"Who's that? He looks like the unholy lovechild of Nookie Bear and Aaron Diaz."
"Hey, that's actually a pretty apt description!"
"But what does he do or say that makes him a lolcow? I don't understand Kraut."
"Okay, let's begin with the basics. This guy is a cheap German knockoff of Carl Sagan, in that he's a professor of physics at Ludwig-Maximilian-University in Munich and has produced a number of TV formats in which he explains scientific stuff. He's called Prof. Harald Lesch."
"But that sounds pretty cool..."
"It would be if his explanations were actually correct and well thought-out. But he has a history of spreading what amounts to downright misinformation. E.g. he once claimed: Antimatter rockets can't work because the magnetic field reigning in the antimatter would consume too much energy (which is BS; NASA engineers have presented a number of workable antimatter rocket designs). This new video though is basically the Sonichu or Maradonia of science popularization. In it, he attempts to answer the question: Could Liquid Thorium Fluoride Reactors (LFTRs) solve the nuclear waste problem? -- and goes on to spew a tsunami of BS.
In Germany, the official policy is that any and all kinds of nuclear energy are EVUL and therefore most media and TV programs make sure to present it in a negative light. Prof. Lesch takes this bias to a new level.
The video begins by him trying to explain how nuclear power works. "There's these fuel rods in there, and there's, like, this radioactive material in there and it makes energy." -- No: It's not a verbal caricature I've created, it's more or less a verbatim translation of what he says. Yes: In the German original it sounds like an excerpt from a school essay written by a twelve-year old kid of sub-average intelligence.
(Nuclear power works by fissioning nuclei through a neutronic chain reaction, the fact that these nuclei are radioactive is not very relevant to the process. Lesch makes it sound like radioactivity is the alpha and omega of nuclear power, basically confusing reactors and isotope batteries.)
The video is filled with numerous statements similar to the above, that is, either downright falsehoods or over-simplifications which do more to confuse the listener than educate him.
After explaining the Thorium cycle and the self-regulating abilities of molten-salt reactors roughly (very *roughly*!) correctly, Lesch drops the bomb. He asks: "Has such a reactor ever been built? Yes: In Hamm-Uentrop."
Holy shit.
There once was an experimental nuclear power plant in Hamm-Uentrop (before Germany's collective ecotardification), but it wasn't a LFTR -- it was a frikken Gas-Cooled Pebble-Bed Reactor!! Very different technology. No molten salt here, just graphite-actinide balls and helium to carry the heat.
It gets worse. In the next sentence, Lesch claims the Hamm-Uentrop plant WAS A FAST BREEDER! There was in fact a fast breeder built kinda close to Hamm, in Kalkar in the same state (North Rhine-Westphalia) -- but it was never turned on due to ecotards taking over -- but anyway: A Gas-Cooled Pebble Bed isn't a LFTR and also not a fast breeder! It's like claiming a car is an airplane and at the same time a boat."
"That's horrible! You said this guy is a professor. Wouldn't that mean he actually studied physics?"
"One would hope so. But in his TV shows and videos his grasp on many topics put him on the level of Chris-Chan or Drachenlord. I think the truth is that he has trained himself (or was trained?) to dance to the tune of his producers, which is the tune of the current official political doctrine. In fact, he has a kind of adjutant called Ranga Yogeshwar who comes across as a combination of Roosh V and Eliezer Yudkowsky. This guy produces popular science programs too -- but sort of plays the second fiddle compared with Lesch -- and is known for his tedious ribald jokes ["Y'know, guys, I've had this hot phd student and she had really large gazongas, huhuhuhuhuhuhu..."]. In fact, I, DDC, had the pleasure of working with him for a week; Ranga was the top dog at a week-long science show where I was employed in an exhibition tent. The first day ended with a huge annoying stage show where Ranga made boob jokes and propaganda for a wholly stupid solar-powered car (1 HP during fair weather, he talked about how it would "revolutionize traffic"); in the end, he made all coworkers come onstage and high-fived everyone, but I wasn't sufficiently cool for this manly alpha scientist stuff and held out my hand at an awkward angle, so Ranga only brushed my lower arm... this was, luckily, the end of my interactions with him.
Science programs on German TV have mostly turned into a garbage-fest. This Thorium video by Lesch is probably the worst among a bad lot. It isn't even on Greenpeace level ("Nuclear power is baaad, mkay..."), it's actually more similar to Drachenlord's "scientific statements": "Skin isn't an organ." That is, Lesch obviously didn't do even basic research and just vomited out what went through his balding rotund head."
If you can understand Kraut, here's a guy pointing out Lesch's many mistakes/lies/falsehoods/etc.:
Or an English-language video on LFTRs which is mostly correct:
if he mass debated more.
