The Future of Energy: Nuclear in New England

Apricot Torte at street cafe in Saumur, France

New England and France

I just returned from a trip to France, in honor of our 50th anniversary.

When I arrived home, I received an email about planning a meeting.  I am a member of a group that plans many meetings about energy. The group is supposed to be impartial.

 The email included the following words about the upcoming meeting:

 (Consider) ….discussing the emission impacts of using natural gas as the swing fuel for covering the intermittence of renewables, versus other fuels (oil, coal). 

The sentence jumped out at me.  I wrote the following response, slightly edited for this blog.

What about nuclear energy?

Dear group members:

Gardens at Chateau Villandry

In reviewing the correspondence about planning (and I know it was a VERY preliminary correspondence!) I noticed there was no suggestion for a comparison between "renewables-plus-gas" and nuclear power.

I know, I know, lots of people don't like nuclear, and I am not trying to persuade them.  But nuclear is 20% of U.S. electricity, and more than half of the low-carbon electricity produced in the U. S. Both the EPA and President Obama say nuclear needs to continue to be a part of our country's energy mix.  If our group doesn't mention nuclear when we are doing comparisons, we show ignorance.

Lots of people don't like wind turbines, but our group does comparisons that include wind turbines.  For our group, "not-liking" cannot mean "we pretend it doesn't exist and we don't mention it."  We can't appear ignorant.

D'accord?

I hope to see complete comparisons at the next meeting.  D'accord?

Yes, I just returned from more than two weeks in France, the country with one of the lowest CO2 emissions per capita in Europe, and one of the lowest electricity rates, too.  I don't understand why some Americans are so in love with the "German example" of wind, solar and lignite, and why they ignore the French success of nuclear energy.

No matter how individuals feel about different technologies, our group is a special group with a charter. As a group, I think we must compare all reasonable options, whether or not those options include our top-favorite technologies.

Best,
Meredith

Backup Links:

European electricity prices:

Germany: households   0.297 Euro per kWh,  industry  0.152 Euro per kWh ( 2014 numbers)
France: households  0.175 Euro per kWh, industry  0.091 Euro per kWh (2014 numbers)

http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/File:Half-yearly_electricity_and_gas_prices,_second_half_of_year,_2012–14_(EUR_per_kWh)_YB15.png

CO2 emissions per capita

Germany: 9.115 tonnes per capita, 2.2 % of world total
France: 5.556 tonnes per capita, 1.07% of world total

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions

If I had looked a little harder for just the electricity sector, I am sure that the carbon emission differences between France and Germany would be even more in favor of France.

Celebrating, traveling, and a book about advocacy

George and me on our wedding day
1965

Moving Forward and Celebrating

Someone once wrote that at a certain point, a person stops trying to hide their age, and begins boasting about it.

This year is the turning point, for me. This month, I will turn 70.  Later in the year will be our 50th anniversary.  Here's my post about  our 49th anniversary, last year.

George and I are doing some serious traveling this year.  We aren't exactly "adventure" travelers.  I could illustrate our upcoming  trips with a picture of the Eiffel Tower and Big Ben.  Sorry if you were expecting that we were planning visits to the uplands of Borneo ;-)

Standard fare as it might be, we will be traveling.  These are big trips for us.  There will sometimes be weeks between blog posts.

I don't plan to try to keep the blog going while I am out of town. To some extent, I am still re-adjusting to Vermont Yankee closing.  I will be glad to visit the Eiffel Tower without worrying about Vermont Yankee or my blog. That's my plan, for sure.

Other family events are also happening this year.  For example, for many years, we have not visited with the man who was Best Man at our wedding.  We spent yesterday with him and his wife! Another event: a big family visit in the near future, complete with attending a Broadway show.  In March, I took a trip to Arizona to visit an elderly relative. Lots of personal travel.

We're not rich, but we are re-arranging our priorities, in order to see people that we love, and enjoy ourselves while we still can.

Moving Forward and Writing

From Wikipedia
 photo by Benh

I love this blog, but it just hasn't been the same to me since the plant closed.  Instead of concentrating on the blog, I am starting a big project, a book project.  I have experienced a lot and learned a lot in the past few years, and I want to share my knowledge.

For me, writing is fairly easy.  (If writing weren't easy for me, I wouldn't have a blog.) A book is different, though. A book is hard. Organizing a book, deciding on the theme, setting up the chapters, getting endorsements for it, deciding on whether to self-publish or seek a publisher: this stuff is all hard.  

I'm working on it now.  I will probably publish through my little company Carnot Communications, the same way my husband and I published Voices for Vermont Yankee. (paperback edition here) I will do it this way because I want the book to be available quickly.  Also, the book may not have a big enough potential market to interest a main-stream publisher.

I have a working title.  Campaigning for clean air: secrets of pro-nuclear advocacy and community. 

I hope for a good summer, with travel, family, friends and a Work In Progress (the book).

Moving Forward

I move forward with hope, and with gratitude. Gratitude for my husband, for my family, for my health, for my readers.   I am grateful to G-d.  I am grateful for the love and support of so many people.

And next---the Eiffel Tower!