By David Glenn Cox
The reason no one wants to live forever is because after a couple of hundred years or so. Life begins to repeat itself and becomes redundant. Who could live seven hundred years without going stark raving mad? If I were seven hundred years old, I’d be older than Christopher Columbus. You could never keep up with the speed of technological change. “You know, back in my day we didn’t have any fancy metal boats with engines or radar and radio and such.”
But everything old is new again. Some bad ideas never go away; they just hibernate. Hoping you will forget about them, and the next generation will be ignorant of them and will have to learn about them all over. Back when I was just a widdle bitty baby boy corporate America had this great idea. NUCLEAR POWER!
It was a logical offshoot of post-war American optimism of the time. Perpetually control the atom with ZERO mistakes. Sure, we can do that! It was like comic book futurism, promises the electricity would be almost too cheap to meter. Everybody wanted nuclear power but not in their backyard. This was the 50s & 60s pollution? What’s that? But Hiroshima and Nagasaki were events within recent memory, so the danger was well imprinted on the American mind.
Then it became a political football, and the power plant construction costs began to spiral. The money to be made in these ventures must have been fantastic as the money spent on lobbying politicians for them was fantastic. By god, they wanted to build those nuclear power plants no matter what the people said or wanted!
Then came Three Mile Island and then came Chernobyl and then Fukushima. It appeared nuclear power was dead. Wait! Wait! Wait! We’ve got a new idea! This reactor is safer and better without all those pesky negative side effects so obviously possible.
A rise in international terrorism means, you’ll need security, lots and lots of security. And that means you’ll need property, lots and lots of property. And that is going to cost you lots and lots of money. Specialized construction materials and specialized equipment and specialized technicians. Can’t you just smell the money? See this bolt? Sure, it looks like any other bolt you might find at your local Ace hardware. But this special bolt is $29.00 each, and we need around three thousands of them.
Can you say bureaucracy oversight and government regulation? Somebody has to keep up with the roaring costs. The money must be fantastic. Imagine, if Corporate America were lobbying Congress to build new ocean liners. But we already have airplanes and it’s cheaper and safer than building ocean liners. Ocean liners sink and people drowned. Yeah, but these are better ocean liners. Safer and better with more lifeboats! You’ll like them if you just give them a chance.
Nuclear power was once a leading technology and now is a lagging technology. Countries seeking nuclear power these days are either trying to build a bomb or out of dire necessity. Iran makes the case when their oil is all gone, how are they going to keep the lights on? They want to build a bomb. North Korea wants to build bombs.
Henry Ford was once an innovator, but once he became wildly successful Mr. Ford did everything in his power to seek out failure. The early success built in Henry Ford’s mind the idea that he knew everything about everything, and nobody could tell him anything. Because Henry was always right about everything. The curse of success is the obliteration of objectivity. It must be right; it was my idea!
I mention Henry Ford because he was the early Twentieth Century poster boy for growth and Capitalism and Ford knew everything better than you did. Bill Gates is Ford’s late Twentieth Century counterpart. And Bill Gates has an idea to save the world. NUCLEAR POWER!
Since Bill has billions and billions of dollars and lots of time on his hands. He thinks about making the world a better place a lot. A plan for a Sodium Nuclear Power Plant. Safer and better! (Where have I heard that before?) This nuclear reactor is so super, super safe, they want to build it in the hinterlands of Wyoming. (because it’s so safe!) Ever been to Wyoming? Space is not a problem, but wealthy people are. Wait until the rich folks in Jackson Hole get wind of this! (sorry, bad pun)
Nuclear Power to save the world! It’s green with zero emissions! And Bill Gates thinks it’s for our own good too! Can we store the nuclear waste at your house Bill? No, I didn’t think so. But these are new and improved ocean liners with state-of-the-art life boats.
Not ten miles from my home here in Arizona. They built a new solar power plant. Acres and acres of solar cells protected by a lonely chain link fence. No security gates or armed guards, no dangerous fission or emergency escape plans. And they built the whole thing in just a couple of months. The American Southwest is the Saudi Arabia of solar power. Across the American Midwest is the Saudi Arabia of wind power.
How history always repeats itself. Henry Ford built The Ford Museum and Greenfield Village as an homage to the good ole days Ford remembered from his youth. Bill Gates sold the most successful computer program of all time making him an expert on power needs. Gates has an idea, let’s build a 351 Cleveland engine and put it in a 1964 Galaxy 500. No, it’s better now and safer. Famous last words.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice and I must be stupid.
This Carbon Based Life 