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Re: [cdn-nucl-l] New NEI President
While I have a great deal of respect for ADM "Skip" Bowman's technical and managerial expertise, it is important to understand his previous "marketing" experience in expanding the role of nuclear power. Before his appointment as President of NEI, he served as the Director of Nuclear Reactors, the post once held by ADM Rickover. He was in that position for slightly more than 8 years.
During ADM Bowman's tenure at Naval Reactors, the number of naval nuclear reactors fell from 126 to 103. The operating record continued to be outstanding, but a large number of reactors that were not even close to the end of their design life were eliminated from the inventory.
>From my insider view of the US Navy, much of the blame for that is a lack of knowledge regarding the incredible operational, economic, environmental and strategic advantage that nuclear propulsion provides. Naval Reactors has to bear most of the blame for this ignorance because of their continued emphasis on outdated security rules.
Most naval officers and their civilian overseers do not understand that nuclear power plants are not particularly complicated or sophisticated, they are rather mundane steam plants using technology that has been well understood for at least 50 years. They are also quite reliable and cheap to operate compared to their fossil fuel powered replacements, especially in an era of $50.00 per barrel oil.
I certainly hope that Skip Bowman does a better job telling the American people about the benefits of nuclear power than he did telling his fellow Navy decision makers. Considering the fact that he was one of only a handful of 4-star flag officers with plenty of visibility and access, I am not particularly optimistic about him having a better chance with civilians.
Rod Adams
In a message dated 4/30/05 12:18:17 PM, randal.leavitt@rogers.com writes:
In his new role, Mr. Bowman promises to be more aggressive than his
predecessors in touting the advantages of nuclear power and taking on
anti-nuclear critics.
"We need to come out of our foxholes and be a little bit more on the
offense in letting people know about the advantages of nuclear power,"
he said.
For more details see:
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=14431296&BRD=1395&PAG=740&dept_id=226958&rfi=6
Boy, we sure could use some of that outgoing and positive energy in
Canada! Canada could be a world leader in this area, setting an
example as a sophisticated user of clean technology, and getting rich
while doing it.
Let's build a fast reactor now and run it on the used fuel that we
have accumulated. Let's do it before the US does. And let's meet all
our Kyoto commitments as a consequence of this initiative. This is
doable!
--
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Randal Leavitt gnupg public key: bbbad04d
Registered User 267646 at http://counter.li.org/
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