Monday 27 June 2011

Swings and roundabouts: Nuclear edition

The good news is that the American nuclear industry is booming. 

The bad news is that all the boom is happening abroad because of the regulations of the anti-progress, anti-prosperity Barack Hussein Obama administration that hold nuclear power to safety standards that a broiled steak wouldn't pass and "oversight" that is indistinguishable from obstruction.

The better news is that small modular reactors may manage a work around.

4 comments:

eon said...

Well, at least now we know what one more Obama code-word means. First he said he would "look at" nuclear power. More recently he said they would "look at" not raising taxes on the middle class.

We now understand that "look at" means, "No way in Hell will we allow that to be done".

cheers

eon

Wesley said...

Eon, we’ve also learned that Obama meant “Yes we (the government) can (do anything to anybody we want to do).” To the US citizens, he says “No you can’t.” The One giveth, and The One taketh away.

eon said...

Wesley;

Too true. And now AP is claiming that reactors built in the Fifties and Sixties, and designed for a forty-to-fifty year operational lifespan (based on neutron-flux deterioration of their structures) are in fact capable of operating indefinitely. And they are being backed up by the "nuclear industry".

The PR boys, would be my guess- not the actual nucs. The best guess is that since the Obama crowd have a visceral hatred of nuclear power, but cannot run their all-electric Brave New World without it (Holy Wind and Holy Sun just won't cut it, so it's either nuclear or -gasp!- coal), they have to have some alibi to avoid building new nuc plants. This is it.

When those plants start shutting down, and the rolling blackouts hit as they did in CA, at least it will be dark. Meaning, the "smart people" who will be responsible will be able to wipe the egg off their faces before anyone else sees it.

cheers

eon

Wesley said...

Eon, something else we've learned is Obama is anti-science, so he probably believes the PR-types who say our fifty-year-old reactors will last forever. He probably thinks (I mean _believes_) they're Real Science Guys. Plus, saying the reactors'll last forever means he can demonize the nuc industry even more if the plants are kept in operation beyond their lifespan and then fail because they weren't really supposed to run that long. Then we'll be told it's a failure of the underlying science, not the fully-understood and expected deterioration of the physical facilities, and EVIL NUCLEAR POWER MUST BE ABANDONED!!!