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Comment on Power to Save the World: The Truth About Nuclear Energy by Kenneth W. Christian

Kenneth W. Christian — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 23:01:39 +0000

38 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

An eye opener to be read and re-read!, November 7, 2007

Kenneth W. Christian (Northern California) -

This review is from: Power to Save the World: The Truth About Nuclear Energy (Hardcover)

I am quite sure that Gwyneth Cravens's highly readable book will be controversial. I can only hope that it will get the reading it deserves.

Before I read it, I was certain that I knew that nuclear energy was highly risky and a threat to all. I now understand that I actually knew very little. Despite every good intention, I had been pulled into a mindless groupthink about Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and by the very green movement I love. What I learned by reading Cravens, for example, is that as a species we evolved at a time of far greater radiation than now occurs and that one gets more radiation from eating a single banana, or crossing Grand Central Station once, than one gets living next door to a nuclear plant for a year. We are swimming in a sea of radiation, and always have been, but effectively none of it comes from the use of nuclear power plants constructed in the West. And interestingly, radiation turns out to be one of those things for which dosage is crucial. Radiation at certain low doses appears even to produce positive effects.

This book is a pleasure to read because it brims not with opinions, hyperbole or hysteria, but refreshingly, with scientific facts. There are no conspiracy theories and no bad guys (except maybe for coal producers). New, fresh, interesting information appears on every page. As Cravens points out, at one time not that long ago, people feared the dangers of bringing electricity into their homes. And they weren't completely wrong. Dangers accompany electricity, fire and other powerful yet beneficial forms of energy. The key to benefitting from them lies in overcoming fear and learning how to use the proper precautions with each.

I suppose that much of my own negative reaction to all things nuclear stems from my complete antipathy to nuclear weaponry. What is clear, however, is that if we want to provide electrical energy on the massive scale we consume, we already have the technology to do it cleanly. It turns out that to produce the kind of base load energy we need to have 24/7/365, we really have two choices: coal, on which we primarily rely, and nuclear energy. Cravens makes the irrefutable case that coal is by far the more dangerous, more polluting, more greenhouse-gas-producing choice. And its use is nearly unregulated.

Nuclear energy is THE green alternative for producing the quantities of electrical power we need now. No other current alternative produces abundant energy at low cost while producing NO greenhouse gases. The future we must move to if we want to save the planet, is available now. We can act to save the world if we overcome prejudice and fear.

Thank you, Gwyneth Cravens for producing such a timely, reasonable and well documented book!

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Comment on Power to Save the World: The Truth About Nuclear Energy by Theodore Rockwell

Theodore Rockwell — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 22:56:41 +0000

67 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

A Book to Clarify the Nuclear Power Debate, November 19, 2007

Theodore Rockwell -

This review is from: Power to Save the World: The Truth About Nuclear Energy (Hardcover)

You'll be surprised what you can learn from this wonderful book. The fact that prize-winning nuclear chronicler Richard Rhodes, well-known as a stickler for historical accuracy, has endorsed it and written the Introduction, tells us we're on solid ground here. Although he is an authority on the nuclear enterprise, Rhodes says he leaned "something new on every page." The environmentalist, Stewart Brand, calls it simply, "The best introduction to the current realities and benefits of nuclear power." And popular story teller Tony Hillerman says, "I'd like to see this on every bookshelf in America and on student reading lists."

So, what makes it so special? First of all, the author herself. Her background makes clear that she is no shill for the nuclear industry. In fact, she was quite an aggressive anti-nuclear activist for many years. So she has a personal, battlefront familiarity with the questions and concerns that bother many people about the technology. Second, she is a highly skilled writer, author of five well-received novels, praised by her fellow writers, winner of many writing awards and fellowships, and Visiting Writer in the Graduate Program in Writing at UC Irvine. As a fiction editor at The New Yorker Magazine (1980-87) under the legendary William Shawn, she worked with such noted writers as Milan Kundera and Susan Sontag.

But, most important for this book, is that in addition to having a novelist's easy, graceful writing style, she brings many years' experience as a reporter for some of the world's top publications: The New Yorker, The New York Times (magazine, book review and Op-Ed page), The Washington Post, The Nation, Harpers, The Village Voice and others.

Power to Save the World is her first non-fiction book-length opus. The unique way she carried out the eight-year chore of creating it makes it particularly easy to follow, both for nuclear specialists and for those wholly new to the subject (as she was). She used to make off-hand anti-nuclear comments to her friend, Dr. D. Richard ("Rip") Anderson, chemist, oceanographer, and environmental health and nuclear safety analyst, now retired from Sandia National Laboratories. Rip would patiently explain in each case that her concern was based on misinformation. It finally reached the point where he said, "Would you really like to get the facts on this subject?" and she realized that she would. So they started "at the beginning," visiting and learning about uranium mines, milling, and fuel fabrication, and step by step, branching off from time to time to cover it all, finally ending with waste handling and storage. This is certainly the best way for a newcomer to develop an understanding of the subject. The reader learns as the author learned. As each concern is explored and dealt with, the reader comes up with the next question: "Yes, but what about...?" And that is the very moment that the author has already asked the question, and we are listening to the answer as she did. This gives readers who are new to the subject a basis for keeping the overall context continually in view and having a feeling as to where they are at any moment.

Nuclear technology is a large, complex enterprise. Its various parts were severely compartmentalized during the War. As a result, very few of us, even the earliest pioneers, are informed as to all the parts. Thus, Cravens' approach, so appropriate for newbies, is also an excellent process for even the most knowledgeable. Although the language is intelligible to lay persons, it is scientifically accurate. Yet at no time does any reader feel condescended to. This is a major accomplishment, and Cravens' great gift to us all.

In his Introduction to the book, Richard Rhodes refers to Cravens' text as a Pilgrimage, in the tradition of John Bunyan's seventeenth century classic, Pilgrim's Progress. And that is appropriate. But I am more impressed with the fact that she applied to the task her well-honed skills as investigative reporter. In a constant swirl of rumors, she was determined to learn first-hand what the real facts were. And when she gets a firm grasp on the facts, and a lucid description of them on the page, there is really no room for the unsupported rumor to survive. Without being dogmatic or simplistic, she shows over and over again that many of the "controversial issues" our field is plagued with are not complicated or controversial at all, once the facts are made clear and the fears dispersed.

She exposes the sham that supports the notion that low-dose radiation can be harmful. That, in turn, eliminates the possibility of thousands of deaths resulting from a core meltdown. She throws factual light on other supposed nuclear hazards. As each new fear is examined in light of what is physically possible, the dreaded what ifs are shown to be classical bogey men, spooks composed of nothing but... Read more

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Comment on Power to Save the World: The Truth About Nuclear Energy by Juliet

Juliet — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 22:51:10 +0000

75 of 78 people found the following review helpful:

A must read for anyone concerned about our planet, November 7, 2007

Juliet -

This review is from: Power to Save the World: The Truth About Nuclear Energy (Hardcover)

Until I read Gwyneth Cravens' "Power to Save the World", I would have
described myself as an anti-nuke, pro-solar-and-windmills mom and
responsible inhabitant of this planet.
Now I, and all readers of her timely book, can benefit from Cravens'
friendship with Rip Anderson, of Sandia National Laboratories.
Ms. Cravens' writing style is as much a pleasure as it is
informative. In a personal tone, she invites the reader on her
journey and we can't help but recognize our own misconceptions and
outdated information about nuclear energy.
Cravens tracks the life cycle of uranium, tours nuclear facilities,
and asks important questions and presents them in what becomes a page
turner.
She explains in detail how efficient nuclear power is while she
dispels myths and clarifies science. While no industrial power source
is trouble-free, it's clear that carbon-free nuclear power is vastly
preferable to burning coal. I highly recommend this book to each
resident of planet earth.

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Comment on Roof glass for sunspaces: Why it almost always a bad idea (Energy fact sheet) by Steve Dietrich

Steve Dietrich — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 07:14:59 +0000

29 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

Great Analysis of Energy Alternatives and The Folly of Current Policies, May 12, 2010

Steve Dietrich (Santa Ynez Valley and Santa Monica CA, United States) -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Power Hungry: The Myths of "Green" Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future (Hardcover)

For Bryce much of the book is like shooting fish in a bucket. The green world arguments ( or lack of arguments )are so poorly supported by real facts as to be a joke. However, the sad joke is that national policy is being made, not on facts, but on what feels good and benefits the lobbyists' clients.

The book starts in a coal mine where the energy equivalent of 66 thousand barrels of oil a day is produced. In short, but informative chapters it explores the foundation of our energy demand,the world energy demand, the economics and practicality of alternate sources and the foundation of a rational energy policy.

In 30 easy to read chapters Bryce takes one topic at a time and brings much needed facts and thought to the subject at hand. One of the examples which I appreciated, because the county where I live wants to build wind farms in the area, is the discussion of the double standard. Private companies have been fined millions for the inadvertent loss of protected species at their facilities while the wind farm in the Altamont Pass (east of Oakland) kills ten times as many protected animals every year, but without fines or bad press.

For some reason we want to believe that "green energy" is a brain flash of the Algorian Era. However, I still have pictures from our partner's efforts to generate solar power in the California desert from the 1970's. The PR photos are always on clear, still mornings. If they stayed for the afternoon dust devils and days of blowing dust they would better understand the challenges.

The ratios of solar vs conventional energy costs are about the same 30 years later. Power at the solar facility costs about 300%- 400% of what the utility charges its customers to deliver power to their door. We can hide part of the cost in taxpayer subsidies or mandatory utility subsidies of these producers, but the end result is the same. We are spending money to do something (generate power) in an economically inefficient manner. If you are having trouble with the impact of this concept find last month's electrical bill, imagine that you received three of them for the rest of your life.

Bryces's writing is reinforced with many charts covering a wide range of energy related topics. He has done his homework in gathering the data, analysis and writing up the results in a highly readable text. This should be required reading for those who make policy..

In the end Bryce delivers recommendations in his N2N formula. A shift to natural gas in the short run and a long range strategy involving extensive development of nuclear power. Decades ago the United States lead the world in development of reactors for power generation. Largely in response to well orchestrated attacks, we have junked this important industrial asset base and the hundreds of thousands of true green jobs associated with it. We are told that we should look to Europe for guidance. In Europe nuclear power plays a major role in producing clean power and minimizing oil imports. Even if you hate nuclear power you need to read this book.

As an interim strategy Bryce advocates a much larger commitment to natural gas. We have lots of it and it burns cleaner than coal, gasoline or diesel. Here's an area where he might have spent more time explaining the differences in the combustion products.

Concern about CO2 emissions is a relatively new phenomena. Bryce notes that US production of co2 has actually declined but that on a worldwide basis it (the production of CO2) is bound to rise as some of the worlds poorest populations begin to prosper.

It's hard to find fault with this book. It's easy to read, informative and thoughtful.

Highly recommended.

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Comment on Roof glass for sunspaces: Why it almost always a bad idea (Energy fact sheet) by Kenneth J. Malloy "energy markets Quixote"

Kenneth J. Malloy "energy markets Quixote" — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 06:29:14 +0000

77 of 91 people found the following review helpful:

Going, Going, Gone. Another Home Run for Bryce, April 27, 2010

Kenneth J. Malloy "energy markets Quixote" (Washington, DC United States) -

This review is from: Power Hungry: The Myths of "Green" Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future (Kindle Edition)

You just have to feel sorry for the advocates of global warming. They've had a bad year. First it was the continuation of a decade of stable or slightly cooling weather, completely unpredicted by the climate models. Then it was the devastating scandals, not only in the Climate Research Unit but in NASA and the IPCC as well. To add insult to injury, there was the jarring failure of Copenhagen. Then the failure of Congress to adopt a cap and trade scheme when they had a Democratic President and overwhelming majorities in the House and Senate. Now the coup de grâce, Robert Bryce hits yet another home run by completely demolishing the argument for renewables in his new book Power Hungry: The Myths of "Green" Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future.

Bryce is really pissing me off. I am an energy policy expert. His earlier book Gusher of Lies was an excellent rebuttal to the demagoguery on oil imports. But oil wasn't my thing so I gave him a pass and enthusiastically supported his book. But now he writes Power Hungry about the idiocy of many of the arguments supporting "green energy." This is my field and so I am truly in awe of his ability to so cogently skewer mindless advocates of green.

Bryce is addicted to numbers. He is ruthless in presenting numbers that make his points. His main weapon is the tyranny of big numbers. Many ideas sound good in the abstract--e.g., wind power, electric cars, cellulosic ethanol--but fail miserably when put into the context of US energy demographics.

I marvel that Bryce could deliver a nugget of new insight on literally every page. (I realize I am leaving myself open to abuse.) But he does. The list would be too long of all the fascinating nuggets that Bryce has so artfully strung together in an altogether gripping story of our modern day energy dilemma. A few will suffice to make the point:
* He presents the Four Imperatives of energy supply: power density, energy density, cost, and scale;
* He describes the technology advances that allow us to access huge natural gas shale resources;
* He discusses modular nuclear units (some as small as 25 megawatts);
* He absolutely skewers T. Boone Pickens and Amory Lovins;
* He devastates the argument that Denmark is an exemplar for relying on renewable energy; and
* He catalogues China's dominance in the "natural earth" resources essential for wind and solar.
It goes on and on.

Given all the attention given to literature that paints false pictures of green energy, I hope Bryce's book takes off like a rocket. The country very much needs this splash of cold water on the phony claims made for green energy.

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Comment on Roof glass for sunspaces: Why it almost always a bad idea (Energy fact sheet) by Jon Boone

Jon Boone — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 06:17:28 +0000

188 of 204 people found the following review helpful:

Nutrition Action for Energy Appetites, April 16, 2010

Jon Boone (Oakland, MD USA) -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Power Hungry: The Myths of "Green" Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future (Hardcover)

With Power Hungry, energy journalist and Austin apiarist Robert Bryce marshals lots of accurate numbers in context to make plain how modern culture exacts power from energy to save time, increase wealth, and raise standards of living. He also dispenses common sense to citizens and policy makers for an improved environment, a better, more productive economy, and more enlightened civil society. Inspired by the environmental economics of Rockefeller University's Jesse Ausubel and the University of Manitoba's prolific Vaclav Smil, he makes the case for continuing down the path of de-carbonizing our machine fuels--a process begun two hundred years ago when we turned from wood to fossil fuels and huge reservoirs of impounded water. As the world's population continues to urbanize, people will inevitably demand cleaner, healthier, environmentally sensitive energy choices.

Today, the world uses hydrocarbons for 90 percent of its energy, getting a lot of bang for its buck. Bryce offers convincing evidence that, over the next several generations, particularly since broad energy transformations require much time and financial investment, relatively cleaner burning natural gas will provide a bridge to pervasive use of nuclear power--" the only always-on, no-carbon source than can replace significant amounts of coal in our electricity generation portfolio." And if nuclear ultimately becomes the centerpiece for the electricity sector, which constitutes about 40 percent of our total energy use, this development would accelerate the de-carbonization of the transportation and heating sectors as well.

His narrative transcends the current climate change debate. He thinks the evidence on either side is equivocal, at best provisional, and, even if it could be proven conclusively that humans were responsible for precipitously warming the earth by producing a surfeit of carbon dioxide, there is little that could be done about the situation now that would be consequential or practical, except embrace imaginative adaptation approaches.

Bryce organizes his ideas around four interrelated "Imperatives" that serve as a prime motif for human history and explain much contemporary circumstance: power density, energy density, scale and cost. He shows that, although energy is the ability to do work, what people really crave is the ability to control the rate at which work gets done--power. Performing work faster means more time to do something else. This begets an appetitive feedback loop, where more power unleashes more time to produce more power. As the scale of this process increases, costs are reduced, making what power creates more affordable.

In terms of economic efficiency and improved ecosystems, producing the most power in the smallest space at a scale affordable by all is what present and future enterprise should ensure.

The power density of fossil fuels, expressed in watts, BTUs, or horsepower, has been the lynchpin of our modernity, although they will eventually become depleted, perhaps over a few centuries or much sooner, as various peak oil and coal scenarios suggest. (Bryce shows that worldwide oil's marketshare has fallen over the last 35 years and the rate of decline will likely continue.) And they do have negative environmental consequences. Particularly coal, with such environmentally treacherous extraction techniques as strip mining/mountaintop removal, and toxic emissions. But their overall benefits at present outweigh the negatives in a comprehensive cost benefit analysis. Which is why they're so popular.

Hydrocarbons lift people out of poverty, literally empowering them to better health, wealth, and productivity. "The key attribute of hydrocarbons is their reliability," a precondition for coordinated economic and social convergence, which is the very hallmark of modern life. Planning to replace their capacity successfully will demand great ingenuity and the most advanced technology--not hyped-up premodern gadgetry like industrial wind technology.

Over the first seven chapters of his book, Bryce lays out the gargantuan scale of our energy consumption, bound on the one side by the existence of nearly seven billion people and the thirst for increasingly denser power supplies on the other. He shows why, if oil didn't exist, we'd have to invent it. Deploying helpful charts and graphs throughout, he demonstrates that we will not, indeed cannot, quit using hydrocarbons any time soon, since our daily consumption is equivalent to 226 million barrels of oil, equal to the total daily output of twenty-seven Saudi Arabias.

The world consumes nearly 7 billion horsepower a day, albeit unevenly, since Americans consume energy at 18 times the rate of people in Pakistan and India. America leads the world in reliable horsepower and produces about 74 percent of the primary energy it consumes. Moreover, it has more hydrocarbon... Read more

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Comment on Alternative Energy: Facts, Statistics, and Issues (Alternative Energy) by R. Calloway "Warpain"

R. Calloway "Warpain" — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 07:07:18 +0000

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

Alternative Energy, November 7, 2007

R. Calloway "Warpain" (Panola, Texas) -

This review is from: Alternative Energy: Facts, Statistics, and Issues (Alternative Energy) (Paperback)

Folks, This is a great read, especially if you are concerned about present day conditions with oil and climate issues. Also feel free to visit: www.callowayengines.com to help with these perplexing problems that are approaching us at a breakneck speed.

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Comment on PowerFilm F15-3600 60w Folding Solar Panel Charger by larryk

larryk — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 15:01:43 +0000

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

Powerfilm F-15-3600 folding solar panel, February 2, 2011

larryk -

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This review is from: PowerFilm F15-3600 60w Folding Solar Panel Charger

These panels are fantastic! Very high quality. Power output is exceptional even in low light conditins. These panels fold very easily and are so compact they take very little room to store.

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Comment on Sunforce 52013 1.8-Watt Solar Battery Maintainer, (Pack of 2) by AL "AL D"

AL "AL D" — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 07:35:34 +0000

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

Solar Power Maintainer, April 14, 2009

AL "AL D" (Washington State) -

This review is from: Sunforce 52013 1.8-Watt Solar Battery Maintainer, (Pack of 2) (Automotive)

I have a Ford 150 Pickup that I don't drive very often and I was having problems keeping the battery charged. I am now using this product and it works great. I live in the Pacific North West and it works well even with our cloudy and rainy days. I think this item is priced a bit high here but it works great.

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Comment on Sunforce 52013 1.8-Watt Solar Battery Maintainer, (Pack of 2) by Michele Hobson

Michele Hobson — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 07:20:28 +0000

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

save your battery, November 29, 2008

Michele Hobson (Earth) -

Gave my husband this because he was always complaining his battery was going dead. He has a van that he doesn't drive all the time but the couple of times he really needed to have it start in a pinch and it was always dead! Since I got him this solar charger there's a lot less cursing and frustration and it starts every time! It has made my life easier and he said it was one of the best gifts I got him ! I would definately recommend it!!

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