LLAW’s “ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” #481 (12/15/2023)

”End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity”

LLAW’s THOUGHTS TODAY:

We seem to collectively forget or ignore the fact that nuclear power plants use fuel for the same raw source as other fossil fuel power plants, e.g. coal, oil, and gas. We all recognize that these greenhouse gas emitting plants not only are the primary factors in global warming and climate change and that fossil fuels are not renewable, meaning that at some point we will have used them all up forever.

So, what do we do to ‘remedy’ the problems fossil fuels now and on into the future have for us? We turn to uranium for the remedy of the future, in denial about the realit8ies that uranium is also a fossil fuel, that it can and will cause greater environmental damage than its cousins, and that it is also non-renewable to a degree far more critical than the other fossil fuels.

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I can’t help but laugh at how foolish we are to believe that nuclear power plants are the remedy and the “permanent” solution to end global warming and climate change. Nothing could be farther from the truth, yet the United States leads a group of some 28 other nations to triple the number of operating nuclear power plants by 2050, making laugh again and louder. It is even more foolish than believing Daylight Savings Time (DST) makes our daylight longer so we foolishly set our clocks forward or backward twice a year when all we need do is change our schedules for the various and sundry things we do.

But there is a much greater problem with the idea of nuclear power plants saving us from global warming without even recognizing the obvious major one — annihilating ourselves. This one has to do with supply and demand and its association to availability and cost of the fuel for nuclear power plants. It’s called uranium 235. Like other fuels, uranium has a grade school that go from military grade down to nuclear plant grade sort of like the gasoline you buy. But high grade uranium around the world has already been mostly mined and used up, leaving lesser grades (and therefore more expensive to produce and refine as we use more and more of it. Without getting technical, this plainly tells us two things: the price of the fuel will spiral out of sight and one day there won’t be any of it left to mine, process, and burn.

And so you see? There is no way that can triple our uranium power production by three times what it is today unless we want to bankrupt the world while increasing the risk of global radiation replacing what we now call fossil fuel. We would buy ourselves into our own version of the next version of Earth’s extinctions. We are simply lying to ourselves about resolving our death-defying climate cures. The fact is there is only one answer — and that is to stop doing what we are doing or else we suffocate and radiate ourselves to certain death no matter whether it be nuclear war, nuclear and fossil fuel mixed together, or all three.

But for the immediate future the plan doesn’t work either — because Russia controls 80% plus of the world’s nuclear reactor and plant manufacturing, including the fuel. The USA already long been forced to buy uranium fuel from Russia in order to continue to operate our existing nuclear power plants. So what do we do about it? Again, I can only laugh.

I remember when the uranium price was fixed by the government at $8.00 a pound with a slightly upward sliding scale for lower grade mining and milling operations. I also remember the price of that same uranium rising to $40.00 per pound after the government began to allow uranium producing corporations and nuclear power plants to negotiate prices among themselves. Today the price is $57.65, up from $53.20 last month and up from $41.30 one year ago. What will the price be if we triple the capacity of nuclear plants while Russia corners the price and the availability of the product? The price will naturally go higher as the grade of uranium ore grows lower. And Russia controls the nuclear world both militarily and commercially. This USA dream is actually a terrible nightmare.

So it is that, along with other reasons too numerous to bother to mention tonight, you can see on the face of cost alone that tripling the capacity of nuclear power plants is cost prohibitive in this and so many other prohibitive ways that the agreement made by the U.S. and 21 other nations (pledging to triple nuclear generation capacity by 2050 was signed on December 2nd by 22 countries at the UN’s Climate Change Conference in Dubai, including the US, Canada, Japan, France, the UK and the UAE) ain’t never gonna happen . . . ~llaw

ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:

There are 5 categories (plus a bonus category at the end for news about the Yellowstone caldera and others that also play an important role in humanity’s lives) as do ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 linked most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none. The Categories are listed below in their usual appearing order:

  1. All Things Nuclear
  2. Nuclear Power
  3. Nuclear War
  4. Nuclear Power Emergencies
  5. Nuclear War Threats
  6. Yellowstone Caldera

Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.

A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (per above). There are no Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in this Post. If a category heading does not appear, it means there was no news reported from this category today.

(Just a reminder: When linked, the access to the media story will be underlined. If there is no link to a media story of interest you can still copy and paste the headline and lead line into your browser to find the article you are seeking. Hopefully this will never happen. ~llaw

TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS (12/15/2023) :

All Things Nuclear

NEW

Putin Ally Sounds Alarm on Nuclear Weapons: ‘Plunging Into Chaos’ – Newsweek

Newsweek

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko issued a new warning about the international response to the Russia-Ukraine war.

Kristen Stewart Warns World Is “Dangerously Close” to Nuclear Catastrophe

The Hollywood Reporter

… all-out nuclear war remains capable of being launched from missile silos or … things we care about — don’t matter anymore. They don’t matter in a …

Daily Crossword Puzzle: Friday, December 15 – Vulture

Vulture

The Nuclear Puzzle. By Malaika Handa, a Vulture crossword constructor since 2022. New York Games. New crosswords dropped daily. Find all our games …

Nuclear Power

NEWS

Time To Bring Nuclear Energy Into the 21st Century | The Heritage Foundation

The Heritage Foundation

The Energy Department has a role to play in nuclear research and scientific discovery, but it needs to get as far from any commercialization …

Nuclear energy costs, safety concerns weighing down adoption – Yahoo Finance

Yahoo Finance

… nuclear energy as a renewable energy goal. Yahoo Finance Senior Columnist Rick Newman weighs in on this agreement and the challenges holding more …

US approves a non-water-cooled nuclear reactor – Nevada Current

Nevada Current

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued a construction permit for a new nuclear test reactor to be built in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

Nuclear War

NEWS

North Korea may test ICBM soon, South official says ahead of nuclear talks in DC | Reuters

Reuters

“Extended deterrence is about finding a way to put down (a nuclear attack) … nuclear weapons, in the event of a war. Kim is in Washington for the …

Moscow issues nuclear testing threat to US; warning Russia to confront NATO if Putin wins war

Sky News

Ukraine-Russia war latest: Moscow issues nuclear testing threat to US; warning Russia to confront NATO if Putin wins war. The Institute for the …

Kristen Stewart Warns World Is “Dangerously Close” to Nuclear Catastrophe

The Hollywood Reporter

The Hollywood actress supports Paul Jay’s Daniel Ellsberg documentary ‘How to Stop Nuclear War,’ based on the book ‘Doomsday Machine’ by the Vietnam- …

Nuclear Power Emergencies

NEWS

Emergency personnel say preparing for a Browns Ferry emergency important – Yahoo

Yahoo

… emergency shelters are, and the nuclear classifications, how nuclear power works in general,” Tennessee Valley Authority spokesman Scott Fiedler said.

World’s first Generation IV nuclear reactor gets operational in China

Interesting Engineering

Generation IV reactors represent the most recent advancements in nuclear power plants … emergencies independently without external assistance. Due to …

IAEA chief’s visit highlights Saudi Arabia’s dynamic nuclear power preparations

Saudi Gazette

… nuclear materials to meet specific international commitments of the Kingdom. Grossi also visited the Nuclear Emergency Operations Center, which …

Nuclear War Threats

NEWS

North Korea may test ICBM soon, South official says ahead of nuclear talks in DC | Reuters

Reuters

… nuclear weapons threats … nuclear weapons, in the event of a war. Kim is in Washington for the second round of the Nuclear …

Moscow issues nuclear testing threat to US; warning Russia to confront NATO if Putin wins war

Sky News

Ukraine-Russia war latest: Moscow issues nuclear testing threat to US; warning Russia to confront NATO if Putin wins war. The Institute for the …

Tackling Existential Threats through the ‘Nukes-for-Climate Swap Agreement’

Economic and Political Weekly |

Two critical existential threats are analysed in this article—nuclear proliferation and climate change. … war must be abolished before they abolish us …

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