Tournament:  | Round:  | Opponent:  | Judge: 

1AC

Plan

Plan

Plan: The United States Federal Government should provide matching funds to companies willing to develop and build a liquid fluoride thorium nuclear reactor in its federal laboratories.

1

Advantage 1 is Warming
Overwhelming scientific consensus indicates warming is accelerating and anthropogenic
Pearce 7 – Fred, environment consultant for New Scientist
~[With speed and violence: why scientists fear tipping points in climate change, GoogleBooks, pp. 10-17~]cn
First, the basic physics. As we have seen, much of this goes
AND
? Some of them can be heard making the case against climate change.
The impact is extinction
Heinberg 7 – Richard, Senior Fellow at Post Carbon Institute, recipient of the Award for Excellence %26 Energy Education
~[Peak Everything, p. 19-22~]cn
First, some problems are more critical than others. A patient may suffer simultaneously
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community involvement, intergenerational solidarity, and the other intangible goods listed earlier.
Warming turns and magnifies their impacts
Burke 8 – Sharon, Senior Fellow and Director of the Energy Security Project at the Center for New American Security
~[Climatic Cataclysm: The Foreign Policy and National Security Implications of Climate Change, GoogleBooks, pp. 157-161~]cn
At the same time, however, the implications of both trends for human society
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, Central America, the Caribbean, South America, and Southeast Asia.
LFTRs solve – they’re cost-competitive and replace current sources of energy
Hargraves 11 – Robert, teaches Energy Policy at the Institute for Lifelong Education at Dartmouth College, PhD in physics from Brown University, and Ralph Moir, published ten papers on molten salt reactors during his career at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, ScD in nuclear engineering from MIT
~[Jan, http://www.naturals.ukpc.net/TR/Hansen/liq1.pdf~~]gw
Burning coal for power is the largest source of atmospheric CO2 , which drives global
AND
, ending 10 billion tons per year of CO2 emissions from coal plants.
LFTRs substantially cut emissions and reverse warming trends
Hargraves 12 – Robert, teaches Energy Policy at the Institute for Lifelong Education at Dartmouth College, PhD in physics from Brown University
~[July, "THORIUM energy cheaper than coal"~]gw
Taiwan’s Taichung 4-4 GW coal power plant is the world’s largest. The
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ocean C02 absorption and acidification, harmful to sea life and food supplies.
U.S. clean energy development key to global spillover
Roberts 4 – Paul, journalist, author, energy expert and writer for Harpers
~[The End of Oil, pg. 325-6~]cn
Politically, a new U.S. energy policy would send a powerful message
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business prospects in China that it now has its own vehicles in Beijing."

2

Advantage 2 is Competitiveness

Advantage 2 is competitiveness

China is a powerhouse – Our tech competitiveness protected our heg, but it won’t for long

Rachman 11 – Gideon, chief foreign-affairs commentator for the Financial Times and author
~[Jan/Feb, http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/01/02/think_again_american_decline?page=full~~]cn
"We’ve Heard All This About American Decline Before." This time it’s different.
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that al Qaeda and others have skillfully exploited, Obama or no Obama.

LFTR is our last shot to maintain competitiveness

Martin 11 – Richard, editorial director for Pike Research, author of "SuperFuel: Thorium, The Green Energy Source for the Future"
~[2/1, http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/china-thorium-power/~~]gw
China has officially announced it will launch a program to develop a thorium-fueled
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of energy in its own hands," stated the Wen Hui Bao report. 

Heg is key to prevent nuclear war and extinction – even if multipolarity is inevitable, heg is vital to retain global social order

Barnett 11 – Thomas, Former Senior Strategic Researcher and Professor in the Warfare Analysis %26 Research Department, Center for Naval Warfare Studies, U.S. Naval War College American military geostrategist and Chief Analyst at Wikistrat, worked as the Assistant for Strategic Futures in the Office of Force Transformation in the Department of Defense
~[3/7, http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/8099/the-new-rules-leadership-fatigue-puts-u-s-and-globalization-at-crossroads~]cs-http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/8099/the-new-rules-leadership-fatigue-puts-u-s-and-globalization-at-crossroads%5dcs
It is worth first examining the larger picture: We live in a time of
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the 20th century, setting the stage for the Pacific Century now unfolding.

Heg key to prevent East Asian arms race

Lieber 5 – Professor of Government and International Affairs at Georgetown University
~[Robert J., The American Era: Power and Strategy for the 21st Century, p. 174~]
Taken together, these Asian involvements are not without risk, especially vis-a
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the "oxygen" crucial for the region’s stability and economic prosperity.37

Global nuclear war

Cirincione 2k – Joseph, Director of the Non-Proliferation Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
~[Foreign Policy, "The Asian nuclear reaction chain", Issue 118, Spring, Proquest~]
The blocks would fall quickest and hardest in Asia, where proliferation pressures are already
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, perhaps, the first combat use of a nuclear weapon since 1945.

The Soviet Union proves competitiveness is key to both the economy and effective foreign policy.

Morris 92 (Milton, vice president of research at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington, D.C., Washington Quarterly, Autumn, Lexis)

Economic Competition for Expanded Domestic Opportunities. Even before the breathtaking developments of the past two years, it had become clear that growing economic competition was rapidly challenging military power as the key to global leadership. The end of the Cold War has confirmed that development, because the Soviet Union, a military giant, collapsed from economic weakness. Representative Lee Hamilton (D-Ind.) notes in this regard that
Economic power is the new determinant of international stature. The restoration of U.S. competitiveness is critical not only to our domestic economy but to our foreign policy as well. Our economic problems are limiting the reach of our foreign policy at a time when the rest of the world is looking to the United States for leadership. n4

Solvency

Solvency

Government support for private initiatives is key to rapid development – matching funds programs generate massive investment in LFTRs

Martin 12 – Award-winning science and technology journalist, editorial director for Pike Research
~[Richard Martin, Award-winning science and technology journalist %26 editorial director for Pike Research, SuperFuel: Thorium, the Green Energy Source for the Future, May 2012. (p. 232)~](NSB)
WHILE A NEW MANHATTAN PROJECT is not going to happen, some form of government
AND
for a total of %24 4 billion to %24 10 billion a year.

The use of national labs solve any tech barriers – giving businesses access to them is key to LFTR development

Hargraves 12 – Robert, teaches Energy Policy at the Institute for Lifelong Education at Dartmouth College, PhD in physics from Brown University
~[July, "THORIUM energy cheaper than coal"~]gw
US National Laboratories are capable of developing LFTR. The US has many national laboratories
AND
step in to lead development, as is happening in China and France.

Government and private collaboration can lead to mass produced LFTRs within two decades

Sorensen 12 – Kirk, Founder and Chief Technologist at Flibe Energy, Grad student in Nuclear Engineering, former Chief Nuclear Technologist at Teledyne Brown Engineering
~[July, "Response to Oliver Tickell’s Anti-Thorium Article" http://energyfromthorium.com/tickell-rebuttal-jul-2012/~~]gw
The immediacy of a solution should not be the primary metric of the viability or
AND
both in terms of cost and time between Space-X and NASA.

Don’t confuse further development with tech issues – the knowledge is there

Sorensen 12 – Kirk, Founder and Chief Technologist at Flibe Energy, Grad student in Nuclear Engineering, former Chief Nuclear Technologist at Teledyne Brown Engineering
~[July, "Response to Oliver Tickell’s Anti-Thorium Article" http://energyfromthorium.com/tickell-rebuttal-jul-2012/~~]gw
The primary uncertainty is bureaucratic, not technical. The fundamental physics, operation,
AND
fluid molten-salt reactor power station" such as the modern LFTR.

Successful demonstrations prove LFTRs are technologically viable

Hargraves 12 – Robert, teaches Energy Policy at the Institute for Lifelong Education at Dartmouth College, PhD in physics from Brown University
~[July, "THORIUM energy cheaper than coal"~]gw
ORNL’s Molten Salt Reactor Experiment was a success. The Oak Ridge Lab molten salt
AND
salt could remove the bred fissile uranium, leaving the thorium fluoride behind. 

Tournament:  | Round:  | Opponent:  | Judge: 

1AC

Plan

Plan: President Obama should issue an executive order to provide matching funds to companies willing to develop and build a liquid fluoride thorium nuclear reactor in its federal laboratories.

1

Advantage 1 is Waste

LFTR waste is less radioactive, decays way faster, and is easily stored

Sorensen 12 – Kirk, Founder and Chief Technologist at Flibe Energy, Grad student in Nuclear Engineering, former Chief Nuclear Technologist at Teledyne Brown Engineering
~July, "Response to Oliver Tickell’s Anti-Thorium Article" http://energyfromthorium.com/tickell-rebuttal-jul-2012/~~gw
The significance of elimination of long-lived actinides/transuranics from the waste stream
AND
waste streams is perhaps the most significant differentiator over legacy spent nuclear fuel.

LFTRs can re-use current nuclear waste, reducing the amount needed to be stored

Sorensen 12 – Kirk, Founder and Chief Technologist at Flibe Energy, Grad student in Nuclear Engineering, former Chief Nuclear Technologist at Teledyne Brown Engineering
~July, "Response to Oliver Tickell’s Anti-Thorium Article" http://energyfromthorium.com/tickell-rebuttal-jul-2012/~~gw
LFTRs would not be configured to directly consume waste fuel from conventional reactors, but
AND
reducing the long-term geologic storage requirements for legacy spent nuclear fuel.

Yucca Mountain is inevitable – Fukushima fears, state pressure and lawsuits push adoption

Tollefson 11 (Jeff, former Knight fellow in science journalism at MIT,  "Battle of Yucca Mountain rages on", Nature, Vol. 473, No. 266, 5-19-11, RSR)rmm

By then, however, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) was in the
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department. NRC officials say the commissioners are still deliberating on the issue. 

Yucca Mountain disposal risks creating a nuclear volcano

New Scientist 2
~http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg17523571.300-yucca-mountain-could-become-nuclear-volcano.html~~gw
IF A volcano ever erupted beneath the planned nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in
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published in Geophysical Research Letters (DOI: 10.1029/2002GL014665). 

Nuclear volacano kills billions

AetherPress Accessed 9
~http://www.aetherpress.com/news.htm~~gw
The planned Yucca mountain nuclear waste storage represents an unprecedented hazard for humanity. The
AND
, and may as well be the grandest disaster precipitated by our species.  

Federal government forces indigenous people to accept dumping or move because they have no way to resist

Murphy 10 – Meghan A., writing in Social Eyes, Boston College’s sociology journal
~Fall 2010, "Environmental Exploitation of Indigenous and Minority People"; Social Eyes, Issue 2, http://www.bc.edu/content/dam/files/schools/cas_sites/sociology/pdf/2SocialEyes.pdf~~%23page=52~~ecl
Native American reservations are often targeted for nuclear waste dumps by the federal government and
AND
susceptible to farming pesticides and fecal bacteria from animal waste (Mascarenhas 2008). 

Environmental genocide on Native American lands perpetuates "human sacrifice zones" and threatens all aspects of Native American life

Hooks 4 – Gregory and Chad L., Washington State University Department of Sociology Chair %26 Smith, Texas State University Sociology Professor
~"The Treadmill of Destruction: National Sacrifice Areas and Native Americans",  American Sociological  Review, Vol. 60, No. 4, p.562, August 2004~ecl
Some Indian lands have suffered such severe and prolonged environmental degradation that it is beyond
AND
and cultural welfare. (U.S. Department of Defense 2001). 

Genocide risks destruction on a global level – allowing future genocide causes extinction

Campbell 2001 - Professor Of Political Science And International Relations (Kenneth J., University of Delaware, Assistant Genocide and the Global Village, p. 15-16)

Regardless of where or on how small a scale it begins, the crime of
AND
punish all malicious assaults on the fundamental integrity of the prevailing international order.

2

Advantage 1 is Warming
Overwhelming scientific consensus indicates warming is accelerating and anthropogenic
Pearce 7 – Fred, environment consultant for New Scientist
~With speed and violence: why scientists fear tipping points in climate change, GoogleBooks, pp. 10-17~cn
First, the basic physics. As we have seen, much of this goes
AND
? Some of them can be heard making the case against climate change.
Warming turns and magnifies their impacts
Burke  8 – Sharon, Senior Fellow and Director of the Energy Security Project at the Center for New American Security
~Climatic Cataclysm: The Foreign Policy and National Security Implications of Climate Change, GoogleBooks, pp. 157-161~cn
At the same time, however, the implications of both trends for human society
AND
, Central America, the Caribbean, South America, and Southeast Asia.
LFTRs solve – they’re cost-competitive and replace current sources of energy
Hargraves 11 – Robert, teaches Energy Policy at the Institute for Lifelong Education at Dartmouth College, PhD in physics from Brown University, and Ralph Moir, published ten papers on molten salt reactors during his career at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, ScD in nuclear engineering from MIT
~Jan, http://www.naturals.ukpc.net/TR/Hansen/liq1.pdf~~gw
Burning coal for power is the largest source of atmospheric CO2 , which drives global
AND
, ending 10 billion tons per year of CO2 emissions from coal plants.
U.S. clean energy development key to global spillover
Roberts 4 – Paul, journalist, author, energy expert and writer for Harpers
~The End of Oil, pg. 325-6~cn
Politically, a new U.S. energy policy would send a powerful message
AND
business prospects in China that it now has its own vehicles in Beijing."

Solvency

Solvency

Government support for private initiatives is key to rapid development – matching funds programs generate massive investment in LFTRs

Martin 12 – Award-winning science and technology journalist, editorial director for Pike Research
~Richard Martin, Award-winning science and technology journalist %26 editorial director for Pike Research, SuperFuel: Thorium, the Green Energy Source for the Future, May 2012. (p. 232)~(NSB)
WHILE A NEW MANHATTAN PROJECT is not going to happen, some form of government
AND
for a total of %24 4 billion to %24 10 billion a year.

The use of national labs solve any tech barriers – giving businesses access to them is key to LFTR development

Hargraves 12 – Robert, teaches Energy Policy at the Institute for Lifelong Education at Dartmouth College, PhD in physics from Brown University
~July, "THORIUM energy cheaper than coal"~gw
US National Laboratories are capable of developing LFTR. The US has many national laboratories
AND
step in to lead development, as is happening in China and France.

Government and private collaboration can lead to mass produced LFTRs within two decades

Sorensen 12 – Kirk, Founder and Chief Technologist at Flibe Energy, Grad student in Nuclear Engineering, former Chief Nuclear Technologist at Teledyne Brown Engineering
~July, "Response to Oliver Tickell’s Anti-Thorium Article" http://energyfromthorium.com/tickell-rebuttal-jul-2012/~~gw
The immediacy of a solution should not be the primary metric of the viability or
AND
both in terms of cost and time between Space-X and NASA.

Don’t confuse further development with tech issues – the knowledge is there

Sorensen 12 – Kirk, Founder and Chief Technologist at Flibe Energy, Grad student in Nuclear Engineering, former Chief Nuclear Technologist at Teledyne Brown Engineering
~July, "Response to Oliver Tickell’s Anti-Thorium Article" http://energyfromthorium.com/tickell-rebuttal-jul-2012/~~gw
The primary uncertainty is bureaucratic, not technical. The fundamental physics, operation,
AND
fluid molten-salt reactor power station" such as the modern LFTR.

Successful demonstrations prove LFTRs are technologically viable

Hargraves 12 – Robert, teaches Energy Policy at the Institute for Lifelong Education at Dartmouth College, PhD in physics from Brown University
~July, "THORIUM energy cheaper than coal"~gw
ORNL’s Molten Salt Reactor Experiment was a success. The Oak Ridge Lab molten salt
AND
salt could remove the bred fissile uranium, leaving the thorium fluoride behind. 

Their disads are non-unique - Nuclear renaissance is eminent – it’s the only viable electricity source worldwide, its just a question of type

Marketwire 12 – Part of the Paragon Report on uranium ore stock future
~5/3/12, http://finance.yahoo.com/news/nuclear-renaissance-back-track-122000381.html~~cs
NEW YORK, NY—(Marketwire -05/03/12)- Last year
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," Areva SA’s Chief Commercial Officer Ruben Lazo said in a previous interview.