Critical Letter Supporting
Nuclear Power in America
The following letter has been sent by John Shanahan and other key nuclear power experts to John Holdren and other officials in the US Government. This letter was made public on January 12, 2010, at 4:00 PM Eastern time.
You may download the PDF copy of this letter with all the signatures by clicking (here).
Send this letter to your local news media and public officials. - Ed
********* Cover Letter ***************
Dear Dr. Holdren,
It has been about sixty years since the United States started out on its most important, long-term energy development program, nuclear power.
For the last 30 years or more, special interest groups and people within the government have taken steps to hinder and stop nuclear power programs.
Attached is a petition from top scientists and engineers throughout the United States and from eleven other countries asking that we proceed with streamline the licensing of Light Water Reactors, complete the development of fuel recycling in the IFR program and build some full scale prototype IFR facilities. These are the technologies with the most development efforts, operating experience and safety records.
This petition is signed by 190 or so people from around the world. You know many very well. There are additional supporters from many walks of life. The signers of this letter come from 12 countries and within the United States from 31 states.
The world wants nuclear power. It is important that we not delay any more, so that we can make maximum use of the experience of the people who pioneered the first fifty years of this marvelous energy source and so we don't fall further behind other countries developing nuclear power.
Hopefully, the Obama Administration will listen to this petition from so many outstanding scientists, engineers, leaders in industry and citizens, and act decisively on it for the benefit of the United States. If not, we certainly hope that the next administration will include major plans for the restart of our most precious energy source. Either way, this letter is a cornerstone for the effort to restart nuclear power in the United States.
Respectfully,
John A. Shanahan, Dr. Ing. (German Doctorate of Engineering)
660 Detroit St.
Denver, Colorado 80206
Tel. 303 399 0393
E-mail: acorncreek2006@gmail.com
********** Signed Letter ******************
Dr. John P. Holdren
Dear John,
We met in
Nearly 40 years have passed. We are both still working to make genuine
contributions through science and engineering for the lasting
benefit of society and the planet.
Please hear our statement and pass it on to the President.
Peace on earth and preservation of the marvels of nature will not be
achieved without a sound energy policy. This policy must include
well-managed and well-governed slow- and fast-neutron nuclear power,
recycling spent fuels and depleted uranium and possibly thorium.
This was the goal of the founding scientists in the 1940s and still
is the best way to a reliable and secure energy future.
But the world is leaving us behind. At present, 58 new nuclear plants
(including two fast reactors, one in
Our nation needs to proceed quickly — not twenty or fifty years from now
— while the people who pioneered this science and engineering can
still provide guidance to a new generation of scientists and
engineers. There is no political, economic or technical
justification for delaying the benefits that nuclear power will
bring to the
We have two urgent recommendations.
First, we believe it’s imperative to accelerate the licensing and building of
slow neutron reactors, the kind now in use, commonly called thermal
reactors or water-cooled reactors. For the last 30 years the LWRs in
the
While the performance and safety records of the existing reactors have
been excellent, the evolutionary improvements in new slow neutron
reactors will take both safety and efficiency to an even higher
level.
Second, we note that development of fourth-generation nuclear reactors will be
needed if nuclear power is to expand significantly beyond its
present market penetration — an expansion that is so necessary if
our descendants are to have ample energy
over the coming millennia. Therefore, we strongly recommend
reinstating the development and demonstration of the technology for
recycling used fuel — a goal of fast fourth-generation nuclear
reactors — as epitomized by the U.S.-developed Integral Fast Reactor
(IFR). The IFR transforms used fuel from a “waste” to a major energy
resource, and in so doing it happens to resolve a major public
concern about nuclear power — the safe use of the long-lived
radioactive byproducts. Further, IFRs can utilize excess weapons
plutonium effectively and rapidly, while generating revenue instead
of costs — a development consistent with Russian recommendations.
Work on the IFR technology was halted just as
commercial viability was about to be demonstrated. While the
operability of the reactor portion of the IFR was adequately
established, a commercial-scale demonstration is needed to settle
details of the fuel-processing phase and to refine cost projections.
Two signatories of this letter, Leonard J. Koch
of
The concentrated energy in uranium provides 20% of the electricity in
the
Respectfully,
Joseph M. Shuster
Theodore Rockwell
cc. Dr. Steven Chu, Secretary Department of Energy,
(See list of joint signers in the PDF file.)