Apologize
Been busy on other projects…The following is just some clips from my Capture and Post Notebook.
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RARE EARTHS-China- Molten Salt Reactor
Zerohedge 2024.11.009 BRICS Building "Completely New Structure": Simon Hunt, Mike Green, Taggart On Threats To US Hegemony
"I've worked in China. I've aided in processing Rare Earths (mined in Tennessee, USA). I was shocked by the US abandoning Thorium-based nuclear energy in favor of Hyman Rickover's heavier pressurized water reactor.
The Oak Ridge Thorium reactor (MSR) (see Alvin M. Weinberg, ORNL) was designed to be light enough to power an airplane. Davison Chemical (Curtis Bay, Maryland) had a Monazite plant developed to process the basic raw material, Thorium. The plant was side-lined when Rickover, in his brusque manner, refused to support funds for another reactor design.
Oddly enough, the only active MSR was started up in China in 2023 with a commercial plant of 10MW slated for start-up in the Gobi Desert in 2029. The technology base was almost all ORNL, freely shared.
China has "enough Thorium reserves for 20,000 years" but it is important to note that Thorium is also a byproduct of Rare Earth (RE) mining.
United States has plenty of Thorium ores, but has essentially banned mining it (and the associated rare earths) because of no place to put the Thorium. Most US RE ore is shipped to China to be processed with the products being bought back, under contract, by the US.
Fortunately, Jinrong "Patrick" Zhang of Florida Polytechnic University is solving the RE problem, but China remains a threat because the CCP, after learning about the power of Capitalism with a "Socialistic Flavor."
This followed Mao wanting to "to eliminate capitalism and its emphasis on property rights, profits, and free-market competition. He followed the ideas of Karl Marx, who envisioned a communist society where all would equally share in prosperity." [teachdemocracy.org] As we know, human personalities prevent Karl Marx's theories from working. Far better is the re-write of the Mayflower Compact system (1620) by Governor Bradford after common ownership of the productive land and stores failed miserably.
"Communal socialist failure was transformed into private property/capitalist success, something that’s happened so often historically it’s almost monotonous. The “people over profits” mentality produced fewer people until profit—earned as a result of one’s care for his own property and his desire for improvement—saved the people." [American Enterprise Institute]
After Mao's horrible "Cultural Revolution" failed, China has learned this lesson better than the U.S. With the upper 1% of US wealth-holders owning 13% of the wealth, only the proletariat of the deplorables, following Trump, can save us.
China? As one of my "handlers" told me, "As long as the CCP continues to give us better living conditions, we will not rebel. ?US Listening?
"Zerohedge 11/10/2024 "Now Germany Has A Green Electricity Outage With Huge Consequences"
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The are NO inexpensive sources of large quantities of hydrogen. The closest we can come is the Water-gas Shift Reaction, used to produce hydrogen for Ammonia production. (You remember Ammonia? The single most important ingredient in growing crops for Food?)
But, horrors of horrors, this produces CO2! [Ed. Note: NOT an issue.]
In 2029, China should start up the world's first commercial Molten Salt Reactor, the first commercial nuclear plant that is designed to produce globs of low cost Hydrogen. Can't compete with that.
In the mean time, China is building massive numbers of Super-Critical Steam coal fired power plants, the coal plant design that is most efficient and clean. Please note that this design was invented and first installed in the USA but is now banned by most state legislatures. Stupid.
Can't compete with that.
see also https://www.gevernova.com/steam-power/coal-power-plant/usc-ausc
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Zerohedge 2024.11.10 "Entrepreneurialism Isn't A Choice, It's A State Of Mind: The Genius Of Bernie Marcus"
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Entrepreneurship
Probably with much sweeter language but just as much resolve, George Jenkins built the small company he bought into to be the great employee-owned giant PUBLIX.
His story is not told as often as it needs be.
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Many years ago I was vetting a moderate-size Titanium fabricator for a 80 inch W.P fan for TiCl2 scrubbing, and was touring the production floor. As we walked down an adjacent hallway, the tour guide stopped me and said: "Don't be concerned with what you see in the window of the next room, the employee break room. We are an employee-owned company and, of course, we get to make some of the workplace rules. The giant pyramid of beer cans in this room comes from drinks consumed AFTER work hours.
The fan worked great.
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2024.11.25 StockGumshoe Why we need a Molten Salt Reactor
Based on the perception of a swing back towards nuclear I netted a nice profit in CCJ options but missed the likely profit from USA restricting Russian purchases of enriched Uranium. Now the most likely nuclear plant vendor appears to be Kairos ( https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/kairos-power-starts-construction-hermes-reactor ) which is privately owned. Note that their contracts include DOE and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Oak ridge has an axe to grind in this technology, because the only operating (pilot) unit based on their Molten Salt work started up last year, with the first commercisl plant expected in 2030 is in China.
Kairos says their pilot (thermal-only) unit should start in 2027 with a commercial unit in '29 (or '30.)
Why this is important: Trump's "no climate hoax" appointees are likely to have to tip-toe back from green energy to avoid as severe ruckus. One way to do this is to critically examine DOE projects (there is talk of axing DOE) and fund Generation IV reactors. Westinghouse, which is now owned by BEP and CCJ, has major potential in conventional nuclear, and BEP appears to be well-situated to benefit. Westinghouse could well buy KairosPower for it's D.O.E. connections. [speculation.]
Why is MSR important: The convetional reactors (Gen III) are mostly boiling water reactions which are limited to the critical point of water-steam. Useless for modern industrial chemistry. The MSR thermal enetgy is in the 700 degree C range, useful for spliting water to make hydrogen. The largest conventional source of Hydrogen is the watergas-shift reaction, trmendously not GREEN. It makes most of the world's invaluable Ammonia, without which most of us would starve. MSR is a game0changer.
So, a marriage made to please: BEP/CCJ/D.O.E. and Chris Wright, and the M odular Molten Salt Reactor. All that is needed is Kairos, or buying a license for the new Gobi-Chinese nee-Oak Ridge design.