Nuclear Power Generation: The Inevitable Option

GUESTS
We were blessed with numerous guests as well as a fascinating speaker last week Guests included Scott Rulon, visiting Rotarian; Leilani Spangler, daughter of Shannon; Jay Graham, guest of Susan Van Deren; and two men that were guests of Tony McCune: Josh Sauerwien and Lance Sample. Both of the latter two men are potential members.

PROGRAM
Our speaker for the week was Ron Clark’s high school buddy Dr. James Terhune who is a nuclear engineer. Terhune worked for General Electric for many years on nuclear power plants.

Terhune’s talk was about “Nuclear Power Generation: The Inevitable Option”. He pointed out what most of the rest of the industrialized world has concluded is that nuclear power generation is the answer to many of our energy woes. He supports the move to build new nuclear power plants and made some compelling arguments for his position. He pointed out that the earth does not have an infinite source of fossil fuels. He also pointed out that nuclear plants give off no toxic emissions as their only airborne discharge is steam (water).

There are currently 103 operating nuclear power plants in the US and a total of 450 worldwide. Although he supports the development of alternative energy sources such as wind and solar, he pointed out their limitations and drawbacks. Primary among those is that nuclear plants can produce huge amounts of electricity from a relatively small footprint. Wind and solar takes hundreds or thousands of acres.

As to safety, Terhune said that there have been zero deaths attributed to nuclear power plants in this country. Much of the fear of nuclear power has been fostered from films that greatly exaggerated the hazards (Would Hollywood do that?).

QUIZ ANSWER
The movie “300” was filmed almost totally in Montreal with some minor filming in Los Angeles. By the way, there was a great documentary about the Battle of Thermopylae on the History Channel last week.

NEXT QUESTION
You’ve all seen the ubiquitous wireless earpiece used with cell phones. This is known as a Bluetooth device. What is the source of the “Bluetooth” name?


You've gotta love summer!

Upcoming Programs & Random Thoughts

I can’t tell you what went on during the meeting last week as I was out of town on business. I can, however, tell you what is coming in the next month thanks to good advance planning by Dr. Mike Carey.

• June 7: Sean Pike, Rodeo bull-rider, clown and rodeo promoter
• June 14: Melissa Osmun, Certified Acupuncturist, Parkinson’s Disease Recovery
• June 21: Diane Van Deren (Susan’s sister-in-law), Elite athlete, ultra marathoner
• June 28: Andrea Bereznak, Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar

The meeting I was attending was in Silver Spring, MD. One of the men that serves on the committee with me is a Rotarian from Kissimmee, FL. One of the new appointees to the committee is a very bright young epidemiologist from Baltimore. During dinner Thursday night, the three of us were seated at the same table and started talking about various diseases. Brian (the Rotarian from Florida) was telling Jennifer about the efforts that Rotary International has made to eradicate polio. After discussing the pro’s and con’s of whether it is possible to eliminate polio, Jennifer posited that the polio vaccine would never be developed today because of the restrictions and steps taken to get a new vaccine approved. She also added that she was thankful it was developed when it was. For those of us that remember the fear of polio and seen the effects of polio on its victims and their families, we are thankful too. As a Rotarian, pat yourself on the back for your contribution to the effort to eliminate this horrible disease.

The following are some random tidbits that came out of the three-day meeting:

• 8% of the national energy demand is to heat, treat and pump water.
• Five minutes of running water uses as much energy as a 60 watt bulb burning for 14 hours.

Regardless of the state of denial by the present administration, numerous agencies have accepted the global warming (climate change) argument and are working towards ways to deal with the problem. There are numerous symposia and meetings ongoing and planned to deal with “carbon sequestration”. This is the process of taking Carbon Dioxide from power plants and finding ways to store it, bind it to other compounds or otherwise prevent it from getting into the atmosphere. Interestingly, Colorado has numerous places where carbon dioxide and be pumped underground and trapped in salt structures or other geologic traps. Much of the Colorado Plateau in Western Colorado is underlain by large salt beds at depth. Also, during the 70’s and 80’s there was a large carbon dioxide extraction process in the southern Wet Mountains near La Veta Pass. This might be a good place to put some of the gas back into the earth.

QUIZ ANSWER
A straight razor can legally be used by a barber, but not a hair dresser.

NEXT QUESTION
The movie "300" which depicts the famous battle of Thermopylae was filmed where?

Welcome the Kiwi's

We were pleased to have the Rotary Group Study Exchange Team from New Zealand here last week. Pictured here are team leader, Murray Hartnett and his team of Myles Taylor, Paul Bonetti, Steve Goeldner, Meriene Hardy-Birch, and Blair King.

Here to enjoy our visit with the “Kiwi’s” was Charlotte Ryan.

The GSE team gave a thirty minute presentation about New Zealand in general and told us what each of them does. They are here in exchange for the team that Rotary District 5440 sent to New Zealand in March and April of this year. They will be in our District for five weeks. They arrived here ten days before they visited Windsor.

Some of the facts they told us included:

• 43% of the land in New Zealand is dedicated to agriculture.
• There are 47 million sheep in New Zealand.
• They export $2 billion in lamb meat annually.
• 30% of the land is forest preserve.
• Queen Elizabeth II is Queen of New Zealand…same person.

One of the highlights was the presentation by Meirene Hardy-Birch who sang her greeting in Maori which is one of the Maori traditions. The team members all talked about having the standard two children except Meirene who has seven children. She also told of the jade amulets they wore around their necks. They are called memory stones and are given to travelers. The legend is that the stone collects the memories of the travelers. When the traveler comes home, the jade is given to the children to be passed on to later generations so that the stories go on forever. Neat idea. Tell your kids about your good memories.

If you want to see more of the New Zealand GSE team, they will be at the Rotary District 5440 Convention in Cheyenne in a couple of weeks.

QUIZ ANSWER
Hank Aaron only had one "inside the park" home run out of his current record of 755 home runs.

NEXT QUESTION
In Colorado and many other states, what instrument can a licensed barber use that a hair dresser cannot?

Northern Colorado Market

We were pleased to be visited by District Governor, George McIlvaine. He was accompanied by Cheyenne’s incoming president Bob Womack. We were also visited by Stan Barber and Bill Schaffter.

This week, we are pleased to welcome the Rotary Group Study Exchange Team from New Zealand. Please make them welcome to our community. I personally have an issue to settle with some New Zealand sheep shearers, but that’s another story.

PROGRAM
Once again, a great program was presented by one of our own, Dave Thiemann. Dave is the newly named publisher of Custom Publishing Division of the Northern Colorado Communications Group. Dave gave us a Power Point presentation about the market in Northern Colorado. He pointed out the newspaper serves two customers; the reader and the advertiser. To that end the newspaper does a separate market analysis on each area of Northern Colorado each year.

Dave noted that the media landscape is changing dramatically. He also pointed out that Weld County is growing faster than Larimer County, and although the median household income (MHI) is greater for Larimer County than Weld County, the gap is narrowing. Weld County’s population is 30% Hispanic; whereas Larimer County’s Hispanic population is less than 10%.
Dave also noted that the Windsor demographics show a very affluent population; however the irony is that the preferred shopping for Windsor folks is still Wal-Mart. Other statistics showed: women constitute 56% of the Windsor population. 84% of Windsor residents own their own homes. 66% are married, and 30 % have four-year college degrees or better. Four out of ten people have lived here less than four years.

QUIZ ANSWER
In the Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) Maureen O’Hara played Esmeralda, and the hunchback was speaking to the gargoyle. By the way, do you know the difference between a gargoyle and a grotesque?

NEXT QUESTION
Of Hank Aaron’s 755 home runs, how many were “inside the park” home runs?

Xeriscaping: an X-rated program!

GUESTS
We only had one guest and that was Charlotte Ryan who we hope will become a new members soon. Charlotte was a great help during the 9 Health Fair.

ANNOUNCEMENTS
Ardin Wright won a raffle ticket for prizes at the District Convention by answering the question…who is the President Elect for Rotary International and what country does he live in? Wilfrid J. Wilkenson, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

PROGRAM
We had a most timely talk from our own Susan Van Deren who gave us a primer on Xeriscaping. The term Xeriscape is a trade mark of Denver Water (By the way, if you want to ever read a document that surpasses state law and grants almost absolute power to an organization, read the charter for the Denver Water Board some time).

Xeriscape is on short the practice of low-water landscaping. However, as Susan points out, that doesn’t mean no water. Xeriscape plants are those that will thrive in dry lands. She discussed the X rating of these plants from X-rated to 3X-rated plants. The higher the rating, the more drought tolerant a plant is.

Susan also discussed the relationship of the X ratings to evapotranspiration (the rate at which plants and soil loose water. X-rated plants account for 0.5 inches of moisture per week. 2X-rated plants use 0.25 inches of water, and 3X-rated plants use only 0.125 inches. She said that one only has to replace the evapotranspiration losses for a plant to survive and thrive.

Susan gave us other tips such as using polymers in planters for water retention, using mulch to prevent evaporation, using surfactants on lawns to help the soil absorb water, and aerating spring and fall. She promised to bring hand outs to the next meeting to show all of this information and more.

QUIZ ANSWER
The science of studying the “geology” of the moon is called selenology.

NEXT QUESTION
In the 1939 version of the Hunchback of Notre Dame (One of the finest movies ever made), who played Esmeralda? And for extra credit, to whom was Quasimodo speaking when he said “I wish I could have been made of stone like thee?