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The Beginning of the Nuclear Renaissance has not been Televised

Professor Ferdinand E. Banks
ferdinand.banks@telia.com
October 5th, 2012

According to the United Nations energy organization (IAEA), statistics indicate that for 2009 and 2010, nuclear reactors in Sweden and Germany managed by the Swedish firm Vattenfall had the lowest capacity factors in the (nuclear) world. Fifty-five percent was the figure given by that organization for the average availability of Swedish equipment, which is very different from the up-beat impression I have attempted to provide of the Swedish nuclear sector in my forthcoming energy economics textbook (2012).

'My goodness, but how the mighty have fallen", to paraphrase an observation by a high ranking German officer in Theodor Plievier's brilliant war novel Stalingrad (1949). You said it brother, because the construction of the Swedish nuclear sector was nothing less than a minor miracle, almost in the class of the construction of the American Navy and Air Force during WW2, and it achieved for the Swedish macroeconomy what the American navy achieved for our war effort at and after the battle of Midway.

It should be noted though, that the availability cited above may not be true. That in reality it is nonsense. "Figures never lie, but liars sometimes figure," I seem to remember one of my teachers in engineering school informing me. In fact so many lies have been put into circulation about nuclear and its proposed replacement by wind and solar, that I am forced to ask the following question: WHOM DO YOU BELIEVE - SWEDISH ENGINEERS OR PARASITES AND CHARLATANS employed by Greenpeace, the IAEA, and Swedish anti-nuclear dunces?

That brings us to Germany, and the intentions of the government of that country to liquidate their nuclear assets. Many years ago I read a publication of some sort called 'Wir Werden Wiedermal Marschieren', in which a gentleman from the part of Czechoslovakia known at the Sudetenland was doing some heavy duty publicity (or promotion) for the Third World War. He argued for a more or less immediate return of German 'properties' in the 'East' to their former West German owners, and he claimed that this could be easily brought about by a full-scale military commitment by NATO, which would include a resuscitated German army and Luftwaffe.

On what I remember as the last day of the longest military exercise of its kind held in Germany up to that time, which was called *Apple Harvest', and about the hour of the evening when a wonderful jazz program called 'Munich at Midnight' was aired, a colonel or general or something entered the operations van of the 35th Field Artillery Group, and ordered me to plot a simulated fire mission - employing tactical nuclear ammunition - that was supposed to deal with 'enemy forces' that had broken through the Fulda Gap. As a result, instead of listening to Miles or 'Bird' or Bill Evans, I made use of my extensive knowledge of addition and subtraction to complete this assignment.

Had that been a real instead of a simulated mission, the eastern suburbs of Nuremberg would have been blown off the face of the earth! As I have made it my business to point out on numerous occasions, when that goofy option reached German journalists, officers, politicians, hustlers, hippies, know-it-alls etc, the Wir Werden Wiedermal Marschieren fantasy came to a screeching halt. I don't know who leaked that information, nor did I inquire, nor did I care, but it wasn't me, although a few weeks later my military career was informally brought to an end. I spent my remaining year in Europe enjoying the great night presence of those cities that provided deserving American soldiers like myself with some of the best R&R (Rest and Relaxation) in the world, although we had a slightly different way of describing those ... advantages.

Now for a short explanation of what this note is all about. To my way of thinking it is about the day when German voters discover the cost of the nuclear foolishness launched by Ms Merkel and her government. For Germany, as well as the countries of Europe that are dependent on the optimal functioning of the German economy, it might be a good thing if the former physics student Angela Merkel decided to follow those two great German-speaking scientists Marlene Dietrich and Romy Schneider to Hollywood, because the German voters of today are as enthusiastic about a lower standard of living as they were about nuclear war in their midst during those lovely days when my beautiful military career was coming to an end.

As I once informed delegates at a large conference in Stockholm - most of whom were not happy to hear my opinion - the German nuclear retreat is a short-term burlesque, designed to return the present German government to office. In the long run, Germans who can add and subtract will get the cost-benefit message, the real deal, and hopefully pass it to journalists, officers, politicians, hustlers, hippies, rappers, break dancers and maybe even their political masters. By the way, globally there are 434 reactors in operation today, 68 are under construction and approximately 160 are ordered or planned. These numbers may not have any significance for you, but they tell me that the attack on the standard of living of countries like Sweden that is being carried out or promoted by certain parasites and charlatans, will not reach the extremes that many pseudo-intellectuals want to see imposed on the industrial world.

REFERENCES

Banks, Ferdinand E. (2011). Energy and Economic Theory. Singapore, London and New York: World Scientific.

Plievier, Theodor (1949). Stalingrad. Berlin: Aufbau Verlag.


Professor Ferdinand E. Banks
October 5th, 2012
ferdinand.banks@telia.com

THE BEGINNING OF THE NUCLEAR RENAISSANCE HAS NOT BEEN TELEVISED