Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Researchers at a government nuclear laboratory and a ceramics company in Salt Lake City say they have found a way to produce pure hydrogen with far less energy than other methods, raising the possibility of using nuclear power to indirectly wean the transportation system from its dependence on oil.
The moon contains 10 times more energy in the form of helium-3 than all the fossil fuels on the earth, but the fusion reactor technology may be decades away.
Lateline interview with David Goodstein, professor of physics and author of Out of Gas – the End of the Age of Oil.
American utility companies are returning to the idea of building nuclear power stations. They believe they can get approval for licenses to start doing so by 2007, and they also believe, despite bitter past experience, that safety problems can finally be solved and the economics can be justified. This is bold thinking, but is it realistic?
Europe could be about to win the race to host Iter, the world’s biggest nuclear fusion reactor.
We can’t say we haven’t been warned – rising temperatures, disappearing coastlines and dire predictions that climate change poses a greater threat than global terror … Yet still we fly, drive, consume and pollute like never before. Where will it all end, asks Mark Townsend
Russia will sign an agreement in December to receive spent nuclear fuel from Iran, ITAR-TASS news agency reported.
Since Zhang Huazhu, director of China Atomic Energy Authority, announced that the Chinese Government has formulated policies to expedite the development of nuclear power generation in early September, numerous heavyweights including Canadian Minister of Natural Resources John Efford, French President Jacques Chirac, Russian President Putin and US Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Nils Diaz have come to China.
A huge area of land has been contaminated from leaks at Hunterston nuclear power station in North Ayrshire . The contamination is much worse than previously suspected, and far more than has been admitted at other nuclear sites in Scotland.
“Nuclear power has run out of steam.” That was prime minister Göran Persson’s conclusion earlier this month when the government announced the decommissioning next year of the Barsebäck 2 nuclear plant. A survey has now shown that most Swedish people think that Sweden should continue to use the nuclear power plants currently in use.
OIL at more than $50 a barrel concentrates the mind. What looked like a spike in prices is now taking on an air of permanence. Even when the price subsides, as it will, it will remain higher than seemed likely even a few months ago.
Low-level radiation from nuclear plants may be up to ten times more hazardous than has been previously estimated, a panel of experts said today.
