It’s interesting to note that the Russians have several new nuclear plants under construction, including a fast breeder, despite their enormous fossil fuel resources. What do they know that we don’t know?
– Jack Ellis
Probably nothing at all Jack, although admittedly it is useful to consider the difference between knowing and thinking where high level energy economics is concerned. For instance – as I stare at the wintery Swedish sky – I find myself thinking about the brilliant lectures that I may or may not be asked to give on nuclear economics.If not, which is likely, my thoughts often wander to imaginary conversations and conference presentations in which I display my knowledge of this subject to various energy celebrities, as well as students and colleagues.
A few years ago, after the publication of several of my articles on nuclear, Dr Amory Lovins challenged me to an online debate about nuclear. I reacted by explaining to him that an online ‘gig’ was not to my taste, but if he or his admirers could provide me with a plane ticket, hotel accommodation and some walking-around money, I would leave for the airport that evening if that was required in order to provide him with the opportunity to obtain the satisfaction that he felt he deserved.
Dr Lovins was in Sweden fairly soon after he issued his challenge, and I contacted the organization – The Tallberg Forum – that invited him here, offering (in vain) to give that gentleman a chance to clarify his anti-nuclear logic for both me and an audience of his peers. I had in mind those occasions in the youth of a former boss of the (U.S.) Federal Reserve System, Alan Greenspan, when he appeared on the same stage in New York City, and playing the same instrument, as the great jazz saxophonist Stan Getz. I predicted to colleagues that the outcome of my encounter with Lovins would be comparable to the Getz-Greenspan sessions, with Lovins in the Greenspan role.
By way of providing an example of what I would have to deal with, and easily overcome, I have selected a few lines from one of the most outlandish articles ever published in a major ‘learned’ journal (Foreign Affairs, 1992-93). Amory Lovins and Joseph Romm signed their names to the following fallacious statement.
