Tournament: Districts | Round: 4 | Opponent: GTech JS | Judge: Dan Bagwell
1AC – Warming
Contention 1 is Warming
Newest and BEST studies show that warming is real and anthropogenic
Muller 12 (Richard A., professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, and a former MacArthur Foundation fellow, "The Conversion of a Climate-
Change Skeptic," 7-28-12, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/30/opinion/the-conversion-of-a-climate-change-skeptic.html?_r=2%26pagewanted=all-http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/30/opinion/the-conversion-of-a-climate-change-skeptic.html?_r=2%26pagewanted=all)

CALL me a converted skeptic. Three years ago I identified problems in previous climate
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satellite measurements that solar activity changes the brightness of the sun very little.

It’s the most likely scenario for extinction
Deibel 7 ~Terry L. Professor of IR at National War College, 2007 "Foreign Affairs Strategy: Logic for American Statecraft", Conclusion: American Foreign Affairs Strategy Today~

Finally, there is one major existential threat to American security (as well as
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States, but potentially to the continued existence of life on this planet.
Climate change acts as a conflict multiplier – social unrest, civil war and political crises will all escalate as a result of changes in the environment
Brzoska et al 12 ~Michael Brzoska - Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy
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Violent Conflict", Science 18 May 2012: 869-871, Chetan~
Long-term historical studies tend to find a coincidence between climate variability and armed
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identify opportunities and coherent strategies to address societal challenges related to climate change.

The status quo guarantees 4C warming – limiting warming to 2C is key to solve – adaptation above this threshold is impossible
Washington Post citing the World Bank 11/19 (environmental journalist Brad Plumer, referencing a recent study by the World Bank, 11/19/12 "We’re on pace for 4°C of global warming. Here’s why that terrifies the World Bank." http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/11/19/were-on-pace-for-4c-of-global-warming-heres-why-the-world-bank-is-terrified/)
Over the years at the U.N. climate talks, the goal has
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far, nations have only made small progress on most of these steps.

It’s try or die – we’ve approached the tipping point and absent nuclear it’s impossible to solve the threshold – renewables alone can’t even come close
Kirsch 9 (Steve, August 18, 2009, consultant on climate change and technology with a Bachelors and Masters in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, "Add a Gigawatt a Day to Keep the Climate Crisis at Bay" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-kirsch/add-a-gigawatt-a-day-to-k_b_261728.html-http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-kirsch/add-a-gigawatt-a-day-to-k_b_261728.html)

You’d think that after all the press coverage that global warming has received that the
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, which makes it nearly 10 times more expensive than nuclear or coal.
SMR development offsets oil and gas burned in electricity production, renewables can’t provide a stable baseload or provide localized power generation – only SMRs solve warming
Loudermilk 11 ~Micah K. Loudermilk, Contributor Micah J. Loudermilk is a Research Associate for the Energy %26 Environmental Security Policy program with the Institute for National Strategic Studies at National Defense University, contracted through ASE Inc, "Small Nuclear Reactors and US Energy Security: Concepts, Capabilities, and Costs", http://www.ensec.org/index.php?option=com_content%26view=article%26id=314:small-nuclear-reactors-and-us-energy-security-concepts-capabilities-and-costs%26catid=116:content0411%26Itemid=375, May 31, 2011, Chetan~

Lastly, and often ignored, is the ability of small reactors to bring a
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to their modular nature, SMRs can be quickly constructed and deployed widely.

This allows for global energy transition– ideally suited for developing countries
Solan et al 10 – Assistant Professor of Public Policy %26 Administration and Director of the Energy Policy Institute at Boise State University (David, June. "Economic and Employment Impacts of Small Modular Nuclear Reactors." Energy Policy Institute, Center for Advanced Energy Studies. http://epi.boisestate.edu/media/3494/economic%20and%20employment%20impacts%20of%20smrs.pdf-http://epi.boisestate.edu/media/3494/economic and employment impacts of smrs.pdf)

The primary obstacle for many developing countries lies in their lack of available resources to
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regarding transport and emplacement of SMRs in remote areas of some developing countries.

Especially now as countries are looking to follow the NRC’s lead in new technical standards and operations for SMRs
Lovering et al 12 ~Jessica Lovering, Ted Nordhaus, and Michael Shellenberger are policy analyst, chairman, and president of the Breakthrough Institute, a public policy think tank and research organization. "Out of the Nuclear Closet", September 7th, 2012, http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/09/07/out_of_the_nuclear_closet-http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/09/07/out_of_the_nuclear_closet, Chetan~
To move the needle on nuclear energy to the point that it might actually be
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than developing the nuclear technologies we will need to get that job done.

Nuclear power solves 2C
Lynas 9-14 ~Mark Lynas – Climate Scientist for The Guardian, "Without nuclear, the battle against global warming is as good as lost", September 14th, 2012, http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/sep/14/nuclear-global-warming-http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/sep/14/nuclear-global-warming, Chetan~
Let me be very clear. Without nuclear, the battle against global warming is
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That will devastate ecosystems and societies worldwide on a scale which is unimaginable.

1AC – Natural Gas
Contention 2 is Natural Gas
Natural gas price spikes are inevitable – nuclear power is key to reduce volatility
Myers 13 (Richard J., Vice President – NEI, "NEI’s Richard Myers on the Wall Street Journal Story on Natural Gas and Nuclear Energy," NEI Nuclear Notes, 1-30, http://neinuclearnotes.blogspot.com/2013/01/neis-richard-myers-on-wall-street.html-http://neinuclearnotes.blogspot.com/2013/01/neis-richard-myers-on-wall-street.html)

Electricity production issues are not quite as cut-and-dried as portrayed in
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yet returned to the level seen in 2007, before the financial crisis.

Price volatility kills the manufacturing industry
Hayward 11 (Stephen – K. Weyerhaeuser fellow at AEI, "The gas revolution", 4/11, http://www.aei.org/article/energy-and-the-environment/conventional-energy/the-gas-revolution/-http://www.aei.org/article/energy-and-the-environment/conventional-energy/the-gas-revolution/**)**

When Andrew Liveris took over as CEO of Dow Chemical at the end of 2004
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been bit before by confident assurances that cheap gas was here to stay.

Manufacturing is key to the economy and competitiveness – massive multiplier effects
Boushey 12 – Heather Boushey, Senior Economist, Center for American Progress Action Fund, July 19th, 2012, "Testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Meanson Tax Reform and the U.S. Manufacturing Sector" waysandmeans.house.gov/uploadedfiles/boushey_testimony.pdf
Having a strong manufacturing industry in the United States should be at the top of
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ideas. How will we fare if those ideas originate somewhere else?"34
Economic decline causes competition and instability that goes nuclear – statistics prove our impact
Royal 10 – Jedediah Royal, Director of Cooperative Threat Reduction at the U.S. Department of Defense, 2010, "Economic Integration, Economic Signaling and the Problem of Economic Crises," in Economics of War and Peace: Economic, Legal and Political Perspectives, ed. Goldsmith and Brauer, p. 213-215

Less intuitive is how periods of economic decline may increase the likelihood of external conflict
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1999), and Kisangani and Pickering (2009) suggest that the tendency towards
diversionary tactics are greater for democratic states than autocratic states, due to the fact
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not featured prominently in the economic-security debate and deserves more attention.
Price stability is key to the steel industry
Gibson 12 (1/17, National Journal, http://energy.nationaljournal.com/2012/01/whats-ahead-for-natural-gas.php?comments=expandall~~%23comments-http://energy.nationaljournal.com/2012/01/whats-ahead-for-natural-gas.php?comments=expandall Thomas J. Gibson received his law degree from Georgetown University where he graduated magna cum laude. He holds a Master of Marine Affairs degree from the University of Rhode Island and a B.S. in Naval Architecture from the United States Naval Academy. Gibson served as Senior Vice President of Advocacy for the American Chemistry Council. Previously, Gibson served as the Senior Vice President, Government Affairs for the Portland Cement Association. Prior to joining PCA in 2004, Gibson served as Chief of Staff for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.)

These potential economic and energy benefits have no greater potential than in the domestic steel
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that the current low cost and availability are driving this remarkable manufacturing renaissance.
That’s key to aircraft carriers and the navy
Gibson 11 – Thomas J. Gibson received his law degree from Georgetown University where
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AISI/About AISI/Profile Brochure F-singles_CX.pdf

Military uses for steel are extensive. Thousands of skilled men and women of the
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resistant ambush-protected (MRAP) vehicles use significant amounts of steel.
Naval power solves multiple scenarios of nuclear conflict
Conway et. al 7 (James – General, US Marine Corps, Commandant of the Marine Corps, Gary Roughead – Admiral, U.S. navy, Chief of Naval Operations, Thad Allen – Admiral, U.S. Coast Guard, Commandant of the Coast Guard, A Cooperative Strategy for 21^st Century Seapower, p. http://www.navy.mil/maritime/MaritimeStrategy.pdf)
The world economy is tightly interconnected. Over the past four decades, total sea
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and sustain forces, sea control and power projection enable extended campaigns ashore. 

SMRs are vital to price stability – it’s the only energy source with a stable baseload
Colvin 7 –President Emeritus Nuclear Energy Institute (Joe, 2/7. "More Nuclear Energy: Why America Needs It Now", http://nei.org/newsandevents/speechesandtestimony/2007/miamichamberextended-http://nei.org/newsandevents/speechesandtestimony/2007/miamichamberextended)

First, then, the importance of nuclear energy to the energy mix of the
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. That leads me to our second topic—the nuclear renaissance in this
1AC – Plan

Plan: The United States federal government should substantially increase production cost incentives for domestic deployment of small modular nuclear reactors
1AC – Solvency
Contention 3 is Solvency –
Lack of financing is the biggest obstacle to plant construction
Domenici and Meserve 10 ~Pete V. Domenici and Dr. Richard Meserve – Bipartisan Policy Center, "Letter to Chairman Jaczko – Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission", April 6th, 2010, http://bipartisanpolicy.org/sites/default/files/NRC%20Licensing%20Review.pdf-http://bipartisanpolicy.org/sites/default/files/NRC Licensing Review.pdf, Chetan~ 

In summary, we found that, while many of the stakeholders have encountered some
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a bigger obstacle to nuclear plant construction at the moment than licensing issues.
DOE approved half-the-cost of initial reactors in November and Obama has taken credit – takes out any perception or funding disads
Koch 11/27 (USA Today, 11/27/12, Wendy Koch, covers Congress for USA Today since 1998. Former investigative reporter and diplomatic correspondent for Hearst Newspapers, and  foreign policy writer for the U.S. Voice of America, master’s degree, magna cum laude, from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, "Nuclear industry looks toward smaller reactors" http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/11/26/nuclear-small-modular-reactors/1727001/)

These small modular reactors (SMRs), about a third the physical size of traditional
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or exported, to remote or small sites that cannot support large reactors.
Plan solves commercialization
Rosner and Goldberg 11 (William E. Wrather Distinguished Service Professor in the Departments of Astronomy and Astrophysics and Physics at the University of Chicago, and Special Assistant to the Director at the Argonne National Laboratory (Robert and Stephen, November. "Small Modular Reactors – Key to Future Nuclear Power Generation in the U.S." https://epic.sites.uchicago.edu/sites/epic.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/EPICSMRWhitePaperFinalcopy.pdf-https://epic.sites.uchicago.edu/sites/epic.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/EPICSMRWhitePaperFinalcopy.pdf)

Assuming that early SMR deployments will carry cost premiums (until the benefits of learning
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that could form the basis for further dialogue between stakeholders and policy makers.
Solves cost overruns
Rosner and Goldberg 11 (William E. Wrather Distinguished Service Professor in the Departments of Astronomy and Astrophysics and Physics at the University of Chicago, and Special Assistant to the Director at the Argonne National Laboratory (Robert and Stephen, November. "Small Modular Reactors – Key to Future Nuclear Power Generation in the U.S." https://epic.sites.uchicago.edu/sites/epic.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/EPICSMRWhitePaperFinalcopy.pdf-https://epic.sites.uchicago.edu/sites/epic.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/EPICSMRWhitePaperFinalcopy.pdf)

Production Cost Incentive: A production cost incentive is a performance-based incentive.
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of the size of production incentives required for the FOAK plants described earlier.
Federal action is crucial to encourage private investing by controlling risk factors that cause regulatory delays
Gale et al 9 (Kelley Michael, Finance Department Chair – Latham %26 Watkins, "Financing the Nuclear Renaissance: The Benefits and Potential Pitfalls of Federal %26 State Government Subsidies and the Future of Nuclear Power in California," Energy Law Journal, Vol. 30, p. 497-552, http://www.felj.org/docs/elj302/19gale-crowell-and-peace.pdf-http://www.felj.org/docs/elj302/19gale-crowell-and-peace.pdf)

In a similar fashion, regulatory risk insurance and loan guarantees provided by the federal
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it can be adapted to best encourage private sector financing for nuclear energy.
Federal investment key to ensure investor confidence in the licensing process
Wallace, 5 – President, Constellation Generation Group (Mike, 4/26. CQ Congressional Testimony, "NUCLEAR POWER 2010 INITIATIVE" Lexis)

The Department of Energy’s Nuclear Power 2010 program is a necessary, but not sufficient
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is a necessary and appropriate investment in U.S. energy security.
SMRs are key to solve global resource and prolif problems and can be built in 2 years
Silverstein 1/15 (Ken– Editor-In-Chief for Energy Central’s EnergyBiz Insider, research focus in economics and energy policy, MBA, MA "After Fukushima, U.S. Seeks to Advance Small Nuclear Reactors," 1/15/12, http://www.forbes.com/sites/kensilverstein/2013/01/15/after-fukushima-u-s-seeks-to-advance-small-nuclear-reactors/)

Smaller reactors, though, have a place: They might not only serve niche
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.S. have their reactors refueled once every 18 to 24 months.
SMRs avoid major licensing problems.
Cunningham, Policy Analyst for Energy and Climate at the American Security Project, 12 (Nick, October, American Security Project, Small Modular Reactors: A Possible Path Forward for Nuclear Power" http://americansecurityproject.org/featured-items/2012/report-small-modular-reactor/)

Another major drawback for conventional large reactors is the lack of standardization. This leads
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for each project, which can lead to delays and inflated costs. 3

SMRs can’t meltdown
Wheeler 10 – Workforce Planning Manager with Entergy; Producer "This Week in Nuclear" Podcast (John, 11/21 "Small Modular Reactors May Offer Significant Safety %26 Security Enhancements." http://thisweekinnuclear.com/?p=1193)

They are smaller, so the amount of radioactivity contained in each reactor is less
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and lower operating costs (a smaller footprint means a smaller security force).