Nuclear power helps the environment and human needs (Richard McDonald)

Nuclear Power to Preserve the Environment and to Meet Essential Human Needs Richard J. McDonald RJM5@sbcglobal.net November 23, 2014 The position and goal of EFN-USA is to show how nuclear power can directly or indirectly address environmental problems while providing energy to maintain developed countries and energy to advance developing countries. Depletion of conventional oil, lack of sufficient potable water, and famine drive conflicts among nations, and war is the greatest environmental threat of them all. Nuclear power produces large amounts of energy at high (~50) Energy Return on Energy Invested (EROI) compared to solar photovoltaic (~2) and wind (~4). This means you have energy to do other things besides producing more energy, not only to maintain the U.S., Europe, and Japan; but to develop Africa, Asia, and South America. Using nuclear power as our main source of energy reduces pollution, slows resource depletion, lessens the likelihood of war, and preserves environment while providing essential human needs.

Electricity: Nuclear power presently supplies 11% of electricity worldwide. It supplies 75% in France making that nation a low carbon emitter. No source is without a CO2 footprint, but that for nuclear is lower than any other energy source with the exception of hydroelectric. The CO2 footprint shrinks further when you reprocess the spent fuel (as presently done by France). Nuclear electricity can replace all coal burning and give the greatest reduction in CO2 production per unit energy produced. “Renewables� have larger carbon emissions because they take a lot of energy to produce (often from burning coal) and return little in excess.

(Low EROI) Liquid Fuels: Liquid fuels are vital to building and maintaining infrastructure in the developed world and even more vital to the developing world because they can power heavy machinery in remote areas. Making synthetic fuels from the energy of a nuclear reactor and the Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) process yields a carbonneutral fuel because the products of combustion are the same as the feed stock (CO2 and water).

Potable Water: Producing potable water from sea water gives a product free from agricultural and chemical contamination. By providing plentiful water to large coastal cities, lake and river water and aquifers can revert to more natural states to support other species.

Food: Agriculture presently takes large tracts of land, large amounts of water, artificial fertilizer, and pesticides as well as large amounts of energy to plant, harvest, and to transport these products to market. The need for agricultural land has led to deforestation (particularly in South America and Asia) and reduced the CO2 sinks necessary to maintain constant CO2 levels in the atmosphere.

Aquaponics, whereby fish and plants are raised together, mitigates many of these problems. Optimal growing conditions can be obtained by using waste heat from a nuclear reactor to heat greenhouses, allowing tropical fruits to grow in the Arctic. Fish provide protein and the various fruits and vegetables provide fiber, vitamins and minerals. Composting waste from these operations can produce fish food and can provide natural fertilizer to surrounding areas for rotational grazing for cattle and chickens, providing sustainable food in the forms of beef, chicken, eggs, and dairy products.

Can you do this with solar energy? No. Solar electricity requires 70 times more land and costs 10 times as much because of the low duty cycle and short life expectancy of solar. You need high temperatures (150-300 deg C) for the F-T chemistry, not provided by solar. Desalination of water takes large amounts of energy and is therefore unfeasible with solar. Aquaponics can probably be done with solar, but again at much higher price.

The effects of pollution on the future of humanity have been discussed by various scientists for 50 years. Opposition to nuclear power has resulted in more coal burning, more oil, resource depletion, and general degradation of our environment. It is time to reduce consumption and pollution and meet the needs of humanity for food, water, and energy with nuclear power. Carbon-neutral synthetic fuels can run transport without environmental damage. Desalination will allow rivers to flow free and aquaponics will raise fish and vegetables without the environmental impact of conventional agriculture. By reducing our own environmental footprint, we allow more space for the other species on Earth.

It’s a win for humanity and a win for the environment.