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“Counting on new nuclear reactors as a climate change solution is no more sensible than counting on an un-built dam to create a lake to fight a nearby forest fire.”
— Peter Bradford, former U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission member
Like coal, natural gas, and oil, uranium is a nonrenewable resource. Consequently, is uranium being depleted faster than we think? With all the talk of building and investing in so-called next generation nuclear reactors, is enough uranium available to meet this proposed new demand in addition to sustaining current demand? Some U.S. Senators are proposing that more nuclear energy is the answer to address our climate change and energy troubles.
U.S. Senators Jim Webb, a democrat from Virginia, and Lamar Alexander, a Republican from Tennessee, do not support the current cap-and-trade legislation, but these Senators are throwing their support behind nuclear power and carbon-capture-and-storage technology. Furthermore, “Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who is working with Democrat John Kerry on the bill, highlighted how France now derives 80 percent of its energy from nuclear power and is presently constructing a next-generation reactor, said to be the most advanced in the world.” More on dwindling uranium supplies from the Physics arXiv Blog:
The world is about to enter a period of unprecedented investment in nuclear power. The combined threats of climate change, energy security and fears over the high prices and dwindling reserves of oil are forcing governments towards the nuclear option. The perception is that nuclear power is a carbon-free technology, that it breaks our reliance on oil and that it gives governments control over their own energy supply.
That looks dangerously overoptimistic, says Michael Dittmar, from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich who publishes the final chapter of an impressive four-part analysis of the global nuclear industry on the arXiv today.
Perhaps the most worrying problem is the misconception that uranium is plentiful. The world’s nuclear plants today eat through some 65,000 tons of uranium each year. Of this, the mining industry supplies about 40,000 tons. The rest comes from secondary sources such as civilian and military stockpiles, reprocessed fuel and re-enriched uranium. “But without access to the military stocks, the civilian western uranium stocks will be exhausted by 2013, concludes Dittmar.
It’s not clear how the shortfall can be made up since nobody seems to know where the mining industry can look for more.
That means countries that rely on uranium imports such as Japan and many western countries will face uranium .shortages, possibly as soon as 2013. Far from being the secure source of energy that many governments are basing their future energy needs on, nuclear power looks decidedly rickety.
And from PhysOrg.com:
New York Times energy reporter Matthew Wald, writing in Technology Review, said new reactors would be unable to pay for themselves because of the massive cost of construction and competition from emerging alternatives that could affect the energy price. Wald compared the costs per kilowatt of capacity of nuclear ($4,000), coal ($3,000) and natural gas ($800), which makes the nuclear option a big financial gamble. The future cost of fossil fuels is unknown, and could also affect the nuclear industry’s viability.
Energy efficiency standards and renewable energy options are better solutions than the nuclearization of energy sources. From Los Angeles Times:
If the U.S. wants to help stop global warming, nuclear power is not the way to go, according to a new report released today.
The Environment California Research & Policy Center concluded that launching a nuclear power industry nearly from the ground up is too slow and expensive a process. Energy efficiency standards and renewable energy options are better solutions, researchers said.
. . .
But even if the nuclear industry managed to build 100 reactors by 2030, the total power produced would reduce total U.S. emissions only 12% over the next 20 years, which Environment California deemed “far too little, too late.”
The $600-billion upfront investment necessary for the 100 reactors would slice out twice as much carbon pollution in that period if invested in clean energy, according to the report. And given the costs of running a power plant, clean energy could deliver five times as much progress per dollar in lowering pollution.
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I find Martha Stewart’s recent assessment of Sarah Palin interesting. She describes Sarah Palin as “very boring” and “a dangerous person.” Additionally, Stewart says Palin is “so confused” and consequently, would be a real problem in government.
Personally, I agree with Stewart’s assessment, because Palin’s narrow ideology and understanding of the world, if materialized in the form of a majority in government, would be disastrous to our heterogeneous or multicultural society. Undoubtedly, she would impose far-reaching restrictive policies. Palin also shows imprudence and shortsightedness on energy and environmental issues. As a result, she’s the antithesis of progressivism, evolution, and change.
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As seen in the video below, leopard seals (Hydrurga leptonyx) are very powerful and very large aquatic marine predators. Attacks on humans are very rare, and in 2003, Kirsty Brown, a British marine biologist, became “the first person . . . to have been killed by a leopard seal” when she “was dragged underwater by the seal while snorkeling near Rothera research station on the Antarctic Peninsula.”
More at The Huffington Post
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The Madagascar pochard (Aythya innotata) is one of the rarest birds in the world (pochards are a group of diving ducks). In fact, it was believed to be extinct at one time. However, by chance, an isolated but tiny population was discovered several years before when “the Peregrine Fund, who were scouting for a threatened bird of prey, the Madagascar Harrier, observed 20 adult pochards living on a single lake in northern Madagascar.” Subsequent expeditions failed to locate new populations of the Madagascar pochard. Consequently, the next step was to bring the rare pochard into some type of captive breeding program (especially since—probably due to predation—there’s a high mortality of ducklings in the wild).
As a Returned Peace Corps volunteer from Madagascar, with a passion for waterfowl, the announcement that an international team consisting of the “Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT), The Peregrine Fund and the Government of Madagascar,” with the goal of establishing a conservation breeding program for the pochard, was great news to read.
To start the conservation breeding program, eggs were collected from the wild. Consequently, “eight ducklings are now reported to be doing very well, but work continues as the team attempts to secure two more clutches from the wild over the next few weeks.”
Personally, while in Madagascar, I did not spend too much time searching for the Madagascar pochard, because I had other duties. However, when visiting Lake Alaotra—Madagascar’s largest lake and the pochard’s former stronghold—or Torotorofotsy marsh near Andasibe-Mantadia National Park, I looked for the pochard. Obviously, I did not find it, but I did observe Meller’s ducks (Anas melleri) and red-billed teal (Anas erythrorhyncha).
I believe that unknown populations of the Madagascar pochard still exist in poorly explored areas of Madagascar. However, due to another political crisis, Madagascar’s national resources are being illegally pillaged. Consequently, aggressive conservation efforts are needed. However, now that the species is one step closer to being propagated in captivity, its survival is further guaranteed. More from guardian.co.uk:
Conservationists battling to save the world’s rarest duck have managed to almost double the bird’s population in Madagascar in just one month, it was revealed today.
Fewer than 20 Madagascar pochard were believed to be living on just one lake in the wild.
But a last-gasp conservation plan to save the birds has resulted in two broods totalling 17 ducklings being found and raised in captivity.
A third clutch of seven eggs were discovered earlier this week and are being incubated.
If they all hatch successfully the Madagascar pochard population will have more than doubled in the space of a few weeks.
The conservationists are looking after the ducklings in a hotel room due to the last-minute nature of their quest.
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“Despite almost every conceivable obstacle, in just a few short weeks we have almost doubled the world population — albeit that half of them are in a hotel bathroom! It will be a long road to full recovery for the Madagascar pochard, but we have achieved everything we could have hoped for in this first step.”
The critically endangered duck is so rare that it was declared extinct in the late 1990s until scientists found a few of the birds by chance during a trip to Madagascar in 2006.
To stop the beautiful cinnamon-coloured diving duck slipping permanently into extinction a team of bird specialists known as “team pochard” devised a conservation plan that was due to be implemented next year.
They were hoping to collect some of the pochards’ eggs, incubate them and raise the ducklings via a conservation breeding programme.
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