Nuclear is Not the Solution: The Folly of Atomic Power in the Age of Climate Change

About the Book

The climate crisis has propelled nuclear energy back into fashion. Proponents of nuclear argue that we already have the technology of the green future and that it only needs perfection and deployment. Not a Solution demonstrates why this sort of thinking is not only naïve but dangerous.

Even beyond the horrific implications of meltdown and the intractable problem of waste disposal, nuclear is not feasible. Any appraisal of green energy technology depends on two important parameters: cost and time. Nuclear fails on both counts. It is more costly than its green competitors and thus a dollar spent on nuclear energy results in fewer megawatts than a dollar spent on wind or solar. And, importantly given the need for rapid transformation, by 2030(!), it is slow. A plant takes a decade to come online. If you include permits and fundraising, this adds another decade. And we should not forget the deep connection to the defense industry.

Ramana’s powerful book breaks any illusions in the hope of nuclear, untangling the technical elements into simple and sensible arguments. Importantly, Not a Solution also unmasks the powerful groups with deep interests in the maintenance of the status quo who have worked so hard to greenwash one of the dirtiest industries in the history of our species.

Table of Contents:
Introduction

1. Undesirable: Risks to the Environment and People's Health from Nuclear Energy
2. Infeasible: The Financial and Temporal Costs of Nuclear Energy
3. Private Profits, Social Costs: Industry Strategies
4. Enabling Moneymaking, Singing Praise: Governments and Nuclear Power
5. May the Atom Be a Soldier: Nuclear Power for War
6. Magical Thinking and Billionaire Messiahs: New Technology as Solution?
Conclusion

Acknowledgments
Notes
Index

About the Author :
M.V. Ramana is the Simons Chair in Disarmament, Global and Human Security and Professor at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. He is the author of The Power of Promise: Examining Nuclear Energy in India(Penguin Books, 2012) and co-editor of Prisoners of the Nuclear Dream (Orient Longman, 2003). Ramana is a member of the International Panel on Fissile Materials, the Canadian Pugwash Group, the International Nuclear Risk Assessment Group, and the team that produces the annual World Nuclear Industry Status Report. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Leo Szilard Award from the American Physical Society.

Review :
Ramana presents a devastatingly convincing case against the dangerous distractions of nuclear energy. a major contribution destined to change countless minds. You will not find a more comprehensive and powerful exposition that effectively demolishes all the different arguments and claims made by those promoting nuclear energy. Ramana must be applauded for doing a masterful job. This book is smart, terrifying, and indispensable. In lucid prose, Ramana cuts through the hype surrounding gen iv, modular, and other reactor designs that are squandering billions of dollars. Atomic energy is costly, dirty, dangerous, and not the solution to anything other than building bombs and contaminating the earth for millions of years. Ramana's argument is compelling: claims for 'advanced' nuclear power plants are distractions from the safer, more cost-effective, and proven approach of replacing fossil fuels with renewables. With great care and clarity, Ramana confirms that as urgent as it is to change how we produce and use electricity to address the climate crisis, it's equally urgent that we do not look to nuclear energy to do so. Detailed case studies demonstrate the practical difficulties involved in commissioning nuclear plants, and Ramana builds a persuasive case that the costs of nuclear power outweigh the benefits. Environmentally-conscious readers will have their eyes opened. Nuclear is Not the Solution discusses the nuclear industry in a frank and honest manner. There are no questionable claims about nuclear energy or fantastic excuses made for the industry's mistakes and its questionable premises. The text details the industry's lies, mistakes and cover-ups, reminding the reader that they should focus on the historical and empirical facts, not fanciful advertising and promises. With a PhD in physics, and a previous book examining why India's nuclear programme had not worked and would not work, Ramana is well versed in not just the moral but the technical and practical arguments against nuclear. He lays these out in his new work and then looks at what he originally set out to explore: why, despite the overwhelming evidence against nuclear, governments and corporations continue to invest in it. I was delighted to read [Nuclear is Not the Solution], as the question of how to deal with climate change and the 'green' nuclear smokescreen becomes ever more urgent.Every so often the notion of nuclear propulsion in space is revived as part of NASA's planetary exploration program. While RTGs and RHUs have some role in space, this magical quick escape to Mars is especially insane, given the enormous cost of such spacecraft and the lack of funding to return a few samples to Earth.From the point of view of a planetary scientist and a student of political economy who, like [Ramana], sees this as one front in the struggle to head off climate change and remake society into an environmentally positive and socially just system, I applaud [his] effort to debunk the latest nuclear swindles. Ramana's latest book, which exposes nuclear power as a false solution to the climate catastrophe, should be read with the utmost seriousness Ramana presents a useful updated and well-informed guidebook to the deceitfulness of the nuclear industry. The case Ramana presents is as fresh and valuable as ever, because he has updated and extended the evidence and analyses of the past to fit the needs of the present moment. Anyone who encounters eager-beaver pro-nuke activists can enlighten them with the wisdom Professor Ramana has distilled into this relatively concise volume.