In this episode we dig into the science and politics associated with spent nuclear fuel. The public policy debate around the energy transition is one of the most polarized and critical to the future of our society. The IPCC reports provide an ongoing review of the status of the science on this topic.  IPCC pathways to net zero all include significant nuclear power, yet the public policy debate has not yet caught up. The European Union Joint Research Council has researched green energy sources and has confirmed the scientific consensus—nuclear causes no more environmental harm than any other power source. In my previous episode I answered the question 'What about Fukushima'. 'What about the waste' is the second most common 'gotcha' response that people are conditioned to ask in response to the possibility of expanding nuclear energy.  Listen as I summarize my discussions with several experts on nuclear waste management. You may be surprised at what you hear. Join me at https://www.therationalview.ca Join the Facebook discussion at TheRationalView group Instagram @The_Rational_View Twitter @AlScottRational #TheRationalView #nuclearwaste #nuclearpower #climatechange #greenenergy #netzeroneedsnuclear

Nuclear energy has now been recognized by a UN expert committee as the lowest carbon intensity of any major energy source. Anyone who has been involved in climate advocacy will have heard the common refrain ‘what about Chernobyl and Fukushima?’ We all know about the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.  It caused roughly 100 deaths and thousands of cases of preventable thyroid cancer.  But what about Fukushima Daiichi? In this episode I will summarize my interviews with several nuclear and radiation health experts on the subject. Dr Philip Thomas is a professor of risk management at University of Bristol. Dr. Thomas has extensive experience in the chemical and nuclear industries and is co-author of the NREFS study which developed an objective method of risk assessment in nuclear accidents. Dr. Gerry Thomas is Professor of Molecular Pathology at Imperial College London, and an expert on the molecular biology of thyroid cancer. She established the Chernobyl tissue bank in 1998, and is an author of a number of reviews of the health effects of radiation exposure following nuclear accidents, having contributed to IAEA publications on the Fukushima accident UNSCEAR publications on the Chernobyl accident. Geochemist and Energy scientist Dr. James Conca is Senior Scientist for UFA Ventures, Inc. in the Tri-Cities, Washington, an Adjunct Professor at Washington State University in the School of the Environment, a Trustee of the Herbert M. Parker Foundation, an Affiliate Scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory and a Science Contributor to Forbes on energy and nuclear issues. Join me at https://www.therationalview.ca Come check out my YouTube channel and join our Facebook discussion group. Twitter:@AlScottRational Instagram: @The_Rational_View #therationalview #podcast #fukushima #nuclearenergy #meltdown #greenenergy #cleanenergy #radiation #tsunami #evacuation #cancer

In this episode I'm continuing my exploration of the intersection of science and religion. These represent two seemingly incompatible paths to truth, one of which values skepticism, the other which values faith. I interview a professor of applied nuclear physics who believes that quantum mechanics is not inconsistent with the influence of the supernatural in the universe. Jan Blomgren is CEO and founder of INBEx (Institute of Nuclear Business Excellence), focused on nuclear power leadership. He is also CEO of KraftAkademin, a centre of excellence on nuclear power technology. He has previously been a professor of applied nuclear physics at Uppsala University, nuclear competence strategist at Vattenfall, and Director of the Swedish Nuclear Technology Centre. Join me for a Rational Future at https://www.therationalview.ca Check out my YouTube channel! Twitter: @AlScottRational Instagram: @The_Rational_View #therationalview #podcast #science #religion #quantummechanics #god #faith #skepticism #nuclearphysics #nuclearenergy #theism #anthropicprinciple

In this episode I interview the head of the Vatican Observatory, Brother Guy Consolmagno, SJ, PhD to discuss the intersection of science and religion. I ask him if he sees a conflict between faith and skepticism. You might be surprised at the answer. Brother Guy Consolmagno SJ, is a Jesuit brother, Director of the Vatican Observatory and the President of the Vatican Observatory Foundation whose research studies meteorites and asteroids. He is a native of Detroit, Michigan, received SB and SM degrees from MIT, and earned his PhD in Planetary Sciences from the University of Arizona in 1978. Along with more than 200 scientific publications, he is the author of six popular astronomy books. In 2014 he received the Carl Sagan Medal from the American Astronomical Society Division for Planetary Sciences for excellence in public communication in planetary sciences Watch The Rational View on YouTube! Join the Facebook discussion group and chat with the experts. Twitter @AlScottRational Instagram @The_Rational_View #TheRationalView #podcast #science #religion #faith #skepticism #astronomy #fundamentalism #creationism #literalism #bible

In this episode I summarize my research on the linear-no-threshold model of radiation health effects, replaying key excerpts from my past interviews with leading experts on the topic. These include thyroid cancer expert Professor Geraldine Thomas of Imperial College London, Dr. Edwin Lyman, Director of Nuclear Power Safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists, radiation dosimetry expert Dr. Blake Walters of Canada's National Research Council, and nuclear accident expert Dr. Philip Thomas, Professor of Risk Management at University of Bristol. I hope you learn as much as I have! Join the discussion @TheRationalView Facebook group Check us out on YouTube! Instagram @The_Rational_View Twitter @AlScottRational #TheRationalView #podcast #science #radiation #health #nuclearpower #fukushima #chernobyl #ALARA #Linearnothreshold   

In this episode we’re going to learn about cancer radiotherapy, the use of radiation to treat cancer. So many people are afraid that nuclear radiation causes cancer, and yes this is possible if you receive a sudden megadose of radiation, but it is very difficult to get enough just enough radiation to increase the risk of cancer while not getting too much dose and dying from acute radiation sickness.  In the real world, radiation is used to kill cancer cells and save lives. I’m going to interview one of the world experts in this field of medicine. Dr. Blake Walters received an M.Sc. in Medical Biophysics at the University of Toronto in 1992. He joined the Ionizing Radiation Standards Group at the National Research Council of Canada in 1994. He received a PhD in Medical Physics from Maastricht University, The Netherlands, in 2017. With the NRC, Blake helped to develop new computational techniques to greatly improve the accuracy of cancer radiotherapy. This work helps to spare healthy tissue while maximizing the dose to the tumour. This work has been adopted in radiotherapy clinics around the world, and has become the gold standard for accurate radiotherapy planning. Currently, he continues his work for the NRCC, developing and implementing Monte Carlo techniques to meet the increasingly complex demands of current radiotherapy technologies.  He is also the in-house physicist, specializing in dose calculations for low energy X-rays, for a company that designs and manufactures pre-clinical and clinical irradiators sold around the world. Come check out The Rational View on YouTube! Join our Facebook discussion group Twitter @AlScottRational Instagram @The_Rational_View #TheRationalView #radiationtherapy #cancer #linearnothreshold #nuclear #radiation #health

Nuclear power is a polarizing issue and there is a lot of misinformation that we can debunk through familiarization. A significant fraction of the public, for example, think Nuclear power adds to carbon dioxide pollution. Many more feel that nuclear waste storage is a uniquely dangerous problem. Many more don’t understand that Ontario’s electrical grid is one of the cleanest in the world thanks to nuclear power which produces 60% of our electricity. I wanted to go to the source and understand a bit about the history of CANDU reactors and nuclear power in Ontario. In this episode I am interviewing two key figures from Canadians for Nuclear Energy who bring a wealth of experience on the electrical grid and nuclear energy.   Tom Hess is a retired Independent System Operator with 31 years of experience at Ontario Hydro and its successor company, the Independent Market Operator, which is now the Independent Electric System Operator (IESO). Chris Adlam is an electricity system and power generation enthusiast whose interest stems from a familial history in power generation as his great grandfather Hubert R. Sills was a hydroelectric engineer for General Electric. Hubert worked on some of the largest hydro installs in the world. Chris' interest in nuclear power began around the time of the disastrous Ontario Green Energy Act. Chris is an IT professional who has been working in the healthcare industry for over 15 years. Check out my Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWU2V-SviNZV7mXd6VB0dAA Join the Facebook discussion @TheRationalView Twitter @AlScottRational Instagram @The_Rational_View #TheRationalView #podcast #CANDU #netzeroneedsnuclear #greenenergy #cleanenergy #atomicenergy #nuclearenergy #SavePickering

On this episode I’m interviewing an entrepreneur who is also trying to spread a Rational View by supplanting the AI-driven social media echo chamber with a  new idea. I hope you like it. Farzad Khosravi is the co-founder and CEO at Cicero. Farzad is an entrepreneur looking to build humane, civic-oriented technology that improves our world. He believes that we need to reverse the trend of misinformation and hate we see online if we are to save our society. A scientist at heart and immigrant who grew up in Kentucky, Farzad learned early on the value of skeptical inquiry. Discover podcasts, articles, videos and more from world-leading thinkers at Cicero.ly Subscribe at https://therationalview.podbean.com Join the discussion on Facebook @TheRationalView Instagram @The_Rational_View Twitter @AlScottRational #TheRationalView #podcast #rational #education #TOK #socialmedia

In this episode I’m continuing in a bit of a ‘space science’ theme to interview Professor Emeritus Don Gurnett, the Primary Investigator on the plasma wave instruments onboard both Voyager spacecraft. These amazing nuclear-powered spacecraft were launched in 1977 and are now the most distant manmade objects known, having recently left the solar system on their way into interstellar space.   Prof. Gurnett started his science career by working on spacecraft electronics design as a student employee in The University of Iowa Physics Department in 1959. After completing his B.S. in electrical engineering at Iowa in 1962, he transferred to physics, where he received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in 1963 and 1965. He was appointed Assistant Professor at the University of Iowa in 1965 with subsequent promotions to Associate Professor and to Full Professor in 1968 and 1972. Prof. Gurnett is considered by many to be the founder of the field of space plasma wave physics and has participated in over 30 spacecraft projects, most notably the Voyager 1 and 2 flights to the outer planets, the Galileo mission to Jupiter, and the Cassini mission to Saturn. Prof. Gurnett has received numerous awards for his research spanning two millenia. These include the 1978 John Howard Dellinger Gold Medal from the International Scientific Radio Union, to the 2005 Hannes Alfven Medal from the European Geosciences Union. In 2004 he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.   Subscribe at https://therationalview.podbean.com   Join the Facebook discussion @TheRationalView   Instagram @The_Rational_View   Twitter @AlScottRational   #therationalview #podcast #science #astrophysics #voyager #exploration #space #plasmawaves #physics #nuclearpower #thermoelectric 

This episode wraps up my exciting two-part interview with Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium. We discuss climate change mitigation, public perceptions and misperceptions of nuclear power and society's progress towards decarbonizing the economy. We chat about the imminent launch of the James Webb Space Telescope and justifications for funding of big space astronomy projects. I hope you enjoy it! Subscribe to my podcast at https://therationalview.podbean.com Join the Facebook discussion @TheRationalView Instagram @The_Rational_View Twitter @AlScottRational #therationalview #podcast #science #evidencebased #climatechange #netzeroneedsnuclear #greenenergy #cleanenergy #space #astronomy #neildegrassetyson #nuclearenergy