This formula tells us a small quantity of matter can be changed into a large amount of energy. It is the path to boundless, renewable, sustainable, and clean energy. It works! We know it works! It is the path to the future!
Cheap, clean, and renewable energy can open the door to a plethora of new and exciting technologies. Encourage positive thinking and foster men and women with vision. With sufficient energy we could recycle a much greater percentage of our waste, especially metals.
Diablo Canyon came online in 1985 and has produced gigawatts of reliable electricity for 36 years. Its license is up for renewal in 2026 and PG&E has decided not to fight the anti-nuclear crowd. Many of us support Diablo Canyon and have a good chance of keeping it open. Some in California are proud to say that when Diablo Canyon closes, California will have no nuclear power. They are uninformed or hypocritical. The largest nuclear power plant in the USA is Palo Verde west of Phoenix, Arizona. Southern California utilities own almost a third of Palo Verde.
In 1942 my parents bought our first house in Garfield Heights, Ohio. It had a monster coal burning furnace and a coal bin. Heat rose through the house by convection of the warm air and settled back to the basement through large cold air returns in each floor. My father and a shovel were the thermostat! He soon bought a conversion kit that put a natural gas burner in the fire box and a fan below in the ash tray. We had a refrigerator, but many houses still had an ice box. The ice man would deliver blocks of ice and we kids would run behind the truck to suck on ice chips that broke off. Life was not bad for us kids. Saint Timothy’s Church and school was five blocks away. We did have a practice air raid occasionally. At night, all lights had to be off or windows blocked. Wardens would patrol the neighborhood and issue citations if he saw and light coming from the house. (World War II - 5 wars ago.)
No one wants to go back to subsistence living, growing our own food, sewing our own clothes, sleeping in whatever the temperature is outside. In the cold, we can cover up, but heat and humidity have no fix other than air conditioning. Wash machines and clothes dryers are necessities in this age. It is understandable why many are pessimistic about humanity. But balance that with the smart and useful things we have done. Is living our entire life within a few miles of our birthplace satisfactory, or do we enjoy the ability to travel between continents? Do we reserve that privilege for politicians and the wealthy?
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a good person, sincere and a terrific communicator. But she has no clue how fossil fuels got us to the quality of life we all enjoy. They will be phased out gradually, but not by wind and solar farms. The sun and wind are free, (when available), but the devices we need to capture their energy are neither free nor renewable. Wind and solar farms cannot deliver what they promise and are not in the least sources of renewable energy.
Would a nuclear energy renaissance draw us closer to nuclear war because of the proliferation of nuclear materials? TR397 answers no. The number of nuclear bombs and the number of nations that own them already have this planet as "proliferated" as it can get. Recycling nuclear weapons into nuclear fuel would improve the quality of life for everyone and reduce the desire to kill others.
Robert J. Gordon, economist at Northwestern University, wrote, “A newborn child in 1820 entered a world that was almost medieval, a dim world lit by candlelight, in which folk remedies treated health problems and in which travel was no faster than that possible by hoof or sail." (Wish I could write as well!)
1942
SCIENCE IS THE SEED. TECHNOLOGY BARES ITS DELICIOUS FRUIT!
2022