Korean Job Discussion Forums

[SPINOZA]

April 25, 2007: United States and Japan Sign Joint Nuclear Energy Action Plan to Promote Nuclear Energy Cooperation


"This Action Plan establishes the necessary framework to coordinate activities designed to promote the expansion of safe and secure nuclear power, in our respective countries, and globally. It also formalizes an agreement between our two nations � leading nuclear technology countries � to collaborate in four main areas, and provides the additional foundation for the U.S. and Japan to align efforts in support of global expansion of nuclear energy.

Four main areas outlined in the Action Plan are:

1. Cooperation of nuclear energy research and development under GNEP (Global Nuclear Energy Partnership);
2. Collaboration on policies and programs that support the construction of new nuclear power plants;
3. Establishment of a nuclear fuel supply assurance mechanism; and
4. Joint collaboration to support the safe and secure expansion of nuclear energy in interested countries while promoting non-proliferation, consistent with GNEP.

�By strengthening our joint cooperation in civil nuclear energy, the United States and Japan will also strengthen our strategic interests,� Secretary Bodman said. �This Action Plan is an historic agreement and provides the additional foundation for our two nations to align efforts to support the global expansion of nuclear energy, and ultimately a nuclear renaissance. Not only can nuclear energy serve as a cornerstone of sustainable economic development, but as a reliable, viable and emissions-free source of power, it offers enormous potential to help meet the world�s increasing demand for energy in a safe and proliferation-resistant manner.�

- United States Department of Energy Secretary, Samuel W. Bodman

Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP)

[SPINOZA]

[SPINOZA]

Article from November 2005 on investing in Uranium: http://www.moneyweek.com/file/7115/how-to-invest-in-uranium.html

James Lovelock, a founder of Greenpeace, has said: �Only nuclear power can halt global warming.�

Asia�s developing nations are going to build many more nuclear units, boosting demand for uranium

[pkang0202]

I guess I should start investing in Uranium.

[SPINOZA]

Should've done it 7 years ago buddy. Prices have jumped almost 500%, from just $7 a pound in 2000 to well over $40 today.

Here's a good source from 2 years ago on investing in nuclear ("Thorium, a close cousin of uranium, is cleaner and safer than current nuclear fuel, and more of it can be extracted from the ground. In fact, according to the World Nuclear Association, the mineral has more potential to create electric power than any on Earth!")

http://www.investmentu.com/research/uraniumstocks.pdf

[EFLtrainer]

I'm opposed to nuclear energy on the following grounds:

- The byproducts are just too dangerous. We have no way to contain them for the life of their potency.

- Chernobyl.

- Too expensive for many regions/countries.

IF they could isolate them within a bunker sort of contraption that would withstand any accident, then OK. If they can send the refuse off into the sun, then OK. Minus these advances, the slow poisoning of the environment is fairly likely. (I'm talking in terms of nuclear half-lifes...)

[SPINOZA]

[EFLtrainer]

[quote="SPINOZA"]

[SPINOZA]

WOAH! Look at that reply time! You can't possibly have read those two articles very thoroughly. What kind of observer with pretentions of seriousness would reply before giving something a read, and a thorough one too?

You're a daft bugger, which is disappointing because I thought you might be one of the sensible ones who cares about the environment yet simultaneously seeks to maintain the industrial way of life and lift developing nations out of poverty - which are not possible in any other fashion other than nuclear. Obviously I was wrong. Your bad-tempered repetition of the Chernobyl point - addressed quite satisfactorily in one of my links - is suggestive of a man who simply can't be bothered. What are you - a renewables fan? My word, renewables buffoons truly are vermin. Green idiots, coal idiots, Republicans, Islamic states....all putrid wastes of life.

Your "Oh, please. Go ask the victims of Chernobyl. The problem with nuclear is, when it's a problem, it's a SERIOUS, hundreds/thousands of years problem" line of reasoning is like the man who's scared of flying despite the fact that the drive to the airport is statistically much more dangerous......(in best stupid person's accent)....."well, when a plane falls out of the sky, it's a serious problem....you're definitely dead! Whereas in a car you might survive".

The world is getting the message. From the Ingham article (terribly sorry you cannot be bothered reading it)......Currently, there are plans to raise the number of nuclear reactors globally by 60 per cent � 250 are under construction, planned or proposed to add to the existing 435, which produce 16-17% of the world�s electricity. The leading nuclear developers are China (68 new reactors), Russia (32), India (26), South Africa (25) and USA (24). Leave aside France (2) and Finland (1), Western Europe (as distinct from the former Soviet satellites) is stuck in the mud of neandearthal, so-called Green prejudice.

[EFLtrainer]

[mindmetoo]

[EFLtrainer]

[quote="mindmetoo"]

[chaz47]

ok...

i won't weigh in on the right or wrong issue... or the logistics, i am a layman i admit and an uninformed one at that... but as far as efficient disposal goes, can't we build a giant rail gun and launch the waste out into another planet's orbit... or... possibly the sun...

i mean... if the waste is really of such a small volume than we could wrap it in iron and shoot it out there far far away... maybe... ?

what exactly happens to our mundane radioactive waste when it is bombarded with all the other radiation existing in the vaccuum of space?

is it possible that half life might be accelerated when the materials are exposed to other intense radiation sources? if so we could plant the junk on the moon or in the asteroid belt...

just a rambling thought, heavily sci-fi influenced...

[EFLtrainer]

[mindmetoo]