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Clip from Pandora’s Promise explains Megatons to Megawatts

ByRod Adams

One of the least understood features of nuclear power plants is that they consume materials that might otherwise end up in nuclear weapons. Of course, activists that battle the use of nuclear energy generally try to turn that feature into a fault. They have convinced more than a few people that without nuclear power plants, the naturally-occurring material used to produce weapons would not be available.

They neglect the fact that the only two nuclear weapons ever used to harm people were created at least a dozen years before the first electricity producing nuclear reactor.

I wonder how many people really understand that about 10% of the electricity in the United States during the past 20 years has come from decommissioning nuclear weapons and turning the material into heat and elements that will never again be able to fission?

The above clip from Robert Stone’s Pandora’s Promise (hat tip to IndieWire) explains the Megatons to Megawatts program with pictures that speak more loudly than my words can.

Rod Adams
Rod Adams

Rod Adams is Managing Partner of Nucleation Capital, a venture fund that invests in advanced nuclear, which provides affordable access to this clean energy sector to pronuclear and impact investors. Rod, a former submarine Engineer Officer and founder of Adams Atomic Engines, Inc., which was one of the earliest advanced nuclear ventures, is an atomic energy expert with small nuclear plant operating and design experience. He has engaged in technical, strategic, political, historic and financial analysis of the nuclear industry, its technology, regulation, and policies for several decades through Atomic Insights, both as its primary blogger and as host of The Atomic Show Podcast. Please click here to subscribe to the Atomic Show RSS feed. To join Rod's pronuclear network and receive his occasional newsletter, click here.

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