A 'new nuclear posture' for the US is vital in a hungry world

· Today, about 60 reactors are under construction across the world. A further 110 are planned. Most reactors under construction or planned are in China.

Filmmaker Oliver Stone released a movie called Nuclear Now. The movie is educational and entertaining. Oliver Stone points out several additional reasons for Nuclear Now:

· The Navy's 40+ nuclear powered submarines can stay submerged for months and travel thousands of miles without refueling.

· During a 70+ year run, the Navy's nuclear reactors have accumulated the equivalent of more than 6,000 years of nuclear reactor safety.

· Nuclear is the safest way to generate emission free electricity. Using the official internationally recognized death statistics for Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima, the combined loss of lives from the three major nuclear accidents is at most 32 people. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the combined effects of outdoor and household air pollution cause about 7 million premature deaths each year.

Nuclear power currently produces the least expensive electricity available today, considering that folks pay extra taxes in subsidies for coal and natural gas electricity production and as much as 100 times more subsidies for wind and solar power than we do in subsidies for nuclear power.

Rather than pursue renewables of wind and solar that require huge land footprints, huge taxpayer subsidies, and even then, only generate electricity occasionally, we must focus technology resources on our nuclear power production industry that has the best industrial safety record among all companies and a track record of producing the cheapest non-subsidized zero-emissions electricity.

Our government has struggled for almost 45 years to fulfill their responsibility to "dispose" of our "nuclear waste". Since this "waste" can be recycled, it is a valuable asset, so let's call it slightly used nuclear fuel (SUNF) since only about 3% of the electricity potential is realized from this fuel. We are on the cusp of a revolutionary innovation in electricity production, held back only by our Federal Government.

The recycling technology is called "fast reactor recycling", or "fast breeder reactors". Surprisingly, this technology has been around since before the current light water reactor technology existed. It has worked well, has produced extremely low-cost electricity, and promises even better safety features than the existing fleet.

Meanwhile, despite the DOE's continuous support of the movement toward nuclear, the United States remains delighted to keep its head in the sand while France and other countries use nuclear generated electricity that is reliable, dispatchable, and zero-emission. The USA seems focused on wind and solar generated electricity that is the most expensive (without subsidies), unreliable, and NON-dispatchable! It also requires new expensive transmission lines at additional costs to the ratepayers.

A "New Nuclear Posture" for the US, via recycling Fast Breeder reactors for large demands and SMRs, that offer competition to lower costs, for smaller demands, offers electricity that is emissions free, continuous, and uninterruptible. This seems to be more practical than ever before to enhance the quality of life of more than 6 billion on this planet in developing countries, as well as for reliable power for military remote sites around the world and various power hungry industries. If the US will not take the lead, our adversaries will.