The Pitch ©
It was hot that morning in Washington D.C. It had always been hot in the summer, but the last ten years or so it seemed it had been getting worse. More water was required to keep the public areas looking good, skin cancer was up 10% over the numbers from 5 years ago, and fewer tourists than ever before braved the streets. With crime as high as it was in the nation’s capitol, that might be a good thing. "What does that say about the state of our nation?" thought David. At least the reduced influx of tourists provided some slight relief from the ever present traffic, yet Dave and Dick still were quite glad they weren’t the ones driving. The secret service guards at the entrance to the parking garage a few blocks from the white house were reluctant to move outside their air-conditioned booth.
One finally stepped outside as the limo approached. Agent Spencer rolled down the window and wordlessly handed the young man the papers for those in the vehicle.
After a brief examination, the guard handed them back to Spencer. "Everything’s in order, sir. After parking, proceed to the security checkpoint at the tunnel entrance."
"Thank you," Spencer remarked. He glanced knowingly at the young guard’s partner, still in the booth, who appeared to be watching a closed circuit television. He knew that at the same time their ID papers were being examined by the first guard, his partner was utilizing sophisticated sensors embedded in the walls, ceiling, and driveway to check the limo for weapons and explosives. The agency had obtained that technology several years ago from a Kahzak scientist requesting asylum. He had been glad to help implement it in return for safe passage and a new life.
There were also devices to immobilize a vehicle that contained such contraband. Those were relatively simple. The first was a simple hydraulic ramp in the driveway, that would flip a short section of drive upwards in front of the vehicle and behind it, to prevent forward or rearwards motion, then the section under the vehicle would raise up under the frame, and simply lift the wheels off of the ground. A blast shield could be lowered almost instantly on all four sides. It was good security to have in a garage for the white house.
As the window rolled up, he turned to Dick and Dave, who were nervously occupying the rear seat. "Don’t fret, you two. We’re still at least twenty minutes away from the oval office. We’re a bit of a distance away. These remotely located parking garages and tunnel system helps to reduce the traffic on the surface streets and provides parking for federal employees. The only disadvantage is that it takes a while between when you park and when you actually get to work. Besides, we still have to go through security checks for both of you before we take the tunnel on in. Of course your previous clearances help."
Dave thought back to when he had applied for his clearance while working on a military aircraft project at a former employer. Even though they went back ten years, he doubted that his application contained enough detail to satisfy the security personnel they had to go through now. Likewise, Dick was reviewing the projects he had worked on in physics research. As fast as clearance had been granted for those, he also doubted that his records contained enough information to satisfy the current gauntlet of security they were attempting to traverse. It’s a good thing agent Spencer had started the ball rolling some time ago.
The driver deposited them at the security booth at the center of the lowest level, then went to park the limo. After being X-Rayed, fingerprinted, having a retina scan, and being subjected to a last-minute extra computer background check, they were allowed to pass into the tunnel.
"I never knew there were tunnels to the white house," Dick said.
"It’s really the only way to handle the parking problems with the volume of staff that work in the area," Spencer said. "There’s an electric shuttle bus that will carry us to the other end."
"The white house uses an EV?" Dave replied. It seemed counter to the administration’s well publicized beliefs that the energy issue was a one-sided equation – all supply.
"Sure," Spencer said, as they settled into a waiting area. "It’s the best choice for this enclosed area. Otherwise you’d have fumes build up in the tunnel, have to put in extra ventilation ports, and so forth. It’s really convenient."
Dave smiled. "Come to think of it," he continued, "I remember seeing two 1900’s vintage EV’s on display at the Studebaker museum in Indiana. They were used to do the same thing in tunnels between the senate and house office buildings and the capitol. The tunnels didn’t have a turnaround area, so they reversed the motors and the driver had to turn around."
At that moment, the shuttle bus arrived. They boarded, took seats facing each other, then the shuttle turned around and silently accelerated back the way it had come.
Dick and Dave looked at each other and grinned.
"What’s that silly grin you’re both wearing?" Spencer asked.
"It’s an EV thing. You wouldn’t understand."
"Ok…anyway, the president realizes how important this is. He’s giving you all day to make your pitch and answer questions," Spencer explained again. "He’s been fairly open minded, and seems to be a man of sound judgment, so he’s not the main one you have to convince."
"Is it the cabinet?" Dave asked.
"No." Spencer replied, "The cabinet is there, but they are generally political appointees with little real knowledge. As long as your plan doesn’t threaten their positions, you’ll probably get an OK from them. They are pretty much yes-men and women who generally won’t commit to anything until they sense the president has reached a conclusion, then they’ll agree with him."
Spencer continued. "There is one possible exception in the cabinet, and that’s the secretary of defense, General Slage. He’s come up through the military ranks, and is known for making sound judgments based on what he thinks is best for the country, considering the current government policy and position. He has respectively disagreed with the president in the past. He doesn’t present his opinions forcefully, but he does stick with decisions he has made. He has several energy company business interests, so may lean towards disagreeing with developing something like this. Still, based on his record, I think you can persuade him by simply presenting the facts, as long as you’ve amply provided for the preservation of national security."
"That, at least, I think we’re well prepared for," Dick replied. They had not only been over the diplomatic implications in their proposal, but had done extensive testing on the fusion unit as well. They knew there would be technical questions as to the safety levels of the device, and it had performed flawlessly in every regard. A UL listing was planned for when the units would be released for the retail market. "Who else will be there," Dick asked.
Spencer continued. "The senate and house majority and minority leaders will all be there. They will be your target audience. They normally wouldn’t be there, except they raised issues with the previous administration about hiding things from the leaders of congress. Think about all the worst clichés about politicians you’ve ever heard, then multiply that by ten. These people are everything people see as bad in a politician, and then some. They make what most people think of as ‘corrupt’ look angelic. Personally, I think they’ve grown so short sighted that they can’t even see what’s good for the country anymore, let alone do it. Who knows what motivation they chose to be loyal to today. They bite and devour one another. To build themselves up, they do their best to put everybody else down. They positively hate each other, even though they are really so very alike, and since the president usually takes a moderate position, they don’t think too highly of him, either."
There was a brief interlude of silence, with dick and Dave just staring at Spencer, and trying to digest what he had just said.
"Well, I’m suddenly inspired with confidence," Dave ventured.
"Don’t worry, there’s only the four of them," Spencer replied. "But they’re so hard to read that I don’t know how to appeal to them, and they will likely disagree with those from the other party just for the sake of disagreeing. I don’t know how you could get around that."
"We’ll just have to show that the plan is good on a number of fronts, and appeal to common sense," Dick replied.
"I’m afraid that is something in short supply in this city." Spencer commented.
"Well, failing that, there is always simple greed. There is a lot of money to be made with this," Dick said. "Hopefully they can see that."
With that, the shuttle bus arrived at its destination. They exited the shuttle bus and entered another security station. Their stay here was briefer, however, as the badges they had been issued were momentarily checked, entered into the computer, and then they were submitted to another retina scan.
Spencer led them through the busy hallways to the outer office, where he announced them to the secretary.
"I’ll tell the president you are here," she said as she picked up the phone.
After a brief, hushed conversation, they were ushered into the room.
A number of people stood to greet them. The president stepped forward.
"Mr. president," Spencer began, "This is David Christopher and Dick Lowery."
The president shook each of their hands. "It’s a pleasure to meet you," he said. All Dave could manage at the time was "Thank you, sir." Dick didn’t manage the "sir" part.
They were led to the twin sofas in the center of the office. The parties of interest filled them and extra chairs that had been drawn up to the sides. Room had been left at the far end for the three newcomers.
The president introduced them to the group. Later, they would agree that it all tended to blur together, and they couldn’t remember hardly anyone’s name. Everyone seemed affable, even the congressional leaders. Dave knew any real nastiness would come later. Dick figured they were just saving their energy.
They quickly set up, and Dave went first. Standing in front of the group with only a white board, he began the pitch. Though nervous at first, practice soon took over.
"I’d just like to cover some background real quickly, so that we are all aware of the possibilities of this type of technology," Dave began. "We all know that physicists have been working for years trying to develop a theory that would tell them how the two atomic forces and gravity and electromagnetism all relate. An engineer that used to work for NASA, the late Dr. Robert Maloney, had a breakthrough, and finalized the theory. He went on to develop many practical applications of the theory. Today we are going to primarily be discussing the applications in controlled nuclear fusion, but it all rests on the unified field theory that Maloney developed, and it has many more applications which should be considered besides the fusion technology."
"I’ll bite first," the president said with a grin. "What are some of these other applications?"
"With this theory," Dave continued, "you can control a variety of the forces by manipulating one or more of the rest of them. For example, you can have an anti-gravity drive system for a wingless airplane. Or, you could have a directed energy weapon that disrupts the bonds between molecules. Force fields and invisibility devices are possible too, but the one I’m most impressed with is direct conversion technology."
Several of the audience responded with "What’s that?"
Dick stood up on cue, and Dave stepped back. "A conventional power plant," Dick began, drawing a picture of a power plant, "burns a fuel, be it natural gas, coal, or oil, and the combustion releases energy in the form of radiation. It’s mostly heat, but there are also a lot of other wavelengths of EM radiation, like visible light, that aren’t collected, so there is waste at that point. This heat is collected in a heat exchanger, at some further loss of efficiency, to make steam. This steam turns a turbine, again at a loss of efficiency, to turn a generator. The generator has a loss of efficiency turning the mechanical energy into electrical energy. All in all, the most efficient conventional power plant wastes about 20% of the potential energy it takes in. Nuclear power plants waste a lot more, since their heat source is radioactive fuel rods. Only a small fraction of the radioactive decay products are in the form of heat. The radioactive particles themselves carry energy, and are hazardous, besides. Solar plants harness only a small fraction of the wavelengths of light they are exposed to." As he discussed each of these types of plants, he drew a conversion block diagram next to each picture, with little arrows coming off of each transition to another step, representing waste energy.
"In recent years, we have experienced several incidents that show that our nation’s power generating capacity is very close to its limit without very expensive infrastructure improvement projects. How would this change if each power plant, no matter what type, could have a vast increase in efficiency for relatively little investment? That amounts to the same thing as building a bigger power plant at every location.
Direct conversion technology is an easy derivative of the unified field theory. It replaces the typical steam turbine and generator system present in most power plants with a simple containment unit surrounding the power source, that directly converts the energy released into a different form. For conventional plants, it would surround the combustion chamber, with a small exhaust gas hole at the top. For nuclear plants, it would surround the core and provide shielding at the same time. For solar installations, it would be a new type of panel that would vastly reduce the area required for a given amount of power, or greatly increase the output for the same area. This technology harnesses every type and wavelength of released energy, and converts it to a different desired type. In our case that is electricity.
By eliminating so many conversion steps, the total efficiency of a power plant is greatly increased. In addition, the unused items from the old process can be removed, supplying space for more generation capacity at each plant."
At this point, Dave stepped back to the foreground. "Our plan," he began, "begins with releasing the theory itself. As we know, and you can see several examples in the written proposals that were distributed, pure academic physics theory of this nature rarely progresses to practical application quickly, if at all. In fact, the amount of time it takes to go from theory to introduction of the first practical application has increased steadily in the past hundred years to the point where now, we rarely see applications in our lifetime. It’s different for medical innovations or diplomatic initiatives, but for physics, the information has become so complex, specialized, and esoteric that its practically unusable."
"I’m not sure I see the relevance of that information," one of the congressmen said.
"It’s background to serve as evidence that through a planned program of releases, we can easily outpace any natural development of the technology by other countries. Agent Spencer has assured me that we keep very accurate tabs on the high end technological developments in other countries, specifically ones that may be a threat. It would be important that we outpace all of them, including any independent development in our own country. With something as important as this, timing is critical. Not so much the exact timing of the releases, as making sure our releases are the first."
"And this direct conversion technology would be the first practical development to be released, I presume?" A senator asked.
"Correct," Dave replied. "This technology will take the immediate edge off of the world energy crunch. But it is only the beginning. Let me go through our planned timetable, then we can take a break for lunch. When we pick up again, we can discuss what the effects of each development will be. I anticipate that will take the better portion of the day, and be the primary subject we will debate."
"That’s for sure," chuckled the president. Most of the others in the room joined in.
When the laughter had died down, Dave continued. "Our plan consists of releasing the DC technology through a private company we will start as the first practical application of the UF theory. Construction of the plant needs to start right away with government funding. Conservative estimates have repayment of the construction costs at less than 2 years. A few years later, we will introduce a small company building small (10 kW, 25 kW, and 50 kW) fusion reactors for off grid homes and businesses, distributed generation, peak shaving applications, and remote site use. That company will not produce larger sizes, and will loudly tout the ‘wall’ in efficiency that occurs at larger sizes, as predicted by the UF theory, prevents large power plants from being built. What won’t be mentioned is that Maloney developed a different design for a large scale power plant. As it hasn’t been tested, a full scale research program would need to be undertaken to check the design’s feasibility. We don’t plan to even mention large scale plants when this company comes on line except to specifically refer to their design being impractical at that time. Producing only small scale generators has numerous advantages, which we can discuss later. The intent is to delay actual production of large fusion plants until the smaller ones are common as houseflies. With each one being sized to power a single home or business, the burden on our electric grid infrastructure will drop considerably. Our models predict that within 50 years, we won’t need larger power plants. A truly distributed power system will be a reality, and it will release a lot of the pressure regarding some of our most pressing economic and security concerns.
As if on cue, the secretary informed the president that the kitchen staff was ready to begin setting up for lunch. "Have them go ahead and set up in the staff dining room," he told her. He then turned to the group and announced "It’ll be about 15 minutes. Are you close to a stopping point?"
"Absolutely, Mr. President," Dave replied, having gathered his composure. "That is actually it for the basics of the plan. The only other detail is to open a semi-secret national research laboratory to explore all the other applications that the UF theory makes possible. Decisions on the release of any of those would have to be made on an individual basis. Now let’s ‘digest’ all this during lunch. The implications and ramifications are what we’ll be discussing this afternoon."
The lunch menu of chicken cordon bleu, green bean casserole, tossed salad, and cheddar mashed potatoes was wonderful. Dave couldn’t remember when he’d last had such a good meal. There was a lot of friendly banter during lunch, and a few hints at the primary questions on everyone’s minds.
"I’d wonder how safe the units are," One congressman remarked. "Can they be used as a weapon, I wonder," another mentioned.
After lunch, everyone returned to their seats in the oval office, where a coffee service and soft drinks had been set out on the table. Everyone settled in for what they knew would be a lengthy Q & A session/debate.
After settling in, Dave kicked things off. "To begin with, does anyone have any questions regarding the implications of what we outline in the plan?
The secretary of the interior, a stately grey haired gentleman spoke up first. "I think a lot of us are wondering why you plan to concentrate on building small units for the foreseeable future?"
Dick answered. "There are a lot of advantages to that approach. First, while it may be easier in some respects to build a single new large power plant, that’s an activity that can’t be hidden. If any other countries got wind of it, and they would, that could precipitate international attention and outcry. Our reputation with the rest of the world isn’t the greatest right now. The last thing we want is to seem like we’re getting an ‘unfair’ advantage over other countries."
"Like a small dictatorship building a nuclear weapons program over the objections of the surrounding nations," the secretary of defense said.
"Exactly," the president replied. The subject of North Korea was obviously fresh on their minds.
Picking up at the pause after the president’s comments, Dave continued with the answer to the secretary of interior’s question. "The second advantage to building small units is in the inherent redundancy and security that an electric grid supported by many small generators has over a ‘hub and spoke’ system like what we have now. A terrorist strike at a power plant will have a significantly smaller impact. In addition, there is a large savings in infrastructure, and a huge boost to the economy, because individuals and small businesses will be buying them instead of local and state governments buying them."
A sour looking congressman spoke up. "Won’t the development of such a system be seen as an ‘unfair advantage’ by other nations just as much as a large power plant?"
Dave and Dick had been waiting for just such an opening, and Dick took the cue. "It would, unless they got them first. Our plan details the provision of special export rules. Fully half of the plant’s output would be reserved for export, and the poorest nations would actually receive units free of charge to eliminate any possible international outcry. Before any would be released, a large stockpile would be built up, so most nations would receive shipments at the same time. Careful control will ensure that nobody has an advantage over another country. In fact, we intend for large quantities of the units to go to international relief and humanitarian organizations. Sending shipments simultaneously to all destinations will ensure that no nation perceives a ‘gap’."
Dave picked up at that point and elaborated. "The most exciting part of all this control over shipment timing and destinations is very subtle. What are the most unstable nations? Anybody?"
A Senator spoke up. "The middle east and Africa."
"Right," Dave responded. "What do they have in common?"
"They are generally very poor," Responded the Vice President.
"And they repress their people actively, even to the point of mass executions," continued a representative.
"Exactly," Dave replied. "Now what would be the impact of the sudden widespread availability of ample power to run lights for classrooms, hospital facilties, telephones, computers, and radios?"
There was silence for a minute while the group thought about the question. Then some faces started to brighten.
"You’d have a dramatic increase in communication," the senator replied.
"There’s no way governments as strapped and thinly spread as those could manage to suppress that large an increase in education and communication. If they have a phone or a satellite connection, they can reach the world through the internet," the vice president continued.
"The people would have a voice." The president quietly concluded.
They all quietly considered this for a moment.
The homeland security director broke the silence. "That brings up the issue of possible use of these devices by terrorists," he said. What potential is there to use one as a weapon, really?"
"And what are the environmental consequences of its eventual disposal, and what sort of waste does it generate?" I foresee a very large future problem if there is any type of stray radiation or disposal issue," a congressman said.
"The fusion technology generates no radiation when it is not in use, and the collection grids show no residual radiation after shutdown," replied Dave. "In addition, no complex chemicals are used in the manufacture of the primary components. It’s all constructed from basic materials. The most complex things in it are the electronics."
"And as to it’s possible use as a weapon, it just cannot be used that way," Dick continued. "The unit requires an input of power, such as from a battery or grid connection, to start. Once fusion is initiated, it can continue only within the confines of the containment field. If you try to move active plasma outside of the field, it just dissipates. If you manipulate the field in any way, it just pushes the plasma out of alignment and it escapes and dissipates. Adding something massive to the plasma, for example if you were to try to vaporize a radioactive slug to create a radioactive gas to use as a dirty bomb of sorts, just destabilizes the plasma and it shuts down. These small units simply cannot sustain fusion in the presence of any items of more mass than the tiny quantities of fuel that they consume. They run right on the ragged edge of being too cold to sustain the reaction, so any added mass just shuts them down."
"Really, it’s the opposite of a fission nuclear power plant," Dave said. "In a fission plant, it operates spontaneously, and you have to absorb radiation to slow it down. The slightest deviation from established operating procedures results in a massive release of radioactivity through a runaway reaction. In a fusion unit, you have to add energy to get it going, and any disturbance just shuts down the unit."
"What sort of fuel does it use?" A congresswoman asked.
"You’re going to love this," Dave began. "Remember how the fusion research plants all used heavy water or pure deuterium or tritium? Those are both stable, though very hard to obtain, fuels. Every time you heard a research scientist talk about it, though, they were quick to point out that there’s some heavy water in all regular water."
"Are you saying…" the congresswoman responded.
"We use distilled water. It’s 38 cents a gallon at my grocery store."
There was silence. The multiplicity of implications washed through everyone’s minds.
"Anything else?" The president finally broke the silence in a hushed tone.
After a pause, he continued, "Then I guess we don’t need to know anything else right now." He stood and stepped forward to shake Dave and Dick’s hand.
"Mr. Christopher, Dr. Lowery, thank you for an eye-opening presentation. We obviously have a lot to consider. We’ll try to get back to you within a week with a decision." He said.
Agent spencer stepped forward. "There is one more thing, Mr. President," he began. "If we decide to go ahead with the release of this technology, then there is the matter of the unknown parties that have tried to eliminate it that needs to be taken care of. We’ll need your support to assist Mr. Christopher and Dr. Lowery in ferreting them out."
"Whether or not the decision is positive, you have my support to get to the bottom of that. After all, that implies there could be a security leak or a foreign involvement. You have a go to get to these criminals. They have shown utter disregard for human life. They are borderline terrorists."
"Thank you, sir!" They all replied.
A week later, almost to the hour that they had adjourned the meeting at the white house, Dave and Dick walked into a nondescript office for a meeting with Agent Spencer. His huge grin spoke for him before he said a word. "We have a go to release the technology," he said without delay. After much handshaking all the way around, they sat down at the desk, and Spencer handed each of them a folder. "But first, we have to get to the bottom of this conspiracy that seems to be out to get you. After reviewing your information and suggestions, and researching our intelligence, I’ve finalized our plan to root out the people responsible for attacking you and run them to ground." Dave and dick opened their folders. The outside read ‘Operation Third Law’."
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