Updates
Later, 10:28 a.m. CT: see first comment and my reply. A reader asks,
Big reactors may be on the outs for economic reasons versus natural gas. How about modular reactors that can be on site with refineries, auto plants, etc. Why isn't this mentioned anymore in media. Could be available from startups like the one funded by Bill Gates.
Part of my reply included a link to an article regarding these modular reactors:
Transatomic to Shutter Its Nuclear Reactor Plans, Open-Source Its Technology.
By the way, when someone "open-sources" its technology, that speaks volumes about how valuable, or should we say invaluable, a technology is perceived to be by its "current owner."The startup backed by Peter Thiel won’t be able to build its advanced reactor designs—but it’s making its IP available for others to carry on the work.
Original Post
Updates
Later, 7:36 p.m. CT: Bloomberg must be reading the blog. Several hours after posting the note below, I ran across the Bloomberg article suggesting that all of Europe is turning "right." Wow.
Original Post
In a not-ready-for-prime-time e-mail to a reader earlier this morning, paraphrased:
- Spain: "far right breakthrough sends shockwave through Spanish politics" -- Drudge Report link
- Italy: new immigration laws got attention of the EU
- Germany: Merkel soon to be out
- Brexit: on the ropes
- Macron: ?
One wonders if Hillary had been president would things be a whole lot different in Europe. She would certainly have had a different relationship with Europe and she certainly would have supported their liberal causes.
One wonders to what extent the "Trump effect" is having on Europe?Second: nuclear reactors.
Presidents are change agents. They also have access to where the Deep State plans to take the US twenty to thirty years down the road.
My hunch is that Hillary made the decision to see a significant reserve of US uranium to Russia after getting the briefing from the Deep State that the US was going to phase out nuclear energy over the next twenty to thirty years. After getting the briefing she knew the US was sitting on a worthless resource. Time to sell it.
That came to mind when Don sent me this link: US to shut down Idaho nuclear waste processing plant. It wouldn't have been shut down had it not been needed, and it would not be needed if the US were phasing out nuclear reactors.
Certainly no new nuclear reactors are being contemplated for the US. The US is already shutting down nuclear reactors. From Forbes earlier this year:
Another U.S. nuclear plant is at risk of being closed prematurely and replaced by fossil fuels.
Last week, the owner of the Duane Arnold nuclear plant in Iowa, NextEra, announced it had secretly negotiated a deal with a state electric utility to close the plant early.
If all of the announced nuclear closures go forward, the total number of operating nuclear reactors in the United States will decline precipitously — from 99 to 89 — by 2025.
The amount of clean electricity lost from those 10 reactors would be 23 percent more than all of the solar electricity generated in the U.S. in 2017.Many, many story lines here, but 20-20 hindsight suggests to me that instead of focusing on Hillary's personal gains in the Russian uranium deal, the big story was another open book test. Hillary may have enjoyed some of the spoils of that sale, but it would not have gone through if the Deep State PowerPoint Presentation did not show that the Deep State was going to replace nuclear energy with wind and solar energy, perhaps a strategy that gained momentum after March 11, 2011.
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On Hanukkah
From Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum in advance copy of My Jewish Year: 18 Holidays, One Wondering Jew, Abigail Pogrebin, c. 2017.
I love the anit-militarist aspect of the story of Hanukkah, despite its being about a military episode.
We are celebrating the miracle of the oil, instead.
That's remarkable-- that here is this great military event, but what we're actually remembering with the ritual of lighting the candles is that somebody had the chutzpah, the faith, the hope, to take a tiny little vial of oi and imagine that it would last.
I think that's so profound for us today. You can imagine everybody around him or her, saying "Nudnik, why are you even lighting that little oil? It's not enough give up, don't even try. what's the point?
That speaks to all of us today that feel such despair about the conditions in the world, our ability to have impact in our lives. The hanukiah, or menorah, says "start with whatever you have, use it well, and trust that there will be a future beyond that one day."
Big reactors may be on the outs for economic reasons versus natural gas. How about modular reactors that can be on site with refineries, auto plants, etc. Why isn't this mentioned anymore in media. Could be available from startups like the one funded by Bill gates.
ReplyDelete1. It appears the entities you mentioned are more likely to move to solar and/or wind (following the lead of such companies like Apple).
Delete2. With regard to modular small nuclear reactor startups, see this article:
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/transatomic-to-shutter-its-nuclear-reactor-plans-make-its-technology-public#gs.RVq_2Eo.
3. I am absolutely convinced the Deep State (and I am not using that term in a negative sense, but simply as short hand) "moves" the US in certain directions. Right now, the Deep State is moving the US from nuclear to wind/solar, and we would have been farther down this road had there not been the absolutely unexpected Bakken shale revolution.
4. There may still be a lot of work behind the scenes on these modular nuclear reactor startups but we are not seeing them in mainstream media simply because so much more happening in other sectors. It's also possible the "wind/solar" "alliance" doesn't want these stories to be told.