re: #678 ozbloke

I heard GE dont pay taxes in the USA. How wonderful.

From the post:
Now General Electric Hitachi wants a licence from US regulators to build the world’s first SILEX plant in North Carolina.

Dr Slakey says that cannot be allowed because it is too dangerous.

“From everything I’ve heard about this plant, it’s too risky to proceed,” he said.

Dr Slakey says laser enrichment is dangerous because it is almost undetectable.

The SILEX process is 75 per cent smaller than current enrichment technologies, drawing no more electricity than a dozen homes.

“This next generation technology is so efficient and so small that we would no longer be able to see it with our satellites and we would no longer be able to detect whether there was some power source going into it, because it uses so little power,” he said.

And with US president Barack Obama convening his nuclear security summit in Washington, Dr Slakey says regulators must take into account proliferation risks before licensing new technologies.

“Historically every enrichment technology - that is every technology that has been used to develop nuclear fuel, every single one of them - has proliferated despite best efforts to keep the secret,” he said.

America’s Nuclear Regulatory Commission says it will look closely at security measures to protect SILEX’s secrets.

Yes this is exactly what I am saying.

It is too tempting for the US - or any nation state to put down, if they have the technology. Of course we will build it. Of course the tech will get out. Of course there will be consequences. Of course if we on’t build it, someone else will now that people know it has been done.

It is a disgusting and terrible mess.

I actually did a calculation about this as a graduate student. The process is painfully simple. It was the engineering that was the hurdle. I really want to vomit now.