Next Big Future: China targets new molten salt thorium nuclear reactors

Next Big Future: China targets new molten salt thorium nuclear reac...: The deadline to develop a new design for thorium nuclear power plants has been brought forward by 15 years as the central government tries ...

Comment:

There must be something that I'm missing ---- 10 years?!  After reading this little report here, which was produced in 1985, a lot of what these people are worried about has already been solved.  It should not take that long.

quote:

The thorium reactors would need years, if not decades, to overcome the corrosion issue and the stability of accelerator-driven plants was also in doubt, he said.

speculation:

Could be disinformation for purpose of concealing their progress.  Or they have problems because the information mentioned above was not available to them.

I also found this link at NBF.  This is hardly a new topic, as the link was produced in 2010.


Update:

More here at Sorensen's website.  It asks a question that may be uncomfortable to answer as it may be "no".

Rise of the Bear

the economic collapse blog dot com: 18 signs that Russia is rapidly catching up to the United States

link courtesy of Al Fin next level blog.  Al Fin doesn't believe Russia is all that capable and has serious weaknesses.  Same for China.  It's all very murky.

Hard to tell where the truth is here.  I'll keep banging on the drums for molten-salt reactors, though.  It makes more sense now than ever.  But will that be recognized in time?  Doesn't look good at the moment.

End of petro-dollar, end of dollar's reserve status

Message:

Looks like a credible threat to me.

It could explain Obama's lack of response to Putin. It could also explain Putin's aggressiveness.

What it can't explain is why we are fooling around with windmills and solar panels. Commercialize the molten-salt reactor at the earliest possible time.

Published on Zero Hedge (http://www.zerohedge.com)

Home > Blogs > George Washington's blog > Forget Russia Dumping U.S. Treasuries … Here's the REAL Economic Threat

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Forget Russia Dumping U.S. Treasuries … Here's the REAL Economic Threat

By George Washington

Created 03/21/2014 - 18:33

Veteran Investor Jim Sinclair Says That If Russia Accepts Payment For Oil And Gas In Any Currency Other Than The Dollar – Whether It's Gold, The Euro, The Ruble, The Rupee, Or Anything Else – Then The U.S. Petrodollar System Will Collapse [1]

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Source URL: http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2014-03-21/forget-russia-dumping-us-treasuries-%E2%80%A6-here%E2%80%99s-real-economic-threat

Links:
[1] http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/03/forget-treasuries-russias-real-leverage-u-s.html

Now I have heard everything.

That used to be a common expression.  If it still is, I haven't heard much of it.  I'm using it in reference to this story obtained via an Instapundit link.

Transgender Woman Claims Former Male Self a Murderer.---Breitbart

Great way to beat a rap!  Get a sex change operation.  If you have this homicidal impulse that just cannot be denied, go whack somebody and change your sex.  By golly, you may be able to get off scot free.

Crazy liberals

There are people like this, you know.  This is what informs a great deal of Democrat environmentalist policies.

I actually worked with a crazy liberal who said we had too much technology and should be living in caves again.  comment by "Luke21" on Free Republic

But we can do even better than fracking.  We can do molten-salt reactor technology.  I suggest taking the methane and heat treat it in order to remove the hydrogen.  Use that hydrogen to make ammonia and then ship it to end retailers who will crack the ammonia and sell the hydrogen for fuel cell cars.  This can all be done without any significant new technology.  Hell, molten-salt technology is 40 years old.   Even the enviros used it in their solar designs.  It retains heat that can be used to drive turbines.

From the "are" to the "is"

Just watched the video of the Civil War, from which the title of this post was obtained.  I first referenced it in the post before the last post.  There is only one link there, which I added this morning.  The link in this paragraph will take you to another link that will take you there.  This is the quote in which I remembered, thus the reference to it.  After having watching it, the video was very supportive of democracy, but that support has a dark side.  The dark side is the trajectory towards a unitary, centralized, and oppressively powerful government.  It has been a slow process, not unlike the boil-a-frog scenario mentioned here from time to time.

As the Roman Republic gave way to the Caesars, so does the American Republic give way to the dictators.  Unless something changes, that's where we are headed.  Those who advocate Democracy are only interested in becoming demagogues.  Some day, a demagogue will sweep away what remains of our liberty.  It may not even be a liberal Democrat who does it.  The love of power exists in both parties, and there is nobody who is truly dedicated to liberty, although I may be mistaken about that.

As for the sheep, they are only interested in wearing their chains.  Life as a slave is easier for the moment, but that is only the bait that will hook them in time.  Over time, the pull of the line will become oppressive and they will see their error.  But that time is not yet.

Pardon the mixed metaphors.  But they are good enough for the purpose.

Time for a bit of contemplation

That last post about the Civil War and such may have given the wrong impression.  I'm not defending slavery.

But the fact remains, the North conquered the South, and took their property.  It wasn't legal.  Those alive at that time said something to the effect that there was a "higher law" than the Constitution.  So, my thesis is sound.  They subverted the Constitution and created something different.  It cannot be argued that this had become a different nation.  It has been changing all the time.

The past is the past.  But the future hasn't been written yet.  You study the past in order to avoid the mistakes of the past, but you cannot change it.  What's done is done.

It is a question of how much freedom can be had.  Total freedom is inconsistent with order.  For example, you are not free to do whatever you want, for it you could, you could do any anti-social thing that popped into your mind.  Clearly, in order to have an orderly society, an individual must give up some autonomy.  A rather extreme example:  you cannot kill somebody just because you want to.  It can thus be seen that the prohibition against killing is a restriction upon freedom.  Random killings would cause a problem with order, no doubt.  People would be more inclined to live in peace with each other if they felt safe around each other.  But how much freedom should there be?  The more prohibitions, the less freedom.  These are not trivial questions.

So, we are left with deciding what kind of world we want.  Do we want a more civilized one, or a less civilized one?  For the more civilized it is, the more likely it is to have restrictions upon freedom of some kind.  There may be arguments about that one.  True, it may be an oversimplification.  But it is sound in the main point.  The point being that you must have restrictions of some kind or chaos will be your lot.

Too much control will remove personal initiative.  For if the government became too restrictive, people would lose all autonomy and cease to strive to better their lot.

I think there is a fear amongst some, or maybe even more than some, that too much progress can be a bad thing.  Referring to myself, I have expressed some apprehension about the progress of mankind if such progress leads to outcomes like self-driving cars and certain "trans-human" technologies.  Perhaps I haven't said it quite this way before, but sometimes I wonder if we are headed towards something like the Borg of Star Trek.  Could resistance indeed be futile?  No, I would prefer to resist that particular outcome, thank you very much.  I would prefer a human existence.  A Borg-like creature could not be free.

I suspect there is also a fear that to leave the Earth and live on other planets could change the basic order.  We are in a comfort zone here on Earth.  But that comfort zone may get quite crowded.  This leads to movements like Limits to Growth and environmentalism.  If humans left Earth, these humans could go off into completely new and strange directions.  There may be a real, justifiable fear of this.  If some don't become Borg, others might.  And so on.

Risk is a fact of life, however.  If the Christians hadn't left the Old World, would they have been conquered by the Muslims?  Quite possibly.  But the Muslims fear leaving the Earth, I suspect.  After all, there was some sort of fatwa against the settlement of Mars.  This confirmed my suspicion that Islam is incompatible with space settlement.  You cannot bow to Mecca if you can't even see the Earth with your naked eye.  But I think Christianity can survive anywhere in the Universe.  It may be well that Christians consider leaving Earth, but that would also be risky.  There was also a fear expressed by someone somewhere who said that we may not find God out there.  Whatever we may find may shake our beliefs to their very foundations.  There is a real fear of this, I suspect.  But staying put also has its risks.  Risks cannot be avoided.  There is no perfect safety.

The world changes.  Humans change.  The Universe changes.  It is folly to think you can escape this.  What do you do about the challenge of change?  Deny it, or embrace it?  I choose to embrace freedom.  I'll risk the changes that may occur that I may not like.  Besides, it is not completely my choice, as it isn't completely up to me to make this decision.  It is completely up to me in my own little world, though.  That is true for anyone, for what you choose to believe is really up to you.  At least for the moment, you can believe whatever you want in this country.