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Does the resurgence of nuclear energy have a more sinister goal? [1]

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Date: 2022-09-15

Idaho State University Lost a Dirty Bomb's Worth of Plutonium. Engadget

As I write this two states in our country are trying to institute a tried and failed technology for producing plutonium fuel for reactors with a history of failure and lies about their efficacy and economy. According to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, the one that keeps the Doomsday Clock, both Wyoming and Idaho senators are pushing for a new reactor using this technology. This is the breeder reactor technology that was developed during the cold war to produce tons of weapons grade plutonium for bomb production and that left a legacy of contamination that will be with us for potentially billions of years.

To date the breeder reactors in the UK have produced 140 metric tons of Power-reactor plutonium. Russia has 191 tons of weapons grade plutonium. The US has a mere 50 tons. The terms power-reactor and weapons grade are misleading as power-reactor grade plutonium can be used to make nuclear weapons. This term is used over and over by nuclear power advocates to downplay the danger these stockpiles represent. For example the Nagasaki bomb only required 5 kilograms of plutonium to instantly kill 66,000 people. That is not the only cost of this mass of plutonium. The costs of trying to get rid of overstocked plutonium runs into the billions of dollars.

The reactor that those two Idaho senators are trying to get built will be at the Idaho National Lab in Idaho Falls. It was here that the only fatal nuclear reactor accident in the US occurred. Three workers were killed when a steam explosion happened. A control rod was pulled to far out and the reactor nearly melted down. As recently as November 11 2011 a plutonium leak exposed 17 people and led to their having to be tested for radiation exposure. Six had "low-level-radiation", two of them fairly extensively. Wikipedia.

The Wyoming site being proposed would be in Kemmerer. This is being pushed by Wyoming Senator John Barrasso who if the Republicans win back the congress would become the chair of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. The two Senators in Idaho Jim Risch and Mike Crapo are the ones advocating for the reactor at the Idaho National Lab. All three of these Senators are Republicans. Of the three Jim Risch is the most extreme having voted against every progressive bill in congress including the ACA, any form of gun control and abortion. He is clearly a Trump supporter. Both of them are staunch no vote obstructionists in congress. Joh Barrasso has supported a Joh Kennedy conspiracy theory about Ukrainian interference in the 2020 election and opposed Trump’s second impeachment.

Leave aside the fact that most of the continental United States is downwind of these proposed reactors there should be a real concern that members of an extreme arm of the Republican party may gain access to large amounts of plutonium. Especially when the amount that was lost from the Idaho State University, one gram is enough to build a dirty bomb. Plutonium is not the most toxic substance in the world but it is dangerous to health in that it works slowly within the body to produce cancer. According to George L. Voelz, M.D. Only 88 milligrams of plutonium inhaled can lead to lung cancer. Plutonium by the way has a half life of 24,000 years www.atomicarchive.com/…

Should we allow extremist elements to have access to a substance that could be used as nuclear blackmail. I remember in 2016 in a discussion with a coworker about who was the most dangerous candidate I said that Hillary was more likely to use a nuclear weapon against another country but Trump would be more likely to use one against his own. I don’t think now that anyone who is in the thrall of the MAGA madness could be trusted not to.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/9/15/2123146/-Does-the-resurgence-of-nuclear-energy-have-a-more-sinister-goal

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