Energy Or Extinction?

S FRED HOYLE Energy or Extinction ? The case for nuclear energy NUNC COCNOSCO EX PARTE THOMASJ. BATA LIBRARY TRENT UNIVERSITY Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019 with funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation https://archive.org/details/energyorextinctiOOOOhoyl Energy or Extinction ? Energy or Extinction? The Case for Nuclear Energy FRED HOYLE Second Edition HEINEMANN London and Exeter Tt^lS-b .WW Heinemann Educational Books Ltd 22 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3HH LONDON HONGKONG EDINBURGH SINGAPORE IBADAN MELBOURNE NAIROBI EXETER (NH) AUCKLAND KUALA LUMPUR NEW DELHI JOHANNESBURG KINGSTON PORT OF SPAIN ISBN 0 435 54431 4 © Sir Fred Hoyle 1977, 1979 First published 1977 Reprinted 1977 (twice), 1978 Second edition 1979 I wish to thank my wife, Barbara, and my son, Geoffrey, for their considerable assistance in the preparation of this book. Set, printed and bound in Great Britain by Fakenham Press Limited, Fakenham, Norfolk Foreword by Sir Alan Cottrell, F.R.S. formerly Chief Scientific Adviser to H.M. Government This is an important book which I hope will be read and thought about deeply by politicians and by everyone con¬ cerned with the future of western democratic society. It is about energy: about the alarming prospect that oil will soon run out and not be replaced by anything else. It shows that - contrary to an influential belief - we do not have time, that there is no practical alternative to nuclear energy, and that western decision makers have been frightened into immobility in their nuclear energy policies by a wellorchestrated campaign which has marched under an ‘environ¬ mentalist’ banner but yet has a clearly identifiable political basis. All Fred Hoyle’s writings are brilliant and strikingly original. This is true vintage, but he also brings to it a passionate intensity of feeling about the vulnerability of western society and of the threat to our children’s future. Written for the non-scientist, it explains the scientific, economic, and political backgrounds to the world’s energy and materials resources; and it brings refreshing commonsense to bear against the claims for new non-nuclear energy sources and the hysteria of the anti-nuclear environmentalists. The book makes two major points, hardly to be found in any other book on the energy crisis. First, that some of the anti-nuclear campaigns are politically inspired as a means of weakening the West. Second, that nuclear breeding - which is now the only sure way to an energy-unlimited v 312226 Energy or Extinction? future - does not necessarily require fast breeder reactors, it can also be accomplished in reactors such as the Canadian CANDU type, which are technically straightforward and well-proven. It is surely a scandal that the U.S. and t e U.K. have ignored this attractive alternative for so long. , Alan Cottrell vi Contents Foreword v Introduction ix 1. The Anti-nuclear Environmentalists 1 2. Stars and Atoms 5 3- Energy 16 4. Energy Availability: Non-nuclear Sources 28 5. Energy Availability: Nuclear Sources 40 6. The Safety of Nuclear Energy 55 Index y8 vii Publishers' Note The publication of this new edition of Energy or Extinction coincides with its adoption as a set book for the Foundation Course in Technology at the Open University, Living wit Technology’. The author has no connection with the Open University’s Course Team, but in that course his book