ALBUQUERQUE — Creating an energy future free of fossil fuels is on a lot of minds these days, and many say on top of that we have to relinquish plans for nuclear power as well. Dr. Arjun Makhijani is one advocate of a nuclear- free future and will be in town Thursday to speak at the University of New Mexico School of Law.

Makhijani is president of the Institute for Energy and Environment Research and author of Carbon-Free And Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for U.S. Energy Policy.

In a conversation with the Independent, Makhijani said the pursuit of nuclear power is an unwise course given the danger it poses to international security, even if it is appealing given the need to bring down carbon dioxide emissions.

“Why solve one problem if doing so will aggravate another?” he asked. Makhijani explained that an investment in nuclear energy increases the level of infrastructure that can also be used to create nuclear bombs.

“The human infrastructure necessary for nuclear power — engineers and others who understand nuclear fission — is the same for bombs. The source for both is uranium. Very similar kinds of physical plant and technology can be used for both,” Makhijani said. “This is why the nuclear enrichment plant in Iran is causing global security concerns. It’s exactly what North Korea did.”

Makhijani makes a connection between three things as the source of an energy crisis that is becoming an “acute” situation:

1. Severe climate change, caused mainly by emissions of carbon dioxide

2. Insecurity of and violence and war associated with control of oil supplies

3. Nuclear weapons proliferation as it is connected to the spread of nuclear energy

Makhijani argues that these three issues are highly connected. Oil is one of the main culprits of climate change. It’s also an essential fossil fuel that drives our economy, and yet we don’t have control of the supply we need. Nuclear power is one of the options proposed to solve our insecurity and environmental issues regarding oil, but nuclear power is also “quite entangled” with nuclear weapons proliferation.

The key to solving the crisis is the phasing out of all fossil fuels and nuclear energy by 2050, he says, and his roadmap provides a plan for how to do it. The foundation of the road map is increased efficiency, and the use of solar and wind technology.

From the preface to the book:

Uranium enrichment is at the center of U.S.-Iranian nuclear tensions. Iran claims it is pursuing commercial nuclear power; the United States believes it is acquiring nuclear weapons capability. In reality, the two are compatible statements – and that is the core of the problem. Building large numbers of nuclear plants across the world will multiply the need for commercial uranium enrichment plants. It is unlikely that countries will voluntarily give up their right under the NPT [Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty] to acquire them.

Makhijani pointed out that nuclear energy as the solution to climate change would require large scale investments with many more plants. Such investments, he explained, would exacerbate global insecurity because they would lessen the barriers to acquisition of the nuclear matter needed to make bombs.

Global policing of nuclear weaponry would become even more problematic than it already is. And, he suggests in the book, building our own nuclear reactors while attempting to withhold the right to do so from other country’s is problematic:

The twentieth century saw countries slowly struggle for freedom from domination. Unfortunately as part of that process, they also viewed the world powers refusing to give up their own nuclear weapons, even though the latter retained unquestioned superiority in conventional weaponry and power. The best way to approach the problem of non-proliferation is for the United States to undo what it began with Atoms for Peace and replace it with energy for peace. …it is possible to have a secure and economical energy system without the headaches and risks of nuclear power. Why would one want to expand its role in an already insecure world?

And, it’s unnecessary, he says. The wind potential in the Rocky Mountains alone, he told the Independent, makes the region akin to OPEC for wind energy. Not to mention the vast potential of solar energy and the promise of new technologies being developed, like geothermal.

Makhijani’s message is that carbon dioxide emissions can be eliminated by existing technologies without the use of nuclear power. But it’ll require national leadership rather than the piecemeal approach currently happening at the state and local levels, with “unprecedented foresight and coordination in policies from the local to the national, across all sectors of the energy system.”

You can download Makhijani’s book here. Or attend his speech at the law school on Thursday night, it should be an interesting discussion. The event is co-sponsored by the New Mexico Environmental Law Center, the Environmental Law Society of UNM, Southwest Research and Information Center (SRIC), Honor Our Pueblo Existence (HOPE), New Mexico Conference of Churches and Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety (CCNS).

September 18, 2008 6 pm – 8 pm
UNM Law School Map : Room 2401