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Dr. James Hansen on Climate Change - Part 2 [1]

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Date: 2022-12-26

Yesterday’s article on Dr. James Hansen’s report on the momentum of climate change, got be to thinking. What did Dr. Hansen think might be the biggest parts of the solution? Obviously, there would be no point if publishing such a depressing article if there was no hope.

So, I found this. For Climate's Sake

It seems that Dr. Hansen sees one energy source with the most potential to limit damages from greenhouse gas emissions. Unfortunately, we are behind schedule on this. While I realize this is controversial, necessity is the mother of invention. We are definitely, now, in a position of necessity. Thus, it is time to see what we can do to reverse the direction to which we are now heading.

Now most folks are not aware that in 2006, NASA scientist Kirk Sorensen republished notes from the experiments of Dr. Alvin Weinstein on what was then still called the world wide web. Since then, there as been tremendous research and development into new nuclear energy technologies. That said, bringing these technologies from idea to industrial deployment is no easy task.

Ideas have to be published. Teams have to be assembled. Finances have to be assembled. Technologies have to be proposed, tested, and proposed again. Governments must be brought onboard to insist that the designs are safe. Large scale tests have to be run. Then, and only then, can wide scale deployment be considered. Sixteen years is not a lot of time to overturn the world’s energy technology.

That time, however, is up. Designs are now in the final stages of testing prior to deployment.

Fortunately, the new technologies were developed with the idea of rapid industrial deployment. Most will be built in factories and simply transported to the site(s) where they will be connected to the grid. Most are the size of a shipping container, so they can be transported by truck, rail, or ship.

Because there has been a lot of experience with older nuclear technologies, lessons learned there have been applied to the new research. The new reactors will be smaller, safer, faster to deploy, as well as less useful for weapons technology. Most do not have potentially high-pressure issues related to older nuclear power technologies. Better yet, several of the new designs will use what is now considered nuclear waste as fuel for their energy production.

Many are designed specifically to be used on the sites of previous or current fossil fuel power plants. This alleviates the need for new grid development. Thus, more rapid deployment is possible.

Others are designed specifically to provide heat for uses beyond electricity. Manufacturing, transportation, agricultural and water purification needs can be handled by these designs. Most of the new designs allow for the production of medical isotopes. Many are designed specifically to provide power and energy storage to support current renewable energy technologies.

Now, none of this gets us directly to the step of reversing atmospheric greenhouse gas. However, with enough, cheap enough, energy, that can be addressed as well. We likely will not be able to undo all the damage industrialization has done. However, if we can put ourselves on a path to an energy future that can first, do no harm, and second, begin to clean up some of the mess we have already made, then there is still hope for our place on the planet.

None of this, however, is assured. It is up to us to see that it happens. There will be opposition. It is up to us to overcome that opposition. The time to act is now.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/12/26/2143885/-Dr-James-Hansen-on-Climate-Change-Part-2

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