Fossil fuels and nuclear power for people and the environment (John Shanahan)

Denver Mining Club Oct. 19, 2015 Fossil Fuels and Nuclear Energy for Humanity and the Environment.

John Shanahan Websites: efn-usa.org, go-nuclear.org E-mail: acorncreek2006@gmail.com 1

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Denver Mining Club Review: Feb. 10, 2014 1) Large Nuclear Power Plants 500 to 1,600 MWe, uranium fuel

2) Nuclear Medicine 3) PROBLEM: Linear No-Threshold Hypothesis 3

Denver Mining Club Review: Oct. 12, 2011 1) Two main types of nuclear power plants: a) Light Water Reactors â&#x20AC;&#x201C; water cooled, uses < 1% of uranium

b) Fast Reactors - Integral Fast Reactors - sodium cooled, uses ~ 100% of uranium 2) Domestic coal and nuclear, US can be free of foreign energy for electricity for >> 1,000 years.

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Outline for Oct. 19, 2015 - 1/2 • 1) Websites: - Go Nuclear, Inc. - Environmentalists for Nuclear Energy – USA • 2) 500 MWe to 1,600 MWe large uranium fueled NPPs • 2) 10 MWe to 499 MWe small to medium uranium and thorium fueled NPPs 5

Outline Oct. 19, 2015 – 2/2 • 3) Problem: Topic of CO2 from fossil fuels

• 4) Problem: Topic of Linear No Threshold Hypothesis • 5) Humanity • 6) Environment 6

(1/6) Websites Painting by Leonid Afremov

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Website: Go Nuclear, Inc. go-nuclear.org • 1) Nuclear Energy Today - (uranium)

• 2) Nuclear Energy Tomorrow – (uranium, thorium) • 3) Radioisotopes for Nuclear Medicine, etc.

• 4) Low-dose Radiation, LNT 8

Website: Environmentalists for Nuclear Energy – USA efn-usa.org • 1) Nuclear Energy & Medicine (uranium & thorium) • 2) People • 3) Environment

• 4) Environmentalists for Nuclear Energy (worldwide) 9

(2/6) Small & Medium NPPs â&#x20AC;&#x201C; U, Th Mount Fitzroy, Argentina

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Very small nuclear power for space missions

• Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator, RTG • 1961 - Transit 4A RTG, 52.5 watts worked 10 yrs

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Small nuclear power plants for long term space missions • Projects as exploration of the Moon or manned mission to Mars need 10 to 50 KW nuclear power • Power for life support and equipment, but also drive electric or nuclear rocket engines.

• Russia has launched about 40 spacecraft (2007) with nuclear plants aboard. Most of them were used for spying purposes 12

Small nuclear power plants for Earth missions • Fast Breeder Reactor: U235, U238, to Pu239 – Breeding ratio > 1.0 Light Water Reactor spent fuel uranium from ground and ocean • Molten Salt Reactors: Th232 to U233 – Breeding ratio < 1.0 thorium more abundant than uranium “the chemists reactor” 13

Thorium Nuclear Power • ThorCon • A 250 MWe scaled-up Oak Ridge MSRE. It is a single-fluid thorium converter reactor in the thermal spectrum, graphite moderated. It uses a combination of U-233 from thorium and U-235 enriched from mined uranium. Fuel salt is sodium-beryllium fluoride with dissolved uranium and thorium tetrafluorides (Li-7 fluoride is avoided for cost reasons). Secondary loop coolant salt is also sodium-beryllium fluoride. It operates at 700°C. There is no on-line processing – this takes place in a centralized plant at the end of the core life – with off-gassing of some fission products meanwhile.

Martingale aims for an operating prototype by 2020, with modular construction. A 1000 MWe Thorcon plant would have about 200 factory- or shipyard-built modules installed below grade (30 m down). All components are deigned to be easily and frequently replaced, Every four years the entire primary loop.

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3/6 Problem: Topic of CO2 from fossil fuels

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Problem: Topic of CO2 from fossil fuels • Environmentalists for Nuclear Energy – USA, efn-usa.org presents documents on both sides of this topic: ALARMISTS & SKEPTICS • Dr. John Holdren, Science Advisor to the White House says about presenting both sides of the argument. “Its preposterous”

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Problem: Topic of CO2 from fossil fuels â&#x20AC;˘ Dr. Patrick Moore, Co-Founder of Greenpeace at a presentation of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, London (October, 2015) that carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels is the staff of life, the currency of life, indeed the backbone of life on Earth. â&#x20AC;˘ EFN-USA presents the views of many skeptical scientists. Public can decide for themselves.

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4/6 Problem: Fear of low-dose radiation. LNT

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Problem: Fear of low-dose radiation. LNT • Paracelsus, (1500s): Poison is in everything, and no thing is without poison. The dosage makes it either a poison or a remedy.

• Linear No-Threshold Hypothesis and Collective Dose Corollary • Hormesis

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5/6 Problem: Nuclear Power and People

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Nuclear Power and People • History of mankind.

• Fear of Man-Made climate change • Fear of Low-Dose radiation

• Life without fossil fuels and nuclear power?

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6/6 Problem: Nuclear Power and The Environment

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Nuclear Power and The Environment â&#x20AC;˘ There is a clear net positive effect on the environment of using fossil fuels and nuclear power. We must however always act knowledgeably and responsibly. â&#x20AC;˘ To do away with fossil fuels and nuclear power would have disastrous results for the environment and humanity.

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