Have you heard about the enriched uranium problem?
No, I don’t even know what enriched uranium is.
It is uranium whose composition has been modified
so that it can be used as a fuel in our nuclear reactors,
and we can’t get enough of it right now.
Can we buy more on Amazon?
No, we were getting a substantial amount from Russia.
Is it just me or do we rely too heavily on Russia for vital resources?
We sure do.
For years the Russians have sold it to us for cheap
and that has largely driven US production out of the market.
Now we don’t even have any American factories that can make enriched uranium anymore.
We shut down the last one in twenty thirteen.
The government said that the factory used too much electricity
and that made the global warming worse.
Why didn’t they build a new factory to make enriched uranium that
used less electricity and made the global warming not as bad?
They started to build a new factory, but then they stopped.
The company went bankrupt, and the equipment in the
factory that they built was torn down and buried.
That is awful.
Why would we waste resources like that?
So now Russia is attacking its neighbors
and we can’t buy the cheap enriched uranium anymore?
Yes, that is what has happened.
We are not the only country that Russia has
attempted to trap using promises of cheap energy.
That is their standard mode of operation.
How many of our nuclear reactors require enriched uranium?
All of them, and they produce nearly twenty percent of our power and
they create more carbon-free power than any other source in the country.
Wow, that is a lot of power.
It sounds like we are in a lot of trouble with our supply of enriched uranium.
But maybe we are looking at this from the wrong perspective.
Are there nuclear reactors that don’t need enriched uranium?
Yes.
There are reactors that use natural uranium,
and there are breeder reactors that make their own fuel and don’t require enriched uranium.
Where could we get such reactors?
All of Canada’s reactors were designed to run on natural uranium.
But we can’t get any of those because Canada stopped making them.
Oh Canada….
Perhaps the US Department of Energy is hard at work
designing new reactors that are breeder reactors or run on
natural uranium and don’t need enriched uranium from Russia.
I’ve read that they get roughly thirty billion dollars of our money every year.
They are designing new reactors, but none of them are breeder reactors
or run on natural uranium.
All of them depend on a special form of enriched uranium called HALEU.
But HALEU is much harder to make than
the kind of enriched uranium we use today.
And it is also less efficient and makes
much more nuclear waste than today’s reactors.
I have this bad feeling that you are about to tell me that only Russia
currently makes this special form ofenriched uranium called HALEU.
Yes I am.
It’s pretty awful.
So at a time when we cannot get enough enriched uranium to
produce most of our carbon free energy, and a globally significant amount
of that enriched uranium comes from Russia, the United States Department
of Energy is pouring taxpayer dollars into new reactors that need a
special form of enriched uranium called HALEU from Russia instead of
building breeder reactors or reactors that run on natural uranium?
Yes.
Why can’t we get natural uranium reactors
from Canada or breeder reactors?
Because the government says that these
reactors are a proliferation risk.
What does that mean?
It means that the United States Department of Energy
thinks these reactors can be used to make nuclear bombs.
Don’t we already have thousands of nuclear bombs?
Yes.
Has Canada ever used their nuclear reactors to make nuclear bombs?
No.
But Russia has made nuclear bombs.
Of course they have.
They have an enormous number of nuclear bombs.
They are all pointed at us.
They used the same uranium enrichment technology to make the material
for the bombs that we use to fuel the nuclear reactors.
So we won’t develop breeder reactors or natural uranium reactors because
we’re afraid that we might make nuclear bombs with them, even though
Canada has never made bombs, but are friendly with us and sell us
timber and maple syrup and let us visit the best part of Niagara Falls.
Correct.
But we want to buy enriched uranium from Russia, a country
that invades its neighbors and has nuclear bombs that are pointed
at us that could bring about global apocalypse at any moment?
Correct.
And the same technology that is used to enrich
the uranium was used to make the bombs?
Correct.
Surely they must realize that if we continue to
buy enriched uranium from Russia we are only sending
them enormous amounts of money that enables them to
harm their neighbors and to threaten us with nuclear
destruction.
Whereas if we developed nuclear breeder reactors or nuclear reactors that
used natural uranium we would no longer have that dependency.
What we are doing literally makes no sense at all.
Who is in charge of the United States Department of Energy?
The United States Department of Energy
is run by the Jennifer Granholm.
Is the Jennifer Granholm a scientist or a nuclear engineer?
No, she is the former governor of Michigan
and is very excited about electric cars.
My brother-in-law bought a Tesla that he is very excited about, but
that does not qualify him to run the Department of Energy.
Who helps the Jennifer Granholm make nuclear policy?
The Office of Nuclear Energy in the Department
of Energy is run by the Katy Huff.
Is the Katy Huff a scientist or a nuclear engineer?
Yes.
What does the Katy Huff recommend to the Jennifer Granholm that we do?
She says that we should spend nearly a billion dollars
to make the special form of enriched uranium called HALEU
since we can’t get it from Russia anymore.
But she also says we should not develop
breeder reactors for fear they might make bombs.
A billion dollars is a lot of money.
How can she claim that it’s a good idea to have lots of
new uranium enrichment when it has been used to make materials for bombs
but we can’t have breeder reactors or natural uranium reactors because
they might be used to make bombs, even though we already have thousands
of bombs?
I don’t know, that doesn’t make any sense.
It does seem to fly in the face of reason,
history, and geopolitical facts.
Why is it ok to try to make the special
enriched uranium called HALEU but it is not ok
to buy the Canadian reactors that run on natural uranium?
I don’t know. It literally makes no sense at all.
Why don’t they develop breeder reactors with the billion
dollars that they asked the Congress to give them
instead of trying to replace Russian enrichment capability?
Because that would be like admitting that the Department of
Energy has been wrong about every significant nuclear development for
the last forty five years, and that would be very
embarrassing.
Then Congress might dissolve the Department of Energy.
If I made a mistake as big as they are making,
that required me to ask my boss for nearly a billion
dollars, I would not be surprised if she dissolved my job
too.
Have other politicians proposed to eliminate
the Department of Energy before?
Yes, in the twenty sixteen presidential campaign Texas governor
Rick Perry proposed to eliminate the Department of Energy.
What did they do with his proposal?
They appointed him to be the secretary of Energy
so that he would run the Department of Energy.
That is certainly an expensive and complicated
way to silence a political opponent.
Our political system sounds like it has lost its mind.
I think I will move to Canada because
they have reactors that don’t need enriched uranium.
I’m not so sure you should do that.
Why is that?
Because we just sold them a bunch of new
reactors, and they all run on enriched uranium.
OH NO! Surely there must be a better way for them and for us!
There is, but that will be the subject of another video.
Goodbye for now.