The Nuclear Environmentalist

This book explains how society will face an energy crisis in the coming decades owing to increasing scarcity of fossil fuels and climate change impacts. It carefully explores this coming crisis and concisely examines all of the major technologies related to energy production (fossil fuels, renewables, and nuclear) and their impacts on our society and environment. The author argues that it is wrong to pit alternatives to fossil fuels against each other and proposes that nuclear energy, although by no means free of problems, can be a viable source of reliable and carbon-free electricity. He concludes by calling for a diversified and rational mix of electricity generation in order to mitigate the effects of the energy crisis. Throughout, the book is spiced with science, history, and anecdotes in a way that ensures rewarding reading without loss of rigor.

J.J. Gomez Cadenas is Professor of Nuclear and Particle Physics at the University of Valencia. His research interests encompass experimental neutrino physics, the search for the neutrino-less double beta decay process, and the applications of nuclear instrumentation to medicine and non-proliferation. He writes regularly in diverse media about science.