Tournament:  | Round:  | Opponent:  | Judge:
Plan Text
Plan: The United States Federal Government should substantially increase market-fixed production cost incentives for domestic deployment of small modular nuclear reactors.
Meltdowns

US nuclear renaissance inevitable- only way to meet demand and government subsidies
Worthington 2012 (David Worthington, February 9, 2012, The U.S. nuclear renaissance has begun  , Smart Planet, http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/intelligent-energy/the-us-nuclear-renaissance-has-begun/13058) JD
There are cooling towers ….The Vogtle reactors would power up to 1 million homes at a cost of US$14 billion, CNN reported.

Global cooperation has restored public faith in nuclear energy; Fukushima doesn’t matter
WNA 11 (World Nuclear Association, The Nuclear Renaissance  , August 2011, http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf104.html) JD
The 1986 Chernobyl disaster ….account of those from nuclear power
Old reactor types make meltdowns inevitable – reactors have shut down in the past and the NRC has failed at regulation
Gronlund 2007 (Nuclear power in a Warming world: Assessing the Risks, Addressing the Challenges, Lisbeth Gronlund;  David Lochbaum;  Edwin Lyman, Union of Concerned Scientists, http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/documents/nuclear_power/nuclear-power-in-a-warming-world.pdf) JD
Safety problems remain ….year or more is   needed to fix them.
SMRs solve
Wheeler 10 (November 22, 2010, “Small Modular Reactors May Offer Significant Safety & Security Enhancements”, John Wheeler, Clear Trend, http://thisweekinnuclear.com/?p=1193) JD
Even better, most SMRs are small ….systems in use today, and lower operating costs (a smaller footprint means a smaller security force).
Meltdowns cause extinction
Lendman, 2011
(Stephen, Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization, 03/ 13, “Nuclear Meltdown in Japan,”, The People’s Voice http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2011/03/13/nuclear-meltdown-in-japan, accessed 8-2-12, RSR)
Reuters said the 1995 Kobe quake caused ….the entire region. "It could be, literally, an apocalyptic event.

Heg
SMRs key to tech leadership – puts the US on the cutting edge of nuclear technology.
Fleischmann, ‘11
(Chuck, Representative from the 3rd District in Tennessee, “Small Modular Reactors Could Help With U.S. Energy Needs”, American Physical Society, Vol. 6, No. 2, October 2011, http://www.aps.org/publications/capitolhillquarterly/201110/backpage.cfm, accessed 8-1-12, RSR)
The timely implementation of small reactors ….technologies in the nuclear arena. 

Prefer our internal link – explains the last five centuries of global hegemons
Drezner 2001 Daniel Drezner (professor of international politics at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University) 2001 “State structure, technological leadership and the maintenance of hegemony” http://www.danieldrezner.com/research/tech.pdf
In this decade, proponents of globalization argue ….hegemonic power is found. 

Tech decline will cause heg collapse- US will lashout to retain power
Pape 2009 Robert A. Pape (Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago) January/February 2009 “The Empire Falls”, The National Interest, June 28, http://www.nationalinterest.org/Article.aspx?id=20484
America is losing its overwhelming ….-a true peer competitor is looming. America's current, rapid domestic economic decline is merely accelerating our own downfall.

Otherwise – status based great power conflict is inevitable – relative lead key to prevent global conflict
Wohlforth 2009 William C. Wohlforth (a professor of government at Dartmouth College) 2009 “Unipolarity, Status Competition, and Great Power War” Project Muse
Second, I question the dominant view ….will cause people to behave in ways that directly contradict their material interest in security and/or prosperity.
Solves escalation of global hotspots- retrenchment causes bickering internationally over leadership and prevents cooperation
Brzezinski 2012 Zbigniew K. Brzezinski (CSIS counselor and trustee and cochairs the CSIS Advisory Board. He is also the Robert E. Osgood Professor of American Foreign Policy at the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, in Washington, D.C. He is cochair of the American Committee for Peace in the Caucasus and a member of the International Advisory Board of the Atlantic Council. He is a former chairman of the American-Ukrainian Advisory Committee. He was a member of the Policy Planning Council of the Department of State from 1966 to 1968; chairman of the Humphrey Foreign Policy Task Force in the 1968 presidential campaign; director of the Trilateral Commission from 1973 to 1976; and principal foreign policy adviser to Jimmy Carter in the 1976 presidential campaign. From 1977 to 1981, Dr. Brzezinski was national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter. In 1981, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his role in the normalization of U.S.-China relations and for his contributions to the human rights and national security policies of the United States. He was also a member of the President’s Chemical Warfare Commission (1985), the National Security Council–Defense Department Commission on Integrated Long-Term Strategy (1987–1988), and the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (1987–1989). In 1988, he was cochairman of the Bush National Security Advisory Task Force, and in 2004, he was cochairman of a Council on Foreign Relations task force that issued the report Iran: Time for a New Approach. Dr. Brzezinski received a B.A. and M.A. from McGill University (1949, 1950) and Ph.D. from Harvard University (1953). He was a member of the faculties of Columbia University (1960–1989) and Harvard University (1953–1960). Dr. Brzezinski holds honorary degrees from Georgetown University, Williams College, Fordham University, College of the Holy Cross, Alliance College, the Catholic University of Lublin, Warsaw University, and Vilnius University. He is the recipient of numerous honors and awards) February 2012 “After America” http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/01/03/after_america?page=0,0

For if America falters, the world is unlikely to be dominated by a single preeminent successor ….imperative that the United States pursue a new, timely strategic vision for its foreign policy  or start bracing itself for a dangerous slide into global turmoil.

Warming

Global warming is happening; 5 reasons
NWF 12 (July 2012, National Wildlife Federation, http://www.nwf.org/Global-Warming/What-is-Global-Warming/Global-Warming-is-Happening-Now.aspx) JD
No longer is global warming something only facing future generations. … as low-lying areas are inundated with saltwater.
It’s anthropogenic and scientific consensus goes aff.
Lewandowsky and Ashley 2011 (Stephan Lewandowsky, Professor of Cognitive Studies at the University of Western Australia, and Michael Ashley, Professor of Astrophysics at the University of New South Wales, June 24, 2011, “The false, the confused and the mendacious: how the media gets it wrong on climate change,” http://goo.gl/u3nOC)
But despite these complexities, some aspects of climate science are thoroughly settled. ….discovered in the middle of the 19th century, pre-dating even Sherlock Holmes and Queen Victoria.
Renewables and CCS can’t do it alone, fossil fuels will fill in – it’s try or die for nuclear
George Monbiot, author of the bestselling books The Age of Consent: A Manifesto for a New World Order and Captive State: The Corporate Takeover of Britain, Heat: how to stop the planet burning and Bring on the Apocalypse?, 3-15-2012, "Why I am urging David Cameron to act against Friends of the Earth," The Guardian,http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2012/mar/15/david-cameron-friends-of-the-earth

It is plain that we cannot do both. ….most of the remainder, the gap will be filled by fossil fuel.
Next 5 years key to avoid a tipping point – gets modeled internationally
Strobe Talbott, President of the Brookings Institution, and John-Michael Arnold, special assistant to the President at Brookings, 5-25-2012, “It’s the Climate, Stupid!” Brookings,http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2012/5/25%20americas%20role%20talbott/0525%20americas%20role%20talbott.pdf

On both economic and security policy, ….window of obligation, it is closing.
Nuclear tech solves warming – decreases reliance on carbon based sources.
WNA 7 (World Nuclear Association, Nuclear Energy: Meeting the Climate Change Challenge¶ , IPCC, 4th Assessment Report, Mitigation of Climate Change (2007), http://www.world-nuclear.org/climatechange/nuclear_meetingthe_climatechange_challenge.html)
Over the next twenty five years global electricity demand is expected to double….. reduce its reliance on fossil fuels.
SMRs key to meet emission reduction targets – they replace coal plants and sharply curtail emissions. Natural gas can’t fill in.
Licata ‘12
[John, Apr 26, America, It’s OK to favor Small Modular Reactors & phase out coal, http://www.cmegroup.com/education/files/america-its-ok-to-favor-small-modular-reactors-and-phase-out-coal.pdf]

A case can be made that building a new coal-fired power plant can cost far greater than an SMR. ….smarter choice over coal-fired plants.
Warming causes extinction
Tickell, ‘8
(Oliver, Climate Researcher, The Gaurdian, “On a planet 4C hotter, all we can prepare for is extinction”, 8-11, http://www.guardian.co.uk/ commentisfree/2008/aug/11/ climatechange)
We need to get prepared for four degrees of global warming,…: the warming caused by human emissions could propel us towards a similar hothouse Earth.

Solvency

Nuclear industry is constricting – no new reactors coming online
Pete Domenici and Warren F. “Pete” Miller, part time Research Professor at Texas A and M University and former assistant secretary for nuclear energy at the U.S. Department of Energy, July 2012, “Maintaining U.S. Leadership in Global Nuclear Energy Markets,” Bipartisan Policy Center,http://bipartisanpolicy.org/sites/default/files/Leadership%20in%20Nuclear%20Energy%20Markets.pdf

Prospects for new reactor construction … very difficult for at least the next decade, if not longer.
Incentives now takes out their disads
WNN 12 (World Nuclear News, SMR vendors apply for government funds, May 22 2012,
http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/NN-SMR_vendors_apply_for_government_funds-2205124.html)
The DoE announced in March 2012 ….candidates for accelerated commercialization."

But only the plan solves- production cost incentives for SMRs key – Creates a sustainable domestic industry.
Rosner and Goldberg, ‘11
(Robert (William E. Wrather Distinguished Service Professor in the Departments of Astronomy and Astrophysics and Physics) and Stephen (Special Assistant to the Director at the Argonne National Laboratory) , Energy Policy Institute at Chicago, “Small Modular Reactors – Key to Future Nuclear Power Generation in the U.S.”, Technical Paper, Revision 1, November 2011) RCM
Production Cost Incentive: A production cost incentive is a performance-based incentive. With a production cost incentive, …to further analysis as higher quality cost estimates become available.

The current market climate makes Federal investment key to electric supply and Nuclear viability
Bipartisan Policy Center September 2012
Maintaining U.S. ¶ Leadership in ¶ Global Nuclear ¶ Energy Markets¶ A Report of the Bipartisan ¶ Policy Center’s Nuclear Initiative¶ Senator Pete V. Domenici and Dr. Warren F. “Pete” Miller, Co-Chairs¶ September 2012
Electric utilities in the United States …..an important technology option ¶ for near- or longer-term deployment.

Tournament:  | Round:  | Opponent:  | Judge:
*1AC

Plan Text
Plan: The United States Federal Government should substantially increase market-fixed production cost incentives for domestic deployment of small modular nuclear reactors.
Meltdowns

US nuclear renaissance inevitable- only way to meet demand and government subsidies
Worthington 2012 (David Worthington, February 9, 2012, The U.S. nuclear renaissance has begun  , Smart Planet, http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/intelligent-energy/the-us-nuclear-renaissance-has-begun/13058) JD
There are cooling towers ….The Vogtle reactors would power up to 1 million homes at a cost of US$14 billion, CNN reported.

Global cooperation has restored public faith in nuclear energy; Fukushima doesn’t matter
WNA 11 (World Nuclear Association, The Nuclear Renaissance  , August 2011, http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf104.html) JD
The 1986 Chernobyl disaster marked the ….account of those from nuclear power
Old reactor types make meltdowns inevitable – reactors have shut down in the past and the NRC has failed at regulation
Gronlund 2007 (Nuclear power in a Warming world: Assessing the Risks, Addressing the Challenges, Lisbeth Gronlund;  David Lochbaum;  Edwin Lyman, Union of Concerned Scientists, http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/documents/nuclear_power/nuclear-power-in-a-warming-world.pdf) JD
Safety problems remain despite a lack of ….needed to fix them.
SMRs solve
Wheeler 10 (November 22, 2010, “Small Modular Reactors May Offer Significant Safety & Security Enhancements”, John Wheeler, Clear Trend, http://thisweekinnuclear.com/?p=1193) JD
Even better, most SMRs …..systems in use today, and lower operating costs (a smaller footprint means a smaller security force).
Meltdowns cause extinction
Lendman, 2011
(Stephen, Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization, 03/ 13, “Nuclear Meltdown in Japan,”, The People’s Voice http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2011/03/13/nuclear-meltdown-in-japan, accessed 8-2-12, RSR)
Reuters said the 1995 Kobe quake caused $100 billion in damage….. "It could be, literally, an apocalyptic event.

Warming

Global warming is happening; 5 reasons
NWF 12 (July 2012, National Wildlife Federation, http://www.nwf.org/Global-Warming/What-is-Global-Warming/Global-Warming-is-Happening-Now.aspx) JD
No longer is global warming something …..84 developing countries around the world. Coastal habitats also face major changes as low-lying areas are inundated with saltwater.
It’s anthropogenic and scientific consensus goes aff.
Lewandowsky and Ashley 2011 (Stephan Lewandowsky, Professor of Cognitive Studies at the University of Western Australia, and Michael Ashley, Professor of Astrophysics at the University of New South Wales, June 24, 2011, “The false, the confused and the mendacious: how the media gets it wrong on climate change,” http://goo.gl/u3nOC)
But despite these complexities, some aspects of climate science are thoroughly settled. We know that atmospheric CO2 is increasing due to humans. …..The heat-trapping properties of CO₂ were discovered in the middle of the 19th century, pre-dating even Sherlock Holmes and Queen Victoria.
Renewables and CCS can’t do it alone, fossil fuels will fill in – it’s try or die for nuclear
George Monbiot, author of the bestselling books The Age of Consent: A Manifesto for a New World Order and Captive State: The Corporate Takeover of Britain, Heat: how to stop the planet burning and Bring on the Apocalypse?, 3-15-2012, "Why I am urging David Cameron to act against Friends of the Earth," The Guardian,http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2012/mar/15/david-cameron-friends-of-the-earth

It is plain that we cannot do both. ….the remainder, the gap will be filled by fossil fuel.
Next 5 years key to avoid a tipping point – gets modeled internationally
Strobe Talbott, President of the Brookings Institution, and John-Michael Arnold, special assistant to the President at Brookings, 5-25-2012, “It’s the Climate, Stupid!” Brookings,http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2012/5/25%20americas%20role%20talbott/0525%20americas%20role%20talbott.pdf

On both economic and security policy…. window of obligation, it is closing.
Nuclear tech solves warming – decreases reliance on carbon based sources.
WNA 7 (World Nuclear Association, Nuclear Energy: Meeting the Climate Change Challenge¶ , IPCC, 4th Assessment Report, Mitigation of Climate Change (2007), http://www.world-nuclear.org/climatechange/nuclear_meetingthe_climatechange_challenge.html)
Over the next twenty five years global electricity demand ….reliance on fossil fuels.
SMRs key to meet emission reduction targets – they replace coal plants and sharply curtail emissions. Natural gas can’t fill in.
Licata ‘12
[John, Apr 26, America, It’s OK to favor Small Modular Reactors & phase out coal, http://www.cmegroup.com/education/files/america-its-ok-to-favor-small-modular-reactors-and-phase-out-coal.pdf]

A case can be made that building a new coal-fired power plant can cost far greater than an SMR….., it is our view SMRs are a smarter choice over coal-fired plants.
Warming causes extinction
Tickell, ‘8
(Oliver, Climate Researcher, The Gaurdian, “On a planet 4C hotter, all we can prepare for is extinction”, 8-11, http://www.guardian.co.uk/ commentisfree/2008/aug/11/ climatechange)
We need to get prepared for four degrees of global warming, Bob Watson told the Guardian last week. At first sight this looks like wise counsel from the climate science adviser to Defra. But ….the warming caused by human emissions could propel us towards a similar hothouse Earth.

Confronting global warming is key to creating new systems of ethical evaluations; means we turn there ethics arguments. Our current system focuses on blame being placed entirely on a single person or small groups of persons; however, in confronting warming we shift to a system in which we all become conscious of the small influences  we have on larger systems of destruction and exploitation. That collapses our current ethical paradigm and opens us up to recognizing other invisible forms of oppression we allow to exist; also means there ethics arguments don’t link.
Jamieson 92 (Dale; University of Colorado; “Ethics, Public Policy, and Global Warming”; Science, Technology, & Human Values, Vol. 17, No. 2, Spring, 1992, pp. 139-153; http://philosophy.fas.nyu.edu/docs/IO/1192/ethics_pub_policy.pdf)

I believe that our dominant value system….What we need are new values that reflect the interconnectedness ¶ of life on a dense, high-technology planet

Solvency

There is no one single criteria for establishing a value to life- you don’t have a root cause claim.
Digiovanna 2000, Augustine G. Health and Human Aging, Biological Perspectives, 2nd addition. (From a textbook published by the McGraw-Hill Higher Education company) pg. 20-21
Quality of life can be evaluated…., and how much contribution elders can make to society. 

Extinction destroys the value to life.
Attfield 99 — Robin, Prof of Philosophy @ Cardiff University. The Ethics of the Global Environment. Pg. 64.
This reflection suggests ….of all human life henceforth. 

Epistemology does not shape all of our actions-pragmatic rational choice is more useful in dealing with global problems despite any ontic/epistemic problems
Owen in 2k2 (David, Reader on Political Theory at the University of Southampton, Millennium, Re-orienting International Relations: On Pragmatism, Pluralism and Practical Reasoning, SAGE)
The first danger with the philosophical turn ….the only or even necessarily the most important kind

Academic debate over energy policy in the face of environmental destruction is critical to shape the direction of change and create a public consciousness shift-action now is key
Crist 4 (Eileen, Professor at Virginia Tech in the Department of Science and Technology, “Against the social construction of nature and wilderness”, Environmental Ethics 26;1, p 13-6, http://www.sts.vt.edu/faculty/crist/againstsocialconstruction.pdf)
Yet, constructivist analyses of "nature" ….striving to interpret the world at an hour that is pressingly calling us to change it.

The state is inevitable and an indispensable part of the solution to warming
Eckersley 4 Robyn, Reader/Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Melbourne, “The Green State: Rethinking Democracy and Sovereignty”, MIT Press, 2004, Google Books, pp. 3-8
While acknowledging the basis for this antipathy toward the nation- state, and the limitations of state-centric analyses of global ecological degradation, I seek to draw attention to the positive role that states have played, ….as a potentially more significant ally in the green cause.17

Scientific knowledge is best because it subjects itself to constant refinement based on empirical evidence
Hutcheon 93—former prof of sociology of education at U Regina and U British Columbia. Former research advisor to the Health Promotion Branch of the Canadian Department of Health and Welfare and as a director of the Vanier Institute of the Family. Phd in sociology, began at Yale and finished at U Queensland. (Pat, A Critique of "Biology as Ideology: The Doctrine of DNA", http://www.humanists.net/pdhutcheon/humanist%20articles/lewontn.htm)
The introductory lecture in this series articulated ….knowledge can only mean failure, in that the theory itself has altered in the process.

Pragmatic warming policy is necessary
Simpson 10 (Francis, College of Engineering, Vanderbilt University, “Environmental Pragmatism and its Application to Climate Change The Moral Obligations of Developed and Developing Nations to Avert Climate Change as viewed through Technological Pragmatism”, Spring 2010 | Volume 6 | Number 1)
Pragmatism and Footprinting¶ Environmental pragmatism …..and the biosphere.

Linking the ballot to a should question in combination with USFG simulation teaches the skills to organize pragmatic consequences and philosophical values into a course of action
Hanghoj 8
http://static.sdu.dk/mediafiles/Files/Information_til/Studerende_ved_SDU/Din_uddannelse/phd_hum/afhandlinger/2009/ThorkilHanghoej.pdf Thorkild Hanghøj, Copenhagen, 2008 Since this PhD project began in 2004, the present author has been affiliated with DREAM (Danish Research Centre on Education and Advanced Media Materials), which is located at the Institute of Literature, Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Southern Denmark. Research visits have taken place at the Centre for Learning, Knowledge, and Interactive Technologies (L-KIT), the Institute of Education at the University of Bristol and the institute formerly known as Learning Lab Denmark at the School of Education, University of Aarhus, where I currently work as an assistant professor.
Joas’ re-interpretation of …exploring the contingent outcomes and domain-specific processes of problem-based scenarios.