''Non-Nuclear Futures: The Case for an Ethical Energy Strategy'' is a 1975 book by
Amory B. Lovins
Amory Bloch Lovins (born November 13, 1947) is an American writer, physicist, and former chairman/chief scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute. He has written on energy policy and related areas for four decades, and served on the US Nationa ...
and John H. Price.
[Lovins, Amory B. and Price, John H. (1975). ''Non-nuclear Futures: The Case for an Ethical Energy Strategy'' (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Ballinger Publishing Company, 1975. xxxii + 223pp. , ).] The main theme of the book is that the most important parts of the
nuclear power debate
The nuclear power debate is a long-running controversy about the risks and benefits of using nuclear reactors to generate electricity for civilian purposes. The debate about nuclear power peaked during the 1970s and 1980s, as more and more reac ...
are not technical disputes but relate to personal values, and are the legitimate province of every citizen, whether technically trained or not. Lovins and Price suggest that the personal values that make a high-energy society work are all too apparent, and that the values associated with an alternate view relate to thrift, simplicity, diversity, neighbourliness, craftsmanship, and humility. They also argue that large nuclear generators could not be mass-produced. Their centralization requires costly transmission and distribution systems. They are inefficient, not recycling excess thermal energy. The authors believed that nuclear reactors were less reliable (a
grossly incorrect prediction) and take longer to build, exposing them to escalated interest costs, mistimed demand forecasts, and wage pressure by unions.
Lovins and Price suggest that these two different sets of personal values and technological attributes lead to two very different policy paths relating to future energy supplies. The first is high-energy nuclear, centralized, electric; the second is lower energy, non-nuclear, decentralized, less electrified,
softer technology.
[''Non-Nuclear Futures'', p. xxiii.]
Subsequent publications by other authors which relate to the issue of non-nuclear energy paths are
Greenhouse Solutions with Sustainable Energy,
Plan B 2.0,
Reaction Time
Mental chronometry is the scientific study of processing speed or reaction time on cognitive tasks to infer the content, duration, and temporal sequencing of mental operations. Reaction time (RT; sometimes referred to as "response time") is meas ...
,
State of the World 2008,
The Clean Tech Revolution
''The Clean Tech Revolution: The Next Big Growth and Investment Opportunity'' is a 2007 book by Ron Pernick and Clint Wilder, who say that commercializing clean technologies is a profitable enterprise that is moving steadily into mainstream bus ...
, and the work of
Benjamin K. Sovacool
Benjamin K. Sovacool is an American academic who is director of the Institute for Global Sustainability at Boston University as well as Professor of Earth and Environment at Boston University. He was formerly Director of the Danish Center for Ene ...
.
See also
*
Anti-nuclear movement in the United States
The anti-nuclear movement in the United States consists of more than 80 anti-nuclear groups that oppose nuclear power, nuclear weapons, and/or uranium mining. These have included the Abalone Alliance, Clamshell Alliance, Committee for Nuclear Re ...
*
Contesting the Future of Nuclear Power
''Contesting the Future of Nuclear Power: A Critical Global Assessment of Atomic Energy'' is a 2011 book by Benjamin K. Sovacool, published by World Scientific. Sovacool’s book addresses the current status of the global nuclear power industry, i ...
*
List of books about nuclear issues
This is a list of books about nuclear issues. They are non-fiction books which relate to uranium mining, nuclear weapons and/or nuclear power.
*''The Algebra of Infinite Justice'' (2001)
*'' American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J ...
*
Nuclear energy policy
Nuclear energy policy is a national and international policy concerning some or all aspects of nuclear energy and the nuclear fuel cycle, such as uranium mining, ore concentration, conversion, enrichment for nuclear fuel, generating electrici ...
*
Nuclear or Not?
''Nuclear or Not? Does Nuclear Power Have a Place in a Sustainable Energy Future?'' is a 2007 book edited by Professor David Elliott. The book offers various views and perspectives on nuclear power.[Nuclear-Free Future Award Since 1998 the Nuclear-Free Future Award (NFFA) is an award given to anti-nuclear activists, organizations and communities. The award is intended to promote opposition to uranium mining, nuclear weapons and nuclear power.
The NFFA is a project of ...]
*
Nuclear-free zone
A nuclear-free zone is an area in which nuclear weapons (see nuclear-weapon-free zone) and nuclear power plants are banned. The specific ramifications of these depend on the locale in question.
Nuclear-free zones usually neither address nor prohi ...
*
Rocky Mountain Institute
RMI (Rocky Mountain Institute) is an organization in the United States co-founded by Amory Lovins dedicated to research, publication, consulting, and lecturing in the field of sustainability, with a focus on profitable innovations for energy an ...
*
Kristin Shrader-Frechette
Kristin Shrader-Frechette (born 1944) is O'Neill Family Professor, Department of Biological Sciences and Department of Philosophy, at the University of Notre Dame. She has previously held senior professorships at the University of California and t ...
*
Benjamin K. Sovacool
Benjamin K. Sovacool is an American academic who is director of the Institute for Global Sustainability at Boston University as well as Professor of Earth and Environment at Boston University. He was formerly Director of the Danish Center for Ene ...
.
References
External links
Nuclear Power's Global Expansion: Weighing Its Costs and Risks
Nuclear-free future award
{{Amory Lovins
1975 non-fiction books
Energy policy
Social philosophy
Futurology books
1975 in the environment
Books by Amory Lovins
Books about nuclear issues
Ethics of science and technology
Friends of the Earth