Sellout: How Washington Gave Away America's Technological Soul, and One Man's Fight To Bring It Home

Journalist Bruce (No Apparent Danger) tells the story of Jim Kennedy, a retired securities portfolio manager who purchased a mining operation only to learn about China's rare earth monopoly. Kennedy tried to convince the U.S. government to return to domestic supply chains, especially for rare earth elements, which are critical to many consumer electronics and 70 different military weapons systems. He partnered with engineer John Kutsch to lobby for a much safer alternative to nuclear power: molten salt reactor technology, which is based on thorium, a byproduct of rare earth mining. Together, they presented a win-win solution for technological and energy independence to various government staffers and the U.S. Department of Defense. Tangential narratives about the various players with whom Kennedy interacted during his quest provide helpful backstory, but their breadth and depth often take the focus unnecessarily far from him. Though the subject matter may seem daunting, Bruce manages to extract a compelling narrative from a formidable amalgam of land histories, geological surveys, patent applications, and foreign trade policies. Readers will share Kennedy's considerable frustration with the shortsightedness of profit-driven stakeholders and the hubris of politicians.