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Home ยป Power to Save the World: The Truth About Nuclear Energy

dzagar @ 2011-04-28

Power to Save the World: The Truth About Nuclear Energy

$16.95
This book was fascinating and factual. I felt it did an excellent job of presenting the case for nuclear energy, presenting the reader with an abundance of factual information, not the usual "China Syndrome" drivel you witness daily in the liberal media. For example, it pointed out that a coal fired plant expels far more radioactive material (because radioactive isotopes are embedded in the coal) than any nuclear plant. It also makes distinctions about radiation levels and sources of radiation. Most people don't realize that a day at the beach (solar radiation) is probably far more damaging than living a lifetime a mile from a nuclear plant.

The big buzzwords today are carbon credits, global warming and the like. This book points out how nuclear beats out the others in that respect.

Another point made is our country's foolish policy about storing nuclear waste, which still contains, if I remember something like 95% of the recoverable energy. The French have devised a system of reprocessing their nuclear waste, thus extracting more energy and reducing the space neeced for waste storage. Why this country, the one who first developed nuclear energy, has not taken the lead in this field, is directly as a result of politicians yielding to pressures exerted by a misinformed public (I believe). But while on the topic of waste storage, the book points out that the volume and weight of nuclear waste is miniscule compared to the coal ash disposal problem produced by coal fired power plants. 60 Minutes had a real interesting segment on the coal waste disposal problem a year or so ago, and some of the toxic waste disasters stemming from the dumping of that material.

Points were also made about the viability of wind and solar, which although being developed since the first gas shocks in the 70's, still only supply something like 2-3% of the country's energy needs. Unless subsidized, they have not yet become economically viable (sadly) compared to hydrocarbons (coal and natural gas) and nuclear. Sure, in a perfect world, we would all just get clean energy from the sun. Problem is, it all comes down to economics: with today's present technology, we would spend some multiple (4, 5, 6 times?) what we now spend for the energy we now get with our present sources. Considering many people will drive 10 miles out of their way to save 3 cents per gallon on gas, the American people prove by actions that they vote with their pocketbooks, not with their principles (unless they are forcing their principles upon someone else and getting the other guy to pay for it).

To conclude, I felt this was an excellent book which shatters alot of the myths and tripe being splattered around about nuclear energy. I don't know the author or have any financial interests in the success of the book - my only interest is in weaning this country from its dependence on foreign oil, and in weighing the facts and economics of various energy sources. I found no flaws in the arguments presented in this book.