Energy is the ultimate currency of a civilisation’s development. As a civilization, we must strive to make more energy available, in more efficient ways.
Media coverage
One of the primary issues facing modern nuclear-based energy technologies is negative media coverage, which has created an inaccurate image of nuclear power in the collective conscience. The fear and mistrust observed today are due in large part to misconceptions about historical events(Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, Fukushima), which compound myths and inaccuracies, and lack comprehensive contextualization and technical explanation.
This has had the effect of impeding the progress of technologies which have already shown themselves to be trustworthy, and which have higher returns than fossil fuel based energy sources. Building or even proposing any nuclear facility is met with judicial battles battles from environmental groups, which lengthen the process and invariably increase the cost. Public funds have also been wasted, such as in the case of the Fukushima extended soil decontamination campaign, which has no scientific justification and is only continued to appease the political climate.
For many years I was uncertain about nuclear energy, because my opinion relied on common misconceptions and constantly hearing about the main limitations associated with nuclear power, such as the creation of dangerous waste, the scale of damage when an incident occurs, and the cost and time of building any infrastructure. However, once I started investigating the data for myself, I began to understand the value of nuclear energy. I now want to be part of the next generation which revolutionizes the nuclear energy industry, and overcomes the criticisms.
The Value of Nuclear Energy
Nuclear energy provides a predictable, reliable, and tunable output of energy, while having numerous straightforward advantages compared to other alternative energy sources we are currently utilizing; it is virtually carbon free,requires minimal fuel, exhibits high energy density, and it requires and promotes the creation of a skilled workforce. Nuclear energy technologies are essential solutions to mitigate human-induced climate change and limit environmental pressure; they reduce our dependence on current fossil fuels, buffer the mining of resources like lithium and cobalt, and limit the geographical footprint of the necessary infrastructure.
Criticisms
As for the current criticisms, relevant comparisons must be made. One example could be the disposal of nuclear waste. Nuclear waste is an issue which indisputably requires further research efforts; but so are decomissioned solar pannels and batteries, which recycling processes cannot yet easily handle, despite their ever-growing prevalence; most currently end up in South and Southeast Asia, where they are already an active threat for the environment and the local populations.
The challenges posed by nuclear energy are no greater than those of renewables, and the benefits will be revolutionnary.
I believe that blockchain technology enables a better handling of data. It relies on cryptography, decentralisation, and truth by concensus, which ensure the data integrity. The impact of this technology will be huge.
Traceability
By recording the data produced by each player, timestamping it and ensuring that no retroactive alteration can be made, traceability can be achived.
Accountability
Traceability leads to accountability. By providing a consistent ledger and ensuring that no forgery was possible, the blockchain can directly link each player back to its actions and the data can be used as a kind of legal record. The player is accountable for his decisions and actions. Accountability is an incentive for a cheater to change his behaviour and play by the rules. It also proves the paternity of a virtuous behaviour, which can then be rewarded. This helps promoting virtuous behaviours, and helps fighting Corporate Impunity. By hiding behind opaque supply chains, companies make the best of cost extarnalization and avoid taking responsability for their actions. The Garment Industry famously uses complexity of its supply chain as an excuse for not being transparent and for not achieving better working conditions for its workers. Battery Manufacturers close an eye on the provenance of their raw material. Blockchain technology removes several pretexts and also helps law enforcment.
Beneficiaries
Everyone has something to win. Here are examples of implications for three different players:
Industries rely on more sofisticated and performing supply chains, and since transparency and traceability are valuable features for consummers, they could be willing to pay a premium and likely to become more loyal.
Public institutions ensure the integrity of the data they store. This has a lot of consequences on fraud an corruption: public institutions can make sure that every decision taken is linked to a player and timestamped, and that no alteration can be made retroactively. For instance a parcel of land can't secretly be attributed to a player as a bribe. This has ramifications in Environmental Protection: a falsified permit can't be granted by a corrupt official.
NGOs access data of higher quality which they can trust for their invistigations. If they store their own data on a blockchain, the decentralisation protects them from an attack by someone who wants to shut them down.
Where does the plastic that we use on a daily basis end up ? It's a simple question, and yet most of us don't know the answer. Until not so long ago,developed countries just sent their garbage to China, but that's no longer the case. As for the percentage of plastic that actually gets recycled,it's lower than you might hope. In the meantime, plastic waste builds up in landfills and oceans, entering the foodchain and disrupting entire ecosystems, eventually reaching all the way back to us. Several things can be done on the technological side : improving the recycling chain logistics, developing new and improved plastic packaging, discovering new chemical and physical recycling processes, and more. However, much can already be achieved just by improving communication between different points along the recycling chain, promoting better awareness in the public, and establishing relevant standards and regulations.
Bioplastics
Bio-plastic is an interesting case. What does bioplastic mean ? Are we talking about bio-sourced, or bio-degredable plastics ? Do consumers know the difference ? Do they understand the labeling ? It's important because of the wishful recycling effect : by hoping (or thinking) a non-recylcable plastic product is recyclable, the consumer who "recycles" it actually spoils the recycling batch, decreasing its value and making it harder to find someone willing to buy and process it. Work on public education and relevant labeling of plastics must be done to avoid this situation.
The communication between the different actors must be improved : Labs come up with different types of biodegradable plastics, the number of publications builds up. But, how much of it is relevant to the industry ? Here is why so little bio-plastic is recycled so far :
Unfortunately, plastics can't just be all melted together and moulded into new objects. They need to be chemically compatible. Not all bioplastics are compatible with their petrobased equivalents, and those who are not need to be extracted and processed separately. This means extra steps in the chain, which means higher costs. Among the compatible bioplastics, some of them are bio-degradable. But mixing biodegredable and non-biodegredable plastics produces plastics with unpredictable rates of degredation, which makes them untrustworthy for long term applications. As a consequence, most recycling facilities just put bio-plastics in landfills. Why not simply put biodegradable plastics in compost then ? The chemical composition of bioplastics is mainly carbon and hydrogen, while compost should be rich in nitrogen. Therefore, adding bioplastics doesn't increase the monetary or biological value of the compost. On top of that, biodegradable plastics take longer to degrade than the standard organic waste industrial turnover, which means that introducing them would either slow down the process, or that costumers would get compost with plastic bits in it. Technology provided by state-of-the-art laboratories ends up in landfills, just like the rest. So much for technology.
Why?
I came to understand the importance of food safety after spending a year in South East Asia. Most of the exchange students around me fell sick while travelling, and rapidly became wary of eating local food. It wasn't just my western friends though. After asking around, I realised that a lot of my Asian friends were worried about chinese food. Popular belief is that everything coming from China is untrustworthy. While in Vietnam, an aunty (cultural term for older woman) told me the story of a restaurant going bankrupt because a costumer had spread the word that the meat came from China. At the market, sellers would get offended if I asked if the product came from China. Unfortunately, this popular belief is backed up by a long list of scandals. The issue of food safety is not only relevent to Asia though. Scandals happened in America and in Europe as well. Lately, the biggest dairy products group Lactalis had to recall 12 millions boxes of baby milk because of a salmonella outbreak at one of its plants.
Blockchain
The blockchain can help with some of the issues: The food product is tagged with a security seal that identifies the product and each player along the supply chain, and sensors which gather temperature, time, and geographical data. In the event of an interuption in the cold chain, the player in charge is immediatly identified and localised, and an automatic alert is sent to the Health Department and Veterinary Service. If no incident occurs, the product is safely put on shelves. The consummer can scan the seal and check the supply chain of the product. Once the consumer proceeds to checkout, funds are unlocked and each player gets his reward. In the event of the spreading of a foodborne disease, the origin of the outbreak and the contaminated products can easily be identified, tracked down and recalled in a brief delay, avoiding numerous victims.
Better practices
But food safety isn't only about traceability, it is also about good practices and high standards in the industry. Overuse of antibiotics for livestock, often linked with intensive animal farming, poses a serious threat to public health by increasing resistance to antibiotic treatments. Overuse of pesticides and fertilizers adds up, and all three categories can be found in the final product while also persisting in the environment, which increases the consummer exposure to them. The consequences on human health are gradually discovered, including endocrine disruption.