Nuclear Power in a Modern Word

Last week, Frank Ackerman, of Tufts' Global Development and Environment Institute, was quoted in a Time Magazine article about the cost of Global Warming. "The idea is that if we have a number, we can compare the costs and benefits of efforts to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere. If, say, we value CO2 damages at $20 a ton, then $15 per ton is considered an acceptable cost to ameliorate it. If the [Social Cost of Carbon] is $2, spending $15 seems out of line," he told Times.
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"Putting a Price Tag on the Melting Ice Caps"

Global Warming, Climate Change, and Carbon Footprints have all been key catchphrases in the hot-button topic of the environment. One Tufts Professor from the Urban Environmental Policy and Planning department, Rusty Russel, will be teaching a course on nuclear power for the first time this summer, though Tufts Summer Session. Russel taught a similar course in Talloires last summer, but will be adopting the material to an American audience this year. Check out the article below for the full story:

Rusty Russell, lecturer in Tufts’ Urban Environmental Policy and Planning (UEP) department is not a self-proclaimed “advocate” of nuclear power. He is, however, fascinated by the culture that surrounds it – so much so, that he is about to embark on his second summer teaching a course about renewable energy sources, energy policy, and nuclear power’s role in our global energy economy.

“I’m not a nuclear power advocate. My view is that I love to teach about things that are kind of taboo in that sense because we can always learn something from them…we can’t just say, ‘oh, well we resolved that a long time ago, we don’t need to think about this,” Russell said.

For the first time last summer, Russell taught “Nuclear France in a Warming World,” a new course to the Department of UEP, at Tufts’ European Center in Talloires, France. Russell’s course, which exposed students to an alternate worldview of the benefits of nuclear power, was fitting in France, as the country is by far the most nuclear powered in the world.

“For better or worse, 80 percent of the electricity that is generated in France is generated from nuclear plants—which is a phenomenal number. The next nearest big country that uses nuclear in a big way is Japan at about 36 percent, and the United States is about 20 percent—most people don’t know that,” he said. “But [20 percent] is still a significant amount—if we were to shut down all of the plants here, if they were all bad, there would be a serious problem…it’s an essential part of our power structure.”

Though last summer’s course focused on France’s use of Nuclear energy, Russell hope to minimize the European context, and tailor this summer’s curriculum to fit an American focus.

“I found it so interesting to teach about nuclear energy and some of the issues that are facing the energy system in general in the United States and worldwide, that I wanted to see if I could adapt the course to audiences here on the mainland, at Tufts,” Russell said.

Nuclear Power in the Current Economy

One reason Russell proposed a course on nuclear power was because if its pertinence to current political debates and policy decisions.

“During the [most recent] State of the Union address, President Obama issued a clear call for a new generation of nuclear plants—alienating, or certainly discomforting some of his supporters—but showing that he and his administration is interested in a somewhat different menu of options than we had expected,” Russell said. “I think it’s a very appropriate time to be thinking about nuclear power, and in a way, it will help students focus on our entire energy system.”

Nuclear power plants are also prevalent in the United States—maybe more so than most citizens are aware. According to Russell, of the nearly 440 nuclear power plants worldwide, 104 operate in the United States, and about 56 or 58 are located in France. Although there are roughly twice as many nuclear plants in the U.S. as there are in France, the American public doesn’t accept nuclear energy with the same vigor as the French.

“We toured nuclear plants [during my course] in France and they were full of propaganda—the French had a very slick interface for the public. Somebody asked ‘could we take a tour of a plant in the United States?’ And I wondered if any plants do that anymore—not just because of security, but also because, is there any interest in this country?” he said. “We get 20 percent of our power [from nuclear energy], but a lot of the people in this country would prefer to think that nuclear power didn’t exist.”

Russell explained that nuclear power often gets a bad reputation over other alternative energy sources in the U.S. for a couple of distinct reasons:

“…unlike wind power, nuclear power does have some real downsides—the increasingly problematic issue of nuclear waste, storage, and disposal; major security issues; international terrorism and the control of nuclear materials, particularly Plutonium, which could be used in very small quantities to create a useable and highly destructive nuclear weapon,” Russell said. “We’re also concerned about cost: the cost of nuclear power plants has gone up precipitously, and it doesn’t seem to be coming down. So those are some of the ‘hot issues’ that have to be considered.”

Although Russell detailed some of the concerns that come with the discussion of nuclear power, he said that having those debates is still integral to fully understanding the issues at hand.

“You might ask, ‘why teach this course now with such a depressing and unlikely future?’ Well the answer is that nuclear power is being discussed widely as something that is part of the energy mix...Even if the United States were not acting, nuclear power is being developed in other parts of the world, in some cases, at breathtaking speed. China has plans that were announced last April to add maybe 80 or so gigawatts of nuclear power to its energy mix in ten or 20 years. And 80 gigawatts is about the size of the entire nuclear fleet in America right now—it’s essentially a quarter or more of the existing nuclear power in the world that would be increased,” Russell said.

Russell emphasized really how truly ‘global’ the notion of nuclear power really is.

“A lot of the most exciting, but also the most relevant energy stuff—from the point of view of climate change, from the point of view of technology, from the point of view of all the fears people have of nuclear power (which are potentially worldwide)—is going to happen in China, whether we put our heads in the sand or not. So that makes it an exciting topic: if you’re interested in what’s really happening, versus what your fantasy world is, you might want to take this course.”

Adapting Nuclear Curriculum for a US Audience

Russell explained that his class in Talloires had three main focal points: it looked at the French nuclear industry, it looked at renewable resources as an alterative to the French nuclear industry, and thirdly, it looked at climate change, and the increasingly pressing need to address climate change, raising the question, among other things, of is it better to address climate change with nuclear power, with renewables, with some combination of the two.

Russell emphasized that his summer course in Medford will have an implicitly greater focus on the US over France, and that it will also discuss the role of energy generation—outside of nuclear sources.

“We will talk about how electricity is generated, and the basics about how it’s regulated, particularly in America. Also, I intend to use some of the more popular and economically more feasible alternative power sources like wind power, and energy efficiency to use as alternative power options that we can talk about, as we continue our discussion of what makes sense for energy policy—particularly an electricity policy,” said Russell.

Russell explained, however, that finding books and readings to supplement his curriculum wasn’t easy—since nuclear power seems to be such a largely polarized issue.

“These days, interestingly enough, a lot of the books out are very pro-nuclear, and they’re designed to make the case for nuclear power. But they’re a little amateur-ish and over the top. An earlier generation of books were over the top in the other direction, so it’s hard to find balanced points of view.”

In spite of the difficulty he’s faced trying to find balanced reading, Russell said that is a sign that nuclear power is quite the hot-button issue in need of discussion.

“Part of my joy as a teacher of this subject is to find a topic that is almost new because it hasn’t been touched by anyone in so long—it’s exciting. If it were untouched because nobody cares, it wouldn’t be very exciting for my students,” said Russell. “But what I found in teaching in France, and also in my undergraduate course at Tufts, in talking to some of the students, is that people in their 20’s are much more open to nuclear power—even people who are crunchy granola environmentalists.”

He explained that he hopes his course won’t push students to become nuclear power advocates, but rather to be informed about the many facets of the debate.

“The goal of the course is not to create a new generation of nuclear power advocates—the goal of the course is to cast a cold, clear eye on nuclear power as a potential policy option: with the good, the bad, and the unknown.”