Yucca Mountain

The leader of the Democrats, Barack Obama, on November 4, 2009, broke another of his confusing promises, he closed Yucca Mountain.

Barack and the Democrats tell us that we can’t use oil or coal to generate power because, they say, without explanation, that burning fossil fuels will doom the Earth by Global Warming.  (Oops! the buzz words this week are not “Global Warming,” but “Climate Change,” because the Earth hasn’t warmed for a decade.)

They, Barack, the Democrats and their mostly scientifically illiterate chauvinistic sycophants, those of the Envirnmentalist movement and others equally unwashed, say that instead of using fossil fuels we should use “alternate energy.”  And what is that?  Well …  water power, wind power, sun power, bio-fuels, tidal generators, wave generators, geothermal or nuclear … maybe I have missed something, but probably not anything of great importance.

Now, how do these things work?

Water power works very well where there is a place that water can drop elevation through a pipe.  Most of the good, high head, high volume, places are already being used.  In the West, however, there are a large number of places where small streams could be partially diverted to provide co-generation.  But most of these sites are in the mountains on Federal lands.  It has been well demonstrated that Environmentalists and their allies, the bureaucrats of the Federal Government, will do everything in their power to stop any development of this resource.

Wind power works if the wind blows, that is, if it isn’t blowing so hard that it is endangering the machinery.  Winds are not consistent enough to depend upon, so wind-power is and must be supplemental to more dependable sources.  And the cost … omygod … the most recent figures that I have seen are about $3,000,000 for a 1200 kilo-watt unit installed, about $2,500 per kw. (I leave the amortizations of cost to you.)  This is before we consider the cost of delivery.  And don’t forget noise or the Environmentalists’ worries about some deranged bird flying into the propellers.

Sun power is limited to approximately 1000 watts (1 kw) per square meter.  A reasonable amount of power, available only when the Sun is shining.  This means no clouds and nothing at night, so once again supplemental in nature.  The receptors should track the Sun like a clock for maximum effectiveness, but this means a lot of machinery which would cost a lot.  The collectors, made of silicon, are very expensive.  I wonder how many window washers would be employed?

Bio-fuels …  We have already tried this.  The entire national corn crop won’t provide enough fuel to run our transportation, let alone generate our electricty.  Then the unintended consequences … rising food prices.  Why would a country turn food into fuel in a starving world?

Tidal and wave generators …  Maybe you like this, but the idea of a machine large enough to capture these forces is beyond my comprehension.  The Dutch have the most experience in taming the Ocean, I suppose that we should defer to them.

Geothermal is the heat of the near molten under crust of the Earth.  A 24 hour a day source,  it is therefore a primary source of energy.  However, the vector for the energy transfer is water in the form of steam.  The steam is chock full of dissolved solids which precipitate out of the fluid as the expanding steam cools through the turbines.  These solids are a major problem; the other major problem is the consumptive use of underground water, which is of limited supply.  The most exciting alternate to the steam fields, which are few and far between, is deep drilling two or more wells, closely spaced, into the dry hot mantle of the Earth, pumping water into one well and capturing the returning steam in the other.  This technology is just beginning to be tested.  If it proves out, our energy worries are over for all time.

So, here it is … the only viable environmentally friendly source of of non-polluting energy available in quantities significant enough to supply our needs is nuclear energy.  Since it is scientifically (physically) impossible to get a nuclear explosion out of a nuclear generation plant, the only drawback is the “spent” nuclear fuel.  There are two viable ways of handling “spent” nuclear fuel, reprocessing or sequestration.  To a scientist, reprocessing is the answer, but the politicians have opted for sequestration.  To a geologist, the most promising repository would be open, abandoned, mined out salt domes of which there are several all over the U.S.  However, the politicians have opted for an underground facility picked by government bureaucrats at the truly desolate Yucca Mountain in Nevada, mined from scratch, at the cost of billions (yes, billions) of taxpayer dollars.  The facility, finally after 25 years, is now ready to receive the “waste.”

Then, along comes America’s foremost geological, nuclear physicist, Barack Obama and closes the facility because of his “safety” concerns.  So be it.  This decision sounds the death knell for nuclear power generation in our country.  The President’s call for “alternate energy” is no more than the empty demogoguery of a cry in the wilderness.  Or, someone, more cynical than I, might think that this gesture is a political pay-off to Nevada’s anti-nuclear power, Yucca Mountain repository fighting, environmental lobbiest lacky Senator, Harry Reid.