Nuclear power is the answer to all energy needs

I recently got a copy of your paper at Walmart. It strengthens my impression that politicians are in line with media in increasing the tax on us taxpayers and trying to hide truths from reaching the general public.

You want to more than double the Nye gas tax from 4 to 9 cents a gallon despite the sale of gasoline and income from it in Nye must have gone up 10 - 20 times since 1985.

Some are supporting groundwater regulation now, after the usage dropped to one third. Don't you find that suspicious? I certainly do. Meanwhile, we're letting 8,000 GPM from Ash Meadows disappear into the sand, running underground, then into California and evaporating in Death Valley. Why?

Fighting for Yucca is my favorite. That area cannot be contaminated beyond what 928 atomic bomb explosions have accomplished, all but 100 of them underground, making sure that the contaminant stays and follows the groundwater, already on the way towards Yucca Mountain. The U.S. has been using uranium isotope 235 for power. Bombs cannot be made from the remaining 99.8 percent fissionable stuff. Especially are thorium reactors much safer. They can be shut down by flipping a switch. Extra cooling is unnecessary.

Valley Electric Association is a co-op. They are still not required to buy solar-generated electricity. It is available wholesale for $ 0.21/kWh. To us customers VEA is distributing and providing power for $ 0.119/kWh. Solar-generated power would therefore be more than twice as expensive. Twenty percent of the U.S. electric power is generated in plants where everything is similar, except that the steam driving the steam turbines is provided by a nuclear steam generator. Their plants have been paid off long ago, so they are selling the electricity for $ 0.02/kWh, 23.53 percent of what VEA is paying wholesale.

So for young people, nuclear power is an excellent investment.

China and India are starting up a new coal-fired power plant every week. All the coals on Earth will likely be gone in the year 2100. We are presently increasing our incineration of the more precious natural gas. In 200 years or less the world will be totally without these resources unless we convert to nuclear soon. Carbon or hydrocarbons are needed to make steel or most other metals, concrete, plastic or rubber, gasoline, diesel oil or jet fuel plus most fertilizers. More than 50 percent of all chemicals contain carbon.

We're likely 100 to 500 years away from the next 100,000 year-long ice age despite the global warming hoax. Did anyone tell you that in modern times, the ice around Antarctica has never extended this far? That the next solar minimum will start in 2030? In ice ages the food production will fall to half at first. In a few thousand years the colder oceans will bring down the carbon dioxide, CO2 from favorable 400 ppm (parts per million) to 200 ppm, slowing plant and tree growth to half of that again. There may be food for 2 billion people.

Why do all media go for the global warming hoax? We and they know better! Tell me why!

In the very beginning of these severe food difficulties, don't you think we should strive for letting our ancestors have the ability to make steel or most other metals, concrete, plastic or rubber, gasoline, diesel oil or jet fuel plus most fertilizers and all chemicals? Without them we're back in the Stone Age!

Like Japan, I favor starting right now to convert to the nuclear age, building high-speed electric rail lines. Ocean travel should convert to a few large nuclear-powered Hovercrafts; say from Brest in France to Potomac etc.

After our hikes in the nearby hills my hiking buddy John and I sit on the porch with two beers each, counting an airplane coming and going to Las Vegas every three minutes, burning 8,000 pounds an hour of jet fuel each. With thorium and only two billion people on earth we have nuclear fuel for about a million years.

Gerhard Gran is a Pahrump resident and former offshore facilities engineer supervisor for Bechtel in Houston and a supporter of nuclear energy.