Affordable electricity can resolve worldwide poverty

The poorest American is richer than 75 percent of humanity, and about 4.56 billion people on this planet are living on less than $10 a day, and billions are living with little to no access to electricity.

Most everyone in the United States has access to electric power that is required by water filtration, sanitation, airports, hospitals, medical equipment, appliances, electronics, communications systems, heating and ventilating, space programs, and militaries.

However, several billion people in the rest of the world do not have any access to the infrastructures being enjoyed in wealthier developed countries. This is something most Americans find hard to believe.

Yet, the solution is simple. Getting Government to quit "helping", as it is the job of the American people and free enterprise to innovate products people like, not the Government. Again, the basic solution is anchored in the basic economic principle of free enterprise, unencumbered by Government "help".

The most pronounced factor in poverty, or basic quality of life, is affordable electricity in our modern world. We find it difficult to operate any of our machines without it. Yet 120 years ago, almost nobody had electricity. Such is the magic of modern innovation. Access, however, is not enough. Electricity must be dirt cheap or almost free. Don't laugh. Thanks to free enterprise, we can now make all the long-distance phone calls we want for one low monthly cell phone fee.

The solution to affordable electricity is within the grasp of "we the people" more than you think. Technology exists, now all we need is political will. Two factors have accentuated the need for more clean electricity in the last few years: More concern about clean air, and a massive increase in electricity demand projected to double or triple in the coming decades, driven by the sudden popularity of Artificial Intelligence, Datacenters, and EV charging.

Sitting on the sites of all our nuclear power plants are already-mined, already formed pellets, for future affordable electricity. There are 90,000 tons of energy worth its weight in gold (at 1 cent/kWh) just sitting there. Some call this "nuclear waste" and are trying to spend tax dollars to bury it forever. Fortunately, the anti-nuclear lobbying has prevented this from happening. It turns out that recycling this material in fast reactors can extract all the hidden energy in uranium, not just 3% of it as is common in today's reactors.

The major impediment, ironically, is that the United States has not defined a disposition plan for this "waste" material and a great many people, with good reason, regard this as detrimental to placing trust in a nuclear power industry. If this problem cannot be solved, how can nuclear power be good? It turns out that the nuclear power industry had the solution decades ago and, through the "magic" of Government "help", that solution was legally stopped.

So, the Slightly Used Nuclear Fuel (SUNF) piled up. Being called "waste" has poisoned the public perception. However, with the new name, SUNF, there may be a way to see a bright new world ahead in plentiful, safe, clean, reliable, robust, and, best of all, cheap electricity. All we must do is get the Government to stop regulating it out of affordability.

To put this so-called "waste" into perspective, the amount of electricity contained in just the so-called "waste" material, we have is the equivalent of 270 years of our current electricity consumption in the US by itself, and we are creating 2,000 tons of additional SUNF per year. There is enough to power for our ramping demands for Artificial Intelligence, datacenters, and EV chargers and still have enough to export to those in adjoining states who do not have sufficient electricity.

If we could see our way of transitioning this production of electricity to private enterprise and allow companies to compete for your electricity business, it is not difficult to see the possibilities. Consider that, if disposition of this material is, indeed, a top priority, then the faster we dispose of it, the better, right? So, people would be encouraged to use electricity as fast as they can.

With affordable electricity, unlimited clean water, unlimited hydrogen, unlimited electricity for billions around the world would be realized. In fact, using proven nuclear generated electricity technology, power at one cent per kWh (it is well more than ten cents now) would be profitable. So, one low monthly price for electricity could not be far behind.