Republicans top donor is nuclear waste dump billionaire

[rdean]

Hey, just out of curiosity, what is your Position on On Site Reprocessing of Fuel Rods? Pro's and Con's?

I'm a firm believer in nuclear energy. I believe that scientists can work out the problems. Harold Simmons doesn't care about the problems. He's just looking to make a lot of money. He doesn't care who he fucks over.

What problems do scientists need to work out?

Nuclear energy leaves radioactive waste. Where does it go? You can't just flush it down the toilet. When you ask questions like that, I can't tell if you honestly don't know or you think you're being funny.

 

[Papageorgio]

Harold Simmons built a West Texas dump for radioactive waste that is bigger than 1,000 football fields and he can’t fill it.

To turn it into a profitable enterprise, the Texas billionaire hired lobbyists to urge the Obama administration to expand the types of nuclear waste, including depleted uranium, the dump can accept and award his company disposal contracts. If the Nuclear Regulatory Commission changes the rule, it could open access to a market worth billions. The deadline for a decision is in 2014.

Simmons now is spending money in a new way that could improve his business prospects: He’s invested $15.9 million this election cycle in various groups to help elect Republicans, who advocate easing regulations on the nuclear industry.

The largest chunk of Simmons’s campaign cash -- $12 million -- has gone to American Crossroads, a so-called super political action committee that takes unlimited donations and has a stated mission of defeating President Barack Obama. He has given at least $700,000 to Restore Our Future, a super-PAC backing Mitt Romney, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination whose call for a fast-tracked permitting process for new nuclear plants could benefit Simmons’s Waste Control Specialists LLC.

Republican Donor Simmons Seeks Rule to Fill Texas Dump - Businessweek

So then, what is the solution to the current nuclear waste problem? Where are we going to put it?

 

[Quantum Windbag]

I'm a firm believer in nuclear energy. I believe that scientists can work out the problems. Harold Simmons doesn't care about the problems. He's just looking to make a lot of money. He doesn't care who he fucks over.

What problems do scientists need to work out?

Nuclear energy leaves radioactive waste. Where does it go? You can't just flush it down the toilet. When you ask questions like that, I can't tell if you honestly don't know or you think you're being funny.

With answers like that, I can tell that you honestly don't know. That is an engineering problem, what problems do scientist need to solve?

You really should stop claiming to be an engineer since you don't understand the difference between an applied/engineering problem and a theoretical/scientific one.

By the way, engineers are a lot further along in dealing with radiation than you realize. France recycles and reuses spent fuel in their reactors, and have been for decades. I guess that puts your knowledge level in the issue stuck somewhere in the 1970s.

 

[Chris]

Republicans in Texas voted for Rick Perry, and what are they getting as a result?

A nuclear waste dump right on top of their water supply.

The chickens have come to roost, Republicans.

 

[Papageorgio]

Republicans in Texas voted for Rick Perry, and what are they getting as a result?

A nuclear waste dump right on top of their water supply.

The chickens have come to roost, Republicans.

So what is your answer to the problem, blame Republicans? It's worked for Obama.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Republicans in Texas voted for Rick Perry, and what are they getting as a result?

A nuclear waste dump right on top of their water supply.

The chickens have come to roost, Republicans.

That is almost as dumb as rdean's claim that the Ogallala Aquaifier supplies all the water for the US.

Ogallala Aquifer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Chris]

The time frame in question when dealing with radioactive waste ranges from 10,000 to 1,000,000 years,[41] according to studies based on the effect of estimated radiation doses.[42] Researchers suggest that forecasts of health detriment for such periods should be examined critically.[43] [44] Practical studies only consider up to 100 years as far as effective planning[45] and cost evaluations[46] are concerned. Long term behavior of radioactive wastes remains a subject for ongoing research projects in geoforecasting.[47]

Radioactive waste - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Chris]

Republicans in Texas voted for Rick Perry, and what are they getting as a result?

A nuclear waste dump right on top of their water supply.

The chickens have come to roost, Republicans.

That is almost as dumb as rdean's claim that the Ogallala Aquaifier supplies all the water for the US.

Ogallala Aquifer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I think we should store all of our nuclear waste in Texas.

Near the governor's mansion.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Republicans in Texas voted for Rick Perry, and what are they getting as a result?

A nuclear waste dump right on top of their water supply.

The chickens have come to roost, Republicans.

That is almost as dumb as rdean's claim that the Ogallala Aquaifier supplies all the water for the US.

Ogallala Aquifer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I think we should store all of our nuclear waste in Texas.

Near the governor's mansion.

Sounds good to me, it would kill off all the liberals in Austin.

 

[ThinkCritically]

Is there a point to this thread ?

I think the point of the thread is to demonstrate what we all should know by now this is a crony infested system. Obama and Romney will both be bought out before the end of the election.

Until we restructure campaign finance in order to prevent this obvious pandering, we will be a nation ruled by special interest groups and corporations. Politicians don't bite the hand that feeds them.

 

[Chris]

Is there a point to this thread ?

I think the point of the thread is to demonstrate what we all should know by now this is a crony infested system. Obama and Romney will both be bought out before the end of the election.

Until we restructure campaign finance in order to prevent this obvious pandering, we will be a nation ruled by special interest groups and corporations. Politicians don't bite the hand that feeds them.

The point of this thread is to show the danger in electing Republicans.

 

[ThinkCritically]

Is there a point to this thread ?

I think the point of the thread is to demonstrate what we all should know by now this is a crony infested system. Obama and Romney will both be bought out before the end of the election.

Until we restructure campaign finance in order to prevent this obvious pandering, we will be a nation ruled by special interest groups and corporations. Politicians don't bite the hand that feeds them.

The point of this thread is to show the danger in electing Republicans.

oh...OK... Democrats aren't bought out either

 

[Intense]

Is there a point to this thread ?

I think the point of the thread is to demonstrate what we all should know by now this is a crony infested system. Obama and Romney will both be bought out before the end of the election.

Until we restructure campaign finance in order to prevent this obvious pandering, we will be a nation ruled by special interest groups and corporations. Politicians don't bite the hand that feeds them.

The point of this thread is to show the danger in electing Republicans.

What is Your Position on the On Site Processing of Fuel Rods? ...... Class!...... Class! .....

 

[Intense]

Processing of Used Nuclear Fuel

(Updated 7 November 2011)

Used nuclear fuel has long been reprocessed to extract fissile materials for recycling and to reduce the volume of high-level wastes.
New reprocessing technologies are being developed to be deployed in conjunction with fast neutron reactors which will burn all long-lived actinides.
A significant amount of plutonium recovered from used fuel is currently recycled into MOX fuel; a small amount of recovered uranium is recycled.

A key, nearly unique, characteristic of nuclear energy is that used fuel may be reprocessed to recover fissile and fertile materials in order to provide fresh fuel for existing and future nuclear power plants. Several European countries, Russia and Japan have had a policy to reprocess used nuclear fuel, although government policies in many other countries have not yet addressed the various aspects of reprocessing.

Over the last 50 years the principal reason for reprocessing used fuel has been to recover unused uranium and plutonium in the used fuel elements and thereby close the fuel cycle, gaining some 25% more energy from the original uranium in the process and thus contributing to energy security. A secondary reason is to reduce the volume of material to be disposed of as high-level waste to about one fifth. In addition, the level of radioactivity in the waste from reprocessing is much smaller and after about 100 years falls much more rapidly than in used fuel itself.

In the last decade interest has grown in recovering all long-lived actinides together (i.e. with plutonium) so as to recycle them in fast reactors so that they end up as short-lived fission products. This policy is driven by two factors: reducing the long-term radioactivity in high-level wastes, and reducing the possibility of plutonium being diverted from civil use – thereby increasing proliferation resistance of the fuel cycle. If used fuel is not reprocessed, then in a century or two the built-in radiological protection will have diminished, allowing the plutonium to be recovered for illicit use (though it is unsuitable for weapons due to the non-fissile isotopes present).

Reprocessing used fuela to recover uranium (as reprocessed uranium, or RepU) and plutonium (Pu) avoids the wastage of a valuable resource. Most of it – about 96% – is uranium, of which less than 1% is the fissile U-235 (often 0.4-0.8%); and up to 1% is plutonium. Both can be recycled as fresh fuel, saving up to 30% of the natural uranium otherwise required. The materials potentially available for recycling (but locked up in stored used fuel) could conceivably run the US reactor fleet of about 100 GWe for almost 30 years with no new uranium input.

So far, almost 90,000 tonnes (of 290,000 t discharged) of used fuel from commercial power reactors has been reprocessed. Annual reprocessing capacity is now some 4000 tonnes per year for normal oxide fuels, but not all of it is operational.

Between now and 2030 some 400,000 tonnes of used fuel is expected to be generated worldwide, including 60,000 t in North America and 69,000 t in Europe.

Processing of Used Nuclear Fuel

 

[Listening]

The point of this thread is that we have a trumped up issue that is being used by a moron on the left to push a liberal agenda of Hope and Change (hope not to work by changing it so that the rich can support me).

Useful facts have still not been put in context.

This country currently runs nuclear power plants.

The left is so keen on green energy, and nuclear power does not emit CO2....but they don't like it.

I am sure the left teaches classes on how to read by candlelight.

 

[The T]

I think the point of the thread is to demonstrate what we all should know by now this is a crony infested system. Obama and Romney will both be bought out before the end of the election.

Until we restructure campaign finance in order to prevent this obvious pandering, we will be a nation ruled by special interest groups and corporations. Politicians don't bite the hand that feeds them.

The point of this thread is to show the danger in electing Republicans.

oh...OK... Democrats aren't bought out either

That's what Chrissy wants to pretend.

 

[Intense]

The point of this thread is that we have a trumped up issue that is being used by a moron on the left to push a liberal agenda of Hope and Change (hope not to work by changing it so that the rich can support me).

Useful facts have still not been put in context.

This country currently runs nuclear power plants.

The left is so keen on green energy, and nuclear power does not emit CO2....but they don't like it.

I am sure the left teaches classes on how to read by candlelight.

Carbon Monoxide.

 

[Skull Pilot]

Since the dimwit dimocrats and their ovine masses have succeeded in fomenting a fear of nuclear power and have made it illegal to recycle so called nuclear waste in this country someone has to be willing to store it somewhere.

BTW we are missing out on the multi-billion dollar industry of medical isotopes because of this short sighted irrational fear of recycling nuclear materials.

There Is No Such Thing as Nuclear Waste - WSJ.com

 

[Intense]

Since the dimwit dimocrats and their ovine masses have succeeded in fomenting a fear of nuclear power and have made it illegal to recycle so called nuclear waste in this country someone has to be willing to store it somewhere.

BTW we are missing out on the multi-billion dollar industry of medical isotopes because of this short sighted irrational fear of recycling nuclear materials.

There Is No Such Thing as Nuclear Waste - WSJ.com

Agreed.

 

[Chris]

Texas Republicans voted for Rick Perry and what they got in return was a nuclear waste dump on top of their water supply.

This is what you get went you vote Republican!