About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

1 Notre Dame J. on Emerging Tech. i (2020)

handle is hein.journals/ndjet1 and id is 1 raw text is: FOREWORD Breaking free of our collective addiction to fossil fuels is of paramount importance, not only because greenhouse gas emissions are pushing the planet to the brink of climate catastrophe, but also because fossil-fuel based energy sources deployed in rural areas of low- and middle-income countries transfer local cash out of the region. Further development of fossil fuel re- sources works to ensure that the huge energy wealth inequity present in the world prevails. Amongst the United Nations' goals for global sustainable development is Goal #7: Affordable and Clean Energy. This goal focuses specifically on ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all. Yet today one billion people have no electricity and two billion rely on open fires for cooking and heating. Many more people have only enough electricity to light one or two bulbs for a few hours a day and perhaps charge a cell phone, but nothing more. Communities impacted by unreliable and intermittent supplies of electricity in insufficient quantities are held back in attaining other United Nations sustainability goals including no poverty, zero hunger, good health and well-being, and clean water and sanitation. This is no small problem, as electrification of rural areas of low- and middle- income countries where poverty, hunger and disease are disproportion- ately present without vastly increasing fossil fuel consumption and green- house gas emissions is one of the greatest challenges of this century. Heat energy is produced in Earth by radioactive decay of unstable ele- ments, and populations in areas with high geothermal gradients like Ice- land can tap into this supply of plentiful sustainable energy. Vast amounts of energy are tied up in unstable atomic nuclei and this energy can be liber- ated and harnessed by nuclear reactions in which mass is converted to en- ergy according to Einstein's theory of special relativity. The tremendous amounts of liberated heat can be used to do useful work, including gener- ating easily transported and stored electricity, or in propulsion systems. There is sufficient fuel for these reactors to be viewed as sustainable for thousands of years. To do this currently, massive and expensive facilities must be constructed, and are mostly out of reach for low- and middle-in- come countries. It is essential that high-income countries continue to de- velop nuclear power as an alternative to fossil fuels, as many experts argue this is the only way to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions on a time-scale that will perhaps change the severity of climate change. Devel- opment of small modular nuclear reactors that are cheaper to produce in larger numbers and deployable where needed is also an essential ©2020 by Peter C. Burns i

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most