SCIENCE IS FUN!

NUCLEAR ENERGY & CLIMATE CHANGEBy Dr. Paul H. Carr

Air Force Research Laboratory Emer itus 1

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OUTLINE: NUCLEAR ENERGY & CLIMATE CHANGE Dr. Paul H. Carr, web page www.MirrorOfNature.org

• Sharing my career as an experimental physicist and electrical engineer.

• Why is the energy of nuclear reactions one million times greater than chemical ones?

• Our human dependence on plants to convert carbon dioxide into the the oxygen we need to live.

• Climate Scientist James Hansen prediction that sea levels could rise up to 18 feet by 2058, because of the increasing carbon dioxide levels from fossil fuel burning.

• Nuclear reactors generate electricity without carbon dioxide emissions and reduce global warming.

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When I was 10, I heard on the radio that one nuclear bomb had destroyed the Japanese City of Hiroshima. This helpled end WWII in 1945

4PEACE-TIME, BOILING-WATER NUCLEAR REACTOR GENERATES ELECTRICITY WITH NO CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS.

I loved reading ATOMS IN ACTION when I was 14 years old.

HYDROGEN ATOMElectrical attraction between positively charged proton and negative electron5 MIT Professor

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I read this book when I was in High School.It blew my mind. I learned Einstein’s famous equation:

E = mc2

Energy =mass x (velocity of light c) squared.

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Dr. Paul H. Carr, 25 years old, doing electronics research at the microwave laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, Boston, MA.

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The electrical force between the positive nucleus and the negative electrons hold the electrons in orbit.This is much smaller than the nuclear forces between protons and neutrons.

PERIODIC TABLE OF THE ATOMS

10U– Uranium is a source of nuclear energy.

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U-235 is Radioactive.

92 protons

143 neutrons

Uranium U- 238 is stable.92 protons

146 neutrons

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Fission of Uranium 235 into two medium sized nuclei (fragments) + energy + more neutrons. CHAIN REACTION

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• NUCLEAR REACTOR GENERATES ELECTRICITY without emitting carbon doxide, CO2.

• Control rods absorb neutrons preventing explosions

U-235

CARBON DIOXIDE MOLECULECO2

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CO215

We get energy from oxidizing the sugars in our food. E = mc2

Where did the carbon C go?

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Plants take carbon dioxide from the air.Combine it with water from the tree roots.Use Light energy from the sun to photosynthesizeGlucose, a form of sugar,And exhale oxygen.

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• Our cells metabolize sugar and oxygen to generate energy.

• We exhale the resulting

carbon dioxide

Sugar+ Energy

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Wood is made of cellulose, C5 H10 O5, containing: Carbon (C) Oxygen (O ) Hydrogen (H) & Water (H2O) from the plant roots.

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Burning cellulose (wood) results in

Water + Carbon Dioxide + Energy Nuclear reactions have one million times more energy than fire’s chemical bond breaking

CORRELTAION BETWEEN TEMP AND CO2 INCREASE 1880 – 1980: CO2 increased 47 ppm.

1980 – 2017: CO2 increased 52 ppm. 20

Climate Scientist Hansen’s 1981 Predictions Came True.

What about 2016?

1981 2015

CORRELTAION BETWEEN TEMP AND CO2 INCREASE 1880 – 1980: CO2 increased 47 ppm.

1980 – 2017: CO2 increased 52 ppm. 23

Increasing CO2 gas density in our atmospheric blanket is warming our planet via the Greenhouse effect.

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TEMPERATURES ON THE MOONNo greenhouse gas atmosphere

• Diurnal Variations:

Day 123 C (above boiling)

Night -233 C (40 Kelvin)

Average -65 C (218 Kelvin)

ON EARTH• Greenhouse gases, blanketing the earth, give much

smaller variations.

• On cloudless nights, non-condensing, persistent, and increasing CO2, CH4, & other greenhouse gases keep us warmer than on the moon.

This global temperature chart is updated at Columbia University by Dr. Makiko Sato.Data is based on GISTEMP analysis (mostly NOAA data sources) as described by Hansen, Ruedy, Sato & Lo

2016 & 2015Warmest years On Record

“CO2 warming should emerge from the noise of natural variability (1981)” Hansen

Increasing temperatures are melting Greenland’s glaciers.

Blue: Sea level change from tide-gauge data (Church J.A. and White N.J., Geophys. Res. Lett. 2006; 33: L01602)Red: Univ. Colorado sea level analyses in satellite era (http://www.columbia.edu/~mhs119/SeaLevel/).

Sea level rise has increased to 12 in/century at present from 3 in/century 1870– 1924.

12 in./100 years.

7.5 in./100 years

3 in. /100 years

GREENLAND IS MELTING: Reflecting snow replaced by absorbing water & land. http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/06/viking-weather/essick-photography

Miami Beach is a flood zone during King High Tides.

• Miami is spending $400,000,000 to build sea walls, but the sea is seeping under its limestone foundations.

• Increasing sea levels are encroaching on fresh water supplies.

Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 3761–3812, Mar 2016 www.atmos-chem-phys.net/16/3761/2016/ doi:10.5194/acp-16-3761-2016 © Author(s) 2016. CC Attribution 3.0 License.

Ice melt, sea level rise and superstorms: evidence from paleoclimate data, climate modeling, and modern observations that 2 C global warming could be dangerous

James Hansen1, Makiko Sato1, Paul Hearty2, Reto Ruedy3,4, Maxwell Kelley3,4, Valerie Masson-Delmotte5, Gary Russell4, George Tselioudis4, Junji Cao6, Eric Rignot7,8, Isabella Velicogna7,8, Blair Tormey9, Bailey Donovan10, Evgeniya Kandiano11, Karina von Schuckmann12, Pushker Kharecha1,4, Allegra N. Legrande4, Michael Bauer4,13, and Kwok-Wai Lo3,4

1Climate Science, Awareness and Solutions, Columbia University Earth Institute, New York, NY 10115, USA 2Department of Environmental Studies, University of North Carolina at Wilmington, NC 28403, USA 3Trinnovium LLC, New York, NY 10025, USA 4NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, 2880 Broadway, New York, NY 10025, USA 5Institut Pierre Simon Laplace, Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement (CEA-CNRS-UVSQ), Gif-sur-Yvette, France 6Key Lab of Aerosol Chemistry & Physics, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi’an 710075, China 7Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA 8Department of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA 9Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC 28723, USA 10Department of Geological Sciences, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27858, USA 11GEOMAR, Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research, Wischhofstrasse 1–3, Kiel 24148, Germany 12Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography, University of Toulon, La Garde, France 13Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USACorrespondence to: James Hansen (jeh1@columbia.edu)Received: 11 June 2015 – Published in Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss.: 23 July 2015 Revised: 17 February 2016 – Accepted: 18 February 2016 – Published: 22 March 2016

Received: 11 Jun 2015 – Published in Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss.: 23 Jul 2015Revised: 17 Feb 2016 – Accepted: 18 Feb 2016 – Published: 22 Mar 2016

Sea levels could rise by 1 m (3 ft) by 2050. Could we take action to prevent a 5 m (18 ft) rise by 2058? The lifetime of CO2 is 100+ years.

Atmos. Chem. Phys., March 2016. J. Hansen et. al.

1 M TIPPING LEVEL

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MERCHANTS OF DOUBT

How a handful of scientists, many hired by companies, obscured the truth:From Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming

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THE MOST RELIABLE SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE ARE: (1) REFEREED SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS (2) UNITED NATIONS INTERGOVERNMENTAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE

REPORTS AT WWW.IPCC.CH

SOLUTIONS TO GOBAL WARMING from CO2

Electric Cars powered by

• Windmills• Solar Cells• Nuclear Fission Power

Plants

Electric cars get the equivalent of 100 miles per gallon.

2016 NISSANLEAF®As low as:$27,700*Net value after federal tax credit

106City Miles/Gal107 mi range.

3 year old Leaf $10,000

®

Mitusbishi i

ELECTRIC CARS

2012 Chevy Volt: 90 miles/gal running quietly on 40 mile battery40 miles/gal highway with gasoline generator.

How fear of nuclear power is hurting the environment | YouTube 2016 TED Talk by Michael Shellenberger

Solar energy is only available 26% of the time and wind 33%.

Nuclear is 24/7.

We are decommissioning nuclear reactors faster than the increase in wind and solar.

To make up for this net decrease, we are increasing our burning of fossil fuels, raising carbon dioxide emissions, and warming our planet.

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• NUCLEAR REACTORS GENERATE ELECTRICITY without emitting carbon doxide, CO2.

• Preventing CO2 from warming our plant with the greenhouse effect from burning fossil fuels

U-235

Bill Gates is funding new clean energy, but it's not solar or windhttp://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-talks-private-nuclear-fission-plant-terrapower-2016-4

Gates said that TerraPower's nuclear pilot plant will be built in China. The economics, safety, waste, and all the key parameters are dramatically improved.

The traveling wave reactor converts depleted uranium, a byproduct of the nuclear-fission process, into usable fuel.

PERIODIC TABLE OF THE ATOMS

44Th– Thorium is also a source of nuclear energy.

THORIUM MOLTEN SALT (MSR) NUCLEAR REACTORS Demonstrated 1965-1970 at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

• Consume nearly 100% of their fuel, compared with 3% for older reactors with solid uranium fuel.

• MSRs eliminate need for Yucca Mountain storage by consuming nuclear waste.

• Thorium fluoride molten fuel for MSRs is of no weapons value.

• Thorium fuel is more abundant and cheaper than uranium.

• MSRs require no expensive containment since they operate close to atmospheric pressure.

Trump Could Fuel A Nuclear Energy Boom In 2017By James Stafford - Dec 06, 2016http://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Nuclear-Power/Trump-Could-Fuel-A-Nuclear-Energy-Boom-In-2017.html

When I asked MIT Prof of Nuclear Science & Engineering, Ian Hutchison about this he replied, “The Republicans are less scared of nuclear energy than the Democrats.”

MIT is presently designing tethered off-shore nuclear reactors

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SUMMARY: NUCLEAR ENERGY & CLIMATE CHANGE Dr. Paul H. Carr, web page www.MirrorOfNature.org

• Sharing my career as an experimental physicist and electrical engineer.

• Why is the energy of nuclear reactions one million times greater than chemical ones?

• Our human dependence on plants to convert carbon dioxide into the the oxygen we need to live.

• Climate Scientist James Hansen prediction that sea levels could rise up to 18 feet by 2058, because of the increasing carbon dioxide levels from fossil fuel burning.

• Nuclear reactors generate electricity without carbon dioxide emissions and reduce global warming.

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