100% Clean, Renewable Energy and Storage for Everything

Author: Mark Z. Jacobson (2021)

Numerous laws – including the Green New Deal – have been proposed or passed in cities, states, and countries to transition from fossil fuels to 100% clean, renewable energy in order to address climate change, air pollution, and energy insecurity. This textbook lays out the science, technology, economics, policy, and social aspects of such transitions. It discusses the renewable electricity and heat generating technologies needed; the electricity, heat, cold, and hydrogen storage technologies required; how to keep the electric power grid stable; and how to address non-energy sources of emissions. It discusses the history of the 100% Movement, which evolved from a collaboration among scientists, cultural leaders, business people, and community leaders. Finally, it discusses current progress in transitioning to 100% renewables, and the new policies needed to complete the transition. Online course supplements include lecture slides, answers to the end-of-chapter student exercises, and a list of extra resources.

The National Politics of Nuclear Power: Economics, Security, and Governance

Author(s): Benjamin K. Sovacool & Scott Victor Valentine (2012)

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This book offers a comprehensive assessment of the dynamics driving, and constraining, nuclear power development in Asia, Europe and North America, providing detailed comparative analysis.

The book formulates a theory of nuclear socio-political economy which highlights six factors necessary for embarking on nuclear power programs: (1) national security and secrecy, (2) technocratic ideology, (3) economic interventionism, (4) a centrally coordinated energy stakeholder network, (5) subordination of opposition to political authority, and (6) social peripheralization. The book validates this theory by confirming the presence of these six drivers during the initial nuclear power developmental periods in eight countries: the United States, France, Japan, Russia (the former Soviet Union), South Korea, Canada, China, and India.

The authors then apply this framework as a predictive tool to evaluate contemporary nuclear power trends. They discuss what this theory means for developed and developing countries which exhibit the potential for nuclear development on a major scale, and examine how the new "renaissance" of nuclear power may affect the promotion of renewable energy, global energy security, and development policy as a whole. The volume also assesses the influence of climate change and the recent nuclear accident in Fukushima, Japan, on the nuclear power industry’s trajectory.

This book will be of interest to students of energy policy and security, nuclear proliferation, international security, global governance and IR in general.

The Risks of Nuclear Power Reactors: A Review of the NRC Reactor Safety Study WASH-1400 (NUREG-75/014)

Author(s): Union of Concerned Scientists (1977)

The NRC’s Reactor Safety Study (RSS) was published in 1975, and was used by the Federal government as definitive proof that nuclear reactors were safe to operate. In 1977 the Union of Concerned Scientists published this independent evaluation of the NRC’s study, which challenged the NRC’s position.

Just two years later in 1979 the Three Mile Island nuclear plant melted down and changed history…

Power Struggle: The Hundred Year War Over Electricity

Author(s): Richard Rudolph & Scott Ridley (1986)

The hundred year history of the electric power business in the United States. The conflicts between public and private interests are highlighted, as well as the politics behind energy policy.

Chain Reaction: Expert Debate & Public Participation in American Commercial Nuclear Power, 1945-1975

Author: Brian Balogh (1991)

An examination of the Atomic Energy Commission, commercial nuclear power, and the role of experts in public policy debate.

“An excellent and pioneering study of a pervasive problem in the historical relationship between science and public policy” (Samuel Hays, University of Pittsburgh).

The Last Energy War: The Battle Over Utility Deregulation

Author: Harvey Wasserman (1999)

“Waging constant war against public ownership, the industry could have gone solar in the 1950s, but opted for the trillion-dollar dead end of atomic energy. Now, through deregulation, it wants YOU to pay.”

Power Play: The Fight to Control the World’s Electricity

Author: Sharon Beder (2003)

“A compelling and fast-paced account of the decades-long struggle to wrest control of electricity from public hands... an essential guide to the contemporary industrial, environmental, and political landscape.”

Carbon-Free and Nuclear Free: A Roadmap for US Energy Policy

Author: Arjun Makhijani (2007)

Makhijani, the President of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research with a PhD in nuclear fusion, tells us how we can lessen our dependence on fossil fuels and mitigate climate change without resorting to nuclear power,  and without damaging our economy.

Reinventing Fire: Bold Business Solutions for the New Energy Era

Author: Amory Lovins (2011)

"Reinventing Fire shows us that we neither need to freeze in the dark, nor go back to the Stone Age, to ensure a healthy, habitable planet for ourselves and our descendants." --Andy Kerr, Home Power

World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2014

Author(s): Mycle Schneider, et al. (2014)

The world’s nuclear statistics are distorted by an anomaly whose cause is not technical but political. Three years after the Fukushima events started unfolding on 11 March 2011, government, industry and international institutional organizations continue to misrepresent the effects of the disaster on the Japanese nuclear program. To find a more appropriate way to deal with this situation, the World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2014 proposes a new category called Long-Term Outage (LTO).