Brittle Power- PARTS 1-3 (+Notes) - Natural Capitalism Solutions

62Brittle PowerIf major energy facilities are so damaged that they must be substantiallyrebuilt or replaced, construction lead times (neglecting any regulatory approvalperiods) would probably not be much shorter than in routine practice—aroundfive or six years for a sizeable coal-steam power plant, about eight for a nuclearplant. (Subsequent chapters will contrast this nearly irreducible lead time—required by the sheer scale and complexity of the technologies—with lead timesmeasured in weeks or months for many alternative energy sources.)Elaborate plants also require exotic materials and fabrication techniques.These are available only if the highly interdependent industrial economy isintact and flourishing, and if certain strategic minerals can be obtained fromabroad. A single nuclear power plant, for example, includes in its replaceablecore components one hundred nine metric tons of chromium, two and twothirdstons of gadolinium, at least fifty-five tons of nickel, twenty-four tons oftin, and over eleven hundred tons of hafnium-free zirconium (which is madeby one main U.S. supplier). 14 Once used in a reactor, these materials are oftenso irradiated that they cannot be recycled. Other major energy facilities alsodepend substantially on imported strategic minerals for which there arestrongly competing uses, particularly for military equipment. 15 High technologies,for energy as for other purposes, also depend on an industrial infrastructurewhich is itself easily disrupted. And once it is disrupted, it is very difficultto reestablish. 16Propagating failuresFor these reasons, if a major energy source fails, its interconnections withother sources may provide help (back-up and restarting)—or they may merelypropagate the failure. This applies not only to different parts of, say, an interconnectedelectric grid, but also to all energy sources in their complex interconnectedness,and even to the whole interwoven fabric of our high-technologyindustrial society. If an interdependent energy system collapses, the needof device A to have energy from B and vice versa before either can operatemay enmesh recovery efforts in rapidly spreading chaos.The wider interdependencies of the stricken energy system on materialsand equipment drawn from an energy-intensive industrial system may proveeven more unsustainable. Seen in microcosm by a utility engineer trying tobootstrap one damaged power plant up the critical path to recovery, inabilityto get spare parts from a local warehouse is a local, specific obstacle. But froma macro point of view, 17 thousands of similar localized breaks in a previouslyseamless web of industrial relationships could collectively signal its unravelingon a large scale. 18 Only if materials, skills, and equipment are locally available to