Apparently we have a Secretary of Energy who knows very little about the basics of her job:
I'm certain Ms. Granholm is a wonderful person (and so is Mayor Pete), but it sure would be nice if the people responsible for vital areas of our economy knew what they were doing. We can only tolerate so much symbol over substance.
And speaking of energy nuttiness, I found this gem today:
Bill Gates’ nuclear venture is called TerraPower, and it has (rather symbolically) picked a remote coal town in western Wyoming as the site of its first innovative nuclear power plant. The plant will be cooled with liquid sodium instead of water, making it safer, more efficient, and more cost-effective than a traditional nuclear plant. They also have the potential to recycle their own spent fuel within these ‘molten salt’ cooling systems, thereby mitigating the total output of radioactive waste which represents one of nuclear critics’ strongest sticking points.
"Safer, more efficient, and more cost-effective than a traditional nuclear plant"? You must be joking !!!
The literal father of nuclear power in America, ADM Hyman G. Rickover, had this experience with reactors cooled by liquid sodium:
The US Navy once used a sodium-moderated reactor, in USS Seawolf (SSN-575), but replaced it almost immediately and abandoned the concept. According to ADM Rickover, such reactors were "expensive to build, complex to operate, susceptible to prolonged shutdown as a result of even minor malfunctions, and difficult and time-consuming to repair."
Believe me, if Rickover's organization with some of the top minds in the field could not make sodium cooled reactors work, the folks in the Gates organization are unlikely to do any better.
US nuclear steam system suppliers like GE and Westinghouse have had workable, modern light water reactor plant designs available for years. For Gates et al. to ignore them to go down this road tells me that nuclear power may NEVER see a renaissance in America. By the time Gates gets his "molten salt" plant built, let alone operational, we'll be in an energy crunch like nothing we've ever even imagined. Then what'll we do?
Stop believing amateurs and billionaires with no expertise in the pet projects they foist on the rest of us. We need true experts with proven records of accomplishment to run such programs. Where the hell are they? I know there are some in China and Russia, but I don't think they'll be working for us. Especially not if Biden and crew keep goading their nations into war.
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