The general public has many misconceptions concerning energy sources; for example, how many realise that a nuclear power station releases more radioactivity into the atmosphere than a coal-fired power station, or that smoking just one cigarette carries the same risk as living next door to a nuclear plant for two years?

This book argues that greater awareness of the facts is needed as we start to enter an energy crisis owing to increasing scarcity of fossil fuels and climate change impacts. It carefully explores this coming crisis and concisely examines all of the major technologies related to energy production (fossil fuels, renewables, and nuclear) and their impacts on our society and environment. The author argues that it is wrong to pit alternatives to fossil fuels against each other and proposes that nuclear energy, although by no means free of problems, can be a viable source of reliable and carbon-free electricity. He concludes by calling for a diversified and rational mix of electricity generation in order to mitigate the effects of the energy crisis.

J.J. Gomez Cadenas is Professor of Nuclear and Particle Physics at the University of Valencia. His research interests encompass experimental neutrino physics, the search for the neutrino-less double beta decay process, and the applications of nuclear instrumentation to medicine and non-proliferation. He writes regularly in diverse media about science.