OT ~ Dr. Bill Wattenburg On Quick Build Of Nuclear Power and Oil

Three ways to get the first new nuclear power plants built very
quickly
Bill Wattenburg- KGO Radio AM810 - San Francisco, California

June 2008

Three ways to get the first new nuclear power plants built very
quickly

Nuclear power is absolutely essential to achieve any long-term  energy
independence.  

 A)   Congress and the  state governments must authorize and clear the
way for  the immediate expansion of existing nuclear power plants 
that were originally   designed and approved for more reactors than
are operating in these plants  today.     We could  build 40 to 50 new
nuclear reactors  at the existing nuclear power plant sites.  This
way,  no new sites must be selected and approved with long delays and
local opposition.   There are dozens of nuclear power  plants  in the
U.S.   that already have the facilities  and infrastructure  in place
for more nuclear reactors.    They were approved long ago.   And these
plants are in the  regions that need more energy every year.   But
these regions have been building more filthy coal burning power plants
that are  adding  hundreds of millions of tons of  CO2 and other
pollutants to the atmosphere each year.      Simply expanding the
existing nuclear power plants that have been operating continuously
for over forty years is the biggest  reduction of greenhouse gases
that can be accomplished without shutting down the American
economy.      

B)   The government can build the first new nuclear power plants in
the U.S.   at existing government power projects.    This should be 
the modern “Apollo Project”  or “ Manhattan Project”  to build new
energy for  the U.S.

Why not?    Congress already passed laws to guarantee the investment
in the first five new nuclear plants built in the U.S.      (Was going
to the moon in 1969 more important than rescuing 150 million working
American families today from the bankruptcy of  $10 a  gallon gasoline
for the next ten years?   Was going to the moon more  important than
stopping the production of  billions of tons of  greenhouse gases
every year from  coal burning power plants?  

Without new nuclear plants to avoid  building more coal plants,  the
U.S.  will be increasing, not decreasing,  CO2 in the atmosphere by at
least  2% each year.   Our political leaders calling for reduction in
global warming  look like silly hypocrites when they do not call for
stopping the building of more coal burning power plants.   However,
there are plans to build at least 100 new  coal plants on the drawing
board now  -- and not a peep out of the so-called environmental
organizations who oppose nuclear power.   

C)   Turn  the foolish “excess profits”  attack on the oil companies
into something constructive.   Require the rich oil companies to use
part of their profits for something of long-term good.   Require that
they build nuclear power plants with a small share of their  profits. 
This will profit the country and they oil companies as well.  The
major  oil companies could build five new nuclear plants a year with
just ten percent of their profits  -- and they will have an income and
the nation will have non-polluting, inexpensive energy  long after the
oil is gone. 

Option A) is without doubt the quickest way to  get America moving
forward.      Diablo Canyon in California is a good example of where
more reactors were authorized than were built.     Diablo Canyon could
double its energy generating capacity  -- and make the biggest 
greenhouse gas reduction possible for  California .    Diablo   Canyon
  was originally approved for  four  nuclear reactors.   Only two
reactors were  built after years of attacks by  anti-nuclear fanatics
who ran up the construction costs by billions of dollars.    The large
power plant site,  security,  power lines,  and infrastructure are all
in place for at least two additional  modern nuclear reactors.  Only
the  anti-nuclear obstructionists stand in the way of California
making a big addition to this nation’s non-polluting energy supply and
a big reduction in greenhouse gases.   

Diablo Canyon has saved California from energy crises since it began
operating.      This one nuclear plant alone has been  supplying  24%
of the energy for northern California for  decades.   And it produces
no greenhouse gases or pollution to the atmosphere whatsoever.  
However,  another   50 percent  of  northern California’s energy is
produced by filthy fossil fuel  power plants the are putting  100
million tons of CO2 in the atmosphere every year – and more  every
year because California needs another 1000 megawatts of new energy 
each year – another major power plant.   (Keep in mind that  so-called
“clean natural gas”   power plants put  40% as much CO2 in the
atmosphere as coal burning plants.)

The anti-nuclear politicians  in California are the  biggest  and most
vulgar  Climate Change hypocrites  in the world.   They passed a law
(AB 32) demanding that the California public reduce  greenhouse gases
by  20% in  ten years.  But these same political leaders  are
authorizing and building new fossil fuel power plants every year  to
supply the state’s increasing energy demands  (1000 megawatts per
year.)    These new fossil fuel power plants are adding  3% more CO2
to the atmosphere each year,  at least  another 3  million tons of CO2
each year.    This is more CO2  than can be reduced by all the AB 32
restrictive regulations on the working people in California !    

The anti-nuclear policies of California’s politicians  guarantee that
California will add  20% more  CO2 to the atmosphere over the next ten
years,  not  reduce by 20%  -- and they know this,  while they lie to
the public that trusted them to run the state.   

The First New Nuclear Plant

 Everything will fall in place as soon as construction starts on the
first new nuclear plant in the U.S.    No  arguments, facts, or state
of emergency will convince the fanatical anti-nuclear crowd to change
their minds.    They will resist and cover their past monumental 
mistakes until new construction is a reality.   They will never admit
to the damage they have done to the U.S. working public and the world
ecosystem by forcing this country to build filthy coal burning plants 
and creating the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming. 

That first new nuclear plant in the U.S  is the most important thing
on which all effort must be focused.   It  matters  not where it is
built or who builds it,  so long as it is one of the designs already
preapproved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission  (NRC).     Then
there is good reason for congress to waive all future  bureaucratic
delay and  environmental  opposition so long as the NRC approves the
sites and designs.   

Once the first new plant is underway and congress eliminates
bureaucratic delay and environmental fraud  lawsuits to stop
construction,  there will be a stampede to build the hundreds more
nuclear plants that the U.S. must build to even slow down global
warming and  prove that we will take care of our own energy needs.  
There is no time to waste.   There are plans now to build  120 new
coal burning plants in the U.S. to keep up with growing energy
demands.   Only non-polluting,  modern  nuclear plants can replace
these  filthy coal plants that will generate  another  500 million
tons of  CO2 and  toxins.    The new coal plants  will increase the
U.S. contribution to global warming by  20%!   (while  anti-nuclear
politicians lie to the unsuspecting  public and claim we can reduce
by  20%).   The U.S.   economy will not be allowed to die because of
too little energy.  It will be one or the another, more coal plants
or  new nuclear plants.  

And finally,  there is one more thing that must be done to make any of
the above options possible.   Congress must stop  obstructionism by
environmental frauds.  Congress must take away the money in the
National Environmental Protection Act  (NEPA)  and  Endangered Species
Act (ESA)   that pays  eco –fraud organizations  to file lawsuits and
blackmail the public and stop all development  of our resources  in
this nation. 

 

_______________________________________________ 

Discussion and Opinions:

Top scientists and internationally recognized  environmentalists alike
now agree  that we made a big mistake in killing nuclear power in the
U.S  forty years ago.   That forced us to  relying  on coal and
natural gas power plants that have  created the excess CO2 greenhouse
gas  that is blamed for global warming.    They agree  that nuclear 
is  now the only large source of  non-polluting energy that can
replace the fossil fuels that are creating  global warming.    Our
nation will be bankrupt  if we have to buy oil from overseas
forever.   We must start building the FIRST NEW NUCLEAR  PLANT
IMMEDIATELY.    Everything will fall in place after that.  The sobered
and educated public will demand that more be  built as soon as
possible.   

But even if we started construction on a hundred new  nuclear plants
tomorrow,  the  American working public will be blackmailed for the
gas to drive to work for  at least another  six to eight years.    We
can only relieve the  unfair burden on our working families in the
interim by quickly tapping  our own  oil resources  in the U.S. as
soon as possible.   We can be producing  more of our own oil  within
two to three years if we start now.  

The most important thing is that the oil producing countries and OPEC
will  bring down the price of oil only when they see the U.S.  
developing its own vast reserves of oil --- and they see us building
nuclear plants for the long-term  at the same time. 

The U.S. can achieve  long-term  energy independence only by using
nuclear energy  -- and lots of it  -- as soon as possible.    In the
interim, we must  tap into our own vast reserves of oil that are now 
blocked off from drilling with the senseless arguments that our land
is more precious than the land of  other countries who are producing
the oil we are using.   The selfish environmental fraud organizations
have used our courts to stop every effort  in the U.S.   to develop
sufficient  energy for the American working families who must drive to
work.   Most of our  political leaders stood by and did nothing while
gasoline soared to $5.00 a gallon.    It will go higher before we can
protect ourselves and bring it down.   The oil producing countries
know that we allowed ourselves to become  helpless.  They are
 blackmailing us for good reason.

  Abundant, cheap  nuclear energy  is the only way we will ever have
real  alternative fuels for our vehicles,   such as natural gas and
maybe hydrogen someday.     Nuclear power plants  will allow  for the
first time widespread  use of electric cars that can be charged
inexpensively at night.    The use of electricity generated in fossil
fuel power plants to charge electric cars is just plain stupid.    It
creates more  greenhouse gas than just burning the fossil fuel
directly in the cars.    And we are now burning fossil fuels in our
power plants to produce  ethanol with large government subsidies.   
That is equally stupid.

The anti-nuclear fanatics and environmental frauds  organizations set
up this nation to be blackmailed by the oil producing countries. 
 Thirty years ago, they  killed all expansion and development of
nuclear power in this country by spreading scare stories that are
whole cloth lies.   And they persist today.   There has been only one
serious nuclear accident in the U.S. in over forty years, Three Mile
Island .   It was caused by idiot operators who deliberately shut down
the safety equipment in the plant.   This caused the plant to be
destroyed,  but no damage to the surrounding population.  The billion-
dollar containment dome over the nuclear reactor  contained all
radioactivity, just as it was designed to do.     After Three Mile
Island ,  the anti-nuclear fanatics forced this nation to build
hundreds of filthy coal burning power plants to supply this nation’s
energy needs.   They loaded our atmosphere with billions of tons of 
greenhouse gases and thousands of tons of  radioactive  elements  from
the coal burning power plants.   Much the same environmental fear
mongers and frauds  also demanded that we put  most  of  our oil
resources off limits to drilling and production.    This has left us 
totally dependent on  oil from overseas for two-thirds of our needs.
   

For  the next six to eight years,   the only  salvation for the
 American working people who must drive to work will be to drill for
the oil that sets in the vast areas of the U.S. that were  foolishly
closed off.   At the same time, we must build the non-polluting 
nuclear power plants that are the only way we will ever have the
energy to develop  alternative transportation fuels to take the place
of oil when it is depleted around the world.      

There is an estimated  85 billion barrels of  oil in areas of the U.S.
that have been blocked off from exploration.   The estimated  10
billion  barrels of oil in a postage stamp area of the Alaskan
National Wildlife (ANWAR)   may be the quickest new oil supply we can
develop.  (The entire Anwar is the size of the northeastern states.  
The only area to be drilled is smaller than New York City .)    ANWAR
can be connected to  the   shipping infrastructure that has been
delivering Alaskan oil from Prudhoe Bay for the last twenty years.  

The obstructionists claim that it is too little to be worth the
effort.   Too little?   Ten  billion barrels of oil is  an additional 
one million barrels per day for the U.S. --  every day for at least
the next eight years.  The world is now hoping that Saudi Arabia will
increase its production by  half that amount to bring down that
outrageous price of oil.   An addition of  one million  barrels  per
day is an immediate 12%  increase in production of oil in the U.S.   
It means that the American public will not have to send almost 50 
billion dollars a year to foreign countries for oil at present
prices.  Is that insignificant?   Is that too little to be worth the
effort?  

The environmental fraud organizations claim that the ANWAR ecosystem
is too valuable to take a chance that there will be an oil spill in
the area.   But they cannot answer why the ecosystem  in ANWAR is more
precious than the land in foreign countries that are asked to drill
for oil for the U.S.    The obstructionists  don’t dare stand up and
tell  the public that all drilling for oil in other countries  should
stop and that the American economy should be destroyed. 

*Dr Willard H. (Bill) Wattenburg is a senior research scientist at the
Research Foundation, California State University, Chico; and a
scientific consultant for the University of California Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory and many other institutions. He is a
former nuclear weapons designer at the Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory; a former member of the US Air Force Scientific Advisory
Board; and a former UC Berkeley professor of electrical engineering. 
He is also the host of the very popular radio talk show, “The Open
Line to the West Coast,” KGO Radio AM810, ABC Network, San Francisco
(six hours per week since 1972, Saturday and Sunday nights 10pm to
1am). This is the most listened to night-time radio talk show in
eleven western states in that time slot. He has appeared in several
Clint Eastwood movies.

Scientific Work and Background at www.pushback.com/wattenburg
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Jan Eric Orme
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