Supporting Sources
Gen IV (4) Nuclear by Mark Schneider the world’s leading nuclear futurist, has spent his life working in and around nuclear reactors. Excellent advocate. “His take on Gen IV Nuclear is the best overview on the planet!”
The low cost of power generation in Ontario nuclear is second only to hydro
Nuclear power can save the world New York Times opinion piece
CANDU nuclear reactors, over 30 years of safe power let’s have more of that
Compare death rates per terrawatt hour nuclear is by far the safest, even more so that hydro and solar.
Comprehensive website by the World Nuclear Association all the facts
Estimated supply of uranium enough to power the world for 10,000 years
Birthstrikers anti-natalists believe humanity is the problem They’re wrong. The wealth and resources of the world increased along with the population, thanks to technology making what was once expensive and scarce, now affordable and abundant. Extreme poverty may be eliminated worldwide by 2030.
Transcript
Who wouldn’t like cheap, cleanly generated, electric power?
Imagine a technology that eats nuclear waste and atomic weapons for fuel.
Imagine that it’s the safest method of power generation.
What if every person on the planet can have it?
That’s what the family of generation 4 power technologies can deliver.
It’s like the Tesla of power generation.
Welcome my friend to WTK, the “What to know” show. I’m your host Peter, Whelan
All my life I’ve heard how we must reduce our carbon emissions and stop using fossil fuels.
I can’t believe we’re not doing it right now!
As Stompin Tom said, if we don’t get at it, when we get to it, then we won’t get to it to get at it again.
Here in Canada we enjoy blue skies and many sources of clean power.
But we can’t raise the supply of renewables fast enough to meet all our needs by 2030.
Hydro electric dams are protested and delayed every time we try to build one.
Solar occupies a lot of space and it only works during the day. Some consider them ugly.
I’m a kite surfer and I love wind power.
But the wind doesn’t blow all the time.
We need safer, more efficient designs for wind turbines.
They can be deceptively large. The biggest ones are 3 times higher than the Statue of Liberty. Don’t worry, the men working in that one got out safely.
In Canada we have CANDU 3rd generation nuclear power plants. They have a 30 year track record of safe operation. CANDU doesn’t need ugly cooling towers or a massive amount of land. It’s the safest power ever produced.
I know what you’re thinking, nuclear? Isn’t it dangerous? What about that famous disaster?
That was different technology, based on designs that were over 40 years old.
It’s like comparing a 70’s mainframe computer to today’s smartphone.
They’re both computers, but they’re very different designs.
Generation 4 nuclear power is designed to safely shutdown if anything fails.
Adding gen 4 reactors to existing nuclear facilities would make them safer.
Over 3 million people a year die due to fossil fuel pollution,
so why isn’t the majority of our power cleanly generated?
People get triggered when they hear the word nuclear. They react like the pointy haired boss in this Dilbert comic
I invented a new type of nuclear power that has zero risk.
It can be built in one day for less than a thousand dollars and it can power a small city
GET THAT THING OUT OF HERE!!
I expect it will be a hard sell.
And that’s the problem. We are deeply affected by vivid stories
After seeing Jaws, some people won’t swim in the ocean.
Movies and sensationalized news affect us to such a degree that we make judgments contrary to real world evidence.
Don’t let mass media assign your opinion to you.
Read the links in the show notes and educate yourself. Form your own opinion. Our future depends on it.
I spent a couple of weeks in China and never saw a blue sky.
I bet China will mass produce thousands of 4th generation nuclear power plants. Then they’ll get to enjoy blue skies and cheap energy.
Imagine that!
To be fair, there are people opposed to every single one of the clean technologies I’ve mentioned.
They use the power of ignorance and fear to oppose the use of these technologies.
They’re like Agent Smith in this clip from the Matrix. They see humanity as the problem.
Don’t be that guy, he’s creepy.
Learn about gen 4 nuclear. You’ll feel optimistic about our future
You matter.
It’s important to add your voice to the cause.
Gen 4 is the only solution we have that is quickly scalable to billions of people, carbon-free, and always available.
Our climate change problems CAN be solved.
Along the way we’ll end up with cheap, clean, abundant energy. We can use that to desalinate ocean water, providing clean fresh water to everyone.
Gen 4 can be built next to existing nuclear plants, so nuclear waste can be recycled as fuel. That handles the transportation and storage problem. The power distribution lines are already there.
It’s not the final solution. Nuclear power is not renewable. We have enough uranium today to meet all our needs for at least a ten thousand years, experts say closer to a million years. So we need to develop green renewable technology too.