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Nuclear Technologies in a Sustainable Energy System
Description
The material is divided into six sections. Section One contains three papers that set the stage by addressing the broad aspects of the global energy problem and the pote ntial of nuclear technologies to contribute to its resolu tion. The first paper, by Hafele, begins with a summary of the IIASA global energy study, which analyzed both resource potentials, including those of nuclear fuels, and several quantitative scenarios, each of which balanced world energy demand with supply over the next 50 years. The next three sections of the book then address a variety of ways in which specific nuclear technologies can be arranged to produce energy and fuels in useful forms. Section Three focuses on fusion technologies and dense plasma neutron sources, possibilities either less near-term or richer in neutrons. And Section Four addresses accelerator breeding, a technology that is perhaps more remote, but characterized by a greater abundance of neutrons. In Section Five the focus shifts to the back end of the fuel cycle, and the fact that one of the key issues to be resolved when contemplating future nuclear strategies is how the waste should be handled. The final section, "Reflections and Summary", contains two items. First, there are the remarks presented on the second evening of the workshop by Freeman Dyson: in his marvelous way, he offers a perspective on the subject of the workshop from some important and compelling lessons of history. Second, there is the summary of the final day's panel discussion, in which Hans Bethe, Floyd Culler, Wolf Hafele, Archie Harms, Gerry Kulcinski, and Rudolf Schulten led a discussion that not only summarized much ofwhat had been covered by the workshop, but also reanalyzed much of the technical material from broader perspectives covering national energy difficulties, the global energy problem as a whole, and the implications of more general social, political, and economic considerations.
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