4/13/2011: Re-Processing Spent Nuclear Fuel Rods

[johnkarls]

.
DO-IT-YOURSELF SIX-DEGREES-OF-SEPARATION E-MAIL CAMPAIGN
by johnkarls » Sat Apr 16, 2011 1:12 pm

.
To: ReadingLiberallyEmailList@johnkarls.com
From: ReadingLiberally-SaltLake@johnkarls.com
Bcc: Our Approximately 150 Members
Sent: April 16, 2011 - 1211 MDT > 1325 MDT
Subject: Debtor Nation - for May 11th

Attach: RL-w413-OakRidgeReNuclearFuelRecycling

Dear Friends,

Our next meeting is Wed Eve May 11th at the Salt Lake Public Library (210 East 400 South).

***********************************************
MAY 11TH TOPIC

[Information about our May 11th meeting omitted.]

***********************************************
THE FATE OF OUR APRIL SIX-DEGREES-OF-SEPARATION E-MAIL PROPOSAL

For our April meeting which took place this past Wednesday, we focused on the three aspects of President Obama's nuclear-power policy in the wake of the recent Japanese earthquake/tsunami =

(1) his continuing to push for the construction of new Generation III nuclear-power electricity-generation facilities,

(2) his ordering a review of the safety of America’s existing 104 commercial Generation II nuclear reactors while they continue to operate, and

(3) his 1/29/2010 decision to abandon Yucca Mountain as a repository for spent fuel rods and, instead, store them in what are essentially home swimming pools at the sites of the nuclear reactors that used them (from the beginning of the civilian nuclear-power industry in America 40 years ago, the federal government has imposed a tax of 1/10 cent per kWh to cover the cost of proper waste disposal, in return for which the spent fuel rods are the responsibility of the U.S. government).

*****
The Discussion Outline for our meeting included in last Saturday’s weekly e-mail, had suggested that we consider a Six-Degrees-Of-Separation E-mail campaign relating solely to the third aspect described above = storing spent fuel rods on site in what are essentially home swimming pools.

Unfortunately, the Japanese earthquake shows how easily it is for the water to be shaken out of what are essentially home swimming pools so that the spent fuel rods are exposed to the atmosphere and begin spewing radiation.

Just as unfortunately, the U.S. has a spent-fuel-rods problem solely because of President Jimmy Carter's 12/23/1977 order preventing spent fuel rods from being reprocessed for fear that the fuel will eventually become weapons grade and might be stolen by terrorists.

France (which generates virtually all of its electricity from nuclear plants and even exports 11.0% of the electricity it generates) and most of the rest of the world reprocess their spent fuel rods and provide adequate security so that they are not stolen by terrorists.

[In this regard, it should be noted that the amount of weapons-grade nuclear material in American atomic weapons is far greater than the material in the spent fuel rods that would be reprocessed, and the atomic weapons are dispersed among far more American military bases around the world than our 65 nuclear-power sites on which the 104 reactors are located -- and the U.S. military is able to guard American atomic weapons successfully.]

The attached February 1999 Report of the U.S. Government's Oak Ridge National Nuclear Laboratory to President Bill Clinton surveyed the success of reprocessing spent fuel rods in France and elsewhere around the world.


RL-w413-OakRidgeReNuclearFuelRecycling.pdf
(3.27 MiB) Downloaded 59 times

President Clinton's Report concluded (A) that reprocessing spent fuel rods was a very attractive alternative to continuing with the concept of a national repository for spent fuel rods that we fail to reprocess, but (B) due to President Carter's order, all of the reprocessing technology had been developed by other countries and the U.S. would have to license it.

*****
We take great pride that our Six-Degrees-Of-Separation E-mail proposals (there have been nine to date) which each of you were requested to send to the President and/or other key decision makers, and to send to all of your friends/acquaintances to do the same in an unending chain -- have the capability of enabling the entire U.S. citizenry to support each proposal with only 5-6 key strokes on the computer key board of each citizen in the chain.

Accordingly, our standards are high. Which include making such a proposal only if we achieve unanimity or, at most, one dissent (in which case we describe the proposal as resulting from a consensus rather than being unanimous).

On Wednesday evening, we had a thorough and lively discussion, but failed to reach a consensus among our ten participants. [We did not take a formal vote because Denise Chancellor and Nancy Kemp opposed the proposal on the grounds that they did not know enough to voice an opinion.]

*****
The reason for providing such a long report is to acquaint you with the salient considerations so that each of you can reach your own decision on what to do, if anything. After all, Freedom of Speech and Freedom to Petition are still available to each of you even if our group could not reach consensus.

If any of you should wish to launch your own six-degrees-of-separation e-mail campaign, you could take a look at any of our past campaigns which are posted on http://www.ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org for how to design an e-mail that would cascade with only 5-6 computer keyboard key strokes by each person in the chain.

[Our most recent six-degrees-of-separation e-mail campaign can be inspected by scrolling down on http://www.ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org to our 3/10/2010 meeting following which we recommended to President Obama that the Supreme Court's decision permitting unlimited campaign contributions by corporations be effectively reversed by having the I.R.S. treat such contributions, unless they relate specifically and directly to the corporation's business, as dividends that are not deductible for the corporation and that are taxable to the shareholders even though they have received no corresponding cash.]

In crafting your own campaign regarding the spent fuel rods, you may want to consider the following e-mail which has been sent to President Obama by the undersigned and which has been forwarded by the undersigned in an independent six-degrees-of-separation e-mail campaign solely to friends who are not on our list of 150 recipients of our weekly reading-liberally e-mails (and which, of course, was designed to cascade with only 5-6 computer keyboard key strokes by each person in that chain) --

***** PRESIDENT OBAMA E-MAIL > http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact *****

Reprocessing Spent Nuclear Fuel Rods

President Barack Obama

Dear Mr. President:

Thank you very much for all of the efforts of you and your team in formulating a national energy policy.

I would like to comment on one aspect of your support for our nuclear-power industry, viz., what to do with spent nuclear fuel rods.

In the wake of your 1/29/2010 decision to abandon the Yucca Mountain repository for spent fuel rods, the de facto policy has been to store them on site for the foreseeable future in what are essentially home swimming pools.

The recent Japanese earthquake shows how easily the water can be shaken from what are essentially home swimming pools with the result that the spent fuel rods spew radiation into the atmosphere. [It is recognized that radiation also contaminated the environment due to venting from the containment chambers and coolant leaks outside the containment chambers.]

You are probably aware that France (which produces the overwhelming majority of its electricity from nuclear power and exports 11.0% of what it produces) and most of the rest of the world reprocess spent nuclear fuel rods, but that the U.S. has not done so as a result of the 12/23/1977 decision of President Carter to ban reprocessing for fear that weapons-grade fuel would be produced that might be stolen by terrorists.

You might also be aware that the U.S. Government's Oak Ridge National Nuclear Laboratory prepared a 66-page report for President Clinton in February 1999 that concluded (A) reprocessing spent fuel rods was a very attractive alternative to continuing with the concept of a national repository for spent fuel rods, but (B) due to President Carter's decision, all of the reprocessing technology had been developed by other countries and we would have to license it.

Now that we have decided not to proceed with the Yucca Mountain repository, we are tempting fate to leave the spent fuel rods in what are essentially home swimming pools at the 65 nuclear-power sites around the country, many of which are in earthquake zones and many more of which are near aviation corridors.

The American military has had no trouble providing adequate security for all of its atomic weapons around the world. Accordingly, it would seem that President Carter's fear that terrorists might steal weapons-grade nuclear material from our nuclear-power sites could be allayed by providing them with the same level of security that is routinely provided by the U.S. military.

Thank you for your consideration.


****************************************
We hope to see and hear all of you on May 11th!!!

Your friend,

John K.

PS - To un-subscribe, please press "reply" and type "deletion requested."

PPS - Our sister organization, Drinking Liberally, meets on Friday evenings for socializing with like-minded individuals from 6:30 pm > 9:30 pm at Piper Down (1492 South State Street).