New possibilities for life at the bottom of Earth's ocean, and perhaps in oceans on other planets

by Karin Valentine, Arizona State University

A chimney structure from the Sea Cliff hydrothermal vent field located more than 8,800 feet

 (2,700 meters) below the sea’s surface at the submarine boundary of the Pacific and 

Gorda tectonic plates. Credit: Ocean Exploration Trust

In the strange, dark world of the ocean floor, underwater fissures, called hydrothermal vents, host complex communities of life. These vents belch scorching hot fluids into extremely cold seawater, creating the chemical forces necessary for the small organisms that inhabit this extreme environment to live.

In a newly published study, biogeoscientists Jeffrey Dick and Everett Shock have determined that specific hydrothermal seafloor environments provide a unique habitat where certain organisms can thrive. In so doing, they have opened up new possibilities for life in the dark at the bottom of oceans on Earth, as well as throughout the solar system. Their results have been published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences.

On land, when organisms get energy out of the food they eat, they do so through a process called cellular respiration, where there is an intake of oxygen and the release of carbon dioxide. Biologically speaking, the molecules in our food are unstable in the presence of oxygen, and it is that instability that is harnessed by our cells to grow and reproduce, a process called biosynthesis.

But for organisms living on the seafloor, the conditions for life are dramatically different.

"On land, in the oxygen-rich atmosphere of Earth, it is familiar to many people that making the molecules of life requires energy," said co-author Shock of Arizona State University's School of Earth and Space Exploration and the School of Molecular Sciences. "In stunning contrast, around hydrothermal vents on the seafloor, hot fluids mix with extremely cold seawater to produce conditions where making the molecules of life releases energy."

In deep-sea microbial ecosystems, organisms thrive near vents where hydrothermal fluid mixes with ambient seawater. Previous research led by Shock found that the biosynthesis of basic cellular building blocks, like amino acids and sugars, is particularly favorable in areas where the vents are composed of ultramafic rock (igneous and meta-igneous rocks with very low silica content), because these rocks produce the most hydrogen.

Besides basic building blocks like amino acids and sugars, cells need to form larger molecules, or polymers, also known as biomacromolecules. Proteins are the most abundant of these molecules in cells, and the polymerization reaction (where small molecules combine to produce a larger biomolecule) itself requires energy in almost all conceivable environments.

"In other words, where there is life, there is water, but water needs to be driven out of the system for polymerization to become favorable," said lead author Dick, who was a postdoctoral scholar at ASU when this research began and who is currently a geochemistry researcher in the School of Geosciences and Info-Physics at Central South University in Changsha, China. "So, there are two opposing energy flows: release of energy by biosynthesis of basic building blocks, and the energy required for polymerization."

What Dick and Shock wanted to know is what happens when you add them up: Do you get proteins whose overall synthesis is actually favorable in the mixing zone?

They approached this problem by using a unique combination of theory and data.

From the theoretical side, they used a thermodynamic model for the proteins, called "group additivity," which accounts for the specific amino acids in protein sequences as well as the polymerization energies. For the data, they used all the protein sequences in an entire genome of a well-studied vent organism called Methanocaldococcus jannaschii.

By running the calculations, they were able to show that the overall synthesis of almost all the proteins in the genome releases energy in the mixing zone of an ultramafic-hosted vent at the temperature where this organism grows the fastest, at around 185 degrees Fahrenheit (85 Celsius). By contrast, in a different vent system that produces less hydrogen (a basalt-hosted system), the synthesis of proteins is not favorable.

"This finding provides a new perspective on not only biochemistry but also ecology because it suggests that certain groups of organisms are inherently more favored in specific hydrothermal environments," Dick said. "Microbial ecology studies have found that methanogens, of which Methanocaldococcus jannaschii is one representative, are more abundant in ultramafic-hosted vent systems than in basalt-hosted systems. The favorable energetics of protein synthesis in ultramafic-hosted systems are consistent with that distribution."

For next steps, Dick and Shock are looking at ways to use these energetic calculations across the tree of life, which they hope will provide a firmer link between geochemistry and genome evolution.

"As we explore, we're reminded time and again that we should never equate where we live as what is habitable to life," Shock said.NASA study reproduces origins of life on ocean floor

More information: Jeffrey M. Dick et al, The Release of Energy During Protein Synthesis at Ultramafic‐Hosted Submarine Hydrothermal Ecosystems, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences (2021). DOI: 10.1029/2021JG006436

Provided by Arizona State University 

Researchers study factors that impact degree of pleasure derived from hugs

Criss-cross hug left and neck-waist hug right. Credit: Acta Psychologica (2021). 

DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2021.103441

A small team of researchers at the University of London has attempted to measure the factors that influence the amount of pleasure a person receives from hugging another person. In their paper published in the journal Acta Psychologica, the group describes two separate experiments they conducted to learn more about the experience of hugging, at least in the U.K.

Common sense suggests that the act of hugging is different in different places, as is the reason for its occurrence. Hugs can be used as a greeting, as a way of expressing intimacy, as a means of consolation and at times as a way to express attraction. In this new effort, in their first experiment, the researchers attempted to measure pleasure levels under very constrained circumstances: Females not known to each other, hugging only female partners in a clinical setting. Also, all of the volunteers were asked to wear blindfolds to prevent them from seeing the person they would be hugging. The experiment consisted of asking 48 female volunteers to hug a female researcher. Due to the blindfolds, the type of hug was in the control of the researcher and consisted of either a criss-cross hug or a neck-waist hug. Afterward, each of the volunteers was asked to rate their level of pleasure regarding the hug.

In looking at their data, the researchers found that the only factor that appeared to influence pleasure levels from hugging was how long it lasted. The volunteers in general did not care for short hugs. They preferred them to be at least five or ten seconds long.

In the second experiment, the researchers walked around the University of London campus asking paired people they encountered to hug one another. In some cases, the pairs were same gender; in others they were opposite-gender. Each of the people in the pairs was then asked about their degree of pleasure from the hug. As with the first experiment, the respondents responded most favorably to longer hugs, as opposed to shorter hugs. They also found little difference in pleasure between pairs who hugged criss-cross versus hip-waist, except for when the hug was between two males. In that case, most preferred criss-cross.Heart rate synchronization and palm sweat found to be signs of attraction

More information: Anna L. Dueren et al, The influence of duration, arm crossing style, gender, and emotional closeness on hugging behaviour, Acta Psychologica (2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2021.103441

© 2021 Science X Network

 

Preserved baby Neanderthal milk tooth shows earlier emergence than in humans

Figure 1. Prenatal enamel extension rates. (A) K21 maxillary deciduous central incisor, mesial view. Rectangle highlights region of interest imaged through SRµCT. (B) Buccal-lingual virtual histological section. Scale bar is 200 microns. Isotropic voxel size = 3.0 μm, δ/β=20, reformatted slice thickness=15 μm. Yellow dot indicates EDJ 44 days before birth. Blue arrow points to neonatal line. Back arrow points to the location that the neonatal line intersects with the EDJ at birth. (C) Yellow dot represents average rate new ameloblasts were recruited along the EDJ over a period of 44 days leading up to birth. Mean values for modern comparative samples (Australian n=29; Medieval British n=13) represented by black diamond, with line showing min and max values. See electronic supplementary material, Supplementary Table S2. (D) K183 maxillary deciduous first molar, mesial view. Rectangle highlights region of interest imaged through SRµCT. (E) Buccal-lingual virtual histological section. Scale bar is 200 microns, isotropic voxel size = 3.0 μm, δ/β=20, reformatted slice thickness=15 μm. Rates calculated for starting points commencing 200, 500, 1000 and 1500 µm away from the dentin horn, represented by yellow dots. (F) Yellow dots represent extension rate for K183 compared to upper deciduous first molar extension rates for modern comparative sample (Canadian n=7). Black diamond represents human mean with line illustrating max and min values. See electronic supplementary material, Supplementary Table S3. Credit: DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2021.2079

An international team of researchers studying a recovered Neanderthal milk tooth has found evidence of baby teeth growing faster and emerging earlier in the extinct human species than in modern humans. In their paper published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the group describes their study.

In modern humans, deciduous teeth, also known as baby teeth, or milk teeth, generally emerge from the gums around seven to 10 months of age. They remain in place for approximately six years, when they are replaced by succedaneous or permanent dentition. Prior research has shown that the enamel that covers milk teeth has neonatal lines that mark the point where enamel was produced before and after a baby is born. Prior research has also shown that enamel grows on teeth in a daily cycle, which gives them cross-striations. The amount of tooth growth in a single day can be seen in the distance between the stripes. In this new effort, the researchers used this information as they studied a Neanderthal milk tooth from a child who lived approximately 120,000 near what is now the city of Krapina in Croatia.

In studying the milk tooth, the researchers were able to plot out how quickly the tooth had grown in the child and the time in its life when it emerged from the gum—sometime between four and seven months of age. This finding suggests teeth began emerging from gums in Neanderthal children several months earlier than they do in modern humans. Thus, Neanderthal children likely began eating solid food sooner than is the case with modern human children. The researchers confirmed their results by comparing what they had found with another Neanderthal preserved jawbone that had three intact teeth. The researchers suggest that Neanderthals may have needed to begin eating a more diverse array of foods earlier in life than modern humans, because they would have needed more energy to nourish their large brains. Prior research has suggested they were larger than the brains of modern humans.Closer look shows Neanderthals on La Cotte de St Brelade interbred with modern humans

More information: Patrick Mahoney et al, Growth of Neanderthal infants from Krapina (120–130 ka), Croatia, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2021). DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2021.2079

Journal information: Proceedings of the Royal Society B 

© 2021 Science X Network

Albatross divorce rates found to climb during times of warm sea surface temperature

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

A team of researchers from Universidade de Lisboa, the University of Montana, the South Atlantic Environmental Research Institute and Instituto Universitário, Rua Jardim do Tabaco, has found that black-browed albatrosses living on the Falkland Islands see rising divorce rates during times when the sea surface temperatures rise. In their paper published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the group outlines their analysis of data collected by wildlife researchers on the islands over a 15-year period.

The albatross, known as a long-distance flyer, is also well known for monogamous relationships. Pairs of the birds "date" for several years in their younger years before eventually finding a lifelong mates. Once pairs are formed, the relationship can last for several decades. Prior research has shown that divorce rates for the birds are quite low, typically ranging from 1 to 8 percent. Prior research has also found that the main reason for divorce is problems raising young—eggs fail to hatch; hatchlings die or are eaten by predators. In this new effort, the researchers found evidence that suggests harsh conditions can also lead to divorce, particularly if they impact reproductive efforts.

The researchers looked at data collected over the years 2004 and 2019 describing aspects of the birds living on the Falkland Islands, focusing most specifically on paired relationships. They then compared data from weather observation and environmental condition monitoring. In so doing, they found a relationship between higher divorce rates in the birds and periods when sea surface temperatures rose. Prior research has shown that during such times, upper warm water does not mix as well with lower cooler water. This leads to fewer nutrients making their way to the surface, where the birds can reach them. The result is increased hunger, which, the researchers note, can impact egg production. They also point out that hunger could lead to one or the other partner abandoning an egg or hatchling—events that could lead to one of the birds ditching the other. And once that happens, the split tends to be permanent. Divorced birds generally search for a new partner.

The researchers note that their findings could spell trouble for the albatross as the planet continues to warm, increasing the stress on pair bonding.Nothing funny about bad year for Maine's clownish puffins

More information: Francesco Ventura et al, Environmental variability directly affects the prevalence of divorce in monogamous albatrosses, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2021). DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2021.2112

Journal information: Proceedings of the Royal Society B 

© 2021 Science X Network

 

Pesticide found to reduce fertility in blue orchard bee

A blue orchard bee in 2019. Credit: Jim Rivers, OSU College of Forestry, Oregon State

 University/Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 2.0

A pair of researchers at the University of California, Davis has found that the neonicotinoid pesticide imidacloprid can reduce fertility rates in the blue orchard bee. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes testing the response of the valuable pollinator to the presence of imidacloprid.

Prior research has shown that imidacloprid, a neonicotinoid pesticide, is harmful to bees of all types. But as the researchers with this new effort note, little work has been done to determine if the chemical has a generational impact on bees. In this new effort, the team sought to discover if the pesticide harms not just the bees that are impacted by its application, but also their offspring.

To that end, they captured a large number of blue orchard bees, a type that is similar to the honeybee but has different coloring and collects pollen on its belly instead of its legs. It is important to farmers who grow tree-bearing crops, such as almonds, peaches apples and cherries. The captured bees were separated into small groups, each of which were exposed to imidacloprid in different ways. The researchers applied the pesticide to the plants inside the enclosure per the instructions. Some of the plants received multiple doses and some just one. Also, some of the bees were exposed to the chemical while still larvae, others while they were young and others while they were mature. And others yet were exposed more than once during different stages of their life cycle.

The researchers found that bee larvae exposed to the chemical produced 20% fewer offspring after they became adults. They also found that multiple exposures led to even fewer offspring. Those that were exposed as larvae, for example, and were then exposed again as adults had 44% fewer offspring, which, the researchers note, represents approximately 10 fewer offspring out of a normal group of 24.

The findings show that use of imidacloprid on agricultural crops (which is banned in Europe but not the U.S.) can lead to dramatic reductions in bee populations due to reductions in fertility rates.Pesticides and food scarcity dramatically reduce wild bee population

More information: Clara Stuligross et al, Past insecticide exposure reduces bee reproduction and population growth rate, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2021). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2109909118

Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 

© 2021 Science X Network

Edmonton needs a shelter for homeless families, outreach worker says

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Province says local agencies focus on finding families

 housing

Madeleine Cummings · CBC News · Posted: Nov 23, 2021 

Calgary's Inn from the Cold shelter supports families experiencing homelessness or at risk of becoming homeless. (Monty Kruger/CBC)

An outreach worker who supports Edmontonians experiencing homelessness says some of the provincial government's new funding for shelters this winter should go toward establishing one for homeless families.

Judith Gale, who founded the Edmonton/Beaver Hills House Bear Clan Patrol chapter, said family homelessness is a disheartening reality that has become more common.

"Landlords are not being very patient with our brothers and sisters, and we've seen whole families — three generations in one tent — in tents because they don't want to be separated," she said.

Gale said she raised the city's lack of family shelters with Premier Jason Kenney at the funding announcement outside the Hope Mission's Herb Jamieson Centre last week. 

She said the premier thanked her for putting the issue on his radar.

Gale is calling for an apartment-style shelter where families could stay temporarily and access a range of services.

Edmonton families contact Calgary shelters

Calgary has two family shelters — and both field calls from Edmonton families seeking emergency housing.

Brenda's House, a family shelter in southwest Calgary run by the Children's Cottage Society, receives occasional calls from Edmonton, a communications coordinator confirmed. 

Heather Morley, executive director of Inn from the Cold, says families travel from Edmonton — and even from neighbouring provinces — to visit its family shelter in downtown Calgary.

She said demand for shelter and services has spiked during the pandemic.

Hidden homelessness

Inn from the Cold tries to prevent families from becoming homeless and keep children out of shelters, but Morley said family shelters play an important role in helping some Albertans secure a stable environment for their children.

"About 15 per cent of the families we see are single dads," she said. "A women's shelter isn't going to be an appropriate place for a single dad to go with his children."

She said the lack of family shelters is a national problem.

Family homelessness can be difficult to understand and measure because it often involves "hidden homelessness," she said. People experiencing hidden homelessness are not reflected in municipal statistics because instead of showing up at a shelter, they find temporary places to stay, like a friend's house.

Gale said the families she meets choose to stay in tents or crash with friends because they do not want to split up and attend multiple gender-segregated shelters or put children in chaotic environments.

Gale, who is a Sixties Scoop survivor, pointed out that Canada splitting up Indigenous families by forcing children to attend residential schools is an underlying cause of homelessness.

"That's what got us here in the first place," she said.

Pilot failed to start

Twenty years ago, agencies and advocates tried to open a family shelter in the city.

The Kings Community Society set a goal of raising $3.5 million to turn a rundown downtown commercial building into a transitional family shelter pilot, but it never came to fruition. 

Laurie LaFleur, an Edmonton pastor who was involved in the initiative, told CBC News the group applied for funding from several sources, but failed to raise enough money.

Getting families housed is priority: province

Justin Marshall, press secretary to Community and Social Services Minister Jason Luan, said there are no plans to fund a family shelter in Edmonton.

"That's because getting families directly into housing has always been the focus by our local providers," he said.

Marshall said the province helps families through the income support program. An emergency needs allowance covers the cost of temporary accommodation, food, child care, damage deposits and other costs.

He said Homeward Trust receives provincial funding to help Edmonton agencies find families housing and run eviction-prevention programs.

Marshall said families needing emergency accommodation should contact Alberta Supports at 1-877-644-9992.

F35 BILLION DOLLAR BOONDOGGLE

Ottawa declines Boeing's bid to replace Canada's aging fighter jet fleet

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U.S. defence giant Lockheed Martin and Swedish firm Saab

 still in contention for contract

The Canadian Press · Posted: Nov 25, 2021 

The McDonnell Douglas CF-18 Hornet has been the Royal Canadian Air Force's primary fighter jet since 1983. (NORAD/Twitter)

Boeing has been told that its bid to replace Canada's aging CF-18s with a new fleet of the American company's Super Hornet fighter jets did not meet the federal government's requirements.

Three sources from industry and government say the message was delivered Wednesday as the other two companies competing for the $19 billion contract — U.S. defence giant Lockheed Martin and Swedish firm Saab — were told they met the government's requirements.

The three sources were all granted anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss these matters publicly.

The Department of National Defence and Public Services and Procurement Canada, which is managing the competition on behalf of the federal government, did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday.

Companies had been ordered to show their fighter jet was able to meet the military's requirements for missions at home and abroad, but also that winning the contract would result in substantial economic benefits to Canada.

But while Boeing's failure to meet the requirements would appear to disqualify the Super Hornet from the competition — leaving only Lockheed Martin's F-35 and Saab's Gripen fighter jet in the running — none of the companies have been told whether they are still in or out.

A Boeing spokesperson said the company would reserve comment pending official notification from the government.

News that one of the two U.S. companies competing for the contract failed to meet one or more of the requirements is the latest twist in what has already been a long and often unpredictable road toward replacing Canada's CF-18s.

Many observers had seen the Super Hornet and F-35 as the only real competition because of Canada's close relationship with the United States, which includes using fighter jets together to defend North American aerospace on a daily basis.

Those perceptions were only amplified after two other European companies dropped out of the competition before it even started, complaining that the government's requirements had stacked the deck in favour of their U.S. rivals.

Sweden is not a member of NATO or the joint Canadian-American defence command known as NORAD, which is responsible for protecting the continent from foreign threats. That had prompted questions about the Gripen's compatibility with U.S. aircraft.

Defence analyst David Perry of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute said that while Boeing's failure to meet the government's requirements is surprising, it could also boost the government's assertion that it is running a fair and unbiased competition to replace the CF-18s.

"It indicates it was genuinely a competitive procurement, which Canada had put an awful lot of effort into ensuring was the case," he said.

"There was a lot of speculation about whether a non-American fighter could actually be a real contender, given Canada's requirements for interoperability with the United States. If they're still in the mix, Saab has obviously met that mark."

• Federal government to spend hundreds of millions more to keep CF-18s fighting fit

• Most of the used fighter jets bought by Canada are still not in service, MPs hear

But Jeff Collins, an expert on military procurement at the University of Prince Edward Island, said there remain longstanding concerns in some corners that the entire competition has been set up from the beginning to select the F-35.

Choosing a different fighter, he added, would represent a major break from Canada's closest allies, the majority of which are buying the F-35.

Lockheed Martin F-35 seen as leading contender

Canada first joined the U.S. and other allies as a partner in developing the F-35 in 1997 and has since paid US$613 million to stay at the table. Partners get a discount when purchasing the jets and compete for billions of dollars in contracts associated with building and maintaining them.

Stephen Harper's Conservative government committed to buying 65 F-35s without a competition in 2010, before concerns about the stealth fighter's cost and capabilities forced it back to the drawing board.

The Liberals promised in 2015 not to buy the F-35, but to instead launch an open competition to replace the CF-18s. They later planned to buy 18 Super Hornets without a competition as an "interim" measure to ensure Canada had enough aircraft until permanent replacements could be purchased.

Some at the time questioned that plan, suggesting the Liberals were trying to find a way to lock Canada into the Super Hornet without opening itself up to a legal challenge from Lockheed Martin or any other jet makers.

U.S. Navy crewmembers launch a Super Hornet from the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea. (U.S. Navy/Associated Press)

But the government cancelled the plan after Boeing launched a trade dispute with Montreal aerospace firm Bombardier over the latter's C-Series planes. It later introduced a penalty on firms seeking a federal contract which have launched trade disputes with Canada.

Collins questioned whether the so-called "Boeing clause" played any part in the fighter jet competition — though officials have said it was not a factor as the dispute was resolved in Bombardier's favour in 2018.

Meanwhile, the government has been forced to invest hundreds of millions of additional dollars into the CF-18 fleet to keep it flying until a replacement can be delivered. The government has said it plans to name a winner in the coming months, with the first plane set to be delivered in 2025.

The last plane isn't scheduled to arrive until 2032 — at which point the CF-18s will have been around for 50 years.

Why Did Nuclear Power Fail The First Time Around?

By Leonard Hyman & William Tilles - Nov 23, 2021

• COP26 and other efforts to fight climate change have put nuclear power back in the spotlight for many governments and institutions 
• Nuclear energy failed to gain a significant portion of the energy mix when it first broke onto the scene due to a failure in the industry to take a holistic approach 
• This time around, it seems the industry is eager to deal with not only cost but also economic, social, and environmental issues

Now that the Glasgow conference and some mighty public relations work have put nuclear energy back in the spotlight, maybe it is worth examining why nuclear dismally failed to meet expectations, which might tell us why the nuclear advocates (some of them, anyway) are moving in new directions at long last, after clinging for decades to a model that did not work. First, let’s understand that most nuclear power plants work in the sense that they produce electricity, and they have been working far better than in the past. The problems, largely, lie in how nuclear fits into the picture economically and societally. The historian Thomas Hughes chose to define a technology not just as the machinery and software (technical) but as an entire system composed of technical, economic, safety, and other components all working toward a common goal. In this case, the engineers who decided to enlarge a nuclear submarine engine into something bigger, and those who jumped on the opportunity, missed a lot of the picture.

First, there was construction cost. The builders figured that putting up a nuke was like putting up a coal-fired plant, only bigger. They were wrong. A nuclear station was a giant project and, like other giant projects that had too many teams and bosses, was too big to finance easily, was oversized for the market, and had to be planned and started far before the time when the market for the output would be evident. Cost overruns were almost inevitable. To make matters worse, most builders decided to put up custom projects (the French did not) so they never gained the advantage of experience or savings from replication. What’s more, with a nuclear plant, you could not stop halfway along when you discovered you only needed half the output. It was all or nothing. This is why there is so much interest in smaller, factory-made, modular units, that repeat the design from place to place and that might go up relatively fast. That process reduces the risk and makes it easier to stop when necessary. 

Second, there is the issue of safety. One might make comparisons of all deaths and injuries attributable to nuclear operations and deaths and injuries in coal mines or oil rigs, and conclude that nuclear is safer. But nuclear accidents, while rare, can be spectacularly devastating, forcing evacuations of thousands of people and endangering the viability of the plant owner as well. The usual risk analysis concentrates on the likelihood of the event, not how bad an extremely unlikely event could be. The public looks at the worst case. As a result, a significant portion of the public is wary of nuclear. The government has to insure against disaster.

Related: OPEC+ Vows To Respond If Countries Tap Their Oil Reserves

And, third, there is the problem of nuclear waste. Whether the waste is sitting above ground in “temporary” storage, or below in rock vaults, the public worries about terror attacks above ground or leaks into underground water supplies. Again, likelihood matters little. The people of Las Vegas did not want a nuclear waste storage facility nearby. The facility is still there, but not operating. Some of the newer nuclear plant designs either do not solve the storage issue or substitute another problem, a byproduct that could be diverted to weapons. We expect the new nuke builders to ignore or fudge the waste issue because they have no control over it. But they will deal with local opposition to nuclear by putting facilities on existing sites. The locals know the issues, have accepted the risks in return for good jobs and high tax payments. Existing nuclear plant sites are extraordinarily valuable, then.

Finally, the builders did not realize that nuclear power, with all the risks attached and the vast scale of the projects, was not appropriate for commercial entities. It was a government project from beginning to end. Commercial entities might run the plants, build them under contract, sell the output, but they could not afford to undertake nuclear risk. We expect that governments will take a more active role, this time around, rather than wait to bail out the builders afterward. We would be surprised if these confident purveyors of the new nuclear act without some sort of government aid. That is another lesson. 

In short, boosters for a new nuclear age plan substantial improvements over the old nuclear age but still have not shown how to make society more welcoming of nuclear or how to make nuclear self-sufficient. Then again, in light of the climate emergency, maybe we should just welcome any improvement in nuclear and go for it.

By Leonard Hyman and William Tilles for Oilprice.com