How to Get “Safe Energy Forever: Pure Water for the World and a Cure for Cancer”
Amazon: $12.95 paperback, $3.99 Kindle
Contact author David Halbert: 325-668-6016

By LORETTA FULTON

David Halbert has a simple favor to ask, and it won’t take but a minute.

The favor concerns a book he wrote, “Safe Energy Forever: Pure Water for the World and a Cure for Cancer.”

“I’m begging people to read the introduction,” is Halbert’s small favor.

Of course, Halbert believes you’ll be hooked and want to finish the entire book after reading the introduction, which is slightly over four pages–in large print. The entire book is only 88 pages, including a bibliography and endnotes. The title is not a gimmick. It’s a reference to research that is being conducted at Abilene Christian University’s NEXT Lab, headed by engineering and physics professor Dr. Rusty Towell. 

NEXT is an acronym for Nuclear Energy eXperimental Testing. At the NEXT Lab,  ACU faculty and students, in collaboration with three other universities, are advancing the technologies of molten salt reactors, with a mission in mind. 

And that mission is what is so appealing to Halbert, a retired Abilene surgeon. The Lab’s mission statement follows: 

“The mission of ACU’s NEXT Lab is to provide global solutions to the world’s need for energy, water and medical isotopes by advancing the technology of molten salt reactors while educating future leaders in nuclear science and engineering.”

Halbert isn’t just begging people to read the introduction to his book. He’s begging them catch his enthusiasm for the research that’s being conducted at the NEXT Lab and the potential is has for changing the world. It has the potential to produce inexpensive electricity and to bring clean water to parts of the world where that essential is scarce.

“It’s so important for the poor people,” Halbert said.

Even though Halbert is a medial man himself, his book is written for lay people. Don’t worry about getting bogged down in nuclear physics. Although the science involved is complex, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand the impact that the work being done at NEXT lab can have.

Since its official formation in 2016, NEXT Lab has gained notice and funding from as far away as the U.S. Department of Energy’s Nuclear Energy University Program to as close as the Development Corporation of Abilene. The NEXT lab is located on the ACU campus and plans are to build a research nuclear reactor near Abilene to give students further opportunities for research. The three other universities collaborating with ACU are Georgia Institute of Technology, Texas A&M University, and the University of Texas at Austin. 

Halbert’s interest in NEXT Lab and the research being conducted there dates to before the lab opened. Halbert, retired ACU physics department chair Charles Ivey, and several other men were in on the ground floor and still serve in an unofficial capacity as an advisory board. Towell, head of NEXT Lab, praised their contributions.

“Their gifts and support were instrumental in getting this project started,” Towell said. “This project would not be possible without the work of these men.”

Halbert has long ties to ACU and Abilene. He is a 1954 ACU graduate and earned further degrees from the University of Texas Medical School at Galveston and the University of Texas at San Antonio. He has been a member of University Church of Christ since 1951. Halbert’s wife, Dee, is a member of Holy Family Catholic Church and both are members of the Abilene Association of Congregations.

Halbert’s goal is to spread the word about the research that is going on right here in Abilene at ACU’s NEXT Lab. His hope is that by learning more about it, people will jump on the bandwagon alongside him. 

“I’m so excited about it now,” Halbert said. “I’m just the most excited person you could ever talk to.”

Loretta Fulton is creator and editor of Spirit of Abilene

Top Photo Credit: “nuclear-symbol” by redtexan is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0