Natrium Nuclear Illusions Cause Formidable Mistakes

by Susan Gore

An illusion occurs when something is accepted as real when it is not real. A mirage is an optical illusion. One sees what appears to be water where no water exists. Mirages hover over hot pavements and the hot ground of deserts. An old fable tells of a desert traveler who sets out alone on a faint path leading to an oasis. Hours later, in the heat of the sun, a mirage appears -- the oasis? He leaves the path to follow the mirage into the desert. Time passes. Driven by thirst, he walks until the mirage disappears, leaving only . . . more desert. Illusions do not favor survival.

It is fair to ask whether Natrium's "Clean Energy Future" is an oasis or a mirage. Will Natrium's words about clean energy and jobs, accompanied by subsidies, prove fruitful -- or will they create an illusion that, if accepted as real, lead to an energy desert?

In 1866 Civil War veteran Col. Edward Roberts received the first patent ever granted for fracturing technology. Roberts, having observed explosions in a confined space during the War, worked out a way to commercialize explosions in oil fields. His "Exploding Torpedo" method involved lowering 15 to 20 pounds of encased explosives into an oil well and setting them off. The resulting explosions increased production by as much as 1200%. https://www.businessinsider.com/the-history-of-fracking-2015-4?op=1

Nearly a century passed before underground fracturing drew the serious interest that led to key discoveries. Coal replaced wood, petroleum joined coal, and nuclear energy commercialized. The heydays of coal and nuclear energy peaked in the nineteen nineties and profitability persisted into the the turn of the century. Meanwhile, hydraulic fracturing technology remained on the shelf waiting for a market opportunity.

Fracking's time arrived about the year 2005 when oil prices increased and then sustained an upward trend. Investors used earnings from the large profit margins to invest in development of fracturing technology. Very soon horizontal drilling, pneumatic pumps and all the ins-and-outs of fracking proved themselves in the field. Records from 2016 show a sharp increase in natural gas production that marked the arrival of natural gas and foreshadowed market declines for coal and nuclear energy. Wyoming celebrated when Mick McMurray and his partner John Martin's hard work fracking the Jonah field paid off big. The pain of Wyoming's coal slow-down followed. Nuclear energy production output flattened as worn light water reactors (LWRs) were not replaced.

Neither coal nor nuclear energy can beat out production from fracking. Coal is just too expensive and nuclear is more expensive than coal. Why would anyone pay twice as much for these when they can have natural gas at half the price? What "advanced" magic can transform Natrium's elaborate means of boiling water for a steam turbine into a "Clean Energy Future"? Illusions do not favor survival.

"Nuclear Has Never Delivered on the Hype" 

~ Dr. Gregory Jaczko, former Chairman of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission