NPC uneasy with cost of nuclear power. The plan, handed to President Jacob Zuma in Parliament on Wednesday, advocates investigating shale and coalbed methane reserves as a cheaper alternative.
"If gas reserves are proven, and environmental concerns alleviated, then development of these resources and gas-to-power projects should be fast-tracked," it states. "Even if economically recoverable resources are much lower than currently estimated, shale gas as a transitional fuel has the potential to contribute a very large proportion of South Africa's electricity needs. " Exciting MIT droplet discovery could turbocharge power plants, airships and more. Top engineers at MIT say they have come across a handy effect which could seriously boost the efficiency of a critical piece of kit used in many important technologies.
The piece of kit in question is the humble water condenser, which has been in use for hundreds of years: James Watt introduced it to the earliest steam engines, turning them from inefficient curiosities to the motors which powered the Industrial Revolution. Today, condensers are critical to the functioning of most powerplants - and if they can be made better, they could greatly strengthen the case for the reintroduction of airships. In essence, a condenser works by exposing steam to a cold surface. This causes the steam to turn into water, which flows down the cold surface and drips off into a collecting sump. Instant Egghead: What's the Difference Between Fission and Fusion? The Tantalizing Promise And Peril Of Nuclear Fusion. Leading physicist calls China's nuclear programme 'rash and unsafe'
SECC Shell Game. SECC is short for the Safe Energy Communication Council, a shell organization for a rainbow of environmental and Naderite groups.
The SECC coordinates the activities of the Green movement on energy issues, especially against nuclear energy and for solar and conservation. Coordinating national opposition to the Yucca Mountain repository is obviously a much larger agenda than could be handled by local grass roots efforts. The leadership of the groups that exist in Nevada (Citizen Alert, Nevada Desert Experience, the Nuclear Waste Task Force, etc.) are comparatively lightweight operatives and the SECC fills the centralized leadership void. Headquartered in Washington D.C. the SECC has pulled the strings that turned a relatively straightforward nuclear disposal problem in Nevada into a major test of national political will.
If your organization is politically correct, it belongs to the SECC: MYTHBUSTERS Series Other SECC Publications Viewpoint Energy commentaries by various experts. Ken Bossong: Germany To Phase Out Nuclear Power by 2022. In reaction to the current nuclear crisis in Japan, Germany has vowed to abolish all nuclear power.
Announced today, Chancellor Angela Merkel declared that all nuclear power will be completely phased out by 2022. Safe Nuclear Power Plant For Use in Space Designed by Teenager. Do nuclear power plants need a redesign?
Critics of nuclear energy seem to think so, and so does nuclear energy advocate, Taylor Wilson. A physics wunderkind, Wilson became the youngest person to ever create fusion at age 14. And since graduating from high school last year, he's devoted himself to finding innovative solutions to the world's biggest problems. The now nineteen-year-old Wilson recently spoke to a TED audience about his design for a small, modular fission reactor that is both less expensive and much safer to operate than today's nuclear reactors. Its assembly-line construction, 30-year fuel life and low usage cost make Wilson's reactor an ideal source of electricity for both developing nations and space explorers, according to the young scientist. To get an idea of how today's nuclear reactors work, Wilson first explained to his listeners at TED how electricity is produced using a steam turbine. "Is fission kind of played out, or is there something left to innovate here?
" Nuclear's Once Bright and Shiny Future Blinks Out. Don't look now, but one of the biggest and most famous industries in the world, nuclear power, once seen as the lynchpin of the future, is reeling yet again after huge political setbacks in Japan and France.
Last year's disaster at Fukushima is having an even bigger effect than the Chernobyl disaster of the '80s. The latter could be blamed on the backward old Soviet Union. But Fukushima happened in future-oriented Japan. Nuclear Power Reborn. The two reactors at the South Texas nuclear power plant, an hour southwest of Houston, last year churned out 21.37 billion kilowatt-hours.
By 2015, its majority owner, New Jersey-based NRG Energy, hopes to at least double that capacity if it gets permission to build two more reactors on the site. The company filed the first application on Monday for a new nuclear power plant—two advanced boiling-water reactors—in more than 30 years. "It is a new day for energy in America," David Crane, NRG president and chief executive officer, said after making the application. "Advanced nuclear technology is the only currently viable large-scale alternative to traditional coal-fueled generation to produce none of the traditional air emissions," including the greenhouse gases responsible for climate change.
Armed with the backing of the White House and congressional leaders—and subsidies, such as $500 million in risk insurance from the U.S. Dozens of countries queue up to go nuclear. IN THE wake of the nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in Japan in March, several countries have announced plans to reject nuclear power.
Japan will not build any more reactors. Germany plans to phase out its nuclear power plants, Switzerland will not replace its reactors, and last week Italy voted against starting a nuclear programme. The International Atomic Energy Agency is running an emergency conference this week to identify the key lessons from Fukushima (see "Agency report praises Fukushima staff, slams TEPCO").