Talking with the Obama Administration

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Many of us ordinary citizens want to communicate our ideas to the federal Government, but don't seem to be able to get through.  That didn't stop John Shanahan, a civil engineer in Denver, who is a supporter of the IFR (Integral Fast Reactor), a system which takes the "nuclear waste" from current nuclear power plants, and uses it as fuel to burn, not only the remaining fissionable material, but also to convert the non-fissionable uranium and transuranic isotopes into fuel, while making electricity.  That program was killed for political reasons, way back in Jimmy Carter's days as President, and has not yet been reinstated.  With the rest of the world now rapidly building new nuclear plants, America is falling behind.

So John contacted a number of his nuclear friends, and they drew up a letter to the President's Science Advisor, John Holdren.  Shanahan had met Holdren in California, forty years ago, and they had kept in touch, off and on, since then.  The letter made three suggestions as to what needs to be done, to get America into the Nuclear Renaissance that is engulfing the rest of the world:

    1. The biggest uncertainty for the American nuclear program is how quickly and how effectively the regulatory system will work, after 30 years of inaction, to approve new plants for operation.  That uncertainty makes investors nervous, and runs up interest rates.  The only way to test it is to apply for a license and run it through the system.  For this, we should use a design that has the fewest unanswered regulatory questions, i.e., a design much like those already in operation.

    2.  A fast reactor design, like the IFR, should be put back on the schedule, so that the optimum fuel reprocessing system can be proved out.  Since that will take a while, we should get started as soon as possible.

    3.  We no longer have any reactors in America that can make the wide variety of medical isotopes needed for research, diagnosis and treatment.  Some ten million medical procedures involving radiation or radioactivity are run every year, and we now depend on other countries for all those isotopes.  Since many of these are short-lived (only a few hours or less), that is not easy.  This is a serious problem, and needs to be corrected on an urgent basis.

The link above will show you the letter that resulted, and the long list of highly qualified supporters.

Dr. Holdren has just responded, saying that the Administration now fully supports these objectives and is working to meet them.  Stay tuned!

Ted Rockwell

 

Comments

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[Eye Beauty Reviews]

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