Nuclear Power Propaganda Fails to Address Radioactive Waste
Editorial: "
Future energy supply rests on nuclear fusion
2005/7/3
As mainland China is trying to acquire an American oil company to fuel its industrial expansion, and gas prices at the pumps are shooting sky high, the world is haunted again by an energy crisis that will not go away any time soon. There is a ray of hope, however, and it comes from a seemingly inexhaustible source of energy supply -- from nuclear fusion.
This week, an international consortium consisting of the United States, Russia, mainland China, Japan, South Korea and the European Union announced that it has chosen France as the site of the world's first nuclear fusion reactor. The ambitious, US$10 billion project is seen as crucial to solving the world's future energy needs.
Of late, mainland China has been making international headlines for its unsolicited, US$18.5 billion bid to take over the California-based Unocol, America's eighth largest oil company. The bidder, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) is a state-owned firm.
Mainland China is energy-thirsty. With its economy growing at an average of 9.5 per cent annually in the last two decades, the country has a critical shortage of energy. According to recent reports from Beijing, the mainland now suffers a shortfall of energy supply totaling 31,000 megawatts, and is planning to build 31 nuclear power plants of 1,000 mw each in the next 15 years, at an estimated cost of US$3 billion each unit.
The situation is not very much different in Taiwan, where power shortage is common, especially in hot summer months. The island's controversial fourth nuclear power plant in northern Taiwan, with two boiling-water reactors supplied by General Electric will barely satisfy the country's energy needs upon completion many years from now.
In Taiwan, anti-nuclear energy has been the policy of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, causing delays in the construction of the fourth nuclear plant. Environmentalists the world over are against nuclear energy, citing the danger of toxic, radio-active waste.
Moreover, dreadful images of the Three-Mile Island's nuclear reactor meltdown in the United States in the 70s and the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster in the former Soviet Union in the 80s still haunt the memory of the world. As a result, many countries in the West have shunned nuclear energy by shutting down their nuclear plants or stopping building new ones.
Why, then, the multi-billion-dollar project to develop nuclear fusion technology in France? Is the energy from nuclear fusion cleaner and safer than that from nuclear energy? There seems no simple answer to these questions.
To begin with, nuclear energy has been controversial since its beginning. Countries like France and Japan depend on nuclear energy as a major source of energy supply without serious safety problems. Coal-fired power plants pollute the air and cause global warming and climate change. In fact, there is no clean energy except wind, hydraulic and solar energy, but they are not big enough to meet the world's demand.
Judging from the prospects that crude oil will be depleted by 2035, and coal is just too dirty to be relied upon as a major source of energy, the world has little choice but to turn to nuclear energy. Fusion may become the ultimate method of producing energy because it is the way the Sun produces light and heat, and it uses far less "fuel" than in the case of nuclear energy.
Why less "fuel?" Remember Albert Einstein's famous equation: E equals mc square? The m in this equation is the mass lost during fusion, and the tiny loss in mass results in a large release of E(nergy).
It's time for Taiwan to take a serious look at its energy future. Unless we have a better and viable alternative, nuclear energy seems the inevitable choice. Just look: All the six members of the consortium, except mainland China, are wealthy industrial democracies who care about the well-being of their citizens no less than the politicians and ideologues here do about their compatriots. We must have long-term plans for our energy future. "Love Taiwan" should not be a slogan; it should not in fact "sink Taiwan.""
Future energy supply rests on nuclear fusion
2005/7/3
As mainland China is trying to acquire an American oil company to fuel its industrial expansion, and gas prices at the pumps are shooting sky high, the world is haunted again by an energy crisis that will not go away any time soon. There is a ray of hope, however, and it comes from a seemingly inexhaustible source of energy supply -- from nuclear fusion.
This week, an international consortium consisting of the United States, Russia, mainland China, Japan, South Korea and the European Union announced that it has chosen France as the site of the world's first nuclear fusion reactor. The ambitious, US$10 billion project is seen as crucial to solving the world's future energy needs.
Of late, mainland China has been making international headlines for its unsolicited, US$18.5 billion bid to take over the California-based Unocol, America's eighth largest oil company. The bidder, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) is a state-owned firm.
Mainland China is energy-thirsty. With its economy growing at an average of 9.5 per cent annually in the last two decades, the country has a critical shortage of energy. According to recent reports from Beijing, the mainland now suffers a shortfall of energy supply totaling 31,000 megawatts, and is planning to build 31 nuclear power plants of 1,000 mw each in the next 15 years, at an estimated cost of US$3 billion each unit.
The situation is not very much different in Taiwan, where power shortage is common, especially in hot summer months. The island's controversial fourth nuclear power plant in northern Taiwan, with two boiling-water reactors supplied by General Electric will barely satisfy the country's energy needs upon completion many years from now.
In Taiwan, anti-nuclear energy has been the policy of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, causing delays in the construction of the fourth nuclear plant. Environmentalists the world over are against nuclear energy, citing the danger of toxic, radio-active waste.
Moreover, dreadful images of the Three-Mile Island's nuclear reactor meltdown in the United States in the 70s and the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster in the former Soviet Union in the 80s still haunt the memory of the world. As a result, many countries in the West have shunned nuclear energy by shutting down their nuclear plants or stopping building new ones.
Why, then, the multi-billion-dollar project to develop nuclear fusion technology in France? Is the energy from nuclear fusion cleaner and safer than that from nuclear energy? There seems no simple answer to these questions.
To begin with, nuclear energy has been controversial since its beginning. Countries like France and Japan depend on nuclear energy as a major source of energy supply without serious safety problems. Coal-fired power plants pollute the air and cause global warming and climate change. In fact, there is no clean energy except wind, hydraulic and solar energy, but they are not big enough to meet the world's demand.
Judging from the prospects that crude oil will be depleted by 2035, and coal is just too dirty to be relied upon as a major source of energy, the world has little choice but to turn to nuclear energy. Fusion may become the ultimate method of producing energy because it is the way the Sun produces light and heat, and it uses far less "fuel" than in the case of nuclear energy.
Why less "fuel?" Remember Albert Einstein's famous equation: E equals mc square? The m in this equation is the mass lost during fusion, and the tiny loss in mass results in a large release of E(nergy).
It's time for Taiwan to take a serious look at its energy future. Unless we have a better and viable alternative, nuclear energy seems the inevitable choice. Just look: All the six members of the consortium, except mainland China, are wealthy industrial democracies who care about the well-being of their citizens no less than the politicians and ideologues here do about their compatriots. We must have long-term plans for our energy future. "Love Taiwan" should not be a slogan; it should not in fact "sink Taiwan.""
posted by Greta Jane at Sunday, July 03, 2005
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