Nuclear-Powered Food Factories That Make Farms Obsolete

[johnkarls]

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Usually, we do NOT prepare reports on meetings that do not produce one of our Six-Degrees-Of-Separation E-mail Campaigns.

HOWEVER, there was one aspect of our 5/12/2021 meeting that is important to preserve.

It pertains to Sections E-8 thru E-13 of the Suggested Discussion Outline for the meeting.

Those sections describe our long-standing observation that plants use their chlorophyll (the green in plant leaves, etc.) TO USE SOLAR POWER in order to convert carbon dioxide and water into oxygen and sugar (6CO2 + 6H2O > C6H12O6 + 6O2) – which is the energy that animals access in breathing oxygen to burn the sugar, creating carbon dioxide in the exact reverse chemical reaction (C6H12O6 + 6O2 > 6CO2 + 6H2O).

And, accordingly, those sections describe our long-standing position that nuclear energy, say from small thorium-fission reactors, should be able to SUBSTITUTE FOR SOLAR POWER in driving that chlorophyll-photosynthesis reaction (6CO2 + 6H2O > C6H12O6 + 6O2) in a food-production factory - making conventional farms obsolete.

While positing that it should not be that difficult to ascertain what there is about chlorophyll (since it consists of chemicals) that enables it to harness light to drive the chemical reaction 6CO2 + 6H2O > C6H12O6 + 6O2.

With a view to synthesizing those chemicals in such a way that they can harness other energy sources, such as nuclear power, to drive that chemical reaction.

The aspect of our meeting to be preserved???

Our member who proposed the topic for our 5/13/2021 meeting was Dennis Cecchini.

Dennis is a retired executive who began his career as a chemical engineer.

[BTW along with our long-time member George Kunath, Dennis is a member of a small Saturday-morning men’s breakfast group at Baltusrol CC in NJ. Both George and Dennis participate in our monthly meetings by Zoom.]

Now that Dennis’ expertise with such issues is understood, Dennis opined that (A) not only should it be possible to identify the chemical compound in chlorophyll that enables it TO USE SOLAR POWER to drive photosynthesis (6CO2 + 6H2O > C6H12O6 + 6O2), but (B) it should also be possible to identify other chemical compounds that can also serve as a catalyst that could USE SOLAR POWER AND/OR NUCLEAR POWER to drive 6CO2 + 6H2O > C6H12O6 + 6O2.

Our thanks to Dennis for his expert insight.