Reducing carbon dioxide critical to our future

Here is a possible reason for the dead algae, Humboldt squid, and jelly fish last week, is simply because of elevated ocean temperatures. Note that I am a registered electrical engineer in both Nevada and California, and that I am not a specialist on the topic.

When carbon dioxide dissolves in water it immediately breaks down into carbonic acid and releases heat because of this reaction. The obvious conclusion of this is that we must quit producing so much carbon dioxide as the signal from both the dead jelly fish and squid are saying: it is too hot. Anything that generates carbon dioxide must be reduced.

For example, nuclear power is OK because it does not produce any carbon dioxide. However any fossil fuel plant that uses coal, gas, or oil must be brought to a halt and replaced by simple water power and wind power. I don't much bother with wind power because I would rather directly convert electricity with silicon diodes which you can now buy that have an efficiency of nearly 10 percent conversion of solar to electricity whereas a steam driven fossil fuel plant has an efficiency of about 9 percent.

Incidentally, whereas our government was heavily biased against the use of nuclear fuel in the past, it has changed its mind in the recent years and has again tried to promote nuclear plants. The government has done a good job in this case and is to be highly commended for their decision.

Finally, there are a couple of nuclear plants that have quit production. One is a plant in California just southeast of Sacramento, possibly built by Bechtel and to my knowledge never operated probably because of some kind of problem.

I think it may have been built by Westinghouse, and then bought by a new owner. Perhaps it can be easily brought up to snuff to generate electricity because I believe that the generating equipment is sitting there unused.

There is another small nuclear plant in Idaho Falls, Idaho, that I believe uses a liquid metal combination of heated sodium and potassium. It is only a small plant but it has its own breeder reactor nearby. My guess is this metal is heated by a plutonium reactor which generates steam to drive steam turbines. The reactor is probably located a long way from a big city which is possible in the United States but not in Europe.

The nuclear industry has had problems at places like Chalk River, Canada, and Chernobyl, Russia, where an explosion scattered radium and other radioactive liquids, solids, and gases around the world. It is rumored that there was a near accident in Japan as well about 30 to 40 years ago.

Minden resident Donald E. Bently, P.E., is the president, chairman, and chief executive officer of Bently Agrowdynamics.