The Great Energy Debate | TU Delft, Imperial College & Shell 

This debate was too much of a show and artificial effects (Presentation video or Twitter poll coming back every 5 minutes), so the debate part itself was pretty weak, and only at the end the audience was able to ask few interesting questions. It looked way too much like green-washing for Tu Delft and its partner Shell.

The poll was irrelevant to much of the debate discussion. And also, the poll should have been split between the energy content and energy hungry world. You cant view the world with the same lens and i think the nigerian lady alluded to that well. I liked the tone of the debate being very calm and collected, realistic and not very animated and over the top. More data should have been brought to the table too.

What? Was forbidden to say something about nuclear energy?

Some segments in the video are stamped not adjacent to each other

@1:02:16 Nuclear Power?? To me it depends on just what sort of nuclear power will you use. Nuclear power comes in two types: Fission & Fusion. Fusion power has been coming closer & closer to the magic BREAK EVEN point where it can become viable. Research & development of fusion should continue but it cannot yet meet our power needs. As for FISSION there are several different kinds of fission that are viable. There are different sorts of reactors with different kinds of fuel. There is uranium 235 fuel there is a breeder fuel called plutonium which is formed when uranium 238 is whacked with a neutron in a fast breeder. and then there is another kind of breeder reactor called the Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor. The problem with U235 and plutonium or MOX a mixture of U235 & plutonium is their inefficiency and their residual long term nuclear waste. They "burn" only 1% to 2% of their fuel in Zirconium shells then the waste lasts millions of years or they need reprocessed. When mining Uranium you are left with Uranium tailings, Then when you separate out the 235 from the 238 you get 14.4 lb from each ton of natural uranium. they use centrifuges to separate out the isotopes of 235 to 238 from uranium hexaflouride. They store the 238 in depleted uranium dumps of tanks of UF6 which is a terrible bio hazard causing hideous birth defects. Hypothetically In a nuclear war one moderate size H bomb dropped on one of many existing depleted uranium dumps could be the end of all mankind. lawinactiondotcom.files.wordpress.com/2019/11/uranium-hexafluoride-yard.jpg?w=624 There is a much better solution to the energy problem than the modern method of burning uranium or plutonium or MOX solid fuel pellets in nuclear reactors. It is the Molten Salt Reactor using Liquid Fluoride Thorium. Thorium is almost as abundant as dirt so to speak. It is the by product of rare earth mining. When put into a fluoride salt form it can be handled in a melted form. You start it up with some conventional nuclear fuel to breed U233 which is fissionable. The whole process of separating the molten salt 233 fuel from the thorium breeder blanket and the burnt nuclear wastes is all done chemically. The plant is in itself a little factory of chemicals producing energy & producing other useful chemicals isotopes & elements which can be separated from each other. There is no need to centrifuge anything. There is no need to reprocess anything. Molten salt is a great conductor of heat without the problems of high pressure super-heated steam. The fission uses slow neutrons therefore when the moderator is absent the reaction stops & when it is present the reaction ignites instead of the opposite with U235 or MOX plants. If any thing goes wrong and the reactor overheats or the power stops a plug of molten salt melts and the fuel drains harmlessly into a tank where because of the absence of the moderator the reaction shuts down. When the problem is fixed the salt in the tank is melted and pumped back into the reactor. Since it used molten salt the salt can exchange its heat with a CO2 turbine which is more efficient than using a steam turbine. The waste heat can produce distilled water from sea water or other polluted source. The wastes produced from the split u233 are small & compact in size and will be safe after about 300 years instead of the gigayears that other plants need for their wastes to cool. The secret to the whole operation is the 'kidney" which separates the fuel the breeder material and the nuclear wastes chemically. Alvin Weinberg made a functioning plant in the 1960's which was so safe it was boring to watch it. This kind of plant can also be used with thorium to burn up stocks of uranium & plutonium in the present day unburnt nuclear waste stockpiles. The plants can be smaller more compact and though I do not think I would want one in my basement I would not mind one operating "in my back yard." ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2U9HVIFt2GE.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-mz49CB8XGQo.html