[cdn-nucl-l] Fission research can be done without government money, but. . .

[AtomicRod@aol.com]

Forgive me if this is a duplicate. I sent it out as a response to Adam in the 
thread that started off with "U.S. Should Rejoin Revised Fusion Energy Pro
ject," but I do not think it ever made it to either list. At least, I never 
got any copies or replies.

Rod
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
No, Adam, I am not looking for money to help build the atomic engines that I 
have already designed. (You can find out about this effort at 
www.atomicengines.com.) I have steadfastly refused to even apply for 
government grants or loans; bureaucrats already have more control over our 
technology than I would like.

It would be kind of nice, however, if I could figure out how to get the 
rather tiny, well-proven reactors licensed without paying the federal 
government an upfront fee of $250,000 plus approximately $137.00 per 
bureaucrat hour spent in reviewing the design with no limit on the number of 
bureaucrats assigned and no limit on the number of hours that they can bill 
to my project.  (Those numbers might have changed, I have not had time to 
look in the past couple of years.)

My investors and I took a hard look at the regulations here in the States for 
getting a new fission design licensed. We tried to "run the numbers," but we 
kept coming up with an undefined figure and an endless schedule. Trying to 
predict how many hours would be spent in briefings, training sessions, and 
conferences by NRC folks assumed the properties of trying to divide by a very 
tiny number that approached zero.

Until we can get a better handle on this issue, there is little chance of 
success; no one but a nutty fanatic (like me) invests their own money or puts 
their career on the line in a project without a schedule or a budget.

My vision for distributed atomic engines is far different from that proposed 
by Ed. I want engines sized to supply local loads; perhaps they will be tens 
of megawatts to supply a ship or a factory; perhaps they will tens of 
kilowatts to supply a neighborhood. As far as I am concerned, they may even 
be single digit kilowatt capacity to supply individual homes. I do not fear 
radiation or radioactive material any more than I fear gasoline for my 
neighbor's lawn mowers. If improperly handled, each of them can kill me and 
my family; if handled properly each can contribute to our well being.

That being said, I have no problem at all with people that want to build big 
reactors in remote locations. I honestly wish them the best of luck, in the 
same sense that Warren Sapp wishes Brent Favre the best of luck before a big 
game.

In the fission world, two or three strokes of a political pen and some 
judicious jawboning by elected leaders could result in a huge new source of 
energy and power in just a couple of years. 

With dozens of my closest friends being called to risk their lives to protect 
energy suppliers, wasting political capital to support spending taxpayer 
dollars on a project ostensibly aimed at solving energy problems but with no 
hope of self sustaining power is damn near immoral. (Boy that is a lousy 
sentence.)

Rod Adams
www.atomicinsights.com
www.atomicengines.com