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Controlling global warming Samuel H Levine August 25, 2021 ANS Nuclear Café (American Nuclear Society)
(Photo: Jackl) DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in posted articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Nuclear Society. The views expressed here are those of the individual authors. ANS takes no ownership of their views. The American Nuclear Society assumes no responsibility or liability for any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions, or ideas contained on this site. Global warming is widely recognized as an existential threat that will have horrific consequences if left uncontrolled. The intent of this article is to create a call to action for our industry to unite in promoting nuclear energy as the best way to combat this threat while investing in research for improved deployment methodologies. Together, we need to decriminalize our reputation by reversing the extraordinary and lasting fear generated by the sensationalistic and irresponsible reporting done throughout and after the Three Mile Island-2 nuclear accident. Provided is context on how the world’s current energy use will only continue to accelerate global warming. Lastly is a proposed nuclear research program to develop a method to contract 1000-MWe or larger nuclear power plants that are safe and able to compete on price. 1
Irrational fear: The fear generated by the media in fabricating and sensationalizing the horrors of the TMI-2 accident went unchecked—everything from falsely claiming that the accident caused many deaths of humans (and cows), to Walter Cronkite claiming that the radiation from TMI-2 was passing through the mountains and (to paraphrase) “it would get you wherever you are.” This fear was exploited by the movie The China Syndrome and then exacerbated with the Chernobyl nuclear accident. Together, all of this led to such a negative public opinion that the industry’s future in the United States and other parts of the world was essentially destroyed through overregulation and irrational decisionmaking. The makeup of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s commissioners was changed, eliminating needed nuclear capability, which resulted in massive and excessive increases in regulation, red tape, and, therefore, costs. These costs, coupled with fear, resulted in the premature shutting down of many of our nuclear plants, often replacing this generation with natural gas. Going the wrong way: This shift to natural gas is a great example of how our planet is moving in the wrong direction to stop global warming. Today, natural gas has become the United States' major source of electricity, and, unfortunately, natural gas is 26 times more effective than CO2 in heating the earth, escaping from wherever it and other fossil fuels are produced. Further, gas pipelines periodically break, releasing additional gas into the atmosphere. Please note that in 2017, fossil fuel generated 65.5 percent of the world’s electricity, and its use has grown since then. Of great importance is the heating of the North Pole. Here, where millions of tons of natural gas are being released, the temperature is increasing faster than the rest of the earth. Keep in mind, the rest of the world's use of energy is causing the major problem, and so helping the world’s population use safe and competitively priced nuclear power is a needed part of the equation. Develop a program: With this in mind, one way to address this issue would be to establish a research and rapid deployment program to optimize methods for constructing large nuclear power plants that are safe and cost-effective. There is a vast amount of experience and data on large light water–moderated nuclear power plants, and there are more than 400 such plants operating today in the world. Many more are being constructed now. Leveraging this experience and data will be very valuable to this research program. The U.S. nuclear community is capable of constructing safe and competitively priced nuclear power, if given the proper incentive and support. As a suggestion, this program would (1) begin with selecting manufacturers that together can produce the requisite nuclear power components to meet all nuclear standards, (2) follow China and recycle nuclear waste while developing nuclear reactor designs that use the heavy nuclides in the waste to generate nuclear power, (3) use modeling to determine accurately all important parameters that affect the safety of the plant, and (4) leverage instrumentation to measure the critical parameters and couple this with artificial intelligence to detect any abnormalities and instantly alert the 2
operator. Similarly, leverage instrumentation outside of containment to detect any potential leakage of radiation to ensure public safety. Much relevant information has not been included to keep the length of this article reasonable. Useful supportive information can be found in my article “Fukushima: 10 years on and more” in the June 2021 Nuclear News and in the various feature articles in the August 2021 issue of Nuclear News. The world needs the U.S. community to construct cheap and safe nuclear power to meet our energy demands while controlling future global warming. Remember, nuclear power is far superior to renewables and E = mc2. Samuel H. Levine is a professor emeritus of the Nuclear Engineering Department at Penn State University and was director of the Breazeale nuclear research reactor, 1968–1986 . Note: John Shanahan, civil engineer, Founder website allaboutenergy.net – It is very unfortunate that professionals in nuclear power and advocates like alarmist James Hansen claim with no scientific proof that nuclear power can control man-made global warming or this generalization (global warming from any source of carbon dioxide). There are two very serious errors: 1) If nuclear power were able to control global warming by replacing fossil fuels, it is going to take centuries before nuclear power will replace most fossil fuels. There are many very obvious reasons for that. Those nuclear power professionals and advocates claiming nuclear power can be built to meet all the world’s energy needs are completely misrepresenting the speed that nuclear power will replace fossil fuels for all the applications they fulfill now. It might even take more than 500 years. Meanwhile, leaders in the USA, the UK, and Germany have insisted that the catastrophic climate tipping point is always ten or twenty years away. 2) Which scientists and engineers have proven that nuclear power can control global warming? No one. Professor Levine’s article and ANS Café publish this article are a disgrace to professionals in nuclear power who stick to doing good work in their profession and don’t going around making fairy tale claims about mankind and nuclear power being able to control global warming.
The following photos demonstrate a beautiful world climate since the 1970s when all this faux global warming alarmism was started by John Holdren, President Obama’s Science Advisor, and the like.
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Afghanistan
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Argentina
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Australia
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Austria
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Belgium
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Bolivia
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Brazil
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Canada
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Chile
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China
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Croatia
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Czech Republic
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Democratic Republic of the Congo
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Denmark
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Ecuador
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Egypt
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Ethiopia
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Fiji
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Finland
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France
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Germany
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Guatemala
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Guinea, West Africa
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Hungary
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Iceland
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India
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Indonesia
https://aseanrecords.world/maoke-mountains-indonesia-thehighest-ski-resort-in-southeast-asia/
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Ireland
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Italy
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Japan
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Kazakhstan
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Lebanon
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Luxembourg
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Malaysia
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Mexico
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Nepal
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Netherlands
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New Zealand
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Peru
Cusco, Peru – Amazing precision fit stone walls from 12th to 15th Centuries AD These walls were cut so precisely without any power tools and any fossil fueled power equipment to move them. Aren’t these the most marvelous walls ever constructed? 42
Philippines
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Romania
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Russia
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Singapore
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South Africa
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Spain
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Switzerland
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Thailand
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Turkey
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United Kingdom
The White Cliffs of Dover, limestone skeletal remains of marine organisms representing millions of years of Earth’s climate supporting life. The climate today supports life as well as ever before. Political proclamations of catastrophic man-made global warming are intended to stop use of fossil fuels that enabled the development of today’s wonderful modern world.
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United States of America
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Vietnam
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Zimbabwe
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Conclusions: 1) Nuclear power, nuclear medicine, nuclear science, and nuclear technology professionals are divided into two groups: a) those who stick to their profession and do outstanding work, b) those who enter the man-made global warming debate and claim that mankind with the use of nuclear power can control Earth’s climate. One group is not helping to get nuclear power going and overcoming real barriers holding it back. 2) The photos of Earth’s climate presented here clearly show that there is no catastrophic man-made global warming crisis. Climate alarms at UN IPCC COP conferences are used by politicians and other powerful people to force humanity to stop using fossil fuels and turn to wind and solar, a preposterous idea. 3) Nuclear power professionals have made little progress since the 1970s to keep this wonderful energy source expanding. Instead, many of today’s nuclear power organizations and individual advocates join the choruses of those sounding catastrophic global warming alarms and make the preposterous claim that nuclear power can control climate. This is a disgrace to nuclear power pioneers who did marvelous things developing this technology. 4) Nuclear power professionals need to focus on removing the barriers deliberately put in front of this industry and stop making completely false statements that nuclear power can control Earth’s climate.
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