E-Book Overview
The onset of the 21st century has coincided with mounting scientific evidence of the severe environmental impact of global energy consumption. In response, governments and environmentalists on every continent have begun to re-evaluate the benefits of nuclear power as a clean, non-emitting energy resource. Today nuclear power plants operate in some 30 countries, and nuclear energy has become a safe and reliable source of one-sixth of the world's electricity. This base has the potential to be expanded widely as part of a worldwide clean-energy revolution. Nuclear Energy in the 21st Century is an authoritative resource for educators, students, policy-makers and interested lay-people. This balanced and accessible text provides:*An inroad into nuclear science for the non-specialist*A valuable account of many aspects of nuclear technology, including industry applications*Answers to public concerns about safety, proliferation, and waste management*Up-to-date data and references This edition comes with a Foreword by Dr. Patrick Moore, co-founder of Greenpeace, which attests to today's worldwide re-evaluation of nuclear power.The World Nuclear University (WNU) is a global partnership of industry, inter-governmental, and academic institutions committed to enhancing education in nuclear science and technology. WNU partners include the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO), the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) of the OECD, and the World Nuclear Association (WNA). With a secretariat staffed by government-sponsored secondees, the London-based WNU Coordinating Centre fosters a diversity of collaborative projects to strengthen nuclear education and rebuild future leadership in nuclear science and technology. · Global in perspective and rich in data· Draws on the intellectual resources of the World Nuclear Association· Includes Physics of uranium; uranium enrichment; waste management· Provides technical perspective with an understanding of environmental issues
E-Book Content
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FOREWORD by Dr Patrick Moore
Co-founder of Greenpeace, Dr Patrick Moore is Chairman and Chief Scientist of Greenspirit Strategies Ltd in Vancouver, Canada. Website: http://www.greenspiritstrategies.com Today our foremost energy challenge is to meet increasing needs without adding to our environmental problems, notably global warming and air pollution. Though there is wide and increasing consensus on the need to severely limit greenhouse gas emissions, a significant reduction seems unlikely, given our continued heavy reliance on fossil fuel consumption. Even UK environmentalist James Lovelock, who posited the Gaia theory that the Earth operates as a giant, self-regulating superorganism, now sees nuclear energy as key to our planet’s future health. Lovelock says the first world behaves like an addicted smoker, distracted by short-term benefits and ignorant of long-term risk. “Civilization is in imminent danger,” he warns, “and has to use nuclear – the one safe, available energy source – or suffer the pain soon to be inflicted by our outraged planet.” Yet environmental activists, notably Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, continue to lobby against clean nuclear energy, and in favour of the band-aid Kyoto Treaty plus a string of unrealistic suggestions. We can agree that renewable energies, such as wind, geothermal and hydro are part of the solution. But nuclear energy is the only non-greenhouse gas-emitting power source that can effectively replace fossil fuels and satisfy global demand. The blind and anti-scientific opposition to this proposition goes back to the mid 1980s when Greenpeace and much of the environmental movement made a sharp turn to the political left and began adopting extreme agendas that abandoned science and logic in favour