The only straw man argument here is yours, he is proposing maintaining our civilian nuclear infrastructure to maintain our status in nuclear power and a seat at the international table in nuclear issues. He parrots your doom and gloom for our commercial industry but recognizes that only those in the game can play. He is an MIT chemist, a former head of the CIA, and the head of a task force on the future of nuclear power. I think I will defer to his experience and unique knowledge on this.
the notion that commercial nukes make us viable "at the table"
is a strawman arguement,...
7000 warheads makes us viable "at the table",....
from the report referenced in the article:
'Although estimates are very uncertain, the Task Force midpoint estimate is that such a
four-phase program would require about 25 years and $11.5 billion for at least some
advanced technologies. The Federal Government would share these costs; the
proportion paid by each partner would vary according the project risk. The following table
provides an illustration of the division of public/private responsibility."need to tell you this so you're thinking about it,....
11.5 billion dollars over 25 years is only about half a billion per year,....
compared to the billions spent on fusion and we don't have one yet,...
compared to the billions spent on SMRs and we don't have one yet,...
compared to the billions spent on ALWR and we don't have one yet,...
it's not hard to deduce that this is 11.5 billion dollars for PhDs and others to put into their pockets for 25 more years to study, publish papers, project strategies, etc.,....
but not one commercial reactor will come out of the 11.5 billion USD or the quarter century it will take to spend it,...
now,....
the pithy, terse, unresponsive, unpolemic guy is rarely ebullient or voluble,...
but similar critical thinking (as the feigned approbation to debate typed above) is an abstruse manifest in his typeset thumbnails,...
the pithy, terse guy just does not feel compelled to share, nor exhibit the bumptious conceit, to type the obvious,...
his dissection is correct,....
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