Energy Realpolitik: Towards a Sustainable Energy Strategy

A long-term strategy based on existing technological, ecological, economical, and geopolitical realities is urgently needed to develop a sustainable energy economy, which should be designed with adaptability to unpredicted changes in any of these aspects. While only a highly diverse energy portfolio and conservation can ultimately guarantee optimum sustainability, based on a comparison of current primary energy generation methods, it is argued that future energy strategy has to rely heavily on expanded coal and nuclear energy sectors. A comparison of relative potentials, merits and risks associated with fossil-fuel, renewable, and nuclear technologies suggests that the balance of technologies should be shifted in favor of new-generation, safe nuclear methods to produce electricity, while clean-coal plants should be assigned to transportation fuel. Novel nuclear technologies exploit fission of uranium and thorium as primary energy sources with fast-spectrum and transmutation (burner) reactors. A closed fuel cycle and waste transmutation resolve the strategic issues associated with nuclear power. Innovative reactor designs utilize spallation of heavy metals in subcritical accelerator driven systems or molten-salt reactors. Importation and reconstruction of technical expertise already lost and aversion of further erosion are preconditions to any successful energy strategy. Research opportunities to perfect innovative nuclear, coal, and renewable energy technologies should be pursued.