nuclear-hydrogen

PLAN & START TO FIX PROBLEMS

William "Bill" D. Peterson II

ref

U.S. Patent Application No. 11/899,209, originally filed 2002

Projected Publication Date 08/28/2008

Nuclear-Hydrogen (H₂) fuel replaces oil and coal to fix Fuel, GCC, and the Economy

SUMMARY

            A plan and action is needed to start to fix Fuel, GCC, and economies worldwide.  They are not going to fix themselves.  The fix is huge.  Replacing oil with hydrogen for fuel is current technology and will work.  H₂ without carbon (C) is the best thing that can be done to slow global climate change (GCC).  H_2, or any new fuel, will have to be manufactured.  The H₂ source water (H₂O) is unlimited; the H₂ just burns back to water.  For U.S. needs, we propose the U.S. build and operate 1,150 new nuclear power plants.  These plants would be supported by Peterson's 300-year permanent spent nuclear fuel (SNF) disposal solution.  This needed new technology has been proven and will work.

WHERE IT STARTS

            Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) can be disposed of in 300 years.  The U.S. will need to build 500 new nuclear power plants to manufacture hydrogen - H₂, and then by 2020, 350 more nuclear plants would be needed for demand growth and 300 more to replace coal-using plants.  Altogether, the near term need is for 1,150 new nuclear plants.  Initially up to five 300-year SNF storage facilities would be needed.  More would be needed to service the rest of the World's switch to nuclear-hydrogen.

        Disposal SNF is the single most critical path item to fixing the peak oil fuel crisis, GCC, and the economy.  To start this requires SNF disposal, which before has not been possible.  Our new 300-year SNF disposal solution is done with 300-years of intermediate storage and a very high (5-9s) degree of reprocessing that in the past has not been possible or even allowable.  At some time during the 300 years the SNF will require 5-9s (99.999%) of the transuranics separated from the fission waste.  Then after the 300 years of storage of the fission waste, the radioactive decay has reduced it so that it qualifies it as low level waste Class-C.  The transuranics containing the plutonium is used up in new fuel.  The 96% part of SNF that is U-238 uranium is simply stock piled for future use as fuel.  INL and Argonne chemists have done 5-9s separation on commercial and navy samples of SNF.

This SNF "fix" works for the GNEP (Global Nuclear Energy Partnership), which the U.S. must do to for the whole world!  With nuclear power, hydrogen (H-2) can be manufactured to replace use of gasoline and diesel.  So, with sufficient nuclear electric generation we can replace the need to burn fossil fuels.  This ends CO-2 emissions from fossil fuels, fixing man's cause of global warming.  Nuclear is a U.S. technology; with the U.S. doing this for the world, industry can be brought back to the U.S. for having balance of trade and sustaining economy.

This fix with nuclear should not be delayed; it has been needed for decades.  All the nations of the world will require H₂ fuel.  There is no reason to wait and not do this now.  No other way to manufacture enough fuel is known.  Other energy like bio-fuels, wind, solar, and wave motion energies should be pursued and used, but they will not be sufficient. In the transition the use of oil will linger.  If by chance any other fixes are discovered, then good, we should go to work on them as well.  But there is no reason to postpone starting nuclear-hydrogen.  Detroit is ready and wants to and will begin this year to do make hydrogen powered vehicles.  H₂ power technology will always be a good option.  For a long time it may be our only option

For the fix, the need for the SNF disposal situation exists worldwide.  In the U.S. SNF disposal is needed for 104 operating plants.  In other countries SNF disposal is needed for more than 400 plants.  With a world transition to nuclear-hydrogen, this requirement will increase.

IT'S AMERICAN

Nuclear energy is a U.S. invention and it is right that the U.S. should take the lead and responsibility of its development and use, worldwide.  Otherwise, wastes might not be properly handled making future problems.  The plutonium bi-product must not end up in the wrong hands, which could potentially enable wrongful use and much trouble.   So the U.S. should promote nuclear technology and its use while endeavoring to prevent the misuse of it.  So it is right that the U.S. would take the responsibility for the world's nuclear power, the control of nuclear fuel, and do the disposal of its industries' waste, including its remnant SNF.   To begin this, Peterson proposes building and operating five (5) SNF storage sites of the 300-year disposal design.  Eventually SNF reprocessing facilities will be needed, but for now, this would not be urgent.  INL has demonstrated 5-9 processing of SNF technology, and they are scaling it up.

We have been working for two decades on SNF storage.  Almost half that time has been in the development of the 300-year disposal solution.  The U.S. DOE has by Congress been limited to Yucca Mountain disposal.  In 1977 President Jimmy Carter disallowed SNF processing. So it has not been possible for the DOE to research for the 300-year storage / processing SNF disposal solution.  Idaho nuclear chemists have pursued 5-9s processing technology after Peterson announced the requirement.

A 300-year SNF storage / disposal facility will cost around $6 billion dollars.  But five of them will cost less than half the projected cost to finish Yucca Mountain, and YM does not do the fix.  The nuclear utilities pay one mil per kWhr (over $3 million per day) into a fund to pay for the SNF fix.  An order of President Clinton has that money going into the General Treasury.  The Congress or President needs to put the money back with the work.

Historically it takes around 10 years to NRC license an SNF storage facility as we propose.  Private Fuel Storage (PFS) has licensed such a facility in Western Utah and it took ten years to do it.  But they still have the problem of being 31 miles from the railroad.  Peterson has worked on his railroad siding site in Northern Utah during the same time, so it has most of its licensing work done.  So NRC has been seeing Peterson's project for these 10 years.  Peterson has told NRC he will seek approval from NRC in two months after a new license submission. NRC has been prompting Peterson for ten years.  They realize the urgency, so quicker licensing could likely happen.  This is a major advantage Peterson has with his work with the 300-year solution.  Getting SNF disposal resolved quickly can motivate the nuclear utilities into construction activity that could more quickly get nuclear-hydrogen available and happening.  The automakers want to build for the H-2 solution.  With today's uncertainties, the use of gasoline and diesel vehicles is not appealing and the public is in a stalemate.  So it's much to the advantage of everyone to transition to a nuclear-hydrogen fuel system as quickly as possible.  The public needs to realize the situation and tell this to their Congressman, and then they can do it without being rebuked.  Until this happens Peterson needs a loan to finish NRC licensing and to work on construction until the Congress puts the utilities trust fund back with the work.

William "Bill" D Peterson, II, M.S., P.E.,

300-year permanent SNF disposal solution

Operations Research Engineer

Mechanical Engineer

68 W Malvern Ave, SLC Utah, 84115-3025

Tel 801-906-8761

Email: [email protected] ,  See: