Mark, Wirt, et. al:

> > ..... -- rotating blackouts have been ordered for Northern
> > California:
>
> And it's only likely to get worse in the next little bit.
> .....
> Out-of-state power producers have now stopped selling
> their excess electricity to the California utilities, simply
> because they don't believe that they're going to get paid,
> .....  the Western and Rocky Mountain state governments
> are getting more than a little grouchy about being forced to
> sell their electric power production to California .....

Especially those of us in WA and OR, where precip totals /
snow pack are WAY below average (Crystal Mtn. has barely
enough to cover the rocks and run the chairlifts).  Unless we
get several really big dumps in the next couple months, we
are facing major water / hydro shortages this summer....

Tracy's comment about "India and China" is something the
politicians better keep in mind:  "Other options" may include
Bangalore, Shanghai, Hong Kong, etc. just as well as other
parts of North America...   The Three Gorges Dam will be
operational not too far down the road, giving China a huge
addition to its generation capacity.

G. noted Cupertino went off the grid from 12:00 to 13:30...
Let's see...   what's the down-time cost per hour for greater
Cupertino environs (discounting those that had enough UPS
or generator power to keep them up for 90 minutes) ??

CA is now paying the price for the powers that be in that
State refusing to face reality for 10 years (no new power
plants in about that time);  and not having political courage
to resist the NIMBY / BANANA syndrome....  And given the
time it takes to bring major new generation capability online,
there is no good / quick (let alone cheap) solution:  A guy
from CA ISO was on CNN last night, saying even best-case
he expected the current situation to pretty much stay status
quo for two - three years....


Long term best solution (here's my frag grenade idea for the
day) for North America:   Build however many single-design,
modular, "walk-away safe", THIRD-generation nuclear power
plants as are necessary to meet need.  It's the only currently
feasible way to generate enough power to move to electric /
fuel cell powered cars;  while cutting way back on fossil fuels
(maybe they will be able to make fusion power commercially
viable in the next 25 years...  and maybe they won't....).  For
those who might be only vaguely familiar with recent nuclear
power technology, please note that proposed 3rd-generation
plants are VERY different from the dinosaurs we and the rest
of the world are running right now....  See for example:
http://www.ga.com/     and particularly:
http://www.ga.com/gtmhr.html    on high-pressure helium
reactors;  and (one of many) on liquid-sodium technology:
http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~warf/breeder.html

....  Why did I say "North America" (O.K.:  Parts of Europe,
Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and maybe a couple other
places too...) ??..  Because modular helium & liquid sodium
reactors are breeders:  That's good and bad:   The bad is
obvious:  If Saddam, et. al. ever get one (and can keep it
from getting blown up long enough), they have an easy path
to plutonium weapons.  The good:  There is enough energy
in what is now excess weapons-grade plutonium and "fertile"
materials to meet the TOTAL power demand of all of North
America for at least several hundred years.  We managed to
keep the world from getting blown up (or lucked out), when
those many tons of plutonium was in warheads;  surely we
have the capability to guard plutonium in operating reactors
well enough to make it an acceptable risk;  considering the
major downsides of all other *practical* alternatives.....
Remember:  Even if no security force prevents you from
doing so, you do not just walk up to an operating reactor
and "pick up" the plutonium like somebody would steal a TV
from an electronics store...

The other good:  3rd-generation reactors do a MUCH more
complete job of burning up the nuclear fuel:  Rather than
having to separate the end by-products from the environment
for like 20,000 years as with current generation-one nuclear
plants, you might only have to separate waste products from
3rd-generation breeders for something like 400-500 years (I
think it was (Wirt can probably correct me if I'm wrong about
that) ).  IMO it is approaches being criminal and is certainly
stupid;  to bury excess plutonium, waste that energy, and risk
it in the environment for 20K years;  when it could produce
clean power for much of the world for decades, and be much
less dangerous for much less time when you are done with
it....

O.K....:  Shields to 100 percent....

Ken Sletten