Nuclear Power - Fossil Fuels - Carbon Dioxide? John Shanahan, Civil Engineer February 20, 2021 INTRODUCTION John Shanahan was engaged in commercial nuclear power and environmental cleanup of Department of Energy facilities from 1970 through 1995 in the USA and Switzerland. From 1990 to the present, he studied topics of nuclear power, nuclear medicine, nuclear technology, production and uses of radioisotopes, low-dose radiation and how they fit in with the modern world created by fossil fuels. He knows many experts around the world. He studies the topic of catastrophic man-made global warming supposedly caused by carbon dioxide from use of fossil. The thirty years of information gathering is documented in 2,300 documents written by 1,100 authors/sources. This includes articles, PowerPoint Presentations, reports, eBooks, and videos all intended for public education. They are posted on the website: allaboutenergy.net. Since 2010, he has worked for public education about the importance of energy and energy by-products from fossil fuels and nuclear power. His 44-member Board of Advisors live in 18 countries. They are in many professions ranging in age from their twenties to nineties. The newsletter for the website is sent to students, parents, professionals in many fields, and leaders in business and government in 124 countries. This article summarizes the situation among nuclear energy organizations, nuclear power advocates, anti-fossil fuel, and anti-nuclear power alarmists regarding their positions on nuclear power, fossil fuels, and carbon dioxide. John Shanahan, editor of allaboutenergy.net, endorses three major positions: 1) Nuclear power should stand on its own merits. Advocates must clear away barriers, like Linear No-Threshold Radiation Guidelines and unreasonable licensing procedures, that have stood in the way for sixty years. These barriers are intended to make nuclear power too expensive and create unjustified fear. 2) Advocates should not present nuclear power as a solution to supposed catastrophic man-made global warming from use of fossil fuels. These energy sources created the modern world and won lasting peace in two terrible World Wars. CO2 is the molecule of life, not a pollutant.
1
3) Nuclear power will require a long time to be fully implemented around the world. There are many reasons. It is very misleading to claim that worldwide generation of electricity by nuclear power will only take 50 or so years. That did not happen with fossil fuels. Rapid progress with nuclear power hasn’t happened in the last thirty years. It will not happen until the problems in (1) have been corrected. John Shanahan thinks that it will take 300 years or more before the whole world is generating electricity with nuclear power. Reasons are fossil fuels will still be around. Nuclear power requires stable government, healthy economies, good education, industries to support construction and maintenance, good management of nuclear plants and staff. We must set realistic goals and solve real political, economic, and technical problems in order to establish widespread use of nuclear power as soon as possible.
John Shanahan challenges pro-nuclear organizations and advocates to discuss these points and decide what they want to focus on to get nuclear power accepted as fast as possible. Should it be focusing on fossil fuels and carbon dioxide? Should it be solving the real problems holding nuclear back for fifty years? Only one way will lead to success. The way the nuclear power industry and professional organizations in North America and Europe have gone since the 1990s will not lead to a rebirth of a healthy, growing nuclear power industry.
WHERE ORGANIZATIONS AND PEOPLE STAND Here is where some prominent organizations and people stand on fossil fuels and nuclear power.
AGAINST ALL TYPES OF NUCLEAR POWER Beyond Nuclear, Helen Caldicott, Thomas Cochran, Friends of the Earth, Green America, Greenpeace, Natural Resources Defense Council, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Sierra Club, Socialist Worker
AGAINST BREEDER NUCLEAR POWER Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, John Holdren, Barack Obama, Frank von Hippel
AGAINST NUCLEAR POWER AND FOSSIL FUELS Thomas Cochran, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Angela Merkel, Natural Resources Defense Council, Bernie Sanders, Sierra Club,
2
AGAINST FOSSIL FUELS 350 Dot Org, Joe Biden, Brave New Climate, Barry Brook, James Conca, Pope Francis, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, John Kerry, Michael Mann, Bill McKibben, Natural Resources Defense Council, Our Children’s Trust, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research – Potsdam-Institut fuer Klimafolgenforschung, Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Sierra Club
FOR NUCLEAR POWER BUT CONCERNED ABOUT CARBON DIOXIDE FROM FOSSIL FUELS Rod Adams, Simon Aegerter, Wade Allison, Australia Institute, Australian Nuclear Association, Tom Blees, Brave New Climate, Bright New World, Barry Brook, Climate Council, Bruno Comby, James Conca, Environmentalists for Nuclear, James Hansen, Ben Heard, IIASA, Mothers for Nuclear, Nuclear Matters, Nuclear for Climate – Australia, Science Council for Global Initiatives, World Nuclear Association, American Nuclear Society,
FOR NUCLEAR AND FOSSIL FUELS Joseph Bast, Calvin Beisner, Ed Berry, Don Bogard, CFACT, David Cherry, Terigi Ciccone, CO2 Coalition, Bernard Cohen, Cornwall Coalition, John Dendahl, Ray DiLorenzo, Terry Donze, Paul Driessen, John Droz, Viv Forbes, Free Market Foundation, Samuel Furfari, Michel Gay, GWPF, William Happer, Howard Cork Hayden, Peter Heller, Roger Higgs, Floyd Ivey, Zbigniew Jaworowski, Vijay Jayaraj, Rob Jeffrey, Eric Jelinski, Jerry Katell, Kelvin Kemm, Andrew Kenny, Leonard Koch, Kenneth Kok, , Donna Laframboise, John Landis, Sherri Lange, David Legates, Jay Lehr, Douglas Lightfoot, Richard Lindzen, Leon Louw, Sebastian Luening, Alan MacRae, Jose Maldifassi, Euan Mearns, Christopher Monckton, Patrick Moore, Wanda Munn, Nuclear Africa, James Peacock, Benny Peiser, Donald Riley, Theodore Rockwell, Rosatom, Robinder Sachdev, Saltbush Club, SEPP, John Shanahan, Michael Shellenberger, Fred Singer, Willie Soon, TRCS, Fritz Vahrenholt, Paul Vallely, Gregory Wrightstone, Gary Young Fossil fuels, nuclear power, by-products, and related technologies make the modern world so much better than life before their use. By making life better, they take away a lot of pressure on the environment and wildlife habitat. Here are some examples of the world with fossil fuels and nuclear power and without.
3
A modern kitchen made possible by fossil fuels and nuclear power
Cooking without fossil fuels and nuclear power. Actually, remove the metal pot. No mining, processing, manufacturing, long-distance mass transportation. 4
Chengdu, China made possible by fossil fuels
Natural beauty and clean environment in the Netherlands Conclusion: Claims by alarmists and their politicians that fossil fuels are causing catastrophic global warming, that the world must abandon this life-giving energy source, that carbon dioxide is a pollutant, that the world must switch to dilute, unreliable wind and solar energy are schemes of dictators. That must change. 5