Nuclear power reconsidered/Bibliography

Please sort and annotate in a user-friendly manner. For formatting, consider using automated reference wikification.

General References

• World Nuclear Information Library a well-organized authoritative collection of information on nuclear power.
• Our World in Data has a section on Energy and Environment with nice interactive graphics.
• LowCarbonPower.org Olof Nordenstam's excellent interactive charts with updated data on 215 countries and 9 energy sources.
• Fission is in Fashion -- Energy Policy with Energy Realism Robert Hargraves, 2022, Self-paced, graphic presentations based on a course at Dartmouth College telling the story of energy from the discovery of fire to the current debate over nuclear fission.
• Why Nuclear Power Has Been a Flop Jack Devanney, 2020, a collection of articles on nuclear power, its history and why it has been unable to provide the safe, clean, abundant energy needed by humanity.
• RobertBryce.substack.com articles from an expert on energy, electricity and the challenge of providing affordable energy to the developing world.

The Renewables Only debate

• Derek Abbott (2011) Is Nuclear Power Globally Scalable? Proceedings of the IEEE 99:1611-17 dx.doi.org/10.1109/JPROC.2011.2161806 A paper frequently quoted by anti-nuclear advocates, alleging fifteen "fundamental engineering and resource scaling limits that make the notion of a nuclear utopia somewhat impractical".

• Mark Z. Jacobson (2020). 100% Clean, Renewable Energy and Storage for Everything. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 1108790836. 
  • Christopher Clack et al. (2017) critique of Jacobson's 100% Renewables Proposal Proc. National Academy of Sciences 114(26):6722-27.
  • Mike Conley, Tim Maloney (2017) Roadmap to Nowhere critique of Jacobson’s Roadmap. A video summary.

• Heard BP et al. (2017) Burden of proof: A comprehensive review of the feasibility of 100% renewable-electricity systems Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 76:1122–33 dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2017.03.114

• Sovacool, et al.(2020) Differences in carbon emissions reduction between countries pursuing renewable electricity versus nuclear power. Nat Energy 5, 928–935 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-020-00696-3
  • Ted Nordhaus (2021) On Anti-Nuclear Bullshit counter to Sovacool's claims.

• Edwin Lyman, Union of Concerned Scientists (2021) Advanced Isn’t Always Better Assessing the Safety, Security, and Environmental Impacts of Non-Light-Water Nuclear Reactors.
  • Kurt Smithpeters (2022) critique of Lyman’s UCS paper ses1sez.substack.com.

• Krall LM et al. (2022) Nuclear waste from small modular reactors Proc. National Academy of Sciences 119(23):e2111833119 doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2111833119.
  • Dan Yurman (2022) Stanford's Questionable Study on Spent Nuclear Fuel for SMRs, neutronbytes.com/2022/05/31.

• Charles McCombie et al. (2022) SMRs: a big game changer? Nuclear Engineering International, April 2022, pp.19-23. A discussion of the political barriers to acceptance of the new reactors.

• Iida Ruishalme, Thoughtscapism - Climate and Energy excellent science, excellent graphics, and excellent writing.

• Charles Oppenheimer (2023) Nuclear Energy's Moment Has Come Time Magazine, MAY 11, 2023 6:05 AM EDT.

Videos

• Nuclear Power Debate Firing Line 2021 - the best arguments from both sides.
• Pandora's Promise 2013 documentary examines some of the widespread beliefs about the dangers of nuclear energy.
• Why renewables can’t save the planet | Michael Shellenberger | TEDxDanubia 2019. An environmental activist who now supports nuclear power.
• Chernobyl - HBO Miniseries 2019 Emmy and Golden Globe winning miniseries, grossly exaggerates radiation dangers.
  
  • How HBO Got It Wrong On Chernobyl review in Forbes by James Conca, environmental scientist.
• Collection of videos on nuclear power by Gordon McDowell, Canadian videographer.

Weapons Proliferation

• Deutch et.al. 2006, Making the world safe for nuclear energy, Survival 46(4):65-79 DOI:10.1080/00396330412331342466
• Kryuchkov et.al. 2011, Isotopic Uranium and Plutonium Denaturing as an Effective Method for Nuclear Fuel Proliferation Protection in Open and Closed Fuel Cycles, DOI:10.5772/17822 How nuclear fuel can be made useless for bombs by denaturing (diluting fissile isotopes with hard-to-separate non-fissile, e.g. diluting U-235 with U-238) and by adding a radiation barrier (isotopes that will make stolen fuel easy to detect, hard to handle, and make a bomb fizzle, not detonate).
• Ashley, S., Parks, G., Nuttall, W. et al. Thorium fuel has risks. Nature 492, 31–33 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/492031a

Cost

Projected Costs of Generating Electricity 2020 International Energy Agency's 223 page report, a thorough explanation of the complexities of LCOE (Levelized Cost of Electricity) and a proposal for a better all-in-one measure of cost VALCOE.
INSIDER: Not All Electricity Is Equal—Uses and Misuses of Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) World Resources Institute (2019) Laura M. Valeri. Read this to understand why there is so much confusion over the cost of various sources in discussions on the Internet.

Reactor Designs

• PLENTIFUL ENERGY The Story of the Integral Fast Reactor C.E. Till and Y.I. Chang, 2011. Argonne Lab's best design, a metal-fueled, sodium-cooled, Fast neutron reactor.
• ThorCon Isle details of a complete nuclear power plant.
• ARIS - Advanced Reactors Information System IAEA Database on Advanced Nuclear Power Reactors.
• Advances in Small Modular Reactor Technology Developments A Supplement to ARIS 2020 Edition.
• PRIS - Power Reactor Information System IAEA Database on Nuclear Power Reactors.
• Advance Nuclear Directory Developers, Suppliers, and National Laboratories.