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Tired, wired thought for the day

By Dusty (AKA Attila of Argghhh!) on June 15, 2008 | | Comments (6)

It's morning in Singapore and I can't sleep (the flights to Subic Bay and Hong Kong tonight oughta be fun) so what do I think about?

Let's build 300 nuke power plants over the next 10 years and run them with retired Master Chiefs from the Navy's nuclear propulsion branch.

Discuss.

For extra credit, develop an oversight program that makes this, and other exceptional and pugnacious buffonery impossible in the Department of Energy.

Crabby Attila sends.

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6 Comments

By BillT on June 16, 2008 6:53 AM
Hmmpf. Pugnacious buffoonery *defines* gummint bureaux labeled "Department of ___________"...
 
By AW1 Tim on June 16, 2008 7:07 AM
Dusty, I have been preaching the concept of a Navy-run national nuclear energy program for almost 20 years now. Heh. Maybe someone who actually counts for something will take heed. Maybe pigs will fly as well :) Sigh. The biggest problem I have with TSA is that it is a contract civilian job. I consider those TSA folks no better than mercenaries and have zero respect for any of them. In EVERY encounter with them at an airport I have found them to be rude, imperious and acting in a manner I find repulsive: Standing around and watching others work, or pretend to work. It's monday.... and raining here in the People's Republic of Maine. Gonna be a wonderful day again.....
 
By Lou Mazz on June 16, 2008 7:46 AM
Nuclear (as opposed to "nuke-u-lar") power makes sense in so many ways - even if considered as a 20-30 year interim approach while we get other technologies together. Here's the rub. There is apparently only one company left in the world capable of casting a containment vessel. That company is in Japan, and has a 4-year backlog even if one had the $60M down payment on the $250M part. Unless someone fires up new capacity for making these vessels, the first new US nuke plant is at least 5 years away. Now, if the US Navy wanted to declassify some of its technology so we could make plants of a different design, that might improve the situation, but probably only by a little.
 
By XBradTC on June 16, 2008 9:50 AM
There just aren't that many nucs. How many plants are the navy running right now? Less than 100? And these plants are very small compared to any civilian powerplant. If you decide to run powerplants using mainly ex-navy types, don't be surprised to see Navy nuc retention take a big hit. Which will place an even bigger burden on the Navy's nuc schools. I'm all for nuc power ashore. But don't think there's this magical well of qualified people just sitting around to plug in to whatever slots we have.
 
By AW1 Tim on June 16, 2008 2:01 PM
Brad, What i would like to see is an expansion of the Navy Nuke program in order to accomplish an entire restructure of the nation's electrical system. Make electrical generation a natiopnal strategid resource and place it under Navy control. Build and deploy Nuke plants similar to the ones on the Trident boats based upon a per capita scale. Everyone gets electricity from the Government via the Navy plants and everyone pays a fixed price. Many areas already have virtial monopoly of electrical production and/or service by single companies so it's not that bif a change, structure-wise. What you can do by using smaller plants is to seperate the grid so that the loss of s single plant only affects it's service area and nothing else. Plants would be made to standard specs so that crews could transfer from one to another with a minimum of refresher training, and maintenance would be simplified, rather than the frankenstien monster we have now, where each plant is unique.
 
By Chris Horner on June 16, 2008 4:24 PM
Hmmm...what's to discuss? Ignoring the resources to get the plants y'all discussed, this idea will field competent and safely operated plants throughout CONUS. ...with the added bonus of a large increase in coffee consumption.