Nuclear Notebook

When Will The Nuclear Industry Wake Up?

...and get real

For some time now it has been apparent that the nuclear industry, whether in the first, second, or third world, has been living in denial. Its denial has been enabled by short-sighted governments, which appear to have little or no understanding of the extent to which they are mortgaging the future - not just of individual citizens and nations - but of the planet..

The primary issue is not the enormous combined public cost of constructing, commissioning and operating these facilities. We need the power and we need nuclear power as a part of the portfolio. Moreover we already have nuclear and we have learned to live with it.

The issue is research and development. Far too little is being done on the research front and that needs to change. Both government and private industry must accelerate investment in the research end of things.

For example, the American waste repository at Yucca Mountain is more than a decade behind schedule and Canada has not even begun work on one. Even when Yucca Mountain is completed (assuming that day will come), it will be too small.

Unless significant dollars 40-50 billion of them in today's money, are invested immediately in finding ways to make nuclear more efficient in every aspect, our heirs and assigns could find themselves in a blind alley with no way out.

Public and private lethargy in terms of advanced nuclear research, means that 15 years from now, conservation will no longer be voluntary, because we'll be living in a time when both household and corporate electricity will be rationed.

And then of course there is the even greater issue of careless, negligent and lackadaisical behaviour by those who are charged with maintaining security.

Read More about the astounding allegations against Canada. And you may rest assured that if it is happening in Canada, it is happening globally.

Wake up guys! 

Nuclear Research And Solutions: Time For Canada To Step Up

     When It Comes To Nuclear Waste: Time To Get Real

At the moment, the safest place for high level nuclear waste material to be stored is right at the reactor site itself.

We’ve been doing it for some 40 years and there’s no reason why it can’t continue to be stored at these locations for at least another decade or more.

In the meantime, we ought to place a moratorium on all new build projec ts other than those already approved.

More importantly even, we ought to be making a major investment in the scientific study of use-and-re-use. To date, we have done little or nothing in this regard. We and the United States have fallen behind Europe in terms of nuclear research and energy research in general.

Canada pioneered nuclear power. But we ceded our leadership role to others, by not pursuing our research programmes more vigorously and systematically.

Canada can once again be a pioneer in reaching a better understanding of nuclear science. We can team up with other world leaders to develop new techniques for re-processing and partially neutralizing the so-called “spent” fuel, which isn’t spent at all, but remains highly volatile and incredibly valuable.

The Bruce Nuclear Plant north of Kincardine Ontario, already employs some of the world’s best nuclear minds. It’s past time to build on that expertise and establish a Canadian Centre of Excellence for energy research of all kinds, including nuclear and atomic particle.

Presently, we are accumulating money in a waste disposal fund, with no prospect in sight for a viable repository, which in even the best-case scenario, will cost in excess of 40 billion dollars. As each year passes with no DGR to contain the growing amount of waste, the price of that repository will mount.

A partnership with The University of Waterloo would be an ideal arrangement. A Centre could be established with funds from all levels of government as well as the private sector, (The Founder of RIM, a UW alumnus, has a home nearby). Relationships could be established easily with other such centres in North America and Europe.

Using the financial resources available, together with money already in hand in the form of the waste fund, a world-class programme of study and research could be established. It would attract knowledgeable academics and research scientists from around the world and place Canada in the forefront once again.

It's happening elsewhere and we're eating dust.

NB: A giant laser has cut the lifetime of a speck of radioactive waste from millions of years to just minutes. The feat raises hopes that a solution to nuclear power's biggest drawback - its waste - might one day be possible.

"It is not going to solve the waste problem completely, but it reduces toxicity by a factor of 100. That's an attractive proposition," says Ken Ledingham, at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, who led the British and German research team.

Nuclear Power and the Politic of George W. Bush

Question: Are NPI and NEI buying into the The Bush Ecomomic Agenda?

An influential panel of scientists urged President Bush to abandon plans for a billion-dollar push to expand nuclear power.

Just wondering.

Comment if you like.

As I have said in a previous post...there is a solution to this, but no one is taking notice.

Read More

Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Storage Site

I'm a bit late on this one but the U.S. approach to the storage of nuclear waste is an important ongoing issue. It's important because the waste is accumulating rapidly and that accumulation will accelerate as reactor operaters move to increase output.

So here's a belated update on what's happening at the Mountain. It's a report published recently in The Pahrump Valley Times. When you want to track public opinion...I say, go to the source.

The Nuclear Energy Dilemma

In the interests of fairness and objectivity, if such a thing is possible, I recommend this article- Solving "Fission Impossible "Is nuclear power's comeback for real? By Daniel Gross  - as one which provides some insight into the energy dilemma we face.