_u.s._and_china_agree_to_comprehensive_clean_energy_and_climate_plan?page=3

Push to Curb Credit-Card Rates Fades as Democrats resist consumer outcry by Michael KranishThe Boston Globe

WASHINGTON – Efforts in Congress to cap credit-card interest rates are faltering because of opposition from Democrats and a lack of specific support from the White House, despite growing consumer outrage over a rush by banks to impose rates as high as 30 percent.

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama vowed to back a strict limit on credit-card interest rates. But the White House is not yet behind any plan.

The Senate soundly defeated legislation in May introduced by Senator Bernard Sanders, the Vermont Independent, to cap most credit-card interest rates at 15 percent. Nearly half of the Democratic senators joined Republicans in defeating the measure, 60 to 33.

Consumer groups say the problem of skyrocketing interest rates has worsened since that vote, as banks scramble to boost rates in advance of a new rule scheduled to take effect in February, requiring banks to give consumers a 45-day advance notice of rate increases.

Sanders said many of the credit cards in the hands of American consumers are issued by four banks that received taxpayer bailout money after last year’s economic meltdown: Citigroup, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, and Wells Fargo.

“People are disgusted. We bailed these [companies] out and they then had the gumption to raise interest rates on the American people,” Sanders said in an interview. Sanders said he plans to reintroduce his proposal to cap rates at 15 percent; he predicted it will have more support this time.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/11/18-7

This week, three environmental groups sued the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for approving uranium mining just north of the Grand Canyon. In addition to endangering the Native American people of the area and threatening the Canyon’s fragile desert ecology, pollution from the Denison Mines Corporation’s 207-acre Arizona 1 mine could contaminate the Colorado River, a drinking water source for 25 million Americans.

Canadian-based Denison, a member of the extractive industries conglomerate the Lundin Group, was refused permits by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality for two other mine sites just a year ago, based on the company’s failure to provide adequate information on its pollution control methods and for its proposal to use antiquated technology to capture uranium-contaminated runoff. Despite the company’s track-record, the BLM is not requiring a new environmental impact assessment, but is allowing the company to reopen the Arizona 1 mine based on a review from more than twenty years ago.

In 2006, Denison merged with the International Uranium Corporation (IUC); IUC’s White Mesa uranium mill in Utah was built on land sacred to the Navajo and Ute people, and has been the target of environmental justice and indigenous rights’ advocates for the health and environmental hazards the company created. Last year, Denison was charged by regulators with exceeding the daily limit of uranium ore hauled from the site.

Earlier this year environmentalists revealed that, despite a Congressional resolution banning new mining on 1 million acres near the Grand Canyon, the Interior Department authorized exploratory drilling for Quaterra Alaska, a U.S. subsidiary of Quaterra Resources, a Canadian mining company holding 2,400 mining claims near the Grand Canyon.

In a promotional company profile, Quaterra’s CEO is hailed for his previous experience in the mining industry, including work with Rio Tinto, a company notorious for environmental havoc, human rights violations, and harsh labor practices. His bio also notes a successful sale of his prior firm to Glamis Gold, a U.S. firm bought by Canada’s Goldcorp in 2006 to form one of the world’s largest mining companies.

Glamis is notorious for its dirty mining operations in Honduras and for opposition to its Guatemalan mining plans. Earlier this year, in a NAFTA first, the southwestern Quechan Nation won its dispute with Glamis when an international tribunal ruled that U.S. and state governments were within their rights in regulating the company’s mining in recognition of Native American cultural and land rights. However, Glamis retains mining rights in the area, despite the tribe’s longstanding opposition to mining on its sacred Indian Pass site, an area designated as one of the 11 Most Endangered Historic Places in 2002 by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

There’s been a lot of talk lately about nuclear power as a viable alternative to coal burning power plants. Advocates say that it’s the only way we’ll be able to hit reduced CO2 emission targets, and that we should think of it as a bridging technology because it’s ready to go now; whereas opponents say that it would be like trading one problem for another and that we need to explore alternatives right away.

What are your thoughts?

Inconsistencies in Elmore County comp plan made it difficult to rezone site for proposed reactor, but company is pressing forward with new Payette County site

Nov. 19, 2009
For more information:
Don Gillispie 208-939-9311

Jennie Ransom 208-939-3495

www.aehipower.com
www.facebook.com/aehipower
www.twitter.com/aehi

In somewhat of a reversal from last year’s decision, the Elmore County Planning and Zoning Commission Wednesday voted to move forward with amending its comprehensive plan so developers could rezone land for a proposed nuclear plant. The company proposing to develop the plant welcomed the vote – even as Payette County holds a meeting tonight to consider a separate proposal for a nuclear plant.

In April 2008, Alternate Energy Holdings Inc. applied to rezone about 1,280 acres in Elmore County to industrial use for a proposed nuclear reactor. In July, the Elmore County Commission found the county’s comprehensive plan was unclear, as it restricted industrial development to a remote area without services, yet sought to promote economic development. The commission directed its Planning and Zoning Commission to consider amending the Elmore County Comprehensive plan to allow the proposed nuclear plant rezone.

“It has been clear to us that Elmore County’s comprehensive plan, while well-intentioned, has appeared to keep industrial development to one zone, thus denying other areas of the county the benefits of industrial development,” said AEHI CEO Don Gillispie. “We welcome Wednesday’s vote as a favorable sign that Elmore County is committed to making sure that its comprehensive plan is used to facilitate growth, not obstruct it.”

Nevertheless, Gillispie said he is looking forward to tonight’s public hearing before the Payette County Planning and Zoning Commission. In October, AEHI submitted an application to amend the Payette comprehensive plan and rezone some 5,100 acres for a nuclear plant. The Payette submittal came a year and a half after the Elmore submittal when AEHI felt Elmore County wasn’t processing its application in a timely manner.

If this step in Payette is successful, the company will have one more hearing for the rezone of the property currently anticipated before year’s end. Rezone approval will then allow pre-COLA (Nuclear Regulatory Commission application) preparations to begin in the first quarter of 2010.

“While we welcome the Elmore County P and Z’s acknowledgement that their plan needs to be reconciled, we are moving forward with our proposal in Payette County as well and look forward to tonight’s hearing before the Payette County Planning and Zoning Commission,” Gillispie said. “We are confident there is at least one jurisdiction in Idaho that is open to having a clean, well-paying, stable industry anchoring their economy.”

About Alternate Energy Holdings, Inc. (www.alternateenergyholdings.com)
Alternate Energy Holdings develops and markets innovative clean energy sources. The company is the nation’s only publicly traded independent nuclear power plant developer willing to build power plants in non-nuclear states. Other projects include, Energy Neutral which removes energy demands from homes and businesses (www.energyneutralinc.com), Colorado Energy Park (nuclear and solar generation), and International Reactors, which assists developing countries with nuclear reactors for power generation, production of potable water and other suitable applications. Also, AEHI China, headquartered in Beijing, develops joint ventures to produce nuclear plant components and consults on nuclear power.

Safe Harbor Statement: This press release may contain certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Sections 27A & 21E of the amended Securities and Exchange Acts of 1933-34, which are intended to be covered by the safe harbors created thereby. Although AEHI believes that the assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements contained herein are reasonable, there can be no assurance that these statements included in this press release will prove accurate.

US Investor Relations: 208-939-9311 invest@aehipower.com

The following is a first draft of a political agenda for a new political party that would appeal to both conservatives and libertarians that now vote for candidates of the Republican, Democratic, Libertarian, and other political parties:

1. Job Creation: reduce the tax and regulation burden of small and medium size businesses to encourage business formation, economic growth, job and wealth creation.

2. Tax Reform: replace all Federal income, payroll, capital gains, estate and gift taxes with a national consumption tax–The FairTax.

3.  Federal Budget: require balance or surplus budgets only, no more budget deficits and deficit spending and absolutely no government bailouts and subsidies to businesses.

4. Federal Government Size and Scope: Eliminate ten Federal Departments and the Federal Reserve System and their associated programs, subsidies, unfunded state mandates and the number of Federal employees by 50%.

5. Federal Government Regulation: reduce by a least half the number and scope of government regulations.

6. Energy Independence: promote oil and gas exploration and production, oil refinery and nuclear power generation plant construction.

7. Education: promote competition and accountability among schools by supporting  home schooling , school choice  and vouchers for parents to pay for school tuition and fees.

8. Health Care Reform: promote tort reform by limiting economic damages and defensive medicine, interstate competition among insurance companies,  health saving accounts paired with individual high deductible health insurance plans.

9. Social Security and Medicare: place both Social Security and Medicare on a financial and actuarial sound basis and transition to individually owned and controlled Social Security Retirement Accounts and Health Saving Accounts paired with high deductible health insurance plans.

10. Immigration: no amnesty for illegal aliens, stop illegal immigration by requiring all employers to use E-Verify to determine eligibility to work in the USA, complete and patrol the entire border fence, remove and deport all criminal aliens, and limit legal immigration to 250,000 persons per year.

11. National Security: bring the troops home from around the world including Germany, Japan, South Korea., Iraq and Afghanistan and budget 5% of Gross Domestic Product for national defense  to build and train all of the military services for defense of the nation.

12. International Affairs: withdraw from the United Nations and require the United Nations to move to another country.

Background Articles and Videos

United States of Amercia Government

http://www.usa.gov/Agencies/Federal/Executive.shtml

http://www.federalbudget.com/

http://blog.heritage.org/2009/03/24/bush-deficit-vs-obama-deficit-in-pictures/

Record-High Deficit May Dash Big Plans

$1.4 Trillion in Red Ink Means Less to Spend On Obama’s Ambitious Jobs, Stimulus Policies

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/16/AR2009101602388.html

http://www.brutallyhonest.org/brutally_honest/2009/11/obama-tripled-the-national-deficit-his-first-year-in-office.html

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/assets/fy2010_msr/10msr.pdf

I.O.U.S.A. Bonus Reel: Social Security+Medicare Projections

I.O.U.S.A.: Byte-Sized – The 30 Minute Version

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_TjBNjc9Bo

Stop Spending Our Future – The Crisis

$78.8 Trillion; United States Debt Obligations exceed world GDP; Monetary Collapse Looming?

Obama; Spending us into Oblivion. Why? – How do we pay off this Debt? – Glenn Beck Explains

Has the White House Gone Nuts?

U.S. National Debt Clock Real Time

http://www.usdebtclock.org/

Related Posts On Pronk Palisades

A New Political Party In The United States? American Citizens Alliance Party–ACAP On Government Spending, Taxes, Debt, and Regulations!

Third Party Time? Yes Provided You Have $10 Billion and 10 Years!

Independents Lead The The Second American Revolution Surge–Independence Day–Saturday July 4, 2009 In Washington D.C.–Tea Party Time–On To Washington–Dare You To Move!

A YouGov poll of more than 4,000 people, commissioned by EDF Energy, shows that two-thirds of the population now support nuclear power, up from 55% three years ago.

Energy security has slipped down the list of challenges facing the UK. The YouGov poll indicates that 59% of people named energy as a challenge facing government, compared to 72% the previous year. The respondents’ greatest concerns were the economic situation, immigration and pensions.

When asked specifically about energy, 82% said they were interested or very interested in where it would come from in future, and 90% thought the UK should be self sufficient in energy.

And the reason might really surprise you — we’re running out of uranium. There’s a lot of talk about building new nuke plants — an idea I like — to help wean the west off of OPEC, et. al. What may come as a shock to many is uranium, the power source for nuclear plants, is going to offer just as many headaches in terms of shortages and being beholden parts of the world with reserves as petroleum provides right now.

Looks like it’s time to redouble the alternative power efforts if we want energy relatively free of the whims of geopolitics.

From the link:

Perhaps the most worrying problem is the misconception that uranium is plentiful. The world’s nuclear plants today eat through some 65,000 tons of uranium each year. Of this, the mining industry supplies about 40,000 tons. The rest comes from secondary sources such as civilian and military stockpiles, reprocessed fuel and re-enriched uranium. “But without access to the military stocks, the civilian western uranium stocks will be exhausted by 2013, concludes Dittmar.

It’s not clear how the shortfall can be made up since nobody seems to know where the mining industry can look for more.