Tournament: UNLV | Round: 3 | Opponent:  | Judge:
Inherency
Despite the outdated safety mechanisms, the Obama administration continues to back nuclear power as the keystone of its non-carbon energy policy.

Popular Science, 2011
March 15th, “Secretary Chu Says U.S. Administration Remains Committed to Nuclear Power” http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-03/secretary-chu-says-administration-remains-committed-us-nuclear-power-industry, V. Guevara

In testimony today before a Congressional subcommittee, Energy Secretary Steven Chu stood behind the
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Congress today that “We will learn from this.” Let’s hope so.
The American nuclear fleet is comprised of the finest 1970’s technological innovation has to offer

Martin, 2012
Richard, editorial director for Pike Research, the leading clean energy research and analysis firm, Super Fuel: Thorium, the Green Energy Source for the Future, p. 156, V. Guevara

 To get a sense of where the nuclear power industry stands technologically, it’s
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1970s, except PCs don’t blow up and spread radioactivity across the countryside.
The issue is not with nuclear power but with the reactor design. LFTRs, can’t meltdown and can’t be weaponized.

Blue Ribbon Commission, 2011
May 19th, "The Thorium Paradigm" http://www.brc.gov/sites/default/files/meetings/presentations/thorium_paradigm_package_m_conley.pdf, V. Guevara

In the partial meltdown at Three Mile Island in 1979, the cooling system failed
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would roll right over it, like a truck over a manhole cover. 

Plan
Plan:  the United States Federal Government should remove all restrictions to the formation of a thorium bank in the United States. 

Advantage 1: Prolif
The START II negotiations yielded a significant arms reduction agreement.  The U.S. and the Russians are already disarming to historic levels

Kissinger and Scowcroft, 2012 Henry Kissinger, Frmr. Secretary of State and National Security Advisor and Brent Scowcroft, Frmr National Security Advisor,  Washington Post, " Nuclear weapons reductions must be part of strategic analysis"  http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/nuclear-weapon-reductions-must-be-part-of-strategic-analysis/2012/04/22/gIQAKG4iaT_story.html, V. Guevara

A New START treaty reestablishing the process of nuclear arms control has recently taken effect
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round of nuclear reductions to bring about ceilings as low as 300 warheads. 

The impact to disarmament is linear - each decommissioned warhead reduces the risk of the ultimate tragedy

Freeman, 2009 Lawrence, Prof of war studies at King's College in London and vice principal of the college, "A new theory for nuclear disarmament" Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, V. Guevara
The numbers ¶ games became complicated by questions of first and second strikes, ¶
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or mitigation of the ultimate tragedy ¶ should nuclear exchanges begin in earnest.

In order to reach Schell’s “end state” we must do more than dismantle our nuclear arsenal, we have to make it disappear.  The primary consideration is not the number of remaining weapons but our capacity to rebuild them.

Drell and Goodby, 2009  Sidney D. Drell, physicist and arms control expert. He is a professor emeritus at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, James E. Goodby, Frmr specialist with the US Atomic Energy Commission, vice chairman of START I and non proliferation expert, Fellow at Hoover and Brookings, "A World without Nuclear Weapons: End Stat Issues"  Hoover Institution, http://media.hoover.org/sites/default/files/documents/Sidney_Drell_James_Goodby_A_World_Without_Nuclear_Weapons_1.pdf, V. Guevara

In his 1984 book, The Abolition, Schell describes a condition that we think
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that “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.”

LFTRs consume the nuclear materials of decommissioned weapons and turns it into fuel for the reactor.  The end product of which can never be weaponized

Sorensen, 2010 Kirk, Fmr NASA engineer and Founder of Flibe Energy, TEAC2 Conference Keynote, http://energyfromthorium.com/2010/03/29/, V. Guevara

Then there’s thorium. Thorium has a special property—it breeds to uranium-
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fuel is magnified by about 1000 to 1500% over a fast reactor. 

If we don’t deplete the weapons stockpile by consuming the fissile material for power, then the state will continue to hold nuclear weapons as an inexorable legacy worthy of noncontingent preservation

Taylor and Hendry, 2008 Bryan C.,  Associate Prof of Communication @ UC Boulder and  Judith, Lecturer Dept of Communication and Journalism at University of New Mexico Albuquerque,  Summer "Insisting on Persisting:  The Nuclear Rhetoric of 'Stockpile Stewardship'" Rhetoric and Public Affairs, 11.2, V. Guevara

There is much at stake, then, in how nuclear stewardship rhetoric is produced
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these¶ claims through a critique of three themes in SSP rhetoric.8

The elimination of nuclear weapons provides a site of resistance to the military industrial complex’s use of nuclear material.  This debate demands that the state reconceive nuclear use as a civilian program instead of normalizing nuclear as a strictly weaponized product that is owned and maintained only by the state.  

Taylor and Hendry, 2008 Bryan C.,  Associate Prof of Communication @ UC Boulder and  Judith, Lecturer Dept of Communication and Journalism at University of New Mexico Albuquerque,  Summer "Insisting on Persisting:  The Nuclear Rhetoric of 'Stockpile Stewardship'" Rhetoric and Public Affairs, 11.2, V. Guevara

¶ What then, we may ask, does this debate portend for the future
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anticipate¶ or reflect upon the appropriations and consequences of their creations.86

The affirmative ballot is a call to challenge state-activism.  Lifting federal restrictions on access to thorium allows private individuals to develop LFTRs, which are designed to consume the nuclear state.  It is only by restricting government activity, that we can achieve a free life. Affirming individual liberty versus a status quo of statist control is the only way to avoid extinction.

Kateb, 1986 George, Professor Emeritus of Politics at Princeton University, "Nuclear Weapons and Individual Rights"  Dissent Magazine, V. Guevara

One task of a renewed and revised individualism is to challenge everyday state-activism
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and in behalf of avoiding¶ massive ruin and the possibility of extinction.

Advantage 2: Pu-238

Pu-238 is critical for deep space missions and NASA is running out. Without more, the space program will collapse and the U.S. will cease to be the leader in space.  Up to now, the only way Pu-238 could be created was as a byproduct of nuclear warhead production

Chow, 2011 Denise, staff writer @ Space.com, November 22nd “Mars Mission May Be Curtain Call For Plutonium-Powered Spacecraft”  http://www.space.com/13709-plutonium-shortage-nasa-planetary-science-future.html, V. Guevara

For 50 years, NASA has used plutonium-238 as the fuel source for
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be that close to the edge before we’re out of capability is irresponsible."

But LFTRs solve Pu-238 shortages.  Each ton of thorium produces about $100 million worth of Pu-238  

Sorenson, 2010 Kirk, retired NASA engineer and founder of Flibe Energy, December 6th “Is Nuclear Waste Really Nuclear Waste” Google Talk, http://thoriummsr.com/tag/chloride-reactor/, V. Guevara

Each metric tonne of thorium consumed in a LFTR could produce:¶ 9900 GWe*
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and neodymium¶ and many lives saved through clean electricity and medical radioisotopes.

Every year that the U.S. goes without producing Pu-238 is time lost on humanity’s clock to explore deep space

Aerospace Industries Association, 2012
"Continued U.S. Leadership in Deep Space Exploration Depends on Restarting Plutonium Fuel Production"  http://www.aia-aerospace.org/assets/2012%20AIA%20Pu-238%20White%20Paper%20-%20SC%20FINAL.pdf, V. Guevara

AIA is deeply concerned that the U.S. government cannot produce an adequate
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losses of technical capability and expertise for ¶ important deep space power generators. 

The cost of every second that we postpone the development of deep space technology is 100 trillion lives.

Bostrom, 2003
Nick, Professor, Faculty of Philosophy and Oxford Martin School Director, Future of Humanity Institute, “Astronomical Waste: The Opportunity Cost of Delayed Technological Development” Utilitas Vol. 15, No. 3 pp. 308-314 http://www.nickbostrom.com/astronomical/waste.html, V. Guevara

With very advanced technology, a very large population of people living happy lives could
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point in time (no time-discounting), the conclusion will hold.¶
Colonization solves Earth extinction scenarios- nuke war, super-volcanoes, asteroids, ect.

Collins and Autino 08
(Patrick, econ professor-Azabu University (Japan) and a Collaborating Researcher with the Institute for Space and Astronautical Science, and Adriano, President of the Space Renaissance International, “What the Growth of a Space Tourism Industry Could Contribute to Employment, Economic Growth, Environmental Protection, Education, Culture and World Peace, “http:www.spacefuture.com/archive/what_the_growth_of_a_space_tourism_industry_could_contribute_to_employment_economic_growth_environmental_protection_education_culture_and_world_peace.shtml) 

Investment in low-cost orbital access and other space infrastructure will facilitate the establishment
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to be achievable only through the development of a vigorous space tourism industry.

Solvency

All the private sector needs is for Congress to authorize a cooperative thorium bank to allow for the development of thorium for energy

Halper, 2012
Mark, Smart Planet Contributing Editor and Forbes writer, “Join the Thorium Bank” Smart Planet, http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/intelligent-energy/solve-the-energy-and-rare-earth-crisis-join-the-thorium-bank/17845, V. Guevara

¶ Two problems: Most countries in the West lack policy that supports thorium nuclear
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give us a pathway so that people can invest intelligently¶ and safely.”

The time is now.  The American economy, it culture of innovation and the world’s ability fulfill its energy demands hinges on the creation of a federally sanctioned thorium bank

Martin, 2012
Richard, editorial director for Pike Research, the leading clean energy research and analysis firm, Super Fuel: Thorium, the Green Energy Source for the Future, p. 189, V. Guevara

A centralized rare earths facility would enable producers to invest¶ together in federally sanctioned
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,” Kennedy told me. “If we miss it, we’re toast.”

In less than 20 years, the U.S. could have 1000 LFTRs online

Sorensen, 2010
Kirk, Fmr NASA engineer and Founder of Flibe Energy, TEAC2 Conference Keynote, http://energyfromthorium.com/2010/03/29/, V. Guevara

With this approach, plutonium from weapons and reactor fuel will start about 70 chloride
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can make it happen. May we have the wisdom to do so.
LFTRs are safer, produce far less waste, solve proliferation concerns and cost less to provide more energy to the grid.

Blue Ribbon Commission, 2011 May 19th, "The Thorium Paradigm" http://www.brc.gov/sites/default/files/meetings/presentations/thorium_paradigm_package_m_conley.pdf, V. Guevara

A Uranium reactor is an atomic pressure-cooker – it works just fine until
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the size of a basketball) will take while longer to mellow out.

Lastly, thorium power could reverse a few millennia of the creeping risk of mass extinction in less than a century

Martin, 2012
Richard, editorial director for Pike Research, the leading clean energy research and analysis firm, Super Fuel: Thorium, the Green Energy Source for the Future, p. 215, V. Guevara

¶ So, when I think about what I’ve seen reflected in thorium’s glossy surface
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are favorable, and the need is urgent. The choice is ours.