Friday, December 21, 2007
Thoughts on the Toshiba Microreactor
All the geewiz web sites are touting the new Toshiba microreactor, such as this one. It's probably a great idea. Forty years of trouble free, hassle free electrical power. One person suggested the cost would be about $3.5.million. My cynical mind immediately thought of three reasons why it'll never happen here:
1. It would likely put the power companies out of business and a lot of coal, oil and gas producers sit on the electric utility boards.
2. We haven't processed or disposed of the nuclear waste that we already have at our commercial nuclear power plants. Some of those plants have been shut down for years already. We're talking 40 years worth of fuel rods waiting to be disposed of. So, what happens when we have to dispose of the first microreactors in 2050?
3. The fearmongers would scream that you could make a dirty bomb out of one used microreactor. We can't have terrorists getting access to that material. Nevermind that you'd likely need some hefty machinery to access the core without lethally irradiating yourself.
Nevermind that these reactors would liberate the West from having to depend upon culturally and politically backward countries for our energy needs and solve the "War on Terror" almost overnight for a fraction of the costs we are paying now. (One year's expenses for the war in Iraq would buy us 29,714 microreactors.) The Arabs can go back to killing each other over Allah and scarce resources, and leave the rest of us in peace.
1. It would likely put the power companies out of business and a lot of coal, oil and gas producers sit on the electric utility boards.
2. We haven't processed or disposed of the nuclear waste that we already have at our commercial nuclear power plants. Some of those plants have been shut down for years already. We're talking 40 years worth of fuel rods waiting to be disposed of. So, what happens when we have to dispose of the first microreactors in 2050?
3. The fearmongers would scream that you could make a dirty bomb out of one used microreactor. We can't have terrorists getting access to that material. Nevermind that you'd likely need some hefty machinery to access the core without lethally irradiating yourself.
Nevermind that these reactors would liberate the West from having to depend upon culturally and politically backward countries for our energy needs and solve the "War on Terror" almost overnight for a fraction of the costs we are paying now. (One year's expenses for the war in Iraq would buy us 29,714 microreactors.) The Arabs can go back to killing each other over Allah and scarce resources, and leave the rest of us in peace.
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