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"The Case for NUKES" by Robert Zubrin
Amazon:
The Case for Nukes: How We Can Beat Global Warming and Create a Free, Open, and Magnificent Future
by Robert Zubrin | Apr 3, 2023
The Case for Nukes is a unique book. In it, world-renowned nuclear and aerospace engineer
Dr. Robert Zubrin explains how nuclear power works and how much it has to offer humanity. He
debunks the toxic falsehoods that have been spread to dissuade us from using it by variously the
ignorant, the fearful, the fanatical, and by cynical political operatives bought and paid for by
competing interests. He tells about revolutionary developments in the field, including new
reactor types that can be cheaply mass produced, that cannot be made to melt down no matter
how hard their operators try, that use a new fuel called thorium far more plentiful than uranium,
and still more advanced systems, employing thermonuclear fusion - the power that lights the sun
- to extract more energy from a gallon of water than can be obtained from 300 gallons of
gasoline. He tells about the bold entrepreneurs - a totally different breed from the government
officials who created the existing types of nuclear reactors - who are leading this revolution in
power technology.
But there are broader issues involved in the nuclear debate than technology alone, and Zubrin
is not shy about addressing them. He makes clear the critical difference between practical
environmentalism, which seeks to improve the environment for the benefit of humanity, and
ideological environmentalism, which seeks to use instances of human insult to natural
environment as evidence for a prosecutorial case against human liberty. He shows how the latter
school of thought is wrong, not only with respect to the catastrophic harm it would do to
humanity, but to nature as well. He also exposes the masters of mercenary environmentalism,
who deploy troops of dupes to shut down companies or whole industries in order to eliminate
competition in return for being suitably rewarded by the beneficiaries of such efforts. He shows
that when it comes to environmental improvement, freedom is not the problem; freedom is the
solution. He makes clear both the possibility and necessity of a nuclear-power-enabled revolution in the human condition by putting it in a broader historical context of the overall process of development of civilization, whereby new technologies create new resources and new knowledge, which in turn make possible still more technological advance.
Finally, Zubrin brings all this to bear to address the greatest threat facing humanity today
- which is the possibility that we will turn on each other, as we did in the 20 th century, under the
spell of the false idea that resources are finite.
Only in a world of unlimited resources can all men and women be brothers and sisters.
Only in a world of freedom can resources be unlimited.
That is the world we can, and must, create. In The Case for Nukes, Zubrin shows us how.
ISBN-10 1736386069
ISBN on book itself: 978-1-7363860-6-4 paperback
ISBN eBook 978-1-7363860-7-1
UPC 9 781736 386064 51995
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In scanning "The Case for NUKES" I can see that Dr. Zubrin is intending to inspire vigorous debate, so I expect the companion topic in Not So Free Chat to become one of the more popular in the forum archive, if the people Zubrin is poking are members. I rather suspect he is preaching to the choir here, so we'll most likely see support for his views.
This (primary) topic is available to offer a place for calm discussion of technical details on how to change human society in a few years, to bring about abundance for everyone, including those who are presently considered to be dangerous due to competition for what are perceived to be limited supplies of needed materials.
Dr. Zubrin tries to make the case that there is NO need to be squabbling over what are perceived to be limited supplies of material or energy.
His words by themselves won't make a bit of difference, because the mind set he assails is very well established, and even some members of this forum show signs of suffering from a mild case of it.
What is needed is ACTION that enlists the creativity of human beings, and positive flows of energy, to build as many NUKES as are needed to address the immediate and long term problems faced by the human population on Earth.
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Chapter 1 Too Much Smoke, Too Little Fire
Chapter 2 A Brief History of Power
Chapter 3 Do We Really Need More Energy?
Chapter 4 What is Nuclear Energy
Chapter 5 How to Make Nuclear Energy
Chapter 6 Atoms for Subs, Atoms for Peace
Chapter 7 How to Build a Nuclear Reactor
Chapter 8 Is Nuclear Power Save?
Chapter 9 How to Cut Costs
Chapter 10 Breeding More Fule than You Burn
Chapter 11 Entrepreneurial Nukes
Chapter 12 The Power that Lights the Stars
Chapter 13 Opening the Space Frontier
Chapter 14 Upgrading the Earth
Chapter 15 The Way Forward
Chapter 16 Their Program and Ours
References
Acknowledgements
Index
About the Author
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We've had plenty of time for any member who was going to acquire a copy of "The Case for NUKES" to do so.
Yesterday I made time to read the Introduction.
Dr. Zubrin opens with acknowledgement he'll be confronting strongly held beliefs/fears/concerns.
He's no stranger to the venue of ruffled feathers, but this book should stir up a full featherbed's worth.
In the paragraph on fusion, he offers the comparison that a gallon of water contains enough deuterium to provide power equivalent to 300 gallons of gasoline.
That's a useful memory aide. There's a decent chance I'll remember it, or at least the shape of the comparison.
Like members of this forum are wont to do on occasion, Zubrin tosses out a few insults here and there, against folks who disagree with him, or with whom he disagrees, or perhaps the insults are tossed against imaginary opponents just to be sure he sets the stage for confrontation.
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tahanson43206,
Dr. Zubrin's personality and eccentricities aside, we will not be colonizing a planet with no usable air / water / soil / habitable living space, without consuming enormous amounts of energy to transform Mars or at least parts of it into places where humans can live.
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I have ordered a copy through Blackwell, which seems to be the only bookseller that I can order a hard copy of this publication through in the UK. I will talk about my thoughts on the content when it arrives and I have chance to read it. I am reading one of Peter Zeihan's books at present.
Generally I agree with Kbd512's sentiment. Everything I have learned about living on Mars from this forum and other sources, suggests to me that it will be very energy intensive to live there compared to even harsh environments on Earth. This is largely because Mars doesn't give us anything for free. It is as cold as the coldest places on Earth. Water must be made by melting ice that is frozen as hard as stone, or pushing concentrated brine through ion exchange filters. Air must be manufactured by fractional distillation of cryogenic gases and electrolysis. Living space and food production must both be inside pressure vessels. All very expensive in terms of infrastructure and energy. An actual growing colony isn't something we can attempt without a lot of cheap energy. The sheer amount of stuff that we need to make will not be achievable without a high EROI energy source, that can rapidly expand itself whilst also generating oodles of surplus energy for everything else we need. Nuclear fission is the only game in town that has a shot at meeting that requirement.
The Germans are learning the hard way right now that an industrial economy isn't a sustainable proposition without high EROI energy from fission or fossil fuels. Eliminate one and you had better have abundantsupply of the other. We cannot have material abundance without energy abundance, even on a planet as friendly as Earth. On Mars, no way of life at all is possible without high EROI energy. And there are no fossil fuels that we know about and no air to burn them in. The implications are harsh but quite simple. Anyone intending to colonise Mars needs the capability to build and expand nuclear fission power sources at a rate than can supply the extreme energy requirements of a colony.
Last edited by Calliban (2023-05-04 06:46:51)
"Plan and prepare for every possibility, and you will never act. It is nobler to have courage as we stumble into half the things we fear than to analyse every possible obstacle and begin nothing. Great things are achieved by embracing great dangers."
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For Calliban re #6
Thanks for ordering Zubrin's book! Of all the members of the forum, you seem (to me at least) to be most knowledgeable about nuclear fission.
The challenge ahead is for all humans who agree with the proposition that we (humans) need to overcome our fears by gaining trustworthy master of the technology. Even if fusion is developed, it seems to me that fission is a permanent part of the future flow of power in human settlements or space vessels traveling anywhere in the Solar System and potentially beyond. I ** think ** that capitalism might be enlisted to provide an economic pathway for fission power supply, but the very real human needs of those whose incomes would be disrupted MUST be taken into account if such a massive change is to succeed.
I am hoping that Bob Zubrin offers a set of ideas that might help to smooth the transition from fossil fuel to nuclear power. To be honest, I am not optimistic. Bob Zubrin does not come across to me as someone who cares all that much about displaced coal miners in West Virginia, but I am hoping for the best.
Your decision to make this investment is encouragement to me to continue my reports here!
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For SpaceNut re new book .... Chapter 1 opens with a sentiment that should match up well with one of your major interests, as reflected by many posts here in the forum...
Paragraph 2, Sentence 1: We have too little energy, because the main problem that the bulk of humanity faces today, every day, is poverty!
As I recall, you have created a topic whose title asks the question: Why do we have poverty in America? (or words similar to those)...
Dr. Zubrin's opening statement might be translated as: We have poverty in America because we have insufficient energy.
Paragraph two continues:
To provide a decent standard of living for all, humanity is going to have to generate and put to use many times more energy than it does today.
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In order to try to understand procedure to help Steve Stewart with his request to the Mars Society, I stopped in at marssociety.org this morning, and discovered that James Burk has been busy at the MDRS...
May 6th, 2023
James Burk to Join Red Planet Live Days after MDRS Analog Mission
Red Planet Live will be welcoming James Burk, Mars Society Executive Director and veteran analog astronaut, to the show just days after the completion of Crew 261’s two-week simulation, which he is currently commanding at the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in Utah until May 13th. Join us three days later – Tuesday, May 16th (5:00 pm PT / 8:00 pm ET) – for another one-hour podcast episode hosted by Ashton Zeth to learn from James about his and the crew’s mission “on Mars”…. READ MORE >
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Some time became available unexpectedly last night, and I had Dr. Zubrin's book close at hand.
I finished Chapter 1 "Too Much Smoke, Too Little Fire" and will take this opportunity to quote the closing paragraph:
So, the bottom line is this: we are going to need to produce a lot more energy, and it will need to be carbon-free. The only way to do that is with nuclear power.
I think that Dr. Zubrin is too cavalier about the impact that climate change is having and will have, but he does make a half-hearted attempt to notice some of the changes that are in progress.
However, from the standpoint of trying to persuade a hesitant population to accept dramatic increases in the supply of nuclear fission power, I presume the attitude struck is about right.
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Chapter 2 does a pretty good job of capturing highlights of human development, and specifically use of energy, over hundreds of thousands of Earth years, and in only 20 pages. Since this is a book about nuclear power, it would be surprising if Dr. Zubrin were to conclude that renewable energy systems could meet human needs. It will surprise no one in the NewMars membership that his answer is a solid no!
The chapter includes several images showing energy usage of various kinds. The Global Carbon Utilization graph in Figure 2.5 is easy to describe in words ... It is an almost straight line ascending from 0,0 at lower left toward the upper right corner.
Along the line are decades from 1875 to 2020. Along the left border, ascending from (about) 200 to a high value of 12000 is average GDP per person. Along the base of the graph, from 0 at the origin to 12000 at the right corner, is a count of millions of tons of carbon per year.
The correlation between carbon utilization (in energy) and well being of the population is clear.
It can be seen that between 1800, when the industrial revolution commenced, and the present, human living standards, measured in constant dollar GDP/capita, have improved in direct proportion to our total fossil fuel use.
As the purpose of the book is to advocate nuclear power, it is understandable that the chapter concludes with a reminder that nuclear power is dangerous, but that it has the capability to "also do unlimited good".
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