Did he say nuclear?

Well, actually, George W. Bush said nucular, but so does Jimmy Carter and half of America. There's no U in the second syllable of nuclear, folks.

George W. Bush has balls though. He is messing with the third rail of politics, Social Security. In addition, he's calling for investment in nuclear energy. Oh no Mr. Bill! It's Three Mile Island all over again.

Now this is fascinating to me, a person who works with radioactive medical materials for a living. Not a single new nuclear plant has been built in over 2o years. Now that would be like still driving a K-car from the early eighties, no air bags, no anti-lock brakes, etc...

There is a design called the pebble bed reactor which has many features which are vastly superior to the water cooled "hot rod" reactors in use today. The major improvement is the fuel is contained in particle of graphite and the reactor is cooled by ambient air flow. It is essentially hot radioactive charcoals heating helium which turns turbines to create energy. This is basically a very slow burning BBQ grill. The radiation does not move cannot explode and is only dangerous to you if you were basically to sit on top of it.

Now why has one of these never been built, b/c the US citizens are scared to death of the words nuclear and radiation. So if you are really afraid of radiation do yourself a favor, throw out all your smoke detectors, never go for a stress test at the hospital, if you get cancer just curl up and die, turn off your lights and electricity for 10-30% of the day b/c that's probably nuclear power energy, don't go on a flight or climb a mountain b/c you'll get exposed to more cosmic rays, don't go in your basement or drink your well water b/c there's probably a little radon, turn of your CRT TV because the cathode part uses radioactive thorium, Guitar players throw out your tube amps etc...

Get the point? Radiation and radioactive material is all around you, so why not use it safely and effectively to solve our energy crisis. China is.