Jan Willem Storm van Leeuwen
Encyclopedia
Jan Willem Storm van Leeuwen is a consultant in chemistry and energy systems with more than thirty years experience in technology assessment.
Storm van Leeuwen received his Masters in Science, physical chemistry, at the Technical University Eindhoven. He is a senior scientist at Ceedata Consultants. He also develops courses for chemistry teachers for the Open University at Heerlen. He is the secretary of the Dutch Association of the Club of Rome. His two fields of expertise are technology assessment and life cycle analyses of energy systems, focussed on sustainability aspects. He published numerous reports and articles on various topics related to energy and environment.
This study has been criticised by Sevior and Flitney. They issued the following statement:
Storm van Leeuwen noted that :
The paper has been used by anti-nuclear organizations to claim that nuclear power is not clean enough to be considered a part of a clean energy mix.
, claiming that nuclear power is not a long-term reducer of greenhouse gas emissions.
His original results has been used in a study - Life cycle energy and greenhouse gas emissions of nuclear energy: A review. Energy Conversion and Management - with several modifications.
Storm van Leeuwen is recognized by Open Democracy as one of their notable authors.
Storm van Leeuwen received his Masters in Science, physical chemistry, at the Technical University Eindhoven. He is a senior scientist at Ceedata Consultants. He also develops courses for chemistry teachers for the Open University at Heerlen. He is the secretary of the Dutch Association of the Club of Rome. His two fields of expertise are technology assessment and life cycle analyses of energy systems, focussed on sustainability aspects. He published numerous reports and articles on various topics related to energy and environment.
Nuclear energy study
He is best known for the falsified paper Nuclear power the energy balance that he wrote with Philip Smith (also named Stormsmith studies), where they analyzed the energy payback from the entire nuclear power system. The energy inputs were calculated based on various assumptions and guesses about the technologies used in uranium production, rather than actually measuring them. They concluded that the major parameter determining the energy balance was the grade of the uranium ore, and ore grades lower than 180 ppm do not yield an energy gain when used in the nuclear fuel cycle.This study has been criticised by Sevior and Flitney. They issued the following statement:
We compared the predicted energy cost [using Storm van Leeuwen's study] of Uranium mining and milling for Ranger, Olympic Dam and Rössing to the energy consumption as reported. All are significantly over predicted (5 PJ, 60 PJ and 69 PJ vs 0.8 PJ, 5 PJ and 1 PJ respectively). [...]
The energy consumption is predicted to be so large that is comparable to the energy consumption of a particular sub-section of the economy. In the case of Rössing, the over prediction is larger than the energy consumption of the entire country of NamibiaNamibiaNamibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...
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Storm van Leeuwen noted that :
The method of Sevior and Flitney based on financial data appears to me full of hidden assumptions, bookkeeping problems, statistical pitfalls and uncertainties.
The paper has been used by anti-nuclear organizations to claim that nuclear power is not clean enough to be considered a part of a clean energy mix.
Other papers
Storm van Leeuwen also presented his previous work as part of another controversial paper "Secure Energy? Civil Nuclear Power, Security and Global Warming", published by the Oxford Research GroupOxford Research Group
Oxford Research Group is an independent non-governmental organisation and UK registered charity, which works together with others to promote a more sustainable approach to security for the UK and the world. In April 2005, ORG was named one of the top 20 think tanks in the UK by The Independent...
, claiming that nuclear power is not a long-term reducer of greenhouse gas emissions.
His original results has been used in a study - Life cycle energy and greenhouse gas emissions of nuclear energy: A review. Energy Conversion and Management - with several modifications.
Storm van Leeuwen is recognized by Open Democracy as one of their notable authors.