The Rational View podcast with Dr. Al Scott

Will fusion save us? A summary

I’ve had several good interviews on the topics of hot and cold fusion. Omar Hurricane and Alex Zylstra from NIF in the US, Fulvio Millitelo of MAST-U in the UK, Edmund Storms LANL and Lutz Jaitner on cold fusion & LENR.
What have we learned? Cold Fusion has not yet been reliably harnessed despite decades of study, but I don’t think we should shame them for this—hot fusion has been working for much longer and they haven’t commercialized yet either. Fusion is not coming to our rescue in the next decade, and maybe not the one after that. The largest government fusion progams in the world are the US NIF facility based on over one hundred high power lasers, and the planned International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) based on confining ionized plasma in a toroidal Tokamak with huge electromagnets. But this isn’t the whole story, because there are also billions of dollars being invested in commercial ventures.
If you are interested, and want to look into these companies, some of the largest are Helion, General Fusion, and TAE technologies.  Each of the fusion companies out there has a unique idea that they believe gives them an edge.  The coolest thing I read was about Helion technology harnessing the back reaction of the high pressure fusing plasma on the magnetic coils to directly generate electricity.
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#TheRationalView #podcast #fusion #cleanenergy #greenenergy 

We need a rational assessment of nuclear energy

In this episode I want to address what I’ve come to realize is an asymmetry in society’s approach to energy technologies, and most specifically nuclear energy, after decades of mostly unopposed anti-nuclear lobbying. 
Nuclear energy must struggle on an uneven playing field with other energy technologies. This asymmetry is one of the leading reasons that new nuclear reactors have struggled to be built in regions that have been dominated by anti-nuclear ideologies for the past several decades and it is this situation that has catalyzed the climate crisis.
Nuclear is the only energy source to which humanity applies the precautionary principle.  Other power sources are allowed to operate with a certain level of known risk that in some cases translates into a rather significant body count.  But since we are used to it, and the effects are typically distributed over large areas and not concentrated in one area, the asymmetry with nuclear policy is lost on the general public. Of all these energy sources, nuclear energy seems to be the only one that elicits a visceral fear reaction in a significant fraction of the populace.
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#TheRationalView #podcast #nuclearenergy #risk #overtonwindow #assymetry #fossilfuel #renewables #greenenergy #energytransition #atomicenergy

Dr. Mark Winfield discusses hydrogen, carbon and sustainable energy

In this episode I am interviewing someone deeply involved with advising Canadian institutions on the energy policy, especially sustainable energy transitions.  As this has also been a focus of the podcast, I’m looking forward to discussing the best approaches for the country.
Mark Winfield is a Professor of Environmental and Urban Change at York University. He is also Co-Chair of the Faculty's Sustainable Energy Initiative, and Coordinator of the Joint Master of Environmental Studies/Juris Doctor program offered in conjunction with Osgoode Hall Law School.  He has published articles, book chapters and reports on a wide range of climate change, environment and energy law and policy topics. Professor Winfield has acted as an advisor to the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario and federal Commissioner for Environment and Development. From 2017-2020 he served as a member of the Conseil d'administration (board of directors) of Transitions energetique Quebec, a Crown corporation established to implement a low-carbon energy transition strategy for Quebec.  He is currently co-editing a volume on Sustainable Energy Transitions for Canada: Opportunities and Challenges for UBC Press.
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#TheRationalView #podcast #sustainableenergy #greenenergy #hydrogen #CCUS #carboncapture #nuclearenergy 

D.J. LeClear-The Rad Guy discusses nuclear radiation

This episode is the digitally enhanced re-release of 'Nuclear Power-is it rational to worry?' episodes 21 and 22 from October 2020 where I interviewed D.J. LeClear, 'The Rad Guy', before he started his successful YouTube channel dealing out short educational videos on nuclear radiation, and before he grew that magnificent handlebar moustache. If you've been with me since 2020, please enjoy this blast from the past. If you are new to The Rational View, you will love this coherent and incisive discussion about the myths surrounding nuclear radiation, initially released in two parts.
D.J. has been in nuclear power and radiation health physics since his enlistment in the Naval Nuclear Program where he did radiochemistry and radiation protection aboard the USS Harry S. Truman. Currently, he works in health emergency preparedness as a technical expert for radiation hazards. He has a bachelor of science in Nuclear Engineering Technology and he is enrolled in the Health Physics Master's program at Illinois Institute of Technology. 
In his spare time, he practices science communication by running the Facebook page "The Pragmatic Environmentalist" and his new YouTube channel "The Rad Guy".
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#TheRationalView #podcast #nuclearenergy #radiation #myths #greenenergy #atomicenergy 

Stéphane Germain on GHGSat methane leak discoveries

In this episode I am interviewing a new-space entrepreneur who is using optical remote sensing to provide important data on localized greenhouse gas emissions.  The NordStream fossil gas pipelines ruptured a few days before this podcast was taped.  My guest’s company has the hardware in place to measure these emissions from space and determine the impacts of this apparent sabotage on the climate.
Stéphane Germain is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of GHGSat whose technology provides actionable greenhouse gas emissions data and insights to various industries. Stéphane founded GHGSat in 2011 to answer a market need for consistent, high-quality measurements of greenhouse gas emissions from industrial facilities worldwide. Mr. Germain has been passionate about applying space technology for the good of the Earth for over 30 years.
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#TheRationalView #podcast #ghgsat #methane #flaring #climatechange #greenhousegas #satellite

Dr. Fulvio Militello discusses the MAST-U fusion program

In this episode I am continuing my exploration of the state of nuclear fusion research. I will be interviewing a leader in the MAST fusion experiment.  MAST is an acronym for Mega Ampere Spherical Tokamak.  A Tokamak is a device that typically uses extremely strong magnetic fields to confine an energetic plasma and ram hydrogen nuclei together at high energies, essentially trying to replicate the processes occurring at the core of the sun, to create fusion energy.  This process takes tremendous energy inputs and has been explored in the lab for decades without successfully transitioning to commercial power.  Experiments are getting larger and larger, and researchers have been making incremental progress towards the goal of break-even.  Join me as I explore the high pressure science of fusion energy.
Fulvio Militello is a fusion scientist with twenty years of experience. Following a career as a theoretical plasma physicist and science manager, he is currently the Director of Tokamak Science and MAST-U at United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA). Before joining UKAEA, he worked in Italy, France, and United States, in National Laboratories and Universities, authoring 100 scientific papers. Fulvio is also Adjunct Professor of Physics at Chalmers University (Sweden) and Visiting Reader at the Imperial College London. While his heart is still in Italy, he lives in Didcot, UK, with his Swedish wife (met in France) and two daughters (born in the UK). In his free time, he likes to cook, practice martial arts, read philosophy books, play games, look at the stars and learn as much as he can about everything that stimulates his curiosity
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#TheRationalView #podcast #fusion #greenenergy #MAST #ITER #tokamak 

Online convenience vs. customer service

Over the past couple weeks the COVID virus has gone through my household, and I’ve been too busy to put together a well researched podcast. But I wanted to share a story with you that I think some of you might be able to relate to. It is a story about where all of our time has gone. In the modern era we’ve traded customer service for convenience.  This is my saga.
We think that we're saving time by online shopping, but sometimes that turns out to be the opposite of the truth. Join me while I take you through my personal saga in which I discovered that in the modern era we may have mistakenly traded good customer service for "convenience."
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Lutz Jaitner proposes a scientific basis for Cold Fusion

In this episode I am continuing my investigation into cold fusion, looking into potential scientific explanations of the excess heat and fusion products hinted at by Dr. Edmund Storms in my last podcast.
There seems to be a dedicated research group that is working on these theories and I am eager to find out whether or not their hypothesis about condensed plasmoids can stand up to skepticism.
Lutz Jaitner from Hamburg Germany is the father of three adult daughters. He holds a Master of Science degree in physics from the University of Hamburg.
Lutz started his career as a designer and developer of multiprocessor hardware. After which he worked as a consulting engineer. Lutz is the programmer and operator of a public cloud service for neighborly help groups: Obelio eLETS Service
Around 2006 Lutz started to evaluate the available literature about LENR research. By 2015 he found an explanation, how the reaction is facilitated by an ultra-dense plasmoid state of matter. It took him until 2019 to work out a quantum-mechanical model of this state, to program a simulation tool for it, perform the simulation runs and document this theory on this web site.
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A review of Low Energy Nuclear Reactions (Cold Fusion) with Dr. Edmund Storms

In this episode I start my investigation into the Cold Fusion controversy. In 1989 Pons & Fleischmann announced in a hastily convened press conference, the discovery of a new clean energy source that would revolutionize power grids and save humanity from climate change. They had measured the production of excess heat and neutrons in a room temperature electrolytic reaction using heavy water and a palladium cathode.  It shortly became evident that their claims were not entirely correct. After many attempts it was discovered that their experiment could not be replicated and mainstream science dismissed Cold Fusion as a pathological science. Despite this lack of acceptance, many have continued to try to replicate their work and strike it rich. Now after more than 30 years, a pattern of unexplained anomalous results has emerged from the rubble.  Is there something to the newly renamed Low Energy Nuclear Reactions field?  I’m interviewing an expert who has been involved in reviewing the work in this field since the very beginning.
Edmund Storms obtained a Ph.D. in radiochemistry from Washington University (St. Louis) and is retired from the Los Alamos National Laboratory after thirty-four years of service. His work involved basic research in the field of high temperature chemistry as applied to materials used in nuclear power and propulsion reactors. He presently lives in Santa Fe where he is investigating the "cold fusion" effect in his own laboratory. An authority in the field he has published 2 books, over 100 papers and four complete scientific reviews of the field over the years. In May 1993, he was invited to testify before a congressional committee about the "cold fusion" effect. In 1998, Wired magazine honored him as one of the 25 people in the US who is making a significant contribution to new ideas. He was awarded the Preparata Medal by the International Society of Condensed Matter Nuclear Science and honored as Distinguished Scientist by University of Missouri. His large collection of literature about LENR was used to create the website www.LENR.org where information about the phenomenon is available. His recent work has focused on understanding LENR and making the effect reproducible.
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#TheRationalView #podcast #coldfusion #LENR #science #electrolysis #palladium #nuclear #nuclearpower

Is Cold Fusion pathological science?

In this episode I’m reviewing the fine line between science, pathological science, and pseudo-science. In most cases the line is not fine at all.  There are, of course, many pseudo-scientific practices that are clearly not based on the principles of honest scientific investigations including things like Creationism, Homeopathy, Astrology, and Flat-Earthism.  Some of these pretend to be scientific, but it is pretty clear in all cases that they exist not because of evidence, but instead are based on faith, profit, or other motives. There are several beliefs or ideas, however, that are not so clear-cut, and actually have some non-biased scientific support, although they are verboten for members of the scientific community.  I have looked at electromagnetic hypersensitivity, for example, in a past episode. I came away unconvinced that EM is causing the health problems of sufferers, but there is something unexplained going on. In this episode I want to explore the scientific community’s response to a couple different radical ideas and ask if it was rational, and what the evidence tells us.
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