Special thanks to Jason Hayes at The Mackinac Center for loaning us his article that inspired this video.

Change The Narrative

For decades we’ve been told that nuclear energy is the most dangerous force in existence and must be avoided at all cost lest we raze the Earth, evaporating every living creature that abides it. This narrative is rinsed and repeated every year, but could it be time to rewrite the narrative? Of course this is an explosive topic that is frequently met with a staunch resistance; people understandably fear the dark history of what went wrong. However, after more than a century of experiments and research, has anything gone right? Yes. At least enough for me to write about it.

But before we go further I would like to lead with a disclaimer. I’m going to write some things that will make me sound really smart. I assure you I’m not. So if there are any technical details that I, the non-nuclear non-scientist, get incorrect, then mea culpa and berate me if you wish. There’s a main thing I’m getting at here so don’t be too quick to dismiss it. We’re going to traverse this topic together. Let us begin.

Background & Controversy

The element uranium is the basis of nuclear energy and people have been poking it since the late 19th century. That’s the 1800s for those of you who get confused, I amongst you. Significant characteristics of uranium and related elements were revealed when John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton experimented with nuclear reactions with a particle accelerator.

A particle accelerator projects particles through an electro-magnetic field, where magnets direct the particles and make them smash into atoms. Now I can barely swat a mosquito; I don’t know how you catch an atom, but I see my ignorant colors are now showing. What results in this wild experiment is nuclear fission, which is when the atoms split. This gives off an unprecedented amount of energy.

Further experiments from other scientists revealed that these reactions produced additional elements usually heavier than uranium, but some produced lighter elements. In 1939 Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch elaborated on this result by explaining that the “neutron was captured by the nucleus.” This discovery confirmed a theory brought forth by Einstein—and that’s as deep I’ll get into Einstein stuff. Just know that it was a big deal. Nuclear fission happens in a commercial reactor submerged in water, which cools the reaction so it can be controlled. The fission creates steam from the water, which is sent to a turbine powering a generator and boom, energy.

After the experiments of the thirties testing and development increased rapidly especially given the political climate of the time. It was discovered that a greater reaction could be sustained by colliding slower neutrons with other less stable elements. This was the groundwork for the atomic bomb. Internationally, things had been going well with scientists of various countries including America, Canada, and Britain all exchanging information on the development.

However, the American government stepped in and complicated things. (Shocker.) The army took over procedures in the states, ceasing the exchanging of information as they prioritized the bomb. Consequentially, most the countries that were doing fine and dandy also shifted their attention to military use of nuclear energy because no one wanted to be a victim. The rest as you know is a tragic history. Tension rose and bombs fell.

The Disasters

So why on Earth would we take the very thing that’s caused so much destruction and power our neighborhoods and cities with it? Well, let’s first pinpoint what we’re discussing. Nuclear energy. Yes, it can make bombs. Yes, it can harm people. Yes, it can be taken advantage of and used for malicious purposes. However, that is exactly where we’re drawing the line in this discussion. We’re talking about nuclear energy itself not the intent and misuse of it. If we let that get in the way of these conversations then we wouldn’t ever get in cars or airplanes.

Those modes of transportation we use every single day for work, family, errands, and emergencies are always being used in ways most of us would deem morally questionable or even reprehensible. By the way don’t forget as long as you’ve got something with a lithium battery in it you can forget about taking the moral high ground in this way.

“But what of the risk factor!” Ah, the infamous disasters. Let’s real quick run through some of the major disasters.

Chernobyl: A poorly constructed reactor to begin with, the employees lacked proper training, which led to a myriad of safety regulations violated. It was also the Soviets and to be frank they did a lot wrong anyway.

Three Mile Island: More design flaws and a general lack of care in the equipment that resulted in a multitude of problems including safety measures and alarms failing.

Fukishima: The strongest earthquake in Japan and fourth strongest tsunami in the world took place and wrecked the country. That’s like saying a tree fell down on a house and caught fire in the lit fireplace so we should get rid of indoor fireplaces. Not to mention there is a SINGLE DISPUTED death attributed to the reactor in that disaster.

That brings me to possibly the greatest takeaway from all nuclear reactor disasters. Barring Chernobyl, which was practically set up for failure, the death tolls attributed to these reactors are few and far between and highly speculative mainly because most of the deaths were cancer victims who died years and sometimes decades later; with cancer being so prominent it’s difficult to definitively accuse a culprit. This is all to say malice, misuse, and ignorance should not prevent us from pursuing a higher quality of life.

Climate Activist’s Dream

So, where are we now? According to World Nuclear Association, “Today there are about 440 nuclear power reactors operating in 32 countries”, (America having ninety-six) and in 2023 these accounted for nine percent of the world’s electricity. World Nuclear Association. Yes there’s a bias there, but I’m just using it to get a head count.

There are many reasons why we should consider building more nuclear power plants. All the hot topics of the energy world are addressed with nuclear energy. It’s carbon free and produces no greenhouse gasses. While technically not “renewable” it has far greater density than other sources of energy. For all you coal haters our there, every one kilogram of uranium contains the same amount of energy as 2.7 million kilograms of coal.

Earlier I described nuclear fission, but smart people are also researching nuclear fusion. The basic premise is that two nuclei of a lightweight atom such as hydrogen fuse together and gives off massive amounts of energy—an estimated four times the amount of nuclear fission, thereby using far fewer resources. This is the same reaction as stars, which just suspended balls of nearly unending energy.

Of course, when we conduct this reaction we do it in a way that doesn’t explode and implode like a star. In fact, the UK has had a fusion reactor since the 1980s. It’s getting shut down now because it’s old and outdated, but it’s final two experiments have given us a glimpse into the possibilities. It went from producing 59 megajoules of energy in a 5 sec reaction to 69 megajoules in a 5.2 sec reaction. This is still not enough energy for any practical use especially for such a short duration, but the point is that an additional two tenths of a second produced a nearly seventeen percent increase without a single greenhouse gas in sight. Imagine the possibilities.

The Indomitable Human Spirit

We can dive into the details of the various methods of harvesting nuclear energy, compare statistics, construct hypotheticals, but the main thing is that nuclear energy has garnered a bad rap because of incompetence and questionable motives. However, we are humans; we take risks. We explore hidden lands and travel the unending depths of space. We escape tyranny and create ways of life that uplift our fellow man. We invent technology that determines the course of our history and innovate ways to lift people out of poverty. Do we get it right the first time? Rarely.

When writing on this topic, Jason Hayes of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy shared a quote from C.S. Lewis. In an essay on living in the atomic age, Lewis said that we should live …

He elaborates that we should live as humans doing human things …

If we are facing dangers of global warming, rising oceans, rising energy prices, unending poverty, and a mental plague of existential psychosis, then we are obligated to improve our way of living so that we may take back our sanity and flourish in our freedom. I’m not saying more nuclear energy will fix everything, but how many lives could be saved by embracing this form of exceedingly abundant, affordable energy? How many societies that have remained at the bottom of the world’s barrel could be advanced?

The narrative must change. We are humans. We explore. We innovate. We uplift one another.

Sources:
Nuclear Power Is the Safe, Affordable, Clean Option (Jason Hayes on Substack)
NUCLEAR 101: How Does a Nuclear Reactor Work? (Office of Nuclear Energy)
A Brief History of Nuclear Accidents Worldwide (Union of Concerned Scientists)
UK nuclear fusion reactor sets new world record for energy output (NewScientist)