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Mechanical Engineering Home > Seminars > Spring 2001 Spring 2001 |
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ME/IE 8773-8774
The Need for Nuclear Power by Denis E. Beller, Ph.D.
The world needs more energy. Energy multiplies human labor, increasing productivity. It builds and lights schools, purifies water, powers farm machinery, drives sewing machines and robot assemblers, stores and moves information. World population is steadily increasing, having passed six billion in 1999. Yet one-third of that number ¾ two billion people ¾ lack access to electricity. Development depends on energy, and the alternative to development is suffering: poverty, disease, and death. Such conditions create instability and the potential for widespread violence. National security therefore requires developed nations to help increase energy production in their more populace developing counterparts. For the sake of safety as well as security, that increased energy supply should come from diverse sources. "At a global level," the British Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering estimate in a 1999 report on nuclear energy and climate change, "we can expect our consumption of energy at least to double in the next 50 years and to grow by a factor of up to five in the next 100 years as the world population increases and as people seek to improve their standards of living." Even with vigorous conservation, world energy production would have to triple by 2050 to support consumption at a mere one-third of today’s US per capita rate. The International Energy Agency (IEA) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) projects 65% growth in world energy demand by 2020, two-thirds of that coming from developing countries. "Given the levels of consumption likely in the future," the Royal Society and Royal Academy caution, "it will be an immense challenge to meet the global demand for energy without unsustainable long-term damage to the environment." That damage includes surface and air pollution and global warming. Dr. Denis E. Beller (Ph.D., Purdue Univ., 1986;
M.S.N.E, Air Force Inst. of Tech., 1981; B.S.Ch.E., Univ. of Colorado,
1976) has a background in engineering design and analysis and
in management of defense systems. After graduation in 1986, Dr.
Beller began a seven-year stint as a professor at the Air Force
Institute of Technology, where he taught graduate nuclear engineering
to military officers. He was the first military professor selected
for tenure in AFIT's history. His work has encompassed design
and analysis of conceptual systems for nuclear effects testing
with inertial fusion, conceptual design of nuclear-pumped lasers,
and formulation and testing of rocket propellants. He also managed
a rocket test facility, a nuclear detection laboratory that monitored
radioactive emissions to support Safeguard D of the Nuclear Test
Ban Treaty, and an intelligence division that collected and disseminated
foreign science and technology information. Immediately prior
to joining the technical staff of LANL in 1998, he designed, analyzed,
and demonstrated a concept for a neutron effects test for the
DOE's National Ignition Facility project. Dr. Beller is a member
of the Technical Staff at Los Alamos National Laboratory, concentrating
in Nuclear Systems Analysis. He analyzes systems related to long-term
national and global deployment of nuclear energy in conjunction
with the AAA/ATW program and the Nuclear Vision Project. Dr. Beller
is also an adjunct professor with the Department of Nuclear Engineering
at Purdue University, and continues to be heavily involved in
public information and academic education activities about nuclear
science, technology, and energy. |
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