What I Believe
An Engineer and Mathematician Looks at Life
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And then there is the “big Money.” You know the old saying: “follow the money.” Well, the big money in nuclear power is made in the fuel processing. Design, manufacture, test, and distribute the control rods, and you are in a position to obtain the big dollars. A thorium LFTR lifter doesn't have control rods. You just put some thorium into a capsule, drop it into the molten salt, and it dissolves. It's so simple and so different from a light water reactor. I believe that all the companies that are involved with making the fuel rods for light water reactors want things to stay the same! Kirk Sorensen calls this the “razor blade phenomenon.” That is, sell them the razor at less than cost and then make the big bucks on the razor blades that only you can sell them. Is it any wonder that the simple, economic, concept of the LFTR lifter can't seem to take hold? Congress is beginning to look into Thorium, and some of the congressional representatives have started some legislation, but again, there seems no sense of urgency in anything they do. And let's not forget that the same folks who control the fuel rod preparation for the light water reactors are probably the same ones that contribute to the congressmen's election funds! This is not a system that encourages change and innovation. It's a system that encourages the status quo. The good news is slowly getting out to our congressional representatives. Congress is getting the word about Thorium. In fact if you Google “Pro Nuclear Democrats” you can get the link to their web site blog. Here are some of the things that I found on their web site, as I was finishing up on this chapter: • A golf ball sized quantity of Thorium is enough energy for a person's entire lifetime. Efficient use of fuel density leaves the smallest eco-footprint per unit of energy. • There are many ways to implement the use of Thorium in the nuclear fuel cycle Thorium is 4x more abundant than uranium and all of it is fertile for a LFTR type reactor. • The Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor has been proven in principle by prototypes. * The dream to use Thorium in the form of the LFTR has arrived at the perfect storm of materials science, computer engineering, operations and analysis, chemistry, and a group of visionaries. If Bill Gates is behind the Traveling Wave Reactor project then the Thorium Energy Alliance has the feel of an Open Source software community gathering * If you appreciate the benefits of a nuclear plant compared to fossil plants, then the orders of magnitude differences that LFTR is said to have won't mean very much anyways. But with an appreciation for how nuclear energy works, it's not too hard to imagine a design that could carry the orders of magnitude that much farther. Momentum is gaining for the LFTR and it has the best thing anything in the energy business can ever hope for -- a passionate group of individuals behind it. The news buzz is just beginning to pick up. I usually associate the Democratic Party with people who are against nuclear energy in any form. To find such pro-nuclear democrats was like a breath of fresh air. It was like finding pro-choice-republicans. You can find some, but they are few are hard to find! You can't be much more positive about the LFTR than the Pro Nuclear Democrats! From everything that I have read, they are correct in their praise and positive words about the potential of the LFTR. The LFTR has the potential to be the “silver bullet” that solves America's energy problems, but only a few people see it. Kirk Sorensen sees it! The people at the Thorium Energy Alliance see it. The Pro-Nuclear Democrats see it. I see it. Want to know what else the Thorium Alliance People see? Go to thoriumenergyalliance.com and find out. You can also Google Thorium Energy Alliance and get to the same web site. While you are there, you can give them $100 like I did and get a tee shirt that says “Ask Me About Thorium.” Do you think I'm excited about the possibilities of thorium and the LFTR lifter? You bet I am! Let me end this chapter by identifying some of the things that I believe to be true and have found out from my reading, peeking, and poking around the LFTR lifter. The LFTR lifter is a reactor that: * has a viable approach to an alternate way to obtain low cost, safe, nuclear power. * has a completely different approach to nuclear power. * can run at atmospheric pressure. * does not require large cooling towers. * requires no fuel rods. * has a significantly smaller site footprint that the conventional light water reactor. * has some already identified problems, but all of the problems are engineering problems that can be readily addressed and solved. * can use thorium - of which there is a stockpile available for use. According to the Thorium Energy Alliance, there is four times more Thorium available in the earth's crust than uranium. We are not going to run out of thorium in the next 150 years; this may not be true of uranium. * has a proven approach that has already been demonstrated for almost four years in the Molten-Salt Breed Reactor run at Oak Ridge National Laboratory * is readily scalable. That is, the LFTR lifter can easily be made in small, medium, and large sizes. After convincing myself that the LFTR lifter was for real, I asked myself what would I use this reactor for if I had one today? Would any of these “applications” and “uses” identify requirements that should be included as the final design of the LFTR lifter is determined? Thus, I lead you into the next chapter.
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About the Book
This book is a blue print on the steps that must be taken to make America great again. It addresses America's problems from war to health care; from energy and nuclear power to global warming; from illegal immigrants to reinstitution of the draft of all young Americans; from a national registration system for all Americans to a practical solution to the financial difficulties of Social Security. The views and solutions to these problems are expressed through the eyes of Richard Michael White, a seventy-one year old man who holds advanced degrees in both engineering and mathematics. As Richard's life progresses from being a student in high school, to serving as an Army Officer on active duty, to a thirty year professional career, to his eventual, early retirement at the age of fifty-seven, his view of America's most pressing problems changes and solidifies into a coherent and detailed plan on solving these problems. The book begins as Richard describes the differences in the current world from 1957 when he graduated from high school to the present. He discusses Christianity and concludes that he might, or might not, be a Christian depending or your definition what it takes to be a Christian. He deals with the topics of love, sex, marriage, and divorce, and shows that although they are all related, they are all different. He believes that the most pressing problem facing the world is population growth. Richard addresses the subject of America's energy dependence and pushes for an expansion of nuclear power. He also presses for the development of nuclear power from the element Thorium. He lays out a detailed blueprint to address Thorium's usage in power generation as well as using government owned Thorium nuclear reactors for coal gasification, shale oil extraction, and seawater desalination.
About the Author
Richard Michael White was born on March 19, 1939 in Chicago Illinois, and was the second of three children born to George and Helen White. He was not an outstanding student during his K through 12 years; most likely because of a severe, life threatening, head injury he received when he was just four years old. After high school graduation he attended the University of Illinois and earned BS and MS Degrees in Electrical Engineering and upon graduation received his commission in the United States Army. He was assigned as an Army Ordnance Officer to the U.S. Army Material Command Board located at Aberdeen Proving Ground. In 1960 he married one of his high school classmates - Kathleen Carol Smith, and their first child, Wendy, was born in 1964 at Aberdeen Proving Ground. Upon discharge from the army He went to work for Sandia Laboratory in Albuquerque, New Mexico where his initial assignment was in the Military Liaison Department. There he instructed military personnel in the disassembly, maintenance, and re-assembly of nuclear weapons. He began flying light aircraft as a hobby and obtained a private pilot's license, a commercial pilot's license, and an instrument rating. His second child, Barbara, was born in 1967. While working for Sandia, he obtained a second masters degree in applied mathematics from the University of New Mexico. His marriage of 12 years to Kathleen ended in divorce. In 1972 he became Sandia's manager of the collection and analysis of nuclear event data. There he met and married Nancy Munroe, an IBM employee. In 1974 he left Sandia and joined IBM. He held both management and engineering positions for IBM, and retired from IBM at age 57. He has done volunteer work in the local high school and is currently a Hospice volunteer.