tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6130830332820181818.post1114975898221551155..comments2024-03-27T13:13:25.164-04:00Comments on johnshaplin: The Paradox of Nuclear Power by James Mahaffeyjohnshaplinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17618981988062495637noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6130830332820181818.post-70522348891179666072009-11-15T17:04:00.309-05:002009-11-15T17:04:00.309-05:00"Atomic Awakening; A New Look at the History ..."Atomic Awakening; A New Look at the History and Future of Nuclear Power" by James Mahaffey; Pegasus Books, 2009.<br /><br />If you can follow the quantum mechanics that is the theoretical foundation of nuclear power then good for you! Just about the most I could get was that the popular model of an atom- sort of like a planet with various moons orbiting around it is all wrong, though the symbol is ubiquitous, used even by those who know better. I might also safely conclude that, microscopically, the world is contingent, the boundaries between energy, matter, space and time not all that clear cut. Thus the author refers to his topic as the paradox inside a puzzle inside a fantasy- explaining the great and uncertain difficulties surrounding early efforts to develop nuclear power, as well as the suspicion with which it is viewed by the public.johnshaplinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17618981988062495637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6130830332820181818.post-38810558676211538332009-11-15T17:01:42.338-05:002009-11-15T17:01:42.338-05:00Around 1978 nuclear engineering as a profession we...Around 1978 nuclear engineering as a profession went dark, as the power industry tried its best to stay out of the public mind. And then, over the decades of sleep, something very odd happened. It is not easy to describe. It had that same component of deepest-felt, secret disappointment one feels when the bad boys you knew in high school, the ones that you were certain would do time, grow up and turn into responsible human beings. It can be frustrating when things do not turn out as they were supposed to, when the laws of nature are ignored. As I watched, helpless, nuclear power became the safest industrial process in the world.<br /><br />Gone was the excitement, the hint of danger, and the risk-taking of the experimental years. The indescribable sense of exclusive fun that we all felt, whether we admitted it or not, had disappeared. The improved technology, the allowed radiation dose standards, and the general sense of industrial safety had finally caught up with the power source of the future, and the result was the edgy nuclear technology reduced to crashing boredom. In a research area once abuzz with hyper-speed nuclear propulsion, neutron weapons, and experimental molten-salt reactors, I was now hosed down with discussions of maintaining nuclear safety standards in a time of craft labor shortages and news of an exciting Paint and Coating Expo in Los Angeles. Even the Yucca Mountain repository, which I counted on as a sources of refreshing controversy, had been rendered safe as a sandbox by careful engineering and was simply waiting to open.<br /><br />The environmental movement, started in England after the killer coal-fog in 1952, gained national prominence, a Nobel Peace Prize and motion picture Academy Award. The new term of atmospheric pollution is now "global warming" and there is a suggestion for how it can be curtailed. We must stop burning things to generate power, artificially increasing the carbon-dioxide component in the air. That is not a difficult problem to address. We have worked on it for half a century. It is that enormous elephant in the room whenever global warming is discussed. It is not entirely solar energy, wind power generation, or geothermal steam. It is a power source that can base-load the world's increasing energy needs, and it works in the dark. on cloudy days, in rain, in fog, tornados, perfectly still air, twenty-four hours a day. It is something for which we may finally be willing to pay.<br /><br />The ball has started moving, if not rolling...on September 25, 2007, the first application for a new nuclear power plant construction and operating license in 30 years was received by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. In October of the same year four more projects filed for a license and two engineering and procurement contracts were signed...johnshaplinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17618981988062495637noreply@blogger.com