Hybrid Baseload Nuclear Power for Variable Electricity and Fuels

The world faces two energy challenges. The first is the release of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels, with the potential for large changes in climate and in the acidity of water and soil. This threatens food supplies, because as climate changes, agriculture must move to less productive soils. Also, humanity’s infrastructure -- designed for specific climate and sea-level conditions -- would have to be rebuilt.

The second challenge is dependence on Persian Gulf oil and gas. The four largest oil companies are the national firms of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Iraq, with their respective combined oil and gas reserves of 320, 300, 180, and 140 billion barrels (gas reserves are included here in barrels-of-oilequivalent, in terms of energy content). For comparison, ExxonMobil, the largest Western oil company, has reserves of 15 billion equivalent barrels of oil. Oil prices arise from political decisions, and oil dependence can be a cause of war.