Re: [Biofuel] Bill Gates's Nuclear Miracle?

2011-08-25 Thread Fritz Friesinger 
Sometimes one have to think,the whole world is going mad with those 
nuke-issues!
My self I am pretty convinced that a methane-digester would be much cheaper 
to produce
and instead letting methane escape in to the atmosphere collecting it and 
produce electricity
would be at least a part solution for the energie problem on hand!
It works in Nepal on small scale why should this not work in big citys on a 
larger scale
Stopping citys like Vancouver to dump theire wast in to the ocean should be 
a priority
for everyone rghh!
Fritz

-Original Message- 
From: Keith Addison
Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2011 9:31 AM
To: biofuel@sustainablelists.org
Subject: Re: [Biofuel] Bill Gates's Nuclear Miracle?

:-) Well put. A Windoze nuke, aarghh!!


>These are by far and away the safest reactors ever designed.
>
>As long as they remain unbuilt, they will remain so.
>
>- Original Message -
>From: "Keith Addison" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: biofuel@sustainablelists.org
>Sent: Wednesday, August 24, 2011 8:12:08 AM
>Subject: [Biofuel] Bill Gates's Nuclear Miracle?
>
>Also:
>
><http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/nov/09/miniature-nuclear-reactors-los-alamos>
>Mini nuclear plants to power 20,000 homes
>£13m shed-size reactors will be delivered by lorry
>John Vidal and Nick Rosen
>The Observer, Sunday 9 November 2008
>
><http://allafrica.com/stories/201009170031.html>
>South African Govt Halts Pebble Bed Modular Reactor Project
>16 September 2010
>
><http://sites.google.com/site/rethinkingnuclearpower/aimhigh>
>Aim High!
>Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor
>
>Hmph.
>
>--0--
>
><http://www.xconomy.com/seattle/2010/03/23/bill-gates%E2%80%99s-nuclear-miracle-john-gilleland-says-terrapower-needs-discipline-not-divine-intervention/>
>
>Bill Gates's Nuclear Miracle? John Gilleland Says TerraPower Needs
>Discipline, Not Divine Intervention
>
>Gregory T. Huang 3/23/10
>
>John Gilleland's first day on the job was a little different from
>most people's. The nuclear physicist showed up at Intellectual
>Ventures in Bellevue, WA, and sat down at the conference table with
>his new boss, CEO Nathan Myhrvold, and another, shall we say
>prominent, techie.
>
>"The guy on my left looked familiar," Gilleland says. "It was Bill Gates."
>
>Gilleland had been on the job for all of three minutes when Myhrvold
>said jokingly, "John, you're late on your deliverables."
>
>That was back in December 2006. Gilleland is now CEO of TerraPower,
>the spinoff from Intellectual Ventures that is focused on creating a
>fundamentally new kind of nuclear reactor. It's the invention firm's
>biggest research project to date, spinning out as a separate entity
>in the fall of 2008 with 30-some staff and untold amounts of funding
>from Gates and other investors. It is a project that Intellectual
>Ventures likes to cite as a potentially transformative, homegrown
>invention.
>
>The basic idea is to create a reactor that needs only a small amount
>of enriched uranium to get started, and then uses depleted uranium
>(spent fuel) or natural, unenriched uranium to produce the
>nuclear-fission reactions necessary to generate power for 60 years or
>more without refueling. The design is called a traveling wave
>reactor, and the idea dates back to the early 1990s. If it works, the
>key benefits would be cheaper power, much more plentiful fuel, more
>efficient nuclear waste disposal, and less risk of nuclear
>proliferation.
>
>Gates has been gushing about the project as of late. He mentioned
>TerraPower prominently in his talk at the TED conference in
>California last month, calling out the proposed reactor design as a
>possible "miracle" innovation in the effort to provide clean energy
>to more of the world's population without increasing carbon emissions
>in the atmosphere. (Nuclear power provides about 20 percent of the
>electricity in the U.S.)
>
>Gilleland (see photo, left) has been given the keys to Gates and
>Myhrvold's nuclear kingdom for good reason. Previously, he co-founded
>and led Archimedes Technology Group, which developed improved
>techniques for cleaning up nuclear weapons waste, among other things.
>Before that, he was chief scientist and vice president of energy
>programs at Bechtel, and U.S. managing director of the International
>Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) program for fusion energy,
>and he spent 16 years at General Atomics doing fusion research.
>
>The traveling wave reactor is certainly an intriguing idea, and one
>that could be a true breakthrough. But the question, skeptics say, is
>whether it can be made to really work-and how

Re: [Biofuel] Bill Gates's Nuclear Miracle?

2011-08-25 Thread Keith Addison 
:-) Well put. A Windoze nuke, aarghh!!


>These are by far and away the safest reactors ever designed.
>
>As long as they remain unbuilt, they will remain so.
>
>- Original Message -
>From: "Keith Addison" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: biofuel@sustainablelists.org
>Sent: Wednesday, August 24, 2011 8:12:08 AM
>Subject: [Biofuel] Bill Gates's Nuclear Miracle?
>
>Also:
>
><http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/nov/09/miniature-nuclear-reactors-los-alamos>
>Mini nuclear plants to power 20,000 homes
>£13m shed-size reactors will be delivered by lorry
>John Vidal and Nick Rosen
>The Observer, Sunday 9 November 2008
>
><http://allafrica.com/stories/201009170031.html>
>South African Govt Halts Pebble Bed Modular Reactor Project
>16 September 2010
>
><http://sites.google.com/site/rethinkingnuclearpower/aimhigh>
>Aim High!
>Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor
>
>Hmph.
>
>--0--
>
><http://www.xconomy.com/seattle/2010/03/23/bill-gates%E2%80%99s-nuclear-miracle-john-gilleland-says-terrapower-needs-discipline-not-divine-intervention/>
>
>Bill Gates's Nuclear Miracle? John Gilleland Says TerraPower Needs
>Discipline, Not Divine Intervention
>
>Gregory T. Huang 3/23/10
>
>John Gilleland's first day on the job was a little different from
>most people's. The nuclear physicist showed up at Intellectual
>Ventures in Bellevue, WA, and sat down at the conference table with
>his new boss, CEO Nathan Myhrvold, and another, shall we say
>prominent, techie.
>
>"The guy on my left looked familiar," Gilleland says. "It was Bill Gates."
>
>Gilleland had been on the job for all of three minutes when Myhrvold
>said jokingly, "John, you're late on your deliverables."
>
>That was back in December 2006. Gilleland is now CEO of TerraPower,
>the spinoff from Intellectual Ventures that is focused on creating a
>fundamentally new kind of nuclear reactor. It's the invention firm's
>biggest research project to date, spinning out as a separate entity
>in the fall of 2008 with 30-some staff and untold amounts of funding
>from Gates and other investors. It is a project that Intellectual
>Ventures likes to cite as a potentially transformative, homegrown
>invention.
>
>The basic idea is to create a reactor that needs only a small amount
>of enriched uranium to get started, and then uses depleted uranium
>(spent fuel) or natural, unenriched uranium to produce the
>nuclear-fission reactions necessary to generate power for 60 years or
>more without refueling. The design is called a traveling wave
>reactor, and the idea dates back to the early 1990s. If it works, the
>key benefits would be cheaper power, much more plentiful fuel, more
>efficient nuclear waste disposal, and less risk of nuclear
>proliferation.
>
>Gates has been gushing about the project as of late. He mentioned
>TerraPower prominently in his talk at the TED conference in
>California last month, calling out the proposed reactor design as a
>possible "miracle" innovation in the effort to provide clean energy
>to more of the world's population without increasing carbon emissions
>in the atmosphere. (Nuclear power provides about 20 percent of the
>electricity in the U.S.)
>
>Gilleland (see photo, left) has been given the keys to Gates and
>Myhrvold's nuclear kingdom for good reason. Previously, he co-founded
>and led Archimedes Technology Group, which developed improved
>techniques for cleaning up nuclear weapons waste, among other things.
>Before that, he was chief scientist and vice president of energy
>programs at Bechtel, and U.S. managing director of the International
>Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) program for fusion energy,
>and he spent 16 years at General Atomics doing fusion research.
>
>The traveling wave reactor is certainly an intriguing idea, and one
>that could be a true breakthrough. But the question, skeptics say, is
>whether it can be made to really work-and how long that will take.
>The idea is that the reactor makes its own fuel and uses it as it
>goes along: the neutrons emitted by a small amount of enriched
>uranium convert depleted uranium into plutonium, which splits to
>produce energy and also emits more neutrons that continue to "breed"
>new fuel. There is no precedent for TerraPower's particular design,
>and the project faces some major challenges-technical, business, and
>regulatory. So far the physics has only been tested in computer
>simulations, albeit using the most advanced supercomputers available.
>(It's worth mentioning that only someone like Gates could afford to
>fund this and risk having it not work-which is e

Re: [Biofuel] Bill Gates's Nuclear Miracle?

2011-08-24 Thread Chip Mefford 

These are by far and away the safest reactors ever designed. 

As long as they remain unbuilt, they will remain so. 

- Original Message -
From: "Keith Addison" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: biofuel@sustainablelists.org
Sent: Wednesday, August 24, 2011 8:12:08 AM
Subject: [Biofuel] Bill Gates's Nuclear Miracle?

Also:

<http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/nov/09/miniature-nuclear-reactors-los-alamos>
Mini nuclear plants to power 20,000 homes
£13m shed-size reactors will be delivered by lorry
John Vidal and Nick Rosen
The Observer, Sunday 9 November 2008

<http://allafrica.com/stories/201009170031.html>
South African Govt Halts Pebble Bed Modular Reactor Project
16 September 2010

<http://sites.google.com/site/rethinkingnuclearpower/aimhigh>
Aim High!
Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor

Hmph.

--0--

<http://www.xconomy.com/seattle/2010/03/23/bill-gates%E2%80%99s-nuclear-miracle-john-gilleland-says-terrapower-needs-discipline-not-divine-intervention/>

Bill Gates's Nuclear Miracle? John Gilleland Says TerraPower Needs 
Discipline, Not Divine Intervention

Gregory T. Huang 3/23/10

John Gilleland's first day on the job was a little different from 
most people's. The nuclear physicist showed up at Intellectual 
Ventures in Bellevue, WA, and sat down at the conference table with 
his new boss, CEO Nathan Myhrvold, and another, shall we say 
prominent, techie.

"The guy on my left looked familiar," Gilleland says. "It was Bill Gates."

Gilleland had been on the job for all of three minutes when Myhrvold 
said jokingly, "John, you're late on your deliverables."

That was back in December 2006. Gilleland is now CEO of TerraPower, 
the spinoff from Intellectual Ventures that is focused on creating a 
fundamentally new kind of nuclear reactor. It's the invention firm's 
biggest research project to date, spinning out as a separate entity 
in the fall of 2008 with 30-some staff and untold amounts of funding 
from Gates and other investors. It is a project that Intellectual 
Ventures likes to cite as a potentially transformative, homegrown 
invention.

The basic idea is to create a reactor that needs only a small amount 
of enriched uranium to get started, and then uses depleted uranium 
(spent fuel) or natural, unenriched uranium to produce the 
nuclear-fission reactions necessary to generate power for 60 years or 
more without refueling. The design is called a traveling wave 
reactor, and the idea dates back to the early 1990s. If it works, the 
key benefits would be cheaper power, much more plentiful fuel, more 
efficient nuclear waste disposal, and less risk of nuclear 
proliferation.

Gates has been gushing about the project as of late. He mentioned 
TerraPower prominently in his talk at the TED conference in 
California last month, calling out the proposed reactor design as a 
possible "miracle" innovation in the effort to provide clean energy 
to more of the world's population without increasing carbon emissions 
in the atmosphere. (Nuclear power provides about 20 percent of the 
electricity in the U.S.)

Gilleland (see photo, left) has been given the keys to Gates and 
Myhrvold's nuclear kingdom for good reason. Previously, he co-founded 
and led Archimedes Technology Group, which developed improved 
techniques for cleaning up nuclear weapons waste, among other things. 
Before that, he was chief scientist and vice president of energy 
programs at Bechtel, and U.S. managing director of the International 
Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) program for fusion energy, 
and he spent 16 years at General Atomics doing fusion research.

The traveling wave reactor is certainly an intriguing idea, and one 
that could be a true breakthrough. But the question, skeptics say, is 
whether it can be made to really work-and how long that will take. 
The idea is that the reactor makes its own fuel and uses it as it 
goes along: the neutrons emitted by a small amount of enriched 
uranium convert depleted uranium into plutonium, which splits to 
produce energy and also emits more neutrons that continue to "breed" 
new fuel. There is no precedent for TerraPower's particular design, 
and the project faces some major challenges-technical, business, and 
regulatory. So far the physics has only been tested in computer 
simulations, albeit using the most advanced supercomputers available. 
(It's worth mentioning that only someone like Gates could afford to 
fund this and risk having it not work-which is exactly why Myhrvold 
sees the need for an "invention capital" industry.)

On the plus side, the environment for nuclear power development is 
more promising than it has been in years. President Obama recently 
called for a new generation of nuclear plants to be built in the 
U.S.; they would be the first new ones in 30 years. Companies 
including General Atomics, Ge

[Biofuel] Bill Gates's Nuclear Miracle?

2011-08-24 Thread Keith Addison 
Also:


Mini nuclear plants to power 20,000 homes
£13m shed-size reactors will be delivered by lorry
John Vidal and Nick Rosen
The Observer, Sunday 9 November 2008


South African Govt Halts Pebble Bed Modular Reactor Project
16 September 2010


Aim High!
Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor

Hmph.

--0--



Bill Gates's Nuclear Miracle? John Gilleland Says TerraPower Needs 
Discipline, Not Divine Intervention

Gregory T. Huang 3/23/10

John Gilleland's first day on the job was a little different from 
most people's. The nuclear physicist showed up at Intellectual 
Ventures in Bellevue, WA, and sat down at the conference table with 
his new boss, CEO Nathan Myhrvold, and another, shall we say 
prominent, techie.

"The guy on my left looked familiar," Gilleland says. "It was Bill Gates."

Gilleland had been on the job for all of three minutes when Myhrvold 
said jokingly, "John, you're late on your deliverables."

That was back in December 2006. Gilleland is now CEO of TerraPower, 
the spinoff from Intellectual Ventures that is focused on creating a 
fundamentally new kind of nuclear reactor. It's the invention firm's 
biggest research project to date, spinning out as a separate entity 
in the fall of 2008 with 30-some staff and untold amounts of funding 
from Gates and other investors. It is a project that Intellectual 
Ventures likes to cite as a potentially transformative, homegrown 
invention.

The basic idea is to create a reactor that needs only a small amount 
of enriched uranium to get started, and then uses depleted uranium 
(spent fuel) or natural, unenriched uranium to produce the 
nuclear-fission reactions necessary to generate power for 60 years or 
more without refueling. The design is called a traveling wave 
reactor, and the idea dates back to the early 1990s. If it works, the 
key benefits would be cheaper power, much more plentiful fuel, more 
efficient nuclear waste disposal, and less risk of nuclear 
proliferation.

Gates has been gushing about the project as of late. He mentioned 
TerraPower prominently in his talk at the TED conference in 
California last month, calling out the proposed reactor design as a 
possible "miracle" innovation in the effort to provide clean energy 
to more of the world's population without increasing carbon emissions 
in the atmosphere. (Nuclear power provides about 20 percent of the 
electricity in the U.S.)

Gilleland (see photo, left) has been given the keys to Gates and 
Myhrvold's nuclear kingdom for good reason. Previously, he co-founded 
and led Archimedes Technology Group, which developed improved 
techniques for cleaning up nuclear weapons waste, among other things. 
Before that, he was chief scientist and vice president of energy 
programs at Bechtel, and U.S. managing director of the International 
Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) program for fusion energy, 
and he spent 16 years at General Atomics doing fusion research.

The traveling wave reactor is certainly an intriguing idea, and one 
that could be a true breakthrough. But the question, skeptics say, is 
whether it can be made to really work-and how long that will take. 
The idea is that the reactor makes its own fuel and uses it as it 
goes along: the neutrons emitted by a small amount of enriched 
uranium convert depleted uranium into plutonium, which splits to 
produce energy and also emits more neutrons that continue to "breed" 
new fuel. There is no precedent for TerraPower's particular design, 
and the project faces some major challenges-technical, business, and 
regulatory. So far the physics has only been tested in computer 
simulations, albeit using the most advanced supercomputers available. 
(It's worth mentioning that only someone like Gates could afford to 
fund this and risk having it not work-which is exactly why Myhrvold 
sees the need for an "invention capital" industry.)

On the plus side, the environment for nuclear power development is 
more promising than it has been in years. President Obama recently 
called for a new generation of nuclear plants to be built in the 
U.S.; they would be the first new ones in 30 years. Companies 
including General Atomics, General Electric, NuScale Power, and 
Hyperion Power Generation have burgeoning nuclear efforts in the 
U.S., as does General Fusion in British Columbia, and Areva, Hitachi, 
and Toshiba further abroad. (Reports surfaced yesterday that 
TerraPower and Toshiba are in talks to collaborate on a nuclear 
reactor, possibly involving elements of Toshiba's "4S" fast neutron 
reactor-see more on this type of design below.)

TerraPower will need international partners, and funding o