SCGI

Pandora's Promise

How do we continue to power modern civilization without destroying it?

Pandora's Promise, a documentary by director Robert Stone, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 19th. It features several of a growing number of environmentalists who are renouncing decades of antinuclear orthodoxy and have come to believe that nuclear power is probably our greatest hope.

Pandora's Promise

The reactor meltdowns in Japan in March 2011 ignited passionate worldwide debate about energy and the future of nuclear power. Pandora's Promise is a feature-length documentary that explores how and why mankind’s most feared and controversial technological discovery is now passionately embraced by many of those who once led the charge against it. The film is anchored around the personal narratives of leading former anti-nuclear activists and pioneering scientists who, in the face of considerable controversy, are directly challenging the anti-nuclear orthodoxy that is a founding tenet of the mainstream environmental movement. Pandora's Promise stars Stewart Brand, Gwyneth Cravens and Mark Lynas. Their stories and ideas are brought to life through a combination of incredible archival footage from 1945 to the present and original filming across the globe.

Operating as history, cultural meditation and contemporary exploration, Pandora's Promise aims to inspire a serious and realistic debate over what is perhaps the most important question of our time: how do we continue to power modern civilization without destroying it?

Pandora’s Promise was three years in the making, filmed on four continents. It may be the most consequential film on the future of our environment since Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. Pandora's Promise is due to be in theaters this summer. Watch for updates on this site.

Robert Stone on Pandora's Promise - an interview with Robert Stone.

Pandora's Promise website

If You Care About the Environment, You Should Support Nuclear Power

By Tim Wu

Nuclear power reactors in Saint-Vulbas, France.
Photo by Jean-Pierre Clatot/AFP

Nuclear power reactors in Saint-Vulbas, France.
Photo by Jean-Pierre Clatot/AFP A good, politically charged documentary often seizes on what the audience already believes and throws fuel on the fire (see, e.g., the work of Michael Moore). A better such documentary tries to convince its audience that what it takes for granted is flat-out wrong. Pandora’s Promise, which premiered at Sundance, does just that. It makes the utterly convincing case that anyone who considers themselves an environmentalist or takes climate change seriously should favor more nuclear power. Read more on Slate

World Energy Forum 2012

The Case for Near-term Commercial Demonstration of the Integral Fast Reactor

Posted on 23 October 2012 by Barry Brook, www.bravenewplanet.com

I’m currently in Dubai at the 2012 World Energy Forum, as part of a delegation from the Science Council for Global Initiatives. Tomorrow (24 Oct) we will run symposium on “New Nuclear”, which will be chaired by Tom Blees and feature talks from Dr Eric Loewen (GE), Dr Alexander Bychkov (IAEA), Dr Evgeny Velikhov (Kurchatov Institute) and me (Dr Barry Brook, University of Adelaide). I will also chair a session later in the afternoon on “Vision for a Sustainable Future”, just before the closing address.

Tom and Nicole Blees of SCGI stand in front of the World Trade Centre in Dubai, during the World Energy Forum, Oct 2012. The sign behind them makes for some interesting reading…

In preparation for this meeting and as a result of a focussed conference at University of California Berkeley in early October, a white paper on the Integral Fast Reactor was prepared by Tom and me, on behalf of SCGI, and has garnered signatories from 8 key countries, including prominent people not attending the Berkeley meeting, such as climatologist Jim Hansen. Click here to read the white paper.

Announcing Successful Match of $10,000 Pledge

We’re delighted to announce that our recent pledge offer to match up to $10,000 in new donations has been successful. We would like to thank not only the generous donor who offered the pledge but also all those who magnanimously contributed to make this effort a success.

Because SCGI is involved in sensitive international nuclear power issues, it is not always possible to share promising developments in this field on our website and newsletter, despite our eagerness to do so. SCGI is active in promoting the development of IFR technology in several countries, and will soon host a conference that will include high-level nuclear scientists and policymakers from nine nations. We look forward to sharing our progress, and always intend to be as transparent as political realities allow. Those who follow SCGI’s efforts can expect to learn of very promising developments in the months and years ahead.

If you’d like to keep abreast of such news, please consider signing up for our newsletter. And again, many thanks for all of you who contribute to our efforts to create a brighter future for all.

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IFR - PRISM Presentation

Environmentalist and author, Mark Lynas gave a presentation this week for students at the World Nuclear University in Oxford, UK. The subject was the IFR and why nuclear is essential for poverty eradication and tackling climate change. A PDF of the presentation is attached.

View the presentation as a PDF

The Power Point file is 3.1MB - you can download it here:

http://www.marklynas.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/PRISM-IFR.ppt

Roads Not Taken

Those who grew up during the years of the Cold War will probably never forget the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, a time when two superpowers came perilously close to unleashing all-out nuclear war. Several of John Kennedy's generals were purportedly advising an attack at least on Cuba, if not on Russia itself. Kruschev was likely receiving similarly bellicose advice from some of his advisors. The fact that these two men took the decision to stand down brought the world back from the precipice.

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