Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
nature of the system is an environmental bonus. In all
energy sectors of the world economy, demand for elec-
trical energy is growing fastest (including for transporta-
tion), and how that electricity is made will determine how
much and how fast greenhouse gas emissions can be
reduced. Nuclear energy will play an important role
everywhere, but perhaps not in the United States because
of misplaced concerns about nuclear waste and radioactiv-
ity, and what may be the clumsiest system for making
governmental technical decisions that could have been
devised.
First, a bit of history: when I was studying physics at
MIT in the
s, nuclear physics was part of the stand-
ard curriculum. The nucleus and its constituents were
then thought to be the smallest things (no longer so),
and every physics student was expected to know the
basics. We all knew the theory of how a nuclear reactor
worked and even how a nuclear bomb worked. President
Eisenhower
s Atoms for Peace speech to the UN General
Assembly in
'
was exciting because it envisioned a
world where nuclear weapons would be controlled and
limitless nuclear energy would transform society. It didn
t
work out that way. The Cold War became our preoccu-
pation and bombs rather than energy became the nuclear
focus of the East
'
West rivalry.
Even so, nuclear power did advance in the United
States and abroad until the accident at Three Mile
Island (TMI) in Pennsylvania in
-
. Through a series
of errors, the reactor cooling water was lost and the
core melted. This was thought to be the most serious
possible accident. Those in the United States who are
