to build them here on the surface of the Earth because of potential hazards. But such fast breeder reactors in satellites orbiting the Earth pose no such hazards, environmental or other. As with any sort of nuclear device, distance lends safety—and there is a lot of distance in space. Thus, using fast breeder reactors in satellites with solar energy providing any additional power required to run the system, it would be possible—and safe—to process nuclear fuel elements in space, return them to Earth in the Space Shuttle for use in earth-bound nuclear electrical generating stations. There are other possibilities—there have to be. We have only been looking for solutions to the energy problem for a very short period of time, from the viewpoint of historical scientific research and technological development. We have probably hit upon only the very first few obvious answers. As Coon's energy thesis contains this extraterrestrial solution, it also contains a warning. Thus far, we have been thinking of obtaining energy from the Sun and other sources in space, transmitting this energy to Earth and using this energy here. There is a limit to how much of this we can do, just as there is a limit to the size of the Earth. There is a universal law known as the second law of thermodynamics, which is a tongue twister, but in plain language it may be paraphrased as: There is always waste, because you can't obtain 100-percent efficiency; there is always something left over you cannot use. This is particularly true in the case of energy. Some of it always goes “up the stack.” In terms of efficiency, some of our energy conversion and utilization systems use from 10 to 40 percent of the energy put into them. Now, this is a generalized statement, because there are some systems that are better and some that are worse. If we intend to increase our energy utilization here on Earth, there will also have to be additional waste energy that we must contend with. We must have a place to put this waste energy. Engineers call this a “heat sink.” Projections by the Department of Interior indicate that by 1985 the United States will be consuming 116.6 quadrillion Btu's of energy per year. [A Btu is a measure of energy; it is the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of 1 pound of water 1° Fahrenheit.] Of this amount of energy, 23 percent of it will be wasted and must be discharged into the only heat sinks we have available: our planet's atmosphere, its waterways, and its oceans. The same projection by the Department of Interior shows that by the year 2000 A.D., the United States will consume 191.9 quadrillion Btu's of energy and will waste not 23 percent of it, but 27 percent of it, because of inefficiencies in converting from one form of energy to another—coal to electricity, for example. This amounts to 51.8 quadrillion Btu's of energy up the stack that we must somehow get rid of safely. That is almost half of our projected total energy consumption of 1985. Now, let's put this projected energy waste into perspective—51.8 quadrillion Btu's is enough to add 1° Fahrenheit to over 31 million cubic miles of water, if my calculator is correct. [A little bit of perspective on that—that is a cube of water 314 miles on the side, or enough to cover the 48 contiguous States 1 mile deep.]
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