Thorium Makes the Mainstream Media

BBC Series - Costing the Earth

Nuclear Power without the Nasties? 28 Feb 2012 http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/costearth 

Kirk Sorensen

It’s really gratifying to see the subject of thorium fuelled nuclear power begin to penetrate the mainstream media.  I downloaded the podcast of this half hour BBC programme and listened to it yesterday.  The researchers and editors have done a very competent job; it’s an excellent piece of journalism and captured the subject very well in all its aspects, but without delving too far into the detail.  Kirk Sorensen was interviewed and, amongst other topics, gave a very lucid account of the reasons why the Oak Ridge Molten Salt ReactorExperiment (MSRE) was closed down in 1969.

Environmentalists for Thorium


Baroness Bryony Worthington

Others also interviewed were Michael Childs, of Friends of the Earth, and Baroness BryonyWorthington, who used to campaign for them.  They were correctly presented as environmentalists enthusiastic about thorium nuclear technology.  

Michael Childs

The ending was particularly striking.  It accurately relayed the scepticism of the nuclear establishment in the UK concerning thorium, and contrasted it with the optimism of Michael Childs and Baroness Bryony Worthington. Wouldn’t it be highly ironic if a significant proportion of environmentalists were calling for work to start on thorium based nuclear power, whilst the nuclear establishment were blocking research funding?  Personally I think that’s what’s very likely to happen in Europe.  Michel Allibert of the Reactor Research Group at Grenoble also highlighted the regulatory difficulties in the podcast.  In the US I’m a bit more optimistic, because it appears that Kirk Sorensen has a plan to get around these issues, but the same conservatism and regulatory forces are still present.  

Is the future Chinese?

In my opinion, the country which will fund and develop research into LFTR’s (Liquid Fuelled Thorium Reactors) and build the first commercially viable reactor will most likely be China.  They have an enormous growing need for energy and no constraints on regulatory compliance.  They also have the money and are rapidly developing the expertise.  For years they’ve been raiding the archives at the US’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the place where the original research was done in the sixties by Alvin Weinberg.  I’ve read some of the old Oak Ridge papers and Alvin Weinberg ran a tightly managed organisation. Everything was documented and reported, including their setbacks and problems.  

It’s a gold mine for English speaking Chinese researchers! They topped the visitors list in 2009 and 2010. 

In 2009 :-

1. China (1,139)

2. India (569
3. Germany (478)
4. United Kingdom (420)
5. Japan (408)
6. South Korea (363)
7. Canada (310)
8. Russia (258)
9. France (250)
10. Italy (105) 

And in 2010:-

“Once again, in 2010, China was the biggest source of foreign visitors to Oak Ridge National laboratory - accounting for more than 20 percent of the total number of foreign visitors and more than twice as many as any other country.

1. China (1,522)

2. India (709)
3. Germany (631)
4. United Kingdom (536)
5. Japan (498)
6. Canada (476)
7. South Korea (452)

 According to information provided by ORNL's Laboratory Protection Division, the number of foreign visitors processed last year was 7,487. That's up significantly from 2009 (6,007), which, in turn, was up from 2008 (5,092). There's obviously a growth pattern.

This is at least the sixth year in a row that China has headed the foreign visitors list, and it's probably been even longer. The lab did not have historical statistics readily available.”

France 2

There was also a short report which dealt with the subject of thorium on the national news on France 2 on 29^th January (in French). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ78iID1mF8  It ends rather pessimistically with the scepticism of the nuclear establishment coming through loud and clear.  

Minimising Thorium’s Advantages

In spite of the fact that the Oak Ridge MSRE reactor ran successfully from 1965 to 1969,  today’s “industry experts” both in France and in the UK are still saying that pumping high temperature molten salts at atmospheric pressure is difficult and dangerous.  (But almost certainly not as dangerous as containing and pumping high pressure water, with a potential for loss of coolant and subsequent explosion risk, which has already happened at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima).

The current stance of such experts is “It’s likely to be difficult and take a long time so it’s better to do nothing”, they minimise the advantages of Liquid Fuelled Thorium technology, and ignore the historical reality of a reactor that functioned for 4 years at Oak Ridge.

What a wonderful illustration of the decadence of Western European society which has lost the capability to invest, to take risks and to innovate!

Götterdämmerung – The Twilight of the Gods

New York Metropolitan Opera – Simulcast Saturday 11th February 2012

I’d forgotten just how spectacular this opera is musically!  I don’t simply mean the well known sections, like Siegfried’s Funeral March, but the way that Wagner weaves his leitmotifs together to tell the story at a different level from the words being sung; or sometimes to comment on the action, by revealing in the music, the forces at work behind the drama.  I will never again say that the first scene with the Norns is boring!  This time, listening with a more educated ear, Wagner’s genius and hard work just blew me away!  

In this production the whole cast was of the highest quality.  I can criticise none of them for their singing or their musicality.  In fact I’m totally in awe of the principals who are capable of sustaining their concentration and physical resources over such a long period of time.

Deborah Voigt and Waltraud Meier

Deborah Voigt as Brünnhilde, was exceptional.  She was always spot on with timing and intonation, and when she had to deliver her major effort in the immolation scene at the end, she sailed majestically over the orchestra!

Waltraud Meier as Waltraute, in the scene between her and Brünnhilde, piled on the passion as she pleaded with Brünnhilde to give up the ring. Deborah Voigt answered in the same manner. This was a most effective scene between two excellent performers.



Jay Hunter Morris

Jay Hunter Morris as Siegfried had no problem depicting the part vocally since he has a natural “heldentenor” tone.  Apparently he stepped in quite late to take the title role in “Siegfried”, for which he was the understudy, and fully justified his opportunity.  He couldn’t look the part better if he’d been specially made for it.  His long fair hair, baby blue eyes and powerful physique looked every inch the hero, but with just a hint of boyish naivety!   In the interval interview, his soft southern drawl, when I was expecting a German accent, was a bit of a shock!

Hans Peter Konig and Wendy Bryn Harmer

Hans Peter König as Hagen has a full resonant bass voice, massive stature and dark looks all of which are well suited to the role, and in the earlier scenes he came through strongly dramatically.   I think, however, that in the later scenes he was not well served by the direction, because, from time to time, there were moments when his evil presence should have been much more prominent, and somehow he just retired into the crowd.

Wendy Bryn Harmer as Gutrune, wasn’t the slight, sad, submissive creature that I’ve seen in other productions.  This Gutrune though naive, was open and smiling.  She didn’t deserve to be manipulated by her half brother Hagen and one felt sorry for her when she learnt of Siegfried’s death. 

Iain Paterson as Gunther is a fine actor with good stage presence, and he created a very believable persona in what is often considered to be a minor part.  

Iain Paterson

He has a strong voice and this supported his interpretation of Gunther as a well renowned, if not heroic, leader who knows his own limitations.  He genuinely likes Siegfried and is serious about swearing a blood oath of brotherhood with him.   Of course, he also lacks moral integrity and is easily manipulated by Hagen. 
I was impressed by Iain Paterson's reading of Gunther and congratulate him on portraying much more depth in the role than I was previously aware of and than most performers reveal.

Eric Owens as Alberich , when he appeared in his short duet with Hagen, easily imposed himself on the scene.  His has a very strong stage presence, which was well supported by his voice and physique.

Eric Owens

The Metropolitan Opera orchestra was very ably directed by Fabio Luisi.  Overall it was an excellent performance and I have just a couple of minor quibbles.  He stated in the interval that he was trying to brush away the accumulated heavy Germanic tradition of Wagner performances.  Occasionally this led him into taking a few tempi rather fast, sometimes pushing the singers to accelerate their phrasing.  At the end the orchestra was, understandably, tired resulting in a few untidy brass chords but it was a long live performance!  

Hagen in the hall of the Gibichungs

So that leaves the production by Robert Lepage.  It’s difficult to describe in words but instead of conventional scenery and flats they used a series of huge triangular shaped segments, pivoting around a horizontal axis and extending right across the stage.  To paint these segments with colour and movement they used video projection.  This is a flexible system and can be very effective, for example, by setting some of the segments vertically one can create the pillars of the Gibichung’s hall.   Or by setting all the segments at a shallow angle, and then projecting water flowing around rocks, one could create the Rhine for the Rhine Maidens, (who, by the way, were all excellent and whose voices blended very well).

Once you have decided to take this route, which unsurprisingly has had its mechanical problems, you’re more or less forced to use it throughout.  So then the quality of the video, or the graphics, becomes supremely important.  This was mixed.  I got tired of the wood grain effect associated with the Gibichung’s hall, and at times I couldn’t see the relevance of moving some of the segments but not others. 

I thought that the ending of the whole opera, when Valhalla burns, was very weak.  The flames were not convincing, and the collapsing of a few plaster gods into dust at an upper level was a very poorly conceived idea, a real damp squib.   

I also really hated Grane, Brünnhilde's mechanical metal horse, which was extremely ponderous and unnecessary.  It should be quickly put out to grass!  Why not have it on video in the distance? That way it could also fly instead of slowly trundling along!

There should also have been much more use of traditional stage lighting as a backdrop to the projected images.  

We are all so used to fantastic CGI effects that there is much more scope for creativity using projection than was demonstrated in this production. But rather than try to compete with movies, I think that for future productions using this system they ought to employ a contemporary artist to design the projected graphics and videos, looking for a more abstract effect.  Perhaps they should use someone like David Hockney, who did such a brilliantly inspired job for the Magic Flute, Tristan and other operas in the seventies and eighties. 

But if you’re lucky enough to have booked tickets to see the whole Ring cycle in the spring don’t let these criticisms put you off.   Based on this simulcast I can assure you that you’ll enjoy it!  The music and images are still going round in my head days later!

Ny Malagasy Orkestra – The National Orchestra of Madagascar

On Saturday, at Prudhomat in the Lot, outside the Salle des Fetes it was minus 8 deg C, but inside it was hot and getting hotter.  The NY Malagasy Orkestra was performing their second set and my friends and acquaintances had the rare treat of seeing me dancing along with the rest of the audience!

These guys are really good musicians.  They come from all parts of Madagascar and play mostly traditional instruments like the strange double necked box guitar, a three string bass and a box harp.  The amplification of their acoustic instruments allowed them to perform and be heard in front of the gloriously indisciplined audience (I’m more used to opera and classical music).  They also use an accordion, a real guitar, violins and of course percussion.  They have excellent performers in all sections. 

Compared to some of the West African all electric bands that I’ve heard, their sound is more delicate and balanced. It was ideal for the smallish room where about 300 people had gathered. 
 
Justin Vali is a real virtuoso on the valiha, the instrument in the middle of this picture, which is traditionally made from a single piece of bamboo, but now often has steel strings that can be replaced when required.

The group had been in St Céré for a week and had visited the schools and the École de Musique so the kids were all there with their parents.  It was a very good night for the Lieu Commun, a local cultural organisation who promoted the residency, which is part of a winter festival they have called Madagascar en Quercy.

As well as playing African polyrhythms superbly, the members of the Orkestra  can also sing really well in harmony.

And finally, here’s a video of Justin Vali, who presented the evening, looking very cool in his Elvis shades and with his own troupe of dancing girls.  Well if you’ve got it flaunt it!

If they're ever performing near you don’t miss them!

Phillippe Jaroussky

I’ve just been seduced by Philippe Jaroussky and I’m not alone.  Just listen to this!

Philippe is naturally a baritone, and his speaking voice has that pitch, but he sings as a counter tenor.  The counter tenor voice is obtained by singing in the falsetto range and, whilst many men can do this, there are very few who are able to do so with great artistry and produce a beautiful sound. 

The repertoire for these specialist performers comes mostly from the baroque period and was written for castrati.  Italian composers like Monteverdi, Vivaldi and others, such as Purcell and Handel, wrote extensively for the high pitched male voice.

Until very recently I’ve not been a great fan of this period, because I thought that I didn’t like the long highly decorated melismatic passages that were the fashion, but listen to Philippe performing this aria, which is very fast, with lots of melismas, but so well done even all the other musicians can’t help smiling!

Andreas Scholl , probably the world’s best known counter tenor, was interviewed with Philippe Jaroussky in the Guardian when they were rehearsing for a joint concert in London’s Barbican just over a year ago.  

Andreas said: "There's always this fascination about the counter tenor voice.  But I've never really understood what that is, because I'm doing it every day – it's my voice.  Yet when we sing, people cry and we get love letters.  You get used to that." He turns to Jaroussky.  "But I experienced, for the first time, what other people feel when I heard your recording Opium.  I got goosebumps.  For the first time in my life – I'm serious, Philippe – I thought, 'A-ha! This is why people are so fascinated by our voices.'"

I know exactly what he means, because I had the same response when listening, with other members of our quartet, to “Sì dolce è 'l tormento”.   When the track had finished I turned to Quince, who sings Alto, and said “I think I’ve just been seduced by Philippe Jaroussky!”   And she said “So have I!”

I’ve sung this Purcell duet with Netty, who sings soprano, but we are nowhere near achieving the perfection of this version by Andreas and Philippe.  In fact they have given me a model interpretation to work towards.  

Quince and I are rehearsing “Et Misericordia”  from the Magnificat by JS Bach but I’m quite sure that our interpretation will be completely different from this one. Don't get confused Jaroussky is singing the upper line!

But for a final frisson or two, try this Vivaldi aria "Vedro con mio diletto"

Some more links

Lascia chio panga  Handel  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6hjpTuA2aI&feature=related

Piangero (Vivaldi) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJoalfIaOz0&feature=related

A very good article about Philippe has been published in French News Online http://www.french-news-online.com/culture/music/2011/march/jaroussky.html

Here is Phillippe Jaroussky’s official website http://www.philippejaroussky.fr/

Burn's Night - An Address to the Ladies

George has kindly asked me to address the ladies -  
And where indeed would we men be today without our ladies? 
Who can naysay their particular household skill –
Which ensures that nothing stays where we mere mortal men might will?
Who could criticize such persistence in adversity –
Providing that it’s not of mechanical or electrical diversity,
Or deny their skilful observation –
Of all those tiny things we men have overlooked in aberration?
Let us marvel at their resolve and their finality –
When going shopping in the spirit of frugality.
And don’t discount how they can fill tongue-tied tranquillity with talk of topics everyday –
But perhaps only amongst the ladies of my own family is this their way.
Above all who could not but praise such womanly qualities as nurturing and protection - 
Which are their virtues most outstanding in our affection? 

.......................................

But putting aside poetic tributes to the ladies just for a moment, it must be said, that ladies were not always so valued and appreciated by men for the exceptional abilities of their sex, neither have they always taken such a prominent role in society as they do now.  Here, in our beloved Republic, before the revolution of 1789 women were considered “passive citizens” – and up to 1945 they still relied on men for their political representation.

And what should one say of the feminine qualities of Pauline Léon, who on 6 March 1792, submitted a petition to the National Assembly, signed by 319 women, requesting permission to form a “Garde National” of women armed with pikes, pistols, sabers and rifles, in order to defend Paris in case of military invasion.  Her request was, of course, denied. 

Yes, this was the era of revolution but, as Madame Defarge and her feisty female friends were practising their knitting skills in Paris, whilst eagerly awaiting the free spectacle soon to be offered by the abrupt demise of royalty and the aristocracy, at the same time, in 1791, Thomas Paine published “The Rights of Man”. 

Our hero for this night, Rabbie Burns, one of Scotland’s first gallants and proto-feminists, felt that this document was  far too one sided, so in 1792 he replied to Thomas Paine with his poem “The Rights of Woman”, which I would like to read to you now.

The Rights of Woman

While Europe's eye is fix'd on mighty things,

The fate of Empires and the fall of Kings;
While quacks of State must each produce his plan,
And even children lisp the Rights of Man;
Amid this mighty fuss just let me mention,
The Rights of Woman merit some attention.

First, in the Sexes' intermix'd connection,

One sacred Right of Woman is, protection.
The tender flower that lifts its head, elate,
Helpless, must fall before the blasts of Fate,
Sunk on the earth, defac'd its lovely form,
Unless your shelter ward th' impending storm.

Our second Right - but needless here is caution,

To keep that right inviolate's the fashion;
Each man of sense has it so full before him,
He'd die before he'd wrong it -   'tis    decorum.
There was, indeed, in far less polish'd days,
A time, when rough rude man had naughty ways,
Would swagger, swear, get drunk, kick up a riot,
Nay even thus invade a Lady's quiet.

Now, thank our stars! those Gothic times are fled;

Now, well-bred men - and you are all well-bred -
Most justly think (and we are much the gainers)
Such conduct neither spirit, wit, nor manners.

For Right the third, our last, our best, our dearest,

That right to fluttering female hearts the nearest;
Which even the Rights of Kings, in low prostration,
Most humbly own -   'tis dear, dear admiration!
In that blest sphere alone we live and move;
There taste that life of life-immortal love.
Smiles, glances, sighs, tears, fits, flirtations, airs;
'Gainst such an host what flinty savage dares,
When awful Beauty joins with all her charms ˄
Who is so rash as to rise in rebel arms?

But truce with kings, and truce with constitutions,

With bloody armaments and revolutions;
Let Majesty your first attention summon,
Ah! ca ira! The Majesty Of Woman!

Gentleman I ask you to raise your glasses to the Ladies!

Roger Penrose “Cycles of Time”

The man who tore up the rule book, which says that for each equation you include in a popular science book you will halve its sales, has published another to follow his best seller “The Road to Reality”.  It’s called “Cycles of Time” (published in 2010) and it proposes a form of cosmology in which the universe follows successive cycles of big bangs; he calls it “Cyclic Conformal Cosmology” or CCC.

Although it’s well written and the development of his line of reasoning is clear it’s not at all easy to comprehend.  I did mathematics as a secondary subject to an engineering degree and the concepts that he uses go well beyond that level.  If you really want to understand his arguments properly you need to have studied, to graduate level, Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity and his use of tensors, together with statistical thermodynamics and quantum theory, as well as have a familiarity with current and historical cosmological models and the physics and mathematics of black holes.  People have written entire books and devoted their lives to researching these subjects and he assumes that you are up to date with their findings.  I found that it was just about possible to follow the outline of his ideas and the very numerous diagrams helped a lot.

Whilst he’s prepared to speculate in certain areas he sticks rigidly to the correctness of the second law of thermodynamics.  He emphasizes throughout the definition of entropy derived from statistical mechanics.

Current experimental evidence indicates that the universe is expanding at an increasing rate.  It’s widely accepted that at the Big Bang everything was in thermal equilibrium, the entropy of the universe was low and has increased continually thereafter.   During the evolution of the universe many black holes form, some of them at the centre of galaxies are extremely massive.  At one stage Stephen Hawking thought that matter entering a black hole entailed a destruction of entropy, which is against the second law of thermodynamics, but he withdrew that opinion in 2004.  According to Stephen Hawking’s widely accepted theoretical research, a black hole very very gradually evaporates by radiating at a very low temperature until it eventually disappears altogether with a small pop”.  Thus the entropy swallowed by the black hole is eventually released in the form of radiation. 

But not all matter will end up in black holes, whatever the age of the universe.  Some matter will just cool down and stay there.  Here Penrose is forced to accept a speculation that allows him to dispose of this matter over a very long period of time.  He postulates that matter in itself has a propensity to decay and the decay products to annihilate each other and disappear as radiation, to return, if you like, to its equivalence in energy.  The reason that he is forced down this route of allowing matter to evaporate, as well as the black holes, is that his mathematical construct of Cyclic Conformal Cosmology requires that time becomes impossible to measure at the limiting condition.  If there's no matter and just radiation, then there’s no way to construct even an atomic clock, so time itself becomes irrelevant in the expression of space time, and by using conformal mathematical concepts he postulates that the cosmological cycle restarts from this state. 

I’m afraid that this is where my understanding fails me.  In the way that he presents it diagrammatically it seems possible.  Mathematically you are equating the low entropy state of the origins of the Big Bang with the low entropy state that would exist once all of the black holes and matter had turned into low temperature radiation but how the latter, in the form of dispersed radiation, turns into the former, a singularity containing the entire energy of the cosmos, leaves me perplexed.  It can be made to work mathematically, but as in many things mathematical, it does not seem to relate to any normal concept of reality.  It’s an interesting idea nonetheless.

In the very last part of the book he speculates that it might be possible to detect the results of gravitational waves resulting from close encounters between massive black holes which took place BEFORE the big bang.  These would show as ripples appearing in the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation.  He persuaded David Spergel and his research assistant Amir Hajian at Princeton University to look for these in the CMB data and, when spurious spikes from regions around the galactic plane were suppressed, the results were not encouraging.  Then they tried using elliptical shapes instead of circles to look for correlations and they had more success but this might be due to lensing by the gravitational curvature of space time introduced by massive objects in the current aeon as the CMB radiation traverses our universe.  Roger Penrose hopes that by correcting for these anomalies he will be able to confirm his ideas about Conformal Cyclic Cosmology.  

I wish him good luck.

Meet the Politicians - Cécile Duflot

Today on France Inter it was the turn of Cécile Duflot, Party Secretary of the Europe Ecology Party (the Greens).

On the prestigious news and current affairs programme between 7am and 9am she was promulgating all the current received wisdom of this disproportionately influential minority party.
·         Nuclear power is not sustainable in the long term,
·         Renewable energy can provide all our needs and,
·         We don’t need growth because you can have prosperity without economic growth.

The depressing thing in France is that nobody challenges such statements.  Not on the radio at any rate and the result is that people are at risk of being persuaded that it’s true.

Nuclear Power is Sustainable

With the use of the right technologies, such as liquid fluoride thorium reactors, nuclear power can be both safe and sustainable for centuries to come, without increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and without generating wastes which will still be radioactive in thousands of year’s time.  There are even technologies available which can safely burn existing nuclear wastes and surplus plutonium stocks, but they all need political commitment and investment.

Renewable Sources cannot provide all our needs

Renewable energy sources do have a place in the energy mix, I'm even considering an installation myself, but they cannot be a complete replacement for nuclear power, or power from fossil fuels, because they either only work during daylight hours, or when it’s windy.  There is no suitable storage technology that will enable sufficient energy storage solely from such sources for our current patterns of demand.   I didn’t hear her mention biofuels but they need huge areas of land and, unless you live in a country that has thousands of hectares of unpopulated forest, they are in direct competition with food crops.

German consumers already pay 40% more for their electricity than consumers in France because they have less nuclear power and are now going to withdraw from it altogether.  They haven’t yet admitted that there’s a problem of satisfying the base load with renewables but when they do they will make it up by burning more Russian gas or importing French nuclear electricity!  Fortunately they are unlikely to be in direct political conflict with Putin et al, who have a history of turning off the gas as a political weapon and, however high the price of gas gets, they can afford it!  They are a successful country that can export its manufactured goods and has sustained higher economic growth over the decades than its neighbours. 

Prosperity without economic growth is a myth

France is not so lucky but Cecile Duflot has an answer to that as well, “prosperity without economic growth”.  Even that might be possible in an unconnected world where we all lived in our own small isolated communities.  I suppose it would be rather like after the romans left, no economic growth but just lots of invasions.  Between successive waves of wars and invasions there was a form of prosperity, if you could call being able to feed yourself and stay alive until the Black Death arrived, being prosperous. 

Somewhat more recently we saw what happened to communist regimes following over seventy years of stifling dogma and the cold war, both of which had the effect of restricting economic growth.  Eastern European countries are still living with the economic and political legacy. 

Oh sorry!  You want an army to defend your borders, a better health service, state subsidies for failing industries and more social protection but all without economic growth to pay for it.  Clearly we need another revolution!

So if you want to pay at least 40% more for your electricity, you think economic growth is a bad thing and you have no children or grandchildren who will need jobs in the future, then vote for Europe Ecology. You know it makes sense!