Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 10:44 pm
Non-poliferation isn't about keeping people out of the club, it's about minimising ones ability to be a big player in the club. NK made their first nuke (a fizzle more than anything). They aren't able to make a significant number of them. But if they had Carter-era nuke plants everywhere and processing facilities (as such an environment would have encouraged), then they would arguably be in a much more powerful position. I don't think Carter was necessarily wrong, as non-poliferation doesn't ban nuclear power, it highly regulates it. Nuclear power plants "failed" in the USA primarily due to the competitive nature of coal, and if you look at a chart of US electrical usage nuclear has managed to fullfill the gap pretty well (while no new plants have been built power upgrades have been made).
Likewise a program for Polywell would probably fall under the same sort of scrutiny, but as long as people are burning pB11 we ought not care one iota.
Don't think that Republicans are "pro-poliferatin." It would go against their whole, yaknow, strong on foreign policy thing.
When Roger posted his KOS diary he got a lot of very promising responses from people you might call rapid left wingers. The few leftists I do know who are opposed to nuclear power in any form are afraid of it, believe that the "anti-nuclear movement" quelled nuclear power stations from being built (it didn't, it was the market), and simply have no idea what they're talking about. I don't think most modern liberals (or Democrats) are opposed to fusion to any significant extent. At least not enough to *stop* Polywell from succeeding.
Of course this is all assuming the thing works, but I'm hopeful.![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
And Pure Fusion = 1-100 tons of TNT? OK. A bit of fertalizer would beat the low end projections of that thing.
Likewise a program for Polywell would probably fall under the same sort of scrutiny, but as long as people are burning pB11 we ought not care one iota.
Don't think that Republicans are "pro-poliferatin." It would go against their whole, yaknow, strong on foreign policy thing.
When Roger posted his KOS diary he got a lot of very promising responses from people you might call rapid left wingers. The few leftists I do know who are opposed to nuclear power in any form are afraid of it, believe that the "anti-nuclear movement" quelled nuclear power stations from being built (it didn't, it was the market), and simply have no idea what they're talking about. I don't think most modern liberals (or Democrats) are opposed to fusion to any significant extent. At least not enough to *stop* Polywell from succeeding.
Of course this is all assuming the thing works, but I'm hopeful.
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
And Pure Fusion = 1-100 tons of TNT? OK. A bit of fertalizer would beat the low end projections of that thing.