The Case For Nukes (eBook)

The Case for Nukes is a unique book. In it, world-renowned nuclear and aerospace engineerDr. Robert Zubrin explains how nuclear power works and how much it has to offer humanity. Hedebunks the toxic falsehoods that have been spread to dissuade us from using it by variously theignorant, the fearful, the fanatical, and by cynical political operatives bought and paid for bycompeting interests. He tells about revolutionary developments in the field, including newreactor types that can be cheaply mass produced, that cannot be made to melt down no matterhow hard their operators try, that use a new fuel called thorium far more plentiful than uranium,and still more advanced systems, employing thermonuclear fusion - the power that lights the sun- to extract more energy from a gallon of water than can be obtained from 300 gallons ofgasoline. He tells about the bold entrepreneurs - a totally different breed from the governmentofficials who created the existing types of nuclear reactors - who are leading this revolution inpower technology.But there are broader issues involved in the nuclear debate than technology alone, and Zubrinis not shy about addressing them. He makes clear the critical difference between practicalenvironmentalism, which seeks to improve the environment for the benefit of humanity, andideological environmentalism, which seeks to use instances of human insult to naturalenvironment as evidence for a prosecutorial case against human liberty. He shows how the latterschool of thought is wrong, not only with respect to the catastrophic harm it would do tohumanity, but to nature as well. He also exposes the masters of mercenary environmentalism,who deploy troops of dupes to shut down companies or whole industries in order to eliminatecompetition in return for being suitably rewarded by the beneficiaries of such efforts. He showsthat when it comes to environmental improvement, freedom is not the problem; freedom is thesolution. He makes clear both the possibility and necessity of a nuclear-power-enabledrevolution in the human condition by putting it in a broader historical context of the overallprocess of development of civilization, whereby new technologies create new resources and newknowledge, which in turn make possible still more technological advance.Finally, Zubrin brings all this to bear to address the greatest threat facing humanity today- which is the possibility that we will turn on each other, as we did in the 20 th century, under thespell of the false idea that resources are finite.Only in a world of unlimited resources can all men and women be brothers and sisters.Only in a world of freedom can resources be unlimited.That is the world we can, and must, create. In The Case for Nukes, Zubrin shows us how.