Tuesday, December 15, 2009

World Carbon Emissions from the Guardian

Carbon Emissions

3 comments:

Jason Ribeiro said...

Charles, I studied this graphic for quite some time today. It is important for the world to note, the COP15 crowd to notice, that virtually all the countries with a large circle already have nuclear energy. Some with medium sized circles are looking toward their first nuclear plant like Turkey, Poland, and Egypt. Thus when I read statements like IPCC Chairman Rajendra K. Pachauri who said nuclear power isn't for everyone:

"Nuclear energy provides a solution (to our climate change problem), but it’s not a solution (fit) for every country in the world. You need a certain infrastructure, engineering skills and safety standards that are followed very strictly. Not every country can ensure that," he said.

...We should all realize what a stupid point he is making. Certainly one day when reactor technology and the services for them evolve, we can imagine a small country like Honduras buying an off the shelf nuke and the services to run it. As it is now, the worst polluters are in the best position to shoulder the greatest burden to do something about it. Developing countries have every right to be angry at the unfair burdens suggested at COP15. Other countries like Australia with its ample uranium resources have no good excuse for not initiating a nuclear power program. Other countries like Italy now realize their abandonment of nuclear was a regrettable mistake.

DW said...

Jason makes a very good point. The ignorant wing of the climate community tends to view things statically. "If a country doesn't have nuclear power, therefore it never will."

Fortunatlly, countries that ARE serious about climate change and energy freedom, develop those infrastructures: national atomic energy boards, radiation safety training institutues, etc etc. This is what Jordan is doing, what even Nigeria is doing. The model is Vietnam: if you look at how they are developing nuclear energy, from the ground up, it's a model of this sort of development.

LarryD said...

If Polywell or Dense Focus Fusion pan out, that would change the game drastically. Any country that can design and manufacture CRTs would be advanced enough to replicate the technology, if that were necessary. If the aneutronic fusion works (Boron-11 + proton) then there won't even be any significant induced radioactivity to worry about.

And both the reactor and associated infrastructure will be cheap.

The enviro-extremists will be weeping blood.

But I'm not going to argue that anyone should wait the two years to see if they pan out, prudence dictates reasonable and measured pursuit of known to be practical nuclear energy.

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