Letter to the editor: Nuclear power resurgence is subject of upcoming meeting

Nuclear power resurgence is subject of upcoming meeting

The resurgence of nuclear power will be the timely subject of the next meeting of the Local and Global Discussion Group on Tuesday, Feb. 3, from 1:15 to about 3:30 p.m. in the Community Room of the Weston Public Library The presenter will be Dr. Alan Rice, who has several Ph.D.s in various subjects, including applied physics and applied mathematics from Columbia University and recently gave a very successful talk on mapping the ocean floor to the Local and Global Discussion Group.

The concern over global warming has led to reconsideration of nuclear power as a means to mitigate against global warming. Nuclear power emits no carbon dioxide, the bane of the majority of most power plants which run on fossil fuels. It is a “greenhouse” gas which absorbs the heat of the sun but does not release it back into space. The increasing amount of carbon dioxide in the present environment is accompanied by an increase in atmospheric temperature. The five major extinctions over the past 500 million years are attributed to the influx of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere which led to a rise in environmental temperature which caused the disappearance of many life forms.

The emplacement of nuclear reactors was driven to take advantage of the small footprint of reactor power stations compared to fossil fueled power plants and to take advantage of the immense power available with them, a power supply almost inexhaustible. The great majority of nuclear power plants that have operated in the USA are pressurized water reactors (PWRs). This is an old design that arose out of the first reactor to power a submarine. This type of reactor is accompanied by the generation of radioactive material which requires a technology to abate the hazard of “radwaste” and it was this impediment that led to discontinuing developing power generated by PWR reactors. The field has lain dormant for decades. The world has ‘rediscovered’ the molten salt reactor which “burns” (transmutes) its own waste and possesses none of the hazards associated with the PWRs such as Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. There are efforts to produce these as small modular reactors. These would serve to reduce the brittleness of present power grids. The Russians, the Danes, the Chinese and others are pursuing the SMR concept with the view of getting rid of radwaste.

Dr. Rice’s interests and academic pursuits are eclectic, including sustainability issues, geophysics and geology, oceanography, and nuclear energy/nuclear physics.

The meeting will be both in person and via Zoom. It is open to all who would like to discuss the issues in civil discourse with a wide variety of participants. The Zoom link is https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81849707570.

Questions? Comments? Contact Susan Wagner at 508-314-5341 or [email protected].

Susan Wagner

Oxbow Road, Wayland