June 19, 2006
 
Nuclear Energy and Oil Independence
 
By HNN Staff
 
The president of TSAugust (a nonprofit think tank) presented a paper at the annual meeting of the American Nuclear Society on how nuclear energy could contribute to breaking America’s addiction to foreign oil.
 
Donn Dears said the three technologies that could replace foreign oil used in the transportation sector all require large amounts of electricity. These technologies require from between 100 to 420 gigawatts of new generating capacity. This translates into between 67 and 280 new base load 1500 megawatt generating plants.
 
While coal fired power plants could meet this demand, nuclear plants have the advantage of being emission free.
 
These additional power plants are over and above those needed to accommodate population growth. While wind and other renewables can play a role in generating electricity to accommodate population growth, they are not suitable for base load generation that is required for implementing the three technologies that are needed to end America’s addiction to foreign oil.
 
The three technologies are Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles using an extra battery, Hydrogen or Shale Oil. While ethanol can help reduce the amount of gasoline used in cars and trucks, America alone cannot produce enough ethanol (corn based and cellulosic) to replace the approximately 11 million barrels of oil used daily.
 
For more information go to www.tsaugust.org.