By Robert Hargraves. Mr. Hargraves teaches at Dartmouth’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and is a co-founder of ThorCon International, a nuclear engineering company. Excerpts:
"Nuclear is America’s largest source of emission-free electricity. The candidates are anxious to stop using fossil fuels but offer no viable replacement. Wind and solar are intermittent and require supplemental power, normally from burning natural gas, which emits as much as half the CO2 of coal. Batteries to store intermittent electricity are too expensive by a factor of 10.
The million-to-one energy-density advantage of fissioning uranium makes it cheaper even than coal. New U.S. ventures are combining proven technologies—liquid fuels, high temperature, passive safety and advanced manufacturing—to drive total costs below those of fossil fuels. If they were allowed to, U.S. companies could build inexpensive, full-time power plants emitting no CO2. They could also export them to developing nations, improving their energy-hungry economies.
People are afraid of nuclear power, yet it’s proved safer than other energy sources, even when disaster strikes. The United Nations reported in 2013 that the 2011 Fukushima accident caused no immediate health effects and probably will have no detectable effects. Cancer rates did not rise notably after Chernobyl. No one has been harmed by used fuel.
Modest radiation is safe. Life evolved at higher radiation levels, and exposures of 40 times background reveal no harmful health effects."
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