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dedicated to the solution of the closely coupled problems of energy poverty

The Gordian Knot Group

The Gordian Knot Group (GKG) is dedicated to the solution of the closely coupled problems of energy poverty for nearly 2 billion humans, and global warming for all of us. The Group produces studies related to this Gordian Knot. Anyone can view or print the papers with no obligation. In order to download the PDF files, we ask viewers to log in first.

The GKG has published a book titled Why Nuclear Power has been a Flop. It can be purchased from Amazon and elsewhere. You may also download the PDF from here for free by logging in.

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Title
SNT and the Union of Concerned Scientists
 v1 272 KB November 15, 2024 3
Why the NT in SNT?
 v1 261 KB November 15, 2024 1
A Better SNT?
 v1 576 KB November 15, 2024 1
Will space travel force us to think dynamically about radiation harm?
 v1 78 KB November 15, 2024 1
The Fukushima Workers, Part 2
 v1 4 MB November 6, 2024 2
SNT and the Fukushima Personnel
 v3 8 MB October 30, 2024 3
The Case for 2 mSv per Day
 v4 144 KB October 26, 2024 22
ANS Position Statement on LNT
 v1 76 KB October 19, 2024 1
The REPOWER Plan
 v2 4 MB October 17, 2024 35
Low Capacity Factor CO2 Intensity
 v1 83 KB October 7, 2024 2
REPOWER FAQ
 v3 155 KB October 5, 2024 5
The Three Mile Island 1 Restart
 v2 198 KB October 1, 2024 5
President’s Speech on the Power Grid
 v2 153 KB October 2, 2024 5
SNT is Too Conservative
 v1 200 KB September 27, 2024 2
ALARA’s not so bad. What about Korea, China?
 v1 232 KB September 27, 2024 4
Underwriter Certification Of Nuclear Power
 vF 11 MB October 31, 2024 120
Malthusians and Misanthropes
 v2 2 MB September 21, 2024 1
The Church of the Environment
 v1 835 KB September 21, 2024 3
Green Table Documentation
 v3 486 KB September 18, 2024 25
Replacing Fossil Fuel
 v2 2 MB September 13, 2024 3
Malthusians and Misanthropes
 v1 2 MB September 11, 2024 2
The Establishment Knows the RERF Acute Response is Non-Linear
 v3 960 KB September 3, 2024 8
Put the Ratepayer in Charge
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Nuclear Magic. Where’s the throttle?
 v2 133 KB August 21, 2024 2
Standalone SNT Slides
 v2a 3 MB August 20, 2024 6
The Linear No Threshold Theory (Slides)
 v3a 3 MB August 19, 2024 64
The Dumbest Graph of all Time
 323 KB August 13, 2024 10
Yes, we could have another Chernobyl.
 v1 623 KB August 11, 2024 4
The Importance of Dunkelflauten
 v1 260 KB August 1, 2024 3
The Dense-Packing Fiasco
 v2 326 KB August 7, 2024 2
Whatabout-the-releases slides.
 v1 9 MB July 28, 2024 48
Spent Nuclear Fuel Slides
 v6 5 MB July 23, 2024 170
Thinking Quantitatively about CO2 Uncertainty
 v1 225 KB July 18, 2024 4
The Jacobson Roadmap
 v2 520 KB July 18, 2024 5
The Mother of All Tragedies
 v1 196 KB July 11, 2024 9
The NuScale Scam
 v1 1 MB July 2, 2024 13
You want nuclear waste. I’ll show you nuclear waste.
 v5 3 MB June 30, 2024 33
A Zero Fossil Grid Makes Sense for Nobody
 V1 99 KB June 29, 2024 5
Expensive Nuclear Power’s Dirty Secret
 V2 221 KB June 26, 2024 58
600 year old spent nuclear fuel is just another poison
 vD 4 MB June 18, 2024 75
Underwriter Certification of Nuclear Power, Part 2
 v2 12 MB June 14, 2024 41
Underwriter Certification of Nuclear Power, Part 1
 v2 2 MB June 14, 2024 50
Sigmoid No Threshold Slides
 V2 1 MB June 4, 2024 82
Radiation Damage and Repair (slides)
 v2 2 MB May 28, 2024 216
LNT: the no repair theory of radiation harm
 v4 3 MB May 27, 2024 110
SNT Primer
 v4 232 KB May 19, 2024 12
The GKG Grid Model
 3 343 KB April 30, 2024 16
Should-Cost Nuclear And Human Ignorance
 3 260 KB April 21, 2024 31
Underwriter Certification and the Banks
 1 117 KB April 3, 2024 6
A Desecrated Pledge: The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
 2 404 KB March 28, 2024 11
Zero Risk or Negligible Risk
 3 258 KB March 27, 2024 13
Is There A Cotwus Out There?
 1 43 KB March 24, 2024 13
Turquoise Hydrogen
 1 3 MB March 24, 2024 12
Expensive Nuclear Is Not Nearly Good Enough
 1 152 KB March 19, 2024 32
Only Autocracy Can Save Nuclear Power
 1 88 KB March 19, 2024 15
The University of Washington Cesium Release
 2 3 MB March 19, 2024 10
Real Quality Enforcement
 2 190 KB March 19, 2024 9
The LNT-Is-Not-Inconsistent-With-The-Data Argument
 1 169 KB March 19, 2024 7
Ted Rockwell’s Crusade To Kill The Golden Goose
 1 165 KB March 19, 2024 11
Can We Have Release Without Panic
 1 247 KB March 19, 2024 8
Electricity’s Fundamental Flaw
 2 82 KB March 18, 2024 12
The Centrus Fiasco
 3 96 KB March 18, 2024 14
The Nuscale Debacle
 1 53 KB March 18, 2024 15
Thinking Through Linear with Threshold
 3 283 KB March 18, 2024 14
No rational investor can play by these rules
 2 110 KB March 18, 2024 7
Karma at Monticello
 1 2 MB March 18, 2024 9
The Two Lies and Ukraine
 1 53 KB March 18, 2024 13
Underwriter Certification of Nuclear Power, 2.0
 4 4 MB March 18, 2024 10
The Westinghouse Kepco Suit
 1 60 KB March 15, 2024 7
Nimby or Yimby
 1 2 MB March 15, 2024 15
Cooling Towers are not Cool
 2 247 KB March 15, 2024 6
There are no solutions, only tradeoffs
 1 119 KB March 15, 2024 5
Blame the Crew
 v2 881 KB March 17, 2024 7
Moving the Moab Pile
 3 476 KB March 15, 2024 7
The Trouble with Fusion
 3 653 KB March 15, 2024 10
A Tale of Two Ships
 4 109 KB March 15, 2024 10
Joe Sixpack and Nuclear Power
 1 384 KB March 15, 2024 6
Teller and the Two Lies
 2 117 KB March 15, 2024 11
LNT Is Prudent
 1 276 KB March 15, 2024 7
LNT is Nonsense
 2 105 KB March 15, 2024 6
Nuclear Quality: the AP1000 Modules
 2 240 KB March 15, 2024 10
Minimize Radiation Exposure Without Regard To Economic And Social Costs
 2 100 KB March 15, 2024 4
A 50 Million Dollar Hairline Crack
 2 100 KB March 15, 2024 7
Nuclear Cannot Loadfollow
 2 257 KB March 13, 2024 6
Nuclear’s Strange Politicization
 1 423 KB March 13, 2024 5
Nuclear Power is Too Safe
 3 122 KB March 13, 2024 10
What is Nuclear’s Should-Cost
 3 1 MB March 13, 2024 9
Prototype Testing in Practice
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Hawaii and Pele’s Energy
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The Case for a Protopark at Hanford
 1 271 KB March 12, 2024 3
Prototypes should be tortured, not licensed.
 1 207 KB March 13, 2024 3
Honesty is the Best Policy
 2 86 KB March 12, 2024 6
Circling the LNT Wagons: the INWORKS Study
 v5 195 KB June 21, 2024 21
The Worst Health Hazard of All Is Being Poor
 1 3 MB March 12, 2024 5
Thinking Through Linear With Threshold
 3 283 KB March 12, 2024 4
Same Birthdays and Double Double Strand Breaks
 4 1 MB March 12, 2024 8
Nuclear Power not only should be cheap, it was cheap. 3 cents/kWh cheap
 2 1 MB March 12, 2024 14
Draft Compensation Pamphlets
 v2 2 MB March 12, 2024 18
ALARA is a showstopper
 3 212 KB March 12, 2024 12
Anyone who focuses on total dose is an LNTer
 2 93 KB March 12, 2024 5
Kerala Cancer Update: 2021
 2 118 KB March 12, 2024 7
SNT for the non-technical
 2 245 KB March 12, 2024 28
The Radium Dial Painters and SNT
 1 116 KB March 12, 2024 4
An Ugly Hypothesis shot down by a beautiful fact.
 2 504 KB March 12, 2024 6
How can NRC-style regulation be so expensive?
 1 250 KB March 12, 2024 9
Defending LNT and the Goldstandard
 1 113 KB March 12, 2024 7
Leave Town or Hunker Down?
 3 1 MB March 12, 2024 7
The Wind at Fukushima
 v4 705 KB March 12, 2024 55
SNT and LNT at Fukushima
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The Price Anderson Suicide Pact
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Compensating Radiation Harm
 v6 4 MB March 12, 2024 36
Camp Century
 2 2 MB March 12, 2024 8
TMI Lessons: What was learned; what should have been learned.
 1 1,005 KB March 12, 2024 6
The Davis Besse Warning
 2 307 KB March 12, 2024 8
The NRC at Three Mile Island
 3 270 KB March 12, 2024 8
Can we have a radioactive release without a panic?
 1 247 KB March 12, 2024 4
Why are we so good at repairing radiation damage?
 1 378 KB March 12, 2024 6
Rogue Bureaucracies Flaunt NRC/EPA Radiation Rules
 3 695 KB March 12, 2024 5
Policy Implications of SNT
 2 156 KB March 12, 2024 9
Eating Bavarian Boar
 2 2 MB March 12, 2024 6
Replacing LNT with SNT
 v8 3 MB March 12, 2024 21
The University of Washington Cesium Release
 1 3 MB March 12, 2024 6
Nuclear Plants Need Buffer Zones
 2 745 KB March 12, 2024 9
Makhijani’s Exploring Tritium Danger
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The Two Lies that Killed Nuclear Power
 vE 713 KB March 12, 2024 176
The Rise and Fall of Yankee Rowe
 1 5 MB March 12, 2024 7
Nuclear energy, not a Faustian bargain, but a near-providential gift.
 1.0 96 KB March 12, 2024 18
What’s wrong with being cautious?
 1.0 48 KB March 12, 2024 15
Slides for Talking Nuclear, Stage 2
 1 678 KB March 12, 2024 27
Slides for Talking Nuclear, Stage 1
 1 5 MB March 12, 2024 36
Trivial Tritium
 1 454 KB March 12, 2024 10
Are the climate models running hot?
 v6 295 KB March 12, 2024 17
Is Big Oil the reason nuclear power flopped?
 v8 382 KB March 12, 2024 88
Nuclear is Too Costly
 v6 544 KB March 12, 2024 66
Nuclear and Wind/Solar
 2 241 KB March 12, 2024 58
SNT and Internal Radiation
 1 479 KB March 12, 2024 14
Underwriter regulation of nuclear power
 v3 111 KB March 12, 2024 16
The Nuclear Revival that Never Was
 2 93 KB March 12, 2024 11
A Plan That Adds Up. An Engineer Looks at Global Warming, part 3.
 v5 1 MB March 12, 2024 28
Low CO2 Electricity: The Options For Germany
 v5 463 KB March 12, 2024 72
Nuclear is Too Slow
 5 601 KB March 12, 2024 20
How Not to Handle a Radiation Release
 1.0 114 KB March 12, 2024 19
Expensive nuclear is no where good enough
 1.0 43 KB March 12, 2024 16
The Disposal of Radioactive Wastes from Fission Reactors
 1.0 723 KB March 12, 2024 15
What must we replace? An Engineer Looks at Global Warming, Part 2
 1.0 2 MB March 12, 2024 29
How much time do we have? An Engineer Looks at Global Warming, Part 1
 v3 5 MB March 12, 2024 43
Preserving Nuclear Ore
 1.0 2 MB March 12, 2024 33
Trashing the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment
 2 861 KB March 12, 2024 67
The GKG Grid Model
 1.0 262 KB March 12, 2024 45
Nuclear and Dunkleflauten
 1.0 463 KB March 12, 2024 36
Wilderness Preservation to Rural Industrialization
 1.0 5 MB March 12, 2024 43
The Lessons of Three Mile Island
 1.0 347 KB March 12, 2024 41
Shipyard Production of Nuclear Power Plants
 v1 105 KB March 12, 2024 88
Green Hydrogen and Dunkleflauten
 1.0 5 MB March 12, 2024 87
Deep Geological Hubris
 264 KB March 12, 2024 66
Creating the New World
 chapter 7 517 KB March 12, 2024 140
Nuclear Power – Frequently Asked Questions
 v11 2 MB March 12, 2024 253

    Discussion Topics

    Please Read:

    Our blog threads are limited to discussions related directly to the issues raised by the book. While vigorous debate is encouraged, tone is important. Off topic, disrespectful or vulgar comments will result in the post being deleted and the poster blacklisted.

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    The Gold Standard and ALARA

    By Author | May 12, 2020 | 11 Comments
    Discussion of the current nuclear regulatory regime and possible aternatives should take place on this thread. Examples of counter-productive rules or practices are solicited.
    View Thread >>

    Nuclear for synfuel and other non-power markets

    By Author | May 11, 2020 | 2 Comments
    Discourse on using nuclear heat in markets where direct electrification is infeasible or uneconomic should be directed to this thread.
    View Thread >>

    Electricity poverty and social development

    By Author | May 9, 2020 | 2 Comments
    This thread will focus on the role of electricity in economic development, the magnitude of the problem, the disparity in availability, and its implications. Concrete examples are solicited.
    View Thread >>

    Pollution, radiation, and CO2 emissions

    By Author | May 9, 2020 | 3 Comments
    Comments relating to the health impacts of fossil fuel pollution, radiation hazard, and global warming should be posted to this thread. This includes discussion of LNT and alternatives.
    View Thread >>

    Power generation technology and economics

    By Author | May 9, 2020 | 8 Comments
    This thread will host a technical discussion on nuclear technology and economics, including alternatives to light water reactors.
    View Thread >>

    Book release notes, errata, corrections

    By Author | May 9, 2020 | 47 Comments
    The book will be a living document at least for a while. Corrections and suggestions for improvements, complaints about unclear  or unpersuasive passages, additional material, photos, or citations should be posted to this thread. As the book is modified, release notes and acknowledgements will be posted here.
    View Thread >>
    The Gordian Knot of the 21st Century

    Why Nuclear Power has been a Flop

    Jack Devanney; CTX Press 2020

    This book focuses on the Gordian knot of our time, the closely coupled problems of electricity poverty for billions of humans, and global warming for all humans. The central thesis of the book is that nuclear power is not only the only solution, it is a highly desirable solution, cheaper, safer, less intrusive on nature than all the alternatives.

    Just about everybody, including most pro-nuclear folks, accept the fact that nuclear electricity is inherently expensive. Thanks to its remarkable energy density,
    nuclear power is not inherently expensive. It is inherently cheap. This book argues that conventional nuclear power should cost less than three cents per kilowatt hour.

    But nuclear power is expensive, prohibitively so in most parts of the planet. The reason why nuclear power is so expensive is a regulatory regime which by design is mandated to increase costs to the point where nuclear power is at least as expensive as coal. In such a system, any technological improvement which should lower cost simply provides regulators with more room to drive costs up. This same regime does an excellent job of stifling competition and technological progress by erecting multiple layers of barriers to entry.

    Our goal is not just to make nuclear electricity as cheap as coal or gas fired electricity. The goal is to keep pushing the cost of nuclear power down and down, allowing us to replace fossil fuels almost everywhere. Imagine what we could do with 2 cents per kWh power in electrifying transportation and producing carbon neutral synfuels. This can only be done in a harshly competitive environment. We must force the providers of nuclear power to compete with everybody.

    If nuclear power is to be allowed to cleave the Gordian knot of electricity poverty and global warming,then we must completely change the way we regulate nuclear electricity. This book makes the case for this change and outlines what the replacement system needs to look like.

    The author is the Chief Designer for ThorCon which is developing a molten salt reactor based nuclear power plant. Although the book makes no mention of ThorCon, he has a horse in this race and an obvious conflict of interest.

    The book may be downloaded for free under the Creative Commons Share Alike license (CC BY-SA 4.0).

    Get The Book

    Why Nuclear Power Has Been A Flop

    43 MB 2617 Downloads
    October 30, 2024 x7
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