A World With “Enough”

Right now most of the world can truthfully say, “There is not enough of ______ for me to have a workable / comfortable / healthy / long life.”

Into the blank above choose from:

Energy
Food
Water
Medicine
Opportunity
Learning

AND, most of the world can also truthfully say, “There is too much ________ for me to have a workable / comfortable / healthy / long life.”

Into this second blank above, choose from:

Garbage
Pollution
Drugs / Distractions
Strife / War / Criminality

I have some big thoughts to address every one of the blank items. I ask you to read this opening article and follow along as we explore the possibilities.

Here is my big claim:

Every one of the above listed items at it’s root needs more, “ENOUGH” energy to attack and create a solution.

That is it. With a source of energy large enough to do anything we choose and still NOT run out, we can:

• Have ENOUGH energy to allow every home in every part of the world to have light and power for cooking / cooling / reading / pumping water / plumbing
• Have ENOUGH energy to take salty / brackish / otherwise undrinkable water and make clean safe water so that every house has access to safe water AND ENOUGH water to irrigate any crop you wish to grow.
• With ENOUGH energy and water and food, there will be some that can choose to become nurses / doctors / engineers … in other words to get our heads up out of barely getting by to enjoy the farther possibilities.
• With ENOUGH energy, we will have jobs that need to be done. LOTS of them. Jobs tending the sources of energy, and all the uses that we put this energy to.

Digression on Opportunity / Drugs / Distractions

With enough OPPORTUNITY most people will choose to get something done over sitting around and [as my dad put it] “smoking dope”. In America, a whole class of work has moved away, good jobs that paid “ENOUGH” and provided good opportunities for people to get a head and body up to make a workable / comfortable / healthy / long life for themselves and their family.

And as these opportunities appear, more opportunities will multiply. As I am able to buy a house, I need services and material to keep that house and make it a home. This multiplies the wealth that the community has.

When we allowed these jobs to move away, we sucked the life out of many communities. Into these empty places without “ENOUGH” life, comes drugs, criminal behavior to fill the empty void. Push the other way.

End of digression.

Let me address the list of “TOO MUCH” from my opening:

• Garbage — Garbage is resources that we do not have “enough” to properly / effectively / economically access. Takes energy, sometimes a lot of it to safely handle garbage so that it does not leave a mess for our children’s children to clean up.
  There is no away
  We made the mess, now we need to clean it up.
  Takes the commitment and more ENERGY.
• Pollution — As I noted in the paragraph above, there is no away. What we “dump into the unlimited sky” and into the “enormous ocean” has no where to go… eventually it all comes back to our front yard.
  And every one of the technologies that we have that stop / capture emitted pollution takes more ENERGY than just dumping it.
• With enough ENERGY available, we can capture CO2 from the smokestacks and the atmosphere and create liquid fuels for our vehicles and airplanes. Right now we have the beginnings of such systems, and, with the intent to “clean up our mess” we will make better ones.
• Drugs / Distractions — If I get up in the morning and do not have something that I consider important and worthy to do, I will find SOMETHING to fill my day. Drugs / Distractions come from not having ENOUGH worthy things to engage in.
• Strife / War / Criminality — If as I look around, I do not have ENOUGH, and my family / neighbor / community do not have ENOUGH then I claim it is easy to be led to fight a war, or join a gang or rob another… because without ENOUGH I sit hungry and thirsty.

OK David, I got your claim that every one of the above items has at it’s root needing MORE energy, a lot more.

Turns out, that in order to bring the whole world up to a minimum of 2,000 kwh of electricity / person / year, we need about 3–4 times the amount of electricity than we generate now. And then add more to desalinate water, clean up air pollution, and mine the “waste” stream, and we need even more.

What source of energy could provide ENOUGH to do ALL this and more?

(Stay with me here as I will reveal this source soon)

Here is what I am certain will not serve no matter the investment:

— Coal
— Oil
— Natural Gas
— Hydro
— Solar
— Wind
— Present style nuclear

What are my objections to the above list?

• First three (Coal, Oil, Natural Gas) — all produce CO2 that we MUST handle and capture or we add to the problem. And these sources are no where near dense enough, it takes a lot of any of these to produce enough energy for my whole life’s needs and desires.
• Hydro — not enough places to put, and a warming planet makes storms / weather more variable. Hydro depends on predictable weather.
• Solar / Wind — too variable an output, and not available where we need the energy. You cannot decide “Hey I have a city that is often cloudy lets build enough solar so that we have ENOUGH energy to do what we want.” We cannot build enough, fast enough.
• Present style nuclear — We locked down the designs of nuclear power too many years ago, and have not ALLOWED or EXPERIMENTED with newer designs that are much safer and much more efficient.

So, if the above sources will NOT work, what will?
What are the characteristics of this ideal source?:

• Safe — By the design and physics, not dependent on the operators or system to only do the “right” things.
• Crazy General Safe — Even if the “Crazy General” commands it, the system cannot blow up and make an enormous mess.
• Efficient — Burns most of it’s incoming fuel and the fuel is relatively easy to provide.
• Density — Enough energy is contained in a 1" cube for everything you might want to do — Heat / Cool / Travel / Water / Build for your whole LIFE. And the left over “waste” created is even smaller.
• Location — Can be located anywhere you need more clean energy.
• Easy to procure the fuel — Fuel can be readily mined here in the USA and in many places around the world.
• Availability — 24/7/365 Does not stop with clouds, night, refueling etc.
• Clean — Produces no Carbon emissions, and whatever it cannot burn can be handled within a foreseeable time frame
• Effectively Limitless — Need more energy for this new idea? Add another source like adding a light bulb to a home.

I hope this picture looks clear, that if such a source existed you and I could agree to use it.

Here is such a source: Thorium in a Molten Salt Reactor

There exist many competing designs, we need to be investing in many of them.

Present style nuclear does not meet the characteristics of the above source because the design was frozen too long ago. And just like automobiles from even 20 years ago, we like our newer cars — safer, more efficient, less pollution. Nuclear power from 20–50 years ago is not as safe, efficient and can pollute more than newer designs.

Problems of present style nuclear:

1. Water is a lousy coolant
2. Solid fuel degrades quickly and cannot be cleaned of reaction products
3. Burns only 0.5 to 0.7% of the potential energy before needing to be replaced
4. Spent fuel, barely burnt, contains waste that is hazardous for 10,000+ years.
5. Depends on the system / operator for safe operation — loss of cooling power creates a ticking time bomb.
6. To contain the water at high enough pressure to prevent the water from boiling requires enormous forgings and then a strong concrete outer building just to keep the lid on.
7. And other shortfalls

I do not claim with this proposal that any one specific design has the right answer, just that the answers exist and we here in the USA might truly want to LEAD the world in creating some new solutions. Otherwise, we will again give away the solutions to the rest of the world and have to take a back seat and buy our stuff from other countries. Not good for our stability and security.

And, when we live in a world that does not look like we have enough, then we can follow anyone that talks of making us better. I believe we already have the means to build a better life for ourselves and our neighbors all over the world.

If we choose to find a way to provide ENOUGH for all of us.

David Lincer, June 2021

P.S. This is my first published article and I welcome your comments. Please consider speaking respectfully towards improving the ideas presented. We have work to do.