Richard Martin (12) (1958–)
Author of SuperFuel: Thorium, the Green Energy Source for the Future (MacSci)
For other authors named Richard Martin, see the disambiguation page.
About the Author
Richard Martin is an award-winning science writer whose work has appeared in Wired, Time, Fortune, The Atlantic, and The Best Science Writing of 2004. He is the editorial director of Navigant Research, a leading clean energy firm. He lives in Boulder, Colorado.
Works by Richard Martin
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1958
- Gender
- male
- Education
- Yale University
University of Hong Kong - Occupations
- journalist
- Short biography
- [from Amazon website]
Award-winning science and technology journalist Richard Martin has been covering the energy landscape for nearly two decades. A contributing editor for Wired since 2001, he has written about energy, technology, and international affairs for Time, Fortune, The Atlantic, the Asian Wall Street Journal, and many other publications. He is the former technology producer for ABCNews.com (1997-2000), the technology editor for The Industry Standard (2000-2001), and editor-at-large for Information Week (2005-2008), and since 2011 he has been the editorial director for Pike Research, the leading clean energy research and analysis firm. His work was selected for Best Science Writing of 2004, and his honors include an “Excellence in Feature Writing" award, from the Society for Professional Journalists, for a Seattle Weekly investigative report on Boeing's ties to China.
Martin's writing on the future of energy has taken him around the world. In 1997 he spent three months in Aerbaijan and Kazakhstan, as one of the first Western journalists to report on the last great oil rush of the 20th century, the Caspian Sea oil boom. In Canada's northern Saskatchewan province, Martin descended 600 feet underground for a rare close-up of the world's richest uranium mine. He has travelled across Alaska's forbidding North Slope to report on new horizontal drilling techniques for extracting oil from under the permafrost near the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. And he spent weeks investigating the strange phenomenon of “super-rust” inside oil tankers, for a Wired feature. In early 2012, reprising a reporting trip he made in the late 1980s, he drove the Gulf Coast to report on America's new petroleum export surge for a cover story for Fortune. Martin's December, 2009 Wired story on thorium catalyzed the thorium power revival.
Educated at Yale and the University of Hong Kong, Richard Martin lives in Boulder, Colorado with his wife and son. - Places of residence
- Boulder, Colorado, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- Colorado, USA
Members
Reviews
Richard Martin states right at the start of his book "Coal Wars" his belief that the decline of the coal industry is irreversible. But the industry is not going down without a fight. Even though Martin believes coal needs to go, he has written a balanced overview of the state of the industry. He clearly outlines the pros and cons of coal and the arguments for why we need to continue its use as a source of energy and why it is imperative we find substitutes. He takes the reader on a tour of show more the key coal producing regions of the world. He reports on his interviews with scientists, environmentalists, industry moguls, coal workers, community activists, and residents of coal towns. More than simply providing the facts about the coal industry and its impact economically and environmentally, Martin tells the human story of coal. He takes the reader into the trenches of the coal wars to understand what is at stake for those who are in the fight. Martin has no doubt the coal industry is dying. What is in question is whether its death will come in time to save the life of the planet. A worthwhile read for anyone concerned about how we source our energy, which should be all of us. show less
What would we do if we could find a fuel that was abundant, clean, and safe? Unfortunately it seems we would shun its use for decades, largely so we could build nuclear submarines and increase our stockpile of nuclear weapons. The silvery-white metal thorium is number 90 on the periodic table of elements, two positions from its more famous cousin uranium. Of all the known energy sources on Earth, thorium is the most abundant, most readily available, cleanest, and safest element. Richard show more Martin tells the intriguing story of how thorium has been discounted as a nuclear fuel in favor of uranium and how it can become a green energy source for the future.
After President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered his “Atoms for Peace” speech to the UN General Assembly on December 8, 1953, the United States launched the “Atoms for Peace” program intended to educate the American Public to the risks and opportunities of a nuclear future. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory, originally established to produce plutonium for the first nuclear bomb, turned its attention to peaceful uses of atomic energy. Oak Ridge research on a thorium-based liquid core nuclear power plant, useful for generating electric power, is described in an obscure 945-page long engineering book published in 1958.
Thorium is about four times as abundant as uranium; the United States has about 440,000 tons of thorium reserves. Used properly, thorium is much safer and far cleaner than uranium. Thorium decays so slowly it can almost be considered stable; it’s not fissile (able to sustain a nuclear chain reaction on its own), but it is fertile, meaning that it can be converted into a fissile isotope of uranium, U-233. The thorium fuel cycle results in a smaller amount of nuclear waste and less hazardous waste than do today’s uranium-fueled reactors. Liquid fluoride thorium reactors (LFTRs) can act as breeders, producing as much fuel as they consume. Because a LFTR is inherently stable and the liquid fuels can be readily drained from the reactor core, a meltdown is physically impossible.
Martin summarizes: “Thorium could provide a clean and effectively limitless source of power while allaying all public concerns—weapons proliferation, radioactive pollution, toxic waste, and fuel that is both costly and complicated to process.”
The story unfolds in these chapters:
+ The Lost Book of Thorium Power—describing recent attention to the original thorium reactor work of the Oak Ridge Lab,
+ The Thunder Element—describing thorium’s various characteristics,
+ The Only Safe Reactor—detailing the operation, dangers, use, and costs of various reactor design options,
+ Rickover and Weinberg—describing the tension between atoms for war and atoms for peace that resulted in the development of nuclear submarines and nuclear weapons. First as research director and then as overall director of the Oak Ridge labs, Alvin Weinberg advocated development of a molten salt reactor fueled by thorium. Admiral Hyman Rickover favored conventional solid-core uranium-based light water reactors, which as a by-product produced plutonium that can be refined for nuclear weapons. Martin laments: “Uranium’s victory was a triumph of military uses of science and technology over humanistic ones, of the Pentagon over the scientific community, bureaucracy over individual initiative, technological stasis over inspiration and innovation.”
+ The Birth of Nuclear power—The nuclear submarine Nautilus was launched in 1954. In less than a decade Rickover built and launched ten nuclear subs, carrying the nuclear showdown to the most remote waters of the world. Yet the design for a Molten Salt Reactor fueled by thorium has remained dormant since 1959. The nuclear power industry would base their designs on the uranium-fueled reactors developed to power nuclear submarines and produce plutonium.
+ The End of Nuclear Power— Funding cuts to the Oak Ridge laboratory in 1957 eventually ended their promising research and experimentation with thorium-fueled reactors. The dangers of uranium-fueled reactors went on to make international headlines. The Three Mile Island accident was a partial meltdown which occurred on March 28, 1979. On April 26, 1986 an explosion and fire at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power plant released large quantities of radioactive particles into the atmosphere which then spread over much of western USSR and Europe. The Fukushima Nuclear Power plant, damaged by an earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, lost coolant, melted down, and released radioactive materials. The plant is not yet secured. No reactor ordered after 1973 was ever brought into operation the US.
+ The Asian Nuclear Power Race—India is the only country in the world with a detailed, funded, government-approved plan to base its nuclear power industry on thorium-fueled reactors. India plans to build as many as 62 (needlessly complex) nuclear reactors by 2025, and most of those reactors will be running on thorium. At a Shanghai scientific conference in February 2011 China officially announced that it will begin a program to develop a thorium-fueled molten salt reactor. The People’s Republic of China plans to develop and control intellectual property with regard to thorium for its own benefit.
Thorium ore is a byproduct of mining rare earth elements. Supplies of this ore are accumulating in China which now controls 97 percent of the rare earth market. In the United States the thorium ore must be disposed of as toxic waste.
+ Nuclear’ s Next Generation—The Generation IV International Forum is a collaboration of a dozen governments studying and recommending designs for advanced nuclear reactors. One of the six designs they are now considering is a thorium-fueled molten salt reactor.
+ The Business Crusade—Several business ventures around the world recognize the potential of thorium-based reactors. These ventures require funding approaching billions of dollars and time frames of many years, and they are often hampered by government regulations. Viable developments will probably require government partnering with private industry to sustain the substantial long-term effort required.
+ What We Must Do—Public perception of Nuclear energy options must shift, the public must perceive an accurate and objective assessment of the relative safety of nuclear energy when compared to alternatives, limited government support is necessary, and the transformation must draw on the competitive advantages of the United States. Government subsidies need to be shifted from supporting fossil fuels to supporting thorium LFTR development.
Martin is no Pollyanna, and he recognizes that thorium is no panacea. He does describe objections to the use of thorium. These include market barriers, difficulties with waste management and nuclear proliferation, and the traditionalist argument that “if it is so good it would already be in use”.
Martin is a science journalist and good storyteller. The book is written at an intermediate technical level. If you stayed awake during high school chemistry class you will be able to follow the technical details. In any case you will enjoy the many stories of misfortune, short sightedness, and folly that have conspired to prevent thorium from being used as a clean, safe, reliable, and abundant fuel.
A total energy solution will prevent global warming, reduce toxic waste and pollution, reduce energy costs, preserve our wilderness areas, increase safety, and disentangle our economy and foreign policy from oil. Perhaps thorium can become an important part of that energy solution. I am writing to my congressman and senators to ask their support for thorium-based energy solutions. I encourage you to do the same. show less
After President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered his “Atoms for Peace” speech to the UN General Assembly on December 8, 1953, the United States launched the “Atoms for Peace” program intended to educate the American Public to the risks and opportunities of a nuclear future. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory, originally established to produce plutonium for the first nuclear bomb, turned its attention to peaceful uses of atomic energy. Oak Ridge research on a thorium-based liquid core nuclear power plant, useful for generating electric power, is described in an obscure 945-page long engineering book published in 1958.
Thorium is about four times as abundant as uranium; the United States has about 440,000 tons of thorium reserves. Used properly, thorium is much safer and far cleaner than uranium. Thorium decays so slowly it can almost be considered stable; it’s not fissile (able to sustain a nuclear chain reaction on its own), but it is fertile, meaning that it can be converted into a fissile isotope of uranium, U-233. The thorium fuel cycle results in a smaller amount of nuclear waste and less hazardous waste than do today’s uranium-fueled reactors. Liquid fluoride thorium reactors (LFTRs) can act as breeders, producing as much fuel as they consume. Because a LFTR is inherently stable and the liquid fuels can be readily drained from the reactor core, a meltdown is physically impossible.
Martin summarizes: “Thorium could provide a clean and effectively limitless source of power while allaying all public concerns—weapons proliferation, radioactive pollution, toxic waste, and fuel that is both costly and complicated to process.”
The story unfolds in these chapters:
+ The Lost Book of Thorium Power—describing recent attention to the original thorium reactor work of the Oak Ridge Lab,
+ The Thunder Element—describing thorium’s various characteristics,
+ The Only Safe Reactor—detailing the operation, dangers, use, and costs of various reactor design options,
+ Rickover and Weinberg—describing the tension between atoms for war and atoms for peace that resulted in the development of nuclear submarines and nuclear weapons. First as research director and then as overall director of the Oak Ridge labs, Alvin Weinberg advocated development of a molten salt reactor fueled by thorium. Admiral Hyman Rickover favored conventional solid-core uranium-based light water reactors, which as a by-product produced plutonium that can be refined for nuclear weapons. Martin laments: “Uranium’s victory was a triumph of military uses of science and technology over humanistic ones, of the Pentagon over the scientific community, bureaucracy over individual initiative, technological stasis over inspiration and innovation.”
+ The Birth of Nuclear power—The nuclear submarine Nautilus was launched in 1954. In less than a decade Rickover built and launched ten nuclear subs, carrying the nuclear showdown to the most remote waters of the world. Yet the design for a Molten Salt Reactor fueled by thorium has remained dormant since 1959. The nuclear power industry would base their designs on the uranium-fueled reactors developed to power nuclear submarines and produce plutonium.
+ The End of Nuclear Power— Funding cuts to the Oak Ridge laboratory in 1957 eventually ended their promising research and experimentation with thorium-fueled reactors. The dangers of uranium-fueled reactors went on to make international headlines. The Three Mile Island accident was a partial meltdown which occurred on March 28, 1979. On April 26, 1986 an explosion and fire at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power plant released large quantities of radioactive particles into the atmosphere which then spread over much of western USSR and Europe. The Fukushima Nuclear Power plant, damaged by an earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, lost coolant, melted down, and released radioactive materials. The plant is not yet secured. No reactor ordered after 1973 was ever brought into operation the US.
+ The Asian Nuclear Power Race—India is the only country in the world with a detailed, funded, government-approved plan to base its nuclear power industry on thorium-fueled reactors. India plans to build as many as 62 (needlessly complex) nuclear reactors by 2025, and most of those reactors will be running on thorium. At a Shanghai scientific conference in February 2011 China officially announced that it will begin a program to develop a thorium-fueled molten salt reactor. The People’s Republic of China plans to develop and control intellectual property with regard to thorium for its own benefit.
Thorium ore is a byproduct of mining rare earth elements. Supplies of this ore are accumulating in China which now controls 97 percent of the rare earth market. In the United States the thorium ore must be disposed of as toxic waste.
+ Nuclear’ s Next Generation—The Generation IV International Forum is a collaboration of a dozen governments studying and recommending designs for advanced nuclear reactors. One of the six designs they are now considering is a thorium-fueled molten salt reactor.
+ The Business Crusade—Several business ventures around the world recognize the potential of thorium-based reactors. These ventures require funding approaching billions of dollars and time frames of many years, and they are often hampered by government regulations. Viable developments will probably require government partnering with private industry to sustain the substantial long-term effort required.
+ What We Must Do—Public perception of Nuclear energy options must shift, the public must perceive an accurate and objective assessment of the relative safety of nuclear energy when compared to alternatives, limited government support is necessary, and the transformation must draw on the competitive advantages of the United States. Government subsidies need to be shifted from supporting fossil fuels to supporting thorium LFTR development.
Martin is no Pollyanna, and he recognizes that thorium is no panacea. He does describe objections to the use of thorium. These include market barriers, difficulties with waste management and nuclear proliferation, and the traditionalist argument that “if it is so good it would already be in use”.
Martin is a science journalist and good storyteller. The book is written at an intermediate technical level. If you stayed awake during high school chemistry class you will be able to follow the technical details. In any case you will enjoy the many stories of misfortune, short sightedness, and folly that have conspired to prevent thorium from being used as a clean, safe, reliable, and abundant fuel.
A total energy solution will prevent global warming, reduce toxic waste and pollution, reduce energy costs, preserve our wilderness areas, increase safety, and disentangle our economy and foreign policy from oil. Perhaps thorium can become an important part of that energy solution. I am writing to my congressman and senators to ask their support for thorium-based energy solutions. I encourage you to do the same. show less
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
It's painfully obvious that we need more sources of energy that don't involve fossil fuels. Nuclear power certainly qualifies, but comes with some fairly obvious drawbacks. According to Richard Martin, however, those drawbacks don't need to be anywhere near as bad as they are currently are: nuclear plants that use thorium fuel, with the right reactor design, have the potential to be more efficient and much safer than the current uranium-based models, while generating much less toxic waste show more and, effectively, no by-products that can be used in bombs. And the only reasons that we aren't already using them, it seems, have much less to do with technological limitations than with historical accident and plain old inertia.
This is, I think, a subject well worth considering. Yes, there are reasons why nuclear power is an unpopular idea, but with the world's energy situation being what it is, I don't believe we should allow knee-jerk impulses to cause us reject any possibilities out of hand. Most likely there is a place for nuclear power in the future. If that's true, and if Martin's analysis here is anywhere remotely near accurate, thorium really does seem like the way to go. So it's good to have a book like this, agitating for government and industry to take a second look at the possibilities inherent in this technology. I hope it gets the consideration it deserves.
That said, the book itself didn't excite me overmuch. It's rather dry in many places, and a bit breathless at the end, with its big, concluding speech about the overwhelming importance of thorium to America's future. And I had the odd feeling at the beginning that Martin just didn't quite know where to start -- with current advocates of thorium power? with the physics of reactors? with the history of the nuclear industry? -- and thus took a few chapters to settle down into some kind of coherent structure. Probably some of that is due to the awkwardness of adapting and expanding a short article -- in this case, a 2009 piece in Wired -- into a full-length book. Personally, I strongly recommend reading that article and then picking up the book only if it leaves you with a deep, burning desire to learn more. Which it very well may. show less
This is, I think, a subject well worth considering. Yes, there are reasons why nuclear power is an unpopular idea, but with the world's energy situation being what it is, I don't believe we should allow knee-jerk impulses to cause us reject any possibilities out of hand. Most likely there is a place for nuclear power in the future. If that's true, and if Martin's analysis here is anywhere remotely near accurate, thorium really does seem like the way to go. So it's good to have a book like this, agitating for government and industry to take a second look at the possibilities inherent in this technology. I hope it gets the consideration it deserves.
That said, the book itself didn't excite me overmuch. It's rather dry in many places, and a bit breathless at the end, with its big, concluding speech about the overwhelming importance of thorium to America's future. And I had the odd feeling at the beginning that Martin just didn't quite know where to start -- with current advocates of thorium power? with the physics of reactors? with the history of the nuclear industry? -- and thus took a few chapters to settle down into some kind of coherent structure. Probably some of that is due to the awkwardness of adapting and expanding a short article -- in this case, a 2009 piece in Wired -- into a full-length book. Personally, I strongly recommend reading that article and then picking up the book only if it leaves you with a deep, burning desire to learn more. Which it very well may. show less
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.Although preachy at times, Superfuel presents a well researched history of atomic energy use and makes a compelling argument for thorium-based nuclear reactors to meet future and current power demands.
The book presents an in-depth, but accessible, over view of the science behind atomic energy production. Interviews and the history of atomic energy production are interspersed throughout the technical narrative and serve to add depth and context to what can otherwise be a dry subject. The book show more also presents arguments, examples and rationale for making widespread use of thorium as a fuel source for future atomic energy plants to meet future energy demands without the typical hazards and fears associated with uranium-based reactors. With the recent releases of toxic materials in the Gulf of Mexico and Japan and current economic swings generated by any tremors out of the Middle East, Superfuel is a timely and persuasive survey of a “green” energy source with real potential.
The book does suffer from a lack of narrative organization – it reads more like a series of magazine articles or essays that are focused on the same argument, but with too much overlap and repetition of arguments. The author also injects much of himself into the narrative and is almost Richard Dawkins-ish in his support of thorium in a manner that becomes tedious.
Although not nimble, the book does not bog down and presents an engaging discussion of future power needs and makes a strong argument for including thorium-based nuclear power in the mix. show less
The book presents an in-depth, but accessible, over view of the science behind atomic energy production. Interviews and the history of atomic energy production are interspersed throughout the technical narrative and serve to add depth and context to what can otherwise be a dry subject. The book show more also presents arguments, examples and rationale for making widespread use of thorium as a fuel source for future atomic energy plants to meet future energy demands without the typical hazards and fears associated with uranium-based reactors. With the recent releases of toxic materials in the Gulf of Mexico and Japan and current economic swings generated by any tremors out of the Middle East, Superfuel is a timely and persuasive survey of a “green” energy source with real potential.
The book does suffer from a lack of narrative organization – it reads more like a series of magazine articles or essays that are focused on the same argument, but with too much overlap and repetition of arguments. The author also injects much of himself into the narrative and is almost Richard Dawkins-ish in his support of thorium in a manner that becomes tedious.
Although not nimble, the book does not bog down and presents an engaging discussion of future power needs and makes a strong argument for including thorium-based nuclear power in the mix. show less
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.Statistics
- Works
- 2
- Members
- 98
- Popularity
- #193,037
- Rating
- 3.7
- Reviews
- 14
- ISBNs
- 148
- Languages
- 5
