Bill Gates Traveling Wave Terra Power Nuclear Reactor Analyzed

/ AGR Free Press


Bill Gates says that today’s nuclear reactors work ‘very well’. He says plutonium reactors are bad, because a plutonium (MOX) powered reactor is messy, the processing to get plutonium fuel is expensive and getting plutonium the way it is done now is environmentally ‘difficult’. (However, this ‘new’ style of reactor is also producing plutonium, one of the most dangerous, most toxic materials on the face of the Earth.)

In the Terra Power reactor, he proposes to both burn and breed plutonium fuel. The Terra Power reactor burns the 99.3% depleted uranium and breeds plutonium at the same time, within the same ‘cylinder’. He says there is enough depleted uranium to power the US for hundreds of years and enough fuel in the ocean that can be extracted to power humanity for the infinite future. (Pro nuclear apologists made the same claim for nuclear power; clean, green and cheap or free electricity, with no drawbacks and unlimited electricity from nuclear for tens of thousands of years.. remember?)
Bill Gates says that all you have to do is ‘convert’ the depleted uranium to usable fuel, much like a breeder reactor, and then burn it, right after it is ‘bred’ into plutonium.
The 4th generation Terra Power reactor that Bill Gates is so excited about is around a Gigawatt in size. He says that it does not scale down very well. He says on paper it works very well, and that it is cost effective, because the fuel is ‘free’, because it would use the waste product generated by the nuclear industry; depleted uranium. 
He says no human being is required for Terra Power. By extension he is also claiming that it has no harmful waste by products, no harmful emissions and that by 2022, a demo reactor will be in place. His goal is that by 2028, traveling wave reactors can be replicated and put everywhere, all over the world, providing cheap or free, clean, green nuclear power. 
Bill Gates says the overall safety record of nuclear energy is ‘safer’ than other energy sources, because only three accidents have happened in the history of nuclear power.  According to pro nuclear apologists, only a few people have died in the history of nuclear bomb testing and nuclear bomb testing. (This is the first of many lies, easily disproven)

Lists of nuclear disasters and radioactive incidents; via A Green Road http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/04/lists-of-nuclear-disasters-and.html

Nuclear Accidents Articles
http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/p/nuclear-accidents-around-world.html


Here is a short demo about how this reactor is supposed to work, with no people involved, while generating energy for 30 years – 100 years. 


Bill Gates claims at this TED conference (in the video below) that the Traveling Wave reactor is problem free, just like liquid thorium reactors and modular reactors. 
This is another lie… Thorium reactors and modular reactors have had lots and lots of problems. Here is just one of many examples of thorium reactors that failed….

Thorium Reactor Fort St. Vrain Power Station Experiment Failed; via A Green Roadhttp://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/12/thorium-reactor-fort-st-vrain-power.html

In a wave reactor, according to Terrapower.com, a “mixture of radioactive uranium, sodium, and iron with a thickness of 5 centimeters is put into a ‘slab’. A reactor core consists of 100 such ‘slabs’ operating at 48 W/cm3. Two depleted uranium slabs are supplied every ‘cycle’ from two outer-most locations and two ‘burnt slabs’ are discharged in the center region. These slabs are made up of; 

U-235 7.30×10 5
U-238 2.40×10 2
Na-23 6.52×10 3
Fe-56 1.68×10 2″
Bill Gates makes the astounding claim that this nuclear power source will generate NO WASTE products. This is a bald faced lie, much like the lies that the pro nuclear apologists make  when they assert claims about recycling nuclear fuel 99%, with no discharges into the environment. In reality, quite the opposite actually happens. 
The following examples ALL show that recycling of nuclear waste generates HUGE amounts of toxic by products and pollutes huge amounts of air, water and land, plus groundwater. 

Windscale: Biggest Covered Up UK Nuclear Disaster? via A Green Roadhttp://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/03/windscale-biggest-covered-up-uk-nuclear.html

Ozyorsk – Kyshtym – Mayak Nuclear Waste Reprocessing Center Disaster And Coverup; via A Green Roadhttp://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/03/ozyorsk-kyshtym-mayak-nuclear-waste.html

La Hague; France’s Nuclear Waste Nightmare; via A Green Road http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/03/la-hague-nuclear-waste-nightmare.html

UK Sellafield Nuclear Reprocessing Plant Loses $1.2 Billion Pounds, Then Closes; via A Green Road
http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/06/uk-sellafield-nuclear-reprocessing.html

Pu-239, The Half Life of Timofey Berezin; via A Green Roadhttp://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/10/pu-239-half-life-of-timofey-berezin.html

Hanford; Lethal And Leaking; A Race To Armageddon? via A Green Roadhttp://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/03/hanford-lethal-and-leaking-race-to.html

Savannah River Site; Most Severely Radiation Polluted Place on Earth? via A Green Roadhttp://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/11/savannah-river-site-most-severely.html

There is no ‘burning’ of nuclear waste that is possible, without generating even more toxic nuclear waste materials. Saying that ‘burning’ of nuclear waste will happen and that it will all magically disappear, does not make it happen.
Saying that nuclear waste material can be ‘burned’ and that all humans can just get rid of all of their nuclear waste materials in this ‘wavy’ manner using some magical ‘burning’ process is nothing more than a pipe dream, a hoax, and a fraud perpetrated on a gullible, naive public and politicians eager to please constituents who are being sold a promise that all of the nuclear waste materials sitting around in their backyards for the next 100,000 years will magically disappear in a ‘wave’, through ‘burning’.  
The promise that Bill Gates is making is that U-238 will disappear from all of the nuclear waste stockpiles worldwide, just like magic. Once someone builds these ‘magical’ nuclear reactors, we can all live in Utopia forever and ever, while picking flowers in clean meadows, free of nuclear contamination, with a benefit of cheap, free and green power. However, there are many problems with this simplistic, mythical, possibly even fraudulent representation, provided by an investor of a particular nuclear reactor that he wants to make a profit with.  
First of all, remember that Bill Gates is an investor, who  has a goal of making a PROFIT. He may propose anything and everything that will make money, no matter what the consequences are to those putting up the money; (US Taxpayers). 
Investors look at profit and return on principal. For the most part, they do not think about what the negative effects will be for seven future generations, nor do they talk about them.  Corporations act primarily to make short term profits, not to do good things for communities and think about what happens to their products or services seven future generations from today… There are many examples of how corporations prey on communities and lie to citizens in order to make money in the short run. This example of a ‘new’ style of reactor, may very well be no different from all of those provided in the link below…

Art And Science Of Deception; Global Corporations And The 1% http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/p/corporations-art-and-science-of.html

Bill Gates says his reactors ‘burn’ waste products from other reactors. This is also at the very least a misrepresentation and quite possibly a lie. Nuclear reactors operate by nuclear reaction and fission, not by ‘burning’ or combustion, such as a wood stove or a car.

Bottom line, a nuclear fission reaction is nothing more than a nuclear bomb, only the reaction is slowed down and ‘controlled’, at least most of the time. Trying to harness the power of the sun is risky business, as numerous and ongoing nuclear accidents have proven time and again.  

Bill Gates is using simple sales language, in order to push his profit making idea through the regulatory process and sway public opinion his way, before anyone even knows what they heck they are voting on or agreeing to finance. Empty rhetoric without any facts, without any debate, is great for dictatorships, and top down corporatocracies, but it is not healthy for a sustainable democracy. 
Anyone who knows even a little bit about nuclear reactors knows that all nuclear reactors release things like radioactive gases, liquids and solids. Things are always left over after a nuclear reaction. Generally speaking, what is left over is much more toxic and dangerous than what was started with. How is a wave reactor going to violate this basic, fundamental FACT?
How is TerraPower going to address neutron enbrittlement in reactor materials? All reactors that have fission happening inside of them affect their protective shells or containers by degrading them and making them weaker, plus accelerating their wear, through neutron bombardment, chemical breakdown and/or rusting. Bottom line, radiation breaks things down faster… This is why many nuclear power plants are worn out after 30 years; largely due to neutron degradation. Steel becomes weaker, softer and/or more brittle and prone to failure. Rusting accelerates. Concrete breaks down and gets soft. 
What radioactive byproducts will be produced by this traveling wave reactor? We all know what happens during a nuclear reaction… lots of decay products are produced, all of them are hazardous, radioactive and deadly dangerous, plus explosive. The left over spent fuel is actually much more dangerous and deadly than the original, fresh, new fuel. How is this wave reactor going to avoid producing any decay products in gas, liquid or solid form and violate all known radioactivity decay laws?

How is this reactor going to be secured from terrorists, who will use an easy unmanned source of radioactive materials to build a ‘dirty’ bomb, or possibly even use the same technique to produce plutonium, which makes a nuclear bomb? Once this ‘simple’ plutonium creating technique is perfected, why can’t terrorists or dictators bent on world conquest use it as well? It has happened before, so it can easily happen again…

Atucha Nuclear Reactor Taken Over By Terrorists; via A Green Road
http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/04/atucha-nuclear-reactor-taken-over-by.html

Nuclear Bombs And Nuclear Weapons Articles
http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/p/nuclear-bombs-and-nuclear-weapons.html



In the simple video presented by Bill Gates, a sealed tube with no outlets or safety mechanisms is shown, with a simple ‘burn’ of nuclear materials. Again, this video is an outrageous lie, because it is not possible to have a nuclear fission reaction ‘wave’ in a closed up and sealed ‘tube’. This traveling wave tube would explode, if for no other reason, than due to the buildup of radioactive by products and pressures created by them over time. Radioactive emissions will happen. Gases will have to be released. The only question is how many materials will be released over what period of time, into the surrounding environment?


75% US Nuclear Plants Leaking Toxic Tritium Radiation Into Drinking Water Supply; via A Green Road http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/04/75-us-nuclear-plants-leaking-toxic.html


What happens after the ‘wave’ has fully gone through the reactor core? What radioactive byproducts will be left? Which radioactive byproducts will be produced by this ‘wave’? What risks are there of things going wrong? 

Where is the risk assessment report? Where is the debate about this new and unproven and very risky, plus dangerous plutonium based technology? Plutonium is not just a meaningless word.. It is a word that is attached to a very dangerous toxic fission material…


How Dangerous Is 400-600 Pounds Of Plutonium Nano Particle Dust Liberated By Fukushima? Via A Green Road http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/03/how-dangerous-is-400-600-pounds-of.html

Hot Particles (Fuel Fleas) From Fukushima Continue To Circulate Globally; via A Green Road http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/04/hot-particles-from-fukushima-continue.html

Fukushima Nano Bucky Balls Weaponized With Uranium, Plutonium, And Cesium; via A Green Road http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/10/bucky-balls-and-fukushima-what-is-danger.html

So far, not one journalist, not one newspaper, not one nuclear engineer has taken on this radical idea and pulled it apart or analyzed this  pro nuclear propoganda. Why not? Could it have something to do with the mass media bias FOR nuclear power and against all clean, green alternatives? Could it have something to do with the ownership of the mass media by companies such as GE, which sells all things nuclear, including nuclear reactors? 
The way current laws are written, Bill Gates can keep spouting his sales hype and pro nuclear sales pitch, without disclosing any risks until just before the first plant begins construction. How convenient is that? Wouldn’t you love to sell whatever it is you want to sell and not have to disclose anything until well after the loans and construction process has been started and is well underway? Now it is too late to back out, as everyone is committed.

Bill Gates and his pro nuke apologists are asking for BILLIONS of dollars but will not talk about any risks until AFTER THEY GET THE BILLIONS and start building this unproven and untested nuclear wave thing.  

Nuclear power is a million times more productive than coal or oil per square foot of fuel, as Bill Gates points out correctly, but then he NEGLECTS to say, that nuclear energy is billions of times more destructive and dangerous, especially when plutonium is involved. 
The breeding reactor concept is well known. U-238 is turned into U-239, then to Neptunium, then to Plutonium 239. During this process, energy is produced. Basically, this is the concept that Bill Gates is proposing with this ‘new’ style of reactor. A ‘breeding’ wave moves just ahead of the ‘burn’ wave, which then consumes the bred material. 


But when the nuclear industry says their reactors are safe, just how safe are they? Would this new reactor be just as safe as all of those others that were promised to be safe, and then exploded, melted down or worse, such as those found in the following link?


Lists of nuclear disasters and radioactive incidents; via A Green Road http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/04/lists-of-nuclear-disasters-and.html

Bill Gates was on TV recently, explaining to a reporter how ‘perfect’ the new generation of nuclear power plants will be.. the new plants will have NO PEOPLE inside of them, so accidents can never happen, and that they will be really safe… This is the same pitch being made for Thorium power reactors, and that experiment failed as well…

Thorium Reactor Fort St. Vrain Power Station Experiment Failed; via A Green Road
http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/12/thorium-reactor-fort-st-vrain-power.html

A traveling wave reactor and Bill Gates promoting it as a software genius,  may remind some about the ancient Greek story of a boy with wax wings, who flew too close to the sun. Bill Gates is selling everyone on ALL things having to be nuclear, and he is against all things solar and renewable energy. 
Where is the ‘perfect’, Godlike source of power, that has no people involved? Could it be that Bill Gates is pointing at the sun? Could it be that he is really wanting solar power?
When Bill Gates is talking about the ultimate safety of machines completely controlling a reactor and how it would be impossible for it to fail or melt down, it reminds of others who came before and made similiar promises, such as the famous unsinkable ship.

Of course, he is completely IGNORING the fact that  the Fukushima nuclear disaster was caused by NATURE, not by man. Even if a perfectly smart computer had been in total control of Fukushima, it would still have had multiple reactors melted down and through.

Actually, having a machine or computer in charge would have made Fukushima MUCH WORSE, than if people had not done some brave and courageous things to try and stop something much, much worse from happening, as they did at Fukushima. 

Dr. Paolo Scampa Reports That Fukushima Released 3,000 Billion Lethal Doses Of Radiation; via A Green Road
http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/09/dr-paolo-scampa-reports-that-fukushima.html

Comparing Contaminated Zones Around Chernobyl And Fukushima Ocean Radiation Released; via A Green Road http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/05/comparing-contaminated-zones-around.html

What really happened at Fukushima? via A Green Road
http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/02/what-really-happened-at-fukushima.html


Bottom line, nuclear power of any kind is dangerous, expensive, and toxic to all life on the planet. Nothing will change that; certainly not the traveling wave reactor. 

Nuclear Power; EXPENSIVE, Dirty, Dangerous And Toxic; via A Green Road
http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/10/nuclear-power-expensive-dirty-dangerous.html

Documentary Movie; “Nuclear Ginza” – Japanese Nuclear Industry Horrors
http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/10/documentary-movie-nuclear-ginza.html

Fukushima Reactor 4; Global Life Extinction Event If It Collapses; via A Green Road
http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/04/fukushima-reactor-4-life-extinction.htmlEven if the traveling wave reactor works perfectly as advertised, the rest of the nuclear industry must be kept alive to keep feeding waste products to it. And what happens in the rest of the industry is enough reason to shut it all down.

12 reasons why all nuclear power plants must be shut down; via A Green Roadhttp://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/03/12-reasons-why-all-nuclear-power-plants.html

In summary, the traveling wave reactor is just another fancy pipe dream, literally. It is time to stop wasting money on expensive boondoggles and devote precious money and resources to things that will benefit seven future generations, and not create more messes for tens of thousands of years into the future, with possible repercussion and dangers that could wipe out all life on the planet.

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Bill Gates Traveling Wave Terra Power Nuclear Reactor Analyzed; via A Green Roadhttp://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2013/02/bill-gates-traveling-wave-terra-power.html

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