Op-ed in Bangkok Post - Nuclear: Far too dear and dangerous for the Land of Smiles

IEC's Chom & Chris wrote an op-ed on nuclear power in Thailand in the wake of the 'slow-motion train wreck' now occurring in Japan.

From Fukushima to San Juan Islands and beyond: the journey of I-131 to our food chain

I've been following the development in Japan's nuclear crisis with great interest and a heavy heart. And the contamination has entered the food chain here (see the news from NYT below). No need for alarm (yet) though.

The image above is from the Central Institute of Meteorology and Geodynamics of Austria. It shows the spreading radioactivity in the form of I-131 from Fukushima to the US and beyond during March 19-27. The modeling is based on actual data from very sensitive radionuclide stations in the CTBTO (the Nuclear Test Ban Organization) global network. The US seems to be in the direct path of the fallout. I'm relieved though that the toxic plume does not blow directly inland over Japan.

Yesterday (Mar 30), TEPCO (owner/operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant) Chairman announced at a news conference that it was presently unclear how the problems at the plant would be resolved. Looks like we are in for a wild ride. Hold on tight!

On a related note, Obama yesterday in his speech on US energy strategy just reaffirmed the continued need to rely on and safety of nuclear power. To me, this means the need for local action and conversations on reducing our dependency on nuke is greater than ever. Let's start thinking about energy self-sufficiency! :)

And here is the NYT news:

U.S. | March 31, 2011
Low Levels of Radiation Found in American Milk
By MATTHEW L. WALD
Tests of milk samples in Washington State indicated the presence of radioactive iodine from Japan, but officials said that the levels were below public health concern.

Meet the Lopez Energy Challenge Winners

The First ever Lopez Energy Challenge concluded last December with clear winners. The couple of “Take-it-or-Leave-It” fame, Neil Hanson and Ona Blue swept awards in all the three main categories: “Biggest usage reduction”, “Smallest energy footprint” as well as “Best energy conservation story”.

How did Neil and Ona manage to be the “Biggest”, “Smallest” and “Best” all at once?

Firstly, they were not big energy users to start with. The month before the challenge, they used only 298 kilowatt-hours (kWh), compared to the average 1,000 kWh/month for San Juan County residents.

Then, their “experimentation” with low energy living resulted in a drastic 99.7% reduction in power usage! Their OPALCO meter reading barely changed (showing usage of only 1 kWh) during the entire month of the contest (October – November). That's less than eight cents worth of electricity at current rates.

Neil and Ona accomplished this jaw-dropping feat, not by taking a holiday elsewhere, not by any sort of technological trickery. Rather, they took on the Energy Challenge as “the perfect opportunity for a practical experiment that would spare [them] from another frantic reaction to a no-electricity event”.

The single kWh of electricity consumed came from the pilot light of their propane oven used only during bread baking sessions weekly. But other than that, they did not use electricity or propane. They essentially turned off the mains breaker!

To meet energy needs for cooking, heating, cooling and lighting, they relied instead on “really low-tech existing and readily available tools”.

They cooked on a wood stove, a biomass cook stove (using scrap wood scavenged from a disposal burn pile and hauled by bicycle) or a blanket box (to finish off cooking). They also used techniques such as grain soaking to minimize cooking time.

For refrigeration, they tried many techniques (including using rocks left outside at night!) but what “really worked” and was “fun” to make and use was a Nigerian “Zeer pot” (two nested earthen pots with moist sand between them that provides an evaporative cooling effect). Lighting was challenging but they managed with the help of solar lights and kerosene lanterns.

There were of course some mishaps, like Neil “pouring a jar of Ona's salad dressing into the nutritional yeast jar (ruining both) in a very low-light situation” or scalding himself twice when he washed himself and misjudged the temperature of the hot water heated by their woodstove.

Non-electric living also brought wonderful surprises to Neil and Ona's lives. They enjoyed the absence of background droning sound of electrical appliances and having more time to read and learn to play the clarinet and accordion.

In fact, they found the experience to be “very positive” and their lives improved in most regards that they saw “no reason to suspend the experiment” after the challenge ended and decided to completely disconnect their OPALCO service!

To me, Neil and Ona's “experimentation” was nothing short of a courageous experiment in truth. And truth it did reveal. That we do not need to wait for a technological breakthrough to lead a gentle, low-carbon life. That solutions are already here. That it can be done and with such joy. I am very grateful for Neil and Ona for alighting hope and inspiration for us.

You can read Neil and Ona's full story below, for inspiration or useful technical details.

(Written by Chom Greacen, this article first appeared in the Islands Weekly in March.)

Winning story from Lopez Energy Challenge contestants, Neil Hanson and Ona Blue

(Written by Neil Hanson)

In taking up the Lopez Energy Challenge for a month, we were hoping—in addition to reducing our environmental footprint—that we might learn some skills that would be useful in the event of an extended power outage. We looked at the challenge as the perfect opportunity for a practical experiment which would spare us another frantic reaction to a no-electricity event (e.g. running around researching for candles, worrying about spoiling food, missing baths...) I sent right away for the book Living with Electricity by the Amish author Stephen Scott expecting simple solutions for every problem. I was impressed with the many systems the Amish have developed but disappointed by the highly evolved sophistication of Amish technology. The main thing we learned from the book was that we needed to find and apply some really low-tech existing and readily available tools. The following completely random notes on what we discovered, what we did, and how it worked for us:

1. Ona bakes bread every week. The only time our power was switched on was at the start of each baking session (4 times) when electrical power was used to ignite the gas oven's burner. Otherwise, our main breaker switch was always off.

2. Most of our cooking was done on a Green Fire Technology Biomass cookstove (developed by the Aprovecho Research Center in Cottage Grove, Oregon)We toured the Research Center while visiting our parents who live nearby. It was quite impressive, with all the stove prototypes on display. We fueled this stove with wood scavenged and hauled by bicycle to our home from the Public Works burnpile. (This is wood which would otherwise be burned by the county as a means of disposal with no secondary benefits.) This stove uses a collar which directs the fire heat to the walls of the port, increasing its efficiency greatly. We also used two cast iron Dutch ovens for wood stove-top baking of vegetables. We quickly learned the value of trivets and heat diffusers here. See www.stovetec.net

3. One of the ground rules we decided on prior to beginning the Energy Challenge was that we would not do anything that would pollute the air we breathe in our house. We completely stopped using our kitchen's conventional propane stove for this reason because the exhaust fan (which vents the toxic byproducts of LP gas combustion) requires electricity. The exception to this rule was for weekly break-baking. In this case, we evacuated the house and opened the windows and doors for several hours. We abstained from all indoor candle or kerosene-burning for this reason also.

4. Speeding up and extending the efficiency of our cooking processes included the practice of soaking grains (such as oats) overnight in water and vinegar resulting in half the cooking time. The use of a blanket box (a camping cooler lined with old wool blankets) finished cooking grains and beans after achieving an initial boil on the wood stovetop. The hot pots went into the box and were wrapped snugly with the wool blankets all around, and the lid was closed tightly. Out wood cook stove was used for warming as well as cooking with the
   help of an unpainted metal stand set-up on one side of the stove.

After much research, we have decided to take advantage of this year's energy tax credit for wood burning stove purchases and buy an Amish-made “Kitchen Queen” wood cookstove which is the best stove for bread-baking. Its stainless steel water-heating feature will be plumbed through the wall behind the stove to our conventional hot water tank so that when the stove is in use, we will have running hot water at all the hot water faucets in our house. Using a thermosyphon to cycle the cold water through the stove. Google: Kitchen Queen woodstoves.

5. We share a single freezer with five other household at our housing coop. We utilized our small freezer space during this experiment to make ice—which we carried in plastic containers to our kitchen's conventional refrigerator. Our refrigerator—without electricity—became a simple insulated box where we kept perishable food below, and ice above. By monitoring the refrigerator's average iced temperature we quickly discovered that the temperature on our porch was lower and we set food outside during daylight hours when critters were not roaming. We are still looking for critter-proof draft box which we could use for this purpose either on our porch or attached to an outside wall with a poss-through access opening. We also used bricks and stones which were set out overnight to chill, then placed in our refrigerator to serve the same purpose as ice until the next evening. In addition to the porch, we utilized the ample crawlspace under our house for storage of items such as apples and potatoes. We read that Amish use spring houses to chill perishable foods with cold running groundwater.
   In an emergency, the small ponds in the village park would serve this function (if food was protected from critters.)

6. The most interesting (and fun) part of the Energy Challenge was the making and testing of a Nigerian “Zeer Pot” for non-electric refrigeration. This device consists of two unglazed
   earthenware pots of different diameters, one placed inside the other. The space betweenthe two pots is packed with sand, which is kept wet by pouring water into the sand each day. Produce is placed within the inner pot and then covered with a damp cloth, and the system is left in a dry, ventilated area. The water in the sand evaporates throughout the day and the law of thermodynamics ensures the temperature in the inner pot drops keeping the produce fresh. We made one of these in about an hour. It really works! See www.idspreppers.com

7. Night lighting was our biggest initial challenge. We purchased two solar “Firefly” L.E.D. Lamps with mini solar panels to start and found that we really missed the abundant warm light we were accustomed to. Seriously, this was a really big deal for us, and almost made us give up on the experiment altogether. Amazingly, someone brought an old Coleman kerosene pressure lantern to the Take-it-or-leave-it and we learned to operate it for supplemental light. In keeping with our originial ground rule of not polluting the air in our house, we made wire rods to suspend the lantern outside of various windows. This solved our immediate need for more light. The bright light it made for us was the source of much joy and celebration. I found a nice shiny piece of polished aluminum in the recycling bin, bent it into a parabolic curve, and attached it to the lantern's handle. This reflector shielded our neighbors from the
   bright light.

(Photo: Barefoot Power)

8. The most dangerous lesson was learned from heating water in huge pots on our woodstove for bathing and washing. I misjudged the amount of cold water needed in my bucket toa chieve a comfortable temperature to pour over myself in the bathtub, and scalded myself (twice). This is trickier than it would seem to be! We used cold water for all dishwashing, food preparation, etc. One of our biggest surprises was discovering that our electric hot water tank continued to provide hot, then warm water from our faucets for nearly a full week after our power was turned off!

9. Another skill we needed to master right away was the transferal of liquids (fuels) in order to operate the kerosene lantern. We needed to pre-heat the lantern's “generator” with denatured alcohol. This required decanting alcohol from its can into the tiny preheater cup. We solved this problem with a bulb baster which sucked the alcohol into the bulb, then accurately delivered it into the tiny cup. Likewise, getting kerosene from the big can into the tiny fuel tank was accomplished with a small plastic hand pump. (Our initial attempts to do this were extremely messy and wasteful.)

10. Our vegan diet was conducive to making this experiment easier than it would have been if we were storing and cooking meat and diary.

Mishaps included my pouring a jar of Ona's salad dressing into the nutritional yeast jar (ruining both) in a very low-light situation.

Almost all electrically created ambient sound has been eliminated in our house—. We both like it a lot, and don't miss any of these sounds. (Especially our constantly droning refrigerator.)

Eliminating our telephone answering machine has been one of our most appreciated changes.

With no radio, we find ourselves attending to our own activities and thoughts much more—and passively listening to the messages of others—including horrific news—much less. We are both reading more than before the experiment. Ona is learning to play the accordion. I am learning to play the clarinet.

With no clock, we are not constantly monitoring time. This has resulted in time seeming to slow down, or stretch-out. Days seem to last longer than before the experiment.

Through this experiment, we have both become more tolerant of each other regarding mishaps such as collisions, spills, broken cups, crashing noises in the night, etc... At the same time, we have enhanced our ability to solve practical problems and adapt to significant changes. The overall experience has been very positive in most regards and has generally improved our lives. We see no reason to suspend the experiment now that the Energy Challenge has ended. We have decided to completely disconnect our OPALCO service and try to continue becoming more knowledgeable and successful at low-tech non-electric living.

Feel free to contact us if you would like any further information, pictures-or whatever. Thanks for the Energy Challenge. It was a great experience we would have otherwise missed.