Energy Dependence

many forgets that the Hitler´s III Reich was the first nuke nation ever and to have the nuclear bomb in theory.
The German scientists had produced nuclear fission in the laboratory. They had also been looking at nuclear fusion and U-235 separations and were approaching criticality in a nuclear pile in a cave at Haigerloch.
Heisenberg warned the German government in the fall of 1941 that the Americans were pursuing a nuclear explosive (plutonium) that could be made in a chain-reacting pile. The warning resulted in receiving the highest priority for his work from Albert Speer, Hitler's minister of munitions. Heisenberg calculated the critical mass for a bomb in a December 6, 1939 report for the German Army Weapons Department. His formula, with the nuclear parameter values assumed at that time, yielded a critical mass in the hundreds of tons of "nearly pure" uranium 235 (U235) required for an exploding reactor, Heisenberg's model for a bomb at that point. This was vastly beyond what Germany could hope to produce. With uranium out of the question, the Germans decided to go for plutonium, which meant building an atomic pile [a nuclear reactor] to convert natural uranium into plutonium. What Heisenberg did not know that to calculate it is
enough to know size of the Uranium crystal form Laue X-ray exp, the size of the nucleus from Rutherford, and to
assume uranium is a regular crystal which is not transparent after the neutron free path until it hits the nucleus
of uranium and the reaction always occurs when it hits. This estimates the critical mass right.
If he did not use the Quantum Mechanics at all but only data from experiments Germany would win
the war !!!

In 1967 the first pebble bed nuclear reactor began producing electricity in Germany and operated successfully for 21 years. Pebble bed nuclear reactors are inherently safer than conventional light water reactors???so safe they can???t overheat and melt down. The simple design provides for automatic on-line refueling so, unlike conventional reactors, they can produce power continuously. Their fuel is packaged in round graphite ???pebbles???, about the size of billiard balls, making it very difficult to extract for use in a weapon. Spent fuel can be safely encased, transported and stored.
A study led by Dr. Andrew C. Kadak at MIT envisions the production of small, modular, pebble bed reactors. Built off site on an assembly line, trucked in, set-up and tested, these reactors could be fired up in less than 2 years (vs. 10-15 years for conventional reactors). The electricity from modular pebble bed nuclear plants would cost less than power from any other clean alterative. More importantly, the power from these pebbles would cost the same or less than power produced from carbon-spewing fuels like coal and natural ga. Power to the People! (@ 5 cents a kilowatt).

The EPR design from AREVA France has three redundant systems. They have nuclear energy figured out. I can only hope we learn and maybe even improve their designs.

tough get going? ya, it's tough. how about spending the money from Iraq for a single month to build another four plants?