Introduction | Notion

For decades, nuclear energy has been a source of major debates. Today, it comes back at the centre of discussions around key societal decisions ranging from energy sovereignty to climate change mitigation. Yet, despite the height of the stakes, few people truly have an opinion on the topic. The purpose of this book is to provide its readers with the basic facts of what nuclear energy is, what its impacts are on the planet and on our society, and what it has to offer beyond the production of electricity.

The onset of humanity’s relationship with atomic sciences could be traced back as far as the 5th century BC, when the ancient Greek philosopher Democritus proposed that all matter was composed of small particles. A stroke of genius, but also an amusing case of irony. The word “atom” is indeed derived from the Greek “atomos”, which means “indivisible”—the very opposite of nuclear sciences’ core principle.

The first experimental evidence would come much later. In 1896, French scientist Henri Becquerel accidentally discovered that uranium salts cause photographic plates to darken. A year later, Marie Curie would name these mysterious rays “radioactivity”. This would mark the beginning of a series of breakthroughs involving world-famous scientists the likes of Ernest Rutherford, Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi, James Chadwick, and Wolfgang Pauli.

The pivot from science to engineering would occur in December 1938 at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry in Berlin. While bombarding uranium with neutrons, Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann noted that barium had been produced. The atomic mass of barium is slightly over 60% that of uranium. They intuitively understood that such a phenomenon could be explained by a bursting of the atomic nucleus, but lacked the tools to theorise it. They reported their findings to their former colleague Lisa Meitner who had fled Nazi Germany. Together with her nephew, Otto Robert Frisch, she theorised and proved that the uranium nucleus had indeed been split. The sum of the products would be slightly less massive than the original atom. That reaction was thus accompanied by a release of energy, equal to the loss mass multiplied by the square of the speed of light, E = mc².

From that moment on, it became clear that nuclear technologies were the key to unravelling a great power. This idea gradually made its way to decision makers, and WWII would focus the attention of the nuclear community towards the atomic bomb. The Manhattan project, culminating with the first detonation of an atomic weapon during the Trinity Test, would firmly establish the unfathomable energy contained in the atomic nucleus. At that time already, the controlled releases of nuclear energy in power reactors was an important subject of investigations. These investigations started in the early 1940’s with the Chicago Pile-1, the first nuclear reactor, built in secrecy under the viewing stands of a football stadium, so simple in its design that Enrico Fermi described it as "a crude pile of black bricks and wooden timbers". [1]

Since the late 50’s, the main objective for civilian nuclear technologies had been the continuous improvement of safe and reliable power plants. Over 400 reactors were built during the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s. Since the Chernobyl disaster, the rate of deployment of additional nuclear capability has dramatically slowed down. A few decades later, the Fukushima accident finally put the Atomic Age hopes and ambitions to rest. Nevertheless, nuclear energy remained present in the background, providing around one tenth of the global electricity supply.

The Ford moment of the nuclear industry. We have to build more, faster, and for a longer time than when we were at our absolute best. Source: Radiant Energy Group.

Over the past few years, climate change and sovereignty concerns have abruptly pushed nuclear energy back on the agenda. End of 2023, at COP28, over 20 countries pledged to triple global nuclear capacity by 2050. The required scale of deployment is unprecedented. Historically, the sharpest increase was 20 GW per year, sustained over a decade. We now have to maintain a rate of 30 GW per year for almost three decades straight. To fulfil this engagement, the United Kingdom has launched its Great British Nuclear initiative, with the objective to produce 25% of its electricity with nuclear capacity by 2050. France has a firm plan to build six new reactors, and is seriously considering a further eight. Sweden will build two large-scale reactors by 2035, and the equivalent of ten new reactors by 2045. The list goes on, with news of bullish ambitions succeeding one another.

The advantages of nuclear energy overall seem to be understood by the general public. The latest surveys even show that there are 1,5x more supporters than opponents to the use of nuclear energy. [2] Nonetheless, this global revival of enthusiasm is taking place so rapidly that it surprised most people. Were we really so much in the wrong when most of the Western world seemed to agree that phasing out nuclear energy was a good decision?

This book is a reminder that the scientific consensus on nuclear energy is actually overwhelmingly positive. Nuclear energy is exceptionally reliable and safe according to multiple metrics. It has a negligible environmental impact across all metrics, from land use and natural resource consumption to greenhouse gas emissions. It provides well-paid jobs and direct returns to local communities. Beyond energy, nuclear technologies are instrumental to a variety of other sectors, from space exploration to medicine.

The very purpose of this book is to go through all these advantages and more—a real software update for readers. Who is it written for? It is for anyone that only has a vague notion of what nuclear energy is. It is for the anti-nuclear activist, who wants to better understand the pro-nuclear perspective. It is for students and people in career transition wondering how to maximise the impact of their professional life. It is for anyone curious about a topic that touches upon so many aspects of our daily life.

This book is organised in three parts. “Planet” examines the impact of nuclear energy on the environment. “People” goes over the societal impact of nuclear energy. Last but not least, ”Beyond” browses over the benefits of nuclear technologies that are not directly related to electricity production. Each part is divided in short sections dealing with specific themes, which can be read independently.

One last note: this book mostly concerns the existing, operational nuclear technologies. It only hints at a whole new generation of reactors—small modular reactors, advanced reactors, and even, further down the line, fusion reactors. All of these will only further improve how we unleash nuclear energy. The future is bright.

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