Losing The Future

Japan is struggling to come up with sensible rules under which they can re-launch the nuclear reactors that had provided 30% of their electric power prior to the Fukushima FUBAR.

However! Japan has an earnest advocate of thorium in Takashi Kamei of the International Institute for Advanced Studies in Kyoto, and he told a conference last summer that Japan will be putting money into alternative nukes:

Speaking at the Thorium Energy Alliance Conference in Chicago on 31 May 2012, thorium advocates made it clear that the meltdowns at Fukushima's nuclear power stations have underlined the need to move away from conventional designs to other nuclear technologies. Japan, unsurprisingly, has taken the lead after energy provider Chubu Electric Power recently launched a $1.2bn research programme that aims to strengthen the safety of nuclear plants - also through the use of thorium.

International Institute for Advanced Studies (IIAS) researcher Takashi Kamei told attendees at the Chicago conference that the utility, which serves about 16 million people in central Japan, is specifically looking into an alternative reactor design which would use liquid thorium as fuel in a molten salt reactor - a U-turn from the solid uranium, water-cooled reactors such as the ones used at the Fukushima plant.

India has a vast amount of thorium and has been studying thorium reactors ineffectually for decades. China, on the other hand, is committed to trying everything to meet its energy needs. And let us not omit Norway, which is testing a retro-fitted uranium design powered by thorium.

The good news is that, with Japan and China both pushing hard and India interested, progress in understanding and adopting thorium reactors should be rapid. Closer to home, Bill Gates and Google are also interested in the clean nuclear alternative. The Department of Energy is dusting off old research and helping the Chinese, but, like fracking, this looks like an idea that will proceed in spite of Obama rather than because of him.

Comments

[Cecil Turner]

Hey, I just read Pieces, and I got the first quote . . . along with a friend shout-out! Cooool. Thanks, Clarice.

[narciso]

Funny how the losses of Thompson, Mack, and name any third candidate, never factor into this process;

http://www.therightscoop.com/karl-rove-and-rich-gop-donors-wage-war-on-tea-party/

[matt]

excellent, clarice!

[henry]

The question we have to answer first narciso: do we call Karl Rove and rich GOP donors the establishment? an oligarchy? Duke & Duke?

Clearly the label is more important than the fact of a centrally organized and funded operation to keep incumbents in power and to head off any popular uprising which might deliver another Ron Johnson or Ted Cruz as party poopers in DC.

[Captain Hate]

LOL @ naming it The Conservative Victory Project. Because Dick Lugar, Charlie Crist and Mike Castle were such rock-ribbed conservatives.

[pagar]

From the 12:03 link Capt Hate put up concerning Jesse Jackson:

"Stanford first met Jackson, when she was completing her doctoral dissertation on his foreign policy record."

Jackson has a foreign policy record, who knew?

[narciso]

I know it's elusive as Mr. Snufflelapagus, but did they have any wins this cycle, or are they Mark Sanchez

[jimmyk]

her doctoral dissertation on his foreign policy record.

Ha, pagar. Shortest doctoral dissertation ever?

Somehow reminiscent of the Petraeus-Broadwell affair. If you're a young woman angling to sleep with an egotistical celebrity, write your PhD dissertation about him.

[narciso]

Yes, that parallel occurred to me too, jimmy, well he did run for President twice, and had longstanding contacts with the Syrian and Cuban
regimes, but it does beg the question,

They really don't understand that AQ uses preexisting networks, or maybe they do;

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/although-splintered-al-qaeda-still-poses-threat-to-us-interests/2013/02/02/21fdeee4-6c80-11e2-ada0-5ca5fa7ebe79_story.html

[narciso]

OTOH, Powell thinks he's the best thing since sliced bread came along;

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/280745-gibbs-hagel-was-unimpressive-and-unprepared-for-hearing

[pagar]

O/T Update on my 10:42 link on 1 million free ebooks.
The download worked for me. There is a long info on the fact that there is no spyware on the site. I found several links for my friends that use ereaders.
I don't use ereaders so I am removing the download from my computer. However if I used ereaders I would keep it.

[daddy]

Interesting placement re narciso's 03:11 Link.

Immediately beneath his link to Gibbs saying Hagel seemed ‘unimpressive and unprepared’ for his confirmation hearing is a story titled: 5 Signs You'll get Alzheimers.

Just saying.

[clarice]

Thanks.
Cecil, it was deserved.
Rick--LOVE your suggestion..Why not add it as a comment there?

[Danube of Thought iPad]

Well, I've got the Ravens and 4 points for $300, so I'm prepared to pronounce the first half satisfactory. Not so Beyonce.

[Rick Ballard]

Clarice,

Done.

[clarice]

Great,Rick. It deserves a wide audience.