Nuclear Energy

I have seen recently a nice ted talk by Michael Shellenberger which speaks about nuclear energy in California, one of the pioneer in renewables. It's called : How Fear of Nuclear Ends. You should really check it, it's really interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI6IzPCmIW8

Well, let's make a little summary of it.

So, first, he said that California reduced is carbon emissions a lot, however since the Climate Legislation in 2007, emissions have been declining 4 times slower than before it, which seems a bit strange. He explains that, sometimes, renewables also make a lot of damage to the environnement. (particularly hydrolic)

Then, he tells us the history of nuclear energy in the USA, he quotes a lot of scientist who were in favor of nuclear energy when it was discover. A false link have been made between nuclear power plants and nuclear bombs have been made at the time, and it changed a lot of minds. According to the specialists, the comparison is impossible. The fear of a possible mortal dust around us is born which is greatly ilustrated in the film "The China syndrome".

An event happend, a reactor meltdown, but nothing happened, it was not catastrofic as the opposant thought, but the fear did not disapear, and the emissions of CO2 today are twice more than it should be, because of the law, because of the closure of a nuclear power plant, San Onofre. The culture of this fear is developped during the childhood, Michael Schellenberger was scary when he heard that they built a power plant in California, where an earthquake is possible : "it will be like bomb going off".

Well, he went in 2014 to the power plant Diablo Canyon, next to the coast, and the environnement is one of the most developped in all the west coast, which he explains by the fact that no humans go there. He also went to Fukushima, and he learned that, the problems with nuclear plants happen when people don't care about them.

Nuclear is the safest way to produce energy today, and also the one with the less carbon emission.

According the most part of the Media, Nuclear Energy is something to ban, that we have to diminish untill the stop of nuclear production and to replace by renewable energies. Let's see if it is really dangerous and the reasons why.

The First question is : can we replace nuclear energy today ?

According to Yves Marignac who is a french energy consultant, France, which is the most dependant country in nucleair energy (80% of its production, could replace all its reactors before 2040 developping renewables.

http://www.20minutes.fr/planete/687458-20110315-planete-peut-on-passer-nucleaire

However, at the moment, the efficency of these renewables energies is very low, it costs a lot to the country.

https://www.actu-environnement.com/ae/news/cout-energies-renouvelables-cour-comptes-19170.php4

Moreover, exploiting such energies can have a negative impact on ecosystems (dams, flooding of valleys, etc.). Projects are expensive to implement, and "renewable energies" do not always mean "clean energies": building sites leads to CO2 production, and the use of renewable energies can generate heat. Today, the only output from renewable energies would not be enough to satisfy global energy demand. That is why there is still a strong use of oil, coal, and, as in France, nuclear power.

So, it will be a huge challenge for every country to use only renewable energies.

There is a second question : is nuclear power dangerous ?

Every one seem to know that it can be dangerous, because all the media tell us that, I thought so before, without making any resarch. I didn't know the amount of radiation which is dangerous.

Wade Allison thinks it is not really. You should check out his website, it's very interesting. 

http://www.radiationandreason.com/

Then I remembered that cellphones used to be dangerous and are not anymore, I think know that we do not know how radiations are dangerous and we are scared because we dont control them and we can't see them aswell.

That's a part of what Mister Allison explains in this interview : there is a psycho phenomenom with radiations that is very bad for health. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKtKPSDRClA

So, I think we should stop running away from nuclear power and try to optimize it, to make it better and make research to be sure it doesn't become dangerous for humanity.