{"id":65,"date":"2013-03-02T14:42:39","date_gmt":"2013-03-02T19:42:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/03\/nuclear-is-over-jeremy-rifkin.html"},"modified":"2013-03-02T14:42:39","modified_gmt":"2013-03-02T19:42:39","slug":"nuclear-is-over-jeremy-rifkin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/03\/nuclear-is-over-jeremy-rifkin.html","title":{"rendered":"Nuclear is over &mdash;Jeremy Rifkin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=V-jeOTodAdI\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\"   class=\"at-xid-6a0120a58214e4970b017c373c77fd970b\" src=\"https:\/\/i3.ytimg.com\/vi\/V-jeOTodAdI\/mqdefault.jpg\" \/><\/a>\nEconomist, author, and advisor to governments\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.foet.org\/JeremyRifkin.htm\">\nJeremy Rifkin<\/a>\ntold an agent of the world&#39;s largest uranium field operator\nat a conference of global investors that there&#39;s no business\nfuture in nuclear power.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nJeremy Rifkin answered a question at the\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.wermutham.com\/events_info.asp\">\nWermuth Asset Management<\/a>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.wermutham.com\/pdf\/Investor%20Day%202012%20draft%20agenda%20210912.pdf\">\n5th Annual Investors Event<\/a> 26 September 2012,\n<a href=\"http:\/\/nuclear-news.net\/2013\/03\/02\/nuclear-power-is-dead-jeremy-rifkin\/\">\nNuclear Power is Dead,<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\nI don&#39;t spend much time on nuclear technology, unless somebody asks\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2012\/12\/what-is-moores-law-for-solar-power.html\">\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\"   class=\"at-xid-6a0120a58214e4970b017ee697b1d0970d\" height=\"260\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/6a0120a58214e4970b017ee697b1d0970d-pi.png\" width=\"350\" \/><\/a>\nme about it, because frankly from a business perspective, I think\nit&#39;s over&#8230;.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\nHere&#39;s\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=V-jeOTodAdI\">\nthe video,<\/a> followed by more transcript and discussion.\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"315\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/V-jeOTodAdI\" title=\"YouTube video player\" width=\"560\"><\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\nNuclear power was pretty well dead in the water in\nthe 1980s after Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. It had a comeback.\nThe comeback was the industry said &quot;we are part of the solution for\nclimate change because we don&#39;t emit CO2 with nuclear; it&#39;s\npolluting, but there&#39;s no CO2&quot;.\n<p>\nHere&#39;s the issue though,\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<!--more-->\n<blockquote>\nall of our\nscientific projections are interesting on this. Nuclear power right\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2013\/01\/power-source-growth-rates-like-compound-interest.html\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\"   class=\"at-xid-6a0120a58214e4970b017d40d33497970c\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/6a0120a58214e4970b017d40d33497970c-pi.jpg\" \/><\/a>\nnow is 6% of the energy of the world. There are only 400 nuclear\npower plants and they rely on 6% of the energy of the world. These\nare old nuclear plants.\n<p>\nBut our scientists tell us to have a minimum\nimpact on climate change, which was the whole rationale for bringing\nthis technology back, nuclear would have to be 20% of the energy mix\nto have the minimum impact on climate change. That means we would\nhave to replace the existing 400 nuclear plants and build 1600\nadditional plants.\n3 nuclear plants have to be built every 30\ndays for 40 years to get to 20% and by that time climate change\nwould have run its course for us.\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\nCurrently, according to\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.world-nuclear.org\/info\/inf17.html\">\nPlans For New Reactors Worldwide<\/a> by World Nuclear Association,\nabout 60 new reactors are being built,\nnowhere near the number Rifkin\nindicates would be needed to have much effect on climate change.\nAnd the first new reactors permitted in the U.S. in 30 years,\nat Plant Vogtle on the Savannah River,\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2013\/03\/from-15-to-19-months-late-plant-vogtle-nukes.html\">\njust slipped from 15 to 19 months late.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\nSo I think from a business point\nof view, I just don&#39;t see that investment. I&#39;d be surprised if we\nreplace 100 of the 400 existing plants which would take us down to 1 or\n2% of the energy.\n<p>\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2012\/08\/when-will-southern-company-georgia-power-finally-wake-up-michael-g-noll.html\">\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\"   class=\"at-xid-6a0120a58214e4970b017744056592970d\" height=\"139\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/6a0120a58214e4970b017744056592970d-pi.jpg\" width=\"188\" \/><\/a>\nNumber two, we still don&#39;t know how to recycle\nthe nuclear waste, and we&#39;re seventy years in. Now we have good\nengineers in the U.S. and we&#39;ve spent 18 years and $8 billion\nbuilding an underground vault in Yucca Mountain to store the waste\nfor 10,000 years, we can&#39;t use it. We can&#39;t even store them, it&#39;s\nalready no good because there are cracks in the mountain. But any\ngeologist could have told them we live on tectonic plates. You can&#39;t\nkeep underground faults secure.\n<p>\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2013\/01\/mali-a-french-war-for-uranium.html\">\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\"   class=\"at-xid-6a0120a58214e4970b017c373c780b970b\" height=\"150\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/6a0120a58214e4970b017c373c780b970b-pi.png\" width=\"150\" \/><\/a>\nNumber three, we run into uranium\ndeficits according to the International Atomic Energy Commission &#8230;\nbetween 2025 &amp; 2035 with just the existing 400 plants, so that means\nthe price goes up.\n<p>\nNumber four, we could do what the French\ngeneration of new plants are doing and recycle the uranium to\nplutonium, but then we have\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2012\/09\/new-nrc-head-says-agency-is-standing-up-for-public-health-and-safety.html\">\nplutonium all over the world in an age\nof uncertainty and terrorism<\/a>.\n<p>\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2012\/07\/nuclear-and-coal-burning-water-solar-doesnt.html\">\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\"   class=\"at-xid-6a0120a58214e4970b0177431dd705970d\" height=\"145\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/6a0120a58214e4970b0177431dd705970d-pi.jpg\" width=\"247\" \/><\/a>\nAnd then finally, and this is the big\none that people don&#39;t realize, we don&#39;t have the water. Over forty\npercent of all the fresh water consumed in France each year goes to\ncooling the nuclear reactors; it&#39;s almost fifty percent now. When it\ncomes back it&#39;s heated and it&#39;s dehydrating our agriculture and\necosystems and it&#39;s threatening our agriculture. And we don&#39;t have\nthe water, this is true all over the world.\n<p>\nWe have salt water\nnuclear plants, but then you have to put them on coastal regions and\nyou risk a Fukushima because of tsunamis and ocean currents.\n<p>\nAnd the\nlast thing on this, I would say is that nuclear power is centralized\npower &#8230; like fossil fuels, it doesn&#39;t fit a new generation that&#39;s\nmoving with the kind of technologies that are\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2013\/02\/want-to-finance-solar-call-ga-sen-jack-murphy-today-about-sb-51.html\">\ndistributive, collaborative and laterally scaled<\/a>.\nIt&#39;s an old technology. It&#39;s no\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2012\/11\/solar-up-50-over-last-year-in-germany.html\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\"   class=\"at-xid-6a0120a58214e4970b017ee8a6b8bf970d\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/6a0120a58214e4970b017ee8a6b8bf970d-pi.jpg\" \/><\/a>\naccident that\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2012\/05\/saudi-arabia-turns-from-oil-to-sun-109-billion-plan.html\">\nSiemens<\/a> is out,\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2012\/11\/solar-up-50-over-last-year-in-germany.html\">\nGermany<\/a> is out, Italy is out, Japan is\nnow out.\nAnd I think with President Hollande&#39;s election\nthey&#39;re moving toward a third industrial revolution model\nin France.\n<p>\nI&#39;d be surprised if nuclear has much of a life left. I\ndon&#39;t think it&#39;s a good business deal.\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/p><\/p><\/p><\/p><\/p><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/kcm-kazyna.kz\/en\/pages\/management_board\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\"   class=\"at-xid-6a0120a58214e4970b017c373c783f970b\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/6a0120a58214e4970b017c373c783f970b-pi.jpg\" \/><\/a>\nThe questioner was\n<a href=\"http:\/\/kcm-kazyna.kz\/en\/pages\/management_board\">\nBorisbiy Zhangurazov, Chairman<\/a>,\n<a href=\"http:\/\/kcm-kazyna.kz\/en\/\">\nKazyna Capital Management<\/a>,\nwhich he said was part of\n<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Samruk-Kazyna\">\nSamruk fund<\/a> of Kazakhstan.\nKazakhstan, home of the largest uranium deposits in the world.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Samruk-Kazyna\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\"   class=\"at-xid-6a0120a58214e4970b017c373c7848970b\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/6a0120a58214e4970b017c373c7848970b-pi.png\" \/><\/a>\nKazyna Capital Management&#39;s parent firm,\n<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Samruk-Kazyna\">\nSamruk-Kazyna<\/a>, also\nowns 100% of\n<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Kazatomprom\">\nKazatomprom<\/a>,\nwhich operates the Kazakhstan uranium fields.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2013\/01\/china-etc-mining-uranium-in-niger-and-mali.html\">\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\"   class=\"at-xid-6a0120a58214e4970b017c373c784e970b\" height=\"279\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/6a0120a58214e4970b017c373c784e970b-pi.gif\" width=\"361\" \/><\/a>\nI strongly suspect Jeremy Rifkin knew who the questioner was,\nas he told the principal research investment agent of the\nworld&#39;s largest uranium field operator that there&#39;s no business\ninvestment future in nuclear power.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nHere is Jeremy Rifkin saying the same things in a TV interview,\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.terre.tv\/en\/3866_nuclear-power-in-france--jeremy-rifkins\">\nNuclear power in France : Jeremy Rifkin&#39;s point of view<\/a>.\nAnd here&#39;s a transcript of him again on a radio show,\n<a href=\"http:\/\/thedianerehmshow.org\/shows\/2011-09-27\/jeremy-rifkin-third-industrial-revolution\">\nDiane Rehm WAMU 88.5 27 September 2011<\/a>,\n<a href=\"http:\/\/thedianerehmshow.org\/shows\/2011-09-27\/jeremy-rifkin-third-industrial-revolution\/transcript\">\nJeremy Rifkin: &quot;The Third Industrial Revolution&quot;<\/a>.\nSame points every time to support the same thesis: nuke is over.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n-jsq\n<\/p>\n<p>\nPS: Owed to Laura Lynch.\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Economist, author, and advisor to governments Jeremy Rifkin told an agent of the world&#39;s largest uranium field operator at a conference of global investors that there&#39;s no business future in nuclear power. Jeremy Rifkin answered a question at the Wermuth Asset Management 5th Annual Investors Event 26 September 2012, Nuclear Power is Dead, I don&#39;t [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[97,202,47,141,14,16,19,104,21,22,32,23,73,289,74,53,55],"tags":[8736,8750,436,424,8719,8745,430,429,8704,8706,426,425,8701,8709,399,427,419,420,435,433,8702,431,12,7,8737,8711,428,8712,8715,432,8713,8731,434,8758,8732,8725,423,6,421,8727,422],"class_list":["post-65","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-agriculture","category-climate-change","category-co2","category-economy","category-environment","category-history","category-nuclear","category-planning","category-politics","category-pollution","category-renewable-energy","category-safety","category-science","category-security","category-sustainability","category-water","tag-activism","tag-agriculture","tag-borisbiy-zhangurazov","tag-business","tag-climate-change","tag-co2","tag-collaborative","tag-distributive","tag-economy","tag-environment","tag-france","tag-future","tag-georgia","tag-history","tag-investment","tag-japan","tag-jeremy-rifkin","tag-kazakhstan","tag-kazatomprom","tag-kazyna-capital-management","tag-lake","tag-laterally-scaled","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-nuclear","tag-planning","tag-plutonium","tag-politics","tag-pollution","tag-renewable","tag-renewable-energy","tag-safety","tag-samruk-kazyna","tag-science","tag-security","tag-sustainability","tag-uranium","tag-valdosta","tag-waste","tag-water","tag-yucca-mountain"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-13","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}