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Locals Upset by Gov't Decision Not To Include Hanford B Reactor in National Historical Park.

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NNadir Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-09-10 10:01 PM
Original message
Locals Upset by Gov't Decision Not To Include Hanford B Reactor in National Historical Park.


TRI-CITIES, Wash. (AP) — Supporters of the B Reactor at the Hanford nuclear site in Richland are preparing to fight a decision by the government not to consider it for inclusion in a Manhattan Project National Historical Park.

A draft study released by the National Park Service in December concluded that only part of the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory National Landmark District in New Mexico should be considered for the park.

It excluded Hanford’s B Reactor and historic facilities at the Department of Energy’s site in Oak Ridge, Tenn., although the park service might be willing to play a limited role at the sites.

Maynard Plahuta, president of the B Reactor Museum Association, said the draft study’s arguments for excluding the B Reactor from a possible national park were “very, very weak.”

Representatives of the museum association, the Tri-City Development Council, the Tri-Cities Visitor and Convention Bureau and the Hanford Communities — which includes Hanford-area cities, counties and ports — agreed recently that the best course for the B Reactor’s future was to continue to push for its inclusion in a national park.

There seems to be some support for that at Department of Energy headquarters.

“Los Alamos, Oak Ridge and Hanford should be considered and treated as co-equals,” F. G. Gosling, the federal preservation officer and chief historian at the department, said in comments included in the draft study’s appendix. He called the B Reactor and two facilities at Oak Ridge — the X-10 Graphite Reactor and the Y-12 Beta-3 Racetracks — “undoubtedly the crown jewels of the Manhattan Project historic assets.”


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/us/10hanford.html?hpw">NY Times: Challenge Is Planned After Nuclear Site Is Excluded From Park.
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hunter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-09-10 11:32 PM
Response to Original message
1. This is an extremely important historical site, maybe #1 of the 20th century.
Hanford B was the very first large scale nuclear reactor. Tons of Plutonium was made there. This is where plutonium for the bomb that destroyed Nagasaki was made, and it continued to make plutonium after the war. The reactor wasn't permanently shut down until 1968.

Hanford B is where the "Cold War" with the Soviet Union began. It was the first taproot of U.S. empire.
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bananas Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-10-10 12:59 AM
Response to Reply #1
2. It should be a monument to nuclear war
a reminder of what we should not be doing.
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NNadir Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-10-10 06:44 AM
Response to Reply #2
4. Ironically, the ONLY great scientist there to oppose the use of reactors for PEACE
Edited on Sun Jan-10-10 07:14 AM by NNadir
was, um, Dr. Strangelove himself, Edwin Teller, who could see nothing but weapons.

That I think, was a function of his personality which only saw aggression and evil because he had a morally small mind, sort of like a modern day anti-nuke, who are intellectually violent and aggressive people who focus exclusively on human ignorance and do not trust humanity to do great things.

The nuclear community after the war called Teller the "reactor opposer," and privately ridiculed him.

As I recall this is covered in a book by the great scientist Alvin Weinberg, the primary moving force behind the largest climate change free energy production device now used by humanity, the pressurized water reactor, a device that has functioned in many countries around the world without a single human life despite producing on an exajoule scale. The book of which I am thinking was entitled http://books.google.com/books?id=otQDyt9PeswC&dq=The+First+Nuclear+Era&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=WzP4UN5P0Y&sig=0IAykhok3Sjkn3NiQJTLZHkVkhU&hl=en&ei=8cBJS7j2K9TTlAeFvZga&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=&f=false">The First Nuclear Era.

Weinberg was also the prime moving force behind the greatest reactor concept ever built, the molten salt reactor, a reactor which is easily made inherently unsuitable for nuclear weapons use.

The B reactor was not designers by some small minded libertarian pseudoscience wannabe like say, Amory Lovins. It was designed by men like Enrico Fermi and Hans Bethe. (Bethe would refuse to speak to Teller for many decades because of Teller's treatment of Oppenheimer, and probably because Teller was a nuclear scare monger, a war-like force and a Republican - like, say, Dick Cheney - whereas Bethe was a tireless worker for peaceful nuclear energy, a Democrat, and a strong advocate of peace.)

The Hanford site represents a place where the only new form of primary energy discovered in the last two centuries, nuclear energy, was first utilized by humanity.

The discovery still represents the last best hope for humanity, especially because humanity now numbers close to 7 billion, 6 billion more than when humanity abandoned so called "renewable" energy at the beginning of the 19th century.

This is one of the most historic sites in the United States, although we need not worry about anti-nuke paranoids ever visiting it, especially since they often represent that everyone in Richland, Washington is dead, something the article gives lie to.
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bananas Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-10-10 08:06 AM
Response to Reply #4
5. The largest climate change free energy production device is the hydroelectric dam
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/aer/txt/ptb1101.html
You never get your facts right!
:rofl:
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Name removed Donating Member (0 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-10-10 09:05 AM
Response to Reply #5
6. Deleted message
Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.
 
bananas Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-10-10 09:38 AM
Response to Reply #6
7. Um, since you don't know any science, you don't know the difference
between electrical and primary energy.

According to the EIA, hydro generates more primary energy than
nuclear. Hydro also generates more electricity than nuclear.

Here is the data from the EIA, the table is easier to read at
the source:

http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/aer/txt/ptb1116.html

Table 11.1  World Primary Energy Production by Source,
1970-2006
                       (Quadrillion Btu)

Year 	
Coal 	Natural
Gas 1 	
Crude Oil 2 	Natural Gas
Plant Liquids 	Nuclear Electric
Power 3 	Hydroelectric
Power 3 	Geothermal 3
and Other 4 	
Total
1970
	62.96 	37.09 	97.09 	3.61 	0.90 	12.15 	1.59 	215.39
1971
	61.72 	39.80 	102.70 	3.85 	1.23 	12.74 	1.61 	223.64
1972
	63.65 	42.08 	108.52 	4.09 	1.66 	13.31 	1.68 	234.99
1973
	63.87 	44.44 	117.88 	4.23 	2.15 	13.52 	1.73 	247.83
1974
	63.79 	45.35 	117.82 	4.22 	2.86 	14.84 	1.76 	250.64
1975
	66.20 	45.67 	113.08 	4.12 	3.85 	15.03 	1.74 	249.69
1976
	67.32 	47.62 	122.92 	4.24 	4.52 	15.08 	1.97 	263.67
1977
	68.46 	48.85 	127.75 	4.40 	5.41 	15.56 	2.11 	272.54
1978
	69.56 	50.26 	128.51 	4.55 	6.42 	16.80 	2.32 	278.41
1979
	73.83 	53.93 	133.87 	4.87 	6.69 	17.69 	2.48 	293.36
1980
	R 71.27 	54.73 	128.04 	5.10 	7.58 	17.90 	2.94 	R 287.56
1981
	R 71.68 	55.56 	120.11 	5.37 	8.53 	18.26 	3.10 	R 282.61
1982
	R 74.33 	55.49 	114.45 	5.35 	9.51 	18.71 	R 3.28 	R 281.13
1983
	R 74.33 	56.12 	R 113.98 	5.36 	10.72 	19.69 	R 3.58 	R
283.78
1984
	R 78.46 	61.78 	116.88 	5.73 	12.99 	20.19 	3.73 	R 299.76
1985
	R 82.28 	64.22 	115.37 	5.83 	15.30 	20.42 	3.82 	R 307.24
1986
	R 84.32 	65.32 	120.18 	6.15 	16.25 	20.89 	R 3.82 	R 316.93
1987
	R 86.10 	68.48 	R 121.08 	6.35 	17.64 	20.90 	R 3.84 	R
324.39
1988
	R 87.98 	71.80 	125.84 	6.65 	19.23 	21.48 	R 4.01 	R 336.99
1989
	R 89.58 	74.24 	127.83 	6.69 	19.74 	21.53 	R 4.38 	R 344.00
1990
	91.02 	R 76.06 	129.35 	6.87 	20.36 	22.35 	3.98 	R 349.99
1991
	R 86.41 	R 76.88 	128.73 	7.12 	21.18 	22.83 	4.08 	R 347.23
1992
	R 86.23 	R 77.08 	128.93 	7.17 	21.28 	22.71 	R 4.34 	R
347.74
1993
	R 84.41 	R 78.59 	128.72 	7.47 	22.01 	23.94 	R 4.37 	R
349.51
1994
	86.46 	R 79.35 	130.69 	8.10 	22.41 	24.15 	R 4.56 	R 355.72
1995
	R 88.55 	R 80.42 	133.43 	8.40 	23.26 	25.34 	R 4.71 	R
364.11
1996
	R 89.15 	R 84.16 	136.73 	8.59 	24.11 	25.79 	R 4.86 	R
373.40
1997
	R 92.87 	R 84.11 	140.63 	8.79 	23.88 	26.07 	R 4.97 	R
381.32
1998
	R 91.53 	R 85.75 	143.24 	9.02 	24.32 	26.05 	R 4.96 	R
384.87
1999
	R 91.12 	R 87.66 	140.95 	9.26 	25.09 	26.55 	R 5.16 	R
385.79
2000
	R 90.43 	R 90.99 	146.83 	9.63 	R 25.65 	R 26.78 	R 5.42 	R
395.72
2001
	R 95.70 	R 93.31 	145.57 	10.10 	26.39 	R 26.56 	R 5.19 	R
402.82
2002
	R 97.65 	R 96.32 	R 143.53 	10.28 	R 26.67 	R 26.53 	R 5.53
	R 406.50
2003
	R 105.34 	R 98.50 	R 148.41 	10.74 	R 26.37 	26.79 	R 5.90 	R
422.05
2004
	R 114.10 	R 101.50 	R 155.38 	11.10 	R 27.32 	R 27.89 	R 6.41
	R 443.69
2005
	R 122.07 	R 104.75 	R 157.65 	11.47 	R 27.54 	R 28.98 	R 6.88
	R 459.34
2006P
	128.50 	107.23 	157.05 	11.68 	27.76 	29.73 	7.47 	469.41
1Dry production. 	R=Revised.  P=Preliminary.  
2Includes lease condensate. 	Notes:  ·  Data in this table do
not include recent updates for the United States (see Table
1.2) or for
other countries (see
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/cfapps/ipdbproject/IEDIndex3.cfm).  ·
 See Note 1, "World
Primary Energy Production," at end of section.  ·  Totals
may not equal sum of components due to
independent rounding.
3Net generation, i.e., gross generation less plant use. 	Web
Page:  For related information, see
http://www.eia.doe.gov/international.
4Includes net electricity generation from wood, waste, solar,
and wind.  Data for the United States also
include other renewable energy.  	Sources:  · 
1970-1979—Energy Information Administration (EIA),
International Energy Database.
·  1980 forward—EIA, "International Energy Annual
2006" (June-December 2008), Tables F1-F9.
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bananas Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-10-10 09:50 AM
Response to Reply #6
8. Um, since you don't know any science, you don't know that those pie charts
Edited on Sun Jan-10-10 09:51 AM by bananas
are just for the US. Because you are illiterate, you didn't even notice that they are labelled that way.

You are not an environmentalist.
You you do not care about the impoverished or anyone in Bangladesh.
You are the stereotypical "Ugly American":
Ugly American is an epithet used to refer to perceptions of loud, arrogant, demeaning, thoughtless and ethnocentric behavior of American citizens mainly abroad, but also at home.

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jpak Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-10-10 11:02 AM
Response to Reply #4
9. Nuclear reactors making nuclear bombs and brazillions of liters of high level liquid wastes
that will cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars to dispose - is supposed to be "cool".

It just plain *sucks* if you ask me...

:D

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Name removed Donating Member (0 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-10-10 01:00 AM
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