2/9/2009 Colloquium - James Conca

James Conca New Mexico State University

Event Info

Title:  The GeoPolitics of Energy: Achieving a Just and Sustainable Energy Distribution by 2040

Date: Feb 9, 2009
Location: 3105 Etcheverry Hall
Time: 4-5pm

Abstract

The magnitude of humanity’s energy needs requires that we embrace a multitude of various energy sources and applications. For a variety of reasons, nuclear energy must be a major portion of the distribution, at least one-third. The often-cited strategic hurdle to this approach is nuclear waste disposal. Present strategies concerning disposal of nuclear waste need to be changed if the world is to achieve both a sustainable energy distribution by 2040 (a model cutoff date for major demographic effects) and solve the large environmental issues of the 21st century. It is hoped that ambitious proposals to replace fossil fuel power generation by alternatives will drop the percentage of fossil fuel use substantially, but the absolute amount of fossil fuel produced electricity must be kept at or below its present 10 trillion kW-hrs/year. Unfortunately, the rapid growth in consumption to over 30 trillion kW-hrs/year by 2040, means that 20 trillion kW-hrs/yr of non-fossil fuel generated power has to come from other sources. If half of that comes from alternative non-nuclear, non-hydroelectric sources (an increase of 3000%), then nuclear still needs to increase by a factor of four worldwide to compensate. Many of the reasons nuclear energy did not expand after 1970 in North America (proliferation, capital costs, operational risks, waste disposal, and public fear) are no longer the insurmountable challenges they once were. Global energy partnerships, such as GNEP and those proposed by France and England, address the proliferation issue by controlling fuel production and removing the need for each country to develop enrichment capabilities, and the U.S. can solve the disposal issue for these small-user nations using the Salado Salt in New Mexico. Standardizing units, removing punitive financing and regulatory delays, providing loan guarantees and streamlining the permitting process, can cut costs dramatically.

Speaker Biography

James Conca has been named director of the Carlsbad Environmental Monitoring and Research Center (CEMRC), a division of the New Mexico State University College of Engineering. Conca is a geochemist with more than 18 years experience in academia, private industry and the National Lab system. Conca holds a Ph.D. in geochemistry from the California Institute of Technology.