Untitled Document
If stupidity could be turned into electricity
All of France's energy problems would be solved
February 7, 2013 - February 9, 2013 - February 10, 2013 -
Even before François Hollande was elected, the menu was already on the door. I had titled "Sarkoland or Hollsky"
Just watching this video would immediately dispel any illusion about this man and his so-called political label. And he is not the only one in this situation, if you look at the entire spectrum of political parties in the country, where political life has simply become... non-existent. As for political careers, they are nothing more than sinecures. Being a politician has become a job like any other, with a impressive set of social benefits, which our deputies increase every year. They just voted themselves an extension of the "unemployment allowance" from 6 to 60 months in case of non-election. What is impressive is the ease with which Hollande answers the question. He explains that now the country has to borrow from private banks, and that the interest rate depends on the country's economic situation, its efforts to recover, and the way it is... rated. When the rating drops, the interest rate increases, and it's... normal. One only lends to the rich, as is well known.
He answers like any politician would, especially those who come from these French "octopuses" that are the École Polytechnique and ENA (National School of Administration). François Hollande is not particularly stupid. He simply belongs to the average of the French people's representatives. These people have never worked in their lives. Frequently emerging from ENA, they start as high-ranking officials. The ceilings of their offices are immediately panelled. They walk on the soil with a rectangle of carpet fixed under each sole, which they will never remove.
When he was elected, the first act of Hollande was to sign the authorization for the construction of the experimental nuclear generator Astrid. A decision that passed completely unnoticed. However, this decision shows that, coming from this brilliant engineering school that is ENA, he follows literally the plans of the nuclear barons, that is, to develop, despite the failure of Superphénix (estimated time for dismantling: 30 years, due to its content of radioactive sodium). Astrid, renamed "fourth-generation reactor", which is nothing other than a fast neutron breeder reactor, cooled by sodium. Do not see any malice, any perversity. It is even not complicity, but simple incompetence, which is common among many of our elected officials.
This is the first step of a plan to deploy, by the end of the century, this type of generators, extremely dangerous, but allowing the exploitation of the treasure held by the French: 300,000 tonnes of uranium 238, from more than half a century of enrichment, refining the natural ore (see this article evaluating the cost of a nuclear accident in France: 400 billion euros, not counting the public health cost).
For those who do not know what it is about: natural uranium ore is composed of 0.7% of fissile U 235, and 99.3% of non-fissile Uranium 238. But if we use this "waste" of refining as "fertile cover" (for the uninitiated, read Energétiquement vôtre, freely downloadable), by subjecting it to the bombardment from the neutrons of fission, this uranium 238 is transformed into fuel, that is, into Plutonium 239. As fuel, and also as explosive, since Pu 239 is the fuel type of A-bombs.
Even more: if we manage to use this plutonium as new fuel for the reactor (fast neutrons), it will be able to, by fissioning, as it is also fissile, like uranium 235, recreate itself from its environment of uranium 238, like Phoenix rising from its ashes. This is the great dream of the French nuclear fanatics.
The problem is that to operate this type of generator, we are forced to use molten sodium, and not water, to avoid slowing down the neutrons emitted, which travel at 2000 km/s. Water would slow them down, and they would no longer be able to penetrate the nucleus of the uranium 238 atoms to perform their transmutation, turning them into fission fuel, plutonium 239.
This huge mass of sodium, which serves as a "heat carrier" (that is, which carries the heat generated by the plutonium rods) is flammable. It ignites spontaneously in the air and explodes on contact with water. Moreover, this medium is wonderfully opaque, unlike the water of pressurized water reactors. If something abnormal happens, it is then very difficult, and even practically impossible to perform a diagnosis, while the water of pressurized water reactors is transparent, and ... does not ignite when you unscrew the reactor cover, after cooling. In short, the deployment of such generators is a real programmed suicide, because if an accident occurred on such an installation, events like Chernobyl and Fukushima would be considered gentle jokes.
February 14, 2013: part of the Chernobyl sarcophagus collapsed under the weight of snow
The article from Le Monde:
Simple remarks: while the fast neutron breeder reactor Superphénix was not operating, the roof covering all the auxiliary installations (outside the building containing the reactor) collapsed under the weight of snow. Its designers had not realized that it snows in the winter in Isère. Moreover, the installation of a pool intended to store the spent fuel elements, near the reactor building, caused, due to the collapse of the ground under the weight, a subsidence of the reactor, which modified all the convection calculations of sodium in its cube.
But this idea took root in the minds of French technocrats, who are also very advanced in this field. Are they corrupt, perverse? Not even. Incompetent would be the right word. To launch such an ambitious project "which would give France 5000 years of energy independence, due to its stock of uranium 238, it needs to start with a minimal stock of 3000 tonnes of plutonium 239, which would allow to "continuously recreate the consumed fission fuel, from the inexhaustible stock of uranium 238". It currently has less than a third. Hence the construction of the reprocessing center in La Hague, where we receive the shipments...