I love reading about the advances in nuclear fusion. The positive impact is endless. Here are excerpts from an article that appeared in yesterday’s NY Times by Spencer Bokat-Lindell.
When researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California announced last week that they had achieved the first controlled nuclear fusion reaction to produce more energy than it took to start, they brought humanity one step closer to the decades-long dream of harnessing the power of the sun — not by absorbing its rays from 93 million miles away, as solar panels do, but by igniting, in effect, a miniature star on earth.
The Biden administration has said that it aims to make commercial fusion energy a reality by 2032, in the hopes that the still-speculative technology could help wean the United States off fossil fuels and reach net-zero emissions by 2050. “This shows that it can be done,” said Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.
But the history of nuclear fusion is long and riddled with false starts and hopes. Is this time really different, and what are the chances that it could play a meaningful role in the global effort to halt climate change? Here’s what people are saying.
The ‘holy grail’ of fusion
Scientists have been thinking about how to harness fusion ever since the process was first demonstrated in the 1930s. Like fission, the nuclear reaction that powers today’s nuclear plants, fusion produces emissions-free electricity, but without the long-lived toxic byproducts or risk of catastrophic accidents.
While the splitting of atoms in a fission reactor can become self-sustaining, risking meltdown if not precisely controlled, the fusing of atoms can happen only under conditions that are very difficult to maintain; any disturbance to a fusion reactor would cause the process to stop. Fusion does create radioactive waste, like fission, but it is less hazardous and could be recycled within 100 years, instead of necessitating storage deep underground for tens of thousands of years.
President Biden’s comment about making commercial fusion a reality by 2032 reminds me of what President Kennedy said about putting a man on the moon before the end of the decade of the 1960s.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
For nearly two years I have been expressing my disagreement with AG Nessel’s ill-advised criminal prosecution of former DHS director, Nick Lyon, former governor Snyder and others in the Flint Water Crisis. The following are excerpts from the Detroit News on Wednesday following the latest ruling.
Yesterday, the Michigan Court of Appeals batted down a request from Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office seeking to reinstate charges against a former state health department director in the Flint water crisis prosecution.
Nessel’s office had appealed the dismissal of charges against former Department of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon, arguing that a Genesee County Circuit Court judge who dismissed his case had misinterpreted an order from the Michigan Supreme Court.But the three-judge panel was not convinced.”…this court is unable to grant any relief where the circuit court implemented an explicit directive from the Supreme Court,” said the Court of Appeals panel comprised of judges Sima Patel, Deborah Servitto and Elizabeth Gleicher.
Lyon’s lawyer Chip Chamberlain said the dismissal order from the Supreme Court was clear and shouldn’t have been subject to a “foolish” appeal by the state. Lyon and his family are “heartened” the Court of Appeals agreed on the high court’s intent, he said.“Our Supreme Court had made its opinion clear that the one-person grand jury process was improperly used and that the charges had to be dismissed,” Chamberlain said. “And that is what the trial court did, dismiss the case.
Nessel has been overruled on this case every step of the way. She has lost at district court, the court of appeals, the supreme court, the district court again, and now the court of appeals again. After five strikes she is more than out. Unfortunately, she still will not admit the game is over. She announced today, she is considering appealing the appeals court decision to the supreme court. To date she has wasted over $55 million of taxpayer money on this ill-advised case. See my Orchid and Onion of the Day
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Everyday I read a portion of the executive summary from the report of the House Select Committee investigating the January 6, 2021 insurrection. Here are excerpts of from the testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson, aide to Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
When we were in the off-stage announce area tent behind the stage, he was very concerned about the shot. Meaning the photograph that we would get because the rally space wasn’t full. One of the reasons, which I’ve previously stated, was because he wanted it to be full and for people to not feel excluded because they had come far to watch him at the rally. And he felt the mags were at fault for not letting everybody in, but another leading reason and likely the primary reasons is because he wanted it full and he was angry that we weren’t letting people through the mags with weapons—what the Secret Service deemed as weapons, and are, are weapons. But when we were in the off-stage announce tent, I was a part of a conversation, I was in the vicinity of a conversation where I overheard the President say something to the effect of, “I don’t F’ing care that they have weapons. They’re not here to hurt me. Take the F’ing mags away. Let my people in. They can march to the Capitol from here. Let the people in. Take the F’ing mags away.”[426]
The Secret Service special agent who drove the President after his speech told the Select Committee that Trump made a similar remark in the vehicle when his demand to go to the Capitol was refused—essentially that Trump did not believe his supporters posed a security risk to him personally.[427]
Minutes after the exchange that Hutchinson described—when President Trump took the stage—he pointedly expressed his concern about the thousands of attendees who would not enter the rally area and instructed Secret Service to allow that part of the crowd to enter anyway: … I’d love to have if those tens of thousands of people would be allowed. The military, the secret service. And we want to thank you and the police law enforcement. Great. You’re doing a great job. But I’d love it if they could be allowed to come up here with us. Is that possible? Can you just let [them] come up, please?[428]
Feel free to share my blog or to sign up to receive it directly in your email. See the sign-up mechanism at the bottom of the blog.
Quote of the Day: ”Well, I sat there, or stood there, with half a million people listening to his speech. And in that speech, both Giuliani and [Trump] said we were going to have to fight like hell to save our country. Now, whether it was a figure of speech or not—it wasn’t taken that way.” Dale Huttle, during his prosecution for his activities in the January 6 insurrection.
Orchid of the Day: Former DHS Director Jim Haveman, who for over two years has published 40 updates on the ill-advised prosecution of Nick Lyon in the Flint Water Crisis. In addition, he has written op-eds and has been interviewed expressing his disagreement with AG Nessel’s prosecution. He has been a beacon of light throughout the process for those of us who have been voicing our concern about the case. His commitment to justice for Nick and his family has never wavered. His filing of and paying for FOIA requests has provided us with information that otherwise was not available to the public.
Onion of the Day: AG Nessel, one more time.
Question of the Day: What are the chances of making nuclear fusion a commercial reality in 10 years?
Video of the Day: