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How much will nuclear energy cost relative to other means of getting rid of carbon dioxide emissions? What will be the risks of catastrophic accidents if we build reactors at the rate of one a week or more, cookie-cutter style, around the world? What about the risks of proliferation and terrorist attacks and nuclear waste? This book provides a meticulously researched analysis of the risks of using nuclear energy to combat global warming. Were there no alternative, the severity of the threat facing humankind and other species from global climate change might warrant serious consideration of the risks of nuclear energy. But as Insurmountable Risks convincingly shows, there are far safer economical alternatives.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 5.0 based on 1 review)

What holds nuclear power back? As documented in this book:

1. It is more expensive today than renewables when decommissioning costs and waste disposal are included.
2. In the intermediate time frame, it is more expensive than LNG or (projected) coal gasification + CO2 sequestration.
3. Yucca Mt is a flawed repository. For example, it is an oxidizing not reducing environment, which will speed corrosion. Waste encapsulating materials are "exotic" man-made alloys that have existed for less than 100 years. These are supposed to operate normally for 100,000+ years. The site is riddled with cracks and clear evidence of past volcanism.
4. All reactor designs that could be deployed soon enough to even slightly mitigate climate change (Gen III+) generate copious amounts of waste that can be reprocessed to isolate and expedite to bomb-grade. "Just 1% of the enrichment capacity required by the global growth scenario's reference case would be enough to make between 175 and 310 nuclear weapons each year." (p. 114). If you think that the standoff with Iran over its NPT-rights are tricky, note that new reprocessing techniques are much less energy intensive and much more covert than centrifuges, heightening difficulties in detecting a parallel weapons program.
5. The industry has a history of "normalizing deviance", only to be surprised when e.g. corroded reactor vessels are found. Reactors are being relicensed for 40 years, and there are discussions of going to 60 years or more without evidence of a skeptical and cautious mindset.

This book is very impressive in its documentation and attempt at balance, and is remarkably cheap but well made with relatively few typos. It is a detailed and comprehensive summary, and should be read by anyone trying to assess our energy options and who cares about the world we are leaving for our children. With oil supplies set to decline from their current peak within the next 5 years, Mexican oil production crashing, natural gas supplies in North America no longer growing, all without official recognition of clear trends, we have few routes forward. Can wind and solar fill the gap as nuclear plants reach the point where they become recurring maintenance nightmares?

This book is best read with Megawatts and Megatons: The Future of Nuclear Power and (see my review), which examines some Gen IV concepts. Perhaps we can return to nuclear power in a few decades after more work on those designs, which rethink the problems while keeping sustainability and stewardship at the forefront. Perhaps a thorium based approach, with transmutation and other tricks? But this book made clear to this physicist that Gen III+ plants should not go forward in any number that would have a significant effect on net power generation or global climate change.
October 12, 2007

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