Jeff W. Eerkens is an adjunct research professor at the University of Missouri in Columbia, and now living in Woodland, California. He has a doctorate in Engineering Science (1960) and a master degree in Nuclear Engineering (1957) from the University of California at Berkeley, and is a registered nuclear engineer in the State of California. His doctoral dissertation was a study of the chemical effects in fluids produced by fission fragments of uranium. His PhD work included graduate studies in biochemistry and the origin of life.
Dr. Eerkens has had extensive hands-on experience with nuclear reactors, isotope separation systems, and various aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle. Prior to research on laser separation of medical isotopes in Missouri, he spent thirty years in California working in staff positions for several aerospace companies. He participated there in the design and testing of nuclear and solar energy systems for space applications.
In 1972/1973 he initiated experiments to study isotope enrichment of gaseous uranium hexafluoride using a molecular laser. This ultimately led to a new laser isotope separation technique called CRISLA (Condensation Repression Isotope Separation by Laser Activation) which employs a supersonic free jet and laser-activated condensation repression of selected isotopomers.
Dr. Eerkens is of Dutch descent and was born in 1931 in Djakarta, and, a child during World War II, he spent three years in a Japanese concentration camp on Java.
Green nuclear power is the only practical solution to simultaneously (1) ameliorate global warming, (2) avoid dependence on foreign oil/gas, and (3) overcome oil/gas depletion. Only two prime energy sources, coal and uranium, can affordably deliver terawatts of "mother" electricity for: (a) heavy industry, i.e. manufacture of automobiles, ships, airplanes, bridges, etc; (b) power for vast fleets of future electric plug-in autos; and (c) production of portable synfuels (hydrogen and ammonia) and biofuels to replace oil. However coal worsens global warming and should be preserved as raw material to make plastics and other organics when oil/gas is gone. This leaves uranium as the only "big-mama" green energy source, an "inconvenient truth".
The Science Council for Global Initiatives is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) charitable organization. All contributions are tax-deductible.