Green Options » atomic energy

Russia and Jordan Sign Nuclear Cooperation Deal for Four New Power Plants

Amiel Blajchman — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:17:56 +0000

If you think your electricity bill is bad, you should see the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan’s. Having to import 95% of your energy makes for a fairly expensive monthly bill. In response to this ongoing electricity and energy challenge, Jordan has signed a 10 year agreement with Russia for the provision of four new nuclear power plants, desalination stations and related research facilities.

Nuclear Power is NOT the Solution to Our Global Warming Woes

Low Impact Living — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 20:15:48 +0000

[Editor's note: The following is a guest-post from Low Impact Living]
As our presidential campaign season draws towards a close and the attacks / counter-attacks reach a fever pitch, it’s almost impossible to separate fact from fiction. So many contradictory proposals, so many disparate numbers — I wouldn’t be surprised if someone says the sky is bright pink before we’re through.

The debate about energy policy is a case in point: the proposals so far have ranged from sound (invest in multiple forms of renewable energy) to questionable (clean coal, 45 new nuclear power plants) to the insultingly cynical and foolish (Drill Baby Drill!).

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Transistors of the Energy Industry

Rod Adams — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 08:41:31 +0000

There is a growing recognition that a world based on ever increasing consumption of fossil fuels is a world of constrained human development. Some people think that is a good thing, I tend toward the view that people have a lot of room for improvement and growth. We could use a new basis on which to build the devices that we will use to provide choices for our personal environment, to take us places where we want to go, and to make the goods that enable us to survive no matter what the weather brings.

My contention is that such a discovery has already been made, and that there is a growing recognition of the potential for that basis to expand the boundaries of our growth, creativity and development. The uranium oxide fuel pellet - that tiny black cylinder shown in the photo next to one of my favorite coffee mugs - is made of material with incredible potential compared to the fossil fuels that supply the heat that we use for the vast majority of our controllable power. I like to think of these tiny pellets as equivalent to early stage transistors at the time when most of the system controllers, radios, televisions, and computers in the world depended on magnetic amplifiers or vacuum tubes.

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Puroleum - liquid coal made in America by Bonne Posma

Rod Adams — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 09:08:36 +0000

Last night I had the opportunity to talk with Bonne Posma, a serial entrepreneur whose most recent company is called Liquid Coal, Inc. He sees a great opportunity for making the world a safer and cleaner place by developing a process that will use heat from high temperature nuclear reactors as part of a process of converting coal into a liquid hydrocarbon.

Bonne is standing on the shoulders of many other engineers and scientists in his efforts. The chemistry required to convert coal, which is mostly carbon and hydrogen, into a liquid hydrocarbon was developed in the 1920s by a German team of Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch. The Fisher-Tropsch process has a rather uncomfortable history - it’s most prominent use has been by Germany during WWII and by South Africa during the apartheid era.

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