Jenna Crowe

Staff Writer

Companies across the nation have been working towards hydrogen energy for the better part of the 21st Century, partially due to a push towards protecting the environment from former President George W. Bush.

“Fossil fuels directly impact people’s health, so a switch to clean energy is important,” Maxwell Daniels, the reactor supervisor at ISU, said. “Studies have shown that China’s average birth weight increased when coal plants were shut down for the Beijing Olympics.”

According to Popular Mechanics, during President Bush’s 2003 State of the Union address, he proposed a Hydrogen Fuel Initiative in order to conserve energy and protect the environment, the main goal of which was hydrogen-powered cars.

Extreme Tech shows that the new Toyota Mirai, which runs on hydrogen power, is more fuel-efficient than previous electric vehicles and costs $45,000. Popular Mechanics shows that hydrogen fuel cells have already replaced batteries in niche equipment, such as TV cameras and forklifts; as well as provided power at remote locations, such as at cellphone towers.

However, the use of hydrogen energy is only feasible on the small scale, since the production of hydrogen energy is dangerous itself. Most hydrogen is produced through a process called steam-reforming, where a natural gas reacts with steam and a catalyst to produce hydrogen gas.

Natural gas is rapidly becoming scarcer and more expensive, and it is a fossil fuel, so the carbon dioxide released in the reformation process adds to the greenhouse effect.

While a case can be made for hydrogen energy, Daniels suggests that people take a closer look at nuclear energy.

“Nuclear energy is already well-explored, and 60 percent of our energy is nuclear,” Daniels said. “It’s cheap technology compared to coal, provides high-paying careers, and is recyclable.”

Nuclear energy also has a large power density, meaning people can receive a large amount of power from a small amount. There are no harmful pollutants from nuclear energy, and up to 95 percent of what has been used can be recycled.

While giving a tour of the nuclear reactor within the engineering building, he explained the numerous safety features that are put in place to protect everyone involved, from multiple walls that provide distance from the radiation to an automatic shut off feature. With all these safety features in place, the only reason the plant would “melt down” is from human error.

“Nuclear energy plants are closing down,” Daniels said. “The majority of the time, the natural gas that is there spikes after the plant is shut down, which causes an increase in emissions.”